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Saturday, November 19, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Mike Krzyzewski: Greatest basketball coach ever? (The Week)
New York ? Duke's Coach K chalks up his 903rd win, setting a Division I college hoops record. Is he now in a league of his own?
Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski became the winningest coach in Division I college basketball history this week, when his No. 6 ranked Blue Devils beat Michigan State 74-69 on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. With his 903rd win, Krzyzewski ? Coach K to admirers ? broke a tie with his mentor Bob Knight. The legendary Indiana coach reached 902 wins in 42 seasons. Krzyzewski hit 903 in his 37th. Coach K is only 64 years old, and may well have enough seasons ahead of him to set a mark that will never be broken. Is Coach K the greatest college basketball coach ever?
Krzyzewski is unparalleled: Sorry to break it to you, Duke haters, says Bill Reiter at Fox Sports, but it's now official: Coach K is "the greatest coach in college basketball history." We all "crave historical significance," and love to imagine that the events we witness really matter. Well, on Tuesday night, when Krzyzewski outdid everyone who has ever tried to lead a college team to victory, we got a glimpse of "authentic greatness." "Enjoy it. Savor it. Remember it. These moments don?t come around very often."
"Coach K's milestone is a precious gem"
Great, yes. Greatest, no: Coach K belongs in "exclusive company,"?says Jeff Goodman at CBS Sports. He's one of just three coaches?to win four NCAA crowns?? Kentucky's Adolph Rupp and UCLA legend John Wooden are the others. But Wooden's 10 national championships is a mark of greatness that try as he might, Coach K will simply never match. No one will.
"Krzyzewski ties Knight record with Saturday's win"
Still, nobody can equal Coach K's consistency: The great Wooden led a "concentrated era of dominance, from 1964-75," then retired, says Pat Forde at Yahoo! Sports. Krzyzewski has figured out how to win, and keep winning, over decades that have seen tremendous change. When the three-point shot arrived, Coach K figured out how to use it to his advantage. When he started losing star players early to the NBA, he adjusted. "He's the best basketball coach ever when it comes to staying current."
"Krzyzewski adapts to become the best"
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U.N. nuclear chief says "must alert world" about Iran (Reuters)
VIENNA (Reuters) ? The U.N. nuclear chief said on Thursday it was his duty to "alert the world" about suspected work in Iran to develop atomic bombs, and major powers prepared to intensify the pressure on the Islamic state.
International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano stressed the need for Iran to engage in serious talks and said he wanted to send a high-level mission to the country to address mounting fears about the nature of its nuclear activities.
An IAEA report last week which assessed that Iran has been conducting research and experiments geared to developing a nuclear weapons capability has stoked tensions in the Middle East and raised a clamor in Western capitals for harsher sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
"It is clear that Iran has a case to answer," Amano told a news conference. "We have to alert the world before nuclear proliferation actually takes place."
He made the blunt statement at a meeting of its 35-nation governing board, where six major powers were set to close ranks on a draft resolutions that expresses "deep and increasing concern" about Iran's activities and calls on it to open up fully to U.N. inspectors, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
The statement called on Iran "to engage seriously and without preconditions in talks," to address nuclear concerns.
Vienna-based Western diplomats said the powers had agreed compromise language for a draft resolution, to be put to governors for approval by Friday, after Western states and Russia overcame divisions stirred anew by Amano's report.
But the resolution will not satisfy those in the West and in Israel, Iran's arch-enemy, who had hoped Amano's document would trigger concrete international action to rein in Tehran, such as an IAEA referral of its case to the U.N. Security Council.
Amano said he had written to the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, earlier this month to suggest the visit, which would air issues raised by the hard-hitting IAEA report.
"Throughout the past three years, we have obtained additional information which gives us a fuller picture of Iran's nuclear program and increases our concerns about possible military dimensions," he told the board.
"The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," he said, in his bluntest public statement so far on Iran's contested nuclear program.
Iran denies says it is enriching uranium only for nuclear power plants, not weapons, dismissing the intelligence information in the IAEA report obtained mainly from Western states as fabricated, and accusing the IAEA of pro-Western bias.
Amano said he hoped a "suitable date" could be agreed soon for his team's visit to Iran, which permits IAEA inspections of declared nuclear sites but since 2008 has stonewalled an agency investigation into "alleged studies" applicable to atomic bombs.
WEST SEEKS MORE IRAN PRESSURE
"It is essential that any such mission should be well planned and that it should address the issues contained in my report," Amano said, according to a copy of his speech.
"I ask Iran to engage substantively with the agency without delay and provide the requested clarifications regarding possible military dimensions to its nuclear program."
The fact that the six big powers were ironing out an IAEA resolution will be welcomed in the West after Amano's report prompted Russia to complain that it was politicized and dimmed chances of a negotiated solution to the Iran nuclear dispute.
Moscow's stance exposed big power divisions over how to best to resolve it: Western states seized on the IAEA report to try to step up pressure on Tehran in the form of farther-reaching economic sanctions, which Russia and China oppose.
"It (the IAEA resolution) will maintain pressure on Iran," one Western diplomat said. He and others said they were waiting for Beijing to formally approve the text before putting it to the board meeting, which runs through Friday.
In November 2009, IAEA governors including Russia and China rebuked Iran for building a uranium enrichment plant in secret. Iran rejected that vote as "intimidation."
The latest draft text -- expected to be co-sponsored by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- would stop short of actions with teeth such as reporting Iran once again to the U.N. Security Council.
There has been concern that if the powers cannot settle their differences over how to nudge Iran into serious nuclear negotiations, then Israel, which feels endangered by Iranian nuclear aspirations, will attack it.
Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal to deter numerically superior enemies, but has never confirmed or denied it.
Russia has significant trade ties with Iran and also built its first nuclear power plant, launched at Bushehr earlier this year. China is a major importer of Iranian oil.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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Congress OKs bill averting government shutdown (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Congress has approved a big compromise spending bill that averts a weekend government shutdown that neither party wanted.
Passage of the bill Thursday came despite conservatives' complaints about excessive spending and liberals' objections to a provision letting the government continue classifying pizza sauces served to school children as a vegetable.
The Senate approved the measure Thursday evening, shortly after the House passed it.
The legislation would keep the government's doors open through Dec. 16. The government's new budget year started Oct. 1 but since Congress hasn't finished a single spending bill for the year, agencies have been functioning on temporary authority that expires after midnight Friday.
The votes highlighted fissures among Republicans, with many GOP lawmakers voting against passage.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A weekend government shutdown that neither party wants would be averted under a compromise spending bill the House approved Thursday despite complaints from lawmakers left and right about provisions ranging from school lunch standards to the size of federally backed loans.
The House approved the measure 298-121. The Senate debated the measure and seemed ready to pass it and send the measure to President Barack Obama later in the evening.
The House vote highlighted fissures in the chamber's GOP majority as 133 Republicans voted for the legislation and 101 voted against. Conservatives in both chambers were unhappy that the bipartisan legislation would spend too much and potentially leave taxpayers on the hook for even more by expanding the size of mortgages that could be insured by the Federal Housing Administration in wealthy areas from $625,500 to $729,750.
"We know what's coming," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said during Senate debate on the bill, describing the fiscal calamities rocking indebted European countries. "How bad does it have to get, how close does it have to get to us before we will act in the best interests of the country instead of the best interests of partisanship or the best interests of our careers?"
Democrats supported the measure overwhelmingly, with only 20 of them voting "no." Liberals mocked a provision blocking Obama administration efforts to prod schools to put healthier foods on their lunch menus, including a proposal to no longer consider the tomato paste on pizza to be a vegetable.
"What's next? Are Twinkies going to be considered a vegetable?" said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., who voted against passage.
Despite the objections, passage was never in real doubt. Both parties were eager to avoid further tarnishing Congress' ghastly public image, which took a beating after partisan standoffs nearly caused a government shutdown this past spring and a federal default in the summer.
"It's a good bill. It's not perfect but it's a lot better than the alternative," said Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The government's new fiscal year started Oct. 1 without enactment of any yearlong spending bills. A temporary measure that has been financing federal agencies expires after midnight Friday.
The legislation would keep the government's doors open through Dec. 16, giving lawmakers more time to catch up on their tardy budget work. It would also provide $182 billion to finance the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce and Justice, and many smaller agencies through the rest of the government's budget year.
Supporters said the bill honors a summer compromise between Obama and Republicans to limit overall spending on federal agencies to just over $1 trillion, which is $7 billion less than last year.
"This bill is the next step in breaking the status quo of excessive federal spending that is throwing our budgets out of whack," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
To try winning over skeptics, GOP leaders told their rank-and-file that the bill would eliminate 20 federal programs. All were relatively small, including a $35 million Agriculture Department healthy food initiative and a $12 million National Science Foundation underground science lab.
They also noted that the bill provided none of the $8 billion Obama requested for building high-speed rail lines and none of the $322 million the president sought to establish a climate change office in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Obama's request for an additional $308 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is responsible for implementing much of last year's financial law, was cut to $205 million. Reductions were also included for NASA.
Democrats boasted that unlike an earlier House-passed version, the compromise bill lacked GOP language blocking enforcement of parts of last year's law overhauling the regulation of financial markets and preventing the government from regulating the RU-486 birth control pill.
They also said it included more money than Republicans wanted for providing food to poor women, children and older people; helping communities hire police officers; operating federal prisons; financing the National Science Foundation; and highway and transit programs.
The bill also would extend to Dec. 16 the deadline by which the ailing U.S. Postal Service must pay $5.5 billion to the Treasury for future retiree health benefits. Postal officials have warned they have no cash and would default on the annual payment, which was originally due Sept. 30.
The Agriculture Department had proposed improving school lunches by steps like limiting potatoes and salt and promoting whole grains.
The legislation blocked those rules. As a result, the bill would allow the tomato paste typically topping pizzas to be considered a vegetable, a practice the Agriculture Department wanted to curb.
Federally subsidized school meals must contain certain amounts of vegetables, and the proposed rules could have forced schools to remove foods like pizza and french fries from their cafeterias.
Video: McQueary defends testimony
Congressional report calls for drastic changes at TSA
A report released today by the Republican leaders of a Congressional committee calls for the Transportation Security Administration to slash its workforce, minimize its role in screening passengers and make public its performance results, among other recommendations.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45329770#45329770
Thursday, November 17, 2011
East Carolina University locked down after armed suspect report (Reuters)
WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) ? East Carolina University was on lock-down on Wednesday following a report of an armed suspect seen near the campus, the school said on its website.
Residence halls and school buildings have been secured as university police sweep the campus looking for the individual, the school said.
Officials at the school could not be reached immediately for more details.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Greg McCune)
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Ai Weiwei says tax bureau warns him of deadline (AP)
BEIJING ? Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said Tuesday that tax officials are threatening to turn their investigation over to police unless he pays them $1.3 million by Wednesday, raising the prospect that he and his associates could be detained again.
Ai was taken away by police to a secret location for nearly three months earlier this year during an wide-ranging crackdown on dissent. He disputes the government's tax-evasion allegations, and says he does not even own the company involved, but added that under China's authoritarian government none of that matters.
"It's very simple," Ai said in a phone interview. "Those in power have the right to do anything and their power faces no restrictions."
The Beijing tax bureau says Ai's design firm owes 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in back taxes and fines, but human-rights activists say the investigation is punishment for Ai's criticism of the government.
Ai said Beijing tax bureau officials told his wife Lu Qing, the legal representative of Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., that they wanted a 8.5 million yuan ($1.3 million) guarantee paid into one of their bank accounts.
"They also clearly told us that if we exceeded this time period, they would transfer the case to the public security. There would be a different kind of outcome from that," Ai said. "They were of course issuing a threat to us, but the threat is real."
A woman who answered the phone at the duty office of the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau referred the matter to the bureau's propaganda department, where repeated calls rang unanswered Tuesday.
Ai was the most high-profile target of a sweeping crackdown on activists that started in February in a bid to prevent protests similar to those in the Middle East and North Africa. Dozens of bloggers, writers, rights lawyers and other activists were detained, arrested or questioned. Many have since been released but continue to face restrictions on who they can see and talk to.
Ai, an internationally acclaimed conceptual artist, said that if the case were to go to the police it was possible that they would detain his wife, because she is the firm's legal representative, and the company's manager and accountant, who he says have been unreachable in the months since his release. He said police could also go after him even though he's not the owner of the company, just a designer.
"Even if they say right now that this has nothing to do with me, and that this targets Fake, the company, they could still take me away, because when they took me away previously they knew it had nothing to do with me but they still did it," Ai said.
Supporters have sent Ai nearly 8.7 million yuan ($1.4 million), but Ai and his company's lawyers said transferring that money into the tax bureau's accounts could be seen as admitting guilt and that if they win the case it would be difficult to get the money back. Instead, Ai was planning to be the guarantor and offer a bank certificate of deposit as collateral.
"This issue at this point is in a kind of deadlock," Ai said, though he said they would continue to negotiate. His lawyers say the tax bureau's request is illegal because Chinese law stipulates that a person trying to challenge a tax bill can use collateral to provide a guarantee.
"They have already clearly told me you can't argue with the government," Ai said. "If the government says you have evaded taxes, it will not change its view. By this point, it would be embarrassing for them. Even if they know it is illegal they will keep going on this path."
The donations Ai has received are rare for Chinese dissidents because of the threat of retaliation that comes with supporting high-profile government critics.
___
Gillian Wong can be reached at http://twitter.com/gillianwong
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