March 1, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Super Showdown

Audience members listen as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. speaks during a campaign event at the InterContinental Hotel, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in Atlanta.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republicans Split as Trump, Clinton seek Tuesday wins

JULIE PACE JILL COLVIN Associated Press VALDOSTA, Georgia (AP) — On the eve of Tuesday’s crucial multi-state primaries, a sharp new divide erupted between Republicans who pledge to fall in line behind Donald Trump if he wins their party’s nomination and others who insist they can never back the bombastic billionaire.

The fissure could have major implications beyond the primaries, exposing the looming challenges in uniting the party, no matter who wins the nomination.

Trump has won three of four early nominating contests, roiling a party that had as-

sumed his populist appeal with voters would fizzle.

Instead, he’s only grown stronger and appears to be in commanding position heading into Super Tuesday, the biggest single-day delegate haul of the year.

Republicans will vote in 11 states on March 1, or Super Tuesday, with 595 delegates to the party’s national nominating convention at stake. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the nomination at the July convention.

If Trump sweeps most of the states up for grabs Tuesday, he could amass a delegate lead that would be difficult for any rival to overcome. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is banking on a win in

his home state to keep him in the race, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio wants to stay close in the delegate count until the primary hits his home state on March 15. Meanwhile, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is solidifying her lead.

Like Trump, Clinton could begin putting her party’s nomination out of reach for rival Bernie Sanders with a strong showing on Super Tuesday. Democrats will be voting in 11 states and American Samoa, with 865 delegates at stake.

After a decisive victory in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Clinton has shed nearly all references to her Democratic opponent,

choosing instead to focus on Trump. Sanders, meanwhile, remains resolute in his message, offering his standard economic-focused campaign speech and looking past last weekend’s defeat.

With Sanders lagging in delegates and likely to face more losses on Super Tuesday, Clinton’s team is starting to become more concerned with the need to eventually unify the party. They are trying to avoid further alienating the passionate Sanders backers, whose support she will need to win a general election, and remind Democratic voters that she could face Trump — a hated figure in

the party.

Republicans face an even more daunting challenge in uniting a party roiled by the emergence of a political outsider as the frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination.

Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, a rising star among conservatives, became the first current senator to publicly raise the prospect of backing a third party option if Trump clinches the nomination. In a letter posted on Facebook late Sunday, Sasse urged Republicans to consider whether a party led by Trump would still represent their interests.

Continued on page 3

A2 UP

Tuesday 1 March 2016

FRONT

UN chief:

Syria cease-fire holding despite growing breaches

ZEINA KARAM JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that a shaky cease-fire in Syria is holding “by and large” on its third day despite sporadic fighting and growing accusations of violations.

A war of words between the Syrian government and Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the opposition, has meanwhile added to the rising tensions.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said recent statements by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir were “lies meant to boost the morale” of militants who have suffered setbacks in Syria in recent weeks and demonstrate the kingdom’s “destructive role” in Syria.

Al-Jubeir had reiterated Saudi Arabia’s longstanding position that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power, either peacefully or through military means. The foreign minister also accused Syrian forces of violating the cease-fire.

Speaking to reporters Monday in Geneva, Ban confirmed receiving a letter from the High Negotiations Committee, the main umbrella opposition group, complaining of continuing violations by the Syrian

Portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad are displayed at a souvenir shop in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that a shaky cease-fire in Syria is holding “by and large” on its third day despite sporadic fighting and growing accusations of violations.

(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

government and its Russian and Iranian backers.

The letter sent Sunday urged the U.N. to help “specify the territory covered by the truce to prevent hostilities.”

The Russian and U.S.-brokered cease-fire that went into effect Saturday excludes the Islamic State group as well as al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front. The cease-fire has significantly reduced violence across the warravaged country, bringing

some respite to civilians, particularly from airstrikes.

But accusations of breaches by both sides threaten to undermine the deal, which aims to bring the Syrian government and the opposition back to peace talks in Geneva next week.

Ban told reporters he wanted the cease-fire extended beyond the planned duration of two weeks.

The U.N. also said it plans to deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance to about 154,000 people living in be-

sieged locations inside Syria over the next five days.

A briefing note sent out

by OCHA on Monday said the assistance will include food, water and sanitation supplies, as well as nonfood items and medicine.

An official with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said dozens of trucks carrying aid started entering a besieged rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, for the first time since the cease-fire went into effect.q

Australian cardinal says he has ‘full backing’ of pope ROD McGUIRK CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — One of Pope Francis’ top advisers has told reporters he has the pope’s backing as he prepared to testify for a second day at an Australian inquiry into child abuse.

Australian Cardinal George Pell met with the pope on Monday hours after he gave evidence via videolink from Rome to the Royal Commission in Sydney on Tuesday Australian time.

“I’ve got the full backing of the pope,” Pell told reporters late Monday Rome time as he arrived at a Rome hotel to resume his testimony.

The Vatican said the pri-

vate audience was a longscheduled appointment related to Pell’s duties as Holy See finance minister, and had nothing to do with the abuse hearings.

Australia’s most senior Catholic later told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday that he had not known notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale had abused children in the Australian country town of Inglewood in the 1970s until the former parish priest was convicted of those offenses in 1993.

Pell said he had not known the sexual abuse was com-

mon knowledge in Inglewood.

“I didn’t know whether it was common knowledge or whether it wasn’t.

It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me,” Pell said, bringing audible gasps from the public gallery.

“The suffering, of course, was real and I very much regret that, but I had no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evils that Ridsdale had perpetrated,” he added.

Pell said it was “somewhat unusual” that Ridsdale was frequently transferred from parish to parish. But Pell

said he had not known that the frequent moves were because of complaints of child abuse.

Pell conceded on his first day of evidence that the Catholic Church “has made enormous mistakes” in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests.

Two dozen Australian abuse survivors and their companions traveled across the globe to witness Pell’s testimony in a Rome hotel’s conference room, a significant show of accountability in the church’s long-running abuse saga. q

US: Cyberattacks can expose Islamic State data stream LOLITA BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. cyberattacks to disrupt the Islamic State’s communications and overload their networks could force the militant group to use older technologies that are easier for the U.S. to intercept, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday.

Carter and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided details about how the Pentagon is using its new, aggressive cyber campaign as part of military operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“As we disrupt the ISIL communications via cyber or other methods, sometimes we do drive them to other means,” Carter told Pentagon reporters. “Sometimes, those other means are easier for us to listen to.”

U.S. officials told The Associated Press last week that the military had increased cyber operations against the group. The operations include efforts by U.S. Cyber Command to prevent the group from using the Internet and social media to communicate and distribute propaganda aimed at attracting and inspiring recruits. The efforts could also force IS back to technologies like cell phones to communicate.

Dunford said that using the computer-based attacks alongside bombings and other military actions allows the U.S. to “both physically and virtually isolate” the group and limits its ability to command and control its fighters.

That type of coordinated offensive, he said, will be used to support Iraqi security forces as they try to retake the northern city of Mosul.

The surge of computerbased military operations

by U.S. Cyber Command began shortly after Carter prodded commanders last month to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State group on the cyber front.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Amid protests, a Secret Service-media tussle at Trump rally BILL BARROW Associated Press RADFORD, Virginia (AP) — A raucous and protestridden Donald Trump rally on the eve of Super Tuesday featured a verbal and physical altercation between a news media photographer and a Secret Service agent, complete with profanity, a choke hold and a body slam.

Chris Morris, the photographer who is contracted to cover the campaign for TIME, was escorted out of the tense rally amid an anti-Trump protest, and detained before being released.

The Secret Service says it is investigating “the exact circumstances.” The agent has not been identified.

Trump’s hour-long speech was interrupted multiple times by protesters — some individual, others acting in groups. Videos of the incident taken by reporters and attendees show Morris attempting to secure a better position to

photograph some of the many protesters kicked out of Trump’s Radford event.

Rebuffed, Morris is heard cursing at the agent, who then grabs Morris and takes him to the ground.

Seconds later, Morris touched the agent to demonstrate his version of what happened. He was then escorted out.

Trump’s campaign says it is not aware of all the details surrounding the incident.

Aides to the Republican presidential front-runner, who engaged Monday in his characteristic mockery of both protesters and the press, say the Trump campaign knows nothing of the details, and the widespread tensions did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of Trump supporters ahead of Tuesday’s primary slate that could give the billionaire businessman an prohibitive delegate lead over his top rivals.

Trump did not acknowledge the scuffle as it happened,

Super Showdown

many times do I have to continue to disavow people?” he said.

Several high-profile Republicans and conservative writers have embraced an anti-Trump social media campaign, using the Twitter hashtag “NeverTrump.”

The Associated Press asked Republican senators and governors across the country if they would back Trump if he secured the nomination. Just under half of those who responded would not commit to backing him, foreshadowing a potentially extraordinary break this fall.

“I am increasingly concerned by Donald Trump’s statements and behavior, and I have serious concerns about his ability to win the general election and provide presidential leadership,” Indiana Sen. Dan Coats said in a statement to AP. Tensions boiled over during Trump’s rally Monday in Radford, Virginia, where he was repeatedly disrupted by demonstrators, including 20 or more chanting “Black lives matter.”q

Continued from Front

“If our party is no longer working for the things we believe in ... then people of good conscience should stop supporting that party until it is reformed,” he wrote.

Other Republican leaders were less explicit, but sent similar messages on Monday, particularly in light of Trump’s refusal to immediately disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support.

Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, called that “disqualifying.” And South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, campaigning in Atlanta alongside Rubio, said she would “not stop fighting a man who refuses to disavow the KKK.” The Klan advocates white supremacy, and has sometimes used violence.

Trump said he had not understood the CNN interviewer who first raised the question about Duke’s endorsement, and he did later repudiate him. “How

Photojournalist Chris Morris is escorted by police during the rally of Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, at Radford University in Radford, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

and it’s not clear whether he noticed at all, although

at several other points throughout his one-hour

speech, he commented directly on protesters.q

A4 U.S.

Tuesday 1 March 2016

NEWS

North Korea puts tearful detained American before cameras ERIC TALMADGE JON CHOL JIN Associated Press WASHINGTON/PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea presented a detained American student before the media on Monday in Pyongyang, where he tearfully apologized for attempting to steal a political banner — at the behest, he said, of a member of a church back home who wanted it as a “trophy” — from a staffonly section of the hotel where he had been staying.

North Korea announced in late January it had arrested Otto Warmbier, a 21-yearold University of Virginia undergraduate student.

It said that after entering the country as a tourist he committed an anti-state crime with “the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation.”

No details of what kind of charges or punishment Warmbier faces were immediately released.

According to Warmbier’s statement Monday, he wanted the banner with a political slogan on it as a trophy for the church member, who was the mother of a friend.

In previous cases, people who have been detained in North Korea and made a public confession often recant those statements after their release.

He was arrested while visiting the country with Young Pioneer Tours, an agency specializing in travel to North Korea, which is strongly discouraged by the U.S. State Department.

He had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, which is located on

an island in a river that runs through Pyongyang, the capital.

It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and off-limits to foreigners.

He said the church member told him the slogan would be hung on its wall as a trophy. He also said he was told that if he was detained and didn’t return, $200,000 would be paid to

and what a traumatic experience this has been for us,” Warmbier’s father, Fred Warmbier, said in a statement provided by the University of Virginia.

“I hope the fact that he

American student Otto Warmbier speaks as Warmbier is presented to reporters Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea announced late last month that it had arrested the 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student.

(AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said that as a general practice, it was not uncommon for North Korea to detain and imprison people on false or “trumped-up” charges, and use detentions for propaganda purposes.

But Kirby said he could not comment on Warmbier’s case because of privacy considerations, nor on whether Sweden, which handles consular affairs for the U.S. in North Korea, has had access to him.

In his comments, Warmbier said he was offered a used car worth $10,000 by a member of the church.

his mother in the form of a charitable donation.

Warmbier identified the church as the Friendship United Methodist Church, which is in his hometown, Wyoming, Ohio.

Meshach Kanyion, pastor of the church, would not confirm whether he knows Warmbier or if he is a church member.

“I don’t have any comment at this time,” he told The Associated Press.

Warmbier’s parents said they had not heard from their son since his arrest and were greatly relieved to finally see a picture of him.

“You can imagine how deeply worried we were

has conveyed his sincere apology for anything that he may have done wrong will now make it possible for the (North Korean) authorities to allow him to return home,” he said.

The university said it had no immediate comment other than that it was in close contact with Warmbier’s family.

Warmbier told reporters in Pyongyang that he had also been encouraged in his act by the university’s “Z Society,” which he said he was trying to join. The magazine of the university’s alumni association describes the Z Society as a “semi-secret ring society”

that was founded in 1892 and conducts philanthropy, puts on honorary dinners and grants academic awards.

Warmbier said he accepted the offer of money because his family is “suffering from very severe financial difficulties.”

“I started to consider this as my only golden opportunity to earn money,” he said, adding that if he ever mentioned the involvement of the church, “no payments would come.”

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to control the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. tourism to North Korea is legal and virtually all Americans who make the journey return home without incident.

Even so, the State Department has repeatedly warned against travel to the North.

Visitors, especially those from America, who break the country’s sometimes murky rules risk detention, arrest and possible jail sentences.

Young Pioneer describes itself on its website as providing “budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from.”

The agency, based in China, also has tours to Iran, Cuba, Turkmenistan, Iraq and other former Soviet countries.

After Warmbier’s detention, it stressed in a news release that he was the first of the 7,000 people it has taken to North Korea over the past eight years to face arrest.q

U.S. NEWS A5

Tuesday 1 March 2016

4 hurt as student opens fire in Ohio school cafeteria

Parents run to see if they are allowed to pick up their kids at Madison Local Schools, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in Madison Township in Butler County, Ohio, after a school shooting. An Ohio sheriff says a 14-year-old suspect in the school shooting that wounded multiple classmates is in custody.

(Nick Graham/Dayton Daily News via AP)

LISA CORNWELL Associated Press HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — A 14-year-old boy pulled out a gun in a school cafeteria Monday and opened fire, hitting two students, and then ran from the school, threw the weapon down and was apprehended nearby with the help of a police dog, authorities said.

Two other Madison Local Schools students also were injured, possibly from shrapnel or while running away. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, said Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones.

Jones said the 14-yearold was a student and there was a motive to the shooting which he did not identify. The boy was charged preliminarily with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, inducing panic and making terrorist threats, Jones said.

Students were eating in the cafeteria when the shoot-

ing happened around 11:30 a.m., Jones said. Afterward, classmates described a chaotic scene where they weren’t sure what was happening at first. Some students fled outside.

One student mistook the first shot for a potato chip bag being popped.

Thirteen-year-old Shelby Kinnin said she heard “a couple of bangs” and realized she was near the shooter.

“I didn’t really know it was gunshots until I looked over and a kid was grabbing his leg and falling over,” she said.

Many people ran from the scene, and the shooter went out a door, she said.

She recognized him as a boy who was in a class with her last year, though she wasn’t sure of his name.

Her stepmother, Stephanie Kinnin, said it was unnerving to see emergency responders swarm the school.

“There is no feeling like that

in the world,” she said. “But my eyes found the children walking out looking for parents, and that was heartbreaking. Their eyes just told the story.”

The students who were shot — ages 14 and 15 — were taken to a hospital where they were in stable condition, investigators said.

A 14-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl were also injured, though it was unclear how, Jones said.

“We don’t know if it was from the shooting or from exiting the school or because of the shrapnel from the bullets hitting into that small of an area,” Jones said.

All other students were safe, according to the school website. The school, which had practiced for such an

event, immediately went into lockdown, said district spokeswoman A.J. Huff.

School was cancelled Tuesday along with extracurricular events, although staff was expected to report to plan a response once students returned.

The campus is near Middletown, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Cincinnati. State records show enrollment of about 250 junior high and 500 high school students.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican running for president, said on a campaign stop in Vermont he’d been briefed but didn’t give details.

“Obviously it was a tragedy, but thank God that no life was lost,” Kasich said.q

A6 U.S.

Tuesday 1 March 2016

NEWS

Justice Thomas asks questions in court, 1st time in 10 years

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Thomas has asked questions during Supreme Court arguments for the first time in 10 years. Thomas’ question came Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in a case in which the court is considering placing new limits on the reach of a federal law that bans people convicted of domestic violence from owning guns.

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

SAM HANANEL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Clarence Thomas

broke 10 years of silence and provoked audible gasps at the Supreme Court on Monday when he

posed questions from the bench during an oral argument.

It was the second week the

court has heard arguments since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Thomas’ friend and fellow conservative, on Feb. 13.

Thomas’ questions came in a case in which the court is considering placing new limits on the reach of a federal law that bans people convicted of domestic violence from owning guns.

Department lawyer Ilana Eisenstein was about to sit down after answering a barrage of questions from other justices. Thomas then caught her by surprise, asking whether the violation of any other law “suspends a constitutional right.”

Thomas’s silence over the years has become a curiosity. He has previously said he relies on the written briefs and doesn’t need to ask questions of the lawyers appearing in court.

Thomas last asked a question in court on Feb. 22, 2006. He has come under criticism from some who

say he is neglecting his duties.

The justices were considering appeals from two Maine men who say their guilty pleas for hitting their partners should not disqualify them from gun ownership. The men say the law should only cover intentional acts of abuse and not those committed in the heat of an argument.

Most of the justices appeared to favor the government’s position that even reckless acts of domestic assault fall under the law.

But Thomas asked several questions about Second Amendment gun rights, a topic no other justice had asked about. He noted that the law allows someone convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge to get a lifetime ban on possessing a gun “which at least as of now results in suspension of a constitutional right.”q

NY judge: US cannot make Apple provide iPhone data LARRY NEUMEISTER TAMI ABDOLLAH Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department cannot force Apple to provide the FBI with access to locked iPhone data in a routine Brooklyn drug case, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein’s written decision gives support to the company’s position in its fight against a California judge’s order that it create specialized software to help the FBI hack into an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino terrorism investigation.

Apple on Thursday formally objected to the order in a brief filed with the court, accusing the federal gov-

ernment of seeking “dangerous power” through the courts and of trampling on the company’s constitutional rights.

The San Bernardino County-owned iPhone 5C was used by Syed Farook, who was a health inspector. He and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people during a Dec. 2 attack at a county holiday party that was at least partly inspired by the Islamic State group. The couple died later in a gun battle with police.

Apple’s opposition to the government’s tactics has evoked a national debate over digital privacy rights and national security.

Orenstein concluded that Apple is not obligated to assist government investi-

gators against its will and noted that Congress has not adopted legislation that would achieve the result sought by the government. Orenstein’s ruling — while not considered binding or precedent setting for the California case — will likely still have influence on the arguments put forth before Judge Sheri Pym at a hearing next month. The New York case is far less onerous or invasive for Apple and its technology; the extraction technique exists for that older operating system, and it’s been used before to assist investigators.

In California, Pym ordered investigators to create specialized software — which since late 2014 doesn’t exist for newer phones — to

help the FBI bypass security protocols to test random passcode combinations in rapid sequence.

Orenstein said he was offering no opinion on whether in the instance of this case or others, “the government’s legitimate interest in ensuring that no door is too strong to resist lawful entry should prevail against the equally legitimate societal interests arrayed against it here.”

He said the interests at stake go beyond expectations of privacy and include the commercial interest in conducting business free of potentially harmful government intrusion and the “far more fundamental and universal interest ... in shielding sensitive electronically

stored data from the myriad harms, great and small, that unauthorized access and misuse can cause.”

“How best to balance those interests is a matter of critical importance to our society, and the need for an answer becomes more pressing daily, as the tide of technological advance flows ever farther past the boundaries of what seemed possible even a few decades ago,” Orenstein wrote.

“But that debate must happen today, and it must take place among legislators who are equipped to consider the technological and cultural realities of a world their predecessors could not begin to conceive.”q

U.S. NEWS A7

Tuesday 1 March 2016

US Financial Front:

Buffett says US economy weaker than he expected but growing

JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett said the U.S. economy appears weaker than he thought it would be as recently as last fall, but that doesn’t change his optimistic longterm view of the country’s prospects.

Buffett appeared on CNBC Monday and addressed a variety of topics after releasing his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders over the weekend.

The more than 90 companies owned by Berkshire give Buffett a complex and detailed view of how the economy is affecting different U.S. sectors.

“Business is a little softer in many places than I anticipated four or five months ago. That doesn’t mean it’s in reverse,” said Buffett, who is Berkshire’s chairman and CEO. The economy continues growing slowly, and Buffett is confident the U.S. economy will improve over time, but plunging oil prices have had a significant impact.

Thousands of jobs have been lost in the oil industry, the budgets and local economies of producing states have come under severe pressure and energy companies have had billions shaved from their market value. Yet Buffett said that the benefit for the vast majority of Americans trickles in slowly every time they fill up their gas tanks.

“The country will grow in value over time,” he said.

Over the past six months, Berkshire has built up a 14 percent stake in oil refiner Phillips 66. Buffett said it’s wrong to think of that investment as a bet on oil prices because refiners,

who are paying a lot less for the crude they turn into gasoline and other fuels, can turn a huge profit when oil prices fall.

But one of Berkshire Hathaway’s operations has been damaged by those plunging prices.

Because gas prices are so low, people are driving more, and the number of vehicle accidents spiked.

The National Safety Council recently estimated the number of traffic deaths in the United States rose 8 percent from 2014 to 2015, the largest year-to-year percentage increase in a half-century.

Underwriting profits at auto insurer Geico, which is owned by the conglomerate, plunged from $1.16 billion in 2014, to just $460 million last year.

In addition to the millions of additional road miles that are being logged, Buffett said distracted drivers are as serious problem.

And that could offset some of the savings Ameri-

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett smiles at a shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb. Buffett says the U.S. economy appears weaker than he expected last fall, but that doesn’t change his optimistic long-term view. Buffett appeared on CNBC Monday, Feb. 29, 2016 after releasing his letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders over the weekend.

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

cans are seeing at the gas pump.

Auto insurance rates, Buffett said, are going up this year.

Buffett said he can’t pre-

dict how the current era of low interest rates will affect the economy because it has never happened before, but they could distort prices and encourage

more borrowing.

He said Berkshire has to keep billions of euros in banks in Europe, and the low rates could have a negative effect there.

US pending home sales decline in January WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in January, as the recent hot streak appears to have been curbed by a shortage of properties for sale and colder weather.

The National Association of Realtors said that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index fell 2.5 percent to 106 in January.

The decline comes after the sales index averaged 108.9 in 2015, its highest level since 2006.

The number of signed contracts decreased in the Northeast, Midwest and

West. Prospective sales improved slightly in the South.

But a shortage of listings has weighed down the potential for sales increases akin to last year’s increase.

Steady job growth and low mortgage rates have bolstered demand for housing from the recent lows caused by the Great Recession. Yet the greater demand largely failed to bring more properties onto the market. The number of listings on the market in January fell 2.2 percent from a year ago, the Realtors said in a report last week.

At the current sales rate,

the inventory of homes would be exhausted in four months. A balanced market usually contains six months’ supply.

The slowdown in the number of signed contracts indicates that the limited selection may be pushing more would-be buyers onto the sidelines. Pending sales are a barometer of future purchases. A lag of a month or two usually exists between a contract and a completed sale.

The tight inventories have fueled price growth that has tended to be more than double wage gains.

The Standard & Poor’s/ Case-Shiller 20-city home price index advanced 5.7 percent in December from a year earlier. Average hourly earnings increased just 2.5 percent from a year ago to $25.39, the government reported in early February.

Offsetting some of the price pressures are mortgage rates near historic lows.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.62 percent last week, below its 3.80 percent mark a year ago.

A8

Tuesday 1 March 2016

WORLD NEWS

Europe’s crisis worsens: Migrants face razor wire, tear gas

A man helps children to run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas at a group of the refugees and migrants who tried to push their way into Macedonia, breaking down a border gate near the northern Greek village of Idomeni on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. No arrests or injuries were reported. About 6,500 migrants are stuck on the Greek-Macedonian border at Idomeni, waiting to travel north, but Macedonia is only admitting a trickle.

(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

COSTAS KANTOURIS Associated Press IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — Pressed against coils of razor wire and shouting “Help us!,” refugees stranded at Greece’s northern border were pushed back Monday by Macedonian

police using tear gas and stun grenades, as the European Union scrambled to ease the escalating number of stranded migrants in Greece.

In a chaotic scene, Syrian and Iraqi refugees forced their way through part of a

Macedonian border fence, some clutching infants or struggling to free duffel bags caught in the razorwire fence. They were met

by Macedonian riot police, bolstered by dozens of special forces officers flown in by helicopter to quell a

refugee protest.

Amnesty International condemned European government for failing to adequately help stranded migrants.

“Tragically, there seems to be more willingness among European countries to coordinate blocking borders than to provide refugees and asylum-seekers with protection and basic services,” said Giorgos Kosmopoulos, Amnesty’s director in Greece.

Some 7,000 migrants, including many from Syria and Iraq, are crammed into a tiny camp at the Greek border village of Idomeni, and hundreds more are arriving daily. The border pileup began ten days ago, when Austria and four ex-Yugoslav countries on the Balkan migrant route north into Western Europe decided to slow border access for migrants to a trickle — and stopped letting Afghan migrants travel through their territory.

A U.N. official says those nations never did explain who made the decision on Afghan migrants, or why.

Donald Tusk, the European

Fiery backlash as Calais migrant camp is dismantled CHRIS DEN HOND ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press CALAIS, France (AP) — Makeshift huts went up in flames on Monday in an angry backlash as workers, guarded by scores of French police, began pulling down tents and shelters in the sprawling migrant camp in Calais.

Police lobbed tear gas in a brief clash with pro-migrant

activists and others throwing projectiles at officers forming a security cordon to protect the tear-down operation.

There were no reports of injuries. At least three people were arrested, authorities said.

As tension mounted, the fragile structures in a southern part of the camp came down one by one and heavy equipment was

moved in to scoop up the rubble and junk left behind by weary migrants dreaming of a new life in Britain.

Three makeshift homes went up in flames, the fires set either by upset migrants or pro-migrant activists, according to Gilles Debove of the Unite SGP Police FO union, who acts as a police spokesman.

A second larger fire, apparently spread by wind, de-

stroyed a mass of shelters.

At least three people described as pro-migrant activists from the No Borders group were arrested, Debove said.

The prefecture said the arrests were made for pelting police with stones and setting fires. The No Borders group, which wants all borders removed, is often blamed by authorities for fanning tensions.q

Council President, begins of tour of those countries Tuesday, starting in Vienna, which has been strongly criticized by other EU nations for its caps on asylumseekers, and ending Thursday in Athens. Tusk is aiming to prepare for a meeting of leaders from the EU and Turkey on March 7, where the key topic will be trying to halt the flow of migrants from Turkey to Greece.

The number of migrants stranded in Greece topped 22,000 over the weekend, according to government estimates.

Thousands have been sleeping outside in parks and along northbound highways, as refugee shelters quickly overflowed.

“Very many people were forced to sleep in the open, without tents, wrapped in blankets,” said 45-year-old Syrian refugee Nidal Jojack, who has been camped out with her family at Idomeni for three days.

“It was very cold. The borders are effectively closed, it’s a huge problem. To get food, we have to wait in very long queues,” she said.

Jojack said she hopes to reach Germany, where her 18-year-old son has already arrived.

Despite receiving the bulk of the refugees seeking the safety of Europe, Germany has opposed unilateral border restrictions and continued to back an EU-wide solution for the migrant crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is resisting calls at home and elsewhere in Europe for limits on refugees like Austria.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Iranian hard-liners losers in parliament, clerical body ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian voters dealt hard-liners a serious blow in elections for parliament and an influential clerical body, favoring reformists and relative moderates who support last year’s nuclear deal in the country’s first elections since the landmark agreement, results released Monday showed.

Reformists, who favor expanded social freedoms and engagement with the West, won at least 85 seats, according to final results released by the Interior Ministry and broadcast on state TV. Moderate conservatives — who split with the hard-line camp and support the nuclear deal — won 73, giving the two blocs together a majority over hard-liners in the 290seat assembly.

The vote isn’t expected to herald large-scale change in Iranian policies, but may make it easier for President Hassan Rouhani to deliver in areas such as promoting social freedoms and reforming the economy.

Hard-liners won just 68 seats, down from 112 in the current parliament. Five seats will go to religious minorities, and the remaining 59 will be decided in a runoff, likely to be held in April.

While none of the country’s three main political camps will dominate the next parliament, reformists and

moderate conservatives are expected to work together — at least on economic issues.

That should make the assembly less hostile to Rouhani, a moderate elected in 2013 on pledges to relax restrictions on freedom of expression and improve ties with the West.

“Rouhani will face a friendly parliament,” said Ali Reza Khamesian, the campaign manager for top reformist vote getter Mohammad Reza Aref. Khamesian said the president could count on parliament’s support to drive through economic reforms and expand social freedoms.

“Getting parliamentary approval to lift restrictions on women attending male sports stadiums and providing greater protection for women’s rights will be among the measures” Rouhani can achieve, he said.

At least 12 women have already been elected to parliament, including Fatemeh Hosseini, a 30-year old business administration expert, and six others will compete in the runoff vote. A win by three in the second round would make for the biggest female parliamentary presence in Iran’s history.

“As a young woman, I ran to inspire women and give them courage to fight for their rights. I ran to play my role in the destiny of the country and stop extrem-

38 dead in IS Iraq funeral blast QASSIM ZAHRA SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — The death toll has risen to 38 after an IS suicide bomber struck an Iraqi funeral Monday, wounding dozens in a crowded reception room. A local Shiite militia leader is among the dead in a town north of Baghdad that saw a wave of revenge attacks after a similar bombing in January.

Another 58 people were wounded in the bombing in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles (90 kilometers) north of the capital, according to security and hospital officials. The dead included a local commander in Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a powerful Shi-

ite militia that is part of the state-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces, responsible for much of the security in the area. The attacker was wearing a suicide vest and entered the funeral hall among mourners lining up to pay their respects to the militia leader, according to a local security official. The Islamic State group bombed a cafe frequented by militiamen in Muqdadiyah in January, killing at least 32 people and triggering a wave of revenge attacks on Sunni mosques and civilians. The New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed the reprisal attacks on powerful militias within the Popular Mobilization Forces.q

Pedestrians cross a square days after parliamentary and Experts Assembly elections in Iran. Iranian voters dealt hard-liners a serious blow in elections for parliament and an influential clerical body, favoring reformists and relative moderates who support last year’s nuclear deal in the country’s first elections since the landmark agreement, results released Monday showed.

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

ists from capturing seats in parliament,” Hosseini said.

U.S. officials had expressed hope that last year’s landmark agreement, which lift-

ed international sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear activities, might pave the way for greater cooperation with

Tehran on other regional issues. The strong showing by reformists and other relative moderates makes that more likely.q

A10 WORLD

Tuesday 1 March 2016

NEWS

China moves to shore up slowing economic growth JOE McDONALD Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — In a step to shore up slowing economic growth, China freed up more money for lending Monday by cutting the amount its banks are required to hold in reserve.

The move follows declarations by Chinese leaders that they have room to boost growth despite concern in global financial markets about capital outflows and stock and currency turmoil.

The amount of deposits commercial lenders will be required to leave with the central bank will be cut by 0.5 percentage points on March 1, the central bank announced. That would reduce reserve levels for the country’s major stateowned banks to 17 percent of deposits — still by far the world’s highest level.

“The aim clearly is to support the economy at a

A woman speaks on her phone near a display highlighting the new Chinese bank notes at a bank in Beijing, China. In a step to shore up slowing economic growth, China freed up more money for lending Monday by cutting the amount its banks are required to hold in reserve.

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

time when downward pressures on growth remain strong and uncertainty is

elevated,” Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said in a report. “This move suggests

that for China’s policymakers, growth remains key.”

The reduction is the second

China bracing for North Korea response to sanctions C. BODEEN Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — Beijing is on alert for any angry responses from North Korea to proposed new United Nations sanctions over the North’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch, a Chinese diplomat said Monday.

The diplomat, who accompanied Foreign Minister Wang Yi during talks in Washington last week, said the two countries had agreed on the need for harsh sanctions against North Korea for defying U.N. resolutions.

However, the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the U.S. should also provide incentives to North Korea

to return to negotiations, such as offering progress on a permanent peace agreement between the sides. The two countries are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.

“We are fully aware that in the next couple of months the situation in this area could be very sensitive. On the one hand, you have to be prepared, keep alert on what kind of reaction might be from Pyongyang,” the diplomat said. The U.S. and South Korea also bear responsibility to avoid actions that North Korea might view as provocative, such as scheduled military drills, he said. “We hope that after the adoption of the res-

olution all sides should refrain from taking any measures that could escalate.”

China is North Korea’s most important ally, biggest trading partner and key source of food and fuel.

However, Beijing says its influence with Kim Jong Un’s government is limited and has argued against measures from the international community that could spark its collapse, potentially leading to a wave of refugees crossing the border into China and the stationing of U.S. and South Korean troops in the North.

Despite its reservations, Beijing signed on to a draft resolution that for the first time would subject cargo ships leaving and entering North Korea to mandatory

inspections, prohibit the sale of small arms and other conventional weapons to the North, and impose financial sanctions targeting North Korean banks and assets and ban all dual-use nuclear and missile-related items. The proposed sanctions would also limit and in some cases ban exports of coal, iron, gold, titanium and rare earth minerals from North Korea and would prohibit countries from supplying aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, to the country. Items such as luxury watches, snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and lead crystal were also added to a long list of luxury goods that North Korea is not allowed to import. q

in just over four months, following a similar 0.5 percent point cut on Oct. 23.

It followed a declaration Friday by Premier Li Keying, the country’s top economic official, to global finance ministers meeting in Shanghai that China has “potential, resilience and flexibility” to deal with economic challenges.

China’s economic growth fell last year to a 25-year low of 6.9 percent and is forecast to fall further this year.

Beijing’s room to maneuver has been reduced by turmoil over China’s currency, the yuan, since the surprise introduction of a new mechanism for setting the state-controlled exchange rate last Aug. 12.

The yuan has slid in value since then, prompting an outflow of capital that spiked to a record $135 billion in December. An interest rate cut to perk up economic growth would make the yuan even less attractive, possibly fueling further outflows.

“Today’s move suggests that concerns about capital flows have eased,” Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in a report.

“It may be that the PBOC senses that speculative pressure has diminished or that closer monitoring of capital flows has helped slow the flow.”

The move also suggests Chinese leaders are less concerned about excessive lending following strong credit growth in January. That prompted concern they might tighten controls to prevent a run-up in already high debt levels.

“A further acceleration of credit will only deepen concerns about bad debt and over-investment.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Argentina and US creditors reach deal in longstanding spat PETER PRENGAMAN Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina and a group of U.S. creditors announced a deal Monday in a longstanding debt standoff, potentially breaking an impasse that has kept the country on the margins of international credit markets and led to a rewriting of the terms of debt issuance and negotiations worldwide.

The deal is a boost for President Mauricio Macri, who assumed power in December after campaigning on promises to modernize South America’s secondlargest economy by solving the dispute and attracting foreign investment.

“It gives me greatest pleasure to announce that the 15-year pitched battle between the Republic of Argentina and Elliott Management, led by Paul E. Singer, is now well on its way to being resolved,” arbiter Daniel A. Pollack said in a statement.

The agreement still must be approved by Argentina’s Congress, which would also need to revoke or sharply modify two laws that in practical terms would make the deal difficult to implement.

The “Lock Law” prevents Argentina from offering one group of creditors a better deal than others and the “Sovereign Payment Law,” passed in 2014, allowed Argentina to pay creditors with renegotiated debt in the face of a New York court order not to do so.

The 2014 law was passed at the behest of then President Cristina Fernandez, who refused to negotiate with bondholder groups that she called “vultures,” casting the fight as a U.S. court trying to bully a sov-

ereign nation.

Under the deal, Argentina would pay $4.653 billion to resolve all related claims, including those from Singer’s group in New York and other creditors around the world. The agreement would pay the funds managed by Elliot, Aurelius Capital, Davidson Kempner and Bracebridge Capital about 75 percent of their full judgments, according to the statement.

Speaking to reporters in New York, Pollack declined to provide more details. He said April 14 was the deadline to finish the deal, but added that it could be extended if both sides agreed. He described grueling negotiations in recent months, joking that it “felt like a thousand years to me.”

The deal “closes a chapter by putting an end to the debt default saga which limited Argentina’s access to international capital markets,” said Alberto Ramos, chief Latin America economist for Goldman Sachs, predicting that it would also lead to an influx of investment in Argentina.

Hours after the announcement, the stock exchange in Buenos Aires closed with a 1.5 percent rise, which analysts said was a sign that investors were cautiously optimistic the dispute is on its way to being solved.

The debt conflict goes back to Argentina’s 20012002 financial collapse, when it defaulted on $100 billion in bonds.

Most creditors renegotiated in 2005 and 2010 bond swaps. But a group of creditors led by Singer, a billionaire hedge fund manager, refused and took Argentina to court in New York, under whose laws the debt was issued, and won.q

Argentina’s Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay, left, talks during a press conference, next to Argentina’s Finance Secretary Luis Caputo, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016.

(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A12 WORLD

Tuesday 1 March 2016

NEWS

Mexico will defer oil projects to slash spending MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The state-run oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, said Monday it will slash spending 22 percent and cut unprofitable production about 100,000 barrels a day as it struggles with liquidity problems and pastdue payments to suppliers.

The company, known as Pemex, said it will cut $5.5 billion from its 2016 budget, delay deep-water exploration and decrease production of super-heavy crude because of low world oil prices.

Delaying production and exploration projects will account for about two-thirds of the $5.5 billion spending cut.

Pemex still faces a serious issue: It owes suppliers almost $7 billion, a debt the company acknowledges is a problem.

“Pemex is facing liquidity problems, but not one of

An oil employee works on the Centenario deep-water drilling platform off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico’s state-run oil company said Monday,Feb. 29, 2016, that it is halting some of its exploration and production projects in an attempt to counter the effects of the drop in international oil prices.

(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

solvency,” said company general director Jose Antonio Gonzalez, who estimated daily production will fall about 4.5 percent from

the current level of 2.23 million barrels a day to about 2.13 million by the end of the year.

He said Mexico’s crude oil

mix is selling for about half as much — $25 a barrel — as the $50 estimate included in last year’s 2016 budget plan.q

Colombia:

Uribe’s brother arrested in death squad case

LIBARDO CARDONA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The brother of former Co-

lombian President Alvaro Uribe has been arrested on allegations he was involved in murders and forced dis-

appearances while helping form a far-right death squad in the 1990s.

Santiago Uribe was arrested Monday in Medellin on charges of murder and conspiracy.

He has long denied any involvement in the murders attributed by a former police captain to the group known as the “12 Apostles.”

It allegedly plotted scores of murders from an Uribe family cattle ranch in northern Antioquia state.

Former President Uribe is traveling in the U.S. and has not yet commented.

But he has long asserted his brother’s innocence and accused his successor, Juan Manuel Santos, of wielding the threat of prosecution against his brother to stymie the rise of his conservative Democratic Center movement.

Unlike his brother, Santiago Uribe has largely eschewed politics, dedicating himself instead to cattle ranching and raising fighting bulls.

Retired police Maj. Juan

Carlos Meneses said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press that as the head of police in the town of Yarumal starting in 1994, he received monthly payments from the group to look the other way as it murdered around 50 drug addicts, thieves and cattle rustlers in the area.

He said Santiago Uribe ran the death squad from the La Carolina ranch using short-wave radios and that he once saw 15 uniformed paramilitaries with R-15 and AK-47 rifles at the ranch doing physical training on an obstacle course.

Around the same time, Alvaro Uribe became governor of Antioquia state.

As president between 2002 and 2010, he leveraged some $700 million in annual aid from Washington to decimate leftist rebels, winning domestic popularity but drawing complaints from human rights groups about tactics and the military’s behavior.q

Top Puerto Rico hotel targeted in tax evasion case DANICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The administrators of a top luxury hotel in Puerto Rico have been arrested and charged in a tax evasion case as the U.S. territory cracks down on corruption amid a worsening economic crisis, officials said Monday.

The island’s Justice Department said Wilhelm Sack and Harold Davies Mayne of the Horned Dorset Primavera are accused of withholding more than $600,000 in room occupancy tax over the past six years.

The announcement comes nearly a year after the hotel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it struggled with nearly $1.7 million in debts, including more than $800,000 owed to Puerto Rico’s Treasury Department and more than $320,000 owed to the island’s struggling power company.

Sack is being held on $29,000 bond and Mayne on $232,000 bond. They are scheduled to appear in court March 14 for a preliminary hearing.

Adrian Santiago, the hotel’s reservation manager, said he had no comment.

Melanie Matos, an attorney for Sack, told The Associated Press that negotiations were underway and the case is tied to an old debt being disputed in a local court and bankruptcy court.

“We hope that this can be rapidly resolved and are looking forward to giving the best service to the hotel guests,” she said.

It is one of the most highprofile cases to date since authorities began pursuing suspected tax evaders late last year in an attempt to recover millions of dollars.

The island government’s liquidity has dwindled amid a nearly decade-long economic slump and it faces $72 billion in public debt that the governor has said is unpayable and needs restructuring.q

LOCAL A13

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Loyal Guests Honored at the Marriott Surf Club

PALM BEACH - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring a very loyal group of guests as Distinguished Visitors and Emerald Ambassadors at the Marriott Surf Club. The symbolic honorary titles are present-

ed in the name of the Minister of Tourism as tokens of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for 10-to-19 and 35-or-more consecutive years.

The honorees for Distinguished Visitor were Mr. Giovanni and Mrs. Carol

Metivier and Mr. Axel and Mrs. Lynnea Mahlke.

The honorees for Emerald Ambassador were Mr. Howard and Mrs. Beverly Adelson.

Giovanni and Carol, Axel and Lynnea, and Howard and Beverly are all loyal

members of the Marriott Surf Club and they love Aruba very much because of the friendly people, the climate, beaches, restaurants, relaxation and being on Aruba and staying at the Marriott Surf Club is like being home for them. The

certificate was presented

by Mr. Ricardo Croes representing the Aruba Tourism Authority together with family and friends of the honorees, and Mrs. Jenny Boekhoudt from the Marriott Surf Club.q

A14 LOCAL

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Fun & Sun at the Pelican Pier on Palm Beach!

PAL M BEACH - Pelican Adventures Tours & Watersports & Pelican Nest Bar & Seafood Grill are all under one roof located at The Pelican Pier in Palm Beach.

We offer Sailing & Snorkeling Cruises, Champagne Brunch Cruises, Sunset & Dinner Cruises, Holy Guacamole Fiesta Cruise, Wet & Wild Jeep tour and our famous Beach & Cave

tour, also a variety of watersports such as wave runners, parasailing, tub-

ing and much more. Our desks are located at Casa del Mar (pool deck), Playa Linda resort next to the juice bar, Holiday Inn Desk and at the Concierge & Pelican Pier desk located between Holiday Inn hotel & Playa Linda Resort.

Pelican Nest Restaurant offers an impressive selection of fresh seafood (caught daily by our own fleet), International dishes and a relaxing atmosphere. Open daily for dinner reservations call 586-2259 from 11 am.

Our Captain’s Morgan Pier Bar offers a daily happy hour from 4 till 6 pm.

Last but not least our Pizzeria del Mar that offers a variety of pizzas.q

LOCAL A15

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Loyal Guests Honored at the Hilton Aruba Beach Resort

PALM BEACH - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring a very loyal couple as Goodwill Ambassadors at the Hilton Aruba Beach Resort. The symbolic honorary title is presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for 20-to-34 consecutive years.

The honorees were Mr. Alex and Mrs. Mary Amanatides.b Alex and Mary are regular guests at the Hilton Resort and they love Aruba very much because of the friendly people, the climate, beaches, restaurants, relaxation and being on Aruba and staying at the Hilton Resort is like being home for them.

The certificate was presented by Mr. Jonathan Boekhoudt representing the Aruba Tourism Authority together with Ms. Nunette Maduro, PR & Marketing Manager from the Hilton Aruba Beach Resort.

A16 LOCAL

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Support Aramis and Friends at the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary!

BRINGAMOSA - We would like to introduce Aramis to you, one of the donkeys that has found a home at the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary. We have never seen a donkey that was so easily accepted by the herd as Aramis. Normally it takes quite a while before the herd accepts a newcomer, but with Aramis and his friend Ninja it went without a hitch. We only separated them for one night, but one noticed that the herd was not opposed to this gorgeous, dark grey donkey.

So put into the herd, and

loving every moment at the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary.

Aramis can look forward to staying a long, long time with us, as he is just four years old.

This beautiful donkey has been provided with a chip,

just like all the other donkeys. On the chip is information about the donkey and its medical history. The donkeys at the sanctuary have a lot of friends with whom they can play all day long.

And they love living there:

they are well-cared for, they are fed and watered and when they are sick the vet is called. Yes, they are expensive customers for the sanctuary.

The volunteers are trying to cover the various costs with

all kinds of activities and the sale of great donkey memorabilia in the shop.

Fortunately, there are also visitors who wish to adopt a donkey, who buy something at the donkey shop or who make a donation.

Thus they help support us.

Everyone is welcome to visit the sanctuary, which has opening hours from 9 am until 4 pm and in the weekend from 10 am until 3. Entry is free of charge and one can enjoy a soft drink, a cup of coffee or a refreshing ice cream.

The volunteers of the sanctuary are hoping that somebody will adopt this friendly, lovely donkey. Of course the donkey will keep on living at the sanctuary.

Please call the sanctuary at 593-2933 or visit www. arubandonkey.org to learn more how you can help support the Aruba Donkey Sanctuary.q

SPORTS A17

Tuesday 1 March 2016

In this Sept. 5, 2015, file photo, New York Mets third baseman Juan Uribe uses chewing tobacco during batting practice before the Mets played against the Miami Marlins in a baseball game in Miami.

GRATEFUL SCOTT

MLB toughens up on chew as sky darkens for big dippers

BY BEN WALKER AP BASEBALL WRITER Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz spit some chew into a bottle at his locker, then dipped into the latest notice from baseball.

Big leaguers are now getting a written reminder that smokeless tobacco is banned at stadiums in Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

One-page letters are being put in clubhouse stalls throughout spring training, where there is no prohibition. The notes come jointly from Major League Baseball and the players’ union.

So, will Buchholz quit?

“That’ll probably happen,” he said. “If you get reprimanded for something, there comes a time where you’re tired of paying fines for something you don’t have to do or doesn’t make you any better.”

“You’ve got to obey the rules or there’s consequences to it. We’ll probably learn more about that when we get up North,” he said at camp in Fort Myers, Florida.

Continued on page 19

Adam Scott earned his first victory since Colonial in May 2014 Adam Scott, of Australia, falls to his knees after missing a birdie putt on the 17th hole during the fourth round of the Honda Classic golf tournament, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Scott won the tournament.

Associated Press

A18 SPORTS

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Reports: Tom Brady agrees to two-year extension FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- Tom Brady reportedly has agreed to a two-year contract extension with the New England Patriots.

The deal will significantly lessen Brady’s salary cap hit for 2016, which would have been about $15 million.

He was due to make $9 million next season, plus a $6 million bonus, and $10 million in salary in 2017.

Brady, 38, has often redone his contract to help the Patriots’ cap situation.

The four-time Super Bowl champion has said he plans to play well into his 40s. The extension would allow him to do so in New England.

The agreement was first reported by ESPN. Brady also renegotiated his contract in 2013 to

In this Nov. 15, 2015, file photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady throws a pass against the New York Giants during the second half of an NFL football game, in East Rutherford, N.J. Associated Press

help reduce cap hits. New England was $13.6 million under the 2016 cap of $155.27 million before extending Brady.

Brady, of course, is an alltime great who could wind up the NFL’s leader in many career passing categories. He’s been to six Super Bowls and 10 AFC title games, including the last five.

Some would say he is underpaid for the position given the championship pedigree and his two league MVP awards to go with three Super Bowl MVPs. In 2015, his cap hit of $14 million ranked 14th in the league, behind the likes of Colin Kaepernick and Jay Cutler. He might not rank even that high in 2016.q

Raptors pay price for Lowry rest as Pistons win AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (AP) — Toronto rested Kyle Lowry for the first time this season, and paid the price, as the NBA Atlantic Division-leading Raptors lost 114-101 on Sunday.

A fourth straight victory was important for the Pistons, who moved into an interim tie with two other teams for the last two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

Toronto star Lowry was rested after a 43-point performance against Cleveland on Friday.

Terrence Ross scored 27 points to lead the Raptors, but that was not enough to continue the team’s fourgame winning streak.

Andre Drummond had 15 points and 18 rebounds for Detroit.

WIZARDS 113, CAVALIERS 99 Washington kept up its push toward the playoffs by beating conference leader Cleveland.

Washington’s John Wall had 21 points and 13 assists in a 113-99 win against Cleveland.

Attacking from the start, Wall made 8 of 11 shots and came out on top in his matchup against

Philadelphia 76ers forward Jerami Grant, left, and Washington Wizards guard John Wall go after the ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in Washington.

Associated Press

opposing point guard Kyrie Irving, who wound up with 28 points and six assists on 9-of-20 shooting.

At one point late in the third quarter, Wall had the

same number of assists as the entire Cavs team, 12, and he sat out the fourth quarter ATLANTA 87, CHARLOTTE 76 Atlanta downed Charlotte

to open a two-game gap between the Southeast Division rivals.

Atlanta’s Al Horford had a season-high 16 rebounds to lead the Hawks to an87-76

win against Charlotte.

Horford had 13 points and Kent Bazemore scored 14 points for the Hawks, which held the Hornets to just nine points in the first quarter.q

SPORTS A19

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Big Dippers

Continued from page 17 Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker was a big dipper for a long time. He’s cut back over the years, but still might pop in a pinch when games get tight.

“It’s a bad influence for the kids. Big time. I’ll say that.

But also they’re adults, too, at the same time,” Baker said.

“We’ll see,” he said. “My daughter used to put water in my can and put it back in my truck. Or my son, he has lip check - ‘Get it out, Dad!’” Local laws will prohibit the use of all tobacco products at Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium and AT&T Park this year, meaning players, team personnel, umpires and fans. The letter advises the same ban will take effect at every California ballpark in December.

“Major league players are citizens,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week in Arizona. “Municipalities

pass laws. We expect that our players will comply with those laws.”

Said new Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “I support it.”“Like it or not, players are role models, and we have a platform as coaches and players. So if that’s the law, then we definitely support it,” he said.

Similar legislation has been proposed in New York City, and both the Mets and Yankees say they back such a ban at their parks.

In Toronto, a city legislator said Monday that he plans to pursue a ban that would cover the Blue Jays’ stadium.

The letter being distributed to players on 40-man rosters and teams this spring says: “Please note that these are city ordinances and not rules established

by Major League Baseball.

However, the commissioner’s office will be monitoring players and club personnel for compliance with the regulations.”

Smokeless tobacco isn’t permitted throughout the

minor leagues. There is no ban on dipping in the majors, and the issue is certain to be discussed in upcoming labor talks between MLB and the union on the contract that expires Dec. 1.

Going back more than a century, even before Bull Durham tobacco signs were plastered all over outfield walls, baseball was filled with pictures of players with a chaw in their cheek.

Buchholz did take a break, for a while.

“I stopped in the offseason and baseball, it goes along with the territory for me,” he said. “It’s not a good habit.”

Over the years, in collective bargaining, MLB and the union have tried to lower that profile.

Players, managers and coaches now can’t stick tobacco tins, cans or pouches in their pockets when they’re on the field or in plain sight of fans. No wads stuck in the mouth during TV interviews, either.

In this Sept. 20, 2013, file photo, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker sits in the dugout before a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh.

Associated Press

In their letter, MLB and the union said it would provide “nicotine replacement therapy products to those players who wish to use them as substitutes. A shipment of various products including lozenges, gum, and patches will be sent to each club free of charge in spring training, and throughout the 2016 season.”

The letter included a reminder that Dr. Michael

Steinberg, director of the Rutgers University tobacco dependence program, had previously been hired as a consultant to help players develop a treatment plan, if they wanted.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons applauded the effort to cut down on chaw. He quit a couple years ago after Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn - a careerlong dipper - died at 54 of salivary gland cancer.q

20 SPORTS

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Scott relevant again because of win, not putter DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (AP) — Adam Scott seemed like the only person who wasn’t worried about the 35-inch length of his putter.

Scott was far more concerned that he had gone 36 tournaments over 21 months without winning anywhere in the world, the longest drought of his career. Nearly two years removed from No. 1 in the world, he was on the verge of falling out of the top 20 when he began his first big stretch of golf leading into the Masters.

Sunday in the Honda Classic turned out to be quite a statement.

Coming off a runner-up finish at Riviera last week, Scott closed with an evenpar 70 in tough conditions at PGA National to hold off Sergio Garcia for a oneshot victory.

“I want to feel somewhat relevant out here when it comes to being one of the best players in the world,” Scott said. “That’s just down to my results. There’s no other way. You can talk it in your head and try and build yourself up as much as you want, but at some point, you’re going to have to have the results to actually prove it and achieve.

“I like where things are at,” he said. “And hopefully, it’s a move in the right direction to be in that top 10 player in the world.”

His 26th victory worldwide took care of that. Scott finished at 9-under 271 and moved up to No. 9, and there’s little to suggest he’s about to stop there. This

Adam Scott, of Australia, holds the trophy after winning the Honda Classic golf tournament with a 9-under-par, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Associated Press

was his 18th consecutive round at par or better. Dating to the Japan Open last fall, he has finished out of the top 10 only twice in his last nine tournaments.

That’s about the time Scott switched back to the short putter for good.

“I’ve kind of said it the whole time. I don’t think it’s going to be that big a deal for me,” Scott said. “It’s some hard work, and I’m not afraid of that. I’m glad it’s going in the right direction, and I’ve putted pretty solid the last couple weeks, and I want to make sure

that keeps going.”

Overlooked in the chatter about long putters is that Scott had won 18 times worldwide with a conventional putter, including The Players Championship and the Tour Championship. He went to a long putter that he anchored against his chest at the Match Play Championship in 2011, and he contended in the Masters two months later.

When he won the Masters in 2013, he was the fourth winner in six majors to use an anchored putting stroke.

Perhaps because he reached No. 1 in the world, Scott became the face of the long putters when a new rule that outlawed the anchored stroke kicked in this year. For those who wondered if his career was in jeopardy, check out that trophy he was holding Sunday.

Scott won in only his third start since the rule took effect, and his 10th event since he switched back to the conventional putter for

good.

Asked if it was good to get that out of the way, the 35-year-old Aussie couldn’t resist.

“Probably good for everybody who likes talking about it, absolutely,” Scott said. “And therefore, good for me. Good for me because maybe we don’t have to go over it too much anymore. Again, it just reassures me I’m on the right track with the things I’m doing on the greens, and I’m just going to try and get better every week. And I think it’s in a great spot at the moment.

“If I can get better and better, then I like what’s to come.”

Scott opened with a 10foot birdie putt that set the tone, and he seized control early on the back nine when Garcia missed a 3-foot par putt on the 11th hole. Scott followed with a 9-iron out of a bunker to 2 feet for birdie and a twoshot lead.

Garcia made birdie on the final hole for a 71, forcing

Scott to convert his short par putt.

“He played really, really solid,” Garcia said. “I played with him the last two days, and he looked awesome.

I know I can play better.

That’s the good thing. Without feeling like I was swinging that great, I still managed to have a chance, so I’m happy with that.”

The final round was a duel between Scott and Garcia, though Justin Thomas and Blayne Barber both got within two shots at one point on the back nine.

Barber didn’t make a birdie over the final seven holes and shot 70. Thomas took double bogey from the back bunker on the par-3 17th and closed with a 69.

They tied for third, four shots behind.

It was the perfect way for Scott to head toward Augusta. He has two World Golf Championships before he even gets to the Masters.

“Hopefully,” Scott said, “I haven’t peaked too early.”q

SPORTS A21

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Johnson pulls alongside the Intimidator with 76th career win

By PAUL NEWBERRY HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson reached another milestone in his brilliant NASCAR career.

This one was really special.

Win No. 76.

Right up there with the Intimidator.

Johnson’s victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday pushed him into a tie for seventh place on the career list with the late Dale Earnhardt, who was killed in a last-lap crash at the 2001 Daytona 500 just a few months before Johnson joined the Cup series.

“I didn’t have a chance to race against him,” Johnson said. “There’s been a big void in my mind ... so to tie him, for me personally, it gives me a little bit of attachment to the great Dale Earnhardt.”

After a chaotic finish, the significance of the triumph didn’t occur to Johnson at first. Then it hit him, so he took another spin in front of the grandstand, sticking his hand out of the car to hold up three fingers.

No. 3 was Earnhardt’s number, of course.

And, in an appropriate twist, Johnson teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. crossed the line next, edging out Kyle Busch for the runnerup spot by mere inches.

“I think dad would’ve liked Jimmie as a person,” Junior said, “but he certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed competing against him.”

Next on Johnson’s bucket list: another series championship. By winning the second race of the season, he essentially wrapped up his spot in the season-ending Chase, where he’ll be attempting to join Earnhardt and Richard Petty as the only drivers to capture seven Cup titles.

“The six that I have, I know how special and meaning-

Jimmie Johnson stands with the trophy after winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Hampton, Ga. Associated Press

ful they are,” Johnson said.

“If I have a chance to win a seventh and tie Petty and Earnhardt, that would be just monumental.”

Polished and well-liked throughout the garage, Johnson would appear to have little in common with the Intimidator, a roughand-tumble driver who didn’t mind making others mad and doing whatever it took to win the race — even if it meant knocking someone out of the way.

“He didn’t get that Intimidator title by being nice to everybody,” quipped Rick Hendrick, the owner of Johnson’s No. 48 car.

But Earnhardt Jr. thinks his father, if he had lived, would have become fast friends with Johnson.

Certainly, he would’ve respected Johnson’s skills behind the wheel, which were on full display Sunday

as he struggled to maintain control of his car on fading tires, having made his final green-flag pit stop ahead of everyone else in a strategic bid to snatch the lead away from Kevin Harvick.

“Knowing dad and knowing Jimmie’s character, they would’ve gotten along tremendously and dad would’ve thought the world of him,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

“How can you not like Jimmie? He’s just a good guy who never stepped over the line with anything he’s ever said or anything he’s ever done.”

All he does is win, with staggering consistency.

The 40-year-old has now earned a victory in every full-time Cup season, extending the streak to 15 years in a row. As fit as any driver in the series, he could likely remain at the top of

the game for another decade or more. While Petty’s record of 200 career victories is unlikely to ever be duplicated — he competed largely in a different era with far more races each year — Johnson certainly has the potential to reach the second spot on the list.

David Pearson won 105 times. Johnson has averaged a bit more than five victories a year, a pace that would push him past the Silver Fox in another six seasons.

Shorter term, Johnson can set his sights on Cale Yarborough (83 victories), Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip (84 apiece), and longtime teammate Jeff Gordon, who retired after last season with 93 wins.

“You’ve got to say that he’s one of the best that’s ever been in the sport,” Hendrick said of Johnson.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how many races and championships Jimmie and Chad (Knaus, his crew chief) can win.”

It was Knaus who made the call that essentially gave Johnson a shot at his latest victory. Knowing it would be tough to get around Harvick, who led more laps than anyone, the crew chief brought in the No. 48 for its last scheduled pit stop nine laps before Harvick, gambling that Johnson could make his tires last longer on the bruising Atlanta track.

The move worked, giving Johnson a big lead, though a late yellow flag forced overtime. Everyone came back into the pits for new tires, Johnson returned to the track still out front, and a four-car crash on the backstretch shortly after the restart sealed the win.q

A22

Tuesday 1 March 2016

SPORTS

Big names stay put as NHL trade deadline passes JOHN WAWROW STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writers Loui Eriksson is still with Boston. Dan Hamhuis is still a Canuck. And Jonathan Drouin is still on the roster of the Tampa Bay Lightning after the NHL’s trade deadline came and went Monday.

The league said there were 19 trades involving 37 players completed on Monday. That’s lower than last year’s numbers of 24 trades and 43 players, but it marked the 15th straight deadline day in which at least 30 players were dealt.

There were a few splashes made, mostly in the Western Conference by teams including Anaheim and Colorado as the afternoon deadline arrived.

Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic delivered on his intent to provide Colorado’s playoff run one more push. And Dallas added defensive depth by landing nine-year veteran Kris Russell in a trade with Calgary in exchange for defensemen Jyrki Jokipakka and Brett Pollock and a conditional second-round draft pick. Russell has 174 shot blocks in just 51 games this season.

But the day was largely notable for the names who didn’t move.

Selected third overall in the 2013 draft, Drouin’s future with the Lightning remains uncertain after his agent went public with his client’s trade demands in December. Drouin was unhappy over being demoted to the minors and has since left the AHL Syracuse Crunch to work out on his own in Montreal.

Boston acquired play-making forward Lee Stempniak from New Jersey and veteran defenseman John Michael Liles from Carolina.

But the Bruins stood pat on Eriksson, who was a candidate to be traded because his contract expires this offseason.

“If you look around the league, I don’t think any team current in a playoff position traded a player

New York Ranger’s Eric Staal participates in a team practice at Madison Square Garden in New York, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. The Rangers acquired Staal from the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.

Associated Press

of Loui’s magnitude,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said. “I think one first-rounder was exchanged. The deal had to be right.”

Pittsburgh general manager Jim Rutherford said the asking prices were too high for some players he had identified, and Arizona GM Don Maloney said the uncertainty over how much the salary cap will grow this summer was a factor in preventing some teams from making trades.

Washington Capitals GM Brian MacLellan expressed disappointment he was un-

able to make an additional move.

“It seemed to be a little bit quieter today than I expected it to be, so there’s a little frustration,” MacLellan said. “But still, I’m comfortable with where we’re at as a team.”

The league-leading Capitals had already addressed their depth by acquiring forward Daniel Winnik from Toronto on Sunday, and adding defenseman Mike Weber from Buffalo last week. The East rival New York Rangers acquired Hurricanes captain Eric Staal in exchange for Finnish pros-

pect Aleksi Saarela and a pair of second-round draft picks over the weekend.

In the West, Sakic completed three trades in which he added a top-line forward in Arizona’s Mikkel Boedker and filled out his defensive depth in acquiring New Jersey’s Eric Gelinas. The Avalanche have missed the postseason four of the past five seasons and currently hold down the West’s eighth and final playoff spot.

“We expect to make the playoffs,” Sakic said.

“That’s what these moves are for, trying to help your

team get better.”

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog appreciated the support management provided.

“It sends a message to everybody in here that they’re willing up top to give us the best chance possible to go deep in the playoffs,” Landeskog said.

Boedker is an eight-year veteran who adds scoring punch. His 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) ranked third on Arizona. Gelinas is a hard-shooting third-year defenseman who provides Colorado depth on the blue line.q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Google self-driving car strikes public bus in California

BY JUSTIN PRITCHARD ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A selfdriving car being tested

by Google struck a public bus on a Silicon Valley street, a fender-bender that appears to be the first time one of the tech company’s vehicles caused an accident during testing on city roads.

Google accepted some responsibility for the collision, which occurred on Valentine’s Day when one of the Lexus SUVs it has outfitted with sensors and cameras hit the side of the bus. No one was injured, according to an accident report Google wrote and submitted to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

The agency posted the report Monday on its website. In the accident report, Google wrote that its car was trying to get around some sandbags near the curb at an intersection near its headquarters in Mountain View, California, when its left front struck the right side of the bus. Google’s car was sliding to the left to pass the sandbags and make a right turn.

As the Lexus nudged out at 2 mph it collided with the bus, which was traveling at 15 mph, Google wrote.

The car’s test driver - who under state law must be in the front seat to grab the wheel when needed - thought the bus would yield and did not have control when the collision happened, according to Google.

While the report does not address fault, in a written statement Google said, “We clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn’t moved there wouldn’t have been a collision.”

The statement called the incident “a classic example of the negotiation that’s a normal part of driving - we’re all trying to predict each other’s movements.”

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority said none of the 15 passengers or driver on its bus was injured. The bus had minor

In this May 13, 2015, file photo, Google’s self-driving Lexus car drives along street during a demonstration at Google campus in Mountain View, Calif.

Associated Press

damage.

“An internal VTA investigation is still going on, there are several pieces of information that need to be examined, so no determination of liability has been made,” spokeswoman Stacey Hendler Ross said in a written statement.

There may never be a formal determination of liabil-

ity, especially if damage was negligible and neither Google nor the transit authority pushes its side. Still, the Feb. 14 collision could be the first time a Google car in autonomous mode caused an accident.

Google cars have been involved in nearly a dozen collisions in or around Mountain View since start-

ing to test on city streets in the spring of 2015. In most cases, Google’s cars were rear-ended. No one has been seriously injured.

A spokeswoman for California’s DMV, which regulates Google’s testing of about two dozen Lexus SUVs in the state, said the agency hoped to speak with Google on Monday

about what went wrong.

Under state law, Google must retain data from the moments before any accident.

“As far as he-said she said there shouldn’t be any of that. It’s all there,” said Robert W. Peterson, an insurance law expert at Santa Clara University who has studied self-driving cars.q

Microsoft to ship developer HoloLens for $3,000 in March

In this April 29, 2015, file photo, a woman wearing a HoloLens demonstrates how the technology can be used to test and develop robotics at the Microsoft Build conference in San Francisco.

Associated Press

The Associated Press Microsoft says it will start shipping a developer version of its augmented reality device, HoloLens, for $3,000 on March 30.

That’s around the same time Facebook’s Oculus will begin shipping the consumer version of its Rift virtual-reality headset for $600.

HoloLens differs from the Oculus Rift in that it makes the viewer see three-dimensional objects in the real world, rather than

blocking out the real and replacing it with a 360-degree fictional universe.

The HoloLens operates on Windows 10 and unlike the Rift, requires no tethering to a separate computer.

It’ll use a custom-built chip designed on an Intel platform. It’ll let users record high-definition video that recreates a mix of holographs overlaid on the real world that can be shared with people without the device.q

A24 BUSINESS

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Late selling leaves stocks down for third straight month MARLEY JAY AP Markets Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Late-day selling sent U.S. stocks to a loss Monday and erased nearly all of the market’s gains for the month. Weak earnings for drug companies pushed health care

or 0.7 percent, to 16,516.50.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 15.82 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,932.23. The Nasdaq composite index fell 32.52 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,557.95.

Monday’s loss pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq

vice company Endo lost $11.13, or 21 percent, to $41.81 after the company said it will wind down its Astora women’s health business and set aside $834 million to cover costs from possible product liability lawsuits over vaginal mesh

Trader Richard Newman works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Late-day selling sent U.S. stocks to a loss Monday and erased nearly all of the market’s gains for the month.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

stocks lower, and energy shares fell as natural gas plunged.

Investors lost enthusiasm for stocks after two straight weekly gains. Health care stocks fell furthest as drugmakers Endo International, Mylan and Mallinckrodt all slumped. Oil prices rose, but natural gas hit a 17year low. Banks lost ground, partly because investors are worried about their potential losses on loans to energy companies.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 123.47 points,

to their third monthly loss in a row. The Dow eked out a gain of 0.3 percent for its first positive month since November.

John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Fund Management, said investors are nervous. “A lot of investors have fantastic profits from three or four years (of gains) and they also have terrible memories from seven or eight years ago,” he said. “Why not sell first and ask questions later?”

The drug and medical de-

implants, which have been linked to thousands of injuries.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals slid after the company withdrew its financial forecasts. The stock gave up $14.85, or 18.4 percent, to $65.80. Mallinckrodt declined $4.21, or 6.1 percent, to $65.03.

With stocks on shaky ground, precious metals prices improved. The price of gold has climbed nearly 11 percent this month.

Gold is seen as a safe investment when the mar-

ket gets rough, and Steven Dunn, the head of ETF Securities’ U.S. division, said investors are now more worried about the global markets than they have been in several years.

“When there is turmoil in the world, people do come back to gold as sort of that safe port,” he said.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 97 cents, or 3 percent, to $33.75 a barrel in New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained 87 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $35.97 a barrel in London.

Natural gas prices skidded 4 percent to $1.71 per 1,000 cubic feet, its lowest level since March of 1999. In a research note, Commodity Weather Group said it expects a “super warm pattern” to start in about a week. That will lead to less demand for heat as the winter comes to a close.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 3 cents to $1.05 a gallon and heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.08 a gallon.

Global stocks were mixed.

Policymakers at a weekend meeting of the Group of 20 rich and developing countries promised to use “all tools” at their disposal to bolster weak global growth, but they didn’t announce any specific moves. Some relief emerged with the news that China’s monetary authorities had cut the amount of deposits that banks have to keep in reserve at the central bank.

That should free up cash for banks to lend. The government also guided the yuan lower.q

Consol selling coal assets, suspending dividend NEW YORK (AP) — Consol Energy Inc. is selling several mines and coal reserves to Coronado IV LLC. for $420 million. It says it will also suspend its dividend as it continues to deal with declining energy prices.

Its shares rose almost 9 percent in afternoon trading Monday.

The company is selling its Buchanan mine in southwestern Virginia, its idled Amonate mine in south-

western West Virginia and southwestern Virginia and its greenfield Russell County coal reserves in Virginia.

The deal also includes greenfield Pangburn-Shaner-Fallowfield coal reserves in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Overall, the deal includes approximately 400 million tons of proved coal reserves.

Consol and its peers have had to cut costs and

spending as energy prices, including coal, natural gas and oil, continue declining.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay debt.

“This is another significant event in the execution of Consol Energy’s strategy, as well as a meaningful step in continuing to strengthen our balance sheet, said President and CEO said Nicholas J. DeIuliis.

The deal doesn’t include

gas rights, and Consol will retain the right to extract and sell gas at the mines and other properties.

Consol will suspend its regular dividend, beginning with the first declared dividend following the closing of the deal.

Its shares rose 69 cents, or 8.8 percent, to $8.53 in afternoon trading Monday.

Its shares are down more than 73 percent over the past year.q

Amazon tapping Target heavyweight for supply chain A. D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Target has tapped an Amazon heavyweight to lead the overhaul of its supply chain that has been stretched by the demands of online shopping.

The discounter has named Arthur Valdez as executive vice president, chief supply chain and logistics officer whose duties will include overseeing planning, distribution and transportation.

Valdez will report to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan.

Valdez spent the last 16 years at Seattle-based online leader Amazon.com Inc., where most recently he was vice president of operations focusing on the company’s international supply chain expansion.

He has also held positions with Wal-Mart and Kmart.

Valdez starts on March 28 and will relocate to Target’s Minneapolis base.

The appointment, announced Monday, underscores how serious Target Corp. is becoming to better blend its online services with the physical store shopping experience. It’s a big challenge for Target and other companies as online shopping is surging. Shoppers are buying in many different ways, including ordering online and picking up at the store. That has left retailers scrambling to figure out how to more efficiently fill orders. Many are struggling to do basic tasks like making sure products like diapers are stocked.

Last September, Target promoted Mulligan, who had been chief financial officer, to his current spot, a new role in the company, and it was making overhauling the supply chain a top priority.

“While we’ve made significant progress in improving our operations, Target’s growth hinges on our ability to enhance the fundamental aspects of our business, starting with the supply chain,” said Mulligan in a statement.q

BUSINESS A25

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Valeant shares slide despite CEO’s return after long illness LINDA A. JOHNSON AP Business Writer Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals tanked Monday, amid ongoing turmoil over the embattled drugmaker’s delayed financial results and its leader’s health.

Even news Sunday that CEO Michael Pearson is returning immediately after nine weeks recovering from pneumonia and unspecified complications failed to buoy Valeant shares.

The shares are trading at less than one-third of their

$263.81 high last August.

That was right before Valeant’s practice of buying rights to old drugs and jacking up the prices came under congressional scrutiny, and a few months before its questionable relationship with a drug distributor raised concerns about the accuracy of its financial reporting.

Valeant shares dropped $7.80, or 9.7 percent, to $72.81 in late-afternoon trading Monday.

Investors appear to be

reacting to Valeant’s announcement in a statement Sunday that is withdrawing all its financial forecasts.

Nomura equity analyst Shibani Malhotra wrote Monday that while Pearson’s return to the helm is a “positive,” for the company, she’s concerned by Valeant’s decision to withdraw its 2016 guidance, which was confirmed just six weeks ago.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., based in

Laval, Quebec, also again delayed announcing its preliminary fourth-quarter and 2015 financial results, which were to be released Monday. The company cited Pearson’s return to work as the reason.

“Valeant won’t turn around until it restores its credibility, and it doesn’t help to bring back the CEO who created the questions about financial reporting on his watch and his handling of questions about Philidor,” Erik Gordon, a professor

and pharmaceuticals analyst at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, wrote in an email.

Pearson’s convalescence, and the limited information the company released about his condition, aren’t the only concerns dragging down Valeant shares.

Last Tuesday, Valeant said it would delay filing its 2015 annual report with regulators while it sorts out its former relationship with the mail-order pharmacy Philidor.q

GE tries to woo investors with ‘digital industrial’ vision FAIRFIELD, Conn.

(AP) — General Electric is promising to boost its earnings by about 15 percent in each of the next three years and dole out $67 billion to shareholders as CEO Jeffrey Immelt tries to create a sleeker, “digital industrial” company.

The $67 billion will be paid through a combination of quarterly dividends and repurchases of GE’s stock through 2018. The Fairfield, Connecticut, company returned $33 billion to shareholders last year.

Reducing the amount of GE’s outstanding stock will also help the company realize its goal of increasing its adjusted annual earnings from $1.31 per share last year to more than $2 per share in 2018.

Immelt made the financial pledge while spelling out his vision for the 138-yearold company in a letter released Monday with GE’s annual report.

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt speaks at the annual IHS CERAWeek global energy conference in Houston. General Electric is promising to boost its earnings by about 15 percent in each of the next three years and dole out $67 billion to shareholders as Immelt tries to create a “digital industrial” company. Immelt made the financial pledge while spelling out his vision for the 138-year-old company in a letter released Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, with GE’s annual report.

(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

The wide-ranging letter calls for General Electric Co. to become less bureaucratic and more innovative as Immelt strives to turn it into one of the world’s 10 biggest software companies by 2020.

Immelt conceded the

transformation won’t be easy.

“There is no blueprint for what we are trying to do and, at times, it will be messy,” he wrote.

To help him sculpt GE into a nimbler company, the 60-year-old Immelt is

getting advice from “early career leaders” in what he described as a “humbling” experience.

“Through their eyes, I can see the evil nature of corporate bureaucracy; they are a good mirror for my own failings,” wrote Immelt, who has been running GE s since 2001.

As part of its makeover, GE has jettisoned most of its financial services and other operations that no longer fit into Immelt’s strategy.

Last year, GE negotiated sales totaling $157 billion On the flip side, the company became an even bigger player than it already is in the energy industry with a $10.6 billion acquisition of the power and transmission of French manufacturer Alstom.

The reorganization went over well with investors.

GE’s stock climbed 23 percent last year while the Standard & Poor’s 500 dipped by about 1 percent.

The shares shed 22 cents to $29.18 in Monday’s late afternoon trading.

In trying to reposition itself as a company on the cutting edge of technology, GE is hoping to recapture some of the luster that it has lost amid problems in the financial services division that once was among its brightest spots. Once the most valuable company in the world, GE’s market value has declined by about $70 billion during the past decade.

Meanwhile, investors have been gravitating to technology companies as the Internet and a variety of gadgets reshape society and the economy.

Technology bellwethers Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are now the world’s three most valuable companies and 12-year-old Facebook Inc. also is currently worth more than GE.q

Lumber Liquidators 4Q losses much greater than expected TOANO, Va. (AP) — Lumber Liquidators swung to a fourth-quarter loss that was more than three times larger than expected as fallout over the safety of some of its products continues to rattle the embattled flooring manufacturer.

Its shares dropped more than 4 percent in afternoon trading Monday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that people exposed to certain types of

Lumber Liquidators’ laminate flooring were three times more likely to get cancer than the agency had previously predicted.

The company stopped selling the Chinese-made laminate floors in May, a few months after CBS news show “60 Minutes” reported that those floors contain high levels of formaldehyde. Lumber Liquidators also began providing customers with free air quality tests.

Lumber Liquidators agreed to pay more than $13 million earlier this month for illegally importing hardwood flooring after the company pleaded guilty to environmental crimes last year. Lumber Liquidators pleaded guilty to environmental crimes in October.

For the period ended Dec. 31, the hardwood flooring retailer lost $19.8 million, or 73 cents per share, which far exceeded the pershare loss of 23 cents that

Wall Street had expected, according to a survey

by Zacks Investment Research. The company last year earned $17.3 million, or 64 cents per share, during the same quarter.

Revenue came in at $234.8 million, also well below the $254.5 million analysts were expecting. Sales at stores open at least a year dropped 17.2 percent.

That’s key gauge of a retailer’s health because it excludes the volatility as-

sociated with locations recently opened or closed.

The Toano, Virginia, company said Monday it believes sales continue to be hurt by questions about the quality of products imported from China. For the full year, Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. lost $2.08 per share on revenue of $978.8 million. The company also announced that Dennis Knowles will serves as chief operating officer, effective Tuesday. q

A26 COMICS

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

CLASSIFIED A27

Tuesday 1 March 2016

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A28 SCIENCE

Tuesday 1 March 2016

UN science report warns of fewer bees, other pollinators SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Many species of wild bees, butterflies and other critters that pollinate plants are shrinking toward extinction, and the world needs to do something about it before our food supply suffers, a new United Nations scientific mega-report warns.

The 20,000 or so species of pollinators are key to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of crops each year — from fruits and vegetables to coffee and chocolate. Yet 2 out of 5 species of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are on the path toward extinction, said the first-of-its-kind report. Pollinators with backbones, such as hummingbirds and bats, are only slightly better off, with 1 in 6 species facing extinction.

“We are in a period of decline and there are going to be increasing consequences,” said report lead author Simon Potts, director of the Centre for AgriEnvironmental Research at the University of Reading in England. And it’s not just honeybees. In some aspects they’re doing better than many of their wild counterparts, like the bumblebee, despite dramatic long-term declines in the United States and a mysterious disorder that has waned.

The trouble is the report can’t point to a single vil-

In this July 8, 2015 file photo a bumblebee gathers nectar on a wildflower in Appleton, Maine.

Associated Press

lain. Among the culprits: the way farming has changed so there’s not enough diversity and wild flowers for pollinators to use as food; pesticide use, including a controversial one, neonicotinoid, that attacks the nervous system; habitat loss to cities; disease, parasites and pathogens; and global warming.

The report is the result of more than two years of work by scientists across the globe who got together under several different U.N. agencies to come up with an assessment of Earth’s biodiversity, starting with the pollinators. It’s an effort similar to what the United Nations has done with global warming, putting together an encyclopedic report to tell world leaders what’s happening

and give them options for what can be done.

The report, which draws from many scientific studies but no new research, was approved by a congress of 124 nations meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

“The variety and multiplicity of threats to pollinators and pollination generate risks to people and livelihoods,” the report stated. “These risks are largely driven by changes in land cover and agricultural management systems, including pesticide use.”

But these are problems that can be fixed, and unlike global warming, the solutions don’t require countries to agree on global action — they can act locally, said Robert Watson, a top British ecological scientist and vice chairman of the

scientific panel. The solutions offered mostly involve changing the way land and farming is managed.

“There are relatively simple, relatively inexpensive mechanisms for turning the trend around for native pollinators,” said David Inouye of the University of Maryland, a co-author of a couple chapters in the report.

One of the biggest problems, especially in the United States, is that giant swaths of farmland are devoted to just one crop, and wildflowers are disappearing, Potts and others said. Wild pollinators especially do well on grasslands, which are usually more than just grass, and 97 percent of Europe’s grasslands have disappeared since World War II, Potts said.

England now pays farmers to plant wildflowers for bees in hedge rows, Watson said. There are both general and specific problems with some pesticide use, according to the report. “Pesticides, particularly insecticides, have been demonstrated to have a broad range of lethal and sub-lethal effects on pollinators in controlled experimental conditions,” the report said. But it noted more study is needed on the effects on pollinators in the wild. Herbicides kill off weeds, which are useful for wild pollinators, the report added. The report highlighted recent research

that said the widely used insecticide neonicotinoid reduces wild bees’ chances for survival and reproduction, but the evidence of effects on honeybees is conflicting.

In a statement, Christian Maus, global pollinator safety manager for Bayer, which makes neonicotinoids, said: “The report confirms the overwhelming majority of the scientific opinion regarding pollinator health — that this is a complex issue affected by many factors. Protecting pollinators and providing a growing population with safe, abundant food will require collaboration.”

Potts said global warming is “very clearly a real future risk” because pollinators and their plants may not be at the same place at the same time. England has seen one-quarter of its bumblebee species threatened, and those are the type of bees most sensitive to climate change, he said.

England has lost two species of wild bumblebees to extinction and the U.S. has lost one, Inouye said.

The story of honeybees is a bit mixed. Globally over the last 50 years, the number of managed honeybee hives — ones where humans keep them either as a hobbyists or as professional pollinators — has increased, but it has dropped in North America and Europe, where there is the most data, the report said.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Oscars get 34.3 million viewers, lowest rating since 2008

DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Academy Awards viewership dipped to its lowest level since 2008 in a year where the movie industry’s ability to reflect the nation’s diversity was a central issue.

The Nielsen company said Monday preliminary estimates showed 34.3 million people watched Sunday night’s telecast, where “Spotlight” won best picture. Last year’s show was seen by 37.3 million people.

Since 1990, only two Academy Awards telecasts had fewer viewers: in 2008, when “No Country For Old Men” won best picture, and in 2004, when “Chicago” was honored. The peak came when “Titanic” won a boatload of awards

in 1998 and 55 million people tuned in. The paucity of minority nominees this year led to calls for a boycott among some black stars, including Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee. But Nielsen did not immediately have any ethnic breakdown of Oscar viewership.

Generally, the popularity of movies being honored tends to be the biggest factor in whether the audience for the live telecast is up or down.

Rock, in his second time hosting, hardly stayed away from the diversity issue. He peppered the audience with his first three jokes on the topic within 25 seconds.

The most recent awards shows, the Golden Globes and Grammys, also saw rat-

ings declines. The Globes, which honor film and television, were seen by 18.5 million people, down from 19.3 million in 2015. The Grammy telecast hit a seven-year low in viewership.

Many years, the Oscars are television’s biggest event after the Super Bowl.

The final half hour of ABC’s pre-show telecast was watched by 22.2 million people, down from 23.8 million last year, Nielsen said. Twitter marked a milestone, however: Leonardo DiCaprio’s best actor award generated 440,000 tweets in a minute, the fastest ever counted at the Academy Awards. The previous Twitter highlight came two years ago when Ellen DeGeneres made her star-studded selfie.q

Abe Vigoda’s daughter angry that Oscars ignored actor FRAZIER MOORE AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Famously long rumored to be dead, beloved character actor Abe Vigoda died for real in January at age 94. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn’t seem to notice.

In any case, it omitted Vigoda from the “In Memoriam” package on Sunday’s Oscarcast, and his daughter is incensed.

“Abe’s family feels disappointed and cheated by the Academy,” said Carol Vigoda Fuchs on Monday.

“Abe gave his life and heart to acting, and a simple tribute in recognition of his devotion was overlooked.”

Vigoda, of course, was unforgettable in “The Godfather” for his performance as Salvatore “Sal” Tessio, the doomed Mafia soldier.

So Fuchs wonders why the Academy forgot him, even as it paid tribute to Alex Rocco, seen in the same 1972 film as Las Vegas casino owner Moe Green.

Rocco, who died last July at age 79, was among the

In an April 10, 2011, file photo, actor Abe Vigoda arrives at the 2011 TV Land Awards in New York.

Associated Press

four dozen industry figures honored in the segment.

Although Tessio is likely Vigoda’s best-known role, his stardom wasn’t limited to “The Godfather.” He also played over-the-hill detective Phil Fish in the 1970s TV comedy “Barney Miller” and its spinoff, “Fish.”

Did the Academy pass the buck to the Emmys to honor Vigoda as a TV star when it airs its awards show this fall?

“I’m sure the Emmys will do it,” said Fuchs. “But that’s still no excuse. The Academy made a mistake. It’s an injustice.”q

Host Chris Rock speaks at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

A30 PEOPLE

Tuesday 1 March 2016

& ARTS

MSNBC’s Scarborough strikes hard at Donald Trump DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who lately has become a symbol of the media’s complicated relationship with Donald Trump, said Monday that the Republican’s remarks on David Duke are “disqualifying” and compel an apology.

The “Morning Joe” host, a former GOP congressman from Florida, referred to Trump’s Sunday interview on CNN about former Ku Klux Klan leader Duke’s support of Trump’s presidential candidacy. Trump at first pleaded ignorance about Duke and groups he’s been involved in, then later said he disavowed Duke’s support.

“That’s disqualifying right there,” Scarborough said of the CNN interview. “It’s breathtaking ... Is he really so stupid that he thinks Southerners aren’t offended by the KKK?” Scarborough also penned a Washington Post column posted on Monday saying Trump’s “feigned ignorance” about Duke and the KKK raise disturbing questions about the Republican presidential frontrunner.

A Trump spokeswoman noted that the candidate had disavowed Duke’s endorsement before and after Sunday’s interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, but had no comment on Scarborough’s remarks. Trump, on NBC’s “Today” show on

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a rally at Radford University in Radford, Va., Monday, Feb. 29, 2016.

Associated Press

Monday, blamed a “very bad earpiece” provided by CNN for having trouble understanding precisely what Tapper had asked him.

Scarborough’s comments come after he and his show have faced criticism for being too friendly with Trump.

The business mogul’s rise in the political polls has been accompanied by record ratings for events surrounding the GOP nomination campaign, giving networks the incentive to talk about the race as much as possible — particularly with the candidate himself.

Trump has been interviewed on “Morning Joe” 32 times since the Republican announced his candidacy last summer, according to the liberal media watchdogs Media Matters for America. Many have been telephone interviews.

Most television shows avoid phone interviews — they need pictures — but the interest in Trump and the ratings his appearances bring has led to that rule being bent by many.

In the months before primary or caucus voting began, Scarborough frequently

disagreed with analysts who believed Trump’s initial strong showing in polls would evaporate. That was undoubtedly helpful to the Trump campaign, yet also proved to be astute analysis for a daily program that traffics in three hours of political talk.

It was some offhand comments that embarrassed “Morning Joe.” The morning after Trump’s win in the New Hampshire primary, Trump said in an interview with Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski that “you guys have been

supporters and I really appreciate it.” He quickly clarified himself: “not necessarily supporters but at least believers. You said there’s some potential there.”

Tapes leaked by radio host Harry Shearer, of conversations involving Scarborough, Brzezinski and Trump during commercial breaks in Trump’s Feb. 17 town hall meeting on MSNBC, revealed the type of banter between media figures and a candidate usually not seen when cameras are rolling.

In the off-air moments, both MSNBC hosts told Trump that they had been wrong in thinking Trump had performed poorly in a recent debate. When Brzezinski discussed with a network producer a potential subject for questions, Trump is heard saying, “nothing too hard, Mika.”

The hosts also thanked Trump for providing the network with an hour of prime-time programming, and Trump joked, “I’m doing this because you get great ratings and a raise.

Me, I get nothing.”

Frank Sesno, media and public affairs professor at George Washington University and a former CNN Washington bureau chief, said Scarborough “like so many on cable television and on talk radio, has been captivated by the Trump phenomenon. I would not say he’s been working for him.”q

Melissa Harris-Perry won’t be back for her MSNBC show

In this Feb. 18, 2012, file photo, provided by MSNBC, Melissa Harris-Perry appears on the set of her self-titled show in New York.

Associated Press

VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Melissa Harris-Perry and MSNBC are going their separate ways.

“Farewell #Nerdland,” she tweeted on Sunday, referring to the probing discussions on her weekend show. “Inviting diverse new voices to table was a privilege. Grateful for years of support & criticism.”

The network says MSNBC and Harris-Perry are parting

ways.

She was scheduled to appear this Saturday and Sunday in the regular two-hour slot from 10 a.m. to noon.

But Harris-Perry announced several days ago that she would stay away — in response to MSNBC’s preemption of her program for much of February for coverage of presidential politics.

Harris-Perry has focused on the politics of race, gender and social justice on her

“Melissa Harris-Perry” show.

“Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season,” Harris-Perry said in an email to her staff that was posted on her Twitter page on Friday.

MSNBC “would like me to appear for four inconsequential hours to read news that they deem relevant,” including more political news.q

PEOPLE & ARTS

A31

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Documentary, album explore Loretta Lynn’s Appalachian roots KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When Loretta Lynn was growing up in Butcher Hollow in Kentucky in 1930s, her home in the coal mining community was always filled with music, either from her own voice echoing through the trees or the sound of the Carter Family’s songs.

The country icon’s Appalachian musical roots are explored on a new “American Masters” documentary on PBS as well as her first new studio album in a more than a decade, “Full Circle,” both debuting Friday. Lynn, who was the second of eight children in her family, said her daddy played the banjo and her mama played the guitar and nearly everyone in the “holler,” as she pronounces it, could sing or play as well.

“I was singing when I was born, I think,” said the 83-year-old singer during an interview in Nashville, where she was taping a new music video with Willie Nelson. “Daddy used to come out on the porch where I would be singing

and rocking the babies to sleep. He’d say, ‘Loretta, shut that big mouth. People all over this holler can hear you.’ And I said, ‘Daddy, what difference does it make? They are all my cousins.’”

The documentary, “Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl,” chronicles Lynn’s remarkable rise from a “Coal Miner’s Daughter” to a country superstar who wrote frank songs about her upbringing and her experiences as a wife and mother.

Although her rags-to-riches story is already well known thanks to a best-selling autobiography and Oscarwinning film starring Sissy Spacek, Lynn has never before recorded many of the Appalachian songs that inspired her career.

Her last album, “Van Lear Rose,” produced by rocker Jack White, earned her two Grammys in 2005.

“Some of them were songs I sang when I was just a little girl,” Lynn said. “I didn’t dream any of them would get on this album.”

It was fitting then that producer John Carter Cash, the son of June Carter

and Johnny Cash, helped her revisit some of these songs, including a couple of Carter Family standards, “Black Jack David,” and “I Never Will Marry.” The Carters were a musical dynasty from just over the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia — lead by A.P. Carter, his wife, Sara, and his sister-inlaw Maybelle — who wrote legendary songs like “Keep on the Sunny Side,” ‘’Wildwood Flower” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

“The Carter Family was the first songs I ever heard,” Lynn recalled. “I was just 2 or 3 years old, maybe a little older. But I remember climbing up on Daddy’s leg and Daddy was playing the old Victrola and playing Carter Family records.”

Cash, who is the grandson of Maybelle Carter, said recording with Lynn at his Cash Cabin studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, felt like a family project. They have recorded over 100 songs, some of which will be released on subsequent albums on the Sony Legacy label.

“There was just an immediate magic in the studio to-

In this Feb. 10, 2016 photo, Loretta Lynn poses for a photo at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

Associated Press

gether,” Cash said. “To me, it was a lot like working with my mom again. Loretta’s sense of humor, her creative drive and just the very nature of her being felt like home.”

She also recorded another song from her childhood, “In the Pines,” an Appalachian folk traditional dating back to the 1870s that has been sung by everyone from Bill Monroe to Lead Belly. Over a simple guitar

and banjo tracks, Lynn’s steady vocals evoke that high lonesome sound of the mountains.

The album starts with the very first song she ever wrote, “Whispering Sea,” which was the b-side to her first recording, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” released in 1960. Also included is a new version of “Fist City,” a fiery threat to punch any woman who dared to fool around with her man.

Tough-guy journeyman actor George Kennedy dies at 91 LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Kennedy, the hulking, tough-guy character actor who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a savage chain-gang convict in the 1960s classic “Cool Hand Luke,” has died.

His grandson Cory Schenkel says Kennedy died on Sunday morning of old age in Boise, Idaho. He was 91.

He had undergone emergency triple bypass surgery in 2002. That same year, he and his late wife moved to Idaho to be closer to their daughter and her family, though he still was involved in occasional film projects.

His biggest acting achievement came in “Cool Hand Luke,” a 1967 film about a rebellious war hero played

by Paul Newman who is

bent on bucking the system as a prisoner on a Southern chain gang. Its theme of rebelling against authority and the establishment helped make it one of the most important films of the tumultuous 1960s.

Kennedy played the role of Dragline, the chain-gang boss who goes from Luke’s No. 1 nemesis to his biggest disciple as Newman’s character takes on folk hero status among fellow inmates.

The movie garnered four Academy Award nominations, and Kennedy was named best supporting actor.

Newman and Kennedy provided a spectacular onetwo punch — Luke as the reticent anti-hero, Dragline as an illiterate brute. They shared several memorable scenes, including one in which Kennedy’s character

wins a bet by getting Luke to eat 50 eggs in an hour.

After the critical and commercial success of “Cool Hand Luke,” Kennedy carved out a niche as one of Hollywood’s most recognizable supporting actors. He had parts in several action flicks in the 1970s, played Leslie Nielsen’s sidekick in the “Naked Gun” spoofs and was J.R. Ewing’s business rival in the final seasons of “Dallas.”

One of his strongest supporting roles was in the hit 1970 film “Airport,” which spurred the run of 1970s disaster pictures. Kennedy played Joe Patroni, a nononsense, cigar-chomping troubleshooter who stubbornly guides a jetliner stuck on a snow-clogged runway out of harm’s way.

The film spawned several sequels (Kennedy was in

nomination.

Kennedy said his acting ambitions were cemented when he was a young child.

“I remember listening to a radio program when I was young and it made me feel good and I remember telling my mom that I wanted to make people feel the way this radio program made me feel,” Kennedy said in 1995.

In this April 10, 1968, file photo, George Kennedy poses with his Oscar in Santa Monica, Calif, after winning best supporting actor for “Cool Hand Luke.” Kennedy died, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, of natural causes in Boise, Idaho, where he moved with his late wife in 2002. He was 91.

Associated Press

all of them) and landed Kennedy a Golden Globe

His film career began to take flight in the early 1960s.

He starred in 1963’s “Charade,” a whodunit that features Kennedy, Cary Grant, James Coburn and Walter Matthau seeking out the $250,000 they suspect was left behind by Audrey Hepburn’s dead husband. His other acting credits in the 1960s included “The Dirty Dozen” and “Guns of the Magnificent Seven.”

A32 FEATURE

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Food fight! Competition grows to bring dinner in the mail JOSEPH PISANI AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Meal-kit companies have exploded in the past four years, shipping boxes of raw meat, seafood, fresh vegetables and other ingredients to busy city folk who want to skip the supermarket and still cook at home.

Now they want to tempt even more people to give them a try.

But the companies face several challenges as they grow. They need to hold onto customers they already have, figure out how to ship uncooked food further outside of cities and continue luring funds from increasingly tight-fisted investors. The industry is growing quickly in the U.S., after first gaining popularity in Europe, and competition is heating up as more players join the fray.

Because of that, meal kit-

This Jan. 12, 2016, photo, shows ingredients from a three-meal box from Purple Carrot in New York. An industry has emerged supplying home-delivered meals in a box. But can a subscription service that delivers kits of pre-measured ingredients and recipes be a cost-effective and healthy solution?

Associated Press

In this Jan. 23, 2016, photo, Taryn Robinson cooks white turkey chili, a meal kit dish from Blue Apron, as her father, Keith Robinson, watches over her shoulder in Evanston, Ill. Associated Press

companies are doing all they can to stand out. Blue Apron started to ship wine last year to pair with its meals. HelloFresh began airing TV commercials in November featuring celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Gobble promises that its meals can be cooked in one pan within 15 minutes.

And Purple Carrot, which ships vegan meals, brought on cookbook author Mark Bittman to come up with recipes like tofu fries and onion-stuffed crepes.

Even Martha Stewart wants in. The CEO of Sequential Brands, the brand management company that bought Martha Stewart

Living last year, said in December that the company is considering a meal kit by the home goods mogul that would be similar to the “Blue Apron model.”

Meal kits are shipped to people’s doorsteps, and the raw ingredients come in an insulated cardboard box. Customers then cook the meals using included step-by-step recipes. Each kit comes with enough food to make several meals, which average about $10 each. Subscribers can get a new box every week.

People around the world spent $1.5 billion on these kits last year, with less than half of that coming from the U.S., according to the

Technomic research group.

It was the first time the company measured spending on meal kits.

The market in the U.S. is expected to grow faster than in any other country in the next five years, to as much as $6 billion by 2020, Technomic says.

“We don’t know how the market will shake out in five years, but there’s going to be some big winners and there will be some folks that won’t make it,” says Erik Thoresen, a principal at Technomic.

Holding on to customers may prove to be particularly challenging. Jumping from one meal kit service to the next is tempting since many offer free meals or heavily discounted boxes for new subscribers, says Thoresen.

To help fund their expansions, the companies also depend on investor cash, which has showed signs of tightening. Venture capitalists raised $28.2 billion last year from clients to invest in startups across all industries, down 9.5 percent from the year before, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Shipping raw food isn’t easy, either.

Currently, many customers live in cit-

ies, where it’s easier to get boxes delivered, says Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst at NPD Group. But expanding into more suburban areas may be tough since homes

school vice principal and his pediatrician wife cook healthy meals for their two daughters without having to shop at the grocery store.

“It literally comes to the door,” Keith Robinson says.

“Everything is right there; the little baggies of seasoning and spices, the meat, all the vegetables.”

Some meal-kit sellers have shaken up their businesses to get the attention of potential customers and venture capitalists, too.

Gobble, based in San Francisco, started in 2010 by delivering already-cooked meals that needed only to be heated in a microwave.

But growth slowed, and after talking to customers, founder and CEO Ooshma Garg realized that people actually want to cook.

“They felt guilty feeding their kids out of a microwave,” she says.

So she came up with a different concept: sending raw ingredients that people can cook in one pan in 15 minutes. Company workers slice and chop vegetables, marinate meats and sim-

In this Jan. 26, 2016, photo, shows ingredients from a three-meal Blue Apron box in New York. An industry has emerged supplying home-delivered meals in a box.

Associated Press

are more spread apart, he says.

“I don’t believe we’ll see mainstream adoption of home meal kits,” Seifer says.

Keith and Sharon Robinson in Evanston, Illinois, began using meal kits from Blue Apron and Plated about two years ago after finding discounts at daily deals websites Groupon and Gilt City. The kits let the high

mer sauces at Gobble’s kitchens before shipping them to subscribers.

The change was a hit with customers, and boosted subscribers twentyfold in the first year. Investors in Silicon Valley also liked the new concept, giving Gobble nearly $11 million to help it hire more people and ship its meals in more cities around the country.q