On the opening day of the 2014 World Cup, the Croatian national team goes into Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo as heavy underdogs. As the host country, Brazil is favored in the opening match at 11-1 odds and will be playing in front of an expected home crowd of 65,000.
But the pressure may very well be on Brazil. Although only drawing from a country of 4 million people, Croatia will field a talented, veteran-laden squad with nearly 1,000 caps among its players — and a lot to play for.
The Balkans have been hard hit by flooding from cyclone Tamara in recent weeks, and the Croatian players are expected to take the field on Thursday buoyed by a ground swell of emotion about all that their countrymen (and the region in general) are going through. On top of that, the Croatian side benefits from a rich legacy in football and a strong commitment to player development from its professional teams. For example, Croatia is one of several successor countries to Yugoslavia, which had a rich history of international success in football. In fact, it is because of their longstanding success in football that Yugoslavia’s national team (or the Plavi) ironically became known as the “Brazilians of Europe.” Now, the great soccer traditions of that country are being carried into this year’s World Cup by Croatia and Bosnia–Herzegovina.
Croatia, in particular, has a recognized history in player development. Its leading professional club, GNK Dinamo Zagreb, is widely regarded as one of the top youth development programs in Europe. A series of big name stars have come through Dinamo’s youth system, including Luka Modric who plays in La Liga for Real Madrid. Modric will be the triggerman for Croatia in the opening match. Paired with Sevilla’s Ivan Rakitic in Croatia’s midfield, Modric will be key if Croatia is to be successful in denying the Brazilians possession of the ball.
Another product of Dinamo Zagreb’s youth system is Eduardo da Silva (Shakhtar Donetsk). In an interesting backdrop to the game, Eduardo is Brazilian born and made the move to Croatia to join Dinamo’s youth program. Eduardo took up citizenship in Croatia in 2002 and is expected to see substantial action against Brazil due to the one-game suspension of Bayern Munich’s Mario Mandzukic, who received a red card in Croatia’s last qualifying match against Iceland.
Beyond Dinamo’s representation on Croatia’s side, their current U17 team is heralded as the best in Europe. Other top professional clubs have taken notice. Most recently, FC Barcelona agreed to a deal to sign 17-year-old Croatia international Alen Halilovic from Dinamo Zagreb for an initial £1.8m.
Dinamo’s reputation in player development extends beyond Europe as well. It has been reported that 17-year-old, U.S.-based Román Martin has been linked to a move to Dinamo Zagreb this summer. Martin is a product of San Diego’s Nomads Soccer Club and will be enjoying his fourth stint overseas this summer having formerly toured Europe with two different Brazilian clubs. Other American players have garnered interest at Dinamo as well. The draw of playing overseas continues to be the opportunity to be exposed to player development programs where there is an established track record of producing results like GNK Dinamo Zagreb.
When the opening match of the 2014 World Cup kicks off on June 12, no one should be surprised by the quality of play on both sides of the ball. Croatia will field a team with not only depth and veteran experience, but also one of the best midfields in the World Cup. If Croatia can protect against the pace of Brazil on the wings, the opening game of the World Cup presents an intriguing early match up.
Flash News: Set to take the field for Croatia in the opening match of the 2014 World Cup, Ivan Rakitic is reportedly set to sign with FC Barcelona. Rakitic, who was rumored to have fallen out of talks with his current club Sevilla, is now supposed to sign a long term deal with the Catalan club. Other clubs such as Athletico Madrid and Real Madrid have also expressed interest in the Croatian midfielder. But FC Barcelona seems to now be front runner for Rakitic’s services as a potential replacement of Cesc Fabregas.


Orange County Choppers is regarded by many to be the world's premier builder of custom choppers. But few people know the company they see today began in blue collar worker's basement in upstate New York.
A metalworker by trade, Paul Teutul Sr. , with creative help from his oldest son Paul Jr., began building bikes in the 1990s. Their first bike to really hit the big time was True Blue, unveiled at Biketoberfest in Daytona in 1999. From that point on, according to his website, Paul Sr. knew he was on to something.
He established Orange County Choppers after his breakout at Daytona and quickly became recognized by chopper enthusiasts everywhere. While making a name for themselves in the bike world, Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. ventured into the TV world, signing with the Discovery Channel in 2002. Their show is now a hit series on cable TV across the nation.
Their popularity keeps on growing, and has led them to the doorsteps of some of the biggest names in the world. OCC, Inc. has built custom bikes for Microsoft, Lincoln, Coca-Cola, as well as celebrities Billy Joel and Bill Murray.


Israeli elections throw up possibility of coalition deal
Final results in Israel’s election last night give the Kadima Party one more seat in the new parliament than Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
Kadima won 28 and Likud 27 places in the 120-seat parliament.
But the parliament has a majority among hard-line parties, making it easier for Mr Netanyahu to form the next government and take over as prime minister.
Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister, is also trying to attract coalition partners. One possibility is a joint government. Mr Netanyahu would be prime minister, while Ms Livni and her party would receive key government ministries.
The premier-designate has six weeks to form a coalition government and win approval from the new parliament.


CAN YOU SPOT the difference? This is how much Daniel Day Lewis looks like Abraham Lincoln (the one on the left is the 16th US President, in case you couldn’t tell).
The Wicklow resident and Hollywood favourite seems to have been born to play the role.
And the 55-year-old has done just that in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln which is due for release in the US in November and in Ireland in January next year. The movie chronicles the final months of Lincoln’s presidency.
As for other lookey-likey actors and US presidents…here’s a game of Who’s Who?
Last year, Greg Kinnear took on the role of JFK in the TV series The Kennedys:
(Image via PA Images) (Image via YouTube/ReelzChannel)
John Voight gave a convincing rendition of President Roosevelt, the 32nd US President who was confined to a wheelchair but refused to be limited by his disability.
Franklin D Roosevelt giving a radio address in 1941. (AP Photo)
Former President Richard Nixon was played by Frank Langella in the movie that tells the story of the Frost/Nixon interview.
Although Bill Clinton - still one of the world’s most powerful men - said in June that he would like George Clooney to play him in a movie, that role has gone to Dennis Quaid:
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)


College Football Equipment
Every fall weekend, thousands of football players run onto the fields of college stadiums all across the country. With pride, these players wear uniforms showcasing their school colors and logos.
However, did you know that college football equipment—the jerseys, the pads, the helmets—represents a multimillion-dollar business? Some of the biggest universities in the country dish our more than $100,000 to dress their players, while others have some of the highest sponsorship deals with apparel companies like Nike and New Balance.
In this infographic, SpareFoot takes a deeper look at what it takes to outfit some of the most popular college football teams.


Shares of onshore U.S. exploration and production (E&P) company QEP Resources (QEP) fell as much as 17% on June 24. Peers Matador Resources (MTDR 0.74%) and Denbury Resources (DNR) both declined around 14%. By 3 p.m. Wall Street time, QEP and Denbury had recouped some of their losses, and were down 14% and 10%, respectively. Matador's shares, however, were still hovering near their lowest levels, off by nearly 14% for the day.
The cause of the steep price declines at these oil and natural gas companies isn't hard to figure out -- energy prices fell sharply. West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. oil, was off by around 6% late in the day. Since the financial results of all three of these E&P names are tied directly to the prices of the commodities they sell, the stocks logically declined. But that's just the top level here.
The bigger picture that drove oil prices lower was related to COVID-19. Some history is relevant. Early in 2020, oil prices fell all the way to zero because of a massive supply/demand imbalance. There were multiple factors that led to the dislocation, but the really big hit came from the worldwide economic shutdowns enacted to slow the spread of the coronavirus. With economies at a standstill, demand for energy fell off a cliff and supply swamped demand to the point where drillers were, technically, paying customers to take their oil. Meanwhile, oil and natural gas, with nowhere to go, started to pile up in storage. It was a very bad situation and energy stocks across the board fell into a deep downturn.
Today, however, economies around the world are starting to reopen, which means demand is returning. The big question now is over the shape of the recovery as businesses start up again and consumers venture outdoors. The answer isn't exactly clear yet, but one thing is for sure -- the coronavirus is not going away. In fact, countries around the world are now seeing upticks in cases as they allow more movement and business activity. China, Europe, and the U.S. (notably, early reopening states like Florida and Nevada) are all experiencing increases in coronavirus cases.
There are fears that the economic progress that's been made may have to be slowed, halted, or even reversed. In other words, demand for energy commodities might not be as strong as investors had been hoping. Energy prices fell on that news, taking the shares of drillers QEP, Matador, and Denbury along with them.
There's two lingering negatives from here. On the commodity front, all of the oil sitting in storage will be an overhang on the market until there's more demand or there's a more dramatic and sustained decline in production.
Second, and more company specific, a lot of E&P names have heavily leveraged balance sheets. That's certainly true for QEP and Matador, which both had financial debt-to-equity ratios of around 24 times at the end of the first quarter. But it's also true of Denbury, where that metric was a far lower 3.7 times. While that sounds much better, and it is, it's still high when you compare it to a company like Chevron, which has a financial debt-to-equity ratio of a touch under 0.25 times. While it's been difficult for financially strong giants like Chevron to navigate this downturn, it's that much harder for highly leveraged names like QEP, Matador, and, to a lesser degree, Denbury.
The COVID-19 health scare is far from over, and it will continue to have material repercussions throughout the global economy. Energy prices are just one example. That said, in times of crisis, a strong financial foundation can make all the difference. QEP, Matador, and Denbury are not working off of the strongest bases. Investors should expect heightened volatility to continue here, suggesting that only the most aggressive investors should be looking at this trio.


By Sorcha Holohan
Happy New Year all! As the second semester begins, the beginning of a new micro chapter in college greatly excites us all.
What lies ahead of us is unknown, but for us rugby players we know that this is the semester for performance.
The Intervarsities and the lead up to the All-Ireland Final are both upcoming, and the future’s winners will be determined by the application of hard work, preparation, and positive psychological mindset.
Firstly, we will have a stand at the recruitment drive for all new members, both experienced and non-experienced players, all very welcome to join our family-like team.
This will take place on the 2nd of February in the University Concert Hall.
Looking back on the previous year, the unsuccessful retention of the Senior All-Ireland Cup and the loss of the Intervarsities were heartbreaking.
However, it motivated the players to work hard to piece together the various elements to form a winning team.
This includes a high-quality backroom team.
Irish player Fíona Reidy is at the helm, always steering us in the right direction.
Valerie Mitchel is also on board, and we are very thankful to both of them.
A new Junior Team was formed in 2016 and won the Junior All-Ireland Final.
They are looking to retain that cup and the title this year and they have had the perfect start to the year, winning 4 out of 4 in the Senior league, and 2 out of 2 in the Junior league.
Finally, our team is setting out in pursuit of winning and becoming champions, nothing less.
This will include numerous training, gym, and team bonding sessions.
We welcome these challenges and as Vince Lombardi once said: “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand”.


Frank Russell, a former college basketball star who played pro before making a bigger impact across Oakland County, died Monday at age 72.
After playing high school basketball at Pontiac Central High School, Russell played three seasons for the University of Detroit Mercy Titans from 1969-72, where he scored 1,188 points — seventh most in school history when he graduated.
He was inducted into the Titans’ Hall of Fame in 2020.
Robert Vowels, athletic director for U of D, found out about Russell’s death on Wednesday. Vowels called him a “salt-of-the-earth type guy.”
“I was shocked when I got the news,” Vowels said. “I’m just so sad about that because we just inducted him into the hall of fame prior to COVID, so things were just going well and on the upswing. Everything was going well for him. He’s an iconic figure for Detroit Mercy basketball.”
The Chicago Bulls drafted Russell in the third round of the 1972 draft. He played one season with the franchise, scoring a career-high 11 points against the Detroit Pistons at Cobo Arena.
His brothers, Campy and Walker Russell, played collegiate basketball at the University of Michigan and Western Michigan, respectively. They also played in the NBA.
Following his basketball career, Russell became a youth advisor, attended law school, and founded The Youth Development Institute in Pontiac. He also worked for Oakland County for over three decades in a human resources capacity.
In 2007 Russell founded the Pontiac News. Six years later, he was unsuccessful in a bid to become Pontiac’s mayor, losing to current Mayor Deirdre Waterman.
“All of Pontiac recognizes the Russell family for their loyalty to the city, as well as their myriad contributions as well as the sports talent to which they are legendary,” Waterman told The Oakland Press.
She said she knew Russell as a friend, a business person, and as a leader of the community. Isaiah Jackson, also from Pontiac, was drafted in this year’s NBA draft almost four decades after Russell was drafted himself.
“This is 41 years that the mantle was handed down from one generation to the next,” she said.
Pontiac mayoral candidates Tim Greimel and Alexandria T. Riley, who are facing off this November, made statements on Facebook regarding Russell’s passing.
“Pontiac lost a legend with the passing of Frank Russell,” Greimel said, thanking Russell for his service and saying he will be dearly missed.
Riley said she was heartbroken to learn of Russell’s death, saying he devoted his life to his family and community and set a high standard.
“Personally, I valued his wise counsel,” Riley said. “I cherished his confidence and support. I’ve benefited from his encouragement and wisdom. Our city has lost a great leader whose presence will be missed but the legacy of his contributions will endure for generations. The Russell family has lost their patriarch, a tower of strength and support through good times and bad.”
Dave Coulter, Oakland County executive, said in a statement that Russell was a champion of diversity.
“His strong presence in county government will be missed,” Coulter said. “My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones.”


Below is the text of the speech made by Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, in the House of Commons on 4 July 2019.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for the opportunity to make a statement to the House on the 10th report of the Transport Committee, “Local roads funding and maintenance: filling the gap”, which we published on Monday. The successful preparation of all our reports depends on the hard work of the Committee’s Clerks and staff, the diligence of the Members who make up our Committee—I am glad to see my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) in the Chamber—and the generosity of our witnesses, who give up their time to prepare for and take part in our sessions.
I particularly thank Paula Claytonsmith, Lynne Stinson, Lynne Wait and Anne Shaw for ensuring that we heard expert female voices in a male-dominated sector. I am sorry that the Roads Minister, the hon. Member for Northampton North (Michael Ellis), cannot be here today, but he has conveyed his sincere apologies, and I am sure he will pay close attention to Hansard tomorrow.
There is a plague of potholes blighting our local roads and pavements. This is not a new phenomenon, but one that successive Governments and councils across the land have failed to tackle. The consequences of this failure are all around us—we see them every day. I want to talk about the impacts of poor road and pavement conditions, why Government and local authority actions to date have been ineffectual and our report’s recommendations for tackling the problem.
On my journey to work, here in Westminster and out and about in my constituency, I see many examples of cracked and crumbling roads. Just today, a constituent emailed me about Green Lane in Clifton. Last week, Westminster City Council filled a pothole just around the corner from the Department for Transport that I had ridden into on my way home—I confess that it caused me to use some very unparliamentary language.
Our witnesses told us about the serious impacts that potholes have on the lives of pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and other road users. For example, poor pavements can strand older, frail and vulnerable people in their homes. Living Streets has found that nearly a third of adults over 65 felt reluctant to leave the house on foot due to the volume of cracks and uneven surfaces on surrounding streets, and almost two thirds of older people were worried about the state of street surfaces. Nearly half said that well-maintained pavements would make them more likely to go for a walk. Poorly maintained roads create real risks for vulnerable road users. DFT data shows that the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured due to defective road surfaces more than tripled between 2005 and 2017.
Local authorities must compensate motorists for damage to vehicles resulting from poor road conditions, and the cost of doing so has risen dramatically in recent years. Kwik Fit has estimated that the damage caused to vehicles from potholes in 2017 cost £915 million to repair, an increase of more than a third on the repair bill in 2016. Based on its share of Britain’s car insurance market, the AA has estimated that 3,500 claims had been made for pothole damage in 2017. The cost of this compensation ultimately falls on taxpayers, and it diverts money away from funding vital public services.
One of the most frustrating things about poor road conditions—this came through very clearly in our evidence—is the lack of any consistent reporting tool that drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and other road users can use to report problem potholes. Some councils have their own online tools, and there are nationwide sites such as FixMyStreet, but there is a lack of transparency around the whole reporting process, little clarity about what will be done and no guarantee that people will get a reply. Mark Morrell—“Mr Pothole”—for years a doughty campaigner against the pothole scourge, made a powerful case to us to fix this.
Why, year after year, do these problems persist? Why have successive Governments and local councils not done anything about them? In truth, they have tried, but their efforts have been inconsistent, and as a result the outcomes have been sub-optimal. They are constrained by three key things: funding, information and collaboration.
The key issue is funding. For decades, councils have complained that they do not have the funding to undertake a preventive—and, ultimately, cheaper and more effective—approach to maintaining their local roads and pavements. Successive Governments have responded to this by providing short-term, stop-start capital pots, such as the pothole action fund. Any extra funding is of course welcome, but the wrong funding in the wrong place at the wrong time means that councils simply mitigate the most obvious damage. It does not encourage the more effective, proactive maintenance that is the key to the long-term renewal of our local roads, as we heard from council after council.
The second issue is that councils sometimes do not have a full picture of the state of their road networks. If they do not know what they are dealing with, how can they plan and price maintenance properly? This lack of knowledge can be improved by innovating in data collection methods. There has been good work in this area in recent years, and there is a real desire on the part of Government and industry to work together to find solutions.
We heard about a similar willingness to innovate in the third area—good practice and collaboration. There is a real opportunity for initiatives such as the use of recycled plastic, self-repairing technology, graphene and even drones to bring down the cost of road repairs. We heard about the innovation and good practice going on across the country, but it was not always easy for this to be shared beyond individual councils and regions.
Our report makes a series of detailed recommendations to the Government to tackle these problems, and I want to highlight four of them. First and foremost, funding: there is not enough of it, and what there is is not allocated efficiently or effectively. Local government revenue funding has fallen by about 25% since 2010. The allocation within it for local roads is not ring-fenced, and it is often used by councils to plug gaps in other budgets. Capital funding, through the pothole action fund and other pots, is sporadic and time-limited.
To tackle this problem we recommend a front-loaded, long-term funding settlement for local councils in England. The DFT should champion it, and the Treasury should seriously consider it as part of the forthcoming spending review. This would enable local authorities to address the historical road maintenance backlog and plan confidently for the future. The settlement should not only include capital pots managed by the DFT, but roll up into a five-year settlement the revenue support elements of roads funding administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This critical funding reform must not be an excuse for a budget cut.
Secondly, innovation is essential if the efficiency and effectiveness of local road maintenance is to continue to improve, which it must in the face of limited funding. It is right that the Government stimulate and encourage innovation, but the value for money of any investment is properly repaid only when new technologies, ideas and ways of working are scaled up and made available to all. In the light of this, we have recommended that the DFT work across government to collate all innovation funding for local roads in one place, establish as far as possible common rules for bidding and properly assess the benefits of innovation initiatives.
Thirdly, local authorities will be able to make better use of available funds for road maintenance only if they can target such funding well, and this requires good data. The DFT needs to be clear about whether the data it receives from local authorities on road conditions is consistent and allows valid comparisons to be made. It needs to be clear what it does with such data, how it is analysed and what action is taken on the back of the conclusions it draws. The DFT should also make it easier for the public to report road condition concerns and access local authority road condition data. We recommend that it does this by running an innovation competition to develop a platform the public can use to make online reports about road conditions directly to their council and to access real-time local road condition data.
Fourthly, making the best use of the available funding requires the sharing and adoption of good practice in road maintenance. This is a key role for central Government. The DFT should commit to monitoring and reviewing the current approach and reporting within two years on its effects and impacts. Local councils and industry are developing good practice in highway survey and maintenance. However, from the evidence we have received, it is not always clear that this is being widely shared. Regional highway alliances should be sharing good practice and benchmarking it against one another. The DFT could do more to facilitate this—for example, by providing a virtual good practice toolkit and repository, so that councils across England can find examples of good practice.
In conclusion, local roads are the arteries of prosperous and vibrant villages, towns and cities. They are critical to the movement of goods, as well as helping people to get around. The consequences of a deteriorating local road network are significant. It undermines local economic performance and results in direct costs to taxpayers. The safety of other road users is seriously compromised. This plague of potholes is a major headache for everyone. It is time for the Government to be bold, to take up our recommendations and to give councils the funding and the wider system of support that they need if they are to deliver for our constituents the roads and pavements they deserve.


MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Miami Heat fans have gotten used to being able to pass on watching the NBA Draft while Pat Riley has been in charge. With the 2011 NBA Draft just hours away, the Heat has all of one pick in the draft at the top of the second-round.
It’s not without a certain sense of irony that Riley despises the draft so much, yet the Heat’s best player, guard Dwyane Wade, was selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2003 draft.READ MORE: Coast Guard Recovers 1 Body In Search For 38 After Boat Capsizes Off Florida Coast
Nevertheless, the Heat are more than happy to not have a first-round pick this year or in the next few years since those picks helped bring them LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
While the likelihood of finding an impact player at the top of the second-round is slim, the Heat do have two areas of need: point guard and center. Point guard will likely be the Heat’s target in with the 31st pick in the draft, according to Heat vice-president of player personnel Chet Kammerer.
At the point guard position, there are three players at the top of the Heat’s wish list: Reggie Jackson of Boston College, Shelvin Mack of Butler, and Nolan Smith of Duke.
Jackson has a huge 7-foot wingspan and is 6’3” tall, which is a great size for a point guard. He’s a good shooter and can put the ball on the floor to make a play. He’s reportedly been promised to be drafted by a few teams including the Boston Celtics. If he’s there, the Heat will waste no time submitting the pick.READ MORE: Broward Sheriff's Investigators Looking For Two People Accused In Gas Station Confrontation
Nolan Smith is more of a safe pick. He’s a four-year player at Duke who took over last season and led the Blue Devils deep into the NCAA tournament after likely number one overall pick Kyrie Irving went down with an injury.
Smith is mature and would provide great depth to the Heat’s roster at the point guard position.
Mack is an intriguing prospect out of Butler. He had a subpar junior season, but he was also a key cog in Butler making back-to-back trips to the NCAA Championship game. Mack averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3 assists per game as a junior. He’s also likely to be a backup who will provide depth to the Heat’s roster.
Finally, if the Heat chooses to look for a big man, there’s a strong chance a potential steal could be on the board at 31. Purdue forward JaJuan Johnson is 6’10” and was a great scorer who improved each year during his four years as a Boilermaker.
He will need to put on weight, but if he can, he would give great depth to the Heat’s frontline. He could work alongside last year’s pick, Dexter Pittman, as both battle for a spot on the active roster.MORE NEWS: Getting To Know New CBS4 News Co-Anchor Kendis Gibson
The NBA Draft starts at 7:30 p.m.


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Cyber attacks affect the finances of every healthcare institution like no other. This development unmasks a truth that can’t be hidden by the healthcare industry—it has become a prime target of cyber attacks. The healthcare industry is facing a host of cyber security issues, which has
According to industry experts, the average cost of a data breach is nearly $6 million. And while many organizations understand the importance of preparing for a breach, few understand what it could cost to recover from an attack and what cyber criminals might be after.
As technology becomes increasingly important for successful business operations, the value of a strong cyber liability insurance policy continues to grow. According to Home Health Care News’ article, With Data Breaches on the Rise, Home Health Providers Especially Vulnerable, the numb


Democracy comes at a high price. Needless to say, US elections are more expensive than anywhere else in the world and their value is only climbing. Taking into account inflation and rising prices, the cost of an election has increased more than 250 times from Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to Donald Trump in 2016, where a total of $6.5 billion dollars was spent on the presidential and congressional campaigns. 2020 has smashed the record of election spending, with the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that monitors and analyses finance in politics, estimating that $14 billion was spent, a figure which trumps (if you’ll pardon the pun) the GDP of sixty countries.
Money does not determine the outcome of elections, as Trump proved in 2016, when he spent just half of what Clinton spent, but it does help. Not merely because of the immense number of television and social media adverts, it is more because the money behind a campaign tends to be a good indicator of the size of a party’s support base. But what is the money spent on and is there a limit to how much money donors can offer?
Over the past year, Trump raised a total of $595.6 million, with his top donors including America First Action and Preserve America PAC (political action committee). Meanwhile Biden surpassed this figure, raising $937.7 million, with significant donations from Priorities USA Action and Future Forward USA. The Center for Responsive Politics revealed that the 2020 presidential race (without congressional campaigning) cost a grand total of $6.6 billion, which was more than the entire 2016 election. Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said that “donors poured record amounts of money into the 2018 midterms, and 2020 appears to be continuation of that trend, but magnified”.
Infographic courtesy of Cocosign – see their full article The Presidency VS The Cost: A Revelatory Glide to the Campaign Costs of U.S. Presidential Elections [140 Years Timeline]
John F. Kennedy’s 1960 election campaign is arguably where expensive elections originate from. In the early days of the election, before a democratic nominee had even been decided, Kennedy came under attack from his opponent, Hubert Humphrey, for spending excessive amounts of money in an attempt to win the nomination. At the time of the complaint, JFK had spent $72,000 ($750,000 today), and he was, in Humphrey’s words, running the “most plush, the most extravagant” campaign in American history.
Kennedy’s fixation on his image undoubtedly won him the election and set a precedent for future candidates. The first televised presidential debate played a great role in this, where 66.4 million households tuned in. At the time of the debate, Kennedy and Nixon were neck and neck in the polls. Unlike Nixon, Kennedy, knew the power of television and he rigorously prepared for the questions, chose a suit which would make him stand out, and asked his team to give him makeup touch-ups. Although Nixon is said to have spoken better and seemed more convincing on the radio, the American public took notice of the appearance of the two candidates, and the majority voted for Kennedy.
Donations for candidates tend to come from several benefactors. The BBC reported that one-third of campaign donations come from American citizens, with people giving on average $200 or less. The proportion of donations from women has significantly increased: this year, more than 1.5 million women have donated to federal committees. However, a larger proportion of the money comes from a small group of wealthy donors; in 2016, $1 billion was donated by just two-hundred people. A substantial amount of money is also levied through lavish dinners hosted by candidates. The rule though, is that only Americans can donate.
Twelve years ago, the legality of election spending was called into question, but not for the reason you may be thinking. In 2008, a case arose when Citizens United, a conservative non-profit organisation, released an advert criticising Hillary Clinton, who was running to be the Democrat candidate. By doing so, Citizens United were violating the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which regulated corporate spending for political campaigns and forbade any corporation or union from producing election adverts.
Citizens United were outraged and in 2010 went to court, where it was ruled, in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, that the first amendment of the constitution (freedom of speech) prohibited the government from limiting the amount or nature of donations and support from independent corporations. The court also overturned Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce which restricted corporations from donating or using treasury money to endorse election candidates. Ultimately, both rulings paved the way for profit and non-profit organisations spending millions on election communications.
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The donations that candidates receive are diversely spent. Half of the money in the 2016 election was spent on media exposure, namely television and social media adverts. Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who ran for the 2020 Democrat nomination, spent $320 million on television adverts and spent more on Facebook adverts than Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg and Warren combined.
The pandemic has increased the scope for digital adverts: as candidates were forced to rely on their online presence, political groups spent over $1 billion to advertise on platforms like Facebook and Google. Money is spent elsewhere too. Staff salaries consumed $85 million of Hillary Clinton’s donations, and Donald Trump spent a colossal $3 million on his ‘Make America Great Again’ caps.
Facebook adverts have seen the birth of an era of American oligarchy, where money and politics are dangerously intertwined and stand to threaten democracy itself. Cambridge Analytica’s infamous role in Trump 2016 success must also be noted. According to the Federal Election Commission, the Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica $5.9 million, $5 million of which was used for political adverts.
The company’s principal aim was to develop comprehensive profiles of every American voter, and then pass information to the Republican Party in order for them to tailor their adverts personally. They also assembled a list of people likely to offer donations to the Republicans, with a Trump aide revealing that Cambridge Analytica’s work was essential in securing $80 million worth of donations. Finally, Trump used the firm to discourage nearly 3.5 million black voters from going to the polls and voting for Hillary Clinton, an explicit example of how election funding can lead to a suppression of democracy.
America is already deeply, politically divided, and as more money is pumped into elections, cynicism and distrust is becoming increasingly pronounced. In a 2014 study by two political scientists, it was revealed that economic elites and independent corporations had the ability to substantially impact American government policy, while average citizens lacked anywhere near as much influence.
Ten years ago, a billion-dollar candidate was unheard of, and yet today, the price tag on the White House has “significantly outpaced the price of gold” in the last century. As the Guardian reported, “democracy is broken if someone can parachute into an election at the last minute and spend unlimited amounts”. Populism is rife, and with increasing interference from external bodies in elections, referendums, and government policies, who knows what is in store for the future of UK, and global democracy.


Caring for London’s homeless and working to ease their despair with impactful new initiatives is a centrepiece of Ms Farah London’s campaign for Mayor.
In December 2020 there were an estimated 700 rough sleepers on a typical night in London and the number is growing. 2019 figures confirm there were a total of 170,068 homeless people in the capital either staying with friends, squatting, or living in a hostel, night shelter or temporary Bed and Breakfast. 148 people died while homeless last year.
Ms London has recently announced plans for free homeless hygiene centres, to provide practical help and to address the chronic health concerns faced by the homeless, which have been compounded by the COVID outbreak. Today she has announced a fast-tracked housing strategy with two key elements. The provision of new, low cost, sustainably designed housing in the form of eco villages and a program to urgently refurbish London’s neglected government housing, that has lain fallow for years.
Building new low cost eco villages using innovative building technologies including converted shipping containers and prefabricated modular housing is key to Ms London’s vision. The fully self-contained villages will be scalable and modular in design capable of accommodating anywhere between 50 to 500 residents depending on the location. They will be a mix of shared and independent living arrangements suitable as long-term housing. City Hall will work with local companies, to fine tune and develop solutions that deploy leading edge renewable technologies and sustainable, low impact building practices. The villages becoming a showcase for British design capability and attracting sponsorship from private firms keen to demonstrate their green credentials.
Ms London stated “for too long the issue of London’s homeless has been viewed as impossible or as if the majority of homeless people are happy and don’t want to change. It is simple, we need to take action. We need to empower the homeless to change their lives and to do that they need somewhere to live, to put their lives in order and to allow them to start contributing and putting back into society. This will benefit all of us, improving our city and raising the standard of living for all Londoners.”
The refurbishment of the Newham tower blocks, cleared by the local council for the Olympics and which encompass 400 hundred flats, which currently remain empty, will also be an immediate priority for Ms London. The empty tower blocks, are considered an embarrassment for the local authorities given the current housing shortages, and viewed as the subject of inaction and neglect by successive governments.
Ms London said “how can it be possible that so much important housing has been allowed to decay and remain empty when Newham has the highest level of homelessness in the country– one out of every 24 people, the highest number of children living in poverty, the worst overcrowding of homes at 25%, and the highest number in the country of households in temporary accommodation. Added to this Newham has one of the worst Covid19 death rates in Britain. This simply will not continue on my watch.”
It is proposed that work will commence immediately on identifying available sites for the eco villages. Potential allotments at the Olympic Park precinct, directly under the Mayors control, will be made available immediately. Ms London will also work together with the leaders of other relevant boroughs to identify sites across London where the needs are most pressing.
Ms London said “yes this will be an opportunity to showcase new building technologies but most importantly it is about adopting technology with a very quick turnaround time that will provide low cost, appropriate housing where it is needed most. I will work together with the Boroughs where, with the right leadership from City Hall, we can expect to see plenty of good will to get these projects off the ground quick-smart after many years of neglect.”


Usha Uthup was Honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Radiant Wellness Conclave 2023, which was presented by Dr. Renuka David, Col. David Devasahayam and Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan”
Chennai, 16th September: The Radiant Group of Companies organised its annual Radiant Wellness Conclave (RWC) – a premier event focused on holistic wellness, on the 16th of September. This captivating event, curated by the brand’s mentor Dr. Shashi Tharoor, featured some of the country’s most illustrious thought leaders and speakers at the Taj Coromandel in Chennai. The theme of the Conclave’s 6th edition was – ‘Power of Possibilities,’ through the nine dimensions of wellness.
The Radiant Wellness Conclave is an intellectual property of the Radiant Group of Companies and has grown to be one of the largest gatherings in Chennai, highlighting the importance of wellness in today’s urban society. This year’s lineup of speakers included distinguished individuals such as Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, Barkha Dutt, actor-director Revathi, Maj Gen Vikram Dev Dogra AVSM, Gen Devraj Anbu, Lt Gen Sandhu, Dr. Shriram Madhav Nene and Raju Venkatraman, each sharing unique insights into the discourse on holistic wellness. There was also a panel discussion with start-up entrepreneurs. Following the discourse, there was an entertaining musical evening featuring legendary singer Usha Uthup, who was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Dr. Renuka David, Col. David Devasahayam and Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan.
The Radiant Wellness Conclave is a not-for-profit event organized by Radiant Foundation, a CSR initiative by the Radiant Group of Companies. This year’s theme centered around the concept of wellness equilibrium, fostering a conscientious society that values wellness across all parameters, including Physical, Spiritual, Intellectual, Financial, Occupational, Health, Technology, and Emotional aspects.
“We believe in creating a better India by nurturing disruptive and thought leadership in the nine dimensions of wellness,” said Dr. Renuka David, Founder of Radiant Wellness Conclave. “I was a gynaecologist and frontier doctor for several years in the Indian Army. After I moved to Chennai, I realised there were a lot of gynaecologists, but the real need of the hour was to address lifestyle diseases. According to a report published this year by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India, non-communicable diseases account for 53% of the nation’s deaths and 44% of disability-adjusted life-years lost. Around 77 million people live with diabetes. Both rural and urban populations suffer from hypertension. The current life expectancy here is 70.42 years, as opposed to 77.28 in the US, 81.75 in Canada, and 84.62 in Japan. So, we really need to address some of these issues. Along the way, I’ve also realised it’s not just important to be physically fit. One needs to focus on other aspects of wellness as well; for instance, being financially sound; or looking after mother earth through the concept of environmental wellness. So, we’ve consciously looked for experts and thought leaders in these fields who would share their insights with us. What makes this conclave truly special it is that it’s a live conclave. It will be streamed live, and we will connect to people instantly along with regular social media updates.”
About Dr. Renuka David:
Dr. Renuka David is the dynamic Managing Director of Radiant Medical Services. With extensive experience, she offers holistic solutions for disease prevention, emphasizing healthy lifestyles. An alumna of Coimbatore Medical College, Dr. David has been a frontier doctor, working extensively on women’s and young adults’ well-being in urban, rural, and tribal India. She’s a TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and wellness expert. Dr Renuka David is the Creative Editor of Medals & Ribbons, a quarterly magazine about the Indian Armed Forces.
The Radiant Wellness Conclave attracts a diverse audience, including professionals, corporate heads, entrepreneurs, educators, and an exuberant youth force from local colleges. This year, the event was live-streamed, ensuring that its impactful discussions reach a broader online viewership. “We are excited to bring back the physical format of the Conclave after two years of virtual events due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Renuka David.
The Radiant Wellness Conclave has consistently elevated the level of debate, discourse, and discussion surrounding wellness, featuring prominent speakers like Abhinav Bindra, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Nandita Das, Lisa Ray, Meghna Gulzar, and R Madhavan in previous years. The event’s impact extends beyond the Conclave through projects like Radiant Ashraya, Radiant Sambandh, Radiant Shiksha, and COVID-19 relief initiatives, showcasing Radiant Foundation’s commitment to social responsibility.
About Col. David Devasahayam:
Col. David Devasahayam, Chairman and Managing Director of the Radiant Group of Companies, is the Patron of the Radiant Wellness Conclave. A veteran of the Indian Army, he founded Radiant Cash Management Services, leading it to a successful IPO in January 2023. He’s an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Harvard Business School. Among his awards are Asia’s Greatest Leader and Excellence in Entrepreneurship. He has also received an Award of Excellence last year from Members of the UK Parliament, House of Lords and Vice Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on UK India Trade & Investment for stewarding the Radiant Group of Companies.
About Radiant Wellness Conclave:
The Radiant Wellness Conclave is an annual event organized by Radiant Foundation, a CSR initiative of the Radiant Group of Companies. The Conclave brings together esteemed thought leaders to discuss wellness across various dimensions and inspire positive change in society.


Reviewing Professor Misagh Parsa’s Democracy in Iran, the paper says, “Although Mr. Parsa barely discusses U.S. policy toward Iran, his book is easily the most important work in English on the Islamic Republic since the revolution.”
The online magazine presents a slideshow documenting Katie Bono’s trip up Denali, in which the alumna, a former Nordic skier at Dartmouth, set a record for women making the ascent up the highest mountain peak in North America.
In a story about the Posse Foundation program helping veterans connect with elite schools, the magazine notes that since Vassar enrolled its first Posse cohort, only two other schools, Dartmouth and Wesleyan, have become program partners.
In a story about Associate Professor Soo Sunny Park’s exhibit at New Hampshire’s Currier Museum of Art, NHPR says, “After decades of making everything herself, Sunny now has help turning her ideas into sculptures big enough to fill rooms.”
In a story about the troubled ride service, the newspaper turns to Tuck School of Business Professor Sydney Finkelstein, who says, “This is going to be a classic business school case study, there’s no question.”
In an opinion piece about partisan animus, the newspaper cites research by Dartmouth’s Sean Westwood and a Stanford colleague that indicated that party affiliation is the major divide in American society today.
“We’ve known that extremist groups have been weaponizing the internet for years,” says Dartmouth’s Hany Farid, who studies ways to eliminate extremist content from the internet. Why, he asks, has Facebook been so slow to deal with it?
“I’m not persuaded that the historical evidence actually shows that if leaders have military experience themselves, or if they have family members that served, it makes them less likely to go to war,” says Dartmouth’s Edward Miller.
“Don’t tweet, post, Instagram, or email anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing on the front page of The New York Times,” said Jake Tapper ’91 in his commencement speech, which USA Today listed among the best of the year.
In a story about the relevance Shakespeare’s play has to politics today, the paper turns for comment to Dartmouth’s Brett Gamboa. A 1937 production was “like nothing anybody had ever seen,” he says, and influenced many subsequent productions.
In a column, Dartmouth’s Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon write that “Mr. Trump has ... lined up behind Iran’s main rivals, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies,” whose interests “aren’t necessarily identical with those of the U.S.”
The Geisel School of Medicine’s Associate Professor of Medicine Tim Lahey says some symptoms should make people decide not to fly. “There are some viruses that just go like wildfire through close quarters,” Lahey tells The Huffington Post.
Professor of Computer Science Hany Farid says he’s “not buying the story” that tech companies can’t delete extremist content because it would possibly lead to more censorship. “That’s a smokescreen, saying there’s a gray area,” he says.
In an AP story published in the Times, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Emily Whiting discusses a system she and colleagues created to replicate parts of challenging climbs so they can be practiced on indoor climbing walls.
Two biologists believe they’ve discovered how human brains encode facial images, writes the paper. “Cracking the code for faces would definitely be a big deal,” Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and brain sciences, tells the paper.
American democracy’s health has worsened “for the first time in recent history,” writes the newspaper in a story about Bright Line Watch, created by Professors John Carey and Brendan Nyhan and colleagues from Yale and Rochester universities.
Michael Sateia, an active emeritus professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine, talks about benefits of getting enough sleep—better powers of concentration, better health—and the downside of getting too little.
Senior Lecturer Gerald Auten’s “meticulously rendered drawings” ask viewers to “consider how a culture memorializes itself,” writes the newspaper. A show of Auten’s work continues through June 8 at the Aidron Duckworth Museum in Meriden, N.H.


Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, while taking a stock of the rising number of deaths in Muzzafarpur and surrounding areas due to encephalitis, said that he is coordinating with state authorities and health officials to deal with the disease.
Calling Tamil Nadu a "water-
scarcity" state, Karunanidhi on Sunday said the Centre should "wake-up" and take responsible and pro-active
steps to solve water disputes the state has with Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka.


Just before our 10:30 service began this morning the lights in the sanctuary went out. The lights throughout the building went out. The air-conditioning went off. The screens and the sound system shut down. The power went out. We went ahead with worship, and many of those who were there reported a heightened worship experience because of the power outage. But the whole time I kept thinking about the shut-ins and those who listen in on the radio. Without power, we can’t broadcast and without power we couldn’t explain to those who would have been listening what was going on. If you speak to a shut-in this week, please let them know we’re sorry and that we missed having them worship with us. The sermon should be online soon. If you know someone who would like to listen, but doesn’t have internet access, let us know, and we’ll be happy to burn them a CD.


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After Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who very much wants to succeed John Boehner as House Speaker, essentially admitted that the Benghazi hearings were intended to hurt Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers, a very different Kevin McCarthy begin receiving some angry backlash on Twitter.
While Congressman McCarthy uses the Twitter handle @GOPLeader, the man who owns @KevinMcCarthy just happens to be a Hillary Clinton supporter from Iowa.
On the same day Boehner announced his resignation from Congress, McCarthy tweeted:
— Kevin T. McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthy) September 25, 2015
Now, less than two weeks later, McCarthy has teamed up with The Briefing, part of Clinton’s campaign apparatus that aims to debunk misinformation about the candidate, to produce a video ad intended to clear up the confusion. Both Hillary Clinton and McCarthy shared the video they put together on Twitter Wednesday:
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 7, 2015
— Kevin T. McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthy) October 7, 2015
“You know, it was really funny at first,” McCarthy says in the ad about the trolling tweets accidentally sent his way. “And then they just kept going and going and going.” After playing a clip of McCarthy’s remarks, he urges people to direct their anger at House Republicans and not his unrelated Twitter feed. “Oh and by the way, go Hillary!” he adds at the end of the spot.
This new online ad is just the latest example of Clinton’s decision to seize on Rep. McCarthy’s unfiltered comments as proof that Republicans care more about taking her down than getting to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi. She called his comments “deeply distressing” in an interview last week and included them in her first national TV commercial released this week.
[Photo via screengrab]
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Three Contemporary Painters Who Just Happen to Be Women
January 8th – February 15th
Reception: Saturday, January 10th
The upcoming winter exhibit at Carrie Haddad Gallery will feature works by three diverse artists; Darshan Russell, Eileen Murphy and Donise English. The title of the exhibit “Three Contemporary Artists Who Just Happen to Be Women” emphasizes the gender of the artists in the exhibit.Gallerist Carrie Haddad enjoys giving equal exhibition time to women so she has planned this show to follow up on two artists who have been with the gallery for some time; Darshan Russell and Donise English, and to introduce a new artist to the gallery, Eileen Murphy.
The colors and feeling of Darshan Russell’s compositions are greatly influenced by Matisse, but her inspiration comes directly from life and the simple scenes that surround her in Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Hudson and other Hudson River towns where she paints. Occasionally, Ms. Russell will paint cities that she has traveled to like New York, Baltimore, Portland and Paris, but the bulk of her work documents local scenes and local people. Family photos and photographs from the Poughkeepsie Journal or the New York Times inspire much of her figurative work. Portraits of Madelaine Albright, Barak Obama, and Mayor Dinkins are part of her repertoire, as well as less prominent individuals.
Ms. Russell’s paintings have a unique look that can be contributed to her practice of daily painting and years of dedication to develop a primitive style all her own.
In 1993, Rich O’Corozine of the Poughkeepsie Journal wrote, “With vision comes transformation, and Darshan Russell has the power to transform. With paintings so potent and beautifully realized that one wonders of the pain inherent in their gestation, Russell’s paintings are magical interpretations of a Poughkeepsie that few can ever visit.”
And, critic Wayne Lempka writes, “Russell’s works are truly seductive. One is immediately lured into them by their lively surface and bright colors. Her grouping of three separate New York City scenes is a fine display with their whirlwind of furious brushwork and quirky stacking of shapes. One feels the continual motion of life in the city even when some of the works lack a human presence.”
Russell has studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Suny New Paltz and VassarCollege and currently lives in Poughkeepsie.
Local artist Donise English received a BS in Art History at SUNY New Paltz and a MFA in Painting at BardCollege.She has received numerous awards and has exhibited in galleries and museums across the country including, the Bronx Museum of Art, the DeCordova Museum of Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.English currently teaches at MaristCollege.For this exhibit, Ms. English has created encaustic works on paper and panel.Encaustic, or pigmented beeswax, has been in use as an artistic medium since the 5th century, B.C. Despite the difficulty of working with a medium that must be melted in order to be used, encaustics have long been prized for their translucent, varnished effect.
The abstract pieces featured in this exhibit remind the viewer of tribal art or cave drawings with spirals and simplistic images.Other works on panel combine geometric shapes and line drawing in layers of soft colors.
Born in Yorktown Heights, NY, Eileen Murphy received her BA at MountHolyokeCollege and her MFA at Pratt Institute.She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
This will be her first exhibit at Carrie Haddad Gallery.Ms. Murphy is a representational painter and the subject of her recent work is Brooklyn.There are paintings of the WilliamsburgBridge, the underbelly of freeways, and colorful views of rooftops and graffitied walls in the commercial districts, which all look beautiful and crisp in Murphy’s large oil on canvas paintings.
In the Backroom gallery, another female artist, Jessica Houston, is featured with a mini exhibit of new works inspired by the artist's passion for the Arctic.
"My work," writes Ms. Houston, "is an investigation of ephemera and transformation of the everyday. I often use found materials that either reveal or subvert underlying formative principles. Whether I’m painting over newspapers, making installations from objects collected in the Arctic, intervening in public spaces, or inviting scientists to interact, I am driven by subtle shifts in perception and a rearrangement of form. I’m drawn to the fleeting experience that allows for impermanence, chance, unpredictability and tenuous stability. I’m looking for the possibility of revelation through simple means, a place and a moment where now dissolves into always, and always into now."
For over a year, Jessica Houston has been painting over newspapers—obliterating, whiting out, and rearranging the page. The underlying typographical structure is laid bare by the absence of language and a parallel, simultaneously existing abstraction is exposed. These are works about sustaining an epiphany of bodily presence while working within parameters of pre-determined systems. The newspaper provides a constant format within which there is no possibility of prediction, allowing chance to provide the parameters of the work. In their multilayered process of making, Houston's paintings become a palimpsest—a chance to sand away and begin anew.
Three Contemporary Artists Who Just Happen to Be Women will run from January 8th through February 15th with a reception for the artists on Saturday, January 10th for .All are welcome to attend.
Carrie Haddad Gallery is located at 622 Warren Street in Hudson, NY.Gallery hours are daily and for the winter the gallery will be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.You can call the gallery for directions or more information at (518) 828-1915 or check the website at www.carriehaddadgallery.com


Johnnie Boden and Gymshark founder Ben Francis recognised in New Year's Honours
Johnnie Boden, founder of Boden, and Ben Francis, the founder of fitness clothing brand Gymshark have both been recognised – with a CBE and MBE respectively – in the King's New Year's Honours list.
John Peter Boden, better known as Johnnie and one of the UK's best-known entrepreneurs, has been awarded the CBE for services to Fashion and to the Retail Sector, while Ben Francis, who is well on his way to billionaire status, received his MBE for services to the Business Sector.
Boden is a former stockbroker who set up Boden, a mainstay fashion brand for the British middle class, in 1991 with just an eight-piece menswear collection, which was modelled by his friends. Womenswear arrived the following year with kidswear in 1996.
He pioneered the use of home shopping catalogues for stylish brands and the brand was an early adopter of e-commerce launching its first transactional website in 1999. While predominantly a home shopping brand, Boden did venture in to retail with stores in Hangar Lane and Westfield London (though this store has since been closed), and it is also sold in select branches of John Lewis.
Known for its colourful, relaxed designs, in autumn of this year the brand unveiled a new corporate identity and a fresh, contemporary take on its clothing which Boden described as "Evolution, not revolution."
Meanwhile Ben Francis, who is still only 30, is appointed MBE. He now presides over a brand that is worth more than £1 billion with Francis himself said to be worth around £900 million.
He began making his own gym clothes from his parents garage in 2012 and went on to successfully harness the power of social media to create a community around Gymshark, which is the fitness brand of choice for Gen Z and millennial gym-goers.
Francis has had a big year, opening a huge experiential retail store on London's Regent Street and the last post on his Linked-in profile spoke of his impending paternity leave as he was about to become a father of twins. He is the youngest person on the honours list to be recognised for services to business.
Other industry figures recognised on the list include British Vogue publishing director and chief business officer at Condé Nast added the OBE to her existing MBE for services to the media industry, while celebrated hair dresser Sam McKnight was awarded the OBE for services to the British fashion and beauty industries.
Nicola Taylor, national coordinator, Fashion Revolution Scotland received the MBE for services to the Promotion of Net Zero Apparel in Scotland.
Dame Mary Quant has been recognised with one of the highest honours on the list, the Companion of Honour. Only 65 Companions of Honour exist at one time with current holders of the award including Dame Maggie Smith and Sir David Attenborough. Dame Mary, who is 92, was recognised for her outstanding contribution to British culture. Read our separate story on Dame Mary's award here.


Even if it was predictable and even though it also was happening elsewhere, the news out of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship was still jarring.
And also all too familiar.
Second-seeded Kansas has withdrawn from the tournament semifinals after another positive COVID-19 test by a player. The news that third-seed Texas will advance to Saturday’s Big 12 tournament final for the first time since 2011 was secondary.
The Longhorns will face fifth-seeded Oklahoma State, which upset top seed Baylor 83-74 behind 25 points, eight rebounds and five by freshman Cade Cunningham. The Cowboys had a late 11-0 run to take control and hand Baylor just its second loss.
The Jayhawks became the third name brand to exit its conference tournament this week because of COVID-19 protocols.
Duke saw its ACC tournament, season and streak of 24 consecutive NCAA Tournaments all end. Defending NCAA champion Virginia — going back to that memorable 2019 final against Texas Tech — also got knocked out of the ACC.
The Kansas announcement came a year to the day from when the pandemic forced the cancellation of the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.
Ahead of Selection Sunday and 68 teams heading to Indianapolis for March Madness, it’s not an encouraging sign. No wonder the NCAA has said teams will be able to participate in the tournament with just five healthy players.
Yes, the NCAA is taking all kinds of precautions to make sure its biggest cash cow by far doesn’t get canceled for a second straight season.
While not a true NBA-style bubble, the setup in Indianapolis will be fairly close.
Of course, the Big 12 did its best, buying out Kansas City hotels for the men and for the women, with a single floor for each team. Access was very limited as was fan attendance and media access.
You could argue that maybe discretion might have been the better part of valor for conference tournaments this year. In a media availability, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the conference was focused on the tournament although there was talk among coaches about the wisdom of holding a tournament after the season they just experienced.
“I think it’s reasonable to ask those questions,” Bowlsby said Monday.
“But we have obligations, and we have the event on the schedule. I think it’s the right thing to go forward and contest the tournament, so that’s what we’re doing. To directly answer the question, we didn’t have any discussions about not playing the tournament.”
Still something happened with Kansas, which lost two players to positive tests before the tournament began.
“While we have been fortunate to avoid this throughout the season, there are daily risks with this virus that everybody participating is trying to avoid,” Kansas coach Bill Self said in a statement. “We have followed the daily testing and additional protocols that have been set up for us, unfortunately we caught a bad break at the wrong time. I look forward to preparing my team in probably a unique way for next week’s NCAA Tournament.”
Unique way, huh? That’s one way to put it.
Teams have until 11 a.m. Saturday to notify the NCAA if they can’t meet the medical protocol.
“We are exhausting all options to participate in the NCAA Tournament,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said.
Baylor has dealt with COVID-19 throughout the season. Coach Scott Drew tested positive early in the season, and the team went 21 days between games in February during a COVID-19 pause.
“Heart goes out to them because how the players feel about that and how tough it is on them,” Drew said when asked about Kansas, Duke and Virginia. “And I know the concerns the coaching staff has with just the safety and when and if the team will be back and how you go through it.”


No matter your preference, it is always fun when new players are added to the organization. That can mean via trade, free agency, or even an international signing but the excitement about learning how the player found their way to the Cardinals will top my list every time.
St. Louis more than any team in the National League Central has overcome more hurdles when it comes to drafting and still keeps finding players that make a difference. Only the Cards and Yankees can boast what I found to be an utterly amazing stat that just shows how different organizations do business. New York obviously has the money to acquire or sign just about any player (Stanton) but also the longevity as a winning franchise to not have to rely on the draft for talent.
In the modern draft era (since the calendar hit 2000), the Birds on the Bat join the Yankees as the only other club not to have made a selection in the Top 10 of the draft. Think about that for a minute – as good as front office staffs are and the mileage that scouting departments put in, it takes more than luck to find the hidden gems or even ones that fill rolls in the minors. Every year there will be a few top players that slip for whatever reason, and this may again end up being the model chosen by both teams.
The main difference that sets the two model franchises apart outside of market obviously has to be getting the player signed. New York can afford to go big and possibly miss out on a player, but the same can not be said under the Arch. That does limit options to a degree, but the Cards proved in 2016 that they found the model needed headed into this draft season. Holding three selections the first day, St. Louis will be quite busy reading the boards and hoping everything goes to plan.
Looking back at the landmark draft from two years ago, Delvin Perez was that guy too hard to pass up when he fell. Will the same thing happen again and if so, what’s the strategy for finding the money in order to make it a perfect Day 1? The most likely outcomes have already been debated plenty of times in the War Room for the Cardinals, so this is my best guess at figuring out the equation.
Given how deep this draft has developed for picking three in the top 75, St. Louis will be able to decide how to proceed when one or two of the top rated players falls to 19. Much like in 2016 with Perez, the preferred method was to use the 2nd selection on a ‘safe’ pick where the team already knew how much under budget the player would take. Dylan Carlson might not have been rated as a first round talent, but it was a smart play for both sides. Finishing out the round with a monster signing like Dakota Hudson was basically hitting the draft lotto, but those rarely happen multiple times.
This will be called the back-up plan simply because one other team has the exact same set-up as the Cardinals did two years ago. Play close attention to how the Royals draft given that they have four of the first 40 picks and will see five total additions to the system by the end of day one. Oh, and Kansas City first goes on the clock at #18 so they could very well play spoiler to the entire start of the night.
My preferred method of attacking the draft has to be ignoring who falls initially and sticking with the board. That simply means not drifting from the chosen path and taking the best rated player who you know will sign at or below the 3.2 million mark. While there is a fairly large gap between picks, Cleveland and Tampa Bay will have joined the Royals in making at least three selections already which puts St. Louis in the driver’s seat. Look for a highly-rated prospect with a fairly significant price tag to be available before the second round begins, and the Cardinals ready to pull the trigger.
As far as how the board looks, that is truly anyone’s guess at this point. While everyone seems to have a college hurler already destined to be the first pick, the fast-moving pitchers can wait a round or two in my opinion. Give me a player who slots at a position of need (first or third base), already apt at connecting with a wood bat and call it a win. So basically if St. Louis announces Seth Beer with the 19th pick, I will be MIA the rest of the week.
Instead, it would be absolutely amazing to see an under slot deal with Wichita State’s Greyson Jenista or former target Cadyn Grenier with the saved money going to the other first day selections. If anything has been proven the last decade, it is that the Cardinals will use all their resources right up to the loss of an ever-important pick in order to maximize the returns.
After missing out on much of the fun last year, it means even more to see how the drama unfolds with a variety of methods at work. Will the high school talent win out in the end or have some clubs decided the sticker shock isn’t worth it after all? The time for debate has all but passed as the Tigers are on the clock so let the madness begin!


UPDATE: Jefferies Raises PT on Verenium to Match BASF's Bid
In a report published Monday, Jefferies analyst Laurence Alexander reiterated a Hold rating on Verenium Corp. (NASDAQ: VRNM), and raised the price target from $2.60 to $4.00.
In the report, Jefferies noted, “We are raising our price target to match BASF's (BAS GR, Hold) bid of $4, which is expected to close in Q4. We view a counter-offer as highly unlikely. We reiterate our Hold rating.”
Verenium Corp. closed on Friday at $3.98.
Latest Ratings for VRNM
© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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Nov. 27, 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Eight of Virginia's first nine field goals came from the three-point line against Northwestern on Tuesday night, leading to a 94-52 victory in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.
Northwestern (1-4) shot 44 percent in the first half but made only 11 field goals. Freshman Michael Thompson (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park) led the way for the Wildcats with nine points in the first half, 14 overall on the game. Virginia (6-1), conversely, had 12 3-pointers as Mamadi Diane and Calvin Baker combined to go 9-10 from the floor with 27 points. The duo helped UVA to a 54-29 lead at the break.
Jason Okrzesik opened the second half on fire attempting to lead the 'Cats back and scored 12 points to go along with his two rebounds and a steal. Overall on the game, the Wildcats shot 35.7 percent, while the Cavaliers made almost 52 percent of their shots.
The tone was set very early, after Virginia fell behind 4-3. Adrian Joseph gave the Cavs the lead with a 3-pointer, and Jamil Tucker followed with another. Following a 3 by Thompson, Sean Singletary and Diane both made one for the Cavaliers.
Before the Wildcats scored again, Baker hit a 3-pointer and the Cavaliers' first 2-point basket, Joseph hit his second 3-pointer and Baker's second made it 26-11.
Virginia then snuffed out Northwestern's comeback attempt after the break, starting the second half on a 9-2 run capped by another 3-pointer by Diane.
Craig Moore grabbed a team-high six rebounds and Mike Capocci snagged five of the 'Cats 28. Both Moore and Thompson added two three-pointers, as well, and held the Cavs to a 4-of-12 performance from beyond the arc in the second half.
The loss marked NU's first in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge since 2005 as it beat Miami in last year's Challenge. The victory, meanwhile, gave the Cavaliers a 5-3 record in the annual matchup with the Big Ten and a 12-game win streak at John Paul Jones Arena.
NU makes its fourth-straight appearance for a national audience at 11 a.m. on Saturday when it takes on Savannah State at Welsh-Ryan Arena.


Jul 6, 2014, 8:35 AM EST
The Nigeria football federation were voted out of office on Saturday, accused of having botched the country’s World Cup campaign. But the Super Eagles face suspension from international competition if they do not restore the leadership to power by Tuesday.
Earlier in the week, a regional high court ordered the dismissal of the Nigerian football federation executive, including the president, Aminu Maigari. The court then appointed a temporary caretaker, who ordered the elections held on Saturday. A statement following the removal of the leadership read:
The Congress bemoaned the unfortunate incident of the international embarrassment caused by failure of the Aminu Maigari-led NFF to fully and firmly resolve issues of finance with the Super Eagles ahead of the championship.
Nigeria players threatened to strike before their Round of 16 matchup with France, but resumed training after several players spoke with the country’s president, who reassured them that their bonus money would be paid. Nigeria then held out for nearly 80 minutes against les bleus, before errors allowed France a 2-0 win and sent the Super Eagles home.
FIFA rules permit for the suspension of countries from international play when governments have interfered in the running of the country’s federation. The court order, the rapid call for new elections and the speed with which the federation’s executive was dismantled have FIFA concerned, which is why they are now threatening suspension if Nigeria do not restore the previous executive.
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- Three things we learned from Liverpool’s win vs. Manchester City 3
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- MLS roundup: LA Galaxy, Orlando, Red Bulls, Union, RSL, 13 others in preseason finales 0
- WATCH: NYCFC’s Mix Diskerud hits a screamer from 20 yards 0
- WATCH: Michael Bradley, Sebastian Giovinco combine for Jozy Altidore’s first Toronto FC goal 4


h a l f b a k e r y
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It was announced last week that billionaire Robert Sillerman bought control of Elvis Presley Enterprises, and there are strong concerns that he might crack down on Elvis impersonators in order to protect the Elvis brand.
The most likely way this might happen is that Elvis impersonators would have
to get some kind of official authorisation if they want to continue performing.
Now, that could be through paying for a licence from EPE. However, Mr Sillerman also owns American Idol...
...you see where I'm going with this, right?
A massive series of Elvis Elimination Experiences would make for great TV* as different impersonators try to win the audience votes, and gain their official licences. Or perhaps a group of impersonators are summoned to appear each week, with the worst ones being banned from further public performance.
It would be fascinating to see the diverse mix of backgrounds and personalities, and their reasons for being Elvis impersonators.
With the zillions of Elvis impersonators around, this show could run and run. And it's got a ready-made catchphrase, for when the losers are voted off: "Elvis has left the building."
Tune in! Vote now! And find out which King will become *The* King!
*If not in the critical sense, at least in the corpulence stakes.
Elvis Impersonators Under Threat
One of the news articles about this [imaginality, Apr 24 2006]
Shameless plug for my favourite Elvis impersonator. Also does an excellent Tom Jones. [DrBob, May 09 2006]
My second favourite. [DrBob, May 09 2006]
Official Elvis tribute artist contest
Final takes place in Graceland this week [imaginality, Aug 16 2007]
Please log in.
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||I'll be loading my six-gun and putting it by the couch in anticipation.
||I'll be stacking my couch up against the television in anticipation.
||Can we call the winner the "King of Kings"? Just to further highlight the Elvis/Jesus similarities.
||A bun for eliminating Elvi.
||[baconbrain], love the plural, great word. *edits description*
||It would be an interesting project to try and eliminate all
recordings, footage and photographs of Elvis and
surreptitiously replace them with those of Paul Hyu,
a.k.a. Chinese Elvis. I don't have anything against Elvis per
se, I just feel that it's time for a change.
||"It would be fascinating to see the diverse mix of backgrounds and personalities, and their reasons for being Elvis impersonators."
||I think people would have trouble telling them apart thus choosing a favorite
||[RayfordSteele], it *could* be interesting, seeing the real people, their individual quirks and uniquenesses, and then seeing those disappear as they become The King. Not to mention the human drama and the tension as the Elvi try to save their careers.
||In any case, my target audience is the people who watch American Idol and the like, so standards don't have to be too high...
||"So, why did you become an Elvis impersonator?"
Contestant #1: 'cause I looked like him and needed a job.'
Contestant #2: 'cause it's fun.'
Contestant #3: 'cause he's the King!'
Contestant #4: 'cause I lost a bet one night at college'
Contestant #5: 'cause I got stranded in Las Vegas...'
Contestant #6: 'Impersonate? I AM Elvis!'
Contestant #7: 'cause I had a frontal lobotomy...'
Contestant #8: 'part of my deal with the devil...'
Contestant #9: 'cause he dresses real neat'
Contestant #10: 'for the babes, man!'
Contestant #11: ' well, one night while I was puttin' the wheels back on the homestead, (got evicted for sumpthin' to do with mah pet skunk, accordin' to the note), I hit myself with the tire-iron and suddenly had this vision of the King himself, tellin' me to go and convert all to Elvis worshippers...
||I dunno. In my mind it's usually hardly fascinating why people do things I consider rather dumb...
||I like it. The fact that is is restrained to Elvis makes it kind of like haiku: the limitation makes the variation more interesting. One could require the singers to cover songs Elvis had recorded - still a lot of music. I like the idea of an updated Elvis - would he be like a southern Ricky Martin? Would he be a Christian rocker? Would he be a suave Baliwood bigpicture star? Roots folkster with a beard? All of the above? Oh yah!
Actually, 'Elvi' would only work as the plural of 'Elvus'; the Latin plural of 'Elvis' would be 'Elves'. (Unfortunately it would be pronounced as two syllables, but let's ignore that).


Brussels, 22 September 2021
The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI) welcomes the European Commission’s proposal to renew the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Regulation (GSP). FESI firmly believes that the new GSP, including the GSP+ and EBA regimes, will further contribute to the sustainable development of the GSP beneficiary countries. So far, it has proven to help the latter becoming more competitive, reduce poverty, build their domestic industries, increase employment, and improve good governance.
“FESI has followed with great interest the recent debate on the GSP Regulation, and we can only applaud the decision taken today by the Commission to renew the scheme for the next 10-year cycle”, commented Jérôme Pero, FESI Secretary-General. “The GSP is the crown jewel of the EU Trade Policy. GSP, GSP+ and EBA programmes are all still relevant and offer the right degrees of incentives towards sustainable development. It is now crucial to make sure that the proposed schemes are simple and predictable enough for companies”, he added.
Indeed, predictability is a key feature of the GSP regulation. Over the years, the GSP programmes have proven to be highly effective in encouraging European companies to invest in partner countries while bringing their social and environmental standards with them. The GSP programmes did not only drive economic growth, but also helped bringing sustainable business practices to developing countries. But to continue driving change, sporting goods companies need the GSP Regulation to be sufficiently predictable to let them plan their local leadership programmes and investments many years in advance.
The inclusion of the Paris Agreement on Climate change is also a positive move. The sporting goods industry is deeply engaged in addressing its carbon footprint and has the ambition to become an industry leader in this field. For instance, many FESI members are among the signatories of the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and are committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Moreover, it is important that the advantages granted under the GSP are not removed by a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The latter should provide for either the equivalent or enhanced preferences for the countries concerned. If we take the example of Vietnam and the recent FTA with the EU that came into force last summer, companies are now in a least favourable situation as they must comply with the double transformation rule with very limited possibility of regional cumulation. Although to avoid this and uphold the initial purpose of the GSP we suggested foreseeing a cumulation among all GSP beneficiaries’ and FTA countries, we welcome the additional flexibility to the Rules of Origin for GSP beneficiaries’ countries that the Commission put forward in the new proposal.
While FESI welcomes the new adjustments made today to the GSP, we believe that further improvements could be made to ensure a more fair, transparent, and manageable framework. In particular, we regret the that the classification of products deemed “sensitive” has not been clarified in the new proposal. In fact, the new Regulation continues to qualify footwear and apparel as sensitive, thus putting a discriminatory cap on the duty reduction of these products. The absence of a clear definition and criteria of what is considered “sensitive” and “not-sensitive” creates a lack of transparency. FESI now calls on the co-legislators for further clarification and recommends classifying footwear and apparel as “not-sensitive”. As an alternative, FESI would support the “Sunset clause” proposed in the external study supporting the impact assessment on the GSP Review. A sunset clause for all excluded and sensitive products could be considered, together with an industry-driven mechanism to establish (or continue) a country product exclusion/sensitivity. This would also contribute to diversification in the beneficiary countries and systematically re-tailor the scheme to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving EU industrial structure.
The EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) grants unilateral tariff preferences to developing countries as a means of supporting their economic and social development, as well as promoting human rights, employment standards, sustainable development, and good governance practices. Today’s proposal to renew the preferential tariff scheme between the EU and developing countries was very timely as the Regulation governing the scheme expires on 31 December 2023. The new proposal therefore allows for a renewal of the scheme for the period 2024 – 2033.
Contact: Ariane Gatti, FESI Communication Officer / [email protected] / +32 274 08 94


Michelle Yeoh joins Avatar sequels
The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actor will play a scientist named Karina Mogue
Michelle has always created unique and memorable characters. I look forward to working with her to do the same thing on the Avatar sequels. https://t.co/ExokGb0YZg— James Cameron (@JimCameron) April 15, 2019
Last seen in the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actor will play a scientist named Karina Mogue in the Avatar franchise.
Yeoh is also in talks to lead a Star Trek: Discovery spinoff, where she will reprise her role as Captain Philippa Georgiou from the original series.
Cameron's Avatar, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, was released in 2009, and is the highest grossing film of all time, with earnings to the tune of $2.7 billion globally. The first of its four sequels is scheduled to be released on December 18, 2020.


Reality TV star and businesswoman Shauwn Mkhize says she doesn't condone abuse of any kind.
This is after the mother of her grandchildren Sithelo Shozi (28) made abuse allegations against her son and Royal AM chairman Andile Mpisane.
The DJ, businesswoman, and influencer revealed why she and Andile separated and how the Gqom artist got married to Tamia Louw Mpisane three months after she gave birth.
Sithelo is known for keeping her private life a secret, but during a question and answer session on her social media, she decided to speak up.
In several Instagram stories which have since been deleted, Sithelo accused the father of her two children - Florence “Flo” and Likuwe “Coco” Mpisane of being abusive.
"I’m not one to speak out about anything concerning my private life, more especially where my kids are involved. But everyone has a breaking point, and this narrative has gone too far. I’ve been silent for far too long and hid my truth for the sake of peace but today I will not be silenced,” she wrote.
Sithelo shared how Andile left her just after their baby was born and married Tamia Louw. She said she had endured abuse.
“You all mocked me and made ridicule of me when I was left with a three-month-old child, but little did you know that was my break free from endless pain. That was God saving me from eventually taking my own life. Nothing has been more liberating. I saw God’s hand in my most vulnerable place.”
She made allegations that she had a miscarriage due to the physical violence and showed proof of psychologist visits.
“Let’s start when I was beaten to a pulp and had a miscarriage at the hands of my so-called ‘victim’ in a room of his family and friends, rushed to the nearest hospital and treated like nothing happened,” she wrote.
She then shared pictures of bruises on her face, lip, and a damaged cell phone she alleges Andile was responsible for breaking.
“Should I speak about the beatings I’d get every week or month followed by a bunch of flowers, so I’d never speak out?”
In a statement, Andile’s mother Mamkhize said she was unaware of the alleged abuse despite Sithelo having said that it happened in full view of the family.
“I have been made aware of allegations made against my son, Andile Mpisane by Sithole Shozi on her Instagram account,” the statement reads.
“I do not take lightly these accusations given my history and strong stance against gender-based violence. I do not and will never condone violence in any form or nature.”
Mamkhize says she in no way tolerates gender-based violence and her family was unaware of the alleged abuse.
“I would like to categorically state that neither myself nor my family have been witness to any alleged abuse. These allegations are false and defamatory.” She goes on to say that they will be seeking legal advice on the matter.
“Given the nature, severity, and extent of these allegations, the matter has been referred to our legal team. It’s of the utmost importance that the law takes its course,” she says.
“Furthermore, false accusations do tremendous damage to victims of actual assaults and or abuse. As we all know there are always two sides to a story. I will not be making any further statements with regards to this matter.”


Nanjangud: Noted lawyer Mallikarjunaswamy released the teaser of Baa Nalle Mundagege at Shravana Kalyana Mandapam in the city. Later, lawyer A.R. Kantaraj said, “Baa Nalle Manjake” is a film made by young talents from rural areas.
He said that people should take initiative to develop rural talents. The teaser of the movie was released and watched for the wedding in Baa.
On this occasion, Gram Panchayat member Gattawadi Manjunath, director Yogesh Nandan, actress Shobha, actor Sachin and many others participated.


April 8, 2018
"Combat should never be easier than coming home to you!" Kathie Costos
For The Love of Jack, His War My Battle originally published in 2003 because I tried to warn people about what was coming into their lives. PTSD! It was republished in 2013 because too many thought their love alone would be able to heal them.
Love has to be strong enough to do whatever it takes to help them heal! Stop making excuses for what you fail to do. We lose more after combat than we do during it. Wars end and they come home but that battle lasts a lifetime! We have to be trained to win it for them!
The battle to save the lives of combat veterans is not lost and it is not new. 18 veterans and more than one active duty service member take their own lives each day. More attempt it. Kathie Costos is not just a Chaplain helping veterans and their families, not just a researcher, she lives with it everyday. Combat came home with her Vietnam veteran husband and they have been married for 28 years.She remembers what it was like to feel lost and alone.Everything you read in the news today about PTSD is in this book originally published in 2002 to serve as a guide to healing as well as a warning of what was coming for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.read more here
Sun Herald out of Mississippi released resources for veterans to get help!


L.A. Galaxy Soccer Wives
The Battle Of the Sexiest
8/18/2011 12:02 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
The wives of L.A. Galaxy superstars David Beckham and Robbie Keane are in a battle of the sexiest -- and now we have inside info on the showdown ... thanks to our new Irish staffer.
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