CBS News on Sahel Kazemi, Steve McNair and Leah Ignagni - new findings

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In a level of interest that should be applied to the California DMV, CBS News reporter Armen Keteyian looked at the investigative report by the Nashville Police (and which you can download here) and found what has been called an "inconsistency" in it. CBS is also trotting out new photos of the late Sahel Kazemi.

(WARNING: The police report is graphic.)

First to recap, Nashville Police concluded that former NFL Quarterback Steve McNair's girlfriend Sahel Kazemi shot and killed McNair on July 4th in her apartment in Nashville and that he had another girlfriend, Leah Ignagni.

Second, in the new investigation, the findings presented in the document explain that the police are still gathering evidence and are interested in any information that could change the report.

Armen Keteyian says that the report reveals a problem with the day when Nashville Police said Kazemi bought the gun that was claimed to have been used to kill McNair. At first they said it was bought on July 2nd during a two hour work absence, but according to The Sporting News blog, CBS found her work record, which showed that that leave of absence actually occured on July 1st.

But what's confusing is the police report has an interview with an Adrian Gilliam, who said he met and sold the gun to Kazemi on July 3rd. CBS, while having the timeline issue, lacks an interview with Gilliam to cross check their findings.

Thus, it's a great leap for CBS to question the entire police investigation on an inconsistency that's only half-explained.

As to Sahel Kazemi while CBS learned that she has $2,536.37 in her bank account, that info does not mean she did not think she had money problems. The police document contains this text message exchange I copied and pasted her for your information and which shows she was concerned about her finances, even to explain her need for help to Steve McNair:

Note: The below information was sourced from information provided by McNair’s cellular carrier, Sprint-Nextel, pursuant to subpoena. The text detail provided by Sprint-Nextel used the Eastern time zone (EDT). The times have been converted to the Central time zone (CDT) in this summary.
July 3, 2:03 a.m.
Kazemi: u love me
July 3, 2:04 a.m.
McNair: I love u baby
July 3, 2:09 a.m.
Kazemi: Im gonna have all of u soon
July 3, 2:24 a.m.
McNair: Yes u will
July 3, 8:14 a.m.
McNair: Hey are u up
9:56 a.m.
Kazemi: hi baby
9:56 a.m.
McNair: Where are you
9:57 a.m.
Kazemi: home
9:58 a.m.
McNair: Why your phone been off
9:59 a.m.
Kazemi: Im at the store tryin to fix it
10 a.m.
McNair: Did u stay at the condo because I came by there this morning
10
10:02 a.m.
Kazemi: yes but I have people comin to look at the furniture 2day
10:05 a.m.
Kazemi: Baby I might have a break down im so stressed
10:06 a.m.
McNair: Everything gonna be ok
10:12 a.m.
Kazemi: baby I need to pay the cell phone bills n the hospital.can u transfer 2000 to my acc
10:21 a.m.
Kazemi: baby I might need to go to the hospital.baby whats wrong w me i can hardly breath
10:27 a.m.
McNair: Where are u
10:28 a.m.
Kazemi: just got home
10:29 a.m.
McNair: Set down baby and rest for a minute. Drink some water.
10:30 a.m.
Kazemi: im tryin I just want this pain in my chest to go away
10:32 a.m.
McNair: You want me to come see about u
10:34 a.m.
Kazemi: im gonna try to sleep. If it dnt go away im goin to the hospital.
10:35 a.m.
McNair: Ok please let me know. I’m here if u need me
11:54 a.m.
11
McNair: Are u feeling better baby
3 p.m.
Kazemi: baby I wanna pay some of my bills b4 I go to wrk. All this bills n everythin else is stressin me out
3:53 p.m.
Kazemi: baby what are u doing
4 p.m.
McNair: At the pool with the kids. I got the guy transferring the money
4:01 p.m.
Kazemi: do u have my acc number
4:03 p.m.
McNair: Yes darling
4:04 p.m.
Kazemi: baby I have to be w u 2nite. I dnt care where
4:16 p.m.
Kazemi: tell me u gonna be w me
8:34 p.m.
Kazemi: baby where u gonna be at when i get off
8:50 p.m.
McNair: I’m at home now baby what time u get off
8:51 p.m.
Kazemi: round 11
9:10 p.m.
Kazemi: Where u gonna be at baby
9:15 p.m.
McNair: at home til the kids fall asleep
9:18 p.m. 12
Kazemi: k ill call u when I get off
10:23 p.m.
Kazemi: do u wanna get out n drink
10:35 p.m.
McNair: Probably not baby having trouble with the kids getting to sleep
10:45 p.m.
Kazemi: k im going to the condo in a min
10:59 p.m.
McNair: ok
11:28 p.m.
Kazemi: they asleep babe
11:34 p.m.
McNair: they are on the way
July 4, 12:38 a.m.
McNair: On my way
12:38 a.m.
Kazemi: k
12:48 a.m.
Kazemi: u want me to open the gate
12:52 a.m.
McNair: No open the front door
12:52 a.m.
(repeat) McNair: No open the front door
1:14 a.m.
Kazemi: its open
July 4, 2:23 a.m.*
Kazemi: im going to the store
13
14
*The 2:23 a.m. message, which was received by McNair’s phone at that time, appears to be oddly placed and out of sync when considered in totality with the other text messages. While McNair’s Blackberry at 2:23 a.m. on July 4 received the last text message originated by Kazemi’s cell phone, it is not known specifically when it originated. Inspection of Kazemi’s phone (a T-Mobile device) showed the text in question, but there was no reflection of the time of day it was sent. T-Mobile Subpoena Compliance Specialist Melanie Caldwell said neither she nor her associates had any idea why a message that was sent wouldn’t indicate a time and date. Ms. Caldwell was asked if there could be a delay of hours before a sent message was received. She said yes, such a delay could be caused by various issues, including server and technical problems. Thus, it is very possible that the message in question was actually sent hours earlier, was delayed due to technical or other issues, and was not received by McNair’s phone until 2:23 a.m.

For some reason this case is not going away. The matter of the gun purchase timeline and Kazemi's actual mental state, which does seem more stable than she was portrayed as before this week, are still up for questioning.

Leah Ignagni (photo) Steve McNair's other, other woman with him after Sahel Kazemi's DUI arrest

25-year old Leah Ignagni has been revealed as the "other, other" woman of former NFL Quarterback, the late Steve McNair. According to AOL Fanhouse' Tom Herrera, who's been all over this story like a cheap suit, Nashville Police brought out this information Monday night:

According to the case summary, Leah Ignagni confirmed she was dating McNair, who was killed on July 4 in a murder-suicide, and she recalled seeing a woman in a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside his condo two or three weeks before his murder.

 

Leah Ignagni 

Ignagni also said the woman followed her and that she later saw the Escalade circling her block or parked outside her apartment a week or two later. A 2007 black Escalade was co-registered both to Sahel Kazemi and McNair. This backs up earlier case details that stated Kazemi was suspicious of McNair being involved with someone else.


Ignagni told police that McNair visited her around 4 a.m. on July 2, just a couple of hours after Kazemi's DUI arrest, and then he spent the night at Ignagni's apartment before leaving early on July 3.

So Steve McNair went to Leah Ignagni's house after he got Sahel Kazemi out of jail - which seems to have set off the bells in Sahel Kazemi, who wound up murdering McNair then turning the gun on herself in a story that's just plain hard to blog about.

As for  Leah Ignagni (on Facebook here), she's still living in Nashville and started a new but not yet launched magazine called 61Five.  

It's hard to think that Steve McNair went out this way, which is why we prefer to remember his deeds on the field and for those in need.

Droid? What Droid? IPhone sales drive record Apple earnings

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Even with the way the California DMV's collecting money from the poor, It's hard to believe the Recession's so bad because we have the news that Apple Computer's reporting record earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter, earning 1.67 billion on $1.82 per share, up from the $1.26 per share and $1.14 billion profit it took in a year ago.

With all that, fears of the impact of the new phone called Droid should be lessened because much of Apple's money was made from iPhone and MacBook sales. But we'll find out starting October 30th, just right around the corner.

NY Times raids SF Chronicle in NY Times Bay Area edition

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The New York Times's new "San Francisco Bay Area" page edition is out, and has given quite a few members of the San Francisco Chronicle both print and online reasons to gripe or just plain cuss. The reason: the almost subject-for-subject and paragraph segment-by-segment borrowing of original SF Chronicle content.

Look, I'll tell ya, this blog post is designed to be a deliberate search engine torpedo. Something's got to get the cyber attention of the NY Times execs so this kind of questionably lazy work doesn't happen again.

The problem is the first story about Oakland's new police chief Tony Batts, or Anthony W. Batts", written by the NY Times' Jesse McKinley, who's the head of the San Francisco Bureau and has been since 2006, so he's new to our area.

What Jesse did was write an obvious quasi-replication of an older San Francisco Chronicle article dated August 18th 2009 "Oakland officers' killing led to Batts job"

McKinley's article released Friday, October 15th and called "New Oakland Police Chief Inherits a Force, and a City in Turmoil" wins points from me for its attention to search engine optimization in the title, but, as SF Chronicle Executive Editor at Large Phil Bronstein points out, has words and paragraphs ordered in such away that "there was just a gnawing deja vu sensation about it".

But my question is why, with the Bay Area story line being the 20th Anniversary of The Loma Prieta Quake, would Jesse McKinley chose to write a stale story almost three months old?

If the New York Times wanted to show it was really a part of the Bay Area, isn't the best move to write about and present an event unique to this area instead of the East Coast, knee-jerk, "Let's dial up the Oakland crime story!" habit?

Well, guess what? He did write about the quake celebrations but its in an area called "San Francisco Journal" and not on the new San Francisco Bay Area page online!

(And as I'm not an offline newspaper reader, but online, if the Times' intent was for the quake story to be part of their new Bay Area coverage even online and not the "San Francisco Journal" they really missed the Internet mark.)

Forget that Oakland too sustained a lot of damage from that disaster and that there are people around - like me - who have memories that are too painful to want to recall in a blog post, that story should have been the Times Bay Area opener.

I'm so confused! There's not even a widget to tell us about the Times' new Bay Area coverage on Jesse's Loma Prieta story; it's over at the article about Oakland's Police Chief Batts!

This is driving me batty. What was the NY Times thinking? What was going through Jesse's mind? And who's Jesse McKinley anyway?

A young David Letterman look-alike

Jesse McKinley

David Letterman

McKinley looks for all the World like a young version of talk show host David Letterman, and like Letterman he was a New Yorker.

Heck, he probably knows Letterman. 

Before his new job here in San Francisco, Mr. McKinley was best known for covering the New York cultural arts, specifically the New York theater scene.  That's logical because according to McKinley's Linkedin profile, theater was his major at New York University.   He has no real Bay Area ties such that he knows what "Tightwad Hill" is or for that matter who "Elihu Harris" is.  He wasn't around for Loma Prieta and probably thinks "The Big Game" is Harvard v. Yale.

Geez,  

Jesse, it's Cal v. Stanford.  And if you need tips on who to root for just contact me, but here's a hint: GO BEARS!

Angels baseball beats Yankees baseball 5-4: battle of payrolls

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Angels win was a Money-ball story

The old saying: the more things change the more they stay the same. The Los Angeles Angels beat the New York Yankees 5-4 today in the AL Championship Series. They're back 2 games to one and could make a real game of it with another win.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that it was David beating Goliath, where the New York Yankees monster payroll was clobbered by the miserly fiscal practices of the Angels.

Ha!

The truth is that the 2009 player expeditures for both teams are not far off. The Yankees payroll was between $192 million and $201 million this year; the Angels payroll was at $113 million.

Both teams are part of the top six highest payrolls in Major League Baseball, proving that it takes money to win, even in this post-Moneyball era. This was supposed to be the time when the Internet and sabermetrics created a baseball team that could consistently when with a low payroll.

But the reality in 2009 is the same as it was in 1993 and in 2002 when I created the Oakland Baseball Simworld in partnership with Forio Business Simulations, and 2003 when University of San Francisco Professor Dan Rascher and I founded Sports Business Simulations.

Payroll rules.

Our simulation was and is designed to reflect both the "Moneyball" approach and the more common "Pay-To-Win" strategy, but it's the latter that's hard to beat.

In fact, Smith college Sports Economist Andrew Zimbalist (who's also a member of our simulation advisory board) determined that after 1990 there was a more powerful correlation between higher payrolls and team performance.

I tried for years to make a team "work" in the context of the current Oakland Coliseum using the Oakland Baseball Simworld (which I developed from scratch for the purpose of teaching marketing, business, and sports finance in high school and college classrooms and is based on my work at the City of Oakland). It's hard to achieve the 250 and up score that indicates baseball business success.

The only answer is to build a new stadium. Location aside - Oakland's better - it's the best tonic to turn any Oakland-based baseball team into a winner, including the one currently called The Oakland Athletics.

Meanwhile, the Yankees and Angels will keep being in the hunt for the World Series. Some things never change.

CA DMV - Do you know where your registration money goes?

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 DMV: Where's the Money?

I just returned from another really harrowing experience with the California Department of Motor Vehicles office on Claremont Avenue in Oakland .

Between this and the taxi cab issue, and the Oakland parking problem, anti-car forces should not complain about California not charging enough to operate a car. In fact I've determined that many of them don't own cars; no bumming rides from me in the future, OK?

I think God's putting me through this just to shine a good media light on these problems.  So be it.  To that end, I got the email of the director George Valverde which I will not share, the DMV Twitter account, and his Twitter account, which I will share: @GVCADMV.

George Valverde

Mr. Valverde to date has been helpful in directing my emails, though we've not talked as of this writing, but it's these revelations below that really need to be looked into.  It may be that he's not aware of what's happening under his nose.  He should be. 

What happens, and this is from the personal experience I have gone through complete with extensive notes and papers, is that the registration paid to the DMV is not immediately assigned to whatever citations a driver gets. Plus, it may take as long as three years before a ticket or toll violation is paid from DMV to FastTrak or the California municipality!  

During that time you could wind up paying for a ticket twice and not be reimbursed - once to the DMV via registration or to clear a tow and once to the city or agency. How often this happens is not clear but I learned this from a very enterprising young man at the California vehicle collection division.

It was there that part of my horror started. They sent a "Demand for Payment" for an amount of money I already paid.

When I sent the cashier's check to prove it, it should have ended there, right? Nope. It got worse. Guess why?

They couldn't find it.

That's right. But the enterprising young man I'm taking about kept digging and determined that DMV never assigned my payment. Meanwhile the toll tickets I paid were gaining interest because FasTrak said they were not paid. It turned out that they never got the money from DMV. Now, that's not my fault - I gave them a cashier's check.

Turns out this happens to Californians more than a few times and especially when FasTrak's involved.

What's an outrage is that we allow this to go on without challenge or initiative. We as Californians worry more about being able to smoke weed than having correct and reasonable vehicle costs.

And the City of Oakland's not safe here either. It has parking records that are not accurately updated and suffer from the same DMV payment delay issues FasTrak has.  I have seen three documents with three different amounts on them. 

But what really galls me is today's discovery that DMV Sacramento can "at will" delay or adjust payments for you. It's up to how the manager looks at the situation - well, how the manager feels that day. It's discretionary, which means they can play favorites if they want to but it also means they can work to correct a mistake or at least not stick you with an obvious one.

Too much of what DMV does is so disjointed and uncoordinated that I'm really shocked the California Legislature hasn't called for an investigation. For example I got something like four different print letters from vehicle collections with different amounts. But a person in a good position at DMV told me today they should all be the same and not different. 

This person also told me that the agency - like FasTrak - that requests the money from DMV sends the payment amount and DMV doens't double check it. In other words FasTrak can send one request for $50 and then up it to $100 within a month and DMV will not question it - meanwhile FasTrak's charging weekly interest to the cost.  (Isn't that illegal?  Don't we have usery laws here?)

It's no wonder an irate Yelp user referred to FasTrak's accounting practices in a way that points to some untoward intentions.

But. But. But. She says DMV expects the documents to have the same amount. Isn't that crazy-making? But she said in one sentence that DMV doesn't care what they're charge or how it changes - (my words now) because they're just going to stick you with it, anyway.

Someone's making some extra money here. I said this to one Oakland DMV office staffer today and she agreed. "Not me" she said. But someone is. This money trail's not adding up properly, yet everyone I talked to agrees there's a problem.

This is not a good situation for the State of California to be in as it looks like and feels like it's trying to cheat California residents to clear a massive budget deficit.  I said it, and I challenge the DMV to show me that it doesn't look like that.  It does. 

Balancing the budget on the backs of California drivers is, to use a street term, just plain lame.  Ok.  It's criminal.  Moreover, it's a highly regressive practice, hurting the poor more than anyone else. A sad state of affairs.

Brees-ing Past Marino's Mark? FRO's 2009 Drew Brees Watch

Brees-ing Past Marino's Mark?

FRO's 2009 Drew Brees Watch
By Jon Wagner Sr. Writer at Large Football Reporters Online

One year after passing for the second most yards (5,069) in an NFL season, only 15 yards behind Hall Of Fame quarterback Dan Marino's single-season record of 5,084 yards in 1984, New Orleans Saints' quarterback Drew Brees is again poised to take aim at Marino's record. FRO follows Brees' prusuit of Marino each week, throughout the season:

Brees’ 2009 Avg. Yards Per Game: 280.00
Avg. Yards Needed To Pass Marino: 307.08

WEEK DATE OPP/RESULT COMP-ATT % TD-INT YARDS REMAINING
1 Sun 9/13 vs DET W, 45-27 26-34 76.5 6-1 358 4,727
2 Sun 9/20 at PHI W, 48-22 25-34 73.5 3-1 311 4,416
3 Sun 9/27 at BUF W, 27-7 16-29 55.2 0-0 172 4,244
4 Sun 10/4 vs NYJ W, 24-10 20-32 62.5 0-0 190 4,054
5 Bye
6 Sun 10/18 vs NYG W, 48-27 23-30 76.7 4-0 369 3,685
7 Sun 10/25 at MIA
8 Mon 11/2 vs ATL
9 Sun 11/8 vs CAR
10 Sun 11/15 at STL
11 Sun 11/22 at TB
12 Mon 11/30 vs NE
13 Sun 12/6 at WAS
14 Sun 12/13 at ATL
15 Sat 12/19 vs DAL
16 Sun 12/27 vs TB
17 Sun 1/3 at CAR

PF-PA COMP-ATT % TD-INT YDS
TOTALS; 192-93 110-159 69.2 13-2 1,400

Oakland talk at the Lake Chalet

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This is just an FYI but I'm planning an occasional meetup at the Oakland Lake Chalet to do a live stream show and video for one hour where we talk about Oakland and the news in general.

I'm doing the first one as an experiment this Wednesday at 5 PM and to 6 PM. If you're in the area, stop by. IF you can't you will be able to find us at USTREAM.tv and my blogs.

The Lake Chalet is at 1520 Lakeside Drive in Oakland. The map is here:


View Larger Map

I totally recommend the burger - best in Oakland.

Angry Cab Driver abandons car in Oakland - follow-up

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Some thoughts on the Oakland cab problem in the wake of my video and blog. The video is below if you missed it:



Has this happened to you? If so, send an email.

UPDATE: reader email from Adam:

I'm sorry that's happened to you. Here in West Oakland, often times the
cabs won't even come at all, even after repeated calls to the cab
dispatcher.

The solution, however, is not more laws, as you suggested in your
column. The solution is to end the monopoly that Friendly Cab has in
Oakland. Open the city up to more cab companies, and there will be
economic consequences for cabbies who don't feel like doing their jobs.

The matter of fixing the cab system in Oakland has been put on the backburner for years. Decades. Aside from Friendly Cab's strangle hold on the Oakland cab market, the media has been almost silent on this issue.

If this were an African American East Oakland crime video it would have been placed where it could get the most attention. In other words, showing society's ills is more valuable than showing those of the institutions that cause them.

But that aside, the Oakland Cab system needs to be fixed. This matter of single company control and bad driver behavior is allowed to go uncontested and unchallenged. I was told the City Manager's Office staffer Barbara Kiley is the person responsible for taxi cab issues in Oakland.

More soon.

Angry Cab Driver abandons car - and me - in Oakland

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What happened to me on Sunday October 18th should not happen to anyone in Oakland, or anywhere.

I was just going to go into San Francisco to catch up with my friend who was finishing the Nike Women's Marathon.  I called "Friendly Cab" to take me from my place near Lake Merritt in Oakland to 19th Street BART Station in downtown Oakland.

I was in a hurry to get there as it was around 3 PM, so even though its just about a mile away I figured cabbing it, as they say, was faster.

So the cab - car number 236 - showed up as I was standing out there early.  Well, what happed was the cab driver activated this automated call system that says "Welcome to DDS; your cab has arrived."   Well I went out to meet the vehicle and there was no cab for a solid four minutes of time.  Then he rounded the corner.

I got in the cab and calmly and normally explained where I was going.  So the cabbie starts down a street such that once he got to Grand Avenue he would pass through five stop lights before we got to Grand and Harrison.  I figured the cabbie could just turn right and use a faster path without stop lights.

But once he did as I really asked him to do without a second thought, he slowed the cab down and tried to just go deliberately slow. I asked if something was wrong. I explained that I was trying to meet my friend and it would be great if he could go faster. I then said I would give him a good tip if he helped out in that way.

So we rounded the corner on Lenox Avenue and all of a sudden the guy pulls over at what was the driveway of an apartment complex at 325 Lenox - without warning and blocking the driveway - then gets out of the car and says I can have the cab but he's going to secure it and then, yelling frantically, ordered me to take my bag out of it. He also said, "You can call the police."

At that point I pulled out my Flip Video Camera and turned it on.

The video tells the rest of the story.

As you can see, he just takes his stuff and walks off.  I got on the phone and told the cab company what happened.  I also explained that I was making a video of the incident.  I wasn't angry at the time; more like surprised and confused because I didn't say anything mean to him and there was no argument until he flew the coup.

I called Friendly Cab and the guy who came over to get me was someone I'd had as a driver before and is a very professional person. He took me to BART without charging me.

But that's happened to me before but it was in 2007.

I was returning from the Miami Super Bowl and got a cab near 12th Street BART in downtown Oakland to go home. The cab driver did not like that I asked to go down Franklin rather than some weird and costly route combination he had in mind.  So he stopped and as he was getting me to leave his car I called the Oakland Police.

They took me home.

Now all of this seems to be just because I make a request that any customer has the right to make.  But here in Oakland we have  cab drivers who seem to want you to spend more money than you should and then try to abuse you when you don't let them.  Here's my evidence.

There should be some kind of law against this action by cab driver as its dangerous. Suppose I was left in an area where I could be robber or worse? And all for what? Because I want to go my way? Come on!

This has gone on for sometime and the City of Oakland has done nothing about it.  The City of Oakland has allowed one cab company, Friendly Cab, to maintain a monopoly and in turn maintain some drivers who treat Oaklanders like this guy treated me.  But the company does have some good and fair drivers who I know - just not that guy.

That cab driver is not the norm in San Francisco, where cabbies really know their stuff and take pride in what they do.  Plus, there's more competition.  In Oakland its like they're doing you a favor rather than providing a service.

Also there's an element of racism of a different kind here: a black man cabbie who does not want another black man passenger to "give him an order," even if taking that order part of the deal of being a cab driver.

And that's the rub: it wasn't "an order" but a request I as a customer have a right to make. I was not acting weird or diva-ish and I talk to everyone. I even asked the cabbie about the warm weather before he went AWOL.

Something has to be done.  I also am explaining my personal fear because that guy knows where I live and was nutty enough to take the action of walking off.  What will he do when he can't get work because of his actions?

I have no idea.

But I do know that I had to show this. I had to take action to show people what's really wrong in Oakland from the position of how Oaklanders are treated.  Be it parking or this, the City of Oakland does not take care of its people.

Isn't it time for that to change?  I think so.  Once again, the City of Oakland, and this time its taxi detail, needs to make a better place and stop maintaining a cab system that harms Oaklanders. 

Droid does more than iPhone; AT&T should worry because its service is crappy

Droid

I'm really looking forward to this new phone called Droid, which is supposed to be released October 30th.  Here's why in this video and my story that follows it:

I was a devoted user of the iPhone until AT&T's really frankly dishonest handling of my bill made me just drop using it cold turkey and buy a Blackberry as a temporary replacement. I'm not a fan of the Blackberry much - what I do like is the video feature and the Internet teathering, which I have made use of. 

(That allows you to access the Internet using your Blackberry.)

And the way it allowed for great mobile blogging as shown here:



But that written my Blackberry does a lot of things I can't stand. For one it makes these automatic calls to several friends of mine and my Mother for reasons I can't even explain.

Something else it does is manage to erase my personal address book so I can't delete the numbers that are being robo-called.

Then I can't effectively mobile blog with it as I could with my iPhone.

Yes, I tried to jailbreak the IPhone but whatever I did, it started making emergency calls. Great.

So I have been literally trapped with this quirky but effective Blackberry, all the while wishing I could use my iPhone free of the clutches of AT&T.

Clutches.

This is what happened with AT&T.

Two years ago I disputed an "auto-pay" credit card charge on my phone bill and had American Express reject it. AT&T agreed to the adjustment but someone there kept replacing the charge, triggering more charge dispute claims by me, and AT&T agreeing with them.

Then in 2008 AT&T placed a charge of $1,033.36 on my credit card bill each month - and I disputed it each month. Then on August, I think it was the 8th, on a conference call between an AMEX representative, an AT&T representative, and myself, AT&T agreed to not place a charge that its own people called "erroneous" on my bill.

Then shockingly last November AT&T put the same charge back on my bill. But this time I was talking to a whole different set of people who said the charge wasn't wrong and came up with a weird explanation that did not pass the logic test.

More important, they did nothing at all to ease my pain caused by this billing nightmare. Nothing. It's not like correctly the matter is going to have their stock price drop. Or for that matter, why not just agree to the settlement I offered which was for them to reduce the collection to a one-time fee of $400.

Remember, this $1,033.36 bill was on my account each month! Understand? It was some weird auto-pay glitch that in March of 2008 an AT&T rep told me was an error on their part.

So with all that I had to stop using my iPhone just to get away from AT&T. I really can't stand how they do business at all. They're the masters of deception and unfair practices in the cell phone business in my view.

I have an account now with T-Mobile and I could not be happier. It's one payment monthly and it barely changes. I can count on it.

But I miss my iPhone.

Now, I read Droid's suppose to outperform the iPhone and its on the Verizon 4G network. That's great, just keepAT&T away from it! 

Cal beats UCLA 45 to 26; Cal not in BCS Standings?

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The Cal Golden Bears got the win they (we) needed Saturday with a 45 to 26 win over the hated UCLA Bruins, marking the first time Cal Football Head
Coach Jeff Tedford has won at the Rose Bowl in his time with Cal.

Congrats Coach Tedford!

The win gives us a 4 and 2 overall record, and it was all heart, frankly. Some things in the scheme department to rave about but plenty in the execution area to be happy with. But what vexes me is the BCS standings just released today: Cal's not in them.

But before I get to that, let's go back to that matter of running plays. Hats off to Heisman Trophy Candidate Javhid Best, who ran for 102 yards, discovered cutback running. Not that he's failed to do it before, but the 93 yard run was the best one I've seen him do. Plain and simple. See for yourself:



Cal's other star running back on Saturday was Shane Vereen, who gained 154 yards, most of it replacing the ill Best. But he did it out of a very well-designed set of running plays, one a draw play that was so smoothly executed by Cal QB Kevin Riley, it looked as if he had the ball even after he gave it to Vereen.

Another surprise was Riley himself running the ball out of a spread formation. Cal's done it before but had it tucked away for a few games until UCLA.



Offensively it wasn't Cal using a trick play but plays smartly designed to get the ball to their best players. Take the 2nd quarter play action pass to Best running out of the I Formation.

It's a play that requires the offensive line to hold their blocks after the play fake a bit longer than I'd like, because Best comes out of the tailback position to run a fly pattern. In this game it worked - Best caught the ball and scored 52-yards downfield - but I can see a defensive coordinator calling a six-rusher blitz in the future; UCLA only sent four people.

At any rate, it was a great and much needed win. Offensively Cal needs to install more true rollout passes and I'd like to see more of the system I've called for before, but a win's a win.

Now about that BCS thing.

The BCS (Bowl Championship Series) rankings were released today, and Cal was no where to be seen.

Florida, Alabama, Texas, Boise State, and Cincinnati are ranked 1 through 5. USC, TCU, LSU, Miami, Fla, and Oregon are 6 through 10. Here's the list:

First 2009 BCS Poll

1. Florida

2. Alabama

3. Texas

4. Boise State

5. Cincinnati

6. Iowa

7. USC

8. TCU

9. LSU

10. Miami (FL)

11. Oregon

12. Georgia Tech

13. Penn State

14. Virginia Tech

15. Oklahoma State

16. Brigham Young

17. Houston

18. Utah

19. Ohio State

20. Pittsburgh

21. Wisconsin

22. Arizona

23. West Virginia

24. South Carolina

25. Kansas

It's a crowded field, with a whole bunch of one-loss teams, and four two-loss teams, including (huh?) Arizona (4 and 2) is there. We're (Cal) 1-2 in the conference, whereas Arizona is 2-1. So we've really got to turn on the jets to get into BCS land and UCLA was a great start. Washington State, at 0-4, is the next home game and every bit as important as this one. Arizona now faces a desperate UCLA team: a loss could be just the tonic we need to enter the BCS picture.

Of course the BCS system is more complicated than that, but let's put it this way: for now we want to root for UCLA to beat Arizona Saturday.

GO BEARS!