Daily Challenge 6-7-11

STATE, LOCAL LAYOFFS TO HIT RECORD LEVELS - PG. 2 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

THE NATION’S ONLY BLACK DAILY 35 Cents

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RANGEL PROPOSES TRANSITION ASSISTANCE FOR VETERANS

With unemployment among the nation’s veterans lation to ensure military personnel a smooth transisoaring, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) proposed legis- tion back to civilian life after service.

SEE PAGE 3.

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

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N E W S B RI E F S COURT UPHOLDS DECISION BANNING WORSHIP SERVICES AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS A federal appeals court says the city is within its rights when it decides to bar religious groups from using public schools for worship services on Sunday.

A 2-to-1 decision Thursday from the second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling which had allowed the Bronx Household of Faith to hold services at a public school.

The two judges in the majority said holding services at schools could unconstitutionally convert the facilities into churches on weekends and potentially violate the Constitution’s establishment clause.

The one dissenting judge said his colleagues were infringing on the church’s free speech rights.

The attorney for the church says it will appeal the decision.

MAYOR URGES CITY TO TAKE PART IN FREE, LOWCOST FITNESS ACTIVITIES Mayor Michael Bloomberg is encouraging New Yorkers to stay fit by making the entire city their gym.

It is part of a health and fitness campaign that aims to keep New Yorkers moving by highlighting all the free and low-cost fitness activities the city has to offer.

Bloomberg said it has never been easier or cheaper to stay in shape.

“You don’t have to join a gym to be physically active. Instead, make NYC your gym by taking advantage of everyday opportunities to increase physical activity,” said the mayor on 1010 WINS. “Take advantage of our many playing fields, basketball and tennis courts and other athletic facilities.”

The celebration of fitness kicks off Monday with organized activities being held every day this week in each borough.

For more information, visit NYCgovparks.org/BeFitNYC. HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER INJURES MAN IN BED-STUY A man is fighting for his life after being run down by a hitand-run driver in Brooklyn Sunday night.

Authorities say a white Jaguar mowed down a man in his 40s on Atlantic and Franklin Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday.

Investigators say the Jaguar sustained damage.

The victim was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he is listed in critical condition.

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State, local layoffs to hit record levels

By TAMI LUHBY Don’t look to state and local governments to prop up the job market.

To the contrary, this cashstrapped sector is set to go on a record-breaking layoff binge when the new fiscal year starts on July 1.

State and local governments are forecast to shed up to 110,000 jobs in the third quarter, the first time the blood-letting has risen into the triple digits, according to IHS Global Insight.

“We’re on a downward path,” said Greg Daco, principal U.S. economist at IHS. “It’s not looking good.”

State and local government employment has been a drag on the economy all year, averaging a loss of 23,000 jobs a month over the past three months. Meanwhile, the private sector has created an average of 180,000 a month during the same period.

In May, public employment shrunk by 29,000 jobs, mostly at the state and local level, while businesses created 83,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. All

told, the sector has lost 510,000 positions since its peak in August 2008.

States still cutting Though tax revenue is starting to rise, states are still wrestling with multi-billion-dollar budget gaps.

Federal stimulus funds helped minimize job cuts until now, but that money essentially runs out on June 30.

So states are planning to slash funds for education, social services and local governments, as well as downsize their payrolls even more, in the coming fiscal year.

And that’s the good news.

The bad news is that local governments are in even worse shape. Not only are they losing state aid, but they are finally feeling the fallout from the mortgage meltdown. Property tax assessments, a major funding source for municipalities, have only started to drop.

Hiring slows, unemployment rises Caught in a fiscal bind, local governments will have to reduce personnel expenses since it is the costliest part of their budgets and they’ve already slashed their programs and services.

“We’re at the tip of the iceberg,” said Christiana McFarland, the National League of Cities’ program director for finance and economic development. Cities “don’t have many options at this point.”

Teachers and school staff will bear the brunt of the layoffs this summer, as hundreds of thousands will likely be laid off around the nation. The national job numbers should reflect the hit in July and September.

It’s not uncommon for state and local governments to take longer to emerge from a recession. But usually by then, businesses have ramped up their hiring. This time around, private sector hiring has remained soft, making government cutbacks that much more painful.

And it will likely take at least a year before the state and local government job market revives, economists said. Until then, they are waiting to see the extent of the downsizing.

“The only question is ‘how much worse?,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Obama to decide soon on U.S. troops in Afghan WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will decide relatively soon on how many U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan in July to start a gradual pullout from that country, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met their senior national security aides for two hours to discuss policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan in the wake of the May 2 killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Carney said planned troop withdrawals were not discussed but that Obama expects to receive a recommendation from his military commanders on how many troops to withdraw starting next month as part of a transition to Afghan security control scheduled to conclude in 2014.

“If there are options contained within that recommendation, I’m sure those options will be reviewed and discussed,” Carney told reporters.

The United States has 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, a deployment that costs more than $110 billion a year.

Obama is to hold a video conference on Wednesday with

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who has been increasingly outraged at civilian casualties in the NATO-led battle against the Taliban in his country.

Karzai had warned NATO-led forces May 31 they were at risk of being seen as an occupying force rather than an ally after a spate of civilian casualties, and said he would take unspecified action if they con-

tinue.

Republican Senator John McCain told the Financial Times newspaper that he hopes Obama will withdraw no more than 3,000 troops from Afghanistan starting in July.

If Obama decides on a faster pullout as a consequence of the bin Laden killing, some experts believe he could withdraw 5,000, a full brigade combat team.

USDA announces summer food plan WASHINGTON — U.S. officials have announced a program they say is aimed, along with other initiatives, at feeding low-income children during summer when school is out.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced National Summer Food Service Program Week to promote the USDA’s program to alleviate hunger during the summer, operating through partnerships between USDA, state agen-

cies and local organizations, a USDA release said.

At least 17 million children in the United States face a higher risk for hunger during the summer.

Although more than 20 million children nationwide receive free and reduced-priced meals through the National School Lunch Program during the regular school year, only about 3 million are fed in summer meal programs.

“When it comes to our children, we must do everything possible to provide them the nutrition needed to be healthy, active and ready to win the future,” Vilsack said.

“But we also recognize that government cannot address this challenge alone, which is why this week we join our valued partners to raise awareness about the nutrition gap lowincome children face when school is out of session.”

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

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Rep. Charles Rangel proposes transition assistance for military veterans

By GREGORY DALE Special to the NNPA from the AFRO-American newspapers With unemployment among the nation’s veterans soaring, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) proposed legislation to ensure military personnel a smooth transition back to civilian life after service.

The proposed measure, named the Mandatory Transition Assistance Act, would require the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to make participation in Transition Assistance Programs mandatory for all military personnel prior to their

discharge. Veterans would also be assigned a counselor and would be taught job acquisition skills including interview techniques, résumé construction, and salary negotiations.

“Our soldiers often come back from their duty with wounds, both visible and invisible,” Rangel told the AFRO in an emailed statement. “In these tough economic times, they rarely have time to heal and adjust to civilian life before worrying about how to survive at home. By completing the Transition Assistance Programs upon discharge, our servicemen and women, who have already proven their competence, can be fully

prepared to join the civilian workforce.”

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, roughly 25 percent of veterans under 25-years-old are currently unemployed. Additionally, returning veterans who do find jobs earn an average of $5,736 less a year than civilians who had not served in the military. Returning soldiers with college degrees earn $9,526 less than their non-serving counterparts.

Also, more than 15 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan discharged war veterans were unemployed in January 2011, significantly exceeding the national jobless rate.

“America has lost over 6,000 lives

fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan— five of these fallen heroes are from my Upper Manhattan District,” Rangel said in a statement. “We owe it to our brave men and women who risk their lives every day in defense of our great nation to provide them with the necessary tools to succeed when they come home.”

Gates: No opt-out for opponents of gays in military

By DAVID ALEXANDER FORWARD OPERATING BASE DWYER, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert Gates bluntly told Marines on Sunday that they won’t be able to opt out of their enlistment just because they disagree with a government decision to end a ban on gays serving openly in the military.

Gates, who is on a tour of Afghanistan to bid farewell to the

troops before stepping down at the end of the month, was quizzed by a Marine sergeant about the controversial policy during a question and answer session at a base in southwestern Helmand Province.

Congress voted in December to repeal the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which allows gays to serve in the military only so long as they keep their sexual orientation to themselves. The Marine Corps has been one of the services most resistant to the change.

Storms may cost $7B in just a week

The new policy will not go into force until 60 days after the president, defense secretary and nation’s top uniformed military officer certify that it can be implemented without affecting military readiness.

The military is currently in the process of training service members about the new policy.

“Sir, we joined the Marine Corps because the Marine Corps has a set of standards and values that is better than that of the civilian sector.

And we have gone and changed those values and repealed the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,” the sergeant told Gates during the question and answer session.

“We have not given the Marines a chance to decide whether they wish to continue serving under that. Is there going to be an option for those Marines that no longer wish to serve due to the fact their moral values have not changed?” he asked.

“No,” Gates responded. “You’ll have to complete your ... enlistment just like everybody else.”

“The reality is that you don’t all agree with each other on your politics, you don’t agree with each other on your religion, you don’t agree with each other on a lot of things,” he added. “But you still serve together. And you work together.

And you look out for each other.

And that’s all that matters.”

Gates said training was underway to prepare the services for the new policy.

“If we do this right, nothing will change,” he said. “You will still have to abide by the same rules of behavior, the same discipline, the same respect for each other that has been the case through all the history of the Marine Corps.”

Congress acted to repeal the 17year-old ban in December. Gates backed the move, partly out of concern that legal challenges were on the verge of forcing an overturn of the policy, a move that would have required the Defense Department to implement the changes with little preparation.

Albany leaders reach ethics deal A torn American flag hangs on a pole outside of a house that was damaged during a massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri.

By NOAH BUHAYAR Insurers may face U.S. storm claims of as much as $7 billion from a single week last month, led by costs from the tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, modeling firm AIR Worldwide said.

Insured losses to homes, businesses and cars in the week ended May 27 will probably be $4 billion to $7 billion, the Boston-based firm said in an e-mailed statement. More than 500 people have been killed from tornadoes this year, including at least 130 in Joplin.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp.

(ALL), the largest U.S. home and auto insurers, are among companies coping with costs from natural disasters this quarter. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-

tration reported that 1,429 tornadoes had been reported in the U.S. through June 2, compared with 1,282 in all of 2010.

“More than 150 confirmed tornadoes raged across the heart of the country” from May 20 to May 27, said Tim Doggett, principal scientist at AIR Worldwide, in a statement.

“Thousands of buildings were damaged, hundreds more were completely destroyed, and more than a thousand people were injured.”

State Farm paid $916 million in claims from storms this quarter, the policyholder-owned insurer said May 27. Catastrophes, including tornadoes in Alabama, cost Allstate $1.4 billion in April, the Northbrook, Illinois-based company said before the Joplin storms. U.S. storms in the week ended April 28 cost $3.7 billion to $5.5 billion, AIR said last month.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today a major ethics reform deal made with state leaders.

Under the Clean Up Albany Act, a new agency will police the executive and legislative branches, as well as lobbyists for the first time.

It would also require lawmakers who are lawyers to disclose information about their clients, which will then be made available to the public.

Legislative leaders expect to pass the reforms in the next few days, and they will take effect in January.

The reforms will replace the current Commission on Public Integrity, created under then-Governor Eliot Spitzer.

The governor said this bill represents “great progress,” and while the reforms will reveal more personal information about legislators, he applauded how Albany would have increased transparency.

“This is a historical piece of legis-

lation, it is a major step forward,” said Cuomo. “This will make a big difference. We talk about cleaning up Albany, this bill is actually going to do it.”

“A good government is one that every day earns the people’s trust,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

The governor said that under the new law, legislators would still be able to accept from constituents meals and drinks of a “nominal” value of $15 or less.

Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos also pledged to pass a property tax cap before the end of the legislative session.

The Democratic speaker went further, and said he also wants to strengthen rent laws and legalize same-sex marriage in the remaining days of the session.

Fighting corruption in Albany was a major part of Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign.

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

FORUM

Holder does the right thing on crack cocaine THOMAS H. WATKINS

By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

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Attorney General Eric Holder took another step forward in trying to right a horrendous wrong in the long running drug-reform fight.

He announced that thousands of federal prisoners sentenced under the draconian and grossly unfair crack cocaine sentencing law may be eligible for early release.

The old law required that judges tack a minimum mandatory sentence of five years on anyone caught with crack cocaine. More than 80 percent of those sentenced for crack use are poor, ill-educated Blacks.

Yet those caught with the same amount of powdered cocaine, mostly whites, often middle-class and suburban, get probation and referrals to drug diversion programs.

After years of prodding and

Attorney General Eric Holder pressure from groups advocating for drug reform and prisoner rights, as well as from families of prisoners locked up under the brutal law, Congress last year scrapped the old sentencing statute, and equalized the sentences for powdered and crack cocaine use.

Change Leaves Gaping Hole Still, this change left a gaping hole in the system. It did not

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make the new, fairer sentencing retroactive. That leaves thousands of prisoners sentenced under the old law in legal limbo.

Holder says that situation may be rectified now—but the operative word is “may.”

There is still no guarantee that many of the prisoners, who in theory are eligible to have their sentences revised, will in fact have them shortened. For

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

FORUM

HUD launches new campaign against housing fraud

By CHARLENE CROWELL According to the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an estimated three million families have already lost their homes to foreclosure since 2007.

But, the worst may still be ahead; analysts now predict that as many as eight million more Americans could face foreclosure by 2012.

With so many desperate homeowners looking for solutions, a new kind of consumer fraud has found a ready-made market. Families fighting for their homes and financial survival can be gullible to shady businesses that promise guaranteed mortgage modifications or a halt to foreclosures already in progress.

Oftentimes, aggressive sales pitches to troubled homeowners claim that serious financial problems can go away as soon as payment of an advance fee is made. Other solicitations call for sharing personal financial information over the phone or online to quickly solve a housing

dilemma.

The spread of these and other consumer scams have now trigged a new campaign by HUD and other consumer groups with dual goals.

Know It. Avoid It. Report It is a new campaign that seeks to: 1) direct homeowners facing foreclosure to trusted housing resources and counselors; and 2) solicit the support of homeowners to shut down scammers who target communities of color and the elderly. The campaign includes support from the Federal Trade Commission, NeighborWorks America, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law. Using a combination of traditional and social media, the effort will also include multi-lingual brochures, posters and flyers along with multiple outreach activities in hard-hit areas such as Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

“You can’t go around Miami without seeing all these promises to ‘help’ and the result is that too many people are being taken advantage of,” said Ed Jennings Jr., HUD Southeast Regional Administrator.

“With millions of homeowners in foreclosure or at risk of losing their

Right thing on crack cocaine some, revised sentencing should lead to their release.

For now, Holder’s recommendation for the early release of many of the prisoners is only a recommendation. Several ranking GOP congressional members have voiced opposition to the release plan.

Whether Republicans’ vocal opposition will translate into active action to stall implementation of the release plan remains to be seen.

The next hurdle is the U.S. Sentencing Commission. It still must take a formal vote to approve the revised sentencing guidelines. The commission almost certainly will finalize the changes.

But conservative drug warriors may still try to rally support against immediate implementation of the sentencing change.

There’s another legal hurdle. And that’s the courts. A judge or the Bureau of Prisons can simply order a prisoner, who received a mandatory sentence for crack sale or possession, to be released. But that’s by no means a given.

In many cases, the prisoners or their attorneys will have to petition their sentencing judges for their early release. Based on past practices, some judges have modified sentences.

also deeply resentful that the law hamstrung their discretion to impose sentences.

Mandatory minimums were clearly a slap at their judicial power. In several judicial districts, judges quietly rebelled, bent the rules and lightened sentences for some first time offenders.

In other cases, though, judges haven’t been willing to loosen the screws on sentencing. So the process for early release could become a drawn out, labyrinth of petitions, legal wrangling, dodges and even denials for many of the prisoners.

Federal prosecutors also could have a say in which prisoners are released and which ones aren’t.

In some federal districts, prosecutors have taken a hard line on all drug offenders no matter how petty or small their drug use. In other districts, prosecutors have focused on major drug dealers and cartels, rather than on the petty dealers and users. They are more likely to voice no opposition to the early release of small-time offenders.

But even if every prisoner who is eligible for release under the attorney general’s plan goes free, that still would affect fewer than 6,000 prisoners. These prisoners have absolutely no extenuating circumstances, such as a prior criminal conviction, and are the ones most likely to receive early release.

Federal Judges Outraged In 2005, a large group of federal judges said it was time to change the sentencing law. They expressed outrage over the patently unfair disparity in sentencing drug offenders for virtually the same crime. They were

A Lifeline of Hope Still, many first time drug offenders, who had the misfortune to get hit with the unfair sentences and faced long years of incarceration, have

Continued from page 4

homes as they fall behind on mortgage payments, and eight million Americans expected to face foreclosure now through 2012, the timing of this campaign could not be more prudent,” continued Jennings.

“When you know better, you do better.”

Another outreach effort in HUD’s campaign featured a two-hour telethon on June 1 with more than 20 housing counselors in the studio of Los Angeles’ KMEX-TV. Counselors answered viewer calls and also sought information to determine whether callers were at risk of being scammed and provided information on how and where to report scams.

Although HUD’s campaign has begun in three heavily-affected markets, every state where large numbers of foreclosures have occurred is also a potential target for this new kind of fraud. Residents of other states with large foreclosures include: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Anyone, regardless of where they live, can dial a toll free help line at 1-

— Charlene Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lending’s communications manager for state policy and outreach. She can be reached at: Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

been given a lifeline of hope. The importance of this can’t be minimized; it opens a large window for the Obama Administration, Congress and the general public to rethink how the nation deals with drug use and abuse when the offenders are Black, ethnic and poor.

President Obama’s election did reopen the door on efforts to do away with the disparities.

Holder would not have sharply called the sentencing disparities “dra-

matically more severe,” made the recommendation for early release of prisoners suffering under those disparities, and pushed hard an end to the drug sentencing disparities without the blessing of the White House.

It’s a good first step to right a glaring wrong, but again it’s only a good first step, not the final one to once and for all rid the system of the type of drug laws that mock the essential American concept of equal protection under the law.

888-995-HOPE (4673), or go online for more advice on how to avoid housing scams at www.loanscamlert.org.

Additionally, the Center for Responsible Lending has state-bystate information on the number of foreclosures and the costs of bad lending practices, including payday loans, bank overdraft loans, and overcharges in auto financing. It is available at: http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/toolsresources/factsheets/.

With communities of color already having lost $350 billion of wealth through foreclosures, everyone should be on guard against promises of debt relief that sound too good to be true. If there really was a quick and easy fix to the foreclosure fiasco, it would have happened before so many families lost their homes.

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

White House says needs to deal with housing problems WASHINGTON — The struggling housing sector will not stop the country’s economic recovery but the Obama administration needs to deal with problems in the market, a top White House economic adviser said.

Housing is the one part of the economy that has been persistently underperforming due to the glut of houses for sale and weak demand.

“We still need to deal with these housing issues and it’s going to take us substantial time as a nation to work our way out of what was a 10year-plus bubble, but I do not believe that will prevent us from recovering,” White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The administration is already using taxpayer funds from its $700 billion bank bailout program to help prevent foreclosures

and give struggling Americans a reprieve on their mortgage payments.

But the programs have had little impact on the overall housing sector. March home prices slumped below lows reached during the financial crisis in April 2009.

Goolsbee did not elaborate on what the administration could do to help the housing market recover.

The White House has little leeway to increase government spending to help spur the housing market to keep the economic recovery advancing. Political appetite for further government stimulus measures is low as lawmakers from both parties focus on deficit reduction.

The administration and Democratic and Republican lawmakers are trying to hammer out a budget deal to curb spending and raise the

country’s limit on how much can be borrowed.

The Obama administration says Congress has until August to increase the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling before the U.S. government is no longer able to pay its bills and will start to default on obligations, including payments to bondholders.

Goolsbee said he was optimistic that the debt ceiling issue could be resolved within the next month and he said Congress should not push the negotiations right up to the deadline.

“This is not an alarm clock. It would be extremely dangerous to get right up to the edge,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“You’ve seen some people even saying, ‘well, it’d be OK if we defaulted for a short period.’ That’s not true. We shouldn’t do that. We should resolve this over the next month,” he said.

A realtor and bank-owned sign is displayed near a house for sale in Phoenix, Arizona.

Underscoring the need for Congress to act quickly, Moody’s rating agency warned last week that it would consider cutting the

country’s top-notch credit rating if there was no progress by mid-July to cut the $1.4 trillion deficit and raise the debt limit.

Major wildfire chars 144,000 Supreme Court rejects illegal immigrants’ acres in eastern Arizona tuition case

By DAVID SCHWARTZ PHOENIX — Firefighters battling a raging wildfire in eastern Arizona have made some slight progress in preventing the spread of a blaze that has charred 144,000 acres of prime forest, officials said on Sunday.

More than 1,300 firefighters from across the nation worked to try to protect several small mountain communities and stop the stubborn wildfire, burning about 250 miles northeast of Phoenix.

“They are making progress halting the advance of the fire,” Deryl Jevons, a fire information spokesman, told Reuters.

“It’s not like we’ve shut it down. But we’ve had a better time of it in the last few days.”

Weather conditions had been helping firefighting efforts, but there was fear on Sunday that wind speeds would increase and lightning might strike the area, Jevons said.

The so-called Wallow Fire, which broke out a week ago, is now the third-largest in Arizona history. It was at zero percent containment.

Several hundred residents in the small community of

By JAMES VICINI

Cattle graze in a field as smoke from the Wallow wildfire settles in the sky near Eagar, Arizona.

Alpine and tiny Nutrioso were forced to flee their homes late on Thursday, and American Red Cross officials said as many as seven residences were destroyed.

There has been no estimate for when these residents would be able to return home.

Residents in nearby Greer, Arizona, a town of several hundred people, have been put on notice about a possible evacuation. Fire officials said the fire is at least eight miles away.

Smoke from the large wildfire also is cascading across the area and spreading into New Mexico and parts of Colorado.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer visited the fire scene on Saturday, telling reporters at a news conference that it was a “frightening sight” as she viewed it from a plane.

But Brewer said she remained hopeful about getting the blaze under control.

Also in Arizona, nearly 1,000 firefighters have better control of a major blaze burning in the southeastern part of the state.

Officials said the Horseshoe 2 Fire has consumed more than 100,000 acres and prompted the evacuation of two small communities. That fire is 55 percent contained.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a California law that gives illegal immigrants the same instate college tuition rates as legal state residents, another contentious issue in the nation’s immigration policy debate.

The justices refused to hear an appeal by group of out-of-state U.S. citizens after the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law and dismissed their lawsuit.

The 2001 law provides that any student who attends a California high school for three years and graduates can get in-state college and university tuition. Illegal immigrants who qualify must swear they will seek to become U.S. citizens.

Nine other states, including New York, Texas and Illinois, have adopted similar laws. Opponents said California unlawfully discriminated against U.S. citizens in favor of illegal immigrants and said the case involved a question of great national importance.

Attorneys for the students

who pay higher out-of-state rates said about 25,000 illegal immigrants receive the tuition breaks every year.

The state put the number at 6,500 students.

California, which faces a worsening budget crisis, spends more than $200 million each year subsidizing the tuition of illegal immigrants, attorneys for the outof-state students said.

They said the California measure was trumped by a 1996 federal law barring any state from providing illegal immigrants any higher education benefits based on residency unless U.S. citizens were eligible for the same benefit.

The California Supreme Court ruled the state law was based on attending high school in the state, it says nothing about state residency and it does not violate federal law.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal without comment.

In a separate case, the justices last month upheld an Arizona law that allows a state to shut down businesses that hire illegal immigrants, a different issue in the immigration policy debate.

DAILY D CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

INTERNATIONAL

7

Left-winger Humala wins Peru election, markets plunge

By TERESA CESPEDES & CAROLINE STAUFFER LIMA - Left-wing former army commander Ollanta Humala won Peru’s presidential election and vowed the poor will share in the country’s new wealth but financial markets plummeted on fears that he will ruin the economy.

Humala claimed victory and results from 89 percent of ballot boxes gave him a lead of more than 2.7 percentage points over right-wing lawmaker Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori.

Peru’s stock market sank more than 12.5 percent, its biggest loss ever, before trading was suspended until Tuesday. The sol currency fell 1.5 percent, prompting the central bank to offer to sell about $215 million in deposit certificates aimed at curbing the currency’s fall.

Humala has dropped some of his more radical proposals since narrowly losing the last election in 2006 and senior advisers tried to reassure markets on Monday that he will run the economy prudently, but many investors sim-

ply don’t trust him.

Shares in mining companies fell as much as 15 percent because Humala has said he wants to impose a windfall tax Humala on Peru’s vast mining sector.

Major firms from neighboring Chile that have units in Peru also saw their shares fall sharply while Peru’s bonds sovereign plunged in New York on the vote outcome.

Investors worry that Humala, who takes office on July 28, will increase state control over the fast-growing economy and throw away fiscal discipline.

They are keenly awaiting his picks for finance minister and central bank chief as a sign of whether he will adopt moderate policies or push for radical change. It is not clear when Humala will start making his key appointments.

Kurt Burneo, a top economic adviser to Humala and a former central bank and finance ministry official tipped as a possible finance minister in the next government, said that those selling Peruvian assets would get burned.

“Those speculating now are simply going to lose their money because everything is

very solid,” Burneo told Reuters.

He said Humala guarantees counter-cyclical fiscal policy, will respect the central bank’s independence as well as investments made by private companies, and will cut Peru’s debt-toGDP ratio, now at around 22 percent.

Peru is a major metals exporter and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies over the past decade, but a third of its people are stuck in poverty and Humala has promised to spread around the benefits of the economic boom.

‘SOCIAL INCLUSION’ “We want economic growth with social inclusion,” Humala, 48, told thousands of cheering supporters at a rally in downtown Lima that stretched into the early hours of Monday. “We can build a more just Peru for everybody.”

Thousands of followers danced in jubilation, chanting “Humala Presidente! and “Fujimori never again.”

After losing the 2006 election, Humala toned down his anti-capitalist policies to try to win over centrist voters.

He vows to run a balanced budget, bring experienced technocrats into his government and respect foreign investors who plan to spend $40 billion on extractive

projects in Peru in the next decade. He also wants to give the poor a greater share of Peru’s natural resource wealth and end social conflicts over minerals and oil.

Another of Humala’s chief economics advisers, Felix Jimenez, who is seen as a possible central bank chief, insisted that investors have nothing to fear.

“Our economic proposals are totally sensible: to maintain macroeconomic equilibrium, consolidate growth and create conditions for private domestic and foreign investment growth,” he told Reuters.

Fujimori, 36, was favored by business leaders but many voters rejected her because her father is serving a 25year prison sentence for corruption and using death squads to crack down on suspected leftists when he was president in the 1990s.

Humala, who as an army commander led an unsuccessful revolt against the elder Fujimori in 2000, had hammered his rival for working in her father’s authoritarian government.

Fujimori warned Humala could wreck Peru’s economy by dismantling the free-market reforms begun by her father.

Those

U.S. urges immediate Yemen move to democracy

By MOHAMMED GHOBARI & JASON BENHAM RIYADH/SANAA - The United States on Monday called on Yemen to move toward democracy while President Ali Abdullah Saleh recovers from shrapnel wounds in Saudi Arabia.

While Yemen’s acting leader insisted Saleh would return in days, diplomats and analysts feel Saleh’s stay in Saudi Arabia may be prolonged as regional heavyweight Riyadh tries to press Saleh to hand over power to prevent its neighbor imploding.

“We are calling for a peaceful and orderly transition,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters. “We feel that an immediate transition is in the best interests of the Yemeni peo-

ple.”

Saleh, 69, is being treated in a Riyadh hospital after he was wounded on Friday when a rocket struck his Sanaa palace, killing seven people and wounding senior officials and advisers. “(Saleh) is in Saudi Arabia receiving medical treatment.

There is a civilian government that remains in place in Yemen.

We believe that the time is now to begin that peaceful transition toward a democratic process,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing.

Pressure has mounted on all parties to find an exit strategy to clashes bringing Yemen to the brink of civil war, amid worries it could become a failed state home to an al Qaeda wing adjacent to the world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-brokered truce was holding in Sanaa after two weeks

of fighting between Saleh’s forces and a powerful tribal group which killed more than 200 people and forced thousands to flee.

But there was fresh fighting in the flashpoint southern city of Taiz, where the United Nations said it was investigating reports that as many as 50 have been killed in the past week.

An opposition party coalition, which joined months of street protests to end Saleh’s threedecade rule, said it backed transferring power to the vice-president, Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is now the acting leader.

Hadi was quoted as saying on the Saba state news agency that Saleh’s health was improving and he “would return to the homeland in the coming days.”

But a diplomat in the region said: “I don’t think the Saudis or his people want him back. He doesn’t have regional support.”

reforms helped set the stage for unprecedented growth in the past decade as Peru left behind the hyperinflation and guerrilla wars of the 1980s and ‘90s.

HARD-LINER OR OVERREACTION? Critics say Humala is still a hard-liner at heart who will take over private firms and try to change the constitution to allow himself to run for consecutive terms like his one-time mentor, Venezuela’s firebrand leftist leader Hugo Chavez.

“Humala has four different manifestoes. He doesn’t convince me and represents a return to militarism of the past,” said 35-year-old security guard Julio Cauche when he went to vote.

Humala says the state must vigorously regu-

late the economy, although he has ruled out taking over private firms.

Some on Wall Street said the market had sold off too much.

“We would frankly look for opportunities to add exposure. I think the market has probably overreacted a bit here,” said Joyce Chang, global head of emerging markets research at J.P. Morgan.

Humala says he will only serve one term and emulate moderate leftists like Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Highly disciplined from his military days, Humala jogs around his neighborhood each morning and keeps his hair cropped short. His entourage calls him “comandante.”

Israel sees Syrian hand in Golan clashes, 23 dead

By ARI RABINOVITCH JERUSALEM - Israel, with U.S. backing, accused Syria on Monday of orchestrating deadly confrontations on a ceasefire line between the two countries as a distraction from Damascus’s bloody crackdown on an 11-week-old revolt.

Syria said 23 people, including a woman and a child, were killed and 350 wounded on Sunday when Israeli troops fired on Palestinian protesters who surged against the fortified boundary fence on Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said live Israeli fire had caused casualties and U.N. monitors were “seeking to confirm facts.”

Russia voiced “deep concern” about the flareup and the shooting of unarmed demonstrators, while the United States said it was “deeply troubled” by attempts to breach the Golan disengagement line and urged restraint on both sides.

Washington backed Israel’s charge that by permitting the protests to take place, President Bashar al-Assad was trying to shift world attention from the security forces’ killing of at least 1,100 Syrians engaged in anti-government protests.

“This is clearly an attempt by Syria to incite these kinds of protests,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, saying Damascus hoped to divert attention from its own problems.”

“Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself,” Toner added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The events along the Syrian border did not erupt by chance. There is an attempt being made here to heat up the border and to try and breach our borders.”

Netanyahu, speaking to reporters at Israel’s parliament, said Israel would defend its borders and charged Syria with “an attempt here to divert international attention from what is going on inside Syria and the difficult events in Hama.”

AFRICAN SCENE

88

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

AFRICAN SCENE

Top Nigeria lawmaker arrested on corruption charge

By BASHIR ADIGUN

Brotherhood party legal in Egypt for first time CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, set up to run in polls, was declared legal in Egypt on Monday, state news agency MENA said, for the first time since the movement was founded eight decades ago.

“The commission on party affairs has given its approval for the formation of the Freedom and Justice Party,” it said.

The Muslim Brotherhood was officially illegal but mostly tolerated during the rule of president Hosni Mubarak, ousted in a popular revolt on February 11. It was set up in 1928 and an official ban imposed in 1954.

As the best-organised political movement in Egypt, the Brotherhood announced on April 30 the formation of a “non-theocratic party” to contest up to half of parliament’s seats in a September election.

The Freedom and Justice Party announced last month that it had almost 9,000 founding members.

DHL plane crashes in African nation of Gabon LIBREVILLE, Gabon - A DHL cargo plane has crashed in the Central African nation of Gabon, where police rescued the crew with speedboats.

The plane went down Monday morning, coming to rest with its nose buried in the low tide just off the coast near a major high school.

Authorities at the scene who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the press said the four-man crew had survived and had been taken to a local hospital.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene said DHL agents also were present.

The plane came to rest in the shallow banks of the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast-hugging highway that traverses Gabon’s capital, Libreville. Because it was low tide, the plane was not fully submerged.

- JOEL BOUOPDA TATOU

Swiss to prosecute Libya over ‘hostage taking’ GENEVA - Switzerland on Monday approved legal action against the Libyan regime for holding two Swiss citizens hostage, the justice ministry said.

“The Federal Council authorises the opening of a penal procedure against the Libyan regime... over hostage-taking and extortion and blackmail in the case of the two Swiss citizens Rachid Hamdani and Max Goeldi,” the ministry said in a statement.

The attorney-general’s office in March sought authorisation from the government to open criminal investigations against Libya, after the Swiss foreign ministry filed a complaint.

On Monday, the Swiss government agreed to the attorney-general’s request as it found “no motive of a political nature opposing the opening” of such an investigation.

When asked where the case against the Libyan regime could be lodged and heard, a spokeswoman from the attorney-general’s office said: “Since we are at the beginning of the investiga-

ABUJA, Nigeria Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency arrested one of the West African nation’s top politicians Sunday night on suspicion of defrauding the oil-rich country, an official said.

Officers arrested outgoing House of Representatives speaker Dimeji Bankole at his home in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja after the lawmaker resisted arrest for more than four hours, said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Babafemi gave no additional details about the allegations facing Bankole, other than to say that he would be held “in custody to enable him to have sufficient time to answer questions on the numerous fraud allegations against him.” The lawmaker apparently refused several requests by officials to be interviewed.

“An intelligence report ... showed that the former speaker was planning to leave Abuja for Lagos on Sunday evening and thereafter flee the country through an illegal route,” a statement from Babafemi read.

It was not immediately clear if Bankole had a lawyer. His spokesman, Idowu Bakare, previously issued a statement saying Bankole “never benefited” from his position, including taking a more than $66 million loan from United Bank for Africa PLC for his office. That was on top of his annual salary and money already budgeted for his office, which runs into the millions of dollars.

Bakare on Monday denied alle-

Nigeria’s House of Representatives speaker Dimeji Bankole gations that Bankole was plan- ballot-box stuffing and violence ning to flee. He said he was with dominated later polls, with more Bankole at home when he was than 800 people dying in reliarrested and that Bankole did gious rioting after the presidennot resist arrest. He said security tial election.

Nigeria, one of the top crude guards at Bankole’s home did question the antigraft body’s offi- oil suppliers to the U.S., has a cers at the gate because they long history of corruption, with one official once estimating the were not expected.

Positions in Nigeria’s National country has lost more than $380 Assembly are highly lucrative, billion to graft since gaining its and even low-ranking members independence from Britain in get more than $1 million in 1960. Corruption trickles down salaries and benefits, plus the from corrupt politicians in Abuja ability to direct a swollen budget to the lowest police officer shakin a nation where billions in oil ing down bribes from motorists at one of the country’s many trafrevenues routinely go missing.

Bankole conceded defeat to an fic checkpoints.

Bankole’s detention is the opposition party candidate in Nigeria’s April elections, one of a highest-profile case in many number of prominent politicians months for the Economic and who lost their seats in the coun- Financial Crimes Commission, founded by former President try’s National Assembly.

Many pointed to Bankole’s Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003. defeat as a sign that Nigeria’s While critics say Obasanjo used elections, typically marred by the agency to go after his oppofraud and thuggery, had nents, officers did make major improved over the nation’s 12 arrests under then-chief Nuhu years as a democracy. However, Ribadu.

African growth set to slow to 3.7%: study LISBON - Growth in African countries will to slow to 3.7 percent this year owing to upheavals in northern Africa and increased food and fuel prices, the latest African Economic Outlook report said on Monday, pointing to a rally in 2012.

Africa should benefit from the arrival of investment from emerging countries on the continent.

But the regions in

Africa should also increase their integration to have a stronger position towards trading partners and notably emerging economies, it said.

Last year China became the biggest trading partner for Africa, displacing the United States.

In the last 10 years, the amount of trade with emerging countries as a proportion of all trade by Africa had

risen from 23 percent to 39 percent.

Africa had to attract investment into more diversified sectors than oil, and generating more added value, in order to boost growth.

The report noted that Africa had posted a strong rebound of 4.9 percent growth last year, but warned “Africa is marching into serious headwinds, notably caused by high food and fuel prices and political

upheavals in a number of countries.”

The report, compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the African Development Bank, UN Development Programme and UN Economic Commission for Africa, forecast growth to recover to 5.8 percent next year.

However that forecast is based on a quick end to unrest to Libya and Ivory Coast.

D CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011 DAILY

AFRICAN SCENE

9

Fighting, rights abuses escalating in Darfur: HRW KHARTOUM (AFP) Serious human rights abuses have risen in the last six months in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, with a surge in deadly government-led attacks on areas, populated Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

“Since December 2010, a surge in government-led attacks on populated areas and a campaign of aerial bombing have killed and injured scores of destroyed civilians, property, and displaced more than 70,000 people, largely from ethnic Zaghawa and Fur communities linked to rebel groups,” HRW said in a report.

“Government forces continue to violate the laws of war in their military operations against rebel forces with utter impunity.

“In mid-May alone, government airstrikes in north and south Darfur reportedly killed more than 20 civilians,” the New York-based rights watchdog said in its 28page report.

“With only a month

A picture released by the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur shows women with their belongings after a fire accidentally broke out at their shelters in Kuma Garadayat, a village in North Darfur, on May 19, 2011.

Serious human rights abuses have risen in the last six months in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, with a surge in deadly government-led attacks on populated areas, Human Rights Watch says.

Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran before Sudan splits in since non-Arab rebels Abuja, and periodic two, international pres- first rose up against the heavy fighting with the sure to end ongoing A r a b - d o m i n a t e d army resumed.

Minnawi’s branch of government abuses and Khartoum regime in the Sudan Liberation impunity for war 2003.

But in December, Army has since fought crimes in Darfur is more urgent than ever,” rebel leader Minni alongside the Justice said HRW’s Africa Minnawi took up arms and Equality Movement against the government (JEM) and the SLA facdirector Daniel Bekele.

Darfur has witnessed for failing to implement tion of Abdelwahid Nur. A five-day Darfur a significant decline in a 2006 peace accord he conferviolence in recent years, signed with them in stakeholders

ence, held in the Qatari capital Doha, ended last week with the adoption of a framework document for peace in Sudan’s troubled western region.

But while the JEM, the most-heavily armed Darfur rebel group, welcomed the document as a basis for future peace negotiations with Khartoum, neither of the the other two key rebel movements attended the conference.

At least 300,000 people have been killed in the eight-year conflict and 1.8 million people forced to flee their homes, the United Nations says, while the government puts the death toll at 10,000.

In addition to the clashes between the army and the rebels, the HRW report also documented alleged attacks by government security forces on the camps of those displaced by the conflict, as well as sexual violence and the suppression of peaceful student demonstrations.

“The full extent of human suffering and scale of human rights abuses is still not known, however, as the government continues to restrict access to much of Darfur by both the peacekeepers and humanitarian aid organisations,” the group said.

Relief agency warns on flooding, food shortages in Nigeria

Libyan rebels seize mountain town

By YOUSSEF BOUDLAL & PETER GRAFF YAFRAN/TRIPOLI - Libyan rebels entered the mountain town of Yafran on Monday, driving out Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in a sign NATO air strikes in the area may be paying off.

Yafran had been besieged by pro-Gaddafi forces for more than a month with food, drinking water and medicines running short.

“The rebels say they have taken the town,” said a Reuters photographer, after entering the town from the north. “There is no sign of any Gaddafi forces.”

Yafran, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of the Libyan capital, is in the Western Mountains where the local population — most of them belonging to the Berber ethnic minority — have joined the uprising against Gaddafi.

The rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of moun-

tains near the border with Tunisia. Their attempts to advance on the capital have been blocked by Gaddafi’s betterequipped forces.

It was unclear if Gaddafi forces remained in the south of Yafran.

Rebel flags could be seen, along with defaced posters and photos of Gaddafi.

Asked about reports of rebel gains in the Western mountain area, Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters government forces could retake rebel territory in hours, but were holding back from doing so to avoid civilian casualties.

British warplanes destroyed two tanks and two armored personnel carriers on June 2 in Yafran.

Towns the length of the mountain range have come under attack by pro-Gaddafi forces. Residents who fled said Yafran had suffered some of the worst hardship.

A rebel spokesman called Abdulrahman said Gaddafi’s forces had begun bombarding

Zintan, another mountain town about 40 km (25 miles) west of Yafran, early on Monday with Grad rockets.

“Two civilians were martyred and a third wounded,” he said.

“Fighting between the revolutionaries and the brigades (proGaddafi forces) broke out at around 1100 in the Bir Ayyad area, some 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Zintan,” he added.

“The revolutionaries destroyed three armored vehicles. The fighting is still going on.”

Accounts from Zintan could not be independently verified because access for reporters is limited.

APACHES ATTACK NATO attack helicopters were in action in the east on Sunday.

Apache helicopters destroyed a rocket launch system on the coast near the eastern town of Brega, Britain’s defense ministry said.

A French military source said French planes and helicopters had been operating in Libya every night since Friday, but declined to give further details.

A Nigerian worker pulls a cart of jerrycans through a flooded road in Lagos in 2007.

Nigeria's major emergency relief agency Sunday warned that predicted unprecedented rainfall and heavy flooding this year posed a serious threat to food security in Africa's most populous nation.

Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei LAGOS - yields of foods or death Nigeria’s major of animals.”

NEMA director genemergency relief eral Muhammad Sani agency Sunday Sidi has directed all the warned that pre- agency’s six zonal dicted unprecedent- offices across the couned rainfall and try to begin to sensitise heavy flooding this all stakeholders on year posed a serious “high risk threats of threat to food secu- heavy rainfall” posed to and animal prority in Africa’s most food duction, it said. populous nation.

The warning folThe National lowed a recent weather E m e r g e n c y forecast by the nation’s Management Agency official meteorological (NEMA) in a statement agency that Nigeria warned food crops and may experience an animal husbandry “unprecedented heavy farmers “of dangers rainfall this year” posed by flooding that which may lead to flash may cause serious dam- flooding across the age and reduction of the country.

1 10

CARIBBEAN NEWS DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

Health authority liable for death of patient, says Trinidad AG PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — The South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) has to accept liability in the death of Chrystal Ramsoomair. That is the findings of an investigation by an independent panel said Trinidad and Tobago General Attorney Anand Ramlogan, who says the Authority must now offer a financial settlement to Ramsoomair’s husband.

Speaking at a postCabinet news conference last week, Ramlogan disclosed the findings of the investigation which led to the “suspension” of five doctors and five nurses and the subsequent firing of SWRHA CEO Paula ChesterCumberbatch.

Ramlogan said, while the actual reason or cause of death has not been shown to be the direct result of any action or omission on the part of the medical staff, “the growing body of medical jurisprudence does sug-

gest that whilst it may not be possible to identify a direct or single act, error or omission on the part of the medical personnel that caused or led to the death of a patient, inferences can be properly made in appropriate cases where institutional failures and shortcomings justify a finding of medical negligence”.

The AG said there were “lapses” on the part of medical staff, the doctors and nurses not directly were responsible for the death. Ramlogan said the panel however found that the doctors, consultant Dr Ashmeed Mohammed and Registrar Dr Jaggernauth, who were on-call for emergency duties, also had a clinic fixed with prearranged appointments and “in addition to these duties the hospital management scheduled the elective Caesarean section surgery on the deceased at the same time”.

He said, “As a result

of a directive by the then hospital medical director Dr Anand Chattergoon, elective Caesarean sections were booked when the unit was on-call.”

“That the hospital’s management scheduled an elective Caesarean section on the day when the unit was on 24-hour emergency on-call duty and had a prearranged gynaecology clinic to attend to, demonstrates poor planning and (poor) overall patient case management. It is not surprising that the consultant (who was on duty at the clinic at the material time) was not in attendance when the C-section on the deceased was performed,” he said.

He added: “The predictable inability of the hospital to devote proper attention to highrisk patients in accordance with standard operating protocols, practices and procedures is indicative of the fact that the modus operandi of the hospital fell short of what was

International forum on Caribbean investment and development to be held this week WASHINGTON — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Central American Action (CCAA) will be hosting the “International Forum on Caribbean Investment and Development” (IFCID).

This event will provide a platform for representatives of the public and private sectors and non-governmental organizations to address issues of trade and access to finance for doing business in the Caribbean.

The event, a comprehensive conference on business and economic development in the Caribbean, will take place in Washington, DC, on June 9 and 10.

Among the highlights of the two-day event: Bruce Golding, prime minister of Jamaica; investor and philanthropist Michael Lee-Chin of Portland Private Equity; Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the InterAmerican Development Bank; and Dr W. Warren Smith, president of the Caribbean

Development Bank.

Special sessions will feature new developments in investing and financing, including a panel on Impact Investment, and a presentation on “Compete Caribbean,” a joint initiative of the IDB, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the United K i n g d o m ’ s Department of International Development (DFID), to support private sector development and competitiveness in 15 Caribbean countries.

expected and required. ... It is tantamount to anticipated non-compliance with standard practice and procedure.”

He said the investigation found there was a limited number of nurses to serve the entire ward. “There were merely three nurses and one nursing assistant to care for 24 mothers and their babies. This amounted to a ratio of one nurse to 12 patients. And the evening sister (Mrs Chitan) said she was not apprised of the patient’s condition nor was she informed either of the severity of the patient’s illness or the decision to take the patient back to the operating theatre.”

The AG said Ramsoomair had experienced massive blood loss but there was a difficulty in the release of blood from the laboratory. This situation was worsened by the distance of the laboratory from the postnatal ward, causing “further

delay in getting the blood for transfusion to the patient”.

“The more disturbing aspect of this case appears to be the seemingly institutionalised administrative failings existing within the health sector. The failure to supply, maintain or manage basic medical resources within the hospital system in this day and age is as treacherous, as it is embarrassing.

Even more distressing is the fact that this state of affairs now seems to be the fatalistic norm within the public hospital system, and our

medical professionals are accordingly placed at a precarious disadvantage in discharging their duties to those they serve,” Ramlogan stated.

Further, the referral letter from private obstetrician, Dr Jehan Ali, to the Antenatal Clinic at the San Fernando General Hospital was also “inadequate”. The letter contained no information with respect to either the patient’s two previous Caesarean sections or results of haematological investigations and ultrasound scans.

Television executive to keynote Caribbean film showcase NEW YORK — Veteran CaribbeanAmerican television executive Mark Walton of The Africa Channel will keynote the luncheon session of the f i r s t C a r i b b e a n Ta l e s New York Film Showcase.

The film showcase is set for the Spike Lee Screening Room at Long Island University’s Brooklyn

Campus in New York at the weekend.

The inaugural oneday event, which brings the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Caribbean Week in New York to a close on Saturday, June 11, will feature a keynote address by Walton on “Why A Strong African Diaspora Makes Sense.”

“The UN has designated 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent and this should be a time for all people

who claim Africa as their ancestral homeland to take time to understand and appreciate the impact we have made on the global society,” asserted Walton. He contends the time has come “to celebrate our diversity as people of African descent.”

The Filmmakers’ Brunch begins at noon and includes panel discussions, networking and the screening of top Caribbean-produced films.

Bahamas to addr ess r ecor d-keeping deficiencies

By STEWART MILLER NASSAU, Bahamas — The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax

Purposes reported on several significant offshore and traditional ‘on-shore’ jurisdictions last week, providing Bahamian professionals a little more insight into how to tackle its own

identified record-keep- aspects of their record keep- sons that are represented by ing standards, one of the key nominees and on foreign ing shortcoming.

Nine peer review reports were released coming out of the Global Forum Meeting held in Bermuda from May 31 - 1 June 2011. Like The Bahamas, several jurisdictions will have to redress

areas identified as common deficiencies in the nine reports.

“The most common deficiencies identified in the reports related to the availability of information on per-

companies; incomplete accounting information for some forms of limited liability companies and partnerships; and slow responses by requested countries,” said a Global Forum press release.

D CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011 DAILY

CARIBBEAN NEWS

11

Evacuations in Haiti as lake overflows its banks

By RAMON ESPINOSA THOMAZEAU, Haiti - The Haitian government and international aid groups evacuated more than 50 families to dry land Sunday after the Caribbean country’s largest lake overflowed from

days rains.

of

heavy Sunday to aid villagers were moved to a church Azuei

Brackish water spilled from Lake Azuei before dawn, flooding sections of low-lying land around several villages near Thomazeau, a town northeast of the capital.

The United Nations’ for the Office Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs dispatched a convoy of trucks and boats early

whose homes were at risk of flooding, U.N. spokeswoman Elaine Nabaa said.

Nadia Lochard, an official with Haiti’s Protection Civil Department, said 56 families agreed to leave their homes, while others chose to stay because they feared their possessions would be stolen or they needed to tend to livestock.

The evacuated families

in Thomazeau.

Earlier Sunday, representatives of humanitarian groups said about 1,000 villagers would likely need to be evacuated. Nabaa said they received this number from Haiti’s Civil Protection Department.

Lochard declined to answer questions about the discrepancy.

But the number of people who need to be evacuated near Lake

could easily climb in the coming days as rain continued along the HaitianDominican border.

Lake Azuei has had problems with flooding for years. Canals that are supposed to stabilize the large lake’s water level have long been clogged with trash and sediment, leading to flooding.

Hillsides surrounding the lake are deforested, allowing water and sed-

iment to run into the lake.

Haiti has seen weeks of downpours as the rainy season shifts into the hurricane season, which officially began last week.

President Michel Martelly visited the flooded areas on the border Sunday morning, his spokesman, Damian Merlo, wrote on Twitter. Merlo didn’t respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Trade consultation series helps CARICOM states ‘forge ahead’ with EPA implementation GEORGETOWN, Guyana — A just-concluded series of in-country consultations on the trade in goods regime under the CARIFORUMEU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), mounted under the aegis of the EPA Implementation Unit of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, has received wide acclaim.

The consultations, geared at engaging comptrollers of customs and customs administration officials in the CARICOM states that are party to the CARI-

FORUM-EU EPA, have been hailed by those involved as “giving a fillip to the efforts of relevant CARICOM states to forge ahead with EPA implementation.”

The series unfolded over a period of several months and was spearheaded by the adviser to the secretary-general on the implementation of the EPA and trade in goods specialist in the EPA Implementation Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat, Branford Isaacs.

The series was capped off last week by a oneday visit by Isaacs to

Saint Lucia, where he met with customs authorities.

Amongst the matters forming the kernel of the consultation series were the identification of the customs offices authorized for certification/verification, the arrangements for phased reduction of customs duties, and the treatment of other border taxes — all with respect to trade under the EPA. As CARIFORUM readies itself for the upcoming, inaugural meeting of the Trade and Development

Committee under the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, which is scheduled for 9 and 10 June in Barbados, Isaacs said of the consultation series, “It has been invaluable in helping prepare regional states for this landmark meeting. The exchanges have enabled a stocktaking of the state-of-play with regard to EPA implementation and a signal of the technical support and guidance which the EPA Implementation Unit would be required to provide.”

Coming on the heels of these consultations

with customs administrations, sensitizationoriented seminars will be mounted by Isaacs for customs officials across the region in respect of rules of origin under the a g r e e m e n t .

Stakeholders from the regional mercantile community — inclusive of importers, exporters and customs brokers — are to participate in this effort. This type of engagement has already taken place, with respect to a handful of states, at their request. There is recognition, though, that seminars of this nature are needed

across the board.

The EPA Implementation Unit has accorded a high priority to engagements of this nature, which are in keeping with its expressed commitment to provide assistance to CARIFORUM states in their efforts at implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA. The fifteen signatory Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific (CARIFORUM) States to the EPA are the independent CARICOM member states and the Dominican Republic.

Faith-based tourism breakthrough for Jamaica, says minister

By BRYAN MILLER MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, says that Jamaica has made a breakthrough in the faith-based tourism market, with the historic visit of over 4,000 crew and passengers on the Carnival Destiny cruise ship’s inaugural “Cruise with a Cause” stop in Montego Bay. The passengers, including religious leaders and music ministers, have participated in several community outreach projects in schools and correctional institutions across the island, since their arrival in Montego Bay on Wednesday June 1.

Bartlett told a press conference at the Tourism Centre, Montego Bay, on

Thursday, that the breakthrough is part of the marketing strategies his ministry has been utilizing, to gain increased arrivals and increase tourism earnings.

“So yesterday, Jamaica saw pretty close to a billion Jamaican dollars of expenditure from over 4,000 people who arrived in the Montego Bay area,” Bartlett said in reference to the persons who arrived in the “Cruise with a Cause” contingent.

“In addition, of course, to what they have spent, they brought hundreds of thousands of dollars of goodies for the education system in the country, as they went to 233 schools across the island on both days and, in fact, gave a number of schools generous supplies of instructional

materials and other technical support,” he stated.

“Cruise with a Cause” was organised by PraiseFest Ministries.

The passengers were mainly Christians. They were due to remain in Montego Bay until June 4, ministering to various communities and distributing school supplies to educational institutions.

According to Bartlett, the arrival of the Carnival Destiny on the “Cruise with a Cause” trip, could very well be regarded as a red letter day for faith-based tourism in Jamaica, as in the United States alone, there are some 1416 million persons who travel across the world, annually, for faith-based activities, spending some US$300-$400 mil-

lion in the process.

“Jamaica then, in seeking to get a bit of that market, is attempting to drive the five million arrivals that we seek in five years and earnings of US$5 billion,” he stated.

He noted that this particular visit comes on the heels of the country’s new incursion into the South American tourism market, which

should open up other opportunities for faithbased activities, as Catholicism is very prominent in South American.

He pointed out that, as a result, Jamaica will be getting direct flights from five South American countries during the upcoming fall and winter seasons this year.

Above average hurricane season expected in Barbados

By THERESA BLACKMAN BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS) — Barbadians have been told to brace themselves for another above average hurricane season.

Word of this has

come from Acting Senior Meteorologist at the Barbados Met Service, Clairmonte Williams, who said it was expected that this year’s season would bring 16 named systems, nine of which are expected to become hurricanes and five of these are forecast to reach

major hurricane status.

The Met official made these comments last week at a press conference to mark the beginning of the 2011 hurricane season at the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) headquarters in Warrens.

Explaining that last year’s forecast was for 18 named systems, Williams pointed out that, in fact, we (Barbados) experienced 19, and although 10 hurricanes were predicted, 12 affected the island with five being of major hurricane strength.

New American

The

12

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

One Thought - One Humanity

Can Beyonce still please all of her fans with new album?

For the conclusions of these stories check out the June 2nd - June 8th, 2011 issue of The New American, which hits newsstands every Thursday British singer Leona Lewis has taken aim at critics of her personality, insisting she “couldn’t care less” if they think she’s dull. The star shot to fame as a and retiring shy wannabe on Simon Cowell’s British show The X Factor in 2006, and went on to superstardom in the U.K. and the U.S. after winning the competition.

However, Lewis is angry music fans presume she’s boring just because she’s not as outlandish as the likes of Lady Gaga, and she’s adamant her strengths lie in good quality songs. She says, “I don’t care what anyone says. I’m not boring.

Unless you know me, I don’t really care about your opinions. I couldn’t care less. Lady Gaga does her crazy thing and she is great. I definitely have something different to offer. I’m all about the music and songs.”

passed we lost so much. It was just like, ‘Who else...?’ ‘How can I show him that all of his work was not in vain?

The song hurts me (because) there’s so much genuine pain.”

Cee Lo Green has confirmed speculation Gnarls Barkley’s fan favorite tune Who’s Gonna Save My Soul is all about the passing of James Brown. The Crazy singer made the big reveal during a recent taping of VH1 show Storytellers, explaining the song is supposed to empower anyone grieving the loss of a loved one - and he wrote it as he was dealing with the 2006 death of the Godfather of Soul. He says, “The song is actually about the passing of James Brown... It has to do with everyone; heartbreak, loss, regret, helplessness, hopelessness, and I felt all of the above when we lost James Brown - because he embodied everything. “James Brown is my father... I got what I needed from him - I got guidance, I got style... integrity, I got consistency...

He taught me how to dance too. When he

New dad Nick Cannon struggles to fit all his projects in to his busy schedule, surviving on just four hours of broken sleep every day. The star and his wife Mariah Carey welcomed twins last month, but Cannon has refused to cut back his working commitments, still broadcasting his New York radio show and hosting reality series America’s Got Talent, which premiered its sixth season in the U.S. on Tuesday night. But Cannon pays a hefty price for his busy schedule as he can only fit in just a few hours of sleep around work and his duties as a dad.

In a recent interview, Lauren London revealed that Lil Wayne almost wifed her. She also explained that she and Wayne were not some one-night stand.

Lauren London: “I met Dwayne when I was 15 years old. I’ve known him a very long time, and we were in a relationship that didn’t make it. We tried more than once to revive it, and we were engaged briefly years ago, but we eventually parted ways. People see the “Lil’ Wayne” persona and think they know who he really is. My son’s father is an intelligent, loving and lovable person who will always be a dear friend.

That is all.”

Rihanna stopped by The Today Show to talk about her hair, pre-performance rituals, and what she would’ve become if she wasn’t an entertainer. Not sure of the exact name of the color of her hair, she said it’s a mixture of

different reds. She said, “ It’s like copper-ish, red-ish.” If she wasn’t an entertainer, Rihanna said she would’ve studied psychology.

“Something I was also interested in. I really enjoy observing, reading, and analyzing situations for what they really are,” she said.

Before hitting up the stage, Rihanna warms up, drinks tea, prays and then gets dressed as a ritual. Lastly, she would love to collaborate with Depeche Mode because she really likes them.

Queensbridge, New York rap star Nas has announced the title of his new upcoming solo album. The rapper took to Twitter early this morning (May 28th), to reveal the name of the album, which is titled Life is Good. In published reports, the 37year-old rapper said Life is Good will feature production from a variety of new producers, as well as veteran Salaam Remi and other notable producers. Nas’ last official studio album was 2008’s Untitled release.

Cadbury recently released advertisements for their Bliss chocolate bars, a “dreamy chocolate truffle.” On one of the ads, the British confectionary company included the tagline ‘Move over Naomi, there’s a new diva in town.” Upon seeing this, Naomi Campbell, 41 year old supermodel, was not pleased. The way Campbell sees it, Cadbury is placing her in the same league as chocolate. In a statement sent to CNN, Campbell complains that the ad is “insulting and hurtful.” This kind of reaction isn’t surprising, as Campbell is known for her, well, diva-like antics.

She’s been accused several times for violence and abuse against

By LJ Knight

ly falling in love with the single, there are others who are less inclined to simply accept anything that the queen gives us. Myself included. I have to be honest, the song sucks. Big time.

I am a Beyonce fan. Not her biggest fan. But I dig much of her music. I also am a part of the generation that grew up with Beyonce. I remember the first time I saw the video for Destiny’s Child’s single “No No No”. I remember when they blew up into super stardom. I was there to see the ugly break up of the group and all of the nasty rumors about Beyonce. I was also there when “Crazy In Love” blew and made her an official super star; out shining her time in Destiny’s Child.

I was also there to see her grow and mature with the content of her music. Sure she has her make your booty roll ladies singles but she also has singles that touch women on a deeper level. Deep as one can get from a Beyonce single. For instance touching on women giving too much in love and never being reciprocated from the man that they love.

The Queen is back. Well, the queen to some. I am referring to Beyonce Knowles. While it can be argued that she is a queen to some and a toad to others, there is no doubt that the chick is bad. Bad meaning good. So bad that every time she drops an album or a single, we expect for it to be hotter than chicken grease on a June morning.

For her not to deliver said hotness would be an atrocity to some. So after months of blogs hyping us up with news of her being in the studio working with hot producers, and finally a release date for a single, we expect that s**t to be hot. Some expect it to be life changing. Yes, there are some people who really feel this strongly towards Beyonce.

Unfortunately for her, the first single to be released from Beyonce titled “Girls Who Run The World” has been receiving mixed reviews.

Some of them luke warm. While many of her devoted drones, who would cherish a Beyonce turd straight from her rectum, are quick- Full Story In This Week’s New American Newspaper -

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

13

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

14

Too much work, food, media may be hurting health

By DENNIS THOMPSON America may be seen as a land of plenty, but some experts are beginning to believe that plenty may have become too much.

Cheap and convenient food, busy work and social lives and a constant barrage from media sources have overloaded Americans and are having a detrimental effect on their mental and physical health, according to Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-director of the UCLA Center for Community Health and the Global Center for Children and Families.

All of this prosperity goes against the survival instincts that human beings adopted as they evolved, said Rotheram-Borus, who teaches a class at the UCLA Family Commons titled “Too Much?

How to Do Less & Enjoy More.”

“We were groomed for millennia to survive on too

little,” she said. “We didn’t have enough food. We didn’t have enough clothing. Our genetic code was built on those who could survive adversity.”

But because it’s ingrained in human nature to enjoy what you have when you have it, people may have taken too well to having too much.

Cheap fast food has led to Americans eating an average of 1,000 more calories a day than they need, RotheramBorus said. Constant media exposure creates stress while also numbing people to normal human interaction.

And to pay for it all, people are working longer hours and enduring longer commutes.

Dr. Patricia Wong, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and a spokeswoman for the American Psychiatric Association, said that the advent of text messaging and smart phones has added to people’s stress because they “create a pressure to be constantly available” that used to be endured only by doctors, police officers, firefighters and other professionals who

spend much of their lives on call.

“Everyone is on call every minute of their lives now,” she said. “There’s no wonder people feel stressed out. Now mundane life is an emergency.”

But doctors are finding that when people cut back — by eating less or reducing their media viewing, for instance — their mental and physical health improves, Rotheram-Borus said.

“The shift to paring down is new,” Rotheram-Borus said. “Now we do better if we have less.”

She emphasized that these problems are societal in nature. “It’s structural,” she said. “Changes in society have been major in the last 30 years, and we haven’t adjusted our lifestyles. These are structural problems that have nothing to do with people making bad decisions.”

Nonetheless, if something isn’t done about this, Rotheram-Borus said, she sees a future in which obesity is rampant, stress is overwhelming and everyone is deep in debt from trying to fulfill their various appetites.

Wong doesn’t completely agree with Rotheram-Borus’ hypothesis. For example, she thinks most stress these days is not caused by having too much but rather by hoping to maintain what you already have in tough economic times.

“I don’t think, in this current climate, that is as relevant to people as real economic need,” Wong said. “I do know people who are driven by that ‘chase of a dream,’ but the general public is stressed out because they’re wondering if they’re going to keep their job or pay the rent.”

And, though Wong agrees that stress from overfilled lives is contributing to the obesity epidemic, she doesn’t think it’s because people haven’t adapted to having food readily available.

“People are overwhelmed, and they don’t know how to deal with everything and become stressed or depressed,” she said. “They turn to eating as a form of self-therapy.”

But if people want to improve their health by cutting back, Rotheram-Borus

and Wong suggest that they: Set a consistent routine that is aligned with the values they want their children to have. For example, make family dinners the norm, rather than an occasional treat. “If you value your kids more than your job, you need to be at home for dinner,” Rotheram-Borus said.

“If you want your kids to be balanced human beings, you can’t work 100 hours a week yourself.”

Take a time out before making a purchase. Be clear about what you need when you go into a store.

Cut back on your food intake, and choose healthy foods. Throw out all the junk food in your house. “Once you have it in the house, you’re very likely to eat it,” Rotheram-Borus said.

Turn off the cell phone and disconnect from other media for a set period of time each day. “The reality is, in most situations a text message can wait,” Wong said.

Remember that gifts don’t always have to be purchases.

Experiences, favors and thoughtful gestures can be just as meaningful.

Excess pounds may lower odds of surviving breast cancer Breast cancer patients who were overweight or obese before and after the diagnosis have a lower chance of surviving, a new study suggests.

Researchers found the link between dying from breast cancer and obesity only in estrogen receptorpositive forms of the disease, or cases in which the hormone estrogen fuels the breast cancer.

“This relationship between dying and being obese or overweight may depend on whether the type of breast cancer is hormonally dependent,” said the study’s lead author, Christina Dieli-Conwright, assistant research professor at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., in a news release.

Women who are obese or overweight tend to have higher levels of estrogen in their blood, which may explain the heightened risk of death, the research showed.

The findings are slated to be presented on Saturday at The Endocrine’s Society’s 93rd annual meeting in Boston.

The study included nearly

4,000 women in the California Teachers Study who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from 1995 to 2006. Of those, 262 died.

Researchers looked at their body mass index (or BMI, a measure of height and weight) at age 18 and at the time of diagnosis. Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 and up, while being overweight is defined as a BMI of

25 to 29.

Women who were obese when diagnosed had a 69 percent higher risk of dying from the breast cancer than women who were a healthy weight. The same increased risk applied to those who were overweight when they were 18 years old.

“What we know now is that there is a strong link between dying from breast

cancer and being obese,” said Dieli-Conwright. “And it’s not just your BMI near the time you’re diagnosed that’s important.”

Moreover, researchers found that for women with estrogen-dependent cancer, the higher their body mass index, the greater their risk of dying of the disease. This link was not found among women with estrogen-nega-

tive breast cancer.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The study’s authors noted their findings suggest maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise is crucial to the prevention and treatment of cancer.

Study: Fit doctors more likely to prescribe exercise Medical students who are physically fit are more likely to encourage their future patients to exercise, according to a new study.

Researchers found that medical students who had normal cholesterol levels and who met the current U.S. physical activity guidelines often felt strongly that being active themselves would set a better example for the people they were treating.

In analyzing certain markers of physical health — such as cardiorespiratory fitness — and attitudes on physical-activity counseling in 577 medical students over the course of five years, the

investigators found that 80 percent of students believed physical-activity counseling would be highly relevant in their future clinical practice.

The study authors, led by Dr. Felipe Lobelo, health scientist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that the students who said exercise counseling was important were in good shape themselves. In fact, they were 1.7 times more likely to exhibit healthy levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and 3.2 times more likely to have normal triglyceride (blood fat) levels than students who didn’t believe exercise was as

important.

“I’m a strong believer in doctors practicing what they preach, and I think this study illustrates the concept perfectly because it’s based on doctors’ objective markers of health,” Lobelo said in a news release from the American College of Sports Medicine.

“Previous evidence indicates that nearly two-thirds of patients would be more willing to become physically active if their doctors advise it, and these patients find an active, healthy doctor’s advice more credible and motivating. It is critical for current and future doctors to

understand the public health importance of providing physical activity counseling to every patient,” Lobelo concluded.

NEW JERSEY

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

15

Queen Latifah inducted into N.J. Hall of Fame

By RYAN HUTCHINS NEWARK - It takes serious grit to be a New Jerseyan.

And if you got it, you could go to the moon.

That much was made clear tonight in a starstudded extravaganza honoring the state’s best and brightest, with attendees ranging form astronaut Buzz Aldrin to singer Nancy The New Sinatra.

Jersey Hall of Fame induction, an event that’s become such a must-attend affair that there was a traffic jam on the red carpet, seemed themed around the tenacity and underdog drive of those recognized.

“What it means to be from New Jersey is to understand toughness, determination and grit,” Gov. Chris Christie said as he worked his way up that carpet to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. He and wife Mary Pat Christie were the evening’s honorary chairs.

And those inductees John Basilone, Tony Bennett, Gov. Brendan Byrne, Mary Higgins Clark, Adm. William

“Bull” Halsey, Franco Harris, Leon Hess, singer/actress Queen Latifah, John “Bucky” Pizzarelli, Martha Joe Stewart, Theismann, John Travolta and Bruce Willis - all have that grit, the governor said.

In fact, it’s what got them to where they are today, he said.

Or, there’s the way New York Giants leglinebacker endary Harry Carson put it: “You have to be tough” to be from New Jersey, said Carson, who introduced inductee Joe Theismann. “If somebody gives you the finger, you have to give it back.”

And in true New Jersey fashion, the state recognized its greatest and mocked its, well, most interesting. Take the conversation CNN anchor Susan Hendricks had with Aldrin as they kicked off the evening.

“Buzz, do you think NASA could do something and send Snooki back to outer space?”

Hendricks asked.

“I know a few people in Washington,” Aldrin replied. “Maybe we can do something about it.”

New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction

Ceremony and red carpet at the NJPAC There were also moments rooted in seriousness as some were honored posthumously.

Actor John Seda inducted John Basilone, a Raritan resident and one of the greatest war heroes in American history.

Basilone, portrayed

by Seda in HBO miniseries “The Pacific,” was a Marine whose contributions to World War II made him a household name.

During the battle of Guadalcanal, Basilone and just a few of his men held off some 3,000 Japanese soldiers. He returned home to sell war bonds but, at his own insistence, went to war again. He was killed on Iwo Jima.

“John was a man whose passions to serve this country were the driving force behind everything he did,” said Seda, who also grew up in New Jersey. “But I think what also makes John amazing is that he would never call himself a hero.”

Inductee Queen Latifah, born in Newark and raised in East Orange, said New

Queen Latifah accepts her induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame as her mom Rita Owens listens at the Induction Ceremony at NJPAC in Newark, NJ 6/5/11 Photo/William Perlman Jersey let her develop announcer’s voice inter- Lydell Mitchell, comediinto the person she is, rupted, claiming to be an Joe Piscopo, boxer through failure and “God.” There was a spe- Gerry Cooney and St. success. cial guest Harris would Anthony’s basketball “I think that’s one want to speak with, God coach Bobby Hurley of thing I learned in New said. Out walked the Jersey City. There were Jersey - how to be fear- honoree’s college foot- performances by less. I’m from Newark, I ball coach, Penn State’s Southside Johnny Lyon told you,” she said.

Joe Paterno. and Motown stars the Most of the inductees “All I want to say is Shirelles. were in attendance you’re honoring a great Perhaps the most tonight, though organ- human being. He was powerful words of the izers said Stewart was all right as a football evening came from out of the country and player,” Paterno said.

Theismann as he spoke actors Willis and There were other spe- following his induction.

Travolta were working cial guests at the fourth A South River native, on films. They will be annual ceremony, he said it is where inducted next year. including former New someone is raised that There was at least York Mayor Rudy defines them. It was the one person who made a Giuliani, novelist streets he walked down, surprise appearance. Harlan Coben, New the ball fields he played As former Pittsburgh York Jets hero Joe on and the people he Steeler Franco Harris Namath, former Gov. knew as a child that was speaking, the Tom Kean, football star made him who he is.

N.J. public workers continue to retire at record rate

By JARRETT RENSHAW TRENTON - For the second year in a row, public employees across New Jersey are retiring at a record rate, state figures show.

Nearly 15,000 public workers are expected to retire from January through the end of July, a slight increase from the same period last year, when a record number of state employees left their jobs.

The steady rise in retirements comes amid economic uncertainty, with changes in pension and health benefits for public employees remaining at the top of

the state’s political agenda. As a result, an increasing number of the more than 500,000 state and municipal employees are choosing to retire rather than risk having their benefits cut by legislators.

“People have a certain set of expectations, and at some point, it just makes sense to retire,” said Jim Ryan, a spokesman for the state Policemen’s Benevolent Association.

Ryan said retirements, combined with layoffs, have left police departments across the state understaffed and in many cases without the streetwise experience needed to conduct adequate investigations.

“If there is a shoot-

ing or a fight between gangs, a veteran police officer knows the neighborhood,” he said.

“It’s going to take time to fill in the gaps.”

The numbers provided by the state Treasurer’s Office show that State Police officers are also retiring at a record pace, a trend that the superintendent, Col. Rick Fuentes, recently told a state Senate committee was disturbing.

By the end of July, records show, 144 state troopers are expected to retire, significantly higher than any 12month period since at least 2000. In the previous decade, an average of 61 state troopers retired each year.

Overall, more than

20,000 public workers retired last year, a 60 percent increase over 2009 and the highest number in at least a decade, according to the state Department of the Treasury.

The unexpected surge may eventually force the state to pay more money into its troubled pension fund.

Every three years, the state examines such assumptions as retirement rates and employee levels, which serve as the basis for pension payments, and adjusts accordingly. The next study will look at the three-year period from June 2008 to June 2011, when retirements jumped.

Susan Chew, 55, of Hammonton, a forensic

scientist with the State Police, said she would join the ranks of those retiring if she could lock in her benefits as her husband did last year.

“There’s just too much uncertainty right now, so we’re stuck here,” said Chew, who will mark 25 years with the state in 18 months.

At that time, she will be able to lock in her benefits.

But for now, she said, she and her husband have delayed plans to build a retirement home in Virginia until state lawmakers and Gov. Chris Christie work out an agreement.

“I know the state and the pension is in bad shape,” Chew said, “but

we’ve contributed, and I don’t think it’s fair to go after us.” Her unit is about 60 scientists short because of attrition, she added.

Other states considering cuts in benefits including Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin are seeing a similar increase in retirements.

While teachers led last year’s surge - nearly twice as many left as in many previous years - state workers and non-uniformed employees at the local level are leading this year’s increase, the figures show. If the trend continues, more than 13,000 of these state and local employees will retire in 2011, a 30 percent jump from last year.

16

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

New ‘X-Men’ tops class at worldwide box office LOS ANGELES — The fifth movie in the “X-Men” series took the No. 1 spot at the worldwide box office after selling about $120 million worth of tickets, distributor 20th Century Fox said.

“X-Men: First Class,” a relaunch of the Marvel comic book franchise, opened at No. 1 across the United States and Canada with $56 million — fulfilling the studio’s expectations, even if some analysts were predicting a $60 million start.

Its international tally of $64 million from 74 markets included about 30 No. 1

debuts, including Britain ($9 million), France ($7.7 million), Mexico ($5.3 million) and Brazil ($4 million).

“X-Men” was the No. 2 pick overseas, behind “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” with $69.4 million.

Even though the North American opening was sharply lower than most of the earlier films in the “XMen” franchise, it all but guarantees there will be more films revolving around the exploits of a stable of mutant superheroes.

“We have successfully

Heart transplant teen befriended by Brandy dies at 17

LOS ANGELES — A teenage girl who got a heart transplant thanks to a fundraising campaign by singer/actress Brandy has died less than four months after surgery.

Jessica Harris, 17, who lived in the same town of McComb, Mississippi, where Brandy was raised, died at a New York hospital on Thursday, Brandy said.

The star of reality TV shows “Dancing With the Stars” and “Brandy and Ray J: A Family Business” met Harris last year and with her family began a campaign to raise funds for surgery to correct her congenital heart defect.

Harris received the transplant in late February.

“Jessica was and will always be an inspiration to

our family. In the face of her illness, her courageous spirit and positive outlook gave us memories we will cherish for a lifetime,” the singer and her family said in a statement.

“We were touched by the outpouring of generosity from the public when we set up a fund on her behalf to help cover her medical and travel expenses,” the statement added.

Brandy thanked those who donated to the fund and the hospital that carried out the heart transplant — the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York.

Harris suffered from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and was denied medical insurance through her father’s job because she was deemed to be suffering from a preexisting condition.

launched a brand new chapter of this franchise,” said Chris Aronson, senior vice president for domestic distribution at the News Corp unit.

“X-Men: First Class,” which reportedly cost about $160 million to make before tax credits, is a prequel dealing with the formative years of the future superheroes.

Both critics and fans hailed the new direction.

Instead of hiring A-list talent, Fox went with critically acclaimed British director Matthew Vaughn (“KickAss”) and actors James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. The cast also includes recent Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, “Mad Men” actress January Jones and Kevin Bacon.

McAvoy and Fassbender play the lead roles originated

by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in 2000’s “X-Men” and two sequels. A 2009 spinoff “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” starring Hugh Jackman in the title role, opened to $85 million in North America. Jackman has a cameo in the new film.

As the only new release in the North American top 10, “X-Men: First Class” pushed the rest of the films one place lower in the rankings.

Last weekend’s champion, “The Hangover: Part II,” grossed $32.4 million, taking its 10-day total to $186.9 million. The raunchy come-

Zoe Kravitz in “X-Men: First Class.” dy is well ahead of the pace of its 2009 predecessor, which earned $105 million at the same time and ended up with $277 million.

“Kung Fu Panda 2” followed with $24.3 million in its second weekend and “Pirates of the Caribbean” brought in $18 million in its third weekend.

With respective totals of $100.4 million and $190.3 million, they are lagging their predecessors. The first “Kung Fu Panda” cartoon had earned $117 million at the same time in its run and the third “Pirates” had raced to $253 million.

But Johnny Depp’s latest high-seas adventure is doing much better overseas with

sales to date of $600 million.

“Bridesmaids,” the only nonsequel in the top five, rounded out the top tier with $12.1 million in its fourth weekend. The acclaimed distaff comedy has earned $107.3 million to date.

“The Hangover: Part II” was released by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc. “Kung Fu Panda 2” was produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc and distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” was released by Walt Disney Co. “Bridesmaids” was released

by Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal, which is controlled by Comcast Corp.

Nas says ‘Life Is Good’ will be music for ‘survivors’

By ROB MARKMAN Nas is living the good life.

After the Queensbridge MC revealed the title of his 10th studio album over the weekend, he caught up with DJ Envy and dropped more details about Life Is Good.

“Life is also good; the moment you think it ain’t good, it’s over,” Nas said.

With his 1994 debut album, titled Illmatic, Nas introduced new slang; he sparked debate with his 2006 album title, Hip Hop Is Dead; and then he started a whirlwind of controversy when he first proposed to name his 2008 LP N——-. And for this upcoming project, Nas said the title has meaning too, a

reflection of his positive outlook on life.

“Look at the life we’re in, look at the world we’re in — I just think people need to realize the blessings. Let’s stop worrying about the dark side,” he said. “The end result is life is good, and it’s crazy how a phrase like that can change somebody’s mentality.”

Nas even revealed the name of the album’s first single, “Nasty,” which is a play on his original moniker, Nasty Nas. Still, even though he’s giving a nod to his lyrical beginnings, the rapper promises that the track will fit the times. “We ain’t going backwards, we’re staying forward though,” he said.

Life Is Good isn’t finished (Nas said it’s “almost there”),

but it will be a very personal work. Nas insisted he won’t shy away from addressing what he’s been through in the past few years, including his divorce from singer Kelis.

“This album is just a piece of my blood, flesh and bones.

This album right here is like — this is the one. They all are the ones, I love all my joints, but this one right here is, ‘Life is good.’ I’m letting a lot go on this. I’m happy that I’m here, man. I’m just a survivor and I look at a lot of us as survivors,” he said. “Everything is addressed; it’s all life. No matter what, at the end of the day, everything is a blessing.

I’m a learner, I learn from my experiences.”

And it’s all good.

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

17

Rihanna says ‘Man Down’ video empowers women LOS ANGELES — R&B singer Rihanna has defended a controversial music video that shows her gunning down a man, saying it is a message of empowerment for girls.

“Man Down” features Rihanna shooting to death a man who appears in the music video to have sexually assaulted her a day earlier.

The Parents Television Council, the Enough is Enough campaign and think tank Industry Ears, have attacked the video as an act of calculated murder that will encourage young women to turn to violence.

Rihanna told Black Entertainment Television (BET) on Thursday that “Man Down” addresses the topic of rape.

The 23 year-old singer was the victim of a violent 2009 physical attack by then boyfriend singer Chris Brown.

“Rape is happening all over the world and we continue to cover it up and pretend it doesn’t happen,” Rihanna told BET in an interview.

“Girls are empowered by this ... I’m just really impressed that my fans get it,” she said. “That was really important to me. This is a story for them.”

She also told BET, which itself drew criticism for airing the video, that the girl she depicts is “not a coldblooded killer” and she shows remorse about the killing.

“I didn’t do it to make a controversial video,” Rihanna said. “I wanted to make a mini-movie, something raw and artistic.”

Rihanna has also defended the video on Twitter.

“The music industry isn’t exactly Parents R Us! We have the freedom to make art, LET US! Its your job to make sure they don’t turn out like US,” Rihanna said in one Twitter posting.

The Barbados native also spoke of double standards that allow depictions of women being exploited in music videos. “Now a woman flips the coin & look!” she wrote.

“Man Down”, the latest single from Rihanna’s album “Loud.”

Keri Hilson welcomes controversy: ‘I don’t feel backlash’

By ALETA WATSON Keri Hilson - blunt, real and unapologetic when it comes to her music. In a recent interview with SoulCulture, Miss Keri boldly stated, “I don’t feel backlash.”

The 28-year-old responded to the naysayers’ criticisms and added, “I rarely feel it.”

Seen by many throughout the industry as a magnet for controversy, Hilson has been under a microscope since she emerged onto the scene two years ago. Accused of being overly sexual in her image, lyrics and videos, it’s amazing to see how level-headed she has remained in the face

of adversity.

When asked about the public’s outrage over the video to her single “The Way You Love Me” Hilson said, “It probably deserved some criticism. Did it affect me? No. The language deserved the criticism though, absolutely.” She continues, “That wasn’t the version that I sang to. If you look closely, I’m not singing ‘fuck me,’ I’m singing ‘thug me’. The video I recorded was the album version – somebody decided to sync the other version with the video and put that on WorldStarHipHop. It got 14 million views in less than a week. You can’t really be mad if people want to see something that you do, so I didn’t feel the criticism. I was

just happy that people cared.”

Hilson takes total responsibility for the video saying it was her personal choice to shoot something so sexualized. “That video was a decision of mine. I did it because even though I’ve never been that sexual, I am a woman and I do have that side of me.

It wasn’t society’s pressures, otherwise I’d do that in every video. But, it was a moment in time and if you write a record like that, certain visuals come along with it,” she told the site.

Will this criticism deter the diva from making more sexy videos like this one?

Not a chance. Hilson lives in the moment and to her, if it feels right then why not go

for it!

“It’s not something I want to make a habit of doing, but I don’t want to make a habit of censoring myself. If it feels right in the moment, I’ll capture that. It may live forever, but whatever you feel in the moment is the right thing to do. I didn’t feel the criticism. I wasn’t as impacted as others were. My intention wasn’t to throw it in the world’s faces, it was to do me. I honestly didn’t feel the criticism too strongly; I just lived through it while others had a problem with it.”

Steadfast in her beliefs and unable to be bullied by media heavyweights, Keri Hilson is stronger than she looks and tougher than most.

Chaka Khan collaborating with Steven Tyler, Akon

By ALEX CHAPMAN Chaka Khan may be a legacy artist in the industry, but that isn’t to say the legendary songstress isn’t as busy as ever. At the top of her list? A duets album, including a Led Zeppelin cover alongside “American Idol” judge and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

“We literally just clicked,” Khan tells Billboard.com of Tyler. “We were at Elton John’s party and we got to talk and we both wanted to sing together. We said, ‘Let’s

do a mutual song, by you know, a neutral band — a band that we both love,’ and we both love Zeppelin.”

The “I’m Every Woman” singer will record the duet of a yet-to-be-decided Zeppelin tune with Tyler soon, which she has plans to release on a forthcoming double album of duets.

And as if that superstar meeting of the musical minds wasn’t enough, Khan’s got some other tricks up her sleeve — a potential collaboration with Akon and a jazztinged tribute concert dedicated to another superstar, the incomparable Joni

Mitchell. The tribute concert finds Khan working alongside jazz icon Herbie Hancock and the Swell Season’s Glen Hansard, with the Los Angeles show set for August 17 at the Hollywood Bowl.

With the duets album, the Joni tribute concert and a slew of tour dates on the horizon (including a performance as part of this month’s first annual Blue Note Jazz Festival in NYC), you may ask how the Chicago-born beauty continues to do it all.

“I pretty much just live in the moment, and I always have,” says the singer. “Whatever happens, you gotta go

with it, and I’ve been really blessed with this life choice that I made, which makes me happy. Keeps me sane. It’s an all-around good thing that I turned out to be a singer.”

Khan will be honored for

her achievements at the annual Songwriters Hall of Fame induction and awards dinner in NYC on June 16, where she will receive the Howie Richmond Hitmaker Award.

18

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

Airline profits to tumble in 2011 on fuel, global

By SAEED AZHAR and DAVID FOGARTY SINGAPORE — Global airlines cut their 2011 profit forecast by more than half to $4 billion on Monday as high oil prices and turmoil in Japan, North Africa and the Middle East weigh on the industry’s recovery.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents most global carriers, also warned of a looming trade war if Europe moves ahead with plans to force airlines to join an emissions trading scheme next year. China said it would support legal action.

Airlines say the scheme, designed to tackle growing

emissions from the aviation industry, will only increase costs and add to pressures already caused by the sluggish global economy.

“The efficiency gains of the last decade and the strengthening global economic environment are balancing the high price of fuel,” the IATA’s director general, Giovanni Bisignani, told the group’s annual general meeting in Singapore.

“But with a dismal 0.7 percent margin, there is little buffer left against further shocks,” he said.

The IATA $4 billion profit forecast compares with an $8.6 billion forecast on March 2, just before the Japan earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at a power station.

Since then, the Arab uprisings have spread and oil

Obama lauds auto industry turnaround TOLEDO, Ohio — U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday praised the rebound of the American auto industry, claiming a success for his administration’s $22 billion bailout.

In his weekly radio and Internet address — recorded Friday at a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio — Obama congratulated workers on “the turnaround they helped bring about at Chrysler and throughout the auto industry.”

“Today, each of the Big Three automakers — Chrysler, GM and Ford — is turning a profit for the first time since 2004. Chrysler has repaid every dime and more of what it owes American taxpayers for their support during my presidency — and it repaid that money six years ahead of schedule.

And this week, we reached a deal to sell our remaining stake. That means soon, Chrysler will be 100 percent in private hands,” the president said.

“Most importantly, all three American automakers are now adding shifts and creating jobs at the strongest rate since the 1990s.

Chrysler has added a second shift at the Jefferson North plant in Detroit that I visited last year. GM is adding a third shift at its Hamtramck plant for the first time ever.

And GM plans to hire back all of the workers they had to lay off during the recession.”

Obama said that while a “lot of folks in Washington” thought the government should do nothing to help the industry, he decided “the American people would stand by” GM and Chrysler if they restructured to make themselves more competitive.

“But we decided to do more than rescue this industry from a crisis. We decided to help it retool for a new age, and that’s what we’re doing all across the country — we’re making sure America can out-build, out-innovate and out-compete the rest of the world. That’s how we’ll build an economy where you can see your incomes and savings rise again, send your kids to college, and retire with dignity, security and respect. That’s how we’ll make sure we keep that fundamental American promise — that if you work hard and act responsibly, you’ll be able to pass on a better life to your kids and grandkids.”

The president cautioned the economy still faces some “tough headwinds” — including gas prices — that present “bumps on the road to recovery” but that “our best days are still ahead of us.”

prices have traded well above $100 a barrel.

The forecast would also mark a drop of more than three-quarters from the industry’s estimated 2010 profit, which was raised to $18 billion from $16 billion.

Economists say the industry’s outlook is a guide to the strength of cyclical recovery in developed markets and growth in emerging economies, which rely heavily on air transport.

Airlines rebounded faster than expected from recession last year, helped by higher traffic and a drive to keep a lid on spare capacity.

But far too rapid expansion in capacity, a series of external shocks and higher oil prices have hit the industry hard this year.

Airlines had been bracing for lower 2011 forecasts at this week’s major conference as fears grow over the global economy.

IATA is forecasting a $110 per barrel average oil price in 2011, up 15 percent from $96 last year, adding to the case for airlines to raise airfares or fuel surcharges to cover the rising cost of doing business.

Qantas Airways was “looking at more increases going forward,” its chief executive, Alan Joyce, told Reuters. “Hedging just gives you time.”

IATA warned that capacity was set to expand 5.8 percent in 2011, outstripping a 4.7 percent increase in demand. The 1.1 percentage point gap is sharply higher than the 0.3 percent previ-

ously forecast.

Bisignani has said a lack of discipline could dent the industry’s recovery as airlines jostle for market share.

In a move with major cost implications for the industry, Rolls-Royce is set to build a new engine to beef up the A350 jetliner being developed by Airbus, industry sources said.

Until now, Airbus and Rolls had defended the engine as an all-rounder capable of powering three separate models of the midsized A350, which is designed to carry 270 to 350 people.

In Europe, the EU’s planned Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) would force carriers to buy permits for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit above a certain cap.

The plan is meant to tackle growing emissions from the $500 billion aviation industry, which is responsible for about 2 percent of mankind’s greenhouse gas pollution.

Governments and airlines have been piling on pressure, some describing the forced inclusion of global airlines as illegal.

The EU has offered to exempt airlines of countries that can prove they are taking equivalent steps to cut emissions.

Representatives from developing countries slammed the proposed rules and said they were unfair.

“Indian airlines which fly overseas, such as Kingfisher, have already made their

views known to the minister of civil aviation,” said Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, which has the second-largest market share of India’s aviation industry.

“We do not have the same level of sophistication or maturity in trading of carbon credits and therefore any such new policy or levy on Indian carriers flying to Europe would be unfair.

Now it’s a government-togovernment matter, not an airline specific matter,” he said.

The China Air Transport Association (CATA) says the scheme will cost Chinese airlines more than $100 million in the first year and more than triple that by 2020.

“I believe we have to take legal action,” said Wei Zhenzhong, secretary general of CATA, adding that Air China was preparing a legal challenge. The U.S. industry group Air Transport Association of America is also challenging the plan in EU courts.

What is needed is a global approach to emissions control, Singapore’s deputy prime minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, told IATA delegates.

“In addressing climate change, we should harmonize measures at an international level so as to ensure a level playing field for all, as well as minimize multiple cost layers from unilateral localized emissions trading schemes and environmental taxes,” he said.

Goldman may seek to counter Senate findings Goldman Sachs Group Inc. could release documents to counter a Senate subcommittee report that said the bank misled clients about mortgage-linked securities, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Goldman, facing probes by several government authorities into derivatives trades it executed in 2006 and 2007, could release documents about its mortgage bets to show the analysis by the subcommittee was inaccurate and incomplete, the paper said.

The information could be released soon on Goldman’s website, though a decision has not been made yet, the paper added.

Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

The Goldman Sachs building is seen at 200 West Street.

The subcommittee, headed

by Democrat Carl Levin, said Goldman offloaded much of its subprime mortgage exposure to unsuspecting clients when the market for such securities was starting to tank.

Last week, Goldman received a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney, who joined the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission in examining Goldman’s actions.

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

19

Stigma puts many firms off reporting cyber attacks

By PETER APPS LONDON — Wary of alarming customers, many firms never report the kind of cyber attacks suffered by Sony, Google and others — and as long as the stigma holds, tackling the growing problem may prove impossible. Data theft is a menace that looms especially large, given companies’ increasing reliance on online storage. At risk can be cutting-edge copyrights, privileged commercial information such as tips on takeover bids and — perhaps most crucially for a business’s reputation — customers’ personal details.

Computer security and corporate intelligence specialists say they are often sworn to secrecy by firms scared of the potential reaction of corporate partners and investors.

Some companies, said experts gathered at a cyber security conference in London last week organized by the EastWest Spell Institute, may not know the extent of their own exposure.

“One of the reasons we do not know the scale of this is that organizations are

embarrassed to reveal the impact,” BT chairman Sir Michael Rake said in a speech.

Speakers called for greater transparency, but few were willing to discuss attacks on their own systems in detail publicly. Sometimes, experts say, that extends to simply not looking for problems.

“Companies often don’t understand the threats and if they do, they hide it,” said Kapersky, coNatalia founder of Russian software security firm Kapersky Labs.

While some accuse IT security experts of talking up the threat to boost business, most agree the problem is on the rise. Hackers — whether criminals, statelinked spies or those in between — are all seen increasing in sophistication.

Recent weeks saw a host of high-profile attacks. Sony probably suffered the worst damage to its reputation, with the personal details of millions of Playstation users compromised and hackers crowing about other data losses.

Other high-profile victims of hacking attempts include defense giant Lockheed Mar-

tin and Internet firm Google, with security experts in both cases pointing the finger at hackers in China. Chinese officials angrily deny this, particularly any suggestion of official complicity.

But most specialists say that is only the tip of the iceberg, with little consensus on tackling the problem.

Firms often understand so little about the threat facing them that they do not even know how much money they are losing. The difficulty in putting a price on lost prestige complicates this further.

“Everyone is getting attacked but no one is talking about it,” said Vartan Sarkissian, CEO of security firm Knightsbridge Cybersystems.

“If you can’t value the cost of the attacks, you don’t know how much you can spend to prevent them ... We need a way of sharing information anonymously.”

Some argue the answer may be some form of regulation in which companies are required to divulge much more about security breaches. But in the short term, experts say the importance of good electronic defenses is finally getting through.

“I think we’ve reached a tipping point,” Melissa Hathaway, a former U.S. National Security Council cyber security chief who now heads her own consultancy, told Reuters at the conference.

“With the recent breaches ... and increased reporting of the issues firms will be working harder to manage their risks and limit their liability.”

But global companies say that while new national policies on cyber security — such as the new U.S. doctrine published by the White House — are welcome, more global coordination is needed between governments and firms.

“Critical to this is the free passage of information, not just between companies and also between governments and intelligence agencies,” said Matthew Kirk, external relations manager for UKlisted mobile telecom operator Vodafone.

“Understandably, companies are not used to sharing information with their closest competitors but they are the ones they need to share with the most,” he said.

Several security experts pointed to the example of the

insurance sector, where firms share information in a way that still largely allows open competition.

“What happened with the insurance industry was that they realized they were losing so much money through fraud it no longer made sense to pass the problem from company to company,” said Martin Sutherland, CEO of defense firm BAE subsidiary Detica. “I think cyber is a few years behind that.”

But some experts say deterring many cyber attacks is often not all that difficult. The trick, they say, is to raise their defenses to the level where it is no longer cost-effective for hackers to penetrate and they simply seek another target.

Matt Bross, a former security chief at credit card firm MasterCard whowho’ss now chief technical officer for Chinese telecom company Huawei, said his approach to stopping hacking had always been simple.

“The aim was to raise the cost of entry so copying a credit card cost more than forging $100 bill,” he said.

“If you raise the cost of entry of a threat, the threat will go another way.”

China paper warns Google may pay price for hacking claims

By CHRIS BUCKLEY BEIJING — Google has become a “political tool” vilifying the Chinese government, an official Beijing newspaper said on Monday, warning that the U.S. Internet giant’s statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business.

The tough warning appeared in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the leading newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, indicating that political tensions between the United States and China over Internet security could linger.

Last week, Google said it had broken up an effort to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including U.S. government officials, Chinese human rights advocates and journalists. It said the attacks appeared to come from China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected those accusations, and the party newspaper warned Google against playing a risky political

game.

By saying that Chinese human rights activists were among the targets of the hacking, Google was “deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, and strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government,” the People’s Daily overseas edition, a small offshoot of the main domestic paper, said in a front-page commentary.

“Google’s accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions,” said the commentary, written by an editor at the paper.

“Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention,” the paper added.

“For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace,” it said, without specifying how Google’s business could be hurt.

A Google spokeswoman said the U.S. firm had no comment on the remarks.

The latest friction with Google could bring Internet policy back to the foreground of U.S.-China relations, reprising tensions last year when the Obama administration took up Google’s complaints about hacking and censorship from China.

Google partly pulled out of China after that dispute.

Since then, it has lost more share to rival Baidu Inc in China’s Internet market, the world’s largest by user numbers with more than 450 mil-

lion users.

Google said last week that the hacking attacks appeared to come from Jinan, the capital of China’s eastern Shandong province and home to an intelligence unit of the People’s Liberation Army.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates over the weekend warned that Washington was prepared to use force against cyber-attacks it con-

sidered acts of war.

In February, overseas Chinese websites, inspired by anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world, called for protests across China, raising Beijing’s alarm about dissent and prompting tightened censorship of the Internet.

China already blocks major foreign social websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Sina plans U.S. launch of Weibo as Twitter rival China’s Sina Corp. is readying an English version of its microblogging platform, Weibo, and plans to launch it in the U.S. in twothree months as a rival to Twitter, Chinese tech blog Techweb said, citing informed sources.

Shares of Sina were up about 4 percent in high-volume trading on Monday.

Sina, which has seen its stock soar on investor hopes that Weibo will be monetized

sooner rather than later, reported in May, a 39 percent decline in quarterly net profit after it invested heavily in the platform.

Sina hopes to have more than 200 million Weibo users by the end of the year, up from 140 million currently.

The planned launch would mean direct competition with popular U.S. microblogging service Twitter, the blog said.

20

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

21

SPORTS

UConn’s Walker ready to prove doubters CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kemba Walker took the NCAA tournament by storm as a dynamic, speedy, nearly unstoppable scoring point guard who helped Connecticut win the national championship.

Just over two months later, the former Huskies star is learning the reality that the NBA is a more demanding place.

Walker was in Charlotte on Friday for the first of many pre-draft workouts. Bobcats owner Michael Jordan was there, along with a gym full of skepticism.

While Walker is expected to go high in the June 23 draft, Bobcats coach Paul Silas said there’s “no doubt” Walker’s 6-foot-1 height is a concern. He wondered whether the Bobcats would want another small point guard - they already have 6foot D.J. Augustin - and declared the Bobcats wouldn’t attempt to trade up from the No. 9 spot to snag Walker.

“If he drops to nine,” Silas said, “we’d really have to consider him.”

Hardly a ringing endorsement for a guard whose spectacular quickness was no match for most college defenders. He got to the free-throw line, shot well from 3-point range, and led UConn to an unprecedented 11 straight wins to snag the Big East and NCAA crowns.

“I think he could be a good one,” Silas said.

Yet Walker, who acknowledged working out in front of Jordan was a

Kemba Walker “little nerve-racking,” was in the odd situation of having to make excuses for averaging 23.5 points last season.

He averaged only 4.5 assists.

“Last season I had to score for my team out of necessity. But I’m a point guard,” Walker said. “I’m able to score, but I’m also able to get guys involved, too. I think I fit in great with this team.”

The 21-year-old Walker’s junior season at UConn included being named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament. He scored 36 points against San Diego State and 33 against Cincinnati. He had 27 games of 20 or more and even rebounded well (5.4) for his size.

“With speed, it gives me a chance to get to certain places other guards

can’t,” he said.

Walker’s dominant season helped give Jim Calhoun a national title in what could have been his final season. The 69-year-old coach is contemplating retirement.

“I think he’s going stay, no question about that,” Walker said. “He just loves the game too much. He’s very passionate about the game.”

People have said the same about Walker, who guided UConn to an unprecedented five wins in five days to take the Big East tournament. But then there are the whispers.

Can Walker become a pass-first point guard? Will his body hold up over an 82-game season? Can he effectively guard the bigger point guards in the league?

“That’s always a concern. It’s a concern with who we have currently,” Silas said, referring to Augustin.

“You just have to find a way to help them out and design your defenses so they can’t get hurt.”

Walker’s quickness and toughness may be enough to overcome his 184pound frame. It’s also hard to overlook what he did in college Perhaps fittingly, Walker’s first NBA workout Friday included Butler guard Shelvin Mack. The two squared off in one of the ugliest NCAA title games. Walker shot 5 of 19 from the field and Mack 4 of 15 as UConn won 53-41.

Mack insisted more shots fell Friday.

Beltran day to day after fouling ball off leg NEW YORK — Just hours after manager Terry Collins extolled Carlos Beltran’s clean bill of health in his pregame press conference, the right fielder fouled a Tim Hudson pitch off the inside of his right leg, near his shin, in the second inning of Sunday night’s series finale.

Beltran finished the at-bat in the bottom of the second, striking out on a slider by Tim Hudson, but was replaced by Willie Harris immediately after the at-bat.

The Mets announced Beltran’s injury as a right leg contusion. Xrays were negative and he is day to

day.

Though the official prognosis is “day to day,” Collins said after the game it might be longer than that.

After absorbing the blow, Beltran was dizzy and nauseous, and asked out of a game for the first time this season.

“We’ll make a decision on Tuesday how he stands,” Collins said. “I’ll tell you one thing: He was hurt.”

After being hit by the foul ball that broke his shin guard, Beltran was attended to by Collins and the team’s trainers before finishing the at-bat, striking out. He said it was hard for

him to walk afterward, describing the swelling in his shin as “like the outside of a baseball,” adding that he was relieved to find out his X-ray came back negative.

Both Collins and Beltran said they did not know if the right fielder would play Tuesday at Milwaukee.

“When I first hit myself, I was in pain and it took me like three minutes to recuperate,” Beltran said.

“The good thing is that tomorrow’s a day off. I can take treatment the whole day, ice the area and see what we can do Tuesday.”

- Aaron Taube

Patterson settling into No. 2 slot in lineup

By TODD KARPOVICH BALTIMORE — Blue Jays left fielder Corey Patterson has found a home batting second in the order.

Manager John Farrell has contin-

ually kept him in that spot, and Patterson has responded by having one of his finest seasons as a Major Leaguer. So far, Patterson is batting .294 with five home runs and 25 RBIs. Farrell has seen Patterson’s confidence improve, knowing that he’ll be in the lineup each day.

In Saturday night’s game against the Orioles, Patterson went 4-for-5 with a homer, and reached base twice with bunts. Farrell likes that type of versatility and said Patterson is a tremendous asset with his ability to move runners into scoring position.

“You can say that,” he said, smiling.

Walker, too, smiles when people question his size. Yet he’ll likely face similar scrutiny in upcoming workouts with Utah (No. 3 pick), Toronto (5) , Sacramento (7) and Detroit (8).

“I just laugh. I’ve been playing basketball my whole life,” Walker said. “It’s never been an issue. As long as teams like me, I don’t care. If anything, I’ll just adapt and adjust.”

Wilkens presented Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award NEW YORK — Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens is the recipient of the Association’s “Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award” for 2011, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced Sunday.

One of only three Hall of Famers enshrined as both player and coach, Wilkens ranks second all-time in wins and first in games coached. He is the only NBA legend listed among both the alltime Top 50 NBA players and the alltime Top-10 NBA Coaches.

“I’m deeply grateful to my NBA peers for honoring me with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Wilkens.

“Chuck was a great coach, but more important a great friend and I’m thrilled to accept this award.”

As a head coach, Wilkens coached the Seattle Super Sonics to their only NBA title in 1079, and led five different NBA teams to the playoffs.

Utilizing a team-oriented philosophy, Wilkens had the unique talent of crafting championship contending clubs out of competent but unspectacular units. In 1994, he was named the NBA Coach of the Year with t he Atlanta Hawks. Wilkens also served as head coach of USA Basketball’s Gold Medal winning Dream Team II at the 1996 Summer Olympics, after serving as an assistant coach on the fabled 1992 Gold Medal-winning Dream Team.

22

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

BCS strips USC’s 2004 title

By JASON COLE & CHARLES ROBINSON The Bowl Championship Series unanimously decided to strip the University of Southern California of the 2004 national football title, BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said Monday. The championship was awarded after USC defeated Oklahoma 55-19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl.

The decision marks the first time a major-college football or men’s basketball championship has been vacated since the polls began.

“The president’s group operates by consensus,” Hancock said, referring to the governing body of the BCS, which is made up of one president from each of the NCAA’s 12 conferences and

the president of Notre Dame.

“In this case, there was no opposition.”

In keeping with BCS and NCAA policy, the title will be vacated and not awarded to another school.

This is the final major penalty for the USC program in the aftermath of the NCAA’s investigation of the school over violations regarding former running back Reggie Bush and basketball player O.J. Mayo.

USC also was hit with a twoyear bowl ban and will be limited to 15 scholarships in football over the next three years.

Those penalties were maintained despite an appeal by USC. The NCAA announced its final decision on the penalties for USC in May, denying the appeal.

USC officials expressed disappointment at the NCAA’s decision. On Monday, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden reacted to the latest news.

“The BCS alerted us today

that their presidents have voted to vacate USC’s 2005 BCS Championship Game victory,” Haden said. “This was not an unexpected outcome. We will comply with all requirements mandated by the result of this BCS vote.”

Hancock said the group was satisfied that it followed proper procedures set up years ago to handle such situations. He said the group has no plans to add investigatory work to how it handles such controversies.

“We’re not an investigatory body and we’ll leave that to the NCAA. Once it goes through its process and comes to its conclusion, we will take that into account,” Hancock said. “This is the procedure we came up with when we started this and we’re satisfied with how it worked. If we have to dust this off again, we’ll do it.

Hopefully, we won’t, but this has worked properly.”

DAILY CHALLENGE

SPORTS

Reggie Bush

Analysts wonder if labor will cost NBA momentum

By TIM REYNOLDS DALLAS - So far in the NBA finals, television numbers have been skyrocketing, as was the case around the league for much of the season. ABC and ESPN had record viewership numbers all season for NBA telecasts.

Some would suggest interest in the league has never been higher.

Which begs the ques-

tion: Would those eyeballs come back if next season is interrupted by labor strife?

It’s one that ABC and ESPN analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy hope they don’t see answered.

Both expressed concern Saturday over the direction the league’s labor rift may be heading. More talks between the NBA and its players are scheduled to take place in Dallas over the coming days, though both parties - even while indicating some progress may have been

made at a negotiating session in Miami after Game 1 of the finals still appear to be bracing for a lockout to commence when the current collective bargaining agreement expires on June 30.

“Very concerned,” Jackson said. “It’s been an all-time great season from top to bottom. You can’t go anywhere where people are not talking about the great stories that have occurred throughout the course of the year.

It’s important ownership, management,

players, union get together and try to keep this momentum going.

I think there’s more than enough money available to make a deal where everybody will be happy. It’s going to be interesting.”

The NBA wants a hard salary cap, which players absolutely do not want to see. The current salary cap system allows for certain exceptions that permit teams to exceed it, such as to re-sign their own free agents.

They wouldn’t have that luxury under a hard cap

system, potentially forcing teams to make some difficult decisions to stay below the threshold.

The league has also said it wants to cut player-salary costs by nearly $800 million a year.

Despite all the pressing labor matters, fans are watching in droves.

ABC’s broadcasts of the first two games of the NBA finals drew an average of 15,347,000 viewers, up 28 percent over the last MiamiDallas finals series in 2006 and even up 3 percent over what two tra-

ditional powerhouse franchises - the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics - lured last year. And around the league, viewership on regional sports networks was up 13 percent this season, the NBA said.

“If this does go to a lockout, it’s different than the NFL,” Van Gundy said Saturday.

“There are real economic hardships that some teams are facing in the NBA losing money. The NFL, it’s just, ‘How much more do you want to make?’”

O ut look f or N FL, NF LPA and sponsor s

By BARRY WILNER NEW YORK - While fans fret about the NFL lockout affecting everything from training camps to regular-season games, marketing partners for the league and the players association

aren’t panicking. Or fleeing.

They are making contingency plans, of course, because the time when sponsors and advertisers must make decisions on how loyal they can be to pro football is rapidly approaching.

“We’re not at an

Armageddon date. We not staring that in the face this week,” Eric Grubman, NFL executive vice president of business operations for the NFL, told The Associated Press during the owners’ meetings last week. “The demand is good, I think strong.

The platform of being

with the NFL remains very valuable and healthy.

“We have had losses (of potential new sponsors) that won’t return immediately. With some of those, people have said they are not signing with us because of the labor situation.

Those dollars have

moved on forever, but those partners have not, I tahink. I think when we get back to (playing) games, I like our chances to get them back.

“We’re scratching and clawing to show them this, the value is still going to be there.”

On the other side,

NFL Players, the marketing arm for the players association, says it has not lost any marketing partners. Keith Gordon, the organization’s president, believes the worth of its players to advertisers and sponsors could actually grow should the lockout continue into the fall.

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

23

SPORTS

Archie Griffin says Ohio State will bounce back

By RUSTY MILLER COLUMBUS, Ohio Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin wants to reassure Ohio State fans that things will get better.

“Yep. It has been tough. But Ohio State is more than football,” Griffin said this week after Jim Tressel was forced to resign as head coach in the midst of a widespread NCAA inquiry. “It’s a great university, a lot of great things happening at the university. We will bounce back, no question about it.”

Griffin, 56, is president and CEO of Ohio State’s alumni association. Now 36 years removed from becoming the only player to win college football’s most coveted individual award for a second time, he said there is now a drive to rebuild.

“Ohio State has a wonderful tradition, a great program,” he said. “It’s been proven out over the years. And we’ll continue to have that type of program.

We’ll continue to try and put the best players on the field as well as

Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin the coaches. So that’s certainly going to be what the powers that be will look to do.”

Tressel was forced to step aside Monday after admitting he knew some of his players had taken improper benefits that would have made them ineligible under NCAA bylaws.

He found out in April 2010 about possible violations by his players but did not tell anyone at Ohio State for more than nine months, contrary to his contract and NCAA rules.

Five players - including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor - have been suspended for the first five games this fall for taking cash and discounted tattoos from a local tattoo-parlor owner for signed jerseys and gloves, Big

Ten championship rings and other memorabilia.

The NCAA and Ohio State continue to investigate all areas of the athletic department, including allegations regarding athletes and their cars and football players receiving improper benefits at the tattoo-parlor.

The athletic department and football team could receive further penalties when Ohio State goes before the NCAA committee on infractions in Indianapolis on Aug. 12.

Another Heisman winner - this one from archrival Michigan said it’s premature to guess at the Buckeyes’ future.

“What’s going to happen to the program?

Well, we don’t know if No. 2 (Pryor) is going to line up,” former Michigan star and 1991 Heisman winner Desmond Howard told the Detroit Free Press.

“It seems like there’s a lot more that’s happening down there, so I don’t want to right in the middle of things say this is what’s going to happen and then next week we have a new

revelation.”

The university’s donors, some of whom had a close relationship with Tressel and his wife, Ellen, are concerned that giving to the larger mission of the university could diminish in the wake of the NCAA scandal.

“Our thoughts were to increase our giving anyway, that’s not going to change, not in any way, shape or form,” said Judy Tuckerman, who with her husband, Steven, is a financial supporter of Ohio State in addition to being friends with the Tressels. “We put our total confidence and trust in Dr. Gee and we think he is an amazing, brilliant, wonderful president. We’re thankful to have him here, this is one piece of a very large university that does great things in research all over the university.

“I am vehement that people don’t take this as looking at the entire university. I’d fight for a long time for that never to happen.”

Tuckerman told The Associated Press that some donors are angry, most are sad and many remain solidly behind

the university, which is in the midst of a $2.5 billion fundraising campaign - the school’s largest ever.

“I have not heard one person say, ‘I’m not giving any more to the university.’ I’ve not heard one person say, ‘We’re diminishing our gift to the university,’” she said. “I think it will make the university stronger.”

Linebackers coach Luke Fickell will serve as Ohio State’s interim head coach this fall. He was selected to fill in for Tressel during a fivegame suspension for his violations and that was amended to the entire season after Tressel’s resignation.

“I want to see Luke Fickell do a terrific job with this football program,” said Griffin, who rushed for 5,589 yards from 1972-75.

“Luke has got a heck of a job in front of him and it’s also a heck of an opportunity. I’m really in his corner and hoping that he can lead these young men to an outstanding football season.”

Howard, a college football analyst for ESPN who is a Cleveland native, said

finding a replacement for Tressel may be difficult.

“Even after they have this interim coach, Luke Fickell, coach this season they start a search for a new coach,” he said.

“Whoever that new coach is going to be, he’s coming into a situation where they may lose scholarships, they may not be able to play in bowl games and they may not be on TV for a while. There’s some big penalties that can potentially hit the Buckeyes.”

Howard discounted the thought that former Florida coach Urban Meyer, now also working with ESPN, might be interested. Meyer stepped down from the Gators job last December, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He has also had health issues.

“With his health problems and what he may have to face to try to build that program back up depending on the sanctions, it just wouldn’t make sense to me,” Howard said. “It would be a health hazard, it seems like for a coach like him.”

Heavily ridiculed Bosh gets his moment

By JOHNNY LUDDEN DALLAS - Chris Bosh crumbled to the court, rolled onto his back and pounded his leg twice onto the court. He was writhing in pain, or so it seemed, after having been raked across the face in the opening minutes of Game 3’s NBA Finals.

That’s not what mattered, of course. The world saw something else.

Big game, big moment, and once again, Bosh looked ready to sit it out.

This is the burden

Bosh has carried ever since he joined the Miami Heat. As much as LeBron James has been vilified for the way he left Cleveland, no one’s reputation has taken more of a hit than that of Bosh. He took the ultimate step down. The franchise hero in Toronto, he left to caddy for James and Dwyane Wade. From No. 1 to No. 3. Few stars have ever made that kind of transition, or, depending on how you see it, shirked that much responsibility.

Bosh stood on that stage in Miami in July, howling through all the smoke, flexing,

preening, and the world laughed at him.

Fake tough guy, Kevin Durant would later call him, and the world nodded in agreement.

Bosh’s old general manager in Toronto mocked him. His struggles early in the season spawned more jokes, including one hilarious skit by the geniuses at The Basketball Jones, titled, simply, “Like a Bosh.”

Stapler not working as expected? Yeah, like a Bosh. Car won’t start?

Like a Bosh.

The Finals had only brought more of the same. Bosh shot poorly in the first two games

and allowed Dirk Nowitzki to spin past him for the winning layup in Game 2. He grew up here in Dallas, only this was no story of a triumphant homecoming. He arrived in town for Game 3 as the league’s favorite punch line.

Somewhere along the way Bosh learned to live with the scorn. It hasn’t been easy, but this is the path he’s chosen.

He gets knocked down, and he picks himself up, never more so than he did on Sunday. Bosh lay on the court for a few moments after Jason Kidd poked him in the

eye then popped back up. He’d stay in the game, never really settling into a rhythm until his moment finally arrived late.

Game tied, less than a minute remaining, Bosh told Udonis Haslem that if the Mavericks helped to cut off the penetration of either Wade or James, Haslem would be in position to set a screen to free him. A few moments later, Wade penetrated, the Mavericks helped, and Wade swung the ball to James, who was open on the left wing. Tyson Chandler ran at James, leaving Nowitzki to

guard both Haslem and Bosh. Haslem set the screen, Bosh popped open on the baseline, and suddenly James was zipping a pass to him.

For one of the few times on the night, Bosh didn’t hesitate. He raised up and buried the 16-foot shot with 39.6 seconds left.

Haslem would force Nowitzki into a miss, and the Heat walked out with an 88-86 victory and a 2-1 lead in these Finals.

“When I know I’m going to have an open shot,” Bosh said, “I know I have to shoot it.”

DAILY CHALLENGE

S SP PO OR RT TS S TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

PLAXICO BURRESS FREE

By JOHN KEKIS ROME, N.Y. - Former New York Giants star Plaxico Burress was released from prison on Monday after spending nearly two years behind bars on a gun charge and headed to Florida to be with his family as he contemplates his chances of playing again in the NFL. As he left Oneida Correctional Facility in central New York Monday morning, he hugged agent Drew Rosenhaus and shook hands. He was wearing a black sweatshirt, shorts, sneakers and a Philadelphia Phillies hat.

“I just want to thank God for bringing me through one of the most trying times in my life,” he said to reporters outside the prison. “It’s a beautiful day. It’s a beautiful day to be reunited with my family. I want to go home and spend some quality time with them.”

“I’d like to thank everybody for

their prayers and words of encouragement,” he said. “I’d like to thank all my fans all around the world for the thousands of letters, for their unwavering support. As far as football is concerned, if and when everything gets settled, when they get back on the field, I’ll be ready.”

He got into a black Range Rover and headed for the Rome, N.Y., airport where he was expected to fly home immediately.

His release came nearly two years after he arrived at the medium-security prison. Burress, who turns 34 in August, planned to travel to his Florida home to spend time with his wife, son and a daughter born while he was in jail. He’ll continue working out while awaiting a resolution of the NFL labor dispute, said his attorney, Peter M. Frankel.

Burress pleaded guilty in August 2009 to attempted criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was

released about three months early for good behavior.

Because he was a high-profile inmate, Burress was placed in a protective custody unit at the prison, which has 930 inmates, 20 in protective custody. While in prison, he completed an aggression management program and worked as a lawn and grounds laborer, according the state’s Department of Correctional Services.

Burress violated prison rules and regulations three times: He lied to a guard about having permission to use the phone; gave another inmate a pair of black and silver sneakers that were deemed contraband; and had too many cassette tapes and an unauthorized extra pillow in his “filthy” cell.

Burress will be on parole for two years. He has to get and keep a job, undergo substance abuse testing, obey any curfew established by his Florida parole officer, support his family and undergo any anger counseling or other conditions required by

his parole officer.

The lanky 6-foot-5 receiver had the world at his feet after catching a 13yard pass from Eli Manning with 35 seconds to play to give the Giants a stunning 17-14 win over the undefeated New England Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl.

His world fell apart nine months later when he walked into a Manhattan nightclub with a handgun tucked in the waistband of his pants. The weapon slipped down and discharged as Burress tried to grab it, injuring him in the thigh.

The wound was not serious. The backlash was.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for Burress to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and was irate that officials at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center treated Burress and failed to report the shooting, as required by law. A doctor who treated Burress was later suspended.