Rai urges immediate Parliament session to elect new president

BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai appealed to Speaker Nabih Berri Sunday to convene Parliament soon to elect a new president and warned rival politicians against manipulating the upcoming presidential vote by attempting to thwart a quorum for an election session.

Rai’s remarks come as the presidential race has gained momentum after Lebanon last month entered the two-month constitutional period for Parliament to meet to elect a new head of state.

They also come two days after Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced he would run for the presidency, unleashing what promises to be a fiercely contested presidential battle, overshadowed by the devastating repercussions of the 3-year-old war in Syria on Lebanon’s fragile security and ailing economy.

Geagea’s candidacy to the presidency has apparently thrown the March 14 coalition into confusion as there are many candidates within the coalition seeking the country’s top Christian post. So far, March 14’s reaction to Geagea’s candidacy has been lukewarm.

Media reports said the March 14 coalition, led by the Future Movement, is expected to meet soon in an attempt to agree on its own candidate to the presidency in the face of a rival nominee from the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance.

The Future Movement has not yet commented on Geagea’s candidacy. Nader Hariri, director of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s office, met Geagea in Maarab Saturday to discuss the reasons for the LF leader’s candidacy to the presidency. The meeting was attended by Milhem Riashi, chief of the LF communications and media department.

Nader Hariri will convey to Saad Hariri and the Future leadership the results of his talks with Geagea.

In his Sunday sermon in Bkirki, north of Beirut, Rai said: “In the name of everyone, I appeal to the Parliament speaker to call Parliament into session, as soon as its legislative sessions are over, to elect [a new president] so that the name of the next president would surface via voting and consultations.”

“ Lebanon today needs a strong president, one who is strong with his ethics, exemplary life and his performance through history and who is capable of strengthening the state, its institutions, its unity and its sovereignty and defending it along with the Constitution and the National Pact,” he said.

The influential Maronite Church, to which the Christian president belongs, usually has a major say in the presidential election.

Rai said Lebanon’s next president should also be capable of putting an end to rampant corruption in the administration and the theft of public funds which is draining the state treasury, already burdened with more than $59 billion in public debt.

The patriarch urged lawmakers to go to Parliament to secure a quorum for the election of a new president and warned rival parties against using the presidential election for their own interests.

“Beware against manipulating this presidential election, which is the cornerstone of all state institutions,” Rai said. “Talking about a [presidential] vacuum or seeking a vacuum for ulterior goals is an insult to the dignity of the nation and the people and a proof of the failure of lawmakers and officials. Securing a quorum [for a Parliament session] and electing a president are an honorable, ethical and national commitments.”

“As the country is gearing up to elect a new president within the constitutional deadline, ... we pray so that political leaders recognize this major event with a spirit void of personal and individual interests ... to find the appropriate president for the current stage with its different political, economic and security needs.”

Under the Constitution, the speaker can convene Parliament to elect a new president within these two months before the expiry of President Michel Sleiman’s six-year- term in office on May 25.

Berri has launched his own consultations on the presidential election by dispatching a delegation from his parliamentary bloc which has met with heads of the country’s parliamentary blocs to sound out their opinions on their possible candidates to the presidency.

The delegation, which has also met Rai, has yet to present the results of its consultations to Berri, who would then decide on the next step with regard to convening Parliament to elect a new president. Although the leaders of the four main Maronite parties – Geagea, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, former President and Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel, and Zghorta MP and Marada Movement head Suleiman Franjieh – are all natural candidates for the presidency, only the LF leader has so far announced his candidacy.

Premier Tammam Salam entered the presidential fray by calling for the election of a “moderate” candidate who can be acceptable to all the rival parties. His remarks were viewed as an implicit rejection of Geagea’s candidacy.

In an interview with Monte Carlo radio station, Salam also warned of the consequences of a vacuum in the presidency.

Asked who is his candidate to the presidency, Salam said: “This depends on those who will run. I hope that my candidate will be the candidate of every Lebanese, someone capable of shouldering responsibilities and the difficult job in this difficult stage.”

“Yes, I prefer a moderate and balanced figure acceptable to everyone and who is able to deal with everyone,” he added.

Salam said that one of his government’s priorities is to set the stage for the presidential election. “I have said from the beginning that we are not a government to fill the [presidential] vacuum. We don’t want to be as such,” he said, adding: “If a president is not elected and should we enter a vacuum, this would take us to a difficult, delicate and critical stage.”

MP Alain Aoun from the FPM said his cousin, Michel Aoun, would be a strong and balanced president if elected, adding that it would be in the interest of the Future Movement to elect him.

“MP Gen. Michel Aoun is not a candidate of a certain party. He’ll be a strong and balanced president [if elected]. He is the man for the current stage to find political solutions. He is not a confrontational candidate like Samir Geagea,” Aoun said in an interview to be published in Al-Liwaa daily Monday.

“It is in the interest of the Future Movement to elect Aoun as president because he is capable of ensuring stability, bringing about national reconciliation, restoring relations between the Sunnis and Shiites, and also bringing [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri back as prime minister,” he added.

German industrial production posts another rise

BERLIN -- Government data show that German industrial production grew for the fourth consecutive month in February, underlining expectations of a pickup in Europe's biggest economy.

The Economy Ministry said Monday that production rose 0.4 percent compared with the previous month and it expects figures for the full first quarter to be "appreciably above" Germany's performance in last year's fourth quarter. In year-on-year terms, production was up 4.8 percent in February.

Germany's order pipeline also is in good shape. Data released last week showed that industrial orders were up 0.6 percent on the month in February.

The government's panel of independent economic advisers last month raised its 2014 growth forecast for Germany to 1.9 percent from 1.6 percent. Last year, the economy grew by only 0.4 percent.

Cement makers Holcim, Lafarge plan to merge

GENEVA -- Swiss cement and construction materials maker Holcim and French counterpart Lafarge say they plan to merge, creating a combined company with 32 billion euros ($44 billion) in revenue.

The two companies on Monday billed the proposed deal as a merger of equals. The plan is for Holcim's Wolfgang Reitzle to serve as chairman of the combined LafargeHolcim and Lafarge's Bruno Lafont to become its chief executive, while seven people from each company will be represented on the board.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year, subject to regulatory approval.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Apr. 7, 2014

The following are a selection of stories from Lebanese newspapers that may be of interest to Daily Star readers. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.

Al-Joumhouria

Security, legislative week ... Bkirki for a strong president ... Jumblatt in Paris

Several issues will top the list of concerns for Lebanon this week, including the security and legislative dossiers.

The Higher Defense Council will hold a meeting Monday to assess the implementation of a security plan for Tripoli and discuss a similar plan for the Bekaa Valley.

The Joint Parliamentary Committees will meet again Monday prior to submitting the draft salary scale to Parliament, which will hold a two-day legislative session Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, Al-Joumhouria has learned that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, who is in Paris on a private visit, has contacted several French officials at the Elysee Palace and the foreign ministry.

The French officials reportedly stressed the need to hold the Lebanese presidential election on time and for Lebanon to have a strong president who can face the mounting challenges.

Media reports also said Jumblatt is likely to visit Moscow soon for talks with Russian officials.

Al-Liwaa

Sleiman likely to call for changes in violence against women draft law

Salam criticizes Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria ... Arsal plan besieges wanted men

Al-Liwaa has learned that President Michel Sleiman intends to call for amendments to the draft law protecting women against domestic violence, including an amendment addressing rape.

Salam, in an interview with Al-Arabiya, said Hezbollah’s meddling in the Syria war is "unpleasant."

Salam, however, believed that Hezbollah has “realized this itself.”

More to follow ...

Tech stock sell-off spreads to Asian markets

HONG KONG -- Internet and technology stocks tumbled across Asia on Monday as a sell-off spread from Wall Street where investors knocked down such companies over worries about excessively high valuations.

Mainstays of the Internet economy such as Google and Netflix that have surged over the past year were hammered on Friday as investors had a change of heart and decided prices were too high. The technology-heavy Nasdaq had its biggest one-day drop since February.

"Perhaps the key equity story now is the horrible price action in the momentum/growth stocks; especially ones that trade, or at least did trade, on outrageous valuations," Chris Weston, chief strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, wrote in a commentary.

The sell-off flowed to Asia, especially in Japan where the Nikkei 225 led regional declines, dropping 1.6 percent to 14,818.08. Japanese Internet company Softbank Corp. slid 4.6 percent. Yahoo Japan plunged 5.3 percent and e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. sank 5.2 percent

South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.3 percent to 1,981.75 as Naver, which owns the Line messaging app, tumbled 6.2 percent. NCsoft, developer of online games such as Lineage, lost 4.5 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.6 percent to 22,376.43. Hong Kong-listed shares of China's Tencent Holdings, which owns the smartphone-based instant messaging service WeChat, fell 4.4 percent. Chinese software maker Kingsoft Corp. slid 5.3 percent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 percent to 5,415.20 while markets in mainland China were closed for a holiday.

Investors this week will be looking ahead to some key releases for further clues on the economic outlook. On Tuesday, they'll be awaiting a policy statement from the Bank of Japan that may reveal whether the central bank will provide further stimulus. On Wednesday, they'll be scrutinizing minutes from the Federal Reserve's policy setting committee.

On Wall Street on Friday, the Nasdaq composite index plunged 2.6 percent to close at 4,127.73. The S&P 500 index fell 1.3 percent to 1,865.09 while the Dow dropped or 1 percent to 16,412.71.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3698 from $1.3703 in late trading Friday. The Japanese yen slipped to 103.09 from 103.26.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for May delivery was down 26 cents to $100.88 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 85 cents to settle at $101.14 on Friday.

Rural hospitals align with larger ones to survive

JACKSON, Miss. -- Rural hospitals are facing a financial crisis that threatens many Mississippians' access to doctors, said Dr. Luke Lampton, chairman of the state Board of Health.

With increased government costs and drastic cuts in Medicare, "a lot of the rural hospitals aren't going to survive," he said. "Most have low censuses, with poor, elderly and vulnerable patients and are barely making money."

With Mississippi opting out of the Medicaid expansion allowed by the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are getting none of the money that would have come with it. Overall, the state would have brought in an additional $2.1 billion, netting the state $431 million, according to a study by The Commonwealth Fund.

Instead, Lampton said, hospitals are still having to pay the additional costs of the new regulations, which some have estimated as high as billions nationally.

He said many rural hospitals in Mississippi are hurting, with some slashing operational costs and laying off employees. Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center of McComb recently announced hundreds of layoffs.

Asked to assess his hospital's future, Emmett C. Hennessey, CEO of Beacham Memorial Hospital in Magnolia, replied with one word: "Bleak."

A decade or so ago, all Mississippi hospitals were "making good money," he said.

Government reimbursements to make Medicaid payments equal Medicare payments totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars then, he said.

Now, "the government is giving us federal funds we're entitled to, but they're charging us a tax on it," he said. "We were $30,000 in the hole on that one transaction."

Then there's the matter of "unfunded mandates," he said.

"We have three RNs and an LPN that are doing the reporting the federal government requires. They have nothing to do with patient care."

Rural hospitals have also been hurt by cuts in reimbursements, totaling $170 billion in recent years, according to the American Hospital Association.

Nationally, hospitals have an $8 billion shortfall from Medicaid reimbursements, a $24 billion shortfall from Medicare reimbursements and a $41 billion shortfall from uncompensated care, according to the association.

Hennessey said Medicare reimbursement rates are so terrible now "the Mayo Clinic is not taking Medicare anymore — the Mayo Clinic."

In 2010, Mayo stopped accepting Medicare patients at one of its primary care clinics in Arizona as part of a two-year pilot program to determine if it should also drop Medicare patients at other facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. It cited an $840 million loss in 2009 from treating Medicare patients because of the program's low reimbursement rates.

Today, the Mayo Clinic provides medical services to Medicare patients but doesn't accept the Medicare-approved payment amount as full payment, making the Medicare patient financially responsible for the portion above the Medicare allowable amount, according to its website.

Hospitals get 89 cents for every $1 spent on Medicaid and 86 cents for every $1 spent on Medicare, according to the American Hospital Association.

To make it worse, Hennessey said, medical care is being run, not by the doctors, but by the bureaucrats.

They decide how much, or even if, a patient's care will be covered, making it almost impossible to get approval for emergency surgery, he said. "If they say no, I eat it."

Mendal Kemp, program director for the Mississippi Hospital Association's Center for Rural Health, said some rural hospitals are aligning with bigger hospitals to survive.

Thirty-two rural hospitals in Mississippi have signed up as critical access hospitals, which promises them cost, plus 1 percent, payments from the federal government.

But Kemp said cuts to that funding could come if another government sequestration takes place.

The hospital association, he said, is pushing lawmakers to "ease the burden on hospitals so that the staff can spend more time and money caring for patients."

Dr. Aaron Shirley, chairman of the Jackson Medical Mall, said if he had his wish, "we would take politics out of it and get it down to need and being a Christian."

"We like to put 'In God We Trust' on signs. It would be nice if we carried that Christian doctrine throughout what we do every day."

Veterans' path to graduation can be twisty

MINNEAPOLIS -- University of Minnesota student Zac Bair enlisted in the U.S. Army to help pay for college. After three deployments in Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment and his "fair share" of combat, Bair was honorably discharged. Soon after, he enrolled at the University.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill completely covered his tuition and provided a $1,000 yearly stipend for books and an allowance for living costs. Without GI benefits, Bair said, he would likely be either working low-end jobs, living with his family, homeless or back in the military.

"It's been a huge load off my shoulders," he said, as he sets his sights on becoming a high school biology teacher.

Bair is among 1 million students aided in their academic ventures by the 2008 GI Bill, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The U.S. has spent more than $30 billion in financial aid since 2009 for veterans pursuing college degrees. But when it comes to finding out whether those students graduate, answers can be hard to find.

At the University of Minnesota, data compiled at the request of the Minnesota Daily (http://bit.ly/1e60bnU ) showed the four-year graduation rate for student veterans has fallen, while the retention rate has jumped — suggesting that many are simply taking longer to graduate.

This falls in line with national numbers released last week, offering the most comprehensive look so far at veteran academic success. The Million Records Project, released by Student Veterans of America, shows about half of student veterans are graduating with degrees, and many are taking longer than the traditional four years to finish school - on average, veterans take about six years to complete a bachelor's degree.

"Veterans don't have a linear path to a degree," said Dr. Chris Cate, vice president of research for Student Veterans of America.

Student veterans may have jobs, families or military obligations, in addition to the challenges that come from having spent time on the battlefield. Any of these can interrupt or lengthen their educational journeys, making it difficult to track their progress. This means that, as a group of students who often need the most support — and whose education is publicly funded — they can fall through the cracks.

As the first Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries started to graduate, lawmakers, media outlets, student advocacy groups and others have called for results on whether the money is serving its purpose by helping student veterans earn college degrees.

Within the Million Records Project study sample, 51.7 percent of student veterans earned a college degree or certificate, numbers higher than previously reported by various media outlets, but lower than recent estimates of nearly 70 percent.

Passed in 2008, the Post-9/11 GI Bill expanded educational benefits for military veterans serving after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The bill allows the federal government to pay tuition and fees, a monthly housing allowance and book stipends. The Montgomery GI Bill and the Minnesota GI Bill also provide support to active duty members and Minnesota veterans, respectively. In Minnesota, there are about 18,800 veteran students across 181 schools, according to News21 research, and more than $244.5 million awarded in GI Bill funds.

The Million Records study examined veterans using government education benefits, including a million Montgomery GI Bill and Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries. After excluding those still in school, the study found after sifting through 788,915 records that about 15 percent of beneficiaries got associate's degrees, about 24 percent attained bachelor's and about 8 percent got master's.

But elsewhere, information available about veteran students is less consistent.

The University does not currently have a comprehensive tracking system in place for veteran graduation and retention rates, but Jennifer Peterson, assistant director of University Veterans Services, said the office is trying to better grasp the data.

The Minnesota Daily requested information from all Big Ten schools, most of which didn't start tracking veterans as a population until the past few years, while others had very little data readily available and had to compile it.

Other Big Ten schools that shared the most detailed data were the University of Illinois, Penn State, the University of Iowa and Purdue University, and most painted a general picture of veteran success.

Tracking veteran students presents a number of challenges for universities, and there is no uniform method. The University of Minnesota's pool includes those who self-identify and those receiving GI Bill benefits, so some may not be counted at all. GI Bill beneficiaries aren't confined to veterans themselves either and can include family members and other dependents.

Most veterans are in categories often overlooked by university research and policies: those of nontraditional age, those going to school part time and those with mixed enrollment.

Additionally, GI Bill benefits have a 36-month limit. Because the VA uses financial awards for tracking purposes, Cate said, student veterans whose benefits run out before they graduate are counted as not finishing at all.

"There's a difference between falling off the grid and quitting academia," Cate said.

Bair said while the GI Bill's time limit helps keep him focused on graduating within four years, it may be a downside to a majority of his friends who have changed majors during their college careers.

"There's not really wiggle room," he said.

Tours of duty interrupt or halt academic careers, too. Many reservists were called up to serve in Middle Eastern wars between 2004 and 2009, Cate said, and they could have lost all their credits. Since 2007, at least 45 active-duty University students interrupted their education to serve military tours of duty, according to One Stop, though the numbers only represent those who reported their departure to advisers and received a tuition refund.

Tracking how many veterans actually drop out can also be difficult.

"The problem is when people drop out, they do it very quietly and just disappear," said Andrew Friedrichs, treasurer of the Student Veterans Association. "They don't go around telling everyone."

Nationally, there has been a push for more comprehensive and uniform tracking and transparency regarding educational services for veterans. In 2012, Congress passed the Improving Transparency of Education Opportunities for Veterans Act, requiring colleges to share more information about how they serve veterans, mostly in an effort to combat misleading, targeted marketing by for-profit colleges. Recently, proposed legislation that would require the VA to track veteran graduation rates died in House committee.

"Inconsistent methods of collecting such information has led to confusion about the completion rates of student veterans in higher education," the Million Records Project report said, "and without strong, empirical data, the uncertainty will persist."

Asian stocks fall on Wall Street tech losses

HONG KONG -- Asian stocks started the week lower, tracking losses on Wall Street where investors knocked down internet and technology stocks over worries about valuations.

Internet economy mainstays such as Google and Netflix that have surged over the past year were hammered on Friday as investors had a change of heart and decided prices were too high. The technology-heavy Nasdaq had its biggest one-day drop since February.

The sell-off flowed through into Asia, especially in Japan where the Nikkei 225 led the region's declines, dropping 1.3 percent to 14,871.54. Electronics makers slid, with Panasonic Corp. down 3.8 percent and Toshiba Corp. losing 1.6 percent.

South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.2 percent to 1,985.00 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.5 percent 22,401.93. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2 percent to 5,412.70.

Markets in mainland China were closed for a holiday.

Investors this week will be looking ahead to some key releases for further clues on the economic outlook. On Tuesday, they'll be awaiting a policy statement from the Bank of Japan that may reveal whether the central bank will provide further stimulus. On Wednesday, they'll be scrutinizing minutes from the Federal Reserve's policy setting committee.

On Wall Street on Friday, the Nasdaq composite index plunged 2.6 percent to close at 4,127.73. The S&P 500 index fell 1.3 percent to 1,865.09 while the Dow dropped or 1 percent to 16,412.71.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3701 from $1.3703 in late trading Friday. The Japanese yen rose to 103.28 from 103.26.

In energy trading, crude oil for May delivery fell 26 cents to $100.88 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 85 cents to settle at $101.14 on Friday.

Cardiac device keeps heart going

By JENNIFER R. LLOYD

SAN ANTONIO -- With a weak heart muscle and heart valve problems, Ruben Rivera said he was apprehensive about having a new type of battery-powered defibrillator implanted under his skin that could shock his heart if it sensed an irregular rhythm.

But the 62-year-old San Antonio resident has no regrets since becoming the first patient here to undergo the procedure late last month.

"I feel good," said Rivera, acknowledging that while his heart is still weak, "I have peace of mind, which makes it feel that much better."

"I know that if I go into cardiac arrest, this apparatus will take care of my needs," he told the San Antonio Express-News (http://bit.ly/1k5PdBi).

Rivera is one of hundreds of thousands of patients in the United States that have cardiomyopathy, or a weak heart, which puts them at a higher risk of dangerous abnormal heart rhythms, said Dr. Manoj Panday, director of cardiac electrophysiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Cardiomyopathy can be caused by coronary artery disease, a prior heart attack, a viral infection or an adverse reaction to certain medications, Panday said. Hundreds of thousands more people in the United States may be at risk of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias, he said.

"Having a defibrillator that's there as an insurance plan, so to speak, is important because it helps to protect them whenever it may occur but at the same time allows them to live a normal life and not have to think about the defibrillator," Panday said. "It's there doing its job silently all the time."

Panday implanted the new device, created by Boston Scientific and called a subcutaneous internal cardioverter-defibrillator, or S-ICD, in Rivera last month at the Audie Murphy VA Hospital. The company selected the initial physicians for the procedure based on their experience and ability to offer this type of care to patients, he said.

The S-ICD is implanted in the chest wall, Panday said. The traditional implantable defibrillator required puncturing a blood vessel and screwing an electrode or lead into the heart to conduct the charge, he said. The new device was designed to avoid some of the resulting risks, which include puncturing the lung or the heart or introducing bacteria that could cling to the defibrillator and cause a serious infection.

Rivera was a good candidate for the new device because a previous surgery had caused a bacterial infection that entered his bloodstream, Panday said.

At University Hospital on Monday, Panday implanted another such device in Leonardo Perez, 50, of San Antonio.

Perez said he had triple bypass surgery last year and felt lucky to benefit from the new technology.

"Let's get going," he said, eager to get the hour-long procedure underway. "I'm ready."

Once Perez was sedated, Panday cut a pocket a few inches below his left armpit to insert the generator, which is about the size of a deck of cards.

Using two small incisions, Panday ran the lead — a thin, insulated wire — across from the pocket to the center of the chest and then up the chest. The device can deliver 80 joules to the chest wall, "much like you see on a television shows where a doctor will say, 'Stat,' and shock a patient with paddles," Panday said.

The battery lasts about five years before the generator needs to be replaced in an outpatient procedure. The battery runs down faster than the traditional defibrillator because it requires a greater charge — it's not as close to the heart.

The tensest moment of the procedure came after the device was inserted in the chest. Panday and his team tested it by inducing a cardiac arrest and then watching as the device sent a shock trembling through Perez's still unconscious body, jolting his heart back into a normal heart rhythm — ready to save his life should he need it again.

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Information from: San Antonio Express-News, http://bit.ly/1e608sc

Eds: This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the San Antonio Express-News.

Mechanic at Bay City shop reflects on changes

BAY CITY, Mich. -- There have been a lot of changes at Bay City's Morgan's Auto Repair during the last 50 years. Auto technician Jerome "Joe" Chislea has seen them all.

The 65-year-old began working at the former full-service gasoline station near downtown Bay City when he was just 16 years old.

"I started in high school at 16, basically, you know, pumping gas, washing cars and busting tires and doing oil changes. All that kind of stuff," he told The Bay City Times ( http://bit.ly/1muYD9f ).

As Chislea retires, the gas pumps are gone and Morgan's only offers auto repairs and maintenance.

"It went from full service, to self service to nothing — no gas," Chislea recalled. "We did have wreckers, too."

The changes at Morgan's mirror of how many gasoline stations in Michigan have evolved in the past half century. Some have become gas stations with convenience stores while others have dropped gas and are focused on auto repair.

Morgan's opened in March 1964. Chislea started in December of that year.

Chislea said auto repair was a natural career choice for him.

"I was born into it, I think. My dad was a mechanic and, when I was probably that high, he had me washing parts," Chislea recalled, measuring a few feet up from the shop floor with his hand.

Morgan's moved to its current location several years later, he said.

After graduating from high school in 1966, Chislea continued to work at the shop. In 1967 and 1968 he attended Ferris State College, now Ferris State University, where he studied diesel and heavy equipment.

"I was going to change, but then when I come back the owner (Charlie Morgan Sr. and his son Charlie Morgan Jr.) talked me into staying for a while. I figured, 'Oh, what the heck. I'll stay for a while and see how it works out — I'm still here," he laughed.

Today, Mike and Diana Dalton own Morgan's. The Daltons bought the business in September 1988.

Diana Dalton said she and her husband will miss Chislea dearly. He's a hard worker who understands small business and a caring person who always has a positive attitude, she said.

"He was on the safety committee. He did things that weren't popular," she recalled. "But Joe didn't care. He did it because he knew it was a good idea."

Dalton said Chislea adapted as the business changed over the years, and he never complained.

"There were a lot of really big things that happened during his employment there and he's patient. He perseveres. He rose to all these challenges ... and was very loyal."

Decades ago, before self-serve gas station/convenience stores, the stations were full-service operations.

Mark Griffin is the president of the Lansing-based Michigan Petroleum Association and Michigan Association of Convenience Stores.

"What happened is in the late 70s the major oil companies decided that the trend was going to be . to put convenience stores into gas stations instead of having a repair shop," Griffin said.

"And in states like Michigan at that time, the major oil companies owned a lot of retail locations and they would lease those locations to owners and operators (of gas stations)," he said.

Griffin said the shift likely had something to do with the fact that convenience stores are more profitable on a square footage basis than auto repair shops.

"It was something that the major oil companies thought they would do better at than auto repair," he said.

As vehicles became more complicated, "auto repair was probably a niche that they didn't want to be in," he said.

As gas stations and auto repair parted ways, making room for convenience stores stocked with pop, candy, cigarettes and lottery tickets, stand-alone auto repair shops became common, Griffin said.

In the 1980s, the Michigan Petroleum Association took note of that shift.

"We added our convenience store association in '84 and that was recognizing that many of our members were in that transition," he said.

Since then, major oil companies have gotten out of retail almost entirely, selling off their chains in the early 2000's, Griffin said.

At the same time, tougher regulations on gasoline storage began to phase out small operators.

Across the street from Morgan's in Bay City is Konkle's Super Service. Konkle's also started out as a full-service Sinclair gas station decades ago, said current owner John Konkle.

Konkle took over the family business in 1991. His father Art Konkle owned it before him, and his father's cousin, Tom Williams, who opened the business in 1933, owned it before him.

"We always were an auto repair facility and we sold gas," Konkle said. "There was a gas station on every other corner back in the '50s and '60s."

But in the late '90s, Konkle's got out of the gas business when an EPA mandate meant gas stations would need to upgrade their equipment or close, Konkle said.

"We all just decided that it wouldn't be cost effective (to do the upgrades)," he said.

One reason former gas stations have survived the changes is that automobiles have become much more complicated today than they were when Chislea started working 50 years ago.

"The cars are much better now than they were back then, but they're a lot more complicated. They do last longer. They do run a lot better and a lot cleaner," he said.

When asked what his least favorite thing about cars today is, he replied, "Too many computers. Everything has a computer now... it's crazy. When I started there were none and they worked just fine."

Chislea performs a wide variety of repairs and maintenance work on cars as an Automotive Service Excellence master mechanic.

"This is my bay right here. Well, these two I work on mostly," Chislea said, walking back to bays three and four. "We do shocks, brakes, struts, you know, water pumps, radiators, tune ups, oil changes, of course — minor stuff — new tires, that kind of thing."

But after a 50-year career, Chislea said he's looking forward to retirement.

A blue sign with yellow letters spelling "Happy Retirement" hung in the shop's small lobby. The sign out front thanks Chislea for his half a century of service.

He plans to spend his free time fishing, visiting Drummond Island and working on home improvement projects.

"(I'm) retiring from work — not from the honey-do list, no," he said.

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Information from: The Bay City Times, http://bit.ly/1oFDZW6

This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Bay City Times.

A look at the pecking order in college sports

ARLINGTON, Texas -- An NCAA proposal would give the five biggest conferences a chance to make their own rules, a nod to the revenue their football and basketball programs produce and their need to help players close the gap between the worth of a scholarship and the price of attending college.

Those conferences, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, all have major football programs and reaped huge payouts as part of the BCS, which is being replaced by a four-team playoff system starting next season. In almost every case, football revenue pays the bills for athletic programs that often field close to 20 teams. All those, except for football and men's basketball, are often considered "non-revenue-producing" sports.

The schools with smaller football programs operate on much slimmer margins. For instance, the Mountain West Conference has football teams and some stake in the new college playoff but the teams and their conferences don't have the same lucrative TV contracts as those in the biggest leagues.

A look at the pecking order in college sports:

THE BIG BOYS: The ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC have all been expanding in recent years, while the Big 12 has had teams poached from its league but has worked hard to stay in the mix. Eleven years ago, the ACC was considered a great basketball conference with a few good football teams. Seeing where the future was, it started asking others with big-money football programs — Syracuse, Boston College and Louisville — to join. That triggered huge realignment across the country.

THE NEXT TIER: The Mountain West, Conference USA and Mid-American Conferences are examples in this group. They play football but don't make nearly as much money as the biggest conferences. Their basketball programs are among the so-called "mid-majors." Their football programs are eligible for the new playoff and often find themselves in BCS bowl games, but only if their ranking is high enough.

EVERYONE ELSE: There are the 22 Division I conferences that don't play football. Examples: Missouri Valley Conference, Big East. These conferences have little interest in adopting rules that would force more expenses on them — say, paying stipends to players. In any negotiation about rules changes, they have leverage, because they make up what many people consider the heart and soul of the NCAA basketball tournament. Almost every underdog that's done well — Butler, Wichita State, Gonzaga — comes from this group and helps make March Madness what it is: An event that generates around $750 million in TV revenue every year.

Idle Neb. meatpacking plant to be demolished

GERING, Neb. -- Gering officials are looking forward to the demolition of an idle meatpacking plant in the Nebraska Panhandle city.

The Star-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1lEQnkr ) the Swift Packerland building has been empty for about ten years and has long been considered unsafe.

Twin Cities Development Project Developer Mike Sarchet says city officials have been working with the building's owner, JBS Swift, to have the building demolished for several years.

Asbestos removal has been scheduled and should be completed by June. After that the structure can be demolished.

Sarchet says he's excited about the possibility of another business using that site once demolition is completed.

Potato inspectors patrol seed stores in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska has three inspectors trying to make sure that potato seeds sold in the state are free of pests to protect growers.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/1oEE6RM ) two of the inspectors from the state Department of Agriculture recently quarantined nine boxes of potato seeds at a Lincoln True Value hardware store

The store's owners didn't have paperwork needed to prove the seeds were free of the Columbia root-knot nematode worm. That pest eats the roots of plants like grasses, legumes and cereals.

"We take seriously the need to protect our potato industry here in this state," State Ag Department spokeswoman Christin Kamm said.

Nebraska farmers grow about 20,000 acres of potatoes each year. Nebraska's potato crop is much smaller than the 345,000 acres Idaho plants as the nation's top producer.

But Nebraska's small, spread-out potato crop helps limit disease and makes the state a good seed producer, said Steven Marquardt of the Nebraska Potato Certification Association of Nebraska.

Ever since 2002, Nebraska officials have inspected potatoes that come from states known to be infected with the nematode. Those states include California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and parts of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

The state Agriculture Department has completed about 100 inspections this year and already found 15 batches of undocumented potatoes, said Julie Van Meter, who oversees the program.

Last year, no violations were found in 96 inspections. Van Meter said it's unclear why more violations were found this year.

Gas prices rise by 5 cents in past 2 weeks

CAMARILLO, Calif. -- The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has risen 5 cents in the past two weeks.

The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.61, the highest price in Lundberg's twice-monthly surveys since late July 2013.

But the current price is 4 cents under its year ago point.

Midgrade costs an average of $3.79 a gallon, and premium $3.94.

The average diesel price is $4.00, down 2 cents.

Of the cities surveyed in the Lower 48 states, Billings, Mont. has the nation's lowest average price at $3.20. Los Angeles has the highest at $4.04.

In California, the lowest average price was $3.83 in Sacramento. The average statewide for a gallon of regular was $3.07.

NCAA officials adamantly opposed to one-and-done

ARLINGTON, Texas -- NCAA officials and Kentucky coach John Calipari at least agree on something: The one-and-done rule in college basketball needs to be revised.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said during his annual news conference Sunday that he is in "vocal opposition" to the rule established by the NBA and its union that requires players be at least one year removed from high school before declaring for the NBA draft.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby went further, saying "the NFL and NBA have been irresponsible in not providing other legitimate opportunities for kids that really don't want to go to college."

Calipari has said he favors a two-year period before players can declare for the NBA draft, even though his 2012 title team had three one-and-done players, and the team that he'll put on the floor in Monday night's national title game against UConn could have even more.

"As everyone knows here, this is enshrined in the labor agreement between the NBA and the NBA players, and not a rule that we have control over," said Emmert, who has spoken out against it in the past. "I think everybody here knows my position on it."

The age restrictions were put in place in 2005, two years after LeBron James joined players such as Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant on the none-and-done path to the NBA. While those players succeeded, many other high schoolers declared for the draft and struggled.

The rules have been tweaked and scrutinized since then, and there is still no consensus on what system is best. Some prefer the baseball model, which gives high school players the right to enter the draft immediately, but those that stay must wait three years. Others agree with Calipari that two years is appropriate, and still others believe that all age limits are ridiculous.

"I like the baseball rule," Bowlsby said. "I like, 'Draft 'em out of high school or leave 'em go until after their junior year.' And I also think the NBA and NFL need to have some legitimate developmental program to allow people who don't want to go to college to go develop their skills."

The one thing that everyone seems to agree upon, including Calipari and NCAA officials, is that the current model serves neither the players nor the college game.

"Every president I know, and every conference I know, is pretty adamantly opposed to that, and hopes that the NBA and the NBA Players' Association will make some changes," said Michael Drake, the chancellor at California-Irvine and the incoming president of Ohio State.

Calipari has grown weary of the attention his program gets for churning out one-and-done player. He has had 13 of them dating to his days at Memphis in 2006. He argues that he is simply playing with the hand that he's dealt, and that the players who do leave for the NBA after only one season are simply pursuing their dreams.

In fact, Calipari was so disgusted by the negative connotation associated with the term "one and done" that he offered an alternative this week: "succeed and proceed."

"Every player that I've recruited, and they will tell you, I say the same thing: 'Don't plan on coming to school for one year. You make a huge mistake,'" Calipari said. "But if after one year, you have options, that will be up to you and your family.

"Enjoy the college experience, enjoy the college environment, because the rest of it is work. It's not about family, it's about business. So enjoy it."

NE Neb. town may stop providing hospital care

TILDEN, Neb. -- A northeast Nebraska town may stop providing hospital services this summer because the Tilden Community Hospital has been losing money.

The Norfolk Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1lENtfx ) that Tilden may convert the town's hospital to an outpatient clinic, close the emergency room and stop providing inpatient care.

So Tilden's roughly 950 residents would have to drive 22 miles east to Norfolk when they need inpatient care.

Tilden hospital administrator Lon Knievel said he recommended the change to the City Council because he thinks it's the best option. The city owns the hospital.

"My recommendation to them was not made lightly, and it is something I have wrestled with for several months now," he said.

Officials said the hospital doesn't treat enough patients to support the cost of maintaining inpatient services. In the past year, the Tilden hospital has been consistently losing money every month with the biggest monthly loss hitting $60,000.

Tilden residents received a letter last week explaining the proposed change, and officials held a public meeting Friday to answer questions.

The Tilden City Council is scheduled to discuss the proposal on Tuesday.

Sioux City building built in 1930s damaged by fire

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The owners of a distinctive Sioux City building that dates to the 1930s are trying to determine how much can be salvaged after a weekend fire.

The Sioux City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1e39uVb ) the Normandy building sustained significant damage Saturday.

The white building with cone-shaped turrets was the longtime home of the Normandy Restaurant. It has also housed other businesses and in recent years, several art studios.

Jennifer Vollmer said it was difficult to watch the building where she spent so much time as a child burn. Vollmer's family owned the building and ran the Normandy Restaurant.

"It was just shocking," Vollmer said. "For a good three hours we just sat here and watched it burn and watched the firefighters do the best they could."

Fire officials haven't been able to determine what caused the fire partly because it hasn't been safe for inspectors to enter the building.

Sioux City Fire Marshal Mark Aesoph said the roof will have to be removed before investigators can enter because it is in danger of collapsing.

"We've got to remove it, pick it off, piece by piece," he said.

Much of the interior of the building had been vacant for about two years, but several local artists had been renting studio space.

Valerie Martin said instead of preparing for an art show at the building, she'll be working on salvaging the artwork that firefighters saved.

"We had just finished building the studios over here, but now I'm just taking the rest of the art home," she said. "We were supposed to be having an opening next month to let people in and see what we had done."

Vollmer said her family had been considering renovating the building.

Vollmer said it's too soon to know if any of the building will be salvageable.

"It's not quite a historical landmark, but it's such a neat building that so many people have fond memories of," Vollmer said.

College athletes union could put billions at stake

Last month, a National Labor Relations Board director ruled that college football players at Northwestern could unionize. Many believe the ruling, if it stands up, could force schools and the NCAA to share more of the revenue from college football and basketball.

But figuring out how much revenue comes from these sports is difficult. The revenue streams are numerous.

According to the Education Department's latest statistics, all colleges combined to generate $14.3 billion in revenue during the 2012-13 fiscal year. Expenses totaled $13.8 billion, leaving about $500 million in profit, though not every university reported making money.

But some of the benefits from sports aren't captured in the department's statistics.

There are contracts worth nearly $18 billion just for the television rights to the NCAA men's basketball tournament and football bowl games. There also are billons in broadcasting rights deals for the five major football conferences.

"Revenues derived from college athletics is greater than the aggregate revenues of the NBA and the NHL," said Marc Edelman, an associate professor at City University of New York who specializes in sports and antitrust law. He also noted that Alabama's athletic revenues last year, which totaled $143 million, exceeded those of all 30 NHL teams and 25 of the 30 NBA teams.

Texas is the largest athletic department, earning more than $165 million last year in revenue — with $109 million coming from football, according to Education Department data. The university netted $27 million after expenses.

Other major programs such as Florida ($129 million), Ohio State ($123 million), Michigan ($122 million), Southern California ($97 million) and Oregon ($81 million) also are grossing massive dollars. They are also spending big bucks, too.

Most universities are just trying to keep pace in the arms race of college athletics, reporting spending as much — or more — than they are making annually. Many athletic departments also receive subsidies from universities in the form of student fees.

Rod Fort, a sports economist and co-director at the Michigan Center for Sport Management, said the difference in profit margins between schools and nonfootball programs "presents the potential union with a real trade-off problem" if it wanted to negotiate for revenue.

"If athletes make any gains through organization of unions and collective bargaining, it's going to come at the expense of other spending that's going on in the athletic department. Most of that extra money goes to coaches' salaries, facility upgrades and recruiting," Fort said. "It's precisely that spending that makes the university the attractive place that it is to come and play in the first place."

TV deals are the biggest source of money, but that's only the beginning.

Merchandise sales, sponsorship deals and booster donations are all part of an athletic pie that could one day be sliced up for players. The retail marketplace for college licensed merchandise alone last year was estimated at $4.62 billion, according to Collegiate Licensing Company, the country's oldest and largest college trademark licensing agency.

The benefit to universities goes beyond the playing surfaces, too. Schools often see a spike in enrollment, alumni contributions and sponsorship opportunities following athletic success.

Florida Gulf Coast University, for example, saw a 35 percent year-to-year increase in applications after its men's basketball team's surprising run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament last March.

With that kind of cash at stake, major changes to the NCAA financial model — particularly being forced to share a portion of the revenue with athletes — could rearrange budgets far more than the extra $2,000 annual stipend that NCAA President Mark Emmert proposed but failed to get implemented from member institutions.

"It could change the entire athletic department model," Fort said. "The idea is, on average, athletic departments are run on a break-even proposition. They're not expected to make money, and they're not expected to lose money. Their budget is set in a discussion with university administrators, just like any place else on campus. If the day comes where athletes bargain for wages, budgets are going to have to change across the country."

Angry families want GM prosecuted for defects

WASHINGTON -- The families of those who died in General Motors cars with defective ignition switches want prosecutors to go after GM insiders responsible for letting the problems fester for more than a decade — and perhaps for covering them up.

"The only way the public is going to be protected from this negligence by companies is if there will ultimately be prison sentences," said Leo Ruddy of Scranton, Pa., whose 21-year-old daughter Kelly was killed in 2010 when her Chevrolet Cobalt veered inexplicably off the highway and crashed.

Family members attended hearings in Washington last week that stoked those sentiments. Lawmakers confronted GM CEO Mary Barra with what they said was evidence that, in 2006, a company employee intentionally tried to conceal the switch problem. And the head of the nation's auto safety watchdog said GM withheld critical information that connected the failing switch to air bags that didn't deploy in a crash.

"I don't see this as anything but criminal," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, a former state prosecutor.

However, even if an employee or employees did conceal information, it's uncertain whether they would be charged with a crime. Legal experts say it's easier to prove wrongdoing by a corporation than by individuals. The internal documents that can be used to build a case against the company might be inadmissible as evidence against individuals. And it can be hard to prove that individuals knowingly made false statements.

The Justice Department didn't bring charges against any individuals last month when it closed a yearslong investigation of Toyota.

GM has acknowledged that in 2004 and 2005, engineers submitted proposals to fix the switches in Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other small cars, but the fixes were never implemented. GM says upper management only became aware of the problem last year. A recall of the small cars, now up to 2.6 million vehicles, began in February.

On Wednesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., accused one GM employee of a cover-up. Ray DeGiorgio, the lead switch engineer on the Cobalt, said in a deposition last year for a lawsuit against GM that he never approved a change to the ignition switch. But McCaskill produced a document from GM's switch supplier that showed DeGiorgio signed off on a replacement, but with the same part number. Failing to change a part number makes the part harder to track.

Appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," McCaskill said, "There is no reason to keep the same part number unless you're trying to hide the fact that you've got a defective switch out there that in fact ended up killing a number of people on our highways."

Paul Rothstein, a Georgetown University law professor, wouldn't speak specifically about DeGiorgio, but said someone "caught in a lie" could be more vulnerable to individual prosecution.

Barra called the failure to change the part number "unacceptable." She said the company has not yet fired any employees in connection with the recall. But she said if inappropriate decisions were made, GM will take action, including firing those involved.

Barra said at the hearing that DeGiorgio still works at GM. The company declined to make him available for an interview.

"If you can go to jail for insider trading and things like that, which is just making money, if you do something that caused a loss of life ... (the penalty) should be more than just a few dollars," said Ken Rimer, whose stepdaughter died in a 2006 accident after a faulty switch prevented air bags from deploying.

But Matt Axelrod, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Washington, said prosecutors face a higher burden to prove criminal wrongdoing. "The forum before a congressional committee is different than the forum before a jury," he said.

The Justice Department hasn't confirmed that it's investigating General Motors, but a person familiar with the case said the probe is underway. The person didn't want to be identified because the investigation is private.

Two weeks ago, the Justice Department socked Toyota with a $1.2 billion penalty over its recall of millions of vehicles for unintended acceleration. But no individuals were charged, even though prosecutors discovered that some managers sought to conceal problems with gas pedals in certain cars.

Proving individual guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is much harder than prosecuting a company based on the collective knowledge of all its employees. "To charge an individual, you have to show that one individual acted illegally by himself," Axelrod said.

For now, many of the families are simply seeking more information about the fatal crashes.

Originally, Ruddy thought the power steering motor failed on his daughter's 2005 Cobalt, causing her to crash while returning home from visiting friends in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., late at night. The Cobalt was recalled in 2010 to replace faulty power steering motors. But now he thinks the ignition switch could have shut off the engine, knocking out power steering and brakes and causing her to lose control of the car.

GM took the car's event data recorder, and only recently returned it after the family contacted a Pennsylvania senator for help. The contents are now being analyzed, and the family will be looking to see the position of the ignition switch, Ruddy said.

Ruddy says the family is considering a lawsuit against GM but has yet to file one. A family friend who is an attorney is advising them on their next steps.

Rimer and his wife have already filed a lawsuit against GM. He's worried that GM might be legally protected from lawsuits arising from decisions it made before its 2009 bankruptcy.

"No money will ever bring my wife's daughter back," he said. But "unless there's a consequence for them doing something wrong, what's going to stop them from doing something wrong again?"

Thomas Strong in Washington contributed to this report.

At Army conference, look to sidelines

BEIRUT: High-ranking international figures are expected to attend the fourth regional conference organized by the Lebanese Army this week, but its sideline meetings will count the most.

Though the conference is slated to discuss the status quo in the Middle East, as well as possible developments, settlements and deals and the legitimacy of certain regimes. But the more important developments will take place during sideline discussions between high-level attendees and Lebanese officials, including President Michel Sleiman.

The conference, organized by the Army’s Center for Strategic Research and Studies, is scheduled to take place Thursday at the BIEL center at the Beirut waterfront.

Among the expected participants are United Nations-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi, European Union Special Representative for the Southern Mediterranean region Bernardino Le?n, former Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Relations with African Countries Alexei Vasiliev and former Special Adviser for Transition in Syria at the U.S. Department of State Frederick Hoff.

Sources well informed about the preparations underway for the conference told The Daily Star that it would see wide-scale political discussions on the situation in Lebanon and the region, as Brahimi will seize the opportunity to meet with several officials and might arrange to meet with a senior Hezbollah official.

During the conference, Brahimi will also focus on issues related to Syrian refugees, whose official numbers in Lebanon have surpassed 1 million, creating an economic burden for a country already suffering from fiscal deficit.

Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of Lebanon’s population, the UNHCR said in a statement, warning that most of them live in poverty and depend on aid for survival.

Refugee numbers are expected to increase further as the war between the Syrian regime and rebel fighters is proving to be intractable.

The sources said that Brahimi would urge Lebanese officials to stick to the disassociation policy and the Baabda Declaration, both of which call for distancing Lebanon from the Syrian conflict and maintaining neutrality.

The sources expected that the conference would provide a platform for participants to deliberate over regional issues and their repercussions for Lebanon’s delicate security situation.

Lebanese officials are also expected to be briefed on preparations underway for the Geneva III conference, especially as diplomatic reports are increasingly pessimistic about the Syrian regime’s participation. Damascus might find no incentive to take part in the political process if it continues to achieve victory on the battlefields in Syria.

Sleiman is expected to hold meetings with Hoff, Leon and Vasiliev, who will all likely stress the importance of holding the presidential election on time and then forming another national unity Cabinet to lay the groundwork for parliamentary elections, scheduled for November.

Geagea throws spanner in election negotiations

Hezbollah has barely reacted to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea’s presidential nomination and is acting as if the matter does not interest the party at all, despite the upcoming election being the party’s primary concern within the political sphere.

Hezbollah officials are known to be proficient in the art of silence and timing as well as a number of other equally important things: sharp eyes, wide smiles and, as is the norm, comments that comprise only a few words.

In a quick summary of recent developments, a high-ranking Hezbollah leader told The Daily Star that Qalamoun, Yabroud, Rankous and other towns on the Syrian side of the border were now under the party’s complete control. He did not elaborate.

Additionally, the official said the security plan in Tripoli and Arsal was being implemented with the coordination of Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, with the latter communicating daily with senior Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa on the thornier files. The lines of communication with the Future Movement are also now open to address several issues, a marked improvement on the situation before.

“All of these issues which have been a sharp political struggle in Lebanon are now being dealt with and that is part of a regional and international agreement which calls for the neutralization of Lebanon as much as possible from the consequences of the acute Syrian crisis and reviving democratic and parliamentary life,” the official said.

“The notable dangers in Lebanon and the region are the cases of the takfiri groups, which seek to ignite absurd wars and sectarian Shiite-Sunni strife, and that is what we aim to deal with along with other political parties, as long as the international and regional umbrella provides a favorable climate for Lebanon to move toward stability and security,” he added.

The primary concern remains the presidential election and Geagea’s nomination, the latter of which the Hezbollah official refused to directly comment upon, saying instead: “Since when is the nomination of a Lebanese president done through a news conference and election campaigns through Facebook and social media sites?”

He said the party was waiting for other March 14 groups to announce their stance on the issue, after which it will make clear its position, although he stressed that Hezbollah’s candidate of preference was Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.

According to the official, the choice of a Lebanese president will be made through an international and regional arrangement. He added that there were specific powers working on this file, and that this led to an American-Iranian rapprochement as well as U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia. There are also indications of a growing Saudi-Iranian understanding – whose breakthroughs are reflected in the domestic situation – with further steps to be taken in this area, most notably in relation to the presidential election.

According to the Hezbollah official, Geagea has taken a hasty step that is outside the current regional efforts aimed at finding an agreement that will help Lebanon “to hold back the fires of Syria.”

Geagea’s decision, he said, was not about getting into Baabda Palace as much as proving that he is a Christian leader first and is able “to block the road and stop any possible compromise between the March 8 and March 14 groups, with the firm conviction that any group in Lebanon cannot secure the quorum of half plus one.”

He also added that Geagea’s nomination was now a problem within the March 14 camp, which did not wholly back his candidacy. He also went over the Christian consensus that Bkirki had asked from all Christian sides as it publically announced that it would like the arrival of a strong candidate for the presidency.

“ Hezbollah usually leaves Speaker Nabih Berri the task of rounding corners and finding magical solutions to local issues,” the party official said, adding that Berri would appoint a new session date.

The thrust of it is that the March 8 candidate is Aoun, the leader said.

However, he noted that outside forces would also have their say, as would centrist forces such as the Progressive Socialist Party and its leader Walid Jumblatt. He also pointed to the wide range of choices, including Army chief Gen. Jean Kahwagi or Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, which would call for amending the Constitution. There is also the possibility of Jean Obeid due to his distinctive relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad as he could be a link between the Eastern and the Western world.

A senior politician who has been part of the election of more than one Lebanese president over the years is more philosophical.

“The Lebanese, or the political parties, chose chaos instead of Mikhael Daher in the 1988 elections, which was preceded by Parliament electing Bashir Gemayel until Amine Gemayel made it through, and the same thing happened afterward with Rene Mouawad’s election up until Elias Hrawi,” he said as he walked in his garden in a Beirut suburb. “In the Lebanese presidential elections there are magic hats from which emerges a president who is not at all expected.”

The politician stressed that it was necessary to read the regional situation in order to approach the presidential election reasonably. There are a series of international understandings that are controlling the Middle East, he said, but the agreements may not be developed enough to elect someone yet, and it is possible that the elections will be postponed for a few months despite the fact that regional indications suggest they will happen on time.

He said it seems “there is an ongoing search for a sophisticated individual characterized by awareness and maturity to take the first seat in Lebanon and to steer [the country] during an exceptional phase in Lebanon’s history that could be the most dangerous and the most sensitive” it has ever seen.

U.S. lawmakers draft new Hezbollah sanctions

BEIRUT: U.S. lawmakers are pushing for new legislation that will impose further economic sanctions on Hezbollah and its Al-Manar television station as they seek to cripple the party’s sources of funding.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs drafted on April 3 a law that would toughen economic sanctions against Hezbollah, a party that lawmakers said continued to “pose a threat to the United States, our allies and interests throughout the Middle East, and well beyond.”

“The Hezbollah International Financial Prevention Act takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the threat posed by Hezbollah by imposing severe new sanctions on Hezbollah’s fundraising channels and restricting its ability to use its funds to support global terrorist activities,” a statement by the committee said.

The purpose of the act is to deal a blow to the Lebanese group’s finances, thereby reducing its capacity to “sow instability in the Middle East and cut off a major source of terrorist support.”

“The United States must deal with Hezbollah firmly and decisively with unyielding resolve by crippling its extensive, illegal financial network. Hezbollah’s days of unhindered criminal operations and terrorist activity are numbered,” the statement quoted Rep. Mark Meadows as saying.

The bill will be introduced by Reps. Meadows, a Republican, and Brad Schneider, a Democrat, both members of the committee’s panel on the Middle East. Committee chairman Ed Royce, a Republican, and Eliot Engel, a Democrat and ranking member, will also endorse it.

Schneider accused Hezbollah of money laundering and helping to fund terrorist activities, saying the law would give Washington more ways to crack down on its activities.

News and analysis website Al-Monitor said Sunday it had obtained a copy of the bill that provided the U.S. administration with the necessary tools to pursue foreign financial institutions, including central banks, that knowingly engage in business with Hezbollah and its enablers.

A provision in the bill also allows the U.S. to list satellite providers that still carry Hezbollah’s television station and “require that the administration explain why those providers have not been penalized for providing material support to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar though the facilitation of its broadcasts,” according to the news website.

Other provisions include designating Hezbollah as a narcotics trafficking organization and as a transnational criminal organization in light of the party’s reported involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering networks.

Royce said Hezbollah was responsible for more American deaths than any other terrorist organization prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“Since that time their capabilities have grown, enabling them to attack the U.S. and our allies around the world – from the Philippines, to Bulgaria, and in even on our doorstep in South America. We cannot afford to ignore this threat. This vital legislation empowers the administration to strike at Hezbollah’s fundraising and international financing,” Royce said, according to the statement.

“The threat of Hezbollah has grown substantially as the region becomes more unstable,” Engel said.

“Hezbollah’s actions in Syria – directed by their patrons in Iran – have helped keep the [Syrian President Bashar] Assad regime in power. They must be held responsible for their destructive actions in Syria and the threat that they continue to pose to our ally, Israel,” he said, adding that the act would “break any lifeline to Hezbollah.”

The U.S. announced last August that it was sanctioning Hezbollah over its support for the Syrian regime, a largely symbolic move as the group has been subject to financial restrictions since it was classed as a terrorist group in 1995. In September, the U.S. imposed further financial sanctions against Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for giving assistance to Assad.

Consensus list wins Beirut Order polls, March 14 takes Tripoli

BEIRUT: A consensus list brokered between rival candidates determined the results of the Order of Engineers elections Sunday in Beirut, while the March 14 coalition emerged triumphant at the order’s Tripoli branch.

In Beirut, Future Movement candidate Khaled Shehab was elected as head of the order with 5,081 votes. The five remaining posts in the body’s council were filled by Elie Rizk from the Free Patriotic Movement, who garnered 5,340 votes, Micheline Wehbe from the Lebanese Forces who had 5,662 votes, Ghaleb Salim from Hezbollah with 5,113 votes, Mustafa Fawwaz from the Amal Movement with 5,339 votes and Ahmad Najem from Al-Masharih al-Islamiya with 3,102 votes.

Elections were held at the order’s Beirut headquarters in Bir Hasan.

Candidates from the Progressive Socialist Party, who had initially sided with March 8 candidates before the consensus list was formed, pulled their names out of the elections.

When The Daily Star went to press the percentage of voter turnout in Beirut had not been released, however, around 37,000 of 40,000 engineers in the Beirut order had paid their annual subscriptions and were eligible to vote.

The decision to favor a consensus list was described by a March 14 MP as an attempt to quell tensions within the order.

“The agreement between March 14 and March 8 groups in the Order of Engineers was meant to improve calm in the country and ease tensions, which might have been provoked with election conflicts,” said MP Mohammad Hajjar, also an engineer.

However, some election hopefuls slammed the agreement.

“Brokering such deals is unacceptable in the Order of Engineers. We fear that such political agreements will become the norm for not only the Order of Engineers but other orders as well,” hopeful Issam Bikdash said in an interview with MTV television.

With 1,002 votes, Bikdash failed to garner a post in order’s council.

Meanwhile, in Tripoli, a coalition of parties led by the March 14 coalition took the top job.

The coalition included Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya and supporters of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Mohammad Safadi.

Marios Beaini from the Lebanese Forces was elected the head of the Tripoli Order of Engineers with 855 votes. Positions on the board were allotted to George Mansour with 466 votes, Fouad Daher with 438 votes, Elias Rizk with 737 votes, Antoine Saad with 758 votes, Mohammad Ayoubi with 966 votes and Mohammad Helou with 856 votes.

Mirna Ayoubi was designated a reservist member.

Manal Ayoubi, Tareq al-Soufi and Salah Sharaoui were elected by acclamation as board members for the Pension Fund.

Following the election results, Beaini thanked all those who voted for him and expressed their opinions in a free and democratic manner.

The NNA reported that 1,852 engineers in Tripoli participated in the elections out of the 6,470 who were eligible to vote.