January 2012 Archives

Jason Cole of Yahoosports.com reported Monday Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning may not ever play a down of football in his career again due to his neck injury.

The reports said the nerves in Manning's arms have not been healing as quickly as hoped, and they do not appear to be getting better fast enough for him to resume a playing career. Cole reported that two sources said it is possible that Manning's historic playing days may be over.

Manning has been rehabilitating after surgery fused vertebrae in his neck last off-season. The report said Manning started throwing back in December, but there has been no improvement in his velocity since.

Doctors said Manning might have hit a plateau which may take to a year to find out how much strength he will actually get back.

With Manning missing the entire 2011 season, the Colts finished with a league-worst record of 2-14 which puts them in position to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. Because of Manning's uncertain health and his $28 million contract for next season, two sources have advised the Colts to part ways with Manning, reported foxsports.com
Both Manning and Colts owner Jim Irsay declined comment for both stories.

MSNBC.com reported that a snowboarder was killed in an avalanche Saturday.
The news lead the reporter chose was very straight forward. The lead gets right to the point. It tells who died, where it happened, why it happened, and it also says the public had been warned not to go into the area, which could make people read more.
Who the person was is general, the lead just says that it was a 24-year-old man. It also only says it happened in a steep Utah backcountry. As someone who is not from Utah naming a city in the lead would be pointless, because I wouldn't know where it was or what it looked like anyways.
How the person died was a specific element in the lead. The reporter uses a good verb in "trapped" to describe how the snowboarder died in the avalanche. Also saying he was a snowboarder allows for a better visual of the man, he was not a skier or hiker that died. That information puts the stereotypical image of a young snowboarder in my head. Then giving the information about how the public was warned about bad conditions is somewhat specific to why the avalanche occured. It tells the reader that it was not just a freak accident, but the conditions were right for an avalanche to happen.
Overall this lead was very informative with only one sentence. I got the whole story aside from the specifics such as the man's name and where he is from. It told me what happened right away, and if I chose not to read on I still have a firm grasp of the event.

Two Utah teens were arrested Wednesday for allegedly creating a detailed plan to bomb Roy High School, reported the Salt Lake City Tribune
Dallin Morgan,18, and another Roy High School student,16, were allegedly planning to set off explosives during a school assembly.
The Associated Press reported a fellow Roy High student told police she had a text message from the 16-year-old suspect which said "If I tell you one day not to go to school, make damn sure you and your brother are not there."
The teens' plan also included stealing a plane and flying to another country. The two suspects had hours of flight simulator training from a home computer, the AP reported. However, Royal Eccles, manager at the Ogden-Hinkley Airport, told the AP it would be highly improbable for the two to steal an airplane.
Students from Roy said they heard the two teens talking about the 1999 Columbine High School shootings with their friends. The 16-year-old even interviewed Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis about their security then and how it has changed since the event.
The Salt Lake City Tribune also reported the plan was not fully complete. Police completed four search warrants on Wednesday and could not find any explosives. They did not comment if any fire arms had been found.
Police charged Morgan with possession of a weapon of mass destruction, which allows for conspiracy to use one to be enough cause for arrest.
The AP reported Morgan has been released on bond, and the 16-year-old still remains held.
The Salt Lake City Tribune reported Roy High School classes were held at normal schedules Thursday.

According to the Associated Press, Costa Cruises has offered 11,000 euros, or $14,460, to all uninjured passengers apiece Friday as compensation for lost baggage and pyscholocigal trauma following the capsizing of their cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany.
Reuters reported passengers that suffered injuries would be handled individually. Also, each passenger will receive a refund on the cruise and costs of their return home, no matter if it is a child or adult.
However, some passengers have already refused to take the deal as they cannot yet put a sum on the trauma they experienced, according to the AP.
Passengers who refuse the deal can then seek legal action on their own.
According to Reuters, personal injury lawyer John Arthur Eaves is urging passengers to file individual lawsuits in the United States.
Roberto Corbella, who represents Costa, said, "Lawsuits have uncertain results, they take a long time, there are legal costs." He urged the passengers to take the money offered by the company.
The compensation is in response to the Jan. 13 accident when the cruise captain took the ship in too close to the shore and crashed it into a reef, which tore open the hull.
Passengers described the evacuation as chaotic, the crew was unprepared, and records show the captain did not sound the evacuation alarm until an hour after the initial impact, according to the AP.
The AP also reported that sixteen bodies have already been recovered and another 16 missing. They have been presumed dead.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and All-Star forward Kevin Love have agreed to a four-year contract extension worth anywhere between $60 million and $62 million Wednesday, according to ESPN.com
ESPN also said Love was originally seeking a five-year deal, but settled for a four-year deal with the option to opt-out of the contract in its final year. This will allow Love to become an unrestricted free agent if he does not like the direction of the team after three years.
In light of not receiving the five-year deal, Love told Pioneer Press reporter Ray Richardson he will continue to play with a "chip on his shoulder." Love also expressed how much he wanted one more year on the contract, but said "a four-year deal is still great."
This season Love has avereaged 24.9 points, 13.9 rebounds and leads the NBA with 16 double-doubles, Richardson reported.
According to ESPN, Love said, "I like the direction the team is headed, I like the youth. I like the pieces, like we're knocking at the door and we're close in a lot of games."
The Timberwolves are currently 7-10 and play the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night.

The New York Times reported the Obama administration announced a new set of rules for government-subsidized school meals on Wednesday, which is aimed to fight childhood obesity.
According to the New York times, the rules have been long-awaited since an earlier proposal was met with strong opposition months earlier. That proposal called for a reduction in starchy foods such as french fries, as well as not allowing tomato paste on a slice of pizza be counted as a vegetable.
Nevertheless the changes were put into place andThe Associated Press reported this is the first major overhaul of school meals in 15 years.
Within the overhaul, the changes include having less sodium in foods, more whole grains, and more fruits and vegetable as side options. Moreover, all milk must be low fat and there are now limits on salt and trans fat for the first time ever.
A child nutrition bill signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 will help pay the increased costs of the changes, according to the Associated Press.
The announcment was made by first lady Michelle Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and celebrity chef Rachael Ray at an elementary school in Alexandria, Va., according to both reports.

Minnesota Wild Center Mikko Koivu will not play in this Sunday's NHL All-Star Game due to injury.
According to the Star Tribune, team General Manager Chuck Fletcher said,"Mikko is doing well, but two weeks out from the injury, it's too much of a stretch and not realistic for him to play."
The Pioneer Press reports that Koivu has not been able to play since Jan. 14 because of an upper-body injury.
Koivu was the Wild's only player selected to this year's game which will be played in Ottawa. The Star Tribune also said Koivu wanted to wait and see if he could rehab enough to participate. Instead the decision was made to name Edmonton Oilers' Jordan Eberle as Koivu's replacement.
Both papers reported Wild rookie Nick Johnson will participate in the Skills Competition on Saturday as the team's only representative in the All-Star festivities.