Egypt: Protesters gather to demand Morsi's ouster

CAIRO (AP) ? Thousands of opponents and supporters of Egypt's Islamist president began massing in city squares in competing rallies Sunday, gearing up for a day of massive nationwide protests that many fear could turn deadly as the opposition seeks to push out Mohammed Morsi.

Waving Egyptian flags, crowds descended on Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, one of multiple sites in Cairo and around the country where they plan rallies.

On the other side of Cairo, thousands of the Islamist leader's backers gathered not far from the presidential palace in a show of support.

The demonstrations on Sunday, the anniversary of Morsi's inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected leader, are the culmination of growing polarization since he took office.

The president is joined in one camp by his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. The other is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians as well as moderate Muslims and Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists.

There is a sense among opponents and supporters of Morsi that Sunday's rally is a make-or-break day, hiking worries of violence. Already at least seven people, including an American, have been killed in clashes between the two camps over the past week, mainly in Nile Delta cities and the coastal city of Alexandria.

The opposition believes that with sheer numbers in the street, it can pressure Morsi to step down ? perhaps with the added weight of the powerful military if it signals the president should go. But Islamists have vowed to defend Morsi.

In an interview published Sunday in The Guardian, Morsi said he had no plans to meet the protesters' demand for early presidential election.

"If we changed someone in office who (was elected) according to constitutional legitimacy ? well, there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," Morsi told the British daily.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he said.

As the crowds swelled in Tahrir, birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak, traffic in the normally capital's normally clogged streets was light at midday as many residents chose to stay home for fear of violence. Banks were closing early and most government departments were either closed for the day or were thinly staffed.

Thousands of Morsi's supporters have staged a sit-in since Friday in front of the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque near the Ittihadiya presidential palace. In the evening, anti-Morsi crowds plan to march on the palace, and Morsi supporters have vowed to defend it if it is attacked.

The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down. On Saturday the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

It was not possible to verify the claim. Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity and validity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

Morsi, who has three years left in his presidential term, claims that Mubarak loyalists are behind the planned protests. His supporters say Tamarod is a cover for thugs loyal to Mubarak.

The 22 million signatures, while they have no legal weight, deal a symbolic blow to Morsi at a time when he is widely seen by Egyptians to have failed to tackle the country's most pressing problems, from surging crime rates and high unemployment to fuel shortages and power outages.

If verified, the number of people who signed the petition calling on Morsi to step down would be nearly twice the number who voted for him a year ago in a run-off that he won with around 52 percent of the vote.

Adding to his troubles, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists.

A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi's insult of judges in his latest speech on Wednesday.

With a sense of doom hanging over the country, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise and warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."

Morsi had called for national reconciliation talks in a Wednesday speech but offered no specifics. Opposition leaders dismissed the call as cosmetics.

Asked by The Guardian whether he was confident that the army would not intervene if the country becomes ungovernable, Morsi replied, "Very."

The Egyptian leader, however, said he did not know in advance of el-Sissi's last week's comments.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-protesters-gather-demand-morsis-ouster-093244528.html

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BlueStacks Adds A Free Hardware Option To Its ?Netflix For Gaming' With GamePop Mini

Mobile virtualization startup BlueStacks only recently revealed the GamePop, its mobile home gaming console that offers all-you-can play gaming for a flat monthly fee, but it's already expanding the line. Today, the company is announcing GamePop Mini, a version of the GamePop that offers completely free hardware with a standard $6.99 monthly GamePop service subscription, with smaller hardware that's yours to keep after 12 months even if you decide to cancel your GamePop account.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TMAGug592ZE/

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Deal of the Day: 75% off the Amzer Skin Case for iPhone 5

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SYARxMAT3wg/story01.htm

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Men who can't produce sperm face increased cancer risk

June 20, 2013 ? Men who are diagnosed as azoospermic -- infertile because of an absence of sperm in their ejaculate -- are more prone to developing cancer than the general population, a study led by a Stanford University School of Medicine urologist has found. And a diagnosis of azoospermia before age 30 carries an eight-fold cancer risk, the study says.

"An azoospermic man's risk for developing cancer is similar to that for a typical man 10 years older," said Michael Eisenberg, MD, PhD, assistant professor of urology at the medical school and director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. Eisenberg is lead author of the study, published online June 20 in Fertility and Sterility.

Diagnoses of male infertility and azoospermia are surprisingly common in the United States. About 4 million American men -- 15 percent of those ages 15-45 -- are infertile. Of these, some 600,000 -- about 1 percent of those of reproductive age -- are azoospermic. "There is evidence that infertility may be a barometer for men's overall health," Eisenberg said, "and a few studies have found an association of male infertility with testicular cancer." The new study, he said, not only assigns the bulk of infertile men's increased cancer risk to those with azoospermia, but also suggests that this risk extends beyond testicular cancer.

Eisenberg conducted most of the analysis for the study at Stanford, using data gathered from the Texas Cancer Registry and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he completed his medical training. The study's senior authors are Larry Lipshultz, MD, and Dolores Lamb, PhD, professors of urology at Baylor.

The study population consisted of 2,238 infertile men who were seen at a Baylor andrology clinic from 1989 to 2009. Their median age was 35.7 when they were first evaluated for the cause of their infertility. Of those men, 451 had azoospermia, and 1,787 did not. There were otherwise no apparent initial differences between the two groups.

Azoospermia can arise for two reasons. Obstructive azoospermia is caused by a blockage that prevents otherwise plentiful, fit sperm produced in the testes from reaching the ejaculate. But a screen of about one-fourth of the azoospermic men in the study population indicated that the vast majority suffered from the non-obstructive variety: Their testes didn't produce enough sperm for any to reach their ejaculate, most likely because of genetic deficiencies of one sort or another. Fully one-fourth of all the genes in the human genome play some role in reproduction, Eisenberg noted, so there are a lot of ways for the capacity to sire offspring to go astray.

After undergoing a semen analysis, the men were followed for an average of 6.7 years to see which of them turned up in the Texas Cancer Registry. (Fortunately for the analysis, most people tend to stay in the state where they've grown up, said Eisenberg.) Their rates of diagnosed cancer incidence were then compared with age-adjusted cancer-diagnosis statistics of Texas men in general.

In all, a total of 29 of the 2,238 infertile men developed cancer over a 5.8-year average period from their semen analysis to their cancer diagnosis. This contrasted with an expected 16.7 cases, on an age-adjusted basis, for the male Texas population in general (which, Eisenberg said, closely reflects cancer incidence rates for the entire U.S. population). This meant that infertile men were 1.7 times as likely to develop cancer as men in the general population. This is considered a moderately increased risk.

But comparing the cancer risk of azoospermic and nonazoospermic infertile men revealed a major disparity: The azoospermic men were at a substantially elevated risk -- nearly three times as likely to receive a diagnosis of cancer as men in the overall population. Infertile men who weren't azoospermic, in contrast, exhibited a statistically insignificant increased cancer risk of only 1.4 times that of men in the overall population.

By excluding men whose cancer diagnosis came within two or three years of their infertility evaluation, the researchers were able to rule out the possibility that azoospermia caused by an undiagnosed cancer had affected the statistics.

While the study wasn't large enough to delineate which specific types of cancer pushed azoospermic men's incidence rates up, the diagnoses they received covered a wide range of cancers: brain, prostate and stomach tumors, as well as melanoma, lymphoma, testicular cancer and cancer of the small intestine. The findings suggest that genetic defects that result in azoospermia may also broadly increase a man's vulnerability to cancer, Eisenberg said, supporting the notion that azoospermia and cancer vulnerability may share common genetic causes.

The study, which was funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, is the first to examine the cancer risk of azoospermia in particular, or to link it to non-germ-cell cancers. Previous studies have failed to consistently identify any increased risk for nontesticular cancers in infertile men, whether azoospermic or otherwise. In those previous studies, however, azoospermic men couldn't be separately examined because sperm analyses weren't available.

Most striking of all, said Eisenberg, was the cancer risk among azoospermic men who first had their semen analyzed before age 30. They were more than eight times as likely to subsequently develop cancer than Texas males in the general population of the same age. In contrast, there was no relationship between age of semen analysis and risk of cancer for nonazoospermic men.

The good news, Eisenberg said, is that while the cancer risk among young azoospermic men was quite large compared to their same-age peers, their relative youth means that their absolute risk of contracting cancer during the follow-up period remained small. The bad news, he said, is that men in their 30s often don't have a primary health-care provider. He advised that young men who are diagnosed as azoospermic should be aware of their heightened risk and make sure to get periodic checkups with that in mind.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/fdzhd_2xLmQ/130620214033.htm

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91% Frances Ha

All Critics (95) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (86) | Rotten (9)

This is an odd film (creepier than it knows), and even if you feel the atmospheric company of Dunham-ism, with a little of Whit Stillman, Henry Jaglom, and Woody Allen, the core influence on Noah Baumbach's film is fifty years older or more.

Baumbach usually builds his films around difficult protagonists, but Frances is entirely endearing, at once silly and deep, hopeless and promising.

The dialogue and editing are zippy and generally charming, combining with the tart observations of 20-something culture to create a nice frisson.

A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ...

The movie's a love letter to an actress and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order.

The obvious love of New York City echoes Woody Allen at his best. But "Frances Ha" is very much its own film, a story of life and love and messy rooms.

A refreshing amount of buoyancy to dance and charm its way through Quarter-Life Crisis territory. One of the best performances of Greta Gerwig's career to date

Frances Ha is a sympathetic but not uncritical depiction of a girl's gradual evolution into a woman; one that never condescends by forcing her to abandon all her quirks and impish qualities in the final act... An absolute delight, this is.

Indie darling Gerwig has a great deal to do with the picture's success: she's disarmingly likable...

There's a level of audacity beneath the lightweight whimsy in this unassuming low-budget comedy.

"Frances Ha makes a star out of Gerwig, and she's the kind of star we need: a goofy one we can feel tender about but never underestimate."

'I can't account for my own bruises,' Frances says, as if she were a clumsy kid with an adult's vocabulary. Does the remark refer to more than the abrasions on her skin?

A celebration of cinema, New York City and the distinctive charms of actress Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha was co-written by Gerwig and its director, Noah Baumbach, and it's the best film either has made.

There's a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and Greta Gerwig walks it remarkably well.

There's depth and realism in the way Frances Ha shows aspiration versus reality.

Gerwig, beyond a doubt, is immeasurably appealing, and Frances Ha is tailor-made to showcase her gifts better than anything she's ever been in.

...if you hold your nose and simply wallow through the stench of self-aggrandizement, you'll be rewarded with an experience that will actually tug on your emotions.

Frances Ha provides a sharp, fleet, and very funny look at female friendship and the acceptance of adult responsibilities.

This is very minimalist storytelling much of which feels improvised in front of the camera. The film is more of a character situation than a character story.

Frances Ha is endearing, kind and, in many ways, Noah Baumbach's best movie to date.

It's a film that bears all of the zingy dialogue and sharp characterizations of Baumbach's other films ("The Squid and the Whale," "Greenberg") but with more of a generosity of spirit towards its characters.

Funny and touching, Frances Ha may very well be the most eloquent take yet on a generation in flux.

The light Frances Ha provides skittish moments of heartbreak and confusion on the humorous path to adulthood, but it sends a comforting message that our fate may use the same language as our dreams even if it doesn't tell the same story.

Easily Baumbach's warmest and most upbeat film to date.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha_2013/

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Long Distance Friendships: 5 Louise-Approved Tips for Making ...

My life is one big long distance relationship.?

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I figure this is simply a result of adulthood. Granted, it's a truth that I bemoan and groan and fight, kicking and screaming against, but a truth nonetheless.?

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People grow up, people get jobs, people move to Japan. It happens and in my brief adult-life-so-far I've found that generally one of two things happen when close friends move away: good intentions are set but touch is lost or you carry on -- and in some magic, cosmic way, your friendship gets forged in candy-colored steel. (My steel is candy-colored because my friendships are one of the few things I get all sappy and hearts/butterflies over, but your steel may be any style of your choosing. May I suggest skulls?)?

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I move around a lot. Since I was a kid, moving around to new neighborhoods, states, there was even a new country in the mix, was something I just got used to. Very early on, I developed a motto that still serves me really well: "Don't hold on to a friendship that doesn't want you, but cling like a pit bull to one that does." Awwwwww, I'll wait while all of y'all sew that into pillows. (Note: I've since learned that pit bulls do NOT have "locking jaws"; just don't want to perpetuate any mean doggie stereotypes.)

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But really, while there is always a mourning period of losing the intimacy of the everyday with a friend or partner (my husband moving to Japan for a year to study nerd things), I've found that with a little effort, dedication and forgiveness, long-distance friendships can be the antidote to when nobody knows your name, and you need the comfort of someone "just getting it."

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A few months into living in O'ahu, I went out with some of my husband's new classmates. I tried to be on my best behavior -- witty, weird, wise-ass -- I thought I was charming the crowd. Turns out "charming" was not the way most people thought of me that night. Try "loud" and "overly aggressive" and "Did Louise just steal that woman's lighter?" (For the record I DID NOT.)?

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If it hadn't been for the knowledge that I have a small army of people 3000+ miles away who love me not only in spite of my social disgraces but BECAUSE of them, I would have let that incident fester and boil and keep me away from social situations for my duration in O'ahu. The magic of a late night phone call with someone who wishes that they had been there with you during "the lighter incident," if only to laugh at the absurdity of it all, does wonders to restore one's confidence.?

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So in the spirit of National Long Distance Friendship Day (I made that up, but don't you have a friend you need to call?), here is a list of the tips, tricks and forgivable blunders that have allowed me to delight in a collection of real friends across the country and internationally.?

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1. Make regular phone dates.

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I am officially the worst at calling people. Everyone who knows me knows this, and it's not OK.?

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Making weekly phone dates make you prioritize your long distance friend for a certain amount of time, carve out a part of your schedule to just "hang out" with them. Just like old times.?

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More than that, sometimes spontaneously picking up your phone and reporting the big and little things to your friends restores a sense of normalcy to a far apart friendship. Yes, it's not the same as everyday contact, but by it does keep you in each other's lives.?

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Sometimes it does take some effort, like when my husband was living in Japan. Aside from Skype (more on that later), buying a calling card was one of the best things I did. When exciting things happened to me, I could call him, granted with a few more digits to dial, and yelp and holler over the phone almost like he was just across town.

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I have a phone date with my friend Bethany later today, and I programmed an alarm in my phone to remind myself to call. Bethany is the very best at forgiving me for not making our dates, and for this reason alone, I started using my phone alarm so that I wouldn't abuse that kindness.?

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Behold! My reminder on my piece of crap phone!?

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Which brings me to?

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2. Forgive.

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Birthdays will be wished late, people will feel left out, tons of texts or e-mails will be misinterpreted, "Why didn't you tell me?!" stuff will happen.

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Forgive, forgive, forgive. Apologize. Forgive.?

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Having long distance friendships is hard, and life happens, so sometimes things fall by the wayside, but holding grudges only creates more distance. In my experience, as hurt as you are by your friend forgetting your birthday, they feel twice as horrible and panicked when they REALIZE they missed your birthday.?

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I'm telling you, the cell phone calendar with reminders is the greatest invention of the modern age.?

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3. Don't hesitate to do the nice stuff.

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My friend Liz, one of my oldest and most skilled long distance friends, once said to me, "When I see something that might make my friend happy, if I can afford it, I will get it for them, because you shouldn't hesitate when you could do something nice for your friends." MY GOD, I have nice people in my life.?

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But it's true. Nothing makes me shed tears of joy quicker or laugh real laughs faster than getting a little gift in the mail, or a "This made me think of you" picture of a dog in a dress sent to my phone. And inversely, there is something really uplifting about sending a little surprise to someone you care about.?

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Sometimes I really have to force myself off my lazy ass to get to the post office to mail shit, but in the end I'm always glad I did. You will be too.?

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4. Skype.

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What did people do before Skype??

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My friend Joy, her boyfriend and her cat, Deryk, just moved to a new apartment, and while I'm SO BUMMED that I can't be there to break it in with her, an upcoming Skype session will allow me to get a tour and be not QUITE so out of the loop. Thanks, Skype!

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When my husband was living in Japan, Skype single-handedly preserved, if not strengthened our relationship. Unlike phones, you have to make a little more effort to actually be in a certain place, at a certain time, and look at a person.?

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Not to mention, you can Skype someone into a show, party, bat mitzvah -- anything! And for a moment, it's like they're not so far away.?

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5. Save up for a visit.

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Money sucks. I say that almost everyday. But really, coming from one of the cheapest people ever born, save up for that rendezvous with your BFF, it's worth it.?

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And you know what's even more fun than planning a trip to see a friend? Surprising them on a special occasion.?

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I screamed, cried, and peed a little when, on my first birthday in Hawai'i, my friend Joy surprised me by flying all the way from LA just to see me (and hang in Hawai'i, let's be honest).?

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There's something so renewing about spending even a few days with a dear friend. You'll fly or drive away from each other with your roots a little deeper intertwined and feeling, I promise, a little less lonely in the world.?

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If you can make the big trip to see your friend, it's like the phone date, Skype session, and "I miss you!" gift all rolled up into one.?

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Not flying across the Pacific, but one of the happiest days of my life. My friends, Joy and Marty, surprised me at LAX when I had a three hour layover at 1am. I'm the luckiest.?

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So that's what I do.?

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It may seem simplistic, but in my experience, just seeing, spelled out, how easy it can be to evolve a friendship from near distance to long distance can assuage the FREAK OUT that can occur when faced with leaving your friend-family.?

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So I want to know: What do you do?

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How do you stay in touch with your long distance friends? How far away is your farthest friend? Do you also collect friends across the world?

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Source: http://www.xojane.com/relationships/long-distance-friendships-how-i-make-them-work

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McDreamy part of all-American team at Le Mans ? Artesia News

In this June 9, 2011 file photo, U.S actor and auto racing driver Patrick Dempsey poses for photographs in Le Mans, France. The only all-American lineup at the 24 Hours of Le Mans might very well be the one that draws the most interest from non-racing fans. The No. 77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton Porsche will be headlined by Patrick Dempsey. (AP Photo/Vincent Michel, File)

The only all-American lineup at the 24 Hours of Le Mans might very well be the one that draws the most interest from non-racing fans.

The No. 77 Dempsey Del Piero-Proton Porsche will be headlined by Patrick Dempsey ? you know, ?McDreamy? of ?Grey?s Anatomy? fame. He is joining co-drivers Joe Foster and Patrick Long in the GTE Am division and driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

?I think anybody who?s a road racer wants to race here,? Dempsey said. ?Having done it in the past and coming back and doing it with an all-American driver lineup with Patrick Long and Joe Foster with a great team at Proton-Dempsey-Del Piero, it?s a tremendous honor. It means everything to us, and it?s humbling, it?s exciting, it?s inspirational, and it?s so moving to be a part of this event. It?s a dream come true to come back here.?

It will be the actor?s second time competing in the endurance race in Le Mans, France, but this time he appears to have a legitimate shot at a class victory.

The 47-year-old Dempsey shared a Ferrari at Le Mans in 2009 with Foster, his motorsports business partner. New to the entry this year is Long, a two-time Le Mans winner making his 10th start in the race. Long turned the third-fastest lap in class during the one-day Le Mans pre-test earlier this month.

The team was also buoyed by its second-place result at Laguna Seca last month in Dempsey?s last outing. The team appeared poised to win until co-driver Andy Lally was passed for the class lead following a restart on the final lap of the four-hour race.

To be considered a contender has Dempsey on the cusp of what once seemed to be an unreachable goal.

?We would sit around the kitchen or in the trailer dreaming about when we?d go to Le Mans and getting on the podium,? he said. ?This has always been a dream and a goal. So to come back here ? it was a dream come true and a turning point in my life to have done it in 2009, and I haven?t had a win yet, and I would love to if I could get my first win to be at Le Mans. It would just be so, so special. It would be deeply moving certainly. I know the drivers on the team can do it.?

It will be Long?s first race teaming with Dempsey and Foster. He was a late addition to the team in place of Dempsey Del Piero team principal Michael Avenatti, whose business commitments outside of racing prevented him from competing at Le Mans. But it didn?t take him long to feel comfortable with the team assembled.

?Once Patrick and Joe got in the car and picked it up really quickly, I started to feel really positive about our chances,? Long said. ?That was sort of capped off by the test that we had just two weeks ago.?

Dempsey has been an active participant in sports car racing now for nearly a decade, and Long has been impressed by his progress.

?He definitely is underrated,? Long said. ?I?ve watched him and Joe partner up and go very seriously at racing a little bit from a distance. Working alongside him has certainly been a different experience. He?s a very intense competitor, very focused. What I underestimated was his fitness. We went testing in (in Italy) and the team was worn out. They were looking at me. I?ve run with them previously over here in Europe and they were like, ?We?re out of tires; we?re out of fuel.? I?m like, ?This guy still wants to drive and he?s here to put the numbers up and not just show up and look the part.??

___

DOUBLE DUTY: Brian Vickers has a lot of road in front of him this weekend as the only driver attempting double duty in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races.

Vickers is scheduled to run the Nationwide race on Saturday at Road America for Joe Gibbs Racing before heading West to Sonoma, Calif., for the Cup race in a Michael Waltrip Racing entry on Sunday.

?I?m looking forward to both of them,? said Vickers. ?It?s going to take a little different mentality and technique going from Road America which is a little bit faster place to Sonoma which is a slower, more technical road race, but I?m up for the challenge and excited.?

In the past, most Cup drivers have spent the majority of their time in Sonoma and flew to the Nationwide race just in time for the start. Vickers, though, will spend most of the weekend in Wisconsin with JGR as he focuses on his Nationwide effort. He?s currently 10th in the championship race, 100 points behind leader Regan Smith.

Jason Bowles will drive MWR?s No. 55 for him at Sonoma in practice and qualifying, and Vickers will have to start at the back of the field when he arrives Sunday. Vickers was able to find a silver lining in knowing he?ll start at the back.

?I think there?s opportunities at Sonoma to get to do a little bit different pit strategy,? he said. ?Knowing that you don?t really have track position to protect kind of can create opportunities. We?ve been there in the past where we?ve had either bad qualifying or something happened during the race and we had to come in and pit or penalties on pit road, like last year we had the penalty on pit road and had to go to the back and we worked our way back up to fourth, but as much as it hurt us, it also created opportunities.?

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It?s been a rough few weeks for Gustavo Yacaman, the Grand-AM Series driver who was placed on two-race probation by series officials for ?his involvement in various incidents? during the June 1 race in Detroit.

His first stint back on the track since the hand-slapping couldn?t have gone any worse.

The Colombian started eighth at Mid-Ohio on Saturday and was trying to make a pass on Memo Rojas ? the same driver he wrecked at Detroit ? when the two made contact. It led to a flat tire for Yacaman, who drove off the track and through a gravel trap, which ruptured the oil line.

The Michael Shank Racing entry then burst into flames, causing significant damage to the No. 6 Ford-Riley. It also led to harsh criticism of Yacaman from racers from various series, many who instantly took to social media to lambast the 22-year-old.

Among those showing zero sympathy was Scott Pruett, Rojas? co-driver who never got a chance to drive at Detroit because of the accident with Yacaman.

?I feel really bad for Mike Shank, but not the driver,? Pruett said. ?It will be interesting to see what Grand-Am does, since he?s on probation.?

Shank on Sunday supported his driver through a series of tweets, saying Yacaman drives for the team this season and ?that is not changing? while acknowledging he ?has made bad decisions and I promise u that we will correct this path.?

Shank said the team has obligations to the sponsor and the 10 employees that work on the car, and tweeted, ?Our focus is now on the massive rebuild effort to try and get the 6 car to Watkins.?

All wasn?t lost at Mid-Ohio for the Shank organization. Ozz Negri marked his return to the No. 60 with a fourth-place finish with co-driver John Pew. The car had to come back from significant damage of its own suffered in Detroit, and Negri had missed three races while he continued to recover from an offseason training injury to his leg.

?It?s great having Ozz back, it?s like a missing family member that?s finally back,? Pew said. ?The whole team is excited that he?s back. The guys did a tremendous job getting the car back from Detroit. Right down to the last nut and bolt it rolled off the trailer just about perfect. It was an awesome car. It?s too bad we couldn?t get a podium, but I?m pretty happy with a fourth place.?

This entry was posted on June 19, 2013, 11:36 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.artesianews.com/2013/06/19/ap-news/entertainment-ap-news/mcdreamy-part-of-all-american-team-at-le-mans/

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