Sunday Morning Coming Down

If you really need to get away you can become  a citizen of Dominica for a cool $100,000. You can travel on your Dominica passport and you don't even need to live there. Dominica Passport and Second Citizenship and its Advantages Second Passport and Dominica Citizenship for life Dominica offers second passport and citizenship for life for the main applicant, applicant’s spouse and dependent children (if any). Dual Citizenship Dual citizenship is permitted and there is  no residency requirement. It is necessary to visit Dominica once to attend the interview with a committee appointed by the Prime Minister in order to get your second passport. However, once citizenship is granted you have the option of living and working in Dominica for the rest of your life. ...

The owner of FastTrain a  private for profit vocational school has been found guilty of theft and conspiracy in his operation of the school. The Commission for Independent Education, the Private School watch dog didn't do its job of investigating student complaints. The school took advantage of loopholes, hired recruiters that only had the owner's interests at heart and used sleazy tactics and forged signatures of potential students to get control of Pell grants and loan money intended to help students pay for classes.  Too often the students were ill qualified for their classes. The private for profit schools and the existing state run vocational schools  both need good quality oversight.

About two weeks ago Dade Medical College closed its doors and the owner pleaded guilty. MIAMI - Dade Medical College owner Ernesto Perez pleaded guilty Monday to charges of illegal campaign contributions and resisting arrest Monday as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Besides serving three days in jail, Perez will have to pay a $150,000 fine and do 160 hours of community service as part of the deal. Perez was facing up to six years in prison had he not taken the plea deal. He left the courthouse without talking to reporters. In the meantime, students from the now defunct college are trying to figure out how to get their money back or how to complete their nursing degrees. From the Miami Herald 11/17/2015: Education Management Corporation agreed to pay  $95 million dollars to settle lawsuits about how it recruited students. Judge Terry McVerry while dismissing an attempt to squash on of the lawsuits, called the allegations in the case a multi billion dollar co...

The irony of a media staff member at the University of Missouri trying to restrict a photo journalist's access to a protest site on campus can't be minimized. On one hand you have a highly respected journalism school and a student journalist trying to document what was happening on campus.   The protesters were not happy with a person walking around taking pictures of what was going on. The video of what happened included a lot of yelling and more than a little confusion. A woman who began yelling at Tai to leave was later identified as Melissa Click, a professor in the university's communications department. “Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here," she screamed to some of the other protesters at the conclusion of the video. Tai was also accused of violating the protesters' privacy rights at one point. Sadly, I don't think there was much reporting done and these days wandering around with a camera and...

The President of the University of Missouri has resigned. The football team had threatened to sit out Saturday's game against BYU. It was possible that the school would need to forfeit more than just the game. The school had guaranteed more than $1 million dollars to their opponent. And who knows what the alumni would think if their Saturday Afternoon was disrupted. Maybe the lawyers would have been able to figure out a way around that penalty, and put the screws to the players on the football team, but the most expedient thing happened, the university president resigned. I am unable to comment on the status of racist speech or racism at Missouri or or any other school. I am almost positive that colleges and universities experience stuff that most folks would consider racist. Colleges and universities are small cities and when a diverse group of folks are put together both good and bad things can happen. It would be really interesting to see NFL players exercise a little bit ...

UPDATED: $222.40 Mahoning Valley Maiden Winner: Was 'She' Really A 'He'? - Horse Racing News | Paulick Report

Cubs fans have a right to be disappointed with the way their season ended. They also have the right to be pleased that the Mets lost to the Royals. And finally they have the right to feel good about next season. The team is young, very talented, and if the team can avoid a collective sophomore slump they should be in the battle for a playoff spot again. The team's improvement from 2014 was tremendous. The Royals could teach the Cubs a few things about "small ball". It is fun to watch players hit home runs, but the fact that timely hitting of singles can also score runs. It might also help to just keep the ball in play rather than striking out, which doesn't advance runners. The biggest issue is playing in the NL Central Division. The Cardinals don't look like they are going to slow down next year. Ask the Pirates about the wild card playoff system.

The Sunday Miami Herald wrote about what Miami Beach is doing to fight flooding during high tides.  Pumps are moving water to the Bay and in some places roads and sidewalks are being raised so cars and pedestrians don't have to drive or walk through sea water regularly. Ocean levels are rising and dealing with how it is affecting Miami Beach isn't just front page news, its a political and engineering issue. It's not just about hurricanes, its about high tides that are already here. They are the "King Tides" that can swamp places like Las Olas Blvd and parts of A1A in Broward, and lots of places on the beach, and even Matheson Hammock in the Gables is under water twice a day at this time of the year. The really big effects of a rising sea level are probably decades away, but we really need to start doing stuff now if parts of South Florida will continue to be liveable.

At the end of the University of Miami/Duke football, I'm sure that I was like many Cane Fans.  I turned the game off with a little bit of disgust.  Duke had driven down the field and scored a touchdown with the aid of about three pass interference calls and a questionable touchdown run with almost no time left. The Canes were penalized 23 times during the game. A sloppy game at best with three good drives and a reasonable defensive effort but the Canes gave up a 24-12 lead. Enough of this. I sat in a dark living room. Disappointed. The lads had figured out a way to blow a game they should have won, on the road, against a ranked team. Duke being ranked ahead of the "U" was probably a good enough reason for Al Golden to have been fired.  Last week's loss to a good Clemson team wasn't a big surprise.  The margin of the defeat was the shocker. In bed, I thought about American Pharoah. Well, at least he won impressively, at odds of 3/5. I turned on WQAM radio. ...