Brooke Hundley, Marni Phillips, Steve Phillips form ESPN's sex scandal

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Brooke Hundley, Marni Phillips, and Steve Phillips do form ESPN's sex scandal, but there's more to it than that. It's the story of an abandoned, emotionally needy young woman.

Steve Phillips and Brooke Hundley

Two weeks ago we had the waning story of David Letterman's affair with his assistant Stephanie Birkitt, and I made the point that this kind of office affair is so common that some of the people complaining about David Letterman may have been involved in one themselves. In fact by one estimate almost one of every two office workers has been involved in some kind of affair or flirtation over the course of their work history.

But unlike David Letterman and Stephanie Birkitt, or even Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearey (where the LA Times weighs in with new news involving another employee) this ESPN scandal is a rather ugly one and not just because Steve Phillips is married as of this writing.

Steve Phillips is a former Major League Baseball general manager with the New York Mets who is now a well known, and is in my opinion very effective ESPN baseball analyst (now suspended) and who's married to Marni Phillips, and has four kids, but had an affair last summer with 22-year old ESPN Production Assistant Brooke Hundley.

According to a number of blogs like Zimbio.com, Phillips tried to end the affair, but Hundley wasn't ready for that and what follows is something out of Fatal Attraction." (As far as I'm concerned, as a aside, Steve Phillips should be massively kicked in the ass for treating his wife like that.  At least David Letterman wasn't married at the time of the start of his affair.)  

Basically, Brooke, a 2008 graduate of Ithaca College according to her Facebook page, went off and so much so that Phillips eventually told the police "I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself," and said that that Brooke was "obsessive and delusional" after he tried to end the affair.

Brooke wrote a letter that I first saw on Zimbio, which means that thanks to the NY Post, which as it turned out posted the letter first, it's made it's way around the Internet. But folks, this letter's a doozy. Brace for impact:

What's most galling about Brooke's letter is that she would tell Marni Phillips that she wants to connect with her, after writing that Marni's basically no good for Steve and she's got "passion and drive to really do something with my life."

The NY Post reports that Marni Phillips got a voicemail from Brooke stating "I care about Steve and make him happy and we both can't have him."  

That's nerve to an almost criminal level.  It could only be topped by instant messages from "Riotgirl4life" to Steve Phillips' son, who believed it to be  Brooke Hundley because according to LaLate.com, the person was asking a lot of personal questions about the family.  

The bottom line is Brooke fell in love and frankly the poor thing didn't know what to do when the more experienced Phillips broke off the affair.  I write this because somewhere Brooke's mother is crying that her daughter's at the center of this, and wondering what she did wrong in raising her. 

My answer is this: nothing.  Brooke made a mistake.  The whole episode where Marni Phillips complained that Brooke hit a trash can while backing out of the house was simply Brooke being afraid that she was going to get caught while leaving the letter.  I don't think from reading all that I have that Brooke Hundley has a yen to hurt anyone. She's reacting to feeling abandoned by Phillips, period.

But I do wish her parents would take her aside and let her know that they love her.  Somewhere in all this I have the feeling that's what's missing in Brooke's life. 

City of Oakland's Claudia Herrera is the real parking czar who must fix the system

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

This week for me in the City of Oakland has been one in hell. First, some housekeeping: for anyone who came to see my experimental Oakland talk show at the Lake Chalet, I'm sorry for not being there Wednesday as I was dealing with this City of Oakland issue far longer than I expected to. I'm going to do it again on Friday at 4 PM.

It's one thing to deal with tickets, but quite another to learn that if you pay the California DMV , the City of Oakland will not honor that payment for Oakland tickets if your car was towed. I also learned that its common for Oaklanders to "double pay" - that is pay the DMV first, but then be arm-twisted into paying the City of Oakland for the same set of tickets already paid for at the DMV!

Got that? And while the City of Oakland says it will pay you back, it takes almost a year to do, when it's done! In other words, you're paying for the City of Oakland's money collection issues with the DMV.

And a lot of Oaklanders have had their cars towed because the city "needs the money" from all the people I talked to at City Hall Wednesday.

The person who caused me to understand this apparent policy (I have my doubts) ia Claudia Herrera, the City of Oakland's parking supervisor, who's over the mess that is the sixth floor Oakland Parking Office at the Oakland City Administration Building at 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, next to Oakland's City Hall.

Why do I know this? Because yesterday, in explaining why she could not clear the documents that read I paid Oakland tickets at DMV, she gave me a verbal run-around that bent logic and time and space in such a way that by the time I was done talking to her, I was in a near catatonic state.

She assumed I paid all of it to the DMV by cashier's check (some of it) and said "we don't accept cashier's checks. But I paid the DMV not the City of Oakland, and Oakland tickets were part of that payment.

She told me that a cashier's check is like a personal check! I'm serious. That was when I figured that nothing was going to get done. See, they're supposed to help you, not hurt you.

Plus, both Herrera and her assistant at the front counter didn't even look closely at my document to see what was paid until I insisted that they look at it.

I wound up being the last person to leave the office, and even then I didn't get the help I needed and as I sat in a state of shock over what I was going through, Herrera just walked off.

So I asked for her to come back - everyone of the parking patrons was gone by then and there was just staff - but she didn't and some person came out and said suddenly if I didn't leave she was going to call security. At that point, I whipped out my Flip Video Camera.

Oh, I've got that on video to come, so they can't twist the story!

I understand Claudia Herrera didn't create the system, but she can fix it. She's in the best position to do it. This isn't personal - she seems like a very decent person - but it's important because her decisions impact a lot of people in Oakland. And with Oakland's focus on gaining revenue from parking, people like Claudia Herrera should be known to the public.

So my next move is to call the DMV but perhaps take some measure that makes this whole deal go away for me. But I'm on the offensive because the City of Oakland needs to put a stop to this "misery industry" they've created.

Here's how it works:

The City of Oakland makes it hard for you to park your car. Then you get ticket after ticket. Once you get over five tickets, you become a tow target. If they tow your car and you pay DMV the City of Oakland will still hold you up from getting your car back from the tow yard.

Why have you not heard about this before? Because people don't want to talk about their misery from something that leads to the comment "Well you should not have parked there." Everyone knows that, but in Oakland a whole industry has been created from it, with the parking office, the police department, and the tow companies and this "double charging" of tickets already paid for at the DMV.

Parking rates are raised to levels that should be illegal, tickets are written, cars are towed at an alarming rate, and people are harmed by the misery industry.

It must stop. More later.

Tom Hayes: Does TV try too hard to present balance?

Dara O'Briain sets the record straight about the public understanding of facts. He talks about crime statistics, science, herbal medicine, and the tendency of TV to try to present a "fair and balanced" coverage - which results in him using some strong language, so you might want to consider where you are as you watch this.

I think Dara is Ireland's slightly more refined, restrained version of Lewis Black. Slightly.

Carrie Prejean Breast Job: K2 Productions wants money back - but which K2 Productions?

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com



Seems Carrie Prejean can't catch a break. Remember her? The former Miss California who's not-so-smart foray into anti-Gay Marriage activism and overall alleged unprofessionalism cost her the title is now apparently owes $5,200 to K2 Productions for a boob job they paid for.

Carrie Prejean

But who's K2 Productions?

They're a North Carolina film and video production company according to their website, which leads me to wonder if they did this for publicity. If so, I certainly got suckered into this one, huh?

Not really.

I mean there's the Atlanta-based K2 Production company as well. They too are involved in the film business, but they provide "equipment."

Uh, just not boobs.

Turns out the North Carolina company and the Atlanta firm are enjoying some free pub because Miss California USA organizers also use the same company name but with a California adress! I'm laughing as I write this, it's so funny.

It's a classic case of a firm not doing its Internet homework in establishing a unique company name and making sure that its not like any other firm name when a search for K2 Productions is done online.

So North Carolina and Atlanta's K2 Production company can have part of the boob job money, huh?

I think the LA version of the K2 Production firms needs to get its messaging straight. If I were representing Carrie Prejean I'd have a field day with this. I'm sorry but this is too funny not to make fun of.

Keith Lewis, the person who's over K2 Productions in LA and who reportedly paid for the boob job for Carrie Prejean should be smart and recover the money by contracting for Carrie to work for the other K2 Production companies and get whatever percentage of revenue he can secure.

Otherwise the whole deal's just really silly in my view.

Kane West not dead; Kanye West not in an accident

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Kanye West is not dead, contrary to some news rumors. This prank has happened before involving other celebrities and here we go again. Twitter's the origin for the latest round of this trick, this time focusing on Kanye West.

According to LaLate.com, this happened to Miley Cyrus and Lil Wayne this year, and now Kanye West.

Some tweets report that he was in a car accident, but the truth is that happened in 2002. He's fine.

Why is West the target? I think the whole Taylor Swift controversy has something to do with it; an incident that even caused President Obama to refer to him as a "jackass":

Interracial couple sues Louisiana Judge Bardwell, who refused to marry them

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

According to the Associated Press and the news website NOLA.com, Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell of Tangipahoa Parish, which is 50 miles from New Orleans (and within the NFL's one-hour-from-stadium influence radius for the 2013 Super Bowl).

The lawsuit focuses on the emotional and financial damage Humphrey and McKay suffered from Judge Bardwell's actions. Bardwell has openly communicated his dislike for interracial marriage, although I really think he just doesn't like marriage between blacks and whites, and refused to resign, and has said on television he will not resign..



That folks is just an awful video of a person, or what the lake Richard Pryor would call "a cracker". By standing up for his racist views (which he says aren't racist), Keith Bardwell has become a hero to white supremacists around America, with White Supremacist News claiming that scripture "frowns" on mixed-marriages.

David Duke, who's website has to tell you he has a PhD (HA! HA! Bwahahaha!!) trots out the to-be-expected photo of O.J. Simpson and the late Nicole Brown Simpson, and writes his expected garbage views on interracial marriage.

Duke feels the World's closing in on him since the GOP selected it's first black head in Michael Steele, having recently went off the deep end he was already on about that development.

But I digress.

What white supremacists either don't get or aren't ready to understand because racism is a mental illness is that what Bardwell did was against the U.S. Constitution - in other words it was un-American - so McKay and Humphrey have a very good case. Law professors over at "Prison Planet" website, say that what Judge Bardwell did should not have happened.

I still think the NFL should weigh in here, and I'm surprised the NFL Players Association has not as of this writing taken a position on the matter. Many NFL players are in interracial marriages and so should be very concerned about this case and that the NFL has the 2013 Super Bowl in Louisiana.

The NFL should plan to move the Super Bowl unless the state takes hard action against Bardwell and changes its laws to effectively punish this kind of behavior. By doing nothing, Louisiana is backing the unconstitutional actions of a judge.

Stay tuned.

Glenn Beck fails to reject racist Louisiana Judge; follows racist guru

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Why Glenn Beck's around may be to remind us of just how stupid some Americans can be. Glenn Beck missed a great chance to show he wasn't what many expect him to be, racist, when he failed to make a statement against Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, who will not marry blacks and whites in Louisiana in the year 2009.

Glenn Beck

As I've said..



..racism is a mental illness that must be pointed to and treated at every turn. It's harder to do with folks like Glenn Beck polluting the airwaves with a garbage bin full of trashy ideas.

There's no definitive, undeniable statement by Beck against what Bardwell did as of this writing, and his website just had a link to the Yahoo page on the news until even that was removed (but there's a cached version that leads to the Yahoo page).

But there's something else.

Glen Beck has a person others have refered to as his "guru" who for some wacko reason thought slavery basically was a good thing. (Where, for God's sake, do these people come from?  Not Earth.  They must be alien; and their behavior's questionably legal.)

I'm not kidding.

His name is W. Cleon Skousen, the man Salon explains changed Beck's life.

The late W. Cleon Skousen's, who died in 2006, is also a man for whom FBI head J. Edgar Hoover kept a 2,000 page file on, and referred to black children as "pickaninnies" and wildly claimed American slave owners were the "worst victims" of the slavery system.

Why the heck does Glen Beck back such a man with these retrograde beliefs? I have to agree with blogger Oliver Willis that Skousen's writings comes off as those from a crackpot, but even Willis can't put a finger on why Beck was drawn to him.

But what gets me about Beck is how he hides his own racial issues by calling those who aren't racist, racist for bring up that he's racist. Got that? It's the modern Couch Potato Conservative strategy. Michelle Malkin does it; so does Glenn Beck. And both have no idea what it means to be a real conservative, as Michelle thinks she does.

Of course she's wrong, but that's common for her blog. Still a cool person, just wrong most of the time.

The Classic Conservative knows and understands economics and law and is a policy wonk, believes in free markets but understands the need for government intervention, supports social liberalism and personal freedom but not at the expense of the civil rights of others, and is most of all careful with how tax payer dollars are spent and reluctant to take taxes unless they're necessary.

The Classic Conservative defends and encorages the development of free markets and democracy around the World, but not at the expense of the environment or the poor. The Classic Conservative insists that governments have economic development programs in place to build industry and employ its poorest people, and have reasonable social safety nets for them.  The Classic Conservative is pro-business. 

If you add all that up, Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck are not Classic Conservatives. In fact, their ideas have contaminated the minds of innocent people who lack an intellectual set of guideposts to help them steer through the junk issued by these pundits.

I just provided one.

If you want to call a Classic Conservative  or "NeoLiberal" go ahead. It's the camp I fall into. But regardless it calls for a level of intellectual rigor that's totally devoid in the mindless rantings of Malkin, Beck, or Limbaugh.

Miley Cyrus with Timbaland in duet on "We Belong to the Music"

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Pop singer Miley Cyrus is with R and B singer Timbaland and it's the first song on his new album called "We Belong to the Music".

Timbaland

While Timbaland's attracted Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry and The Fray, Miley Cyrus singing with him is a coup for both performers. It will attract both the female teenage and male teenage audiences that would be split in a choice between Miley Cyrus and Timbaland, and with Cyrus' fanatical group of followers, result in an incredibly successful album and single. It's also clear that, with her Teen Choice Award performance safely behind her...



...and her Twitter account a thing of the past for now, Miley's expanding her range to R and B, and even rap. Meanwhile, Timbaland is reportedly wanting a "Twilight" look for his music video.   Why?  It's the teenage and young adult demographic and he's aggressively going after it.

Stay tuned; interesting news there.

Flickr down - Flickr up now after "Here thar be dragons"

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Earlier today the social networking photo website Flickr was down. The reason given for the problem impacting millions of users was that Flickr's engineers were in the middle of an upgrade. But what Flickr's to be commended for is timely updates to its users. Here's an example from the Flickr Forum post:

12:50 PM PDT: What happened? What happened earlier was that we deployed a change this morning, which introduced a bug and ended up overwhelming our WWW servers, then the API. Photos were still being served from our image farms. If they were embedded in blogs, those were still working, but if they were being displayed from something that called our API, like a slideshow or a badge, it would not. There is still some catching up to do with our offline task boxes, a couple of the WWW servers are still a little wonky, but otherwise things are back to speed. Again, we're sorry for the disruptions. :)

11:30 AM PDT: Sorry for the disruption to your Flickr-ing today (or tonight, wherever you may be!), we're still working out a few issues, you may not be getting some recent activity mails, and if we identify more issues, we'll post about them here, but we're getting things back for y'all.

That's called great service and transparency, or as much as one can expect on the Internet from a company of any kind. Now, if only we can get the California DMV to show such an amazing level of transparency, government will have truly served the people.

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

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com



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

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

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.