1. FDNY, NYPD Brawl at Charity Hockey Game
Today’s edition of people behaving badly features New York’s bravest versus New York’s finest. A bench-clearing brawl broke out midway through yesterday’s annual NYPD-FDNY charity hockey game. Of course, cell phones at Nassau Coliseum caught the whole thing. Neither side is commenting on the melee, but by the final buzzer, the NYPD ended up on top. The police won 8-5.
2. Oscar Pistorius Takes the Stand
The double amputee athlete, who is accused of premeditated murder after shooting and killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, took the stand at his trial today. He began his testimony with an emotional apology directed toward the Steenkamp family, saying he “can’t image the pain and the sorrow and the emptiness that [he] has caused [their] family.” Pistorius added he was “bowled over” by how hard he fell for Steenkamp and that his intentions were only to protect her from harm. Experts say Pistorius’ legal team will use the sprinter’s testimony to convince the jury that the shooting was a terrible, but honest, mistake.
3. Strangers Raise Money For Man's Medical Bills After Attack
A fundraising campaign set up by the family of Steve Utash, a man who was severely beaten in Detroit as he tried to help a young boy, has exceeded its goal of $50,000 and is now in the six figures. Utash, a 54-year-old tree trimmer, remains in critical condition after he was attacked by a crowd when he stopped to help a boy he hit with his car. The boy was treated for a broken leg and is expected to recover. Donations continue to pour in from well-wishers in the Detroit area and beyond to help cover medical bills for Utash, whose family says he does not have health insurance. Police have made two arrests so far and are still looking for suspects in the beating, which may have involved up to a dozen people.
4. Bracket Busters: UConn vs. Kentucky for Championship
There are so many storylines surrounding tonight’s NCAA Men’s National Championship game. There’s the triumph of two tournament underdogs: Kentucky is trying to become the first program to win a national championship starting five freshman, and UConn is trying to become the first seven seed ever to win the tournament. This is UConn coach Kevin Ollie’s first time coaching in the tournament. A win would give Kentucky coach John Calipari his second national championship in three years. Regardless of how the game shapes up, we’ll witness history.
5. Trouble Slogging Through Longer Reads?
We’ve all done it: clicked on a link, read the first few sentences (or words) and then dashed off to the next flirty headline. According to one neuroscientist, the Internet’s constant flow of information, and our constant scanning, seems to be rendering us incapable of processing more in-depth accounts. Now some are backing the “slow reading movement” which attempts to fend off the effects of not only skimming, but also jumping from email to push alerts to hyperlinks. The brain is an adaptive organ, so let’s hope we don’t lose the capability to read and comprehend a long work of glorious literature.
6. Dine and Dasher Returns to Pay Restaurant Bill 70 Years Later
An elderly man recently apologized to a Salt Lake City restaurant over a 70-year-old unpaid bill. He reportedly sat in the car outside Lamb’s Grill while his daughter went inside to make amends on his behalf. “She starts in and says, ‘My father dined and dashed here in 1941,’” waitress Jasmine Back told KSL News. The man’s daughter revealed that her father was only 10 years old when he and a friend ran off after realizing they couldn’t pay for the $1 meal. She said her father had been “racked with guilt” ever since so he gave the restaurant $5 to apologize. As for the dineanddasher, he’s welcome at the restaurant anytime – as long as he foots the bill.