The massive weight gain didn't make Michael "D'Angelo" Archer see the darkness that was looming. Neither did the hermit-like isolation, the shattered friendships, the years wasted without a new record in sight, or even the car accident that nearly killed him. By the time he careened off a lonely stretch of road near Richmond, Virginia, in September 2005, hitting a fence and rolling his Hummer three times, he'd already failed two stints in rehab—including one where his counselor was Bob Forrest, the guy on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Bob had been cool, D'Angelo says, but his message of sobriety didn't take. "I went in under a fake name so people wouldn't know who I was, right?" D'Angelo tells me, in his first sit-down interview ... Continue reading →
CLAIRTON, Pa. — Early on the morning of Sept. 3, 2009, Nicholas Adrian Revetta left the Pittsburgh suburb of Pleasant Hills and drove 15 minutes to a job at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Plant, a soot-blackened industrial complex on the Monongahela River. He never returned home.Stocky and stoic, Revetta was working that Thursday as a laborer for a U.S. Steel contractor at the same plant that employed his brother, for the same company that had employed his late father. Shortly before 11:30 a.m., gas leaking from a line in the plant’s Chemicals and Energy Division found an ignition source and exploded, propelling Revetta backward into a steel column and inflicting a fatal blow to his head. Thirty-two years old, he left behind a wife and two ... Continue reading →
A message from the President/Treasurer/Grand Poobah of Why Not ZoidPAC?, filed at around 2:30 a.m.: To Whom I May Concern: This memo is primarily intended as a test: I recognize the gravity generally attached to something like the submission of a form to the FEC, but I wanted to confirm for myself that the Federal Elections Comission lives up to its lofty goal of transparency. It recently occurred to me that as President, Grand Poobah, and (most importantly here, anyway) Treasurer of the Why Not ZoidPAC? Super PAC, I possess the ability to submit these Form 99s electronically and have them displayed publicly at http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00514646 . I also understand that these forms are primarily meant as written statements addressing the FEC directly; however, I don’t ... Continue reading →
Endorse Liberty’s “magic” donor As Reuters’ Alina Selyukh points out, Endorse Liberty, one of the super PACs supporting Ron Paul, is apparently taking money from unemployed wizards. Listing an unusual occupation on one’s political contribution filing isn’t out of the ordinary. Last year, OpenSecrets Blog highlighted the “freedom fighters, pornographers and self-proclaimed evil rich men” that litter Federal Election Commission records from the past two decades: The unusual occupation that has been most prolific in political contributions? “Domestic goddess,” accounting for more than $38,500 in donations since 1992. Of that sum, 83 percent benefited Democratic candidates or Democratic-aligned groups. For a look at other unorthodox occupations that have been the most politically generous, check out this chart from OpenSecrets Blog. Until next time, this has ... Continue reading →
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s Republican U.S. Senate primary in Nebraska, campaign finance watchdogs are concerned about the role businessman Joe Ricketts played in helping underdog state Sen. Deb Fischer secure the GOP nomination.Ricketts, the founder of the Omaha-based online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, was behind a $250,000 last-minute super PAC ad buy designed to boost Fischer’s prospects in a three-way race that also featured frontrunner Jon Bruning, the state’s attorney general, and state Treasurer Don Stenberg, the favored candidate of the conservative Club for Growth and tea party-aligned Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).Thanks to this spending surge and an eleventh-hour endorsement from former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Fischer garnered more than twice as many votes as Stenberg — and beat Bruning by 5 ... Continue reading →
colegoins 1 photo · 0 followers “MV&EE: Still the best band.” Continue reading →
For the second time in two weeks, super PACs will play a major role in determining the outcome of a U.S. Senate primary contest.Republican Jon Bruning, Nebraska’s attorney general, was expected to win in a cakewalk for the seat, soon to be vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat. Instead, two underfunded insurgent candidates — Don Stenberg and Deb Fischer — are giving him a run for his money, thanks in large part to a handful of outside groups.Bruning has the fundraising advantage, having raised more than $3.6 million for his campaign. Stenberg has raised about $750,000, while Fischer has raised less than $440,000 for the race, including $35,000 of her own money.But heading into today’s primary, conservative outside groups have spent more than ... Continue reading →
Tuesday May 15th | Home » LA Riots: 20 Years Later LA Riots: 20 Years Later Collages by Mae Ryan/ KPCC | Launch Slideshow × On April 29th, 1992 four men pulled Reginald Denny out of his truck and nearly beat him to death at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles Police quell looters and fires near 924 S Vermont Ave in Koreatown on April 29th, 1992. Few Koreans received help from the city in rebuilding their stores after the riots. The Sorbonne Market at 4600 S. Vermont Ave erupts in flames on April 29th, 1992. There was approximately one billion dollars in property damages over the course of the riots. A business near the intersection of 8th St. and ... Continue reading →
