Pope Steps Down Officially Today

Story / Photo by Reuters
Written by Tom Heneghan

VATICAN CITY | Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:21am EST

Pope Benedict slips quietly from the world stage on Thursday after a private last goodbye to his cardinals and a short flight to a country palace to enter the final phase of his life "hidden from the world".

In keeping with his shy and modest ways, there will be no public ceremony to mark the first papal resignation in six centuries and no solemn declaration ending his nearly eight-year reign at the head of the world's largest church.

His last public appearance will be a short greeting to residents and well-wishers at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence south of Rome, in the late afternoon after his 15-minute helicopter hop from the Vatican.

When the resignation becomes official at 8 p.m. Rome time (02.00 p.m. EST), Benedict will be relaxing inside the 17th century palace. Swiss Guards on duty at the main gate to indicate the pope's presence within will simply quit their posts and return to Rome to await their next pontiff.



Avoiding any special ceremony, Benedict used his weekly general audience on Wednesday to bid an emotional farewell to more than 150,000 people who packed St Peter's Square to cheer for him and wave signs of support.

With a slight smile, his often stern-looking face seemed content and relaxed as he acknowledged the loud applause from the crowd.

"Thank you, I am very moved," he said in Italian. His unusually personal remarks included an admission that "there were moments ... when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping".

CARDINALS PREPARE THE FUTURE

Once the chair of St Peter is vacant, cardinals who have assembled from around the world for Benedict's farewell will begin planning the closed-door conclave that will elect his successor.

One of the first questions facing these "princes of the Church" is when the 115 cardinal electors should enter the Sistine Chapel for the voting. They will hold a first meeting on Friday but a decision may not come until next week.

The Vatican seems to be aiming for an election by mid-March so the new pope can be installed in office before Palm Sunday on March 24 and lead the Holy Week services that culminate in Easter on the following Sunday.

In the meantime, the cardinals will hold daily consultations at the Vatican at which they discuss issues facing the Church, get to know each other better and size up potential candidates for the 2,000-year-old post of pope.



There are no official candidates, no open campaigning and no clear front runner for the job. Cardinals tipped as favorites by Vatican watchers include Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet, Ghanaian Peter Turkson, Italy's Angelo Scola and Timothy Dolan of the United States.

BENEDICT'S PLANS

Benedict, a bookish man who did not seek the papacy and did not enjoy the global glare it brought, proved to be an energetic teacher of Catholic doctrine but a poor manager of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that became mired in scandal during his reign.

He leaves his successor a top secret report on rivalries and scandals within the Curia, prompted by leaks of internal files last year that documented the problems hidden behind the Vatican's thick walls and the Church's traditional secrecy.

After about two months at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict plans to move into a refurbished convent in the Vatican Gardens, where he will live out his life in prayer and study, "hidden to the world", as he put it.

Having both a retired and a serving pope at the same time proved such a novelty that the Vatican took nearly two weeks to decide his title and form of clerical dress.



He will be known as the "pope emeritus," wear a simple white cassock rather than his white papal clothes and retire his famous red "shoes of the fisherman," a symbol of the blood of the early Christian martyrs, for more pedestrian brown ones.

CLYBURN REMARKS AT ROSA PARKS STATUE UNVEILING

US CAPITOL WASHINGTON DC —U.S. House Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn delivered the following remarks today at the official ceremony unveiling the Rosa Parks statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol:
“This is a good time and a great place to honor a most honorable woman. This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which jumpstarted a march to freedom for many who, while in servitude, built this great edifice.

“This year is also the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, a watershed event in our quest for human dignity. Rosa Parks, the first lady of civil rights, the mother of the movement, the saint of an endless struggle—however one may wish to refer to her, this statue forever ordains Rosa Parks’s status as an icon of our nation’s struggles to live out its declaration that we all are created equal.

“One hour ago, I sat across the street witnessing the opening arguments of a voting rights case before the United States Supreme Court—a case that many feel could turn the clock back on much of the progress that has been made, and for which we pause today to honor Rosa Parks.

“The struggle goes on. The movement continues. The pursuit is not over. To honor Rosa Parks in the fullest manner, each of us must do our part to protect that which has been gained, defend the great documents upon which those gains were obtained, and continue our pursuit of ‘a more perfect Union.’ ”

President Obama unveils Rosa Parks statue; first full-length statue of an African-Americna Woman in the Capitol

Story by AP

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and congressional leaders unveiled a full-length statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the Capitol Wednesday, paying tribute to a figure whose name became synonymous with courage in the face of injustice.

Parks becomes the first Black Woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. A bust of another black woman, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, sits in the Capitol Visitors Center.

The President said that with the installation of the statue, Parks, who died in 2005, has taken her rightful place among those who have shaped the course of U.S. history. He said her presence in Capitol would serve to “remind us no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires.”

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner jointly led the unveiling, standing with the statue between them as they grasped and pulled in opposite directions on the braided cord that held the covering. Congressional leaders in the House and Senate joined Parks’ niece in tugging on the cord.



“We do well by placing a statue of her here,” the President said, “but we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction.”

The statue portrays Parks seated, wearing a hat and clutching her trademark purse — “a permanent reminder of the cause she embodied,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The several hundred lawmakers, family and congressional staff who gathered for the ceremony in the vaulted hall rose to their feet and whooped as Boehner opened the ceremony.

“Here in the hall, she casts an unlikely silhouette — unassuming in a lineup of proud stares, challenging all of us once more to look up and to draw strength from stillness,” said Boehner, R-Ohio.


Parks is famous for her 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Alabama to a white man, but there’s plenty about the rest of her experiences that she deliberately withheld from her family.

While Parks and her husband, Raymond, were childless, her brother, the late Sylvester McCauley, had 13 children. They decided Parks’ nieces and nephews didn’t need to know the horrible details surrounding her civil rights activism, said Rhea McCauley, Parks’ niece.

“They didn’t talk about the lynchings and the Jim Crow laws,” said McCauley, 61, of Orlando, Fla. “They didn’t talk about that stuff to us kids. Everyone wanted to forget about it and sweep it under the rug.”

He said more than 50 of Parks’ relatives traveled to Washington for the ceremony.

In a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in segregated Montgomery, Ala. She was arrested, touching off a bus boycott that stretched over a year.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Parks had “moved the world when she refused to move her seat.”

Jeanne Theoharis, author of the new biography “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” said Parks was very much a full-fledged civil rights activist, yet her contributions have not been treated like those of other movement leaders, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Rosa Parks is typically honored as a woman of courage, but that honor focuses on the one act she made on the bus on Dec. 5, 1955,” said Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College-City University of New York.

“That courage, that night was the product of decades of political work before that and continued ... decades after” in Detroit, she said.

Parks died Oct. 24, 2005, at age 92. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor on Feb. 4, which would have been her 100th birthday.

Parks was raised by her mother and grandparents who taught her that part of being respected was to demand respect, said Theoharis, who spent six years researching and writing the Parks biography.

She was an educated woman who recalled seeing her grandfather sitting on the porch steps with a gun during the height of white violence against blacks in post-World War I Alabama.

After she married Raymond Parks, she joined him in his work in trying to help nine young black men, ages 12 to 19, who were accused of raping two white women in 1931. The nine were later convicted by an all-white jury in Scottsboro, Ala., part of a long legal odyssey for the so-called Scottsboro Boys.

In the 1940s, Parks joined the NAACP and was elected secretary of its Montgomery, Ala., branch, working with civil rights activist Edgar Nixon to fight barriers to voting for blacks and investigate sexual violence against women, Theoharis said.

Just five months before refusing to give up her seat, Parks attended Highlander Folk School, which trained community organizers on issues of poverty but had begun turning its attention to civil rights.

After the bus boycott, Parks and her husband lost their jobs and were threatened. They left for Detroit, where Parks was an activist against the war in Vietnam and worked on poverty, housing and racial justice issues, Theoharis said.

Theoharis said that while she considers the 9-foot-statue of Parks in the Capitol an “incredible honor” for Parks, “I worry about putting this history in the past when the actual Rosa Parks was working on and calling on us to continue to work on racial injustice.”

Parks has been honored previously in Washington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, both during the Clinton administration.

But McCauley said the Statuary Hall honor is different.

“The medal you could take it, put it on a mantel,” McCauley said. “But her being in the hall itself is permanent and children will be able to tour the (Capitol) and look up and see my aunt’s face.”

Pope resigns, saying no longer has strength to fulfill ministry

Story by Reuters

Pope Benedict said on Monday he will resign on Feb 28 because he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office, becoming the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a step.

The 85-year-old pope said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months "to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me".

"For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter," he said according to a statement from the Vatican.

A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff would step down from 1900 GMT on February 28, leaving the office vacant until a successor is chosen.

First Lady Michele "Mom" Obama mom-dances with Jimmy Fallon for ‘Let’s Move’

First lady Michelle Obama showed off her sense of humor and her dance skills on her appearance on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show Friday night.


In a sketch airing before the first lady’s sit down interview with Fallon, the two–with Fallon in a wig and his best mom outfit–performed “The Evolution of Mom Dancing.”

First Lady Obama announces Academy Awards Best Picture

President Obama Weekly Address: Congress Must Act Now to Stop the Sequester

President Obama urges Congress to stop the sequester -- the harmful automatic cuts that threaten thousands of jobs and affect our national security from taking effect on March 1.

President Obama Speaks at National Governors Association Dinner

President Obama delivers remarks at a dinner for the National Governors Association.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: Sequester sirens not 'scare tactics'

Story by Politico
Written by Katie Glueck

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday pushed back on the notion that the Obama administration is using scare tactics to highlight the impacts of sequestration, saying instead that they are issuing warning “flares.”

‘We’re sending up a warning flare, not to scare anybody but just so people understand there are consequences to sequester,” LaHood said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And it can all be avoided if people in both parties would embrace the president’s plan…it’s a good one, it saves the money that needs to be saved, and it doesn’t take the meat ax approach to it.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/ray-lahood-no-sequestration-scare-tactics-88027.html#ixzz2LwvsdOdG
LaHood is one of a number of administration voices sounding alarms about how the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to kick in this Friday would negatively impact the country. Some Republicans have downplayed those arguments, saying the administration is exaggerating the effects of sequestration.

“We’re not using scare tactics,” LaHood reiterated. “What we’re doing is sending up warning flares to people that these cuts have consequences, and here’s what the consequences are.”

For his part, LaHood has cautioned that sequestration means disaster for air travel. On Monday, LaHood — a former GOP congressman — called on Republicans to examine the president’s proposals for averting sequestration, and to work with it if they are unsatisfied.

“I’m optimistic about this,” LaHood said of the chances of hammering out a deal. “I just think there’s an awful lot of shared pain that’s going to take place starting on March 1 if this sequester goes in and I don’t think anybody really wants that to happen.”

Gene Sperling, the director of the Obama administration’s National Economic Council, struck a less conciliatory note on Monday, jabbing Republicans for staking out an “absolutist” position over revenue-related questions.

“Now what’s been frustrating for us is our Republican colleagues, in the House of Representatives particularly, have taken a position, an absolutist position, that there can’t be one single penny of tax expenditures or loophole closing to raise any revenue at all,” Sperling said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “That’s an absolutist or ideological position. I know some people may believe it. But to have a bipartisan compromise to move forward, everyone’s got to give a little bit. So this is a choice that our Republican colleagues are making. They would rather stay with this absolutist position even if it means that we go into the sequester and start to see these type of harmful cuts.”

He added that Obama, in contrast, is offering “compromise.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/ray-lahood-no-sequestration-scare-tactics-88027.html#ixzz2LwvmvulD

Rev Sharpton interviews President Barack Obama on the importance of Black History Month, and the reality of Sequestering

Video from NBC News

Video by NBC News

Radio One revenue up 11%

Story by Inside Radio

A combination of political revenue and an easy comparison to the prior year propelled Radio One’s core radio revenue to jump 11% to $60.2 million during the fourth quarter. If political dollars were factored out the quarter would have posted a 2.9% gain compared to a year earlier when revenue was down 4.2%. CEO Alfred Liggins says first quarter pacings are “encouraging” with business currently up mid-single digits over a year ago.

Book: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" written by Himself in 1845

Frederick Douglass died today February 20th, 1895.

I just finished reading the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas" written by himself. The book was published in 1845, one year before Douglass was legally a free man - technically a fugitive slave in the north as a young 27 years old. In reading this book, I found the younger Douglass to be a fiery, militant, and passionate man - versus - the first Frederick Douglass book that I read titled "My Bondage and by Freedom," written by Douglass ten years later in 1855.

Below from Chapter 11 of Frederick Douglass' book "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," Mr. Douglass speaks of his escape from slavery. However, Douglass fell short of explaining the physical path taken for the following reasons described here by Frederick Douglass himself:


"I now come to that part of my life during which I planned, and finally succeeded in making, my escape from slavery. But before narrating any of the peculiar circumstances, I deem it proper to make known my intention not to state all the facts connected with the transaction.

My reasons for pursuing this course may be understood from the following:

First, were I to give a minute statement of all the facts, it is not only possible, but quite probable, that others would thereby be involved in the most embarrassing difficulties.

Secondly, such a statement would most undoubtedly induce greater vigilance on the part of slaveholders than has existed heretofore among them; which would, of course, be the means of guarding a door whereby some dear brother bondman might escape his galling chains. I deeply regret the necessity that impels me to suppress any thing of importance connected with my experience in slavery...

...I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the "underground railroad", but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the "upperground railroad".

I honor those good men and women for their noble daring, and applaud them for willingly subjecting themselves to 'bloody' persecution, by openly avowing their participation in the escape of slaves.

I, however, can see very little good resulting from such a course, either to themselves or the slaves escaping; while, upon the other hand, I see and feel assured that those open declarations are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, who are seeking to escape. They do nothing towards enlightening the master.

They stimulate him to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave.

We owe something to the slave south of the line as well as to those north of it; and in aiding the latter on their way to freedom, we should be careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the former from escaping from slavery.

I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave.

I would leave him to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever, ready to snatch from his infernal grasp his trembling prey. Let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let darkness commensurate with his crime hover over him; and let him feel that at every step he takes, in pursuit of the flying bondman, he is running the frightful risk of having his hot brains dashed out by an invisible agency.

Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother."

http://www.biography.com/people/frederick-douglass-9278324?page=1

Pistorius Argued With Girlfriend Before Shots: Prosecutor

Story by Bloomberg
By Andres R. Martinez & Franz Wild

Oscar Pistorius, the South African double amputee track star, argued with girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp before shooting her dead and investigators found testosterone and needles at his home, prosecutors said.

Pistorius, 26, lowered his face as lead police investigator Hilton Botha today contested his affidavit that he thought Steenkamp was a burglar when he fired four shots at the toilet on Feb. 14. Pistorius and Steenkamp, 29, had argued between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., prosecutor Gerrie Nel said in court, citing a witness. The call for an ambulance was made at 3:20 a.m., defense attorney Barry Roux said.

The testimony was presented to South African magistrate Desmond Nair on a second day of a bail hearing in Pretoria before Pistorius’s trial for premeditated murder. Botha told the court he found two boxes of testosterone and needles at Pistorius’s home in the city. Roux said it was an herbal remedy used by many athletes. The hearing resumes tomorrow.

Pistorius, dubbed the ‘‘Blade Runner’’ because of his prosthetic running blades, faces a maximum term of life in prison if found guilty of the charge, according to Nair. The prosecution will add a charge of possession of unlicensed ammunition, Nel said, after Botha found .38 caliber ammunition in a safe at his home. The bullets belong to Pistorius’s father, Roux said.

Screams, Shots

The lights in the house were on when a witness heard gun shots, followed by screams and another two or three shots, Botha said. The witness was about 600 meters (650 yards) away and didn’t identify Pistorius and Steenkamp as those speaking.

Because of the layout of the bathroom, the shots fired couldn’t have hit Steenkamp where she was sitting if he had been shooting through the toilet door as Pistorius testified, Nel said.

“If you walk in directly and fire at the door, you miss the toilet,” Nel said. Pistorius’s shots hit Steenkamp above the ear, the right elbow and the right hip, Botha said.

Pistorius said in an affidavit read out in court yesterday Steenkamp was doing yoga exercises and he was watching TV on his bed the night before the shooting.

In the early hours of the morning, Pistorius went to get a fan on his bedroom balcony and heard a noise in the bathroom. He went to get his 9 mm pistol because he thought Steenkamp was in bed and the person was an intruder who entered through an open window.

‘Grave Danger’

Walking on his stumps, he shot through the door before realizing it could have been Steenkamp, he said.

“I believed that when the intruder came out of the toilet we would be in grave danger,” Pistorius said in an affidavit. “I felt trapped as my bedroom was locked and I have limited mobility on my stumps.”

Pistorius said he broke through the door with a cricket bat after realizing it may have been Steenkamp, and carried her body downstairs to seek help. Police found a blood-spattered cricket bat by the sink, Botha said.

The position of the bullet holes indicates Pistorius was shooting in a downward trajectory, suggesting he had already put on his prosthetic limbs, Botha said.

While Pistorius yesterday said he had previously been the victim of crime, he had never reported any incidents, Botha said.

Flash Drive

Pistorius’s brother and lawyer came to the house after Botha had arrived at 4.15 a.m. to get documents and a flash drive containing information of off-shore bank accounts, the policeman said.

The athlete earns 5.6 million rand ($630,000) a year, has investments of 1 million rand and property worth more than 8 million rand, according to his affidavit.

The state considers Pistorius a flight risk and opposes bail, Botha said.

Pistorius, who was born without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knee at 11 months old, won six Paralympic gold medals. He became the first amputee runner to compete at an Olympic Games in London last year and was included on Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most-influential people.

'A space missing inside': Family of Pistorius' partner Reeva Steenkamp holds funeral

Alexander Joe / AFP - Getty Images
Pallbearers carry the coffin of the late South African model Reeva Steenkamp into the crematorium building in Port Elizabeth Tuesday.The funeral of model and law-school graduate Reeva Steenkamp – slain by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius – was held in South Africa Tuesday.

Story by NBC News
Written by Ian Johnston

As a magistrate ruled he would be prosecuted for premeditated murder, family and friends of Steenkamp spoke of their grief.

Pistorius’ lawyers have admitted he shot Steenkamp while she was in a small, locked bathroom, but claim he thought she was an intruder.

Adam Steenkamp, Reeva’s brother, spoke to reporters after the service at a 90-seat chapel in Port Elizabeth, where Steenkamp grew up.“There’s a space missing inside all the people that she knew,” he said.

“Everyone is sad understandably, but at certain points we were smiling whilst remembering Reeva because we only have good memories of her,” he added.

'He's a danger'

Reeva’s uncle Mike Steenkamp thanks people who had sent message of support, saying he had been “amazed” that people were “so touched by Reeva’s passing away.”


A mourner at model Reeva Steenkamp's funeral holds the ceremony program Tuesday.

A cousin, Sharon, said that Reeva’s “love is in our hearts.”

Referring to the bail hearing Tuesday, one mourner, Gavin Venter, an ex-jockey who worked for Reeva's father, told Reuters that Pistorius should remain in jail.

"Without a doubt. He's a danger to the public. He'll be a danger to witnesses. He must stay in jail. He's already shown how dangerous he can be for what he did to Reeva," he said.

Her mother, June Steenkamp, said in an interview with The Times of Johannesburg, that her bubbly, blonde daughter was "the most beautiful person who ever lived."

"Why my little girl?" she said.

"All we have is this horrendous death to deal with ... to get to grips with," she added. "All we want are answers ... answers as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this."

Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss dies

Story by ESPN and AP, video by ESPN

Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' owner who shepherded the NBA team to 10 championships from the Showtime dynasty of the 1980s to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday. He was 80.

Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant.Buss had been hospitalized for most of the past 18 months while undergoing cancer treatment, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said. With his condition apparently worsening in recent weeks, several prominent former Lakers visited Buss to say goodbye.

"The NBA has lost a visionary owner whose influence on our league is incalculable and will be felt for decades to come," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "More importantly, we have lost a dear and valued friend."

Under Buss' leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California's most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour.

Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure, from Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard.

"Condolences to the Buss family," tweeted James Worthy, the Lakers' Hall of Fame forward. "Dr Buss was not only the greatest sports owner, but a true friend & just a really cool guy. Loved him dearly."

Few owners in sports history can approach Buss' accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his nearly 34 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA's winningest franchise since he bought the club, which is now run largely by Jim Buss and Jeanie Buss, two of his six children.

"We not only have lost our cherished father, but a beloved man of our community and a person respected by the world basketball community," the Buss family said in a statement issued by the Lakers.

"It was our father's often-stated desire and expectation that the Lakers remain in the Buss family. The Lakers have been our lives as well, and we will honor his wish and do everything in our power to continue his unparalleled legacy."

Buss always referred to the Lakers as his extended family, and his players rewarded his fanlike excitement with devotion, friendship and two hands full of championship rings. Working with front-office executives Jerry West, Bill Sharman and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA's highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, further justifying his induction to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

"RIP Jerry Buss. Your encouragement and support along with your stories of staying true to yourself had an enormous impact on me," tweeted Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

"Dr. Jerry Buss was a cornerstone of the Los Angeles sports community and his name will always be synonymous with his beloved Lakers," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "It was through his stewardship that the Lakers brought 'Showtime' basketball and numerous championship rings to this great city. Today we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of a man who helped shape the modern landscape of sports in L.A."

Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Abdul-Jabbar and Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers' run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their flamboyant Showtime style. The buzz extended throughout the Forum, where Buss used the Laker Girls, a brass band and promotions to keep Los Angeles fans interested in all four quarters of their games.

Jackson then led O'Neal and Bryant to a three-peat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers' mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010.

Although Buss gained fame and fortune with the Lakers, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool -- and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle -- for his entire public life.

Buss rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches at the Forum, poker tournaments -- and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch. In failing health recently, Buss hadn't attended a Lakers game this season.

Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money from his real-estate ventures and a good bit of creative accounting, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and both clubs' arena -- the Forum -- from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.

Forbes Magazine estimated last month that the Lakers are worth $1 billion, second to the New York Knicks among NBA franchises.

Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.

Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan -- another deal that was ahead of its time.

Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in poverty in Wyoming before improving his life through education. He attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took a turn into wealth and sports.

The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer and co-worker.

Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss' love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers -- who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 -- into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.

"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."

Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast sophistication.

Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.

Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.

Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.

O'Neal and Bryant didn't reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls' six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG's state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.

After the Lakers traded O'Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.

Through the Lakers' frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 -- with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz -- prompted him to cut down on his partying.

Buss owned the NHL's Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss' ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Buss' six children all have worked for the Lakers organization in various capacities for several years. Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel and the second-oldest child, has taken over much of the club's primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie runs the franchise's business side.

Jerry Buss still served two terms as president of the NBA's Board of Governors and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Accused of $750,000 Campaign Fund Fraud

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Tom Schoenberg & Andrew Zajac

Former Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged by U.S. prosecutors with misusing $750,000 in campaign funds for purchases including a Michael Jackson hat and an Eddie Van Halen guitar.

Jackson, a 47-year-old Democrat and the son of the civil- rights leader, was charged today in federal court in Washington with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements. Jackson intends to plead guilty, one of his lawyers, Brian Heberlig of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, said in an e-mail.

“Over the course of my life I have come to realize that none of us are immune from our share of shortcomings and human frailties,” Jackson said in an e-mailed statement. “Still I offer no excuses for my conduct and I fully accept my responsibility for the improper decisions and mistakes I have made.”

Today’s charge, which has a maximum term of five years in prison, caps months of legal maneuvering that include Jackson’s resignation from office in November and his treatment for depression at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Jackson’s wife, Sandra Stevens Jackson, was charged in a separate case with filing false tax returns. She faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

Jimi Hendrix

Jackson spent campaign funds on memorabilia linked to Martin Luther King Jr., black nationalist leader Malcolm X, martial arts movie star Bruce Lee, pop icon Michael Jackson, and rock guitarists Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix, prosecutors said. He also spent the money on mink, fox and cashmere capes and parkas and a $43,000 Rolex watch.

No court dates have been set.

William Miller, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen in Washington, declined to comment on the charges.

Jackson’s wife will plead guilty to one count of tax fraud, her lawyers, Dan Webb and Tom Kirsch of Winston & Strawn LLP, said in a statement.

“Ms. Jackson has accepted responsibility for her conduct, is deeply sorry for her actions, and looks forward to putting this matter behind her and her family,” according to the statement.

Jackson, who ended a career of almost 17 years in the U.S. Congress by resigning in November, won a special election for a vacant House seat in 1995 and began serving on Dec. 12 of that year. He subsequently never garnered less than 81 percent of the general-election vote in his district on Chicago’s South Side until last year when he won a 10th House term with 63 percent.

His wife resigned her Chicago alderman seat last month.

Jackson was a national co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and an advocate of traditional Democratic Party constituencies. He pushed to maintain government support for the poor, including welfare, assistance for heating bills and the Head Start early education program.

Jackson was caught up in the scandal surrounding former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s attempts to sell an appointment to Obama’s former Senate seat. Identified in court papers as “Senate Candidate 5” who was willing to raise money for the governor’s re-election, Jackson denied the allegations and said he wasn’t a target in the federal probe.

Blagojevich was convicted in June 2011 and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Prep School

Educated at the elite Washington prep school St. Albans, Jackson graduated from North Carolina A&T State University in 1987. He earned a master’s degree in theology from Chicago Theological Seminary and a law degree from University of Illinois College of Law.

Before entering politics, he worked as the national field director of the Rainbow Coalition, the group founded by his father, the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.

The case is U.S. v. Jackson, 13-cr-58, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

CONGRESSMAN CLYBURN STATEMENT ON HOUSE RECESS

Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn today released the following statement on the Republican Leadership’s decision to go into recess without taking action to prevent budget sequestration set to take effect on March 1:

“When the 113th Congress convened last month, I expressed my hope that the Republican Leadership would abandon the extreme partisan gamesmanship that hallmarked the 112th Congress and produced record low public approval ratings. Sadly, today’s action demonstrates that the Republican Leadership has decided to continue to defy the expressed will of the American people.

“Two weeks from today, draconian budget cuts are set to take effect. Democrats have proposed a balanced plan to prevent this mindless, meat axe approach to budget cuts, but House Republicans voted to adjourn the House without taking action on this pressing matter. The American people deserve better than the Republicans’ failed leadership.”

Streaking meteor explodes in Russian sky, injuring nearly 1,000

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Joins 3G Capital to Buy Heinz in $23 Billion Deal

Russo Says Berkshire, 3G Partnership Not Unusual

Story and Video by Bloomberg
Written by Zachery Tracer

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Jorge Paulo Lemann’s 3G Capital agreed to buy HJ Heinz Co. for about $23 billion, ending the independence of an iconic ketchup maker that traces its roots to the 1860s.

The buyers will pay $72.50 a share, compared with yesterday’s closing price of $60.48, according to a statement today. Berkshire will spend about $12.1 billion on the deal for the maker of condiments and Ore-Ida potato snacks. The transaction is valued at about $28 billion including the assumption of debt, according to the statement.

Heinz benefits from “very powerful consumer goodwill in the developed markets and a very early start in China and India, two of the largest developing markets,” Tom Russo, a partner at Berkshire investor Gardner Russo & Gardner said in a phone interview. “It will not be hard to service the debt.”

Buffett, 82, has been seeking deals after the cash pile at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire climbed to more than $45 billion. He has previously wagered on consumer products through equity investments in Coca-Cola Co. and he helped finance Mars Inc.’s purchase of chewing gum maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. Brazil’s Lemann, 73, is worth about $19 billion based on holdings in Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and Burger King Worldwide Inc., according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Campbell, Smucker

Heinz shares climbed 20 percent to $72.50 at 4:15 p.m. in New York trading. Berkshire advanced 1 percent to $149,240, a record close.

Consumer stocks including Campbell Soup Co., General Mills Inc. and J.M. Smucker Co. also rallied. Campbell, the world’s largest soup maker, jumped 1.4 percent. General Mills, the maker of Cheerios cereal, surged 3.1 percent, and Smucker rose 2 percent.

Berkshire’s investment will include a preferred stake of $8 billion, which gets an annual dividend of 9 percent, Buffett’s firm said in a regulatory filing. 3G will join Berkshire in getting an equity stake of more than $4 billion, according to three people familiar with the deal. The people asked not to be identified because some of the terms are private.

The deal will also be funded by the rollover of existing debt and debt financing committed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., according to the statement.

Credit-default swaps protecting Heinz debt soared 130 basis points to 173.4 basis points at 4:31 p.m. in New York, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. That’s about four times the level of the contracts before the deal was announced. Swaps typically rise as investor confidence deteriorates.

More Leverage

“Looks like the deal will involve approximately $5 billion in new debt which would almost double Heinz’s debt load,” Anthony Valeri, a market strategist at San Diego-based LPL Financial said in a telephone interview. “I think the CDS move reflects uncertainty over exactly how much more levered Heinz will be after the transaction.”

Heinz, led by Chief Executive OfficerBill Johnson since 1998, had gained 17 percent in the past 12 months as it boosted sales in developing economies. Heinz in November said fiscal second-quarter sales in emerging markets rose 13 percent, excluding the effects of foreign currency fluctuations and acquisitions or divestitures.

Burger King

Heinz elected billionaire Nelson Peltz to the board in 2006 following a six-month proxy fight. Peltz had been pushing the company to trim costs and sell assets to boost the ketchup maker’s share price.

3G will oversee the operations of the business, Buffett told CNBC, praising the investment company’s record with Burger King, which it acquired in 2010 and then took public last year. He said he expects Johnson to remain in charge and that 3G will have the final say.

“Any partnership where I don’t have to do the work is my kind of partnership,” Buffett said. Buffett is worth more than $50 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Buffett and Lemann served together as directors of razor- maker Gillette Co. Buffett resigned from that board in 2003.

Heinz will retain its corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, according to the statement. The company traces its roots back to 1869, when Henry John Heinz and neighbor L. Clarence Noble began selling grated horseradish, according to Heinz’s website. The company introduced its famous Tomato Ketchup in 1876.

‘Strong Brand’

The deal is the largest ever in the food industry, the companies said. The buyers are paying about 14.6 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with the median of 7.6 times Ebitda in a survey of more than 100 comparable deals worldwide.

“Buffett’s affection for strong brand names” make the company a good fit for his portfolio, said Christopher Growe, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. “Heinz’s strong margins support robust free-cash flow generation.”

There have been more than $280 billion announced deals this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s 26 percent more than in the same period a year earlier.

Centerview Partners LLC and Bank of America Corp. acted as financial advisers to Heinz, while Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP provided legal counsel to the ketchup maker. The Heinz board committee that approved the deal got financial advice from Moelis & Co. and legal counsel from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Lazard Ltd. served as lead financial adviser to the investment group. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo also gave financial advice, and the two banks have committed t financing, according to the statement. Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel to 3G Capital, while Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP acted as legal adviser to Berkshire.

Body of ex-LAPD gunman Christopher Dorner identified in charred cabin

Christopher Dorner, a former Los Angeles officer.

Story by NBC News
Written by Hasani Gittens

The charred human remains located in the burned out cabin in Seven Oaks, Calif., have been positively identified to be those of Christopher Dorner, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Officials said the positive identification was made through a dental examination during an autopsy.

The announcement puts a cap on one of the largest and deadliest manhunts in California history.

Oscar Pistorius charged with murder, reportedly had firearms at home to allay fears of invasion

Oscar Pistorius and girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp pose in Johannesburg last week. (REUTERS)

Story by Yahoo Sports
Written by Martin Rodgers

South African police have charged Olympic star Oscar Pistorius with the murder of his girlfriend, who was shot in the sprinter's home Thursday.

Pistorius, 26, kept weapons at his gated, luxury South African home as a means of protection against his country's soaring crime rate, according to a British writer who had exclusive access to the Olympic sprinter.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the 400 meter runner – the first man to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics – is believed to have used part of his weapons collection to tragically gun down his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Early reports had the alleged incident being reported as an accident, but police spokesperson Brigadier Denise Beukes told the Associated Press that information did not come from police and that "it would be very premature and very irresponsible of me to say what actually has happened."

"There have been allegations," Beukes said. "We are not sure."

According to those initial reports, Pistorius mistook Steenkamp, a 30-year-old television personality and model, for an intruder as she entered his residence at 3 a.m. and allegedly shot her four times in the arms and head.

According to the Associated Press, police said there had "previously been incidents and allegations of a domestic nature at the home of Mr. Oscar Pistorius."

According to British writer Jonathan McEvoy, who was given unprecedented access to Pistorius in a broad-ranging 2011 Daily Mail interview, the athlete held serious concerns for his personal safety, perhaps unsurprisingly given his nation's appalling record of violence.

"I spoke to him at his house and when we went upstairs to his bedroom so that our photographer could take photos of his running blades, that was when I saw the weapons," said McEvoy, when contacted by Yahoo! Sports by telephone on Thursday.

"There was the pistol by the bed, the machine gun up against the wall, the baseball bat under the window, a cricket bat too. He was concerned by safety and security to a high level, there was no doubt about that."

Pistorius has earned well from appearance fees and endorsements during his athletic career and also came from a privileged background, thanks to his mining magnate father Henke, who told reporters he was "shocked" by Thursday's events.

Pistorius' house in the Silver Lakes community on the eastern edge of South Africa's capital, Pretoria, is in an attractive compound permanently guarded by armed security, yet that was not enough to allay his concerns about being the victim of violent crime.

"We had been talking at his training base in Johannesburg and he drove me up [to his home] to continue the interview," McEvoy continued. "You had to stop and speak to the guard on the way in and on the way out. "I think I mentioned that the security must mean that area was safe, but he said that wasn't necessarily the case as the guards could be 'in on it.'" Indeed, Pretoria news reports detailed the apprehension of a crime ring that operated from the Silver Lakes area in 2010, one that included police officers in what was known as a "blue light" crime.

Steenkamp and Pistorius, known as the Blade Runner for the prosthetic blades on his legs that allowed him to compete, are understood to have met in November and embarked upon a whirlwind romance. The actress' Twitter account painted the picture a joyful relationship when she asked her followers what they were planning for Valentine's Day.

Over the past week, Pistorius and Steenkamp spent time with Great Britain 400 meter runner Martyn Rooney, who had been in South Africa training and socialized with the pair.

Pistorius remained in custody as of Thursday and was said to be distraught, according to police.

"We found a 9mm pistol at the scene, a 26-year-old man was taken into custody," the spokesman added.

The runner's agent, Peet Van Zyl, attempted to visit Pistorius at the Pretoria police station where he was being held before a court appearance that will likely take place Friday, according to News24. The New York Times reported that police officials said they planned to oppose Pistorius’ expected application for bail.

Reports from South Africa revealed Steenkamp's body was removed from the home at around 8 a.m.

Pistorius reached the semifinals of the 400m and the final of the 4x400m relay at the London Olympics, before later adding his fifth and sixth Paralympic golds.

2013 State of the Union Address by President Barack Obama - Illustrations inclusive

Former LAPD Christopher Dorner presumed dead at a burnt down cabin in Big Bear, California

Photo by Getty

LAPD's Commander Andrew Smith in a press conference at 11:00p eastern time, contradicts earlier reports that the body of fugitive Christopher Dorner was found in a fiery cabin. Smith says that no body was taken out of the Big Bear, California cabin due to the cabin being much too hot to enter.

However, there is now (as before) no Big Bear area shut down nor is there a police search of the area being conducted at this time.



Earlier at 10:02 pm, CNN reported that the dead body of Christopher Dorner was pulled from the cabin, with its' source being multiple law enforcements told this by the LAPD.

LAPD Commander Smith states that it could be "days or weeks" before a positive DNA ID of the body can be positively identified. Smith states that once the cabin is cleared to enter, it could be several hours or even days for a crime scene investigation to conclude.

Donald Byrd music

Rock Creek Park


Flight Time


Sky High


Unfinished Business


Do It Fluid


Think Twice


Dominoes


Happy Music


Wind Parade


Change


You and Music


Night Whistler

Donald Byrd Dead: Legendary Jazz Musician Dies At Age 80

Story by Huffington Post
Photo by Getty

Legendary jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd died earlier this week at the age of 80, but news of his death was only just confirmed.

Amoeba reports that Byrd's nephew, Alex Bugnon, confirmed via Facebook that his uncle died on Feb. 4, adding that for an unexplained reason other family members were trying to keep the news of his death private.

"I have no more patience for this unnecessary shroud of secrecy placed over his death by certain members of his immediate family," wrote Bugnon.

Byrd was born in Detroit in 1932, and was already an accomplished trumpeter by the time he finished high school. He later went on to play in a military band during his term in the United States Air Force, and then obtained a bachelor's degree in music from Wayne State University and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music.

His career began when he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, as a replacement for Clifford Brown, in the 1950s, and formed the fusion group The Blackbyrds in the early 1970s. According to Amoeba, Byrd was a "one of a kind trumpeter," who was known not just for his work in jazz, but also in R&B, soul and funk music, and it was his ability to transcend time and genre and remain relevant that sets his work apart from others.

The cause of death has yet to be released, and in a statement his nephew wrote:

"Let's remember Donald as a one of a kind pioneer of the trumpet, of the many styles of music he took on, of music education. In sum, Donald was an avid, eternal student of music, until his death. That's what I try to be, everyday!! Rest in peace, uncle!"

Brown named Dial Global CEO; Landau exits.

Story by Inside Radio

Radio’s largest independent network has restructured its executive suite. Dial Global, which has had a trio of co-CEOs, will turn to a more traditional executive lineup. Spencer Brown becomes the company’s sole CEO, while Ken Williams becomes his number two and takes the title of president. Co-CEO David Landau is exiting Dial Global.

President Obama's Weekly Address: Averting the Sequester and Finding a Balanced Approach to Deficit Reduction

President Obama urges Congress to act to avoid a series of harmful and automatic cuts—called a sequester—from going into effect that would hurt our economy and the middle class and threaten thousands of American jobs. The President urges Congress to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes investments in areas that help us grow and cuts what we don’t need.

President Obama's message to the People of Kenya (Swahili Captions) - Weekly Address

President Barack Obama tells the people of Kenya that the upcoming elections are a historic opportunity for Kenyans to stand together, as a nation, for peace and progress, and for the rule of law

Postal Service to say goodbye to mail delivery on Saturdays

(Photo by John Gress/Reuters) United States Postal Service Letter Carrier Lakesha Dortch-Hardy loads her van with mail at the Lincoln Park carriers annex in Chicago, Nov. 29, 2012.

Story by NBC News
Written by Patrick Rizzo

It's been debated for months and months, but on Wednesday the United States Postal Service finally will announce it's not going to deliver first-class mail on Saturdays anymore.

The postal service's announcement, planned for about 10 a.m. EST, is expected to say that packages, mail-order medicine, and express mail will continue to be delivered on Saturday, but not letters, bills, cards, and catalogs. Post offices which are now open on Saturdays will continue to be open on Saturdays.

The move is meant to save the financially struggling agency about $2 billion annually as it wrestles with the rising popularity of email and social media eating away at its core business of delivering mail, and with the climbing costs of providing health benefits to its workers.

In January, the USPS' board of governors directed management to accelerate the restructuring of postal service operations in the face of declining revenues. It said that the USPS could no longer afford to wait for legislation to salvage its business.

The agency reported an annual loss of a record $15.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, triple the prior year's loss and capping a year in which it was forced to default on payments to a health benefit trust fund managed by the Treasury Department. The rising costs for future retiree health benefits accounted for $11.1 billion of the losses.

The USPS is an independent agency of the government. It does not get tax money to fund its day-to-day operations, but it is subject to congressional control, and congressional foot-dragging.

On Jan. 27, the USPS raised postage stamp prices by one cent to 46 cents to help raise revenues. “We are currently losing $25 million per day,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned in January.

The move is another milestone in the long-running political dance between Congress and Postal Service managers over how to finance the delivery of mail to 151 million addresses, nearly 40 percent of the world's "snail mail" volume. Though its Capitol Hill critics complain that Postal Service should be made to operate “more like a business,” Congress has created a set of rules that all but guarantee billion-dollar losses.

Those losses are almost entirely the result of the now-defaulted “pre-funding” requirement for retiree health insurance and other accounting charges.

The Postal Service faces other constraints. It's banned from setting up retail outlets, for example, that could generate profits to help subsidize delivery costs. Worse, it is barred by Congress from charging the full cost of providing the service it is required to deliver.

The Associated Press and NBC News' John Schoen contributed to this report.

The Ohio Players

Fire and O-H-I-O


Love Rollercoaster


Skin Tight


Funky Worm


Honey


Pain


I Want To Be Free

The Ohio Players "Sugarfoot" dead at 69

Story by CBS News and the contributer

Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, the frontman with his double-frat guitar, for the hit-making funk music band the Ohio Players, has died. He was 69 years old.

The Ohio Players, known for their brassy dance music and flamboyant outfits, topped music charts in the 1970s with hits such as "Love Rollercoaster," "Fire," "Skin Tight," "Pain," "Heaven Must Be Like This," "Honey," "Ain't Given Up No Ground," "I Want to Be Free," "Ecstasy," "Jive Turkey," and "It's All Over," "Fopp," "Let's Love," "Who'd She Coo," "O-H-I-O," and "Funky Worm."

A spokeswoman for Newcomer Funeral Home in the Dayton, Ohio, suburb of Kettering, said that the family hadn't scheduled any public services. There was also a posting about his death on his current band's Facebook page. No other information has been released about his death.

Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Bonner teamed up in the 1960s with core members of a group called the Ohio Untouchables to form the Ohio Players. The band had a string of Top 40 hits in the mid-1970s and continued to perform for years after that. He had remained active in recent years with a spinoff band called Sugarfoot's Ohio Players.

"Humble yet charismatic, soft-spoken and of few words, the weight of his thoughts, lyrics and music has influenced countless other artists, songs and trends," stated a posting attributed as an "official family announcement" on the Facebook page of Sugarfoot's Ohio Players. "He will be missed but not forgotten as his legacy and music lives on."

Beyonce performs at Super Bowl XLVII

Super Bowl expletive unlikely to bring new crackdown.

Story by Inside Radio

What a difference nine years can make for indecency enforcement. It was the 2004 halftime “wardrobe malfunction” that set off a firestorm, ultimately ending in potential $500,000 per-violation fines for radio and TV stations. But after a fleeting expletive made it to the airwaves during Sunday’s televised game, the outcry is much more subdued.

The Parents Television Council, which is pushing the FCC to take a harsher stance with broadcasters, is hoping the agency will get tough on CBS-TV after a delay failed to catch Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco’s telling a teammate the win was “f—ing awesome” during the post-game frenzy. The group also wants the agency to begin fining some of the stations mentioned in 1.6 million pending indecency complaints dating back nearly a decade.

While on the surface it may seem like a fresh example of a so-called fleeting expletive — something the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last June the FCC can fine stations for — broadcast attorney John Garziglia sees a fundamental difference from the 2004 incident. “One was a scripted halftime program that was clearly entertainment and the other was an off-the-cuff remark in the glare of excitement of winning the Super Bowl,” he says. Garziglia thinks the FCC will get complaints — but predicts the agency will ultimately decide it is covered under the tacit breaking news exemption.

CBS said they only use the delay during pre-game, halftime, and post-game coverage. If the FCC were to go after CBS or its TV affiliates, the case would be complicated by the fact that East Coast stations aired the word after 10pm inside the safe harbor period.

Garziglia fears that if the FCC does take action over the latest errant expletive, it will only serve to increase fears in broadcasters. “It’s a chill for anybody that airs high school or college sports,” he says.

Indecency is a Pandora’s Box that FCC chairman Julius Genachowski seems content to leave closed, according to many observers. Attorney Andy Schwartzman, a veteran Washington player, thinks Sunday’s Super Bowl case is unlikely to become a poster child for tougher standards. “I think this is a low priority for the FCC, and that in any event there is sufficient uncertainty about the enforceability of the existing standards that the Commission wouldn’t want to use this as a test case,” he says. In the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the FCC’s power to go after stations for indecency, Genachowski directed the Enforcement Bureau to focus its resources “on the strongest cases that involve egregious indecency violations.”

But so far no fines have been announced, infuriating groups like the Parents Television Council. “The FCC must step up to its legal obligation to enforce the law,” PTC president Tim Winter says.

Garziglia says such a slip-of-the-tongue could come back to bite radio is by further burying the FCC under even more paperwork. The backlog of indecency complaints already tops 1.5 million. “The staff has said informally that they’re going to start dismissing the complaints, but I haven’t seen any evidence of it yet,” Garziglia says.

Broadcast attorneys say that the most painful downsides of inaction — delaying license renewals and station sales — have been worked around. Rather that put an operator in a sort of purgatory, the FCC has used tolling agreements that amount to I-O-Us if or when any action is ever taken.

Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl Champs. And what triggered the power outtage?

Video by ESPN

What caused the power outage in the second half? In one of the strangest twists in Super Bowl history, the power to half the lights at the Superdome went out and remained out for more than a half hour. Shortly after the game, Entergy, the local power company, and SMG, the management company of the Mercedes Superdome, released the following statement:

"Shortly after the beginning of the second half of the Super Bowl in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, a piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system. Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue. Backup generators kicked in immediately as designed. Entergy and SMG subsequently coordinated start up procedures, ensuring that full power was safely restored to the Superdome. The fault-sensing equipment activated where the Superdome equipment intersects with Entergy’s feed into the facility. There were no additional issues detected."

Hugs at the State Department as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bids farewell

Story by The Hill
Written by Julian Pecquet

Hillary Clinton bade an emotional goodbye to the State Department on Friday as hundreds of the employees she's led for the past four years packed the agency's lobby to see her off.

Clinton grew emotional as she thanked “those with whom I've spent many hours here in Washington, around the world and in airplanes.” She said she was “very proud” of the work she and her staff have accomplished and “confident about the direction we have set.”

“I'm proud of the work we've done to elevate diplomacy and development” and to ensure “with all our heart and all of our might to make sure that America is secure, that our interests are promoted and our values are respected,” she said. “I know that because of your efforts, day after day, we are making a real difference.”

“I am so grateful that we've had a chance to contribute in each of our ways to making our country and our world stronger, safer, fairer and better.”

She mentioned Friday's terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Turkey to underscore the threats the country faces.

“I know the world we are trying to help bring into being in the 21st Century will have many difficult days,” she said. “But I am more optimistic today than I was when I stood here four years ago. Because I have seen, day after day, the many contributions that our diplomats and development experts are making to help ensure that this century provides the kind of peace, progress and prosperity to not just the United States, but the entire world.”

Clinton vowed to be “an advocate from outside” for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“I will probably be dialing Ops just to talk,” she said of the department's Operations Center.

She urged her staff to give incoming Secretary of State John Kerry the same level of dedication.

"I hope you will redouble your efforts to do all that you can to demonstrate unequivocally why diplomacy and development are right up there with Defense," she said.

Kerry will be sworn in at 4 p.m. by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan at an undisclosed location.

Economy adds 157,000 jobs, unemployment ticks up to 7.9 percent

Story by The Hill
Written by Vicki Needham

The economy added 157,000 jobs in January even as the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday.

The report also showed stronger job growth in November and December of last year, revising estimates for those two months up by 127,000 and suggesting the job market is somewhat stronger than previously estimated.

The report comes days after the Commerce Department reported the economy had contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012 by .1 percent as reduced federal and defense spending took a huge bite out of growth.

It also comes a day after the White House announced President Obama was disbanding his jobs council, a point Republicans highlighted in statements reacting to the jobs numbers.

“This is the wrong time for President Obama to scrap his jobs council and delay his budget," Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. "Month after month we see the same thing: high unemployment and even more debt.

"Instead of accepting sluggish job growth as the new normal, we need to work together to grow our economy, address our debt crisis, and expand opportunity for all Americans," he said.

The poor GDP growth led to new worries about the economy's strength and cast questions on President Obama's statement that the nation is in an economic recovery, but the job figures could calm some of those fears.

The new report says the economy cranked out 422,000 more jobs than initially estimated last year, pushing the total number created for the year to 2.17 million.

Revised figures for November now show the economy added 247,000 jobs that month, up from the 161,000 that were initially reported. In December, BLS estimates the economy added 196,000 jobs, up from the initially estimated 155,000.

One reason for the increase in the jobless rate is that more people were looking for work. There was a 255,000 decline in discouraged workers from January a year ago, another sign of an improving job market.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, said the strong revisions reflected the economy's momentum.

Still, the job market has a long way to go before making up for the jobs lost during the recession.

"I'm not sure anyone is going to feel really good until unemployment is below 6 percent," Zandi said on MSNBC on Friday.

The GDP figures earlier this week showed the private sector is strengthening even as federal and local spending by governments has been cut.

In the past three months, the BLS report said the private sector has added 624,000 jobs while the government has continued to shed positions, falling 24,000 in the same period.

Obama has been arguing that spending cuts alone will not help the economy, and Alan Krueger, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement on the report that Congress should replace spending cuts set to begin in March, known as sequestration.

"The Administration continues to urge Congress to move toward a sustainable federal budget in a responsible way that balances revenue and spending, and replaces the sequester, while making critical investments in the economy that promote growth and job creation and protect our most vulnerable citizens," Krueger said.

Construction employment increased by 28,000 in January while manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged — and has changed little since July.

Since reaching a low in January 2011, construction employment has gained 296,000 jobs, about one-third coming in the last four months, in tandem with an increase in housing construction.

Still, construction jobs are still 2 million below the previous peak level in April 2006.