Have you ever watched one of those TV shows where from thousands of hopefuls, one star is born? Well, Pinstripe Alley readers, heres your chance to play starmaker and help pick the new voice of sports in social media!

XFINITY is looking for the next renowned sports social media star through its Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest. The winning candidate will serve as the new voice of XFINITY in the sports social media space and go behind-the-scenes at some of the biggest sporting events in 2012, sharing exclusive insights and updates with fans.

From February 9-19, you can review qualified entry videos and vote for the contestant youd like to see advance to the finals of the XFINITY Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest. The five entrants with the most votes will advance to the final round of the contest where they will cover one of five premier sporting events the weekend of March 8-11. Fans can head today to Facebook.com/XFINITY and click on the Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest tab to vote for your favorite personality (once per day)!

Will you choose the brainiac with the encyclopedia of stats, the former jock who knows the game inside out, or the corporate type who gets the marketing side of the business? You decide. Vote today at Facebook.com/XFINITY!

Go and vote! You dont want to complain later about who won, so make your voice heard.

Parks director Chris Cotten told the Joplin City Council last week that it is a new job title but it is not an added position to his staff. He said it was converted from the job title of facility and events manager, which formerly programmed events and entertainment at Memorial Hall and city parks.

The person who held that job left and the job went unfilled because Memorial Hall has been leased to the Joplin School District.

The job description specifies that job duties will be to plan, organize and coordinate sporting events, create revenue at the athletic complex, be on site to manage leagues and provide customer service, assure compliance with rules and policies of the city, and maintain inventory.

The manager also will assign and review the work of employees in the citys recreation programs.

Qualifications include an undergraduate degree in parks and recreation, sports and leisure management, physical education or an equivalent in experience, and an understanding of cost recovery programming. At least five years experience in revenue-generating sports, recreational programming and athletics management also is required. The person must have certification in first aid and CPR.

Applications may be made in the citys personnel office on the first floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main St. The salary range is $37,110-$53,876.

Hiring a manager is not the only step the city has taken to increase activity and revenue at the complex.

The Joplin Sports Authority will move its office to the complex in order to promote sporting events there, including tournament play at a new four-field softball complex that is being finished, as well as on soccer and baseball fields.

A contract with the JSA approved by the council would allow the sports authority to locate offices and locker rooms at the athletic complex in what currently is unused space.

The JSA will pay to construct the rooms it will use, and the city will waive rent for nearly five years to offset the cost.

The JSA also will pay a share of the buildings utility bills.

JSA board members agreed to the arrangement because the cost of the construction will be offset by savings in rent payments it currently makes for office space on Range Line Road.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2010: Ranae Van Roekel, 44, of Boyden allegedly claims to be a Ticketmaster franchisee and sells scores of tickets to 2012 premier sporting events, including Sunday?s Super Bowl, at a discounted rate. The tickets are supposed to arrive two to three weeks before the events.
FEB. 2, 2012: A former Iowan living in Florida complains to Iowa consumer protection officials that Super Bowl tickets allegedly bought from Van Roekel never arrived.
FRIDAY: Some buyers receive a letter from Orange City attorney Jared Weber, who represents Van Roekel, saying that Super Bowl XLVI ?tickets are unfortunately not secured.?
SUNDAY: Super Bowl XLVI is held in Indianapolis.
TUESDAY: Ames real estate developer Dickson Jensen says he bought $180,000 worth of tickets to sporting events from Van Roekel, including 156 tickets to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl tickets did not arrive.
WEDNESDAY: Officials from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller?s office reveal that more than three dozen complaints of phantom tickets allegedly sold by Van Roekel have come into the office. The money allegedly lost totals more than $500,000.
THURSDAY: The number of confirmed complaints against Van Roekel increases to 42. Officials from Major League Baseball, the Masters golf tournament and the NCAA tell the Register that tickets allegedly sold by Van Roekel don?t exist. Iowa attorney general?s investigators put out a call for all potential victims to contact the state with concerns.

When Valve admitted to the the hacking attempt in November of last year it did acknowledge that some user data including encrypted credit card information and hashed passwords had been stolen. While Valve said it did not find any evidence that the encrypted data had been hacked, advice was given that all users should still change their Steam passwords.

Gabe#39;s most recent announcement goes into a little more detail on what type of user information had been gotten a hold of.

Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. Thi backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords.

Gabe then went on to say that there continues to be no evidence that the encrypted credit card info or billing addresses were compromised, but irrespective of this it would be advisable as a cautionary measure to more closely watch your credit card activity and statements for a while.

Source: Valve Software

Speaking to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce a day after releasing his first budget, the finance minister also suggested the countrys have-not provinces should have to justify their spending on programs paid for by equalization dollars.

Liepert said the contrast between resource-rich provinces like Alberta and the rest of the country will become more stark in future years. Soaring bitumen royalties will pave the way for annual surpluses here that could jump to $10 billion or more, he said.

I dont think any of us realize what kind of – Ill call it a gusher – is coming out of the oilsands, Liepert told the audience Friday. If oil prices continue to stay very strong, we could be in a situation where a $5-billion surplus is literally nothing.

Alberta – also benefiting from a shift in population growth from east to west, highlighted in the census release this week – needs to be seen as contributing to the country as a whole and using these resources in some national way, he said.

Liepert, who has served as MLA for Calgary-West for two terms, is retiring from politics and will not run again in this springs provincial election.

In Thursdays budget, he forecast a $886-million deficit in 2012-13, but predicted Alberta will be back in the black the following year.

By 2014-15, the minister said the surplus should hit $5.2 billion, powered by an eyepopping $16 billion in projected resource revenues.

But as the money rolls in, Liepert said some Albertans are frustrated with what other provinces do with the dollars they receive through equalization payments.

Liepert said Albertans dont agree with many programs offered in other provinces, mentioning Quebec (which famously has a $7-a-day child care program).

Have-not provinces that receive equalization should have to prove they are getting results from using those dollars, he added.

I get the sense from Albertans that theres a growing resentment to just continuing to have money flow into other provinces without some accountability behind it, said Liepert.

But Roger Gibbins, president and chief executive of the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation, didnt have kind words for Lieperts idea to demand accountability from provinces receiving equalization.

This year, the equalization program will redistribute $15.4 billion in federal tax dollars to every province but BC, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Alberta. However, there is no direct transfer of cash from one province to another.

I cant think of a worse idea, Gibbins said of Lieperts proposal. Its not our money.

However, he agreed Albertas relative wealth will continue to be a major strain on the federation. Gibbins said Alberta could spread its wealth and garner goodwill from the rest of Canada by establishing a national environmental trust or major scholarship, akin to the Rhodes Scholarship.

Its not easy to do so in a way that doesnt buy you even more bad will . . . like a rich uncle coming into town and taking everybody to dinner, he said.

The situation, Gibbins said, is complicated by the fact there growing concerns about the environmental impact of the oilsands and associated pipeline projects, such as the proposed Gateway line through BC

When we went through the boom in the late 1970s, the money we were getting didnt seem to be as tainted, Gibbins said. Now with the oilsands contributing more and more to that surplus . . . the wealth will seem less legitimate.

But Gerald Baier, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia who studies Canadian federalism, said Alberta has more allies now than in past years because provinces such as Saskatchewan are raking in resource dollars, as well.

Albertas spending benefits all of us, in ways, Baier added.

However, he said other provinces will be concerned about Canadas international reputation if pushback against Albertas oilsands grows.

kcryderman@calgaryherald.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is pressing his case for changes in how the Senate does business, hoping to ease the partisan gridlock, and he wants to bar lawmakers from profiting from their service.

In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said many people he met during his five-state tour after his State of the Union address were optimistic but remained unsure “that the right thing will get done in Washington this year, or next year, or the year after that.”

“And frankly, when you look at some of the things that go on in this town, who could blame them for being a little cynical?” Obama said.

The president reiterated his calls for government reform made in Tuesday’s address, saying he wants the Senate to pass a rule that requires a yes-or-no vote for judicial and public service nominations after 90 days. Many of the nominees, he said, carry bipartisan support but get held up in Congress for political reasons.

Obama noted that “a senator from Utah” said he would hold up nominations because he opposed the recess appointment of the head of the new consumer protection agency and three members of the National Labor Relations Board. Obama put the officials in their post during the Senate’s holiday break; many Republicans have called that move unconstitutional. Obama said the American people deserve “better than gridlock and games.”

“One senator gumming up the works for the whole country is certainly not what our founding fathers envisioned,” the president said.

Obama was referring to Utah GOP. Sen Mike Lee who asserted on Thursday that Obama’s “blatant and egregious disregard both for proper constitutional procedures and the Senate’s unquestioned role in such appointments, I find myself duty-bound to resist the consideration and approval of additional nominations until the president takes steps to remedy the situation.”

On Saturday, Lee issued a statement standing by his decision.

“Sadly, the president has sought to make this a partisan issue; but the Constitution is not partisan,” he said. “The Constitution does not allow any president, Republican or Democrat, to circumvent the Senate in making appointments, and I will resist, just as vigorously, members of my own party who would attempt to do the same thing.”

In his address, Obama said he also wants Congress to pass legislation to ban insider trading by lawmakers and prohibit lawmakers from owning securities in companies that have business before their committees.

In addition, the president is seeking to prohibit people who “bundle” campaign contributions from other donors for members of Congress from lobbying Congress. Obama urged the public to contact their member of Congress and tell them “that it’s time to end the gridlock and start tackling the issues that really matter.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., delivering the GOP address, said Obama’s address to Congress lacked much discussion of the president’s achievements “because there isn’t much.”

“This president didn’t talk about his record for one simple reason,” Rubio said. “He doesn’t want you to know about it. But you do know about it, because you feel the failure of his leadership every single day of your life.”

Rubio accused the president of driving up the national debt, failing to reduce high unemployment across the country and offering divisive economic policies.

The Florida senator said there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor but the best way to solve the problem is by embracing the American free enterprise system. Rubio said he hopes 2012 “will be the beginning of our work toward a new and prosperous American century.”

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Posted at 08:45 AM ET, 02/03/2012
The Super Bowls: Celebrating lesser-known sporting events
By Maura Judkis

This year will be the 46th Super Bowl — and for nearly as many years, the cliched phrase “The Super Bowl of [something]” has been used to describe intense competition off of the gridiron. Many of the Super Bowl designations don’t even apply to actual competitions — or they’re competitions so trivial that the “Super Bowl” designation is a blustering hyperbole. It’s a writing cliche similar to calling a creative person “The Picasso of [something]” which was previously examined on this blog.

Though the Giants and the Patriots won’t take the field until Sunday, Friday we celebrate some of these lesser-known Super Bowls.

The Super Bowl of Birding has nothing to do with ravens, eagles, falcons or seahawks.
(Sam Panthaky – AFP/Getty Images)

• The Super Bowl of Birding took place on Jan. 28 in Essex County, Mass., and Rockingham County, N.H. “It’s not THE Super Bowl, but it brings out the ‘sport’ of birding for those who participate,” the Newburyport News helpfully points out. The Maine Outdoor Journal says this year’s winning team scored 202 points, with scores awarded for the rarity of birds spotted.

• The Super Bowl of Friendship is a celebration of “girlfriendology,” according to the blog of the same name. Points are awarded for kindness and being there for a friend, and all of the game time snacks are low-cal.

• The Super Bowl of Hymn Festivals is not about praying for a touchdown. According to the Milledgeville News of Georgia, it’s an event presented each year by the Macon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. it will take place on the same day as the actual Super Bowl, Feb. 5.

• The Superbowl of Chick Fights, according to blogger spunkybean, took place on last week’s episode of “The Bachelor.” You could be on either Team Courtney or Team Emily, two women who are totally in TRUE LOVE with Ben. They both got roses at the end of the show, so presumably the Superbowl of Chick Fights resulted in a tie? Or does that mean it’s going into overtime?

• The Super Bowl of Chicken was a delicious event at Gates-Chili Middle School in upstate New York last year. Seventh grader Elijah VanEpps gave local news anchor Nikki Rudd a taste of chicken tortilla soup while Buddy the Tyson Chicken loomed over his shoulder. No word on whether or not wings were served.

• The Super Bowl of Lobbying: A battle over a moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia that’s pitting miners and businesses against environmentalists. Jeff Schapiro, political columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, gave the match-up the football moniker, noting that the battle could last as long as a year.

• The Super Bowl of Weather Conferences — the American Meteorological Society meeting — was dubbed so by the Post’s own Capital Weather Gang. CWG’s Chief Meteorologist Jason Samenow was a spectator at this year’s bowl, which took place last month in New Orleans.

• The Superbowl for Women could be any of several events: Black Friday, the Miss America pageant, the Academy Awards, the royal wedding, and, shamefully, the film “Sex and the City 2.”

By Maura Judkis
 | 
08:45 AM ET, 02/03/2012

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The cash-starved government also lifted a ban imposed in 2010 on holding non-sporting events including marriages, film functions, film shoots, private parties, seminars, meetings etc. at the stadia to raise funds for maintenance.

The state had banned commercial functions after the Income Tax department had slapped Rs 86.70 crore as tax payable by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) from 2003-2004 onwards and had frozen its bank accounts in 2010.

The I-T department, while asking SAAP to pay the tax in instalments, had dismissed the latter’s plea that it was a charitable institution stating that SAAP was using its stadia and other sports infrastructure and properties for non-sporting activities.

With the liquor issue, especially syndicates, rocking the state, the “pay, play and drink” decision is bound to become contentious.

Sources said that the decision was taken following pressure from corporates and other commercial organisers for permission to serve select liquor for both sporting and non-sporting events.

For serving liquor like beer, wine and Bacardi Breezer inside the stadia, the organisers, however, will have to make arrangements for removal of bottles, cans etc., waste disposal and security. The lessee will also have to obtain the necessary permissions from the Excise Department.

“Sale will be permitted by the Sports Authority of AP with 30 per cent of the gross revenue from such sales going towards its revenue share,” said Ms Vasudha Mishra, secretary, Youth Advance, Tourism and Culture (Sports) Department.

SAAP will also get 10 per cent of the gross gate collection, 10 per cent of ad charges, 10 per cent seats reserved for invitees of SAAP/District Sports Authority in VIP enclosure and other enclosures.

To this effect, the SAAP vice-chairman has requested the government to issue revised orders for allotment of sports stadia, other sports infrastructure and properties of SAAP for non-sporting events and commercial activities for generating revenue, for proper maintenance of the assets with a condition that these will be allowed only when the facilities are not being utilised for sporting events, according to the senior official.

On SAAP’s suggestion, the government has also revised the tariffs for both sporting and non-sporting events in all its stadia including those at Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam etc.

For marriages, private party functions etc. the rates are two and half times more than the base rate, for film/Ad shoots, film awards, film releases, audio release functions etc. it is double the base rate and for seminars, workshops and exhibitions etc. it is one and half times more.

RATE CARD

GMC Balayogi Athletics Stadium

* Gachibowli Rs 10 lakh
* Indoor Stadium Rs 10 lakh
* Swimming pool Rs 5 lakh
* Hockey Complex, Rs 5 lakh
* External Roads, Sports complex Rs 4 lakh
* Shooting Range, University of Hyderabad Rs 5 lakh
* LB Stadium Rs 7.5 lakh
* Indoor Stadium Rs 4 lakh
* Tennis complex Rs 3 lakh
* Swimming Pool Rs 2 lakh
* Stadium Gymnastics Hall, Rs 2 lakh
* Stadium Boxing, Judo, Wrestling Hall, Rs 1.5 lakh
* Stadium Coaching venues, halls Rs 35,000
* OU Campus cycling velodrome, Rs 3 lakh
* KVBR Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda Rs 5 lakh
* Saroornagar Indoor stadium, Rs 5 lakh.

NEW YORK |
Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:00am EST