Wolves' Muhammad adjusting in his NBA role

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? As hard as the start of his NBA career has been, Shabazz Muhammad wouldn't have it any other way.

The rookie swingman for the Minnesota Timberwolves got off to a quiet start in his first two games in the NBA summer league, averaging 7.5 points in 24 minutes while shooting 6 of 16 from the field.

It's a big difference, from playing with boys to men, as he found out Monday as the Phoenix Suns squad overcame a 24-point deficit and closed on a 10-2 run thanks in part to a turnover by Muhammad. With the score tied at 89 and 3.3 seconds remaining in the game, Marcus Morris took a sideline inbounds pass, dribbled twice and nailed a jumper just in front of Phoenix's bench.

Moments earlier, the spotlight was on Muhammad. And while taking an inbounds pass, the 6-foot-6, 225-pound forward fumbled the ball away.

"It was a hard one for us today, we were up (big) and gave up the lead and it just didn't go our way tonight," Muhammad said. "I tried to get on the floor and it didn't do my way, some plays go like that. We want to win. This is hard; this feels like a real game. You see the environment over here; everybody is pretty upset, as I am."

Nevertheless, with all he has been through since the days he played AAU basketball, through his short-lived career at UCLA and plenty of off-court distractions surrounding his father, Muhammad is exactly where he wants to be.

"It's hard on me, I'm a young guy trying to figure it out," Muhammad said. "(But) my confidence level is always high. There are a lot of good guys in the summer league, and I'm just going to continue to do what I've got to do and just play a little bit better."

When Muhammad arrived at UCLA last year, he was expected to help lead the Bruins back to glory. But he had to sit out the first three games of the season and repay $1,600 in impermissible benefits after the NCAA and UCLA found Muhammad accepted travel and lodging during three unofficial visits to Duke and North Carolina, travel arrangements made by his father, Ron Holmes.

It was also revealed in a Los Angeles Times story in March that Holmes shaved a year off of his son's age when he was young to give Muhammad an advantage against younger competition on the summer AAU circuit and in high school. Holmes also ran into trouble of his own with the law.

Minnesota summer league coach David Adelman, son of Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman, said the team's first-round draft pick may find things easier in the NBA.

"In some ways," Adelman said, "I hope this is kind of a breath of fresh of air, like: 'You've made it, you're in the NBA and now let's just learn the NBA game and get better every day and there's nothing to prove.' We just want him to get better every day. His attitude has been very forthright and he just wants to learn."

Adelman said Muhammad needs to improve his physicality and ball handling.

"In the NBA, the guys, they range from being so big, or so quick, or so physical," Adelman said. "And every night you have to have a different game in how you play. I think that's something that's going to grow. I think he's always been the strongest guy, and a lot of guys are like that when they come into the NBA. Now it's a matter of how do you change up your game night to night with the matchups you have."

Muhammad said summer league assistant coach Shawn Respert has been instrumental in working with him daily.

"I love that he has a tremendous motor and great knack to compete," Respert said. "Until he learns some of our system and some of the progression we have in our offense, he's got to just slow down a little bit, and that way his brain can just process what we're trying to accomplish after the first option, and to the second and third options of our plays. And then when he gets that down, he can speed up again."

Perhaps slowing down a bit might have helped on that sideline with less than 8 seconds left against the Suns on Monday, but Adelman doesn't regret drawing up the play for the young star.

"I think Shabazz has been through a lot the last year, where this is just one day and he'll forget about it," Adelman said. "We gave him the ball because we trust him. ... It was unfortunate, he lost control of the ball. That stuff happens to better and worse players than him. It's a summer league; he's going to learn a lot from it."

Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/article/Wolves-Muhammad-adjusting-in-his-NBA-role-4668723.php

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South Africa's Du Plessis admits: I'm cheering for the Aussies in the Ashes......

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151443623681324&id=78819211323

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Lamar Odom?s Alleged Mistress Jennifer Richardson Speaks Out!

Lamar Odom’s Alleged Mistress Jennifer Richardson Speaks Out!

Most of us heard reports that Lamar Odom was picking up a little on the side during his marriage to reality star Khloe Kardashian, but brushed it off as simply rumors. But, the other woman Jennifer Richardson has come forward and said she had a full-on relationship with Lamar and they even talked about having ...

Lamar Odom’s Alleged Mistress Jennifer Richardson Speaks Out! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/07/lamar-odoms-alleged-mistress-jennifer-richardson-speaks-out/

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Report: Arizona wildfire grew quickly, was erratic

PHOENIX (AP) ? A wildfire that began with a lightning strike and caused little immediate concern because of its remote location and small size quickly blazed into an inferno, leading officials to rapidly order more resources in the hours before flames killed 19 members of an elite Hotshot crew, according to a report released Monday.

The report provides precise detail about the response to the fire that began June 28 outside the small town of Yarnell, Ariz., including the unpredictable weather around the blaze and the exact times in which it escalated and key resources were deployed. The report described how the fire worsened hour by hour ? causing flames up to 20 feet high ? as managers called in inmate and Hotshot firefighting crews and air support.

The report does not address the question of why the fire crew was still on the mountain above the town more than an hour after the winds shifted about 180 degrees and brought the fire back toward them.

After the fire was ignited about 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, it was assessed by an aerial unit and found it to be "less than one acre, in a large boulder field ... showed very little smoke" and no structures were at immediate risk.

Officials ordered two inmate crews, an engine and a helicopter to report to the scene early Saturday morning, June 29, to "work multiple lightning fires" in the area.

By the next day, the Yarnell Hill Fire was the only one still burning and had grown only slightly, to about 4 acres. Small, single-engine aircraft were used throughout the day as crews worked the ground.

By 5:30 p.m., the fire was only about 6 acres in size.

Air support was ordered but couldn't respond due to thunderstorms and high winds, according to the report. Later, a DC-10 capable of dropping large amounts of fire retardant to prevent the spread of flames was available but not ordered due to concerns about its effectiveness in the steep, boulder-strewn terrain and because darkness was setting in.

By 7:38 p.m., the blaze had grown to about 100 acres but was still "advancing slowly."

On Sunday at about 8 a.m., the 20-member Granite Mountain Hotshots team arrived and headed in to fight the fire, as small aircraft and helicopters worked the blaze from above. Heavy air tankers were ordered just after noon, but only one was able to respond, making multiple retardant drops on the fire.

According to the report, the fire had now increased in size to about 1,000 acres and was burning swiftly through an area that hadn't experienced a significant wildfire in nearly 50 years.

Two large air tankers were sent back to the Yarnell Hill Fire to try to stall its advance.

A few hours later, at 3:26 p.m., officials received word of heavy winds from a thunderstorm moving into the area as the fire grew.

Soon thereafter, the blaze was so out of control that officials asked for half of the available western U.S. heavy air tanker fleet ? six planes. It was about 4 p.m.

Five of the planes weren't deployed because of the limited number of tankers in the nation's aerial firefighting fleet and the dangerous weather conditions at the time. Jim Paxon, a spokesman for the Arizona Division of Forestry, which was managing the fire, said one plane had been headed to the fire from California, but engine problems forced it to turn back.

Paxon noted that even if the planes had been available, winds were so strong they couldn't have been used to save the firefighters' lives.

"We could have had air tankers stacked up from here to the stratosphere and it wouldn't have made a difference," he said Monday. "The fire went through retardant lines like they were non-existent."

Within 45 minutes, at 4:47 p.m., the Hotshot crew radioed that they were trapped and deploying their emergency shelters. Less than two hours later, 19 of them were found dead. Only one crew member who was assigned as the lookout survived.

A national team of investigators is working to understand more about the firefighters' deaths and is expected to finish an initial report in about two months.

Paxon said the behavior of the fire and the enormous "blowup" when the winds shifted was highly unusual.

"It was just an extreme situation," he said.

The fire destroyed more than 100 homes before it was fully contained July 10.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-arizona-wildfire-grew-quickly-erratic-020055060.html

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Rallies, marches follow Zimmerman verdict

NEW YORK (AP) ? Thousands of demonstrators from across the country ? chanting, praying and even fighting tears ? protested a jury's decision to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager while the Justice Department considered whether to file criminal civil rights charges.

Rallies on Sunday were largely peaceful as demonstrators voiced their support for 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's family ? and decried Zimmerman's not guilty verdict as a miscarriage of justice. A march in Los Angeles had minor unrest when a group threw rocks and batteries at police.

The NAACP and protesters called for federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted Saturday in Martin's February 2012 shooting death.

The Justice Department said it is looking into the case to determine whether federal prosecutors should file criminal civil rights charges now that Zimmerman has been acquitted in the state case. The department opened an investigation into Martin's death last year but stepped aside to allow the state prosecution to proceed.

The evidence generated during the federal probe is still being evaluated by the criminal section of the Justice Department's civil rights division, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office for the Middle District of Florida, along with evidence and testimony from the state trial, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and religious and civil rights leaders urged calm in hopes of ensuring peaceful demonstrations following a case that became an emotional flash point.

Sunday's demonstrations, held in cities from Florida to Wisconsin, attracted anywhere from a few dozen people to a more than a thousand.

At a march and rally in downtown Chicago attended by about 200 people, some said the verdict was symbolic of lingering racism in the United States. Seventy-three-year-old Maya Miller said the case reminded her of the 1955 slaying of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was murdered by a group of white men while visiting Mississippi. Till's killing galvanized the civil rights movement.

"Fifty-eight years and nothing's changed," Miller said, pausing to join a chant for "Justice for Trayvon, not one more."

In New York City, hundreds of protesters marched into Times Square Sunday night, zigzagging through Manhattan's streets to avoid police lines. Sign-carrying marchers thronged the busy intersection, chanting "Justice for! Trayvon Martin!" as they made their way from Union Square, blocking traffic for more than an hour before moving on.

In San Francisco and Los Angeles ? where an earlier protest was dispersed with beanbag rounds ? police closed streets as protesters marched Sunday to condemn Zimmerman's acquittal.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urged protesters to "practice peace" after the rock- and bottle-throwing incident. Police arrested one man.

Rand Powdrill, 41, of San Leandro, said he came to the San Francisco march with about 400 others to "protest the execution of an innocent black teenager."

"If our voices can't be heard, then this is just going to keep going on," he said.

Earlier, at Manhattan's Middle Collegiate Church, many congregants wore hooded sweatshirts ? the same thing Martin was wearing the night he was shot ? in a show of solidarity. Hoodie-clad Jessica Nacinovich said she could only feel disappointment and sadness over the verdict.

"I'm sure jurors did what they felt was right in accordance with the law but maybe the law is wrong, maybe society is wrong; there's a lot that needs fixing," she said.

At a youth service in Sanford, Fla., where the trial was held, teens wearing shirts displaying Martin's picture wiped away tears during a sermon at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church.

Protesters also gathered in Atlanta, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., along with a host of other cities.

In Miami, more than 200 people gathered for a vigil. "You can't justify murder," read one poster. Another read "Don't worry about more riots. Worry about more Zimmermans."

Carol Reitner, 76, of Miami, said she heard about the vigil through an announcement at her church Sunday morning. "I was really devastated. It's really hard to believe that someone can take the life of someone else and walk out of court free," she said.

In Philadelphia, about 700 protesters marched from LOVE Park to the Liberty Bell, alternating between chanting Trayvon Martin's name and "No justice, no peace!"

"We hope this will begin a movement to end discrimination against young black men," said Johnathan Cooper, one of the protest's organizers. "And also to empower black people and get them involved in the system."

In Atlanta, a crowd of about 75 protesters chanted and carried signs near Centennial Olympic Park.

"I came out today because a great deal of injustice has been done and I'm very disappointed at our justice system; I'm just disappointed in America," Tabatha Holley, 19, of Atlanta said.

Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, urged peace in the wake of the verdict. Jackson said the legal system "failed justice," but violence isn't the answer.

But not all the protesters heeded those calls immediately after the verdict.

In Oakland, Calif., during protests that began late Saturday night some angry demonstrators broke windows, burned U.S. flags and started street fires. Some marchers also vandalized a police squad car and used spray paint to scrawl anti-police graffiti on roads and Alameda County's Davidson courthouse.

In Los Angeles, police said a crowd of about 100 protesters surrounded an officer and eventually had to be dispersed by officers firing beanbag rounds.

___

Associated Press reporters Suzette Laboy in Miami, Terence Chea in San Francisco, Keith Collins in Philadelphia, Pete Yost and Eric Tucker in Washington and Luisa Leme contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rallies-marches-zimmerman-verdict-064105495.html

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KU researchers hope to draw attention to financial-aid ideas in Washington next week

There's a chance you could see some KU researchers in the news on Monday, when a group of KU social welfare researchers is going to present a report about financial aid in Washington, D.C., with the help of the policy group the New America Foundation.

More details will be in their report, but I wrote about the group, the Assets and Education Initiative, earlier this year. The idea these KU researchers advocate, and what I imagine they'll be pitching in their first biannual report next week, is that America would be better off if it focused financial aid for college students less on loans and more on government-funded savings accounts that would be created at birth.

When I talked with the initative's director, William Elliott, about what to expect, he noted that this will be happening while financial aid is a frequent subject in the news, thanks to the recent doubling of subsidized federal student loan rates. For him and his colleagues, he said the aim would be to shift that conversation to the bigger picture, asking if student loans are really the best way to make higher education more accessible in the first place.

"There are different ways of thinking about the college debt situation, and how we can potentially maximize the dollars that we're already spending," Elliott said.

He says people should think not just about providing aid so students can attend college ??they should think about providing aid that will help students be more successful in college and in their lives afterward. And his research has suggested that college savings accounts for children, even ones smaller than $500, would do just that.

Elliott says a contingent of four people from KU will spend Monday in Washington rolling out their report and hoping to draw some media coverage, and on Tuesday they'll meet with some U.S. senators and their staffs.

Your KU news tips are like a college savings account for me: They correlate strongly with my future success. So send 'em to merickson@ljworld.com.

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Source: http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/heard_hill/2013/jul/12/ku-researchers-hope-to-draw-attention-to/

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Salvage crews rush for 1 chance to move Concordia

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) ? Salvage crews are working against time to remove the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship, which is slowly being crushed under its own weight on its perch of granite seabed off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Officials said Monday that if this attempt fails, there won't be a second chance.

Nick Sloane, the leader of the salvage operation, said the Concordia has compressed some 3 meters (10 feet) since it came to rest on its side on the rocky perch Jan. 13, 2012, after ramming a jagged reef when it skirted too close to the island during a publicity stunt allegedly ordered by the captain; 32 people were killed.

Sloane, an engineer for U.S.-owned company Titan Salvage, said experts would have one chance to pull the ship upright and float it away to the mainland for demolition. The attempt will probably take place in mid-September. "We cannot put it back" down and start over, said Sloane.

Sloane spoke aboard a work boat as he accompanied journalists for a close-hand look of the wreckage on the eve of the trial of Capt. Francesco Schettino, who is charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all passengers had been evacuated.

The trial, which was supposed to get under way July 9, was postponed until Wednesday due to a lawyers' strike. The Italian captain denies wrongdoing, and claims his skillful guiding of the ship after the collision helped save countless lives.

The timetable to remove the Concordia has also been back. The original plan envisioned removal before start of this summer, but bad weather undermined those plans.

"We lost two months to weather," said salvage master Sloane, explaining that the season's harsh sea conditions made it risky for diving teams to work, including installing bags that are filled with cement to provide a more stable base when the flat-keeled ship is pulled upright.

Sloane said the granite seabed also proved more resistant to drilling than imagined. It was "like trying to drill through glass at a 45-degree angle."

Pressure to make the unprecedented operation succeed is mounting as experts worry that a small window of opportunity to pull off the ambitious feat could shut in a few months.

"Another winter and we might not be able to parbuckle," Sloane said, using the nautical term for righting a ship. He expressed concern that the ship might compress even further, making it impossible to pull it up upright and into a position so it can be floated away.

The project calls for dozens of crane-like pulleys flanking the ship to slowly start tilting the vessel upright at a rate of 3 meters (yards) per hour. In all, the parbuckling should take about 12 hours.

On Monday several welders moved like Spiderman on the now horizontal hull, securing steel pieces which will function like hooks. Steel chains weighing 17,000 tons are being looped under the wreck to help pull it upright. So far 18 chains have been laid, with the remaining four to be put in place over the next few days.

To work on the tilted wreck, the welders were given five days of climbing training on nearly sheer granite rocks on the island by instructors from Italy's Dolomite mountains.

Crews are also attaching caissons, or tanks, to the exposed flank of the Concordia. The caissons will be filled with water to add weight and help pull the ship upright. Identical caissons will be attached to the submerged side of the ship once it's righted. The caissons on both sides will then be filled with air to float the ship up off the rocks so it can be towed away.

The 70-meter-long gash on the Concordia's hull has been largely covered with metal plates, though an exposed 3-meter (10 foot) wide hole remains, resembling a truck garage entrance. Crews said there was no need to cover that remaining hole. The gash itself wasn't repaired, since engineers said it wasn't necessary. The salvage operation extracted 96 tons of granite reef from the hole, Sloane said.

Just inside the gashed area were four compartments designed to be water-tight, including engine rooms, Sloane noted.

At the very top level of the luxury liner, just over the area where the reef speared the ship like a jagged knife, was the passenger dining room. Its big picture windows gave diners a view of the lights of Giglio as the Concordia tried to glide close to the coast, the inky blackness of a winter's night view broken only by the lights in islanders' houses.

Survivors have recounted how, many of them dressed in cocktail dresses and suits, were just sitting down for a gala first-night meal when the collision occurred, setting off panic and confusion with no quick word from the crew about what exactly had happened.

After slamming into the reef off Giglio, the ship drifted toward port, where, badly listing as it rapidly took on seawater, it capsized. Passengers described a frantic and delayed evacuation, with the bridge initially insisting to inquiring coast guardsmen that the ship had merely suffered a blackout.

Bodies of two of the victims ? an Italian passenger and of a Filipino waiter ? were never found.

Every day, divers "see mattresses and towels hanging from balconies. Every time they see it, they are very aware ... there are still bodies" possibly under the wreck, Sloane said. The removal projects' divers haven't gone into the wreckage; the futile search for the last two victims' bodies was conducted earlier by fire department and coast guard divers.

Franco Porcellacchia, coordinator of removal plans for Costa, which is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., estimated that the removal would cost about 500 million euros, paid for by insurers.

Where the wreck will be towed for demolition ? assuming it can be floated away ? has yet to be decided, although Italian media have mentioned the Tuscan port of Piombino as a possibility. Porcellacchia said one difficulty is finding a port that can handle the cruise ship's dimensions, which will be made even wider by the caissons that will be attached to each side.

While Giglio has fretted about losing tourists because of the wreck, the island's port bustled with vacationers Monday. And the removal has brought new business: Two hotels overlooking the wreck are booked year-round by crews.

At cafes near the port on Monday, welders in work jumpsuits and rubber boots rubbed elbows with sunbathers in shorts and flip-flops.

A bronze plaque along a harbor wall lists the name of the 32 people who perished on what was supposed to be a pleasure cruise.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/salvage-crews-rush-1-chance-move-concordia-131325849.html

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