Obama: Reported comments by team owner 'racist'

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- President Barack Obama says comments reportedly made by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers are "incredibly offensive racist statements."

An audio recording was posted on the TMZ website of a man identified as team owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to games.

Obama says he's confident NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will address the comments.

Obama says -quote - "when ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk."

Obama was asked about the comments at a press conference Sunday with Malaysia's prime minister.

He says it's an example of the U.S. continuing to wrestle with the legacy of racism, slavery and segregation. He says Americans have to be "steady and clear in denouncing" discrimination.

Jamison: New hope for ex-Kerr-McGee site cleanup

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Maranatha Faith Center Pastor Steve Jamison sees the $5.15 billion settlement from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation as a major turning point in the 15-year fight his East Columbus church has led to remediate the contamination from the former Kerr-McGee site and protect the safety of those who live near it.

The site has been handed over from the Environmental Protection Agency to Multistate Environmental Response Trust and nearly $68 million of that settlement will be used to clean up the 90-acre site that was shut down in 2003, as well as other places where creosote is located.

Regular exposure to creosote, a wood preservative used extensively at the plant while it was in operation, was determined to be carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The details of the cleanup plan take 18-24 months to develop through an investigation of the extent and range of the contamination and another six months of EPA review before the process can take place.

Jamison established the Memphis Town Community Action Group in 2012 to work with EPA and expedite the process of cleaning the affected land.

He said the $68 million will be helpful in finally addressing a problem that has been a major health and safety issue in the East Columbus neighborhood, but believes more may be needed and that the overall settlement was paltry considering the hundreds of former Kerr-McGee sites across the country that have similar issues.

In December, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York found Kerr-McGee liable for environmental contamination worth anywhere from $5.2 billion to $14.2 billion. The U.S. Department of Justice and EPA, which filed the suit, settled for the $5.15 billion from Anadarko, which bought Kerr-McGee's major assets in 2006.

"It's just underfunded," Jamison said. "For the damage Kerr-McGee did to Columbus and other areas across the nation, I think the federal government let Kerr-McGee off with a slap on the wrist. No one was made whole but Kerr-McGee."

Multistate was created in 2011 when the EPA designated the Columbus location as a Superfund site. Cynthia Brooks, company president, said Multistate is managing 23 other sites similar to the one in Columbus as well as more than 400 other smaller ones.

"We step in and take ownership of the hazardous waste sites when there are problems with the owner, either because they're bankrupt or a site has been orphaned and nobody wants to own it for all the obvious reasons.

"Our priorities are the protection of public health and the environment. We own, manage and clean up these sites to help facilitate their redevelopment and long-term stewardships.

"Governmental or private entities will be taking on ownership and hopefully productive reuse of the sites we're responsible for. We are very interested in and concerned about what the communities want to see happen at these sites," Brooks said.

As for the Columbus site, the actual work itself will probably take place over several years, Brooks said.

However, work on remediating the 14th Avenue drainage ditch, which is considered a separate project, is in the design process now and construction will begin this year, she said, and should be wrapped up in 2015. It will include widening the road to accommodate heavy trucks and equipment.

"Site investigation is needed to characterize the nature and extent of the contamination to understand how big the problem is and how far off site it has come to reside.

"Until we have completed a full characterization of the contamination from the Kerr-McGee site, we don't know what the cleanup will look like or what it will cost," Brooks said.

The good news, Brooks said, is that the EPA has added this to its national priorities list of the most hazardous sites in the country, which means EPA would seek federal money to make up for insufficient funds.

General procedures will include crews using excavators to dig out soil that has been identified as affected as well as drilling wells and taking soil samples.

"If the hazardous wastes are going to be consolidated on site there would be construction of whatever cells there might be to contain contamination so that there's no future exposure.

"You'll see wells getting drilled. Groundwater cleanups cover the gamut from cleaning in place to extraction and treatment of contaminated water," Brooks said.

Jamison said part of the site remediation funding should include relocating residents close to the site and installing solar panels that can be used for energy.

He believes portions of areas have so much creosote that removing all of it would be impossible, but containing those areas so they are blocked from further public exposure would still achieve the goal of ensuring the public's safety and welfare, he said.

"We think the best thing to do is to get the people off of it and then use the land for something else. The EPA would have to contain the contaminants, define the parameters and put down retention walls to contain the contamination in that site.

"Then you cap it off and with those solar farms, they put solar panels out there and you can't see the ground. There are many ways that can be used and be profitable and usable without humans having to be on it," Jamison said.

While the arrival of Multistate symbolizes the most significant step toward rectifying the issues at the site and ditch, it has been long overdue, Jamison said.

He believes the delay was partly due to local leaders not stepping up and raising awareness as well as apathy from EPA about the nature of the environmental damage that has been caused in Columbus.

"The entire 15 years we've been fighting this fight for a community who has lost its property value and has been exposed to serious health problems and dangerous situations. The tragedy is not one politician from the community has come forward and tried to fight for it. They're coming on board now because we have the EPA in town now and we have the federal government saying 'It's time to do this' and we have money on board now," Jamison said.

Tax cut plans dim as focus shifts to potholes

LANSING, Mich. -- An income tax cut seemed inevitable just two months ago, as Gov. Rick Snyder and majority Republican lawmakers offered up and even began passing rival plans to use some of a budget surplus for short- or long-term tax relief before the 2014 elections.

Now plans for a tax reduction are waning and shifting instead to addressing pothole-ridden roads.

Snyder, who said he's open to dropping his tax plan to set aside more money for transportation, attributes the shrinking interest in tax relief to drivers who voiced their frustration.

"Much of it came about because of how serious the pothole season's been," he said. "I appreciate the general public speaking up more and more — they see a need to solve this problem in terms of transportation."

While legislators aren't ready to give up on tax cut discussions, they acknowledge that road funding could ultimately be a higher priority.

"In general, people are saying, 'Look, if we got a little extra money this year, rather than give a few dollars back to everybody when we have real structural problems with the roads, we think more people would prefer we go ahead and fix those roads,'" said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe.

In his February budget blueprint, Snyder proposed a modest $100 million-a-year tax cut in the form of partially restoring an income tax credit for low- to moderate-income homeowners and renters that he'd previously helped eliminate to as part of a major overhaul of and cut in business taxes. The reduction also would be retroactive to the 2013 tax year, with taxpayers on average getting $79 rebate checks in the mail this summer.

Also pending on the floors of the GOP-led House and Senate are four separate tax-cut proposals that cleared committees, including a modified version of Snyder's plan that would let more homeowners and renters qualify.

Richardville cautioned that the Legislature may no longer be able to provide immediate tax relief this year.

"We just want to make sure we can afford it and that it's not a promise that is an empty promise. So it may not go into effect until somewhere down the road," he said. "It's not dead. There are things on the table and I'm all about helping make them happen."

Over in the House, where a committee on Tuesday will begin considering Republicans' proposed $450 million annual boost in transportation funding, House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said many constituents made it known that they want better roads more than lower taxes. A reduced tax bill may not mean much if motorists have to spend it at a car repair shop after driving on crummy roads, according to advocates.

"We're trying to look at everything simultaneously," Bolger spokesman Ari Adler said. "Whether we can do something with taxes and roads, we don't know yet."

The House road-funding plan primarily would replace flat per-gallon fuel taxes with ones based on the wholesale price, allowing for an inflationary increase in taxes over time; raise the diesel tax to the equivalent of the gasoline tax; and dedicate portions of the sales tax on fuel and the use tax on out-of-state purchases to transportation funding.

Bolger acknowledges the proposal wouldn't provide the $1.2 billion annual increase that Snyder has pushed for much of his three-plus years in office but said it's a solid foundation upon which to build. County road commissions and road builders say more than $2 billion is needed, arguing that road agencies are getting less in state funding than a decade ago because of flat fuel taxes, more fuel-efficient vehicles and the recession.

"You cannot get a group of co-workers around a water cooler these days without someone having personally experienced a flat tire, bent rim, broken wheel or front-end alignment problem this year," said Denise Donohue, director of the County Road Association of Michigan.

Though legislators' emphasis on tax relief may have declined, it remains possible especially as they look ahead to the August primary and November general election. Some, bracing for a looming tough vote to give $350 million in state funds to help bail out bankrupt Detroit's pension funds, could insist on a tax cut in exchange despite Snyder's distaste for horse trading.

A mid-May meeting when revenue estimates will be updated before the next budget is finalized could prove crucial. In January, economists projected a $1 billion surplus from last fiscal year through the next one, though some of that money recently went toward road maintenance because of the brutal winter.

"We can invest in roads, we can give some tax relief," said Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell, sponsor of two tax-relief plans. "The economy's doing better and all indications are we're going to be seeing more revenue."

Texas ag commissioner candidate sees money in hogs

SAN ANTONIO -- A flamboyant figure in Texas politics who is running for the post of agriculture commissioner said the state could boost revenue, create jobs and hedge against the rising cost of meat by expanding its hog-harvesting program.

Best known as a singer and humorist, Kinky Friedman described the state's fast-growing boar population as an untapped industry, according to the San Antonio-Express News.

He faces insurance agent Jim Hogan in a Democratic runoff election May 27, his third run for statewide office.

"If you are going to kill a bunch of feral hogs, let's at least do it for a profit and business for the state," Friedman said, adding that the meat tastes "quite good."

Some food banks, small grocery stores and restaurants in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S. sell the meat, which the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department describes as "tasty" and lean.

In the opinion of Texas A&M professor and wildlife specialist Billy Higginbotham, the more hogs that are butchered, the better. Feral swine destroy crops, transmit diseases to livestock and threaten highway drivers with major collisions, he said.

Currently the state acts as an unpaid middleman, buying live boars from landowners and trappers at 100 buying stations across the state. The Texas Animal Health Commission has guidelines for baiting and snaring feral swine and transferring them to approved holding pens. The hogs are inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture before being slaughtered and sold for human consumption. Between 2004 and 2009, about 460,000 hogs in Texas were captured, slaughtered and sold, according to Higginbotham.

The hogs, which range in weight from 60 pounds to 200 pounds, sell for about 30 cents per pound, but the state does not tax or earn revenues from the transactions in the buyback program.

"Texas is literally able to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," Higginbotham said.

Friedman says the state should broaden the program and take a profit. Hogan opposes the idea.

Diggers find Atari's E.T. games in landfill

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- A decades-old urban legend was put to rest Saturday when workers for a documentary film production company recovered "E.T." Atari game cartridges from a heap of garbage buried deep in the New Mexico desert.

The "Atari grave" was, until that moment, a highly debated tale among gaming enthusiasts and other self-described geeks for 30 years. The story claimed that in its death throes, the video game company sent about a dozen truckloads of cartridges of what many call the worst video game ever to be forever hidden in a concrete-covered landfill in southeastern New Mexico.

The search for the cartridges of a game that contributed to the demise of Atari will be featured in an upcoming documentary about the biggest video game company of the early '80s.

As a backhoe scattered a huge scoop of 30-year-old trash and dirt over the sand, the film crew spotted boxes and booklets carrying the Atari logo. Soon after, a game cartridge turned up, then another and another.

Film director Zak Penn showed assembled gaming fans one cartridge retrieved from the site and said that hundreds more were in the surrounding mounds of garbage.

About 200 residents and game enthusiasts gathered early Saturday at the old landfill in Alamogordo to watch crews search for up to a million discarded copies of "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" that the game's maker wanted to hide forever.

"I feel pretty relieved and psyched that they actually got to see something," Penn said as members of the production team sifted through the mounds of trash, pulling out boxes, games and other Atari products.

Most of the crowd left the landfill before the discovery, turned away by strong winds that kicked up massive clouds of dust mingled with garbage.

By the time the games were found, only a few dozen people remained. Some were playing the infamous game in a makeshift gaming den with a TV and an 1980s game console in the back of a van, while others took selfies beside a life-size E.T. doll inside a DeLorean car like the one that was turned into a time machine in the "Back To The Future" movies.

Among the watchers was Armando Ortega, a city official who as a teenager back in 1983 got a tip from a landfill employee about the massive dump of games.

"It was pitch dark here that night, but we came with our flashlights and found dozens of games," he said. They braved the darkness, coyotes and snakes of the desert landfill and had to sneak past the security guard. But it paid off as they found dozens of crushed but still playable cartridges.

The game's finding came as no surprise to James Heller, a former Atari manager who was invited by the production to the dig site. He says in 1983 the company tasked him with finding an inexpensive way to dispose of 728,000 cartridges they had in a warehouse in El Paso, Texas. After a few local kids ran into trouble for scavenging and the media started calling him about it, he decided to pour a layer of concrete over the games.

"I never heard about again it until June 2013, when I read an article about E.T. being excavated," he remembers. He was not aware of the controversy and never spoke out "because nobody asked."

The documentary about the search is being developed by companies including Xbox Entertainment Studios, and the film is expected to be released later this year on Microsoft's Xbox game consoles.

The city of Alamogordo agreed to give the documentarians up to 250 cartridges and plan to sell the rest that are unearthed.

Mayor Susie Galea hopes this brings more tourists to this southeastern New Mexico town that is home to an Air Force base and White Sands National Monument.

"Lots of people just pass through, unfortunately," she said.

The "E.T." game is among the factors blamed for the decline of Atari and the collapse in the U.S. of a multi-million-dollar video game industry that didn't bounce back for several years.

With the whether-or-not E.T. was buried in Alamogordo controversy solved, the other, subtler debate remains. Was it the worst game ever unleashed on gamers?

Tina Amini, deputy editor at gaming website Kotaku, says the game tanked because "it was practically broken" with that the E.T. falling into traps that were almost impossible to escape and would appear constantly and unpredictably.

The game designer, Howard Scott Warshaw, says he does not mind his creation being called that. "It may be a horrible game, but 32 years after, you are here, talking to me about it. It's a tremendous honor," that it still generates public discourse.

He, however, manages to stress that the company took too long to secure the rights for the game and with Christmas production schedules pressing he was left with just five weeks to design, write and test "the worst game ever."

Former NBA owner Michael Heisley dies at 77

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Michael Heisley, the billionaire businessman who bought the Vancouver Grizzlies and moved the NBA team to Memphis, died Saturday. He was 77.

The Grizzlies said Saturday night that a family member confirmed Heisley's death. The Commercial Appeal reported that Heisley died in Illinois of complications from a massive stroke he suffered nearly 15 months ago.

Heisley sold the team to Robert Pera before the start of the 2012-13 season.

Heisley, chairman emeritus and co-founder of The Heico Companies, LLC, bought the team in April 2000. He moved the club from Vancouver to Memphis and hired NBA great Jerry West as president of basketball operations.

The team held a moment of silence for Heisley before their playoff game Saturday night against Oklahoma City.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed Heisley's death before the game.

"Michael was responsible for moving the Grizzlies from Vancouver to Memphis and really for getting (FedExForum, the Grizzlies' home arena) built as well as a long-time friend of the league," Silver said. ""He was a wonderful owner, a terrific friend and I want to send my deepest condolences to his wife, Agnes, to his children, and all his friends."

Heisley was instrumental in getting the Grizzlies active in the community, forming the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Among its projects, the foundation helped build the Memphis Grizzlies House, a temporary on-campus residence for families with children being treated at the hospital, according to the media guide.

Heisley, who had considered selling the team for several years, finally sold it to current owner Pera, founder and chief administrative officer of Ubiquiti Networks. The deal, completed in October 2012, was worth an estimated $377 million.

By the time Heisley sold the team, he had worked to rebuild the Grizzlies into contenders behind the core group of Mike Conley, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, along with defensive star Tony Allen.

NBA probing alleged recording of Clippers owner

SAN FRANCISCO -- Anger, frustration and calls for action echoed around the NBA on Saturday after an audio recording surfaced of a man identified as Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to games.

Everybody except for the embattled Clippers owner, who has a decades-long history of alleged discrimination and offensive behavior, seemed to have a response.

The league said it was investigating the recording posted on TMZ's website, calling the comments "disturbing and offensive." Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, a target of Sterling's remarks, said he wouldn't attend Clippers' games as long as Sterling was the owner. Miami Heat star LeBron James asked new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to take aggressive measures, saying "there is no room for Donald Sterling in our league."

"Obviously, if the reports are true it's unacceptable in our league," James said. "It doesn't matter, white, black or Hispanic — all across the races it's unacceptable. As the commissioner of our league they have to make a stand. They have to be very aggressive with it. I don't know what it will be, but we can't have that in our league."

Silver spoke Saturday night in Memphis, Tenn., before the Grizzlies' game against Oklahoma City, repeating that the league finds the audio tape "disturbing and offensive" and that Sterling agreed to not attend the Clippers' game Sunday at Golden State.

"All members of the NBA family should be afforded due process and a fair opportunity to present their side of any controversy, which is why I'm not yet prepared to discuss any potential sanctions against Donald Sterling," Silver said. "We will, however, move extraordinarily quickly in our investigation."

Silver said the NBA needs to confirm authenticity of the audio tape and interview both Sterling and the woman in the recording. The Clippers will be back in Los Angeles for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

"We do hope to have this wrapped up in the next few days," Silver said.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers said players discussed boycotting Game 4 of their first-round playoff series during a 45-minute team meeting but quickly decided against it.

"I think the biggest statement we can make as men, not as black men, as men, is to stick together and show how strong we are as a group," Rivers said. "Not splinter. Not walk. It's easy to protest. The protest will be in our play."

Clippers President Andy Roeser said in a statement that the team did not know if the tape is legitimate or has been altered. He said the woman on the tape, identified by TMZ as V. Stiviano, "is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family alleging that she embezzled more than $1.8 million, who told Mr. Sterling that she would 'get even.'"

Roeser also said the recording does not reflect Sterling's beliefs. He added that Sterling is "upset and apologizes for sentiments attributed to him" about Johnson, whom he called Sterling's friend.

In the recording posted on TMZ, the man questions his girlfriend's association with minorities. TMZ reported Stiviano, who is of black and Mexican descent, posted a picture of herself with Johnson on Instagram — which has since been removed.

The man asked Stiviano not to broadcast her association with black people or bring black people to games. The man specifically mentioned Johnson on the recording, saying "don't bring him to my games, OK?"

"I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner," Johnson responded on Twitter. He also said the alleged comments are "a black eye for the NBA" and said he felt bad that friends such as Rivers and Clippers point guard Chris Paul had to work for Sterling.

Paul released a statement through the players' union that said "this is a very serious issue which we will address aggressively." He also said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA All-Star guard who is the chairman of a search committee to find a new director for the union, would take a leading role to help players address the matter.

Paul and Clippers All-Star forward Blake Griffin declined further comment on the issue after the team's practice at the University of San Francisco. Other players were not made available as Rivers said he would speak for the team.

"A lot of guys voiced their opinions. None of them were happy about it," Rivers said. "This was a situation where we're trying to go after something very important for us, something that we've all dreamed about all our childhoods. Donald or anyone else had nothing to do with that dream, and we're not going to let anything get in the way of those dreams."

On TNT's halftime studio show Saturday, host Charles Barkley said "this is the first test of Adam Silver." He said Silver had to "suspend him and fine him immediately."

In Dallas, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said "I have plenty of opinions, just not going to share them. He fended off several inquiries before saying: "Obviously, if any business or entrepreneur says or does things that aren't congruent with what the organization is trying to convey, that's a problem. But it's not my problem."

Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who played for the Clippers from 1992-94, said of Sterling's comments: "My feeling would be the same, no matter if I was coaching, playing or a fan. There's no place for it."

Jacky Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, said the organization planned a protest outside Game 5 of the Clippers-Warriors series Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

Sterling, a real estate owner, bought the Clippers in 1981. He is the longest-tenured owner in the NBA since Lakers owner Jerry Buss died last year.

Sterling has been frequently criticized for his frugal operation of the Clippers, although in recent years he has spent heavily to add stars such as Paul and Rivers, who is in his first year as coach. Sterling also has been involved in several lawsuits over the years, including ones with accusations of discrimination.

In November 2009, Sterling agreed to pay $2.73 million to settle allegations by the government that he refused to rent apartments to Hispanics and blacks and to families with children. The Justice Department sued Sterling in August 2006 for allegations of housing discrimination in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.

In March 2011, Sterling won a lawsuit against former Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor when a jury rejected the Hall of Famer's claim of age discrimination and harassment. Baylor, who was 76 at the time, had sought about $2 million after claiming he was forced out of the job he had held for 22 years. The team said Baylor left on his own and a jury awarded him nothing.

Sterling is a courtside fixture at Clippers home games. But he rarely visits the team's locker room at Staples Center, although he made an appearance in December 2012 after the Clippers won their 11th straight game, when he led an awkward locker room cheer.

AP Sports Writers Teresa M. Walker in Memphis, Tenn.; Beth Harris in Mesa, Ariz.; Schuyler Dixon in Dallas; Rick Freeman in New York; and Steve Reed in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.

Caps let McPhee, Oates go after missing playoffs

WASHINGTON -- General manager George McPhee and coach Adam Oates lost their jobs with the Washington Capitals on Saturday, about two weeks after the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

"We were left with the overall impression that the team wasn't trending toward being able to compete for a Stanley Cup," Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said in a news conference at the club's arena. "And that was just a clear signal and why it was time to make those changes."

McPhee's contract was up and the team announced it will not give him a new one after his 17 years as the GM, which included drafting Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in the first round.

Oates was fired with one season left on his three-year deal. A former star player for the Capitals, he was in his first job as an NHL head coach.

Washington finished this season with the ninth-most points in the Eastern Conference, one spot out of a playoff berth.

"You have to do something to pivot the team to be an ongoing strong team," Leonsis said. "And I just felt that new leadership at this time was needed, and let's start it with a clean slate."

Asked whether any player would be untouchable as part of upcoming changes — a chance, perhaps, for Leonsis to mention captain and top scorer Ovechkin — the owner replied: "I'm not the general manager. So If the general manager comes with something, we would listen to the general manager."

Ovechkin has won three league MVP awards and again led the NHL in scoring this season with 51 goals, but the Capitals haven't made it past the second round of the playoffs during the Russian wing's career.

Dick Patrick, the president of the Capitals, said the team already has drawn up a list of potential GM candidates.

"Typically, you'd like to have a general manager in place and have him choose a coach," Patrick said.

The Capitals reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1998, McPhee's first year on the job, and were swept by the Detroit Red Wings. Later, McPhee oversaw a "rebuild" ordered by Leonsis, including jettisoning top players with big contracts such as Jaromir Jagr.

"Let's not forget that rebuilding process was dramatic. And I watched a great executive go through really, really hard times and really rebuild that team quickly. We just didn't get there," Leonsis said. "At some point, you just have to try something different."

While McPhee eventually built a young roster filled with offensive stars, he never placed as much emphasis on constructing a rugged, defensive-minded blue line crop. He hired a succession of coaches with zero previous NHL experience running a team, including Glen Hanlon, Bruce Boudreau, Dale Hunter and Oates.

Led by Ovechkin, the Capitals produced terrific regular-season results for a half-dozen seasons, without similar success in the postseason. Four years ago, Washington won the Presidents' Trophy for having the most points during the season, then lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens.

Leonsis called McPhee, who built seven division-winning teams, "a talented man, a great friend," but that it was time for "a fresh set of eyes."

The Capitals went 65-48-17 under Oates in his two seasons.

In a brief statement released via the team, Oates called it "a tremendous honor to coach the Capitals these past two seasons" and said he was "grateful for the opportunity."

In his first season in charge, which was shortened because of a labor dispute, Washington reached the playoffs with a late surge before losing in the first round to the New York Rangers in seven games.

"We were a continuously improving playoff team until we weren't. And the last two seasons showed us that we need to improve. And that's what it came down to," Leonsis said. "Dick and I said, 'We have to make that gut check. Do we have to change? And where do you start?' And you start with the coach and the general manager."

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Freelancer Joey Kamide contributed to this report.

Cabela's credit-card bank fined $1 million

OMAHA, Neb. -- The credit-card bank operated by Nebraska outdoor retailer Cabela's has been fined $1 million by banking regulators and ordered to pay cardholders restitution for deceptive and unfair acts.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. posted a March 10 enforcement order to its website Friday showing that Lincoln-based World's Foremost Bank agreed to the sanctions. The bank did not admit or deny violations.

The order comes more than three years after Cabela's agreed to pay nearly $10.4 million and reform its credit card practices as part of a settlement with the FDIC over assessing improper fees and other issues.

In the order released Friday, the FDIC said World's Foremost Bank must refund certain interest charges to cardholders and to repay others for add-on credit card services, such as identity-theft protection.

State approves plan to restore land damaged by oil

BISMARCK, N.D. -- The North Dakota Department of Health has approved plans to restore land damaged last fall by a pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil across a northwestern wheat field.

The soil remediation work by Tesoro Corp. is expected to begin by early June and take at least two years to complete, according to the plans approved Friday.

State Environmental Health Chief Dave Glatt said Friday that the San Diego-based Tesoro, whose pipeline caused the spill, is responsible for the cleanup and will cover all costs. The Department of Health will have staff members at the site on a weekly basis to make sure it goes as planned.

The state might still look at possible enforcement action against Tesoro, and Glatt said the company could possibly be required to pay for staff time spent at the site, but that hasn't been decided yet.

The massive spill was discovered by a Tioga farmer in September and turned out to be one of the largest onshore spills in U.S. history, covering 7.3 acres of land, or about the size of seven football fields.

Glatt said Tesoro will be restoring about 350,000 square feet of surface and will excavate as deep as 30 feet below the surface in some areas.

"It's a big piece of land," he said.

When the remediation is finished, Glatt said the land should be back to normal and able to grow crops. In the meantime, he said the affected farmers were being compensated for their losses.

Residents await settlement OK in recycling suit

INDIANAPOLIS -- Northern Indiana residents who sued a wood-recycling plant, alleging that its dust and other emissions threatens their health and keeps them indoors, are awaiting a federal judge's approval of a settlement calling for the Elkhart plant's operators to clean up and shutter the site within five years.

The proposed settlement of the class-action suit also calls for Soil Solutions Co. to obtain a restrictive covenant barring similar operations from using the site after it's closed.

Environmental attorney Kim Ferraro sued VIM Recycling on behalf of local residents in 2009, two years before the plant was sold to Soil Solutions.

A federal judge dismissed that suit in 2010, but the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago overturned that ruling in 2011, clearing the way for the suit to proceed against the plant, which grinds scrap wood into animal bedding and mulch.

The case obtained class-action status last year. Ferraro said the 1,800 residents who joined the suit are looking forward to a June 16 hearing where a federal judge in Hammond, who gave his preliminary approval in March to the settlement, will consider giving it his final approval.

She said the deal means the plant's neighbors won't have to wait through more years of litigation and an uncertain outcome.

"What they've wanted all along is for that place to be closed down and cleaned up, and this provides the clarity and the end in sight for that to happen," Ferraro said. "They'll finally be able to get their lives back and live in their homes comfortably and use their yards. That's really the point of this — to put that community back the way it was."

Ferraro, who's the Hoosier Environmental Council's staff attorney, said the plaintiffs will continue to seek monetary damages against the plant's former operator, VIM Recycling.

Soil Solutions has disavowed the actions of VIM Recycling, which owned the plant between 2000 and 2011.

Ed Sullivan, an attorney who represents Soil Solutions in the lawsuit, said the company will only shutter its Elkhart location under the settlement.

Once the deal is approved, he said Soil Solutions will assess how much material remains at the site and needs to be removed over the next five years.

"This arrangement gives the homeowners what they want, and it gives time for the company to work its way out of that location in a way that won't disrupt their business too greatly," Sullivan said.

Ferraro said a January survey at the plant site found about 300,000 cubic yards of wood wastes.

Wayne Stutsman, a retired industrial electrician who lives near the plant, said he and other neighbors who've endured the dust and emissions produced by its operations are delighted by the tentative settlement.

"We're thankful that we have a judge who's looking at this case and has said, 'Enough is enough,'" he said.

Stutsman, 69, said that since shortly after the plant opened at the site in 2000, it began producing a large amount of dust and persistent smells that have made life difficult for its neighbors.

He and his wife, Barbara, have lived in their home 41 years. But Stutsman said the site sometimes releases so much dust that winds carry that material onto his neighborhood almost like snow falling in winter, coating everything and creating breathing problems for residents.

"It's just unbelievable the number of people you hear coughing and sneezing when they're outside during the night or the day," he said.

Ferraro said she's disappointed that local and state government didn't act aggressively against the plant despite its impact on so many nearby residents.

She said the Indiana Department of Environmental Management had documented that the plant committed multiple violations of Indiana's open dumping and solid waste laws, but the agency "didn't really do enforcement or impose meaningful fines."

IDEM spokeswoman Amy Smith said the department had "worked to the fullest extent of its authority to resolve violations" its staff found at the plant involving its air permit.

She said IDEM had imposed civil penalties in excess of $85,000 against the plant over the years.

Private school option spurs opposition ed. bill

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Prospects of local taxpayer money going to pay for students to leave struggling public schools for private schools is prompting opposition from a coalition of education organizations that represent teachers, administrators and school board members.

The coalition says using public funds for private school education is unconstitutional and that private schools are not accountable to taxpayers in the same way as public schools. The private school provision is part of legislation overhauling a student transfer law.

Brent Ghan, spokesman for the Missouri School Boards' Association which is part of the coalition, said the private school portion is a "deal-breaker."

"The voucher provision is something that the education community is very united on that we just cannot go down this road of providing public subsidies for students to attend private schools," Ghan said.

Members of the coalition include the Missouri Association of School Administrators, the Missouri PTA, the Missouri State Teachers Association and state chapters for the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

Missouri's student transfer law requires districts without state accreditation to pay tuition and provide transportation for students who want to attend a public school in an accredited district within the same county or a bordering one.

Students have transferred this school year from the suburban St. Louis districts of Normandy and Riverview Gardens. The financial strain prompted the state to approve $2 million to help Normandy get through the year. Kansas City schools also are unaccredited, and 11 school districts have provisional accreditation.

Legislation endorsed by a House committee would require accrediting individual schools along with districts. Students at an unaccredited school within an unaccredited district could transfer to a better school within their home district, or go to school districts, charter schools or nonreligious private schools within the same county or a bordering one.

Unaccredited districts would pay private school tuition using local tax revenue. The private school would need to be accredited and administer state English and math assessments for transfer students from public schools.

House members could debate the transfer legislation this upcoming week. House Majority Leader John Diehl, a Republican from St. Louis County, said the private school portion is a good option to explore.

"There's a lot of House members who are supporting this bill because the private option is in there," Diehl said.

The House legislation also seeks to limit what unaccredited districts must pay for transfers while allowing nearby school systems to set policies for class sizes and student-teacher ratios. Districts would not be required to accept transfer students who would cause the policies to be violated.

Missouri senators approved a different version of the transfer legislation in February that included a private school portion. Under that version, students for whom there is not space at a better school within their home district could go to other public schools or to a nonreligious private school within the district where they live.

--

Student transfer bill is SB493.

Online:

Legislature: http://on.mo.gov/1dgzM0b

1849 Mormon gold coin fetches $705K at auction

SALT LAKE CITY -- A $10 Mormon gold coin fetched $705,000 and a $20 Mormon gold coin sold for $558,000 at auction this week.

They were the rarest of a seven-piece collection of Mormon coins made in 1849 that brought in nearly $2 million at an auction staged by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

The coins, put up for auction by a collector, went to an undisclosed buyer. Bidding ended Thursday night.

Tyson Emery of All About Coins in Salt Lake City told the Deseret News (http://bit.ly/1h1t3cv ) that coins and currency were scare when Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah in 1847 and the settlers began making their own coins primarily to buy goods from the East.

Only 46 of the $10 gold coins were made and just a few are still around.

State officials, firms to discuss manufacturing

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Gov. Deval Patrick and former Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray will be among the speakers at a summit being held on advanced manufacturing in Massachusetts.

The event hosted by the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative is scheduled for Tuesday at the DCU Center in Worcester. Hundreds of industry executives are expected to attend and discuss challenges faced by their firms.

Among the topics will be workforce development and efforts to align vocational school and community college training programs with the needs of advanced manufacturing companies.

Murray, now president of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, will help open the second annual event and Patrick is scheduled to speak later in the day.

The collaborative was created as a public-private partnership in 2011 to improve the state's competitive position in manufacturing.

SpaceX CEO signals favor for Texas launch pad site

BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk has signaled his company's intent to put its much-sought launch pad project on a beach near Brownsville.

The signs came in final comments Musk gave at an unrelated news conference last week in Washington, D.C. He said SpaceX will probably have its Boca Chica Beach launch facility near the Mexican border active "in a couple of years."

Musk said the project is awaiting final environmental approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration, which are expected soon.

The launch pad would be developed at the eastern end of Texas 4 about three miles north of the Mexican border and about five miles south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island.

The SpaceX project is one of several for which Texas is in the running.

West Point works to boost female cadet numbers

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- West Point wants more women.

With female cadets representing less than one in five cadets in the Long Gray Line, the U.S. Military Academy is taking steps to boost the number of women arriving here this summer and beyond.

West Point's new superintendent said the moves — which include more outreach and the cultivation of competitive candidates — will help keep the storied academy ahead of the curve now that the Pentagon is lifting restrictions for women in combat jobs.

"We obviously have to increase the female population for a number of reasons. One is because there are more opportunities in the branches for the females," Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr. said.

Women have been a presence at the nation's military academies since 1976. Female cadets here can grow their hair longer than the standard military buzz-cut and can wear stud earrings. But they carry the same heavy packs, march the same miles and graduate with the same second lieutenant bars the men here do.

"I carry the heavy weapons whenever we do field training exercises," said Cadet Austen Boroff, a woman who refuses to be out-soldiered by her male peers. "I'll take the machine guns, so I'm taking more weight."

And cadets like Boroff remain in the minority, just as they do in the broader military. The Air Force and Naval academies say their student bodies are about 22 percent female. West Point is at 16 percent, mirroring the gender breakdown in the larger Army.

Caslen, who became superintendent last year, said an increased number of female cadets will do more than serve the Army when thousands of combat positions are slated to open to both sexes by 2016. It will also help integrate women at the academy, he said.

West Point, like the military in general, has taken additional steps to combat sexual harassment and assaults. In one high-profile case, an Army sergeant accused of secretly photographing and videotaping women at West Point pleaded guilty last month in a court-martial.

"My objective is to create the climate, the command climate here at West Point, that not only eliminates harassment and assault, but that will also create the teams and create the climate so that every single person feels that they're a member of the team," Caslen said.

West Point has taken a series of subtle steps to increase the percentage of women coming here without lowering admission standards.

The academy has created new recruitment mailings written for girls in their freshman, sophomore and junior years of high school that note female West Point graduates have gone on to become generals, astronauts, executives and government leaders. The letter asks: "Do you have what it takes to follow in their footsteps?"

The mailings will not bear fruit for this year's incoming class, but director of admissions Col. Deborah McDonald said there has been an increase in the number of female nominees. And the academy has begun targeting top-tier female candidates and guiding them through the demanding application process. They already do that for standout scholars, soldiers, athletes and minorities.

West Point women's lacrosse team is moving up to Division I in 2015, which also is expected to draw more interest from top female athletes who now choose other schools.

Caslen said there's no long-term goal yet for a percentage of female cadets. Also, final numbers on the incoming Class of 2018 won't be known until the new group arrives for cadet basic training July 2. But West Point, as of this week, has admitted 229 female applicants and as many as 36 other females from the academy's prep school will be considered.

"I have no concerns at all that we won't actually move right beyond the 20 percent mark," McDonald said. "It might even be as high as 22 percent."

The class coming to West Point this summer will be in the second graduating class in which all branches will be open to women. But female West Point graduates this year can already choose among every Army branch except the infantry and armor. Boroff, for instance, will go into field artillery.

Despite some headline-making cases, Boroff and other cadets said they feel secure at West Point. Cadet Sarah Melville of Beacon Falls, Conn., said she is treated no differently than any male cadet and is rarely reminded of her gender.

"Perhaps occasionally, halfway through the school year, you go, 'Oh, I'm the only girl in this class. OK, cool,'" Melville said. "It means nothing."

Slovakia agrees to deliver gas to Ukraine

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Slovakia has agreed to use reverse-flow deliveries to send natural gas to Ukraine, which is facing a threat from Russia to cut off supplies because of a massive debt.

The Slovak pipeline operator Eustream says both sides have reached a deal during talks in Kiev.

In a Saturday statement, Eustream said it would sign a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine's Ukrtransgaz in Bratislava Monday.

Slovakia will use a currently unused pipeline from Vojany to Ukraine's western city of Uzhorod. Ukraine could get about a fifth of its gas needs through the pipeline.

Ukraine wanted Slovakia to provide the gas through four pipelines that flow Russian gas through Ukraine to Slovakia and Western Europe, but that was rejected because it would violate a Slovak deal with Russia's Gazprom.

Diggers begin quest to unearth Atari's E.T. games

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- A construction crew is digging through several feet of dirt and trash in a New Mexico landfill to reach what they believe is a giant cache of cartridges from what some call the worst video game ever made.

A New York Times article from 1983 reported that Atari cartridges of "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" were dumped in the landfill in Alamogordo.

Fuel Entertainment is producing a documentary about the search.

The videogame's commercial failure was partially responsible for the demise of Atari in the early 1980's.

The contents of the "Atari Grave" have become urban legend, with blog posts speculating about millions of cartridges and other Atari projects buried there. A spokeswoman for Atari says the company changed hands many times since 1983 and does not know what is buried there.

Ameren Illinois seeking $206 million rate hike

PEORIA, Ill. -- Ameren Illinois is seeking a more than $206 million rate hike to help pay for upgrades to its electricity power grid.

The (Peoria) Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/RVfohI ) that the utility filed that request on April 17. If successful, the higher rates would go into effect in January.

For residents in central Illinois, that would mean an 8.3 percent increase for average use, adding $6.37 to monthly bills.

Ameren plans to start installing new customer meters this summer. The upgrades will help it detect and isolate outages faster.

The Citizens Utility Board watchdog group opposes the rate increase.

Its director, David Kolata, tells the Journal Star that "after an expensive winter, this is the last thing Ameren customers want to hear."

NYC eatery sued over plan to move Picasso painting

NEW YORK -- New York's storied Four Seasons restaurant has for decades harbored one of the city's more unusual artworks: the largest Pablo Picasso painting in the United States. But a plan to move it has touched off a spat as sharply drawn as the bullfight crowd the canvas depicts.

Pitting a prominent preservation group against an art-loving real estate magnate, the dispute has unleashed an outcry from culture commentators and a lawsuit featuring dueling squads of art experts.

The building's owner says Picasso's "Le Tricorne," a 19-by-20-foot painted stage curtain, has to be moved from the restaurant to make way for repairs to the wall behind it.

But the Landmarks Conservancy, a nonprofit that owns the curtain, is suing to stop the move. The group says the wall damage isn't dire and taking down the brittle curtain could destroy it — and, with it, an integral aspect of the Four Seasons' landmarked interior.

"We're just trying to do our duty and trying to keep a lovely interior landmark intact," says Peg Breen, president of the conservancy.

The landlord, RFR Holding Corp., a company co-founded by state Council on the Arts Chairman Aby Rosen, says a structural necessity is being spun into an art crusade.

"This case is not about Picasso," RFR lawyer Andrew Kratenstein said in court papers. Rather, he wrote, it is about whether an art owner can insist that a private landlord hang a work indefinitely, the building's needs be damned. "The answer to that question is plainly no."

Picasso painted the curtain in 1919 as a set piece for "Le Tricorne," or "three-cornered hat," a ballet created by the Paris-based Ballet Russes troupe.

The curtain isn't considered a masterwork. Breen said it was appraised in 2008 at $1.6 million, far short of the record-setting $106.5 million sale of a 1932 Picasso painting at a 2010 auction.

Still, "it was always considered one of the major pieces of Picasso's theatrical decor," says Picasso biographer Sir John Richardson. "And it is sort of a gorgeous image."

The scene depicts spectators in elegant Spanish dress socializing and watching a boy sell pomegranates as horses drag a dead bull from the ring in the background.

"Le Tricorne" has been at the Four Seasons since its 1959 opening in the noted Seagram Building. The restaurant, which isn't affiliated with the Four Seasons hotel a few blocks away, is the epitome of New York power lunching, having served President Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, Madonna and other A-listers.

The curtain hangs in what's become known as "Picasso Alley," a corridor that joins the restaurant's majestically modern, Phillip Johnson-designed main dining rooms.

Some argue that the painting, donated to the Landmarks Conservancy in 2005, is a vital piece of the city's cultural landscape and the restaurant's lauded decor.

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger decried the curtain's potential move in Vanity Fair, saying the canvas helps make the Four Seasons "a complete work of art."

Noted architect Robert A.M. Stern and Lewis B. Cullman, an honorary trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, both sent Rosen letters asking him to reconsider removing the curtain. Arts critic Terry Teachout blasted the potential loss of "Picasso's most readily accessible painting" in The Wall Street Journal.

The landlords also have their defenders. In tony Town & Country, arts editor Kevin Conley cast the debate as a misplaced outpouring over a "second-rate Picasso."

The debate has opened an uncomfortable divide in the city's preservation circles. The Landmarks Conservancy honored Rosen in 2002 for restoring another important 1950s office building, Lever House, yet now publicly claims the major art collector dismissed the Picasso curtain as a "schmatte," a Yiddish word for "rag."

"They've elevated this into something that it shouldn't be. ... Everybody says I hate Picasso," Rosen lamented to The New York Times last month. "But I live with five of them in my home."

Rosen, whose spokesman didn't return calls from The Associated Press, told The Times he aims to remove and restore the painting, then decide where it will go.

The controversy has drawn a stream of art students, history buffs and other sightseers to look at the canvas.

Breen, for one, isn't surprised.

"Most people would be very happy to have the largest Picasso in America hanging in their building," she said.

Conn. lawmakers facing last full week of session

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Time is running out on this year's session of the Connecticut General Assembly.

Monday marks the beginning of the last full week of the short three-month session, which is scheduled to adjourn on May 7. Lawmakers still have some major issues to tackle, including revisions to the state budget that begins on July 1.

Leaders of the legislature's budget committees have been meeting privately with Gov. Dannel Malloy's budget director, finalizing a compromise agreement for the full General Assembly to consider before the adjournment.

Other issues also remain, including legislation placing new restrictions on the public release of information from homicides. It's part of an effort to protect victim privacy following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. It's questionable, however, whether that bill will come up for a vote.

Vermont cell coverage to improve in rural areas

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Cellphone coverage should be improving along about 450 miles of rural Vermont roadways from the Canadian border to Massachusetts when a series of microcells are installed on utility poles.

The microcells, transmitters and receivers for the cell signals, have a range of about half a mile. Nearly 100 miles of the new microcells have already been installed on roadways in Caledonia, Orange and Windham counties, said Christopher Campbell, the executive director of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority, the quasi-state government agency that is overseeing the expansion of cell coverage in the state.

On Thursday, the VTA announced that it had selected Vanu CoverageCo., of Boston and Leesburg, Va., to expand the service in almost 60 towns from Canaan, along the Canadian border, to Readsboro, just north of Massachusetts.

Once it's completed, about half the target corridors identified by the state in 2011 will be covered, Campbell said.

"It's a pretty significant step toward achieving those goals," Campbell said.

The VTA was created to help Vermont provide cell coverage and broadband Internet services in parts of the state where it is not economically feasible for companies to do so on their own.

Among the areas scheduled for service are Halifax, Hancock, Norton, Rochester, Roxbury, Stockbridge, Townshend and Whitingham.

CoverageCo has already installed 96 miles of coverage and is finishing up another portion of the project. Construction on the latest project should begin within weeks, CEO Richard Biby said. It should be completed by the summer of 2015.

Most of the major cell providers will be able to use the system, Biby said.

A combination of state, federal and private funds will pay for the project, estimated by Biby to cost about $2.8 million.

The microcells look like a bit like old-fashioned streetlights with a rod protruding from the top and bottom. While many people have fought the installation of traditional cell towers, there haven't been any significant complaints about the microcells, Campbell said.

"The primary response we've gotten from people is curiosity and interest," Campbell said.

Council delays discussion on development proposal

NEW ORLEANS -- The City Council has delayed consideration of a proposal to build multistory buildings at the site of the former Holy Cross School in the Lower 9th Ward.

The New Orleans Advocate (http://bit.ly/1nJBUEj ) reports the council will take up the matter on May 8.

The proposal has drawn criticism from residents who say the proposed buildings are too tall to be compatible with architecture in the surrounding neighborhood.

Developers and other supporters argue the mixed-use towers would bring economic development for an area that has struggled to rebound since Hurricane Katrina brought extensive flooding to the area in August 2005.

The school moved to the city's Lakefront neighborhood after the hurricane.

Rum's expansion highlighted at Miami festival

MIAMI -- Rum connoisseurs are learning to mix cocktails and tasting new flavors at the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival.

Organizer Robert A. Burr said Friday that he expected over 12,000 people to attend seminars and tastings over the weekend. More than 200 varieties of rum were available to sample.

The festival features rums from over 30 countries, including locales beyond rum's traditional Caribbean hub. Among the more far-flung contestants in the festival's flavor competitions this week were the vanilla-infused Pink Pigeon from Mauritius and Philippines-based Tanduay, distilled from locally grown sugarcane.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States says rum sales in the U.S. increased slightly last year to 25.6 million cases of rum, and flavored and spiced rums accounted for more than half of all rums sold.

Bacardi Senior Brand Master Willie Ramos says that demand has driven the company to add more flavors to its offerings, including a mango fusion launched this month. The tropical flavor gives consumers more flexibility when mixing cocktails, Ramos said.

Other rums emphasized a more traditional rum experience, such as Connecticut-based The Real McCoy. President and CEO Bailey Pryor said the company has revived a Barbados-distilled rum that was once slipped into New York City during Prohibition.

Cape Coral-based Wicked Dolphin is at the festival celebrating a year since Florida lawmakers agreed to allow craft liquor distilleries to join the state's wineries and craft breweries in selling their products on-site. Wicked Dolphin was among the distilleries pushing for the change, and since the new law took effect July 1, it's draws 200 people a day for tours, said distiller Dan Termini.

Second workers' village planned in Calcasieu

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- Southland Executive Airport in Sulphur is negotiating a lease agreement with a Louisiana company to develop a temporary residential community on 100 acres of land near several planned industrial expansion sites.

The American Press reported (http://bit.ly/1eOXZNb) the West Calcasieu Airport Managing Board considered proposals in early April from groups interested in leasing property. The board authorized an agreement with First Flight Holdings LLC.

The Louisiana-based company plans to construct Moss Lake Village, which will accommodate up to 2,500 people at peak occupancy. Tim LaFleur, airport executive director, said the employee village will decrease traffic on Louisiana Highway 27.

Bill Hankins, chairman of the airport board, said that temporary housing is the answer to the influx of construction workers en route to Southwest Louisiana.

"We are trying to create a temporary situation, and we want to have as much combined together to create a very organized and safe environment for workers," he said.

"We wanted to respond to this multibillion-dollar activity that's going on. We're excited to be able to participate in a positive fashion."

Ga., SC set records for electronic tax returns

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A record-setting number of people filed their tax returns electronically this year in Georgia and South Carolina.

The Augusta Chronicle reports 3.5 million people filed electronically this year in Georgia (http://bit.ly/1gZ9Jwm). About 1.7 million in South Carolina used the e-file program.

Internal Revenue Service spokesman Mark Green says the numbers are impressive and could continue to grow as the agency counts online filings.

April 15 was the deadline to file taxes or apply for an extension.

Westminster ventriloquist launches online course

WESTMINSTER, Md. -- Ventriloquism isn't generally considered to be a 21st-century art form, but Westminster resident Tom Crowl is attempting to change that perception with a ventriloquism course created for the Internet era.

Crowl, along with ventriloquists Mark Wade and Ken Groves, has taken the reins of Maher Ventriloquist Studios, originally established in 1934. The studio originated as a correspondence course, with students receiving 30 educational pamphlets and submitting a video of their performance after their study was complete. Crowl said the course, aside from some minor stylistic changes, had remained largely the same since it was revamped in the '70s. Now, the trio have created an interactive course that includes Skype sessions between students and tutors as well as downloadable video lessons.

Crowl first came to ventriloquism in 2006, after working for years as a magician. Crowl said he is lucky to have gotten into the art form almost immediately before Jeff Dunham became an international success and raised the profile of ventriloquism. Crowl said another ventriloquist who has helped popularize the art form is Terry Fator, who won "America's Got Talent" with a ventriloquist act in 2007.

"I had done a family show with my wife and son, and my wife decided she wanted to pursue her own career," Crowl said. "So, I was left doing basically a kids' show. I had always liked ventriloquism, so I began to study to set off on my own."

Crowl primarily works corporate banquets and events throughout the country for most of the year. In the summer, he branches out to fairs, libraries and street festivals.

When Maher Studios executive director Clinton Detweiler passed away suddenly in 2013, Crowl said the Detweiler family decided to pass the organization on to Wade, children's entertainer and executive director of the Vent Haven ventriloquist convention.

Wade said he recruited friends and fellow ventriloquists Groves and Crowl to help him re-imagine Maher Studios for a more computer-literate generation of ventriloquists.

"Tom's a great professional ventriloquist, and he's also a great friend," Wade said. "He's very computer savvy, and we couldn't have done this without him."

Crowl had experience with his own digital ventriloquism course, Learn Ventriloquism, which consists of 36 time-released video lessons covering topics from breathing control to character development that he launched in 2011. Crowl said he developed the course after attending a seminar on creating online informational products.

"After my shows, a lot of people would ask me if I taught ventriloquism, and my schedule was always such that I could never devote the time," Crowl said. "I thought this was a great way to do this, because I can do virtual lessons with them without having to sit down individually."

Crowl said word spread about his online ventriloquism course, with prominent ventriloquists and puppet makers recommending his lessons to new students. It was the success of Learn Ventriloquism that put him on Wade's radar, Crowl said.

Teaming up with Wade and Groves, Crowl helped develop the new Maher Interactive Ventriloquism Course, which went live April 21. The course consists of nine video lessons, broken down into three segments. After each package of three video lessons, the student has the opportunity to have a Skype session with one of the three instructors. During the Skype session, they perform what they've learned and receive one-on-one critiques from the instructors.

"You can't beat sitting down with a working vent and studying the techniques and having them say, 'No, you're doing this wrong,'" Crowl said.

In addition to the interactive course, the group has created digital versions of the original 30-lesson pamphlets for students to download to their computer or e-reader. Crowl said the three ventriloquists pooled their knowledge of the art to develop new methods for sound reproduction.

"We took everything we knew, and we tried to figure out new ways of doing things. You can't say the letters 'B,' 'M,' 'P' or 'F' without using your lips, and ventriloquists have always been taught to substitute another letter, like saying 'D' instead of 'B,'" Crowl said. "In this course, we teach sound modification. You can actually say the letters, it's just a matter of the proper teaching."

In the course, Crowl said they teach students to produce the labial consonants — letters that are said with the lips — by reproducing the sounds with the tongue inside the mouth. Even more important than lip control, Crowl said, is proper breathing technique. Crowl said many students want to skip past the fundamentals for the more flashy parts of ventriloquism.

"In ventriloquism, one of the big problems is that some people think the minimum is good enough, and it's really not. That's why for years, ventriloquism was a step below the party clown," Crowl said. "It hurts the business as a whole. If you see a singer and they're bad, you've seen enough singers to know that it was just a bad singer. People don't see ventriloquists that often, so if you catch a bad ventriloquist, you decide you don't want to see them again."

Wade said he estimates there are only about 4,000 professional ventriloquists worldwide.

In addition to the technical aspects of speaking with lip control, Crowl said they focus on the presentation and theatricality involved as well.

"Ventriloquism is the illusion of life. If you don't have a well-defined character, you're not going to succeed," Crowl said. "A lot of people pick up the puppet and think it's going to be a character, but it's not, it's just a tool."

Crowl's main puppet is Dangerous Duck, a sarcastic duck who is always looking for a way out of the show.

"Dangerous likes to mess with me. He likes to mess with the crowd. He likes to tease and get me in trouble," Crowl said. "He's never happy, and would always rather be somewhere else."

An aspect of ventriloquism Crowl said he would like to see explored in the future is the technique's relationship with speech therapy. Crowl said there have been local experiments with ventriloquists working with speech therapists, but never anything on a global scale.

"What we've created with the Maher course, teaching someone to say 'B' without using their lips, can be applied to a burn victim who has to learn to re-enunciate everything," Crowl said. "I think it's going to take a ventriloquist to start pursuing that market."

When looking at the young attendees at the Vent Haven convention, Crowl said he is continually impressed with how forward-thinking the new generation of ventriloquists are.

"We do an open mic, and they do stuff that is so unique and so different. They're their own person. They're not doing what Jeff does; they're not doing songs like Terry Fator does. They're doing their own thing," Crowl said. "I think ventriloquism will continue to grow. A lot of people for years thought it was a dying art. I think success stories like Jeff and Terry bodes well for its future."

Information from: Carroll County Times of Westminster, Md., http://bit.ly/1dQdq6d

Rep. Michael Grimm To Face Criminal Charges, Lawyer Says

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hide captionRep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), seen here last year, is expected to be indicted on criminal charges. His lawyer says Grimm has done nothing wrong.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), seen here last year, is expected to be indicted on criminal charges. His lawyer says Grimm has done nothing wrong.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Rep. Michael Grimm's lawyer says he expects the New York Republican will be indicted on criminal charges. The exact charges haven't been announced; the Staten Island lawmaker and former FBI agent, who was first elected to Congress in 2010, has been under investigation for campaign finance and fraud.

Grimm's attorney says his client is innocent and is the target of a vendetta on the part of federal authorities that has included "malicious leaks, violations of grand jury secrecy, and strong-arm tactics."

An investigation into Grimm's campaign finance practices is ongoing; the pending charges could stem from his role in owning a health food restaurant in Manhattan, reports The New York Times. The newspaper says the company Grimm formed to run the Healthalicious restaurant is also linked to Ofer Biton, a fund-raiser who admitted to visa fraud in a plea deal last summer.

NPR's Peter Overby reports for our Newscast unit:

"Grimm has been under federal investigation for more than two years on allegations that he systematically raised illegal contributions.

"After word leaked that an indictment was near, defense attorney William McGinley issued a statement. He called the case 'a politically driven vendetta and not an independent search for the truth.'

"The fundraising allegations stem from Grimm's first run for Congress in 2010. A friend of his was arrested in January on charges that she funneled money to his campaign through straw donors.

"Also in January, Grimm made headlines for threatening a reporter on Capitol Hill with bodily harm. He quickly apologized."

That reporter was from NY1 TV, which today notes that "The Republican's campaign was reportedly more than $450,000 in debt this March."

The friend of Grimm's who was arrested in January is Diana Durand of Houston, who was indicted Friday on charges that include campaign finance violations and making false statements to the FBI, the AP reports.

Del. cemetery offers a lasting history

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Time has nearly erased the inscriptions on the little half-moon gravestones, lined up like school desks. But a plain marker at their head tells their story: Children's Home.

The tiny headstones in a corner of the historic Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery are likely the resting places of girls and boys who spent their short lives at the Home for Friendless and Destitute Children, said Delaware historian Susan Mulchahey Chase. Founded in 1864, it was known simply as the "Children's Home," she said.

The sad little markers share the 25-acre burial ground on Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, with the grander monuments erected by captains of industry, signers of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. senators, war heroes, governors, judges and other notables of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Even some of the society women who championed the Children's Home, which cared for "the deserted, the abused, the orphaned, the destitute," are resting nearby, based on a 1920 article in the Sunday Morning Star.

Historians call the cemetery a "Who's Who" of Wilmington. Famous figures buried here include: Wilmington's first mayor, Richard H. Bayard; Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Smyth, the last Union general to be killed in the Civil War; Dr. James Tilton, a Revolutionary War hero, member of the Continental Congress and surgeon general of the U.S. Army in the War of 1812; Col. Henry S. McComb, a Civil War soldier and Reconstruction railroad tycoon for whom McComb, Miss., is named; and Commodore Jacob Jones, hero of the War of 1812.

Now, the board of directors of this city of the dead — with its more than 21,000 eternal residents — want to engage the living in supporting what has been a city landmark since 1843. Not only is the cemetery offering a free walking tour April 26 that will be led by historian Laura Lee, but the board will hold its first event fundraiser in October with a 5K "Eternal Rest Run/Walk," according to cemetery board president James T. Chandler IV.

Like cemeteries throughout the country, the Proprietors of the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery is charged with running a business that requires money for administration, maintenance and infrastructure, according to Jack Porter, a cemetery board member. While the cemetery's endowment of about $500,000 spins off about $30,000 to $40,000 a year in income, the expenses cost about $100,000, he said. Other money comes from the sale of burial plots and contributions, but the total annual income is usually half of the total expenses, he said.

"All cemeteries are in the same boat," said Robert Fells, executive director of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. "The popular perception is: You dig holes, bury people and what's the big deal? But there's roads to maintain, irrigation, trees. It's more than digging holes and mowing grass. The maintenance never ends. The services a cemetery sells are forever."

Graveyards like the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery, which is not connected to a church or municipality, doesn't have a "parent" to turn to for money, Fells said. Walking tours and runs are good ways to engage the public.

"Cemeteries occupy an important place in any town or community. Opening it gets people involved and it becomes more meaningful," Fells said.

When Samuel Wollaston decided to create a cemetery on 10 acres of his Windsor Farm in 1843, the graveyard was considered outside of town. At the time, rural cemeteries were becoming popular in America, drawing on innovations in burial ground design in Europe, according to the National Parks Service.

The cemetery project proved so successful that approximately 200 lot holders got together in 1844 to form a company to expand and landscape the site. Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery Co. was formed with Willard Hall, the founder of WSFS, serving as its president.

After its incorporation, the cemetery hired engineer George Read Riddle to design the plots, paths, roads and hillside terraces, according to Chase. Cedars of Lebanon were imported from Palestine by James Canby about 1850, according to "Delaware. The American Guide Series," by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration.

The monuments were a matter of great public interest, with Wilmington's leading families, such as the Bayards and Harlans, building mausoleums. Other monuments feature common funerary art, such as draped urns and sculptures of angels pointing heavenward with an anchor in one hand. Chase said the angels represent faith holding firm to the anchor of hope. Another theme is a broken column or tree stump, which symbolizes untimely death.

Thanks to the cemetery, Delaware Avenue soon became the most fashionable district in the city, with mansions owned by the oldest and most prominent citizens. Families in their Sunday finest would stroll from the reservoir, which became the site of Rodney Square, to the cemetery, then wander through the burial grounds, according to an article in The News Journal.

In an odd twist, some of the graves pre-date the cemetery's development. When a new library was proposed for Rodney Square in 1917, the 18th-century First Presbyterian Church was moved to Park Drive and the remains in the old cemetery were relocated to the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery. As a result, the first president (or governor) of Delaware, Dr. John McKinly, who had been buried at First Presbyterian, now rests off Delaware Avenue, along with other notables, such as James Adams, Delaware's first printer.

One corner, known as Soldier's Graveplot, is the resting place of 121 Civil War soldiers who died of wounds or war-related illnesses at the old Delaware Hospital near 9th and Madison streets.

Then there's the not-so-famous, like the burials from the Children's Home. Poring through cemetery records, Lee also found a burial for a man's arm and another soul who died "Whilst under affections of the heart."

Lee's walking tour will focus not only on notable graves, but also common causes of death, curiosities unearthed during burial permit research, and marker and mausoleum styles and meanings.

While some of the glory of the once-powerful who rest at the cemetery has faded, there are some who still remember.

In October, WSFS employees honored the bank's founder, Willard Hall, gathering at his grave for a ceremony.

"They brought about 80 or 100 people and it was a beautiful day, I looked up to the skyline and I could see the new WSFS Building," Porter said. "I said: 'You folks better keep doing the good work because Mr. Hall is keeping an eye on you.'"

Information from: The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., http://delonline.us/1hCrmqU

Principal killed in n. Lebanon school fight

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: The principal of a public school in Baddawi, north Lebanon, was killed Saturday while trying to break up a fight between students.

Farouk Kardovaki, the principal of the Baddawi School for boys, was hit with a sharp object as he tried to end a clash between students from the Awad and Mehrez families.

Kardovaki died shortly after being transferred to Tripoli’s government hospital.

After the incident, the school’s administration cancelled all classes and sent students home.

The security forces have launched an investigation into the incident.

Congress returns to work to do the bare minimum

WASHINGTON -- Congress gets back to work Monday after a two-week vacation, and it's looking like lawmakers will do what they do best: the bare minimum.

Forget immigration, a tax overhaul, stiffer gun checks. They're all DOA.

Raising the minimum wage or restoring lost unemployment benefits? Nope.

The only things likely to become law in a Congress bitterly divided between House Republicans and the Democratic-led Senate are those items that simply have to pass.

That's a short, short list.

It gets even shorter if you leave off things that can wait until a postelection lame-duck session.

Atop the list is a short-term spending bill to keep the government running past the Oct. 1 start of the new budget year, and legislation to replenish the almost-empty Highway Trust Fund.

Obama pushes again for minimum wage increase

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is again encouraging Congress to pass a bill raising the minimum raise to $10.10 an hour.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says increasing the pay for minimum-wage workers would help 28 million workers. He says Republican lawmakers not only don't want to increase the minimum wage, some want to get rid of it entirely.

In a dig at Republicans in Congress, Obama says they have taken more than 50 votes against his health care law but resist one vote on the minimum wage bill.

In the Republican address, House Speaker John Boehner says the federal government needs to get out of the way as small businesses try to plan for the future.

Boehner says House Republicans are pursuing economic initiatives that put jobs first.

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Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.speaker.gov

Weekly Address: Congress Needs to Act on Minimum Wage

In this week’s address, the President highlights small business owners across the country acting to raise wages for their workers, and calls on Congress to give America a raise so more hard-working Americans have the opportunity to get ahead.

Transcript | mp4 | mp3

Tax cut plans dim as focus shifts to potholes

LANSING, Mich. -- An income tax cut seemed inevitable just two months ago, as Gov. Rick Snyder and majority Republican lawmakers offered up and even began passing rival plans to use some of a budget surplus for short- or long-term tax relief before the 2014 elections.

Now plans for a tax reduction are waning and shifting instead to addressing pothole-ridden roads.

Snyder, who said he's open to dropping his tax plan to set aside more money for transportation, attributes the shrinking interest in tax relief to drivers who voiced their frustration.

"Much of it came about because of how serious the pothole season's been," he said. "I appreciate the general public speaking up more and more — they see a need to solve this problem in terms of transportation."

While legislators aren't ready to give up on tax cut discussions, they acknowledge that road funding could ultimately be a higher priority.

"In general, people are saying, 'Look, if we got a little extra money this year, rather than give a few dollars back to everybody when we have real structural problems with the roads, we think more people would prefer we go ahead and fix those roads,'" said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe.

In his February budget blueprint, Snyder proposed a modest $100 million-a-year tax cut in the form of partially restoring an income tax credit for low- to moderate-income homeowners and renters that he'd previously helped eliminate to as part of a major overhaul of and cut in business taxes. The reduction also would be retroactive to the 2013 tax year, with taxpayers on average getting $79 rebate checks in the mail this summer.

Also pending on the floors of the GOP-led House and Senate are four separate tax-cut proposals that cleared committees, including a modified version of Snyder's plan that would let more homeowners and renters qualify.

Richardville cautioned that the Legislature may no longer be able to provide immediate tax relief this year.

"We just want to make sure we can afford it and that it's not a promise that is an empty promise. So it may not go into effect until somewhere down the road," he said. "It's not dead. There are things on the table and I'm all about helping make them happen."

Over in the House, where a committee on Tuesday will begin considering Republicans' proposed $450 million annual boost in transportation funding, House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said many constituents made it known that they want better roads more than lower taxes. A reduced tax bill may not mean much if motorists have to spend it at a car repair shop after driving on crummy roads, according to advocates.

"We're trying to look at everything simultaneously," Bolger spokesman Ari Adler said. "Whether we can do something with taxes and roads, we don't know yet."

The House road-funding plan primarily would replace flat per-gallon fuel taxes with ones based on the wholesale price, allowing for an inflationary increase in taxes over time; raise the diesel tax to the equivalent of the gasoline tax; and dedicate portions of the sales tax on fuel and the use tax on out-of-state purchases to transportation funding.

Bolger acknowledges the proposal wouldn't provide the $1.2 billion annual increase that Snyder has pushed for much of his three-plus years in office but said it's a solid foundation upon which to build. County road commissions and road builders say more than $2 billion is needed, arguing that road agencies are getting less in state funding than a decade ago because of flat fuel taxes, more fuel-efficient vehicles and the recession.

"You cannot get a group of co-workers around a water cooler these days without someone having personally experienced a flat tire, bent rim, broken wheel or front-end alignment problem this year," said Denise Donohue, director of the County Road Association of Michigan.

Though legislators' emphasis on tax relief may have declined, it remains possible especially as they look ahead to the August primary and November general election. Some, bracing for a looming tough vote to give $350 million in state funds to help bail out bankrupt Detroit's pension funds, could insist on a tax cut in exchange despite Snyder's distaste for horse trading.

A mid-May meeting when revenue estimates will be updated before the next budget is finalized could prove crucial. In January, economists projected a $1 billion surplus from last fiscal year through the next one, though some of that money recently went toward road maintenance because of the brutal winter.

"We can invest in roads, we can give some tax relief," said Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell, sponsor of two tax-relief plans. "The economy's doing better and all indications are we're going to be seeing more revenue."

Strike at Chinese shoe factory ends partially

BEIJING -- Adidas has resumed production at a Chinese factory complex hit by a massive strike, with most workers returning to the job.

The Germany-based athletic wear giant said workers returned Friday at its factory run by Taiwanese-owned Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd., the world's largest manufacturer of athletic shoes.

More than 40,000 workers at Yue Yuen's sprawling factory complex in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan went on strike in early April to protest underpayments into their social security and housing funds.

Labor activists confirmed Saturday that most workers, including those assigned to the Adidas factory, had returned to work, though about 10,000 remained on strike.

The workers have not reached a deal with Yue Yuen, and it was unclear why many of them had returned to the job.

Army deploys in Beirut’s suburbs after clashes

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Armed Forces deployed heavily in Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday to end clashes that broke out between two families in the Jamous neighborhood that wounded several people, security sources told The Daily Star.

Armed gun battles erupted between members of the Nasreddine and Meqdad families leaving several people wounded.

At least one rocket propelled grenade was used in the clashes and heavy fire was heard in nearby neighborhoods, sources added.

An apartment was also set ablaze in the neighborhood due to the clashes, the sources said.