PFT: NFLPA prez: Multiple gay players to come out

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Former NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia working with Jets starter-for-now Mark Sanchez seems like a legitimate opportunity for a man well-versed in the West Coast Offense to share his wisdom.

Throw in JaMarcus Russell, and it sounds like a punch line that?s looking for a joke.

But Garcia said he was impressed with the work Sanchez was doing, as he gets used to the changes new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg is bringing to the Jets.

?He?s doing an excellent job ? the progress Mark has made over the past three weeks is definitely very positive,? Garcia told Jim Corbett of USA Today. ?It shows Mark is committed to bettering himself and getting himself more mentally prepared.

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?The most important thing for Mark is to take that tough season last year as a learning experience from the standpoint of how he can get better and give his team the best chance to win. That has to be done in terms of being confident in his ability to run this system and speak the language correctly. So now when he takes the field in OTAs, he?ll be in that much more comfortable of a place.?

Garcia?s a good tutor for the system, and he threw for career-best numbers under Mornhinweg?s tutelage in San Francisco in 2000.

?Marty and I communicated a few weeks ago [about] what he?d like to introduce to Mark,? Garcia said. ?Mark is definitely getting more comfortable speaking the West Coast terminology. He had a brief glimpse of the West Coast system at USC.

?The toughest thing is this will be Mark?s third offensive coordinator in six seasons. The guy has had to learn a new system just about every other year. From a consistency standpoint, that just doesn?t translate to success in the NFL. You really need to be secure in what you?re doing mentally in order to compete at the highest level.?

Speaking of which, Garcia said Russell?s trying to get in shape for a pro day in a month or so, hoping to get another chance.

?Granted his back is against the wall,? Garcia said of the former first-overall pick. ?This is a situation where if he doesn?t do it now, it may never happen. But if you look at where he was two months ago to where he is today, he?s come a long way in demanding more out of himself than he ever did.?

If he had done that the first time through, he might not be a reclamation case.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/28/domonique-foxworth-thinks-multiple-gay-players-will-come-out/related/

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SGN - Seattle Gay News - Page 7 - Huck won't have it - Former ...

by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Less than 24 hours after being endorsed by RNC chair Reince Priebus as a potential Republican Party spokesperson on LGBT issues, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee threatened that he and his fellow evangelicals would 'take a walk' if the GOP supports marriage equality.

As a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Huckabee won a reputation as a common-sense politician with a sense of humor and the ability to relate to rank-and-file voters.

'I always tell people: Listen to Governor Mike Huckabee,' Priebus said March 25, echoing the public perception of the former governor. 'I don't know anyone that talks about [same-sex marriage] any better.'

Huckabee's reputation was always at odds with his fundamentalist religious views, however, as he demonstrated in a NewsMax interview soon after Priebus's remarks. Asked about Republican Sen. Rob Portman's endorsement of marriage equality and the possibility that the GOP as a whole might also reverse course and accept same-sex marriage, Huckabee responded with a threat to withdraw from the party.

'They might [endorse same-sex marriage],' he said. 'And if they do, they're going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk.'

AN 'OBJECTIVE STANDARD'
'And it's not because there's an anti-homosexual mood, and nobody's homophobic that I know of, but many of us, and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington Post poll, but on an objective standard, not a subjective standard,' Huckabee continued.

'I have great sympathy and extraordinary admiration for Senator Portman. I consider him a friend and I value his work in the Senate and think he's a great person. The mistake is that we sometimes base our public-policy decisions on how we feel, how we think, maybe even some personal experiences, and we don't regard a lot of these issues from the standpoint of an objective standard.

'Let me explain what I mean by that. If we have subjective standards, that means that we're willing to move our standards based on the prevailing whims of culture. Politicians have an obligation to be thermostats, not just thermometers. They're not simply to reflect the temperature of the room, or the culture, as it were. They're to set the standards for law, for what's right, for what's wrong, understanding that not everybody's going to agree with it.

'On this issue, I recognize the culture is moving away from the traditional standard, but it's almost like saying, well, we have a basketball team and nobody on the team can hit the goal that's 10 feet off the floor so we're going to lower the goal down to six feet and that way everybody can slam-dunk the ball.

'So the question is, have you have improved your basketball game? Or have you actually just changed the standard so it looks like you're doing better? And that's my concern.'

FIGHTING THE FUTURE
While these views might have come as a surprise to Reince Priebus, they should not surprise anyone who is familiar with Huckabee's record.

'I support and have always supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman,' Huckabee wrote on his 2008 campaign website. 'As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment. My personal belief is that marriage is between one man and one woman, for life.'

Huckabee has also opposed ENDA, DADT repeal, federal hate-crimes protections for LGBT people, and adoption rights for Gay and Lesbian couples.

If Huckabee's intransigent opposition to equality is typical of the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, and it probably is, the GOP will face huge obstacles trying to update its image and appeal to younger voters, who overwhelmingly accept Gay and Lesbian relationships.

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Source: http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews41_13/page7.cfm

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Hawaiians are laid back about North Korean threats

By Suzanne Roig

HONOLULU (Reuters) - When Japanese warplanes strafed the USS Honolulu in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy sailor Ray Emory fired back with a machine gun, so the World War Two veteran knows all about being on the front line of America's defenses.

But North Korea's latest threats of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and rocket attacks on Hawaii do not faze him.

"They're not gonna do anything," Emory, 91, said at his Honolulu home. "They can't even control their missiles. North Korea doesn't bother me. It really doesn't," he added.

Emory's attitude seems to be the norm in the lush, tropical islands, where this week residents and tourists appeared to be pretty much ignoring Pyongyang's rhetoric.

If anybody was seriously preparing for the worst, Jared Aiwohi would know. He is the owner of a store called Uncle Jesse's Place in Wailuku, Maui, that specializes in camouflage clothing, martial arts gear, hunting and bow supplies - the kind of gear favored by survivalists who fear a Doomsday scenario.

"The lifestyle here is laid back and people don't tend to be concerned about these things," Aiwohi said. "We always have the regulars prepping for things like this, but they haven't come in."

The U.S. military announced on March 15 it was bolstering missile defenses in response to the threats from North Korea, which has specifically mentioned Hawaii and the Pacific Island territory of Guam as potential targets.

"Yes, I'm concerned, but what can I do?" said Hawaiian homemaker Cheryl Yamamoto, 57. "Nothing."

Few believe North Korea will risk starting a full-out war - and Yamamoto said the ritual of going to work, getting dinner and taking care of her family weighed more on her mind than what the North Koreans might or might not do.

"I can't let them run my life," she said.

Joey Augustine and Doug Tojeiro, visiting from the continental United States, took time out from enjoying the local wild life (sea turtles) to discuss the threats as they walked up a rocky path from the beach. Both were skeptical.

"I think they're just trying to intimidate us, to see if they can get a rise out of us," Tojeiro said, as he wiped the salt water from his face. "We have the greatest military in the world to stay at peace."

On Guam, which lies about 2,500 miles closer to Pyongyang than Honolulu, the island's flow of tourists has been unaffected by rhetoric from North Korea, residents said.

While still on peoples' minds, concerns over the tension have receded somewhat as residents of the predominantly Catholic island have turned their attention to Easter celebrations.

Tammy Cruz, 38, a teacher from the village of Santa Rita, admitted she'd been a little worried: "Of course it's a scare to hear that our island is threatened." But she was focused on more immediate things: "Our tradition is to get together as a family and to come together to eat as well as have the kids play and to do an Easter Egg hunt."

While U.S. Stealth bombers and a B-52 bomber flew practice runs over South Korea this week, Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management said it had not received any particular alert about potential threats.

"In the event of a rocket attack, then the national defense system would render it useless," said Mel Kaku, director of the Department of Emergency Management. "The best recommendation to our people would be to shelter in place until the threat was eliminated," he added.

In the event of any attack, Kaku's advice to residents is "stay away from windows, or open areas, stay indoors."

"Kind of like during a hurricane, the blast would be similar, with high winds and projectiles," he said.

The Pentagon has declined to define the range of North Korea's rockets, saying it is classified. But Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged on March 15 that one type of North Korean missile likely had the range to reach the United States.

(Additional reporting by Maureen N. Maratita in Guam; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Claudia Parsons)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hawaiians-laid-back-north-korean-threats-223901951.html

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Sex offenders in Texas could catch a break

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Four convicted sex offenders huddled in a busy hallway at the Texas Capitol, congratulating each other for going public and testifying against a bill that would plaster their criminal past on their Facebook profiles.

As expected, not everyone was moved by their objections.

"I don't feel bad for the guys that came in here whining," Republican state Rep. Steve Toth said after the men had left the room at a recent House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting. A Democrat switched on her microphone to voice on the record that she, too, had no sympathy.

In the Texas Legislature and statehouses nationwide, bills aimed at curbing how and where sex offenders can live and work are routine. But for the 72,000 registered sex offenders in Texas this year, there is optimism. A legislative victory is in sight, and it's not for sinking a fresh round of get-tougher proposals ? but scaling back one already in place.

Pushing forward what advocates say would mark a minor but extraordinary softening of the state's sex offender laws, the GOP-controlled Senate has passed a bill to remove employer information from Texas' online sex offender registry.

"I've been on that registry for 15 years and going on for a lifetime," said Hwi-Kee Wong, 34, who works in information technology and said he was arrested at 18 for copying illegal images. "I've never re-offended. I have no intention to re-offend."

It's not a change of heart swaying lawmakers but the wringing hands of frustrated business leaders ? they complain their bottom line suffers when the public discovers who's on the payroll.

The odd result: Sex offenders and Gov. Rick Perry's favorite conservative think tank is among those left seeing eye-to-eye. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which backs business-friendly bills, argues the current registry comes between the private relationship between employer and employee.

"We've seen if it bleeds, it leads in news coverage for years," said Marc Levin, director of the foundation's Center for Effective Justice. "Obviously, people may be able to make money by doing a news report, 'We went to a McDonald's and there was a sex offender serving as a cashier' or something. It may be salacious, but what's the public interest?"

Mary Sue Molnar, executive director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice and the mother of a registered sex offender, said the bill is only the second her group has endorsed since forming in 2007.

Hers and a small band of similar organizations typically play defense in statehouses, arguing that decades of stacking one restriction atop another has pushed sex offenders to society's fringes. They say the result is growing ranks of unemployable and homeless outcasts, who then become more likely to commit new crimes.

"(Texas) would have every right to crow, jump up and down, dance jigs ? whatever," said Brenda Jones, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Reform Sex Offender Laws Inc. "It would be a huge win. It's very difficult to do."

Pressure on lawmakers to step up restrictions began intensified in 2005 when 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Florida was sexually assaulted and killed by a sex offender, according to a 2006 report by Texas House researchers. States began enacting sweeping "Jessica's Laws" that generally included mandatory minimum sentences and prohibiting sex offenders from living with 2,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.

Rules were being put in place prior to that. In 2001, for example, a Texas judge ordered sex offenders to place conspicuous signs in their front yards announcing their convictions to neighbors. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld that sex offender registries are not punitive, though an Indiana federal appeals court this month did uphold the rights of sex offenders to have social media accounts.

And states ? Texas included? continue to roll out new legislation to more closely track sex offenders and restrict what they can and cannot do. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this month signed a new law expanding the state's public sex offender registry to include a wider range of crimes involving minors. In Arkansas, a proposal would keep sex offenders whose victim was under 18 on the registry for life, whereas now they can petition for removal after 15 years.

About a dozen bills in the Texas Legislature this session would create new restrictions, including one reinforcing the authority of cities to keep sex offenders away from playgrounds and swimming pools.

In all, it's a reality check that keeps groups stopping short of predicting that wiping employer information off the registry will lead to a wave of other rollbacks.

Tough-on-crime conservatives aren't the only ones piling on the restrictions, either: The Texas proposal that would require sex offenders to list their convictions on social media profiles was filed by Democrats' go-to political attack dog, state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer.

"The state made a public policy decision in 1991 to get into this business. Every year we've expanded it," Martinez Fischer said. "It's all been done under the rubric that we need to protect the public. And most important, we need to protect those who probably can't protect themselves."

Phil Taylor, a licensed sex offender treatment provider in Dallas, told lawmakers the social media bill would only further stigmatize sex offenders and hamper their efforts to rejoin society. He said 80 percent of sex offenders don't relapse after prison, and pointed out that the group has lower recidivism rates than burglars and other criminals.

Sex offenders, meanwhile, sought to make a pragmatic case to lawmakers: money and resources. State law requires released sex offenders to register within seven days of leaving prison. Jonathan Cooney, 43, said he fell out of compliance that first week of freedom because the state was so backlogged. Three months passed before Cooney said he was finally registered.

"I think if more people knew the person behind the mug shot, they would be more in favor of turning away from sex offender registry," Cooney said.

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-sex-offenders-sight-rare-policy-win-163110300.html

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Google launching same-day delivery service for online shoppers ...

MICHAEL LIEDTKE ? ? ? 8 hrs.

Internet search leader Google is taking another step beyond information retrieval into grocery delivery.

The new service, called Google Shopping Express, will initially provide same-day delivery of food and other products bought online by a small group of consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., didn't say how many people will be part of the test.

If the pilot program goes well, Google plans to expand delivery service to other markets.

"We hope this will help users explore the benefits of a local, same-day delivery service, and help us kick the tires on the new service," Google said in a Thursday statement.

The delivery service is part of Google's effort to increase consumer reliance on the Internet, so it will have more opportunities to show online ads, which generate most of its revenue.

Google has learned that the more time people spend online, the more likely they are to use its dominant search engine or one of its other popular services, like its YouTube video site or Gmail, that include advertising.

The delivery service also could spur merchants to buy more online ads if Google's same-day delivery service encourages consumers to do more of their shopping online. Having to wait days or, in some cases, more than a week for the delivery of online orders ranks among the biggest drawbacks to Internet shopping.

It's a problem that Amazon.com and eBay, which operate the largest e-commerce sites, already have been trying to solve by offering same-day service in some U.S. markets. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, also offers same-day delivery in five markets.

A mix of national, regional and neighborhood merchants are enlisting in Google Shopping Express. The best-known names on the list include Target and Walgreen. All the merchants in the Google program will sell certain items through a central website. Google has hired courier services to pick up the orders at the merchant stores and then deliver them to the customer's home or office.

Although the couriers will be working on a contract basis, they will be driving Google-branded vehicles and wearing company-issued uniforms.

It remains unclear whether Internet shopping and same-day delivery can be profitable. Online grocer Webvan collapsed in 2001, largely because it couldn't devise a pricing plan that would pay for the costs of same-day delivery without alienating shoppers unwilling to pay too much extra for the added convenience.

Google is still trying to figure out how much to charge for its same-day delivery service. For the six-month test period in the San Francisco area, consumers won't have to pay a surcharge. Google instead will receive a commission from participating merchants.

The expansion into same-day delivery comes at the same time that Google is preparing to close some of its older online services so it can devote more attention and money to other projects.

The realignment has irked some Google users. The biggest complaints have centered on Google Reader, which allows people to automatically receive headlines and links from their favorite sites, and iGoogle, which allows Web surfers to design a page consisting of the Google search engine surrounded set up other online features, such as local weather reports and stock market quotes.

Google Reader is scheduled to close in July and iGoogle will shut down in November.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/google-launching-same-day-delivery-service-online-shoppers-1C9143458

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Consumer watchdog unveils list of top lending gripes

By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) made its database of complaints against mortgage issuers, student loan firms, credit bureaus and other kinds of lenders available to the public for the first time on Thursday.?

The database covers 90,000 complaints with more than 1 million data points covering 450 companies.

The CFPB spreadsheet allows consumers to find the most complained-about banks in highly specific categories. For example, Capital One received the most complaints about credit cards, and Bank of America received the most complaints about traditional adjustable-rate mortgages.

It's important to note that the data isn't normalized and that banks with more customers receive more complaints.

Data can be sorted at the bureau's website by state or company. It can also be downloaded for free and used in privately developed applications.?

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The agency's complaint database was released on a limited scale last year, and included only 19,000 credit card-related complaints. Thursday's announcement represents a large expansion of publicly available data.?

The bureau hopes consumers can use the information to make more informed choices about banks they do business with.?"By sharing these complaints with the public, we are creating greater transparency in consumer financial products and services,? said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. ?The database is good for consumers and it is also good for honest businesses."

Complaints are listed in the CFPB database only after the company responds to the complaint or after they have had the complaint for 15 days. Records include the type of complaint, the consumer's ZIP code, the company, and the resolution. Consumers' names and other personal information are not shared.

Among student loans and mortgages, about two-thirds of the complaints involve consumers who are having trouble repaying their loans, according to an analysis provided by the CFPB?of complaints filed through February. Many of the mortgage complaints reflect consumers' paperwork-related frustrations when attempting loan modifications.?

Nearly three-quarters of the 6,700 complaints filed against credit bureaus involve inaccurate information. Credit card complaints are more scattered, with billing disputes making up 15 percent. A common gripe, the bureau says: Consumers don't realize they have to dispute a suspicious item on their credit card bills within 60 days.

In a blog post that accompanied?the release of the data, CFPB official Scott Pluta said he hoped consumers would be creative and find new ways to examine and use the data.

"From infographics to iPhone apps, we?ve seen people do amazing things with the credit card complaint data that was available before today," Pluta said. "We encourage the public, including consumers, analysts, data scientists, civic hackers and companies that serve consumers, to analyze, augment, and build on the information in the database to develop ways for consumers to use the complaint data or mash it up with other public data sets to reveal potential trends."

The bureau plans to expand the data to other complaint categories in the future, he added.

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Saddam-linked legal adviser jailed for fraud

LONDON (AP) ? A flamboyant but unqualified lawyer whose clients included deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in jail for fraud.

Giovanni Di Stefano was nicknamed "The Devil's Advocate" for speaking on behalf of figures including Saddam, former Iraqi Vice President Tariq Aziz and British train robber Ronnie Biggs.

Prosecutors say he conned clients out of millions of pounds by operating as a lawyer when he had no legal qualifications and was not registered to practice in Britain or Italy, where he had offices.

"Some predators hunt down their victims, others lie in wait for them," the judge, Alistair McCreath, told Di Stefano. "Your victims in this case were all desperate people and people who, because of their desperation, were vulnerable."

Di Stefano, who was born in Italy and raised in Britain, was one of several non-Arab lawyers who acted as consultants to the team that defended the deposed Iraqi dictator and associates in his regime.

He also represented many ordinary people, whom the judge said had been left emotionally scarred by "the building of false hopes, always and inevitably dashed, followed by years of misery and frustration as they tried to recover what you had stolen."

Di Stefano was convicted at London's Southwark Crown Court this week of 25 charges, including deception, fraud and money laundering.

He pleaded guilty Thursday to two other fraud charges, including stealing 150,000 pounds ($225,000) in compensation intended for a man who had lost an arm in a car crash. Prosecutors said Di Stefano had the money paid into his own business account instead.

Passing sentence, the judge said Di Stefano had caused distress to many people, adding: "Your only concern was to line your own pockets."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saddam-linked-legal-adviser-jailed-fraud-134823645.html

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