No. 1 Kentucky Meets Second-Seeded Kansas in NCAA Title Game

No. 1 seed University of Kentucky and second-seeded University of Kansas will meet tomorrow to decide the national men’s college basketball championship.
Kansas (32-6) rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat No. 2 seed Ohio State 64-62 in the final minutes of their game and Kentucky defeated rival and fourth-seeded Louisville 69-61 to reach the National Collegiate Athletic Association final at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Kansas took a 2-0 lead in the opening minute, then trailed Ohio State through most of the game. The Jayhawks got their largest lead of the game, 62-59, on Elijah Johnson’s layup with one minute, five seconds left to play.
William Buford dunked to bring the Buckeyes (31-8) within a point at 62-61 with nine seconds remaining. Two seconds later, Tyshawn Taylor sunk two free throws, restoring Kansas’ three- point lead 64-61.
With two seconds left in the game, Aaron Craft was fouled. He hit the first free throw to narrow the gap to 64-62. In his attempt to grab the rebound when his second shot hit the rim, Craft rushed the ball and stepped over the foul line early, causing a turnover and giving Kansas the victory.
“It’s a dream for these kids to play on the biggest stage for college basketball and to play the No. 1 team,” Kansas coach Bill Self said in a televised press conference.

‘No Energy’

The Jayhawks fought back from 13-point deficits five times in the first half. They ended the half behind 34-25.
“We were awful,” Self said. “There was no energy, we were tight. That was not who we were in the first half. We were much more aggressive in the second half.”
Thomas Robinson had 19 points and Travis Releford added 15 for Kansas, which is seeking its fourth NCAA title.
“It feels great,” said Releford who hit four free throws in the final three minutes. “We’ve been in those situations before throughout the season, where we played from behind, played grind-it-out games. We still got another goal. We can’t be too excited about this win.”
Buford led the Buckeyes with 19 points and Jared Sullinger had 13, while Craft had 11.
Kentucky is going to its first championship game since winning its seventh NCAA title in 1998.

‘Closer to Dream’

“We’re one game closer to our dream and our goals,” Kentucky’s Anthony Davis said in a televised interview after he scored a game-high 18 points and 14 rebounds. “We’ve got to come out Monday night and perform.”
The Wildcats (37-2) had a 13-point lead in the second half before the Cardinals chipped away at their advantage. Back-to- back baskets by Russ Smith started Louisville (30-10) on a 15-3 run that tied the game at 49-49 on Peyton Siva’s 3-pointer with nine minutes, 13 seconds left in the game.
Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored a layup and dunked within a 40-second span as Kentucky started to pull away a minute later.
Siva led the Cardinals with 11 points.
“They never stopped playing,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said of the in-state rival. “They got up into our bodies, created turnovers and gave themselves a chance to win.”
Kentucky shot 57 percent from the field while Louisville was held to 35 percent.
“It took so much energy to get us back in the game,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino told reporters. “Our conditioning was awesome the whole year. The difference was that Anthony Davis is the best player in the year.”
Freshman Davis was named the winner of the Wooden Award as the nation’s top player yesterday, one day after being tagged as the Associated Press player of the year. The Wooden Award is voted on by members of the national college basketball media.

Christians mark Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM -- Hundreds of Christian pilgrims are visiting the Holy Land to mark Palm Sunday, the day Jesus Christ made his triumphant return to Jerusalem.
The faithful are expected to march from the Mount of Olives to the holy city behind a white donkey, retracing Jesus' traditional route from 2,000 years ago.
Early Sunday, visitors walked down the cobblestone alleyways of the walled Old City carrying olive branches, palm fronds and crosses.
The day marks the start of Holy Week, which ends the following Sunday with Easter.
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'You earned it': 49-year-old Moyer wins rotation spot

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Jamie Moyer, at 49 years old, has made it back in the big leagues.
Moyer earned a spot in the Rockies' starting rotation and will start the team's second game of the season. He's the oldest starting pitcher to make an opening day roster.
"It is still Jamie Moyer. It's the Jamie Moyer that was pitching prior to the arm injury that cost him the entire 2011 season. It's the same guy," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said Friday.
"It's the same worker. It's the same professional. It's the same stuff, same velocity, same pitches. When he's right, same type of effectiveness. You're going to venture into this."
Moyer, entering his 25th season, posted a 2.77 ERA this spring and beat out Tyler Chatwood, 22, and Guillermo Moscoso, 28, for a rotation spot.
"I was excited. I'm happy. I'm honored," Moyer said of the decision, which came on the 20th anniversary of him being released by the Cubs. "But in the end, like Jim said, 'You earned it.' That was my goal coming here."
Moyer will start April 7 against the Astros. He can become the oldest pitcher in major-league history to earn a victory.
The last player to play in the majors at 49 years old was infielder Julio Franco, who finished out the 2007 season with the Braves after turning 49 in August. Moyer will be 50 in November.
The left-hander will follow right-hander Jeremy Guthrie in the rotation.
CAREFUL WITH CRAWFORD: Former Rays All-Star Carl Crawford might not return to the Red Sox until May, sportsline.com reported. Crawford, who had a setback early in camp to his surgically repaired left wrist, isn't hitting yet, and manager Bobby Valentine said he'd like the leftfielder to get about 50 minor-league at-bats before joining the team.
ASTROS: Shortstop Jed Lowrie, sidelined since spraining his right thumb Wednesday, still feels some tenderness and might start the season on the disabled list.
BRAVES: Manager Fredi Gonzalez named right-hander Tommy Hanson his opening-day starter.
CARDINALS: Right-hander Jordan Swagerty, one of the team's top prospects, is scheduled for season-ending surgery this week to removed bone spurs in his right elbow and repair a damaged ligament.
DODGERS: Left-hander Ted Lilly, out since March 16 with neck stiffness, will begin the season on the disabled list.
INDIANS: Right-hander Jeanmar Gomez is in the rotation, and veteran right-hander Kevin Slowey is on his way to the minors. Gomez, 24, has a 1.97 ERA in six spring outings. Slowey, 27, optioned to Triple-A Columbus, went 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA.
METS: Left-hander Johan Santana, coming back from shoulder surgery threw 71 pitches in a simulated game and said he felt no fatigue.
NATIONALS: Right-hander Stephen Strasburg pitched four innings in his final tuneup for his opening day start during a 6-2 loss to the Cardinals. He allowed three runs, two earned, all in the second inning.
ORIOLES: Right-hander Chris Tillman was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
RANGERS: Outfielder Josh Hamilton is day to day after leaving Friday night's game with left groin tightness.
TWINS: Right-hander Scott Baker will start the season on the 15-day DL with right elbow inflammation. He'll be eligible to return April 12. … Drew Butera was optioned to Triple A, ensuring the team will carry two catchers to start the season, Joe Mauer and backup Ryan Doumit.
WHITE SOX: First baseman Conor Jackson agreed to a minor-league contract less than a week after being released by the Rangers.

Google's hilarious April Fools' Maps launch

Google is funny. I have wanted to write that sentence for so long in a context where funny meant "intentionally humorous."
So here is an April Fools' work of art from the company that, to many minds, just might deserve righteous laughter. For here, purportedly, is the launch of Google Maps 8-bit for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
According to Google's Lat Long blog, this is something that the world desperately needs.
"Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google's immense data centers, and support from Nintendo and Square Enix, we were able to overcome the technical and design hurdles of developing 8-bit maps," wrote Google Maps software engineer, Tatsuo Nomura.
He goes on to wax with some lyricism about "beautiful low-res graphics; simple and intuitive controls; and a timeless soundtrack." He also promises a mobile version for Game Boy.
Yet even more enchanting is the deadpan performance of the actors in the promotional video. Their faces straighter than a Google engineer's on a Monday morning, the Japanese family waits for this technical revolution to reveal itself.
The father even blows on the cartridge to "fix bugs."
And then we see the beautiful low resolution of the maps, as the family searches for the Pyramids or tries to plot its route from Los Angeles to New York. The sheer joy when the family tries the voice search feature and discovers Peru Nazca will fill your heart with gladness.
I am grateful to The Next Web for revealing this April Fools' amusement. Unless, of course, this is just another attempt by Google to control absolutely every possible technological scenario in the world. No, no. It couldn't be.

Chris Matyszczyk

Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

Recap: Kansas vs. Ohio State

A phantom traveling call, a putback dunk, an inbounds steal, a foul-shot lane violation on an intentional miss -- the Kansas-Ohio State game had a little bit of everything.
And that was just the last 27.4 seconds.
"It certainly wasn't a pretty game," said Kansas head coach Bill Self, "not artistic at all."
But he'll take the outcome.
Thomas Robinson scored 19 points on Saturday and Kansas survived a breathless final moments to beat Ohio State, 64-62, in the Final Four and reach the NCAA title game for the second time in five years.
The Jayhawks rallied from 13 points down in the first half, took their first lead since 2-0 with under three minutes left and moved on to play Kentucky for the national championship on Monday.
Among the game's bizarre turns, Ohio State guard Aaron Craft was whistled for a lane violation when he broke from the line too early while trying to brick his second attempt off the rim with 2.9 seconds left.
The Buckeyes, caught off-guard, didn't react to Kansas inbounding the ball and were left looking around as the Jayhawks dribbled off the remaining seconds.
"They never gave up," said Jared Sullinger, the Ohio State star. "I mean, it was a great game."
Travis Releford added 15 points, including four gutsy free throws that helped Kansas (32-6) take the lead for good, while Elijah Johnson had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Tyshawn Taylor scored 10.
William Buford scored 19 to lead Ohio State (31-8) and Sullinger had 13 with 11 rebounds.
The Buckeyes -- like Kansas, a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament -- controlled the first half, took a 34-25 lead into the break, then went cold in the second half the same way North Carolina did last weekend against the Jayhawks.
Still, they clung to the lead until Releford's free throws with 2:48 remaining capped a 7-0 run and gave Kansas a slim 56-55 lead.
Then, the fireworks.
Ohio State scored four in a row, including Craft's layup after a steal for a three-point lead, but Taylor followed with a double-clutch bank shot and the final go-ahead points of the game came on Releford's free throws with 1:37 left.
Jeff Withey had seven blocks, including one that led to Johnson's layup for a 62-59 Kansas lead. Robinson stole the ball at the other end, but Withey was called for traveling to erase a Kansas bucket -- replays didn't show a clear walk.
Deshaun Thomas missed a three for Ohio State, but Withey kicked the rebound away near the baseline. Thomas missed again, but Buford crashed the net for a putback dunk that got the Buckeyes within 62-61 with 9.6 seconds left.
Taylor's free throws pushed the Kansas lead to three -- then, with a heads-up play that birthed a bone-headed move, he stole the inbounds pass and attempted a bounce pass to a streaking teammate.
The ball went out of bounds on the far side, and Kansas sent Craft to the line with 2.9 ticks left. After Craft made his first try, he leaned in to clank the second off the front of the rim, leaving the line too early.
Afterward, Ohio State coach Thad Matta admitted that his team wasn't ready to defend the inbounds pass.
Even CBS wasn't ready -- its broadcast was showing a replay while Kansas threw it in and held on to wind the final seconds off.
"Down the stretch, as this tournament goes, it comes down to making some plays," said Matta. "Give them credit -- they did a great job of finishing [while] we had the ball, had some great shots [that didn't] go in for us."
Monday's title game, also to be held at the Superdome, will pit the same two coaches from the 2008 Final against each other. In that one, Self bested John Calipari, then the Memphis coach but now at Kentucky.
"After we got it down to six points, or four, these guys have been in so many close games they just stepped up and made plays," said Self after his team shot 53.8 percent in the second half to beat Ohio State.
The Jayhawks also beat Ohio State on Dec. 10 in Lawrence, though the Buckeyes were missing Sullinger in that one. Kansas, appearing in its 14th Final Four, will play for its fourth national title on Monday.
Ohio State had leads of 7-2 and 26-13 in the first half, the latter on Thomas' layup with around six minutes remaining.
The Buckeyes shot 46.2 percent in the half and enjoyed a double-digit lead for much if it, but Kansas drew within 34-25 on Releford's buzzer-beating layup, which followed a Withey block at the other end.
The Jayhawks, no stranger to a down first half in this tournament, had nine turnovers and shot 36.7 percent in the half. Taylor attempted their first free throws of the game with 23 seconds left, making both of them.
Kansas started its comeback with a 12-2 run that spanned the first and second half.
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weber, alanis morissette, esperanza spalding, weber grills, kansas city star

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Former Illinois coach Bruce Weber knows Kansas State fans might not accept him right away. That much became clear when a small rally for another coaching candidate Saturday turned into a protest of his hiring.

Weber, though, said he doesn’t have a problem with that. He said he is up for any challenge that’s presented to him.

The Wildcats introduced Weber to replace Frank Martin, whose departure for South Carolina earlier in the week sent shockwaves through the program. Kansas State moved quickly on the hiring, reaching out to Weber in the last few days and finalizing a five-year, $8.5 million deal late Friday.

‘‘It’s been a whirlwind, to be honest,’’ Weber said. ‘‘Just a few hours ago, I was in New Orleans [for the Final Four], thinking I was going to have gumbo.’’

Wildcats athletic director John Currie said he was impressed by Weber’s excitement about the job.

‘‘We wanted a coach who recognized the tremendous opportunity that exists here at Kansas State,’’ Currie said. ‘‘Bruce Weber’s name repeatedly rose to the top of the list [as someone] whose personal values and integrity matched those of K-State.’’

Weber was greeted at Bramlage Coliseum by a small group of fans who had been planning to support another candidate and who were displeased with the hiring of a man recently fired by Illinois.

Weber was let go after compiling a 210-101 record in nine seasons with the Illini. He guided Illinois to a runner-up finish in the NCAA tournament in 2005, but the Illini went 17-15 overall and 6-12 in the Big Ten this season, prompting the school to let Weber go with three years left on his contract.

‘‘We had a young team — six freshmen, one returning starter,’’ Weber said. ‘‘The disappointment of a lot of close losses took a toll. It happens.’’

Among the critics of the decision to hire Weber was former Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen. Pullen, a former Proviso East star and the Wildcats’ career scoring leader, offered his assessment of the hiring on Twitter, even misspelling Weber’s name: ‘‘Bruce Webber didn’t think I was good enough to play at Illinois and I don’t think he is good enough to coach at Kansas State.’’

All Weber asked of the Kansas State faithful was a fair shake.

‘‘Give me a chance,’’ Weber said. ‘‘It doesn’t matter where you go or which coach you hired, there was always going to be a question mark. There’s no doubt about that. That’s part of college sports.’’

NCAA basketball Final Four: Kansas comes back, beats Ohio State

NEW ORLEANS — Trailing by nine points at halftime, Kansas had Ohio State right where it wanted in Saturday’s national semifinal.
The Jayhawks’ NCAA tournament run has been defined by strong second-half performances, and they offered another with the help of indomitable forward Thomas Robinson. As he has all season, Robinson played at a higher level than everybody else on the floor at the Superdome, leading the Jayhawks to a 64-62 victory over Ohio State before 73,361
The nine-point halftime deficit was second-largest halftime deficit overcome in a national semifinal.
“You couldn’t have scripted it any better,” said Robinson, a Washington native who finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. “When we’re down, we stick together.”
Said Jayhawks Coach Bill Self, “These guys have been in so many close games, they have so much confidence.”
Kansas (32-6) earned a trip to its first national title game since 2008, when it beat a John Calipari-coached Memphis team to give Self his first national championship.
This season, Self’s ninth in Lawrence, may be his finest coaching job. After losing to mid-major programs Virginia Commonwealth and Northern Iowa in the NCAA tournament the past two seasons, Self took a team with middling preseason expectations to its eighth consecutive Big 12 regular season title.
He watched Robinson rebound from personal tragedy to turn himself into a national player of the year candidate. He saw erratic senior Tyshawn Taylor overcome an up-and-down career arc to deliver a sterling performance in a Midwest Region final victory over North Carolina. And he witnessed center Jeff Withey blossom into the Big 12 defensive player of the year (he had seven blocks on Saturday night to give him 27 in five NCAA tournament games).
And Saturday night provided another sterling effort and turnaround. Kansas had excelled in the second half in the NCAA tournament, particularly in the second round against Purdue and in the Elite Eight against North Carolina. The Jayhawks were poised for another second-half surge Saturday, when the Buckeyes missed their first 10 shots from the field in the half.
Robinson’s emphatic dunk cut the deficit to three points. Elijah Johnson’s layup in transition tied the score at 38, capping a 17-4 run. It took nearly seven minutes into the second half before Ohio State (31-8) had its first field goal, a corner three-pointer by Aaron Craft.
Meantime, Deshaun Thomas, who had been one of Ohio State’s best offensive players throughout the tournament, picked up his fourth foul with 11 minutes 30 seconds remaining.
Ohio State’s William Buford and Kansas senior Conner Teahan traded three-point baskets down the stretch. With Kansas trailing by one point with three minutes to play, Robinson demanded the ball in the post, but he could not convert against Jared Sullinger.
Moments later, two free throws by Travis Releford gave the Jayhawks their first lead since the opening minute of the game, 56-55. But back came the Buckeyes and Craft, the school’s all-time single-season steals leader, who stole the ball and raced the other way for a layup .

Katie Couric to guest-host 'Good Morning America'

NEW YORK
Katie Couric helped start and perpetuate morning television's most epic winning streak. Now she'll try to break it.
ABC announced Thursday that the former "Today" show anchor will be guest host next week on "Good Morning America," the rival wake-up show that has been rising in the ratings.
She will sub for the vacationing Robin Roberts for a week, teaming with George Stephanopoulos.
Couric was co-host of "Today" in December 1995, when the NBC show's streak began. "Today" has won every week in the ratings since then, 850 consecutive and counting, according to the Nielsen company.
Yet frisky "GMA" has been making noise lately. Last week the ABC show was only 137,000 viewers behind "Today" (an average of 4.98 million to 4.84 million), the closest the two shows have been since 2008.
"This has been one of the longest marathons of all time," said Tom Cibrowski, senior executive producer in charge of "Good Morning America." `'There will eventually be a time when the No. 1 spot turns over. We strive every day to take over the No. 1 position. We never stop working on that."
He's not making any predictions about next week, but the curiosity factor of Couric in a new morning chair seems sure to pull in some viewers.
Couric was co-host of NBC's "Today" for 15 years before leaving the network in 2006. Before jumping to ABC last year, she was at CBS, where she anchored the "Evening News."
The winning streak has a big psychological impact in one of the most important parts of the day on television for the broadcast networks. Morning shows are hugely profitable at a time of declining viewership, and none has been more of a cash cow than "Today."
The closest "GMA" got to breaking the streak, in the spring of 2005, NBC fired the "Today" show executive producer and installed the current boss, Jim Bell.
"You kind of wait for these times in morning television, when you get a team together that clicks," Cibrowski said. "We have a team that is on fire. We have the big `C.' We have the chemistry now."
NBC had no comment on Thursday. Privately, some at NBC suggest that ABC's stronger prime-time lineup is helping "GMA," particularly when the morning show takes advantage of it by featuring stories on "Dancing With the Stars," for example. Last week, ABC was boosted by having actors from the hottest movie, "The Hunger Games," on the show each day of the week.
ABC's best chance of ending the streak would likely come within the next two months. NBC televises the Olympic games from London this summer, and the Olympics traditionally give a boost to "Today."
"Today" is also awaiting a decision by its top anchor, Matt Lauer, on whether he wants to continue in the morning

Final Four 2012 | Louisville basketball tired of hearing that no one is giving them a chance

NEW ORLEANS — University of Louisville players acknowledge Kentucky’s résumé makes it the favorite in today’s Final Four matchup, but the Cardinals don’t feel like underdogs.

That would imply that they don’t belong with Kansas, Ohio State and the Wildcats as the last four teams playing in the NCAA Tournament. After winning the Big East Tournament and the West Regional, they believe they belong with the best.

“We’ve cut down the nets twice, and I don’t want my guys to feel inferior,” coach Rick Pitino said. “It’s easy to feel inferior to Kentucky because they go on the draft board all the time. … You don’t want that feeling going into it because you’ll play like inferior players. We don’t want that underdog mentality.”

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If not underdogs, they’re at least underappreciated.

“People aren’t giving us a chance at all,” said senior Kyle Kuric, U of L’s leading scorer. “We won games just like everybody else, so we’re not content.”

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Pitino said earlier in the week that the Cards would have to play a Villanova-type game, a reference to that team’s 66-64 upset of Georgetown in the 1985 national championship game. As a No. 8 seed, Nova played a near-perfect game and shot 78.6 percent from the field.

But the key to that victory was the fact that those Wildcats talked openly about not being intimidated by the heavily favored Hoyas despite losing to them twice in the regular season.

U of L senior Chris Smith was born 2½ years after that game. Kuric said he thinks he’s seen some video clips from it. But both embody the spirit of Villanova’s fight.

“Everybody will call us underdogs,” Smith said. “We don’t think were underdogs; we’re expecting to win this game. We’re not going to let our confidence down and let our fans down, you know, even ourselves. We’re just going to go out there, play hard, play our style of basketball.”

For Cesar Chavez Day, Can Pomona College Give Peace a Chance? Si, Se puede!

It would be Cesar Chavez's 85th birthday. Every year, his holiday is an opportunity for us to reflect on his legacy. But Cesar's legacy is not just the thousands of lives he helped change, it's also values that he stood for, and reminds us of our obligation to continue to champion those values wherever they are threatened, even today. We honor Cesar's legacy every day we fight for justice for workers, when we march with them for change. That is why I will spend this Cesar Chavez Day at Pomona College, standing side by side with that college's dining hall workers.
Through organizing, strikes, and boycotts with the United Farm Workers, men and women stepped out of the shadows and into the moral reckoning of an entire nation. The fact that the food we eat was harvested with suffering, transformed how Americans think about food. The movement work of the '60s and '70s continues to resound today in fields, supermarkets, and kitchens, as well as on the tables of millions of Americans.
Farm workers made gains through bravery, courage and solidarity. Like generations of immigrant workers who came before, the farm workers laid claim to the American Dream by founding a union of their own, to secure in a contract, fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect for their very humanity. And like those previous generations of workers who organized, the farm workers' status as immigrants to this country was a vulnerability that growers used to intimidate, terrorize and divide them, just as textile mill owners had done the same to the men, women and children from Italy and Eastern Europe who they once relied on to be docile, silent and unwilling to protest.
It is terrible that in a nation composed of immigrants that employers so readily resort to immigration status as a weapon of fear and division. It is a deplorable practice that continues today. At Pomona College, in the midst of a union organizing drive by the college's dining hall workers, the college administration decided to conduct an audit of work authorization papers for campus workers. Then the college fired 16 dining hall workers. It did not matter that the workers had spent years - in some cases, decades, as part of the Pomona College community. It did not matter that these workers had served the students and faculty faithfully.
The fight for a union at Pomona's dining hall continues, and unfortunately, so does the Pomona Administration's opposition.
Since the firings, workers have joined with students and faculty to protest the administration's actions turning the cafeteria and the campus into battleground. In response, the Pomona community plans to march on Friday, as a celebration of Cesar Chavez Day, and to share a meal together, in order to recognize the dining hall workers, and to call on the College to give peace a chance, by declaring neutrality on the question of unionization. It is a fitting nod to Cesar's memory, to bring together so many people, from so many different backgrounds, to break bread together and ask for something very, very simple - freedom from fear.
Can Pomona College give peace a chance? Sí, se puede

HUFFPOST HILL - Keith Fired: Olbermann Wins Misanthropy Olympics

As lotto fever spreads across America, "prove your wonkiness by declaring that government-sanctioned lotteries make for poor economic policy" fever spreads across America's liberal think tanks. Rick Santorum fruitlessly combed through the Constitution in search of the freedom of religion/barf clause. And Mitt Romney is poised to win Tuesday's primary in Wisconsin -- a state that is near the country where he basically let his dog Seamus die in the wilderness in the 1980s. In Dog Heaven, there are no kennels. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, March 30th, 2012:
'CHEER UP, THERE'S ALWAYS HLN,' ETC - MSNBC.com: "Current TV has fired Keith Olbermann...Eliot Spitzer will replace Olbermann starting Friday night, the network announced....Olberman got into a contretemps with the network over his role during Republican primary election coverage last December. But the host has a history of butting heads with management and other bosses, starting with ESPN, including MSNBC and now with the leadership at Current... 'Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it," the network wrote in a letter to viewers published on its website." [MSNBC.com]
WISCONSIN: MITT ROMNEY LOOKS POISED TO MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO - A nation turns its lonely eyes to the Badger State: "Two new polls in Wisconsin show Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum by a comfortable margin with just four days remaining before Tuesday's Republican primary. The results suggest that time is running out for Santorum in a state some dub as 'win or go home' or a 'last chance' for the former Pennsylvania Senator. The most recent survey, released on Friday by NBC and Marist College and conducted March 26-27, shows former Massachusetts Gov. Romney with a seven-percentage-point lead over Santorum (40 percent to 33 percent), with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) at 11 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), with 8 percent, running far behind. The NBC/Marist results are virtually identical to a survey fielded earlier in the week (March 22-25) by the Marquette University Law School that found Romney leading by eight points (39 to 31 percent), followed by Paul (11 percent) and Gingrich (5 percent)." [HuffPost's Mark Blumenthal]
Rick Santorum doesn't exactly have his eye on the prize: "On Friday, as Mitt Romney continued to consolidate establishment support for his presidential candidacy within the Republican Party, getting the endorsement of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) days ahead of the Wisconsin primary, Rick Santorum soldiered on in a seemingly different quest. Santorum wrote a 2,400-word essay essentially defending the substance of what he was trying to convey a month ago when he said that former President John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech on church and state made him want to 'throw up.'" [HuffPost's Jon Ward]
THE MALL IS SINKING - HuffPost DC: "Early indications show that 'the National Mall has sunk by one millimeter since last year's 5.8 magnitude earthquake in central Virginia.'"
HOW TO AVOID AWKWARD ENCOUNTERS, POLITICS-STYLE - Politico's Byron Tau filed this pool report around 4:15 pm: "Air Force One wheels down in Portland, ME at 4:09. Greeting President Obama is Mayor Michael Brennan of Portland. A spokesman for Maine Gov. Paul LePage said that the governor was not in Portland today." No word on whether LePage was off destroying pro-labor artwork.
HUFFPWND - Reuters: "AOL Inc on Friday won the dismissal of a lawsuit by unpaid bloggers who complained they were deprived of their fair share of the roughly $315 million that the company paid last March to buy The Huffington Post website.
U.S. District Judge John Koeltl rejected claims by social activist and commentator Jonathan Tasini and an estimated 9,000 other bloggers that they deserved $105 million, or about one-third, of the purchase price." Pfft. [Reuters]
Just to clarify, *our* compensation packages consist mostly of Natty Ice and string cheese.
PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS HATED RICK SANTORUM - Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis: "Ryan Miner remembers watching a fat piece of sausage splatter with a thud against a picture of Sen. Rick Santorum adorning the side of the senator's campaign RV. It was fall 2006, and Miner, then a Santorum intern, was helping feed a group of Pittsburgh Steelers fans tailgating outside of Heinz Field. But it was a tough sell -- especially because the Santorum volunteers were peddling snacks and campaign literature to rowdy, buzzed hordes. The crowd eventually turned on the volunteers, and a weapon of choice was Polish. 'Fuck you, Rick Santorum!' Miner recalls the sausage-tosser shouting. In short order, the tailgaters assailed the Santorum volunteers with whatever they could get their hands on: sausage, cookies, half-empty cups of beer, and beer cans

Big lottery win could easily be followed by big loss

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Sure, the odds of winning tonight's $640 million Mega Millions lottery are daunting. But the likelihood of the winner keeping his or her cash are pretty disconcerting as well.

 

"The perception is once you win the lottery, you are set — you're in great shape. But in reality the battle has just begun," says Andrew Stoltmann, an attorney who has represented lottery winners who have hit financial troubles.

"Often lottery winners do not have much experience with managing money and lack basic investing skills," he says. In turn, they can easily make bad investments, fritter their money away on big-ticket purchases and fall prey to scam artists.

• PHOTOS: Mega Millions madness

• STORY: Winning numbers are in for Mega Millions

• VIDEO: Mega Millions jackpot reaches $640M

Tales of lottery winners who blew their riches abound. One of the most infamous is Curtis Sharp, an air conditioning technician from Newark, N.J., who won $5 million in the New York Lotto drawing in 1982.

Known for his dapper attire and flashy personality, he became an icon for making it big through lottery luck. A three-piece-suit-clad Sharp even starred in a Lotto ad that showed him cruising in the back of a limousine.

But his funds dissipated.

"The money's gone," Sharp, then 71, told the New York Daily News in 2009. "I bought into a lot of things that went bad."

Wisconsin-resident Andrew Cicero also struggled to maintain his lottery windfall. He lost most of the $5.5 million he won in 1995 to bad investments.

Cicero lived on a pension and Social Security income before he was successfully able to gain some of the money back in lawsuits against his investment and advisory firms that were settled. Stoltmann handled Cicero's case but declined to comment.

Winners who lack financial savvy barely have time to Google "investing tips" before they are deluged with offers from financial planners, scam artists, friends and family. So it's easy for a lottery victor to quickly feel overwhelmed and make poor decisions, Stoltmann says.

For the lucky winner of tonight's Mega Millions — or anyone who lands a large, unexpected windfall — financial advisers offer this initial advice: Keep the news quiet.

"Don't go to Facebook and say you've just won the Mega Millions lottery," says attorney Richard Craig, whose firm has represented past lottery winners.

Sure, it's fine to share the news with close, trustworthy friends and families, he says. But those who widely brag about their newfound fortunes open themselves up to a swarm of legitimate and illegitimate money requests, as well as to potential predatory lawsuits from those who want to get their hands on the riches.

"In this litigious society, you don't want to be a target — so don't purposely draw attention to yourself," Craig says. "You want to do your best to minimize your visibility on the radar screen."

Other tips on how to manage any Mega Millions — or other lottery — windfalls.

Keep that winning ticket safe: Powerball champ Louise White — who won a $336 million jackpot in February — hid the ticket in her Bible. Financial advisers say that's not the best way to go. Instead, those with winning tickets should sign them and tuck them into a safe or safety deposit box, Craig says. He advocates making a few copies of the winning ticket and storing those papers in a separate location.

Create a trusted advisory team: Ask friends, family and professional contacts for suggestions on credible tax experts, lawyers, financial planners and insurance providers. "Few lottery winners have the infrastructure in place to manage a lottery windfall," Stoltmann says. Craig suggests winners create an "advisory board" that can include business-savvy friends, as well as professional advisers. Among its benefits: The board can serve as "a buffer" against friends and family who ask for handouts. This way, a winner doesn't have to solely take blame for turning down a solicitation from a family or friend.

Sit tight for six months: "Don't make any major commitments or financial obligations for six months," Craig says. Instead, just let the win settle in. "It's tempting for a lottery winner to quit his or her job or immediately splurge on a mansion or other large purchase. Don't," Stoltmann says. "The worst decisions made by lottery winners are usually the first few decisions."

Don't rely on the familiar when investing: For the financially uneducated, there is a tendency to invest in a tangible assets — such as a restaurant or car wash — rather than put the money into more liquid, and easily traded, investments such as stocks or bonds, says Ed Butowsky, managing partner at Chapwood Capital Investment Management. "They typically will invest in things they are familiar with and that they can touch and feel because, generally speaking, they don't have the knowledge of investment instruments," he says. Although it's easy to put money into a private investment, such as a restaurant, "it's hard to get the money out." Winners should instead consider public securities over these private investments, he says.

Donate wisely: Don't dole out money indiscriminately to charities, Craig says. Instead, those who want to contribute to a cause should speak with a financial adviser about tax benefits, as well as the possibility of setting up a foundation

Ryan Leaf’s Statement After His Arrest

The former Chargers quarterback Ryan Leaf, who has battled an addiction to prescription drugs but who had appeared to right his life recently, was arrested Friday in his hometown in Montana, Great Falls, on burglary and drug possession charges, the police said. He later released a statement:

“I’ve made some mistakes, and have no excuses. I am using the tools I’ve learned to move forward rather than backwards, and will be open to talking about the details in the days to come. I am confident that there will be further understanding when the facts are revealed, and feel very blessed for all of the support, especially from my friends and family.”

Leaf, the No. 2 pick in the 1998 draft, had surgery last June to remove a benign brain tumor. He had written a book about his career at Washington State and was promoting it.
The Associated Press:

Friday’s arrest also raises the question of whether  the 10-year probation plea agreement he negotiated with Texas prosecutors stemming from drug and burglary charges in 2009 will be revoked. In 2008, when Leaf was a quarterbacks coach for Division II West Texas A&M, he was accused of burglarizing a player’s home. An investigation turned up that Leaf had obtained nearly 1,000 pain pills from area pharmacies in an eight-month span.

Jon Kasper, a former high school teammate of Leaf’s, said in The Great Falls Tribune:

“I want Ryan Leaf to be happy and at peace. I was really proud to see how he has done on the book tour. I read his book and thought it was great and I was happy to see him doing a lot of media interviews.
“I’ve been sitting here for an hour, and I’m sick for him. Addiction is so powerful and I don’t think people that haven’t dealt with that understand that. People deal with it all their lives and have relapses.”

Record Mega Millions numbers: 2-4-23-38-46, MB 23

Across the country, Americans plunked down an estimated $1.5 billion on the longest of long shots: an infinitesimally small chance to win what could end up being the single biggest lottery payout the world has ever seen.
The numbers drawn Friday night in Atlanta were 2-4-23-38-46, Mega Ball 23. Lottery officials expected to release details about possible winners a couple of hours after the 11 p.m. Eastern drawing.
Forget about how the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot could change the life of the winner. It’s a collective wager that could fund a presidential campaign several times over, make a dent in struggling state budgets or take away the gas worries and grocery bills for thousands of middle-class citizens.

'Hunger Games': Jennifer Lawrence reaps praise from critics

The central figure in the film "The Hunger Games" and its source material, Suzanne Collins' young-adult novel about a post-apocalyptic society where teenagers are forced to engage in an annual televised death match, is 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a brave, resourceful and reluctant competitor. Katniss, as played by Academy Award-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone"), is also the focus of many of the film's reviews, and most critics agree she's up for the task.
In his positive review for The Times, Kenneth Turan calls the film "an involving popular entertainment with strong narrative drive that holds our attention by sticking as close to the book's outline as it can manage."
Among the relatively minor changes made by the screenwriters (Collins, director Gary Ross and Billy Ray), Turan commends the most prominent one: "elimination of the book's first-person structure, which allows for scenes ... that were not in the novel." Above all else, the film succeeds based on the strong lead performance by Lawrence, "an actress who specializes in combining formidable strength of will with convincing vulnerability."
PHOTOS: Meet the main cast of 'The Hunger Games'
Slate's Dana Stevens writes that "The Hunger Games" film adaptation "isn't quite as crackingly paced as the novel, but it will more than satisfy existing fans of the trilogy and likely create many new ones." She adds, "The key to making this adaptation work was the casting of Katniss Everdeen," who Stevens notes appears in nearly every scene. Luckily, "The film's producers nailed it in picking Jennifer Lawrence ... who carries the whole film on her sturdy shoulders." Among the film's stumbles, Stevens says, are the dumbing down of the character Gale (Katniss' male best friend, played by Liam Hemsworth), the cleaning up of the character Haymitch (Katniss' mentor, played by Woody Harrelson) and the narratively unsatisfying cliffhanger ending.

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times has some issues with Ross, whom she refers to as an "unlikely and at times frustratingly ill-matched director for this brutal, unnerving story," and Lawrence, who offers "a disengaged performance that rarely suggests the terrors Katniss faces, including the fatalism that originally hangs on her like a shroud." Still, Dargis finds the fiercely independent character of Katniss to be compelling enough to compensate. She writes, "What finally saves the character and film both is the image of her on the run, moving relentlessly forward." In the Washington Post, Ann Hornaday says the book's "perverse dystopia is brought faithfully, if un-spectacularly, to life" on the big screen. Hornaday adds that Ross "judiciously sidesteps the most barbaric aspects of Collins' tale" and "brings the bread and circuses of Collins' story to life with lurid color or primitive brutishness, depending on the setting." Once again, though, it all comes down to Lawrence and Katniss. Hornaday writes, "'The Hunger Games' is clearly Lawrence's movie to carry. She shoulders that burden with the same quiet, compelling focus and raw-boned directness she exhibited in 2010's 'Winter's Bone.'"
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune deems "The Hunger Games" "pretty sharp entertainment. Phillips agrees with many of his peers that Lawrence's performance is "fierce and purposeful," and in those ways reminiscent of her work in "Winter's Bone." "I'd say she carries the movie," Phillips says, "except she's not the only good thing about it." Among those other good things are Ross at the helm ("a smart match for the material") and the score by James Newton Howard.
Among the minority of critics offering negative reviews, a number of them nonetheless praise Lawrence's performance. In the Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern describes the film as "both a feast of cheesy spectacle and a famine of genuine feeling, except for the powerful — and touchingly vulnerable — presence of Jennifer Lawrence." Other than Lawrence, he finds the film sluggish and heavy-handed.
Similarly, New York magazine's David Edelstein finds Ross' approach "hackish and dimwitted," and he laments that the film fails to plumb the truly grim and tragic stakes of the story. But he calls Lawrence one of the film's "two great assets" (the other being the score), adding, "The actress is not a conventionally chiseled Hollywood ingenue or a trained action star. But there’s a steadiness in her blue eyes that makes her riveting."
Now that the games have officially begun, this much is certain: We'll be seeing much more of Katniss and of Jennifer Lawrence in the days to come

Santorum Wins Louisiana Primary

MANDEVILLE, La.—Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Republican presidential primary on Saturday, as voters in this conservative, Southern state decided they weren't ready to coalesce around front-runner Mitt Romney.
Exit polls showed Mr. Santorum winning with his most dominant performance yet this year among conservatives and blue-collar voters and getting robust support from nearly all types of people, according to the Associated Press.

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Rick Santorum greeted supporter at a rally at in Sheboygan, Wis.

Mr. Santorum was grabbing the votes of nearly half of conservatives, and just more than half of those without college degrees—a measure of blue-collar voters.
With 100% of the precincts reporting, Mr. Santorum beat Mr. Romney, 49% to 27%.
But the former Pennsylvania senator's victory will give him only a modest boost to his efforts to blunt Mr. Romney's push toward the nomination. Only 20 delegates were at stake Saturday, and they may be divided among several candidates. Mr. Romney holds a lead of about 300 delegates over Mr. Santorum, according to the AP.
An ebullient Mr. Santorum, who had moved his campaign to Wisconsin on Saturday, told an enthusiastic election-night crowd in Green Bay, Wis., that he will continue pressing for the nomination.
"The people of Louisiana sent a loud and clear message: This race is long and far from over. And the people of Wisconsin, I just say to you: On Wisconsin, let's get it done."
Mr. Santorum, who had visited a bowling alley earlier in the day, was eager to share his success there, too.
"I don't want to brag, but I did bowl three strikes in a row. I just wanted to say that. This has been a pretty strong day on the campaign here in Wisconsin," he said. Wisconsin holds the next big nominating contest, on April 3, and recent polls have shown Mr. Romney in the lead.

Rick Santorum thanked Louisiana voters during a news conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin after he won the Republican primary in the Southern state, beating front-runner Mitt Romney. (Video: NewsCore/Photo: AP)

The Louisiana win comes as an increasing number of Republican leaders say it is time for the party to unify behind Mr. Romney and turn to the challenge of defeating President Barack Obama this fall.
Earlier this week, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a leading conservative, endorsed Mr. Romney. Sen. Jim De Mint (R., S.C.), a leading figure among tea-party supporters, said he was "excited about the possibility" of the former Massachusetts governor "possibly" being the nominee. But Louisiana voters disagreed.

Washington Wire

• Santorum: 'We're Still Fighting'

"I definitely voted for Rick Santorum," said Dennis Calkins, a 62-year-old retiree who cast his ballot at Mandeville High School. "I am pretty conservative, and he just seemed down-to-earth and no-nonsense."
Mr. Calkins said he liked how Mr. Santorum responded to informal questions on a television show months ago.
"I liked every answer that he gave," Mr. Calkins said. He said Mr. Santorum's Christianity also influenced his vote. "It's not so much that he's holy moly and religious, but it gives him a basis for morality and his sense of right and wrong."
Loretta Owens, 62, who attended a Santorum rally Friday in West Monroe, in the northern part of the state, said she had reservations about Mr. Romney. "There's something about Romney that I just can't grasp," she said.
Mr. Santorum had aggressively courted conservative voters in the northern part of Louisiana, the same area that helped Mike Huckabee claim victory in the 2008 GOP primary. In his pitch to Republican voters there, Mr. Santorum said he would stand up to big government in Washington, stand firm against abortion rights, and would live up to his campaign promises.
Mr. Santorum began labeling Mr. Romney the "Etch A Sketch candidate," whose positions would change like the draw-and-erase toy. The line came after a Romney aide said that the former governor would make a pivot at the time of the general election, "almost like an Etch A Sketch."
But it was during this leg of the campaign that Mr. Santorum made what rival Newt Gingrich described as his "biggest single mistake." Mr. Santorum said that if a candidate is "going to be a little different than the person in there," then "we ought to stick with what we have." His opponents said it was outrageous that Mr. Santorum would consider backing Mr. Obama over a GOP nominee.
Mr. Santorum later said he had been inarticulate, and that it was "preposterous" to suggest that he would pick Mr. Obama over a Republican. He said he would support the eventual Republican nominee, a reminder that Mr. Romney has been racking up more delegates than Mr. Santorum and taken a hard-to-overcome lead.
Along with Wisconsin on April 3, Maryland and the District of Columbia hold primaries. After that, the race heads to the Northeast, including the delegate-rich states of Pennsylvania and New York.

Astronauts scramble for escape pods as space junk threat gets serious

ATLANTA

The six earthlings – three Russians, two Americans, and a Dutchman – aboard the International Space Station were stirred from their slumber Saturday morning to jump into emergency escape pods, once again drawing into focus the growing dangers of hurtling space junk.
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The astronauts, orbiting 200 miles above the planet, were told by ground control to scramble into two docked Soyuz spacecrafts in case a piece of a wrecked Russian satellite should smash into the ISS, which could have heavily damaged the platform as both objects were traveling at orbital speeds – 17,500 miles per hour. The emergency was called off after the chunk passed by at an approximate distance of nine miles – which in space terms is a near-miss.
"Everything went by the book and as expected, the small piece of cosmos satellite debris passed the international space station without incident,” said a NASA spokesman.
Ground controllers did not believe the ISS was in extreme danger, but ordered the emergency maneuver after determining that the trajectories could intersect.
NASA says there are about 22,000 pieces of sizable space junk – primarily bits of old satellites – orbiting the earth and has in the past ordered the ISS crew to adjust the craft's path to avoid collisions. In all, NASA tracks nearly half a million pieces of space junk.
The piece that threatened the ISS Saturday morning came from the 2009 collision of the Iridium communications satellite and the Russian Cosmos 2251.
NASA spotted the latest threat too late for the crew to move the ISS safely out of the way. It was the third time in 12 years that astronauts were ordered to scramble for safety. Last June, a piece of debris came within 1,100 feet of the craft.
NASA said it followed a “precautionary and conservative” approach by ordering the astronauts to enter the escape pods. The astronauts – Russians Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin, and Oleg Kononenko, Americans Dan Pettit and Dan Burbank, and Dutchman Andre Kuipers – were awakened about an hour early on what was to have been their day off to get into the Soyuz' crafts and close the hatches.
The spacefarers watched through the portholes to see if they could catch a glimpse of the zooming debris. "Nichevo ... Nothing," one of the Russian cosmonauts said.
If the 450-ton ISS had been hit and disabled, the astronauts were prepared to detach and descend back to earth in the capsules. Instead, they climbed back into the ISS and “resumed a normal and relaxing weekend,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias told MSNBC.
In response to concerns from the National Research Council that space junk is posing an increased threat to the earth's critical satellite network and the ISS, spacefaring nations have signed compacts to adopt best practices to better control expired space craft and their inevitable return to earth. About one large piece of space junk falls to earth each year. Just this week, villagers in Siberia reported a large “UFO fragment” falling to earth, even as space experts struggled to confirm its origin.
Researchers are also working on ways to corral space junk while in orbit. One idea, in theory, resembles a sort of space shrimp boat that would use a net to trawl for debris. Other ideas include using lasers to obliterate the pieces, and a Swiss company last month said they are developing a sort of “janitor satellite” to clean up the trash strewn skies.

David Horst column: One stray cat quickly becomes a colony

We didn't seek to become one and we'd rather we weren't. Somehow, we've become a certified feral cat colony up on the sand hill we call home.

It started innocently enough. This multi-colored cat from somewhere in the neighborhood moved into our barn. She had two babies. We had them fixed. They and their mom disappeared almost right away.

Mom came back carrying another litter. Before very long, her babies started having babies.

I can see how a kindly, older woman is discovered to be living with 50 cats. If you aren't willing to send feral cats to pretty certain death at a shelter, and can't spare the $100-plus a vet typically charges for spaying or neutering, it can happen quickly.

We're not up to 50, but, unaddressed, it wouldn't take long. The experience gives meaning to the term "exponential growth."

The old farmer's way of dealing with excess cats involved either a .22 rifle or a gunnysack and a pond. We don't have that in us.

Instead, we fed them, gave them toys, old dog beds and a heated water bowl. I just don't understand why we can't get them to move out.

We talked about trapping these feral cats to get them fixed. The takeaway here — that needs to be a very short conversation.

I'm not a cat person. Still, it's hard not to smile at a barn full of kitten wrestlemania. A length of twine, a turkey feather or a rolling acorn is all a feral cat needs to entertain itself — and anyone who's watching.

We've only named the most sociable of the cats.

Mini Mama and Multi-Colored Mama are the offspring of the first squatter. Multi had a litter of eight. That included Bunny Kitty, a male with a little cotton ball of a tail and longer rear legs, which make him hop when he runs. He seems to have forgotten he's feral and enjoys being held by my wife.

Inspector Clouseau is a yellow tabby that has to be there watching when we do anything in the barn, particularly shoveling manure.

Little Weeble has some kind of back or hip injury. She wobbles when she walks, but doesn't fall down.

We finally took action again with the assistance of Judi McClain, an acquaintance who is very involved with Lakeshore Humane Association in Chilton. She put us in touch with Cats Anonymous, a nonprofit that relies on volunteer vets to conduct "spay days" one Saturday per month in Green Bay. They were a godsend.

They lend you cages and give you hints for outwitting felines that live by their wits. They ask for a $50 donation to spay or neuter and vaccinate a cat, but will do it for whatever you can afford. The catch is, you get the cats back, and you have to apply to be a feral cat colony.

The group organized in 2005 in response to a proposal before the Wisconsin Conservation Congress calling for an open season on stray cats. They are approaching 6,400 cats sterilized at more than 850 colonies.

"This is probably 1% of 1% of what is out there," Vicki Becker, one of the organizers of Cats Anonymous, said. The group has 300-400 cats on its waiting list.

We've made two trips to Green Bay with a load of caged cats in the back of an SUV.

The scene there is barely controlled, but effective, chaos. Cat cages are stacked two deep in the lobby with more arriving constantly. Amazingly, it all gets done and all of the right cats end up in the right cages.

Our third load of cats went to the Fox Valley Humane Association, which started a similar program a year ago at its shelter in Greenville.

"We patterned our program after Cats Anonymous, which is a fabulous organization," Deb Lewis, executive director at Fox Valley Humane, said.

Both programs notch the cat's left ear so you can tell at a distance which ones have already been under the knife.

Both also will work with people who can't afford the $50. Lewis said establishing an affordable spay and neuter program was one of those "before my career is done" issues for her.

There is no alternative. Shelters can't adopt out feral cats. They have more domesticated cats than they can handle. Putting a feral cat inside a house is no kindness to the cat either, Lewis said.

"We have to find a way that works better," she said.

Controlling feral cat populations is a serious issue. They are bad for wild bird populations, and not all of the cats get to spend cold winter nights in a barn. Their life expectancy is short.

If the problem surfaces at your place, get it fixed.

Old business: I wrote recently about a web cam installed at an eagle nest near Shiocton. It was beginning to look like they had been scared off, when the pair of eagles finally returned. The female laid her first egg Thursday. You can watch eagle parenting at

Hugh Freeze begins 1st Ole Miss spring football drills

OXFORD, Miss. — Much has changed since Hugh Freeze was around Mississippi’s football team on a regular basis.
Not all of it is good.
The Rebels’ first-year head coach hinted at a substantial rebuilding process for the program beginning with spring practice, which began on Friday. Ole Miss is coming off a 2-10 season that was among the worst in school history — costing fourth-year coach Houston Nutt his job in the process — and the roster is full of question marks as Freeze begins to see what talent he has on the current roster.

"I know you have a lot of questions," Freeze said during a press conference on Thursday. "We do also."

Freeze was an assistant at Ole Miss from 2005-07 under former coach Ed Orgeron. Though the Rebels’ undoubtedly underachieved on the field during those seasons, they amassed a substantial crop of talent that turned into future NFL players like defensive end Greg Hardy, offensive tackle Michael Oher and receiver Dexter McCluster.
Now that he returns as the head coach, Freeze doesn’t see the same caliber of talent.
"Comparing the team to when I was last here," Freeze said. "They look different."
There will be position battles all over the roster, including quarterback, where several candidates will get a look. Junior college transfer Bo Wallace and returners Randall Mackey, Barry Brunetti and Zack Stoudt are all in the mix.
"I really don’t know where things are right now," Freeze said. "I’ve said from day one that we have to create a great competition in that room and I expect to do that this spring with Bo and Brunetti and Stoudt and Mackey ... but whoever takes the first snap I promise you it will have nothing to do with who is the lead candidate for that job."
Mackey played the best out of the group last season — though that’s a relative assessment considering the offense was awful for most of the season. Mackey completed 77 of 155 passes (49.7 percent) for 1,112 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions.
The Rebels are also thin in the backfield and must find two new starters at offensive tackle after the departures of Bradley Sowell and Bobby Massie. Freeze said sophomore Aaron Morris and junior college transfer Pierce Burton are the two leading candidates for the starting jobs heading into spring practice.
Though the roster isn’t deep, Freeze said the team can’t shy away from a physical spring.
"Spring practice is to develop a toughness and a mindset," Freeze said. "Hopefully we will come through it healthy. But I don’t know how to become a better football team than to put them through some physical, high-tempo practices."
Freeze said the defense would lean on veterans like linebacker Mike Marry and cornerback Charles Sawyer as the group tries to improve from a year ago, when the Rebels gave up more than 32 points per game.
He said development along the defensive line would be especially critical.
"Some of those guys — they have got to increase our pass rush capability," Freeze said. "I didn’t see that last year (on tape). I hope it’s there and for some reason it just didn’t get done."

Ryan Madson’s injury could serve as warning for Phillies’ Cole Hamels

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Cole Hamels’ eyes widened and his forehead crinkled when he heard the news.
“No,” he said, drawing out the syllable in disbelief.
Yes, he was told. Ryan Madson, a teammate of his for the previous six seasons, was scheduled to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery after tearing a ligament less than two months into his tenure with the Reds
The news is relevant to Hamels, not just because of the personal relationship and professional kinship that he and Madson share, but also because both pitchers are less than eight months away from the potential riches of free agency. Madson signed a one-year, $8.5 million deal with the Reds after a multiyear extension with the Phillies failed to materialize. Now, he is a vivid reminder of the risks a player takes when he sacrifices security in favor of a bigger payday down the road.
Hamels could very well find himself in a similar position this year. While both he and the Phillies profess optimism about the prospects of reaching an agreement on a long-term contract extension, the 28-year-old lefty is now just 11 days away from entering the season without any guaranteed money beyond the $15 million he is due to earn in 2012.
Hamels’ agent, San Diego-based John Boggs, visited Clearwater earlier this month to talk business with Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. But if the two sides have made any progress, they have done an admirable job of keeping it under wraps.
You might expect that the prospect of seeing a payday evaporate would intimidate a player, particularly one who could easily command a deal in excess of $100 million on the open market. But if there is one thing that we have learned about Hamels, who has already won a World Series MVP and is coming off a season in which he went 14-9 with a 2.79 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 216 innings, it is that he does not scare easily.
“I’ve had some serious injuries with broken arms and herniated discs,” he said Saturday after throwing four innings against the Red Sox [team stats] in a 10-5 win at JetBlue [JBLU] Park. “So what? You lose a year, but you kind of gain a year because you are not putting the wear-and-tear. Hopefully Madson can look at it like that. If you’ve ever overcome an injury, then you can overcome anything.”
As he heads into his seventh season in the majors, an injury is probably the only thing that can prevent Hamels from becoming one of the highest-paid pitchers in the sport. Since breaking into the majors in 2006, he ranks eighth among major-league starters in strikeouts (1,091), 16th in innings (1,1611/3), and 15th in ERA (3.39, minimum of 700 innings). Over the last two years, he has propelled himself into the realm of the elite, posting a 2.92 ERA and averaging 212 innings, 202 strikeouts, and just 52 walks while starting a total of 64 games.
This year, Hamels will start the Phillies’ home opener for the first time in his career. Pitching coach Rich Dubee made the decision Friday after opting to pitch second-year righthander Vance Worley in the team’s season-opening series in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a great honor. Just to be able to be out there in front of your home fans,” he said. “It’s the start of their season, because it’s at home. I’ve been able to be here for quite a few years and be able to see the sort of excitement that everybody has having that first game in Philadelphia, and now to be able to pitch it, it’s kind of like leading off a postseason series.”
In a perfect world, Hamels will have a healthy new contract by the time October rolls around. Then again, Madson’s injury is another reminder that an athlete’s earning potential can change in an instant.
“I feel sorry for him,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “I never want to see anybody get Tommy John. Especially Madson

New Black Panther Party offers reward for 'capture' of Florida shooter

ANFORD, Fla. -- Members of the New Black Panther Party are offering a $10,000 reward for the "capture" of George Zimmerman, leader Mikhail Muhammad announced during a protest in Sanford on Saturday.
When asked whether he was inciting violence, Muhammad replied: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The bounty announcement came moments after members of the group called for the mobilization of 5,000 black men to capture George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin last month.
Muhammad said members of his group would search for Zimmerman themselves in Maitland and Jacksonville -- where the 28-year-old worked before the shooting. But he declined to say when they will begin their hunt.
Muhammad said the group's national chairman, Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz of Washington, D.C., is receiving donations from black entertainers and athletes. The group hopes to collect $1 million by next week, Muhammad said.
The party said it would not release the names of donors nor would it provide documentation to support the existence of donations.
The New Black Panthers announced the reward at a protest in Sanford on Saturday, the activist group's third protest in the past two weeks over the fatal shooting of the Miami Gardens teen.
The group called for Zimmerman's arrest and threatened to find and detain him if police were not willing to do so. But group members didn't call for the mobilization of thousands until Saturday.
Muhammad led the group in chanting "Justice for Trayvon!" and "Black Power!"
"If the government won't do the job, we'll do it," Muhammad said, leading his group of eight party members in chants like "Freedom or death" and "Justice for Trayvon" while making the iconic gesture of raising their fists.
The party members said they are tired of the inaction of government officials -- from Sanford city officials up to the governor, accusing them of lying and delaying justice.
They accused newly appointed special prosecutor Angela Corley of being an enemy of the black community.
"She has a track record of sending innocent young black men and women to prison," he said.
Sanford police arrived toward the end of the demonstration Saturday asking onlookers and media to avoid walking into the street in front of the Retreat at Twin Lakes, where Trayvon was killed.
As the officer walked back to his cruiser, Muhammad berated and pointed angrily at him, saying, "If you'd had shown this much concern, Trayvon may still be alive today."
The fiery rhetoric and often profanity-laden diatribes made some visitors to the impromptu memorial uncomfortable.
The Rev. Moses Brown of Tampa said he was disappointed with the Panthers' approach.
"We believe in a message of justice, not hate," said Brown, who was in town to pray at the memorial and attend the Monday event at Sanford's Civic Center. "We believe justice will come through the court system."
Brown, who is also the Chief executive officer of Feed Our Children, said he has been meeting with other Christian ministers to discuss the case.
While the Panthers chanted behind him, Brown said: "I see parallel versions of how we are coping with this as a community. Some in anger and us, in prayer. But we are in America, where we have our rights to expression."
The Southern Poverty Law Center says the New Black Panther Party, a black-separatist group founded in 1989, is "virulently racist and anti-Semitic," and its leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law officers.
Trayvon was killed Feb. 26 in the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes community while walking back to his father's fiancee's town house. Zimmerman spotted the unarmed teen and called the Sanford Police Department's nonemergency line to report a suspicious person.
Zimmerman shot Travon before officers could respond. Zimmerman told police he acted in self-defense. He has not been arrested and is not charged with a crime.

Dick Cheney recovering at hospital after heart transplant

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was recovering Saturday at a Virginia hospital after receiving a heart transplant, his office said.

Cheney was in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, his office said.

Cheney, 71, who served as vice president in the George W. Bush administration, has had a long history of heart trouble and has been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months.

"Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift," aide Kara Ahern said in a written statement that was authenticated by several close associates of the former vice president.

More than 3,100 Americans currently are on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. And 330 people died while waiting.

According to UNOS, 332 people over age 65 received a heart transplant last year. The majority of transplants occur in 50- to 64-year-olds.

The odds of survival are good. More than 70 percent of heart transplant recipients live at least five years, although survival is a bit lower for people over age 65.

NBC's Robert Bazell explains the process of receiving a heart transplant amid news that Former Vice President Dick Cheney has received a new heart.

Cheney suffered a heart attack in 2010, his fifth since the age of 37. That year, he had surgery to have a small pump installed to help his heart keep working. It was one of the few steps left, short of a transplant, to stay alive in the face of what he acknowledged was "increasing congestive heart failure."

The pump, called a left ventricular assist device, is mainly used for short periods to buy time for potential transplant candidates awaiting a donor organ. The fact that doctors resorted to it illustrated the perilous condition he was in.

"I've gotten used to the various contraptions that are always with me, and I'm working and traveling, I've hunted a time or two, and I have some fishing planned," Cheney wrote in his memoir released last year.

In July 2007, he had had a minor surgical procedure to replace a device that monitored his heartbeat. Nearly 20 years earlier, in 1988, Cheney had had quadruple bypass surgery, and had two artery-clearing angioplasties and the operation to implant the device.

In 2005, Cheney had six hours of surgery on his legs to repair a kind of aneurysm, and in March 2007, doctors discovered deep venous thrombosis in his left lower leg. An ultrasound a month later showed the clot was getting smaller.

In January 2011, Cheney said he was getting by on a battery-powered heart pump, which made it "awkward to walk around." He also said he hasn't made a decision yet on a transplant, but that "the technology is getting better and better."

Cheney said then that he'd "have to make a decision at some point whether I want to go for a transplant."

Like 5 million other Americans, Cheney had congestive heart failure, meaning his heart had become too weakened to pump properly. That can happen for a variety of reasons, but Cheney's was due to cumulative damage from five heart attacks that he had suffered since age 37.

Heart failure kills 57,000 Americans a year and contributes to many more deaths.

Cheney served as Bush's vice president for eight years, from 2001 until 2009. Cheney was a lightning rod for criticism during Bush's presidency, accused by opponents of often advocating a belligerent U.S. stance in world affairs during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan