Vol 40 No 151, Monday Oct 3rd, 2011

NEW YORK REINSTATES EYE TESTS FOR DRIVER’S LICENSE RENEWAL - PG. 3 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

THE NATION’S ONLY BLACK DAILY 35 Cents

Final

THOUSANDS ATTEND FUNERAL OF TROY DAVIS

FIRST LADY: 2012

Pallbearers carry the casket of supporters after his funeral in Troy Davis followed by family and Savannah, Ga. SEE PAGE 3.

SEE PAGE 2

TO DETERMINE ‘WHO WE ARE’

WWW.DAILYCHALLENGENEWS.COM

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

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N E W S B RI E F S MAN SHOT TO DEATH IN BROOKLYN BARBERSHOP Police are looking for the person who shot a man to death in a barber shop in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn on Saturday.

Investigators say Warren Billings, 38, was shot once in the head inside the shop on Cortelyou Road just before 4 p.m. yesterday.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sources say no one else inside the barber shop was hurt, but they say Billings does not appear to have been the intended target.

“Sad. He’s my daughter’s best friend, all my kids loved him. Very nice person,” said a family friend.

“He was a very good, good guy, real nice guy,” said another local. “I don’t even know, how... who would, for which reasons.... Why would somebody do that to him?”

Police say the shooting suspect is in his 20s and about 6-feet tall. He was wearing a brown hooded jacket and gray sweatpants, and was last seen running eastbound on Cortelyou Road towards East 22nd Street.

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.

FOR APARTMENT DWELLERS, “HEAT SEASON” OFFICIALLY UNDERWAY “Heat season” is underway in the city as of October 1.

The city requires building owners to provide heat and hot water to tenants depending on outside temperatures.

If the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees from 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. apartments must be heated to at least 68 degrees.

If it’s below 40 degrees outside between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. apartments must be at least 55 degrees inside.

Tenants should notify their building owner, managing agent or super if the heat goes out.

Heat season runs through May 31.

For all heat related complaints, call 311.

NETS’ NEW VOICE WILL CARRY TEAM INTO BROOKLYN As the Nets prepare for a new name and new stadium, they’re also looking for a fresh voice.

The team held auditions Friday for a new public address announcer.

Those who came out for the tryouts were optimistic about their chances.

“Most kids, when they’re that age, want to be the players on the court. They want to be the star center, the star power forward. When the announcer got down when the announcement, Your New Jersey Nets, I turned to my father and said I want to do that when I grow up,” said one announcer hopeful.

The new announcer will begin working this season in Newark, then move with the team when it comes to Brooklyn next year.

First lady: 2012 to determine ‘who we are’ PORTLAND, Maine — First Lady Michelle Obama told an audience in Maine Friday the 2012 election “will determine nothing less than who we are as a country.”

Speaking at a political fundraiser in Portland, the first lady said a Republican victory in 2012 will hurt working families.

“Whether it’s healthcare or the economy or education or foreign policy, the choice we make in this election will determine nothing less than who we are as a country and who we want to be,” she said.

About 650 people paid at least $100 apiece to attend the rally where Obama spoke.

Earlier Friday, at a fundraiser held in a private home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, the first lady said “we stand at a fundamental crossroads in our country.”

“You’re here because you know that in 13 months we’re going to make a choice that will impact our lives for decades to come,” she said.

“So many of us, we just don’t have the time to follow the news and sort through all the back and forth and figure out how all of this connects to our daily lives,” she said. “But the fact is that in a little over a year from now, we are going to make a decision

between two very different visions for this country.”

The first lady urged her audience to support the American Jobs Act, sent to Congress by President Barack Obama, which she said would affect millions of families and children “in

terms of how much food they can put on the table, whether they have a roof over their heads. It’s about whether folks will have more money in their pockets, which means more money in our economy, which means more jobs.”

More than 700 arrested in Wall Street protest

By RAY SANCHEZ Police reopened the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday evening after more than 700 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested for blocking traffic lanes and attempting an unauthorized march across the span.

The arrests took place when a large group of marchers, participating in a second week of protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement, broke off from others on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway and headed across the Brooklyn-bound lanes.

“Over 700 summonses and desk appearance tickets have been issued in connection with a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge late this afternoon after multiple warnings by police were given to protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway, and that if they took roadway they would be arrested,” a police spokesman said.

“Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Others proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were. The bridge was re-opened to traffic at 8:05 p.m. (0005 GMT Sunday).”

Most of those who were arrested

were taken into custody off the bridge, issued summonses and released.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene on the famous suspension bridge as a sea of police officers surrounded the protesters using orange mesh netting.

Some protesters tried to get away as officers started handcuffing members of the group. Dozens of protesters were seen handcuffed and sitting on the span as three buses were called in to take them away, witnesses and organizers said.

The march started about 3:30 p.m. from the protesters’ camp in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan near the former World Trade Center. Members of the group have vowed to stay at the park through the winter.

In addition to what they view as excessive force and unfair treatment of minorities, including Muslims, the movement is also protesting against home foreclosures, high unemployment and the 2008 bailouts.

Filmmaker Michael Moore and actress Susan Sarandon have stopped by the protesters’ camp, which is plastered with posters with anti-Wall Street slogans and has a kitchen and library, to offer their support.

Friday evening, more than 1,000 demonstrators, including representatives of labor organizations, held a peaceful march to police headquarters a few blocks north of City Hall to protest what they said was a heavyhanded police response the previous week. No arrests were reported.

A week ago, police arrested about 80 members of Occupy Wall Street near the Union Square shopping district as the marchers swarmed onto oncoming traffic.

A police commander doused a handful of women with pepper spray in an incident captured on video and spread via the Internet, galvanizing the loosely organized protest movement.

The group has gained support among some union members. The United Federation of Teachers and the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which has 38,000 members, are among those pledging solidarity.

The unions could provide important organizational and financial support for the largely leaderless movement.

Similar protests are sprouting in other cities, including Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

5 civilians, 17 cops named in ticket-fixing A New York City grand jury voted to indict 5 civilians along with 17 police officers already charged in a widespread ticket-fixing investigation.

The ruling by a Bronx grand jury, handed out Friday, came out of a two-year investigation by the New York Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, the New York Daily News reported.

Two of the civilians are suspected drug dealers, while the other three allegedly gave favors — monetary and otherwise — to the police officers suspected of ticket-fixing.

The jury heard evidence in the case over the past six months.

“It was a deliberate process,” said an unidentified person involved in the case. “They heard a tremendous amount of evidence. It’s one of the

more prolonged processes you’ll see in a grand jury.”

Charges against the 22 people named in the case range from official misconduct to grand larceny.

Officials have yet to formally charge the civilians.

“We haven’t seen a case this big in a long, long time,” a source told the Daily News. “A lot of cops will be in court very soon.”

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

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Thousands attend funeral of Troy Davis

By MATTHEW BIGG SAVANNAH, Georgia — Thousands of people packed a church in Georgia on Saturday for the funeral of Troy Davis, who was executed for the murder of a police officer in a case that drew world attention because of claims by his advocates that he was innocent.

The rousing service at Jonesville Baptist Church in Savannah reflected a determination by his family, civil rights leaders, supporters and activists to turn his execution last week into a renewed campaign against the death penalty.

“There are some who think that now that Troy has gone ... that our movement is gone, that our voices have been silenced and that our fire has gone out,” said Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

“But we have news for them today.

We are just getting started,” Warnock said in an impassioned eulogy that left some in the congregation in tears and others standing to applaud.

The service lasted more than three hours and mixed gospel songs, prayers and Bible readings. Many in the largely Black congregation wore “I am Troy Davis” T-shirts.

Davis, 42, was put to death by lethal injection on September 21 at a prison in central Georgia for the murder in Savannah in 1989 of police officer Mark MacPhail, who was shot as he rushed to the aid of a homeless man who was being beaten.

The execution was delayed by around four hours as the U.S.

Funeral directors bring the casket of Troy Davis into the Jonesville Baptist Church before his funeral in Savannah, Ga. Supreme Court decided whether to issue a stay, and Davis went to his death saying he was innocent. No physical evidence tied Davis to the crime. Since his conviction, seven of nine witnesses changed or recanted their testimony. Some said they were coerced by police to testify and some named another man they said killed MacPhail.

The case provoked protests by death penalty opponents, France and the Council of Europe called for a stay of execution and nearly 1 million people signed an online petition.

Amnesty International, which campaigns against the death penalty, said the case received more attention than any in the United States in years.

New York reinstates eye tests for driver’s license renewal

By HOLLY MCKENNA ALBANY — After a public outcry over safety concerns, New York on Friday reinstated vision tests for 2.4 million drivers who renew licenses each year.

Just days after an end to the tests went into effect on Wednesday, New York State Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Barbara Fiala said it would be delayed until a decision by a medical advisory board as to the best way to check drivers’ vision.

State officials and road safety experts had objected to the cost-cutting measure, which would have allowed New Yorkers to “self-certify” their vision, saying it would endanger the safety of the state’s 11 million drivers.

The measure applied only to renewals, with vision tests still mandatory for new drivers and commercial drivers.

“Those of us charged with delivering key government services to the public must always look for the most cost-effective ways to provide those services, but public safety will always be the first priority at DMV

and it will not be compromised,” Fiala said in a statement.

Fiala said she will convene an advisory group of health, safety and transportation experts to decide the matter.

State Senator Patty Ritchie, a frequent critic of the DMV, applauded the decision.

“New York has made tremendous gains in improving highway safety and saving lives - by focusing on such problems as drunk and distracted driving, but those gains were put at risk by this plan to essentially let motorists play eye doctor and self-certify that their vision was good enough to be on the road,” said Ritchie.

New York receives more than 2.4 million driver license renewal applications each year.

The current vision testing procedure was instituted in 2000 and requires that the customer read lines on an eye chart behind the DMV counter. That system will remain in effect pending the outcome of the advisory group’s recommendations.

The DMV said 14 states, including four bordering New York, currently allow motorists to renew their driver license without a vision test.

Several speakers at the church portrayed Davis as a symbol of what they called deep flaws in the U.S. justice system.

Davis was Black and there are a disproportionate number of Black men in prison in Georgia and on death row, according to human rights lawyers.

“The state of Georgia believes it’s over. ... We are here to say today that it is not over. Now that we have been inspired by Troy Davis, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” said Larry Cox, execu-

tive director of Amnesty International USA. The death penalty receives broad public and political support in the United States, but controversy at home and abroad about the Davis case rekindled intense debate about its use.

Speakers praised Davis as being an inspiration to his family and friends and to other prison inmates while he was on death row. He often helped his nephew to do homework, tutoring him over the telephone from prison, they said.

Some speakers also sought to cast Davis’ death in the context of a broader civil rights tradition in which an unjust death that appears to be a setback is used to redouble commitment to the movement.

“Troy ... told us to keep on fighting until his name is finally cleared and Georgia admits what Georgia has done,” Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a speech.

“Troy’s last words were to keep on fighting until the death penalty is abolished and this (the execution) can never be done to anyone else,” Jealous said.

At the end of the service, loudspeakers relayed an audio message from Davis recorded before his death in which he thanked his supporters and asked them to continue a campaign against the death penalty.

President Obama urges public pressure on jobs bill

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Saturday urged Americans to pressure Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president noted it has been almost “three weeks since I sent (Congress) a bill that would put people back to work and put money in people’s pockets.”

“This jobs bill is fully paid for,” he said. “This jobs bill contains the kinds of proposals that Democrats and Republicans have supported in the past. And now I want it back. It is time for Congress to get its act together and pass this jobs bill so I can sign it into law.”

Obama noted that some Republicans have said they agree with certain aspects of the bill but if there are any provisions they oppose, “I’d like to know what exactly they’re

against.”

“Are they against putting teachers and police officers and firefighters back on the job? Are they against hiring construction workers to rebuild our roads and bridges and schools? Are they against giving tax cuts to virtually every worker and small business in America?”

Obama said economists “from across the political spectrum” have said the bill would improve the economy and promote hiring.

“This isn’t just about what I think is right,” he said. “It’s not just about what a group of economists think is right. This is about what the American people want.”

“If anyone watching feels the same way, don’t be shy about letting your congressman know,” he said.

“It is time for the politics to end.

Let’s pass this jobs bill.”

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

FORUM

School districts investigated for civil rights violations THOMAS H. WATKINS

By NADRA KAREEM NITTLE

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The U.S. Department of Education is seeking to improve the quality of education for minority and poor public school students by aggressively launching civil rights investigations aimed at preventing district administrators from providing more services and resources to predominantly white schools.

Faced with public schools more segregated today than in the 1970s, the department is using the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to improve the quality of education for students from minority and low-income backgrounds. The department has outpaced the Bush administration in initiating civil rights probes.

During 33 months under the Obama administration, the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched 30 compliance reviews compared with the 22 begun during the eight-year Bush administration. Investigators determine whether school districts have violated Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

“The civil rights laws are the most sorely underutilized tool in education reform and closing the achievement gap,” says Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights, who has run the department’s OCR since

May 2009. She said President Barack Obama has emphasized that he wants the department investigating education-related civil rights violations. “This is the most important civil rights issue of our time,” she says.

Last year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced on the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday—the day that Alabama state troopers brutalized civil rights activists marching on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma—that the department’s OCR would significantly increase enforcement actions. Duncan acknowledged that over the last 10 years, the office had not aggressively pursued Title 6 investigations to improve the quality of education for minority and poor students.

The OCR received about 7,000 complaints last year, a record for the department.

School districts are being investigated for a range of possible violations, including failure to provide minority students with access to college- and careertrack courses, not assigning highly qualified teachers to schools with predominantly minority students and disproportionately placing such students in special education courses and suspending minority students.

The OCR has also investigated schools for failing to protect female students of color from sexual violence and not offering access to higher-level math and science courses.

Judith A. Browne Dianis, codirector of the Advancement

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Project in Washington, D.C., which advocates for quality education, acknowledges a significant change in direction for the department’s OCR. Ali served as deputy co-director of the organization from 1999 to 2000.

“For years, we couldn’t rely on the federal government to enforce civil rights law, so now we have an Office for Civil Rights that is finally taking up the torch,” Browne Dianis says.

“During the Bush administration, we wouldn’t encourage anyone to file a complaint. The feeling was that even if you filed a complaint, they probably wouldn’t investigate or would say there was no racial discrimination.”

Education Department officials express concern that a wide disparity exists between the achievement level of graduating white and African American high school students in specific subject areas, such as biology and math.

Data show that white students are six times better prepared than Black students for college biology when they graduate from high school. White students are four times as prepared for college algebra as their Black counterparts. Furthermore, white high school graduates are twice as likely to have completed Advanced Placement (AP) calculus courses as Black or Latino graduates.

Addressing the statistics, Ali says the solution is not “just about adding more courses” but

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

Dr. Conrad Murray, not Michael Jackson, is on trial

By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON Dr. Conrad Murray’s defense, his only real defense against the charge of involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, is a simple one. He says that Jackson in effect killed himself. That he was so hopelessly drug addicted that he pumped himself up with the fatal drug or combination of drugs that killed him. The unstated is that given Jackson’s world-renowned aloofness and eccentricities his selfdestruction was all but foreordained.

With anyone else and in any other circumstances, this would be a laughable defense.

The indisputable fact is that Murray is a trained physician. He was hired by Jackson specifically to administer and supervise his medications and medical care. He did not say no to Jackson’s continual use of the potentially lethal drug. He did not summon medics immediately when Jackson went into his fatal coma. No matter how self-destructive and on the edge one may want to believe that Jackson was, and that he did have a long history of drug use, it’s the wildest stretch to hold a patient responsible for his own death with his doctor literally in the next room.

But Jackson is not just any patient.

Since the day he was hauled into court in 2005 on child molestation charges and the day months later he was acquitted on all counts in the case, Jackson’s name has been synonymous with controversy. The acquittal in the child molestation charge meant nothing to millions. Many still quietly whispered and many others openly slurred him as a child molester. His deep withdrawal from public view after the trial did not stop the endless swirl of malicious questions about his actions, motives, and alleged perversion.

His death didn’t change things either. Millions of Jackson fans mourned, agonized, and were infuriated by his death. Countless others dredged up, and hurled the same old, vicious accusations at Jackson as a freak, kook, and, of course, child molester.

President Obama walked a fine and circumspect line in reacting to Jackson’s death. He sent the ritual condolences to Jackson’s family. But he also made veiled references to Jackson as a controversial figure when he noted that there were aspects of his life that were sad and tragic. Other politicians had no such reservations. They openly pilloried Jackson even slandering him as a “pervert” who did not deserve any public acclamation, but disgust.

Jackson’s name, fame, and contro-

School districts investigated Continued from page 4 better preparing minority students in these subject areas. The civil rights investigations are forcing improvements.

In South Carolina, the OCR has targeted school districts for concentrating AP courses at majority white high schools, robbing Black students of the chance to take college-track courses. Because of the OCR probe, AP classes have become more widely available at majority Black high schools.

Ali is also addressing the practice of assigning the least qualified teachers to poor and predominantly minority schools. By forcing school districts to end this practice, she hopes to narrow the achievement gap between whites and students of color, preparing more minority students for academically challenging courses.

The Education Department and education advocates are examining the higher percentage of minority students assigned to special education classes in many districts.

“Special education is another reflection of huge disparities,” says Daniel J. Losen, senior education law and policy associate at The Civil Rights Project at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Losen says school administrators often use subjective criteria to place students in special education programs, resulting in a disproportion-

ate number of minority students being removed from the general classroom setting. Moreover, Ali says the department is evaluating why white and Asian students are overrepresented in gifted and talented programs, while Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented in special education classes.

Based on an NAACP complaint, the OCR is investigating the Wake County (N.C.) Public School System for planning to assign students to schools based on their neighborhoods of residence. Critics contend that the plan would kill diversity in the school system and concentrate poor students, effectively resegregating the district.

Ali says “housing patterns and the correlation between race and poverty” also cause resegregation of school districts. “The federal government is working to end that kind of resegregation,” she says. “We’re very much trying to end discrimination no matter where students go to school or who they go to school with, if they go to school with kids who look like them or to an integrated school.”

Owatonna (Minn.) Senior High

versy are plastered all over what goes on in and outside the courtroom in the Murray trial. There are the tearful and heartfelt reminiscences and reminders from fans and court observers about Jackson’s towering importance to the music and creative artistry world, and his continuing rapturous influence on millions. The legal experts meanwhile endlessly speculate on the evidence in the case and whether it measures up to the high bar of criminal culpability.

Ultimately, Murray’s legal fate and Jackson’s celebrity name will rest in the hands of the jurors. Both are connected because not one of the jurors selected dared plead ignorance of not having heard of Jackson. The prosecutors and defense attorneys didn’t go there and try to determine the depth of the juror’s pro or anti Jackson bias.

Some of the jurors made it clear that they were Jackson fans, or that they thought he was a great entertainer.

None expressed any misgivings about Jackson. The only misgivings were whether the criminal justice treated the rich and famous with kid gloves.

More than one thought this is the case. Whether this means that the jury is so pro Jackson that Murray doesn’t stand much chance of acquittal is another matter.

Indeed it should not matter. The jurors are charged with one thing, and one thing only, and that’s to

strictly weigh the physical evidence and testimony and determine whether Murray did what the prosecution says that he did and that’s cause Jackson’s death. That’s the sole standard that any jury should be charged with in determining guilt or innocence in any criminal case. However, it would be the pinnacle of naivety to think that facts alone determine trial outcomes in celebrated trials.

Countless studies and surveys of criminal cases involving celebrities show that money and fame do play a huge role in these cases. Money allows celebrities not only to hire the best and brightest of attorneys, but to tweak and massage the message of innocence of their celebrity client outside the courtroom. Murray used his celebrity name by dint of his association with Jackson’s death to get a crack legal team, and ensure that they spin away his innocence outside the courtroom. A big part of that is their hit on Jackson that he killed himself.

By any standard this shouldn’t fly.

But given the always lurking undercurrent of controversy and doubt about Jackson from so many, they’re banking that they can put Jackson not Murray on trial. And this definitely shouldn’t fly.

School is a case in point. The OCR received a complaint that the mostly white school had not acted sufficiently to stop racial harassment of East African students. When racial tension erupted in 2009 and white and Somali students brawled, school officials disciplined the African students more severely.

Due to the OCR investigation, Owatonna Public Schools agreed in April to take measures to prevent Somali students from being bullied.

School officials issued an antiharassment statement to students, parents and staff while training the school community on what constitutes discrimination and harassment, and meeting with Somali students to review their concerns.

The district must also submit annual compliance reviews to the OCR and the U.S. Department of Justice for the next three years. The case is the most recent race-related Title 6 investigation that the OCR has resolved.

“There’s a national trend of students of color being suspended from school for minor actions,” Browne Dianis says. “When we think about discipline, it was originally intended to cover violent acts.” Data show that African American students without disabilities are more than three times

as likely to be expelled as their white peers.

Too often, Browne Dianis says, schools remove minority children from class for minor infractions such as tardiness or talking back to teachers. She adds that in today’s schools, where standardized test scores are emphasized, a child can easily fall behind academically, and the likelihood of dropping out increases.

“Once you drop out, the more likely you are to end up in the criminal justice system,” she says.

In 2008, Browne Dianis worked with Baltimore schools on their discipline code to reduce the suspension rate. After the number of student offenses punishable by removal from class was narrowed, the suspension rate plummeted from 26,000 to 9,000 the following year, she says.

While Ali, with the Dept. of Education, says the OCR’s aggressive pursuit of civil rights violations is continuing the historic fight for racial justice begun decades ago, she cautions that the current racial opportunity gap could reverse gains of the civil rights movement.

“You can’t give better to some than you do to others,” Ali says. “That’s not equity. That’s a farce. It goes without saying that equity without quality is not equity at all.”

— Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.

6

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

Dreams for National Slavery Museum caught in bankruptcy

By MATTHEW A. WARD CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Exploring one of the country’s darkest chapters, the United States National Slavery Museum was supposed to open four years ago on 38 acres along the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Plans for the 100,000-square-foot museum were elaborate: a 450-seat theater, full-scale replica slave ship and hundreds of donated relics such as the leg irons forebears of many Americans wore during the long, cruel voyage from West Africa.

But the museum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 21, putting its prospects in doubt and leaving donors and supporters of the project conceived 10 years ago

by Virginia’s first Black governor to wonder what went wrong.

Lawrence Wilder, the former governor, and other museum directors aren’t offering much public explanation. A spokeswoman for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Public Affairs, where Wilder is a professor, said this week he “will not be making any statement at this time.”

In February, Wilder blamed the economy for the delay and insisted the museum would be built as

planned.

Despite backing from comedian Bill Cosby, a major fundraiser for the museum who reportedly gave $1.2 million of his own money, the museum was unable to pay taxes owed to Fredericksburg on land donated for the project, said city Treasurer Jim Hanley.

Bankruptcy court emerged as the museum’s sole option, Hanley said.

“After a certain length of time (of not paying), the city has the authority to sell the property for the taxes,” Hanley told Reuters.

“We started the process of the sale, and now they have filed bankruptcy, and that puts a stay on the sale of the real estate.”

The museum’s 2007 tax return, the last filed, shows it had raised $577,173 and with other income had a total revenue of $581,740 that year.

Among its $527,050 in expenses were $124,449 worth of “exhibition expenses,” $27,700 for advertising and marketing, and a “fundraising event expense” of $34,458.

The museum reported being $54,690 in the black for the year, with net assets valued at $17,581,765.

Four years later, the museum’s bankruptcy filing in the Eastern District of Virginia puts estimated liabilities between $1 million and $10 mil-

lion, with creditors’ unsecured claims totaling $3,233,784.

Lexington Design & Fabrication in Los Angeles, which was creating the museum’s hi-tech exhibits, is owed the most of any creditors. The bankruptcy filing puts the amount due at about $1.6 million, but the company told Reuters the figure is closer to $200,000.

“It was a project we were really excited about, and we were really sorry when they were unable to raise the necessary money to go forward,” CEO Richard Bencivengo said in a phone interview.

“We’ve already written down the loss. We don’t expect there’s any opportunity for a nickel-on-the-dollar kind of compensation, and we’re all very sad it went south.”

Another company, Marylandbased Clark Construction, which provided pre-construction services, said it was not owed any money despite being named as a creditor in court filings.

Cosby declined comment through his agent, and officials listed on the museum’s 2007 tax return either would not discuss the bankruptcy or could not be reached.

Mae Tarver’s husband Willie, an artist and Korean War veteran, donated a steel sculpture he created of a slave market to the museum

before he died last year. Now the 78year-old Wadley, Georgia widow wants museum directors to authorize payment for the piece or give it back.

“If they’re not going to have the museum, they can still have it, but just pay me for it,” she said. “If not, I would like for it to be returned.”

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy protects applicants from creditors’ lawsuits while a court-approved reorganization plan is developed, suggesting museum directors wish to regroup and press ahead with the project.

But city Treasurer Hanley thinks the dream for the Fredericksburg site is dead. He expects the land will be sold and the city will get its tax money, though he said people would “still be delighted” if Wilder could get the project back on its feet.

Joseph Miller, a University of Virginia history professor and slavery expert, said a museum on the history of slavery would offer an important contribution to the national culture.

“I think that it’s an important step in moving beyond the divisions that we still inherit from slavery,” he said.

“I think that until you put something up front, and people can talk their way through — however painful that may be — that it’s very hard to move on.”

West Hollywood nears approval of first fur ban in U.S.

By JASON KANDEL WEST HOLLYWOOD, California — Taking a stand for animal rights over fashion, the tiny, tony municipality of West Hollywood is poised to become the first U.S. city to ban the sale of fur clothing within its boundaries.

The five-member City Council voted unanimously on September 20 to give tentative approval to the ban, and the panel is expected to officially adopt the measure at a meeting today.

Opponents say nearly half of the

200 apparel stores in town sell at least some fur items, and that merchandise made with animal pelts is estimated to account for up to $2 million in revenues for those businesses this year.

One of the leading critics of the proposed ordinance is the Fur Information Council of America, an industry trade group that happens to be based in West Hollywood.

But the city’s famously left-leaning political establishment seems intent on fully embracing an animal rights cause that has largely been the domain of angry, sign-waving protest-

White Mississippi teen pleads not guilty in Black man’s death A white Mississippi teenager pleaded not guilty on Friday to a capital murder charge stemming from the fatal hit-and-run of a Black man in a motel parking lot.

A judge ordered Deryl Dedmon, 19, to stand trial on January 9 and gave prosecutors until November 1 to decide if they will seek the death penalty in the case, court administrator Karla Watkins said.

Dedmon is accused of running down James Craig Anderson, a 49year-old Nissan autoworker who was returning to his car before dawn on June 26 when he was confronted by a group of white teenagers in a motel parking lot.

Video of the incident, caught by a hotel security camera, has been played on cable television news, and the FBI was investigating the case as a possible civil rights violation, which can include hate crimes.

According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Anderson’s family, the teens had been drinking and were on a mission to target Black people. Some of the teens took turns beating Anderson before he was struck with a Ford F-250 truck, the suit said. Anderson died at the scene.

Another teen, John Aaron Rice, has been charged with simple assault in the case.

ers outside shop windows.

Some details of the ordinance, including civil penalties that would be imposed against merchants caught violating it, remain to be worked out at today’s meeting, supporters say.

Also unclear was how it would be enforced.

As tentatively approved last Tuesday, the measure would outlaw the sale of any garment made “in whole or part from the pelt or skin of an animal with its hair, wool or fur,” and would take effect on June 30, 2012.

The bill cites as explicit examples furs made from a fox, mink, rabbit, bear, seal or chinchilla. Supporters said the council is considering an exemption for “vintage” garments containing fur.

Wedged between Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, the city of West Hollywood is best known for its high quotient of nightclubs, restaurants and gay men and lesbians among its 35,000 residents. Its vibrant shopping scene is patronized by everyone from movie stars to vintage clothing hounds, and retailers say fur is just part of the package.

Opponents of the proposed fur ban also say it flies in the face of the city’s tolerant, live-and-let live attitude.

“It’s not the city’s role to dictate to businesses what they can or cannot sell,” said Genevieve Morrill, the CEO and president of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Fur clothing has been controversial for decades, with opponents saying animals are inhumanely killed for

their pelts. The federal government requires correct labeling of most fur garments, so consumers know what they are buying.

West Hollywood’s proposed fur ban is not the first action city officials have taken on behalf of four-legged creatures. In 2010, the town banned the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores in an attempt to strike a blow against the puppy mill industry.

By then, the city already had gained attention for banning the declawing of pet cats, in an ordinance that was challenged by the veterinary industry and eventually led to passage of a California state law preventing cities from adopting similar measures.

The city in 1996 also passed California’s first ban on so-called “Saturday night specials” — inexpensive pistols seen as contributing to impulsive gun crimes.

City Councilman John D’Amico, the chief sponsor of the fur sales ban, said it would distinguish West Hollywood not only from its neighbors, but from the rest of the country.

“West Hollywood will be a special place, much more special than Los Angeles and Beverly Hills,” D’Amico said. “Now it will be the only city in the nation that’s fur free.”

His claim was confirmed by the Fur Information Council of America.

Despite years of protests against fur clothing by animal rights activists, consumers are still flocking to fur.

Total sales nationally last year rose 3.1 percent to $1.3 billion, according to the industry group.

CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011 DAILY D

INTERNATIONAL

7

Syrian forces renew raids near Turkey, kill youth

By KHALED YACOUB OWEIS AMMAN - Syrian forces on Monday their launched biggest sweep against popular unrest in Syria’s northwest near Turkey since June, killing a civilian in raids meant to stop protesters escaping across the border, residents said.

Adelsalam Hassoun, 24, a blacksmith, was killed by army snipers on Monday just after he had crossed into Turkey from the village of Ain al-Baida on the Syrian side, his cousin told Reuters by telephone from Syria.

“Abdelsalam was hit in the head. He was among a group of family members and other refugees who dashed across the plain to Turkey when six armored personnel carrier deployed outside Ain al-Baida and started firing their machineguns into the village at random this morning,” Mohammad Hassoun said Thousands of families fled their homes in

the northern border region in June when troops assaulted town and villages that had seen big protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

Faced with a heavy security presence in central neighborhoods of Damascus and Aleppo, and military against a assaults swathe of cities from Latakia on the coast to Deir al-Zor in the East, street rallies calling for political freedoms and an end to 41 years of Assad family rule have intensified in towns and villages across the country of 20 million.

Demonstrators have been encouraged by the fall of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and growing international pressure on Assad. The European Union has imposed an embargo on Syrian oil exports, jeopardizing a major source of revenue for Assad, who inherited power from his father, the late Hafez al-Assad, in 2000.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, who once backed Assad, said ordinary people in Syria has made it clear it will not back down despite daily killings.

“It’s clear now after the protests that have taken place in

Syria...(that) the killing is almost daily. It’s clear that the people will not abandon their demands, the question is how to get out of this internal deadlock in Syria,” he said.

Tiny Qatar, which has significant regional clout, was the first Arab country to criticize Assad’s bloody crackdown, closing its embassy in Damascus two months ago after the building was attacked by pro-Assad militiamen.

PROTESTS, RAIDS ESCALATE ALIKE Assad has repeatedly said he is fighting agents of what he calls a foreign plot to divide Syria.

Syrian authorities, who have expelled most foreign media, blame “armed terrorist groups” for the bloodshed and say that 500 army and police have been killed by such gangs.

Daily protests have increased in northwestern regions that include the cities of Homs, Hama, Idlib and the main port city of Latakia, prompting an escalation of military raids that killed hundreds of Syrians in the last month, rights groups say.

Thousands more people have also been arrested, according to residents and human rights campaigners.

Another witness said Syrian forces backed by entered on armor Monday the town of alJanoudiya northwest of Ain al-Baida after secupolice fought rity pitched gunbattles with a small group of army deserters attempting to flee to Turkey.

“They are trying to prevent every one, civilians and deserters, from reaching Turkey.

We have seen over the last week more refugees trying to make the border after the attacks on Latakia and Hama and Homs provinces,” said Bashar, a resident of Janoudiya.

Most army conscripts are from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority and many come from rural areas targeted in military efforts to crush six months of protests against Assad.

Army commanders and security chiefs are mostly from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Last week, Adnan Bakkour, attorney general of the province of Hama, announced his

China says didn’t know of arms sales talks with Gaddafi forces

By CHRIS BUCKLEY BEIJING - Chinese arms firms held talks with representatives of Muammar Gaddafi’s beleaguered forces in July over weapons sales, but behind Beijing’s back, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The revelation is nonetheless likely to deal a fresh blow to China’s already delicate relations with Libyan rebel forces that have ousted Gaddafi.

The ministry confirmed the gist of reports in the Globe and Mail and the New York Times that documents found in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, indicated that Chinese companies offered to sell rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles and other arms with a total of some $200 million to Gaddafi’s forces, despite a U.N. ban on such sales.

A ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said members of Gaddafi’s government had come to China and held talks with a “handful” of Chinese arms com-

pany officials without the knowledge of the government.

“We have clarified with the relevant agencies that in July the Gaddafi government sent personnel to China without the knowledge of the Chinese government and they engaged in contact with a handful of people from the companies concerned,” Jiang told a news briefing in Beijing.

“The Chinese companies did not sign arms trade contacts, nor did they export military items to Libya,” Jiang said. “I believe that the agencies in charge of the arms trade will certainly treat this seriously.”

Even if the arms talks were behind Beijing’s back, the controversy could intensify mistrust between Beijing and the rebels seeking to defeat Gaddafi’s shrinking forces and claim control of all Libya.

“We have hard evidence of deals going on between China and Gaddafi, and we have all the documents to prove it,” a rebel military spokesman, Abdulrahman

Busin, told the Times.

The arms issue comes on the heels of tensions between Beijing and the Libyan rebels over frozen funds.

On the weekend, the head of Libya’s rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said China had obstructed the release of some of Libya’s frozen assets.

Although China agreed with other powers last week to unfreeze $15 billion of Libyan assets abroad, it opposed handing control of more to the interim ruling council, according to Libyan rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah.

“In principle, we don’t have a problem” with unfreezing funds, said the Chinese spokeswoman Jiang.

“But out of a responsible attitude, we and some members of the Security Council want further explanation and information from the applicant countries about the uses of the funds and oversight of them,” she said.

defection to the opposition side on YouTube.

Security forces have been combing the region and adjacent Idlib to find him, activists and residents say.

State authorities said Bakkour had been kidnapped by gunmen, but he said he resigned because security forces had killed 72 jailed protesters and activists at Hama’s central prison on the eve of a military assault on the city on July 31.

Bakkour said at least another 420 people were killed in the operation and were buried in public parks.

“There are rumors that Bakkour has already managed to make it outside Syria, but no one really knows. The authorities

are trying feverishly to find him because it will be a huge embarrassment if he makes it to a free country unscathed,” said an activist in Damascus, who declined to be identified.

In Homs, the home region of Assad’s wife Asma, activists said security forces and proAssad militiamen from Alawite villages entered the Sunni town of Tel Kalakh near the border with Lebanon, firing into several districts.

The town, where an understanding between smugglers and the security apparatus once prevailed, was among the first to see protests in the uprising, prompting several military incursions and an intermittent refugee flow into Lebanon.

Pakistan says captures al Qaeda leader

By ZEESHAN HAIDER ISLAMABAD - Pakistan said on Monday it has captured a “senior al Qaeda leader” named Younis al- Mauritani who was responsible for conducting international operations and ordered

by Osama bin Laden to hit U.S., European and Australian economic targets.

The United States helped Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence (ISI) spy agency conduct the arrests, the military said, suggesting ties heavily damaged by the killing of bin Laden had improved.

“He was planning to target United States economic interests including gas/oil pipelines, power generating dams and strike ships/oil tankers through explosive laden speed boats in international waters,” the military said in a statement.

Pakistan, describing the capture as “another fatal blow” to the militant group, added that two other senior al Qaeda operatives were also detained in the operation on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta.

They were identified as Abdul Ghaffar alShami and Messara al-Shami. No further details were provided. It was not possible to immediately verify the captures.

U.S. officials have said al Qaeda’s deputy chief, Libyan national Atiyah abd al-Rahman, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan near the Afghan border on August 22. But Pakistan officials have not confirmed his death.

Pakistan has been under intense pressure from its ally the United States to crack down harder on al Qaeda and other militant groups since U.S. special forces found bin Laden in a Pakistani town in May and killed him in a secret raid.

Although much international attention has been focused on U.S.-led efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, U.S. officials believe regional stability will not be possible unless Pakistan roots out militants operating on its soil.

AFRICAN SCENE

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

AFRICAN SCENE

US Embassy slams Zimbabwe police over violence

By ANGUS SHAW

f designer says show Niger will go on despite fire Fashion designer Alphadi, who comes from Niger and is one of Africa’s most renowned stylists, on Friday said that the African fashion festival FIMA will go on, a day after a fire swept his workshops.

“The FIMA will indeed take place on the planned dates, that’s to say November 23 to 27 in Niamey,” Alphadi told AFP, adding that “what happened has nothing to do with the holding of the FIMA.” The festival is “a key event for Niger and it will be bigger than ever,” added the designer, whose full name is Seidnaly Sidahmed Alphadi.

“We are going to open Niger to Europeans and show the world that Niger is a safe country,” he vowed, referring to a threat to the vast northwest African nation by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has kidnapped Westerners in Niger’s desert regions.

Alphadi’s workshops in the centre of Niamey were ravaged on Thursday by a blaze of unknown origin.

Founded in 1998 by Alphadi, the FIMA festival takes place every two years and is an opportunity for African and European fashion designers to meet, learn and share. For the 8th FIMA this year, Alphadi is due to present his own work along with that of several other designers.

In 2000, his premises were vandalised by Islamic extremists hostile to the holding of a fashion show in Niger, which is a mostly Muslim country.

Suspects plead not guilty in Nigeria bombings ABUJA, Nigeria - Six suspected members of a radical Muslim sect accused of plotting bombings that killed 25 people in Nigeria have pleaded not guilty to the charges they face.

The six men appeared Friday at the Federal High Court in Abuja for an arraignment over the killings.

They face charges of bombing an election office in nearby Suleja in Niger state, bombing a political rally and church and detonating a bomb that killed security agents.

Prosecutors allege the suspects belong to the sect known locally as Boko Haram, which campaigns for the strict implementation of Shariah law.

The group claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the country that killed at least 23 people and wounded 116.

Man claims responsibility for Cameroon shootings A man whose candidacy was rejected in Cameroon’s forthcoming presidential election has claimed responsibility for shootings in the port of Douala, on behalf of an armed group.

HARARE, Zimbabwe The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe on Friday criticized police and judicial officials for failing to stop escalating political violence, as a human rights group said it had documented more than 20 cases a day of assault, intimidation and torture.

In a statement, the embassy said that militants backing longtime President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party had created a climate of fear and intimidation, particularly in the western Harare township of Mbare. The militants there are “unrestrained” by police and are extorting local traders, it said.

“If left unchallenged, actions such as these lend credence to

public perceptions of ZANU-PF as a party committed to violence and intimidation unconstrained by the laws of the land,” the U.S. Embassy said.

The independent humans right group Zimbabwe Peace Project, meanwhile, said 85 percent of the violence it had documented in August was perpetrated by Mugabe supporters.

The group’s researchers detailed assaults, intimidation and torture, as well as politically motivated theft and looting.

About 10 percent of 702 violations in the period under review were blamed on activists of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party. Tsvangirai, a longtime opposition leader, joined into a power-sharing agreement with Mugabe in 2009 that continues to fray.

Mugabe has called for elections in March to end the coalition formed after disputed, vio-

lence-plagued elections in 2008.

Tensions also have been rising within the ZANU-PF party itself following the death of party powerbroker Gen. Solomon Mujuru, the Zimbabwe Peace Peace Project bulletin said.

Mujuru died in a a fire at his home almost two months ago, renewing rivalries over who will succeed the 87-year-old Mugabe.

Police have refused to release details of investigations into the fire that burnt Mujuru beyond recognition. His burial at a national shrine outside Harare was by far the biggest funeral since independence in 1980, attended by some 50,000 mourners.

Many Zimbabweans believe the fire was intentional, and it’s feared political unrest could erupt if it emerges the popular former guerrilla leader was murdered.

Former Rwandan ministers get 30 years for genocide Two former Rwandan ministers were jailed Friday for 30 years by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for involvement in the central African country’s 1994 genocide.

Former public service minister Prosper Mugiraneza and his then trade counterpart Justin Mugenzi were convicted of complicity

to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide.

The Tanzania-based tribunal however acquitted two other ministers charged with similar offences due to lack of evidence.

Friday’s sentencing came 12 years since the former ministers were arrested. Their trial started in 2003 and wrapped up five years

later.

One of the judges said the convicted suspects should have had their sentences reduced by five years because the trial had dragged on for long.

All four ex-ministers, who denied the charges, were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis during several meetings they held across Rwanda

and in public speeches, some of which were aired on radio.

The ICTR, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, was established in late 1994 to try the key perpetrators of the 1994 massacre which claimed some 800,000 lives, mainly minority Tutsis, in a span of 100 days.

Police arrest 56 in Mauritania over census protests Mauritanian police have arrested 56 people, including 13 foreigners, in Nouakchott during clashes over a census between the security forces and young Blacks, the interior ministry said Friday.

In a statement sent to AFP, the ministry said that the arrested foreigners “had a mission of organising the perpetrators of acts of vandalism and destruction of the property of citizens.”

It did not give their nationality.

“Privately owned cars were burned and the

windows of other cars were smashed,” the statement said, adding that “these acts of sabotage are unacceptable in a law-abiding state.”

“If it hadn’t been for the vigilance of the security forces, the damage would have been worse.

The violence nearly reached domestic gas outlets and petrol stations,” the communique added.

The clashes on Thursday pitted the police against youths from the Black minority who believe a census under way in the northwest African country is “racist” and “discriminatory.” They argue that

Negro-Mauritanians, mainly from the south, will be treated as secondclass citizens.

The government of the largely Arabicspeaking nation has stated that it is trying to give the country a modern and accurate biometric census as a step on the way to reforms.

The clashes in the capital came two days after the death in the southern town of Maghama of a demonstrator hit by a bullet when paramilitary police dispersed a demonstration organised by the movement Don’t Touch My Nationality.

The protest movement against the census, which began in May, has spread in the past two weeks and left about 15 people injured in towns along the valley of the Senegal river on Mauritania’s southern border, according to human rights groups.

Some Black people in the country of three million fear that the poll is biased because census agents, who are mostly Moors, ask questions they cannot answer and demand to see administrative papers it is almost impossible to produce, like the death certificate of greatgrandparents.

D CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011 DAILY

AFRICAN SCENE

9

Guinea opposition to meet with government after unrest The Guinean government on Thursday asked to meet with opposition parties after clashes between protesters and security forces earlier this week left two dead and about 40 injured.

Police arrested more than 300 people when opposition supporters, calling for electoral reform and defying a government ban on rallies, confronted large numbers of officers throughout the capital Conakry on Tuesday.

The violence overshadowed what was supposed to have been a day of national reconciliation on Wednesday, the second anniversary of a massacre that preceded the fall of Guinea’s military junta and a transition toward democracy.

A statement from the government of Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana invited opposition parties to a meeting on Friday in order to come to an agree-

Guinea Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana, pictured in 2010. The Guinean government on Thursday asked to meet with opposition parties after clashes between protesters and security forces earlier this week left two dead and about 40 injured.

Photo/Cellou Diallo ment over the proposed legislative election on December 29 — a date contested by the opposition.

Sidya Toure, one of the main opposition leaders, told AFP that a meeting of about 30 officials from those parties invited had been

called on Thursday in Conakry “to see if we should respond to the government invitation, and if so, how to get there and on what conditions.”

Late Thursday, a source close to the opposition told AFP that they decided to

send two representatives to the meeting to read a declaration.

A previous meeting on Monday ended in failure and the opposition decided to go ahead with a gathering on Tuesday, defying a government ban on rallies.

Violent clashes

ensued in several parts of the capital and police carried out raids on opposition strongholds the following day.

Officers arrested a total of 322 people.

Members of the security forces remained in several districts on Thursday.

A coalition of about 20 opposition parties condemned “the climate of terror instigated by the government” in a statement.

Critics have denounced what they see as the “unilateral” manner in which the date of parliamentary elections has been fixed by the authorities and the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).

The opposition wants the CENI restructured, fearing a rigged vote.

Whistleblower Tunisian policeman cleared of one charge

Egypt army warns against threats to democracy Egypt’s military rulers warned Thursday against any threat to democracy and national security on the eve of planned protests calling for reform, in a statement on their Facebook page.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, warned protesters against “those who seek to impede the democratic transformation that began with the call for parliamentary elections.”

On Tuesday, the military laid out the timetable for the first post-Mubarak elections which will kick off on November 28 and take four months.

Presidential elections are expected to be set next year.

Activists have called for a protest on Friday to “reclaim the revolution” amid heightened frustration at the military ruler’s handling of transition from authoritarian rule.

“Those who have called for the Friday (protest) bear the responsibility to organise and secure and protect all private and public property,” SCAF said.

“Any encroachment on army units or camps or important

A soldier stands between Egyptians waiting to vote at a polling station in Cairo in March 2011. Egypt's military rulers warned Thursday against any threat to democracy and national security on the eve of planned protests calling for reform, in a statement on their Facebook page.

Photo/Aris Messinis establishments will be consid- change. ered a threat to Egyptian nationThousands of protesters have al security and will be dealt with been flocking to Cairo’s Tahrir with the utmost firmness,” Square — the epicentre of SCAF said. protests that toppled Mubarak— Egypt’s military ruler Field on an almost weekly basis to Marshal Hussein Tantawi has rally for speedy reforms. repeatedly stressed the army’s Protesters have been calling commitment to democracy, but for the lifting of the decades-old protesters have maintained pres- emergency law, an end to milisure on the military council he tary trials of civilians and social presides over the slow pace of justice.

Tunisian inhabitants of Sidi Bouzid clash with security forces in front the government palace in Tunis in January 2011. A Tunisian police officer held since the end of May for alleging wrongdoing by the interior ministry was acquitted Thursday by the military tribunal in Tunis.

A Tunisian police officer held since the end of May for alleging wrongdoing by the interior ministry was acquitted Thursday by the military tribunal in Tunis.

“This is a victory for the revolution and for the people who made the revolution,” said the policeman, Samir Feriani, who still faces charges of causing public disorder and defamation.

“I thank the military judiciary which showed itself to be fair,” Feriani said, in tears, as he left the tribunal.

Feriani was arrested at the Aouina military base on the outskirts of the capital after publishing two letters in the weekly L’Expert, in which he accused an unnamed interior ministry official of taking part in a crackdown on popular uprisings at Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia and Kasserine in the west.

He also claimed that the records of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, based in Tunis 1982-94, were destroyed in the days following the overthrow of since president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in January.

The military tribunal ruled on this issue on Thursday after Feriani was released conditionally last week but said the civil courts would have to examine the other charges.

CARIBBEAN NEWS

1 10

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

1 dead, about 30 hurt in Venezuela train crash

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ CHARALLAVE, Venezuela - Two commuter trains collided in a tunnel outside Caracas on Thursday, killing one person, injuring about 30 and leaving frightened passengers gasping for air in the dark, officials said.

One train suddenly braked due to an apparent malfunction and another crashed into it from the rear, causing the first to derail, Transportation Minister Francisco Garces said on state television. Officials said a packed train coming in the opposite direction was able to stop before colliding with the others, averting a possible disaster.

The crash apparently cut power in the tunnel between Caracas and the suburbs of Los Valles del Tuy. P a s s e n g e r s

“remained inside the wagons without air conditioning and within the tunnel,” causing some to feel a sense of suffocation, said Victor Lira, civil defense director for Miranda state.

He said five people suffered scrapes or trauma while the other injured were treated for respiratory problems or high blood pressure.

Lira said the engineer of the rear train died.

President Hugo Chavez said he regretted the accident. He urged Venezuelans not to speculate about possible causes but to await the results of an investigation.

“I lament the death of an employee, the driver of the train,” Chavez said.

The injury toll was low in part because the trains that collided were almost empty, heading out of the capital as rush hour traffic flowed the other way, Lira said. He said one of the trains had about 40 passengers on board,

while the other wasn’t carrying any.

The train that managed to avoid the crash was filled with about 1,000 people.

They were among about 3,000 people evacuated from the area, including about 2,000 who were aboard other trains not involved in the accident, officials said.

Rescuers drove trucks atop the tracks into the tunnel to evacuate some of the passengers.

Hundreds walked out of the tunnel on foot, and others rode on small maintenance trains.

About 100 people, most of them elderly people and children, were evacuated by helicopter.

The government sent buses to carry passengers whose trains were blocked by the crash, adding to the normally heavy traffic.

The 25-mile (41-kilometer) train line carries about 60,000 passengers a day.

Rescue workers remove the body of a passenger who died in a commuter train collision, near Charallave, outside of Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday Sept. 29, 2011. Two commuter trains collided in a tunnel outside Caracas on Thursday, killing at least one person, injuring about 30 and leaving frightened passengers gasping for air, officials said.

Photo/Fernando Llano

School threats spread to northern Mexico Cuba does away with emblematic Ministry of Sugar

By PETER ORSI HAVANA, Cuba Cuba announced the elimination of its Ministry of Sugar on Thursday in a sign of how far the symbolic crop has fallen since its heyday, when much of the population was mobilized to the countryside at harvest time to help cut cane.

President Raul Castro’s government determined that the ministry “currently serves no state function” and will therefore replace it with an entity called Grupo Empresarial de la Agroindustria Azucarera, the

Communist Party newspaper Granma reported.

The goal is to “create a business system capable of turning its exports into hard currency to finance its own expenses,” Granma said. There was no mention of any private or foreign investment.

Like coffee and tobacco, sugar is a highly emblematic crop on this Caribbean island. Cuba used to be a world leader in sugar, annually producing 6 million to 7 million tons.

Former leader Fidel Castro made the annual harvest a point of revolutionary pride and regularly mobilized brigades of Cubans from government officials and urban office workers to artists and ballet dancers to boost

output.

In 1968 he famously announced that Cuba would try to harvest 10 million tons of cane that year, mobilizing labor from nearly the entire workforce. That aim proved overly ambitious, though some 8 million tons were harvested.

Later, the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of its main buyer, and sugar has since fallen on hard times. It now trails nickel production and tourism as a source of foreign income, contributing about $600 million a year.

Last year, Cuba reported its lowest harvest since 1905 - 1.1 million tons - and fired its sugar minister.

Officials have said this year’s harvest is expected to be only slightly higher.

MONTERREY, Mexico - Banners similar to those left by Mexican drug cartels appeared Thursday threatening to attack schools in three communities outside the northern Mexico city of Monterrey.

Similar banners and messages left near schools in the southern city of Acapulco led dozens of grade schools to close in late August.

But there was no immediate indication that the banners left in communities in the township of Santiago on the outskirts of Monterrey would affect classes there.

Santiago Mayor Vladimiro Montalvo Salas said he asked state and federal authorities to step up security in the township, but urged parents to continue sending their children to school.

Montalvo Salas said he hoped the banners were just a bad joke.

He said state police

had taken down the banners, adding that it was unclear whether they contained any demands for protection payments as the messages in Acapulco did.

Drug gangs are known to operate in and around Monterrey.

Last year, Montalvo Salas’ predecessor as mayor was killed.

Santiago was once considered a quiet, bucolic weekend getaway for Monterrey residents, drawn by the town’s quaint colonialstyle streets. But the violent Zetas cartel began operating in the area around 2010.

In Acapulco, teachers agreed Thursday to gradually reopen dozens of grade schools that have missed classes, some since late August. The reopening is scheduled to begin Monday.

Arturo Martinez, the spokesman for the government of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, said Gov.

Angel Aguirre had signed an agreement with leaders of local teachers unions pledging increased security for schools that were targeted by threats and extortion demands.

Estimates vary on how many schools were affected. Edith Zurita Petatan, spokeswoman for striking teachers, claimed hundreds of schools shut down in the seaside city of almost 800,000 people.

The state government said only about 50 schools closed.

Elsewhere in Mexico on Thursday, the navy reported that marines had killed suspected cartel gunmen in a shootout in Veracruz state on Mexico’s Gulf coast.

The marines were responding to a complaint about armed men in the area around the city of Cosamaloapan when the gunmen opened fire on the patrol, the navy said.

D CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011 DAILY

CARIBBEAN NEWS

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Guyana reiterates ‘open arms’ policy to Chinese nationals GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Chinese nationals pursuing investment ventures in Guyana have been assured of the same level of respect as others by President Bharrat Jagdeo, who views China as a key ally in Guyana’s development. sentiments These were expressed by the head of state on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China cele-

brated on Wednesday evening.

Guyana shares a bilateral relationship with China that dates back 39 years and maintains the reputaas the first tion Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state to establish ties with China.

Speaking in the presence of Chinese Ambassador to Guyana Yu Wenzhe and other Chinese nationals, Cabinet colleagues and members of the diplomat corps and the private sector, Jagdeo said the Guyana/China rela-

Chavez rejects health rumours CARACAS, Venezuela — “I would be the first to announce any difficulty beyond what’s normal in my recovery process, and the people know me very well,” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in response to new rumours about his health, after he concluded his fourth and last chemotherapy session.

Responding to an ongoing wave of rumours that he is in Cuba, the Venezuelan head of state said that he is in his country, reviewing documents, reading and meeting his tasks, as he continues with his treatment and recovery process, Radio Nacional de Venezuela reported.

“I’m in a full recovery process, so that my body copes with the level of toxins,” resulting from four chemotherapy sessions, said Chavez in a phone conversation with Venezuelan TV. The rumours now circulating are aimed at generating uncertainty in the Venezuelan population; it is a strategy hatched in psychological warfare labs, given the political opposition in the country and the influence by the American empire, he said.

tionship began with the arrival of the indentured labourers.

“That bond has been strengthened over time to include many others who have come here and who are coming now to work and to live here and to enrich our country and we welcome their presence in our country,” Jagdeo said.

The industrious and progressive nature of Chinese people and the contributions of such achievements to their families and society were hailed by Jagdeo.

“Our people... will

always have a welcoming arm for Chinese people,” Jagdeo assured the Chinese ambassador.

Guyana is at present examining three major projects in the tourism, power and transport sectors that have potential for major transformation. Support from the Chinese government in these areas is important.

“China has always been friendly and has supported us in tangible ways... we are very happy with the access we have gotten to the finances from China,”

Jagdeo said.

By year-end, two new roll-on, roll-off ferries will be arriving in Guyana, donated by the Chinese government.

The project is moving according to schedule according to the Chinese ambassador.

The Chinese government is also a main partner in the one laptop per family (OLPF) programme with Haier Electrical Appliance Limited winning the bid to supply the laptops.

Wenzhe reflected on the recent China-

Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum in Trinidad and Tobago, which led among other things to US$1billion of preferential loans to support the local economic development of the region and a promise to deepen China-Caribbean cooperation in such areas as finance and investment, capacity building, environmental protection, new energy, culture, education, health, trade, tourism as well as agriculture and fishery.

Jamaican PM to address Trinidad PM may be released from hospital on Friday nation on October 2

KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding, is scheduled to address the nation in a broadcast on Sunday, October 2.

This was disclosed by Minister with responsibility for Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Daryl Vaz, at Thursday’s postCabinet press briefing.

“We can look forward to the prime minister addressing the country and the nation in which he will speak to the issues of the transition and also the critical issues facing the country that we are all aware of,” he said, adding that details of the time for the broadcast will be announced later.

“The loss of his mother, who was buried yesterday (Wednesday), that was his major focus... It was always expected that he would be addressing the nation, but I don’t think it could have been done before he laid his mother to rest,” Vaz said.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) revealed last Sunday that Golding had informed the party’s Central Executive that he would not be seeking reelection at its annual conference in November, and would step down as prime minister as soon as a new leader is elected.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Minister of Health Dr Fuad Khan said Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar remains at the St Clair Medical Centre, where she is resting comfortably and “may be discharged tomorrow, Friday”.

Speaking at the post Cabinet press conference on Thursday, the minister said the prime minister’s doctor, Dr Dickson Marchack had indicated that all the “investigative assessments are normal or close to normal for a woman her age”.

Khan however said there was some concern about the swelling of her feet.

Persad-Bissessar was taken to hospital on Wednesday after complaining of feeling unwell.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communications, Dr Surjurattan Rambachan said Thursday’s Cabinet meeting was chaired by Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran. He added that the prime minister continued to work while hospitalised in the interest of the national community.

A release issued by the Office of the Prime

Belize looks to UN for partnership NEW YORK — Belize Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Wilfred Elrington, told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that Belize is looking to the United Nations to partner with the Central American country in combating the three most serious threats that presently confront it.

He said, “These are that posed by climate change, the threat posed by crime and violence, and the threat posed by chronic non communicable diseases.”

The minister also called for an end of the embargo against Cuba.

Over the past decade, the minister said that crime and violence in Belize and the rest of Central America have escalated dramatically resulting in some 18,167 homicides, but pointed out that none of the firearms used in these murders are produced in the region.

He said, “They are the product of the illicit trafficking in guns between South and Central America. They are the product of the illicit trafficking in guns and drugs between South and North America.”

He emphasised some of the silent killers ravaging Latin American

and the Caribbean communities — chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The minister said in the Caribbean today, NCDs are responsible for 62 percent of deaths, 40 percent of which occur prematurely and stressed that, if this trend continues, NCDs will account for three out of four deaths in the Caribbean by the year 2030.

These diseases, Elrington said, can only be combated effectively through the collaborative efforts of the international community.

Belize, the minister said, is of the view that,

given the quantum and scale of the problems that confront the world today and the unquestioned need for an ever increasing amount of resources, the international community cannot afford not to avail itself of every source of assistance that is to hand.

In this regard, Elrington said, “We would wish to urge the Republic of China (Taiwan) be allowed to participate meaningfully in the work of the United Nations. In a similar vein, we would urge that the embargo against Cuba which this assembly has

Belize Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington (R) pictured here with Oscar Ramjeet, Hon. Vice Consul and Legal Consultant, just before the Minister made his presentation at the UN in New York on Tuesday from Oscar Ramjeet at the United Nations denounced for many Human Rights Charter, years be brought to an too many people are still end.” destitute, are still dying He also had a com- from hunger, are still ment on hunger and casualties of preventable jobless people and said or curable diseases, are that “notwithstanding still illiterate, are still the armory of human jobless and are still marrights that are ginalized and excluded enshrined in our own from society”.

New American

The

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

One Thought - One Humanity

Keke Palmer joins bullying campaign, talks getting picked on for her hair

For the conclusions of these stories check out the September 29th- October 5th, 2011 issue of The New American, which hits newsstands every Thursday 30 is the new 20 in actress-singer Christina Milian’s case. The ageless beauty got a jump start on her birthday festivities Thursday night at Meatpacking’s Beaumarchais restaurant in New York City. The birthday girl radiated in a Black with nude trimming Betsey Johnson dress and nude pumps. Partying well into the morning, Milian popped bottles of Hypnotiq with family and friends including 106 & Park’s Rosci and Maxwell. Taking a quick party break, Milian reflected about the biggest lesson she learned in her twenties.

“I’m a little bit more blunt and I’m a little less naive when it comes to love. I think love has been my biggest lesson in my twenties and also just learning how to be myself and grow into my own shell without having to try and rebel, you can do it in a way different manner. Communication is everything so I learned how to communicate really well now that I’ve ended my twenties and gone into my thirties.”

Actor Taye Diggs has joined the ranks of the celebrity children’s book authors. The Best Man star chronicles one boy’s struggle to fit in with those around him because of his race in new book Chocolate Me!, and the Black actor hopes the story will help his own twoyear-old son, Warner, when he begins school.

He says, “You should be proud and embrace your differences regardless if race or religion or if something is looked upon as a handicap.” And the star admits the project was inspired from his own personal hardships. He adds, “The book is about a time in my life when I lived in a neighborhood where

no one looked like me and (it) resulted in me getting made fun of...

My mother then sat with me and convinced me to embrace my differences and that I should love the qualities and features I have regardless of what others thought.”

Beyoncé doesn’t just have that pregnancy glow. It’s more like a megawatt luminescence. “It’s been great. I feel free. I feel very empowered,” the singer, 30, tells ET Canada of her pregnancy. After so many rumors over the years that she and Jay-Z were expecting, Beyoncé was a bit daunted by finally confirming that she was pregnant – but says the big reveal at the MTV Video Music Awards worked out great.

A variety of legendary DJs will be honored during the 2nd Annual IDJ Awards Gala and Reunion, which will take place later this month in Las Vegas, Nevada. The three-day conference, which is being presented in conjunction with Bum Squad DJs, SmashVids.com and Global Investments LLC, will host DJs from around the world. The conference will feature workshops on topics that include video editing, DJing techniques, new technology. An awards show that will be hosted by Thisis50.com’s Jack Thriller will honor DJs Roc Raida, DJ AM. DJ Mr. Magic, DJ Hideo and DJ Screw will also be honored during the week.

Wanda Sykes being outrageous – that’s expected. But for the actress-comedian to be serious? That’s rare.

Even when the issue is personal. In this case, it was also health-related, when she admitted for

the first time, to Ellen DeGeneres during an interview to air Monday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, that earlier this year she had breast cancer and then elected to have a mastectomy. “I had breast cancer,” says Sykes, 47. “Yeah, I know it’s scary.” The cancer was found after she had undergone what was essentially a cosmetic procedure, to have a breast reduction. “This was in February. I went for the reduction. I had real big boobs and I just got tired of knocking over stuff. Every time I eat … Oh lord. I’d carry a Tide stick everywhere I go,” she quips. “My back was sore so it was time to have a reduction.” She continues, “It wasn’t until after the reduction that in the lab work, the pathology, that they found that I had DCIS [ductal carcinoma in situ] in my left breast. I was very, very lucky because DCIS is basically stage-zero cancer. So I was very lucky.”

A Miami rap star has landed a high-profile interview in the upcoming October issue of GQ Magazine. Rick Ross spent a full day and evening with GQ’s Devin Friedman, who shadowed the rapper and conducted the interview for GQ, which is titled “Rick Ross’s Simple Lessons for Bosses, Dons and B**ches.” According to the article, Rick Ross is currently indulged in a lavish, extravagant lifestyle, thanks to his successful career as a rapper. “I just have my homeys or whatever bringing me the best food,” Rick Ross explained. “I smoke the best weed. I get the best massages.

I keep myself in s**t like this,” referring to his clothing.

Singer/actress Keke Palmer has teamed with the YWCA USA and Saving Our Daughters to help combat the issues of bullying and abuse with young people throughout the nation. Palmer’s drive for the campaign comes from her own personal experience with a bully as well as one of her biggest fans, Iliss Marie Benjamin, who lost her life to brain cancer.

“I was a victim of a bully when I was 8 years old, some kids in my class made fun of me because my hair was very curly and hard to manage,” said Palmer. “I am 18 years old and still, I remember it was painful, to be different, to have an illness like Little Iliss, to be different from the crowd for any reason can make you a target of a bully.”

Palmer continued, “I am so pleased to be a part of this anti-bullying campaign and sincerely hope that together we can make a differ-

ence.”

In her roll, Palmer will work on campaigns to empower women across the globe.

“We are so excited about having such an extraordinary singer & actress as Keke Palmer, to address these issues of bullying & abuse worldwide with the YWCA USA and with both our missions” stated CEO of Saving Our Daughters, Curtis Benjamin.

According to Tavia Pauling, Chief Operating Officer of Saving Our Daughters, “Keke will be the exclusive leader for the “Oath Project” where young girls are encouraged to take an oath for anti-bullying.

This initiative will launch online via Facebook and Twitter to acquire pledges from 50,000 teens and 250,000 adults to take 8 immediate action steps to prevent bullying.”

The pledge initiative will be accompanied by an anti-bullying PSA fea-

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Nelson Mandela’s granddaughters set for TV show JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Three of Nelson Mandela’s granddaughters have signed on to star in an as-yet-unnamed South African reality TV show set to premiere next year.

The South African Mail & Guardian Online said Swati Dlamini, Dorothy Adjoa Amuah and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway announced their unscripted television project Thursday.

“The show will be about our lives as young, Black women ... We’re not wearing ‘I’m a Mandela’ T-shirts,” Dlamini told reporters in Johannesburg.

“We are exposing Africa for what it is ... with a new middle class of intellectuals ... contributing to the

economy,” Amuah added. “We’re definitely not the African Kardashians.”

“They clearly have a great love [for each other]. This may be part storytelling, part reality, except the story we are telling is real ... It’s not going to detract from the dignity of Nelson Mandela,” the newspaper quoted producer Rick Leed as saying.

The Mail & Guardian said the women’s parents and grandparents are not expected to appear on the show.

Nelson Mandela, 93, was president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 after having served 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activities.

Idris Elba would love to be the next James Bond LOS ANGELES — You love him as British cop “Luther,” you loved him as the thinking man’s drug kingpin Stringer Bell on “The Wire,” and Idris Elba hopes one day you’ll love him as the post-Daniel Craig James Bond.

Asked in an interview with National Public Radio if he’d be interested in the role, the Emmynominated “Luther” star said he would be — but only if he’s not known as the “Black Bond.”

“I’d definitely consider it,” Elba said. “I just don’t want to be the Black James Bond. Sean Connery wasn’t the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don’t want to be called the Black James Bond.”

NPR interviewer Linda Wertheimer then tried to elicit a more committed response from Elba, asking if he’d jump into a cab if Sony called and asked him to come to a meeting about a potential 007 movie.

“I’d not only get in the cab, but I’d take the taxi driver out of the car,

Stacey Dash divorces husband LOS ANGELES — Actress Stacey Dash and actor Emmanuel Xuereb are divorced, court papers filed in Los Angeles show.

Dash filed for divorce in January 2010, alleging her spouse abused her, but insisting she was too afraid of him to report it to authorities.

The dissolution of her three-year marriage to Xuereb was finalized last week, E! News said Friday.

Dash is best known for her work in the film “Clueless,” as well as in the reality series “Single Ladies.”

Xuereb has appeared on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Cold Case” and

hostage,” he said. “The taxi, jump out while it was moving, jump onto a pedal bike that was just past the door as I got on it, and then get onto a plane — on the wing — land on top

of Sony Studios, slide through the air conditioning, and land in the office.”

And that’s why he should be the next James Bond.

open happiness

© 2011 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Everybody Dance is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC. The PlayStation®Eye camera (sold separately) is required to use this product. “PlayStation”, and the “PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. ©2011 The Coca-Cola Company.

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Kanye West makes Paris Fashion Week debut

By JAMES MONTGOMERY Kanye West made his Paris Fashion Week debut Saturday night (October 1), launching a womenswear line with a high-profile show that was sexy, swaggering and, of course, incredibly stylish.

Before an audience that included fashion heavyweights like Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour, designer Alexander Wang and photographer Terry Richardson — not to mention celebs like Lindsay Lohan, Jared Leto and Ciara — West paraded a host of different looks, from daringly cut dresses and color-block pants to bodyhugging tracksuits and high-end hoodies.

West draped his models in flowing fabrics, leather and fur, propped them up on beaded stilettos and even gave each a matching “Yeezi” nameplate chain to wear on the catwalk. And for an artist to whom subtlety is often a foreign concept, West displayed an unerring attention to the tiny details, as evidenced by the collection’s artful-

Kanye West acknowledges the applause of the audience after the KW by Kanye West Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2012 show during Paris Fashion Week at Lycee Henri IV in Paris, France. ly beaded ensembles, knitted tops and kept a running diary of West’s fashion even fur-covered backpacks — all of debut.

Though it was his first-ever showwhich had the crowd murmuring ing, West’s bow was also one of the with approval.

For a more detailed account of all most-hyped events of Paris’ annual the looks, check out the MTV Style fashion week, with bloggers hyping blog, which was in attendance and stories that he had spent 14,000

pounds on fabric and trimmings at London haberdasheries and speculating that his show would feature only the models he mentioned in his song “Christian Dior Denim Flow.” The actual location for the show was kept a closely guarded secret, with invitations being mailed the day before the event, a move that only further added to the frenzy.

And given the buildup, it seemed only natural (and, in keeping with Fashion Week tradition) for West to start his show some 45 minutes after the supposed 9:30 p.m. start time. But that didn’t seem to bother those lucky enough to gain entry into Paris’ Lycee Henri IV (a posh secondary school taken over by West’s team for the event), who chatted beneath soft purple lighting while waiting for the first models to walk.

At show’s end, West emerged to applause, wearing a simple white Tshirt, black pants and a pair of Jordans. After taking his bow, he posed for photos backstage with his models, and speculation began that his collection (which doesn’t yet have a name) might actually be called Yeezi, as the nameplates seemed to hint.

Chris Brown stirs up frenzy on F.A.M.E. tour Kandi Burruss

By REBECCA THOMAS UNIONDALE — If there’s one place where Chris Brown escapes the nimbus cloud of unfortunate headlines that often threatens to rain down on him, it’s the stage. He proved that emphatically when he touched down Friday night at New York’s Nassau Coliseum (capacity 18,000), the midway mark on his F.A.M.E. Tour.

Away from his Twitter account, even the hidden dangers of his iPhone, Breezy cleared the brush of his personal distractions, and was simply sublime onstage. Rather than calling to mind his pop&B peers, Brown conjured a late Pop King who also battled bad press during his lifetime.

Such is Brown’s command that, four albums to his credit, now even the songs on which he’s only featured seem to become his own. Suited up in a jacket and tuxedo pants embellished with spangly trim, Chris laid into the hook that turns Ace Hood’s “Body 2 Body” from sexy to downright sensual, and had the moves to match. The Coliseum performance space was expansive and divided into three tiers, connected by a series of steps and ladders, with a series of five oversize cylinders at the base, and overhead, a large screen that projected CB music videos as well as a running concert skit that had fans peeking at suggestive messages sent from the star’s phone to the squealing girls amassed in the

crowd. (“Can I see you tonight?” one of them read.)

He rinsed off and repeated the same feat for his song-stealing chorus on Big Sean’s bottle-clinking “My Last,” stalking the stage like an MC. By the time Chris got to the slightly aggressive bedroom ballad “No BS,” the white dress shirt and jacket were off, and the squealing had reached fever-pitch. What is it about C.Breezy? Maybe it’s that he’s right at that moment where he’s balancing late-adolescent energy (Brown seemed to bounce on the balls of his feet, his Jordans never quite touching ground) with budding manhood, but he managed to find the perfect dose of sweetness for the down-onbended-knee songs like “All Back,” “She Ain’t You” and “Next to You,” and then just the right amount of swagger for hard-hitting, danceheavy hits like “Yeah 3X” and “Look At Me Now.” Chris’ tenor is increasingly rich, and on songs from early in his catalog like “With You,” he sounded as heartbreakingly sincere (maybe more so) as he does on the 2007 recording. For his Jordin Sparksassisted “No Air,” CB asked the ladies to step in for the onetime “American Idol” winner; they were so good with the lyrics, he paused several times, beaming and cocking his head appreciatively.

“Y’all tired?” he asked the howling fans after tourmate and frequent collaborator Tyga re-emerged for “Deuces” and a thunderous take on the Young Money up-and-comer’s

“Snapbacks Back” (itself a takeoff of Meek Mill and Rick Ross’ spine-tingling “Tupac Back”). “I’m just asking,” Breezy laughed in his Virginia drawl, “Y’all want some water?”

Far from tired, the TeamBreezydevoted, which had basically given up sitting, were fully dancing in the aisles as Brown’s troupe of pros — donning a variety of costumes, from Jabbawockeez-style masks to yearbook-worthy Varsity jackets — showed up for nearly 90-minutes’ worth of straight street dancing. But they truly elevated the art form during the show-closing “Beautiful People,” a transcendent (seriously, listen to it) electro-flavored Benny Benassi production. With the audience bathed in lasers, Chris’ floor team, clad in Martian-meets-mummy-style L.E.D. suits, lit up alternately in florescent light patterns. Brown, illuminated himself, descended the multilevel stage and joined them for one of the finest breakdowns in recent memory.

If the F.A.M.E. singer isn’t the finest R&B performer of our generation, he’s certainly gunning for the title. Think MJ would be proud.

Apart from getting super assists from Tyga and fellow opener T-Pain, who rolled out his radio smashes on Friday, Kelly Rowland made it a coed affair. The former Destiny’s Child princess was on one Friday night: Flanked by a gang of muscled male dancers, she powered through DC smashes, her hip-hop features (“Dilemma”) and solo smashes. Motivation, indeed.

to star in TV special Bravo says it has ordered a TV special called “The Kandi Factory,” starring songwriter and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast member Kandi Burruss.

In the program, Burruss will give two proteges the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of pop music success in Atlanta.

She has identified three factors that have to fit perfectly together to create a pop sensation — the song, the look and the performance.

Burruss and her team of experts at “The Kandi Factory” will work with the two contestants to try to turn them into music superstars, the network said in a news release.

“With her breakout personality and straightforward attitude, Bravo fans have grown to love Kandi on ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’” Eli Lehrer, Bravo’s vice president of development, said in a statement Thursday. “‘The Kandi Factory’ will capture a unique look at her successful music career as Kandi transforms two music hopefuls into the next big pop star.”

DAILY D CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

NEW JERSEY

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As economy stalls, N.J. businesses keep brakes on hiring

By SUSAN TODD N O R T H BRUNSWICK - Ed Miller’s specialty duct tape-making company took a beating in late 2008 as the effects of the nation’s recession set in and dramatically dried up sales.

ProTapes and Specialties, which had seemed resistant to the economic downturn for months, quickly went into survival mode, Miller said. Forty people lost their jobs.

Two years later, the North Brunswick-based company has not restored any of the jobs, and Miller said until the economy stabilizes, it isn’t clear when, or if, it will.

“Be leaner and meaner was the lesson we learned coming out of the 2009 downturn,’’ Miller said. “When you have upticks in business that aren’t necessarily sustainable, you manage the growth with overtime.’’

In companies across New Jersey, executives like Miller are already looking ahead to next year and trying to predict how they will grow in an economy that remains stuck in slow gear. The threat of inflation, slowing sales and an overall uncertainty are influencing their

strategies as well as their hiring plans.

From small manufacturing companies to major medical centers, executives are trying to navigate a bumpy, uneasy time by holding the line on employment, chasing opportunities in new markets and bracing for the possibility that their best guesses might be undone by the instability of the economy.

Mark Price, a labor economist with Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pa., said two of the most important considerations influencing an employer’s decision to hire workers are the outlook for sales and the ability to accommodate an increase in business.

“If demand for goods and services doesn’t look like it’s going to grow, companies might be more cautious about adding to employment,’’ Price said. “If a company can meet demand with its existing work force, it’s going to do that.’’

In August, a group of economists surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia offered a more dreary prognosis for the nation’s economic recovery.

In the quarterly forecast, the group of 37 economists made downward revisions to their projections about GDP -

gross domestic product is a key barometer of the nation’s economic health. GDP is likely to grow by a slim 2.6 percent rather than the previous forecast of 3.4 percent.

The economists predicted slower-than-anticipated job growth in 2012 and an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent worse than the group’s previous forecast. On Friday, there was even more reason for such pessimism: According to the government’s latest data, employers stopped adding jobs in August, and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent.

“The economy is limping along,’’ Price said.

“It’s kind of grim.’’

That’s what worries Miller at the specialty duct tape business in North Brunswick. Until the growth in sales appears to be sustainable, he said, he plans to wait to make any new hires.

“We’re literally looking at this month-tomonth,’’ he said. “For as long as this uncertainty exists, we’re going to try to manage with the same head count we have now.’’

Alan Lieber, president of Overlook Medical Center, is wrestling with his own set of uncertainties as he puts together a spending plan for next year.

As it stands now, Lieber expects the hospital to experience moderate job growth next year, possibly adding as many as 50 positions.

The jobs, he said, would be a combination of nurses and technicians, who would be hired to operate new brain-mapping equipment for the hospital’s neurosurgery unit.

“The truth is we’ve been very stable,’’ said Lieber, who oversees a workforce of 3,400 people “The reality is, it’s very uncertain right now.’’

The Summit-based hospital faces the possibility of a “very large decrease’’ in Medicare reimbursements depending on the outcome of discussions in Washington on how to reduce the federal budget deficit. In February, Congress is expected to discuss proposals to decrease the reimbursements paid to hospitals and other health care providers. Some lawmakers have argued that hospitals would remain profitable with reduced reimbursements.

If the proposed reductions go through, Lieber said, his hiring plan for 2012 would likely drop to zero.

“The deficit-reduction discussion has the potential for serious reductions to hospitals,’’

he said. “It’s creating a level of turmoil that we don’t usually have.’’

Price, the labor economist from Keystone Research, said although the general jobs outlook looks bleak, there are exceptions. Some small businesses will be more willing to take risks than their larger, less nimble counterparts and other businesses will aggressively manage their growth in order to stay competitive despite the tough times.

“The risk of not growing is that someone else will take your business,’’ he said.

The days when partners at Sills, Cummis and Gross would hire attorneys just because the 300-employee firm was prospering are long gone. They are still hiring, but they’re more strategic about it.

Max Crane, a managing partner, said the firm focuses on areas of the practice that are busy with litigation, including health care, which ranges from product liability cases against medical device makers to hospital acquisitions. The firm’s recent hiring has focused on lawyers who can take on more of that lucrative business.

“I just hired someone yesterday,’’ Crane said, “and two more are coming in September.’’

At NRG Energy, a

wholesale power generation company based in Princeton, executives are just beginning the budget-making process for next year. Yet it is almost certain the company will add employees in its fast-growing solar and expanding retail businesses, according to Thomas Lynch, the company’s vice president of human resources.

“Even in a shrinking economy, with the country committed to alternative power, there will still be opportunities to grow,’’ Lynch said.

As its subsidiary Green Mountain Energy expands outside Texas, Lynch said, there will be a need to add employees in sales, billing and accounting. The growing solar business requires additional employees to fill sales and regulatory positions. The growth will also create a need for new attorneys and real estate people.

But projections of how many workers could be added are difficult to make, Lynch said.

“It depends on how much you want to grow,’’ he said. “When you’re expanding a product into new markets, do you want to grow faster or do you want to grow more slowly? That’s what we’re going through.’’

Thr ee teens shot in Festivals ride broader shoulders Newark’s West War d

By CRISTINA ROJAS

By DAVID GIAMBUSSO NEWARK - Three teens were shot in Newark’s West Ward Saturday night but all are expected to survive, authorities said.

Shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday, two females and a male were transported to University Hospital after suffering gunshot wounds near the intersection of South 16th Street and 16th Avenue.

The victims were 13, 16 and 19, police said.

“Detectives from Major Crimes will be working around the clock as they look for evidence that will lead them to the persons who committed this shooting, a shooting that has left three youngsters severely injured,” Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio said in a statement.

“As I offer my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims, I would also like to

assure them that we will make every effort to bring those responsible swiftly to justice,” he added.

Police were in the preliminary stages of their investigation Saturday and had neither a suspect nor a motive, a spokesman said. Anyone with information is asked to call the department’s CrimeStoppers anonymous tip line at (877) 695-8477 or (877) 6954867.

TRENTON Three years ago, the a n n u a l Thanksgiving Parade almost didn’t happen in the midst of the city’s financial woes.

When word spread that the cashstrapped city might cancel the parade, volunteers pulled together to help trim the city’s costs.

Mercer County Freeholder Sam Frisby, the city’s former director of recreation, natural resources and cul-

ture, said a greater reliance on community groups to participate in the parade saved the city from having to pay bands and Mummers to march.

“It shifted to an allcommunity parade,” he said. “People started to realize that the city was serious about not being able to pay for it or do it all on our own.”

The parade signaled a shift toward fewer city-subsidized events in a time of tighter budgets, but there are still plenty of festivals, Frisby says, despite organizers of some parades and festivals moving or canceling their events.

In 2009, complaints about financial problems were a constant refrain among festival organizers, prompting them to cancel the Trenton Jazz Festival and scale back Heritage Days.

The Trenton Jazz Festival had run for 19 years, but the nonprofit committee suspended operations after struggling to find companies to contribute to the $250,000 budget.

That same summer, the 31-year-old Heritage Days festival was scaled down from two days to one, and last year, the worsening economy made even a small program impossible.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

16

A gluten-free for all drives product sales

By LISA BAERTLEIN LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles voice actor Nancy Truman landed a new role as a full-time gluten-free baker after she tweaked her recipes to replace the wheat that was making her feel miserable.

Truman is among the estimated 18 million people in the United States who are sensitive to gluten — a hardto-digest protein found in wheat, rye and barley.

Another 3 million-plus Americans are thought to have celiac disease, a potentially life-threatening autoimmune disorder that is treated by eliminating dietary gluten.

In business, as in acting, good timing proved crucial for Truman.

Sales of gluten-free products have been booming despite the weak U.S. economy. Health advocates and gluten-free celebrities such as 2011 U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic, Chelsea Clinton and TV host Elisabeth Hasselbeck have helped drive demand by raising awareness about celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

Truman also had the good luck of being a friend and neighbor to Waylynn Lucas, one of Los Angeles’ most celebrated pastry chefs, who is a fan of her gluten-free goodies.

The two now are partners in (fonuts), a new coffee shop that sells

baked, not fried, doughnuts. Glutenfree options account for half of sales at (fonuts).

Lucas said customers are either avoiding gluten themselves or “have a friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a cousin, a father, a mother, a whatever, who is gluten intolerant.”

“When they see it can be delicious and a little more healthful, they’re really turned on,” Truman said.

Gluten is everywhere. It is in baked goods, pasta and beer, as well as some unexpected items, such as McDonald’s french fries, lunch meat, lipstick and some medicines.

Euromonitor International forecasts 2011 gluten-free sales of $1.31 billion in the United States and $2.67 billion worldwide. Sales have more than doubled since 2005 and are expected to hit $1.68 billion in the United States and $3.38 billion globally in 2015.

“Consumers do feel some sort of reward when they eat gluten-free products. They don’t feel bloated.

They don’t have belly aches. This usually encourages them to repeat the purchase,” said Ewa Hudson, Euromonitor International’s head of health and wellness research.

Europe is ahead of the United States when it comes to celiac disease testing and awareness. Italy, for example, helps people with celiac disease pay for the additional cost of

gluten-free foods.

But big U.S. companies are jumping into the fray.

General Mills Inc is a leader, having reformulated some Chex breakfast cereals, Betty Crocker cake and brownie mixes and Bisquick pancake mix to remove gluten.

Anheuser Busch Inbev SA sells a gluten-free beer called Redbridge, which is sold in many mainstream supermarkets.

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc for years has had a gluten-free menu and Subway, the popular sandwich chain, is testing gluten-free bread and brownies in Texas and Oregon.

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey and actress Gwyneth Paltrow have talked about avoiding gluten as part of detox diets, comments that prompted critics to dub gluten-free the diet du jour.

Trend chasers who have no medical reason to be on a gluten-free diet account for more than half of the daily consumption of gluten-free products, said Alessio Fasano, medical director at the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research.

Top-notch professional athletes are the only other people who get some measurable benefit from cutting out gluten without a doctor’s orders, he said. Eliminating dietary gluten appears to free up energy that otherwise would be used to break down the tough-to-digest protein, said Fasano, who joked that athletes use the diet as a “legal performance enhancer.”

Still, he does not mind that fads are boosting sales.

“If anything, it’s good for the market” because the extra customers should help improve quality and lower cost, he said.

Interest from big retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc also should help bring down gluten-free product prices, which run 2 percent to 3 percent higher than similar items containing gluten, said Alice Bast, founder of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

Consumers have been preoccupied with food sensitivity for some time (remember lactose intolerance?) and there is growing interest in foods that support digestive and overall health, said Tamara Barnett, ethnographic research manager at the Hartman Group, a research and consulting firm. Gluten-free products overlap those trends, she said.

Better-tasting products also help.

“They went from being sawdust to being really good,” said “Living Gluten-Free for Dummies” author Danna Korn.

Shauna James Ahern was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2005 and recommends focusing on readily available and naturally gluten-free foods such as fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat.

The cookbook author and “GlutenFree Girl” blogger, says the category has staying power and suspects she knows why people who do not have a medical reason for going gluten-free feel better when they do.

“They’re eating whole foods for the first time in their lives,” she says.

Yawning may be a natural way of regulating brain temperature, a new study suggests.

U.S. researchers examined the frequency of yawns among 80 people in the winter and another 80 people in the summer and found seasonal variations.

Yawning is known to be “contagious,” the researchers pointed out.

After being showed pictures of other people yawning, nearly half of the participants yawned while outdoors in winter, compared with less than one-quarter while outdoors in summer, according to the report published online Sept. 22 in the journal Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience.

The finding that people yawn less often in the summer, when outdoor temperatures often exceed body temperature, suggests that yawning could be a natural brain-cooling mechanism, said the researchers at Princeton University and the University of Arizona.

“This provides additional support for the view that the mechanisms controlling the expression of yawning are involved in thermoregulatory physiology. Despite numerous theories posited in the past few decades, very little experimental research has been done to uncover

the biological function of yawning, and there is still no consensus about its purpose among the dozen or so researchers studying the topic today,” study leader Andrew Gallup, a postdoctoral research associate in Princeton’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology, said in a university news release.

“Enter the brain cooling, or thermoregulatory, hypothesis, which proposes that yawning is triggered by increases in brain temperature, and that the physiological consequences of a yawn act to promote brain cooling,” he added.

Yawning may help cool the brain through the deep inhalation of cool air and by enhanced blood flow to the brain caused by the stretching of the jaw.

“According to the brain cooling hypothesis, it is the temperature of the ambient air that gives a yawn its utility. Thus yawning should be counterproductive — and therefore suppressed — in ambient temperatures at or exceeding body temperature because taking a deep inhalation of air would not promote cooling. In other words, there should be a ‘thermal window’ or a relatively narrow range of ambient temperatures in which to expect highest rates of yawning,” Gallup explained.

Kids can enjoy Halloween candy, still protect teeth Yawning may help the brain chill out Children can enjoy some Halloween candy and still avoid sugarrelated tooth decay, according to Dr. Margaret Mitchell, a Chicago dentist.

Mitchell said the key to preventing tooth decay lies in limiting not only the amount of candy children eat, but also how long the sugar remains in the mouth.

Brushing teeth as soon as possible after eating candy may keep harmful bacteria from developing, she said, and eating the candy quickly in one sitting decreases the amount of time it is contact with the teeth.

Children and parents can take several additional steps to protect their teeth, said Mitchell, owner of the Mitchell Dental Spa. These include: Take inventory. Parents should examine their children’s candy and remove anything they consider unacceptable before allowing them to eat it.

Avoid anything tacky or gummy.

This type of candy can stick to teeth and cause decay.

Be consistent. No matter what time of day children eat candy (day or night), they should remember to have good dental hygiene.

Take precautions. Before Hal-

loween rolls around, a dentist can put sealants into children’s teeth grooves to protect them against corrosion caused by too much sugar.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

17

Daily aspirin tied to risk of vision loss

By KERRY GRENS Seniors who take aspirin daily are twice as likely to have late stage macular degeneration, an age-related loss of vision, than people who never take the pain reliever, a new European study reports.

The data do not show that aspirin causes vision loss. But the findings are of concern if aspirin somehow exacerbates the eye disorder, researchers say, given how many seniors take it daily for heart disease.

“For people who have age-related macular degeneration, it probably isn’t wise to recommend taking aspirin,” said William Christen of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in this study.

Researchers led by Dr. Paulus de Jong at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical Center collected health and lifestyle information from nearly 4,700 people over age 65.

The study, published in the jour-

nal Ophthalmology, included Norwegian, Estonian, British, French, Italian, Greek and Spanish seniors.

Of the 839 people who took aspirin each day, 36 had an advanced form of the disease called wet macular degeneration.

This equates to about four out of every 100 daily aspirin users.

In comparison, roughly two out of every 100 people who took aspirin less frequently had the same type of macular degeneration.

The wet form of the eye condition, caused by leaking blood vessels in the eye, leads to vision loss in the center of the eye’s field of vision.

The dry form of macular degeneration is more common and less severe, although people still suffer visual impairment.

Together, wet and dry macular degeneration make up the leading causes of vision loss among people over age 60, afflicting millions of Americans.

The researchers found that aspirin use was not tied to the dry form, nor to earlier stages of the disease.

“I don’t think that’s surprising,” Christen told Reuters Health. “I think the effects of aspirin may be different in the early stages of agerelated macular degeneration than in the late stages.”

Aspirin is often taken to prevent

cardiovascular disease, and Paulus told Reuters Health there has been controversy over the link between cardiovascular disease and macular degeneration.

Paulus wrote in an email that his team “analyzed as meticulously as possible” whether cardiovascular disease might have influenced the results, and still found that aspirin users — regardless of their heart health — are at a greater risk of the more serious type of vision loss.

While it’s a good idea to caution people that aspirin might have a deleterious role in macular degeneration, “a healthy eye with full visual capacities is of no use in a dead body,” Paulus said.

In other words, for people with cardiovascular disease who take aspirin to prevent the condition from worsening, the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks to visual health.

Paulus said larger studies that follow people over time and document their aspirin use and vision will help resolve aspirin’s role in macular degeneration.

Rates of diabetes-related amputation vary across U.S.

By AMY NORTON Rates of foot and leg amputations among Americans with diabetes may vary widely according to where they live, a new study suggests.

About 26 million Americans have diabetes, and an estimated 65,000 had a lower limb amputation in 2006, the most recent year with available data.

One recent study found that the rate of amputation may be declining among Americans with diabetes. But the new findings, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, suggest that in some parts of the country that rate can be almost double the national average — at least among older Americans.

Amputation is a complication of diabetes because the disease often causes nerve damage over time.

When people lose sensation in their feet and legs, they may more easily get a cut, blister or sore — even from ill-fitting shoes — and be less likely to notice it until it’s infected.

Those wounds can be difficult to heal because diabetes often causes poor blood circulation to the lower limbs. In severe cases, doctors may choose to amputate a foot or leg to prevent a dangerous, systemic infection.

The current study found that in 2008, certain pockets of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas had the highest rates of diabetes-related amputation among Medicare beneficiaries — at about 7 to

8 per 1,000.

That compared with a national rate of 4.5 per 1,000 in the same year.

And certain locations — like portions of Arizona, Florida, Michigan and New Mexico — had particularly low rates. There, older adults with diabetes had amputations at a rate of 2.4 to 3.5 per 1,000.

“The rate of amputation really varies greatly,” said lead researcher Dr. David J. Margolis, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“We don’t know why that is, we just know that it’s there.”

The researchers were able to account for some factors — like the prevalence of diabetes in a given area, the number of people diagnosed with diabetic foot ulcers, and an area’s income and racial mix. That

Black women tend to suffer disabilities earlier Black women are likely to develop physical limitations earlier in life than others their age, according to a new study.

Researchers from Case Western University in Cleveland analyzed selfreported information on the mobility, strength and physical limitations of more than 8,700 older people included in the 1994-2006 U.S. Health and Retirement Study. The participants ranged from 53 to 75 years old.

The study found a higher rate of physical problems among Black women in their 50s and 60s in the study of Black, Mexican-American and white men and women.

“We could not find the reason why African American women developed limitations faster than other gender

and racial/ethnic groups,” said David Warner, assistant professor of sociology, in a university news release.

After their mid-60s, however, the rate at which disabilities occurred among Black women began to decrease, and by age 75 the rate leveled off, the study found.

For the study, recently published in Social Science & Medicine, the researchers also examined the participants’ early life experiences, socioeconomic status, marital status and health-related behaviors to determine how these factors might affect people’s disabilities.

Men of all racial and ethnic groups fared better than women, the study found. Better-educated, wealthier men, in particular, reported fewer

physical health issues.

Women are at greater risk for disadvantages, such as lower incomes and lack of health care in midlife, which may have lifelong effects, the researchers said.

At age 75, Mexican-American women fared worst — with nearly five disabling limitations, twice as many on average as white men — the study found.

The study authors said future research should address the unique health experiences of older Black women. Preventive efforts are also needed to eliminate racial- and gender-related functional health disparities, they said.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded the investigation.

explained some of the geographical variation, Margolis told Reuters Health, but not all of it.

He cautioned that the relatively high rates of amputation in certain regions do not necessarily mean the rates are “too high.” It’s possible, for example, that doctors in those areas see more people with severe diabetes complications and based on experience, have found that an earlier amputation is often better.

“We don’t know that they are doing ‘too many,’” Margolis said.

“For all we know, they could be doing the right amount.”

There are no general guidelines on when to do an amputation in someone with severe diabetic ulcers, so it’s up to the doctor’s judgment and what the patient wants.

“It’s not a clear-cut decision,” Margolis noted.

The findings are based on data from Medicare, the government insurance program for older Americans, for the years 2006 to 2008.

About 5 million beneficiaries had diabetes each of those years.

It’s not known whether the same geographical variations in amputation would be true of younger Americans with diabetes, the researchers say.

More research is now needed to understand the reasons for the variations among Medicare beneficiaries, Margolis said. For now, people with diabetes can take steps to protect their limbs, he noted.

Experts recommend that people with diabetes check their feet everyday to catch cuts, swelling or other injuries early. They should also have their doctor examine their feet at least once a year.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

18

Government simulates cyber attack for training

By TABASSUM ZAKARIA IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — The lights went out. Hackers had infiltrated the chemical company’s computer network. The firm’s own experts ran around from computer to computer trying to fight back and regain control.

“We’re flying blind,” the chief executive of the fictitious ACME chemical company said.

The cyber attack exercise was part of a weeklong training program that the Department of Homeland Security offers to industries to help them learn how to deal with intrusions into their computer networks.

The exercise is carried out in Idaho Falls where the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has programs focused on cybersecurity for industries, in partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory, which conducts nuclear research and also has expertise in the technology used by many industries.

The city with a population of about 55,000 is surrounded by potato farms,

has an airport with one baggage carousel, and a dairy that still delivers milk to homes.

DHS is concerned about growing cyber threats to industries and conducts the training exercise about once a month. The sessions, aimed at raising awareness about how to deal with a real cyber attack, have been attended by representatives of the energy, oil and gas, and transportation sectors, among others.

What is usually a 12-hour exercise was compressed into two hours in a demonstration for reporters attending a two-day media event that ended Friday.

The scenario was one of industrial espionage. ACME had built a new chemical product and the Barney Advanced Domestic (BAD) Chemical Co was trying to steal its “secret sauce” and disrupt operations to put the competitor out of business.

The BAD hacker penetrated ACME’s firewall through a typical “phishing” attack by sending an email to the CEO that said “click here” to go to a website.

When the CEO clicks on the link,

malicious software opens a tunnel for the hacker to get into the computer system and find the CEO’s password.

The man playing the hacker in real life works for the Idaho National Laboratory where his job has been to hack into its computer systems to discover vulnerabilities.

Each team racks up points and can use them to buy devices either to help protect the network or pierce it.

“This is a game of strategy in how to best implement your defenses in an industrial control environment,” said Marty Edwards, director of the DHS Control Systems Security Program.

“This isn’t all about technology, it’s about people.”

Some of the most successful teams defending their firm against hackers are the ones that had leaders who delegated responsibilities and had clear policies about how the company would respond if a cyber attack happened, he said.

The ACME CEO, whose actions allowed the hackers into the network in the first place, said he clicked on the emailed link because “it looked like something I should click on, it said

click here.”

As a result of the breach the chemicals being mixed spilled out of white vats into a metal basin underneath.

Greg Schaffer, a senior official at the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate, said as adversaries evolve their methods, cybersecurity must also evolve.

“They figure out ways to get around the defenses that you deploy, and because they are changing their methodologies, we need to evolve and change ours on a regular basis. And I don’t see that that’s going to end,” he said.

Schaffer said cybersecurity issues have a lot of focus in the U.S. government and are likely to be less affected by cuts than other parts of the budget.

But, he said, it was important to make sure that areas of the government not focused on cybersecurity as their main mission keep it as a priority when determining cost cuts.

“As budgets becoming tighter, prioritizing taking action for cybersecurity within other parts of the government is something we have to be vigilant about advocating for,” he said.

Amazon tablet costs $209.63 to make, IHS estimates

By ALISTAIR BARR SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon.com Inc’s new tablet computer costs $209.63 to make, IHS iSuppli estimated on Friday, but will sell for $199, highlighting how the e-commerce company is taking a financial hit upfront to get the device into as many hands as possible.

Amazon’s billionaire Chief Executive Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle Fire at the lower-than-expected price on Wednesday.

The launch sparked concern about a price war at the lower end of the tablet market, currently dominated by devices running on Google Inc’s Android operating system from companies such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and HTC Corp.

IHS iSuppli said the components that go into the Kindle Fire cost $191.65. Additional manufacturing expenses bring the total cost to $209.63.

Based on IHS iSuppli’s estimates, the company may lose just under $10 on each Fire it sells.

An Amazon spokesman did not comment on IHS’s estimates on Friday afternoon.

Since the Fire was unveiled on Wednesday, investors and analysts have speculated Amazon may be selling the device at cost or a loss. The IHS report is one of the first efforts to put meat on the bones of such speculation.

Gene Munster, an analyst at PiperJaffray, estimated earlier this week that Amazon would lose roughly $50 on each Kindle Fire sale.

Amazon is hoping the device

encourages users to buy more products and services from the company, making up for the upfront losses, according to Wayne Lam, an analyst at IHS iSuppli.

This is a version of the “razor-

blade” model in which Procter & Gamble unit Gillette sells razors at a loss and makes up the difference from profitable sales of blades later, Lam explained.

In Amazon’s case, the Kindle Fire will stimulate demand for the company’s digital content and boost sales of physical goods on its e-commerce websites, according to IHS iSuppli.

“When further costs outside of materials and manufacturing are added in — and the $199 price of the tablet is factored along with the expected sales of digital content per device — Amazon is likely to generate a marginal profit of $10 on each Kindle Fire sold,” the research firm added.

Amazon’s digital music and video business has never gained much traction, said Russ Crupnick, senior entertainment industry analyst for

The NPD Group, who noted most people download music and video from Apple Inc’s iTunes service, while video streaming is dominated

by Netflix Inc. Kindle Fire users are unlikely to buy a lot more of Amazon’s digital music and video with their new device, Crupnick added.

“How long will it take for consumers to get on board with the total tablet entertainment experience?” he said. “I’m cautious.”

Even on the successful iPad, users do not download a lot more music and video, Crupnick noted.

So far, tablets are mostly used to access video games such as Angry Birds and for downloading other apps — and that is where Amazon has the best chance to recoup some of its upfront losses on the Fire, he added.

Report: Friendly’s chain close to bankruptcy Burger and ice cream chain Friendly’s is close to filing for bankruptcy and may try to sell itself at auction, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Wilbraham, Massachusettsbased restaurant chain may file for bankruptcy as early as next week and is in talks with Wells Fargo & Co. on a $70 million loan to keep it afloat during the process, the Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

A spokeswoman for Friendly’s said the company has a policy of not commenting on rumors, but added in an email to Reuters:

“Like many restaurant chains, we are feeling the impact of the economic downturn and rising commodity prices and a challenging marketplace. We are working with our lenders, board and management team to explore alternatives to strengthen our financial base.”

According to the report, under bankruptcy, Friendly’s would roll some of its existing debt into a new loan from Wells Fargo. The loan would also include $25 million in new funds. Friendly’s would seek an auction to sell itself out of bankruptcy, the report said.

Friendly’s has retained law firm Kirkland & Ellis and turnaround firm Zolfo Cooper, the Journal said.

Calls to both firms were not returned Thursday.

Friendly’s would be the latest in a number of restaurant chains, including Sbarro, Fuddruckers and Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse, to file for bankruptcy because of the economic downturn and a drop in consumer spending.

Sbarro is currently in bankruptcy in New York, where it will either sell itself to the highest bidder or restructure the bulk of its $395 million debt load.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

19

U.S. consumers get swiped in debit fee crackdown

By ALEXANDRA ALPER WASHINGTON — A government crackdown on debit card “swipe fees” is unlikely to benefit consumers’ wallets, as banks seek makeup fees and retailers take the savings down to their own bottom line.

For months, retailers, card network companies and big banks brawled in Washington over the fees and even launched nationwide advertising campaigns. Consumers were often portrayed by retailers as the ones victimized by the billions of dollars in debit card processing fees that banks charge merchants.

On the eve of the mandated lower fees, it appears the skeptics who feared the measure would backfire on consumers were correct.

Bank of America said on Thursday it plans to charge customers who use their debit cards to make purchases a $5 monthly fee.

Representative Barney Frank, coauthor of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, said he opposed including the crackdown in the legislation.

He said in an interview with Reuters on Friday that shoppers are unlikely to benefit.

“I regard this as mostly a dispute between two groups of businesses, banks and retailers, and the consumer gets squeezed,” Frank said. “The banks will charge you more, and I don’t think the retailers are going to charge you less, which is why I didn’t

want to put it in the first place.”

Some retailers are not shy about plans to pocket the savings.

Dave Ratner, founder of Dave’s Soda & Pet City chain in Massachusetts, said he will save thousands of dollars annually on swipe fees. Nearly 2 percent of his revenue currently goes to banks for debit and credit card swipe fees.

“This is just a huge relief and is getting back what is mine anyway,” said Ratner, who noted that merchants have been powerless to negotiate processing fees with banks until now.

“My customers would laugh at me if I said, ‘We are going to give you a dime off if you use a debit card.’”

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, led the charge to include the swipe fee limits in Dodd-Frank. He has maintained that the legislation will decrease prices for consumers and help small merchants struggling to meet processing fees that amount to about 400 percent of the processing cost.

Dodd-Frank called on the Federal Reserve to craft the limits, which set the stage for a massive lobbying campaign. Banks and card network companies tried to get the cap set as high as possible, while retailers pressed for a low cap.

The Fed capped “interchange fees” at an average of 24 cents per debit card purchase. The current average fee is 44 cents on a typical debit card purchase of $38.

That translates into a $6.6 billion annual hit to financial firms, accord-

ing to an August study by Javelin Strategy and Research.

Javelin also noted that seven of the top 10 banks had announced plans to eliminate free checking and the socalled Durbin amendment has banks rethinking their customer services.

The writing was on the wall for consumers. A November 2009 report from the Government Accountability Office found that limiting swipe fees would be good for retailers but not necessarily for consumers.

The independent congressional watchdog found that it would be difficult to tell whether retailers were passing along any savings to consumers, and that consumers may face higher card use costs as banks made up for lost income.

“If you are a consumer, and you are caught in the middle of this, you are going to end up having to pay more as a result of this sloppy legislation for a debit card,” said Trish Wexler, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Payments Coalition, which represents card networks Visa, MasterCard, and several large banks.

Retail trade groups are steadfast that the windfall for them will not necessarily be a loss for customers.

Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, said merchants will likely pass on savings because their industry is so competitive.

“The average net profit margin in the retail industry is approximately 2 percent,” said Duncan. “This reduction (in swipe fees) is another tool

September auto sales seen up 9 percent

By BERNIE WOODALL and SOYOUNG KIM DETROIT — September U.S. auto sales are seen rising to their highest since April when the earthquake in Japan began to impact inventory and demand, but a weak economic outlook will curb the pace of the industry’s recovery in the coming months.

Japanese automakers Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp. will finally have enough inventory to compete in the market and both will show gains in September market share, particularly Honda, said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with Edmunds.com.

The March 11 earthquake in Japan clipped the recovery of the auto industry from the 2008-2009 recession that led to the lowest per capita sales rate since World War II. September results “should be the cleanest number we have seen since April,” without the Japan earthquake impact, said Peter Nesvold, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. J.D. Power & Associates and Edmunds.com each forecast 12.9 million vehicle sales for September on the seasonally adjusted annualized rate the industry watches, up 9 percent from September 2010 and up 7 percent from last month.

That would be near the 13.1 million vehicles annualized sales rate from the first four months of the year.

Auto sales, which will be reported on October 3, are an early indicator each month of U.S. consumer demand.

Weak economic indicators are dragging down what should be a more robust recovery based on deferred purchases from as far back as 2008, said Caldwell and Lacey Plache of Edmunds, who spoke on the same conference call as Jefferies’ Nesvold.

Mike Jackson, chief executive of AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto dealer group, said last week he is convinced that auto sales will rise in the fourth quarter of the year, despite a weak economy.

Honda’s U.S. sales have suffered the most since April and the automaker will have the highest gains in September, by a percentage point or more in market share, said TrueCar.com.

TrueCar said Honda’s sales will show a rise of about 15 percent from August.

TrueCar and Edmunds both forecast General Motors Co. will take about 20 percent of the U.S. new vehicle market share, followed by Ford Motor Co. at 17 percent, Toyota and Chrysler Group LLC near 12 percent, followed by Honda and Nissan Motor Co Ltd., both near 9 percent.

Sales incentives rose in September and will continue to rise along with deliveries to auto dealerships, Caldwell said.

Caldwell said that incentives will not rise precipitously, echoing what Jackson said last week.

“The incentives will be strong between now and year-end,” said Jackson. “Market communication (advertising) will be strong and the message will be everybody’s back in business

they can use to compete for customers.”

Dave Koenig, a director at the National Restaurant Association, agrees. “We do think that ultimately the consumer will get a reduction in prices just because of the competitive nature of the industry.”

A recent survey from Direct Response Forum, an annual meeting of payment professionals, provided a different assessment.

Its survey of 169 retail executives found that 41 percent of merchants said they won’t pass on the savings, and 56 percent weren’t sure.

Durbin is standing by the fee limits. He issued a statement on Thursday blasting Bank of America and touting the benefits of the rules once they go into effect on October 1.

“Small business and merchants will benefit from fee relief and consumers will benefit from lower prices,” Durbin said. “And banks that try to make up their excess profits off the backs of their customers will finally learn how a competitive market works.” and if you need a car come on in and get it.”

Industrywide, September sales incentives will show a rise of about 2.6 percent from August, Caldwell said, with Honda leading the way with a 15 percent rise.

Nesvold said the strong yen leaves the Japanese little room to boost incentives much and they will spend more on advertising to regain lost customers.

U.S. pickup trucks sales will show a rise to their largest share of retail purchases since last December, Ford sales analyst George Pipas said.

Ho-ho-ho already? In stores, yes The Christmas spirit has already hit several U.S. retail chains that began holiday displays in September, retail analysts said.

“This is a benefit to our customers who like to view everything at once and plan out what they want to buy,” Home Depot spokeswoman Jen King said of the early onset of the holiday shopping season.

A lengthy list of stores began decorating for Christmas in the ninth month of the year, The Detroit News reported Saturday.

In Michigan, Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Hallmark, Neiman Marcus, American Greetings, Kohl’s, Sears and Target are among those that have

begun setting up their Christmas displays, the newspaper said.

Among retailers, however, the spirit of Christmas includes a keen sense of competition, industry analysts said.

Among retailers that count on Christmas buying to get through the year, everyone wants to be “headquarters for holiday,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group in New York.

“It becomes a game of who will blink first,” said Ed Nakfoor, a retail consultant in Birmingham, Mich.

“You put it up; now I have to put it up.”

20

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011 !

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DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

21

Jermain Taylor licensed in Nevada

By DAN RAFAEL Former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor’s application for a boxing license has been approved by a 5-0 vote of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, paving the way for his return to the ring two years after he suffered a brain bleed in a knockout loss to Arthur Abraham.

Taylor, along with adviser Al Haymon, appeared in person at the commission meeting on Wednesday, at which Taylor answered questions from the members.

“Jermain spoke for quite a while.

He answered questions and explained the different aspects of his training and career,” commission executive director Keith Kizer told ESPN.com. “He talked about his plans for the future and the lessons he’s learned. He came across really well.”

The unanimous vote did not come as a big surprise, because a week earlier Taylor’s path was essentially cleared when the commission’s medical advisory panel offered a 5-0 recommendation that the commission approve him.

In Taylor’s last fight, he was knocked out in the 12th round by Abraham in Berlin in the opening stage of Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic. He suffered a minor

subdural hematoma — bleeding on the brain — and short-term memory loss.

A few months later, Taylor dropped out of the round-robin tournament and stepped away from boxing, although he did not announce his retirement.

After a long rest, Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs), 33, began to lay the groundwork for a comeback. He underwent a battery of tests by multiple doctors, including his own neurologist in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark., at the Mayo Clinic and at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas.

Taylor also reunited with his original trainer, Pat Burns, who had led Taylor to the middleweight championship in the first of two decision wins against Bernard Hopkins. At Burns’ insistence, Taylor promised he would return to the 160-pound middleweight division rather than fight in the 168-pound middleweight division, where he had suffered three of his defeats — 12th-round knockouts to Abraham and Carl Froch and a decision to Kelly Pavlik in their rematch.

“Jermain’s basic point to the commission was that he was fighting too heavy, that 168 pounds was too heavy,” Kizer said. “He said he was starting training camps at 200 pounds and that his training camps

Goodell upholds suspension, lectures Terrelle Pryor NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced Friday the five-game suspension of Oakland quarterback Terrelle Pryor had been upheld.

In a stern condemnation of Pryor’s actions that led to his leaving Ohio State this year, Goodell refused to grant the quarterback’s appeal of his suspension.

Pryor was selected by Oakland in the third-round of the NFL’s supplemental draft. The quarterback was originally suspended for five games by the NCAA for his part in rules violations that led to the dismissal of Coach Jim Tressel.

Rather than serve that suspension, Pryor made himself eligible for the supplemental draft. Goodell then ruled that the NCAA suspension would be carried over to the NFL. “Based on Mr. Pryor’s actions, I believe it is a fair conclusion that he intentionally took steps to ensure that he would be declared ineligible for further college play and would be able to enter the NFL via the supplemental draft,” Goodell said. “Taken as a whole, I found that this conduct was

tantamount to a deliberate manipulation of our eligibility rules in a way that distorts the underlying principles and calls into question the integrity of those rules.

“Mr. Pryor, not Ohio State or the NCAA, made the judgment that he was ineligible for college play. He then took a series of affirmative steps that were intended to, and had the effect of, accomplishing that result.

“Moreover, Mr. Pryor did so in order to avoid the consequences of his conduct while in college, conduct to which he had admitted and for which he had accepted a suspension, and to hasten the day when he could pursue a potentially lucrative professional career in the NFL. “This smacks of a calculated effort to manipulate our eligibility rules in a way that undermines the integrity of, and public confidence in those rules.

“I conclude that Mr. Pryor’s actions warranted imposition of conditions on his entry into the NFL, namely that he serve the same five-game suspension that he had previously agreed to while at Ohio State.”

were basically weight loss camps, which is why he faded late in fights.

He said, ‘I’ve learned my lesson. Now I know the consequences.’

“He was very straightforward on that stuff. He said he will fight at 160 and not let his weight get too high between fights.”

In addition to hearing from Taylor and having the medical advisory panel’s recommendation, the commission also had a letter from Dr. Timothy J. Trainor, who is the commission’s consulting research physician, recommending that Taylor be licensed.

“I have thoroughly reviewed the comprehensive medical records pertaining to combatant Jermain Taylor,” Trainor wrote. “In this regard, it is noted that his physical and ophthalmologic examinations were found to be completely normal. In addition, his current ECG, CXR, HIV, hepatitis panel, chemistry panel, CBC, and urinalysis are all unremarkable. Furthermore, his current cerebral MRA and MRI are normal.

“As you are aware, Mr. Taylor has a history of a subdural hematoma following a boxing match in Germany in October 2009. As a result of this prior history, Mr. Taylor has undergone extensive additional testing including multiple MRI and MRA scans, neuropsychological testing, evaluation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and evaluation at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health here in Las Vegas. He has been examined by both neurologists and neurosurgeons. All of these evaluations have demonstrated him to be medically fit to compete in boxing, not discounting the risk of head and brain injury that all unarmed combatants take.

“Furthermore, the Nevada State

Athletic Commission Medical Advisory Panel recently convened to discuss the medical safety of Mr. Taylor continuing his boxing career. The meeting was held on Sept. 22, 2011.

The conclusion of the MAP was that it would be medically safe to grant Mr. Taylor a boxing license. Therefore, I am confident that it is medically safe to grant Mr. Taylor a license to compete in boxing and agree that this combatant is medically cleared for unarmed combat.”

When Taylor will return to the ring and against whom has not been determined, although it probably will not be in Nevada, even though that is where he has a license.

Taylor had planned an Aug. 13 comeback in Little Rock, a fight Showtime agreed to televise. However, Taylor was not yet licensed anywhere in the United States.

Rather than go for one in a state with weak regulations, Taylor and Haymon opted for Nevada, one of the strictest states in nation when it comes to licensing fighters. Now that Taylor is licensed in Nevada, he would likely be licensed in any other state.

Devin Hester takes over an NFL record

By MICHAEL C. WRIGHT CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears’ Devin Hester added to an alreadylong list of special-teams accolades Sunday against the Carolina Panthers when he broke up the home team’s sideline for his NFL-record 11th punt return for a touchdown.

After fielding a line-drive ball from Carolina punter Jason Baker, Hester broke a tackle, then sprinted up the sideline 69 yards for the score that gave the Bears a 24-10 lead.

Hester punctuated the return with three consecutive somersaults in the end zone, and was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct as a result.

Hester entered the game tied with

Eric Metcalf for tops on the all-time list for punt return touchdowns.

The punt return came less than five minutes after Hester set up a Matt Forte touchdown run with a 73-yard kickoff return. Similar to the punt return, Hester broke up the home team’s sideline, but was met by kicker Olindo Mare, who forced the returner out of bounds at the Carolina 36 and saved the touchdown.

Hester now has 39 punt returns of 20 yards or more in his career, which is the most in the NFL since the veteran entered the league in 2006. He is also the all-time leader for combined touchdowns on kick returns with 15.

Hester also surpassed Dante Hall (2,261) for 23rd in career punt return yards. Hester now has 2,300 punt return yards.

22

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

Kobe to Italy: Virtus Bologna scrambles to finish the deal

By ANDREW DAMPF ROME — The Italian basketball league was attempting Saturday to solve scheduling problems so Virtus Bologna can sign Kobe Bryant during the NBA lockout.

Virtus Bologna President Claudio Sabatini has told The Associated Press he’s “very confident” he can complete the deal for the Los Angeles Lakers star.

The 10-game contract would be worth more than $3 million but hinges on other clubs changing their schedules to ensure Bologna has five

home games during the span.

Bologna also wants its opening five road games in Italy’s biggest arenas. Smaller clubs Cremona and Varese are reluctant to alter their schedules.

The league said in a statement Saturday it is “working to allow Virtus Bologna to arrange a deal to sign Kobe Bryant,” adding it is “convinced this deal could be of key importance for the greater awareness of Italian basketball.”

League President Valentino Renzi told the ANSA news agency he was “moderately optimistic” a deal could be made, adding “the situation is def-

initely complicated.”

Bryant lived in Italy between ages 6 and 13 while his father played in the country. He still speaks fluent Italian and has said it would be a “dream” to play there.

Bologna would need to have the deal signed by the end of next week to register Bryant with the Italian league before the season starts Oct. 9.

A statement on Bologna’s website late Friday said that in accordance with Bryant’s representatives the club will not comment further “until either a positive or negative outcome from the negotiations.”

‘Long way to go’ with no progress made in labor talks National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners and locked out players failed to reach agreement after a second straight day of labor talks on Saturday, saying they would meet again in New York today.

No progress was made after seven hours of negotiations in a midtown Manhattan hotel and, with the salary cap the main sticking point between the two sides, the prospect of a delayed start to the regular season loomed even larger.

“The reality is we still have an extremely long way to go,” NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher told reporters.

“Even with the exchanges that we made today, there are still huge gaps in what we’ve proposed compared to what they proposed ... so there’s a lot of work left to be done, but we’ll keep at this.”

The regular season is scheduled to begin on November 1 but, with no deal in place for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the

Stars shine at Chris Paul’s charity game WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Kevin Durant scored 48 points and Chris Paul added 39 to lead the New Orleans guard’s team to a 175-146 victory over Dwyane Wade and LeBron James’ team in a charity game Saturday night.

Rudy Gay had 38 points while Wade added 32 and James had 30.

John Wall added 34 points.

The game was played at WinstonSalem State in front of a sold out crowd in the 3,200-seat arena.

Paul, who is from nearby Lewisville, gave a $25,000 check to WSSU during a football game earlier in the day. Both of his parents attended Winston-Salem State.

“Had a great time and run at CP3 All-Star Pick-up game at WinstonSalem St! Loved the crowd, they was in 2 it from the jump!! Much love WSSU,” James posted on Twitter after the game.

Paul also had 11 rebounds and eight assists to go along with five steals.

“I think that was the most fun I’ve ever had playing in a basketball game,” he said.

The game was played as NBA labor negotiations were taking place in New York. After a seven-hour bargaining session, players and owners didn’t sound much closer to a labor deal than they did when the lockout began.

“We’re just continuing to negotiate and hopefully we’ll get a deal done because at the end of the day we want to play this game,” Paul said.

Chris Paul (3) gets past Dwyane Wade, left, and LeBron James on his way to score during the Chris Paul All Star Pick-Up basketball game between NBA players in WinstonSalem, N.C.

league risks postponing or cancelling regular season games for only the second time in its history.

The NBA last week announced it had postponed training camps and canceled the first week of preseason games.

“Our desire would be to not cancel (regular-season games), and we had been hopeful that this weekend would be a broader marker,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said.

“For reasons which we understand, the players suggested that

we resume [today], and we said ‘fine’. We’re not near anything, but wherever that is, we’re closer than we were before.”

NBA owners contend the league lost $300 million last season with 22 of 30 teams in the red. They want the league’s share of basketballrelated income increased from 50 to 57 percent, along with a firm salary cap and shorter contracts.

The players have offered to reduce their share from 57 to 53 percent.

DAILY CHALLENGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

23

No. 7 Wisconsin beats No. 8 Nebraska 48-17

By CHRIS JENKINS MADISON, Wis. — Now fully settled in at his new school, Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson looks like the class of the conference.

Another newcomer can’t quite say that same thing, as Big Red showed it wasn’t quite ready for the best of the Big Ten. Wilson gave Nebraska a harsh welcome to conference play, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another in No. 7 Wisconsin’s 48-17 rout of the eighth-ranked Cornhuskers on Saturday night.

“If there’s a better player in college football right now, I’d like to see it,” Badgers coach Bret Bielema said of Wilson.

Montee Ball ran for 151 yards and four touchdowns for the Badgers (50, 1-0 Big Ten). But Wilson was the main attraction for a primetime audience as Wisconsin overcame a slow start to solidify its status as Big Ten favorites.

Badgers safety Aaron Henry compared Wilson to NFL star Michael Vick, perhaps minus some of the speed.

“His personality is through the roof, but his play on the field is tremendous,” Henry said. “He can get us out of plays with his legs, and he also can get us out of tight situations throwing the ball.”

Taylor Martinez threw three inter-

ceptions for the Huskers (4-1, 0-1).

“We didn’t make plays,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. “I’m embarrassed. I apologize to the fans of Nebraska.”

By the time the Camp Randall Stadium public address system blared “Jump Around” to get fans hopping before the fourth quarter, the game already was in the bag for the Badgers.

“I knew there was a lot of hype going into this game,” Bielema said.

“That’s why I kind of challenged our players to embrace it all week. I knew if we went out and played well and did what we do, we’d get a lot more attention.”

It was the sixth meeting between the teams and the first since 1974, but clearly the biggest and one of the most anticipated games in recent memory for Wisconsin. The Badgers fans didn’t exactly have Camp Randall to themselves.

The crowd of 81,384 was filled with plenty of Nebraska fans — they wore black to differentiate themselves from Wisconsin fans who wear a similar shade of red — amid reports earlier in the week that thousands of fans were expected to make the trip to Madison this weekend for the Huskers’ first conference game as a member of the Big Ten. “Like coach said, that’s not Nebraska football,” cornerback Alfonzo Dennard said. “How we came out and played, that’s not Nebraska football.”

The Badgers sent the Huskers and their fans home disappointed, but the two teams could be on track to meet again.

Wisconsin is in the Leaders division of the Big Ten and Nebraska is in the Legends division, meaning the two teams could play in the conference championship game.

It was another big step for Wilson, the former North Carolina State quarterback who gave up minor league baseball to return to college football and play for a Badgers team that seemed to have all the pieces of a BCS bowl contender but needed a quarterback.

Five games into the season, there’s no reason to think otherwise.

Wilson had played well in his first four games for the Badgers after joining them over the summer, but hadn’t yet been tested by a top-level opponent since his days with the Wolfpack.

“He’s a good football player, obviously,” Pelini said. “He hurt us with his feet.”

And Wilson found himself under pressure early, especially by standout Nebraska defensive tackle Jared Crick. But then Wilson started showing his ability to scramble out of trouble and extend plays — and Nebraska’s defense couldn’t keep up.

“Russell throws the ball on the move about as well as he throws the ball in the pocket, right or left,” Bielema said.

Wisconsin’s defense also appeared to be in for a long night, allowing a pair of early — and easy — touchdown drives to Martinez and the Huskers that put the Badgers behind 14-7 early in the second quarter.

Wilson answered with a drive, and Ball scored his second touchdown of the day. The extra point try was blocked by Crick, and Nebraska still led 14-13.

Later in the quarter, Wisconsin’s defense picked off Martinez on two straight possessions, the first by linebacker Mike Taylor and the second by Henry.

Wilson made the Huskers pay for both turnovers, firing a 36-yard touchdown to Jared Abbrederis, then a 46-yard touchdown to Nick Toon with 0:32 left. Nebraska missed a 50yard field goal try near the end of the second quarter, and Wisconsin took a 27-14 lead into halftime.

Martinez then threw another interception on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, this time to cornerback Antonio Fenelus.

Wilson helped the Badgers cash in again, this time with his legs. On first-and-goal at the 10, Wilson faked a handoff and took off running, leaving the Huskers’ defense in his dust on a touchdown run. Wisconsin took a 34-14 lead, effectively ending the game early in the third quarter.

Rex Burkhead had 18 carries for 96 yards and a touchdown for the Huskers.

Richardson, No. 3 Tide rolls No. 12 Gators 38-10

By MARK LONG GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Trent Richardson slipped through a hole, cut toward the sideline and found no one between him and the end zone.

The closest Florida defender, safety Josh Evans, was yards away.

He might as well have been miles. It would have been more appropriate given the apparent distance between the two programs.

Richardson ran for a career-high 181 yards and two touchdowns, breaking tackles and carrying defenders along the way, and the thirdranked Crimson Tide rolled the Gators 38-10 Saturday night in an early season matchup of Southeastern Conference heavyweights.

Alabama looked every bit ready to reclaim the league’s top spot and showed the Gators how far they have to go to get back to championship form.

“This was very sweet because it was against Florida,” said Richardson, a junior from nearby Pensacola. “I really wanted to play well in this game and help us get a win.”

Richardson finished with his fourth consecutive 100-yard game, and the latest one should solidify his position as one the Heisman Trophy front-runners.

With Richardson leading the way, the Crimson Tide (5-0, 2-0 SEC) extended its recent dominance in the series. Alabama has outscored Florida (4-1, 2-1) 101-29 in the last three meetings, all wins.

The latest one was over by halftime, a clear knockout in a game billed as Florida’s speed vs. Alabama’s power. It also denied new Florida coach Will Muschamp a victory against his mentor, Alabama’s Nick Saban.

“Obviously, we didn’t do many things well,” Muschamp said. “We have to correct the issues we have because we’ll see them again.”

It was Florida’s worst home loss since falling to LSU 36-7 in 2002 — the beginning of the Ron Zook era.

Saban-coached teams dealt Florida both losses.

It could get worse, too. The Gators play at top-ranked LSU next week — and they might be without quarterback John Brantley.

Brantley threw a perfect deep ball to

Andre Debose on the game’s opening play, a 65-yard touchdown pass that energized the second-largest crowd (90,888) in the history of Florida Field. It ended up being one of few highlights for the Gators.

“We showed the maturity to overcome the adversity we created for ourselves,” Saban said. “I liked our resiliency. This is about as good as it gets.”

Florida couldn’t run, couldn’t stop the run and lost Brantley to a right leg injury late in the second quarter. A senior who has started 18 consecutive games, Brantley twisted his knee and ankle on a sack just before halftime.

He was helped to the locker room and did not return for the second half.

Highly touted freshman Jeff Driskel replaced him.

“When we lost John, that took the wind out of our sails,” said Muschamp, who said he would know more about Brantley’s injury Sunday.

“I haven’t even talked to the doctor yet.

I have no idea.”

Brantley completed 11 of 16 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown, most of it coming before Alabama’s defense stiffened.

Courtney Upshaw intercepted Brantley’s outlet pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown that changed the game in the second quarter. Upshaw later sacked Brantley and caused the injury.

Alabama was long in control by then, mostly because it stuffed Florida’s vaunted running game. The Tide made Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps look ordinary.

“Just call it a punch in the mouth and regroup,” Rainey said. “All we have to do is play the cards right and we’ll be seeing them again (in the SEC title game).”

The Gators entered the game averaging 259 yards a game on the ground, but they finished with 15 yards, 4 from Rainey and 4 from Demps.

“We did a really good job of not letting their speed outflank us,” Saban said. “Those two guys are a handful.

Miss a tackle on them and they’re out the door and gone.”

The Tide was much more balanced.

AJ McCarron completed 12 of 25 passes for 140 yards — just what Alabama needs with Richardson and a stout defense.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011

‘LONG WAY TO GO’ NO PROGRESS MADE IN LABOR TALKS

National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners and locked out players failed to reach agreement after a second straight day of labor talks on Saturday, saying they would meet again in New York today. Photo: NBA Players Association President and Los Angeles Lakers’ Derek Fisher, cen-

ter, speaks during a news conference alongside Carmelo Anthony, front left, Lebron James, back left, and other major players after a meeting with owners to discuss a new labor deal and possibly avert a lockout.

SEE PAGE 22.