Top leagues could opt for end run on NCAA

LOS ANGELES ? Welcome to the season Urban Meyer, Mark Emmert and Johnny Manziel can?t wait to get started.

All three of these men, in some form or fashion, had issues with their snooze alarms.

Oregon skips merrily into fall camp like a schoolchild after getting a probationary wrist slap only a few years after the NCAA sent USC to San Quentin for jaywalking.

USC coach Lane Kiffin is reportedly not on the hot seat despite what happened last year on the surface of the Sun Bowl.

And get this: UCLA not only won its first NCAA baseball title with its brand of gutty-little-Bruins ball, but it also has been picked to finish ahead of USC in football for the first time since 2001.

Can?t wait for the new improved show: ?Whose Town is it Anyway??

Football was put on Earth because it is fantastically fun, but it has also loathsomely become a ?Bonfire of the Vanities? of power, control, greed, money, access and more power.

This is the 16th (and last) year of the tired Bowl Championship Series as the sport dramatically transitions, recalibrates and uncomfortably squirms.

While England rejoices over the birth of young Prince George, everyone here knows the Southeastern Conference is king that lords over its subjects. The league has won seven straight national titles and will be favored to win its eighth.

Commissioner Mike Slive, an avuncular guy who calls himself a ?recovering lawyer,? opened his SEC state of the union news conference with his usual ?brag bag? of accomplishments.

Bully (pulpit) for him.

The operative word moving forward, though, is ?change.?

Some of it has already been formally rubber-stamped.

A new four-team playoff is coming in two years but not until the Rose Bowl hosts its 100th game on Jan. 1 and the last BCS title game on Jan. 6.

Schools are switching leagues almost as fast as coaches are switching schools.

The change gurgling below, though, is about the consolidation of power.

Darwinism has already claimed Big East football and left five power leagues to distribute $5.6 billion over the next 12 years.

The big boppers are the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12, who have severely separated themselves from ?the Group of Five?: Mountain West, Middle Atlantic Conference, Sun Belt, Conference USA and the new American Athletic Conference.

The Power Five controls about 75 percent of the new money and wants to use it to pay its scholarship student-athletes a ?full cost of attendance? stipend ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 per year.

It?s a noble gesture and also a convenient power grab to further segregate from the working class.

The move, though, is being blocked by a majority of 348 schools in the NCAA?s top division (those ungrateful, whiny, non-football powers).

The Big Five could choose to break away from the NCAA and form its own organization.

?I don?t see secession as a legitimate point of leverage except as a last resort,? Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said at media day.

It was news, though, that Bowlsby even mentioned the ?S? word.

The five power commissioners have strategically used increasingly magnified NCAA dysfunction under Emmert to launch their agenda armada.

The commissioners, one by one, almost in orchestrated concert, started laying out the future in their media-day addresses.

Bowlsby said, ?Transformative change is going to have to happen.?

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, more of a traditionalist, framed it this way: ?I think there?s a lot of momentum for the tradition, but there are also head winds out there.?

Slive mentioned in his address, ?The NCAA has not been successful in meeting the full cost of attendance of our future athletes.?

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said Friday the message was not necessarily coordinated among the commissioners. He said everything just sort of chain-reacted after Slive?s opening-salvo comments.

Scott thought Bowlsby?s comments about secession could have been misinterpreted.

Scott said the major football conferences can, and should, solve their problems as members of the NCAA.

He said, ?I believe it would be a colossal failure by everyone? to take major college football outside the system.

The power brokers simply want to use their wildly disproportionate amount of television money the way they want.

The commissioners who cut the humongous TV deals have taken a stranglehold over the sport since the Supreme Court ruled 30 years ago the NCAA was a monopoly with no right to dictate how many games could be televised.

?You can?t lose focus on the fact that before the NCAA lost control of college football TV, we had one game on a week,? Delany said at Big Ten media day.

The five power conferences could opt to form another division within the NCAA.

?It?s an option,? Scott said Friday, ?but it might not be necessary.?

Scott thinks the bureaucratically bogged down NCAA simply needs to become more ?nimble and flexible.?

Emmert, who has maneuvered himself into a box, seems agreeable to this and has promised significant change within a year.

Some would say: What other choice does he have?

History has proved that, in most cases, you should never bet against power and money.

In the college world, football is power, and football is money.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rgsports/~3/ndGu8t8UBjM/ncaa-football-power-conference-money.html.csp

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UK help to buy scheme risks housing bubble, says business minister

LONDON (Reuters) - A flagship scheme to help British housebuyers could fuel property price inflation, the business minister said on Sunday, in the latest clash over policy between the two parties in the country's governing coalition.

"I am worried of the danger of getting into another housing bubble," Business Secretary Vince Cable told BBC television's Andrew Marr Show of a proposed extension of the Help to Buy scheme of government-backed home loans designed to revive the housing market.

Cable is a leading member of the Liberal Democrats, the junior party in the coalition, who has locked horns with his Conservative partners - backers of the scheme - over a number of economic policy issues.

Earlier this month he said Prime Minister David Cameron was endangering economic recovery by promising a referendum on European Union membership. Last week he accused the independent Bank of England of holding back economic recovery by forcing banks to build up capital.

The first phase of the Help to Buy scheme, which offers buyers of new-build properties an interest-free five-year loan for 20 percent of the property's value, kicked off in April.

But the more important second phase, which offers 12 billion pounds ($18.4 billion) of guarantees to back mortgages for buyers who lack large deposits, does not come into force until January next year.

"The Help to Buy scheme is actually quite complex. We have one part that's already operating, which is providing mortgages against new homes, nobody has questioned that," Cable said in quotes reported on the BBC's web site.

"The proposal which hasn't yet been implemented, which is providing a guarantee for a limited range of mortgages, could be a problem. It could inflate the market.

"But, if it's properly designed it could be a useful addition."

The plan has been welcomed by British mortgage lenders and housebuilders but criticised by the International Monetary Fund and the government's own budget watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility. Both warned that prices are likely to be pumped up more than supply, making it harder, not easier, for first-time buyers.

(Reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-help-buy-scheme-risks-housing-bubble-says-135156837.html

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Syrian troops capture historic mosque in Homs

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syrian government forces captured a historic mosque in the central city of Homs on Saturday, expelling rebel forces who had been in control of the 13th century landmark for more than a year and dealing a symbolic blow to opposition forces.

State-run news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops took control of the Khalid Ibn al-Walid Mosque in the heavily disputed northern neighborhood of Khaldiyeh.

Syrian TV aired a report Saturday night with footage from inside the mosque, showing heavy damage and the tomb's dome knocked out. The footage showed debris strewn on the floor and a portion of the mosque appeared to have been burned.

The mosque, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, has been a symbol for rebels in the city that is known as "the capital of the revolution." On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam.

After capturing the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border last month, government troops launched an offensive on rebel-held areas in Homs, Syria's third largest city, late in June. They have been pushing into Khaldiyeh and other neighborhoods in the Old City that have been under opposition control since 2011.

A Homs-based activist who identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Bilal, for fear of government reprisals, said troops entered the mosque area from the east. He said regime forces now control more than 60 percent of Khaldiyeh.

"There are very fast developments in Khaldiyeh," Abu Bilal told The Associated Press via Skype. He said he had no further details from local rebel commanders.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy fighting around the mosque, saying the government troops are backed by members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

A journalist embedded with Syrian troops told the AP that a reporter for Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam television station was wounded near the mosque. A sniper's bullet struck the thigh of journalist Roa al-Ali, the journalist said, asking his name not be made public as he wasn't authorized to give information to other media outlets.

On top of its symbolic value, Homs is also a geographic lynchpin in Syria. The main highway from Damascus to the north as well as the coastal region, which is a stronghold of President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, runs through Homs. Both rebels and the regime place a high strategic value on the city.

And although Assad's forces have been on the offensive in recent months, activists say the regime wants to capture the entirety of Homs to include it in a potential future Alawite state ? stretching from Homs to the coast ? where Assad could make his last stand if the civil war swings against him.

Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while most of the rebels fighting to topple his regime are Sunnis.

Khaldiyeh had a population of about 80,000 but only some 2,000 remain there today as residents fled the violence. The heavy fighting over the past two years has destroyed wide areas and knocked down entire buildings.

Earlier Saturday, Syria's state media said talks between the Syrian government and a United Nations delegation tasked with investigating chemical weapons allegations in the nation's civil war have "resulted in an agreement on ways of moving forward."

Assad's government invited a U.N. team to visit Damascus earlier this month after requesting that the world body investigate an alleged chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, a village in the north. The Syrian regime and the rebels fighting to topple it accuse each other of using chemical agents in the March 19 incident, which killed 31 people.

Assad's government refused to have a possible inquiry include other alleged chemical attack sites in Homs, Damascus and elsewhere.

A joint statement by the foreign ministry and the U.N. that appeared Saturday on SANA's website said the meetings were "comprehensive and fruitful and resulted in an agreement on ways of moving forward."

It did not elaborate. The U.N. team couldn't be reached for comment.

Saturday's announcement on the possible U.N. probe agreement on Khan al-Assal coincided with government allegations that the rebels committed "a massacre" in the village, killing 123 "civilians and military personnel," according to a SANA report. SANA said others are still missing.

The report said "terrorists" were behind the recent killings in Khan al-Assal, a term the government uses for rebels. The Observatory previously said at least 150 government soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday there, some after they had surrendered.

A statement released by al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra ? or the Nusra Front ? said 150 soldiers, pro-government gunmen and Shiite militiamen were killed in Khan al-Assal. The statement said fighters captured 63 soldiers alive but 55 of them fled. Nusra Front said its members killed 15 of them before 40 surrendered. The statement did not say if the 40 were still alive.

The conflicting claims could not be independently reconciled.

In Aleppo, a rocket fired by government forces into a rebel-held district killed at least 29 including 19 under the age of 18 and four women, the Observatory said Saturday. The attack happened Friday during government shelling in the Bab al-Nairab neighborhood of Aleppo.

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 largely as peaceful protests against Assad's rule. It escalated into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.'s recent estimate.

___

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk in Beirut contributed to this report. Mroue reported from Beirut.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-troops-capture-historic-mosque-homs-150054579.html

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Omnicom, Publicis to combine into biggest ad firm

PARIS (AP) ? Omnicom Group Inc. and Publicis Groupe SA say they are combining in a "merger of equals" that will create the world's largest advertising firm, one worth more than $35 billion.

The combined company will be called Publicis Omnicom Group and be jointly led by Omnicom CEO John Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy as co-chief executives. The move is designed to bolster the companies' focus on growing Asian and Latin American markets such as China and Brazil, where they each have ramped up operations to counter lackluster growth in weak European markets.

But although a combined firm will allow for more pricing power in general, the decrease in competition could present regulatory hurdles in the U.S. and Europe. Client conflicts also could be an issue, as rivals such as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, McDonald's, Yum Brands' Taco Bell, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble now find themselves under the same umbrella.

Rich Tullo, an analyst at Albert Fried & Co. in New York, predicted pushback from regulators in both the U.S. and France. The U.S. could be wary of one company controlling such a large portion of the market, he said, while in France, authorities might not take warmly to any Americanization of a company that is a bright spot in the bruised French economy.

Tullo also questioned whether the combined company could live up to promises like the $500 million in cost savings touted with the announcement, given Europe's shaky financial condition. "That sounds like financial alchemy, if you ask me," he said.

Omnicom Group Inc., based in New York, owns BBDO Worldwide, DDB Worldwide Communications Group and TBWA Worldwide, among other agencies. Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA runs its namesake agency as well as Leo Burnett Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi and DigitasLBi. Their merger creates a company with combined annual revenue of about $23 billion, leapfrogging them over current London-based industry leader WPP PLC.

For the first year, Omnicom Chairman Bruce Crawford will serve as non-executive chairman of the new company. He will be succeeded by Elisabeth Badinter, the current Publicis Groupe chairwoman, and daughter of its founder, for the second year.

Levy is slated to take the non-executive chairman's seat after 30 months, leaving Wren to continue as sole CEO from that point.

Omnicom, which also owns public relations firms such as Fleishman-Hillard, Porter Novelli and Ketchum, reported 2012 profit of nearly $1 billion on revenue of $14.22 billion. Earlier this month, the Madison Avenue giant posted second-quarter earnings that topped analysts' average forecast, though revenue growth of 2 percent fell just short of expectations.

Founded in 1986, Omnicom generates just over half of its revenue from U.S. clients, and about one-quarter from European and British markets combined. The company's stock has risen 31 percent in the last 12 months, recently peaking at $67.43 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Omnicom will benefit from Publicis' strategic shift in the last few years toward digital operations, as the French company beefed up its digital marketing profile with the acquisitions of Digitas, Razorfish, Rosetta, Big Fuel and LBi. Publicis, which had revenue of $8.78 billion in 2012, had targeted generating 75 percent of its revenue in digital and fast-growing countries by 2018, according to a recent investor presentation.

The move gives Publicis, which has faced questions about who will succeed 71-year-old Levy, access to Omnicom's well-regarded senior leadership, said James Dix, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Analysts said the deal also represents even more consolidation in an industry that is already dominated by just a few players, a fact that might not sit well with U.S. regulators.

If the Omnicom-Publicis combination goes through, the combined company would account for nearly 40 percent of the U.S. ad industry, twice as much as the nearest competitor, WPP, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York.

Wieser said Sunday the deal came as a surprise to many in the industry. Omnicom, he said, has "always been viewed as too large to get any larger."

The combined company will have more than 130,000 employees.

One concern is whether Omnicom and Publicis can strike a harmonious balance of power ? something that can be difficult in mergers of similar-sized companies.

"It's not clear yet who really is in the driver's seat," Wieser said. "That will emerge over time."

The fact that the two firms are based in different countries could also become an issue, Dix said. "You have these fiefdoms that keep people from playing together. One company is based in Paris, one is in New York. Where is the power center?" he said in an interview Saturday.

Dix expects that top executives are comfortable with the structure of the deal, but the adjustment may be more difficult for the next level of executives who run the firms' units.

"Now they have to fit together into a broader organization," Dix said. "If you lose clients or have defections of senior executives then you have something that looked good on paper but didn't quite play out."

The combination has been approved by the boards of both companies, but remains subject to regulatory approval in both the U.S. and Europe, and to a vote by shareholders of both companies. The deal is structured so that the shareholders of Publicis Groupe and Omnicom, after special dividends, will each hold approximately 50 percent of the company.

Publicis Groupe shareholders will receive one new share of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Publicis Groupe share they own, together with a special dividend of 1 euro per share. Omnicom shareholders will receive 0.813 new shares of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Omnicom share they own, plus a special dividend of $2 per share. The new company intends to be listed in Paris and on the New York Stock Exchange.

The combination could have a domino effect on the industry, spurring marriages between other ad giants who might fear they can't compete otherwise, said Michael Corty, an analyst at Chicago-based Morningstar. "Within the ad agency industry, this is potentially an earthquake deal."

___

Business News reporters Christina Rexrode and Jon Fahey contributed from New York.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/omnicom-publicis-combine-biggest-ad-firm-220845588.html

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Liam S. replied to JonEdanger's discussion College Republicans Denied in the group The Great Debate

If they're going to exclude a group of people from a public assembly based solely upon how they are dressed or whom they are affiliated with, then there had better be a MIGHTY TALL excuse for them to have done so.

I totally agree.?

It's very hard for me to imagine that these young people were up to something so sinister and threatening as to warrant this, yet some nosy reporter couldn't uncover ANYTHING to substantiate that notion.?

Not that hard for me to believe that a reporter who wants to tell a certain story wouldn't try very hard. This is, after all, a paper whose tagline is "Your Daily Dose of Right-Minded Campus News." - emphasis theirs.?

The fact that they couldn't even definitively say that there WAS a bona fide security threat

Don't mistake didn't for couldn't.

Imagine if this had been YOU, and no explanation was given other than your political affiliation.

I would certainly be upset. And would certainly like more of an explanation. I don't expect it though. Not from a presidential security detail. We also don't know that no explanation was given. We just know that no explanation was reported in this story.

Deciding that this may have been acceptable based on unknowns looks an awful lot like blind, unquestioning trust

I'm not saying it was or was not acceptable. I would like more details before making a call on it. It may have been reasonable, it may not have been. I'm not blindly trusting anything here, I'm waiting for evidence before condemning their decision. With that said, I would like that evidence, one way or the other. I just don't expect it - at least not from this news source.?

Source: http://community.artofmanliness.com/xn/detail/2357106%3AComment%3A1480881?xg_source=activity

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Radio, TV personality David 'Kidd' Kraddick dies

David "Kidd" Kraddick, the high-octane radio and TV host of the "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning" show heard on dozens of U.S. radio stations, has died at a charity golf event near New Orleans, a publicist said. Kraddick was 53.

The Texas-based radio and television personality, whose program is syndicated by YEA Networks, died at his Kidd's Kids charity function in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna on Saturday, said publicist Ladd Biro in releasing a network statement.

"He died doing what he loved," said Biro, of the public relations firm Champion Management, speaking with AP by phone early Sunday. He said he had no further details on the death.

Fans left flowers and condolences written on signs left outside his Dallas-area studio.

The website of Kraddick's flagship station KHKS, known as KISS-FM, featured his photo Sunday and remembrances of his career. Fans left online comments such as "morning drive to work in the Dallas traffic will not be the same with out your voice."

"I don't know why his death is affecting me like this. I never met Kidd in person, but I have 'known' him for 15 years or more. He has brought a smile to my face every morning," Tasha Gillespie Sigler wrote Sunday on the Kidd's Kids Facebook page.

"It amazes me how someone you don't even know can become a part of your family," Holly J Smith wrote. She also wrote that "prayers abound for his family, his work family, and for my fellow Kidd Kraddick listening family."

The "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning" show is heard on more than 75 Top 40 and Hot AC radio stations and is a leader among most-listened-to contemporary morning programs, Biro said. The radio program also is transmitted globally on American Forces Radio Network while the show's cast is also seen weeknights on the nationally syndicated TV show "Dish Nation," he added.

"All of us with YEA Networks and the "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning" crew are heartbroken over the loss of our dear friend and leader," the network statement said. "Kidd devoted his life to making people smile every morning, and for 21 years his foundation has been dedicated to bringing joy to thousands of chronically and terminally ill children."

"He died doing what he loved, and his final day was spent selflessly focused on those special children that meant the world to him," it added.

The Dallas Morning News reported Kraddick had been a staple in the Dallas market since 1984, starting in a late-night debut. The newspaper said he moved into morning show work by the early 1990s in that market and his show began to gain wider acclaim and entered into syndication by 2001 as he gained a following in cities nationwide.

Kraddick would have turned 54 on Aug. 22, according to Biro.

The network statement said the cause of death would be released "at the appropriate time."

Many fans, celebrities included, tweeted condolences and talked about the death on social media sites. One Texas radio station where he was a mainstay ran photographs on its website of Kraddick at the microphone.

Word of Kraddick's passing spread quickly via social media.

"RIP Kidd Kraddick. You were an amazing man and a friend. You are already missed," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted.

"Oh Man, I just heard Kidd Kraddick died! He's my childhood dj. What a sad day. His poor family. He was always nice 2 me from the beginning," singer Kelly Clarkson tweeted.

Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, only recently announced as the headline act of a planned first-ever Kidd's Kids charity concert in Dallas next month, wrote: "The sad sad news about Kidd Kraddick is shocking. He will be missed greatly."

Richie Tomblin, described as the head golf professional at the Timberlane Country Club in Gretna on its website, told AP that Kraddick wasn't looking well when he saw him getting ready for Saturday's charity event.

"He came out and he borrowed my golf clubs and went out to the driving range," Tomblin told AP when contacted by phone. "It's kind of a freaky situation. He came out. He practiced a little bit. He hit the ball at the first tee and wasn't feeling good and after that I didn't see him."

Tomblin said the hundreds of amateur golfers taking part went ahead with the event Saturday. He added he only found out afterward that Kraddick had died and he was still shaken about it.

"I'm still trying to figure it out. I really don't know what happened. Everyone keeps texting me asking, 'What's going on?' I really don't know," said Tomblin.

He added he was reluctant to even touch the set of clubs Kraddick had borrowed Saturday for his practice swings.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/radio-tv-personality-david-kidd-kraddick-dies-063257312.html

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