Didi Gregorius Is Perfect Short-Term Option for New York Yankees at SS

 

In case you hadn't heard, the New York Yankees needed a new shortstop for 2015. Derek Jeter's retirement has left a void that will be impossible for anyone to replace, given his standing with fans and Hall of Fame credentials, but the front office addressed the situation in the best possible way. 

Instead of trying to overpay for an older free agent or try to put a marquee name at shortstop simply to placate a fan base that's used to seeing big-money players at every position, the Yankees struck a deal to acquire Didi Gregorius in a three-team deal with Arizona and Detroit. 

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported the deal:

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. Brian Cashman said after the deal for Gregorius went down that it wasn't a matter of trying to replace Jeter, via Marc Carig of Newsday:

Additionally, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Cashman also expects the Yankees to go with two shortstops when the season starts:

The point of that is to say the Yankees understand that they are getting a player in Gregorius who comes with flaws, though, he is already an upgrade over what the team got out of its shortstop in 2014. 

New York walked around with blinders on last year because Jeter is untouchable, but he wasn't a good player on either side of the ball. Per Baseball-Reference.com, Yankee shortstops hit a collective .233/.287/.292 in 2014. 

While no one would confuse him with Giancarlo Stanton, Gregorius hit better than New York shortstops with a .226/.290/.363 slash line in 80 games last year. His real value lies with the glove. 

Despite what the Gold Glove awards suggest, Jeter has never been a good shortstop and was the third-lowest rated defensive player at the position by FanGraphs' metrics. He was charged with costing the Yankees 12 runs in the field. 

Using those same FanGraphs' metrics, Gregorius is vastly superior to Jeter. The sample size wasn't as big, but the 24-year-old was average with no runs saved in 580.2 innings at shortstop. That value in the field alone makes him superior to anything the Yankees got out of anyone at the position last year.

 When you factor in money, the gap is even wider. Jeter made $12 million to post a FanGraphs' wins above replacement total of minus-0.3, while Gregorius' WAR was 0.3 with a salary of $506,500 and isn't eligible for arbitration until 2016.  

As Richard Justice of MLB.com wrote, all the Yankees need Gregorius to be is what he has been on defense with a little more offense sprinkled in:

"Didi Gregorius has nice range, good instincts and a big-time arm. At times, he will dazzle. Beyond that, he'll make the plays a starting Major League shortstop is supposed to make, and if you ask a dozen Major League managers what they want from that position, this is it. ...
Gregorius will help himself by playing well defensively and also by hitting some. That's the unknown part of this deal. He's had only 724 plate appearances in the big leagues, which is about a season and a half."

It's not like Gregorius has no offensive skills. His plate discipline and power are below-average, but he's not a high-strikeout hitter with 122 in 647 career at-bats. 

The Yankees have been burned in the past by their big-money contracts, so it was refreshing to see Cashman dial things back to find a practical option at shortstop. Gregorius may not stick there long-term, especially if his bat doesn't develop the way they want. 

However, in terms of finding a player capable of handling the position who didn't cost much in a trade and will be making a salary at or close to the league minimum in 2015, Gregorius is the perfect answer for this franchise.   

 

Tiger Woods visibly ill on course

Tiger Woods began play Saturday morning at the Hero World Challenge despite being visibly ill on the driving range prior to the third round at Isleworth.

Woods was coughing on the first tee and vomited walking to the second tee box after playing the first hole. After teeing off there, he stood to the side, drenched in sweat.

A clearly uncomfortable Woods still managed his best 18-hole score of the week after finishing with a 3-under-par 69. He closed with three straight birdies and had six in all for the day. 

He was running a high fever during Friday's second round and said afterward, "I wasn't feeling my best, that's for sure, but it is what it is. Just got to stay hydrated and try and keep things down."
Woods still managed to birdie the first hole.

He began the day in last place at his annual 18-player tournament that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation after opening the tournament with rounds of 77 and 70.

He is playing for the first time since missing the cut at the PGA Championship in August after shutting it down to deal with back issues.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Gameplay Debuts at PlayStation Experience

The first ever PlayStation Experience kicked off in Las Vegas today, with a 90-minute keynote getting the fan event off to a rousing start. With lots of announcements and trailers teased for the keynote presentation, it's no surprise that Sony chose to begin by showing off one of its flagship series, Uncharted.

In a live gameplay demo, Naughty Dog's Bruce Straley played through 15 minutes of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, due out for the PlayStation 4 next year. Next-gen Nathan Drake is looking better than ever, and the footage was impressive: gorgeous water effects, plenty of texture detail in that half-tucked shirt, and a few new mechanics to take Uncharted's mix of puzzle-solving, exploration, and combat even further.

In the demo, Drake employs some Assassin's Creed-esque sneaking around before engaging in open gunplay with his foes, as usual killing enemies with no regard. He's got some new tricks on his sleeve, like swinging from a rope mid-combat to reach a shooter on another cliff and using a tool for mountain climbing. And, just in case there were any doubts that this was a live demo, Uncharted 4 glitched out mid-fall, sending Drake descending into a gray void. Straley recovered, and at the end of the demo Drake came face-to-face with an older man who referred to him as "little brother," implying that more of the treasure hunter's family history will be revealed in Uncharted 4.

Despite the glitchy moment, the demo was a great start to Sony's PlayStation Experience. Sadly, we still have no release date for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, so we'll probably hear more around E3 next year.

'Threatening Emails' Sent to Sony Employees After Hack

The FBI is investigating what it describes as "threatening emails" sent to some employees at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which has been the target of a hack so massive that its extent is not yet known. The agency's statement came after Variety reported that an email was sent Friday to Sony employees, written in broken English, in which the alleged hackers, known as GOP, said they planned to bring down the whole company. "Nothing can prevent us, but the only way is to follow our demand," the email reads, according to Variety — but the "demand" isn't very clear: "Please sign your name to object the false of the company at the email address below if you don't want to suffer damage. If you don't, not only you but your family will be in danger." 

The FBI issued a statement saying it is aware of the emails. "We continue to investigate this matter in order to identify the person or group responsible for the recent attack on the Sony Pictures network. Recent events underscore the persistence and maliciousness of harmful cyber criminals, and the FBI will continue to identify and apprehend those who pose a threat in cyberspace," the statement said. Sony did not respond to an NBC News request for comment, but a spokesperson told Variety "We are aware of the situation and are working with law enforcement."

U.S., South African hostages killed in rescue attempt in Yemen

A U.S. journalist and a South African teacher held by al Qaeda militants in Yemen were killed along with some of their captors during a night rescue attempt by U.S. and Yemeni forces in a remote desert village, officials said on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and a Yemeni intelligence official said Luke Somers, 33, and South African Pierre Korkie were shot by their kidnappers shortly after the raid began in the arid Wadi Abadan district of Shabwa, a province in southern Yemen long seen as one of al Qaeda's most formidable strongholds. 

Kerry said the operation, the second attempt to free Somers in 10 days, had only been approved because of information that the American's life was in imminent danger.

However, the Gift of the Givers relief group, which was trying to secure Korkie's release, said it had negotiated for the teacher to be freed and had expected that to happen on Sunday and for him to be returned to his family. 

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is seen by Washington as one of the movement's most dangerous branches. The United States has worked with the Yemeni government and via drone strikes to attack its leadership in southern and eastern parts of Yemen.

"The callous disregard for Luke's life is more proof of the depths of AQAP's depravity, and further reason why the world must never cease in seeking to defeat their evil ideology," President Barack Obama said in a statement. 

He said he had authorised the attempted rescue and said the United States would "spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located".

Somers was moved from the scene of the rescue attempt but died later from his wounds, a senior official in the Yemeni president's office said.

Gift of the Givers said on its website: "We received with sadness the news that Pierre was killed in an attempt by American Special Forces, in the early hours of this morning, to free hostages in Yemen." 

It added: "The psychological and emotional devastation to (Korkie's wife) Yolande and her family will be compounded by the knowledge that Pierre was to be released by al Qaeda tomorrow ... Three days ago we told her 'Pierre will be home for Christmas'."

A South African government spokesman declined to comment.

There was no new information about three other hostages, a Briton, a Turk and a Yemeni, who had previously been held alongside Somers and Korkie, a Yemeni security official told Reuters.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist’s sister, told the Associated Press that she and her father learned of her brother's death from FBI agents at 0500 GMT (12 a.m. EST) Saturday. 

"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," she said from London.

IMMEDIATE DANGER

Kerry said the decision to mount the raid was based on fears that AQAP planned to kill Somers.

"Earlier this week, AQAP released a video announcing that Luke would be murdered within 72 hours. Along with other information, there was a compelling indication that Luke's life was in immediate danger," Kerry said.

U.S. officials on Thursday said American forces had already attempted to rescue Somers, without giving details. Yemeni officials had previously disclosed the release of six Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian hostage in a raid on Nov. 25.

There were contradictory accounts of how Saturday's raid unfolded and how many of the kidnappers were killed. A Yemeni official said on Saturday morning that 10 al Qaeda suspects had died in the raid.

A U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said American special forces had conducted the operation alone at 1 a.m. in Yemen, but that the kidnappers had been alerted to their approach shortly before they arrived. 

The official said the kidnappers then "executed" the hostages, who each sustained multiple gunshot wounds. One died during the flight out and another aboard a U.S. ship.

At no point was there an exchange of fire in the part of the compound where the hostages were being held, the source said, and at no point did U.S. forces shoot into that part of the building. 

A senior U.S. official said Yemen's President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi had given his support for the operation.

Although the United States knew there were two hostages at the location, and that one of them was Somers, it did not know that the other was Korkie, the senior Washington official said.

The rescue team was made up of about 40 members of Special Operations forces, and the raid lasted about 30 minutes from start to finish, said the U.S. officials. 

Yemen's government said in a statement carried on state media that its security forces had led the raid. It said the security forces had surrounded the house and called on the kidnappers to surrender, but they instead shot the hostages.

That led to an assault on the building in which four Yemeni security officers were also wounded, it said. The statement said the house belonged to suspected militant Saeed al-Daghaari, which another Yemeni security source told Reuters it was in the village of Dafaar in the Wadi Abadan district of Shabwa.

"It's a very small village with only 20-40 houses. There were very quick clashes with the gunmen and then it was all finished," a tribal source from the area said.

AQAP on Thursday released a video showing a man it said was Somers saying: "I'm looking for any help that can get me out of this situation. I'm certain that my life is in danger". Reuters was not able to independently verify the authenticity of that video, which was reported on by SITE Monitoring. 

Man charged in Amtrak stabbings held on $1 million bond

A man accused of stabbing a conductor and three passengers on an Amtrak train in southwestern Michigan was charged with four counts of assault with intent to murder and is being held on a $1 million bond, officials said on Saturday.

Michael Williams, 44, is being held on a cash-only bond at the Berrien County Sheriff's Department Jail in St. Joseph, Michigan, said Deputy Craig Staneart.

Niles, Michigan police received a call from Amtrak on Friday evening about a man "acting odd and becoming agitated" on a train from Chicago to Port Huron, said Police Chief James Millin in an e-mail.

Officers came to the depot, where they saw a commotion on one of the train cars with passengers quickly exiting the train, Millin said. Police pushed past the passengers and were confronted by Williams, who was armed with a knife, Millin said.

Police subdued Williams with a taser.

The victims included one female and three males, one of whom was the conductor. The victims were taken to hospitals for treatment for non-life threatening injuries, said Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods.

Williams will be arraigned on Monday, Millin said.

Niles, a town of about 12,000 people, is about 10 miles (16 km) north of South Bend, Indiana, near the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan.

Amtrak said the incident took place on Train 364, the Blue Water line. Alternate transportation was provided for 172 passengers from the train.

Symbol of Phoenixville Firebird Festival set ablaze in arson

 

Officials say someone torched the large wooden structure of a Phoenix ahead of the Phoenixville Firebird Festival.

U.S. holiday shopping discounts deepen, last longer

Amarilis Sinchi visited Macy's at a New Jersey mall on Black Friday, but she waited until this week to purchase the red fleece pajamas she had her eye on.

The 21-year-old student ended up paying $13 at the department store, down from $30 on Friday, which has traditionally been the best day for deals during the U.S. holiday season. "The prices keep getting better," she said, planning a return to another store - Kohl's - which had dropped the price on LEGO toys.  

Retailers started discounting early this holiday season, but that hasn’t stopped them from stepping up the offers now, particularly on apparel. The increasingly fierce struggle for consumer dollars online is adding to pressure for lower prices at stores, where mobile device-toting customers compare prices as they shop.

Many deals are being extended and deepened, visits to malls and data from price tracking firms show, and analysts see many retailers' margins being compressed, especially in apparel.  

"We’re experiencing post-holiday promotions even before the holiday is in full swing," said Steven Barr, U.S. Retail and Consumer Leader at consultants PwC, who has not seen such a high level of deals at this stage of the season before. On one trip to a mall, an apparel store dropped a discount from 40 percent to 50 percent while he ate lunch.

“We expect this is going to be the most promotional holiday on record,” challenging profits in the sector, he said.

Consumers remain cautious about spending despite lower gasoline prices and an improved jobs and housing market, surveys by Reuters/Ipsos show. Wages growth has been very limited while food and healthcare costs have risen.

People do generally appear to be getting more price conscious. In a survey this summer conducted by PwC, 84 percent of respondents said they chose a store because of the prices it offers, up from 74 percent in 2013.

The 10 retailers with the most traffic and sales more than doubled the number of discounted items online during the week after Black Friday, according to data from TrackIf, a service that tracks prices across nearly 2,000 retail websites.

To be sure, retailers with unique or popular products have avoided big price cuts, and there is substantial variation between companies and types of merchandise. Many retailers have gone into the season with less inventory than previous years, and mainstream forecasters expect holiday sales will rise around 4 percent for the year, despite the discounting.

But already some retail earnings and stock prices are being hurt by weak sales and the increased level of discounting, in particular at teen clothing store chains. Teen buyers preferring to spend on phones and gadgets rather than clothes has been hurting that sector for some time.

SOME RETAILERS HURT BADLY

Shares of teen retailer Aeropostale dropped Wednesday to a 52-week low after it reported a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss. Like apparel retailers Express and Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale was hurt by discounting and slowing demand. On Friday, teen retailer Delia*s said it would file for bankruptcy.

"The gross margins are being pressured," said Nomura retail analyst Simeon Siegel. Apparel retailers, he said, can't cut prices much more than 50 percent without losing money, so many are trying to win sales by extending the time they offer discounts.

Companies that track discounts can discern a significant change. Last year, online prices from traditional retailers were lowest on Black Friday for a variety of products in many categories, according to Market Track. But this year, for instance, it found prices of kitchenware fell in the days after Black Friday, by 13 percent at Sears and 47 percent at Macy's.

ShopSavvy, which tracks merchandise and prices for the top 100 online and in-store retailers based on their traffic and sales, compared discounts in five categories of items at 32 of these merchants on Black Friday and early this week. Computers, clothing and home and garden products showed widening discounts. Electronics and entertainment products were cheaper on Black Friday itself.

ShopSavvy CEO John Boyd said that the rise of mobile and online commerce was driving retailers to spread discounts beyond Friday. This year's move toward post-Black Friday bargains was "materially stronger" than previous years, he said.  

Most stores also didn't wait until the holiday weekend to start discounts, said ShopSavvy, which also found that many of the big retailers were offering the same deals as online retailer Amazon.com.

Ecommerce researcher Profitero found online discounts of some 41,000 toys, electronics and sporting goods at Amazon, Best Buy, Toys R Us and Walmart held steady on this week's Cyber Monday compared with last week's Black Friday.

A Macy's spokesman said the retailer plans its promotions in advance. Other retailers declined to comment on holiday pricing strategies.

Standing in the Newport Centre mall in Jersey City, New Jersey, that he has visited regularly over the last eight years, Moody's analyst Charles O'Shea said that while he's seen strong sales of electronics at stores like Best Buy and Target, many apparel retailers already were marking down merchandise.

Walking into a Sears store, he flipped over tag after tag, showing deep discounts on almost all apparel. Some stores, such as American Eagle, were offering shoppers the chance to buy one item and get 50 percent off a second.

Standing outside an Aeropostale, O'Shea pointed at a sign advertising up to 70 percent off. Inside, stacks of neatly folded sweaters were marked down to $14 from $44.50.

That's a good indication that Thanksgiving holiday weekend sales "weren't what they wanted," he said. "They have to get stuff out of there."

Protests against police violence block traffic in New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Protests over U.S. police violence against minorities, sparked by grand-jury decisions not to charge officers in two high-profile cases, were peaceful on their third night in New York although 20 arrests took place, authorities said on Saturday.

Protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and blocking traffic on the city's FDR Drive, a major artery that runs along the eastern side of Manhattan, police said.

"The protests remained very peaceful throughout the night," said Detective Michael DeBonis, a spokesman for the New York Police Department.

The wave of angry protests began on Wednesday when a New York grand jury declined to bring charges against white officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black 43-year-old father of six.

The decision came nine days after a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury chose not to indict a white policeman for the shooting death in August of an unarmed black teenager, spurring two nights of arson and unrest there.

 

More protests were planned in New York for Saturday, as was the funeral of an unarmed black man shot dead by police in a Brooklyn housing project.

The death of Akai Gurley, 28, has added fuel to the public outrage over what many perceive as race-based violence by law enforcement.

The Brooklyn district attorney said on Friday a grand jury would be convened to consider charges against the officer who shot Gurley. Police have said the officer, Peter Liang, may have accidentally discharged his gun.

While the first two nights of protests saw thousands of demonstrators pouring into the streets of New York, the turnout on Friday dropped to the hundreds as a cold, steady rain fell.

Still, more than 100 people stormed into an Apple Store on Fifth Avenue to stage a brief "die-in," sprawling on the floor as shoppers and employees watched.

Similar demonstrations were staged at Macy's flagship department store in Herald Square and at Grand Central Terminal.

Protests unfolded in Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Oakland, California where marchers chanted phrases such as "Black lives matter."

In Cleveland on Friday, the family of a black 12-year-old boy fatally shot by police filed a lawsuit against the city, a day after the federal government found the police department systematically uses excessive force.

Being Born Into Poverty Didn't Stop The Founder of Popeyes From Building A $400 Million Fast Food Fortune

Earlier today, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. announced that it signed a landmark deal to acquire the rights to their secret recipes for$43 million dollars. Popeyes made the deal with the estate of the company's late founder,Al Copeland Sr. You might be surprised to hear that Popeyes didn't already own their secret recipes. You might be even more surprised that Al Copeland Sr, who died in 2008, hadn't been involved with Popeyes since he drove the company into bankruptcy in 1991. So how did Copeland's heirs manage to score a $43 million posthumous payday? As you are about to learn, this is just yet another amazing story in the absolutely fascinating life of Al Copeland Sr. A man who was equally famous in Louisiana for his flamboyant lifestyle and incredibly generous acts of philanthropy. A man who managed to die with nine children from four wives. A man who, despite being born into wretched poverty and never graduating high school, died with a net worth conservatively estimated at $400 million dollars. Al Copeland Sr was a truly fascinating and inspirational person…

Alvin Charles Copeland was born on February 2, 1944 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His family was dirt poor. Al and his two older brothers were raised by a single mom in a rough housing project after their father abandoned the family. Al dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and got a job at a local super market to help support the family. He soon landed a job managing a donut shop called Tastee Donut. At some point, Al was offered the opportunity to buy a brand new new Tastee Donut location. He jumped at the opportunity and sold his car to cover the startup costs. This is where Copeland got his first taste of the lucrative world of fast food franchising.

Copeland lived frugally and saved every penny with the intention to buy another Tastee Donut. As fate would have it, by the time he had the money to buy that second donut store, Al had an even bigger idea. Sensing an even bigger opportunity, in 1972 Copeland decided to launch a restaurant that blended local Cajun flavors with fried chicken and home-style cooking. Al was just 28 years old when he opened the first "Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken" in Arabi, Louisiana, a suburb of St. Bernard Parish. The restaurant was soon renamed "Popeyes Famous Chicken & Biscuits", then just "Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken"… but pretty quickly it was simply known as "Popeyes".

Popeyes was an instant hit. Copeland soon expanded to two locations. Then three. Then four. In 1976, he opened his business up to franchising. Between 1976 and 1986, Popeyes expanded to more than 500 locations. By 1989, there were 700 locations around the world and Popeyes was the third largest quick-service chicken restaurant in the world behind Church's Chicken and KFC.

So what does an ambitious man with the #3 chicken restaurant in the world do next? He makes a deal to buy out the #2 restaurant obviously! In 1989, Copeland negotiated a deal to acquire Church's Chicken for $380 million (roughly $730 million after adjusting for inflation). The combined company now operated over 2000 quick-service chicken restaurants. Still not enough to top KFC's 6000 locations, but impressive nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the merger turned out to be a major bust. The anticipated cost savings of the combined companies never materialized. In fact, because Church's and Popeyes were still being marketed as separate and distinct restaurants, many costs actually went way up. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Copeland financed the acquisition almost entirely with debt. Every year, the interest payments on the debt amounted tens of millions of dollars.

In April 1991, Popeyes was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with debts totaling over $400 million. In October 1992, a bankruptcy judge allowed the company's creditors, operating as a newly formed entity called America's Favorite Chicken (AFC), the right to acquire and run all Popeyes and Church's locations. 20 years after launching his baby, Al Copeland would was relieved of his chicken duties forever.

But wait! There was one small silver lining. Thanks to an extremely shrewd business decision made years earlier Al Copeland may have been down, but he wasn't totally out. Copeland may have lost the rights to his beloved Popeyes restaurant locations in the bankruptcy, but he still controlled one extremely valuable asset: The secret recipes.

Pay attention, because this was a truly brilliant move. Back when Copeland first started to franchise, he technically formed two companies. The first company operated the franchise business and all the owned and operated restaurants. The second company was called "Diversified Foods & Seasonings". Diversified Foods & Seasonings basically controlled one asset: The intellectual property rights to all the secret recipes that made Popeyes chicken and sides taste so darn good.

By contract, every Popeyes restaurant in the world was required to use these spices to give their chicken its distinct Cajun flavor. This company owned and operated five spice plants, two in Louisiana, one in Alabama, one in San Antonio and one in Nebraska. Every Popeyes franchise was required to pay an annual royalty to Diversified Food & Seasonings in order to receive their spices. The contract for these rights was scheduled to last until the year 2029.

When AFC brought Popeyes out of bankruptcy, it had no choice but to continue paying Diversified Food & Spices annual royalties for access to the secret recipes. Those royalties amounted to $10 – $13 million per year in profits for Al Copeland.

Armed with basically a million dollars a month in royalty profits, Al Copeland proceeded to launch dozens of new businesses. He opened several new restaurants, bought three hotels and even two comedy clubs. One of his hotels, The Clarion Grand Boutique Hotel in New Orleans, is one of the highest rated in the entire country.

So exactly how rich was Al Copeland? During his 2004 divorce proceedings (wife number 3 out of 4), it was revealed that Al Copeland had a personal net worth of $400 million dollars and an annual income that fluctuated between $13 and $15 million. Not bad for a high school dropout who was born into poverty and raised in a housing project!

Sadly, Al Copeland was diagnosed with a rare form cancer in December 2007. He died just four months later on March 23, 2008, in Munich Germany, where he was receiving an experimental treatment. Copeland was just 64 years old.

As we mentioned in the beginning of this article, earlier today Al Copeland's heirs reached a deal to sell the rights to the secret recipes in perpetuity for $43 million dollars. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, which is till majority owned by AFC, is now a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, ticker symbol PLKI. Popeyes' CEO Cheryl Bachelder (the first female CEO of a major fast food restaurant) proclaimed:

"This is an exciting and historic event representing a win for everyone involved. We now have the recipes in house in perpetuity, and we thank the Copeland family for helping bring together the treasured recipes Popeyes is known for with the brand so beloved by its guests."

And as if all this wasn't amazing enough, while he was alive Al Copeland never forgot his humble beginnings. He used his wealth to launch several charities that focused especially on education and giving poor kids get better opportunities in life. He established the Alvin C. Copeland Endowed Chair of Franchising at Louisiana State University and provided the funds to launch a Chef Apprentice school at Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Al Copeland certainly lived life to the fullest and the world is much better off because of he was in it!

How Much Does A PGA Tour Caddie Make?

When most people think of a caddie, they probably picture a lazy teenager on summer break sweating it out for tips from old rich men and women. Let's be honest, the first thing we all think of is Caddyshack. It's difficult to watch a single moment of golf on television without seeing a caddie, yet many golf fans have very little concept of what a caddie actually does during a given tournament. More importantly for Celebrity Net Worth fans, we have no idea how much money caddies get paid for their work on a professional level. Do PGA caddies earn a salary? Are they tipped like caddies at a high end country club? Do they take a percentage of a pro-golfer's earnings? Here's a quick breakdown of how the men behind the biggest names in golf bring home the bacon…

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The Base Salary:

Caddies don't have an annual salary like most people do. The President of the Professional Caddies Association (PCA) recently told reporters that high end caddies typically earn a base weekly salary of somewhere between $1,000-$1,500. Again, caddies negotiate this deal with the golfer on a case by case basis. Some could make more. Some could make less. The average PGA Tour player plays between 20-30 events per year, so it would make sense to assume that the average salary would range from $20,000-$45,000.

Bonuses:

The real money for caddies lies in bonuses. The PCA President also explained that golfers earn at least 5% what the golfer makes in a given week. If the golfer finishes in the top 10, that number can grow to 7%. If the golfer wins, that number can grow to 10%. Assuming the PCA President was correctly quoted, you can see how money can add up very quickly.

Let's use the U.S. Open as an example. Martin Kaymer's caddie would receive a $162,000 bonus for winning the tournament. The caddie's bonus is more than any golfer finishing 12th or worse earned at the tournament. The caddies whose golfers tied for 9th would get $14,820. The caddie for Toru Taniguchi, who finished dead last, would get $999.

Using the 2013 PGA Tour Money List, the minimum Tiger Woods' caddie would have received was$427,671. Because Tiger won five times in 2013, it's reasonable to assume the caddie made far more.

In all, 33 golfers made more than $2 million in 2013. That means those caddies would receive a minimum of $100,000 in bonuses. Another 50 golfers made between $1-$2 million, resulting in bonuses of at least $50,000. And if you were the caddie who finished 125th on the money list (the last person to guarantee a PGA Tour card for 2014), you would have received at least $30,508 in bonuses.

Golfers can also receive bonuses or gifts for a good year. Tiger Woods reportedly gave his caddie,Steve Williams, a Ford GT after winning at Doral in 2005 and earned more than $1 million annually during Tiger's prime. Today, thanks to his run with Tiger, Steve Williams is personally worth$20 million. That's a heck of a lot more than many golfers actually have in the bank!

The Complicated Income:

While the path to a six-figure salary is clear for caddies, there are also traps along the path. Caddies operate as independent contractors. This means they negotiate their deals directly with the golfer. While the newly formed Association of Professional Tour Caddies is trying to work with the PGA Tour for better healthcare and retirement benefits, the caddie is kind of like his/her own one-person business. The income listed above doesn't include a government cut, social security, or health insurance deductions. There certainly isn't a pension.

There's also the issue of travel. Caddies often foot the bill for getting to a tournament. 20 years ago, most PGA Tour events were within driving distance, but as the game has exploded in global popularity, many of the world's best golfers play in 5-10 different countries per year, not to mention an early tour stop in Hawaii. With fuel, lodging and entertainment prices rising, the cash cow can have some spots.

Caddies often work seven days a week, walking the course looking for the slightest advantage for their golfer/boss. The hard work offers plenty of reward if things go right, and not much security if things go wrong. Still, it's easy to see why so many seek so few opportunities to carry someone's bag on a Sunday.

Oh and one more small piece of interesting trivia: The richest person at this year's US Open was a caddie. One of the caddies was actually a billionaire. That happened because one of the qualifiers chose his father Scott McNealy to be his caddie. McNealy was one of the founders of Sun Microsystems and has a personal net worth estimated at $1 billion dollars 

World Cup 2014 : Five problems jeopardising Brazil's World Cup hopes

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari declared himself "satisfied" with his team's 0-0 draw against Mexico in Fortaleza on Tuesday, and the hosts remain on course to reach the World Cup knockout phase.

However, 'Felipao' admitted that improvements still need to be made, as was evident in their opening game, when they came from behind to beat Croatia 3-1 in Sao Paulo.

Here's a look at five areas where the Selecao could fall down in their bid to win the World Cup.

Coping with the pressure

"The demands are always much greater here in Brazil, but we are prepared," said Dani Alves after the Mexico game. Nevertheless, the Selecao have shown signs of fragility under pressure in their two matches so far.

Seeing Neymar break down in tears at the end of the rousing version of the national anthem at the Castelao brought home the enormity of what this Brazil side is trying to achieve and the amount of pressure they carry on their shoulders.

Against Mexico, the nervous energy transmitted by the crowd in the early stages of the game in particular had an impact on both sets of players.

First touches were poor, passes were wayward and challenges came flying in during a frantic opening spell.

Brazil at times lack a calming presence - captain Thiago Silva is usually such a cool customer but he has apparently been unable to sleep at night due to the pressure that is as stifling as the heat in Fortaleza.

Dependence on Neymar

With the possible exception of Oscar, Neymar is the one player in this Brazil side capable of conjuring up a moment of match-winning magic from nowhere.

Fred last week insisted there was nothing wrong with giving the ball to the Barcelona man when the going gets tough. Against Croatia his was a match-winning contribution, and against Mexico he was twice denied by brilliant Guillermo Ochoa saves.

However, seeing Neymar in tears following the national anthem in Fortaleza indicated that he could do with having some of the weight taken off his shoulders.

"Neymar doesn't win or lose on his own. He is part of a group," says Scolari. "Within the group, he can sometimes be the decisive player. But he wins and loses with the rest of the team."

Striking concerns

Scolari has selected Fred against both Croatia and Mexico, but the 30-year-old Fluminense centre-forward has been ineffective, except for winning the controversial penalty that set Brazil on their way to victory in their opening match.

Against Mexico, Fred was replaced by Jo, and he could be a contender to come into the starting line-up against Cameroon on Monday, when Brazil will look to clinch their place in the last 16.

There are no other options, and it is easy to wonder how much of a difference Diego Costa could have made had Scolari shown faith in him and persuaded the Atletico Madrid man to represent his homeland rather than his adopted country Spain.

Paulinho

"Today I felt much freer out on the field, which is fundamental to me," said Paulinho after the Mexico game. But the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder still didn't do enough to suggest that he should be an automatic starter against Cameroon.

With a solid centre-back pairing and Luiz Gustavo offering extra protection to the defence, Brazil could do with a more technical, creative player in central midfield. Paulinho has often appeared sluggish, his touch clumsy. Perhaps Hernanes will get his chance to impress in Brasilia.

What about Plan B?

Scolari wants his sides to come flying out of the blocks and score an early goal. But against Croatia they conceded first and had to rely on a controversial penalty as they fought back to win the game.

Against Mexico, they often lacked inspiration and couldn't find a way past Ochoa, leaving Oscar to later lament: "In the first 30 minutes, we had various chances to score but none of them came off. Mexico play with almost everyone behind the ball. It is difficult to play against opponents like that who counter-attack quickly."

Scolari may need a more efficient Plan B come the tournament's latter stages.

Kanye, Kim took 4 days to perfect their first wedding picture

Speaking at the special talk at Cannes Lions festival, Kanye West spoke about what went behind the first wedding picture before it was Instagrammed to the world.

He revealed that a famous celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz backed out one day before their wedding leaving them upset.
'I'll tell you a little story about the Kiss photo that my girl put up,' Perfectionist and rapper Kanye told the audience at Cannes.
'She was exhausted because we worked on the photo so much because Annie Leibovitz pulled out of the wedding, because I think she was scared of the idea of celebrity.
'But because Annie pulled out, I was like "I still want my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz's photos" and we sat there and edited photo for four days - because the flowers were off-colour and stuff like that.
'Can you imagine telling someone who wants to just Instagram a photo, who's the number one person on Instagram, "We need to work on the colour of the flower wall", or the idea that it's a Givenchy dress, and it's not about the name Givenchy, it's about the talent that is Riccardo Tisci - and how important Kim is to the internet.
'And the fact the number one most-liked photo [on Instagram] has a kind of aesthetic was a win for what the mission is, which is raising the palette.
Afer all the hard work, Kim and Kanye's wedding photo is the most-liked image to be uploaded to Instagram.

Facebook launches new image messaging app Slingshot

Facebook has launched a photo-messaging app one week after accidentally releasing it on Apple's app store.

Known as Slingshot, the app's features include sharing photos and videos with friends and sending "reaction shots".

It uses an unlocking mechanism, whereby photos received from friends must be unlocked by "slinging" a different photo back to the original sender.

Like Snapchat, all images are deleted once sent and users can scribble or type over their photos.

"When everyone participates, there's less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences."

On the social media page for the app, the creators said: "With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator.

The app is developed by Facebook's Creative Labs division, which has been tasked with creating new and innovative products.

Slingshot users do not need to have a Facebook account to sign up for the photo-messaging app. They can access the app with their mobile phone number and connect with friends in their phone's contact list, or they can connect via their Facebook friends' list.

Snapchat competitor?

The Slingshot launch comes as Facebook is trying to fight off threats from other social networking agents, which also contain messaging and photo-sharing tools.

In addition to developing its own apps, Facebook has also been on an acquisition spree.

In 2012 Facebook bought photo-sharing network Instagram for $1bn (£589m).

A year later, it was reported that Snapchat rejected a $3bn bid from Facebook, revealing the social media giant's apparent continued and serious interest in photo-messaging services.

Previously Facebook attempted and failed to create a successful image-messaging app called Poke, which was recently abandoned and had been described by some as a "blatant copycat app."

In addition to the unlock requirement, Slingshot features a "select all" function, which allows people to send a picture to all their contacts at the same time.

However, unlike Poke, Slingshot has a number of unique features not found in rivals such as Snapchat, which could help it distinguish itself.

As the Verge news site notes, Snapchat has deliberately avoided offering such a facility to avoid its users becoming overwhelmed with alerts.

Another similar app and potential rival is Taptalk, which is reportedly admired among some Facebook engineers.

Taptalk provides a comparatively minimalist and simplified approach to image messaging, allowing users to send personal pictures or videos by tapping or holding their friend's profile picture.

It has also been noted that Slingshot's icon is strikingly similar to Taptalk's.

At this point Slingshot is available on Apple's App Store and Google Play to US account holders, but not elsewhere.

U.K. stocks rise for second day after BOE minutes

Royal Dutch Shell climbs after asset sale

Helping lift the benchmark, shares of Royal Dutch Shell PLC UK:RDSB +1.69%  RDS.B +0.13%  picked up 1.4% after the oil giant confirmed it has completed the sale of 78 million shares of Woodside Petroleum Ltd. AU:WPL -4.55% . Shares of Woodside dropped 4.6%. Oil prices were also higher amid sectarian in violence in Iraq that could disrupt the country’s oil supply. On Wednesday, Iraq’s largest oil refinery was attacked by Sunni militants using machine guns and mortars, according to media reports.

Investors in London also found support in the minutes from the Bank of England’s June meeting. All nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted in favor of leaving the key interest rate at a record low of 0.5% and making no changes to its 375 billion pound ($636 billion) asset-purchase program.

After BOE Governor Mark Carney last week said rates could rise sooner that markets currently expect, speculation grew that MPC member Martin Weale had voted in favor of tightening policy.

“It still looks like a rate rise will be a 2015 event, although, should the run of strong U.K. data continue, there is a chance that a rate rise may happen around the time of the November Inflation Report,” said Jake Trask, corporate dealer at UKForex, in a note.

BOE officials did signal in the minutesthat a rate rise could come before the end of the year, but only if they assess that the economy can cope with higher borrowing costs. The poundGBPUSD -0.14%  slipped after the minutes, trading at $1.6944, down from $1.6966 ahead of the release.

Back in corporate news, shares of Premier Foods PLC UK:PFD -8.70% tumbled 7.4% outside the main index in London, after the food producer warned that “Power Brands” sales for the second quarter are anticipated to be negative and below the company’s expectations due to subdued grocery markets.

Boy finds mummified body hanging in Dayton, Ohio, home

In an empty, dusty house, a boy stumbled upon a classic horror movie scenario this week: A mummified corpse hanging by the neck from a belt.

And officials say it had been there for five years.

Until the boy made his way inside the ramshackle house in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday, neighbors didn't think anyone lived there, said Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.

They thought the house was abandoned, and it looked that way.

The front door was papered with citations for the overgrown yard, and no one came and went from the address. The home was unfurnished.

Inside, however, was the body of Edward Brunton, who hanged himself with a belt in a closet in 2009, according to Betz.

Betz puts Brunton in his late 40s at the time of his suicide.

The closet shielded his body from rapid decomposition, animals and insects, resulting in the mummy-like condition the boy found it in.

"Because of the location where he was found, it was relatively protected, sunlight-protected, temperature-protected and low humidity," coroner Kent Harshbarger told CNN affiliate WDTN.

Brunton had little time to forge friendships with neighbors; he had purchased the home just months prior to his death. He also was estranged from his family and friends, thus no one ever reported him missing, Betz said.

The boy's mother, Michelle McGrath, went into the house to investigate. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she entered the room that housed the closet.

"When I crossed the threshold of the room, is when I smelled it," she said.

She called the police.

Authorities found identification documents on Brunton's body. His estranged brother, who still recognized him, confirmed it was him.

Suicide bomber strikes Nigeria World Cup screening, killing 14

A Suicide bomber driving a three-wheeler taxi detonated a blast at a open air World Cup viewing venue in Damaturu, northern Nigeria Tuesday night, killing 14 people, according to police.

Police Assistant Superintendent Nathan Cheghan told the Associated Press 26 other were wounded in the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in the Yobe state capital as people watched Brazil play Mexico, but suspicions fell on Islamist militia Boko Haram or a similar Islamist splinter group.

Police commissioner for Yobe state, Sanusi Ruf’ai, said the attack happened at about 8:15 p.m., shortly after the soccer match began.

The bomb blast follows several similar attacks in northern Nigeria in recent months. Just over two weeks ago, 14 people were killed in a bomb attack on a bar in the town of Mubi in Adamawa state, where people were watching soccer. In May three people were killed at a soccer viewing venue in Jos, the capital of Plateau state. And in April, two people died when gunmen opened fire on a soccer viewing venue in Yobe state.

In soccer-mad Nigeria, young men often crowd into bars, video halls and mass open air football screening venues to watch the game live via cable TV or large screens. For many who lack cable TV at home it is the only way to see World Cup soccer games live and other major soccer matches.

But Nigerian authorities have warned that venues screening soccer matches could be targeted by extremists who see the game as un-Islamic.

Authorities in Adamawa and Plateau states and the Federal Capital Territory have recently banned screenings of world cup soccer matches in public venues because of the risk of attacks. Police in other areas have warned venue owners to take extra security precautions.

Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states have been under a state of emergency for more than a year as the Nigerian government grapples with an insurgency that has killed thousands of people in recent years, shut down schools and caused thousands of farmers to desert their land and villagers to evacuate their homes.

Boko Haram kidnapped more than 300 girls from Chibok village in April, and the ensuing campaign for their release, under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls focused global attention on the militant group.

Boko Haram’s attacks have increasingly targeted civilians. In an attack on a boarding school in Yobe state in February, dozens of school boys were shot in their beds, burned alive or had their throats cut. Hundreds of school teachers have been killed in northern Nigeria since last year. Markets and bus stations have been hit as well.

The group, fighting for an Islamic state across all Nigeria, opposes Western education and culture, which it sees as the products of corrupt infidels. The insurgency has deepened divisions between the mainly Muslim north and mainly Christian south in Africa’s most populous nation of about 170 million people.

Football viewing venues make easy targets for terror groups in Africa: during the soccer world cup in 2010 more than 70 people died in an attack by Somali terror group Al Shabab in the Ugandan capital Kampala. The U.S. embassy in Kampala recently issued a warning to avoid crowded football venues in Uganda because of the risk of attack.

In an attack Sunday in the Kenyan town of Mpeketoni, people watching a world cup soccer game at a local venue were among the victims. Some 60 people died in attacks Sunday and Monday on Mpeketoni and nearby villages, not far from the tourist area of Lamu on the north eastern Kenyan coast.

Both Kenya and Somalia have faced attacks by Shabab because of their military presence in Somalia, although Kenyan authorities blamed local political networks for the attacks Sunday and Monday.

There were fears the number of dead in the Damaturu attack could rise, with many seriously injured victims.