Julio Jones scorches Eagles as Falcons win Dan Quinn's debut

ATLANTA (AP) — In his first game with that big contract, Julio Jones was worth every penny.

Jones hauled in nine passes for 141 yards, including a pair of touchdowns, and the Atlanta Falcons came back after squandering a 17-point halftime lead to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 26-24 Monday night in the coaching debut of Dan Quinn.

“You just trust the preparation, let it rip and have fun,” Quinn said. “That’s what we did.”

He sure enjoyed watching Jones, who was rewarded for the best season of his career with a new $71.25 million contract during the preseason. Showing no signs of complacency, Jones dominated the Eagles’ revamped secondary as the Falcons raced to a 20-3 halftime lead.

The Eagles rallied behind new quarterback Sam Bradford, taking the lead for the first time at 24-23 on Ryan Mathews’ 1-yard run with 8:37 remaining.

Atlanta bounced back, driving into position for Matt Bryant’s fourth field goal of the game, a 47-yarder with 6:27 to go that turned out to be the winner.

Cody Parkey was wide right on a 44-yard field goal that could have restored Philadelphia’s lead. The Eagles had one more chance, but cornerback-turned-safety Ricardo Allen intercepted a pass that went through the hands of Jordan Matthews, sealing the victory with 1:11 left.

“They didn’t want to throw it at my corners so they threw it in the middle of the field,” Allen said. “They tipped the ball and it landed in my lap.”

Matt Ryan shook off a pair of interceptions, including one on the first possession of the second half that turned the momentum in Philadelphia’s favor. He was 23 of 34 for 298 yards.

Bradford, in his first regular-season game in nearly two years and making his debut for the Eagles, was 36 of 52 for 336 yards. But Philadelphia’s much-hyped running game, led by newcomer DeMarco Murray, was largely a bust.

After leading the NFL with more than 1,800 yards rushing in Dallas last season, Murray was held to 9 yards on eight carries. Ryan Mathews had only 4 yards, while Darren Sproles led the way with 50 yards on the ground.

Coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo offense looked unstoppable in the preseason but bogged down in the first half against the fired-up Falcons, who hope the energetic Quinn can turn things around from a 10-22 showing the last two seasons under Mike Smith.

Other than a 69-yard drive that led to a field goal, the Eagles generated just 56 yards on their other seven first-half possessions — three of which went three-and-out, and another ended quickly when Bradford was intercepted. The deficit would have been even bigger if not for Kiko Alonso’s dazzling one-handed interception while falling backward in the end zone.

“We couldn’t get anything going in the first half,” Bradford said.

Jones was unstoppable in the early going, repeatedly burning new Eagles cornerback Byron Maxwell. The Falcons receiver hauled in eight passes for 97 yards over the first two quarters, including touchdowns of 4 and 22 yards.

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Take This Job And Shove It' author owes IRS $466

CINCINNATI — Country music singer-songwriterDavid Allan Coe pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Cincinnati to income tax evasion and owes the IRS more than $466,000, officials said.

Coe, 76, who wrote the song, Take This Job And Shove It, has owed the Internal Revenue Service for outstanding taxes since at least 1993, court documents say.

Between 2008 and 2013, officials said, he either failed to file his individual income tax returns — or when he did, he failed to pay the taxes due. Coe faces up to three years in prison. The nearly a half-million dollars owed includes taxes, interest and penalties.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, instead of paying the taxes in full, Coe spent the money earned from live concert performances "on other debts and gambling."

The case is in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. Court documents say Coe received multiple MoneyGram transfers of income in Cincinnati in 2011 and 2012. He also used a Cincinnati-based accounting firm to prepare his taxes, and in 2009 filed his taxes from Cincinnati.

His Memphis-based attorney, Michael Stengel, could not be reached for comment.

Coe, who performs at least 100 times a year, arranged to be paid primarily in cash, the news release said. Coe didn't allow $50 bills, the news release said, because "he believed they were bad luck and would not gamble with them."

He stopped using a personal bank account in 2009.

"Coe's arrangement to be paid primarily in cash was also in an effort to impede the ability of the IRS to collect on the taxes owed," the news release said.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office and special agents with the IRS's criminal investigations unit.

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VF all-male comedy cover sparks outrage

Talk about a stark image.

Vanity Fair released its October 2015 feature on the titans of late-night television, and something was missing: a single woman.

Instead, there sat a boys' club of Stephen Colbert,Conan O'Brien, Trevor Noah, James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Larry Wilmore, Jimmy Fallon and Bill Maher.

The headline the magazine chose was "Why Late-Night Television Is Better than Ever." But Twitter had a different take on it, quickly noting how not one woman had been able to crack her way into that glossy image, despite the fact that Samantha Bee's new TBS late night show Full Frontal will debut in January and Chelsea Handler recently departed her long-running Chelsea Lately for an upcoming Netflix talk show.

Also, only two persons of color, Trevor Noah, who takes over for Jon Stewart on Sept. 28, and Larry Wilmore, host of The Nightly Show, were present.

The accompanying profile, written by David Kamp, did acknowledge the dearth of women in late-night comedy.

"What's conspicuously missing from late-night, still, is women," Kamp wrote, pointing to talents like Chelsea Peretti, Megan Amram and Jen Kirkman. "How gobsmackingly insane is it that no TV network has had the common sense — and that's all we're talking about in 2015, not courage, bravery, or even decency — to hand over the reins of an existing late-night comedy program to a female person?"

Cue Bee's quick fix.

The Vanity Fair image brought to mind the magazine's 2007 piece titled "Why Women Aren't Funny" by Christopher Hitchens. "For some reason," he wrote, "women do not find their own physical decay and absurdity to be so riotously amusing, which is why we admire Lucille Ball and Helen Fielding, who do see the funny side of it."

It didn't die there. In 2012, Adam Carolla told the New York Post, "The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks."

And just this summer, Michael Eisner dusted off the sentiment at the Aspen Ideas Festival, telling a crowd that beautiful women aren't funny. "From my position, the hardest artist to find is a beautiful, funny woman," he said. "By far. They usually — boy am I going to get in trouble, I know this goes online — but usually, unbelievably beautiful women, you (Goldie Hawn, his panel-mate) being an exception, are not funny."

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Bond denied for S.C. cop charged with murder in black man's death

A former South Carolina police officer charged with murder in the April shooting an unarmed black man in the back will remain jailed, according to a court order.

Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, 33, has been denied bond. He is charged with killing Walter Scott, 50, following an April traffic stop for a broken taillight.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman issued an order Monday afternoon saying that evidence presented Thursday from 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson concerning whether Slager would pose a flight risk was "persuasive," The Post and Courier reported.

"The court finds that release of Defendant would constitute an unreasonable danger to the community, and the request for release on bond should be denied," the news organization reported the order read.

Contributing: Associated Press

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REO Speedwagon guitarist Gary Richrath dies

Reo Speedwagon guitarist Gary Richrath has died, the band announced on its website andFacebook page Sunday. He was 65.

Band frontman Kevin Cronin said in a message that "my longtime friend and collaborator Gary Richrath passed away earlier (Sunday)." He did not disclose a cause of death.

"I feel so sad," Cronin wrote. "Gary was both a unique guitarist and songwriter, and the embodiment of the tough guy with a heart of gold."

He said he learned most of what he knows about being in a rock band from Richrath.

"The entire REO Family mourns his death and shares in the grief of his family, friends, and fans," he added.

"These words do not come close to expressing the depth of emotions I am feeling at this time."

He added that a photo of the two on stage performing "has been on my music-room table for as long as I can remember, and will stay there."

Richrath joined Speedwagon, known for its 1980s ballad, Can't Fight This Feeling, in 1970, three years after the band was formed in Illinois. Based in Peoria, he was known as a songwriter as well as a guitarist, and helped grow the band's popularity beyond its original Midwestern stronghold.

Richrath also brought new songs to the band, including Ridin' the Storm Out. He recorded 12 albums with the band and also wrote another song, Take It On The Run. 

He sang lead vocals on Find My Fortune and Only A Summer Love. The last album he recorded with the band was 1987's Life As We Know It. He  left the band in 1989.

According to UltimateClassicRock.com, Richrath released one solo album, in 1992,Only the Strong Survive, but reunited briefly with the band in 2013 when they staged a benefit concert for residents of central Illinois displaced by a series of powerful storms in the area.

“Gary was in great spirits when he walked into the dressing room. We hugged one another, I told him how happy I was that he came, and he expressed his gratitude for the invitation,” wrote Cronin at the time. “When I introduced ‘the guy who this band wouldn’t be here without’ and Richrath came up for ‘Ridin’ the Storm Out,’ 7,000 people went crazy. The response was arm-hair raising … We all felt it. It was fun to look over to my left and see Richrath digging in and playing like only he can. It was a night for the ages.”

Read More: Gary Richrath, Former REO Speedwagon Guitarist, Dies at 65 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-richrath-dies/?trackback=tsmclip

He reunited with the group briefly in 2013, joining his former bandmates for a concert staged to aid residents of central Illinois who were displaced or had their homes damaged by a series of powerful storms in the area.

“Gary was in great spirits when he walked into the dressing room. We hugged one another, I told him how happy I was that he came, and he expressed his gratitude for the invitation,” wrote Cronin at the time. “When I introduced ‘the guy who this band wouldn’t be here without’ and Richrath came up for ‘Ridin’ the Storm Out,’ 7,000 people went crazy. The response was arm-hair raising … We all felt it. It was fun to look over to my left and see Richrath digging in and playing like only he can. It was a night for the ages.”

Read More: Gary Richrath, Former REO Speedwagon Guitarist, Dies at 65 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-richrath-dies/?trackback=tsmclip

Tribute tweets for Richrath started posting almost immediately.

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For EU, the strains of a humanitarian crisis

WASHINGTON — European Union interior ministers holding an emergency meeting in Brussels agreed Monday to resettle an initial group of 40,000 Syrian refugees, the EU ambassador to the United States says. But they'll need more time to resolve conflicts over a proposal to deal with 120,000 more and then with a flood of migrants that have followed.

"The war in Syria has created the greatest humanitarian tragedy probably of our generation," Ambassador David O'Sullivan said on Capital Download. "This is putting the European system under unprecedented pressure. It's not surprising that we've struggled a little to find what's the best response, and we'll probably need a little bit more time to find a way forward."

The fiercest debate involves a proposal unveiled last week by EU President Jean-Claude Juncker to impose mandatory quotas on all 28 EU members to take a specified number of another 120,000 Syrian asylum-seekers, an idea embraced by Germany but rejected by Hungary and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

O'Sullivan told USA TODAY's weekly video newsmaker series that "the good side of the European character" has been demonstrated in Greece, Italy, Germany and elsewhere by providing safe haven for migrants who have made a dangerous journey from war-torn Syria. He adds, "We also have to acknowledge that many people are frightened. Many people are worried that somehow this situation (will be) getting out of control."

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Donald Trump's Great Wall — it didn't work for the Ming Dynasty either

Donald Trump is vowing to build a wall along the U.S. Southern border with Mexico, likening it to the Great Wall of China and even dubbing his proposed border barrier "The Great Wall of Trump."

It's a key part of a tough-on-immigration stance that has powered him to front-runner status in Republican polls and will likely be touted again by the billionaire real estate developer at Wednesday's debate.

Yet, just as the Ming Dynasty’s 13,000-mile wall failed to keep out the Manchurians, Trump's barricade would likely be an ineffective way of addressing the nation’s immigration challenges, border experts say.

"The consensus is, it didn’t work very well,’’ said Edward Alden, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, of the wall that dates back to the 14th century, which the Manchurians repeatedly broke through.

The idea of walling off a nation, either to stop immigration flows or foreign invaders, has broad historical appeal — from Roman Emperor Hadrian’s stone wall to Israel’s West Bank wall and Northern Ireland’s divide between its Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. However, walls are often more symbolic barriers than practical ones. The Germans just marched around the French Maginot Line to invade Belgium, and the Manchurians repeatedly broke through the Great Wall of China.

Even the most ardent critics of U.S. immigration policy are not clamoring for a wall. The emphasis, they say, should be on cracking down on those who overstay their visas and the companies that employ them.

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