Boondocks At Philadelphia Front Page News

Boondocks At Philadelphia Front Page News

Halladay Strong In Phillies Win Over Braves

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Roy Halladay breezed through his final tuneup for the regular season, throwing in a two-run single for good measure.

The NL Cy Young Award winner pitched three innings of two-hit ball as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 6-1 Sunday.

Halladay, who will face the Houston Astros on Friday in Philadelphia, walked none and struck out three while lowering his spring ERA to 0.42.

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Sixers Fall To Kings In Overtime

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers have become a feel-good story this season, their playoff berth within reach under new head coach Doug Collins.

With a chance to improve their standing in the Eastern Conference, they showed they still have to find a way to reach their potential.

Marcus Thornton scored 32 points and former Philadelphia center Samuel Dalembert made two free throws in the closing seconds of overtime to give the Sacramento Kings a 114-111 win over the 76ers on Sunday.

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Van Riemsdyk’s Hat Trick Lifts Flyers Over Islanders

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Gloves were dropped and blows delivered twice in the first 21 seconds. James van Riemsdyk then delivered the knockout punch for the Philadelphia Flyers, who pounded the New York Islanders again.

Van Riemsdyk scored two goals in the first period and finished his first NHL hat trick in the third to help the Flyers remain alone atop the Eastern Conference with a 4-1 victory over the Islanders on Saturday night.

“Stuff like this is definitely pretty cool,” said van Riemsdyk, a native of nearby New Jersey
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With Looming Budget Cuts, School Districts Get Some Help From Lawmakers

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – With Governor Corbett calling for major cuts to public education in his proposed budget, a bi-partisan group of state Senators is backing legislation to relieve school districts of mandates, in order to help them cope.

Among the 18 bills in the package are some proposals – such as allowing districts to furlough teachers for economic reasons – already called for by Governor Corbett.
Republican Jeffrey Piccola is chairman of the Senate Education Committee, “if we fail to relieve school districts of some of the cost drivers that they face we will see local property taxes increase. This is unacceptable.”

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Public Arts Project In Manayunk To Be Unveiled In June

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Manayunk district and the mural arts project are joining in a public art project that will be unveiled in June.

The Mural Arts Program has chosen Manayunk as a public arts district – where all different kinds of art – from murals to light and sound shows to sculptures will be displayed this summer.

Two major public art projects are planned; a roving gallery of art panels to be placed along major streets and street medallions that will be painted at key intersections along Main Street.

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Former Philadelphia Radio Personality Killed In New York City

NEW YORK (AP) - Urban radio and TV personality DJ Megatron has been shot to death in New York City.

His manager says the BET television segment host was killed while heading to a store near his Staten Island home around 2 a.m. Sunday. Police say the 32-year-old, born Corey McGriff, was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest. No arrests have been made.

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What is hell? Book stirs debate about afterlife

What is hell? Book stirs debate about afterlife

In this photo taken March 17, 2011, Rev. Chad Holtz poses for a photo in Durham, N.C. Holtz was fired from his position as pastor from a church in Henderson, N.C. after posting on his Facebook page a defense of a forthcoming book by megachurch pastor Rob Bell, in which Bell challenges millions of Christians’ understanding of the afterlife.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- What does hell mean to you? Is it an endless nightmare for sinners and unsaved souls, as mainstream Christianity has taught for centuries? Or is hell here on Earth, in the distractions, addictions and emptiness of daily life?

Those ideas are receiving fresh scrutiny from some believers after a prominent evangelical pastor questioned the traditional idea of hell in his new book, "Love Wins."

Even before Rob Bell's book was published this month, religious leaders and their followers were branding it heresy, hailing it as a breakthrough or landing somewhere in the middle. Thousands have weighed in on Twitter, Facebook, blogs or outside their places of worship.

Bell "better go back and read his Bible again! He's all messed up!" wrote Ruth Ward of New Albany, Ind., on Facebook. "Satan is having a field day."

James Turner, a 49-year-old Chicago laborer, says his concept of hell hasn't changed much since he attended church as a boy. For him, hell "is a place where if you don't accept Jesus, or you reject Jesus, it is a place of torment."

Hell is also for those "who are ruthless and brutally hurt people," he said.

"I hope that smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee ain't going to get me down there," he said, puffing on a cigarette Sunday outside the Chicagoland Community Church on the city's North Side, where he's attended services for about 10 years.

For some readers, the book has been a breath of fresh air and a chance to discuss ideas that have long been taboo in evangelical circles.

When Chad Holtz posted a Facebook message supporting Bell's position, he was dismissed from his job as pastor at a United Methodist church in Henderson, N.C. Holtz's posts about the experience on his website drew a flood of responses, including from people who said they were afraid to tell relatives that they did not believe in the notion that God punishes sinners forever in hell.

Carol Buikema, who attends Chicago's Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, said she recently read a fellow congregant's Facebook post about Bell's book, and it prompted her to question her own beliefs about hell.

"It does pose more questions than answers for me," Buikema, 64, said Sunday.

Believing in Jesus is a basic tenet of Christianity and "if you don't believe in Jesus, you won't go to heaven," she said. "The more I live life, I don't know if I totally believe that. I've always believed that God is not a God of vengeance. He is a loving God. How would you equate the idea of a loving God with going to hell?"

Bell's message is reaching a wide audience: On Friday, "Love Wins" was the fourth-best-selling book overall on Amazon.com, and the best-selling book in the religion category.

The Rev. Erik DiVietro, pastor of Bedford Road Baptist Church in Merrimack, N.H., said he felt the need to respond to Bell's book after being repeatedly asked about it by friends, former students and church members. He disagrees with Bell on several points, but said Christians miss out if they don't try to engage the ideas.

"Christianity is a conversation," he said. "So as we're journeying with these ancient writings, we need to be asking questions. These are good questions, and they need to be part of the dialogue."

Brandy Fenderson, a 34-year-old teacher and member of St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tenn., said Bell's book reminded her of the importance of thinking critically about one's faith.

"I remember thinking I do believe there's a balance between intellect and faith. ... I've argued (with friends) that intellect is divine, given to us by God, and we're not supposed to shut it down."

She believes the idea of a hell where sinners are punished is more of a human construction.

"I don't think there's a burning place with pitchforks," she said. "I guess my idea is basically that there's right and wrong, and hell was invented to keep people from doing wrong. ... It was created more by the church, to guide people in the right way."

Still, she added, "actions have consequences, and you suffer when you do wrong. That can end up being what, quote, unquote, is hell."

At the heart of Bell's position is that God's love can triumph over every obstacle, including sins that Christians have long believed would consign them to anguish in the afterlife. But that notion is appalling to many people, Bell argues, and is minimized even by those who uphold its truth.

"The book is saying we need to take hell more seriously," Bell told The Associated Press, "Because the people who warn about hell when you die don't seem to talk about it very much."

The debate is not entirely new. There's no broad agreement within Christianity about what happens to people after they die.

Some mainline Protestant churches started moving away from the familiar concept of hell as long ago as the 19th century. The Unitarian Universalist Association, which is not a formally Christian denomination but has roots in Christian churches, contains in its very name the concept that Bell's critics accuse him of endorsing: universalism, the notion that every soul will eventually be united with God in paradise.

Some important denominations and theologians moved quickly to criticize Bell's book. A forum was held last week at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville in which Christian writers and thinkers laid out their problems with Bell's thinking.

Some Protestant luminaries have also joined the criticism. Ben Witherington, one of the most influential evangelical theologians, is using his blog to take on Bell's book chapter by chapter.

That's partly a sign of how influential Bell is in evangelical circles. His 10,000-member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., has grown significantly under his leadership, and Bell's artfully made online videos and breezily written books have been popular among younger evangelicals.

"Atheists are not going to be impressed by this book. Skeptics are not going to be impressed by this book," said Christian blogger Justin Taylor at the Southern Baptist forum. "The people who are going to be impressed by this book are disaffected evangelicals."

Cameron Dawn, who described herself as a "good and faithful Roman Catholic," said she has never thought of hell as a specific place.

Instead, the 52-year-old New York City woman believes hell is the personal problems people endure until they accept God and Christ into their lives, such as addiction, gluttony or taking advantage of others.

"You need inner strength to overcome these things and to see all the beauty life has to offer, and that's what God gives you," Dawn said Sunday at the Church of St. Veronica in Howell, N.J.

"Without that inner strength, you will miss out on the wonderful things God has created and that life has to offer you. That is hell on earth, but it's a prison to which you hold the key, and you can use it any time you want."

John Taylor, 45, who was attending services Sunday at the Church of Grace and Peace in Toms River, N.J., said he has no doubt there is some version of hell awaiting evildoers.

"I do believe that if you lead a sinful life on earth, you will pay for it in your next life. And that applies to anyone, whether you're Catholic, Jew, Hindu, whatever. People who disrespect God, disrespect their fellow man - they go to hell."

More obstacles impede crews in Japan nuke crisis

More obstacles impede crews in Japan nuke crisis

In this image released by Japan Ground Self-Defense Force via Kyodo News, smoke billows from Unit 3 at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, March 27, 2011.

TOKYO (AP) -- Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and inadequate storage tanks for huge amounts of contaminated water, stymied emergency workers Sunday as they struggled to nudge Japan's stricken nuclear complex back from the edge of disaster.

Workers are attempting to remove the radioactive water from the tsunami-ravaged nuclear compound and restart the regular cooling systems for the dangerously hot fuel.

The day began with company officials reporting that radiation in leaking water in the Unit 2 reactor was 10 million times above normal, a spike that forced employees to flee the unit. The day ended with officials saying the huge figure had been miscalculated and offering apologies.

"The number is not credible," said Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita. "We are very sorry."

A few hours later, TEPCO Vice President Sakae Muto said a new test had found radiation levels 100,000 times above normal - far better than the first results, though still very high.

But he ruled out having an independent monitor oversee the various checks despite the errors.

Officials acknowledged there was radioactive water in all four of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex's most troubled reactors, and that airborne radiation in Unit 2 measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour, four times the limit deemed safe by the government.

Those high airborne readings - if accurate - would make it very difficult for emergency workers to get inside to pump out the water.

Officials say they still don't know where the radioactive water is coming from, though government spokesman Yukio Edano earlier said some is "almost certainly" seeping from a damaged reactor core in one of the units.

The discovery late last week of pools of radioactive water has been a major setback in the mission to get the crucial cooling systems operating more than two weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami.

The magnitude-9 quake off Japan's northeast coast on March 11 triggered a tsunami that barreled onshore and disabled the Fukushima plant, complicating a humanitarian disaster that is thought to have killed about 18,000 people.

A top TEPCO official acknowledged it could take a long time to clean up the complex.

"We cannot say at this time how many months or years it will take," Muto said, insisting the main goal now is to keep the reactors cool.

Workers have been scrambling to remove the radioactive water from the four units and find a place to safely store it. Each unit may hold tens of thousands of gallons of radioactive water, said Minoru Ogoda of Japan's nuclear safety agency.

Safety agency officials had been hoping to pump the water into huge, partly empty tanks inside the reactor that are designed to hold condensed water.

Those tanks, though, turned out to be completely full, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Meanwhile, plans to use regular power to restart the cooling system hit a roadblock when it turned out that cables had to be laid through turbine buildings flooded with the contaminated water.

"The problem is that right now nobody can reach the turbine houses where key electrical work must be done," Nishiyama said. "There is a possibility that we may have to give up on that plan."

Despite Sunday's troubles, officials continued to insist the situation had at least partially stabilized.

"We have somewhat prevented the situation from turning worse," Edano told reporters Sunday evening. "But the prospects are not improving in a straight line and we've expected twists and turns. The contaminated water is one of them and we'll continue to repair the damage."

The protracted nuclear crisis has spurred concerns about the safety of food and water in Japan, which is a prime source of seafood for some countries. Radiation has been found in food, seawater and even tap water supplies in Tokyo.

Just outside the coastal Fukushima nuclear plant, radioactivity in seawater tested about 1,250 times higher than normal last week - but that number had climbed to 1,850 times normal by the weekend.

Nishiyama said the increase was a concern, but also said the area is not a source of seafood and that the contamination posed no immediate threat to human health.

Up to 600 people are working inside the plant in shifts. Nuclear safety officials say workers' time inside the crippled units is closely monitored to minimize their exposure to radioactivity, but two workers were hospitalized Thursday when they suffered burns after stepping into contaminated water. They were to be released from the hospital Monday.

A poll, meanwhile, showed that support for Japan's prime minister had risen amid the disasters.

The poll conducted over the weekend by Kyodo News agency found that approval of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet rose to 28.3 percent after sinking below 20 percent in February, before the earthquake.

Last month's low approval led to speculation that Kan's days were numbered. While the latest figure is still low, it suggests he is making some gains with voters.

About 58 percent of respondents in the nationwide telephone survey of 1,011 people said they approved of the government's handling of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but a similar number criticized its handling of the nuclear crisis.

The death toll from the disasters stood at 10,668 Sunday with 16,574 people missing, police said. Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.

NATO to assume command of Libya air operations

NATO to assume command of Libya air operations

In this Dec. 7, 2006 photo, Maj. Gen. Charles Bouchard, left, sits in the cockpit of a DA40 Diamond Star as he listens to Lt. Chevon Smith, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Friday, March 25, 2011 that Lt.-Gen. Bouchard has been designated to lead the alliance's military campaign in Libya.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- NATO will assume command of all aerial operations in Libya from the U.S.-led force that has been conducting air strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's forces, officials said Sunday.

NATO jets on Sunday already began enforcing the no-fly zone, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced. Diplomats said the full transfer of authority would take several days.

"NATO allies have decided to take on the whole military operation in Libya under the U.N. Security Council resolution," Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement. "NATO will implement all aspects of the U.N. resolution. Nothing more, nothing less."

The North Atlantic Council - the alliance's top body - took two hours to approve a plan to expand a previously agreed mission to enforce the U.N. arms embargo and no-fly zone. It agreed to protect civilians from attack - which effectively means bombing Gadhafi's forces if they are threatening to harm the civilian population.

The U.N. authorized the operation after Gadhafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power

"In the past week, we have put together a complete package of operations in support of the U.N. resolution by sea and by air," Fogh Rasmussen said.

After eight days of strikes on Libyan targets, Washington is eager to quickly hand off responsibility for the air offensive to the alliance. President Barack Obama and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates have both said that American command of the military operations in Libya would last only a few days.

Gates has said that major strides are being made in bolstering rebels, but acknowledged the international operation could drag on for months. NATO officials said the alliance's operations, approved for up to three months, could be extended if necessary.

"NATO will conduct the mission very much as the coalition has up to now," said a senior U.S. administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A diplomat who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the transfer of authority from the U.S.-led force may take several days. He said the rules of engagement for the NATO force would be very similar to those of the international air armada.

The air strikes have already tipped the balance away from Gadhafi's regular military to the lightly armed rebels, although the two sides remain at stalemate in key cities.

A Canadian three-star general, Charles Bouchard, will be in charge of all NATO operations. He will report to an American admiral, Samuel Locklear, commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples.

In a statement released in Naples after NATO took over enforcement of the no-fly zone, Bouchard said the alliance "will do everything it can to deny any use of air power and it will do so with care and precision to avoid harming the people of Libya."

Naples is one of NATO's two operational headquarters. The other, Brunssum in the Netherlands, is responsible for the war in Afghanistan.

The Naples center will coordinate the radar surveillance planes, aerial refueling tankers, maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters needed to maintain the operation 24 hours a day,

NATO has significant experience in such operations. Its warplanes successfully enforced a no-fly zone over Bosnia in the early 1990s and bombed Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1999 in an effort to end crackdowns on ethnic Albanian civilians.

Newly Expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center Gets Rave Reviews

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center has just wrapped up its first event in the new space and the reviews are glowing.

The Association of Peri-Operative Registered Nurses Congress has always been too large for Philadelphia’s space until now. Spokeswoman Gayle Davis says it was a wonderful event; the $787 million addition is beautiful, the convention staff was friendly and helpful and members loved the city.

So would they come back?

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Philadelphia Officials Host Event To Show Appreciation For Area Block Captains

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Philadelphia hosted a rally this afternoon at the Pennsylvania convention center for 1,500 of its block captains.

The event was to show appreciation to block captains and junior block captains with lunch, live entertainment and raffle drawings. It also was a time for residents to see what resources are available for their communities.

“There is a variety of community service organizations, non-profit organizations and government agencies that are all here informing them about the services they can have to improve the quality from town watch to L&I and of course the streets department. They can learn about recycling,” said Carlton Williams, deputy streets commissioner.

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Snoop Dogg, Warren G attend service for Nate Dogg

Snoop Dogg, Warren G attend service for Nate Dogg

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2004 file photo, Nate Dogg poses for a photograph during arrivals to the BET Comedy Awards at the Pasadena Civic Center in Pasadena, Calif. Dogg, whose near monotone crooning anchored some of rap’s most seminal songs and helped define the sound of West coast hip-hop, has died. The family of Nate Dogg _ whose real name is Nathaniel Dwayne Hale _ decided that the Saturday morning services at the Queen Mary Dome in Long Beach would not be open to the public.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Rappers Snoop Dogg, Warren G and The Game joined family, friends and about 1,000 fans of Nate Dogg to remember the hip-hop singer, who died this month of complications from multiple strokes.

The family of Nate Dogg - whose real name was Nathaniel Dwayne Hale - decided that the ceremony at the Queen Mary Dome would not be open to the public as they previously wanted, but they made 1,000 tickets and shuttles available to fans.

The dome in Hale's hometown of Long Beach is adjacent to the historic ship the Queen Mary and was the former home of Howard Hughes' airplane folly, the Spruce Goose.

Organizers had sought a more central location for the funeral, but none proved large enough for the numbers of expected mourners. A private dinner was planned after the service.

Hale started out singing in church choirs, then formed a group with Snoop Dogg and Warren G while the trio was in high school in Long Beach.

His almost monotone vocal stylings anchored some of rap's most seminal songs and helped define the sound of West Coast hip-hop on tracks usually produced by Dr. Dre and performed by rappers like Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound and Warren G. He remained sought after as a singer more than a decade after his original success, supplying vocals to more recent tracks by 50 Cent and Ludacris.

Hale dropped out of high school, was dishonorably discharged from the Marines and dabbled in the drug trade before finding success as Nate Dogg on Dr. Dre's classic 1992 album "The Chronic."

Late in life, he was plagued by legal and health problems, including at least two strokes in 2008.

First female VP candidate Ferraro dies at 75

First female VP candidate Ferraro dies at 75

FILE - This Friday, May 4, 2007 picture shows former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro during a news conference before a fundraising lunch hosted by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., in Chicago. The first woman to run for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket has died. Geraldine Ferraro was 75. A family friend said Ferraro, who was diagnosed wi

BOSTON (AP) -- Geraldine Ferraro was a relatively obscure congresswoman from the New York City borough of Queens in 1984 when she was tapped by Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale to join his ticket.

Her vice presidential bid, the first for a woman on a major party ticket, emboldened women across the country to seek public office and helped lay the groundwork for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential candidacy in 2008 and John McCain's choice of his running mate, Sarah Palin, that year.

Ferraro died Saturday in Boston, where the 75-year-old was being treated for complications of blood cancer. She died just before 10 a.m., said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a family friend who worked for Ferraro in her 1998 Senate bid and was acting as a spokeswoman for the family.

Mondale's campaign had struggled to gain traction and his selection of Ferraro, at least momentarily, revived his momentum and energized millions of women who were thrilled to see one of their own on a national ticket.

The blunt, feisty Ferraro charmed audiences initially, and for a time polls showed the Democratic ticket gaining ground on President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. But her candidacy ultimately proved rocky as she fought ethics charges and traded barbs with Bush over accusations of sexism and class warfare.

Ferraro later told an interviewer, "I don't think I'd run again for vice president," then added "Next time I'd run for president."

Reagan won 49 of 50 states in 1984, the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt's first re-election over Alf Landon in 1936. But Ferraro had forever sealed her place as trailblazer for women in politics.

"At the time it happened it was such a phenomenal breakthrough," said Ruth Mandel of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. "She stepped on the path to higher office before anyone else, and her footprint is still on that path."

Palin, who was Alaska's governor when she ran for vice president, often spoke of Ferraro on the campaign trail.

"She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more," Palin wrote on her Facebook page Saturday. "May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women."

For his part, Mondale remembered his former running mate as "a remarkable woman and a dear human being."

"She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. She broke a lot of molds and it's a better country for what she did," Mondale told The Associated Press.

Ferraro died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she had gone Monday for a procedure to relieve back pain caused by a fracture. Such fractures are common in people with her type of blood cancer, multiple myeloma, because of the thinning of their bones, said Dr. Noopur Raje, the Mass General doctor who treated her.

Ferraro, however, developed pneumonia, which made impossible to perform the procedure, and it soon became clear she didn't have long to live, Raje said. Since she was too ill to return to New York, her family went to Boston.

Raje said it seemed Ferraro held out until her husband and three children arrived. They were all at her bedside when she passed, she said.

"Gerry actually waited for all of them to come, which I think was incredible," said Raje, director of the myloma program at the hospital's cancer center. "They were all able to say their goodbyes to Mom."

Ferraro stepped into the national spotlight at the Democratic convention in 1984, giving the world its first look at a co-ed presidential ticket. It seemed, at times, an awkward arrangement - she and Mondale stood together and waved at the crowd but did not hug and barely touched.

Delegates erupted in cheers at the first line of her speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination.

"My name is Geraldine Ferraro," she declared. "I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us."

Her acceptance speech launched eight minutes of cheers, foot-stamping and tears.

Ferraro, a mother of three who campaigned wearing pastel-hued dresses and pumps, sometimes overshadowed Mondale on the campaign trail, often drawing larger crowds and more media attention than the presidential candidate.

But controversy accompanied her acclaim.

A Roman Catholic, she encountered frequent, vociferous protests of her favorable view of abortion rights.

She famously tangled with Bush, her vice presidential rival who struggled at times over how aggressively to attack Ferraro.

In their only nationally televised debate, in October 1984, Bush raised eyebrows when he said, "Let me help you with the difference, Ms. Ferraro, between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon." Ferraro shot back, saying she resented Bush's "patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy."

Ferraro would later suggest on the campaign trail that Bush and his family were wealthy and therefore didn't understand the problems faced by ordinary voters. That comment irked Bush's wife, Barbara, who said Ferraro had more money than the Bush family. "I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich," Barbara Bush told reporters when asked to describe Ferraro. She later apologized.

In a statement, Bush praised Ferraro for "the dignified and principled manner she blazed new trails for women in politics." He said that after the 1984 race, "Gerry and I became friends in time - a friendship marked by respect and affection."

Ferraro's run also was beset by ethical questions, first about her campaign finances and tax returns, then about the business dealings of her husband, real estate developer John Zaccaro. Ferraro attributed much of the controversy to bias against Italian-Americans.

Zaccaro pleaded guilty in 1985 to a misdemeanor charge of scheming to defraud in connection with obtaining financing for the purchase of five apartment buildings. Two years later, he was acquitted of trying to extort a bribe from a cable television company.

Ferraro's son, John Zaccaro Jr., was convicted in 1988 of selling cocaine to an undercover Vermont state trooper and served three months under house arrest.

Some observers said the legal troubles were a drag on Ferraro's later political ambitions, which included her unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in New York in 1992 and 1998.

Ferraro, a supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, was back in the news in March 2008 when she stirred up a controversy by appearing to suggest that Sen. Barack Obama achieved his status in the presidential race only because he is black.

She later stepped down from an honorary post in the Clinton campaign, but insisted she meant no slight against Obama.

In a statement, Obama praised Ferraro as a trailblazer who had made the world better for his daughters.

"Sasha and Malia will grow up in a more equal America because of the life Geraldine Ferraro chose to live," Obama said.

Ferraro received a law degree from Fordham University in 1960, the same year she married and became a full-time homemaker and mother. She said she kept her maiden name to honor her mother, a widow who had worked long hours as a seamstress.

After years in a private law practice, she took a job as an assistant Queens district attorney in 1974. She headed the office's special victims' bureau, which prosecuted sex crimes and the abuse of children and the elderly. In 1978, she won the first of three terms in Congress representing a blue-collar district of Queens.

After losing in 1984, she became a fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University until an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate nomination in 1992.

She returned to the law after her 1992 Senate run, acting as an advocate for women raped during ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Her advocacy work and support of President Bill Clinton won her the position of ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, where she served in 1994 and 1995.

She co-hosted CNN's "Crossfire," in 1996 and 1997 but left to take on Chuck Schumer, then a little-known Brooklyn congressman, in the 1998 Democratic Senate primary. She placed a distant second, declaring her political career finished after she took 26 percent of the vote to Schumer's 51 percent.

In June 1999, she announced that she was joining a Washington, D.C., area public relations firm to head a group advising clients on women's issues.

Ferraro revealed two years later that she had been diagnosed with blood cancer.

She once discussed blood cancer research before a Senate panel and said she hoped to live long enough "to attend the inauguration of the first woman president of the United States."

Kansas cruises past 12th-seeded Richmond 77-57

Kansas' Brady Morningstar shoots against Richmond during the first half of a Southwest regional semifinal game in the NCAA college basketball tournament Friday, March 25, 2011, in San Antonio.

SAN ANTONIO—In an NCAA regional full of underdogs, Kansas played like the dominant No. 1 seed it is.

Brady Morningstar scored 18 points and the Jayhawks knocked off 12th-seeded Richmond 77-57 Friday night get one win from returning to the Final Four for the first time since their 2008 championship. They await the winner of 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth and 10th-seeded Florida State.

The Southwest regional is the first in NCAA history with three double-digit seeded teams. But the Spiders looked jittery in the school's second round-of-16 appearance.

The Jayhawks? They were calm and confident in reaching a fourth regional final under coach Bill Self.

Justin Harper led Richmond with 22 points.

The Spiders (29-8) passed up open shots, bounced balls into the Kansas bench and found themselves down 31-9 with more than six minutes still left in the first half. It belied the bluster Richmond appeared to show during a chippy confrontation with Kansas players before tipoff.

The Spiders were bouncing around the tunnel of the Alamodome, firing themselves up, when Kansas players brushed past them on their way to the court. Some apparent contact set off an exchange of words and shoves, and security stepped between the teams.

Before Kansas (35-2) filed back to the locker room at halftime -- with a 41-22 lead -- Self held his players back and waited for Richmond to exit first. He told TBS during a halftime interview that he wanted his players to go through the tunnel after the Spiders.

Self said he wasn't after separation at that moment. But on the scoreboard, the Jayhawks already had it.

Thomas Robinson had 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Marcus Morris scored 13 for Kansas. The Jayhawks have yet to be tested so far this tournament, winning by an average of nearly 18 points.

Kansas is riding an easy-looking path toward the Final Four. The Jayhawks can make it to Houston next week without having beaten a seed higher than nine.

If that happens, Kansas will join Michigan State in 2001 and North Carolina in 1991 as the only schools to get that far without having to beat a seed higher than nine. And only five teams have reached the Final Four by feasting on teams seeded eighth or lower, according to STATS LLC.

One of those schools? The 2008 Jayhawks.

That run ended in the Alamodome with Self winning his first title at Kansas. Three years later, the Jayhawks looked every bit at home in San Antonio.

When Robinson dunked over a pair of Richmond players to make it 31-9, Kansas players on the bench jumped to their feet and laughed. The Jayhawks shot 48 percent from the floor and made 9 of 19 3-pointers.

Kevin Anderson scored 13 points for the Spiders. He and Harper were the only Richmond players in double figures.

Anderson, who hit the winning shot to upset Vanderbilt in the tournament opener, averaged 26.2 points in Richmond's previous five wins over ranked teams. But the senior was 5 of 17 from the floor in his final game and missed all six of his 3-pointers.

The loss stopped Richmond from reaching the first regional final in school history. Coach Chris Mooney sought to inspire his players this week by showing them Richmond's stunning win at Allen Fieldhouse in 2004 during Self's first season at Kansas.

That win ended Kansas' 52-game home unbeaten streak against unranked opponents. But these Jayhawks never looked in trouble this time.

Morningstar was 7 for 11 from the floor, including four 3-pointers. Josh Selby added nine points for Kansas.

NCAA Bracket 2011 Prediction: Marcus and Markieff Morris Guarantee Kansas Title?

Kansas Jayhawks, led by Marcus and Markieff Morris, have Good Path to Title

The two junior twin brothers out of Philadelphia have led the Kansas Jayhawks to a 32-2 record, good for a top seed in the league. Their only losses came to Texas and Kansas State, so they should have an easy path to the Final Four, right?

Actually, the Southwest division is not overly tough. UNLV or Illinois should be easy pickings, Vanderbilt is ripe for an upset, and Louisville doesn't seem to have it to me. That almost guarantees an elite eight appearance, but as we all know, there are no guarantees.

Having the Morris twins are about as close as Kansas will get. Marcus is averaging 17 and 7 a game, while Markieff contributes 13.6 and 8. Both have kept a lock on the Big 12 Conference, and both have clearly shown that they have what it takes down the stretch on the offensive and defensive ends.

There's one key that they need to grab hold of: they can't allow last year's early exit to cloud their mind. They are one of the top teams in the league, and they can't let an early exit cause a second one.

University of Northern Colorado Head Coach B.J. Hill has written an article on being a potential cinderella team. Find out what he has to say here. A bracket for March Madness can also be printed here. For all the latest on the Tournament, see here.

Penguins Beat Flyers 2-1 In Shootout On Kunitz’s Goal

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Chris Kunitz’s shootout goal lifted the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

Pittsburgh’s Alex Kovalev scored the first shootout goal. He was matched by Philadelphia’s Danny Briere. Kunitz got the final shootout attempt through the legs of Sergei Bobrovsky for the winner.

Philadelphia’s Mike Richards and Pittsburgh’s Tyler Kennedy scored goals in regulation.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Philadelphia Archdiocese Can Pay Roman Catholic Monsignor’s Defense

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Monsignor William Lynn did not say a word on his way out of court, walking quietly by the media gathered outside the Criminal Justice Center. Father James Brennan did the same thing when he left the hearing.

But lay teacher Bernard Shero tried to run away, throwing his jacket at Eyewitness News cameras, jogging across the street, and running into a garage.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Woman Convicted In Jury-Tampering During Philadelphia Shooting Trial

(Philadelphia’s Criminal Justice Center. Photo by Tony Hanson)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A woman has been sentenced to at least 7½ in prison for tampering with a Philadelphia jury. Her boyfriend was on trial for a drive-by triple shooting.

Philadelphia Prosecutor Carrie Sarhangi says the crime rocks the very core of our justice system.

According to testimony, defendant Yolanda Watson, 48, approached a juror near the courthouse during the deliberation phase of the trial and tried to influence the juror’s opinion in her boyfriend’s case.

“She was basically trying to slander one of the witnesses involved in Commonwealth v. Rico Lofton,” prosecutor Carhangi explains. “She mentioned something about $38,000. And as the juror was told to do, he came back to court the very next morning and explained everything to the court staff.”

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

New Jersey Adds Jobs, Yet Unemployment Rate Rises

(A job fair attracts hundreds of applicants. File photo by Getty Images)

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) - The latest jobless numbers in the Garden State present what could best be called a mixed message.

On the one hand, New Jersey added about 7,500 private-sector jobs in February. That segment has grown for three of the last five months.

On the other, the unemployment rate went up — from 9.1 percent in January to 9.2 last month.

So, what gives?

(NJ labor commissioner Harold Wirths. Photo provided)

“The ‘discouraged’ workers that we survey re-entered the job market — I think they saw the job market improving,” explains New Jersey labor commissioner Harold Wirths (right). “They actually re-enter (the job market) and it pushes the numbers up.”

Not a surprise, according to most economists. Traditionally, unemployment figures are the last to improve in an overall economic recovery.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Jesuits settle NW abuse claims for $166 million

Jesuits settle NW abuse claims for $166 million

SEATTLE (AP) -- In one of the largest settlements in the Catholic church's sweeping sex abuse scandal, an order of priests agreed Friday to pay $166.1 million to hundreds of Native Americans and Alaska Natives who were abused at the order's schools around the Pacific Northwest.

The Jesuit order, called the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, has been accused of using its schools in remote villages and on reservations as dumping grounds for problem priests.

Attorneys representing the mostly Native American and Alaskan Native victims said the abuse added to the mistreatment already endured by these children, some of whom were forcibly removed from their homes to attend these schools.

The settlement between the more than 450 victims and the province also calls for a written apology to the victims and disclosure of documents to them, including their medical records.

"It's a day of reckoning and justice," said Clarita Vargas, 51, who alleges she and her two sisters were abused by the head of St. Mary's Mission and School, a former Jesuit-run Indian boarding school on the Colville Indian Reservation near Omak, Wash., in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The abuse began when they were as young as 6 or 7, she said. "My spirit was wounded, and this makes it feel better."

St. Mary's now operates as Paschal Sherman Indian School and is run by the Colville Tribe.

The province ran village and reservation schools in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The claims are from victims who were students at schools in all five states.

The Very Rev. Patrick Lee, speaking for the Oregon Province, said the organization would not comment on the settlement announcement because of its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, "as well as out of respect for the judicial process and all involved."

He said the province hopes to conclude the bankruptcy process as quickly as possible.

The province previously settled another 200 claims. Then it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, claiming the payments depleted its treasury.

An issue that surfaced when the bankruptcy proceedings got under way was the relationship between the province and other Jesuit properties, such as Gonzaga University. Attorneys for the victims initially argued the province was wealthy because it controls and owns Gonzaga, along with Gonzaga Preparatory School, Seattle University and other schools and properties.

Both Gonzaga and the Jesuit order maintain they are separate entities, and victims' attorneys did not pursue the issue during bankruptcy negotiations. Neither Gonzaga nor the other schools are contributing to the settlement announced Friday.

California attorney John Manly, who represented some of the abuse victims, contends the Jesuits knowingly put molesters in a position to abuse children.

"It wasn't an accident. The evidence showed they did it on purpose and it was rape," Manly said.

He added he was certain not all the victims have come forward, and he believes the pattern of abuse among Catholic priests continues.

Both the order and its insurers are paying into the settlement. About $6 million of the settlement is being set aside for future claims.

Attorney Blaine Tamaki said the priest who molested Vargas and about 100 other children has not been charged with a crime because the statute of limitations in Washington state is so restrictive. A bill before the state's 2011 Legislature would remove that statute of limitations.

The settlement is believed to be the Catholic Church's third-largest in the sex abuse cases, behind the Los Angeles Diocese, which agreed to pay $660 million to 508 victims, and the San Diego Diocese, which agreed to pay $198 million to 144 victims, according to the website BishopAccountability.org.

Wisconsin union law published despite court order

Wisconsin union law published despite court order

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2011, file photo Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker talks to the media at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Seeking a counter to the thousands of protesters opposed to his plans to eliminate union bargaining rights for state workers, Walker found it in his email: The majority of notes, Scott Walker said, urged him to “stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers." But what the new Republican governor didn’t say is that for close to a week, his inbox had been home to overwhelming opposition that ran roughly 2-to-1 against his plans. It was only in the moments just before he discussed the emails for the first time, and hours after a group of desperate Democrats fled the state to stop a vote they knew they would lose, that the tide had turned in his favor.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin officials couldn't agree Friday about whether an explosive law taking away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights was about to take effect after a nonpartisan legislative bureau published it despite a court order blocking implementation.

The head of the Legislative Reference Bureau that made the move, as well as a nonpartisan attorney for the Legislature, said the action was merely procedural. But Republican legislative leaders, who encouraged the bureau's action, insisted it meant law would take effect Saturday.

Gov. Scott Walker's office, meanwhile, would issue only a vague statement saying simply that the administration planned to carry out the law as required.

The move is just the latest in a series of parliamentary and legal maneuvers employed over the past six weeks to enact a bill that prompted Senate Democrats to flee the state to block a vote and brought on waves of Capitol protests that grew larger than 85,000 people as Wisconsin became the center of a national fight over union rights.

Ultimately, the law's fate likely will be up to the state Supreme Court to decide. A state appeals court earlier in the week asked the Supreme Court to take up one of several lawsuits challenging its approval.

The latest chaos began Friday after the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law at 3:15 p.m.

Bureau director Steve Miller said the action doesn't mean the law takes effect Saturday. He says that won't actually happen until Secretary of State Doug La Follette orders the law published in a newspaper, and a judge ordered last week that La Follette not do anything.

"It's not implementation at all," Miller said. "It's simply a matter of forwarding an official copy to the secretary of state."

La Follette, however, said he didn't know what the action means - but he's not doing anything given the court order.

"I think we're going to have to get some legal opinion on this," he said.

A judge last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking any further implementation of the law while the court considers the lawsuits. The order specifically blocked La Follette from publishing the law.

Scott Grosz, a staff attorney for the nonpartisan Legislative Council, agreed with Miller and said the action meets certain obligations under the law, but nothing can happen until La Follette acts.

"And at this time the secretary's actions remain subject to the temporary restraining order," Grosz said in a memo to Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who said he went to the Reference Bureau with the idea, insisted the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

"It's my opinion it's published, it's on the legislative website, it's law," Fitzgerald said. "It was clear to me after our discussions this morning, if it in fact it is posted and it says published and there's a specific date on it, it would be very hard to argue this was not law."

John Jagler, a spokesman for Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, said he also assumed the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

Walker signed the collective bargaining measure March 11 and La Follette had designated Friday as the date of publication. But after the restraining order, La Follette sent a letter to the Reference Bureau saying he was rescinding the publication date.

The Reference Bureau said it's still required to publish every new law within 10 working days after it's signed by the governor, on the date designated by the secretary of state, so it went ahead on Friday.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a statement saying it would evaluate how the publication of the law, which it said was lawful, affects the lawsuit that prompted the restraining order. The bureau's action did not require anything to be done by La Follette and he was not in violation of the court's order, the DOJ statement said.

The statement did not say whether the action means the law takes effect Saturday.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who filed the lawsuit that led to the order, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Ozanne's lawsuit and two others allege lawmakers broke the state open meetings law by hastily calling a special committee meeting to put the bill in a form that the Senate could pass it without the Democrats who'd fled present.

The new law requires nearly all public sector workers, including teachers, to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance, changes that amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. It also strips them of their ability to collectively bargain for anything except wages no higher than inflation.

Union leaders were outraged with the latest twist in the ongoing saga.

"This is another sign that the governor and Legislature are in a desperate power grab to take away the voice of teachers, support staff, nurses, home health care workers and other public employees," said Mary Bell, president of the statewide teachers' union. "These tactics are not in the Wisconsin tradition of open government and do not represent the will of the people."

Marty Beil, executive director of the state's largest public employee union, said he didn't think the action meant the law was going to take effect.

"The problem is they're (Republicans) the dictator here so we have to go into a court of law and reaffirm it," he said. "This is Scott Fitzgerald and Scott Walker's gulag here. It's craziness. These guys are off the wall. They're drunk with some kind of power or misconception of reality."

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, called the action an "illegal backdoor maneuver."

"This is a dark day for Wisconsin and a travesty to our democracy," he said.

Breach possible at troubled Japanese power plant

Breach possible at troubled Japanese power plant

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama, right, huddles with his aide during a press conference on the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, in Tokyo on Friday March 25, 2011.

TOKYO (AP) -- A possible breach at Japan's troubled nuclear plant escalated the crisis anew Friday, two full weeks after an earthquake and tsunami first compromised the facility. The development suggested radioactive contamination may be worse than first thought, with tainted groundwater the most likely consequence.

Japanese leaders defended their decision not to evacuate people from a wider area around the plant, insisting they are safe if they stay indoors. But officials also said residents may want to voluntarily move to areas with better facilities, since supplies in the tsunami-devastated region are running short.

The escalation in the nuclear plant crisis came as the death toll from the quake and tsunami passed 10,000 on Friday. Across the battered northeast coast, hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed still have no power, no hot meals and, in many cases, no showers for 14 days.

The uncertain nuclear situation again halted work at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, where authorities have been scrambling to stop the overheated facility from leaking dangerous radiation. Low levels of radiation have been seeping out since the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling system, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants. The most likely consequence would be contamination of the groundwater.

"The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant," a somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan said. "We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."

The possible breach in the plant's Unit 3 might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that's lined with several feet of reinforced concrete. The temperature and pressure inside the core, which holds the fuel rods, remained stable and was far lower than what would further melt the core.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers suffered skin burns after wading into water 10,000 times more radioactive than levels normally found in water in or around a reactor, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Water with equally high radiation levels was found in the Unit 1 reactor building, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said. Water was also discovered in Units 2 and 4, and the company said it suspects that, too, is radioactive. Officials acknowledged the water would delay work inside the plant.

Plant officials and government regulators say they don't know the source of the radioactive water discovered at Units 1 and 3. It could have come from a leaking reactor core, associated pipes, or a spent fuel pool. Or it may be the result of overfilling the pools with emergency cooling water.

Friday marked two weeks to the day since the magnitude-9.0 quake triggered a tsunami that flattened cities along the northeastern coast. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected to surpass 18,000.

Kan apologized to farmers and business owners for the toll the radiation has had on their livelihoods: Several countries have halted some food imports from areas near the plant after elevated levels of radiation were found in raw milk, sea water and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips.

He also thanked utility workers, firefighters and military personnel for "risking their lives" to cool the overheated facility.

The nuclear crisis has compounded the challenges faced by a nation already saddled with a humanitarian disaster. Much of the frigid northeast remains a scene of despair and devastation, with Japan struggling to feed and house hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors, clear away debris and bury the dead.

"It's still like I'm in a dream," said Tomohiko Abe, a 45-year-old machinist who was in the devastated coastal town of Onagawa trying to salvage any belongings he could from his ruined car. "People say it's like a movie, but it's been worse than any movie I've ever seen."

Officials have evacuated residents within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant and advised those up to 19 miles (30 kilometers) away to stay indoors to minimize exposure. The U.S. has recommended that people stay 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the plant.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano insisted that people living 12 to 20 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) from the plant should still be safe from radiation as long as they stay indoors. But since supplies are not being delivered to the area fast enough, he said it may be better for residents to voluntarily evacuate to places with better facilities.

"If the current situation is protracted and worsens, then we will not deny the possibility of (mandatory) evacuation," he said.

Edano said the government "will continue to revisit this and as we have done so, we will provide whatever advice as necessary. Safety is the priority."

NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said later that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. was issued a "very strong warning" for safety violations and that a thorough review would be conducted once the situation stabilizes.

A breach could mean a leak has been seeping for days, likely since the hydrogen explosion at Unit 3 on March 14. It's not clear if any of the contaminated water has run into the ground. Radiation readings for the air were not yet available for Friday, but detections in recent days have shown no significant spike.

Elevated levels of radiation have turned up elsewhere, including the tap water in several areas of Japan. In Tokyo, tap water showed radiation levels two times higher than the government standard for infants, who are particularly vulnerable to cancer-causing radioactive iodine, officials said.

The scare caused a run on bottled water in the capital, and Tokyo municipal officials are distributing it to families with babies.

Previous radioactive emissions have come from intentional efforts to vent small amounts of steam through valves to prevent the core from bursting. However, releases from a breach could allow uncontrolled quantities of radioactive contaminants to escape into the surrounding ground or air.

Edano said "safety measures may not be adequate" and warned that may contribute to rising anxiety among people about how the disaster is being managed.

"We have to make sure that safety is secured for the people working in that area. We truly believe that is incumbent upon us," the chief Cabinet secretary told reporters.

Meanwhile, damage to factories was taking its toll on the world's third-largest economy and creating a ripple effect felt worldwide.

Nissan Motor Co. said it may move part of its engine production line to the United States because of damage to a plant.

The quake and tsunami are emerging as the world's most expensive natural disasters on record, wreaking up to $310 billion in damages, the government said.

"There is no doubt that we have immense economic and financial damage," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said. "It will be our task how to recover from the damage."

At Sendai's port, brand new Toyota cars lay crushed in piles. At the airport, flooded by the tsunami, U.S. Marines used bulldozers and shovels to shift wrecked cars that lay scattered like discarded toys.

Still, there were examples of resilience, patience and fortitude across the region.

In Soma, a hard-hit town along the Fukushima prefecture coast, rubble covered the block where Hiroshi Suzuki's home once stood. He watched as soldiers dug into mounds of timber had been neighbors' homes in search of bodies. Just three bodies have been pulled out.

"I never expected to have to live through anything like this," he said mournfully. Suzuki is one of Soma's luckier residents, but the tsunami washed away the shop where he sold fish and seaweed.

"My business is gone. I don't think I will ever be able to recover," said Suzuki, 59.

Still, he managed to find a bright side. "The one good thing is the way everyone is pulling together and helping each other. No one is stealing or looting," he said.

"It makes me feel proud to be Japanese."

Obama to address nation on Monday about Libya

Obama to address nation on Monday about Libya

President Barack Obama arrives at an event commemorating Greek Independence Day in the East Room of the White House, Friday, March 25, 2011, in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- To a nation and a Congress seeking answers, President Barack Obama on Monday will offer his most expansive explanation of the U.S. role in the Libyan war, delivering a speech that is expected to cover the path ahead and his rationale about the appropriate use of force.

Obama's 7:30 p.m. EDT speech, to be given from the National Defense University in Washington, comes as leading Republican lawmakers and some from his own party have pressed him for clarity about the goals and exit strategy of the United States. Obama and top U.S. security officials spent about an hour talking to lawmakers on Friday, with the president answering direct questions from critics.

For a president who was on a Latin American outreach trip when the U.N.-sanctioned military assault on the Libyan regime began, the speech offers him his best chance to explain the purpose and scope of the mission to a nation already weary of war. Obama has spoken about the matter since authorizing the use of force, but not in a setting as prominent as an evening speech, as he seeks to take command of the story.

Obama is expected to explain how the U.S.-led campaign is shifting to NATO control, and how the multinational approach with Arab support puts the United States in the strongest position to achieve the goals of protecting Libyan civilians, a White House official said.

The president will also put the Libyan campaign into a broader context of his decisions about the use of force, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president's thinking. U.S.-led forces began launching missile strikes last Saturday against embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's defenses to establish a no-fly zone and prevent him from attacking his own people.

With the Obama administration eager to take a back seat, it remained unclear when NATO would assume command of the no-fly patrols. Also unclear was when - and even if - the U.S. military's Africa Command would hand off to NATO the lead role in attacking Libyan ground targets.

The U.S. commander in charge of the overall international mission, Army Gen. Carter Ham, told The Associated Press, "We could easily destroy all the regime forces that are in Ajdabiya," but the city itself would be destroyed in the process. "We'd be killing the very people that we're charged with protecting."

Instead, the focus is on disrupting the communications and supply lines that allow Gadhafi's forces to keep fighting in Ajdabiya and other urban areas like Misrata, Ham said in a telephone interview from his U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

The White House announcement of Monday's speech came after Obama's teleconference Friday with a bipartisan group of key members of Congress. The call came amid complaints on Capitol Hill that Obama was not adequately consulting about the intervention in Libya with Capitol Hill.

During the call, Obama and other U.S. officials emphasized to lawmakers that the United States' military role would be decreasing going forward, according to an official who listened to the conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the closed meeting.

Obama reiterated the U.S. position that Gadhafi should leave power. But he said, as he has publicly, that the United States planned to follow the mission of the UN Security Council resolution - which centers on the protection of Libyan civilians. The campaign is not aimed at killing Gadhafi, the official said.

House Speaker John Boehner asked a series of questions and got direct answers from both the president and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, the official said. The president also took questions from the Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, and from other lawmakers.

After the call, a spokesman for Boehner said the speaker wants the Obama administration to do more to explain how the mission in Libya "is consistent with U.S. policy goals."

And Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who also participated in the call, remained concerned that the current military action might not be enough force Gadhafi out of power, spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said.

Buchanan said McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, supports the military intervention in Libya but fears it could lead to a stalemate that leaves Gadhafi's regime in place.

Obama also faced political pressure from his own party, with one prominent Democrat expressing reservations about the wisdom of continuing the military mission.

"I know the president carefully weighed all the options before taking this emergency action but now that our military has prevented an immediate disaster, I have very serious concerns about what this intervention means for our country in the coming weeks," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., gave Obama a strong endorsement after speaking with the president and his advisers.

"The president gave a very clear, very strong presentation," Levin said. "I continue to believe there will be strong bipartisan support in Congress. He clearly answered the questions about the mission and planned schedule for the handoff of the principal responsibility for population protection to NATO and Arab countries."

Meanwhile, a Pentagon official said Friday that even as other nations begin taking a larger role in the international air assault mission in Libya, the Pentagon was considering adding Air Force gunships and other attack aircraft that are better suited for tangling with Libyan ground forces in contested urban areas like Misrata.

Navy Vice Adm. William Gortney told a Pentagon news conference that for the second consecutive day, all air missions to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya were flown by non-U.S. aircraft, and U.S. planes conducted about half the missions attacking Libyan air defenses, missile sites and ground forces. Qatar became the first Arab nation to join the effort, flying F-16s in support of the no-fly zone.

"The division of labor between the U.S. and our partners has largely evened out," Gortney said.

In his interview with the Associated Press, Ham said the U.S. expects NATO will take command of the no-fly zone mission on Sunday, with a Canadian three-star general, Charles Bouchard, in charge. Bouchard would report to an American admiral, Samuel Locklear, in Locklear's role as commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Ham said.

If NATO also decides to take on a wider mission broadly defined by the United Nations Security Council as protecting Libyan civilians from their own government - a mission that is currently carried out under U.S. command - then Bouchard might command that effort, too, Ham said.

In announcing on Thursday that NATO had agreed to take on the no-fly zone mission, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the campaign was evolving in line with Obama's plan to limit U.S. involvement.

"We're already seeing a significant reduction in the number of U.S. planes involved in operations as the number of planes from other countries increases in numbers," she said.

Gortney, however, said there has been no reduction in the number of American planes participating. In fact, he said the Pentagon was considering bringing in side-firing AC-130 gunships, helicopters and armed drone aircraft that could challenge Libyan ground forces that threaten civilians in cities like Misrata. The U.S. has avoided attacking in cities thus far out of fear that civilians could be killed or injured. AC-130 gunships, which operate at night at low altitude, can attack with unusual precision.

Gortney is staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

NATO's governing body, the North Atlantic Council, is expected to meet again on Sunday to revisit whether the alliance will take command of the rest of the Libya operation, including the protection of civilians.

Sports (FPN) Twin Brothers Marcus and Markieff Morris NCAA As Followed By Their Cousin Van Stone Downing Is Kyrie Irving the Best NCAA Prospect?

Is Kyrie Irving the Best Prospect in the NCAA Tournament?

Markieff Morris

Markieff Morris Might Look Better To Scouts in 2011 NBA Draft

The Kansas Jayhawks have two great forwards who should go in the first round of the NBA Draft without a problem. One is perimeter great Marcus Morris, and the other is his twin brother, inside force Markieff Morris.

While Marcus is a great offensive threat, Markieff has been a great defender and rebounder for the Kansas Jayhawks during their NCAA Championship run. Would Markieff be able to become a lottery pick if they won the tournament? Perhaps the bigger question is whether or not he can overtake his brother.

Most NBA mock drafts have Marcus going a couple picks ahead of Markieff right now, which on the surface makes sense since he does have better college numbers. ESPN's Chad Ford has Markieff ranked 25th on his big board, saying:

"Markieff Morris has improved his offensive game, though it's not quite equal to Marcus' yet. Markieff, however, is an inch taller and has proven to be a better rebounder and shot-blocker...Will he be a consistent enough threat in the pros to warrant a lottery pick?"

That's the main question surrounding Markieff right now, and where better than in the tournament to prove that he can be a threat?

I'm sure many would attack me for saying this, but if I were choosing around 15th or so and both players were on the board, I would actually draft Markieff. Yes, he's not quite as good offensively, but it's easier to find a guy who can throw up 10 points a night then it is to find a presence in the low post.

Markieff's rebounding and defensive talent also translates better into the NBA, so he would make a more immediate impact. Could Marcus be better in the long run? It's certainly possible, but Markieff's size and abiltiies make him an ideal power forward, and hopefully NBA scouts start seeing this.

Sixers Send Hawks To Second Demoralizing Loss In Two Nights

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Next stop, fifth place.

The streaking Philadelphia 76ers just might get there in the Eastern Conference, and rallying to beat the fading Atlanta Hawks is one way to earn that playoff seed. Lou Williams and Thaddeus Young sparked the Sixers in the fourth quarter of a 105-100 win over the Hawks on Wednesday night.

The Sixers moved 2½ games behind the Hawks for fifth in the East.

“That was one of the most gratifying wins of the season,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Dozens Rally At Philadelphia City Hall Against Planned Foreclosure Sales

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Some area homeowners at risk of losing their homes rallied today at Philadelphia City Hall to try to stop what’s expected to be one of the city’s largest sheriff’s sales next month.

Story continues below…

“No sales April 5th!” they chanted outside City Hall, in an effort to stop the upcoming Philadelphia sheriff’s sale on April 5th of homes in foreclosure.

“I worked too long for my home just to give it up,” one woman told the crowd of about 60 people.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/