Archive for December, 2007

Unfortunately, all of us here in WV are forced to wonder just why Rich Rodriguez left our beloved mountaineers. Maybe a lawsuit will clear things up a bit. I will be interested and anxiously awaiting the former Coaches response.

It’s bad enough that we lost Coach Belien to Michigan, but two coaches in as many years heading off to the same school? What the hell happened here? Are the Michigan deals simply too good to turn down, or is WVU pissing in the coaches Cheerios every morning?

By Pam Ramsey
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON — West Virginia University’s Board of Governors sued former football coach Rich Rodriguez Thursday to collect a $4 million buyout of his contract with the school.

The lawsuit, filed in Monongalia County Circuit Court, says the university believes Rodriguez doesn’t intend to abide by the contract.

The buyout clause requires Rodriguez to pay $4 million to WVU over a two-year period, with one-third of the total due 30 days after his employment’s termination. His resignation was effective Dec. 19.

Rodriguez’s agent, Mike Brown, declined to comment Thursday night on the lawsuit.

Rodriguez went to Michigan after seven seasons in Morgantown, where he led West Virginia to four Big East championships and a 60-26 record.

West Virginia officials decided to ask a court to enforce the contract after supporters of Rodriguez questioned its validity and the coach did not disavow those statements, said Alex Macia, vice president of legal affairs and legal counsel for the university.

“There are very clear statements and factually incorrect statements by people who purportedly speak for the coach,” Macia said.

“There comes a time when you have to have a court pronounce as a matter of law what happened,” he said.

Rodriguez and the university agreed to a seven-year contract on Dec. 21, 2002, and it has been extended twice since then. The latest revision was agreed to on Dec. 8, 2006, when Rodriguez was considering an offer from Alabama. The revised contract was to run through the 2013 season.

In addition to increasing Rodriguez’s salary, the 2006 contract extension included a $100,000 supplemental payment to the assistant coaches’ salary pool and $6.2 million in improvements to the team’s athletic building, the Milan Puskar Center.

According to the lawsuit, the university fulfilled the contract’s terms and Rodriguez never gave it written notice, as required by the contract, that it had not followed the agreement, the lawsuit said.

“The university performed and upheld its end of the bargain,” Macia said.

University officials were not aware of and did not consent to Rodriguez’s discussions with Michigan officials about the Wolverines’ coaching job, the lawsuit said.

A summons issued to Rodriguez gave him 20 days to respond to the lawsuit.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to me! I have just received word that I have won an elliptical from Nordictrac.com!

This isn’t one of those scammy things either. I really won it, and it’s mine, mine, mine!! AHHAAHAAHAA….. erm… I mean… isn’t it nice?!

With the New Year on the way, and new years resolutions being thrown around my house like candy at small town parade, this couldn’t have come at a better time. I have already began quitting the smoking habit, (Sunday will make 2 weeks without any nicotine). I quit cold turkey. I think that if you really want to quit, you can do it without all of the new drugs that are available.

Back to the elliptical, like I was saying, what better a way to start off the new year than with a brand spanking new piece of exercise equipment, and no more cigarette stink. The New Year is already off to a great start, and I hope that it continues for another 12 months!

There will be several more posts on this subject. I’m so excited! I have never won anything like this before! Stay tuned!

It’s a big tower surrounded by glass. The air under the glass gets heated by the sun and goes up trough the tower spinning the generators. This technology is very simple, almost perfect I say, one such tower could work for hundreds of years if maintained

Australia plans to build one with a collection area of 7km in diameter.

Spain built one with an area of 244 m diameter, it worked for 8 years and generated some 50kW at it’s maximum, until it was closed due to “structural problems”

I would like to see these towers wherever there is space for them, their simplicity is inspiring… sort of like personalized pens.