Daily Challenge 5-25-11

HOTEL WORKERS NEED PANIC BUTTONS - PG. 2 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

THE NATION’S ONLY BLACK DAILY 35 Cents

Final

NEW JERSEY MUST GIVE POOR SCHOOLS $500M

New Jersey must provide about $500 million for its Court said, complicating the state’s ongoing budget poorer school districts next year, the state Supreme negotiations.

SEE PAGE 3.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

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N E W S B RI E F S

Hotel workers need panic buttons

DOCTOR: BROOKLYN WOMAN HAD OPTIONS BEFORE GARBAGE CHUTE INCIDENT On Monday, a day after a baby was found in a trash compactor in Brooklyn, one of the city’s leading pediatricians said mothers should know there is help available.

Police officials said 18-year-old Laquasia Wright tossed her newborn down an eighth floor garbage chute Sunday morning at the Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene.

Meanwhile, doctors said under the state’s safe haven law, mothers can bring an unwanted baby to any hospital, police station, or fire station without worrying about prosecution, as long as they let someone know.

“People feel trapped,” said Dr. Lisa Altshuler of Maimonides Medical Center. “They feel alone and cornered. So they end up doing things that are very clearly poor in terms of judgment. That’s why it’s really important for mothers to know there are options. That they don’t have to put the child someplace where the child isn’t safe or may be harmed.”

Wright is charged with attempted murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

The baby was taken to Brooklyn Hospital and is expected to be okay.

New York hotel workers would have electronic “panic buttons” under a new bill proposed after thenIMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

“To my knowledge this would be the first in the nation,” Democratic Assemblyman Rory Lancman, who represents the New York City Borough of Queens, said yesterday.

Lancman, who chairs the Assembly subcommittee on workplace safety, said attacks on hotel maids and housekeepers were relatively common although he had no data to support that.

“Unfortunately, a lot of men think that when they are away from home the normal rules of social conduct don’t apply, and a young woman entering a hotel room, particularly if she looks like an undocumented immigrant who doesn’t have the means to report (an assault) — they think she’s fair game,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn faces charges of sexual assault and attempting to rape a housekeeper at the Sofitel hotel in New York on May 14. He is being held in an apartment in Manhattan under armed guard after being freed on bail on Friday.

Strauss-Kahn has denied the charges against him. He resigned as managing director of the Interna-

NEW TESTS AIM TO GRADE CITY TEACHERS The city is developing new standardized tests for students, but teachers will be the ones who are graded.

Education officials are working on as many as 16 new citywide tests which could be rolled out next school year. It’s part of a statewide overhaul of how teachers are evaluated.

The tests will cover math, science, social studies and English and will start in the third grade.

The new tests will be on top of current state tests and Regents exams.

School districts are required to rate teachers on a scale of “highly effective” to “ineffective” under laws passed last year.

That was part of the state’s successful bid to win $700 million of federal “Race to the Top” funding.

Teachers who receive poor evaluations two years in a row could be fired.

Obama to view tornado zone in Missouri on Sunday

PARKING TICKET EVADERS TO GET NEW BOOT The city is getting closer to rolling out a new kind of boot for parking scofflaws.

The Finance Department is now seeking bids from companies for a self-release tire clamp.

The devices would be used on cars whose drivers owe more than $350 in unpaid tickets.

Scofflaws could remove the boot with a special code they would get only after paying a fine by phone.

They would be responsible for returning the boot to the city or face another fine.

Drivers who break other parking rules could still see their cars towed away.

By KEVIN MURPHY JOPLIN, Mo. — President Barack Obama said yesterday he will visit a devastated section of Missouri where 116 people were killed by a monster tornado, as rescue efforts resumed in the small city of Joplin.

Obama, making a statement from the U.S. ambassador’s residence in London as he begins a state visit to Britain, said his message to those affected by storms in the U.S. Midwest is that the federal government stands by them. He was to visit Joplin on Sunday.

“All we can do is let them know that all of America cares deeply about them and that we are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure that they recover,” he said.

Obama is on a weeklong, fournation tour in Europe and is to return to Washington on Saturday.

“Like all Americans, we have been monitoring what’s been taking place very closely and have been ... heartbroken by the images we’ve seen,” Obama told reporters. The tornado that raked Joplin on Sunday was the deadliest single twister in the United States since 1953.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said yesterday the official death toll remained at 116, but he expected that to rise.

Violent storms that continued through Monday “dramatically hurt” efforts to find survivors, with rain hampering sniffer dogs. Two law enforcement officials were struck by lightning, one very seriously, Nixon told CBS News.

But conditions early yesterday

People pass by the Sofitel hotel after IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged on Sunday with sexually assaulting a maid there. tional Monetary Fund last week.

Hotel workers needing urgent help could use the panic buttons to contact the hotel’s front desk or its security and then police could be called if necessary, Lancman said.

Other industries, including utilities and industrial firms, already use such devices to protect workers who may be in remote locations, enabling them to swiftly and easily request help from co-workers or security.

“This reasonable proposal would

had improved and if that held, he said, by afternoon “we’ll have been through every foot of this town.”

“Pretty much everybody in town knows somebody they’ve lost,” Nixon told CBS. Authorities said there were also 400 people hurt, with many suffering severe internal injuries.

He said there were 17 rescues on Monday and authorities hoped there would be more as they searched apartment complexes housing many people.

Obama spoke to Nixon on Monday and again yesterday.

“We’ve offered him not only our condolences, but we’ve told him that we will give him every ounce of resources the federal government may have that we can bring to bear on this situation,” Obama told reporters.

Obama said he will talk to families affected by the storm when he visits the region and hopefully “pray with folks and give them whatever assurance and comfort I can that the entire country is going to be behind them.”

He urged Americans in storm zones to heed warnings to seek safety during a deadly spring in which storms across Southern states last month killed more than 300 people and caused more than $2 billion in property damage.

Survivors in Joplin told harrowing stories of seeking shelter from winds of nearly 200 miles per hour in walk-in coolers in restaurants and convenience stores, hiding in bathtubs and closets, and of running for their lives as the tornado neared.

“We were getting hit by rocks, and I don’t even know what hit me,” said Leslie Swatosh, 22, who huddled on

ensure that thousands of hotel workers are not put at unnecessary risk,” said Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council.

To become law, the bill would have to be enacted by the assembly and the state senate and then signed

by Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Spokesmen for the governor and the leaders of the two legislative chambers had no immediate comment.

the floor of a liquor store with several others clutching one another as they prayed. When the tornado passed, the store was destroyed but those inside were all alive.

“Everyone in that store was blessed. There was nothing of that store left,” she said.

More severe storms were predicted for the region, in a year that has brought tornadoes of record intensity across several states. Further complicating the rescue effort, power lines were downed, broken gas lines ignited fires, and cell phone communications were spotty due to 17 toppled phone towers.

A number of bodies were found along the city’s “restaurant row,” on the main commercial street, and a local nursing home took a direct hit, said Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges.

Roaring along a path nearly six miles long and about 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile wide, the tornado flattened whole neighborhoods, splintered trees and flipped over cars and trucks. Some 2,000 homes and many other businesses, schools and other buildings were destroyed.

At St. John’s hospital 180 patients cowered as the fierce winds blew out windows and pulled off the roof.

According to AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert, X-ray films from the hospital were found 70 miles away.

Six of the confirmed fatalities occurred at the hospital said spokeswoman Joanne Cox. Five were intensive-care patients who were on ventilators that lost power when the tornado struck, Cox said. The sixth was a visitor, but the circumstances of that death were unclear.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

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Supreme Court: New Jersey must give poor schools $500 million

By EDITH HONAN and JOAN GRALLA New Jersey must provide about $500 million for its poorer school districts next year, the state Supreme Court said yesterday, complicating the state’s ongoing budget negotiations.

The 3-2 court ruling, concerning what are known as the Abbott districts, is the latest development in a decades-long battle over state education funding for poor and other disadvantaged students.

Governor Chris Christie criticized the ruling, saying it was not the court’s place to dictate “how taxpayer dollars are spent,” but said the state would obey it.

“Those responsible for making decisions regarding how money is raised through taxes and how it is spent by government are those elected by the people and ultimately held accountable by the people,” said Christie, according to a transcript provided by his office.

“We should be getting better results with the taxpayer money we already

spend, and we aren’t, which means changing the educational system goes beyond dollars and cents,” he said.

Depending upon how the funding gap was calculated, the shortfall could have been as high as $1.7 billion, but the court strictly limited its decision to the Abbott schools.

Last year, Christie, a Republican, ordered about $1 billion in cuts in education spending, which the Democratcontrolled state legislature enacted under protest.

The state is due to approve a budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, by the end of June.

Libya, for example — where Obama is seen as less eager than Europeans to lead the battle — he and Cameron stressed the unique status of U.S.British relations in an opinion article in the Times of London.

“Not just special, but an essential relationship,” they wrote. “It’s not only history that binds us. Whether fighting wars or rebuilding the economy, our needs and beliefs are the same.”

Obama and Cameron are to announce the formation of a U.S.British national security council to work together on international challenges and share intelligence, an Obama administration official said.

Obama spent Tuesday getting accustomed to Buckingham Palace for only the second ever state visit by an American president to Britain.

George W. Bush made the first in 2003.

The Obamas were treated to a formal luncheon then afterward joined the queen and Prince Philip for a tour of the palace portrait gallery, reviewing pieces from the collection laid out for them.

Obama lingered over a page from the personal journal of George III, dated sometime around 1783, when the American colonies were fighting the British.

“America is lost! the king wrote, going on to muse about the possibilities of trade with the Americans and the importance of “a future friendship and connection.”

In an exchange of gifts, the Obamas gave the queen rare memorabilia of a visit by her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the United States in 1939. The royal family gave Obama letters between Queen Victoria and U.S. Presidents.

The Obamas are staying in the Belgian suite, a half-dozen rooms last used by Prince William and Catherine Middleton on their recent wedding night. The Obamas met privately with the royal newlyweds,

who did not attend the arrival ceremony.

The new U.S.-British security council will help enable “a more guided, coordinated approach to analyze the ‘over the horizon’ challenges we may face in the future,” the Obama administration official said.

In the past decade, London was Washington’s only big ally at war in Iraq. The two countries field the largest contingents in Afghanistan, and more recently, along with France, have led a Western air war in Libya.

A speech at Westminster Hall on Wednesday may give Obama an opportunity to outline how Washington now views Europe in a crowded diplomatic agenda dominated by challenges from Asia to the Middle East.

A challenge for the two leaders is Libya. Obama, Cameron and NATO allies launched an air campaign in March to protect Libyan civilians from leader Muammar Gaddafi after an uprising. Obama, Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy say they will not stop bombing until Gaddafi leaves power.

Obama and Cameron are also expected to review the fight against Islamist militants and relations with Pakistan after the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces on May 2 on Pakistani soil.

Obama’s visit to Britain follows a cheerful stop in Ireland, where he sipped a pint of Guinness in the village of Moneygall to celebrate ancestral roots there and used a speech in Dublin to lift Irish spirits bruised by a severe economic downturn.

As a precautionary measure, Obama flew to London on Monday night instead of Tuesday morning because of fears that a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland could drift over Ireland and prevent his Air Force One jet from flying.

In its ruling, the court said the legislature’s power of the purse does not bar the judicial branch from acting when the failure to fund is “a real, substantial, and consequential blow” to the constitutionally required education.

Though New Jersey has not fully recovered from the recession, an independent fiscal monitor last week predicted the state would collect an extra $914 million in tax revenue.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, said yesterday the money should be spent on education, calling last year’s cuts “draconian.”

The Newark-based Education Law Center, which brought the latest legal action last June, said Christie’s cuts have forced New Jersey school districts to lay off teachers and support staff and reduce or end vital programs and services.

In the last year, the state’s wealthiest districts saw an average decrease of $211 per student, while the poorest districts lost $572 per student, the group said.

York attorney Obamas meet UK royals to seal ‘special’ relations New general expands

By JEFF MASON and STEVE HOLLAND

LONDON — President Barack Obama was treated to royal pomp at Buckingham Palace yesterday on a two-day state visit aimed at ensuring the United States and Britain keep the “special” in their relationship.

Obama, on a four-nation European tour, heard a 41-gun salute at an elaborate arrival ceremony and was given a tour of the palace portrait gallery by Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip. A state dinner was to conclude the day.

After laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, he spent part of the afternoon playing ping pong with British Prime Minister David Cameron and students.

“Who wants to take me on?”

Obama said as he walked into the Globe Academy, a school with a high proportion of low-income students.

He and Cameron played with each other against two students. At first the two left-handed leaders had some trouble getting their strategy coordinated.

“Are we keeping score?” Obama asked at one point. It seemed the students got the better of the two leaders.

Obama is on the second stop of a four-nation European tour, arriving from Ireland late on Monday and planning to attend a Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France on Thursday and end the week in Poland.

Ceremonial cannon sounded 41 blasts as Obama and his wife, Michelle, joined the queen, Philip, heir to the throne Prince Charles and Charles’s wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on the Buckingham Palace west terrace for a formal arrival ceremony.

While the two governments have some differences over such issues as

graft-hunting powers New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Monday he had amplified his ability to root out public corruption by joining with the state comptroller, who has separate and broad auditing powers.

Schneiderman said his accord with Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a fellow Democrat, will enable him to probe and bring charges over “any wrongdoing involving government spending, including member items, contracts and pension fraud.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo has made ethics reform, including forcing legislators to reveal details about their outside income, a primary focus in the wake of a series of public corruption scandals.

Various investigators are examining several state lawmakers’ roles and benefits they may have received from projects funded by the state budget.

New York state’s comptrollers are powerful figures in their own right.

They are, for example, the sole trustees of the $132 billion state pension fund.

The pension fund in recent years was the center of a corruption probe led by Cuomo when he was attorney general. Cuomo said the previous comptroller, Alan Hevesi, turned the fund into a piggybank for consultants.

Cuomo’s probe netted eight guilty pleas, including one from Hevesi, who accepted luxury trips from a fund manager.

The comptroller’s audit powers cover some contracts signed by the governor’s office and state authorities, which also have issued billions of dollars of debt. Although state comptrollers can issue subpoenas, they must rely on prosecutors to pursue any misdeeds they uncover.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

JOURNAL OF THE PEOPLE’S PASTOR ‘WRITING THE HISTORY I’VE LIVED, LIVING THE HISTORY I WRITE!’

The passing of the giants of the human spirit: James Bullock

THOMAS H. WATKINS

Introducing new voices in small business development

By REV. DR. HERBERT DAUGHTRY

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Part One I had heard the news on Thursday, May 12, 2011. My daughter, Sharon Daughtry, and I were trying to decide if we should revive the National Religious Leaders of African Ancestry Concerned About Darfur (NRLAA). We reviewed what the organization had accomplished. With the scheduled celebration of South Sudan’s independence in July 2011 and the many other issues of the African people in the diaspora, we thought it was important that we resurrect the organization. We decided that it was imperative for us to start immediately. I commenced listing the founders and the most consistent members of NRLAA. The first to come to mind was Reverend James Bullock.

I said to Sharon, “I will call Reverend Bullock today.” She looked at me rather puzzled.

Then, she haltingly said, “Reverend Bullock is dead.” Not wanting to put a finality on her statement, and reading the

painful incredulity on my face, she added, “I think.” Knowing that my next questions would be “When” and “Why wasn’t I informed?”, she said, “I think he died right after your operation.”

Observing the deepening pain on my face, she added, “I think you should talk to Mommy. I think she attended the funeral.”

I knew that there was no need to talk to anyone. Reverend Bullock was dead. “He was one of my dearest and most faithful friends,” I mumbled. “He had stood by me when most of my colleagues were against me.”

I was thinking back to the year 1991 when I chaired the Association of Brooklyn Clergy for Community Development (A.B.C.C.D.). I succeeded with the help of Reverend Bullock and others in expanding the organization from a storefront referral center, a part-time staff, and a budget of $25,000 to a suite of offices, multiple staff members and volunteers, and a budget of more than $1 million.

In addition to doing referral work, we developed over 500 units of new and renovated housing, and an extensive AIDS/HIV program. We did all of this in one year.

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Private and governmental sponsors, resource personnel, and consultants of every description were eager to help.

They saw our potential to have a major impact on the life of Brooklyn and beyond. This was based on who we were and what we have had accomplished.

Then, the devil went to work.

There were envy, resentment, and distrust among the members of A.B.C.C.D., which lead to false accusations and vindictiveness. The Executive Director proved to be incompetent. By the time I discovered his incompetence, we owed the federal government hundreds of thousands of dollars. The fiscal record was in shambles, and he had failed to deliver on goods and services.

Our sponsors and consultants insisted that he had to be terminated. This was a hard thing to do. He was a young brother just out of Harvard University. I hired and brought him to Brooklyn. I approached him with a plan in which he would become the program developer for a couple of years, and we would hire a competent, experi-

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Ending poverty by creating Black wealth in 2011

By DR. BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR. The first place to end poverty is in your own mindset. If you believe that you are supposed to live in an unending state of poverty and hopelessness, then that is exactly where you will continue to find yourself. It is, therefore, refreshing to witness President Barack Obama and the U.S. Department of Commerce place a major national priority on increasing the development and economic sustainability of Black Americanowned businesses. In particular, there has been a steady increase in younger African American entrepreneurs taking the lead in new business development across America.

A self-destructive component of a “slave mentality” is to believe that wealth acquisition and economic power is ordained and limited only for the sons and daughters of former slave masters who are entitled to wealth based on their historical inheritance of privilege and power over the flow of money. Too many people in our communities do not believe that they can achieve financial success and wealth. That is a sad and inaccurate understanding of the opportunities at hand today.

2011- 2012 ought to be the year of focus on building and expanding

Black-owned businesses and constructing a more secure economic foundation and sustainability for the expansion of wealth-building in the African American community.

Recently the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and U.S. Census Bureau released new data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners showing “that the number of African American-owned firms in the United States increased by 60.5 percent between 2002 and 2007 to 1.9 million firms.

African Americanowned businesses also drove job creation over the five-year period, with employment growing 22 percent, exceeding that of non-minorityowned businesses.” Keep in mind that this Black American business growth was also during the severe economic crisis in the United States.

Today Black-owned businesses are helping to provide more new jobs and income into Black America than ever before.

Too often we get so distracted dealing with all the bad news that happens each day in the world in which we now live that we lose sight of how to improve our overall quality of life through education, hard work, diligence, economic development, and a refocused mindset that maintains the highest of social and financial aspirations.

The MBA

Giants of the human spirit Continued from page 4 enced Executive Director. After two years, he could become an Executive Director.

I thought it was an excellent plan, showing compassion for him and still meeting the demands of the organization. I was surprised, however, when the Executive Director resisted and aligned himself with my enemies on the Board of Directors. Thus, it made life more difficult for me. In addition, I had to find a way to pay the government, restore trust with our sponsors and supporters, and fulfill our responsibilities.

It was one of the most challenging times in my life. My credibility and competence as a leader were on the line. Other board members and I would be held accountable by the government for indebtedness. Thus, our financial situation were threatened. I felt responsible for all of it. I had personally persuaded several members to join the organization. On top of all of the above, I was devastated by the petty meanness, schemes, and betrayals of the men and women who called themselves, “Ministers of Jesus Christ.” It was hard to believe that these men and women I had admired and trusted could stoop to such Machiavellian behavior.

The tension became so intense that I decided to resign for the good of the

organization. However, I did not leave before the organization had succeeded in paying off the government, bringing solvency to the organization, and rectifying the errors which had been committed. In a word, with the help of my family and friends, we put the organization back on sound footing. Through these stormy times, there were two ministers who stayed with me. They were Reverend Richard J. Lawson, the pastor of New Canaan Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York and Reverend James Bullock. I could always count on Reverend Bullock. Even when I did not seek his help, he took the initiative to be my side. … to be continued.

HEALTH FAIR: Recognizing the startling health risks facing people of color, The House of the Lord Church’s Ministry of Health & Wellness in conjunction with the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA) and the Brooklyn Hospital Center is sponsoring its Sixth Annual Community Health Fair on Saturday, June 11, 2011, from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm. This event will take place at the historic House of the Lord Church where the Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry is the pastor, and is located at 415 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. 11217.

National Director, David A. Hinson stated, “We are encouraged by the overall growth of the minority business community, including African American-owned businesses, but we still have a lot of work to do. Creating new businesses and new jobs on a path to entrepreneurial parity in size, scope and capacity is our primary goal.”

According to the MBDA, “While minority-owned firms are experiencing substantial growth, African American-owned businesses still only represent 7 percent of all classifiable firms but 12 percent of the adult population. MBDA works to promote the growth and global competitiveness of minority businesses, so they are better equipped to create jobs, boost their local economies, and compete in the global marketplace.” Here is where we definitely agree with Hinson and the MBDA. Connecting Black-owned businesses in the United States to the global marketplace is critical and essential going forward. Million-dollar businesses in our communities have an opportunity to become billion-dollar businesses with the right networking by building global business relationships and joint ventures. In other words, we have to expand our vision and mission. Ending the poverty in the African American community will not happen overnight. Building more wealth in Our Free workshops include: Creating your look Nutrition & Exercise Basics for busy people Men’s Health Concerns Space is limited for the workshops, please RSVP to holchealth@yahoo.com There will also be Doctors on Call for consultations on heart health, diabetes, and other concerns. ** Join Reverend Daughtry in Jersey City for the weekly Thursday Evening Educational, Cultural, and Empowerment Forum from 6pm8pm for an evening of information, inspiration, and challenge at 315 Forrest Street (Ground Floor), corner of MLK, Jr. Drive. For more info, con-

our communities will also not be done overnight. There are not going to be quick easy fixes to our financial status. But, there are real solutions to our problems.

We just need to focus more on establishing stronger economic and revenue-generating strategies and businesses during this period of time. Yet, we can do more and should do more today to increase the economic income and investment into our communities and Neither poverty nor families. wealth is a permanent condition for the Black community. The point here is that as we build more successful businesses that serve the economic interests of Black people, we will be stronger to remove poverty from both out mindset and our socioeconomic condition. For those who are doing better today financially and for those who will do better in the future, please do not forget about reaching back to provide more economic development opportunities for more of our sisters and brothers who really want a better quality of life. The more we acquire or have, the more we should give back and lend a helping hand.

— Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is Senior Advisor to the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) and President of Education Online Services Corporation. tact The National Community Action Alliance at (201) 716-1585. ** Listen to Reverend Daughtry on the weekly radio program which airs Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. on New York City’s WWRL-AM, dial 1600. ** NEED QUALITY CHILD CARE? Call the Alonzo A. Daughtry Memorial Daycare Center located at: 460 Atlantic Avenue (corner of Atlantic and Nevins) 718-596-1993 333 Second Street (between 4th & 5th Avenues) in Park Slope 718-4992066 Immediate openings are available in a state-of-the-art center.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Searchers and dogs scour Missouri tornado wreckage

By KEVIN MURPHY JOPLIN, Missouri — Search teams accompanied by cadaver dogs yesterday picked their way through the rubble of thousands of homes and businesses laid to waste by a massive tornado that killed at least 116 people in Joplin, Missouri.

Authorities stepped up search efforts, racing against forecasts for more bad weather in hopes of finding survivors even as they brace for more death. The rescue effort was hampered by heavy rains that followed Sunday’s twister.

Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles put the death toll at 116 people, but state emergency management office said it was 117.

Some 1,500 people were reported missing, according to Keith Stammer of Jasper County Emergency Management. That tally could include many who simply have not yet been able to let relatives know they are fine, authorities said.

Among those missing was an 18-month-old boy who was

A bent basketball goal stands in a park next to a bare tree after a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Missouri. separated from his parents when the twister hit. Hope was fading as the hours passed, said Chris Moreno, who was overseeing triage efforts outside St. John’s Hospital, which was evacuated after suffering significant damage.

The boy was in a nearby home and Moreno said searchers feared his body was likely buried in a debris pile.

“We don’t want a bulldozer to find the boy four months from now,” Moreno said.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he would visit the southwestern Missouri city

on Sunday, a day after he returns from a weeklong, four-nation tour in Europe.

“All we can do is let them know that all of America cares deeply about them and that we are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure that they recover,” Obama said in a statement.

“Like all Americans, we have been monitoring what’s been taking place very closely and have been ... heartbroken by the images we’ve seen,” Obama told reporters in London.

The tornado that raked

Judgment Day forecaster points to new doomsday date

By STEVE GORMAN LOS ANGELES — The evangelical Christian broadcaster whose much-ballyhooed Judgment Day prophecy went conspicuously unfulfilled on Saturday has a simple explanation for what went wrong — he miscalculated.

Instead of the world physically coming to an end on May 21 with a great, cataclysmic earthquake, as he had predicted, Harold Camping, 89, said he now believes his forecast is playing out “spiritually,” with the actual apocalypse set to occur five months later, on October 21.

Camping, who launched a doomsday countdown in which some followers spent their life’s savings in anticipation of being swept into heaven, issued his correction during an appearance on his “Open Forum” radio show from Oakland, California.

The headquarters of Camping’s Family Radio net-

work of 66 U.S. stations had been shuttered over the weekend with a sign on the door that read, “This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!”

During a sometimes rambling, 90-minute discourse that included a question-andanswer session with reporters, Camping said he felt bad that Saturday had come and gone without the Rapture he had felt so certain would take place.

Reflecting on scripture afterward, Camping said it “dawned” on him that a “merciful and compassionate God” would spare humanity from “hell on Earth for five months” by compressing the physical apocalypse into a shorter time frame.

But he insisted that October 21 has always been the end-point of his own End Times chronology, or at least, his latest chronology.

The tall, gaunt former civil engineer with a deep voice and prominent ears has been wrong before. More than two decades ago, he

publicly acknowledged a failed 1994 prophecy of Christ’s return to Earth.

To publicize his latest pronouncement, the Family Radio network posted over 2,000 billboards around the country declaring that Judgment Day was at hand, and believers carried the message on placards in shopping malls and street corners.

Asked what advice he would give to followers who gave up much or all of their worldly possessions in the belief that his Judgment Day forecast would come true, Camping drew a comparison to the nation’s recent economic slump.

“We just had a great recession. There’s lots of people who lost their jobs, lots of people who lost their houses ... and somehow they all survived,” he said.

“People cope, he added.

“We’re not in the business of giving any financial advice.

We’re in the business of telling people maybe there is someone you can talk to, and that’s God.”

Joplin on Sunday was the deadliest single twister in the United States since 1947.

Roaring along a path nearly six miles long and up to 3/4 mile wide, the tornado flattened whole neighborhoods, splintered trees and flipped over cars and trucks. Some 2,000 homes and many other businesses, schools and other buildings were destroyed.

“Pretty much everybody in town knows somebody they’ve lost,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told CBS News.

He said two law enforcement officials were struck by lightning, one hurt very seriously, during violent thunderstorms on Monday.

There have been hopes fulfilled. Nixon said 17 people were found alive on Monday, although local officials confirmed only seven.

The Joplin tornado was the latest in a string of powerful twisters and storms this spring that have killed more than 300 people and caused more than $2 billion in property damage across Southern U.S. states.

Survivors in Joplin told harrowing stories of seeking shelter from winds of nearly 200 miles per hour in walk-in coolers in restaurants and convenience stores, hiding in bathtubs and closets, and of running for their lives as the tornado neared.

“We were getting hit by rocks, and I don’t even know what hit me,” said Leslie Swatosh, 22, who huddled on the floor of a liquor store with

several others clutching one another as they prayed.

When the tornado passed, the store was destroyed but those inside were all alive.

“Everyone in that store was blessed. There was nothing of that store left,” she said.

A number of bodies were found along the city’s “restaurant row,” on the main commercial street, and a local nursing home took a direct hit, said Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges.

At St. John’s Hospital, 180 patients cowered as the fierce winds blew out windows and pulled off the roof. According to AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert, X-ray films from the hospital were found 70 miles away.

Six of the confirmed fatalities occurred at the hospital, said spokeswoman Joanne Cox. Five were intensive-care patients who were on ventilators that lost power when the tornado struck, Cox said. The sixth was a visitor, but the circumstances of that death were unclear.

The city’s residents were given about 20 minutes’ notice when 25 warning sirens sounded Sunday evening, said Stammer, the county emergency management official.

An estimated 20,000 homes and businesses were without power in Joplin.

The death toll was the highest since a 1947 tornado in Woodland, Oklahoma, which killed 181 people.

Heroin found in purses and baby wipes at Anchorage airport

By YERETH ROSEN ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Inspectors examining packages at Anchorage’s international airport discovered large quantities of heroin cached in shipments of purses, baby wipes and picture frames, an official said Monday.

A total of 6 pounds of heroin with an estimated street value of $1.2 million was found over the past month in packages shipped to a FedEx facility at the airport, said Jerry McGee, Customs and Border Protection

chief in Anchorage.

The three shipments appear unrelated but were notable for their large size, McGee said.

“We get narcotics seizures on a regular basis. However, this was substantial, a fairly large quantity,” he said.

The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is one of the world’s busiest air-cargo handlers, serving as a hub between North America, Asia and Europe.

The heroin discovered over the past month was destined for the United States, he said. Investigations into the shipments are ongoing, he said.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

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AFRICAN SCENE

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

AFRICAN SCENE

Mubarak to be tried for murder of protesters

By YASMINE SALEH & DINA ZAYED

Nigerianfpolice: radical sect kills officer MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Police say gunmen have shot a policeman dead, the latest in a rash of killings targeting security officers in Nigeria’s northeast.

The Borno State police chief said yesterday the policeman on patrol was killed in a drive-by shooting Monday evening near St. Mary Catholic Church in the city of Maiduguri.

Mohammed Abubakar accuses a radical Muslim sect locally known as Boko Haram for the killing.

Boko Haram members have targeted police and clerics in a string of killings over the last year.

They have also attacked churches and engineered a massive prison break.

Boko Haram, whose name in Hausa means “Western education is sacrilege,” has campaigned for the implementation of strict Shariah law.

“Horrific” reports of looting and burning in Abyei: U.S. JUBA, Sudan - The United States said the United Nations had received “horrific” reports of looting and burning in Sudan’s disputed Abyei region after Khartoum seized the area, its ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday.

“There have been horrific reports of looting and burning, there are large numbers of displaced moving south in what is by definition dangerous circumstances,” Susan Rice, who co-heads a delegation of the U.N. Security Council, told reporters in Juba, the capital of south Sudan.

North Sudanese armed forces seized Abyei at the weekend and moved tanks into the main town, forcing tens of thousands to flee, according to the United Nations.

Briton, Nigerian die in plane crash in Nigeria KADUNA, Nigeria - Authorities say a Briton and a Nigerian have died in a plane crash in north-central Nigeria.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says both passengers, a pilot and a senior engineer, were killed. It did not give their names.

The private plane crashed around noon yesterday in Barkalahu village, close to the Kaduna Trade Fair Center. It was making a test run after maintenance.

Muhammadu Musa told the state-run broadcast station that he was farming nearby when he saw the plane drop suddenly after wobbling for a while.

Musa said farmers rushed to the crash site and tried to break the windows, “but they were too hard.”

The plane had just taken off from the old Kaduna Airport in Kawo.

No shale gas threat to S.African mega-telescope CAPE TOWN - South Africa will not allow shale gas drilling in the vast central Karoo to threaten its bid to host the world’s largest radio telescope, the science ministry said yesterday.

CAIRO - Hosni Mubarak was ordered yesterday to stand trial for the killing of protesters and could face the death penalty, scotching speculation the former leader would be spared public humiliation

by Egypt’s military rulers.

Mubarak, ousted on February 11 after mass demonstrations demanding he end his 30 years in power, has been questioned for his role in a crackdown that led to the killing of more than 800 demonstrators and has been probed over corruption.

The public prosecutor said Mubarak, who is detained in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, would be tried on charges including “pre-meditated killing,” which could be punished by the death penalty.

What happens in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, will reverberate across a region which has been rocked by similar protests and unrest.

Trying Mubarak on such charges may deter other leaders from quitting, analysts say.

Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal, who many had believed was being groomed for office, were also referred to the criminal court on the same charges, the prosecutor said in a statement.

The decision was announced days before another planned demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir

Square, the heart of the uprising. Activists had called for a big turnout Friday to demand faster reforms and a public trial for Mubarak and others.

“Every time the youth threaten to go to Tahrir Square again with a huge number of protesters, I think they make some concessions,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political scientist and long-time Mubarak ally, who said the protesters would still rally.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the most organized political group, said the decision was expected.

“We were only wondering why it took so long before that to happen,” said the Brotherhood’s Abdel Moneim Abdel-Maksoud.

On Facebook, Mahmoud Dahab wrote: “Mubarak has been referred to trial because Friday is approaching. We understand this game already.”

With Mubarak still in hospital rather than prison, many Egyptians had speculated that the military rulers now in charge were protecting one of their own. Mubarak was a decorated air force commander before becoming president.

DEATH PENALTY The army has denied such talk and insist the case of the president and his family was in the hands of the judiciary.

The crimes listed by the prosecutor included “intentional murder, attempted killing of some demonstrators ... misuse of influence and deliberately wasting public funds and unlawfully making private financial gains and profits,” the statement said.

It said Mubarak was accused of “participating with Habib alAdli, the former interior minister and some police authorities, ... in committing pre-meditated murder of some of the participants of peaceful protests across the country.”

Judge Ahmed Mekky, the deputy head of Egypt’s appeal court, told Reuters the prosecution could request the death penalty.

“If those crimes were proven on the former president he could face the penalty the law has for such crimes, which includes the death penalty,” he said.

Mubarak fell ill and went to the hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh when he was first questioned in April. A medical source said yesterday that his condition was stable but he could not be moved to a Cairo prison hospital as it was not equipped to treat him.

Egypt’s revolt followed one in Tunisia, where another longtime president quit but, unlike Mubarak, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

Protesters have hit the streets of Libya, Syria and Yemen but their leaders have held on.

“A lot of the regimes — Syria, Libya, and even Yemen — are looking carefully at the example of Tunisia and Egypt to see what has happened,” said analyst Sara Hassan.

“They wouldn’t like to see themselves face a similar fate to that of the Mubarak family,” she added. “I think they will be more intent on hanging on, despite the costs.”

Somali parliament leader: Presidential vote soon By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED NAIROBI, Kenya The speaker of Somalia’s parliament said yesterday that a vote to elect a president will be held soon despite objections by the incumbent, an indication that a disagreement between the top two leaders is far from resolved.

Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden said that President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has to abide by the law, which calls for elections when

the government’s term expires in August.

“If we don’t elect a president and speaker, there will be no law that in the future can prevent anyone from claiming the president’s and speaker’s positions.

That is why elections are needed to be held,” Aden told The Associated Press in an interview in Nairobi.

Aden and Ahmed failed this month to agree on how to deal with the upcoming transitions, even after holding four one-onone meetings in the Somali capital,

Mogadishu.

The Somali government spokesman did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment. The president’s office said it had no immediate comment.

Hareed Hassan Ali, a spokesman for a parliamentary committee assigned to prepare the elections, said the vote will be held in July or August.

Ahmed’s government has asked for a oneyear extension to give it time to try to break the hold that the country’s most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab,

has on Somalia’s south and central regions.

Pro-government forces have made gains against the insurgents in the capital in recent months, and are now closing in on the city’s largest market, Bakara, one of the militants’ top financial sources.

Government-allied troops have also chased militants from several southern towns along the border with Kenya and Ethiopia.

But Aden said it was wrong to say that a presidential vote would affect the military momentum.

D CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011 DAILY

AFRICAN SCENE

9

Sudan: 197 troops killed, missing in Abyei attack

By MAGGIE FICK & JASON STRAZIUSO JUBA, Sudan Seventy northern Sudanese troops were killed and more than 120 are missing from an attack last week by southern Sudanese forces near the disputed region of Abyei, a Sudanese diplomat said yesterday, describing a toll that if verified marks one of the bloodiest clashes since the end of Sudan’s civil war.

The south voted to secede from Sudan, Africa’s largest country, this year but the future of the 4,000square-mile (10,500square-kilometer) Abyei region, which lies near the northsouth border, was left in doubt. The fighting that began last Thursday threatens to unravel a 2005 peace deal and re-ignite a civil war that left more than 2 million people dead.

According to the U.N., southern troops started the clash Thursday by attacking a column of northern troops and U.N. troops peacekeepers who moving away from Abyei.

The U.N. condemned the attack. A U.N. spokeswoman, Hua

Sudan (UNMIS), homes are seen burning in the town of Abyei, Sudan.

Jiang, said yesterday patience and self acts.” In photos providthat no U.N. troops restraint of SAF, so it ed by the U.N., some were killed. responded in self huts appeared to be Kamal Ismail Saeed, defense,” Saeed said. ablaze and smoke bilSudan’s ambassador to Northern troops lowed from others as Kenya, told a news con- have moved south rifle-toting looters ference in Nairobi that through Abyei, sending roamed the streets.

197 northern troops thousands of civilians Some pulled carts carwere killed or missing fleeing. Buildings in rying mats, pots and after the southern the region’s main town, pans, sacks of grain attack. A more detailed also called Abyei, have and even bed frames. statement from his been torched. The U.N. Col. Philip Aguer, a embassy said 70 troops estimated yesterday spokesman for the were killed and more that 25,000 to 30,000 southern military, said than 120 others miss- have fled. yesterday that northing.

The U.N. mission in ern troops remain Saeed said the attack Sudan said gunmen north of a river seen as caused the Sudanese were burning and loot- the dividing line Armed Forces, or SAF, ing in Abyei town on between north and to respond.

Monday and called on south, but he warned “I think that was a the Sudanese Armed that if they cross over serious blow which Forces to intervene to that would constitute a ended the continuous “stop these criminal violation that the south

“cannot tolerate.”

Both north and south claim Abyei, a fertile region that’s almost the size of Connecticut and is located near several large oil fields. The south voted in January to secede from the north in a referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

A referendum on Abyei’s future was supposed to have been held simultaneously, but the two sides could never agree on who was eligble to vote, and Abyei’s referendum wasn’t held.

The ethnic African tribe of the Ngok Dinka, which is mostly southern-based, and the Arab tribe of Misseriah both lay claim to the area.

“What has transpired is a grave risk to peace and stability,” said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. She called the seizure of Abyei a “serious violation” of the peace agreement.

Saeed said that Khartoum remains committed to avoiding a new war. But Eddie Thomas, an analyst with the Rift Valley Institute who studies Sudan, said that some

people in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum are saying that “the war has started already.”

Thomas called the latest violence a “very serious departure” from the often volatile but functioning relationship between Sudan’s north and south.

Over 1,400 people have been killed in South Sudan so far this year already - more than in the whole of 2010 - and at least 117,000 have fled their homes as violence has dramatically increased in recent months, the British charity Oxfam said.

Thousands of residents have fled south from Abyei out of fear of violence, and aid groups have relocated south of Abyei.

Residents in the southern army-held town of Agok, which lies on the southern edge of the Abyei region, are fearful of attacks. U.N. officials and aid group staff in Agok told The Associated Press by phone that intermittent artillery fire has been heard in the distance since Sunday.

The south is scheduled to become an independent nation on July 9.

Rights group: journalists Zimbabwe needs $9bn for targeted in Ivory Coast economic plan: minister

By MARCO CHOWN OVED ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - A media advocacy group said yesterday that forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s new president harass and abuse journalists and may be responsible for the death of a reporter.

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Alassane Ouattara’s new government to investigate

the death of reporter Lago Sylvain Gagneto, whose family says he was targeted because he was from the same ethnic group as former president Laurent Gbagbo. Local journalists say Gagneto’s bullet-ridden body was found over the weekend.

Local journalists also say Ouattara’s forces also ransacked and burned down the community radio station where Gagneto worked.

“The abuse of journalists has been con-

tinuing unabated,” said Mohammed Keita, CPJ’s Africa Advocacy Coordinator.

He added: “President Ouattara pledged to hold to account all those under his authority responsible for abuses.

He must act immediately to rein in his forces and uphold the rule of law.”

A police official contacted by the CPJ refused comment. He said he was unaware of the incident and needed time to make inquiries.

HARARE Zimbabwe needs $9 billion (6.4 billion euros) to fund a structural overhaul that policymakers hope will see the economy grow seven percent annually over the next five years, a minister said yesterday.

“Today cabinet set and deliberated on the Medium-Term Plan, which will cover a span of five years, 20112015,” Economic Planning Minister Tapiwa Mashakada told journalists in the capital, Harare.

“Cabinet has launched the plan and the main vision ... is enhancing a democratic developmental state, anchored by a growing and transforming socially just economy.”

Mashakada said the $9 billion needed to fund the plan would be raised through new investments, equity injections into existing businesses and domestic savings in areas such as pension funds.

Zimbabwe’s economy has shown signs of recovery since President Robert

Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government in 2009, ending a decade of instability and reversing recordsetting hyperinflation.

But Mashakada said economic rebuilding is complicated by the fact that just 10 percent of the work force participates in the formal economy.

He said the blueprint prioritises employment creation, infrastructure development, economic stability and good governance.

1 10

CARIBBEAN NEWS DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Jamaica urged to bring to justice those guilty of gang operation killings L O N D O N , England — The Jamaican authorities must bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations, including the killing of 74 people in Kingston during a state of emergency imposed one year ago in an operation to arrest a suspected gang leader, Amnesty International said on Monday in a new report.

Despite some positive steps, the authorities have failed to prosecute anyone for the killings during the operation to arrest Christopher Coke, who was eventually deported to the USA to face drug and arms-trafficking charges.

independent “An commission of inquiry must be established in order to ensure that all human rights violations committed in Tivoli last year do not go unpunished like so many others in Jamaica,” said Chiara Amnesty Liguori, International’s expert on Jamaica.

On 24 May 2010, Jamaican police and military initiated a joint operation in the West Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens, to arrest Christopher Coke and re-establish order in the community.

During the two days operation at least 74 people, including a member of the Jamaica Defence Force, were killed and at least 54 people, including 28 members of the security forces, injured.

In the two-month state of emergency that

followed, more than 4,000 people, including children, were detained, most without charge.

Two people reportedly taken into custody remain unaccounted for.

The investigations initiated by the authorities around the killings have not established facts and responsibilities yet. According to information gathered by Amnesty International’s legal experts, investigations have suffered shortcomings in the initial phase which might have compromised the results.

Shortcomings in the initial phase of the investigation include the lack of protection of crime scenes and the failure to remove from service the firearms used during the confrontations for ballistic testing.

SVG consul receives award at Northern Ireland parliament BELFAST, Northern Ireland — In commemoration of the United Nation’s International Year for People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development and Africa Week 2011, the African-Caribbean Community Support Organisation for Northern Ireland (ACSONI) launched its African and Caribbean Awards at Stormont, the Northern Ireland

parliament.

These awards are an annual commemoration designed to recognise outstanding achievements and contribution to the community. It covers five main areas: Education, Music and Arts, Entrepreneurial & Business, Community and Voluntary Work and Woman of the Year, that honour individuals, groups, businesses and companies of African or Caribbean links in

Northern Ireland.

Dr. Christopher Stange, Hon. Consul for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Northern Ireland, received an award for his Community and Voluntary Work to the African and Caribbean Diaspora in Northern Ireland from Anna Lo, Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), in front of a packed audience in the Great Hall.

addition, the In organization documented a general lack of resources for the investigations, particularly in the Legal Medicine Unit of the Ministry of National Security, where only two forensic pathologists work.

“The lack of effective investigations for human rights crimes is nothing new in Jamaica,” said Chiara Liguori. “The reality is that for far too long, inner-city communities have been trapped between drug gangs and a state that ignores them.”

A m n e s t y International has issued over 50 recommendations to the Jamaican authorities and is supporting local calls for a full commission of inquiry into the human rights violations committed during the state of emergency.

St. Lucia shootout fuels debate over extrajudicial killings

By PETER RICHARDS CASTRIES, St. Lucia - By their own account, the police said they had been monitoring five men who attempted to rob a restaurant in the south of the island, and in the ensuing gun battle, four were shot and killed, while the fifth died a few days later in hospital.

Autopsies are to be performed on the five men yesterday. But the May 5 killings have rekindled a simmering

debate as to whether the police here are engaging in extrajudicial assassinations, following rumours that some alleged criminals killed since the start of the year were on a death list drawn up by St. Lucia law enforcement officials.

In March, local television showed a former murder suspect displaying a list that he claimed contained his name and photograph as well as 45 others, some of whom have already been killed in

alleged gun battles with the police.

“Perhaps what we are doing is exchanging the untrained criminals with guns, who fight mainly among themselves in gang warfare, and replacing them with trained police criminals who wear facial masks sometimes, when they go on their illegal activities and as a rule take no prisoners,” said Denis DaBreo, editor-inchief of the One Caribbean media grouping here.

Repor t r eveals potent ial oil r ev enue for Bahamas should Bahamians expect to reap if the sands beneath The N A S S A U , Bahamas hold the Bahamas — What immense oil treasfinancial benefit ures some are pro-

By STEWART MILLER

jecting?

Under the current leasing arrangements, royalties of up to 25 percent of well-head revenue could translate into hundreds of billions

over time. But as far as the government’s take goes, the terms of those licenses are quite favourable — for the licensees.

The projection for a

small government take relative to other oil-producing countries is playing into the Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) efforts to attract investors to its

Bahamian petroleum exploration project, and was featured in its April 2011 investor presentation, “The Bahamas, a giant oil province in the making”.

D CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011 DAILY

INTERNATIONAL

11

Nine dead as heavy clashes erupt in Yemen capital By MOHAMMED GHOBARI & MOHAMED SUDAM SANAA - Yemeni loyalist forces fought street battles with guards from a powerful tribal federation whose leader has sided with protesters demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule, witnesses said yesterday.

The opposition warned that such attacks by loyalists, which residents said targeted the mansion of tribal leader Sadiq alAhmar, could spark a civil war.

At least nine people were killed in the clashes, which dimmed prospects for a political solution to end a transition of power tussle nearly four-month-old revolt inspired by protests that swept aside the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.

“The clashes were violent. The sound of machinegun and mortar fire could be heard everywhere. I saw smoke rising from the entrance of the interior ministry,” one witness said.

Nine people were

killed and 30 wounded “because of the aggression launched by the and their Ahmars gangs,” an official told the Defense Ministry website, without giving details.

The clashes followed the collapse on Sunday of a transition deal mediated by Gulf neighbors that Saleh was to have signed that would have given him immunity from prosecution.

The shooting, in the streets sandbagged near a fortified mansion belonging to the wealthy and politically powerful Ahmar clan, pitted loyalist forces against guards of Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of a tribal group from which Saleh also hails.

“The attack on (Ahmar’s) house ... is a symptom of the hysteria experienced by President Saleh and his entourage and their insistence on engulfing the country in a civil war,” the opposition coalition said in a statement.

Several mediators, including a security police head, were injured in the attack on the Ahmar house, where they had gathered to try to end the fighting, an opposition leader said.

Ahmar’s house and the adjacent residence of another Ahmar trib-

Women shout slogans during an anti-government rally against Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa.

Photo/Ammar Awad al leader, were dam- ment and police buildaged in the attacks, res- ings, the state news idents said. agency Saba reported.

Footage, which Al U.S. PRESSES SALEH Jazeera television said TO SIGN GULFwas from inside the SPONSORED DEAL house, showed dazed The Gulf and bloodied tribal Cooperation Council guards carrying (GCC) bloc of Yemen’s wounded comrades wealthy oil-exporting across ornate halls as neighbors that speardust filled the air. headed the transition Saleh loyalists and deal, which Saleh has army forces used mor- three times rebuffed at tars and rocket-pro- the last minute, later pelled grenades in the suspended it due to a attack, witnesses told “lack of suitable condiReuters. tions.”

Four tribal guards In Washington, State were killed, and six Department spokesman other people were Mark Toner said the wounded, an opposition United States believed leader said. Fighting in the GCC deal was still the same area of the on the table. capital on Monday “President Saleh has killed seven people. an agreement in front The government of him. He needs to accused Ahmar’s men sign it and put Yemen of “attempting a coup” on a positive path so by attacking the that they can resolve Interior Ministry and the current situation,” several other govern- Toner said.

Pakistan returns U.S. helicopter from bin Laden raid

By PHIL STEWART WASHINGTON Pakistan has returned to the United States wreckage of a U.S. helicopter destroyed during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Pentagon official told Reuters yesterday.

The delivery of the wreckage meets a key U.S. demand of Pakistan in the wake the May 2 mission to kill the al Qaeda leader who was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

“It (the wreckage) was returned over the

weekend and is now back in the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.

Pakistan branded the raid a violation of its sovereignty, since Islamabad was kept in the dark about the U.S. operation in Abbottabad, only 30 miles from Pakistan’s capital, until after it was over.

The wreckage was from one of the helicopters that brought the U.S. Navy SEAL team into bin Laden’s compound. It lost lift because of the compound’s high walls, and was damaged in a hard landing.

Part of a damaged helicopter is seen lying near the compound.

The Navy SEALs blew it up to prevent sensitive technology from falling into enemy hands, but the tail section and other wreckage remained behind.

Senator John Kerry, on a trip to Islamabad on May 16, described a Pakistani pledge to return the chopper’s

wreckage as one step needed to rebuild trust between the two countries.

The discovery of bin Laden, hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad, has raised tough questions about what Pakistani officials might have known about the al Qaeda leader’s presence.

Asked if the United States might consider adjusting its considerable financial assistance to Yemen if the stalemate continues, Toner indicated this was a possibility.

“There’s a number of options in front of us as the situation continues to fester, and we’re looking at all options,” he said, while declining to provide specifics.

In Riyadh, Abdullatif al-Zayani, the GCC’s secretary-general, called for an immediate end to the fighting and suggested he could relaunch his mediation efforts.

“I’m always ready to visit (Yemen) if the visit will help the interests of the Yemeni people,” he told reporters.

The daily Asharq alAwsat said Saudi Arabia was still hoping the deal could be signed at the “earliest opportu-

nity.”

The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by a wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen, are keen to end the Yemeni stalemate and avert a spread of anarchy that could give the global militant network more room to operate.

Saleh, playing on Western fears of chaos, blamed the opposition for the deal’s collapse and said that if a civil war erupted “they will be responsible for it and the bloodshed.”

While Saleh has backed out of previous deals aimed at easing him out of power, Sunday’s turnabout appeared to be among the most forceful, coming after loyalist gunmen trapped Western and Arab diplomats in the United Arab Emirates embassy for hours.

Ash cloud hits some E ur o pe a n fl i g ht s bu t n o mass shutdown

By MICHAEL HOLDEN & OMAR VALDIMARSSON LONDON/REYKJAVIK - Thousands of passengers were forced to abandon plans after ash from an Icelandic volcano caused the cancellation of 500 flights yesterday, but officials said Europe’s airways would be less disrupted than a year ago.

As the eruption of Iceland’s most active volcano began to run out of steam, a trail of ash from the plume which has been rising from Grimsvotn since Saturday drifted south into Scotland and parts of northern England, disrupting flights.

Among travelers affected were U.S. President Barack Obama, who left Ireland for Britain late on Monday ahead of schedule.

The Barcelona soccer team flew to London early for Saturday’s Champions League final against Manchester United.

“At the moment we think Glasgow and Edinburgh will be affected throughout this afternoon but should be returning to normal tomorrow morning,” British Transport Secretary Philip Hammond told BBC TV. European air traffic agency Eurocontrol said around 500 flights had been canceled yesterday.

There were no immediate reports of threats to larger airports such as London Heathrow, but controllers said Denmark, Norway and Sweden could see some disruption by today.

New American

The

12

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

One Thought - One Humanity

For the conclusions of these stories check out the May 19th - May 25th, 2011 issue of The New American, which hits newsstands every Thursday Brandy, Tatyana Ali, Bledsoe, Tempestt Danielle Fishel and more are going naked for the Style network’s Skin Cancer PSA titled “Naked.” In the 30-second spot, each woman poses nude on a rooftop proclaiming that they participated in everyday activities such as driving, shopping and walking the dog... naked. Though each girl appears in her birthday suit, they are actually likening nudity to a lack of sunscreen, not clothes.

“Don’t be one of 20 people who will die today from skin cancer,” the ad proclaims. “If you leave the house without sunscreen, you might as well be naked.”

M-Bone -- one the of the members of the rap group Cali Swag District -- died last night ...

TMZ has confirmed.

Earlier this morning, the group’s leader, Smoove -- posted a Tweet saying, “Ma life changed drastically in the. Blink of an eye rip mbone.” So far, it’s unclear how M-Bone died. Cali Swag District shot to stardom with their hit, “Teach Me How to Dougie.”

Da Brat and Jermaine Dupri ready a mixtape to release later this month, after Brat’s tumultuous few years in prison. After a few years in lockdown, Da Brat is back in the studio working with her mentor and longtime partner in music, Jermaine Dupri. The So So Def camp released a video blog this week, one that features the two working together.

In it, there is an announcement of a Brat mixtape that will be released later this month. The vlog features Dupri working on a beat for a few minutes, a silent, blackand-white look at the beatsmith in the studio.

There is also footage of Da Brat writing on a

notepad, scribbling her thoughts down. The video captures a brief conversation between the two where Dupri asks Brat to announce her mixtape’s release date. “Memorial Day weekend,” she says, before repping for the label. “So So Def in the building.” Dupri also let fans know of his work with Brat by sending a message out to the world via Twitter.

Is Laila Ali going to be a singer? We don’t know where this came from, but we’re hearing that Muhammad Ali’s daughter and super boxer is about to embark on a career as a singer. We wonder what sort of singer she will be should this be true? We think she should try for the soul market or something.

Kanye West debuted his new girlfriend at the Cannes Film Festival in France by publicly kissing the teenager on a hotel balcony. The Stronger hitmaker last year ended his high-profile relationship with model Amber Rose, who has since moved on with rising hip-hop star Wiz Khalifa. West was rumoured to be dating 18-year-old underwear model Kate Upton after they were spotted leaving a party together in Los Angeles last month. Now the rapper, 33, has seemingly made his new relationship public after pulling Upton in close for a passionate kiss on his hotel balcony in full view of passers-by and photographers.

Jennifer Lopez was heartbroken when her beloved fashion line failed, insisting it remains one of her biggest career disappointments. The pop star-turned “American Idol” judge was forced to retire her Sweetface brand in 2009 after

neglecting to connect with bargain hunting shoppers, and she now admits the failed business venture was devastating. She tells the New York Times, “That was sad for me. I just felt like I never got a fair chance to do it right. And on top of it, I felt like I was trapped in a situation I couldn’t get out of, and my name was stamped on things that I didn’t believe in... (I) didn’t understand the business well enough.” But the hitmaker is giving it another chance she’s teaming up with husband Marc Anthony to launch a lifestyle brand with Kohl’s department stores - and she’s determined to get it right this time.

Tommy Hilfiger, who worked with Lopez on the new partnership, says, “The difference this time around is Jennifer is fully engaged with a company that is professionally staffed to really develop anything she wants from towels to knee-high suede boots.”

Love is in the air and we have the “Jumping The Broom” film to credit. T.D. Jakes has tapped several R&B stars for the forthcoming second installment of his Sacred Love Songs series compilation album. Inspired by his newly produced film “Jumping The Broom,” Sacred Love Songs 2 will be instores May 31 and features romantic love songs that pair the best talent in gospel and R&B/Pop music-performing classic hits as well as new recordings.

‘Sacred Love Songs 2’ is lead by the Joe featured track “Closer.” The set also features songs from T.D. Jakes, Ledisi, Karen Clark Sheard and Kirk Whalum; El DeBarge, Bishop Paul Morton, Fred Hammond, Micah Stampley, Crystal Aikin and more.

Heather Victoria representing new Hip Hop Soul Many artists are lost before they start because they do not know what direction to take but Heather Victoria does not have that problem.

She plans on merging on the grit of Hip Hop production and the soul of R&B that was reminiscent in the early 90’s.

Heather Victoria signed with music producer 9th Wonder’s IWW Music Group; now they are working on capturing her Hip Hop Soul vision.

Working With Professor and Label Boss... “It is really helpful working with somebody who is not just a beat maker.

With 9th [Wonder] being the boss man and with him being somebody who is really educated, who will pop in, he is not just someone who thinks he knows what he is talking about all the like storytelling is definitely a part time. It is really helpful. He is of Hip Hop and when you tell stories always good with guidance. If there in your music you tend to grab the is anything I don’t understand he is listener a little bit more and get a litthere to lay it out and help me out a tle bit more personal with it. That is little bit.” where I am going for with my A Different Path... “Particularly, I music; to really reach out to the lisfeel that though people aren’t quite tener. I want people to really be able understanding the sound I am pro- to relate to what I am saying, I don’t ducing, it is capturing people want them to scan through the song because it is something that they are and say “she has a nice little voice.” not use to hearing. I am trying to I want them to say “Wow, she is realcreate my own lane. I am trying to ly talking about something.” set myself apart from what is Rapping Was Secondary... “I tried already out there.” to rap and it didn’t work out. I can Mary J. Blige A Role Model... “The write but I don’t think I have the whole album ‘What’s The 411?’ and voice for it. It’s just not me. I don’t “You Remind Me” all those songs want to be that. I’m scared I’ll do it that is what made me become a die and people like it and there going to hard Mary J. fan. Even when I was want more.” young, ever since then I kind of Top 5 Hip Hop MCs Right Now... latched to her and her sound.”

“Jay-Z, Nas, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, Grabbing A Persons Ear... “I feel Talib Kweli” - Full Story In This Week’s New American Newspaper -

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

13

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C/+<= >?<8/. +=3./ 8?7/<9?= -2+66/81/= >9 >2/ .9-><38/ A2/8 3> 38@96@/= /B/-?>3@/ ,<+8-2 +->398= 38 >2/ A+< 98 >/<<9< '2/ ?=2 +.7383=><+>398 383>3+66C 38>/<@/8/. 38 >2/ -+=/ 98 ,/2+60 90 3>=/60 +8. + 9/381 +3<-<+0> =?,=3.3+<C =//5381 .3=73==+6 90 >2/ 6+A=?3> 98 >2/ ,+=3= 90 >2/ =>+>/ =/-</>= :<3@36/1/ '2/ #,+7+ +.7383=><+>398 2+= -98>38?/. >2/ 19@/<87/8>H= /009<> >9 .3=73== >2/ /8>3</ 6+A=?3> -6+37381 >2/ @/<C =?,4/-> 7+>>/< 3= + =>+>/ =/-</> '2/ -?<</8> 6+A=?3> A+= ,<9?12> ,C >2/ 7/<3-+8 3@36 3,/<>3/= (8398 98 ,/2+60 90 >2/ 03@/ 09<7/< ./>+38//= '2/ 6/+. :6+38>300 !92+77/. 3= +8 >239:3+8 8+>3@/ +<</=>/. 38 $+53=>+8 38 9?<> </-9<.= =29A >2+> +0>/< >2<// 798>2= 38 :<3=98 2/ A+= =/-</>6C ><+8=:9<>/. ,C + :<3@+>/ ( & -2+<>/</. 4/> >9 !9<9--9 &/-?<3>C +1/8>= 90 >2+> -9?8><C +66/1/.6C >9<>?</. !92+7/. 09< >2/ 8/B> 798>2= >9 1+38 3809<7+>398 +,9?> >/<<9< +->3@3>3/= / =+C= 2/ A+= <9?>38/6C ,/+>/8 >9 >2/ :938> 90 ?8-98=-39?=8/==

E 9A A9?6. C9? 635/ + -/8> .<9: 38 >2/ :<3-/ 90 + 1+6698 90 1+= F /66 C/= G =+C= &? %+71996+7 + C/+< 96.

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

F >H= + >//8C .<9: +> >2/ :?7: G =+3. $+><3-5 / ++8 =/839< :/><96/?7 +8+6C=> 09< += ?..C -97 + A+>-2.91 +8. </=/+<-2 =3>/ 98 1+= :<3-/= F'2/</ 3= + 1</+>/< <3=5 >9 >2/ =>+>/ >2+8 >2/</ A9?6. ,/ + 635/63299.

90 :<97:>381 :/9:6/ >9 19 98 @+-+>398 G $963>3-3+8= 38 "/A *9<5 8.3+8+ "/A +7:=23</ +8. 663893= +</ >+65381 +,9?> =?=:/8.381 :+<> 9< +66 90 >2/ =>+>/ +8. 69-+6 >+B/= >2+> -+8 +..

-/8>= >9 8/+<6C -/8>= >9 + 1+6698 90 1+= 98 >9: 90 >2/ -/8> 0/./<+6 >+B >H= ,//8 .98/ ,/09</ 69<3.+ 38 ?1?=> 83::/. 3>= =2+</ 90 >2/ 1+= >+B += :<3-/= 6?<5/. +<9?8. + 1+6698 ?: 0<97 +,9?> 38 6+>/ 8.3+8+ 630>/. 3>= =>+>/ >+B 0<97 ?6C >9 #->9,/< 663893= 0<97 ?6C >2<9?12 /-/7,/< 90 >2+> C/+< 9< + 798>2 38 <312> +0>/< ?<<3-+8/ +><38+ =-+>>/</. /@+-?//= +-<9== >2/ &9?>2 /9<13+ =?=:/8./. 3>= =2+</ 90 >2/ 1+=9638/ >+B "/A *9<5H= ,366 :<9:9=/. ,C ==/7,6C7+8

19@/<87/8>= += A/66 += /::/=/8 +>+:6+8 >2/ 9/381 +3<-<+0> =?,=3.3+<C +--?=/. 90 +<<+81381 >2/ 9@/<=/+= 06312>= 09< >2/ F 2+@/ ,//8 >2<9?12 +8 /B:/<3/8-/ >2+> 8/@/< >29?12> >9 /8-9?8>/< 38 7C .+<5/=> 8312>7+</= G !92+7/. =+3. 38 A2/8 >2/ 6+A=?3>= A/</ 036/. F > 3= =>366 .3003-?6> 09< 7/ >9 ,/63/@/ >2+> A+= +,.?->/. 2+?6/.

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

>/-289691C 98 >2/ +3<-<+0> +669A/. 3> >9 38@95/ >2/ =>+>/ =/-</>= :<3@36/1/ A23-2 2+= 5/:> >2/ -+=/ 0<97 19381 >9 ><3+6 '2/ -98><+->9<= -9?8>/</. >2+> 2+= :</@/8>/. >2/7 0<97 0?66C +<1?381 >2/3< -6+37 >2+> >2/C =29?6. 89> 2+@/ >9 </:+C >2/ 19@/<87/8> 09< >2/ 0+36/. @/81/< <?6381 3= /B:/->/. 38 >2+> -+=/ 38 + 0/A A//5= '2/ >/<<9<3=7 -+=/ </4/->/. !98.+C 3= 38C+7 !92+7/. @ /::/=/8 +>+:6+8 88 >2/ :</=3./8>3+6 9+>2 90 9003-/ -+=/ >2/ 4?=>3-/= >?<8/. +=3./ + 6/1+6 -2+66/81/ 38.3</->6C 38@96@381 98/ 90 >2/3< 9A8 '2/ 2312 -9?<> ,69-5/. +8 9819381 6/1+6 .3=:?>/ 9@/< >2/ ?=/ 90 </63139?= </0/</8-/= .?<381 >2/ :</=3./8>3+6 38+?1?<+>398 -/</798C !3-2+/6 "/A.9A + +6309<83+ +>2/3=> +8. 6+AC/< 2+. =?/. :+<>3-3:+8>= 38 $</=3./8> #,+7+H= =A/+< 38 38-6?.381 >2/ 7+8 A29 +.7383=>/</. >2/ 9003-3+6 9+>2 90 9003-/ 23/0 ?=>3-/ 928 %9,/<>= %9,/<>= 2+= :?66/. 9?> 90 -98=3./<381 "/A.9AH= 6+A=?3>

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

+6309<83+ +8. 663893= E +6=9 -2+<1/ + :/<-/8>+1/ =+6/= >+B 98 >2/ >9>+6 :?<-2+=/ 90 1+=9638/ 8 8.3+8+ /79-<+>39@ <+85 #H +8898 =?=:/8./. >2/ 1+=9638/ =+6/= >+B 38 A2/8 :<3-/= </+-2/. +,9?> :/< 1+6698 + :+380?6 ,3>/ +> >2/ >37/ ./=:3>/ >2/ 89=>+613+ 3> =>3<= 89A > =+@/. 79>9<3=>= 7366398 ,?> -9=> >2/ =>+>/ >2/ =+7/ +79?8> 90 69=> </@/8?/ += >2/ /-9897C A+= =69A381 +8. 8.3+8+H= ,?.1/> =?<:6?= A+= .A38.6381 += >+B 2963.+C= +</ /+=C :3-5381= 09< :963>3-= &?::9<>/<= -+8 >/66 @9>/<= >2/CH</ 6995381 9?> 09< >2/ 63>>6/ 1?C A236/ 9::98/8>= /@/8 +> >2/ 2312/=> 6/@/6 90 19@/<87/8> -+8 -<3>3-3D/ 3> += + 0//6 199. .9 89>2381 =>?8> '23= C/+< A2/8 9?=/ !389<3>C /+./< $+><3-5 +?/< &9?>2 /8. :<9:9=/. =?=:/8.381 >2/ =+6/= >+B +8. =>+>/ /B-3=/ >+B 98 1+=9638/ %/:?,63-+8= ;?3-56C =29> .9A8 >2/ 3./+ =+C381 3> A9?6. -9=> >2/ =>+>/ >99 7?-2

14

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Manager Jimmy ‘Henchman’ responds to fed drug warrant report

By GIL KAUFMAN Almost a week after news emerged that a federal arrest warrant had been issued for Czar Entertainment boss James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond in connection with his alleged involvement in a cocaine distribution ring, the music mogul responded on Monday to the reports with a lengthy letter professing his innocence.

Lashing out at what he the “slanderous called media” coverage he’s gotten about the case and apologizing to the artists and music executives he’s worked with over the years, as well as his family, Rosemond said he was surprised by the news of the warrant, which was first reported in the tabloid New York Post.

“The events over the past week, to say the least, have caught me off guard.

Although I have been aware

of an investigation taking place over the last four years, I was never informed that an arrest warrant had been issued in my name. I first learned about that warrant through the media when the news was released last week,” Rosemond wrote.

Last week Rosemond’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, confirmed to us that he was aware of the indictment and had defended his client against the charges it contained for several years but that he had not heard about the arrest warrant until it was reported in the Post.

“The purpose of this statement is not to assert some kind of grandiose conspiracy theory, but I will state some facts,” Rosemond said in his statement, first issued to XXL magazine. “These prosecutors have already begun my trial through the media and I’m releasing this statement in order to set the record straight. I just want a

fair trial. I came up from nothing and made some mistakes early in my life of which I have already served time. Since then, I have worked hard to establish my career in the music industry only to be targeted by these opportunistic prosecutors

with a personal vendetta against me.”

Rosemond goes on to refer disparagingly to two New York prosecutors who he claims are “spearheading this slanderous and trumped up case against me,” claiming that one of them is using the case to “propel himself to some high-end law firm or political office.”

He also called out a former Los Angeles Times reporter and another New York tabloid for planting what he called “slanderous” stories about his alleged cooperation with authorities in other investigations. He took aim at the people he claimed were the prosecution’s star witnesses, dismissing one as a “self-proclaimed gangbanger” and arguing that prosecutors have “no evidence that supports my involvement in any of this.”

His statement also implies that his own team’s investigations have allegedly

uncovered proof that prosecutors have been overzealous in their investigations, may have acted in ways that were unconstitutional and allegedly dangled indictments in front of individuals who refused to cooperate with their investigation.

“Up to now I don’t know what I may be charged with or what crime I’ve committed,” Rosemond said, indicating that other informants have “motioned via hand signal” to him that they were forced to wear secret recording devices in order to implicate him on tape. “Where’s the real proof that I have committed these crimes? I just want my fair trial and to not be railroaded as they so eagerly want to do.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York could not be reached for comment on Rosemond’s allegations at press time.

Beyonce ‘felt honored’ to perform on ‘Oprah’

By JOCELYN VENA The first part of the twopart “Oprah Winfrey Show” star-studded surprise episode aired Monday, and with appearances from Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Halle Berry, Diane Sawyer and Madonna, it was Beyoncé and her over-the-top, girl-powered stage spectacle that had the audience — and Oprah — moving.

Donning a tuxedo bodysuit

and surrounded by a cavalcade of all-female backup dancers, Beyoncé strutted her stuff as she performed her new single, “Run the World (Girls).”

“Oprah, your persuasion can build a nation,” B said mid-song. “We love you, Oprah. Thank you,” she told the talk-show host at the end of the performance, giving a hug to Winfrey.

Last week, MTV News spoke to Beyoncé’s longtime choreographer, Frank Gatson

Jr., who commented on the honor of performing for Oprah during her epic farewell week. (The final “Oprah Winfrey Show” episode airs today.)

“It’s amazing. Me, myself, Beyoncé, people of color — we have so much respect for that woman” Gaston said. “How can we say no to [Oprah]? She possesses something that God has given her, ‘cause when I saw her onstage, of all the people that were there, everyone’s in awe of her — Tom

Cruise, Halle Berry, Madonna — so we felt honored, privileged. That’s why Beyoncé pushed us so hard. She wanted to make sure that Oprah’s proud of what she did for her show. She did such an important number.

“In Oprah’s world, women rule the world, so how coincidental that Beyoncé’s song is called that?” he continued. “So it was just appropriate, perfection. I loved it. It was great to be there. The energy in that place was unbelievable.”

Master P’s kid Cymphonique Miller Keyshia Cole marries basketballer Daniel ‘Boobie’ Gibson fronts new Nickelodeon series

By ROB MARKMAN

Nickelodeon has greenlit series “How to Rock,” starring Master P’s teen daughter Cymphonique Miller and based on the upcoming Meg Haston book “How to Rock Braces and Glasses.”

The live-action comedy series will feature original music and centers on Kacey Simon (Miller), a talented teenager who takes her pop/hip-hop band Gravity to new heights as its lead singer.

The network has ordered 20 episodes for the first season, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Produced by Nickelodeon in association with Alloy Entertainment, production is set to begin this summer in Los Angeles.

Keyshia Cole has finally found love, and this past weekend the R&B singer tied the knot with her fiancé Daniel “Boobie” Gibson. On Sunday, Gibson tweeted, “It’s OFFICIAL!!!!! #Done & #TrulyBlessed.. Mr. & Mrs. Gibson. We appreciate all the Well Wishes!” Soon after, Keyshia quoted her husband’s tweet, adding “...Yeees.”

Cole and Gibson, who plays guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, began dating in 2009, and the two eventually became engaged in January 2010. On March 2,

2010, the R&B star gave birth to the couple’s son.

While promoting her fourth studio album, “Calling All Hearts,” Cole spoke to MTV News about the birth of her son, her engagement to Gibson and what effect her family had on her career.

“Having my son didn’t really change much, but it definitely gave me a foundation — a stronger foundation, rather, and it made everything make sense in perspective,” she said. “Love and making sure I know my focus in life, which is my child and my fiancée and my music and definitely putting God first, foremost before anything.”

Keyshia, who made her

name with broken-hearted songs like 2005’s “I Should’ve Cheated,” gushed about her man and the positive influence he has had on her life. “I wasn’t that optimistic about finding love, and I kinda gave up on it, and then when we met, it changed everything,” she said. “Obviously, I had a son.

So, it’s amazing, and I’m very happy and appreciative.”

The exact time and place of the wedding is still unknown, but it is believed the couple traded nuptials in Las Vegas. Gibson tweeted multiple photos of himself and his bride on a helicopter with the famous Vegas lights in the background.

NEW JERSEY

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

15

Trenton couple is charged with tying 8-year-old girl with ropes that left her with severe injuries

By LISA CORYELL TRENTON - An 8year-old girl saw her chance at freedom and took it last Thursday, begging detectives dispatched to her home on a court matter to rescue her from her mother’s abuse, authorities said yesterday.

The girl and her three younger siblings were found in a South Logan Street home amid rotting food, dead mice and other deplorable conditions, Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer William Osterman said.

Observing an open and severe injury on the child’s arm, allegedly the result of being tied to a bannister and doorknobs, police charged the girl’s mother, Plesie Nichols, 33, and her live-in boyfriend Anthony Roberson, 28, with aggravated assault and endangerment.

“Every detective involved in this, including myself, are heartbroken by what these poor children endured, especially the 8-yearold girl,” Sheriff Jack

Kemler said. “No one should have to live like that, and no one should be treated like that.”

The couple was also charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, that being the rope and shoelaces allegedly used to restrain the child. They are being held at the Mercer County Corrections Center on $150,000 bail each.

The three other children, ranging in age from infancy to five years old, were removed from the home, Osterman said.

“It makes me sick to think that parents would allow their children to live in these deplorable conditions, especially knowing Mercer County has ample family and social services available to them,” Kemler said.

The arrests came after sheriff’s detectives Bruce Armitage and John Mendez went to the South Logan Street home to transport Nichols to family court, Osterman said. Neither Osterman nor the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office

Plesie Nichols, 33, left, and Anthony Roberson, 28, right, of the 100 block of South Logan Avenue, are both being held on $150,000 bail. They are also charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, that being the rope and shoe laces allegedly used to restrain the child. could say why Nichols stench of urine permewas in family court. ating the residence, Noting unsanitary Osterman said. Rotting conditions from their food was found vantage point at the throughout and the front door, the detec- floor was littered with tives brought Nichols rodent feces, he said. into court and reported At least one dead their observations to rodent was seen on the Superior Court Judge floor and at least one Anthony Massi, who live rodent was seen was hearing the case. scurrying about, he The judge sent work- said. There was standers from the state ing liquid - either water Division of Youth and or urine - on the floor, Family Services to the he said. home, along with the “The conditions were detectives, to investi- inhumane, to say the gate, Osterman said. least,” Osterman said.

Once inside the “Everything about this home, Armitage and is disgusting.”

Mendez found the It was then that the

little girl approached one of the detectives, Osterman said.

“She said, ‘Please take me away from her,’” Osterman said.

“She said that her mother was tying her up and beating her.”

The arms of the long-sleeved child’s shirt were too tight for officers to roll them up, Osterman said. He said an ambulance was summoned and the child was taken to a local hospital.

“It was found at the hospital that she had one arm that was severely injured,” he said. “She had open sores on her forearm from being tied up. The open sores are pretty serious.”

The girl was transferred to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia were she was admitted for treatment, he said.

“I want to commend Detective Bruce Armitage and Detective John Mendez, along with Judge Anthony Masssi, for going the extra mile on this case and possibly saving this young girls life,”

Kemler said.

In the aftermath of the incident city workers came out and boarded up the home, according to neighbors, who said the conditions found there had the block buzzing.

Shirley Johnson, who lives across the street from the home, said she rarely saw the family or their children.

“They would never really come outside,” she said of the kids. “I would see them every once in a while.”

Johnson said police and firefighters at the scene on Thursday had gone inside the building attired in white coveralls and wearing masks.

“Some of the cops were running into the street and throwing up,” she said.

Johnson didn’t know the family well, but said there was nothing to make her suspect Nichols or Roberson of anything criminal.

Yesterday the back porch of the home was covered in trash. Amid the garbage and aluminum cans were a toy truck and a child’s doll.

Trenton violated terms of $27.1M state grant by paying fire director for work before approval

By Alex Zdan Alex Zdan

TRENTON - The city violated the terms of a $27.1 million transitional aid grant from the state Department of Community Affairs by putting Trenton Fire Department Director Qareeb Bashir on the payroll before the agency signed off on his hiring, a move that could jeopardize future aid applications, DCA officials said yesterday.

Bashir was approved by the DCA for a yearlong probationary term

as fire director on April 19, but he had been started working with the fire department March 28 with the understanding he would be unpaid while under DCA review.

Documents obtained through open public records requests by Rob Chilson, who authors the blog Trenton United, showed Bashir worked 140 hours prior to April 9, received $8,106 in pay.

“Mr. Bashir was put on the City of Trenton’s payroll without DCA approval in clear violation of the City’s Transitional Aid (memorandum of understanding) with the state,” DCA spokeswoman Lisa Ryan said

in an email yesterday.

“This violation will reflect poorly in the City’s application for Transitional Aid next year.”

Chilson, a frequent critic of Mayor Tony Mack, said the latest misstep should be cause to recall the mayor.

“He is the worst mayor Trenton has ever seen and will ever know,” Chilson said.

Bashir could not be reached at fire headquarters or a telephone number listed to an address in Lawrence Township last night.

City Council president George Muschal, who objected to Bashir’s hiring, said he wants Bashir gone and the money returned to

the city.

“He should resign,” Muschal said. “Resign and give the money back that he took, the taxpayers’ money.”

But Muschal does not hold DCA blameless in the matter. He said he alerted the state agency that Bashir was operating as the head of the fire department during the period where he was allowed to work on an unpaid basis.

“I sent the DCA information in writing saying he was making judgment calls and they said he should stop,” Muschal said.

“I personally talked to (Division of Local Government Services director Thomas) Neff

Trenton Fire Department Director Qareeb Bashir and told them what they were doing.”

Messages left for Mack’s spokeswoman Lauren Ira and city B u s i n e s s Administrator Eric Berry were not returned last night.

Mack’s voicemail box

on his mobile phone was full and unable to take new messages.

Regardless of the DCA decision on state aid, Muschal says the agency should use its power to revoke Bashir’s appointment.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

16

Experts issue ‘Top 5’ list for better primary care

By AMANDA GARDNER Cutting back on unnecessary antibiotics, delaying wasteful imaging for lower back pain and foregoing annual ECG screenings for healthy, low-risk patients are among the actions that could help streamline primary care, experts say.

Perhaps taking a page from David Letterman’s Top 10 list, the authors of a new report came up with a “Top 5” list of action items for each of the primary care disciplines — family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics — to help save money and conserve health resources.

Many physicians are already behind the suggestions, according to the report, which appears online May 23 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

“I have seen many instances where I thought clinicians were not making the right and wisest decisions in ways that were not good for patients’ health and not good for prudent use of

finite resources,” said Dr. Stephen Smith, one of the report’s authors and professor emeritus of family medicine at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University in Providence, RI. Smith is also a member of the National Physicians’ Alliance (NPA), a group of 22,000 doctors promoting affordable and quality healthcare, which put together the lists.

None of the suggestions are particularly new, having been validated by scores of studies, yet few clinicians seem to be implementing them, Smith said.

Here are the Top Five recommendations for each discipline: For family medicine: Avoid imaging for lower back pain for six weeks unless red flags are present.

Cut back on prescribing antibiotics for sinus infections, since most are viral.

Avoid cardiac screening in patients who are low risk and have no symptoms.

Do not do Pap tests for cervical cancer in women under 21 or those who have had a

hysterectomy for benign disease.

Confine bone density scans known as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) for osteoporosis to women aged 65 and over and for men 70 and older who also have risk factors, such as those who have already had fractures For internal medicine: Defer imaging for lower back pain.

Do not order blood chemistry panels (a set of 8 blood tests to assess kidney function, blood sugar and other health indicators) or urinalysis in healthy adults with no symptoms, since blood lipids (fats) tests alone yield most positive results.

Forego cardiac screening in healthy patients.

Prescribe generic statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) before brand-name ones Limit bone-density screening to older, at-risk patients .

In pediatrics: Avoid giving antibiotics for sore throats unless a test definitely turns up the bacteria Streptococcus (strep throat)

Avoid imaging for minor head injuries without risk factors such as loss of consciousness.

Take a wait-and-see attitude towards middle-ear infections before referring the patient to a specialist.

Recommend that parents not give their children overthe-counter cough-and-cold medicines.

Make sure patients with asthma are using corticosteroid medicines properly, as this will cut down on episodes.

The report was funded by a grant from the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation.

Several of the items — those involving cardiac screening, overuse of antibiotics, bone-density scans and lower-back imaging — appeared in more than one category.

But one item — not doing blood chemistry panels and urinalysis among healthy adults without symptoms — enjoyed only weak support from the practicing physicians who field-tested the suggestions.

The Top 5 lists will now be distributed to all NPA members. The researchers are also hoping to get funding to set up demonstration sites, creating training videos to help physicians hone their communication skills and finding ways to get patients on board, Smith said.

“These are certainly important issues,” said Dr. Lawrence C. Kleinman, a primary care physician and associate professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

But he also pointed out that “the lists were done with some nuance, which [is] valuable and important to incorporate in the understanding of this.”

As the report authors point out, Kleinman noted, it’s not that all antibiotic use is bad, just that, in the case of sore throats, there should be a verification that the infection is really strep throat before prescribing them. Similarly, imaging for head injuries would need to be done for children with loss of consciousness or other risk factors.

U.S. abortion rate down, but up among poor women

By AMY NORTON Abortion rates have gone down in most groups of U.S. women, but not among poor women, a new study shows.

Among the lowest-income women, abortions are still on the rise.

The news about high levels of abortion use by poor women comes as the federal and state governments begin to make funding cuts that could limit this sector’s access to family planning services.

Between 2000 and 2008, for U.S. women ages 15 to 44, the national abortion rate declined from 21 abortions for every 1,000 women to 20 per 1,000.

The decline continued a pattern seen since 1990, with the overall abortion rate among U.S. women decreasing each year.

The exception, however, has been poor women, whose rate of abortion increased in the 1990s.

And the new study, reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that the trend is continuing.

Between 2000 and 2008,

the abortion rate among the lowest-income women climbed from 44 to 53 abortions per 1,000 women.

The poorest women were those with a family income below 100 percent of the federal poverty line. By 2008, they accounted for 16 of every 100 U.S. women ages 15 to 44, but for 42 of every 100 abortions.

“We weren’t necessarily surprised by the findings, because they’re a continuation of what we’d seen in the 1990s,” said lead researcher Rachel K. Jones of the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based non-profit organization that studies reproductive health issues.

It’s not clear why poor women are having more abortions even as the national rate falls, according to Jones.

One factor in recent years, she told Reuters Health, could be the economic recession, which likely hit the poorest women the hardest.

They may have been less able to afford contraception, or to support a child.

Whatever the reasons, Jones said the current findings clearly underscore a need to prevent more

unplanned pregnancies among poor women. “We have not been improving poor women’s ability to access family planning service,” she said. “In fact, we’ve been making it harder.”

The recent federal budget deal included a 5.5 percent cut in funding for Title X, a 40-year-old federal program that helps low-income women get birth control and other services (but not abortions) at family planning clinics.

And a number of states, including Indiana, Kansas, Wisconsin and Tennessee,

have either passed or are considering measures to cut state funding for family planning services — on the basis that some clinics also perform abortions.

But the rising rate of abortion among poor women argues against such cuts, according to Jones. “We need to be increasing funding for family planning services,” she said, “not decreasing it.”

Public funding for family planning comes from several different sources.

The biggest chunk comes from Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the

poor, which accounts for 71 percent of public spending on family planning services, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The Title X program, in contrast, accounts for about 12 percent, while state appropriations contribute 13 percent.

But reproductive health advocates have argued that Title X is a vital source of revenue for many family planning clinics, giving them the resources for things like outreach to lowincome women — something Medicaid coverage cannot do.

Bayer starts selling quick-release aspirin CHICAGO — German drugmaker Bayer has released a souped-up version of Bayer aspirin that the company says relieves pain twice as fast as its namesake brand, the company said.

The new quick-release version, dubbed Bayer Advanced Aspirin, was released over the weekend in 500 Wal-Mart stores and is rolling out in retail chains nationwide.

The product uses a new

technology that chops aspirin molecules into particles that are 10 times smaller than the original, allowing it to be absorbed more quickly.

The technology “helps to speed up disintegration of the tablet, absorption into the bloodstream and, most importantly, time to pain relief,” Dr. Wes Cetnarowski of Bayer HealthCare said in a statement.

The company says clinical studies on patients with

dental pain show the drug starts working twice as quickly as the original Bayer aspirin, which was first released in 1899.

A spokeswoman said the company plans to publish the results of its clinical trials in a medical journal.

No word yet on whether the new drug is easier on the stomach than original aspirin, which can cause bleeding ulcers, but the company plans to study that, too.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

17

Probiotic yogurt no help for kids’ constipation

By AMY NORTON A yogurt aimed at easing digestion with the help of “good” bacteria may not be much help for children’s chronic constipation, a new study suggests.

The study, of 159 children with persistent constipation, looked at whether an Activiabrand yogurt could help make the kids more “regular.”

Activia yogurts and other cultured dairy products contain a strain of friendly bacteria, or probiotic, called Bifidobacterium lactis, which is thought to help regulate the digestive system. Some studies of adults have found the products to help ease chronic constipation.

But in the new study, researchers found that the probiotic yogurt was no better than a non-cultured dairy product without probiotics in easing kids’ constipation.

Over three weeks, children who were randomly assigned to eat the probiotic yogurt each day did start to have more bowel movements, on average. But so did chil-

dren in the comparison group.

In both groups, children went from having fewer than two bowel movements per week, on average, to about four per week.

It’s not clear why both groups improved to a similar degree, according to the researchers.

But based on the findings, the probiotic cannot be recommended for children’s constipation, lead researcher Dr. Merit M. Tabbers told Reuters Health in an email.

Some parents may still want to try it or other probiotic products, noted Tabbers, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Emma Children’s Hospital in Amsterdam. And it’s possible, the researcher said, that for certain kids, probiotics will help.

But for now, Tabbers said, “there is not sufficient evidence to support a general recommendation about the use of probiotics in the treatment of childhood constipation.”

The study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics, was funded by Paris-based Danone (Dannon in the U.S.), which makes Activia.

Two coresearchers on the study work for the company.

The findings are based on 159 children who were 7 years old, on

average, and had been suffering from constipation for at least two months.

They were randomly assigned to have two servings of either the probiotic yogurt or the non-probiotic every day for three weeks. In the end, both groups showed similar improvements.

Tabbers said that children in the comparison group did better than expected. One reason might be the general attention that kids in both study groups received, the researcher explained.

All of the children were told, for example, they should try to go to the bathroom after each meal.

In general, less-than-ideal bathroom habits — like trying to “hold” it in — are thought to underlie many cases of constipation in children.

That and other differences between children’s constipation and adults’ might help

explain why the probiotic appears to have different effects in kids and adults, according to Tabbers.

Typically, Tabbers said, the first step in easing children’s constipation includes teaching them better bathroom habits and making diet changes, like adding more fiber-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.

If that fails, a doctor might prescribe laxatives.

If parents want to try a probiotic, Tabbers said, they still can. But if there’s no improvement within a few weeks, they should move on, according to the researcher.

One theory on why probiotics might help with constipation is that the products help restore any imbalances in the natural, friendly bacteria dwelling in the gut.

However, Tabbers said, researchers don’t know whether the gut bacteria in healthy children differ from those of children with constipation.

“Further research should therefore also focus on the composition of the microbiota in healthy and constipated children,” Tabbers said.

WHO defers fixing date on destroying live smallpox GENEVA — A decision on when to destroy the last known stocks of live smallpox was put off for a further three years at the World Health Organization’s annual meeting yesterday in the latest stage in a debate that has lasted decades.

The issue had deeply divided the annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, with Iran spearheading opposition to a U.S. and Russian-backed plan to postpone setting a date for destruction for five years.

Iran was at the forefront

of countries arguing for the stocks held in Russia and the United States to be destroyed now because of the risk of stockpiles falling into the wrong hands.

The United States has argued more research is needed into vaccines against

the disease eradicated more than 30 years ago.

“There has been a lot of discussion around the smallpox issue,” Pierre Formenty of the WHO told a press briefing.

“Three years from now, we will resume the discus-

Genes tied to severity of cystic fibrosis identified The severity of cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening hereditary condition that affects the lungs and digestive system, seems to be influenced by genetic variations, researchers have found.

“Most cystic fibrosis patients born today live to their mid-30s, but that’s an average. Some succumb to the disease before their 10th birthday, while others live into their 50s and we wanted to know why,” Dr. Garry Cutting, a professor of pediatrics and member of the McKusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins, said in a Hopkins news release.

The study, published online in Nature Genetics, used DNA from 3,467

patients — including unrelated patients from the Genetic Modifier Study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Canadian Consortium for Genetic Studies out of the University of Toronto, and related patients and their parents from the CF Twin and Sibling Study at Johns Hopkins.

The researchers hope their findings will help extend the life expectancy of people with the disease. “To achieve this goal, we had to work together as one group,” Cutting said.

The investigators from all three studies collaborated and analyzed 600,000 sites of variation within the genome in search of common variations that are more fre-

quently associated with severe cases of cystic fibrosis.

The result: The researchers were able to identify a region encompassed by two genes on chromosome 11 linked to severe cases of the disease. A second region on chromosome 20 was also identified. Continued study of this region revealed five genes that are turned on in respiratory cells, some of which are known to cause inflammation.

“We already know which gene causes cystic fibrosis, but to a large extent that gene does not by itself explain how severe the condition will be,” explained Cutting. “Now we’ve discovered new genes that influ-

ence the course of disease and may enable prediction of disease severity and, most importantly, the customization of treatments for patients with unfavorable genetic modifiers — this is the realization of individualized medicine,” he added.

The investigators pointed out that further studies are needed to determine exactly how these genes alter the severity of cystic fibrosis.

“Of course we want to continue to push the median life expectancy up so that hopefully patients with more severe cases of cystic fibrosis will, with multimodal therapy, survive longer. And this is the first step toward developing such therapies for these patients,” Cutting concluded.

sion.”

He said there had been consensus the variola, or smallpox virus, stocks needed to be destroyed but the task of setting a date would be broached in three years, rather than the five years put forward by the United States and Russia.

Already the debate over when to destroy the stocks has rumbled on for 25 years and resurfaced late last week.

Debate dragged on late into the evening on Monday and yesterday, the final day of the WHO’s annual meeting, was the last chance to hammer out a compromise.

The United States and others in its camp also want guarantees all other stocks have been destroyed or transferred to their two official repositories.

Some countries have argued technology exists to develop vaccines and antivirals without a live virus and those on both sides of the divide have raised concerns about germ warfare.

In February, Siga Technologies Inc. was awarded a U.S. government contract for a smallpox antiviral.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

18

Volkswagen sees U.S. plant as key to unseating Toyota

By DEEPA SEETHARAMAN CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee — In southcentral Tennessee yesterday, Volkswagen AG marked the grand opening of a $1 billion assembly plant that looms large in the German automaker’s plan to unseat Toyota Motor Co as the world’s largest automaker.

The plant, where Volkswagen is already building its 2012 Passat car, is a key part of the company’s plan, which faces numerous hurdles and doubters within the auto industry.

By shifting production to the United States and using local parts suppliers, Volkswagen can guard against exchange rate fluctuations that can eat away at profit, analysts said.

Building cars in the United States also allows the company to keep close track of changing tastes in the world’s No.2 auto market, where consumer trends are often set.

Building a plant in

the United States is also a sign of goodwill and demonstrates the company’s dedication to the U.S. market, analysts said. As part of its global growth plans, Volkswagen aims to nearly triple its sales in the United States to 1 million in 2018 from about 360,000 in 2010.

It’s a tall order for an automaker that has long been seen as a niche player, analysts said. Including its luxury brand Audi, Volkswagen ended 2010 with just a 3 percent market share in the United States, according to Autodata. By contrast, Toyota had about 15 percent, while GM had about 19 percent.

Adding to its challenges are the revamped vehicle lineups of the Detroit Big Three automakers — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC — as well as Korean companies Hyundai Motor and Kia. “Most people don’t think they can do all those things,” Edmunds.com analyst Bill Visnic said. “There

are a lot of headwinds.

There are a lot of things that have to go right for Volkswagen to pull it off.”

To its credit, Volkswagen, the company behind the iconic Beetle, has strong brand recognition in the United States, analysts said.

Volkswagen’s Super Bowl advertisement featuring a child dressed as Star Wars villain Darth Vader has been viewed more than 38 million times on YouTube.

“It has a generally good brand image and great brand awareness,” Kelley Blue Book analyst Jack Nerad said. “What has stood in the way has been price.”

Volkswagen has responded by cutting the prices of two models, the Passat and the Jetta. The 2012 Passat is priced at more than $7,000 below its predecessor and has far more interior room, a nod to American tastes.

It remains an open question how quickly U.S. consumers will notice the changes, or how they will be

received, analysts said.

Last month, Consumer Reports called the new Jetta “a shadow of the agile, well-finished car it once was.”

Still, analysts said the lower price might be enough to lure some buyers to the showrooms.

The first Passat rolled off the assembly line in Chattanooga last month.

Volkswagen announced in 2008 that it would build a new plant in Tennessee that would include body production, paint shop and assembly. Tennessee beat out Alabama and Michigan for the contract.

Barclays Capital estimates that labor costs at the Tennessee plant, including wages and benefits, will average $27 an hour, on par with the “Tier Two” workers that make up a small part of the Big Three’s labor costs.

Analysts said Volkswagen should still be able to attract top talent in the area because the wages are strong for the area.

At $27 an hour,

Volkswagen’s labor costs are well below those of both the Detroit Three and other foreign automakers. For example, Ford’s labor costs are around $58 an hour including wages and benefits.

Volkswagen’s bestperforming year in the United States was 1970, when it sold 569,696 vehicles and had a nearly 6 percent share of the U.S. market. Back when the Beetle was a top imported model sold in the United States, the company had a production plant in Pennsylvania. But by 1988, sales had slowed and the plant was closed.

The Tennessee plant is Volkswagen’s first U.S. plant since 1988.

Passat production at the plant is scheduled to rise to 150,000 annually by 2012.

On an annualized basis, U.S. sales as of April were 13.17 million units, and many analysts predict that sales in the United States this year will be 13 million or higher.

Some analysts project vehicle sales will jump

to 15 million in 2012.

This growth comes at a time when General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are offering more attractive and fuel-efficient vehicles.

GM and Ford enjoy a well-liked stable of small and mid-sized cars including the Chevrolet Cruze and the Ford Fusion.

“There was a time when there were some weak sisters out there,” Kelley Blue Book’s Nerad said. “There’s not that many car companies out there that are providing weak products in that segment.

And those that do, don’t have much share.”

The Cruze was the No.6 best-selling car in April, according to Autodata. The Toyota Camry was No.2, while Honda’s Accord was No.5 and the Civic was No.6.

“You don’t suddenly unseat the Accord and the Camry just because you have a new product,” Visnic said. “It’s going to take a while for Americans to understand what VW is up to right now.”

SEC deepens probe of forex trading Microsoft launches update of phone software The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing whether two major banks made proper representations to pensionfund clients about how their currency trades would be handled and priced, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The Journal said the probe is examining the currency trading activities of the two of the world’s largest custody banks, State Street Corp. and Bank of New York Mellon, and whether the banks misrepresented how they intended to carry out the foreign exchange trades.

Foreign exchange traditionally has been a rich source of revenue for U.S. banks, particularly custodial banks, which not only profit from buying international stocks and bonds for pension funds and other investors, but

also on trading dollars into other currencies.

Foreign exchange overall is a huge business, with average daily volume of $4 trillion.

Earlier this month, State Street revealed in a quarterly filing it was under investigation by the SEC and also disclosed that two clients began litigation against it seeking

unspecified damages, on behalf of all custodial clients that executed foreign exchange transactions through State Street.

However, the regulatory authority’s investigation of BNY Mellon wasn’t previously known.

Both the banks were not immediately available for comment.

Microsoft Corp. launched an update of its Windows phone software yesterday, hoping a host of new features will help it close the gap on smartphone leaders Google Inc. and Apple Inc. The updated software, code-named Mango, will appear on new Windows phones beginning this autumn, and be available for existing Windows phone users before that, although Microsoft has not set a timetable for making the update available.

Microsoft said the update involved 500 new features, including Internet Explorer 9 as the mobile browser, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds integrated into contact cards, automated Facebook check-ins, and access to more than 17,000 downloadable applications.

Microsoft is banking on the new version of its phone software to get

its recent alliance with Nokia off to a strong start. The first phones made by Nokia using Windows software are expected late this year or early in 2012.

The two have some work to do to catch up with Google’s Android, which now runs 36 percent of smartphones sold globally, followed

by Apple with 17 per-

cent, according to research firm Gartner.

Last quarter, Microsoft held only 4 percent of the smartphone operating system market, but was looking to convert the 27 percent market share held by Nokia’s Symbian, which will be replaced by the Windows system in most of Nokia’s new phones.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

19

State and local governments may cut 450,000 jobs in FY2012 Around 450,000 people who work for U.S. states, counties, cities, towns and villages could get pink slips in fiscal 2012, sharply up from the 300,000 positions shed this year, a report said on Monday.

The number of job cuts will rise mainly because the federal stimulus program is ending while the cost of Medicaid is “spiraling,” said the report by UBS Investment Research.

States got billions of extra dollars primarily for education and Medicaid from the stimulus

plan. Medicaid is the state-federal health plan for the poor and disabled.

Maury Harris, a UBS economist, on a conference call said the deficits states and municipalities will have to close will climb to $155 billion in fiscal 2012 from about $108 billion in the current fiscal year.

Most states and municipalities begin new fiscal years on July 1.

The deep cuts state and local governments will have to make to balance their books in the

next fiscal year should clip about one percentage point from the U.S. gross domestic product — about 30 basis points more than in the current fiscal year, the report said. “The public sector is holding back growth but it doesn’t derail it altogether,” Harris said.

But the $2.9 trillion municipal bond market — so far at least — has withstood much of the pressure from the recession-weakened finances of states and municipalities.

Thomas McLoughlin, UBS head of municipal

research, told reporters that at present only about $9 billion of municipal bonds have defaulted, most of which were small, unrated issues that financed risky projects like developments.

Spooked by headlines about possible defaults, investors in municipal bond funds have sold shares for the past 27 weeks, according to Lipper data.

“I think we are seeing more traditional retail buying in the front end of the curve — even as people investing in

mutual funds were selling,” McLoughlin said.

Strong demand for individual securities with short maturities is hitting during a period of exceptionally low supplies. Estimates for issuance this year have fallen to a range of $197 billion to $240 billion, McLoughlin said. That works out to about half of last year’s supply of new bonds.

Still, McLoughlin’s list of hazards facing the muni market include possible problems states and localities will have finding new letters of

Toshiba cautious on nuclear, eyes renewables

By ISABEL REYNOLDS TOKYO — Toshiba Corp. said it may need to push back by several years a target to capture 39 orders for nuclear reactors and that it would expand sales in renewables, amid tighter safety standards in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear plant.

Orders for four AP1000 reactors in China are on target, but approval delays in the United States and other countries could block the firm’s goal to expand nuclear sales to 1 trillion yen ($12.2 billion) in four years, Toshiba said.

Engineers are battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the Fukushima nuclear

Fed’s Duke says costly gas crimping consumers BOSTON — Consumers, already hard hit by a sharp collapse in home prices, are facing renewed challenges from higher gasoline costs, Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke said yesterday.

In remarks focused primarily on financial literacy, Duke offered some flavor of her views on the economy.

Her tone was not very optimistic, suggesting she is unlikely to begin pressing for interest rate hikes any time soon.

“Family incomes have not kept pace with rising costs, and many families, particularly those with low-to-moderate incomes, are actually facing the decision between buying gas to drive long distances to work and paying their mort-

gage,” Duke said in the remarks, which were prepared for delivery at a conference sponsored by the Boston Fed. Weaker house prices and the resulting difficulties in selling a home have made it harder for Americans to move in search of work, she said, thus further reducing demand for home ownership.

“Foreclosures remain high in these areas where the cost of driving to work has become so great,” she added.

plant northeast of Tokyo under control more than two months after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated a swathe of Japan’s coastline and tipped the economy into recession.

“If everyone around the world is against nuclear power, there is no point in us saying it is a pillar of our strategy,” Toshiba President Norio Sasaki told reporters. “But it is going to take some time to work out exactly what the environment is.”

Toshiba, which has set up a 1,900-person team to help operator Tokyo Electric bring

the plant under control, also said it will tap 700 billion yen of its funds to build new revenue streams and invest in its flash memory chips, batteries, smart grids and production in emerging markets.

Toshiba has been trying to lower its dependence on nuclear power for growth by investing in solar and other renewable energy sources, next-generation batteries and smart grids.

It now targets sales of 350 billion yen in solar, hydroelectric, geothermal and wind power technologies, 900 billion yen in smart grid products and 800

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billion yen in lowpower consumption motors, inverters and batteries.

The industrial conglomerate’s strategy will expand the company’s 2011-2013 capital and research-and-development budget to 1.45 trillion yen, up from 1.3 trillion yen in 20102012.

Toshiba also said it aims to more than double its operating profit to 500 billion yen in the year to March 2014, from 240.3 billion yen in the year that ended in March 2011.

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credit for variable-rate debt and what he called “rating volatility.” Credit agencies are more likely to downgrade credits they have not analyzed for 18 months, for example, than ones they survey more frequently.

Muni prices, which fell last Thursday for the first time since April 12, were unchanged on Monday, leaving yields on top-rated 10-year bonds at 2.64 percent and 30-year yields at 4.31 percent on Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A scale. gamut from rice cookers to nuclear power plants last week announced it would buy unlisted Swiss smart-meter manufacturer Landis+Gyr for around $2.3 billion.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Josh Freeman running Bucs’ workouts Whenever the National Football League’s lockout ends, Josh Freeman pledges the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be ready.

Sports Briefs BUFORD, Ga. - Julio Jones is starting to feel like a member of the Atlanta Falcons.

Jones, the NFL’s No. 6 overall draft pick out of Alabama, worked out at Buford High School yesterday for the first time with quarterback Matt Ryan and other new teammates.

During the league’s lockout, Falcons players have routinely been running 7-on-7 passing drills at the school, but this marked Jones’ debut on a field.

Jones did not run full speed, deciding it was best to jog his routes and catch some easy passes.

He’s still recovering from foot surgery on a stress fracture that was discovered after the NFL combine.

Orthopedist Robert Anderson, of Charlotte, N.C., cleared Jones to run early last week.

- GEORGE HENRY

NFL to fine teams for flagrant hits Only 23 years old and coming off his first full season as a starter, Freeman said it’s his duty to organize the team during the protracted work stoppage.

“As the quarterback, you’re the leader of the team,” Freeman said.

“Guys like (backup quarterbacks) Josh Johnson and Rudy Carpenter and I, we take a lot of pride in ourselves as quarter-

backs to be leaders at all times. We shoot the calls out and let everybody know where we’re going to be at and when we’re going to be there so we can get as much work together as possible.”

Tampa Bay finished 10-6 in 2010, narrowly missing the playoffs and Freeman said the Bucs want to make sure they continue to progress when the sea-

son begins.

“It’s hard to get everybody free and their schedules lined up,” Freeman said.

“But, at the same time, we want to provide options for guys to get down here and work out. Everybody knows we’re a young team and we had a lot of momentum coming off last season. We want to build on that and keep that going.”

Drinking linked to problems in the ballpark stands It was “College Night” at the Brewers game and season ticket holder Aaron Gross knew what that meant.

Cheap tickets for sale.

Cheap beer at the tailgate parties. Plenty of booze-fueled trash talk inside the stadium. And, eventually, some alcohol-induced insults leading to suds-soaked fisticuffs.

“I have no problem with heckling people, that’s part of the game.

But they were crossing lines,” said Gross, who found himself - along with his wife - caught near a brawl on a night when college students got in for half price. “It got unpleasant to the point where we left the

SPORTS Julio Jones finally gets on the field with Falcons

By PAT YASINSKAS

In only his third NFL season, Freeman told ESPN.com on Monday that he has been organizing team workouts since late March.

“You have got to be up to speed and be ready to go out and win football games and we’re taking steps right now to be in a position like that,” Freeman said after leading a workout in the Tampa Bay area.

Freeman admitted the workouts haven’t been the near-minicamps that some teams have had, but said the Bucs have had steady participation and sometimes had more than 20 players gather for a session.

“We’re trying to stay together as a team and keep working on things. We watch some film and talk over plays and stuff like that — just do the stuff a football team should be doing,” Freeman said.

DAILY CHALLENGE

21

game. The whole section was completely drunk and obnoxious. We left in the fourth inning, just said, ‘That’s enough.’”

At eight stadiums across the country Miller Park in Milwaukee, Coors Field in Denver, Busch Stadium in St. Louis among them - fans told The Associated Press similar stories in recent weeks, reinforcing a fact of life at American stadiums: Alcohol is as big a part of going to a baseball game as peanuts and Cracker Jacks.

And while much of the boorish, and even criminal, behavior at the ballpark involves alcohol, expect the suds to

keep on flowing. The business partnership between beer and baseball is as intertwined as the bond between pitcher and catcher.

From the 1970s-era debacles of 10-cent Beer Night in Cleveland and Disco Demolition Night in Chicago to this season’s most disturbing moment - the comainducing attack on a Giants fan at Dodgers Stadium - there’s an alcohol-related slant to many incidents involving unruly fans at baseball parks.

Last weekend, authorities arrested 31year-old Giovanni Ramirez, the man they say was the main aggressor in the beating

of Giants fan Bryan Stow in the parking lot at Dodgers Stadium following the season opener. In the days after the beating, Los Angeles canceled six half-price beer nights scheduled for 2011. Witnesses said the people who attacked Stow were apparently drunk.

“When at least a certain portion of folks go to venues, they’re there to have a good time and part of the good time is they’re going to have a few cocktails before they go and a few more when they’re in the stadium,” said Robert Pandina, the director of the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University.

- EDDIE PELLS

INDIANAPOLIS - The NFL will punish teams next season if their players commit multiple flagrant hits that result in fines.

League vice president Adolpho Birch said yesterday the discipline will be financial, although he didn’t rule out Commissioner Roger Goodell’s applying further punishment such as stripping clubs of draft choices.

Citing the “notion of club accountability,” Birch says the details of the plan haven’t been worked out. He says as a team’s total fines increase “to a certain threshold, we will enforce some ... payback to encourage clubs to stay below that threshold.”

The NFL began a crackdown on illegal hits, particularly those to defenseless players, last October.

- BARRY WILNER

Bulls’ Noah says $50,000 fine for slur is ‘fair’ MIAMI - Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah said the NBA’s decision to fine him $50,000 for directing an anti-gay slur toward a fan is “fair.”

Speaking yesterday morning as the Bulls prepared to face the Miami Heat in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, Noah again acknowledged making a mistake in his back-and-forth with the fan.

“I made a mistake, learned from it and move on,” Noah said. “That’s about it.”

The NBA announced the fine Monday afternoon, one day after television cameras caught Noah using a profanity, followed by the slur, after returning to the Chicago bench midway through the opening quarter of Game 3 in Miami.

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was fined $100,000 for using the same slur in April, directing it toward a referee. Noah said he was not sure what to expect in terms of a fine when he met with NBA officials to discuss the matter on Monday, hours before the sanction was announced.

“I was just ready to face the consequences and move on and get ready for this game,” Noah said.

“I don’t want to be a distraction to the team.”

The Bulls were down 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

22

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

SPORTS

Epic collapse floors Durant, Thunder

By JOHNNY LUDDEN OKLAHOMA CITY Kevin Durant sat slumped in the chair in front of his locker. He was staring at his phone, scrolling through the messages, and his eyes looked blank. There was nothing anyone could say or text to make him feel better. This was the kind of hurt that takes months to get over.

Durant had come within minutes of turning these Western Conference finals into anyone’s series, and then ... nothing. His Oklahoma City Thunder suffered an epic collapse, spitting up a 15-point lead in five minutes before falling to the Dallas Mavericks 112-105 in overtime. It was the kind of loss that pierces the thickest of hearts, an improbable meltdown that promises to fill weeks of air time for the local hang-up-andlisten psychiatrists.

It was the kind of loss that maybe someday Durant looks back on and says he needed.

The Thunder don’t want to hear that now.

They were moments

from evening the series at 2-2, and now they’re headed to Dallas within one loss of elimination, trying to recover for a Game 5 that very well could be their wake.

When it mattered most, they looked young and clueless, folding under the pressure, taking quick shots, throwing the ball to the Mavericks. It was as inept a stretch of crunch-time basketball as anyone can remember this deep into the playoffs.

“If this loss did not hurt,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said, “there’s no such thing as a loss that can hurt you.”

That’s the way it goes in the NBA. Nothing comes easy in this league, and for proof all Durant and the Thunder needed to do was look across the court. Has any star been knocked down more times in the past decade than Dirk Nowitzki?

It’s hard to imagine now. Nowitzki has played this postseason as a mix of Kobe Bryant and Hakeem Olajuwon, as ruthless and unstoppable a 7-foot force as the league has seen in years. He’s scored 48,

29, 18 and 40 points in this series, and his final five minutes of the fourth quarter of Game 4 were among the greatest of his career.

By the end, Thunder forward Nick Collison looked like David Robinson futilely trying to stay in front of Olajuwon in the 1995 West finals. On one stunning possession, Nowitzki swung the ball right to left to get Collison sailing past him, twisted backward, jumped off his right foot and lofted a shot that found the bottom of the net.

Of the 17 points the Mavericks scored in those five minutes to send the game into overtime, Nowitzki had 12.

“A lot of people compare him to Larry Bird,” Mavs center Brendan Haywood said.

“This is why.”

Nowitzki has never won in the playoffs the way Bird did. For years, he’s been the league’s lovable loser.

His Mavericks collapsed in the 2006 NBA Finals and lost in the first round three of the next four years. This season looked like more of the same.

When the Portland Trail Blazers

rallied from 23 points down in the second half to tie their first-round series at two games apiece, the Mavs flew home once again having to answer questions about their resiliency.

“I’ve obviously had my fair share of leads and lost them,” Nowitzki said. “It’s all part of the game. You know, it happens. It happens to the best teams in the league.”

Nowitzki has emerged from all those losses a tougher, better player. Durant will eventually realize this.

All the great ones take their lumps. Michael Jordan pounded his head against the Detroit Pistons. On Tim Duncan’s way to four titles, he was embarrassingly swept by the Los Angeles Lakers, lost another series to the Lakers with Derek Fisher’s .4 miracle and fell to the Mavs and Nowitzki in an epic Game 7. Even Bryant suffered two lean, embarrassing seasons when the Lakers rebuilt around him.

The Mavericks are a motley collection of veterans united by their past playoff misery, from their coach on down. Rick Carlisle

took the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals only to fall short each time. Jason Kidd lost consecutive NBA Finals with the New Jersey Nets and has forever struggled to get back.

“It’s a bunch of experienced guys that ultimately have one goal that came together and fought through some stuff,” Nowitzki said.

Of the final 17 points the Mavericks scored to send the game into overtime, Dirk Nowitzki had 12. He finished with his second 40-point game of the series.

These are the kinds of lessons that can’t be taught, only experienced. Don’t skip steps has been the Thunder mantra, and yet they arrived here earlier than anyone expected.

Watching them come unhinged, it’s a wonder they made it this far.

Durant buried that 3pointer to stake the Thunder to a 15-point lead with five minutes left, then pantomimed as if he were fastening a championship belt around his waist like Aaron Rodgers at the Super Bowl.

It was a foolish act,

and the Thunder continued to play down to their age. They’ve given up leads throughout these playoffs because they cannot execute their offense in the half court - a necessity in the postseason - and this was the harshest evidence yet. Once again, they were disorganized and impatient.

Losing their secondbest playmaker, James Harden, to too many fouls didn’t help, but the Thunder’s problems ran deeper.

“A game like this, experience is something that’s really important,” guard Thabo Sefolosha said.

“Tonight we showed we’re lacking some of it.”

The Thunder don’t know how to get the ball to Durant, and he doesn’t make the best decisions when he does get it. From the time the Thunder took their 15-point lead to the end of overtime, Durant missed all six of his shots and lost the ball twice. He still had a chance to win the game on the final possession of regulation, but rushed a 30-footer that was blocked by Shawn Marion.

“I didn’t know what

To p n e w c o m e r s i n A C C b a s k e t b a l l

By JASON KING Although strong at the top, the Atlantic Coast Conference was one of the weakest leagues in the country last season in terms of depth.

It may stay that way for awhile.

Other than Duke and North Carolina, only two ACC schools signed players ranked among the nation’s top 50 prospects by Rivals.com. Forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who is ranked No. 31, is headed to Virginia Tech while No. 48 Nick Faust

is Maryland-bound.

Of the 14 top 100 prospects who signed with ACC schools, 10 of them are headed to Duke, North Carolina or Virginia Tech.

To be fair, eight of the ACC’s 12 teams have endured coaching changes within the last two years. It’s certainly not easy for a coach much less a new one - to lure top 50-caliber prospects to a struggling program. So it’s only fair to give guys such as Steve Donahue (Boston College) and Brad Brownell (Clemson) a few years to establish footing before passing judgment on

their efforts as recruiters.

Meanwhile, don’t expect too many Final Four contenders from the ACC outside of Chapel Hill and Durham.

Here’s a list of newcomers expected to make an immediate impact in the ACC next season.

Austin Rivers, Duke, SG - The nation’s No. 1ranked recruit may not have as complete of a skill set as Kyrie Irving - at least not yet. But the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers is an offensive-minded playmaker who will be a must-watch for college

basketball fans.

James McAdoo, North Carolina, PF The co-MVP of last month’s Jordan Brand Classic will form arguably the nation’s top frontcourt trio along with future firstround draft picks John Henson and Tyler Zeller.

McAdoo, the nation’s eighth-ranked prospect, can score with his back to the basket but also has face-up skills.

P.J. Hairston, North Carolina, SF - The 6foot-5, 220-pound Hairston committed to the Tar Heels nearly two years ago. He’s a deadly 3-point shooter

who can pull up quickly off the catch or off the dribble. Hairston also has the size, strength and aggression to mix it up in the paint and finish around the rim.

Dorian FinneySmith, Virginia Tech, SF - The Hokies are in desperate need of help after losing standouts such as Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen.

Finney-Smith’s length, athleticism and intensity on the defensive end should make him an instant contributor.

Michael Gbinije, Duke, SF - Scouts say the athletic wing has college-ready ball skills and an advanced basket-

Quinn Cook ball IQ for his age. His ability to connect from the outside should earn Gbinije minutes - and he could become a significant factor if he develops a fierce, killer instinct.

Quinn Cook, Duke, PG - The Blue Devils are in need of a point guard following the graduation of Nolan Smith and the loss of Kyrie Irving to the NBA draft. Cook’s leadership abilities may make him a candidate from the get-go.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

23

SPORTS

Players file unfair labor charge against NBA

By BRIAN MAHONEY NEW YORK - The NBA players’ association filed an unfair labor charge against the league yesterday with the National Labor Relations Board, a move it hopes could block a lockout it feels owners want.

The union says the NBA hasn’t bargained in good faith, has made financial demands without offering concessions to the players, and has

bypassed the union to deal directly with players.

The charge filed with Region 2 of the NLRB seeks “an injunction against the NBA’s unlawful bargaining practices and its unlawful lockout threat.”

The NBA and players are trying to reach a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement before the June 30 expiration of the current one. They plan to meet early next month during the NBA finals, but

remain far apart on major financial issues and a work stoppage remains a possibility.

Though both sides insist they realize the importance of negotiating a deal themselves without it reaching the courts, as the NFL’s labor situation has, the union hopes the charge could give them legal backing if bargaining fails.

The charges against the league include: *making harsh, inflexible, and grossly

regressive “takeaway” demands that the NBA knows are not acceptable to the union and not supported by objective or reasonable factors or balanced by appropriate trade-offs; *engaging in classic “take it or leave it” and surface bargaining intended to delay action on a renewal CBA until the NBA locks out the represented employees in order to coerce them into accepting the NBA’s harsh and regressive demands;

*failing and refusing to provide relevant financial information properly requested and needed by the union to understand, test, and analyze the NBA’s asserted justification, based on financial weakness, for its grossly regressive contract demands; *threatening unionrepresented employees that the NBA will force them to pay for the cost of a lockout through even more draconian

takeaways from their CBA; *making demands and threats that are inherently destructive to the collective bargaining process and to employee rights, and that reflect the NBA’s hostility to that process and those rights and are intended to signal to Union-represented employees that back-and-forth bargaining is futile.

A request was made with the NBA seeking comment.

C h i e f a i n s g t h e r g NFL rookie symposium called off aid for tor nado victims

INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL has canceled next month’s rookie symposium because of the ongoing lockout.

League spokesman Greg Aiello said yesterday the decision was made because of “the uncertainty of the labor issues we are facing and the logistical challenges of conducting the symposium.”

“The symposium is a large, complex event involving many professionals and others,” he added. “In fairness, we could not continue to keep their commitment on hold.”

The symposium, which was to begin in Canton, Ohio, on June 26, is designed to teach

rookies life lessons on dealing with football, finances and their new lifestyle. Many players who have been through the symposium have said it has been a positive first step in their transition to the NFL. But with the NFL and NFLPA at an impasse — and with both sides waiting for a June 3 court hearing before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the legality of the ongoing lockout — the event is not going forward.

Teams and their draftees have not been allowed to communicate since the NFL gained a stay in court upholding the lockout.

The symposium would have been held in Canton, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for the first time.

The NFL also had called off programs that were scheduled for March at Wharton and Harvard. Those programs focused on financial education.

“Obviously I’m disappointed because I think the symposium is a valuable learning and bonding experience,” player agent David Canter said. One of his clients, linebacker Doug Hogue, was drafted by Detroit.

“Canceling the symposium is part of the issue related to the inability of the owners

to put forth a deal that can get done in time so we can get back to football and the business of football,” Canter said.

“It’s all very upsetting and sad for all parties involved.”

Agent Ben Dogra, who along with partner Tom Condon represents five first-round draft choices this year, didn’t expect the symposium to take place.

“The truth is, how can you cancel an event that isn’t supposed to happen anyway since there is a lockout,” Dogra said. “The NFL is closed for business.

Thus, to hold a rookie symposium wouldn’t make any logical sense.”

Tiger Woods expects to play U.S. Open

By BOB HARIG N E W T O W N SQUARE, Pa. — Despite wearing a protective boot and using crutches to get around in recent days, Tiger Woods said yesterday that he is pointing toward playing next month’s U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.

Woods withdrew after just nine holes of The Players Championship on May

12, having shot 42 at TPC Sawgrass — his only competitive golf since a tie for fourth at the Masters.

A knee strain and Achilles injury suffered during the third round of the Masters were bothersome enough to send Woods to the sideline and put his immediate future in doubt.

“I’m going to do everything I can,” Woods said about the U.S. Open, which begins June 16 — or in 23

days. “All my docs said I should be ready to go by then.”

Woods spoke during a news conference at Aronimink Golf Club, where tournament organizers were promoting the AT&T National tournament, which begins June 30.

The tournament benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation and Woods won the event in 2009 when it was played at Congressional.

Although Woods did

not officially rule out playing next week’s Memorial Tournament, his comments suggested he would not be able to play Jack Nicklaus’ annual event in Ohio.

He also admitted that he “probably” returned to golf too soon by trying to compete at the Players.

“I’ll start probably by the end of next week some strength training ... and try to get in golf shape again,” Woods said.

Dianne Peaches hugs Beatrice Montgomery at a community barbecue for residents of tornado ravaged north Minneapolis, Monday, May, 23, 2011, in the parking lot of the Cub Foods store in Minneapolis. The event was held again last night in the same location.

Photo/Jeff Wheeler

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Chiefs are collecting bottled water and contributing $35,000 to assist victims of devastating tornadoes in Reading, Kan., and Joplin, Mo. The Chiefs are also teaming with the Salvation Army to collect financial donations for Heart-toHeart International.

Team employees announced they would accept bottled-water donations at Arrowhead Stadium both yesterday and today. Owner Clark Hunt, general manager Scott Pioli and other team officials planned to help load the trucks on Wednesday.

More than 100 people were killed in the tornado that hit Joplin on Sunday. Earlier, one man died and dozens of homes were destroyed in the eastern Kansas community of Reading

DAILY CHALLENGE

S SP PO OR RT TS S WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

EPIC COLLAPSE FLOORS D U R A NT, T H U N D E R

SEE PAGE 22

P L AY E R S F I L E U N FA I R L A B O R C H A R G E ASEEGPAGAE 23 I N S T N B A