Morning, all. How many of you are planning to play hooky in order to catch the kickoff of the World Cup? We’ve got dozens (and counting) of great options for your soccer watchin’, and a few delays, Biergarten is opening just in time for the Cup, too.

Amidst all the World Cup celebration in South Africa, tragedy: Nelson Mandela’s great-granddaughter, Zenani Mandela, was hit and killed by a drunk driver as she returned home from a pre-Cup concert in Soweto. Mandela has cancelled his appearance at the tournament’s opening ceremony.

Even in the land of the East Coast bias, it’s big news: Colorado’s leaving the Big 12 for the Pac-10, with the 2012-13 season likely being the Buffaloes’ first in their new conference. It looks likely that Nebraska will leave the Big 12 for the Big 10, and if the trio of Texas, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M falls to the Pac-10, it’ll likely mark the end of the Big 12 and completely change the landscape of college sports.

Nick Nefedro, just keep doin’ what you do, as Bobby Flay would say. The Maryland Court of Appeals reversed a Montgomery County ordinance banning fortune-telling for money, determining that the practice is protected by free speech.

Tweet love between John McCain and Snooki? Believe it. After expressing to an MTV camera crew that she no longer uses tanning beds due to Obama’s ten percent tax, which she feels like he instituted “intentionally for us,” McCain tweeted “@Sn00ki u r right, I would never tax your tanning bed!” Smart man.

Embarrassment at the nation’s most famous cemetery: Arlington’s superintendent, John C. Metzler Jr., has been reprimanded after army investigators found burial urns dumped amidst excess dirt, unmarked and mismarked graves, and headstones not recorded on cemetery maps. Arlington has been the site of more than 100,000 burials in the last 20 years.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery