Wednesday 31 May 2017
Join MomsRising in opposition to reckless House Bill 746
Getting rid of concealed-carry permits is dangerously stupid:
Guns are deadly weapons. No one who hasn’t been properly screened or trained should be able to pick up a firearm and carry it around North Carolina’s streets and neighborhoods, no questions asked. And anyone wishing to purchase a pistol in our state should first be background checked.
But right now, the gun lobby and its allies in the state legislature are pushing forward a bill (HB 746) that would allow people to carry hidden, loaded handguns with no license, no background check, and no safety training. They are also considering a potential change that would eliminate NC's successful pistol permit process, which provides background checks on guns purchased through unlicensed dealers.
This one needs no editorializing on my part, and it shouldn't even be under consideration by those who claim to serve the public.
http://ift.tt/2spISGu
Poll: GOP owns health care now
http://ift.tt/2rExjim
Trump set to pull out of Paris Climate Accord
Taking irresponsibility to a whole new level:
President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, two senior US officials familiar with his plans told CNN Wednesday. The decision would be a significant foreign policy break with nearly every other nation on earth and a major reversal of the Obama administration's efforts on climate change.
Trump met Tuesday with a key voice advocating for withdrawal, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. He meets Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who supported remaining in the deal.
Understand, the Paris Agreement was derived from numerous concerns voiced over the Kyoto Protocols, and is the result of tens of thousands of hours of research and negotiations. It's doubtful Trump has even the slightest idea how it's constructed or what it entails, including the fact it is mostly a self-regulation vehicle that allows individual signatories to choose their own path to carbon reduction. Here are a few snippets from the Agreement itself:
http://ift.tt/2snarjI
Wednesday News: 3rd time's the charm
![bluenccup-1[1].jpg](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sua5doYs35hGvlVLDTTGnPukzZIKY5Cnk_9ptJi34nKUy5GJ5mxqAgUiPp_fiiKIxET14OYBYFrw=s0-d)
GERRYMANDERED LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS SENT BACK TO NC SUPREME COURT: A challenge to election maps drawn in 2011 that has twice come before the N.C. Supreme Court will return for a third pass before a court that has shifted since its most recent review from a Republican to a Democratic majority. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an order that sent a lawsuit filed by former Democratic state legislator Margaret Dickson for another review by North Carolina’s highest court. The order tells the North Carolina justices to reconsider its 2015 decision upholding the maps in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that found lawmakers relied too heavily on race when drawing congressional districts in 2011.
http://ift.tt/2rF853F...
http://ift.tt/2roVGzQ
BTP The Podcast Vol. 31: More Keatts feats, plus NCAA baseball tourney talk
This edition of the podcast covers the eventful week for the basketball program and takes a cursory glance at the challenge lying ahead for the baseball team in Lexington. As always, you can find BTP The Podcast on iTunes or you can stream it via Soundcloud below.
(“Radio Silence,” Shearwater, Jet Plane and Oxbow)
http://ift.tt/2qAdCYQ
Tuesday 30 May 2017
Oddsmakers continue to favor NC State in season-opener against South Carolina
And they’re never wrong so we can totally go ahead and count this game as won.
Back in March, a super duper early line out of Vegas had NC State as a seven-point favorite over South Carolina, which was at least mildly surprising in a matchup of the lowly ACC against its imminence the Southeastern Conference. (Imagine trumpets blaring, as though a king were being introduced on the premises, each time you read the phrase “Southeastern Conference.”)
But that line has not moved much so far: the latest from 5Dimes has NC State -5.5 against the Gamecocks, which is still a pretty healthy margin. Not surprising it’s lower than it had been, though now it almost feels too low. Don’t mind me; it’s about this time of year when the 100% pure Colombian optimism starts to take hold.
I’m addicted to optimism and these sportsbooks might as well be a dealer. (If you’re low on optimism, don’t worry, I know a guy who knows a guy.)
The line is likely to fluctuate more in the coming months, once we hit unexpected preseason injury season at the start of August. I’d be fine with that not being a factor either way this year, if it’s cool with everybody.
http://ift.tt/2qySpdW
Mark Walker gets schooled at his Town Hall in Alamance County
When your audience is ready for your bullshit:
A top House lawmaker and his constituents argued over who is to blame for rising Obamacare premiums in North Carolina. Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., said at a town hall in Alamance County Tuesday the state's lone Obamacare insurer request for a rate hike of nearly 23 percent next year is evidence the law is failing.
"Their rates and premiums are going up 22, 23 percent," he said. However, some of his constituents quickly shouted that premiums would only go up about 9 percent if President Trump guaranteed Obamacare's insurer subsidies next year. "Don't lie to us," one person shouted at the lawmaker.
Boom. That's exactly what he (and everybody else) needed to hear. And he'll probably hear it again in just a few hours in Randolph County (6;30 p.m., 413 Industrial Park Ave, Asheboro). For more info on making your voice heard at town halls, go to the Town Hall Project and check it out.
http://ift.tt/2rDdbNK
They should’ve played
http://ift.tt/2qxUR48
Tuesday Twitter roundup
Since the NC House Budget is about to hit the floor:
.#ncga - a day late and certainly a dollar short. Legislators, take care of your retirees. Add cost of living increase. #ncpol
— @NCRetirees (@NCRGEA) May 30, 2017
Just because they served the citizens yesterday, it doesn't mean we should forget them today.
http://ift.tt/2r7DN82
Monday 29 May 2017
NC State No. 3 seed in host Kentucky’s regional, will open against Indiana
let’s beat all these stinkin’ jerks
NC State is in the NCAA baseball tournament and now the hard part begins—y’know, that whole winning on the road thing. Kentucky is regional’s No. 1 seed and host, while Indiana is the two-seed, the Wolfpack is the three-seed, and Ohio is the four-seed. NC State opens with Indiana at 7 p.m. ET on Friday night.
LEXINGTON REGIONAL
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) May 29, 2017
#1 Kentucky
#2 Indiana
#3 North Carolina State
#4 Ohio#RoadToOmaha http://pic.twitter.com/jWlupfIb6i
Indiana is 33-22-2 (yep, two ties!) on the season and has a win over Louisville to its credit. The Hoosiers also have taken series from Maryland and Hawaii, which are the other opponents they share in common with the Pack.
Kentucky is 39-20 and finished third overall in the SEC this season. The Wildcats beat Indiana during the regular season and also opened up the year by being swept in Chapel Hill by UNC.
Ohio is 30-26 and won four straight in the MAC tourney to earn its bid. The Bobcats probably aren’t long for this regional.
http://ift.tt/2rOv6k5
Democratic Party pushes for candidates who are veterans
Finally doing something that might just work:
Looking ahead to next year's elections, Democrats are trying to recruit at least two dozen military veterans to challenge Republican incumbents, arguing that candidates with military on their resumes appeals to independent voters and can help the party break the GOP grip on Washington.
"Veterans have had the experience of putting the country first, before personal politics" and party dictates, said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass, who did four tours of duty in Iraq, left the Marines as a captain and was elected to Congress in 2014. That tends "to attract the kind of independent voters who are looking for a good leader," Moulton added.
While I may be a little prejudiced in favor of veterans, I have always believed it would be wise for the Democratic Party to field them as candidates. A lot of Democrats are veterans, but we've allowed the GOP to (falsely, in many cases) claim the high ground on veterans' issues, even those who never served. Richard Burr is a prime example, but there are many others. And it's not just Independent voters who may be swayed by a Dem in uniform. North Carolina has the third largest population of active and reserve military voters, with some 129,000 troops, not counting spouses. I've been there, done that, and the first question on my mind before casting my vote was, "Which ones have served in the military?" And as each day brings new embarrassments over Trump, that veteran angle will be even more effective:
http://ift.tt/2qsz3uO
Monday News: Another failure under his belt
TRUMP'S G-7 AND NATO PERFORMANCES ALIENATE ALLIES: The sense of a White House under intensified siege was heightened by the sobering comments from Merkel, Europe's most powerful politician. "Naturally, we'll maintain our friendship with the United States ... wherever possible," Merkel said. "But we have to realize that we Europeans are going to have to fight on our own behalf." Although Trump touted "big results" in a tweet Sunday about his Europe trip, Merkel's comments marked a potentially far-reaching negative assessment of his meetings with European Union officials and NATO heads of state in Brussels and the leaders of major industrialized nations at the Group of 7 summit in Sicily.
http://ift.tt/2rvM8DV
http://ift.tt/2rdiq3u
NC State will learn its NCAA tournament fate on Monday afternoon
NC State is in the tournament, ok, bub, so don’t sweat what don’t need sweatin’.
The NCAA college baseball tournament selection show will air at noon today on ESPN2. NC State is not hosting a regional this year, which is no surprise whatsoever, and will have to wait for the full reveal to see where it is headed. Elliott Avent’s crew has never won a regional it hasn’t hosted.
On Sunday night, the NCAA revealed the 16 regional hosts for the opening round, which includes the eight national seeds that have an inside track to Omaha. (National seeds get to play at home all the way to the College World Series.)
Five ACC teams are hosting regionals, including Clemson and ACC tournament champion Florida State, which did us a fine kindness by beating UNC on Sunday. State has series wins over both the Tigers and Seminoles this season, which is helpful.
It’s just a matter of where State is going at this point—by NCAA rule, the Wolfpack cannot be sent to a regional hosted by another ACC team, which would make a trip to an SEC venue seem likely, but seeding could dictate a trip farther west. D1Baseball.com has NC State as a 2-seed in Texas Tech’s regional.
http://ift.tt/2rwU9IW
Sunday 28 May 2017
No excuses this time
http://ift.tt/2rce8eZ
Sunday News: From the Editorial pages
DISGUISING VOTER SUPPRESSION BEHIND MASK OF VOTER ID: The problem is that Berger and Moore are disguising the truth. If they really cared about identification, they could easily write a bill that would pass constitutional muster. In reality, while the two TALK about voter ID, what they are DOING is voter suppression. The law the courts struck down was MORE about discouraging voting: reducing early and Sunday voting; eliminating same-day voter registration; ending pre-registration of teenagers; and disallowing out-of-precinct voting. All that comes on top of efforts to make it difficult for certain groups of voters, such as students, to vote by moving polling places from convenient locations, like student unions, to more remote locations on the fringes of college campuses.
http://ift.tt/2r21L4t
http://ift.tt/2ruR8so
Saturday 27 May 2017
NC State lands commitments from Devon Daniels and C.J. Bryce
It’s been a huge day for Kevin Keatts.
Help is on the way, folks, we’re just going to have to be patient. NC State picked up two huge commitments from transfers: former Utah guard Devon Daniels and former UNCW guard C.J. Bryce. Both players will have to sit out the 2017-18 season. Bryce will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out, while Daniels will have three.
Just about everyone expected Bryce to re-join his former head coach in Raleigh, and no doubt the existing relationship between the two paid off for the Wolfpack. Bryce had also visited South Carolina and had considered visiting Gonzaga. He averaged 17.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore for UNC-Wilmington.
The Pack’s footing with Daniels was less certain, but in the end he picked NC State over San Diego State. He averaged 9.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game with Utah last season and was highly efficient in doing so.
Keatts still needs to find more perimeter threats for 2018-19, but these two kids are going to help the backcourt immensely once they’re available, and it’ll benefit everybody to have them around in practices this season, too.
http://ift.tt/2qmUYDL
Republican meddling with ACA causes spike in premiums
And GOP Congressmen should be hearing about this at town halls:
Blue Cross cited several reasons for its request. One is an increase in medical costs, including for doctors fees, hospital services and medicines, which the insurer cites every year it seeks rate increases. The company also blamed the increase on a higher tax on insurers next year.
But the biggest cause is the looming elimination of “cost sharing reductions” in the Republican alternative to the ACA. These reductions offer additional subsidies on deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs to lower-income people whose household incomes are between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
At the core of the Affordable Care Act was a mutual understanding between government and citizens: You pay, we'll pay. While it's far from perfect, that cooperative effort has provided millions of families with the coverage they desperately needed, while greatly reducing the amount of unpaid medical bills. Until now. Republicans claimed they were trying to make health care more affordable to citizens, but that is not even on their radar. What they're really trying to do is get rid of one side of that agreement, the government's half. And they're doing it so they can force even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy. Whether you lose your insurance, or end up paying 3 times as much for lesser coverage, that doesn't really matter to them. YOYO, as my dad used to say. You're on your own.
http://ift.tt/2qusSBN
Friday 26 May 2017
NC State can’t overcome first-inning collapse against UNC
Elliot Avent is still searching for that elusive ACC title.
Brian Brown threw 44 pitches in the first inning, and even that wasn’t enough to get three outs, as North Carolina took advantage of a lot of high fastballs and Brown’s dropped pop up to rout NC State before the first inning was over. A later error on Will Wilson on a routine grounder to second helped the Heels enjoy a 10-0 lead after one, with eight, count ‘em EIGHT of those runs being unearned. Three hours later the stinker mercifully came to an end with the Pack on the wrong end of a 12-4 final.
If there was a silver lining, and there really wasn’t, it was that the Pack won the earned run battle 4-3. Way to go boys! Imagine if you had just made the routine plays!
If there was actually kind of a glimmer of decency, State did acquit itself well against soon-to-be top 10 MLB pick J.B. Bukauskas, who came in having allowed a scant 17 earned runs in 13 starts while striking out 106 batters in 82 innings. The Carolina ace didn’t get a K until the fifth and was tagged for three runs in seven innings to toy with that ERA a bit. Josh McLain took him deep, and most of the outs he did record were loud outs, including a screaming liner off the bat of Joe Dunand that caught Bukauskas flush (and of course fell right at his feet so he could toss it to first for the out).
Bukauskas lost his grip on a curve that plunked Will Wilson, which happens, but the fastball he drilled Andy Cosgrove with sure seemed to be intentional. Stay classy, Carolina. (Or go to class, Carolina? Ha, never mind.)
After Brown’s misadventures in the first (eight runs, two earned), Michael Bienlien added some fuel to the fire and was charged with the last two unearned runs of the hour-long shitfest of an inning. But, after that, the pen was pretty stellar. Austin Staley gave up just one earned run (and one unearned, sigh) in three innings, Sean Adler was dazzling, striking out five in 3.1 perfect frames, and Joe O’Donnell fanned a pair in his inning of work.
Offensively, Dunand had a triple and Cosgrove, Evan Mendoza, and Brock Deatherage all had doubles.
UNC was the only top pool seed to advance and will face Miami in the semis. Florida State and Duke, eight and nine seeds respectively, face off in the other semifinal. State, meanwhile, awaits its fate. An NCAA tournament at-large bid is assured; the question is whether the team will get a two or three seed and in what region.
http://ift.tt/2qlwYAU
NC State vs. UNC game thread
let us beat these lamers
NC State and UNC will meet at roughly 7:45 p.m. ET this evening with the pool—nay, the sanctity of the planet—on the line. Okay one of those things is true. The Tar Heels will be running out top-10 MLB Draft pick JB Bukauskas, while the Wolfpack will be running up Brian Brown. Winner take all ... uh, of the pool.
http://ift.tt/2ql7gwl
NC State guard Terry Henderson denied 6th year of eligibility by NCAA
NCAA policy always varies on a day-to-day basis.
Terry Henderson’s NC State career is over. Henderson applied for a sixth year of eligibility this offseason but the NCAA ruled against him, and that’s that. The NCAA, as usual, gets to make everything up as it goes.
Henderson played about seven minutes in 2015 before suffering a season-ending injury but was a key part of NC State’s offense this past season as a fifth-year senior. The NCAA rule is five years to play four seasons, and technically Henderson did that—he did, after all, play in a college basketball game in four different years.
He also lost 99.9% of one of those years to injury, but the complication was his redshirt transfer year after leaving West Virginia. The NCAA was unforgiving on that front, unwilling to cut Henderson a break when things went unexpectedly awry after he left his first school. He got his five years, they’ll say (true!); he left WVU of his own volition (also true!).
This would not be so pathetically shitty if the NCAA actually had a consistent policy of inflexibility, but it does not. It never has. They cut some kids a little slack here and there, while they ignore context in other circumstances in an effort to appear judicious or unbiased. There are similar cases to Henderson’s where kids have been given sixth years, but what the hell is the point of quibbling with the paper-pushing mediocrities who inhabit the NCAA?
There’s a bunch of schizophrenic flakes overseeing college sports, what can you do?
Anyway, I’m sorry it had to end this way. Thanks, Terry.
Terry Henderson loses appeal for sixth year. A message from @t_henny3 ... http://pic.twitter.com/0a37HibbU8
— NC State Men's Bball (@PackMensBball) May 26, 2017
http://ift.tt/2qnSAIY
When attendance at your tired political conferences keeps dropping...
Upcoming @NCCivitas conference features Nigel Farage of Brexit fame and an AR-15 giveaway: https://t.co/CZaZ9eBpFb #ncpol
— Colin Campbell (@RaleighReporter) May 25, 2017
http://ift.tt/2qlrR3y
An alarming poll for the NC GOP
http://ift.tt/2qWgWvT
Friday News: Bad cop, slightly less disgusting cop
SENATE FOOD STAMP AND EDUCATION PROGRAM CUTS LEFT OUT OF HOUSE BUDGET: Some of the cuts in the budget plan that has passed the N.C. Senate aren’t included in a partial budget released by the N.C. House Thursday – setting up negotiations between Republican leaders over the fate of food stamps, the Governor’s School and other programs. The House did not include a budget provision that changes eligibility requirements for the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – commonly known as food stamps. The Senate’s proposal would have resulted in 133,000 people losing access to food stamps, including 51,000 children.
http://ift.tt/2rVACP2
http://ift.tt/2rGUs3f
Omer Yurtseven is back and Ted Kapita is gone; let’s assess the roster as it stands
wheeeeeeeeeeee
I’ll be honest here: the roller coaster nonsense that comes with every offseason now, whether that involves transfers or kids maybe turning pro or any combination thereof? It gives me something to write about during an otherwise dead period sports-wise, which I appreciate. With that said, I’d rather merely nap through the offseason as opposed to smacking my head against a concrete wall.
Omer Yurtseven will be back for his sophomore season at NC State this fall. Ted Kapita decided he’d rather go get some money overseas, as did Maverick Rowan. NC State gained a recruit; NC State lost a recruit. NC State added a pair of graduate transfers to help fill out the weak spots in its rotation. College basketball is always at its most obvious dysfunction during a coaching change.
At least the NBA Draft deadline for underclassmen provided some clarity. This is probably the roster that Kevin Keatts will be working with in his first season:
1: Markell Johnson / Lavar Batts
2: Al Freeman / Sam Hunt
3: Torin Dorn / Shaun Kirk
4: Malik Abu / Lennard Freeman / Darius Hicks
5: Omer Yurtseven / Freeman / Abu
(Until I hear otherwise I’m assuming Terry Henderson will not be back.)
Yurtseven’s return answers a lot of concerns about the front court, but the question for this group is gonna be how much can they stretch defenses; there are no obvious go-to perimeter threats aside from Al Freeman. There also isn’t an obvious go-to scorer in any spot, w,hich is a brand new predicament.
That’s okay, though. There are worse places to start over, and anyway starting over was absolutely necessary.
http://ift.tt/2r3EIVd
Thursday 25 May 2017
Duke Energy hampering investments in NC Solar farms
It's all about the duration of contracts:
One of the nation’s biggest solar developers is challenging Duke Energy’s purchases of solar energy in a case before the North Carolina Utilities Commission. The complaint by California-based Cypress Creek Renewables focuses on an arcane topic – the term of power-purchase contracts by Duke. But its outcome could affect the way the solar industry continues to grow in the nation’s second-largest solar state.
Cypress Creek approached Duke about power purchase agreements for six large solar farms, totaling 400 megawatts, before Duke had filed its competitive-bids proposal. But Duke offered only five-year contracts instead of the longer terms usual for big projects.
This article is dated (February), but a very recent piece in the paywall-protected Charlotte Business Journal reported that Solar farm connections are down some 75% due to this new approach by Duke Energy to manipulate Solar growth in NC. Cypress Creek is a Santa Monica-based company, and has been very successful in rounding up investment dollars for NC Solar farm projects. But that measly five year contract is a killer, seriously undermining the return on investment (ROI) formula that has been so successful here. Like always, being in control is at the top of Duke Energy's list of priorities:
http://ift.tt/2qoEINL
All those candidates
http://ift.tt/2rlfrZD
ACC tournament schedule shuffled after weather delays; NC State-UNC game time unchanged
For now, anyway.
Weather has highlighted nicely the absurdity of the current ACC baseball tournament format, forcing the postponement of two completely meaningless games on Wednesday.
The UNC-BC and Wake-GT games were rained out, and while neither game will have any bearing on the outcomes within their respective pools, the ACC stubbornly is insisting they be played.
So now four games will be played both today and Friday, with one game on each day moved to Louisville’s home field. (The tournament is being held at the city’s minor league park.)
NC State-UNC is still on for 7 p.m. ET Friday night—barring any additional delays, of course. That game is also still scheduled to mean something.
The weather actually did us a solid here, honestly, since it erased UNC’s off day. The Tar Heels were not supposed to have a game Thursday, but they’ll be playing first thing against BC thanks to the rain yesterday. It probably matters little since they can throw out a lineup of whatever bench players they want with no consequence (this game doesn’t have any bearing on who wins the pool, remember), but hey, it can’t hurt.
http://ift.tt/2rYNXW6
Disabily Rights NC files lawsuit to push for home care
Breaking free from institutional roadblocks:
Advocates for people with disabilities are suing to force North Carolina officials to do more to keep thousands of people out of institutions. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Disability Rights North Carolina says 10,000 people are waiting for services needed to let them live outside institutions.
The group says taxpayers now house disabled people in state-operated or privately run centers costing about $150,000 a year per resident, while providing needed services outside the institutions would be less than $60,000 per year.
Even if those cost numbers were around the break-even mark, "quality of life" issues alone should propel leaders to pursue the home care model. But to save the state $90,000 per-year per-person? That seems like a no-brainer, to me. Unless somebody's profiting from the institutional model and doesn't want that gravy train derailed. Wouldn't be the first time that factor was in play, especially when you take a step back and look at the for-profit prison formula plaguing our nation.
http://ift.tt/2qU2gO9
Why I’m a fan of NC State
Sometimes you grow up thinking the basketball school is a football school.
Welcome to the refreshed Backing The Pack! To celebrate the new look and feel of SB Nation’s sports communities, we’re sharing stories of how and why we became fans of our favorite teams. If you’d like to share your story about how you became a fan of the Pack, head over to our FanPosts section to write your own post. Each FanPost will be entered into a drawing to win a $500 Fanatics gift card from SB Nation [contest rules]. SB Nation is also collecting all of these stories here and featuring the best ones across the network. Come Fan With Us!
It’s kinda difficult to remember when you first became a fan of team—not when you first became aware of sports happenings going on, but when you really understood what was going on and invested. My story of becoming an NC State fan is dull, because I am a second-generation NC State graduate. I never had a choice (and I’m fine with that); I could have had it another way, but that never would have felt sincere.
I graduated high school in Tucson, Arizona, and I could have gone to Arizona or Arizona State and never looked back. (And man how funny that would have ended up being had I gone to ASU, what with the whole Herb Sendek thing.)
But I also grew up in Raleigh, and when I got to a point where I started to actually invest in sports, Jamie Barnette and Torry Holt were doing some impressive things on the football field. Funny thing when I look back now is when I was in middle school I actually thought State was a football school because Holt and company at least were decent, whereas the basketball team was an irrelevant crap factory that appeared to be playing in a dusty basement.
Hey, listen, don’t take issue with me on that opinion, okay—take issue with 1997 me. I’m just the messenger.
I have a vivid memory of my first game as an NC State student at a game in Carter-Finley, because that was just one of those life moments I had been looking forward to—y’know, being an active member of the student section, watching Philip Rivers throw a touchdown pass, enduring the passing scent of marijuana that pervaded sections seven and eight.
I owe that to Jamie and Torry, who together did some awesome shit, but I also owe it to my dad, who took me to State’s win at Texas in 1999, who was sure the basketball team would be in the top 10 by time I enrolled in 2001, who rescued me from a monsoon during State’s home game against East Tennessee in 2002, who was a willing traveler to football games at UNC and Wake and Virginia Tech and South Carolina and various bowl games no one will remember.
I could have gone to school somewhere other than NC State, but I would never have had any of that, and it’s pretty hard to imagine that alternative. I’m really glad I don’t have to.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. SB Nation Why Are You a Fan Reader Sweepstakes starts on 9:00am ET on May 25 and ends at 11:59pm ET on June 8, 2017. Open only to eligible legal residents of the United States, 18 years or older. Click here for official rules and complete details, including entry instructions, odds of winning, alternative method of entry, prize details and restrictions, etc. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Sponsor: Vox Media, Inc.
http://ift.tt/2qZKyHh
NC State up to a No. 2 seed in latest NCAA baseball tournament projections
Not surprisingly, State appears solidly in the field of 64.
A series victory over Clemson helped to solidify an at-large NCAA tournament bid for NC State, which has been riding the bubble for a long time. Taking care of BC on Tuesday and avoiding a bad loss in the process removed any shadow of a doubt. NC State is in the NCAAs, the question is just where it will be seeded.
Both Baseball America and D1Baseball have moved the Wolfpack up to a No. 2 seed, and both have the Pack landing in No. 1 national seed Oregon State’s regional. Basically that means State is perceived as the weakest of the 16 2-seeds, and actually it would probably be beneficial to be a 3-seed in a weaker host’s regional.
But I am not about to start complaining if this is how it works out; after that Boston College series I was pretty sure the season was over. I’ll take whatever place in the tournament we get.
The important thing here, really, is that the Wolfpack doesn’t need to sweat at this point. Both projections have State seeded ahead of at least 10 other at-large teams, and NC State would not be hurt significantly by losing to UNC on Friday.
http://ift.tt/2qhVu1Q
Wednesday 24 May 2017
Omer Yurtseven withdraws from NBA Draft and will return to NC State
Kevin Keatts finally caught a break.
Kevin Keatts got some excellent news on Wednesday, as Omer Yurtseven confirmed that he is pulling his name out of the NBA Draft and is returning to NC State for his sophomore season.
Yurtseven worked out for a half dozen NBA teams while going through the evaluation process, but probably didn’t get enough positive feedback about his stock to risk remaining in the draft.
He’ll have a great opportunity to improve on that stock as a sophomore, especially since he is certain to get more playing time. NC State’s frontcourt should primarily be a rotation of Yurtseven, Malik Abu, and Lennard Freeman. Plus, it’s hard to imagine Keatts squandering his skillset the way Mark Gottfried did last season.
Keatts’ system should open things up for Yurtseven, and Yurtseven in turn is going to help NC State’s offense show more versatility. I’m excited to see what he can do once he’s put in a better position to succeed.
http://ift.tt/2rUjFnn
RIP Elvin Jackson
http://ift.tt/2rh9a1o
Highlights: Brett Kinneman leads NC State past BC in ACC tournament opener
Our brief localized Boston College nightmare is over.
Every game in ACC tournament pool play is must-win for NC State if it wishes to advance, and the Wolfpack took care of business in the opener by beating Boston College, 6-1.
The victory ended BC’s short-lived three-sport hex on State, and now we can all move on. Brett Kinneman broke the game open in the seventh with a three-run home run to right field in the seventh inning.
NC State gets to relax for two days ahead of the winner-take-all game against UNC on Friday night. The result of the UNC-Boston College game is irrelevant, leaving the Tar Heels free to use a bunch of arms from the back end of their bullpen if they want. Great tournament format, huh?
http://ift.tt/2qbNKlO
Wednesday News: NC SNAP recipients in deep trouble
TRUMP BUDGET COMPOUNDS NC SENATE'S CUTS TO FOOD STAMPS: North Carolina food stamp users, already at risk of having their eligibility limited, found Tuesday that the Trump administration agrees with the cutbacks. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget, unveiled Tuesday, has $190 billion in cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves more than 40 million Americans. Some conservative Republicans expressed concern about the cuts. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said, “What bothers me is that too many times some who don’t have as much as the average citizen, who’s looking out for them?” “Many people do need it,” Jones said of SNAP recipients. “If you’re talking about saving money, where’s the money going? Is it going to pay for tax cuts? That’s not fair, if it’s true.”
http://ift.tt/2rNE2Ub
http://ift.tt/2qQzgH1
NC State exorcises demons against Boston College
That’s more like it.
NC State missed some opportunities to bury Boston College early, but Brett Kinneman finally took the drama from the game, and set up a Friday winner moves on matchup with North Carolina, with a three-run bomb in the bottom of the seventh in Tuesday’s pool B action from the ACC tournament. Johnny Piedmonte and Sean Adler combined to allow just one run in the Pack’s 6-1 win over the Eagles.
The Pack appeared on their way to easily avenging getting swept in Boston when they opened the game with consecutive singles from Stephen Pitarra, Josh McLain, and Brad Debo. Kinneman, who drove in four, plated a run with a fielder’s choice and Will Wilson dumped a slider in to right to make it 3-0.
BC starter Jacob Stevens stayed in trouble but escaped a bases loaded jam in the fourth, and he and reliever John Witkowski put goose eggs on the board from the second through the sixth to keep the Eagles in the game. Witkowski got two quick outs in the seventh before a two-out hit to Debo and a well-worked walk from Joe Dunand set the stage for Kinneman’s insurance blast.
Piedmonte was often up in the zone but the light-hitting BC lineup couldn’t take advantage. The big righty ran in to his only trouble in the sixth when he failed to yield to a charging Evan Mendoza on a bunt hit. Not only did Mendoza have a shot to make the play, but the third baseman was bloodied by the collision with Piedmonte, though he stayed in the game.
The next ball found Mendoza, who bobbled it and made a bad throw to second. Jake Palomaki, who was on after the bunt, tried to take third on the throw and would’ve been out on the play, but Dunand dropped the ball while applying the tag. Piedmonte got down 2-0 on the next batter and was done in favor of Adler after 73 pitches.
Adler ended up losing the batter, though the bases-loading walk was charged to the starter, but then induced a 4-6-3 double play to help him escape with his team up 3-1. Piedmonte went 5-plus frames, allowing six hits, one run, and two walks. He fanned three. Adler, who threw 61 pitches, allowed just one hit but walked three and hit a batter. He didn’t record a single strikeout but did get credit for his third save in as many State wins.
Piedmonte and Adler could conceivably piggyback again on Saturday should State find its way past UNC Friday night at 7 p.m. Carolina’s game with BC is meaningless, so expect the Heels to save their best arms for Friday. That means J.B. Bukauskas, a likely top ten pick in June, will likely toe the rubber against NC State’s Brian Brown.
http://ift.tt/2ry5N5z
Tuesday 23 May 2017
An Issue for Democrats
http://ift.tt/2qRtgy1
Put voters first
http://ift.tt/2rP1Nu3
Tuesday Twitter roundup
On everybody's mind:
Assessing the Supreme Court’s #gerrymandering decision | NC Policy Watch https://t.co/s9d2CrZRiJ #ncga #ncpol #nccourts #SCOTUS
— NC Policy Watch (@NCPolicyWatch) May 23, 2017
This answers a few questions from yesterday:
http://ift.tt/2rRxWkB
Deadline for underclassmen to withdraw from NBA Draft is Wednesday
NC State has a couple questions that need answers.
Underclassmen who have not signed with an agent have until Wednesday to withdraw their names from the NBA Draft if they want to retain their college eligibility. That means it’s just about commitment time for Omer Yurtseven (and maybe Ted Kapita?), who has yet to make a choice but clearly seems to want a reason to stay in the draft.
Yurtseven has worked out for multiple NBA teams, including the Knicks and Nets, in addition to participating in the annual NBA Combine. Yurtseven played reasonably well at the Combine, but he may need a guarantee from a team that it will select him if he’s to stay in the draft.
Kapita’s situation is murkier; after Jeff Goodman’s initial report that Kapita planned to sign with an agent and turn pro, there has been no additional news on the subject. Which does not mean anything has changed since that report, but I figured we’d have heard something by now.
All the mystery will be over soon enough.
http://ift.tt/2qfpACp
NC State’s national championship history means little on the recruiting trail
That’s not the easiest thing to accept, but it’s true.
Of at the mothership, Bud Elliott wrote an insightful piece that illustrates the disconnect between the way we as fans view our favorite programs and how recruits view them. The gist is that our school’s championship moments or all-time great players have a pretty short shelf life when it comes to recruiting impact—probably a lot shorter than we would like to hope.
In the article, for example, there’s an elite wide receiver prospect who admits he’d never heard of Peter Warrick until recently. Warrick isn’t exactly ancient history and he played for an elite program. So do you think any of these kids remember Torry Holt or Philip Rivers playing for NC State? No, probably not.
Of course, what this whole thing really got me thinking about was basketball, where the Wolfpack has actually won national championships and, at least for certain stretches, maintained status among the sport’s elite programs.
But those championships were so long ago they hold next to zero recruiting value today (which might be a generous estimate), save for maybe the occasional legacy recruit. This is where the perspectives of fans and recruits diverge drastically, because, hey, those titles were a long time ago, sure, but we still cherish them, still think they’re important. We tend to think that tradition should carry some weight in recruiting, no matter how old.
Many of us have a lot of connections to NC State, whether its growing up in a family of die hards, or earning a degree from the school, or simply being a North Carolina native that picked up the Pack early on. Most of the players Kevin Keatts is trying to recruit have no ties to Raleigh or the university, and they were just hitting kindergarten when Julius Hodge was winding down the program’s most consistent run of success in decades.
Meanwhile, all of these kids have witnessed either Duke and UNC win championships in their lifetimes, and that actually does make a difference. That dusty championship banner from the early ‘80s, not so much.
Still it’s difficult to step back and look at recruiting in a more logical way rather than reverting to “why don’t all these five-star kids love my school as much as I love my school? We should be cleaning up!” When you’ve been immersed in NC State sports for so long, it’s really hard to turn that off, and equally hard not to perceive the school’s brand as more visible and impactful than it is.
Recruits aren’t looking at State the same way we do. That can change, and NC State has been able to recruit top-100 talent despite its relatively low profile over the last 20+ years, which is encouraging. (The program does have more than just a couple banners going for it, after all.)
But they aren’t winning any recruits over by just going into PNC Arena and pointing up at old banners. I mean, they’d win me over immediately. I’d sign on the spot. The vast majority of high school kids being recruited by State could not care less. Now if we could just somehow keep that in mind when we evaluate kids’ recruiting decisions ...
http://ift.tt/2qQmZ3q
NC State football over/under at 7.5 wins, so ... take the over? Sure, take the over
hey what else are we supposed to do in the offseason
One group of Vegas handicappers has set the over/under on NC State’s win total this fall at 7.5, and given the way they set the money line, they figure it is more likely that State will top that number than fall short of it. This is making you very uncomfortable, I can tell.
ESPN’s FPI metric also expects the Wolfpack to exceed that 7.5-win threshold, and as far as FPI is concerned, NC State is only a heavy underdog in one game this fall (at Florida State.)
The Wolfpack’s win probabilities for each game, per FPI:
vs. South Carolina — 62.4%
vs. Marshall — 94.3%
vs. Furman — 98.7%
at Florida State --- 13.7%
vs. Syracuse — 79.3%
vs. Louisville — 50.5%
at Pittsburgh — 65.9%
at Notre Dame — 42.2%
vs. Clemson — 36.6%
at Boston College — 76.3%
at Wake Forest — 71.9%
vs. UNC — 71%
This is a wee bit optimistic in a few places, I would say, but regardless, turn your optimism up to its maximum setting, because this is the offseason and what else are you supposed to do?
http://ift.tt/2q9EqLk
The NC GOP's intentional deception exposed by Supreme Court
Getting your lies tangled up will eventually bite you in the ass:
The State’s contrary story—that politics alone drove decisionmaking—came into the trial mostly through Hofeller’s testimony. Hofeller explained that Rucho and Lewis instructed him, first and
foremost, to make the map as a whole “more favorable to Republican candidates.”The District Court, however, disbelieved Hofeller’s asserted indifference to the new district’s racial composition. The court recalled Hofeller’s contrary deposition testimony—his statement (repeated in only slightly different words in his expert report) that Rucho and Lewis “decided” to shift African-American voters into District 12 “in order to” ensure preclearance under §5. See 159 F. Supp. 3d, at 619–620; App. 558. And the court explained that even at trial, Hofeller had given testimony that undermined his “blame it on politics” claim.
Before you ask, I don't know. I've only read part of this decision, which upholds the lower court decision, so it appears the maps will need to be redrawn. Or the already re-drawn maps will now be used. Better minds than mine (easily found) need to be mined for an assessment. I'll try to follow-up with more info, but just to be clear: This decision only affects Congressional Districts, not Legislative. Districts 1 and 12, to be exact, but that also means surrounding Districts will be changed as well. Progress.
http://ift.tt/2rRtQsT
The legacy of Cherie Berry: Employers stealing from workers
And of course it's the bottom rung getting shafted the worst:
This report looks specifically at employers’ failure to pay the minimum wage to their employees at in the 10 most populous states, including North Carolina, and reveals the magnitude of the impact of wage theft on the low income workers who are least able to withstand it.
Workers in the food and drink industry suffer the highest rates of minimum wage violations, followed by agricultural workers (some of whom are not covered by minimum wage laws), leisure and hospitality, and retail workers. Unsurprisingly, women, young people, people of color, non-citizens, workers with lower levels of education, unmarried, workers, and workers without the protection of a union contract are disproportionately affected, though that is primarily because they are also more likely to be low wage workers.
For some reason, this reminds me of those cat videos, where the feline is perched on a counter top, steadily knocking items off onto the floor in contempt. Berry is that cat, knocking off various groups of workers whom she judges not worthy of her care or consideration. But this national report comes as no surprise to those who have been following her dereliction of duty for so many years:
http://ift.tt/2qTr49s
Monday 22 May 2017
It’s propaganda, not news
http://ift.tt/2qHxckD
Sunday 21 May 2017
Saturday 20 May 2017
NC State drops series finale to Clemson, 15-6
Who even needed it anyway.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains. And sometimes you lose and it rains in a figurative sense, all at the same time. NC State failed to close out a series sweep of Clemson on Sunday, falling in a 15-6 laugher.
Clemson jumped on Wolfpack starter Michael Bienlien in the third inning for five runs, giving the Tigers a 5-1 edge at that point. Bienlien did not make it through the inning, and Elliott Avent eventually ran through more than a half dozen pitchers.
(Which is fine, by the way. We have the ACC tournament to get ready for early next week, and this game was surprisingly non-essential after wins the two days prior.)
Clemson pushed the lead to 7-1 before NC State rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth. State unfortunately left the bases loaded to end the frame, because they’d have needed every single one of those runs plus several more in order to win the game. The rally ended with that sixth inning, though.
The Tigers pushed across six in the top of the seventh and two more in the eighth to put the game back out of reach.
So NC State closes out the regular season at 33-22 (16-14) and its postseason outlook is a lot healthier after adding a couple of top-25 RPI wins. The Pack is probably safely in the NCAAs at this point I wouldn’t mind a win or four this week to lock that down.
http://ift.tt/2qJnSuC
Saturday News: Experience not necessary
TREASURER DALE FOLWELL HIRES UNQUALIFIED DIRECTORS FOR STATE HEALTH PLAN: State Treasurer Dale Folwell has placed two officials with no previous experience in health insurance or health care into director-level positions with the State Health Plan and is seeking greater control over hiring and firing. Folwell defended the new hires, characterizing the health plan as broken and saying it sorely needed people with financial know-how rather than health plan experience to improve its finances and reduce costs. He said he had hired people with “integrity, ability and passion” who could implement the changes that are needed. The hirings and dismissals – including the hiring of a director who until recently was treasurer of the state Republican Party – raise questions about whether the Treasurer’s office is becoming politicized. Folwell says it’s not.
http://ift.tt/2rn2KNz
http://ift.tt/2r3RhTx
NC State takes series over Clemson, but not without drama
Can I open my eyes now?
If Thursday’s game was the Joe Dunand game, Friday’s was shaping up to be the Evan Mendoza game. Then things got weird. More on that later…
Mendoza’s three-run bomb to straightaway centerfield broke a 1-1 tie early in the contest, and the Pack third baseman later went sprawling into the Clemson dugout to catch a popup in a Jeter-esque effort. And State needed a big game from Mendoza with Dunand not starting the contest due to a sore hand.
So Mendoza was the hero and State cruised to…well no. Things got weird. The weirdest of them all was Will Wilson’s inside-the-park grand slam as part of a seven-run eighth that saw State put the game away. Oops, no again. You see, I have the power of internet jinxing. It’s really more of a curse than a power.
Again, I’m so so so sorry about St. Louis. And TCU. You think I’d have learned. Alas, after Clemson’s centerfielder crashed into the wall in a failed attempt to corral Wilson’s blast, I slipped on in to last night’s game story and made a seemingly innocuous comment about how I hoped he, and Clemson’s program (losers of eight ACC games in a row coming in to tonight) would be okay. Did I triumphantly and in ALL CAPS type BALLGAME? No. But it was enough to rouse the baseball gods.
And then came the ninth. Joe O’Donnell, inexplicably left in the game after State had batted for about an hour in the previous inning, came out cold and walked like a million guys in a row in what was a 12-2 game. Then a couple of other relievers added some suck, culminating in Clemson’s own granny, this of the traditional over-the-fence variety, and before you know it the score is 12-10 and y’all are out there burning shit in my yard again.
Enter Sean Adler. Former weekend starter turned improbable closer. Adler notched his second save in as many days, ending the game with a disgusting slider strikeout. I take back all the negative things I said about you, Sean, when Google informed me you had been jettisoned from USC-West for filming your buddy getting it on with his girlfriend without her knowledge. As far as I’m concerned, we all grew up a little bit tonight.
So, normally I write these journalistic recaps, but that ninth inning, an inning that saw Clemson plate eight runs, perhaps resulted in this here clownblogger hitting the tequila firehose a little too hard. So you’ve got whatever that was above.
Let us throw out some facts and whatnot:
· Clemson has lost nine straight ACC games despite my best effort to jinx things.
· NC State has won eight straight ACC games (and 13 of 14 overall).
· The above turn of events has the two teams tied in the ACC standings, so Saturday’s season finale is rather important for ACC tournament seeding purposes.
· If State can complete the sweep tomorrow, and Virginia loses, I’m pretty sure we finish 4th in the ACC but doing math and figuring out tiebreakers is challenging at the moment.
· Hello there, two seed in the NCAAs (or one seed after we win the conference tournament).
· Mendoza finished with two hits and three RBI. Wilson had two hits, two runs scored, and drove in four. Brad Debo had three hits, scored a run, and drove in one.
· Dunand came on as a pinch hitter and stayed in to play SS, so it looks like he’s just fine. He had a hit and a walk after entering the game.
· Brian Brown was really good, allowing just one earned run in six innings, striking out six. He allowed an unearned run in the first thanks to some ugly defense.
· Dalton Feeney and Kent Klyman combined for a scoreless seventh.
· After it took three State pitchers to get one out (while allowing eight runs) in the ninth, Adler fanned both batters he faced.
The Pack’s regular season finale is slated for 1 p.m. tomorrow, and you can stream it on the ACC Network Extra if you have a strong heart.
http://ift.tt/2pVbieV
Friday 19 May 2017
NC State football’s video marketing is very good
Now we just need them to cut some highlight tapes from last season.
NC State added some staffers this offseason whose sole job is to create recruiting/marketing material. They are pretty good at that. It’s hard to believe the videos below are being done in-house these days.
This is the sound of #Speed #1PACK1GOAL @Stephlouis12 @TheNyNy7 @adidasFballUS http://pic.twitter.com/kzxkWNRCHt
— NC State Football (@PackFootball) May 16, 2017
This is the sound of #Strength #GermainePratt @DarianRoseboro #1Pack1Goal http://pic.twitter.com/e1mu7aCukP
— NC State Football (@PackFootball) May 18, 2017
These videos kinda have a Friday Night Lights vibe to them, except without the Explosions In The Sky backing music (alas). It looks like this will be an ongoing series of videos throughout the offseason; it highlights both the talent on the roster and the work they put in to get better, which is a perfect combination for recruiting purposes.
This stuff not only sells the program in general, it also gives the coaches something they can show recruits and say “you could be in one of these videos some day.” That might sound silly to you, but it definitely can make a difference when a kid feels comfortable that the people helping to establish his image early in his career are, y’know, competent.
http://ift.tt/2rA47FX
Doubling Down on Trump
http://ift.tt/2pSZGJ3
Notes from the Commander-In-Chief
This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017
Yeah, nevermind the McCarthy hearings, or even the ludicrous Benghazi hearings; everything that happens to Trump is somehow "the greatest" success or injustice. As much as I hate to reproduce this idiot's rantings, studying psychosis is the only way to cure it:
http://ift.tt/2qFEyU8
Friday News: Privatization mayhem
NC'S MANAGED CARE MENTAL HEALTH CEO RAKES IN HUGE UNAUTHORIZED SALARY: Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions had been under fire from legislators and the former head of the state Department of Health and Human Services for paying its CEO Richard Topping more than $635,000 in salary this year. He makes more than leaders of the six other regional mental health offices and more than state policy allows. The report from State Auditor Beth Wood’s office said Cardinal decided on Topping’s pay without getting required approvals from the state Human Resources office. That office established about $187,000 as the maximum salary for that job in 2010, according to the audit.
http://ift.tt/2rvgaEy
http://ift.tt/2pTQQe4
Joe Dunand leads NC State to victory in game one against Clemson
Man, that was intense.
Joe Dunand, some horrid base running from Clemson, and a generous third strike call on Seth Beer to end the game likely punched NC State’s ticket to the NCAA tournament Thursday night. The Pack won their seventh straight ACC game and 12th in their last 13 overall with the 3-2 win over the Tigers, who dropped their eighth straight in league play after looking like a shoe-in for a national seed a couple of weeks ago.
Dunand’s hustle led to the go-ahead run in the eighth, when he ran hard out of the box on a looper to center and took second when Clemson’s Chase Pinder briefly bobbled the ball. The extra base helped Dunand get to third with two outs, and he scored when Will Wilson struck out on a wild pitch uncorked by Owen Griffith.
Austin Staley walked the leadoff man in the ninth, but Dunand made a pair of defensive gems in the inning to avert disaster. Logan Davidson tried to bunt the runner up a base but left it right in front of home plate, and Andy Cosgrove correctly tried to nail the lead runner, but his throw was a good 10 feet off the bag on the first base side. Dunand dove to handle the errant throw and swiped behind his body, all in one fluid motion, to put the tag on the Tiger runner for the first out of the ninth.
The next batter, Reed Rohlman, laced a single to right that should have sent Davidson to third, but the Clemson freshman inexplicably pumped the brakes halfway between the bags, and Dunand alertly cut the throw to third and made a lightning quick toss to Wilson, who ran down Davidson for the second out.
Beer narrowly missed a home run down the leftfield line before Sean Adler, who had come in to face Rohlman, fanned him on a 3-2 slider that was a good foot off the plate.
State got a shutout performance from the bullpen, with Cody Beckman striking out three in 3.1 scoreless innings in relief of Johnny Piedmonte, who gave up both Clemson runs while laboring through four frames. Staley got three outs and the win. Adler got the final two batters (with a little help from bad base running and a generous zone).
Clemson’s Charlie Barnes probably deserved a better fate. He tied his career high with 11 strikeouts in seven innings, compared to just one walk, and surrendered just two earned runs.
Andy Cosgrove, who had a pair of hits and drove in two, gave State the lead in the early going before Beer tied it with a homer. Dunand and Wilson also had two hits in the game.
With wins over Louisville, UNC, Wake Forest and now Clemson, not to mention a series win over FSU and a torrid hot streak down the stretch, the Pack are almost certainly an NCAA tournament team at this point, but winning the series would sure help erase what little doubt remains. The Pack will try to do just that Friday night at 6:30, and they still have the potent bullpen bullet of Joe O’Donnell in their chamber, as they managed to get through game one without using their closer.
http://ift.tt/2rxnJJV
Thursday 18 May 2017
NC State forward Ted Kapita expected to sign with agent and turn pro
bummer
Kevin Keatts’ first roster at NC State is taking another hit. Big man Ted Kapita is likely to sign with an agent, forgoing the rest of his college eligibility, according to Jeff Goodman.
Kapita didn’t play a ton as a freshman but this is a significant blow to the front court, especially since it may not be the last—center Omer Yurtseven is still deciding whether or not he wants to remain in the NBA Draft.
Keatts doesn’t mind playing small ball, and by the time the season gets here he may not have a choice. The only additions to roster he’s made that can help immediately have come at the guard spots.
It would have been nice to see what Kapita could have done as a sophomore, but oh well, time to move on. There isn’t much that can happen this offseason that’d truly bother me. That’s one silver lining to rebuilding years I guess.
http://ift.tt/2q0Mptr
Waves of resentment
http://ift.tt/2rvdHJE
Putting the pieces together in the #Russiagate puzzle
Exposing the clear intent to circumvent national security watchdogs:
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.
Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
Bolding mine, because this isn't a fricking business partnership, it's the most powerful man in the world intentionally deceiving his own country's security officials. He doesn't get to decide which laws to follow and which ones to ignore, those national security rules and procedures were developed over decades, and many of them are in place due to Russian efforts to subvert our Republic. Trump couldn't pull a more inappropriate stunt if he tried.
http://ift.tt/2rwmvyK
Wednesday 17 May 2017
Just plain mean
http://ift.tt/2pUiTGj
Fletcher Hartsell sentenced to 8 months in prison
Considering it could have been 20 years, he got lucky:
A former North Carolina lawmaker accused of misusing more than $200,000 in campaign funds on vacations, speeding tickets, haircuts and other items was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three charges in the case.
Former longtime state Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, who represented Cabarrus and Union counties in the 36th Senate district, was sentenced at the end of a hearing that lasted more than an hour in a federal courtroom in Winston-Salem. Much of the hearing focused on arguments made on behalf of the 70-year-old Hartsell about how much time he would serve behind bars.
While I understand the desire for sympathy and clemency from the bench, I find it distasteful to contemplate that when taking a broader look at our criminal justice system. The parade of exonerated Death Row inmates, most of whom were forced to serve 2-3 decades (for crimes they didn't commit) before they were released, and the ugliness of mandatory minimums in the failed War on Drugs, which has sent countless young African-American men to prison for 15-20 years because they had a couple of rocks of crack in their pocket, makes this 8 month sentence seem like a gentle slap on the wrist in comparison. That's just my take, your mileage may vary.
http://ift.tt/2rrWLV6
Wednesday News: Defending millionaires
BERGER CUTS EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN DEMOCRATS' DISTRICTS TO PRESERVE TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY: N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger is defending Republican legislators’ controversial 3 a.m. move to strip funding from several education programs in counties represented by Democrats. He argues that the change was necessary to address the state’s opioid epidemic without raising taxes. Under the proposal from Lowe, a Democrat from Forsyth County, the reduction in the personal income tax rate from 5.499 percent to 5.35 percent wouldn’t apply to higher income taxpayers. For example, married couples filing jointly and earning more than $1 million annually would continue to pay the 5.499 percent rate, while those earning less would pay 5.35 percent.
http://ift.tt/2ro4ByN
http://ift.tt/2qSC1sl
Scott Wood still hates Under Armour’s terrible basketballs
That’s fair.
Scott Wood was back in town recently and caught up with the N&O’s Joe Giglio on a variety of topics, including but not limited to the poor quality of Under Armour basketballs***. Wood is coming off a successful season with Golden State’s NBA D-League team.
(***They suck.)
(Here’s the midcourt shot Giglio mentions during the interview.)
I appreciate that Scott still holds a lot of animosity toward the Under Armour-brand basketballs, and now that Maryland—or Big Ten Ebola, as the school is more commonly known—is in another league it is hysterical to watch other players in that league slowly realize how much Under Armour’s basketballs suck.
There’s no escape anymore, though; more and more schools are accepting Under Armour apparel deals, which also has the unfortunate consequence of forcing them to use the UA-branded eggball. You don’t get everything with these contracts.
But Scott Wood’s always gonna give these stupid over-used-lookin’, middle-school-athletics-department-ran-out-of-funding-lookin’ crap-spheres precisely the amount of shit they deserve, which is all of it. That’s why Scott Wood is awesome.
http://ift.tt/2rqKXSP
Omer Yurtseven’s return to NC State a 50-50 proposition, according to Kevin Keatts
Ah, the headaches that come with being a first-year head coach. At least the gig pays well.
Omer Yurtseven helped his draft stock recently with a pretty good showing at the NBA Combine. Did he help himself enough to work his way back into solid draft position? Who knows. But he’s seriously considering staying in the draft, and he has until May 25 to make a final decision.
Kevin Keatts said today he thinks it’s pretty much a coin flip whether Yurtseven returns to NC State or stays in the draft. That shouldn’t be surprising given the circumstances—it’s not just the coaching change, but Yurtseven also entered his freshman year as a potential lottery pick. While being an early first-rounder is no longer a realistic possibility for him, there’s no doubt he has a future in pro basketball.
Selfishly, of course, I’d like to see what another year in college could do for him, but I also understand why he would want to take his shot in the draft. Whether he were picked or not, he’d be making good money playing basketball next year.
http://ift.tt/2rofaSM
Tuesday 16 May 2017
Failure To Comply With Discovery Orders Results In Dismissal Of Pro Se Plaintiff's Case
Gillespie didn't start out in the Business Court without a lawyer. His lawyer was allowed to withdraw in November 2016, and the Court ordered Gillespie to report within the next month regarding his efforts to retain a new lawyer. He didn't make that report, stating later that he had "forgotten" to do so. Op. ¶12.
Before the deadline for that report had run out, the Business Court granted a pending Motion to Compel, and ordered the Plaintiff to provide supplemental discovery responses and to provide a privilege log within ten days of the Order granting the Motion or within ten days of the appearance of new counsel.
Gillespie, without new counsel, didn't provide the material required by the discovery order. He also didn't respond at all to Interrogatories served on him by the Defendant. The Defendant filed another Motion to Compel, this time requesting sanctions against Gillespie including dismissal of his case.
Judge McGuire held a hearing on the second Motion to Compel in January 2017. Gillespie appeared at the hearing, and explained his non-compliance by contending that "without legal representation, he did not understand his obligations." Op. ¶12. He said that he did not intend to represent himself, and asked for additional time to hire an attorney.
Judge McGuire said that he would not dismiss the case and that "[t]he Court desires to provide Gillespie with a final opportunity to retain counsel to represent him." Op. ¶13. He gave Gillespie a deadline of February 15th to retain new counsel and to have that new lawyer file a notice of appearance in the case.
When that deadline rolled around, Gillespie informed the Court "it has been impossible to retain new legal counsel,” and that he had “elected to represent himself in matters of this case so that no further delays occur.” Judge McGuire granted that request and ordered Gillespie to respond to some outstanding discovery and reminded him of a prior order requiring mediation to take place by March 31st. He warned Gillespie that if he did not comply with these obligations, that the Court would consider “appropriate sanctions up to and including dismissal of Gillespie’s claims.” Op. ¶15.
When Gillespie fell down on those obligations, Judge McGuire cut him no slack for proceeding pro se. He said in ruling on Defendant's Motion for Sanctions that:
The Court is not unsympathetic to Gillespie’s current status as an unrepresented litigant, but notes that he consented to withdrawal of his counsel in this case. Gillespie also was provided with more than a reasonable amount of time to retain new counsel, but failed to do so. Ultimately, an individual who chooses to represent himself in the civil courts of our State must abide by the orders of those courts and by rules of procedure applicable to civil proceedings.
Op. ¶25. Even so, Judge McGuire ruled that Gillespie's lack of assistance of counsel had "probably hampered his ability to comply with court rules," and that the dismissal would be without prejudice. Id.
Although Mr. Gillespie might be relieved that he can refile his lawsuit, he can't be delighted at having to pay attorneys' fees to the Defendant. But I was struck by the reasonableness of the fees sought by Defendant's counsel. They were $1265.50 for the first Motion to Compel (4.6 hours at $275 per hour), $770 for the Motion for Sanctions (2.8 hours at $275 per hour) and $385 for the second Motion to Compel (1.4 hours at $275). Judge McGuire awarded a total of $2,421.00.
Would it have made a difference if Gillespie had been able to find new counsel to step into the case? Maybe.
http://ift.tt/2robhx5
NCGA’s noxious nostalgia
http://ift.tt/2rmtNVC
It’s not just Trump
http://ift.tt/2rmkTaP
BTP The Podcast Vol. 30: NC State sports omnibus edition
It’s been a bit, so we had a lot of things to yell about.
Backing The Pack The Podcast has made its triumphant*** return this week. Will and I discuss the baseball team’s resurrection, or rather, Will humors me while I talk about baseball, and then we move on to the latest with the basketball roster situation. We also answered a few questions from folks on Twitter.
(***not noticeably triumphant)
(“Sea of Love,” The National, Trouble Will Find Me; “Amazing Grace,” American Wrestlers, Goodbye Terrible Youth)
As usual the podcast is rated PG-13 for some mild swears. You can find the podcast on iTunes or you can stream it below.
http://ift.tt/2qrJv2C
Tuesday Twitter roundup
Because hungry children should always be at the top of our list:
Shameful. Senate budget would cut off food aid to 55,000 children. #ncpol #ncga @ncgop https://t.co/hEy2vLMPEz
— Karen (@KareninRaleigh) May 16, 2017
And Ralph Hise has the gall to try and justify this:
http://ift.tt/2qOFicj
Monday 15 May 2017
Recent NCAA survey shows that NC State employs more than 30 football staffers
That’s a lot of people, and that is by no means an abnormal number, either.
When most folks picture “football staff” they probably think of the on-field coaches—the head coach, the coordinators, the position coaches. After all, those guys are always the most visible. But these days a football program’s staff goes way, way deeper than that, as this recent unscientific report from the NCAA outlines.
In addition to the on-field coaches, college football programs employ strength and conditioning guys, graduate assistants, recruiting specialists, and football operations personnel.
Some of these categories have caps on how many coaches you can employ. You can only have nine (soon to be 10) on-field coaches, for instance, and only five strength and conditioning coaches.
But there is no limit on the number of football ops/recruiting personnel that a school can employ, which is the crux of the NCAA’s interest in the subject. Because the schools that can afford to spend more on personnel usually do, and obviously not everyone is pleased about that particular uneven playing field.
NC State employs 34 football staffers by my count—and again, only nine of those are the on-field guys. The Wolfpack has six people in the recruiting department alone, and that’s not even a high number for a power-five school. Clemson’s got 10 guys whose sole job is working behind the scenes in recruiting. Glad-handing, sending out mailers, organizing visit schedules, doin’ up the fancy Twitter photoshops, all that good stuff.
(Just bear this in mind the next time anyone cries poor about players getting paid to play.)
The average ACC football program employs 29 people, per the NCAA’s findings, and this is almost certainly a low-ball estimate, since literally the only thing the NCAA did was go to each school’s website and count the people listed in their staff directories. Since the report, State has added two additional recruiting staffers. These staffs are not going to be shrinking any time soon.
Recruiting is one side of the football operations area, and scouting is the other. The shrewd among elite programs have scooped up former coaches from any number of levels to break down film. Like, that is their entire job. Sit in a room and break down film all week.
A lot of these guys end up with “consultant” as their title and never make it into a staff directory, which is why the NCAA’s cursory glance at FBS staff sizes is probably so far off. I mean, just read this piece from last year about Alabama’s football staff. Alabama can afford to hire a zillion people to watch film or tweet at recruits or whatever. So they do. What else would they do, open a savings account?
Most schools in the ACC are not in quite such a luxurious position, but they aren’t far off either. (Plus you gotta wonder how many dudes breaking down film is too many. I suppose somebody in college football will figure that one out eventually. That’s just kinda how it goes in big-money sports.)
NC State’s recent recruiting staff additions, never mind the larger general trend, demonstrate how the money is flowing into college football. Television money has allowed every power-five team to create its own mini-empire; the difference is only in degree.
http://ift.tt/2pOznQt
Whipping boys
http://ift.tt/2rizdlu
No scientist needed for Trump's USDA, radio talk-show host will do
And we thought McCrory had idiotic hiring practices:
Clovis has never taken a graduate course in science and is openly skeptical of climate change. While he has a doctorate in public administration and was a tenured professor of business and public policy at Morningside College for 10 years, he has published almost no academic work.
Clovis is better known for hosting a conservative talk radio show in his native Iowa and, after mounting an unsuccessful run for Senate in 2014, becoming a fiery pro-Trump advocate on television.
You know, when I consider the NC Senate's demand that they vet Roy Cooper's infinitely qualified department heads, and then observe the menagerie of clowns Donald Trump is choosing to run the Federal government, I just want to reach in and pull my eyeballs out so I don't have to see this stuff anymore.
http://ift.tt/2qlpXPB
Monday News: Vindictive Budgeting
REPUBLICAN SENATORS PUNISH DEMOCRATS BY STRIPPING EDUCATION FUNDING FROM THEIR DISTRICTS: Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram’s rural district in northeastern North Carolina took the biggest hit from the amendment. It strips $316,646 from two early college high schools in Northampton and Washington counties, and it specifically bans state funding from supporting a summer science, math and technology program called Eastern North Carolina STEM. The funding level for the program didn’t change, but seven counties represented by Smith-Ingram and fellow Democratic Sen. Angela Bryant were removed. Instead, the program will only apply to several counties represented by Republican senators.
http://ift.tt/2qeM4GB
http://ift.tt/2rjOgud
Nyheim Hines, NC State win ACC 4x100 meter title by a lot
These dudes are fast.
Between swimming and track, NC State has lately earned a rep as a school that produces great sprinters. The track and field team has drawn quite as much attention as the swim team, but that might change if they keep producing results like this one:
NC State's 4x100 team of Hines, Charleston, Dowdy and Peebles run away with the ACC title! Back-to-back 4x1 ACC titles for @Wolfpack_TF! http://pic.twitter.com/w1mCtI7CUf
— Daniel Neal (@danielneal17) May 14, 2017
NC State won that relay event by more than a second, which in track terms might as well have been a half decade. They destroyed that field.
This is probably one of the few circumstances where Nyheim Hines’ speed is not incredibly impressive. He is elite-level fast, but he was not a closer on this relay team. Freshman Cravont Charleston, who (I’m pretty sure) anchored the relay, also won the ACC title in both the 100m and 200m. It is tough to do that.
NC State speed.
On a related note, do you remember this kickoff return by Nyheim last year? He hit the jets about the 20-yard line and it was over.
http://ift.tt/2qjyMZt
Sunday 14 May 2017
NC State closes out sweep of Pittsburgh with 14-6 victory
Scoring runs was not a problem for NC State this weekend.
Another game against Pittsburgh, another game in which NC State got the early jump. The Wolfpack scored 11 runs over the first four innings on Sunday afternoon, which was plenty of cushion despite a few brain farts from the defense. State cruised to a 14-6 win and series sweep of the Panthers, and in the process pushed back above .500 in ACC play.
State broke the game open with a seven-run third inning that pushed its lead to 10-0. By that point in the game, almost everybody in the lineup had a base hit; heck, Joe Dunand had two hits in that one inning alone.
The Pack hit the ball hard in that inning—Joe Dunand and Evan Mendoza both registered doubles; Will Wilson hit one out to left—but Pitt self-destructed as well. The Panthers’ pitchers issued three walks and also threw a pair of wild pitches. One of those wild pitches gave State an extra out that cost Pitt another couple of runs.
At an earlier point in the game, Pitt executed a perfect throw from the outfield to home plate and had the runner out by a mile but the catcher couldn’t handle the throw. It was just that kind of day and that kind of weekend for the Panthers, who do not have enough depth to work around big mistakes.
Pitt starter Dan Hammer was finished after only 2-2/3rds, and Pitt brought in one reliever after another to no avail. Skipper Joe Jordano had had enough of the weekend by the bottom of the third and got himself tossed for arguing balls and strikes.
Can’t blame him for making an excuse to show himself out (the home plate ump was pretty bad tho); NC State scored 29 runs on this three-game road trip, and Sunday got depressing very quickly for the Panthers.
NC State is 31-21 overall and 11-1 since the debacle in Boston. The Wolfpack will close out the regular season with a three-game set against Clemson in Raleigh next weekend. State’s postseason outlook is still not ideal but as of right now they are probably in the NCAA tourney field, with opportunities on the horizon to add resume-building wins.
http://ift.tt/2rfuBf3
Sunday News: From the Editorial pages
SENATE'S LOW EXPECTATIONS BUDGET FAILS STATE'S NEEDS: North Carolina teachers have more ground to make up than the Senate proposes. Why the limited increases? Once again, the Senate starts with a tax decrease and works up from there. What schools need doesn’t matter. Reducing taxes fixes everything. Gov. Roy Cooper’s modest budget plan should have been the Senate’s bottom line for teacher pay. Instead, at EVERY LEVEL, the Senate under cuts Cooper’s plans to improve compensation for teachers. The Senate offers NO increase in the starting salaries for teachers. And, adding insult to injury, offers no boost for the most experienced teachers. There is a term for withholding raises from long term employees – “harvesting the workforce.” Organizations use it to force out experienced employees to replace them with lower salaried employees. Who wants to work for an organization like that?
http://ift.tt/2qg1b33
http://ift.tt/2rexCfp
Saturday 13 May 2017
NC State holds on, again, to beat Pitt
It’s the Pack 9’s first road series win of the season.
Stephen Pitarra and Brad Debo each had three hits, and NC State once again held on to a big lead late, however tenuously, to beat Pitt. The 8-6 win gave the Pack their fifth consecutive ACC win, evening their league record at 13-13, and they’ve won 10 of 11 overall to reach 30 wins on the season.
State held an 8-2 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth, when starter Brian Brown ran out of gas. Brown allowed the first two Pitt batters to reach and a then a Joe Dunand error helped open the flood gates for a four-run inning. Little-used righty Tim Naughton spelled Brown and allowed a couple of inherited runners to score on a groundout and a double, but, considering the no-out mess he inherited, did a pretty good job of escaping with the lead.
For the second straight night, Joe O’Donnell put an end to any thought of a Panthers comeback, notching his seventh save with an uneventful ninth.
Debo’s RBI double in the first put the Pack up early. Pitarra’s RBI single, part of a six-run explosion in the second, made it 3-1. Debo added his second RBI double of the game in the inning. Debo’s solo shot made it 8-2 in the sixth.
State led the series opener 7-0 before allowing Pitt to creep back into it but prevailed 7-4. The Pack will go for their second straight ACC series sweep tomorrow at 1 p.m. The series win is their first against a league opponent on the road this season.
http://ift.tt/2rea5fH
Former NC A&T guard Sam Hunt commits to NC State
The former NC A&T Aggie is eligible immediately.
NC State picked up its second graduate transfer addition at the guard spot on Saturday afternoon when Sam Hunt committed to the Wolfpack. Hunt played last season at NC A&T and had been committed to Pacific before reconsidering and visiting Raleigh this week.
With State’s roster situation still in flux, it’s not entirely clear how Hunt is going to fit into the rotation next season, but depending on how things break with a couple of guys on the team, he could become pretty essential.
Hunt was a high workload player for the Aggies but most likely will not need to fill a similar role for NC State, which should help his efficiency. He’s a decent three-point shooter and he’s made over 91% of his free throw attempts in three seasons.
He has the potential to be a good spot-contributor, he’s just not a guy likely to carry the offense. (Nor will he be asked to do so.) He’ll be an experienced depth player at the two-guard spot for Kevin Keatts; we know Keatts wants his team to shoot threes, and Hunt adds another perimeter threat, even if his history as a shooter isn’t exceptional.
http://ift.tt/2reerU1
Coming soon to a local TV station near you: Right Wing propaganda
Sinclair Broadcasting is the Joseph Goebbels of the 21st Century:
They are called "must-runs," and they arrive every day at television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group --- short video segments that are centrally produced by the company. Station managers around the country are directed to work them into the broadcast over a period of 24 or 48 hours.
Since November 2015, Sinclair has ordered its stations to run a daily segment from a "Terrorism Alert Desk" with updates on terrorism-related news from around the world. During the election campaign last year, it sent out a package that suggested in part that voters should not support Hillary Clinton because the Democratic Party was historically pro-slavery.
Here's a list of current or potential Sinclair stations in North Carolina, compiled by Seth Effron: WRDC-28, Durham; WTVZ-33, Norfolk VA; WLOS-13, Asheville; WXLV-45, Winston-Salem; WMYV-48, Greensboro; WLFL-22, Raleigh. Stations that Sinclair is seeking to purchase: WCTI-12, New Bern; WYDO-8, Greenville; WGHP-8, Greensboro.
http://ift.tt/2pJ2a8a
Saturday News: Job opening: Special Prosecutor
BURR SAYS HE HAS MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO THAN INVESTIGATE RUSSIA: “It’s safe to say that, with the events of the last week, it’s reminded me of the importance of what I do. It’s also reminded me that, with the hearing yesterday on global threats, that I can’t just focus my efforts on an investigation and Russia’s involvement in our elections, because the world is a very unstable place as it relates to security.” Most of Burr’s remarks focused on global security, and his comments on Comey notwithstanding, he ended with praise for the president, whom he has supported from early on. “I really worried as this year started with such a split of the American people, could we do big things?” Burr said. “I’m convinced today after hearing the president — who’s only focused on big things — we have no choice. We’re destined right now to do big things.”
http://ift.tt/2pHDxcS
http://ift.tt/2pJ28NA
Friday 12 May 2017
NC State takes game 1 from Pitt, 7-4
This game was easy right up until it wasn’t.
Johnny Piedmonte pitched seven scoreless for NC State on Friday night, and this was an extremely necessary pitching performance. The Wolfpack scored the first seven runs of the game, four of which came off a pair of home runs, and State won 7-4.
Will Wilson gave NC State a 6-0 lead with a massive three-run shot in the fourth inning. Andy Cosgrove also got a hold of a Josh Mitchell pitch in the following inning, giving the Pack a 7-0 lead. Both shots were no-doubters to left field.
Mitchell struggled badly early on and NC State jumped on him for three runs in the first inning. He generally pitched to contact, which generally didn’t work out well.
Piedmonte controlled the game for the most part and worked well into the eighth inning, which is what State needed today. He ran up 120 pitches, which is not ideal, but that limited the exposure to what has all year been a weak bullpen. Once Piedmonte left the game, things got troubling.
Pittsburgh scored three in the bottom of the eighth and added one while threatening in the ninth to put the final result in question. It was not a pretty finish for NC State’s pitching staff, by any means, but they managed to close out a must-win game, and these days we’re lookin’ for results. On to Saturday.
http://ift.tt/2rbrjtQ
NC State picks up commitment from in-state wide receiver Devin Carter
RED LIGHT ON /siren noise
NC State’s coaching staff got some good news Friday when local wide receiver Devin Carter verbaled to the Wolfpack. Carter is a 6’4, 205-pound prospect from nearby Clayton High School, and he also holds offers from Michigan State, Wake Forest, East Carolina, and Minnesota.
He is the first wide receiver to join NC State’s 2018 recruiting class. Scout rates him a three-star prospect in the class; he is currently unranked in the 247Sports composite.
At a recruiting camp in Charlotte this week, Carter ran a 4.78 40, which is probably one reason he hasn’t drawn more interest from power-five programs up to this point in his high school career.
But he’s been very productive and he uses his size well. Speed doesn’t have to be essential when you can just beat defensive backs in the air. He finished his junior season with 78 catches for 1,167 yards (15.0 YPC) and 15 scores.
Here are his junior season highlights.
http://ift.tt/2qdTh8u
Republicans are key to resolving the Trump dilemma
http://ift.tt/2qdqSPN