Dario Franchitti wins Indy 500, makes Ashley Judd happy

Judd reads; Dario leads at Indy

Dario Franchitti won his first Indianapolis 500 race, making his wife Ashley Judd very happy in the process.

Judd, who was photographed by television news station WISH Indianpolis' Eric Halvorson reading a book (or a script for a movie?) as the Indy 500 progressed, reportedly jumped up and ran barefoot down pit lane to hug Franchitti.

Maybe Judd's getting used to the win; it was Franchitti's second Indy victory in three years; his first was in 2007; it's Dario's first Indy win of the series in 2010.

Judd greets Franchitti

Dario's win also made Chip Ganassi, the owner of Target Chip Ganassi Racing, the first racing company to win both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500.

In fact, one visit to Chip Ganassi's website already tells you his company's Target-sponsored car and driver won.

The driver, Dario Franchitti, put in what's described as a "flawless" race performance, even though he almost ran out of gas.

Dario only had 1.6 gallons of fuel left at the end of the Indy 500 because he was clocking it. Dario's top speed was 224.287, before slowing down to conserve fuel at the constant request of his pit crew. He did, and just enough to stay ahead and salvage the win.

Indianapolis 500 Race: Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves battle

This update on the Indianapolis 500 Race: Dario Franchitti, who's married to singer (see De-Lovely) and actress Ashley Judd, is in the lead.

According to the Indy 500's Twitter page @IndyTalk, the leaders are 1. Franchitti 2. Helio 3. Tagliani 4. Matos 5. Briscoe 6. Carpenter 7. Dixon 8. Scheckter 9. Bell 10. Hunter-Reay, at the yellow flag.

While Helio Castroneves won the pole position, he's nowhere near the top 10 as of this writing. For Dario Franchitti, this is his first time leading at the Indianapolis 500 Race since he won in 2007. The 5-9, 155 pound Scottish racer with the Italian name is ranked #5 at Indy.

UPDATE: Castroneves is in the hunt according to Indy500 on Twitter:

Lap 68 running order - 1. Franchitti 2. Castroneves 3. Briscoe 4. Kanaan 5. Carpenter #indy500

Indy has Four Women

A record number of women, four, are driving in today's Indy 500: Danica Patrick, Sarah Fisher and rookies Ana Beatriz and Simona De Silvestro.

Indianapolis 500 Race: is Danica Patrick, the marketer, ready?

Danica Patrick

The Indianapolis 500 Race has started and there's no question that its most famous current star (other than Kim Kardashian, who's a spectator and Jack Nicholson, who's the honorary race flag waver) is Danica Patrick.

The difference is Danica Patrick's in the race, but you'd never know Patrick, the driver of the #7 GoDaddy.com car, was ready for the Indianapolis 500 Race with all of the marketing tie-ins, parties, and events Patrick attends.

All of this, once a standard part of Danicamainia, now comes into question after Patrick threw her race crew under the bus when she said "it's not my fault" in the wake of an awful qualifying car run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Later, Danica revealed her frustration:



Danica the Marketer

Danica Patrick has become more marketer than race car driver. Just today, her Twitter page @DanicaPatrick has a Saturday tweeted push for screening for chronic bronchitis and emphysema..

Drive4copd.com banner in the sky! Take the 5 question screener!
about 23 hours ago via web

And before that Danica Patrick was in New York City at about the same time as this blogger and at an event with Indianapolis 500 Race legend Mario Andretti, where Danika reports her phone failed to send a copy of this photo:



Fortunately for the phone maker, she didn't tweet what brand it was.

Danica's Twitter tweets are a happy trip from events to product mentions like the iPad or this lovely watch by another sponsor Tissot, which Patrick said was designed in 1913 (ish):



Then, Danica Patrick's part of a group of celebs interviewed by Honda as part of its "Dream The Impossible" documentary series.

With all of this, and sponsors are a necessary part of the business of road racing, how much time does Danica have to think about and do racing? It's one thing to practice, but another to hone and refine her driving. There's a break-even point between the number of sponsors needed to build a race business, the time it takes to deal with them which includes events and parties, and the time needed to become a better driver.

There's no question Patrick's in great physical shape; it's the mental part of racing that's at issue. Is Danica doing too much away from racing? Should she increase her sponsor and appearance fee and cut back on engagements?

If Danica Patrick wins or even performs well at today's Indianapolis 500 Race, these questions will not matter.

If.

Mike Bloomberg "Off-Shore Mayor" Brooklyn Bridge Park & Govs Island to Cayman post by Suzannah B. Troy

http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/05/looking-gift-horse-in-mouth-examination_24.html Above link, part 1, Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth?


An Examination of Brooklyn Bridge Park in Terms of the Politics of Development Monday, May 24, 2010 Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth? An Examination of Brooklyn Bridge Park in Terms of the Politics of Development, Part II http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/05/looking-gift-horse-in-mouth-examination.html Monday, May 24, 2010 Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth? An Examination of Brooklyn Bridge Park in Terms of the Politics of Development, Part III http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2010/05/looking-gift-horse-in-mouth-examination_21.html by Michael D. D. White. You will learn why Michael calls Bloomberg the off-shore mayor from Governors Island to the Cayman Island and his links in his blog are extremely revealing or as much as they can be when it gets to the mayor's finances and other tidbits.




Please take the time to read Michael's expose, watch my YouTube interview. For me the way Mike Bloomberg has handled real estate and this ruthless tsunami of community crushing development as reckless and stupid as what brought the implosion of Wall Street is about the mayor wanting to do what he wants unchecked. Steve Rattner thought he could do what he wanted to do unchecked and he has been busted.  


Here is an excerpt from Noticing New York and it takes patience and time to get to the really, really juicy bits including the Cayman Islands.


"This three-part article, which is principally about the new Brooklyn Bridge Park currently under development, wends a long, more serpentine path through the politics of New York City development than perhaps any other we have written. As you would expect, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's appearance is much more than a cameo. We don’t offer him praise. Inevitably the metaphor of looking a gift horse in the mouth comes to mind when we contemplate the spectacular change to the city’s waterfront that will one day be Brooklyn Bridge Park. Whatever our government agencies ultimately do, the park will provide desirable benefits that will be extremely hard to complain about. But not conscientiously examining “gifts” that government officials deliver just doesn’t work in the political environment of New York. Besides Brooklyn Bridge Park is not truly a gift; it is something that community activists worked for years to obtain. Our elected representatives are, after all, supposed to be working for us. It is their job to properly administer our available public resources. Whether they are doing so requires a conscientious examination. We hope you will find that conscientious examination takes us on an interesting and worthwhile trip. Now, let our wending look at the politics of development begin. The Shuffling of Dates for the Opening of Brooklyn Bridge Park  On March 22, an initial part of Brooklyn Bridge Park opened, the Pier One portion in the north near Fulton Ferry. An actual opening is imbued with a faintly amazing aspect given that dates announced for opening the park have been shuffled around by innumerable postponements. The shuffling has occurred in truly big picture terms and it also occurred recently on a more micro level. In big picture terms; the park, which involved decades of planning (funding for which was approved in 2000) was originally supposed to start construction in 2003/2004 and be fully open and complete in 2011 (an eight year construction period). By the end of 2004 the public was being told 2008 would be shovel-in-the-ground year and that the construction would take three or four years to complete (i.e. completion would be pushed out one more year to 2012). Such big picture delay is something that press coverage of the opening necessarily alluded to. The rest of the media did not, however point out the shuffling of the opening date that has been transpiring recently on a more micro level,but we did. In late August, just around back-to-school time, the public was told that two sections of the park would open just four months later in December. (We were quite skeptical.) Then, in November, with three of those four months elapsed, the public was told that it would still be waiting another four months for an opening of just one section of park rather than the two promised in August. Let us restate this in terms of what prompted our own skepticism: At the tail end of the two four year terms served by the Bloomberg administration, just as Bloomberg was running for an unprecedented third term by having overturned the city charter to repel term limits,it was being announced that part of a project funded and approved evenbefore Bloomberg took office, the whole of which was supposed to have been largely completed within those two terms, was finally, finally being started! Not only that; the public was being told that it was going to be opened just a mere days after the election. What do you think happened? A scant 22 days after Bloomberg squeaked by (spending more than a hundred million dollars) to win re-election, it was revealed that the schedule of a four month countdown to completion announced before the election was, as we initially hypothesized, quite fanciful." You will have to go to the blog links above to read all the installments and also don't forget my piece on Mike Bloomberg's techno-dream is the tax payer's Titanic as in CityTime.

Dennis Hopper - Rest in Peace by: Nikky Raney

Dennis Hopper died today (Saturday, May 29, 2010) from complications with prostate cancer.

Hopper was 74 years old.

In March, TMZ reported that he was very ill from cancer and that he would not recover from this.

Hopper was very talented. He is best known for starring in and producing the 1969 film "Easy Rider." He also acted alongside James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant."

"We'd gone through the whole '60s and nobody had made a film about anybody smoking grass without going out and killing a bunch of nurses," Hopper told Entertainment Weekly in 2005. "I wanted 'Easy Rider' to be a time capsule for people about that period."

Hopper's life has always been one that interested the public. From his friendship with Peter Fonda to his bitter divorce battle.

This is really sad. Yesterday Gary Coleman died, and today Dennis Hopper. They say "everything comes in threes," but I truly hope that there will not be another celebrity death anytime soon.

Rest in Peace Dennis Hopper

(1936 - 2010)

My heart goes out to his four children, and those that was fortunate enough to have him as apart of their lives.

(photo taken from nydailynews)

EDIT: When I said everything comes in 3, I forgot that Art Linkletter died the day before Coleman. I wish the best to everyone who has been affected.

Posted by Nikky Raney

The Future of Journalism

Gary Coleman Dead of intercranial hemorrage - sad life ends

"Gary Coleman Dead of intercranial hemorrage - child actor dies" happened Friday after the famous child star passed away after a severe head injury he sustained at his home in Utah caused bleeding in his brain and described as an intercranial hemorrage and a epidural hematoma.

Gary Coleman

Gary Coleman, who was so funny in the TV show sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986), became something of a sideshow later in life. In part, his small stature, his parents, and his anger issues, and Coleman's celebrity mixed together to produce what from a distance looked like a terrible life. The Lord called Gary Coleman away from that mess on Friday.

Gary Coleman has openly said his parents did not treat him correctly. Edmonia Sue and W.G. Coleman adopted Coleman and from all accounts they did not care about him at all. Gary sued them for "misappropriation of funds" and they counter-sued for defamation and breach of contract. Consider that there's no record that Coleman knew who his real parents were and the people who took him in as his adopted parents, took his money from his work.

Coleman sued them, won, and was awarded $1.3 million. But nothing could recover the emotional damage Coleman sustained from four years of battling with his parents. The reason why Gary Coleman had the problems the public has been exposed to was because he had no solid family base around him. No real parents, brothers or sisters, cousins, or aunts and uncles. No one who cared.

Gary's marriage to Shannon Price was probably the best thing that could have happened to Coleman, but his anger problems threatened to destroy it too. In an effort to save their marriage Coleman and Price went on the show Divorce Court, where Coleman said this:

"I don't have any friends and don't have any intention of making any. People will stab you in the back, mistreat you, talk about me behind your back, steal from you. And they're not really your friends. (They're) only there because you're a celebrity or because they want to get something from you."

And this statement from the NY Daily News explains why the Lord took him on Friday:

"It's not her fault," he says. "I always feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders every day I get up. ... There are days I don't even want to get up."

On Friday, Gary Coleman got his wish.

Oakland, CA developer retained by SunCal on Alameda Point project

Phil Tagami in front of The Fox Theater 

Phil Tagami, the locally famous Oakland, California developer (and friend of this blogger) known for his firm California Capital Group's renovations of the Oakland Rotunda and Oakland Fox Theater landmark buildings, and his current effort to build a new industrial park development using the land that was once the Oakland Army Base, has been retained to help Southern California-based developer SunCal in its attempt to see the redevelopment of the former Alameda Naval Air Station into what is called "Alameda Point."

Alameda Point has morphed from a desired Alameda redevelopment objective to a name associated with a city planning direction deemed undesirable by a vast majority of Alamedans. In a recent poll, 59 percent of Alamedans' polled said they did not want Measure B, which would approved the Alamaeda Point Revitalization Initiative and have granted SunCal an exemption from the one-new-dwelling-uhit-per-2,000-square feet prohibition that has governed the city's growth since 1973.

The reason for the failure of Measure B at the polls was the overwhelming feeling that SunCal was trying to get around the city's planning process. This even with the developers efforts to work with community leaders and even agreeing to pay for the time Alameda planning staffers spent on the project.

SunCal has reportedly considered a number of efforts to improve their prospects of retaining exclusive negotiating power with Alameda; hiring Phil Tagami as a consultant is SunCal's latest effort and perhaps its best chance at success according to observers who do not wish to be named.

Phil Tagami and Alameda's City Manager Problem

One issue facing Phil Tagami is what observers claim is a problem in the form of Alameda's Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant, who's had an interesting past pattern of employment, and some current practices that leave some who do not wish to be named uncomfortable. But the greatest concern expressed by those who want a consistent process is that Gallant is trying to push SunCal out of the picture in favor of a master developer of her selection.

The best outcome for Phil Tagami is to engineer an extension of the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with SunCal, enjoy Gallant's full support, and have SunCal's involvement in the Oakland Army Base.

Pulling off that hat trick would give Tagami some logical level of control over development in Alameda Point, which is right across the mouth of the Oakland Estuary from The Oakland Army Base.

Stay tuned.

Gary Coleman: Rest in Peace --by Nikky Raney

(image taken from The Pioneer Woman)

Gary Coleman

Rest in Peace (February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010)

"Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis?!"

That phrase will live on forever with the memory of Gary Coleman.

Gary Coleman died at 12:05 p.m. at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah. He was taken off life support after being a coma. Coleman was 42-years-old.

Coleman died of a brain hemorrhage. I had heard of Coleman's stroke last night, and I am upset to find out that he has passed away. I think that I was hopeful for his recovery since Bret Michaels had gone through a similar situation and had recovered.

Last month Coleman was additionally hospitalized for a seizure, and the actor has also received two failed-kidney transplants.

Coleman has been through a lot of rough times over the past few years, and it's really sad to see his life end this way. My heart goes out to his family and wife Shannon Price.

I know that this story is being covered by every news source, and I know that they will be able to provide more information and follow up information about Coleman's death.

Written by: Nikky Raney from The Future of Journalism

Kanye West "Power" single and lyrics leaked online today

Hip Hop Rapper Kanye West has just allowed the leak of a new single set for a June 8th release date that could only be called subversively angry. It's called Power, and everything from its lyrics to its afrorhymic back beat, is a 60s-style attack on the establishment, but not the Obama Administration.

One has to listen to the lyrics what Kanye West said to understand;



The lyrics are below from Zimbio:

Kanye West 

I’m livin’ in the 21st century
Doin’ something mean to it
Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it
Screams from the ’80s, got a nice ring to it
I guess every superhero need his own theme music
No one man should have all that power
The clock’s tickin’, I just count the hours
Stop trippin’, I’m trippin’ off the power
(21st century schizoid man)

The system broken, the schools closed, the prisons open
We ain’t got nothin’ to lose, ma’fucka, we rollin’
Huh? Ma’f*cka, we rollin’
With some light-skinned girls and some Kelly Rowlands
In this white man world, we the ones chosen
So goodnight, cruel world, I see you in the mornin’
Huh? I see you in the mornin’
This is way too much, I need a moment

No one man should have all that power
The clock’s tickin’, I just count the hours
Stop trippin’, I’m trippin’ off the power
‘Til then, fuck that, the world’s ours

And then they
And then they
And then they
And then they
(21st century schizoid man)

F*ck SNL and the whole cast
Tell ‘em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass
More specifically, they can kiss my asshole
I’m an asshole? You n*ggas got jugs
You short-minded n*ggas’ thoughts is Napoleon
My furs is Mongolian, my ice, brought the Dodies in
Now I embody every characteristic of the egotistic
He know, he so, f*ckin’ gifted
I just needed time alone, with my own thoughts
Got treasures in my mind, but couldn’t open up my own vault
My childlike creativity, purity and honesty
Is honestly being prodded by these grown thoughts
Reality is catchin’ up with me
Takin’ my inner child, I’m fighting for it, custody
With these responsibilities that they entrusted me
As I look down at my dia-mond-encrusted piece

N*gga, no one man should have all that power
The clock’s tickin’, I just count the hours
Stop trippin’, I’m trippin’ off the power
‘Til then, f*ck that, the world’s ours

And then they
And then they
And then they
And then they
And then they
And then they
(21st century schizoid man)

Holy, powers, Austin, Powers
Lost in translation with a whole f*ckin’ nation
They say I was the obamanation of Obama’s nation
Well, that’s a pretty bad way to start the conversation
At the end of day, goddammit, I’m killin’ this sh*t
I know damn well y’all feelin’ this shit
I don’t need yo’ p*ssy, b*tch, I’m on my own d*ck
I ain’t gotta power trip, who you goin’ home with?
How ‘Ye doin’? I’m survivin’
I was drinkin’ earlier, now I’m drivin’
Where the bad b*tches, huh? Where ya hidin’?
I got the power, make yo’ life so excitin’ (So excitin’)

Now this’ll be a beautiful death
Jumpin’ out the window
Lettin’ everything go
Lettin’ everything go

Now this’ll be a beautiful death
Jumpin’ out the window
Lettin’ everything go
Lettin’ everything go

Now this’ll be a beautiful death
Jumpin’ out the window
Lettin’ everything go
Lettin’ everything go

Now this’ll be a beautiful death
Jumpin’ out the window
Lettin’ everything go
Lettin’ everything go

You got the power to let power come

Is Power a hit? Yes, it can be because it sounds a cry of anger that's heard by many who are suffering economically and feel powerless. The song is catchy and edgy, even race concious (though some may say racist), pointing at what Kanye sees as a white power establishment, but in many sectors has become multi-racial.

Stay tuned.

Chevron CEO talks BP Oil Spill; takes on Ecuador protestors

John Watson of Chevron

Echoing what seems to be this week's theme of combative CEOs (remember Carol Bartz' F-bomb blast against TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington?), Chevron's Chief Executive Officer John Watson said Wednesday at that firm's Houston Shareholder meeting that they've asked the U.S Government to raise safety standards for offshore drilling in the wake of the BP Oil Spill Disaster.

Acting as a member of one of two industry task forces that report to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Watson explained that they gave Salazar a document that explains what procedures should be implemented and which ones should be improved in order to avoid another BP Oil Spill Disaster.

In that issue, the oil drilling rig called The Deepwater Horizon and owned by Transocean Company, suffered an explosion that killed 11 workers, two week ago. The result has been a massive oil spill that rivals the Exxon Valdez Alaska disaster in size. "The energy industry is learning a great deal," Watson said according to The Wall Street Journal, "If there is something we need to adopt, we will adopt it."

Watson said Chevron reviewed its own safety standards after the BP Oil Spill Disaster, as its one of the largest oil producers in the enormous Gulf of Mexico.

In other annual shareholders’ meeting news, Chevron’s Watson said he would protect the oil company and its shareholders against the fraudulent claims made against it in Ecuador. Chevron, which purchased Texaco in 2001, inherited a lawsuit against Texaco that claims it polluted the Amazon River region with ‘produced water,’ a byproduct of the oil drilling process.

But, as Watson noted and recent news stories have reported, the case against Chevron in Ecuador has turned into a legal circus and become overshadowed by a series of alleged legal and political frauds in Ecuador.

Watson pointed to evidence such as the Ecuadorian judge who had to remove himself from the case because he was caught up in a bribery scandal against Chevron, and, more recently, significant and damaging evidence that the entire case has been written by the plaintiffs against Chevron and then simply copied by the ‘independent court expert’ Richard Cabrera and submitted to the court.

There is mounting evidence that when this trial concludes, and Chevron is found guilty, that no court in the world will enforce the $27 billion judgment against Chevron because it will be tainted by fraud and illegal activities by the plaintiffs.

Stay tuned.

Mike Bloomberg's CityTime the tax payer's Titanic -- Suzannah B. Troy

I called John Liu, New York City Comptroller and a thorn in mayor Mike Bloomberg’s side because like me and so many New Yorkers, we opposed Mike Bloomberg denying us, the people of NY a referendum.  This issue divided New York and seriously alienated the people so it was no surprise Mike Bloomberg barely won.

But that is not why I called and left John Liu a voice mail at City Hall here in New York City this morning at six a.m.

I called him to refer him to y new blog piece, “Mike Bloomberg’s Techno-dreams, the Tax Payer’s Titanic and WHY CITYTIME MUST NOT BE RENEWED THIS SEPTEMBER!"

You see CityTime, an Orwellian Time Clock that was suppose to save the City of New York big bucks is in fact a sham and is on it’s way to costing tax payers a billion dollars.

Why would I be writing about this now?

The renewal date for CityTime is September 2010 and CityTime must not be renewed.

In fact CityTime must be investigated.   Why?

How did a program designed to save the city money go from under a hundred million dollar budget run out of control?  Well for some mysterious reason CityTime needs countless consultants averaging close to half a million dollar salaries and at least one was reported to get a million and he happens to also collect a city pension.

Read my blog postings and see also how SAIC, hired to over see CityTime has scandals on a Federal level as well.   I wrote this based on Ali Winston’s piece in City Limits from two years ago and an astounding series by Juan Gonzalez from The New York Daily News.

50 Cent drops 50 pounds & loses the tattoos By: Nikky Raney

50 Cent, 34, has removed all his tattoos and has gone from 214 to 160 pounds for his role inThings Fall Apart, where he plays a football player with cancer.

(photo courtesy of MTV.com)

The movie was inspired by 50's friend who died of cancer. I understand that for movie roles stars change their body and do certain things to fit the role, but this just looks so sad. It does not look healthy (I know it isn't supposed to look healthy). 50 says not to worry, "I've been eating, I'll be back in shape in no time!"

I wonder how his fans will react this weekend when he is performing. He goes back on tour TOMORROW, and this news has just broken today. I am sure if he had just started performing without explaining his weight loss there would have been a lot of rumors and tabloid craze over this.

Tony Yayo told MTV News that 50 was very dedicated to his role (we can see that!) Yayo says:

"50 doesn't party, he doesn't drink.... 'Man, he has the three D's: desire, determination and [direction].' "

I think what is more shocking (at least to me) is that he got rid of his tattoos.

“I took ‘em off,” he said. “I’ve been on a few acting projects and they been making me get up… My call time is four hours before the regular acting talent because of the tattoos.”

I always picture 50 Cent has the buff man from "In Da Club" with those big muscles and tattoos. I remember he used to speak of his tattoos and how much they meant to him. It seems sad that he got rid of those tattoos for his career as an actor. I know there are a lot of other actors and actresses who would refuse to get rid of their tattoos. He says that it saved time in the make up chair working on covering up the tattoos.

But at least he didn't get rid of the GIANT "50 Cent" on his back!

Lloyd Banks, from G-Unit, says since he was with 50 so much he didn't notice the drastic change as much as others:

"I was around him everyday, so I didn't see it [the dramatic weight-loss transformation] as much as other people did, but when I seen the pictures, it's affected everything,..He's crazy, it was non-stop working, running 10 miles."

Well, even though 50 is a "rapper-turned-actor" I hope that he will be able to bring back the "rapper" side of him for this weekend's kick off of his tour. I am sure he won't disappoint any of his fans.

(I wonder what Eminem thinks of this!)

Post written by The Future of Journalism's Nikky Raney

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