USF up 23-7 on Notre Dame in 4th quarter

UPDATE UPDATE: Yes, really, a second storm delay at 8:41, with USF up 23-13 and 4:21 remaining.
UPDATE: After a two-hour lightning delay at halftime, USF-Notre Dame resumed. B. J. Daniels’ 2-yard touchdown pass to Evan Landi put USF up 23-7 in the fourth quarter. Notre Dame cut the lead to 23-13 but missed a 2-point conversion with 7:35 left . .
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — USF stormed out to a 16-0 halftime lead at Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish are now in the first weather delay in their 123-year history, with more than an hour elapsed since the first half ended, due to severe lightning in the area.
Notre Dame Stadium — with close to 80,000 fans in attendance — was completely evacuated by school officials, with both teams sequestered to their locker rooms until officials deem it safe to resume play. Notre Dame announced that a “much more serious” storm was approaching the area, so the delay could continue until night in South Bend, or potentially even Sunday.
USF, a 10-point underdog, has a 16-0 lead because of three Notre Dame miscues — twice, the Fighting Irish had third-and-goal plays that resulted in turnovers, the first being a fumble stripped by USF safety Jerrell Young that was scooped up and returned 96 yards by cornerback Kayvon Webster, the longest defensive play in Bulls history.
USF got a 49-yard field goal by kicker Maikon Bonani on its next possession, then settled for three again after Terrence Mitchell returned a Notre Dame punt 34 yards. When Notre Dame looked to score again, quarterback Dayne Crist had a pass intercepted by linebacker DeDe Lattimore in the end zone to thwart another drive. After one quarter, USF led 13-0 despite having been outgained 152-62 by Notre Dame.
The Bulls got another break in the second quarter when Theo Riddick fumbled a punt return and USF receiver Victor Marc recovered the fumble on the Notre Dame 19-yard line. For a third time, USF settled for a Bonani field goal and a 16-0 lead. USF’s defense stopped Notre Dame again, with sophomore defensive end Julius Forte getting an 11-yard sack to set up a three-and-out on Notre Dame’s last possession.
And while the weather delay is a historic one for Notre Dame, so too would be an upset for USF and coach Skip Holtz, who played at Notre Dame in 1986 and spent four years on his father Lou’s coaching staff in South Bend from 1990-93. The last time a Notre Dame graduate took a team into South Bend and won was 1940, when Iowa coach Eddie Anderson — who played with George Gipp in South Bend — pulled it off.

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Troubling metaphors: The Citizens Bank Park sandcastle

What exactly is former University of Pennsylvania and current MIT student Alex Nakahara trying to say with this sandcastle rendition of Citizens Bank Park? That the Phillies’ season is built on an unsteady, shifting foundation that is destined to dissolve at the first sign of the encroaching tide? Naw, probably he just thought it was cool. And he’s right. From The 700 Level:

“The sandcastle took most of the day to build, so around 6 hours. My brother and dad helped me out with it,” Alex said.
From looking at the size and detail of the CBP castle, I had the feeling this was not their first foray into sand sculptures.

I would have used kelp for the warning track, but that’s just me.
Anyway, Friday night is Crustacean Night at Citizens Bank Park sandcastle, in which all shell-dwelling sea animals are admitted half price. No snails.
Meanwhile, here’s another great ballpark rendition: Yankee Stadium in Middle-Earth form.
***Amazing Citizens Bank Park Sandcastle [The 700 Level]

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Fans brace for Longhorn Network’s week 1 fumble

Updated 09/02/2011 07:37 PM

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The University of Texas Longhorns take on the Rice University Owls Saturday to kick off the college football season.
Trouble is, there’s no place around town to watch the game. Only a handful of cable providers have sealed the deal with The Longhorn Network, a new channel owned by ESPN that exclusively holds the rights to Horns games.
At Cover 3 sports bar in Central Austin, General Manager Matt Dodson is adding an extra cable carrier in case a last minute deal is reached.
“We’re full on reservations for everyone who wants to watch the Longhorn game. We’re going to have to let everyone of them know we don’t have it,” Dodson said. “It’s about dollars and cents, but I feel sorry for the fans because it’s shameful the way they’re being treated. ”
Sports journalist Chip Brown says ESPN is doing everything to protect their long term investment, even though the Longhorn nation just wants to watch some football.
“If they don’t get the money to that they feel they need to cover their investment, then I think they are going to feel like they’ve let money get away just for the sake of airing one football game, and I know that’s not what Texas fans want to hear,” he said.
Officials with YNN’s parent company Time Warner Cable said they are still in negations with the Longhorn Network and haven’t reached a deal yet.
Late Friday, Grande Communications announced it would carry the Longhorn Network. Grande serves viewers in San Marcos and Waco.

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Notre Dame football stadium cleared due to lightning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Notre Dame’s football stadium was cleared in South Bend, Indiana on Saturday at halftime of the season opening game against South Florida after several lightning strikes in the area, a university spokesman said.
“Right now we are in an indefinite weather delay,” Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown said. “We evacuated the stadium at about 5:12 p. m. , right at halftime. ”
Brown said there were a number of lightning strikes in the area and the “vast majority of the stadium was evacuated” though there were a few people remaining in the stands.
The university also was expecting high winds as a storm front passes through the area, Brown said.
“It has been cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a 10-mile radius which is the radius the NCAA uses,” Brown said. “We actually started our announcements even before then to err on the side of caution. ”
South Bend Police Captain Phil Trent, who was working traffic at the game, said a “pretty significant” number of people were leaving the stadium, but he suspected some would stick around until the bitter end.
“It’s still looking bad out here, so we’ll see what happens,” Trent said. “Not northern Indiana football weather at all. ”
South Florida was leading Notre Dame 16-0 at halftime and no decision had been made about when the game would resume. The stadium has a capacity of nearly 81,000.
Brown said it was to the best of their recollection the first time Notre Dame Stadium had been evacuated in at least 60 years.
Most of the students initially stayed put in the stands despite the evacuation order, getting up only when ushers kicked them out. Fans waited out the storm in the stadium concourse and several other nearby university buildings.
With his team losing, 19-year-old Notre Dame sophomore Joey Labetti looked for the silver lining in the delay.
“I honestly hope that this is divine intervention,” Labetti said.
(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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USF up 23-13 on Notre Dame in 4th quarter

UPDATE UPDATE: Yes, really, a second storm delay at 8:41, with USF up 23-13 and 4:21 remaining.
UPDATE: After a two-hour lightning delay at halftime, USF-Notre Dame resumed. B. J. Daniels’ 2-yard touchdown pass to Evan Landi put USF up 23-7 in the fourth quarter. Notre Dame cut the lead to 23-13 but missed a 2-point conversion with 7:35 left . .
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — USF stormed out to a 16-0 halftime lead at Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish are now in the first weather delay in their 123-year history, with more than an hour elapsed since the first half ended, due to severe lightning in the area.
Notre Dame Stadium — with close to 80,000 fans in attendance — was completely evacuated by school officials, with both teams sequestered to their locker rooms until officials deem it safe to resume play. Notre Dame announced that a “much more serious” storm was approaching the area, so the delay could continue until night in South Bend, or potentially even Sunday.
USF, a 10-point underdog, has a 16-0 lead because of three Notre Dame miscues — twice, the Fighting Irish had third-and-goal plays that resulted in turnovers, the first being a fumble stripped by USF safety Jerrell Young that was scooped up and returned 96 yards by cornerback Kayvon Webster, the longest defensive play in Bulls history.
USF got a 49-yard field goal by kicker Maikon Bonani on its next possession, then settled for three again after Terrence Mitchell returned a Notre Dame punt 34 yards. When Notre Dame looked to score again, quarterback Dayne Crist had a pass intercepted by linebacker DeDe Lattimore in the end zone to thwart another drive. After one quarter, USF led 13-0 despite having been outgained 152-62 by Notre Dame.
The Bulls got another break in the second quarter when Theo Riddick fumbled a punt return and USF receiver Victor Marc recovered the fumble on the Notre Dame 19-yard line. For a third time, USF settled for a Bonani field goal and a 16-0 lead. USF’s defense stopped Notre Dame again, with sophomore defensive end Julius Forte getting an 11-yard sack to set up a three-and-out on Notre Dame’s last possession.
And while the weather delay is a historic one for Notre Dame, so too would be an upset for USF and coach Skip Holtz, who played at Notre Dame in 1986 and spent four years on his father Lou’s coaching staff in South Bend from 1990-93. The last time a Notre Dame graduate took a team into South Bend and won was 1940, when Iowa coach Eddie Anderson — who played with George Gipp in South Bend — pulled it off.

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Former Citizens employee pleads guilty to bank fraud

A former customer service representative at what was then Citizens National Bank, who helped two other people to defraud the bank, was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison.
U. S. District Judge Alan N. Bloch pronounced the sentence on Deja Scott, of Munhall. Ms. Scott was 21 at the time of her November indictment for passing bank information on to Marco Dane Crowe, of Lincoln-Lemington, and Douglas McArthur, of Penn Hills.
According to the indictment, Mr. Crowe used the information to divert bank mailings, including checks, from the account holders to addresses he controlled. He then wrote checks against those accounts. He is also accused of using information provided by Ms. Scott to divert $154,000 from a victim’s account to an account held by Mr. McArthur.
Ms. Scott pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Mr. Crowe and Mr. McArthur have also pleaded guilty but have not yet been sentenced.
First published on September 3, 2011 at 12:00 am

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Verizon first national carrier of Longhorn Network

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Jim Vertuo, AP Sports Writer, On Thursday August 25, 2011, 6:18 pm EDT
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Longhorn Network, the much-hyped and controversial partnership between ESPN and the University of Texas, launches Friday with a significant question: Will anyone be watching?
As of Thursday, ESPN and Texas officials had yet to announce a major cable or satellite provider to carry the Longhorn Network and its 24-hours, seven-days-a-week focus on Texas sports.
The biggest carrier so far is Verizon, which announced Thursday it would carry the network on its FiOS TV sports package with a potential reach of about 4 million subscribers in about a dozen states, including Texas.
“We have confidence someone will see us on Friday,” said Stephanie Druley, vice president of programming for the Longhorn Network. “We’re moving ahead, business as usual. It’s inevitable we’re going to be on TV. ”
Cable television analyst Adam Swanson of SNL Kagan said while not having a major carrier already announced is “not ideal” for the Longhorn Network, it also isn’t unusual given the history of tough network negotiations with providers. He noted the long and expensive fights waged between cable providers and the NFL over the NFL Network.
“It’s not unprecedented,” Swanson said. “In a week, if they still don’t have distribution, that’s a problem. ”
The Longhorn Network debuts Friday night with a two-hour special featuring live interviews with football coach Mack Brown, other Texas coaches and some former Longhorns athletes. The first live game coverage will be Friday’s night’s Texas volleyball match against Pepperdine.
The network’s big target date for a distribution deal is Saturday, Sept. 3, when it will broadcast the Longhorn’s season-opening football game against Rice.
“Having this launch national would be nice, but we understand the business and we’re going to launch small. It’s going to grow as we go,” Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said.
Swanson said ESPN has the leverage of having the top brand in television sports programming when negotiating a distribution deal.
“They have established a brand that is really second to none,” Swanson said. “ESPN is the big dog. ”
It’s the marriage of two big dogs like ESPN and Texas that has unsettled the rest of the Big 12, most notably rival Texas A&M.
The ability to create its own network was a major reason Texas spurned offers to join the Pac-10 and Big Ten in 2010. But the 20-year, $300 million deal with ESPN, the Disney-owned giant based in Bristol, Conn. , staggered the Longhorns’ Big 12 rivals and created worries within the league that one of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful programs just got richer and stronger.
Texas A&M apparently has had enough of Texas and the Aggies are making a push to leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. On Thursday, the Aggies formally told the Big 12 they are considering a departure.
Incoming Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp insists such a move would not be done because of the network, but A&M officials have been the most vocal in concerns over the impact of the network on the Big 12.
Going to the SEC would be a “no-brainer from the A&M point of view and the best interest of Texas A&M University, and in the best interest in the state of Texas, quite frankly,” Sharp said.
“People say this is about Texas and their network. It doesn’t have anything to do with the University of Texas,” Sharp said.
The network has been an unsettling issue for the Big 12 all summer. Texas would like to move one of its Big 12 games onto the network and has offered to pay the opposing school to do it. The Big 12 has said any league game moved to the network must be approved by the league and both schools.
And the NCAA had to step in after an ESPN official said the Longhorn Network would pursue high school football games featuring Longhorns recruits. The NCAA banned such broadcasts by school- or conference-affiliated networks as a possible unfair recruiting advantage.
What the Longhorn Network hopes to offer Texas fans is unparalleled reporting on the program with behind-the-scenes coverage of the most prominent athletic programs in the country.
But even that has produced some unease within the Texas athletic offices. The Longhorns were barely into football training camp when Brown questioned network requests to film practice and meetings that he usually keeps private.
Brown says he likes the exposure the network will give his players and assistants, but he’s also facing an increased workload as he tries to rally his program after a 5-7 finish in 2010. Brown, who has promised to be more engaged with his team this season, will doing three shows a week for the Longhorn Network.
“I’ve got to make sure it doesn’t change the responsibilities I have in this program,” Brown said. “But I’m going to be doing more things than I’ve done. ”

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Notre Dame football: Unsettling loss sends Irish back to square one

SOUTH BEND – Remove the weather situations from the equation. Forget the distractions concerning Skip Holtz’s return to Notre Dame. South Florida’s 23-20 win over the Irish was Tulsa revisited, sans Notre Dame’s very real chance to win at the end.

The Irish football program, riding the momentum of four wins to end last season, took some major steps backward Saturday. This was a Notre Dame team that was supposed to have outgrown the goofs it committed Saturday. The Irish weren’t supposed to be so fragile and vulnerable. Notre Dame doubled South Florida’s offensive production, 508 yards to 254 – but still came up empty. Five turnovers, three in the red zone. Dayne Crist’s tenure as “the man” under center lasted all of 30 minutes. Hello, Tommy Rees. Good-bye, confidence. David Ruffer, college football’s most accurate kicker last season, misfired wide left from 30 yards in the third quarter. Big points, as it turned out. Late hit and pass interference penalties on corner Gary Gray during the Bulls’ last scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Big yards. “This was an accumulation of mistake after mistake after mistake,” Irish head coach Brian Kelly said. “It wasn’t just one play. It was one mistake after the other. ”A lot of respect was flushed with the loss. Heck, NBC, Notre Dame’s own television network, even gave up on the Irish. After the second stadium evacuation and storm delay, NBC shifted the final 4 minutes and 21 seconds to its obscure subsidiary, Versus, so  it could show . . . a football movie – “Game Time: Tackling the Past. ”Probably had a better ending for Irish fans, anyway. For those Notre Dame fans who don’t get the network, normally reserved for hunting and fishing adventures, they didn’t miss much. Rees managed to get a touchdown pass to Michael Floyd, but that last-ditch try for an onside kick failed. Notre Dame’s going to have its share of problems tackling the future. Now what happens? How is Notre Dame supposed to be able to travel to the Big House next Saturday night and beat Michigan?Quarterback controversy? Rees threw for 296 yards (24 of 32), but was intercepted twice – once inside the South Florida 5. While the sophomore lacked consistency, Crist, a senior, was worse (7 of 15, 95 yards), tossing a pick in the end zone from the Bulls’ 10. A preseason worth of building toward the anointing of Crist as the starter was ruled null and void before the first lightning bolt flashed. Lots of rhetoric. Little production. Too many miscues. How can an Irish offense look like a hot knife through butter for its first six snaps – traveling 78 yards – then curl up and die after Jonas Gray’s fumble is returned 96 yards for a touchdown by Kayvon Webster?It’s called mental toughness. That problem was supposed to have been solved during the win streak last season. The swagger was supposed to have returned. The BCS was supposed to have been in sight, if not a realistic goal. One clunker has changed all that. “We’ve been down this road before,” said Kelly, who probably still has the map handy in his glove compartment. It’s a rocky thoroughfare. Lots of twists and turns. Always under construction. “The disappointing thing is that we thought going into a year where we had some experience, that we wouldn’t have to go through this,” Kelly said. “But, it looks like we’re going to have to make sure our players are understanding what it takes to win football games. ”Ugh. Back to square one. That was the process last season. Lessons like Michigan, Michigan State and Tulsa were supposed to have been the fodder for the turnaround. All that was wasted. Retention doesn’t seem to be the program’s strong suit. Next week’s a lot about survival now.

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Fishermen Catch Piranha In Local Lake

On a hot summer day, a cool dip in a lake might sound like a good idea, but you might think twice after this story. A couple of fisherman angling for bluegill, in a lake near Mount Orab, caught something they really didn’t expect. . . a piranha. Local 12′s Rich Jaffe says, what makes the story even more peculiar is it’s actually the second piranha to recently come out of the same lake.  ”It was just another day of fishing for Jake Sizemore and Larry Waits here on Lake Grant, until the fish that ate their bait turned out to be a fish that very possibly would have liked to eat them. “Jake Sizemore’s really hooked on fishing. Thursday morning, he and fishing partner Larry Waits were trying to catch bluegills on Lake Grant that they could use as bait for catfish. But what Jake pulled in was no bluegill. Jake Sizemore, Fisherman: “Actually, when I pulled it out of the water, at first it kind of scared me, cause I had no clue what it was. “It is a piranha. . . all 8 inches and razor sharp teeth. “That’s amazing, they look like human teeth, not little spikey things, they’re real teeth. “Larry says he caught a smaller piranha in the same lake 15 months ago.  Larry Waits, Fisherman: “Because I’d researched the one I’d caught earlier, I knew exactly what it was. I even told him, look, it’s not just a piranha, it’s a red bellied piranha because it’s exactly like the one I caught before, except bigger. “Jake says, when he told his friends what he hooked. . . . “They don’t believe me at all, they think I’m just lying. Telling a fish story. “Larry discussed with state officials the possibility that more of these skin shredders could be in the lake.  ”But they don’t seem to be concerned, they said the possibility is there’s some warm water running into that lake somewhere, a small area or a spring where the water stays a little warmer and they’re able to survive. Probably not a large population, but they’ve survived the winter or somebody is turning some loose every year. “A serious fisherman, Larry says, it’s all about luck. “When I get home, I call the state biologist and they’re telling me I should play the lottery and I played the lottery simply because they’re saying the odds of catching one is one in a million. The odds of catching two out of a lake where they don’t exist in are one in a billion. You ought to be playing the lottery with that kind of luck!” Now, Larry wonders if he could really beat the odds and go for three. It’s illegal to release non-native species like piranha’s or other exotics into the wild. Larry tells us he’s going to donate the piranha to someone who will give it a good home.

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Citizens offers hurricane support

Friday, September 2, 2011

Citizens Bank is offering a range of financial support services to individuals, small businesses and nonprofit organizations in the Northeast that were affected by Hurricane Irene.
Existing customers in New Hampshire, Delaware, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Vermont are eligible for special products created in response to the hurricane that hit the East Coast August 28 and 29.
The bank said it will provide $10,000 unsecured emergency loans at 5 percent for up to seven years with no prepayment penalty to those existing customers affected by the storm. The bank is also offering 0 percent interest credit cards for six months, with credit lines up to $15,000. That is also available for small businesses.
In addition, the bank is offering disaster bridge loans for small business and nonprofit customers that have applied for federal disaster aid assistance from the U. S. Small Business Administration as part of the federal government’s response to hurricane Irene.
“We hope this support provides the immediate resources people need to clean up from the devastation left by the hurricane,” said Joe Carelli president, Citizens Bank, New Hampshire.
For additional information on the SBA programs and qualifying areas please call 1-800-659-2955.
For more information, call 888-850-4068. — NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW

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