After George Mason upset UConn to reach the Final Four, GMU Provost thought students might need some time off recovering from the upset and wrote:

As you know, lots of our undergraduates had an exciting time yesterday in response to the basketball victory. Without in any way wishing to distort our priorities, I write to urge a bit of leniency in response to any absences from undergraduate classes today. Thanks for your understanding.

An AOL intern and blogger and GMU student got all-access credentials despite the fact he’s just an intern and sat on the front row. He writes:

“After the game, my brother and I went to the GMU locker room where I ran into forward Jai Lewis. I have class with Jai, but have never actually met him. What was caught on tape was a brief conversation that is hilarious, only because of the overwhelming irony.

Me: “Yo, I’ve got class with you.”
Jai: “Oh yeah? What class?”
Me: “That ethics class, Thurdays at 4:30. You missed the test on Thursday. What, did you have bigger things to do?”
Jai: “Yeah. I heard it was hard though.”
Me: “It was alright. I just talked to the teacher and he said he’s gonna give you an ‘A’.”
Jai: “Oh yeah? I hope so.”

A judge gave Brett Haines a choice Friday: Go to jail or go to church.

The Anderson Township man, convicted of disorderly conduct, immediately chose six weeks of Sunday worship over 30 days in the Hamilton County Justice Center. Haines, 36, was arrested Nov. 26 in Newtown after threatening cab driver David Wilson and Wilson’s wife.

But there’s a catch.

Haines, who was accused of using racial slurs and threatening a black cab driver, must attend services at any one of Cincinnati’s predominantly African-American churches.

“It seems readily apparent to me that you don’t like black people,” Judge William Mallory Jr. told Haines. “That’s OK with me. But you have to understand that you are at the whim and authority of a black judge.”

Haines said he was not a church-going man but would like to give it a try.

Wilson said he hoped the sentence would work, but he would have preferred Haines serve his 30 days.

“Church don’t change everybody,” he said.

Cincinnati.com story

Not sure if the cab driver attends church.

Mike Royer is the lead anchor for the Birmingham NBC affiliate. Not only is the hair out of control, but the his writing is out of control.

Here in the newsroom we’ve all enjoyed watching with great anticipation the pregnancy of my friend and co-anchor Elizabeth Artz. Liz is an obviously beautiful woman, but she’s even more beautiful when you get to know her, her sense of humor and her work ethic. She’s probably going to make a lot of money in a big city on down the road, but for now she is on our team, and that is a good thing.

Mike’s occassionally update blog can be found here where he signs off each post with: “See you tonight”

As you’ve already heard…

A judge on Thursday sentenced former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen to the maximum 60 years in prison for masterminding the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers.

“I know at some point he’ll get to that realization, you’d don’t get to heaven unless you admit what you’ve done and ask for forgiveness,” Hood said.

Jim forgot about the Jesus part.

I didn’t see this part on the news…Barry is still a seal.

Barry’s training camp news conference:

Q. You say you don’t care about what the media says; fair enough. What would you say to fans who question your accomplishments?

Bonds: Dodger Stadium is the best show I ever go to in all of my baseball. They say, “Barry sucks” louder than anybody out there. And you know what, you’ll see me in left field going just like this, because you know what, you’ve got to have some serious talent to have 53,000 people saying you suck. And I’m proud of that.