Daily Challenge 8-8-11

NEW ORLEANS OFFICERS CONVICTED IN KATRINA SHOOTINGS - PG. 2 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

THE NATION’S ONLY BLACK DAILY 35 Cents

MORE WORK AHEAD TO GET FINANCES IN ORDER

President Barack Obama urged law- must work to put America’s fiscal house makers to set aside partisan politics in order and refocus on stimulating its after a fierce debt battle, saying they stagnant economy.

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STRAUSS-KAHN ACCUSER MAY SUE IN FRIENDLY BRONX

With ccuser Nafissatou Diallo poised to bring a civil suit against Dominique StraussKahn, the focus could shift from the luxury suites of Manhattan to the gritty streets of the Bronx, where juries are believed to be more likely to sympathize with the plight of a 32-year-old immigrant than a well-off politician. Photo: Lem Peterkin SEE PAGE 2.

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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N EW S BR IE F S 9/11 ARTIFACTS TO BE DISPLAYED STATEWIDE New Yorkers across the state will soon get the chance to view some of the artifacts from the September 11th attacks.

Thirty exhibits, called “New York Remembers,” will feature debris from the wreckage of the towers, a city fire truck, and everyday objects from New Yorkers in Lower Manhattan.

The exhibits are a partnership between the National 9/11 Memorial and the New York State Museum.

The artifacts will be shown at venues on Long Island and upstate, although the locations have not yet been chosen.

Some of the artifacts will be on display at the site during the memorial service next month.

The exhibits will run from late August through the end of September.

ETHICS COMMITTEE CLEARS MEEKS OF ONE VIOLATION, STILL INVESTIGATES ANOTHER Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks has been cleared by the House Ethics Committee of one violation, but the investigation into another possible misconduct charge continues.

The committee dismissed an allegation that Meeks received an improper home equity loan last year, saying the nearly $60,000 loan was made on reasonable terms and supported by an agreement.

However, the committee is still investigating the congressman’s failure to report a $40,000 loan he received from a friend in 2007.

Meeks says there was nothing improper in that case either.

“There’s nothing to that at all, it is a simple situation of a loan. It was paid back, didn’t put something on paper, amended my paper so that it reflected it, as individuals do,” said Meeks.

The House Office of Congressional Ethics said the 2007 loan appears to lack a set of interest rate or repayment terms a legitimate loan should have, which could make it considered an improper gift.

STATE LAWMAKER PROPOSES $500 FARE EVADING FINE An Albany legislator wants subway turnstile-jumpers to pay up.

State Senator Charles Fuschillo wants to raise the current $100 fine for fare evasion to $500.

He also wants to increase the fine for failing to pay from $50 to $100.

The Republican says fare-beaters cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $31 million last year.

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Strauss-Kahn accuser may sue in friendly Bronx

By NOELEEN WALDER For almost three months, the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn has centered around the upscale Sofitel hotel where a maid claimed the former International Monetary Fund chief attacked her.

With Strauss-Kahn’s accuser poised to bring a civil suit against him, the focus could shift from the luxury suites of Manhattan to the gritty streets of the Bronx, where juries are believed to be more likely to sympathize with the plight of a 32-year-old immigrant than a welloff politician.

Accuser Nafissatou Diallo’s lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, has said she intends to file a civil suit soon.

While she could sue Strauss-Kahn in Manhattan, where he is temporarily living in a townhouse, legal experts agree that the Bronx will be the more likely venue.

“I think that Bronx jurors tend to demonstrate a distrust of outsiders, the overprivileged and the system in general,” said Brian Waller, a defense attorney who worked in the Bronx as an assistant district attorney.

Bronx juries’ reputation for generosity toward plaintiffs is so ingrained that it has been dubbed the “Bronx effect.”

“The Bronx civil jury is the greatest tool of wealth redistribution since the Red Army,” said Ron Kuby, a well-known New York defense lawyer. “As a purported socialist, DSK should applaud the venue.”

The Bronx reputation may be overstated. A study in published in the 2002 Texas Law Review found no evidence Bronx juries deliver bigger awards than other New York counties.

Still, the notion persists that the Bronx gives otherwise powerless plaintiffs their best hope for a big payout.

Kenneth Thompson and Nafissatou Diallo That could be appealing to Diallo, whose credibility was questioned last month after prosecutors claimed she lied on her asylum application and her tax returns, and gave inconsistent accounts of her actions after the May 14 encounter at the Sofitel.

After these revelations, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance freed Strauss-Kahn from house arrest and said his office would continue its investigation.

If Vance winds up dropping the charges, as many expect him to, a Bronx jury could render a verdict to “correct” what they perceive as a social injustice, said Waller.

“If they do decide to dismiss the case, I think many Bronx residents ... are going to feel once again that the DA, the government, the establishment sided with the wealthy, privileged individual over the poor, single immigrant in the Bronx,” Waller said.

Lawyers consider racial and socioeconomic factors when deciding where to file a civil suit.

“The Bronx is overwhelmingly poor, Black, and Latino,” said Kuby.

A famous example is the case of Bernhard Goetz, a white man dubbed the “subway vigilante” after he shot four Black teenagers he said were attempting to rob him one night in 1984. More than 10 years after a Manhattan jury acquitted Goetz of attempted murder, a Bronx jury ordered him to pay $43 million to one of the men paralyzed in the shooting.

Frederick Potack, a past president of the Bronx Bar Association, predicted it was unlikely that Diallo’s civil case will ever reach a jury.

“They will give her a sum of money she’s never seen before, and she’ll go away quietly in the dark,” he said.

Photo: Lem Peterkin

New Orleans officers convicted in Katrina shootings

By KATHY FINN NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury on Friday found four New Orleans police officers guilty in the shooting deaths of two civilians in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and also convicted a former policeman of helping cover up the killings.

The jury’s decision means the deaths of Ronald Madison, 40, and James Brissette, 17, were the result of police willfully violating the victims’ civil rights but that the slayings were not murder.

Four people also were seriously injured in the shootings on the Danziger Bridge on September 4, 2005, after the officers responded to a call about gunfire.

The five convicted officers could be sentenced to life in prison.

“Today’s verdict sends a powerful, a powerful unmistakable message,” said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, speaking to reporters outside the

New Orleans courthouse.

The shootings occurred a few days after Hurricane Katrina had submerged parts of New Orleans under roof-high floodwaters, leaving thousands of people homeless and setting off chaos throughout the city.

In the death of Brissette and shooting of four others, officers Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius and Anthony Villavaso were found guilty of depriving citizens of their rights and using firearms in doing so.

In addition, Faulcon, the only defendant who testified at trial, was found guilty of violating civil rights and use of a firearm in the killing of Madison.

The officers also were convicted of various charges connected with the cover-up, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and violate civil rights, and false prosecution.

Prosecutors painted a picture of out-of-control officers firing indis-

criminately on innocent bystanders in the incident while defense lawyers maintained the police saw guns in the hands of civilians and believed they were in danger.

They said chaotic conditions in New Orleans after Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people, heightened police officers’ expectations that civilians in the streets had and would use guns.

Faulcon testified he had been filled with “indescribable fear” at the time of the shooting.

The fifth officer, retired homicide detective Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, was convicted on 10 counts related to the cover-up, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, fabricating witnesses, falsifying victim statements, misleading federal investigators and falsifying evidence.

The jury deliberated more than two days.

A sixth officer who was charged in the cover-up will be tried separately.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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Obama: More work ahead to get finances in order

By MATT SPETALNICK WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama urged lawmakers on Saturday to set aside partisan politics after a fierce debt battle, saying they must work to put America’s fiscal house in order and refocus on stimulating its stagnant economy.

Obama issued the appeal in his weekly radio address recorded just hours before the United States lost its top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s on concerns about its deficit woes, a move that could have costly repercussions.

The president, whose 2012 re-election could hinge on his ability to reduce stubbornly high unemployment, called on Congress to back measures to give tax relief to the middle class, extend jobless benefits and pass long-delayed international trade pacts.

But at the same time, Obama — who was briefed in advance on S&P’s downgrade announcement — challenged fellow Democrats and Republicans alike to follow through on the deal struck in Washington this week that averted the threat of crippling debt default.

“Congress reached an agreement

that’s going to allow us to make some progress in reducing our nation’s budget deficit,” he said.

“And through this compromise, both parties are going to have to work together on a larger plan to get our nation’s finances in order.”

“In the long term, the health of our economy depends on it,” he said.

Obama also stressed, however,

Father jailed for stuffing young son in oven for $20 theft

By RAY SANCHEZ A man described by his 11-year-old son as the world’s greatest father was sent to prison on Friday for burning the boy’s hand and stuffing him into an oven as punishment for stealing $20.

Despite the boy’s teary leniency plea, a judge ordered James Moss, 53, to four months in prison on weekends and five years probation including intense supervised visitation with his son Christopher, psychiatric treatment, anger management training and drug testing.

Earlier in the week, Moss pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts including assault and unlawful imprisonment for torturing Christopher because he thought the boy stole $20 from his wallet at their Staten Island home on May 12, 2010.

Moss, a hulking man who weighs nearly 300 pounds, faced up to 7 years in prison for what state prosecutors called a shocking child abuse case.

“He made a big mistake but really somewhere in his heart, he is funny, lovable, caring, and a great father in the whole entire world,” Christopher told the judge in a tear-choked voice on Friday in state Supreme Court in Staten Island.

“Everybody in my family ... is giving him a second chance. Will you?”

Judge Robert Collini did, saying the testimonies of Christopher and the boy’s mother, Erin Moss, were “powerful and significant.”

As court officers handcuffed Moss and took him away for processing, Christopher watched and cried in his

mother’s arms in the courthouse.

Before sentencing, Christopher sat with his parents, leaning on them, his father occasionally rubbing the boy’s head.

Erin Moss told the court her husband of 24 years worked part time as a maintenance man and never complained about staying home with his two children as “Mr. Mom” while she studied nursing.

“This is not something that ever happened in our life,” she said. “I was the disciplinarian. He was the softie.”

She said that on May 12, 2010, he “snapped and lost it.”

That day, prosecutors said, Moss, suspecting the theft, ripped off the boy’s clothes and beat him across the back with a spatula. He then placed the boy’s hands over lit stove burners until his skin peeled. After punching his son in the face, Moss forced the boy into the oven, prosecutors said.

“I’m going to burn you alive!” Moss warned his screaming son, according to prosecutors.

The father ignored his son’s pleas to be let out of the oven, prosecutors said. Moss eventually relented and let the boy out before shoving his naked son out the front door.

Later, as skin peeled from the boy’s singed hands, Moss refused to get his son medical attention, prosecutors said. The father ordered the boy to sit naked on the floor “like a dog,” prosecutors said.

Christopher’s mother, who was not home at the time of the abuse, eventually took her son to a hospital, where the boy was treated for secondand third-degree burns and cuts on his body.

that “in the short term, our urgent mission has to be getting this economy growing faster and creating jobs.”

He is seeking to overcome partisan rancor after a $2.1 trillion deficit-reduction deal reached with Republicans just before the government was due to run out of money to pay all of its bills.

But that fell short of the $4 trillion in savings over 10 years S&P said was needed to put the world’s most powerful economy on sounder fiscal footing and avoid a ratings cut.

S&P also cited the political brinkmanship that played out in Washington over raising the United States’ $14.3 trillion debt limit as a source of uncertainty for future policymaking.

The downgrade, which the U.S. Treasury denounced as based on a “flawed” analysis, could raise borrowing costs for the government, firms and consumers at a time when some economists fear the United States could slip back into recession.

Against this backdrop, the Labor Department reported on Friday that unemployment in July edged down to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent, but that was not enough to dispel investors’ concerns about the fragile economy.

Wall Street equities closed out their worst week in more than two years, reflecting frustration with a stumbling U.S. recovery and with politicians’ halting responses to debt troubles in Europe and the United States.

Still, Obama’s options for boosting growth are limited. Republicans, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, oppose further stimulus spending.

“While deficit reduction has to be part of our economic strategy, it’s not the only thing we have to do,” Obama said. “We need Democrats and Republicans to work together to help grow this economy. We’ve got to put politics aside.”

‘Rent Is Too Damn High’ candidate’s rent might be too low

By JOSEPH AX Apparently, his rent is too damn low.

Jimmy McMillan, the 2010 New York gubernatorial candidate who founded the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, says his landlord is trying to kick him out of his rent-controlled apartment in the trendy East Village of Manhattan in order to raise the rent.

The landlord has filed court papers to evict him, claiming McMillan’s primary residence is in Brooklyn, not Manhattan, and thus he should not continue to benefit from rent control, McMillan said.

“It’s a baseless case,” said the loquacious activist, whose white mustache-and-sideburns combination, black gloves and memorable soundbites during election debates last year made him a celebrity in

New York.

“That’s my apartment. If I live there one day out of the year, that’s my business. If I stick my butt in the door and break wind, if I stick my face in the window and belch, it’s none of your business.”

McMillan claims the Brooklyn address serves as his party headquarters and that the St. Mark’s Place apartment in dispute remains his residence. His son, who is unemployed, continues to live there, he said.

The landlord of the building could not be reached for comment.

McMillan said he has rented the apartment since the 1970s and now pays a monthly rent of $872.96, though his last three rent checks have been sent back.

He said he has instructed his attorney, whose name he could not remember offhand, to file a counterclaim against the landlord.

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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Writing the Tea Party epitaph is not just premature but absurd THOMAS H. WATKINS

By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

Black folks lose again and again. . .

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Moments after President Obama put his John Hancock on the debt-ceiling deal, a Northern California Tea Party member claimed that when he proudly wore his Tea Party tshirt to his local grocery store, half a dozen people immediately asked him how to join.

If one believes the legion of pundits who claim with smug assurance that the Tea Party, and by extension the GOP, cut its political throat by holding the White House, Congress and the nation hostage for weeks until it got its way on the debt deal, the Tea Party member in the grocery store is either the biggest liar on the planet or suffers from advanced political dyslexia.

Unfortunately, there’s really

no reason to think anything of the sort. A quick look at the checklist of what Congress gave up tells why: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block; no extension of unemployment insurance benefits; no tax loopholes closed; no new tax and revenue hikes approved; no guarantee that any substantial military spending will be cut; creation of a so-called super-committee that can virtually unilaterally chop off billions more in spending from vital education, health, transportation, and infrastructure development programs that Congress is powerless to do nothing more than take it or leave it; no spending authorization to create jobs; and worst of all, the real possibility that within a few months Congress and the White House will be locked

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again in another round of fiscal sumo wrestling.

The manufacture of the phony debt-ceiling and fiscal crisis, the gutting of federal spending and by extension the federal government, the mocking of the political process to engage in this financial charade—all this was the handiwork of the Tea Party, a party that its short existence has managed to play the nation, the White House, Congress, and the media like a finely tuned Stradivarius. The Tea Party marvelously hijacked the political process with one goal in mind, a goal that it never bothered to hide: to hector, harass, embarrass, and ultimately insure that President Obama is a one-term president.

The seeds of the Tea Party’s hijacking of the Congressional

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

Zero tolerance discipline policies: A failing idea for minor infractions often has a major negative effect on a child’s entire future.

New research analyzing the data from the 2009 – 2010 school year in Massachusetts found nearly 60,000 school expulsions and suspensions.

Just over half of them were for “unassigned offenses” – nonviolent, noncriminal offenses, which can include behavioral issues such as swearing, talking back to a teacher, and truancy. (I’ve never understood why you suspend or expel children for not coming to school rather than finding out why!) Of the approximately 30,000 “unassigned offenses,” two-thirds received out of school suspension, resulting in 57,000 lost days of school.

What’s more, because Massachusetts schools aren’t currently required to report “unassigned offenses” resulting in exclusions of 10 days or less for regular education students, the estimated actual number of disciplinary exclusions is likely at least two to three times the 60,000 reported.

Jen Vorse Wilka, a student at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, found these startling statistics when she studied zero tolerance discipline policies in Massachusetts as part of her master’s degree program. Her final report, “Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline: Analyzing Zero Tolerance School Discipline Policies and Identifying Strategic Opportunities for Intervention,” received an award from the school’s faculty and sheds new light on the need to address these harmful policies.

Added together, the tens of thousands of suspensions—many for minor infractions—have an enor-

mous negative impact. As Wilka explains, “Children start down the path to prison in both jarring and subtle ways. It’s not just the teenager who ends up behind bars; it’s also the child who is suspended for disruptive behavior, misses a few days of school, and begins to feel disconnected. The more disconnected he becomes, the more he acts out in class. This cycle repeats. National research suggests that this child is three times more likely to drop out of school by 10th grade than a student who has never been suspended; and dropping out triples the likelihood this child will end up incarcerated later in life. It is this indirect pipeline that can be addressed by implementing more nuanced approaches to school discipline, helping students stay in school— and out of prison.”

This report bolsters the work Massachusetts community leaders and advocates are already doing to take action against harsh one-sizefits-all policies and call for more balanced approaches. Right now, Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) and the Education Law Task Force are championing two pieces of legislation to reduce school exclusion for disciplinary reasons and, by doing so, reduce school dropouts; improve access to education among students excluded from school; and require the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to review and respond to school exclusion data.

The Children’s Defense Fund has endorsed both bills. MAC also is championing a new bill to ensure schools have the supports and tools they need to become safe, supportive learning

Not just premature but absurd

firm. By a near 2-to-1 margin, Tea Party backers followed the news about the budget deliberations more intently than those who opposed the Tea Party.

Yet despite the Tea Party’s obvious budget triumph, some are foolishly crowing that this victory actually marks the party’s demise.

That’s the kind of demise that established political parties would salivate over. Far from writing the epitaph for the Tea Party, pundits

By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN Many school children in America are on summer break right now, but here’s a pop quiz about discipline policies in our nation’s schools that’s just for grownups: Would you suspend a student from school for four months for sharpening his pencil without permission and giving the teacher a “threatening” look when asked to sit down?

Would you expel a student from school for the rest of a school year for poking another student with a ballpoint pen during an exam?

Would you expel a student from school permanently because her possession of an antibiotic violated your school’s zero-tolerance drug policy?

Would you call the police, handcuff, and then expel a student who started a snowball fight on school grounds?

If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions because they sounded too unfair to be the result of an actual policy, give yourself a failing grade. All four are real examples of zero tolerance school discipline policies in Massachusetts—and there are thousands of stories like these throughout that state and across the country. Suspended and expelled students are at greater risk of dropping out of school and dropping into the prison pipeline, and using automatic suspensions and expulsions

Continued from page 4 budget were planted the instant President Obama took the oath of office. Tea Party leaders shrewdly reached back three decades and revived a simple theme from the Reagan years. Liberal Democrats had constructed a wasteful, out-ofcontrol, and inefficient Big Government that had bloated the budget with deficit crushing spending on education, health, and infrastructure programs. The underlying implication was that the spending was lavished almost exclusively on minorities and the poor. And the people forced to bear the cost for the alleged Big Government spending spree were the hard-pressed, overburdened, overtaxed white middle and working class.

This was of course pure mythmaking. The Congressional Budget Office put debt and debt servicing costs at less than 2 percent of America’s economic output (aka the gross domestic product, or GDP). That figure is lower than at any point since the 1970s. The payments on federal

debt under Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton presidencies were above 3 percent of GDP. Only under G. W. Bush did that figure dropped.

There was no talk of a federal debt collapse in those years. But within one year of the Obama adminisration, the hysteria began, and now the U.S. was said to face financial Armageddon if trillions weren’t hacked from the budget.

This, of course, was almost exclusively the talk of the Tea Party, which made their views the talk of Congress and the nation, with only scattered dissent from a handful of lawmakers. The Tea Party got its way not merely because it adroitly waylaid an issue to politically sabotage a president, but because it outscreamed, out-marched, and outorganized Democrats and its own GOP mainstream.

A recent Pew Research Center poll found that Tea Party adherents were twice as likely as other Americans to be engaged in the debate over the budget, blitzing their elected representatives with faxes, emails, and phones calls to stand

environments that result in far fewer school exclusions. If successful, these pieces of legislation could become a model for effectively curbing these policies’ negative impact.

All of this work has special implications in Massachusetts because that state spends six times more per prisoner than per public school pupil—a greater disparity than in any other state. The most recent data show that in 2007 Massachusetts spent $78,580 per prisoner and only $12,857 per pupil. That’s a pretty dumb investment policy.

Sound fiscal policy means investing in early childhood development and education especially in these economic hard times. Intervening early not only saves lives and futures, it saves money. Zero tolerance discipline policies aren’t helping the children who need intervention the most at all. Instead, they are excluding thousands of students from school every year—including many students who most need to be in class— and making those children even more likely to end up trapped in the destructive, expensive prison pipeline. These kinds of policies deserve a failing grade and correction.

— Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind®mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org. should focus on the ugly truth. The Tea Party has forced the White House, and Congress and a nation to look over its shoulder in nervous jitters at every overblown, clownish, and destructive scheme that its backers decide to dump on the nation’s plate. And make no mistake — there are more, many more, of those schemes to come.

— Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

Security upped after violence at Wisconsin State Fair

By JOHN RONDY MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin State Fair imposed heightened security on Friday, a day after fighting between groups of youths on and around the midway and attacks on police officers resulted in 24 arrests, fair

officials said.

The violence on Thursday night began with fights between groups of African American youths at the fair, located between Milwaukee and the suburb of West Allis, fair officials said.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said the fighting later degenerated into

what he described as racially charged violence outside the fair, when the youths fought with white motorists stuck in traffic.

“This was reprehensible, violent behavior, for which there is no excuse,” Flynn said, adding that “some people were singled out for violence because of their race.”

He gave no details on what may have sparked the initial fighting or the later violence.

Citing Milwaukee police, fair spokeswoman Patrice Harris said four people were hurt outside the fair grounds.

Seven officers were also wounded in the violence, and two were hospitalized from blows to the head, fair officials said.

The fair runs until August 14.

James Hall, the head of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP, said the incident was troubling and that its root causes needed to be addressed within the Black community.

Milwaukee, a city segregated largely along racial lines, has seen heightened racial tensions this summer with the occurrence of other similar incidents.

“We need to nip this in the bud, or it’s going to escalate

into something much, much worse,” said Ralph Hollmon, President of the Milwaukee Urban League. “We cannot allow this to divide our community along racial lines.”

Wisconsin State Police were working with State Fair police and West Allis authorities to ensure order for the remaining days of the event, fair officials said.

Starting on Friday at 5 p.m., youths under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian aged 21 or older, said Wisconsin State Fair CEO Rick Frenette.

Fair officials said the youths involved in the fighting appeared to be at the fair to cause trouble, rather than to go on rides or participate in similar activities.

“Certain individuals and groups of youths chose to disrupt the evening activities,” Frenette said.

Weather Service urges to be spared from spending cuts Milwaukee NAACP President James Hall (R) makes a statement to the media as Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn listens at the Milwaukee Police headquarters in West Allis, Wisconsin regarding incidents of assault and battery that occurred at and near the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

IRS will not go after airline fare hikes

By JOHN CRAWLEY WASHINGTON — The government does not plan to go after more than $400 million in airline revenue from fare increases that were facilitated by a two-week ticket-tax holiday resulting from a congressional dispute over aviation funding.

The Internal Revenue Service said on Friday it did not intend to seek retroactive payments from passengers or airlines relating to taxes that were not collected during a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Consumer advocacy groups and some in government sought to shame the airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and US Airways, into ending fare hikes that were imposed soon after the 7.5 percent ticket tax was suspended.

“What do they do the minute that they’re not required to remit those fees to the government?” said Robert Mann, a former air-

line executive who is now an industry consultant. “They internalize them and make them part of the fare, which, of course, has the same effect, because out of pocket the customer is paying the same price.”

President Barack Obama said this week it would not be easy “to get that money back.”

The ticket tax, which amounts to about $30 million per day in receipts, funds a federal trust account the FAA uses to help pay its bills.

The requirement for tax collection was suspended during the FAA shutdown, which was caused by a congressional impasse over legislation to temporarily fund the agency.

The congressional standoff, which affected some 70,000 jobs related to airport construction and nearly 4,000 FAA positions that were placed on furlough, ended on Friday when Obama signed a stop-gap spending bill approved by the Senate earlier in the day.

Airlines have until Monday to restart ticket tax collections. The airlines were

unapologetic about capitalizing on the tax holiday and stood to make more than $1 billion had the standoff run until Congress returned in early September from its month-long recess.

The main trade group for the industry, the Air Transport Association, said in a statement that it would defer to the IRS on any decision regarding the collection of ticket taxes.

Lawmakers will immediately have to consider another stop-gap spending bill for the aviation agency when Congress resumes in September, possibly reviving the ticket tax issue.

The IRS decision followed a letter to the agency from senior members of congressional tax writing committees, urging the agency to consider the impact on consumers and the airlines taxes are collected retroactively.

Additionally, the IRS said passengers who bought tickets before the shutdown — paying the 7.5 percent tax — and traveled during it would not be entitled to any refunds, which could have totaled about $60 per ticket.

By PASCAL FLETCHER MIAMI — Nature has not stinted in unleashing deadly weather on the United States this year and leaders should recognize the need for good forecasting services when they wield the cost-cutting knife, the director of the National Weather Service said.

Jack Hayes used the opportunity of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s updated 2011 Atlantic hurricane forecast to stress “what taxpayers are getting in return for their investment in the National Weather Service,” which is part of NOAA. A hard-fought deficitcutting deal passed by Congress and signed into law

by President Barack Obama this week foresees $2.1 trillion in overall budget savings over 10 years, with painful cuts expected across the government.

“Here in Washington, D.C., our nation’s leaders are making extremely tough decisions about federal spending, including what government services to fund and which to trim in efforts to reduce the nation’s deficit,” Hayes said on a conference call before the hurricane forecast update.

Calling this situation a “pressing issue,” Hayes said 2011 has been a record year so far for extreme weather.

“Many recent events have shattered long standing records for tornadoes, floods, blizzards, wildfires and now we’re experiencing, throughout much of the nation, heat waves,” he said.

Tornadoes raking across the United States this year killed more than 540 people, and these and other extreme weather events have caused $32 billion in economic losses so far, making it a costly year, Hayes said.

“And we’re only halfway through the year with the bulk of the hurricane season still ahead,” he added.

Predicting the AtlanticCaribbean region was heading for a busier-than-average 2011 hurricane season, NOAA experts raised their activity outlook, forecasting 14 to 19 tropical storms, with seven to 10 of those growing into hurricanes.

The National Weather Service chief said the service’s outlooks and forecasts provided key weather and climate information to industries from aviation to farming, tourism and fishing, to states and local municipalities, power companies and emergency managers.

DAILY D CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

CARIBBEAN NEWS

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Haitians urged to reach consensus on new government AU PORT PRINCE, Haiti — The United Nations has encouraged all political actors in Haiti to search for a consensus amid the ongoing struggle between President Michel Martelly and Parliament over the confirmation of a new prime minister.

In a news release issued on Wednesday, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) took note of Parliament’s decision to reject the choice of Bernard Gousse - the second time the legislative body has rejected the nomination of a prime minister designated by the president since his inauguration on 14 May.

“MINUSTAH is conabout the cerned absence of a government in Haiti for almost three months,” the mission stated. “This limits the State’s ability to implement its programmes, to guide the reconstruction process, and to meet its responsibilities towards the people of Haiti.”

MINUSTAH reminded all political players in the country of their responsibility to work in the best interests of the nation The country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, is still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.3 million others.

It is also currently

bracing itself for what is likely to be the first of several storms of this year’s hurricane season.

“MINUSTAH respectfully reminds all political players in the country of their responsibility to work in the best interests of the nation,” the mission said.

“As the hurricane season starts, MINUSTAH encourages all political actors to negotiate and search for a consensus which would lead to the good governance of Haiti,” it added.

MINUSTAH has been on the ground in Haiti since mid-2004 after then president JeanBertrand Aristide went into exile amid violent unrest.

UN Special Representative Mariano Fernández (L) and Haitian President Michel Martelly.

Photo/Victoria Hazou

IDB approves $11 million grant to Haiti for business development services WASHINGTON — An $11 million grant from the I n t e r- A m e r i c a n Development Bank (IDB) to Haiti will support a program to provide business development and training services to micro, small and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) to expand their access to credit, strengthen their management, and boost their productivity.

By some estimates there are some 10,000 small and mediumsized businesses with more than 10 and fewer than 100 employees in Haiti. Microenterprises, which employ fewer than 10

workers, number about 375,000.

Small enterprises typically face obstacles to obtain loans in Haiti, where the financial system has focused on the opposite ends of the potential client range: corporate borrowers with formal financial records, and informal entrepreneurs who rely on shortterm microcredit.

The project will help MSMEs obtain professional assistance to gather and organize their financial information, as well as to prepare proper business plans to present to local financial institutions in their efforts to gain access to credit for expansion and improvement investment projects.

In addition, the project will

offer small businesses access to training to improve management and worker skills and other services to increase their productivity once they have obtained credit.

Training and advisory services will also be available for eligible local financial institutions to improve credit officers’ ability to analyze business plans and expand the range of financial products for MSMEs. The project will be carried out by the Haitian Central Bank’s Industrial Development Fund, which is also running a $35 million partial credit guarantee program for restructuring loans to companies hit by last year’s earthquake.

Jamaica will live up to IMF commitments, says finance minister

By BALFORD HENRY KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has reiterated that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) third (December) and fourth (March) quarterly reviews of Jamaica’s performance have not yet been considered by the IMF board of directors.

Shaw also assured that Jamaica will live up to its commitments with the IMF, as this is vital for the continued stability of the Jamaican economy, “which was achieved at great sacrifice over the last 17 months”.

In a statement issued by his ministry on Wednesday, Shaw explained that both reviews have

been postponed pending the resolution of certain issues.

He said that these issues include the public sector seven percent wage settlement.

Additional revenue needs or expenditure cuts arising from the settlement will be outlined in a Supplementary Budget to be presented to Parliament on August 31.

The other issues he listed were: finalization of the divestment of the government’s shareholding in Clarendon Alumina Production (CAP); discussions on tax and tax waiver reform; and conclusion of negotiations with public sector unions on a formula for wage settlements in the medium term (2015) that is consistent with the agreed wage-to-GDP target of nine percent.

“Significant progress has been made on these issues and, with the finalization of the supplementary budget and the closing of the gap created by the decision to pay the 7 percent, the GOJ expects to be in a position to discuss with the IMF the date for the third and fourth reviews,” the minister said.

The minister noted that it has always been the case that the European Union (EU) and other multilaterals pay attention to the economic programme of the government with the IMF. “The link between EU and multilateral disbursements and the IMF programme is, therefore, not new,” he said.

He also noted that the review of the June quarter is not due until some six weeks after the quarter ends.

Extended runway opens in Turks and Caicos PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — The extension of the runway of the Providenciales international airport in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has been completed and was officially opened this week. The ceremony featured a ribbon cutting by Governor Gordon Wetherell with a number of officials in attendance.

The runway is the first phase in a reported $100 million expansion planned to promote increased tourism in the TCI. A greatly enlarged air terminal, which will include passenger access ramps or jet ways is yet to be started. An expanded parking lot to accommodate up to 500 vehicles is also planned.

The expansion program predates the imposition of direct rule by Britain in August 2009.

Prior to the dissolution of the elected parliament, the expansion was voted on and passed by a joint political effort led by the Progressive National Party (PNP) government. The financing was to be provided by an additional $35 per passenger departure tax, raising the tax to over $100. The opposition Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) suggested a change in the legislation supporting the expansion, making the $35 tax a maximum, allowing for a lesser amount if lower interest financing was available.

The decision to expand the airport, hopefully giving rise to expansion of the TCI economy, was celebrated at the opening by PDM leader Douglas Parnell, whose remarks were seen on local television station PTV 8.

While the expanded runway will provide a greatly extended length for the current aircraft servicing the airport from North America, it remains unclear when wide body jumbo jets will begin to land. Currently, the narrow body B737 and A320 aircraft are being served by drive up passenger stairways. These current aircraft have door sill heights in the 8-foot range while the jumbo jets need stairs that are well over twice that height.

AFRICAN SCENE

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

AFRICAN SCENE

Famine’s devastation: 4 dead children, 1 family

By JASON STRAZIUSO SAfrica to open new museum honoring Nelson Mandela JOHANNESBURG - South African officials say they will build a dedicated museum honoring Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid, on the site where he was arrested 49 years ago.

Mandla Mandela spoke Friday on behalf of his grandfather at the launch of an exhibition at the undeveloped museum site. He said Mandela asked him to urge South Africans to remember all who were active in the struggle against apartheid, not just him.

The provincial government will pay for the $1.2 million museum and memorial, which is expected to create jobs in the largely rural area.

Mandela was arrested near the town of Howick, some 300 miles (500 kilometers) from Johannesburg, on August 5, 1962. He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison.

Five killed as Somali gunmen steal food aid At least five people were killed Friday when an armed gang raided a camp in the Somali capital and stole relief food meant for thousands of drought-affected people, officials and witnesses said.

“Five people died on the spot after militiamen opened fire to loot the food aid,” said Abdikadir Mohamed, a driver.

“There was chaos and everybody was running for cover after the security escorting the food aid convoy exchanged fire with the armed gang. The food was looted,” Mohamed added.

Residents at the Badbado camp had been queuing up for food supplied by the World Food Programme when the gunmen attacked.

Ali Isa, an official with a local NGO partnering with the WFP, said the UN agency had brought some 300 tonnes of food for the displaced at the camp set up by Somalia’s Western-backed government.

It was not immediately clear who the attackers were, but Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels have been fighting to topple the government and banned several foreign aid groups from regions under their control.

The UN on Wednesday declared three more Somali areas, including Mogadishu and Afgoye area to the west of the capital, as facing famine.

Zambia opposition: president not eligible to run LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) - Zambia’s main opposition party says President Rupiah Banda is ineligible for re-election because both his parents were allegedly born outside the country.

The Patriotic Front says Banda’s father was born in colonial-era Nyasaland - modern-day Malawi - and says it took out an injunction Thursday to prohibit Banda from running in September’s election. Zambia’s constitution requires presidential candidates to have Zambianborn parents.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) Kaltum Mohamed sits beside a small mound of earth, alone with her thoughts. It is her child’s grave - and there are three others like it.

Just three weeks ago, Mohamed was the mother of five young children. But the famine that has rocked Somalia has claimed the lives of four of them. Only a daughter remains. The others starved to death before Mohamed’s eyes as she and her husband trekked to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in search of aid.

Thousands of parents are grieving in Somalia and in refugee camps in neighboring countries amid Somalia’s worst drought in 60 years.

The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone, according to U.S. estimates. The U.N. says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, suggesting the death toll of small children will rise.

Mohamed and her husband tried to get their children from Somalia’s parched south to the capital, Mogadishu, in time to

receive emergency aid from the few humanitarian organizations that are operating there.

They began their journey in the Lower Shabelle region, where the U.N. declared famine July 20. AP Television News found her that day looking after her severely malnourished children, cradling them in her arms.

Her family belongs to a tribe of pastoral nomads, but all of their livestock died in the drought. When her children fell ill, she took them to a hospital in the Lower Shabelle but couldn’t afford the treatment they needed. Most aid is not getting to the south where it’s desperately needed. An alQaida allied group, alShabab, controls much of southern Somalia and insists that there is no famine. It has banned all aid groups but the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The family’s journey to the capital, one being made by thousands of other Somalis, came too late. Four of Mohamed’s children died en route because of severe malnutrition and related complications.

“Death is inevitable,” Mohamed told AP Television News on Thursday in a makeshift camp near Mogadishu’s airport, home to hundreds of other displaced people. “But the surprise was how suddenly I lost my four children in less

than 24 hours because of famine.”

Instead of being able to caress her children, she crouched next to one of their graves and softly patted and smoothed the mound of earth covering it. She wept, then wiped away her tears.

She still has a daughter to try to feed.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is under way, and the family is fasting daily.

Without food, though, Mohamed doesn’t know how they can break their fast at sundown.

The international community must do more to help, she said.

Meanwhile, famine still stalks her.

On Wednesday, the U.N. declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones - including the camps for displaced persons in Mogadishu.

These are areas where the highest rates of malnutrition and mortality are taking place.

Nancy Lindborg, an official with the U.S. government aid arm, told a congressional committee in Washington on Wednesday that the U.S. estimates that more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the past 90 days.

That number is based on nutrition and mortality surveys verified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A U.S. official noted Thursday that the U.S. said this week it would

not prosecute legitimate aid groups trying to assist Somalis suffering from famine in areas under al-Shabab control.

Such prosecution would have been possible under U.S. anti-terrorism laws, but getting groups to go into a part of Somalia controlled by a brutal, hardline Islamist insurgency is another matter.

The official, Jon Brause of USAID, told journalists in Nairobi, Kenya, that there hasn’t been a dramatic increase in assistance flowing to Somalia after the announcement because it’s so difficult to access al-Shabab-controlled territory.

No U.S. law specifically prevents aid to southern and central Somalia, where the U.N. food agency says it cannot reach 2.2 million Somalis in areas under al-Shabab’s control. But bribes, tolls and other typical of costs of doing business in the largely lawless and chaotic country could have been punishable after the State Department declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization in 2008.

“We understand that some assistance may accidentally reach alShabab and we are reassuring people they will not suffer prosecution if that happens,” said Bruce Wharton, the deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

I.Coast’s only zoo mourns lions starved during vote conflict The grungy lion cages in the Ivory Coast’s only zoo stand empty after its three lions starved to death in April as forces for rival presidents battled in the city around them.

Around 40 animals in the Abidjan zoo lost their lives in the months-long conflict that ended on April 11 with the arrest of expresident Laurent Gbagbo, who had lost November elections.

But Lea, Simba and Loulou — the pride of the animal collection and who came from Ethiopia —

are missed the most.

They died of hunger, said Claude-Sie Kam, who has been in charge of carnivores at the complex for 14 years, pointing to the empty concrete cages set among verdant foliage in west Africa’s biggest zoo.

“Their death pained me, they were pets,” he said.

The zoo is situated at what was a flashpoint for the fighting that gripped Abidjan for around 10 days in April — the culmination of a conflict that built over

months.

Violent clashes between forces for Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara, now in place as president, trapped residents in their homes for days. UN and French forces were drawn in, carrying out air strikes.

At the crossroads of Cocody — where Gbagbo hid out in a bunker for days — and the Ouattara stronghold of Abobo, the zoo is also on the road to the country’s biggest police camp.

- Christophe Koffi

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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NEW JERSEY

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

Concern over racial profiling against Hispanic passengers at Newark airport continues in wake of report NEWARK - An internal TSA report finding that Hispanic passengers were racially profiled at Newark L i b e r t y International Airport has revived concerns that security screeners may have engaged in racial profiling at airports nationwide.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, has written to Transportation S e c u r i t y Administration chief John Pistole, demanding that a program designed to detect suspicious behavior at airports be suspended because it may be biased.

In June, a story in The Star-Ledger revealed that a TSA inquiry had concluded that behavior detection officers were routinely

singling out Mexican and Dominican passengers for scrutiny of passports and visas and questioning, even though they exhibited no signs of suspect behavior.

Thompson has been critical of the TSA program since 2010, when an audit by the G o v e r n m e n t Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that immigration violations accounted for nearly 40 percent of all airport arrests initiated by the behavior detection program, known by acronym SPOT, which stands for Screening of Passengers by O b s e r v a t i o n Techniques.

“I feel this statistic implies that there could be racial or ethnic biases influencing SPOT referrals,” Thompson wrote in his June 21 letter to Pistole.

The Star-Ledger report raised new questions he said.

In fact, recent media reports about minori-

ties being targeted by behavior detection officers at Newark Liberty International Airport have verified this concern, he said.

The GAO audit of the SPOT program attracted limited attention immediately after its release in May 2010 even though the report raised questions about the program’s overall effectiveness.

For example, the audit noted that in contrast to the high number of immigrationrelated arrests, not a single terror suspect was arrested resulting from a SPOT referral.

The GAO said the SPOT program involved 3,000 TSA employees at 161 airports last year, at an annual cost of more than $200 million.

Rep. John Mica, the Florida Republican who had requested the audit, was one of the few lawmakers to react to the GAO audit at the time, calling the SPOT program a waste of taxpayer money.

“The bloated, ineffective bureaucracy of TSA has produced another security failure for U.S. transportation systems,” Mica said in May 2010.

Specifically, the GAO found that 39 percent of the 1,083 arrests initiated under the SPOT program during a fouryear period from 2004 to 2008 were for immigration violations.

Immigration violations were precisely what screeners in Newark were looking for when singling out Mexican and Dominican passengers for scrutiny of their documents at security checkpoints during much of in 2008 and 2009, according to the TSA internal report.

Asked to comment on Thompson’s letter, the agency said it would respond directly to the congressman. A spokesman for Thompson, Adam Comis, said yesterday that he was unaware of any response.

Regarding the arrest statistics cited in the

GAO report, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein issued the following statement: “We have document checkers who are trained to detect fraudulent documents such as licenses, boarding passes, passports and the like. As part of their jobs, they are focused on the validity of the documents that people present at the checkpoint.”

Nonetheless, Farbstein said the TSA took Thompson’s concerns about racial profiling very seriously, and she pointed to steps the security agency had taken at Newark Liberty to quash the practice there.

In Newark’s case, the internal TSA report attributed the racial profiling there to a group of rogue screeners and managers, nicknamed “the Great Mexican Hunters” by TSA colleagues, who used the practice to boost their referral numbers in an attempt to appear productive. In response to the report’s

findings, the TSA said it retrained the airport’s entire behavior detection unit to ensure that racial profiling did not recur.

Other lawmakers who have expressed concern over racial profiling under the SPOT program include the chairman of the House Security Homeland Committee, Rep. Peter King (R-NY), and a member of New Jersey’s House delegation, Rep. Rush Holt, who has also criticized the TSA’s use of fullbody scanners for privacy and health reasons. Mica, now chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, added racial profiling to his list of concerns after his initial criticism of the SPOT program last year.

“It’s not a racial detection program,” said Justin Harclerode, a spokesman for Mica.

“It’s a behavior-detection program.”

Group seeking Trenton Mayor Tony Mack recall opens headquarters, is joined by Mack’s campaign chair

By MATT FAIR TRENTON Leaders of an effort to recall Mayor Tony Mack marked the opening of their new headquarters on Lalor Street yesterday evening, a development they hope will help them better coordinate and centralize their efforts.

Located at 830 Lalor St., officials said the headquarters will be open from about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and staffed by a combination of volunteers and members of the recall committee.

“We were actually working out of our houses and now we have a central place to come to,” said David Ponton, chairman of the committee. “Starting (today),

we’ll make sure somebody is in here so you can feel free to stop by and grab a petition.”

The group has until Nov. 15 to collect nearly 10,000 signatures in order to trigger a special election on whether or not to remove Mack from office.

Officials have refused to say just how many signatures the group has collected, citing the fact that many petitions have been circulated among the group’s volunteers but few had been returned for counting.

“We also really don’t want Mr. Mack to know what we have in pocket right now,” said Craig Shofed, a member of the committee. “Our goal is 12,000 signatures and I don’t think we’re going to have any problem with that.”

Ponton pledged last night not to turn in any of the petitions to the

city clerk’s office, which will be responsible for counting and certifying the signatures, until the deadline.

“For those who are afraid to sign, because we all know how vindictive Tony Mack is, we will not turn these petitions in, not one petition will be turned in, until Nov. 15,” he said.

Mack has faced criticism after removing department directors and employees associated with former Mayor Doug Palmer, including an incident where police were called to City Hall to remove then-deputy clerk Cordelia Staton.

Palmer defeated Mack, the city’s former recycling director, in the city’s hotly contested 2006 mayoral election.

Members of the recall committee were joined by several community leaders who have joined in the movement to oust the mayor.

Among them were James Golden, a former police director with the city, and John Cipriano, a 24-year veteran of City Council and Mack’s campaign chairman during the 2010 campaign.

“Tony Mack is not the man to run this city,” Cipriano said. “During the campaign he gave me a lot of promises, but when he took office it went in one ear and out the other because there’s nothing in between. ...

I’m not saying that to be disparaging, but he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Golden, meanwhile, said he was troubled by the combination of Mack’s move to eliminate more than 100 positions in the city’s police department and the need to raise taxes in the city to balance the budget.

“How do you reconcile or balance an increase in taxes and a

layoff of more than 100 police officers. What are we balancing?” he asked. “It’s more like we’re risking the safety and well-being of citizens more than we’re balancing anything.”

The headquarters is the site of a former Anderson Jackson Metts insurance office and, according to the city’s tax office, is owned by Paul Ciarrocca of Bordentown City.

Officials with the recall committee said Ciarrocca was donating the space and that it would be reported on their filings with the state’s Election Law E n f o r c e m e n t Commission.

The group is not required to file finance reports with ELEC until after the petition is certified and a date for the recall election is set.

However, the committee has registered with ELEC.

The same cannot be said for a group formed in the weeks after the recall movement began to support the mayor.

A spokesman for the group, Orlando LaSanta, said that he was working to put together a viable leadership team for the organization and that they were still wrestling with what to call themselves.

They have been alternately referred to as Stand By Tony and Friends of Tony Mack.

“We have people in place, we just need commitments,” LaSanta said. “We want to have the right people in place so this thing runs smoothly and we don’t have any false information coming out.”

He said the group expects to formally register with ELEC next week.

Trenton City Hall intern Paul Harris said he was responsible for

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New American

The

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

One Thought - One Humanity

Tia and Tamera get real with new TV series

For the conclusions of these stories check out the August 4th - August 10th, 2011 issue of The New American, which hits newsstands every Thursday Congratulations may be in order for Janet Jackson who reportedly has let billionaire boyfriend Wissam Al-Mana put a 15carat ring on it!!!

According to reports: The singer’s boyfriend, bil lionaire Qatari businessman Wissam Al Mana, recently popped the question, and now the happy couple is planning an end-of-theyear marriage ceremony. “Janet is head over heels in love with Wissam,” said a close source. “He’s showered her with love, expensive presents and boosted her self-esteem by helping her lose weight and shape up.” Wissam, 36, first brought up a walk down the aisle last fall, when he reportedly presented the Jackson clan beauty with a magnificent 15-carat diamond ring.

But Janet, 45, wasn’t ready because she wanted to focus on preparations for her current concert tour, which runs into September. “Now Janet’s telling friends that an official engage ment announcement will come by summer’s end, and that she and Wissam will marry in late 2011 – and they’re shopping for an even bigger diamond ring to celebrate their official engagement.” The two are anxious to start a family as soon as possible. Janet would love to have a baby the natural way, but at 45, she’s also looking into adoption possibilities, according to the source.

The-Dream will make his dedicated fans very happy this month. The producersinger-songwriter will release a free 10-track LP, entitled ‘Terius Nash Est. 1977,’ prior to dropping his fourth studio album ‘The Love, IV: Diary of a Madman’ later this year. According to The-Dream, ‘Terius Nash Est. 1977’

will be released to the public free on August 31. “LP4 is Underway I THE-DREAM have decided to go forward with Diary Of A Madman LP it almost didn’t happen. So ill be in my Def Jam uniform for at least one More Season!” he tweeted. “Also a free 10 song Internet album will be released by Aug 31st. LP 4 because of the Contract negotiations does not have a date but it will be released 4th quarter but I will give a 10 song Internet LP while you guys wait!!!! LOVE YOU.” Chante Moore made an announcement that she and her hubby of nine years Kenny Lattimore are officially a wrap. The singer posted the following “private announcement” on her Facebook page. In the meantime Chante’ has her hands full as the host of an upcoming Sporty Girl Fitness 90 Day Transformation reality show. Michael Jai White, Vivica Fox and Tamyra Gray are also involved with the project.

“Can’t Be Friends” producer Mario Winans is finalizing his new album with plans to release the project by the end of the year. Winans’ third album, entitled ‘My Purpose,’ is a follow-up to his 2004 platinum effort ‘Hurt No More.’

During his hiatus from releasing solo material, Winans told YKIGS “I produced some stuff for the Diddy and Dirty Money [album] and with different artists like Rick Ross and all the Bad Boy artists.”

With urge to continue his solo career, he was inspired to record new material: “I had been living a little differently than what my purpose is, and that is really just to humbly serve others to pray for others and to really be a good person and live

the way I believe. From that, I was inspired to title my album that because those changes were going on in my life while I was working on the album.” In addition to his forthcoming album, Winans is grooming Hip Hop artist Superstar Piper, who is credited for producing Carl Thomas’ new single “It Ain’t Fair.”

Beyonce’s publicist told Today.com that Beyonce has no plans for a cookbook. “This is untrue,” she said.

Rumors started that Beyonce Knowles planned to publish a soul food cookbook, a “source” told the Daily Mirror. The singer was allegedly inspired by her mother, who prepares a spread of collard greens, cornbread, macaroni and cheese and fried chicken no matter where in the world they were. The only problem is that Beyonce has previously admitted that she isn’t such a great cook, and that she doesn’t really enjoy it. In fact, Beyonce says she’s a disaster in the kitchen.

Will.i.am has signed up to perform a special concert in China to encourage American students to study abroad and expand their cultural boundaries. The Black Eyed Peas star met with officials at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. and agreed to headline a gig for the 100,000 Strong Initiative, a motion made by President Barack Obama to match the rising number of Chinese students who travel to America to learn. The singer’s show will benefit Americans Promoting Study Abroad, a non-profit organization which provides financial support to low-income students partaking in exchange programs in the Asian country.

with the pressures of their personal relationships and responsibilities.

During the series, viewers get to see The twin sisters best known for Tia preparing for the birth of her their hit ‘90s sitcom Sister, Sister first child and Tamera planning the are back again. Tia Mowry Hardrict wedding of her dreams. and Tamera Mowry-Housley have In an interview, Tia and Tamera teamed up with the Style Network opened up about their new show, for a behind the scenes look into obstacles of parenting, balancing their major life transformations. their relationships and careers, and Their new docu-series Tia & Tamera, how they were able to break the teen premieres Monday, August 8 at star curse.

9:00pm ET/PT. What made you want to do this Last summer Tia and Tamera show? aired a successful preview to their Tia: This is the time... the timing series on The Style Network, and is right. Tamera and I have such this summer they are giving a more loyal fans that have stuck with us in-depth look into their lives as sis- throughout the years and we ters and friends. Throughout the thought it would be nice to open series they learn how to balance them to our world and let them their successful acting careers along know who we really are.

- Full Story In This Week’s New American Newspaper -

By CHRIS WITHERSPOON

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J-Lo focusing on life as single movie star HOLLYWOOD — Jennifer Lopez is filling up her calendar with movie work as she works her way through her divorce from Marc Anthony, a source told People magazine.

“She is very relieved to be out (of the marriage),” the source told People. “I don’t think she is sitting around crying or making the wrong decision.”

Lopez has been in Atlanta filming “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and is also apparently close to signing up for a second season as a judge on “American Idol,” People said.

The Hollywood Reporter said J-Lo also is committed to co-starring with Nick Nolte and Jason Statham in “Parker,” which will be released in October 2012.

“She is all about her career,” the source told People. “She’s excited to move on.”

FOX STAYS MUM ON JENNIFER LOPEZ, “IDOL” TALKS Jennifer Lopez’s future as a judge with “American Idol” is still up in the air, after Fox television on Friday declined to confirm or deny reports that she had signed on for a second

Anthony Mackie, Sanaa Lathan to star in a voodoo thriller

By MICHAEL ARCENEAUX Forest Whitaker is reportedly producing and costarring in a voodoo-centered psychological thriller called Vipaka. Variety says the film will follow “two adversaries who go head-to-head in a game that tests each man’s belief in what he believes is the truth.” Joining the Oscar-winning actor in the movie will be Anthony Mackie and Sanaa Lathan (left).

Lathan will play a yoga teacher whose brother-in-law involves their family with a violent, unstable man, to be played by Whitaker. For Mackie, Vipaka is just one of many roles on the horizon. After Vipaka, Mackie will appear in the crime drama The Gangster Squad. Fans can also expect to see him in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Real Steel, Man on a Ledge, Ten Year and What’s Your Number?

season.

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly told a meeting of TV critics he had no headline-making announcements — “maybe like confirm Jennifer Lopez or something.

No luck there.”

The return of Lopez for the upcoming 11th season of “American Idol” has been in doubt after the singer said earlier this summer that she was undecided about doing a second year.

Several news reports, all citing unnamed sources, have reported that Lopez is ready to sign up, and this week, showbiz website TheWrap.com said a deal had been finalized that would pay Lopez just over $20 million.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and veteran record producer Randy Jackson are already confirmed as judges when the talent contest resumes on Fox in January.

Lopez and Tyler joined the judging panel this past season, helping to boost flagging viewership for the aging “American Idol” and maintain its status as the most-watched show on U.S. TV.

The show has also been good for Lopez. She topped People magazine’s “most beautiful” list earlier this year and had a top 10 hit with her dance single “On the Floor.”

However, Lopez announced in July that she was divorcing her husband of seven years, Latin singer Marc Anthony, with whom she had twins in 2008.

— Bob Tourtellotte

Brandy to guest star on ‘90210’ Brandy is headed to ‘90210’ for a major recurring role in Season 4, reports TVLine.com.

The 32-year-old Grammy winner has signed on to play a charismatic young politician running for Congress against the conservative uncle of Teddy (Trevor Donovan).

Her character, Marissa JacksonLewis, is described as a cross between Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, according to TVLine. Marissa hires Silver (Jessica Stroup) to make a campaign video to boost the youth vote.

The singer-actress is best known to TV fans as Moesha from the longrunning UPN sitcom of the same name. She also guest-starred in four episodes of Drop Dead Diva earlier this year and competed on the 11th season of ABC’s Dancing with the

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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ABC apologizes for Nicki Minaj’s costume slip up

By BOB TOURTELLOTTE and CONNIE TANG LOS ANGELES — ABC on Friday apologized to its viewers for Nicki Minaj’s wardrobe slip up that exposed the singer’s bare breast during her summer concert performance on morning news show “Good Morning America.”

Usually known for her outlandish outfits and offbeat fashion, the 28year-old rapper and R&B singer’s crop top slipped down while she was

Michelle Williams working on album, but unsure of release date

Former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams is working on her fourth album, but she’s not too sure when the project will be released.

“I am working on it now and doing the recordings for it,” Williams told The Celebrity Café.

“There are so many artists coming out, so I’m not exactly sure when it’s going to come out, but we’re expecting to have the official news about the album coming out soon.”

In keeping with her spiritual style and uplifting music, the singer says fans can expect an album of dance and inspiration.

“The sound and themes that I’m going for are inspiration and some hope that still makes people dance and think positive of situations in the world,” she says. “It seems that everything going on now is so heartbreaking. I just want to remind people that we still have lives to live and purpose to fulfill.”

In the meantime, she’s been busy with other work like touring for a play called, “What My Husband Doesn’t Know.”

rocking the stage at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield during the live broadcast.

The costuming snafu brought immediate complaints from some viewers and prompted ABC to apologize and remove the images from later, time-delayed broadcasts of GMA. “Although we had a five-second delay in place for the Nicki Minaj concert on GMA, the live East Coast feed of the concert regrettably included certain fleeting images of the performer that were taken out of later feeds of the broadcast in other time zones. We are sorry that this occurred,” ABC said in its statement.

For Minaj, the show went on, as she continued her music set with her hit songs “Moment for Life” and “Super Bass.”

NICKI MINAJ JOINS ‘ICE AGE’ CAST Even with back-to-back tours, there’s no slowing down Nicki

Minaj, who has recently been announced to join the ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ cast line-up.

According to Variety magazine, the ‘Pink Friday’ rapper will be joining Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez, Keke Palmer, Wanda Sykes, Aziz Ansari, Joy Behar, JB Smoove, and YMCMB pal Drake, along with many others in the all-star cast for the fourth edition of the family movie.

Being a drama-major graduate from LaGuardia High School Of Music, Art & Performing Arts, it is only fitting for Minaj to dabble into the movie industry. Though this movie won’t require her to show off her acting skills just yet, it does require the usage of her vocal characterizations, which she has been known to do in her songs and performances.

The future Hollywood blockbuster hit ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ is slated to hit theaters next summer.

Nicki Minaj reacts following a wardrobe malfunction during a live performance on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Cobin Bleu sued for failing to promote film Financiers of the box office bomb Free Style are looking to collect from producers and “High School Musical’ star Corbin Bleu, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

On Thursday, Third Eye Capital and Strative Capital filed a $12 million lawsuit alleging fraud, breach of contract and misrepresentation. The claims were filed in LA Superior Court against Samuel Goldwyn Films, Del Mar Entertainment, various other producers and Bleu, who was supposed to translate the success he enjoyed in reaching teenage girls on “High School Musical” to a film about a young man chasing a national motocross championship.

Instead, “Free Style,” which came out in 2008, has generated just $1.3 million from all sources, including its theatrical run, foreign distribution and DVD sales.

The suit alleges the revenue generated fell well short of the $8.57

million loan that the plaintiffs put up, which was to cover P&A costs.

The lenders blame alleged misrepresentations and poor promotion for their investment going sour.

Bleu is being sued because he purportedly failed to honor an agreement that called for providing interviews to support the film. According to the complaint, Bleu and his reps had already decided that he “would be taking his career in a different direction from the teen romance works in which he had previously been involved (including “Freestyle”), and had decided that Mr. Bleu would no longer promote those kinds of projects.”

The moneymen also claim producers misled them about the number of screens the film would open on nationwide, a “grossly inflated and false P&A marketing budget,” and funds supposedly being put up by other banks.

Third Eye Capital now is seeking more than $12 million in damages, punitive damages, and legal costs.

The complaint was filed by attorney Jeffrey Wruble.

‘X Factor’ winner will star in Super Bowl Pepsi ad

By TIM MOLLOY

L.A. Reid, a judge on new talent show ‘The X Factor’, speaks during a panel session at the FOX Summer TCA Press Tour.

LOS ANGELES — The winner of Fox’s new “X Factor” is going to get some major exposure, and not just on the show. The singer will also star in a Pepsi commercial scheduled to air on NBC during Super Bowl XLVI. Pepsi is the biggest advertiser for Simon Cowell’s new singing competition, and the ad comes in addition to the show’s main prize: a previously announced $5 million recording contract with Sony Music/Syco.

This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched television program in

U.S. history, with an average of 111 million viewers. The 2012 Super Bowl airs February 5.

Fox announced the commercial at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, where it also announced details of the “X Factor” schedule. As previously announced, it will debut Wednesday, September 21 and Thursday, September 22 with two two-hour episodes.

Fox also announced some other key dates: The show’s “Boot Camp” for contestants will begin October 5; visits to judges’ homes will start October 12, finalists will be revealed October 25 and finalists’ first live performance show will air Nov. 2.

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Surge in new HIV infections among young Black gay men troubling

By STEVEN REINBERG The number of new HIV cases in the United States has remained stable at about 50,000 a year, but a recent jump in new cases among Black gay and bisexual men is “alarming,” government health officials said.

New HIV infections among Black gay and bisexual men rose 48 percent between 2006-2009, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That increase was the only significant rise in cases among the populations covered by the study, the agency added.

And while it’s great that the overall rate of new HIV infections among Americans isn’t increasing, CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden noted that the fact that numbers have stalled around 50,000 “isn’t good enough.”

He added that “the stable overall rates mask a large increase among Black men who have sex with men in the 13 to 29 year age group. We

are very concerned about this trend,” he said.

The bottom line, according to Frieden: “HIV is preventable and we need to do more to prevent it.”

He spoke to reporters during an early afternoon press conference on Wednesday.

Overall, there are now about 1.2 million people infected with HIV in the United States and about one in five don’t know they are infected, Frieden said.

“It is crucial that we work with communities, with health care providers, with people who are infected and with people who are at risk to drive down the rate of new HIV infections,” he said. “It is possible to do that.”

The new report was published in the Aug. 3 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. According to the report, there were 48,600 new HIV infections in the United States in 2006, 56,000 in 2007, 47,800 in 2008 and 48,100 in 2009. These data are based on a laboratory test that can tell new HIV infections from long-standing ones, the researchers said.

In 2009, the overall number of new cases were highest among gay and bisexual white men at 11,400, followed

by Black gay and bisexual men at 10,800, with rates higher among young men (ages 13-29). However, since Blacks make up a much smaller percentage of the population than whites, the number of new infections in that group is especially disconcerting.

Two other groups hit hard were Hispanic gay and bisexual men (among whom there were 6,000 new cases) and Black women, with 5,400 new cases, the researchers said.

Still, only young Black gay and bisexual men charted a significant rise in new infections over time. In this group, new cases jumped by 48 percent — from 4,400 in 2006 to 6,500 in 2009. That means that even though Blacks represent just 14 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 44 percent of new HIV cases in 2009, the CDC said.

In fact, the rate of new HIV infections among Blacks was almost eight times higher

than among whites. Among Black men, the rate of new HIV infections was more than six times higher than among white men, and among women the HIV infection rate was 15 times greater than among white women, the researchers reported.

The researchers can only speculate as to the reasons for the trend. They theorized that more Black gay and bisexual men may not be aware they are infected, or there might be a stronger stigma within the Black community attached to being gay or having HIV. Stigma can prevent men from seeking out HIVprevention services.

In addition, Blacks may have more limited access to health care and HIV testing and treatment, the researchers said.

Finally, since HIV is endemic in the Black community, gay and bisexual men may simply be more likely to be exposed to the virus. At the same time, the CDC team said, some Blacks may underestimate the extent of their risk.

Hispanics also shouldered a disproportionate burden of

Genes, not healthy living, get most to age 100

By RANDY DOTINGA Want to live to a ripe old age?

New research suggests that your life choices might not be the crucial factor in determining whether you make it to 95 or beyond; it finds that many extremely old people appear to have been as bad as everyone else at indulging in poor health habits during their younger years.

Of course, don’t take this as an excuse to blow off the gym and enjoy a steak dinner with fries and a cigarette. Your lifestyle matters.

But genes seem to provide an extra boost to those who end up living the longest, said Dr. Jill P. Crandall, a professor of clinical medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and co-author of a new study on longevity.

“The genetic component that allows people to survive into extreme old age is probably a very powerful one,” she said, even counteracting the effects of unhealthy lifestyle choices.

The study focuses on the genes of extremely old people, who are a hot topic in anti-aging research. “When

there is going to be a breakthrough that allows us to slow biological aging, it’s probably going to come from the genetics of these people,” said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago who studies aging.

The study authors interviewed people living independently at ages 95 to 109, and asked them to recall things such as their weight, height, alcohol consumption, smoking and their physical activity at age 70; they were also asked whether they ate a low-calorie, low-fat or lowsalt diet at that age. All the subjects were Ashkenazi Jews, who share a similar genetic heritage.

The researchers then compared the responses to those from a group of 3,164 people who took part in a survey in the 1970s. At the time, they were at about the same ages as the elderly subjects who appear in the new study.

In essence, the researchers wanted to know whether today’s elderly people acted any differently back around age 70 than people in general. Were they healthier? Did they smoke less and exercise more?

The answer: Not really.

“We found that our centenar-

ians by and large did not adhere to any specific healthful diet more than the other population did,” Crandall said. It was the same for smoking and exercise. Only 43 percent of men aged 95 and older, for example, reported engaging in regular exercise of moderate intensity, compared with 57 percent of men in the comparison group.

However, there was one interesting difference.

Researchers found that although men and women aged 95 and older were just as likely to be overweight as their counterparts in the general population, the centenarians were significantly less likely to become obese.

It’s not clear if the extremely old people in the study continued to indulge in bad habits such as smoking. When the elders were asked why they thought they had been able to live so long, most (apparently correctly) did not single out lifestyle factors. One-third reported a history of family longevity, while 20 percent believed that physical activity also played a role in their long life. Others attributed a positive attitude (19 percent), a busy or active life (12 percent), less smoking and

drinking (15 percent), good luck (8 percent), and religion or spirituality (6 percent) to their centenarian status.

Although lifestyle factors did not appear to greatly influence the centenarians’ longevity, the researchers stressed that people not blessed with longevity genes should definitely watch their weight, avoiding smoking and exercise regularly — all things associated with a

HIV in America. Even though they represent 16 percent of the U.S. population, Hispanics comprised 20 percent of new HIV infections in 2009.

For Hispanic men the HIV infection rate was 2.5 times greater than among white men.

Among Hispanic women the HIV infection rate was four times higher than among white women, the researchers found.

Dr. Margaret A. Fischl, professor of medicine and director of the AIDS Clinical Research Unit and co-director of the University of Miami Developmental Center for AIDS Research, commented that “this trend has been slowly emerging over the past couple of years, so people should not be surprised.”

The fact that the rate of new HIV infections has stabilized overall was a “great thing a couple of years ago.

Today, it’s terrible, because if anything, it should be going down,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do, or this epidemic is not going to remain level with new infections; it’s going to take off again with increasing rates.” longer life span.

Olshansky said the findings underscore the importance of genetics to life span.

“The only way anyone has any chance at all of living an exceptionally long life is if they won the genetic lottery at birth,” he said.

But, he said, your choices about health can do one thing: lead you to the grave earlier than otherwise. “The only control we have over our duration of life is to shorten it. We exercise that control all the time.”

Smoking linked to raised risk of irregular heartbeat Smoking increases the risk of developing a heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation, a new study warns.

U.S. researchers reviewed data from more than 15,000 people, aged 45 to 64, who were followed for an average of 13 years, and found that there were 876 atrial fibrillation events during that time.

The risk of the abnormal heart rhythm was 1.32 times higher in former smokers and two times higher in current smokers, compared to people who never smoked, according to the report in the August issue of the journal

HeartRhythm.

Atrial fibrillation “is a serious health issue that decreases quality of life and significantly increases the risk of stroke,” co-author Alanna M. Chamberlain, of the department of health sciences research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a journal news release.

About 160,000 new cases of atrial fibrillation are diagnosed each year in the United States. Previous research has identified a number of risk factors for atrial fibrillation, including obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.

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Study: Americans’ use of antidepressants on the rise

By ELLIN HOLOHAN Americans are popping more antidepressants than ever before to deal with everyday stress, and nonpsychiatrists are increasingly willing to prescribe the drugs to patients with no mental health diagnosis, a new study finds.

Antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Lexapro are now the third most widely prescribed group of drugs in the United States, and many people may take them for minor complaints without being fully aware of potential risks, the researchers said.

“Both consumers and prescribers of antidepressants should be more knowledgeable about the indications (or symptoms) that antidepressants are better for,” said study lead author Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “Although these drugs do not have many acute side effects, there may be more long-term adverse effects.”

The study authors said the increases don’t necessarily

mean that the drugs are being used inappropriately, but it’s necessary to understand why antidepressant use is growing and, if necessary, to develop policies that ensure patients get the most effective treatment.

Using data from annual surveys by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers reviewed the records of 233,144 adult patients who made doctor visits between 1996 and 2007.

The study, published in the August issue of Health Affairs, found that the percentage of prescriptions for antidepressants written by non-psychiatrists more than doubled from about 4 percent to almost 9 percent over the 12-year period.

This included 9,454 antidepressant prescriptions for patients without a diagnosis of depression or other mental illness typically treated with the medication. For that group, the rate jumped from 2.5 percent at the start of the study period to 6.4 percent, the researchers said.

The study cautioned that a psychiatric diagnosis could have been made in some cases, but simply wasn’t noted in the records studied.

By contrast, prescriptions

for antidepressants for patients with diagnoses such as major or chronic depression increased by 44 percent, a much smaller increase.

About 4,000 patients who did have a mental health diagnosis received the drugs from non-psychiatrists in the study period.

The drugs prescribed to patients without a diagnosed mental health condition were more likely provided to white women between the ages of 35-64 and patients with public insurance and chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.

The data also suggested that

Smart food choices key to a healthy barbeque Choosing healthy foods to barbeque — and even barbequing with marinades instead of high-fat sauces — can help reduce your risk of heart disease as well as stroke, experts say.

Many common barbeque favorites, such as pork, ribs and even corn on the cob, are often slathered with rich sauces that are high in calories, fats and salt. There are, however, healthier ways to barbeque that are also delicious, according to Dr. Vivienne Halpern, a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery.

“Grilling lean meats and vegetables without heavy sauces are wonderful for the barbeque,” explained Halpern in a society news release. “These can become your family’s new favorites.”

A fresh salad and watermelon for dessert will make the meal complete, she suggested.

When firing up the grill, instead of barbequing hot dogs and hamburgers, Halpern suggested choosing lean proteins that are lower in fat, calories and choles-

people complaining of nervousness, sleep problems, sexual dysfunction and an inability to quit smoking may be taking antidepressants, the study said.

Americans are turning to drugs to deal with everyday stress more frequently as the stigma of using antidepressants decreases, said Mojtabai, noting more than 10 percent of Americans now take antidepressants in any given year.

Direct marketing to consumers and reports of fewer side effects may help explain why patients and doctors are more open to antidepressants, he said.

But there may be consequences to that choice.

Some research has shown that withdrawal from antidepressants after many years

“is not pleasant,” said Mojtabai, who added that a possible link to diabetes has also been found. Not enough is known about how their use plays out in the long term, said Mojtabai.

“Pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested in longterm effects because they don’t need that for FDA approval,” said Mojtabai, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approves drugs for use in the United States.

Another expert agreed that Americans are turning more to prescribed pills to deal with the ups and downs of life, but he noted that in the past, alcohol and other drugs served the same purpose.

“Before antidepressants came along, many people simply turned to drinking and smoking to cope with minor stress,” said Tony Tang, adjunct professor in the department of psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Although the study did not “solve the mystery” of why antidepressant prescriptions are increasing, it showed “how antidepressants are actually used in the real world,” and on a “national scale,” said Tang.

Doctors are likely more aware today of the symptoms of depression, which has “increased substantially in the past decade,” he said.

Less worry, better coping seen among religious folks terol, such as chicken, fish, turkey, sirloin, turkey, buffalo or veggie burgers.

Halpern also pointed out that olive oil-based marinades and lemon juice are healthier ways to add flavor to grilled meats and vegetables.

“It’s true that we are what we eat,” added Halpern. “Our food choices affect our caloric intake, cholesterol and sodium.”

Halpern’s recommendations underscore the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The guidelines urge Americans to eat more of the following: Fruits and vegetables Whole grains Low-fat milk products Lean meats, beans, eggs, nuts Fish Foods low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugar Americans can also control their blood pressure and cholesterol, Halpern added, with moderate exercise (such as walking 30 minutes each day), not smoking and maintaining a healthy body weight.

Believing in a benevolent God may help reduce worry and improve a person’s ability to cope with uncertainty, researchers report.

The paper, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, includes the results of two studies conducted by researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Mass.

One study of 332 Christians and Jews found that those who trusted in God to look out for them had lower levels of worry and less intolerance of uncertainty in their lives.

The second study included 125 Jews who took part in a two-week program meant to increase their trust in God. The participants reported an increased trust in God and decreases in worry, stress and intoler-

ance of uncertainty.

“These findings . . . suggest that certain spiritual beliefs are tied to intolerance of uncertainty and worry for some individuals,” the researchers concluded.

“We found that the positive beliefs of trust in God were associated with less worry and that this relationship was partially mediated by lower levels of intolerance of uncertainty. Conversely, the negative beliefs of mistrust in God correlated with higher worry and intolerance,” the authors wrote.

“The implications of this paper for the field of psychiatry are that we have to take patients’ spirituality more seriously than we do,” lead author David H. Rosmarin, an assistant in psychology, said in a McLean Hospital news release.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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Boeing unveils first Dreamliner for delivery to ANA

By KAREN JOHNSON SEATTLE — Boeing Co. on Saturday afternoon rolled out the first 787 Dreamliner to be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways, decked out with the blue and white colors of the Japanese airline.

Boeing presented the plane to ANA executives and crew under clear skies at its Everett factory north of Seattle. The first domestic flights are set to start in Japan in September.

“The plane is being certified to the highest FAA standards,” said Scott Fancher, vice

The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airway (ANA) leaves the paint hangar at Boeing’s Everett factory. president and general manager, 787 program. “But the real focus of the traveling public will likely be on customer satisfaction and the elegance of the flight.”

The 787 Dreamliner

is a lightweight airplane that promises 20 percent greater fuel efficiency to operators than similarly sized planes. Boeing says as much as 50 percent of the primary structure will be made of com-

posite materials instead of aluminum.

Aviation experts expect Boeing to apply the technology to future airplanes.

The interior of the first aircraft includes 264 seats — 12 busi-

ness and 252 economy — with personal television sets, roomier seats, an automatic toilet with a wash function, more storage, an arched entry way with a beverage bar, dimmable windows and larger lavatories.

Boeing, the world’s second-largest plane maker after Airbus EADS , is about three years behind schedule in delivering the first 787 largely because of snags in the unusually complex global supply chain.

The 787 is almost finished with flight tests and is set for delivery to ANA in September.

Boeing has taken 827 orders for the

Dreamliner, a record number for a Boeing plane still in development.

ANA has ordered 55 Dreamliners. The planes list for about $200 million.

Boeing is developing two versions of the Dreamliner. The first version, the 787-8, will carry 210 to 250 passengers on routes of 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles. A second version, the 787-9, will carry 250 to 290 passengers on routes of 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles.

Boeing also has been talking about a third, larger variant, the 787-10, and says it is seeing strong airline interest in the plane.

Investors flee bad telecom smartphone bets

By SINEAD CAREW Smartphones may have good looks and a lot of whiz-bang features, but now they just have a bad reputation.

In fact they are the main reason for the current investor exodus from the U.S. wireless sector. Shareholders in small operators MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc. have simply lost faith in the promise that smartphones would boost growth, analysts say.

While these devices may make consumers happy, investors instead see only increasing costs for carriers which subsidized the devices to help tie customers in for longer terms.

Even U.S. market leader Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, gave investors the jitters when it showed weak smartphone growth and customer spending July 22.

Shares in No. 3 U.S. mobile service Sprint Nextel Corp are down 24 percent since it reported subscriber losses and dramatic

cost increases.

“People are rethinking what smartphones mean for telecoms, How much growth it can provide and the impact on its margins,” said BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk.

On August 2, MetroPCS posted weaker than expected customer growth even as costs rose faster than Wall Street had expected. On top of this, executives told analysts on a conference call that customers with costly smartphones did not appear to have any more loyalty to the service that those with cheaper phones.

MetroPCS fell 37 percent on the day of its report and was down 11 percent to $9.14 in Thursday afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading; shares touched a low of $8.70 earlier in the session.

Leap dropped 21 percent in sympathy with MetroPCS on August 2.

Leap told analysts on a conference call following its results after the market close on August 3 that it was actually seeing a benefit from smartphones in the form of lower customer defections, compared with other customers. Investors,

unconvinced by the upbeat tone, slammed Leap’s stock down another 30 percent on Thursday.

To be sure, Leap and MetroPCS are more open to economic swings as their customers are people on tighter budgets who are particularly vulnerable in a weak economy.

Another rival, Clearwire Corp, was also down over 24 percent on Thursday afternoon as investors worried whether it would be able to raise the new funding it said it needs, even though it promised an operating

profit sooner than expected.

In general there is “less visibility” into the future for smaller companies, Pacific Crest analyst Steve Clement said.

But before the second-quarter results, investors had hoped they could hang their hat on smartphones for at least some of those wireless operators.

“There were obviously significant expectations for what smartphones would do for these companies,” said Clement. “In the quarter, that didn’t play out.”

Analysts are not dis-

puting the rapidly expanding consumer demand for smartphones but are questioning whether wireless service providers are the best place to invest in the trend.

BTIG’s Piecyk suggested that smartphone makers themselves could be a better place to put those bets. The most high-profile of these is iPhone maker Apple Inc. “It’s clearly more of a minefield to do it in the operator space today,” he said. “The easier way to play all of this is that if you buy Apple, you’re buying the arms dealer.”

Pentagon cyber program to fund hacker innovation

By TABASSUM ZAKARIA LAS VEGAS — A hacker-turned-defense official, decrying the government’s slowness to change, rolled out a new program that would enable the Pentagon to more quickly fund hackers to tackle its tough cybersecurity challenges.

Peiter Zatko, a hacker known as Mudge who is now at the Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency, said he joined the Pentagon’s research arm to try and build bridges between the government’s cybersecurity needs and hackers working on innovative projects.

What he found instead was a lumbering bureaucracy on the government side that had the more nimble hacking community throwing up its arms in frustration as its members tried to navigate unfathomable bureaucratese on reams of forms, in a

process that lasted months.

So in the latest attempt to pull cybersecurity expertise into government, DARPA has launched the “Cyber Fast Track” program, intended to cut red tape for hackers to apply for funding for projects that would help the Defense Department secure computer networks.

Instilling change in a government bureaucracy is “insanely difficult” because government is used to operat-

ing in a certain way, said Zatko, head of DARPA’s information innovation office. “And that’s fine in many, many areas. But I don’t think that’s fine for cyber,” he said.

Zatko said he decided it was time to start funding hackers and boutique security firms, “and making it actually easy enough for them to compete for government research money with the large, traditional government contractors.”

Addressing a key

issue for hackers doing government projects, they will be allowed to keep the commercial intellectual property rights while giving the Defense Department use of the project.

Zatko told the audience of technology and security experts at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas that 20 to 100 of these projects will be funded every year, with about two weeks required to land a contract — lightningfast by Pentagon contracting standards.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

United States loses prized AAA credit rating from S&P

By WALTER BRANDIMARTE and DANIEL BASES The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s on Friday in an unprecedented blow to the world’s largest economy in the wake of a political battle that took the country to the brink of default.

S&P cut the longterm U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus on concerns about the government’s budget deficit and rising debt burden. The action is likely to eventually raise borrowing costs for the American government, companies and consumers.

“The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics,” S&P said in a statement.

The outlook on the new U.S. credit rating is “negative,” S&P said in a statement, indicating another downgrade was possible in the next 12 to 18 months.

The move reflects the deterioration in the global economic standing of the United States, which has had a AAA credit rating from S&P since 1941, and it could have implications for the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status.

“The global system must now adjust to the many implications and uncertainties of the once-unthinkable loss of America’s AAA,” said Mohamed El-Erian, cochief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co which oversees $1.2 trillion in assets.

The decision follows a fierce political battle in Congress over cutting spending and raising taxes to reduce the government’s debt burden and allow its statutory borrowing limit to be

raised.

On August 2, President Barack Obama signed legislation designed to reduce the fiscal deficit by $2.1 trillion over 10 years. But that was well short of the $4 trillion in savings S&P had called for as a good “down payment” on fixing America’s finances.

The political gridlock in Washington over addressing the longterm fiscal problems facing the United States came against the backdrop of slowing U.S. economic growth and led to the worst week in the U.S. stock market in two years.

The S&P 500 stock index fell 10.8 percent in the past 10 trading days on concerns that the U.S. economy may be heading into another recession and because the European debt crisis has worsened.

Treasury bonds, once indisputably seen as the safest security in the world, are now rated lower than bonds issued by countries such as Britain, Germany, France or Canada.

Obama was briefed earlier in the day regarding S&P’s intentions, but discussions only took place with Treasury officials and did not include the White House, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Late on Friday, the Treasury said the rating agency’s debt calculations were wrong by some $2 trillion.

S&P confirmed it changed its economic assumptions after discussion with the Treasury Department but said it did not affect its decision to downgrade.

“We take our responsibilities very seriously, and if at the end of our analysis the committee concludes that a rating isn’t where we believe it should be, it’s our duty to make that call,” David Beers, head of sovereign ratings at S&P, told Reuters.

The theme running throughout S&P’s analysis is the breakdown in the ability of the

Democratic and Republican parties to govern effectively.

The agency said that policymaking and political institutions had weakened in the past few months “to a degree more than we envisioned.” This has major implications for the nation’s budget and debt problems.

For example, S&P now assumes that tax cuts brought in under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 would not, as planned, expire by 2012 because of staunch Republican opposition to any measure that would raise revenues.

The compromise reached by Republicans and Democrats this week calls for creation of a bipartisan congressional committee to find $1.5 trillion of deficit cuts by late November, beyond the $917 billion already identified.

While the downgrade is a blow to U.S. prestige, it was largely expected and may not have a big impact on trading of U.S. Treasuries and other assets when markets reopen in Asia on Monday.

In fact, Treasuries have rallied this week, driving the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.34 percent, its lowest level in about 10 months. This reflects a belief among investors that U.S. government debt is still a safe bet at a time when prices of stocks and commodities are falling on concern about slowing global economic growth.

“To some extent, I would expect when Tokyo opens on Sunday, that we will see an initial knee-jerk sell-off (in Treasuries) followed by a rally,” said Ian Lyngen, senior government bond strategist at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.

But the downgrade has implications for the country’s financial sector, ranging from insurance companies to government-related firms such as housing financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“At least initially, the impact on the market will be negative because there will some forced liquidation of U.S. assets,” said Boris Schlossberg, GFT director of currency research.

The downgrade could add up to 0.7 of a percentage point to Treasuries’ yields over time, increasing funding costs for public debt by some $100 billion, according to SIFMA, a U.S. securities industry trade group.

The Federal Reserve and other bank regulators moved on Friday to reassure global markets that the downgrade would not mean that additional capital would be needed by banks and other institutions holding Treasury securities.

The Fed also said the cut would not impact the operation of its emergency lending window for banks, nor its buying and selling of Treasury securities to conduct monetary policy.

The impact of S&P’s move was tempered by Moody’s Investors Service’s decision earlier this week confirming, for now, the U.S. Aaa rating. Fitch Ratings said it was still reviewing its AAA rating and would issue its opinion by the end of the month.

S&P’s move is also likely to concern foreign creditors especially China, which holds

19

more than $1 trillion of U.S. debt. Beijing has repeatedly urged Washington to protect its U.S. dollar investments by addressing its budget problems.

“China will be forced to consider other investments for its reserves.

U.S. Treasuries aren’t as safe anymore,” said Li Jie, a director at the reserves research institute at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

One currency strategist, however, did not think there would be wholesale selling by foreigners.

“One of the reasons we don’t really think foreign investors will start selling U.S. Treasuries aggressively is because there are still few alternatives to the Treasury market in terms of depth and liquidity,” said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.

He said there was likely to be weakness in the U.S. dollar but a sharp sell-off was unlikely.

S&P had already placed the U.S. credit

rating on review for a possible downgrade on July 14 on concerns that Congress was not adequately addressing the fiscal deficit of about $1.4 trillion this year, about 9.0 percent of gross domestic product, one of the highest since World War II. But Obama administration officials grew increasingly frustrated with the rating agency during the debt limit debate and accused S&P of moving the goal posts in its downgrade warnings, sources familiar with talks between the administration and the agency have said.

The downgrade was immediately pounced on by candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Mitt Romney said the move was “a deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under President Obama,” while Jon Huntsman said it was due to spreading of a “cancerous debt afflicting our nation.”

The downgrade, 15 months before the next presidential election, and debt will be top campaign issues.

Report: Federal probes of mortgage lenders fizzle CHICAGO — Federal criminal investigations into failed mortgage lenders IndyMac Bancorp and New Century Financial Corp. have stalled, the Wall Street Journal reported.

A third probe, into Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu), has ended with no charges being filed, the Department of Justice said.

Both the IndyMac and Century Financial investigations were essentially dormant, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the situation. Both probes could still gain new momentum if fresh evidence surfaced, the newspaper said.

The three investiga-

tions were among the first to weigh criminal charges against the companies and executives at the heart of the housing crisis, which was in part caused by offering so-called subprime loans to people who may not have otherwise qualified for credit.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, which initiated the IndyMac and New Century probes, could not be reached for comment.

The Justice Department, in a statement dated on Friday, said its investigation closed after hundreds of interviews and review of millions of documents

related to WaMu’s operations and subsequent failure. The evidence did not meet the standards for criminal charges, the statement said.

The three lenders were overwhelmed by bad loans during the housing crisis. IndyMac and WaMu were seized by federal regulators in 2008 and New Century collapsed into bankruptcy in 2007.

Investigators have struggled to prove intentional wrongdoing, which is required to secure a conviction, particularly in relation to decisions signed off by in-house lawyers, the newspaper said, citing its sources.

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

Sanders, Sharpe, Faulk, Dent enter Hall of Fame

By BARRY WILNER CANTON, Ohio — Prime Time has come to Canton — with an extra touch of gold.

And a black do-rag.

Deion Sanders strutted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night sporting a pair of gold shoes to go with the gold jacket emblematic of the special company he has become a part of.

At the end of his riveting acceptance speech, he placed his ubiquitous do-rag on his hall bust.

Neon Deion indeed.

“This game,” Sanders repeated dozens of times, “this game taught me how to be a man. This game taught me if I get knocked down, I got to get my butt back up.

“I always had a rule in life that I would never love anything that couldn’t love me back. It taught me how to be a man, how to get up, how to live in pain. Taught me so much about people, timing, focus, dedication, submitting oneself, sacrificing.

“If your dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.”

Sanders joined Marshall Faulk in entering the hall in their first year of eligibility.

Shannon Sharpe, Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter and Ed Sabol also were enshrined before an enthusiastic crowd of 13,300 — much lower than the usual turnout. With Sunday’s Hall of Fame game a victim of the 41⁄2-month NFL lockout, Fawcett Stadium was half full.

Not that Sanders needs a big audience.

The dynamic cornerback and kick returner ran off a list of people who influenced him as smoothly as he ran past opponents, whether running back kicks or interceptions — or even catching passes when he appeared as a wide receiver, or dashing around the bases in the major leagues, including one World Series appearance.

He spoke of promising his mother she could stop working in a hospital when he became a success, and of how he created the Prime Time image at Florida State — then turned it into a persona.

A Hall of Fame persona.

“What separates us is that

Members of the Class of 2011 Marshall Faulk, from left, Chris Hanburger, Richard Dent, Shannon Sharpe, Jon Richter and Deion Sanders pose during the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremonies at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio. Jon Richter is representing his father Les Richter who passed away in 2010. UPI / David Richard Hanburger called his we expect to be great,” he and am the second-best play- left the sport.

He epitomized the Mon- induction “one of the greatest said. “I expect to be great, I er in my family,” Sharpe sters of the Midway: fast, moments in my life and I expect to do what had to be said. mean that from my heart. I “I am so honored. You fierce and intimidating. done. I expect to make “Richard was like a guided am just overwhelmed by don’t know what this means change.”

Just as Sharpe expected to for me. This is the fraternity missile,” Joe Gilliam, Dent’s this.”

Hanburger never let his college coach, said during his change his life as a kid who of all fraternities.” job with the Redskins overFaulk was the running introduction. went to college with two “You must dream and you whelm him. He was the sigbrown grocery bags filled back of running backs for much of his 12-season career. must be dedicated to some- nal-caller for George Allen’s with his belongings.

As versatile and danger- thing in your life,” added intricate defenses in WashWhen Sharpe headed to Savannah State, all he heard ous a backfield threat as the Dent, who asked everyone in ington, which included was how he was destined to NFL has seen, Faulk was the audience to rise in dozens of formations.

He also was a physical voted the NFL’s top offensive applause for Gilliam, then fail.

“When people told me I’d player in 1999, 2000 and thanked dozens of people, player. Nicknamed “The never make it, I listened to 2001, and was the NFL’s including many from the ‘85 Hangman,” Hanburger stood the one person who said I MVP in 2000. He was the Bears who also were in the out for one violent move he league’s scoring leader in stadium. He saved his high- practically patented in 14 could: me,” Sharpe said.

Failure? Sharpe went from 2000 and ‘01, made seven Pro est praise for the late Walter seasons with the Redskins: the clothesline tackle, which a seventh-round draft pick to Bowls, and was the first play- Payton.

“When you have dreams, it eventually was outlawed. the most prolific tight end of er to gain 2,000 yards from A senior committee nomihis time. He won two Super scrimmage in four consecu- is very tough to say you can do everything by yourself,” nee, Hanburger made nine Bowls with Denver and one tive years.

The second overall draft Dent said. “It’s all about other Pro Bowls in his 14 seasons, with Baltimore, and at the although he never won a time of his retirement in pick in 1994, when Faulk people.”

Sabol made a life out of championship. The lineback2003, his 815 career recep- was offensive rookie of the tions, 10,060 yards and 62 year, he played five seasons telling other people’s stories. er’s knack for finding the An aspiring filmmaker, ball helped him to 19 interTDs were all NFL records for in Indianapolis, then his final a tight end. Three times he seven for St. Louis, helping Sabol approached Commis- ceptions and three fumble went over 1,000 yards receiv- the Rams to their only Super sioner Pete Rozelle offering returns for TDs, a league to double the rights fee for mark when he retired after ing in a season — almost Bowl victory in 1999.

Through tears, Faulk said, filming the 1962 NFL cham- the 1978 season. unheard of for that position.

Hanburger stared into the In a 1993 playoff game, “Boy this is pretty special. ... pionship game between the Sharpe had 13 catches I am glad to be a part of it. Packers and Giants. Rozelle face of his bust before saying accepted the $3,000 and a induction is “something that against Oakland, tying a This is football heaven.

“I am a football fan just wildly successful marriage I never gave a thought to.” record.

Richter, who died last Sharpe patted his bust on like all of you,” Faulk told the was formed.

Seated in a wheelchair, the year, also was a senior nomithe head Saturday before say- crowd. “I have always, ing, “All these years later, it always been a fan and had an 94-year-old Sabol said he nee. He played nine seasons the impossible for the Los Angeles Rams, makes me proud when people abiding passion and love and “dreamt respect for this game of foot- dream, and I’m living it right who acquired him in 1954 call me a self-made man.” for 11 players after he was In a captivating accep- ball, even when I was a kid at this minute.”

“This honor tonight really the second overall draft pick. tance speech, Sharpe pas- selling popcorn in the SuperRichter served two years sionately made a pitch to get dome because I couldn’t goes to NFL Films, I just happen to be accepting all the in the military, then became his brother, Sterling, who afford a ticket. one of the most rugged “It’s tough going from the accolades,” Sabol added. played seven years with the Sabol’s son, Steve, who defenders in the NFL. He Packers, considered for elec- projects to the penthouse.”

Dent was a dynamic pass replaced him as president of made eight straight Pro tion to the shrine. Sterling, who introduced his younger rusher on one of the NFL’s the company, introduced his Bowls while also seeing time brother for induction, wept greatest defenses, the 1985 father, about whom he said, at center and as a placekicker NFL champions. He was the “My sisters used to say my for part of his career. He as Shannon praised him.

“I am the only player who MVP of that Super Bowl and dad was two stooges short of retired in 1962 and went on has been inducted into the finished with 1371⁄2 career a good routine. He loved to to a successful career in motor sports.

Pro Football Hall of Fame sacks, third all-time when he entertain.”

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

23

Forgotten man Dix ready to rock Bolt’s world in Daegu

By JUSTIN PALMER LONDON — Walter Dix said Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt could “definitely be beaten” at the global championships in South Korea after easing to victory in the 200 meters on the second day of the London Diamond League meeting Saturday.

Dix was among a number of U.S. athletes to record impressive wins on a cool day in the British capital, with fellow sprinter Carmelita Jeter and one-lap queen Sanya Richards-Ross also laying down the gauntlet to their rivals ahead of the worlds in Daegu which start on August 27.

Olympic double bronze medalist Dix, the top American male hope for sprint medals in the absence of the

injured Tyson Gay, clocked 20.16 seconds into a minus headwind and was pleased by his performance.

“All I do is win, that’s why you can never count me out. I need a couple of medals at the world championships and people will start to look out for me,” said Dix, the U.S. champion at 100 and 200.

Bolt may not have been at the meeting, which he also missed last year because of British tax rules on promotional earnings, but he will be the man to beat in Daegu, a task Dix thought was far from impossible when asked about it after his victory.

Another sprinter to watch at the worlds will be Jeter, who has been in consistent form all season and aged 31, will be a strong contender for a first global title after bronzes in 2007 and 2009.

The second fastest woman of all-time over 100m — only

the late Florence GriffithJoyner has gone quicker — powered down the straight to win in 10.93, ahead of Trinidad & Tobago’s KellyAnn Baptiste (10.97) and Olympic and world champion Shelley-Ann Fraser Pryce (11.10).

Richards-Ross appears to be hitting peak form at the right time as she heads to Korea to defend her world 400m crown.

The 26-year-old, who missed most of last season through injury, lowered her season’s best by nearly a second in clocking 49.66.

“I’m so excited ... I wanted to put on a show. It’s taken some time but I’m finally back to where I’ll be able to defend my title,” she said.

The American’s best display of the season contrasted sharply with that of Britain’s Olympic and former world champion Christine Ohu-

ruogu who trailed in last.

Ohuruogu, like RichardsRoss, missed most of the 2010 season through injury and has hardly competed this year.

“I just haven’t got enough in my legs,” she said.

Home favorite and world and European triple jump champion Philips Idowu was upstaged by American Christian Taylor who smashed his personal best by 28 centimeters with a third round leap of 17.68 meters to take victory.

The always colorful Idowu, his cropped hair dyed blonde with a blue stripe down the middle and resplendent in white headband and knee high white socks, was far from his best and had to settle for third with a jump of 17.07.

The 32-year-old, who made a late withdrawal from the UK Trials last weekend and has been embroiled in a row

with UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee over his withdrawal from the European Team Championships in June, admitted his performance was not what he was looking for in his last competition before the worlds.

“I’ve been working quite hard for the last few weeks, done a lot of competitions and I just wasn’t sharp today,” he said.

“But no one is going to look back in a month’s time and say ‘I won Crystal Palace’.

I’m focused on Daegu.”

In other events, Australian Sally Pearson scorched to victory in the women’s 100m hurdles, Puerto Rican Javier Culson won the men’s 400m hurdles in a season’s best 48.33 seconds and Lithuania’s Virgilijus Alekna, twice Olympic and world discus champion, secured victory with a throw of 66.71 meters.

Dwyane Wade open to playing in China Report: Donovan McNabb Minnesota deal for 1 year

By CHRIS SHERIDAN

Dwyane Wade’s agent said Friday his client has received no offers nor has had any discussions with professional teams from China, but he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of that scenario changing.

“If offers are made down the road, will they be looked at? Absolutely,” agent Henry Thomas told ESPN.com on Friday.

The Chengdu Daily reported that Zhejiang Guangsha was offering Wade $2 million per month to play next season in the Chinese Basketball Association, a report that was later denied by a team official.

Wade’s agent also said it was untrue, but he made clear that the Miami Heat guard would look at China as an option if the NBA lockout lasts into the fall.

Wade was in China last month, along with several other NBA stars, for endorsement tours. There have been reports on other Chinese media sites that large offers will be made to Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki.

“Neither Dwyane Wade nor I have received any offers like that,” Thomas said.

By KEVIN SEIFERT

Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union Sources with knowledge of the Chinese Basketball Association’s inner workings confirmed to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein earlier this week that the Chinese league was giving strong consideration to implementing a rule that would prevent NBA players from playing in China during an extended work stop-

page.

Asked if there has been any dialogue between Wade and Chinese teams, Thomas said there has been “nothing.”

“Dwyane said something along the lines of that being ‘premature’ and ‘we’re not there yet,’ and that is accurate,” Thomas said.

A lasting mystery of the Donovan McNabb trade has finally been solved.

As part of the deal, the Minnesota Vikings renegotiated McNabb’s contract into a one-year deal worth $5.05 million, according to 1500 ESPN Twin Cities radio in Minnesota.

Year of the Quarterback ESPN has dedicated 2011 to examining one of the most crucial positions in all of sports — the quarterback.

Year of the QB » McNabb has $2.2 million in incentives available to him, bringing the maximum possible value to $7.25 million.

The value of McNabb’s deal reflects two realities: Few teams were clamoring for his services and the Vikings already have his successor, rookie Christian Ponder, on the roster.

The deal, essentially the minimum value for a veteran quarterback who might start in 2011, makes McNabb one of the NFL’s lowest-paid established quarterbacks, roughly equal to the oneyear, $5 million contract Alex Smith signed this summer with the San Francisco 49ers.

It’s also less than a third of what the Vikings paid former starter Brett Favre last season. Favre earned $16 million in 2010 and $13 million in 2009.

MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011

PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME Deion Sanders strutted into the Pro Football Hall of gold jacket emblematic of the special company he Fame sporting a pair of gold shoes to go with the has become a part of.

SEE PAGE 22.

DWYANE WADE OPEN TO PLAYING IN CHINA Dwyane Wade’s agent said his client has received no offers nor has had any discussions with professional teams from China, but he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of that scenario changing.

SEE PAGE 23.