Debate on ObamaCare to intensify in the wake of landmark Supreme Court ruling : Media Social Gossip

Media Social Gossip Associated News

The Supreme Court guessing game is over, but the drama may just have begun.
The court's Thursday ruling upholding most of President Obama's health care law, sparked a frenzy of reaction from political figures, business leaders, medical professionals and ordinary Americans. By Friday, with the dust starting to settle, the debate is sure to intensify over the political, economic and medical ramifications of a landmark 5-4 decision that will affect the lives of virtually every American.
The ruling is a victory for the president, ensuring for now that his signature domestic policy achievement remains mostly intact. It also ensures that the law will play a prominent role in the general election campaign, as Republican candidate Mitt Romney vows to repeal the law if elected.
The so-called individual mandate, requiring that all Americans have health insurance, takes effect in 2014, at the same time that the law would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to people with existing health problems. Most experts had said the coverage guarantee would balloon costs unless virtually all people joined the insurance pool.
Most Americans already are insured. The law provides subsidies to help uninsured middle-class households pay premiums and expands federal health care for poor people.
"Whatever the politics, today's decision was a victory for people all over this country," Obama said, speaking on national television from the White House.
"It should be pretty clear by now that I didn't do this because it was good politics," he said. "I did it because it was good for the country."
Romney pinned the court's decision to the election and asking voters to render their own ruling.
"If we want to get rid of ObamaCare," he said, "we're going to have replace President Obama."
Democrats, many of whom were bracing for the court striking down the mandate for individuals to buy health insurance, celebrated the decision Thursday. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., told Fox News that the ruling "gives us the opportunity to re-sell the bill, which we did not do before."
But Republicans vowed to re-double their campaign to repeal the still-controversial law. 
The ruling "underscores the urgency of repealing this harmful law in its entirety," House Speaker John Boehner said in a written statement. "Republicans stand ready to work with a president who will listen to the people and will not repeat the mistakes that gave our country ObamaCare."
Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed during a Republican administration, joined the four left-leaning justices on the bench in crafting the majority decision. 
The ruling relied on a technical explanation of how the individual mandate could be categorized. Roberts, in the opinion, said the mandate could not be upheld under the Constitution's Commerce Clause. However, it could be upheld under the government's power to tax. 
"The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part  The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause," Roberts wrote. "That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress's power to tax."
Roberts stressed that the decision does not speak to the merits of the law. "We do not consider whether the act embodies sound policies. That judgment is entrusted to the nation's elected leaders," he said. 
The ruling did rein in one element of the law -- the expansion of Medicaid across the country to take in millions of low-income Americans. The opinion allows Washington to offer more funding to states to expand the program, but says the federal government cannot penalize states for not participating in the new program by withholding existing Medicaid funds.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was thought to be the swing vote on the decision, joined the minority in describing the whole law as invalid. 
"The act is invalid in its entirety," Kennedy said from the bench. He went on to say the administration went to "great lengths to structure the mandate as a penalty, not a tax" -- challenging the majority's rationale for upholding the mandate. 
Despite the persistent resistance to the law and the possibility that it could still be repealed, the historic decision Thursday will offer some measure of vindication for Obama, who devoted the first half of his term to pushing it through Congress. 
The overhaul was one of the central planks of Obama's 2008 run for president. The faltering economy only later took a leading role in the race as the financial markets spiraled around the time of the party conventions. Obama, after taking the oath of office, dispatched with his administration's recession response by swiftly passing through the roughly $800 billion stimulus package. 
The president immediately pivoted back to health care. He tasked allies in Congress with working out the specifics of a proposal, a process that would play out on the national stage over the course of a year, until its passage with a series of deals by Democrats, who went on to sustain losses in the 2010 midterm elections.
The decision Thursday virtually guarantees the health care law will remain at the forefront of the 2012 campaign.

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Alan Turing’s Brother: He Should Be Alive Today : Media Social Gossip

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June 23rd is the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing, father of computer science and artificial intelligence, who committed suicide just shy of 42. In a shocking and frank memoir, his late elder brother John says Alan’s life might have turned out a lot better if his mother was not so nagging—and he recounts the details of his brother’s awful death.

Alan Turing, who was born 100 years ago on June 23, 1912, might not have invented the computer. (That honor goes to Charles Babbage and Lord Byron's daughter.) But today’s computing would be unthinkable without the contributions of the British mathematician, who laid down the foundations of computer science, broke Nazi codes that helped win World War II at the famous Bletchley Park, created a secure speech encryption system, made major contributions to logic and philosophy, and even invented the concept of Artificial Intelligence. But he was also an eccentric and troubled man who was persecuted (and prosecuted) for being gay, a tragedy that contributed to his suicide just short of the age of 42 when he died of cyanide poisoning, possibly from a half-eaten apple found by his side. He is hailed today as one of the great originators of our computing age.

In 1959, four years after Alan Turing’s suicide just shy of the age of 42, his mother Sara published her biography Alan M. Turing. Shortly after, his elder brother John began his own alternative account, seeking to “put the record straight” and correct any inaccuracies or biases in his mother’s version. Although he worked on the essay throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, John declined to release the account until after his mother’s death, and ultimately left it unpublished in his private papers. It was found in a drawer by his son John Dermot Turing, and finally included as part of the re-release of Alan M. Turing, in celebration of the centenary of his birth. The following is adapted from the book:
My brother Alan was born on 21* June 1912 in a London nursing home. At this, and at all other times, my father took all decisions of consequence in the family. Now, rightly or wrongly, he decided that he and my mother should return alone to India, leaving both children with foster parents in England. Alan and I were left with “the Wards”—always we referred to them as “the Wards.” We were the wards and they were our guardians but no matter—this was to be the centre of our existence for many years and our home from home. I believe it was here, perhaps in the first four or five years at the Wards, perhaps even in the first two, that Alan became destined for a homosexual. Has anyone mentioned it until now?
No. My mother was fully aware of it before Alan’s death (not, I imagine, that she had the faintest idea of what it implied), but she makes no reference to it in her book. One can put that down to Edwardian reticence if one pleases. In my view, based on such conversation as I had with my mother about it, necessarily reduced to a minimum, her reaction was much what one might expect if a specialist had informed her that her son was color blind or had an incurable obsession with spiders: it was a nasty shock of brief duration and of no great significance. I am trying to make this memoir as truthful as I can, so I will not go to the length of pretending that I like homosexuals. To my mind, what is intolerable is the world of the “gay crusade” and, as my unfortunate brother may be cast in the part of an early and valiant crusader, this is by no means an irrelevant comment.
My mother, perhaps unwittingly, gives the impression in her book that she recognized Alan’s genius from the start, and that she sedulously fostered it. If so, she did not give that impression in the family at the time; in fact, quite the contrary.
‘Alan M. Turing: Centenary Edition’ by Sara Turing. 194 pp. Cambridge University Press. $30. (Kings College, University of Cambridge)
My father, on the whole, either ignored my brother’s eccentricities, or viewed them with amused tolerance but (as will appear) there were deep dudgeons when Alan started to accumulate appalling school reports at Sherborne. As for myself, with the selfishness of youth, and separated by a gap of four years, I did not care what Alan did, and I was content to go my own way, as indeed he was content to go his. Our interests were so dissimilar that they never clashed. The only person in the household who was forever exasperated with Alan, constantly nagging him about his dirty habits, his slovenliness, his clothes and his offhand manners (and much else, most of it with good reason) was my mother. If this was due to some early recognition of his genius, she was certainly doing nothing to foster it by trying to press him into a conventional mould. Needless to say, she achieved nothing by it except a dogged determination on Alan’s part to remain as unconventional as possible. The truth of the matter, as I now view it in retrospect, is that neither of Alan’s parents or his brother had the faintest idea that this tiresome, eccentric and obstinate small boy was a budding genius. The business burst upon us soon after he went to Sherborne. After a few terms, it became apparent that he was far ahead of the other boys in mathematics: when Alan was sixteen, the maths master told my mother that there was nothing more that he could teach him and he would have to progress from there on his own. I think it must have been when Alan was due to take the School Certificate examination (now replaced by “O” levels) that he read Hamlet in the holidays. My father was delighted when Alan placed the volume on the floor and remarked “Well, there’s one line I like in this play.” My father could already see a burgeoning interest in English literature. But his hopes were dashed when Alan replied that he was referring to the final stage direction (Exeunt, bearing off the bodies).

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Summer Solstice 2012 Hits with Extreme Heat : Media Social Gossip

Media Social Gossip Associated News

The first day of summer, known as the summer solstice, begins at around 7 p.m. tonight. The weather in the capital region will be extremely hot according to a heat advisory issued last night by National Weather Service.
The temperature in the capital region will reach up to near 99 high today due to a one-day heat wave along with high pressure in the sky.
Patchy fog, hot and humid conditions are likely to happen, ushering in some of the hottest weather ever seen in the region since last year. It is likely that the record high temperature of 97 degrees will be broken.
And thunderstorm is not out of the question, given the intense amount of daytime heating. Precipitation will possibly visit the region late Thursday night onto Friday morning with the approach of cold front into the region. Tomorrow temperatures appear to be the above normal.
The weekend will likely bring back the normal temperature of this time of year due to the high pressure coming from Canada.
The summer solstice marks the longest day of the year, though not necessarily the hottest. Temperature is influenced by the mixture of atmosphere, land and oceans taking in part of the Sun's rays and releasing it at different rates, in light of the Farmer’s Almanac.
Below is the detailed, one-week forecast from the National Weather Service:
 Today: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. Calm wind becoming west northwest between 5 and 8 mph.
 Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 56. Southwest wind between 7 and 10 mph.
 Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 80. South southwest wind between 13 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
 Thursday night: Increasing clouds, with a low around 55. South southwest wind between 13 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
 Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 79. South southwest wind around 9 mph.
 Friday night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 55.
 Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77.
 Saturday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53.
 Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 79.
 Sunday night: Clear, with a low around 53.
 Monday: Sunny, with a high near 80.
 Monday night: Clear, with a low around 55.
 Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 85.

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Father's Day is the most important day for us : Media Social Gossip

Media Social Gossip Associated News

This Sunday, fathers around America will be showered with gifts, meals, hugs and activities centered on us. We will receive ties, cologne, cufflinks and gift cards from our wives. Our children will give us clay coin holders (which were ashtrays 30 years ago), and art featuring stick figure families, with daddy having the largest circle-head. We will be thanked for our hard work, our sacrifice and our love...And many of us dads will think it's all much ado about nothing. 
Of course we lay down the law. Yes, you better defer to us when it comes to the thermostat, lights and how long it takes to shower. Yes, we are the he-man bug killers and retrievers of stuff on high shelves. You better believe that we are the driving instructors and keepers of the remote, and don't you forget ANY of that! 
But the one thing that Father's Day means to fathers is gratitude. Boy oh boy, we are so thankful for YOU. 
Most every father I know, myself included, lives in awe of our families. None of us ever get over the images of pregnancy and childbirth. Those events impact us forever, and frame our lives forever. 
Most of us spend Father's Day just so happy that you love us, so humbled by the miracle of life. We are amazed we somehow got to marry a girl like YOU. We can't get over that our daughters love us, and that our sons want to BE us. On Father's Day, we get out the telescope and count our lucky stars. 
Fathers' Day is not only a day of reflection, for most dads it's a day which finds us looking forward as well. 
As we look around us, the hunter-gatherer in us takes note of what the family needs going forward. We pledge silently to ourselves that Monday begins a new push for more and better, safer and healthier everything for our families. We resolve that we will be better fathers, more attentive husbands; prepared to double our efforts so as to provide. Longer days, harder work, less sleep; whatever it takes to keep the family healthy, protected and happy. 
Many of us will promise ourselves to finally get to the doctor for the check ups and screenings which we hate so much. Because we so fear our own mortality, very often men take refuge in the notion that "no news is good news" so we avoid the doc like the plague itself. 
Father's Day reminds us how badly we want to be around for as long as possible to see weddings and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 
So at some point this Sunday, take a few moments to just observe dad. 
I promise that if you watch us long enough, you'll see a deep breath, a wiped tear or a lingering gaze. At any moment you may see serenity, awe or fear. 
And if you could hear our thoughts at those moments we'll be saying "I want this to last forever." 
To our wives and children on behalf of dads everywhere, your gift to us is you...And we are so very grateful.
T.J. McCormack is a comedian and commentator. He is host and producer of "Sunday Night with T.J. McCormack."

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U.S. Open golf 2012 is about so much more than scores: Media Social Gossip

San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - After a day when the game's best struggled badly at the U.S. Open, there was plenty to cheer about if you dug deep at Olympic Club.
Tiger Woods may, or may not be back, but either way, for at least a day, he showed vintage form. Your opinion of the man notwithstanding, if you can't marvel at this ability inside the ropes, your hatred of his disgusting actions outside them has clouded your objectivity.
He had a spark in his step after the round, bouncing around with confidence.
And why shouldn't he have been positive? Six guys broke par, eight managed par and 142 were over par. The six players who went sub-70 should be proud of their accomplishments.
One of them, Nick Watney, recorded a double-eagle and chipped in. Think of it this way - it took those two unlikely swipes of the club for one of the top players in the world just to break par.
But most of Thursday's great stories came not from the game's elite, but from those who you don't know much about. The beautiful narrative was written by those we expected little from, or from those we were just happy made it to Olympic Club.
A few years ago, we weren't sure we'd see Casey Martin play competitively ever again. Nearly crippled by a birth defect that makes walking excruciating, he became the head coach of the men's team at the University of Oregon, made it through qualifying, and did quite well on Thursday.
Yes, his score was a 4-over 74, but that beat Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and a host of other players that were supposed to contend for this title.
Martin's start was, let's say, less than ideal. He bogeyed five of his first six, birdied seven, then calmed down. He played the last 11 holes in even par and can take realistic expectations of making the cut into Friday.
"I would say the birdie, just finally getting a putt to drop on seven finally settled me down," Martin said. "I haven't felt like this in a long, long time. It's the U.S. Open, you don't, you can play in PGA Tour events all day long it doesn't feel like this."
Discount, for a moment, Martin's disability and his odyssey to professional golf. Isn't it refreshing to hear someone so effusively gush about how this week has stirred excitement?
Martin wasn't the only great story in his own threesome Thursday.
There was Dennis Miller. We've all heard the name, but it's not the comedian, rather the viral hit from Youngstown, Ohio.
Miller, 42, is the director of golf at Mill Creek Golf Club and he found his way into a four-man playoff for three spots in the sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio.
He had 20 feet for birdie on the fourth playoff hole to get into the field at Olympic Club. Miller hit a great putt, but the ball, and his chances of finally playing in his national championship, hung ever so gently on the lip. Miller turned his head in disbelief, then, a mere second later, the ball fell and the jolly, ice-cream loving club pro, made it to the U.S. Open.
Granted, his 10-over 80 puts him at the bottom of the leaderboard, but Miller can always tell his grandchildren that he tied a former Masters champion (Trevor Immelman) and beat a perennial Ryder Cupper (Miguel Angel Jimenez).
Imagine the nerves a 42-year-old professional swam through on Thursday.
Now imagine what a 14-year-old kid would go through.
Andy Zhang is the youngest golfer to ever play in the U.S. Open. He told a fantastic story Wednesday that illustrated exactly how a high-school kid should feel playing on the big stage.
"I was on the airplane, and then I was asking Chris (Gold, Zhang's caddie), I was like, so I get to practice on the driving range and putt and chip in the U.S. Open facility," Zhang said. "So is that OK if I go up to Tiger and those great players for autographs. And he goes, like, no, you are going to be the one who is giving out autographs. And I came here and everybody knows me for some reason. Yeah. I'm signing autographs, I guess."
Zhang, like almost all of the newbies, had a rough go early thanks to the nerves. He opened with a triple-bogey, then a double-bogey, then three straight bogeys.
He calmed down some and had 15 feet at the last for a 79. Zhang poured in the putt and now should brag to the girls at the roller rink that he broke 80 in the U.S. Open.
"I am really proud of myself, actually. Well I shouldn't say proud, I'm really happy to be here," Zhang said. "I was on the first tee, I was like, just please don't hit a hundred-yard slice off the first tee and I was shaking really hard."
Again, genuine enthusiasm is so fun to hear. We take for granted that this is just another major championship. Will Tiger finally win a major? Will Luke Donald break through? How will Phil do?
It means a lot to guys who have virtually no chance to win the championship. Technically, they do, and that's part of the magic.
We won't be talking much about Martin, Miller or Zhang come Sunday evening, but we should celebrate what they did on Thursday.

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Kevin Durant Is On The Verge Of Global Stardom : Media Social Gossip

Media Social Gossip Associated News
LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have been the faces of the NBA for the past decade. They are worshiped globally, but polarizing figures in the U.S.—loved by their fans and hated by their detractors.  They drive TV ratings and make more than twice as much off the court as other NBA stars. It is time for Kobe and LeBron to make room at the top. Kevin Durant is set to be a global star.
Durant exploded for 36 points Tuesday night leading the Oklahoma City Thunder over James’ Miami Heat in the opening game of the NBA Finals. It was the second most points by a player making his Finals debut since the NBA-ABA merger (Allen Iverson had 48 points in 2001; Michael Jordan also had 36 in 1991).
It was the latest accomplishment for the wildly talented, 23-year-old Durant who entered the NBA in 2007 after winning the college Player of the Year award as a freshman (an NCAA first) at the University of Texas. He was selected to the All-NBA team the past three seasons and led the league in scoring each of those years. He is one of just seven players to ever lead the NBA in scoring three straight seasons. Durant was runner-up to James in the MVP voting this season. This past season was the first in the five-year, $86 million contract extension he signed in the Thunder in 2010. He is signed through the 2015-16 season.
Durant is vastly different than James and Bryant when it comes to perception. Only 30% of people find James appealing. Bryant fares even worse at 23% according to research by Nielsen. Durant, in sharp contrast, is liked by 56% of those that are aware of him, among the highest rates for NBA players.
The one thing critical lacking for Durant is awareness. Nielsen says he is known by a scant 12% of people, which is on par with Chris Paul and Chris Bosh. Bryant and James are known by 63% and 46% of people says Nielsen. Durant suffers from playing in a small market on a team that was rarely on national TV until recent years (OKC made two national TV appearances during the 2009-10 season, compared to 29 for the then LeBron-led Cleveland Cavaliers).
The NBA Finals will change that. The games are being broadcast in 215 countries and territories with media members from 34 countries attending the Finals. The NBA expects nearly 300 million fans globally to follow the Finals on social media.
“This is Durant’s first time on the biggest stage in the NBA and a strong Finals performance will raise his level of awareness with casual fans and brand marketers,” says Stephen Master, Vice President of Sports at Nielsen.
Basketball’s global audience puts its stars in high demand for marketers, particularly shoe companies. There are 300 million basketball players in China according to the Chinese Basketball Association. Bryant sells twice as many sneakers in China as he does in he U.S. The U.S. basketball team is expected to be the rock stars of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and Durant will be in the middle of it all as one of the national team’s icons.
Durant told Sports Illustrated a couple of years ago: “Global marketing and all that stuff” doesn’t interest him and that, “it’s all about basketball.” Durant should get ready to say hello to the world. His marketing star is about to explode.
“An NBA championship for the Thunder can catapult Kevin Durant into the upper echelon of NBA players from a marketability standpoint,” says Nielsen’s Master.

Durant is already among the NBA’s top earners off the court thanks to Nike. The Swoosh signed Durant to a seven-year, $60 million deal when he turned pro in 2007. Durant’s annual payments from Nike are now approaching $10 million, as his significant accomplishments have triggered bigger payments from Nike on the original pact.
Nike sent Durant to China the past two summers to promote the brand, as well as KD’s signature shoe. His sneaker is still a very small seller. Nike moved only $7 million (wholesale) worth of Durant’s shoe in the U.S. in 2011 according to research analyst Matt Powell at SportsOneSource. That compares to $90 million for James and $40 million for Bryant.
Durant also has endorsement deals with Sprint, Gatorade, Panini, General Electric and 2K Sports. He makes an estimated $13 million annually off the court, which trails only James and Bryant among NBA players in regards to their endorsement incomes.The gap is big though with James and Bryant both making at least $30 million from sponsors. The only thing holding Durant back is awareness. An NBA title would go a long way to closing that gap.
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KC WILLS: The Book Of Eli

KC WILLS: The Book Of Eli

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They call him the "Godfather of Whiteclay."  He chuckles when someone refers to him that way....but his eyes don't smile. He can probably think of a lot of other things he'd rather be called than the king of the streets in a place where the streets are dark even in daylight; the place where the Lakota have committed death by Budwieser for decades. I can usually smell him before I see him...and still I am happy to see him. If you look at him through eyes that don't see him as the gift he is, then he is torn and tattered and beyond saving. But look again. His spirit shines through. With human contact and the calling of his name...his spirit shines through. When he sees me he says "There she is!" and my spirit shines through. I love him like the Son loves me...fully, joyfully, even when my sin makes me stink too.

Eli is writing a book. You won't find it on Amazon, but you will see it laid bare chapter by chapter if you will just take a few minutes and speak to him.

This chapter is entitled "Hell in a Handbasket."

"Look at our young men!" he cries out in a rare moment of sobriety, pointing to the constant stream of the Seventh Generation coming and going at the liquor store across the street from the building that houses my new ministry. "They have no direction. No one to tell them go this way...don't go that way."  He shakes his head and mumbles in Lakota. "I have been here for 28 years...longer than they have been alive. I would tell them don't come here...but they won't listen to me."

We talk about how the respect he has on the streets could be used to change the lives of these young men...but then we agree that the next time he gets clean and sober he needs to stay away from here. "Yeah, that's where I go wrong everytime," he admits. "I get sober and then I come here to help before I am well enough to do that."  We nod our heads in unison and watch the stream across the way turn into a river. Someone needs to put a "Deadly Undertow" sign on its banks.

The last day I was on the reservation, Eli had a seizure on the front porch of our building and wrote a chapter called "All Is Grace."  A woman from the tribe came in to tell me. She spoke with the same urgency that someone might have used to say they had found a pair of sunglasses in the parking lot.   Someone else called 911 and I went out to Eli. By the time I got there he was coming out of it and his muscles were hurting badly from the spasms. He was shouting to God at the top of his lungs.

"Grandfather! Grandfather! You want me? Come and get me! Please come and get me! Why do you leave me here to suffer?" I held his hand and he just hung his head and whispered. "Grandfather. Grandfather. Grandfather."  I found myself praying for God to save Eli from this place. He drank three bottles of water and quickly ate the sandwich we got for him. I went back inside to help someone who had stopped by and needed diapers, and came back to check on him. I heard him chuckle. "I can feel you coming. I know you are there before I see you," he said. Spirits shining through.

Once he had collected himself he began to talk to me of a Father's love. Not his earthly father...but Tunkashila...the God who created the man called Eli.  The eternal Grandfather. "I sleep in that old abandoned house over there," he says. "I got nothing. But every morning when I open my eyes I say thank you my Father for another day. Thank you my Father for this gift. Today maybe I can help someone." He lowers his head and clasps his hands together. "Just like this...I say thank you my Father. And He takes me in his arms, brings me in the fold and says he has not forgotten me. And I say again...thank you my father." 

And I say thank you, my friend.  I think of you everyday. I pray for you everyday and I can feel you praying for me. And now I will ask you, dear reader, to dare to repeat Eli's words every morning yourself. "Thank you my Father for this gift of another day. Today maybe I can help someone."

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Wade Davis, Former NFL Star, Admits He is Gay : Media Social Gossip

Media Social Gossip Associated News

Wade Davis, a former NFL defensive back for the Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks, recently admitted that he is gay.
Throughout his career, he struggled with the fact that he was a gay man in a profession where homosexuality was almost never discussed openly.
It took years after he left the NFL before he felt comfortable enough to publicly admit that he was gay, as Amy K. Nelson of SB Nation found out.

"There was a lot that stood out from our conversation; one part that didn't make the edit was his feelings about not only struggling with his identity as a gay man, but also his identity as a black man," Nelson recalled to Yahoo Sports.
"He would wear his clothes extra large, use patterns of speech that, to him, sounded like he spoke like many of his peers. He said that he became the best actor in the world."
"He still struggles with identity, both as a black man and as a gay man. He's still trying to figure this all out, but really, aren't we all in some way?"
Davis works with kids in New York City; at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, described as a New York organization "which serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning youth," he found his personal voice.
He's also campaigning for President Obama he's hoping to help the movement.

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Miley Cyrus Engaged: Liam Hemsworth, Actress To Wed : Media Social Gossip

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It's official: Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemworth are engaged.
"I'm so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with Liam," Cyrus told People, with the couple's reps confirming their engagement took place on May 31.
The star has yet to mention her exciting news on her Twitter account just yet, but did tweet “ heaven is place on earth” on June 1, the day after her engagement. Cyrus, 19, has been dating the "Hunger Games" star, 22, since 2009, after they starred together in "The Last Song."
Hemsworth covered the March 2012 issue of Details magazine, and he opened up about his relationship with Cyrus.
"What happened happened, and we've been together two and a half years," he said about falling for Cyrus on the set. "She makes me really happy. When you start, you want to be professional, but when you're filming those scenes with someone and pretending to love them, you're not human if you don't feel something."
In late 2011, rumors popped up that Cyrus was engaged after she was sporting what appeared to be a diamond ring on her left ring finger. However, denied the news she at the time.
"I think [sex] does change you as a person a little bit because you start thinking maybe that's what guys want from you," she told The Sun. "It's a big part of growing up, because it opens a whole new connection -- and heartbreak."

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Wisconsin Recall Results: Media Social Gossip

Media Social Gossip Associated News

CNN exit polls show a dead heat between Gov. Scott Walker (R) and challenger Tom Barrett (D), 50% to 50%.

An important point: As many as 12% of Wisconsin voters voted by absentee ballot and these voters are not counted in the exit polling.

Based on the early exit polls, it's not likely the Election Administrator’s prayer has been answered.

The AP reports that those who made up their minds in the final month of the campaign broke for Barrett by nearly 30 points.

Huffington post has a fantastic chart for tracking results as they come in.

A second round of exit polls show Walker opening up a four point lead, 52% to 48%.

NBC News projects Walker will survive the recall attempt.

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2012 MLB Draft Thread : Media Social Gossip

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With the first pick in the MLB Rule 4 draft, the Chicago Cubs select . . .?
The consensus in the rumor mill is Miami area HS CF Albert Almora, if he makes it to #6. But there are other names floating out there.
An overflow thread will go up at 7:00 pm. If a third one is needed, I'll add it later.

Olivia Culpo Wins Miss USA 2012! : Media Social Gossip

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Fast National ratings for Sunday, June 3, 2012

Other than a new 60 minutes the 2012 miss USA pageant was the top performing program of Sunday night, as the final hour had 6.6 million viewers. The ABC premieres of Secret Millionaire and Extreme makeover : weight loss opened to pretty soft numbers, but in terms of summer programming, they weren't bad.

CBS still won the night with 5.98 million viewers and a 4.0 rating/7 share in households. NBC was close behind with 5.8 million and a 3.7/6, followed by ABC at 4.9 million and 3.1/5 and FOX at 2.8 million, 1.6/3.

The adults 18-49 demo was a different matter, as CBS finished last with a 0.8. NBC was first at 1.5, then ABC at 1.4 and FOX in third at 1.3


Sunday hour by hour:

7 p.m.

CBS: "60 Minutes" (9.6 million, 6.212)
ABC: "America's Funniest Home Videos" rerun (4.8 million, 2.9/5)
NBC: "Dateline" (4.6 million, 3.1/6)
FOX: "American Dad" rerun (1.9 million, 1.1/2)/ "Cleveland Show" rerun (1.99 million, 1.1/2)

18-49 leader: "60 Minutes" (1.4)

8 p.m.

NBC: "Adele Live in London" (6.2 million, 3.9/7)
ABC: "Secret Millionaire" premiere (5.6 million, 3.6/6)
CBS: "Dogs in the City" rerun (4.5 million, 2.9/5)
FOX: "Simpsons" rerun (2.9 million, 1.6/3)/ "Bob's Burgers" rerun (2.6 million, 1.5/2)

18-49 leader: "Adele Live in London" (1.7)

9 p.m.


NBC: 2012 Miss USA pageant (5.7 million, 3.6/6)
CBS: "The Good Wife" rerun (4.6 million, 3.2/5)
ABC: "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss" premiere (4.4 million, 2.8/4)
FOX: "Family Guy" rerun (3.8 million, 2.2/3)/ "American Dad" rerun (3.3 million, 1.9/3)

18-49 leader: "Family Guy" (1.8)

10 p.m.

NBC: 2012 Miss USA pageant (6.6 million, 4.1/7)
CBS: "CSI; Miami" rerun (5.2 million, 3.6/6)
ABC: "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss" premiere (4.8 million, 3.2/5)

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Pablo Sandoval Questioned Over Possible Sexual Assault Media Social Gossip

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department is investigating San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval in a sexual assault case.
"No charges have been filed. He was not arrested, he was not detained," Skalland said. "He was interviewed with his lawyer present and he cooperated."
Sandoval's attorney said that his client met with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department regarding what the lawyer called a "consensual" sexual relationship. Sandoval was a guest at Seascape Beach Resort in the popular Monterey Bay Peninsula area some 90 minutes from San Francisco.
CSN Bay Area first reported Saturday that Sandoval met with authorities Friday and faced possible charges. Friday is when the sexual encounter took place, according to Sandoval lawyer Eric Geffon.
"He made a statement. I cannot talk about those things," Sandoval said, referring to his attorney when the third baseman was reached by phone. "I'm just concentrating on my game and getting back to the team right now."
Said Geffon: "On Friday, June 1, Pablo Sandoval voluntarily met with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department related to a consensual, personal relationship of a sexual nature that took place earlier that day," Geffon said in a statement. "Pablo fully cooperated with the Sheriff's Department. Out of respect for the process, we have no further comment at this time."
Sandoval is on the disabled list as he recovers from May 4 surgery to remove a broken hamate bone in his left hand. Sandoval was in Stockton on Saturday playing for Class-A San Jose as designated hitter – his first rehab game – and could return as soon as Friday, if all goes well.
Sandoval, a first-time All-Star last season, is batting .316 with five home runs and 15 RBIs this year. Manager Bruce Bochy said after Saturday's 2-1 win over the Cubs that Sandoval will have to return with the right mindset and prepared to produce again right away.

"He needs to," Bochy said, while not addressing Sandoval's legal situation specifically. "He needs to get ready to help us out. That's what he has to do."

Elizabeth Warren's Tribe, and Mine : Media Social Gossip

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I can really identify with with Elizabeth Warren, the self-governing Massachusetts Senate candidate who may owe her connection with Harvard to the school's belief that she was Native American. I don't say this because I'm a particularly empathetic person. I say it because I may owe my connection with Harvard to the school's belief that I was Native American.

It seems that the school started claiming it had a Native American on the law faculty when Warren arrived as a visiting professor in 1992 and kept doing so once she got a tenured job.
The claim strikes some people as odd, since she doesn't look Indian, doesn't have an Indian person's name, didn't grow up on a reservation and is not a registered member of any tribe. But Warren says it has long been a part of family lore.
_She had said she was not conscious the university was identifying her as a minority, but after weeks of unflattering publicity, she issued a statement Wednesday acknowledging she had told Harvard officials she had Cherokee roots. She also says -- and school officials confirm -- that her purported ethnic makeup played no role in her hiring, even though Harvard was under pressure to boost its minority numbers.
I can only say I have good reason to prefer Warren's version. Back in 1971, in my senior year of high school, I took the SAT. When the results came, they included my score along with name, birth date, home address and the like. There was also a line for ethnicity -- and mine was "American Indian."
This came as a surprise to me, a green-eyed Presbyterian suburbanite with an English name. Now, it's true that, like Warren, my relatives have been known to say there was a Cherokee way back on our family tree, but it's one of those things that no one has ever bothered to verify for fear that it might be untrue.
I got a laugh out of my racial classification but figured it was a harmless clerical error. I didn't know how I could get the SAT folks to correct the mistake, which didn't seem worth the trouble anyway. I went ahead with my college applications, and the following April, I found myself unexpectedly admitted to the Harvard class of 1976.
Unlike Warren, I never told anyone at Harvard about my great-uncle Runs Screaming from the Room. After applying, I had to undergo an interview with a local alum, who didn't ask me if I was Indian. I may have figured the answer was obvious and that the admissions folks were smart enough -- I mean, this is Harvard, right? -- to realize I wasn't.

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National Spelling Bee Winner: Snigdha Nandipati Wins 2012 Scripps Competition (PHOTOS) : Media Social Gossip

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Snigdha Nandipati heard a few words she didn't know during the National Spelling Bee, but never when she stepped to the microphone.
Calm and collected throughout, the 14-year-old from San Diego spelled "guetapens," a French-derived word that means ambush, snare or trap, to win the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. She beat out eight other finalists in the nerve-wracking, brain-busting competition.
After she spelled the word, she looked from side to side, as if unsure her accomplishment was real, and, oddly, she was not immediately announced as the winner. Applause built slowly, and a few pieces of confetti trickled out before showering her. Then her 10-year-old brother ran on stage and embraced her, and she beamed.
"I knew it. I'd seen it before," Nandipati said of the winning word. "I just wanted to ask everything I could before I started spelling."
A coin collector and Sherlock Holmes fan, Nandipati aspires to become a physician or neurosurgeon. She also plays violin and is fluent in Telugu, a language spoken in southeastern India.
A semifinalist last year, Nandipati became the fifth consecutive Indian-American winner and 10th in the last 14 years, a run that began in 1999 when Nupur Lala won and was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound."
Wearing a white polo shirt with a gold necklace peeking out of the collar, the bespectacled, braces-wearing teen never showed much emotion while spelling, working her way meticulously through each word. Only a few of the words given to other spellers were unfamiliar to her, she said.
Her brother and parents joined her onstage after the victory, along with her maternal grandparents, who traveled from Hyderabad, India, to watch her. At one point as she held the trophy aloft, her brother, Sujan, pushed the corners of her mouth apart to broaden her smile.
Her father, Krishnarao, said Snigdha first showed an interest in spelling as early as age 4. As she rode in the car, he would call out the words he saw on billboards and she would spell them.
In the run-up to the bee, Nandipanti studied 6 to 10 hours a day on weekdays and 10-12 hours on weekends – a regimen that she'll need to maintain to get through medical school, her father said.
"She says this is harder than being a neurosurgeon – maybe," said her mother, Madhavi.
Stuti Mishra of West Melbourne, Fla., finished second after misspelling "schwarmerei" – which means excessive, unbridled enthusiasm. While many spellers pretend to write words with their fingers, the 14-year-old Mishra had an unusual routine – she mimed typing them on a keyboard. Nandipanti and Mishra frequently high-fived each other after spelling words correctly during the marathon competition.
Coming in third for the second consecutive year was Arvind Mahankali of Bayside Hills, N.Y. At 12, the seventh-grader was the youngest of the nine finalists. He has one more year of eligibility remaining, and he pledged to return.
"I got eliminated both times by German words," Mahankali said. "I know what I have to study."
Nandipati's prize haul includes $30,000 in cash, a trophy, a $2,500 savings bond, a $5,000 scholarship, $2,600 in reference works from the Encyclopedia Britannica and an online language course.
The week began with 278 spellers, including the youngest in the history of the competition – 6-year-old Lori Anne Madison of Lake Ridge, Va. The field was cut to 50 semifinalists after a computer test and two preliminary rounds, and Lori Anne was two misspelled words away from a semifinal berth. The tiny, blue-eyed prodigy said she'd be back next year.
The highest-placing international speller was Gifton Wright of Spanish Town, Jamaica, who tied for fourth. This week, Scripps announced tentative plans for a world spelling bee with teams of spellers from dozens of countries. Once that gets off the ground, the National Spelling Bee would be closed to international participants.
Also tied for fourth were Nicholas Rushlow of Pickerington, Ohio, and Lena Greenberg of Philadelphia. The excitable Greenberg, a crowd favorite who ran delightedly back to her chair after each correct word, pressed her hands to her face and exclaimed, "Oh! Oh!" when she was eliminated.
Rushlow was making his fifth and final appearance in the bee, and this was his best showing. He got three words he didn't know – one in the semifinals and two in the finals – and managed to spell two of them correctly before the third one, "vetiver," tripped him up.
While he was satisfied with his performance, he's sad that his run is over.
"I'm a has-been now," Rushlow said.

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