RED HOOK, N.Y. – The first rescuer to the scene of a fatal boat crash on New York’s Hudson River says he found a badly shaken woman, then saw four bodies in the water.

Marc Hildenbrand, fire chief in the village of Tivoli (TIH’-voh-lee), got the call about 6:30 a.m. Sunday, two hours after the 19-foot boat hit a U-shaped concrete structure on the river’s eastern shore.

Two people survived. Hildenbrand found Jessica Hotaling on the shore and saw the boat half in and half out of the water. He says that when he saw the bodies, he knew the victims were dead so he started taking care of Hotaling.

The other survivor, Joseph Vehnick, clambered up a 20-foot embankment and across two sets of railroad tracks to an open garage, where he called 911.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

In the early hours before sunrise on Sunday, Joseph J. Vehnick searched desperately for a telephone to alert authorities that the powerboat he’d been on had crashed against a concrete abutment and sank in the Hudson River.

Despite serious injuries, he made his way to a barn some distance away on the river’s eastern shore near Red Hook. From there, the 23-year-old made the 6:25 a.m. call that would lead rescuers to discover four dead boaters and an injured one, who, like Vehnick, had somehow survived.

Investigators are still trying to determine what happened in the moments before the boat crashed only 10-15 yards from the shore about 45 miles south of Albany, according to Lt. John Watterson of the Dutchess County sheriff’s office. The survivors indicated the crash occurred around 4:30 a.m.

The boat’s bow and bottom were seriously damaged, leading authorities to believe the driver had been speeding.

The body of 26-year-old John J. Uvino of Saugerties was found in the water, and it appeared he was thrown from the boat on impact, Watterson said. Divers recovered the bodies of three other boaters: Robert P. Macarthur, 27, of Kingston; Deena C. Cordero, 26, of Kingston; and Jay J. Bins, 41, of Kingston.

Vehnick, of Kingston, and 27-year-old Jessica K. Hotaling of Hyde Park, made it to shore. Both suffered multiple fractures and were being treated at area hospitals.

It wasn’t immediately clear where the 19-foot boat was coming from or headed and who was driving, Watterson said. The medical examiner was conducting autopsies Sunday to determine the victims’ cause of death, he said.

Authorities found beer bottles inside the boat and believe the occupants might have been drinking, Watterson said.

Part of the boat was still sticking out of the water when rescuers arrived. Its bow had smashed into the concrete, which may have been part of a dock or other shoreline structure there previously. It was unclear if it was marked off by a buoy, Watterson said.

The boat was pulled from the water and brought to an impound lot.

The powerboat, which has a single deck with no quarters below, is known as a bow rider because its passengers generally ride up front while the driver sits behind them.

The boat was registered to Arthur Fiore in Kingston, who couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday night.

INDIANAPOLIS – The federal government is moving to open up large swaths of coastal waters to fish farming for the first time in an effort to decrease Americans’ dependence on imports and satisfy their growing appetite for seafood.

While federal officials and fish farmers say the new push will create jobs and help allay concerns about importing seafood from countries with weak environmental regulations, conservationists worry that expanding fish farms far offshore will threaten the oceans’ health.

More than four-fifths of the fish, clams, oysters and other seafood Americans ate in 2009 was imported, according to the latest figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those imports have soared in the past decade as U.S. production lagged while other nations ramped up their sea-farming. American seafood consumption, meanwhile, grew from just over 4 billion pounds in 1999 to nearly 5 billion pounds in 2009.

To encourage domestic production, NOAA and the Commerce Department issued new policies last month intended to open up federal waters to fish and shellfish farms. Those waters start three miles offshore in most states and extend out to 200 miles. Most U.S. marine fish and shellfish farms are now in state waters close to shore, and none exist in federal waters.

Michael Rubino, who heads NOAA’s aquaculture program, said expanding the area where fish farming is allowed will boost production, create new jobs and help ease concerns that some imported seafood may be tainted with industrial wastes.

Aquaculture now accounts for half of the world’s seafood production. But in 2009, less than 2 percent of the seafood that ended up grilled, baked or fried on American tables was grown along U.S. coasts or in inland saltwater ponds.

“We’d like the U.S. to take responsibility for our consumption decisions, rather than just importing all this food,” Rubino said.

He said the new policies should help cut the nation’s seafood trade deficit, which reached $10.7 billion last year, and come as the Food and Drug Administration is urging people to eat more heart-healthy seafood.

The new policies establish a framework for allowing marine aquaculture to expand into federal waters. But before that can happen, the nation’s eight regional fish management councils must create aquaculture plans for their regions, NOAA spokeswoman Connie Barclay said. Then federal regulators will craft more specific rules for the farms, with protections for wild species and coastal and ocean ecosystems, she said.

The Gulf Coast has already started work on its management plan, and proposals are in the works to adapt unused oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf for fish-farming.

Bob Rheault, executive director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, supports the expansion, saying it can take years to get some state permits to start a shellfish farm. His group represents about 1,000 shellfish growers from Maine to Florida who sell about $100 million in clams, oysters and mussels a year.

The opening and leasing of federal waters would help grow the shellfish industry, which already accounts for two-thirds of U.S. marine aquaculture production, Rheault said, but he doesn’t expect the new policies to immediately lead to “huge changes.”

“This isn’t the first aquaculture plan put out by NOAA, and I’m sure it won’t be the last,” he said.

Environmental groups fear the new policies will lead to big factory-style fish farms off U.S. shores. Sebastian Troeng, vice president for marine conservation with Conservation International, said raising salmon, other fish and shrimp requires large amounts of feed made from smaller ocean fish, taking food away from declining wild fish populations. And he notes that salmon, the primary saltwater fish farmed in the U.S., can spread disease and parasites to wild fish and excrete waste that depletes ocean oxygen.

The U.S. and other countries need to pursue aquaculture in a way that “puts as little demand on the environment as possible,” Troeng said.

The new federal initiative includes a push for more research to reduce marine aquaculture’s environmental impact and expand inland production.

Advances have already opened up the potential for farms far from coastal areas, such as the saltwater shrimp operation Fowler, Ind., grain farmer Darryl Brown opened last year about 600 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. He now raises hundreds of pounds of Pacific white shrimp a month in an old barn that once held horses and cows.

A humid addition to that barn now holds six 6,600-gallon tanks filled with a swirling mix of brownish saltwater and bacteria that break down the crustaceans’ waste, allowing them to thrive.

“The little guys can really jump,” Brown said earlier this month as several shrimp vaulted from one tank as he pulled away a protective netting to scoop some up.

Brown sells the mature shrimp live for $15 a pound to restaurants, at farmers’ markets and to visitors to his farm in Fowler. So far, he said he’s sold all he’s raised.

But Brown’s farm, which NOAA says is one of only about a half-dozen of its kind nationwide, is small compared with plans in the works for offshore farms.

Zach Corrigan, acting director of Food Water Watch’s fish program, said corporate interests are pushing big aquaculture to the detriment of the environment. He said the new policies give short thrift to innovative, lower-impact aquaculture systems and focus on expanding fish-farming into federal waters.

“You’re looking at a policy that’s very much set on promoting the wrong kind of fish-farming,” he said.

__

Online:

Federal marine aquaculture policies: http://aquaculture.noaa.gov/us/aq_policies.html

RDM Shrimp: http://www.rdmshrimp.com

SAN FRANCISCO – Talking through tears, a California woman held captive for nearly two decades told of the pain and determination as she gave birth to her captor’s child in his backyard prison, while she was still just a young teenager.

“It was very painful,” Jaycee Dugard told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an interview on “Primetime” that aired Sunday night. “She came out and then I saw her. She was beautiful. I felt like I wasn’t alone anymore. I had somebody who was mine.”

The 31-year-old woman, usually clear and composed, grew emotional when she talked about seeing the first of two girls fathered by her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido.

When Sawyer asked how old she was at the time of the birth in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Antioch she said “14″ with a small, incredulous laugh and a shake of her head.

She said she didn’t know how she could protect the child, but said “I knew I could never let anything happen to her. I didn’t know how I was going to do that, but I did.”

Dugard talked to Sawyer on a couch and on a porch at her California home. The blond hair she had in now-familiar photographs from her childhood is now reddish-brown, and she wore a red sweater and a necklace with a pinecone charm on it, representing the last thing she touched before her 18-year captivity.

The interview came on the eve of Dugard’s memoir about her time in captivity, “A Stolen Life,” which will be released Tuesday.

Dugard told Sawyer there was “a switch” she had to shut off to emotionally survive her rape and imprisonment. Asked by Sawyer how she stayed sane, Dugard said: “I don’t know. I can’t imagine being beaten to death, and you can’t imagine being kidnapped and raped. You just do what you have to do to survive.”

She described walking to the school bus stop on the day of a fifth-grade field trip and being zapped with a stun gun on a South Lake Tahoe street at age 11.

She said she heard Garrido laughing and telling his wife Nancy Garrido “I can’t believe we got away with it,” calling the moment “the most horrible moment in your life, times 10.”

Dugard said she tried to hold in her tears because of her cuffed hands.

“I tried not to cry because I couldn’t wipe them away,” she said, “and then they get itchy.”

She recalled the soundproof door of the backyard studio that Garrido shut and locked each time he left her.

“I can still hear it, consciously, when I’m awake,” Dugard said. “Some sounds and smells just don’t leave you.”

Dugard told Sawyer that in later years despite going out into public with her captors, she was just too scared to try to leave, especially for her daughters. The fear was fueled by what the Garridos told her about the world.

“What I knew was safe,” she said. “The unknown out there was terrifying, especially when thinking about the girls.”

Parole officers paid visits throughout the years to the home to check on Garrido and give him drug tests, but none reported any irregularities.

“I actually talked to one of the agents, and the agent proceeded to give Phillip his urine test and left,” Dugard said. “He made me feel like he didn’t really care.”

Phillip Garrido, 60, a serial sex offender, was given the maximum possible sentence of 431 years to life in prison last month after pleading guilty to kidnapping and 13 sexual assault charges, including rape and committing lewd acts captured on video.

His plea was part of a deal with prosecutors that saw Nancy Garrido, 55, sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape.

Without going into many details, Dugard talked about the long, drug-fueled sex sessions Garrido would put her through, and said that to her great confusion he would cry afterward.

“He would tell me what an awful man he was,” Dugard said. She said she would think that despite her own terrible pain, “I have to comfort him?”

Dugard told of her strange relationship with Nancy Garrido, who she said was “very jealous of me for some reason, like I wanted her husband to rape me, very jealous, and sick.”

Dugard said she is not full of rage, that to be angry all the time would be to let Phillip Garrido win.

But her mother, Terry Probyn, who was interviewed by Sawyer alongside her daughter, said she was.

“I think I have enough hate in my heart for the both of us,” Probyn said. “I hate that he took her life away, I hate that he stole her from me, he ripped out a piece of my heart, and he stole my baby.”

She then looked to her daughter.

“He stole your childhood, he stole your adolescence, he stole your high school proms, and pictures and memories.”

Dugard’s reply: “But he didn’t get all of me.”

___

Online:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jaycee_dugard/jaycee-dugard-interview-diane-sawyer-future-surviving-philip/story?id14040269

HARTFORD, Conn. – On the Merritt Parkway, stately trees line the roadside, shield drivers’ eyes from the sun and offer a scenic alternative to truck-choked Interstate 95. But the trees on the historic road linking New York City and New England are not just pretty — they’re also perilous.

Trees have fallen onto cars three times in recent weeks, including one whipped by a storm June 23 onto a livery sedan driven by 74-year-old Norman Gamache, of Westport, Mass., killing him and injuring his two passengers.

“Every time this happens, I think most any of us who travel the Merritt does so holding our breath and looking upward,” said Gordon Joseloff, first selectman in Westport, Conn., where many trees have toppled onto the parkway in recent years.

For Gamache’s nephew, Bob Gendron, the question is: “What happened was one of those freaky, freaky things, I know, but why don’t they just cut back the trees?”

Along the Merritt, built in the 1930s and listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its landscaping, topography and variety of ornate overpass bridges, it’s not that simple. Preservation officials say can’t cut all trees close to the road because of historic protections.

It’s a conversation that has happened before. A couple from Pelham, N.Y., died and their two young sons were trapped in the family’s crushed car by a fallen pine tree in 2007, not far from where a large maple fell a month earlier and slightly injured another driver.

Connecticut officials reviewed potential dangers at the time and cut many questionable trees, and they said recently that their tree inspection, maintenance and removal process remains as active as ever despite budget constraints.

Still, the latest batch of falling trees and limbs has raised questions about whether more can be done to protect those who use the 37.5-mile parkway, which many car drivers favor because its low bridges make it off limits to tractor-trailers and other large commercial vehicles.

The parkway, whose first section opened in 1934, connects the Wilbur Cross Parkway in southern Connecticut to the Hutchinson River Parkway at the New York border. Towering trees border it and, in many spots, also line its narrow median. That leaves potential for trees to topple into the road during storms or even fair weather if they’re unhealthy.

As part of its Merritt maintenance work, the Connecticut Department of Transportation has workers regularly check for trees that show rot or other problems that could make them vulnerable, department spokesman Kevin Nursick said.

But the trees that recently killed Gamache and injured people in two other vehicles were healthy and gave no indication of problems, so the Transportation Department had no way of knowing they might fall, Nursick said.

“If these were dead, dying or decayed trees, I’d say we need to do better work, but these were trees that were overtly healthy,” Nursick said. “That’s the conundrum: How do we identify a healthy tree that could potentially become compromised during a weather event? I think that’s virtually impossible.”

The parkway’s historic designation prevents widespread tree removal except in emergencies. And unlike on most limited-access highways, crews cannot unilaterally cut all trees within a certain distance of the road — usually, about 30 feet — because of the Merritt’s historic protections.

The problem is exacerbated by the growing amount of traffic on the Merritt Parkway in recent decades. In 2009, the most recent figure available, it carried more than 80,000 vehicles at its busiest point, where it transforms into the Wilbur Cross.

It’s a popular alternative to nearby I-95 because trucks can’t use it, so chances are good that if a tree falls, a small vehicle will be below it.

New York officials experienced the problem in 2004, when a Yonkers couple was killed by a 50-foot ash tree that smashed into their car on a sunny day, for no obvious reason, on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Westchester. Their infant daughter was strapped into a car seat in the back of the vehicle and survived.

The problem of trees falling into roadways isn’t limited to parkways in general or the Merritt in particular, though. In fact, the same day Gamache was killed in Stamford, a 55-year-old Guilford man was critically injured when a tree fell on his truck on U.S. 1 in Madison, about 60 miles away. He died the next day.

Motorists have also died in recent weeks in Georgia, Indiana, Virginia and California. Storms felled most of those trees.

That’s little comfort to the family of Gamache, who enjoyed long road trips, drove a big rig for decades and had a gregarious nature that made him the perfect fit to drive sedans for his nephew’s limousine company.

“My uncle was a great driver,” Gendron said. “The man never had a speeding ticket and drove tractor-trailers all of his life, in all kinds of conditions and weather.”

BILLINGS, Mont (Reuters) – Federal regulators said on Sunday they want Exxon Mobil to retool its preliminary plan to clean up oil spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana from a ruptured pipe at the start of July.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official, Steve Merritt, said three elements of the plan were incomplete. He said Exxon must revise how it will capture spilled oil, remove the broken pipe without causing pollution downstream, and restore the wildlife habitat and private property.

Merritt, the EPA’s on-scene coordinator for the spill, said officials wanted Exxon to finish the revisions by “one week from today”.

Exxon said it “will continue to work closely with the EPA on the draft work plan and will comply with this request,” spokesman Pius Rolheiser said in a statement.

Details of the preliminary plan will not be released until the EPA and Montana approve it. Merritt said the government had given preliminary approval to several elements of the plan, including for disposing of hazardous waste and for sampling.

Exxon is facing an EPA-ordered deadline of September 9 to clean up a river renowned for its scenic beauty, near pristine waters and wealth of wildlife and fish.

The company has apologized for the spill and pledged to restore the Yellowstone. Mop-up is under way along shorelines but high water has prevented an inspection of the pipeline and damage downriver.

Exxon estimates that 42,000 gallons of crude were released during the accident. Record flows in the Yellowstone have delayed a probe of the damaged 12-inch pipeline, which was buried in the streambed.

Federal regulators estimate the oil has traveled 240 miles downstream from the site of the rupture, west of Billings, crossing near the south-central Montana community of Laurel.

HEALTH EFFECTS

Helicopter flights along the river corridor by government and Exxon officials showed oiled riverbanks, wetlands and cropland 70 miles downstream of the spill.

Water testing by the EPA on July 4 showed no detectable levels of three known carcinogens associated with crude oil, and air monitoring revealed no major health threats so far.

Yet at least five residents have been treated in hospital emergency rooms for symptoms like dizziness, nausea and respiratory distress linked to exposure to petrochemicals, according to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Lisa Williams, contaminants specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that biologists were monitoring a handful of oil-tainted wildlife, including Canada geese, a white pelican and a heron.

The company has logged nearly 300 calls to its hotline, including from 100 people volunteering for clean-up efforts. Exxon is responding to roughly 100 claims stemming from property, agriculture or health concerns, a statement said.

Handling of the spill has cooled relations between the oil giant and Montana, one of just two states whose constitutions guarantee a “clean, healthful environment.”

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer has pulled the state from a panel, including Exxon and EPA, overseeing the spill response. He said its closed meetings and withholding of documents from the public violated open-government laws.

Schweitzer opened a state office in Billings to respond to any health and property concerns. A trained soil scientist, he encouraged those affected by the spill to document damage and collect water and soil samples for testing.

While some landowners have praised Exxon for picking up the tab for everything from hotel rooms to livestock feed, others have expressed frustration and worry in the absence of a detailed timeline for cleaning their oil-fouled lands.

Kelly Goodman, who lives on riverside property homesteaded by her family over a century ago, said her livelihood has been disrupted by contamination of pastures and wetlands.

Goodman’s sheep and horses have been confined to a small fenced area to prevent them from exposure to oil-stained grasses and tainted water. She said she has been unable to work the champion sheep-herding dogs she raises, shows and sells.

Goodman said she is also uneasy about wells that supply drinking water, and over the safety of crops fed by river water.

“I can’t remember the last time I ate a decent meal or had a full night’s rest,” she said. “The main thing I would like is to have everything like it was.”

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

We’ve watched her reality TV show. We’ve followed her around the country. We’ve meticulously combed through years of her emails. We have found no more hidden shadows, unplumbed depths, or secret dark sides. There comes a time where we must face the fact that we already know absolutely everything there is to know about Sarah Palin. That time may very well be now.

Related: The GOP Presidential Field Keeps an Even Lower Profile

The recent Newsweek boasts a brand-new, blockbuster profile of Sarah Palin that, like so many profiles and investigations before it, tells us very little about Palin that we don’t already know. “I believe that I can win a national election,” Palin declares, like so many other almost-candidates for the GOP 2012 primary. If she doesn’t run, it will be because of “family,” she says — though all members would support her — once again offering the favored response of politicians who have dropped out and likened the decision to some sort of noble sacrifice.

Related: Bachmann’s Presidential Campaign Is ‘Beyond Speculation’

“We don’t advertise where we’re going,” Palin describes. Boyer, the author of the profile, calls this “the understatement of the political season.” It depends on how one reads the word “advertise,” of course. Palin did after all travel around the country in a bus with her name massively painted on the outside, and spoke to the media throughout the tour. She just didn’t give any advance notice, leaving the press to scramble after her. Likewise, the profile covers Palin’s appearance at the screening of the documentary film homage to her, The Undefeated, which she agreed to attend a week before the premiere, leaving the devoted director five days to plan the event. Without word, she didn’t show up when she had agreed, leaving hired security forces waiting for her in an airfield and the organizers in at a loss. She finally turned up an hour before, “signing autographs and posing for photographs with admirers.” In that story, her not “advertising” is depicted as being less about maintaining privacy than just acting inconsiderately.

Related: Adorable Piper Is the Where’s Waldo of Palin’s Bus Tour

Any other details from the piece? The Palins rent Chevy Malibus. Todd Palin buys Slim Jims, a fact which Sarah Palin uses to describe the effect of inflation: “every time I walk into that grocery store, a couple of pennies more…” she says. But beef jerky aside, we’re given the same portrait of Palin she has steadfastly maintained from the outset. She maintains her distance from the Republican party, and they maintain their distance from her: “I went out there and I supported them in their campaigns, and I put some of them on the map. And to this day, we have not heard from them…” She is unafraid of taking on the media, where she thinks that they have lied about her. And her devoted fans “burn through” their savings in support of what they believe will be a Palin run for the presidency, while she won’t admit whether or not she has even made a decision: “But we’re still thinking about it. I’m still thinking about it.” As she has said time and again, “We don’t advertise where we’re going.”

By Coral Davenport

National Journal

House GOP leaders are ginning up excitement for Monday’s high-wattage vote to roll back lightbulb efficiency standards—or, as Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, likes to call it, the “Save the Lightbulb” bill.

The bill, and the rallying cry of “Save the Lightbulb!” have become unlikely hallmarks of the tea party movement, touted by presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann and talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Tea party conservatives have targeted an obscure lightbulb efficiency provision tucked into a broad 2007 energy law as symbolic of what they call government overregulation. They passionately decry the law as a “ban” on the familiar incandescent lightbulbs that Americans have used for most of the last century.

Despite all the political crossfire over lightbulbs, it’s unlikely that Republicans will succeed: Monday’s House vote will take place under a procedural rule requiring a two-thirds majority, which makes it uncertain whether it will pass—while it is certain to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The provision requires that by 2012, lightbulb manufacturers produce bulbs that generate the same amount of light, but use less electricity to do it. It would not outlaw incandescent bulbs, nor mandate production of the curlicue-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs. The new energy-efficient bulbs, which hit hardware and drugstore shelves this year, are similar in appearance from the old bulbs—they have the familiar “bulb” shape and cast the same warm light. They are more expensive than the old bulbs but last longer and have the net effect of saving consumers money, according to the Energy Department, which estimates that the bulb law will save Americans $6 billion annually in energy costs.

PICTURES: Biggest Stories from the First Half of 2011

At the time it was introduced, the legislation was championed by Democratic and Republican leaders alike. The original 2007 lightbulb efficiency language was co-sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Ill. It passed easily through the House Energy and Commerce Committee and was added as an amendment to a bill that passed the Senate by a vote of 86-8, the House by a vote of 314-100, and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

So how did Republicans get from there to here on the lightbulb law?

The answer has very little to do with energy policy, and everything to do with tea party politics.

Barton, the bill’s sponsor, turned his attention to the lightbulb law last fall, when he found himself pitted in a bitter contest with Upton for chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. The rivalry played out in the weeks after the November elections, when Republicans were giddy with excitement over their tea party-fueled takeover of the House.

The conservative Barton, who has declared that he was “tea party before tea party was cool”, rode that wave in his campaign against Upton, digging up pieces of his opponent’s record that he believed would show that Upton was too moderate to hold a prominent leadership post. Among them: Upton’s sponsorship of the lightbulb standards.

ANALYSIS: Why This Default Debate Is Different

Barton turned Upton’s support of the lightbulb standard into one of his key pieces of ammunition against the moderate Michigander, launching the “Save the Lightbulb” campaign. It was promptly picked up by Beck, Limbaugh, and Bachmann. Barton ultimately lost the contest for Energy Chairman, but his lightbulb campaign became a top talking point for conservatives.

By February, it had gained steam and a Senate companion bill, introduced on February 17 by Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo. In a sign of its momentum, 27 other Republicans signed on to the bill that day.

All of that alarmed manufacturers, who had begun producing the new bulbs, and feared the rollback of the standards would undermine their investments in developing energy-efficient bulbs. Bulb-maker Philips began an aggressive lobbying campaign, meeting with lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill, urging them not to roll back the lightbulb law. They brought along samples of the new bulbs, similar in appearance from the old bulbs.

“The new energy efficient incandescent bulbs look and feel just like the old lights that consumers are used to. The only real difference Americans will notice with the new lightbulbs is their lower electricity bills. Electricity savings per family will be about $100 per year,” said Randy Moorhead, Vice President of Government Affairs for Philips Electronics, reprising the pitch he’s been making tirelessly to GOP lawmakers.

After meeting with Philips, some Republican energy policy staffers privately admitted that rolling back the lightbulb law seemed like a bad idea, especially when they saw that the efficient bulbs looked exactly like the old bulbs, and learned that manufacturers feared they would hurt their bottom line.

Despite the quiet heartburn that the bill is now generating in some moderate Republican offices, GOP leaders are still driving it forward, in hopes that Monday’s House floor debate will generate campaign talking points for tea party candidates across the country—including Bachmann.

PICTURES: Betty Ford Through the Years—from Caribbean Fishing to the White House

And in a sign that all this has generated concern in the highest quarters in Washington, Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Friday held a press call with former Republican Sen. John Warner, R-Va., in hopes of shoring up support for the law.

“Right now many families around the country are struggling to pay their energy bills and leaders in the house want to roll back these standards that will save families money,” said Chu.

Under the current law, “You’ll still be able to buy halogen incandescent bulbs. They’ll look and feel the same, but the only difference is that they’ll save consumers money,” he said.

Of tea partiers’s philosophical argument that the law would deprive consumers of the choice of lighting products, Chu said, these standards are not taking choices away, its putting money back in the pockets of American families.”

Warner, who now lobbies his former colleagues on energy issues, said rolling back the law would freeze up business growth. “If I were a financier trying to help the small business community, I would say, ‘wait a minute—if congress is going to start stripping out provisions of this landmark legislation, then there’s no regulatory certainty—and I’m not going to lend you the money.’ “

Visit National Journal for more political news.

“The Undefeated” is the best feature-length campaign commercial ever for a candidate who isn’t even running for office.

Or is she?

The story of Sarah Palin’s unlikely rise from workaday Wasilla mom to vice presidential candidate remains a fascinating one, more than enough to power a documentary which doesn’t for a moment pretend to be balanced.

Even by the tilted standards set by Michael Moore and Alex Gibney (“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”) “Undefeated” is a biased affair, at least from the rough cut seen by The Daily Caller.

The voices here are all on Team Palin, be they radio talkers like Mark Levin or members of her Alaskan administration. There’s not a single voice of consequence against Palin, no one to besmirch the image being painted.

That’s ends up being “The Undefeated’s” greatest strength and weakness. The media narrative paints Palin as a dim, divisive bulb. But Governor Palin rubbed both parties the wrong way during her abbreviated time as her state’s chief executive, wrestling bipartisan deals when she needed them most.

“The Undefeated” is a bracing corrective to a media which seizes on her every misstep, real and imagined. It’s also a reminder that she can give one heck of a speech, something that shouldn’t be discounted as talk of her presidential aspirations mount. (Palin movie sparks a changing media narrative)

But making her a quasi-saint doesn’t do anyone, including herself, much good. And it renders “The Undefeated” both predictable and too easy to dismiss.

Director Stephen K. Bannon sees greatness in his subject matter, a Reagan-esque figure who doesn’t mind being unpopular if it means getting the job done.

Bannon takes great pleasure in his bold visual cues, showing snarling dogs when the attacks on Palin intensify and people hiding weapons behind their backs to illustrate the nasty nature of politics.

A cheap but effective gimmick opens the film. After hearing celebrities like Matt Damon, Sharon Osbourne and Howard Stern bash Palin in often crude fashion we see images of Palin as a toddler, bright faced and eager to please.

Palin’s political ambitions first flared in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The tragedy opened her eyes to both abuses of power and the balance required to keep the country’s power supply coming.

She started her career as Mayor of Wasilla, but parlayed that role to become chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and, later, governor of her beloved home state.

She was greeted in the governor’s office by an ungainly budget and brickbats coming from all sides. She ended up coaxing Democrats to vote for her key issues while refusing to give fellow Republicans a pass.

In short, she didn’t feel beholden to either party. This was a woman who gave up her lucrative gig with the aforementioned energy commission to do what she saw was the right thing.

Does any of this roll off the tongue? If Tina Fey didn’t say it, or it didn’t appear in the governor’s emails The New York Times begged readers to pore over a few weeks back, then to many news consumers it didn’t happen.

Yet “The Undefeated” does a poor job of detailing the media bias surrounding her. It’s not enough to show snippets of liberal talkers like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann shredding her.

Bannon has little material to work with during Palin’s mayoral days, so he cranks up the melodramatic music to keep us engaged. These sequences let Palin, heard from snippets of the audio version of her autobiography “Going Rogue,” show her wonky side.

The film blames McCain suspending the campaign during the the country’s financial crisis for allowing Obama to regain the momentum for good. That’s about as far as “The Undefeated” goes toward explaining how the McCain/Palin ticket lost. The race is given less attention than her now iconic introduction at the Republican National Convention.

Watching “The Undefeated” reminds us of one incontrovertible fact. Palin gives great speeches. Yes, that accent isn’t for everyone. But her delivery, combined with a blend of sass and steel, make her a formidable political player.

Her explanation for quitting as Alaska’s governor feels more complete here than in her book, “Going Rogue.” A flotilla of faux ethical complaints threatened to bankrupt her and prevent her from getting anything done as governor. That begs the question about her future political ambitions. Won’t her enemies attempt a similar strategy? What will be different next time?

Palin didn’t directly participate in this documentary, but it’s hard to believe she’d complain about anything included here. (Palin: ‘I believe that I can win a national election’)

“She owned what she was saying, that’s what we don’t see in other politicians,” says radio talker Tammy Bruce in one of many spirited defense of Palin the politician.

“The Undefeated” is a narrative buster and choir preaching event all in one. The media may believe Palin lacks the brains and experience to be the nation’s next Commander in Chief, but she doesn’t look so stupid addressing complex energy matters or rocking approval ratings north of 80 percent.

But it still seems unlikely to impact Palin’s 2012 presidential plans – assuming she even has one.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

“The Undefeated” is a narrative buster and choir preaching event

Palin movie sparks a changing media narrative

Obama huddles with Hispanic groups to woo support for 2012 race

This week in history: July 10-16 [VIDEO]

Meet Andrew Marshall, the unknown but immensely influential figure behind American national security strategy

The Tim Pawlenty-Michele Bachmann feud continues.

When Pawlenty criticized Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and fellow GOP presidential candidate, Sunday for having a “non-existent” record of accomplishment in Congress, the big question was: would he do it again?

He did.

On Fox and Friends Monday morning, Pawlenty, the former governor Minnesota, said the next president needs to have executive experience getting results, “and not just talking about it, not just giving speeches at rallies, but leading as an executive and getting results in that kind of setting.”

“And with all due respect, she doesn’t have that kind of experience,” Pawlenty said about Bachmann.

“And secondly her record in Congress, as I’ve mentioned before, is again, great remarks and great speeches, but in terms of results and accomplishments, non-existent.”

Bachmann on Sunday called for Pawlenty to not focus on the negatives, citing her accomplishments as being vocal against legislation like Obamacare, cap-and-trade agenda and bailouts.

Also on Monday, Pawlenty maintained that he needs to improve from his sixth place finish in a recent Des Moines Register poll of Iowa voters at next month’s Iowa Straw Poll to stay in the race.

“I don’t think we need to win it, but I think we need to show good progress.” (MICHELE BACHMANN: What ‘constitutional conservatism’ means to me)

Pawlenty on Monday saw some improvement in a new The Iowa Republican poll, which has him in third place behind Romney and Bachmann.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

Pawlenty-Bachmann feud continues

TheDC Morning: PETA vs. Zookeeper

“The Undefeated” is a narrative buster and choir preaching event

Palin movie sparks a changing media narrative

Obama huddles with Hispanic groups to woo support for 2012 race

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta let his frustration about Iraqi officials’ indecision on whether to request that U.S. troops stay in the country past the end of the year show while talking to troops in Baghdad on Monday, saying, “Damn it, make a decision.”

Panetta’s remarks came ahead of meeting with Iraqi officials where he was expected to push them to make a formal request for some troops to stay beyond Dec. 31. Some Iraqi officials have already said they want U.S. forces to stay, but must request the Pentagon to do so.

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POLITICO 44

Almost all of the 46,000 American troops still there are set to leave in the coming months, and though many Iraqi leaders agree there’s a need for some continued U.S. presence, they’ve been unwilling so far to make a formal request.

Arriving as a rocket attack hit Baghdad’s protected Green Zone, Panetta said the United States would “push the Iraqis to take on the responsibility” of fighting Iran-backed insurgents but would also “do what we have to do unilaterally” to protect Americans.

U.S. forces will meet Iran “head on” to stop its efforts to arm Iraqi insurgents and destabilize the country, Panetta said.

“We’re very concerned about Iran and the weapons they’re providing to extremists in Iraq,” he said, ahead of a meeting with Iraqi officials to discuss keeping troops in the country beyond the planned pullout at the end of the year.

The new defense secretary – a week and a half into the job – visited Baghdad as three rockets fired from a Shiite neighborhood hit the city’s Green Zone, and he acknowledged that U.S. and Iraqi forces still face challenges.

“We cannot sit back and simply allow this to continue to happen,” he said of Iran’s efforts to arm Iraqi insurgents. “This is not something we’re going to walk away from. It’s something we’re going to take on head on.”

Speaking to troops on Monday, Panetta stressed that he is focused on making sure that Al Qaeda is never again able to attack the United States on its own soil.

“The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked,” he said. The Associated Press reported that he later clarified that he wasn’t referring to the rationale for invading Iraq in 2003, but about the need to go after Al Qaeda in Iraq after it developed a strong presence there.

First it was Iowa. Now, NH Journal reports:

Multiple Republican sources tell NH Journal that [Rick] Perry is calling top-shelf Republican leaders in the Granite State. One Republican state Senator who received a call from the Governor confirmed that he has been discussing his entry into the presidential sweepstakes with leading state Republicans for the past few days.

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Another Republican who spoke to Gov. Perry told NH Journal it sure sounds like he’s planning to run.

It’s worth noting that Perry’s senior political adviser, Dave Carney, sits on the editorial board of NH Journal, along with several other Republican consultants in the state.

The US economy generated only 18,000 new jobs in June, so few that the Labor Department on Friday described the nation’s job count as “essentially unchanged.”

Why is the job market so weak? Is the economy at risk of a new recession?

Those questions loom large as President Obama and congressional leaders seek a deal to raise the limit on federal debt, while also restraining future deficits. Their stated goal is to put the government’s own finances on sounder footing, but that issue is inextricably linked to the larger economy.

The Monitor’s weekly news quiz for July 3-8, 2011

“The economy has to support the government,” says Peter Schiff, who heads the investment firm Euro Pacific Capital in Westport, Conn. “If consumers are broke … then government is broke.”

At present, consumers aren’t quite broke, but they certainly aren’t feeling flush with cash either.

A few days ago, Discover Financial Services announced that its “spending monitor” survey for June showed a significant slide in consumer confidence. Nearly 56 percent of adults said the economy is getting worse, up from about 51 percent in May and 40 percent in January.

The survey also found a majority saying their own personal finances are worsening, although only 17 percent said they expect to reduce their spending in July.

The consensus view among professional forecasters is that the economy will pick up some speed in the second half of the year and avoid a recession. But some believe a recession is very possible, even probable, by next year.

“The problem with a slow-growth economy that is basically at stall speed is, if there is any type of … shock, the economy can easily tip over into recession,” investment adviser John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisors, wrote in a recent newsletter.

One worry, for example, is that a cooling in the European economy, linked to the burden of a public-debt crisis in nations like Greece, could have negative ripple effects worldwide.

For the US, the patch of economic weakness comes two years after a deep recession officially ended, leaving unemployment today at 9.2 percent of the work force.

The challenge involves a mix of forces.

Temporary factors include the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which interrupted global supply chains for some important industries including autos.

Soaring gasoline prices have eaten into millions of bank accounts. And although pump prices have been edging down in recent weeks, they remain high.

Perhaps the biggest longer term factor is the burden of high debt levels among consumers. After the decline in home values since the recession, many households still have historically high levels of debt, but no longer have the home equity that once went with it.

Historically, recoveries after a debt-related financial crisis tend to be significantly slower than the rebound from a more typical recession.

The government has made big efforts in the past two years to coax the economy forward through stimulus efforts. But that has helped push public-sector debt toward dangerous levels. So far, the government debt itself hasn’t dragged the economy down, but it also hasn’t resolved the economy’s problems.

All this is an important backdrop for the talks Obama is holding with leaders of Congress. Although some economists say more federal stimulus would help job growth and is warranted, the political winds are blowing the other way.

Republicans who control the House of Representatives are calling for big cuts in federal spending, to curb the size of government and create a better climate for job creation in the private sector.

Some prominent economists agree with that prescription, arguing that adding more federal debt at this point won’t do much for job creation.

House Speaker John Boehner (R) said Saturday that it was unlikely the two sides could agree on an expansive $4 trillion package of deficit reduction, because Democrats and Republicans are at odds over taxes. (Democrats say some boost in tax revenue is vital alongside spending cuts for a “balanced” deficit plan, while Republicans stand firm against tax hikes.)

Failure to reach at least a modest debt deal – say in the range of $2 trillion in deficit reduction – could make the nation’s jobs problem still worse.

That’s because it could signal to investors that the US government is in a state of chaos and uncertainty. If the borrowing limit isn’t raised soon, a partial default on Treasury debts or other federal obligations is possible.

Bottom line: Reaching a debt deal is important, but so are other steps to revive job creation.

The goal isn’t easy to achieve, while many households are struggling to dig out from too much debt. But various groups, from think tank economists to the US Chamber of Commerce, are coming out with ideas on what would help.

The Monitor’s weekly news quiz for July 3-8, 2011

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain was looking for a way out of approving media baron Rupert Murdoch’s multi-billion dollar deal to buy broadcaster BSkyB amid a phone-hacking scandal that has damaged the prime minister and raised broader questions about politicians’ relations with the media.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, from the junior coalition partner the Liberal Democrats, urged Murdoch to reconsider the bid after revelations one of his newspapers hacked into the phones of murder victims and relatives of Britain’s war dead.

New allegations Monday included reports it had bought contact details for the British royal family from a policeman and tried to buy private phone records of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“Do the decent thing, and reconsider, think again about your bid for BSkyB,” Clegg told BBC News after meeting relatives of one of the victims of phone-hacking, a murdered schoolgirl.

The government, which faces a stormy parliamentary debate on Wednesday, earlier asked media regulator Ofcom and the consumer watchdog to reassess the bid in the light of the scandal, a move that could provide a basis to block the buyout.

The new request to Ofcom, which is already assessing whether News Corp is a ‘fit and proper’ holder of a broadcast license, and the Office of Fair Trading follows a report in the Independent newspaper that government lawyers were drawing up plans to block the BSkyB bid.

Shares in BSkyB dropped more than 7 percent Monday morning after a similar fall Friday. News Corp shares fell more than 7 percent in New York last week.

“We believe the deal is all but dead,” Panmure Gordon analyst Alex DeGroote said.

The head of UK equities at one top 30 investor in BSkyB told Reuters they expected the deal to be delayed. “I believe the takeover will happen in due course but it is unlikely to go through until next year at the earliest,” the investor said.

Murdoch flew to London Sunday from the U.S. to try to contain the damage to his media empire, which wields influence from Hollywood to Hong Kong and includes U.S. cable network Fox and the Wall Street Journal as well as Britain’s biggest selling paper, the Sun.

He has shown no sign of backing away from the BSkyB deal, which would be his company’s largest acquisition. Sources close to his company said he could consider other options to get it through if he felt the government was going to block or delay it, but they did not elaborate.

Eight people, almost all journalists, have been arrested so far in a police inquiry into the allegations, which include that police may have been paid for information and a company executive may have destroyed evidence. News Corp’s British media arm firmly denies any obstruction of justice.

“You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t totally appalled by the revelations that have come to light, they’re just stomach churning and I think everyone feels totally shaken,” Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a television interview.

Hunt’s strong comments, and the approach to the regulators, may have been designed to give the government some political cover ahead of Wednesday’s debate, lawyers said, as from a legal standpoint the takeover deal and hacking scandal are not linked.

Both Hunt and Prime Minister David Cameron, from the center-right Conservatives who lead the coalition government, have been accused by left-leaning Labor of being too close to Murdoch and too slow to act to uncover the full extent of the scandal.

Andy Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World, was until earlier this year Cameron’s spokesman, before he was forced to resign over the scandal.

Labor party leader Ed Miliband said Sunday he would force parliament to vote this week if Cameron did not take steps to halt News Corp’s $14-billion bid for the 61 percent of BSkyB that it does not already own.

He said Monday the government had moved reluctantly. “They are doing it not because they want to, but because they have been forced to,” Miliband said, urging Murdoch to “drop the bid for BSkyB.”

A vote in parliament could split the coalition between Cameron’s Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who, traditionally less favored by Murdoch’s media, have signaled they could vote with Labor on the issue.

It would also give Labor a chance to cast itself as the champion of a public angered by allegations that News of the World reporters and editors were complicit in breaking into voicemails including those of bombing victims for stories.

“We are working on a plan to suspend the deal while the police investigation is taking place,” the Independent quoted a senior government source as saying. A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment.

Hunt’s letter to the regulator asked them to consider whether News Corp’s undertakings which were made to secure the deal were still credible given the revelations.

“Given the well-publicized matters involving the News of the World in the past week…I would be grateful if you could let me know whether you consider that any new information that has come to light causes you to reconsider any part of your previous advice to me including your confidence in the credibility, sustainability of practicalities of the undertakings offered by News Corporation,” the letter said.

Murdoch’s own Sunday Times reported that a 2007 internal investigation at the News of the World had found evidence that phone hacking was more widespread than the company had admitted and that staff had illegally paid police for information.

As Murdoch, 80, was driven into his London headquarters on Sunday, he held up the final edition of the News of the World, the 168-year-old newspaper he bought in 1969 then closed last week in a bid to stem the crisis.

Christina Camargo-Lima, walking on her way to work past Murdoch’s London flat Monday morning, welcomed the criticism of Murdoch. “I think it’s time the mogul came down. They just can’t control democracy like that.”

LURID HEADLINES

The News of the World is best known for its lurid headlines exposing misadventures of the rich, royal and famous. Its last headline said simply “Thank You Goodbye” over a montage of some of its most celebrated splashes of the past 168 years.

Monday, the BBC said News International had bought phone details for the royal family from a security officer, citing company emails. “The implication, therefore, is that the security of the head of state was in some sense being threatened,” said BBC business editor Robert Peston.

The Daily Mirror newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source, that News of the World journalists had offered to pay a New York police officer to retrieve the private phone records of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

There was no immediate comment from the company.

Murdoch dined Sunday in an upmarket hotel with his British newspaper arm’s chief executive Rebekah Brooks, a friend of Cameron’s and editor of the News of the World at the time of the alleged phone-hacking, and his son and heir apparent, James. Cameron has since said Brooks should step down.

The affair has thrown a harsh spotlight on the long-standing ties between British politicians and Australian-born Murdoch.

Cameron has insisted that the government has no legal power to block the BSkyB deal if it is satisfied that enough media plurality — competition — will be maintained. It had already indicated it would accept News Corp’s assurances on this count.

“FIT AND PROPER”

The Independent said the government had latterly hoped the broadcasting regulator Ofcom would stop the deal going through on grounds that News Corp directors were not “fit and proper” to run BSkyB, but this was unlikely to happen until a possibly lengthy police investigation had been completed.

Instead, it said lawyers in the department of Culture and media were now looking at using competition criteria to block the deal.

That would still be embarrassing for the prime minister, who has ordered a public inquiry and also admitted media barons had too much influence over politicians, but arguably less damaging than a split with his coalition partners.

Blocking the BSkyB deal on grounds of media plurality would also be better for Murdoch than if he and his team were found to be not “fit and proper” to run the broadcaster, as that could see him lose his existing 39 percent of the company.

(Additional reporting by Paul Sandle, Keith Weir, Tim Castle, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Sinead Cruise and Chris Vellacott; writing by Philippa Fletcher)

PARIS – France has paid tribute to storied songstress Liza Minnelli, making the “Cabaret” star an officer in the country’s Legion of Honor.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand pinned the red-ribboned medal on Minnelli’s lapel in an emotional ceremony in a gilded hall Monday.

Minnelli called the distinction “a dream come true” and said she was “honored to be a part of France, a part of Paris.”

A visibly moved Minnelli told spectators at the ceremony: “Thank you for watching me, thank you for caring about me.”

The daughter of Hollywood star Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli, the entertainer won an Oscar for her role in the hit 1972 film “Cabaret.” She’s also the recipient of an Emmy and several Golden Globe and Tony Awards.

LOS ANGELES – Emmy-winning writer Sam Denoff, who wrote for TV’s “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and helped create the Marlo Thomas comedy “That Girl,” has died in Los Angeles at 83.

Denoff’s son Douglas tells the Los Angeles Times that his father, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died Friday at home in Brentwood.

Denoff and writing partner Bill Persky had written for Steve Allen and Andy Williams television shows as well as the series “McHale’s Navy” when they sold a script for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” which ran on CBS from 1961 to 1966. Persky and Denoff went on to share two Emmys for that series.

Marlo Thomas wanted the duo to write a series for her and “That Girl” was born. The ABC series ran from 1966 to 1971.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

LOS ANGELES – Radio station giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. is taking a swipe at online music service Pandora with a revamp of its iheartradio application that imitates Pandora’s personalized listening experience but doesn’t mimic the startup’s need to turn a profit.

The operator of over 850 radio stations nationwide is kicking off the new service with a star-studded two-day concert in Las Vegas on Sept. 23 and 24 featuring acts including Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Lopez.

Bob Pittman, chairman of media and entertainment platforms for Clear Channel Communications Inc., said the success of Pandora Media Inc. proves that people like being able to stream songs according to their personal tastes on mobile devices.

Pittman said iheartradio will adopt that feature in a gradual relaunch over the coming months.

Pandora went public with an initial offering of shares last month but its stock price has seen-sawed as euphoria among Internet investors gave way to the reality that its ad revenue has not grown fast enough to cover the royalties that it pays to play music. Pandora’s stock closed at $19.27 on Friday, about 19 percent above its initial public offering price.

Pittman said Clear Channel, a privately held company that had $5.9 billion in revenue last year, doesn’t need to turn a profit if its new service helps reach audiences in different ways.

“To us it doesn’t matter if it ever succeeds as a business,” Pittman said in an interview. “We only have to have it succeed as a feature.”

Pandora has said it has about 94 million registered users and more than 30 million listeners a month.

Pittman said Clear Channel isn’t far behind, with about 27 million monthly online visitors, although that figure includes visitors of radio station websites and those who listen to the iheartradio application. Clear Channel reaches 237 million listeners over traditional radio airwaves every month.

Iheartradio allows listeners to hear the feeds of stations outside their market and to certain channels that stream music along specific genres. Clear Channel acquired streaming music company Thumb play in March, and used its technology as the basis for the new customized radio feature.

Pittman said that the new iheartradio app will have access to 10 million tracks, millions more than Pandora, and run without ads for the rest of the year. The company is also offering freebie concert packages to listeners to build buzz around the relaunch.

Even in a town where celebrity-studded awards shows are commonplace, it was the most anticipated event of the season.

It wasn’t Prince William’s match at the charity polo game Saturday. It wasn’t the visit to Los Angeles’ Skid Row on Sunday.

It was the unveiling of the Duchess of Cambridge’s travel wardrobe.

Much expectation followed the young royal couple as they took their first state trip to Canada and the United States, with royal-watchers wondering how they would handle themselves, celebrity-hounds delighting over the mix of real and Hollywood royalty, and fashion observers waiting for new looks from a duchess whose picks can clear stockrooms within hours of an appearance.

To many, the former Kate Middleton’s sartorial choices in California hit just the right notes — even though she didn’t pack any surprises.

She brought all feminine looks, among them: a pleated lilac floor-length gown designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, a vibrant green Diane von Furstenberg shift with a waist-tie, and a silver silk dress with hand-painted flowers by British designer Jenny Packham.

“It’s like our first ladies,” said Kate Betts, a contributor editor for Time magazine and the author of “Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style.” “We’re always going to think of them as role models — people we look to as some kind of example, either by the way they dress or the way they speak.”

The duchess eschewed bright colors and bold prints even in sunny Southern California, though she donned the floral Packham for a charity polo match in Santa Barbara.

That designer also made a yellow silk dress that the duchess wore in Canada. But Kate is known for repeats: She prefers drapey dresses by the Brazilian designer Issa; the cream Reiss dress she wore in her engagement photo showed up again in Canada; and her nude-colored leather pumps and straw box-clutch from British upscale fashion brand LK Bennett were frequent sights during the 11-day trip.

“She’s repeating things to make sure people understand she’s not overspending in this very difficult economic moment,” Betts said. “It’s very age-appropriate. She’s what, 29? People that age don’t have thousands of pairs of shoes. It’s not something someone that age does or cares about.”

For the celebrity-studded black-tie BAFTA dinner Saturday, where the royal couple were the honored guests, she wore the McQueen gown and a pair of Jimmy Choos platform sandals.

Avril Graham, a fellow Brit and executive fashion and beauty editor for Harper’s Bazaar, said she wasn’t surprised that Burton, who made Kate’s two dresses on her wedding day, was responsible for the BAFTA gown.

Graham said its simplicity and bejeweled waistband recalled Kate’s wedding reception dress. She praised the duchess for resisting “the temptation to overdress, over-glitz a la Hollywood red-carpet glam.”

Betts also declared it a hit, saying that the duchess stuck to her usual “easy and fluid” style.

“It was fluid and beautiful, almost like a T-shirt. It had a very American feeling to it,” she said. “When I looked at what the celebrities were wearing at the event, it seemed too uptight and over-done and over-styled compared to her.”

The running theme among the outfits was a ladylike figure-flattering silhouette, in luxurious neutral fabrics with knee-length hems. The dresses nipped in at the waist, either with darts, a waist tie or a waistband, as with the light-gray frock by London-based designer Roksanda Ilincic that Kate changed into during the flight from Canada.

The knee-length dress had asymmetric draping from one shoulder with folds at the collar, a cut that both Betts and Graham loved.

“I love the ease of her style. I love the fact that she’s wearing dresses, which actually when you think about it is a very American thing because if you look back at other royals, they wore suits,” Betts said.

Betts noted that even though the duchess primarily wore British labels because “she has to wave the British flag too,” she likely chose the Diane von Furstenberg dress for a reception Saturday “as a nod to American fashion.”

“She really has to be a style ambassador for the U.K.,” Graham said, noting that William’s late mother, Princess Diana, at first wore British designers exclusively.

Graham called the duchess’ choices “spot on,” saying she displayed a “cautious selection that’s worked well in her new role” but that Kate should take away from the trip a learning experience to be more adventurous in the future.

But don’t ever expect Kate to dress down, Graham added. Even though the royal couple on Sunday visited an arts center in Los Angeles’ gritty Skid Row, the duchess stayed prim in navy pumps with a matching crochet blouse and a white pleated skirt — an ensemble that didn’t come from a glamorous fashion house but the U.K. high-street brand Whistles.

As a royal in a senior role, Kate’s not allowed to have a bad fashion day if she’s somewhere representing the crown, Graham added.

Celebrity stylist Robert Verdi said he was fascinated by the duchess and liked that her style “isn’t vulgar,” although he thought the McQueen gown at the BAFTA dinner was “a little matronly (because) you don’t get a bust line.”

He also called the soft colors of her other dresses “a little mother-of-the-bride… you could see it on a silver-haired mom at a wedding.”

But Verdi said they were minor missteps considering “she had been thrown” into the international spotlight yet managed to stay true to her style and respectful of the crown.

The secret, he said, is the blind eye she turns to labels, whether they’re off-the-rack or couture, and instead, consistently focuses on her own natural beauty.

“We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes in the royal household but what’s in front of us — which is what all we have to see and believe and understand — it feels positive,” he said. “She’s not a desperate housewife of New Jersey.”

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Follow the AP’s fashion coverage at http://twitter.com/AP_fashion

LONDON – David Beckham’s spokesman said that the soccer star’s wife Victoria has given birth to a healthy baby girl on Sunday.

Simon Oliveira said that the celebrity couple are “delighted to announce the birth of their daughter.”

“Happy and healthy she arrived at 7.55 am this morning at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and weighed 7lbs 10oz,” Oliveira posted on Twitter, adding that the Beckhams’ three sons “are excited to welcome their baby sister to the family.”

The Beckhams, who married in 1999 and whose celebrity is entrenched on both sides of the Atlantic, already have three boys: Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, 8, and Cruz, 5.

On his Facebook page, David Beckham said the girl had been named Harper Seven Beckham.

The the little girl was born the morning after Beckham scored directly from a corner kick to give the Los Angeles Galaxy a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire, extending his team’s Major League Soccer unbeaten streak to 12 matches.

The 36-year-old Beckham captained England’s national team from 2000 to 2006. He played for Manchester United and Spain’s Real Madrid before moving to L.A. to join the Galaxy in 2007.

Thirty-seven-year-old Victoria Beckham found fame as a singer for 1990s girl band the Spice Girls and has since become a fixture of the fashion circuit.

Just days ago the LA Galaxy star posted a picture of his heavily pregnant wife on Facebook. Beneath the image — which appeared to show his wife sunbathing — Beckham wrote: “Took this pic of Victoria while she wasn’t looking. She looks amazing, so close now to the baby being born!”

Arthur Edwards-Pool/Getty; Chris Pizzello – Pool/Getty; Mark Large – Pool/GettyUs Magazine

From Canada to California, the Duchess of Cambridge wowed the world with her amazing fashion choices during an 11-day trip to North America. Here, we take a look back at some of her most talked-about looks.

PHOTOS: See all of Kate’s royal tour looks

To celebrate Canada Day on July 1, Kate, 29, wore a cream, wrap-style dress by Reiss, featuring ruffle details and a collarbone-bearing neckline. She accessorized the look with the Queen’s Maple Leaf brooch, demure red pumps and a maple-leaf fascinator by Sylvia Fletcher at Lock and Co.

PHOTOS: Who wore it best? The Duchess edition!

For a reception held Prince William and Duchess Kate’s honor at British Consul-General Barbara Hay’s L.A. residence on the couple’s first day in the U.S., Kate changed from a pale lavender Peridot dress by Roksanda Illinic into a “Maja” green silk dress by Diane Von Furstenberg, paired with a leopard purse from the same designer.

PHOTOS: How Kate and Will fell in love

Red carpet royalty! At the BAFTA Brits to Watch event in L.A. Kate wore a floor length pleated lilac chiffon gown by Alexander McQueen and earrings lent to her by Queen Elizabeth; for footwear, the Duchess chose sandals by Jimmy Choo, and carried an “Ubai” bag by the same designer.

Tell Us: Which was Kate’s best look?

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Ryan Seacrest | Photo Credits: Christopher Peterson/BuzzFoto/BuzzFotoTV Guide

Ryan Seacrest will host a two-day music festival in Las Vegas, featuring Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Bruno Mars and The Black Eyed Peas among others.

The iHeartRadio Music Festival, put on by Clear Channel Radio, will take place at the MGM Grand. Scheduled for Sept. 23-24, it will also be streamed online via www.iheartradio.com and on all Clear Channel radio stations.

“This is a once in a generation gathering of artists and fans from all over the country for a true, must-see music event,” Seacrest said in announcing the event Monday.

Watch the American Idol host announce the concert and the acts set to perform:

If last year’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1″ marked the beginning of the end with a gripping feeling of doom and gloom, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ wraps things up once and for all on a note of melancholy.

Oh, it’s dramatic, to be sure: gorgeous, somber and startling as the young wizard faces his destiny and fights the evil Lord Voldemort. But the end of this staggeringly successful movie franchise, an epic fantasy saga spanning eight films over the past decade, provides a necessary emotional catharsis for Harry and for us. Even those who aren’t ardent Potterphiles — who aren’t waiting in a line around the theater with their homemade wands and hand-drawn lightning scars — might find themselves getting unexpectedly choked up a couple of times.

That’s always been the real magic of the series, based on J.K. Rowling’s novels: that mixture of the exotic and the everyday, the otherworldly and the utterly relatable. No longer the innocent children they were when they entered Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing up and moving on, and so must we. That the future of the wizard world hangs in the balance in this final installment is only part of the tale.

Still, director David Yates has accomplished the difficult task of bringing it all to a close in satisfying fashion. Having directed the last four of the eight films, Yates has provided a momentum and cohesion to the “Harry Potter” canon, which has gotten progressively darker and more mature. And Steve Kloves, who’s written all but one of the screenplays in the series, has once again risen to the challenge of trying to please purists and casual viewers alike in adapting Rowling’s revered writing.

It’s hard to imagine how complicated this must have been, given the density of the mythology, even though the final book was divided into two films. (Although the epilogue, which features some of the main characters decked out in grown-up makeup, does seem a bit cheesy and hasty and it might inspire a few giggles.)

At the same time, because it took two films to depict the action in the last installment, this second half doesn’t feel overstuffed or overlong. It moves with great urgency toward the final showdown between Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, deeply disturbing as usual); danger infuses every moment, and it never overstays its welcome.

Much of that has to do with the look of the film, both in its attention to inventive detail and to the sweeping, elaborate set pieces. The cinematography from Eduardo Serra, who also shot “Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” is once again richly ominous and beautifully bleak. Here, Hogwarts isn’t a warm, bustling place full of possibilities but rather a fearsome fortress swarming with Death Eaters, where Professor Severus Snape (the deliciously icy Alan Rickman) rules as if leading his own fascist regime.

Yes, “Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ is in 3-D — it’s the only installment in the series to be presented that way — and as usual, that was unnecessary. The technical elements all looked flawless and immersive in the previous film. (Warner Bros. wisely chose not to rush the conversion from 2-D on “Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” and instead took more time for the process here.) But the addition of a third dimension does allow some details to pop, and it’s never a distraction.

Although the “Potter” films have always been about the escape of the spectacle, the kids and their struggle to navigate both good and evil provides some much-needed rooting in reality. Radcliffe has never been better, and brief flashbacks to the earliest images of him in the role only serve as a reminder of how far he’s come. The character has long since been cemented into his identity, but more is required of him physically and emotionally than ever before, and he’s more than up for it all.

“Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ drops us into a menacing version of this world we’ve come to know, immediately and without explanation; it’s a bit disorienting at first, even if you’ve seen all that’s come before it. Then again, if you’re bothering to check out the finale, in theory you should know what’s going on.

Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are still hunting Horcruxes — scattered containers that hold pieces of Voldemort’s soul, which are crucial to Harry’s survival — in order to destroy them. One of them is being stored in Bellatrix Lestrange’s bank vault, which allows Helena Bonham Carter to have a bit of fun with her wicked character. Hogwarts is no longer a place of refuge as Voldemort draws ever closer; his attack on the stately school is thrilling, but it also provides moments of heroism for some characters you might not expect.

Still, this is the place where all the narrative and emotional threads must converge and tie up at last. While “Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ offers long-promised answers, it also dares to pose some eternal questions, and it’ll stay with you after the final chapter has closed.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for some sequence of intense action violence and frightening images. Running time: 130 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

___

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G — General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG — Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 — Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R — Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 — No one under 17 admitted.

DURBAN, South Africa – IOC President Jacques Rogge said Saturday he would be “delighted” if the United States decides to bid for the 2020 Olympics despite the stinging rejection of American cities in the race for two previous Summer Games.

New York failed in its bid for the 2012 Games and Chicago was eliminated in the first round for the 2016 Olympics, despite the appearance of President Barack Obama in Copenhagen for the vote in 2009.

National Olympic committees have until Sept. 1 to submit the names of applicant cities for 2020.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has said it won’t consider a bid until it reaches final agreement with the International Olympic Committee on a new revenue-sharing agreement, an issue that has festered for years and contributed to the humiliating losses for New York and Chicago.

“As far as the U.S. situation is concerned, there are declarations from the USOC that they are still waiting but, of course, if there is a good bid coming from the United States we would be delighted,” Rogge said at a news conference at the close of the IOC’s four-day session in Durban.

On another issue, Rogge said he expects half a dozen candidates to try to succeed him as IOC president when his term expires in 2013, but stressed he would not support or groom a successor.

“There is no lack of potential good successors and this is very good for the IOC,” he said.

Rome is the only officially declared bid city so far for 2020, but several other cities are expected to join the race in the coming days and weeks.

Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul are likely contenders. Doha, Qatar, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, could be potential candidates.

South Africa could still revive a 2020 bid, with Durban as the likely city, after the government said in late May that the time was not right for an Olympic campaign.

“You are as a nation ready to host the Olympic Games,” Rogge said, referring to South Africa. “It’s up to you what you do … I have felt, speaking with your politicians, there was a desire to bid in the future. It might not be 2020, it might be 2024.”

The U.S. hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games.

American bids have been hampered by lingering international resentment over the USOC’s long-standing 20 percent share of global sponsorship revenues and 12.75 percent cut of U.S. broadcast rights deals.

IOC and USOC officials met here Thursday for a new round of revenue talks and reported progress toward a final agreement. They agreed to meet again in the next few weeks in New York with the goal of concluding a deal.

Agreement on a revenue-sharing plan would open the way to a possible 2020 bid.

“We’re not going to have any substantive discussions or make any decisions until this is behind us,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We haven’t spent a lot of time looking at whether there is still time to bid, but because it’s theoretically possible, we don’t want to rule it out.”

U.S. cities mentioned as potential bidders include New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Minneapolis and Tulsa, Okla. Several IOC officials told AP that New York would be the most viable U.S. candidate.

With the 2008 Summer Olympics in Asia (Beijing), 2012 in Europe (London) and 2016 in South America (Rio de Janeiro), geography could be an advantage for North America in 2020.

The Olympics have never been held in Africa.

“Many people believe this is the right time to bid because, as the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot,” South African IOC member Sam Ramsamy said, adding the issue will be raised again by the country’s sports minister with President Jacob Zuma.

The centerpiece of the IOC’s meeting in Durban was the selection on Wednesday of Pyeongchang, South Korea, as the host for the 2018 Winter Games. The IOC rewarded Pyeongchang for its persistence in bidding for a third consecutive time after losses for 2010 and 2014.

Rogge, meanwhile, said he would keep his distance from the IOC’s presidential election campaign.

“I will look at it from the front row with great pleasure and interest, but I will not be involved,” he said.

Rogge was elected to an eight-year term in 2001 and won a final four-year mandate in 2009.

“I will absolutely not groom and I will not support anyone,” he said. “I have always remained very neutral and I will continue to do that.”

Rogge did not name any potential candidates, but they include Germany’s Thomas Bach, Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, Sergei Bubka of Ukraine and Denis Oswald of Switzerland.

“I believe in the IOC half a dozen members will have the profile and maybe even the desire to run,” Rogge said.

With just over a year ago until the London Olympics, Rogge said he was “absolutely delighted” by the “exemplary” preparations led by organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe.

“What do they have to do until next year?” he said. “I would say remain focused. Remain humble, prepare for the unexpected. Seb is an athlete, he knows that you can never, never be lazy and you have to continue to fight every day to be fit.”

___

AP Sports Writer Gerald Imray contributed to this report.

JOLIET, Ill. – Mike Neff raced to his fourth Funny Car victory of the season at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals on Sunday.

With the win, Neff gave Ford its 200th NHRA Funny Car victory as he powered his Ford Mustang to a performance of 4.246 seconds at 293.22 mph to defeat Jeff Arend, who posted a 5.168 at 186.54 in his Funny Car.

“The heat is what was hard for everyone out there today,” Neff said. “It was a challenge. With the conditions it was one of those races where you have to get your car down the racetrack if you want to win. It’s a tribute to our Ford Mustang body. It’s a great car and we have great preparation by the team because the car is so consistent right now.”

Del Worsham (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and LE Tonglet (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were winners of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

Worsham raced to his fifth victory of the season in Top Fuel, powering his dragster past David Grubnic in the final round.

A three-time Funny Car winner here, Worsham joined Gary Scelzi as the only drivers to win in both nitro categories at Route 66 Raceway when he posted a 3.978 at 299.40 to hold off Grubnic’s machine, which trailed with a 4.055 at 294.50.

Anderson earned his second victory of the season and 67th of his career, denying Erica Enders her first win in her fourth career final round.

Anderson took his first Route 66 Raceway victory with a holeshot victory as he drove his Pontiac GXP to a 6.670 at 207.18 to cross the finish line in front of Enders, who had a quicker, but losing, 6.659 at 206.89 in a Chevy Cobalt.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Tonglet rebounded from a DNQ at the previous event to claim his second victory of the season. He pulled away from Chip Ellis in the final with a 7.047 at 188.46 on a Suzuki. Ellis, whose last final round was in 2008 at Englishtown, N.J., finished in 7.153 at 185.49 on a Buell.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects stats for Neff, Arend in 2nd paragraph. Restores previous.)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Paul Williams won a majority decision over Erislandy Lara on Saturday night in the former two-division champion’s contentious return to Boardwalk Hall.

The sparse crowd showered the ring with boos when the decision was announced for Williams (40-2, 28 KOs), who hadn’t fought since his devastating knockout loss to Sergio Martinez last November.

“He was a tough customer,” Williams said. “He came to fight.”

Lara (15-1) is a former Cuban amateur star who defected in 2007 before the Beijing Olympics. He performed well and earned the crowd’s favor in his biggest professional fight, although Williams threw nearly twice as many punches.

“I don’t know what the judges saw,” Lara said through a translator. “I thought I won the fight.”

Lara repeatedly hurt Williams with left hands, but Williams raised a serious knot on Lara’s left temple.

Judges Don Givens (116-114) and Hilton Whitaker II (115-114) both favored Williams, while Al Bennett scored it even at 114-114.

Martinez left Williams facedown on the canvas in the second round of his last fight in Atlantic City, halting the progression of a versatile, rangy fighter who threatened to be a title contender in four weight divisions.

Earlier, Rico Ramos won the WBC super bantamweight title with a seventh-round stoppage of Japan’s Akifumi Shimoda.

Ramos (20-0, 11 KOs) trailed on all three scorecards after six rounds, but won the fight with a single punch. He landed a left hook that thudded against Shimoda’s jaw, sending him to the canvas in a heap.

Shimoda barely beat the count, but referee Benjy Esteves halted the bout with 14 seconds left in the round when Shimoda (23-3-1) stumbled across the ring.

“I was throwing right hands a lot and then I surprised him with a left,” Ramos said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for 16 years. I’ve worked hard and I’m happy with my victory.”

Until the sudden, shocking end, Shimoda appeared to be on his way to defending his title, using a sharp right jab to pick at a cut on Ramos’ face from an accidental head-butt.

All three judges had Shimoda well ahead after six rounds.

WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (49-7, 43 KOs) kept his title with a fourth-round stoppage of Tomas Villa (23-8-4), ending his first title defense with a left hook to the body.

Heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (33-2) climbed back into contention for another high-profile fight with a 10-round unanimous decision over Nigeria’s Friday Ahunanya.

“I’m very disappointed in myself,” said Arreola, a Riverside, Calif., fighter who has won five fights in the last year since losing to Vitali Klitschko and Tomasz Adamek.

“No disrespect to him, he has a solid chin, but I should have knocked him out in six or seven rounds. I didn’t want it to go the distance. I don’t get paid for overtime.”

LAS VEGAS – Dominick Cruz retained the bantamweight title and avenged his only career loss, unanimously outpointing Urijah Faber in a five-round bout in UFC 132 on Saturday night.

Cruz, the aggressor throughout who utilized his awkward style to land a number of leg kicks and solid strikes. had winning scores of 50-45, 49-46 and 48-47 from the judges.

In the co-main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Chris Leben rebounded from a loss in his last fight to stop Wanderlei Silva in 27 seconds.

On the undercard, former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz won for the first time in nearly five years with a first-round submission victory over Ryan Bader.

Tiger Woods’ agent says the golfer is not making any announcements Monday.

Mark Steinberg was responding to rumors late Sunday that Woods was making an unspecified announcement Monday morning on Golf Channel.

Steinberg told The Associated Press on Monday: “There’s an erroneous report that he’s making an announcement, but he’s not.”

Woods said last Tuesday he would skip this week’s British Open because of “minor injuries” to his left leg that haven’t fully healed, the second straight major he will miss.

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Temps.

Yohann GÈne smiles. At 30, the Guadeloupian member of the Europcar team is the first black cyclist to take part in the Tour de France. A professional racer since 2005, GÈne is described by other cyclists as a model teammate and vital to support the leaders.

GÈne was 17 when he first moved to Europe, and soon after discovered the passion for the green open spaces where his bike could bring him. “When I ride, I see all kinds of landscapes. I feel free.” As a kid, he followed the Tour de France on television, but strangely imagined himself in another, far less well-known race. “I always dreamed of the Paris-Roubaix – because of its audience and its warrior-like competitors who always risk falling.” And all that in the rough northern weather. (See pictures of Lance Armstrong racing in the Tour.)

Having arrived with a friend, Rony Martias, the pair entered a special high school course for athletically-gifted pupils. Jean-RenÉ Bernaudeau, manager of the Europcar Team, remembers GÈne’s first steps on the European stage. “I was lucky to take both Yohann and Rony – I know the West Indies pretty well. Cycling is very much alive there. It’s the only French department where cycling is more popular than soccer, The Tour de Guadeloupe is the event of the year.”

Even though cycling has become increasingly globalized, Yohann GÈne’s presence is remarkable nevertheless. “We have been subject to racism,” says his manager. “I had to deal with a few problems and contact sponsors of two foreign teams about it. After the doping incidents, I couldn’t let racism be part of cycling.” (See how Twitter conquered the Tour de France.)

Forerunner, Jean-RenÉ Bernaudeau would have liked to hire two Eritreans this year, but they didn’t obtain their visas. “In the West Indies, cycling is a real culture. We only have to repeat what we did with Yohann GÈne. In Africa, you need three years to transform someone’s talent into a good cyclist and then help him enter the professional world. Right now there is an Ethiopian, Tsgabu Grmay, who could win the climb of the Alpes d’Huez. The cycling culture needs to open up. It’s a small world, with a homogenous culture.” That may be about to change.

Also from Worldcrunch:

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SANDWICH, England – Coming off a record-breaking win at the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy is paired with Ernie Els and Rickie Fowler for the first two rounds of the British Open.

The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland had a 16-under score last month at Congressional. He’s favored to make it two majors in a row at Royal St. George’s.

Defending champion Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa will play the first two rounds with American star Phil Mickelson and defending PGA champ Martin Kaymer.

The world’s top-ranked player, England’s Luke Donald, is paired Thursday and Friday with Ryo Ishikawa and Sergio Garcia. Donald solidified his spot in the rankings with a four-stroke victory this past weekend at the Scottish Open.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Many of the thousands who followed the Casey Anthony trial did not get the guilty verdict they wanted, nor did they learn the truth about what happened to the 2-year-old daughter she was accused of murdering.

And for the public, that may be one of the most frustrating parts of the case: Despite all the speculation and theories, they will never know how or why Caylee Anthony died.

“I think we know as much as we ever will know,” said Beth Hough, a 27-year-old administrative assistant from Chicago who followed the trial. “We don’t know exactly what happened, but if we did, it would help people to finally just move on and to end the story.”

That’s what’s missing: an ending. And because we’re so used to neatly packaged, hour-long TV crime dramas where the bad guy is usually put behind bars, the fact Anthony could be convicted only of lying to police has left people unsatisfied. And they have been vocal about their dismay, turning to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration.

So what’s left? Some fuzzy defense claims that little Caylee drowned and that her grandfather tried to make an accident look like a homicide.

“One of the quite healthy and appropriate satisfactions we get out of a well-functioning justice system is the belief that the justice system will give us the best answers to questions,” said Doug Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University.

A little girl ended up dead in the woods near her grandparents’ home with duct tape over her mouth, and her mother didn’t report her disappearance for more than a month. But how did Caylee die?

That’s where it gets complicated.

The defense said Caylee drowned in the family’s swimming pool. Prosecutors couldn’t say how Caylee died because the girl’s body was too decomposed to harvest DNA or other forensic evidence. So the state relied on circumstantial evidence: the trunk of Casey’s car smelled like a dead body to some witnesses; someone did an internet search for chloroform — a chemical that can be used to knock someone unconscious — at the Anthony home; and there was duct tape on Caylee’s skull when it was found six months after she was last seen in June 2008.

“If we don’t know how Caylee died, we can’t assign responsibility for the factors that led to her death. So there’s no justice,” said Maryann Gajos, a 51-year-old mother of two and a sixth-grade reading teacher in Inverness, Fla. “Watching all of these crime shows has spoiled all of us. In TV shows, the coroner always has the answer.”

But in this case, the coroner didn’t have the answer. Dr. Jan Garavaglia told the jury that Caylee had been murdered, but she couldn’t establish exactly how she died from only a skeleton.

And in the life-imitates-TV irony of this case, Garavaglia is also the star of her own reality TV show on Discovery Health Channel called “Dr. G: Medical Examiner,” in which she solves cases through autopsies.

“It’s frustrating that they can’t come up for a definitive reason for this girl dying,” said Sherri Cohen, a self-employed photographer from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “Archaeologists can tell you about bones that were found thousands of years ago, but they can’t tell you how a 3-year-old girl died three years ago.”

How Casey Anthony acted in the weeks and months after Caylee’s disappearance also contribute to the perception of whether the jury ultimately delivered justice.

“I feel that the way Casey Anthony behaved during the month her baby was `missing’ and her lies to the police and others have really frustrated people who want to see justice served,” said Marjorie Stout of Pinellas County, Fla., the same area where the jury was chosen because of the intense publicity in the Orlando area. “Not just for what is perceived to be murdering one’s own child but her lack of concern for Caylee as well.”

Berman, the Ohio State professor, has another theory about why folks are so frustrated: Casey Anthony never spoke. The defense made a strategic decision for Anthony not to testify — a decision that clearly worked in her favor, he said.

“It’s not just that the jury decision came out differently than we had hoped, it’s that the jury decision wasn’t a statement of her innocence. It was a statement of `We can’t figure out what happened.’ And in some sense, that’s even more frustrating than if the jury said, `We don’t think she did it.’”

That’s only amplified by the circumstances surrounding the case. After all, plenty of people are acquitted at trial because there isn’t enough evidence, said Jennifer Zedalis, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. But, she said, “there aren’t a lot of cases where that happens where the victim is a 2-year-old and the mother was out partying when her daughter was missing or dead.”

NEWARK, N.J. – An FBI spokesman said Monday that it does not appear a stun gun found aboard a JetBlue plane that landed late Friday in Newark was intended to be used in an attack.

Bryan Travers, a spokesman for the FBI’s Newark office, said information from the investigation so far suggests that no attack was imminent. He would not detail why investigators think that.

The stun gun was found by a crew that was cleaning Flight 1179 from Boston around 10:20 p.m. Friday, after the flight had landed and all 96 passengers were off the plane.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police removed the stun gun from the plane and handed it over to the federal Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for screening passengers.

The investigation, being led by the FBI’s office in Boston, is focusing on how the stun gun got onto the plane, Travers said.

“People get caught bring stuff to the checkpoint all the time,” he said.

Travers said that by Monday morning it was not clear who may have brought the gun aboard.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said there were no indications the stun gun was fired.

JetBlue spokesman Sebastian White said the plane’s next flight was slightly delayed.

ATLANTA – One of the nation’s toughest crackdowns on human trafficking has taken effect in Georgia, striking a delicate balance between tougher penalties for criminals and more treatment for victims that advocates said could be a model for other states seeking to fight the sex trade.

The legislation took effect this month after a four-year legislative fight, overhauling the way Georgia treats people forced into prostitution. It bars prosecutors from charging people with sex crimes if the offense occurred while the person was a victim of trafficking. It also tacks on tough new criminal penalties for human traffickers.

The dual approach helped appease both religious conservatives, who argued the changes could effectively legalize prostitution, and children’s advocates, who said a safety valve was needed for victims who were forced into the sex trade.

“This is America’s dirty little secret, these are crimes the public doesn’t see, that the public doesn’t want to believe exist; these are hidden victims,” said Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who praised Georgia’s new crackdown.

“Historically, what law enforcement has tended to do is to arrest the kid,” he said. “We are trying to ensure that they focus on the pimp and the customer.”

The legislation calls for a 25-year minimum sentence for those convicted of using coercion to traffic someone under the age of 18, and slaps a minimum sentence of five years on those who pay for sex with a 16-year-old. People trying to have sex with someone even younger face at least 10 years behind bars.

The measure includes protections that allow a prostituted child or adult to avoid criminal charges if they can prove they were coerced into it. Under the measure, coercion doesn’t mean just physical abuse but also financial harm, destruction of immigration documents and drug use.

And the bill allows victims to be eligible for state money for medical treatment — as long as they cooperate with law enforcement.

The stiffer criminal penalties were added to earn the votes of tough-on-crime conservatives, who helped defeat a similar measure last year amid fears that the language would unwittingly end up legalizing prostitution for children under 16.

State Sen. Renee Unterman, the Georgia Republican who sponsored the bill, said it will help protect homeless children who get lured into the sex trade. And Attorney General Sam Olens, who made the legislation one of his top priorities, said it gives prosecutors several much-needed tools to fight prostitution.

“This new law will protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society and deter those bad actors who prey on them,” Olens said.

Among the activists who helped sway lawmakers to adopt the stricter penalties is Keisha Head, who was lured into prostitution at the age of 16 after she ran away from home. She worked for a pimp for years, suffering rapes, abuse and an attempted kidnapping. Each time she tried to get out of her situation, the pimp threatened to harm her and her daughter.

“I became numb to what I was doing,” she said. “I guess that is the survival instinct to become numb when inflicted with such an ordeal.”

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault, but Head has agreed to let her name be used to illustrate the dangers of child prostitution.

The new restrictions are a strong first step, Head said, but the work in Georgia is far from over.

“They need to turn up the heat,” she said, “and start convicting the predators or the pimps who are exploiting the children.”

___

Associated Press videojournalist Marina Hutchinson contributed to this report.

ELK GROVE, Calif. – Kamaljit Atwal’s neighborhood seems like an unlikely place for a hate crime. His street in this Sacramento suburb seems a model of diversity.

Atwal and his family are one of two Sikh families on the block from India. On Atwal’s street alone, there’s a Vietnamese family, a Mexican family, a black woman and a white man.

But in March, Atwal’s 78-year-old father Gurmej Atwal and his 67-year-old friend Surinder Singh were shot and killed while taking an afternoon stroll in the neighborhood.

Atwal and his fellow Sikhs in the area wonder if the same ugliness that has brought violence to other Sikhs is the reason why.

The men had long beards and were wearing turbans, both traditional symbols of their religion. Police are investigating whether their killing was a hate crime.

“It’s a complete case of mistaken identity,” said Rajdeep Singh of the Washington, D.C.-based Sikh Coalition, which is the largest Sikh civil rights group in the U.S. “When people look at me with a turban and beard, the first thing that comes to mind is, `That guy looks like Osama bin Laden.’ “

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Sikhs have reported a rise in bias attacks, both verbal and physical, against them. The backlash that hit Muslims across the country has expanded to include them and their faith as well, with some assuming the sight of a long beard and turbaned head can only mean one thing.

Kamajit Atwal said life used to be peaceful for him, his wife and their three children since moving to his quiet suburban block in 2003. Crime has gone down for four years in a row, in Elk Grove, where about 54 percent of its 153,000 residents are nonwhite.

Atwal keeps a framed photo of his father on the fireplace mantel, not far from where the retired Indian civil servant once enjoyed his tea. Almost every day, Gurmej Atwal and his friend drank tea together, took a walk and met with other Sikh retirees in a nearby park.

“My gut is that it was a hate crime,” said Atwal. He said that other elderly Sikhs are so afraid of being out in public since the shootings that they no longer socialize in the park.

Mayor Steve Detrick said he’s not convinced the double shooting is a hate crime because the area has a history of accepting others.

“Elk Grove is probably one of the most accepting about racial and religious diversity in the country,” he said. “I think somebody looked at these guys as an easy target. They were gunned down by cowards.”

Amar Shergill, a Sikh and Sacramento attorney who lives in Elk Grove, said the problem is not Elk Grove’s. When people — including some politicians — try to stigmatize all Muslims as anti-American, Shergill said, all people who look different are targeted unfairly.

“When the process becomes radicalized, that’s when the disturbed actors take out on Sikhs and Muslims and people who are perceived to be Muslims,” he said.

Singh said there’s just not enough awareness of Sikhism, which is 500 years old and is the world’s fifth largest religion with 18 million adherents. The faith, which originated in the Indian region of Punjab, draws from Hinduism and Islamic Sufism and the faithful believe in karmic cycles of rebirth, similar to Buddhists.

Prior to 2001, Sikhs say, people were merely curious about the turbans and why adherents don’t cut their hair. After Sept. 11, some people felt that Sikhs were the enemy.

The Sikh Coalition said there have been at least 700 attacks or bias-related incidents against Sikhs since Sept. 11 in the U.S. Hate crimes against Sikhs are lumped in with hate crimes against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians — all groups that have experienced increased discrimination since the attacks of 2001.

The group will hold meetings in New York on July 30 and in San Francisco on Aug. 27 so Sikhs can talk about bias and discrimination in the last decade. Videos of the meetings will be sent to lawmakers and police agencies. The coalition is also spearheading an effort this summer to stop bullying of Sikh children in schools after kids reported that other students tried to forcibly cut their hair, set their turbans on fire or attack them.

“Suddenly, our life has changed,” said Rana Singh Sodhi, the brother of a man who was murdered outside of his Arizona gas station five days after Sept. 11. “We didn’t have any issue before 9/11.”

Sodhi said that he and his family have stopped going camping in isolated areas because they fear what will happen.

The man who was convicted of killing Sodhi’s brother expressed anger over Sept. 11 and before the murder, had told his wife that “all Arabs should be shot.”

In 2004, vandals scrawled the words “It’s not your country” in blue spray paint on the wall of a Sikh temple in Fresno. No one has been arrested in that case.

In 2010, a Sikh cabdriver was beaten by two men in Sacramento — located in a region with more Sikh residents than any in the nation. During the attack, one of the men called the cabbie “Osama bin Laden,” and also repeatedly told the assailants that he wasn’t Muslim, authorities said. In early June, Pedro Ramirez was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the attack a second man was sentenced to a year in jail.

On Memorial Day of this year, four weeks after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Sikh man who is a subway employee in New York said he was punched in the mouth by a man who called him “the brother of Osama.”

No one has been arrested.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — Tamara Lush is traveling the country writing about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush.

ELK GROVE, Calif. – Kamaljit Atwal’s neighborhood seems like an unlikely place for a hate crime. His street in this Sacramento suburb seems a model of diversity.

Atwal and his family are one of two Sikh families on the block from India. On Atwal’s street alone, there’s a Vietnamese family, a Mexican family, a black woman and a white man.

But in March, Atwal’s 78-year-old father Gurmej Atwal and his 67-year-old friend Surinder Singh were shot and killed while taking an afternoon stroll in the neighborhood.

Atwal and his fellow Sikhs in the area wonder if the same ugliness that has brought violence to other Sikhs is the reason why.

The men had long beards and were wearing turbans, both traditional symbols of their religion. Police are investigating whether their killing was a hate crime.

“It’s a complete case of mistaken identity,” said Rajdeep Singh of the Washington, D.C.-based Sikh Coalition, which is the largest Sikh civil rights group in the U.S. “When people look at me with a turban and beard, the first thing that comes to mind is, `That guy looks like Osama bin Laden.’ “

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Sikhs have reported a rise in bias attacks, both verbal and physical, against them. The backlash that hit Muslims across the country has expanded to include them and their faith as well, with some assuming the sight of a long beard and turbaned head can only mean one thing.

Kamajit Atwal said life used to be peaceful for him, his wife and their three children since moving to his quiet suburban block in 2003. Crime has gone down for four years in a row, in Elk Grove, where about 54 percent of its 153,000 residents are nonwhite.

Atwal keeps a framed photo of his father on the fireplace mantel, not far from where the retired Indian civil servant once enjoyed his tea. Almost every day, Gurmej Atwal and his friend drank tea together, took a walk and met with other Sikh retirees in a nearby park.

“My gut is that it was a hate crime,” said Atwal. He said that other elderly Sikhs are so afraid of being out in public since the shootings that they no longer socialize in the park.

Mayor Steve Detrick said he’s not convinced the double shooting is a hate crime because the area has a history of accepting others.

“Elk Grove is probably one of the most accepting about racial and religious diversity in the country,” he said. “I think somebody looked at these guys as an easy target. They were gunned down by cowards.”

Amar Shergill, a Sikh and Sacramento attorney who lives in Elk Grove, said the problem is not Elk Grove’s. When people — including some politicians — try to stigmatize all Muslims as anti-American, Shergill said, all people who look different are targeted unfairly.

“When the process becomes radicalized, that’s when the disturbed actors take out on Sikhs and Muslims and people who are perceived to be Muslims,” he said.

Singh said there’s just not enough awareness of Sikhism, which is 500 years old and is the world’s fifth largest religion with 18 million adherents. The faith, which originated in the Indian region of Punjab, draws from Hinduism and Islamic Sufism and the faithful believe in karmic cycles of rebirth, similar to Buddhists.

Prior to 2001, Sikhs say, people were merely curious about the turbans and why adherents don’t cut their hair. After Sept. 11, some people felt that Sikhs were the enemy.

The Sikh Coalition said there have been at least 700 attacks or bias-related incidents against Sikhs since Sept. 11 in the U.S. Hate crimes against Sikhs are lumped in with hate crimes against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians — all groups that have experienced increased discrimination since the attacks of 2001.

The group will hold meetings in New York on July 30 and in San Francisco on Aug. 27 so Sikhs can talk about bias and discrimination in the last decade. Videos of the meetings will be sent to lawmakers and police agencies. The coalition is also spearheading an effort this summer to stop bullying of Sikh children in schools after kids reported that other students tried to forcibly cut their hair, set their turbans on fire or attack them.

“Suddenly, our life has changed,” said Rana Singh Sodhi, the brother of a man who was murdered outside of his Arizona gas station five days after Sept. 11. “We didn’t have any issue before 9/11.”

Sodhi said that he and his family have stopped going camping in isolated areas because they fear what will happen.

The man who was convicted of killing Sodhi’s brother expressed anger over Sept. 11 and before the murder, had told his wife that “all Arabs should be shot.”

In 2004, vandals scrawled the words “It’s not your country” in blue spray paint on the wall of a Sikh temple in Fresno. No one has been arrested in that case.

In 2010, a Sikh cabdriver was beaten by two men in Sacramento — located in a region with more Sikh residents than any in the nation. During the attack, one of the men called the cabbie “Osama bin Laden,” and also repeatedly told the assailants that he wasn’t Muslim, authorities said. In early June, Pedro Ramirez was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the attack a second man was sentenced to a year in jail.

On Memorial Day of this year, four weeks after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Sikh man who is a subway employee in New York said he was punched in the mouth by a man who called him “the brother of Osama.”

No one has been arrested.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — Tamara Lush is traveling the country writing about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush.

ORLANDO, Fla. – One of Casey Anthony’s defense lawyers says he’s worried about her safety once she’s released from jail after being acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter.

Cheney Mason told the NBC’s “Today” show Monday he doesn’t know where Anthony will go when she’s freed Sunday from a Florida jail. He said she would need time and counseling to re-enter society after being jailed for nearly three years before and during her high-profile trial. She was convicted of four counts of lying to law enforcement.

Mason said Anthony’s relations with her parents were “pretty well burned” after the trial, where her defense team contended she was sexually abused by her father. Her father, George Anthony, denied the claims.

Jail records show Casey Anthony refused a visit Friday from her mother, Cindy Anthony.

ORLANDO, Fla. – One of Casey Anthony’s defense lawyers says he’s worried about her safety once she’s released from jail after being acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter.

Cheney Mason told the NBC’s “Today” show Monday he doesn’t know where Anthony will go when she’s freed Sunday from a Florida jail. He said she would need time and counseling to re-enter society after being jailed for nearly three years before and during her high-profile trial. She was convicted of four counts of lying to law enforcement.

Mason said Anthony’s relations with her parents were “pretty well burned” after the trial, where her defense team contended she was sexually abused by her father. Her father, George Anthony, denied the claims.

Jail records show Casey Anthony refused a visit Friday from her mother, Cindy Anthony.

DEMOPOLIS, Ala. – A family of seven was killed when their small plane crashed in western Alabama as they were returning from a family reunion.

The couple and their five children were flying back to Florida from St. Louis when the crash happened Saturday night, Marengo County Coroner Stuart Eatmon said.

They tried landing the Cessna C421 at an airport in Demopolis after it lost its right engine, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said in an email. The plane crashed in a densely wooded area near the airport.

Eatmon identified the dead as: Fred Teutenberg, 42; his wife, Terresa, who was in her mid-30s; their daughter Emma, 2; their son Peyton, 4; their daughter Ellie, 6; their son Brendon, 9; and their son Will, 10. They are from the Destin, Fla., area.

Terresa Teutenberg’s oldest child, Ashlei Bruewer, 16, was not on the plane, Eatmon said.

The coroner said relatives told him the family was flying back Saturday so they could make it to church the next day.

The plane was found upside-down and a wing had broken off, apparently as it crashed into trees, Eatmon said. Searchers located it early Sunday.

FAA records show the plane was built in 1978. It was registered to Advanced Integrated Technology Solutions LLC in Niceville, Fla., Fred Teutenberg’s company. A message left seeking comment from the company wasn’t immediately returned.

Terresa Teutenberg owned Discovery Learning Academy in Bluewater Bay.

“She was an excellent leader and role model. Her work within the school and the community will be greatly missed,” the academy said in a statement issued Sunday.

Friends told The Northwest Florida Daily News that Fred Teutenberg did volunteer work and played bass guitar every Sunday with the church band at First United Methodist Church of Niceville.

“He not only played with our band, he played with other church bands elsewhere,” said Bob Webb, a friend and member of the church. “He told me one time he even toured a while. So he had a lot of interests.”

Eatmon spoke to Fred Teutenberg’s father after the crash. Fred Sr. said he had been telling his son to buy a newer plane if he was going to fly with his family, Eatmon said.

“He told his dad the plane had two new engines,” Eatmon said.

DEMOPOLIS, Ala. – A family of seven was killed when their small plane crashed in western Alabama as they were returning from a family reunion.

The couple and their five children were flying back to Florida from St. Louis when the crash happened Saturday night, Marengo County Coroner Stuart Eatmon said.

They tried landing the Cessna C421 at an airport in Demopolis after it lost its right engine, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said in an email. The plane crashed in a densely wooded area near the airport.

Eatmon identified the dead as: Fred Teutenberg, 42; his wife, Terresa, who was in her mid-30s; their daughter Emma, 2; their son Peyton, 4; their daughter Ellie, 6; their son Brendon, 9; and their son Will, 10. They are from the Destin, Fla., area.

Terresa Teutenberg’s oldest child, Ashlei Bruewer, 16, was not on the plane, Eatmon said.

The coroner said relatives told him the family was flying back Saturday so they could make it to church the next day.

The plane was found upside-down and a wing had broken off, apparently as it crashed into trees, Eatmon said. Searchers located it early Sunday.

FAA records show the plane was built in 1978. It was registered to Advanced Integrated Technology Solutions LLC in Niceville, Fla., Fred Teutenberg’s company. A message left seeking comment from the company wasn’t immediately returned.

Terresa Teutenberg owned Discovery Learning Academy in Bluewater Bay.

“She was an excellent leader and role model. Her work within the school and the community will be greatly missed,” the academy said in a statement issued Sunday.

Friends told The Northwest Florida Daily News that Fred Teutenberg did volunteer work and played bass guitar every Sunday with the church band at First United Methodist Church of Niceville.

“He not only played with our band, he played with other church bands elsewhere,” said Bob Webb, a friend and member of the church. “He told me one time he even toured a while. So he had a lot of interests.”

Eatmon spoke to Fred Teutenberg’s father after the crash. Fred Sr. said he had been telling his son to buy a newer plane if he was going to fly with his family, Eatmon said.

“He told his dad the plane had two new engines,” Eatmon said.

NORTH PORT, Fla. – High school principal George Kenney acknowledged using hypnosis to help people: students who needed to relax before tests, a basketball player having trouble making free throws and even school secretaries who wanted to quit smoking.

But now the popular 51-year-old principal’s future at North Port High School is in question since it came to light that he had hypnotized two students before their separate suicides this spring. There is no indication their deaths were any more than a tragic coincidence. However, Kenney acknowledged conducting the sessions after being warned by his boss to stop such one-on-one hypnosis with students at school.

Most students, teachers and fellow administrators at the southwest Florida school were aware that Kenney was a trained hypnotist who would eagerly help those who sought him out for sessions, according to a school district report. Students looked forward to his demonstrations in a psychology class and at other school events.

In April, according to the Sarasota County School District report, he hypnotized a 16-year-old student to help him better focus on a test. The next day, the boy committed suicide. Kenney was put on leave in May when the boy’s parents, who had given their permission for the sessions, raised concerns after his death.

The administrator’s situation then got stickier when an investigation showed that he had also hypnotized another student five months before her May 4 suicide, initially lied about it and had defied three separate verbal warnings to stop the sessions with students.

A 134-page independent investigative report released by the district last week includes an interview with Kenney, who acknowledged defying the orders and then lying.

“I’m not saying I used great judgment all the time here,” he told an investigator. “I think I used poor judgment several times.”

But the report also reflects the support and affection Kenney enjoys at the 2,300-student high school, about 90 miles south of Tampa. Two Facebook pages, one with more than 1,600 fans, have been created to support Kenney, principal of North Port High since its opening in 2001. Some students who were hypnotized say it helped them with sports and academics.

Many students and staff credit him with guiding the school through a time of grief. In March, before the two suicides, a 16-year-old football player was killed in a car crash, which followed the traffic death of a teacher killed driving to school in November.

Kenney is the “glue that just holds the school together,” said his administrative assistant, Dianna McLaren.

Kenney declined to comment through his attorney, Mark Zimmerman, who said there is no “causal connection” between the hypnosis sessions and the suicides. Both students had sought Kenney’s help with test anxiety and had signed permission slips from their parents, Zimmerman said. In the case of student Brittany Palumbo, her mother was present during the session.

“It sort of conjures up a feeling of mind control, which of course is not what hypnosis is,” Zimmerman said. “This was hypnosis as a relaxation and focus technique to aid in test and athletic performance.”

Zimmerman said Kenney initially misspoke when he told an administrator that he had not had a session with Palumbo, and never intended to hide it.

Kenney was more than a hobbyist when it came to hypnosis. He wrote four books about using hypnosis in defeating test anxiety and mastering baseball and basketball skills. He trained at a Florida hypnosis center and was a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and the National Board of Hypnosis Education and Certification. He told investigators he has worked with around 36 students — with parental permission — in the past couple years, mostly on test anxiety, athletic performance and anger management. He also worked with several of the school’s sports teams, staff members and their families.

“Dr. Kenney isn’t doing any hocus-pocus,” Ann Brandenberger, a psychology teacher at the high school, told an investigator. “That is just what this has been blown into.”

According to the report, Kenney would have people close their eyes and visualize something serene as he talked them into a state of “deep relaxation,” then would suggest to them that they will feel calm and focused before a test, sporting event or other activity.

Gerald Kein, director of the National Board of Hypnosis Education and Certification, described hypnosis as “bypassing the critical factor of the conscious mind,” creating an “open-mindedness” to new ideas.

Kein said that to his knowledge Kenney didn’t violate any of the board’s rules about treating children. Rules call for written permission from parents and urge parental involvement in the sessions. Kein said a hypnotist shouldn’t work with anyone who clearly needs help from a licensed medical professional. Kenney said he had no indication that either student who later committed suicide was suffering from mental illness.

“I think the whole thing is ludicrous. I think it’s ridiculous,” said Kein, who is also director of the Omni Hypnosis Training Center in DeLand, Fla., one of the places where Kenney trained. “From what I understand, he just worked on motivation with these young people, motivation and test anxiety and allowing them to be the very best they can.”

School district spokesman Gary Leatherman said school officials will wait to see whether the North Port police decide to prosecute Kenney under a decades-old state law that requires a doctor’s reference for hypnosis as therapy. After that, the district superintendent will decide what, if any, punishment he should receive.

Kenney’s attorney said he’s working in the school district offices pending the outcome of the investigation and looks forward to getting back to his post at the high school.

NORTH PORT, Fla. – High school principal George Kenney acknowledged using hypnosis to help people: students who needed to relax before tests, a basketball player having trouble making free throws and even school secretaries who wanted to quit smoking.

But now the popular 51-year-old principal’s future at North Port High School is in question since it came to light that he had hypnotized two students before their separate suicides this spring. There is no indication their deaths were any more than a tragic coincidence. However, Kenney acknowledged conducting the sessions after being warned by his boss to stop such one-on-one hypnosis with students at school.

Most students, teachers and fellow administrators at the southwest Florida school were aware that Kenney was a trained hypnotist who would eagerly help those who sought him out for sessions, according to a school district report. Students looked forward to his demonstrations in a psychology class and at other school events.

In April, according to the Sarasota County School District report, he hypnotized a 16-year-old student to help him better focus on a test. The next day, the boy committed suicide. Kenney was put on leave in May when the boy’s parents, who had given their permission for the sessions, raised concerns after his death.

The administrator’s situation then got stickier when an investigation showed that he had also hypnotized another student five months before her May 4 suicide, initially lied about it and had defied three separate verbal warnings to stop the sessions with students.

A 134-page independent investigative report released by the district last week includes an interview with Kenney, who acknowledged defying the orders and then lying.

“I’m not saying I used great judgment all the time here,” he told an investigator. “I think I used poor judgment several times.”

But the report also reflects the support and affection Kenney enjoys at the 2,300-student high school, about 90 miles south of Tampa. Two Facebook pages, one with more than 1,600 fans, have been created to support Kenney, principal of North Port High since its opening in 2001. Some students who were hypnotized say it helped them with sports and academics.

Many students and staff credit him with guiding the school through a time of grief. In March, before the two suicides, a 16-year-old football player was killed in a car crash, which followed the traffic death of a teacher killed driving to school in November.

Kenney is the “glue that just holds the school together,” said his administrative assistant, Dianna McLaren.

Kenney declined to comment through his attorney, Mark Zimmerman, who said there is no “causal connection” between the hypnosis sessions and the suicides. Both students had sought Kenney’s help with test anxiety and had signed permission slips from their parents, Zimmerman said. In the case of student Brittany Palumbo, her mother was present during the session.

“It sort of conjures up a feeling of mind control, which of course is not what hypnosis is,” Zimmerman said. “This was hypnosis as a relaxation and focus technique to aid in test and athletic performance.”

Zimmerman said Kenney initially misspoke when he told an administrator that he had not had a session with Palumbo, and never intended to hide it.

Kenney was more than a hobbyist when it came to hypnosis. He wrote four books about using hypnosis in defeating test anxiety and mastering baseball and basketball skills. He trained at a Florida hypnosis center and was a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and the National Board of Hypnosis Education and Certification. He told investigators he has worked with around 36 students — with parental permission — in the past couple years, mostly on test anxiety, athletic performance and anger management. He also worked with several of the school’s sports teams, staff members and their families.

“Dr. Kenney isn’t doing any hocus-pocus,” Ann Brandenberger, a psychology teacher at the high school, told an investigator. “That is just what this has been blown into.”

According to the report, Kenney would have people close their eyes and visualize something serene as he talked them into a state of “deep relaxation,” then would suggest to them that they will feel calm and focused before a test, sporting event or other activity.

Gerald Kein, director of the National Board of Hypnosis Education and Certification, described hypnosis as “bypassing the critical factor of the conscious mind,” creating an “open-mindedness” to new ideas.

Kein said that to his knowledge Kenney didn’t violate any of the board’s rules about treating children. Rules call for written permission from parents and urge parental involvement in the sessions. Kein said a hypnotist shouldn’t work with anyone who clearly needs help from a licensed medical professional. Kenney said he had no indication that either student who later committed suicide was suffering from mental illness.

“I think the whole thing is ludicrous. I think it’s ridiculous,” said Kein, who is also director of the Omni Hypnosis Training Center in DeLand, Fla., one of the places where Kenney trained. “From what I understand, he just worked on motivation with these young people, motivation and test anxiety and allowing them to be the very best they can.”

School district spokesman Gary Leatherman said school officials will wait to see whether the North Port police decide to prosecute Kenney under a decades-old state law that requires a doctor’s reference for hypnosis as therapy. After that, the district superintendent will decide what, if any, punishment he should receive.

Kenney’s attorney said he’s working in the school district offices pending the outcome of the investigation and looks forward to getting back to his post at the high school.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Illinois Supreme Court on Monday approved the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling that had voided taxes and other revenue earmarked to pay off bonds for a massive capital improvement program.

The state high court reversed a lower appeals court ruling decided in January. Illinois had argued the ruling would cost the state millions of dollars in revenue and would force it to find alternative sources for paying off bonds already sold for its $31 billion capital improvement program.

(Editing by James Dalgleish)