Red Bluff Daily News

June 09, 2016

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ByBruceSchreinerand Claire Galofaro TheAssociatedPress LOUISVILLE, KY. Muham- mad Ali, who long ago be- gan crafting the plan for his final tribute, insisted the tickets for his memo- rial service be free. But on Wednesday, after the tick- ets were handed out, some people looked to make a profit. People started arriving outside the KFC Yum! Cen- ter in Louisville late Tues- day, hours ahead of the ticket distribution. The line stretched around the arena. Thousands of tickets for Ali's memorial service Fri- day were claimed on a first- come, first-served basis in about an hour. Many fans of the boxing great flashed smiles, and some danced, upon getting their four-ticket allotments to be part of history. Thou- sands of others left empty- handed. Given the supply-and- demand factor for about 15,000 seats in the arena, some ticket holders imme- diately looked to cash in, going online offering to sell theirs to the star-stud- ded event. Former Presi- dent Bill Clinton, a long- time Ali friend, will eulo- gize the champ, who died last Friday at 74 following a long battle with Parkin- son's disease. Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell denounced the profiteering. "I'm personally dis- gusted and amazed that someone would try to profit off of Muhammad Ali's me- morial service," he said. "I hope that those buy- ing tickets or trying to buy tickets would stop those efforts by not purchasing," he added. "Muhammad Ali wanted this to be a free event, an event that was open to all." One of the posters of- fering to sell tickets, when reached by phone, said a friend of his sold tickets to the memorial service. When asked for how much, he hung up. Others posted online pleas to buy tickets. One wrote that he and his mother were driving in from Chicago for the ser- vice and were willing to pay $50 for two tickets. An- other wrote that he was fly- ing in from California for the service and offered to pay someone $50 to stand in line for him for tickets to both the memorial ser- vice and the Jenazah, a tra- ditional Muslim funeral be- ing held Thursday in Lou- isville. But others unable to wait in line refused to pay for tickets to the event Ali in- sisted should be free. "The Greatest wanted his funeral to be accessi- ble to everyone instead of the money hungry specta- cle that will be taking place on Friday," one wrote in re- questing someone give him tickets for free. "RIP Mu- hammad Ali, the Greatest of all time." Another poster wanted to sell tickets to the funeral. Thousands of free tickets were distributed this week for that event. Basit Mohammad went online in hopes of finding someone willing to part with their tickets, at no cost, to the Jenazah. At first, the 22-year-old from Virginia said he heard from several people will- ing to sell their tickets. He turned them down. "I think it's wrong," Mo- hammad said. "It's not how you commemorate some- one, by making money off their death." Eventually, someone from the Louisville area contacted him with word that four tickets were avail- able — for free. "I'm glad that somebody has a heart out there," Mo- hammad said. Mohammad planned to head out for Louisville on Wednesday with three friends to pay tribute the three-time heavyweight champion and humanitar- ian. "When will I ever have a chance to attend the fu- neral of someone that meant a lot to Islam and to our country?" he said. BOXING GREAT SomelookingtoprofitfromfreeticketstoAliservices DAVIDGOLDMAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A woman cheers a er receiving tickets to Muhammad Ali's memorial service Friday at the KFC Yum! Center Wednesday in Louisville, Ky. By Sudhin Thanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO With her furious and graphic 12- page letter to the court, the young woman at the center of the Stanford University sexual assault case has in- stantly become a powerful symbol of courage and re- silience to other sex-crime victims, all while remaining anonymous. Her widely shared state- ment has been held up as a must-read for boys and young men and a source of strength to other women who have fallen prey to sexual assault. BuzzFeed and The Washington Post posted it online, and CNN's Ashleigh Banfield read nearly the entire thing on the air. In it, the woman recalled the emptiness she expe- rienced after the attack, vented her anger over her assailant's seeming lack of remorse and described in detail her invasive hospi- tal examination, recount- ing the ruler nurses used to measure the scrapes on her body and how enough pine needles to fill a paper bag came out of her hair. "What brought tears to my eyes was just how cou- rageous she was," said Vic- toria Kress, who teaches counseling at Youngstown State University in Ohio and works with sex assault victims. "It's not typical that somebody does come forward in this type of a way." A nationwide furor erupted last week when a judge sentenced the wom- an's attacker, Brock Turner, a 20-year-old former swim- mer at Stanford, to six months in jail, triggering criticism that a star ath- lete from a privileged back- ground had gotten special treatment. Prosecutors had asked for six years in prison. The fury grew when it was learned that Turner's father had sent the judge a letter lamenting that his son had already paid a steep price "for 20 minutes of action." The victim has not come forward publicly outside court, and little is known about her other than her age — 23 — and that she wasn't a Stanford student. She was attacked as she lay unconscious behind a dumpster in January 2015 after drinking at a frater- nity party, authorities said. She said she did not remem- ber the assault. In her statement, she said she would learn from a news report later how she had been found naked. She did not immediately tell her boyfriend and parents about the attack, pretend- ing the whole thing wasn't real, she said. She didn't talk, eat or sleep. SENTENCING CONTROVERSY Stanford sex assault victim becomes a powerful symbol Select"Subscribe"tabin lower right corner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! FREE online subscription to TV Select Magazine Digital edition emailed to you, every Saturday! Just go online to www.ifoldsflip.com/t/5281 (You'll only need to go there one time) • Fully searchable online, zoom in, print out pages and more! • No newspaper online subscription or website access required. • Best of all ... it's ABSOLUTELY FREE! 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