Vincent Worlters remembers the moment his dreams of being a professional musician were initially crushed.
“As a young man, I was being trained to be an opera singer, but life got in the way with the onset of my disability, which was quite profoundly disabling,” Mr Worlters said.
“And basically, it destroyed my opportunities to be a professional singer.”
Despite his diagnosis, Mr Worlters was determined music would remain a big part of his life.
“The only breath I got from my horrible illness was to grab my guitar and sing and then the symptoms would come to a stop.”
Vincent Worlters did not realize his love of acting until he joined a disability theater group.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
A new inclusive arts program on the NSW mid-north coast has now given Mr Worlters a chance to live out his dreams on stage.
The Wauchope Regional Art Program, also known as WRAP, is designed to assist artists with disabilities to build their confidence and skills. It connects them with professional artists so they can participate in the mainstream industry.
Mr Worlters joined WRAP’s theater class, along with Steph Smith and Kirsty Georges.
“The acceptance is really quite beautiful,” he said.
“Groups like this give me an opportunity, whereas nothing else will.”
The WRAP theater group rehearsed for weeks with mentor Ian Castle.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
The trio is mentored by singer and musician Ian Castle.
“It’s this collaborative effort building on the strengths they have as individuals and myself inspiring them to try other things,” Mr Castle said.
The theater group performed on stage at a mainstream arts festival in the region called ArtWalk in front of a crowd of spectators.
It was a dream come true for the close-knit team.
“When the audience gets behind you, your whole performance totally lifts to a whole new level,” Mr Worlters said.
“You can see it in their faces, or the cheers, and their claps. It’s really uplifting.”
WRAP groups performed at Port Macquarie’s ArtWalk event, which attracts thousands of spectators.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Kirsty Georges said her parents and family were “stoked” about the program and her performance.
“I feel it inside my chest. I feel happy,” she said.
And it is not just stage performers who have thrived in the inclusive program.
Artists celebrate inclusion
Creating visual art has always been a source of joy for Kerri Cains but, due to her intellectual disability, she often found it hard to be taken seriously.
“I’ve always had trouble with reading and writing and maths skills,” Ms Cains said.
“But it’s always been a passion of mine to do art.”
Kerri Cains is over the moon to have her artwork on display at a local gallery.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Ms Cains said she was over the moon to be involved in the Wauchope Regional Art Program and its workshops.
“It’s hard to find places sometimes that are so inclusive,” Ms Cains said.
“In this art class, in particular, we don’t feel like we’re just put on the side … it’s actual artists actually teaching you how to do it and they treat you like they would treat everybody else.”
Graphic designer and mentor Michele Kaye worked with Kerri Cains to develop the WRAP logo.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Thanks to WRAP, Ms Cains’ work has been displayed front and center at Wauchope Art Gallery as part of the ArtWalk event.
“I can show my family and my friends and everybody in town will see my artwork,” she said.
“It’s just good to see that disability and the arts are coming together in such an amazing way.”
Ms Cains was paired with and mentored by graphic designer Michele Kaye.
“It’s beautiful, its humbling, its real, it’s life. It’s what everyone should be seeing day by day,” Ms Kaye said.
Michele Kaye says she loved every moment of mentoring Kerri Cains.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Artists’ skills ‘skyrocket’
WRAP was established by the Wauchope Community Arts Council, through an NDIS Information, Linkages and Capacity Building Grant.
Project coordinator Vicky Mackey said WRAP was started due to a lack of similar services on the Mid North Coast.
“Even though we have a very busy arts community, they weren’t connecting with people with disabilities,” she said.
“Disabled artists were segregated.”
WRAP theater group member Steph Smith performed a solo show on stage.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Ms Mackey said it was fantastic the group had been given its first mainstream platform at ArtWalk.
“It’s the first time that a lot of them have got to perform in public,” she said.
“The growth in their confidence and just the way they hold themselves, the ability to communicate with strangers, it’s skyrocketed.”
WRAP project coordinator Vicky Mackey was inspired by her own daughter’s disability.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Ms Mackey said she was inspired by her own daughter who has a disability.
“I always try to have the best for her, living the best life she can, and that’s what it’s all about — giving these guys an opportunity,” she said.
“In art, it’s not about being perfect or the best. It’s about the passion and the joy that the person can show in their artwork or their dance.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect and that’s great — life’s not perfect.”
The WRAP performances attracted a large crowd at Port Macquarie’s ArtWalk event.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
At the event, Ardern spoke at length about New Zealand’s relationship with China, saying that even “as China becomes more assertive in the pursuit of its interests”, there are still shared interests that the two countries can and should co-operate on.
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She added that she looked forward to in-person ministerial visits and planned to lead a business delegation to China when COVID measures allowed and that there was the potential for foreign ministerial visits between the two countries as well.
New Zealand has toughened its tone recently on both security and Beijing’s growing presence in the South Pacific, in part due to the signing of a security pact between China and Solomon Islands earlier in the year. But at the same time New Zealand remains dependent on trade with China.
Ardern said that while there were areas that mattered deeply to New Zealand and where the country’s view differed from that of China, New Zealand was willing to engage.
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“We will also advocate for approaches and outcomes that reflect New Zealand’s interests and values, and speak out on issues that do not,” she said.
“Our differences need not define us. But we cannot ignore them,” she said.
New Zealand has consistently expressed concerns about economic coercion, human rights infringement and particularly the treatment of Uyghur in Xinjiang, and democracy advocates in Hong Kong and most recently about the potential militarization of the Pacific. On a number of occasions New Zealand has been part of joint statements on these concerns.
Ardern added managing the differences in the relationship between the two countries would not always be easy and “there were no guarantees”.
Ardern also on Monday urged China to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying Beijing has benefited from international rules and has a duty to uphold them.
“As history shows us repeatedly, when large countries disregard sovereignty and territorial integrity with a sense of impunity, it does not bode well particularly for small countries like New Zealand,” Ardern said.
“And that’s why as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and in line with its commitment to the UN Charter, we continue to urge China to be clear that it does not support the Russian invasion, and have called on China to use its access and influence to help bring an end to the conflict.”
When Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, was buried last month near the first hole of Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, few immediately guessed that her grave’s location might also serve her ex-husband’s long-held tax planning purposes.
Tax code in New Jersey exempts cemetery land from all taxes, rates, and assessments – and her serious, as such, potentially has advantageous tax implications for a Trump family trust that owns the golf business, in a state where property and land taxes are notoriously high.
According to documents published by ProPublica, the Trump family trust previously sought to designate a nearby property in Hackettstown, New Jersey, as a non-profit cemetery company.
But Ivana Trump, who died earlier this month at 73 after a fall at her home in New York City’s Manhattan, is the first person known to have been buried at the golf course, where Donald Trump and his family spend a lot of time in the summers.
Under New Jersey’s tax code, cemetery companies are not only exempt from real estate taxes, rates, and assessments or personal property taxes, but also business taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and inheritance taxes, according to Insider.
Brooke Harrington, a professor of sociology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, tweeted on Saturday that she had looked into claims that Ivana Trump’s resting-place might also benefit her ex-husband’s tax planning from beyond the grave.
“As a tax researcher, I was skeptical of rumors Trump buried his ex-wife in that sad little plot of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks. So I checked the NJ tax code & folks…it’s a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated,” Harrington wroteafter opinions accusing Trump of being primarily motivated by the possibility of a tax break began pop up on social media.
Harrington later tweeted the full New Jersey tax code for cemetery land. While there is no stipulation for the amount of human remains necessary in order to qualify for the break, sales of wreaths, larger evergreen arrangements, flowers and other similar items are taxable.
While saying she was surprised about the tax suggestions she also accused Donald Trump of burying his wife in “little more than a pauper’s grave” and as a result disgracing the three children they had together, Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric.
And it is. I was surprised. That’s why I checked and why I posted the thread.
I couldn’t believe her 3 kids–whom she apparently loved & who loved her–would allow their father to treat their mother like this. Burying Ivana in little more than a pauper’s grave disgraces them all.
Previous reports have suggested that her former husband has planned to build different types of cemetery operations at the Bedminster golf course.
Last week it was the venue for the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf tournament and was the focus of protests by some families of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, after Donald Trump previously joined opinions that the kingdom was behind the Al-Qaida plot to hijack passenger jets and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
US public radio station NPR reported in 2012 under the online headline “Fairway to Heaven” that Trump planned to build himself a mausoleum on the property, prompting some local objections. That proposal was later expanded to a cemetery that could contain upwards of a 1,000 possible graves.
That plan was later dropped and replaced with a design for a “10-plot private family cemetery” in the same spot, and refined again into a proposal for a commercial 284-plot cemetery, the station reported.
Ivana Trump was buried in a plot close to the first tee of the golf course, following her funeral in Manhattan on 20 July. Her resting place in Ella is currently marked with a rudimentary wreath of white flowers and an engraved granite stone.
However it is unlikely that the 1.5 acre plot would deliver tax exemptions to the entire Bedminster property – any break only applies so long as the plot is less than 10 acres.
But every break counts, and the former president has previously designated the plot as a farm because some trees on the site are turned into mulch used for flower beds, according to the Washington Post.
Trump’s notions to partially designate the golf course as a cemetery date to at least 2014. Plans then filed with local and state authorities listed a proposal for a pair of graveyards – one for the family, another with 284 plots for sale. The Washington Post noted that buyers, presumably avid golfers, “could pay for a kind of eternal membership” to the club.
But Trump, true to form, had not at that time settled on a course of action. Robert Holtaway, a Bedminster town official, said he had doubts about the cemetery plans. “It never made any sense to me.” But, I added, “we don’t question motives. We’re there as a land-use board”.
Trump already has a plot at All Faiths Cemetery in Jamaica, Queens, close to his mother and father, but plans for his Bedminster mausoleum were suitably grandiose: 19 feet high, in stone, with obelisks, and planted smack in the middle of the course .
Trump has kept silent about his plans for how the “Eternal Donald” will be commemorated in the earthly realm. In 2007, then aged 60, he told the New York Post that the golden course mausoleum was a rational choice.
“It’s never something you like to think about, but it makes sense,” he told the paper’s Page Six column. “This is such a beautiful land, and Bedminster is one of the richest places in the country.”
An Irishman at risk of losing his farm. An American having suicidal thoughts. An 84-year-old widow’s lost life savings: People caught in the meltdown of crypto lender Celsius are pleading for their money back.
Hundreds of letters have poured into the judge overseeing the firm’s multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy and they are heavy with anger, shame, desperation and, frequently, regret.
Celsius and its CEO Alex Mashinsky had billed the platform as a safe place for people to deposit their crypto currencies in exchange for high interest, while the firm slowed out and those invested deposits.
The company owed $4.7 billion to its users, according to a court filing earlier this month, and the endgame is unclear.
“From that hard-working single mom in Texas struggling with past-due bills, to the teacher in India with all his hard-earned money deposited in Celsius — I believe I can speak for most of us when I say I feel betrayed, ashamed, depressed, angry,” wrote one client who signed their letter EL
“I have been a loyal Celsius customer since 2019 and feel completely lied to by Alex Mashinsky,” wrote a client who AFP is not identifying to protect his privacy. “Alex would talk about how Celsius is safer than banks.”
– Repeated assurances before fail –
“We have made it through crypto downturns before (this is our fourth!). Celsius is prepared,” the firm wrote.
One client, who reported having $32,000 in crypto locked up at Celsius, noted the impact.
But that changed quickly, and on June 12 Celsius announced the freeze: “We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations.”
“By the time I finished the e-mail, I had collapsed onto the floor with my head in my hands and I fought back tears,” wrote one man who had about $50,000 in assets with Celsius.
Others reported heavy stress, lack of sleep and feelings of deep shame for putting their retirement savings or their children’s college money into a platform that was far riskier than they knew.
Celsius did not reply to a request for comment on the clients’ letters.
“It’s just not unusual for people to come out of something like this with zero,” said Don Coker, an expert witness on banking and finance.
Since its launch in July 2021, Pokemon UNITE has straddled the line of the free-to-play and free-to-start models, offering players multiple ways to unlock content in the game based on if they want to spend money to speed up the process.
On the F2P side of things, UNITE follows most other titles in having multiple different in-game currencies that players need to collect to upgrade items, unlock Pokémon, and more. Unfortunately, the developers also artificially limited how much of certain currency types players can earn in one sitting in a microtransaction-laden marketplace.
This doesn’t affect the harder-to-come-by currency like Aeos, Fashion, and Holowear Tickets, though. Instead, it impacts the more widely available Aeos Coins and Energy earned through playing the game.
Aeos Coins are the most common and heavily used currency in UNITE and can be earned by completing challenges, battle pass missions, and by participating in any of the game’s main modes. In turn, they can also be used to unlock a majority of UNITE’s content, like Unite Licenses that are used to add Pokémon to your usable rotation. But you’re limited to earning 2,100 coins per week.
Related: All Aeos Gem bundles and costs in Pokemon UNITE
This only applies to the Aeos Coins you’d earn by playing matches, not the additional coins you can earn by completing challenges or as rewards. But most players are more concerned that UNITE offers an item to boost coin yield that essentially just maxes that weekly limit out earlier—and it can be purchased using microtransactions.
The other hard limit applies to Aeos Energy, which is awarded to a player after every completed match.
Energy is used to roll for items in the Energy Rewards section, with a weekly limit of 1,400 Energy that can be earned. Before July 2022, this likely would have been fine since all of the Energy Rewards were cosmetic. But now, stat boosting Emblems are included in a separate pool and they actually have repercussions for gameplay.
And, just like with the Aeos Coins, UNITE has a method to earn more by purchasing consumable items in the shop.
TiMi might eventually mess with the amount of each currency that’s limited, but for now, be sure that you’re aware of each limit and use your allotted coins and energy wisely once you have them.
A federal judge in New York City has thrown out a lawsuit that accused Bob Dylan of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 1965.
The plaintiff voluntarily dropped the case on Thursday, according to court documents.
Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla officially dismissed the filing “with prejudice,” meaning the case cannot be refiled.
American folk-rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan performing at BBC TV Centre, London, 1st June 1965. Dylan recorded two 35-minute TV programs for the BBC at the session. (Photo by Val Wilmer/Redferns) (Redferns)
Dylan’s lawyers on Wednesday claimed the plaintiff failed to present court-ordered documents, including text messages and emails.
Dylan’s lawyers said the plaintiff, now a woman aged in her 60s identified in the lawsuit by the initials “JC”, “destroyed evidence directly relevant to the central factual allegations in this litigation”.
Orin Snyder, lead counsel for Dylan, said “this case is over. It is outrageous that it was ever brought in the first place.”
He added that the case was a “lawyer-driven sham” and he is pleased about its dismissal.
The 2021 lawsuit accused Dylan of befriending the plaintiff, “to lower her inhibitions with the object of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol and threats of physical violence, leaving her emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day.”
American folk/rock singer and songwriter Bob Dylan smiles during a meeting with the British press, April 28, 1965. (CNN)
The lawsuit alleged the abuse occurred at Dylan’s apartment at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City when the plaintiff was aged 12.
In a statement after the filing last year, a spokesperson for Dylan said “the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended.”
CNN has reached out to the plaintiff’s lawyers for comment.
Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1940.
He has sold more than 125 million records during his career.
Some of his most famous songs include “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
In 2008, Dylan won a Pulitzer Prize special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
In 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
Bill Russell, the cornerstone of the Boston Celtics dynasty that won eight straight titles and 11 overall during his career, died Sunday. The Hall of Famer was 88.
Russell died “peacefully” with his wife, Jeannine, at his side, a statement posted on social media read. Arrangements for his memorial service will be announced soon, according to the statement.
The statement did not give the cause of death, but Russell was not well enough to present the NBA Finals MVP trophy in June because of a long illness.
“But for all the winning, Bill’s understanding of the struggle is what illuminated his life. From boycotting a 1961 exhibition game to unmask too-long-tolerated discrimination, to leading Mississippi’s first integrated basketball camp in the fuel wake of Medgar [Evers’] assassination, to decades of activism ultimately recognized by his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom … Bill called out injustice with an unforgiving candor that he intended would disrupt the status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never his humble intention, will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and thoughtful change,” the statement read.
“Bill’s wife, Jeannine, and his many friends and family thank you for keeping Bill in your prayers. Perhaps you’ll relive one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or recall his trademark laugh as he delighted in explaining the real story behind how those moments unfolded.And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill’s uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle.That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6. “
Over a 15-year period, beginning with his junior year at the University of San Francisco, Russell had the most remarkable career of any player in the history of team sports. At USF, he was a two-time All-American, won two straight NCAA championships and led the team to 55 consecutive wins. And he won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.
During his 13 years in Boston, he carried the Celtics to the NBA Finals 12 times, winning the championship 11 times, the last two titles while he was also serving as the NBA’s first Black coach.
“Bill Russell’s DNA is woven through every element of the Celtics organization, from the relentless pursuit of excellence, to the celebration of team rewards over individual glory, to a commitment to social justice and civil rights off the court. Our thoughts are with his family as we mourn his passing and celebrate his enormous legacy in basketball, Boston, and beyond,” the Celtics said in a statement.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver called Russell “the greatest champion in all of team sports” in a statement Sunday.
“I cherished my friendship with Bill and was thrilled when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I often called him basketball’s Babe Ruth for how he transcended time. Bill was the ultimate winner and consummate teammate, and his influence on the NBA will be felt forever,” Silver said.
A five-time MVP and 12-time All-Star, Russell was an uncanny shot-blocker who revolutionized NBA defensive concepts. He finished with 21,620 career rebounds — an average of 22.5 per game — and led the league in rebounding four times. He had 51 rebounds in one game and 49 in two others and posted 12 straight seasons with 1,000 or more rebounds. Russell also averaged 15.1 points and 4.3 assists per game over his career.
Until Michael Jordan’s exploits in the 1990s, Russell was considered by many as the greatest player in NBA history.
“Bill Russell was a pioneer — as a player, as a champion, as the NBA’s first Black head coach and as an activist. He paved the way and set an example for every Black player who came into the league after him, including me “The world has lost a legend. My condolences to his family and may he rest in peace,” Jordan, now the chairman of the Charlotte Hornets, said in a statement.
Russell was awarded the Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama in 2011, the nation’s highest civilian honor. And in 2017, the NBA awarded him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
William Felton Russell was born Feb. 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana. His family moved to the Bay Area, where he attended McClymonds High School in Oakland. He was an awkward, unremarkable center on McClymonds’ basketball team, but his size earned him a scholarship at San Francisco, where he blossomed.
“I was an innovator,” Russell told The New York Times in 2011. “I started blocking shots although I had never seen shots blocked before that. The first time I did that in a game, my coach called timeout and said, ‘No good defensive player ever leaves his feet.'”
Russell did it anyway, and he teamed with guard KC Jones to lead the Dons to 55 straight wins and national titles in 1955 and 1956. (Jones missed four games of the 1956 tournament because his eligibility had expired.) Russell was named the NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1955. He then led the US basketball team to victory in the 1956 Olympics at Melbourne, Australia.
With the 1956 NBA draft approaching, Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach was eager to add Russell to his lineup. Auerbach had built a high-scoring offensive machine around guards Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman and undersized center Ed Macauley but he thought the Celtics lacked the defense and rebounding needed to transform them into a championship-caliber club. Russell, Auerbach felt, was the missing piece to the puzzle.
After the St. Louis Hawks selected Russell in the draft, Auerbach engineered a trade to land Russell for Ed Macauley.
Boston’s starting five of Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, Cousy, Sharman and Jim Loscutoff was a high-octane unit. The Celtics posted the best regular-season record in the NBA in 1956-57 and waltzed through the playoffs for their first NBA title, beating the Hawks.
In a rematch in the 1958 Finals, the Celtics and Hawks split the first two games at Boston Garden. But Russell suffered an ankle injury in Game 3 and was ineffective the remainder of the series. The Hawks eventually won the series in six games.
Russell and the Celtics had a stranglehold on the NBA Finals after that, going on to win 10 titles in 11 years and giving professional basketball a level of prestige it had not enjoyed before.
In the process, Russell revolutionized the game. He was a 6-foot-9 center whose lightning reflexes brought shot-blocking and other defensive maneuvers that trigger a fast-break offense into full development.
In 1966, after eight straight titles, Auerbach retired as coach and named Russell as his successor. It was hailed as a sociological advance, since Russell was the first Black coach of a major league team in any sport, let alone so distinguished a team. But neither Russell nor Auerbach saw the move that way. They felt it was simply the best way to keep winning, and as a player-coach, Russell won two more titles over the next three years.
Their biggest opponent was age. After he won his 11th championship in 1969 at age 35, Russell retired, triggering a mini-rebuild. During his 13 seasons, the NBA had expanded from eight teams to 14. Russell’s Celtics teams never had to survive more than three playoff rounds to win a title.
“If Bill Russell came back today with the same equipment and the same brainpower, the same person exactly as he was when he landed in the NBA in 1956, he’d be the best rebounder in the league,” Bob Ryan, a former Celtics beat writer for The Boston Globe, told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019. “As an athlete, he was so far ahead of his time. He’d win three, four or five championships, but not 11 in 13 years, obviously.”
In 2009, the MVP trophy of the NBA Finals was named in Russell’s honor — even though he never won himself, because it wasn’t awarded for the first time until 1969. Russell, however, traditionally presented the trophy for many years, the last time in 2019 to Kawhi Leonard; Russell was not there in 2020 because of the NBA bubble nor in 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns.
Along with multiple titles, Russell’s career was also partly defined with his rivalry against Wilt Chamberlain.
In the 1959-60 season, the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain, who averaged a record 37.6 points per game in his rookie year, made his debut with the Philadelphia Warriors. On Nov. 7, 1959, Russell’s Celtics hosted Chamberlain’s Warriors, and pundits called the matchup between the best offensive and defensive centers “The Big Collision” and “Battle of the Titans.” While Chamberlain outscored Russell 30-22, the Celtics won 115-106, and the game was called a “new beginning of basketball.”
The matchup between Russell and Chamberlain became one of basketball’s greatest rivalries. One of the Celtics’ titles came against Chamberlain’s San Francisco’s Warriors teams in 1964.
Although Chamberlain outrebounded and outscored Russell over the course of their 142 career head-to-head games (28.7 rebounds per game to 23.7, 28.7 points per game to 14.5) and their entire careers (22.9 RPG to 22.5, 30.1 PPG to 15.1), Russell usually got the nod as the better overall player, mainly because his teams won 87 (61%) of those games.
In the eight playoff series between the two players, Russell and the Celtics won seven. Russell has 11 championship rings; Chamberlain has just two.
“I was the villain because I was so much bigger and stronger than anyone else out there,” Chamberlain told the Boston Herald in 1995. “People tend not to root for Goliath, and Bill back then was a jovial guy and he really had a great laugh.Plus, I played on the greatest team ever.
“My team was losing and his was winning, so it would be natural that I would be jealous. Not true. I’m more than happy with the way things turned out. He was overall by far the best, and that only helped bring out the best in me.”
After Russell retired from basketball, his place in its secure history, he moved into broader spheres, hosting radio and television talk shows and writing newspaper columns on general topics.
In 1973, Russell took over the Seattle SuperSonics, then a 6-year-old expansion franchise that had never made the playoffs, as coach and general manager. The year before, the Sonics had won 26 games and sold 350 season tickets. Under Russell, they won 36, 43, 43 and 40 games, making the playoffs twice. When he resigned, they had a solid base of 5,000 season tickets and a team that reached the NBA Finals the next two years.
Russell reportedly became frustrated over the players’ reluctance to embrace his team concept. Some suggested that the problem was Russell himself; he was said to be aloof, moody and unable to accept anything but the Celtics’ tradition. Ironically, Lenny Wilkens guided Seattle to a championship two years later, preaching the same team concept that Russell had tried to instill unsuccessfully.
A decade after he left Seattle, Russell gave coaching another try, replacing Jerry Reynolds as coach of the Sacramento Kings early in the 1987-88 season. The team staggered to a 17-41 record, and Russell departed midseason.
Between coaching stints, Russell was most visible as a color commentator on televised basketball games. For a time he was paired with the equally blunt Rick Barry, and the duo provided brutally frank commentary on the game. Russell was never comfortable in that setting, though, explaining to the Sacramento Bee, “The most successful television is done in eight-second thoughts, and the things I know about basketball, motivation and people go deeper than that.”
He also dabbled with acting, performing in a Seattle Children’s Theater show and an episode of “Miami Vice,” and he wrote a provocative autobiography, “Second Wind.”
Russell became the first Black player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 1980 he was voted Greatest Player in the History of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America. He was part of the 75th Anniversary Team announced by the NBA in October 2021.
In 2013, Boston honored Russell with a statue at City Hall Plaza.
The state government has cleared the path for gambling giant The Star to lodge a proposal to build a 105-meter tall luxury hotel tower at Pyrmont, under plans to encourage more intensive development west of Sydney’s CBD.
Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said changes to planning rules for several sites on the Pyrmont peninsula would allow for the six-star hotel, theater and dining complex to be built at the northern end of the casino’s site.
The government has rezoned several key sites in Pyrmont – part of broader plans to transform the peninsula.Credit:Steven Siewert
Under the 20-year development strategy for Pyrmont and Ultimo, there is also provision for construction of a 110-metre tower above the future Metro station between Pyrmont Bridge Road and Union Street; and an Indigenous residential college at the University of Technology, Sydney. The Metro station is due to open in 2030.
Pyrmont Action residents’ group convenor Elizabeth Elenius said of the two towers above 100 meters, or roughly 30 storeys: “They’re both too high. They don’t fit the principles laid out in the Pyrmont peninsula place strategy where development has to blend into the existing area and not compromise it. They’re both totally out of scale.”
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The state government has been working on plans to redevelop Pyrmont since 2019, when the state’s independent planning authority refused The Star’s earlier $530 million proposal for a 66-storey casino tower.
It is also forging ahead with a wave of development around the western harbor in inner Sydney, with planned overhauls for Central Barangaroo, Blackwattle Bay, Darling Harbor and the Bays West precinct at Rozelle.
Roberts said changes to the legal planning controls for the Pyrmont sites – controls known as Sydney’s Local Environment Plan (LEP) – would allow developers to lodge applications for retail, dining and tourism projects.
He said the government’s long-term strategy to guide development for the Pyrmont area more broadly would provide “industry and the community the certainty they need to bring to life incredible new assets”.
Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday criticized the Democratic-led climate and tax plan backed by Joe Manchin.
“It really looks to me like Joe Manchin has been taken to the cleaners,” the Republican said on CNN.
Democrats have hailed the proposed climate investments as something that has been long overdue.
GOP Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday criticized the Democratic-led climate, health care, and tax deal crafted by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, stating that he was “really surprised” to see the conservative West Virginia senator agree to the proposal.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the retiring two-term Pennsylvania lawmaker told co-anchor Jake Tapper that he valued his relationship with Manchin, but said the bill that is slated to come from the deal would be “a disaster” .”
“I like Joe Manchin very much — he and I’ve become friends over the years that we’ve served together in the Senate,” Toomey said. “But it really looks to me like Joe Manchin has been taken to the cleaners.”
He continued: “And what does Joe get for this? He gets the promise that someday in the future, they’ll pass some kind of legislation about energy infrastructure. So this is a disaster. It’s gonna make inflation worse. It’s not going to do any good. I’m really surprised that Joe agreed to this.”
Manchin has played a highly consequential role in the 50-50 Senate since his vote can sink or swim everything from reconciliation legislation to judicial appointments, and he has been a tough sell on many of the larger social-spending proposals that many Democrats sought to pass ; his support of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has been a boon to the party’s morale, as many had all but given up on enacting climate legislation before the November midterms, when Republicans could potentially win back one or both chambers of Congress.
The bill would greenlight a three-year extension of subsidies for individuals to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, while also providing nearly $370 billion for climate and energy programs and $300 billion to reduce the federal budget deficit. The bill would also generate roughly $739 billion in revenue over the next decade, aided in part by a 15% corporate minimum tax on companies with net income exceeding $1 billion.
Toomey contended in the interview that the legislation would chip away at the 2017 tax reform package signed into law by then-President Donald Trump.
And Toomey said that the bill would “do nothing” to fight climate change despite the huge investments made in the proposal, pointing out that many other countries lack programs that would put a dent in overall emissions.
“What we need is a strong economy and the ability to find the innovation and the technology that will allow us on a massive commercial scale to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere,” he said. “But these gestures, they may feel good, they’re not gonna accomplish it.”
Schumer and Manchin are looking to pass the legislation in August.
A NSW building company has gone into voluntary administration, leaving at least 30 homes in limbo.
On Friday night, Sydney-based Willoughby Homes appointed external administrators.
The company collapsed just over 24 hours after NSW Fair Trading suspended its building license for failing to pay back debts ordered by a court.
Homeowners were informed via email late on Friday that David Mansfield and Jason Tracy of Deloitte’s turnaround and restructuring department had been appointed as joint administrators.
A sister company of Willoughby Homes, Project 360 Degrees, which was run by the same leadership team, is also part of the administration proceedings.
It comes after an extensive news.com.au investigation found the company has been non-functional for some time, with build sites stalling for as long as a year, the company’s home building insurance not being reinstated and finally, all its offices being cleared out and phone lines going straight to voicemail.
News.com.au understands around 30 homes were in the pipeline to be built and that at least 10 creditors are owed money. There are also around eight staff members who will be impacted, although it’s understood they had all ceased working at the company in the last several weeks. Staff had not been paid their superannuation in the months leading up to the collapse and one staff member is owed $53,000 in wages.
One creditor, Regno Trades, is owed $184,000 and has a court date hearing this Wednesday calling for Willoughby Homes to “be wound up in insolvency”.
At least 10 contractors are chasing Willoughby Homes over unpaid debts and more than a dozen customers have taken them to NCAT demanding their deposits or progress payments be returned as works have stalled.
Although Regno Trades has applied for Willoughby Homes to be placed into liquidation over a $184,310 payment, several other creditors have also taken legal action.
Five companies have applied for a default judgment over payments they claim is owed to them: H & R Interiors ($73,925), Prospa Advance Millers ($60,913), Scaffolding Australia ($22,794), ATF Services ($5,658) and Green Resources Material Australia ($6,503). ).
Elba Kitchens claimed to news.com.au that they were owed around $80,000 from Willoughby Homes.
Trueform Frames and Trusses claim they are waiting on an outstanding payment from Willoughby Homes of $24,684 from an invoice issued more than seven months ago while Finese Electrical and Air Conditioning claims it is owed $4531 from jobs done in February.
News.com.au knows of two other suppliers owed money.
It’s understood these creditors have not yet been contacted about the company’s voluntary administration.
News.com.au has contacted the administrators for comment.
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The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) ordered Willoughby Homes to pay back $76,837 to a customer on June 8 and then last week, on July 21, another homeowner was also awarded $38,456, payable immediately.
Both debts were never paid, prompting the building license of Willoughby Homes to be suspended on Thursday.
Two employees who quit several months are also owed thousands in unpaid superannuation in what they said was a sign that the company was on the brink of collapse.
Xavier* worked in the sales department of Willoughby Homes for more than a year before he was made redundant in February 2021. The father-of-three claims he is still yet to be paid $53,000 from his commission fees. To recover the money, he’s spent around $5,000 on lawyers although his latest legal letter from him has gone ignored for months.
He also learned he was owed about $7000 in unpaid superannuation from Willoughby Homes.
Another staff member, Eric*, was owed about $5000 in super and had to get tax authorities to intercede on his behalf to recover his cash.
In June, news.com.au flagged that Willoughby Homes was on its last legs as some customers watched their dream home languish for months in the final stages of the project.
Several other aspiring homeowners forked out tens of thousands in a deposit as long ago as 2020 and to date, nothing has been done on their empty site.
News.com.au also knows of at least two customers who signed a contract with Willoughby Homes when the company was not able to enter into any new contracts.
NSW insurer iCare had not reinstated Willoughby Homes’ Home Builders Compensation Fund (HBCF) since April 2021, with the state body rejecting multiple applications, it confirmed to news.com.au.
That means the construction firm could not begin any new projects that required HBCF — so any project costing more than $20,000.
A NSW Fair Trading spokesperson told news.com.au that “It is a breach of the Home Building Act for a builder to enter into a contract to complete residential building work above $20,000 without HBCF insurance”.
Mum-of-three Marice Hartono and her husband, from North Ryde, gave out $38,000 to the builder as a deposit while Greg Denton and his wife paid $22,000 for a Central Coast home.
Both customers are not insured as they signed after Willoughby Homes’ HBCF had not been renewed and are not entitled to any compensation from the fund.
Ms Hartono told news.com.au she was “devastated” to hear the news that the company had gone bust as it’s left so many “unanswered questions” about what this means for her deposit and her plans of a dream home.
Since June, NSW Fair Trading has been actively investigating Willoughby Homes, with the government department telling news.com.au “The investigation into Willoughby Homes Pty Ltd is ongoing and no comment can be made at this time.
“NSW Fair Trading encourages anyone who has contracted with this trader to call 13 32 20.”
On Thursday, the entity used its powers against Willoughby Homes to suspend its license, effectively stopping the company’s ability to trade at all.
NSW Fair Trading took the drastic action of using Section 42A of the Home Building Act 1989, which allowed them to “automatically suspend a contractor license where the holder fails to comply with an order by a court or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to pay money for a building claim by the due date”.
Not long after, administrators were appointed to the struggling company.
Customers have been left reeling over the long months of waiting as the company floundered.
Cherry Cobrador-Wong, 33, and her husband Logan Wong, 35, from Sydney’s west, who recently had a baby, are behind in mortgage and rent because they claim their house has been left untouched since November when it was nearing its final stages.
“I’m crying all the time. I’m emotionally saddened and destroyed,” she previously told news.com.au.
Saif Nabi and his wife Hanniya as well as their two-year-old son have also been left in the lurch.
“One and a half years into it and we’re not closer, it’s just an empty lot of land,” Mr Nabi lamented.
At first the Nabi family were ecstatic about building their dream home in Box Hill, forking out $18,000 in an initial deposit.
But as the months passed by, Mr Nabi said the situation turned “into a nightmare” and he called to mutually end the contract.
“Since then it’s just been complete radio silence,” he said.
Sarah Little and Nikki Young are two more impacted homeowners who forked out $29,000 as a deposit but have yet to see a single worker set foot on their vacant lot.
The pair of paramedics signed with Willoughby Homes in March last year for a $291,000 four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Menangle Park, in Sydney’s south west.
“It’s taken a pretty big toll on our mental health and we’ve gone from being pretty financially stable to now having to really consider if we can even afford the home we dreamed of.”
