Company creates blanket for tornado protection

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma company has created a protective blanket that developers say could give children a better chance of surviving debris from a tornado — or bullets from a 9 mm handgun.

The Bodyguard Blanket, made by ProTecht, is a bulletproof pad designed to protect students during disasters at school. The 5/16-inch thick rectangle features backpack-like straps that allow users to put it on, and then duck and cover.

Steve Walker developed the pad, The Oklahoman reported (http://bit.ly/1k9KEj9 ). Walker started on the idea after a massive tornado struck last year in Moore, killing 24 people including seven children inside an elementary school that didn't have a tornado shelter.

"We're trying to stop that blunt-force trauma when that rubble is falling down on a child, for instance," said Walker, a podiatrist from Edmond.

He gave a sketch of the protective blanket to Stan Schone, an inventor and one of his patients, during an appointment. The two form half of the executive team at ProTecht. The others are Jeff Quinn and Jay Hanan.

Hanan is an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. He introduced the team to Dyneema, a high-density plastic used for ballistic armor that is lighter than Kevlar.

The new material also protects against nails, shards of metal and other sharp objects.

"Instead of bending over and hoping for the best, they're afforded an extra layer of protection," Schone said.

At $1,000 per blanket, he and others with the company say buying one per student would be less expensive than building tornado shelters.

"By no means would we ever say that this is more protective," Walker said. "But when you have budget constraints, this might be a viable alternative."

ProTecht took a finished blanket to a shooting range and had it subjected to a National Institute of Justice Class 3A test, which is used to test body armor for police units. The classification implies protection against various projectiles, including 9 mm and .22-caliber bullets. It passed, Schone said.

The blanket has been in production for about 10 months, and the team started marketing it about a week ago, he said.

Voting session: Nothing new

BEIRUT: A legislative session set for midday Monday is doomed to fail to elect a new president for Lebanon over the lack of the required two-thirds quorum.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in remarks published Monday that the session would be held on schedule.

“If quorum was secured there will be an election. Otherwise the session will be postponed,” he told local daily Al-Joumhouria.

Lawmakers have botched five attempts since April 23 to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year term ended on May 25, due to lack of the two-thirds quorum (86) of the legislature’s 128 members.

The presidential vacuum has already paralyzed Parliament’s legislation and is threatening government work, as the Cabinet remains split over how to exercise full executive powers, including the president’s prerogatives, during the presidential void.

The presidential vacuum entered its third week on Monday as lawmakers are scheduled to attend an electoral session likely to face the fate of its predecessors over differences between the rival parties on a compromise candidate.

Asia shares rise on higher Japan growth, US jobs

TOKYO -- Asian shares were mostly higher Monday, buoyed by a solid increase in U.S. jobs and an upward revision to Japan's economic growth for the first quarter.

The Nikkei 225 stock index in Tokyo was up 0.4 percent at 15,143.77 after the government reported that the economy grew an annualized 6.7 percent in January-March thanks to strong private investment, up from an earlier estimate of 5.9 percent growth.

News that U.S. employers added workers at a decent clip for the fourth straight month propelled the Standard & Poor's 500 to its eighth record high Friday in the previous 10 days.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.8 percent to 23,123.90 while South Korea's Kospi edged down 0.1 percent to 1,993.32. China's Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 2,037.69.

Markets in Southeast Asia were mostly higher. Australia's stock exchange was closed for a public holiday.

U.S. employers added 217,000 jobs during May, in the range of what economists had expected. The unemployment rate stayed put at 6.3 percent. Wall Street forecasters had expected it to inch up.

Offsetting the positive U.S. and Japan data was China's trade figures released on the weekend. Growth in exports picked up in May but imports fell, suggesting continued sluggishness in the world's No. 2 economy.

In energy markets, U.S. crude for July delivery was up 11 cents to $102.77 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract closed Friday up 18 cents at $102.66.

The euro rose to $1.3646 from $1.3643 late Friday. The dollar inched down to 102.52 yen from 102.54 yen.

Barbados disagrees its currency should be devalued

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados -- Barbados' government does not support devaluing the Caribbean island's currency and says it is determined to maintain its fixed exchange rate with the U.S. dollar.

The Barbados dollar has been pegged 2-to-1 to the U.S. dollar since the 1970s. But some analysts believe the currency of the economically struggling country should be devalued.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the island's government bond rating by two notches from Ba3 to B3, citing "anemic economic growth" and "limited prospects for improvement."

The Barbados Ministry of Finance conceded that "a number of experts, including some in the ratings agencies," believe devaluation is needed. But in a Saturday statement, the ministry said it is committed to the current exchange rate and "and will do what needs to be done to protect" the Barbados dollar.

The government says it is seeing signs of renewed economic growth. It says the rating agency's downgrade decision ignored cuts in government spending and improvements in external accounts.

Packers buying land near Lambeau for development

ASHWAUBENON, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers now own more than 62 acres of land around Lambeau Field, which is double the amount they owned four years ago.

The Packers are buying land as part of a long-term strategy to provide the team with non-football sources of income, Press-Gazette Media reported (http://gbpg.net/1qcevN9 ). The team plans to create a retail, entertainment and sports district.

Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy has said the team wants to create a year-round destination to draw visitors from outside northeastern Wisconsin.

"We are still looking at the land we own and concepts that would work. There's still some work that needs to be done and some due diligence. That's the phase we are in now," said Aaron Popkey, director of public affairs.

Ownership shows up under five names: Green Bay Packers Inc., Lambeau Field Redevelopment, Green Bay Development LLC, 1141 Lombardi LLC and 1177 Lombardi LLC.

Tax assessments total $44.89 million, most of which is paid by the team. Tenants may pay the taxes in some instances.

Most of the land used for football operations is owned by other entities. Green Bay and the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District own Lambeau Field, and the county owns much of the land that is home to the indoor and outdoor practice fields.

The team is coy about its property-buying plans, largely because it doesn't want to see land prices increase because of speculation.

Stamford man faces sentencing for computer scam

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Stamford man is facing sentencing for obtaining hundreds of computer networking parts from Cisco Systems, Inc. through aliases, business entities and post office boxes and shipping addresses.

Craig A. Stanland is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in federal court in New Haven.

Prosecutors say Stanland used alias to make hundreds of false service requests to Cisco to replace purportedly defective computer networking parts.

Authorities say Stanland sold the new parts to third parties to enrich himself and returned no parts or sent to Cisco third-party, off-brand parts.

Prosecutors say the total loss to Cisco was about $834,000.

His lawyer asked he be spared prison, calling him a fundamentally good person who made a serious error in judgment.

Brazil, Qatar continue to cause FIFA problems

SAO PAULO -- Days before the World Cup kicks off in Brazil, the equally troubled 2022 tournament in Qatar continues to cause FIFA problems.

After The Sunday Times newspaper published more allegations linking Mohamed bin Hammam to corruptly building support for Qatar's hosting bid, World Cup sponsors took the rare step of commenting on FIFA business.

FIFA's longest-standing backer, Adidas, lamented a negative tone "neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners."

The tense Saturday evening wait for the newspaper's latest claims was evident at FIFA's World Cup hotel base in Sao Paulo and could be repeated in Rio de Janeiro next week as the newspaper has promised further revelations.

Football's power brokers move to Rio after World Cup matches begin on Thursday.

The Qatar allegations have revived calls for a revote of the 2022 election, and diverted some attention from Brazil pushing its World Cup preparations to the brink.

The $400 million Itaquerao stadium in Sao Paulo will be barely completed before Thursday's 5 p.m. (2000 GMT) opening kickoff between Brazil and Croatia.

Many in the sold-out 61,000 crowd could struggle to reach the venue, far north-east of the city center, if a subway workers strike which began on Thursday continues.

FIFA had some good news Sunday when a Sao Paulo court ruled the strike over pay was illegal.

Still, union members decided to continue the action and a general strike threatened Wednesday could affect VIP guests arriving for the opening match.

On Sunday, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and its top World Cup organizing official, secretary general Jerome Valcke, declined to discuss any off-field issues.

The mood was more relaxed on a sun-bathed Sunday at FIFA's hotel base after a scheduled two-day board meeting wrapped early on Saturday evening.

The executive committee session had finished, and members dispersed, minutes before The Sunday Times was published.

Last weekend, the British newspaper said its cache of Bin Hammam's emails and documents — leaked by "a senior FIFA insider" — revealed he paid $5 million to African football leaders for supporting Qatar's 2022 bid and his own FIFA presidential ambitions.

It revived questions about the integrity of natural-gas rich Qatar's win which swirled even before the December 2010 vote of FIFA's board. It also chose Russia as 2018 World Cup host.

The first round of allegations came on the eve of FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia meeting Qatar bid officials in Oman, as he completes a lengthy investigation of the two World Cup bid contests.

This time, The Sunday Times implicated Bin Hammam, who FIFA expelled for financial wrongdoing in 2012, in a natural gas deal with Thailand, home country of longtime FIFA board ally Worawi Makudi.

Bin Hammam allegedly set up government-level talks for Qatar to sell natural gas "potentially worth tens of millions of dollars to Thailand."

Makudi told reporters Sunday he would not discuss the allegations against him without his legal adviser being present.

Regarding the gas sale, Makudi suggested: "Let's go and see. It's money in a public company."

On Sunday, four of FIFA's top-tier sponsors — among six who will pay a collective $700 million over four years toward this World Cup — spoke out about persistent corruption allegations.

"The negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners," said Adidas, the World Cup ball provider since 1970.

Visa called on FIFA to "maintain strong ethical standards and operate with transparency."

The payment card firm's own signing ahead of the 2008 World Cup exposed unethical behavior by FIFA negotiators. The case cost football's governing body $90 million in a damages settlement with Mastercard.

"Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the FIFA World Cup is a concern to us," Coca-Cola said in a statement, "but we are confident that FIFA is taking these allegations very seriously and is investigating them thoroughly."

A fourth, Sony, called for all claims to be "investigated appropriately."

FIFA's marketing director Thierry Weil said it had constant contact with commercial partners.

"Our sponsors have not requested anything that is not covered by the ongoing investigation by the ethics committee," Weil said in a FIFA statement.

Garcia has said he will close the information-gathering phase of his investigation on Monday.

The former U.S. Attorney should update FIFA's 209 member countries on his work on Wednesday at their annual congress in Sao Paulo.

Garcia is officially barred from sharing investigative detail, and should submit his report days after the World Cup final to FIFA ethics judge, Joachim Eckert.

The Qatar 2022 organizing committee said in a statement Sunday it had fully co-operated with Garcia.

"We are confident that at the end of the appropriate process, the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar will stand," the statement said.

The World Cup in Qatar, likely to kick off in November 2022 if allowed to proceed, is still at least eight years away — one year more than Brazil had to get its tournament ready.

UCC set for showdown with Bou Saab over exams

BEIRUT: The Union Coordination Committee is poised for a confrontation with the education minister over official exams after it warned Sunday against holding the tests without teachers as it called for massive participation in a two-day strike.

The escalating row between the UCC, the umbrella group for civil servants and public and private school teachers, and Parliament over the wage hike bill threatens to add further tension in the country, already reeling under a vacancy in the presidency following the lawmakers’ failure to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman.

The presidential vacuum has already paralyzed Parliament’s legislation and is threatening government work, as the Cabinet remains split over how to exercise full executive powers, including the president’s prerogatives, during the presidential void.

Separately, Speaker Nabih Berri said after returning to Beirut Sunday night from Cairo where he attended the inauguration of Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi as president of Egypt that Saudi Crown Prince Salam was eager to see stability in Lebanon.

Berri, according to visitors, met in Cairo on the sidelines of Sisi’s inauguration with Salman, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and an Omani official, all of whom voiced their support for holding the presidential election.

In response, Berri said he had called for a new Parliament session Monday to elect a president after five failed attempts.

However, Monday’s session is also destined to fail to elect a successor to Sleiman, whose six-year term ended on May 25, due to lack of the two-thirds quorum (86) of the legislature’s 128 members.

The UCC defied Education Minister Elias Bou Saab’s decision to hold official exams Thursday even if a Parliament session set for Tuesday failed to approve the wage hike bill. It vowed not to allow the exams to be conducted unless the public sector’s salary increases were endorsed first.

Addressing Bou Saab, the UCC said in a statement after its meeting: “The official certificate is a red line, which we will not allow anyone to manipulate. If you decide to hold the official exams without [public] teachers, then there is a problem, and we warn you against the repercussions of such action.”

Nehme Mahfoud, the head of the Private School Teachers Union, linked the official tests to Parliament’s approval of the wage hike bill.

“If the salary scale [bill] is not approved, there will be no exams. If the salary scale [draft law] is approved Tuesday, exams can be conducted Thursday,” he told a news conference after the UCC meeting.

In a stern warning to Bou Saab, UCC head Hanna Gharib said the decision to conduct the official exams lay with the UCC.

He said the education minister’s plan to give the tests with assistance from contract teachers, thus overriding public teachers, was “an insulting and unprecedented bazaar.”

“They want to remove the official character from official exams. They had tried to commission the exams to a private company. This is Lebanon’s certificate, the certificate issued by the Education Ministry in Lebanon,” Gharib told the news conference. “This bazaar is insulting, your highness the education minister.”

Calling for massive participation in a two-day nationwide strike for Monday and Tuesday, Gharib said: “Tomorrow is an uprising against all unjust decisions that bypass the official character of exams.”

Responding to the UCC’s warning, Bou Saab said he was determined to hold the exams Thursday, denying plans to privatize the official tests. “It’s up only to the Education Ministry to decide to hold or not hold official exams.”

Bou Saab announced a backup plan last week in case public school teachers boycotted the official exams over the salary standoff.

The minister said he could hire contract teachers and members of the Parents Committees to monitor and correct the tests. The Committee of Contract Teachers said they agreed to the minister’s proposal and that Bou Saab had promised to refer their demands of full-time employment to the concerned parties and pay them transportation fees for exam days.

Although a quorum for a Parliament session Tuesday over the salary scale bill seem secured, it is not clear whether lawmakers will approve it, as parliamentary blocs remain split over proposed taxes to fund the increases.

Lawmakers are in dispute over means to finance the wage hike, expected to cost the cash-strapped treasury some $1.6 billion annually, including raising the rate of VAT from 10 to 11 percent, as well as proposed taxes on illegal seafront properties.

Lawmakers from major Christian parties have been boycotting Parliament, arguing that it cannot legislate while the presidency seat is vacant.

Lawmakers with the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, including MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, will attend Tuesday’s session along with MP Walid Jumblatt’s bloc, securing the needed quorum, political sources told The Daily Star.

Bou Saab, who belongs to Aoun’s bloc, appealed to lawmakers to attend Tuesday’s session and endorse the controversial wage hike.

The UCC’s two-day nationwide strike for Monday and Tuesday is part of its efforts to pressure Parliament into approving the wage hike bill.

The strike will paralyze ministries, public departments and institutions and municipalities across Lebanon as well as the Grand Serail in Beirut, Gharib said. He called for a sit-in outside the Education Ministry Monday at 10 a.m.

“March on the Education Ministry,” he told civil servants and teachers.

Defying Bou Saab’s decision, Gharib said the UCC would not allow anyone to prepare the exams or monitor or correct them. “We still haven’t acted in a negative way to what the education minister said, and we hope we are not forced to take negative action,” he said.

Urging parliamentary blocs to endorse the salary scale bill, Gharib reiterated the UCC’s insistence on a 121 percent salary raise similar to that granted to judges and Lebanese University teachers.

Meanwhile, air traffic will be suspended at Beirut airport for two hours Tuesday due to a strike by air controllers in protest of Parliament’s failure to endorse the public sector’s salary increases, the National News Agency reported. It said inbound and outbound flights would be suspended from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Psst, the economy isn’t as bad as many think

By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Another strong month of hiring should put to rest fears that the U.S. economy is downshifting _ and it suggests that there might finally be a head of steam building.

Employers added 217,000 non-farm payroll jobs in May, the Labor Department said Friday, adding that the unemployment rate held steady at 6.3 percent. With that, the economy surpassed the high-water mark for the number of Americans employed before the Great Recession, passing an important albeit dubious milestone.

On top of the positive jobs report, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said Friday that it had reaffirmed its AA-plus credit rating on the United States but was prepared to restore the gold-plated AAA rating if it saw continued bipartisan efforts in Washington to address long-term fiscal challenges.

S&P in 2011 downgraded its rating of U.S. creditworthiness for the first time, concerned about political stalemates, threats of a voluntary debt default and mounting budget deficits. The loss of the coveted top rating had little practical effect but it tarnished the image of the world’s most modern economy.

Friday’s jobs report was the first since the government reported that the economy shrank 1 percent in the first three months of the year. A weak jobs report would have rekindled fears of a stumbling economy.

Employers had added 225,000 jobs in April, setting expectations higher too. Soft readings just this week on employment had economists ratcheting down their forecasts, so the May report exceeded predictions.

“Job growth is slowly but steadily improving,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “Unemployment and underemployment are still uncomfortably high, but declining. The job gains are increasingly broad-based across industries, regions of the country and pay scales.”

Taken with strong auto sales, improvements in factory orders and other manufacturing indicators, and modest improvements in a host of other economic indicators, the economy appears to be jolting back to life after the winter setback.

“Jobs . . . have increased by an average of more than 200,000 per month so far in 2014, even with the bad weather,” noted Gus Faucher, senior economist for PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh.

There also are plenty of quiet signs that suggest the economy isn’t as bad as many had feared.

Home sales are sluggish but the construction sector is steadily improving. Construction employment rose by 6,000 in May to 189,000 jobs above May 2013 levels. The sector now employs just over 6 million workers, the highest since June 2009.

The unemployment rate for job seekers who last worked in construction fell to the lowest May level in six years: 8.6 percent, down from 10.8 percent in May 2013 and a high of 20.1 percent in May 2010, according to Ken Simonson, the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America.

May also marked the point at which the total of payroll employment has again reached its pre-recession level.

It’s hardly a milestone to celebrate, however, cautioned Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research center.

“It is economically meaningless. We still have a big hole in the labor market,” she said, noting that to keep pace with new entrants in the workforce and other changes, the economy would have needed almost twice the jobs. “What we need to get back to pre-recession level conditions is 6.9 million (more) jobs.”

Manufacturers are sympathetic.

“We remain well below our pre-recessionary levels, with employment in the sector roughly 12 percent below where it was at the end of 2009,” said Chad Moutray, the chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers.

That may be due more to increases in productivity than any lingering problem in the economy. “Manufacturing production is expected to reach its pre-recessionary level at some point this summer,” Moutray said.

The jobless rate held steady in May at 6.3 percent, and most signs of underemployment and stress in the labor markets remained unchanged.

There were still 3.4 million Americans who’ve been out of work for 27 weeks or longer, and 7.3 million Americans who were working part time but desired full-time work.

Job growth in May was powered by better-paying white-collar jobs, with the professional and business services sector adding 55,000 jobs. Leisure and hospitality added 39,000 and the health care sector, which had seen hiring slow down over the past half year, added 33,600 posts.

“Health care and social assistance had a stronger-than-average month, adding 55,000 jobs, as did transportation and warehousing, which added 16,000 jobs,” Jason Furman, the head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, said in his blog. “Job growth in most other industries was squarely within the range observed over the course of the recovery.”

SEC chief is open to curbs on high-speed traders

By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission called Thursday for new rules governing the structure of financial markets, acknowledging that high-speed trading and the largely unregulated trading areas called dark pools may be working against ordinary investors.

Speaking at a New York conference, SEC Commissioner Mary Jo White couched her suggested changes as “enhancing” the structure of stock markets. But White made it clear that the rules governing financial exchanges are outdated.

Much of the focus was on computer-driven trading, which White said had generally been positive by lowering costs for all investors. But as algorithms now drive stock-market trading, “not all segments of the equity markets have equally shared the benefits from the positive market trends,” she said, “and that disparity may have increased in recent years.”

White’s remarks come amid the controversy raised in the best-selling book “Flash Boys,” by noted financial author Michael Lewis. In the book, Lewis detailed how companies engaged in high-frequency trading fleeced ordinary investors by driving up the price a fraction in a matter of milliseconds.

That fraction adds up to billions of dollars a year and it happens in ways investors never see. It led Lewis to assert that markets are “rigged” against ordinary investors.

Much of what White proposed Thursday dealt on the margins of the allegations raised by Lewis. Today’s rules apply to yesterday’s markets, she acknowledged.

“As a general matter, many market structure rules and industry practices were developed with manual markets in mind,” she said, referring to a time before computer-driven trading took root. “They cannot be expected to optimally address all of today’s markets.”

The SEC doesn’t want to “roll back the technology clock,” White said, but it’s actively assessing “the extent to which specific elements of the computer-driven trading environment may be working against investors rather than for them.”

The SEC staff is being asked to develop a recommendation for a rule to limit the use of computer-driven strategies that exacerbate stock swings in periods of stock-price volatility.

And the staff will clarify rules to ensure that high-frequency trading firms that engage in trading on their own behalf _ called proprietary trading _ would be subject to SEC regulation.

High-speed traders are able to get information about trades being placed faster than most investors, in part because they’ve been allowed to co-locate at the site of stock exchanges, giving them speed advantages measured in tenths of a second or less. They “front-run” orders being placed by pension funds or other large institutional investors.

Front-running happens when traders armed with information about a pending sale buy the amount of shares sought and then sell them to the intended buyer seconds later at a slightly higher price.

“The question they should be asking is why does the SEC allow co-location?” said John Coffee, a frequent witness before Congress on securities-law matters who’s a professor at Columbia University in New York. “When you pay a lot of money to the exchange in exchange for location, you get the exchange’s loyalty and they favor you.”

The SEC rules don’t address the most direct allegations made by Lewis, Coffee said, and point more to the 2010 “flash crash,” when a computer glitch briefly shut down financial markets.

One hot topic in the Lewis book was “dark pools,” private trading venues run mostly by giant Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs.

Lewis said nine Wall Street banks controlled 70 percent of stock-market orders, and also ran their own “dark pools” where trading occurred. In her speech, White noted that 35 percent of all stock-market trading volume is done in dark venues, up from 25 percent four years ago.

“Dark pools” don’t disclose the identities of participants to the public and they limit information about how the venues operate. McClatchy has reported how the trading of contracts for oil in “dark pools” may be driving up oil and gasoline prices.

“Transparency has long been a hallmark of the U.S. securities markets, and I am concerned by the lack of it in these dark venues,” White said, adding that she’s open to expanded disclosure requirements for big players in the “dark pools.”

Senate panel approves spending bill with funds to improve oil train safety

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved on Thursday a transportation spending bill that includes funding to address gaps in safety and training revealed by recent derailments of trains carrying crude oil.

The bill, which now goes to the full Senate, includes funding for new rail and hazardous materials safety inspectors, automated track inspections and web-based training for first responders. It supports increased safety training for smaller railroads hauling crude oil.

It also requires the Department of Transportation to finish tougher design standards for tank cars transporting crude oil by Oct. 1.

“We all need to recognize that these trains are already moving in states across the country, including Washington,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, “and that there are steps we can take now to make our communities safer.”

Several derailments involving crude oil in the past year have revealed numerous safety vulnerabilities relating to track, rail operations and rail cars. They’ve also shown a gap in the response capabilities of state and local agencies, which in most cases were not made aware of the shipments and couldn’t prepare for the risks.

Gordon Delcambre, a spokesman for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said he couldn’t comment on the October deadline imposed by the Senate bill. But he said that his agency and the Federal Railroad Administration are “putting every option on the table when it comes to improving the safe transport of crude oil by rail.”

The Washington Department of Ecology estimates that 29 million barrels of oil were imported to the state last year, up from nothing in 2011. The oil, from North Dakota’s Bakken shale region, is displacing crude from Alaska and foreign countries at the state’s refineries.

Washington has a robust system in place to respond to spills from marine vessels, but those capabilities aren’t easily adaptable to rail incidents.

The state legislature earlier this year appropriated $300,000 to study the health, safety and environmental risks of crude oil transportation by rail, and $652,000 to develop response plans and hire experts for inland spills.

Other states are making similar moves. In January, California shifted resources from its traditional marine spill response program to account for the threat of inland spills. State officials anticipate that a quarter of California’s petroleum supply could be delivered by rail in the next few years.

State agencies in New York, which has no refineries but has become a hub for crude oil shipments bound for other East Coast destinations, are conducting a wide-ranging review of their response capabilities.

In Virginia, the site of a recent crude oil train derailment, a new rail safety task force held its first meeting this week.

'Fault' tops Tom Cruise at box office with $48.2M

NEW YORK -- In a box-office battle that pitted young against old, female against male, modest drama against big-budget spectacle, the teenage romance "The Fault in Our Stars" easily bested the time-shifting Tom Cruise action film "Edge of Tomorrow."

With a $48.2 million domestic debut, "The Fault in Our Stars" thumped the $29.1 million opening for "Edge of Tomorrow," according to studio estimates Sunday. It did so with a far less seasoned star in Shailene Woodley and a $12 million budget a fraction the size of that for "Edge of Tomorrow," made for approximately $175 million.

The results offered a stark illustration of shifting box-office trends. Whereas big-budget, male-oriented action films with stars like Cruise have long ruled the day at North American multiplexes, those movies are increasingly under siege from films ignited by passionate young female moviegoers.

"The notion of what is traditional summer fare is changing," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. "Women and young girls are as vitally important to the box office in the summer as the young males, who Hollywood has courted and coveted for decades."

"The Fault in Our Stars," a highly-anticipated adaptation of John Green's best-selling book, was in some ways another example of the power of young-adult fiction. But unlike "Twilight" or "The Hunger Games," "The Fault in Our Stars" isn't about sci-fi or fantasy, but is rather a more naturalistic drama about young love and cancer.

Twentieth Century Fox said that an overwhelming 82 percent of the audience for the film was female, an unusually large gender gap for such a popular movie. The majority of the audience eagerly turned out for Thursday night and Friday showings.

"We knew that we had an engaged fan base but we weren't sure of the depth of it," said Chris Aronson, Fox's distribution head. "We also knew we had formidable competition in the marketplace for similar if not identical demographics."

That competition — Disney's fairy tale "Maleficent," starring Angelina Jolie — slid to second place in its second week with $33.5 million. With a two-week global sum of $335.5 million, "Maleficent" has performed well, but it remains to be seen if it can be a real money-maker for Disney, which spent an estimated $180 million to make it, plus huge amounts to market it.

Warner Bros.' sci-fi thriller "Edge of Tomorrow," directed by Doug Liman and co-starring Emily Blunt, appealed more to males (61 percent of its audience) and moviegoers older than 25 (73 percent of its audience). The film about a U.S. major (Cruise) stuck in a "Groundhog Day"-like time loop during a battle against invading aliens won Cruise some of his best reviews in years, but — like the star's recent "Oblivion" and "Jack Reacher" — it didn't turn out moviegoers as expected.

"They're just two very different movies and the fact they're both on the same weekend, it's not one versus the other," said Jeff Goldstein, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said referring to "The Fault in Our Stars." "But there is something really special about a movie like 'Fault,' where an audience really rallied around it."

"For us, this is really about the long play," added Goldstein.

"Edge of Tomorrow" also showed that such films still have a lot of box-office muscle, it's only best flexed overseas. The film made $82 million internationally, making most of that in China, Korea and Russia.

Sony's comedy sequel "22 Jump Street," starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, kicked off abroad a week ahead of its North American release, earning $8.8 million. Next weekend, it will open alongside DreamWorks' "How to Train Your Dragon 2."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. "The Fault in Our Stars," $48.2 million ($17.1 million international).

2. "Maleficent," $33.5 million ($59.7 million international).

3. "Edge of Tomorrow," $29.1 million ($82 million international).

4. "X-Men: Days of Future Past," $14.7 million ($42.1 million international).

5. "A Million Ways to Die in the West," $7.2 million ($6.4 million international).

6. "Godzilla," $6 million ($5.4 million international).

7. "Neighbors," $5.2 million ($3.6 million international).

8. "Blended," $4.1 million.

9. "Chef," $2.6 million.

10. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," $1.9 million ($2.3 million international).

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to Rentrak:

1. "Edge of Tomorrow," $82 million.

2. "Maleficent," $59.7 million.

3. "X-Men: Days of Future Past," $42.1 million.

4. "The Fault in Our Stars," $17.1 million.

5. "22 Jump Street," $8.8 million.

6. "Overheard 3," $6.5 million.

7. "A Million Ways to Die in the West," $6.4 million.

8. "Frozen," $5.8 million.

9. "Godzilla," $5.4 million.

10. "Neighbors," $3.6 million.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Rai rejects prolonged void in presidency

BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai warned Sunday that Cabinet indefinitely replacing the president would amount to “a grave violation” of the National Pact on equal power-sharing between Muslims and Christians.

“With regard to our national life in Lebanon, the truth is the Constitution and [partnership between Muslims and Christians] is the National Pact,” Rai said in his Sunday sermon in Bkirki, stepping up his criticism of MPs for failing to pick a successor to former President Michel Sleiman. “The failure to elect a new president is a grave violation of the Constitution that causes paralysis in constitutional institutions.”

Referring to the Cabinet, which under the Constitution assumes executive powers, including those of the outgoing president, until a new president is elected, Rai said: “Should the Cabinet replace the president for an indefinite period, this will amount to a grave violation of partnership and the National Pact because it excludes the Christian Maronite component from the first presidency post.”

He added that after the country fell into a presidential vacuum, “neither can Parliament assume its legislative duty, nor can the Cabinet find the means to practice its powers.”

Dating back to 1943, the National Pact is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state and has governed the political dynamics of the country to this day. Under the pact, the presidency is allotted for the Maronites, the premiership for Sunnis and the speakership for Shiites.

Parliament has failed in five attempts since April to choose a successor to Sleiman after his six-year term ended on May 25 due to a lack of the required two-thirds quorum (86) of the legislature’s 128 members to begin the session.

Lawmakers from MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc, Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have thwarted the required quorum by boycotting the sessions, in a clear bid to pressure their March 14 rivals into agreement beforehand on a consensus candidate for the presidency.

The presidential void has paralyzed Parliament legislation and is threatening the government’s work.

Parliament is slated to meet Monday in yet another attempt which is also destined to fail to elect a president over lack of a quorum.

Rai urged MPs to abide by the Constitution and the National Pact and work to pull the country out of “the state of confusion, divisions and paralysis” by electing a president.

“We are praying for them [lawmakers] so they can realize their responsibility for the aggravating economic and social crisis and for humiliating the people by starving them, displacing them and neglecting them,” he said.

“They [lawmakers] should realize they are responsible for the infringement on the nation’s dignity, depriving it of a president who protects the Constitution, safeguards the nation’s unity, gives legitimacy to all other institutions and sets them into motion just like the head does with the body’s parts,” Rai added.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, meanwhile, sounded downbeat about electing a successor to Sleiman soon, saying a political compromise over the presidential vote was not ready yet. “The door for political compromise over the presidential election issue has not been opened yet,” Abu Faour said during a meeting with mayors in Rashaya.

“So far, there has been no progress over the presidency issue and there don’t seem to be any solutions looming on the horizon that could put an end to the presidential void.”

Abu Faour from MP Walid Jumblatt’s parliamentary bloc blamed what he called the “exchange of impossible conditions and conflicting positions” by the rival political parties for the presidential stalemate.

“Foreign parties should not be blamed [for the presidential deadlock] because it’s an internal Lebanese crisis and the decision [to solve it] is an internal one,” he said.

Abu Faour, whose bloc has nominated Aley MP Henri Helou for the presidency, urged all parliamentary blocs to attend Monday’s Parliament session and vote for a president.

A senior Hezbollah official reiterated the party’s call for a swift election of a president. However, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said it was not possible to elect a president without consensus between the March 8 and 14 camps.

“We want the election of a new president as soon as possible. But let’s be clear, all indications show that no president can be elected without a consensus,” Qassem told a Hezbollah graduation ceremony for women in the Bekaa region.

Addressing March 14 parties, he said: “We say to you let us reach a consensus to hold the presidential election. If you delay the consensus, this means the presidential void will go on for long and you are to blame for that.”

He also called for the adoption of a new electoral law based on proportional representation before Parliament’s extended mandate ends on Nov. 20.

For his part, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, the March 14-backed candidate for the presidency, slammed his March 8 rivals, accusing them of “treason” for disrupting the presidential election and focusing their efforts on managing the vacuum instead of ending the deadlock.

“What is happening today is a treachery. We have reached the end of the presidential term [without a successor] because some were disrupting the election,” Geagea said during a ceremony Saturday. “Since May 25, there has been talk about how to institutionalize the vacuum rather than looking into ways to elect a new president. It is as if some people are preparing for a long-time vacuum.”

“There is no regional or international pressure on Lebanon but two parliamentary blocs are not taking part in the parliamentary sessions and are disrupting the election,” Geagea said, referring to Aoun’s and Hezbollah’s blocs.

Hezbollah to uphold accord with Maronite Church over Lasa: official

BEIRUT: A senior Hezbollah official said the party would uphold an agreement with the Maronite Church over disputed land in the village of Lasa, saying last week’s controversy had been aimed at sowing division between the party and its Christian allies.

“What you have heard from some about Lasa is slander,” Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hezbollah’s political council, said at a ceremony Sunday.

“The issue is an individual case that is being handled legally, and we have informed all those concerned that we remain in agreement with the patriarchate,” Abu Zeinab said.

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Claude Karam Friday ordered the demolition of an unauthorized building after members of Hezbollah returned to work on a site in Lasa, which falls on a plot of land the Maronite patriarchate claims to own.

Security sources told The Daily Star at the time that Hezbollah’s local military commander, Yasar Hasan Miqdad, backed by around 50 party members dressed in special uniforms, entered the disputed area late Thursday night and began working, nearly two years after a court ruling banned any construction.

The incident occurred days after a dispute between Hezbollah and the Maronite patriarch over the latter’s recent visit to Jerusalem.

But Abu Zeinab indicated that the dispute was being used politically by Hezbollah’s rivals.

“To those who seek out strife, what you are doing will not increase your popularity, and this incitement will not help you reach Parliament,” he said.

“Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement and the people of Jbeil and its suburbs will continue coexisting and remain proud of their cooperation,” he said.

The long-standing dispute over the Lasa land ownership dates to 2011.

The village has been a place of coexistence between Christians and Shiites since the early 19th century.

Disputes over land that was claimed by the Maronite Church as part of its endowment in the village subsided when Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai sponsored an agreement in 2013 to resurvey the area.

Still hope for presidential election?

Despite an apparent deadlock over the presidential file, observers of the political scene have taken heart from a few promising indications of possible progress toward electing a new head of state.

Lebanon has reportedly been added to the agenda of Iranian-American talks to be held Monday and Tuesday in Geneva. Although the meetings will be dedicated to reaching an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, the Lebanese election will reportedly be discussed on the sidelines, creating an opportunity for an international agreement.

However, the State Department’s announcement of the Geneva meeting coincided with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech Friday, in which he advised the Lebanese not to count on a Saudi-Iranian deal to save them from presidential vacuum. “There is still no date [for such talks], and it is unknown whether they will happen soon or not, and if a line of negotiation was established, who says that the [Lebanese] presidential file is subject to negotiation?” he said during the televised address.

Political sources saw Nasrallah’s comments as a call for Lebanese to rethink the rules of the game when it comes to electing a president, and to take advantage of regional powers’ preoccupation with other issues to strike internal agreements and discuss specific names.

Despite appearances, Hezbollah has still not given up on running Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for president, the sources said.

The sources also understood from Nasrallah’s tone that he was calling on the Lebanese either to reach a mutual understanding on the president or accept that the Cabinet will exercise the president’s duties for as long as it takes to strike an accord. The party, according to the sources, has no problem prolonging the presidential vacuum as long as it has governmental cover for its weapons and its troops in Syria.

For their part, sources close to the March 8 coalition saw Nasrallah’s comments in a positive light, particularly his urging of the various Lebanese political factions to get on with their negotiations without waiting for a regional deal.

The sources also pointed to the uptick in meetings between Future and the FPM. These meetings have reportedly expanded to include Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, as well as Nader Hariri, representing ex-premier Saad Hariri.

Officials from both sides have begun hinting at future collaborations on issues other than the election, including the salary scale, which had prompted both sides to boycott the last parliamentary session.

The sources added that the friendly meeting that recently took place between Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri could be seen as an indicator of a serious endeavor to achieve a breakthrough. Although the two discussed future cooperation, Berri reportedly qualified his otherwise positive comments, saying that the two do not have to be “the closest of allies,” as they are already united by many issues, from their stance on the presidency to their shared belief in an effective state whose borders are guarded by the resistance, the legitimacy of which is enshrined in the Cabinet’s policy statement.

Berri reportedly advised Aoun to get close to MP Walid Jumblatt, who has rightfully earned the reputation of kingmaker, and Aoun agreed to approach Jumblatt and solicit his support.

Also, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement that his country neither supports nor opposes any presidential candidate has helped fuel internal negotiations, the sources said. They also pointed to the absence of a confrontation between the U.S., Iran and Saudi Arabia over Lebanon.

A delegation representing Maronite institutions has also made overtures toward non-Christian leaders in an attempt to bridge the divide among Christians. Its expected visit next week with Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam, as well as some party leaders, to urge them to help strike a deal between the major Christian factions.

Finally, the sources cited reports of efforts by France and the Vatican to develop a solution to the presidential void that would be acceptable to all parties, preferably in the form of a moderate candidate whose precise specifications are being drawn up in diplomatic circles.

Political rifts paralyze development in Tripoli

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Despite the relative calm imposed by a government-sponsored security plan, political divisions in Tripoli continue to paralyze the northern city, eating away at its public services, security and infrastructure.

Shortly after the security plan achieved a measure of peace, the various factions and leaders began to fight over conditions required for the reconstruction and development of Tripoli to take place, with old rivalries resurfacing and rumors of new alliances casting a pall of uncertainty over the city’s future.

Hostilities were on full display during the anniversary of Prime Minister Rashid Karami’s assassination on June 1. Former Minister Faisal Karami, after gathering nearly 4,000 people in the courtyard of his residence in Tripoli, launched a blistering attack on the Future Movement in light of its ally Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea’s nomination for president.

Geagea was sentenced to life in prison in the 1990s over his involvement in Karami’s assassination. But the LF leader, who was released after Parliament passed a General Amnesty in 2005, dismisses all these accusations, arguing that they were fabricated by the Syrian regime, which was in total control of the country between 1990 and 2005.

Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati had sent supporters to attend Karami’s memorial, sending tongues wagging about an impending arrangement between him and Karami. But according to the former premier’s adviser Khaldoun Sharif, Mikati’s was a message of consensus and solidarity.

“[Karami] speaks for himself and for no one else who participated in the memorial,” he said. “Najib Mikati has proven to be the difficult number in the political equation in Tripoli, and though he sent signals to Faisal Karami through the presence [of his supporters], he has not formed any new alliances.”

Sharif said the memorial was therefore an opportunity to confirm the sensitivity of Geagea’s candidacy and recall Karami’s legacy as a national figure and an effective politician, pointing out that even Future Movement lawmaker Mohammad Kabbara abstained from voting for the LF leader.

Observers said that Karami was also unlikely to form a new alliance, particularly if it meant breaking with Hezbollah, despite his attempts to distance himself somewhat from the March 8 coalition on a number of occasions.

Sharif went on to say that any talk of rifts or alliances depended on two things: the electoral law and the political atmosphere in the region.

“What if Saudi Arabia, within the changing regional landscape, extended a hand toward Najib Mikati? Any discussion of the balance of power would be in vain because the balance on the ground would shift naturally according to a new political balance.”

Sharif also cast doubt on the success of the development plan proposed to address the multiple crises affecting Tripoli.

In order to be effective, he said, the plan would have to create a welcoming environment for major financial investments and create a huge number of local jobs until such investments can be secured. Current local and regional political factors do not support such an ambitious project at the moment, he said.

Former lawmaker Mustafa Alloush of the Future Movement offered his own reading of the current political landscape in Tripoli, differing on some of Sharif’s points but echoing others.

Alloush blamed groups linked to “what is left of the resistance axis,” – Iran, Syria and Hezbollah – for what happened on June 1.

Commenting on what he saw as the political decline of the Karami family, Alloush said: “Karami could have gathered half of Tripoli, rather than just a few thousand, and even utilized his former rivals, Mikati and Safadi.”

He admitted, however, that many blamed the Future Movement for its own miscalculations.

“Our base sees our former alliance with Safadi and Mikati as a major political mistake, though we are now conducting polls to determine our final position regarding the political alliances in Tripoli,” he said.

Lebanon is divided horizontally and vertically, Alloush said, and the only thing preventing the cold war between its factions from igniting is March 14’s decision not to take up arms. He also said the political conditions were still unripe for a development plan for Tripoli.

“As long as Hezbollah’s weapons continue to disrupt political life, taking daring stances such as reopening the airport, widening the seaport and rebuilding other public facilities in Tripoli will be difficult,” he said.

A development plan put forward by Mikati’s government was estimated to cost $100 million, and the Treasury cannot afford it, he said.

“Let’s be honest with the residents of Tripoli and not resort to slogans while living conditions call for seriousness and responsibility,” he said.

“If all the economic facilities in Tripoli were rehabilitated, as the people want, there is still the tense regional situation and the ongoing civil war in Syria, the repercussions of which continue to be felt in Tripoli. The development plan depends on internal and regional factors far beyond mere political wishes.”

5 video game trends expected at E3

By DERRIK J. LANG The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- With the launch of the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Wii U in the video game industry's rearview mirror, the spotlight at this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles is expected to shift back to games. From online-only titles to virtual reality experiences, about 200 exhibitors will hype their latest software in hopes of becoming The Next Big Thing. A sampling:

NEW TRICKS: Following the dawn of the new console generation, several publishers will use this year's E3 to push potential new franchises, such as Bungie's sci-fi shooter "Destiny," Turtle Rock Studios' monster battle "Evolve," Insomniac Games' cartoony shoot-'em-up "Sunset Overdrive" and Ubisoft Massive's terrorist thriller "Tom Clancy's The Division."

SAYING SORRY: A few apologies might be issued to E3 crowds, like Microsoft for backtracking on required features for the Xbox One, Electronic Arts for botching last year's "Battlefield 4" launch, Nintendo for again dialing back its E3 presence after stumbling with the Wii U and far too many publishers to name here for delaying titles originally set for release this year to 2015.

REALITY CHECK: The prospect of virtual reality in the living room probably isn't quite ready for prime time, but that won't stop VR from being buzzed about across the Los Angeles Convention Center this week. A few developers, including "Words With Friends" co-creator Paul Bettner, will be showing off games created for the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus headsets.

RETURN OF THE JEDI: EA, which announced an exclusive deal last year with Disney to produce "Star Wars" games for the next 10 years, will detail DICE's intergalactic adventure "Star Wars: Battlefront" during its E3 presentation on Monday, and the company might tease other "Star Wars" games, including one that's currently being crafted by its Visceral Games studio.

RINSE AND REPEAT: Despite the boost in non-sequels at this year's E3, a slew of follow-ups are scheduled to be promoted on the show floor, such as new installments of "The Sims," "Halo," "Call of Duty," "Far Cry," "Metal Gear Solid," "Assassin's Creed" and "Super Smash Bros." If past shows are any indication, more sequels will be revealed for the first time at E3.

OTHER PROSPECTS: Microsoft could introduce its own virtual reality headset; Sony might unveil an "Uncharted" or "God of War" game for the PS4; Nintendo may tease a "Legend of Zelda" for the Wii U and a "Skylanders"-like toy-game line; and Team Ico's "The Last Guardian," a game originally teased at E3 2009 but never released, could finally receive a release date. Or not.

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Online:

http://bit.ly/1ktQBwV

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://bit.ly/M4KQ9i.

Detroit gay pride parade marks weekend festival

DETROIT -- Under drizzly skies, Detroit is marking the second and final day of the city's annual gay pride celebration.

The Motor City Pride Festival and Parade is in its 43rd year. It began Saturday and runs through Sunday at Hart Plaza downtown.

The parade started at 11 a.m. Sunday, led by grand marshals April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse in a 1967 Plymouth Fury supplied by sponsor Chrysler. The Hazel Park couple brought the legal challenge that led a federal judge to overturn Michigan's same-sex ban.

Motor City Pride bills itself as Michigan's largest gathering celebrating the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Tens of thousands have turned out this year.

Other sponsors include Comerica Bank, Delta Airlines, Ford, General Motors, Kroger, the United Auto Workers and Whole Foods.

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Online:

http://bit.ly/1uG6YZk

No shortage of info in Detroit bankruptcy

DETROIT -- Retired Detroit bus driver Art Vardiman recently received a computer disk in the mail that contains hundreds of pages of documents. He also got a six-page blue ballot about cuts to his pension and a white one about health insurance. A 25-page notice explains why the changes are being proposed in Detroit's historic bankruptcy.

Vardiman, 63, keeps it all in a box near an easy chair in his living room. Confusing? He would rather steer a full coach through rush hour traffic in downtown Detroit than try to make sense of it all.

"Picture a person 70 to 80 years old," said Vardiman, who retired 10 years ago. "You think they're going to go through all that? It's tough."

But he and thousands of others must try to make sense of the legalese and complexities of the largest public bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and cast votes that will affect how much they will earn for the rest of their lives.

Detroit's bankruptcy is at a critical stage after the Michigan Legislature last week approved a $195 million lifeline to help prevent steep cuts in Detroit's pensions and the sale of city-owned art. With Gov. Rick Snyder expected to sign the measure this week, attention now turns to the tens of thousands of creditors, especially 32,000 active, former or retired employees, who have until July 11 to vote on the city's plan to shed $18 billion in debt and become solvent again.

The stakes are great — and painful. General retirees — trash haulers, mechanics, janitors, clerks — would see a 4.5 percent cut in their pension and the elimination of annual inflation payments. In addition, some who received generous annuity returns from the pension fund, even in awful market conditions, would be forced to give back as much as 20 percent. Detroit insists the cuts will be even worse if the plan is rejected.

"I've been talking to retirees all over the country: Oregon, Arizona, Florida — all over. The whole process is completely alien to a lot of people," said lawyer Carole Neville, who represents a group that negotiated on behalf of Detroit retirees.

"The bankruptcy. The vote. What is this CD/DVD I got in the mail?" she said. "We have a hotline to help people, and we have gotten a lot of calls and emails."

The bankruptcy process is an unusual course where not every vote is equal. Creditors are in certain classes, and their individual vote is weighted depending on the size of their financial claim in the case.

"It's not easy to explain," Neville said.

Public forums about the voting process have turned hostile with people venting about the financial sacrifice. The average annual pension for police and fire retirees now is $32,000, while most other retired city workers get $19,000 to $20,000.

Don Taylor, president of the Retired Detroit Police and Fire Fighters Association, which has about 7,000 members, said any early confusion among his members faded after more information was shared. It helps that police and fire retirees are being treated more favorably than others. Their annual cost-of-living increase is being shaved to 1 percent, not eliminated, because their pension fund is in better shape.

"Their pensions are not being reduced. It's the best possible outcome from the circumstances," said Taylor, a retiree who voted yes. "They may glance through this stuff, but I don't think anybody is going to read the entire thing."

The CD has hundreds of pages on Detroit's strategy to get out of bankruptcy and a long narrative about how the city got there: decades of declining population, poverty, blight and severe mismanagement. The information also can be read on a website.

"This stuff is a little complex," acknowledged Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, a bankruptcy expert who took the city into Chapter 9 last summer with the blessing of Snyder.

"A lot of this is going to be intuitive and a leap of faith," he said. "The basic difference is, 'You get this if you vote yes,' and 'You get this if you vote no.' That's pretty straightforward."

Vardiman, the former bus driver, is voting no. He would prefer to try to persuade an appeals court that pensions can't be touched in bankruptcy.

"This is not my fault," he said, referring to Detroit's financial woes. "They need to come up with a better plan."

Anthony Sabino, a bankruptcy lawyer who teaches business law at St. John's University in New York, said all the material is necessary, whether read or ignored, because each creditor has a legal right to essential information as the case nears the finish line.

"The letter carriers are getting a workout dropping all this off," he said.

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Associated Press writer David Eggert on Mackinac Island contributed to this report.

Inbee Park wins Manulife Financial Classic

WATERLOO, Ontario -- Inbee Park won the Manulife Financial Classic on Sunday for her first LPGA Tour title in more than 11 months, matching the course record with 10-under 61 for a three-stroke victory over Cristie Kerr.

A week after losing the top spot in the world to Stacy Lewis, Park finished at 23-under 261 at Grey Silo for her 10th LPGA Tour title and first since the U.S. Women's Open. She had only one bogey in 72 holes — on the fourth hole in the first round.

The 25-year-old South Korean star ended a 20-event tour winless streak. Last year, she swept the first three majors and finished with six victories. She also won the Ladies European Tour's World Ladies Championship three months ago in China.

Kerr finished with a 63.

Trial that could reshape college athletics begins

Some believe it could upend the way college sports operate. Others say Ed O'Bannon's legal crusade against the NCAA already has.

Five years after the former UCLA star filed his antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, it goes to trial Monday in a California courtroom. The stakes are high in the biggest challenge yet to the NCAA's authority to operate college sports at a time when big money makes so-called "amateur" sports look an awful like the pros.

Here's a look at the issues surrounding the case:

Q. What is this trial about?

A. The NCAA is being sued by O'Bannon and others over the use of their images in broadcasts and video games without compensation. They will argue at trial that the NCAA has acted as a cartel in violation of federal antitrust laws by conspiring to keep players from making money while at the same time pocketing billions of dollars in big television contracts. The NCAA contends that rules on "amateurism" are necessary to retain competitive balance and that a successful lawsuit could create a free-for-all that will seriously damage college athletics.

Q. What are the plaintiffs asking for?

A. In the short term, not much. The 20 named plaintiffs dropped their demands for money in damages a few weeks before the trial in a strategic move to narrow the scope of the case. But they are asking for the judge to rule in their favor and issue an injunction that would prohibit the NCAA from enforcing rules against paying players for the use of their images in broadcasts. Lawyers for the plaintiffs will also argue they deserve reimbursement for legal fees that they said exceeded $30 million even before the trial. "Just to get to trial alone is huge," said Jon King, an attorney handling several related cases. "To obtain an injunction will be revolutionary."

Q. Why would a win be so important?

A. This is the first time a challenge to the way the NCAA operates has gotten this far. It is part of a broader effort to change the way major college sports are operated that includes several other lawsuits challenging various NCAA regulations and a unionization effort that won a vote for football players at Northwestern earlier this year. Plaintiffs and others claim that there is no real amateurism in a college sports industry where coaches make millions, administrators are well paid and everyone profits except the athletes providing the labor. "O'Bannon represents a watershed moment for the NCAA," said Northeastern University School of Law professor Roger Abrams, an expert in sports and antitrust law. "When combined with the Northwestern football team unionization effort, the case raises the question whether the NCAA must totally re-conceptualize its approach to regulating college athletics."

Q. What will we find out during trial?

A. There will be a lot of testimony about the huge amounts of money coming into college sports, literally billions of dollars for the conferences and the NCAA from television rights deals. At least two conferences — The Big 12 and Conference USA — made last-minute challenges in court to keep their television deals secret, arguing they would be at a competitive disadvantage if other conferences and schools knew exactly what the terms of those deals are. There will also be testimony on the NCAA side about the many benefits athletes get while in college, including tuition, room and board and tutors to help them get degrees.

Q. Will other athletes, say swimmers or golfers, get something from this?

A. No, the class-action suit is limited to football players and Division I basketball players. Those two sports are the biggest revenue generators for colleges.

Q. Why haven't they settled?

A. The NCAA says it can't budge on the fundamental question of paying players, because doing so would upend the model of college sports. The organization also believes many of the lawsuits are lawyer-driven and says athletes are treated better than ever and happier than ever. The plaintiffs did reach a separate settlement with videogame maker EA Sports and the Collegiate for $40 million that will allow some payments to former players. The NCAA dismissed that by saying "the real benefactors of this settlement are the lawyers, who could pocket more than $15 million."

Q. Will this lead to pay-for-play in college sports?

A. Not right away, though the pressure brought by unionization attempts and lawsuits has already led to proposals for the five biggest college conferences to increase scholarship money and change other rules to benefit athletes. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say the whole college sports system doesn't need to be blown up, but there are remedies that will help athletes prosper while at the same time keeping a structure to control college athletics. They're suggesting the establishment of a trust funded by the NCAA and its schools that would take money for the use of player images and dole it out to individual players — but only after they're done with school. "Notwithstanding the NCAA's conjecture that the sky will fall, an unfettered market will not bring college athletics to a halt," attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in a trial brief.

Water main break closes Cedar Point amusement park

SANDUSKY, Ohio -- Ohio's most popular amusement park was closed through the weekend after a water main break in the city of Sandusky disrupted its primary water supply, putting a damper on thousands of summer vacations.

Park officials closed Cedar Point and three hotels on its northern Ohio property on a picture-perfect Saturday and didn't expect to reopen until Monday, saying a lack of reliable water posed a safety risk.

Many visitors to the roller coaster Mecca didn't know about the closure until after they arrived, some after driving hundreds of miles.

Roger and Debbie Balderas of South Bend, Indiana, their daughter and their daughter's friend drove four hours to Cedar Point early Saturday and snagged a good parking spot before they were told the park was closed.

"This was our vacation," Roger Balderas told The Sandusky Register.

Debbie Balderas said she waited in line for an hour to get a refund of their tickets, which start at $50 for adults and $35 for children. The family then got stuck for an hour-and-a-half in traffic as visitors poured out of the park.

The Balderas family said that although they got a refund for their tickets, they still had to pay for their hotel in nearby Port Clinton.

In a statement on its website, Cedar Point apologized to guests and said that any unused tickets would be good for the rest of the year.

"We recognize that this situation has caused many of our guests to be disappointed," the statement said. "We are sorry that this has happened."

Cedar Point sees more than 3 million visitors a year, making it the most visited amusement park in Ohio.

According to the website of owner Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., Cedar Point is believed to be the largest seasonal amusement park in the U.S. That's measured by the number of rides and attractions and the hourly ride capacity.

Cedar Fair owns more than a dozen amusement parks and water parks around the country, along with a handful of hotels. Net revenues for the company reached $1.14 billion last year.

Bulgaria halts work on South Stream gas pipeline

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Bulgaria's prime minister has ordered a halt to construction work on the Gazprom-led South Stream pipeline project planned to bypass Ukraine as a transit country and consolidating Russia's energy grip in Europe.

Plamen Oresharski said after meeting U.S. Sens. John McCain, Christopher Murphy and Ron Johnson on Sunday that he has ordered all work on the disputed project to continue only after consultations with Brussels.

Last week, the European Commission opened an infringement procedure against the Balkan country and asked construction work to be stopped, arguing that Bulgaria hadn't respected EU internal market rules covering the award of public contracts.

"We understand that there are some issues concerning the South Stream pipeline project," McCain said and added that "obviously we want as little Russian involvement as possible."

If The NSA Can't Keep Call Records, Should Phone Companies Do It?

i i

hide captionSenate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., questioned whether phone companies would retain calling data.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., questioned whether phone companies would retain calling data.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Perhaps the most controversial spying program revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was the agency's hoarding of Americans' phone records.

Congress wants to change that program.

The House has passed legislation that would end the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' calling data and let phone companies hold the records instead.

As a Senate panel found last week, that proposal could run into trouble.

The reform passed by the House would require the NSA to have a judge's order before going to the phone companies for individual calling records. That's a big change from what the agency has been doing — collecting that data on its own and holding it for five years.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Intelligence Committee, has been a staunch defender of the NSA's current program.

"I happen to believe it is lawful and that it has been effective," she said. "But I recognize that the situation is such that change is needed."

So late last week, Feinstein held a hearing to examine how the House bill would change the law. Seated at the witness table was NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett. Feinstein wanted to know if he thought existing law requiring phone companies to hold on to their billing records for a year and a half worked for the NSA.

"We believe that the 18-month retention period would be sufficient," Ledgett said. "If the companies were to change their practices, we'd advise the committee."

"So you're saying you're confident that the companies will retain the call records for 18 months?" Feinstein asked.

"We actually can't say that," Ledgett answered. "They'll retain the records for as long as their business requirements dictate they retain their records."

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, pointed out that the bill does not require phone companies to retain their records for any set period of time. When Verizon Vice President Michael Woods took the witness chair, King asked about a minimum requirement for holding on to calling records.

"We would be very much opposed to it," Woods answered.

Woods told King that most people now have unlimited calling plans, so Verizon no longer has much need to hang on to its calling records — nor does it want to.

"Our general principal in these records is that we do not keep them for longer than the business purpose, because we have learned that the longer we keep records beyond what we need them, the greater the risks to the privacy of our customers," Woods said.

If the phone companies don't keep those records, there's no way for the NSA to know if they'll be there if needed, potentially crippling the agency's ability to track contacts. Even forcing the companies to hold the records is problematic, according to another witness, Harley Geiger of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

"A data-retention mandate would be an enormous burden, both in terms of technological infrastructure, particularly for small companies and startups, but it would also result in loss of user trust and potential problems with privacy and data breach," Geiger said. "We urge you not to go down the road of a data-retention mandate."

Developmental league has support, no launch plan

NEW YORK -- When Troy Vincent mentioned in April the NFL's interest in establishing a developmental league, he couldn't have imagined the response it would get.

"I got more than 100 proposals," he said with a laugh. "I think that shows it is worth a look."

And that is what it will get, although the NFL has no timetable for establishing such a league.

Why is it likely to get off the ground? Vincent, who recently became the NFL's head of football operations, cites a bunch of reasons, from training coaches and officials to finding players to testing rules.

"It would be an opportunity to enhance our game on many levels, to develop the future, preserve and innovate the game," he said.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin would like to see it happen.

"I'm in favor of anything that increases opportunities for guys to grow and develop," Tomlin said, "and ultimately improve the product of our game for our fans, particularly at some positions."

Notably, quarterback. Tomlin is well aware of how former Super Bowl QBs Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme were helped by their time in the minors.

"Quarterbacks often don't come to you ready-made, particularly with the way college football is played now with so many spread offenses and half-field reads and so forth," Tomlin said.

Tomlin is right that the NFL relies on the college game for developing the skills of potential pro players. That won't change but, as the number of undrafted free agents who populate NFL rosters shows — 31.4 percent in 2014 — there are hundreds of players who would benefit from having a place to showcase themselves if the NFL doesn't come calling.

Not since NFL Europe disappeared in 2007 has there been an NFL-affiliated place where players could go to prove themselves worthy of a look by one of the league's 32 teams. Same thing for officials and coaches.

"That's what NFL Europe was intended to be, a developmental league," said Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, a former head coach in the NFL. "I thought it was great for coaches, I thought it was great for players, I thought it was great for officials. It wasn't my money they were spending on it, but I always thought the time was worth it. "

There are dozens of questions accompanying any project: When and where would the league play games? How many teams would be in a developmental league? Who would play and coach? Would television be interested?

Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp, a Chicago-based consulting firm, has a strong relationship with many team owners. He envisions a league being established for spring play, with all of the teams supplying players they want to see more from.

"After the NFL season and before the training camps, say March to July," Ganis said. "It's an open time in the sports schedule. The colleges are done and the NBA and NHL playoffs wind down.

"A league in the fall is really tough. It is not like baseball, where teams can be calling up players every day from the minors. There would be lots of restrictions on player movement then."

This won't be an international venture, either. In fact, it probably would be done regionally, cutting down on travel costs.

"I do envision some sort of developmental league, based maybe in Florida or Texas or Arizona," said former NFL general manager Phil Savage, who now is the executive director of the Senior Bowl. "Anywhere from four to six teams; I don't think more than eight.

"I see it as tightly managed, with not a ton of travel. And I don't think it would matter the size of the stadiums and crowds, because it's a minor league, a place to look at players from the lower end of the roster or players trying to make it into the NFL."

Ganis says not to worry about TV interest.

"The networks have open time in the spring, and it's an NFL product. There would be room on the networks for games on the weekend, and on the cable outlets for weeknights," he said. "There's really a dearth of major sports on the weekends then.

"I think you would see all the networks with cable channels — CBS, Fox, NBC, and of course NFL Network — to be interested. And ESPN would likely want in on the mix, although they need it the least."

Savage was most intrigued by Vincent's suggestion that an academy for training players, coaches and officials could accompany a D-league. But he foresees such an academy being held during the NFL season.

"It would be in one centralized location and these players go there and they keep their football life afloat for another few months or another season," Savage said. "And maybe they show enough to play in the developmental league the next spring. Or maybe they get discovered for the NFL."

One major caveat would be the status of the players. Would they be NFL Players Association members? What sort of medical coverage would they have? What would their salaries be?

Savage believes the league, the union and the American Football Coaches Association — the organization for college coaches — could work out a strategy that would lead to a developmental league by the end of the decade, perhaps much sooner.

"I think it could be a really neat thing and can help a lot of players," he said.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the NFL's influential competition committee, agrees.

"There's been discussions over the last couple years. I don't know what direction it's going, but I think we have a need for it," Fisher said. "I think it would be beneficial from a young players' standpoint. ... if you have to make an outside roster move to get somebody that's in shape that you can evaluate on film."

Vincent, naturally, is in a position to help bring a league, and an academy, into existence.

"If it is something sustainable and it is good for the sport, and we can make it work," Vincent said, "it's worth pursuing."

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AP Sports Writers Will Graves and R.B. Fallstrom and freelance writer George Henry contributed to this story.

Park where end of 'Big' was filmed is in trouble

RYE, N.Y. -- Playland, a collection of modest coasters, rides and attractions that evokes a simpler time and even holds a place in Hollywood history, is in trouble.

The 86-year-old Art Deco landmark north of New York City is the nation's largest government-run amusement park, and it's been a money loser for suburban Westchester County for years. It lost $4.3 million in 2013, attendance dropped from 1 million in 2005 to 390,000 last year, and a grand plan to revamp the park is more than a year behind schedule, caught up in politics and opposition from neighbors.

While no one is predicting that Playland will have to close anytime soon, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino — now the GOP nominee for governor — has often said the status quo can't continue. And officials note that only about 30 percent of Playland's patrons are county residents.

"Amusement parks aren't an essential service of government," said Astorino spokesman Ned McCormack. "If we can't get it to a point where it's financially viable, a day could come where it just can no longer go forward."

The county doesn't have the space, the money or the inclination to make the 280-acre Playland into a Six Flags-type thrill-seeker's dream. Its size, old-fashioned feel and lower prices make it more of a family outing, with a boardwalk, beach and picnic tables on Long Island Sound.

The park's style is evident at the end of the 1988 blockbuster comedy "Big," in the scene when Tom Hanks' character makes his wish to return to his life as a child.

One of the most beloved sections is Kiddyland, where the Red Baron airplanes and Crazy Submarine are especially tame. A long mall down the center is given over to shade trees and flowers rather than rides.

At Playland last week, patrons agreed it's a low-key excursion. But several said the slower pace was part of the charm.

"I do agree it's a little bit outdated," said Jeannette Charles, principal of St. Bartholomew's School in New York's Queens borough, which brought 170 people, mostly 8- to 13-year-olds, to the park for an end-of-the-year outing. "But for my kids, this is perfect. They're having a great time and nobody's complaining."

But Gershwin Vini, 15, of Massapequa on Long Island, said he'd like to see "a few more rides, maybe one big drop ride. For a high schooler, it's not that much fun."

Astorino, who has said he hopes to be "the man who saved Playland," asked in 2010 for proposals to reimagine the park. He announced in 2012 that he had chosen the nonprofit Sustainable Playland Inc. to turn the park into a year-round attraction as opposed to just a summertime draw.

The plan called for cutting back the area devoted to rides, while preserving such favorites as the wooden Dragon roller coaster and the old Derby Racer carousel. SPI would also add water park features to the beach and pool, create a Great Lawn overlooking the sound, and build a field house and athletic fields. The popular boardwalk — where the "Big" scene was filmed — would remain.

The sports facilities — heavily in demand in Westchester — were considered a key element for income and for expanding the park's appeal throughout the year.

Astorino said in 2012 that Westchester would get $4 million up front and would eventually receive at least $1.2 million a year. But Geoff Thompson, a spokesman for SPI, said the $4 million figure is no longer being talked about, partly because of the funds eaten up by various delays.

Astorino had hoped that the new operator would take over in 2013, and he asserted that he didn't need the approval of the full county Legislature. That resulted in two lawsuits. The Legislature also decided to hold hearings, questioning SPI and the unsuccessful bidders.

Meanwhile, some residents of Rye, where Playland is located, began objecting to the proposed field house, which is near a residential area. In response, it was reduced from 95,000 to 82,500 square feet. Then the city government, threatening a lawsuit, claimed that the city, not the county, should be the lead agency in determining the revamped park's environmental impact.

The state is expected to rule shortly on who gets to lead the review.

Meanwhile, Catherine Parker, the state legislator from Rye, withdrew her longstanding support of the Sustainable Playland plan.

"I'm not saying it's the wrong plan," she said. "But it's doomed because it's going to be tied up for years with this looming litigation."

She said the county should start over with "reasonable proposals that don't involve a field house."

"Closing Playland doesn't have to be a possibility," she said.