5 things to know about salmonella in chicken

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds — maybe thousands — of antibiotic-resistant salmonella illnesses are linked to a California chicken producer. The outbreak has been going on for over a year, and none of the company's products have been recalled.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there were 50 new reported illnesses linked to Foster Farms of Livingston, California, in the past two months, bringing the total number of cases to 574. Most of the illnesses were in California.

Five things you should know about this outbreak:

CENTERED ON THE WEST COAST

Seventy-seven percent of those sickened were in California, but illnesses were reported in 27 states and Puerto Rico, including a handful on the East Coast, Alaska and Hawaii. Neither the Agriculture Department nor Foster Farms has released a comprehensive list of where the chicken was sold. Last year, Costco and Kroger-owned stores took Foster Farms products off their shelves. Neither company responded to a request for comment on whether they were selling it again.

Foster Farms also did not respond to a request for comment on retail outlets.

A HISTORY OF OUTBREAKS

Dealing with outbreaks is nothing new for Foster Farms. The company was linked to salmonella illnesses in 2004 and then again in 2012, before the current outbreak, which started in 2013.

In a letter from the USDA to Foster Farms last October, the department said inspectors had documented "fecal material on carcasses" along with "poor sanitary dressing practices, insanitary food contact surfaces, insanitary nonfood contact surfaces and direct product contamination."

In January, USDA inspectors briefly closed a Foster Farms plant after finding cockroaches.

The USDA said it is closely monitoring Foster Farms facilities and said measured rates of salmonella in the company's products have been going down. The department threatened to shut down Foster Farms' facilities last year but let them stay open after the company said it had made immediate changes to reduce salmonella rates.

Foster Farms said this week it has put new measures in place, including tighter screening of birds, improved safety on the farms where the birds are raised and better sanitation in its plants. The company suggested the recent cases may have happened because salmonella incidence increases in the warmer months.

GOVERNMENT'S HANDS ARE TIED

Recalls of poultry contaminated with salmonella are tricky because the law allows raw chicken to have a certain amount of salmonella — a rule that consumer advocates have long lobbied to change. Because salmonella is so prevalent in poultry and is killed if consumers handle it and cook it properly, the government has not declared it to be an "adulterant," or illegal, in meat, as is E. coli. Outbreaks of salmonella in poultry can take longer to discover, and recalls don't happen as quickly.

Because of those rules, the USDA likely would have to go through the courts if it decided to force a recall.

In a statement, USDA spokeswoman Catherine Cochran said the outbreak "has persisted for far too long without a solution." She said the agency was continuing to investigate the illnesses, "including the possibility that they may be caused by other sources."

The CDC, however, said three-fourths of victims who were able to provide the agency with brand information said they had consumed chicken produced by Foster Farms before becoming ill.

The CDC's Ian Williams says there is a bit of good news: Officials are seeing a slow decline in the number of illnesses. "It suggests to us that they are starting to address the problem," Williams said.

KNOW YOUR SYMPTOMS

Salmonella causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product. It can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems, though no one has died in this particular outbreak. Cases are reported when those who are ill visit their doctors and the doctors send stool samples to labs that culture them and identify a particular strain.

Since that doesn't always happen, and because some cases may be mild, the CDC estimates there are probably 20 to 30 times more salmonella cases than are reported. That means this outbreak alone could have resulted in about 17,000 illnesses.

ABOVE ALL, COOK YOUR CHICKEN

Safe handling and cooking can eliminate the chance of salmonella poisoning. The CDC advises that you wash your hands, utensils, counters and cutting boards before and after they come in contact with poultry. Separate raw poultry from other foods, cook it to 165 degrees Fahrenheit as measured with a food thermometer and chill it promptly.

5 things to know about Apple's duet with Beats

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple CEO Tim Cook looked like he wanted to dance Wednesday as he discussed his company's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics. The deal, by far the most expensive in Apple's 38-year history, will give the iPhone and iPod maker a line of trendy headphones known for their hip appearance and thumping bass sound.

But Cook seems most excited about the potential of Beat's still nascent music-streaming service, which currently has more than 250,000 subscribers. That's paltry compared to the more than 10 million people subscribing to Spotify's rival streaming service, Cook is confident that will change once Beats has access to the data that Apple Inc. has accumulated while selling more than 35 billion songs to more than 800 million iTunes accounts during the past 13 years.

COMBINING MATH WITH EMOTION

Apple is intrigued with Beats Music's approach to compiling playlists to suit the individual tastes of each subscriber. Rather than just grouping songs by genre or relying on toneless algorithms that analyze past listening habits, Beats also draws upon the knowledge and ears of tastemakers such as Beats' co-founders — rap music pioneer Dr. Dre and longtime recording industry executive Jimmy Iovine, who has been an engineer or producer on seminal albums made by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Dire Straits.

"We are getting the first music subscription service that got it right, that believes in human curation," Cook said during a Wednesday interview at Apple's Cupertino, California headquarters. "We think this is killer. The feeling that you get from listening to this service is so different than anything else."

FILLING A VOID

Apple is the top seller of songs downloaded over the Internet and has attracted 40 million listeners to its free iTunes Radio service since its launch eight months ago. But neither of those resonates with music lovers like a classic album or a playlist tailored for a person's mood at a particular time, according to Eddy Cue, the head of iTunes.

"With Beats, you can create a playlist that truly moves you," Cue said Wednesday. "It gives you emotions, it gives you meanings, it tells about culture. Those are things you can't get from a single song and we love that."

MONEY MAKER

Cook says Beats is already profitable, six years after Iovine, 61, and Dre, 49, started the company, which is now based in Culver City, California. Dre originally wanted to design flashy sneakers, according to Sony Music CEO Doug Morris, who considers Iovine to be his best friend. Iovine thought making a stylish line of headphones would be more lucrative. The company launched its music streaming service earlier this year.

After generating $1.1 billion in revenue last year, Beats' sales increased by 30 percent during the first three months this year, Cook said. He expects Beat to boost Apple's earnings beginning in October. Apple earned $37 billion on revenue of $171 billion in its last fiscal year, so Beats' initial contribution won't be that significant financially.

A DECADE-LONG COURTSHIP

Iovine has disparaged the technology industry as "culturally inept," but he says he has always thought of Apple differently since he first met the company's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, to discuss the state of digital music in 2003.

"I came back to my team and said, 'These guys get our industry and they get culture,'" Iovine said Wednesday. "This is a company that was founded by a person who respects music."

Cook, who worked closely with Jobs before succeeding him as CEO in 2011, says the admiration was mutual.

Jobs "knew Jimmy very well and he loved Jimmy very much," Cook said.

THINKING DIFFERENTLY

Many Apple watchers are convinced that Jobs would have never have bought Beats, no matter how fond he might have been of Iovine.

Jobs, who died in October 2011, was famous for hoarding cash and when he spent money, he preferred investing it in research that would enable Apple to innovate on own. Until Wednesday, Apple's biggest previous purchase had been its $400 million acquisition of NeXt Computer, a company that Jobs started after he was ousted from Apple in the 1980s.

Jobs also had denigrated music subscription services, such as the one that Beats is trying to build.

Cook says he tries not to ever consider what Jobs might have done if he were still alive, but he insists that his predecessor wasn't as resistant to acquisition as most people think.

"We have never been anti-acquisition," Cook said. "We have looked at some very, very large companies and we decided not to buy them. But we didn't decide not to do them out of religious reasons. There was no rule, 'Thou Shalt Not Acquire.' There was no rule that everything had to be built organically."

Apple has now bought 27 companies since September 2012. Most of them have been small deals that haven't required Apple to disclose the price.

Report: Michigan a leader in 'blue economy' jobs

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Michigan is fourth in the nation in the share of its workforce associated with industries that develop freshwater technology and services or are highly dependent on plentiful and clean water, according to a report released Thursday.

From wastewater treatment to farming and advanced manufacturing, a wide swath of the state's economy is particularly sensitive to any changes in water quality or abundance, said the analysis prepared on behalf of three public universities that conduct extensive water research.

It also says that those industries and the research provide a solid foundation for developing a "blue economy" advocated by many futurist thinkers as a path to prosperity for the Great Lakes region in the post-Rust Belt era.

"You just have to look at what's happening around the country with all the droughts to understand how important it will be in the 21st century to know how to conserve and protect water," said Jeff Mason, executive director of the University Research Corridor, the consortium of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University that sponsored the analysis.

The report was produced by Anderson Economic Group, an East Lansing consulting firm that previously has examined the universities' contributions to sectors such as automobiles, information technology and alternative energy. The Associated Press obtained a copy prior to its release during the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual policy conference at Mackinac Island.

It found that 718,704 jobs in Michigan — 21.3 percent of total employment — are with industries that benefit directly from innovation and research that boost water quantity and quality. Bigger states such as California and Texas have more such jobs. But Michigan ranks fourth nationally in the share of its workforce in those industries, trailing Indiana (23.3 percent), Wisconsin (23.2 percent) and Alabama (21.3 percent).

Hawaii's rate, 7.5 percent, is lowest. The nationwide rate is 16.1 percent.

The report divided the industries into two broad categories. "Core water products and services" consists of sectors with the clearest link, as they develop, sell or implement water quality and quantity technology. Examples include water filtration, waste treatment and scientific or engineering consultant services. Michigan has 138,026 of those jobs.

The second category, "water-enabled industries," includes those that use large volumes of water for their products or operations, discharge significant amounts needing processing, or both. While virtually every part of the economy needs water, the industries in this group are most likely to make direct use of the new technology, the report said. Among them are agriculture, electric power generation, shipping and numerous types of manufacturing, from wood products to chemicals, drugs and appliances. Their combined employment totaled 581,028.

Only a few workers in such places might have direct involvement with water, said Alexander Rosaen, who wrote the report.

"But the fact remains that if there's a significant change in availability of water, or they can't get the quality of water they need, it might disrupt their operations or the might even change their location," he said.

Promoting both industry categories is important because they have strong growth potential in an increasingly thirsty world — and they represent parts of Michigan's economy that provide an advantage over competing states, Rosaen said.

The universities' water research and related programs "not only support Michigan's economy and way of life, but position the state as a knowledge wellspring for the world's most precious natural resource," said Lou Anna K. Simon, Michigan State's president.

Follow John Flesher on Twitter at http://bit.ly/1rNimBc .

California city votes to end hot sauce dispute

IRWINDALE, Calif. -- The fiery fight between the makers of a popular hot sauce and a small Southern California city is apparently over.

The Irwindale City Council voted Wednesday night to drop a public nuisance declaration and lawsuit against Huy Fong Foods, makers of Sriracha (suhr-AH'-chuh) hot sauce.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (http://bit.ly/1tSfP9Z) reports that the closed-session council vote was unanimous.

The city has been at odds with the company for months after residents complained spicy odors burned their throats and eyes.

But city officials met Tuesday with company CEO David Tran and representatives of Gov. Jerry Brown's Business and Economic Development Office. Afterward Mayor Mark Breceda said he would ask the council to end the fight.

Representatives from the city and the company did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Information from: San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest – May 29, 2014

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

An-Nahar

Kelly: Power vacuum decreases foreign trust in Lebanon

U.N. reviewing response plan

Ninette Kelley, the representative of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, said a power vacuum would decrease foreign countries’ confidence in Lebanon.

"Institutional paralysis also keeps the stability of the country in question," Kelley told An-Nahar.

She said UNHCR had been informed that some Syrian refugees felt “insecure,” adding that the U.N. agency was reviewing a response plan.

As-Safir

Sources: U.S. preparing to declare stance in support of government

On the eve of a Cabinet meeting, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale said the U.S. was calling on the Lebanese Parliament to elect a new president as soon as possible.

Well-informed sources told As-Safir that Hale’s position was likely to be followed by high-level contact from the U.S. administration to Prime Minister Tammam Salam to confirm Washington's support for the Lebanese government to exercise its powers until the election of a new president.

More to follow ...

Energy historian Daniel Yergin: Lift U.S. ban on oil exports

By Sean Cockerham and Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- A report Thursday from a respected oil historian argues for lifting a longstanding ban on U.S. oil exports in order to keep down gasoline prices for consumers. It’s a view sure to raise eyebrows and comes amid a broader national debate about exporting America’s new energy bounty.

The report by IHS Energy, led by influential author and energy consultant Daniel Yergin, comes as the Obama administration is weighing whether to lift the export ban put in place in the wake of the 1973 Arab oil embargo and during a past era of ill-fated price controls to protect consumers from higher pump prices.

The report, shared with McClatchy before publication, points to the skyrocketing U.S. oil and natural gas production that’s resulted from new drilling techniques shorthanded as fracking. It argues the ban has outlived its purpose.

“You have this relic of an age long gone,” Yergin said in an interview Wednesday. The export ban, by his estimate, makes oil and gasoline more expensive than it otherwise would be. That’s because U.S. refineries are generally configured to handle heavier grades of crude oil. The lighter-grade oil coming from new production areas in Montana and the Dakotas can be sold for more abroad and would add to the international supply, thus potentially lowering global prices.

“The benefit to consumers of a crude oil free-trade policy is an estimated 8 cents per gallon . . . reduction in the price of gasoline and transportation fuels,” according to the 120-page report.

The report said savings to consumers could be as high as 12 cents a gallon and that U.S. oil exports could reduce world oil prices by $3 to $5 a barrel over a 15-year window. It estimates the broader economy would grow between 0.7 percent and 1.2 percent faster over the period than otherwise would be the case, as a result of the cheaper gasoline prices and additional consumer spending power.

“The benefits of this in terms of investment would flow through to the entire economy in a pretty significant way,” said Yergin, who won the Pulitzer in 1992 for his book “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power,” which dissected the history and geopolitics of oil.

The federal Energy Information Administration is now engaged in its own research into the consequences of lifting the export ban in light of U.S. production, which last year rose by 15 percent, the largest single-year gain since 1940.

The IHS study was funded by a group of prominent energy and oilfield service companies including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Continental Resources, ExxonMobil and Halliburton.

“Obviously people who don’t like the study will point to that,” Yergin said. “This is our reputation, our work, and this is where our research led us.”

Exporting American energy is controversial. Yergin’s report comes as U.S. manufacturers have banded together under the banner “America’s Energy Advantage” to fight the growing export of natural gas. They warned Congress in late April that the exports will undermine investments made by companies that make products in the United States.

The call to export U.S. energy also comes after a brutal winter that saw unprecedented shortages of propane used to heat homes, even as propane was being exported at record levels. Several witnesses testifying before the Senate Energy Committee on May 1 blamed the surge in propane exports as a factor in the supply problems.

Some in Congress, particularly Democrats, are mustering forces to fight any lifting of the export ban.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has led congressional opposition, said America remains about as dependent on foreign oil as when the ban was put in place. American drivers are benefiting from the ban when they fill up with gasoline because it keeps oil prices lower than they are abroad, he said.

“We should use American resources to protect American consumers and enhance our energy security, not send these resources abroad to pad the profits of Big Oil,” he told McClatchy.

The IHS Energy study argues that the ban on crude oil exports distorts the price for light-sweet crude oil produced and sold in the United States, causing it to sell at a discount to the price it fetches internationally.

Most U.S. refiners are equipped to handle heavier grades of crude oil from Venezuela and Mexico and would not use the light-sweet oil anyway, the report maintains. By selling it abroad, it would keep a lid on rising oil prices, and that translates into lower fuel prices, since gasoline takes its cue from international oil prices.

“If low prices for U.S. domestic (light) crude endure – and that risk is growing – investment in crude oil production will slow or even decline,” the report cautions. “Export markets are needed to sustain U.S. crude oil production gains that cannot be absorbed by our refineries without significant and costly changes to the U.S. refining system.”

The likely export markets, said IHS analysts, are Asia and Europe.

Importantly, Yergin doesn’t expect oil and gasoline prices would be cheaper than what motorists are paying today. Rather, the price of these products over time would grow more slowly than they otherwise would have, he said.

That seems to be the case already with the rapid increase in U.S. oil drilling in the Dakotas and Montana. The AAA Motor Club doesn’t have a position yet on lifting the ban on exports, but it feels the U.S. oil production boom “helped bring down peak gasoline prices,” said Michael Green, a AAA spokesman.

The more readily available domestic oil has allowed for more production and export of gasoline, he said, and that’s helped in recent years to prevent gas prices from going over $4 a gallon in spring and summer.

But he warned of a flip side.

“There is sort of a floor to how low prices can go,” Green said, noting that refiners are profiting from buying domestic oil that is cheaper than what is traded internationally. “In many ways, this seems like a battle between Big Oil and big gasoline producers.”

The United Steelworkers union opposes lifting the ban, warning of job losses at U.S. refineries if they start paying more for the oil they process.

“Severe job loss could result from lifting the export controls,” said Gary Beevers, the union’s vice president overseeing the oil sector.

Refiners such as Valero Energy Corp. like the status quo, in which exports are essentially banned except for some shipments going to Canada under special license from the U.S. Commerce Department. Valero spokesman Bill Day said his company’s position is that the idea of easing the ban to allow broader exports of American crude oil “requires a lot of study.”

But there is more political momentum for lifting the ban than in decades. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Obama adviser John Podesta said the idea of easing restrictions is under consideration. The top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, is pushing to overturn the ban.

Some Democratic senators are wary of lifting the ban, citing among other concerns the increased transport of oil in railcars, a danger spotlighted by McClatchy in a series of stories.

Apple adds more swagger with $3B Beats acquisition

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple is buying more flair, swagger and song-picking savvy with its $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, a headphone and music streaming specialist founded by rapper Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, one of the first recording executives to roll with the hip-hop culture.

Wednesday's announcement came nearly three weeks after deal negotiations were leaked to the media. It's by far the most expensive acquisition in Apple's 38-year history, a price that the company is paying to counter a threat posed to its iTunes store.

The price consists of $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in Apple stock that will vest over an unspecified time period. The deal is expected to close before October.

With $1.1 billion in revenue last year, Beats is already making money and will boost Apple's earnings once the new fiscal year begins in October, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview.

Iovine, 61, and Dre, 49, were the keys to the deal. They began working with Apple in the early days of its iTunes store and now will become key in Apple's music divisions, though Cook said their roles haven't been determined yet

"We have known these guys forever," Cook said of Iovine and Dre. "We've dated, we've gone steady and now we are getting married. This relationship started a decade ago, so we know there is an incredible cultural fit. These two guys have a very rare set of skills. It's like finding a particular grain of sand on the beach. It's that rare."

Cook indicated Beats' music streaming service was the main selling point in the deal, though the headphone line also is expected to continue growing, too.

Although he regards most technology companies as "culturally inept," Iovine believes Apple will empower Beats to realize its goals of improving the sound of digital music and creating playlists tailored for each subscriber.

"To complete our dream, we needed a company like (Apple)," Iovine said in an interview. "We couldn't finish this on our own."

The growing popularity of music streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify has been reducing sales of songs and albums, a business that iTunes has dominated for the past decade. U.S. sales of downloaded songs slipped 1 percent last year to $2.8 billion while streaming music revenue surged 39 percent to $1.4 billion, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Although Apple broke into streaming with the launch of iTunes Radio last September, the service has not been as popular or as lucrative as the company expected, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

ITunes Radio has 40 million listeners and will continue as a free service with ads while Beats Music will try to tap into the more than 800 million iTunes accounts to sell more subscriptions to its customized service. Beats Music currently has more than 250,000 subscribers, Cook said. That's well below the more than 10 million paying customers that Spotify's streaming service boasts.

Apple is counting on the Beats acquisition to boost its cachet with teenagers and younger adults as it tries to remain a leader in digital music — an industry that looks much different than when Apple reshaped the scene with the 2001 debut of the iPod.

"Apple suddenly has regained its cool," said Sony Music CEO Doug Morris, who was one of the first recording executives to embrace iTunes at Iovine's urging more than a decade ago.

Beats was founded in 2008 by Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and Iovine, a longtime recording industry executive who is stepping down as chairman of Universal Music Group's Interscope Geffen A&M Records to join Apple. It now dominates the luxury headphone market. Its equipment is also a big seller in Apple's stores.

Operating from its Culver City, California, headquarters, Beats commands 62 percent of the $1 billion U.S. market for headphones priced above $100, according to NPD Group.

The purchase marks Apple CEO Tim Cook's biggest strategic break from the way the Cupertino, California, company was led under co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011. Jobs favored smaller acquisitions and didn't believe subscription music plans would be popular. Before Beats, Apple's biggest acquisition had been its $400 million purchase of NeXt Computer, a company that Jobs founded after being ousted from Apple in the 1980s.

Cook said he never considered what Jobs would have thought about the Beats' acquisition during the negotiations. Jobs "told me to do what was right," Cook said. "And I am 100 percent certain this is what is right. This is one of those things that we will look back upon and say it was meant to be."

Morris, who considers Iovine to be his best friend, believes Cook is making a smart move that will give Apple even more credibility in the music industry.

"It's a game changer because Jimmy is that kind of guy who can change a game," Morris said. "I am not saying he is Steve Jobs, but he is a guy with new ideas and he really knows how to build the bridge between music and technology."

But some analysts question whether Beats will be a good fit for Apple, which makes most of its money selling hardware such as iPhones and iPads.

Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett says Apple would have been better off developing its own headphones in-house and expanding into music subscriptions through iTunes.

"It's hard to understand why Apple would have to spend $3 billion on a nascent streaming service and a line of bass-heavy headphones," Gillett says.

Yukari Iwatani Kane, the author of "Haunted Empire," an inside look at Apple since co-founder Jobs' death, also sees a disconnect.

"Culturally, Beats is the complete opposite of Apple," Kane says. "It's known for being loud and bold and in your face. It doesn't fit with Apple's understated, discerning brand."

Having visited Apple on a regular basis since he first met Jobs more than a decade ago, Iovine said he has no qualms about joining Apple.

"This is not a big company to us," Iovine said. "We can roller skate in the halls here. Dre and I have been working together for 22 years. We are not about to go somewhere where we are going to fall."

Dre was more sedate Wednesday than he was in a celebratory video posted online declaring him as hip-hop's first billionaire after news of the Apple talks leaked earlier this month. "To be able to do something that could potentially change the world, I'm thrilled."

Nakashima reported from Los Angeles.

White and male, Google releases diversity data

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In a groundbreaking disclosure, Google revealed how very white and male its workforce is — just 2 percent of its Googlers are black, 3 percent are Hispanic, and 30 percent are women.

The search giant said Wednesday that the transparency about its workforce — the first disclosure of its kind in the largely white, male tech sector — is an important step toward change.

"Simply put, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity," Google Inc. senior vice president Laszlo Bock wrote in a blog.

The numbers were compiled as part of a report that major U.S. employers must file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Companies are not required to make the information public.

The gender divide is based on the roughly 44,000 people Google employed throughout the world at the start of this year. The company didn't factor about 4,000 workers at its Motorola Mobility division, which is being sold to China's Lenovo Group for $2.9 billion. The racial data is limited to Google's roughly 26,600 workers in the U.S as of August 2013.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg recently said the social networking company is headed toward disclosure as well, but it was important to share the data internally first.

Apple Inc., Twitter, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. did not respond immediately to queries about possible plans to disclose data.

Bock said Google has been working to diversify, not just its offices but in the broader tech sector. Since 2010, the firm has given more than $40 million to organizations working to bring computer science education to women and girls, he said.

The company also is working with historically black colleges and universities to elevate coursework and attendance in computer science, he said.

"But we're the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be, and that being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of the solution," he said.

Gender and ethnic disparities are reflected throughout the tech industry. About 7 percent of tech workers are black or Latino in Silicon Valley and nationally. Blacks and Hispanics make up 13.1 and 16.9 percent of the U.S. population, respectively, according to the most recent Census data.

In the coming months, Google said, it will work with the Kapor Center for Social Impact, a group that uses information technology to close gender and ethnic gaps in the Silicon Valley workforce. The center will be organizing a Google-backed conference in California focusing on issues of technology and diversity.

Co-founder Freada Kapor Klein, who started the Level Playing Field Institute 13 years ago to teach and mentor black and Latino students in science and math, said Google is showing leadership "which has been sorely needed for a long time."

"Google is the company known for the moonshot, and applying that part of Google DNA to this problem is a breath of fresh air," she said.

Earlier this year, the Rev. Jesse Jackson launched a campaign to diversify Silicon Valley, asking to meet with leaders of several iconic technology companies about bringing black and Hispanics into their workforce and leadership.

Since then, he's been leading delegations to annual shareholder's meetings at firms including Google, Facebook, eBay Inc. and Hewlett-Packard.

On Wednesday Jackson said Google is to be commended.

"It's a bold step in the right direction. We urge other companies to follow Google's lead," he said. "Silicon Valley and the tech industry have demonstrated an ability to solve the most challenging and complex problems in the world. Inclusion is a complex problem — if we put our collective minds together, we can solve that too."

Iris Gardner, a manager at nonprofit Code2040, which places high performing black and Latino software engineering students in internships with top tech companies, said Google's disclosure could mark a pivotal moment in the push to diversify Silicon Valley.

"It is a big deal for them to be transparent about something that most companies haven't in the past been willing to share," she said.

Apple's Beats buy joins tech and street-wise style

NEW YORK -- Beats Electronics' colorful, oversized headphones serve as a fashion accessory to cool kids riding the New York City subway, but as tech companies such as Apple, Samsung and others are discovering, wearable gadgets like smartwatches and Google Glass still have a long way to go to become trendy, must-have consumer items.

Apple's $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics, by far the company's largest acquisition, is at least in part recognition that Beats founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine might be able to help Apple incorporate more style and flair into its premium technology gadgets —especially a coming wave of wearable devices.

Technology companies see wearables as an important area of growth beyond smartphones and tablets, and many are slowly realizing that if they expect people to wear gadgets —be they bracelets to monitor fitness activity, smartwatches to substitute smartphones or Internet-connected goggles— those devices must focus as much on form as function.

So far, the most noteworthy wearables have hardly been stylish. The standard Google Glass product looks more like something out of Star Trek than a fashion accessory. Fitness bands meant to be worn 24 hours a day are difficult to match with evening gowns or even a suit and tie.

"I guess they are accessories, but I would not say they are high fashion," says Alison Minton, a blogger who writes about accessories, jewelry and handbags on accessorygeneration.com. "There's a ways to go before they could be considered high fashion in the way Chanel would be, or Prada."

To change that, tech companies are beginning to attract top talent from the world of fashion. Apple's move comes less than a year after the iPhone and iPad inventor hired Angela Ahrendts, a respected executive who helped mold Burberry into the popular luxury brand it is today. In recent weeks, Google lured fashion and marketing executive Ivy Ross, who's worked for Calvin Klein, the Gap and Coach, to head its Google Glass unit.

"With your help, I look forward to answering the seemingly simple, but truly audacious questions Glass poses: Can technology be something that frees us up and keeps us in the moment, rather than taking us out of it? Can it help us look up and out at the world around us, and the people who share it with us?" wrote Rossin a Google Plus post.

For Ahrendts, Apple is already a luxury brand. Three years before she was hired at Apple last fall, she signaled her admiration for Apple in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"I don't look at Gucci or Chanel or anyone," Ahrendts told the newspaper in 2010. "If I look to any company as a model, it's Apple. They're a brilliant design company working to create a lifestyle, and that's the way I see us."

To be sure, Apple has long been a trendsetter when it comes to producing elegant gadgets. Jony Ive, who designed the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple's newest mobile software system iOS7, still serves as the company's chief style visionary. But Dr. Dre and Iovine have created wildly popular headphones that young hipsters, celebrities and professional athletes adorn themselves with —even when they're not listening to music. Dre and Iovine's input will be highly valued as Apple looks to introduce its next breakthrough device.

The cultural coming-together of geeks and fashionistas is happening slowly, says Michael Londrigan, dean of academic affairs at LIM College, a fashion school in New York City. Apple's hiring of Ahrendts, he adds, "was really the start of it."

"Overall, the goal is to marry the function with the fashion, creating a wearable technology that is sort of seamless."

Indeed, the bulky nature of many wearable gadgets is what stops many people from considering them, says Minton. To her, fitness bands are reminiscent of "gigantic, oversized watches they had when I was a kid." You know, the ones with the calculator built in.

"It doesn't look like something an adult would really wear. It's functional, but when you care about fashion it's not always about function, it's more about the look," she says.

Besides the need for sleek, unobtrusive design that can be worn with a T-shirt as well as with a three-piece suit, wearable technology also faces a material challenge.

"Fitness bands are basically rubber. That's hard to appeal to fashionistas," Minton says. "That's not really a sexy kind of material."

So what's going to nudge tech companies further into the fashion world? Minton suggests partnering with well-established fashion houses such as Stella McCartney or, yes, Burberry, on limited edition collections.

"You may not need a fitness band, but if it is in Burberry plaid, you would wear it," she says. Especially if only 1,000 are made.

AP PHOTOS: Post-crackdown, a mining boomtown limps

HUEPETUHE, Peru -- This nearly half-century-old Amazon boomtown has gone bust with the government's recent crackdown on illegal gold mining.

Mayor Marco Ortega estimates more than 22,000 people have left Huepetuhe since the government halted gasoline shipments in April and sent troops to destroy heavy machinery used in mining that it deemed illegal.

He says only about 3,000 people remain.

"The economy has collapsed," says Ortega. "The gold buyers, the hardware stores, hostels and all kinds of businesses have shut down. We are nearly a town without people."

The brothels that flank a broad mud flat of mining runoff are now all but idle, as are most gas stations.

The government official overseeing the crackdown has said authorities plan to provide work for miners rendered jobless, but Ortega says no assistance has arrived.

According to official figures, wildcat miners have extracted 159 million metric tons of gold worth $7 billion over the past decade from the Madre de Dios region that includes Huepetuhe.

The environmental cost has been high, with huge scars gouged out of the rainforest that are visible from outer space and tons of mercury, a toxin used to bind mined gold flecks, released into the environment and contaminating the food chain in a region of rich biodiversity where several indigenous tribes live in voluntary isolation.

The miners who stayed behind are reduced to rudimentary gold extraction using pickaxes, shovels and small motors.

The government gave informal miners until April 19 to formalize any claims they might have, but the vast majority didn't have any.

One lingering miner, 25-year-old Joel Maceda, had been earning $1,071 a month as a heavy machinery operator. The father of two says he now struggles to earn a quarter of that, and his wife now pitches in.

"She works with me because we have nothing to eat," says Maceda, his 2-month-old on a blanket on the ground.

Rather than return to his native highlands city of Cuzco and start over, Maceda hopes the government will let some mining resume in Huepetuhe. Not all operations there were illegal.

"The government may be doing things right by ending illegal mining, but they should have thought of us, the lowliest workers."

Associated Press writer Franklin Briceno in Lima contributed to this report.

Disasters dampen Philippine economic growth in 1Q

MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine officials say a major earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan dampened economic growth in the first quarter but the economy is still expected to hit its target for 2014.

The government statistics agency reported Thursday that gross domestic product expanded 5.7 percent in the first quarter, down from 7.7 percent for the same period last year and 6.3 percent in the last quarter of 2013.

Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan says despite the disasters which occurred late last year, the economy was the third fastest growing in Asia in the first quarter, behind China's 7.4 percent and Malaysia's 6.2 percent.

He says the Philippine economy's performance indicates it will continue to expand and is expected to meet the government's growth target of 6.5-7.5 percent for the whole year.

Snowden Gives HBO's The Wire a Harsh Review

Thanks to an interview with NBC News, we have finally arrived "INSIDE THE MIND OF EDWARD SNOWDEN." The interview just finished airing, and is worth watching in full, particularly for his simple response to those criticizing him for leaking all those NSA files: "I've done the right thing even when it was the hard thing. And I'm comfortable with that."

Once you decide where you stand on whether he is a hero or a traitor, there is a smaller manner that deserves your attention: Is Edward Snowden a horrible TV critic? We're asking because he decided to say this during the interview:

Smart, decent folks can disagree on whether the second season of The Wire was the best one (it was, because Frank Sobotka). But they can't be serious about it being "not so great." Snowden's over in Russia, kinda bored, trolling HBO fiends. Could that be it? I mean, the second season has a near-perfect rating of 95 on Metacritic. Or as Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic put it in his perfect 100 review: "It's flat-out brilliant."

Or maybe this has something to do with David Simon, co-creator of The Wire who has devoted part of his post-show time savaging various people on his personal blog. About a year ago, in fact, he took on Snowden's leak, and how it was covered by The Guardian and other newspapers. The long answer has everything to do with Simon's career as a police detective, and his belief that tapping phones by the thousands is not offensive "because they aren’t listening to the calls" until a judge allows them to. The short answer -- you might even call it David Simon's review of Mr. Snowden's Opus -- makes Snowden's review look like a lullaby:

But this? Please. This is bullshit.

By "this," to be clear, he basically meant the entire scandal sparked by Snowden's leak. You can read Simon's full post on the NSA leaks here.

Report: US births up for first time in 5 years

NEW YORK -- The baby recession may be at an end: After a five-year span in which the number of children born in the United States dropped each year, 2013 saw a minute increase.

According to a new government report, the number of babies born last year rose by about 4,700, the first annual increase since 2007.

It's a "very, very, very slight" increase, said the lead author of the new report, Brady Hamilton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts have been blaming the downward trend mainly on the nation's economy, which was in recession from 2007 to 2009 and wobbly for at least two years after that. Many couples had money problems and felt they couldn't afford to start or add to their family, they believe.

Now the economy has picked up and so has child-bearing, at least in women ages 30 and older — the teen birth rate dropped sharply once again, and birth rates still fell for women in in their 20s.

Falling deliveries was a relatively new phenomenon in this country. Births were on the rise since the late 1990s and hit an all-time high of more than 4.3 million in 2007. Then came the drop attributed to the nation's flagging economy.

Both the number of births and birth rate fell fairly dramatically through 2010. Then the declines became smaller. In 2012, the number of births was only a few hundred less than in 2011.

Last year's tally was a little under 4 million.

The nation also may be seeing a more pronounced shift to having children a bit later in life, said Rob Stephenson, an Emory University demographer focused on reproductive health. That follows a trend western Europe experienced more than a decade ago, he said.

"Maybe the new norm is having children in your 30s," he said.

The birth rate for women in their early 30s inched up in 2012 for the first time since 2007. It rose again in 2013, by 1 percent. The birth rates for women in their late 30s and early 40s rose by 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Some of these older moms probably were women who put off having kids a few years ago, when money was tighter, but now are responding to their biological clocks, said John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health.

"At some point, you can't wait any longer," he said.

But he also agreed that it's become more common for women to pursue education and career goals through their 20s and delay starting families until later.

The CDC report is based on a review of more than 99 percent of U.S. birth certificates from 2012. The government released the report Thursday.

Other highlights:

—The number of births rose a little for both white and black women. It stayed the same for Hispanic and Native American moms. And for some reason experts can't explain, it fell 2 percent for Asian moms.

—The birth rate dropped less than 1 percent, to just under 63 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. That's the lowest it's ever been, according to U.S. health records.

—The total fertility rate also fell, by 1 percent. That statistic tells how many children a woman can be expected to have if current birth rates continue. The figure was 1.87 children last year. Experts say 2.1 is a goal if you want to keep the population at its current size.

—A little under 33 percent of births last year were delivered through Cesarean section — a slight drop from the rate over the previous two years. C-sections are sometimes medically necessary. But health officials believe many are done out of convenience or unwarranted caution, and in the 1980s set a goal of keeping the national rate at 15 percent.

—There was a continued decline in the rate of births delivered at less than 37 weeks into the pregnancy. The preterm birth rate, as it is called, fell to about 11 percent in 2013. It has been declining since 2006.

—The teen birth rate fell 10 percent from 2012, the largest decline since the 10 percent drop between 2009 and 2010. Birth rates for teen moms have been falling since 1991 and this marks yet another historic low. The number of babies born to teens last year — about 275,000 — is less than half the peak of nearly 645,000 in 1970.

Experts attribute the decline to a range of factors, including less sex and more use of contraception. But they admit being stunned by the velocity of the drop.

"Everybody's wondering why, but everybody's really excited about that," Santelli said.

---

Online:

CDC: http://1.usa.gov/1wp2QP8

Mortuary picks up funeral costs for 3 young girls

LOS ANGELES -- The bodies of three young girls allegedly stabbed to death by their mother have been moved from the Los Angeles County morgue to a mortuary where officials have offered free burial services.

The Daily Breeze reports (http://bit.ly/SeWn9F) officials at Green Hills Mortuary in Rancho Palos Verdes offered help after reading of fundraisers planned to assist the family with costs, which could have reached $25,000. The bodies of the girls — ages 2, 16 months and 2 months — were transported Tuesday.

The girls' mother, 30-year-old Carol Coronado, was charged last week with three counts of murder. She is being held in the jail ward of an LA hospital.

No motive for the killings has been released. Investigators are checking Coronado's medical and mental health history and trying to determine whether she suffered from postpartum depression.

Drought headaches in Brazil's WCup opener city

SAO PAULO -- As if Brazil didn't have enough to deal with as the World Cup approaches, the worst drought in more than 80 years is hitting the country's largest city just as it prepares for the tens of thousands of foreigners expected at the tournament opener.

The hotel industry says tourist areas at Sao Paulo's lower elevations shouldn't be affected by the water shortage. Many places where Cup visitors will stay have contracts with private companies to supply water if cuts occur, said Bruno Hideo Omori, president of the Brazilian Hotel Industry Association in Sao Paulo state. "They have contingency plans and are very prepared to deal with emergencies," he said.

But residents of Sao Paulo's poorer neighborhoods are convinced that the government is rationing their water to ensure that cuts aren't made in the wealthier areas expecting a flood of visitors for the June 12 open of international soccer's premier tournament.

The poorer areas, many on the city outskirts or at higher elevations, are unquestionably the most affected when Sao Paulo state's local water company reduces water pressure as a conservation method throughout the system during off-peak hours, between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Some poorer satellite cities around Sao Paulo have suffered cuts every other day since March.

"Water stops running when night falls. There's a lack of water, and the government won't admit it," said Luis Henrique Oseliero, who manages and lives in an apartment building in a working-class neighborhood in the city's west. "They are doing it in these areas because they know it's not where tourists will stay."

The state government's water utility acknowledges that areas at higher altitudes or farthest from the reservoir could suffer interruptions in water service. But it denies the suspicions of people living in poorer neighborhoods that their water is being rationed.

"There is no rationing or restriction of water consumption in any of the 365 municipalities served by our company," the Basic Sanitation Company of the State of Sao Paulo said in an emailed statement answering questions about drought measures. "(The company) invested heavily in measures to increase the security of water supply in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, and these investments are more than enough to meet the extra demand during the World Cup."

Sao Paulo's water shortage is the result of insufficient rain this year, with levels at Sao Paulo's main reservoir supplying freshwater to 9 million people dipping lower than ever before.

In a normal year, torrential rains shower Sao Paulo, channeling water through rivers down the lime-green hills to the north. But this year, only a third of the usual rain arrived, with 9 inches (23 centimeters) falling during the December to February wet season.

The sanitation company recently started pumping water from underneath the gates of the reservoir's dams, which they say should provide a four-month supply. The state is also diverting water from other basins around Sao Paulo.

But at Jaguari dam, part of Sao Paulo's main reservoir, mud cracks are growing and spreading. The system of dams Jaguari belongs to saw levels drop under 9 percent before the state government began pumping from the bottom to bring up more water and channel it to the city.

Experts say what Sao Paulo really needs is rain, and without it rationing will be necessary.

The Weather Channel's long term forecast for Sao Paulo calls for only a 20 percent or less chance of rain for most of the next 10 days, with a 70 percent chance of precipitation on just one day.

The longer rationing measures are delayed, the more extreme they will be, said Jose Carlos Mierzwa, a University of Sao Paulo professor who focuses on sanitary engineering.

"The government needs to resort to rationing," he said. "The levels keep dropping, and it is becoming more and more critical."

Lafayette to get daily, non-stop to Denver

LAFAYETTE, La. -- United Airlines will begin offering a daily non-stop flight to Denver beginning Aug. 19.

The Lafayette Airport Commission said Wednesday that there will be one arriving flight from Denver and one departure from Lafayette in a 50-seater plane.

Director of Aviation Greg Roberts told The Advertiser (http://bit.ly/1ju3wsJ ) the new flight will benefit all Lafayette flyers, especially those in the oil industry as it provides faster and easier access to Western and Midwestern states.

The addition of Denver makes Lafayette a hub for four cities, including Atlanta, Houston and Dallas. United currently has 10 flights to Houston each day out of Lafayette.

School rallies to support 2 ailing classmates

GREENWOOD, Ind. -- More than 300 students boogied their way outside Northeast Elementary School to perform for two of their sick classmates.

The bouncy, upbeat rhythm of the hit song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams blared over the loudspeakers. Banners and posters emblazoned with happy faces and "get well" messages were held high over their heads.

And together, they danced, cheered and willed second-grader Macenzie Hawkins and fifth-grader Cheyenne Adams to get better.

Students, staff and teachers at Northeast in Greenwood banded together Tuesday to "show the love" for two young girls at the school who have been struggling with serious illnesses this year. The flash mob showed that the entire school community was thinking of them.

"We're pretty big on community and really supporting our families. This is the first time in our memory that this has ever happened to two students at once," Mary McDermott, Macenzie's teacher, told the Daily Journal (http://bit.ly/SPH87C ). "It felt like this was what we needed to do to help."

Macenzie was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the nervous system, in February. Shortly after, doctors discovered a noncancerous aneurysmal bone cyst in Cheyenne's neck that required extensive surgery and rehabilitation.

The idea for the Show the Love flash mob came from Laura Smith, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Greenwood. She heard about both Macenzie and Cheyenne and was motivated to see what Kiwanis could do to help.

Working with Principal Amy Sander and some teachers, they came up with a schoolwide exhibition of affection.

The whole point was to show the two girls that the people around them love them and care about them, Smith said.

Teachers had their students write letters of hope for both Macenzie and Cheyenne. During art class, students made posters for the girls.

But the centerpiece of the event was the flash mob.

At the end of the school's field day, everyone in the school planned to get together to perform a choreographed dance.

Organizers would be there to videotape the performance and put it up on YouTube.

That way, even though she has not been able to attend school since being diagnosed, Macenzie still will get to see it. The rest of Greenwood and people far beyond could share the experience as well. The Kiwanis Club is setting up funds for both families to collect donations from the community to help with costs associated with the girls' treatment.

"We really wanted to raise community awareness of this, to let other people know their stories and what's going on," McDermott said.

For the girls' families, the Northeast community has been right by their sides since the start.

Sander and other staff members have been in regular contact with both girls and their moms. They regularly send text messages and pick-me-up notes to the family.

McDermott and Gordon Goss, Cheyenne's fifth-grade teacher, have been spending two or three days a week tutoring each girl at home, so they don't fall behind their classmates.

Financial support has been important, as well.

McDermott and other teachers took one of Macenzie's drawings from school to make T-shirts, with half of the proceeds going to her family. They sold rubber bracelets that said "Team Mac" as a fundraiser.

Individual teachers collected money and gave it to both families.

Rebeckah Barnes, Macenzie's mother, had to take a week off work at RevOne Companies when Macenzie was initially diagnosed, so she had no income to make mortgage and car payments.

Since then, the constant travel costs hundreds of dollars in gas every week. Buying sports drinks and supplies while Macenzie is at home costs extra, too.

"It's been overwhelming how much love they've shown," Barnes said.

Cheyenne's family also has struggled to pay the bills during the illness. For weeks at a time, her mother, Catherine Adams, has been unable to work while caring for her daughter. In mid-May, her lights were turned off until she could find enough money to pay back bills.

Teachers at Northeast Elementary School banded together to donate their own money to help the family pay for gas and meals.

"They've been wonderful," Adams said. "They've done everything within their means that they're able to."

---

Information from: Daily Journal, http://bit.ly/1iTzNzl

This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Daily Journal.

Fischer sworn in as member of Fed board

WASHINGTON -- Stanley Fischer has been sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve Board and will be able to vote at the central bank's next interest-rate meeting in June.

His nomination as the Fed's vice chairman is still awaiting Senate confirmation.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday administered the oath of office for Fischer, a former head of the Bank of Israel.

With his addition, the Fed board will remain at four members. Jeremy Stein had announced that he was leaving the Fed effective Wednesday to return to Harvard, where he is an economics professor.

At full strength, the Fed board has seven members. There are currently three vacancies. Obama has nominated former Treasury Undersecretary Lael Brainard for one of the vacancies but her nomination is awaiting Senate approval.

Former Man Utd owner Glazer died at 85

TAMPA, Florida -- Malcolm Glazer, the self-made billionaire who led the takeover of English football's Manchester United and owned the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has died. He was 85.

The Bucs said Glazer died Wednesday.

The reclusive Palm Beach, Florida, businessman had been in failing health since April 2006 when a pair of strokes left him with impaired speech and limited mobility in his right arm and leg.

Glazer raised his profile in 2005 with a $1.47 billion takeover of Manchester United that was bitterly opposed by fans of one of the world's richest football clubs. Before that, his unobtrusive management style helped transform the Bucs from a laughingstock into a model franchise that in 2003 won the Super Bowl 48-21 over the Oakland Raiders.

"The thoughts of everyone at Manchester United are with the family tonight," the team said in a statement

Born Aug. 25, 1928, in Rochester, New York, the son of a watch-parts salesman, Glazer began working for the family business when he was 8 and took over the operation as a teenager when his father died in 1943.

As president and CEO of First Allied Corp., the holding company for the family business interests, he invested in mobile-home parks, restaurants, food service equipment, marine protein, television stations, real estate, natural gas and oil production and other ventures. In March 2010, Forbes ranked him as tied for the world's 400th richest person, estimating his net worth at $2.4 billion. The magazine's separate ranking of Americans put him and his family at 139th in fall 2008.

He purchased the Bucs for a then-NFL record $192 million in 1995, taking over one of the worst-run and least successful teams in American professional sports. And while Glazer once said he probably overpaid by $50 million, the value of the team has more than quadrupled since he assumed control.

"Malcolm Glazer was the guiding force behind the building of a Super Bowl-champion organization. His dedication to the community was evident in all he did, including his leadership in bringing Super Bowls to Tampa Bay," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

In an era when many owners of professional teams attract nearly as much attention as the athletes, Glazer was content to allow three of his sons handle daily operation of the Bucs and rarely granted interviews or visited the team's offices and training facility.

But he was a fixture at Bucs games before his health declined, and he spent generously to acquire players and provide coaches and front office personnel with the resources to do their jobs. To NFL fans accustomed to the frugal ways of original Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse, Glazer was a savior.

"With our major investment here, we didn't come in here to have a loser," Glazer said after acquiring the Bucs.

In one of its boldest moves as NFL owners, the Glazer family fired Tony Dungy as coach after the 2001 season and paid a hefty price — four draft picks and $8 million cash — to the Raiders for the opportunity to sign Jon Gruden to a contract.

The move paid off right away. Gruden led the Bucs to their first NFL title the following season, and Glazer joined in the celebration in the locker room.

"He came from heaven and he brought us to heaven," Glazer said at the time. "We were waiting for the right man and the right man came — Jon Gruden."

The family fired Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen after the 2008 season, however, when the team completed one of the biggest collapses in NFL history, losing four straight games following a 9-3 start to miss the playoffs. The slide continued in 2009 under new coach Raheem Morris as the Bucs went 3-13, their worst record since 1991.

The family didn't get a warm reception in Britain, where United fans protested and burned Glazer's likeness in effigy because they feared the American was acquiring the storied British football club purely for financial gain.

At the time, Mark Longden of the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association, said his group was "calling on all supporters to wear black. If they can get hold of black flags, they should wave them because it represents what is happening to the club."

But the club had success on the pitch, winning the League Cup in 2006, 2009 and 2010, the English Premier League from 2007-09, 2011 and 2013 and European Cup and Club World Cup titles in 2008.

Within a year of the leveraged buyout, Glazer had two strokes and his children ran the 20-time English champions, with all of them sitting on the board of directors and owning the remaining 90 percent of the club that was not listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012.

Although United's debt has dropped from a high of high of $1.1 billion in 2008-09 to $590 million, anger toward the Glazers has remained among sections of the fan base. The family's divisiveness in Manchester has been exacerbated by its reluctance to engage with any supporters or speak publicly about the club.

Despite its worst league finish in 24 years this season, United has been generating record revenue, each quarter, with turnover set to exceed $700 million in the 2013-14 financial year.

Before he bought the Buccaneers, Glazer made failed bids to land an NFL expansion franchise for Baltimore and purchase the New England Patriots, San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates. He also tried to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers from Rupert Murdoch before turning his attention to Manchester United.

An intensely private man who cherished maintaining a low profile and spending much of his free time with family, Glazer also bickered with four older sisters over his mother's estate — a legal battle that lasted more than a decade.

Glazer is survived by his wife Linda, six children and 14 grandchildren.

Cyprus bank deposits up for 1st time in 16 months

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Bank deposits in bailed-out Cyprus last month rose for the first time in over a year, signaling a slow return of confidence in the country's wobbly banking sector.

Cypriot central bank statistics released Wednesday show overall deposits rose 266 million euros ($361.97 million) in April, the first net increase since December 2012.

That was mainly due to a rise in deposits by savers outside the European Union. Deposits from savers in Cyprus dropped 243.9 million euros while those in the rest of the EU fell 16 million euros.

Confidence in Cypriot banks was crushed when an international rescue plan in March last year sanctioned a raid on deposits in the country's two largest lenders.

Almost all capital controls imposed at the time to prevent a run have been lifted.

Judge overturns Alabama Accountability Act

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A Montgomery judge on Wednesday struck down Alabama's tax credits for parents who move their children from failing public schools to private schools.

Circuit Judge Gene Reese ruled the Alabama Accountability Act violates the Alabama Constitution in several ways, including putting more than one subject in a bill. Proponents said they will appeal the ruling by the Democratic judge before the all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court.

The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the act in February 2013. It started out as a bill to give city and county school systems more flexibility in trying new approaches to education.

Over Democratic objections, the Republican majority expanded the bill to include state income tax credits for parents who move their children from public schools rated as failing to other non-failing public schools or private schools in the transfer program. The expansion also provided 100 percent income tax credits for companies and individuals for money donated for scholarships to private schools for families below certain income levels.

Proponents said the law offered school choice to students trapped in public schools with a long history of poor performance. Members of the state teachers' organization, the Alabama Education Association, challenged the law in court. The group contends such tax credits divert state tax money from public education to promote private schools.

Reese said the Legislature violated the Constitution by putting more than one subject in the law and by changing the legislation from its original purpose of flexibility, which had virtually no cost, to tax credits, estimated to cost $40 million annually. He also said the law violates the constitutional prohibition about providing public funds for private education. The judge wrote that the Legislature can't avoid the prohibition "by instead reimbursing parents the cost of their tuition payment at such institutions."

AEA attorney Bobby Segall said the judge saw that the law promotes private schools at the expense of public schools. He called the law a throwback to the 1950s, when Alabama sought to avoid integration by directing public school funds toward private schools. "It is totally shameful," he said.

An attorney representing some families using the law, Bert Gall of the Institute for Justice, said, "Alabama parents should be able to choose the best education possible for their children, whether that's in a public or private school."

The chief designer of the law, Republican Sen. Del Marsh of Anniston, said, "This ruling to block school choice in Alabama is unfortunate largely because the law has already been successful in giving children more options to receive a quality education. I firmly believe this law will stand upon appeal."

Reese's ruling differed with one in April by U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins, who dismissed a separate suit filed by eight public school students represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

When the law went into effect, 719 students transferred from failing public schools to another school in the same school system, 18 to another public school system and 52 to private schools.

Reese said his ruling will not affect the tax credits earned for the 2013-2014 school year.

Waiting game: Why small businesses won't hire

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Even as the economy extends its growth and small businesses slowly add jobs, most owners are still holding off on hiring.

Many owners have no plans to add to their payrolls, according to recent surveys. In three released last week, the most optimistic reading came from Bank of America Corp., which found that 52 percent of owners plan to hire over the next 12 months. But Wells Fargo & Co. found only 21 percent planned to hire, and in a Citibank survey, 25 percent had plans — numbers consistent with other surveys in the past year.

Some owners who do want to hire face obstacles like finding workers who can and want to do the job. In monthly reports from the National Federation of Independent Business, owners have said they can't find people with the skills they need.

What will it take for companies to hire? The answer differs from one business to another.

WANTED: FOUR CLIENTS

Marilyn Trent estimates it would take four more clients bringing in revenue of about $250,000 for her to hire for her company that designs websites and company logos. Trent Creative is based in Detroit, where the local economy has been hurt by the devastation the auto industry suffered during the recession.

Competition is a problem. Even with the city's troubled economy, plenty of companies do the kind of work Trent does. Trent Creative has enough clients to keep the company's seven employees busy, but they're not overworked. So at this point, Trent has no need to hire.

But she's optimistic she'll get more clients. Trent specializes in work for manufacturing companies, and their business is picking up as their customers, Detroit's automakers, sell more cars. She needs to do more sales work to persuade them to create or update their web pages.

"I need to update my website and do more marketing," she says.

THE BURNOUT FACTOR

Mike Coffey isn't planning to hire now, but he will start recruiting if his staff of 16 shows signs of overload. Coffey's company, Imperative Information Group, does background checks for employers. Business is good for the Fort Worth, Texas, company because the local economy is strong. Employers are hiring and want information about job candidates.

Rather than hire to meet the increased demand, Coffey gives workers overtime two or three times a week. He's cautious about hiring because he had to lay off 11 employees in 2009, when the job market froze, and he doesn't want to cut staff again if business slows.

His workers like the overtime. But he keeps an eye on them, watching for clerical mistakes and other signs of burnout.

"Once you start seeing things like that you think, we're probably starting to get a little fatigued," Coffey says.

MORE MONEY, MORE WORKERS

Joe Carter wants to hire workers to expand his company that removes asbestos, lead paint and other toxic materials from buildings. Snyder Environmental has two problems: It needs money, and it needs people willing and able to do the work.

Investors who prefer Silicon Valley startups aren't interested in an unglamorous Little Rock, Arkansas, company, Carter says. And bankers are slow or unwilling to lend to Snyder Environmental or its clients.

"This week, we were delayed again on a project because the bank had not met all the regulatory requirements on the deal," Carter says.

Snyder Environmental has enough demand to double its business over the next two years, Carter says. But besides the money issue, he can't find the people he needs to add to his staff of about 55.

Applicants must pass drug tests and they need background checks to get clearance for military projects. They must also pass a physical examination because Carter's employees work around dust. But Carter's afraid that those who are hired will leave because they hate the work. He's had people quit in their first week.

"They have either an unwillingness to perform the work or an inability to meet the criteria," he says.

HEALTH CARE FALLOUT

Dr. Omar Ibrahimi's dermatology practice needs two more employees, one full-time and one part-time, to run more efficiently. But the rising costs of treating patients and the drop in reimbursement from insurance companies prevent the Stamford, Connecticut, office from hiring, says office manager Saida Ibrahimi.

Because of the changes in insurance under the new health care law, the practice gets 20 percent to 30 percent less revenue from insurers than it did last year, Ibrahimi says. Meanwhile, the practice pays more for medications and supplies.

More staffers would free Ibrahimi to talk to insurance companies to get approvals for procedures, something that Dr. Ibrahimi does. Time he spends talking to insurers is time not spent with patients.

The economic saving grace for the practice is cosmetic procedures like Botox injections and tattoo or scar removals, which are not covered by insurance. Patients pay for those procedures out of their own pockets.

"If we weren't doing cosmetic work, we'd be in the red," Saida Ibrahimi says.

10 Thoughts On Obama's West Point Policy Address

i i

hide captionIn his commencement address to the Military Academy at West Point Wednesday, President Obama condemned isolationism but spent more time outlining the hazards of intervention.

Susan Walsh/AP

In his commencement address to the Military Academy at West Point Wednesday, President Obama condemned isolationism but spent more time outlining the hazards of intervention.

Susan Walsh/AP

The Two-Way

America's Strength Extends Beyond Its Military, Obama Says

President Obama gave the graduation speech Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, using the occasion to describe "the next phase" of the U.S. war against terrorism and his ideas about national defense and foreign policy in general. Here are a few general impressions.

1. Most commencement speakers try to mix in some humor and offer the graduating class some advice. But then, most speakers don't have the power to send those grads off to combat. This did afford the commander-in-chief a unique opportunity for an applause line, however: "You are the first class since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan." The cadets on the field before him smiled, while many of the family and friends sitting in Michie Stadium applauded and cheered.


2. When last President Obama spoke at West Point it was 2009, and he was expanding the U.S. combat presence in Afghanistan (even as he decreased it in Iraq). He acknowledged that Wednesday, noting that four cadets whom he spoke to in 2009 have since died in "that effort" in Afghanistan, while many more were wounded. The president said he was "haunted" by those losses. The message had changed: This week, the president was telling the latest West Pointers to prepare to keep the peace, and to spearhead the "hard power" element in an array of economic and diplomatic tools.


3. Continuing the metallic imagery, the president provided the day's most-likely sound bite with this cautionary analogy for policymakers: "Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail."


4. Advance notices of this speech had used words like "reset" and "vision statement" to describe the president's broader message on foreign policy. But aside from a commitment to spend $5 billion to train anti-terror forces in emerging countries, there was little new in the speech. Rather, the president reiterated the thinking behind a variety of White House responses to foreign challenges, from Syria to Iran to Ukraine.


5. It was less a doctrine than a kind of discourse, a description of the attitude the administration has applied on a case-by-case basis. The president seemed to be reaching toward a reality he could not yet frame. At one point he borrowed John F. Kennedy's call for a peace based upon "a gradual evolution in human institutions." Obama added: "Evolving these institutions to meet the demands of today must be a critical part of American leadership."


6. While much of the speech could be read as repudiating the wars of George W. Bush or of the Vietnam-era Lyndon B. Johnson, Obama did not mention these predecessors by name. He did mention Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, quoting words Ike uttered before he was president in an address to the West Point grads in 1947: "War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men."


7. While he condemned "isolationism" and said, "America must always lead on the world stage," Obama seemed more intent on the hazards of intervention. Even given the recent goading from foreign antagonists, the president said: "U.S. military action cannot be the only, or even primary, component of our leadership in every instance."


8. The president raised eyebrows by treating the recent events in Ukraine as a clear win for his measured approach. To date, the U.S. has responded to Russian moves in that former Soviet Republic by appealing to world opinion, imposing economic sanctions and rallying the NATO allies. Russia's Vladimir Putin has responded by seizing Crimea and menacing Eastern and Southern Ukraine. But on this day, Obama took the fresh election of a new pro-Western president of Ukraine as confirmation his own formula was working.


9. The president surely knew he was not placating critics who find his foreign policy approach weak and irresolute, but he did offer one slightly hawkish signal on Syria. In his speech and in an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep afterward, the president said the U.S. would do more than it's already doing to aid "more moderate" elements opposing the Assad regime. It is possible that in the weeks ahead, this shift will revive the controversy of last year over Obama's "red line" warning on chemical weapons.


10. The president rotates his graduation speeches among the several service academies and would not be due back at West Point before the end of this term. It is possible, of course, that he would return to provide a bookend to his 2009 speech here, perhaps after the last of the U.S. forces leave Afghanistan.

Central Ark. proposes 4 pct. tuition increase

CONWAY, Ark. -- The University of Central Arkansas is proposing a 4 percent increase for tuition and mandatory fees next school year.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1piTHWD ) that school officials made the proposal Tuesday. The university's board of trustees will vote on the proposal during a meeting Friday in Conway.

Under the proposal, the cost of tuition and mandatory fees for an undergraduate student taking 30 credit hours over two semesters will rise from $7,595 to $7,889, for the 2014-2015 school year. That's a 3.86 percent increase.

UCA President Tom Courtway says the tuition increase is to cover cost-of-living increases for faculty and staff.

UCA Student Government Association vice president of operations Bryce Crabb says he and fellow student leaders believe the increase is necessary and support it.

ISS seeks ouster of most of Target's board

NEW YORK -- A prominent proxy advisory firm is recommending that Target shareholders vote out seven of its 10 board members after a massive data breach.

Institutional Shareholder Services on Wednesday targeted those members who serve on the company's audit and corporate responsibility committee. Included on that list are Anne Mulcahy, former chair and CEO at Xerox, and James A. Johnson, who was once the CEO at Fannie Mae.

The data breach, which led to the theft of 40 million debit and credit card numbers, has rattled one of the world's biggest retailers.

The board fired CEO Gregg Steinhafel three weeks ago. The company's chief information officer lost her job in March.

Target said that it views risk oversight as the responsibility of the full board.

"As one would expect, following the criminal attack that resulted in the data breach, the Board is re-examining the entire risk oversight structure, including senior management roles and reporting structures, as well as Board oversight," the company said Wednesday.

The ISS recommendation comes less than two weeks before Target's annual shareholder meeting.

Ex-trader: US-suggested sentence 'outrageous'

NEW YORK -- Lawyers for a former portfolio manager say prosecutors' recommendation that he serve up to 20 years in prison for insider trading is "outrageous" and "irrational."

Mathew Martoma's lawyers said in papers filed late Tuesday that a judge at his sentencing next month would have to believe Martoma teamed up with his billionaire boss, Steven A. Cohen, to conclude he deserves such stiff punishment.

The Probation Department recommended Martoma receive from 15.7 to 19.6 years in prison, which would be greater than the record dozen years a former attorney received in Newark, N.J., after he admitted giving secrets during a 17-year insider trading scheme.

"With all due respect, a sentence in that range in this case would be outrageous," the lawyers said. "We respectfully submit that Probation's guideline range is irrational."

The lawyers said the government never proved Martoma provided Cohen with inside information and he should face less time in prison than others serving two-and three-year sentences.

Cohen has not been criminally charged, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused him in a civil action of failing to prevent insider trading at his company, SAC Capital Advisors. He has disputed the allegations.

SAC Capital pleaded guilty in November to fraud charges and agreed to pay $1.8 billion to settle charges that it allowed, if not encouraged, insider trading for more than a decade.

Martoma was convicted in February of securities fraud and conspiracy, becoming the eighth portfolio manager or research analyst at the Stamford, Connecticut-based firm to be convicted or plead guilty to criminal charges in an insider trading case.

During a monthlong trial, two prominent doctors confessed to revealing secrets to Martoma in the summer of 2008 about the testing of a potential breakthrough Alzheimer's drug.

The government has claimed the secrets enabled the company to earn more than a quarter-billion dollars illegally.

In their papers, Martoma's lawyers said the Probation Department recommendation unfairly holds Martoma responsible for all of the company's trades involving the pharmaceutical companies sponsoring the drug trial.

The lawyers wrote that the recommendation was "simply irrational and disconnected from other recent insider trading cases where there was far greater culpability."

Report Finds Evidence Of 'Secret' Wait Lists At VA Hospital

i i

hide captionThe Department of Veterans Affairs in Phoenix, where the VA's inspector general says numerous problems with scheduling practices were uncovered.

Matt York/AP

The Department of Veterans Affairs in Phoenix, where the VA's inspector general says numerous problems with scheduling practices were uncovered.

Matt York/AP

The inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs has affirmed that some 1,700 patients at the Phoenix VA hospital were put on unofficial wait lists and subjected to treatment delays of up to 115 days.

In an interim report released on Wednesday, the inspector general's office it had "substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care" at Phoenix HCS.

"To date, our work has substantiated serious conditions at the Phoenix HCS. We identified about 1,400 veterans who did not have a primary care appointment but were appropriately included on the Phoenix HCS' EWL (Electronic Wait List)," the report said. "However, we have identified an additional 1,700 veterans who were waiting for a primary care appointment but were not on the EWL."

"Our reviews have identified multiple types of scheduling practices that are not in compliance with VHA policy," the report said. "Since the multiple lists we found were something other than the official EWL, these additional lists may be the basis for allegations of creating 'secret' wait lists."

But investigators said they were still trying to determine whether any delays in care led to any veterans' deaths.

Late Tuesday, the Pentagon announced a 90-day review of the entire military health care system.

Earlier this month, a top Veterans Affairs official resigned amid the growing scandal and calls for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to step down. However, Dr. Robert Petzel, undersecretary of health for the VA, had already announced last year his plan to retire in 2014.

Last week, President Obama said anyone found to have manipulated or falsified Veterans Affairs records even as he defended Shinseki.

NPR's Greg Allen reports that Florida Gov. Rick Scott says he plans to file a lawsuit against the Veteran's Administration to be able to inspect and regulate VA facilities in his state.

"Several times over the past month, inspectors with Florida's Agency for Health care Administration have been denied access to six VA facilities in the state. The state says it wants to ensure the facilities meet the healthcare needs of Florida Veterans," Greg reports.

The VA hospital in Gainesville has reportedly placed three employees on leave after an audit found the names of more than 200 veterans on a handwritten list. The veterans were waiting for appointments and hadn't yet been entered into the electronic scheduling system, Greg says.

The news comes as the commander in charge of the U.S. Army's main hospital at Ft. Bragg, N.C., has been relieved of command, while three of the facility's top officials have been suspended over problems with patient care.

Col. Steven J. Brewster, who was due to leave the active-duty Womack Army Medical Center on June 18, was dismissed on Tuesday.

The Associated Press reports:

"The shake-up comes after two deaths this month of patients in their 20s and problems with infection control at the facility that were pointed out in March by a hospital accreditation group, according to two defense officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly."