Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear

Side note: I won’t have a chance to blog much this week since I am getting ready for my move to Sacramento and the switching of jobs. I will try and provide my daily briefs Monday to Thursday, and will post anything else I find interesting.
Without further adu, here are the daily briefs for March 31, 2008 (Happy Ceasar Chavez Day for our Spanish readers out there.)

Four No. 1 Seeds Head to San Antonio
Kansas, UCLA, Memphis and North Carolina made college basketball history this past weekend by winning their respective regional games and making the 2008 Final Four an all No. 1 seed event.
Kansas was the final No. 1 seed to join the Final Four by defeating No. 10 Davidson in a game that went down to the wire Sunday night. Davidson’s Jason Richardson –no relation to the former Golden State Warrior with the same name– had a chance to win the game in the final seconds but clanked a three pointer.
Kansas will end up meeting their former coach Roy Williams and his overall number one seeded North Carolina Tar Heels. UCLA will face Memphis in the other semifinal.
Check out Andy Katz’s article on what to expect from this year’s Final Four in San Antonio by clicking the link above.

McCain Back On Bus Tour
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain kicked off a bus tour across America on Monday to tell his story and introduce himself to the general electorate.
“I have lived a blessed life, and the first of my blessings was the family I was born into,” McCain said.
McCain will tour five states that he says are part of his “formative experiences.”
The Arizona senator is currently in Mississippi, where the McCain family first settled when arriving in America, and will head to Arlington, Virginia and Annapolis, Maryland later this week.
His bus tour will end in his current hometown of Prescott, Arizona.

Bill Clinton: Debate Does Not Hurt Democratic Party
Allowing the race between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination will not hurt the party’s chances in the November general election, former president Bill Clinton said Sunday at the California state Democratic Party convention in San Jose.
Clinton said that his wife was not hurting the party by staying in the race against Obama and that critics need to “chill out.”
“There is somehow the suggestion that because we are having a vigorous debate about who would be the best president, we are going to weaken this party in the fall,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Barack Obama said it is up to Hilary Clinton to decide if she wants to stay in the race despite her dropping in national polls and falling behind in delegates to Obama.
“My attitude is Sen. Clinton can run as long as she wants,” he said in Pennsylvania.

Rivals NFL Mock Draft

Although the NFL Draft is stll a month away, Rivals.com has released the first, of what we can assume will be many, mock drafts.

According to Rivals, the 49ers will be selecting Limas Sweed, a wide receiver from the University of Texas, with the 29th pick. Let’s hope that Sweed doesn’t end up in recent 49er wide reciever oblivion like fellow Big 12 receiver Rashaun Woods. You may remember that Woods was a first round selection by the 49ers and never even entered a regular season game.

The bigger question for the 49ers entering the 2008 season: Who will be throwing to these newly aquired receivers? Will Alex Smith finally live up to his first-pick potential, or will Shaun Hill become the official starter and play like he did in the final three games of the season?

I believe the 49ers made some great offseason additions by adding Justin Smith and Issac Bruce -a veteran receiver who can teach these young guys how to play the position in the NFL. But, the season will still ride on whether Smith or Hill can throw the ball. If they can, I expect the 49ers to make the playoffs this season.

Rivals.com NFL Draft – Mock Draft: Dolphins still have tough choice

Today’s News Briefs

After a week-long vacation I return with my daily briefs. Here is a list of news happening on March 28, 2008.

Poll: Obama Leads Clinton By 8 Points
Illinois Senator Barack Obama pushed his lead to 8 point over Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton according to Friday’s Gallup “tracking poll” -putting his lead outside the margin of error.
It is Obama’s largest lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination and shows that he has successfully weather the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy, while Clinton is reeling from inaccurate comments she made about a 1996 trip to Bosnia.
According to the poll, Republican presidential nominee John McCain has a 46% to 44% lead over Obama, but there is a 3 point margin of error.

Study: Microsoft Brand Declining
Microsofts brand power has been on the decline during the past four years, a study by the Core Brand Power 100 discovered.
According to the report, Microsoft was ranked No. 12 in brand power according to business executives in 2004 and dropped to No. 59 last year. This is strong indication that Microsoft is losing recognition in the minds of of U.S. business users and credibility among consumers.
“When you see something decline with increasing velocity, it’s a concern,” said James Gregory, CEO of CoreBrand.
In 1996, Microsoft was number one in CoreBrand’s survey.

Sports:
I will of course be watching Stanford vs. Texas tonight. The winner of that match up will play the winner of the Michigan St. versus Memphis game. Go Cardinal!

Hookers Made Famous By Eliot Spitzer

Disclaimer: I am not one who enjoys tabloid journalism, but I must admit that I’ve been glued to the Eliot Spitzer story. In case you are a new arrival to our planet, Eliot Spitzer is the former governor of New York who was caught being part of an alledged prostitution ring. Spitzer, named Client 9 according to Federal tapes, then resigned from his post as governor due to the fallout.

The New York Post has this slideshow about the hookers made famous by Spitzer.

Daily Briefs, and no not the underwear…

News:

Yahoo Supports Google’s Efforts For Open Social Networks  

Yahoo Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will support Google’s newly developed program which allows software creators to share thier applications more fluidly on social networking sites.

Both Yahoo and Google are working in the OpenSocial network, which Google formed in November to lure software developers away from social networking leader Facebook.

OpenSocial is a set of technical specifications that allows software developers to build applications such as games and photo shows that can run on any social network.

Tuesday’s New York Times Op-Ed

New York Times columnist Dave Brooks writes in Tuesday’s Op-Ed piece that New York Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton has just endured her toughest week in her race against Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

First, Obama gave a wonderful speech last week to weather the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversey and his lawyers were successful in preventing a re-vote in the states of Michigan and Flordia. Now, Clinton is facing her own media problems after video footage of her in Bosnia was leaked revealing she wasn’t “dodging bullets” during a peace-keeping trip she took to the country in 1996 -something she claimed during a recent campaign stop.

Brooks says a top Clinton adviser told him Clinton has only a 10 percent chance of winning the nomination. Brooks believes that number is closer to 5 percent.

Lakers Defeat Warriors In Overtime

Kobe Bryant scored 30 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 115-111 win over in-state rival the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.

Daily Briefs, and no not the underwear…

News:
Detroit Mayor Charged With Perjury
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury and other charges Monday for allegedly lying about an affair with his former chief aide. The charges came after around 14,000 raunchy text messages were discovered and published by the Detroit Free Press.
The discovered messages call into question Kilpatrick, and his believed lover Christine Baily, who both gave sworn testimony’s under oath in August that they did not have an affair.
Kilpatrick, 37, said in a press conference that he would not step down as mayor.
“I look forward to complete exoneration once all the facts have been brought forth. I will remain focused on moving this city forward,” he said.
In Detroit, Kilpatrick is called “the hip-hop mayor” for the youth and vitality he brought to the economically struggling city.
If convicted with perjury, Kilpatrick will automatically be removed from office according to Michigan state law.

Choose A Browser, Any Browser
Here is an interesting article from Neil McAllister about Apple updating their default Safari browser with a Quicktime update, which has ruffled the feathers of the people at Mozilla who make the popular browser Firefox.

Romney Backer Now Supports Obama
A former Mitt Romney supporter and conservative constitutional scholar announced Sunday he will endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.
Douglas W. Kemic, who announced his endorsement in a post on Slate.com, said that even though he disagrees with Obama on abortion and gay rights, he supports Obama’s views on the war in Iraq.
“Our president has involved our nation in a military engagement without sufficient justification or a clear objective” and “has incurred both tragic loss of life and extraordinary debt jeopardizing the economy and the well-being of the average American citizen,” Kmiec wrote. “In pursuit of these fatally flawed purposes, the office of the presidency, which it was once my privilege to defend in public office formally, has been distorted beyond its constitutional assignment.”
Kmiec is a law school professor at Pepperdine University.

TV Web Sites Need To Write

According to Harry Jessell of TV Newsday, local TV stations aren’t receiving as many page views or visitors compared to their local newspaper counterparts for one specific reason: it’s all in the writing.

Writing in newspapers has more depth and is more dynamic, which translates to their online sites. TV, however, still concentrates on video while their Web stories are three to four paragraph briefs from the wire or a web producer is forced to translate television news stories into text, which trust me is no easy task.

Although video is becoming more popular on the Web, online is still primarily a print medium. Studies and surveys have learned people aren’t accessing local news Web sites for video. Instead, they want rich and dynamic text stories that have some video, photos, or an interactive graphic.

Jessell does point out that local television Web sites do beat newspapers when it comes to weather coverage. But in news, features, community information and sports, TV is not competing.

There are a number of reasons for this:

First of all, TV Web sites don’t have the staffing newspaper’s do. Newspapers have been forced to distribute more and more resources to their online sites due to lack of profits made from print. If newspaper managers didn’t make a cultural shift in their newsrooms to online, their paper would probably be dead.

Meanwhile, television stations still make a bulk of their money from TV; however, the market structure is changing rapidly as advertisers are discovering the benefit of targeted online advertising compared with direct television advertising.

If managers of stations aren’t going to increase online staff, there are other options for TV Web sites to improve the depth of their text. One way of doing this is by becoming community aggregators and using user generated content.

Every town in America has a blogger(s) writing about their community, city council, sports teams, or even the media.

We live in a time when social commentary reins supreme, see Perez Hilton. Sadly, people want to hear other people’s opinions on the issues they face everyday. If done properly, these blogs can facilitate community discussion, which if it takes place on your Web site, turns into more page views and visitors.

King5.com, a station in Seattle, Wash., has been one of the local television stations to embrace the blogosphere with open arms. Their Citizen Rain section is a collection of the best blogs in Seattle.

King5 has sent a message by doing this: not only does King5.com deliver the best in local news, they are also a central hub for local Seattle blogs and are interested in the opinions of the community.

Another option for television Web sites is to place on-air talent on the Web. In the local television news industry, talent is the face of the station in the community, so why not use those people as the face of your web component?

Have sports anchors give a semiweekly column. Give your weatherman his own blog. Does it mean extra work for these specific anchors? Yes. But if these people truly care about their station competing, they must take an interest in the Web. After all, that is where the battles are taking place, in the trenches of the World Wide Web where everyone with information is competing against one another to deliver that information and get eye balls to see it.

Davidson Upsets Gonzaga

Davidson pulled off an early upset Friday by defeating Gonzaga 82-76 in Raleigh, NC. Davidson was led by sophomore Stephen Curry’s 40 points.

Thursday saw a drought in upsets with only two teams possessing a higher seed winning. But No. 11 seed Davidson, who lost a thriller in the first round against Maryland last year, knocked out the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region despite being the much smaller team on the court.

Curry -son of former NBA basketball player Dell Curry- scored 30 plus points in last year’s tournament game against Maryland and needed 30 in the second half this year to lead his team in a comeback win against Gonzaga.

In other NCAA Tournament news, Tennessee held off American University to advance to the second-round against Davidson, while Miami defeated the upstart St. Mary Gaels 78-74 behind Jack McClinton’s career-high 38 points.

Currently, Drake is leading Western Kentucky in overtime. Western Kentucky had a 15 point lead at one point during the second-half.

Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear

Dirty Dancing: Few Upsets On Day 1 of NCAA’s
The headline from day one of the NCAA Tournament reads: Cinderella forgot to attend the dance. Only two lower seeds -Kansas St. and Texas A&M- came out victorious Thursday.
Kansas St, a No. 11 seed, out rebounded USC for a 80-67 win. The highly anticipated match up between super freshmen Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo became a mismatch on the boards as Kansas St. looked like men playing against boys.
Texas A&M, a No. 9 seed, defeated eight-seeded BYU 67-62 in an even game.
Duke and Belmont provided the best game of the day. The Blue Devils were nearly shocked by the Bulldogs but squeaked out a 71-70 win after Gerald Henderson went coast-to-coast with 4 seconds left for a layup to give Duke the win.
My pick to win the NCAA Tournament, UCLA, gave a dominant performance in their first game against Mississippi Valley State, winning 70-29 in one of the most lopsided scores in NCAA Tourney history.

Rice Apologizes To Obama For Passport Breach
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized to Sen. Barack Obama Friday morning for an incident involving two State Department contractors unnecessarily looking up Obama’s passport files.
The incident occurred Thursday and since then both contractors have been fired.
Rice also told Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton that her passport was reviewed in 2007. Further details are unknown at the current time.
Rice told reporters at a press conference that there will be a “full investigation” into the matter and that she personally called Obama to apologize.
“I was sorry and that I myself would be very disturbed if I learned somebody had looked into my passport file and therefore I will stay on top of it,” she said.
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to Rice Friday asking for names by Monday.
“I am writing to request that you provide the Oversight Committee by Monday with the identities of the companies involved in these breaches,” the letter said. “I also believe this information should be made publicly available.”

Misery in Missouri; State Prepares For More Flooding
My former hometown state of Missouri is in “watch and see” mode after weeks of heavy rainfall has caused flooding around the state.
However, there was a glimmer of hope Thursday as emergency officials said floodwaters had begun receding in many areas of the state except for Rolla and St. Louis. Rolla and St. Louis are located in the South-Central and Eastern parts of the state.
Missouri Governor Blunt asked for emergency aid Thursday for 70 counties.

Richardson To Endorse Obama
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson plans to announce his endorsement for Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination Friday at a campaign stop in Oregon.
Richardson had been running for the Democratic nomination, seeking to become the nation’s first Hispanic president, but dropped out of the race in January.
Since his departure from the Democratic contest, Richardson’s endorsement has been hotly pursued by both Obama and Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton. The governor, who has years of foreign policy experience, is speculated to be a possible running mate with Obama.
In a statement from the New York Times, Richardson hailed Mr. Obama’s judgment and ability to be commander-in-chief — qualities that Mrs. Clinton has called into question in recent weeks on the campaign trail.
“I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America’s moral leadership in the world,” Mr. Richardson said in the statement, provided by the Obama campaign early Friday morning.

America Rejects ‘Idol Rocker

America voted to remove Amanda Overmyer, the rocker-nurse with a Joan Jett voice, from “American Idol” during Wednesday night’s elimination episode.
Overmyer, Carly Smithson and Kristi Lee Cook were the three bottom vote getter’s this week. For Cook, it was the third straight week the country singing blonde was a finalist for elimination but survived.
Overmyer, who sang the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR” during Tuesday’s performance, took her rejection in stride and said she was just surprised to have made it into the top-12.
The finalists have been whittled to 10 remaining hopefuls. Starting next week, celebrity musicians will serve as coaches for the ‘Idolettes. This years list of celebrity mentors includes Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton, Mariah Carey and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Schultz: Starbucks Will Return To Its Roots
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced sweeping changes to the world’s largest coffee chain during a shareholders meeting Wednesday in an effort to curb falling profits and stock prices.
The plan is to return Starbucks to its roots of providing an authentic neighborhood coffehouse experience to its customers during a struggling economy that is seeing less consumers willing to spend $4 for a latte on-the-go.
One initiative Starbucks is taking to cut prices for their drinks is allowing customers to customize their drinks -by adding soy milk or syrup flavors- for no added cost starting in mid-April.
Schultz’s described initiatives are meant to keep current customers at Starbucks in the face of emerging competitors such as Mc Donald’s and Dunkin Donuts and to bring back coffee aficionados who left for local coffee houses for a richer coffee experience.

Osama bin Laden Condemns Europe
A new video message reportedly from international terrorist Osama bin Laden condemns the countries of Europe for siding with America in a war against Afghaniztan and for allowing the publication of cartoons that supposedly insult Muslim’s prophet, Mohammed.
“This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and the reckoning for it will be more severe,” the speaker in the five-minute audio recording says.
The identity of the speaker could not be fully determined, but it is believed to be the international fugitive bin Laden.
The tape was timely as Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the start to the Iraq War.