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Busch, Mayweather Aren't Allowed Free Passes

I'm not perfect, no one is.
But there are certain actions, that even when not able to be "proven" in a criminal court of law should be carried with the perpetrator forever. You beat a woman but are able to dance your way out of charges, good for  you but you don't get to be seen in a new light. You molest a child but never spend a day in jail for it, your still scum of the Earth. You like to sexually assault women but are able to argue it was consensual therefore skating the law, well played, but you are no doubt less of a man.
This week two such men have garnered the spotlight in the world of sports.
First, enter into the ring serial woman beater Floyd Mayweather. His long and sordid past was recently profiled in ESPN's Outside the Lines (video below) and I won't exhaust all of the incidents here but his history is clear.



If the history wasn't bad enough having shills like Stephen A Smith @ ESPN sticking up for is track record, and acting as if we are "bad" people for not separating the "boxer" from the "woman beater," is not only laughable, but a disgusting argument.



Now enter NASCAR and driver Kurt Busch who took the checkered flag on Sunday at Richmond. He won the race after  being forced to miss the first 3 races of the season due to a suspension from NASCAR for a serious altercation with a woman that resulted in a restraining order being issued against him.
What made Busch's win very unsettling wasn't the fact that NASCAR  had no backbone to continue his suspension but instead that his victory somehow exonerated him. FOX's Mike Joy actually uttered the phrase "from suspension to redemption," as Busch was on the final lap and crossing the finish line.
Jalopnik did a great job covering this today, and  you can read that story here.
This isn't about second chances. This isn't about what can be proven in a court or not. This isn't about if victims get bought off and then change their story.
What this is about is simple. A person's actions off the court, field, track, ring or whatever their venue is in sports or professional work most certainly should be included in their persona inside the venue. Just because they excel in their sport or win races and boxing matches doesn't give them a free pass for beating on women. They aren't "redeemed" or exonerated once they claim victory on the field.
Shame on big media for allowing anyone to think otherwise.

And so the Worm Turns -- Racial Violence Plaguing St. Louis

Just a day after I blogged about absolutely no progress being made in St. Louis on the race relations front and comparing our city's racial tension to the contrasting racial harmony, relatively speaking of course, that exists in the other side of the state in Kansas City, more ugliness rears its head.
A MetroLink passenger captured video of a black passenger yelling at a white one (to me the dialogue in the video is inaudible), but the white victim later told police that the black assailant asked the white victim what his opinion was on the Mike Brown case. His answer of "I haven't thought much about it," sends the black man into a physical rage where he is seen on camera betting the white victim about the face and upper body with punch after punch.
The video is very disturbing and you can see it all here, along with the Fox2 report on the activities.
Our city is in a very bad place right now with no signs of it getting better. Its sickening that we as a society are allowing this to happen. Something must be done.

Black Mayor Tired of "Racial Bullshit" and I Love Him For It

So an interesting article hit my news feed this morning.
Kansas City's Mayor Sly James (the city's second black mayor in its history) basically came out and told a black political group to go fuck themselves, he did it a little more diplomatically than that though, but even that isn't the headline here.
I don't know Sly James that well but I did have the pleasure of meeting him a few occasions during my time in KC at various events around the area. I have a dear friend who knows him well from back in his college days and we would both say Sly is a stand up guy and a wonderful leader for Kansas City.

As a longtime resident of the St. Louis area I am keenly aware that racial tensions run high in this area. That was clearly evident this summer with the incidents in Ferguson and elsewhere in the city's core.
It takes a dude with some serious stones to tell a black political group he doesn't care about them. It takes even bigger stones when that dude is a black man himself. On the surface it would appear that James is telling his African American base he doesn't care about him. But it is so much more than that.
You can read the complete history here in the original story from the KC Star but the bottom line is Freedom Inc. played some nasty politics recently and brought up Jim Crown in encouraging people to vote against a development and transportation project that James was in favor of.
Race relations are real, especially in Missouri. As a recent resident of KC I think the city is light years ahead of St. Louis in terms of integration. That's not to say KC doesn't have its share of racial issues. 1968 saw terribly violent riots in KC and even today Troost Ave remains as a socioeconomic and racial divide in the city's core.
It might be Jame's leadership, the collective attitude of its residents, a thriving business community in the urban core made up of both huge companies (H&R Block, Hallmark just to name a few) and start ups and small firms as well, or growing population of residents (vs. declining in St. Louis' urban core) but the racial line in KC is much more gray than it is black and white in St. Louis just 250 miles to the east. In St. Louis shit like this happens on a regular basis.
I am not saying its all kittens and rainbows either, but the fact that you have a black mayor saying "I'm just tired of racial politics. . . not going to put  up with this racial bullshit," the message is clear. James is not about to let his city have a wedge driven through it.
Meanwhile in St. Louis leaders on both sides of the fence not only continue to allow the wedge to be driven in the metro area, they almost encourage it and welcome it. Leaders in Ferguson just dug their heels in deeper in response to the recent Department of Justice report that cast a dark light over a municipality where racial prejudice was allowed to run rampant. County and city leaders tip-toe around the subject for fear of upsetting their "base" which only draws the line deeper into the racial fiber of the metro area.
I'm like James on this one and am tired of the "racial bullshit." I am sickened when I hear white people put down blacks and I am disheartened when I hear black people talk of their distrust for whites.
Someone, anyone, needs to step up and yell "enough of this bullshit," and let's move this community forward into the 21st century. We are all in this together and the sooner everyone realizes that the better.
We don't have to look very far for our example or inspiration thanks to Sly James.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article16296026.html#storylink=cpy

Calls for Justice Explained

Yesterday we blogged about the perceived line between those calling for justice and those supporting cops.
Today we get to post a video of Andrew Hawkins speaking to the media. His remarks were from the heart, without note cards or a PR person telling him what to say. He claims not to be an activist but we feel his comments are spot on.

When Cops Fuck Up

I fully support the police. It's a job I would never want or could I do with any degree of success.
I also don't understand the mentality of "fuck the police" much less even running from them or cursing at a police officer. I have many dear friends and a handful of family members who make their living behind the badge.
I fully support the freedom of speech and still think it is America's most fundamental right. Our ability to have civil discourse through our speech without fear of imprisonment or retribution from the government goes to the core of what makes our country so great.
So when did police forces become the Vatican?
As a lifelong and proud Catholic I become very displeased with my church over the last 15 year as it continue to bury its collective head in the sand in admitting to and dealing with a sad and dark history of pedophile priests. We even had a Pope as recent as 2010 choose to classify the allegations as "petty gossip" in his Palm Sunday homily. Any Catholic, like myself, who was outwardly outspoken about our church's handling of the priests who committed these heinous crimes were considered "not real Catholics" or were chastised for not being in lock step with our spiritual leader.
Turns out our new Pope has done a pretty good job in clearing  up and admitting to the church's gross mishandling of this epidemic.
Now it seems that whenever Americans want to voice concern or frustration over how area police forces are handling their job of "protecting and serving" the citizens are being treated with the same sort of outcries and criticism that were thrown towards those who were critical of the Catholic church.
Cops are humans. Cops fuck up. Sadly when they do fuck up it could have fatal consequences. This column isn't about the perceived lack of justice for families in St. Louis, New York and Cleveland who recently lost loved ones at the hands of police officers. This column isn't about how the Grand Jury process might be impartial to law enforcement.
Since when do police forces feel justified in "demanding an apology" from people who show their support to those who died at the hands of police?
A child shouldn't be playing with a toy gun (without any orange safety tape or paint on it) and pointing it towards police officers. A repeated perpetrated of petty street crimes shouldn't be arguing with police when told to stop what he is doing. A suspect in a strong-arm robbery shouldn't reach for a cop's gun while sitting in his car and not expect to have lethal force used upon him.
But when all three of those people above are killed at the hands of the police then families, communities and activist of all kinds have the right to speak up in support of those victims. They shouldn't feel ashamed nor should they be forced into an apology for showing their support. It also doesn't mean that they don't support the police or law enforcement.
Since when does wearing a badge mean you are omnipotent? Maybe the apologies should be coming from cops who kill a 12 year-old child or choke out a suspect whose last words are "I can't breathe."
When cops fuck up they need to be ready for the criticism that comes their way. Maybe then we can make progress in this country when it comes to race relations.

Susan Keeler Smith

This morning I lost the most inspirational and courageous woman I have known.

Many of you are aware that my dear sister-in-law Susan Keeler Smith had suffered from metastatic breast cancer for the past 15 years. I am saddened greatly to report that early this morning (Dec. 1, 2011) Susan passed peacefully in her sleep with my brother by her bedside at Prentice Women’s Hospital.

When someone deals with metastatic breast cancer the long-term outlook isn’t good, and Susan continued to defy these odds even until the end. It was over a month ago that her doctor told us on a Thursday (Oct. 27) that she wouldn’t make it through the next Monday (Oct. 31).

You can imagine that none of us were really surprised when not only she made it through the weekend but was more alert and awake in the follow days and weeks than she had been in the few months prior. We weren’t shocked because a) it is no secret that Thanksgiving was Susan’s favorite holiday and b) she was hopeful to make it to another Thanksgiving.

You see, for all the great things I can say about Susan, and trust me there are many as she was the “older sister” that I never had (and I was always quick to remind her how much of an “older” sister she was to me), her will, desire, courageousness, and class are what I will forever remember her by.

It was never that Susan tried to “defy the odds” or even think that she would be able to “beat cancer.” She knew her long-term fate was going to be the shame, but she also knew that no matter how much medicine, how many treatments, how many new drugs they tried on her, or anything else that life threw at her, the one thing she could control was how she dealt with it. By her attitude and determination to live her life as best she could she would be in control. 

She had two options 15 years ago when her cancer returned; she could sit back, take the hand dealt to her and ultimately wait to die, or she could look it square in the eye, realize her life would be different now but that wasn’t going to stop her from living it to its fullest potential.

The Thanksgiving Day example I gave earlier is just one of hundreds of examples of how Susan’s determination over the last 15 years is what guided her life, and not cancer. It wasn’t until the last few years that Susan rarely missed a trip to see family, witness a marriage of friends, or enjoy a much-needed vacation with her husband and daughter. If she had made it up in her mind that she was going to be somewhere, she was going to be there.

Of course her ability to be called “mom” over the last 9 years was her most recent driving force. The example she showed to Grace of how to respect others, have compassion, courage, and an appreciation for the arts will be a beacon of light forever.

When someone has a terminal illness I think it is natural for the loved ones around them to contemplate their relationship with the person suffering and the impact they had on them. I will consider it a blessing that I have had so much time to dwell on this subject as Susan continued to deal with her disease with such ferociousness.

I realized I was able to love her deeply and this is the same woman that while having this terrible and dreaded disease was able to:

-- Become a loving, caring and strong mother.

-- Be my biggest sounding board as I went through my divorce (a situation sadly she could relate to).

-- Not know who Ozzie Smith was.

-- Let us take over her condo on our regular visits to Chicago

-- With a few bottles of wine could solve all the world’s problems and remind Steve how wrong he was about many of his political views.

-- Stay up and watched a World Cup game with me in 2002 that kicked off at 3 a.m. local time and then watched as me and my “other brother” shot-gunned a beer on her condo balcony to great the rising sun! 

-- Be the first person I called and told I thought I found someone I wanted to marry again (after of course swearing off the idea to her just a year or so earlier).

-- Be a spokesperson/”poster child” for Gilda’s Club in Chicago and try to tell her story to as many people as she could in hopes of giving them a ray of hope.

-- Be such an inspiration that she was invited to attend a star-studded event in Austin put on by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (the LiveStrong folks).

-- While even dealing with treatments and drugs, was a regular caller to check in on Kelly and I after the sudden and premature loss of our twin boys.

-- Be in St. Louis shortly after Kennedy was born to see her new niece.

-- Not even 6 months ago, mustered up all the strength she had to be with Steve, Grace and all of us in St. Louis as we laid “Opa” to rest.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

There are a lot of mysteries to life and this world, but I can’t help but think of the discussion we all had with Susan just this summer as we dealt with the sudden passing of my father. She considered it a blessing that just this spring the two of them were able to go over Bible readings and other elements she would want in her memorial service. It was really the first time she talked to anyone with such openness on the matter.

I also can’t help but think that Susan’s own father Owen, my father, and a host of other loved ones and friends are welcoming her with open arms right now in heaven. She is giving our boys the hugs she promised she would when we I was able to say my final “good-bye” to her last month.

Her cancer is finally gone, but she will be with us forever. 

If you haven't seen it yet, or are interested, you can see Susan's CaringBridge page by going here. 

U.S. Government Still Chasing Its Tail

So a huge crackdown has once again sent shock waves through the online gambling industry. The FBI sent this release out yesterday and it is apparent the US government continues to chase its tail when it comes to the issue of online gambling.

In 2006 the crackdown was one that I unfortunately had a front-row seat for. The Department of Justice got the blood it wanted out of that proceeding but other online sports books still operated and only slight changes were felt with online casino and poker sites (a few of the major players in those sectors stopped taking "action" from US-based consumers). There were plenty of other options for US consumers to still get action online.

Behind the scenes it did force most executives from these companies from traveling to the US and most of their vendors (if they were smart) were also outside of America. The once exception was Full Tilt Poker who brazenly had offices in California for the last several years.

Fast forward to April 15, 2011 and once again charges have been filed and arrest have been made. The three largest poker sites that accept play from US consumers have been forced to stop doing so, but once again others still remain (BoDog just to name one).

Reports project that US consumers spend $6 BILLION a year gambling online. In a "free market" system if there is a demand of that size, there will always be someone, somewhere, who will take the risk to ensure that the demand is met.

The government can decide if they want to get serious about dealing with this growing industry and license and regulate it (i.e. tax the hell out of it), or continue to make headlines every couple of years by indicting and charging executives and getting million dollar judgments from the companies.

As long as there is $6 billion in play, operators, banks, software companies, and others will ensure they get Americans to hand over their money to them so they can gamble online. Does the government want that money going into the hands of thugs and mobsters as they will no doubt get more and more of the pie now? Or do they want to have it go to legitimate businesses with well-schooled executives leading them who are more than willing to pay heavy taxes and give the government a huge influx of needed revenue?

So far the answer is clear, they are perfectly content to keep chasing their tale.

People Watching in NASCAR

So one of my favorite endeavors is going to NASCAR races.

Between my professional work and just being a die-hard racing fan, I have had the pleasure of seeing NASCAR races at some of the finest tracks in the country (Talladega, Bristol, Atlanta, Miami, Indy, just to name a few).

One of the best things about going to the races is the people watching. The Fox station in Dallas did a great job of capturing some of the people watching. Do your self a favor and watch the video here:

Kenseth wins Texas Sprint Cup Race: MyFoxDFW.com

Another Great Cardinals Headline

So we have had Cardinals headlines talking about two-shit shutouts, we had another one that said the Cards were "done in by wet balls," but today's Cardinals headline mine take the cake and be the best of them all.

Funny thing is that I had tweeted a few weeks ago, while listening to the radio broadcast of a spring training Cardinals game, that Zack Cox was my new favorite player on the team. Of course those that know me well know I enjoy juvenile humor and mainstream references to genitalia. But of course my main reason for saying that Cox was my new favorite player was because of seeing headlines like this.

Now I just can't wait to hear Mike Shannon say things like "Cox hit that hard," or "Cox goes deep," and of course the inevitable "Now Cox steps in and COME ON BABY, GET UP, GET UP, GET UP, OH YEAH."

Post Dispatch FoD 3.8.11

This one doesn't need much commentary, I will let the screen shot and comments on it speak for themselves.

This does beg the question though, do they have a single person in the Lee operation that is even looking at the content that is put out on the pages?

Bursting Bubbles

Well here we go again.

If there is an award for the biggest snubs in the NCAA men's basketball tournament not only would Missouri State have won it far to many times, they might just have to re-name it in the programs honor.

This is the same program I covered in a variety of different journalism roles from 1994-2004 and one in which I still hold near and ear to my heart.

To this day Missouri State's 2006 campaign remains the biggest "snub" in tourney history, and the proof is in the numbers not just a impartial opinion.

It was in 2006 that then head-coach Barry Hinson's squad was left without an invite to the big dance after having an RPI of 21. In 1997 I had a front-row view on selection Sunday as coach Steve Alford's team was standing without a dance partner after finishing with 24 wins, back then a near record high number of wins without getting an invite. Hinson also had snubs in 2000 and 2007 when his teams reached RPIs of 34 and 37. This long list of snubs means Missouri State holds the honor of having 3 of the top 5 rated RPI teams to not make the NCAA tourney, enough to make a Bears fan sick.

Each one of these teams though had valid strikes against them as reasons for being snubbed. The degree to which those strikes should have mattered is another point. In 1997 the general consensus from selection committee members (of which I had interviewed one) and the bracket "experts" back then was that the team's strength of schedule was weak and the number of wins was somewhat watered down.

Mo State started scheduling better, didn't get as many wins in 2000 but had that killer RPI in which everyone knew they were going to get in only to be told, "no sorry, you didn't win enough." Some of the experts also said that year that Mo State's inability to win the conference title hurt their at-large chances.

So now here we sit, less than a week before selection Sunday. The 2011 version of Missouri State has won the regular season Missouri Valley Conference title, amassed a record of 25-8 and currently sits 42 in the RPI.

If the Bears are left again without a ticket to March Madness it might be the most drastic snub in the long-history of snubs for the program, and a low water mark for the Missouri Valley. It would mark the first time since 1992 that the conference regular season champ isn't in the tournament and the 4th year in a row and a far cry from the four that made it in 2006.

This isn't about who should be in or out (Big East gets 11 teams?), but the NCAA would do well to at least give consistent guidance to programs and coaches so they know what they have to do to get in. Let Cuonzo Martin know what he can do better next year (outside of course from winning the conference tournament and getting the automatic bid) to ensure his program isn't snubbed once again.

And if that answer is "win more games," then he knows. If it is "get a better schedule," then he knows. But you can't move the goalposts next year after you use one set of guidelines to pick your tournament field this year using a completely different set of standards.

Unless of course, your corrupt as all hell and just want to ensure the "right" kind of teams are "invited" to your dance. Can anyone else say "BCS."

Has "Its Time" Finally Come?

In the late summer of 2000 I walked into an office among the quaint and busy historical district of Historic Main Street in St. Charles Missouri that would forever change my life.

I walked into the world headquarters of River City Group for an initial job interview, one that was followed up with an offer and subsequent 5 years of work at the company. It changed my life because while I was hired as a staff writer for an online trade publication (www.IGamingNews.com) it was a clear step away from the print newspaper world I had gone to school and trained for.

Not only was the shift away from traditional media a big one, it was a larger shift into the specific world of online gambling and the general sector of web operations that would set the course for the rest of my professional career.

I only give you that brief background of my professional journey during the first half of the last decade to point out the fact that I have been around the block for a little while when it comes to online gambling (the "it" referenced in the headline above) specifically and the web in general.

I won't bore you with a lengthy history lesson on the industry or its lobbying efforts for the last 15 years, some of which I played a small but direct role in and had a front row seat as they played themselves out. But anyone who has had any discussion with me about how the industry is regulated/prohibited in the United States knows my mantra has always been that "it" will happen some day.

As states and jurisdictions deal with tightening budgets and massive cutbacks the online gambling industry offers a revenue producer that could be taxed at over 20%. The industry has always offered to pay hefty taxes as the benefit of being able to operate freely within the United States far outweighs the risk of having to operate covertly from a foreign jurisdiction.

New Jersey took a major step today when its governor approved a bill allowing for the state's 11 current casino operators in Atlantic City to create an intrastate system that would make it possible for Garden State citizens to log on and play black jack, roulette and other table games. The bill was approved after passing both the State Senate and the House.

Even though the system is "intrastate" only it is projected to inject the state with $100 million in tax revenue (the casinos agreed to be taxed at 23%) and create 500 jobs, something every state I am sure would embrace right now.

This bill no doubt will be the proverbial breaking of the dam and you can expect other states to follow suit in order to a) stay competitive and b) keep jobs and money in their state. Similar bills have been introduced or reached various stages in states like California, Nevada, and North Dakota and looked for these to pick up steam again or be revisited and for many of the other states (28 in all) who have casinos already to study this issue.

It may not seem like much right now, but the steps taken today in New Jersey were of the Neal Armstrong variety, one small step for a state but one massive leap for an industry.

Respecting our Veterans, in life and death

So I posted the above video a few days ago on my FaceBook page but felt that it was worth posting here again too.

This video is about a 30 minute interview of a friend's father about 9 months before he died of cancer last week.

Our country has been thrust into wars and battles we don't all always agree with. In the Vietnam era this had a direct effect as to how our soldiers were treated upon them returning home, regardless of how they actually felt about the war from a political prospective as well.

Certain sects of our society have brought vile hate towards troops have have died in battle while in Iraq or Afghanistan. Luckily there "protests" are started to be thwarted as groups around the country are answering these pickets by peacefully blocking them from the view of mourners and the families of the troops.

I was thinking about all of this yesterday as I watched current members of the United States Navy fold the American flag with the utmost precision and hand the perfectly folded stars and stripes to my friend as his father was laid to rest.

This video is part of a project to get the voices heard of World War II veterans before they are all gone (we lose more than 1,000 of them a day). If you are a fan of history you will love the clarity and vividness that Paul Rothermich shares in this video.

And if you're like me you will be happy that our society, for the most part, has made huge strides in how we deal with our veterans and ensuring they are given the proper respect upon returning home after battle and eventually when they leave the Earth for good.

The Awesomeness of Pop-Up Ads -- STL Today FoD 2.18.11

Well today's STL Today's Fail of the Day (FoD) isn't so much content or layout related as it is that they seem to be the only site I visit on a regular basis that still can't seem to figure out how to do away with pop-up ads.

No only is it annoying as hell but the ads themselves are irrelevant to anything I would remotely have interest in and are of the "spammy" variety. The best part about this whole deal is that we are always hearing about how traditional media companies, especially newspapers are dying on the vine largely due to the fact that there advertising revenue is drying up. God for bid these people figure out how to make money on rev-share/affiliate advertising or any of the myriad of ways that moder-day web properties do when they do try to have an online presence like STLToday.

Instead they can't get out of their own way when they allow crap like this to happen.

STL Today Fail of the Day -- 2.16.11

I don't know how long it has been since the St. Louis Post Dispatch redesigned their home page (I am going to guess 6-8 months ago). As an avid consumer of news I have always had the home page to my city's daily paper bookmarked. I used to even follow many of the paper's RSS feeds until I realized they were populating many of the same feeds with the exact same story.

So ever since they have come out with the new home page I realized they have a problem when they initial publish a story and then hours, or days, later they publish an updated or revised version of the story. I used to find it quirky that two prominent headlines either on the actual home page or a section page would link to a story on the same subject matter even though they had different headlines.

I know stories can often develop over hours or days, after all I used to work in this space. Not knowing what back-end system they were using to upload stories to the web I figured they were working on it.

A few months ago what I had attributed to a quirky system was starting to frankly piss me off and affecting how regular I visited the paper's web site. I have no idea of anyone at the Post-Dispatch will see this or read this but for my own sanity starting today I am going to post a daily example of this (or other #Fails) that I find on STLToday.com (the Post's online site).

I will post a screen shot along with a link to what I found, realizing that the content on the link could change the screen shot will at least show you how inept they are at updating content or at least not having the same story matter right next to each other.

So without further ado, here is the first installment of the STLToday FoD

(Fail of the Day).

At some point the paper published a story with the headline of "Person is Ejected from Vehicle in St. Charles." The story actually referenced workers "on the scene."

The very next story to be updated (or at least put on the feature spot for the "St. Charles" section of the site), had a headline of "Wentzville Man Killed in Car Crash."

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/

Yep, you guessed it, the exact same subject matter in both stories.

Old Blogs

Wow, knowing it has been a long while since I posted on here I was having troubling remembering my log-in credentials.

Low and behold I accessed an old blog of mine that I started in 2005 when I was doing a lot of international travel and was away from friends and family for extended periods of time. It was a way for them to easily keep in touch with me before the days of Facebook and other social media sites.

You may or may not find it interesting, you can go here:

http://celticcommunications.blogspot.com/

Mississippi River Flood Plan H

So my Facebook feed and e-mail blew up this week with warnings about a pending public hearing that could fundamentally effect the outcome of a school district that is very close to my wife and I (Orchard Farm).

The Army Corps of Engineers, through the Mississippi River Commission, published a purposed plan (Plan H) in 2008 on its recommendations for flood plain management in the future.

I was hearing a lot of talk about the pending results of this plan and its potential effect on mostly small towns in the lower portion of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Essentially the plan calls for increased and improved levees along most of the basin, but primarily on the Illinois side of the river. This of course means one side of the river, and its towns, would remain protected, while another side would essentially become a holding tank for water when the river rises (which of course is happening with more and more frequency as man continues to try to manipulate the river).

Of course this news got a lot of folks fired up in "these parts," as well as it should. I did some investigating this week as I wanted to mainly see Plan H for myself. Not only was I able to obtain the plan, I was informed by a representative of the Corps that the plan WASN'T endorsed by the Corps of Engineers or the Assistant Secretary of Army in letters to various congressional committees. Like most commissions, they did recommend continued study for protection of critical infrastructure and reconstructions of existing flood damage reduction systems.

The entire plan is pretty cumbersome, and I still have yet to digest it all, but I would encourage anyone planning to attend the Wed night hearing on Plan H at Orchard Farm High School, to at least do some due diligence on this issue before they attend under the guise that the school district is in danger of disappearing.

You can read the full report for yourself here.

USA Continues Contradictory Approach to I-Gaming

So I read the news about Sporringbet's (full story below) with mixed emotions. I am certainly happy for my friends that are still working (or continue to be shareholders) for Sportingbet as they all will no doubt end up in a very good financial place sooner or later.

On other hand I had to scratch my head as clearly the Department of Justice and the United States Government continues to contradict itself at nearly every turn in its approach to handling the online gambling industry.

First, and most obvious, if want they want from these companies is money, then why not license and regulate them? If this step were taken the $33 million Sprortingbet agreed to pay over the next three years would truly be a pittance.

If indeed they don't want to regulate, then what is with this "selective prosecution?" Clearly we have individuals in this industry with divergent and varying backgrounds, but even their prosecution has cast its net to include individuals with "shady" pasts as well as those with impeccable personal and professional records.

Admittedly I have been relegated to becoming an observer to an industry in which I devoted most of my professional career to during the last decade so I don't have the back story and insight into these stories that maybe I once did, but even on the surface this is a head scratcher for me.

Taking a step back though, and looking at the bigger picture of the industry, the fact that such deals like these are being made with DoJ now is a clear sign of a policy shift in the U.S. government. 5 years ago a publicly listed company paying millions of dollars to be exempt from prosecution would have been out of the question. It was impossible to get to government to even open up dialogue with most publicly listed companies back then.

Maybe key decision makers are starting to realize that it only makes sense (and lots of CENTS) to allow adults in the U.S. to gamble online if they so choose, since the same activity at a brick-and-mortar casino is allowed in more and more states every year.

To read the Business Week story on the deal between Sportingbet and the DoJ, click here.

So do you know who this mystery man is?