NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) - More than 50 people, including two celebrities and a lawyer from Connecticut, face charges for their suspected involvement in a college bribery scheme.,Investigators said more than 30 wealthy parents, including actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, Connecticut lawyer Gordon Caplan, and nine coaches were involved.,Among those coaches was a former soccer coach at Yale.,Investigators said Singer mailed former Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith a check for $400,000.,According to court documents, Singer would take "Yale applicant 1's art portfolio" then "'revise' the materials to 'soccer.'"

Sporting KC forward Johnny Russell been named to the Scotland Men’s National Team for the start of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying during FIFA’s international window this month.,The St. Patrick’s Day clash will kick off at 8 p.m. CT with live coverage on FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest Plus, ESPN 95.3 FM and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM.,Sporting KC defender Botond Barath and forward Krisztian Nemeth have been selected to the Hungary Men’s National Team for the start of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying during FIFA’s international window this month.,The St. Patrick's Day fixture will kick off at 8 p.m. CT, with FOX Sports Kansas City and FOX Sports Midwest Plus televising three hours of live coverage beginning with Sporting KC Live presented by Bud Light at 7:30 p.m. CT.,Postgame programming will include The Final Whistle show on 95.3 FM and Sporting KC Live presented by Sprint on FOX Sports Kansas City and FOX Sports Midwest Plus.

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William Rick Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, Calif., owner of the Edge College Career Network and CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation, was charged in an information with racketeering conspiracy and money laundering.,John Vandemoer, 41, of Stanford, Calif., the former sailing coach at Stanford University, was charged in an information with racketeering conspiracy.,Charged with racketeering conspiracy: read more

Two USC athletic department employees a high-ranking administrator and a legendary head coach were fired Tuesday after being indicted in federal court in Massachusetts for their alleged roles in a racketeering conspiracy that helped students get into elite colleges and universities by falsely designating them as recruited athletes.Senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and mens and womens water polo coach Jovan Vavic were fired after allegedly receiving bribes totaling more than $1.3 million and $250,000, respectively, to help parents take advantage of the relaxed admissions standards for athletes at USC even though their children were not legitimately being recruited as athletes.Former USC womens soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin, who was fired in 2013, and his former assistant coach, Laura Janke, who left the school in 2014, were also named in the indictment for allegedly fabricating athlete profiles for the prospective students.,Khosroshahin and Janke allegedly received payments totaling nearly $350,000 sent to their private soccer club.Federal prosecutors on Tuesday indicted dozens of people including UCLA mens soccer coach Jorge Salcedo and actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin in connection with an elaborate scheme aimed at getting students into elite colleges.The scheme centered around the owner of a for-profit Newport Beach college admissions company that wealthy parents allegedly paid to help their children cheat on college entrance exams and falsify athletic records of students to enable them to secure admission to elite schools for which they otherwise might not qualify, according to court records.We are aware of the ongoing wide-ranging criminal investigation involving universities nationwide, including USC, the university said in a statement.,Donna Heinel and Jovan Vavic have been terminated and the university will take additional employment actions as appropriate.USC is in the process of identifying any funds received by the university in connection with this alleged scheme.,Additionally, the university is reviewing its admissions processes broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward.The other athletic departments named in the alleged racketeering conspiracy are Yale, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Stanford, Texas and the University of San Diego.,The indictment states that, by accepting bribes to falsely designate students as recruited athletes, the coaches and administrators were in the violation of the duty of honest services owed to their employers, thereby facilitating the childrens admissions to the universities.Heinel was USC athletics chief administrative officer and senior woman administrator.Vavic led the Trojans water polo teams to a combined 16 national championships and is a 15-time national coach of the year.Vavic was arrested without incident in Hawaii.

In allegations that sent shock waves through academia, federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused top CEOs, two Hollywood actresses and a legendary fashion designer of taking part in an audacious scheme to get their children into elite universities through fraud, bribes and lies.The scheme, which began in 2011, centered around the owner of a for-profit Newport Beach college admissions company that wealthy parents paid to help their children cheat on college entrance exams and to falsify athletic records of students to enable them to secure admission to elite schools, including UCLA, USC, Stanford, Yale and Georgetown, according to court records.Fifty people, across academia and college sports as well as a cadre of super-wealthy parents, have been charged in what prosecutors say is the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted.,Some parents participated in one aspect of the scheme, while others paid for both, stealing slots from hard-working students with legitimate grades and test scores, authorities said.William Rick Singer, who owns the admissions company called the Edge College Career Network, was charged with money laundering, obstruction of justice, racketeering and conspiracy to defraud the United States.,In at least one instance, a student claimed to have a learning disability to obtain medical documentation required by the College Board and ACT Inc. to grant additional time on the tests, according to court documents.Once the students were given additional time, which generally allowed them to take the test over two days instead of one and in an individual setting, the clients were instructed to change the location of the exam to either a public high school in Houston or a private college preparatory school in West Hollywood that Singer controlled, according to the documents.At those locations, prosecutors allege, Singer bribed test administrators Igor Dvorskiy, of Los Angeles, and Lisa Niki Williams, of Houston, with the parents money to facilitate cheating on the exams.,Singer had a psychologist on his team assign fake learning disabilities to give students an academic advantage, the charges say.Coaches and private admissions counselors allegedly received money for helping to get students admitted as athletes at Yale, Stanford and USC.USC senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and mens and womens water polo coach Jovan Vavic were alleged to have received bribes totaling more than $1.3 million and $250,000, respectively, to help parents take advantage of the relaxed admissions standards for athletes at USC even though their children were not legitimately being recruited as athletes.,It described spending thousands of dollars on trips for dental students to help needy Cambodians and offering math tutoring to underserved children in Oakland.Prosecutors said the charity was nothing more than a means to launder money to an array of people requiring bribes.Our contributions to major athletic university programs may help to provide placement to students that may not have access under normal channels, the organization stated in tax documents.Federal law enforcement began the investigation, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, in May 2018, based on a tip from a confidential source who was being interviewed as part of a separate investigation, said FBI Special Agent Joseph Bonavolonta.Make no mistake: This is not a case where parents were acting in the best interests of their children.

William Rick Singer touted his charity as a way to open doors for disadvantaged students who grew up surrounded by gang violence.The Key Worldwide Foundations website says it funds dental care for needy Cambodians, after-school programs for children in 20 cities across the United States and life coaching to underprivileged girls in Los Angeles.But federal tax records reviewed by The Times showed the great majority of the charitys grants actually went to elite universities, including USC, Yale and New York University.,Fifty people have been charged in the probe.In 2016, the most recent year for which the records are available, Singers foundation gave $252,500 to the University of Texas Athletics, $50,000 to the USC Womens Athletics Board, $25,000 to the USC soccer program and $83,181 to NYU Athletics, the tax documents show.,In 2015, the nonprofit gave $250,000 to athletic programs at USC, including its water polo and womens volleyball programs, $294,000 to the University of Texas Athletics, $250,000 to Yale Summer Time Sports and $175,000 to Chapman University.That year, Friends of Cambodia received $19,200.,We take this matter very seriously and intend to review this relationship in depth to assure ourselves that our principles have not in any way been compromised.In 2014, USC sports programs received $225,000, while NYU Athletics received $203,998, the tax records show.,He cooperated with authorities in the investigation and pleaded guilty to the charges in Boston on Tuesday afternoon, according to court records.Prosecutors allege that well-to-do parents paid Singer to help their children cheat on college entrance exams and to falsify athletic records to enable them to gain admission to at least eight schools, a list that also includes UCLA, Stanford and Georgetown.Not all the schools named in the case received donations, according to the tax records.Federal law enforcement began the investigation, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, in May, based on a tip from a confidential source who was being interviewed as part of a separate investigation, said FBI Special Agent Joseph Bonavolonta.The government alleges that Singer instructed parents to donate funds to the charity as part of the scheme.

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While it makes intuitive sense that effective goals for fourth graders differ from those made by juniors in high school, it’s important for parents and coaches to understand how to help youth athletes make and achieve appropriate goals.,In addition to an athlete’s competitive or training maturity, Dr. Kraus encourages parents and coaches to consider the source of an athlete’s motivation when it comes to establishing appropriate goals.,If an athlete exhibits high intrinsic motivation early on by prioritizing personal achievement and what success feels like rather than what it looks like, then coaches and parents can help the athlete progress by encouraging the pursuit of extrinsic goals (winning).,In her experience, Dr. Kraus says young athletes tend to impose harsher consequences on themselves for perceived failures compared to the consequences parents and coaches would normally deem reasonable.,To counter the bias toward criticism, coaches and parents should encourage young athletes to establish concrete consequences and rewards related to effort (not outcomes). read more

- Paul Carcaterra

“You could put him on a field with professional players, or play at the international level and he would score three or four goals in a game right now as a 16-year-old.,“When I watch Mikey Powell, or Lyle Thompson or Brennan O’Neill play the game, there’s nothing traditional about their game.,O’Neill, a junior at St. Anthony’s (N.Y.) High School, was once the earliest boys’ lacrosse player ever to commit to a college program — making the pledge to Penn State as an eighth-grader in 2016 before flipping his commitment to Duke in September.,After games, O’Neill would come home to watch YouTube videos of Mark Matthews and John Grant Jr., then head out to the backyard to test their moves.,It took a meeting with coach Joe Spallina at a Pro Player Lacrosse Camp to give O’Neill that impression. read more

According to documents released as part of criminal proceedings (pdf) against Singer, McGlashan, and a host of other parents, coaches, and test administrators, the private equity exec found it all “totally hilarious.”,On phone calls tapped by the Feds, McGlashan and Singer hatched a plan to make the kid look like an elite football kicker in his application, which would give him a 90% chance of admission, Singer claimed.,Damningly, when Augstin Huneeus, Jr., a parent whose daughter attended the same school as McGlashan’s son caught wind about the financier using Singer’s services, he called him on it.,Parents of means send their kids to private schools to make sure they are well-positioned for admission to certain colleges.,He sees how the rules of wealth at work all the time: there’s the unethical, but increasingly common, like parents who write their children’s college essay, or pay tutors or online companies to do it.

With the shutdown of the newspaper in September 2018, this area in central Missouri's Ozark hills joined more than 1,400 other cities across the United States to lose a newspaper over the past 15 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by the University North Carolina.,With the shutdown of the newspaper in September 2018, this area in central Missouri's Ozark hills joined more than ... more

Photo: Orlin Wagner, AP read more