In the lunch alert videos on DickMorris.com last week and this week, Herman Cain, and then Michele Bachmann was interviewed to discuss their candidacies and perspectives. What emerged is a fascinating portrait of these two people and what their campaigns are really all about. (Actually, a clearer impression emerges of their programs than they themselves have so far been able to articulate within the confines of the TV debate format).

Cain makes the fundamental point that he is the only candidate who is presenting a basic economic reform in his 9-9-9 program (9 percent personal income flat tax with no deductions, 9 percent corporate income tax and a new 9 percent consumption tax on everything). He says that all the candidates are promising to undo the damage Obama has wrought in his presidency by repealing the likes of Obamacare and Dodd-Frank. But he Cain says that all this will do is to roll the clock back to 2008, when the economic collapse started.

“Our economy was sick then and is sick now,” Cain says. He suggests that fundamental changes in our tax code (like the ones he is pushing) are the only way to cure the original problems that led to the roller coaster ride of the past few years. He criticizes Romney’s jobs program saying that it “only replaces one set of loopholes with another set” and says that his de-regulation proposals just replace Obama’s regulations but do nothing to restructure the tax incentives, which are so destructive to economic growth. A very, very good point!

Bachmann makes an intelligent point of her own. She says, that while every candidate promises to repeal Obama’s programs — health care and Dodd-Frank — that it is not so simple. She likens the job to cancer surgery where you have to get out every single cell from every single organ into which it has metastasized. Obamacare has infested each part of the health care bureaucracy from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, Medicare and Medicaid to private insurance and the individual doctors’ offices and hospitals. Its effect won’t go away when a repeal bill is signed.

What of the tens of millions or formerly private patient records now sitting on federal computers? What of the health care rationing that is already taking place as a result of the data collection under the bill? Bachmann says that she was there when the bill passed, has fought it ever since and is the only one who knows how to root it out — all of it. Bachmann points out that a 3,000-page bill now runs to tens of thousands of pages of regulations. “This bill is still being written,” she observes. She makes the same point about Dodd-Frank, which has infected every aspect of the financial system and must be dealt with just as firmly. She points out that someone needs to understand the damage it has done to community, banking and federal regulation to realize how to uproot it and repeal it.

Both of these are fascinating points from very good people. Either would be a great president. We urge you to watch all four videos to get up to speed on what their candidacies are all about.

Signing a 10-year multimillion dollar contract, Gilmore led the league in field-goal percentage, rebounds, and minutes per game in his rookie season, winning him not only the Rookie of the Year award, but also the league’s MVP. He was also named to the ABA’s All-Star team — the first of four such honors in his five years in the league.

Over the next four years, Gilmore won the ABA’s rebounding title three more times and was again named the league’s MVP in 1974. He also led the Colonels to an ABA championship in 1975, a year before the league folded.

In five seasons in the ABA, Gilmore didn’t miss a single regular season game, appearing in all 420 games.

When the ABA merged into the NBA in 1976, players from the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis — the two remaining ABA teams not included in the merger — took part in a dispersal draft hosted by the NBA in August of that year. Gilmore, who was probably the greatest center in ABA history, was selected by the Chicago Bulls.

In his first three seasons with the Bulls, Gilmore continued his prolific rebounding and scoring prowess while establishing one of the highest field goal percentages in the league. Incredibly, he also played in 246 consecutive regular season games during his first three seasons in the NBA, expanding his professional record to 666 contests in which he never missed a game.

Gilmore, who was traded to San Antonio in 1982 before joining the Bulls again in 1987, ended his professional career with the Boston Celtics in 1988.

In his eighteen years of professional basketball, Gilmore scored 24,041 points and pulled down 16,330 rebounds. He also blocked 3,179 shots, including 1,431 during his five seasons with the Kentucky Colonels in the now-defunct ABA.

Gilmore’s career .599 field goal percentage — he hit a sizzling 67% of his shots with the Chicago Bulls in 1980-81 — makes him the all-time NBA leader in that category. Shaquille O’Neal is second on the NBA’s all-time leader list at .582.

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Dear Neighbor,

In the August edition of Arlington Monthly, I made you aware of what I knew about the proposal by Jacksonville Kennel Club (JKC) to convert the Garden Ridge at 201 Monument Road into a Poker Room. I also shared that the matter did not require approval by the City Council, though there has been a new development.

On August 22, Mr. Paul Harden, an attorney/agent for JKC, notified me that he was filing a re-zoning request with the City to change the zoning on a portion of the property in order to make it more compatible with JKC’s preferred gambling operation. Surprised by this, I conveyed to Mr. Harden that I met with Mr. Howard Korman (President of JKC) on August 1 and was told no significant City-level approvals were needed. Mr. Harden then acknowledged Mr. Korman thought that was the case.

The proposed Poker Room site has two zoning districts assigned to it. The eastern half, on which the building is located, is zoned CCG-1. The western half, mostly parking lot and frontage along Monument Road, is zoned CCG-2. The acronyms stand for Commercial Community, General 1 and 2, respectively, and are the broadest commercial districts in the city. Among other uses, the CCG-1 district allows for indoor facilities operated by a licensed pari-mutuel permit holder; however, without special approval of a CCG-1 “exception,” a pari-mutuel may not sell or serve every type of alcoholic beverage, which JKC would like to do. Under CCG-2, no exception is required for the sale and service of all alcoholic beverages as long as they are sold and served in conjunction with food ordered from a menu. In short, JKC is seeking to make the entire property CCG-2 so that it may operate with little restriction.

Although it is still unknown whether the facility might operate 14-18 hours per day during the week and 24 hours per day on the weekend, it is well-known that there is a grade school, public library, and residential apartments all within 1,000 feet of the building, and a nursing home (The Atrium) down the next block, not to mention other businesses and Regency Mall in close proximity.
All re-zonings require City Council approval. The Poker Room re-zoning legislation (Ordinance 2011-585) is scheduled to be added to the Council’s agenda on September 13.

It will then have a public hearing (no vote) at the October 11 Council meeting, be heard by and receive a recommendation from the City’s Planning Commission on October 13, and have a public hearing in front of the Council’s Land Use & Zoning Committee on October 18 (with recommendation vote to full Council). It is then set to be before the full Council for a final vote on October 25, if there are no delays.

I will be hosting a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, October 4, at 6:30pm at Terry Parker High School to hear input from the community regarding the Poker Room and re-zoning request. Please plan to attend and bring a neighbor. Also, below is a list of all other Council Members and their contact information.

When 2011-585 comes to the full Council, every Member is expected to cast a vote. Email or call them in advance of the public hearings and meetings to let them know what is best for the Regency area and Arlington.

On a concluding note, the Council is preparing to vote on the City’s annual budget at the end of September.

A public meeting will be held on Monday, September 19, at 6:30pm at Regency Library regarding the budget and general District 1 issues (not including Poker Room).
I look forward to seeing you.

Clay Yarborough
City Councilman, District 1

The Dolphins, entering the game as a slight favorite, were unable to stop The Citadel’s rushing attack that churned out 439 yards — the most in seventeen seasons. Sophomore quarterback Ben Dupree, a 5’9” native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, led the Bulldogs with 141 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. He also passed for 33 yards.

The Citadel’s Darien Robinson, another Pennsylvania product, and junior slot back Dalton Trevino rushed for 82 and 63 yards, respectively. Robinson’s 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter and Trevino’s 8-yard dash early in the fourth put the game out of reach.

Capitalizing on a botched punt return, JU struck first when senior J.J. Laster scored on a two-yard run to give the Dolphins a 6-0 lead at the 8:49 mark in the first quarter. The extra point attempt was bobbled on the snap.

The Dolphins stretched their lead to 9-0 on a 23-yard field goal by sophomore Bladen Gudz with 49 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The Citadel didn’t get on the board until late in the second quarter when Dupree, displaying lightning speed and agility as he raced past one JU defender after another, took off on a 58-yard scamper to cut the lead to 9-7 with 4:29 remaining in the first half.

The Bulldogs scored again on another Dupree scamper — this one for 28 yards — to take a 14-9 advantage heading into the locker room.

The Citadel completely owned the second half, outscoring the stunned Dolphins 17-0.

Kerwin Bell’s squad, which led the entire FCS in scoring and total yards in 2010 — averaging a blistering 42.2 points-per game while amassing 486.3 yards per game — was limited to 186 total yards against their Southern Conference opponent.

The Dolphins, whose rushing game netted a minus 22 yards, were led by quarterback Josh McGregor, who completed 21 of 33 passes for 208 yards. The 6’2”, 210 senior was sacked five times in the game. J.J. Laster, a 5’6” running back, rushed for 27 yards on ten carries for Jacksonville.

JU, which hosts Charleston Southern at D. B. Milne Field on September 17, travels to Macomb, Illinois, next Saturday to play Western Illinois University — a 20-6 loser on the road at Sam Houston State on Thursday. The Leathernecks, who play at Big 12 powerhouse Missouri a week after hosting the Dolphins, are coming off an 8-5 season.

In one of the most exciting Arena Bowl games in history, the 40-year-old Garcia, connecting on 28 of 42 passes, threw for 402 yards and eight touchdowns as Jacksonville avenged a season-opening loss to the Rattlers with a dramatic 73-70 victory before a crowd of 14,320 hostile fans at the US Airways Center in Phoenix.

One couldn’t have asked for a wilder finish to a championship game. Incredibly, the lead changed four times in the final minute of play as the league’s top two offenses each scored twice in the final frantic seconds.

The combined 143 points scored in last night’s championship game set a new Arena Bowl record, breaking the previous high of 131 in San Jose’s 69-62 victory over Arizona seven years ago in ArenaBowl XVIII.

Garcia’s last-second heroics were a fitting climax to a phenomenal season for the Sharks, a second-year franchise that dedicated itself to finally winning an Arena Bowl championship for the former Sacramento State quarterback, a scrappy veteran who has played 17 consecutive seasons in the AFL.

Garcia, who became the first Arena Football League quarterback to surpass the 50,000-yard career milestone when he threw for 117 yards in the regular season finale against the Spokane Shock on July 22, hinted after last night’s storybook ending that he might return for another season.

Savoring last night’s dramatic victory, the football-frenzied First Coast would certainly welcome his return.

“Aaron Garcia just stole a moment from Brett Favre’s wildest fantasy,” said one elated Sharks fan shortly after Garcia, dodging a sack yet remaining cool as a cucumber, found the 6’5” Harvey on the right-side of the end zone to win the game.

The ageless Garcia, who holds the all-time AFL record for touchdown passes and completions — including a career-high 402 completions and 116 touchdown tosses this season — said his ten-yard toss to Harvey as time expired was one that he’ll never forget.

“I’ve thrown all these touchdowns and that’s the only touchdown I am ever going to care about for a long time,” said a jubilant Garcia in a post-game interview while carrying one of his three children on his shoulders.

Arizona, which came into the game with an eleven-game winning streak — two shy of the record-breaking single season 13 consecutive games won earlier this year by the Sharks — and looking for its third Arena Bowl championship ring and its first since 1997, finished the season with an 18-3 record.

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For more Arena Football coverage, visit our partner at ArenaToday.com!

Arizona, which defeated Jacksonville 55-52 in the season opener back in March, is riding an eleven-game winning streak entering tonight’s contest.

In their previous meeting, the Sharks missed three point-after-touchdown attempts, proving to be the difference in that hard-fought game. Arizona, which lost only one game at home all season — losing a 50-49 nail-biter to the Chicago Rush on May 14 — scored 22 fourth-quarter points in defeating Jacksonville on March 18.

If the Sharks (16-4) had won that game, they would be hosting ArenaBowl XXIV at Jacksonville’s Veterans Memorial Arena tonight instead of traveling to the desert for the second time this season.

The Sharks, who are currently nursing a three-game winning streak of their own, rebounded magnificently from that early season loss to the Rattlers, reeling off an AFL single-season record of 13 consecutive victories to clinch the South Division title while guaranteeing themselves home field advantage in the first two rounds of the American Conference playoffs.

Jacksonville’s Aaron Garcia, who was named the Arena Football League’s offensive player of the year earlier this week, will be playing for his first AFL title tonight in a career that has spanned 17 years.

The 40-year-old Garcia broke a myriad of AFL career records this season for completions, touchdowns and total yards, including a career-high 128 touchdowns and 5,414 passing yards.

Despite having to play twice in the span of four days, some believe the short layoff could actually aid the Sharks. Among them is Arizona coach Kevin Guy.

“I think that goes in their favor,” Guy told the Arizona Republic on Tuesday. “You come out of a game healthy, you’re right back into the next game and you keep the ball rolling. To me, we’re not looking for any excuses and neither are they. You’ve got the two best teams in the league facing each other Friday night. It’s going to be a heck of a battle.”

Tonight’s game will be broadcast live on the NFL Network.

For more ArenaBowl coverage, check out our partner site at ArenaToday.com!

The victory — Jacksonville’s third against the Force this season — clinched a trip to Phoenix to take on the league-leading Arizona Rattlers in ArenaBowl XXIV on Friday at 8:30 PM Eastern Time.

The third-seeded Force kept the game close most of the way and led briefly on five separate occasions in the first half before the Sharks pulled ahead 40-34 at the intermission.

Forcing a turnover on downs to start the third quarter, the Sharks increased their lead to thirteen when Garcia, who connected on a blistering 22 of 28 passes, threw a 17-yard touchdown toss to Jeron Harvey.

Both teams traded scores until the final minute when the Sharks, clinging to a precarious 61-55 lead, were forced into a fourth-and-long situation and had to rely on the kicking prowess of Marco Capozzoli to give themselves a little bit of breathing room against their pesky rivals from Atlanta.

The former Montclair State place-kicker, who connected on 7 of 11 field-goal attempts during the regular season, didn’t let them down. Poised under pressure, Capozzoli’s 36-yard field goal — the longest of his AFL career — split the uprights, giving the Sharks what proved to be an insurmountable 64-55 lead with less than a minute left in the game.

The road-weary Force, playing their fourth consecutive game away from the friendly confines of Duluth’s Gwinnett Center, made a valiant effort to rally from behind in the waning seconds before Jacksonville’s Bill Alford intercepted a pass from Darnell Kennedy to seal the victory for the second-year franchise. It was Alford’s third nifty pick of the season.

While Jacksonville’s 40-year-old Garcia, playing in the first conference championship game of his storied 17-year Arena Football League career, threw for 313 yards and eight touchdowns, the legendary star’s offensive fireworks were matched, almost stat-by-stat, by Georgia’s Darnell Kennedy, who completed 29 of 48 passes for an identical 313 yards and eight touchdowns — three of them to the majestic Maurice Purify who finished the game with thirteen receptions for 153 yards.

Remarkably, Purify caught eleven touchdown passes — nearly a quarter of his season total — in the three games against the Sharks this year.

Jeff Hughley, who stands just 5’8” tall, caught seven passes for a game-high 168 yards and three touchdowns for the Arena Bowl-bound Sharks.

The Sharks, who will travel to Phoenix tomorrow, haven’t fared particularly well in the West during their two seasons in the Arena Football League. In fact, they have never won a game west of Salt Lake City, losing at Spokane last year and dropping their season opener to the Arizona Rattlers in Phoenix on March 12.

The Sharks, of course, rebounded from their heartbreaking season-opening loss to Arizona by winning thirteen straight games only to see their record-shattering streak snapped in — you guessed it — the wicked west when the downtrodden San Jose SaberCats, a team that had lost seven straight, stunned the then-sizzling Sharks in an 83-70 shootout in early July.

For more coverage of the Sharks, visit ArenaToday.com!

The Sharks (15-4) defeated their Atlanta rival twice during the regular season, winning 71-57 at Sea Best Field in their home opener on March 18 and escaping with a dramatic 62-55 come-from-behind victory at Georgia’s Gwinnett Center in late May.

Veteran quarterback Aaron Garcia’s pinpoint accuracy — completing 19 of 25 passes for 177 yards and six touchdowns — propelled the Sharks to victory in their first encounter while a huge goal-line stand by Jacksonville’s defense on Georgia’s final drive of the game preserved a hard-fought win in their second meeting.

Incredibly, the Force out-gained the Sharks by an overwhelming 401 yards to 191 yards in their first meeting while Jacksonville — then in the midst of a twelve-game winning streak — twice had to rally from fourth quarter deficits in their second match-up before prevailing.

Jacksonville, which won nine of out ten home games this season, is clearly favored in tonight’s contest, but it almost certainly won’t be without a tussle.

Georgia, which pounded the Cleveland Gladiators 50-41 on the road last weekend in the first round of the playoffs to earn a spot in tonight’s conference championship game, has won five of its last six games — including three straight away from home.

Moreover, Maurice Purify and Larry Shipp — Georgia’s dynamic receiving duo — absolutely devastated the Sharks’ secondary during their two regular season meetings, with the 25-year-old Purify, who played college football at Nebraska, catching 24 passes for 272 yards and eight touchdowns, and Shipp hauling in 19 passes for 224 yards and five touchdowns.

Purify and Shipp have a combined 3,437 receiving yards on the season.

Engaged in their sixth playoff run in eight seasons, the Force (12-7) are coached by Dean Cokinos, a Boston native who’s certainly no stranger to playoff pressure. In his first year as their head coach, Cokinos guided the af2’s fourth-seeded Tennessee Valley Vipers to an improbable postseason run in 2008, resulting in a last-second 56-55 overtime victory against the heavily-favored Spokane Shock in ArenaCup IX.

His current squad, says Cokinos, is remarkably similar to his 2008 Vipers team which knocked off one favored opponent after another in its unlikely pursuit of the Arena Cup Championship.

“We moved guys around early in the year,” he said earlier this week. “About midseason, we really identified our team, and we’ve taken off since then.”

The winner of tonight’s game will play the Arizona Rattlers (18-2) at the US Airways Center in Phoenix in ArenaBowl XXIV on Friday, August 12th.

The Rattlers, who defeated the Sharks 55-52 in the season-opener for both teams, won a 54-48 cliffhanger last night against the Chicago Rush to claim the National Conference Championship.

Tonight’s American Conference championship game will be broadcast live nationally on the NFL Network at 8:00 PM Eastern time.

For complete coverage of the road to the ArenaBowl, visit our partner at ArenaToday.com!

In announcing its schedule last week, UNF opens the season with demanding early contests against three SEC powers, including the University of Florida, which will host the Ospreys in Gainesville on November 17.

UNF, coming off a 15-19 season — 10-10 in the Atlantic Sun Conference — opens the 2011-12 campaign with a game against Alabama, runner-up in last year’s NIT championship game, in Tuscaloosa on November 11. They will also travel to Auburn on December 17.

The young Ospreys, who faced five nationally-ranked teams last year, including fourth-ranked Pitt in the second game of the season — a game they lost in Pittsburgh 95-49 — will also play road games at Ohio State, Miami, Kansas State and Virginia Tech.

UNF will play fourteen home games, beginning with a November 14 non-conference encounter against Savannah State.

In all, the Ospreys will go up against no fewer than eleven teams that participated in postseason play last year, including cross-town rival Jacksonville University, which was narrowly eliminated by Conference USA’s Southern Methodist University in the second round of the College Insider Tournament (CIT), losing to the Mustangs in Dallas on a controversial call in the final second of the game.

Four of UNF’s opponents appeared in the Big Dance last season, including Ohio State, Florida, Kansas State and Belmont, the latter of which clobbered the Ospreys in the A-Sun championship game. Belmont won thirty games last year, including 21 of its last 22 games, before falling to the Wisconsin Badgers in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

UNF will host the three-time defending A-Sun tournament champion on January 2 before traveling to Nashville later in the month for their second meeting.

Four other schools on UNF’s 2011-12 schedule participated in the 32-team NIT, including Virginia Tech, a team loaded with talent and widely believed to have been snubbed by the NCAA’s selection committee.

UNF, which dramatically upended Jacksonville 68-64 in the quarterfinals of last year’s exciting A-Sun Tournament, opens conference play against Cliff Warren’s Dolphins at the UNF Arena on December 3.

JU, which is coming off its second consecutive 20-win season, narrowly defeated the feisty Ospreys twice during the regular season, barely escaping with a 63-62 overtime win at the UNF Arena in late January and winning a 71-69 nail-biter at Veterans Memorial Arena two weeks later.

UNF will also play home-and-away games against conference rival East Tennessee State, which made a deep run in the College Insider Tournament last March before falling to the high-powered Iona Gaels in the semifinals. ETSU, which finished the season at 24-12, defeated UNF twice during the regular season, but fell to the upset-minded Ospreys 59-55 in the semifinals of the A-Sun Tournament in Macon, Georgia.

UNF will host ETSU on January 16 and travel to Johnson City, Tennessee, for their second match-up on February 11.

“We are extremely excited about the schedule we have put together for this season,” UNF coach Matthew Driscoll told the Times-Union. “We will be challenged early and often by some very talented teams with the hope that it prepares us for what I feel like may be the most competitive mid-major league in America.”

It also helped put the Sharks in next week’s American Conference title game.

Avenging last year’s last-second loss to the Predators in the first round of the playoffs, the Sharks broke open a tight game in the second quarter when Micheaux Robinson — the Defensive Player of the Game — intercepted a pass from Nick Hill on the 21-yard line, leading to a three-play touchdown drive to give Jacksonville a 21-13 lead. Both teams traded scores before the end of the first half.

Trailing 28-20 at the intermission, the Predators cut Jacksonville’s lead to 28-27 before Hughley dazzled the Veterans Memorial Arena crowd of 10,189 with his second kickoff return of the night — again scampering the length of the field to put the Sharks up by eight points.

Minutes later, 40-year-old Aaron Garcia — the AFL’s ageless wonder — led the Sharks downfield, culminating in a 1-yard touchdown run by Jamarko Simmons to give Jacksonville a two-touchdown advantage late in the third quarter. Simmons had two rushing touchdowns on the night.

Smelling blood in the water, the Sharks increased their lead to 49-27 early in the final quarter when Garcia hit huge wide receiver Jeron Harvey with an 11-yard touchdown pass.

Despite trailing by three touchdowns, the Predators — making their nineteenth consecutive postseason appearance — refused to unfurl the white flag of surrender and bravely tried to battle back.

Wasting little time, quarterback Nick Hill connected with tight end Julius Wilson to narrow Jacksonville’s margin to two touchdowns — giving Orlando some desperately-needed life.

Orlando’s Kenny “The Glove” McEntyre, who was hoping for a fairy-tale ending to his long and storied AFL career, then picked off a Garcia pass with 6:27 remaining, setting up a 24-yard strike from Hill to T.T. Tolliver to bring Orlando within 49-42 of the division-leading Sharks.

Both teams traded scores late in the fourth quarter before the seasoned Garcia calmly put the game out of reach with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jomo Wilson.

Garcia, who has never won an Arena Football League championship, completed 15 of 19 passes for 148 yards and four touchdowns, while veteran Orlando quarterback Nick Hill completed 27 of 49 passes for 311 yards and six touchdowns. Hill also threw two interceptions, the first of which led to a Sharks touchdown.

Top-seeded Jacksonville, which defeated Orlando twice during the regular season, will host the winner of Sunday’s match-up between the visiting Georgia Force (11-7) and the Cleveland Gladiators (10-8) on Monday, August 8, at 8 p.m. at Sea Best Field for the American Conference championship.

The winner of that game will play either the Chicago Rush, a last-minute winner against Dallas, or the league-leading Arizona Rattlers — a convincing 62-33 winner over Spokane, the defending AFL champion, late last night — in ArenaBowl XXIV.

For the latest Arena Football news visit ArenaToday.com!