VOL. 18 NO. 26 TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

SEPT. 11 SUSPECTS TO BE TRIED AT GUANTANAMO BAY - PG. 2 JERSEY CITY, HOBOKEN, BAYONNE, NEwARK, RuTHERfORd, pATERSON, pASSAIC

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VOL. 18 NO. 26 TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

Final

OBAMA KICKS OFF 2012 RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

President Barack Obama launched his 2012 re-elec- date as an effort to cement and expand the policies tion campaign, framing his final stint as a candi- he has enacted from the White House. SEE PAGE 3.

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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NEWS BRIEFS STATE OVERRIDES DECISION TO MERGE BROOKLYN SCHOOLS A Brooklyn charter school is looking for a new home after the state education commissioner reversed a decision by city officials.

The Panel of Education Policy had voted to merge The Brooklyn Collegiate Charter School with PS 9 and MS 571 in Prospect Heights. However, a group of parents opposed to the ruling filed an appeal, which was granted by Commissioner David Steiner.

He says the Department of Education did not comply with New York Education Law. Steiner also says the DOE failed to address how the proposal ensures equitable and comparable use for affected students.

The DOE says it’s reviewing its legal options and remains committed to co-locating the charter school with PS 9 and MS 571 next year.

The decision marks the first time during Schools Chancellor Cathie Black’s tenure that the state commissioner has overturned a city ruling.

STRICT NEW GUIDELINES FOR CITY HEALTH DEPT. WORKERS As the city’s Health Department prepares to move into its new Queens digs, the agency’s nearly 3,000 workers have been handed a strict set of workplace guidelines.

The regulations include everything from what workers can eat to what kind of perfume they wear.

When it comes to beverages, only those with less than 25 calories can be served at meetings and parties.

Deep fried foods are also off limits.

Department officials cite the need to lead by example.

Health Commissioner Thomas Farley has recently been pushing to reduce New Yorkers’ salt and sugar intake.

VIOLENT CRIMES DOWN IN FIRST QUARTER, NYPD STATS SHOW Murders and shootings have dropped dramatically in the first three months of the year, New York City Police Department statistics show.

According to the department, overall crime was down three and a half percent.

Eighty-eight people were murdered in the city — a drop of nearly 21 percent from the same time last year.

Shootings are also down 14 percent.

The only major crime statistic that went up is rapes, which increased 24 percent.

East New York continued to be the city’s most violent neighborhood, while Williamsburg saw the biggest increase in crime.

Sept. 11 suspects to be tried at Guantanamo Bay

By JAMES VICINI and PHIL STEWART WASHINGTON — In a political setback for President Barack Obama, the United States will try self-professed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators in a military commission at Guantanamo Bay and not in New York civil court as Obama had hoped.

Attorney General Eric Holder will formally announced, U.S. officials said, an embarrassing reversal of the administration’s decision in November 2009 to try Mohammed in a court near the site of the World Trade Center attack that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The decision was an admission that Obama has not been able to overcome political opposition to his efforts to close the prison for terrorism suspects and enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay and try those accused of crimes in U.S. civilian courts.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the

Obama administration had no choice but to pursue military commission trials after Congress in December adopted restrictions on prosecuting Guantanamo prisoners in civilian courts.

Obama has called the Guantanamo Bay facility, set up by his predecessor President George W. Bush, a recruiting symbol for antiAmerican groups and said allegations of prisoner mistreatment there had tarnished America’s reputation.

He promised to close the Guantanamo prison by the end of his first year in office, but that deadline passed with no action as the administration confronted the hard reality of finding countries willing to accept custody of the inmates.

The prison still holds 172 people, down from 245 when Obama took office in January 2009.

Civil liberties advocates had hailed the November 2009 decision to transfer the men to criminal courts, but many people sharply opposed the decision, arguing that bringing them to U.S. soil could make New York a magnet for new

attacks and that the men deserved military trials.

Julie Menin, who spearheaded opposition to holding the trials in New York, welcomed the decision as a “victory for lower Manhattan and my community.” U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, another opponent, called it “the final nail in the coffin of that wrong-headed idea.”

“As the mastermind of 9-11, KSM should stand trial as an enemy combatant before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay. Ten years is too long to wait for justice,” said Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Mohammed, an al Qaeda leader, was captured in Pakistan in 2003.

His alleged co-conspirators are Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi.

Holder said earlier this year the administration still planned to close the military prison as Obama pledged during his 2008 presidential campaign.

But the president signed legislation that included a provision barring the transfer of terrorism suspects to U.S. soil from the Guantanamo prison for prosecution or detention, effectively blocking trials in a federal criminal court.

He lifted a two-year freeze on new military trials at Guantanamo on March 7, tacitly acknowledging that the prison camp would not be shut down any time soon.

Airline performance better for third year WASHINGTON — Two budget and one smaller airline company took the top three rankings for overall performance last year, according to research.

AirTran led the pack in the newest annual Airline Quality Rating report, switching places with last year’s leader Hawaiian. JetBlue remained at third while Alaska jumped to fourth from 11th in the ranking. Southwest ranked fifth.

Overall performance of leading U.S. air carriers has improved for the third straight year, the report found. The number of customer complaints was up, the only one of four major areas which saw a deterioration in quality.

The annual Airline Quality Rating report showed gains in the three other areas: on-time performance, baggage handling and involuntary denied boarding.

Among the three biggest airlines in terms of traffic, No. 2 Delta made the biggest improvement, leaping to seventh from 15th — the largest movement in the list of 16 airlines.

No. 1 carrier United ranked 12th and No. 3 American 11th, with its regional carrier American Eagle finishing last at 16th. US Airways notched up to sixth from eighth.

“It is clear that the low-fare carriers have a better philosophy about execution and better employee engagement in that execution than most of the other airlines,” Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State who worked on the study, told Reuters by telephone.

The overall score for the industry was the third best in 20 years of tracking, a statement from Wichita

Passengers wait in line for ticketing at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

State University and Purdue University said.

The Airline Quality Rating is a joint project funded as part of faculty research activities at the two schools.

Regarding the higher number of customer complaints, Headley linked it to busier air travel.

“As the system adjusts to higher demand for air travel, more things are not going to go as planned for travelers,” Headley said.

The release of the report coincidentally came on a day when one major carrier, Southwest Airlines, canceled 70 flights as it continued to inspect Boeing 737 planes following the emergency landing on Friday of a jet with a hole in its fuselage.

The AQR evaluates published,

publicly available data on performance and combines them into a rating system.

The individual rankings, from top to bottom, follow: 1. AirTran 2. Hawaiian 3. JetBlue 4. Alaska 5. Southwest 6. US Airways 7. Delta 8. Continental 9. Frontier 10. SkyWest 11. American 12. United 13. Mesa 14. Comair 15. Atlantic Southeast 16. American Eagle

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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Obama kicks off 2012 re-election campaign

By JEFF MASON WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama launched his 2012 reelection campaign yesterday, framing his final stint as a candidate as an effort to cement and expand the policies he has enacted from the White House.

Obama, a Democrat who won a sweeping victory over Republican Senator John McCain in 2008 with a message of change, said in a low-key email to supporters that he was filing papers to start his re-election bid in a formal way.

“So even though I’m focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today,” he said in the email.

“We’ve always known that lasting change wouldn’t come quickly or easily. ... But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we’ve made — and make more — we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.”

As president, Obama secured an overhaul of the healthcare system and financial regulation.

He has already started fundraising for Democrats in recent weeks.

Filing papers with the Federal Election Commission will allow Obama to fill his own campaign coffers directly as well.

Political observers expect the Obama campaign to raise an unprecedented $1 billion for the race.

Obama raised a record $750 million to win the 2008 election while running as a senator from Illinois.

A handful of potential Republican challengers including former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty are laying the groundwork for their own campaigns but none of them has formally announced a candidacy.

Early polls show Obama leading potential Republican rivals.

Obama’s announcement could generate criticism that he is switching attention too early to his re-election hopes. The low-key nature of his announcement seemed designed to rebuff that criticism.

The president is in the middle of a

budget battle with congressional Republicans and has focused his message in recent weeks on reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and investing in innovation and education — themes he likely will highlight in his bid to hold on to the White House next year.

Obama also has defended U.S. military intervention in Libya.

Republicans say Obama’s policies to boost the economy and expand healthcare coverage are too expensive. They are pressing Democrats to make deep spending cuts to shrink the deficit, another issue that could play a crucial role in the campaign.

Obama’s email, which closed with a button labeled “donate” that linked to his campaign website, said his 2012 bid would have to be more innovative than his successful 2008 organization.

“In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we’ll build together in cities and towns across the country,” he said in the note.

“And I’ll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that’s farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than

anything we’ve built before.”

A two-minute, 10-second video on the site, titled “It Begins With Us,” features supporters from around the country discussing the Democratic president and the state of the nation.

But Obama is not shown or heard.

Union workers march on King death anniversary Union workers marched yesterday, linking their fight for their rights to the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. King was killed in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, which he was visiting in support of striking sanitation workers, unions pointed out Monday.

“He is often only remembered for opposition to racism in the United

States, but he was a strong advocate for equality and justice in the workplace. Most notably, he openly supported sanitation workers in Memphis who went on strike for justice and better wages,” the Communication Workers of America said in announcing a national demonstration in Washington yesterday.

Union workers marched in Memphis and in locations around Wisconsin, the scene of a fierce show-

NTSB to review discount bus safety after New York crash The National Transportation Safety Board will conduct a review of the safety system governing the discount tour bus industry in the wake of last month’s deadly Bronx bus crash that killed 15 passengers, authorities announced on Sunday.

New York Senator Charles Schumer and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez compared the bus review, expected to take six months, to one that resulted in mandatory airline safety changes after the 2009 crash of a commuter plane in Buffalo killed all 49 passengers and crew aboard.

“A broad based investigation into the discount tour bus industry will send a wake-up call that the status quo is simply not acceptable,” said Schumer, who with Velazquez requested the review after the March 12 fatal crash of a bus returning to Chinatown from a Connecticut casino.

“These passengers did not have to die in vain. (The NTSB review) will no doubt lead to greater safety stan-

dards for the thousands of passengers who use these buses every week,” the Democratic senator said in a statement.

Just days after the New York crash, another Chinatown bus crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike en route to Philadelphia, killing the driver and a passenger.

A week later, a tour bus carrying Korean tourists from Quebec to Boston crashed in New Hampshire, injuring passengers. No one was killed.

“The recent tragic accidents have underscored the need to improve motor coach safety, especially among discount carriers,” the Democratic congresswoman said in a statement.

The NTSB has committed to reviewing both regulatory and operational practices in the discount tour bus industry and will take a critical look at the effectiveness of the current safety watchdog, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Schumer said.

down between workers and the state government this year.

Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill last month to limit the collective bargaining power of some state workers as Wisconsin tries to balance its budget.

Public outrage over Walker’s move practically shut down the Wisconsin state legislature for weeks.

Tens of thousands of protesters including union supporters and public employees descended upon the capital.

Democrats have filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of the law.

A Wisconsin judge has imposed a restraining order on the law stop-

ping it from being implemented until the judge can hear complaints about it.

More than a dozen union events were planned yesterday around Wisconsin, including four in the capital Madison.

In Memphis itself, sanitation workers from 1968 joined civil rights activist Al Sharpton and union workers in a march honoring King.

“Workers’ rights and civil rights are inseparable,” said the secretarytreasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, Lee Saunders, who plans to march in Memphis.

Poll: Most Americans say U.S. nuclear plants safe WASHINGTON — Fifty-eight percent of Americans think U.S. nuclear power plants are safe, while the public remains split over the need for more plants following Japan’s nuclear crisis, a Gallup poll showed yesterday.

The March 25-27 survey of 1,027 U.S. adults found public confidence in nuclear safety relatively unchanged since 2009, when a Gallup poll said 56 percent of Americans believed U.S. plants were safe.

In the new poll, 58 percent said U.S. nuclear power plants are safe, 36 percent said not safe and 6 percent had no opinion.

The survey showed a slight uptick in concern that the dangers of nuclear power are too great to

justify construction of more nuclear plants in the United States.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said the dangers are too great, compared with 46 percent who believe more U.S. nuclear plants are necessary.

A Gallup poll conducted in early 2001 found 49 percent in favor of nuclear expansion and 46 percent against it.

President Barack Obama on March 17 requested a comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear power facilities, maintaining his support for nuclear energy while seeking to apply lessons from the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima plant stricken by an earthquake and tsunami.

Nuclear energy supplies about 20 percent of U.S. electricity.

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

Healthy eating for healthy children

fROm T HE pu B l I SH ER ’ S dESK

By DENA HERMAN, PhD, MPH, RD

THOMAS H. WATKINS

Celebrating and protecting health reform for children

By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN A year ago President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Affordable Care Act”), guaranteeing access to health coverage for 32 million uninsured people in America, including 95 percent of all children. Racial minorities are disproportionately uninsured today and the Affordable Care Act will have a particularly positive impact in communities of color if allowed to go forward.

The first pieces of the Affordable Care Act to take effect have brought critical relief to millions of children and young adults. As implementation of the law proceeds insurers can no longer deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions, impose annual or lifetime caps on coverage, or revoke coverage when someone gets sick.

Insurers must cover preventive services for children without co-payments or cost sharing. Parents can keep children on their insurance until age 26 - helping more than 1.2 million young adults as they graduate from school and work. The hundreds of stories in a new book by Moms Rising about how health reform has improved the lives of children and families reflect the many failures that have been fixed. We must continue to move forward not backwards.

Yet even as we celebrate health reform, the Affordable Care Act and one of its cornerstones, the Medicaid Program, is under attack. Medicaid is a health lifeline for millions of children and vulnerable people. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act have promised to repeal, roll back, or defund the law and have targeted Medicaid for “reform” that would actually cripple the program and the lives of the children and low income people who depend on it.

Medicaid currently covers close to 60 million people, including many children with disabilities or special health care needs, pregnant women, low income adults, and seniors. Under the Affordable Care Act, in 201 Medicaid will expand to reach 16 million more children, parents, and childless adults with incomes below 133 percent of poverty ($29,400 for a family of four). Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) together provide health coverage for more than one in three children and more than four in 10 births.

In February, the House of Representatives passed a bill that prohibits funding for implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Next week the House is expected to take up legislation that would allow states to cap spending for Medicaid decimating all current guarantees of coverage.

In a further assault on children’s health care, the House is expected to consider legislation to repeal the maintenance of effort provision which prohibits states from cutting back on Medicaid and CHIP coverage for children

Special to the NNPA from Blackvoicenews.com The percentage of overweight children in the United States has reached epidemic numbers. In fact, one third of our nation’s kids are carrying too much weight as a result of a poor diet high in unhealthy fats and simple sugars and a sedentary lifestyle.

Besides these much talkedabout causes, experts believe there could be other, less obvious factors that influence the development of, obesity, but also diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

Although more research is being done to gain a better understanding about these diseases, improving our children’s diet and helping them increase their physical activity will significantly reduce their chances of becoming obese and, if their Body Mass Index (BMI) is already high, will help them reach a healthy weight.

One of the best ways to improve our childrens’ diet is by following the Mediterranean diet, which consists of consuming healthy fats such as olive oil and nuts, lean meat, fish, whole grains and plenty of fruits and vegetables. Although these guidelines are widely known, most parents find it difficult to convince kids to consume these products because they are not as popular among their peers and parents do not always have the tools to prepare fresh foods tastefully.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of ways to use these nutritious

options to create delicious, quick meals and snacks that the little ones will enjoy. The following are a few tips to get you started: - Encourage kids to eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice for a better source of fiber, which is often lacking in their diets. Have cubes of melon, grapes, and other fruit choices easily available when kids come home from school and are hungry for a snack. In the summer, place fruit cubes in the freezer for a refreshing afterschool snack or blend up some fruit and freeze it as popsicles!

You can also try giving kids “crudités,” which are cut-up vegetables consumed raw. Not only does the name sound cool but, when served with a creamy bean dip made from cannellini beans, these veggies will have them asking for more. Good options include grape tomatoes, baby carrots and sugar snap peas.

- Get the kids involved in what they eat and make your own trail mix. Ask kids to choose a few of their favorite nuts, seeds, and dried fruits on the next grocery shopping trip.

Home-made trail mixes are great for lunches and snacks, and packed with healthy omega-3 fatty acids that are excellent for healthy brain function and getting homework done quicker.

- Fish is brain food - that is why they travel in schools. Try to include fish as part of a healthy family dinner at least twice a week. Fish such as mahi-mahi, cod or halibut make great choices. Experiment with flavorful Mediterranean marinades using herbs like oregano,

until 2019.

Failing to invest in children’s health through the Medicaid program will put our nation on exactly the wrong economic track. Research has shown that an uninsured child costs the local community $2,100 more than coverage for a child with Medicaid or CHIP. Sacrificing the health and achievement of the next generation is pennywise and pound foolish when other nations are pulling ahead and leaving our children behind.

Medicaid has served as an important safety net for hundreds of millions of children in the almost 50 years since it was enacted and played a critical role in keeping children covered during the recent recession. Children constitute more than 50 percent of total Medicaid beneficiaries but only about 20 percent of the program’s cost.

The program is efficient, with administrative costs about half that of private insurers, and lower per child costs.

The low cost of covering children compared to the high

costs of dealing with the consequences later is a no brainer: efforts to cut children’s coverage by capping federal Medicaid spending, repealing the maintenance of effort provision, or defunding the Affordable Care Act are all shortsighted and would be harmful to our nation’s future economic security. Strengthening our nation financially need not and must not come at the expense of our most vulnerable children’s health; strengthening our nation requires investing in children.

— Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org.

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basil and garlic as well as fresh lemon or orange juice. You can also slice and bread the fish into sticks and bake it in the oven instead of frying it - for a healthy, kid-friendly dish.

- Sandwiches are easy school meals but they can get tiresome. Rev up the flavor and interest by spreading homemade pesto or tapenade instead of mayonnaise on crusty, whole-wheat, toasted bread.

Finely slice, marinate, and grill chicken or turkey breasts for a tasty alternative to deli meats.

- Who needs cupcakes for school birthdays? Surprise the kids by making delicious fruit skewers with a variety of fruits – and yes, you can dip the strawberries in dark chocolate for a phytonutrient punch they won’t forget. If your kids can’t pass without the cupcakes or other sweet treats, look for healthier, less processed options or dig for a lower-fat, lower-sugar recipe alternative and bake a limited amount.

- Work with your children’s tastes but try to expand their palates. If your kids’ favorite foods are pizza and pasta, try creating healthier versions of their favorite meals by making substitutions and adding vegetables or fruits. For example, substitute pepperoni in pizzas for barbecue chicken and add fresh tomatoes and garlic. Peas and pearl onions add taste and dimension to plain pasta but don’t forget to add the parmesan cheese.

Eating meals as a family offers the opportunity for children to learn and experience new foods as well as eating memories they will never forget.

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

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NATIONAl

Two more U.S. states turn over execution drug in probe

By TIM GHIANNI NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Tennessee and Kentucky turned over their supplies of a lethal injection drug to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which is probing how the drug was imported, officials said.

Sodium thiopental, a drug which has commonly been used in executions, is in short supply in the U.S. after a U.S. company bowed to European Union pressure and stopped making it.

U.S. authorities seized Georgia’s supplies of sodium thiopental in March due to concerns about how the drug was imported, and Georgia’s executions are on hold.

Dorinda Carter, spokes-

woman for Tennessee’s Department of Correction, said Friday that the state turned over its supply of the drug at the request of the DEA last week.

“There was no allegation that Tennessee has done anything improper,” said Carter. “The DEA had some concerns about the import procedures of the domestic vendor that we used.”

Carter said the state does not have an execution scheduled until September, but this “will impact our ability to carry out executions.”

“We are reviewing our options today to see what we will do from here,” Carter said. Sodium thiopental is one of three drugs Tennessee uses for executions.

Separately, an official

Third fatal Northeast bus accident in less than a month CONWAY, Mass — One man died and another was critically injured after both fell out of the window of a moving tour bus in Massachusetts, the third fatal bus accident in the Northeast in less than a month, authorities said on Sunday.

The weekend incident occurred shortly before the announcement of an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board into safety measures governing the discount tour bus industry.

Late on Saturday, the tour bus was returning passengers to Gardner, Massachusetts, from a visit to the Red Hook Brewery, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Matthew Murray.

The bus driver from Colonial Tours in Boston reported someone fell out of the vehicle as he drove along Route 2 in Lancaster, Massachusetts, police said.

Thomas Johnson, 31, of Gardner was killed and his friend, Seth Davis, 34, of Winchendon was critically injured, police said..

Authorities said alcohol consumption may have played a role although they were still investigating.

“There is some indication that these two men were

engaged in some level of friendly horseplay,” said Murray.

A state trooper who happened to be near the scene responding to another police call, spotted the two men in the highway’s breakdown lane after they fell, police said.

At Colonial Tours on Sunday, the woman who answered the phone declined to comment, other than to say state police were investigating. The company website boasts “deluxe coaches” and “the most reasonable rates.”

This is the fourth in a series of bus accidents in the Northeast — the third in which people were killed — in less than a month.

On March 12, a tour bus crashed on Interstate 95 in New York City, killing 15 passengers returning to the city’s Chinatown neighborhood from a casino in Connecticut.

Two days later, another tour bus en route from Chinatown to Philadelphia crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike near East Brunswick, killing the driver and one passenger.

The following week, a tour bus carrying Korean tourists from Quebec to Boston crashed in New Hampshire, injuring passengers. No one was killed.

with knowledge of the action, said that Kentucky also had turned over its supply of the drug.

The investigation of the drug imports started after a letter sent earlier this year to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on behalf of Georgia death row inmate Andrew Grant DeYoung.

In the February 24 letter, DeYoung attorney John Bentivoglio wrote that Georgia corrections officials ordered the drug from a

pharmaceutical distributor in London, England.

The state received 50 vials of sodium thiopental in July, Bentivoglio said, citing public records.

But Bentivoglio said the state was not registered to import the controlled substance and failed to notify DEA about the shipment.

“I think it raises very troubling questions about the lengths to which they would go to pursue lethal injections when that process

requires careful attention to the integrity of the process,” Bentivoglio told Reuters after Georgia’s supply of the drug was seized last month.

Ohio and Oklahoma have switched to using pentobarbital, which is often used to euthanize pets. Texas plans to switch for the next scheduled execution. Some death row inmates and opponents of the death penalty are trying to slow executions because of the drug controversy.

Los Angeles mayor to pay record fine over free tickets

By ALEX DOBUZINSKIS LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (right) has agreed to pay a fine of $42,000 for accepting free tickets to shows and sports events such as Lakers games, in the largest ethics-related fine a California agency has ever imposed.

Villaraigosa took tickets to more than 30 events in the five years after he became mayor in 2005, according to documents released on Friday by the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Those included Los Angeles Lakers basketball and Dodgers baseball games, the Academy Awards, a 2009 “American Idol” finale and a Spice Girls concert, the Fair Political Practices Commission said.

The agency’s executive director Roman Porter said this is the largest ethicsrelated fine it has ever imposed, but it has administered bigger fines for campaign finance violations.

The nearly $42,000 fine breaks down as a $21,000 penalty from the Fair Political Practices Commission and $20,849 from the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

Villaraigosa should have reported the tickets as gifts, according to the Fair Political Practices Commission.

The City Ethics Commission also found he erred by taking free tickets from companies and organizations that had business with the city, such as Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

AEG has a stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, and it owns Staples Center where the team plays and where numerous concerts are held throughout the year.

“The FPPC and Ethics Commission recognized that supporting entertainment, sports, and other cultural events is an important governmental function, and something our city’s mayor should do,” Villaraigosa said in a statement.

“I will continue to attend these events and have taken the necessary steps to

ensure full compliance in the future.”

The Fair Political Practices Commission allows politicians to pay their fines with their own money or campaign donations.

A spokeswoman for Villaraigosa said he opened a legal defense fund on Friday to cover expenses related to tickets.

The fine must still be approved by the Fair Political Practices Commission when it meets on April 11, and by the City Ethics Commission when it meets the next day.

Villaraigosa was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 2005, becoming the city’s first Latino mayor since the 19th century. He was reelected in 2009.

Naval Academy expels another student for using ‘spice’ WASHINGTON — Another midshipman was expelled from the U.S. Naval Academy for using or having a banned marijuana-like substance known as “spice,” bringing the total number expelled to 12, officials said.

In January and February, 11 students were expelled as a part of an ongoing investigation into the violation of the Naval Academy’s zero tolerance policy regarding illicit drug use or possession.

“Spice,” also commonly

branded K2 and known as a synthetic marijuana product, is typically marketed as incense and sold online and at convenience stores for $30 to $40 for a three-gram bag, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

“Our purpose is to produce leaders, and as such, we will not graduate or commission any illicit drug user. This type of character flaw is simply incompatible with leading the Sailors of the 21st century,” Vice

Admiral Michael H. Miller, Superintendent of the Naval Academy, said in a statement.

Use of “spice” and other similarly branded herb mixes has been on the rise among teens and young adults in the last few years.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the smokable herbal blends “consist of plant material that has been coated with research chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.”

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 2011 CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 5, 2011 DAILY

INTERNATIONAL

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Japan seeks Russian help to end nuclear crisis

By CHIZU NOMIYAMA & SHINICHI SAOSHIRO TOKYO - Japan has asked nuclear superpower Russia to send a special radiation treatment ship used to decommission nuclear submarines to help in its fight to contain the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl, Japanese media said late yesterday.

Japanese engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been forced to release radioactive waste water into the sea.

At the same time they are resorting to desperate measures to contain the damage, such as using bath salts to try to locate the source of leaks at the crippled complex 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Three weeks after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami hit northeast Japan, sending some of Daiichi’s reactors into partial meltdown, engineers are no closer to regaining control of the power plant or stopping radioactive leaks.

The quake and tsunami left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing and Japan’s northeast coast a wreck.

The world’s costliest natural disaster has caused power blackouts and cuts to supply chains and business hours. It is threatening economic growth and the yen, while a recent opinion poll suggested voters want embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan to form a coalition in order to steer Japan through its worst crisis since World War Two. Plant operator Tokyo Power Co Electric (TEPCO) was forced yesterday to release lowlevel radioactive seawater that had been used to cool overheated fuel rods after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water.

A TEPCO official was in tears as he told a news conference: “We are very sorry for this region and those involved.”

TEPCO said it would release more than 10,000 tons of water about 100 times more radioactive than legal limits in order to free storage capacity for more highly contaminated water.

“We have instructed strict monitoring of the ocean to firmly grasp the impact on the environment,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Engineers planned to

Members of civic groups rally in front of the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the crisis-hit nuclear power plant in Fukushima on April 3. Workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant are struggling to stop a radioactive water leak into the Pacific, as the government warns the facility may leach contamination for months.

Photo/Toru Yamanaka build two giant “silt cur- months to stem the tains” made of polyester leaks and even longer to fabric in the sea to hin- regain control of the der the spread of more power station, damaged contamination from the by last month’s quake plant. and tsunami.

Japan has also asked DISASTER MAY SEE Russia for radiation YEN WEAKEN treatment ship, the Japan, the world’s “Suzuran,” which treats third largest economy radioactive liquids, but also one of its most Kyodo and Jiji news indebted nations, has agencies said. estimated the damages The ship, a joint ven- bill may top $300 bilture between Japan and lion.

Russia, was designed to “The damage from help decommission the nuclear crisis and nuclear submarines in the subsequent power Russia’s Pacific fleet in shortage will last for Vladivostock, ensuring several years,” said Eiji radioactive waste was Hirano, former assisnot dumped into the Sea tant governor of the of Japan, Kyodo said.

Bank of Japan (BOJ).

But it could take “There’s a strong

Japanese women wash their salvaged belongings in a stream due to lack of water in the tsunami-devastated town of Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture.

Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba chance Japan’s economy will contract in the current fiscal year,” he told Reuters in an interview.

A former senior BOJ official, Eisuke Sakakibara, said the yen would weaken in the coming months, possibly beyond 90 to the dollar, underlining expectations a near four-year rally in the currency may be over.

The yen traded at 84.05 per dollar yesterday.

The disaster initially saw the yen soar on speculation Japanese would repatriate funds for reconstruction, prompting the G7 intervention to knock it back.

“This atomic power

issue is an incident which would result in depreciation of the exchange rate,” Sakakibara told reporters in Tokyo.

Unpopular and under pressure to quit or call a snap poll before the disaster, Prime Minister Kan has been criticized for his management of the disaster.

One newspaper poll said nearly two-thirds of voters wanted the government to form a coalition with the major opposition party and work together to recover from the disaster.

Japan’s two biggest parties may join forces, but partisan bickering could delay funding for massive reconstruction.

Yemen toll rises as U.S. seen pressing Saleh to go

By MOHAMED SUDAM & MOHAMMED GHOBARI SANAA - Police and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on antigovernment demonstrators in the Yemeni cities of Taiz and Hudaida yesterday, witnesses said, as a drive to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh gathered pace.

The attempt to suppress mounting protests inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia came

amid signs that the United States is seeking an end to Saleh’s 32year rule, long seen as a rampart against Yemenbased Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In Taiz, south of the capital Sanaa, police shot at protesters trying to storm the provincial government building, killing at least 15 and wounding 30, hospital sources said.

“The regime has surprised us with this extent of killing. I don’t think the people will do anything other than come out with bare chests to drain the government of all its ammunition,” parliamentarian Mohammed Muqbil al-

Hamiri told Al Jazeera.

Television showed a row of men, apparent tear gas victims, lying motionless and being tended by medics on the carpeted floor of a makeshift hospital in Taiz.

In the Red Sea port of Hudaida, police and armed men in civilian clothes fired live rounds and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators marching on a presidential palace, medical sources said. Three people were hit by bullets, around 30 were stabbed with knifes, and 270 were hurt from inhaling tear gas.

As opposition forces stepped up their actions,

Saleh again appeared defiant.

“Just as you gave us your confidence, we will respond to that. We will be steadfast like the mountains,” he told hundreds of tribesman who chanted their rejection of concessions. “We will stay loyal to you, just as you have been loyal to constitutional legitimacy.”

Saleh has said he will not run for re-election in 2013 and could step down following new presidential and parliamentary elections within a year. On Sunday, he called on the opposition to end protests to help ease talks.

An opposition pro-

posal would see the army and security forces restructured by a vice-president acting as temporary president ahead of political reforms and elections.

The ruling party says Saleh should remain in office to oversee changes.

There were signs of mounting U.S. pressure on Saleh to go. The New York Times said yesterday Washington had “quietly shifted positions” and “concluded that he is unlikely to bring about the required reforms and must be eased out of office.”

U.S. ROLE Analysts and diplomats predicted more

behind-the-scenes pressure on Saleh from Western countries to end the crisis.

“The next step is putting aid to Yemen on the table and saying that there are going to be serious consequences if Saleh continues to use violence against his own people,” said Shadi Hamid, an analyst at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.

The Obama administration has not so far made a public statement urging Saleh to step aside. Such calls were key in bringing an end to the rule of Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine bin Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

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Nigerian politicians say poll postponement was best option

By M.J. SMITH LAGOS - Nigeria’s postponement of general elections cast further doubt yesterday on the ability of Africa’s most populous nation to hold credible polls, but political parties lined up behind the delay.

The country’s electoral chief announced the postponements on Sunday after meeting with political leaders, and Nigeria’s two main parties opposition expressed relief at the outcome, saying it gave them enough time to prepare.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign also welcomed the delay and lashed out at suggestions it was involved in sabotage that led to the postponements.

“The (Peoples Democratic Party) is aware of the spurious allegations of attempts at rigging made against it by opponents,” a statement said.

“However, we see such distractions as the rantings of those who see failure and envisage defeat at the polls ...”

This month’s landmark polls are being viewed as a critical test

Officials of the Nigerian Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) carry ballot boxes at a voting centre in the Ketu district of Lagos, on April 2. Nigeria's postponement of general elections cast further doubt on the ability of Africa's most populous nation to hold credible polls, but political parties lined up behind the delay.

Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei of whether Africa’s largest oil producer can organise a credible ballot after a history of election fraud and violence.

The new dates will now be April 9 for parliamentary polls, April 16 for presidential elections and April 26 for governorship and state assembly polls.

Parliamentary polls were due to be held yesterday, while the presi-

dential vote was previously set for April 9 and state ballots on April 16.

Legislative elections had already been postponed once, with the delay announced hours after the vote was to begin on Saturday as materials and personnel failed to arrive at a large number of polling stations.

Electoral commission chief Attahiru Jega

went on live television at around midday Saturday to announce he was pulling the plug, appearing solemn and deeply apologetic as he called the situation an “emergency.”

But the two-day delay he announced drew immediate criticism from those who said it did not leave enough time to sort out logistical problems and would give an unfair

advantage to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

There were also the inevitable suggestions of sabotage in a country long held back by corruption. Some analysts predict parliamentary polls could loosen the PDP’s firm grip on the legislature.

The criticism led to Jega’s meeting on Sunday with political parties and his announcement afterward that all polls would be shifted. He said holding the parliamentary and presidential polls on the same day could result in further logistical problems.

Former Botswana president Festus Mogae, the head of observers from the Commonwealth, called the postponements “regrettable.”

“We fully recognise that it is the prerogative of Nigeria’s electoral authorities to make changes to the electoral timetable,” the statement said.

“We believe nonetheless that such repeated and last-minute changes are regrettable and do not reflect positively on the state of

preparedness of (the electoral commission).”

Opposition parties said the shift was the best option available in order to allow for fair elections.

“We are now going to be in a position to get the logistics that we need,” said Yinka Odumakin, spokesman for the Congress for Progressive Change, whose presidential candidate, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, is seen as the strongest challenger to Jonathan.

“We can only hope that (the electoral commission) will have overcome its problems and prevent all possible acts of sabotage.”

There have been outbursts of violence in the run up to polls, and authorities made a number of arrests Saturday involving thugs allegedly recruited by politicians to disrupt elections.

Some 60 arrests were made in Kano state in the north, including of a parliamentary candidate police declined to name, while in Katsina state a local politician was arrested for allegedly stealing ballot papers.

Sudan’s railways running out of steam

By SIMON MARTELLI KHARTOUM - The freight train rumbles over the Blue Nile bridge and snakes through the capital. It could take weeks to reach its destination, in Darfur, for despite the potential to link up a divided nation, Sudan’s railways are derelict, after years of sanctions and neglect.

With more than 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) of track, Sudan has one of the longest railways in Africa, extending from Port Sudan on the Red Sea to Nyala in the war-torn west, and from Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border to Wau in the far south.

But it now carries less than six percent of Sudanese traffic, and

the last passenger train to depart from north Khartoum station left six months ago, according to a policeman guarding the empty building.

Prior to that they ran twice a week, he said, leaving early in the morning and arriving at the northern border town the following evening, covering a distance of around 900 kilometres.

“There are passenger trains still running. But they are very rare,” admitted Mohammed Ahmed Makkawi, the general manager of Sudan Railways Corporation.

Sudan’s railways prospered in the 1960s and 1970s, driven by a thriving agricultural sector and foreign investment, and their decline mirrors the

wider stagnation of the Sudanese economy.

Like other officials in the sector, Makkawi blames the poor state of Sudan’s narrow-gauge train system on US economic sanctions, first imposed in 1997 and renewed as recently as November.

“Most of our locomotives are from America, but most of them are out of service because of sanctions. We can’t get spare parts,” he told AFP. “We are trying to get financing for another track, to make it a standard gauge, so that it can carry a lot of equipment and goods and passengers, and be much more reliable,” he added.

Khartoum has managed to buy new locomotives from China in recent years.

But plans to build a new line from Port Sudan to Khartoum, the busiest route, would cost an estimated $1 billion (or 705 billion euros), money that the destitute Sudanese government simply does not have.

“The existing tracks are very old,” Makkawi said.

Most of the tracks are indeed ancient — a staggering 73 percent of the railway lines were constructed before 1930 — with the 50-kilometre branch line connecting Muglad to the Abu Jabra oil field being one of just a few to be built in the last half century.

Khartoum is connected to Aweil, a town in the soon to be independent south, with trains carrying thousands of southerners there prior to January’s landmark

An engine moves along Sudan's narrow-guage track in the sidings of Khartoum's station.

Photo/Ashraf Shazly referendum on independence for the region.

But the line down to Wau, which was used by the Sudanese government in its 22-year war against the southern rebels, was out of action for many years after the bridge in Aweil was destroyed, although railways officials say it was fixed in 2010.

Ironically, it was conflict that initially prompted the development of Sudan’s railway.

The first section of

the present-day network was built by the British in the late nineteenth century to support their military operations against Sudanese leader Muhammad Ahmad alMahdi, who had defeated the colonial forces some 10 years earlier.

It was later expanded, and used profitably to export animals, sugar and cotton primarily from Gezira state, Sudan’s agricultural heartland south of Khartoum, between the Blue and White Nile.

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AFRICAN SCENE

Volunteers flock to Libya rebel army boot camp

By ANGUS MACSWAN BENGHAZI, Libya Ashraf Mohamed Salem has never fired a gun in his life.

But the 27-year-old science student was one of several hundred eager volunteers who showed up at the Benghazi military barracks yesterday for a basic training course so he can join the rebel army facing Muammar Gaddafi’s troops.

“We want to protect our families but we have no experience. I hope we will be good enough to go to the frontline but if not we will defend our homes,” he told Reuters.

He said he had worked supplying food to the frontlines during the uprising against Gaddafi that broke out in midFebruary but now he had decided to fight.

“I’ve never fired a gun before.

That’s why I’m here, to learn.”

The rebel army is largely made up of young civilians and their fortunes have ebbed and flowed in the face of Gaddafi’s better-armed and experienced troops.

The front line is now around Brega, about 230 km by road southwest of Benghazi.

Their lack of training and military experience has been a concern not only to the rebel leadership but also to the foreign governments which have backed them with air strikes but are reluctant to commit ground troops to help topple Gaddafi.

The rebel leadership is making a concerted effort to improve matters. In the past week, there have been signs that former army officers were asserting more control over the often anarchic scenes at the frontline.

The recruits training at the Benghazi barracks were under the instruction of former army officers who had joined the rebel side, most of them coming out of retirement.

Fosi Al-Hado, a former marine commander in a slouch hat and camouflage uniform, said there little time to teach them a lot.

“We are training them with the weapons we have,” he said.

“Kalashnikovs, rockets launchers, machine guns. These are the only weapons that are available.

We want long distance weapons, heavy artillery, missiles, to give us the advantage.”

The training lasts a week and mostly covers weapons. Tactics will have to wait until later, said Hado, who said he had fought in conflicts in Uganda, Chad and Lebanon.

The best recruits are sent to the front but other fighters are needed to defend the city and strategic locations.

He said all the instructors were Libyan. No foreign personnel could be seen on the parade ground when Reuters visited the camp.

“We have no foreigners,” Hado said. “We are all Libyans.”

U.S. and Egyptian soldiers have been reported to be training rebels in camps in east Libya but neither their governments

nor the rebel leadership have confirmed this.

ALL CLEAR Groups of recruits sat in circles on the parade ground around rocket launchers and cannon, listening intently to the instructors.

“This goes in this hole here. Is that clear?” said one instructor putting the barrel of an anti-aircraft gun back together.

“Yes,” the recruits responded in a chorus.

Their numbers included students, doctors, businessmen and engineers as well as workers or unemployed people.

While Gaddafi is known for employing female bodyguards, there were no women fighters among the rebels, unlike in rebel armies in Nicaragua or Sri Lanka. They are assigned to other jobs in the revolutionary movement, an official said.

Hisham Mohamed, 32, a communication student, said he a personal reason for joining the fight.

“I’ve never had training before, never had a gun. I’m here because Gaddafi detained my brother. Since 1996. We don’t know where he is or if he is still alive.”

Because of this, he and his family were barred from getting government jobs, he said.

Commander Hado said it was likely to be a long and difficult fight.

“We have the will. We are fighting a professional army but we have God and right on our side. When Gaddafi goes, I’ll go back to retirement.”

Algeria doctors, militias, students push on with demos ALGIERS Auxiliary police, specialised doctors and university students pushed on with strikes and demonstrations in Algeria yesterday to push demands i n c l u d i n g improved pay and conditions.

Hundreds of members of the security militia spent the night at Martyrs Square in the capital and said they would not leave until President Abdelaziz Bouteflika

had answered demands issued at a major rally last month.

“For the moment it’s the status quo and we have still had no contact with the president’s office,” one of their spokesmen, Hakim Chaib, told AFP. The force was created during the antiIslamist war of the 1990s to 2005 and now numbers about 94,000 men.

They are demanding increases in pay and pensions, integration into the regular

security forces and the rehiring of colleagues who have been laid off.

Specialised doctors in hospitals meanwhile planned sit-ins yesterday in teaching hospitals, according to spokesman Amine Benhabib, as part of an open-ended strike started two weeks ago.

They also expected a meeting with the health ministry, he told AFP. “We’re currently only at the stage of talks,” added Benhabib, an orthopaedic doctor.

Among their demands is an end to

obligatory work periods of between one and four years in remote regions on completion of their studies.

Students at universities across Algeria continued to skip classes in a protest movement that started in February to demand parity between old and new degrees delivered by the higher education authorities.

Algeria is one of the countries that has seen several demonstrations in a wave of protests across the Arab world this year.

AFRICAN SCENE

Gang kidnaps great-niece of former Egypt president CAIRO - A gang kidnapped the greatniece of Egypt’s former President Anwar Sadat on her way to school and held her for 21 hours until her father paid a ransom, security sources and state media said yesterday.

The family reported the abduction to the police, who tracked down the kidnappers yesterday, arrested them and retrieved the ransom, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

Zeina Effat Sadat, 12, was snatched from a chauffer-driven car in the upmarket northern Cairo suburb of Heliopolis on Sunday morning, the sources said.

The abductors phoned her father Effat Sadat, a businessman, former parliamentarian and nephew of the president assassinated in 1981, to demand a ransom of 5 million Egyptian pounds ($839,600).

He paid the ransom according to their instructions, dropping a bag containing the money at an agreed location on a highway between Cairo and the northern port city of Alexandria.

The abductors then released Zeina and called her father to tell her they had left her at another location on the highway.

Effat Sadat was unavailable to comment but his office confirmed the details.

War of words as Zimbabwe slams S.Africa’s Zuma JOHANNESBURG - A war of words intensified between South Africa and Zimbabwe yesterday as President Jacob Zuma’s office responded indignantly to an attack slamming his recent decisions on Africa.

The diplomatic scuffle between the two key southern African players began Friday, when President Robert Mugabe rejected regional pressure to rein in a wave of political violence sweeping Zimbabwe ahead of elections expected later this year.

The government mouthpiece Sunday Mail then published an editorial calling Zuma “erratic” and “disaster-prone” and criticising his stance on Zimbabwe and his support for the no-fly zone in Libya.

It also condemned Zuma’s stance on Zimbabwe, after he joined regional leaders at a summit last week in slapping Mugabe on the wrist over an upsurge in political violence.

“Mr Zuma’s duplicity is astounding. With such leaders, Africa is in mortal danger,” the editorial said.

Zuma’s office responded yesterday by defending the country’s vote in favour of the UN resolution to intervene in Libya.

“Should the Zimbabwean government wish to understand our position on Libya or any other, they will contact the South African government through the normal channels,” it said.

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CARIBBEAN BRIEFS ONE FAMILY.

Whether West Indian, African or African American.

One God, One Aim, One Destiny.

Jamaica PM denies alleged drug kingpin paid US$50,000 legal fees

Trinidad PM has busy week ahead in Washington

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar is now in Washington. She will spend the next five days holding a series of meetings and addressing organisations.

On Sunday night she dined with President Barack He nevertheless dis- Obama and Mrs closed to the Obama.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding has denied that alleged drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke paid the legal fees of US$50,000 to the US law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, but was tight lipped about who paid the law firm.

Commission of Enquiry looking into the circumstances of Coke’s extradition to the US that the fees were paid by two donors, who he did not name, but said one was connected to a large corporation.

Golding made the disclosure while being cross-examined by K.D. Knight, counsel for the opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Commission, Emil George QC, said that the Commission has been given yet another extension by the Governor General to complete its work by May 16.

George said that the work of the Commission was delayed because of lengthy cross examinations and adjournments.

Counsel for Golding said that the prime minister would not be available to attend yesterday or Tuesday and the chairman adjourned the hearing until Wednesday, when he will be further cross examined.

She will yesterday address the Brookings Institute, a non public policy organisation that aims to strengthen democracy in the United States and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative system.

The Brookings Institute is ranked as the world’s top “think tank” and is considered a trusted source of independent research.

Persad Bissessar’s address at this forum will focus on the strengthening and diversification of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy and on social development issues.

She will also hold talks with OAS Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza, and Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin.

Today, she will deliver a keynote address at the Public Sector Leaders Forum hosted by Microsoft, which aims to bring government leaders and influential thinkers to discuss the role of information technology on an economic and educational level.

CARIBBEAN NEWS

Barbados artist wants Caribbean art to go global

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The time has come to create opportunities for Caribbean artists on the world stage, asserts a leading regional artist.

Barbadian Ras Akyem-i Ramsay, director of the Barbados-based art-aniMAL Inc., lamented the under-representation of Caribbean visual arts across the world. This under representation, he contended, offered creative visionaries an opportunity for leadership in this “virgin space.”

“I hope to be to Caribbean art what Bob Marley is to Caribbean music,” said Ras Akyem-i, who has earned global attention for his artwork.

“We are creating a collective of contemporary, forward thinking regional visual artists to overcome global perceptions that limit us to traditional images of fishing boats and palm trees,” he said.

Recently funded by local venture capital firm BIM Ventures, art-aniMAL’s chief executive believes he finally has the support system to fulfill such a grand vision.

“I have found in BIM Ventures the supportive, embracing, family-oriented

Ras Akyem-i Ramsay model which provides a strong structure to survive in today’s competitive world,” he said.

The Rastafarian pointed to support in the form of finance and shepherding (mentorship) which has given him the launch pad to grow his young and progressive art company.

“There is something quite radically unique and daring about this local business organization’s decision to boldly circumvent the sterile domestic business traditions, and confidently invest timely funding in a

visual artist or poet,” the Rasta mused.

The campaign to give Caribbean art global prominence took off in November with a presentation at the Liverpool Biennial, one of the most exciting contemporary visual arts events in the United Kingdom.

Later, art-aniMAL received positive reviews in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Ras Akyem-i collaborated with master printmaker Michael Costello of Hand Graphics Studio to produce a unique body of limited edition lithographs.

“We are pleased with the success of our Santa Fe trip and the work that was produced there.

We have sold seven out of 10 exclusive pre-released prints and have generated a number of leads,” said art-aniMAL managing director Adam Werth.

Ras Akyem-i, whose work has recently been on exhibition in Martinique, now looks forward to this weekend’s Caribbean Fine Art Fair in Barbados.

Dr. Basil Springer, BIM Ventures project manager, will be participating at the Fair in a panel discussion entitled “Visual Art, a Cultural Industry, and its Role in Economic Development”.

FlyMontserrat celebrates 10,000th passenger

Arriving in style: Loralyn Fergus, FlyMontserrat’s 10,000th passenger. From left to right: FlyMontserrat’s managing director Nigel Harris, Loralyn Fergus with baby Diera, and Pilot Dennis Fehrenbach.

B R A D E S , Monserrat — FlyMontserrat celebrated 16 months of scheduled services into Montserrat on Saturday by carrying its 10,000th pas-

senger.

Loralyn Fergus, travelling with baby Diera, arrived from Antigua on flight 805 at 11.20am to be greeted by FlyMontserrat’s managing director, Nigel Harris. Loralyn, from St

Peter’s, was presented with a bottle of champagne so she could join in the festivities.

Harris said he was delighted to welcome Loralyn back on island in style.

“We like to look after

our customers and carrying our 10,000th passenger is a significant milestone for us,” Harris said.

“FlyMontserrat doesn’t just fly to Montserrat, we live here too and are part of the community.”

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Haitians awaiting results in presidential election P O R T- A U PRINCE, Haiti Police patrolled the streets and businesses boarded up windows yesterday as Haitians awaited the delayed preliminary results from last month’s presidential election.

The extra police presence, a combination of Haitian national police and U.N. peacekeepers, was intended to prevent a repeat of the violence that followed the December announcement of the apparent winners from the first round.

Haiti’s electoral council was scheduled to announce the preliminary count of votes in the race that featured musician Michel Martelly against former

first lady Mirlande Manigat. They are seeking to replace President Rene Preval, barred from running for a third term under the constitution. widely Martelly, known by his stage name “Sweet Micky,” is a first-time political candidate. Manigat is a university administrator and former senator.

Either will face a challenging environment that includes a Senate Chamber of and Deputies controlled by Preval’s party and widespread anger over the slow progress of reconstruction from the January 2010 earthquake.

The electoral council was supposed to release preliminary results on March 31. But officials said they had to delay

the announcement to give observers more time to review suspected fraudulent ballots.

Final results are scheduled to be released on April 16.

Much of Haiti was paralyzed by riots after the council announced first-round results that excluded Martelly from runoff.

The the Organization of American States later determined those results were incorrect and the musician had come in second and gained a spot in the second ballot.

“We’re waiting for the results but people may not accept them,” said Wilno JeanBaptiste, 30, a supermarket employee on his way to work. “It’s possible we could have chaos again.”

Judgment reserved in Dominica dual citizenship case R O S E A U , Dominica — Justice Gertel Thom has reserved the decision in the dual citizenship case i n v o l v i n g Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his Education Minister Peter Saint Jean after two days of hearing arguments.

The St Vincentbased, Guyanese-born judge, who flew to Roseau for the hearing, is expected to make a

determination whether the two ministers should be ordered to disclose their passports in answer to charges that they held dual citizenship at the time they were nominated to contest the 2009 general election that was won

by Skerrit’s Dominica Labour Party (DLP).

CMC reported that the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) had petitioned the court to overturn the election victories of Skerrit and Saint Jean on the grounds that they were citizens of France at the time of

the polls.

In its petition, the opposition party stated that their nominations and subsequent election should be declared “void and of no legal effect”.

Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan told the court on Friday that his clients had no obligation to submit their passports since the onus was on the UWP to prove its case against the two elected officials.

Astaphan described the UWP team as being on a “fishing expedition” in search of evidence.

A musician plays in a funeral procession followed by relatives in Portau-Prince, Haiti, yesterday.

Photo/Ramon Espinosa

Anguilla to seek independence THE VALLEY, Anguilla — Anguilla Chief Minister Hubert Hughes said that Britain’s approval of his December 2010 budget is a little too late and signalled his intention to seek independence for the British Overseas Territory.

“We lost out on so much revenue, we have lost out on the deal we had with the European Union, on the EDF 10 fiscal package, we have lost out on support from the Caribbean Development Bank

because these institutions will not do business with Anguilla as long as Anguilla cannot produce a proper, credible budget,” Hughes told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Governor Alistair Harrison said that the Queen, through the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, had assented to the island’s Appropriation Act, which contains the 2011 budget.

He gave no details of the amount contained in the budget, but Harrison also announced that he had approved the legislation introducing the interim Stabilization Levy; as well as amendments to the Customs surcharge and the Petroleum Levy passed earlier by the House of Assembly.

“These three measures constitute the new measures necessary to implement the budget settlement for 2011,” Harrison said.

Jailed ‘k in gpin’ implicates Ch avez gover nment

By VIVIAN SEQUERA BOGOTA, Colombia The reputed Venezuelan drug kingpin who Colombia has decided to extradite back home rather than to the U.S. says in a TV interview that he has videos proving Venezuela’s ruling elite is deeply involved in cocaine trafficking.

But Walid Makled said in the interview broadcast Sunday night that he would disclose only to U.S. prosecutors

the videos and other “conclusive evidence” of drug corruption in the inner circle of Venezuela’s leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, seeking to improve what had been rocky relations with Chavez, announced in November that he would extradite Makled to Venezuela.

Chavez asked first and Makled faces more serious charges, including murder, in Venezuela, Santos said.

Colombia’s Supreme Court approved the extradition March 25.

Several key U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern that Makled will be silenced once back in Venezuela and the opportunity lost to expose monumental corruption in that country’s ruling circles.

International law enforcement officials say that under Chavez, Venezuela has become a major transshipment country for Colombian cocaine.

Last week, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on Santos to reconsider his decision.

He said in a statement that should Makled be extradited to Venezuela, U.S. drug agents and prosecutors “would be unable to use the information he has already provided to them to legally dismantle some of the most important drug net-

works in the world today.”

Santos has been silent on the issue, though U.S. Republican Rep. Connie Mack of Florida told The Associated Press that he spoke to the Colombian president Wednesday and Santos told him “he is legally and politically tied to send Makled to Venezuela.

Makled was arrested in August in Colombia with the help of U.S. drug agents a little more than a year after

the White House designated him an international kingpin.

He has spoken in prison with U.S. officials, American and Colombian officials have told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. But the information he has provided on high-level Venezuelan corruption, one U.S. official said, would not likely be admissible as evidence in a U.S. court.

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Mandisa to unveil new album, ‘What If We Were Real’

Beyonce is all grown up. After a professional lifetime together, the superstar and her father, Matthew Knowles, have parted ways, with Matthew no longer managing the “Halo” singer.”I’ve only parted ways with my father on a business level,” Beyonce tells UsMagazine.com in an exclusive statement.

“He is my father for life and I love my dad dearly. I am grateful for everything he has taught me. I grew up watching both he and my mother [Tina Knowles] manage and own their own businesses. They were hard-working entrepreneurs and I will continue to follow in their footsteps.” As for who will now manage the superstar, who plans to release a new album (a follow-up to her smash I Am . . .

Sasha Fierce) later this year? “Beyonce has the knowledge and experience to make that decision and no final decision has been made yet,” Matthew says.

Lil Jon used his winnings from a recent victory on the hit TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” to benefit a local children’s homier Decatur, Georgia. Lil Jon, who has starred in and directed numerous videos, lead his team to victory, while communication between the women’s team, predictably, broke down.

As a result of his win, Donald Trump praised Lil Jon’s leadership skills, which earned United Methodist Children’s Home in Decatur $40,000.

Belting out her some of her smash hits in front of an all-ages audience, Janet Jackson crossed generational lines while performing at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey on March 26. The pop diva captivated the

crowd In true Jackson style with her short slicked back hair, skintight charcoal-colored leather jumpsuit and matching knee-high boots. During the past few days, the 44-yearold was able to sell-out both of her Atlantic City shows, giving the audiences something to sing along to with smash singles like “Nasty,” “All for You,” “Escapade,” and “Miss You Much.” Miss Jackon’s Borgota concert stop was part of her current “Number Ones: Up Close and Personal” tour, which is meant to help Janet reconnect with her audience.

Cash Money empresario Birdman is hardly a stranger to dropping large sums of cash at a single time.

Now, the former Big Tymer is making headlines for a recent spending spree at New York’s Club Perfection.

According to Rap Radar, Birdman supposedly dropped $50,000 at the popular Queens strip club while on the Young Money/Cash Moeny I Am Music 2 tour.

Angie Stone -famous for songs like “No More Rain” -- was arrested in Georgia yesterday ... TMZ has learned ... after the R&B singer was allegedly caught speeding on a suspended license. Angie was booked on both the speeding charge and the suspended license charge last night -- and released an hour later.

Jay-Z has finally reached a settlement with David “Big Papi” Ortiz over the baseball star’s use of the name 40/40 Club. When Ortiz attempted to open a club named “FortyForty” in the Dominican Republic, Jay-Z slapped the Red Sox star with a $5 million dollar lawsuit. Earlier in this month, lawyers

for Ortiz claimed that Jay-Z wanted too much to settle the case, leading many to believe the matter would have to be settled by a judge.

“The case has been settled in principle,” JayZ’s attorney Peter Raymond said. “We have agreed on the outlines of a settlement and need to reduce it to writing.”

On Twitter, Rihanna re-tweeted a fan’s announcement that her Minneapolis show was sold out. Unfortunately, the venue’s ticket website still shows plenty of remaining available seats. Rihanna’s fan “@StarsGoneMad” originally wrote: “@Rihanna’s Minneapolis show sold out in exactly 68 minutes.

Now that’s what’s up!!!!” to which she responded “Minneapolis STAND UP!! #werk” Another wrote, “Wanted to see @rihanna in concert but the tickets were sold out in a hour in Minneapolis. #SADFACE” However, if you go to the Target Center’s website, her June 16 show with Cee-Lo still has openings for audience members. It’s okay, RiRi, plenty of people make mistakes, but maybe you should ask your management before taking the word of a crazed groupie?

Harlem rapper and Cam’ron protege, Vado, has official inked a deal with Interscope Records, where he’ll be dropping his major label, solo debut. Cam revealed the news of his protégé’s deal during a radio appearance on Angie Martinez’s Hot 97 show on Monday (March 28), clarifying that he’s happy Vado can branch out on his own. “[Vado] just signed a deal with Interscope,” Cam announced on air.

“Shout out to DJ and Jimmy Iovine at Interscope; we appreciate that.”

Often an artist’s strengths inspire their best work. But for acclaimed contemporary Christian singer Mandisa, it’s her very human flaws and frailties that gave birth to her stellar third album, What If We Were Real. The two-time GRAMMY ® nominee knows that nobody is perfect—and she wants her fans to realize that, too. Her new career-defining project, released on Sparrow Records, reminds us all that everyone struggles.The concept of the album—which follows 2007’s exploration of inner grace, True Beauty, and 2009’s look at personal emancipation, Freedom—came to Mandisa as she bared her soul to her more than 20,000 followers on Twitter (@mandisaofficial).

“A lot of people think we as Christians have to put our masks on and pretend that everything is great.

But I was really amazed at the responses I’d get when I’d Tweet that I was struggling, or needed prayer with something, or having a bad day,” she explains. “People said, ‘I’m glad to know I’m not the only one.’ Or ‘I need prayer for that too.’

It surprised me that people thought I had it all together. The truth of the matter is I have bad days too and am still learning to bring that to the Lord and let Him lift my burden.”

That learning curve is evident on the vulnerable but empowering What If We Were Real. “Where I was at the beginning of this album and where I ended up are two very different places,” confirms the Season 5 American Idol finalist and multiple GMA Dove Award nominee. (She scored consecutive nominations for Female Vocalist of the Year.) “It’s been a process.”

That process began with a disheartening battle with a familiar enemy. “I will always struggle with my weight. It’s the thorn in my flesh,” she says, recalling how a disappointing morning on the scale

prompted her startling online confession that things are not always rosy. “I had gained weight and was so frustrated at that moment that I said so on Twitter. I said, ‘I’m fed-up and over it.’ I was feeling embarrassed and ashamed. I realized that I had only talked about how great things were. I never let people in when they were not. It was then that I decided I’d talk about the bad things too—that I’d be real.”

And so she is, through 11 songs of struggle, worship, and redemption, starting with the title track.

Propelled by a blaring rock guitar and Mandisa’s distorted vocal, the song explodes, signaling that, yes, something different and new is on the horizon. “That song is going to throw people for a loop! It’s definitely showing a different side of me,” she says, clearly excited by the notion of adding some grit to her angelic vocals.

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

13

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DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

ENTERTAINmENT

Kelly Rowland talks sensual, empowering and painful forthcoming album After several delays and music changes, Kelly Rowland’s third solo studio album may finally hit stores this summer. Lead by the fourth release and official first single “Motivation” featuring rapper Lil Wayne, Rowland says the untitled album will boast a plethora of emotions.

“You experience a sensual side of the album, an empowering side of the

album, and a painful side of the album,” Rowland tells In The Spotlight. “It’s an emotional rollercoaster. It’s the same things that I feel women go through or that I went through, so I’m really excited for everybody to hear everything. I was inspired by so many different types of music, as well as the producers and writers on the album. When we put our heads together, we

were all open to suggestions amongst each other, and that’s what made it so beautiful. We were celebrating music and creativity, and I was celebrating being a woman and feeling that power.”

As far as the fans awaiting Rowland’s new album, the “Commander” singer says they will be in for a good time.

“This album is so much

fun when I sit back and listen to it,” states Rowland.

“I’m still in the process of sequencing the record, and that’s probably the hardest thing because you want everything to flow so well.”

The album is expected to drop in late August or September of 2011, and as for the much-anticipated title, Rowland says, “I have the title, but I’m not discussing it just yet.”

R. Kelly to reveal life Jermaine Jackson finally ordered in memoir, ‘I’m tired of to pay back child support being misunderstood’ Jermaine Jackson may find himself in the slammer or have all his things auctioned off for cash if he doesn’t follow a new court order, which requires him to pay $80,000 in back child support to ex-wife Alejandra Jackson.

In the terms of the settlement, Jermaine was to fork over a $5,000 cashiers check yesterday, $15,000 by Friday, $20,000 by April 13 and $40,000 by May 13.

Jermaine is still not

happy with the proceedings, insisting paying the huge amount is a financial burden for him. He adds, “I’m not rich like Michael was.”

“The problem is she’s been living in the Havenhurst house for 18 years. She has never once paid a bill,” Jermaine says about the reason why he shouldn’t pay the bill.

His revoked driver’s license will be reinstated after he pays the initial $5,000.

Lil Wayne slapped with another hefty tax bill R&B crooner R. Kelly plans on releasing a memoir entitled Soulacoaster. In a slight twist, The Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter said “I’m writing this book as Robert, not R. Kelly.”

Kelly has endured a number of personal and business setbacks throughout his career including criminal cases, divorce, Jay-Z beef, and radio blacklist but he has still continued to be herald as one of the greatest recording artist of his generation. In the forthcoming biography, he believes he

can provide full insight into his life stating, “I’m tired of being misunderstood. I will show you the tears, fears, and sweat. I will open my heart and reveal the good in my life as well as all the drama. I want to tell it like it is.”

Kelly wrote the book with the aid of celebrity author David Ritz. The book has been described as “Part memoir, part keepsake; “Soulacoaster” unlocks the door to R. Kelly’s story as only he can tell it, promising his fans an intimate and unforgettable ride.”

Young Money President Lil Wayne will have to open his pockets once again. After settling a $1.13 million debt with the IRS late last year (2010), the “6 Foot 7 Foot” MC finds himself in another government puddle.

Wayne paid off his last debt three weeks after his release from prison in November (2010), after serving time for gun possession charges.

But now the IRS has filed a $5.6 million lien against the star, claiming he owes income tax payments from 2008 and 2009, reports The Detroit News.

In a recent sit down with Interview Magazine, Wayne says he wants to bank $50 million after taxes and expenses this year. Hopefully that will give him enough to settle his tax lien.

London stadium gets Jackson statue LONDON — London soccer club owner Mohamed alFayed has erected a statue of Michael Jackson outside his stadium, and doesn’t care who likes it.

Fayed, father of Princess Diana’s late boyfriend Dodi Fayed, told Sky News, “Football fans love it. If some stupid

fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift they can go to hell.”

“People will queue to come and visit it from all over the U.K. and it is something that I and everybody else should be proud of,” he added.

Fayed unveiled the statue of the late pop star outside

Craven Cottage stadium in London before his Fulham Football Club’s Premier League match against Blackpool Sunday.

He had tried to put the statue outside Harrods department store, which he once owned, but was denied permission.

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 5, 2011 DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 2011

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NEW JERSEY

Newark man denies killing Malcolm X, lawyer says NEWARK - A lawyer representing AlMustafa Shabazz yesterday disputed an allegation that the 72-yearold Newark man was the main assassin of Malcolm X in 1965, an accusation made in a controversial book published yesterday.

“I’ve spoken to him (Shabazz) and he categorically denies he was involved in the assassination of Malcolm X,” said his attorney, J. Edward Waller.

In his major new biography “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” author Manning Marable, claims William Bradley, who many people over the years have placed at the shooting of Malcolm X, is married to Carolyn Kelley, now Carolyn Kelley Shabazz, a prominent civic leader in Newark. Marable died unexpectedly Friday from a long illness.

On Saturday, Carolyn Shabazz said her husband did not have any association with the death of the controversial black leader 46 years ago. He was not available to speak at the time and yesterday Waller said he was now speaking for the couple.

“There’s nothing that ties him with the death of Malcolm X directly or indirectly,”

Waller said. “There’s nothing to support this.”

In his book, Marable wrote extensively about Newark Mosque 25 and its alleged role in the conspiracy to assassiMalcolm X. nate According to historian Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who worked with Marable and interviewed many of the members of Newark’s Muslim community, the involvement of Mosque 25 had been “an open secret” for years.

Three men were eventually convicted of the murder of Malcolm X, who had publicly split with the Nation of Islam, but Marable and others have long asserted there were other assailants, including Bradley.

Marable spoke with a Star-Ledger reporter last year about the impending publication of his books and his allegations against Bradley.

“This isn’t a court of law,” Marable said.

“Rather, it’s how a historian pieces together evidence. You make judgments about people based on the totality of their lives.”

Speaking of Bradley, he added, “He has turned his life around over the last 20 years.

He has a positive and constructive reputation

Malcolm X within the Muslim community. And his life has been turned around through marriage and local activities.”

As Marable’s book was set to be released, some in Newark’s Muslim community said yesterday there was renewed discussion about the assassination.

“My concern now is, how will it play out and how will it affect us as a community,” said Amin Nathari, who grew up

attending Mosque 25 and is the founder of a mosque in East Orange where he was imam from 1995 to 1998. He says Shabazz attended his mosque for several months in 1998 after his release from prison.

Department of Corrections documents list William Bradley, aka Al-Mustafa Shabazz, as serving time in jail in the 1980s and ‘90s. He was freed, according to the records, in 1998.

When asked Saturday whether her husband was Bradley, Carolyn Shabazz did not deny it, but said, simply, that legally his name is Shabazz.

Waller says he only knows his client by the name Al-Mustafa Shabazz, and that he “never had the opportunity to respond to the allegation prior to the publication of the book.

The first time they heard about this was (Saturday). They were

East Orange police mug shot of William Bradley, a.k.a. AlMustafa Shabazz caught off guard.”

At least two others journalists, Richard Prince and Karl Evanzz, wrote about the connection last year, and filmmaker Omar Shabazz mentioned the connection in a documentary, according to Marable’s book.

Nathari, 47, now an author, scholar and civic leader, said yesterday he has reached out to some of the imams in the area in the wake of the accusations in Marable’s book.

“A person is innocent until proven guilty,” Nathari said. “So allegations don’t make a person guilty. At the same time, I will say this, as Muslims we have to stand upon the truth. We don’t let our love or our hatred cause us to be unjust.”

Concerns rise as N.J. inspections find high number of violations among same-day surgery centers

By SUSAN K. LIVIO TRENTON - Patients who come to Affiliated Dermatology in Morristown to enhance their silhouette with liposuction put themselves in the hands of one of “the nation’s preeminent cosmetic surgeons,” according to the practice’s website.

What patients won’t get here is treatment from a licensed facility that regularly undergoes state inspections.

New Jersey doesn’t license surgery centers like Affiliated that have just one operating room. Only surgery centers with two or more operating rooms

must be licensed and submit to inspections about every three years.

New Jersey’s 300plus same-day surgery centers are big business in New Jersey, appealing to patients who want convenient quick service for elective surgery and physicians who have used them to recoup the income squeeze from managed care companies. But a review of never-released inspection reports and interviews with health care experts shows there is rising concern they are not getting the scrutiny they need.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services randomly inspected 40 unlicensed

surgical centers between August 2009 and February 2011, using a one-time federal grant to pay for the work.

The inspection team found 17 centers posed an “immediate jeopardy” to patient health and safety and temporarily shut seven of them until they corrected their problems, according to inspection reports. The state also inspected 51 licensed centers, found eight posing “immediate jeopardy” and closed two down temporarily.

The problems cited by the inspectors included: • Improperly sterilizing equipment.

• Failing to correct

unsanitary conditions.

• Administering drugs beyond their expiration date, prefilling unlabeled syringes and splitting singledose medications between multiple patients.

• Discharging patients before a doctor’s examination.

Calling the overall findings of the 91 inspections “alarming,” David Knowlton, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, is leading a chorus of health advocates calling on the state to require the routine inspection of all ambulatory surgical centers.

“We need to know

who these surgery centers are, and require they be inspected. And the public needs to know the outcome,” Knowlton said. “People need to know their facility is safe. They have a right to expect this from their government.”

Knowlton, in his role as a member of a health care quality panel, obtained the inspection reports through the state and provided them to The Star-Ledger.

The institute has posted a report identifying the facilities and highlights of the inspections at njhcqi.org.

Larry Trenk, president of the New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgical

Centers, called the inspection findings “concerning,” but added: “I would hesitate to use these outliers as a barometer for the rest of the industry.”

Surgery centers employ 6,000 people, pay $60 million in taxes, and pump $2.6 billion into the state’s economy, according to an economic analysis the association commissioned. Trenk said he suspects some of the people pushing for closer scrutiny are motivated by professional jealousy.

“The surgery center industry has blossomed and I’m sure that impacts other players, like hospitals,” he said.

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Evidence lacking for most autism treatments

By GENEVRA PITTMAN When it comes to treating autism, there are still more questions than answers.

That’s the message from a series of reviews published today in the journal Pediatrics, in which researchers analyzed past studies on the effectiveness of medication or behavioral and developmental therapies in kids with autism spectrum disorders.

Parents, doctors, and even entire school systems are “routinely put in the position of having to make decisions about what the most appropriate services will be” for kids with autism, said Zachary Warren, one of the researchers, in an interview with Reuters Health.

“What we would really hope for is an evidence base where you could make those decisions based on what we know about how particular children respond to particular interventions,” said War-

ren, who runs an autism clinic at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

But for most treatment options, there is not convincing evidence that they actually help kids get better, Warren said.

Close to 1 percent of children in the United States have an autism spectrum disorder, which includes both autism and Asperger’s syndrome. People with these conditions have difficulty interacting with and understanding the emotions of others, and they often engage in repetitive behaviors.

Most children with autism are treated with behavioral therapy starting at a young age, and many will try multiple kinds of therapy or medications as they get older.

For their reviews, Warren and his colleagues collected data from all studies done in the last decade on the effectiveness of a range of medications and therapies in reducing symptoms of

autism.

In their most convincing finding, the authors determined that secretin - a hormone otherwise used to treat stomach ulcers — is not an effective treatment for kids with autism. Excitement about the drug started in the late 1990’s, when very limited evidence suggested it might promote social skills in kids with autism - but more thorough after research, it’s clear that’s not the case, Warren said.

That conclusion was based on 7 past studies that found the drug did not improve language or reasoning skills or any other autism symptoms.

The researchers found there was not enough evidence to determine whether anti-depressants such as Prozac and Celexa or the stimulant drug Ritalin might help kids with autism.

There is some evidence showing that both Risperdal and Abilify might help cut down on kids’ repetitive

behaviors. But because both drugs may cause side effects such as uncontrolled muscle tremors and drowsiness, the authors said they should only be used in kids who are very impaired because of their autism.

Dr. Bryan King, the director of Seattle Children’s Autism Center, said that as many as 70 percent of kids with autism are treated with some kind of medication.

“The real take-home message for me.... is the striking disparity between the treatments that we use and the number of children that are receiving them, and the strength of the evidence that we have in support of these practices,” said King, who was not involved in the current study.

It is “hard to reconcile” the popularity of these drugs with the lack of information about their effectiveness, he told Reuters Health, but not having enough evidence isn’t the same thing as saying the drugs don’t work.

Warren and his colleagues concluded that intensive behavioral therapy or behavioral treatment started in very young kids has helped some of them improve reasoning and language skills, as well as their ability to interact with others. It’s hard to know which kids will benefit from those therapies, however.

“Some (behavioral) interventions can show some pretty dramatic changes,” Warren said. “At the same time, understanding which specific treatments are going to be best for specific (kids) we’re not quite there.”

King said it was time to “redouble our efforts” to gain more conclusive evidence on possible treatment options.

The research “just really highlights that we urgently need new treatments and better treatments, in addition to refining our understanding of how available treatments work for specific individuals and specific families,” Warren concluded.

Monthly aspirin use linked to lower pancreatic cancer risk Taking aspirin even once per month, whether low-dose or full strength, appears to be associated with a marked drop in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, new research reveals.

Specifically, taking fullstrength aspirin once monthly was linked to a 26 percent reduction in the risk of pancreatic cancer. Taking lowdose aspirin, to reduce the risk of heart disease, was associated with an even greater drop (35 percent lower) in pancreatic cancer risk.

The findings, from a team led by Dr. Xiang-Lin Tan, a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., are slated for presentation Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, in Orlando, Fla. “This provides additional evidence that aspirin may have chemoprevention activity against pancreatic cancer,” Tan said in a news release from the association.

But, he cautioned, “the results are not meant to suggest everyone should start taking aspirin once monthly to reduce their risk of pancreatic cancer.

Individuals should discuss use of aspirin with their physicians because the drug carries some side effects.”

To explore the protective potential of aspirin, the investigators focused on 904 pancreatic cancer patients and just over 1,220 healthy individuals, all of whom were seen at the Mayo Clinic between 2004 and 2010.

All of the study participants were at least 55. Questionnaires were completed to assess aspirin use between the ages of 41 and 60, as well as the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and acetaminophen.

Using aspirin at least once per month was linked to a significant drop in pancreatic cancer risk, the research team concluded, even after accounting for other factors that might affect the finding, such as body-mass index and smoking history.

Those who had once smoked but kicked the habit seemed to experience an even stronger protective effect with respect to aspirin use than those who had never smoked or those who continued to smoke, the study authors noted.

NSAID and acetaminophen use did not, however, have any noticeable impact on pancreatic cancer risk, the authors added.

Dr. Michael Choti, a professor of surgery and oncology with the Sidney Kimmel Com-

prehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, expressed little surprise with the findings.

“There have been other preclinical findings suggesting that there may be some role for aspirin in inhibiting carcinogenesis, including pancreatic carcinogenesis,” Choti noted. “And in other cancers, such as colon cancer, aspirin use has been associated with a reduction in cancer risk.”

However, “studies that are not randomized trials are fraught with biases,” he cautioned. “Those taking aspirin for a variety of reasons, say for cardiac or other cancer-

protective effects, may generally have a better lifestyle, smoke less, eat better, exercise more. So one cannot purely conclude from this kind of study as to whether they are finding a general association between people who take aspirin, or in fact a true causative effect,” Choti pointed out.

“But it’s very interesting,” he added. “And certainly the cost and risk of aspirin use is quite low. And this is compelling evidence to suggest there is some benefit, and it’s perhaps another reason to advocate the use of aspirin.”

Because the study was pre-

sented at a medical meeting, the findings should be viewed as preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Many moms have kids with different dads More than one-quarter of women in the United States with two or more children have had children with different men, a new study shows.

University of Michigan demographer Cassandra Dorius analyzed data from nearly 4,000 women who were past their child-bearing years and had been interviewed more than 20 times over 27 years as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

The analysis revealed that 28 percent of the women

with two or more children had children by different fathers. The rate was highest among Black mothers (59 percent), followed by Hispanic mothers (35 percent) and white mothers (22 percent).

Factors that increased the likelihood that a woman would have children by different fathers included if they weren’t living with a man when they gave birth, and if they had low income and less education.

Dorius said she was surprised to find that women having children with differ-

ent fathers is quite common at all levels of income and education, and is frequently associated with marriage and divorce rather than just single parenthood.

“We tend to think of women with multiple partner fertility as being only poor single women with little education and money, but in fact at some point, most were married, and working, and going to school, and doing all the things you’re supposed to do to live the American dream,” she said in a university news release.

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Post-Katrina heart attack rate three-times higher

By BILL BERKROT NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans residents were found to have three times the rate of heart attacks four years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina than before the storm and levee break that flooded the city, according to a study presented at a major heart meeting on Sunday.

The three-fold increase had first been observed two years after the August 2005 hurricane and, much to the surprise of researchers collecting the data, it has persisted.

“We expected a downtrend after four years,” said

Dr. Anand Irimpen, who presented the data at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting and continues to collect heart attack statistics as the six-year anniversary approaches.

“We had some indication of Katrina’s effect on heart health from our initial study, but it appears to be more far reaching than expected,” said Irimpen, chief of cardiology of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System .

The data was based on patients admitted with heart attacks to Tulane University Hospital two years prior to Katrina, and compared with heart attack rates four years

after the storm.

In the four years after the storm, 2.2 percent of hospital admissions were due to confirmed heart attacks. Prior to the storm, the rate was 0.7 percent of admissions.

Irimpen said continuing high levels of stress and psychiatric illnesses that did not appear to be a factor at the two-year mark were playing a significant role longer term.

“There might be a lag phase between the onset of psychiatric illness and it’s manifestation in the form of a heart attack,” he suggested.

“Many of the patients we see are not yet back to their pre-Katrina residences, have

not regained employment and are less likely to comply with treatment plans that can help prevent heart attacks. The emphasis is not on health but on getting back to your home,” Irimpen said.

While some parts of New Orleans are thriving, nearly six years after Katrina many neighborhoods remain in various states of disrepair, and rebuilding of homes has been agonizingly slow.

The heart health findings could have long-term implications for Japan, still reeling from the immediate devastation of a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11.

Irimpen had a message for

physicians in Japan and other areas hit by large-scale disasters: “It’s important to let people know that they should give health a priority, concentrate on diet and exercise, be compliant with their medications and make an appointment with your doctor.”

He expects the situation in Japan will be further exasperated by long-term fears of radiation from the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear facility.

“It appears that these psychiatric illnesses — like anxiety and depression — all seem to be contributing, and they are known to contribute to cardiac illnesses.”

Freezing wrinkles a possible alternative to Botox

By JENIFER GOODWIN A new technology that temporarily zaps away forehead wrinkles by freezing the nerves shows promise in early clinical trials, researchers say.

The technique, if eventually approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, could provide an alternative to Botox and Dysport. Both are injectable forms of Botulinum toxin type A, a neurotoxin that, when injected in small quantities, temporarily paralyzes facial muscles, thereby reducing wrinkles.

“It’s a toxin-free alternative to treating unwanted lines and wrinkles, similar to what is being done with Botox and Dysport,” said study coauthor Francis Palmer, direc-

tor of facial plastic surgery at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles. “From the early clinical trials, this procedure — which its maker calls cryoneuromodulation — appears to have the same clinical efficacy and safety comparable to the existing techniques.”

Palmer is also consulting medical director of MyoScience, Inc., the Redwood City, Calif.-based company developing the “cryotechnology.”

The results of the clinical trials were to be presented Friday at an American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) conference in Grapevine, Texas.

To do the procedure, physicians use small needles — “cryoprobes” — to deliver cold to nerves running through

the forehead, specifically the temporal branch of the frontal nerve, Palmer said. The cold freezes the nerve, which interrupts the nerve signal and relaxes the muscle that causes vertical and horizontal forehead lines.

Although the nerve quickly returns to normal body temperature, the cold temporarily “injures” the nerve, allowing the signal to remain interrupted for some period of time after the patient leaves the office.

The technique does not permanently damage the nerve, Palmer said.

Researchers said they are still refining the technique and could not say how long the effect lasts, but it seems to be comparable to Botox, which works for about three to four months, Palmer said.

Physicians would need

training to identify the nerve that should be targeted, he added.

The 15-minute treatment is done using local anesthesia, according to the researchers.

The current study only looks at forehead wrinkles; future research will study the procedure elsewhere on the face, Palmer said.

For the study, researchers tried the technique on 31 people, all of whom had fewer wrinkles after two to eight injections. The most common side effects were headaches and skin redness. The level of discomfort was comparable to that from Botox or fillers, Palmer said.

But unlike Botox, which takes a few days to kick in, the effects of the cryotechnology are seen immediately, the researchers say.

Because this study was pre-

Rigors of ballet require careful training Ballet and other types of dancing are challenging activities that can put tremendous strain on certain parts of the body, so it’s critical to take steps to prevent injuries, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

“When it comes to sports injuries, dance may not always come to mind, but the fact of the matter is that ballet is incredibly demanding on the body,” spokeswoman and orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Angela Smith said in an AAOS news release.

“Ballet dancers must have astonishing flexibility, incredible strength in often very slender bodies, and

amazing quickness, jumping and agility. For dancers, overuse injuries are common because they must practice and perform specific, difficult poses and movements that require this great strength and flexibility — over and over again,” she explained.

“A careful warm-up that includes stretching and a gradual, progressive build-up to new skills or performance roles helps prevent overuse injuries. Rapidly increasing the amount of dancing or suddenly changing technique often causes problems,” she added.

A five-year study of 204 ballet dancers found that 32 percent to 51 percent of them

were injured each year, according to the AAOS. The foot/ankle, hip, knee and back were common areas of injury.

The AAOS offered a number of safety tips: Wear correctly fitted clothing and shoes.

If you’re in a cool studio, wear a snug sweater and leggings until you warm up.

Always do a proper warmup and cool-down.

Only dance in pointe shoes after your feet are strong enough to hold solid half-toe (demi-pointe).

Drink plenty of fluids and eat a sufficient and healthy diet to fuel your body’s energy needs.

Know your body’s limits,

and don’t push it too far or too fast.

Use correct technique and proper body alignment.

Don’t dance through pain.

If something hurts, see your doctor.

sented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peerreviewed journal.

Palmer said he didn’t see the new technology as a replacement for Botox, but instead as an alternative for people who don’t want an injection of a neurotoxin.

The company will eventually seek FDA approval as a medical device. Palmer said the company might first seek approval in Europe.

Dr. Brian Zelickson, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said the technique sounds promising, but needs more research to determine how long results last and to make sure no lasting nerve or muscle injury occurs that could cause permanent changes in sensation.

He agreed that the toxinfree cosmetic procedure might win some followers.

“Botox and Dysport are very easy, very quick, the patient satisfaction profile is great and there are very few side effects,” said Zelickson, incoming president of ASLMS. “It’s a high bar to leap over, but there are some people that don’t like the concept of injecting Botulinum toxin into their bodies. If there were a procedure that could be done, that doesn’t inject any chemical into the system and could yield the same results for the same duration, there is a market for that.”

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Botox and Dysport injections top their list of nonsurgical procedures.

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Nasdaq, ICE bid to snatch NYSE from Germans

By JONATHAN SPICER and LAUREN TARA LACAPRA Nasdaq OMX and IntercontinentalExchange bid $11.3 billion for NYSE Euronext in an effort to trump Deutsche Boerse’s deal, and pushed their case with an appeal to U.S. patriotism.

The counterbid — unveiled on Friday to some skepticism it can succeed — would redraw the world’s capital markets so that Americans have a stronger hand than Europeans as exchange operators globally maneuver to come out on top.

The move presents U.S. lawmakers and regulators with a dilemma: whether to allow a German exchange to take control of the venerable New York Stock Exchange, or to allow the creation of a dominant American-run platform with massive market power.

The new offer is valued at $42.50 per share, a 12 percent premium to Deutsche Boerse’s $10.2 billion all-stock bid, based on Thursday’s closing prices. It would give NYSE shareholders cash and stock.

Antitrust questions, and concerns over jobs and Nasdaq’s debt ratings, surround the agreement to split NYSE Euronext’s stock business, which would go to Nasdaq, from its more profitable derivatives business, which ICE would get.

The pair had been left out of a recent merger frenzy, leaving them anxious to do something.

Bringing Nasdaq and NYSE Euronext together would create a stocktrading powerhouse in the United States and Europe that would also have a monopoly in listing U.S. public companies, and dwarf other U.S. options markets. It would be called NASDAQ NYSE Euronext.

In selling the unsolicited deal, Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld — for years a fierce cross-town rival of NYSE’s Duncan Niederauer — and ICE’s Jeffrey Sprecher appealed heavily to the United States’ thirst for remaining the world’s financial center, its anxiety about losing out on new listings, and its need for a more stable market.

“The U.S. can change its current course,” Sprecher said on a call with analysts and media. “We believe that there is a better combi-

nation that... provides scale and takes even more costs out of the system” than the Deutsche Boerse deal.

Greifeld, who like Sprecher has a mixed deal-making record, said NYSE’s surprise decision to sell out to the German bourse “represented an unplanned-for opportunity,” calling his offer “clearly superior.”

Already, the Deutsche Boerse bid was expected to attract intense regulatory scrutiny as the merged company would have a lock on European derivatives trading and clearing. The counterbid shifts the antitrust focus to whether one entity should have a lock on capital-raising in the United States.

Combining Nasdaq and NYSE — perhaps Wall Street’s fiercest rivals over the last couple decades — could find trouble with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Greifeld said the companies reached out to reg-

ulators, calling any issues “manageable.”

Early reaction out of Washington was cautious, though some lawmakers were cool to the deal. Democratic Representative John Conyers, who called the Deutsche Boerse plan “totally unacceptable” because it would cut consumer choice and U.S. jobs, said the Nasdaq offer was even worse in that regard.

“I’m concerned about how this deal affects jobs in New York,” said Charles Schumer, an influential New York senator.

Greifeld promised shareholders far bigger cost savings than in the German deal, but he did not say how severe the job losses would be. He said Nasdaq would keep the NYSE floor — the icon of capitalism that was created in 1792 by brokers and merchants who met under a buttonwood tree in lower Manhattan.

Upstart trading venues like BATS have eaten deep into the mar-

ket share of these traditional venues, forcing them in the last decade to upgrade and embrace electronic trading — and to look to mergers to survive.

Nasdaq, the smallest of the four exchanges in play, needed to do something to stay relevant in the years ahead, some said. If it and ICE succeed, the world’s largest bourse operators would be headquartered in the United States, Brazil, and Asia — leaving Europe with a bruised Deutsche Boerse.

“Nasdaq had a real risk of being marginalized,” said David Weild, founder of Capital Markets Advisory Partners and former vice chairman at Nasdaq, in the corporate client division.

Under the proposal, Atlanta-based ICE would purchase NYSE’s London-based Liffe platform, seen as a profitable gem, while Nasdaq would acquire its stock exchanges in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Lisbon, its U.S. options venues and its technology suite.

Some details of how a deal would work have not yet been worked out. The management and the board of directors have not yet been determined, Greifeld said, adding he hadn’t spoken to Niederauer or other NYSE executives.

But a group of banks led by Bank of America and Wells Fargo is prepared to arrange $3.8 billion of financing for the cash portion of the deal, Nasdaq and ICE said.

a purely “From nationalist point of view, as an American, a lot of people are going to say yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s great,” said Kenneth Polcari, managing director at ICAP Corporates, a NYSE floor broker. “But from a business point of view ... from a true global perspective, the Deutsche Boerse is probably the better option.”

NYSE shares closed up 12.6 percent at $39.60, while Deutsche Boerse closed down 1.4 percent in Frankfurt.

Nasdaq shares rose strongly through Friday to close at $28.23, up 9.2 percent, while ICE shares slipped 3.1 percent to $119.75.

Borse Dubai, Nasdaq’s largest shareholder, and Sweden’s Investor AB, the secondlargest, said they backed the bid.

Deutsche Boerse said it “continues to strongly believe that the envisaged merger of Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext is the best possible combination for both shareholder groups and the stakeholders of the companies.”

NYSE Euronext said its board would “carefully review” the new offer and urged shareholders not to take any action pending its review. A source said there was some “shock” that the cash portion of the counterbid was so small.

“If I were at New York and Deutsche Boerse, I’d be thinking we don’t have to match the price, we just have to build up the cash component a bit,” said Thomas Caldwell, CEO Continued on page 19

GE’s Immelt defends nuclear industry safety record

By TAIGA URANAKA TOKYO — General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt defended the nuclear industry’s safety record during a trip to Tokyo to show support to the operator of a stricken nuclear plant using reactors designed by the U.S. conglomerate.

Immelt met with executives at Tokyo

Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima power plant that was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and is leaking radiation in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

GE and its nuclear business partner Hitachi Ltd. have sent over 1,000 workers to help with the so far unsuccessful efforts to get the plant under con-

trol.

“We have more than 1,000 engineers who have worked around the clock since the incident began and we will continue short-term, medium-term and longterm work with TEPCO due to this horrific national disaster,” Immelt told reporters after a meeting with Japan’s trade minister.

“But this is an industry that operated effectively for 40 years. And

that’s my expectation,” he said.

A GE Japan spokeswoman later told Reuters that Immelt excluded the Chernobyl incident when referring to the industry’s safety record over the past four decades because it did not involve facilities designed by Western or Japanese firms.

General Electric is preparing to ship more than 20 gas turbines to Japan to help ease an

electricity shortage triggered by the March 11 disaster, which knocked out about onefifth of TEPCO’s generating capacity, the spokeswoman said.

Immelt said GE would donate up to $10 million to Japan for humanitarian support.

The earthquake left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing.

GE wholly built one of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi

power plant. It constructed two others jointly with Toshiba Corp. Toshiba built two on its own and Hitachi made one.

Anne Lauvergeon, the head of French nuclear reactor maker Areva was in Tokyo last week. She promised the company would send about 20 experts and provide technical and material assistance to help deal with the crisis.

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McDonald’s takes aim at ‘McJob’ with U.S. hiring spree

By LISA BAERTLEIN LOS ANGELES — Fast-food chain McDonald’s Corp announced a one-day spring hiring spree aimed at fighting the use of the term “McJob” as shorthand for describing lowwage, dead-end work.

The global restaurant chain said it plans to hire as many as 50,000 new U.S. employees — ranging from restaurant crew to managers — on April 19. The move would increase the hamburger company’s U.S. workforce by 7.7 percent to 700,000, but such hiring is typical in the lead up to the busy summer months.

“Our total hires are similar to past years, but the goal of hiring 50,000 people in one

day across the U.S. is unique,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling told Reuters.

The April hiring event is preparation for the busy summer months. “But these are not just seasonal jobs.

It’s a mix of permanent and temporary jobs,” Yingling said.

She added that McDonald’s hourly employees typically make more than minimum wage, often more than $8 per hour.

There are some 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States. Ninety percent of McDonald’s U.S. restaurants are run by franchisees, and pay varies by ownership.

Oak Brook, Illinois-

based McDonald’s said in a statement that its April hiring event is an opportunity to highlight that “a McJob is one with career growth and endless possibilities.”

Yingling said many of McDonald’s top executives and franchisees worked their way up the company ranks.

Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski told Reuters that the announcement “certainly seems like a way to attract some favorable publicity around something it was more or less going to do anyway.”

McDonald’s said it and its franchisees would be spending an extra $518 million on wages and salaries for the 50,000 new workers it plans to hire.

McDonald’s reported

that February sales at its U.S. restaurants open at least 13 percent rose 2.7 percent compared with a year earlier.

U.S. employment grew firmly for a second straight month in March and the jobless rate hit a two-year low of 8.8 percent, underscoring a decisive shift in the labor market that should help to underpin the recovery.

That is better news for some than others.

Income growth for the top-earning U.S. has risen workers sharply since the 1980s, while the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs has led to stagnation at the low end.

Workers earnings and corporate earnings also have barely risen so far this year.

SEC probing fraud at Bid to snatch NYSE from Germans U.S.-listed foreign companies Continued from page 18

By SARAH N. LYNCH WASHINGTON — Federal securities regulators are probing Chinese and other foreign companies with questionable accounting practices that have used backdoor methods to access the U.S. capital markets, a top regulator said.

“In recent years we have seen a spike of private companies merging with public shell companies,” said Luis Aguilar, a commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“While it is Chinese companies that have grabbed recent headlines, the problems coming to the forefront were not necessarily limited to companies based in China,” he said.

Aguilar added that while the majority of these may be legitimate businesses, “a growing number” of them are proving to have “significant” accounting issues or are “outright vessels of fraud.”

Aguilar spoke before the Council of Institu-

tional Investors on yesterday about a growing trend that has caused alarm at the SEC and led to trading suspensions and other enforcement actions.

At issue are moves by private foreign companies to merge with U.S. shell public companies to raise capital. Many of these companies have been Chinese. In some cases they have used a procedure known as a reverse merger to bypass the due diligence of an initial public offering.

But many of these businesses often have problems with the quality of their accounting and the SEC has been on the prowl for deficiencies and for ensuring the accounting is in line with U.S. standards after some companies hired unknown auditing firms.

Last week, the SEC suspended the trading of China Changjiang Mining & New Energy Co. Ltd — a Nevada company with headquarters in China — amid questions about the accuracy of its public filings and the resignation of its

auditor.

In another case, the SEC launched a formal investigation against Chinese printing equipment maker Duoyuan Printing Inc. on concerns it filed false documents, failed to maintain adequate financial records and deceived its external auditor, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Since January 2007, Aguilar said there have been 600 backdoor registrations of this nature by foreign companies, 150 of which are based in China.

He said there is concern that U.S. accounting firms are signing off on the companies’ statements without performing their own independent work and are relying instead on auditing firms in China.

He noted the SEC has launched an internal task force to probe fraud by overseas companies listed on U.S. exchanges.

“Our staff is committed to doing everything we can,” he said. “The SEC has already brought cases and will continue to do so.”

of Caldwell Securities Ltd, a NYSE shareholder.

There is a steep 250 million euro ($356 million) termination fee attached to Deutsche Boerse’s friendly deal.

Moody’s Investors Service said Nasdaq’s announcement makes the agency more likely to cut the company’s debt ratings to junk over the medium term, while Standard & Poor’s said that it might cut the exchange’s ratings to junk in the near term.

Two junk ratings could create a headache for the combined exchange, because NYSE bondholders would have the right to force the company to buy back their $2.1 billion of debt. Nasdaq could be forced to raise even more money.

In Liffe, Sprecher would get an interestrate business that eluded him when ICE’s bid for the Chicago Board of Trade failed four years ago, and a successful deal could put pressure on chief rival CME Group Inc. ICE’s market cap is $9.2 billion, about in line with NYSE Euronext.

For Nasdaq, with a $4.5 billion market cap, the deal would expand its core, albeit low-margin, stock-trading business, and could raise questions for shareholders well aware that the other exchange deals are driven largely by a need to diversify into more profitable derivatives trading.

Nasdaq was created in 1971 as the world’s first electronic stock market by members of National Association of Securities Dealers frustrated by the Big Board’s slowness to embrace new technology, and seeking to pressure trading costs.

The vast majority of North American and European stock trading is now high-speed and all-electronic, with Nasdaq and NYSE boasting some of the world’s best technology.

In a flurry in February, Deutsche Boerse agreed to buy NYSE, the London Stock Exchange Group Plc announced a deal for Canada’s TMX Group Inc. Last year, Singapore Stock Exchange bid for Australia’s ASX Ltd. When Deutsche Boerse bid for NYSE, CEO Reto Francioni

acknowledged “we have a bumpy road ahead of us.” Some observers say his career hinges on winning NYSE. Intensifying the merger race, regulators want to run much of the private swaps market though transparent venues in the wake of the financial crisis, an opportunity for exchanges.

Under the counterbid, NYSE shareholders would receive $14.24 in cash plus 0.4069 of a share of Nasdaq stock.

The Deutsche Boerse proposal would exchange each NYSE Euronext share for 0.47 share of the combined company’s stock.

Nasdaq and ICE said that within 12 to 18 months, the combined franchise would provide “double-digit accretion” to shareholders and save $740 million in annual operating costs.

The Deutsche Boerse deal sees $400 million in cost savings and that immediately add to adjusted earnings.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Evercore Partners are advising Nasdaq, while Lazard, Broadhaven Capital Partners, and BMO Capital Markets Corp are advising ICE.

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Your Horoscope ARIES (Mar. 21- April 20) Travel and family gatherings should be in order.

Keep important information to yourself. Don't overindulge in anyway.

TAURUS (Apr. 21- May 21) Deception and confusion regarding your status in society is likely. Abrupt changes in your home may send you for a loop. Try to ease any disappointment by making amends.

GEMINI (May 22-June 21) Romance will unfold if you take trips or get together with friends. You must act quickly. Unrealistic promises will only get you in trouble.

CANCER (June 22-July 22) Don't hesitate to voice your ideas and opinions. Look into attending seminars that can expand your perception. Don't sign up for too many extra activities or you'll have trouble fulfilling your obligations.

LEO (July 23-Aug 22) Don't allow colleagues to put unreasonable pressure on you. Hassles with close friends or family will put a damper on your day and result in isolation and loneliness. Try to get out and socialize.

VIRGO (Aug. 23 -Sept. 23) Don't take your frustrations out on the ones you love. Make sure to arrange in advance to spend quality time together.

Be sure to spend time helping children with projects that are too difficult for them to accomplish alone.

LIBRA (Sept. 24 -Oct. 23) Your high energy will help you through this rather hectic day. Back off if you want to keep the relationship intact. Do something that will be stimulating and creative.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22) Children may be less than honest with you.

You can make sound financial investments if you act fast. This may not be the day to get involved in risky joint financial ventures.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 -Dec. 21) You have the ability to motivate others.

Secret affairs may be brought out in the open. It's time to make professional changes.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22.- Jan. 20) You have more energy than the rest of the people you live with anyway. Most partner problems are a result of both people not living up to their promises. Do not invest in ventures that only appear to be lucrative.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 21 -Feb. 19) Exhaustion will lead to minor injury if you don't know when to quit. Don't bother getting even; they'll make themselves look bad. Don't rely on others to handle the workload.

PISCES (Feb. 20-Mar. 20) Children will want to help, too. You may want to have a heart-to-heart talk with a close and trusted friend. Your ability to converse with charm will entice someone you may have had an interest in for some time now.

CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011 DAILYDAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

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Perkins trade hangs over Shaq, Celtics

By ADRIAN WOJNAROWSKI BOSTON - Shaquille O’Neal had made one more grand entrance into a basketball season’s championship chase. The cheers tumbled down out of the Garden and lathered him like old times for his old bones. Across these months, Shaq had gone from a luxury to a necessity for these Boston Celtics, the riskiest proposition of all.

Two months away and there was Shaq tumbling to the floor on a twisting reserve layup Sunday night. There was Shaq lapping a jump shot out of the air, tossing a pass over his shoulder and bouncing the ball past midcourt on the fast break. Two months removed from an Achilles injury, and suddenly it was all one more mirage, a throwback in time splashed with a bucket of ice water. Suddenly, there was Shaq running, slowing down on the court, and looking like someone had stabbed him in the back of his leg.

Soon, Shaq hunched over the floor, stumbled past the bench and crumpled in the corridor outside the Celtics’ locker room.

The questions over the Kendrick Perkins trade remain relentless and they only get louder and louder with Shaquille and Jermaine O’Neal so brittle, so hard to depend upon. They won’t go away until Shaq makes them go away. The trade hangs over the season, the

franchise, like an anvil.

“We took that gamble,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers told Yahoo!

Sports. “We’re going to hear that, but I can tell you that I don’t hear that - ever - talked about in our locker room. Listen, we had a lot of discussions before we did it.

But they knew it, and they all knew what we were thinking. They’ve all accepted it - we have to.”

This time, the Celtics say it was a calf strain, but it sure looked like that heel had flared again. They can call the injury whatever they want, insist that he won’t be out long, but it’s all semantics with Shaq and the Celtics. He’s 39 years old, and the best, last chance of the Garnett-Pierce-Allen Celtics hinges on the old mythology of Shaquille O’Neal.

The Celtics don’t need him to be the old Shaq.

They just need him to stay on the floor. And with six games left in the regular season, with so much in flux on these Celtics, Shaq can’t do it.

Around him, Shaq

still hears the young kids feeding the onceupon-a-time fantasy and it must make him believe that somehow it can all still be true for him.

“He don’t get hurt,” Glen Davis said. “Shaq is invincible, man. That’s what I believe in. Man of Steel. That’s what I’ve been believing in since I was a little kid.”

Davis comes out of the Bayou, out of a childhood of idolizing Shaq and chasing his legacy to Louisiana State University. Superman is long gone, replaced with the realities of a tooheavy, too-old center with a lower body that is struggling to support his frame. Rivers insists the Celtics could live without Shaq or

Jermaine O’Neal, but confesses: “We have to have one of the O’Neal Brothers.”

Brothers in bad legs, only. Shaq had been out for two months with the Achilles’ inflammation and hadn’t had a practice with the Celtics before being cleared for Sunday night’s game.

Rivers planned to give him 10-12 minutes, ease him back and perhaps play him again tonight against Philadelphia.

Everyone wonders: If the injury isn’t serious, should Rivers simply sit him until the playoffs start in two weeks? His inclination is, no, he isn’t going to baby Shaq, because he needs to know - one way or another - if he can hold

up to anything.

“He needs to play,” Rivers said. “We have to play at full-tilt ...”

Jermaine O’Neal had knee surgery, missed 56 games and finally made his first start of the season on Sunday. He was all right, but the idea that Boston can lean on him in the playoffs is a hard sell. Nenad Krstic is the third center on these Celtics, but he’s no inside presence on defense. No rebounder.

He can score the ball, balance the bench, but Boston needs Shaq’s size, his strength, his ability to demand a double-team with the ball.

As one Eastern Conference scout said, “They need the O’Neals to add up to one complete player in the playoffs.”

The Celtics are going to finish as the third seed in the Eastern Conference, because Rivers is unwilling to chase the Heat for the second seed at the expense of extending minutes and risking

injury and fatigue for the playoffs. They’ll also finish behind the Heat because they deserve to finish behind them, deserve to have to play a Game 7 in the conference semifinals on the shores of Biscayne Bay. Over the summer, when Shaq was recruiting teams to bid on him, he told several team executives: Would you rather go into Miami this season with or without me? Just to have him along for the fight would be worth the veteran’s minimum investment, but something changed along the way for the Celtics this season.

They traded Perkins to Oklahoma City out of fear they couldn’t re-sign him and out of belief they could get through the season with Shaq.

And now, everything has changed: The Boston Celtics no longer want Shaq to go to Miami and Chicago with them, they need him.

The Man of Steel crumpled on the Garden floor again Sunday night, no longer invincible, no longer bigger than life.

Those first few precious minutes of his return were magnificent, but a mirage from a different time, a different place in a legend’s basketball career. Superman went down again Sunday, and the Celtics’ last-gasp push to hang an 18th championship banner above them never seemed so fragile.

W illiam Per r y g ets Super Bowl ring b ack When Tracy Forrest overheard her 10-yearold son Cliff on the phone trying to explain to someone that he wanted to give William Perry his Super Bowl XX ring back, she could tell Cliff was having a hard time being believed.

After all, what 10year-old would give away something like a

Super Bowl ring for nothing?

So Tracy got on the phone and lent an adult voice to her child’s gesture of goodwill and generosity. That gesture culminated in Chicago on Saturday when Cliff handed the ring to the former Chicago Bears defensive tackle, whose battle against Guillain-

Barre syndrome has been well documented.

“My son said he knew he had problems,” Tracy said yesterday. “I myself have MS, and my son Googled and saw Perry also had an autoimmune disease.

“He said Perry lost the ring through hard times, and that he only had one ring. He said, ‘I

want him to have the ring back.’ That’s pretty special for a 10-yearold to want to do that.”

Cliff used money he had been saving for college to purchase the ring after seeing it at Mickey Mantle’s restaurant and sports bar in New York City.

The establishment also has a sports memorabilia section.

Cliff

Forrest Sr., who owns Rosebud Mining Company in Pittsburgh, said the ring was purchased for “around $6,000.”

The Chicago SunTimes first reported the story.

It’s not known whether Perry sold or auctioned off the ring to help pay for medical expenses.

“When Cliff saw the ring, he said he had to have it,” Tracy said.

“Once I saw the price, I said, ‘Absolutely not.

We’re not buying the ring.’

“He ended up taking money out of his savings account. We told him it was money for college, but he ended up getting the ring.”

- Roman Modrowski

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011 DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

22 22

SPORTS BRIEFS Goodell wants HGH tests in next NFL labor deal

WOODLAWN, Md. - Commissioner Roger Goodell says the NFL will insist that its next labor deal with players includes testing for human growth hormone.

After appearing yesterday with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings at a high school to speak about the dangers of steroid use, Goodell said the NFL needs to do more to keep banned substances out of the sport.

HGH use is prohibited by the NFL, but the league currently does not test for it. Goodell said he thinks players “recognize the importance of” adding HGH tests.

When one student asked why there is more substance abuse in baseball than in football, Goodell replied: “I’m not sure that’s true.”

Cummings said he talked briefly to Goodell about the NFL lockout. Cummings hopes Congress won’t need to get involved.

- HOWARD FENDRICH

Bonds’ trial delayed, feds unearth new recording SAN FRANCISCO - A juror called in sick at the Barry Bonds perjury trial yesterday, forcing testimony to be postponed, while the government tried to get new evidence admitted that could abruptly turn the case in its favor.

Federal prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Susan Illston that a secretly recorded conversation between Bonds’ orthopedic surgeon Dr. Arthur Ting and the slugger’s former business manager Steve Hoskins had been located this weekend.

Prosecutors told Bonds’ legal team Sunday night that Hoskins discovered the recording.

Depending on what that recording contains, and whether the jury hears it, the discovery could be a setback for Bonds. The man who owns the major league records for home runs in a career and a season is accused of lying to a grand jury in 2003 when he said he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs.

Hoskins, a key prosecution witness, testified in the first week of the trial that he and Ting had at least 50 conversations about Bonds’ alleged steroids use. But Ting denied that on the witness stand Thursday, and the contradiction of such an important witness appeared to mark a turning point in the case.

Now prosecutors want to play the newly discovered recording to counter Ting’s damaging testimony. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella said a transcript of the conversation was being made and the judge ordered both sides back to court late yesterday to discuss the matter further.

The judge also said she would investigate the nature of the missing juror’s illness, which the judge said was gallstones and her clerk described as kidney stones. Either way, there’s a possibility that juror No. 66 will be replaced by one of two alternates when court resumes today.

There are currently eight women and four men on the jury. Both alternates are women.

The sick juror is an Antioch resident, age 60, a father of four and works as a data center engineer for Amazon.com.

- PAUL ELIAS

DAILY CHALLENGE

SPORTS

Dennis Rodman, Chris Mullin and Artis Gilmore among 2011 Basketball Hall of Fame class HOUSTON — Dennis Rodman, Chris Mullin and a trio of coaching legends are part of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2011.

Coaches Tex Winter, innovator of the “Triangle” offense, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and Philadelphia University’s Herb Magee were part of the class announced yesterday at the Final Four in Houston.

“It’s cool, man. It’s a great feeling,” Rodman said.

Longtime NBA and ABA star Artis Gilmore, former Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis and Olympic gold medalist Teresa Edwards also will be inducted. They are joined by Harlem Globetrotter Reece “Goose” Tatum and ex-Celtic Tom “Satch” Sanders.

The class will be formally inducted in Springfield, Mass., in August.

When asked who helped him get to the Hall of Fame, Rodman had a simple answer: “Me.” Rodman, known as much for his flair for fashion as his equally impressive defensive skills, did not disappoint yesterday. The two-time NBA defensive player of the year wore sneakers, jeans, a black ballcap, tan vest with leopard and tan scarves, and his white shirt with gold sequined cuffs was unbuttoned and knotted at the waist, a la Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman.”

For VanDerveer, yesterday’s announcement was bittersweet, coming just hours after her Stanford team lost 63-62 to Texas A&M in a national semifinal in Indianapolis.

“This is kind of a tough morning to be a basketball coach for me waking up after our loss last night,” she said on a conference call. “This oppor-

tunity to be enshrined in Naismith is an incredible honor, and I’m overwhelmed by it.”

In December, VanDerveer became the sixth woman to get 800 coaching victories.

“It’s the ultimate compliment to a coach or basketball player,” she said. “I’m humbled and honored. You should be really excited about it, but I wish it hadn’t come on this day. I’m not feeling great about myself or how we played. You go back and think about all the things I could have done or should have done. The sun didn’t come up this morning here.”

Five-time NBA All-Star and St. John’s all-time leading scorer Mullin learned he had made the Hall in an early morning phone call that woke him up.

“I actually went back to sleep, but I slept with a big smile on my face,” Mullin said.

Calif. city leaders condemn baseball violence LOS ANGELES Mayors and other leaders from Los Angeles and San Francisco on Sunday condemned violence among sports fans in the wake of an opening-day beating at Dodger Stadium that left a Giants fan in a medically induced coma.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee, police chiefs and officials from both cities said the beating that two men in Dodger gear gave Bryan Stow was “unconscionable behavior that will not be tolerated in either city.

Once apprehended, the attackers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Baseball is a family sport that has unified

our country after times of crisis and tragedy,” said the statement, which was also signed by San Francisco police’s Interim Chief Jeff Godown, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck, Giants managing partner Bill Neukom and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

“Public safety is the top priority for all of us and even one act of random violence is unacceptable.”

The officials praised the storied rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants, but said it needed to remain on the field.

“We call on our respective citizens to stand together in honor of that rivalry as you have done throughout the years. Root hard for your teams, and do so

with civility and common decency,” they said.

They said their thoughts and prayers were with Stow, a 42year-old paramedic from Santa Cruz who was badly beaten in a stadium parking lot Thursday night after a Dodger victory. Two other men with Stow were able to escape the attackers.

Doctors at CountyUSC Medical Center put Stow into a coma to help deal with his head injuries after the assault.

Police and hospital officials would give no information on his status Sunday, but Stow’s paramedic partner told his hometown newspaper there had been no change in his condition.

“It’s a waiting game,” Rebecca Mackowiak, of San Jose, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “We have to wait until the swelling goes down in the brain. It looks like it will be a while until that happens.”

Police have not announced any arrests or named any suspects.

Los Angeles detectives have released sketches of the assailants, described as Latino men between 18 and 25. They said the men fled the scene in a four-door sedan, driven by a woman, with a young boy inside.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to arrests.

DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 5, 2011 DAILY CHALLENGE TUESDAY, APRIL 2011

Shaka Smart to remain at VCU V i r g i n i a Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart, who led the Rams to their first-ever Final Four appearance, has agreed to terms to remain at the school, despite an offer from NC State, a school spokesman said. “[Smart] is staying,’’ VCU athletic director Norwood Teague said in an email, according to the Charlotte Observer.

“We agreed to terms this [yesterday] morning.”

The deal is for in excess of five years and

will pay Smart $1.2 million in base pay annually, a source said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Smart, who turns 34 on Friday, has a 55-21 record at VCU and led the Rams to the CBI championship in his first year. The school has said Smart had a base salary of $325,000 this season and was due to make $640,000 in all due to performance bonuses.

Details of the deal will be officially released yesterday, school spokesman Scott Day said.

Asked if NC State had pursued Smart, Teague

wrote “Yes, they talked to him and made an offer. We countered and he is staying!!!” according to the Observer.

NC State is looking to replace Sidney Lowe, who resigned after the Wolfpack were eliminated from the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Smart guided the No. 11-seeded Rams — whose inclusion in the field of 68 was widely criticized — to a stunning run from the First Four to the Final Four, including a victory over No. 1 seed Kansas in the regional final.

In beating Georgetown, Purdue

DAILY CHALLENGE

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SPORTS

and Kansas, VCU (2812) became only the third No. 11 seed to get that far. Making that run even more impressive: Four of the Rams’ five tournament wins came by double-digit margins, including the 71-61 win against the top-seeded Jayhawks the Southwest for Regional championship.

VCU lost to Butler 7062 in Saturday’s national semifinals.

The startling success made Smart a coach in demand, but VCU officials said they would do what they could to keep him in Richmond.

WADA suggests scrapping ‘B’ sample doping tests

By STEPHEN WILSON LONDON - The director of the World AntiDoping Agency suggests that the collection and testing of backup “B” samples should be scrapped in order to save time and money in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs.

WADA director general David Howman said yesterday that doping cheats are getting an easier ride than common criminals because of their right to a second sample.

“People can go to jail on the basis of one bodily sample being collected, and sport really is on its own in collecting two samples,” Howman said in an interview during an international sports and Olympic conference in London.

Howman was pressed on the issue of cutting drug-testing costs by the Association of Summer Olympic I n t e r n a t i o n a l Federations, an umbrella body representing the 26 sports on the Summer Games program.

“We spend half our time justifying costs,”

Howman said. “Here’s a way in which you could save a lot of costs and not hurt any person’s individual rights or opportunities. I don’t know if there’s a resistance or not but it would certainly make a lot of difference economically.”

Under normal practice, an athlete’s urine or blood sample is divided into two samples - “A” and “B” - and sealed in separate specimen bottles. If the “A” comes back positive, the athlete can request analysis of the “B” sample.

Howman said the number of times the second sample contradicts the first is “almost zero.”

When that happens, he said, it is either because the second sample has disintegrated over time or because of manipulation by the athlete.

“Some athletes are putting stuff into their urine to degrade the sample,” he said, citing the practice of diluting urine samples by drinking two liters of water.

“Sample dilution is one of the best ways for athletes to manipulate a test.”

Howman said the samples of Austrian cross-country and

Nordic skiing athletes who were targeted in police raids during the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, had been “diluted to such a degree it could not make them a positive case.” The athletes were sanctioned by the IOC based on evidence seized in the police search.

Howman said the idea of doing away with “B” samples should be debated during next year’s review of WADA’s global anti-doping code. The new code will go into effect in 2015.

“It is a topic that deserves wide consultation and wide consideration,” Howman said.

“This is just a challenging idea. I’m not saying if I back it `yea’ or `nay.’

But it doesn’t seem to me to have too many downsides. I would hope that sanity and common sense would prevail.”

There have been cases of false positives in “A” samples, with athletes later exonerated by the backup test. Howman said canceling “B” samples would not jeopardize athletes’ rights.

“There’s always going to be an ability to examine the residue of the sample you have in one bottle,” he said.

“You just don’t have the same process.”

“There will be those that resist it for sure,” he added. “There will be those that say it’s an athlete’s right, you cannot erode athletes’ rights. When you say

athletes have better rights than normal human beings in relation to criminal law, then I think you’re starting to get out of proportion.”

On a separate issue, Howman said WADA had asked the Chinese and Mexican governments for information on contamination of meat with clenbuterol or other banned substances. Tour de France champion Alberto Contador blamed contaminated Spanish beef for his positive clenbuterol test, and WADA has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his acquittal by the Spanish cycling federation.

“We have written

both to China and to Mexico to ask them to explain if there is any possibility of contaminated meat,” Howman said. “We have got some replies. We’re looking at those now.”

Even if meat can be contaminated, Howman stressed, it does not necessarily mean that athletes can inadvertently test positive for the substance.

“The real big issue is this: Can steroids being fed to animals lead to positive test results?”

Howman said. “That’s the question and it has to be examined a little more closely yet. We still have some distance to go before we say yea or nay.”

Reds one win away from best start since 1990

By JOE KAY CINCINNATI - The defending NL Central champions have opened the season playing like they belong in first place.

And, maybe more.

The Cincinnati Reds swept their opening series against the Milwaukee Brewers, a team picked as one of

their top challengers in the division. The Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies were the league’s only unbeaten teams left yesterday.

A win at home over Houston tonight night would give the Reds their first 4-0 start since 1990, when they led their division wire-towire and won their last World Series championship.

Brandon Phillips

DAILY CHALLENGE

S SP PO OR RT TS S TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2011

DENNIS RODMAN AND ARTIS GILMORE AMONG 2011 BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS

SE E PAG E 22

PERKINS TRADE HANGS OVER S H A Q , C E LT I C S S EE PA GE 21