OMAHA, Neb. — Opposing coaches in the College World Series have had nothing but positive things to say about Kent State.
But the Golden Flashes refuse to let go of the chip on their shoulders that has carried them through an unprecedented run in the NCAA Tournament.
Even on Tuesday, senior shortstop Jimmy Rider hoped South Carolina would still be upset about its 2-1 loss Monday to Arkansas and overlook KSU.
"I hope they’re looking to get that Arkansas rematch," Rider said after practice at Bellevue East High School.
Kent State (47-19) was scheduled to take on two-time defending champion (46-18) South Carolina in a College World Series elimination game Wednesday night at TD Ameritrade Park. Due to heavy rain, the game was postponed and rescheduled for noon on Thursday. If Kent State wins, the Flashes will play again at 9 p.m. against Arkansas.
Kent State coach Scott Stricklin probably doesn’t want to correct the Golden Flashes’ perceived slight by college baseball’s superpowers. Of the teams KSU has faced in Omaha, Arkansas was making its seventh trip to the CWS, Florida its eighth and South Carolina its 11th.
"It’s tough for that team to play against us," Kent State center fielder Evan Campbell said Tuesday, referring to South Carolina. "They’re used to playing the Floridas and the Arkansases, they’re not used to playing Kent State. We get really pumped up to play teams like that and they’re kinda like, ’Kent State?"’
A Mid-American Conference team hadn’t reached the College World Series since Eastern Michigan in 1976.
Since the NCAA Tournament began, Kent State has eliminated Kentucky (Southeastern Conference), Purdue (Big Ten) and Oregon (Pac-12), lost to Arkansas (SEC) and ousted Florida (SEC).
Kent State’s next game will mark the Golden Flashes’ second consecutive game against an SEC foe and fifth in nine NCAA games, including two against Kentucky in the Gary, Ind., regional. KSU will have faced four of the top six seeds in the SEC Tournament â€" the No. 2 Gamecocks, No. 3 Gators, No. 4 Wildcats and No. 6 Razorbacks. (LSU was No. 1.)
"They’re a powerhouse conference," Campbell said Tuesday of the SEC. "People underestimate the MAC a little bit, we get overshadowed by the Big Ten and schools like that. It shows the caliber of players we have."
Before Stricklin’s team left for a best-of-three super regional series in Eugene, Ore., he was playing up the "Nobody believes in us" angle. The Golden Flashes were coming off a 7-6, 21-inning victory over Kentucky, a 7-3 triumph over Purdue and a 3-2 victory over UK in the Gary regional.
"Kentucky showed us nothing but respect, but they still kind of felt like big brother looking down at little brother," Stricklin said after a practice at Kent State earlier this month. "Even if it wasn’t there, our kids felt like that and wanted to make sure we’re not going to get pushed around.
"Anyone who saw our games with Kentucky would tell you talent-wise it was the same. Both of those games could have gone either way. They played good; we played good."
Stricklin got the same vibe against Purdue.
"Purdue won the Big Ten by a large margin," Stricklin said that day at Kent State. "Everyone that saw that game, and it was on the Big Ten Network, saw that we were the better team. That was very satisfying, not only as a coaching staff, but for our players. We felt we were, but to go out there and do it and prove it, it felt really good."
Source: www.bostonherald.com
Former council boss receives £590,000 in one of the biggest local authority payoffs after twenty months in job - Daily Mail
- Former chief exec had led major shake-up of the way the county council was run
- Council has now dished out more than 600,000 to pay off last two chief execs
- Authority has paid out 10.08m in 'exit packages' to staff made between 2011-2012
By Andrew Levy
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Big pay out: Former Kent County Council chief Katherine Kerswell got a 589,165 pay off from Kent County Council
A council chief who lasted just 20 months in her job was given a 589,165 pay-off, the local authority has been forced to admit.
Katherine Kerswell left Kent County Council in December.
The council had refused to disclose details of the settlement, saying it was subject to a confidentiality agreement. But it was forced to declare the sum under new transparency rules on executive pay.
Its Conservative administration insisted at the time that her departure was part of a cost-saving reorganisation. But there was also speculation she had fallen out with colleagues and councillors.
It is thought to be one of the highest ever remuneration packages for a council manager, and is more than four times the Prime Minister’s 142,500 salary.
The statement of accounts for 2011-12 revealed that Mrs Kerswell, 49, received 139,806 of her 197,000 salary, 420,000 in redundancy payments and a 29,359 pension contribution.
Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the council had shown ‘scant regard’ to value for taxpayers’ money.
He added: ‘Councils may have a legal requirement to make a redundancy pay-out, but this is staggeringly excessive.
‘Councillors need to scrap the overly generous contracts that make these deals possible before any more money is blown on gargantuan redundancy pay-offs.’
Expensive business: Kent County Council headquarters. A total of 10.08million has been paid in 'exit packages' to staff between 2011 and 2012
Mrs Kerswell had a 197,136 salary in her previous job as chief executive of Northamptonshire County Council. She had defended the pay deal by saying it was equal to only 29p for each person in the county.
She was also lampooned at the time for her ‘Taste the Strawberry’ campaign – management speak that was meant to represent the overall ‘flavour’ of the council’s services and help it to improve its performance.
She moved to Kent in March 2010 and oversaw a shake-up of the way the county council was run under its ‘Change To Keep Succeeding’ programme, which involved a cull of senior directors.
Kent County Council, which needs to make savings of 97million this year, paid out 10.8million in so-called ‘exit packages’ to about 1,000 staff in 2011-12. This included 172,000 to the authority’s former finance director, Lynda McMullan, who left in September last year and now works for the National Audit Office.
History: The council gave the chief executive who Ms Kerswell replaced a 200,000 pay off
Council leader Paul Carter said: ‘Removing chief executive posts is what more and more councils should be doing.
‘Employment law and contractual obligations mean we have to pay significant redundancy costs, but it will save a fortune in the long run. Our council is now being guided by officers who have worked their way up and know what life is like from a Kent taxpayer’s perspective.’
Last year it emerged that Phil Dolan, the former chief executive of South Somerset District Council, which has just 162,000 residents, had received a redundancy package of almost 570,000.
The transparency rules which forced the council to reveal Mrs Kerswell’s pay were introduced by the Coalition government.
Local Government Minister Grant Shapps last night criticised Mrs Kerswell’s pay deal as ‘deeply concerning’. He said: ‘I find dipping into the public purse to make such an eye-watering pay-off unacceptable.’
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Kent lose out to Essex in thrilling style - Kent News
Kent's Sam Billings. Picture by Ady Kerry.
Greg Miles, Twitter: @greg_KOS_sport
Thursday, June 21, 2012
10:59 AM
Last over drama sees Spitfires lose by three runs
Kent looked on course for victory over rivals Essex in the t20 until a collapse of wickets led to a thrilling run chase in the final overs.
Essex hit 158 for 6 in their 20 overs, which wasn’t an unreachable target.
And Jimmy Adams’s side looked on course for victory until the 17th over, when they were 118 for three, but Greg Smith took five wickets in two overs as Kent could only add another 37 runs, falling just four short of victory in the final over.
A six-run penalty against Essex for a slow over-rate moved Kent’s chase closer but with four needed to win off the final ball, Graham Napier bowled last man Mark Davies.
Kent were initially on the backfoot on 23 for two with David Masters taking the wickets of Rob Key, and Azhar Mahmood early on. Sam Billings and Brendan Nash shared a fourth-wicket stand of 54 in seven overs to steady the ship.
But then came Smith’s contribution, first he took Billings for 59, and Nash in successive deliveries. Then Geraint Jones went for one, and Sam Northeast, after two sixes, and Matt Coles were also dismissed.
With Kent needing four runs to win on the final ball Davies was bowled by Napier.
Source: www.kentnews.co.uk
Wealthy lawyer parents who 'planted POT in car of PTA president in attempt to get her jailed after she locked their son out of tennis lesson' - Daily Mail
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A couple of California attorneys were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly planting a bag of drugs in the car of the president of their child's Parent Teacher's Association at the Plaza Vista Elementary School.
Irvine police said that Kent Wycliffe Easter, 38, and Jill Bjorkholm Easter, 38, conspired to frame Kelli Peters by putting Vicodin, Percocet, marijuana and a used marijuana pipe behind the front seat of her car.
The duo sought revenge on Mrs Peters because of a longstanding feud over their son, according to police, and resorted to extreme measures to get her fired - and imprisoned.
Their feud is said to date back two years when Mr Kent filed a civil complaint after Ms Peters - then a school volunteer - for allegedly locking his son out of the school for 20 minutes during an after-school tennis lesson, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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Charged: Irvine police said that Kent Wycliffe Easter, 38, right, and Jill Bjorkholm Easter, 38, left, conspired to frame Kelli Peters by putting Vicodin, Percocet, marijuana and a used marijuana pipe in her car
Victim: The duo sought revenge on Mrs Peters, pictured, because they believed the woman wasn't properly supervising their son, according to police, and resorted to extreme measures to get her fired - and imprisoned
A tennis instructor found the boy 'crying and alone', according to the complaint. Mrs Peters allegedly said she locked the boy out because he took too long to line with other children.
The feud then seems to have intensified after Mrs Easter was asked by the school board not to take the matter to police.
Mrs Easter then got a retraining order against Ms Peters, claiming that she was harassing her son and had even threatened to kill her. She claimed that Ms Peters 'will stop at nothing to silence my son' and had been calling him psychotic and unstable to other parents.
'She is stalking me and attempting to intimidate me at my son's school and while I run errands in Irvine,' she alleged.
Police said that on February 16, 2011, the Easters enacted a plan to get rid of Mrs Peters.
Just after midnight, police claim Kent Easter sneaked over to the home of the Mrs Peters, who was identified by KTLA, and placed the drugs inside her unlocked vehicle in plain sight, where it would be easily visible from outside the vehicle.
Later that day, Kent Easter assumed a fake name and phone number and reported to police that he was a 'concerned parent who had witnessed an erratic driver park at the elementary school,' officials said.
He identified Mrs Peters by name, claimed he witnessed her shoving a bag of drugs into her car and even read out her license plate, police said.
Kent and Jill Easter were allegedly in constant contact with one another throughout the escapade, texting and calling each other in between every move.
'This was obviously something [the Easters] had sought out and planned with the intent of having her arrested,' Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office, said to the Los Angeles Times.
Out: Police said that on February 16, 2011, the Easters enacted a plan to get rid of Mrs Peters, who was the Parent Teacher's Association president at the Plaza Vista Elementary School, pictured
But when officers arrived at the parking lot and saw the bag of drugs, they asked Mrs Peters to search her vehicle. She complied, but was shocked at what they found.
'I thought I was on a joke show, like someone was playing a joke on me,' Mrs Peters told KTLA.
'I thought I was on a joke show, like someone was playing a joke on me.'
Victim, Kelli Peters
Regardless, she was detained for two hours while police conducted an investigation.
They quickly determined that the woman was in a classroom during the time she was supposedly stuffing drugs in her car.
After that, the focused in on the Easters, who had tried to sue Mrs Peters twice before, but the cases were dismissed.
'They tried to make me look like the worst person you could be when you’re involved with a school,' Mrs Peters told KTLA. 'I just don't understand it.'
Police said they obtained footage from a security camera near Kent Easter's work in Newport Beach while he was calling to report on Mrs Peter's 'erratic driving.'
Accomplices? Kent and Jill Easter were allegedly in constant contact with one another throughout the escapade, texting and calling each other in between every move
Party's Over: Kent and Jill Easter were arrested on Tuesday and charged with conspiring to prompt a false arrest, false imprisonment, and conspiracy to falsely report a crime
'I wouldn't have seen my daughter again,' Mrs Peters said, thanking the police for being so thorough.
'Those are the nightmares that I had.'
Kent and Jill Easter were arrested on Tuesday and charged with conspiring to prompt a false arrest, false imprisonment, and conspiracy to falsely report a crime.
If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of three years in state prison. They were released on $20,000 bail each and neither returned the MailOnline's request for comment.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Fire crews in Essex announce strike days - BBC News
Firefighters in Essex have announced they are to stage five strikes in a dispute over cuts to the service.
The Fire Brigades Union said industrial action will take place on 28 June, 7 and 18 July, 18 August and 18 October.
The union claims Essex will have lost one in five frontline firefighters since 2008 if planned cuts go ahead.
Essex Fire and Rescue said 100 firefighters and dozens of retained crews had declared themselves available during strike periods.
"More than 100 Essex firefighters have signed up to resilience contracts guaranteeing their availability during times of severe staff shortages," the county service said in a statement.
"Added to that are dozens of retained crews determined to continue to provide life-saving cover to their local communities.
"The service has a responsibility to ensure the safety of our communities and that is a responsibility we take seriously and one we are not prepared to leave to chance with the threat of strike action looming."
'Two-faced approach'Alan Chinn-Shaw, chairman of the FBU's Essex branch, said: "This is about cuts to frontline firefighters and changes imposed on firefighters.
"We've had enough and the cuts are now directly impacting on public and firefighter safety.
"The recent highly provocative removal of key fire engines and vital rescue equipment contradicts the fire authority claim that it is being reasonable.
"This two-faced approach has gone on for three years and enough is enough."
Essex firefighters voted by 2-1 in favour of strikes following almost three years of action short of a strike.
Chief Fire Officer David Johnson said Essex Fire and Rescue Service management had moved 95% towards union demands and it was now down to the union to move the other 5%.
"There are only a few points still in dispute - points the service cannot move on, including no changes to anything without prior union agreement," he said.
"The union also wants a reversal of the decision to change Brentwood Fire Station crewing arrangements from two wholetime appliances to one wholetime and one retained."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Every local council authority anywhere in the world is just another name for ratepayer funded public trough, only available to the snouts of council pigs.
- Len, Perth Australia, 17/6/2012 03:03
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