| Rutgers president meets with students on stadium expansion
If Rutgers can not obtain a crucial $30 million loan from the state or private sources to renovate its football stadium as planned, it will have to scale down its vision, university president Richard McCormick said this evening. But during a meeting with student leaders, McCormick managed to sound optimistic that the $30 million may yet materialize. If that happens, Rutgers will raise the remaining $70 million needed by issuing 30-year-old bonds to be paid off by revenue generated from the renovated stadium, he said. In the meantime, the Rutgers Board of Governors removed from its Thursday agenda a vote on the proposed $100 million expansion, McCormick said. Rutgers' plans for its football stadium in Piscataway, unveiled this summer, include adding 12,000 seats, club seating and a dining club.
King agrees Latics switch
MARLON KING completed his move away from Vicarage Road today, joining Wigan Athletic on a three-and-half-year contract. Wigan boss Steve Bruce tried to sign King in the summer when in charge of Birmingham, but he finally got his man this afternoon after Watford accepted a bid understood to be in the region of £4.5m. King would ideally have liked to have joined Fulham and remained in the south east of England, but his chances of remaining a Premiership player next season appear to have increased by joining the Latics. .
Manager Janet’s sterling service
IT was a case of lucky 13 for Janet Brookes, training manager with Bury District Citizens Advice Bureau. She was presented with a long service certificate to mark the number of years she has given the service. The Citizens Advice Bureau's (CAB) annual meeting, held at Bridge Methodist Church in Radcliffe, heard that the bureau had dealt with 15,000 enquiries in the last year. It raised £700,000 for Bury residents in new benefit claims and appeals, as well as dealing with hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of debt. Speakers included Councillor Yvonne Creswell, deputy council leader; Ruth Fairhurst, Bury Council's assistant chief executive; and Marie Brookfield from Bury's new Third Sector Development agency. The CAB is also starting the new year with a "Debt Detox" to help people manage their money.
Scottish airgun ban blocked by Whitehall
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, in a letter leaked to Scotland on Sunday, has told SNP ministers she will not hand over gun laws, slapping down the change as "confusing and potentially damaging".Last night, the decision caused a huge cross-border row, with the SNP accusing the Labour-led UK Government of ignoring serious crime in Scotland and "frustrating" further moves towards devolution. Police and anti-gun campaigners also condemned Smith's refusal to hand over firearms law.Scotland on Sunday revealed in July that the UK justice secretary Jack Straw had met First Minister Alex Salmond to discuss the issue. Straw is said to have agreed to "give careful consideration" to Scotland-only reform.Although the SNP has never categorically stated it will ban airguns, it believes decisive action is needed north of the border to address high levels of gun crime.
NBA ALL-STARS: No Pistons starters as fans fail to support Detroit
It feels like I'm over the hump now and people are starting to realize the hard work that I put in to get here," he said. "It's all because of the fans. They're obviously liking what they've been seeing out of me and the production that I'm giving out there on the court this season. It's finally starting to pay off."
Garnett, another perennial starter, will experience the game from the other conference for the first time.
The Boston forward will appear in his 11th straight All-Star game, second among active players to Shaquille O'Neal's 14, and ninth start. The longtime Minnesota Timberwolves star is a leading MVP candidate at midseason for the impact he has made on the Celtics, who own the NBA's best record at 33-7 after winning only 24 games last season.
"It's appreciated," he said earlier Thursday of his expected selection.
Mothers condemn school's meat decision
Miss Johnson, from Radford Close, said she was planning, along with another mother, to stand outside the school gates to collect signatures for a petition. Mother-of-three Sharon Haynes, 35, from Radford Close, said: "Why should we let our kids eat halal meat?" Maria O'Callaghan, from Jersey Road, said: "I don't agree with the way the animals are killed for halal meat." Mrs Mortimer was unavailable for comment. However, Raghib Ali, one of the founders of the Oxford Islam and Muslim Awareness Project, said: "The meat looks the same and tastes the same. It's just a different way the animals are reared and killed. It's not cruel - it's better for the animal." However, Dr Taj Hargey chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, said he believed the school was at fault for not telling parents about the change.
A plague on all your houses’ hated kitchen gadgets
If you use an oven glove, I judge you, in the same way that other people make judgments about 4x4 drivers, or Nazis. Why would any right-thinking person have an oven glove? An oven glove is an abomination on the face of the earth – like the fat, overpampered cat of the kitchen. If you want to get something hot out of the oven, you should use a folded tea-towel. That’s what Indiana Jones would do, if his casserole was on the verge of catching. The idea of fussing around in a drawer for a special glove is the act of a nervous, niminy-piminy bachelor like Timothy Lumsden in Sorry, and that counts for the ladies, too. Oven gloves are leeching off us. Oven gloves are taking us all for a ride. Oven gloves are laughing at us. That the Lakeland catalogue has seven different types – including a "Revolutionary Gauntlet" – doesn’t surprise me at all.
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