2012 AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL Preview


2012 AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL Preview Prediction: Iowa St. Cyclones vs Tulsa Golden Hurricane
Preview prediction of the Liberty Bowl between the Iowa St. Cyclones and Tulsa Golden Hurricanes on 12/31/12. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get all of my sports talk videos delivered directly to your inbox. Catch me on Twitter as well, @snewsanalysis

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2012 AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL Preview

West Liberty turns 175 in 2013

WEST LIBERTY, Iowa Its been 177 years since Enos Nyce braved what then were the wilds of Iowa to stake a claim in a territory known today as West Liberty.

Today, the hand-hewn log cabin that sheltered Nyces family survives only in the images historians paint to describe those early days.

Nyces story and those of other pioneering West Liberty residents will be recalled throughout 2013 in celebration of West Libertys landmark 175th birthday.

Letha Ottaway, chief operating office for the West Liberty Chamber of Commerce, said the festivities begin at 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, with a kick-off celebration at the West Liberty Community Center, 1204 N. Calhoun St.

The public is welcome, said Ottaway. And we want to extend the invitation to the entire Muscatine County.

The free event includes dinner and historical presentations by West Liberty residents Pam Schnittjer, Jody Dvorak and Bill Koellner. Schnittjer, Dvorak and Koellner will dress in period costumes and portray Rachel Gibson-Nichols, Mary Nyce and William A. Clark, respectively, all of whom were part of the citys history.

Memorabilia, including a picture book People, Places and Things, with photos from the 1930s until now, will be on sale said anniversary celebration chairman John Donnelly.

Donnellys group began meeting a year ago, and separate committees are overseeing activities for the coming months.

We went from six people at our first meetings, to 20 active committee members, said Donnelly.

The group was meeting at the West Liberty Depot, and happily accepted an offer to meet in the spacious West Liberty Foods board room, said Donnelly.

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West Liberty turns 175 in 2013

Liberty Clobbers NAIA Union College

From Liberty athletics:

LYNCHBURG, Va. The Liberty men's basketball team's post players shined inside the Vines Center, Friday night, guiding the Flames to a 104-67 victory over Union College.

Liberty's point total is its highest of the season, marking the first time the Flames have reached the century mark since defeating VMI, 100-82, on Jan. 20, 2011.

Four players led Liberty's offense with 14 points JR Coronado, Davon Marshall, Andrew Smith and Tavares Speaks. Along with his career-high scoring performance, Coronado posted a career-high 16 rebounds. Smith's 14 tallies were also a career-high for the sophomore forward. Marshall added a career-high nine assists to accompany his point total.

Playing in his fifth contest since returning to the Flames' lineup, Joel Vander Pol closed out the night with a season-high 12 points and a career-high 11 boards. Chad Donley rounded out Liberty's double-digit scorers, posting a career-high 10 points.

Deante Johnson paced the Bulldogs with a game-high 17 points, followed by Tyler Wagner, who chipped in 15.

With the victory, Liberty moves to 3-10 on the year, while Union College falls to 7-7. Liberty is now 2-0 all-time against the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs led by as much as three in the opening minutes, but the Flames gained the lead thanks to a Marshall three-pointer at 17:25. Tyrell Hall tied the contest at seven 30 ticks later. Liberty then responded with five unanswered points from Marshall and Vander Pol to take a 12-7 advantage at 15:38.

With the Flames holding a three-point edge under the 13-minute mark, Smith wowed the Vines Center with a one-handed jam. Donley fed the ball to the 6-9 sophomore, who proceeded to cut toward the basket and flush the high percentage shot, giving Liberty a 19-14 lead at 12:25.

The Bulldogs made it a four-point game courtesy of Johnson jumper at 9:30. The Flames proceeded to outscore Union College, 10-1, over the next 3:27 to expand their advantage to 13, 35-22, at 6:03.

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Liberty Clobbers NAIA Union College

AutoZone Liberty Bowl approaching important 'offseason'

Photo by Michael Donahue

Steve Ehrhart, director of the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, says planning the game is a "year-round endeavor."

By late morning on Christmas Eve, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl offices in East Memphis were a hub of activity. Steve Ehrhart, the bowl's director for almost two decades now, sat in a chair behind a desk so filled with papers and file folders that it was hard to see the color of the surface. The desk phone rang every few minutes.

This shouldn't be surprising. After all, the one football game that is the culmination of his year was only seven days and a few hours away.

What still surprises Ehrhart, though, are friends who will tease him in the coming months about how he has nothing at all to do.

"It's a year-round endeavor and it starts next week when we have some meetings with some other bowls down at the BCS Championship Game," he said, referring to the bowls' get-together in Miami. "So people say, 'Well, you're going to take some time off?' "

At that, he laughs.

But this year's "offseason" is more important than most. In the coming months, the Liberty Bowl will try to strike a deal with the best conferences it can to send teams to Memphis beginning with the 2014 game. It's the product of a ripple effect: The Liberty Bowl's contracts are up at the same time the rest of the bowl system is being overhauled. So while college football fans celebrate the arrival of a four-team playoff beginning that year, the folks who run Memphis' decades-old postseason game try to make sense of their place in the structure of it all.

At this crossroads of sorts, and on the eve of Monday's game between Tulsa and Iowa State, a look at the bowl's public financial records and an extended interview with Ehrhart help shine a light on what it takes to put on this Memphis tradition and where it's heading.

What it takes

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AutoZone Liberty Bowl approaching important 'offseason'

Liberty Girls Grow In A Pinch

Posted: Dec. 29, 2012 | 2:01 a.m.

Liberty girls basketball coach Rich Santigate knows playing in close games helps his team's maturation process.

The Patriots took a big step forward Friday.

Free throws by senior Tae'lor Monroe and junior Sydney Clark in the final 44 seconds gave Liberty enough cushion to gain a 51-47 victory over West Torrance (Calif.) in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic at Centennial.

The Patriots (11-4), who beat Shadow Ridge, 60-10 earlier Friday, finished 4-0 in pool play to earn a spot in today's semifinals at 11:40 a.m. The championship is scheduled at 3:40 p.m. Liberty has won 10 straight games since a 1-4 start.

"Playing a game like this really gives you confidence," Santigate said. "We missed a lot of foul shots down the stretch, but we made the ones when we needed them."

The Patriots hit 4 of 6 free throws in the final 44 seconds to overcome a 13-for-26 overall performance from the line.

Sophomore Paris Strawther led the Patriots with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Clark supplied 12 points.

Liberty was in control 31-22 early in the third quarter before a 3-point barrage carried West Torrance into the lead.

Sydney Chase, who made seven 3s to score a game-high 21 points, nailed one from behind the arc to cap an 18-8 surge that put West Torrance ahead 40-39 with 4:59 remaining.

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Liberty Girls Grow In A Pinch

Liberty to get new bowling alley

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Crews are working on a new 12-lane bowling alley in Liberty. Contractor Marcos Lopez hangs drywall at the new Liberty Lanes, which could be ready and open for business in late January.DAVID DOONAN/For the Times Herald Record

By Leonard Sparks

Published: 2:00 AM - 12/30/12

LIBERTY Bursts from nail guns echoed around the cavernous interior of what used to be the home of Eckert's Drugs in the Liberty Square strip mall.

As a pair of men finished laying strips of hardwood flooring, A.C. Patel sat on a platform stroking strips of wood with a brush filled with a finish.

His broken left foot was wrapped in a protective boot, but the owner of the Kiamesha Lanes bowling alley and Liberty Square refused to be a passive participant in his latest venture: the construction of a new bowling alley in Liberty.

Months after the Fix family ended the 42-year run of Liberty Lanes, Patel and a crew of workers were putting the finishing touches on a new 12-lane alley that, too, will be called Liberty Lanes.

The pinsetters have been installed as well as the lanes as part of a roughly $300,000 makeover. Patel estimates that he will open the doors to bowlers by late January. "As soon as we open we will start some short-season leagues," he said.

The opening will bring some relief to bowlers who were stunned in August when Bobby and Arvilla Fix announced the closure of Liberty Lanes, which the family had run since 1970.

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Liberty to get new bowling alley

Intensifying cyclone strikes Solomon Islands

Tropical Cyclone Freda has struck the Solomon Islands, bringing heavy rains and winds of up to 130 kilometres per hour.

Witnesses say roofs have been ripped off houses and trees have been flattened, while rising rivers caused flooding in some areas.

There are no reports of deaths or injuries.

Sajay Prakesh of the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Centre in Fiji said although the cyclone was moving away, parts of the Solomon Islands were being hit by "very strong winds and heavy rain".

"Cyclone Freda is now a category two cyclone and it is continuing to intensify," he said on Saturday afternoon.

"It will become category-three by midnight tonight, having very destructive winds."

Coastal and low-lying areas are at risk of inundation and fishermen have been advised to stay away from the sea.

Matthew Bass from the Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane says Freda is no longer expected to hit Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the coming days.

"At this stage it's expected to maintain a reasonably southerly path and with that it isn't directly expected to affect Vanuatu in the next couple of days," he said.

"At this stage around New Year's we're expecting it to be quite far from New Caledonia, still to the north-east of the islands."

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Intensifying cyclone strikes Solomon Islands

Farne Islands no fly zone to become permanent

A NO-FLY zone introduced over a Northumberland wildlife haven after an incident in which birds were killed is to become permanent.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed an exclusion zone created over the Farne Islands following the incident earlier this year will be in situ in future breeding seasons.

The news was last night welcomed by the National Trust, which owns the islands, and the owner of a company which takes boat tours to them.

A Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft is said to have flown low over the Farnes, off the coast of Seahouses, in June.

The islands have a population of 80,000 pairs of seabirds, including kittiwakes which were in the midst of breeding season and nest in cliffs there.

The noise of the low flying is said to have shocked some of the adult kittiwakes, causing them to accidentally tip their chicks out of their nests.

The young birds then fell into the North Sea below and drowned.

The incident was reported on social networking website Twitter by trust head warden on the islands David Steel and Andrew Douglas, who runs the boat tour company.

Both men criticised the RAF for carrying out low-flying over the islands during breeding season and claimed such incidents had happened before.

They also said the air force had been asked not to carry out low flying during the season.

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Farne Islands no fly zone to become permanent

Thousands flee floods as cyclone batters Solomon Islands

Thousands of people were forced to flee rapidly rising rivers in the Solomon Islands, officials said, as Cyclone Freda intensified into a "destructive" force storm and headed towards New Caledonia.

Wind gusts had strengthened to more than 231 kilometres per hour (144 miles per hour, 125 knots) as Freda developed into a powerful category four storm, said Sajay Prakesh at the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Centre in Fiji.

"These winds are very destructive and can cause huge damage to infrastructure and buildings," he told AFP on Sunday.

Freda is expected to reach New Caledonia on New Year's Day and "given its current form if it hits New Caledonia Freda will cause huge damage, as it will blow strong winds and heavy rain for six to seven hours".

As the cyclone moved across the Solomons it lashed the South Pacific archipelago, whipping roofs off houses, flattening trees and forcing people to flee rising rivers.

Thousands of people from riverside villages had moved to the safety of higher ground, National Disaster Management Office director Loti Yates said.

"But there have been no reports of injury," he said.

Fishing boats and other craft were advised not to put out to sea and local flights were cancelled as the cyclone moved across the Solomons on a path towards New Caledonia.

Earlier this month Cyclone Evan strengthened to a category four cyclone and left a swathe of devastation in its wake, destroying homes, flooding rivers and stranding thousands of tourists in Fiji.

Before arriving in Fiji, it pummelled neighbouring Samoa, killing at least five.

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Thousands flee floods as cyclone batters Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands hit by storm

Thousands of people were forced to flee as Tropical Cyclone Freda drenched the Solomon Islands with days of heavy rain.

Rivers rose rapidly, trees were flattened and roofs were ripped from houses as the storm raged over the islands.

The eye of the storm has now edged away from the Solomon Islands, which means that the strongest of the wind has passed, but its still raining very heavily from the outer fringes of the storm.

At the centre of the storm, the sustained winds are 185 kph, with gusts of up to 230 kph. This makes the storm the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The storm is forecast to strengthen marginally, then ease again as it heads towards New Caledonia.

Landfall in New Caledonia is currently forecast for January 4, and by this time the storm should only be a tropical storm in strength. This means that the winds shouldnt cause too much damage, but the rain and the storm surge are still likely to give large flooding problems.

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Solomon Islands hit by storm

Cyclone Freda lashes Solomon Islands

Tropical Cyclone Freda has struck the Solomon Islands, bringing heavy rains and winds of up to 130 kilometres per hour.

Witnesses say roofs have been ripped off houses and trees have been flattened, while rising rivers caused flooding in some areas.

There are no reports of deaths or injuries.

Sajay Prakesh of the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Centre in Fiji said although the cyclone was moving away, parts of the Solomon Islands were being hit by "very strong winds and heavy rain".

"Cyclone Freda is now a category two cyclone and it is continuing to intensify," he said on Saturday afternoon.

"It will become category-three by midnight tonight, having very destructive winds."

Coastal and low-lying areas are at risk of inundation and fishermen have been advised to stay away from the sea.

Matthew Bass from the Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane says Freda is no longer expected to hit Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the coming days.

"At this stage it's expected to maintain a reasonably southerly path and with that it isn't directly expected to affect Vanuatu in the next couple of days," he said.

"At this stage around New Year's we're expecting it to be quite far from New Caledonia, still to the north-east of the islands."

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Cyclone Freda lashes Solomon Islands

Tropical Cyclone Freda Lashes Solomon Islands With Winds, Rain

The Solomon Islands, located about 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) northeast of Australia, are bracing for floods as Tropical Cyclone Freda brought strong winds in the second major storm to hit the South Pacific region this month.

The category 3 storm was about 102 nautical miles (117 miles) south of Rennell Island, moving south-southeast and intensifying, the Solomon Islands meteorological service division said on its website. Winds as strong as 98 miles per hour are expected near the center, it said.

The division has issued a tropical cyclone warning with moderate to heavy swells, rain and thunderstorms that will cause flooding in coastal and low-lying areas.

Freda follows tropical cyclone Evan, a category 4 storm that left at least two people dead and more than 8,000 sheltering in emergency centers in Samoa. In neighboring Fiji, at least 13,900 people sought shelter in evacuation centers, according to Australias foreign aid agency.

There have been no reports of death or injuries in the Solomon Islands, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported today. Freda is expected to steer clear of the neighboring islands of Vanuatu and New Caledonia, the ABC said, citing the Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane.

Off Australias western coast, Tropical Cyclone Mitchell, a category 1 storm, is weakening, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its website. Mitchell is moving south at 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) an hour, and isnt expected to affect Western Australia in the next 48 hours, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net

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Tropical Cyclone Freda Lashes Solomon Islands With Winds, Rain

Budget struggle raising anxiety for health care

WASHINGTON

Confused about the federal budget struggle? So are doctors, hospital administrators and other medical professionals who serve the 100 million Americans covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

Rarely has the government sent so many conflicting signals in so short a time about the bottom line for the health care industry.

Cuts are coming, says Washington, and some could be really big. Yet more government spending is also being promised as President Barack Obama's health care overhaul advances and millions of uninsured people move closer to getting government-subsidized coverage.

"Imagine a person being told they are going to get a raise, but their taxes are also going to go up and they are going to be paying more for gas," said Thornton Kirby, president of the South Carolina Hospital Association. "They don't know if they are going to be taking home more or less. That's the uncertainty when there are so many variables in play."

Real money is at stake for big hospitals and small medical practices alike. Government at all levels pays nearly half the nation's health care tab, with federal funds accounting for most of that.

It's widely assumed that a budget deal will mean cuts for Medicare service providers. But which ones? How much? And will Medicaid and subsidies to help people get coverage under the health care law also be cut?

As House Speaker John Boehner famously said: "God only knows." The Ohio Republican was referring to the overall chances of getting a budget deal, but the same can be said of how health care - one-sixth of the economy - will fare.

"There is no political consensus to do anything significant," said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. "There is a collective walking away from things that matter. All the stuff on the lists of options becomes impossible, because there is no give-and-take."

As if things weren't complicated enough, doctors keep facing their own recurring fiscal cliff, separate from the bigger budget battle but embroiled in it nonetheless.

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Budget struggle raising anxiety for health care

Health care in one place: Start new year with free or low-cost screenings, information at Missoula Area Chamber of …

Nothing makes a better New Years resolution than to promise to stay healthy.

Less than a week into 2013, the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its 16th annual Health Fair, bringing together health care organizations from around the community in one place.

The free fair will be held in Southgate Mall on Saturday, Jan. 5, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Darr Tucknott, the chambers director of programs and events, said the goal of the fair is to provide access to free or low-cost health care screenings and information for the public.

Instead of having to go around to all these different places and make appointments, we want to gather them together so there is one place to go to learn about good health, Tucknott said.

More than 50 vendors will be at the fair, and Tucknott said she expects about 2,000 people to attend.

The event will cover the full spectrum of health-related sectors. That includes nutritional, mental, dental, chiropractic and exercise, said Paul Heihn, who chairs the chambers Health and Human Services committee.

***

Screenings at the event include stress and overall health surveys, spinal analysis, blood pressure and fitness assessments. Community Medical Center will be administering blood tests for a small fee in the morning. Booths with information on Medicare and Medicaid also will be present.

Vibrant Hearing will have audiologists there to conduct hearing screenings and let people know if they should get a more thorough evaluaTion.

Lindsay McKittirick, Vibrants outreach coordinator, said in addition to hearing loss, damage also can lead to problems with balance and tinnitus.

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Health care in one place: Start new year with free or low-cost screenings, information at Missoula Area Chamber of ...

Health Care Reform Forces Republican Governors To Walk Fine Line

ATLANTA Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who made a fortune as a health care executive, long opposed President Barack Obama's remake of the health insurance market. After the Democratic president won re-election, the Republican governor softened his tone. He said he wanted to "have a conversation" with the administration about implementing the 2010 law. With a federal deadline approaching, he also said while Florida won't set up the exchange for individuals to buy private insurance policies, the feds can do it.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie held his cards before saying he won't set up his own exchange, but he's avoided absolute language and says he could change his mind. He's also leaving his options open to accept federal money to expand Medicaid insurance for people who aren't covered. The caveat, Christie says, is whether Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius can "answer my questions" about its operations and expense.

Both Republican governors face re-election in states that Obama won twice, Christie in 2013 and Scott in 2014. And both will encounter well-financed Democrats.

Their apparent struggles on the issue, along with other postures by their GOP colleagues elsewhere, suggest political uncertainty for Republicans as the Affordable Care Act starts to go into effect two years after clearing Congress without a single Republican vote. The risks also are acute for governors in Democratic-leaning or swing-voting states or who know their records will be parsed should they seek the presidency in 2016 or beyond.

"It's a tough call for many Republican governors who want to do the best thing for their state but don't want to be seen as advancing an overhaul that many Republicans continue to detest," said Whit Ayers, a consultant in Virginia whose clients include Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, a Republican who didn't announce his rejection of a state exchange until days before Sebelius's Dec. 14 deadline.

Indeed, cracks keep growing in the near-unanimous Republican rejection of Obama's health care law that characterized the GOP's political messaging for the last two years. Five GOP-led states Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are pressing ahead with state insurance exchanges. Ongoing monitoring by The Associated Press shows that another five Republican-led states are pursuing or seriously a partnership with Washington to help run the new markets.

Democrats, meanwhile, hope to use the law and Republican inflexibility to their advantage, betting that more Americans will embrace the law once it expands coverage. The calculus for voters, Democrats assume, will become more about the policy and less about a polarizing president.

"It shouldn't be complicated at all," said John Anzalone, an Obama pollster who assists Democrats in federal races across the country. Anzalone said Republicans could use their own states-rights argument to justify running exchanges. Instead, he said, "They are blinded by Obama-hatred rather than seeing what's good for their citizens."

Governors can set up their own exchanges, partner with Sebelius' agency or let the federal government do it. The exchanges are set to open Jan. 1, 2014, allowing individuals and businesses to shop online for individual policies from private insurers. Low- and middle-income individuals will get federal premium subsidies calculated on a sliding income scale. Nineteen states plus Washington, DC, most led by Democrats, have committed to opening their own exchanges.

The law also calls for raising the income threshold for Medicaid eligibility to cover people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $15,400 a year for an individual. That could add more than 10 million people, most of them childless adults, to the joint state-federal insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans. Together, the exchanges and the Medicaid expansion are expected to reduce the number of uninsured by about 30 million people within the next decade.

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Health Care Reform Forces Republican Governors To Walk Fine Line