Maxwell Hardware in Delhi celebrating 80 years

DELHI, La. -- Frank Earl Maxwell Sr. was a traveling route salesman for Shapleigh Hardware Co. of St. Louis when he decided to open his own store in Delhi. Prospects weren't exactly promising: he opened during the Great Depression.

"I read a letter from his sales manager at Shapleigh advising him not to do it," said Frank Maxwell Jr., 86. "It said, 'There's no way you can make it.'"

Maxwell Hardware and Co. is celebrating its 80th anniversary, now with Frank Maxwell III at the helm.

"It's really unusual to sustain a business for three generations, and it's something in which our family takes great pride," Maxwell said.

The founder opened his 1,250-square-foot store on U.S. 80 about two blocks west of Louisiana 17. Today Maxwell Hardware and Lumber occupies 70,000 square feet of covered space at its current location just west of Delhi on U.S. 80.

But Frank Maxwell III wasn't keen on continuing the family business as a young man. The University of Louisiana at Monroe Hall of Famer (he played from 1973-76 and was inducted in 2005) had his sights set on the NFL, and was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as a wide receiver.

"After my fifth concussion, the doctors told me I couldn't take another one, so I came home," Maxwell said. "And I'm glad I did."

Maxwell went to work for his dad and took over sole ownership in 2000.

"He's done a great job," Maxwell's father said. "He's doing three times the volume I was."

The son credits his father with setting the foundation that enabled the company's survival as big box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's came onto the scene.

"He really was a visionary," Maxwell said.

Frank Maxwell Jr. was one of the founders of what is now Allied Building Stores, which is headquartered in the Monroe Air Industrial Park and supplies more than 200 independent stores in 15 states.

"It gave us the buying power we needed to compete on price," Frank Maxwell Jr. said. "Negotiating as a group gave us more buying clout."

"We wouldn't be here without it," Frank III said.

Once the playing field was leveled on price, the Maxwells said their service and staff expertise elevated the company's relevance to its customers, both contractors and walk-ins.

Many of the 28 staffers are longtime employees like Cindy Jinks and Bruce Weems. Both have worked there for 36 years. Others have been there 20 years or more.

"We don't have much turnover, and our employees are the best," Frank III said. "Our customers know when they come to Maxwell Hardware they're going to get top customer service."

And Frank Maxwell III doesn't believe that tradition will end when he retires. His son, Frank Earl Maxwell IV, a senior at Delhi Charter School, is interested in the family business.

"It's a big responsibility, but I'll be proud if he chooses to take the path of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather," Frank III said.

Vistabule is new take on vintage camper trailer

MINNEAPOLIS -- Several years ago, a friend told Minneapolis furniture designer Bert Taylor he should look up "teardrop campers" on the Internet.

It changed his life.

"This was a scale I could work with," Taylor, 63, said. "These were basically the size of large pieces of furniture."

Today, Taylor and a small staff build sleek, compact, retro-style camper trailers from a workshop in Minneapolis' warehouse district.

His 3-year-old enterprise, Vistabule, is modest but growing; he built 12 campers last year and this year, his goal is 36.

Vistabule is a portmanteau word combining vista — drawn from the signature gaping window that affords its occupants ample views — and vestibule, suggestive of the cozy confines of the 5-foot-by-10-foot trailers.

"I wanted to take the cave on wheels and turn it into an observatory on wheels," he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/V3oqup ) while showing a reporter around his workshop.

The place smells of a woodworking shop — sawdust from the blonde-hued Baltic birch that forms the interior paneling of the campers. The workforce on this day consists of his brother Dave, 67, and friend and partner Don Grandbois, 77. The average age is reduced by Bert Taylor's daughter Lilly, 26, who works the computer.

The atmosphere is relaxed and joking. Two containers of Franzia boxed wine are perched on a cabinet, ready for dispensing. Among Taylor's numerous endeavors over the years, he's also taking a stab at growing vineyards.

"I started this venture late in life," he chuckled. "I didn't really realize how much effort this would take, mentally and physically, but I feel lucky to be doing it. And I love solving design problems."

Originally, Taylor had been interested in campers for two reasons. He wanted to buy one because he appreciated the design of vintage models like Airstream and he figured as he aged he'd appreciate a camper more than a tent. The second was that he wanted inspiration for designing furniture.

When that friend told him to research teardrop campers — small trailers that offer a place to sleep out of the elements but don't attempt to offer living rooms, showers and other amenities of full-size recreational vehicles-- it inspired him to try to build one himself. For fun. "We don't see ourselves as RVers, but as campers."

He purchased plans and started to build one, but his propensity for design improvement got in the way.

"I realized this was the work of an amateur," he said. "It might have been good for the trailer he wanted, but not for the one I wanted. It was claustrophobic. I knew I could do better."

The creation he eventually built in 2011 was a head-turner. When asked to described the genre, he uses word like "iconic," "from the 1930s and '40s," "nautical" and "vintage UFO."

"We took it to the Grand Canyon, and the response we got was unbelievable," he said. "Everyone wanted to talk to us and look inside."

Teardrop trailers are a niche at the tiny end of the camper trailer continuum. But they have a devoted following. The premise is a level of comfort, but a compactness that makes for storage in any garage and lightness that can handle being towed by most cars. (Vistabules are lighter than 1,300 pounds, within the threshold for many sedans.)

One small maker of retro-style aluminum-skinned models is Necedah, Wisconsin-based Camp-Inn. Big Woody Campers builds wood-paneled versions out of Elk Mound, Wisconsin. The big guy on the block is Little Guy, based in Ohio.

Little Guy offers campers starting as low as $4,400. Vistabules, on the other hand, generally range from $14,000 to $17,000.

The difference in price was well worth it for Stephanie Weiss of West St. Paul. In the summer of 2012, she was in the market for a teardrop camper. "Every time I camped, it seemed like I was always waking up in a puddle of water," said Weiss, 47, the director of news and media services at Augsburg College. "As I got older, I just wanted to be more comfortable."

She stumbled across Taylor's ad on Craigslist just hours, it turned out, after he had first posted it — his first attempt to sell a Vistabule.

"I told him I wanted to hire him to build me one," she said. "I think he thought I was crazy."

What sold Weiss, who has a history in sailing, was the nautical theme, the relative roominess and, of course, that huge picture window — an element perhaps unique to the Vistabule.

As for the cost: "If you give a rip about aesthetics, it's absolutely worth it," she said. "You get something so beautiful. If you want to sleep in a Clorox bottle, go buy a fiberglass one."

Weiss' enthusiasm for her camper is unequivocal. From the ease of trailering and backing into campsites — the large windows allow the driver to see right through the thing — to the functionality of the kitchenette, or "galley," she said it's become an integral part of summer travel for her, her fiance and their dogs.

"I will hook it up Friday evening or Saturday morning, and if the sweetheart can't go with me, I grab a dog and just go," she said. After-dark setup involves little hassle, unlike a tent, and the purchase has allowed her to start working through a bucket list of state parks within a couple hours' drive of the Twin Cities. Family events and weather have cramped her camping so far this season, but she said it's often substituted for a motel or fold-out sofa at family functions, affording her solitude and a view.

And she draws a crowd. "You can't be an introvert and own one because everyone wants to talk to you about it."

Taylor said he's constantly tinkering with improving the design and functionality. Door and window latches, for example, are custom made. "I didn't design it for off-the-shelf parts," he said. "That would limit me too much."

As for the basic shape, the curves and the feel, he believes he accomplished what he set out to do.

"It was difficult to come up with something unique, but I think I've done it."

---

Online:

Vistabule: http://bit.ly/1vIkJ8H

---

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://bit.ly/1f9N4jY

An AP Member Exchange Feature shared by St. Paul Pioneer Press

Ruggiano homers, Cubs cool off Nationals 7-2

WASHINGTON -- Jason Hammel earned another victory for the Chicago Cubs, and that part of his Friday afternoon was very satisfying.

However, Hammel was frustrated about being taken out early. He pitched six-plus innings, and Justin Ruggiano homered for the second straight game, leading the Cubs to a 7-2 victory over the Washington Nationals.

Just hours later, Hammel and fellow Chicago right-hander Jeff Samardzija were key parts of a trade agreement between the Cubs and Oakland Athletics.

The teams reached agreement on a deal that would send Samardzija and Hammel to Oakland for three top-line prospects in a surprising trade by baseball's top team two people with knowledge of the deal said Friday night.

The people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal was still pending, said the A's will send top prospect Addison Russell, outfielder Billy McKinney and pitcher Dan Straily to the Cubs. An official announcement will likely not happen until Saturday.

The trade is a rare move under general manager Billy Beane in which Oakland — one of baseball's most frugal franchises — parted with talented young prospects for proven players to chase a World Series title. The A's are a major league-best 53-33 after beating Toronto 1-0 in 12 innings Friday.

Hammel's outing on Friday was cut short, for unknown reasons. Samardzija had been scheduled to start against Washington on Saturday.

Chicago was leading 4-1 when Hammel was pulled after Anthony Rendon hit his 92nd pitch for a leadoff double.

"I would have liked to have stayed out there in the seventh," Hammel said. "I have no idea why I came out of the game. I honestly believe you learn how to pitch when you get to 100 pitches. If you're not allowed to reach that, I think that's hurting you more than helping."

Hammel has gone over 100 pitches in eight of his 17 starts, including his previous two outings.

"All I can say is it's frustrating, especially when you feel good," he said. "Quite honestly there's no reason for me to go back out there if I'm just going to give up the runner and then (get) pulled."

Cubs manager Rick Renteria said of the move: "Go ahead and make a change there and not let him get into a situation."

Neil Ramirez then struck out Ian Desmond before Wilson Ramos singled home Rendon to make it 4-2. Ramirez retired the next two batters to limit the damage.

The Cubs broke it open in the ninth when Ruggiano singled in Darwin Barney, and Starlin Castro added a two-run single.

Ruggiano connected for a solo shot against Tanner Roark (7-6) in the third inning. He has seven RBIs in his last two games and is batting .444 (12 for 27) in his last seven games overall.

"Hitters go through this every now and then," he said. "You get hot, seeing the ball well. I've been doing some things mechanically to stay on top of what I want to do at the plate. It's good though, I don't want to lose it."

Chris Coghlan had two hits and scored three times as the Cubs had 14 hits in their fourth consecutive victory.

Hammel was charged with two runs in his second consecutive victory against Washington. The 6-foot-6 right-hander allowed two runs in 6 1-3 innings in a 7-2 victory over Roark and the Nationals on June 27 in his previous start.

Hammel, who also had an RBI single in his latest victory, improved to 8-0 with a 3.11 ERA in 10 career starts against Washington.

The first two Nationals reached in the fifth, but Hammel recovered from a 3-0 count to fan Roark attempting to bunt.

"That was huge," he said. "I couldn't find the strike zone. I was overthrowing."

Denard Span then grounded into a fielder's choice, and Bryce Harper struck out.

Jayson Werth homered in his second straight game and added a double for the Nationals, who had won five in a row.

Roark was charged with four runs and nine hits in seven innings in his second straight loss after a personal four-game winning streak.

"They did what they did last time — base-hit me," he said. "Got beat."

NOTES: Werth is 6 for 10 with two homers, three doubles and six RBIs in his last three games. ... Chicago's Nate Schierholtz, running from first on a pitch in the fourth, took a step past second base on John Baker's fly out to center. When he didn't retouch second on his way back to first, the Nationals appealed and Schierholtz was called out. ... The last time starters with identical records and ERAs with at least 15 starts squared off was August 15, 1974, when Jim Kaat of the White Sox opposed Baltimore's Mike Cuellar. Both pitchers then were 13-9 with a 3.54 ERA.

AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley and AP Sports Writer Antonia Gonzalez in Oakland and AP Sports Writer Jay Cohen in Chicago contributed to this report.

President dines with economists, again

By Kevin G. Hall and Lesley Clark McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama dined with prominent economists Wednesday, the second such lunch in less than a month as the administration seeks ways to accelerate the economic recovery.

Meeting with Obama at the White House Wednesday were former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who stepped down in December, and Martin Feldstein, a widely respected conservative economist at Harvard University.

Others at the lunch included Ed Glaeser of Harvard, Robert Hall of Stanford University, Kevin Hassett from the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Melissa Kearney from the University of Maryland and Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

The White House said Obama had invited the economists in order to “discuss ways to accelerate economic growth, expand opportunity, and improve the competitiveness of the American economy.”

Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama was expecting a “pretty open-ended conversation about what trends they're seeing in the broader economy and ideas they have for policies that could capitalize on those trends to benefit middle class families here in this country.”

Earnest noted the lunch gave Obama a chance to hear from experts “who aren't constrained by politics in terms of their thinking” but said lunching with the more conservative economists isn’t a sign that he’s looking in particular for ideas to appeal to them.

“What the president is interested in is making sure that he is consulting a wide variety of perspectives,” he said. “There are going to be people on both sides of the aisle that have good ideas.”

Earnest insisted Obama wasn’t hosting the economists to gain their support for any initiatives, though reporters noted several of the economists back free trade policies and the White House is backing a major trade measure.

“This isn't really a meeting to build political or legislative support for one proposal or another,” Earnest said. “This is more about hearing from experts on the economy about what we can do to expand opportunity for the middle class.”

On June 18, the president met with a first batch of prominent economists, many of whom supported the 2009 economic stimulus efforts but complained they were insufficiently small to arrest a deep recession and financial crisis.

Those economists included Princeton University’s Paul Krugman, a popular liberal columnist and past winner of a Nobel Prize in economics, and Alan Blinder, also of Princeton and a former vice chairman of the Fed.

Also attending the first lunch last month were Stanford’s Anat Admati, Erik Brynjolfsson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Roland Fryer and Claudia Goldin of Harvard.

Kentucky prison food contract up for bid

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The $12 million contract to feed Kentucky's 21,200 prison inmates is up for bid for the first time since a 2010 audit found significant problems with the state's current contractor.

But some of Kentucky's biggest critics of Philadelphia-based Aramark now say they are satisfied with the company's response to the criticism.

Aramark has held the contract since 2005 when Kentucky first privatized inmate meals. At the time, it cost the state $3.49 per meal. Aramark provided the meals for $2.34 each. The difference has saved Kentucky taxpayers about $51 million over the 10-year contract.

But lawmakers started asking questions about the food service after a 2009 riot at the medium-security Northpoint Training Facility when inmates started a fire that injured several inmates and officers. An official Department of Corrections investigation concluded the food was not the primary cause for the riot. But it prompted lawmakers to ask then state Auditor Crit Luallen to investigate the state's contract with Aramark.

In 2010, the auditor's office found billing errors of more than $36,000 that benefited Aramark. The audit also could not confirm that Aramark used proper ingredients or followed food safety standards. An Aramark spokeswoman said the company fully cooperated with the audit and worked with the Department of Corrections to fix the problems.

Since then, Aramark has had issues in other states. Michigan officials put Aramark on notice after finding maggots in some potatoes at a state prison. Aramark spokeswoman Karen Cutler said the company immediately disposed of the potatoes and did not serve them. She said the company has ordered a third-party auditor to visit every facility in Michigan to make sure they meet health and safety standards.

State Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, was one of Aramark's biggest critics. He said he received about 30 letters a month from inmates and their families complaining about the food. But since the 2010 audit, Yonts said the complaints have stopped.

"The problem has been apparently cured. I think that's because Corrections has done the job they are supposed to have done," state Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said.

And State Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Aramark seems to have resolved its issues.

"I wouldn't have an issue at this point," he said.

Aramark's contract expires at the end of this year, and Kentucky officials have already put out a request for proposals and hope to decide on a contractor by September. Aramark spokeswoman Karen Cutler confirmed the company would be bidding again for the contract.

"We have a very strong record of providing state inmates with nutritious meals while saving the Commonwealth and taxpayers millions of dollars each year," she said.

But Aramark could be getting some competition. South Dakota-based CBM Managed Services is considering bidding on the contract.

"We can make this happen and provide a better service and give the state what they are really looking for," said Shane Sejnoha, CBM's vice president of operations.

Submarine maker plans expansion in Rhode Island

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- Submarine maker Electric Boat plans to double its workforce in Rhode Island to build a new class of submarines under a $95 billion Navy program, welcome news in the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate.

The workforce at the North Kingstown manufacturing plant could double by 2028 to about 6,000 people, said Sean Davies, the site's general manager. That is roughly the same number of employees who built submarines there at the peak of the Cold War.

Rhode Island's economy has struggled to rebound since the Great Recession. The state's unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, considerably above the national average of 6.3 percent.

The construction contract has not yet been awarded, but Electric Boat anticipates receiving it. The Groton, Connecticut-based manufacturer recently leased an additional 42 acres in the Quonset Business Park to expand. Davies said he is focused on ensuring the company's training programs can handle the influx of new hires because few job applicants have experience in the manufacturing trades. Electric Boat, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp. of Falls Church, Virginia, employs more than 12,000 people, mainly in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Construction is expected to begin in 2021 on a class of 12 ballistic-missile submarines to replace the current Ohio-class boats. Electric Boat could hire more than 1,000 people in a single year at its manufacturing plant after construction is underway.

"We can't literally put all of our eggs in one basket, but without submarine construction here, we would be in a much worse economic situation, and we would have a much less hopeful outlook," said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island.

"That work is very, very significant," said Molly Donohue Magee, executive director of the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance. "And it's not just for one year."

In the last four years, 2,000 people were hired by Electric Boat in Rhode Island largely because Congress approved building two attack submarines a year instead of one.

Davies said he wants to support the community by hiring Rhode Island residents to work on the new submarine, but it is has been challenging to find enough people with the necessary skills.

Leonard Lardaro, an economics professor at the University of Rhode Island, said the state's unemployment rate has remained high and persistent because of its inadequately skilled workforce.

The New England Institute of Technology worked with Electric Boat to develop a curriculum for welders, and most of the graduates in the first class were hired at the shipyard, Davies said. The Community College of Rhode Island may start a similar program.

The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training is helping match the state's residents with open positions at Electric Boat. The monthly sessions, which began in April, are booked through November. Charles J. Fogarty, the department's director, said the program has helped start Rhode Island workers onto higher-paying and more meaningful careers.

"Electric Boat is one of Rhode Island's bellwether companies in one of our economy's most important sectors, and so our public-private partnership with EB is a vital one," he said.

The Connecticut Department of Labor partners with a community agency, the Thames Valley Council for Community Action, to offer orientation and online recruitment sessions at its Connecticut offices for job seekers who may be qualified for positions at Electric Boat's Rhode Island site.

A high school graduate with no experience can earn $35,000 to $40,000 a year as a welder at Electric Boat, according to the company. An experienced welder can make more than $60,000 a year with overtime. The workforce is not unionized at the Rhode Island site.

Brian Ferragamo, 31, of Coventry, worked as a pipefitter at Electric Boat from 2005 until he changed careers in 2011. He said he returned to the company in May because it has a good outlook, and he missed building submarines.

Robert Fenley, 35, of West Warwick, said he worked two jobs to support his wife and two children before he was hired as a pipefitter in June.

"It's more stable and it will be better for my family," he said. "There is not that much work in Rhode Island."

Major Venezuelan newspaper to be sold

CARACAS, Venezuela -- One of Venezuela's oldest and most prestigious newspapers has been sold amid increasing government pressure on independent news media.

The editor in chief of Caracas-based El Universal, Elides Rojas, confirmed that a group of Spanish investors had bought the broadsheet from the family that has run the paper since it was founded 104 years ago.

While neutral reporting in Venezuela is hard to come by after 15 years of polarization over socialist rule, El Universal has stuck closer than most to the ideal of fact-based, investigative reporting amid a crackdown on media outlets that, like it, have been fiercely critical of the government.

Rojas acknowledged apprehension in the newsroom about whether the paper will follow in the steps of other recently sold news media outlets that have softened their editorial line, but said he had been assured that the paper's editorial independence would not be compromised.

Partly driving those concerns was the appointment of Jesus Abreu, a former bank manager who is the brother of the famed director of Venezuela's government-funded system of youth orchestras, to lead the paper and its 850 employees.

On Friday, El Universal employees gathered for a meeting with their new manager. Reporters say Abreu told them that they had been bought by the Spanish company Epalisticia, but deflected most questions about the new owners. After the meeting, reporters hurried to look the company up, but found a scant digital footprint.

President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have driven most independent journalism from airwaves, using fines and the revocation of licenses to silence critical voices.

Meanwhile, a newsprint shortage combined with government harassment of journalists and media it accuses of plotting its overthrow has made the task of running a Venezuelan newspaper increasingly unappealing. Rumors have been circulating for more than a year that the Mata family, which has run the broadsheet since its founding in 1909, were looking to sell.

In May, El Universal announced that it would cut the size of its daily editions because of the newsprint shortage. The paper now publishes 16 pages a day, down from 24. Circulation has dropped, and newsstands almost immediately sell out of what copies are available.

In the past year, more than a dozen Venezuelan papers have closed or reduced their print editions because of a lack of dollars to buy newsprint. Venezuela's government has restricted access to foreign currency for 11 years.

The last television station broadcasting criticism of the government, Globovision, was sold in 2013 after being fined $2 million for its coverage of a prison riot. Three local businessmen with no prior media experience bought the channel, which immediately stopped broadcasting opposition news conferences and rallies.

Meanwhile, the government has increased the number of state-run TV channels. The newspaper chain that includes Venezuela's most-read daily, Ultimas Noticias, was also sold last year and saw many of its prize-winning investigative reporters resign in dismay.

Government control of television news has gotten tighter since an opposition protest movement broke out in February. At the height of the protests, Maduro expelled CNN and the Colombian channel NTN24 because of their coverage, which it said was slanted and was fueling violence.

For now, freedom of expression watchdogs are waiting to see whether the Spanish buyers turn out to have government ties.

"If the result of the sale is that El Universal changes its tone to become a pro-government outlet, that's something that would really be a concern, because it's a newspaper that is providing a lot of criticism at a time that the broadcast (media) is dominated by official views," said Carlos Lauria, Americas director of the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

The union representing El Universal workers said that so far, management had not provided enough information to allay their doubts.

Ford giving $1 million to African American museum

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co. says it's donating $1 million to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is scheduled to open in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington.

Congress established the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2003 as the 19th museum of the Smithsonian. The 400,000-square-foot building is under construction at a 5-acre site next to the Washington Monument and is expected to cost about $500 million.

The Dearborn-based automaker says the gift announced Friday comes from its philanthropic arm, the Ford Motor Co. Fund. The company says the money is going to the museum's capital fund.

Ford says it's given at least $11.5 million in the past 40 years for exhibits at programs with the Smithsonian.

---

Online:

http://bit.ly/1xtDwav

http://ford.to/1n1iz3c

Yellen: Fed couldn’t have prevented financial crisis

By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve was slow to understand how the collapse of the housing market would lead to a profound financial crisis, Chair Janet Yellen acknowledged Wednesday, arguing that even if it had acted more aggressively the crisis could not have been prevented.

In a speech at the International Monetary Fund’s Washington’s headquarters, Yellen said that the Fed’s mission of monetary policy via higher or lower interest rates could offer only limited help in holding back the crisis.

“A review of the empirical evidence suggests that the level of interest rates does influence housing prices, leverage ... but it is also clear that a tighter monetary policy would have been a very blunt tool,” Yellen said in a speech on monetary policy and financial stability.

Fed critics blame the central bank’s policy of low interest rates for allowing households and investment banks alike to take on too much risk and debt _ effectively giving them the rope with which they hanged themselves. Had the Yellen and her colleagues more aggressively raised the Fed’s benchmark lending rates, they argue, it would have raised mortgage rates and slowed the scorching home-price appreciation that proved unsustainable.

Yellen pushed back on that argument Wednesday.

“Substantially mitigating the emerging financial vulnerabilities through higher interest rates would have had sizable adverse effects in terms of higher unemployment,” she said.

Unlike most central banks, the Fed has a dual mission. It seeks to both prevent inflation from eroding the purchasing power of ordinary Americans while promoting full employment in the economy. Higher interest rates might have slowed the bubble, she suggested, but at the cost of high joblessness.

Higher interest rates would have done little to slow the risk-taking in the financial sector ahead of the 2008 crisis and Great Recession, she said, noting that the reliance by banks on debt and short-term financing continued growing through the middle of 2007, even as the Fed was raising interest rates.

The tougher post-crisis approach by regulators, including stronger rules on underwriting and requirements for banks to hold more capital in reserve to buffer against shocks, have helped build a more resilient, safer financial sector, Yellen insisted.

Conn. law cuts sulfur content in home heating oil

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Oil heat businesses say a new Connecticut law that sharply cuts sulfur content in home heating oil will reduce costs for consumers.

Beginning July 1, the sulfur content of home heating oil in Connecticut dropped to 500 parts per million from 3,000, an 84 percent reduction.

By July 1, 2018, the sulfur content of home heating oil will fall to 15 parts per million.

Chris Herb, president of Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, which represents 600 family-run home-heating oil companies in Connecticut, said the new fuel content limits will save consumers money in annual maintenance costs for home heating equipment.

The reduced sulfur content also is expected to lead to a drop in sulfur dioxide, which will cut air pollution.

Other jurisdictions, such as Maine and New York City, already have cut sulfur content.

Bassil warns against Syrian refugee camps

BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil Friday warned against attempts to permanently settle Syrian refugees in Lebanon, arguing that it was high time Lebanese authorities took initiatives to protect the country’s sovereignty.

“There are serious intentions, talk and lobbying going on to impose the establishment of camps inside Lebanon,” he told reporters at Ashrafieh’s Bustros Palace, the Foreign Ministry headquarters.

“A senior international official and a senior Lebanese official [recently] brought up the issue,” he added without divulging names. “We will oppose those attempts no matter the pressure imposed on us.”

In exclusive comments to The Daily Star following the news conference, Bassil said he was in contact with Syrian authorities on an array of issues, the refugee crisis being chief among them.

“I am in contact with Syrian authorities just like all the other Lebanese ministries, various Lebanese security apparatuses and even the international community is in contact with Syria,” he said.

“We do so to preserve Lebanon’s higher interests.”

He added that he spoke to his Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem but categorically dismissed discussing Lebanon’s stalled presidential election with Syrian officials.

On his father-in-law, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s initiative to end the presidential void and the backlash it has provoked, Bassil downplayed negative reactions saying none had touched on the essence of the proposal.

“Most reactions were rather marginal,” he said.

Earlier this week, Aoun proposed that the Constitution be amended to allow the Lebanese people to vote for their head of state. Aoun suggested that Christians vote in a first round, with the top two candidates then facing a public poll open to voters of all sects.

As for the silence of FPM’s allies, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, over Aoun’s initiative, Bassil argued that it should not be interpreted as non-compliance. “Quite the contrary,” he said, refusing to elaborate.

On reports that Aoun was informed that the Future Movement and Saudi Arabia opposed his presidential bid, Bassil brushed them off as “unfounded and nonsensical.”

At the news conference, Bassil argued that setting up camps or legitimizing existing informal ones was a veiled attempt to settle refugees and was a blatant violation of the country’s Constitution.

“Our Constitution is very clear and it stipulates: no partition, no division and no naturalization,” he said. “We are entrusted with preserving this unity and the country’s stability and to protect the Lebanese.”

Bassil said Lebanon must start imposing its own conditions and regulations regarding the entry of Syrians fleeing violence in their country.

The foreign minister spoke to local and international media one day after the U.N. said that Syrian refugees in Lebanon would constitute more than a third of the country’s population by the end of 2014.

He said that from now the conditions to register refugees should be the responsibility of the state rather than the U.N., in line with a series of decisions approved by a Lebanese ministerial committee to curb the mass influx of Syrian refugees.

“No group is genuinely interested in solving the refugee crisis: not Syria, not the international community,” he said. “It is high time the Lebanese took matters into their own hands.”

While Bassil acknowledged and saluted the “huge” efforts exerted by UNHCR, he said the new terms of registration should not give rise to “friction or clash” with the UNHCR.

“I am convinced that if the Lebanese state requests that UNHCR abide by the new conditions, the agency would approve,” he said. “All we need to do is ask.”

In addition, one of the solutions to the refugee crisis is to establish camps in no-man’s land along the border between Lebanon and Syria, according to Bassil.

Although the proposal is largely frowned upon by aid groups and the Syrian government, Bassil said it was a purely Lebanese decision, since the gatherings will be set up on Lebanese territories inside Syria.

“The decision to establish camps in Syria is a purely Syrian matter but the decision to establish camps in buffer zones is a strictly Lebanese decision and international parties and Syria are required to ensure the conditions for [the plan’s] success,” he said.

Responding to concerns that the establishment of such camps posed huge security risks, Bassil said those camps would only be established if necessary security and protection for its residents were fulfilled. “Those camps will meet security, human rights and ethical conditions.”

Bassil explained that the Syrian envoy to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali has not personally informed him that his country opposed the Lebanese government’s proposal to establish camps.

“Even [ U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees] Antonio Gueterres informed us that while his body does not favor or encourage such plans it will not oppose Lebanon’s decisions,” he said

At the briefing, Bassil slammed the international community for failing to address the refugee crisis “it has caused and it continues to fuel,” adding that additional funds would certainly alleviate the burden but not necessarily address the root of the problem.

He also revealed that he would start a fresh round of talks with world powers in the next ten days to mull over potential solutions for the protracted refugee crisis.

Bassil disclosed that donors see shrinking numbers of refugees in Lebanon gradually as a pre-requisite to comply with Lebanon’s demands.

“The solution does not lie in giving refugees more money,” he said. “All this aid – be it food, shelter or health care – encourages Syrian refugees to stay in Lebanon, while what we want is to encourage their speedy exit.”

Police search Tariq al-Jadideh for car bomb

BEIRUT: Police intelligence personnel deployed heavily Friday in the Beirut neighborhood of Al-Tariq al-Jadideh and blocked a number of roads in search for a suspected explosives-rigged vehicle, security sources said.

However, no explosives or an explosives-rigged vehicle was found during the search, the sources said.

Friday’s was the second raid in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh this week as part of the security forces’ hunt for suspected terrorists and explosives.

Officers from the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch, backed by police dogs, were seen searching buildings, as other security forces blocked Abu Shaker Street in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, preventing passersby and vehicles from approaching or entering the area.

The Army Wednesday raided several buildings in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh and arrested two wanted suspects, part of a preemptive operation against terror cells.

Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi said the raids were part of a security plan to crack down on terror cells, reassuring the Lebanese that the security situation was “under control.”

Security agencies have been placed on high alert after three suicide bombings jolted Lebanon last month, fueling fears of a return to the wave of car blasts that targeted mainly Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa region, where Hezbollah enjoys strong support.

The deadly attacks, that began in July last year and lasted for several months, were linked to the war in Syria and were claimed by Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in response to Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad’s forces.

Forces have busted terrorist cells in the past few days and arrested some of its members on suspicions of plotting terror acts.

In line with its sustained campaign against terror groups, the Army last week discovered a cave in north Lebanon used by militants to make explosives.

Growing security fears fueled by last month’s three suicide bombings on the Beirut-Damascus highway in east Lebanon, Tayyouneh, one of the main entrances to the southern suburbs, and the Duroy Hotel in Raouche have prompted Shiite groups and institutions to cancel iftars during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which began in the Muslim world last Sunday.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old Syrian boy was killed in a Syrian air raid on the outskirts of the northeastern Bekaa town of Arsal, security sources said.

Syrian warplanes carried out at least three airstrikes on the outskirts of Arsal, killing the Syrian boy and wounding his father, brother and a third man, a security source told The Daily Star.

The Lebanese Army released a brief statement confirming that the Syrian airstrikes between 8:55 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.

The source said the jets fired at least three missiles at the road linking the towns of Zamarani and Ajram, with one of them hitting a pickup truck carrying Syrian workers.

The source identified the victim as Ayham Rakan Hammoud. His father, Rakan, 45, and brother Adham, 14, and another man identified as Ali Hammoud Bakr, 40, were wounded in the air raid.

The source said the family was on its way to harvest cherries when their vehicle received a direct hit.

The Syrian regime has carried out air raids around Arsal, home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, a number of times in the past, in what it says is an attempt to stop rebels using the porous border area from moving back and forth between the two countries.

Army and security agencies united in anti-terror battle

BEIRUT: The Army and security agencies are collaborating in their battle against terrorism threatening Lebanon, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said in remarks released Friday, claiming that his ministry’s coordination with Hezbollah was only limited to the case of a village on the border with Syria.

“There is a partnership between the Army and security agencies in confronting terrorism threatening Lebanon,” Machnouk said in an interview to be published by the “General Security” magazine Saturday. The monthly magazine is published by General Security.

Machnouk said security services were coordinating with all necessary groups in Lebanon to maintain stability and peace as the country faced growing threats from the violent spillover from Syria and Iraq.

But he stressed that his ministry coordinated with Hezbollah only on the case of Tfail, a Lebanese border village that has become isolated from the rest of Lebanon due to the ongoing turmoil in Syria.

“There shouldn’t be any embarrassment over coordination between security and military agencies and any Lebanese party to secure the application of the law and put an end to the protection that some criminal and wanted people enjoy,” Machnouk said.

“Security agencies are tasked with building ties and coordinating with all influential parties, and benefit from that to prevent the Syrian fire from spreading to Lebanon or any other terror development that could threaten us,” he added.

Machnouk said that he, along with security agencies, coordinated with Hezbollah to send aid to Tfail, a village in east Lebanon that can only be reached via Syrian territory.

“The relationship with Hezbollah was only to address the problems in Tfail,” he said. “Coordination with Hezbollah did not surpass the framework of the humanitarian mission and had nothing to do with terrorism or security or anything else. Coordination in that regard remains among security agencies.”

He also spoke about the security plans drafted for several parts of the country, saying the plan in the north had achieved most of its goals while the crackdown in the Bekaa Valley had been relatively successful.

He added that a long-awaited security plan for Beirut has been put off for now, while there is no plan for the south.

Ex-editor Coulson gets 18 months for hacking

LONDON -- Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, a onetime aide to British Prime Minister David Cameron, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday for participating in a conspiracy to hack the phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims.

Three other former journalists at the tabloid and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire all received shorter sentences.

Coulson was convicted last week after an eight-month trial stemming from revelations of illegal eavesdropping on mobile-phone voicemails by staff of the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper.

Another former editor, Rebekah Brooks, and four others were acquitted.

Judge John Saunders said Coulson "has to take the major share of the blame" for the vast amount of hacking that took place while he was editor between 2003 and 2007.

"He knew about it. He encouraged it when he should have stopped it," the judge said.

The defendants have said they did not know phone hacking was illegal when they used the technique to get scoops on celebrities, royals and politicians. But the judge said they knew it was "morally wrong."

The hacking revelations outraged many Britons, and triggered police inquiries that led to the arrest of scores of journalists, police officers and other officials.

This was the first major trial to stem from the scandal, and Saunders acknowledged that "there will be those who will be outraged" that the sentences were so short. But he said the legal maximum for phone hacking was two years in prison, regardless of the number of victims.

Saunders said he was reducing Coulson's sentence from the maximum to reflect aspects of "good character" he had shown in helping others, and because the case had taken so long to get to court.

Coulson also faces a retrial on two charges of bribing police officers for royal phone directories.

The judge sentenced former journalists Greg Miskiw and Neville Thurlbeck to six months in prison, while another reporter, James Weatherup, received a suspended four-month sentence and community service.

All received shorter sentences because they had pleaded guilty.

Private eye Glenn Mulcaire, the newspaper's chief phone hacker, received a suspended six-month sentence.

The judge said Mulcaire had carried out so much eavesdropping for the newspaper that he said he "couldn't cope with being given more phones to hack." But Mulcaire has already been sent to prison once for hacking, in 2007, and pleaded guilty this time.

"Mr. Mulcaire, you are truly the lucky one," the judge said.

Asked for his reaction, Cameron said that Coulson's sentence shows that "no one is above the law."

Weekly Address: Celebrating Independence Day

President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in the Blue Room of the White House, June 27, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

In this week’s address, President Obama commemorated Independence Day by noticing the contributions and sacrifices from individuals throughout the history of this country -- from our Founding Fathers, to the men and women in our military serving at home and abroad.

Transcript | mp4 | mp3

Bassil: Civil strife inevitable if refugee crisis persists

Lebanon road accident leaves 4 dead, 28 injured

Four people are killed and 28 wounded in a horrific traffic accident on Minjiz-Akkar road in north Lebanon.

3rd Philippine senator ordered arrested for graft

MANILA, Philippines -- A Philippine senator and dictatorship-era defense chief was ordered arrested Friday on a charge of large-scale corruption, the most prominent of three top politicians to fall in a government anti-graft crackdown.

The anti-graft court indicted Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and ordered his arrest for allegedly receiving huge kickbacks from a scam that diverted millions of dollars from anti-poverty and development funds allotted to lawmakers.

The legislator left his mansion in a swank residential enclave in the capital, Manila, and was apparently headed to surrender himself to police to face the charges.

Enrile, 90, was the defense minister when late dictator Ferdinand Marcos placed the country under martial rule in 1972, the beginning of a 14-year dictatorship characterized by widespread human rights violations and corruption.

Enrile later broke off from Marcos in 1986 and helped lead a "people power" revolt that ousted the dictator, his family and allies. In the tumultuous post-dictatorship era, he was linked to several military rebellions against late President Corazon Aquino, mother of the current president, but continued to serve in government and later was elected to the Senate.

Enrile is the third senator to be prosecuted in the case that bolsters President Benigno Aquino III's promise to fight corruption that has plagued the nation of 97 million for decades.

A prominent lawyer himself and a wealthy industrialist, Enrile has denied the accusation that he pocketed 172 million pesos ($3.94 million) in kickbacks and enlisted a top-notch lawyer to defend him.

It was not immediately clear where Enrile would be detained. Aquino and other officials have hinted that he may be treated with leniency because of his age and frail health.

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.

Euro working group approves Greek loan installment

ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's finance ministry says a key body monitoring the country's international bailout has approved the disbursement of the next batch of rescue loans.

The ministry said the Euro Working Group, made up of finance ministry officials from the 18-country eurozone and representatives from the European Commission and European Central Bank approved the installment Friday during a teleconference.

Eurozone finance ministers are expected to formally approve the disbursement of the 1 billion-euro ($1.36 billion) tranche in a meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Greece has relied on international rescue money since May 2010 when it found itself unable to raise funds on bond markets due to a severe financial crisis. In return, it has had to overhaul its economy and impose spending cuts and tax hikes.

Crude slips for 7th day as supplies increase

The price of crude oil slipped for a seventh straight day Friday as expectations of increased supply offset strong U.S. employment growth.

Benchmark U.S. crude for August delivery was down 10 cents at $103.96 a barrel at 0725 GMT in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 42 cents to $104.06 on Thursday.

Crude fell despite signs the U.S. economy is steadily improving, which typically would increase demand for oil.

The U.S. government reported that employers added 288,000 workers to their payrolls in June and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent. The U.S. economy is now creating about 231,000 jobs each month in 2014, compared to roughly 194,000 a month last year.

Oil, however, has continued to fall as possible disruptions to supplies from Iraq, which is OPEC's second biggest producer, haven't materialized.

On top of that, an agreement in Libya between the central government and a regional militia was expected to lead to the reopening of two eastern oil terminals that would boost the country's crude exports by about 500,000 barrels a day.

In recent weeks, oil prices were largely driven by concerns that violence in Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, would disrupt supplies. Oil reached a 10-month closing high of $107.26 on June 20 but since then the stunning advance by insurgents from the Islamic State group has lost momentum.

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was up 11 cents to $111.11 a barrel on the ICE exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline was down 0.7 cent at $3.017 a gallon.

— Natural gas rose 3 cents to $4.387 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Heating oil fell 2.2 cents to $2.925 a gallon.

California chicken linked to salmonella recalled

LOS ANGELES -- A California chicken producer has issued its first recall since being linked to an outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella that has been making people sick for more than a year, company and federal food officials said Thursday night.

The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture said it has found evidence directly linking Foster Farms boneless-skinless chicken breast to a case of Salmonella Heidelberg, an antibiotic-resistant strain of the disease that has sickened more than 500 people in the past 16 months and led to pressure from food safety advocates for federal action against the company.

As a result, Foster Farms issued a recall for 170 different chicken products that came from its Fresno facilities in March.

The USDA said its investigators first learned of the salmonella case on June 23, and the recall was issued as soon as the direct link was confirmed. The location of the case and identity of the person were not released.

Foster Farms says the products have "use or freeze by" dates from March 21 to March 29 and have been distributed to California, Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Alaska.

The long list of products in the recall include drumsticks, thighs, chicken tenders and livers. Most are sold with the Foster Farms label but some have the labels FoodMaxx, Kroger, Safeway, Savemart, Valbest and Sunland. No fresh products currently in grocery stores are involved.

The USDA said it was working with the company to determine the total amount of chicken affected by the recall.

The company emphasized that the recall was based on a single case and a single product but the broad recall is being issued in an abundance of caution.

"Our first concern is always the health and safety of the people who enjoy our products, and we stand committed to doing our part to enhance the safety of our nation's food supply," Foster Farms said in a statement.

The federal Centers for Disease Control says 574 people from 27 states and Puerto Rico have been sickened since the outbreak began in 2013, leading to increasing pressure from food safety advocates for a recall or even an outright shutdown of Foster Farms facilities.

Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in class-action food-safety lawsuits, commended both Foster Farms and the USDA for "doing the right thing for food safety."

"Recalling product is both embarrassing and hard, but is the right thing to do for your customers," Marler said.

The company was linked to previous salmonella illnesses in 2004 and in 2012.

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 cook it properly, the government has not declared it to be an "adulterant," or illegal, in meat, as is E. coli.

In a letter from 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."

Foster Farms said in May that it had 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.

US officials barred from American's trial in China

BEIJING -- A U.S. Embassy spokesman says diplomats are barred from the trial in Shanghai of an American investigator for GlaxoSmithKline and her British husband who are charged with improperly selling personal information.

Spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said Friday that the U.S. government is concerned about lack of access to the trial of Yu Yingzeng and husband Peter Humphrey in August. Barkhouse said a 1982 consular agreement signed by the U.S. and China allows officials to attend such trials.

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline said Yu and Humphrey were hired last year to investigate a security breach involving a top manager. Chinese officials are investigating the company on charges it paid millions of dollars in bribes to doctors and officials.

Lebanese Army helicopter makes emergency landing

Firefighting aircraft makes Halat emergency landing

A firefighting helicopter makes an emergency landing in the parking lot of a resort in the coastal town of Halat,...

Amid positive jobs numbers, politicians hedge bets

WASHINGTON -- The top jobs numbers for June would have seemed to be cause for some appreciation. After all, the unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 percent, the lowest in six years, and hiring showed five months of steady growth.

But the public continues to perceive the economy as poor.

So, heading into a midterm campaign season, the politicians on Thursday hedged their bets and pointed fingers.

"In the voting booth, economic perception beats economic statistics every time," Republican pollster Whit Ayres said.

Indeed, after five months of steady job growth and after hitting a six-year low in unemployment, the reaction in Washington Thursday was a collective, "Yeah, but ..."

Even President Barack Obama, who would be eager to take credit for an economy on the mend, felt compelled to throw in a dampening caveat as he drew attention to the 288,000 jobs created in June, to the lower 6.1 percent unemployment rate and to the fastest job growth since 1999.

"As much progress as has been made, there are still folks out there who are struggling," he said Thursday. "We still have not seen as much increase in income and wages as we'd like to see. A lot of folks are still digging themselves out of challenges that arose out of the Great Recession."

To be sure, there are real economic reasons to be wary, or at least not euphoric, over the most recent report.

The labor market remains weak, with a labor force participation rate stuck at 62.8 percent, the lowest since 1978. Construction jobs reached their highest since June 2009 but are still more than 1.7 million jobs below its 2006 peak, according to an analysis of jobs numbers by the Associated General Contractors of America.

Moreover, hiring has tended to be predominantly in low wage jobs, leading to stagnant wage growth, and the number of hours worked per week has not changed.

"The headline number masks the lingering structural weakness in the U.S. labor market," said Lindsey Piegza, a chief economist at the Sterne Agee brokerage.

"Even if we saw June's rate of job growth every month from here on out, we still wouldn't get back to health in the labor market for another 2 1/2 years," said Heidi Shierholz of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

More important, beyond those statistics, are public perceptions of the economy.

An Associated Press-GfK poll in May, found that the share of those surveyed who called the economy "good" stood at 34 percent, while 65 percent described it as poor. That's about the same as it has been all year, though slightly above where it was during the partial government shutdown in October. Few expect improvement in the economy over the next 12 months, and more expected it to get worse.

The perceptions have a partisan hue, as well.

Economic confidence as measured by Gallup found Democrats had the highest and Republicans the lowest.

In the face of that, politicians are not likely to cheer an economic number.

Consider this from Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota: "Too many working families are still treading water. Our focus now must be on solutions that strengthen the middle class and give more hardworking Americans a fair shot by raising the minimum wage, making college more affordable and investing in workforce training."

And this from Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus: "We're glad to see some Americans found work last month, but we can't rest until jobs are easy to find. That's why Republicans have passed dozens of jobs bills in the House of Representatives. Sadly, Democrats in Washington, D.C., have other priorities."

What's more, Democrats and Republicans want to blame each other for not enacting policies they say would create more jobs. So Obama complains about Republicans not increasing the minimum wage and Republican House Speaker John Boehner says Obama has failed to lead on issues such as trade and workplace flexibility.

"In order for us to make real progress, the president must do more than criticize," Boehner said.

With the economy still emerging as the top issue of the day with a plurality of voters, each side will continue to brand the other as uncompromising obstructionists. And even if the economic trends show improvement, the fall campaign season may be coming too quickly to change the battleground.

"It takes a long time for economic statistics to be felt in people's pocketbooks," Ayres said. "It may be too late at this point to affect the political environment of the midterm elections."

What's more, neither side has an incentive to tout much progress.

"For Republicans, the reality is that they are not going to want to give credit for anything that Obama should be credited for," said Ken Warren, a political scientist and pollster at St. Louis University. "As for Democrats, when the public feels some way in the polls and it's not going to play well, even the Democrats in this case would see a downside.

"To contradict what the people think can be perceived as liability."

---

Associated Press Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

Syrian airstrike kills boy, wounds family members near Arsal

Lebanon road accident leaves 4 dead, 28 injured

Four people are killed and 28 wounded in a horrific traffic accident on Minjiz-Akkar road in north Lebanon.

Stealth World Cup ads raise sponsorship questions

By ANNE M. PETERSON The Associated Press

In an ad for Beats by Dr. Dre stereo headphones, Neymar jams to Jay-Z's remix of the song "Jungle." Fans cheer, toast and pray across Brazilian neighborhoods and cameras flash while reporters shout questions, but the pounding rhythm of the rap drowns out distractions for the Brazilian striker and fellow soccer stars Jozy Altidore and Cesc Fabregas.

As the ad closes, cameras close in on Neymar's determined face for soccer's grandest tournament.

What's missing are the actual words "World Cup." That's because Beats Electronics, recently acquired by Apple for $3 billion, is not an official sponsor of the event. Soccer's international governing body, FIFA, closely holds the World Cup brand as intellectual property.

It hasn't stopped the company from marketing its way around sponsorship. And is isn't the only one doing it, prompting questions over how far soccer's international governing body can go in preventing non-sponsors from capitalizing on the World Cup, and whether pushing the boundaries of so-called "ambush marketing" diminishes the value of formal sponsorships.

Samsung's Galaxy 11 ads feature Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Landon Donovan playing a match against aliens with the fate of the universe on the line. Volkswagen USA uses legendary soccer announcer Andres Cantor to introduce the new VW Golf GTI. Gatorade has its #winfromwithin campaign featuring Messi set to the song "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo."

None of the companies are official World Cup sponsors.

"Obviously the big events are being watched by hundreds of millions of people, and (the World Cup) is the kind of event that everybody wants to be a part of in some way," said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing specialist for Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco. "The ambush marketing becomes a way of getting in there and doing what you can without having to pay the big price, and maybe looking a little more clever in doing so."

Nike sponsors several soccer stars playing in the World Cup, including Neymar and Ronaldo. The company has produced several spots that also imply a connection to the tournament. But adidas is the official FIFA sponsor.

So far Nike is scoring big with its non-World Cup World Cup campaign #RiskEverything. Three online ads the company released have had over 380 million online views through different platforms, including Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, Nike reported. Two of the spots are ranked among the top 20 all-time for such brand campaigns.

To be fair, Nike isn't really going guerrilla in its marketing as much as some other companies piggybacking on the worldwide appeal of the World Cup. The Beaverton, Oregon-based athletic company is tied to the event because of its athletes, the shoes they wear, and the national team uniforms it designs.

"Although we're not a sponsor of the World Cup itself, we connect where it matters — by partnering with clubs, federations, and elite and everyday players," Dermott Clearly, Nike vice president/general manager of global soccer, said. "Ten teams at the tournament will wear Nike on the pitch in Brazil, including the hosts, along with hundreds of the players who will wear Nike boots. We're confident we will stand out on and off pitch better than any other brand."

In addition to adidas, other official partners include Visa and Coca-Cola. FIFA sponsorships vary in cost, but it has been reported that adidas is paying nearly $80 million a year. As a result of its deal, adidas creates the official game ball of the World Cup — this year it's the widely-praised Brazuca, giving the company endless exposure from television close-ups.

FIFA strongly condemned ambush marketing following an incident in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when a group of 36 orange-clad women crashed a Netherlands-Denmark match to ostensibly promote a Dutch brewer, dubbed by many onlookers as "intrusion marketing." FIFA rules strictly prohibit any advertising at sanctioned events by non-sponsors.

Two of the women were detained under South African laws meant to protect intellectual property, but all charges were later dropped and the beer company agreed to respect FIFA's guidelines against such acts until 2022.

"FIFA strongly disapproves of companies who employ ambush marketing tactics to promote their brands at big sporting events without having contributed to the organization of those events," the sport's governing body said in a statement following the incident.

FIFA vowed to crack down on non-sponsors again this year, going so far as to tape over the band name of the hand dryers in stadium restrooms. Sponsors are the second-biggest source of revenue for the organization, behind broadcast rights.

FIFA banned players from wearing Beats in World Cup stadiums and official media events, distributing headphones made by official sponsor Sony instead.

There was also talk that FIFA was looking into whether Neymar's patriotic underwear — revealed when he went to swap shirts following a match with Cameroon — was a case of ambush marketing. The Brazilian undergarment maker, Lupo, sponsors Neymar.

FIFA declined requests for comment from the Associated Press about non-sponsor advertising until after the World Cup.

Given the increasingly blurred lines, FIFA can try to regulate it as much as possible. But in the end, there are other ways to make sponsorships valuable, Dorfman said.

"There are a lot of things that you probably don't see up front that can be included in a sponsorship deal, things like tickets to the event, opportunities for franchises or top customers to be involved, more business to business-type things," Dorfman said. "And those things always end up being very attractive to sponsors and help give them more reason to pay that big expense up front."

German factory orders sag in May after strong rise

BERLIN -- German factory orders sagged in May after a strong increase the previous month, driven down by lower demand inside the country and from outside the euro area.

The Federal Statistical Office said Friday that industrial orders were 1.7 percent lower than in April, when they rose 3.4 percent. That figure was revised up from an initial reading of 3.1 percent; economists had expected a shallower 1.1 percent drop in May.

Orders from inside Germany dropped 2.5 percent and those from countries outside the eurozone fell 5.2 percent. However, there was a 5.7 percent increase in demand from other countries in the 18-nation eurozone.

Germany's economy is expected to grow nearly 2 percent this year after expanding by 0.4 percent in 2013. Still, hard economic data have sent mixed signals.