(March 23) -- An on-duty Colorado State Patrol trooper was pulled over in his marked patrol car Monday and arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after several concerned citizens called 911 to report he was driving erratically.

"Devastated" is how Col. James Wolfinbarger, chief of the CSP, described the arrest of David Dolan at a press conference.

"This badge has meaning. This badge represents 75 years of a strict enforcement of Colorado laws [and] protecting people. I'm devastated," Wolfinbarger said.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office says it received the first of numerous calls about the incident at about 7 a.m. Monday. Those calls were initially transferred to the CSP, but a few minutes later the CSP contacted the Sheriff's Department and asked for help locating the vehicle.

"You're looking for a marked ... state patrol unit," a CSP dispatcher reported over police airways. "We've got several calls. Need to check his welfare."

Shortly after the request for assistance was made, a Douglas County deputy spotted Dolan's cruiser on the C-470 beltway. A traffic stop was then initiated near South Platte Canyon Road.

"After contacting the driver, who was confirmed to be a Colorado State trooper in full uniform, he was taken into custody for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol," reads a CSP press release.

Dolan's arrest was captured on video by a local news station.

"The images that you see on television like that are tough to explain," Wolfinbarger said.

As difficult as the situation is, Wolfinbarger said he is grateful that other drivers took the initiative to call in and report the incident. "[They] helped a very bad situation from turning tragic," he said.

At the time of his arrest, Dolan was reportedly en route from the Colorado Springs barracks to an academy in Golden. Wolfinbarger said he is uncertain what business Dolan had there.

"I don't know why he was going there," Wolfinbarger told The Denver Post. "He was not on routine patrol."

Dolan was booked into the Douglas County Jail on charges of driving under the influence and prohibited use of weapons. The weapons charge stems from a Colorado law that prohibits the possession of a firearm while intoxicated. He is free on bond.

According to Wolfinbarger, Dolan, 48, is a 21-year veteran of CSP. He is assigned to the Colorado Springs unit, where his duties include accident reconstruction and background investigations on individuals who have enrolled in the Colorado State Patrol Academy.

As a result of his arrest, Dolan has been placed on unpaid leave, pending an internal investigation. Following that investigation, a hearing will be held, at which time Dolan could be terminated.

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/on-duty-colorado-state-trooper-david-dolan-...|main|dl1|link5|http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/on-duty-colorado-state-trooper-david-dolan-...

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(March 23) -- An on-duty Colorado State Patrol trooper was pulled over in his marked patrol car Monday and arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after several concerned citizens called 911 to report he was driving erratically.

"Devastated" is how Col. James Wolfinbarger, chief of the CSP, described the arrest of David Dolan at a press conference.

"This badge has meaning. This badge represents 75 years of a strict enforcement of Colorado laws [and] protecting people. I'm devastated," Wolfinbarger said.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office says it received the first of numerous calls about the incident at about 7 a.m. Monday. Those calls were initially transferred to the CSP, but a few minutes later the CSP contacted the Sheriff's Department and asked for help locating the vehicle.

"You're looking for a marked ... state patrol unit," a CSP dispatcher reported over police airways. "We've got several calls. Need to check his welfare."

Shortly after the request for assistance was made, a Douglas County deputy spotted Dolan's cruiser on the C-470 beltway. A traffic stop was then initiated near South Platte Canyon Road.

"After contacting the driver, who was confirmed to be a Colorado State trooper in full uniform, he was taken into custody for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol," reads a CSP press release.

Dolan's arrest was captured on video by a local news station.

"The images that you see on television like that are tough to explain," Wolfinbarger said.

As difficult as the situation is, Wolfinbarger said he is grateful that other drivers took the initiative to call in and report the incident. "[They] helped a very bad situation from turning tragic," he said.

At the time of his arrest, Dolan was reportedly en route from the Colorado Springs barracks to an academy in Golden. Wolfinbarger said he is uncertain what business Dolan had there.

"I don't know why he was going there," Wolfinbarger told The Denver Post. "He was not on routine patrol."

Dolan was booked into the Douglas County Jail on charges of driving under the influence and prohibited use of weapons. The weapons charge stems from a Colorado law that prohibits the possession of a firearm while intoxicated. He is free on bond.

According to Wolfinbarger, Dolan, 48, is a 21-year veteran of CSP. He is assigned to the Colorado Springs unit, where his duties include accident reconstruction and background investigations on individuals who have enrolled in the Colorado State Patrol Academy.

As a result of his arrest, Dolan has been placed on unpaid leave, pending an internal investigation. Following that investigation, a hearing will be held, at which time Dolan could be terminated.

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/on-duty-colorado-state-trooper-david-dolan-...|main|dl1|link5|http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/on-duty-colorado-state-trooper-david-dolan-...

• added by: KSirys  
• 14 comments

After years of complaints that the Oscars had gotten too long and unwieldy, the Motion Picture Academy keeps trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to pare the ceremony down to a manageable length. But a few million lucky folks on Sunday night watched a shorter program than everyone else: Courtesy of ABC and Cablevision (CVC), they got the beginning of the awards lopped off as the companies negotiated a last-minute agreement to bring ABC back to Cablevision's systems. The clock ticked, the proverbial 11^th hour came and went, the stars did their turns on the red carpet, and for the first 14 minutes of the Oscars, for Cablevision's 3.1 million New York-area customers, the screen stayed dark.

This, for media geeks, may have been the contest most worth watching on Oscar night. Who got more of what they wanted here, we're still not sure—the details of ABC's deal with Cablevision haven't leaked out yet, so we're not sure who blinked. But really there's no winner here: Those missing 14 minutes of the Oscars are the latest evidence that cable companies and networks are set on battling one another into mutual irrelevance.

The Cablevision-ABC fight is one of the more fascinating spectacles in the recent history of media because it strikingly illustrates how quickly conventional wisdom about the media can change—and the multibillion dollar costs for those who misgauge the winds. In 2006 and 2007, the Dolan family, Cablevision's biggest shareholders, apparently convinced that the cable monopoly would forever be a license to print money, tried to take Cablevision private, offering $36.26 a share for all the stock they didn't already own. The stockholders, equally convinced of Cablevision's bright future, overruled the company's (largely Dolan-friendly) board and voted down the deal. Too bad for them. Cablevision looks a lot less promising now, and the share price now stands at about $25. Had the Dolans succeeded in their buyout, the family would be much poorer now.

Why were the Dolans so eager to buy all of Cablevision, and the shareholders so reluctant to sell? For the last two decades of media history, the running debate has been about “content” versus “distribution.” Content means the creators of the stuff that's on television. Distribution, for practical purposes, means the carriers who control the pipe into the home—Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner, and several smaller (but still huge) cable companies, including Cablevision.

Cablevision seemed valuable because the consensus in the war between content and distribution, was that distribution—that is, the cable carriers—was winning. With the audience migrating to the Internet and an ever-expanding roster of niche channels, everybody could see the problems with the network business. Indeed, we see them playing out clearly in this year's Oscars: Two years ago, Disney-owned ABC reportedly managed to charge about $1.8 million per 30-second commercial spot in the Oscar telecast. Last year the number fell to about $1.4 million, and it seems to be about the same this year.

But as the networks have gotten squeezed—surprise!—they, in turn, have turned to a no-holds-barred, Ultimate Fighting-style war with the cable companies. For years, they gave cable carriers their programming for free in exchange for extra channels. This was the way they built up cable franchises such as Disney's ESPN. Now that's no longer enough, and the networks want to be paid in cash. At the end of last year, News Corp.-owned Fox waded into this fight last year with an aggressive negotiation with Time Warner in which each side tried—essentially without much effect—to rally public opinion to its side. (The public's reaction came down to “a pox on both their houses.”) Fox seems to have succeeded in winning substantial fees from Time Warner.

The short-term result of this increasingly routine game of chicken between cable carriers and networks will be to secure some more money for the content creators—even though, as Newser's Michael Wolff points out, in the end they are battling over pennies. Wolff believes this is another stage in the death of the networks—an effort to plug a small leak when water is coming in from all sides.

But this fight is at least equally injurious to cable carriers. Used to operating in high-handed monopoly style, they have managed to alienate customers right and left. Those customers won't cut them any breaks. As one Cablevision subscriber put it to the Los Angeles Times, “ ‘Considering what I pay for cable (over $150 a month), and the fact that if I didn't have cable, ABC would be free, I am having a hard time understanding the issue.’ ”

The long-term result of all this: Content creators will force cable companies to give them a bigger piece of the subscription pie—but together the creators and distributors of content will manage to shrink the pie. Or, more precisely, they will eventually manage to shrink the part of the pie that goes to cable subscription fees. The more fiercely the networks and cable carriers fight over these fees, the more quickly they will both see them disappear.

Cable companies now face competition from onetime phone carriers such as AT&T (ATT) and Verizon (VZ) for wires into the home and can look forward to even more in the future from the next generation of wireless services. A gloating Verizon, in fact, used this meltdown to lure away Cablevision customers with a series of “Don't Miss Your Favorite ABC Shows” ads.

Meanwhile, the ability of the cable carriers to avoid finding new ways of making money—their very lucrative recent foray into phone services excepted—has been nothing short of astonishing. For instance, the movie-rental industry continues to exist largely because cable companies have spent decades screwing up video-on-demand.

So already the twilight of the cable monopoly subscription model appears within sight. What, then, is the reaction of the networks? We see it in all its glory in the Oscar fight: It is finally, after all this time, going to start demanding a piece of the subscription revenue it should have gotten years ago. As Rome burned, Nero might have fiddled, but at least he didn't suddenly decide that it was the right time to start a fight over his share of ticket revenue from the Coliseum.

Economists call games in which every gain for one side is a loss for the other “zero sum.” That's the kind of contest in which ABC and Cablevision seem to believe they are engaged, one in which the aim is to fight each other over the share of subscription fees. Viewed this way, the cable-network contest is one that the networks are finally trying to win. But over the long run, what's involved here is not a zero-sum game at all. The networks may succeed in getting paid a little more for their content, but the question is no longer whether the networks or cable companies will win. It is who will lose more, and how quickly.

Says commenter Richard Dolan, noting some things I've said today:

"Please don't stumble embarrassingly over yourself ...." She knows you can't help yourself, and wants to enjoy the spectacle.

"pissily political but you might want to read it" -- if you're a jerk, that is.

"nitwits" in twitterville, following/followed by Rover and thinking that's cool.

WSJ is just playing "teaser" behind the wall, and teasers are lowlifes who get a thrill out of proving that you can't get and don't deserve no satisfaction.

The lady's face is "80 years out of date." Gross lookism in/about the face, from a supposed feminist.

"bitch about the accuracy of the journalism of the NYT" -- bitch, bitch, bitch. It's today's theme.

But I'm not in a bad mood in real life. It's a beautiful, sunny morning in pre-Spring Madison, Wisconsin. I guess it's time to shut the laptop and open the front door.

 

Sitting and watching a heavy snowfall, I am angry with the Cleveland Indians.

For a guy who lives within 50 miles of Lake Erie, I am not a winter person. I don't know about where you live, but where I live it's more than cold and snow; it's slate-gray skies, day after day after day. The lack of sunshine weighs on me and by February, without holidays to distract me, I am going crazy.

The way I get through it is baseball. I’m a baseball guy and my sport comes to the rescue every year, just when I need it the most. I arrive at spring the way a person escaping an unruly mob might feel once they‘ve reached safety: Relieved and exhausted and a little scarred by the whole experience. There to greet my escape every year is usually the Cleveland Indians.

Come February, I start counting down days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training. I start listening to any baseball report. I fill myself with team reports that are so premature, in a matter of weeks, they‘ll probably be irrelevant. I knows this at the time, but I gobble them up anyway.

Quickly that gets old and I start counting down to spring training games. Spring training games lose their luster quickly, and soon I am ready for games that count. Before I know, it the regular season and spring weather are simultaneously beginning. Hallelujah.

But this year I have been betrayed. Baseball has let me down. More accurately, the Cleveland Indians have let me down.

I wish I could care, but, seriously, what’s the point?

I'm not a fair-weather fan who only cares when the team is winning, but losing badly most years starts to weigh on me. And knowing they'll be bad this year isn't helping.

This a team with no starting pitching and no real power. You know what that typically adds up to in the American League? A lot of losses.

What am I supposed to do, get excited about Russell Branyan? Travis Hafner? Who's our second pitcher? Fausto Carmona? A guy who was lights out for one season, but, since that postseason, when he melted down against Boston, hasn‘t had good control over his pitches? Is the hiring of Manny Acta supposed to make me eager for a 90-loss season?

I'm not trying to pile on. Taking shots at the players and the new manager isn't fair. It's not their fault.

It’s the fault of the guys who write the checks.

Years ago, the Dolans made it known to their fans that they were no longer going to overspend on the team’s payroll. The message was that if fans weren’t going to come to the games, then the roster would be a reflection of that.

Before you start nodding your head at this sort of fiscal responsibility, let’s take a look at this business strategy.

Imagine you own a restaurant that once did pretty well, but now is beginning to see a huge drop in sales. What do you do? Do you replace your cook with any guy off the street and start purchasing your supplies from some guy in an unmarked van?

Sure, you’d like to get your meat from a butcher, but it’s not in the budget due to slumping sales.

So now you have inferior ingredients prepared by an inferior cook resulting in inferior product. When customers begin to complain, you say to them, “Look, I know the food isn’t good. But if you buy lots of it for the same price as other restaurants serving good food, we’ll be able to afford to serve you quality fare again.”

How do you think that would go over? Let me tell you: You’d have an empty restaurant heading towards closing for good.

Revenue is something to be earned. You have to make people want to spend money on your business. It's not the responsibility of the customer to give you their cash; it's your responsibility to earn it. And since others also want that same cash, you’re going to have to compete for it.

But the Indians aren’t competing for anything. Rather than taking true responsibility for this, they are blaming the local economy and the lack of a salary cap and revenue sharing.

Allow me to retort: The Cavs and the Browns are selling out in this economy and both sports have higher ticket prices than do the Indians. And the Indians have the benefit of being in an outdoor sport during the best weather of the year!

The Cavs were always third banana in this area, but they are drawing every night and how are they doing it? They’re winning! Guess what, Indians? You’re now third banana. How does that feel? Congratulations on being fiscally responsible; you’re getting killed in the market.

Which makes me wonder: If they‘re just going to be mediocre every year and be hated by the fans for it, what’s the point in owning a Major League Baseball team?

It can’t be for the money. Certainly, with the exception of a few teams, an MLB team is not going to be a huge money-maker. Not many owners are going to get rid of their other investments and live off the fat of a professional baseball team.

So then you must own a team because you love the team or professional baseball or competition. So what’s the point of being involved if you’re only going to put out a product that nobody wants to see? What’s the point in being an owner that people loathe? Is it fun to be considered cheap?

As for the salary-cap/revenue sharing issue, that is the reality of Major League Baseball. I would think that if I were going to buy myself a major professional sports team, that I would put together a business plan of how I was going to succeed. And in doing so, I would look at the business environment to see what it would take to succeed. If the environment wasn’t right for me, I wouldn’t get involved.

Buying a baseball team, you’d have to know that if you want to legitimately compete, you’re going to have to spend a lot of money on talent. Fiscal responsibility is not going to win games; talent on the field and in the dugout is. And talent costs money. But talent also generates money, as people get excited about your team and come to see them play. This equals ticket sales and concession sales.

Instead, the Cleveland Indians owner Larry Dolan—as well as team president Paul Dolan—seem to be more focused on economics rather than on the performance of their product.

Being more concerned with money than with winning is something players are always demonized for, but it‘s what we seem to have in the owner of our baseball franchise. They want to win, make no mistake, but not at the expense of their pocketbooks.

The Dolans own a team in a city where the people want nothing more than for them to sell and leave. Really? This is how they want to be viewed? This is how you wish to be seen as a business owner? This is what you want your legacy to be?

Look at how people see Dan Gilbert, the deep-pocketed owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers: A hero. A savior. A winner.

If you’re Paul or Larry Dolan, isn‘t this embarrassing? Aren’t you competitive enough to want to be considered as savvy and as good of an owner? Are you really content to be thought of as mediocre? I just can’t get my arms around that. If you’re competitive enough to want to be in business, how can’t you want to be considered one of the best?

At this point, as the Dolans, you have two choices that will end all of this: Sell the team or start spending.

Selling the team tomorrow is not going to help your legacy and you’ll always be considered one of those bad owners Cleveland always seems to have. By trading Cy Young Award winners in back-to-back years, you’re dabbling in Ted Stepien territory as it is. But at least the pain would be over. Not a great option, but an option.

Or you can open up your pocketbook and start putting together a legitimate winner. Build the nucleus of your team with farm-grown product, but be prepared to spend on essential pieces of a championship puzzle. People will forget about the lean years of this decade if you can put together a consistent winner. You’ll quickly ascend from goat to hero.

But I get the feeling the Dolans won’t do either. They’ll try their best to replicate the Minnesota Twins, who are to be admired for their level of success with the budget they have to work with, but who also haven‘t played in a World Series for almost two decades.

They’ll continue to be disliked by a fan base pining away for an owner with the resources to spend on players. They’ll continue to give their fans little or no hope. They’ll continue to engrain themselves in the minds of the people of northeast Ohio as the tightwads who ruined every summer for those who love this team and this sport.

And I ask one last time: What’s the point?

Filed under: Personal Finance, News, The Economy, Housing, Mortgage, Banking, Credit Report, Budget, Lynnette Khalfani-Cox

"Foreclosure Alternatives," the new foreclosure alternative program announced today by Citigroup, may help cash-strapped homeowners in some regards, but it is also erroneously being touted as a way to do "less" damage to person's credit rating. Moreover, in many ways, the new initiative will benefit Citigroup itself far more than it will their borrowers.

Under its foreclosure alternative program, Citigroup would allow a homeowner at risk of foreclosure to stay in his or her home for six months -- as long as the homeowner turns over the deed to the property. During the six-month period, the homeowner must keep the property in good condition. After that, the homeowner must move. Citigroup will provide relocation counseling and pay $1,000 or more in relocation expenses. Citi will also consider covering other costs too, such as taxes, insurance or homeowner association fees incurred while the homeowner remains in the house.

While these are all clearly benefits that would aid financially-troubled homeowners, Citi's new foreclosure alternative program is also being hailed as a way to help individuals and couples minimize the impact of foreclosure on their credit scores.

Credit Misconceptions
An Associated Press story states: "In a normal foreclosure, a lender assumes legal control of the property and evicts the homeowner. But Citi's program, like other 'deed in lieu of foreclosure' efforts, allows the homeowner to avoid a completed foreclosure. While the owner must still leave the home after six months, the program results in a less severe hit to the borrower's credit score."

Unfortunately, the misconception that a deed in lieu of foreclosure does less damage to your credit scores than a regular foreclosure is simply not true.

According to officials from Fair Isaac, the company that created FICO credit scores, "The common alternatives to foreclosure, such as short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure are all noted as 'not paid as agreed' accounts and considered the same by your FICO score."


Information on the company's website, myfico.com, goes on to explain: "This is not to say that these may not be better options for you from a financial perspective, just that they will be considered no better or worse for your FICO score."

Citigroup is launching its Foreclosure Alternatives initiative in six states, including Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas. The company says roughly 1,000 homeowners are expected to participate, though up to 20,000 borrowers may be eligible. Depending on the success of the program, it may be rolled out nationwide.

In my view, Citigroup is to be applauded for at least offering people who are on the verge of foreclosure an easier way to transition out of a home -- along with some financial help and counseling in the process.

But let's be clear. Programs like Foreclosure Alternatives by Citigroup are implemented primarily because they benefit the lender -- not the borrower. As I explained in my book Your First Home, The Smart Way to Get It and Keep It, banks loathe having loan defaults and foreclosures mainly for two reasons. The first is financial; the second is regulatory.

Banks Are In the Lending Business -- Not the Business of Owning Property

Banks obviously sell mortgages and earn a profit (i.e. interest) on those loans. More important, foreclosures and people walking away from their mortgages are extremely costly for lenders. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, estimates that banks suffer an average loss of $58,000 for every foreclosed property. This is due to the lost interest, legal fees, eviction expense and other costs a bank incurs during foreclosure - such as repairing a home, marketing it for resale and paying an agent's sales commission. Therefore, responsible lenders know that it is definitely not financially prudent to return a home to its inventory.

Citigroup's senior mortgage executive, Sanjiv Das, acknowledged as much, asking AP: "Why should we all go through the foreclosure process and evict people?" Avoiding foreclosure, Das said, is "less painful for our borrowers as well as for us."

What's more, lenders know that federal regulators frown on financial institutions with too many bad loans on their books. So they always want to keep foreclosures at a minimum.

These two reasons explain why banks are interested in preventing outright foreclosures. They also explain Citi's motivations in launching Foreclosure Alternatives, which is directed at people at least 90 days behind on their mortgages who don't qualify for a modification or a short sale.

I'm not saying that Citigroup isn't also acting responsibly toward their customers, because Citi's aid will definitely offer homeowners some peace and security during a period of economic and personal upheaval. What I am suggesting, however, is that there is a growing awareness among lenders that they need to cut their financial losses and get more creative about tacking the nation's growing foreclosure problem. Foreclosure Alternatives and programs like it will help lenders reach these goals.

And with an estimated three million foreclosure filings expected in 2010, according to Realtytrac, I predict that more large lenders will emulate Citigroup's Foreclosure Alternatives program. When they do, it's important for those facing tough economic times to consider all their options, seek out ways to more quickly bounce back from financial setbacks such as foreclosure and to recognize what these programs can and can't offer from a financial and credit-rating standpoint.

---

Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, an award-winning financial news journalist and former Wall Street Journal reporter for CNBC, has also been featured in top newspapers including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Times, as well as magazines ranging from Essence and Redbook to Black Enterprise and Smart Money. Check out her New York Times bestseller, 'Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.'

 

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Tracy McGrady's name probably came up in conversation when James Dolan met with Donnie Walsh moments after Tuesday's embarrassing overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings.

Tracy McGrady's name probably came up in conversation when James Dolan met with Donnie Walsh moments after Tuesday's embarrassing overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings.

Tracy McGrady's name probably came up in conversation when James Dolan met with Donnie Walsh moments after Tuesday's embarrassing overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings.

"California sex offender residency restrictions upheld; Housing restrictions barring offenders from living near schools or parks apply even to those convicted years before the law took effect, state Supreme Court says": Maura Dolan has this article today in The Los...

The dream is over.

This year’s version of the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets certainly doesn’t look like “the same old Jets,” though. They’re more like the 1973 "Ya Gotta Believe" Mets, arriving out of nowhere to come oh-so-close to a championship.

They’re a team we’ll look back on with positive feelings, and one worth celebrating. They went further than anyone imagined, and have a future that certainly looks bright, with a successful coach and franchise quarterback in place (though Mark Sanchez now needs surgery on one knee and will be rehabbing the other—maybe he really is the reincarnation of Joe Namath ).

The whole weekend was pretty much a nightmare for New York sports, though. The Rangers were embarrassed by Montreal on Saturday night, 6-0, the Knicks were humiliated by Dallas, 128-78, the Nets lost to Utah, 116-83, the Islanders lost to New Jersey (OK, one local team won, but one of them had to) and, of course, the Jets were knocked out of playoffs.

Unfortunately, I can think of worse weekends that took place in my life.

I once spent a rainy Saturday and Sunday trapped in my house when I was nine years old while my father tried to sell me life insurance for 48 straight hours. There was the time when my wife went out of town, and I had to make my own dinner. Twice.

Oh, the horror...

Then there was the occasion when I drove down to spring break with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. For a full weekend I was stuck in a Volkswagon Beetle with the duo as they gushed about Roger Clemens and the Giambino. So all of those hellish scenarios help to put this past weekend in perspective.

Here are the top stories this week in the world of New York sports:

 

Close But No Cigar

The AFC Championship game pitted the No. 1 D against the No. 1 QB, and the QB won.

The day can be summed up easily: Too much Peyton Manning (but let’s not forget about Pierre Garcon—with a name like that, why isn’t he playing for the Saints?).

Manning is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, and even the Jets’ vaunted defense could do nothing to rattle or stop him. The Shonn Greene injury hurt the Jets, but Greene wouldn’t have helped in stopping Manning. At least they were beaten by a better team.

There was no controversy. No nightmarish ending. Imagine being a Vikings fan right now.

Losing certainly didn’t stop Rex Ryan from talking. After his Super Bowl favorite theory went up in flames, he took a little potshot at the Giants, declaring the Jets the “biggest show in town,” and he was absolutely outraged that Andre Dawson will be going into the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing a Montreal Expos hat instead of a New York Jets cap.

Yes! The Nets win the pennant! The Nets win the pennant! The Nets win the pennant!

OK, the Nets didn’t win the pennant. There isn’t even a pennant in basketball.

But they finally won their fourth game of the season on Wednesday, beating the Clippers, 103-87. It was their first victory since beating the Knicks on Dec. 30. Kris Humphries pumped in 25 points coming off the bench, Keyon Dooling added 18 points—10 in the fourth quarter—and eight assists, Brook Lopez had 19 points and nine rebounds, and Terrence Williams was all-around spectacular—seven points, eight assists, nine rebounds.

And, yes, they played defense, too.

In other news, Lopez will be playing in the Rookie Challenge for the second year in a row.

 

Let’s See How They React

The Knicks followed up their routine loss to the Lakers, with a 50-point drubbing to Dallas. It was the worst home loss in franchise history.

How would they react to that? By blowing out Minnesota, 132-105.

Well, at least we know they’re resilient. Unfortunately, they then lost a squeaker last night in a game they should have won (and Jared Jeffries and Al Harrington could be headed for surgery).

Danilo Gallinari was chosen to play in the Rookie Challenge during All-Star weekend, but David Lee was shunned by the All-Star selection crew. He took his frustrations out on Toronto with his 29 point, 18 rebound effort. The last Knicks to be named to the All-Star game were Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston, all the way back in 2001.

 

Mets Mini-Camp

The good news: Johan Santana threw off a mound for the first time since last season on Tuesday, and felt great.

The bad news: Oliver Perez also threw, which means he’s still on the team.

Perez has grown a beard and has a new and improved physique in the hopes that nobody would recognize him (except for the team’s payroll accountant, of course).

In other minor Met news, the team traded for Gary Matthews, Jr.

Here are the pros of that acquisition: He adds outfield depth, can play center, and he’s cheap (the Angels will be paying over $20 million of the rest of his contract, while the Mets only pay $1.25 mil a year the next two seasons).

Here are the cons: he’s a PED cheat, which was the reason behind his one good season in his career, he’s a supposed “clubhouse cancer,” he stinks, he’s old, and the Mets gave up a serviceable reliever to get him.

If the Angels can eat all of that money and find a sucker to take Matthews off their hands, couldn’t the Mets do the same thing with Luis Castillo ?

Oh right, the Mets are the sucker. I keep forgetting.

It looks like Fernando Tatis will be back yet again, and the starting rotation will also be the same old story. So much for any kind of overhaul or change in clubhouse culture. Omar Minaya just can’t let go of the past, can he? No matter how nightmarish it’s been.

The New Yankee

Say hello to Randy Winn. Say good-bye to Johnny Damon.

Winn can play all three outfield positions, but his main asset is, much like Greg Brady when he became Johnny Bravo, he “fits the suit”—meaning he signed for the $2 million the Yankees had left in their budget. Let’s face it, in these difficult times it’s hard finding 25 players for $200 million.

 

The Sinking Rangers

Nothing’s going right for the Blueshirts. They can’t score, they have no confidence, Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist are struggling, they have a four-game losing streak, James Dolan is still their owner, Glen Sather is still their president/GM, they’re sinking in the standings.

Things are snowballing out of control.

“The best thing for us to do is to get out of town; the further the better,” stated John Tortorella after Wednesday’s game.

You can run, but you can’t hide.

A variety of benefits have been held for those suffering and in need of assistance in the aftermath of the tragic events in Haiti this month. Now, Rhymesayers Entertainment is adding what they can by holding a benefit for Haiti with some of their biggest names. Slug of Atmosphere will host the event, one that will also feature performances by Brother Ali, Freeway and Jake One, among several others. All proceeds from this will go to Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam America and Yele Haiti.

"This is one if the greatest tragedies of our lifetime. It's time for all of us to help the people and families who are suffering," Brother Ali said in a statement. 

Sage Francis added that he wasn't very aware of the living conditions in Haiti before the earthquake brought this to light for him.

"It's embarrassing to admit how unaware I've been of the living conditions in Haiti. And that's before the earthquake hit. I'm honored to be involved with this fundraiser and I'm thankful for the conditions that allow me to be on the giving end of this charity. I trust that our fans feel the same way," he noted in a press release.

Brother Ali, Freeway, Sage Francis, Jake One, I Self Divine, Sims, Toki Wright, BK One, B. Dolan, Muja Messiah, Kevin Beacham, and DJ King Otto are all set to perform at the benefit, which will be held Tuesday February 9, at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Tickets are on sale for $20.

In Kansas City it is often referred to as "the process," a term Dayton Moore seems to have pilfered from the scrap heap of baseball in the 2000s or as others call it...Moneyball.  In most places, "the process" simply refers to the implementation of strategy (or plan) that a baseball team's management is using to build (hopefully) a winner. 

It is generally accepted that there are three possible outcomes to such a situation; first, the process works and the team wins.  Second, the process does not work and the team is forced to restrategize (generally the new strategy is built by a new strategizer or new GM and begins with the firing of old personnel). 

The third and final possibility, the front office blows right past the platform where the process begins, derails, and rides the train (of your team) into the desert night never to be heard from again.  Okay, so the third possibility is mostly hyperbole—but it doesn't make it wrong (Proof? See, Isaiah Thomas and Jimmy Dolan's New York Knicks).

The New York Mets have become that reckless, careening train barreling into the long good night.  They are led by their fearless (or feckless) leader Omar Minaya.  For Omar to carry all of the blame for the Titanic adventure that the Mets have recently become is not fair. 

Some of the blame should be shifted to the Wilpon family who have given Omar so much rope with which to hang himself.  Also, can Omar be blamed for the job that Jerry Manuel has done (or not done) with the culture of this "team?"  I'm not saying that this team doesn't have "grit" or "spirit" as was claimed quite often over the last three seasons...but where there is smoke...?

During his tenure as General Manager, Omar Minaya has often cited that it was his goal to build a team based on three factors; pitching, defense, and speed.  This must be why the Mets pitching staff has not really changed over the last four seasons (other than the brilliant insertion of Tim Redding into the rotation), even though it has been less than stellar over the same period of time. 

How about that defense, Omar?  About the only the Mets have been consistent with over the past four seasons is their defense...which has been bad.  David Wright has two Gold Gloves at Third Base, and while I feel they were deserved, many in the baseball industry think they are a product of Wright's personality and offense. 

Other than Wright the only bright spot on defense has been Carlos Beltran (and occasionally Jose Reyes).  The rest of the defense ranges from average to far below average...and Omar continued that trend this offseason with the pickup of Jason Bay (and now Gary Matthews, Jr.). 

The only place that Omar has been able to back up his rhetoric is with speed, the Mets have generally been the class of base stealing in the MLB over the last four years.  So Omar is batting 1-for-3 (.333 Avg), which while a good percentage at the plate—not so much in the front office.

It is clear from the teams recent history that Omar and his staff have lost cite of "the plan", and have been driving this train by the seat of their pants.  The problem is that the MLB (and the NY Mets) are not a video game, and there is no "reset" button... a team that does not stick to the plan ends up falling apart. 

Pitching, speed, and defense may very well be the way to win but that is not the kind of team the Mets are currently fielding.  The "process" ...the "plan", has been forgotten and Omar Minaya is now Moses leading Mets nation through a desert without a map...

It is this fan's belief that the time has come to "re-tool" the New York Mets.  It means biting the bullet and planning for a down year or two, with a bright eye to the near future of our beloved franchise. 

I think the Mets could be competitive this year, but to what avail?  I don't see this team being able to compete with this lack of planning over the next five to 10 years.  The "re-tooling" has to start in the front office; Omar Minaya and his staff must be terminated. 

The coaching staff must also be purged—the only member of the staff that should stay on, is the one who has been the most productive, Howard Johnson.  Other than HoJo every coach MUST go.  After this, the team itself must be broken up.  The only safe names should be Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Johan, Escobar, and K-Rod.

This is a spectacular core and a great place for any GM to build from (whose name is not Omar Minaya), a couple of key additions could make this team an immediate contender...but that plan is for another day. 

As 50 degree weather inexplicably makes its way to the North Coast on a January morning and since there are errands to run before football starts let’s get rolling right into a Lazy Sunday, starting off with a piece from Yahoo’s Jeff Passan on why he thinks the Indians find themselves where they do. While the article in neither revolutionary nor wholly accurate, it does present some great starting points on a Sunday that actually doesn’t look to be too Lazy for me:

Equal parts of the blame go to Indians ownership and management. The Dolan family runs the team on a tight budget. It doesn’t spend much in the draft. Not quite the flowerbed for prosperity. And yet general manager Mark Shapiro is the one who gave Travis Hafner – a designated hitter – a contract extension that runs $11.5 million this year and $13 million the next two years, plus a $2.75 million buyout for 2013. And he traded CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee the season after each won the AL Cy Young award for a grab bag of prospects, none of whom has come close to distinguishing himself.

All of which is to say: The Indians are in one of those awful spirals that never seems to stop, one issue begetting another. They locked up all that money in Hafner, which means they can’t spend elsewhere, which increases the chances of a rough season, which makes the Dolans wonder why they’re spending any money in the first place. It’s vicious.

--snip--

Low-revenue franchises like Cleveland cannot afford wholly miserable contracts. It torpedoes them. The New Yorks and Bostons of the world aren’t the best because they spend the most on players but because they can afford to take chances, completely whiff and write it off like a businessman does an expensive dinner. That cost a lot, huh? Oh, well.

The Indians will devote more than half their payroll to Hafner, Kerry Wood and Jake Westbrook this season. Such is not the formula for Rust Belt success. The Indians must develop players (which they’ve done) and engage in the fine art of flipping them for a new crop of young players (which they had done prior to the Sabathia-Lee miscalculations).

I highlighted the money line here (and it’s not the “awful spiral” one, which feels a little premature given that the Indians are two years removed from an ALCS appearance and that two of the three contracts he mentions are coming off the books after this year…if not sooner), which is where Passan puts most of his focus on the article. This is nothing new, but despite the incendiary portion of the fan base thinking that the Indians are left with an owner “unwilling to spend money”, the issues that put the Indians where they are now is that the money that WAS spent ended up being committed to players whose production dropped precipitously after inking their deals, either due to injuries or regressions caused by injuries (allegedly) as well as a lack of home-grown talent to fill the voids created in trades.

As for that home-grown talent void, I found it interesting that Passan writes “the Indians must develop players (which they’ve done) and engage in the fine art of flipping them for a new crop of young players (which they had done prior to the Sabathia-Lee miscalculations)”. All of that means that they are actually doing things RIGHT in terms of player development, only to be handcuffed by their place in the MLB pecking order. While Passan asserts that the team “doesn’t spend much on the draft”, I found this little snippet from FanGraphs as they were doing a recap of the Red Sox 2009 draft:
Despite the possibility of being hamstrung during each amateur draft due to consistently-late picks from finishing with such a good record each season, this first-class organization uses its considerable finances to award above-slot contacts to deserving talents. Over the past four drafts, the club has handed out 19 above-slot deals worth $200,000 or more, the highest number from any one club.

Realizing that you’re tired of hearing about the disparity in MLB from me recently (and I’ve just as tired of thinking about it), it puts into context what the Indians are up against here. With large-market clubs getting smarter at all levels of organizational development the Indians have struggled to keep up in terms of “out-smarting” large-market teams in the areas that the small-market teams used to still be able to utilize for player acquisition and development.

Going back to the piece, I’m not sure what Passan is intimating in the “Sabathia-Lee miscalculations”, if he’s ready to dub both of those deals as failures by the Indians in terms of player acquisition. He writes that CC and Clifton Phifer were dealt for “a grab bag of prospects, none of whom has come close to distinguishing himself “, despite 2 players from the CC deal likely getting the majority of AB at 1B and in LF this year (a year and a half after the deal) and the fact that the Lee deal was just consummated 6 months ago, meaning it’s still wildly early to denounce the trade, regardless of early returns.

Additionally, doesn’t it strike you as odd that small market teams can to perennially succeed in development AND master the fine art of flipping players (as Passan says the Indians have done)…and still they can be undone by a couple of “misjudgments” to the point that a particular fan base has tuned them out just two years after nearly making the World Series?

It’s been said time and time again since the middle of the 2009 season, but teams in markets like Cleveland attempt to build a group of players that develop and compete together, get good for a couple of years (with the hope that they get some hardware to show for their trouble), then watch a couple of those developed players go off via trade or FA as the team blows it all up and attempts to build it all over again.

Fans may not want to hear that, but that’s the reality of MLB these days…and if you’re looking for teams and GM’s that have thrived given their team’s specific economic standing in MLB, you may find this piece from Baseball Prospectus rather interesting as Shawn Hoffman did a comprehensive analysis of the performance of each MLB GM through the decade that has just passed, using a criteria based on team revenue and performance.

You’ll have to read the story to get to Hoffman’s criteria, but after all of the computations to rank all of the General Managers of the “Aughts”, Shapiro comes in at #6, with Jocketty, Hunsicker, Gillick, Friedman, and Beane all grading out higher in this particular grading system which takes available resources (hence the exclusion of Cashman and Epstein) and results into consideration in ranking the 40 GM’s evaluated.

Interestingly, the Indians are pegged as the 3rd best run organization over the past decade (behind the Athletics and the Cardinals) in the piece using Hoffman’s criteria and while everyone will be quick to point out that the Indians are coming off of a 97-loss season and are looking at an approaching season of uncertainty (to be charitable), the Indians compiled four 90+ win seasons in the “Aughts” (two under Shapiro) and have two playoff appearances (one under Shapiro) to show for the decade.

Using 90+ win seasons and playoff appearances as a barometer then, how did the Indians stack up in the 2000s compared to their Central rivals?
Twins – four 90+ win seasons, five playoff appearances
White Sox – three 90+ win seasons, three playoff appearances
Indians – four 90+ win seasons, two playoff appearances
Tigers – one 90+ win season, one playoff appearance
Royals – zero 90+ win seasons, zero playoff appearances
It should be noted that the last time the Royals had a 90+ win season was 1989. To put that in perspective, that was the same year that John Hart replaced Doc Edwards in the Tribe dugout to manage the last 20 games of the season.

But I digress…back to the “best-run organization” piece, did anyone else notice that the Athletics (who came in at #1 in the article) have been attempting to open their next “window of contention” over the last three or four years, stockpiling young arms just like another team you may know?

The A’s have turned the pieces and parts from their success of the early-to-mid-90s (6 of 7 seasons with 90+ win seasons) into a talented group of youngsters. While those teams haven’t been above .500 for the past 3 years, the seeds sewn from their trades of the past few years has finally started to blossom, most notably in their starting rotation as all but 15 of their games last year were started by players that were 25 or younger on a staff that had an identical team ERA in 2009 (4.26) as the Yankees did.

Both the Indians and Athletics realize what they are and while the off-season may be boring for Indians’ fans and may cause an inordinate amount of hand-wringing over Mike Redmond and his ilk (present company included), how does the alternative look for teams that aren’t nearly as self-aware of their place in the MLB pecking order?

Would you prefer an off-season where our team “adds” a guy like Rick Ankiel (who posted a .285 OBP last year…Trevor Crowe’s was .278) for $3.25M, leading Joe Posnanski to evaluate his Royals-related stages of grief?

It goes back to the Passan piece in that he asserts that “the disconnect between the Cleveland Indians and their fans has spread from fissure to full-fledged canyon, and this offseason is doing nothing to heal a relationship gone rocky” and while I don’t disagree with that, it points to the idea that people want activity for a team to point to in an attempt to show that the team is improving, even incrementally. However, the quiet offseason that “is doing nothing to heal a relationship gone rocky” shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who was around last July when Lee and Victor were dealt with a club option for 2010 on their contract. Debate all you like about whether adding those two to the 2010 Indians’ team makes it a contender, but in the case of Lee, there’s no question what he has his eyes on this coming offseason, at least according to Jayson Stark’s sources:
“Everyone in baseball knows,” said one AL executive, “that the two things Cliff Lee and Darek Braunecker will want next winter are a lot of years and a lot of dollars. This guy just played with a Cy Young (CC Sabathia) who got seven years on the open market. So why would anyone think he wouldn't be saying, ‘Why shouldn't I get that, too?’”

If that was the Lee’s position when he approached the Indians before 2009 about a contract extension and the Indians were sitting at 42-60 at the time he was dealt, is there any question that Lee wasn’t going to be around for 2010?

That being said, did the Indians get enough for him?
We’re not going to know for a while, though people are quick to forget that Carrasco, Marson, and Donald were among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects entering 2009 with Carrasco at 52, Marson at 66, and Donald at 69. While each started 2009 off slowly in the Phillies’ system (causing much of the consternation when the trade was made), the bodies of work that put them at that level in prospect rankings still exist.

In terms of why the Indians included Lou Marson and Jason Donald in the deal (in the context of the addition of Mike Redmond and, to a lesser extent, Brian Bixler and Mark Grudzielanek), I had an e-mail exchange with a consistently insightful reader (who asked not to be named) who had some interesting thoughts as to why the Indians opted to acquire Marson and Donald instead of OF Michael Taylor, who was reportedly available to them and has now been traded twice this off-season, once to the Blue Jays in the Halladay deal, then to the Athletics for Brett Wallace last month.

His thoughts on the inclusion of Marson and Donald (as well as perhaps why the Indians chose Carrasco) do make sense on a number of levels and it goes a little something like this…hit it:
The Lee trade ... I've been saving this one, but as a very belated baby shower gift, I'll give it to you...

A-21(A-): 227/300/365, 23:53 BB/K
B-21(A-): 263/347/362, 23:42 BB/K

A-22(A/A+): 346/412/557, 50:89 BB/K (671 mleOPS)
B-22(A/A+): 304/395/473, 64:109 BB/K (603 mleOPS)

A-23(AA/AAA): 320/395/549, 48:70 BB/K (730 mleOPS)
B-23(AA): 307/391/497, 47:86 BB/K (689 mleOPS)

You probably guessed: Player A is Michael Taylor, Player B is Jason Donald. The grains of salt here are that Donald is about 15 months older, and spent all of last year hurt. On the other hand, Donald is a middle infielder. Taylor's a left fielder. Taylor's numbers are gaudy, for sure, but his viability as a major leaguer will be contingent on his making the power translate; otherwise, he's Ben Francisco the Younger. Donald's defensive value -- and, look closely, his roughly equal effectiveness as a baserunner -- mean that even if his pop falls off a little against MLB pitching, he's still pulling his weight.

And remember the Andy Marte Rule: Do not get worked up because a minor leaguer hits 20 home runs.

So how's this for a trade narrative: The Phils offer Taylor, and the Tribe counters with Donald -- a legitimately better prospect but for the injury -- and Marson to make up the difference, thereby filling the need for a right-handed, MLB-ready middle infielder, and getting a young, solid, cost-controlled catcher who serves as Santana insurance, and whose presence allows the Indians to clear payroll and beef up the starting depth by moving Shoppach.

You could make a similar case for Carrasco/Knapp over Drabek, except, of course, for the fact that Carrasco compares favorably to Drabek already, as you've pointed out plenty.

So, Dave Cameron at FanGraphs (who ripped the deal saying Shapiro got “taken to the cleaners” or something to that effect) would be happy if we'd hauled in Drabek/Taylor. But the reality is, we needed two pitchers more than we needed one, and we needed skill position players more than we needed Yet Another GD Left-fielder, and Cameron, bless his heart, wouldn’t have to live with the Lee trade failing to equate to long-term MLB production.

Perhaps it was that idea of quantity in light of the attrition rate of these prospects (particularly the pitchers) and perhaps the Indians have put more stock into the idea that Carrasco, Marson, and Donald were “undervalued” a bit because they didn’t positively light up AAA Lehigh Valley in their first 3 months there. Perhaps it was the idea that a body of work longer than 3 months could be leaned upon more heavily in terms of taking a guy like previous flavor-of-the-month Carrasco over current flavor-of-the-month Drabek and likewise with Marson and Donald over Taylor (who did not appear among Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects entering 2009) in that they put more stock in three years of performance over three months of performance.

At this point, only time will tell if the Indians chose the prudent path…

Changing lanes and apropos of nothing, but attempting to leave this on a positive point, news that Andy Tveekrem is returning to the North Coast hit recently and if you don’t know who Andy Tveekrem is, allow this to enlighten you:
Tveekrem, 46, has moved back from Delaware, where he was the brewmaster for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery for the last five years. He and his wife, Vickie, who was a waitress at the Great Lakes Brewing Co. when he began his brewing career there, are renting in the Tremont neighborhood for the time being.
--snip--
He began with Great Lakes Brewing Co. in 1991 and was brewmaster when he left in 2000. During his time there, Great Lakes went from producing 850 barrels a year to 18,000.

Even if you’re not familiar with what Dogfish Head Craft Brewery has been putting out for the last five years (Esquire Magazine called their 90-minute Imperial IPA “perhaps the best IPA in America”), that timeframe of when Tveekrem was brewmaster at GLBC would mean that he was the brewmaster when Dortmunder and Christmas Ale were first put into production.

Anywho, Tveekrem is teaming up with the owner of McNulty’s Bier Market/Bar Cento to create a microbrewery “directly across from McNulty's Bier Markt, just north of the West Side Market”, it’s safe to say that the West 25th Street/Lorain area is quickly becoming quite a hub for phenomenal craft beers (call it “The Brewery District”)…something that can keep us warm throughout our North Coast winters.

Finally, it should be mentioned that I’ve been asked to guest host this Thursday’s “All Bets Are Off”, sitting in for the vacationing Bruce Drennan. The show will air from 3 PM to 6 PM, so be sure to set those DVR’s (if you happen to work at those times) or watch live and interact as much as you’d like as I’ll be talking Tribe, Browns, and Cavs while welcoming Tony Lastoria and others as guests for the 3-hour live show.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's government has declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over, the United Nations announced Saturday, saying there is little hope of finding more people alive 11 days after much of the capital was reduced to rubble.

The statement from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs came a day after an Israeli team reported pulling a man out of the debris of a two-story home and relatives said an elderly woman had been rescued. Experts say the chance of saving trapped people begins diminishing after 72 hours, but one mother still missing her children said it's too soon to give up.

"Maybe there's a chance they're still alive," said Nicole Abraham, 33, wiping away tears as she spoke of hearing the cries of her children – ages 4, 6 and 15 – for the first two days after the Jan. 12 quake.

Meanwhile Saturday, mourners gathered near the ruins of the shattered cathedral to pay final respects to the capital's archbishop and a vicar in a somber ceremony that doubled as a symbolic funeral for all the dead.

"I came here to pay my respects to all the dead from the earthquake, and to see them have a funeral," said Esther Belizaire, 51, whose cousin is among the dead.

The 7.0-magnitude quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission. The U.N. said Saturday the government had preliminarily confirmed 111,481 bodies, but that figure does not account for corpses buried by relatives.

Countless dead remain buried in thousands of collapsed and toppled buildings in Port-au-Prince, while as many as 200,000 have fled the city of 2 million, the U.S. Agency for International Development reported.

With the local government essentially incapacitated, the U.N. has coordinated rescue efforts alongside the U.S. and teams from around the world. Spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said the Friday afternoon decision does not mean rescue teams still searching for survivors would be stopped from carrying out whatever work they felt necessary.

"It doesn't mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act," Byrs told The Associated Press. She added, however, that "except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading."

All told, some 132 people were pulled alive from beneath collapsed buildings by international search and rescue teams since the Jan. 12 disaster, she said. Some 49 teams – down from 67 – were still in Haiti as of Saturday, the U.N. said.

Col. Gili Shenhar, a senior officer on the Israeli Defense Forces team in Haiti, said team members were still investigating potential rescue sites in Port-au-Prince on Saturday. However, he said it is unlikely more people will be found alive under the rubble and described being called to scenes by relatives who believe, usually incorrectly, they hear voices from the debris.

"Maybe there is one person somewhere, but the problem is how to find them," Shenhar said. A day earlier, the team reported saving a 21-year-old man who told The Associated Press he drank his own urine to survive.

With the rainy season on the way, U.N. relief workers are concerned that many Haitians are still homeless and Byrs said the focus now will be squarely on providing shelter and medical treatment. About 609,000 people are homeless in the capital's metropolitan area, and the United Nations estimates that up to 1 million could leave Haiti's destroyed cities for rural areas already struggling with extreme poverty.

On Saturday morning, more than 1,000 people, many weeping and clutching handkerchiefs, gathered in a small park for the funerals of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and the vicar Charles Benoit. Classical music wafted over their two closed white caskets covered with flowers.

"This is for everyone," Cleopas Auza said of the ceremony before it began.

Nepthalie Miot, a niece of the archbishop, choked back tears as she described the man who would have worked to comfort the nation after the disaster had he not been killed himself.

"He was a very compassionate person. He tried to help the poor," she told the crowd, which included President Rene Preval, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the Vatican's ambassador to Haiti, Archbishop Bernadito Cleopas Auza.

Only a small number of funerals have been held since the quake, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city, or burned in the streets.

"The hardest thing for us is the smell of all the dead bodies," said Josette Elisias, 45, wearing a red handkerchief to cover her nose and mouth on Saturday as workers cleared rubble and debris from streets with brooms, rakes and wheelbarrows.

Scores of aid organizations, big and small, have stepped up deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and other aid to the homeless and other needy in seaside city.

In the U.S., celebrities and artists made impassioned pleas for charitable donations during an internationally broadcast telethon Friday night.

"The Haitian people need our help," said actor George Clooney, who helped organize the two-hour telecast. "They need to know that they are not alone. They need to know that we still care."

More than a dozen Latin pop stars including Shakira, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee and Juanes were to appear Saturday on a special live edition of a popular Univision variety show to raise money for the American Red Cross to help aid earthquake victims.

___

Frank Jordans reported from Geneva. Associated Press writers contributing to this story include Mike Melia, Jonathan M. Katz, Michelle Faul, Alfred de Montesquiou, Paul Haven and Ben Fox in Port-au-Prince; Eliane Engeler in Geneva; Morgan Lee and Charles J. Hanley in Mexico City; and Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem.

More on Haiti Earthquake

The Indians signed another complete stiff yesterday. I am starting to wonder if Dolan's master plan is to make like a real life documentary of the movie Major League. If you haven't been paying attention, the Tribe has added the likes of Mark Grudzielanek, Austin Kearns, and Shelly Duncan as well as Mike Redmond who was picked up yesterday. If Mark Shapiro goes farther down the bottom of the barrel with his signings Willie Mays Hayes and Kenny Powers may be next in line for big league contracts.

Why do I sound so disgruntled? The Indians have traded 2 Cy Young Award winners in the past two seasons along with just about everyone else who has a right to be playing in the big leagues on their roster except for the ones that take very odd pictures of themselves. The added signings via free agency have a combined average of .246 and hit 6 homers, and 49 RBIs last year in the 684 at bats in the big leagues. Grudzielanek and Redmond are both nearing 40 and are closer to collecting pensions than contributing to a pennant.

read more

• The Casey Johnson saga continues: Yesterday, Nicky Hilton and Bijou Phillips, both of whom were pals of the late heiress, showed up at Tila Tequila's house to take possession of Casey's two dogs. A screaming fight ensued, and the police had to be called in to mediate, since Tequila claimed the two women were taking away the canines to be euthanized. There's some bizarre video of Tila acting crazy, if you're interested. [NYP, NYDN, TMZ]
• Peter Orzsag, the seemingly straight-laced White House budget director (and the owner of the worst toupee in Washington), has been hiding a little secret. It seems he got engaged to ABC News correspondent Bianna Golodryga a few weeks ago only after dumping his previous girlfriend, shipping heiress Claire Milonas, who happened to be pregnant with their baby at the time. [NYP]
• Speaking of embarrassing White House news, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the fameseeking couple who crashed the state dinner back in November, will be collecting $5,000 to host a party at a Las Vegas club next week. [P6]
• The reason Howard Stern regular, Artie Lange, was hospitalized recently? He tried to commit suicide by stabbed himself nine times, although surgeons managed to save him "despite heavy bleeding." [P6]
• Jersey Shore will be coming back for a second season—or at least that's what one of the cast members is now saying. In the meantime, the crew will continue to collect appearance fees for showing up at bars and clubs. Prices range from $3,000 to $7,500 a piece, or you could pay $30,000 for the whole bunch. And just think of all the hair gel that could buy! [NYDN]
• Lady Gaga has signed a deal with Polaroid to become the brand's "creative director and inventor of specialty products." It's a touch unclear what this will entail exactly, but she may develop "imaging products" for the company and market a line of Gaga-branded cameras and accessories. [People, NYP]

• Former Playboy model Loredana Jolie—aka Loredana Ferriolo or "Tiger Woods Mistress No. 10"—is joining the amateur golf tournament circuit and is also planning to publish a tell-all about Tiger's alleged penchant for threesomes... and men. Who knew? Also: Her rep claims Jolie had a nervous breakdown when the tabloids connected her to the Woods scandal, but clearly she's bouncing back nicely, isn't she? [P6, Radar]
• Speaking of Tiger, after yesterday's report that Woods was hiding out at Jim Dolan's place on Long Island, someone took his yacht, Privacy, for a spin, which led some people to think the star golfer was making his great escape. That wasn't the case, alas. The boat returned to the marina on Wednesday night. [Us]
• Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman—who has had two kidney transplants in the past—was rushed to the hospital yesterday after he had a seizure. His agent says he's "doing well" now, so let's all hope for the best. [NYP, NYDN]
• Mariah Carey has never been shy about her love of champagne, and it looks like she got hammered on a few dozen glasses before giving an acceptance speech at the Palm Springs Film Festival the other night. She repeatedly hugged Precious director Lee Daniels, laughed loudly into the microphone, "spontaneously burst into applause," had issues coming up with the right words, and spent stretches of time standing at the podium looking contemplative, before the crowd applauded her off the stage. [NYDN]
• Have you seen Kate Gosselin's new hairdo? Prepare to be amazed at her 20-hour transformation! [People]
• Remember how Lindsay Lohan claimed her former friend Patrick "Pootie" Aufdenkamp stole her designs for her fashion line? Well, he says the charges are "ridiculous" and she's stooped "to a new kind of low." And it's all because her "career is stuck at a standstill," he says, which sounds about right, doesn't it? [Sun]
• Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom say they're planning to try and have a baby. So our psychic's prediction was spot-on after all! [Us]
• Multi-taking model Heidi Klum isn't just launching one maternity line. She's got two of them in the works. [People Stylewatch]
• 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski got engaged over the holidays to her clothing designer boyfriend, Robert Godley. [People]
• Robin Wright has moved on from Sean Penn. She was seen canoodling with a "handsome, dark-haired man" in Mexico. [P6]
• Tiger Woods isn't the only one to have his ads yanked off the air after an embarrassing public scandal. Hanes pulled its commercials featuring Charlie Sheen over the holidays and won't be running them again. [People, Us]
• Heidi Fleiss's brother drowned over the holidays. And while she really, really wanted to make the funeral, she had to film a reality TV show appearance, so she was forced to skip it. Next time! [Starpulse]
• The People's Choice Awards were handed out last night, and basically every movie, TV show and actor you were expecting to win (Twilight, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Sandra Bullock, etc.) did just that. [People, MSNBC]

NEW YORK - Tiger Woods is not laying low at Knicks owner Jim Dolan’s estate, a spokesperson for the American businessman has said. “It is categorically false and preposterous on its face,” said Barry Watkins, who works for one of Dolan’s other ... Read more »».

Sports by Brooks: 'Apparently' the operative word. Like Tiger 'apparently' now drummer in Dolan's band. RT @barryap1 : Mayweather/Pacquiao apparently off.

(By @sportsbybrooks - Blog Feed - Sports, Sports by Brooks)

– The focus of the tiger hunt is now the northeast. After folks supposedly spotted the embattled golfer Tiger Woods in Orlando, North Palm Beach, The Bahamas, California, Palm Beach’s Everglades Club and a private holiday party at a gay couple’s Palm Beach home, a paparazzo’s most elusive prize is supposedly roaming the New York City area. Woods, 35, has been avoiding the media since his Thanksgiving accident near his Windermere home. But the glossy US Weekly claims in its upcoming issue that the philandering pitchman is staying at the Long Island mansion of the controversial owner of the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden, Jim Dolan. Woods is said to be receiving treatment from a shrink who regularly visits the waterfront estate.

– A source with a sharp sense of smell tells Page2Live that silver screen legend Lauren Bacall (The Big Sleep, Key Largo) must have had quite of few glasses of wine for lunch Tuesday, before she appeared at Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts to talk about her life. The source who approached the 85-year-old Bacall to have her sign a book also reported she could have used an extra squirt of perfume. Didn’t make her gig any less riveting, the source quickly added.

– Jenny Sanford, the soon-to-be-ex-wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, has just penned a tell-all about her ordeal of finding out just one day before the public in June that her MIA husband was still carrying on an affair with a South American woman. Staying True is due out next month, according to the Random House website. The title, according to the website, refers to the fact that Jenny, whose parents and siblings live in Hobe Sound and Jupiter, let the governor deal with the embarrassment of the revelations on his own while she “stayed true” to herself and focused on her kids. Don’t expect too many graphic voyeuristic revelations in this one. Jenny, we’re told, writes from a “deep well of spiritual strength.”

There have been more jokes about Rick DiPietro(notes) and his contract in the last two seasons than the total number of NHL games he's played in since 2008 for the New York Islanders. Looking to put an end to the jokes and doubts about his ability to stay healthy, DiPietro completed a rehab assignment with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League and will join the Islanders tonight as they begin a three-game Western road trip in Colorado tonight with the possibility of him starting one of the games.

DiPietro proclaimed good health after playing two full games for Bridgeport over the weekend and taking part in a 90-minute practice with the Islanders on Monday. Despite Dwayne Roloson(notes) and Martin Biron(notes) covering the crease for the Islanders, the team needs to gauge DiPietro's health with NHL games before deciding on what to do with their goaltender situation.

Now that the Islanders goal crease is crowded with DiPietro, Roloson and Biron, let those trade rumors commence! Biron's been the one who's name has been thrown around because of his unrestricted free agent status this coming summer and an attractive salary that's even less now that we're halfway through the season. The only catch is that DiPietro will need to prove he can stay injury-free for Garth Snow to even consider making that move. If DiPietro's health is good, the Islanders can grab a draft pick or two by trading Biron to a team in need of a veteran netminder.

Biron didn't join the Islanders to be a permanent backup and from what he told Steven Marcus of Newsday, it sounds like he's itching for a move, especially if DiPietro is back to normal: (sub: required, Boo Jim Dolan!)

"If the end result is that something might happen,'' he said, "for it to happen sooner than later might be able to give a team and myself a chance to get in a rhythm again."

...

"I want to play,'' he said. "I want to have a chance to do what I did the last two years when I was in Philly, take the team to the playoffs, and play in the playoffs. There was no better feeling . . . That's what you play for, that's what you want to do.''

Despite once being the next great American goaltender, DiPietro is now in full career recovery mode and any future injury here on out makes that 15-year, $67.5 million contract he signed in 2006 more and more embarrassing for the Islanders. It's hard to say if this is his last chance with the Islanders seeing as how Charles Wang may not want to keep paying an oft-injured goaltender for another 11 years. DiPietro is still 28-years old, but for a goaltender who should be entering his prime years, he's regressed to the point where he's back at square one, trying to salvage what seemed to be a promising career not that long ago.

• Michael Lee of The Washington Post: "Gilbert Arenas was asked after the game what he feared more, law enforcement or David Stern? 'Stern is mean,' Arenas said. 'I think he may make his decision before [the legal process plays out]. Most likely he's getting a lot of pressure, because of all the stories going around, to act. ... I've looked at some of the charges brought against other people and they were [suspended] three to five games.' The stiffest gun-related penalty Stern has handed out was a seven-game suspension for Stephen Jackson, who pleaded guilty to one count of felony criminal recklessness after firing five shots in a dispute outside an Indianapolis strip club. Arenas said it is easy for him to stay calm through this tumultuous period. 'If I really did something wrong, I would feel remorse in what I did, but I didn't do anything,' he said. 'You can slander me, or whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm still alive. I'm playing basketball. I'll take all the hits right now. The truth is there; there is no point in getting angry and mad,' Arenas said. 'At the end of the day, all that I want is a sorry. It can be small print. Maybe just one person do it, for slandering me. Because you guys have no idea.' "
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: "OK, Larry Bird. Your mess, your time to clean it up. Everybody knows Bird, the Indiana Pacers president, has absolutely no desire to leave his office and coach the motley collection of talent he has cobbled together for this lost 2009-10 season. But he has no real choice, not as his team continues to circle the drain, losing by 20 points, playing with neither pride nor passion. ... Bird needs to fire coach Jim O'Brien now -- even though, truth be told, this isn't completely O'Brien's fault. Bird needs to install himself as the coach. His mess, his cleanup. Larry, bring your ShamWow and some extra bleach. This isn't going to be pleasant."
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: "Stan Van Gundy's search for answers has begun. The Orlando Magic coach says he'll consider playing different guys. He'll look at putting different combinations on the court. He'll try to figure out how to ignite his team's offense. He reached that conclusion as a horrid road trip ended Tuesday night with his Orlando Magic losing 97-90 to the lowly, injury-ravaged Indiana Pacers. 'Look, we're just playing terrible,' Van Gundy said. 'Offensively, it's just really bad right now. We can't score. We cannot score. I don't know. I need to look at everything.' Winning on the road in the NBA is supposed to be tough, but not this tough. Not when your opponent was missing key contributors Danny Granger, Troy Murphy, Jeff Foster and Tyler Hansbrough because of injury or illness. Not when your opponent entered the night having lost nine of its last 10 games. Not when just 11,119 fans showed up at Conseco Fieldhouse."
• Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "No, this is not the same Skip to My Lou who so energized the Heat in 2003-04, when he played as a backup point guard to a certain rookie by the name of Dwyane Wade. And he still can take the wrong shot at the wrong time. But he has been itching for a South Florida reunion ever since signing that free-agent contract with the Raptors in 2004. Is it fair to Arroyo? No, probably not, based on what the Heat has done since he has been elevated into the starting lineup. But it would leave Chalmers as the backup to a short-timer, still with the opportunity to eventually reemerge as a starter. From the moment the Heat signed Arroyo, there were no guarantees. He certainly has been the good soldier."
• Phil Miller of the Star Tribune: "Brian Cardinal has earned nearly $40 million in the past decade playing basketball, and this season makes $82,000 per game, mostly watching from the inactive list. It's a fantastic gig, and he knows it. Everyone does. 'Every player in the league would tell you, [the paycheck] is unimaginable,' Cardinal said. 'It's the best job in the world.' One with some odd trade-offs, however. Several players around the league are being reminded of that as Sunday's deadline for players' contracts to be guaranteed for the rest of the season approaches. Once a player signs that contract, that piece of paper essentially becomes his identity. These days, it seems, the majority of NBA trades are about shuffling salaries and swapping contractual burdens. Which can be a jarring reality. 'Coming out of college, you feel like everything is about the team, like it's a family,' said guard Alando Tucker, traded to Minnesota by Phoenix last week as part of the Suns' effort to reduce their luxury-tax bill. 'When you get into the league, you have to understand you're just a commodity. You have to numb your feelings to it.'
• Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News: "The look on Ben Wallace's face was priceless. It's as if he had just sipped a warm glass of sour milk, as Wallace pursed his lips, shifted his eyes and his body twitched and recoiled. A reporter had just asked Wallace about the fragile state of the Pistons. Ben Wallace, for one, may be a lot of things but he's not fragile. And Wallace doesn't like the team he plays for to be thought of as fragile. 'Fragile,' repeated Wallace, the word sinking in. 'You keep using the word fragile. I don't really understand fragile. When I see that word it's on a shipping package, this side up.' Using the word fragile in association with the Pistons these days is understandable. A lengthy losing streak, slipping out of the playoff picture, and a roster in transition will do that. But Wallace, one of the bedrocks of the organization, isn't having any of it. 'We just have to get out and be consistent and play basketball,' Wallace said in his no-nonsense approach."
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: "For the Pistons, the beginning of the end of an era came Nov. 4, 2008, when team president Joe Dumars orchestrated a point-guard swap with Denver. Billups became a Nugget. Allen Iverson came to Detroit, in an ill-fated experiment to determine how many ball-dominating shooters a team could employ at once. Also sent to Denver -- briefly, and for bookkeeping purposes -- was McDyess. McDyess didn't play a game for Denver, accepting a buyout and re-signing with Detroit for the balance of the season. But the Pistons as he'd known them were no more. Detroit snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed, only to be swept by Cleveland in the first round. A few months later, McDyess and Rasheed Wallace left for free agency. With the Billups deal, McDyess said, Detroit 'broke up all chemistry.' 'I really didn't understand the logic of that trade,' he said. 'I guess they were in a rebuilding stage, and it's showing now.' Asked if he would still be in Detroit if Billups were still there, McDyess said, 'I think I would.' "
• Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star: "With Jarrett Jack as the starting No. 1, the Raptors, for various reasons not excluding a favourable schedule, have carved out a win-loss record of 8-5. True, their grasp on near-respectability is tenuous. But Jose Calderon, if he made the moment about himself, could make the argument, as Ford did, that he shouldn't lose his starting gig on account of an injury, and he'd have a point. He didn't make the point. Jay Triano, the Raptors coach, said he won't start Calderon in Wednesday's game against the Magic – 'I'm not going to disrupt the unit that we have right now,' the coach said – and Calderon wasn't exactly fuming. 'It's Jay's call. I'm ready to help the team, and keep winning games,' said Calderon on Tuesday. 'If I've got to be coming from the bench the first two, three, four, five games, or whatever, it's Jay's call. He's the coach.' Both Calderon and Jack spent Tuesday saying all the right things, that it's the coach's decision, that they'll do what's required. Far more telling, of course, will be the on-court performance of the group as Calderon works his way back into the fold."
• Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: "Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown doubts his team would have won this game a month ago. His players didn't see that as an indictment of what they were, but rather an endorsement of what they are - confident, cohesive, resilient. 'We have more control,' Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace (32 points, nine rebounds) said after a 113-108 home victory against the Chicago Bulls. 'There's not so much panic, not so much anxiety. When they make a shot, we expect to go down and make a shot. And then make a stop.' "
• Frank Isola of the New York Daily News: "The Daily News has learned that Magic Johnson's request for comp tickets to a Knicks game last month was rejected due in part to his criticism of Isiah Thomas, the team's former president and head coach, who remains close to Garden chairman James Dolan. The Knicks would neither confirm nor deny that Johnson was told that they wouldn't provide him with a ticket to the team's Dec. 7 game against Portland. A person close to the team says that when the Knicks didn't respond to Johnson's request immediately, the Hall of Famer later called the club to let it know that he had made other plans. A league source, however, contends that the club was reluctant to give Johnson a ticket because the Knicks were upset with the former Laker and didn't want to create a media firestorm at the Garden in the wake of his controversial comments relating to Thomas. In the recently released book about Johnson and Larry Bird entitled 'When the Game Was Ours,' Magic reveals that he was partly responsible for keeping Thomas off the 1992 Olympic Dream Team."
• Jim Peltz of the Los Angeles Times: "Nine is enough -- and surely 10 is too many. Or so the Clippers believe as they try to end a streak of nine consecutive losses to the Lakers when the teams meet tonight at Staples Center in a Clippers home game. The Lakers swept all four games from the Clippers in each of the last two seasons, and the reigning NBA champions also won on opening day this season, 99-92, on Oct. 27. But the Clippers trailed by only one point through three quarters of that last game. And several Clippers said Tuesday that they're confident they can finally topple the Lakers if they play to their full potential, even though the Lakers have the best record in the league. 'We can beat anybody, we can beat the Lakers,' center Chris Kaman said after the Clippers practiced at their Playa Vista training facility. 'The thing is, we have to play our best, we have to play our game the way we're capable of playing it,' he said. Clippers point guard Baron Davis said the key to defeating the Lakers is 'heart.' "
• Hoaward Beck of The New York Times: "Joel Litvin, the league’s president of basketball operations, said, 'we don’t separate player from agent.’ It is an interesting new twist in the N.B.A.’s longstanding rules on player speech -– one the union is contesting. But the league considers this a practical matter: If agents are free to make trade demands, rip referees or criticize coaches, then the N.B.A.’s player-conduct rules are rendered meaningless. ... If Nate Robinson wants to blame someone else for the fine, he should talk to Shaquille O’Neal, Vince Carter, Baron Davis, Tracy McGrady, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Peja Stojakovic and Ruben Patterson. All issued trade demands during the 2004-5 season, and the league considered it an embarrassment. So league officials took the matter to the bargaining table in 2005, notifying the union that trade demands would now fall under a player misconduct provision in the N.B.A. constitution. 'Our view is that a player who goes public with a trade demand negatively affects the identification of fans with the player’s team,’ Litvin said."