Split (1)

train · 2.6M rows

text stringlengths 13 81.7k
I do not vote for certain players who were strongly linked to PEDs – Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa. I know that the evidence of PED use varies among them. I know that I probably vote for certain users who avoided detection. And I know that the impact of PED use is impossible to m...
Some say that voters should not serve as arbiters of morality, and I tend to agree. Problem is, the rules for election instruct us to consider, among other things, “character, integrity and sportsmanship.” Are we simply supposed to ignore those instructions?
The users gained an unfair competitive advantage over the non-users. They were rewarded once, and I struggle with rewarding them again. Entrance into the Hall is a privilege, not a right.
The crowded ballot actually provided me with greater clarity as I reconsidered my decisions on the PED crowd. I’m entirely at ease giving priority to untainted players such as Maddux and Thomas in ‘14, then Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz in ‘15.
The verdict on the PED crowd isn’t final; players can remain eligible for 15 years as long as they keep receiving 5 percent of the vote. Bonds, Clemens and the rest will keep exceeding that minimum, thanks to those who believe in their candidacies.
Maybe in the future I’ll grow comfortable voting for them; I don’t see it happening, but I’ll at least allow for the possibility. I’m just not there now.
Tyler Kepner of the New York Times has argued eloquently that the rules of election should be changed to allow voters to select more than 10 candidates. Jonah Keri of Grantland has noted that the limit is particularly harmful considering that players fall off the ballot when they do not receive 5 percent of the vote.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America decided at the winter meetings to form a committee to discuss the 10-vote limit and other possible changes. I’m not terribly bothered that I stopped voting for McGriff, Smith and Trammell this year. I would prefer it to be otherwise, but a natural weeding-out process took pl...
This is Trammell’s 13th year on the ballot and Smith’s 12th. Neither seems likely of ever receiving the required 75 percent for induction. McGriff has been on the ballot only four years, but has yet to receive more than 23.9 percent of the vote. If I can find room for him in the future, I will.
My greater fear, as I filled out my ballot, was that certain players would not receive 5 percent, eliminating them from future consideration by the BBWAA. I was concerned, in particular, about two players – Mussina and Jeff Kent. Mussina, in my view, is a definite Hall of Famer. Kent is worthy, too, though I am not qui...
Maybe my fears are unwarranted – 569 votes were cast last year, and a candidate needed only 29 to exceed the 5 percent minimum. Still, Kenny Lofton received only 18 votes, falling off the ballot in his first year of eligibility. I don’t view Lofton as a Hall of Famer. I do believe he merited longer consideration.
In any case, the 10-man limit forced me to vote strategically. Trammell was my most difficult exclusion. In the end, I dropped him to add Mussina.
I considered ways to maneuver Kent onto my ballot as well, perhaps even by dropping Edgar Martinez, knowing that Edgar is unlikely to reach 75 percent this year, anyway. I even thought about including Kent over Mussina, sensing that it might be more difficult for Kent to hit the 5 percent threshold due to his occasiona...
In the end, though, I tried not to overthink it, and simply went with the 10 candidates I felt were most deserving. In a perfect world, yes, the BBWAA would abolish the 10-vote limit, and we could choose as many candidates as we wished. But that world does not yet exist. So I made choices, difficult choices, choices th...
I won’t pretend my ballot is perfect. No ballot is perfect. All voters can do is take their best shot every year. And then try again.
Touting potential benefits to river ecology and public safety, a group of state, federal and nonprofit entities aim to proceed this summer with plans to remove a series of dams on the Mill and Cotley rivers.
“Many dams were built decades or centuries ago to power mills or factories that no longer exist,” explained Brian Graber, the northeast director of American Rivers’ river restoration program.
Cutting through a wooded area along Hopewell Street and behind Taunton State Hospital, the Mill River rushes over the Taunton State Hospital dam. Behind the dam, the water is held back and expands into a wide pond in the shadow of the state hospital. Tall grass and cattails line the shore, and it’s not uncommon to see ...
That pond will soon disappear.
Working with the state, which owns the old dam, a host of project partners plan to remove the structure this summer, restoring the river to its original natural state. Over time, more than five acres of flood plain will replace the pond, and the river will settle into its original channel.
The Whittenton Dam spillway and the Cotely River Dam are slated for removal in the future, but no timetable is set for those projects.
“The benefits of the project are to restore a free-flowing river with improved water quality, and to improve fisheries and wildlife habitat,” said Beth Lambert, river restoration coordinator with the state Division of Ecological Restoration.
Kingfishers, painted turtles, box turtles, leopard frogs and pickerel frogs are among the new species Lambert expects to return to the area.
Removing the dam also has a public safety benefit, she said.
“That dam is deteriorating, and removing it removes the threat of a catastrophic dam burst,” Lambert said.
Of more than 3,000 dams in Massachusetts, fewer than 50 were built for flood control. Many dams were built during the Industrial Revolution to power mills and factories, the majority of which ceased to operate decades ago. The State Hospital Dam, for example, was constructed in 1818 to power the long-defunct Hopewell F...
Although the project hasn’t yet gone out to bid, it’s estimated that it will cost approximately $700,000 to remove the State Hospital Dam. That expenditure would also cover the cost of planting trees and other vegetation in the drained pond, restoring the flood plain and river channel and managing sediment trapped by t...
Repairing the dam, in contrast, would cost around $250,000, according to a 2007 estimate, Lambert said. Graber said an engineer who did a more recent estimate for American Rivers determined a repair could cost more than $400,000.
“Removing the dams also eliminates any need for future maintenance or repairs beyond these initial estimates, so the removal vs. repair costs are not a perfect one-to-one comparison,” Graber added.
Upstream from Taunton State Hospital, there are also plans to remove the deteriorating stone spillway that the Army Corps of Engineers installed in 2005 to replace the old Whittenton Dam.
In October 2005, the old wooden Whittenton Dam threatened to give way after a period of heavy rain, prompting the city to evacuate hundreds of residents.
“The major risk of flooding surrounding dams now is the sudden failure of a dam,” Graber said.
Rick Ferreira, director of the Taunton Emergency Management Agency, still has vivid memories of the 2005 dam crisis. While he said dam removal doesn’t completely eliminate the risk of flooding, it certainly reduces it.
In addition to removing dams, the state is also working to replace the Morey’s Bridge Dam, which forms Lake Sabbatia.
State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, who has sponsored legislation to secure funding for dam projects, said he is supportive of the work, including replacing Morey’s Bridge Dam and removing dams farther downstream.
“Certainly I support efforts to remove those dams that are not useful and to keep riverways open, not only for recreational use, but to bring these areas back to their natural settings,” he said.
Melissa Wapenski, who’s lived next to the Whittenton Dam for 33 years, was one of the city residents forced to evacuate in 2005.
“I think there needs to be a way to control the water flow,” she said. If plans to remove the Whittenton Dam proceed, she said she’ll miss having a pond in her backyard.
“I grew up fishing in the backyard and canoeing there,” she said.
Lambert said she realizes such a change can be difficult for people to accept, but said the new habitat will provide new opportunities to experience nature.
The discovery of a neuron in the brain that acts as the “master controller” of habits could someday change the way we treat addiction and compulsive behaviors.
Scientists at Duke University have identified a neuron that acts as the “master controller” of habits. The findings, published in the journal eLife, could someday change the ways addiction and compulsive behavior are treated.
The “master controller” of habit appears to be a rare cell called the fast-spiking interneuron (FSI), which shows boosted activity during habit formation and, interestingly, seems to shut down habit behaviors when suppressed by drugs.
FSIs, which belong to a class of neuron that relays messages between other neurons, are found in a region deep within the brain called the striatum. Here, FSIs make up only 1 percent of cells, but they have long branch-like tendrils that allow them to connect with 95 percent of the other neurons associated with habitua...
It’s been known that habit formation can effectively rewire the brain, but exactly which neurons cause and control this process has been unclear. The team behind the new study wanted to change that.
“We were trying to put these pieces of the puzzle into a mechanism,” Calakos said.
In 2016, the Duke University researchers published their first insights into habit and its effects on the brain. They found that habit formation in mice resulted in long-lasting changes in the striatum, which has two sets of neural pathways: a “go” pathway that triggers action, and a “stop” pathway that inhibits it.
The results showed habit formation made both of these pathways stronger, and also caused the “go” pathway to fire before the “stop” pathway.
Still, they weren't quite sure which neurons were effectively running the show in the striatum. To find out, the researchers, led by graduate student Justin O’Hare, first observed that FSIs become more excitable when a habit is formed. Then they administered a drug to habituated mice that suppresses the firing of FSIs....
Chasing a chief executive officer to share a complaint or idea is as American as an unwanted cable TV price increase. Brooks O'Kelley says he wrote dozens of letters to the CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, begging for a problem fix.
"Calling the 1-800 number didn't get me what I needed," he says. "You have to be quite persistent." It worked.
Kathy Smith cracks me up. The 83-year-old Dallas woman faced the same issue, same company.
"I don't think you understand," she wrote AT&T. "I don't want to talk to anyone on the phone. I want to talk to your CEO in person at his office in Dallas."
She listed five dates when she was available and added presumptuously, "I will need directions to his building and instructions about parking." Guess who never got a meeting?
The biggest loser in the Chasing After a CEO game doesn't even live in the U.S. He's 22-year-old Jose Dresser Gutierrez Giraldo from Colombia. He wanted to come to America and meet Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes because he admired him. "I like what he represents," he says. The Colombian wanted to share his tech idea.
When he couldn't get past Bewkes' lieutenants with emails and phone calls, he figured he'd ask AT&T's Stephenson for help with the introduction. AT&T is trying to buy Time Warner. That's how I got involved. Jose contacted The Watchdog because he saw on the Internet that I once interviewed Stephenson.
Jose Dresser Gutierrez, 22, of Colombia (center) tried for 18 months to meet Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes (left) to share a tech idea. When that didn't work, he tried to get AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to help introduce him. AT&T is trying to buy Time Warner.
"I humbly with my heart request of your help to contact Mr. Bewkes or Mr. Stephenson," his first letter to me began in English, which I later learned he studied in college. "I am not a rich person or a tycoon or a powerful investor or an influential person."
So began a stream of letters that reflected his deep obsession with getting into the CEOs' offices. Of course, such a thing would rarely happen — nor should it. Walk-in privileges to see a CEO of a major corporation probably ended with folksy Walmart founder Sam Walton. But nobody can tell Jose that.
He's my most stubborn Watchdog correspondent. That's why I am telling you his story. We all have obsessions, but they must be controlled or they take over your life. That's what happened here.
Jose decided to go to New York City and visit the 55-story Time Warner Center on Broadway. He did not have an appointment.
To raise money for the trip, he sold his beloved pet calf, Muñeca, or "Doll.") "She was really cute," he says. "It was very sad."
The calf, Muneca or "Doll," sold by Jose Dresser Gutierrez Giraldo, a 22-year-old man from Colombia, who tried to visit an American CEO without success. He sold his pet to raise money for a trip to the U.S.
Last April, he flew on his first plane trip ever from his town in the Medellin section of Colombia to Miami, then St. Louis and finally to LaGuardia Airport in New York. He carried two bags that included gifts for Bewkes: a T-shirt and a box of chocolates from the chocolate factory where he works. Wearing only a light ...
Lost in the city, he began to cry. A policeman asked why he was crying. He said he didn't know how to get to Time Warner. The cop told him about the subway. He tried that, but got lost again.
He finally arrived at the New York skyscraper. But he wasn't ushered up to the C-suite. Hardly. He couldn't get past security guards to enter the building. Ejected, he sat outside by a statue of Christopher Columbus and cried.
He took a taxi to a house where he was supposed to stay. The taxi bill was $70, and he was running out of money. He was hungry, too.
The house didn't work out, so he went to a $118-a-night hotel room and looked out the window at the great city's night lights. He vowed to try once more.
On the second day, Jose says, the Time Warner guards were furious at his return. They threatened to call police. He tried to leave the shirt and chocolates, but they weren't interested.
He returned to the airport, waited more than a day for his plane trip, and then returned home.
I can't get this strange trip out of my head. I grew up in Manhattan, and know those streets well. You can't sell your calf, come to the states and expect to meet your favorite CEO.
His mother, Patricia, told my colleague Marina Trahan Martinez last week in a Skype interview in Spanish, "He's going to keep going, even if I tell him I have doubts. Since he's been little, he's been that way."
Jose Dresser Gutierrez Giraldo, a 22-year-old from Colombia, in a January 2018 Skype interview with Watchdog producer Marina Trahan Martinez. They spoke in both English and Spanish. She also interviewed his mother.
He wrote Time Warner board members to plead his case. He copied the human relations department, too.
He peppered AT&T, and even got a phone call from a top guy. Top Guy told him he admired his persistence and to never give up. But when Jose took his advice and peppered him with calls and emails, Top Guy "disappeared," Jose says.
An AT&T rep confirms Jose's contacts with the company. Time Warner does, too.
TW spokesman Keith Cocozza told me: "When we received the envelope with his suggestions to improve the company's business, it was shared and reviewed by three different executives. We were very appreciative of his thoughts and told him so when he called to follow up. Another half dozen executives and employees spoke to...
What's his idea? Jose is a futurist. He envisions a software app that allows a company to see where its customers are interacting with that company in real time anywhere on the globe. What are the hot spots and flash points? Who loves you? Who doesn't? One day, all companies will probably have such a system. Jose is a ...
His New York trip burned him. So distraught at his failure, he smartly began seeing a psychologist.
The South American is a lover of all things U.S. — our history, culture and politics. But he says he wishes our bigshots would "pay attention to a boy's heart and a young person's dreams."
He asked me recently, "What do you think would happen to me if I decide to travel to AT&T in Dallas?"
An emotional ordeal. Jose Dresser Gutierrez Giraldo of Colombia cries in a Skype interview with Watchdog Dave Lieber as he describes his failed attempts to meet a top American CEO whom he admired.
For a consumer problem, when all else fails, try contacting the company's CEO for help.
Try various email name combinations — jbezos@amazon.com or Jeff.Bezos@amazon.com, etc.
Get a CEO's name and address from a web search or from documents filed at SEC.gov. Check 10-K annual reports or Proxy Statements.
Use LinkedIn to learn about executives in a CEO's inner circle. Websites from Yahoo Finance and the Better Business Bureau also list top execs.
Start your letter by saying, "Let me tell you what's going on in your company."
Keep it short. Explain what you want. Best to ask for financial reimbursement. Include a copy of your bill.
Letters sent by mail, return receipt requested, are better than emails.
Include all your contact information.
What do you do about Apple's iPhone slowdown?
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Almost 14 years to the day, an arrest has been made in the murder of a mother and son in Virginia Beach.
Monday morning on June 28, 2004 police, fire and paramedics responded to the 1100 block of Newcombe Road for a reported gunshot wound.
First responders found an adult male grievously injured from a gunshot wound. As officers entered the home, they found two wounded victims and discovered that the residence was on fire.
The two victims were taken from the burning home and examined by paramedics only to find they had died from gunshot wounds, police said. Firefighters put out the flames and the injured man was taken to a local hospital where he was treated.
29-year-old Lois Schmidt and 7-year-old Jonathan Vetrano died in the incident.
Three family pets were also inside the home at the time of the attack. Two dogs had been shot and one died from injuries.
Police began an exhausting investigation but all leads went cold. They said the case was never forgotten.
Additional investigation over the years led to new information being uncovered, which has recently resulted in two recent arrests.
On June 23 local detectives with the support of the Logansport Indiana Police Department, Cass County Indiana Sheriff’s Office and the Indiana State Police, arrested 42-year-old Richard Stoner. Stoner has been charged with two counts of First Degree Murder, police said.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.