Daily Challenge 6-9-11

NEW YORK HOTELS REVISIT STAFF PROTECTION - PG. 2 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

THE NATION’S ONLY BLACK DAILY 35 Cents

Final

OBAMA HOLDS BIG 2012 LEAD President Barack Obama about the economy and the retains a big lead over possi- country’s future, according ble Republican rivals in the to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

2012 election despite anxiety SEE PAGE 3.

WWW.DAILYCHALLENGENEWS.COM

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

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N E W S B RI E F S UFT AWARDS $1.1M IN SCHOLARSHIP MONEY The teachers’ union awarded $1.1 million in college scholarships to 250 high school seniors from low-income families during the 42nd annual Albert Shanker Scholarship Ceremony in Downtown Manhattan on Tuesday.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn were on hand to present the awards.

The students were picked based on grades, teacher recommendations and personal essays.

“This scholarship is tremendous in helping me, since I’m dorming also and it’s not cheap,” said Ashley Frankel, who is going to New York University.

“The scholarship isn’t just about writing the check. We have people here who work with these students throughout their entire college career,” said Mulgrew. “We make sure if they’re having problems, keeping up with their academics, we will go and help them.”

“It’s a statement from the UFT, from the entire City of New York about the great potential these students have, that we in the City of New York believe that their potential is limitless,” said Quinn.

Mulgrew said this year they also awarded six scholarships to students who previously went through the program and are now going to graduate school.

DOH: HIGHER NUMBER OF MEASLES CASES REPORTED A jump in measles cases in the city has health officials warning doctors to be on alert for additional infections.

The New York City Department of Health says this is no cause for alarm, but doctors should be on the lookout for symptoms.

So far this year there have been 13 cases of measles, when usually there would only be around five.

Health officials attribute the jump to fewer people vaccinating against measles, as well as overseas travel.

A similar increase in measles cases has been reported nationwide.

MAYOR TEMPORARILY RAISES MAXIMUM AGE FOR NEW FIREFIGHTERS Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed Tuesday a bill temporarily increasing the maximum age to apply to be a firefighter.

The New York City Fire Department has not made any new hires in three years, because a judge nullified the results of the qualifying exam, saying it discriminated against Blacks and Latinos.

While the case drags on, thousands of FDNY applicants have aged out of eligibility requirements.

The new legislation increases the maximum age from 29 to 36.

The old entrance exam must be replaced with a hiring method approved by the court.

African American soldier says noose strung outside barracks

By ZELIE POLLON SANTA FE, New Mexico — Racial slurs and a noose strung up outside his barracks were among the alleged harassment an African American war veteran said he was subjected to while serving in Afghanistan, according to a complaint filed this week.

Specialist Adam Jarrell, the only African American in a unit of 216 soldiers of the New Mexico Army National Guard, told Reuters on Tuesday that his complaints to superiors were not only ignored, but resulted in increased harassment.

“It’s dangerous when the only people you can count on are the people hanging nooses outside your room, telling you they hate you because you’re Black,” said Jarrell, 23, a Sheriff’s deputy in Hobbs, New Mexico,

who has been with the National Guard since 2006. He arrived home in New Mexico a year ago.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico filed the racial discrimination complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice asking for an investigation.

“No one should suffer the kind of racial hatred Specialist Jarrell experienced, least of all someone who is on the front lines of battle,” said ACLUNM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Our military is supposed to maintain a professional, disciplined fighting force. People’s lives depend on it. Racism and racially motivated threats have no place in our state’s National Guard units.”

New Mexico National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Jamison Herrera said they were looking into the complaint

and did not know when they could respond to the allegations.

The alleged harassment began after Jarrell reported the physical abuse of two subordinate soldiers by an officer in Afghanistan in 2009, Jarrell said. The officer was informed of the report against military rules, Jarrell said.

After that, Jarrell said he was subjected to increasing torment, including threats of physical violence and racial slurs. The abuse culminated in a noose hanging outside his barracks door, he said.

“That was the last straw,” he said.

When he reported the incidents to his commanding officers, they ignored the issue and wrote him up for jumping the chain of command, even though harassment claims are not subject to those rules, Jarrell said.

New York hotels revisit staff protection Days after former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested for the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in his luxury Sofitel hotel suite, the housekeeping staff at the nearby Sheraton New York was called to a meeting with hotel management.

In the meeting — recounted by Beverly Banton, a housekeeper at the Sheraton — management told the staff that the hotel would not tolerate any misbehavior from its guests, and that they should report any inappropriate incidents.

That is a notable shift from past practice at some New York hotels, according to several hotel workers protesting on Monday outside the New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan, where Strauss-Kahn was pleading not guilty to the charges against him that carry up to 25 years in prison.

Often, the workers said, complaints of inappropriate behavior by guests were swept under the rug.

Banton said she was assaulted several years ago, when a guest grabbed her breast inside his hotel room. Security removed the guest from the hotel, but the police were not summoned, she said.

“In those days, they would say, ‘The guests come first.’ There’s a lot of people this happened to who didn’t say nothing. Now it’s all out in the open. I hope this changes things — it has to,” Banton said.

The Sheraton did not respond to requests for comment.

In addition to the meeting at the Sheraton, the Four Seasons held a refresher course on sexual harassment and reviewed its safety procedures in the last week, said Tiffani Cailor, a spokeswoman for the hotel.

“Based on what has been happening, we just wanted to make sure that our staff feels safe and comfortable,” she said.

Broader protections may be coming soon.

Attorney Kenneth Thompson, who represents the maid accusing former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, speaks with reporters after a hearing for Strauss-Kahn at Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The Hotel Association of New York is planning to meet with the hotel workers’ union to discuss potential reforms, including improved training for security and other staff. The association is also meeting with state Assemblyman Rory Lancman, who has proposed legislation mandating panic buttons for housekeeping staff.

Since the May 14 Strauss-Kahn arrest, the Sofitel and the Pierre, another high-end hotel in midtown Manhattan, have both decided to give panic buttons to housekeepers.

“The safety of our hotel workers continues to be of primary importance to all members,” association spokeswoman Lisa Linden said. “There have been and will be discussions about the safety of our workers.

The maid who accused StraussKahn of sexually attacking her has hired Kenneth Thompson, an experienced civil litigator, and could eventually file a civil lawsuit seeking damages. But it is doubtful that the Sofitel could be named as a defendant in such a suit, because the standard for finding a hotel liable for attacks on its staff is not easy to meet.

Generally, injuries sustained while working are covered by workers’ compensation laws, which ensure that

employees are compensated in exchange for waiving their right to sue their employers.

New York state law allows employees to sue for additional compensation if they can prove their employer engaged in “gross negligence.” But courts have held that gross negligence must include intentional misconduct on the part of the employer, and this is a high bar for a plaintiff to clear.

“In order to show gross negligence, you need to show that the employer participated in the assault,” said labor attorney Philip Berkowitz, of Littler Mendelson.

The standard would not be met in the case of an employee assaulted by a guest, even if the employee could show that the hotel’s security procedures were flawed, Berkowitz said.

Liability aside, there is little question that hotels would prefer to avoid any incidents that might harm their image.

“These hotels do not want this exposure,” said Richard Roth, an attorney who has represented corporate and entertainment clients. “This case is getting hotels to reassess their policies, because they want to make sure it doesn’t happen to them.”

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

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Obama holds big 2012 lead over Republicans

By JOHN WHITESIDES WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama retains a big lead over possible Republican rivals in the 2012 election despite anxiety about the economy and the country’s future, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Obama’s approval rating inched up 1 percentage point from May to 50 percent but the number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track also rose as pricier gasoline, persistently high unemployment and a weak housing market chipped away at Obama’s public confidence.

Obama leads all potential Republican challengers by double-digit margins, the poll showed. He is ahead of his closest Republican rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, by 13 percentage points — 51 percent to 38 percent.

“Obama’s position has gotten a little stronger over the last couple of months as the public mood has evened out, and as an incumbent he has some big advantages over his rivals,” Ipsos pollster Cliff Young said.

“Until Republicans go through a primary season and select a nominee, they are going to be at a disadvantage in the head-to-head matchups in name recognition.”

Obama, who got a boost in the polls last month with the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is amassing an election campaign warchest likely to be larger than the record $750 million he raised in 2008.

Sarah Palin and Romney lead the Republicans battling for the right to challenge Obama in the November 2012 election.

Palin, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2008, had the support of

22 percent of the Republicans surveyed. The former governor of Alaska has not said whether she will run for president next year.

Romney, who failed in a 2008 presidential bid, had 20 percent support.

Representative Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican from Texas, and former pizza executive Herman Cain were tied for third with 7 percent each.

The Republican candidates are just starting to engage in their slowstarting nomination race. Young said Palin and Romney had a clear advantage at this stage over other challengers in name recognition among voters.

Other surveys have shown Romney in a stronger position. A Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this week gave Romney a slight lead over Obama among registered voters.

In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, the other Republican contenders fared even worse than Romney’s 13-point gap in a match-up with Obama. Palin trailed Obama by 23 points and for-

Former New York police officer gets 20 years for robbery A former New York City police officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for his role in a string of more than 100 violent robberies of narcotics traffickers. The robberies netted more than $4 million in drug proceeds.

Jorge Arbaje-Diaz, 31, was arrested in 2008 and charged in Brooklyn federal court along with 14 other members of a violent robbery crew that prosecutors say posed as police officers to rob narcotics dealers along the East Coast of the U.S. Arbaje-Diaz and one other member of the crew were the only two real officers.

In May of last year, he pleaded guilty to one count each of robbery conspiracy and narcotics-trafficking conspiracy.

According to prosecutors, ArbajeDiaz used his status as a police officer to gain access to narcotics traffickers’ houses. Once inside, crew members bound and tortured some of their victims, demanding to know

where drugs and money were kept, prosecutors said.

Working since 2003, the crew made off with $4 million in drug profits and more than 750 kilograms of cocaine, prosecutors said.

On at least one occasion, ArbajeDiaz took part in a robbery while on duty, using his NYPD-issued firearm, badge and handcuffs, prosecutors said.

“Today’s sentence will send a strong message that anyone who abuses a position of public trust by committing such heinous crimes will be severely punished,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

Priya Chaudhry, Arbaje-Diaz’s attorney, did not return a request for comment Tuesday.

In a pre-sentencing memorandum filed last month, Chaudhry argued for a more lenient sentence of 10 years, contending that Arbaje-Diaz’s status as a “dirty cop” would make it much more difficult to keep him safe inside prison.

mer Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was behind by 19 points.

The survey was taken after weak jobs and housing figures released last week showed the U.S. economy is recovering slower than expected.

Unemployment rose slightly to 9.1

percent for the month.

The poll found 60 percent of respondents said the country is on the wrong track, up from 56 percent in May but still below April’s high of 69 percent. In the latest survey, 35 percent said the country is going in the right direction.

Obama’s approval rating has drifted in a narrow range between 49 percent and 51 percent since January, with the exception of April when the first spike in gasoline prices drove his rating lower.

With Congress battling over a Republican budget plan that includes scaling back the federal Medicare health program for the elderly, the poll found a plurality of Americans, 43 percent, oppose the Medicare cuts and 37 percent support them.

The poll, conducted Friday through Monday, surveyed 1,132 adults nationwide by telephone, including 948 registered voters. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.

Survey: Public pension problem could be shrinking WASHINGTON — As the issue of underfunded public pensions in the United States takes center stage at city council meetings, state budget drafting sessions, congressional hearings and public protests, a report released yesterday says the problem may be getting better.

“Public pension funds are experiencing a robust recovery from the historic market downturn of 20082009 — reporting strong investment returns, growing assets and funding levels on track to meet obligations,” said the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

The group, the largest trade association for public sector pensions, surveyed state and local systems representing 7.6 million people and assets exceeding $900 billion.

It found that over the last year, funds have achieved an annual investment return of 13.5 percent, nearly double the 7.7 percent rate most assume.

On average, said NCPERS, pension systems are 76.1 percent funded, meaning they can cover more than three-quarters of liabilities.

Typically, pensions are considered fully funded when they surpass 80 percent.

“In addition, funds have responded to changes in the economic, political and social landscape by adopting substantial organizational and operational changes to ensure their long-term sustainability,” NCPERS said.

Pensions are backed by contributions from employees and employers and by earnings from investments, which NCPERS found make up 66 percent of fund revenue.

Employer contributions, essentially the taxpayer bill, comprise about 24 percent of revenues, it said.

Typically, when investment returns are low, governments increase contributions. But amid some of the worst budget crises in recent memory, state and local governments cut deposits just as the stock market plunged.

With most states beginning a new fiscal year in less than a month, investors in the $2.9 trillion municipal bond market are worried that they cannot fund pension promises.

The study found the annual investment return for pension funds when averaged over three years, which would include the time of the financial crisis, was 1 percent.

NCPERS found that over the last two years most public pensions have lowered their assumed rates of return, lengthened the period of time to amortize their liabilities, increased employee contributions and raised the retirement age.

The findings are in sync with a recent National Conference of State Legislatures report that 33 states changed their public pension plans from January 2010 through May 2011, with 23 requiring future employees to make higher contributions.

Yesterday, the Philadelphia City Council took up reforming its Deferred Retirement Option Plan. It allows workers to set a retirement date four years in the future and then deposits pension payments into an interest-bearing account leading up to that date. Retirees are paid a lump-sum amount and a reduced monthly pension when they retire.

Saying the system costs Philadelphia hundreds of millions of dollars, Mayor Michael Nutter has proposed scrapping the plan, known as DROP.

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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

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New migration needed for African Americans THOMAS H. WATKINS

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When two million Blacks moved from the rigidly-segregated South to the North, West and Midwest from 1910 to 1930, it was called the Great Migration. When another five million African Americans fled the South between 1940 and 1970, many seeking good jobs and a better life in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, it was called the Second Great Migration.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk thinks it is now time for a Third Great Migration, this one to far-flung cities around the world. He advanced that argument in his office, which is directly across the street from the Old Executive Office Building.

“Whether you’re Black, white, brown or whatever, the No. 1 concern of American families is: ‘Where am I going to find a job? More importantly, where is this kid that I just

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tates that one does not ignore the obvious.

“One way to create wealth and a better life – assuming you make something – is to think about selling it to the 95 percent of the people who don’t call the United States home,” Kirk advised. “If you look at the Fortune 100 companies, the absolute common denominator among them right now is that they, for the most part, are singularly looking at how they are going to access these hundreds of millions of young people who are growing up in Africa, Asia, India, and Latin America and are hungry for something called, ‘Made in America.’”

Kirk believes America can profit from that sentiment.

“If you want to attack the job growth problem –and the president firmly believes in this – whatever we can do to empower and enable small businesses to grow faster is a great way to grow our economy,” he explained. “And, so a big part Continued on page 5

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spent x amount of money getting out of college going to find a job?’”

The job market has undergone a global revolution.

“I don’t know why my friends are upset when I say to them, ‘If all your kids do is what we’ve been doing, we haven’t advanced the ball,’” said Kirk, who served as mayor of Dallas and Texas Secretary of State. “Our kids are going to live in London, in Shanghai, or in Abuja (Nigeria). It’s just as likely they’ll be stationed in Johannesburg as Detroit or New York.”

That migration to London, Shanghai, Abuja and Johannesburg has been propelled by new opportunities opened up by advances in technology and the international removal of quotas, tariffs and outrageous export fees.

And there’s also Sutton’s Law. When bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he reputedly replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Sutton’s law dic-

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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

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Remembering Dr. Benjamin E. Mays’ legacy

By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN “It started here in a log cabin and a cotton patch. If it hadn’t been for Benjamin Mays, there probably wouldn’t have been a Martin Luther King.” So said Ambassador Andrew Young as he spoke at the dedication of the Benjamin E. Mays Historical Preservation Site in Greenwood, South Carolina on April 26. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, who was born in 1894 to former slaves, was an adviser to presidents, mentor of mentors like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lauded preacher and scholar, advocate for social justice, and the president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967. He was a remarkable man and role model for thousands of students who entered the doors of Morehouse, Spelman College, Atlanta University, Clark and Morris Brown Colleges, and the Interdenominational Theological Seminary, the schools that constituted the broader Atlanta University Center of Black higher education.

Ramrod straight of posture, unwaveringly principled and caring, keenly intelligent and elegant in speech, Dr. Mays was one of the most important people to me during my college years at Spelman.

Throughout my life, he inspired me with a passion for excellence and service. The Mays Historical Site, which includes a museum, a 19th

century one-room Black schoolhouse, and the simple log cabin that was Dr. Mays’ birthplace and childhood home, is a long overdue recognition of him by his native state, South Carolina.

One of Dr. Mays’ earliest childhood memories was of the armed white mob that came to his home during an 1898 riot and forced his father to bow before them at gunpoint. Eight other Black citizens, including Dr. Mays’ cousin, were murdered. Dr. Mays understood early on that the way to escape the violence, discrimination, and poverty of his rural Southern community would be through education. After graduating as valedictorian from the high school department of South Carolina State College at age 22, he went on to graduate with honors from Bates College in Maine.

He went on to Atlanta, where he pastored Shiloh Baptist Church and was recruited to serve as a math instructor and debate coach at Morehouse.

After returning to school to earn a Ph.D. in Religion from the University of Chicago, Dr. Mays was appointed dean of the School of Religion at Howard University in 1934, and served there until assuming the presidency of Morehouse.

I first met Dr. Mays in 1953 when I was 13 years old and he came to stay at my house. Daddy had invited him to speak at our church, and because there were no hotels where

New migration needed Continued from page 4 of our trade work has been targeting, first, those small businesses that already export and learning more about them, what their challenges are and trying to remove them.

“And secondly, that universe of people that have never exported, either because they are afraid or they’re saying, ‘How am I going to find customers?’ That’s why we’re putting out more information about the Export Import Bank. The bottom line: they finance your sale.”

Kirk said African Americans have not exploited their special connections to Africa and the Caribbean.

“Corporate America realizes, ‘If I am going to go to Brazil, I better find somebody who speaks Spanish and understands the culture,’” he said.

“If I am going to Africa, I am much better served by having somebody who understands the values, reflects the culture and knows the ropes in Kenya, Ghana and West Africa. I want our young people to realize, ‘You’re more marketable now in a global, competitive society than you might have ever been.’ But you got to think globally.”

Black businesses must also look beyond the shores of the United States, the trade official said. He said the Commerce Department and his

office provides assistance to small businesses trying to engage in international trade.

“The generation that grew up on the Web – where they live, breathe, educate and shop – is a little less intimidated,” Kirk said. “I tell people, once you put up a Web site, you’re global. On the Web, nobody knows whether you’re a woman, Catholic, Black, tall or straight. All they want to know is, ‘I see you got a product. I think it might be able to help me. How do I get at it?’ If you’re not intimidated by doing business over the Web, I don’t think it’s that much of a leap to begin thinking about global trade.”

Despite anti-American sentiment in some countries, Kirk said the U.S. is still a strong brand.

“They’ll complain that maybe our products cost a little more,” Kirk said. “They will complain, ‘You preach to us too much. You come over here and tell us about corruption, democracy, rule of law and, frankly, if we do a deal with China, we don’t have to go through all of that.’

“But at the end of the day, there is an implied value proposition that if I buy this from George and Ron, it’ll probably work the way they say it will. It’s not counterfeit. If something goes wrong, America has a

Black visitors could stay in my Southern town, the pastor and parishioners always provided hospitality to strangers great and humble. Later, I heard and saw Dr. Mays and his beautiful wife Sadie often at Spelman or on Morehouse’s campus. Students were regularly invited to their house, and I was one of eight very lucky Spelman students privileged to sing with eight Morehouse students at Morehouse’s 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning chapel services in Sale Hall, where I heard Dr. Mays and other speakers from Morehouse and the outside world every week. Students lovingly imitated Dr. Mays’s words and mannerisms and hungrily internalized his unerring belief that we were God’s instruments for transforming the world.

Of the six college presidents in the Atlanta University academic complex, Dr. Mays was the one who we looked up to most. He inspired and taught us and stood by us when we challenged Atlanta’s racial discrimination. Some of his teachings I wrote in my college diary. Others I internalized and, like many others who heard him frequently, I shared his words with others. I especially remember his oft-repeated “God’s Minute” from an anonymous sage: I have just one minute Only sixty seconds in it, Forced upon me—can’t refuse it Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it, legal system that can help me hold them accountable.’ That’s a huge advantage for us.”

Kirk strikes a cautionary note about international business. “It’s a huge opportunity,” he said. But don’t rush into it.”

But it’s up to me to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it, Give account if I abuse it.

Just a tiny little minute— But eternity is in it.

Dr. Mays also warned “the tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.” When Morehouse College bade Dr. King farewell after his assassination at a service on the grassy rectangle connecting Atlanta University with Morehouse, where I stood with thousands of others who had marched behind his simple mule-driven cortege, Dr. Mays movingly saluted his former student, fellow freedom fighter, and servant of God with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “See how the masses of men worry themselves into nameless graves, while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.”

How many high school and college students today are urged to follow intrinsic values rather than extrinsic success? Dr. Mays was a great unselfish soul who through the countless young people he inspired lives on. I am grateful a new generation will now be able to visit his childhood home and learn about Dr. Benjamin E. Mays’s life and legacy.

— George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com You can also follow him atwww.twitter.com/currygeorge.

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Former Black Panther Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, who was wrongly imprisoned for 27 years on a murder conviction, died Thursday in Tanzania, his former lawyer said. He was 63.

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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

Report: Prisoners and the dead got 2009 car tax break

By KEVIN DRAWBAUGH WASHINGTON — A tax break that spurred car buying in 2009 was erroneously allowed in some cases, including claims made in the names of people who were in prison, dead or underage, said a U.S. report yesterday.

The report criticized the Internal Revenue Service’s handling of the qualified motor vehicle (QMV) deduction, a measure that expired on December 31, 2009. It was part of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package that year.

The tax-collecting IRS should have done more to verify that those who claimed the

deduction were entitled to receive it, said the report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, a government IRS watchdog.

Taxpayers who claimed the deduction were not required to provide independent proof that a vehicle was actually purchased or, if one was, how much was paid in deductible sales and excise taxes, said the inspector general.

The IRS has agreed to review instances that the watchdog has found questionable and tighten its procedures just in case the deduction is ever renewed, the report said.

“We have already implemented changes to strengthen controls, or are in the

process of doing so,” the IRS said in a formal response to the watchdog’s report.

The report said the IRS failed to identify 4,257 individuals who made QMV claims above a level the IRS had red-flagged as excessive.

Altogether, these individuals claimed more than $151.1 million in QMV deductions, based on the inspector general’s 2010 review of 2009 returns.

“Identification of those individuals might have prevented the issuance of erroneous refunds,” said the report.

Widely promoted by car dealers at the time with the economy in recession for much of the year, the QMV deduction helped drive vehi-

cle sales through 2009. More than $7.2 billion in QMV deductions were claimed by almost 4.4 million taxpayers, according to the report.

“Some individuals may have erroneously been allowed QMV deductions for vehicles that were not purchased,” it said.

About $1 million in deductions went to 473 people in error “because the IRS did not have processes to identify the individuals were in prison, deceased or underage,” it said.

Of that total, 439 were prisoners, who deducted a total of $955,843 in sales tax for the purchase of vehicles in 2009 “even though they were in prison for a full year in 2009 when the vehicle was

purportedly purchased,” the report said.

Another $36,490 in claims were allowed for people who were dead before the start of the deduction’s short career, from mid-February 2009 to the end of that year, it said.

The watchdog also found that 18 individuals under the age of 15 got $31,139 in QMV deductions. In the United States, minors generally are not allowed to buy a motor vehicle.

The IRS said the report found “a small percentage of cases in which taxpayers may have claimed questionable QMV deductions. We agree these returns are worthy of additional scrutiny and we will review them,” the agency said.

Arizona wildfire displaces more than 3,000 people

By DAVID SCHWARTZ PHOENIX — A forest fire that has scorched over 480 square miles in eastern Arizona flared out of control for a 10th day on Tuesday and advanced on two mountain towns near New Mexico, forcing hundreds more people from their homes.

The latest evacuations raised the number of residents displaced by the wildfire, the second-largest on record in Arizona, to as many as 3,500 in communities flanking the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, state and local officials said.

Smoke from the conflagration continued to drift across several states as far east as Iowa, officials said.

More than 2,100 firefighters faced another tough day of fierce winds that fanned the massive blaze northward and closer to the White Mountains communities of Eager and Springerville, home to an estimated 7,500 residents combined.

Fire officials put both on alert for possible evacuation on Monday, along with the small New Mexico town of Luna.

Some 500 residents in Eager were evacuated on Tuesday afternoon, said Sergeant Richard Guinn, a spokesman for the Apache County Sheriff’s Office.

“At this point, we need people to get out so we’re sure everyone will be safe,” he told Reuters. “Now we’ve reached that trigger point.”

The popular mountain

retreat of Greer, home to roughly 200 permanent residents, was ordered evacuated on Monday as flames crept to within 5 miles of town. But the community appeared on Tuesday to be out of immediate danger as the leading edge of the fire veered north.

Weather forecasts called for sustained winds of up to 18 miles per hour, with gusts even higher in the region, about 250 miles northeast of Phoenix.

At midday Tuesday, fire officials said the so-called Wallow Fire had charred more than 311,000 acres, or nearly 487 square miles, of tinderdry ponderosa pine forests since May 29.

No one has been hurt, and reported property losses have been limited to 10 buildings, including at least four cabins, so far. But Governor Jan Brewer said that as many as 3,000 people had been forced

from their homes, not counting the latest evacuees in Eager. On Monday she declared a state of emergency for two counties.

The state’s largest wild lands blaze on record, the Rodeo-Chediski fire in eastern Arizona, blackened almost 469,000 acres in 2002 before it was snuffed out.

As of Tuesday, containment of the Wallow Fire remained at zero. Brewer said fire officials were hoping to gain some control over the blaze by Friday, though her spokesman, Matt Benson, said firefighting progress hinged on the weather.

Several hundred residents from the eastern Arizona towns of Alpine and Nutrioso were ordered from their homes last Thursday, and four smaller housing developments were evacuated on Sunday. Those evacuations were still in effect on Tuesday.

A view of the Wallow Wildfire is pictured in the distance seen along the U.S. Route 180 as smoke fills the sky in Luna, New Mexico.

“It’s very scary up here,” said Bill Farbstein, who works at the Springerville-Eager Chamber of Commerce and fled his home in Nutrioso with his wife on Thursday.

“Everyone is very concerned.

It’s ruining the best part of the forest right now.” Farbstein said he is unsure whether there will be anything left when he returns home.

Nearly 900 firefighters continued to work on Tuesday to gain greater control over a separate large wildfire burning in the southeastern part of the state.

Officials said the Horseshoe 2 Fire had consumed more than 104,000 acres and prompted the evacuation of two small communities there.

That fire was listed as 55 percent contained.

Tornado damage in Massachusetts at $90M and climbing

By ZACH HOWARD CONWAY, Mass. — Deadly tornadoes that tore through Massachusetts last week caused at least $90 million of damage, making it the most costly single natural disaster in state history, officials said on Tuesday.

The price tag was expected to climb even higher once auto-related damage and commercial devastation costs are tallied, officials said.

“It takes a little bit longer for the commercial side of

claims to come in, so we don’t really have any kind of picture of that yet,” said Jason Lefferts, spokesman for the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.

So far, about $90 million worth of damage has been reported with damage to about 5,000 homes, said Barbara Anthony, the office undersecretary.

State officials arrived at the figure by surveying insurance carriers, she added.

Anthony advised homeowners to seek out Massachu-

setts-registered contractors, electricians, plumbers, and sheet-metal workers to make storm-related repairs, and avoid using unregistered or unlicensed crews from out of state who have entered the area looking to work.

Using state registered contractors will help ensure that repair work meets state regulations and, if there are problems later, maintain a consumers’ rights for relief, she said.

Three tornadoes last Wednesday killed three people, ripping through some 19

communities in western and central Massachusetts, including Springfield, about 90 miles west of Boston. The National Weather Service classified one of the twisters that moved eastward from Westfield, Massachusetts to Charlton as EF-3 or higher on the damage scale, meaning average wind gusts of up to 165 miles per hour.

Tornadoes, which are rare at that strength in New England, have battered the country this spring, killing more than 500 people, mostly in the South and Midwest.

DAILY D CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

COMMUNITY AFFAIRS

7

Redhawk Native American Arts Council

The grand entrance of dancers

Benny Perez, Britt Breen and The Chief

More dancers in classic garb Bahawanex and Carmen Hernandez, Taino nation, Valerie and Gary Gravesandy and son Gary Jr. and Tawodit Birdsong, Mohawk and Easter-Cherokee

How a teepee looks at the start A family taking a food break

Mary and Carline and Daughter

Concilio Guatu -Ma-cu- A Boriken of New York Native American largest Native American crafts and culture were festivals in Northeast, on display at Floyd and provides venues for Bennett Field last week- more than 200 artists end as the Redhawk and educators to present Native American Arts and share their art Council staged its annu- forms. al exposition.

The arts council - Photos & Captions By organizes four of the Lem Peterkin

Younge women in a sacred ritual

AFRICAN SCENE

88

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

NATO vows no let-up in Libya air war, Kadhafi defiant

By JEANPIERRE CAMPAGNE BENGHAZI, Libya NATO pledged yesterday no let up in its relentless air war in Libya after Moamer Kadhafi vowed he would never surrender, even as bombs rained down on his Tripoli residence.

Spain, meanwhile, joined the growing list of countries which recognise the rebels seeking to topple Kadhafi as the sole representative of Libya’s people, leaving the strongman more isolated than ever.

NATO allies meeting in Brussels pledged to stay in Libya “for as long as necessary” and commit the “necessary means” to the military campaign against Kadhafi’s forces.

Alliance defence ministers said they were “determined to continue our operation to protect the Libyan people for as long as necessary,” in a statement issued after a working lunch.

“We are committed to providing the necessary means and maximum operational flexibility within our mandate to sustain these efforts and welcome additional contributions to our common efforts,” the statement added, after

NATO urged its 28 member states to step up and share out the load.

The defence ministers also demanded the strongman to step down.

“Time is working against Kadhafi, who has clearly lost all legitimacy and therefore needs to step down,” the statement said.

The NATO meeting came hours after Kadhafi in an audio message broadcast late Tuesday said that he was close to the NATO bombing but was still resisting and called on his people to resist too.

“Despite the bombings, we will never submit,” Kadhafi said in the nine-minute message, which was broadcast on his 69th birthday Tuesday. “I am near the bombing but I am still resisting.

“We have only one choice — (to stay in) our country to the end.

Death, life, victory, no matter what. We will not leave our country or sell it, we will not submit,” he said in his first intervention since he appeared on state television on May 19.

Shortly after the recording was broadcast, more air strikes hit the Libyan capital, continuing a bombardment that had gone on throughout Tuesday.

Zi mbabw e pr esi den t’ s fr ie nd t h e n f o e , Te k e r e , d i e s HARARE, Zimbabwe - Edgar Tekere, a staunch friend and ally of Zimbabwe’s president who then became one of the leader’s harshest critics, has died at the age of 74.

A statement yesterday from representatives of his family says Tekere died Edgar Tuesday from cancer.

Tekere He spent 10 years as a political prisoner alongside President Robert Mugabe in the same colonial-era jail and after their release the two men fled on foot together to lead burgeoning guerrilla forces to end white rule.

Tekere was a founding member of Mugabe’s party in 1964. He then enraged Mugabe by speaking out against corruption and misrule a decade after independence in 1980. He formed an opposition party and lost to Mugabe in presidential polls.

Camels are seen yesterday in the area that the Libyan government says was hit by NATO airstrikes the day before at a wilderness park on the outskirts of Tripoli. NATO pledged no let up of its relentless air war in Libya after Moamer Kadhafi vowed he would never surrender, even as bombs rained down on his Tripoli residence.

Photo/Mahmud Turkia Early yesterday, Libyan people; we want another wave of blasts a democratic country was heard near with rights and freeKadhafi’s residential doms,” Jimenez said, complex Bab al-Aziziya, after holding talks with which has been the the Mustafa Abdul Jalil, main target of the inter- head of the NTC, the national military inter- political arm of the vention launched on rebels who control eastMarch 19. ern Libya.

Spanish Foreign The minister, who Minister Trinidad arrived in the Benghazi Jimenez meanwhile earlier yesterday, announced in the stressed to the media rebels’ capital Benghazi that her government yesterday that Spain was the “first to declare now recognises the that a solution in Libya National Transitional lies with the departure Council as the “sole of (Moamer) Kadhafi. legitimate representaOther countries tive of the Libyan peo- which have recognised ple.” the NTC as the sole and “Spain will help the legitimate representa-

tive of the Libyan people include France, Italy, Britain, Jordan, Qatar, Malta and Gambia.

Adding to Kadhafi’s growing isolation was an African Union call this week for him to step down, the first crack in the continent’s public stance towards the Libyan strongman who has long championed its various causes.

The leader of the AU’s heads of state mediation team on Libya, Mauritania’s Mohamed President Ould Abdel Aziz, said Kadhafi’s departure had become necessary as “he can longer lead Libya”.

It was the first time a head of state on the AU panel, which has made several trips to Libya to try to negotiate a settlement to the conflict, has made such a direct public reference to the departure of the Libyan leader.

And Kadhafi’s Labour Minister, AlAmin Manfur, became the latest member his regime to defect, announcing at a meeting of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva that he was changing sides.

In Benghazi, Libya’s second city, the United Nations special envoy

for Libya, Abdul Ilah alKhatib, held talks yesterday with the rebel leadership, a rebel source said, without giving details.

On Tuesday, Khatib was in the embattled Libyan capital where he held “positive talks” with officials of Moamer Kadhafi’s government, a spokesman for the regime said.

Among envoys also beating a path to Benghazi was Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov, who was in the rebel capital on Tuesday.

Margelov, President Dmitry Medvedev’s African envoy, said after holding talks with the rebel leadership that Russia was prepared to provide financial support to the rebels but opposed any escalation of the conflict.

The rebels said they were ready to receive Russian aid “tomorrow,” but stressed that they would not enter any negotiations until Kadhafi stepped down.

Margelov said Moscow was prepared to “facilitate dialogue between the two camps,” but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed Russia did not want to be the lead mediator.

Fuel prices skyrocket in oil-rich South Sudan

By MAGGIE FICK JUBA, Sudan Southern Sudan wants to control its oil supply after becoming the world’s newest nation in only a month’s time, but already an apparent dispute with the north has sent fuel prices skyrocketing here and prompted fist fights at gas stations.

Aid groups are decamping from their offices in the capital to the few restaurants and hotels that have stockpiled fuel for their generators, and it’s unclear how long even the Southern Sudanese government can now keep its airconditioning units blowing.

The mayor of Juba is accusing the Khartoum-based northern government of attempting to strangle the south’s economy ahead of its independence declaration.

While the south is rich in oil, all pipelines run through the north and the south does not have any refineries of its own.

“It has worsened very quickly and that is what the Khartoum government wants they want to support instability,” Mayor Mohamed el Haj Baballa told The Associated Press.

The north categorically denies involvement in any such blockade, though U.N. officials and residents

say otherwise.

“We are planning to cooperate and coordinate with the south, to transport their oil, to help them refine their oil,” said Rabie A. Atti, spokesman for the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan. “Such actions (like a blockade) will harm the south and they will also harm the north.”

Oil-rich Southern Sudan overwhelmingly voted to secede from Sudan in a January referendum but critical issues remain unresolved, including negotiations over how oil wealth will be shared between the north and the south.

A 2005 peace deal calls for a 50-50 split, but that deal expires on

July 9 when Southern Sudan becomes its own country.

Residents, local media reports and even the head of the U.N. World Food Program in Southern Sudan said the Sudanese government began enforcing a blockade of the main north-south oil routes in early May. The price of fuel at gas stations and other small shops in Juba has increased by twothirds since the weekend alone. A liter (a quarter of a gallon) that typically sells for just over $1 was selling this week for $1.67.

Several motorbike drivers told the AP it was difficult to find fuel for sale, even at the higher rate.

D CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011 DAILY

AFRICAN SCENE

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South Africa youth leader targets mines in new film

By ED STODDARD & YUMNA MOHAMED JOHANNESBURG Influential South African ANC youth leader Julius Malema says in a new documentary that the country’s mines must be nationalized to return mineral wealth to the Black majority that was by white stolen colonists. Malema, head of the African National Congress’s Youth League, is one of the best-known politicians in the country and his comments in the documentary may further unnerve investors in the key mining sector and fuel debate on the issue.

The film, “Mining for

Change: A Story of South African Mining,” debuted in March and is currently making the at the rounds Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival in Johannesburg and Cape Town, which runs June 9 to 26.

It previously screened at the PanAfrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou.

Among other things, Malema says overseas mining companies simply don’t care about poor mining communities in South Africa.

“They are in London ... They are playing God. The only thing they want to check is an update on bank balance.

How the markets look like,” he says.

Malema’s comments are peppered throughout the film with interviews with other big South African personalities such as former trade unionist turned tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa and Nicky Oppenheimer, chairman of diamond giant De Beers.

The latter says he has “no problem” with nationalization the debate but thinks it has been settled. That may be wishful thinking and Malema — who has also called for mass land seizures — makes his case in his typically colorful way, explaining why nationalization should proceed without compensation by comparing South Africa’s mineral wealth to a stolen car.

“We are not going to

buy what has been stolen from us. It’s like when a person steals my car and I report it to police. They find this car ... with new mag wheels and leather seat and you know, it’s now looking very nice,” he says.

“And then I said but this is my car. Say they ‘yes, this is your car, but this man has put a lot of investment, the mag wheels and what, what. You’ll have to pay him back before you get this car.’”

But he says he would still welcome foreign investment.

“You bring your machines and all the necessary equipment to come and extract the mineral - which I own ... That equipment, in their nice English, they call it investment.

That’s fine. You come and invest, here, in my minerals,” he says.

The film also features interviews with former mine workers and details how the mining industry was interlinked with the white apartheid political system by segregating Blacks from whites and creating a vast pool of cheap labor.

The film shows old interviews with former South African president Nelson Mandela advocating nationalization after his release from prison in 1990.

But the ANC dropped the policy under pressure from foreign investors, with Mandela in the early 1990s quoted as saying that “you could cut with a knife” the hostility he encoun-

tered to nationalization at a global conference he had attended.

Nationalization is not government policy now but there is support for it from sections of the ruling ANC. Current policy calls for 26 percent of the mining sector to be Black-owned by 2014, which would be 20 years after the end of white rule.

The film was made last year and is directed

by Navan Chetty and Eric Miyeni.

“I decided to make the movie because I think right now the biggest challenge South Africa is facing is improving the economic plight of the people, and our greatest resource is mining,” Miyeni told Reuters in a phone interview.

Alleged Libyan rape victim ‘recovering from trauma’ 11 d ie in s ec t at ta c ks in Nig eria’s n or th ea st

BUCHAREST - A Libyan woman who accused soldiers loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi of raping her is recovering from trauma at a refugee centre in western Romania, a UN official said yesterday.

Iman al-Obeidi, who was evacuated from Libya to Romania on Monday, needs “space and privacy in order to begin the process of recovering from traumatic events,” the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in

Romania, Machiel Salomons, told a press conference.

He declined to provide details of her current condition, citing safety reasons.

Salomons said the maximum stay at the refugee centre in Timisoara was six months.

“It is impossible to predict where she will be going next,” he stressed, adding that “out of respect for her, the UNHCR prefers not to disclose any information” as to her final destination.

But he added that all the refugees at the centre are in the process of

being interviewed for resettlement by either the United States or The Netherlands.

A senior US official had said Tuesday the United States was prepared to welcome her, as long as she went through the normal refugee process.

Her application would be expedited but she would still have to meet standard resettlement requirements, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al-Obeidi, 29, attracted international media attention when she stormed into the Rixos hotel in Tripoli

on March 26 and threw open her coat to reveal scars and bruises on her body.

She accused forces loyal to Kadhafi of abusing her after she was stopped at a checkpoint in Tripoli.

Al-Obeidi had escaped from Libya to Qatar with the help of rebels, but Qatar sent her back to rebel-held Libya despite concerns for her safety, UN and US officials said.

On Monday she was evacuated to Timisoara on a regular flight from Malta, with a stop-over in Vienna, Salomons said.

Rwandan president: 93% of vote was not enough R w a n d a ’ s President Paul Kagame bristled Tuesday at suggestions that democracy is not flourishing in his country, and said that the 93 percent of the vote he won last year was not enough.

Kagame said Rwanda enjoys a multiparty political system and that he supports “a right that allows anybody, everybody to

express themselves.”

He said the will of the people was expressed during last year’s presidential election. “So, 93 percent — I wonder why it wasn’t higher than that,” Kagame told the Council on Foreign Relations, a prominent New York-based think tank.

When a senior Human Rights Watch director in the audience challenged Kagame, the president said he did not want to hear “lectures.”

Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said there had been “no opposition and independent journalists were silenced” ahead of the poll.

Kagame denied this, insisting that there were four presidential candidates from four different parties, although his three nominal opponents in fact had ties to his Rwandan Patriotic Front party.

Kagame said anyone can participate in

Rwandan politics as long as they do not advocate a return to the genocide that tore the country apart in 1994.

“There are things that are unacceptable here or in Rwanda, or anywhere else if they work to the detriment of society,” he said.

Kagame’s plea for understanding and for his performance to be put in the context of the difficulty Rwanda faces in overcoming the massacres did not convince Hicks.

By NJADVARA MUSA MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - At least 11 people have been killed in multiple blasts and targeted attacks orchestrated by a feared radical Muslim sect in Nigeria’s restive northeast, police said Tuesday.

Borno State police chief Mohammed Abubakar said members of the radical sect locally known as Boko Haram detonated bombs at two police stations and at St. Patrick’s Church Tuesday afternoon in the city of Maiduguri. Ten people died in the attacks including three suspected sect members and a soldier, he said.

The multiple blasts come a day after motorcycle-mounted gunmen shot dead Sheik Ibrahim Birkuti, a cleric from a rival sect. The police also blame Boko Haram for killing the cleric Monday at his home in the town of Biu, south of Maiduguri.

Birkuti had been critical of Boko Haram’s violence and belonged to the Wahabbi group, a splinter faction of Sunni Muslims. Boko Haram is also a splinter group of Sunni Muslims who have pushed for the implementation of Shariah law in Borno State. However, Wahabbi has done so through peaceful means, while Boko Haram has vowed to keep killing people believed to support the establishment until Shariah law is adopted alongside other demands.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim north. A dozen states across Nigeria’s north already have Shariah law in place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments.

Boko Haram is responsible for a rash of killings which have targeted police officers, soldiers, politicians and clerics in Nigeria’s north over the last year. They have also attacked churches and engineered a massive prison break.

However, authorities say attacks intensified after April 26 gubernatorial elections kept the same political party in power.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS Funds approved for new power station for Montserrat, geothermal energy still to be explored DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

into geothermal energy rather than spend $30 million on a traditional power system.

BRADES, Montserrat — “We cannot gamble with Chief Minister of Montserrat, the future of Montserrat,” Reuben Meade, announced the chief minister said. on Tuesday that the “Geothermal energovernment has gy is still at least received funding five years down approval for the the road.” financing of a new The governpower station for ment leader added the island. that on Monday, a During a press proposal was sent briefing at his to DfID soliciting office, the chief funds for the Chief said minister exploration of Minister, B r i t a i n ’ s geothermal enerReuben Meade Department for gy sources on International island. Geothermal Development (DfID) will pro- power for Montserrat is not a vide $23 million towards the quick fix and the public project, with the remaining should not be given the $6.75 million coming from a impression that if the money “very favourable loan agree- was found today, six months ment with the Caribbean from now, everyone is receivDevelopment Bank” (CDB). ing this supply to their The CDB has approved homes, he remarked.

Montserrat’s loan at a 2.5 Montserrat Utilities Ltd percent interest rate for 30 (MUL) will be ordering a 1.5 years.

An additional megawatt plant, with the $300,000 in technical assis- option of adding another 1.5 tance for the development of megawatt system if a geotthe island’s power system hermal system is not found will also be provided. to be viable for the island in Meade countered media the coming years, the chief representatives’ call for the minister said. government to put its efforts

By NERISSA GOLDEN

Barbados, Grenada and St. Lucia sign OAS firearms marking agreement SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The Organization of American States (OAS) and the governments of Barbados, Grenada, and Saint Lucia on Tuesday signed a cooperation agreement for implementation of the project “Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The agreement was signed by the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza; the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, Maxine McClean; the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Grenada, Karl Hood, and the Permanent Representative of Saint Lucia to the OAS, Ambassador Michael Louis.

During the ceremony, which took place in the framework of the forty-first regular session of the OAS General Assembly, the Secretary General made plain his satisfaction with the signing of the instrument, saying, “We welcome the commitment of the governments

of Barbados, Grenada and Saint Lucia to strengthening controls and building up the capacity needed to combat arms trafficking more effectively.”

McClean underscored the importance of this agreement for the region and thanked the OAS and its member states for “watching over the security of the region’s citizens.”

Louis said that the signing of the document was “a step forward in monitoring illegal arms,” and that his government was interested in “continuing to work with the OAS in this and other areas to maintain security in our countries.”

For his part, Hood stressed the significance of the accord, given that “the security of the hemisphere is immensely important and, therefore, we are extremely pleased to be party to this agreement.”

The agreement is to be implemented with funding provided by the United States.

Grenada opposition leader hints at early elections

Dr Keith Mitchell speaking to women supporters at a seminar on Monday described as illegal moves by Unit (FIU) Act, which was the Electoral Office to pur- brought to Parliament by the chase, install and attempt to NDC administration and use equipment for the elec- which rescinded the 2003 Act toral process for which there that established the FIU. He is no provision in the laws of called the act unconstitutionGrenada. al and referred to it as nothThe NNP leader spoke of ing more than a tool to be his party having blocked the used by the government to process thus far in the harass opposition members.

Parliament which led to the The NNP leader stated that, setting up of a committee to according to the constitution look at the draft legislation of Grenada, the powers of Speaking to hundreds of regarding the new proposed arrest in Grenada lay with women supporters at an NNP voter registration process. either the Director of Public Women’s Seminar at the Responding directly to Prosecutions (DPP) or the Grenada Trade Centre on statements in some quarters Commissioner of Police Monday, Mitchell stated that that individuals will not be (COP). it is important that members allowed to vote unless they He further declared that of his party prepare them- have in their possession a these powers are unconstituselves for what seems to be a valid voter identification tionally vested in the hands of trend toward the calling of card, the opposition leader the director of the FIU, along elections in Grenada prior to referred to the statement as with the power to seize bank the constitutional due date. nonsense, as laws could not accounts of individuals, Mitchell called on his fol- be implemented before they among other things. He also lowers to ensure that they are are passed. As such, he stated stated that the Act gives registered to vote and that that moves by the Electoral immunity to the head of the they not only find their own Office to inform people of a FIU, thereby opening that names on the electoral list but law that is not yet passed is office to gross abuse on the ensure that all names that improper. part of the holder, since they should not be there are Mitchell also referred to cannot be held accountable removed. the Financial Intelligence for their actions.

He spoke of what he

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada — Political leader of the opposition New National Party and former prime minister of Grenada, Dr. Keith Mitchell, has hinted at an early poll by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

Suriname journalist fired after exposure as spy

By IVAN CAIRO PARAMARIBO, Suriname — Freelance journalist for the Surinamese magazine Parbode and editor-in-chief of the news website s u p e r - s u r i name.com, Paul Kraaijer, was fired over the weekend following revelations that he was a former

spy for the Dutch secret service.

In an interview he did on the basis of anonymity published

by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Kraaijer disclosed that for 25 years until August 2010 he spied on criminals, leftist groups and extremist animal rights groups for the Dutch government. Although his identity wasn’t

revealed during the interview, a Belgian journalist also working in Suriname discovered who he was and subsequently exposed him.

Kraaijer moved to Suriname in 2010.

Publisher of Parbode Magazine, Caribbean Media Group (CMG), which also runs the supersuriname.com website, noted that Kraaijer was fired to

avoid any hint of conflicts of interest.

“The publisher and editorial staff believe that the combination of journalist and informer is totally intolerable and reject the actions and remarks of Paul Kraaijer,” CMG manager Jaap Hoogendam and Parbode’s editor-inchief Eartha Tjan A Way said in an official statement.

D CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011 DAILY

INTERNATIONAL

11

Turkey offers Syrians refuge; West pushes U.N. vote

By YARA BAYOUMY BEIRUT - Turkey threw open its borders to anxious Syrian refugees yesterday and urged their government to curb violence against civilians after thousands abandoned a town near the Turkish frontier in fear of a military assault.

With Western public opinion startled by the bloodshed that has met Syrians’ efforts to emulate other Arabs in casting off autocratic rule, Britain and France prepared to ask the U.N. Security Council to condemn President Bashar al-Assad — though there seems no appetite for Libya-style military intervention.

Assad’s government has accused armed bands of killing scores of its security men in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour and vowed to send in the army to carry out their “national duty to

restore security” there.

Troops with tanks have deployed near the town, prompting many of its 50,000 people to flee.

“We are monitoring developments in Syria with concern,” said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has long sought warm relations with Assad.

“Syria should change its attitude toward civilians and should take its attitude to a more tolerant level.

“It is out of the question for Turkey to close its doors to refugees coming from Syria.”

The troop movements, after the government reported the loss of over 120 men in what anti-Assad activists said was fighting among soldiers, has raised fears violence could move to a new level. Rights groups say over 1,100 civilians have been killed since March in protests against 41 years of Assad family rule.

In Jisr al-Shughour, people have long memories of a mass killing in 1980, under Assad’s father. That proved a precursor to the sup-

pression of an armed Islamist revolt in the city of Hama, in which many thousands were killed in 1982.

Some 170 Syrians crossed the Turkish border in the past day, the Turkish state-run news agency said. Some wounded were taken to hospitals. Syrian residents have said most who fled the town remained in villages inside Syria.

Reuters journalists in Turkey saw tents on the Syrian side of the border. Turkish villagers said they saw Turkish troops and ambulances pick up Syrians who crossed earlier in the day.

Adding the new arrivals to earlier figures from the Turkish foreign ministry, nearly 500 Syrians have entered since March.

U.N. MOVES France and Britain, allies in the war against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, will put forward a U.N. Security Council resolution yesterday condemning Assad’s crackdown on protesters, British Prime Minister

David Cameron said.

“And if anyone votes against that resolution or tries to veto it, that should be on their conscience,” Cameron said, in a pointed reference to efforts to secure Russian backing for it.

The draft resolution condemns the repression and demands humanitarian access, said in Cameron London. But it was unclear how Russia, which holds a veto, would vote. Citing NATO’s inconclusive bombing of Tripoli, Moscow says it will not back intervention against Syria in the Security Council.

Western diplomats said the latest draft would be offered at a meeting at 1900 GMT but did not expect a vote yesterday.

The original draft resolution, which diplomats say has been amended only slightly since last month, urges countries not to supply weapons to Damascus but would not provide for an actual arms embargo or other specific punitive measures.

One diplomat said

Germany defends E.coli response as death toll rises

By ERIC KELSEY & BRIAN ROHAN BERLIN/HAMBURG - German ministers yesterday defended their response to the E.coli outbreak that has killed 27 people and signaled possible changes in the way the country handles health crises in the future.

The German government has been criticized at home and around Europe for failing so far to pin down the cause of the outbreak that has stricken more than 2,700 people in 12 countries. All cases have been traced back to near Hamburg in northern Germany.

About a quarter of E.coli patients in the latest outbreak have developed a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome affecting the blood, kidneys and

nervous system.

“The E.coli and HUS outbreak in Germany is so severe that we have to react very quickly to announce these recommendations and we still can’t give the all-clear,” said Health Minister Daniel Bahr, referring to warnings not to eat certain raw vegetables, such as bean sprouts but also cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.

The European Union yesterday upped compensation to 210 million euros from 150 million for farmers hit by plummeting sales, after Germany first blamed cucumbers from Spain and other salad vegetables, and then German bean sprouts.

The economic damage to Europe’s farming industry — with organic producers singled out for suspicion because they use manure rather than

chemical fertilizer, putting crops more at risk of contamination — could reach half a billion euros.

A German organic producers’ association said it was not enough to compensate farmers for under a third of their losses.

Although the hunt for the source of infection now focuses on bean sprouts grown in Germany, cucumbers were back in the spotlight after traces of the E.coli strain were found in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on cucumbers in a family’s rubbish.

“There’s no definitive proof the cucumber is the source of the E.coli outbreak,” a state official said, adding that it was unclear when or how the cucumber became contaminated.

Germany has been criticized for hastily

blaming Spanish cucumbers for the outbreak — which it later withdrew — and the lack of conclusive evidence that German sprouts are indeed the source.

Excessive bureaucracy at federal and state level has also been blamed for slow crisis response.

Bahr said federal and regional health and food safety bodies would undertake an “immediate evaluation” of how they cooperate in what looks like the deadliest ever outbreak of E.coli.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control body, reported an additional 318 E.coli-related cases yesterday.

“There will be new cases and unfortunately we have to expect more deaths, but the number of new infections is dropping significantly,” Bahr said.

the amendments attempted to make it look less like a prelude to further action like the military action that NATO has conducted in Libya, which Moscow has opposed.

At the same time, a senior European diplomat told reporters in Washington that European Union nations are preparing a third round of sanctions against Syria that target Syrian companies.

At Jisr al-Shughour, residents have said since Tuesday that they were taking cover and bracing for attacks.

Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human

Rights said troops had deployed in neighboring villages, including Ariha to the east and on the main highway to the city of Latakia to the southwest.

Residents said about 40 tanks and armored vehicles were about 7 km (4 miles) from Jisr al-Shughour, which was now mostly empty, save for youth protesters.

Ali Haj Ibrahim said his son Bilal, who had volunteered to help the wounded at the weekend, was killed by security forces on Sunday on the outskirts of the town. Two machinegun rounds tore through his 26-year-old son’s chest and left shoulder.

Fighting turns southern Yemen town into “hell”

By MOHAMMED MUKHASHAF & ASMA ALSHARIF ADEN/JEDDAH - Bodies lay in the streets of a southern Yemeni town yesterday as government forces battled Islamist militants, a local official said, underscoring the gravity of Yemen’s multiple conflicts.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, 69, wounded Friday when rockets hit his palace, is having treatment in the Saudi capital Riyadh but there were conflicting reports about his condition — ranging from fairly minor, to life-threatening 40percent burns.

A truce between his forces and tribesmen who back pro-democracy protesters was holding in Sanaa. Western and Arab powers have been working to persuade Saleh to stay away and allow a long-negotiated transition of power to begin.

Saleh has left a country in crisis, with Yemeni civilians bearing the brunt of fighting. Medical staff are having trouble reaching the wounded, and electricity and water are scarce, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Some 20 bodies have been retrieved in and around Sanaa since Saturday by ICRC and Yemen Red Crescent teams, including seven Tuesday in al-Hassaba, north of the capital, the ICRC said.

“Because of the fighting, it has often been difficult for medical personnel to reach certain parts of Sanaa,” said Jean-Nicolas Marti, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen.

The U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) said Yemenis are going hungry as the fighting disrupts food supplies and pushes up the price of gas, water, fuel and other basic commodities.

“There is a sharp deterioration of the food security situation in Yemen,” WFP’s representative in Yemen Gian Carlo Cirri told Reuters in an interview. “We are close to food prices having doubled on average since last year when it comes to key commodities such as wheat flour, vegetable oil and sugar.”

New American

The

12

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 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 THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

13

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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

14

Major E.coli outbreaks decline, salmonella up

By LISA BAERTLEIN LOS ANGELES — The United States has made headway fighting a deadly E.coli, but a lethal outbreak in Germany and a lack of progress against Salmonella show how much remains to be done to keep food safe, health officials said on Tuesday.

European scientists are scrambling to find the source of the E.coli outbreak in Germany that has infected more than 2,400 people and killed 23 of them.

The German outbreak is caused by the rare strain of Shiga toxin-producing E.coli known as STEC O104:H4. It appears to be the deadliest outbreak of E.coli ever seen, with a third of patients devel-

oping the severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which frequently leads to kidney failure and can result in death.

Public health officials in the United States focus on the deadly Shiga toxin-proE.coli infection ducing known as O157:H7, which is best known for causing the 1993 outbreak that killed four people who ate tainted hamburgers from Jack in the Box. The incidence of that infection fell by roughly half between 1997 and 2010, according to Vital Signs, an annual food safety report that summarizes data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet).

The report attributed the drop to improved slaughter

methods, testing, better inspections and other efforts.

Meat is often cooked, offering another layer of protection.

CDC estimates that one in six people in the United States gets sick from eating contaminated food each year.

Foodborne illness is blamed for about 3,000 deaths annually.

While incidence of U.S. O157:H7 infections fell in 2010, there was a nearly 58 percent rise in other Shigatoxin producing E.coli infections, which scientists refer to as STEC non-O157. Officials began monitoring those infections in 2000.

The bacteria responsible for Germany’s outbreak falls into that category. So far, the only reported cases in the United States are people who traveled to areas affected by

No need to hold back on milk, nuts in babies

By FREDERIK JOELVING Giving your baby cow’s milk, nuts or other solid foods linked to allergies before six months does not appear to cause extra wheezing or eczema later on, according to a Dutch study.

For years, doctors have recommended that parents wait a few years before they give babies such foods, but newer research has failed to find evidence that doing so staves off allergies.

“There does not seem to be a need to avoid solid foods, or allergenic foods, in young children who are otherwise well,” said Dr. Scott H. Sicherer, an expert in childhood allergies at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

“This is one of a number of studies that have been pretty much giving us the same message,” added Sicherer, who was not involved in the new work.

In 2008, he helped write a report for the American Academy of Pediatrics that backtracked on the group’s earlier recommendations to hold back on peanuts and other foods linked to asthma and other allergic diseases.

More than seven percent of adult Americans, and even more kids, have asthma,

causing millions of visits to emergency rooms and doctors’ offices every year.

The Dutch study, by Ilse Tromp of Erasmus University in Rotterdam and colleagues, tracked eczema and asthma symptoms among nearly 7,000 infants until the children were four years old.

At age two, 31 percent of the toddlers wheezed according to their parents, although this number dropped by half over the next year. Eczema was present in 38 percent of twoyear-olds, falling to 18 percent at age four.

Initially, it appeared that kids whose parents had given them nuts before they were six months old had more wheezing. But after considering smoking among the mothers and other risk factors for asthma, there was no longer any sign that nuts were linked to allergic problems, the research team reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

“If your child is doing OK, you don’t have to worry about giving them milk or eggs or whatever when they are young,” said Sicherer.

But if the child shows signs of an allergic reaction — such as breaking out in hives, vomiting, or have trouble breathing — parents

the German outbreak.

The rise in other Shigatoxin producing E.coli infections appears to be mostly due to an increase in testing and reporting, said Christopher Braden, director of the CDC’s division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases.

“We’re making progress and that’s good. On the other hand, we’re really not at a point where we have the necessary regulatory and diagnostic infrastructure to deal with the type of outbreak that we’re seeing in Europe,” said J. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden told reporters he was concerned about budget cuts at “state and local public health departments, which may undermine our ability to both detect and respond to outbreaks.”

“Pathogens are good at changing and emerging in unexpected ways ... We don’t expect the outbreak in Germany to jump from Germany

to the U.S. However, a similar strain or type of outbreak could occur,” Braden said.

Salmonella infection is the most common U.S. foodborne illness, and the United States has made no progress reducing outbreaks over the last 15 years.

Salmonella infections in were virtually 2010 unchanged from 1996 to 1998, when surveillance began, but were up 10 percent from the period from 2006 to 2008, the report said.

Last year, a U.S. salmonella outbreak resulted in the recall of nearly half a billion eggs. Salmonella is also linked to contaminated meats, produce and processed foods. In 2010, it caused nearly 2,300 hospitalizations and 29 deaths.

While the Vital Signs report was mixed, Morris said the reduction in O157:H7 infections showed that “if industry really pays attention, and there is a regulatory structure to focus attention on it, we can do something about it.”

Many U.S. employers to drop health benefits

should talk to a doctor, he added.

The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that mothers breastfeed their babies until they are four to six months old.

If for some reason they can’t breastfeed and their child is at high risk for developing allergies, the group says using so-called “hypoallergenic” infant formula might be appropriate, although they cost more than the standard product.

CHICAGO — At least 30 percent of employers are likely to stop offering health insurance once provisions of the U.S. health care reform law kick in in 2014, according to a study by consultant McKinsey.

McKinsey, which based its projection on a survey of more than 1,300 employers of various sizes and industries and other proprietary research, found that 30 percent of employers will “definitely” or “probably” stop offering coverage in the years after 2014, when new medical insurance exchanges are supposed to be up and running.

“The shift away from employer-provided health insurance will be vastly greater than expected and will make sense for many companies and lower-income workers alike,” according to the study, published in McKinsey Quarterly.

“While the pace and timing are difficult to predict, McKinsey research points to a radical restructuring of employer-sponsored health benefits.”

Among employers with a

high awareness of the health reform law, the number likely to drop health coverage for workers rises to more than 50 percent, the report predicted.

The numbers compare to a Congressional Budget Office estimate that only about 7 percent of employees currently covered by employersponsored plans will have to switch to subsidizedexchange policies in 2014, McKinsey said.

The consultant also found that at least 30 percent of employers would gain economically from dropping coverage even if they compensated employees for the change through other benefit offerings or higher salaries.

Losing employer-sponsored insurance would not prompt workers to leave their jobs, contrary to what many employers assume, McKinsey also predicted. The study found more than 85 percent of employees would remain at their jobs even if their employer stopped offering insurance, although about 60 percent would expect increased compensation.

NEW JERSEY

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

15

Jersey City man found not guilty by reason of insanity in fatal stabbing

By MICHAELANGELO CONTE Not guilty by reason of insanity was the judge’s ruling Tuesday at a hearing in the case of a Jersey City man charged with murdering a commuter near the Liberty State Park Light Rail Station as he headed to work at Exchange Place in 2008.

Doctors for the defense and prosecution agreed that Elgin Louis Taylor Jr., 27, of Communipaw Avenue, could not understand the nature of his actions when he killed Michael Fuccile, 36, of Metuchen on Sept. 4, 2008.

Fuccile was stabbed multiple times in the neck, back and head at 8:30 a.m. as he headed to work at Merrill Lynch’s compliance unit in Global Wealth

Management at 101 Hudson St. in Jersey City. Taylor was captured nearby when onlookers pointed him out to police.

“You took a wonderful man,” Fuccile’s tearful wife Nancy said at the hearing. “He was kind. He loved everyone. He had no hatred.

No prejudice. No ill will. He would have given the defendant the shirt off his back.”

The couple met at Villanova University

Elgin Louis Taylor Jr., of Jersey City, is found not guilty by reason of insanity in the stabbing death of Michael Fuccile, of Metuchen, at state Superior Court in Jersey City. At left is his laywer, Don Gardner. and married in 1998.

Their children were 3,5- and 7-years-old when their father was killed.

The victim’s mother said when the children visit his grave “They

Watchdog seeks information on DYFS, dead Irvington girl TRENTON - The court-appointed monitor for New Jersey’s child welfare agency called on the Christie administration Tuesday to release more details about the agency’s involvement with the family of an 8year-old girl who died last month of malnutrition and untreated broken leg.

The court monitor as well as the group Advocates for Children also urged the state to determine why investigators for the Division of Youth and Family Services have confirmed far fewer abuse and neglect complaints since 2005.

DYFS investigated the mother of the dead girl, Christiana Glenn, four times from 2006

to 2008 based on accusations that she beat her three children and left them unsupervised, and each time determined the allegations were unfounded.

“Four unfounded complaints are a huge red flag,” said Nancy Parello, a spokeswoman for the advocates’ organization, who wrote the report released that examined trends in DYFS investigations. “If investigations were not properly conducted, the outcome might have been different for these kids.”

Judith Meltzer of the Center for Study of Social Policy, a research organizations in Washington, D.C., said she agreed with many of the report’s findings and called on the department to be more forthcoming about its involvement with the family.

“They ought to provide information about when they saw the children, who else they talked to, what services they provided, and most importantly, the condition of the children and family when they last had contact in May 2008,” said Meltzer, who was appointed to monitor DYFS operations after the state settled a classaction lawsuit in 2003.

“The reason confidentiality laws exist is theoretically to protect the children and family, but in these cases that results in a child’s death, I think the compelling reasons for disclosure outweigh any potential downside.”

A spokeswoman for Allison Blake, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, which oversees DYFS, said she was reviewing the report and had no comment.

sit on his tombstone and they tell me they are sitting on daddy’s shoulders. ... You do not realize how good was the person who was taken from this world so young.”

The prosecution psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel P. Greenfield, testified Taylor is a paranoid schizophrenic subject to auditory and visual hallucinations. He said

he has a history of episodes beginning in his teens that led to hospitalizations.

Taylor, who showed no emotion during the hearing, is now on three medications, he said.

Greenfield said Taylor abused drugs and alcohol, his mental problems were “decidedly psychotic level disorders,” and “it would be very dangerous for him not to be institutionalized.”

With Taylor’s insanity uncontested, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan sentenced him to be confined to a mental hospital and evaluated periodically until he is no longer a danger.

In court, Michael Fuccile’s father-in-law, Williams Reynolds, said he was never so happy as when the victim told him he wanted to marry his daughter.

“This is the other half of the family ripped apart,” said Reynolds. “I hope you remember this day, Taylor, for God’s sake, for the rest of your life.”

The last speaker among the family members was Michael Fuccile Sr., who said more than 3,000 people attended his son’s wake and nearly 1,000 were at his funeral.

“Your honor, we came here today to make sure you knew who the man was. To make sure you do not allow him to destroy another family ... so we can leave knowing justice has been done,” the father said before he was overcome with emotion. “That’s it,” he whispered.

Callahan told the victim’s family he did not envision Taylor “being free in a very long time.”

Man accused in slaying of Newark cop pleads not guilty; mother insists he is innocent

By ALEXI FRIEDMAN NEWARK- To the family of Rasul McNeilThomas, the 19-yearold is a churchgoer, a homebody and a video game fanatic partial to Pokemon.

But to authorities, McNeil-Thomas is someone very different.

He is the man who ordered a woman out of her car at gunpoint last month, then drove the stolen vehicle to a Newark fast food restaurant where he opened fire, killing an off-duty city police officer and wounding two other people.

The two competing pictures were on full display Tuesday when McNeil-Thomas appeared in court to answer charges of murder, aggravated

assault, carjacking and weapons offenses for the May 26 killing of off-duty Newark Police Officer William Johnson.

A second suspect was involved, authorities said, but has yet to be charged or identified.

With dreadlocks framing his boyish face, McNeil-Thomas looked down and smiled nervously as his public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in Superior Court in Newark. The defendant’s mother and several other relatives seated in court smiled, blew kisses at him and waved. As sheriff’s officers escorted them out, his mother shouted, “We love you, Rasul.”

Another woman said, “Love you, big brah.”

McNeil-Thomas is

being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail. His attorney, John McMahon, would not comment.

Outside the courthouse, the defendant’s mother said her son was innocent.

“He is a very good kid,” she said, telling reporters he attended church, went to school and played video games.

Records show McNeil-Thomas’ only previous arrest was in April, when Hillside police charged him with eluding while driving a stolen vehicle.

His mother, who refused to provide her name but who authorities have identified as Keasha Thomas, said her son is being used as “a pawn,” and added, “they better go find the shooter.”

16

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

Oprah to Michael Jackson concert insurers decline to pay out be honored at Daytime Emmys LOS ANGELES — The insurers of Michael Jackson’s ill-fated “This Is It” London comeback concerts have asked a judge to nullify a $17.5 million policy taken out by promoters, saying they were never told that the singer was taking powerful drugs.

Underwriters at Lloyds of London filed a lawsuit against AEG Live and Jackson’s company in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, asking a judge to solve the insurance dispute almost two years after the “Thriller” singer’s death.

Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles on June 25 after rehearsing for the upcoming series of 50 concerts in London. Authorities said he died of a massive dose of the anesthetic propofol and a cocktail of other sedatives and painkillers.

Jackson’s personal doctor is scheduled to stand trial in September on charges of giving the singer a fatal dose of propofol as a sleep aid.

LAS VEGAS — Oprah Winfrey is to be honored with the Crystal Pillar Award at the upcoming Daytime Emmys Awards show in Las Vegas, CBS announced.

Winfrey this month wrapped up the 25th and final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” so she could concentrate on her OWN cable television network.

She will be presented with the Crystal Pillar Award “for changing the face of daytime television,” said CBS, the network scheduled to air the ceremony.

Game-show hosts Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek are to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the June 19 event at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Anderson Cooper, Peter Marshall, Shemar Moore, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Penn & Teller, Rachael Ray and Meredith Vieira are lined up as presenters.

Also expected to take part in the event are Don Diamont, Daniel Goddard, Melissa Archer, Galen Gering, Tuc Watkins, Darnell Williams and Montel Williams.

The insurance policy was taken out to cover the cancellation or postponement of the London concerts in the case of the death, accident or illness of Jackson.

The lawsuit claimed that AEG, who hired Jackson’s physician Dr. Conrad Murray, failed to disclose the singer’s medical history to the insurers “including, but not limited to, his apparent prescription drug use and/or drug addiction.”

The lawsuit further states that AEG or Jackson or his company knew but did not disclose that Jackson was taking propofol — an anesthetic that is usually restricted to hospital use ahead of surgery.

It adds that attempts to resolve the dispute with AEG Live outside the courts have failed. “Underwriters therefore request that the policy be declared null and void.”

AEG Live, which is privately held, did not return calls for comment on Tuesday.

Stars line up for AFI’s Report: Laurence Morgan Freeman tribute Fishburne exits ‘CSI’

LOS ANGELES — Clint Eastwood, Helen Mirren, Sidney Poitier and Rita Moreno are to pay tribute to U.S. actor Morgan Freeman at the 39th AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony.

Also slated to speak at tonight’s event at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles are Mike Nichols and Matthew Broderick.

“TV Land Presents: The AFI Life Achievement Award

Honoring Morgan Freeman” is to premiere on TV Land June 19.

Freeman’s film credits include “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Glory,” “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “Unforgiven,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Batman Begins,” “Invictus” and “Reds.” The 74-year-old actor also appeared on TV’s “The Electric Company” and “Another World” early in his career.

The AP is reporting that Laurence Fishburne will not return to “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” next fall, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because CBS had yet to announce Fishburne’s departure.

Fishburne joined the “CSI” cast as Dr. Raymond Langston midway through the 2008-09 season as a replacement for departing

star William Petersen.

The person says CBS and the show’s producers are taking Fishburne’s departure in stride, aware that his movie career made a long TV tenure unlikely.

His big screen credits include “The Matrix” films, and he’s in the upcoming “Contagion” with Matt Damon.

“CSI” returns for its 12th season this fall and continues to rank among the 20 top-rated shows.

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

Beyonce’s ‘4’ leaks three weeks early

By GIL KAUFMAN Beyoncé fans were psyched on Tuesday when her collabo with Andre 3000, “Party,” leaked weeks before her new album is due. But they must have been flipping later in the day when all of 4 popped up online, three weeks before its official release date of June 28.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a short time after the Kanye West and Consequence-produced “Party” slipped out, another song, “Countdown,” which samples the Boyz II Men tune “Uhh Ahh,” also surfaced, followed by the entire album.

The paper reported that while B’s label has been frantically rushing to rip the 12track album off sites that have posted it, a number of music blogs have removed “Party” and “Countdown” after getting cease-and-desist letters from the singer’s

lawyers.

Always one step ahead of the law, some online rogues have taken to Twitter to put up links to the music, making it harder for the label to track down the music. Fans have already gotten a number of listens at the first album since Beyoncé’s 2008 double-disc I Am ... Sasha Fierce, including the uptempo dancehall first single “Run the World (Girls),” the lush ballad “1+1” and the second official single, “Best Thing I Never Had.” Another tune, “End of Time,” which samples late Afrobeat superstar Fela Kuti, has also leaked online.

If it makes Beyoncé feel any better, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” leaked a few days before its official release and still went on to sell more than 1.1 million copies.

A spokesperson for Beyoncé’s label could not be reached for comment on the leak at press time.

17

Janelle Monae preps new album

Michelle Obama headed Gabrielle Union reveals she to Nickelodeon’s ‘iCarly’ tried to shoot her rapist Michelle Obama is set to appear on an upcoming episode of the Nickelodeon comedy “iCarly” to promote Joining Forces, an initiative aimed at increasing awareness and support for military families, network president Cyma Zarghami said Wednesday.

The show’s main character, Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), is the daughter of a colonel serving overseas in the military. When Carly’s two best friends break some rules to set up a web chat so Carly can speak to her dad on his birthday, “the first lady discovers it and comes to have a chat with them in the most positive way possible,” Zarghami said.

Show creator and executive producer Dan Schneider wrote the episode just for FLOTUS and her Joining Forces initiative.

“When she approached us, after he was done jumping for joy, Dan sat down and came up with a very, very clever idea,” Zarghami said.

The network president said she wasn’t concerned that featuring the first lady and promoting the Joining Forces program would make

a political statement for the show or Nickelodeon.

“It’s a feel-good initiative,” she said, “and regardless of your political affinity, everybody cares about these families, so it just feels right.”

Zarghami says Obama’s daughters are fans of the show. The Obama “iCarly” episode is likely to air in January.

Rihanna’s “Man Down” video caused a stir with some folks and organizations such as the Parents Television Council because of its theme: a rape victim shooting down her rapist in cold blood.

Now jumping into the fray is actress Gabrielle Union, who was raped at age 19. Gabby chimed in via Twitter her thoughts about Rihanna’s controversial production: “Saw ‘Man Down’ by Rihanna. Every victim/survivor of rape is unique, including how they THINK they’d like justice to be hand-

ed out. During my rape I tried to shoot my rapist, but I missed. Over the years I realized that killing my rapist would’ve added insult to injury. The DESIRE to kill someone who abused/raped you is understandable, but unless it’s self defense in the moment to save your life, [it] just ADDS to your troubles #mandown. I repeat SELF DEFENSE to save yourself/protect yourself, I’m ALL for.

Otherwise victim/survivor taking justice into your own hands with violence equals more trouble for you!!“

Janelle Monae is back at work on a new project. The R&B songstress, who is currently touring with Bruno Mars on their “Hooligans in Wondaland” trek, confirmed to MTV Hives that she has been “recording, writing, [and] playing instruments” for her sophomore effort.

The set, which is the follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2010 debut “The ArchAndroid,” will be larger in scope and ideas in comparison to its predecessor.

“This album will have very strong concepts and bigger ideas and the music will just go forward to another level,” Monáe tells Hive. “It will still be, I believe, relatable to the people. We have really big ideas, I must say, and we’re just trying to make sure we execute them properly.”

Monae’s current tour wraps June 15 at Comerica Theatre in Phoenix, AZ.

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

18

Nintendo Wii U underwhelms investors

By LIANA B. BAKER and ISABEL REYNOLDS LOS ANGELES — The launch of Nintendo Co Ltd’s next-generation Wii console failed to address investor concerns the firm is missing the gaming market’s shift to social networking, sending its shares tumbling to a five-year low.

The Wii U, complete with a new touchscreen controller, is aimed at winning back hardcore gamers from rivals such as Microsoft Corp’s Xbox and won early praise from industry critics at its launch at the E3 videogame expo on Tuesday.

But Nintendo shares closed down 5.7 percent in Japan on Wednesday, hitting levels not seen since before the original Wii was launched to rave reviews in late 2006.

Investors said they were worried Nintendo remained too centered on hardware as the market increasingly shifts to a battleground over software, with games played over Internet networks linking millions of players.

“Although some experts seem to like the NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF QUEENS U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE, ON BEHALF OF THE HOLDERS OF THE HOME EQUITY ASSET TRUST 2005-7 HOME EQUITY PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2005-7 Plaintiff, AGAINST LORNA WILLIAMS, et al. Defendant(s) Pursuant to a judgment of foreclosure and sale duly dated 5/27/2010 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Queens County Courthouse in Courtroom # 25 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard, Jamaica, New York on 7/1/2011 at 11:00 AM premises known as 138-38 233RD STREET, ROSEDALE, New York 11422 All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the New York City Borough of QUEENS, County of Queens and State of New York Section, Block and Lot: Block 13181- Lot 55 Approximate amount of judgment $358,461.79 plus interest and costs Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #16343/09 Dena Orenstein, Esq., Referee Steven J. Baum PC , Attorney for Plaintiff, P.O. Box 1291, Buffalo, NY 14240-1291 Dated: 6/6/2011

new device, I expected Nintendo to move more into the social networking business,” said Mitsuo Shimizu, deputy general manager at Cosmo Securities in Tokyo.

“It’s a warning from investors that the company should reconsider its business strategy and move more aggressively into social gaming operations.”

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata dismissed questions about the new console’s lack of emphasis on network capabilities and said the company’s hit games had always been social.

“It’s not that we’re negative about the network, but if we ignore those customers who don’t link their game consoles up to the Internet, that goes against our strategy of expanding the games market,” he told reporters in a roundtable. “We are just trying not to shrink our own market.”

Industry critics in early reviews praised the innovation embodied by the separate device, larger than Apple Inc’s iPhone, but smaller than the iPad. The new controller has camera and videocall capability, plus an array of buttons and functions that might entice gamers who play longer and more

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“Nintendo is ahead of the curve for once,” said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. “It can do anything a tablet can do and people might be asking, why can’t my iPad 2 do this kind of gaming too?”

Nintendo retains the lead in gaming hardware, but is struggling to win users from Microsoft and Sony Corp after the disappointing introduction of its 3DS handheld device.

Gaming executives hope the new Wii can jumpstart a $65 billion video games industry — surpassing Hollywood in size — still struggling to rebound from the recession.

The entire console is still under development, but is expected to go on sale between April and December 2012.

Investors are awaiting details on specifications and pricing, but some speculate it could move for $299, or about the same as an Xbox twinned with a Kinect motion-sensing system.

“The controller is a breakthrough,” said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. “Overall, Wii U looks good, but I have to say I wasn’t blown away.”

That is a far cry from how the Wii took the industry by storm, bringing motion control to gamers accustomed to joysticks and mice.

Whether its latest gadget can win over a noto-

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riously fickle market remains to be seen.

Though it may not repeat the first Wii bonanza, the new Nintendo device, nonetheless, will exert some pressure on traditional console rivals such as Microsoft and Sony to come up with new systems.

“It’s smart for a number of reasons. There are two levels of interface, the touchscreen for casual gamers and the buttons for more core types,” said Ricardo Torres, editor-in-chief for popular games site gamespot.com. “They have a lot of games core gamers care about.

“It’s like a sandbox for developers. It’s up to them to decide the experience that works best.”

But all game console makers risk drowning in a deluge of gamecapable phones. In 2010, shipments of such smart phones were more than 1 billion units compared with only around 50 million home game consoles and around 40 mil-

lion handheld devices, according to research firm iSuppli.

“Their near universal presence gives them the potential to become a viable competitive threat,” iSuppli said.

The new console is the first Nintendo device to support high-definition graphics and will sport a microprocessor or brain from InternaBusiness tional Machines Corp and graphics processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. But it was the controller that stole the limelight on Tuesday.

Its 6.2-inch touchscreen works like a second display and can show the same images that are on the TV screen or provide gamers with additional information, giving them an edge over competitors.

The Wii U’s controller can also be used to make voice calls and run old Nintendo games. It has motion-sensor capabilities and works in conjunction with existing Wii controllers.

The device also acts as a stand-alone gaming

gadget. It can, for instance, continue running a game on the touchscreen while someone else watches TV. But it functions only in wireless connection with a Wii U console.

The initial game lineup suggests Nintendo is trying to woo hardcore gamers back to the fold, with popular first-person shooters such as Ubisoft Entertainment SA’s Ghost Recon, Sega’s Aliens and Electronic Arts Inc’s Battlefield 3 on the slate.

“There are so many developers already responding to creating new games for the videogame system we are proposing with Wii U,” said Iwata. “It can satisfy all tastes with deeper gameplay actions.”

With at least nine months to market, Nintendo could still make modifications and the game slate might change.

This week, Sony announced plans to begin selling a handheld, 3D-enabled games device for $299 — which critics immediately deemed too pricey.

More retailers hit by organized crime

By PHIL WAHBA Sophisticated technology, less staff at stores and more gang activity are all contributing to more U.S. stores being hit by organized crime, according to a survey by an industry group.

Of 129 retailers, primarily national store chains, surveyed this spring by the National Retail Federation, 94.5 percent said they were victimized by organized criminals in the past year. And 84.8 percent said the problem has only worsened in the past three years.

The NRF said cutbacks of security employees, the desire for low prices by consumers and the ease of selling stolen goods 49.(* .8 -*7*'> ,.;*3 9-&9 .(*38* :2'*7 " ! ! "# $! # -&8 &551.*) +47 43 57*2.8*8 '**7 <.3* :3)*7 9-* 1(4-41.( *;*7&,* 439741 &< &9 .3* "97**9 &0& -:7(- "97**9 7**5479 % 43 57*2.8 *8 (438:259.43

online or at pawn shops all contributed to the problem. NRF members range from Macy’s Inc to momand-pop shops.

“Shoppers are conditioned to look for a deal,” a senior NRF advisor, Joe LaRocca, told Reuters.

LaRocca said consumers do not actively seek stolen goods, but the appetite for low prices has spurred demand.

“Thieves are looking for highly desirable, easily resold items,” he said.

In contrast to shoplifting, organized crime involves people conspiring to steal merchandise, often between distribution centers and stores, and reselling rather than keeping items for their own use.

The survey found that targeted items range from jeans by Levi Strauss and Sony Play Station 3 Consoles to medication such as Advil and Benadryl.

Shoplifting and theft cost retailers 1.6

percent of sales, or $32 billion in 2009, the last year for which data is available, the NRF said.

That does not include the damage from hits on cargo, or merchandise that has not yet reached stores.

The NRF’s annual survey included questions about cargo theft for the first time and found that just under half of retailers, 49.6 percent, had been struck by this kind of theft.

Criminals are also growing more violent when caught by store employees. Some 13 percent of in-store apprehensions lead to violence such as assault, the survey found.

The NRF’s seventh annual survey was conducted between April 19 and May 10 and was answered by senior loss prevention executives.

With the struggling economy, LaRocca said demand for stolen goods could remain strong.

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

19

Facebook facial recognition technology sparks renewed concerns recognition technology to speed up the process of labeling friends and acquaintances that appear in photos posted on Facebook.

The company’s rollout of the technology has raised eyebrows in some circles. Internet security consultant firm Sophos published a post on its company blog on Tuesday saying that many Facebook users are reporting that the site has enabled the facial recognition option in the last few days without giving users any notice.

“Yet again, it feels like Facebook is eroding the online privacy of its users by stealth,” wrote

Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.

Facebook, which announced in December that it planned to introduce the service in the United States, acknowledged on Tuesday that the feature was in fact now more widely available.

When asked about the Sophos blog post, Facebook said in an emailed statement that “we should have been more clear with people during the roll-out process when this became available to them.”

The statement noted that the photo-tagging suggestions are only made when new photos

are added to Facebook, that only friends are suggested and that users can disable the feature in their privacy settings.

The company did not respond to requests for further comment.

While other photo software and online services such as Google Inc’s Picasa and Apple Inc’s iPhoto use facial recognition technology, the use of the technology on an Internet social network like Facebook, which counts more than 500 million users, could raise thorny privacy issues.

Marc Rotenberg, President of the nonprofit privacy advocacy

group Electronic Privacy Information Center, noted that Apple’s iPhoto software gave users control over facial recognition technology by letting them elect whether or not to use the technology with their personal photo collections.

Facebook’s technology, by contrast, operates independently, analyzing faces across a broad swathe of newly uploaded photos.

Rotenberg said such a system raised questions about which personally identifiable information, such as email addresses, would become associated with the photos in Facebook’s database. And he criti-

cized Facebook’s decision to automatically enable the facial-recognition technology for Facebook users.

“I’m not sure that’s the setting that people would want to choose. A better option would be to let people opt-in,” he said.

Last year the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint about Facebook’s privacy practices with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which Rotenberg said was still pending. He noted that he planned to take a close look at Facebook’s new announcement involving facial recognition technology.

Web companies test Internet’s readiness for future

slow connections or attempts timing out.

Less than 1 percent of Internet traffic uses IPv6, but Internet registries, which manage the registration of domain names, say more computers are trying to connect on the new protocol.

Danny McPherson, chief security officer of network infrastructure company Verisign, expects interest to grow quickly as new IPv4 addresses run out.

Asia-Pacific Internet registry APNIC is expected to be the first to exhaust its supply.

McPherson expects momentum to pick up as network equipment providers such as Cisco and Juniper finally see a market opportunity.

“It’s more broken than people realize,” he said. “People need to realize and move on.”

By ALEXEI ORESKOVIC SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has quietly expanded the availability of technology to automatically identify people in photos, renewing concerns about the privacy practices of the world’s top social networking service.

The feature, which Facebook automatically enabled for Facebook users, has been expanded from the United States to “most countries”, Facebook said on its official blog on Tuesday.

Its “Tag Suggestions” feature uses facial

By GEORGINA PRODHAN LONDON — Web companies including Google, Facebook and Akamai are joining forces on Wednesday to test the Internet’s readiness for a future in which billions more people and devices will be connected.

The pool of Internet addresses used for most traffic today is near exhaustion, but adopting IPv6 — a new Internet protocol with 4 billion times as many addresses — has been slow despite the fact

that it is more than a decade old.

Publishers and Internet service providers have been waiting for the other to make the first move, and workarounds including translation services and address-sharing have become common.

But the prospect of large numbers of modern IPv6 networks coming online — especially in the developing world where systems based on the previous protocol, IPv4, are not widespread — is beginning to push organisations into action.

“What’s at stake is

the future scalability and utility of the Internet,” says Matthew Ford, technology program manager of the Internet Society, a nonprofit group dedicated to the open development of the Internet, which is organizing World IPv6 Day. “IPv6 is fundamentally about allowing the Internet to scale to meet the expectations and demands of a global population of 7 billion, coupled with increased expectations of how many devices are expected to be able to connect to the Internet,” he says.

IPv4’s specifications were drawn up in 1981, when the population of the world was 4.5 billion and the personal computer age was just dawning with the launch of the IBM PC. It allowed for 4.3 billion IP addresses.

Today, more than 2 billion people are online, many with multiple computers and smartphones. By 2020, 50 billion devices may be connected as smart meters, connected TVs and remote health management proliferate.

For 24 hours on Wednesday, websites

McDonald’s May U.S. sales hurt by high gas prices McDonald’s Corp. reported a lower-thanexpected sales increase at established stores in the United States in May as high gas prices and unemployment crimped its business.

The world’s biggest hamburger chain, whose shares fell 1.8 percent in premarket trading, said sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months rose 2.4 percent. Analysts polled

by Thomson Reuters were expecting a 2.8 percent rise.

U.S. sales account for 35 percent of the chain’s business.

“The unemployment report on Friday showed the economy is growing more slowly,” said

Matthew DiFrisco, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets. “We’re looking at a May number that was influenced by higher gasoline prices.”

Globally, same-store sales rose 3.1 percent.

McDonald’s said same-restaurant sales in Europe, where the chain gets about 40 percent of its total sales, also fell

short of estimates. They were up 2.3 percent, below the 4.2 percent expected by Wall Street.

Comparable sales were up 4.3 percent in its Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) unit, beating the 3.4 percent estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. McDonald’s said the gains were led by a strong perfor-

mance in China.

McDonald’s last month said it raised U.S. prices by 1 percent in March and that more price increases were in the works. It said prices in Europe were up by the same amount and that it planned to raise prices in China.

The company has said it expects food costs to rise by 4 percent to 4.5 percent in the United States and Europe this year.

The company’s Dollar Menu and other “value” offerings have resonated with consumers around the world who are coping with elevated unemployment rates and rising costs for groceries and fuel.

with more than 1 billion combined visits a day will join distribution companies to enable IPv6 on their main services. Yahoo, Limelight Networks and Verisign are some of those taking part.

It will be the first global test of IPv6 “in the wild.” Previous tests in Germany and Norway showed positive results.

It is estimated that only one in 2,000 users will experience problems, but the aim is to identify unexpected problems and to raise awareness of the issue.

The collaboration of many top global Internet players is likely to prevent any single one being blamed for problems that may include

Contractors will be required to comply with EEO, D/M/WBE and other federal and state procurement laws, regulations and Executive Orders.

MTA NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT (NYCT)

RFQ #: 5482, Due Date: 7/6/11 Title: Repair, Replacement and Testing of Petroleum Tanks and Associated Piping at Various Authority Locations RFQ #: 8196, Due Date: 7/15/11 Title: C-80259 - Station House and Structural Rehabilitation - 8 Locations, Staten Island Railroad, Borough of Staten Island RFQ #: 6592, Due Date: 7/22/11 Title: Solid Casting Polymer Type: RFI BIDS: Opening Date: 6/28/11, #7745, Fluke meter; #8017, Carton; #8022, Monitor; #8040, Brake block; #8041, Mirror assy; #8047, Mirror assy; # 8077, Circuit bds. Opening Date: 6/29/11, #7625, Bearing; #7751, Card battery equalizer; #7755, Switch; #7772, PCB assy; #7846, Oil; #7747, Terminal, #7748, Brush, carbon. Opening Date: 6/30/11, #4303, Intelliview software; #7753, Pin; #7797, Brush, carbon; #7798, Contact; #7975, Strap connection; #8236, Battery; #8238, Display. Opening Date: 7/1/11, #6956, Pallet; #8257, Valve; wiring, baseplate; #8267, Pump. More detailed information & the MTA-NYCT contact for the above solicitations can be found on our website at www.mta.info/nyct/procure/nyctproc.htm

MTA BRIDGES AND TUNNELS (B&T)

Sealed Bids for the below solicitations must be received by B & T at the Bid Suite, 3 Stone Street, NY, NY 10004. Sealed Bids will be publicly opened at the above address on the dates/times indicated.

Bid #: 11-MNT-2885 – Maintenance and Repair of Aerial Lift Equipment Located at Various Authority Facilities Bid Due Date: 6/30/11 at 3:00 PM. The project description can be found at www.mta.info/bandt/procure/rfppage.html

MTA METRO-NORTH RAILROAD (MNR)

MNR will receive sealed bids for the following. Bids must be submitted on inquiry forms provided by MNR by the specified date and time. Bid documents are available at the Procurement & Material Management Department, 347 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10017, 212-340-3223. INQUIRY #, DESCRIPTION, (DUE DATE, TIME, CONTACT): INQ#: 3086, Reconstruction of the Harlem River Lift Bridge South Fender System (7/12/11, 2 PM, Brian Bell, Tel: 212-340-2414 email - bell @ mnr.org).

20

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011 !

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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

21

SPORTS

Pryor calls end to Ohio State career

By RUSTY MILLER COLUMBUS, Ohio - The NCAA took the first five games of Terrelle Pryor’s senior season. Now he’s given up the rest.

The Ohio State quarannounced terback through his attorney Tuesday that he would not play for the Buckeyes this upcoming season. He had already been suspended through September for breaking NCAA rules by accepting improper benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor.

Pryor was reflective about his decision to quit the college game, said his lawyer, Larry James.

“You know how sometimes you have the weight of the world on your shoulders and then something like this takes a little bit off?’ James said. “He’s still only 21.”

The most likely next step for Pryor would be an NFL supplemental draft.

“I would hope so.

Also, he would hope so,” said James, who said Pryor was not speaking publicly. “But

he’s going to take the next couple of days to get his head together.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported Pryor’s announcement.

It was news that was met with surprisingly happy faces by downtrodden Ohio State fans. After coach Jim Tressel’s forced departure last week, Pryor has served as a lightning rod as the NCAA looked into all aspects of the once-glittering program.

In addition to the acknowledged violations - cash and tattoos to players - are rumors of cars deals for athletes and other potential violations. And Pryor has been in the middle of all that swirling controversy.

Pryor’s announcement comes just eight days after Tressel was forced to resign for knowing about the players’ improper benefits, but not telling any of his superiors. “(Pryor) did not want to be a distraction to his teammates,” James said. “This is something he came to consider after much thought.”

Ohio State will go before the NCAA’s committee on infractions on Aug. 12.

With Pryor no longer

a college football player, he is not obligated to meet with the NCAA. James would not comment on whether Pryor would continue to cooperate with the sanctioning body of college sports.

Ohio State’s athletic director Gene Smith quickly issued a statement wishing Pryor the best.

“We understand Terrelle’s decision and wish him well in this next phase of his life,” Smith said. “We hope he returns to The Ohio State University one day to finish his degree.”

Luke Fickell, who will serve as Ohio State’s interim head coach in place of Tressel this fall, found out about Pryor’s decision on Tuesday night.

“I was notified this evening that Terrelle has decided to pursue a professional career,” Fickell said. “I wish him the best in his pursuits.”

Later yesterday night, ESPN reported that a former friend of Pryor’s, who requested anonymity, claimed he saw the quarterback signing autographs for money a minimum of 35 to 40 times and that Pryor made between

$20,000-$40,000 last year for doing so.

The former friend told ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” that Pryor was paid $500 to $1,000 each time he signed mini football helmets and other gear for a Columbus businessman and freelance photographer, Dennis Talbott.

ESPN reported Talbott twice denied that he ever paid Pryor or any other active Buckeyes student-athlete to sign memorabilia.

Pryor came to Ohio State in March 2008, from Jeannette, Pa., as the most acclaimed high school quarterback prospect in the country. His career will be remembered in his adoptive home state for his three victories in as many tries against archrival Michigan, and victories in the Rose and Sugar bowls.

But it will also be remembered for a series of missteps and controversies that seemed to follow the 6-foot-6, 233pound quarterback.

On the field, Pryor was a winner. He had a 31-4 record as a starter (starting one bowl game as a wide receiver), rushed for an Ohio State-record for a quar-

terback 2,164 yards and passed for 6,177 yards. He was often at his best in big games, holding the school with seven record games with at least 300 yards of total offense and 22 games with at least 200.

But there were other moments that kept him from becoming a fan favorite.

He wore “Vick” on an eyeblack patch in honor of Michael Vick in 2009, after the NFL quarterback had been involved in a dogfighting operation. Pryor then infuriated many by saying, “Not everybody’s the perfect person in the world. I mean, everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever. I think that people need a second chance.”

After Wisconsin beat the Buckeyes in October, handing them their only loss last season, Pryor petulantly said that Ohio State could beat the Badgers nine out of 10 times.

He also has called former Ohio State quarterback and current ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit “a fake Buckeye” for questioning Pryor’s emotional sideline

behavior.

Few NFL draft experts consider Pryor to be a ready-for-theNFL quarterback. With his speed and size, he might be a better fit as a big wide receiver in the mold of Plaxico Burress.

Despite the NFL labor problems, a supplemental draft could still be held this summer, although no one has yet committed to entering it. Former Ohio State star Cris Carter went that route after he lost his senior season due to NCAA infractions involving an agent and he went on to a stellar NFL career.

The Buckeyes have several choices to take Pryor’s place. The most experienced player is fifth-year senior Joe Bauserman, with Kenny Guiton, Taylor Graham and talented freshman Braxton Miller competing for the job.

All four got plenty of snaps in spring practice while Pryor missed all the April workouts after having surgery on his right ankle in January. So, Ohio State has already had some time to imagine what its offense will be like without Pryor.

Mauri ce Clar ett bl ames OSU players COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett blames athletes rather than coaches and fans for the culture that created problems in the Buckeyes’ football program.

“There’s no secret regime, there’s no secret congregation of people who sit around at Ohio State who gives young guys money,” Clarett said yesterday on The Dan Patrick Show.

“Anything that any player goes and gets is

all based on him and who he meets in the community. The coaches and the university have no control over what the young guy’s doing.”

The NCAA is investigating Ohio State players who allegedly received improper benefits and special deals on cars. Five players have been suspended for the first five games this fall for trading signed jerseys, championship rings and other items for cash and discounted tattoos from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner.

Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel was forced to

resign last week for knowing about the players’ involvement but not reporting it as required by his contract and NCAA rules. Star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, one of those suspended and a subject of the NCAA probe, announced Tuesday that he would not return for his senior season.

Clarett, ruled ineligible after carrying Ohio State to its first national championship in 34 years in 2002, said the university cannot control everything that players do.

“There wasn’t any coach or any booster or

any member in or around Ohio State who helps you get a car,” Clarett said, recalling his own time on campus.

“It doesn’t go on. It’s just guys doing what they want to. People will forever do what they want to. It’s nothing more than young guys making mistakes.”

Clarett questioned the foundation of big-time college football, where universities and coaches make millions off athletes yet the players get in trouble with the NCAA for accepting cash for autographs or memorabilia.

“Why are they even in

that position? Why is it that a university can profit $20 million, $30 million, $40 million and these guys are in the position that they have to sell their memorabilia — the only thing they have of value at that point?” Clarett said.

“Why are they even in that position to do that, when there’s enough money to go around?”

Once an elite running back recruit, Clarett seized the starting tailback job before the 2002 season opener and caught the nation’s attention when he piled up 230 yards rushing in a victory over

Washington State — still the sixth-highest singlegame total in school history.

Despite nagging injuries, Clarett continued to play well as Ohio State went through the season unbeaten and was selected as the Big Ten’s top freshman.

In the Fiesta Bowl, which served as the Bowl Championship Series national championship, Clarett bulled over the middle in the second overtime for the winning touchdown in No. 2 Ohio State’s dramatic 31-24 upset of topranked Miami. “

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DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

SPORTS

Chipper Jones calls out Jason Heyward Outfielder Jason Heyward likely will take the baton soon from third baseman Chipper Jones as the Atlanta Braves’ biggest star.

Before that happens, though, Heyward has to learn how to play through pain, according to Jones.

Heyward, who has a sore right shoulder, could have returned from the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, but because he hasn’t swung a bat in more than two weeks, he likely won’t be back for another week. Heyward likely is still a few days away from hitting off a tee, according to manager Fredi Gonzalez.

The 21-year-old Heyward has said he did not want to return until he’s completely healthy. Jones, 39, told the Atlanta JournalConstitution that the second-year slugger needs to realize how important he is to the Braves, even if he isn’t 100 percent.

“I think where Jason might have erred was the comment that he

made, ‘I’m not coming back until it doesn’t hurt anymore.’ That has a tendency to rub people the wrong way,” Jones told the newspaper. “And we understand where he’s coming from — he wants to be healthy when he plays, so he can go out and give himself the best opportunity to be successful. I get that.

“What Jason needs to

realize is that Jason at 80 percent is a force, and Jason at 80 percent is better than a lot of people in this league.

And that there are a bunch of his teammates that are out there playing with discomfort and not healthy, and still going at it.”

The Braves (33-28) trail the first-place Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East by three

games.

Heyward had been in pain since spring training. He has had two MRIs, which have found inflammation of the shoulder but no major problems.

He has struggled this season, batting .214 with seven homers and 14 RBIs in 45 games. He finished second to San Francisco Giants catcher Buster

Posey in 2010 NL Rookie of the Year voting when he hit .277 with 18 home runs and 72 RBIs. Jones told the Journal-Constitution that playing through pain was something he had to learn to do when he was a young player.

“It’s just a situation where, I don’t think he really realizes how much of an impact he

has on the game just by his presence,” Jones told the newspaper.

“And that’s something I had to learn, too. When I started going through my injuries early on, obviously I wanted to get healthy and whatnot. But I realize that, even now, my presence in the lineup means something, whether I’m healthy or not.”

U.S. blanks Canada in Gold Cup opener No excuses acceptable for new Warriors coach DETROIT — Clint Dempsey slid across the grass and redirected Jozy Altidore’s cross into the net. At the other end, Tim Howard smothered one shot, then recovered in time to block another from point-blank range.

Back among regional rivals, the Americans were very much in their element on Tuesday night, opening their Gold Cup schedule with a 2-0 win over Canada. The United States was routed by Spain in an exhibition game last weekend, but all along, the focus has been on this tournament, which determines the champion of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

“Coming off the

game against Spain, obviously, you got down a little bit,” Altidore said. “Now, we’ve just got to build on it, because it’s only going to get harder from here.”

Altidore scored in the 15th minute and set up Dempsey’s goal in the 62nd.

The Americans have never lost a group stage game at the Gold Cup. The U.S. pressured Canada from the start.

The 21-year-old Altidore, playing his first game at a Gold Cup, scored after running onto a long pass from Landon Donovan.

Although Kevin McKenna was back to defend, Altidore was able to turn and take a low shot from a tough angle to the right of the

goal. The ball slipped under goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld and into the net.

There was little Hirschfeld could do about the second goal.

Altidore sent a low cross to the right of the net, and Dempsey was able to knock the ball in while sliding across the ground near the far post. American Juan Agudelo was credited with an assist for deflecting the ball on its way to Dempsey, but it was Altidore who set up the play. He was named man of the match.

“For confidence, it was a good thing,” coach Bob Bradley said.

“The movement that led to the first goal and the cross to Dempsey for the second both were great plays.”

By STEVE GINSBURG DALLAS - New Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson said on Tuesday he will “not tolerate excuses” when he takes the reins of the struggling franchise.

Jackson, 46, was hired on Monday to replace Keith Smart, who went 36-46 in his only season as the Warriors’ coach.

The former NBA guard conceded he would “love to have size” on his team but added they could still win without a dominating presence in the paint.

Jackson, who will join the team at the conclusion of the NBA

Finals where he is serving as a television analyst, said most teams do not have the height of Dallas’s seven-footers, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood and would need to find other ways to win games.

“I would be sitting here lying to you if I said that size does not matter,” he told reporters before Game Four of the NBA finals between Dallas and the Miami Heat.

“It certainly matters.

But I’ll play lawyer, exhibit A, Tyson Chandler, Brendan Haywood. Everybody else is minimum size. So no more excuses.

“Find a way to go out there and get it done by any means necessary.

We will not tolerate excuses.”

Jackson said the Warriors, who have made the playoffs just once since 1994, already have some pieces in place that can reverse the fortunes of the struggling franchise.

“We have a great rebounder in David Lee, one of the best in the business,” he said.

“We have guards with tremendous athletic ability on the offensive end, which tells me you can go get some rebounds.

“Collectively we will find a way to get it done.”

Jackson, who said former New Orleans assistant Michael Malone would join his staff, said a playoff berth next season is a possibility.

DAILY CHALLENGE THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

NFL players want to be in training camps by late July

By GENE CHERRY RALEIGH, North Carolina - NFL players are hoping to be back on the training fields by the end of next month, a players association official said yesterday.

Pre-season training normally begins in July and although the players are still locked out because of the labor dispute, they remain hopeful a resolution can be reached.

“We don’t have a firm sense of cutoff dates because we don’t make the rules or set the schedule,” players association spokesman George Atallah told Reuters.

“The players’ hope is that the lockout is lifted in time for players to show up to camps on time.”

Under the terms of the league-imposed lockout, now in its third month, players are barred from contact with their teams so dozens of players are working out on their own in locations across the country.

Some owners have hinted that a new collective bargaining

agreement would be needed by July 4 for a full schedule of activities, including training camps and preseason games, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league had a range of contingency plans in case there was no agreement.

DELAY COSTLY Cancellation of the preseason could cost the NFL an estimated $1 billion.

At the urging of federal judges, talks between owners and the players association have picked up steam in recent weeks in an attempt to settle the dispute, which is threatening America’s most popular professional sport.

The latest talks are taking place this week in the New York area, the league-owned NFL Network reported, after sessions last week in Chicago.

The sessions, attended by both owners and players representatives, were described as very serious by the network, but no details of the talks were provided.

While they continue, both sides await at several major court decisions: A federal judge in Minnesota

has yet to rule if the players are owed damages in a case involving a $4 billion television contract owners negotiated. Judge David Doty ruled in March the NFL failed to maximize revenue in the deal, which the players claim gave the league a stockpile of cash to help it through the lockout.

The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is also considering the validity of a decision by a lower court judge to end the lockout, which the owners established on March 12 after bargaining talks broke off and the players association decertified itself as a union. Twice already the same panel of judges has ruled against ending the lockout.

Looming too is a September 12 hearing before a Minnesota federal judge on a class action lawsuit against the league by nine league players including high profile quarterback Tom Brady.

A ruling by the National Labor Relations Board on an unfair labor charge brought in February by league owners against the players association also is pending.

Hornets launch plan to strengthen ticket base

By BRETT MARTEL NEW ORLEANS The NBA’s appointed governor of the Hornets stood in one of New Orleans’ historic homes near City Park, in a room where large woodframed windows were adorned with luxurious curtains long enough to touch the hardwood floors.

Speaking over the pounding of nails and the scream of powersaws emanating from a renovation next door, Jac Sperling explained why the NBA’s effort to keep the Hornets in this

rebuilding city is moving into the homes of the team’s biggest fans.

The club needs to build its season-ticket base from a little more than 8,000 to around 10,000 by the fall, Sperling said, in order to gain the confidence of potential local buyers who’ve said they’d be interested in operating the Hornets in Louisiana long term - if revenue streams can be improved.

So the Hornets are enlisting season ticket holders to host social gatherings in their homes, during which they will try to persuade friends and business associates to join them in supporting the club.

“I am really optimistic because this is a

city where a lot of things happen in people’s living rooms, and front porches and their back yards. I know that.

I grew up here,” Sperling said. “There’s nobody who can convince someone else of the validity of some action better than a friend in a social situation, and that’s what we’re counting on.”

Specifically, Sperling said the plan is to help fans host 100 such gatherings within the next 100 days, by which time the team hopes to have sold an additional 2,000 or so season tickets.

“If we get to 9,800, is that going to be good?

Probably,” Sperling said. “We’ve had very casual discussions with people you can charac-

terize as local buyers who would like to keep the team here, but we haven’t engaged in anything serious because we’re waiting until we kind of get the financial situation in a more improved state, and season tickets is a part of that.”

The NBA purchased the Hornets in December from George Shinn, who founded the club in Charlotte in 1988, then moved it to New Orleans in 2002.

Shinn, who moved the team back to New Orleans after being displaced to Oklahoma City from 2005-2007 because of Hurricane Katrina, tried last spring to sell the team to minority owner and Louisiana native Gary Chouest.

DAILY CHALLENGE

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SPORTS

SPORTS BRIEFS Hawks F Marvin Williams undergoes back surgery

ATLANTA - Atlanta Hawks forward Marvin Williams has undergone minor surgery on his lower back to alleviate the pain from a bulging disc.

The outpatient procedure was performed yesterday at Peachtree Orthopedic Clinics in Atlanta. The team says Williams walked out of the facility on his own and should be able to resume full basketball activities in six to eight weeks.

Williams was slowed by back problems in 200809. This season, he missed 11 games after landing hard on his back attempting to make a steal in December game against Golden State.

The 24-year-old averaged 10.4 points and 4.8 rebounds while playing less than 29 minutes a game, the lowest total since his rookie season.

Kenny Britt pleads guilty, fined $478 Tennessee Titans receiver Kenny Britt pleaded guilty to careless driving charges Tuesday in New Jersey and was fined $478 and had four points added to his Tennessee driver’s license.

Britt, who did not appear in court, was originally charged with a felony (eluding an officer) after his arrest on April 12 but had that charge reduced to misdemeanors because he did not have a criminal record.

According to the (Newark) Star-Ledger, Britt pleaded guilty via affidavit. He must sign the affidavit for the plea to become official.

Britt was arrested in his hometown of Bayonne, N.J., after police said he drove his Porsche at 71 mph in a 55-mph zone and then led police on a chase.

The former Rutgers star has had several other run-ins with authorities. He was arrested last year for three outstanding traffic tickets and is accused of not paying a bail bond he helped secure for a friend.

Nashville police stopped him in August during training camp, and ticketed him for driving without a license because he obtained a photo ID after misplacing his license.

He also was accused of being involved in a bar fight Oct. 22 in Nashville, but authorities later decided not to charge him.

Britt left Rutgers after his junior season and was the Titans’ first-round draft pick in 2009. He tied for second on the Titans with 42 catches in 2010 and led all Tennessee receivers with nine touchdowns and an average of 18.5 yards per catch.

Michael Vick discusses Plaxico Burress PHILADELPHIA — Michael Vick’s advice for Plaxico Burress is to put his family ahead of football.

Vick, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Pro Bowl quarterback, says he hopes Burress uses him as an example in his return to the NFL. The former New York Giants receiver spent nearly two years in prison for a gun charge and was released Monday.

Vick made a remarkable comeback to the league after spending 18 months in federal prison for dogfighting charges. He led the Eagles to the NFC East title last season and was voted The Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year.

DAILY CHALLENGE

S SP PO OR RT TS S THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

JAMES FALLS TO NEW DEPTHS

By ADRIAN WOJNAROWSKI DALLAS - Through the door goes LeBron James, and it never fails: They all fall into line behind him. There’s the agent, the shoe reps, the publicists, the hangerson surrounding him on his walk out of the interview room, through the corridor and into the garage. He wore his flinty black eyeglass frames, a narrow necktie and the stain of the most putrid postgame of his life.

For now, the coronation of King James has stalled, replaced with the resurfacing referendum on his resolve, his resiliency, an acid test on his championship chase.

These Finals are 2-2 because James hasn’t done his job.

They’re 2-2, because Dwyane Wade has had to carry James, and Dirk Nowitzki has been the most resourceful closer for the Dallas Mavericks.

These Miami Heat are constructed to survive James’ slumps, but bottoming out is something else. This is beneath James’ talent, beneath his stature. Nowitzki was fighting a fever, and still made the biggest shot of the night. Wade scored 32 points and blocked a 7-footer’s dunk at the rim. James was a passive drifter and let Jason Terry get over on him defensively in the fourth quarter.

Worst playoff game of James’ life, and the Heat couldn’t survive it.

Worst playoff game of his life, and everyone’s left wondering: What’s happening to James here, and how is he going to snap himself out of

it?

This is no time for James to get lost within one of his funks, to revisit the ghosts and goblins of his miserable ends with the Cleveland Cavaliers a season ago.

All around LeBron, his minions marched out of this 86-83 loss with uneasy glances and an unraveling global commodity. How it’s possible numbs the mind, but James had eight points in Game 4.

Hard to imagine how that’s possible for James, but for the first time in more than four years he didn’t reach double figures. This is beyond stunning and downright unacceptable with these circumstances, these stakes.

The Mavericks could’ve been eliminated by now had James been stronger, surer and sharper in the fourth quarters of the Heat’s two losses.

Once the most hellacious

player in these playoffs, a force of nature full of fury and ferocity, James pushed past Wade’s sidekick and reduced himself to third wheel behind Chris Bosh on Tuesday night. He was bursting with bravado, with confidence, in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but it’s been spotty in the Finals.

“I got to do a better job of being more assertive offensively, not being out of rhythm offensively the whole game,” James said.

All over again, this was James crumbling to the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals a year ago. When he was scoreless into the third quarter a year ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers would lose by 32 points. This time, he had Wade and Bosh playing the starry roles again.

Wade has completely controlled these Finals for the

Heat, and he could need to carry them to the end like it’s 2006.

So here it is, deep into these NBA Finals, and James has let himself become the target of public pep talks and condemnations out of Bosh, of all people. “He struggled.

Point blank, period. He struggled out there. ... I want to see him aggressive again. He can turn it up his aggression a notch.”

Wade had 32 points, Bosh 24 and James drifted and drifted without too little purpose, too little passion. When the Heat needed to run a play to free someone for a 3-pointer at the end of regulation, the ball tumbled out of Wade’s hands, and was flung eventually to Mike Miller for an off-balance, desperation miss. No James, no chance his coach would go through him with the game on the line.