Powerade drops controversial ingredient

NEW YORK -- Coca-Cola is dropping a controversial ingredient from its Powerade sports drink, after a similar move by PepsiCo's Gatorade last year.

The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, had been the target of a petition by a Mississippi teenager, who questioned why it was being used in a drink marketed toward health-conscious athletes. The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient is linked to a flame retardant and is not approved for use in Japan or the European Union.

In response to customer feedback, PepsiCo said last year it would drop the ingredient from Gatorade. At the time, Coca-Cola declined to say whether it would remove the ingredient from the two flavors of Powerade that contain it as well.

But this week, bottles of Powerade in fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavors being sold in the Detroit, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska, New York and Washington, D.C. areas no longer list the ingredient. Some bottles still list it, however, suggesting Coca-Cola Co. may have started phasing it out recently.

A representative for the Atlanta-based company confirmed Sunday that its Powerade brands are "BVO-free." But no details were immediately available on when the change would be complete or how the drinks were reformulated.

Powerade's website still lists brominated vegetable oil as an ingredient for its fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavors.

The Food and Drug Administration says brominated vegetable oil is used as a stabilizer for flavoring oils in fruit-flavored drinks. Coca-Cola has said in the past that it uses it to "improve stability and prevent certain ingredients from separating."

The decision by Coca-Cola to remove brominated vegetable oil from Powerade is just the latest evidence that food makers are coming under pressure for the ingredients they use. While companies stand by the safety of their products, some are making changes in response to the movement toward foods that people believe are natural.

Earlier this year, for instance, Subway said it would remove an ingredient dubbed the "yoga mat chemical" from its breads. The ingredient, azodicarbonamide, is approved for use by the FDA and can be found in a wide variety of breads. The petitioner, Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com, said she targeted Subway because of its image for serving healthy food.

Likewise, brominated vegetable oil can also be found in several other drinks.

But the Mississippi teenager, Sarah Kavanagh, said she targeted Gatorade and Powerade in petitions because they're designed for athletes, who are likely more concerned about what they're putting into their bodies. Her Powerade petition had more than 59,000 online supporters while the Gatorade one had more than 200,000.

As Americans cut back on soda, sports drinks have become more important for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc., which is based in Purchase, New York.

Although Coca-Cola has long dominated rival PepsiCo on the soda front, it lags the company in the growing sports drink category. According to the industry tracker Beverage Digest, Gatorade has 64 percent of the sports drink market.

Stillwater CEO says layoffs, buyouts necessary

BILLINGS, Mont. -- The chief executive of Montana's largest mining company says layoffs and buyouts potentially affecting about 100 workers are needed to ensure the company's future growth.

Chief Executive Officer Michael "Mick" McMullen told The Associated Press that Stillwater Mining Co. wants to bring down its costs for mining platinum and palladium in southern Montana's Beartooth Mountains.

He says the workforce reductions and scaling back of ventures in Argentina and Canada are necessary after Stillwater sought to expand too rapidly in recent years.

McMullen was appointed to lead the 1,700-employee company in December, following a corporate board takeover by disgruntled investors including former Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Writing down the foreign projects resulted in 2013 losses of $270 million. Stillwater rebounded with $19.6 million in profits during the first quarter of 2014.

NBA's quick action helps rescue Clippers' brand

By ANNE M. PETERSON and JON KRAWCZYNSKI The Associated Press

From the moment Donald Sterling's racist comments hit the Internet, the walls began closing in on the NBA.

Players considered skipping a playoff game. Fans inundated the Los Angeles Clippers' offices with vitriol. Sponsors ran from a franchise on the rise. The scandal pushed the league — not just the Clippers — to a perilous spot.

In just three days, on the strength of Commissioner Adam Silver's decision to ban the Clippers' owner for life, a hands-on engagement of corporate sponsors and a savvy marketing response that started with coach Doc Rivers helped the league turn a dark moment into a defining moment.

"Adam Silver did the best job that he could in severing Donald Silver from the Clippers' brand," said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing specialist for Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco.

Silver's decision to ban Sterling, fine him $2.5 million and urge the league's 29 other owners to vote to force a sale of the Clippers was immediate. The outrage in his voice resonated with players, coaches, calmed corporate partners and likely saved the league millions of dollars.

As Silver was delivering his verdict, the front page of the Clippers' website was splashed with the words "We Are One" in white on a plain black background. Other teams quickly joined in with their own "We Are One" front pages, including the Portland Trail Blazers, the Utah Jazz and even the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.

It was a phrase that Rivers had written to inspire the team in the locker room following their loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series, shortly after Sterling's words made news.

Rivers had no idea he was starting a movement.

"You just do something. I knew they were being pulled in a thousand directions and I just thought, 'I don't care what we do. Let's do it together as a group.' That was my only focus on that. It wasn't a rallying campaign for anything, anybody outside the team," Rivers said.

"The fact that it's made it outside, that's fine. But I just need us to stay together."

It resonated with fans. Quickly #weareone was trending on Twitter. Fans at Game 5 chanted the words as the Clippers rallied against Golden State.

The NBA was planning to roll out a new playoffs commercial that night. League marketing officials recognized the power of the slogan and quickly added one last frame to the television spot to include it with the logo.

"Oftentimes the most successful marketing and P.R. campaigns are organic, and they go viral because they're authentic. I think that's what happened in this case," said David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute.

According to Nielsen, the Clippers-Warriors game Tuesday night after Silver's announcement drew 4.7 million viewers, making it the highest-ranked cable program that night and the most-watched cable game of the NBA playoffs to that point. Sunday night's game, after the players doffed their Clippers-emblazoned warmups at center court, drew 6.47 million but was broadcast on ABC.

Team sponsors and advertisers that had decided to step back started to return. If they stayed away, the decision would have been potentially devastating for a team that until just a few years ago was still struggling to find an identity as Los Angeles' other NBA team.

Kia Motors suspended its relationship with the Clippers on Monday, but the automaker was back on board following Silver's announcement. Adidas, which moved to disassociate itself from the team on Tuesday morning before Silver spoke, came back by the afternoon.

Silver's words also helped quell concerns with other sponsors. Among them was Kumho Tire, which announced a leaguewide partnership just before All-Star weekend in February. Marketing officials reached out to corporate sponsors after the story hit, trying to assure them it would be addressed quickly and firmly.

"Our confidence is even stronger going into a three-year sponsorship seeing how they handled such a serious and negative situation as racism," said SB Kim, marketing team leader at the Korean tire company. "It shows us that we have a sound partner in the NBA that makes strong decisions even in the face of adversity."

So what if Silver, the league and the Clippers dropped the ball? What if the response didn't satisfy players and prompted the Warriors to walk off the court before Game 5 started as they had discussed?

John Vrooman, professor of sports economics at Vanderbilt, estimated the Clippers' sponsorship deals bring in $10 million to 13 million annually, much of which likely would have likely been lost as advertisers continued to flee the tarnished Clippers brand.

A canceled playoff game would cost the Clippers about $1 million in tickets, concessions and advertising, Vrooman estimated, and also could have hurt the league's television contract negotiations that are about to begin. The new deal is expected to net each team about $50 million a season, Vrooman said, which is almost $20 million more than they make under the current contract.

Although the drama with Sterling could go on as the sale of the team is debated, the Clippers and the NBA in effect distanced themselves from Sterling with Silver's decisive action, USC's Carter said. It's possible the Clippers franchise will emerge stronger than before.

"I think that it's inevitable that they will experience an uptick once the smoke clears because so many are going to want to be involved with the resurgence of the brand," he said.

AP Sports Writer Antonio Gonzalez contributed to this report.

Revenue official fired for bogus sales tax returns

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- A state Revenue Department employee has been fired for filing sales tax returns without permission from taxpayers.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/1jswNbb ) Eugene Johnson's job was to seek payment for delinquent sales tax. He is accused of filing bogus returns in order to clear the cases assigned to him to enhance his performance rating on employee evaluations.

A working phone number for Johnson could not be found in the telephone directory.

Revenue Department spokeswoman Kelly Nolan Cortesi told the paper in an emailed statement that she could not provide the number of taxpayer returns or the amount of tax payments involved because the case is under investigation. The department also is investigating whether other employees were involved.

The district attorney general will decide whether to pursue criminal charges.

Iranian official says Lebanon “Iran’s first line of defense”

BEIRUT: A senior Iranian military official described south Lebanon as Iran’s first line of defense, an Iranian News Agency reported over the weekend.

"Our frontmost line of defense is no more in Shalamcheh [in Southern Iran], rather this line is now in Southern Lebanon['s border] with Israel as our strategic depth has now stretched to the Mediterranean coasts and just to the North of Israel," said Yahya Safavi, a senior military aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader, the Fars News Agency reported.

Safavi was addressing a group of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps veterans in Isfahan.

He also said that the strategy of the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Europe to overthrow embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad has failed, adding that Iran’s influence has grown in Iraq, Syria and the Mediterranean.

'Spider-Man 2' ropes in $92 million opening

NEW YORK -- Spider-Man can still sling it at the box office.

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" debuted with $92 million at the box office over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was a solid opening for Sony's Columbia Pictures, which has released five movies about Marvel's web-slinging superhero in the last 14 years.

The rebooted franchise starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone isn't performing quite as strongly as Sam Raimi's trilogy with Tobey Maguire. Two of those films opened well above $100 million.

Last week's No. 1 film, the female revenge comedy "The Other Woman," slid to second with a distant $14 million.

The release of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" essentially kicks off Hollywood's summer season and its annual parade of sequels and spectacle.

Mideast airline Etihad offers bed and bath suites

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Talk about some serious legroom.

Etihad Airways, a fast-growing Mideast carrier, laid out plans Sunday to offer passengers who find first-class seats a bit too tight a miniature suite featuring a closed-off bedroom, private bathroom and a dedicated butler. It's just the latest push by airlines worldwide to attract high-spending customers.

The Abu Dhabi-based carrier announced the front-of-plane amenities as part of a broader rollout of plush new cabin offerings for dozens of long-range jetliners it plans to receive over the coming years. It is the latest in a series of premium offerings for the flying elite by Etihad, which already woos fliers with perks including private first-class chefs and in-flight nannies.

Etihad Chief Executive James Hogan conceded that offering what the airline says is the first-of-its kind multi-room suite helps generate buzz, but that ultimately it is a serious effort to bring in more cash.

"Obviously there's going to be a halo effect in the positioning of Etihad Air as a premium carrier," he said. "But we wouldn't do it unless we felt we could make money with it. ... This is a top-end market. There is demand here."

Etihad is the smallest of three rapidly expanding, government-backed Gulf carriers redrawing global aviation maps by funneling travelers through their desert hubs.

Its base in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, this year became the first in the Mideast to open a U.S. preclearance facility staffed by American customs and border officials. U.S. pilots and members of Congress have criticized the facility, which is largely funded by the UAE, alleging it puts American carriers at a disadvantage.

Since starting operations in 2003, Etihad has built a fleet of 96 planes and carried 11.5 million passengers last year. It has ordered more than 220 additional planes, including 10 Airbus A380s and 71 Boeing 787s being outfitted with new interiors introduced Sunday.

It has been aggressively building stakes in foreign carriers, including Virgin Australia and Germany's second largest airline Air Berlin. It has for months been considering buying a piece of struggling Italian carrier Alitalia. Hogan had no comment on those negotiations Sunday.

Its bigger rival Emirates, based in nearby Dubai, has offered onboard showers to first-class passengers aboard its double-decker Airbus A380s since the plane joined the fleet in 2008. It also separates coach passengers from those in business and first class on an entirely different floor in its new concourse in Dubai.

Etihad's latest offering goes one step further.

One passenger — or a couple — aboard each of its new A380s will be able to book a three-section miniature suite that the airline is calling a "residence" at the very front of the plane's upper deck.

The 125-square-foot (11.61-square-meter) area includes a "living room" partitioned off from the first-class aisle that includes leather seating, chilled minibar and a 32-inch flat-screen TV. There is a separate bedroom with space for two that can be closed off from the rest of the cabin and a private bathroom with shower.

A personal butler trained in London will be on hand to wait on passengers in the suite, giving them what the airline promises will be "discrete personal service and attention to detail found in the world's most exclusive hotels."

Etihad expects to get its first of its A380s in December, which it will deploy on the Abu Dhabi to London route.

Chief Commercial Officer Peter Baumgartner said additional A380s will likely be deployed on New York and Sydney routes as they're added to the fleet.

The fancy new suite won't come cheap.

Baumgartner said it will likely cost three to four times as much as regular first-class seats, or about $21,000 from Abu Dhabi to London. One way.

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://bit.ly/1mdSWtE.