Tilly Gokbudak is Moving to Bulgaria in August

All of us here at "The Daily Vampire" are pleased to announce that our managing editor Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be me, is moving to Sofia, Bulgaria, to teach at the American College of Sofia.

He was accepted there for a full-time position teaching English, and Gokbudak will also travel to his late father Mehmet Gokbudak's native Turkey to assist elementary school teachers teach English in the provinces of Edirne, Tekirdag and Kiriklareli.

Turkey and Bulgaria share a common border, and there many ethnic Turks in Bulgaria.

But, we are happy to announce that this blog will not discontinue in any way.

10 People Who will Decide Election (9 of 10) _Iowa

Today, we are continuing our series of how a given person in each swing state could potentially play a pivotal role in the American presidential election, which will be watched from Dover, Delaware, to Dubai.

The image above is a campaign button for George McGovern (D) who is the oldest living man who has run for the president. The former South Dakota senator who is now 90 lost to Richard Nixon in 1972.

Here is a look at our fictional voter of the day:

Name: David Harrison

Occupation: Community College Teacher

Residency: Davenport, Iowa

Age: 35

Political Leanings: Democrat, will vote for President Barack Obama


It is no secret that like Big Bird on "Sesame Street" whom Republican presidential candidate turned into a social sensation when he said he would cut federal spending for PBS during the debate last week that teachers generally vote Democratic because the party has traditionally been more supportive of education and teachers' needs as well as school funding.

The Big Bird comment was the topic of a recent "Washington Post" column by Glenn Kessler which asked: "Does Mitt Romney want to kill Big Bird?;" the same newspaper also published a stunning column by college professor Frank Portnoy who argues that America's long marathon presidential race is good for the country. One can assume that both Democrats and Republicans may actually unite in opposition to Portnoy's theory, even intellectually it was fairly well laid out.

Among the stories in the most current issue of "The Quad City Times," which serves Davenport, Iowa, and surrounding areas, the local police department is seeking a three-year contract and a three-percent pay raise.

In the comments section, a reader who attended a Paul Ryan rally in Clinton, Iowa, said that the Obama campaign had taken her comments in which she asked the vice presidential candidate about his plan to fix the economy out of context.

According to "Politico," Obama has a 48-6 to 45.5 percent lead over Romney.http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.politco.com

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.qctimes.com

Things We Learned From Twitter This PM-Nebraska May Defect

It seemed like my efforts to find out if anything new or extraordinary was going on in the world when I was checking tweets an hour and a ago was going to turn up nothing new or extraordinary.

But, then I read a tweet from KCTV, a Kansas City television station, which said the following:

"Orangebloods.com said Nebraska regents have informally agreed to leave for Big Ten. A formal announement will come Friday."

Does this mean that The University of Nebraska will now have in-conference rivalries with the likes of Ohio State, Illinois and Wisconsin instead of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas State?

The Corn Huskers are known nationally for their football program, but the school in Lincoln, Neb., also has outstanding programs in both women's volleyball and women's gymnastics.

The Lady Huskers volleyball team is now touring China according to the Nebraska athletics' web site.

Similary, the school's women's gymnastics team finished seventh at the NCAA championships in Gainesville, Fla., in April. They were lead this past season by seniors Kathryn Howard and Kylie Stone (pictured here).

Erin Davis, a standout junior, returns to the squad next year. During a meet with Illinios and Minnesota, Davis scored a perfect 10 on the vault.

SIDEBAR: I want to congratulate fellow Radford University alumnus John Marks who graduated from Highlander U in 2007 (11 years after I did). Marks was named Teacher of the Year for the City of Roanoke, Va. (my hometown) recently. He is a sixth and eighth grade math teacher at James Madison Middle School.