Latest news with #Woodcock
Hamilton Spectator
06-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Habitat for Humanity officially opens Sudbury South End location
Do you want resale and not retail? Want to avoid any taxes? Want to support a great cause? The Habitat for Humanity ReStore can help you answer 'yes' to all these questions. 'It is within walking distance for many and there is transit that goes right by,' Coun. Deb McIntosh said in support of the location. She also talked about the partnership with the South End Community Action Network and the establishment of community gardens at the Armstrong Street location. The contents of the store are displayed in a clean, bright space. While it has been open for months, store staff have been waiting in anticipation for the symbolic official ribbon cutting. McIntosh, representing her city colleagues and the mayor of Greater Sudbury, was delighted to wield the scissors on Friday. 'The official ceremony is over,' said ReStore manager Richard Barlow. 'Yes, we have been open for four months but we needed to wait until now to get it all ready and operating smoothly. 'It is also hard to get everyone in the same place on the same day, and here we are,' Barlow said, who attributes that readiness to the hard work of volunteers and staff. Kimberley Woodcock, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Ontario Gateway North, talked about the organization in this part of Ontario. 'We go from Midland all the way up to Timmins,' Woodcock said. 'We recognize the north as very important and also having unique character and needs. 'We found a great location here. We are thrilled with the building. Richard brings the kind of energy and engagement we were looking for.' Woodcock revealed some more good news. 'We are looking forward to building.' It sounds like Habitat for Humanity will construct more homes for families here. It won't be this summer, though. 'First, there is land acquisition, then planning. It is a two-year cycle,' she said. With the help of volunteers, donors and Habitat homeowners, local Habitat outlets in every province and territory across Canada help build and rehabilitate decent and affordable homes, from single-family houses to multi-unit developments. Meghan Taylor, senior director of operations, who is located in Bracebridge, has been very involved in the Sudbury ReStore. 'We have about 55 or 60 people here today at the celebration,' Taylor said. 'We love our volunteers. Sometimes we recruit and other times people just show up and step up. They come in weekly and others daily. 'A lot come out for the social connection. It is a fun place to be a volunteer. We have eight staff (in Sudbury.) Some are part-time. This is a lovely building in such a great location.' Habitat for Humanity's ReStore welcomes you Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2167 Armstrong St. The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government. Bluesky: @ X: @SudburyStar
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill to create football regulator supported by Banbury MP
Plans to establish an independent football regulator have been backed by Banbury's MP, who said it will "protect clubs, empower fans, and keep clubs at the heart of our communities". Labour MP Sean Woodcock has given his support to the Football Governance Bill, which reached its second reading on April 28. The bill aims to fulfil Labour's manifesto commitment to create an independent football regulator and introduce new rules to safeguard clubs and empower fans. The regulator will have powers to intervene in financial distributions as a last resort and compel clubs to democratically select fan representatives that the club must engage with. A new owners' and directors' test will be introduced to ensure club custodians are suitable and finances are sustainable. The bill will also introduce targeted financial sustainability regulation, set a minimum standard of fan engagement, and prevent English clubs from joining leagues that do not have fan support. A new corporate governance code specific to football clubs will be established, and there will be a commitment to improving equality, diversity, and inclusion within the game. The bill aims to tackle rogue owners and directors, implement a club licensing regime, monitor club finances, and improve fan engagement throughout the football pyramid. Mr Woodcock said: "I welcome that the Labour Government have reintroduced a strengthened Football Governance Bill, delivering on Labour's manifesto commitment to establish the independent football regulator and a new set of rules to protect clubs, empower fans, and keep clubs at the heart of our communities. Sean Woodcock (Image: Other.) "For Banbury, I am sure that this bill will provide reassurance to fans. "Clubs like Banbury United are at the heart of our community and social inheritance, passed down through generations. "I am pleased that these clubs' future legacy will now be protected by this Labour Government." The bill comes following the attempted breakaway European Super League, and several high-profile cases of clubs being financially mismanaged. Since 1992, more than 60 clubs have gone into administration. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "English football is one of our greatest exports and a source of national pride which this government wants to see thrive for generations to come. "But for too long, financial instability has meant loyal fans and whole communities have risked losing their cherished clubs as a result of mismanagement and reckless spending. "This bill seeks to properly redress the balance, putting fans back at the heart of the game, taking on rogue owners and crucially helping to put clubs up and down the country on a sound financial footing."
Daily Mirror
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Nottingham Forest legend Tony Woodcock on the magic of Brian Clough's miracles
Never again will a team rise from mid-table obscurity in the second tier to win the title and European Cup like Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, but Trent end legend Tony Woodcock says they can dare to dream again One of his team-mates allegedly slept with a revolver under his pillow, and in the box he was always quick on the draw. Tony Woodcock will miss Nottingham Forest 's big day out at Wembley on Sunday because he will be at the Berlin Film Festival - not as a hipster movie critic but as an award nominee. But the Tricky Trees legend hopes Nuno Espirito Santo's remarkable season culminates in another miracle to go with the supernatural wonders unfurled by Brian Clough in the club's golden era. If Nuno the Nino leads Forest into the Champions League and the FA Cup final, he will be walking in the footsteps of Old Big 'Ead and the underdogs in Garibaldi red he turned into European Cup winners. Woodcock's exploits as a home-grown striker who conquered Europe with Forest, before his reincarnation as an English football pioneer with Cologne in the German Bundesliga, were enshrined in the film Local Heroes. Now he has joined the podcast market, forging a holy trinity with former Forest defender Viv Anderson and England warhorse Peter Reid called The Grumpy Old Men of Football, hosted by TV presenter Rob McCaffrey. It remains unclear which one is Victor Meldrew, which one is Arkwright and which one is Compo, although Reid claims fans called him 'Daniel Craig' when he was Thailand's national coach, which begs the question: Do they have Specsavers in Bangkok? But make no mistake, Woodcock will be nearer gratified than grumpy if Forest beat Manchester City. 'Ten years ago there was a film about Forest's success under Brian Clough called I Believe In Miracles, and the people of Nottingham are starting to believe another miracle is unfolding on their doorstep,' he said. 'It's a lift for the whole city and generations who have been brought up on the tales and exploits of Cloughie's miracle men - and now they are almost living the dream themselves. 'Unfortunately I won't be at Wembley for the semi-final because Local Heroes (another documentary about Forest's champions) has been nominated for an award in Berlin, but I'll be hoping they can add another chapter to a remarkable season.' Woodcock scored 46 goals in 139 appearances for Forest, and Clough's golden aura never fades from an age when football was about glory, not fleecing supporters for £71 a ticket. 'The achievement of going form mid-table in the old Second Division to promotion, winning the title and lifting the European Cup in the space of three years is never going to be beaten,' said Woodcock, now 69. 'Eight or nine games in during the championship-winning campaign, Ipswich came to the City Ground and their captain Mick Mills - my future England team-mate - predicted our bubble would burst. 'We beat them 4-0 and it wrote Cloughie's team talks for the rest of the season. All he would say was, 'Hey, lads, is it today that the bubble bursts?' We played some good stuff and remained faithful to Cloughie's famous line that if God had wanted us to play football up in the air, he would have put grass in the sky. 'But if anyone wanted to mix it, and turn games into a physical battle, we could look after ourselves. Kenny Burns came in from Birmingham City with a reputation as a hard man, a wild man, a bit of a thug. The rumours were that he used to sleep with a gun under his pillow. Can you imagine that? A footballer with a revolver under the bed! 'We used to put him in his place by pinning him down and giving him a playful slap, me grabbing his right arm, Viv Anderson getting his right arm, and we managed to restrain him until we lapsed into panic mode: How are we going to get out of the room in one piece when he's released? 'But Kenny was a great character to have on your side, and Cloughie's conversion of him from centre-forward to centre-back was pure genius. They were magical times when the manager would take us off to Majorca - 'Bring your passports, lads, we're going to Cala Millor' - and his assistant Peter Taylor referred to their favourite resort as Forest's 'branch office.' 'For young, single lads like myself and Viv, it was fantastic to be off the leash. But some of the married lads got a bit of a tongue-lashing from their wives, and Cloughie would placate them by sending each wife a bunch of flowers. 'When I look back now, I still wonder how he worked his magic. When I signed for Cologne, there were 6,000 people at my first training session in this super-modern complex. At Forest, the European Cup winners trained in a field by the Trent and Cloughie used to lead us through stinging nettles and concrete slabs in the car park. 'I always wanted the star syndrome as a footballer, but the German postal service begged me to collect my mail from the sorting office because the postman was struggling to deliver 2,000 letters to my door.' "The Grumpy Old Men of Football Podcast, featuring Tony Woodcock, Viv Anderson, Peter Reid. All episodes available now on YouTube here
The Age
24-04-2025
- Sport
- The Age
Two-up: a ‘fair dinkum' tradition or a devilish game of skill?
The central bet involves the spinner, who is trying to throw heads (tails means they lose the kip to another spinner, and odds means a re-throw), and someone in the crowd matches their bet. Side-bets are made by onlookers for heads or tails, which are equally likely outcomes, each occurring 25 per cent of the time (some venues allow bets on odds, and a three-coin version is also played). The person who bets tails holds the cash so it is clear in the crowd who has bet what. The 'boxer' or ringmaster organises the betting, making sure money is exchanged fairly, and takes a 10 per cent cut of the spinner's winnings. They also initiate the throw – 'Come in, spinner!' So is it really 'fair dinkum'? 'Everybody thought they had a technique,' says Presnell, 'a long throw, a short throw, a different sort of throw.' He recalls seeing a spinner throw heads as many as 10 times consecutively in Kalgoorlie in WA, one of two places where two-up is legal year round. Stephen Woodcock, a mathematics professor at UTS, says recent studies have found a coin toss may not be as clear-cut as 50-50. One used 350,000 coin flips to find there was strong support for the idea that a coin lands slightly more often on the side it started – the coins in two-up are placed on the kip tails up, or odds up in casino versions – around 51 per cent of the time. Another, in which participants were told to try and flip for heads, found that some people may be able to positively influence the toss of a coin. But Woodcock believes the controlled conditions created by the kip, and the height coins must be tossed in two-up (at least three metres, without hitting the roof) means 50-50 is the likely split. Whether or not there's skill involved for the spinner, for those betting on the side, Woodcock says the attraction of two-up is precisely those even odds, compared to games such as roulette, which have the illusion of being fair, but favour the house more and more over multiple spins. 'I'm not really a gambler, but I would happily bet on two-up of any day of the week rather than roulette.' Why is it illegal during the rest of the year? Two-up has been legal without a permit on Anzac Day in most states and territories over the last 30 years, but it once had a reputation as a wild, unregulated game, often played at illegal 'schools'. Gambling reform campaigner and Baptist minister Tim Costello says Anzac Day two-up is harmless compared with the $31.5 billion Australians now lose to the gambling industry each year. But he says its association with the Anzacs' heroic sacrifice is evidence of the industry's success in pushing gambling as 'quintessentially an Aussie activity, that we're baptised at birth into eucalyptus oil and a punt'. 'In some ways, [Anzac Day two-up] is a parallel to the offering plate going around after a religious service.' The game's darker side was explored in cult Ozploitation film Wake in Fright (1971), where a young schoolteacher loses his money playing two-up and gets stranded in an outback town loosely modelled on Broken Hill, NSW. The town is the only place in the state where games are legally played year round, following a special dispensation lobbied for in 1992. Presnell says before illegal, then legal, casinos took over in the '70s and '80s, fortunes were made and lost in two-up schools, although mostly by the organisers: 'I've seen thousands gambled'. He often went to the legendary Thommo's School, run by ex-boxer and rugby league player Joe Taylor until 1979 at various locations in Surry Hills. 'Mastercoach' Jack Gibson spent time running the door at what was one of Australia's first major illegal gambling operations, but Presnell says Thommo's was 'fair dinkum', and a great leveller: 'a cross-section of Sydney society'. 'If you had a bad night, which were pretty constant, they'd give you 10 bob to get home, which was a courtesy of the house.' Loading Where can I play? Although this masthead revealed old favourite North Bondi RSL has moved to scrap the game this year, your local RSL or Diggers Club is still a good bet – just follow the crowds after 12pm. And while Surry Hills has changed since the days of Thommo's, two-up has found new life in an innovation combining the suburb's old and new characters: drag two-up, hosted by drag queens at several pubs and bars in the area.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge pauses Maine lobster defamation suit pending appeal
Apr. 15—A federal judge on Tuesday paused proceedings in a defamation lawsuit Maine lobstering groups brought against a California aquarium, staying the case until broad questions about how to interpret Maine libel law are answered by an appeals court. U.S. District Judge John Woodcock had ruled in February that the suit — brought by the Maine Lobstermen's Association, the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association and a handful of lobstering businesses — could proceed after nearly two years in legal limbo. The groups sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation "for making false and defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices and for misleading consumers and commercial lobster buyers about the integrity of the Maine lobster harvest" after the aquarium's Seafood Watch program downgraded its rating for Maine lobster. The aquarium claimed that the lobster industry threatens the North Atlantic right whale, and that U.S. and Canadian regulations failed to adequately protect the critically endangered species. But in a new ruling Tuesday, Woodcock placed a stay on the case while the 1st U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Boston takes up questions regarding the proper interpretation of group libel issues and whether the aquarium's decision to place Maine lobster on a list of foods to avoid constitutes a protected scientific opinion. Woodcock also granted an interlocutory appeal, a relatively rare legal device used in situations where questions arise that are unrelated to the merits of the case itself, including "a controlling question of law" with substantial grounds for a difference in opinion that could "materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation," according to federal law. The interlocutory appeal is focused on two points the aquarium raised in February. First, whether an exception to the group libel law should be granted in this case. The court in February ruled that the case could be exempted from the state's traditional rules on libel of a broad group, as the plaintiffs were able to demonstrate that they were uniquely impacted by the sweeping declaration on Maine lobster. Before the proceedings can resume, the appeals court must determine whether that exception "applies to defamation claims brought by a plaintiff group consisting of lobstermen who each suffered similar demonstrable economic harms as a consequence of defamatory statements made against the American lobster as a commercial product," Woodcock wrote. Second, the appeals court must determine whether the aquarium's claims about the lobster industry are protected as a matter of differing scientific opinion. In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that the aquarium's "scientific assertion is factually false and the speaker deliberately ignored and did not disclose the existence of contradictory evidence of which it was aware at the time it made the statements," Woodcock wrote. Depending on its findings, the appeals court could send the case back to the lower court for renewed deliberation, move to dismiss the complaint or otherwise terminate the proceedings. A spokesperson for the aquarium said it "appreciates the District Court's decision" to grant the appeal and stay proceedings. "We seek to protect our ability to share critical information with the public and welcome the opportunity the decision presents," the spokesperson said in a statement emailed Tuesday. Kevin Lipson, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they would brief the issues before the 1st Circuit "as it's deemed necessary," but he noted that the court could decline to take up the question of group libel applicability. "We're very confident in the trial judge's determination below, and we are confident that we'll prevail in the 1st Circuit," Lispon said on Tuesday. "This is the nature of the judicial process. It is a cumbersome and tiresome thing, but at the end justice will prevail." In a brief filed last month, the New England First Amendment Coalition argued that siding with the plaintiffs would be an "unprecedented application of the group libel rule" and threaten news reporting. Doing so could also create a chilling effect related to scientific and public policy debate, the coalition said. Copy the Story Link
