'Walking Dead' Creator Amputates The Season Premiere

Two legs are better than one, but one leg is better than becoming a zombie. At least, that's the logic Rick Grimes is hoping Hershel Greene will accept if — not when — he wakes up on next week's episode of "Walking Dead" and realizes that he's missing a limb.
During the "Walking Dead" season premiere, Rick and his group of survivors battled their way into an all-but-abandoned maximum security prison, securing one section of the facility after another in order to carve out a new home for themselves. But during their episode-closing mission, poor Hershel was the unwitting recipient of a zombie-bite to the leg, necessitating an on-the-spot amputation from a hatchet-wielding Rick.
Hershel's impromptu leg loss marks yet another change between the "Walking Dead" comics and the television series; in the books, the old farmer's feet stay firmly planted on the ground. But savvy comic book readers will recall that a similar leg-chopping does take place in Robert Kirkman's source material — just to a different character.
"It happened in the same way that it happened to Allen in the comics, with him being bitten unexpectedly, and Rick frantically chopping his leg off to the shock of everyone else. But Allen doesn't exist on the television show," Kirkman told MTV News about the premiere's biggest shock. "It's a call back to the comics, another one of those things that fans of the comic book series will recognize, but it comes in an unexpected, cool, and shocking way. It is, to me, yet another sign that the adaptation is going to continue in a way that calls back to the comic respectfully, but still has its own shocks and surprises along the way. I think that's important."
Also familiar to longtime "Walking Dead" readers: the fact that Rick and his friends are not alone in this prison, and we don't just mean the zombies. As in the comics, the premiere sees the Grimes gang encountering a group of prisoners who survived the undead uprising, albeit differently from the way these parties meet in the books. It's not all different, however, as Kirkman revealed that one prisoner in particular comes directly from comic book land.
"Axel's there. He's the guy who says 'Holy s---!' He's a character from the comics and we'll be seeing a lot more of him," promised Kirkman. He also promised that Axel's signature line -- "You follow me?" -- will be uttered at least "a few times" in the coming episodes.
Axel aside, Kirkman cautioned that there would be more significant differences between the comics' prisoners and the show's prisoners to come, yet another move to keep reader-viewers on their toes.
"There are analogues from the comics who do many of the things you saw from the comics, but there are also big changes to the storyline," he teased. "There are moments from the comics that won't make it onto the TV show. Those prisoners borrow a lot from the comic books, but there's new elements added as well."

Review Revue: ‘Battleship,’ ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting,’ ‘The Dictator’

This week at the movies brings us a trio of cinematic adaptations from disparate source materials: a board game (“Battleship,” starring Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna, and Liam Neeson), a self-help book (“What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” starring Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, and Elizabeth Banks), and a Charlie Chaplin classic (“The Dictator,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Anna Faris). Find out what the critics have to say.
“Battleship”
A big-budget blockbuster based upon a board game, “Battleship” all but promises empty-headed thrills. On that count, critics say, it succeeds, though they also note that a few mindlessly awesome set pieces can’t totally compensate for the film’s thuddingly silly script. Years after NASA has sent a message to a nearby planet, a group of alien ships visit earth – and they do not come in peace. A group of naval officers leads the charge against the invading armada, and explosions ensue. “Battleship” is currently at 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer; check out some of the reviews here:
Rotten: “Hey, if you’re Hasbro and Universal, and you’ve agreed to make a movie based on nothing more than brand recognition of a game, you’ve got to fill two hours with something.” — Tom Russo, Boston Globe
Rotten: “‘Battleship’ has the IQ of a rutabaga and doesn’t require much more intelligence than that to watch.” — James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Rotten: “As big, dumb summer movies go… this is just another big, dumb summer movie. And one that makes you feel slightly dumber for having watched it.” — Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
Fresh: “‘Battleship’ is big, dumb fun that knows it’s big, dumb fun and enthusiastically embraces its big, dumb, fun nature.” — Christy Lemire, Associated Press
“What to Expect When You’re Expecting”
Since it was first published in 1984, the popular self-help book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” has helped to guide women through the turbulent months of pregnancy. Unfortunately, the big screen version lacks the unpredictability of real life, stranding its talented cast in a sitcommy plot. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Dennis Quaid, and Chris Rock, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” is the story of five interconnected couples dealing with a variety of pregnancy and childbirth-related issues, and it features plenty of spirited discussions from both male and female perspectives. “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” is currently at 30 percent on the Tomatometer; here’s what some of the critis are saying:
Rotten: “‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ doesn’t find new laughs, just layers on attempts at the tried-and-true ones — think one scene in which a woman howls and makes funny faces during labor is funny? How about many of them together?” — Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline
Rotten: “Several ensemble scenarios have rich promise for interplay, but the manner in which they are staged, photographed and edited undercut their reality.” — Brent Simon, Screen International
Rotten: “Expect that two hours will feel like nine months, and that before it’s over you’ll be screaming for an epidural to your brain.” — Ann Lewinson, Kansas City Star
Fresh: “As sociology, it’s skin-deep, but if you’re a parent or preparing to be one, you might see yourself in a few of these folks and have a good time doing so.” — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
“The Dictator”
With the gonzo documentaries “Borat” and “Bruno,” Sacha Baron Cohen established himself as one of contemporary cinema’s most merciless satirists. Now he’s graduated to scripted comedy, and critics say that while “The Dictator” isn’t as outrageous or as teeth-clenchingly funny as “Borat,” it’s just funny and un-P.C. enough to prove that Cohen hasn’t gone soft. This loose remake of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” is the tale of an oppressive, buffoonish North African despot who survives a coup attempt that leaves him wandering the streets of New York City until a kindly hippie grocer (Anna Faris) takes a shine to him. “The Dictator” is currently at 62 percent on the Tomatometer; here are some of the reviews:
Fresh: “‘The Dictator’ is loose and slap-happy and full of sharp political barbs and has funny actors moving in and out — and at a lickety-split 83 minutes, it doesn’t wear out its welcome.” — David Edelstein, NPR
Fresh: “By cracking wise about subjects most people are hesitant even to mention, Cohen shows us where our boundaries are and then makes us question why we’ve put them there in the first place.” — Mathew DeKinder, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rotten: “‘The Dictator’ has a few laughs along its bumpy path, but not enough of them to indicate that Cohen has found a means to escape the shadows of his early career and forge a second act for himself.” — Shawn Levy, The Oregonian

Flesh-eating bacteria finds a fighter

ATLANTA — Faced with the prospect of losing both hands and her one remaining foot, a young Georgia woman battling to survive a case of flesh-eating bacteria that already has claimed one leg mouthed the words “Let’s do this.”
Aimee Copeland, 24, “shed no tears, she never batted an eyelash,” her father, Andy Copeland, wrote on Facebook yesterday about the conversation he and his wife had with their daughter the day before.
“I was crying because I am a proud father of an incredibly courageous young lady,” Copeland wrote.
It was not immediately clear yesterday evening whether the surgeries had been performed, and a post to a blog about the woman’s progress simply said, “Aimee is doing well today. Her vital signs are as positive as her spirit.”
Copeland’s battle to survive has inspired an outpouring of support from around the world. The University of West Georgia student developed a rare condition called necrotizing fasciitis after suffering a deep cut in her leg in a May 1 fall from a homemade zip line over the Little Tallapoosa River.
She has been hospitalized in critical condition at an Augusta hospital, battling kidney failure and other organ damage. She had been on a breathing tube until recently, when doctors performed a tracheotomy.
Until Thursday, Aimee Copeland did not know the full extent of her condition, only that her hands were badly infected.
Andy Copeland said he told his daughter about what had happened since the accident, how her one leg had been amputated. Doctors had once characterized her chances of survival as “slim to none.”& amp; amp; lt; /p>
“We told her of the outpouring of love from across the world,” her father said. “We told her that the world loved and admired her. We explained that she had become a symbol of hope, love and faith. Aimee’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She was amazed.”
Andy Copeland said he learned on Thursday that doctors wanted to amputate his daughter’s hands and remaining foot. Doctors were concerned that she could develop respiratory problems, and if her hands released an infection in her body, there was a risk she could become septic again, her father said.
“We had a window of opportunity to perform the amputations and have a successful outcome,” he said.
At that point, the family decided to share the situation with their daughter.
Copeland said he showed his daughter her hands, told her they were not healthy and were hampering her progress.

Celtics collapse in Game 4 after succumbing to Sixers' tricks; series tied 2-2

PHILADELPHIA – Of all the teams to fall for the trick, you’d expect the Boston Celtics to be the last.
They had to know the reaching hands were coming; the grabbing, the tearing, the slapping and the shoving. Whatever dream of a season this had been for the Philadelphia 76ers was now reduced – with an 18-point deficit in a series about to go 3-1 – to the final act of the desperate.
Their only hope was to make the Celtics snap.
And then it worked.
This was in the second half of Friday’s Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals the Celtics were controlling. With no other choice, the Sixers brought the elbows and shoulders and subtle pushes. And unpredictably there followed the unraveling. It arrived in a forearm of Kevin Garnett brushing away an opponent on a loose ball. Then it followed a possession later in an angry Garnett drive toward the basket that brought much of Sixers forward Elton Brand’s hand latched onto his face.
After that, it seemed whatever crisp basketball the Celtics had been playing was gone. This series that should be a game away from being over is instead tied. And that means the Sixers have done nothing if not dragged the old and weary Celtics into at least a six-game series they did not want.
All because the young inexperienced team pulled an old playground gimmick on the wise and experienced Celtics – and it worked.
[Also: Dwyane Wade clashes with Miami Heat coach during awful Game 3]
“After we got those technical fouls, we did go on a [13-2] run,” Brand later said standing alone at his locker.
Brand smiled. He was asked if the Celtics “unraveled.” He didn’t want to say that, he replied, but he kept smiling, leaving unspoken the notion that Boston had done exactly that.
“We had to muck it up,” he said. “We had a lot of bodies to bring and that worked to our advantage.”
This, of course, would not be the first time Garnett has reacted poorly to rough and physical play. At times he is a 6-foot-11 stick of dynamite ready to explode at the slightest spark from an elbow or official's call. He didn’t retaliate against Brand for the technical, but his exaggerated attempts to stay away from a conflict showed he was well in its center.
Ultimately, it wasn’t just Garnett who broke the wonderful spell the Celtics seemed to have held on the Sixers for the first half. But so much of Boston’s psyche rides on the emotions of its starting center. Once the Philadelphia players started to torment Garnett, his teammates lost composure too.
It came in little things: fouls, missed shots and turnovers. As the third quarter dragged on in the game that was supposed to break the 76ers, the team breaking instead was Boston.
“I thought [Philadelphia] came out [in the second half] and became more physical, and I think we got into that instead of playing basketball,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers later said. “Quite honestly, I thought we lost the composure we once [had]. We really never returned to playing basketball the way we played in the first half."
What seemed to stun Rivers was how this could happen. This has been an ugly series, one with so many missed shots and fouls and free throws. The Celtics fully understood the limitations of a Sixers team that could give 36 minutes to guard Evan Turner so he could clank 17 of 22 shots. As long as Boston played smart and its older players could stay reasonably healthy this wouldn’t be a tough series.
[Also: Spurs still rolling in playoffs while 'super teams' show cracks ]
Best to let Philadelphia make the mistakes, which it did for two quarters in Game 4. Then came the muck.
“It wasn’t planned or anything, we just knew it was something we had to do,” Brand said.
“When you have a chance to go up 3-1 in a series and you’re up and you’re on the road what else [is Philadelphia] going to do?” Rivers said. “They’re going to get into you. They are going to grab your hands. They are going to foul you. To me, that’s what they should do.
“But we act like we’re surprised by it. So I was disappointed in that.”
Boston was never the same after the technical. The Celtics maintained their lead into the early minutes of the fourth quarter yet something was clearly gone. The Sixers, who had 12 points in the first quarter, had 33 in the last. Garnett, who has taken a beating in this series, had nine points and was in foul trouble for much of the second half.
“It was a little frustration for us,” Brand said. “You want to play hard, things aren’t going your way, you want to step up a little bit.”
So the pushes. So the grabs. So the little slaps to the forearms.
So the last hope of the desperate.

Lakers win it at the line; 76ers stun Celtics to even series

 
 

The obituaries for the Los Angeles Lakers can be put away, at least for now. The Lakers are alive in their Western Conference semifinal series with the Oklahoma City Thunder after a jaw-dropping free-throw performance Friday night enabled them to hang on for a 99-96 victory.

 

 

The Lakers trail the series 2-1 with Game 4 Saturday night in L.A.
The Lakers made 41 of 42 free throws (only Andrew Bynum missed one) and Kobe Bryant scored 36 points, helping L.A. claw back from a late five-point deficit. The performance at the line was the second-best in NBA playoff history for teams with more than 30 attempts. Only Dallas' 49-for-50 effort against San Antonio on May 19, 2003, was better.
The Thunder were 26-for-28 from the line, but it wasn't quite enough.
Over in the Eastern Conference, the decades-long rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics has rarely had a more memorable finish from a Philly point of view than what was witnessed Friday night. The Celtics just want to forget it.
The Sixers trailed 14-0 to start, then 20-5, then 46-31 at halftime after shooting 23% in the first two quarters.

 

And they won the game going away.
Whether it be attributed to younger legs or a stronger will, the 76ers blew past the Celtics in the second half for a 92-83 victory that tied their Eastern semifinal series 2-2.
After a first half in which they barely had more field goals (nine) than turnovers (seven), the Sixers were booed by their fans as they headed to the locker room. But they decided they weren't ready to head back to Boston Monday facing elimination.
Perhaps even more surprising, though, was the way battle-tested Boston went cold and melted down after what looked like it would be an easy win. The Celtics look nothing more than mediocre in these playoffs and are making things hard on themselves.
"We lost our composure," coach Doc Rivers said.
Winners:
Kobe Bryant -- Fourteen of his 36 points came in the fourth quarter, and he made all 18 of his free throws on the night. Talk about answering the call in a must-win game.
Pau Gasol -- The Lakers forward on Friday won the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for his extensive charity work as a UNICEF ambassador, winning a vote by members of the Professional Basketball Writers Association. Gasol has traveled the world to raise awareness for UNICEF over the past seven years, primarily working on programs involving nutrition, education and health care for children. He also has strong ties to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, where he began his NBA career
Andre Iguodala -- He converted only five field goals, but two of them, including a huge three-pointer, gave the Sixers a late five-point lead.
Lavoy Allen -- Sixers rookie forward, a second-round pick, has seen his playing time jump recently and contributed eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds Friday in more than 32 minutes off the bench.
Losers:
Thunder players not named Durant, Westbrook and Harden -- The OKC big three combined for 73 points, but the other seven players who saw action accumulated only 23 and missed 19 of 29 shots. More will be needed.
Kevin Garnett -- Ugly numbers for the Celtics frontcourt star, who otherwise has had a good series: Nine points on 3-for-12 shooting along with seven turnovers. With their big man struggling, the Celts followed suit.

'Ring of Fire' during Monday's solar eclipse

New Delhi, May 19 — Sky gazers in parts of the world are up for a celestial treat Monday (May 21) when an annular solar eclipse takes place - a rare event in which the sun will appear as a thin ring behind the moon. However, in India it will only be visible in the northeastern states.
An annual solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun, therefore only a part of the sun gets blocked. Hence the Sun appears like an annulus (ring), surrounding the outline of the Moon.
The next annular solar eclipse will occur after 18 years in June 2030.
"An annular eclipse of the Sun will occur May 21. The ending of the partial phase of the eclipse will be visible for a very short duration from northeast India after sunrise," said an official of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Other parts of India won't be able to watch the eclipse as it will be over before sunrise.
SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators & Educators) is taking an expedition of school students to Hong Kong to witness the annular solar eclipse, where it will be visible clearly.
"A total of 70 students from various schools are in Hong Kong to witness this rare celestial event," said C.B. Devgun, SPACE president, who is heading the tour.
He said the students will also participate in scientific activities and experiments, including contact timing measurement, a study of change in ambient temperature and lunar limb profile measurements.
"As the Sun won't be fully covered, you have to wear proper protection for your eyes even during the eclipse. You will also need a filter (ND filter or similar) for your camera to protect the sensor when taking pictures with telephoto/zoom lens," he said

Facebook stock debut isn't as friendly as expected

NEW YORK — It was barely a "like" and definitely not a "love" from Facebook investors as the online social network's stock failed to live up to the hype in its trading debut Friday.

One of the most highly anticipated IPOs in Wall Street history ended on a bland note, with Facebook's stock closing at $38.23, up 23 cents from Thursday night's pricing.
That meant the company founded in 2004 in a Harvard dorm room is worth about $105 billion, more than Amazon.com, McDonald's and Silicon Valley icons Hewlett-Packard and Cisco.
It also gave 28-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg a stake worth $19,252,698,725.50.
"Going public is an important milestone in our history," Zuckerberg said before he symbolically rang Nasdaq's opening bell from company headquarters at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, Calif. "But here's the thing: Our mission isn't to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected."
But for many seeking a big first-day pop in Facebook's share price, the single-digit increase was somewhat of a letdown.
"This is like kissing your sister," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPO Scoop, a research firm. "With all the drumbeats and hype, I don't think there'll be barroom bragging tonight."
Added Nick Einhorn, an analyst with IPO advisory firm Renaissance Capital:
"It wasn't quite as exciting as it could have been," he said. "But I don't think we should view it as a failure."
Indeed, the small jump in price could be seen as an indication that Facebook and the investment banks that arranged the IPO priced the stock in an appropriate range.
And it was good for ordinary investors, who are often shut out from IPOs or buy the stock at a high price on day one.
Facebook offered 15 percent of its available stock in the IPO, so there was enough to meet demand. In comparison, Google offered just 7.2 percent of its stock when it went public in 2004 — and rose 18 percent on day one.
Here was Facebook's "timeline" Friday, trading under the symbol "FB" on the Nasdaq Stock Market:
The stock opened at 11:30 a.m. at $42.05, but soon dipped to $38.01. It briefly traded at one point as high as $45 and by noon was at $40.40. It fluttered throughout the afternoon and hugged the $38 mark for much of the final hour, before closing at $38.23.
By the end of the day, about 570 million shares had changed hands, a huge trading volume for any company.

View full sizeZef Nikolla/Facebook via Getty ImagesFacebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rings the Nasdaq opening bell on Friday in Menlo Park, Calif.

TD Ameritrade reported that in the first 45 minutes of trading, Facebook accounted for a record 24 percent of trades executed by its customers.
By comparison, on its first day back on the stock market, in November 2010, General Motors represented 7 percent of overall trades on the online brokerage.
Steve Quirk, who oversees trading strategy at TD Ameritrade, said that about 60,000 orders were lined up before Facebook opened.
Other social-media companies, most of whom have gone public in the last year, saw their shares plummet when it became clear what kind of reception Facebook was getting in the public market. Shares of game-maker Zynga Inc. and reviews site Yelp Inc. both hit all-time lows.
The stock market will now begin assigning a dollar value to Facebook that will rise and fall with investor whims. It will be subject to broad economic forces and held accountable for profit it earns —or loses— from one quarter to the next.
Facebook is one of those rare companies whose IPO transcends Wall Street's money lust. Since its start as a scrappy network for college students, Facebook has come to define social networking by getting its 900 million users around the world to share everything from photos of their pets to their deepest thoughts.
Most tech companies going public want a big rise in their debut to show they're "strong, dynamic companies standing out in the crowd," said Francis Gaskins, president of researcher IPOdesktop, but Facebook already has that image, and so may not care.
What's more, he said, most of the money raised in the IPO — $9 billion of $16 billion — went to early investors who want the highest price possible IPO price, and so they're likely happy with the modest firs-day rise.
Facebook is one of the few profitable Internet companies to go public recently. It had net income of $205 million in the first three months of 2012, on revenue of $1.06 billion. In all of 2011, it earned $1 billion, up from $606 million a year earlier. That's a far cry from 2007, when it posted a net loss of $138 million and revenue of $153 million. The company makes most of its money from advertising. It also takes a cut from the money people spend on virtual items in Facebook games such as "FarmVille."
Facebook's public debut marked a new milestone in the history of the Internet. In 1995, Netscape Communications' IPO gave people their first chance to invest in a company whose graphical Web browser made the Internet more engaging and easier to navigate. Its hotly anticipated IPO lit the fuse that ignited the dot-com boom. That explosion of entrepreneurial activity and investment culminated five years later in a devastating bust that obliterated the notion that the Internet had hatched a "new economy."
It took Google Inc.'s IPO in 2004 to prove that an Internet company with a disruptive idea could be profitable. In the process, the Internet search leader is forcing other industries to adapt to a new order where people have come to expect to be able to find just about anything they want by entering a few words into a box on any device with an Internet connection.
Facebook's IPO almost certainly will enrich other up-and-coming entrepreneurs as Zuckerberg uses the company's cash and stock to buy other startups in an effort to being in other talented engineers and promising technology. That's what has been doing for years. Since it went public in 2004, Google has spent $10.2 billion buying nearly 200 other companies. Those figures don't include Google's still-pending $12.5 billion acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which is still awaiting regulatory approval in China.
Zuckerberg's biggest deal so far came when he agreed to buy Instagram, a maker of a popular mobile app for photos, for $1 billion. Because most of the deal is being paid for in stock, Instagram is already getting richer. Based on Facebook's current share price, Instagram is in line to receive about $1.2 billion.
Friday's debut, though, resulted in deals worth much less.
Alper Aydinoglu, a DePaul University student who got 50 shares via Etrade at $38, said he was "disappointed with the first day of trading."
His gain on paper: $11.50, but that was before Etrade's standard commission of $9.99.
Aydinoglu still called it an excellent learning opportunity

Will Smith slaps journalist who tried to kiss him

MOSCOW (AP) – Hollywood star Will Smith has slapped a male television reporter who tried to kiss him before the Moscow premiere of Men in Black III.

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The reporter from the Ukrainian television channel 1+1 approached Smith on the red carpet, put his hand on the actor's shoulder and tried to kiss him.

Smith pushed him away and then slapped him lightly across the cheek with the back of his left hand.

It was not clear whether reporter Vitalii Sediuk intended to kiss Smith on the cheek or on the lips.

In any case, Smith appeared shocked by the journalist's behavior at Friday night's premiere in the Russian capital.

Iowa's Airborne Hunting Act Violation Slapped On Low-Flying Pilots

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors hope to use a rarely enforced federal law to punish two Iowa pilots whose low flying disturbed thousands of resting migratory birds in a case that centers on this question: Is it a crime to harass animals?
In a case drawing attention from bird lovers, two Des Moines men have been charged with violating a federal law that prohibits using aircraft to harass animals. A judge is expected to decide soon whether the Airborne Hunting Act is constitutional. Attorneys for the two men, Paul Austin and Craig Martin, say it's not.
Among the questions being debated: Are birds capable of feeling harassment? And if harassing birds is a crime, wouldn't Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger have violated the law when he accidentally struck a flock of geese before famously landing his plane safely on the Hudson River?
Both sides agree Austin and Martin were flying low on Nov. 16 as they passed over Saylorville Lake, a reservoir north of Des Moines known for birdwatching. Tens of thousands of pelicans, ducks, geese and other birds stop there every fall to rest and feed before continuing south.
A natural resources specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake, saw the two planes pass about 20 feet above the water, disrupting thousands of white pelicans and other birds. Once the birds settled on another part of the lake, the planes passed by again, sending them back into flight, prosecutors said.
Natural resources specialist Jonathan Wuebker snapped photographs and eventually cited Austin and Martin for flying "in a careless, negligent or reckless manner" over protected land.
Then in February, a grand jury indicted the men on charges of violating the Airborne Hunting Act, which carries up to one year in jail. Prosecutors also aim to seize their small planes — a 1974 Magnus Bowers Fly Baby and a 1946 Aeronca.

Prosecutors say the law applies even though the pilots weren't hunting because its ban on harassment makes it a crime "to disturb, worry, molest, rally, concentrate, harry, chase, drive, herd, or torment" animals with a plane. Wuebker compared it to using a car to chase deer through a field.

"When it is intentional or blatantly obvious, I would definitely consider that harassment. But that's not my decision," he said, noting trial is scheduled for May 30.
Austin and Martin have asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing the law is unconstitutionally vague. In a court filing, defense attorneys said it "seems doubtful" that animals experience the kind of human emotional response necessary to feel harassed. And how can pilots know?
"Flying is what birds do. Who can say if the bird is pleased or annoyed to have taken flight? Indeed, who can say whether the bird's flight was the result of any cognition and not just impulse?" they asked.
Austin's attorney, William Ortman, said Monday that the law doesn't draw a clear line between legal and illegal behavior.
In court documents, defense attorneys noted that planes routinely strike birds on accident. They cited the 2009 incident in which Sullenberger successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after a flock of geese hit it following takeoff. Under the government's theory, they argued, Sullenberger "likely 'harassed' the flock of birds that downed his plane, and he probably 'harassed' fish when he arrived in the Hudson."
Martin's attorney and a spokesman for the prosecution did not immediately return phone messages.
In a filing last week, assistant U.S. Attorney Cliff Wendel rejected the idea that Congress meant to punish pilots for something "so common and unavoidable" as bird strikes. But he said reasonable pilots know that flying planes at a low altitude above thousands of resting birds would be considered harassment. It's like one famous legal definition of pornography, he said: you know it when you see it.
People know when they're harassing someone, "whether it's an older brother picking on his little sister; a baseball pitcher intending to hit the batter; or two pilots, flying their airplanes 20 feet above the ground, while making two passes that both times cause 6,000 migratory birds to flee from their resting place," Wendel wrote. Robert Johns, a spokesman for the American Bird Conservancy, said Saylorville Lake was an important resting spot for migrating white pelicans and "this sort of behavior should not be tolerated."

Delmon Young suspended 7 games

DETROIT -- Delmon Young was suspended by Major League Baseball on Monday for seven days without pay following his arrest on a hate crime harassment charge last week in New York.

Young

The commissioner's office said the suspension is retroactive to Friday, when Young was arrested after a late-night tussle at his hotel during which police say he yelled anti-Semitic epithets.
"Those associated with our game should meet the responsibilities and standards that stem from our game's stature as a social institution," commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "An incident like this cannot and will not be tolerated. I understand that Mr. Young is regretful, and it is my expectation that he will learn from this unfortunate episode."
The statement from the commissioner's office also said that Young would be required to participate in a treatment program.
Young is eligible for reinstatement from the restricted list May 4.
The suspension will cost Young approximately $257,240 of his $6,725,000 salary.
Speaking before the Tigers game against the Kansas City Royals was postponed by rain, Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski said Young will not appeal the ruling and that he will not face additional discipline by the team when he comes off the restricted list Friday.
"Under the (collective bargaining agreement), there's no dual discipline," he said. "He'll be activated and ready to play on Friday. If he's not in the lineup, that will be the manager's decision. He's been working out over the weekend, and took batting practice today, so he'll be physically ready on Friday."

“ Those associated with our game should meet the responsibilities and standards that stem from our game's stature as a social institution. An incident like this cannot and will not be tolerated. I understand that Mr. Young is regretful, and it is my expectation that he will learn from this unfortunate episode.

Around 2:30 a.m. Friday, Young was standing outside the team hotel in New York. Nearby, a group of about four Chicago tourists staying at the hotel were approached by a panhandler wearing a yarmulke and a Star of David around his neck, according to police.
Afterward, as the group walked up to the hotel doors, Young started yelling anti-Semitic epithets, police said.
It was not clear whom Young was yelling at, but he got into a scuffle with the Chicago group, and a 32-year-old man was tackled and sustained scratches to his elbows, according to police and the criminal complaint.
Both Young and the group went inside the hotel, and at some point, police were called, and Young was arrested, police said. Young was first taken to a hospital because he was believed to be intoxicated, police said.
Young apologized to his teammates and fans in a statement before being arraigned hours after his arrest.
Dombrowski did not know any of the details of the treatment program. It is not known if Young would undergo sensitivity training, treatment for alcohol and anger issues or some combination.
"We have not been told those details, and we might never know all of them," he said. "When Miguel (Cabrera) was in a similar program last spring, I never saw the entire treatment program. The team is just told what they need to know to facilitate the player's work in the program."

Notes from the backstretch: Decision on Mark Valeski's status won't come until Wednesday

LOUISVILLE — For plenty of people in the Thoroughbred business, simply getting their horse into the Kentucky Derby would be reason enough to pay the entry fee.
Despite decades of trying to raise a horse with classic potential, Airdrie Stud owner and former Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones does not want to be one of those people.
With $260,000 in graded earnings to his credit, Jones' colt Mark Valeski has earned a spot in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Still, trainer Larry Jones said Sunday he and his owner would need to see something special from the Louisiana Derby runner-up in his final serious work to ensure the son of Proud Citizen would be entered on Wednesday.
Mark Valeski was one of five Derby hopefuls on the Churchill Downs work tab Monday morning. Even after the bay colt covered 5 furlongs in 1:00.20 under former jockey Larry Melancon, both Joneses remained non-committal, saying they would probably wait until Wednesday to make a final call.
"I'm not going to guarantee that we're in or out," Larry Jones said. "Tomorrow will tell more and we'll know, really, on Wednesday morning when I get on him. Especially if he tries to buck me off coming off that track, then he's in the gate."
Mark Valeski is not known for being a strong work horse by himself, so Melancon got after him early, working through fractions of :11.60, :23.40, :35.20 and :47.60. The 6-furlong gallop-out was caught in 1:14.60.
"You have to pay $50,000 to run against 19 other horses. So you better think you're loaded for bear," said Brereton Jones, who has never had a Derby starter. "This is a really good horse and he's getting better all the time but you better be at your best for the Derby.
"He's not drinking water after the work so that shows he wasn't really exerting himself."
Grade I winner Creative Cause, who arrived on Saturday, put in just the right amount of effort trainer Mike Harrington was hoping for Monday, breezing 4 furlongs in :47.80. The son of Giant's Causeway, third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs last November, ticked off splits of :12.60, :24.60, and :36 with a gallop-out 1:01.20.
"I couldn't ask him to work any better than he worked, and I think he did it fairly easily," Harrington said. "It wasn't like my rider was asking him for his life. The best thing is the way he handled the racetrack, so I'm just hoping Saturday the track is like it was today."
While Creative Cause and Mark Valeski came out following the renovation break, trainer Steve Asmussen sent his duo of Sabercat and Daddy Nose Best out shortly after the track opened. Sabercat, winner of last year's Delta Jackpot, went first, breezing 4 furlongs in :48.40 with Sunland Derby winner Daddy Nose Best covering the same distance in :49.40.
"It's amazing how similar these two horses are," Asmussen said. "At every stage, both of them. They showed up on the same van ride, they worked together six to ten times last spring and fall and both of them had two starts at Churchill in the Spring.
"When you look at where they're at here, I like the confidence level of Daddy Nose Best, the spacing of his races. And I like the experience that Sabercat has gotten with the travel and the dirt that he's taken. I think they both have a lot of positives going for them."
One day after his stablemate Bodemeister put in his final drill, the Bob Baffert-trained Liaison covered 5 furlongs in 1:00.80 working in company with Mile High Magic. The son of Indian Charlie put in splits of :24.80, :37.20, and :48.80 with a gallop-out in 1:13.20, finishing on even terms with his workmate.
After winning the Grade I CashCall Futurity in December, Liaison has had a rough sophomore campaign, clipping heels and losing his rider in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes, finishing fourth in the San Felipe and coming home sixth in the Santa Anita Derby.
"Today, he looked more like a Derby horse than he has in the last couple of months. I was pretty excited with the way he went," Baffert said. "He still has a ways to go, but the way he went today I think definitely he deserves a chance to run in the Kentucky Derby. All systems are go."
Dorochenko eyeing Oaks
Milania, fourth in the 7 -furlong Grade II Beaumont at Keeneland, worked a half-mile in :48.20 over the all-weather surface at Arlington Park on Monday. The Bernardini filly, out of 1998 Kentucky Oaks winner Keeper Hill, remains under consideration for the Kentucky Oaks, trainer Gennadi Dorochenko said.
"We'll see tomorrow," Dorochenko told reporters. "You ask so many questions, like FBI agent."

New York's Freedom Tower Hits Milestone

NEW YORK—One World Trade Center, the giant monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, will lay claim to the title of New York City's tallest skyscraper on Monday.

Photos: One WTC's Rise

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Ramin Talaie for The Wall Street Journal

One World Trade Center, built to replace the towers destroyed Sept. 11, 2001, on Monday gets steel columns to make it New York City's tallest building. Once finished, it will be one of the world's highest.

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• Metropolis: Why New York's Tallest Doesn't Measure Up

Workers will erect steel columns that will make its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 feet high, just enough to peak over the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State Building.
The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the so-called Freedom Tower and it isn't expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it is likely to be declared the tallest building in the U.S., and third tallest in the world.
Those bragging rights, though, will carry an asterisk.
Crowning the world's tallest buildings is a little like picking the heavyweight champion in boxing. There is often disagreement about who deserves the belt.
In this case, the issue involves the 408-foot-tall needle that will sit on the tower's roof. Count it, and the World Trade Center is back on top. Otherwise, it will have to settle for No. 2, after the Willis Tower in Chicago.
"Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records.
Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and antennas that extend far above the roof.
Consider the case of the Empire State Building: Measured from the sidewalk to the tip of its needle-like antenna, the granddaddy of all super-tall skyscrapers actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above the mark being surpassed by One World Trade Center on Monday.
Purists, though, say antennas shouldn't count when determining building height.
An antenna, they say, is more like furniture than a piece of architecture. Like a chair sitting on a rooftop, an antenna can be attached or removed. The Empire State Building didn't even get its distinctive antenna until 1952. The record books, as the argument goes, shouldn't change every time someone installs a new satellite dish.
Excluding the antenna brings the Empire State Building's total height to 1,250 feet. That was still high enough to make the skyscraper the world's tallest from 1931 until 1972.
From that height, the Empire State seems to tower over the second tallest completed building in New York, the Bank of America Tower. Yet, in many record books, the two skyscrapers are separated by just 50 feet.
That's because the tall, thin mast on top of the Bank of America building isn't an antenna, but a decorative spire.
Unlike antennas, record-keepers like spires. It's a tradition that harkens back to a time when the tallest buildings in many European cities were cathedrals. Groups like the Council on Tall Buildings, and Emporis, a building data provider in Germany, both count spires when measuring the total height of a building, even if that spire happens to look exactly like an antenna.
This quirk in the record books has benefited buildings like Chicago's recently opened Trump International Hotel and Tower. It is routinely listed as being between 119 to 139 feet taller than the Empire State Building, thanks to the antenna-like mast that sits on its roof, even though the average person, looking at the two buildings side by side, would probably judge the New York skyscraper to be taller.
The same factors apply to measuring the height of One World Trade Center.
Designs call for the tower's roof to stand at 1,368 feet—the same height as the north tower of the original World Trade Center. The building's roof will be topped with a 408-foot, cable-stayed mast, making the total height of the structure a symbolic 1,776 feet.
So is that needle an antenna or a spire?
"Not sure," wrote Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building.
The needle will, indeed, function as a broadcast antenna. It is described on the Port Authority's web site as an antenna. On the other hand, the structure will have more meat to it than your average antenna, with external cladding encasing the broadcast mast.
Without that spire, One World Trade Center would still be smaller than the Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower, which tops out at 1,451 feet (not including its own antennas).
Neither of the Willis Tower nor One World Trade are as high as the CN Tower, in Toronto, which stands at 1,815 feet. That structure, however, isn't considered a building at all by most record-keepers, because it is predominantly a television broadcast antenna and observation platform with very little interior space.
The tallest manmade structure in the Western Hemisphere will continue to be the 2,063-foot-tall KVLY-TV antenna in Blanchard, N.D.

'Octomom' Files for Bankruptcy, Owes $30K in Rent

"Octomom" Nadya Suleman filed for bankruptcy Monday, saying in a court filing that she has as much as $1 million in debt.
Suleman wants a fresh start and said in a statement that filing for bankruptcy is what's best for her children, according to the Orange County Register
"I have had to make some very difficult decisions this year, and filing Chapter 7 was one of them," Suleman said.
The La Habra mother of 14 reports up to $50,000 in assets in federal court filings, which means she owes more than 20 times her net worth.
Suleman is filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means a court-appointed trustee would liquidate her assets to pay off creditors before she is discharged from most of her debts.
Among others, Suleman owes money to her father, the city's water department, DirecTV and Whittier Christian School, where at least some of her children are students
Suleman also owes more than $30,000 in rent payments on her four-bedroom house.
The home's owner, Amer Haddadin, says his own credit has suffered as he allowed the home to go into foreclosure proceedings by not making the mortgage payments.
A foreclosure auction that was scheduled for Monday has been postponed for a week.
Suleman was in financial dire straits before the January 2009 birth of her octuplets brought her notoriety.
She lived with her mother in a three-bedroom house in Whittier that was in foreclosure proceedings at the time of the octuplets' birth.
The unemployed single mother had been supporting her six other children with the aid of food stamps and Social Security disability payments — sources of income that she continues to rely on.
Since the birth, she has cut deals with media outlets and posed in tabloid photo spreads to get by, touting a book and exercise videos that never materialized.
She earned $5,000 for promoting spaying and neutering for an animal rights group and was paid to take a beating in celebrity boxing matches.
In 2009, Suleman declined a million-dollar offer to appear in pornography.
Last month, semi-nude photos of Suleman ran alongside a paid interview in a British publication — a photo spread she defended in the tabloids, saying she wasn't ashamed of it.

Mayday! Mayday! "Mayday!" Bankers Panic Over May Day Demonstrations

"Mayday," which is used as a distress signal and derives from the French "m'aider ("come help me"), is being given new meaning by Wall Street and its Bankers in response to the upcoming "May Day" Occupy national protests.
This May Day demonstration will be the largest of its kind in a half-century and will take place in cities across the U.S. On May 1, 2012, tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S. and the world -- workers, students, immigrants, professionals, houseworkers -- employed and unemployed alike - will take to the streets to unite in a General Strike against "a system that does not work for us."
May Day is a holiday for the 99 percent. It is a day for people to come together, across all those lines which too often divide us -- race, class, gender, religion -- and challenge the systems that create these divisions.

The expected response from the City? Don't expect ticker-tape.
Being aware of the financial community's alarm and Mayor Bloomberg's mindset, I sought out one of New York City's most active volunteers (I was told she was "awesome" - and she is), Jackie DiSalvo, to determine the legitimacy of this hand-wringing and get a better idea of the "Occupy" side of this story.
I described to Jackie a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article titled "Wall Street Tracks 'Wolves' as May 1 Protests Loom" in which Brian McNary, a Pinkerton Global Risk director describes both Occupiers and the threat that "May Day" has for his banking clients and the need for "surveillance" of wild-eyed radicals.
"Banks cooperating on surveillance are like elk fending off wolves in Yellowstone National Park," he was quoted as saying... "While other animals try in vain to sprint away alone, elk survive attacks by forming a ring together," he declared.
As a spokesperson for the OWS Labor Outreach committee and member of the planning committee for the Mayday Solidarity March Coalition, she could only shake her head and sigh. "May Day, and Occupy, are both examples and manifestations of non-violent civil protest."
Pointedly, the extent to which Wall Street (and city government) will use their near-military police force to corral and subdue protestors will be the likely determiner as to how peaceful the protests will be.
(When I visited Union Square the other day for the student rally against $1 trillion in educational debt, there were close to 50 - FIFTY! - police cars surrounding the Park. If that is their response to several hundred people at a Student demonstration, what is in store for May 1?)

Are New York's Finest the "Hessians" of today?
Britain, in the American Revolutionary War, found it easier to go to German States to hire their armed military than to recruit their own citizens to fight an unpopular war. Wall Street must have taken note and put a more modern spin to this practice.
In 2010, JPMorgan gave the New York City Police Foundation the largest donation it has ever received -- $4.6 million. They outfitted over 1,000 officers with state-of-the-art laptops and communications tools. Donations are large and ongoing from Wall Street to the cops to this day... and one has to ask -- Is this not turning New York City's police department into the largest de-facto privately funded anti-protest army in the United States?
Will justification for police violence be concocted, as exampled by the police and the military actions taking place even today against protestors in Greece, Spain and the Middle East? Will the suppression of the "American Spring" begin on May Day?
Planning for exactly that possibility, New York City's Occupy has organized neighborhoods and sites into what it terms "Green, Yellow and Red" zones. The safest for protestors (from arrest and harassment) are designated green, the more problematical as yellow, and the more risky as red.
Is Green, Yellow, Red the New Red, White and Blue?
What will be your choice on that day? Green? Yellow? Red? Will you even be on the streets? Will you choose not to go to work or to school? Will you take a day off from shopping? Or, will you wisely (?) stay above the fray and come home to turn on the news to watch your more committed fellow citizen exercising for you the right to free speech and assembly?

Lakers' Jordan Hill charged

HOUSTON -- Los Angeles Lakers forward Jordan Hill faces a felony assault charge after an incident with his girlfriend in Houston.
Hill is charged with allegedly shoving and choking 28-year-old Darlene Luna, about 1 p.m. on Feb. 29 at his Houston apartment. Luna told police that the two had been dating for about two years. He was charged by Harris County prosecutors in March.
Hill will have to make an appearance in Houston to face the charge -- third-degree felony for assault on a family member by choking -- the Houston district attorney's office said.
The district attorney's office said that Hill faces a sentence of two to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. After paperwork is complete, a warrant for his arrest will be issued.
The Lakers have an off day in their first-round playoff series against the Nuggets before hosting Denver Tuesday.

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Hill was part of the trade that sent Derek Fisher to Houston March 15. The Rockets had a game the date of the incident but Hill did not dress for that game.
As word of the charge began to spread, two messages were posted on Hill's Twitter account: "Wowwwww," and "Unbelievable!!!!!!!!"
Hill later issued a statement.
"I'm saddened to learn of the accusations that were filed against me today," he said. "At this time I cannot comment further other than to say that my attorneys are working to gather all of the facts and evidence and I plan to cooperate completely with the authorities.
"I'd like to apologize to the Lakers organization and to all of their fans for the untimeliness of these accusations. I promise to keep my focus and attention on the playoffs during this time and to helping my team win another championship."
The Lakers also issued a statement later Monday.
"We are aware of the media reports alleging an incident involving Jordan Hill from two months ago when he was a member of the Houston Rockets," the statement read. "We do not have any details regarding these reports and therefore, as well as due to the personal and legal aspects, it would not be appropriate for us to comment. Any further inquiries regarding this should be directed to Jordan's representative."
Hill participated in Lakers practice Monday after meeting with Lakers coach Mike Brown and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak to discuss the allegations.
"It's not that we were worried about his mental focus, we just told him we're behind him and let the legal process handle it however it needs to be handled," Brown said.
Brown said that, from his understanding, Hill would be available to play in Game 2 and did not anticipate Hill's role as the first big man off the bench in the Lakers' rotation changing moving forward.
Both Hill and Brown said they did not expect Hill to be absent from any games or practices as the case unfolds.
"But again, it's something that's not in my control and if he has to miss, then he has to miss," Brown said.
Hill is in his third year in the league out of Arizona. He has career averages of 5.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per

Cinco de Mayo Food, Drink and Events In Connecticut

It's a day for potent margaritas, flavorful Mexican fare and revelry. Here's a sampling of what's going on in the region.
Agave Grill, 100 Allyn Street, Hartford, will have specials on Dos Equis drafts and Avion tequila (silver, reposado and anejo.) The restaurant will also feature an ice luge Saturday. 860-882-1557, agavehartford.com.
At Besito, 46 South Main Street, West Hartford, the party starts early with two-for-one margaritas from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. through Thursday, May 3. On Friday, dining guests can enter to win a dinner for 8 people.

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On Saturday, specials include tiacoyo de pollo ($10; queso fresco filled fresh tortilla topped with chicken in a poblano cream,) lobster empanadas with mango salsa verde ($12) and pescado enfrijolado ($26; seared mahi mahi over mashed boniato and a black bean jalapeno salsa.)

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And on Sunday, the Cinco de Mayo brunch starts at 11 a.m., with 2-for-1 margaritas from noon to 2 p.m. and live music. 860-233-2500, besitomex.com.

Geronimo Tequila Bar & Southwest Grill, 271 Crown Street, New Haven, offers a weeklong menu of $5 food and tequila specials, including "buffalo nickels" (mini bison burgers); goat, pork belly and brisket tacos. On Saturday, Cuco the Donkey makes an appearance from noon to 5 p.m., with photo opportunities and T-shirt giveaways. 203-777-7700, geronimobarandgrill.com.

Haight-Brown Vineyard, 29 Chestnut Hill Road, Litchfield, adds sangria (made from the winery's Picnic Red,) chips and salsa to its Saturday offerings. Get all 3 for 10 (or a glass of sangria for $6.) 860-567-4045, haightvineyards.com. 

Litchfield Saltwater Grille, 26 Commons Drive (Rt. 202) Litchfield, runs a three-course themed lunch Saturday for $20 ($15 for seniors.) The menu includes choice of soup (chilled melon cilantro or black bean) entree (grilled salmon with chimichurri sauce or chicken sopes) and dessert (dulce de leche bananas and cream or mango sorbet.) Margarita and beer specials are available all day. 860-567-4900, litchfieldsaltwatergrille.org.

Margaritas, 350 Roberts Street, East Hartford, marks the holiday with several pre-Cinco promotions. On Friday at midnight, the restaurant hosts a special toast to Cinco at midnight. Saturday's event, the restaurant's 25th annual Cinco celebration, features an all-day party. 860-289-7212, margs.com.

The Russian Lady, 191 Ann Uccello Street, Hartford, hosts a Cinco de Mayo party Saturday, kicking off at noon. Specials include "lime bowling" in the billiards room, a taco bar, $3 Coronas and a pub crawl (within the rooms of the building) starting at 9 p.m. 860-247-LADY, russianladyhartford.com.

Oaxaca Kitchen, with two locations in New Haven and Westport, features all-day happy hour specials, a DJ starting at 11 am and giveaways and freebies. oaxacakitchen.com.

SolToro Tequila Grill at Mohegan Sun crowns the winner of its Perfect Margarita contest Saturday. The winners of each semi-final competition are invited back to mix their drinks, and the grand-prize winner will be awarded $1,000 in prizes. The winning drink will be on SolToro's menu for a full year.

During the event, Coronas are on special for $4. Also, guests with a May birthday receive a free margarita Saturday, with ID/proof of birthdate. 860-862-4800, soltororestaurant.com.

The patio is open at Taqueria Tavern, 140 Park Road, West Hartford, which will run Cinco de Mayo specials all day Saturday. 860-899-1981, taqueriatavern.com.

Bring friends to share TD Homer's "Monster Margarita," a 54-ounce drink with white tequila, house margarita mix and triple sec topped off with flaming Bacardi 151. 461 Queen Street, Southington. 860-329-0387, tdhomers.com.

Amare Stoudemire lacerates hand after New York Knicks’ loss to Miami Heat

The sad reality for the Knicks: Amare Stoudemire administered far more damage to his hand — and an AmericanAirlines fire extinguisher — than his Knicks have done to the Heat so far in this playoff series.
As if falling down 0-2 against the Heat wasn’t discouraging enough, Stoudemire made matters worse after the game when he sustained a lacerated left hand when he took out his frustrations on a glass enclosure around a fire extinguisher in the hallway outside the visitors’ locker room.
Doctors and paramedics were summoned, but Stoudemire was not taken to the hospital, according to the Knicks. J.R. Smith said Stoudemire required stitches. Stoudemire was seen leaving the arena with his hand bandaged and his arm in a sling.
When reporters were allowed into the locker room after a much longer than usual 35-minute wait, there were drops of blood on a hallway inside.
Knicks coach Mike Woodson and players would not say how Stoudemire was injured, and Woodson said he’s not sure how serious the injury is.
But center Tyson Chandler said, “I just know he has a laceration and he is probably going to be out.
“You can’t fault anybody because Amare is a good person that has high emotions at times. One quick decision-making mistake, and now you’ve got to deal with repercussions.’’
Stoudemire said on Twitter after the game: "I am so mad at myself right now. I want to apologize to the fans and my team. Not proud of my actions, headed home for a fresh start."
New York forward Carmelo Anthony — who said he knew nothing about Stoudemire’s injury — did his part Monday, rebounding from a brutal Game 1 (11 points, 3-for-15 shooting) to produce 30 points and nine rebounds in Game 2.
Anthony was brilliant offensively in a 21-point first half but couldn’t replicate that in the second half, mustering only nine points after intermission.
He didn’t get nearly enough support from many of his teammates, as New York suffering the ignominious feat of equaling the NBA record for consecutive playoff losses, with 12.
The Memphis Grizzlies set the record from 2004 to 2006.
The Heat flummoxed Anthony in Game 1 by often fronting him, denying him the ball at times, and sometimes sending over a second defender.
New York countered that in Game 2 by running more pick-and-rolls (some involving Stoudemire) and by having Anthony often initiate offense on the perimeter. Unlike in Game 1, many of Anthony’s shots came off the dribble.
That approach worked in the first half, with Anthony shooting 9 of 18 from the field. At one point, Anthony nailed three consecutive jumpers over Shane Battier.
Anthony shot 1 for 5 in the third quarter, missing three jumpers. In the fourth quarter, he shot 2 for 3 and scored six points.
“I missed some shots,” Anthony said. “They weren’t going to allow me to score 40 or 50.”
Anthony insisted “the series is still up in the air. It’s their home court. It’s our turn now. We can’t wait to get back and protect home court. We’ve got to keep everybody positive. It’s far from over.”
• Chandler told Woodson he was feeling “great” after being hindered by the flu in Game 1. “I was just like a zombie out there [Saturday].”
Chandler, who went scoreless in 21 minutes Saturday, was more energetic in Game 2, closing with 13 points and seven rebounds. But in the center matchup, Chris Bosh had the better offensive game (21 points) Tuesday.
• Point guard Baron Davis (stiff back) started but said he wasn’t close to 100 percent. He had 12 points and six assists.
• Landry Fields replaced injured Iman Shumpert as New York’s starting shooting guard and could neither slow Dwyane Wade nor contribute much offensively. Wade called Fields one of the best cutters in the league. Fields scored two points, missing four of five shots.

Five-Year Engagement Performing Poorly, Should Jason Segel Give Up Writing?

Early box office numbers have started trickling in, and it seems Jason Segel’s newest project The Five-Year Engagement isn’t exactly the biggest hit with fans. The former Freaks And Geeks star’s previous two writing/ starring vehicles Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets both did more than one hundred million dollars in worldwide business, but with projections putting his latest endeavor at barely ten million for its opening weekend, it's unlikely this newest effort will see anywhere close to that.

Unfortunately for Segel, critics, long champions of the actor, weren’t blown away either. The Five-Year Engagement hasn’t exactly been trashed by critics, but most reviews have been tepid at best, nearly all pointing out its runtime drags a bit. While I would somewhat agree with that criticism, I still found the movie endearing and funny, and I’m a bit puzzled by the widespread lack of interest. Segel, both on his television show and in his films, has really had a way of connecting with audiences, and Emily Blunt, a rising star in her own right, projected to be the perfect woman to start opposite him.

Segel may have a habit of trying to fit overly complex stories into longer runtimes, especially for comedies, but I truly think his perspective deserves to be out there. His characters always have a mix of humanity and wit about them. I would be very disappointed if The Five-Year Engagement’s failure to rake in money harms studios’ willingness to give him creative control in the future, but given Segel's talents at acting, it is a fair question to wonder if his time would be better spent in front of the camera rather than starting on new films from scratch.

What do you think? Would Jason Segel be better served by focusing on acting rather than writing, or is he better when he does both? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…

Durant's game-winner helps Thunder shake off Mavericks

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Kevin Durant was determined to not let the Oklahoma City Thunder lose another playoff game at home to Dallas.

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He scored 25 points and hit the winning jumper from the foul line with 1.5 seconds left to give the Thunder a 99-98 victory over the Mavericks on Saturday night in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series — a rematch of last year's Western Conference finals.

The Thunder trailed by seven with 2½ minutes left before rallying to take the first step toward avenging a 4-1 series loss a year ago.

• PHOTOS: NBA playoffs first round gallery

"It's the playoffs," Durant said. "No matter how it gets done, you've got to do it."

With his team trailing by one late in the fourth quarter, he forced his way toward the lane and found himself with defenders closing in and the clock winding down.

Durant maneuvered to the free throw line and got off a high-arcing shot over Shawn Marion that hit off the front of the rim and then off the backboard before falling through the net.

The defending NBA champion Mavericks, who were out of timeouts, could not get a shot off before the buzzer.

"If you have a timeout, you can move the ball (to half-court) and maybe have a look at it," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had hit two free throws with 9 seconds left to put Dallas ahead. "But if you don't have a timeout, that's definitely a buzzer-beater."

Nowitzki scored 11 of his 25 points in the final 5 minutes, going on a personal 7-1 run that made it 92-85 with 3:23 to go.

He then answered Russell Westbrook's layup with a foul line jumper to restore the seven-point advantage, but it didn't prove to be enough.

"It's tough. This is definitely as tough of a loss as you can get," Nowitzki said. "But if a team can recover it, it's an experienced one and we definitely have a lot of older guys who have been through a lot."

Westbrook led the Thunder with 28 points and Serge Ibaka had 22 points and five blocks. James Harden scored 19 points in his first game since sustaining a concussion when the Los Angeles Lakers' Metta World Peace hit him with an elbow last Sunday and earned a seven-game suspension.

Dallas' Jason Terry added 20 points — but none in the fourth quarter — and Marion had 17.

"We're going to keep coming at these guys. Trust me, we're going to keep going at 'em," coach Rick Carlisle said. "We have a tough-minded team. We have a locker room full of champions."

The second-seeded Thunder played catch-up most of the night, and Durant led the charge on the final push of seven straight Oklahoma City points before his right-handed slam tied it at 94 with 1:27 remaining.

Dallas went back ahead with an out-of-control possession, with Harden knocking the ball away from Jason Kidd and then Nowitzki losing it, too, before Vince Carter missed a desperation baseline jumper. Ian Mahinmi rebounded the miss and got fouled, stepping to the line to hit two free throws with 1:03 to play.

Durant drove to set up Ibaka's three-point play at the other end, bumping the Thunder ahead 97-96. Nowitzki committed his second turnover of the final 3 minutes and Durant missed along the baseline before the two All-Stars came through in the clutch — with Durant getting the last chance.

"It was a great shot," Harden said. "It saved the game for us. I don't think we played well … but he saved us at the end."

Back in December, Durant hit the third buzzer-beater of his career — and the most recent until Saturday night — on a 3-pointer to beat Dallas 104-102 in the fourth game of the regular season.

"I was all over him. He couldn't even get a look at the rim," Marion said. "He just threw it up there and got a nice little bounce and it went in."

Afterward, Carlisle second-guessed his decision not to double-team Durant but he was more focused on the series of mistakes that allowed the lead to slip away — including Nowitzki's turnovers and the defense that allowed Ibaka's two three-point plays 53 seconds apart.

"We made mistakes you can't make down the stretch. The last shot always gets magnified, but we made some uncharacteristic mistakes that we're not going to make any more in this series," Carlisle said. "We can't."

Nowitzki had dominated last year's West finals, averaging 32.2 points and 11.8 in the fourth quarter. Dallas won both games in Oklahoma City a season ago and overcame fourth-quarter deficits of 15 and eight points in the final two games.

This time, the roles were reversed.

"I thought we had our chances, and we've got to create our own breaks. It felt like all season long, for some reason, the other teams were making one more play, one more bounce," Nowitzki said. "We've got to come up and grab them.

"We were right there. The game was there for the taking. We needed one more play that we didn't come up with."

Notes: A shot originally ruled a 3-pointer by Terry in the final minute of the first quarter was corrected to a 2 when instant replay showed his left foot was on the line. … Oklahoma City won three of the four regular-season games between the teams. … Backup center Nazr Mohammed was dropped from the Thunder rotation. He played in 63 of 66 regular-season games but didn't play in the final two games against Dallas despite being healthy. … Dallas' biggest lead was eight on multiple occasions. Oklahoma City never led by more than four.