plus 4, Bad move. - CBS Sports

Bad move. - CBS Sports
Obama Lifts Travel Ban for HIV-Positive - CBS News
31st Street neighbors wary of hookah bar - Newark Advocate
Cleaner-Trucks Mandate Will Create Hardships at Port of Oakland - New York Times
WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama revives Cousin Pookie - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 09:35 AM PDT

Deny it all you want.

Vegas, gamblers, and the various sports bookies have millions on the line to beat the spreads of the various games. All you need is one ref who has missed a house payment, and, well, you tell me. Listen, I coached and refereed for over twenty years, I've blown calls. Heck, once I called my own daughter out in a HS softball game on a pitch near her chin. But I never had the pressure of doing it on national TV or the temptation of envelopes filled with cash.

Call me stupid, but when the fair-haired team is the beneficiary of repeated blown calls, and the payoff for their winning the NC is in the multiplied millions...gee, I wonder why people are complaining? IF Florida or Bama lose, gasp, an SEC team might not make the NC game, costing the conference millions. It's in the best interest of the SEC to shut up all those other coaches. After all, the SEC gets to spread all that BCS candy around. Can't have those bottom teams killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

No, I sincerely believe that officials are honest, albeit human, but the very fact that millions ride on the final scores of these games means that Slive had better do more than fine the messengers, the coaches. For crying out loud, what are they supposed to say when an blown call costs them a game, especially when as an underdog, they already have much to overcome?

I believe that the officials are honest. But dang it, Slive, make sure of it.

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Obama Lifts Travel Ban for HIV-Positive - CBS News

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 09:49 AM PDT

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31st Street neighbors wary of hookah bar - Newark Advocate

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 10:04 AM PDT

NEWARK -- Although thoughts about a potential hookah lounge on 31st Street are mixed, most of the neighbors are of a single mind: They don't want it.

On Oct. 22, news of the plans to open Braison's Hookah Lounge at 143 S. 30th St. became public when owners Brandon Bowman and Adam Gregg had to go before the Newark Zoning Board of Appeals to ensure the lounge would be allowed in the medium intensity business zoning district. The lounge was expected to open today.

The board approved the establishment, but neighbors say the story in The Advocate was the first they heard of the plans.

"My main concern is that they passed it without anybody's input that lives there," resident Todd Thomas said.

Residents fear the hours and products might make the lounge comparable to a bar.

Rick Pease lives directly behind the building on 31st Street and said he knew one of the owners when he taught at Licking Valley.

"I'm just a little concerned about things happening at 2 a.m.," Pease said. "As my grandfather said, 'Nothing good happens after midnight.'"

Still, Pease said he is supportive of new business and has agreed to rent them a parking lot he owns near the building. He has taken a wait-and-see attitude.

"I don't know this was a well-thought-out plan. I hope these kids can succeed starting a small business, but there are a lot of intangibles," he said. "I've always rooted for kids in every shape and form, but there are responsibilities that come along with it."

Others have stronger feelings.

"I don't want it there," said Charity Prince, a 31st Street resident. "There are a lot of elderly people in this neighborhood. This is a family neighborhood, it's not downtown Columbus."

Prince said she primarily is worried about the noise late at night and wonders if she'll find people disturbing her backyard.

In addition, she said she does not like having it close to her daughter.

"We don't smoke, and I don't want her around it," Prince said.

Although Gregg did not return calls seeking comment for this article, he and Bowman previously compared the atmosphere of the establishment to a coffee house.

The hookahs they sell will be used to smoke a flavored tobacco, composed of 20 to 30 percent tobacco, 0.05 percent nicotine, and fruit juices and molasses. The lounge also will offer tobaccoless hookahs, they said.

Because 80 percent of the lounge's profits will come from selling tobacco, it is exempt from the smoking ban.

"It's very relaxing," co-owner Brandon Bowman said previously. "It will be a place where people can congregate and do homework. It's a real chill atmosphere to escape the daily grind."

Still, residents can't understand why they weren't consulted.

Thomas said if he decided to build a garage a variance would be needed. He thinks a hookah lounge is more controversial.

In addition, he thinks the business will hurt his property value.

"I just don't think it needs to be there," he said.

Similarly, Jerrica Guevara said she has two young children and purposely picked her apartment complex because she thought it felt safe.

"Everybody pretty much knows each other," Guevara said. "I usually don't even lock my car. Now that's all going to have to change."

Like many of the residents, Guevara worries about the type of people a hookah lounge might attract.

"It just doesn't seem like a good area for it," she said.

The building is clearly a commercial building, and a multitude of businesses are nearby. But neighbors said the Realtors, hair salons, travel agencies and the doughnut shop nearby aren't open late.

Amy Hollon can be reached at (740) 328-8543 or ahollon@newarkadvocate.com.

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Cleaner-Trucks Mandate Will Create Hardships at Port of Oakland - New York Times

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 10:04 AM PDT

Ablelom Zerfiel sat in the cab of his 1992 Freightliner, waiting in a long line to drop off his empty cargo container at the Port of Oakland. After driving for 12 years, Mr. Zerfiel is used to delays, low pay, grueling hours and the fickleness of the dispatch company that arranges his jobs.

"This is straight-out slavery, only modern," said Mr. Zerfiel, 49, a native of Eritrea. "The companies tell you to keep your mouth shut, take what they give you, and don't say anything because if you say anything there's always another guy who can do it."

Life for Mr. Zerfiel and many of the other 1,300 independent truckers serving the Port of Oakland is about to get even harder. In an effort to reduce local air pollution, the port has mandated the use of cleaner trucks by Jan. 1. This makes it likely that Mr. Zerfiel, as well as hundreds of other drivers who cannot afford to buy new vehicles, will be out of work.

The new regulations have created a clash between two ideals long held sacred in the Bay Area: the right to decent working conditions and a push for greener technologies.

"The retrofit program and trucking ban are very important for improving air quality and reducing the impact of truck pollution on neighborhoods like West Oakland," said Doug Bloch, director of the Oakland chapter of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports. "On the negative side, it's the truck drivers at the port who have to pay, and they can't afford it. Hundreds of them will join the army of the unemployed on Jan. 1."

West Oakland, a predominantly African-American neighborhood of 22,000 people, sits adjacent to the Port of Oakland. Three freeways and many railroad tracks run through the area. Trucks on their way to the port travel through the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night.

Their emissions — as well as the smoke and fine particulates coming from the smokestacks of idling ships — means that soot settles thickly on residents' cars and windowsills. It is dirty on these surfaces, and damaging, if not deadly, when breathed.

Asthma rates in West Oakland are five times higher than those for residents of the Oakland hills, and chances of cancer are three times higher than in other Bay Area cities, health studies show.

In 2007, the California Air Resources Board enacted a sweeping set of laws intended to reduce pollution at ports throughout the state. To comply with the law, the Port of Oakland voted earlier this year to ban trucks built before 1994 from picking up or dropping off cargo at the port, said Damian Breen, the state grants program manager for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Trucks built from 1994 to 2003 will need to be retrofitted with a special filter. By 2014, only trucks built after 2007 will have access to the port.

To help pay for the conversion, local, state and regional agencies have paid $22 million, which Mr. Breen estimates will cover the upgrades of 1,000 trucks. But that will leave as many as 900 trucks out of compliance. Drivers who need to install filters can receive a $16,000 grant, and those who need new trucks are eligible for $50,000 in grants. New trucks cost $174,000, so drivers can finance the balance with a participating bank that is offering federal small-business loans, Mr. Breen said.

But Mr. Zerfiel and others of the 1,989 truck drivers working at the port say they cannot make the switch, even with the financial help. Many, like Mr. Zerfiel, are first-generation immigrants living paycheck to paycheck. They cannot qualify for bank loans since they have bad credit ratings. They are also reluctant to spend the money for retrofits since their vehicles will have to be replaced in four years anyway.

"At the last day of December, my truck is done at the port," said Manuel Rivas, a native of El Salvador who said he could not afford to replace his 1989 vehicle.

The real problem, Mr. Bloch and other community activists said, is that the trucking system is broken. When Congress deregulated the trucking industry in 1980, it dismantled an industry dominated by large companies with union drivers. Independent truckers took their place.

Independent truckers occupy a precarious position. They must buy their own trucks, pay for their own gasoline and insurance and compete among one another for jobs. They must accept the pay offered by trucking dispatch companies. Now, they must somehow come up with the money to buy cleaner trucks.

A recent study commissioned by the Port of Oakland estimated that independent truckers earn around $19 an hour, or $1,050 a week and work around 57 hours a week. Employee drivers earn around $1,250 a week. Mr. Bloch's group contends that the average wage, based on a different study, is closer to $10.50 an hour, or less than $600 a week.

Unions and advocates for clean air are pushing for the trucking industry to take more responsibility for buying cleaner trucks. They want the dispatching companies to hire the truckers as full-time employees with salaries and benefits, rather than rely on contract employees. "As long as you are making these guys buy their trucks, we are never going to have a clean fleet," Mr. Bloch said. "It's not sustainable."

But not all independents want to work for someone else. Carlos Jordan, 50, came to the United States from Guatemala 34 years ago. He bought one truck and saved his earnings. Today, his Jordan Trucking Company has four trucks, pictures of which he proudly stores on his BlackBerry.

"We come to America because of the freedom and opportunity," Mr. Jordan said. "This is what we want. I don't want to be forced to work for someone else."

Efforts to compel companies to use full-time employees rather than contract drivers have been stymied in court. In 2008, the Port of Los Angeles banned independent owner-operators, but was sued by the American Trucking Association, the nation's largest trucking trade group, which won a preliminary injunction against the ban in federal court. The case is set for trial in 2010.

The trucking association argued that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act gave the federal government the sole authority to impose regulations that could hinder interstate commerce. The mayors of port cities — including Ron Dellums of Oakland, Cory Booker of Newark and Michael R. Bloomberg of New York — and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District have called on Congress to amend the 1994 law to give local jurisdictions more control.

The trucking association, which just settled a lawsuit with the Port of Long Beach over what it characterized as overly stringent requirements, believes that the push to eliminate independent drivers is a ploy to unionize drivers. Clayton Boyce, the vice president for public affairs for the association, said, "This is not about the environment," but about helping the unions.

Port of Oakland officials are watching the Los Angeles case closely, said Margaret Gordon, the port commissioner. Many commissioners are sympathetic to the burdens of independent contractors but are wary of levying lease requirements that might compel trucking or shipping companies to take their business elsewhere, Ms. Gordon said.

But the Jan. 1 deadline is drawing nearer, and many independent drivers are unsure what to do. Some say the stress is difficult to endure.

"You start thinking what's going to happen," said Roberto Soto, 44. "You can't sleep. You think: What are the chances I will find new work? What's going to happen to my family? What chance do I have to find another job?"

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WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama revives Cousin Pookie - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 10:25 AM PDT

Now that it's election season again — in Virginia and New Jersey, at least — President Barack Obama has reintroduced one of his more enigmatic and intriguing characters.

"Go out and get your cousin, who you had to drag to the polls last November, Cousin Pookie," the president told a crowd this week in Norfolk, Va., where he called for a big turnout Tuesday for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds.

It apparently was Obama's first public mention of Pookie in more than a year, and his first as president.

Pookie's yearlong absence was typical of the mystery surrounding the supposedly unmotivated voter, whose gender and family status are unclear.

"You have to get your Aunt Pookie out to vote, and your Cousin Ray-Ray sitting on the couch," Obama told a Michigan crowd in October 2008.

Nine months earlier, he had told a South Carolina audience: "I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote; I need you to grab Ray-Ray to vote."

Two things about Pookie are consistent: Obama mentions her (or him) when urging largely black audiences to get out to vote; and the crowds roar in delight.

Just who is Pookie?

Obama has never explained. Earlier this year, Newhouse News Service interviewed authorities on black culture who generally agreed that Pookie represents a slightly disreputable but likable relative. As Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal put it, Pookie is a "metaphor for kin ... who everybody knows is just a little trifling and a little lazy."

When Obama campaigns Sunday for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election bid, maybe he can answer a pressing question: What happened to Ray-Ray?

____

Joke-telling isn't typical for Obama. But when he gets a crowd going, he'll depart from his prepared text for a few wisecracks, tailored to the audience.

Black college students dominated the Norfolk crowd, so the president veered toward vernacular.

"Yeah, girlfriend, I saw you," he said, teasing some high-fiving young women, whom he jokingly accused of jumping on the Obama bandwagon only after he had won the Iowa caucuses. The crowd ate it up.

In Miami, Obama used understatement on a tony crowd that paid $15,000 per person to dine in his presence (and fund Democratic congressional races).

"I was talking to some G-20 leaders who were kind of surprised on some of the debates about health care," Obama told them. "They were saying, 'Barack, why are these people running around putting a Hitler mustache on you? You're just trying to give health care to people.' I said, 'Yes, that's unusual.'"

And almost every partisan audience gets a version of his mop story, which mocks the Republicans he accuses of leaving a big deficit and economic crisis when he took office.

He told the Miami group: "I'm mopping the floor, and the folks who made the mess, they're standing there saying, 'You're not mopping fast enough. You're not holding the mop the right way. It's a socialist mop.'"

"You know what," Obama said, "just grab a mop!"

____

Obama has embraced ideas and hired former advisers to Bill Clinton, while distancing himself from George W. Bush on issue after issue. But Obama is more like his Republican predecessor in one regard: He tends to be punctual when traveling, sometimes getting so far ahead of schedule that aides, security agents and reporters scramble to adjust.

Clinton was notorious for falling hours behind schedule, as he spun yarns at fundraisers or played cards with friends. But Obama sometimes seems as eager to get home as Bush, who disliked sleeping in strange beds.

On a recent visit to Florida and Virginia, Obama left his Miami hotel 12 minutes ahead of schedule and virtually raced through his busy day. By mid-afternoon — after two plane rides, two helicopter rides, several motorcades and a solar energy event — he arrived nearly an hour early in Norfolk for the Deeds campaign rally.

Obama spoke for about 20 minutes, but still got back to Washington more than an hour ahead of schedule.

In Clinton's day? Unthinkable.

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Friday, October 30, 2009

plus 4, Bad move. - CBS Sports

plus 4, Bad move. - CBS Sports

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