The Lantern Blog

The basketball team in Bloomington, Indiana just got a surprise addition to their team.

Credit: Reisio (Wikimedia Commons)

Mike Santa, the former team manager of the Hoosiers, has successfully walked onto the basketball roster. Tom Crean activated him to the active roster for the Hoosier’s last game against the Northwestern Wildcats.  He was assigned jersey No. 1, so he undoubtedly will stand out on the court.

It is incredible to see a walk-on player from the team staff take a place on the Hoosier’s bench.  The Indiana basketball program is one of the most storied basketball dynasties in the entire world.  An opportunity like this for Santa must be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Tom Crean, who coached the Marquette Golden Eagles last season, is supportive of Santa.  As for Santa’s play and contributions to the roster—that is yet to be seen.

The Washington Post is reporting that the budget which the President submitted to Congress today will drive the deficit up to $1.75 trillion.

Of course, he would be quick to point out that he inherited $1.2 billion of the deficit.  The deficit is part of the $3.6 trillion dollar budget.

The New York Times described his budget as a “massive shift in priorities.”  Instead of just piling on $500 billion worth of new spending, he actually cut spending significantly in some places to add more significantly to others.

The President’s budget includes tax increases for the wealthy, cuts in medicare, and lays the groundwork for a universal health care system.  It sounds like the agenda he was elected to implement.  Unfortunately, he is also asking Congress for $200 billion for fighting wars.

He is unveiling the largest economic plan since The Great Society.  I just hope he isn’t marching down the road to another Vietnam in the rugged countryside of Afghanistan and Western Pakistan for a war with the Taliban.

According to several sources, music star Rihanna may have been pregnant before the Chris Brown incident took place.

Credit: 20 minutos (Wikimedia Commons)

Rihanna reportedly knew that she was potentially pregnant, but kept it completely secret from Brown, possibly knowing that his reaction would not be positive.

According to Star Magazine, Rihanna withheld this information before the assault took place.  Just a few days before the assault, Rihanna made an appointment and visited an ob-gyn.

In your opinion, what are the implications if Rihanna was actually pregnant when the assault took place?  This is a fairly shocking development and twist—if in fact Rihanna is pregnant with Chris Brown’s child, what kind of effect would it have on either of their careers?

Chris Brown’s court date is scheduled for the beginning of March.  According to the New York Daily News, Brown has enrolled in an anger-management class.

The President spoke tonight about his economic plans.

The Preisdent pressed the Congress for support on his plan to bailout the banks, and stressed that his bailout of the banks would come with many strings attached.

“It’s not about helping banks, it’s about helping people,” Obama drove home.

He also touched on the necessity to push for renewable energy and proposed a carbon-cap system, health care reform and education.

“Healthcare reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.” the President said.  Despite all these difficulties, he managed to keep a optimistic tone throughout.  He noted that much of this would not be easy, but we’re Americans, and we do the tough things as well as the easy things.

He also promised to pay for everything, without handing down a massive debt that cripples the country.

Unless he’s planning significant cuts in military spending, I’m not sure how he’s going to accomplish this.  Obama also promised to cut taxes for huge numbers of people, while raising taxes for people who make $250,001 and up.

The Republican response is embarrassing.  How does someone seriously cite Hurricane Katrina as the model for how Republicans can govern effectively?  

Great, so the whole country can have public services auctioned off at ridiculous bargain basement prices, and have a disapora of poor people.  Maybe, we can send them to Uganda or Siberia.

Desperate to make a coaching change, the New York Rangers fired their head coach, Tom Renney.  Hours after the firing was announced, John Tortorella’s name was leaked to the media as a potential replacement.

Credit: Jakub Homo'a (Wikimedia Commons)

Tortorella, who was fired by the Tampa Bay Lightning last year, won the Stanley Cup in 2004.  The Lightning defeated the Calgary Flames that year.  He also won the Jack Adams Award in 2004, presented to the best coach in the NHL.

He has been working as a commentator for the Canadian television station, TSN.  Presumably, since he has been hired by the Rangers, he will immediately take over duties as head coach.

The New York Rangers are currently tenth in the NHL in points, with a record of 31-23-7.  They are on a two-game losing streak, and are 2-5-3 in their last ten games.

Nikolai Zherdev, a former Columbus Blue Jacket, is currently leading the Rangers in points.  He has 16 goals and 29 assists, for a total of 45 points on the season.  On July 2, 2008, Zherdev and Dan Fritsche were traded from the Blue Jackets to the Rangers in return for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Cavaliers did not complete a trade at today’s NBA Trade Deadline.  The trade deadline was set at 3 PM earlier today.  The Cavs not making any moves comes as a mild surprise to some, as there were several rumors of players they were targeting.

Credit: Dave Hogg (Wikimedia Commons)

Earlier in the week, the Cavs had been rumored to have targeted Sacramento Kings center Brad Miller, but he was eventually traded to the Chicago Bulls.  Miller would have undoubtedly helped the Cavs in their quest for an NBA championship this season.

Amar’e Stoudamire was the top trade target rumored to be available.  The Phoenix Suns’ star would have been a stellar addition for the Cavs, who could have paired star-with-star with LeBron James and Amar’e.  Phoenix center Shaquille O’Neal was also rumored to be targeted by the Cavaliers.  O’Neal’s experience and veteran attitude would have helped in a major playoff push.

Cavs fans can only wait and see if their team staying put ends up being the right decision.

A Northland High student avoided expulsion for firing a Nerf toy gun in his school today.

The district says that the student violated their zero-tolerance policies for weapons, which also includes fake weapons.  Apparently, there is a great fear of fluorescent plastic weapons with bright yellow foam darts.  These weapons have been mistaken with a glock’s metal and plastic in our schools.  The rules stipulate that bringing even a play or toy gun to school should demand a one-year expulsion.

The administrators looked at the evidence, and saw it wasn’t as serious as they were making it out to be.  It showed a rare triumph of common sense for these adminstrators over following the rules to the exact word.   To be honest, one wonders why just taking the toy away and assigning detention wouldn’t be sufficient.  However, it isn’t like doing that would encourage other students to bring a gun to school.

Sport Illustrated’s all-too-famous Swimsuit Issue offers a few photos of Danica Patrick. Danica, an accomplished IRL driver, is perhaps better known for her presence in the GoDaddy.com television commercials.

Credit: twohlford (Wikimedia Commons)

Danica Patrick has a tattoo of an American flag on her lower back, and apparently SI wasn’t too comfortable printing it in her photo shots.  According to multiple sources, SI airbrushed the tattoo out of her pictures.  Patrick is aware of this, and she is comfortable with the final photos.

Just last year, Danica Patrick was photographed in a swimsuit with the tattoo still intact.  Personally, I’m not sure if there is a background driving force behind SI’s actions, but it seems odd that they would print her tattoo one year and take it out the next.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think that Patrick’s tattoo really has any major impact on Danica, the magazine issue, or the society as a whole?

Today, the President announced a new plan to help families pay their mortgages.  The price tag of the plan reads $75 billion, and will provide relief to nine million families who are struggling to make their house payments.

The plan immediately drew criticism from Republicans, who asked several questions of the administration.  These questions included—”What will your plan do to benefit the majority of homeowners who are playing by the rules?”

The plan aims to provide aid to millions of families facing foreclosure, and for millions more, the plan will restructure their mortgage so that it does not exceed 31% of their income.

Speaking in Mesa, Arizona, the President described the plan as necessary.  He said this because we are facing a crisis “unlike any we’ve ever known.”

It seems inevitable that another fierce partisan struggle is looming in the Nation’s capital.  If Republicans want to dig in their heels, then it will probably come down to whether the Obama administration can pick off a handful of GOP senators against a filibuster.

President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law yesterday.  The Keynsian measure looked to spend just shy of $800 billion dollars to jump-start the ailing economy.

Republican opponents of the spending are labeling it generational theft.  However, all but fundamentalist free-market economists seem to agree that broad spending programs are necessary to soften the blow.

On top of that, the automakers are asking for more money, and the banks need more money (on top of the bailout they recieved last year).

One has to wonder if there is an end in sight for the spending.  That’s not to say that I oppose or approve of it, but it is an unprecedented amount of spending.

It would be a reasonable defense of this package to point out that this is the worst crisis in our lifetime.  At the same time, it also seems like everyone is using it as their piggy bank for their pet projects.  It is—as they say—a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon, we’re talking about real money.