Washoe County Schools Mailing Parents On State Budget

Received this Monday.  I wonder how much this postcard cost the Washoe County School District?

How Athlete's Go Broke, or Perhaps Why Snyder Finds Himself In Trouble

The news that former Wolfpack star and NBA player Kirk Snyder was arrested Monday morning for allegedly breaking into a neighbor's home and then attacking an occupant unfortunately dovetails with a Sports Illustrated story that I had just read this weekend.

Pablo S. Torre's How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke is fascinating if for no other reason (and, actually, there are plenty) than to learn California Angels' outfielder Torii Hunter once sank, and lost, almost $70,000 into an invention for an inflatable raft that could float furniture in case of a flood.  Since then, Hunter has had the luxury of a) signing a $90 million contract and b) obtaining quality money management advice.  Unfortunately, he seems to be in the minority.

Among other things, you'll learn that "by the time they have been retired for two year, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce" and, with Snyder in mind, "within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke."

Former UNR Star Kirk Snyder Arrested for Burglary

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Kirk Snyder was arrested for breaking into a neighbor's home early this morning and, when discovered, beating the sleeping husband.

The paper's lead pretty well sums it up.

A former professional basketball player, who helped put the University of Nevada-Reno in the Sweet 16 five years ago, could be shooting hoops in the jail yard for a while.

NRA Offering Free Annual Memberships

Perhaps in anticipation of some heated legislative battles over gun rights, the National Rifle Association is currently offering a free annual membership to boost their ranks.  Normally $35 a year, new members have their choice of American Rifleman, American Hunter or America's First Freedom magazines and other benefits, including the $1,000 gun insurance.

NRA Special Bonus Offer

That Twouble with Twitters Video

This is pretty funny, though I suspect some may take offense.  Plus, who knew Gore's Current TV had such a sense of humor?

Woody Allen's Tails of Manhattan

I saw this first on Snopes, so I'm guessing it is starting to make the email-forwarding rounds (and, yes, it is authored by the Woody Allen).  And since it features revenge on Bernie Madoff, it should prove to be quite popular. 

Tails of Manhattan.  (Hint: watch out for the highly annoying Benz rollover ad that seemingly launches and covers at will.)

Jarvis vs. Mutter on Fate of the Newspaper

Chances are if you are reading this you care about news, and while you may no longer subscribe to an RGJ or NYT I think you appreciate the value of journalism and what a vibrant press does for our country and lives.

That said, 2009 is shaping up as perhaps the tipping point on the fate of the traditional newspaper.  Burdened by the almost perfect storm of declining readership, falling ad dollars and, in many cases, huge corporate debt, it seems each week brings word of a major paper folding its doors.  Just go over to Newspaper Death Watch for the grim news (although today's posts show hope for the San Diego Union and Tucson Citizen).

But perhaps the two best blogs on the current state of the newspaper are Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine and Alan D. Mutter's Reflections of a Newsosaur.  Although both agree the end of the traditional paper is coming, they split on how to save journalism (in a rough nutshell, Jarvis thinks it should be online free; Mutter wants some sort of online subscription model).  Both are must reads.

For the next few days, though, you can get a two-for-one special over at the L.A. Times as both debate the fate of newspapers.  Today's topic: Are newspapers dying, or is it just a class of newspapers that isn't sustainable?

McCain's NCAA Tourney Bracket Challenge Is Back

For the third straight year John McCain is having an NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.  While campaign swag was the prize in years past, this time it is an autographed copy of Faith of My Fathers.

Sign up here.

Heller Says No to Pi

You would think with a deepening recession, ballooning budget deficit, two ongoing wars, etc., Congress would have better things to do than take the time to craft and vote on symbolic fluff bills like making March 14 "National Pi Day" (get it).  You'd think so.  But this is Congress, where in their bizarro world naming a day after something or someone apparently makes everyone knowledgeable on said subject, or so they like to think before moving on to the more important work of garnering earmarks for their district or tomorrow night's fundraising dinner with DC lobbyists.

So, naturally, Pi Day passed overwhelmingly.  Only 10 house members voted against the measure (30 apparently had better things to do) and all were Republicans.  And one of those 10, thankfully, was Nevada's Dean Heller.

Just Go to MrJerz.org for the Cobb and Yucca Stuff

I guess the saying "you snooze, you lose" does have merit.  I received an email survey from Nevada assemblyman Ty Cobb (AD-26) Wednesday and started a post, but left it in draft.  I was mainly going to talk about his use of technology, he does send stuff somewhat frequently, as well as his soliciting input on his plan for accepting Yucca Mountain.  But by the time I got around to it today, I found that not only had MrJerz already posted it, but he also included a picture of said survey, some thoughts on Yucca himself and generally did a lot better job than I was planning.  So go over there and check it out.

For Heller Is It Trigg or Reid in 2010?

Apparently the biennial assault of political ads featuring the Flying Flapjack ranch is coming to an end as the Dems may be looking to Douglas County school board trustee Cindy Trigg to take on two-term incumbent congressman Dean Heller in NV-2 next year.

Or, will Heller look to unseat Harry Reid in 2010? The Fix thinks it's a possibility.

Bank of Obama Bailout Checks

Well you figure with all the money flowing out of DC it was only a matter of time before someone tried to capitalize on it, and not just the sleazoids peddling the Obama grant money ("I got $12,000 in seven days") scheme.  This time it was a trio of recent Texas grads trying to pay off some student loans.

At the Bank of Obama, you can send anyone a free bailout check by email (well, the first one is free), or have one sent by mail for a small fee.  Perhaps the entrepreneurial spirit of America isn't dead.

Some Reno Bike Riders Are Just Jerks

Not that long ago there was some controversy over a Nevada Sagebrush column on bike riders.  Long story short, Emily Katseanes wasn't too impressed with the crowd and said so in a somewhat satirical way.  After all, it was an opinion piece.  But it prompted a maelstrom of comments, of which a lot were angry, personal attacks on the writer.  It's almost as if the crowd was living down to the very low standards she had initially described.

MrJerz posted about it and, while the comments on his blog were more civil, you could still see pockets of anger amongst Reno bike riders (actually, that's what the title of his post said).  Former RGJ columnist Corey Farley, an avid biker, has written a couple times about a certain class of bike rider that gives them all a bad name.  He even developed a theory that the jerk factor among bikers significantly increases once you don the tights and jersey.

And after today I would have to wholeheartedly agree with them.

We were traveling down a street when we came upon a pair of jersey-clad bikers.  Instead of riding one in front of the other or even closer together, the two took up more than half the lane.  So we puttered at about 10 mph below the speed limit waiting for an opening to pass.  I was still fuming at those idiots when we came to a three-way stop.  I was turning left but was waiting for a pedestrian with a dog to cross that lane.  The dog, which looked like one of those wolf hybrids, had a pronounced limp so it took a little bit.  When they had finished I started to turn when the bikers blew by me (through the stop sign naturally) on my right and turned left directly in front of me almost causing a collision. 

So not only does common courtesy escape these two tards, basic awareness of stop signs and safety apparently are a foreign concept too.  Even worse, I was behind these morons again and, again, in their clueless world of self-importance they took up most of the lane.  Like Farley wrote, "It was one of those moments that makes me wish Mazdas came with machine guns."