June 19, 2013

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for s endorsement

Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong

April 24, 2013 By

33ef94653e8757cd5d19a01fb0cd7fd6 Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The Justice Department laid out its case in a lawsuit against on Tuesday, saying the cyclist violated his contract with the U.S. Postal Service and was “unjustly enriched” while cheating to win the .

The government had previously announced it would join the whistle-blower lawsuit brought by former Armstrong teammate under the federal . Tuesday was the deadline for the Justice Department to file its .

The Postal Service paid about $40 million to be the of Armstrong’s teams for six of his seven victories. The filing in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., says the paid Armstrong $17 million form 1998-2004.

The lawsuit also names director and company Tailwind Sports as defendants.

The financial costs for Armstrong and Bruyneel could be high. The government said it would seek assessed by the jury.

“Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly or indirectly,” the complaint said.

Armstrong, who in January admitted using performance-enhancing drugs after years of , has argued that the Postal Service’ of his team earned the government agency far more than it paid him.

Armstrong attorney Elliot Peters called the government’s complaint “opportunistic” and “insincere.”

“The U.S. Postal Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship of the . Its own studies repeatedly and conclusively prove this,” Peters said. “The USPS was never the victim of fraud. rode his heart out for the , and gave the brand tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years.”

The government must prove not only that the Postal Service was defrauded, but that it was damaged somehow.

Previous studies done for the Postal Service concluded the agency reaped at least $139 million in worldwide brand exposure in four years – $35 million to $40 million for sponsoring the Armstrong team in 2001; $38 million to $42 million in 2002; $31 million in 2003; and $34.6 million in 2004.

Landis attorney Paul Scott dismissed the idea that profits to the Postal Service negate the claims of fraud because the agency is forever tainted.

“Even if the USPS received some ephemeral media exposure in connection with Mr. Armstrong’s false victories, any illusory benefit from those times will be swamped over time immemorial by the USPS forever being tied to the largest doping scandal in the history of sports,” Scott said.

The formal complaint against Armstrong appears to rely heavily on evidence and statements supplied by Landis and gathered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for its 2012 investigation that exposed a doping program on the USPS team. Armstrong has been banned from sports for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France victories.

Bruyneel, who lives in London, also has been charged by USADA with doping violations but is fighting that case in arbitration.

The government notes the contract with the Postal Service required riders to follow the rules of cycling, which included bans on performance-enhancing drugs and methods. Armstrong now admits using steroids, blood boosters and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs and measures to win.

By breaking the rules and covering it up, Armstrong and Bruyneel committed fraud against the U.S. government, the complaint said.

The complaint said that for years, team officials assured the Postal Service that the team wasn’t doping.

Armstrong had been the target of a federal criminal grand jury, but that case was closed without charges in February 2012. Armstrong has previously tried to settle the Landis whistleblower lawsuit, but those talks broke down before the government announced its intention to join the case.

Armstrong also is fighting a lawsuit from Dallas-based promotions company SCA to recover about $12 million it paid him in bonuses, and a lawsuit from the London-based Sunday Times, which wants to get back $500,000 it paid him to settle a libel case.

Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong

Cycling: Justice Department files lawsuit against Lance Armstrong

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained

July 13, 2012 By

175670973d6b57fa2399b806a50308e8 Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
Head watches his team play the at Ohio Stadium on November 13, 2010 in Columbus, Ohio.
(November 12, 2010 – Source: / North America)

(PhatzRadio / ) — An incomparable career narrative that spanned more than six decades now reads like one of the Greek tragedies the late Joe Paterno always loved: Paterno’s legacy has been irreparably stained by findings that the iconic coach concealed information for years that could have stopped a .

The conclusions of former FBI , who drew on more than 400 interviews and 3 million documents over a nearly eight-month independent investigation of Penn State’s sexual assault scandal as requested by the school, have complicated and sullied the image of major-college ’s all-time winningest coach. Freeh found that Paterno was among five Penn State senior leaders who covered up information to avoid after they became aware of sexual molestation allegations against Paterno’s former longtime defensive coordinator , who was convicted last month of 45 counts of sexual abuse. Freeh said Paterno could have stopped the sexual abuses “if he wished.”

“The facts are the facts,” Freeh said of Paterno. “He was an integral part of the act to conceal.”

MORE: Louis Freeh report blasts culture of Penn State
MORE: Jay Paterno: ‘Joe did not cover up for’ Sandusky
PHOTOS: Images from Joe Paterno’s coaching career

Within hours of Thursday morning’s release of the 267-page report, Nike moved to remove Paterno’s name from the child development center on Nike Campus in Beaverton, Ore. Nike’s with Paterno had been longer than with any college coach at the time Paterno died in January at 85.

Nike chairman of the board Phil Knight, who expressed steadfast support for Paterno’s response to the allegations during the coach’s memorial service, issued a statement that said in part: “It appears Joe made missteps that led to heartbreaking consequences. I missed that Joe missed it, and I am extremely saddened on this day. My love for Joe and his family remains.”

Several of Paterno’s former players acknowledged his illustrious résumé, which includes 409 wins, two national championships and many philanthropic acts that touched the lives of countless individuals, is forever tarnished.

Former Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington told USA TODAY Sports that the findings “do not erase everything positive on Joe Paterno’s résumé,” but they represent a “big mark, a bad mark on his résumé. It certainly does tarnish his reputation.

“We’ve all had lapses of judgment. His happens to be on a monumental level, and there happens to be children’s welfare involved in this.”

Chris Devlin, who played linebacker for Paterno in the early 1970s, said in a telephone interview that the report “just proves that even the best of us are not perfect. Historically, you’ll see that he was a great coach but a sinner like the rest of us. The great tragedies portray both the heroic and the weaknesses in us, not that Joe Paterno is Adolf Hitler or something.”

MORE: Full Freeh report: Read the 267-page document
MORE: Penn State board takes ‘full responsibility’ for failures
COLUMN: Brennan: Shut down the football program now

And Keith Dorney, who played left tackle at Penn State from 1975 to 1978, in a telephone interview said Paterno “is not the man we thought he was. No one is perfect, but you talk about egregious errors? My God. It’s hard to conjure up something worse.”

Dorney, a unanimous All-American in 1978 inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005, added, “All of us feel duped. A . Everything that was said, everything that was preached to us rings a hollow.”

Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden had hoped reports implicating Paterno were not true.

“We were pretty close as coaches, and everyone has such great respect for Joe,” Bowden, who has the second-most wins in major-college football, told the Tallahassee Democrat. “Still, you must look at it as a man who made a mistake — not a little-itty mistake, but a very serious mistake.”

Victims’ well-being ignored

Among the most jarring revelations was that Paterno had been aware of a 1998 investigation of allegations that Sandusky abused a boy in Penn State’s locker room showers. Paterno followed the case closely — Sandusky was not prosecuted — but did not take action or alert the board of trustees. (The Paterno family had recently maintained that Paterno had not been aware of the 1998 investigation at the time.)

“Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno’s,” the Freeh Report stated. “At the very least, Mr. Paterno could have alerted the entire football staff, in order to prevent Sandusky from bringing another child into” the university’s athletic building.

Three years later, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary informed Paterno he had witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting a roughly 10-year-old boy in the team shower. But the Freeh Report suggests that Paterno dissuaded school administrator Tim Curley from having Penn State’s administration report the allegations to authorities.

Paterno was among the five school officials, including President Graham Spanier, who did not take action to identify the victim, creating a “dangerous situation for other unknown, unsuspecting young boys who were lured to the Penn State campus and football games by Sandusky and victimized repeatedly by him,” the report said.

The report concluded that the senior school officials did not demonstrate concern for the safety or well being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest.

In particular, Paterno was portrayed as presiding over a college football fiefdom that assumed too much power and influence and closed itself off from the rest of the university community.

“Joe has absolute power, and obviously absolute power corrupts all,” Dorney said. “The power thing — anybody that has been around the program, you can’t think of a more dictator-like situation. He was ‘The Man.’ ”

When asked during a news conference about social media chatter suggesting that Freeh was picking on a dead man, Freeh said, “We have a great deal of respect for Mr. Paterno and condolences for his family on the loss. It’s a person with a terrific legacy, a great legacy, who brought huge value to not just the university but the program. He, as someone once said, made perhaps the worst mistake of his life.”

Pristine image crumbles

The damning indictment served as the punctuation mark on a precipitous fall from grace for Paterno, lionized throughout a 46-year head coaching career devoid of NCAA rule violations.

He was depicted as the non-texting relic who clung to ideals, nondescript uniforms and thick glasses as the college football world changed around him. When Paterno was named Sports Illustrated’s 1986 Sportsman of the Year, Rick Reilly wrote, “When the going rate for a linebacker at SMU is said to be $25,000; when it takes a paralegal just to make out the sports page, we need the guy in the Photogray trifocals more than ever.”

But the pristine image of Paterno and “The Grand Experiment,” his belief that one can win big in a moral fashion, began its conversion last Nov. 5, when the Sandusky scandal became public and rocked the college football world.

Four days later, Penn State ended Paterno’s 61-year career by phone. By January, Paterno was dead of lung cancer after his fight to preserve his name. The lasting image of the football program nestled in the pastoral hills of central Pennsylvania had been recast.

There have been considerable ramifications. NCAA and Department of Education probes continue. Penn State President Rodney Erickson said, “We are in better position now to answer the questions (NCAA President) Dr. (Mark) Emmert asked last November now that the report is out.”

After Paterno was fired, his nomination for a Presidential Medal of Freedom was rescinded. His name was taken off the Big Ten championship trophy. The Joseph V. Paterno Award, a national honor presented by the Maxwell Football Club in 2010 to the coach who shows dedication to the development of student-athletes beyond the playing field, was discontinued.

The Penn State library remains named after Paterno and his wife, Sue. And outside Beaver Stadium resides the statue of Paterno, the coach in stride, right index finger raised high, watched over Thursday by a security guard.

Arrington has not ruled out wanting the statue removed but is taking a wait-and-see approach in case more information emerges on a coaching legend he ultimately didn’t really know.

“What do I really know?” Arrington said. “I know that Joe Paterno coached us. I know that Jerry Sandusky coached us. What else do I know? I know that Graham Spanier was the president.

“What do we truly know? You don’t know.”

Contributing: Jeffrey Martin, Jack Carey

Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained

help Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
009b06f38695de0d0d383c24bf894a9e Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
help Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
1df4af0e6e8f900d91267ca68edfd555 Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
help Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
7f14bbf0b0c13fca3af83ff82c0b71ca Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
help Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
7c7d24e16ce9807a51c9caae4d336d4f Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
help Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained
325472601571f31e1bf00674c368d335 Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained

325472601571f31e1bf00674c368d335 Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s legacy irreparably stained

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In political gamble, Obama supports gay marriage

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

4cdb345e82710be8ec02a5e47c74a2a5 In political gamble, Obama supports gay marriage

( News / ) — WASHINGTON – With his endorsement of gay marriage on Wednesday, President Obama electrified his liberal base, incensed cultural conservatives and may have ensured that a debate on social issues will play a part in the debate ahead of the November election.

For almost two years, President Obama had said that his views on gay marriage were “evolving” — what gay-marriage proponents hoped would signal a full embrace of for . But after days of renewed pressure for clarification on the issue following strong endorsements of gay marriage from Vice President Biden and Education Secretary , Obama decided to change his stated position.

“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded, that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told .

BLOG: Readers share views on Obama’s stance
VIDEO: Obama voices support for gay marriage

But Obama’, which comes one day after voters in the of North Carolina overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning gay unions and domestic partnership, is a political gamble.

Americans remain deeply divided on the issue, with 50% supporting gay marriage and 48% against it, according to a released Tuesday. But polling shows that young voters, who were key to Obama’s victory in 2008, and independent voters are increasingly comfortable with gay marriage.

Likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney told reporters that he disagreed with Obama’s position, as surrogates stressed he has remained consistent on the issue. Romney has never embraced gay marriage, but in his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1994, he said that he would be better on gay rights than Sen. Edward Kennedy.

BLOG: Obama endorses gay marriage
STORY: Group rallies against N.C. gay marriage ban
STORY: N.C. voters OK ban on gay marriage
VIDEO: Romney stands by his opposition to gay marriage
INTERACTIVE: Where states stand on gay marriage

“States are able to make decisions with regard to domestic partnership benefits such as hospital visitation rights, benefits and so forth of various kinds can be determined state by state, but my view is that marriage itself is a relationship between a man and a woman and that’s my own preference,” Romney said Wednesday.

In the ABC interview, Obama said that his shift in position came after years of careful consideration and talks with friends, family and neighbors. The president said that he and the first lady have discussed the issue across the dinner table, and considered their daughters’ perspectives on the issue.

“Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently,” Obama said. “It wouldn’t make sense to them. And frankly, that’s the kind of thinking that prompts a change in perspective.”

The Obama campaign, which declined to discuss political implications of the decision, could be pleased that independent voters support the legalization of marriage 57%-40%, according to the latest Gallup Poll. On Wednesday evening, the president sent a fundraising e-mail to supporters explaining his position.

Meanwhile, 71% of voters ages 18-29, another crucial group for Obama, said they favored legalization of gay marriage in three Gallup polls taken over the past year. “The middle can be won on this issue,” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way, a Democratic-leaning think tank . “There’s a lot of energy among young voters on this issue, a group they sorely need in November.”

Some conservatives and gay-marriage opponents argued that Obama has given Romney leverage in several swing states that have gay-marriage bans on the books, including Florida, Nevada, North Carolina Ohio and Virginia. “He just lost the election,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage.

Timing is everything

Obama had intended to make the announcement in support of gay marriage before the Democratic convention in early September, according to a White House aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about internal deliberations. The intense media scrutiny given to the comments by Biden and Duncan pushed up the timetable. The aide said the gay-marriage issue would not be a major part of their campaign, and it remains unclear whether it will affect the outcome of the election.

North Carolina was just one of several battles same-sex marriage proponents face over the several months. Voters could effect same-sex marriage in several states this fall, said Jennie Bowser of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Maine, a state law that would allow same-sex marriage is on the ballot, while in Minnesota, a constitutional amendment is under consideration that would ban it. Petitions for ballot measures are circulating in Nebraska and Ohio. Both would repeal existing bans. Voters may also get a chance in Washington state and Maryland to reject laws allowing same-sex marriage.

In past years, said Bowser, “it’s mostly been anti-same-sex marriage, not pro-same-sex marriage. This is a turnaround.”

Obama won North Carolina by only 14,000 votes in 2008 with support from young voters and minorities. The response was mixed in the state that both campaigns hope to win.

Ron Gates, 50, president of the Ministerial Alliance of Asheville, N.C., said he voted for Obama, but won’t this year. “He won’t get my vote again with a comment like that,” said Gates, of Greater Works of God and Christ, a Pentecostal mixed-race congregation. “It’s disappointing. Extremely disappointing.”

“I think he is right,” said Renardo Hart, 24, of Greenville, S.C., who voted for Obama. “Gay people should get married. Straight people get married. Gays should enjoy their life, being happy, being together.”

In other swing states, Americans were divided in their response to Obama’s shift.

“I feel like we’ve been waiting for it the entire time,” said Emily Frerichs, 24, a graduate student in Iowa who is in a same-sex relationship. “Finally seeing him follow through is inspiring.”

In Springfield, Mo., Jim Cookson, the senior pastor at the National Avenue Assembly of God, said the decision was calibrated to gain support.

“To me, a marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said. “I think his primary position is to gain the support of the left and the homosexual community.”

Accused of ‘playing politics’

The announcement immediately drew cheers from Democrats, liberal clergy and gay rights activists. Republicans, including GOP National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, accused Obama of “playing politics” and criticized him for being inconsistent in his stance.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who last year shepherded the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, called Obama’s support a “major advancement for equal rights in this country.”

The Human Rights Campaign, which has long lobbied the president, said Obama “made history by boldly stating that gay and lesbian Americans should be fully and equally part of the fabric of American society.” HRC President Joe Solmonese said the “words will no doubt inspire thousands more conversations around kitchen tables and in church pews.”

Marc Solomon, of Freedom to Marry, said Obama was modeling for Americans what so many re going through as they weigh their feelings on the issue.

Few Republicans were surprised by the announcement and indicated his position would drive conservatives to the polls in November. “Obama must be really afraid he’s in trouble with his base,” said Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America. “While it energizes the left, it also energizes the right.”

Other conservatives immediately began to raise money off the comments. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee called same-sex marriage a “defining issue” for the election and in an e-mail encouraged supporters to donate at least $10 to his political action committee to help elect candidates that will preserve traditional marriage.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, questioned Obama’s political calculus. “This could be the key to solidifying the enthusiastic support Romney needs among conservative oriented voters,” he said.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., among the first openly gay members of Congress, said the decision wasn’t without political risk but could help Obama in November. “I believe it will be clear in the days ahead that this will cost him no votes, since those opposed to legal equality for LGBT people were already inclined to oppose him,” he said.

Contributing: Catalina Camia, Cathy Grossman and Jim Norman; Jon Ostendorff of the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times; Joseph Spector of the Gannett Albany Bureau; Jennifer Jacobs of The Des Moines Register; Sarah Okeson of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leasder; Ron Barnett of The Greenville (S.C.) News

Share|

Related Links:

  • No Related Links
Filed Under: Featured, Politics, World Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,