1. Help for Homeless Boise State Football Player May Be Allowed by NCAA
At four years old he suffered the loss of his mother to cancer, coped with a distant father, and later survived New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward and Hurricane Katrina. But now, through athleticism and a scholarship, he’s about to become a Boise State football player. When his story aired on a local TV station, viewers were motivated to help Turner with one specific dilemma: he’s homeless until he can move into school housing in June. It turns out the University tried to block that help. In a letter to the station it warned, “We need to make it clear to your viewers and Bronco fans that it is NOT permissible within NCAA rules for boosters of Boise State athletics to provide benefits to Mr. Turner.” The NCAA recently responded via Twitter saying, "After Boise State's request last night, the school may provide immediate assistance to football student-athlete Antoine Turner."
2. Outrage Over Grace Kelly Biopic
A new biopic about Princess Grace of Monaco is more akin to fiction than biography, Grace Kelly’s family says. They claim it’s not only inaccurate, but also shouldn’t have been produced in the first place. Kelly’s daughter Princess Stephanie of Monaco has even called on photographers to boycott “Grace of Monaco.” The film, which debuted at the Cannes International Film Festival on Wednesday, was also slammed by critics. Nicole Kidman, who plays the role of Kelly, told reporters, “I feel sad because the film has no malice towards the family.” It begs the question: do movie producers have artistic license to bend the truth in a biopic, despite objections from the subject’s family? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
3. Cat Saves Boy From Dog Attack
A 4-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., boy survived a dog attack and it’s all thanks to his family’s cat. The boy was riding his bike in his driveway when the neighbor’s dog snuck up behind him and attacked his leg. The dog pulled the boy off the bike and started dragging him and that’s when the boy’s cat sprang into action. It charged the dog and chased it off. The boy had to get 10 stitches, but is otherwise OK and the whole thing was caught on video. It’s a must-see.
4. Kids Draw the Future of Space
Kids these days have some amazing ideas about space. NASA asked students in grades K-12 to imagine space for the 2014 NASA Langley Research Center art contest. The theme was “The Future Is Now,” exploring how NASA technology has turned dreams into a reality. From creative sketches of rocket ships to colorful depictions of our solar system, the artwork is adorable, and the future of the galaxy looks brighter than ever in the hands of these budding astronomers.
5. NBPA: LeBron’s Not Playing If Sterling Remains an Owner
Players in the NBA are making their opinions known in the debate over who should own the Los Angeles Clippers. Miami Heat guard and National Basketball Players Association vice president Roger Mason Jr. said in an interview with Showtime’s Jim Rome last night, “No Sterling deserves to be an owner of that franchise any longer. And I’ve gone down the line from LeBron to the other guys in the league that I’ve talked to and they all feel the same way. There’s no place for that family in the NBA.” He also said superstar LeBron James will not play next year if Sterling is still in the league come next season. The NBA has begun the process to oust Donald Sterling as the Clippers owner. His estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, who is co-owner, says she will fight to maintain her ownership.
6. “Game of Thrones” Author Writes With DOS
“Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin confessed to Conan O’Brien that he prefers to write his wildly popular books on a DOS word processor program called WordStar 4.0 (think Microsoft Word in the 80s). For those too young to remember, before the days of Windows, there was something called DOS. There was no auto-correct, no spell check, just your run-of-the-mill text-only display. For a story with so many strange dialogues and fictional words, a simple tool is probably the best way to go: “Mock if you must ... but WordStar and DOS are both stable as rocks, and never give me the sort of headaches I get from Windows,” Martin said. So “Game of Thrones” fans, you can all rest assured that no computer virus or hacker will get in the way of the next installment of “A Song of Ice and Fire.”