• Your one stop for college news and resources!

Kara Menini

Deion Sanders defends himself against frivolous suit

Wife is suing Sanders and his daughter for $200 million

Deion Sanders had previously put a gag order on his divorce case, but has recently been dealing with a civil suit, filed last week by his soon-to-be-ex-wife, that has become public.  The suit is not part of the gag order and now Deion Sanders must defend himself as well as his daughter, Deiondra Sanders, against his wife’s ridiculous $200 million suit. 

The wife of Deion Sanders, Pilar Sanders, is seeking $200 million in compensation for “severe amounts of emotional and physical abuse … [that] led to mental suffering and public humiliation,” according to IBTimes.com.  According to the suit, Deiondra posted comments about Pilar on her Twitter about her being “the number one gold digger of the year” alongside other undesirable comments.  Pilar states that Deion Sanders also Tweeted that he was “tired of all [Pilar’s] lies and foolishness,” thus endorsing his daughter’s comments.  Pilar also filed a separate suit in response to “an alleged assault at the couple’s home last month by the athlete’s aunt, Laura Jones.  Jones is named in the suit along with Deion Sanders, who, according to the suit, encouraged the assault,” said the Dallas News.

According to reports, Deion Sanders appeared on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM to discuss the issues.  “There’s a way to do things and a way not to do things,” Deion Sanders said, “I don’t use the media as a platform to fight my battles.  You know, I speak up for myself.  But God fights my battles, and I’m fine.”  When hosts from The Ben and Skin show asked how his wife and her attorney came up with the figure, Deion Sanders said, “You wouldn’t be talking about it if it wasn’t such an absurd number.” 

Although his wife’s newest suits are taken up a bit of Deion Sanders’ time, he hasn’t lost focus from his work.  He is a co-founder of charter schools in Dallas and Forth Worth, Prime Prep Academy, and it is reported that open enrollment began this week.  Deion Sanders was recorded as saying, “I’m so happy, man.  I cannot wait to walk the halls of these schools.”  He is also hoping to feed 100,000 kids this summer through a program he founded, Feed me Prime.

Bowling Green sorority sisters killed in wrong-way car crash

3 are dead, 2 are in critical condition after early morning crash

Bowling Green, Ohio lost three students early Friday morning due to a car crash.  A 69-year-old woman named Winifred Lein was driving the wrong way on the highway when she struck a car, carrying five sorority sisters from Bowling Green State University, killing herself and three of the college students. 

Bowling Green State University’s Alpha Xi Delta five sorority sisters were heading out of town for spring break.  It appears that the girl who was driving was likely given no warning of the accident, “I don’t think the college girls ever saw it coming. Nothing they could have done to avoid the crash,” said Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn. 

“‘It happened so fast. Going up the interstate as 65 miles an hour, you don’t expect to see another car coming at you head-on,’ said Lt. Dean Laubacher with the Ohio Highway Patrol,” CBS Detroit reported.

The university has identified the deceased as, “The University identified those killed as Rebekkah Blakkolb, 20, a junior from Aurora, Ohio; Christina Goyett, 19, a sophomore from Bay City, and Sarah Hammond, 21, a junior from Yellow Springs, Ohio,” reported the Detroit Free Press.  The two sorority sisters who survived the crash, Angelica Mormile, 19 and Kayla Somoles, 19, are currently in a hospital and have sustained serious injuries, reports the Bowling Green State University’s president Mary Ellen Mazey in a Facebook posting. 

Bowling Green isn’t the only town in Ohio that has seen a school tragedy this week; a 17-year-old Chardon High School student fatally shot three students and wounded two others on Monday.

Franchise Tags go to free agents

NFL teams starting to place tags on elite players

Franchise tags are being pinned all over the place this week.  Many players, who have recently become unrestricted free agents, are starting to be picked up all over the league.  Some franchise tags are being placed on cornerback Brent Grimes, running back Ray Rice, safety Dashon Goldson and wide receiver DeSean Jackson.

Franchise tags this year will be placed on “an unusually large class of 17 unrestricted free agents,” said the Associated Press.

Brent Grimes, who is viewed as one of the elite cornerbacks in the league, was tagged by the Atlanta Falcons with a $10 million contract.  Ray Rice was designated franchise player for the Baltimore Ravens with a $7.7 million contract.  Dashon Goldson, who had been set to become a free agent on March 13, had a franchise tag placed on him by the San Francisco 49ers for around $6.2 million.  DeSean Jackson was tagged by the Philadelphia Eagles for at least $9.4 million.      

Franchise tags, for those who don’t have NFL lingo in their vocabulary, are used on players of high importance to the team or who posses a great skill.  A franchise tag can be put on a free agent player or a player with two or more years left on their contract.  The franchised player will have one year salary guaranteed as long as he follows certain conditions.  Each team is able to use one franchise tag a year, so only one player a year is designated as the team’s franchise player. The system was designed to reduce the level of player movement.

CIAA basketball tournament

100th anniversary promises huge parties in Charlotte, North Carolina this year

The CIAA, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, tournament will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend.  Celebrities like Ray J, R. Kelly and Chris Brown are expected to attend the event, which has been described as “a full-on festival,” said the Charlotte Observer.  “Like NBA All-Star Weekend meets Mardi Gras; like a 24-hour party where a basketball game breaks out.”  This CIAA tournament marks the organization’s 100th anniversary, so this year’s event is going to be bigger than ever. 

The CIAA basketball tournament apparently boosts day and night parties, a massive number of events and anyone who plans to attend this weekend should expect to burn a hole in their wallet.  Although it’s free to get into the Convention Center CIAA Fan Experience, the event throughout the day can have up to $200 in cover charges.  A local news station in Charlotte interviewed an attendee, Calvin Johnson, who said, “I plan to spend about $5,000 this weekend.  I’ve already spent more than $1,000 and we’ve only been here a few hours.”  WCNC reported, “Last year organizers said more than 190,000 people attended CIAA events.  Bar and restaurant owners said Thursday night the crowds already seemed to be larger.” 

For those who aren’t sure what the CIAA even is, it has been around since 1912 and is oldest African-American athletic conference in the nation and consists of Historically Black Colleges and Universities on the east coast.  According to the CIAA website, “one of the nation’s premier sporting events is the annual CIAA Basketball Tournament.  Touted as the third most attended basketball tournament among all NCAA divisions, the first tournament was a 2,000 seat sellout in Washington, D.C.  Since the year 2000, the CIAA has generated over $226.06 million in economic impact for the state of North Carolina and over $16.5 million in overall scholarship dollars for CIAA member institutions.

Andrew Breitbart causing a stir from the grave

Conservative blogger is remembered by both condolences and insults

Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger who is most recently known for revealing U.S. Representative Anothoy Weiner’s Twitter picture that caused a scandal leading to his resignation, collapsed and died during a night walk near his home. 

Andrew Breitbart, according to the Associated Press (AP), had suffered heart problems last year but an autopsy is still scheduled to figure out exactly what happened.  Breitbart left behind a wife, four kids, and a company that was run out of his basement.  The AP reports it is not clear who will take over his company. 

The extreme conservative, who relentlessly used the internet to initiate scandals and expose biases in the media, was either loved or hated.  In a Tweet, Republican candidate for president Newt Gingrich said, “Andrew Breitbart was the most innovated pioneer in conservative activist social media in America.  He had great courage and creativity.”  On the other side, Matt Taibbi of the magazine Rolling Stone wrote, “Good…I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead,” in an article titled, Death of a Douche. 

Taibbi was met by the revenge of angered Andrew Breitbart fans because of his article, and he recently wrote, “Well done, Breitbart fans, well done! In less than 24 hours you’ve hacked into my Wiki page, published my telephone number on Twitter, called the Rolling Stone offices pretending to be outraged “advertisers” (anonymous ones, who hung up before we could figure out which “ads” to pull), and then spent all night calling and texting my phone with various threats and insults, many of them directed at my family. “Better grow eyes in the back of your head,” was one; “I’m going to take a shit on your mother’s grave,” was another; a third called my wife a “piece of shit like you,” and many others called me a “pile of human excrement.”

Andrew Breitbart has caused a good amount of controversy, even from the grave, and it has been reported that sales of his book, “Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!” was the no. 7 in sales on Amazone.com by late yesterday night.

The Blunt Amendment lets bosses decide employees health decisions

New amendment shot down in 48-51 vote

The Blunt Amendment, a proposal from Senator Roy Blunt, is a response to the mandate made by Obama that requires employers to cover contraceptives in their insurance plans. In cases of religious affiliations like Catholic hospitals, who don’t agree with the use of birth control, women employees would be able to obtain contraceptives directly from the insurance companies. The Blunt Amendment, in simple terms, would allow exemptions to the aforementioned mandate “for any employer that felt a moral or conscientious objection to it,” the Washington Post said. “As such, the measure could have opened the door for virtually all employers—faith-based or not – to avoid the requirement, which covers other preventative services besides birth control, such as colonoscopy screenings, mammograms, flu shots and regular pediatric visits.”

The Blunt Amendment is just another example of Republicans trying to rid the country of the separation of church and state. This same issue was shot down almost 50 years ago. The 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut, was about state laws prohibiting the use of contraceptives; the Supreme Court struck it down because they said it violated a right to marital privacy. Because a very similar issues was shot down half a decade ago, some are wondering why the issue is being challenged again.

Though there are those who say the Blunt Amendment isn’t about women’s health, one thing is clear: it doesn’t seem right that anyone’s boss should have a say over personal health care decisions. John Steward of “The Daily Show” said on his show on Thursday, “It’s called the Blunt Amendment – after how high you’d have to be to think you’re going to pass this f*cking thing!”

Even with the amount of media coverage the Blunt Amendment got, it was still defeated on a slim 48-to-51 vote.

Rush Limbaugh has a weird way of apologizing

Limbaugh takes comments about contraception debate a step further

Rush Limbaugh has received a whole load of backlash for his comments about Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, who was denied the right to speak as the Democratic female witness at the hearing on the congressional contraception rule.  He called Fluke a ‘slut’ and said that Fluke and her fellow female law students “are having so much sex, they are going broke buying birth control pills.”  Not only was Rush Limbaugh wrong in his statement (birth control pills are taken once a day no matter how much sex is being had); he has decided to not apologize and go, instead, a step further.

Rush Limbaugh, on his show on Thursday, expanded on Foster Friess’ controversial comment about girls in “his day” putting aspirin between their knees as a form of contraception, “‘A Georgetown coed told Nancy Pelosi’s hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex they’re going broke, so you and I should have to pay for their birth control. So what would you call that? I called it what it is,’” he said. ‘So, I’m offering a compromise today: I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want,’” said the Huffington Post.  This statement, however, isn’t even the worst part.

Rush Limbaugh continued his tirade with another compromise; if the taxpayers are made to pay for contraception then the women using said contraception have to put videos of themselves having sex up on the internet.  Rush Limbaugh said, “So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal; if we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it … we want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”  Because of the sexist and incredibly disgusting comments made by Rush Limbaugh, according to the Huffington Post, “the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which has raised a significant amount of money and gained support in the wake of the recent battles over birth control, circulated a petition on Thursday to ask Republican leaders to denounce [Rush] Limbaugh’s tirade.”  Jesse Ferguson who is a spokesman for the DCCC said, “The real question is whether Republicans are willing to stand up to him and his repulsive attacks on women.” 

The target who Rush Limbaugh has been attacking has finally spoken on the matter, said the Huffington Post.  Sandra Fluke responded to comments made by Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, “We are fortunate to live in a democracy where everyone is entitled to their own opinions regarding legitimate policy differences. Unfortunately, numerous commentators have gone far beyond the acceptable bounds of civil discourse. No woman deserves to be disrespected in this manner. This language is an attack on all women, and has been used throughout history to silence our voices. The millions of American women who have and will continue to speak out in support of women’s health care and access to contraception prove that we will not be silenced.”

Dr. Seuss turns 108!

Author of over 40 children’s book is remembered today

Dr. Seuss, the author of some one the worlds weirdest, though most beloved, children’s books would have turned 108 today.

Dr. Seuss, or Theodor Seuss Geisel, who passed away in 1991, has recently been remembered in the release of the film adaptation of “The Lorax”, but those of an older generation remember Dr. Seuss’s strange ways of teaching us life lessons through tongue-twisting rhymes and imaginary lands. “Horton Hears a Who” was about anti-isolationist, “The Lorax” was about environmental conservation, “The Sneetches” commented on racism, “Yertle the Turtle” was inspired by Hitler’s rise to power, and “Oh, The Places You Will Go” told children about the bumpy road that is life.

Dr. Seuss didn’t start out as a children’s book writer, he was more like Don Draper in his youth; he wrote political cartoons and came up with the pitch for Flit insecticide, the Huffington Post notes. He also didn’t choose his pen name specifically for writing children’s books; in 1925, the time of Prohibition, Dr. Seuss was caught drinking and was punished by being forced to stop his extracurricular activities, which included his position as editor-in-chief at a student magazine. In order to continue writing, he used a variety of pen names including Dr. Seuss and Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards). 

The king of strange was known to keep his editors on their toes by slipping un-PG words into manuscripts. “According to “Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel” by Judith and Neil Morgan, the first version of “Hop on Pop” Geisel submitted to his publisher had the word “contraceptive” included in a line of verse,” said the Huffington Post.

Though Dr. Seuss is no longer with us, his words will forever inspire and amuse kids and adults alike. When asked how he felt about nonsense, Dr. Seuss replied, “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”

Olympia Snowe steps off the campaign trail

Maine Republican Senator announces decision to not seek fourth term

Olympia Snowe, Maine Republican Senetor, has decided to not seek a fourth term two weeks before the deadline to qualify. The newly opened seat has caused candidates on both sides to scramble to get on the primary ballot for July.

According to reports, Snowe was said to be a shoe-in for another six year term, so her announcement came as a bit of a surprise.  She hasn’t been secretive about her irritation “over what she viewed as excessive partisanship and gridlock in Washington,” the Huffington Post said, Olympia Snowe “questioned whether she could’ve been effective over a fourth six-year term as a moderate in chamber where increasingly strident conservative and liberal ideologies have left less room for a centrist like Snowe to maneuver in the middle.” Snowe was quoted as not believing the partisanship will change anytime soon.

“Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” said Olympia Snowe. “So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.

Snooki: mom-to-be?

“Jersey Shore” star reportedly expecting

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, has been denying pregnancy rumors since the beginning of the month. Reports are all over suggesting that Snooki was lying about her pregnancy while she shopped around for a magazine to pay to debut her news. According to Sandrarose.com, Snooki has landed a deal with US Weekly.

Snooki is reportedly around three months along with boyfriend Jionni LaValle’s child; the couple have been together 18 months.

“While Snooki may not have chosen to enter mommyhood for career reasons, it is fortuitous that this has happening at a moment when “Jersey Shore” has faced some ratings issues as well as the growing sense that its pop cultural relevancy days may be numbered,” the Washington Post said. MTV, however, is not happy about the situation. Snooki and “Jersey Shore” co-star “JWoww” were set to film their own spin-off but Snooki’s new role as mom could halt production. In lieu of a spinoff with JWoww, there are rumors that Snooki will follow in fellow reality star, Kourtney Kardashian’s footsteps. The 24-year-old mom-to-be addressed rumors earlier this month to The Insider, “I’m not pregnant. Does this mean I’m getting fat again? Where did this come from,” Snooki joked.

There still has not been an official confirmation, but with all the rumors swirling around the web, there’s sure to be an official word soon.