Providence Journal

The Providence Journal’s coverage of the assault on traditional marriage advocates in Warwick, Rhode Island on July 28 has consistently downplayed how pepper spray was used on the conservative protesters, in favor of how food was thrown at them. ProJo.com’s Wednesday report on the attack ran with the headline, “Same-sex marriage protesters assaulted with food,” and didn’t mention the pepper spray until the second-to-last paragraph.

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, also known as the American TFP, is a conservative Catholic group based in the central Pennsylvania town of Spring Grove, and supported by hundreds of thousands of donors all over the U.S. They are conducting a “traditional marriage crusade” in the northeastern states of New York, Rhode Island, and Maine.

ProJo.com’s Wednesday report on the attack ran with the headline, “Same-sex marriage protesters assaulted with food,” and didn’t mention the pepper spray until the second-to-last paragraph. The following morning, reporter Kate Branson used a more nuanced headline (“Update: 4 accused of hurling food at activists in Warwick”), but at least mentioned the pepper spray in the second paragraph.

Cash for Clunkers Suspended

Cash for Clunkers program has been suspended, due to the fact that it is Out of Money. It seems that it was funded with 1 Billion dollars and while this is a lot of money, when you realize that up to $4,500 was given away for each car, that is only 20,000 People who got money. 20,000 out of 250 Million, and I bet 50 million who could have qualified.

Well it’s over for now, but not too late for Martial Arts Schools (click to see a list of the best ones in DFW) to get some Free Publicity. See below from my previous article. You can still get local press coverage for your Clunker Smashing project and now a lot of sympathy because your school can’t get a new car. The new Government Cash for Clunkers Program 2009 is going to be a big boom for Martial Arts Schools across America with this particular rule that must be applied to all cars in the program.

Especially intriguing is the new Cash for Clunkers program's last-minute revision requiring car dealers to"transfer the trade-in vehicle to a disposal facility that will crush or shred it so that it will never be returned to the road, although parts of the vehicle, other than the engine block and drive train (unless the drive train is sold in separate parts), may be sold." That means that all the cars that have to be “driven” not pushed into the car dealers must be shredded or disposed of in such a way that they can never be used on the road again.

Buick Open

Sports writer Jo-Ann Barnas is blogging from this week’s Buick Open. Come back throughout the day for periodic updates. Brian Bateman’s team, which includes new Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz, isn’t exactly lighting up the course: the group is even through 12 holes (after starting on the back nine). Afternoon play is slow, which is typical for a pro-am filled with amateurs with varying degrees of ability. Schwartz’s group, for example, is en route to a five-hour-plus round. It teed off at 12:50 p.m.

With the start of training camp just two days away, Schwartz seems to be enjoying himself -- and the fans seem to be enjoying him. While members of his group walked ahead to the first tee to play their second nine, Schwartz stayed behind for a minute to sign autographs. He commented to one fan that he had been signing a lot of commemorative flags from No. 17. He theorized, “ 'cause that’s the party hole, huh?’” Schwartz is correct; the par-three 17th has long been known as one of the most raucous holes on the PGA Tour.

If the Buick Open indeed ends its 51-year run with this year’s event, Woody Austin said that hole will be the one he’ll miss the most. Austin won the Buick in 1995, his rookie year, by defeating Mike Brisky on the second hole of a playoff. “Since it was my rookie year, it was kind of my first experience with a rowdy crowd,” Austin said of the 17th. “I’d been playing with Freddie Couples the first couple of days and always hearing, 'Fred-die! Fred-die!’