The father and mother of the alleged assault victim of former Texas A&M wide receiver Demond Demas were arrested on Thursday and charged with misdemeanor assault, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
Per the Texas A&M on-campus police department, the father of the victim assaulted Demas and the mother of the victim assaulted a female relative of Demas prior to a school-run student conduct hearing surrounding the former Aggies wide receiver.
Demas turned himself in on Wednesday on a charge of assault family violence that reportedly occurred Saturday. He posted $5,000 bail and was released.
According to a probable cause statement obtained by the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, Demas’s girlfriend said that Demas pushed her head into the wall. She bit him on the shoulder, and then Demas allegedly threw her off the bed onto the floor, which caused her top front teeth to go through her bottom lip.
Demas “admitted to initiating the verbal altercation” and said that he “took her to the ground” when it got physical, which caused the victim to bite her lip.
Per Demas’s girlfriend, the couple had been in a relationship for a year.
Jesse Metcalfe, Bruce Willis and Chad Michael Murray
Directed by
Josh Sternfeld
Written by
Alan Horsnail
Story by
Emile Hirsch and Randall Emmett
Synopsis
Starring Bruce Willis (Pulp Fiction), this action cyber-thriller continues the adventure begun in Fortress. Weeks after the deadly assault on Fortress Camp, Robert (Bruce Willis) makes a daring rescue to save Sasha, the widow of his old nemesis Balzary (Chad Michael Murray, “One Tree Hill”). But back in the camp’s command bunker, it appears Sasha may have devious plans of her own. As a new attack breaks out, Robert is confronted with a familiar face he thought he’d never see again…
Houston Habitat for Humanity together with partners including the City of Houston broke ground today on Robins Landing, a vibrant master-planned community serving low to moderate income Houstonians in their journey to homeownership. Located near Tidwell Road and Mesa Drive in northeast Houston, the 127-acre site will provide critically needed affordable homes, essential services, retail opportunities, and access to greenspace. Hines, the international real estate firm, will serve as a strategic advisor to Houston Habitat for the development, which is a first of its kind.
“Today’s groundbreaking on Robins Landing marks an exciting moment for Houston Habitat and an exciting future for many Houstonians” said Allison Hay, executive director of Houston Habitat for Humanity. “Along with our partners, we are creating a more inclusive, equitable, and open path toward homeownership. Everyone deserves a decent and affordable place to call home with access to everyday resources that make a thriving community.”
Designed for mixed-income and mixed-generations, Robins Landing is set to include more than 450 single-family homes. One hundred homes will be built by Houston Habitat for those earning 80 percent or below the City of Houston’s average median income (AMI) and be sold through the Habitat for Humanity Homeownership program. Three hundred homes will be designed, priced, and sold by partner builders CastleRock Communities and Chesmar Homes for those whose income is 120 percent AMI or below.
“Robins Landing is a significant step in transforming Houston Habitat from a homebuilder to a community builder. The offerings and amenities will help build a vibrant sustainable neighborhood and Hines is thrilled to be involved,” said John Mooz, senior managing director at Hines. “When there’s scale, Hines can bring a level of experience to a master-planned district on adjacencies, complementary uses and resources that make for a unique and special community. We look forward to sharing our knowledge and placemaking experience, not just for Robins Landing, but hopefully in other urban locations as well.”
Houston Habitat is collaborating with community partners to deliver more than just housing to Robins Landing residents and those living nearby. Plans include a 12-acre central park with access to hike-and-bike trails, a community garden, a neighborhood resilience hub, and more. A Town Center will include essential services, including a Legacy Community Health Clinic and Houston Public Library branch.
“Affordable housing is about more than simply providing a roof over someone’s head,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “We must work in a collaborative and holistic fashion to improve access to transportation, high-quality grocery stores, and opportunity to address the underlying causes of inequity. Robins Landing is positioned to do just that.”
Using an innovative funding model, Houston Habitat has secured $33 million in funds for site infrastructure, which includes a $4.79 million investment from the City of Houston and $1.5 million from Habitat from Humanity International. Construction loans were secured from Arnold Ventures at no interest, and Houston Housing Finance Corporation at low interest. The remainder comes from traditional development funding including lot and land sales for single-family homes, multi-family units, senior units, and nonresidential businesses. Houston Habitat is seeking an additional $10 million from philanthropy to ensure long term affordability, sustainability, and resiliency.
Infrastructure work has begun to create stormwater detention, drainage, utilities, streets, and access points to the future community. Construction of homes is scheduled to begin in fall 2022 with anticipated community completion by December 2026.
HOUSTON – The Houston Public Library (HPL) invites the community to hear from and discover the work of women storytellers and leaders throughout March in celebration of Women’s History Month. This year, library programming focuses on the determination and talent of Houston-based women and their achievements.
On March 3, Author ReShonda Tate Billingsley gives a talk on her latest novel, Miss Pearly’s Girls, a captivating family drama about four estranged sisters. As the national bestselling author of more than 53 books, ReShonda Tate has the credentials, and the passion, to bring stories to life. Her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, was made into a film directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah. She is also an award-winning journalist, who is the Managing Editor of The Defender.
On March 8, “Celebrating International Women’s Day,” highlights two of Houston’s leading business leaders in the performing arts. Guest speakers Irma La Paloma, co-founder of Solero Flamenco and co-Director of the Houston Flamenco Festival, and Lavanya Rajagopalan, Co-Founder of Silambam Houston, share their experiences as women entrepreneurs, artists, and immigrants in Houston. The community is invited to enjoy performances after the discussion.
For “Reading Local” on March 22, Gwendolyn Zepeda and Michelle Hillen Klump sit in conversation about their books. Former Houston Poet Laureate Zepeda re-visits her first novel, Houston, We Have a Problema, and debut author Klump introduces a tale about a Houston-reporter turned mixologist in A Dash of Death.
In addition to the author and artist-related events, those interested in genealogy can look to the Family History Research Center at the Clayton Library for a presentation on March 11 titled, “Women’s Work: Tracing Your Ancestor’s Occupations and Volunteer Work.”
“We are proud to host these and other exciting and informative events and learning opportunities that celebrate the vast achievements of women,” states Houston Public Library Director Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson. “HPL recognizes the contributions and accomplishments of women throughout the year and especially during Women’s History Month.”
For more information or to register for HPL’s Women’s History Month events and programs, visit houstonlibrary.org/events or call 832-393-1313.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday announced he has canceled Opening Day and the first two series of the 2022 season, as the league’s lockout lurched into March with no new collective bargaining agreement – which could result in the first regular season games lost to a labor dispute since 1995.
The announcement comes 90days after the previous CBA expired at midnight on Dec. 1, when MLB imposed a lockout of players and weeks of infrequent, haphazard and often brief and rancorous negotiations commenced.
With spring training games canceled and a semi-official MLB deadline of Feb. 28 looming to strike an agreement or cancel the March 31 openers, MLB and the MLB Players’ Association met for nine consecutive days in Jupiter, Florida, but the final flurry of negotations – covering 20 hours stretching from Monday morning into Tuesday afternoon – finally broke down.
The sequence began with MLB presenting an offer late Monday night that showed a modest increase in the luxury tax threshold – to $220 million for three years beginning in 2022, maxing out at $230 million in 2026. The players – locked in at $245 million in 2022 – countered with an offer of $238 million for the first year, increasing to $263 million in the final year of the five-year CBA. That prompted an MLB spokesman to tell reporters the players struck a “decidedly different tone” Tuesday.
When MLB countered that with what it called a “best” offer that made small concessions on a pool of money for pre-arbitration players and minimum salary – but no further movement on the luxury tax ceiling – there was little doubt the union would reject it.
And so MLB moved to announce, for now, Opening Day’s cancellation along with two series for each team, covering March 31-April 6 and 7. The declaration comes three months after Manfred, in an “open letter to fans,” called a lockout “the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season.”
Tuesday, he stepped to the podium at Roger Dean Stadium after that approach failed badly.
“Our failure to reach agreement was not for lack of effort by either party,” says Manfred, who said players will not be paid for any cancelled games. “The unfortunate thing is the agreement we offered players had huge benefits to fans and players.”
Manfred said with the MLBPA set to leave Florida for New York, the earliest possible negotiations would occur Thursday. Given a five-day lag time between an agreement reached and camps opening, he said a March 8 start to spring training would not allow enough time for teams and players to ramp up for Opening Day.
The MLBPA said in a statement that Manfred’s “defensive lockout” was “a culmination of a decades-long attempt by owners to break our player fraternity. As in the past, this effort will fail.”
The failure to reach an accord speaks to the mistrust existing between the parties, particularly since at this point, gaps that exist are merely dollars, and not massive philosophical wedges. Players dropped their demand for free agency after five years of service time instead of six and arbitration eligibility after two years instead of three early in bargaining.
But distrust of ownership goes back multiple years, when free agent markets collapsed on players both itinerant and elite – superstars Manny Machado and Bryce Harper did not sign contracts until March 2019 – and players seethed as numerous owners pocketed profits while showing indifference toward improving their rosters.
Tuesday, Manfred shifted the blame for deliberate negotiations to the players.
“Throughout the five-year period there was a lot of rhetoric with dissatisfaction with the deal that they made,” said Manfred, whose side did not tender an offer to the players until 43 days into the lockout. “A lot of rhetoric was negative with respect to the clubs, the commissioner’s office, me. That environment, someone else created. It’s an environment in which it’s tough to build bridges.”
Countered Clark: “The reason we’re not playing is simple: A lockout is the ultimate economic weapon. Let me repeat that – a lockout is the ultimate economic weapon. In a $10 billion industry, the owners made a conscious decision to use this weapon against the greatest asset they have – the players.”
Despite the lingering animus, momentum had built toward an agreement late Monday evening when the sides agreed to expanded, 12-team playoffs as owners agreed to walk back more onerous penalties for exceeding the luxury tax.
Yet while players sought significant changes in myriad corners of the game, the luxury-tax ceiling promised to be the sticking point in negotiations, and it did not disappoint.
Players have gradually seen the luxury tax evolve into a de facto salary cap over the past two decades, and were determined to make up ground lost in previous CBAs. The luxury tax ceiling has grown just 18% since 2011, from $178 million to $210 million, a period during which industry revenues grew 70%, from an estimated $6.29 billion to $10.7 billion in 2019, the last season untouched by pandemic.
Before Friday’s proposals, the two sides’ last exchange on the luxury tax left them a total of $204 million apart, with the union seeking a tax ceiling of $245 million in 2022 up to $273 million in 2026; MLB’s last formal proposal was $214 million in 2022, up to $222 million in 2026.
Both sides closed that gap Tuesday, though a significant chasremains on an issue that seems a curious one to torpedo a season, given the relatively small amount of teams it directly affects.
Just two teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres – exceeded the $210 million luxury tax ceiling in 2021, and massive-revenue teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers dip and dive under and over the threshold, passing on high-end free agents hoping to reset their penalty rates.
A higher tax ceiling would allow them and upper middle class franchises more room to maneuver for impact players. That’s in part why a hawkish wing of smaller-market owners is determined to keep the ceiling low, although a lower limit certainly won’t ensure they’d bid on the sort of players likely to send a club’s payroll past the tax threshold.
If nothing else, the past decade has proven smaller-market teams such as the Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals can advance to and win the World Series while passing on the highest-end players.
Meanwhile, the term of the next CBA will cover a period during which more lucrative national TV deals will come online and MLB’s relationship with sports gambling will grow ever cozier. That means future revenues should only continue rising, which further compelled players to fight for both higher minimum salaries for young players as well as loosened governors on spending for veterans.
Both sides managed to agree conceptually on shifting greater salary to younger players by establishing a pool of bonus money for high-performing players with less than three years of service time.
Yet that speck of common ground only produced another yawning gulf by Tuesday afternoon – the players are seeking $85 million per year, with $5 million annual increases, while owners proposed $25 million per year, with no increases.
On minimum salary, the difference was much slimmer: MLB is offering $700,000 in the first year, with $10,000 increases per year. The union is seeking $725,000 with $20,000 raises for the first two years.
The disagreements amount to relative peanuts compared to more drastic shifts the players originally sought, and doesn’t seem so vast as to nuke
regular season ballgames, but here we are. MLB last suffered a work stoppage in 1994-95, when players went on strike in August 1994, fearful that owners would unilaterally impose a salary cap following the expiration of the CBA at season’s end.
The 1994 World Series was canceled and the rift extended into the next year, when owners tried using replacement players to break the union. Not until Judge Sonia Sotomayor – now a Supreme Court justice – issued a preliminary injunction forcing owners back to the bargaining table did the ’95 season commence. That was shortened to 144 games.
And what of the 2022 season? We only know it probably won’t consist of 162 games nor start on March 31, and if and when it does commence, will do so with an immeasurable loss of good will from fans who have seen this before – and many younger ones who have not.
The clock will continue to tick on the season and the players’ resolve, as the days continue to melt away on their finite careers.
“Games were cancelled today,” says Clark. “During the course of a player’s career, you don’t get many opening days.”
It has been half a century since Marlon Brando first made cinema-goers an offer they couldn’t refuse.
As soon as it premiered on March 14 1972, Francis Ford Coppola’s Mafia drama was met with both critical and commercial acclaim, earning over $200 million – £147.5 million – at the box office and winning three Oscars, including Best Picture.
The film has gone on to be a beloved classic and is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time.
The odyssey of the Corleone family continued in two sequels – Part II in 1974 and Part III in 1990 – with the franchise going on to become one of the most iconic in film history.
With the first film now celebrating its 50th anniversary, we cordially invite you to peruse some Corleone trivia to mark the legacy of the enduring gangster classic…
Facts you may not know about The Godfather
The path to cinematic history didn’t always run smoothly across the production of The Godfather, as these facts more than demonstrate.
Francis Ford Coppola didn’t want to make it
When Paramount first bought the rights to Mario Puzo’s novel, they were keen to have an Italian American filmmaker be the one to direct it in order to stay true to the story and its characters.
When they first approached Coppola, however, he turned down the job as he hadn’t enjoyed Puzo’s novel, describing it as ‘pretty cheap stuff’.
But with his last movie – The Rain People – having underperformed and debts piling up, Coppola decided to take the paycheque – going on to make one of the greatest movies of all time in the process.
The studio didn’t want to cast Marlon Brando
Coppola’s first and only choice for the role of Don Vito Corleone – the mob boss and patriarch of the family at the centre of the story – was Brando.
But Paramount were not so keen on working with the notoriously difficult actor, with British thespian Laurence Olivier top of their list.
Coppola eventually persuaded them to consider Brando but under three conditions.
First, he had to do a screen test; secondly, if cast Brando would have to do it for free; and finally he would have to personally put up a bond to make up for potential losses caused by his infamously bad on-set behaviour.
After convincing Brando to do a screen test, under the pretence it was a makeup test, Coppola shot the required ‘audition.’
When he showed the studio the test they liked it so much they dropped the second and third stipulations in an instant.
Brando read his lines off of cue cards
Having landed the role, you would think Brando would take things a bit more seriously considering how many hoops Coppola had to jump through.
But the eccentric Oscar winner continued to display some of the behaviour he became notorious for, often playing pranks on set as well as never learning his lines.
Instead, cue cards were often placed in strategic places throughout the set for Brando to refer to, a practice he employed on numerous other movies including Superman and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Robert Duvall – who plays adopted son and family lawyer Tom Hagen – even had lines taped to his chest when sharing scenes with Brando.
Brando turned down his Oscar
In what is now one of the most memorable moments in Oscar history, Brando refused to accept his Oscar for Best Actor when he was announced as the winner.
He didn’t even attend the 1973 ceremony – instead, a young Native American woman named Sacheen Littlefeather rejected the award on his behalf and read from a statement:
‘I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to say that he cannot accept this very generous award…because of the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry’ she read.
Brando became the second person to decline the Award for Best Actor – the first being George C. Scott for Patton in 1971.
Paramount also weren’t too keen on Al Pacino
While Vito may be the titular Godfather, the doomed heart and soul of the story belongs to his son Michael, who was played by a young up and coming actor by the name of Al Pacino.
Why he is considered an acting great today, Pacino was a relative unknown at the time and Paramount wanted a star to lead the picture like Robert Redford, Ryan O’Neal or Jack Nicholson.
Coppola however pushed for the young Italian American Pacino, who was eventually offered the role a mere three weeks before production began.
Robert De Niro auditioned for the role of Sonny
A fellow young upcoming actor by the name of Robert De Niro put his hat into the ring for one of the other Corleone siblings – the hot-headed Sonny, who would go on to be portrayed by James Caan.
While he lost out on the role, De Niro was then offered the part of Paulie Gatto. but had to turn it down after inheriting a part originally held by Pacino in the comedy The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
Coppola wouldn’t forget De Niro however, as he would go on to win an Oscar for his role as a young Vito Corleone in the sequel two years later.
Paramount didn’t want a period setting and nearly fired Coppola
Both the film and Puzo’s novel take place in the mid-1940s shortly after the end of the Second World War.
Paramount were keen to cut costs and thought a way of doing this was by setting it in the present day.
However, once Coppola came aboard, he was adamant about keeping the period setting.
This, coupled with the battles overcasting, made things tense between him and the studio.
Coppola later said that he was nearly fired several times during the shoot as it began to go over schedule and over budget.
He became convinced that he was only saved by winning an Oscar during filming – a Best Original Screenplay Award for Patton.
The word Mafia is never used, thanks to the real-life mob
The real mob was very much involved in the production of the first Godfather before it started shooting in New York.
The Italian American Civil Rights League was a group designed to combat offensive stereotypes and depictions in the media – it was partly led by a real-life crime family boss, Joe Colombo Sr.
The League protested the film from the moment it was announced, and production was threatened with shutdowns thanks to crime bosses who had links with labor unions.
‘There were major threats, they were serious,’ Gianni Russo, an actor who appeared in the movie and who had real-life mob connections, said to ShortList.
Producer Albert Ruddy’s car windows were blown out, and Paramount chief executive Robert Evans even claims to have received phone calls threatening him and his family.
In February 1971, just before filming began, Ruddy sat down with the League to figure out a compromise.
The resulting deal meant the League were allowed to review the script and asked for mentions of ‘mafia’ to be removed so that audiences would not associate the violent actions in the film with real-world mafia bosses.
While Colombo may have given his blessing for The Godfather to go ahead, not everyone was happy that he had waged such a public campaign against the film.
In 1971 as the movie was being filmed, Colombo was shot in the head and neck by a hitman.
‘Carlo Gambino [head of the Gambino crime family] and Frank Costello [head of the Luciano crime family] had warned him,’ claimed Russo.
‘He was bringing too much attention [to the mafia way of life]. If that doesn’t tell you that what was happening in the film was real, then I don’t know what can.’
Colombo was left paralysed following the shooting and died seven years later in 1978.
That’s a real horses head
One of the film’s most iconic sequences sees Hollywood producer Jack Woltz on the receiving end of an act of intimidation by the family.
After turning down a request from the Corleones, Woltz wakes up one morning to find his bed covered in blood and the head of his horse’s head underneath the sheets.
While the blood may have been fake, the head itself was the genuine article after Coppola wasn’t happy with the fake props conceived for the scene.
They ended up procuring a real head from a local dog food company to use for the now infamous scene.
It’s a family affair
Source: metro
The Godfather is all about family – even if it is a violent one that makes its fortune through organised crime.
Like with many of his films, the cast and crew feature members of Francis Ford Coppola’s own family.
His sister Talia Shire plays Connie Corleone, while their father Carmine Coppola composed piano parts for the film’s score, and also appeared alongside his wife Italia during a restaurant scene.
Francis’ daughter Sofia Coppola – who is a renowned filmmaker herself – made her screen debut as the baby being christened in the film’s nail-biting climax – and would later go on to appear as Michael’s daughter in Part III.
The father and mother of the alleged assault victim of former Texas A&M wide receiver Demond Demas were arrested on Thursday and charged with misdemeanor assault, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
