Mon May 27, 2013
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/27/305627/death-of-fbi-agents-creates-controversy/
Two well-trained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who were involved in the killing of a Boston bombing suspect have suspiciously died.
The FBI said in a statement that 41-year-old Christopher Lorek and 40-year-old Stephen Shaw were killed on May 17 as they fell out of a helicopter into water during a training mission off the coast of Virginia Beach.
US officials have blamed bad weather for the tragedy but some have questioned the credibility of the official account, considering it a cover-up.
They say the agents’ death adds to the suspicious death of a friend of the Boston bombing suspect, Ibragim Todashev, who was killed in his own apartment by an FBI agent.
Lorek and Shaw were part of the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group and were both members of the team investigating the Boston Marathon bombings in mid-April.
“You could always take it as one of an endless group of coincidences. We have so many [of them], when you look at the Boston investigation that these two individuals were involved in, everything had the stamp of CIA and FBI on it, from the first steps,” Gordon Duff, senior editor of Veterans Today, told Press TV.
“What we have in the US is that we don’t report, we don’t have the least free press here. There are powerful dissident elements within our military, intelligence services and government that are under the control of... I’ll call them organized crime on a worldwide basis. If you refer to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of narcotics and trillions of dollars worth of financial crimes, it is simply organized crime, it is the understatement of all time,” he added.
The incident has reminded many of the dramatic death of top US commandos in Afghanistan, who lost their lives three months after their involvement in the alleged killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.
On August 6, 2011, the helicopter of the Navy SEAL Team VI was shot down in Afghanistan.
The families of Navy SEAL members have blamed the government for the tragedy, saying the shooting down of the helicopter and the subsequent cover-up was planned by the government.
They said that US President Barack Obama turned the SEALs group into a Taliban target after the administration revealed they had conducted the bin Laden raid.
The families also claimed Taliban militants had received leaked information from the US government regarding the landing site of the commandos’ helicopter.
Moreover, the SEAL Team VI members were reportedly flown to the landing site with a Vietnam-era Chinook helicopter rather than with their customary Special Forces choppers.
“There is absolutely nothing that is credible about that; this is not a mission they would have been on, this is not a helicopter they would have been on,” Duff pointed out.
Showing posts with label Boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston. Show all posts
Friday, May 31, 2013
FBI Spiked Chechen Jihadi Investigation
Palast reports from Kazakhstan
Greg Palast from Vice.com
Friday, 3. May 2013
[Astana, Kazakhstan] Following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, I received documents marked “SECRET” from the files of the FBI’s Washington field office. The information in those files will make you sick.
When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, I grabbed those FBI files – and a plane for Kazakhstan, bullying cameraman Rocco D into joining me. [Rocco, no fool, won’t let me print his full name.]
After we landed, word came that two Kazakh teens, friends of the bombers, had been arrested by Boston police and, yesterday, charged with hiding evidence of the bombers’ guilt.
Here in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, televisions everywhere run endless loops of the bombs going off at the Boston Marathon, the screams, the blood, the victims... and the questions.
And first question: How do a couple of wholesome Call-of-Duty-playing American kids get the idea they should murder and mangle their neighbors to avenge the Muslims of Chechnya—whom the victims probably couldn’t find on a map?
The second question: How did America’s trillion-dollar intelligence apparatchiks wave off warnings from Russia about one of the bomber’s connections to the Chechen militants?
The answer regarding the intelligence failure is, to paraphrase the famous journalist Yogi Berra: it’s amazing what you don’t see when you don’t look.
And that’s related to the how young Muslim-Americans came to kill other young Americans over Chechnya.
According to the secret memo, long before the Boston bombing, even before the September 11 attack, the FBI shut down an investigation of a group that ran a summer camp in Florida for America’s Muslim teenagers.
No, we shouldn’t be spying on Islamic campers. However, besides the usual swimming and soccer, these youngsters were encouraged to join the Chechen jihad. The kiddies were treated to videos praising Chechen bombers (who seized a school and hospital then killed their hostages). The group also produced an educational film praising, “that compassionate young man, Osama bin Laden”.
Hey, it was a family affair. Camp Jihad was run by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), whose operation just outside Washington DC was directed in the US by a man the FBI called “ABL” – Abdullah Binladden, Osama’s brother.
When the Kazakh friends of the Boston bombers were arrested, I went back to that “SECRET” memo. It fell into my hands in November 2001, just two months after that “compassionate young man” Osama killed thousands in my office building (I once worked at the World Trade Center).
Why would my own government spike an investigation that might have saved lives in New York in 2001 [and in Boston in 2013]?
My producer at BBC Television called the FBI. They did not deny the authenticity of the secret documents. Well, then, if the US government has evidence someone may be illegally recruiting killers for Chechnya (as well as the Bosnia war), why in the world would you shut down the investigation and hide the findings?
The official answer was even more chilling than the secret memo itself. The spokesman told us at BBC:
"There are lots of things only the intelligence community knows and that no one else ought to know."?
Well, what else are we not supposed to know?
We got the answer on November 9, 2001, when I received a call at BBC's Newsnight desk in London from a US intelligence agent via a “clean” phone. The spook confirmed that, beginning as early as 1995, the CIA and other US spy agencies were told to stand down from investigating the bin Laden family in both the US and in France.
Several insiders repeated the same story: US agencies turned a blind eye to the bin Laden-terrorist-Chechen-jihad connection out of fear of exposing the US government’s half-assed—and half-illegal—support for these terrorists.
Our government gave ABL a pass (and safe passage back to Saudi Arabia) because Presidents Clinton and Bush were more than happy that our Saudi allies were sending jihadis to Afghanistan, then, via WAMY, helping Muslims to fight in Bosnia then, later, giving the Russians grief in Chechnya.
The problem is that terrorists are like pigeons – they come home to roost. As Joe Trento of the National Security News Service, who provided crucial help to our investigation, told me, “It would be unseemly if [someone] were arrested by the FBI and word got back that he'd once been on the payroll of the CIA… What we're talking about is blow-back. What we're talking about is embarrassing, career-destroying blow-back for intelligence officials.”
It’s utterly unlikely the young Boston bombers were on the CIA payroll, but it’s more than likely the elder brother’s connections here in Central Asia could be traced back to US-protected killers of years past.
The sleight-of-hand to keep public eyes off the US juicing Chechen terror is almost fun to watch. There’s surprisingly little official scrutiny of the media’s new heart-throb, Ruslan Tsarni, the bombers’ uncle. The Washington Post, praising Uncle Ruslan’s “I LOVE AMERICA” schtick, noted,
“[Ruslan’s] performance will be sewn into the rotation of TV news from here on out. Later, on MSNBC, Tom Ridge spoke highly of the message of ‘promise and hope’ sent by Tsarni.”
I would venture to guess that this was not the first time Mr. Ridge, first director of the US Department of Homeland Security, had heard Ruslan’s messages given Ruslan’s founding the Congress of Chechen International Organizations and his lucrative work here in Kazakhstan as a USAID contractor and oil industry lawyer.
There is zero—and I mean zero—evidence that Uncle Ruslan or the CIA hired these two sad-ass kids in Boston to blow up their neighbors. The point here is that the FBI is too concerned about making sure that “no one else ought to know” about our government plays footsie with terrorists—and too unconcerned about the blow-back that blows up in Boston.
Greg Palast investigated terror attacks on the US for BBC TV.
Readers can download Bush Family Fortunes, Palast’s BBC documentary, without charge, at www.gregpalast.com/bffdownload/
Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures' Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight Review.
Greg Palast from Vice.com
Friday, 3. May 2013
[Astana, Kazakhstan] Following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, I received documents marked “SECRET” from the files of the FBI’s Washington field office. The information in those files will make you sick.
When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon, I grabbed those FBI files – and a plane for Kazakhstan, bullying cameraman Rocco D into joining me. [Rocco, no fool, won’t let me print his full name.]
After we landed, word came that two Kazakh teens, friends of the bombers, had been arrested by Boston police and, yesterday, charged with hiding evidence of the bombers’ guilt.
Here in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, televisions everywhere run endless loops of the bombs going off at the Boston Marathon, the screams, the blood, the victims... and the questions.
And first question: How do a couple of wholesome Call-of-Duty-playing American kids get the idea they should murder and mangle their neighbors to avenge the Muslims of Chechnya—whom the victims probably couldn’t find on a map?
The second question: How did America’s trillion-dollar intelligence apparatchiks wave off warnings from Russia about one of the bomber’s connections to the Chechen militants?
The answer regarding the intelligence failure is, to paraphrase the famous journalist Yogi Berra: it’s amazing what you don’t see when you don’t look.
And that’s related to the how young Muslim-Americans came to kill other young Americans over Chechnya.
According to the secret memo, long before the Boston bombing, even before the September 11 attack, the FBI shut down an investigation of a group that ran a summer camp in Florida for America’s Muslim teenagers.
No, we shouldn’t be spying on Islamic campers. However, besides the usual swimming and soccer, these youngsters were encouraged to join the Chechen jihad. The kiddies were treated to videos praising Chechen bombers (who seized a school and hospital then killed their hostages). The group also produced an educational film praising, “that compassionate young man, Osama bin Laden”.
Hey, it was a family affair. Camp Jihad was run by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), whose operation just outside Washington DC was directed in the US by a man the FBI called “ABL” – Abdullah Binladden, Osama’s brother.
When the Kazakh friends of the Boston bombers were arrested, I went back to that “SECRET” memo. It fell into my hands in November 2001, just two months after that “compassionate young man” Osama killed thousands in my office building (I once worked at the World Trade Center).
Why would my own government spike an investigation that might have saved lives in New York in 2001 [and in Boston in 2013]?
My producer at BBC Television called the FBI. They did not deny the authenticity of the secret documents. Well, then, if the US government has evidence someone may be illegally recruiting killers for Chechnya (as well as the Bosnia war), why in the world would you shut down the investigation and hide the findings?
The official answer was even more chilling than the secret memo itself. The spokesman told us at BBC:
"There are lots of things only the intelligence community knows and that no one else ought to know."?
Well, what else are we not supposed to know?
We got the answer on November 9, 2001, when I received a call at BBC's Newsnight desk in London from a US intelligence agent via a “clean” phone. The spook confirmed that, beginning as early as 1995, the CIA and other US spy agencies were told to stand down from investigating the bin Laden family in both the US and in France.
Several insiders repeated the same story: US agencies turned a blind eye to the bin Laden-terrorist-Chechen-jihad connection out of fear of exposing the US government’s half-assed—and half-illegal—support for these terrorists.
Our government gave ABL a pass (and safe passage back to Saudi Arabia) because Presidents Clinton and Bush were more than happy that our Saudi allies were sending jihadis to Afghanistan, then, via WAMY, helping Muslims to fight in Bosnia then, later, giving the Russians grief in Chechnya.
The problem is that terrorists are like pigeons – they come home to roost. As Joe Trento of the National Security News Service, who provided crucial help to our investigation, told me, “It would be unseemly if [someone] were arrested by the FBI and word got back that he'd once been on the payroll of the CIA… What we're talking about is blow-back. What we're talking about is embarrassing, career-destroying blow-back for intelligence officials.”
It’s utterly unlikely the young Boston bombers were on the CIA payroll, but it’s more than likely the elder brother’s connections here in Central Asia could be traced back to US-protected killers of years past.
The sleight-of-hand to keep public eyes off the US juicing Chechen terror is almost fun to watch. There’s surprisingly little official scrutiny of the media’s new heart-throb, Ruslan Tsarni, the bombers’ uncle. The Washington Post, praising Uncle Ruslan’s “I LOVE AMERICA” schtick, noted,
“[Ruslan’s] performance will be sewn into the rotation of TV news from here on out. Later, on MSNBC, Tom Ridge spoke highly of the message of ‘promise and hope’ sent by Tsarni.”
I would venture to guess that this was not the first time Mr. Ridge, first director of the US Department of Homeland Security, had heard Ruslan’s messages given Ruslan’s founding the Congress of Chechen International Organizations and his lucrative work here in Kazakhstan as a USAID contractor and oil industry lawyer.
There is zero—and I mean zero—evidence that Uncle Ruslan or the CIA hired these two sad-ass kids in Boston to blow up their neighbors. The point here is that the FBI is too concerned about making sure that “no one else ought to know” about our government plays footsie with terrorists—and too unconcerned about the blow-back that blows up in Boston.
Greg Palast investigated terror attacks on the US for BBC TV.
Readers can download Bush Family Fortunes, Palast’s BBC documentary, without charge, at www.gregpalast.com/bffdownload/
Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures' Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight Review.
Was Boston Bombers ‘Uncle Ruslan’ with the CIA?
Posted on April 22, 2013 by Daniel Hopsicker
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/22/was-boston-bombers-uncle-ruslan-with-the-cia/
The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a “consultant” for the Agency for International Development (USAID) a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the “Wild West” days of the early 1990’s, when anything that wasn’t nailed down in that country was up for grabs.
“Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni of Montgomery Village Md., whose name was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter last Friday for his plain-spoken condemnation of his two nephews, has had a checkered business career, that began well before he graduated (as Ruslan Z Tsarnaev) from Duke Law School in 1998.
Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank.
The story begins with The London Sunday Times on May 8, 2011, which reported the sale of the personal home of England’s Prince Andrew to billionaire Kazakh Oligarch Timur Kulibayev, who “controls that country’s oil industry and happens to be married to the daughter of its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev.”
What does that have to do with "Uncle Ruslan?" Let's take a look.
"Can't tell your Oligarchs without a scorecard"
Headlined "Prince's home in 'laundered cash' inquiry," the story raised several red flags.
One was that the President-for-Life’s son-in-law had paid $5 million over the asking price to purchase Prince Andrew’s home, which raised eyebrows.
Red flags and eyebrows were raised still further, in these times of global near-depression, at the conspicuous oligarchic consumption (read: bad taste) exhibited when the Kazakh President-for-Life’s daughter-for-life Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th birthday with a lavish party before the scandal hit.
Goga, who made her appearance in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted, backless lace dress, attended by Prince-for-Life Andrew, was entertained by fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos.
There was even a woman suspended in a bird cage (true) who was there to direct guests to strategically-placed vomitoriums (alas, not true) strewn about the mansion grounds.
Enter "Uncle Ruslan"
But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of offshore companies to attempt to hide his purchase of Prince Andrew's crib, which emerged during a legal battle between another billionaire Kazakh oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and BTA Bank, from which Kazakhstan claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars.
And this is where “Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni comes in.
The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who comprise “a network of personal and business relationships” allegedly used for “international corruption," reported The London Telegraph.
Tsarni, called “a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business affairs,” by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that network.
The Sunday Times reported, “A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering.”
“Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kazakh state.”
A Big Big Sky's the Limit
The “western company” used to launder the money which the Sunday Times referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a top executive.
Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu, a long-time executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan’s Caspian Basin.
Tsarni was Big Sky’s Corporate Secretary and Vice President for Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005.
A press release announcing his appointment stated:
“Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously, Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited Group as well as Managing Director of several of its operating subsidiaries.
“From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of Golden Eagle Partners LLC.
Big Sky was on somebody's watch list
“From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance principals in state and private companies.”
According to a source who worked for many years as a journalist at Platts Oilgram News, a respected oil industry trade publication, good corporate governance was not a Big Sky priority.
“Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds at Platts,” stated the source, who requested anonymity.
The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the family and its abundant connections.
A "connected" family?
Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago, they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen community.
The day after the massive manhunt in the Boston area that led to the death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Radio Free Europe and Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev traveled to Tokmok.
From there, he reported that the extended Tsarnaev family is well-known there, even beyond their local community.
“It is not known if there was anything more than a personal connection,” the story reported, “but organized crime boss Aziz Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the Tsarnaevs. Batukaev grew up and lived in Tokmok, but is now in Chechnya.
Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses, oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos…
If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber.
Those of you who read the stories published here know their value better than I can describe.
The investigative reporting on the impact of drug money on US political life and our economy found here are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. Without your help the effort cannot continue.
Order our books and documentaries, and donate what you can!
About Daniel Hopsicker
Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American Drug Lords.
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/22/was-boston-bombers-uncle-ruslan-with-the-cia/
The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a “consultant” for the Agency for International Development (USAID) a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the “Wild West” days of the early 1990’s, when anything that wasn’t nailed down in that country was up for grabs.
“Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni of Montgomery Village Md., whose name was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter last Friday for his plain-spoken condemnation of his two nephews, has had a checkered business career, that began well before he graduated (as Ruslan Z Tsarnaev) from Duke Law School in 1998.
Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank.
The story begins with The London Sunday Times on May 8, 2011, which reported the sale of the personal home of England’s Prince Andrew to billionaire Kazakh Oligarch Timur Kulibayev, who “controls that country’s oil industry and happens to be married to the daughter of its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev.”
What does that have to do with "Uncle Ruslan?" Let's take a look.
"Can't tell your Oligarchs without a scorecard"
Headlined "Prince's home in 'laundered cash' inquiry," the story raised several red flags.
One was that the President-for-Life’s son-in-law had paid $5 million over the asking price to purchase Prince Andrew’s home, which raised eyebrows.
Red flags and eyebrows were raised still further, in these times of global near-depression, at the conspicuous oligarchic consumption (read: bad taste) exhibited when the Kazakh President-for-Life’s daughter-for-life Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th birthday with a lavish party before the scandal hit.
Goga, who made her appearance in a Swarovski crystal-encrusted, backless lace dress, attended by Prince-for-Life Andrew, was entertained by fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos.
There was even a woman suspended in a bird cage (true) who was there to direct guests to strategically-placed vomitoriums (alas, not true) strewn about the mansion grounds.
Enter "Uncle Ruslan"
But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of offshore companies to attempt to hide his purchase of Prince Andrew's crib, which emerged during a legal battle between another billionaire Kazakh oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov, and BTA Bank, from which Kazakhstan claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars.
And this is where “Uncle Ruslan” Tsarni comes in.
The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who comprise “a network of personal and business relationships” allegedly used for “international corruption," reported The London Telegraph.
Tsarni, called “a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business affairs,” by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that network.
The Sunday Times reported, “A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering.”
“Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kazakh state.”
A Big Big Sky's the Limit
The “western company” used to launder the money which the Sunday Times referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a top executive.
Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu, a long-time executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan’s Caspian Basin.
Tsarni was Big Sky’s Corporate Secretary and Vice President for Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005.
A press release announcing his appointment stated:
“Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously, Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited Group as well as Managing Director of several of its operating subsidiaries.
“From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of Golden Eagle Partners LLC.
Big Sky was on somebody's watch list
“From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance principals in state and private companies.”
According to a source who worked for many years as a journalist at Platts Oilgram News, a respected oil industry trade publication, good corporate governance was not a Big Sky priority.
“Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds at Platts,” stated the source, who requested anonymity.
The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the family and its abundant connections.
A "connected" family?
Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago, they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen community.
The day after the massive manhunt in the Boston area that led to the death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Radio Free Europe and Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev traveled to Tokmok.
From there, he reported that the extended Tsarnaev family is well-known there, even beyond their local community.
“It is not known if there was anything more than a personal connection,” the story reported, “but organized crime boss Aziz Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the Tsarnaevs. Batukaev grew up and lived in Tokmok, but is now in Chechnya.
Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses, oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos…
If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber.
Those of you who read the stories published here know their value better than I can describe.
The investigative reporting on the impact of drug money on US political life and our economy found here are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. Without your help the effort cannot continue.
Order our books and documentaries, and donate what you can!
About Daniel Hopsicker
Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American Drug Lords.
The Boston Bombing & The KGB
Robert Sterling, Konformist.com
Almost immediately after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, many people on the Internet (most notably Alex Jones of Infowars.com ) proclaimed the event to be a "False Flag" operation masterminded by US intelligence. This is certainly a plausible scenario, if one examines history. Still, if you ask "Cui bono?" to the events in Boston, the idea that the bombing was a KGB operation to justify a deeper push in Chechnya seems plausible as well. And if you dig a little deeper, the ulterior motive would appear to be oil.
Here is an article from National Journal titled "What You Need to Know About Chechnya":
http://www.nationaljournal.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-chechnya-20130419
The most important sentence of this entire report: "Today, Russia continues to maintain a vital interest in the region for economic reasons: Access routes from Russia to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea go through Chechnya, as do oil and gas pipelines connecting Russia with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan."
This was a pretty important story from March that didn't get the coverage it deserved:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/03/21/russias-rosneft-surpasses-exxonmobil-to-become-worlds-biggest-oil-co/
Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil company, became the biggest oil company in the world (exceeding ExxonMobil) after their latest huge acquisition of TNK-BP. The CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, is a "former" KGB spy.
This Atlantic article doesn't conclude conspiracy (probably because, according to establishment thought, conspiracies by powerful organizations don't happen) but it does show all the dots that need to be connected:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/what-you-should-know-about-chechnya-as-the-boston-story-unfolds/275156/
Here's the most important quote:
"To allow the Boston attacks to cast all Chechens as violent religious zealots is exactly what Putin needs. That will allow him to keep his deadly arrangement going. The supreme irony of Putin's PR strategy is that most Chechens share the democratic values of a Western civilization that completely disregards, and misunderstands, their struggle."
So here's the general model: Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil giant, has just become the world's biggest oil company through mass acquisitions. The end goal of the acquisitions is the big prize, the oil in the Caspian Sea, which Russia (like the US, Europe & China) wants to dominate. The problem, of course, is that Chechnya stands in the way of the oil. In order to get it, they must crush Chechnya. To stop any PR defense of Chechnyans, the bombing turns Chechnya into an officially sanctioned demon. Look for Putin to declare sympathy for America and support of the War on Terror, then launch an even bloodier offensive of Chechnya. Then look for Rosneft to make even huger and bigger deals over the Caspian oil.
Almost immediately after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, many people on the Internet (most notably Alex Jones of Infowars.com ) proclaimed the event to be a "False Flag" operation masterminded by US intelligence. This is certainly a plausible scenario, if one examines history. Still, if you ask "Cui bono?" to the events in Boston, the idea that the bombing was a KGB operation to justify a deeper push in Chechnya seems plausible as well. And if you dig a little deeper, the ulterior motive would appear to be oil.
Here is an article from National Journal titled "What You Need to Know About Chechnya":
http://www.nationaljournal.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-chechnya-20130419
The most important sentence of this entire report: "Today, Russia continues to maintain a vital interest in the region for economic reasons: Access routes from Russia to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea go through Chechnya, as do oil and gas pipelines connecting Russia with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan."
This was a pretty important story from March that didn't get the coverage it deserved:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/03/21/russias-rosneft-surpasses-exxonmobil-to-become-worlds-biggest-oil-co/
Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil company, became the biggest oil company in the world (exceeding ExxonMobil) after their latest huge acquisition of TNK-BP. The CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, is a "former" KGB spy.
This Atlantic article doesn't conclude conspiracy (probably because, according to establishment thought, conspiracies by powerful organizations don't happen) but it does show all the dots that need to be connected:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/what-you-should-know-about-chechnya-as-the-boston-story-unfolds/275156/
Here's the most important quote:
"To allow the Boston attacks to cast all Chechens as violent religious zealots is exactly what Putin needs. That will allow him to keep his deadly arrangement going. The supreme irony of Putin's PR strategy is that most Chechens share the democratic values of a Western civilization that completely disregards, and misunderstands, their struggle."
So here's the general model: Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil giant, has just become the world's biggest oil company through mass acquisitions. The end goal of the acquisitions is the big prize, the oil in the Caspian Sea, which Russia (like the US, Europe & China) wants to dominate. The problem, of course, is that Chechnya stands in the way of the oil. In order to get it, they must crush Chechnya. To stop any PR defense of Chechnyans, the bombing turns Chechnya into an officially sanctioned demon. Look for Putin to declare sympathy for America and support of the War on Terror, then launch an even bloodier offensive of Chechnya. Then look for Rosneft to make even huger and bigger deals over the Caspian oil.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Gayest Cities in America, 2012
Source:
http://news.advocate.com/post/15571734525/gayest-cities-in-america-2012
15. Denver
Denver is simultaneously outdoorsy and a rapidly growing metropolis, and its attitude is exceptionally laid-back and gay-friendly. (Screw the antigay zealots in nearby Colorado Springs.) A day spent skiing, fishing, hunting, or camping with the fit locals can lead to an evening dining, clubbing, or camping of another sort. Much of the sporting and social scene is devoted to the ladies of Denver; witness the Capitol Hill neighborhood, girl-watching at There Urban Whiskey Bar (ThereDenver.com), a nosh at Racine’s (RacinesRestaurant.com), and dancing at Charlie’s (CharliesDenver.com).
14. Long Beach, Calif.
How gay is Long Beach? Its pride celebration is one of the country’s biggest, and the Long Beach Pride float seems to make its way to every other Pride event within 500 miles! There are a ton of gay and lesbian bars, restaurants, a big boat suitably named the Queen Mary (QueenMary.com; it’s also haunted, and a hotel). The sunny, welcoming city provides a more relaxed alternative to nearby Los Angeles.
13. Austin
No amount of backwoodsiness from previous and current statehouse residents George W. Bush or Rick Perry can taint the cosmopolitan, countercultural, and friendly nature of this capital city. Bands, barhopping, and barbecue feature prominently here, for queers and others. The lesbian-owned Hotel San José (SanJoseHotel.com) is a minimalist oasis; no fewer than 16 bars offer libations for LGBTs; and Splash Days (au naturel sunbathing and parties over Labor Day), the Austin City Limits Music Festival (late September), and March’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival keep Austin suitably weird — and gay.
12. Portland, Ore.
Bisexual Sleater-Kinney alum Carrie Brownstein has fun on Portlandia (“Put a bird on it!”) playing with the rep of the city’s hipster, hyper-locavore, hyper-literate, boycott-ready, feminist, fleece-clad denizens. But there’s other fun to be had here too. Visit the arty Pearl and Alberta districts; stay at the Ace Hotel; read at the country’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s; drink at the Silverado (SilveradoPDX.com) and Red Cap Garage/Boxxes (Boxxes.com); tune in to Out Loud (KBOO.fm/OutLoud), and party at Crush (CrushBar.com), popular with men and women. Oh, then there’s all that nature stuff!
11. Little Rock, Ark.
The River Market District is the main gay area, and many businesses that don’t advertise as specifically LGBT are friendly and open. The compact city has Backstreet (1021 Jessie Rd.) and U.B.U. (TheAquarium.bizland.com) for the over-18 crowd, and those of legal drinking age can check out SixTen Center Street Bar, TraX, Miss Kitty’s/Saloon (all three at TraxNLR.com). But not all LGBT life happens in a bar: According to GayChurch.org, nine of the city’s churches advertise as LGBT-friendly. Amen!
10. Grand Rapids, Mich.
The heart of western Michigan LGBT life is in Grand Rapids, with dancing, drinking, and bingo at the Apartment (ApartmentLounge.net), which has been in operation for over three decades; karaoke at Diversions video bar (DiversionsNightclub.com), and drag shows and go-go boys at Rumors (RumorsNightclub.net). The city boasts one of the Midwest’s best LGBT country line-dancing scenes, with the Grand River Renegades (GrandRiverRenegades.com) offering anyone a dance card on Sundays at Rumors.
9. Atlanta
We won’t fault you for trying to forget Real Housewife Kim Zolciak’s dip into the lesbian pool — but don’t blame Atlanta if everyone there wants to sample the fun LGBTs have all over town. Lesbian businesses thrive in East Atlanta, and gay clubs go off in Mechanicsville. People coming to Atlanta like to party, and the GayTL delivers with Black Gay Pride in September and Atlanta Pride in October, and the black gay clubs’ second-busiest weekend of the year surrounds the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January. Holla!
8. Knoxville, Tenn.
The state’s legislature has been an unmitigated disaster for our rights, making a law to prevent cities from adopting LGBT-inclusive antidiscrimination ordinances (although, happily, the ridiculous “don’t say ‘gay’” bill is dead for now). Nevertheless, Knoxville has defiantly produced a robust gay scene, including the University of Tennessee’s Commission for LGBT People; a welcoming spot for queer, trans, and other marginalized teens at Spectrum Café (SpectrumCafe.org); gay-affirming churches; and thriving nightlife.
7. St. Paul and Minneapolis
It’s technically two cities, but oh, what fun there is to be had here. The region is a draw for upper Midwestern LGBTs, and Minneapolis topped this list in 2011 for so many reasons. These two cities can’t get enough of each other: There’s the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC.org), Twin Cities Pride (the 40th annual is June 23-24), and even Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBT and Allied Business Community. Sheesh, just get domestic-partnered already!
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
You don’t have to be big to have it going on, as this sixth largest city in Michigan does. The area has one of the few clubs in Michigan catering to dykes: Stiletto’s (technically in nearby Inkster) draws in every lesbian in Detroit. But talk about a taste for drama! Just ask U. of M.’s first out student body prez, Chris Armstrong, the target of a smear campaign by nutso assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell. We raised a glass at Aut Bar (AutBar.com) when the kook got the boot.
5. Seattle
When Forbes named Seattle the most miserable sports city in the nation, many of us felt a twinge of empathy. No matter; there’s heaps of other stuff to keep us busy, including tons of locavore and cosmopolitan cuisine, funky bars in a robust LGBT scene, Dan Savage, and hookups — or at least the search for them. TheStir.com noted that Seattle ranks among the top cities for residents who list “casual sex” as the type of relationship they’re seeking.
4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Booting spring breakers from its shores may have not boosted Jagermeister sales, but it sure has classed up the joint. Add to that a mass exodus from Miami, where a real estate boom priced out many gay clubs (then the boom busted), and you have the recipe for a rising homo mecca in South Florida. The area is teeming with gay bars and restaurants, and a ton of guesthouses and spas that run the gamut from mild to spicy. Lesbians are finally starting to move to Fort Lauderdale too, though most girl bars, like New Moon (NewMoonBar.com), are in nearby Wilton Manors.
3. Cambridge, Mass.
The home of Harvard University likes a smarty-pants, including the nation’s first African-American lesbian mayor, E. Denise Simmons. Though her reign ended in 2009, she is currently in her sixth term on the City Council, which enacted antidiscrimination protections for transgender people in 1997. The town’s Paradise bar (ParadiseCambridge.com) is billed as New England’s only gay club with hot male dancers six nights a week — hey, everyone needs a night off — and the town is right next to a little hamlet named Boston, where allegedly LGBT stuff sometimes happens too.
2. Orlando, Fla.
Besides hosting Gay Days at Disney World, where 50,000 LGBT folks and their kids dressed in red T-shirts invade the theme park the first Saturday in June (and spend $100 million in town), Orlando has more gay softball teams than you can shake a Louisville Slugger at. And residents just got domestic-partnership protections. For non-Mickeyphiles, there’s oodles of homo content each year at the annual Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival (OrlandoFringe.org).
1. Salt Lake City
While those unfamiliar with the Beehive State are likely to conjure images of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, far-less-oppressive-than-it-used-to-be Salt Lake City has earned its queer cred. There are more than a half-dozen hot spots for men and women, including the eco-friendly nightclub Jam (JamSLC.com), though the sustainable bamboo flooring is perhaps less of a draw than the packed dance floor. The Coffee Garden (878 South 900 East) is a gathering spot for those looking for a caffeine fix, the Sundance Film Festival brings LGBT film buffs to screenings downtown, and lesbian-owned Meditrina (MeditrinaSLC.com) is a true wine bar — yes, you can get a drink in this town.
http://news.advocate.com/post/15571734525/gayest-cities-in-america-2012
15. Denver
Denver is simultaneously outdoorsy and a rapidly growing metropolis, and its attitude is exceptionally laid-back and gay-friendly. (Screw the antigay zealots in nearby Colorado Springs.) A day spent skiing, fishing, hunting, or camping with the fit locals can lead to an evening dining, clubbing, or camping of another sort. Much of the sporting and social scene is devoted to the ladies of Denver; witness the Capitol Hill neighborhood, girl-watching at There Urban Whiskey Bar (ThereDenver.com), a nosh at Racine’s (RacinesRestaurant.com), and dancing at Charlie’s (CharliesDenver.com).
14. Long Beach, Calif.
How gay is Long Beach? Its pride celebration is one of the country’s biggest, and the Long Beach Pride float seems to make its way to every other Pride event within 500 miles! There are a ton of gay and lesbian bars, restaurants, a big boat suitably named the Queen Mary (QueenMary.com; it’s also haunted, and a hotel). The sunny, welcoming city provides a more relaxed alternative to nearby Los Angeles.
13. Austin
No amount of backwoodsiness from previous and current statehouse residents George W. Bush or Rick Perry can taint the cosmopolitan, countercultural, and friendly nature of this capital city. Bands, barhopping, and barbecue feature prominently here, for queers and others. The lesbian-owned Hotel San José (SanJoseHotel.com) is a minimalist oasis; no fewer than 16 bars offer libations for LGBTs; and Splash Days (au naturel sunbathing and parties over Labor Day), the Austin City Limits Music Festival (late September), and March’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival keep Austin suitably weird — and gay.
12. Portland, Ore.
Bisexual Sleater-Kinney alum Carrie Brownstein has fun on Portlandia (“Put a bird on it!”) playing with the rep of the city’s hipster, hyper-locavore, hyper-literate, boycott-ready, feminist, fleece-clad denizens. But there’s other fun to be had here too. Visit the arty Pearl and Alberta districts; stay at the Ace Hotel; read at the country’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s; drink at the Silverado (SilveradoPDX.com) and Red Cap Garage/Boxxes (Boxxes.com); tune in to Out Loud (KBOO.fm/OutLoud), and party at Crush (CrushBar.com), popular with men and women. Oh, then there’s all that nature stuff!
11. Little Rock, Ark.
The River Market District is the main gay area, and many businesses that don’t advertise as specifically LGBT are friendly and open. The compact city has Backstreet (1021 Jessie Rd.) and U.B.U. (TheAquarium.bizland.com) for the over-18 crowd, and those of legal drinking age can check out SixTen Center Street Bar, TraX, Miss Kitty’s/Saloon (all three at TraxNLR.com). But not all LGBT life happens in a bar: According to GayChurch.org, nine of the city’s churches advertise as LGBT-friendly. Amen!
10. Grand Rapids, Mich.
The heart of western Michigan LGBT life is in Grand Rapids, with dancing, drinking, and bingo at the Apartment (ApartmentLounge.net), which has been in operation for over three decades; karaoke at Diversions video bar (DiversionsNightclub.com), and drag shows and go-go boys at Rumors (RumorsNightclub.net). The city boasts one of the Midwest’s best LGBT country line-dancing scenes, with the Grand River Renegades (GrandRiverRenegades.com) offering anyone a dance card on Sundays at Rumors.
9. Atlanta
We won’t fault you for trying to forget Real Housewife Kim Zolciak’s dip into the lesbian pool — but don’t blame Atlanta if everyone there wants to sample the fun LGBTs have all over town. Lesbian businesses thrive in East Atlanta, and gay clubs go off in Mechanicsville. People coming to Atlanta like to party, and the GayTL delivers with Black Gay Pride in September and Atlanta Pride in October, and the black gay clubs’ second-busiest weekend of the year surrounds the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January. Holla!
8. Knoxville, Tenn.
The state’s legislature has been an unmitigated disaster for our rights, making a law to prevent cities from adopting LGBT-inclusive antidiscrimination ordinances (although, happily, the ridiculous “don’t say ‘gay’” bill is dead for now). Nevertheless, Knoxville has defiantly produced a robust gay scene, including the University of Tennessee’s Commission for LGBT People; a welcoming spot for queer, trans, and other marginalized teens at Spectrum Café (SpectrumCafe.org); gay-affirming churches; and thriving nightlife.
7. St. Paul and Minneapolis
It’s technically two cities, but oh, what fun there is to be had here. The region is a draw for upper Midwestern LGBTs, and Minneapolis topped this list in 2011 for so many reasons. These two cities can’t get enough of each other: There’s the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC.org), Twin Cities Pride (the 40th annual is June 23-24), and even Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBT and Allied Business Community. Sheesh, just get domestic-partnered already!
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
You don’t have to be big to have it going on, as this sixth largest city in Michigan does. The area has one of the few clubs in Michigan catering to dykes: Stiletto’s (technically in nearby Inkster) draws in every lesbian in Detroit. But talk about a taste for drama! Just ask U. of M.’s first out student body prez, Chris Armstrong, the target of a smear campaign by nutso assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell. We raised a glass at Aut Bar (AutBar.com) when the kook got the boot.
5. Seattle
When Forbes named Seattle the most miserable sports city in the nation, many of us felt a twinge of empathy. No matter; there’s heaps of other stuff to keep us busy, including tons of locavore and cosmopolitan cuisine, funky bars in a robust LGBT scene, Dan Savage, and hookups — or at least the search for them. TheStir.com noted that Seattle ranks among the top cities for residents who list “casual sex” as the type of relationship they’re seeking.
4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Booting spring breakers from its shores may have not boosted Jagermeister sales, but it sure has classed up the joint. Add to that a mass exodus from Miami, where a real estate boom priced out many gay clubs (then the boom busted), and you have the recipe for a rising homo mecca in South Florida. The area is teeming with gay bars and restaurants, and a ton of guesthouses and spas that run the gamut from mild to spicy. Lesbians are finally starting to move to Fort Lauderdale too, though most girl bars, like New Moon (NewMoonBar.com), are in nearby Wilton Manors.
3. Cambridge, Mass.
The home of Harvard University likes a smarty-pants, including the nation’s first African-American lesbian mayor, E. Denise Simmons. Though her reign ended in 2009, she is currently in her sixth term on the City Council, which enacted antidiscrimination protections for transgender people in 1997. The town’s Paradise bar (ParadiseCambridge.com) is billed as New England’s only gay club with hot male dancers six nights a week — hey, everyone needs a night off — and the town is right next to a little hamlet named Boston, where allegedly LGBT stuff sometimes happens too.
2. Orlando, Fla.
Besides hosting Gay Days at Disney World, where 50,000 LGBT folks and their kids dressed in red T-shirts invade the theme park the first Saturday in June (and spend $100 million in town), Orlando has more gay softball teams than you can shake a Louisville Slugger at. And residents just got domestic-partnership protections. For non-Mickeyphiles, there’s oodles of homo content each year at the annual Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival (OrlandoFringe.org).
1. Salt Lake City
While those unfamiliar with the Beehive State are likely to conjure images of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, far-less-oppressive-than-it-used-to-be Salt Lake City has earned its queer cred. There are more than a half-dozen hot spots for men and women, including the eco-friendly nightclub Jam (JamSLC.com), though the sustainable bamboo flooring is perhaps less of a draw than the packed dance floor. The Coffee Garden (878 South 900 East) is a gathering spot for those looking for a caffeine fix, the Sundance Film Festival brings LGBT film buffs to screenings downtown, and lesbian-owned Meditrina (MeditrinaSLC.com) is a true wine bar — yes, you can get a drink in this town.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Manny Being Manny
When people look back on the career of Manny Ramirez, what will they remember? Is it the lifetime .312 batting average, 555 home runs and 1831 RBI? Is it the 12 All-Star selections? Is it the 21 grand slams, second only to Lou Gehrig at 23? Is it his 28 post-season HRs, the most in MLB history, and playoff heroics that lead him winning the World Series MVP in the magical 2004 Red Sox run, as well as helping another victory in 2007?
Sadly, what he'll be most remembered for is being the first player busted twice for PED violations in 2009 and again this month, the threat of an 100 game suspension inspiring his sudden retirement. (He allegedly also failed a test in 2003.) Or perhaps they'll remember his often destructive behavior. That's a shame, because at his best, whether helping Boston defeat the curse of Babe Ruth or briefly bringing Mannytown to Los Angeles, Manny was one of the most talented sports oddballs this side of Dennis Rodman...
Sadly, what he'll be most remembered for is being the first player busted twice for PED violations in 2009 and again this month, the threat of an 100 game suspension inspiring his sudden retirement. (He allegedly also failed a test in 2003.) Or perhaps they'll remember his often destructive behavior. That's a shame, because at his best, whether helping Boston defeat the curse of Babe Ruth or briefly bringing Mannytown to Los Angeles, Manny was one of the most talented sports oddballs this side of Dennis Rodman...
Sunday, July 25, 2010
After another slow start, All-Star Ortiz looks like a champion again
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/joe_lemire/07/13/home.run.derby/
July 13, 2010
Joe Lemire
After another slow start, All-Star Ortiz looks like a champion again
Story Highlights
David Ortiz won his first Home Run Derby, topping Hanley Ramirez in the finals
Once hitting .143 and platooned, David Ortiz has turned around his season
Ortiz ironically picked Yankees bench coach Tony Pena to be his Derby pitcher
ANAHEIM -- In the corner of the interview room, LMontro held David Ortiz's bat, "keeping it warm for him," he explained.
So as the slugger spoke, the barber, a good friend of the Red Sox designated hitter's, kept his hands on the Nokona maple, its dark brown head bearing a cacophony of circular white splotches, the remnants of 32 violent collisions in which the baseball was propelled out of Angel Stadium.
At the podium Ortiz recalled his early-season struggles and the loss of his good friend Jose Lima and celebrated having won the 2010 Home Run Derby by besting the Marlins' Hanley Ramirez 11-5 in the third and final round of the competition.
"The beginning of the season is something that I guess was supposed to happen," Ortiz said. "I figured things out and I just keep on rolling."
In April it would have been impossible to think Ortiz would be anywhere this week but taking a vacation, because of his struggles to use that bat.
He endured his second straight season-starting slump, this time hitting just .143 with one home run in April. He had become a platoon player and was even pinch-hit for in a few late-game situations. Critics piled on, claiming Ortiz was over the hill, if not completely washed up. The idea of him rebounding to become an All-Star was farfetched at best.
Ortiz, however, rallied. Since May 1 he has hit .297 with 17 home runs. His .421 on-base and .641 slugging percentages combine for the majors' third-best OPS in that span, trailing only the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera and the Rangers' Josh Hamilton. Ortiz's press conference hardly acknowledged the celebration of the moment, drifting at times into a diatribe about ignoring the doubters and persevering through the hard times.
"There's a lot of people that they don't know how hard we work to play this game, how many ups and downs we have," Ortiz said. "Not everything is roses and flowers."
The Derby championship, his first in four tries, also gave Ortiz the platform to dedicate the trophy to Lima, the former major-league pitcher who died of a heart attack at age 37 in May. Ortiz also turned to the a representative of State Farm, the Derby's sponsor, to thank him for his company's donation of $573,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of America.
Those were the heavier moments of the Derby's otherwise light, albeit lengthy, fare. The three-round derby can at times seem eternal -- which is also about how long the relentless soundtrack of obnoxious, pulsating techno beats and dance remixes of recent pop songs will remain in every fan's head -- and was only interrupted further by the frequent visits to the plate not only of each player's son or sons bearing Gatorade and a towel but also from each other.
The Derby took on a remarkably fraternal bent, given that Ortiz used to mentor Ramirez when the younger Dominican was a prospect in Boston's minor-league system before being traded to the Marlins. The two exchanged a good-luck chest bump before the final round, and Ortiz himself carried his own offering of a break for Ramirez.
"I told him, 'Hey, take it easy, don't get too tired, take your time," Ortiz recalled afterwards.
That was a common refrain of Ortiz's after the Derby, his experience having taught him to pace himself. In the first round he hit eight home runs, good for third, but was about the most economical hitter, averaging only 403 feet per blast and conserving his strength for the final two rounds.
Such respites were needed given the sheer number of home runs. This was the first Derby in which three players each had a round of at least 12 homers, as the Brewers' Corey Hart hit 13 in the first-round, and in the second round Ortiz hit 13 and Ramirez 12. The Cardinals' Matt Holliday clubbed the evening's longest home run, a 497-foot bomb down the left-field line, and Cabrera routinely impressed with five opposite-field home runs, including the evening's second-deepest homer, a 485-foot shot to right-center.
Among the other highlights were the antics of Ortiz's son DeAngelo, in full uniform in front of the third-base dugout. The six-year-old nervously paced and excitedly cheered his dad on, mimicking Papi's swing from a righty's stance, even at times pounding hands together like his father, just without the lubricating spit first.
Ortiz has always crushed Yankees pitching -- the 2004 ALCS comes to mind -- so perhaps it was only appropriate that he selected New York bench coach Tony Peña to pitch to him in the derby. Ortiz admitted he had noticed Peña's great mechanics in throwing batting practice anytime the rivals faced each other, so he asked if he'd be willing to throw to him.
"It's not a Yankee and Boston situation," Ortiz recalled Peña telling him. "We can do it."
Earlier in the day Angels centerfielder Torii Hunter picked the winner, predicting that Ortiz would win in part because his lefty power stroke was a better fit for the ballpark.
Ortiz was likely unaware of the prediction but went about making sure he looked the part of the champ, having received a trim from his barber earlier in the day.
"He's superstitious," said LMontro, whose real name is Angel Lucas Pena. "When you look good, you play good."
From first-month chump to Home Run Derby champ, Ortiz has turned around his 2010 season and it's started to look really good.
July 13, 2010
Joe Lemire
After another slow start, All-Star Ortiz looks like a champion again
Story Highlights
David Ortiz won his first Home Run Derby, topping Hanley Ramirez in the finals
Once hitting .143 and platooned, David Ortiz has turned around his season
Ortiz ironically picked Yankees bench coach Tony Pena to be his Derby pitcher
ANAHEIM -- In the corner of the interview room, LMontro held David Ortiz's bat, "keeping it warm for him," he explained.
So as the slugger spoke, the barber, a good friend of the Red Sox designated hitter's, kept his hands on the Nokona maple, its dark brown head bearing a cacophony of circular white splotches, the remnants of 32 violent collisions in which the baseball was propelled out of Angel Stadium.
At the podium Ortiz recalled his early-season struggles and the loss of his good friend Jose Lima and celebrated having won the 2010 Home Run Derby by besting the Marlins' Hanley Ramirez 11-5 in the third and final round of the competition.
"The beginning of the season is something that I guess was supposed to happen," Ortiz said. "I figured things out and I just keep on rolling."
In April it would have been impossible to think Ortiz would be anywhere this week but taking a vacation, because of his struggles to use that bat.
He endured his second straight season-starting slump, this time hitting just .143 with one home run in April. He had become a platoon player and was even pinch-hit for in a few late-game situations. Critics piled on, claiming Ortiz was over the hill, if not completely washed up. The idea of him rebounding to become an All-Star was farfetched at best.
Ortiz, however, rallied. Since May 1 he has hit .297 with 17 home runs. His .421 on-base and .641 slugging percentages combine for the majors' third-best OPS in that span, trailing only the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera and the Rangers' Josh Hamilton. Ortiz's press conference hardly acknowledged the celebration of the moment, drifting at times into a diatribe about ignoring the doubters and persevering through the hard times.
"There's a lot of people that they don't know how hard we work to play this game, how many ups and downs we have," Ortiz said. "Not everything is roses and flowers."
The Derby championship, his first in four tries, also gave Ortiz the platform to dedicate the trophy to Lima, the former major-league pitcher who died of a heart attack at age 37 in May. Ortiz also turned to the a representative of State Farm, the Derby's sponsor, to thank him for his company's donation of $573,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of America.
Those were the heavier moments of the Derby's otherwise light, albeit lengthy, fare. The three-round derby can at times seem eternal -- which is also about how long the relentless soundtrack of obnoxious, pulsating techno beats and dance remixes of recent pop songs will remain in every fan's head -- and was only interrupted further by the frequent visits to the plate not only of each player's son or sons bearing Gatorade and a towel but also from each other.
The Derby took on a remarkably fraternal bent, given that Ortiz used to mentor Ramirez when the younger Dominican was a prospect in Boston's minor-league system before being traded to the Marlins. The two exchanged a good-luck chest bump before the final round, and Ortiz himself carried his own offering of a break for Ramirez.
"I told him, 'Hey, take it easy, don't get too tired, take your time," Ortiz recalled afterwards.
That was a common refrain of Ortiz's after the Derby, his experience having taught him to pace himself. In the first round he hit eight home runs, good for third, but was about the most economical hitter, averaging only 403 feet per blast and conserving his strength for the final two rounds.
Such respites were needed given the sheer number of home runs. This was the first Derby in which three players each had a round of at least 12 homers, as the Brewers' Corey Hart hit 13 in the first-round, and in the second round Ortiz hit 13 and Ramirez 12. The Cardinals' Matt Holliday clubbed the evening's longest home run, a 497-foot bomb down the left-field line, and Cabrera routinely impressed with five opposite-field home runs, including the evening's second-deepest homer, a 485-foot shot to right-center.
Among the other highlights were the antics of Ortiz's son DeAngelo, in full uniform in front of the third-base dugout. The six-year-old nervously paced and excitedly cheered his dad on, mimicking Papi's swing from a righty's stance, even at times pounding hands together like his father, just without the lubricating spit first.
Ortiz has always crushed Yankees pitching -- the 2004 ALCS comes to mind -- so perhaps it was only appropriate that he selected New York bench coach Tony Peña to pitch to him in the derby. Ortiz admitted he had noticed Peña's great mechanics in throwing batting practice anytime the rivals faced each other, so he asked if he'd be willing to throw to him.
"It's not a Yankee and Boston situation," Ortiz recalled Peña telling him. "We can do it."
Earlier in the day Angels centerfielder Torii Hunter picked the winner, predicting that Ortiz would win in part because his lefty power stroke was a better fit for the ballpark.
Ortiz was likely unaware of the prediction but went about making sure he looked the part of the champ, having received a trim from his barber earlier in the day.
"He's superstitious," said LMontro, whose real name is Angel Lucas Pena. "When you look good, you play good."
From first-month chump to Home Run Derby champ, Ortiz has turned around his 2010 season and it's started to look really good.
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Path to Recovery
http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/the-future-of-the-city/archive/2010/05/the-path-to-recovery/56393/
The Path to Recovery
May 7 2010
Richard Florida
Economic peaks and valleys are part of the life cycle of any society. They can be difficult, sometimes horribly painful, but just as trees shed their leaves in the fall to make room for the new growth of spring, economies reset themselves. Times of crisis reveal what is and isn't working. These are the times when obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices collapse or fall by the wayside. They are the times when the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship, burst into full flower, enabling recovery by remaking both the economy and society. Major periods of economic transformation, such as the Great Depression or the Long Depression of the 1870s before it, unfold over long stretches of time, like motion pictures rather than snapshots. Likewise, the path to recovery can be long and twisted--the better part of three decades in the case of those two previous crises. Seen in the greater context of history, economic crises inevitably give rise to critical periods in which an economy is remade in ways that allow it to recover and begin growing again. These are periods I call Great Resets.
We're still very early on in the current economic Reset, so it's difficult to fully grasp how it will ultimately play out. But we can all sense that our way of life is changing and our economic landscape is too. This emerging new way of life will be less oriented around cars, houses, and suburbs. We'll be spending relatively less on the things that defined the old way of life. We'll have to, if we expect to have money left over to sustain the new industries that will emerge in the Great Reset and usher in an age of renewed prosperity. Before we can nurture the new industries of the future, develop new forms of health care and biotechnologies, or even explore new forms of education or more experiential forms of entertainment and recreation, we first have to free up capital by producing the goods of the old industrial order more cheaply and efficiently.
We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people--already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses--used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported, "The recession and a growing awareness of the environment are causing many people to reassess their automobile ownership. After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.
One constant in the history of capitalism is the ever-more-intensive use of land, as mercantile towns replaced agricultural villages, major industrial cities replaced those towns, and massive complexes of suburbs, exurbs, and edge cites expanded the boundaries of those cities. The change we are living through is much more than a movement from suburbs to denser urban communities. What we are seeing is the rise of a new, bigger, and denser economic landscape than ever before--the rise of vast megaregions such as the corridors stretching from Boston to New York and Washington, D.C., around greater London, and from Shanghai to Beijing. These concentrations of population, which encompass several cities and their surrounding suburban rings, have grown swiftly in recent years.
The largest megaregion in North America is the great "Bos-Wash" corridor, initially identified by the geographer Jean Gottmann. Strecthing down the East Coast, it includes Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 50 million people while producing more than $2 trillion in economic activity. Its economic output is greater than that of either the United Kingdom or France and more than double that of India or Canada. The second biggest, which Gottman dubbed "Chi-Pitts," covers more than 100,000 square miles and is home to 46 million people, producing $1.6 trillion in economic output. Other megaregions in North America include:
•Char-lanta: Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, 22 million people
•So-Cal: Around Los Angeles, 21 million people
•Tor-Mon-tawa: 22 million people
•Nor-Cal: Around San Francisco, 12.8 million people
•So-Flo: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, 15 million people
•Dal-Austin: Dallas and Austin, 10 million people
•Hou-Orleans: Houston and New Orleans, 9.7 million people
•Cascadia: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, 9 million people
•Pho-Tus: Phoenix and Tucson, 4.7 million people
•Den-Bo: Denver and Boulder, 3.7 million people
Around the world, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mumbai are hubs of giant megaregions. Each of these is a financial and commercial center with tens of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in output.
These megaregions, not nations, really power the global economy. Taken together, the world's 40 largest megaregions account for two-thirds of all global economic activity and 85 percent of the world's technological innovation while housing just 18 percent of its population. Megaregions are the strategic power centers of the economy, housing 85 percent of all corporate headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Though many analysts have predicted that the importance of cities--and that of location--would fade with globalization, the reality is that cities and megaregions have become more important economically than ever before. Even as globalization has spread factories, businesses, and laboratories to places such as India, China, Brazil, and beyond, these activities are being concentrated in the megaregions of those countries. Contrary to the notion that the world is flat, the most successful megaregions, in fact, are becoming economically stronger and spikier, not flatter.
Megaregions are to our time what suburbanization was to the postwar era. They provide the seeds of a new spatial fix. They expand and intensify our use of land and space the way that the industrial city did during the First Reset and suburbia did in the Second. As people pour into the world's great megaregions, inner cities and close-in suburbs are being reclaimed and rebuilt. Older suburbs, especially those on transit routes, are being reorganized and rebuilt into denser communities offering more condos and town houses as well as single-family homes. Suburban malls and office complexes are being retrofitted and turned into walkable areas with a mixture of housing, shops, and restaurants and in some cases even new parks. Subways and rail transit are being expanded as highways clog.
The location decisions made by new college grads have interested me for years. Their choices involve evaluating not just the company they'll work for but the labor market it's located in and what the surrounding area has to offer. Because they are both highly skilled and highly mobile--three to five times as likely to move than, say, a 45-year-old--the decisions they make about where to live are likely to leave a lasting imprint on our economic geography.
To get at the factors that attract and keep young Gen Y members, those born between the years 1979 and 1990, in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans. Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. From this perspective, big cities make sense for them, as they offer more robust labor markets with more and better job opportunities in a wide number of fields. In an age in which corporate commitment has dwindled, job tenure has grown far shorter, and people switch jobs with much greater frequency, career success involves a great deal more than simply finding the right first job. In these highly mobile and economically tumultuous times, career success for young people depends on locating themselves in a thick labor market that offers diverse and abundant job opportunities. Picking an economically vibrant location is an important hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.
But remember that jobs were not the highest-ranked factor. Across the board, the survey respondents said that the ability to meet people and make friends was of paramount importance. These young people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: that vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and securing personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but also seek what I have come to call a thick mating market, where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. And whereas older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets for their children as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and want to have good programs nearby. For all these reasons, big cities at the heart of megaregions top the list of their choices.
The auto-dependent transportation system has reached its limit in most major cities and megaregions. Commuting by car is among the least efficient of all our activities--not to mention among the least enjoyable, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues. Though one might think that the crisis would have reduced traffic (high unemployment means fewer workers traveling to and from work), the opposite has been true. Average commutes have lengthened, and congestion has gotten worse, if anything. The average commute rose in 2008 to 25.5 minutes, "erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train," according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which collects the figures. And those are average figures. Commutes are far longer in the big West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. In many of these cities, gridlock has become the norm, not just at rush hour but all day, every day.
Just about the only remedy for traffic congestion anyone ever suggests is building more roads and highways, which of course only makes the problem worse. New roads generate higher levels of "induced traffic," that is, new roads just invite drivers to drive more and lure people who take mass transit back to their cars. Eventually, we end up with more clogged roads rather than a long-term improvement in traffic flow
More and more people are choosing to take the subway, train, or bus or even walk or bike to work and go about their daily business--providing they live in an environment that allows for such choices. In Manhattan, 82 percent of workers get to work by public transit or bicycle or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County, and 16 times the rate for residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The New York City subway is a remarkably effective technology for moving masses of people around quickly and efficiently. Between 8 and 9 in the morning on a typical workday, more than 385,000 people use its subway system to commute into the central business district.
New York is not the only place where this kind of change in commuting and local traffic patterns is occurring. In Washington, D.C., 57 percent of commuters get to work by means other than driving a car--more than a third take public transit, 12 percent walk to work, and 2 percent ride their bikes; just four in ten drive to work alone. In Boston and San Francisco, roughly half of workers get to work without their cars--roughly a third of commuters take transit, and 10 to 15 percent walk to work. In Philadelphia, 41 percent commute without cars and 27 percent take transit.
These numbers may seem like a drop in the bucket. But 60 percent of Americans surveyed in 2005 said they want to live in walkable communities with shops, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and churches nearby. We're already seeing the shift as increasing numbers of people move to walkable communities closer to where they work. That will clearly expand in coming decades.
For the time being, most Americans remain behind the wheel. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans drive to work alone. They have no other choice. There are, however, other things we can do to ease congestion and take more cars off the road. Employers can offer more flexible schedules and the ability to work from home or telecommute. But as we've already seen, in many cities traffic is not just a rush-hour problem. The only alternative left is to price the roads. We pay for everything else: we pay to take the subway, ride the bus, or take the train, we pay to drive through the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels or over the George Washington Bridge. Why should the roads be essentially free? If we want to make traffic better, we have little choice other than to make people pay for the roads they drive on.
Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Adapted from THE GREAT RESET: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. Copyright 2010 by Richard Florida. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Path to Recovery
May 7 2010
Richard Florida
Economic peaks and valleys are part of the life cycle of any society. They can be difficult, sometimes horribly painful, but just as trees shed their leaves in the fall to make room for the new growth of spring, economies reset themselves. Times of crisis reveal what is and isn't working. These are the times when obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices collapse or fall by the wayside. They are the times when the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship, burst into full flower, enabling recovery by remaking both the economy and society. Major periods of economic transformation, such as the Great Depression or the Long Depression of the 1870s before it, unfold over long stretches of time, like motion pictures rather than snapshots. Likewise, the path to recovery can be long and twisted--the better part of three decades in the case of those two previous crises. Seen in the greater context of history, economic crises inevitably give rise to critical periods in which an economy is remade in ways that allow it to recover and begin growing again. These are periods I call Great Resets.
We're still very early on in the current economic Reset, so it's difficult to fully grasp how it will ultimately play out. But we can all sense that our way of life is changing and our economic landscape is too. This emerging new way of life will be less oriented around cars, houses, and suburbs. We'll be spending relatively less on the things that defined the old way of life. We'll have to, if we expect to have money left over to sustain the new industries that will emerge in the Great Reset and usher in an age of renewed prosperity. Before we can nurture the new industries of the future, develop new forms of health care and biotechnologies, or even explore new forms of education or more experiential forms of entertainment and recreation, we first have to free up capital by producing the goods of the old industrial order more cheaply and efficiently.
We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people--already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses--used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported, "The recession and a growing awareness of the environment are causing many people to reassess their automobile ownership. After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.
One constant in the history of capitalism is the ever-more-intensive use of land, as mercantile towns replaced agricultural villages, major industrial cities replaced those towns, and massive complexes of suburbs, exurbs, and edge cites expanded the boundaries of those cities. The change we are living through is much more than a movement from suburbs to denser urban communities. What we are seeing is the rise of a new, bigger, and denser economic landscape than ever before--the rise of vast megaregions such as the corridors stretching from Boston to New York and Washington, D.C., around greater London, and from Shanghai to Beijing. These concentrations of population, which encompass several cities and their surrounding suburban rings, have grown swiftly in recent years.
The largest megaregion in North America is the great "Bos-Wash" corridor, initially identified by the geographer Jean Gottmann. Strecthing down the East Coast, it includes Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 50 million people while producing more than $2 trillion in economic activity. Its economic output is greater than that of either the United Kingdom or France and more than double that of India or Canada. The second biggest, which Gottman dubbed "Chi-Pitts," covers more than 100,000 square miles and is home to 46 million people, producing $1.6 trillion in economic output. Other megaregions in North America include:
•Char-lanta: Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, 22 million people
•So-Cal: Around Los Angeles, 21 million people
•Tor-Mon-tawa: 22 million people
•Nor-Cal: Around San Francisco, 12.8 million people
•So-Flo: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, 15 million people
•Dal-Austin: Dallas and Austin, 10 million people
•Hou-Orleans: Houston and New Orleans, 9.7 million people
•Cascadia: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, 9 million people
•Pho-Tus: Phoenix and Tucson, 4.7 million people
•Den-Bo: Denver and Boulder, 3.7 million people
Around the world, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mumbai are hubs of giant megaregions. Each of these is a financial and commercial center with tens of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in output.
These megaregions, not nations, really power the global economy. Taken together, the world's 40 largest megaregions account for two-thirds of all global economic activity and 85 percent of the world's technological innovation while housing just 18 percent of its population. Megaregions are the strategic power centers of the economy, housing 85 percent of all corporate headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Though many analysts have predicted that the importance of cities--and that of location--would fade with globalization, the reality is that cities and megaregions have become more important economically than ever before. Even as globalization has spread factories, businesses, and laboratories to places such as India, China, Brazil, and beyond, these activities are being concentrated in the megaregions of those countries. Contrary to the notion that the world is flat, the most successful megaregions, in fact, are becoming economically stronger and spikier, not flatter.
Megaregions are to our time what suburbanization was to the postwar era. They provide the seeds of a new spatial fix. They expand and intensify our use of land and space the way that the industrial city did during the First Reset and suburbia did in the Second. As people pour into the world's great megaregions, inner cities and close-in suburbs are being reclaimed and rebuilt. Older suburbs, especially those on transit routes, are being reorganized and rebuilt into denser communities offering more condos and town houses as well as single-family homes. Suburban malls and office complexes are being retrofitted and turned into walkable areas with a mixture of housing, shops, and restaurants and in some cases even new parks. Subways and rail transit are being expanded as highways clog.
The location decisions made by new college grads have interested me for years. Their choices involve evaluating not just the company they'll work for but the labor market it's located in and what the surrounding area has to offer. Because they are both highly skilled and highly mobile--three to five times as likely to move than, say, a 45-year-old--the decisions they make about where to live are likely to leave a lasting imprint on our economic geography.
To get at the factors that attract and keep young Gen Y members, those born between the years 1979 and 1990, in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans. Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. From this perspective, big cities make sense for them, as they offer more robust labor markets with more and better job opportunities in a wide number of fields. In an age in which corporate commitment has dwindled, job tenure has grown far shorter, and people switch jobs with much greater frequency, career success involves a great deal more than simply finding the right first job. In these highly mobile and economically tumultuous times, career success for young people depends on locating themselves in a thick labor market that offers diverse and abundant job opportunities. Picking an economically vibrant location is an important hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.
But remember that jobs were not the highest-ranked factor. Across the board, the survey respondents said that the ability to meet people and make friends was of paramount importance. These young people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: that vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and securing personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but also seek what I have come to call a thick mating market, where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. And whereas older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets for their children as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and want to have good programs nearby. For all these reasons, big cities at the heart of megaregions top the list of their choices.
The auto-dependent transportation system has reached its limit in most major cities and megaregions. Commuting by car is among the least efficient of all our activities--not to mention among the least enjoyable, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues. Though one might think that the crisis would have reduced traffic (high unemployment means fewer workers traveling to and from work), the opposite has been true. Average commutes have lengthened, and congestion has gotten worse, if anything. The average commute rose in 2008 to 25.5 minutes, "erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train," according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which collects the figures. And those are average figures. Commutes are far longer in the big West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. In many of these cities, gridlock has become the norm, not just at rush hour but all day, every day.
Just about the only remedy for traffic congestion anyone ever suggests is building more roads and highways, which of course only makes the problem worse. New roads generate higher levels of "induced traffic," that is, new roads just invite drivers to drive more and lure people who take mass transit back to their cars. Eventually, we end up with more clogged roads rather than a long-term improvement in traffic flow
More and more people are choosing to take the subway, train, or bus or even walk or bike to work and go about their daily business--providing they live in an environment that allows for such choices. In Manhattan, 82 percent of workers get to work by public transit or bicycle or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County, and 16 times the rate for residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The New York City subway is a remarkably effective technology for moving masses of people around quickly and efficiently. Between 8 and 9 in the morning on a typical workday, more than 385,000 people use its subway system to commute into the central business district.
New York is not the only place where this kind of change in commuting and local traffic patterns is occurring. In Washington, D.C., 57 percent of commuters get to work by means other than driving a car--more than a third take public transit, 12 percent walk to work, and 2 percent ride their bikes; just four in ten drive to work alone. In Boston and San Francisco, roughly half of workers get to work without their cars--roughly a third of commuters take transit, and 10 to 15 percent walk to work. In Philadelphia, 41 percent commute without cars and 27 percent take transit.
These numbers may seem like a drop in the bucket. But 60 percent of Americans surveyed in 2005 said they want to live in walkable communities with shops, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and churches nearby. We're already seeing the shift as increasing numbers of people move to walkable communities closer to where they work. That will clearly expand in coming decades.
For the time being, most Americans remain behind the wheel. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans drive to work alone. They have no other choice. There are, however, other things we can do to ease congestion and take more cars off the road. Employers can offer more flexible schedules and the ability to work from home or telecommute. But as we've already seen, in many cities traffic is not just a rush-hour problem. The only alternative left is to price the roads. We pay for everything else: we pay to take the subway, ride the bus, or take the train, we pay to drive through the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels or over the George Washington Bridge. Why should the roads be essentially free? If we want to make traffic better, we have little choice other than to make people pay for the roads they drive on.
Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Adapted from THE GREAT RESET: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. Copyright 2010 by Richard Florida. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/19/massachusetts.senate
Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race
January 20, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Democrat Martha Coakley concedes to Republican Scott Brown
President Obama "frustrated" by Massachusetts Senate race, aide says
Good turnout expected as Massachusetts votes to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat
Democrats would lose filibuster-proof majority in Senate with Brown win
Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Republican Scott Brown won a major upset victory in Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy.
With 89 percent of the results counted, Brown had 52 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate, according to the the National Election Pool, a consortium of media organizations including CNN. Independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, a libertarian who is not related to the Kennedy political family of Massachusetts, had 1 percent.
Brown's victory made real the once unthinkable prospect of a Republican filling the seat held by Kennedy, known as the liberal lion, for almost 47 years until his death from brain cancer in August.
Voters across Massachusetts braved winter cold and snow for an election with high stakes -- the domestic agenda of President Obama, including his priority of health care reform.
Brown's victory strips Democrats of the 60-seat Senate supermajority needed to overcome GOP filibusters against future Senate action on a broad range of White House priorities. Senate Democrats needed all 60 votes in their caucus to pass the health care bill, and the loss of one seat imperils generating that support again for a compromise measure worked out with the House.
In a subdued concession speech, Coakley said she expected a tough assessment of her loss and lots of "Wednesday-morning quarterbacking" after losing a seat held by Democrats for more than 50 years.
"I am heartbroken at the result," Coakley said, later adding: "Although I am very disappointed, I always respect the voters' choice."
Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin said last week that certifying Tuesday's election results could take more than two weeks -- potentially enough time to allow congressional Democrats to pass a final health care bill before Brown is seated.
But multiple Democratic sources said this is unlikely. Even if House and Senate Democrats could reach a deal to meld their bills and pass them in the next couple of weeks, there would be a huge outcry from not only Republicans, but also an increasingly distrustful public if they appeared to be rushing it through.
Galvin had predicted as many as 2.2 million of the state's 4.5 million registered voters would vote -- at least double the turnout from December's primary. In one sign of high interest, more than 100,000 absentee ballots were requested ahead of the election, according to Galvin's spokesman, Brian McNiff.
Coakley was initially expected to easily win the race to replace Kennedy, who made health care reform the centerpiece of his Senate career.
Until recently, Brown was underfunded and unknown statewide. In addition, no Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts since 1972, and Democrats control the governorship, both houses of the state legislature, and the state's entire congressional delegation.
However, Brown surged in the weeks preceding Tuesday's vote and led in all the final polls.
Democratic sources told CNN that Coakley called Brown on Tuesday night to concede.
In a sign of the high stakes involved, the Coakley campaign held an afternoon news conference Tuesday to complain that voters in three places received ballots already marked for Brown.
iReport: Send us your thoughts on the special election
McNiff confirmed that the secretary of state's offices received two reports of voters saying they got pre-marked ballots. The suspect ballots were invalidated and the voters received new ballots, McNiff said.
Kevin Conroy, the Coakley campaign manager, said the "disturbing incidents" raised questions about the integrity of the election. In response, the Brown campaign issued a statement criticizing Coakley's team.
"Reports that the Coakley campaign is making reckless accusations regarding the integrity of today's election is a reminder that they are a desperate campaign," Daniel B. Winslow, the counsel for the Brown campaign, said in the statement.
Obama has been both "surprised and frustrated" by the race, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.
Obama and former President Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail over the past three days in an attempt to save Coakley's campaign, which observers say was hampered by complacency and missteps.
Obama crushed Sen. John McCain in Massachusetts in 2008, beating the GOP presidential nominee by 26 points.
"If you were fired up in the last election, I need you more fired up in this election," Obama urged a crowd at a Coakley campaign rally on Sunday.
Vicki Kennedy, the late senator's widow, called on state Democrats to turn out to save her husband's legacy.
"We need your help. We need your support. We need you to get out there and vote on Tuesday," Kennedy said. "We need you to bring your neighbors. We need you to bring your friends."
Brown, who has trumpeted his 30 years of service in the National Guard, hewed to traditional GOP themes at the end of the campaign. He promised at a rally Sunday that, if elected, he would back tax cuts and be tougher on terrorists than Coakley.
He also repeated a pledge to oppose Obama's health care reform effort.
"Massachusetts wants real reform and not this trillion-dollar Obama health care that is being forced on the American people," he said. "As the 41st [Republican] senator I will make sure that we do it better."
Forty-four percent of Massachusetts voters cited the economy and jobs as their top concern in a recent 7 News/Suffolk University poll. Thirty-eight percent mentioned health care as their top concern.
Voters more concerned with the economy were split almost evenly between the two candidates; voters more worried about health care narrowly supported Coakley.
Brown's surprising strength came in part because some independents and conservatives who have supported Democrats in the past were having second thoughts.
Democrats far outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts, but there are more independents than Democrats and Republicans combined.
Several Democratic sources say multiple Obama advisers have told the party they believed Coakley was going to lose, despite Obama's campaign appearance for Coakley on Sunday.
Facing the possibility of Coakley's defeat, Democrats were trying to figure out if they could pass health care reform without that crucial 60th Senate vote.
The seat is currently held by former Kennedy aide and longtime friend Paul Kirk, who was appointed to the seat on an interim basis.
Two Democratic sources in close contact with the White House told CNN on Monday they've urged the administration, in the event of a Brown victory, to push House Democrats to pass the Senate's health care bill as currently written. Doing so would prevent the plan from having to be taken up by the Senate again.
"I think the Senate bill clearly is better than nothing," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said Tuesday.
A third option would be for Democrats to revisit the idea of trying to push health care through the Senate with only 51 votes -- a simple majority.
But to do that Democrats would have to use a process known as reconciliation, which presents technical and procedural issues that would delay the process for a long time. A number of Democrats are eager to put the health care debate behind them and move on to economic issues such as job creation as soon as possible this election year.
Senate Democrats could also try again to get moderate GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to vote for a compromise health reform plan. Multiple Democratic sources, however, have said they believe that is unlikely now.
CNN's Jim Acosta, Dana Bash, Kevin Bohn, Ed Henry, Ed Hornick, John King, Suzanne Malveaux, Shawna Shepherd, Jessica Yellin, Alan Silverleib and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.
Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race
January 20, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Democrat Martha Coakley concedes to Republican Scott Brown
President Obama "frustrated" by Massachusetts Senate race, aide says
Good turnout expected as Massachusetts votes to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat
Democrats would lose filibuster-proof majority in Senate with Brown win
Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Republican Scott Brown won a major upset victory in Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy.
With 89 percent of the results counted, Brown had 52 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate, according to the the National Election Pool, a consortium of media organizations including CNN. Independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, a libertarian who is not related to the Kennedy political family of Massachusetts, had 1 percent.
Brown's victory made real the once unthinkable prospect of a Republican filling the seat held by Kennedy, known as the liberal lion, for almost 47 years until his death from brain cancer in August.
Voters across Massachusetts braved winter cold and snow for an election with high stakes -- the domestic agenda of President Obama, including his priority of health care reform.
Brown's victory strips Democrats of the 60-seat Senate supermajority needed to overcome GOP filibusters against future Senate action on a broad range of White House priorities. Senate Democrats needed all 60 votes in their caucus to pass the health care bill, and the loss of one seat imperils generating that support again for a compromise measure worked out with the House.
In a subdued concession speech, Coakley said she expected a tough assessment of her loss and lots of "Wednesday-morning quarterbacking" after losing a seat held by Democrats for more than 50 years.
"I am heartbroken at the result," Coakley said, later adding: "Although I am very disappointed, I always respect the voters' choice."
Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin said last week that certifying Tuesday's election results could take more than two weeks -- potentially enough time to allow congressional Democrats to pass a final health care bill before Brown is seated.
But multiple Democratic sources said this is unlikely. Even if House and Senate Democrats could reach a deal to meld their bills and pass them in the next couple of weeks, there would be a huge outcry from not only Republicans, but also an increasingly distrustful public if they appeared to be rushing it through.
Galvin had predicted as many as 2.2 million of the state's 4.5 million registered voters would vote -- at least double the turnout from December's primary. In one sign of high interest, more than 100,000 absentee ballots were requested ahead of the election, according to Galvin's spokesman, Brian McNiff.
Coakley was initially expected to easily win the race to replace Kennedy, who made health care reform the centerpiece of his Senate career.
Until recently, Brown was underfunded and unknown statewide. In addition, no Republican has won a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts since 1972, and Democrats control the governorship, both houses of the state legislature, and the state's entire congressional delegation.
However, Brown surged in the weeks preceding Tuesday's vote and led in all the final polls.
Democratic sources told CNN that Coakley called Brown on Tuesday night to concede.
In a sign of the high stakes involved, the Coakley campaign held an afternoon news conference Tuesday to complain that voters in three places received ballots already marked for Brown.
iReport: Send us your thoughts on the special election
McNiff confirmed that the secretary of state's offices received two reports of voters saying they got pre-marked ballots. The suspect ballots were invalidated and the voters received new ballots, McNiff said.
Kevin Conroy, the Coakley campaign manager, said the "disturbing incidents" raised questions about the integrity of the election. In response, the Brown campaign issued a statement criticizing Coakley's team.
"Reports that the Coakley campaign is making reckless accusations regarding the integrity of today's election is a reminder that they are a desperate campaign," Daniel B. Winslow, the counsel for the Brown campaign, said in the statement.
Obama has been both "surprised and frustrated" by the race, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.
Obama and former President Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail over the past three days in an attempt to save Coakley's campaign, which observers say was hampered by complacency and missteps.
Obama crushed Sen. John McCain in Massachusetts in 2008, beating the GOP presidential nominee by 26 points.
"If you were fired up in the last election, I need you more fired up in this election," Obama urged a crowd at a Coakley campaign rally on Sunday.
Vicki Kennedy, the late senator's widow, called on state Democrats to turn out to save her husband's legacy.
"We need your help. We need your support. We need you to get out there and vote on Tuesday," Kennedy said. "We need you to bring your neighbors. We need you to bring your friends."
Brown, who has trumpeted his 30 years of service in the National Guard, hewed to traditional GOP themes at the end of the campaign. He promised at a rally Sunday that, if elected, he would back tax cuts and be tougher on terrorists than Coakley.
He also repeated a pledge to oppose Obama's health care reform effort.
"Massachusetts wants real reform and not this trillion-dollar Obama health care that is being forced on the American people," he said. "As the 41st [Republican] senator I will make sure that we do it better."
Forty-four percent of Massachusetts voters cited the economy and jobs as their top concern in a recent 7 News/Suffolk University poll. Thirty-eight percent mentioned health care as their top concern.
Voters more concerned with the economy were split almost evenly between the two candidates; voters more worried about health care narrowly supported Coakley.
Brown's surprising strength came in part because some independents and conservatives who have supported Democrats in the past were having second thoughts.
Democrats far outnumber Republicans in Massachusetts, but there are more independents than Democrats and Republicans combined.
Several Democratic sources say multiple Obama advisers have told the party they believed Coakley was going to lose, despite Obama's campaign appearance for Coakley on Sunday.
Facing the possibility of Coakley's defeat, Democrats were trying to figure out if they could pass health care reform without that crucial 60th Senate vote.
The seat is currently held by former Kennedy aide and longtime friend Paul Kirk, who was appointed to the seat on an interim basis.
Two Democratic sources in close contact with the White House told CNN on Monday they've urged the administration, in the event of a Brown victory, to push House Democrats to pass the Senate's health care bill as currently written. Doing so would prevent the plan from having to be taken up by the Senate again.
"I think the Senate bill clearly is better than nothing," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said Tuesday.
A third option would be for Democrats to revisit the idea of trying to push health care through the Senate with only 51 votes -- a simple majority.
But to do that Democrats would have to use a process known as reconciliation, which presents technical and procedural issues that would delay the process for a long time. A number of Democrats are eager to put the health care debate behind them and move on to economic issues such as job creation as soon as possible this election year.
Senate Democrats could also try again to get moderate GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to vote for a compromise health reform plan. Multiple Democratic sources, however, have said they believe that is unlikely now.
CNN's Jim Acosta, Dana Bash, Kevin Bohn, Ed Henry, Ed Hornick, John King, Suzanne Malveaux, Shawna Shepherd, Jessica Yellin, Alan Silverleib and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Boston brewer pushes new limits on extreme beer
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gHwko0CDgwNp0xw_y6HyStWpzTbAD9C9QIRG1Boston brewer pushes new limits on extreme beer
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
11-30-9
BOSTON — It is banned in 13 states and sure doesn't come in a six-pack.
The maker of Samuel Adams beer has released an updated version of its biennial beer Utopias — now the highest alcohol content beer on the market. At 27 percent alcohol by volume and $150 a bottle, the limited release of the brandy-colored Utopias comes as more brewers take advantage of improvements in science to boost potency and enhance taste.
"Just part of trying to push the envelope," said Jim Koch, founder and owner of the Boston Beer Co. the maker of Sam Adams. "I'm pushing it beyond what the laws of these 13 states ever contemplated when they passed those laws decades ago."
Since the 1990s, craft brewers like the Boston Beer Co. and the Delaware-based Dogfish Head have produced a number of "extreme beers" that challenge old notions of beer and the decades-old laws that have governed them.
By law, these specialty drinks still are classified as beer when they are based on fermented grain. And despite the hefty prices of the high-scale beer, brewers still have to pay the required nickel deposit on bottles.
Paul Gatza, director of the national Brewers Association based in Boulder, Colo., said new yeast research allowed brewers to experiment with the emerging science that pushed the traditional cap of 14 percent alcohol by volume for beer.
"As a result, these new beers, like Utopias, balance sweetness, higher alcohol content and more ingredients," Gatza said.
A few states also have moved to adapt their laws to allow for the emerging craft brew market. For example, Alabama and West Virginia recently passed laws to allow higher alcohol content in beer. Lawmakers in Iowa and Mississippi are considering similar legislation.
Gatza said consumers are also pushing for the changes.
That's what sparked a brew battle between the Boston Brewing Co. and Dogfish Head.
In 1993, Koch set a new bar by creating Triple Bock, a beverage with 17.5 percent alcohol by volume. In the early 2000s, Dogfish Head responded with beverages of their own that went to 22 percent.
But the latest Utopias alcohol volume gives Koch and Boston Beer Co. the clear title of having the strongest beer, said Sam Calagione, president and founder of Dogfish Head. "I must bow before him for Utopias," Calagione said. "I don't think we'll be brewing a beer that strong for a while."
Utopias has reached its unique strength through a 15-year aging process in barrels at the Boston Beer Co.'s brewery in Boston. It's aged and finished in wooden containers like Scotch whisky barrels and sherry casks. The drink's yeast strains are regularly used in making malts and champagne.
A quick sip unveils a cognac-like hit combined with vanilla, honey, and maple flavors.
The long production cycle is what limits its availability to once every two years. This holiday season, for example, Koch is only releasing 10,000 bottles with the suggested retail price of $150 apiece.
"It's like making 21-year-old Scotch," Koch said. "Yeah, you can make more. You just can't have it for 21 years."
The drink comes in a ceramic-and-copper bottle that resembles a tiny brew kettle. Thirteen states prohibit its sale because its alcohol content exceeds the legal limit for beer: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.
Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the group in general doesn't have a problem with extreme brands of beer like Utopias. However, he hopes the beverage's higher alcohol content is properly labeled and that it isn't marketed to minors.
"Right now, we're reserving judgment," Hurley said.
Koch said the Boston Beer Co. is presenting Utopias as an exclusive beer for sophisticated drinkers that should be consumed like champagne. He said it's not a beer for the weekend football game or for a regular dinner.
He would not speculate whether he would try to get more extreme with future brews, but noted that no one ever thought there would be an "insane brewer" who would be making such a strong Utopias.
"We'll see," he said.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Ortiz and Ramirez Said to Be on 2003 Doping List
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/sports/baseball/31doping.htmlOrtiz and Ramirez Said to Be on 2003 Doping List
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
July 30, 2009
Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who propelled the Boston Red Sox to end an 86-year World Series championship drought and to capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results.
Some of baseball’s most cherished storylines of the past decade have been tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, including the accomplishments of record-setting home run hitters and dominating pitchers. Now, players with Boston’s championship teams of 2004 and 2007 have also been linked to doping.
Baseball first tested for steroids in 2003, and the results from that season were supposed to remain anonymous. But for reasons that have never been made clear, the results were never destroyed and the first batch of positives has come to be known among fans and people in baseball as “the list.” The information was later seized by federal agents investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, and the test results remain the subject of litigation between the baseball players union and the government.
Five others have been tied to positive tests from that year: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and David Segui. Bonds, baseball’s career home runs leader, was not on the original list, although federal agents seized his 2003 sample and had it retested. Those results showed the presence of steroids, according to court documents.
The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.
Unlike Ramirez, who recently served a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy, Ortiz had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing substances.
Scott Boras, the agent for Ramirez, would not comment Thursday.
Asked about the 2003 drug test on Thursday in Boston, Ortiz shrugged. “I’m not talking about that anymore,” he said. “I have no comment.”
The union has argued that the government illegally seized the 2003 test results, and judges at various levels of the federal court system have weighed whether the government can keep them. The government hopes to question every player on the list to determine where the drugs came from. An appeals court is deliberating the matter, and the losing side is likely to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office for the Northern District of California, which seized the tests, declined to comment on Thursday. Michael Weiner, the general counsel for the players union, also declined to comment.
One by one, the names of elite players tied to performance-enhancing drugs have surfaced this year. In February, it was Rodriguez and Bonds. In May, it was Ramirez — for the first time. In June, it was Sosa.
Rodriguez had been viewed by some as a clean player who could eventually overtake the career home run record established by Bonds, who had been linked to possible drug use through the federal investigation. Rodriguez subsequently admitted that he used a performance-enhancing substance from 2001 to 2003.
The Times reported in June that Sosa was among those who tested positive in 2003, the first time he had been publicly tied to performance-enhancing drugs. Sosa became a national figure with the Chicago Cubs in 1998, when he and Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals engaged in a celebrated race to overtake Roger Maris’s single-season home run record of 61. McGwire’s image suffered tremendously when, at a Congressional hearing in 2005, he refused to answer questions about steroid use.
By 2003, Ramirez had long since established himself as one of baseball’s best hitters. Ortiz, however, was less known. In 2002, the Minnesota Twins effectively cut him after failing to trade him. He signed a bargain contract with the Red Sox and began the 2003 season as a backup.
Ortiz quickly blossomed, setting personal highs in home runs (31) and runs batted in (101). He surpassed those numbers in each of the next four seasons.
Ramirez, with his dreadlocks and quirky behavior, and Ortiz, with his gregarious personality and portly build, formed a dynamic tandem on and off the field. They seemed to feed off each other — not to mention demoralize opponents — by hitting back-to-back in the heart of the lineup.
In 2004, they helped the Red Sox overcome a 3-0 series deficit against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. The Red Sox then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series to end decades of heartbreak in Boston. Ortiz had a game-winning home run and a game-winning hit against the Yankees and was named the most valuable player of that series. Ramirez was named the World Series M.V.P. after going 7 for 17 at the plate with a home run.
Three years after winning that first title, Ramirez and Ortiz returned Boston to another World Series, where they defeated the Colorado Rockies.
The pairing was split last season when the Red Sox traded Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers after team officials grew concerned that he was not playing hard in response to a contract dispute. In Los Angeles, Ramirez took off again, becoming popular among the fans and leading the Dodgers to the playoffs.
But Ramirez’s hero status in Los Angeles took a hit in May when he was suspended after baseball officials learned that he had been prescribed a fertility drug often used by bodybuilders after they stopped using steroids. When Ramirez was suspended, he issued a statement that appeared to maneuver around his 2003 test results.
“I do want to say one other thing,” Ramirez said. “I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.”
That five-year period extended back to 2004, which excludes the 2003 test.
Since returning from his suspension, Ramirez has been widely accepted by the home fans. In 48 games this season, he has compiled a .327 average and has hit 11 home runs.
Ortiz, meanwhile, has been in a sharp decline. He had an operation on his wrist last year and missed nearly a third of the season. He started this year in a slump and did not hit his first home run until a month and a half into the season. Since June 1, however, he has hit 12 more home runs.
In 2007, Ortiz said that he used to buy a protein shake in the Dominican Republic when he was younger and did not know if it contained a performance-enhancing drug.
“I don’t do that anymore because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican Republic,” Ortiz told The Boston Herald. He added: “I don’t know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it.”
In February, he said that players who tested positive for steroids should be suspended for an entire season — about 100 games more than the current policy requires for a first offense.
David Waldstein contributing reporting from Boston.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Boston Cops Believe Your Home is Their Castle
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=621202
Boston Cops Believe Your Home is Their Castle
2009/07/27
By Christopher Hansen,
Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home Thursday, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for being discourteous to police officers that falsely accused him of breaking into his own home.
Professor Gates before the arrest.
Professor Gates following the arrest.
Police told this reporter that, “This uppity Black dude” had obviously broken into this nice house in a white neighborhood and replaced all the pictures of the family that actually lived there, with pictures of black people, in an attempt to fool officers.
When officers discovered that Professor Gates actually owned the home they were so surprised that they arrested Gates anyway for not using a proper tone and showing them the respect they believed they deserved because they are obvious heroes that protect the rights of Americans every day.
“Remember,” said one officer that wanted to remain anonymous, “Officers have to risk their lives dealing with obnoxious Harvard professors and other undesirables that may or may not be in their own kitchens everyday. We must be able to come into their kitchens without being invited and without a warrant to check their government issued IDs, ensure their are no outstanding arrest warrants or unpaid taxes or late library fees and most importantly that there are no white women in the house. Then if all of that checks out and these obvious anti-American Arab pro-terrorist Obama supporters treat us with proper respect then we can let them go without arresting them. But that was not the case here as this guy had the nerve to complain about his treatment.”
The Cambridge Police Chief said he would look into it but since Professor Gates had obviously raised his voice to the officers and because his officers said Gates did indeed raise his voice to them he felt that Gates would probably do a bit of time and that it would be well deserved.
The Cambridge Police Chief told this reporter, “Police must be treated like the heroes they are. Americans that do not remember this may be beaten without due process and they had better just get used to it. We must ensure that our number one priority is that officers must come home safe every night and without their egos being bruised while on duty. Police, after all, are the only people we are required to protect and serve.”
Naturally this article was written tongue in cheek… or was it?
As a victim of police trampling the Constitution, law and procedure in my own front yard after we called them, nothing I have written here is in the least improbable.
So call the police at your own risk and EXPECT them to lie.
Read more from Christopher Hansen at Independent American News.
Boston Cops Believe Your Home is Their Castle
2009/07/27
By Christopher Hansen,
Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home Thursday, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for being discourteous to police officers that falsely accused him of breaking into his own home.
Professor Gates before the arrest.
Professor Gates following the arrest.Police told this reporter that, “This uppity Black dude” had obviously broken into this nice house in a white neighborhood and replaced all the pictures of the family that actually lived there, with pictures of black people, in an attempt to fool officers.
When officers discovered that Professor Gates actually owned the home they were so surprised that they arrested Gates anyway for not using a proper tone and showing them the respect they believed they deserved because they are obvious heroes that protect the rights of Americans every day.
“Remember,” said one officer that wanted to remain anonymous, “Officers have to risk their lives dealing with obnoxious Harvard professors and other undesirables that may or may not be in their own kitchens everyday. We must be able to come into their kitchens without being invited and without a warrant to check their government issued IDs, ensure their are no outstanding arrest warrants or unpaid taxes or late library fees and most importantly that there are no white women in the house. Then if all of that checks out and these obvious anti-American Arab pro-terrorist Obama supporters treat us with proper respect then we can let them go without arresting them. But that was not the case here as this guy had the nerve to complain about his treatment.”
The Cambridge Police Chief said he would look into it but since Professor Gates had obviously raised his voice to the officers and because his officers said Gates did indeed raise his voice to them he felt that Gates would probably do a bit of time and that it would be well deserved.
The Cambridge Police Chief told this reporter, “Police must be treated like the heroes they are. Americans that do not remember this may be beaten without due process and they had better just get used to it. We must ensure that our number one priority is that officers must come home safe every night and without their egos being bruised while on duty. Police, after all, are the only people we are required to protect and serve.”
Naturally this article was written tongue in cheek… or was it?
As a victim of police trampling the Constitution, law and procedure in my own front yard after we called them, nothing I have written here is in the least improbable.
So call the police at your own risk and EXPECT them to lie.
Read more from Christopher Hansen at Independent American News.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Threat to shut Boston Globe shows no paper is safe
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hMOeYS0Bw15Z529QnNhsjMUVu6swD97C1PVG0
Threat to shut Boston Globe shows no paper is safe
By VERENA DOBNIK
4-4-9
NEW YORK (AP) — When it bought the Boston Globe for a record $1.1 billion in 1993, the New York Times Co. added one of the nation's most acclaimed and profitable newspapers to its empire.
But analysts say the 137-year-old Globe has been a money-loser in recent years, and the Times, now $1.1 billion in debt, is threatening to shut down Boston's pre-eminent paper unless it gets $20 million in union concessions.
Faced with the global recession and declining revenues, the newspaper business is reeling — one major paper has already folded this year and several others are seeking bankruptcy protection. But the threat to the Globe, announced Friday on the Globe's Web site, has shocked some industry insiders, who say it shows no one is safe.
"It is a huge warning shot across the bow of the newspaper industry. If this can happen to the storied Boston Globe, pretty much nothing is safe," said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz.
Of the major dailies that have gone down, none has the cachet of the Globe, he said.
The threat to close the paper "sends a very clear message to all employees and unions of surviving newspapers — that this is not business as usual," said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with the research firm Outsell. "This is uncharted territory."
The Times bought the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion — the highest price ever for a single American newspaper — getting one of the country's most respected papers. The Globe has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes and has been lauded for some of its work, including its coverage of Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal.
But since its purchase, the Globe has gone through several rounds of layoffs and buyouts. As readership shifts to online news, the newspaper's average weekday circulation fell 10 percent to 323,983 for the six months ending Sept. 30, compared to the same six-month period in 2007, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Advertising revenues industrywide have plunged by more than 16 percent in 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Newspapers all "have a sword over their heads," said Doctor. If the industry wants to survive, he said, "everyone has to give some blood."
The Globe reported the Times' demands a day after executives from the Times delivered its ultimatum to leaders of the Globe's 13 unions. Boston Newspaper Guild president Daniel Totten told the Globe the concessions could include pay cuts, the end of company pension contributions and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees. The Guild is the Globe's biggest union, representing more than 700 editorial, advertising, and business employees.
But some say the Times' threat may be a negotiating tactic as it strives to shed its debt, which stood at $1.1 billion at the end of 2008. It recently sold 21 floors of its new midtown Manhattan headquarters building for $225 million, asked most employees to accept a 5 percent pay cut through the end of the year and secured a $250 million infusion from a Mexican billionaire by agreeing to pay an abnormally high interest rate of 14 percent in addition to giving him potentially valuable stock warrants.
"We're a long way from a newspaper that needs to be shut down. I think it's a bargaining strategy," said Alan Mutter, a former journalist-turned-entrepreneur who writes a blog called Reflections of a Newsosaur. He said he doesn't think the Globe is in imminent danger of folding.
Globe spokesman Bob Powers declined to comment Saturday; Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis did not immediately return a call for comment.
Doctor said the Times' threat to close the Globe parallels what Hearst Corp. did with the money-losing San Francisco Chronicle, threatening to shut it down barring concessions. Chronicle staffers took 120 buyouts last week, but the paper's seeking 150.
Elsewhere, Scripps Co. stopped publication earlier this year of Colorado's oldest newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, in Denver. Major newspaper companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months include the owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Newspapers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and another venerable Boston publication, The Christian Science Monitor, stopped daily publication in favor of online news.
Matt Storin, who was the editor of the Globe when the Times purchased it, said he was shocked and saddened when he saw Friday's headline. The threat to close it "is obviously a negotiating tactic, but one that has to be taken seriously," said Storin, who now teaches journalism at Notre Dame University.
"I do think it's obvious that the Times would like to get the Globe off its books," he said. "It's possible they're trying to reduce costs because they have a prospective buyer who is negotiating on that basis."
Associated Press Writer Jay Lindsay contributed to this report from Boston.
Threat to shut Boston Globe shows no paper is safe
By VERENA DOBNIK
4-4-9
NEW YORK (AP) — When it bought the Boston Globe for a record $1.1 billion in 1993, the New York Times Co. added one of the nation's most acclaimed and profitable newspapers to its empire.
But analysts say the 137-year-old Globe has been a money-loser in recent years, and the Times, now $1.1 billion in debt, is threatening to shut down Boston's pre-eminent paper unless it gets $20 million in union concessions.
Faced with the global recession and declining revenues, the newspaper business is reeling — one major paper has already folded this year and several others are seeking bankruptcy protection. But the threat to the Globe, announced Friday on the Globe's Web site, has shocked some industry insiders, who say it shows no one is safe.
"It is a huge warning shot across the bow of the newspaper industry. If this can happen to the storied Boston Globe, pretty much nothing is safe," said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz.
Of the major dailies that have gone down, none has the cachet of the Globe, he said.
The threat to close the paper "sends a very clear message to all employees and unions of surviving newspapers — that this is not business as usual," said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with the research firm Outsell. "This is uncharted territory."
The Times bought the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion — the highest price ever for a single American newspaper — getting one of the country's most respected papers. The Globe has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes and has been lauded for some of its work, including its coverage of Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal.
But since its purchase, the Globe has gone through several rounds of layoffs and buyouts. As readership shifts to online news, the newspaper's average weekday circulation fell 10 percent to 323,983 for the six months ending Sept. 30, compared to the same six-month period in 2007, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Advertising revenues industrywide have plunged by more than 16 percent in 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Newspapers all "have a sword over their heads," said Doctor. If the industry wants to survive, he said, "everyone has to give some blood."
The Globe reported the Times' demands a day after executives from the Times delivered its ultimatum to leaders of the Globe's 13 unions. Boston Newspaper Guild president Daniel Totten told the Globe the concessions could include pay cuts, the end of company pension contributions and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees. The Guild is the Globe's biggest union, representing more than 700 editorial, advertising, and business employees.
But some say the Times' threat may be a negotiating tactic as it strives to shed its debt, which stood at $1.1 billion at the end of 2008. It recently sold 21 floors of its new midtown Manhattan headquarters building for $225 million, asked most employees to accept a 5 percent pay cut through the end of the year and secured a $250 million infusion from a Mexican billionaire by agreeing to pay an abnormally high interest rate of 14 percent in addition to giving him potentially valuable stock warrants.
"We're a long way from a newspaper that needs to be shut down. I think it's a bargaining strategy," said Alan Mutter, a former journalist-turned-entrepreneur who writes a blog called Reflections of a Newsosaur. He said he doesn't think the Globe is in imminent danger of folding.
Globe spokesman Bob Powers declined to comment Saturday; Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis did not immediately return a call for comment.
Doctor said the Times' threat to close the Globe parallels what Hearst Corp. did with the money-losing San Francisco Chronicle, threatening to shut it down barring concessions. Chronicle staffers took 120 buyouts last week, but the paper's seeking 150.
Elsewhere, Scripps Co. stopped publication earlier this year of Colorado's oldest newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, in Denver. Major newspaper companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months include the owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Newspapers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and another venerable Boston publication, The Christian Science Monitor, stopped daily publication in favor of online news.
Matt Storin, who was the editor of the Globe when the Times purchased it, said he was shocked and saddened when he saw Friday's headline. The threat to close it "is obviously a negotiating tactic, but one that has to be taken seriously," said Storin, who now teaches journalism at Notre Dame University.
"I do think it's obvious that the Times would like to get the Globe off its books," he said. "It's possible they're trying to reduce costs because they have a prospective buyer who is negotiating on that basis."
Associated Press Writer Jay Lindsay contributed to this report from Boston.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Rice joins Henderson as baseball Hall of Famers
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/hallfame/2009-01-12-henderson-rice-elected_N.htm
Rice joins Henderson as newest baseball Hall of Famers
By Mel Antonen, USA TODAY
Rickey Henderson, baseball's all-time steals leader, was elected in overwhelming fashion to baseball's Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility, while Boston Red Sox slugger Jim Rice also earned election to Cooperstown in his last year on the ballot.
In balloting released Monday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Henderson was named on 511 ballots (94.8%), a sweeping endorsement of the player considered by many to be the finest leadoff hitter of all time.
Rice's ticket to Cooperstown was stamped in a far more tenuous fashion.
Having failed election on 14 previous appearances on the ballot, Rice was named on 412 ballots, the 76.4% barely edging him over the 75% required for induction.
Henderson, who turned 50 on Christmas Day, is the all-time king of stolen bases with 1,406 and considered one of the most dangerous leadoff batters of all-time.
"When Rickey Henderson got on base, he could change the course of the game like no other player," Tony La Russa, Henderson's former manager with the Oakland Athletics, said last spring.
The induction ceremony is July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Henderson played for the Athletics from 1979-84, then rejoined them in 1989 in a trade with the New York Yankees. He batted leadoff on their 1989 World Series champion team and a year later won the AL MVP as the A's won a third consecutive pennant.
Henderson, who led the league in runs scored five times and steals a dozen times, was a 10-time All-Star. In addition to his steals, he holds the career record for runs (2,295) and his 2,190 walks ranks second. Henderson had 3,055 career hits.
He played for nine teams and hit .284 with 33 steals in 60 postseason games. His trademark postseason series was the 1989 American League Championship Series, when he batted .400 with a .609 on-base percentage, going 8-for-8 in steals when the Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays.
Rice, who missed enshrinement by 16 votes last year with 72.2%, averaged .298 with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBI during his 16-year career, all with the Boston Red Sox.
Andre Dawson (361 votes, 67%) and Bert Blyleven (338 votes, 62.7%) were the only other players listed on more than half of the ballots. Mark McGwire received 118 votes and 21.9%, down from 23.6% last year and 23.5% in his first year of eligibility.
Tommy John, who won 288 games in 26 seasons, received 31.6% of the votes in his final year on the ballot.
Rice joins Henderson as newest baseball Hall of Famers
By Mel Antonen, USA TODAY
Rickey Henderson, baseball's all-time steals leader, was elected in overwhelming fashion to baseball's Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility, while Boston Red Sox slugger Jim Rice also earned election to Cooperstown in his last year on the ballot.
In balloting released Monday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Henderson was named on 511 ballots (94.8%), a sweeping endorsement of the player considered by many to be the finest leadoff hitter of all time.
Rice's ticket to Cooperstown was stamped in a far more tenuous fashion.
Having failed election on 14 previous appearances on the ballot, Rice was named on 412 ballots, the 76.4% barely edging him over the 75% required for induction.
Henderson, who turned 50 on Christmas Day, is the all-time king of stolen bases with 1,406 and considered one of the most dangerous leadoff batters of all-time.
"When Rickey Henderson got on base, he could change the course of the game like no other player," Tony La Russa, Henderson's former manager with the Oakland Athletics, said last spring.
The induction ceremony is July 26 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Henderson played for the Athletics from 1979-84, then rejoined them in 1989 in a trade with the New York Yankees. He batted leadoff on their 1989 World Series champion team and a year later won the AL MVP as the A's won a third consecutive pennant.
Henderson, who led the league in runs scored five times and steals a dozen times, was a 10-time All-Star. In addition to his steals, he holds the career record for runs (2,295) and his 2,190 walks ranks second. Henderson had 3,055 career hits.
He played for nine teams and hit .284 with 33 steals in 60 postseason games. His trademark postseason series was the 1989 American League Championship Series, when he batted .400 with a .609 on-base percentage, going 8-for-8 in steals when the Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays.
Rice, who missed enshrinement by 16 votes last year with 72.2%, averaged .298 with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBI during his 16-year career, all with the Boston Red Sox.
Andre Dawson (361 votes, 67%) and Bert Blyleven (338 votes, 62.7%) were the only other players listed on more than half of the ballots. Mark McGwire received 118 votes and 21.9%, down from 23.6% last year and 23.5% in his first year of eligibility.
Tommy John, who won 288 games in 26 seasons, received 31.6% of the votes in his final year on the ballot.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
John Kerry wants New Deal II
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/2008_10_25_John_Kerry_wants_New_Deal_II:_Backs_big_fed_stimulus/
John Kerry wants New Deal II
Backs big fed stimulus
By Jay Fitzgerald
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Jay Fitzgerald has been a journalist and blogger for years. He's now the general economics reporter for the Boston Herald.
The nation’s battered economy needs an old-fashioned “Rooseveltian lift” of regulatory reforms and government spending on the infrastructure, clean energy and other sectors, U.S. Sen. John Kerry said yesterday.
Kerry, facing a re-election challenge from Republican Jeff Beatty, rejected GOP calls for more tax rebates to stimulate the economy, as was done last spring.
“I am for a stimulus package. I am not for a stimulus package that just sends out checks,” said Kerry at a Boston Herald editorial meeting yesterday.
Instead, Kerry said the nation needs to spend more in areas that will both help the economy in the short run and long run - such as on roads and bridges, clean energy initiatives and life sciences.
Calling current financial woes the most “complicated economic time we’ve had since the Great Depression,” Kerry said new approaches are needed to reform the current financial system.
“We’re operating with old institutions that are incapable of responding fast enough, dealing with vast sums of money that cross boundaries in different financial centers,” said Kerry, who plans to provide more details of his economic agenda Tuesday at North Shore Community College in Lynn.
Democrats in Washington are pushing for more New Deal-like spending approaches for helping the economy, while the Republicans support boosting the economy via tax cuts.
But asked to respond to Kerry’s economic remarks, Beatty’s camp made references to a famous anti-Kerry crack by former state Senate President William Bulger and to rumors Kerry might be in line to become secretary of state if Barack Obama wins the presidential race.
“The only thing we know about John Kerry’s ‘plans’ is that printed on the bottom line is JFK - Just for Kerry. We just wonder how he’s going to get all this done from inside the Secretary of State’s suite in Foggy Bottom,” the Beatty camp’s statement read.
John Kerry wants New Deal II
Backs big fed stimulus
By Jay Fitzgerald
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Jay Fitzgerald has been a journalist and blogger for years. He's now the general economics reporter for the Boston Herald.
The nation’s battered economy needs an old-fashioned “Rooseveltian lift” of regulatory reforms and government spending on the infrastructure, clean energy and other sectors, U.S. Sen. John Kerry said yesterday.
Kerry, facing a re-election challenge from Republican Jeff Beatty, rejected GOP calls for more tax rebates to stimulate the economy, as was done last spring.
“I am for a stimulus package. I am not for a stimulus package that just sends out checks,” said Kerry at a Boston Herald editorial meeting yesterday.
Instead, Kerry said the nation needs to spend more in areas that will both help the economy in the short run and long run - such as on roads and bridges, clean energy initiatives and life sciences.
Calling current financial woes the most “complicated economic time we’ve had since the Great Depression,” Kerry said new approaches are needed to reform the current financial system.
“We’re operating with old institutions that are incapable of responding fast enough, dealing with vast sums of money that cross boundaries in different financial centers,” said Kerry, who plans to provide more details of his economic agenda Tuesday at North Shore Community College in Lynn.
Democrats in Washington are pushing for more New Deal-like spending approaches for helping the economy, while the Republicans support boosting the economy via tax cuts.
But asked to respond to Kerry’s economic remarks, Beatty’s camp made references to a famous anti-Kerry crack by former state Senate President William Bulger and to rumors Kerry might be in line to become secretary of state if Barack Obama wins the presidential race.
“The only thing we know about John Kerry’s ‘plans’ is that printed on the bottom line is JFK - Just for Kerry. We just wonder how he’s going to get all this done from inside the Secretary of State’s suite in Foggy Bottom,” the Beatty camp’s statement read.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Dodgers Get Manny Ramirez for two prospects
http://sportsblogs.latimes.com/sports_baseball_dodgers/2008/07/dodgers-get-man.htmlDodgers Get Manny Ramirez for two prospects
July 31, 2008
Andrew and Brian are away from their desks this afternoon, probably dumbstruck and shocked that the Dodgers were able to pull the trigger on pretty much The trade of the year.
According to Bill Shaikin of the Times, the Blue Crew didn't have to give up all that much to get the controversial slugger:
The Red Sox are expected to cover the $7 million remaining on Ramirez's salary, enabling the Dodgers to meet owner Frank McCourt's reported mandate that any trade not add to the team payroll.
The Dodgers are expected to trade two prospects -- third baseman Andy LaRoche and pitcher Bryan Morris -- as part of a three-team deal. The Red Sox are expected to get Jason Bay from the Pittsburgh Pirates to replace Ramirez in the Boston outfield, with the Pirates getting those two prospects from the Dodgers and two more from the Red Sox.
Ramirez, 36, has waived his no-trade clause, something that he promised he would do earlier this week when he gave his latest press conference.
Two days ago in an interview with ESPN. Ramirez was extremely harsh on the BoSox, an organization where he was part of two world championships:
"The Red Sox don’t deserve a player like me. During my years here I’ve seen how they have mistreated other great players when they didn’t want them to try to turn the fans against them.
"The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don’t deserve me. I’m not talking about money. Mental peace has no price and I don’t have peace here."
The details of the trade are as follows: Jason Bay will go to the Red Sox, Manny will go to the Dodgers and Pittsburgh will get four prospects, two from LA and two from Boston:
The last-place Pirates, looking for young talent, gave up their star outfielder and got reliever Craig Hansen and outfielder Brandon Moss from Boston and third baseman Andy LaRoche and pitcher Bryan Morris from the Dodgers.
LaRoche, Moss and Hansen will join Pittsburgh and Morris will go to Class A Hickory.
- Tony Pierce
Monday, April 14, 2008
Buckner Makes Heartfelt Return to Fenway
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0bfGGjFFTc8ZLonvjb3yjpiosggD8VTUS100
Buckner Makes Heartfelt Return to Fenway
By HOWARD ULMAN
4-8-8
BOSTON (AP) — Bill Buckner's eyes were red. He paused for 15 seconds to control his emotions. Then he spoke again.
The outstanding hitter known for a costly World Series error had just thrown out the ceremonial first pitch to a loud ovation before the Red Sox home opener Tuesday. It was a strike to former teammate Dwight Evans.
The experience, Buckner said, was "probably about as emotional as it could get."
But he nearly decided not to come.
The Red Sox received their championship rings for winning the 2007 World Series before Tuesday's game against the Detroit Tigers. Buckner's legacy is tied to losing the series in 1986.
The former first baseman knew the same old questions would crop up about that play 22 years ago that has been replayed on television hundreds of times. At first, he turned down the team's request. A few days later he agreed to return to Fenway Park for the first time since 1997 when he was batting coach with the Chicago White Sox.
"I really had to forgive," he said after collecting himself, "not the fans of Boston per se, but I would have to say, in my heart, I had to forgive the media..."
Another pause, this one for 10 seconds, before he continued, "...for what they put me and my family through. So I've done that. I'm over that. And I'm just happy that I just try to think of the positive. The happy things."
And not about the night of Oct. 25 in Shea Stadium when Mookie Wilson's ground ball rolled through his legs in the 10th inning. It capped a three-run rally and drove in the winning run in the New York Mets 6-5 win that forced a seventh game.
The Mets won the final game 8-5 and Boston's streak of no championships since 1918 continued. That drought ended in 2004, and then the Red Sox made it two championships in four years.
Buckner, a .289 hitter in 22 years with more than 100 RBIs in two of his three full seasons with Boston, wasn't the only Red Sox player who failed in the last two games of the 1986 Series. To focus on just one play is "the ugly part of sports," he said.
"I don't think that in society in general that's the way we should operate. What are you teaching kids? Not to try because if you don't succeed then you're going to buried, so don't try?"
The Mets already had tied the game at 5 in the 10th against Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley before Wilson hit the ball to Buckner. And the Red Sox led 3-0 after 5 1/2 innings of Game 7 before the Mets tied it against Bruce Hurst in the bottom of the sixth and nicked Schiraldi for three runs in the seventh.
"You can look at that series and point fingers in a whole bunch of different directions," Buckner said. "We did the best we could to win there and it just didn't happen and I didn't feel like I deserved" so much blame.
"If I felt like it was my fault, I'd step up to the plate and say, `hey, if I wasn't here the Red Sox would have won this thing,' but I really can't do that so I think some of it is unjustly directed my way," he said. "I'm pretty tough mentally, but the hardest part was with my family and my kids and I'm still dealing with it."
His son Bobby is a freshman infielder at the University of Texas. His daughter Christen played softball at Boise (Idaho) High School. She is now a reporter for the Fox television station in Boise and attended her father's news conference for a story to be broadcast Wednesday.
"There were times when they had to deal with it," Buckner said. "I don't think that's fair and that made me a little bitter. I'm over that."
He praised the Red Sox management in place in 1986 and the current ownership group. He thanked fans for their support. He said he'd like to come back some day.
Buckner was cheered continuously as he walked from the Green Monster in left field — draped with an American flag covering both the 2007 and 2004 World Series banners — to the mound, waving to the full house along the way.
Then he stood on the rubber, came to a stretch, threw the ball then made an umpire's strike sign before embracing Evans.
"I'm glad that he's here," Evans said. "Just seeing him walk out, I couldn't be happier for him."
The pregame ceremonies featured appearances from current former players of the Boston Celtics and Bruins and current New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi.
Then the Red Sox received their rings, which feature 42 diamonds of various sizes. The inside of the ring is engraved with: "Boston Red Sox" and "10-28-07."
David Ortiz received his ring last, with the Red Sox' victory song — "Dirty Water" by the Standells — blaring.
Bruschi was touched by the reception for Buckner.
"I thought the ovation was incredible," Bruschi said. "I think you can see the emotion on his face, the way he was taking it all in. I don't know if it was cleansing for him or not. ... I've only been here 13 years but I've heard about that (play) enough."
So has Buckner, who was traded to the Red Sox by the Chicago Cubs in May 1984 and released in July 1987. He rejoined them in 1990 then retired after 22 games.
"Two of my best moments in baseball were when I came back here in '90 and today," he said. "The Red Sox fans, they've been great."
They cheered him in 1986, when the team made it to the seventh game of the World Series.
"It was a great season," Buckner said. "There's a lot of good memories and I'm just happy that I can focus on those."
Buckner Makes Heartfelt Return to Fenway
By HOWARD ULMAN
4-8-8
BOSTON (AP) — Bill Buckner's eyes were red. He paused for 15 seconds to control his emotions. Then he spoke again.
The outstanding hitter known for a costly World Series error had just thrown out the ceremonial first pitch to a loud ovation before the Red Sox home opener Tuesday. It was a strike to former teammate Dwight Evans.
The experience, Buckner said, was "probably about as emotional as it could get."
But he nearly decided not to come.
The Red Sox received their championship rings for winning the 2007 World Series before Tuesday's game against the Detroit Tigers. Buckner's legacy is tied to losing the series in 1986.
The former first baseman knew the same old questions would crop up about that play 22 years ago that has been replayed on television hundreds of times. At first, he turned down the team's request. A few days later he agreed to return to Fenway Park for the first time since 1997 when he was batting coach with the Chicago White Sox.
"I really had to forgive," he said after collecting himself, "not the fans of Boston per se, but I would have to say, in my heart, I had to forgive the media..."
Another pause, this one for 10 seconds, before he continued, "...for what they put me and my family through. So I've done that. I'm over that. And I'm just happy that I just try to think of the positive. The happy things."
And not about the night of Oct. 25 in Shea Stadium when Mookie Wilson's ground ball rolled through his legs in the 10th inning. It capped a three-run rally and drove in the winning run in the New York Mets 6-5 win that forced a seventh game.
The Mets won the final game 8-5 and Boston's streak of no championships since 1918 continued. That drought ended in 2004, and then the Red Sox made it two championships in four years.
Buckner, a .289 hitter in 22 years with more than 100 RBIs in two of his three full seasons with Boston, wasn't the only Red Sox player who failed in the last two games of the 1986 Series. To focus on just one play is "the ugly part of sports," he said.
"I don't think that in society in general that's the way we should operate. What are you teaching kids? Not to try because if you don't succeed then you're going to buried, so don't try?"
The Mets already had tied the game at 5 in the 10th against Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley before Wilson hit the ball to Buckner. And the Red Sox led 3-0 after 5 1/2 innings of Game 7 before the Mets tied it against Bruce Hurst in the bottom of the sixth and nicked Schiraldi for three runs in the seventh.
"You can look at that series and point fingers in a whole bunch of different directions," Buckner said. "We did the best we could to win there and it just didn't happen and I didn't feel like I deserved" so much blame.
"If I felt like it was my fault, I'd step up to the plate and say, `hey, if I wasn't here the Red Sox would have won this thing,' but I really can't do that so I think some of it is unjustly directed my way," he said. "I'm pretty tough mentally, but the hardest part was with my family and my kids and I'm still dealing with it."
His son Bobby is a freshman infielder at the University of Texas. His daughter Christen played softball at Boise (Idaho) High School. She is now a reporter for the Fox television station in Boise and attended her father's news conference for a story to be broadcast Wednesday.
"There were times when they had to deal with it," Buckner said. "I don't think that's fair and that made me a little bitter. I'm over that."
He praised the Red Sox management in place in 1986 and the current ownership group. He thanked fans for their support. He said he'd like to come back some day.
Buckner was cheered continuously as he walked from the Green Monster in left field — draped with an American flag covering both the 2007 and 2004 World Series banners — to the mound, waving to the full house along the way.
Then he stood on the rubber, came to a stretch, threw the ball then made an umpire's strike sign before embracing Evans.
"I'm glad that he's here," Evans said. "Just seeing him walk out, I couldn't be happier for him."
The pregame ceremonies featured appearances from current former players of the Boston Celtics and Bruins and current New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi.
Then the Red Sox received their rings, which feature 42 diamonds of various sizes. The inside of the ring is engraved with: "Boston Red Sox" and "10-28-07."
David Ortiz received his ring last, with the Red Sox' victory song — "Dirty Water" by the Standells — blaring.
Bruschi was touched by the reception for Buckner.
"I thought the ovation was incredible," Bruschi said. "I think you can see the emotion on his face, the way he was taking it all in. I don't know if it was cleansing for him or not. ... I've only been here 13 years but I've heard about that (play) enough."
So has Buckner, who was traded to the Red Sox by the Chicago Cubs in May 1984 and released in July 1987. He rejoined them in 1990 then retired after 22 games.
"Two of my best moments in baseball were when I came back here in '90 and today," he said. "The Red Sox fans, they've been great."
They cheered him in 1986, when the team made it to the seventh game of the World Series.
"It was a great season," Buckner said. "There's a lot of good memories and I'm just happy that I can focus on those."
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