• Your one stop for college news and resources!

Danielle Adams

Keith Olbermann admits he screwed up

Compares himself to $10 million chandelier

Keith Olbermann appeared on CBS’s Late Show With David Letterman Tuesday night in his first public appearance since being fired from Current TV.

“I screwed up really big on this,” Keith Olbermann told Letterman, “It’s my fault in the sense that I didn’t think the whole thing through.”

Current TV fired Keith Olbermann last week, citing a lack of “respect” and “collegiality” in its relationship with him, following months of publicized conflict between Olbermann and Current executives in the press.

Olbermann was hired by Current just over a year ago as part of its plans to build its new identity as a more progressive alternative to MSNBC around him.

In an open memo to viewers regarding Olbermann’s termination, Current founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt wrote, “Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”

Olbermann told Letterman that he had gotten a sinking feeling shortly after signing the deal with Current. “I was thinking about that as early as like last July,” he said. “We’d been on the air about 10 days and they fired the guy who knew what he was doing who I worked for and I went, ‘Uh-oh.’”

Olbermann also compared himself to an expensive chandelier. “Just walking around with a $10 million chandelier isn’t going to do anybody a lot of good, and it’s not going to do any good to the chandelier,” he said. “And then it turned out we didn’t have a lot to put the house on, to put the chandelier in, or a building permit, and I should have known that.”

He will be replaced by Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor who had been a frequent guest on Olbermann’s Countdown since its earliest days on Current. Spitzer’s show, Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, launches Friday at 9 p.m.

“Where will you go now?” Letterman asked him at the end of the conversation.

“I think I’ll just go home,” said Keith Olbermann.

Texas tornado wreaks havoc

Estimated 650 homes destroyed, no reported fatalities

Texas tornado warnings were in full effect Tuesday as twisters touched down in the Dallas area.

The Texas tornado kicked off twister season. The season stretches from March to June, and April is typically the worst month, said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop. He added that Tuesday’s outbreak suggests that “we’re on pace to be above normal.” Meteorologists said the storms were the result of a slow-moving storm system centered over northern New Mexico.

The National Weather Service says possibly as many as a dozen twisters moved across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Southern Dallas suburb of Lancaster seems to have gotten the worst of the damage from the Texas tornado. Footage from helicopters showed homes without roofs and flattened buildings.

Ten people in Lancaster were injured, two of them severely, said Lancaster police officer Paul Beck. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two Green Oaks residents taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said.

The Red Cross put a preliminary estimate of damaged homes at 650. In Lancaster, around 150 people remained in a shelter Tuesday night. About 14,000 homes and businesses, mostly in the Arlington area, remained without power.

Despite the devastating effects the Texas tornado has inflicted, no fatalities have been reported as of yet.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field canceled hundreds of flights and diverted others heading its way.

There are a few ways that you can help the people in Northern Texas who were affected by these tornados. The simplest way is to give money to the Red Cross of North Texas. You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief or visit www.redcross.org to donate more money online. The money helps pay for rent or hotel rooms, new clothes, food and more for the families affected by the Texas tornado.

If you have the time and means to volunteer personally, the Volunteer Center of North Texas is organizing groups to help in areas with the most need.

Pink slime forces company into bankruptcy

Meat processing company hurt by negative media coverage

Ground-beef processor AFA Foods has filed for bankruptcy protection citing the impact of media coverage of one of its products dubbed “pink slime” by critics.

AFA Foods said it was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection “given recent changes in the market for its ground beef products and the impact of media coverage related to Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (BLBT).”

BLBT (pink slime) is made from beef trimmings otherwise used in pet food and cooking oil that is treated with ammonia to deter e. coli bacteria. The lean, finely textured beef is typically added to ground meat, like hamburger, as a low-cost filler.

Following recent negative media reports on pink slime, several fast-food and grocery chains have stopped purchasing beef that contains the filler.

Based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, AFA also has plants in California, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. The company claims to be the nation’s largest ground beef processor, producing more than 700 million pounds (317 million kilograms) annually, mostly for food service companies. AFA Foods has seven production facilities and a workforce of more than 1,000 employees.

Burger King introduces new menu

Company gives itself makeover

Burger King’s new menu is strikingly similar to McDonald’s, but the company is confident that their new items stack up to their competitors’.

Some of the similarities between Burger King’s new menu and their rival include specialty salads, snack wraps, premium coffee drinks and fruit smoothies. The fast food company has been struggling for a while now, and after Wendy’s bumped BK out of the nation’s No. 2 burger chain, it finally decided to vamp its menu. “Consumers wanted more choices,” said Steve Wiborg, president of Burger King’s North America operations. “Not just healthy choices, but choices they could get at the competition.”

Burger King has been subtly altering its food over the past year by making small changes, such as making the French fries thicker so they’ll stay hot longer. Burgers now come with one slice of cheese instead of two, to promote even melting, and naturally-smoked bacon is now cooked at each restaurant, whereas Burger King had previously used a pre-cooked variety with a smoked flavor sprayed on.

In addition to Burger King’s new menu, the company has decided to revamp the look of the restaurants as well. The company is updating the restaurants with a more modern look- a makeover that costs an average of more than $275,000 per restaurant. So far, more than 1,000 franchise locations are slated to be updated in the next year with 2,500 locations to be updated over the next three years.

The Burger King uniforms, wrappers, cups and bags have all also been updated. The company is advertising its new changes with its biggest marketing campaign ever with TV ads featuring celebrities such as soccer player David Beckham, comedian Jay Leno, actress Salma Hayek and singer Mary J. Blige.

The new look and menu are a late attempt to rescue Burger King, will it be enough?

Global Payments says breach has been contained

Visa drops card processor after security breach

Global Payments announced Friday that they detected “unauthorized access” into its processing system, and 1.5 million credit card numbers may have been exposed.

Global Payments is a third-party processing company that has clients such as financial institutions, government agencies and large corporations, including Visa and MasterCard.

According to the company, although credit card numbers may have been exposed, personal information such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not obtained by criminals. This security breach was detected in early March, but Global Payments has not specified exactly when or how it happened.

Global Payments claims the breach has been contained and said in a statement that it is working with “industry third parties, regulators and law enforcement to assist in the efforts to minimize potential cardholder impact.”

Visa Inc. has dropped payment processor Global Payments Inc. from its list of approved service providers due to “unauthorized access into a portion of (Global Payments’) processing system.”

Global Payments spokeswoman Amy Corn said although the company had been taken off Visa’s list of compliant service providers, “We expect to be reinstated once we have been issued a new report of compliance,” she said.

If you think your account has been compromised, contact your credit card company immediately and put a fraud alert on your credit report.

Andrew Bailey, Josh Beckett both suffering thumb situations

Red Sox pitchers having thumb issues

Andrew Bailey, new closer for the Boston Red Sox, has a “thumb situation,” according to manager Bobby Valentine. He is flying to Boston today to get the thumb examined.

Not only does Andrew Bailey have a thumb situation, but it was revealed on Monday that Josh Beckett also has a thumb problem and is going to be examined in San Antonio, Texas, on his way to Detroit “just for peace of mind,” said manager Bobby Valentine.

“[It’s] just been a little situation,” Valentine said, in a vague description of Beckett’s injury. “I think I might’ve mentioned it 10 days ago that ‘There’s a situation that we’ve been dealing with.’ As in all cases, you have to be prepared, and I think we are. I think we’re covered with whatever happens. The good news is, in his 100 pitches yesterday, he felt terrific.”

Valentine has not confirmed who will replace Andrew Bailey as closer if Bailey landed on the disabled list, but Alfredo Aceves, Mark Melancon or Vicente Padilla are all viable options.

He said he will not finalize the lineup until after Tuesday’s game against Washington at Nationals Park.

Andrew Bailey’s debut with the Red Sox has been less than impressive. The player arrived from Oakland with an injury-plagued reputation, hurt himself doing a vertical leap early in camp, eventually caught up, and is now suffering this situation with his thumb.

Reba McEntire outraged at celebrity death hoax pranks

Country star says pranks are cruel

Reba McEntire has spoken out about the death hoax pranks on Twitter, saying that they are “cruel” and “not funny.”

Earlier this year Reba McEntire was one of the first to fall victim to a death hoax on Twitter. A rumor began that the singer had fallen off a mountain and died somewhere near Austria. A number of other websites then reported her death.

Reba McEntire spoke about the prank while appearing on The Talk Friday.

“First time I heard of it my sister called me, my older sister Alice, and she said her son, Trevor, called her, just crying. And he said, ‘Ma is Ba OK?’ Because they call me Ba. And Alice said, ‘Well I guess, why?’ And he said, ‘Well I just walked into a Get-n-Go (a convenience store) and these people were going, ‘Oh my god she died, she fell off a mountain.’

“And he was paying for his gas and then they said, ‘Oh man I just saw her in concert not too long ago.’ And he went, ‘Who you talking about?’ And they said, ‘Reba McEntire just got killed.’ He was devastated. He calls Alice just balling. And she said, ‘I’ll find out immediately.’ She called me and I said, ‘No I’m fine.’ And I had to walk him off the ledge.”

A number of other celebrities, including actor Patrick Dempsey and singer Chris Brown, have fallen victim to these death hoaxes. Reba McEntire is insisting that people stop playing these pranks. “There are so many of those hoaxes that are just going around and I think it’s cruel. That’s not funny.”

Autism Awareness is not enough

April 2 should be used to promote acceptance and understanding

Autism Awareness Day is April 2, and the entire month of April has come to be known as Autism Awareness month.

In 2007 the United Nations passed a resolution declaring April 2 World Autism Awareness Day. This condition, which was considered rare just a decade ago, is in fact, fairly common. A report based on 2008 data estimates the prevalence of autism among children to be 1 in 88.

Autism is a complex, bioneurological disorder that generally appears before the age of three. It impacts communication, cognitive function, behavior and social interaction. It is referred to as a “spectrum” disorder because symptoms and behaviors can present themselves in a variety of combinations and can range from mild to severe. Autism is a highly misconstrued condition that definitely needs to be better understood.

Simply being “aware” of autism, however, is just not enough. Paula C. Durbin-Westby, an autism activist in Virginia, suggested that autistic people and their friends and families use April 2 as an occasion for promoting acceptance and understanding rather than for awareness.

One important aspect of autism awareness is early intervention. Early intervention is important because it can allow children to attend mainstream kindergarten and reduces the cost of care later in life. Progress has been made to increase autism awareness and develop screening and diagnostic tools, but the average age of diagnosis remains close to five years, and is higher among some minorities and low-income families.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a developmental milestone checklist for children ages zero – five years that can be found here.

 

The 1940 census goes online

72-year-old secrets revealed

The 1940 census became public on Monday, releasing a stockpile of information for all those interested in learning about U.S. history in the era following the Great Depression.

Every 10 years, a decennial census is unlocked, this marks the release of the 1940 census. This is the first year that the records have been made available online.

There’s a little more excitement this time because it is being released online, and it’s immediately available to people,” said Rebecca Warlow, 1940 census project manager at the National Archives and Records Administration. “Anybody with Internet access can sit with their PC or desktop and search to their heart’s content.”

Researchers, genealogists and anyone with an interest now has free online access to detailed information from the 1940 census. This census is particularly interesting because it marks a shift between the Depression and the prosperous wartime that followed.

Privacy was guaranteed at the time of the census, allowing people to open up about everything – from their living arrangements and jobs to their faith and families. “In 1952, the director of the Census Bureau and the National Archivist agreed that keeping census records private for 72 years balanced public release of federal records with the tradition of confidentiality,” explains the Census Bureau’s Glasier. At that time 72 years was considered to be longer than the average lifespan.

Census officials say about 21 million Americans of the 132.2 million counted in the 1940 census are still alive.

The information being released includes people’s names, ages, addresses, marital status, number of children and occupations. According to training films made for the occasion, the Census Bureau sent out more than 120,000 fact-gatherers, known as “enumerators,” in the spring of 1940 to survey the nation’s 33 million homes and 7 million farms. Participation was mandatory.

The website is www.1940census.archives.gov.

Ubaldo Jimenez says pitch got away from him

Pitcher pelts former teammate in elbow

Ubaldo Jimenez hit former Colorado teammate Troy Tulowitzki with the first pitch Sunday at the Cleveland Indians and Rockies game.

Troy Tulowitzki and Ubaldo Jimenez immediately confronted each other on the diamond; the plate umpire and players from both teams held the players apart as they tried to get at each other.

“From my take, as soon as he hit me it just seemed like he wanted a little more. That’s when the confrontation started,” said Tulowitzki, reported the Chicago Sun Times. “I definitely wasn’t happy about being hit. I don’t think you ever are … so it was back and forth. Not saying it was just him or me.”

Ubaldo Jimenez is claiming it was an accident. “I don’t want to hurt him at all. Just one pitch that got away that could happen to anybody […]It was the first inning and I didn’t have good control of my fastball. As you guys can see I walked the first guy on four pitches,” he said.

Rockies manager Jim Tracy, however, called it “the most gutless act I’ve seen in 35 years in the game, that’s what I saw.”

“That’s exactly what I witnessed,” Tracy said. “He intentionally threw at him, he should be suspended. I’ll be very disappointed if he doesn’t get suspended because he deserves to be suspended.”

Trowy Tulowitzki was taken to a hospital for precautionary X-rays on his elbow, which were negative.

Ubaldo Jimenez was traded to the Indians last summer after he did not receive a contract extension from Colorado. He recently told Foxsports.com that he was upset that Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez got new deals.