Mammoth Blog

Sixty years ago today, George Orwell's prescient classic 1984 was published. On June 8, 1937 the world's largest and smelliest flower, the 8 1/2 tall ' corpse flower' (Titan arum) bloomed at the Botanic Garden in New York. The flower's putrid odor is meant to attract pollinators such as carrion beetles and flesh flies found on the plant's native island, Sumatra. source>>>

LSU basketball player Tasmin Mitchell made it official early Monday afternoon by faxing the necessary paperwork to the New York offices of the National Basketball Association withdrawing from the June 25 NBA draft.

Mitchell will return as a fifth-year senior for the Tigers in the 2009-10 season. Mitchell averaged 16.3 points per game, eighth in the SEC a year ago, 7.2 rebounds (11th in the league), while shooting 52.2 percent from the field. Mitchell earned All-SEC First Team honors as he is one of just nine players in LSU history to have been a primary starter on two Southeastern Conference championship teams.

"Tasmin met with me (Monday) and we faxed the appropriate paperwork to the NBA offices," said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. "Tasmin had a great experience going through this process and he is now excited about getting with his teammates. The team has started lifting at 6:30 a.m. four days a week. I am giving Tasmin the next week and a half off to settle back in and then he will rejoin the team."

"I want to thank God for allowing me to make this decision," Mitchell said Monday. "I'm coming back to a great program and a great coach. My family has really supported me in this process and in the end the best thing was for me to come back to LSU, get my degree (majoring in communication studies), and have one more year to be a Tiger. The workouts went well and some people felt I could have possibly been a second-round pick but in the end it felt better coming home to be an LSU Tiger.

"I want to thank everyone who supported me," the product of Denham Springs said. "There are some great people associated with LSU and it will be exciting to play once again in front of the great fans at LSU. I will do whatever Coach Johnson needs me to do to help this team move forward and continue the great tradition of LSU basketball."

Mitchell through his junior season has 1,468 points and 658 rebounds and has started 105-of-106 career games. source>>>

The tomfoolery involving University of Memphis expatriate Derrick Rose is another reminder of the sheer lunacy behind the NBA's one-and-done rule.

Rose used Memphis as a means to an end -- a one-year finishing school on his way to the pros. He took the Tigers to the national championship game and later was the No. 1 pick in the '08 draft.

And Memphis gladly went along for the ride, mindful of the difference a talent like Rose can make to a team.

Now we see that there was collateral damage in this Rent-A-Player approach. On Saturday, Memphis had its day in NCAA court to answer allegations that someone other than Rose took his SAT and thus allowed him to gain admission to college.

It comes with the turf. When basketball prodigies know they must cool their Nikes on a college campus for a year, they are little more than hoops mercenaries. They have no real allegiances. Anything goes.

The NBA put the rule in place in 2006, but college basketball is a willing co-conspirator. Many programs bend over backwards to bring in players for a cameo appearance.

It is the way of the basketball world. Three of the projected top 10 picks in the upcoming NBA draft are one-and-doners -- Jrue Holiday of UCLA, DeMar DeRozan of Southern Cal and Tyreke Evans of Memphis. Last year, 10 college freshmen were drafted in the first round -- including the top three picks.

You can argue that this is better than the old days when players like LeBron James jumped straight from high school to the pros. At least players now must take their high school academics seriously enough that they qualify for college.

Either that or they get somebody else to take the SAT.

Sorry, but it doesn't wash. With today's eligibility standards, players need only darken the doors of a few classrooms for the fall semester in order to play the entire season. Do you really think Rose was laboring over a mid-term when he knew the NBA draft was his next real order of business?

Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, favors Major League Baseball's rule, which says a player can be drafted after his senior year of high school but must wait three years if he goes to college.

It's a good idea but it won't fly. Why? Money talks. College basketball has too much at stake with its TV contracts. Those pro-in-waiting freshmen help boost the ratings.

All this is enough to make you side with Sonny Vaccaro, a longtime fixture on the summer league circuit and outspoken critic of the NCAA.

Vaccaro has helped players go from high school to pro ball in Europe in order to circumvent the rule.

In '08, he sent Brandon Jennings to a pro league in Italy. Now Jennings is a likely lottery pick in the NBA draft.

More recently, Vaccaro gave his blessing to Jeremy Tyler, who will skip not only college but also his senior season of high school for at least two years in Europe.

So much for giving it the old college try. source>>>

A congressman whose comment about former Georgia Tech basketball player Thaddeus Young rankled coach Paul Hewitt has called Hewitt to discuss the matter.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) was quoted in the New York Times last week saying Young -- who played one year at Tech before leaving for the NBA in 2007 -- "could have gone straight to the pros. I don't think he's going to be an engineer. It's just kind of a mockery."

Hewitt demanded an apology.

"Saying a young man choosing to go to school at Georgia Tech, whether it's one year or four years, is a mockery, I just didn't think that was an accurate statement and I thought it was somewhat damaging," said Hewitt, who noted Young was an outstanding high school student who left Tech in good academic standing. "We know what we have here and the type of kids we bring here.

"I just thought it was the wrong thing to say, but it's over with as far as I'm concerned."

Young, the 12th overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers, hails from Memphis, in Cohen's district. Cohen called Hewitt on Friday.

"We had a good conversation but I'm going to keep it private," Hewitt said Sunday. "He's certainly a college basketball fan; he knew a lot. I was satisfied with the conversation, and I'll leave it at that."

Cohen's press secretary, Steven Broderick, also declined to get into specifics.

"It was a good, productive conversation," Broderick said. "There's certainly an understanding between both folks."

Cohen is pushing to repeal the NBA's requirement that a player be 19 years old and one year out of high school to enter the league. He argued in a letter to the NBA that the age rule has "contributed to the recent spate of scandals involving college athletes."

Hewitt also opposes the rule, preferring a system like baseball's: Players can go straight from high school to the pros, but if they choose to attend college must make a three-year commitment.

For Hewitt, the episode wasn't just about Young's or Tech's reputation.

"The value of an education for a college basketball player is as significant as for anyone in the country, and I don't think we should ever downplay that," he said.

"You definitely don't want 10th-graders saying, 'Why should I study? I'm a ballplayer.'" source>>>

Stan Van Gundy came up with an illusion that would have made Penn and Teller proud in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday.

With the game deadlocked at 88 and just 0.6 seconds left in regulation, Orlando's coach pulled a rabbit out of his hat.

There wasn't a soul in Staples Center, not even Jack, Leo or Denzel, that thought Ron Jeremy's Doppelganger would call Courtney Lee's number with the game on the line, so Van Gundy rolled the dice and distorted the Lakers' collective senses.

Checking Lee, Kobe Bryant thought he had the final 0.6 seconds off, fell asleep and got caught on a back screen. Hedo Turkoglu lofted a tremendous inbounds pass over the incredibly long Lamar Odom to a wide-open Lee. All the rookie needed to do was deposit the layup and celebrate.

Instead, Lee's attempt was too strong.

The rest is history.

The Lakers dominated the extra frame to take a 2-0 series lead, and are halfway to their 15th NBA championship.

"It was a good play, it was a good pass," said Lee. "Coach did a good job of drawing up the right play. I caught it, got a good look at the backboard. I tried to get it up there as quick as possible, and the ball rolled off the rim."

Lakers big man Pau Gasol admitted a defensive lapse by the Lakers, but Lee was just too hurried.

"I was obviously relieved when he missed that shot because it could have been a heartbreaker, and right now we could be in a totally different situation," said Gasol. "I was surprised he was kind of wide open. But I tried to contest it as good as I could, and then we gave ourselves a chance to win the ball game."

Van Gundy, despite out X-ing and O-ing his celebrated counterpart, Phil Jackson, sounded dejected and defeated.

"He missed it. I don't know what else to say," Van Gundy said. "Hedo made a great pass, and we missed it. I don't really know. I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt. I just don't know what else to say about it. It was a great pass, it was right there, and he missed it."

Now, the hill Orlando must climb to get back in this series is starting to loom larger than Mount Everest.

LA is a gaudy 38-1 in franchise history when they have a 2-0 series edge. Jackson, who is aiming for his record 10th NBA championship as an NBA coach, is a perfect 43-0 in the postseason when his team wins Game 1 of a set. Meanwhile, the Magic are now 0-for-6 in NBA Finals games.

And Van Gundy is at a loss.

"We played with no point guard, we played conventionally, we had Rashard (Lewis) at the three, we played Hedo at the one, two and three. We played Rashard at the three and four. We played big, we played with no point guard," Van Gundy said. "What do they say? Just keep throwing stuff at the wall and hope something sticks."

So, with the series shifting to central Florida, what's next?

Van Gundy may want to let his assistants take Game 3 off and bring in Penn and Teller or Criss Angel or David Copperfield.

Magic may be the only way Orlando can beat this Lakers team. source>>>

Phyllis Kane lived every parent's worst fear: She drove into her neighborhood one afternoon to see emergency vehicles and quickly learned they were there for her child. She saw 10-year-old Danny laid out in the street, his neck in a cervical collar, his smashed bike beside him.

A police officer handed her Danny's cracked bike helmet. "He said that if Danny had not been wearing it, he probably would not have survived," says Kane, a Charlotte accountant and mother of three.

Today, Danny is a healthy 12-year-old who still likes riding a bike -- and still wears a helmet, every single time.

As many parents know, not all tweens and teens are so compliant: At ages when risk-taking, peer pressure and a desire for coolness are all on the rise, bike helmets, back-seat car rides and car booster seats (still needed for the smallest kids) can provoke eye-rolling disdain.

In fact, says Kane, some of Danny's friends, who know exactly what happened to him, now ride bikes without helmets.

What's a parent to do?

It helps to understand what you are up against, says Alan Korn, director of public policy at Safe Kids USA, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. It's normal for tweens and teens to underestimate danger and balk at rules.

But, he says, throwing out the rule book is not the answer.

"The No. 1 killer of children is not cancer or diabetes or obesity," Korn says. "It's unintentional injuries, or accidents. And almost every single one of them is preventable."

As Safe Kids pointed out in a recent report, keeping children safe at every age requires understanding their mental and physical development -- for example, recognizing the fact that babies get burned easily because their skin is literally thin.

Older children still have physical vulnerabilities: The reason those up to at least age 13 must ride in back seats is that a front-seat airbag could severely injure them in a crash.

But keeping children in those back seats properly strapped in, or in their bike helmets even when a parent can't see them, can become a battle of wits and wills.

Here are a few ways for parents to win:

- Start early. Los Angeles area pediatrician Tanya Remer Altmann (author of Mommy Calls) gave her two preschoolers helmets as soon as they started riding toy fire trucks in the driveway.

"They need to know they can't ride around on wheels without a helmet on their heads," she says.

- Stay firm. Some children start refusing car seats as toddlers, the Safe Kids report notes. But give in once, to that stubborn toddler or to a small 10-year-old who still needs a booster, and your child learns you'll give in again, Remer Altmann says. That also may be the day you get in a crash.

"There are certain things in life that are non-negotiable," she says.

- Engage the kids. Let them know the physical milestones they'll need to pass before moving from a car seat to a booster or a booster to an adult belt. (See details at usa.safekids.org.)

- Get help. Establish a neighborhood bike-helmet watch and let the kids know that any adult who sees them without protective gear will give you a call.

- Set a good example. Adults who don't wear helmets or seat belts send a strong message -- that casting them off is a rite of passage.

Korn says some adults scoff at today's tougher safety standards, but need to know they save lives: "We are not suggesting parents wrap their children in bubble wrap ... but no bike trip should end in the emergency room." source>>>

Chocolate chip, banana, blueberry -- there were lots of pancake options for the 150 guests at the Stein family's home in Short Hills last weekend.

But no matter what they ate, all the attendees shared one goal: to raise money for the Greater Newark Fresh Air Fund and send kids in need to summer camp.
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"Anyone who wants to go to camp should be able to, regardless of their economic status," said Emma Stein, 16, who called her own years at camp formative. "Going into a new social setting, trying something different from your normal routine ... makes camp a really important experience."

The Stein family has hosted the breakfast for nine years, ever since they attended a similar event for another charity during a family trip to Arizona. Inspired, Emma and her sister Carley, now 13, decided to have a fundraiser of their own. The sisters, both students at Newark Academy, picked the Fresh Air Fund as their charity of choice.

"Our kids are so blessed -- they get to go to camp," said their mom, Diane Stein. "We wanted other kids to have that experience."

The Fund, which has operated for more than 125 years, sends hundreds of children each summer to day and sleepaway camps, some of which accommodate children with special needs. Eligible campers must demonstrate personal and financial hardship, and be between the ages of 7 and 12.

This year, executive director Trish Morris-Yamba said the group hopes to raise enough money to send 400 kids to camp.

The Steins' pancake breakfast helped the program move toward that goal, raising about $3,000. That amount will allow four or five children to attend camp for two weeks, Morris-Yamba said.

"Folks understand what the message is: to get the kids from the inner city out into a nice, safe, enjoyable environment," Morris- Yamba said.

The Stein's spacious backyard was an enjoyable environment for last week's pancake breakfast. Lines formed under the morning sun, as friends, neighbors and other guests waited for the hot cakes on Ed Stein's griddles.

"He has a hard time giving up his spatula to anyone, but this year he did," Diane Stein said, saying volunteers helped her husband keep up with the demand. "People wanted them right off the griddle."

Guests also enjoyed a large do nated crumb cake from Natale's Summit Bakery in Summit, and mini-muffins provided by Living ston Bagel. Dee Fox, a local trainer, led a small group of participants in a free exercise class.

"So you don't feel guilty about eating pancakes," Diane Stein ex plained.

Morris-Yamba said the Fund receives donations of all sizes every year. The Steins are special, she said, not only for how much they've raised but also for how long they have supported the cause.

"It started out as sort of a personal commitment the family chose to do," Morris-Yamba said. "I think the lesson, for other kids especially ... is that it's always good to help others." source>>>

Manuel Hernandez was the first in his family to graduate from high school, but didn't get to walk across a stage. He never went to prom, never went to the mall or movies, or stayed the night at a friend's house.

His nights were spent in lockup, where, he said, "you were either a victim or victimized - no one was in the middle."

Hernandez was there for murder and robbery - crimes he committed at age 12. He said he wasn't an official gang member, but associated with the Hilltop Crips.

A free man since October, the 21-year-old has a unique take on a question local authorities are spending thousands to answer: How do you keep kids out of gangs before they end up dead or in jail?

Get to them young

Some of Hernandez's friends remain gang members. Guys he grew up with in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood are still beating people, robbing houses, selling drugs, selling guns. One friend was shot to death last month and his cousin was wounded.

"We need to reach people before they're 21," Hernandez said. "We need to get them when they're 14, 15, in the early stages.

"If you have no structure, you get lost, you lose focus, you get bored. Then people go find something to do."

If someone doesn't help youths lacking structure, he said, the results are predictable. He's trying to spread a message to young juveniles making repeat trips to jail that while change is difficult, it's not impossible.

He said there's a simple answer for how to help troubled youth: Be a friend.

"Talk to them," he said. "Say, 'What's going on in your life?' Go see a movie or go to Applebee's. How much is a dinner there, $25?

"That $25 might change someone's whole life."

Hernandez gave credit to organizations such as Building The Bridges, a Lakewood operation run by Dennis Turner, himself a former Hilltop Crips member.

The mission of Building The Bridges is to provide programs that encompass relevant services for at-risk youth and their families.

"Even if someone is a gang member, he has emotions and a story, something that led him out there," Turner said. "It's not my place to judge him. Where does he want to be and where does he want to go?"

Hernandez also praised Eleuthera Lisch, who has served youth affected by street and gang violence since 1999 at the YMCA of Greater Seattle, saying there needs to be more people like her speaking directly to youth.

Public policy alone not the answer

In 2008, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels started an $8 million Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, which aims to cut youth and gang violence by 50 percent.

About 800 at-risk youth are targeted under the city's effort, which was announced in a year that saw five Seattle teens killed - all part of 17 gang-related deaths in King County, according to police.

Last week, at a Seattle symposium on gang violence, Hernandez told a crowd of roughly 200 people that the money spent on experts would be better spent on youth, taking time to hear what they think and providing activities that would deter them from crime.

Hernandez said there also needs to be services for young adults coming out of jail - people like him who don't have the training to find housing, get jobs and build networks that will keep them from becoming career criminals.

"He's right," Turner said. "People 18, 19, 20, 21 coming out of jail, that's where the violence stems from.

"And for people younger, what's going to happen is because of the budget crisis, after school programs are going to go away ... most of those kids have one foot out the door."

Even Hernandez, who said he's taking classes at Clover Park Technical College, has slipped since his release. He's been arrested twice - once for false reporting and again after a fight - and has been stopped by police nearly a dozen times.

There may be social services, Hernandez said, but the people who need help in Hilltop haven't been shown a clear path to success.

"I've never seen somebody go to the corner and say: 'Who needs help? Who wants to do better?"

A childhood of violence

Hernandez, who said his father and aunt are in jail for gang-related crimes, said things probably would have been different if he'd had more structure. As a kid in Hilltop, he said, he and friends knew they had a roughly two-hour window to rob people before the cops would show up. They'd typically start about 9 p.m.

After Hernandez was arrested in 2000, police linked him, his brother and six friends to a summer robbery and assault spree, through not all of the cases led to charges or convictions.

On a Wednesday in July, officers said, they beat up a 40-year-old man, and beat a 19-year-old for $9.

The next month, police say they mugged two teens, threatening them with bats and stealing $3. Officers also linked them to the beating of a 47-year-old, a 51-year-old man, and a 55-year-old who was assaulted for $13.

Two more beatings continued the pattern, causing a police lieutenant to plan a meeting with crime analysis experts, scheduled for Aug 21.

But two days before, Hernandez and the group killed a man.

Erik Toews, 30, was walking home from work near North Fourth Street and Division Avenue in Tacoma when he encountered the group of eight. One asked him for a cigarette and while Toews was distracted, another punched him in the head, knocking him down.

The oldest teen slammed his knee into Toews face 28 times. Court documents say the man never tried to fight back, but Hernandez's older brother was on top of him, punching Toews in the head to keep him from getting up.

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I have read with interest about sellers' first online sales, never thinking that my first experience would have much impact on others. However, having just celebrated my 10-year anniversary of part-time selling on eBay, many have asked me how to sell online. Instructing them is easy, but I think the larger issue is to educate new sellers on what to expect after the sale.

My first sale involved a headvase that I'd purchased for resale. My aunt had collected them for years, so I felt this one was worthy of my shot at fame and fortune. Back then, I took its picture with a film camera, (all I had at the time), got it developed, scanned it into my computer, wrote the description, and listed it the long way, before Turbo Lister and such. Being self-taught, no one was there to warn me about cyber sales as opposed to hands-on, touchy-feely sales. I put no reserve price on it (what's a reserve?), but sold it for about 15 times what I'd paid for it, so I was elated. Carefully packing and shipping it to Alaska from New York, I was just thrilled it had arrived safely.

Imagine my shock when the buyer emailed me her dissatisfaction with the vase, stating she only bought perfect, mint condition headvases, and this certainly wasn't what she'd expected. With no refund policy in place, (how green was I?), I refunded her the sales price PLUS shipping both ways! (had to make that first feedback positive). When the piece arrived back here in one piece (Whew!), I began to carefully examine it and realized there was nothing wrong with it, it was simply what I'd advertised it as, a vintage headvase missing one earring. Not one easily dissuaded from her goal, I emailed a few of the regular sellers of headvases, to see if I had in fact done something terribly wrong, and was my vase a loser? They all encouraged me to re-list, and reassured me that my headvase was desirable and my buyer was fickle, and had probably changed her mind for some reason. So I re-listed, setting a reserve this time, and selling it for EVEN MORE than I had the first time. That's when I became HOOKED!

Instead of dampening my enthusiasm, this first sale whetted my appetite to do this again and again. Since then, I have encountered WAY more good buyers than bad, but have also learned firsthand about buyer's remorse, postal breakage "accidents" that you find out never happened (when the buyer is asked to supply photos and original wrapping), and buyers who attempt to renegotiate the price after receiving the item.

Now I have policies and disclaimers to inform them and protect me. It's still a fun challenge for me to unearth the dusty, dirty trash-to-treasure, make it saleable, and turn a little profit to boot. Since my hubby doesn't share my love of things old, this is also my way of owning them temporarily. I can reassure him that, yes, that old chrome toaster will not be living here to replace your space-age 4-slice slower-than-mud electronic monster from Sam's Club, but by just having it around for a while, I was able to relive a little of my cherished past right in my own kitchen!

Thanks for your newsletter - it always has some news item or gem of wisdom that I learn from, and helps me not to feel alone in what I'm doing, since I am a "one-woman" operation who now is just trying to keep her gas tank filled!
Sincerely,
Sue Neave, "shogirl" source>>>

You can't spend the money -- but you can sell it. South Carolina is selling state-issued Civil War currency.

The money was supposed to have been destroyed more than a century ago.

But some of the Confederate state's old money was stashed away. Now, officials of the state archives are putting the old bills up for auction on eBay.

That supposedly worthless money has brought in about $200,000. Jack Meyer, a retired University of South Carolina history professor, doesn't know why the money wasn't destroyed.

He figures workers were just too lazy to do it. source>>>

Different Kentucky lawmakers over the years have tried to maneuver legislation legalizing additional gambling through the General Assembly and failed.

Gov. Steve Beshear based his campaign for governor on the issue. Now, Beshear says it's time to put the issue for a vote.

Kentucky already has many legal forms of gambling, including horse racing and the lottery.

Beshear, a Democrat, has summoned the legislature into a special session on June 15 to deal with the $1 billion-dollar state budget shortfall, tax incentives and the creation of an authority for major bridges between Kentucky and Indiana. Beshear also has a proposal for video gambling at Kentucky's horse racing tracks.

Senate President David Williams, a Burkesville Republican, says he does not think the plan will clear the Democrat-led House. source>>>

- For years, Atlantic City could mostly ignore the three slots parlors at racetracks in Delaware.

But now its little neighbor to the south is stepping up into the big leagues of casino gambling, approving sports betting, and soon, table games like blackjack, craps and roulette.

That could put a fierce hurt on an already reeling Atlantic City, which is dealing with revenue declines due to the recession, slots parlors in Pennsylvania and New York, and a partial smoking ban.

Some even think Delaware's moves could prompt Pennsylvania to offer full-blown casinos sooner than expected, which would create a near-crisis situation for Atlantic City.

Joe Weinert, a casino analyst with Spectrum Gaming Group, said the end of Atlantic City's 30-plus year monopoly on table games will further damage the nation's second-largest gambling market.

"Just as we are seeing with slot machines, many gamblers will forego Atlantic City to play blackjack and craps at a more convenient location," he said. "Delaware tables will have a significant negative impact on Atlantic City's already sharply declining gaming revenue. Table games are an inevitability in Pennsylvania, and whenever this does happen it will exacerbate Atlantic City's pain."

That pain began shortly after the first of the eight Pennsylvania slots parlors opened in November 2006, and started stealing customers that once were Atlantic City's exclusive domain. New York followed with slots at Yonkers race track, and is considering adding them at Aqueduct in Queens.

Joe Corbo, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, declined comment. However, he has previously said the best way for Atlantic City to fight off out-of-state competition is to emphasize things that most racetrack slots don't have , such as oceanfront hotels, top-name entertainment, gourmet restaurants and spas , that are designed to attract people for several days instead of several hours.

In Atlantic City's 11 casinos, revenue for the first four months of this year were $1.3 billion, down 15.7 percent from the first four months of 2008. That almost guarantees a third straight year of declining revenues in a casino market that saw nothing but increases for its first 28 years of operation.

For all of 2008, revenue in Atlantic City fell 7.6 percent, following a 2007 decline of 5.7 percent.

Delaware's racetracks began offering slot machine gambling in 1995 at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover and Delaware Park Racetrack and Slots in Wilmington. Harrington Raceway and Casino in Harrington added them the following year.

In 2008, Delaware's 7,800 slot machines generated $611.5 million, a drop in the bucket compared with Atlantic City's $4.5 billion market. But they have aggressively courted gamblers from southern New Jersey, even placing bulletin boards on the Atlantic City Expressway so that cars heading away from the resort see this message: "NOW you're headed in the right direction!"

In signing the law authorizing sports betting last month, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell noted that his state will be the only one east of the Mississippi offering it.

"By offering something no other East Coast venue has, we believe we will attract vital tourism dollars from the entire region," he said.

Delaware estimates it will take in $53.5 million on sports bets next year.

Depending on how quickly legislation is crafted and approved, Delaware could start offering table games by New Year's Eve, said Ed Sutor, president and CEO of Dover Downs.

Sutor said his casino gets 2 percent of its customers from New Jersey, and predicts Delaware table games would not make a significant dent in Atlantic City revenues. What can entice New Jersey gamblers to bypass Atlantic City on their way to Delaware would be sports betting on fall weekends, Sutor said.

A New Jersey lawmaker, horse racing officials and an Internet gambling association are trying to overturn the federal ban on sports betting for all but four states who beat a 1992 deadline to offer it in their states.

Weinert, the casino analyst, said Atlantic City has to fight back by emphasizing things it has that its competitors don't.

"The key for Atlantic City is to offer patrons a better product , one that will cause patrons to drive past their local casino in favor of an entertaining, escapist environment at a full-service resort," he said. "In that regard, the best defense is a good offense."

The expected opening of the new Revel casino in 2011 should help restore some of the buzz Atlantic City generated after the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa opened in 2003, he said. source>>>

Julianne Hough will host the 2009 CMT Music Awards Video of the Year Special highlighting the 10 finalists vying for the big prize at this year's fan-voted awards show. The one-hour special premieres June 13, and the awards show airs live June 16 on CMT. This year's video of the year nominees are: Trace Adkins' "You're Gonna Miss This"; Kenny Chesney featuring the Wailers' "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven"; Toby Keith's "God Love Her"; Kid Rock's "All Summer Long"; Lady Antebellum's "Lookin' for a Good Time"; Brad Paisley's "Waitin' on a Woman"; Rascal Flatts' "Every Day"; Sugarland's "All I Want to Do"; Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream." Voting for the CMT Music Awards continues through June 14 at CMT.com. The final four nominees for video of the year will be announced at the beginning of the live show, and fans in the Eastern and Central time zones can vote at CMT.com and via text on their Verizon Wireless phones throughout the live broadcast to determine the winner in that category. Hough's "That Song in My Head" is nominated for the USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year. source>>>

George Strait's latest album, Troubadour, has been certified platinum by the RIAA for shipments of 1 million copies. Strait now has 33 different platinum or multi-platinum albums resulting in the most RIAA platinum certifications in country music and third in all genres, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Troubadour and two of his greatest hits compilations had more than a 300 percent increase in sales following the recent airing of the CBS special, George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All Star Concert. This weekend, Strait will headline the inaugural event at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. Saturday's (June 6) show will also feature Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and Julianne Hough. source>>>

There are twin currents running very strong in country music right now. Both are serving what once were niche markets. One movement is now powerful and didn't exist a few scant years ago. The other used to be powerful but has been dormant for years.

I'm taking about the music and the followers of Jamey Johnson and his Outlaw Army and those of Taylor Swift and her Terrific Teens.

I know the very whisper of Taylor's name brings out the extreme country wingnut crowd in an absolute frenzy, eliciting the howling, dogmatic mob that knows everything and is very willing to tell you so. I love the fact that most people in the world -- except me -- know exactly what country music is and what it is not. They know with certainty. I only know what I know. And I know what the accepted country definitions over the years have come to be -- that it is primarily a storytelling peer group music.

The usual dictionary or textbook definitions go along the line of "music derived from or imitating the folk style of the Southern United States or of the Western cowboy" (from Merriam-Webster).

In The Encyclopedia of Country Music, country historian Paul Kingsbury writes, "Country music is simple music. It is a music of nostalgia and sentiment. It is a music that speaks of tension between sin and salvation. It is a music of human stories, hopes and failings."

The pre-eminent country music historian Bill Malone wrote in his landmark book Country Music U.S.A. (published in 1968), "Country music sprang from diverse folk origins in the rural South. In the decades since 1923, it has changed as the South and the nation have changed. Successive changes have served to erase the old folk patterns and move country music toward a closer, and sometimes indistinguishable, amalgamation with popular music. Future investigations may reveal, however, that new folk traditions are being created within the commercial form."

His observations especially in that last sentence have proven to be very prescient. How many of the wingnut crowd hold onto old attitudes without admitting that there can be evolution within the country tradition?

Country music has also, since its early days in the 1920s, been a commercial music. Therefore, for current purposes, I'm proposing that we go by the venerable standard of the Billboard charts. If Billboard lists a group or artist or song or album as country, so be it. It's country. Case closed. The soundtrack album for Hannah Montana is the No. 1 country album this week in Billboard? Yes, sir. I personally don't agree that it's necessarily country, but I won't argue because the Billboard chart right now is the official arbiter -- and history will be the ultimate judge.

To the wingnuts: Taylor Swift is country -- every bit as country as Rascal Flatts or Keith Urban or Kenny Chesney or any of the other current country pop acts on country radio and on the Billboard charts.

She writes realistic peer group music for and about a young audience that was not viewed as a feasible county audience as recently as three years ago. As a result, Swift is the only true superstar that country music (and the entire pop scene) has created in recent years. She sells CDs and downloads in enormous numbers and brings thousands and thousands of fans to concerts in the name of country music and introduces them to the genre of country music.

She and Jamey Johnson are the best things to hit country music in recent history. Each is leading a movement. Taylor's is a monster tide. How many young girls has she inspired to try to write songs, to take up guitar and -- for God's sake -- to wear nice dresses and cowboy boots? And to not drink or dope or screw around? Mothers love her.

Jamey Johnson is finally starting to gather a larger audience. I saw a very graphic example of it at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on May 28, at his Traler [sic] Park Revival show with Jerrod Niemann and Randy Houser. As he said early in his performance, "Who the hell ever would thought we'd be playing the Ryman?" But the minute he took the stage of that storied old tabernacle, an organic roar rose from that crowd, a sound unlike that you hear at a standard kick-ass country show. These were people hungry for a message. And Jamey brought one. His music is ferociously authentic.

One of my colleagues described Jamey's concert as witnessing a movement that is starting. Another described it as a "force." Whatever it is, I saw the same thing in Waylon Jennings' early concerts, when he was finally hitting his musical stride, and I'm seeing the same thing now in Johnson's shows. That kind of electric moment that happens when an artist and an audience bond.

The same thing is happening with Swift and her audiences. Swift and Johnson both have created their own audience, and that's very much the future of a country audience made up of niche groups of fans. I can't think of a great deal of audience overlap between Taylor fans and Jamey followers (other than Jamey's producer and co-writer Buddy Cannon, is a Taylor supporter). But, I'll tell you this: She has the genuine ability with her songs to bring in older listeners who remember exactly the adolescent moments that she is describing so well.

Taylor Swift has country music's heart right now, but Jamey Johnson for damn sure has its soul. source>>>