Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1048

Rutgers' New Athletic Director Is Reportedly a Former Abusive Coach

This one is a little awkward. While attempting to heal from the departure of abusive men's basketball coach Mike Rice, Rutgers hired a woman as their new athletic director who used to engage in some of the same abusive activities during her coaching career that got Rice fired.

Eleven days ago, Rutgers announced Julie Hermann would be the new athletic director at the school. The ceremony was a cheerful one. Hermann, a 15-year administrative veteran at the University of Louisville, would lead the school through the healing process and into a new, cash filled Big Ten era after one of the darkest scandals in recent memory. Former men's basketball coach Mike Rice was fired after a video surfaced showing him physically and verbally abusing his players. The ensuing scandal also cost athletic director Tim Pernetti his job, too. Hermann would be one of small handfull of women running division 1 athletics programs in the NCAA. Everything was lining up to a be a triumph. 

Saturday night, the New Jersey Star-Ledger's Craig Rolff reported Hermann had a history as an abusive coach herself. While coaching the University of Tennessee's women's volleyball team in 1996, the entire team wrote a letter to their coach accusing her of physical and verbal abuse. "We feel that to continue this program under the leadership of Julie Hermann is crippling mentally, physically, and most importantly to our success as a division 1 volleyball team. The mental cruelty that we as a team have suffered is unbearable," the letter reads. They accused Hermann of calling them whores and alcoholics and leading through fear. They accuse her of trampling any love they had left for volleyball. "It has been unanimously decided that this is an irreconcilable issue," they say. The letter was written on behalf of the entire volleyball team. Hermann did a brief six-month stint as administrator before leaving the university altogether after that.

Wolff also obtained a wedding video from 1994. In it, Hermann advises the bride, Ginger Highline,  one of Hermann's assistant coaches at Tennessee, that having a baby isn't the best idea because it would interfere with work. Highline won $150,000 in a 1997 lawsuit against the school because she felt she was wrongly terminated. Highline had a baby shortly after the wedding and was subsequently fired by Hermann. At the press conference announcing her new position at Rutgers, Hermann claimed there was no video of her at Highline's wedding. She couldn't remember being there, and said she thought they eloped. This is the video of Hermann at Highline's wedding:

She was a bridesmaid. She caught the bouquet. "I hope it's good tonight," Hermann tells the bride and groom. "Because I know you've been waiting for a while, but I hope it's not too good, because I don't want you to come back February with any surprises, you know, the office and all, and it would be hard to have a baby in there."

So this is all leading to some very serious questions about the search committee at Rutgers, and how they could have possibly missed this. "How did Rutgers let this happen? Who, exactly, does the vetting for this university?" asks the Star-Ledger's Steve Politi in a furious condemnation of Rutgers' hiring Hermann. Rutgers' vice president of academic affairs and the co-chair of the athletic director search committee Richard Edwards told Wolff the school's legal team researched the lawsuit, and "were satisfied that it was not an issue." The other co-chair of the search committee, Kate Sweeney, told Wolff she had no knowledge of the lawsuit and that it never came up during the formal interview process. Politi reports in his column that Hermann's name was not on the initial list of candidates brought forward by a headhunting firm early in the search process. Hermann's name was brought to the University later by Sweeney. 

This is the second major blunder in Rutgers' redemption process. In retrospect, the first one seems trivial by comparison, but still. Deadspin were the first to notice newly hired Rutgers basketball coach Eddie Jordan lied about being a Rutgers graduate. He had some credits from when he was a Rutgers student, but he never completed his graduate requirements. That something as trivial as "did he actually graduate from Rutgers?" should have been a signal that something larger, like a history of abusive coaching, could fall through the cracks. Hindsight is always 20/20, though. Especially in the messy world of scandal recovery. 

       

The Video of the Washington Bridge Collapse Is Terrifying

Seattle's KIRO-TV got their hands on surveillance video capturing the very moment when a too-heavy truck starts crossing the bridge and the supports start to collapse. You can see the next truck start to cross the bridge as the whole thing is coming apart. It is a terrifying video. Watch the whole thing below: 

The whole thing happens in an instant. The video is shorter than you expect it to be. The truck drives over the bridge and then, almost literally, poof! The bridge is gone. 

We initially didn't know why the bridge stretching over the Skagit River in Washington collapsed Thursday evening. We have since learned that a Canadian truck driver carrying an oversized load of drilling equipment connected with the bridge's structure while crossing. One of the truck's front corners hit several overhead trusses. Officials still aren't sure that could have cause the whole bridge to collapse, though. The driver had a state permit to travel that route with the oversized load, and a local guide with him as he crossed, making the whole thing an even bigger mystery. 

The bridge was very well traveled but also very, very old. State officials are looking for a short-term fix with the hope one of the state's main paths to Canada isn't blocked for long. They're hoping they can find a pre-built structure to put in place while they try and gather the estimated $15 million it will likely cost to fix. As our Phillip Bump explained, looking to the federal government for infrastructure money is easier said than done recently. 

       

Racial Tensions Are High as U.K. Police Arrest Three More Connected to Attack

The U.K. police arrested three more men on Saturday in connection with the gruesome murder of 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby. They also arrested one suspect's friend minutes after he gave an interview to the BBC, though he's allegedly not connected to the Rigby investigation. It was a mere coincidence, apparently. 

U.K. police announced they arrested three men between the ages of 21 and 28 years old Saturday for conspiracy to commit murder. Two of the men had to be subdued with a taser, while the other came quietly. They're all being held at a London police station now. It's unclear right now what role they played or association they have to 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo and 22-year-old Michael Adebowale, the two men arrested Wednesday at the scene for attacking Rigby with their car and subsequently stabbing him. 

This weekend, one of Adebolajo's acquaintances, Abu Nusaybah, was arrested under terrorism legislation after giving an interview to the BBC. He alleged MI-5 asked Adebolajo to work for them as a spy. He also accused British soldiers of sexually harassing and threatening Adebolajo while the suspect was visiting Kenya. (Kenya has since denied he ever entered the country.) What's a little odd, though, is that Nusaybah was not arrested in connection with Rigby's murder. British authorities arrested Nusaybah in the BBC lobby only minutes after the interview finished. 

Nusaybah did say the two men had been part of the extremist al-Muhajiroun, a group now banned in Britain. But Adebolajo was only a part time, he said. "He attended some of their activities, but he was an independent guy. He would float about," Nusaybah told the BBC. Adebolajo was spotted among the crowd in old footage of one of the group's gatherings earlier this week. 

More troubling may be the rise of racist incidents in London in the days since the attack. A helpline set up for religious attacks said they received 162 calls since Wednesday. The weekly average is six. A handful of people have been arrested for posting racist message online, either on Twitter or Facebook. The far-right English Defense League held a rally Saturday (planned months in advance) that saw 1500 people attend. Hopefully the country won't break under the strong racial tensions coursing through the streets. 

       

The Week's Second Bridge Collapse Happened Because of a Train Collision

It's not every week that two bridges collapse only days apart. This time, seven people are injured after after two trains collided and knocked out a bridge's support pillar, triggering its collapse. Two cargo trains T-boned each other around 2:30 a.m. Friday night in Scott County, Missouri, according to KFVS 12. A Union Pacific train slammed into a a Burlington Northern train, derailing the Northern Union train and sending it straight into the bridge's support pillar. "One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Scott County Sheriff spokesperson Clay Slipis     

The Justice Department Investigated a New York Times Reporter, Too

The New York Times reports the Department of Justice investigated national security leaks given to Times reporter David Sanger over his story last year about the Stuxnet virus by pulling all the email and phone records of government officials who communicated with the reporter. Last summer, Sanger reported the U.S. helped develop the Stuxnet virus and used it to attack Iran, becoming the first country to carry out a sustained cyber attack with the intent of destroying another country's infrastructure. The was some hoopla and a hullaballoo about leaks and DOJ investigations, the Associated Press case, and now a year later we're finding out just how far things went. 

The Times' Ethan Bronner, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane report the FBI requested for any phone and email logs from the White House, the Defense Department and other "intelligence agencies" that showed any contact between employees and Sanger. It does not appear they went so far as to seize Sanger's telephone records or emails, as they did with the Associates Press and Fox News reporter James Rosen. They at least got creative this time. Instead of looking at his communication records, they looked at the communications between him and every government employee by looking on their end. 

The Times report does paint a very detailed picture of how far the Justice Department goes with these investigations, even before they get into the legally and morally questionable practice of subpoenaing a reporters' email and phone records. As a result of the intense scrutiny, the Times says some sources are starting to clam up: 

Some officials are now declining to take calls from certain reporters, concerned that any contact may lead to investigation. Some complain of being taken from their offices to endure uncomfortable questioning. And the government officials typically must pay for lawyers themselves, unlike reporters for large news organizations whose companies provide legal representation.

The intense investigation into Sanger is a little confusing. There were discussions when the story came out about how it seemed the White House may have leaked the story. Or, at the very least, they liked it. It showed the President taking action against Iran during election season. Sanger told Gawker's John Cook the White didn't protest the story being released. The White House didn't actually leak the story, Sanger said, but they didn't fight him about it either. The investigation into the Stuxnet leak was announced the same day as the AP investigation. 

       

Jimmy Fallon's Wonderful 'Game of Thrones' Parody Previews Late Night's New King

Jimmy Fallon released a brilliant Game of Thrones parody on Friday's episode of Late Night and, really, the whole thing is fantastic. But it really served as an introduction for the next king of the remote control throne. No, seriously, look closer: they made a spot-on reproduction of the iron throne, but with television remotes. It turns out the world of late night television, especially at NBC, is a lot like Game of Thrones. There are arguments, back room dealings and a murky line of succession often corrupted by ego. So it only makes sense to boil the last few months of bad press into a wonderful and immature riff on one of the best shows on TV. 

Game of Desks starts with Fallon, a spitting image of Ed Stark, receiving word that there is a Joffrey-esque usurper attempting to steal his throne. It turns out "Prince Firecrotch," the head writer, took Fallon's place at the Iron Desk because Fallon forgot to call a seat save. (Always, always call a seat save.) Anyway, it goes on from there, with Fallon nearly losing his head. The Roots play a major role, of course, but the ending is the best part. We don't want to spoil everything, but the ending is the best part. We get to hear, for the first time, what the next "heir" to the late night throne will sound like when his reign starts "in February of aught-fourteen."

       

The Significance of Soccer's Robbie Rogers Coming Out of Retirement

Soccer player Robbie Rogers will announce he's coming out of retirement on Saturday. This may seem insignificant, except Roger isn't old, or past his prime, or unworthy of a contract. The 26-year-old former U.S. national team member retired in February after announcing that he's gay. It wasn't until late Friday night that USA Today reported Rogers' second coming out. This time, he's coming out of his self imposed retirement that started in February. Rogers wrote a blog post disclosing his sexuality to the world and, also, his retirement. On Saturday afternoon, the MLS's Los Angeles Galaxy will announce they've acquired Rogers in a trade with the Chicago Fire. 

Rogers' decision to retire robbed major North American team sports of having its first out gay player when Rogers retired. He felt he needed to leave, both to deal with his sexuality on his own, and to avoid scrutiny from the press and fans, he says now. "I seriously felt like a coward," Rogers tells USA Today. But he's not only aiming for the pitch at the Home Depot Center where the Galaxy play -- he wants to return to the U.S. national team with the hope of playing in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. "I want to get back to the national team. I was so close to making the World Cup in 2010, I want to be there for the next one," he says. 

The soccer world responded so positively when Rogers left the game, and the reaction over the last 24 hours or so have been similar. "A huge step for [Rogers] signing with [the LA Galaxy] good luck, and I'm really impressed and proud of you," U.S. national team star Abby Wambach tweeted.

NBA player Jason Collins will go down in the history books as the first out, active athlete in major North American team sports. But 34-year-old Collins is a journeyman center and, more importantly, a free agent. He has just greater than a 50-50 chance of being signed by next season. There is a very real chance he won't return to the NBA. And whether or not the MLS counts among the "major" team sports in North America -- the generally considered big four: the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL -- is irrelevant. Rogers' coming out of retirement means there will a gay athlete playing at one of his sports' highest levels within the calendar year. He will be on the pitch competing with other players, surely facing scrutiny from the fans and media, but doing it with pride. That's more than the NBA, NHL, MLB, and certainly the NFL, can say. 

       

Is Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford, Rob's Brother, a Former Hash Dealer?

A day after Toronto mayor Rob Ford carefully denied smoking crack cocaine, The Globe and Mail unleashed a bombshell of a story alleging the entire Ford family -- and Ford's closest adversary in office -- has very close ties to the drug trade. 

The Globe reports Rob Ford's older brother, 48-year-old Doug Ford, was a mid-level hashish dealer in the 1980s. He routinely sold in larger quantities, like half- and quarter-pounds, to low level street dealers. Ford allegedly dealt hashish from the time he was 15 years old until he turned 22 years old as part of a group called the RY Drifters that operated primarily out of a strip mall parking lot in Etobicoke, the wealthy Toronto suburb where the Ford family lives to this day. Doug Ford also allegedly sold hashish out of the family's basement occasionally. The Ford family still owns and hosts an annual barbecue at the house Ford is alleged to have dealt hash out of.

Hash is a concentrated form of a marijuana plant that gets you significantly higher than regular dope smoking. It is "awesomeness concentrated," according to one Denver drug blogger.  

(Update, 11:12 a.m.: Doug Ford told Global News reporter Sean O'Shea that he has not read the "so-called fictitious" Globe story before launching into a passionate non-denial. He said reporters are "lower than a bunch of fucking politicians." Listen to the wonderful audio here.)

Doug Ford has been an elected Toronto city councillor since 2010, the same year his brother took over city hall. There are no police records backing up the allegations brought forward by the Globe. That is, at least in part, because Doug was discreet about his activities. He was so discreet he had a reputation amongst the other drug dealers for being discreet: 

As a dealer, Doug Ford was not highly visible. Another source, “Tom,” who also supplied street-level dealers and has a long criminal record, said his girlfriend at the time would complain, whenever he was arrested, that he needed to be more calculating “like Doug.” Mr. Ford’s approach, sources said, was to supply a select group that in turn distributed smaller amounts across Etobicoke.

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The Globe is Canada's paper of record. It was odd when they had no new information immediately after Gawker and the Toronto Star reported the existence of a tape showing Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. It is now clear what they were working on. This story, the Globe says, was in development for 18 months. They spoke to dozens of Doug's former associates who all fingered the city councillor as a former hashish dealer. There is nothing connecting mayor Rob Ford to his brother's hashish operation, but, still, this is important information considering he was recently accused of smoking crack cocaine within the last six months. Gawker, it should be noted, is not far from raising enough money to buy the tape showing mayor Ford smoking crack. Unfortunately, the sellers have gone AWOL. 

The extensive piece also raises questions about the recently hired director of operations and logistics David Price, whose role and connection to the mayor has never been clearly defined. The Globe alleges that Price was a former hashish dealing associate of Doug Ford. The story also alleges that mayor Ford's older sister, Kathy, was a former member of Canadian Klu Klux Klan. More recently, one of her boyfriends threatened to kill the mayor. Rob's other brother, Randy, is also accused of being a former drug dealer, but he was something of a violent hothead. He was once accused of kidnapping someone who owed him money. Seriously, go read the Globe story, because every sentence is close to magnificent. 

Doug Ford has been his brother's fiercest ally and most ardent defender since the crack allegations surfaced. On Friday, after Rob very carefully denied being a crack smoker, Doug was the one who fielded questions from the media. The day after Rob was accused of smoking crack, Doug told reporters the video might be doctored, like the video of a golden eagle snatching a baby created by some Canadian university students. We suspect Ford will allege that drugs can alter memories in a significant fashion. You can't doctor them, though. 

(Correction: This article originally identified Doug Ford as Toronto's deputy mayor. This is incorrect. He is merely a city councillor. Toronto's deputy mayor is Doug Holyday. )

       

Obama's Two Weeks of Scandalmania, in Photos

President Obama has not had an easy couple weeks. Three scandals blew up. His counterterrorism speech was one moment that drew praise from the press — who are furious over the Department of Justice investigation of reporters' communications with national security sources — was interrupted by notorious heckler Medea Benjamin. There was the IRS thing, and there was more than just that. Oh, and it was always raining. Here's visual evidence that Obama's had pretty much no fun these last two weeks.

May 13. At a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in which he pushed back about the Benghazi attack, a tear rolled down Obama's cheek. We do not know why.

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(Photo via Reuters.)

May 15. Obama with Attorney General Eric Holder at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service. That day, Holder had a confrontational appearance at a congressional hearing, and said that he couldn't say much about the Justice Department collecting the phone records of Associated Press reporters because "I was recused from the case."

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(Photo via Associated Press.)

Obama slumps away from the podium after announcing the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steve Miller, was fired.

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(Photo via Associated Press.)

May 16. Obama held a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan. The Turkey stuff was mostly ignored as Obama answered questions about the IRS's targeting of conservative groups while protected rather awkwardly by a Marine's umbrella.

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(Photo via Associated Press.)

May 17. Obama spoke about jobs in Baltimore on the second stop of his "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour." What, you've never heard of the "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour"? That's because there are more interesting things going on.

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(Photo via Associated Press.)

May 19. Obama gave the commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta. It rained. Here's Rep. John Lewis trying to stay dry.

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(Photo via Associated Press.)

May 23. Obama announced an end to     

The Gay Boy Scouts Are Still Impossible

This week, after years of secret analysis and months of delays, the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to allow openly gay youth under the age of 18 to enroll in the influential organization. Historic as Thursday night's overturning of the ban may be, the vote upset as many religious groups — who help pay for one of the nation's most storied youth programs and saw the move as an appeasement — as it did gay rights advocates, who see the Scouts as out of line with the rest of the country and will continue to push one of the nation's most storied youth programs for the open admission of gay adult leaders and role models. Indeed, what seems like progress from the top-down may not only lead to lawsuits, defections, and instant bigotry — the vote may reveal the problem with Boy Scouts from the inside-out: its first official coming out party is still a microcosm of discord on gay acceptance, especially in Christian America, no matter what polls say today or the Supreme Court declares in a few weeks. Here's a survey of the reaction so far.

Gay Rights Advocates Are Not Thrilled

Perhaps the best summation of how LGBT groups felt about the vote — 61 percent of the 1,400 member Boy Scouts national council supported allowing gay Scouts — is in this Mother Jones headline: "Boy Scouts: You Can Be Gay Until You Turn 18." Here is one of the definitive extracurricular passions for impressionable kids in American history, and they're not okay with the people making impressions on them being gay. And what about boys who come before the age of 18? Do they just get booted when they're no longer a minor? Disavowed? "It's an incomplete step, but still a step in the right direction," Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout raised by two lesbian mothers, and founder of Scouts for Equality, told MoJo.

The outspoken and out 16-year-old Pascal Tessier had mixed emotions as well: "Obviously, for gay Scouts like me, this vote is life-changing," he said at a press conference. But he added: "That one couple hours (between 17 and 18) will make me not a good person."

[image error]And then there was GLAAD, which has been perhaps the leading lobbyist putting pressure on the Scouts council — and which isn't stopping now. "It's time to keep up the pressure! GLAAD needs your help to make sure gay parents and adults are also able to participate," read the organization's release on the vote. 

Perhaps one of the more scathing critiques arrived from over at the gay blog Towleroad and its legal guru Ari Ezra Waldman, who argues that allowing gay youths into the organization while denying gay leaders is more harmful — because the Scouts see a young gay person as someone who needs some sort of correction. Waldman writes:

The ban on gay scout leaders does more evil than simply denying young gay scouts good role models. It reinforces the Scout message that homosexuality is wrong: The Scouts are saying that, as a child, you don't know who or what you are, so we will help you find yourself; as an adult, your choice to be gay, in violation of morality and God, makes you a negative influence on children.

The Mormon Church Is Just Fine

According to the Boy Scouts's own statistics, over 70 percent of Scouts are sponsored by religious groups. And in the official Boy Scouts statement on Thursday, the group's organizing body made sure to say that the decision was "in line with the beliefs" of most major religions. With that, everyone was waiting to see what the Mormon church, the single largest religious sponsor of the Boy Scouts of America, would have to say. Turns out, they're completely fine with decision. The Church posted a statement on their website which read:

Sexual orientation has not previously been – and is not now – a disqualifying factor for boys who want to join Latter-day Saint Scout troops ... Willingness to abide by standards of behavior continues to be our compelling interest.

To some, that response was a relief. The fallout and possible defections if the Mormon Church had disavowed the vote would have been nothing short of staggering, considering the amount of clout it has across the organization. 

Other Religious Groups? Not So Much

"We are deeply saddened," Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, told the AP. He added: "Homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout oath and Scout law." For reference, here are the Scout Oath and Scout Law:

Scout Oath (or Promise)

On my honor I will do my best 
To do my duty to God and my country 
and to obey the Scout Law; 
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, 
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, 
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty,
brave, clean, and reverent.

It's unclear what elements of being gay Page feels are so diametrically opposed to the oath and law. And, yes, everyone has been making that "morally straight" pun for a while now. 

The Southern Baptist Convention, of course, was not alone. The Assemblies of God, an alliance of churches that identifies as Christian, told the AP that letting gay boys into the Boy Scouts would start a mass exodus. The Los Angeles Times's Molly Hennessy Fiske reported that prior to the vote, the Boy Scouts were already expecting troops and the religious groups that sponsor them to drop out, but there is no solid number as of yet. "[The Assemblies of God] also warned that the change would make the BSA vulnerable to lawsuits seeking to end the ban on gay adults," the AP added. 

One of the most vocal responses came from the Family Research Council, a group that touts itself as Christian but is designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group. The FRC called the decision a "casualty of moral compromise." The FRC had been posting videos of leaders threatening to pull out their troops ahead of the vote, and even took out a full-page ad in the in the Dallas Morning News on Thursday to tell leaders to keep the ban on gay scouts. "There is little doubt that God will soon be ushered out of scouting. Now is the time for new leadership. In the meantime, we will stand with those BSA Councils who will now act to protect boys from a new policy that only creates moral confusion and disrespects the views of the vast majority of Scouting parents," the group said.

And the Nuclear Meltdown of This Historic Moment Goes to...

...Red State's Erick Erickson. His Twitter feed on Thursday night was an undulating maelstrom of ranting and evangelical raving. After the decision, he asserted that he didn't care for emo Jesus:

Yes, Christ is love, but he is also wrath, vengeance, and redemption.The modern emo Christ is a fiction.Christ could throw a punch.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 24, 2013

And that he wanted to make sure his followers knew he felt being gay is a sin:

I'm not worried about my son becoming gay. I'm worried about him living in a society that doesn't recognize it as a sin.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 23, 2013

And that he was hungry for (delicious) anti-gay chicken:

I think I need Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 24, 2013

Erickson eventually penned a column stating that he has "No Problem With the Boy Scouts’ Decision," though he spent most of his words insisting that his son will not be a Scout and that gay people are sinning. "I have gay friends. But I do worry about a society that does not recognize homosexual practice as sin. We all fall short of the glory of God, we all like sheep have gone astray, but that does not mean we should stay on the ground off the path of righteousness. We all must repent.," Erickson wrote. So much for history.