Auggie
Auggie's JournalPetition to change "Commanders" name back to "Redskins" is picking up steam
Yahoo sports / July 31st, 2023
There has been much-stirring news for the Washington Commanders over the last week.
Crowds have been much, much larger and more excited at the Commanders training camp than in previous years. Fans are in a celebratory frame of mind that the Josh Harris group has replaced Daniel Snyder.
Also picking up momentum is the Native American Guardian Association (NAGA). The association constructed a petition asking that the Commanders NFL franchise change the name back to “Redskins.”
This petition will not be impacting the football that is played on the field this season by the Commanders. Yet, the association announced Sunday evening on Twitter that they have received 30,000 signatures. One of their videos they produced was also making its rounds on Twitter Sunday evening.
LINK: https://sports.yahoo.com/petition-challenging-commanders-name-picking-103019982.html?
From the link: NAGA is fighting an uphill battle -- the name having already been removed from its history, which dates back to 1933 when the Boston Braves became the Boston Redskins. Moving to Washington for the 1937 season, the team remained “Redskins” through the 2019 season.
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Still ...
Kudos to whoever posted and/or created the Grovelbot stickie ...
that shows Rump in an upper jail bunk getting kicked by a cellmate.
Nicely done.
Former Warriors coach Don Nelson opens Hawaii homes to Lahaina fire victims
Former Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson has spent much of the past week on the phone, working to give his short-term Maui rentals to people who lost their houses in the nation’s deadliest wildfires in more than a century.
“We’re doing the best we can, but we only have space for about 24 people,” Nelson said in a phone interview Monday. “There are thousands of people homeless right now. It’s overwhelming.”
In 2011, shortly after settling in West Maui full-time following a Hall of Fame coaching career, Nelson started to invest in local real estate. What started as a side gig has blossomed into a thriving rental company. Desperate to help evacuees from the recent wildfires that devastated Lahaina and other nearby communities, Nelson, 83, has leased his properties for free to anyone in need.
Helping provides Nelson some peace. None of his properties, including the family home he bought 24 miles south of Lahaina almost 30 years ago, were damaged in the wildfires.
MORE (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/former-nba-coach-don-nelson-opens-hawaii-homes-18295447.php
Wow -- that is incredibly thoughtful and generous. Thank you coach!
Co-conspirator Ken Chesebro once "ran in liberal circles."
Rolling Stone / August 14th, 2023
Chesebro played an instrumental role in the former president’s undemocratic push to remain in office. John Eastman, another alleged co-conspirator, is widely credited with masterminding the scheme to halt the certification of the Electoral College by submitting a slate of fake electors, but it was Chesebro who first proposed the idea in a Nov. 18 memo to Jim Troupis, a Trump attorney working in Wisconsin.
Chesebro sent another memo a few weeks later about expanding the strategy to other states. “I’ve mulled over how January might play out, and it seems feasible that the Trump campaign can prevent Biden from amassing 270 electoral votes on January 6, and force the Members of Congress, the media, and the American people to focus on the substantive evidence of illegal election and counting activities in the six contested states,” he wrote in the memo, which was detailed by The New York Times last week. Chesebro called the plot a “bold, controversial strategy” that the Supreme Court would “likely” reject.
Chesebro wasn’t finished. He sent another memo laying out ways to get around some of the complications with the scheme on Dec. 9. Then on Dec. 13, he sent a note to Rudy Giuliani, also an alleged co-conspirator, explaining how Mike Pence could halt the Electoral College certification, with allied senators refusing to count votes from states that submitted alternate slates of electors. Chesebro continued to correspond with Trump’s legal team and other allies about how to work the courts and what congressional Republicans needed to do ahead of Jan. 6 in order to give the plan a chance.
SNIP
Chesebro’s eagerness to insert himself into a scheme to subvert the democratic process in order to keep Donald Trump in the White House is remarkable considering his background. He ran in liberal circles in law school, donated to Democrats, and praised Barack Obama before he became a senator. He even worked on the team representing Al Gore in the Supreme Court following the 2000 election. Chesebro got really into cryptocurrency in the 2010s, however, sparking a conservative turn, as Air Mail detailed in a recent profile. He was representing top Republican senators by the end of the decade, and donated the maximum amount to Trump’s 2020 campaign before working to reverse the result of the election.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ken-chesebro-trump-ally-coup-plot-1234806685/
Interesting ... which is why I posted this. Why the flip to the dark side? Why work for TFG?
Eh ... just lock him up.
Monsoon season is finally ramping up. Here's how it could impact California:
San Francisco Chronicle / August 12, 2023
An erratic monsoon pattern this summer could usher in episodes between fire weather and wet thunderstorms in parts of California this week and through the month.
The North American monsoon requires clockwise winds from mild ridges of high pressure over the Four Corners region to ferry summertime moisture from the Gulf of California to the Southwest. But like a chef adding too much of an ingredient to a recipe, the atmosphere has overcooked its recent ridges of high pressure, charring the first-half of the 2023 monsoon.
Drying grasses, a weak monsoon and isolated thunderstorms fueled recent fire weather in the Mojave desert, said Jonathan O’Brien, a fire meteorologist with the Southern California Geographic Coordination Center’s Predictive Services unit.
But there are growing signs that high pressures are slowly weakening and that this year’s monsoon is set to make a comeback. Surges of moist air will briefly bring some muggy, rainy weather back to a drying California in the coming weeks with some isolated fire risks.
LINK (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/article/california-monsoon-summer-fire-18289836.php
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LINK:
• Some moisture will stream into Northern California on Saturday, locking in slight chances of wet and dry thunderstorms to parts of the Central Coast, Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascades through the second half of August.
• Threat of thunderstorms in the valleys of the Sierra Nevada between Tahoe and Yosemite on Saturday -- slight risk of downpours.
• Risk of dry thunderstorms ... periodic lightning events in the Sierra Nevada
• August “might set the stage for a more active fire pattern over the next month or so because now things are really starting to dry out,” said Daniel Swain, a researcher at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy.
Crime is so bad near S.F. Federal building employees are told to work from home
San Francisco Chronicle
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street.
The imposing, 18-story tower on the corner of Seventh and Mission streets houses various federal agencies, including HHS, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the office of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. The area is also home to one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets, where dozens of dealers and users congregate on a daily basis.
SNIP
The building has long been a locus of some of the city’s most intractable problems.
Dozens of dealers routinely plant themselves on, next to or across the street from the property, operating in shifts as users smoke, snort or shoot up their recent purchases. The property’s concrete benches are an especially popular site for users to get high, socialize or pass out.
Link (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/drugs-crime-nancy-pelosi-federal-building-18292237.php
Highlights from the link:
• HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl R. Campbell issued the stay-home recommendation in an Aug. 4 memo
• Apparently, the GSA has recently implemented a number of new security measures to address safety concerns. This includes:
-- pulling Federal Protective Service personnel from other nearby properties;
-- a pending vote on funds for an additional “roving” guard dedicated to the property;
-- creating a “BART Buddies” program of on-call escorts
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Wow
Valley fever: Why the fungal disease is spreading into Northern California
August 13 / San Francisco Chronicle
The effects of climate change in California, from harsher heat waves to more volatile rainstorms, are well established. Lesser known is what those crises can help fuel: the northern migration of infectious diseases.
SNIP
Valley fever, a respiratory disease spread by fungal spores that grow in soil, has long been concentrated mostly in the Arizona desert and California’s lower San Joaquin Valley. But a growing body of research suggests the disease is gaining a foothold farther north, driven by warming temperatures and extreme swings in rainfall and drought tied to climate change.
Annual cases of valley fever in California rose from fewer than 1,500 in 2001 to a high of more than 9,000 in 2019, according to the state’s public health department. In 2021, the last year with available data, the state recorded more than 8,000 cases.
SNIP
The Coccidioides fungus, which causes valley fever, spreads when dirt is kicked up by wind or human activities such as farming and construction. People and animals can become infected from just one breath of air containing the fungal spores.
LINK (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/climate-change-pushing-valley-fever-northward-18277182.php
Highlights from the link:
• About 60% of people who contract valley fever don’t get sick.
• Flu-like symptoms: coughing, fever, chest pain, etc.
• Valley fever tends to last longer than most viral infections, with symptoms often extending several weeks or months
• In up to 10% of cases, the disease can lead to more serious or long-term lung damage.
• Rare cases can spread to other parts of the body, causing meningitis or even death.
• Nearly half of valley fever cases in the state occur among people who identify as Hispanic or Latino, many of whom hold low-income agricultural jobs where dust exposure is common and access to health care is less so.
• Drought plays a crucial role in spreading valley fever. When a dry spell hits, cases of the disease decline. But in the years immediately following a drought, cases explode to levels well above normal.
• If dusty conditions can’t be avoided, people in high-risk areas should stay indoors or wear a well-fitted N95 mask
Adobe has announced AI-powered capabilities for Photoshop
BETA for now. They're calling it "Generative Fill."
From the website:
• Generate objects: Select an area in your image, then describe what you’d like to add/replace through a text prompt.
• Generate backgrounds: Select the background behind your subject, then generate a new scene from a text prompt.
• Extend images: Extend the canvas of your image, then make a selection of the empty region. Generating without a prompt will create a harmonious extension of your scene. Generating with a prompt will add content to your image while extending the rest of your scene.
• Remove objects: Select the object you want to remove, then generate without a prompt to let the Generative AI technology make it disappear.
• And more… Generative Fill is incredibly versatile. Experiment with off-the-wall ideas, ideate around different concepts, and produce dozens of variations in a snap.
Video at this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/generative-fill.html
Fake photos just got easier
Ex-Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs sentenced to 3-10 years in fatal DUI crash
Yahoo Sports
Former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was sentenced to three to 10 years in Nevada state prison after he pleaded guilty in the fatal DUI crash that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor.
SNIP
The collision occurred on a Las Vegas street early on Nov. 2, 2021. Ruggs was leaving Topgolf near The Strip, where he had been with three other people, including his girlfriend, Kiara Je'nai Kilgo-Washington.
Police said that Ruggs was drunk driving his Corvette 156 mph before he crashed into Tintor's Toyota RAV4. The impact ruptured the gas tank, killing Tintor and her golden retriever, Max. Tintor was 23.
Ruggs' blood-alcohol content was found to be 0.16 at a hospital, twice the legal limit in Nevada. He initially faced up to 50 years for charges of DUI resulting in death, DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm, two counts of reckless driving resulting in death or substantial bodily harm and possession of a firearm while under the influence.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ex-raiders-receiver-henry-ruggs-sentenced-to-3-10-years-in-fatal-dui-crash-171607293.html
Tina Tintor had her life taken away by a DUI.
From up to 50 years to 3 to 10. If Rugg is released after 3 he is one lucky felonist.
Lawsuits accuse 49ers CEO Jed York of insider trading, securities violations
San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York has been sued for alleged insider trading and violations of federal securities laws in connection with his service on the board of a Santa Clara-based online educational company.
In two shareholders’ lawsuits, York and other directors of Chegg Inc. stand accused of concealing the company’s role in helping college students cheat on online exams. The company’s revenue soared during the pandemic, as students learned they could use a Chegg account to get real-time answers to questions on college exams administered online, the lawsuits claim.
Chegg’s revenues plunged and the stock price collapsed at the pandemic’s end, as colleges resumed in-person testing and students no longer could use the company’s products to cheat, according to the suits.
SNIP
Some company officials profited by selling Chegg stock in 2020 and 2021 while the price was high and “before the fraud was exposed,” the lawsuits claim. Rosensweig, the Chegg CEO, sold more than 500,000 shares at a $48 million profit. On two occasions in 2020, according to the lawsuits, York sold 10,000 shares of Chegg he had acquired through directors’ options, making a combined $1.4 million in profit.
LINK (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/49ers/article/suits-accuse-49ers-jed-york-insider-trading-18281155.php
Highlight (from the link): At its peak in February 2021, Chegg stock traded at $113.51. It’s now under $11.
Will the NFL care? This is lawsuit. But it's also punishable under the SEC:
Insider trading results in any one or more of the following legal problems:
· A private lawsuit may be brought against the Insider by a stockholder of the Company. This private action may be brought either by a person who has purchased from, or sold to, an insider or by a stockholder suing in the name of the Company.
· A civil enforcement action could be brought against the Insider by the SEC seeking (a) a monetary penalty (in an amount up to three times the profit gained or the loss avoided); (b) a cease-and-desist order; and (c) an order barring the insider from serving as an officer and director of any public company.
· Especially serious cases could result in a criminal felony prosecution.
LINK: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1164964/000101968715004168/globalfuture_8k-ex9904.htm
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