The man police say fired on a congressional baseball practice last week in Alexandria, Virginia, was a member of the nearby YMCA Alexandria. Y representatives told The New York Times that James T. Hodgkinson, 66, had made the facility his "home base" since April 4. Hodgkinson, originally from Belleville, Illinois, had been living out of his van near the facility, the Times said. Tuesday, June 13, Hodgkinson gave written notice that he was moving and wanted to cancel his membership. However, he used the facility early the following morning before proceeding over to the adjacent baseball field and firing his SKS 7.62-millimeter semiautomatic assault rifle at the crowd. Forty-five YMCA members and seven employees took shelter inside the Y after it was struck by at least two bullets. Police later placed the building on lockdown for the day. Hodgkinson died in a gunfight with police officers.
Life Time Fitness CEO Bahram Akradi is seeking a seat on the board of Northern Oil and Gas, according to a report by StarTribune. Akradi now holds a 10 percent ownership stake in the primarily North Dakota-based company, making him its second-largest investor. "I intend to get on the board and make the necessary moves to make the company as successful as it should be," Akradi told StarTribune. Northern Oil reportedly declined Akradi's initial request to join the board, whose size is currently filled to desired capacity. Life Time Fitness ranked No. 3 on Club Industry’s Top 100 Health Clubs of 2016, with estimated 2015 revenue of $1.354 billion.
In Sonia Lulla's recent article on MiD Day, she asks if newly emerging yoga trends—such as anti-gravity yoga, goat yoga, BierYoga and topless yoga—are distracting would-be yogis from the core tenants of the age-old mind-body exercise. "While I may focus on strenuous exercises during a class of power yoga, or flexibility work in hot yoga, to meet clients' demands, I will also take them through the principles of the traditional art," trainer Iftekhar Ahmed Farooqui said in the article. "And that, I think, is how trainers must attempt to teach individuals, even while selling the offbeat forms."
An ex-Jewish Community Center counselor convicted on child porn charges has survived a drug overdose, The Times of Israel reported. Matthew Kuppe, 22, was found unconscious in his Detroit home on June 14, a day after he had been scheduled to enter a federal prison on a 10-year sentence. He was taken to a hospital and is now in federal custody, according to the Times. In August 2016, Kuppe pleaded guilty to posting nude photos of three 5-year-old children on a Russian website. The children had been in his care when he was employed by the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
24 Hour Fitness will host tryouts this Saturday at select clubs for The Next Olympic Hopeful, a program the fitness company has spearheaded with the United States Olympic Committee. The aim is to find one new male and female athlete for eight sports, according to Around the Rings. The winners will be invited to join the existing national teams. The program will be broadcast as a two-hour special on NBCSN in August. 24 Hour Fitness recently renewed its ongoing Olympic partnership through 2020.
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