The News Tracker

The mess that is the Washington Redskins continued today with the early-morning dismissal of two-year head coach Jim Zorn, a former NFL quarterback who probably deserved a better fate. Jim Zorn, who was notified of his firing at 4:30 a.m. upon his arrival back in Washington, D.C. after a Sunday away game, walked into a hornet’s nest with the Washington Redskins that owner Dan Snyder has only made worst as time goes on with meddling in the football side of the operation. Before Jim Zorn, Dan Snyder’s list of failed head coaches included former Florida coach Steve Spurrier and former Redskins boss Joe Gibbs, who in his previous stint with the Washington Redskins had taken the team to the Super Bowl. Former Washington Redskins coaches also include Norv Turner and Marty Schottenheimer, neither of whom compiled a winning record under Snyder. Like Jim Zorn, Spurrier had a 12-20 record in two years while Turner was 32-47-1 from 1994 to 2000 and Schottenheimer was 8-8 in his lone year. Jim Zorn seemed doomed to be fired as early as October of this year when Dan Snyder relieved him of play calling duties. Jim Zorn’s likely replacement will be former Denver Bronco coach Mike Shanahan, now that Florida Gator coach Urban Meyer has muddled the Gainesville situation beyond belief. Continue reading “Will Mike Shanahan follow Jim Zorn in the Washington Redskins list of failed football coaches?” »

Standing at a height of 50 stories taller than the previous record-holding tallest building, the Burj Dubai opens Jan. 4 with an undisclosed height of more 160 stories, visible for more than a dozen miles in the Middle Eastern desert nation. The exact height has been kept a secret by American builder Bill Baker of an architecture and engineering firm based in Chicago, where the previous world record-holding tallest building stood, the structure formerly known as the Sears Tower stands at 110 stories. The tower is now known as the Willis Tower. The Burj Dubai tall building is part of a complex expected to cost more than $20 billion and will include a Giorgio Armani-designed hotel, luxury apartments and 500-acre business complex. The global economic slowdown has forced Dubai to borrow money from fellow Arab emirate Abu Dhabi for financial assistance to finish construction on the wold’s tallest building. Once costing $1,900 a square foot, luxury apartments are said to cost less than half that now. Continue reading “Dubai debuts world’s tallest building at 160 stories” »

Fallout from the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day has forced the closure of three Western embassies in the country of Yemen, including the U.S. Embassy. President Barack Obama has said that the suspected terrorist implicated in the bombing attempt aboard Flight 253 received training and support from Al Qaeda terrorist groups based in Yemen. On Sunday, U.S. officials revealed information indicating a planned terrorist attack on the American embassy in Sanaa, where the embassy is located. Britain and Spain also closed their embassies in Yemen based on the information. American officials did not say how long its embassy would remain closed. President Obama placed the blame for the attempted bombing of Flight 253 on an Al Qaeda group that directed the attempted bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Continue reading “Three Western embassies closed in Yemen in wake of attempted bombing of Flight 253” »