Bumpy Road to the 2016 Olympics -- Media Watch

NITEROI, BRAZIL - JULY 30: A man walks along the shoreline of the polluted waters of Guanabara Bay near Rio de Janeiro on July 30, 2014 in Niteroi, Brazil. The iconic bay will be the site of sailing events during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Although Rio's Olympic bid included the promise to clean up the filthy bay, industrial and human pollution still remain a major problem. According to the Deputy State Secretary of Environment just 34% of Rio's sewage is treated while the remainder flows untreated into the waters. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

The golf course under construction for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games "faces an uncertain future," a report from the Associated Press says.

On Wednesday, according to the AP's report, a court in Rio proposedthat the under-construction layout should be altered to "meet environmental concerns." Judge Eduardo Klausner, hearing a lawsuit brought against the city of Rio and the course developer, said the defendants had to return Sept. 17 to say if they could accept the proposal. "Klausner said work on the course could continue," the AP says, "but no new areas of vegetation could be plowed under."

"In recent months," the AP adds, "workers have been putting down grass on the course, with the hope of finishing by the end of the year.

"That would give the turf two growing seasons to mature."

On Tuesday, officials in Rio revealed a new sanitation project that should improve the city's Gloria Marina--the venue set to stage sailing events at the 2016 Summer Games."Under the agreement," the AP says, "Rio's state government is building a one-kilometer [0.62-mile] long pipeline in the city's Flamengo neighborhood to stem the flow of raw sewage into the Marina.

"The $6.2 million project will connect area rainwater collectors with a sewage treatment center in the Ipanema Beach area."

The U.K.'sDaily Mail goes inside Rio's "coolest hotel" to reveal its "star quality, vital statistics, location report, and key attraction."

FIBA Basketball World Cup

Basketball star Tony Parker's absence at the FIBA Basketball World Cup alters the dynamic for France's national team in "the same way that removing three tires alters the dynamic of a car," Sam Borden, European correspondent for The New York Times, says.

Scott Polacek, a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, discusses players on the United States' team at the FIBA World Cup who need to step it up. Derrick Rose and DeMar DeRozan are on the list of players who Polacek says have to "improvegoing forward if a 2014 FIBA World Cup championship is in the cards."

Murray at the 2014 U.S. Open

ESPN.com senior writer Greg Garber says the "confidence crisis" for tennis star Andy Murray is over. "Since winning Wimbledon 14 months ago," Garber writes, "Murray had failed to reach even one final and gone a disturbing 0-7 against top-10 players." So far, Garber says Murray's performance at the 2014 U.S. Open signals hope for the Olympian.

Juliet Macur, a sports reporter for The New York Times, says that every win from Andy Murray represents an advancement toward gender equity.This summer, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist hiredAmelie Mauresmo as his coach."Anyone who would like to see more female coaches in professional tennis might want to join the Andy Murray fan club," Macur writes.

In Other News

Jon Stewart, host of theU.S. satirical TV program The Daily Show, comically advises ISIS on steps it will have to take if the group hopes to one day establish its own state(Warning: explicit language): "You're gonna have to build parks, a zoo ... You're gonna have to try to host the Olympics.

"Which--even if you get--you're just gonna spend billions of dollars to end up with bunch of skating rinks you're never gonna use again."

Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun saysa project team of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party met for plans to deal with "hate speech demonstrations" in Japan.The daily says Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe, who sparked the creation of the project team, was "clearly thinking ahead to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics--when the eyes of the world will be on the nation's capital city."

Two U.S. Olympians, from the state of Georgia, speak with NBC and ABC news affiliate WALB and reminisce about the 1984 Summer Olympics. "Thirty summers ago," WALB reporter Jake Wallace says, "a pair of south Georgia women stepped on the biggest stage in international basketball: the Olympics."

Compiled byNicole Bennett

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