March 25, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 25 is … Pecan Day and Waffle Day
The Turf Room in North Aurora, a restaurant, bar and off-track betting parlor deliciously prepares a bountiful and pleasingly presented Sunday brunch beginning at 10:00 a. m. They have an excellent waffle station I and my two boys enjoy. Give it a try for a leisurely Sunday meal with a few racing bets thrown in.
Slaughter in America, New York style; While family and friends wiped away tears and mourned the loss of Tina Adovasio at her funeral, her estranged husband was not at her final services. Adovasio's husband Edwin Coello, a former NYPD cop, was arrested and charged with her murder, a police spokesperson said Tuesday.
Coello's attorney Renee Hill did not immediately return phone calls for comment. Tina Adovasio went missing on March 11 and was found dead five days later. Her husband, a former New York City policeman, has been arrested and charged with her murder. Adovasio, 40, was found dead in a heavily wooded area off the Taconic State Parkway on March 16, five days after she went missing. Her husband reported her missing after an argument, police said. Although he was cooperating with authorities initially, Coello hired two lawyers, refused to have his car searched and declined to provide a DNA sample after his wife's body was found. Last week, he was named a "person of interest." Coello has a history of domestic violence and, according to the Bronx District Attorney's Office; he was arrested in February 2006 and charged with second-degree harassment against his wife. Authorities said he had reportedly been seen carrying a large duffle bag the day after Adovasio's disappearance. A family member, who did not wish to be identified, said Coello was not allowed to attend Adovasio's wake, funeral or burial. Adovasio, a mother of four, lived in the Bronx and worked as a nurse. She leaves behind four children, her parents, two brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles who all attended her funeral.
Howard Cosell (Cohn) was born on this day in 1918. Cosell came to be the most liked -- and the most disliked -- sports journalist across America. Cosell agreed when others described him as arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a show-off. And still others said he forgot to include “irritating, generous, funny, paranoid, charming, egomaniacal and insecure.” A New York attorney, Cosell ventured into the world of network sports journalism through his association with WABC radio and TV in New York in the 1950’s and early 1960s. He was featured as the boxing announcer for ABC Sports and, under Roone Arledge, filled various sports positions on Wide World of Sports from horse racing to Olympic competition. Cosell would, in a stentorian and often difficult to understand syntax, make use of his abundant vocabulary that contained big, big words that sent sports fans scurrying for their dictionaries. Always outspoken and frequently controversial, Cosell would Tell It like It Is, the title of one of his bestselling books on the subject of sports and broadcasting. It was Cosell who would be the first to claim that Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali), would be a media star; and he championed Ali’s fight against the draft. His association with the boxer put him in front of Congressional committees and made him a regular guest lecturer in college classrooms. Cosell later quit broadcasting boxing matches and openly expressed a loathing for that sport, and for football, as well. Humble Howard was also host of a weekly program (not a sports program) for ABC Contemporary Radio -- interviews and commentary titled, Speaking of Everything. Cosell was a major figure, with colleague Jim McKay, in bringing the hard news story to the minds and souls of a nation in 1972 when several Olympians were tragically slain during the Winter Olympics in Germany. He later became more outspoken, even against his own colleagues who he had worked with for so many years. Many people felt that Cosell became a bitter, broken man in his later years following the death of his wife, Emmy. She was the only one who could tell him to “...shut up, Howard. Nobody cares.” The once-powerful ‘voice that roared’ left Monday Night Football after fourteen years.
Howard Cosell died in 1995. Roone Arledge said, “Howard Cosell was one of the most original people ever to appear on American TV. He became a giant by telling the truth in an industry that was not used to hearing it and considered it revolutionary.”
The University of Illinois is raising tuition, fees and room and board by about 7% for incoming freshman. Last year they raised it nearly 11 %. The raise in costs do not affect students currently enrolled at U of I. Tuition cannot be raised from what it was when you entered. Fees, room and board can go up but not tuition. Tuition is just under 50% of the cost for a student living on campus. It will now cost incoming freshman $93,600.00 for a four year education. How many make it through and graduate in four years?
Exactly what is causing the price increase? The University is not giving teachers raises, the buildings are paid for or at least the payment is not increasing, the land is paid for, the support staff is being reduced in size, they claim. Where are the increased costs?
From the Huffington Post; The Pentagon discharged some 250 service members under the soon-to-be-defunct “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in fiscal year 2010, according to numbers released Thursday by a group of gay troops and veterans, even though top brass ordered commanders to effectively stop enforcing the ban on openly gay troops during that time. A total of 261 service members, including 11 in the Coast Guard which falls under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security were tossed out in fiscal 2010, a tally by Servicemembers United found. The group said it based its numbers on internal Defense Department statistics that are not routinely released publicly. The discharges last year represented an all-time annual low since the policy began in 1994. More than 14,000 troops or 14,316 including National Guard, according to the group’s unofficial count have been discharged under the policy. President Barack Obama signed DADT’s repeal into law in December, but the policy remains in effect until he, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, certify that that the Defense Department is ready to implement the change without hurting military readiness or effectiveness. That won’t happen until all the troops have undergone training that is already underway. But halfway through the fiscal year, long before DADT got the official thumbs-down from Congress, Gates changed the way the policy was implemented. The idea was to make it harder to toss out gay service members who were otherwise doing their job, in part by leaving decisions about discharges to generals or admirals high up in the chain of command. Yet despite the loosening of restrictions, the equivalent of two Army companies were given their walking papers. "While this latest official discharge number represents an all-time annual low, it is still unusually high,” Servicemembers United's executive director, Alexander Nicholson, said. "Despite this law clearly being on its death bed at the time, 261 more careers were terminated and 261 more lives were abruptly turned upside down because of this policy." I do not think the lives were turned upside down. The people discharged went in knowing the rules and took a chance. They were not team players from the beginning.
This is a slippery slope we should not be climbing. Who is going to want to work in this field if they can be charged with murder for the acts of an unrelated third party? The government will have to provide them with nearly unlimited finances and police powers to fully investigate any hint of child abuse. Two former New York City child welfare workers have been charged in the death of a 4-year-old girl who was beaten, drugged and starved in her own home. Prosecutors said that Marchella Brett-Pierce was bound to her mother's bed for months and repeatedly beaten and denied food and water. At her death Sept. 2, she weighed just 18 pounds.
In an extraordinary move Wednesday, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes charged the girl's caseworker, Damon Adams, and his supervisor, Chereece Bell, with criminally negligent homicide in her death. Both have pleaded not guilty. Hynes said it is thought to be the first time New York City caseworkers have been criminally charged in the death of a child. The girl's grandmother, 56-year-old Loretta Brett, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and other charges Wednesday. She has pleaded not guilty. Her attorney, Julie Clark, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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There never was a good war, or a bad peace." - Benjamin Franklin
