Vol 40 No 57, Wednesday May 18, 2011

WARRANTLESS SEARCHES EXPANDED IN DRUG CASE - PG. 2 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

THE NATION’S ONLY BLACK DAILY 35 Cents

Final

PUSH FOR MIDEAST PEACE

President Barack Obama said it was “more vital than ever” to work to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts even as political upheaval engulfs much of the broader Middle East. Photo:

President Barack Obama meets with King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

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NEWS BRIEFS Medgar Evers College students lead protest SOME MANHATTAN SUBWAY STATIONS TO HAVE WIFI BY END OF YEAR Transit Wireless officials said Monday they hope to bring WiFi and cell phone service to Manhattan subway stations by the end of the year.

A pilot program at six stations near 14th Street should be up and running by then, though coverage will only be in the stations, not on the trains.

Transit Wireless is paying $150 to $200 million for the program. The company hopes to get future revenue with cell phone carriers, half of which will be shared with the MTA. If the pilot works, Transit Wireless will have four years to outfit the rest of the subway system.

Student leader Eric Daniels

Ex-congressman Major Owens supporting the student effort.

STATE LAWMAKERS CONSIDER VIOLENT FELONS REGISTRY State lawmakers are considering a law that would create a registry of violent offenders that’s similar to the one for sex offenders.

The bill is sponsored by State Senators Mike Nozzolio and Joe Griffo.

They’ve dubbed the measure Brittany’s Law, after 12-year-old Brittany Passalacqua.

She and her mother were killed in their home in 2009 by a violent felon who had been released from prison early.

The measure would require all violent felons to register with the state upon their release from prison.

CITY PLANS EXPANSION OF OUTER BOROUGH TAXI SERVICE The city is considering a proposal that would shift thousands of yellow cabs outside Manhattan.

It’s the latest attempt to improve taxi service for New Yorkers outside Manhattan.

The plan would create a new class of 6,000 so-called “borough taxis” that would only be allowed to make pickups outside Manhattan.

The overall taxi fleet would expand by 1,500 cabs to around 15,000 — the largest number since the Great Depression.

The plan is tentative and is still being pitched to state and city legislators, who would need to approve it.

The Taxi Workers Alliance says the number of additional cabs proposed by the plan is too high and new medallions should be given out via a lottery system for experienced drivers and returning veterans.

DOT WORKER KILLED WHILE REPAIRING CITY ROADWAY The New York City Police Department is investigating the death of a transportation department worker killed in an accident involving a DOT vehicle.

City officials say Errol Wilson, 59, was killed while conducting road repair work on the Cross Island Parkway near Northern Boulevard.

The father of two from Queens was an 18-year veteran of the DOT. It’s unclear exactly how Wilson died.

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are offering condolences to his family.

Medgar Evers College students protested Monday, demanding officials respond to questions about fiscal responsibility and curriculum changes. Protest leaders said a petition listing 31 questions and signed by 500 students is being ignored by college President William Pollard and City University Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. All photos: Lem Peterkin

Warrantless searches expanded in drug case WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling, made it easier for police to break down a door and enter an apartment without a warrant in drug cases.

At issue is the “exigent circumstances rule” — allowing police to act without a warrant when they believe circumstances make a search without a warrant “reasonable” despite the restrictions in the Fourth Amendment banning “unreasonable” searches and seizures.

Police in Lexington, Ky., set up a controlled buy of crack cocaine, then followed the suspected drug dealer back to an apartment complex.

Smelling marijuana outside an apartment door, they knocked loudly and announced their presence. At that point they heard sounds from inside

the apartment “consistent with the destruction of evidence.”

The police then said they were coming in, broke down the door and saw drugs in plain view.

The suspect pleaded guilty conditionally — on the condition he could appeal for the suppression of the evidence. Eventually, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled the exigent circumstances rule did not apply because the police should have foreseen their conduct would prompt the apartment occupants to destroy the evidence. In other words, the police should have paused and obtained a warrant.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed.

In an opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and announced by Chief Justice John Roberts, the majority

said assuming “that an exigency existed here, there is no evidence that the officers violated the Fourth Amendment or threatened to do so ...”

The majority sent the case back down to the Kentucky Supreme Court for a new ruling consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court opinion.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the lone dissenter.

“The [Supreme] Court today arms the police with a way routinely to dishonor the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement in drug cases,” she wrote. “In lieu of presenting their evidence to a neutral magistrate, police officers may now knock, listen, then break the door down, never mind that they had ample time to obtain a warrant.”

NYPD denies officers are killing suspects Police in New York have denied suggestions that a serving officer and a former policeman are under suspicion in a series of killings on Long Island.

The New York Times, citing police sources, reported last month on growing suspicion that the person or persons who dumped a series of bodies in Nassau and Suffolk counties had considerable knowledge of police investigative tech-

niques.

The New York Post has now claimed that a retired officer and a current officer now on desk duty in Manhattan are under suspicion because investigators learned they had been in trouble for hiring prostitutes.

The NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information denied the report.

“No NYPD officer has been identi-

fied as a suspect. ... I have no information that an individual who retired 20 years ago is a suspect either,” the commissioner told WPIX-TV, New York.

The case began with the search for missing New Jersey woman Shannon Gilbert, an apparent Craigslist call girl.

That search led to the discovery in December of the first of nine or possibly 10 sets of human remains.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

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Obama: Mideast peace bid needed more than ever

By MATT SPETALNICK WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said yesterday it was “more vital than ever” to work to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts even as political upheaval engulfs much of the broader Middle East.

Speaking after talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah at the start of a week of intense diplomacy, Obama pledged to keep pressing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite his failure so far to break the impasse.

But Obama, who wants to reconnect with an Arab world showing signs of frustration with his approach to the restive region, offered no new concrete ideas for advancing the long-stalled peace process.

The president plans to deliver a major policy speech on the “Arab spring” tomorrow, meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and address an influential pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday.

With the Jordanian monarch sitting at his side in the Oval Office, Obama suggested that unrest sweeping the Middle East offered a chance for Israel and the Palestinians to seek progress toward resolving their own long-running dispute.

“Despite the many changes — or perhaps because of the many changes that have taken place in the region — it’s more vital than ever that both Israelis and Palestinians find a way to get back to the table and begin negotiating a process

whereby they can create two states living side by side in peace and security,” Obama told reporters.

Obama is struggling to counter perceptions in the Arab world of an uneven U.S. response to a wave of popular uprisings in the region and deepening disarray in his IsraeliPalestinian peacemaking strategy.

He is seeking to use the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden, which for now has boosted his standing at home and abroad, as a chance to reach out to a large Arab audience.

Obama and Abdullah also sought common ground on the unrest that has gripped the Arab world, toppling autocratic U.S. allies in Egypt and Tunisia and engulfing Libya in civil war.

The Jordanian monarch has faced a spate of protests demanding curbs on his powers but not nearly of the magnitude confronting neighbors like Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. He replied in March by sacking his unpopular prime minister and opening to door to constitutional reforms.

Trying to show that reforms by Washington’s autocratic allies in the region will not go unrewarded, Obama praised Abdullah and said the United States would help Jordan with fresh economic and food aid.

Obama has taken a cautious approach, expressing support for democratic aspirations in the region while trying to avoid upsetting longtime partnerships seen as crucial to fighting al Qaeda, containing Iran and securing vital oil supplies.

The king, a U.S. ally and key player in past U.S.-led peace drives, made clear he wanted to see a renewed

peace push from Obama, calling it the region’s “core issue.” Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states with peace treaties with Israel.

“We will continue to partner to try to encourage an equitable and just solution to a problem that has been nagging the region for many, many years,” Obama said.

But Obama, whose attempts to broker a peace deal have yielded little since he took office, has no plans to roll out a new initiative during the latest diplomatic flurry.

Many Israelis are already unsettled over the implications for the Jewish state from unrest in the broader Middle East, and a new reconciliation deal between the mainstream Palestinian Fatah faction and its rival, the Islamist Hamas movement, has raised further doubts about peace prospects.

Netanyahu said on Monday a

Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas — which Israel and the United States brand a terrorist group —- could not be a peace partner.

The risk for Obama is that pushing Israel for concessions could alienate the Jewish state’s base of support among the U.S. public and in Congress as he seeks re-election in 2012.

But in the absence of progress on the diplomatic track, the Palestinians are threatening to seek the U.N. General Assembly’s blessing for a Palestinian state in September, a path that alarms Israel and is opposed by Washington.

Deadly clashes on Israel’s borders on Sunday underscored the depth of Arab anger over the conflict. The resignation of Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, raises further doubts about peace prospects.

Report: New Jersey’s wealthiest pump up tax revenue New Jersey should capture an extra $914 million of tax revenue over the next two years, a fiscal monitor said, a promising forecast for a state struggling to close a $4 billion deficit.

Personal income taxes account for the lion’s share of the increase: they should top forecasts by $1.45 billion, according to the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

The rosier forecast for New Jersey’s income taxes is part of a national pattern as the stock market’s recovery is boosting the tax bills of wealthier individuals. This in turn aids New Jersey and other states — from California to New

York — that rely heavily on income tax collections.

Unlike wealthy individuals, corporations are not incurring bigger tax liabilities, though a number of publicly traded companies are enjoying blooming profits.

New Jersey’s corporation business tax could disappoint by $443 million, according to the report.

And despite the higher revenue forecast, New Jersey faces a host of fiscal problems, from its pension shortfall to dwindling cash reserves. Its credit was cut this year

by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.

Also, New Jersey’s top court is

weighing whether public schools are owed as much as $1.7 billion, and political analysts said the state’s rising revenue could embolden the Democratic-led legislature to restore more of the cuts in Republican Governor Chris Christie’s $29 billion budget plan.

Christie, who has a national reputation as a fiscal conservative despite skipping pension contributions, showed little inclination to change course.

“While New Jersey is seeing signs of economic recovery, it is important to keep moving forward on a sound fiscal path and not revert back to Trenton’s out of con-

trol spending ways at the first sign of growth,” Christie Spokesman Michael Drewniak said in a statement issued late Monday.

Like New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, Christie opposes raising income taxes because he fears this will drive high-income earners to move.

In the tri-state area, only Connecticut Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy has boosted the top income tax rate — but it is still about two percentage points below the top rates of New York and New Jersey.

Technician indicted in case of N.Y. patient who died on floor

By KATIE SILVER A psychiatric technician was indicted Monday for reckless endangerment and falsifying hospital records, including those of a patient who died unattended on an emergency room floor, according to District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.

Easton Royal, 53, is accused of not checking on patients at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn and of claiming on hospital forms he had observed

numerous psychiatric patients when he had not, Hynes said in a statement.

One of the patients was Esmin Green, who received worldwide media attention in 2008 when surveillance footage captured her collapsing and dying on the floor.

Royal may face up to 11 years in prison, according to Hynes. It was not immediately clear whether Royal has a lawyer.

Royal was suspended immediately after Green’s death. He later resigned, hospital spokeswoman Adele Flateau

said.

Royal was indicted based on evidence from an investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office into Green’s death, spokesman Jerry Schmetterer said.

Schmetterer would not say if any other hospital employees are likely to be indicted.

Green, 49, died of a blood clot when she was left unattended for nearly 24 hours at the hospital in June 2008.

Security footage showed hospital employees and other patients appear-

ing to ignore Green when she slumped out of a chair and began to convulse on the floor.

The Jamaican mother of six lay there for an hour until a hospital employee nudged her with her foot and summoned help.

In 2008, the New York Civil Liberties Union alleged hospital records were falsified to show Green had been “sitting quietly in the waiting room” a little more than 10 minutes after she had stopped moving and 48 minutes after she slid to the floor.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

JOURNAL OF THE PEOPLE’S PASTOR ‘WRITING THE HISTORY I’VE LIVED, LIVING THE HISTORY I WRITE!’

A tribute to remember

By REV. DR. HERBERT DAUGHTRY

THOMAS H. WATKINS

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Part Three The next speaker was Brother Richard Seabrook, a serious and dedicated brother who lives in the Word (meaning he is always reading and studying the Bible). He opened his remarks by saying, “Let’s take a walk in the Word of God to honor the Reverend Dr. Herbert Daughtry, a man of God and the ‘People’s Pastor.’” He continued by citing Bible verses, which were preceded as if God were talking to me.

For an example, he quoted from the verses in Matthew 25:34-36, 40. Brother Seabrook stated, “Jesus said, ‘Hey Herbert, the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me; I needed clothes, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you looked after me; and, I was in prison, and you came to visit me.’

“God told Herbert, ‘I tell you the truth whatever you did for the least of these brothers of

mine, you did for me.’” Brother Seabrook ended his presentation with these words, “‘I have loved and blessed you from the day you were born, Herbert; I knew you in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139). I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).’” He concluded, “‘So, I tell you, Herbert, with confidence, I am your helper.

Don’t you ever be afraid, for you are my child, and I am your God.’ God bless, Pastor.”

The last speaker was Brother Jah Mike. He is a smart, energetic brother with a perpetual smile. He read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12. As he read each one, he creatively referenced my life, i.e., “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Reverend Daughtry has manifested righteousness in his life, and he is filled.” As each brother finished his speech, he received a standing ovation from the audience. I embraced each speaker, and I whispered in his ear, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!”

Then, Brother Lee introduced and called me to speak. I was greeted with the same response I received upon entering the gym. I said, “Words can not express my gratitude. I had no idea that you were going to honor my family, my church, and me. If I had known, I would

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have brought my family with me. I know somewhere my father is ecstatic. I would like to have the written copies of your speeches, and I will try to publish them.”

I paid tribute to each brother, especially those who had organized the program. I mentioned Brother Hicks (aka Dollar Bill), the head of the Caribbean African Unity, and his work to unite the brothers. I commended the brothers for their commitments, which have spread near and far. I touched upon my life of incarceration.

I said, “Coming here is a homecoming. I know it is a prison, but it’s still a homecoming. You are bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. I once sat where you are sitting. If it were not for the grace of God, I would still be sitting where you are sitting, or I would be in Potter’s Field.”

I highlighted my transformation by God through Jesus Christ, and the blessings that my life has known since the day of my conversion in 1953. “God is no respecter of persons,” I said. “What He has done for others and me, He can also do for you.” Then, the signal came, marking the end of the program. Once more, I embraced as many brothers as I could. I waved at those who I could not reach.

The long walk along the stone corridor, through the

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

National Urban League ‘Jobs Rebuild America’ tour comes to New England

By MARC H. MORIAL “There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

— American President and New England native, John F. Kennedy This week, May 16-18, I am taking the National Urban League’s war on unemployment on the road for the second time this year. After conducting our first “jobs tour” in Indiana back in April, we are making New England the next stop in a year-long campaign spotlighting urban communities that have been hit especially hard by the great recession. With the help of Urban League affiliates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, we are visiting neighborhoods and job sites, conducting job fairs and forums and giving people struggling with unemployment a chance to have their voices heard. In community dialogues, we are discussing the National Urban League’s 12-point Jobs Rebuild America plan and encouraging citizens to suggest other ways to bring jobs back to New England cities.

Introduced earlier this year, the Jobs Rebuild America plan offers a dozen imaginative strategies to rescue those most profoundly affected by the on-going economic emergency and to address many of the underlying causes behind the recession’s inordinate impact on the communities served by Urban League affiliates, including many in New England.

According to a 2010 report by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 348,000 New England jobs were lost from December of 2007 to November, 2009. Tens of thousands of New Englanders also lost homes due to the foreclosure crisis. The PERI report echoes the Jobs Rebuild America approach to job creation which calls for immediate investments in education, job training, teen employment, and direct job creation in cities and states. The report states, “Available evidence suggests that the most effective options for creating jobs, in the short- and long-term, are investing in infrastructure and building the skills of the current and future workforce. Tax cuts and business subsidies on the other hand, do little to create jobs in the short-run, and are not

Tribute to remember Continued from page 4 steel gates, and back to the starting point is always a sad journey. I thought of all the incarcerated brothers and sisters. I pondered the words, “It might have been different if only the right decisions were made.” It is still not too late for something good to be brought forth. Indeed, something good has been and is being brought forth.

THE END. *HEALTH FAIR: Recognizing the startling health risks facing people of color, The House of the Lord Church’s Ministry of Health & Wellness in conjunction with the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA) and the Brooklyn Hospital Center is sponsoring its Sixth Annual Community Health Fair on Saturday, June 11, 2011, from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm. This event will take place at the historic House of the Lord Church where the Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry is the pastor, and is located at 415 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

11217.

Our Free workshops include: Creating your look Nutrition & Exercise Basics for busy people

Men’s Health Concerns Space is limited for the workshops, please RSVP to holchealth@yahoo.com There will also be Doctors on Call for consultations on heart health, diabetes, and other concerns. ** Join Reverend Daughtry in Jersey City for the weekly Thursday Evening Educational, Cultural, and Empowerment Forum from 6pm8pm for an evening of information, inspiration, and challenge at 315 Forrest Street (Ground Floor), corner of MLK, Jr. Drive. For more info, contact The National Community Action Alliance at (201) 716-1585. ** Listen to Reverend Daughtry on the weekly radio program which airs Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. on New York City’s WWRL-AM, dial 1600. ** NEED QUALITY CHILD CARE? Call the Alonzo A. Daughtry Memorial Daycare Center located at: 460 Atlantic Avenue (corner of Atlantic and Nevins) 718-596-1993 333 Second Street (between 4th & 5th Avenues) in Park Slope 718-4992066 Immediate openings are available in a state-of-the-art center.

the most effective approaches to generating growth over the long-term.”

Our visit to New England includes a Monday employment symposium at the University of Rhode Island; a Tuesday job fair at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and a Wednesday tour of the Workplace, Inc., a successful job training organization in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

We will be hosted by the presidents of five New England Urban League affiliates – Darnell L. Williams, of the Urban League of Eastern Massachu-

setts, Dennis B. Langley, of the Urban League of Rhode Island, Henry M. Thomas III, of the Urban League of Springfield, Adrienne W. Cochrane, of the Urban League of Greater Hartford, and Valerie Schultz-Wilson, of the Urban League of Southern Connecticut.

While our New England jobs tour is a three-day affair, we will be returning to Boston July 27-30 for the annual National Urban League conference where we will again highlight our Jobs Rebuild America plan and focus the nation’s attention on the jobs crisis in urban America.

To register for the conference visit: http://www.nul.org/conference/. To read our Jobs Rebuild America plan visit http://www.nul.org/content/12step-blueprint-jobs-plan.

— Marc H. Morial is the President and CEO of the National Urban League.

Sonny Carson – Revered ancestor

By DR. FRED MONDERSON As a revered ancestor, Sonny Carson has left an imprint in the United States as well as in Ghana, West Africa, that always reminds us of the merits of working for the people which in itself is a great reward as real time events are challenged. On Sonny’s birthday, May 18, juxtaposed to Malcolm X’s birthday May 19, we are reminded of one indisputable fact that bucks the modern trend, especially in New York City.

For some time, New York City has honored deserving individuals by having some edifice named after them. As an example, even streets were named to honor these individuals. For that matter, sometimes an entire street was named after such personalities. However, New York City politics is always changing, sometimes even for the worse.

As mayor, and in his run on the people, Rudy Giuliani restricted the naming of streets to co-naming and then to a block or two. This became the standard from his time onwards.

Sonny Carson, as a thinking activist and realizing the significance of motifs and the cultural and philosophic consciousness of historical personalities soon realized there was no visible public evidence of noteworthy Black figures in Brooklyn, New York, especially. So, therefore, he created an organization called The Committee to Honor Black Heroes. He further realized old style building techniques engraved the names of significant historic personalities on the cornice or façade of buildings and even on lower Broadway in New York City, the names of distinguished visitors to the city were engraved on the sidewalk indicating the dates of their visit.

Amidst his activist activities, Sonny “Abubadika” Carson, through his novel organization and demands was able to quickly change street names to read Malcolm X Boulevard

and Marcus Garvey Boulevard in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. He successfully lobbied for a school named Malcolm X and one for Toussaint L’Ouverture, the great Haitian liberator. In this vein, however, the most significant accomplishment he initiated was laying the foundation to name Fulton Street in Brooklyn, after Harriet Tubman, the great African American liberator.

Only recently, it became apparent to this writer, instead of the customary block or two named after an individual, Harriet Tubman Avenue stretches from Flatbush Avenue to Uitica Avenue. This achievement was significant because of the now operational law limiting the naming of such streets Mayor Giuliani had implimented. Clearly the work of Robert “Sonny” Carson was quietly behind this co-naming. It’s as if he had said, “I may not be there but we can still beat the system” if we remain active and vigilant.

Equally, let us not underestimate the role Sonny Carson has played in institution building in the establishment of Bed-Stuy Restoration Corporation to revitalize that community, the achieved 4-year status of Medgar Evers College and significantly, the repatriation of the Bones of Runaway Slave Samuel Carson to Ghana, West Africa, to create a site of pilgrimage and departure for African Americans seeking their roots in Mother Africa.

In this gallant and triumphant act Sonny Carson had created the “Door of Return” contradicting the “Door of No Return” of the horrendous slave trade experience.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

Las Vegas’ once-glamorous Sahara hotel-casino closes

By TIMOTHY PRATT LAS VEGAS — Dozens of slot machines fell silent, and announcers ushered crowds of nostalgic gamblers to the exits on Monday as the Sahara hotel and casino, one of oldest landmarks on the Las Vegas Strip, closed its doors to the public.

The Sahara, which opened in 1952 and was once a favorite venue for Frank Sinatra and other members of the super-hip team of stars known as the “Rat Pack,” was officially shuttered at 2 p.m. local time by SBE Entertainment Group, which owns and operates the property.

SBE chief executive Sam Nazarian, who acquired the Sahara in 2007, has not revealed his plans for the property. But after the last of his guests had left, Nazarian stuck his head out of the main entrance and shouted, “Be back soon! Thanks for 59

years.” He left behind a small sign with the same message.

Nazarian said previously that continued operation of the Sahara in its current form was no longer economically viable. But he has hinted at the possibility of some day reopening the 1,750room hotel, distinguished for its Moroccan architectural motifs and brightly lit

entrance capped by an onion dome.

On Monday, he said the north end of the Vegas Strip, where the Sahara is located, “is where the future is.”

The Sahara was only the sixth resort and casino to open on the Strip and is one of just three still standing from the post-World War II era, along with the Flamingo

and Riviera.

In its heyday, the Sahara was renowned for its glamour and the mix of big-name entertainers it attracted, most notably the “Rat Pack” team of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.

Others among its roster of celebrity guests and performers included Johnny Carson, Clint Eastwood, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, comedian Don Rickles and even the Beatles.

While the Sahara’s popularity and luster waned over the years, it maintained a strong sentimental grip on generations of visitors for whom it personified Las Vegas’ glory days as a desert gambling and entertainment capital.

“This is a grieving process,” said Susan Krawczyk, 53, a native of Milwaukee, who recalled staying at the Sahara during her visit to Vegas in 1976.

“The first time you come to

Vegas, it stays with you forever,” she said wistfully. “It’s like your first boyfriend or your first car.”

Peter Villalobos, 56, a room clerk at the Sahara since 1977, stood around saying goodbye to co-workers as clusters of guests wrapped up their last hands of cards or cashed in chips, while the public address system blared announcements urging everyone to make their way to the exits.

Villalobos recounted being invited backstage by Ringo Starr after a performance 22 years ago and hanging out with the former Beatle.

“The stars were nicer then,” he said. “Now they’re a little more stand-offish, probably because of the media.”

Asked about his own plans, Villalobos said, “I’m going to retire and finally finish some work around the house.” Then, his eyes welling with tears, he added, “I’ll miss it. It’s been a great run.”

White House: Trade deals must help affected workers WASHINGTON — Three trade agreements are pending, but no implementing legislation will be submitted unless Congress beefs up aid to idled U.S. workers, the White House said.

Pending trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia are vital to reaching the U.S. export goals, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Monday during a conference call updating reporters about the agreements.

Obama has insisted that “keeping the faith” with America’s workers is as important as opening new markets and enforcement of

trade agreements, Kirk said.

Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, said the administration won’t submit implementing legislation on any of the three pending agreements until a deal is struck with Congress on renewing an expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance program that is consistent with the objectives of the 2009 Trade Adjustment Assistance law. “[Trade] adjustment assistance is a critical part of our economic and social compact,” Sperling said. “ We believe that there are significant economic gains and expanding trade and expanding exports.

But we also have an economic and moral obligation to provide the reemployment assistance to those who do bear the dislocation or costs associated with what is for our country as a whole, a very positive economic policy.”

The pending agreements are central to achieving the goals of the export by opening key markets and “and more importantly, [they] level the playing field for American exporters, their workers and businesses related to those export activities,” Kirk said.

During his State of the Union address, Obama set a goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five years to keep

the United States competitive internationally while supporting the creation of 2 million jobs domestically.

“We have been successful in resolving the outstanding issues with each of the three pending free trade agreements and in the last several weeks, we have begun technical discussions with our congressional committees of jurisdiction to finalize the implementing legislation for each of the agreements for Panama, Colombia and Korea,” Kirk said.

Since 2009, more than 435,000 workers have been certified as eligible for TAA support, said Michael Fro-

Obama meets with Memphis flood victims MEMPHIS — President Obama listened to Memphis residents Monday recount how they were forced to flee their homes because the Mississippi River overflowed its banks.

“We’re there for you, and we’re grateful for your resilience,” Obama told the gathering, a readout of the private meeting Obama had with residents, government officials and emergency President Barack Obama greets military personnel upon his arrival in Memphis, Tennessee.

responders indicated.

Obama spent about 35 minutes meeting with flood victims, responders, volunteers and elected officials.

Victims told of having to flee their homes and living with relatives and responders spoke of how they monitored the rising waters and alerted people.

Obama has signed disaster declarations for states — including Tennessee — hard-hit by the flooding, but this was his first visit with victims of the raging Mississippi.

man, the administration’s international economic adviser.

The program has received bipartisan support before and enjoys broad support by the business community that sees “the social compact around trade is a critical part of moving forward with the president’s overall trade agenda,” Froman said.

The aides said there have been discussions with Democrats and Republicans and that members of Congress know passage of the three free trade agreements must be accompanied by a strong, robust extension of trade adjustment assistance.

Rose Hunt and her son Ricky told the president water surrounded the mother’s house but didn’t seep inside. She told Obama prayer protected her home so her son could live with her after his home was flooded.

The Rev. Gary Faulkner, pastor at Cummings Street Baptist Church and his wife, Wanda, are no strangers to helping people affected by natural disasters. The church is known for its work in opening shelters in coordination with Shelby Cares to respond to natural disasters, including hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.

DAILY D CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

COMMUNITY AFFAIRS

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Brooklyn NAACP Annual Freedom Program The NAACP Brooklyn Branch honored several civic and corporate leaders during its annual Freedom Fund Awards gala held at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch.

Master of ceremonies for the event was NBC-TV news anchor David Ushery and patrons received special greetings from Dr. Hazel N. Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Brooklyn branch President Karen BoykinTowns gave the welcoming address, saying, “The Brooklyn Branch continues to be blessed by work of diverse members and supporters who share the vision of justice, compassion, and economic opportunity.”

James Moultrie, Brooklyn Youth NAACP President, Youth Honoree Jailia McLean, and Karen Boykin-Towns

Samuel Duston, Paulette Knight and Dr. Michael Harrell NAACP Brooklyn Chapter President Karen Boykin-Towns & Honoree Dr. Marecella Maxwell

Karen Boykin-Towns and Honoree Lillian Rodriguez Lopez

Kenneth R. Theobalds & Joanne Fernandez

Karen Boykin-Towns & Honoree Jacqui Williams–Fields

Honoree Jacqueline A. Berrien Esq.

Hazel Dukes, Marcella Maxwell and Deborah Young

Karen Boykin-Towns, Master of Ceremonies David Ushery, Rev. Dr. Agnes Blackmon and City Controller John Lui

City Councilwoman Letitia James, Ken Adams and Daryl Towns

L. Joy Williams First Vice President of Brooklyn NAACP and Karen Boykin-Towns

AFRICAN SCENE

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

Rwanda ex-army chief jailed for 30 years over genocide

By EPHREM RUGIRIRIZA ARUSHA - The court for UN handed Rwanda former army chief A u g u s t i n Bizimungu a 30year jail term for his role in the 1994 genocide, including for calling for the murder of minority Tutsis.

It also jailed two senior officers for ordering their men to assassinate the prime minister at the start of the 100day killing spree, when they also murdered 10 Belgian UN troops protecting her.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted the head of the paramilitary police at the time, Augustin Ndindiliyimana, of genocide crimes but ordered his release as he had already spent 11 years in jail.

The main survivors’ organisation condemned the ruling on Ndindiliyimana as too light.

He and Bizimungu are among the most senior figures to be

Rwanda's former army chief General Augustin Bizimungu pictured near Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in July 1994. The UN court for Rwanda handed the general, who was army chief for most of the 1994 genocide, a 30-year jail term for his role in the mass killing, including calling for the murder of ethnic Tutsis.

Photo/Vincent Amalvy tried by the Tanzaniabased tribunal for the genocide in which 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed.

The court found Bizimungu had complete control over the men he commanded, who were involved in the massacres that started in the night of April 6, 1994.

It also found him guilty of making a speech on April 7, 1994, several days before he was made army chief, that called for the

killing of ethnic Tutsis.

The court did not find Ndindiliyimana guilty of committing any crimes himself and said he only “limited control” over his men and was opposed to the killing.

Ndindiliyimana was arrested in January 2000 in Belgium and Bizimungu in Angola in 2002.

Rwanda’s Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga told AFP the army chiefs could have prevented the genocide had

they wanted to.

“Sentencing the army officers is particularly important because if the army had wanted, genocide would not have occurred. The army deviated from it’s role,” he told AFP. The tribunal sentenced two other senior officers to 20 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity for ordering the murder of prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.

The judges found the

officers instructed an armoured unit to kill Uwilingiyimana and made no attempt to punish the soldiers who also killed the Belgian UN Blue Helmets protecting her.

The killing of the Belgians triggered the withdrawal of the UN force stationed in Rwanda.

The officers are Major Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, the commander of the reconnaissance battalion, and captain Innocent Sagahutu, a squadron commander in the same unit.

Nzuwonemeye was arrested in France in 2000 and Sagahutu was detained in Denmark two years later.

The main genocide survivors’ association criticised the term handed down to Ndindiliyimana, which would essentially see him freed, and demanded an appeal.

“It’s a well-known fact that man helped plan the genocide in Kigali, Butare and elsewhere,” said Janvier Forongo, secretary general of the group called Ibuka.

“Eleven years is not enough in view of the

gravity of the crimes he committed,” he said.

The cases of the four men had been adjourned since June 2009 when prosecutors requested life sentences for all of them but defence lawyers asked for their acquittal.

The long-running case is known as the Military II trial.

In the Military I trial, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, presented by the prosecutor as the brains behind the genocide, was sentenced to life in prison in December 2008 along with two other senior military figures.

Bagosora appealed but the appeal verdict has yet to be handed down.

The ICTR, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, was established in late 1994 to try the perpetrators of Rwanda’s genocide which claimed some 800,000 lives in a span of 100 days.

It is tasked only with trying those who bear the greatest responsibility for the genocide.

Less senior officials and ordinary citizens accused of taking part have been tried in Rwanda.

Gates slams African leaders over vaccine coverage

By FRAN BLANDY DAKAR - Microsoft founder Bill Gates says some African countries are failing to deliver life-saving vaccines to children, hampering billion-dollar efforts to save millions of lives and stamp out deadly diseases.

The magnate, who these days spends more time talking about the “miracle of vaccines” than software, spoke to AFP in a telephone interview ahead of an address to the World Health Assembly in Geneva yesterday.

Gates’ message: Technology is only as effective as the leaders delivering it.

Once you have vaccines invented and

manufactured at low cost, and rich donors paying for them, “you have to have developing countries act to take the vaccines and get them out to all the kids.”

“It is tragic when the last delivery piece holds it back,” he said.

“You have some countries, northern Nigeria, or Chad or the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) where less than half the kids right now are getting the vaccines,” he said, referring to polio immunisation in those countries.

“They are just not putting good people on it, not tracking their results, not even getting out to parts of the country. The message has to be clear. They have to see this as their

top priority. It hasn’t been.”

The world is 99 percent towards making polio the second disease to be wiped out, after smallpox.

The paralysing disease, which once terrorised the developed world, exists now only in a few countries.

Nigeria, the world’s most troublesome polio spot, saw a 95 percent cut in cases last year due to revitalised immunisation but is facing a lack of support from government leaders, which Gates put down to the “distraction of the elections” in the country.

A spread to Chad and the DR Congo poses great risks for eradication efforts and the two countries carry 58 percent of the total cases of

polio this year.

“The key point is to help them get it right, many very, very poor countries do have 90 percent coverage rates,” Gates said.

When vaccines save lives it is “not because of hospitals or doctors or any of the expensive stuff. It doesn’t require fancy equipment, simply keeping the vaccination cold and getting them out to all the kids.”

In Africa, millions of children die from diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia - the vaccines are too expensive.

At the same time other deadly diseases such as malaria need new, low cost vaccines.

“A vaccine is truly unique, not only in reducing deaths but kids who have these

diarrhoeal diseases end up never fully developing their brains. IQ studies done in Africa show huge deficits.”

Gates has been rallying hard for donors to

keep funding up as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation seeks to fill a $3.7 billion funding gap at its June 13 pledging conference.

Uganda president: sorry for inauguration stoning KAMPALA, Uganda - Uganda’s president is apologizing to foreign leaders whose vehicles were targeted with stones while driving through Kampala during last week’s presidential inauguration.

President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that the stone-throwing brought shame to Uganda.

Museveni, who has led Uganda for 25 years, was sworn in for a fourth elected term last Thursday.

Large crowds that greeted the country’s top opposition leader on the same day blocked the road to the airport. Kizza Besigye returned from Kenya last week, and his arrival sparked some violence.

Museveni said the vehicle of Nigeria’s president was hit by a stone, and that the car carrying Congo’s president was almost hit. He apologized to the leaders for what he called “hooliganism and irresponsibility.”

D CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011 DAILY

AFRICAN SCENE

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Ex-militant’s protest has warning for Nigeria’s president PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - An ex-militant in Nigeria’s oil region yesterday led a march of over 1,000 youths and warned of a possible return to armed struggle if conditions did not improve in the impoverished delta.

Dokubo-Asari, Mujahid head of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, said during the march that armed struggle would be a last resort for his group if President Goodluck Jonathan did not take action in his native region within one year.

Jonathan, who won last month’s presidential election, is the first head of state from the Niger Delta, the heart of one of the world’s largest oil industries.

“We are on sabbatical,” he said during the march in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, correcting someone who asked about his group having given up armed struggle.

“We are giving Goodluck a

chance to make a difference to bring about change ...

Goodluck does not have four years. He has one year.”

He added that “armed struggle is a last resort.”

Jonathan, first thrust into office following the death of his predecessor Umaru Yar’Adua in May 2010, has stirred hope in the region by winning last month’s election.

The Niger Delta, a vast area of swamps and creeks badly polluted by oil spills, saw years of unrest before a 2009 amnesty deal.

While the amnesty has been credited with greatly reducing unrest, many have warned that fundamental problems of deep poverty, unemployment and widespread corruption could lead to more violence.

Asari, whose group was involved in violence particularly in the early part of last decade, called for a conference to look at whether communities in the Niger Delta should be given some type of

sovereignty.

Yesterday’s march was also held to commemorate the life of Niger Delta activist Isaac Boro, who died in 1968.

Asari, from the mainly Christian Ijaw ethnic group but who converted to Islam, continues to have a significant following in parts of the

Mujahid Dokubo Asari region, but his precise intentions are unclear.

Some have speculated that he may be seeking to gain more leverage over the government, with other militant leaders having recently been more prominent. Asari was at one time perhaps Nigeria’s best known militant leader.

Violence in the Niger Delta has been carried out by militants claiming to be fighting for a fairer distribution of oil revenue as well as criminal gangs.

Asari’s group, along with others, was accused of involvement in Nigeria’s lucrative illegal oil industry.

Libya’s top oil official defects: Tunisian source Judge accuses Marrakesh blast

By JOSEPH LOGAN & TAREK AMARA TRIPOLI/TUNIS - The chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation has defected from Muammar Gaddafi’s administration and fled to neighboring Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said yesterday.

Libyan rebels also said they had information that Shokri Ghanem, 68, had defected, a move that if confirmed would deal a blow to Gaddafi’s efforts to shore up his 41-year rule.

“He is in a hotel with a group of other Libyan officials,” the Tunisian source told Reuters.

Another Tunisian security source said he was on his way to the capital Tunis.

A government official in Tripoli said there was no sign Ghanem had defected.

Rebels hold Benghazi and the oil-producing east of the North African country, helped by a NATO bombing campaign sanctioned at the United Nations to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces.

But the military victory rebels once sought seems a distant prospect and many pin their hopes on a collapse of central power in Tripoli

driven by defections and disaffection.

To that end, any defection

by Ghanem could be significant. The oil chief is an internationally respected technocrat credited with liberalizing Libya’s economy and energy sector.

He has been director of research at the OPEC secretariat in Vienna, economy and trade minister in Tripoli and prime minister.

Rebel finance and oil minister Ali Tarhouni told Reuters on a visit to Doha that he understood Ghanem had left his post.

Tarhouni said he hoped to represent Libya at an OPEC meeting in June. Libya is estimated to have lost two thirds of its oil output since the unrest began three months ago.

Rebels and Arab media reported on a previous occasion that the U.S.-educated Ghanem had stepped down but he appeared later and said he was in his office and working as usual.

MOSCOW TALKS Russia hosted a representative of Gaddafi’s government in Moscow yesterday and called on Tripoli to stop using force against civilians, comply fully with U.N. Security Council resolutions and withdraw armed groups from cities.

“The answer we heard cannot be called negative,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. He suggested Gaddafi’s government was making such steps conditional on NATO and rebels calling a halt to the use of force.

Libya was ready to look at peace proposals based on those suggested by the African Union and to comply with Security Council resolutions, he said.

“The only things that our interlocutors from Tripoli noted today was the necessity of the insurgents accepting analogous steps and that NATO also stop bombing,” Lavrov said, adding that it remained to agree terms and a timeframe for a truce.

Both the rebels and Western nations have rejected past ceasefire proposals, saying the only deal they would accept was one under which Gaddafi relinquished power.

The proposal set out by the Russian foreign minister made no mention of that.

The talks indicate Russia’s desire to act as peacemaker and preserve its influence in Libya, where it has billions of dollars of arms, energy and infrastructure contracts.

In a Foreign Ministry statement issued later, Russia reiterated its call for a prompt ceasefire by all sides.

suspects of ‘terrorism’ RABAT - A Moroccan judge yesterday accused seven suspects in a Marrakesh cafe bombing that killed 17 people last month of being part of a banned religious group and planning “terrorist acts”, an official told AFP. The seven, including main suspect 25-year-old Adil El-Atmani, are being tried under Morocco’s 2004 anti-terrorism law, the judicial official said.

The anti-terror court judge accused them of forming a group “to prepare and commit terrorist acts”, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The judge also accused them of “a serious attack on public order, premeditated killing and ambush, possession and fabrication of explosives and belonging to a banned religious group”.

The judge did not give the details of organisation.

The attack was the deadliest in Morocco since a 2003 strike by Islamist militants in Casablanca that killed 33 people and 12 suicide attackers.

Police have described some of the suspects in the Marrakesh attack as “admirers of Al-Qaeda” and

Moroccan authorities had initially blamed Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) for the bombing.

AQIM, behind a series of attacks and kidnappings in north Africa, denied responsibility.

The April 28 bomb tore through a cafe in the heart of the Marrakesh tourist hub, killing mostly foreign tourists, including eight French nationals and citizens of Britain, Canada, Switzerland, Portugal and The Netherlands.

Security sources have alleged that Atmani, wearing a wig and carrying a guitar, left two bags containing bombs on the Argana cafe terrace and triggered the blasts with a mobile phone just after leaving.

He was tracked down through a phone found at the site of the bomb blast, sources have said.

Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said this month Atmani had learned on the Internet how to make explosives.

He and the other two main suspects in custody “admire Al-Qaeda, are filled with Al-Qaeda ideology and with Salafist ideology”, the minister said.

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CARIBBEAN NEWS DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

Investigation to be launched in Trinidad into $27m Caribbean Airlines contract

St. Kitts-Nevis seeing signs of economic recovery, says PM

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said an investigation will be launched into allegations that a $27 million Caribbean Airlines (CAL) contract was awarded to an insurance firm, to which CAL chairman George Nicholas has ties.

“I do not know anything more than what is in the newspapers... I saw the headline, but I did not get a chance to read the story so it would be inappropriate to comment on that now,” Persad-Bissessar said on Sunday.

She said, however, that Transport Minister Jack Warner would investigate the matter.

The prime minister said she was awaiting a written report on the CAL Board from the Finance and General Purposes Committee.

“The committee has not yet given me a written report, I guess because they have so many matters that seem to be important,” she said. “The board continues to function until such time as that report comes and a decision is taken.”

The Sunday Guardian reported that a three-year contract to provide employment benefits, brokerage and consulting services at CAL was awarded to CIC

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (CUOPM) — St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas says there are signs of economic recovery in the twin-island Federation.

Addressing over 500 delegates, officials, representatives of the diplomatic corps and invited guests at the 79th annual conference of his governing St. KittsNevis Labour Party on Sunday, the national Labour Party leader and prime minister said the past few years have been very challenging.

He noted, however, his government is already seeing signs that decisive policy actions will bring substantial long-term benefits for the Federation.

“We have had to use all our skills and experience to keep the ship of state on course, in very turbulent waters. It has not been easy and we know that our people have been called upon to make significant sacrifices but I am convinced that these sacrifices are well worth it,” said Douglas.

“We have had to introduce VAT to stabilize our public finances that was so badly affected by the global recession. At the same time, we have had to streamline the operations of public corporations with a view to enhancing their efficiency and reducing their claims on

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar Insurance Brokers, a subsidiary of CIC Holdings, on February 4. Issa Nicholas Holdings Limited, CIC’s fifth largest shareholder, is owned by Nicholas’ father.

He is also a director of the company.

The report stated Nicholas, vice-chairman Mohan Jaikaran, and directors Allan Clovis and Gizelle Russell, were at the tenders committee meeting with insurance manager Ronald Sukhbir and human resources manager Charmaine Heslop Da Costa, when CIC was shortlisted. It is also alleged that WINTV, a local television station owned and operated by Jaikaran, had received a significant number of advertising contracts from the airline.

Persad Bissessar said, “I will certainly ask the line minister to look into the matter.”

IDB Cultural Center offers a fresh view of Jamaican society through art WASHINGTON — Nine contemporary Jamaican artists will exhibit their most recent work at the IDB Cultural Center Gallery (IDBCC) with an array of paintings, photography, video and installation art, under the title Contemporary Jamaican Artists.

The Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center, and the Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States (OAS), partnered with the World Bank Art Program on its project ABOUT CHANGE, from which this exhibition is derived. This initiative comprises of several exhibitions representing Latin America and the Caribbean at venues in Washington during 2011.

Earlier this year, the section of ABOUT CHANGE dedicated to the English-speaking Caribbean was staged at the OAS’s Art Museum of the Americas, under the title “Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions.”

National Political Leader of the governing St. KittsNevis Labour Party, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas at the 79th Annual Labour Party Conference scarce financial resources of the central government.

Moreover, we were forced to restructure the very generous subsidies that we provided to electricity consumers in our Federation. This has combined with increases in commodity prices all over the face of the globe, to increase our inflation rate and create new challenges for our households,” he said.

“It is very clear, however, that our actions have helped to avert a potential crisis that could have been far more devastating on our people. Moreover, we are already seeing signs that

Suriname hosts successful drug abuse conference GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state, Suriname, put its best foot forward recently in hosting the forty-ninth regular session of the InterAmerican Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD 49th) in Paramaribo, May 4-6.

Suriname is the second CARICOM country to have chaired this Commission since its inception in 1986, with Trinidad and Tobago being the first, 10 years ago.

Former Justice and Police Minister of Suriname, Senator Chandrikapersad Santokhi, who now chairs this organization, welcomed more than 50 high level delegates from across the Americas to his native country to discuss and approve among other things, the hemispheric plan of action to deal with the scourge of drugs and drug-related crimes in the western hemisphere.

our decisive policy actions will bring substantial longterm benefits for our Federation,” said Douglas.

He disclosed that earlier this year the government’s bank overdraft account which, at times, has reached hundreds of millions of dollars, was in the black, indicating that for the first time in many years, the government recorded a positive bank balance.

“We are also pleased that the St. Kitts Air and Sea Ports Authority is now reporting monthly profits after a prolonged period of losses and negative cash flows,” said the prime minister.

Douglas said that it is not surprising therefore that the IMF has projected, in its April 2011 Regional Economic Outlook, that for 2011 the primary surplus could reach 2.9 percent of GDP which would be substantially higher than the average of 1 percent projected for the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.

“At the same time, it is expected that economic growth will pick up and reach 1.5 percent in 2011.

We believe that as global conditions improve, our policy initiatives will yield even greater benefits and will set the stage for a sustained reduction in national debt,” said Douglas.

Mexico to grant 15 scholarships to Belizeans in technical education BELMOPAN, Belize — Mexico is offering 15 scholarships to Belizean nationals to study at the professional technical level in Mexico. The call for submissions for the academic year 2011-2012 is coordinated by the National College of Professional Technical Education (CONALEP) of Mexico and the Belize’s Ministry of Education.

CONALEP provides more than 33 different technical degree programs at different campuses in Mexico. Careers are available on seven different areas, such as electricity and electronics, maintenance and installation, production processes and physical transformation, chemistry-biological production and transformation processes, information technology, tourism and health.

The Mexican government scholarships are granted under an agreement between the CONALEP and the Belize Ministry of Education.

This exchange education program started in 1991 and in the last 10 years more than 140 Belizean students have benefited from this agreement and have obtained technical education certificates from Mexico.

D CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011 DAILY

CARIBBEAN NEWS

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Witness: Expelled from Bahrain, a nation now in fear

By FREDERIK RICHTER MANAMA When I got the usual call to visit B a h r a i n ’ s Information Ministry, I braced myself for complaints about my coverage of the crackdown on Bahraini Shi’ites protesting against the kingdom’s Sunni-led government.

Every other week it seemed, since I moved to the island, I have been called in for meetings with government officials over Reuters coverage of what Bahrain’s Shi’ite majority says is discrimination by the Sunni rulers.

Once, I got an angry call in the middle of the night.

This time, though, the mood was calm and somewhat friendly when I went to the ministry last Tuesday. The official, in a traditional white robe, sat down with me in a modern office with a large TV screen to monitor media coverage.

Then came the announcement I had not expected.

“You have to stop reporting from now,” he said. “You have to

leave the country within one week.”

The official, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nezar alKhalifa, added that Reuters had lacked balance in its reporting during the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

The meeting lasted no more than five minutes. A story published earlier this month on disputes between moderates and hardliners within the royal family had, it seemed, crossed a red line.

The authorities said Bahrain was not closing down the Reuters office in Manama and would accredit another foreign correspondent nominated by the agency.

LEAVING As I prepare to leave, I can barely recognize Bahrain as the country I came to in 2008. It has been transformed by fear.

When I arrived, the tiny island, linked to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, was a thriving business and financial center.

Its hotels bustled with bankers and executives flown in to discuss investment deals.

Few gave much thought to discontent rumbling beneath the surface or any inkling that it would later spark mass popular protests in central Manama.

Tens of thousands of people from around the world have converged on the island each year to watch the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix, inaugurated in 2004. parliaBahrain’s ment, in which the country’s main Shi’ite opposition group Wefaq held 18 out of 40 seats, had very limited powers. Despite that, it gave the opposition voice of the Shi’ite majority a platform for debates and corruption probes.

Activists spoke freely about complaints of discrimination in jobs and services in favor of Sunni Muslims, whose faith was aligned with the ruling family, and with Saudi Arabia.

Bahrainis talked to me.

But in February, crowds mainly comprised of Shi’ites took to the streets. It would become weeks of protests demanding more freedom, an end to sectarian discrimination and a constitutional monarchy. Some even called for the abolition of the monarchy.

The protests were inspired by revolts that had toppled rulers of Egypt and Tunisia.

Manama declared emergency law in March, accused Shi’ite Iran of fomenting unrest and invited in troops from Sunni Arab neighbors, notably from Saudi

Arabia.

What followed was a sweeping crackdown on Shi’ite villages, opposition activists, media and health workers. The government said it targeted only those who broke the law during protests. But state television enlarged the faces of many who took part in protests — singling them out and frightening off others.

FEAR At least 29 people, all but six of them Shi’ites, have been killed since the protests started in February. The nonShi’ites killed included two foreigners and four policemen.

The numbers of deaths may be small compared to the violence seen in other Arab countries like Syria or Libya. But it may have forever altered the psyche of the island kingdom, a tiny country with just under 600,000 citizens.

In addition to those killed, hundreds more have been arrested or fired from jobs at stateowned companies.

Bahrain’s hotels have been empty for weeks as conferences and the Formula One grand prix were postponed or canceled.

The government has accused Iran and Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah of instigating the protests.

Pakistani forces kill five suspected suicide bombers

By NASEER AHMED Q U E T T A , Pakistan - Pakistani security forces shot dead five suspected al Qaeda-linked Chechen militants who had tried to carry out a suicide bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta yesterday, police and paramilitary officials said.

The would-be bombers included three women, police said.

They were killed near a paramilitary checkpoint in Quetta, a city

believed to be a base for the Afghan Taliban leadership.

One soldier died of wounds after being shot in the incident.

It was the second time Pakistani security forces were targeted since al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid earlier this month.

Quetta police chief Daud Junejo said the attackers were Chechens. He gave no other details.

One Russian passport with a picture of a man in a suit was shown to journalists.

Five bloodied corpses were laying near a sandbagged machine-

gun nest at the checkpoint. One of the attackers had a bullet hole in his stomach.

Pakistani television showed one of the women waving her hand in the air before she died.

“I saw them getting out of a vehicle and the police were chasing them. All of a sudden there was a blast which was followed by an exchange of fire,” said witness Zaheer Khan.

Pakistan’s Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, has vowed to avenge bin Laden’s death and last week, it said its suicide bombers killed 80 people at a paramilitary academy

in the northwestern town of Charsadda.

The Taliban keep carrying out suicide bombings despite several army offensives on their strongholds along Pakistan’s unruly border with Afghanistan.

Suicide bombings carried out by women are rare in Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally which also faces a host of other problems, from a weak economy to growing frustrations over poor government services, power cuts and a poor education system.

A police official said at least one of the attackers blew himself up before being shot.

Another culprit, in the eyes of officials, were international media, which the government saw as siding with the protesters.

Even before I was told to leave, journalists were turned back at the airport or told not to come when they inquired about visas. A crew sent in by broadcaster CNN was detained when it attempted to interview a Bahraini human rights activist.

As the crackdown wore on, fear took over.

Bahrainis stopped talking to me on the telephone, agreeing only to speak if I met them in

person, discreetly.

I met a traumatized youth who had been on the run for a month, too afraid to go to work or see a doctor. I had to find clandestine ways to meet with sources, including Westerners working as advisers to the Bahraini government, because they thought their phones and e-mail were under surveillance.

One of the last handful still talking was Mattar Mattar, a personable parliamentarian for Wefaq until the group withdrew from the assembly in February in protest at police violence.

Britain’s Queen honors Irish nationalists

By PADRAIC HALPIN & CONOR HUMPHRIES DUBLIN - Queen Elizabeth honored Irish people killed fighting for independence from Britain yesterday in a powerful gesture of reconciliation few people would have believed possible even in recent times.

The queen laid a wreath at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, Ireland’s monument to its fallen heroes, before a hushed crowd of dignitaries, soldiers and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, whose uncle was killed by militant Irish nationalists in 1979.

The visit, the first by a British monarch since Ireland won independence from London in 1921, is designed to show how warm neighborly relations have replaced centuries of animosity but security was tight after a homemade bomb was found.

Streets around each royal stop were cleared of onlookers giving Dublin an eerily deserted feel and underlining that this was a state visit like no other.

In Trinity College, Ireland’s oldest university founded with a charter from Queen Elizabeth I, a raffle determined which students and staff got close to the monarch.

Huge crowds were unlikely even if the queen had been doing public walkabouts. While most Irish people welcome the monarch’s visit they remain proud republicans and would feel uncomfortable waving the British flag, or union jack.

“My mother would have loved to have lived to see this day,” said Alex Wrafter, an unemployed 67-year-old whose mother moved from London to just south of the Northern Irish border in 1939.

“I don’t think she would ever have believed it but I think it’s extraordinarily important. The past needs to be put where it belongs.”

A 1998 deal ending Irish nationalists’ guerrilla war against British rule of Northern Ireland paved the way for the four-day sojourn but threats from militant republican groups opposed to the peace process have kept the city on edge.

New American

The

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

One Thought - One Humanity

Idris Elba happy that Thor casting was ‘color blind’

For the conclusions of these stories check out the May 5th - May 11th, 2011 issue of The New American, which hits newsstands every Thursday Toni Braxton’s life may be in danger. Toni was scheduled to perform a Mother’s Day concert in Trinidad but was asked to pull out by one of the concert promoters who had threats made against his life. According to freddyo.com, who is close with Toni’s sister Tamar, Toni not only fears for her life, but she doesn’t want to be mixed up in the cross fire between the promoters. Toni is so worried that she has pulled out of the show and forfeited her check.

Chris Brown’s single “Look At Me Now” has logged its sixth week atop the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. Featuring veteran rapper Busta Rhymes, “Look At Me Now” is lifted from Brown’s latest offering, F.A.M.E., currently in stores. “Look At Me Now” is looking to follow in the footsteps of Brown’s 2010 hit “Deuces,” which spent over thirteen weeks at No. 1.

In New York City, Keyshia Cole attended the 14th Annual EIF Revlon Run/Walk For Women. We guess Keyshia didn’t participate in the actual run” becasue she had stilletto heels on...but the fans were happy to see her.

Frank Ocean is not happy with the LAPD. The hot newcomer recently tweeted is dislike for the boys in blue after he was arrested and detained for an unknown incident.

“Just got out of jail,” Ocean tweets to his Twitter followers.

“Would like to go on record saying..f**k the police. F**k LAPD to be specific. F**k a cop, non-stop. frank will never speak to a cop again in his natural life. i have no respect for police.” Frank continues, “I swear if i

weren’t sane in mind I’d throw a f**kin Molotov in a cop car right now,” adding “Cuh had napoleon complex. and seemed really sad that he was on that lame a** bike patrol.” No word from authorities regarding the incident.

Monica has officially been announced as an advisor on NBC’s new talent hit show “The Voice.” Monica will pair up with the show’s coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton to help contestants hit the high notes. The coaches will eventually put two of the artists on each teams against each other in a series of dueling duets.

Enrique Iglesias and Shakira were the toast of the 2011 Billboard Latin Music Awards as they each landed a haul of trophies. Iglesias scooped nine honors, including Latin Artist of the Year, while his Euphoria disc was named Latin Album of the Year and Latin Pop Album of the Year.

Colombian superstar Shakira picked up six prizes included Latin Pop Airplay Solo Artist of the Year and Hot Latin Songs Female Artist. Her track Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) was voted the Latin Digital Download of the Year. Other big winners were newcomer Prince Royce, who took home four awards, Aventura, Daddy Yankee and Juan Luis Guerra, who all received three honors apiece.

It was ladies’ night at FFAWN’s 2nd Annual Mary J. Blige Honors Concert in New York City. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul presided over the evening’s festivities at Hammerstein Ballroom. Her fellow divas including Jennifer Hudson, Christina

Aguilera, LeToya Luckett, and Jill Scott were on hand to perform and help award scholarships to tomorrow’s young female leaders.

MJB started the organization to ensure that educational opportunities are made available to women so that they can get the training needed to be successful.

Waka Flocka Flame can rest a little easier today -- because a grand jury just CLEARED the rapper of all drug related charges stemming from a police raid on his Georgia home last year. A grand jury in Henry County, GA ruled ... there was not enough evidence against Waka to warrant a trial for the drug charges filed against him -- possession of a controlled substance and possession of weed measuring less than an ounce. Three other charges stemming from the raid were dropped before the case went in front of the grand jury.

In the spirit of First Lady Obama's "Let's Move" campaign, music maven, Beyonce crashed PS/MS 161 in Harlem to surprise students. The middle schoolers were shocked beyond words as the superstar led a workout routine with them.

Beyonce has been doing her part to help Michelle Obama's fight against childhood obesity by remixing her hit 'Get Me Bodied' to be a workout song now titled 'Move Your Body' for the keep-fit initiative. While there, Beyonce was spotted working out and dancing with the students - all in stilettos by the way.

Afterwards, the fans were allowed to take pictures with Bey. It is amazing to see so many celebrities have taken an interest in what the First Lady is doing.

Idris Elba, the BBC “Luther” star or Luther – that seems to be a comexplains how his role in the Marvel mon denominator in the characters I comic movie sparked anger from a play.” white supremacist groups.

We’re glad Idris is playing the Idris recently spoke about how role of the Norse god Heimdall, it much he respected director Kenneth gives diversity and another perspecBranagh for being “color blind” in tive to the film. his approach to the blockbuster.

So far, the signs are looking pretElba explains: ty good for Thor, Marvel’s trickiest “When Kenneth asked me to be Avenger to slot into our universe. So part of it, I did find myself question- as you’d expect, director Kenneth ing race.

Branagh was in a good mood when “But Kenneth hadn’t even given we spoke to him. He did address the that a thought. He just needed an biggest controversy that has actor who has presence and com- attached itself to his film so far: the mand, and felt that I fit the bill. casting of Idris Elba as Norse god “It was so refreshing – and a tes- Heimdall. tament to him as an actor and direc“Idris Elba is a fantastic actor - we tor that his casting was genuinely were lucky to get him. He provides color blind. I feel very proud of being all the characteristics we need from part of that movie.”

Asgard’s gatekeeper, the man who Elba also added how Thor fits into says, “Thou shalt not pass”. When his catalog of work: Idris says that, you know you’re “It’s different from anything else gonna have a problem. He’s smart, I’ve done; but at the same time, it’s intelligent, handsome and an been pointed out to me that here I absolute joy to work with. If you am playing a central, solid figure have a chance to have a great actor again – the one that people should in the part, everything else is irreletrust. vant.

“Take [The Wire’s Stringer Bell] “If you’re going to say the color of - Full Story In This Week’s New American Newspaper -

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

Queens MC Nyemiah Supreme poised to take her talents to the top

By D.L.CHANDLER In Jim Jones’ new video for his latest banger, “Everybody Jones,” amid the bevy of babes and model types stood out one stunning beauty who assisted Jimmy on the hook with an MC Lyteinspired “funky fresh, dressed to impress, we at the party” ad lib. Hailing from the south side of Queens, New York, artist Nyemiah Supreme is a modern-day renaissance woman. Mixtape Daily caught up with Nyemiah and she talked about her rise as a rapper, her diverse talents and her already-solid connections with Dipset and G-Unit’s Tony Yayo.

Although she’s been grinding on her own, Nyemiah’s star-making turn as Jones’ capable co-star was born of an earlier working relationship with one of the

Capo’s cohorts.

“Actually, I used to work as an assistant for Juelz Santana and through him I met Jim J o n e s , ” Nyemiah revealed.

“I was around whole that movement, and Jones had me doing a couple of rap tracks that didn’t make the album, so he put me on that ad lib for ‘Everybody Jones.’ “ Nyemiah went on to say that she’s affiliated with the Dipset thanks to the Harlem crew’s ties with her management team, SlowBucks.tv, but overall she is an independent artist.

Visits to Nyemiah’s Tumblr site and YouTube page reveal more than just a beau-

tiful woman who happens to rap.

The sites show the drop-dead gorgeous Nyemiah practicing athletic dance moves and also gracing the runway in true top-model fashion. She

revealed that her path to rap was preceded by her other passions. “I’m originally a dancer. I’ve been dancing since I was 7 years old,” Nyemiah shared. “I went on tour for the rapper Lil Mama a few years ago. I was touring with her and I was also dancing with Remy Martin.

Modeling — I did some work with Patricia Fields and I did do freelance modeling work for my photographers that I know.” The leggy rapper also does college runway fashion shows in her spare time.

Nyemiah Supreme may wear many hats, but she

admits freely that being a rapper is more her focus.

“Rapping has just totally taken over [so] that I don’t have time for any of the other things that I like to do,” she said. Her debut mixtape, Limited Edition, released in conjunction with SlowBucks.tv, has slowly gained her some notoriety, plus a cameo from Tony Yayo on the track “Money” is certainly noteworthy. The soft-spoken and surprisingly humble Supreme says she’s working hard on her next project, and that fans can expect some great work from her in the future. “I want to get some visuals for some songs from my own current project and I want people to get to know me as an artist and not a feature. I’m working on a new mixtape, Supremacy, and it’s coming this summer for sure.” said Nyemiah, confidently.

R&B singers Joe, Ledisi and company readies ‘Sacred Love Songs 2’ Love is in the air and we have the “Jumping The Broom” film to credit. Grammy winner T.D. Jakes has tapped several R&B stars for the forthcoming second installment of his Sacred Love Songs series compilation album. Inspired by his newly produced film “Jumping The Broom,” Sacred Love Songs 2 will be in-stores May 31 and features romantic love songs that pair the best

talent in gospel and R&B/Pop music-performing classic hits as well as new recordings.

‘Sacred Love Songs 2’ is lead by the Joe featured track “Closer.” The set also features songs from T.D. Jakes, Ledisi (left), Karen Clark Sheard and Kirk Whalum; El DeBarge, Bishop Paul Morton, Fred Hammond, Micah Stampley, Crystal Aikin, Terry

Thomas, and Anaysha Figueroa.

“Sacred Love Songs 2 with music inspired by the film, Jumping the Broom is a partnership between secular and gospel artists collaborating in hopes of drawing hearts back to ‘Love’ as God intended,” said Jakes. “The Bible has never been silent on the subject of Sacred Love.

Consider Song of Solomon, where the Bible speaks

poignantly about romance from a biblical perspective. It is the common language of romance that links film and music, revealing God’s true lexicon of love.”

Jumping The Broom is in theaters now and features Angela Bassett, Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Loretta Divine, Meagan Good, Tasha Smith, Romeo Miller, Deray Davis, Valerie Pettiford and Mike Epps.

Jordin Sparks says weight Mashonda not returning to ‘Love & Hip-Hop’ loss necessary for health After “American Idol” winner Jennifer Hudson dropped the weight, her actions may have started a trend. Another “AI” alum, Jordin Sparks, lost quite a bit and showed off her new bod in a bikini in Twitter photo. She shed a healthy 30 pounds.

She shared in a radio interview (“On Air with Ryan Secrest”) that she needed to make her health a priority.

“Instead of just talking about being active, I made it a priority,” she said. “It was one of those things where I was turning 21 and New Year’s was coming and it was like I’m not going to start my resolution on New Years day, I’m going to try

to start it early and just stick to it,” she added.

She also mentioned she began losing weight after her break up with her ex.

Mashonda will not be returning to “Love & HipHop” for its second season.

She explains why in a recent interview with Hip Hop Weekly.

“I’m not bitter,” she says as being the most misunderstood thing about her. “I really honestly did do the show to help Emily and help women across the United States, to let them know that you’re not the only one that can go through something like this {divorce and heartbreak}.”

Originally, Mashonda had turned down the offer, saying, “I just felt like being on a show, a reality show, would be too much, so I declined.” But producers insisted, “‘Are you willing to come on the show to at least give Emily advice on her relationship?’ I thought

about it and it made sense, so I said okay.”

However, after seeing the final product, she’s going back to her initial gut feeling. “When I shot the show, I thought that it was going to

be like more of a sisterhood, but when I saw a lot of the drama and the beef, I was a little surprised, I was like wow, okay, I didn’t know this was going to be apart of what this is.”

NEW JERSEY

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Youth advocate chosen to administer Union City father and girl, 8, $100M Facebook grant to Newark schools are in home invasion; police are calling a “targeted attack”

By VICTORIA ST. MARTIN NEWARK - In September, Newark was the surprise recipient of a $100 million gift from Facebook’s founder to help fix its beleaguered schools.

Now, it’s chosen someone to help figure out how to best spend all that money.

Gregory Taylor, a lawyer, educator and veteran advocate for at-risk youth, has been chosen as the chief executive officer of the Foundation for Newark’s Future, the organization that will administer the $100 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, as well as $100 million in matching pledges, all to be spread over five years. He is to start June 13.

Taylor, 43, of Ann Arbor, Mich. is coming to Newark from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a philanthropic organization, where he was the vice president of programs. At Kellogg, Taylor also worked as the national director of an early childhood program and he was the past senior director and chief program officer for the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Taylor says the foundation is still working on how the money will be spent, but said the foundation will emphasize improving early childhood education, teacher quality, school governance.

He said the money will also go towards exploring new school models, which will include charter schools and creating partnerships with universities.

But Taylor, who was raised in New York and California, said the money is a significant gift but it’s not

By MICHAELANGELO CONTE UNION CITY - A man was brutally pistolwhipped Monday during a home invasion in which he and his young daughter were bound and gagged with duct tape, police said.

Gregory Taylor saying “I’m not really clear a cure-all.

“There’s no way that this on what the Foundation for money alone can meet the Newark’s Future is supposed needs the community has,” to do,” and said he hopes he said. “This one infusion of that more information will cash isn’t going to lead the be released now that a direcway. It should be viewed as a tor has been named.

“It’s not quiet clear how catalyst where we can build they will use this money or on existing work.”

Mayor Cory Booker said who decides how the money be used,” said Taylor will be the “champion will for our children and our Cammarieri. “What is the decision making process? So community.”

“Greg’s more than 15 maybe this will help clarify years of experience leading it.”

Taylor, who is married and developing programs to empower and educate our and has two school-aged nation’s underserved urban children, said his family youth will be essential to our plans to move to the area in ongoing efforts to transform two years and that he will Newark’s schools,” said enroll his children “in the Booker in a prepared state- school that best suits them.”

When asked if that school ment.

Richard Cammarieri, a would be a city school, he former Newark Public said he is gathering inforSchools Advisory Board mation on schools in the member, questioned the area, so he “can make an function of the foundation, informed choice.”

N.J. county, state prosecutors not allowed to carry guns after retirement

By MARYANN SPOTO TRENTON - County and state prosecutors are not considered law enforcement officers under New Jersey’s strict gun laws that allow retired cops to carry weapons, an appellate panel ruled yesterday.

The decision by the threejudge panel upholds a lower court’s finding that Giles

Casaleggio, a former assistant prosecutor in Union, Passaic and Morris counties before becoming a deputy attorney general, does not qualify for a gun permit as a retired law enforcement officer.

The court said New Jersey law says specifically that deputy attorneys general and assistant prosecutors can carry weapons while holding those jobs, but says nothing

about after they retire.

“Unlike police officers and investigators, both assistant prosecutors and deputy attorneys general are ‘lawyers first and foremost’ whose ‘essential responsibility is to provide legal advice,’ “the court wrote, referring to the statement accompanying the Senate bill creating the law in 1996.

“Their primary duty ‘is to perform legal services in connection with law enforcement.’”

It appears that at least two suspects were waiting outside the victims’ home at 10th Street and Kennedy Boulevard when the two arrived home yesterday afternoon, Police Chief Charles Everett said last night.

The men pushed into their apartment and there was a struggle during which two shots were fired, Everett said.

The girl, judged to be about 8 years old, and her father, described as being in his early 30s, where subdued and bound with duct tape, Everett said, adding that other items used for restraining people were found in the home.

As of Monday night, police still had not thoroughly interviewed the male victim because he was receiving medical treatment, Everett said.

The little girl was also taken to the hospital but appeared to be uninjured, he said.

One of the shots struck a water pipe in the large apartment building, but no one was wounded by the gunfire and no one in the building called police after the shots were fired, he said.

Police aren’t sure how the victims escaped.

“It’s possible one victim fled out of the apartment and was pursued, but there were people around outside and they (the robbers) might have cut their losses at that point and fled,” Everett said. “This was definitely a targeted attack.”

Oscar Dominguez, vice president at MACO Office Source at Kennedy Boulevard and 10th Street, said that around 3:30 p.m. he heard a woman screaming and when he looked through the glass door of his office, he saw a bloodied man rolling at the curbside.

“He was bleeding all over his face,” said Dominguez. “He had about 10 cuts, some big gashes.”

A woman at the bus stop was helping the man and had put her sweater under his head and the man’s daughter was standing nearby, said Dominguez, adding that both the man and his daughter had duct tape around their necks.

Another person at the bus stop said she took the plate number of a fleeing van, Dominguez said, and Everett confirmed police are checking out the plate number.

“My assistant brought out paper towels and the woman who was helping him tried to stopped the man’s bleeding,” Dominguez said. When cops arrived, the man yelled, “They robbed me,” Dominguez said.

Nothing appears to have been taken from the apartment, Everett said.

Blaze in vacant North Bergen building NORTH BERGEN - Firefighters extinguished a two-alarm blaze early yesterday that had engulfed a vacant two-story building on Kennedy Boulevard near 52nd Street.

Responding to the fire at 5203 Kennedy Blvd. at 1:42 a.m., firefighters found the building “heavily involved,” said North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Charles Thomas.

Radiant heat from the fire was so intense that it blew out the windows of an adjacent vacant building and partially melted two vehicles parked nearby, Thomas said.

The fire, the cause of which has not been determined, originated in the basement and burned through the first floor, he said.

Firefighters had the blaze under control by 2:42 a.m. but remained on the scene to prevent flare-ups and conduct a search of the building’s basement, Thomas said, noting vagrants had been seen entering and exiting the building in the past.

The Division of Fire Safety will investigate the fire and evaluate the structure, Thomas said.

- SUMMER DAWN HORTILLOSA

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

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Tai chi prevents falls, boosts mental health in seniors Tai chi helps reduce the risk of falls in older people and also improves their mental health, a new study has found.

However, the ancient Chinese martial art/exercise does not help ease the symptoms of cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, according to researchers who analyzed 35 reviews assessing the health effects of tai chi.

The reviews in English, Chinese and Korean databases looked at the impact of tai chi on a variety of diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s disease, musculoskele-

tal pain, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Some of the reviews also examined tai chi’s effect on

mental health, balance and fall prevention, muscle strength, flexibility and aerobic capacity.

Findings about tai chi’s

effects were contradictory for a number of conditions, but there seemed to be clear evidence that it offered general health benefits for older people, was effective for fall prevention and improved mental health, according to study authors Myeong Soo Lee of the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in South Korea, and Dr. Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter in England.

The study findings were released online May 16 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“Our overview showed that tai chi, which combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow and gentle movements, may exert exercise-based general benefits for fall prevention and improvement of balance in older people as well as some meditative effects for improving psychological health,” the study authors wrote.

“We recommend tai chi for older people for its various physical and psychological benefits. However, tai chi may not effectively treat inflammatory diseases and cardiorespiratory disorders,” they concluded.

Excess weight in elderly makes daily tasks harder

By ALISON MCCOOK Older adults who are obese are more likely to develop problems with day-to-day activities, such as bathing, getting dressed, and going to the bathroom, a new study finds.

The more excess weight they are carrying, the more likely they are to report new disabilities, according to surveys of more than 20,000 adults 65 and older.

Interestingly, being overweight did not appear to bring a higher risk of death — except in the very heaviest — making this one more study to suggest that moderate weight gains don’t have the same impact on older people’s health as they do in the general population, said study author Dr. Christina Wee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

As a result, Wee told Reuters Health, some experts assume that the benefits from weight loss are smaller - or perhaps non-existent - in older adults. Furthermore, losing weight could be dangerous in the elderly, for instance if it causes malnutrition or bone loss, she added. “So it was not clear that, on balance, the benefits (of weight loss) would necessarily outweigh the risks.”

To further investigate how carrying excess weight specifically impacts the elderly, Wee and her team reviewed information collected from 20,975 Medicare recipients during periodic interviews over a 4-year period. More than one-third of participants were overweight, and another 18 per-

cent were obese. All participants were followed for 14 years in order to note who died.

The study focused on people’s responses to questions about their ability to complete day-to-day activities, which include eating, getting in and out of chairs, and walking. The researchers separated these basic motions from so-called “instrumental” daily activities, which consisted of using the telephone, cooking, shopping, and managing money.

Reporting in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the authors found that between 22 and 32 percent of overweight and obese women, for instance, reported they were struggling more with at least

one daily activity over the course of the study period, versus 20 percent of older women who were at a healthy weight.

When it came to “instrumental daily activities,” between 30 and 38 percent of overweight and obese men said those activities had become harder since the study began, while only 28 percent of men without excess weight reported the same problem.

Extra weight appeared to be less associated with developing problems in daily activities among AfricanAmericans, although their number (8 percent of the study group) was too small to be sure about the finding.

It’s not clear why excess

weight may have a more obvious impact on disability than on the risk of death, Wee noted. One explanation might be the presence of a “survival effect,” she said, in which obese adults who live to 65 or older may be more “resistant” to death, perhaps carrying genes that help combat the effects of obesity.

“But older adults are already more prone to disability and obesity might just tip the scales even more.”

Indeed, the participants with the lowest risk of dying during the study period were those considered to be overweight, not obese. This finding is not particularly surprising, Wee noted - people’s weight classes were determined using body mass

index, which is not as accurate a measurement of body fat in the elderly as in adults in general, she said. “In addition, since many chronic illnesses in the elderly (may) lead to unintentional weight loss, being thinner may be a sign of having a lot of illnesses.”

For now, it’s not clear exactly what older adults who are carrying excess body fat should do about it, she noted. Their focus may not need to be on dieting, she said, but on preserving their ability to perform daily activities. “It may be the treatment is not just to lose weight (but) to get physical or exercise therapy to strengthen muscles and improve function.”

FDA approves new drug to fight hepatitis C The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave approval to Victrelis (boceprevir), one of a new class of drugs aimed at fighting chronic hepatitis C infection.

According to The New York Times, the new drug appears to help more people clear the virus from their system in a shorter time span than older medications. In one trial sponsored by the drug’s maker, Merck, 44 percent of patients were successfully treated within 28 weeks instead of the typical 48.

“Victrelis is an important new advance for patients with hepatitis C,” Dr. Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in an agency press release.

“This new medication pro-

vides an effective treatment for a serious disease, and offers a greater chance of cure for some patients hepatitis C infection compared to currently available therapy.”

More than 3 million Americans currently have chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus, which can cause long term damage to the liver leading to liver dysfunction or failure, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infection; people typically become infected via needle sharing, sharing toothbrushes or razors with someone who is infected, or sexual contact. Infants can pick up hepatitis C from an infected mother.

Hepatitis C infection is a “silent killer” because infected individuals may go for

years without displaying symptoms before liver damage becomes apparent. This damage can take the form of cirrhosis, which is also tied to bleeding, jaundice and even liver cancer. According to the CDC, chronic hepatitis C infection is responsible for most of the liver transplants now conducted in the United States.

The FDA approved Victrelis — a pill taken three times a day with food — for use alongside two other drugs, peginterferon alfa and ribavirin. Approval came after the drug’s safety and effectiveness were tested in two phase 3 trials involving 1,500 adult patients. Results from both studies show that two-thirds of patients taking the three-drug combination had a “sustained virologic

response,” meaning the hepatitis C virus was no longer detectable in blood tests even 6 months after treatment had ended — an advance over the use of peginterferon and ribavirin alone.

Side effects with the threedrug regimen included anemia, nausea, headache and troubles with taste.

Victrelis, which is marketed by New Jersey-based Merck, is one of a class of drugs called protease inhibitors. These drugs work by binding with the virus and blocking its proliferation.

According to The New York Times, a second hepatitis C-targeted protease inhibitor, Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ telaprevir, is also expected to win FDA approval later this month.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

17

Putting a price on blood tests can save money

By FREDERIK JOELVING Letting doctors know how much money they spend ordering blood tests may help rein in unnecessary healthcare spending, researchers said Monday.

They found weekly announcements of the previous week’s costs to surgery staff at a Rhode Island hospital produced savings of about $55,000 over less than three months.

“Simply knowing the costs helps these providers be more judicious about their test ordering behavior,” said Dr. Elizabeth Stuebing, of the University of Miami, whose findings appear in the Archives of Surgery.

“As of now, many providers, especially house

staff or residents, are completely unaware of the costs of any of the care they are providing,” she told Reuters Health by email.

Blood tests are an integral part of modern medicine, yet experts say they are used more than is medically necessary, stretching a healthcare budget that’s already hard pressed.

“Wasted medical spending has been estimated to account for as much as onethird of the $1.5 trillion the United States expends annually for medical care, and inappropriate, redundant, or unnecessary tests and procedures have been suggested to encompass the biggest area of such waste,” Dr. A. Benedict Cosimi, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, writes in an editorial in the journal.

In the new study, conducted at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, the researchers saw daily patient charges for blood tests drop from nearly $150 to as low as $108 after 10 weeks.

That’s more than 25 percent, and could mean millions of dollars in savings if the same system was introduced across the nation, according to Stuebing.

“The problem is that ordering these tests is often part of a daily routine, and they seem relatively inconsequential and inexpensive when compared to things like MRIs, but we forget that all those little tests add up to a significant amount over time,” she said.

It’s not the first time hospitals have tried to curb expenses from excessive

blood tests. Some, for instance, have used computer systems and provider education to limit unnecessary tests.

While Rhode Island Hospital already had such systems in place, the researchers calculate that the new system of announcements saved an

additional $54,967 over 11 weeks.

“I believe that such simple, low-cost, and readily repeatable interventions provide one of the most easily applied strategies for influencing clinicians’ test and medication requesting behavior,” writes Cosimi.

No physical explanation for delusional infestations

By GENEVRA PITTMAN People complaining that they were infected with bugs, worms, eggs, fibers, and even triangles, generally had a clean report on medical exams a new study finds.

Although many of the patients diagnosed with “delusional infestation” did have dermatitis — an itchy skin condition — the researchers weren’t sure if that was causing the symptoms, or if it was a result of excessive scratching or medications the patients had applied to “treat” their problem.

Whether delusional infestation — also known as Morgellons Disease — is a psychiatric condition, or whether people who complain of the mysterious skin symptoms might have an underlying

physical disease continues to be debated and investigated.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is looking into the condition, sufferers have also reported fatigue, joint pain, and short term memory loss.

In cases of delusional infestation, “patients often complain that the physician isn’t examining their skin closely enough to see the infesting organisms,” Dr. Mark Davis of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Reuters Health in an email.

“This study indicates that even when skin biopsies are obtained, and specimens of the organisms brought by the patients are carefully examined, there is no objective evidence of skin infestation,” added Davis, who worked on the new study.

Davis and his colleagues reviewed the cases of 108 patients who were diagnosed

with delusional infestation at the Mayo Clinic between 2001 and 2007.

All of those patients believed they were infested with bugs, worms, or inanimate objects, and complained of strange skin sensations, according to the report published in Archives of Dermatology.

Doctors did a biopsy on 80 of those patients to look more closely at the skin, and found no evidence of an infestation.

Most patients also brought in skin flakes, scabs, or hairs for testing — none of which had anything that would explain patients’ symptoms.

More than half of the biopsies did show dermatitis, a skin condition marked by inflammation and red and itchy skin.

But the researchers said they weren’t sure if that could be leading to patients’ symptoms and beliefs that they were infested

— or if their skin was inflamed because of scratching and various attempts at treating the perceived infestation.

In at least one case, a patient’s symptoms were partially explained by an underlying medical condition. The patient initially had rectal itching and tingling that turned into a crawling sensation, the authors report — which led her to believe that she was infested with eggs and non-living things. In the end, she was diagnosed with the virus that causes herpes.

Davis said reports show that some patients with a delusional infestation may also have other medical or psychiatric conditions — but that some researchers believe it’s a type of hypochondria that is generally seen alone, without other conditions.

While there are no published estimates of how com-

mon delusional infestation is, the CDC has been researching that question, as well as what type of people tend to report symptoms. Researchers there prefer the term “unexplained dermopathy.”

“It is an unexplained and debilitating illness of unknown cause,” a CDC spokesperson told Reuters Health.

“We recognize that...healthcare providers are perplexed and frustrated” and patients and their families are suffering, the spokesperson added.

Davis said that it’s still important for doctors to take a patient’s history and do a physical exam if they suspect delusional infestation but aren’t positive. “If there is any possibility that the patient’s complaints/concerns could be explained by anything other than delusional infestation, then all relevant tests should be done,” he concluded.

Study: Fewer men having surgery to treat enlarged prostate Some men with enlarged prostate may not be receiving sufficient treatment and could suffer severe complications as a result, according to a study.

Although more men are receiving oral treatment for enlarged prostate, the rate of men operated on for the condition declined over a nineyear period and the rate of discharges for men for enlarged prostate with acute kidney failure has skyrocket-

ed, researchers found.

Non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate — called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) — is a common condition that affects millions of men in the United States each year. It can cause lower urinary tract symptoms ranging from frequent and painful urination to urinary retention, which can lead to kidney failure if left untreated.

Treatments include oral

therapies and minimally invasive surgery.

In this analysis of U.S. hospital patient data, University of California, San Diego researchers found that the prevalence of BPH increased between 1998 and 2007 but discharges of patients treated for primary BPH decreased.

During that same period, discharges for patients who had surgery for BPH decreased 51 percent, discharges for patients with pri-

mary BPH with acute renal (kidney) failure increased more than 300 percent, and discharges for primary BPH with urinary retention, stones, or infection remained about the same.

“Oral therapies for BPH are a common first-line treatment that can be effective in many men. However, it is imperative that patients be treated promptly if the drugs aren’t working,” press conference moderator Dr. Kevin

McVary said in a news release.

“In many cases, surgical treatment for BPH can help prevent urinary retention, which can ultimately lead to acute renal failure that can be life-threatening,” he added.

Because the study is being presented at a medical meeting, the results should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

18

Honda and Nissan accelerate efforts to resume full output

By CHANGRAN KIM and KENTARO SUGIYAMA IWAKI,TOKYO — Two of Japan’s top automakers are trying to accelerate their efforts to resume full production, adding to hopes that a recovery from the country’s biggest earthquake on record was well on its way as the supply bottleneck eases.

Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said yesterday employees were working hard to restore production at Japan’s No.2 automaker to full levels before an October tar-

get, after defying the odds with a speedy recovery at an engine plant that was badly damaged by the March 11 earthquake.

“I can tell you that every single Nissan employee is trying to (prove) me wrong when I say October.

This is absolutely a sense of motivation from everybody to say we’re going to make it happen before October,” Ghosn told Reuters in an interview at the Iwaki engine plant, about 60 km (30 miles) from Tokyo Electric Power’s crippled nuclear power station.

“But reasonably, I don’t think it’s going to be before October,” he added.

AT&T plans consumer security service for 2012

By SINEAD CAREW AT&T Inc. plans to launch a wireless security service for consumers next year to help combat a big rise in cyber attacks on mobile devices, a top executive said.

As more people use smartphones like Apple Inc’s iPhone and Google Inc’s Android-based devices to download Web applications, John Stankey, the head of AT&T’s enterprise business, said he had seen a big spike in security attacks on cellphones.

“Hackers always go to where there’s a base of people to attack,” Stankey said in an interview ahead of the Reuters Technology Media and Telecommunications Summit.

The company already sells security services to businesses, helping them protect their workers’ cellphones. But it has yet to offer consumer services such as anti-

virus software as it has had a tough time trying to sell them.

“I do believe it’ll become as relevant in the mobile space as it is today in the desktop,” he said, referring to subscription anti-virus software services currently available for PCs. “You’ll see that occur in the wireless world.”

Stankey said AT&T would probably launch such services in 2012.

Consumers have been reluctant to pay for these services as most feel there is little risk.

“When you start asking them what’s your willingness to pay for a solution, if they’re not a little frightened, their willingness to pay is nothing,” Stankey said. “It’ll take a little time for this in the mass market.”

But the reluctance to pay will probably change in the coming year as consumers become more aware of security threats, he said.

The 560,000-units-ayear Iwaki factory, which builds 2.5 to 3.7liter engines for the Fuga, Murano, Infiniti M, and other models, marked its return to full production capacity yesterday.

Japanese automakers have slashed production since the magnitude-9.0 earthquake on March 11 due to a shortage of supply from damaged parts makers, a few dozen of which are still seen as being in a critical condition.

“The situation surrounding (the supply chain) restoration is constantly changing, so (production) plans are changed weekly or bi-weekly in some cases, but the (restoration) process is occurring quicker than first envisioned,” said Yoshihiko Tabei of Kazaka Securities.

Honda Motor joined Nissan yesterday in saying the recovery of its parts supply is gathering pace.

“We want to move up our schedule for returning to normal, but that depends on the supply of parts,” Honda’s chief financial officer, Fumihiko Ike, told a small group of reporters. “But we are seeing recovery speed

up in those supplies.”

He said the company plans to announce its earnings forecast for the current fiscal year before the annual shareholders’ meeting on June 23.

Honda has limited access to electronic components, rubber parts and coloring materials, Ike said.

Late last month, Honda said it expected vehicle production to fully return to levels planned before the March earthquake by year-end and to stay at about half those plans through the end of June.

Ike said yesterday this was a worst-case scenario, however, suggesting the situation at the automaker could be better than previously expected.

Reporting full-year earnings in May, rival Toyota Motor Corp. painted a more upbeat picture, saying production would gradually pick up from June.

Addressing about 400 employees at the Iwaki engine plant to celebrate its full recovery, Ghosn expressed admiration for the workers whose dedication fueled a full recovery at record speed.

“When I came here last time I remember

very well: there was no electricity, there was no water, there was no fuel, there were barely no Nissan employees in the plant because there was nothing to do,” said Ghosn, who last visited the plant on March 29.

“The floor was torn, the equipment was misaligned, there were pipes hanging, and frankly it was very difficult to forecast when production would be back to where it was.”

At the time of the quake, an elevator shaft for cylinder blocks had tilted, 175kg engines had toppled from their assembly stands, and cracks had formed in the concrete floors. None of that was visible yesterday as machines hummed at full speed, with workers preparing for an hour of overtime.

One side of the factory floor had sunk about 15-20 cm, but steel legs and other reinforcements were put in place to correct the height of precision machinery, Hikaru Kawasumi, a manager at the plant, told journalists on a tour of the plant.

The factory was hit by a massive aftershock on April 11 — exactly one month after the first tremor —

erasing much of the restoration that had been done up to that point.

Just five weeks later, the plant is preparing to produce at a faster pace than planned for the next three months to make up for lost production, Ghosn said.

Nissan would invest about 3 billion yen to reinforce the Iwaki factory’s facilities to protect it against future earthquakes, he told reporters.

Ghosn surprised markets last week with a projection of higher vehicle sales this business year compared with the year ended in March despite a big disruption to production resulting from the disasters that have crippled the supply chain.

Analysts have said they expect the pace of recovery to be roughly similar at all three car makers.

The catastrophes in Japan came at a particularly inopportune time for Honda, which has just remodeled its popular Civic and had been counting on it to drive sales growth this year.

Indeed, Ike said it would be tough to ensure smooth supplies of the Civic in the United Sates.

HP cuts full year outlook on Japan woes

By POORNIMA GUPTA Hewlett-Packard Co slashed its full-year outlook, casting doubts about Chief Executive Leo Apotheker’s turnaround plan and sending its shares down 5.4 percent.

The world’s largest technology company blamed the impact of the March earthquake in Japan and weak PC sales.

The company released its results a day before it originally planned after an internal memo from Chief Executive Leo Apotheker warned his executives of “another tough quarter” ahead.

Apotheker, who took the helm in September,

wants to boost earnings and dividends by pushing into sectors such as cloud computing, where services are hosted from data centers. Investors are looking for signs of progress on that strategy.

“HP has been known historically for consistency,” said Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall. “Now they are

known for inconsistency.”

HP cut its outlook for full-year profit, excluding items, to “at least $5.00 per share” from previous outlook of “$5.20 to $5.28” and cut full year revenue outlook from $130 billion to $131.5 billion to new forecast of $129 to $130 billion.

It expects lower operating profit for its

services business, one of its biggest units.

Revenue in the fiscal second quarter ended April 30 rose to $31.63 billion, up 3 percent from the previous year and slightly above the average analyst estimate of $31.52 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The revenue growth was driven by its commercial and enterprise businesses on continued technology spending.

The company reported net income of $2.3 billion, or $1.05 a share, up from $2.2 billion, or 91 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, HP earned $1.24 a share, better than the average analyst estimate of $1.21 a share.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

19

Chrysler may up bond offering as loan demand falls

By LEELA PARKER and MICHELLE SIERRA Lingering doubts over Chrysler Group LLC’s financial outlook along with the wider availability of bank debt could make it more costly for the U.S. automaker to refinance more than $7 billion government debt from its 2009 bailout.

Initially, Chrysler was seeking to borrow $3.5 billion through a term loan and $2.5 billion in bonds. This debt,

along with $1.27 billion cash from Fiat SpA (FIA.MI), would be used to repay loans owed to the United States and Canada.

But the smallest U.S. automaker may opt to borrow only $3 billion through a term loan and may increase its bond offering to raise the remaining $500 million, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Additionally, Chrysler is expected to pay investors a higher interest rate than it initially proposed on its term loan, as potential lenders demand more protection citing the

perceived risk, these people said.

CEO Sergio Marchionne and Chief Officer Financial Richard Palmer are on the final leg of a road show to court investors, one source said. The road show began on May 4 in New York.

The company is currently sounding out potential investors on the loan at an increased pricing of 450-500 basis points over Libor. The loan is likely to maintain a 1.25 percent Libor floor and a 99-99.5 OID, according to sources.

Changes could also be made to the 101 soft call

AOL: No thanks to private equity

By JENNIFER SABA and NADIA DAMOUNI Here’s one deal AOL won’t do: go private.

AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong struck down the idea that it would pursue a deal with private equity firms similar to the deal contemplated last fall that would have combined it with Yahoo.

“We are not focused on a private equity deal now,” AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said during the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York. “We are focused on a turnaround and we’re pretty excited about the business overall.”

Despite having been burned over the past decade on a string of deals gone sour — Bebo, purchased for $850 billion, was sold for $10 million — the now independent company has been on a shopping spree. It has snapped up the popular news site Huffington Post and influential technology blog TechCrunch.

“We would opportunistically add more assets to the platforms that we thought would be really successful,” Armstrong said.

Last fall, AOL was in talks with several private equity firms to

acquire Yahoo, contingent on Yahoo selling its prized Asian assets, which include a 40 percent stake in China’s Alibaba Group.

Relations between Yahoo and the Alibaba Group strained further last week over the sequence of events involving the transfer of one of Alibaba Group’s main assets, its online e-commerce payment system similar to eBay’s PayPal, Alipay.

AOL’s Armstrong said the company wants to remain independent.

Since taking the helm of the troubled AOL in April 2009 and overseeing a spin-out from Time Warner, Armstrong has been trying to shape the company into an online media and entertainment destination.

AOL is investing heavily in Patch, a local news network launched in more than 830 communities in the United States, and rolled out a professional division to attract government, energy and defense executives.

“I hope you don’t think we have done any ‘Hail Mary’s,’” Armstrong said, using a U.S. football phrase describing a last-ditch attempt to win a game.

“Arianna’s company is the best social distributor of content, has some of the most addictive and obsessive content on the Internet.”

AOL bought the Huffington Post, launched by Arianna Huffington in 2005, for $315 million.

Dial-up access still represents roughly 40 percent of AOL’s revenue, and Armstrong said he has no plans to rid the company of that division.

“If we look at our vision of being highest quality, highest scale digital media player and brand advertising player, we have many of the components from a structural standpoint,” he said.

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provision. This provision means the issuer would have to pay a premium if it decides to refinance the loan before it matures.

All in, the term loan is now expected to pay investors roughly 6.25 percent to 6.5 percent — up from the earlier 5.5 percent to 5.75 percent range — while the bonds are expected to yield around 8 percent, investors said.

Questions over the company’s financial outlook and the large size of the term loan has diminished investors’ appetite for the loan, market participants said.

An increase in new leveraged loans that launched for syndication in recent days has made more bank loan deals available to investors, investors said.

Chrysler, which burned many lenders in its U.S.-funded bankruptcy two years ago, must also overcome a checkered history, investors said.

“In a market like this, trading sideways and with so much supply, people can afford to be choosy, especially when it comes down to a name where you have lost money before,” an investor said.

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of anonymity because the talks are private.

Chrysler currently pays between roughly 7 percent and 20 percent on its U.S. and Canadian loans. Marchionne said he expects significant savings after the refinancing.

Chrysler is counting on the refinancing deal to put the company on firmer financial footing nearly two years after it went through a U.S.funded bankruptcy.

Marchionne and Palmer visited potential lenders in Los Angeles Monday and in San Francisco yesterday, one source said. They will finish the road show in Chicago today.

Morgan Stanley is leading the $3.5 billion term loan that launched on May 4 at 400-425 basis points over Libor with a 1.25 percent Libor floor, along with a discount of 99 to 99.5 cents on the dollar. It included 101 soft call in year one.

Other top lenders on the loan are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

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compared to the bond, sources close to the transaction said. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is leading the bond.

Market participants said the strength in the bond market would be a main factor driving changes in the loan structure.

Last Thursday, Jaguar Land Rover priced a 1 billion GBPequivalent 3-part bond deal that was significantly oversubscribed.

Another 20 high yield deals priced last week, the third busiest of the year to date, to raise $10.4 billion in proceeds.

Including Chrysler, there are another 17 deals in the pipeline this week totaling about $11 billion as issuers look to take advantage of record-low yields.

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011 %

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DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

NBA’s 2011 draft lottery offers small payout

By MARC J. SPEARS Toronto Raptors president Bryan Colangelo wasn’t carrying a lucky charm when he represented the franchise at the NBA’s 2006 draft lottery. The Raptors won the No. 1 pick and selected forward Andrea Bargnani, who has yet to become an All-Star.

Raptors fans can decide whether Colangelo’s luck was good or bad.

Five years later, Colangelo was to return to the draft lottery stage last night. He still doesn’t plan to carry some totem to bring him good luck, and even if he did it might not matter. After the past four drafts produced Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin and John Wall, 2011 isn’t expected to offer any can’t-miss stars. Whoever wins the lottery can’t be sure they’ll receive a franchise-changing player.

“You can only pick who’s there,” Colangelo said.

One Western Conference general manager was more succinct in his analysis of this year’s pool of available players.

“It’s horrendous,” he said.

“Every year we always talk about how bad the draft is. This year we really mean it.”

Colangelo considers Duke freshman point guard Kyrie Irving and Arizona sophomore forward Derrick Williams the top prospects available, but said the rest of the draft holds a lot of “murkiness.” Another NBA GM thinks Turkish center Enes Kanter and Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas could also merit consideration with the No.

1 pick.

Each of the four players, however, has blemishes. Irving missed most of his only college season with a right toe injury, and several teams in the lottery already have the point guard position filled. Some scouts consider Williams undersized and don’t know whether he’s more suited to play small or power forward. Kanter hasn’t played in an organized game in more than a year after being ruled ineligible to play at Kentucky last season.

Valanciunas would be a hard sell to North American fans, who know little about him.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have the best odds (25 percent) of winning the top pick in the lottery, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers (19.9), Raptors (15.6), Washington Wizards (11.9) and Sacramento Kings (7.6).

“Every team will probably look at it a little bit differently,” Colangelo said. “Once the results of the lottery are known we will have a more clearer idea of what’s going on up there. If Washington wins the lottery, it’s pretty clear that they probably don’t require a point guard - and if someone really wants a point guard they will probably make an attempt to make some type of a deal with Washington. That might go for a couple of teams as well.”

The lack of projected talent in this year’s draft made the New Orleans Hornets comfortable trading their first-round pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for reserve guard Jerryd Bayless on Oct. 23. Less than a month later, the Hornets sent Bayless to

Toronto in a five-player trade.

Several top prospects didn’t want to declare for this year’s draft for fear of the NBA entering a lockout this summer.

That’s contributed to the shallow talent pool. North Carolina forwards Harrison Barnes and John Henson, Ohio State forward Jared Sullinger, Kentucky forward Terrence Jones and Baylor forward Perry Jones III all disappointed NBA teams by electing to play in college another year. One GM said some prospects are jumping up “four or five spots” because of the talent drain.

“There are guys that are going to be lottery picks that weren’t going to be,” Warriors general manager Larry Riley said. “If you look at the tail end of it, there are going to be second-rounders that are going to be taken late in the first.”

The lack of American college stars in the draft will also make it easier for international prospects to get picked higher.

Along with Kanter and Valanciunas, Czech Republic forward Jan Vesely, Lithuanian center Donatas Motiejunas, Congo center Bismack Biyombo and Montenegro forward Nikola Mirotic all could receive lottery consideration.

When asked if the upcoming draft was strong in anything, Riley said: “Not especially.”

Colangelo thinks there will be some players taken next month who will have long NBA careers.

In this light of a draft, it’s possible the prospect taken 15th ends up being the fifth-best player overall.

Source: Doc Rivers to have surgery Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers has returned to Boston from his Orlando, Fla., home to undergo surgery to remove for a non-cancerous growth on his throat, a league source said.

Rivers will not be able to speak for two weeks after the procedure, according to the Boston Herald, which first

reported the story.

“My wife will be the happiest person in the room about that,” Rivers said, according to the newspaper.

Rivers, who inked a five-year contract extension with the Celtics last week, underwent a biopsy in mid-October to determine if lesions found on his throat were cancerous. After those

test results initially came back negative, Rivers joked about the scare.

“I’m going to be around for a little while, it looks like,” Rivers said in October. “I’m sure that disappoints everyone.”

Rivers revealed then how, at the urging of former Celtics coach Jim O’Brien, he’s undergone

annual examinations of his throat and vocal chords for the past three years because of the stress placed on those areas by his profession.

Doctors found a concerning spot during an examination, forcing Rivers to undergo the biopsy, which showed the lesions to be noncancerous.

- Chris Forsberg

DAILY CHALLENGE

21

SPORTS

SPORTS BRIEFS Heat try to shrug off loss, tie Bulls in Game 2

DEERFIELD, Ill. - There wasn’t much else LeBron James could do after Miami lost the Eastern Conference finals opener to Chicago.

He had to shrug it off and look ahead to Game 2 tonight. James says the Heat are “looking forward to the challenge.”

It would help if Miami gets more from James and Dwyane Wade, who both struggled against one of the league’s stingiest defenses. James finished with 15 points on 5-of-15 shooting and Wade had 18 points, with just six in the second half.

- ANDREW SELIGMAN

Another round of NFL talks ends without agreement MINNEAPOLIS - NFL owners and players have wrapped up another round of court-ordered mediation without any sign of a new agreement.

Officials and attorneys for both sides left the federal courthouse in Minneapolis yesterday afternoon and said they’d return before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on June 7. That’s days after an appeals court hearing on the legality of the ongoing lockout.

Neither side discussed any specifics, though Hall of Famer Carl Eller said he believes this week’s session included progress. Eller represents retired players.

Commissioner Roger Goodell, four team owners and others were present yesterday for the league.

Linebacker Mike Vrabel joined attorneys for the players.

- DAVE CAMPBELL

Buccaneers declined HBO’s Hard Knocks TAMPA, Fla. - The Buccaneers have said no to HBO. Tampa Bay has declined an invitation to be featured on the cable TV network’s next edition of “Hard Knocks,” the team said on its Twitter account Monday.

“We have respectfully declined this year’s `Hard Knocks’ invitation,” the team announced.

“Wonderful show, but the team wants to keep the focus on the field in 2011.”

Tampa Bay went from 3-13 in 2009 to 10-6 last season and has a strong core of young players led by quarterback Josh Freeman, receiver Mike Williams and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. “Hard Knocks” won three Sports Emmys for its portrayal of the New York Jets in last year’s series. The show has been on the air intermittently since its debut in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens.

Family of former Rebels’ player sues Mississippi JACKSON, Miss. - The family of a former Mississippi football player has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the university, coach Houston Nutt and the NCAA. Bennie Abram was 20 years old when he collapsed during the first day of formal offseason workouts on Feb. 19, 2010, and later died at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford, Miss. An autopsy revealed Abram died from complications associated with sickle cell trait.

- DAVID BRANDT

22

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

SPORTS BRIEFS Pacers interested in Brown, Adelman for coach job

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird said interim coach Frank Vogel, Mike Brown and Rick Adelman are among candidates he wants to talk to about filling the head coaching position.

Bird said Vogel is the front-runner. He took over at midseason when the Pacers fired Jim O’Brien, finished the regular season with a 20-18 record and led the team to the playoffs.

But he made no guarantees.

“A lot of people out there feel like Frank’s probably going to get the job, but it’s a process,” Bird said yesterday. “We want to do everything we can possibly do to get the right guy in.”

Brown, a former Pacers assistant, led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals and was NBA coach of the year in 2009.

“I like Mike,” Bird said. “Mike did an excellent job when he was here, a fantastic job in Cleveland.

We have other guys in mind, also.”

Adelman was interviewed the last time the Pacers had an opening. He went 193-135 in four seasons with the Houston Rockets before leaving the team last month. He ranks eighth in NBA history in wins with a career record of 945-616.

“I’ll probably make a call, just to see where he’s at,” Bird said. “I hear the (Los Angeles) Lakers are interested in him. Rick’s a very good coach. He’s an easygoing guy that gets a lot out of his players.”

Bird said Adelman performed well in Houston even though Yao Ming, the team’s star, was out of action for much of his tenure.

“I like Rick,” Bird said. “He had so many injuries down there, and he still won a lot of games.”

Bird said the 37-year-old Vogel proved he can lead a team.

“He was put in a tough position and he did well,” Bird said. “I saw some progress with our team.

Especially when they made the playoffs, I think they did an excellent job of competing.”

No matter who takes over, expectations will be high. The Pacers made the playoffs last season after missing the postseason the previous four years.

Now, with a good young nucleus and a lot of money available for free agency, Bird wants more than a first-round playoff exit.

“When you win 37 games, that’s not success,” Bird said. “But you’ve got to look at your team and see where we’re going and how much development we have out of our young guys. We are in a good position now, so we’ve got to take full advantage of it.”

- CLIFF BRUNT

Defendant in UConn stabbing case seeks probation VERNON, Conn. - A man accused of disposing of one of the knives used in the fight that ended with the death of UConn football player Jasper Howard has applied for a special form of probation.

Rahim Muhammad is charged with hindering the prosecution. He applied Friday in Superior Court for accelerated rehabilitation, a probation program that could leave him without a criminal record. A hearing on the request will be held June 10.

Muhammad is accused of getting rid of the knife his brother Hakim Muhammad used to stab football player Bryan Parker during the October 2009 fight. Parker was not seriously hurt.

DAILY CHALLENGE

SPORTS

NFL season in limbo after judges back league’s appeal

By JULIAN LINDEN NEW YORK - The fate of the next NFL season was back in limbo on Monday after an appeals court reinstated the league’s lockout of players, leaving the long-running dispute no closer to a resolution.

The players had claimed an early points victory last month when a federal court ordered the NFL to lift the lockout, saying the league’s actions were hurting not only the players but fans alike.

But the NFL immediately launched an appeal, saying the federal judge had no jurisdiction in the case because it was a matter for the National Labor Relations Board, and succeeded in winning the majority support of three appeals judges.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 in support of the league, agreeing that the appeal should be heard next month and the lockout should be reimposed until the case is settled.

“In sum, we have serious

doubts that the district court had jurisdiction to enjoin the League’s lockout, and accordingly conclude that the League has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits,” the court said.

One of the three judges dissented, saying he supported the players, but agreed that nothing would change until the full appeal was heard on June 3.

“The NFL has not persuaded me it will suffer irreparable harm during the pendency of this expedited appeal,” judge Kermit Bye wrote. “In any event, there will not be any shift in the ‘balance of power’ until the appeal is resolved.”

A decision on the league’s appeal was not expected quickly, raising doubts that the 2011 NFL season will begin as scheduled in early September.

“The NFL’s request for a stay of the lockout that was granted today means no football,” the NFL Players Association said in a statement. “The players are in mediation and are working to try to save the 2011 season. The court will hear the full appeal on June 3.”

The decision drew a sharp response from players on their social networking sites while frustrated football fans appeared near the breaking point venting their anger at both sides with posts on the NFL’s official websites.

“Owners get what they want.

No FOOTBALL,” moaned one fan. “Sad”, offered another.

The ruling came on the same day that the feuding sides reconvened in Minneapolis for mediation talks that were ordered by the federal judge, who urged both sides to sort of their differences away from the courts.

But after two years of failed negotiations and the likelihood of more complex court negotiations, America’s most popular sport remains in a stalemate.

The sides remain divided over a range of issues centered around how they should divide more than $9 billion in annual revenues.

When talks collapsed in March, the players union decertified, allowing the players to take individual action against the NFL and triggering tit-fortat legal wrangling.

Butler lone NCAA finalist with top APR INDIANAPOLIS — Butler didn’t get its national title in Houston.

At least it can carry the torch for academic success among the best college sports teams.

Yesterday, the NCAA released its list of academic overachievers, and Butler was the only team among those that reached this year’s championship round in Division I football, men’s basketball or women’s basketball.

The academic numbers are based on data collected from 2006-07 through 2009-10.

“To be real candid, that’s an expectation of mine, so we’re not going to do cartwheels or shoot fireworks because this is something we achieved,” coach Brad Stevens said after the release.

“That’s an expectation and that’s what we’re going to strive to do.

I’m proud of our guys, but they came to Butler to do well in the classroom, on the court and in the community, and that’s what we expect.”

NCAA officials annually announce the top 10 percent of

teams in each sport and all teams with perfect Academic Progress Rate scores. This year, 909 teams made the list of so-called overachievers. That’s an increase of 68 from last year and nearly 150 from two years ago.

The actual scores will not be released until next week, when the NCAA will announce sanctions for teams that have consistently underperformed below the standard cutline of 925. The APR measures the classroom performance of every Division I studentathlete, composing a score for each team.

All the teams that made it this year scored between 977 and a perfect 1,000, and Stevens said he believed his team had a perfect score.

“I think we’re pretty proactive in talking about being a great student and how that affects the rest of your life,” Stevens said. “If you’re behind in all of your classes on Oct. 15, there’s no way you’re going to be as successful on the court or in the classroom.”

This year’s results were a stark

contrast to last year’s.

Three of the 2010 men’s Final Four teams — Butler, Michigan State and West Virginia — all made the list last year. All three were back on this year’s list, too, as was Duke, the 2010 national champion.

Connecticut, Kentucky and Virginia Commonwealth, the other three teams that were in Houston this April, did not make it.

A year ago, Oklahoma was the only team from the women’s Final Four to make it. This year none of the four — Connecticut, Notre Dame, Stanford or Texas A&M — were honored.

Also left out were the teams that played for the 2011 BCS title, Auburn and Oregon; those that played in last year’s College World Series final, South Carolina and UCLA; and the two teams in last summer’s NCAA softball championship, UCLA and Arizona. Even the teams squaring off for in January’s Football Championship Subdivision title game — Eastern Washington and Delaware — were missing.

DAILY CHALLENGE WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

DAILY CHALLENGE

23

SPORTS

Tiger Woods aims for U.S. Open return PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods says he didn’t do any more damage to his left leg at The P l a y e r s Championship and expects to play the U.S. Open next month.

Woods made it only nine holes last week at The Players — his shortest tournament ever — when he withdrew because of what he described as a chain reaction of pain from his left knee to left Achilles and tightening in his calf. He shot 42 on the front nine.

On his website Monday, Woods said he irritated the knee and Achilles without making them worse. He said doctors have advised rest, cold water therapy and soft tissue treatment, which he said he already had been receiving.

“Aggravating my injury is very disappointing,” Woods said.

“I’ll do whatever is necessary to play in the U.S. Open, and I’m hopeful I can be there to compete.”

The U.S. Open is June 16-19 at Congressional, a course on which Woods won in 2009 at the AT&T National.

He did not say how long it would take to recover.

His website said he was doubtful to play at the Memorial Tournament, which begins June 2, while he tries to strengthen his leg. It said playing before the U.S. Open would be a “week-toweek” decision, although Woods has never played the week before the U.S. Open and has never played the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn.

Woods reported a mild sprain of the medi-

al collateral ligament

Embarrassing scandals over at Kansas, Kansas St.

By DOUG TUCKER KANSAS CITY, Mo. Within days of one another, two unrelated and very expensive scandals have finally wound down at Kansas State and Kansas.

The embarrassing episodes made headlines around the nation. They cost the state’s two biggest universities hard-won prestige, some important friends and millions of dollars.

Officials at both schools say valuable lessons have not only been learned, but taken to heart.

Individually, the biggest losers are five former Kansas staff members who are headed for prison. But other victims include two highly accomplished executives who are settling into retirement with tarnished reputations.

The biggest winner, hands down, was Ron Prince.

Last week, Kansas State agreed to a settlement with its former head football coach, agreeing to pay him $1.65 million.

It absolves Prince of any wrongdoing in a dispute over a memorandum of agreement that Kansas State had contended was signed without the knowledge of then-president Jon Wefald.

After Prince was fired at the end of the 2008 season, the school said it discovered the agreement signed by Prince and then-athletic director Robert Krause. Under that pact, Prince was supposedly owed $3.2 million by Kansas State and the Intercollegiate Athletic Council in addition to a severance payment of about $1.3 million.

Under terms of the original agreement, he

was not to receive any portion of the money for almost five more years, and the full amount would not have been paid until the end of 2020.

The settlement left many unanswered questions, including why the Wildcats after two years suddenly dropped the fight.

“I don’t want to get into any of those things,” said athletic director John Currie.

The Prince matter was the icing on the cake of an embarrassing audit done by an outside firm in connection with Wefald’s retirement after more than 20 years as Kansas State president.

The audit called attention to many questionable accounting procedures and sent Wefald out the door under a cloud of controversy.

Many of Kansas State’s biggest donors angrily said they would write no more checks.

and a mild strain of his

Achilles from hitting a shot off the pine straw under the Eisenhower Tree on the 17th hole of the Masters in the third round. He played the final round and shot 67.

He said he did not practice until Monday of The Players, and did not play any golf until his practice rounds.

Woods looked fine during the 9-hole practice rounds he played last week, and swing coach Sean Foley said he was pleasantly surprised to see Woods look as though he had not lost much from when he had last played in the Masters.

Woods said he hurt himself on the opening tee shot at Sawgrass.

“The knee acted up, and then the Achilles followed after that, and then the calf started cramping up,” Woods said after he withdrew.

“Everything started getting tight, so it’s just a whole chain reaction.”

If he plays at Congressional, he likely will have played nine holes of competition between the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Minutes before the statement was posted on his website, Woods said on Twitter, “Bummed that my left leg has me on the sidelines, but I want, and expect, to be at the US Open. Will do all I can to get there.”

It would not be the first time Woods has played the U.S. Open with so little competition.

When he won his last major at the 2008 U.S. Open, he had not played a tournament in two months because of arthroscopic surgery on his left knee immediately after the Masters.

Doctors later discovered stress fractures in his left leg. Woods wound up winning at Torrey Pines in a 19-hole hole playoff.

College Football Hall tabs Class of 2011 NEW YORK — The latest class of College Football Hall of Famers is loaded on the defensive line.

Defensive tackles Marty Lyons of Alabama, Russell Maryland of Miami, Doug English of Texas and Rob Waldrop of Arizona were among the 14 players chosen for induction.

Also headed for the

Hall are Deion Sanders, who turned cornerback into a glamour position at Florida State from 1985-88, and former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, who won 75 percent of his games and the 1997 national championship in 13 seasons leading the Wolverines.

The rest of the players in the class revealed yesterday were: Florida receiver Carlos Alvarez, Oregon State fullback Bill Enyart, Georgia

defensive back Jake Scott, Nebraska guard Will Shields, Minnesota quarterback Sandy Stephens, West Virginia linebacker Darryl Talley, Oklahoma halfback Clendon Thomas and Michigan State receiver Gene Washington.

Fisher DeBerry, who led Air Force to a winning record in 17 of his 23 seasons as Falcons coach, will also be inducted in December.

Unethical agents could get prison AUSTIN, Texas — Texas lawmakers are moving to crack down on unethical sports agents and their “runners,” threatening a felony conviction and up to 10 years in prison for luring college athletes into contracts and deals that cause them to lose their eligibility.

Legislators say the

crackdown would give Texas the toughest sports agent law in the country.

“Far too many times, agents have caused havoc for athletes and universities and walked away unscathed,” said Rep. Harold Dutton, a Houston Democrat pushing the measure.

A review last year by

The Associated Press found that most states hadn’t revoked or suspended a single license or invoked penalties of any sort. Neither had the Federal Trade Commission. Texas was one of the few states that consistently enforced the law, assessing more than $17,000 in fines over two years.

DAILY CHALLENGE

S SP PO OR RT TS S WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011

SMALL PAYOUT FOR NBA’S 2011 DRAFT LOTTERY De r ric k Wi lliams

K yr i e Ir vi ng

K e m b a B is ma ck Wa l k e r B i y o m b o

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