From CNN:

Tornado kills at least 7 people in an Evansville, Indiana, mobile home park, officials say.

(That’s over 300 miles from South Bend, so no worries about BrendanLoy.com going away.) Note that it’s on the Indiana-Kentucky-Illinois border; this isn’t exactly Tornado Alley, but it’s not immune to such things either.

Update: The current toll stands at 16 dead and 160-some injured. See the CNN link above for more. Note that according to the CNN article:

It was the deadliest day of tornado activity in the United States since April 8, 1988, when 37 people were killed, including 32 in Oak Grove, Alabama.

There is some indication that the current number could rise as more people are found.

Here’s a gallery of the 10 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history.

Posted by Brian (Briandot)

USC 51, Stanford 21, final. WOOHOO!

Fight on, Trojans!!! BEAT THE BEARS!!!

For the fifth time this year, it’s a good day to be an Irish Trojan: both Notre Dame and USC won today. Here’s my post on ND’s win, and here are a couple more pictures from that game:

And now, I’m really going to bed. G’nite all.

I’m going to meet Patrick Fitzgerald tomorrow.

No, I’m not getting indicted. :) He’s speaking at a forum in Chicago put together by my Federal Criminal Practice professor, who knows him personally. I seriously doubt he’ll be giving us the inside scoop on whether he’s going to indict Rove, but I’ll be sure to let you know if he does. Hehe.

USC 44, Stanford 7… at the half.

I think I’m going to bed now. I’m pretty sure the Trojans have this one well in hand. :)

UPDATE: Okay, I’m still awake, and it’s 44-14 near the end of the third quarter.

Now, allow me to chastise my fellow Trojan fans for a moment. When your opponent scores a touchdown which is upheld on video review — a touchdown that brings them within thirty points of the Trojans — there is absolutely no need to chant “bulls**t, bulls**t” at the refs. For heaven’s sake, we’re still ahead by 30!!! That sort of crap just feeds the perception that Trojan fans are classless, which most of us aren’t. So please, in the future, let’s all save the referee-baiting for when the Trojans are up three touchdowns or less, mmmkay? Thanks.

With Virginia Tech down and UCLA out, it appears there will be just three undefeated teams left in Division 1-A at the end of the evening: USC, Texas, and Alabama.

This simplifies the national-championship picture considerably. Basically, we are now looking at a rerun of last year: USC and a Big 12 team sitting pretty in the #1 and #2 spots, respectively, with an undefeated, #3-ranked SEC team on the outside looking in. If all three win out, Alabama most likely will be left out of the BCS title game, will go to the Sugar Bowl and won’t even have a shot at a split championship — just like Auburn in 2004-05.

If one of the remaining three unbeatens lose, we get a “clean” championship game for the first time since 2002-03. If two of them lose, the potential for controversy returns, but after tonight’s huge win (leading VT 27-0 in the fourth quarter), Miami appears to be in the catbird seat to claim the mantle of the highest-ranked one-loss team. A USC-Miami championship game is within the realm of possibility, if Texas and Alabama both lose. Other possible one-loss contenders, if the Hurricanes falter, are Penn State, LSU and Georgia… and, of course, whichever undefeated teams lose.

UPDATE: It’s official: Miami beats Virginia Tech, 27-7.

USC and Stanford are about to get underway.

You’re going DOWN, Mike! :)

Beat the Farm! Punch the Tree!

The car-burning, rabble-rousing rioters in France have reached the city limits of Paris, and have spread throughout the country as well.

InstaPundit: “I hope that I’m wrong, but I’m afraid that this will get worse before it gets better.”

UCLA now trails Arizona, 45-7, with 11:12 left in the third quarter. They’ve pulled some remarkable comebacks this season, but barring “the greatest comeback in the history of college football” (in the words of an ESPN commentator), they’re going to drop from the ranks of the unbeatens tonight.

Also, methinks Drew Olsen and Maurice Drew are about to suddenly and mysteriously disappear from a lot of Heisman lists…

UPDATE: It’s over. Arizona wins, 52-14.

So there will be no battle of unbeatens at the Coliseum on December 3. And unless UCLA upsets USC, the only Pac-10 team besides the Trojans in the running for a BCS bid — potentially in competition with Notre Dame — will be Oregon (assuming the Ducks win out).

Florida State and Wisconsin, who started the day one-loss teams ranked #9 and #12 in the BCS standings — ahead of #14 Notre Dame — both lost today, to N.C. State and Penn State, respectively. Their losses combined with ND’s win over Tennessee should get the Irish into the magical Top 12, which is where they need to be in order to qualify for a BCS berth. And if #13 Oregon loses to Cal (they’re currently in overtime), and if #6 Miami loses to Virginia Tech tonight, it’ll be even better.

UPDATE: D’oh! Oregon wins. This is a controversy in the making: the Ducks and the Irish are both likely, schedule-wise, to win out; both are likely to finish in the BCS Top 12; and both may be competing for the same BCS at-large spot. Notre Dame will almost certainly get it, because every bowl dreams about having Notre Dame come to town, so for the Irish, being BCS-eligible is basically synonymous with being BCS-bound. But an argument can be made that Oregon — with one loss, to USC, the same team that gave Notre Dame one of its two losses — deserves it more. I’m rooting for ND, obviously, but I can certainly sympathize with Ducks fans’ potential complaints, if it comes to that.

Congrats to Penn State, which beat Wisconsin and is now one win (against Michigan State in two weeks) away from a Big Ten title!

Meanwhile, in the Pac 10, Oregon and Cal are tied at 20 late in the fourth quarter. A Cal win would be good news for the Irish, because Oregon is currently ahead of ND in the BCS standings.

Also, UCLA is trailing Arizona 14-0 early, but stay tuned; the Bruins have made a habit of ridiculous comebacks.

USC and Stanford don’t kick off until 10:00 PM EDT.

Domers will be proudly screaming “Rocky Top” from the top of their lungs tonight at The Backer. Irish 41, Vols 21, final. WOOOO!!!

And now… GOOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEEAT MIDSHIPMEN!!!

But first… Fight on, Trojans! Beat the Farm!

Guestblogger: Josh Rubin

Election Day is this Tuesday, but many people around the country will have few important elections to vote in. In some cases, like where I live in Silver Spring, Maryland, there is literally no election to vote in. Most people who will have the opportunity to vote this week will be voting for local, or perhaps state officials. One of the few important elections in the coming week is the statistically-tied Virginia gubernatorial election wherein Democrat Tim Kaine leads Republican Jerry Kilgore by a scant 3 percentage points (47-44). Full poll results here.

Now, in a last-minute move, Kilgore is trying to rally his base by having President Bush hold a rally for him Monday night. Is this wise? True, most of Virginia is red, and Bush beat Kerry there last year by 9 points (54-45), but that was already a year ago. Bush’s popularity has fallen to somewhere between 35 and 40% nationally, and only around 40% in Virginia.

Is Kilgore getting desperate? With the popular Democratic Governor Mark Warner, who is leaving Richmond due to term limits with a 55-31 favorable-unfavorable rating, supporting his Lt. Governor, is Kilgore trying to get any help he can from the leader of his party? Perhaps. And if this election were taking place four years ago, when Bush’s popularity was at its highest in the wake of 9/11, I would not doubt Kilgore’s logic. But with Bush’s popularity lower than his own, I think Kilgore is doing some last-minute straw-grabbing. With a race this close, it’s possible for Bush’s appearance with Kilgore Monday will help the candidate, but given Bush’s current popularity rating in Virginia, I somehow doubt it.

It’s Notre Dame 21, Tennessee 13 with 5:00 left in the third quarter. But the Irish have looked flat offensively since scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter.

Elsewhere, Texas crushed Baylor, 62-0; North Carolina upset Boston College 16-14; and South Florida beat Rutgers, 45-31. (So much for the BCS pipe dream.)

In progress now: Alabama’s blazing offense is leading the Crimson Tide to a 3-0 halftime lead over mighty Mississippi State; N.C. State and Florida State are knotted at 10-10 near the end of the first half; Cal and Oregon are also at 10-10, also near the end of the first half; and Penn State is leading Wisconsin in the game that could decide the Big Ten title, 21-0 at halftime.

P.S. Sorry for the Yahoo links, I know ESPN is better, but it also keeps crashing my browser.

My hacking cough, sore throat and general congested malaise are sticking around like the worst kind of unwanted guest who can’t take a hint, and I really don’t think I could handle the physical exhaustion that is inherent in going to a Notre Dame game — standing up for four hours straight, cheering like a madman, doing all sorts of cheers, helping with pushups, etc. Honestly, it might kill me. :) So alas, Becky and I are staying home, watching the game on TV. I know, I know, I’m lame. I’m also sick. Argh.

Regardless of that… GO IRISH!!!!

UPDATE: Blogger is down for maintenance, supposedly until 5:00 PM. Lame! But you can follow the game here.

The Newington High School football Indians clinched their first CCC South championship since 1993 with a thrilling 45-42 victory over Bristol Central last night at Alumni Field! WOOHOO!! Jordan Knight caught a touchdown pass from Chris Sutton with 8 seconds left to give Newington the win. Wow! I wish I could’ve been there!

With the win, Newington moves to 4-0 in conference, with one game left at winless Bulkeley next Friday. A win over the Bulldogs would put the Indians at 5-0 and give them an undisputed championship. In the unlikely event (knock on wood) that they lose to Bulkeley, the Indians could potentially finish tied with the winner of the Thanksgiving Day game between Bristol Central (2-1) and Bristol Eastern (2-1), pending the outcome of next Friday’s BE-Maloney and BC-Platt games. But to the extent tiebreakers are used, Newington owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over both Bristol teams. So regardless of what happens, the Indians will get to add the year “2005″ to their “CCC South Champion” banner in the Richard Rogalski Gynasium. Way to go, NHS!!!

The win also moved Newington into position to qualify for the Class L state playoffs for the second consecutive year, at #4 in the point standings. (The Top 4 teams qualify.) However, by my crude calcuations, the Indians need some help to stay at #4. Their strength of schedule for the rest of the season is incredibly weak — vs. Bulkeley (0-8) and non-conference Thanksgiving rival Wethersfield (1-7) — and as a result, I think #5 Wilbur Cross and #6 Fitch would probably both leapfrog the Indians if they win out. So Newington needs to root for both of those teams to lose.

But regardless of whether they make the playoffs, the Indians — who went 3-38-1 when I was in high school — can call themselves “champions” for the first time since I was in seventh grade. YEEEAH!!!

P.S. The football team isn’t the only one doing well. The Indians qualified for the state tournament in all the fall team sports: they’re seeded #24 in boys soccer, #19 in girls soccer, #16 in girls volleyball and #13 in field hockey. And in cross country, the boys are #9 and the girls are #15.