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MLB: David Ortiz – Dan Shaughnessy’s steroid accusations are discriminatory

May 10, 2013 By Admin

e6b14908c77c8f247afd3065def2553e MLB: David Ortiz – Dan Shaughnessy’s steroid accusations are discriminatory

(PhatzRadio / SI) — Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said on Thursday that he thought a recent Boston Globe column had racially tinged elements in its questioning of whether he has been helped by steroids in his prolific start to the 2013 season.

In a column published on Wednesday, longtime Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy essentially accused Ortiz of being aided by some kind of performance enhancer in his strong start, writing that it “just doesn’t look possible.” In 17 games this season, Ortiz is batting .363 with four homers, 17 RBI and a 1.045 OPS.

Ortiz shot back in an interview with an ESPN Deportes Radio affiliate in the Dominican Republic, saying that Shaughnessy’s criticism crossed a line.

“Yesterday, the guy came to see me and asked some questions about steroids, and when you see the writing, it basically focuses on the fact that I’m Dominican and that many Dominicans have been caught using steroids. And what about the Americans?” Ortiz said, according to ESPN.

“If you’re from the Middle East, because there are some people there who put bombs and terrorize civilians, I have to see you like that, as well? If you are a white American, I have to call you a racist because white Americans were in the Ku Klux Klan?

“The thing that stung me was his statement about Dominicans. You mean that in Dominican Republic there are no players who try to do things right? We are all in the same boat. And the people here who have been caught, does that put everyone here in the same boat?”

In his column, Shaughnessy wrote that Ortiz “fits all the models” of a steroid user, in part, because he is from the Dominican Republic. Ortiz told Shaughnessy that he has already been tested a dozen times so far this season.

MLB: David Ortiz – Dan Shaughnessy’s steroid accusations are discriminatory is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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Putin still sees double standard with West on terrorism

April 29, 2013 By Admin Leave a Comment

27df2547a147014dc49cfc1dc8d9d724 Putin still sees double standard with West on terrorism

(PhatzNewsRoom / CNN Security) — When I was CNN’s Moscow Bureau Chief I participated in a round-table discussion with Vladimir Putin, then president for the first time, in the Kremlin library. Sitting next to him, just to his right, I could see how even the word “Chechnya” infuriated him. After all, it was Putin who, in 1999, launched the second Chechen War.

Thursday, in his annual national call-in, “Direct Line,” in which he fielded questions from Russians for almost five hours, Vladimir Putin showed that he still has a deep current of anger toward Chechen terrorists, along with a deep grudge toward the West for what he perceives as its double standard on terrorism.

The Russian President got a question during Thursday’s call-in from a viewer described as a Russian now living in the United States, Mikhail Smurygi, who told him, “In the wake of the terrorist attack in Boston, many Americans turned against Russia, as the terrorists were from the Caucasus.”

“The Internet is full of anti-Russian comments,” the viewer added. “Our relationship with the United States is quite strained already and these accusations do not help. How are you going to address this?”

Putin replied that ordinary Americans “do not understand what is happening.”

“I want to appeal to Russian and American citizens, and to all the people who follow these international events, and to say: Russia is itself a victim of international terrorism, one of the earliest victims.”

Then, Putin’s anger flashed: “I have always felt outraged when our Western partners, as well as your colleagues from the Western media, referred to our terrorists who committed brutal, bloody, appalling crimes on the territory of our country, as ‘insurgents.’”

“They were hardly ever referred to as terrorists. They provided assistance to them, information support, financial and political support – sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, but it always accompanied their activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Then, President Putin said, in effect, “I told you so:”

“…we always said that they (the West) shouldn’t make empty declarations that terrorism is a common threat, but make real efforts and cooperate with each other more closely. But now these two criminals have provided the best possible proof that we were right.”

Putin flatly dismissed the idea that the Tsarnaev brothers, whose family comes from the war-ravaged North Caucasus region of Russia which includes Chechnya, were suffering from the effects of the conflict.

“One can endlessly speculate on the tragedy of the Chechen people during their deportation from Chechnya by the Stalin’s regime. But were Chechens the only victims of repression? The first and the biggest victim was the Russian nation, which suffered the most as a result of repression. This is our common history. You can speculate all you want but does it have to do with the United States? What did they do to deserve this? It’s not about nationality or religion, as we have told them a thousand times – what is at issue here is extremism.”

Mr. Putin, who obviously has been following reports on the Boston bombing closely, smacked down members of the U.S. Congress who have proposed treating Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the captured suspect, as an enemy combatant, although he used the phrase “prisoner of war.”

“They (Dzhokhar and his older brother Tamerlan who died in a battle with police) moved to the United States and they were granted American citizenship.

The younger brother was an American citizen. Some people there are saying now–not the US Administration but they are politicians–that the surviving terrorist suspect should be declared a prisoner of war. They have completely lost their marbles. A prisoner of which war? Has the civil war between the North and the South started again? What complete nonsense! They are talking gibberish!”

Vladimir Putin, however, insists he wants more cooperation with the United States on fighting terrorism. ”If we really join efforts,” he said, “we will not have any more such attacks and we will not bear such losses.”

The Russian president later told reporters the security services of Russia and the United States regularly exchange information but the warning the FSB gave to the FBI and the CIA in 2011 was not enough to stop the attack.

“Since the Tsarnayevs did not live in the Russian Federation, they came to Russia from Kyrgyzstan and only appeared here occasionally while residing in the United States, the Russian special services, to my great regret, were not able to provide our American colleagues with information that would have operative significance,” Putin said.

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German regulators probe Deutsche Bank accounts: sources

April 4, 2013 By Admin Leave a Comment

German regulators probe Deutsche Bank accounts: sources

(Reuters) – Germany’s Bundesbank and financial watchdog Bafin are conducting an in-depth probe of Deutsche Bank AG’s accounts over allegations that it failed to correctly value a derivatives portfolio, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Two of the sources said on Thursday that Germany’s central bank was reacting to accusations that Deutsche Bank had incorrectly valued credit derivatives from 2007 through 2010, allowing it to hide as much as $12 billion in losses.

“This is a routine investigation. There is no prejudgment,” one of the people, who is close to the investigation, told Reuters, saying the regulators were starting with the assumption that Deutsche Bank’s accounts were in order.

The person said the probe would include trips to New York to meet the people who had made the allegations. “But the investigators have not been there yet.”

Deutsche Bank has said the allegations were unfounded and declined to comment on the investigation.

The Bundesbank said it could not provide information on measures that affect individual institutions.

“Generally, you can assume that we pursue any allegations that are made to assess their validity,” a Bundesbank spokeswoman said. Bafin declined to comment.

The Financial Times reported in December that three former Deutsche employees had filed complaints with U.S. securities regulators claiming the bank failed to recognize up to $12 billion of unrealized losses during the financial crisis.

At the time, Deutsche Bank said the allegations were more than two and a half years old and that an investigation by a law firm had found them to be wholly unfounded.

Reuters had previously reported on a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower action filed against Deutsche Bank in May 2010, alleging that some of the assets in a derivatives portfolio may have been improperly valued in order to hide trading losses.

In an internal presentation given by Bill Broeksmit, head of risk and capital optimization at Deutsche Bank in June 2011, Deutsche Bank said it had been able to unwind a large portion of its credit derivative portfolio without taking heavy losses, a sign that some buyers had broadly accepted Deutsche’s view on how to value certain assets.

(Reporting By Alexander Huebner, Kathrin Jones and Edward Taylor; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Tom Pfeiffer)

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China’s Defense Ministry attacks hacking report

February 20, 2013 By Admin Leave a Comment

Chinas Defense Ministry attacks hacking report
China says the report wrongly categorizes routine Internet data collection as spying.(Photo: Andy Wong, AP)

BEIJING (AP) — China’s military says a study accusing it of sponsoring massive hacking attacks on U.S. targets is deeply flawed.

A statement from the Defense Ministry on Wednesday said the conclusions of the report by Virginia-based Mandiant were wrong because the addresses linking the attacks to a military facility in Shanghai could have been hijacked.

It also said there was no agreed definition of Internet attacks and accused the company of portraying routine Internet data collection activity as spying, adding that Internet attacks are transnational, anonymous, and deceptive and that the data about them is inherently unreliable.

The statement also said China was a hacking victim and works with other countries to investigate Internet crime. It says “one-sided attacks in the media” destroy the atmosphere for cooperation.

(Reuters) – Accusations by a U.S. computer security company that a secretive Chinese military unit is likely behind a series of hacking attacks are scientifically flawed and hence unreliable, China’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

The statement came after the White House said overnight that the Obama administration has repeatedly taken up its concerns about cyber-theft at the highest levels of the Chinese government, including with Chinese military officials.

The security company, Mandiant, identified the People’s Liberation Army’s Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely driving force behind the hacking. Mandiant said it believed the unit had carried out “sustained” attacks on a wide range of industries.

The Chinese Defence Ministry, which has already denied the charges, went further in a new statement, slamming Mandiant for relying on spurious data.

“The report, in only relying on linking IP address to reach a conclusion the hacking attacks originated from China, lacks technical proof,” the ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mod.gov.cn).

“Everyone knows that the use of usurped IP addresses to carry out hacking attacks happens on an almost daily basis,” it added.

“Second, there is still no internationally clear, unified definition of what consists of a ‘hacking attack’. There is no legal evidence behind the report subjectively inducing that the everyday gathering of online (information) is online spying.”

As hacking is a cross-border, anonymous and deceptive phenomenon, by its very nature it is hard to work out exactly where hacks originated, the statement said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about the U.S. taking up its concerns about hacking with Beijing, said: “China and the U.S. have maintained communication over the relevant issue”.

Unit 61398 is located in Shanghai’s Pudong district, China’s financial and banking hub, and is staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in English as well as computer programming and network operations, Mandiant said in its report.

The unit had stolen “hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006″, it said.

Most of the victims were located in the United States, with smaller numbers in Canada and Britain. The information stolen ranged from details on mergers and acquisitions to the emails of senior employees, the company said.

But the Chinese Defence Ministry said China’s own figures show that a “considerable” number of hacking attacks it is subjected to come from the United States.

“But we don’t use this as a reason to criticize the United States,” the ministry said.

However, the Global Times, a widely read tabloid published by Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said China should be more active in publicly airing its complaints about hacking attacks, especially as the United States does so.

“Some officials have been punished for internally reporting that government websites have been hacked and secrets leaked, but almost no details have come out,” it wrote.

“The Americans really know how to talk this (issue) up. All China can do is concede defeat.”

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee and Huang Yan; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Saints Bounty Scandal: Tagliabue vacates bounty suspensions

December 12, 2012 By Admin

97ab94a255d69b9304cd2193ee2d5b3a Saints Bounty Scandal: Tagliabue vacates bounty suspensions
Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, shown in 2006, issued his rulings in the bounty appeals Tuesday.(Photo: Phil McCarten, AP)

Story Highlights

Tagliabue’s ruling came after a new round of hearings that for the first time allowed players’ attorneys to cross-examine witnesses

(PhatzRadio / USA Today) —- The implicated players in the New Orleans Saints bounty case got the appeals process they wanted.

And now, they have the verdict they wanted, too.

Tuesday, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue vacated all player discipline – suspensions and fines – levied by current commissioner Roger Goodell, according to league spokesman Greg Aiello, even though Tagliabue affirmed the factual findings Goodell made in the case.

OFFICIAL RULING: Tagliabue’s complete decision

This means the suspensions Goodell imposed on Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita were wiped off the board.

But as much as the league wants this long-running headache to go away, it probably won’t – because Vilma won’t let it.

The Saints linebacker is still angry about a year-long suspension (and accusations) he received from Goodell, even though he didn’t serve a game of it. Vilma missed time with injuries and returned in time to play when his suspension was set aside temporarily.

The ruling doesn’t appear to have short-circuited his defamation lawsuit against Goodell. Peter Ginsberg, Vilma’s attorney, said Vilma is “definitely going full force” with the lawsuit. “A hundred percent,” Ginsberg added.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who has been an outspoken critic of Goodell in this matter, tweeted to the players: “Congratulations to our players for having the suspensions vacated. Unfortunately, there are some things that can never be taken back.”

Tagliabue, however, ruled Goodell has little, if anything, to take back.

“Unlike Saints’ broad organizational misconduct, player appeals involve sharply focused issues of alleged individual player misconduct in several different aspects … My affirmation of Commissioner Goodell’s findings could certainly justify the issuance of fines. However, this entire case has been contaminated by the coaches and others in the Saints’ organization,” Aiello quoted Tagliabue via Twitter.

“Having reviewed the testimony very carefully, including documentary evidence that is at the center of the conflict, and having assessed the credibility of the four central witnesses on these matters, I find there is more than enough evidence to support Commissioner Goodell’s findings that Mr. Vilma offered such a bounty (on then-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre),” Tagliabue wrote.

Tagliabue’s decision appears to serve two obvious purposes: It allows Goodell to save face by affirming his findings, and it tries to remove a scandal from the headlines at a time when the NFL is in the midst of a public relations nightmare – a recent murder-suicide by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and the death of Dallas Cowboys practice squad linebacker Jerry Brown in a car crash involving teammate Josh Brent, who was charged with intoxication manslaughter.

As Tagliabue’s ruling was announced, the Cowboys were on their way to a memorial service for Brown.

Tagliabue took a swipe at the Saints: “Making matters far more serious – as well as challenging for Commissioner Goodell and League investigators – Saints’ coaches and managers led a deliberate, unprecedented and effective effort to obstruct the NFL’s investigation into the program and the alleged bounty,” Tagliabue wrote.

Tagliabue made it clear his ruling left no wiggle room for Saints coach Sean Payton, who is serving a season-long suspension: “Commissioner Goodell’s findings and the resulting suspensions of Saints’ personnel are final and no longer subject to appeal,” Tagliabue wrote.

Goodell fined the Saints $500,000, forfeited the team’s second-round draft selections in 2012 and 2013, suspended Payton for the 2012 season, suspended Saints general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games and fined him $500,000, suspended Saints’ assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six games and fined him $100,000, and suspended former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams indefinitely.

Current and former Saints players and coaches have acknowledged the existence of a performance pool that rewarded key defensive plays, including hard, legal tackles, but they have denied organizing or participating in a program designed to intentionally injure opponents.

The probe, overseen by Goodell, covered three seasons and gathered roughly 50,000 pages of documents. That investigation concluded Vilma and Smith were ringleaders of a cash-for-hits program that rewarded injurious tackles labeled as “cart-offs” and “knockouts.” The NFL also concluded that Hargrove lied to NFL investigators to help cover up the program.

Tagliabue ruled Fujita did not engage in conduct detrimental to the league because he only offered a performance-based incentive.

Ginsberg said the ruling was a big victory in terms of Vilma’s career.

“He was concerned about his reputation and the ability of the NFL to malign him personally,” Ginsberg said. “Jonathan has every intention to pursue his lawsuit against Commsioner Goodell to prove he has been unfairly maligned.”

Ginsberg said Vilma will pursue his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Louisiana.

Ginsberg said Tagliabue did a good job in the appeals hearing that included testimony from Williams and whistleblower Mike Cerrulo, although Tagliabue said in his ruling that “neither was shown to be not credible on the specific issue of whether Vilma offered a bounty on Favre.”

Said Ginsberg: “I obviously feel Paul Tagliabue got it right that he concluded there should be no discipline against Jonathan. We’re obviously extraordinarily relieved and pleased that Jonathan no longer is facing the totally unjustified suspension. On the other hand, we are concerned that Mr. Tagliabue’s decision still leaves the impression that Commissioner Goodell’s arguments were justified.

“We also are concerned for the Saints organization, which Jonathan and I have nothing but ultimate respect for. And we hope to clear the record about those accusations.”

None of the players has served a game of their suspensions, and they were allowed to play while appeals were pending. Shortly before the regular season, the initial suspensions were vacated by an appeal panel created by the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Goodell reissued them with modifications.

Vilma received a full-season suspension, and Smith was docked four games. Hargrove initially received an eight-game suspension that was trimmed to seven games. For practical purposes, that was reduced to two games because he was given credit for five games he missed as a free agent after being cut by the Green Bay Packers before the regular-season opener.

Fujita’s initial suspension was reduced from three games to one, with the league saying that he failed in his duty as a defensive leader to discourage the bounty program run by Williams.

Tagliabue’s ruling came after a new round of hearings that for the first time allowed Vilma’s attorneys and the NFL Players Association, which represents the other three punished players, to cross-examine key NFL witnesses in the probe.

The NFL tried late last week to settle the matter, but the players rejected the league’s proposal. Although the NFL’s offer would have reduced or eliminated some suspensions, players still would have been fined and forced to admit guilt. Hargrove’s agent, Phil Williams, confirmed the settlement offer in an interview with CBS on Sunday, but he did not go into detail.

In a phone interview with the Associated Press on Monday, the agent said Hargrove already “had been punished as bad as the NFL can possibly punish a player.”

“Not only did he lose a year, but the NFL dragged his name through the mud and lied about him,” he said.

Several teams inquired about Hargrove after Green Bay cut him, Williams said, but they all expressed reservations about signing the veteran defensive lineman before the bounty matter had been resolved.

“I got calls from the beginning of the season until the middle of the season, and then they stopped,” the agent said.

Contributing: Jim Corbett, USA TODAY Sports staff and the Associated Press

Saints Bounty Scandal: Tagliabue vacates bounty suspensions is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson

November 14, 2012 By Admin

de9f14bc2202e18d5adeefd6dfd31df4 NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson
(A Phil Jackson comeback with the Lakers wasn’t in the cards this time. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

(PhatzRadio / SI) — The Lakers’ soap opera just won’t stop. On Friday, Mike Brown was canned. On Saturday, Phil Jackson was courted. On Sunday, Mike D’Antoni was hired. On Monday, all hell broke loose, with accusations of mistreatment directed at the Lakers for how they conducted the quick search. The speed with which this unfolded leaves plenty of room for questions about what just happened, and what is coming over the next 12 months.

Let’s dig in.

1. Did Phil Jackson deserve special treatment in the Lakers’ coaching search or even more time to make his decision?

Rob Mahoney: Only if the Lakers were set on Jackson, which clearly wasn’t the case. Otherwise, Jackson was merely a candidate — and presumed favorite — in a coaching search, albeit a particularly accomplished candidate. The man is a living legend, but if he didn’t turn out to be the Lakers’ first choice, then Mitch Kupchak and the Busses were right to move on with the coach who was.

That said, if Jackson was told that he could have two days to deliberate before making a final decision and was basically assured that the job was his, then the Lakers are very clearly in the wrong. That’s not “special treatment” — just fair practice. One would hope that the captains of the Lakers’ franchise would appreciate their debt to Jackson enough not to lead him on or make him the fool in some ploy, but per a tell-all from Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register, that may have been what transpired. There’s no rule that teams have to do well by their saviors, but it’s an unwritten law at the least to not use franchise idols as a PR device.

Ben Golliver: In 99 percent of in-season coaching searches, my take would be simple: Feelings be damned, the organization needs to do what it believes is in its best interests and move forward as quickly as reasonably possible. Phil Jackson definitely qualifies as the 1 percent. His list of accomplishments doesn’t need to be recited in full here; just mentioning his 11 coaching rings and the fact that he was central in restoring the Lakers to glory should suffice. The Lakers didn’t owe him everything. As his agent conceded, the Lakers didn’t even owe Jackson the job, or the first crack at it, not even if he badly wanted it. They did owe him a level of communication in which feelings wouldn’t be hurt, egos wouldn’t be bruised and reputations wouldn’t be needlessly besmirched.

Because of his extraordinary accomplishments, personal ties to Lakers employees and relationships with all involved, the team owed him a crystal-clear understanding of where he stood in its thought process. If he was simply one of two candidates, he never should have been given a specific timeline to weigh the job, as that implies it’s his to lose. Once the decision to extend a timeline for reflection was given to him, it should have been adhered to by the Lakers. That’s basic protocol for any discussion, let alone a headline-grabbing back-and-forth with a legend. The end result is an awful appearance. The Lakers now look as if they dealt with Jackson merely to say they had done so before hiring D’Antoni, the guy they wanted all along. Should that narrative stick, and there’s reason to believe it will, it will be far more damaging to the Lakers than to Jackson, especially if D’Antoni fails to meet championship expectations.

2. Does the Lakers’ coaching change affect their championship outlook?

BG: I picked the Thunder to win the West during the preseason and nothing that’s unfolded in an incredible first month — the James Harden trade, the Mike Brown firing — has shifted my thinking. On the contrary, the prediction has only been reinforced. The proper alignment of parts from the very top of the organization down to the 12th man is one of those virtues of championship teams. The Thunder, even though they are now Beard-less, seem to be of one mind and body. Look at how seamlessly Kevin Martin has fit in. Look at their composure after a slow start. Look at the fact that they are right back on top of the Northwest Division standings as if nothing happened.

The Lakers, though, made the correct decision to fire a coach who wasn’t working or going to work, and then opened up a giant firestorm with their treatment of Jackson. Lakers management tried to argue that Jerry Buss, Jim Buss and Kupchak were all on the same page with the D’Antoni hire, which is fine. Then they are all responsible for the treatment of Jackson, which has been the low point of the season. On the court, the Lakers haven’t taken a single step toward a cohesive identity in the six weeks since training camp opened. Injuries have certainly slowed that process and a lack of depth and an old roster don’t help either. To me, big picture, the D’Antoni hire is a definite upgrade because he will command respect. But I don’t see him guiding the Lakers past the Western Conference finals.

RM: If we’re subscribing to the idea that Brown would have been unable to persuade his players to buy into his schemes and concepts, then a change to a coach with any kind of authority is a clear improvement on the Lakers’ title chances. D’Antoni is certainly that, and L.A. got the best of both worlds in an impressive basketball mind with a big name, thus replacing Brown with a strategic upgrade who should also deliver a higher level of execution.

But D’Antoni, ultimately, is a course correction. He’s here to get the Lakers playing up to their talent, and to get their trajectory back in line with the franchise’s expectations. His job is to restore the assumed status quo and establish a simplicity of movement in the Lakers’ offense. That doesn’t make the Lakers any more formidable a contender than they were once thought to be, nor does it drastically change the orientation of the Western Conference elite. The Lakers should still be more or less where we left them. Regardless of whether you favored the Thunder, Lakers or Spurs going into the season, we haven’t seen enough of any of the three teams to alter our initial projections.

3. Did the end result (Mike D’Antoni for Mike Brown) justify the process?

RM: No. I understand that the Lakers were short on time, but Brown — a hard worker and earnest hire — deserved a chance to fail before termination. Five games isn’t an adequate sample from which to make that kind of determination, even if the Lakers’ defense had been problematic enough to drag them to a 1-4 record. It was likely in L.A.’s best interest to make this change as soon as it knew a change needed to be made (as opposed to tabling the inevitable until January), but serving the team’s prospects doesn’t make this a fair situation for Brown, nor a particularly acceptable way of doing business.

We shouldn’t cry for Brown, who will be paid handsomely for his troubles and did far from perfect work in his year and change in Los Angeles. But this is simply the latest example of the Lakers’ endemic personnel mismanagement and the backward operations of the franchise in general.

BG: Sans the Jackson sideshow, which enveloped this entire coaching change, the Lakers did really well. Upgrading from Brown to D’Antoni is a total no-brainer. That’s an “A” coaching move given how little Brown was getting out of his team. They excised a problem in Brown, something that was going to be necessary sooner rather than later. The quick hook shifted the discussion and bought them some time on the court. They then hired D’Antoni, who was the best available head coach not named Jackson, and also the best available fit not named Jackson. They got him at a pretty affordable figure, and he’s fully motivated to put the Knicks’ era of his career behind him and newly blessed with more talent than he’s ever had to work with in his life. While the speed of the change left Jackson looking run over and raised anew questions about Jim Buss’ tact, management avoided leaving the team in limbo while dragging out the search unnecessarily. The page does turn here, soon, and the Lakers will be better for it. There will always be opportunities in the future to make amends with Jackson; the Lakers would be well served to take advantage of them.

7ffcb4f05994b6aa983f150efb6d38df NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson

Steve Nash

Steve Nash’s health will be crucial for the Lakers under Mike D’Antoni. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

4. Biggest fear factor for D’Antoni’s Lakers?

BG: The fact that Pau Gasol is 32 and that the Lakers have played at an average pace or slower every year since 2009-10 is a good one. The “Seven Seconds Or Less” Suns were ranked No. 3 and No. 1 in pace during their two Western Conference finals runs; D’Antoni’s offense was at its best when it was playing at warp speed, not just above average. Dwight Howard, when healthy, could thrive in warp speed, and Kobe Bryant is so skilled at finishing plays and drawing fouls in the open court that he should be more than fine. It’s the lumbering Gasol who sticks out like a sore thumb here.

Gasol is a good answer, but I think the best answer is 38-year-old Steve Nash’s health. This only works — meaning, championship contention — with him healthy and fully productive. Nash peaked as a player during Phoenix’s two deep playoff runs and he’s held on remarkably well until this season, when he went down with a leg injury in just the Lakers’ second game. D’Antoni needs that to be a fluke rather than a bad omen. A less-than-healthy Nash, or one who can’t recapture the mid-decade magic, would make it virtually impossible for D’Antoni to live up to expectations.

RM: I’m not so concerned about the pace. Though streaking up and down the court was important to D’Antoni’s Suns, their more impressive accomplishments came in the pacing and spacing of their half-court work. It didn’t take but a single play action — a high pick set for Nash by Amar’e Stoudemire — to set everything in motion. Shooters dotted the perimeter, Nash picked his spots and a quality shot was created before the opponent could even fully evaluate all the threats on the floor. Together, Nash and D’Antoni can do wonders, which should only add to your aforementioned concern over Nash’s health.

But I think the spacing concerns are a very real issue. D’Antoni will find ways to orient Gasol and Howard in order to maximize the space inside, but the idea of Metta World Peace’s defender shrinking the floor from the weak-side corner is troublesome. Couple that with the ever-problematic bench, and I’m not sure D’Antoni will have the resources at his disposal to create an offense capable of overwhelming other contenders.

Plus, lest we forget, defense is where the Lakers went wrong under Brown, and with Howard still recovering from back surgery, he won’t fully be able to compensate for the lack of quickness on the perimeter. Nash is a liability, World Peace can be exploited with off-ball movement and Bryant isn’t nearly the defender he used to be. There’s still solid defensive potential overall (Howard earns a team that much just by showing up), but there are no assurances that the composite product of a D’Antoni-ish offense and a merely solid defense will be enough to get L.A. through the West.

5. Who is the under-the-radar winner of the coaching change?

RM: Based on this report from Ken Berger of CBS Sports, I think Nate McMillan might be a surprising winner here. He didn’t get the head-coaching job, but with Jackson and D’Antoni both more accomplished and bringing more cachet, McMillan was to be considered a long shot at best. But D’Antoni’s pulling the upset over Jackson means that McMillan is a likely assistant for one of the most talented teams in basketball, the proud owner of a defensive coordinator job that he hasn’t exactly earned (his teams have largely been average — or worse — on D) and a probable next-in-line candidate should things go south with D’Antoni this year or in the future. Not bad for a guy who was unemployed and not even on the Lakers’ short list.

BG: Agent Warren LeGarie, who tends to win every coaching change, doesn’t he? LeGarie got Brown a three-year guaranteed deal in the first place, ensuring an $11 million payoff. He then got D’Antoni a three-year guaranteed deal with a high-profile team loaded with talent, one that includes the point guard who has proved to be most effective utilizing his principles. Because of the quick nature of the firing, his overall winning percentage and the fact that he now has the Lakers on his résumé, Brown will land on his feet without question. In other words, LeGarie will wind up getting three coaching jobs out of one organization when this is all said and done. Maestro stuff.

By Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney

Give And Go is a recurring feature in which The Point Forward’s Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney bat an NBA topic du jour back and forth.

NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson

November 14, 2012 By Admin

de9f14bc2202e18d5adeefd6dfd31df4 NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson
(A Phil Jackson comeback with the Lakers wasn’t in the cards this time. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Let’s dig in.

1. Did Phil Jackson deserve special treatment in the Lakers’ coaching search or even more time to make his decision?

2. Does the Lakers’ coaching change affect their championship outlook?

3. Did the end result (Mike D’Antoni for Mike Brown) justify the process?

7ffcb4f05994b6aa983f150efb6d38df NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson

Steve Nash

Steve Nash’s health will be crucial for the Lakers under Mike D’Antoni. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

4. Biggest fear factor for D’Antoni’s Lakers?

5. Who is the under-the-radar winner of the coaching change?

By Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney

Give And Go is a recurring feature in which The Point Forward’s Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney bat an NBA topic du jour back and forth.

NBA: All angles on the Lakers’ hire of D’Antoni over Jackson is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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Oracle to appeal U.S. copyright damages case: SAP

September 4, 2012 By Admin Leave a Comment

a1595a61e3255b525e8852bd871d1e7d Oracle to appeal U.S. copyright damages case: SAP

(Reuters) – U.S. business software maker Oracle has launched an appeal on a five-year long court case that could see SAP pay millions more in damages over copyright infringement.

On Monday, a spokesman for SAP confirmed a report in the German daily Mannheimer Morgen to this effect, adding that “in the worst case the appeal could take two years,” adding SAP was disappointed that Oracle continued to drag out the process.

“We agreed to a reasonable arrangement, since we believe this case has already persisted long enough,” the SAP spokesman said.

SAP agreed in August to pay Oracle $306 million in damages over copyright infringement allegations against a SAP unit, “to save the time and expense of this new trial, and to expedite the resolution of the appeal,” as lawyers for both companies had said at the time.

A Northern California jury determined in 2010 that Oracle should be paid $1.3 billion over accusations SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow wrongfully downloaded millions of Oracle files.

However, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton last year discarded the jury verdict and said Oracle could accept a $272 million award, or opt for a new trial against SAP.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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Cycling: Judge dismisses Armstrong suit against anti-doping group

August 21, 2012 By Admin

f049a0d1fd1f4e2a08804be29a829774 Cycling: Judge dismisses Armstrong suit against anti doping group

(Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge on Monday dismissed seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong’s effort to block a probe into whether the retired cycling champ cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, in Austin, Texas, dismissed Armstrong’s original bid to stop the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) from proceeding with its case, calling the lawsuit a “lengthy and bitter polemic.” But Sparks allowed Armstrong’s lawyers to file an amended lawsuit.

On Monday, Sparks threw out the revised complaint, though he dismissed it “without prejudice,” meaning Armstrong can try again. A lawyer for Armstrong could not immediately be reached for comment.

Accusations of doping have dogged Armstrong, who won seven straight Tour de France championships between 1999 and 2005 when he ascended to the top of the cycling world after overcoming cancer.

In a statement, USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said the agency was pleased with the ruling and defended its process for investigating doping charges, saying it had “protected the rights of athletes for over a decade.”

The USADA, a quasi-governmental agency created by the U.S. Congress in 2000, formally charged Armstrong in June with doping and taking part in a conspiracy with members of his championship teams. Five other cyclists have been accused of conspiring with Armstrong over the course of 14 years to hide doping activity.

The agency said in a letter to Armstrong that it has blood samples from 2009 and 2010 that are “fully consistent” with doping.

In the letter, which was published in the Washington Post, the agency said it also has at least 10 former teammates and colleagues of Armstrong who will testify he used doping drugs during races from 1999 to 2005.

Lawyers for Armstrong contend the USADA gathered evidence by threatening to ruin the careers of fellow cyclists who have agreed to testify against him. Lawyers for Armstrong also argue that the agency’s rules violate Armstrong’s right to a fair trial and that it lacks proper jurisdiction to charge him.

In February, the Justice Department dropped an investigation centered on whether Armstrong and his teammates cheated the sponsor of their bike racing team, the U.S. Postal Service, with a secret doping program.

Armstrong’s attorneys contend that he has “passed every drug test ever administered to him in his career – a total of 500 to 600 tests… more drug tests than any athlete in history.”

They say the International Cycling Union has proper jurisdiction in the case.

The USADA charges will be considered by its own arbitration process. Any penalties would be binding within the sport, but federal courts have the power to overrule the agency.

(Editing by Greg McCune and Vicki Allen)

Cycling: Judge dismisses Armstrong suit against anti-doping group is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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1df4af0e6e8f900d91267ca68edfd555 Cycling: Judge dismisses Armstrong suit against anti doping group

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Standard Chartered eyes joint deal after backing down in U.S.

August 16, 2012 By Admin Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Standard Chartered is pursuing a collective settlement with other U.S. authorities after agreeing to pay $340 million to New York’s financial regulator under mounting pressure from shareholders.

The bank said it made a “pragmatic decision” to settle after having seen its share price slump by more than 30 percent at one stage last week, following accusations that it concealed Iran-linked transactions worth a total of $250 billion.

The transactions were at the centre of a fresh legal challenge on Wednesday when the estates of victims of the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marine barracks sued the bank. The suit claimed the transactions were part of Iran’s efforts to avoid judgments against it over the bombing.

With the New York settlement agreed, subject to formalities, the bank’s U.S. lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell will look to accelerate talks with other U.S. agencies to enable Standard Chartered to draw a line under an episode that has caused lasting damage to its reputation.

“Negotiations are going on between the other agencies, and we are talking to them. It is safe to assume we are now seeking a collective agreement with the other agencies,” a spokesman for the bank said on Wednesday, declining to put a time frame on the process.

The spokesman had earlier said a collective deal with the other agencies was likely. Subsequently he said this was not the case, only that a collective agreement was the outcome the bank was seeking.

Having cut short a family vacation in Canada last week, Chief Executive Peter Sands is now pushing for a comprehensive deal that removes lingering uncertainty. The bank is still the subject of probes by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department and New York prosecutors.

Shares of Standard Chartered rose 4.1 percent to close at 1,429.35 pence, still well below their value before the accusations against the bank on August 6.

“I think Standard Chartered wanted to settle because the share price had become destabilized,” said one of the bank’s 30 biggest investors. “Prior to that, I think they believed they had good legal grounds to resist a settlement of, say, under $200 million on the basis of the history of these cases.”

New York’s financial services superintendent, Benjamin Lawsky, described Standard Chartered as a “rogue institution” for breaching U.S. sanctions by concealing information about funds linked to Iran.

The affair has taken on a political dimension, with British members of parliament suggesting that the lack of coordination between Lawsky and other regulators showed bias against London.

British Finance Minister George Osborne made a series of phone calls to his U.S. counterpart last week, expressing concern at the way details of the case came out. John Mann, a member of parliament’s finance committee, said there was a “political onslaught” in the United States against British banks.

A civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. district court in Manhattan said concealment of transactions through Standard Chartered “are part and parcel of Iran’s longstanding, determined efforts to evade collection of the judgment, and other judgments.

The estates of the Beirut bombing victims obtained a judgment of $2.6 billion in compensatory damages against Iran in 2007, the lawsuit said.

Standard Chartered spokeswoman Julie Gibson said the bank’s policy is not to discuss pending litigation.

In response to the New York regulator’s case, Sands initially rejected Lawsky’s accusations in strong terms. His decision to give the green light to a hefty settlement just days later has been viewed as a climb-down, but he maintains the support of investors and is likely to survive.

“I don’t think Peter Sands’s reputation has been damaged much by the affair. The fact that his robust defense doesn’t quite gel with the size of the fine would be the only real concern,” said one of the bank’s biggest 40 shareholders.

Simon Morris, a lawyer at CMC Cameron McKenna, questioned why the bank had paid such a hefty fine following its strong denial of the allegations. Sands said last week that only a tiny proportion of the bank’s Iran-related deals — worth less than $14 million — were questionable under U.S. sanctions rules.

“Last week there was a flat denial of wrongdoing, so this would make $340 million an immense penalty for the 0.1 percent of transactions that supposedly slipped through the net,” he said.

“But if you assume some underlying truth in the allegations, then it is a middling settlement – still a hefty price to pay for a continuing license to run a branch in New York.”

Sands, a 50-year-old former McKinsey consultant, has run the Asia-focused bank for the past six years and his success in the role had even made him a possible candidate for the job of governor of the Bank of England. Earlier this month, Standard Chartered reported a strong first-half performance, setting it up for a 10th straight year of record profits.

Monday’s settlement offered some relief to shareholders, but investors were quick to point out that Standard Chartered still had some way to go before closing the most regrettable chapter in its history.

“Don’t forget about the other half of the fine – they haven’t settled with the DoJ/OFAC yet,” one of the bank’s biggest 30 investors said, referring to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. He estimated a second financial hit of around the same size.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham and Grant McCool; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Neil Fullick)

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