Isiah Thomas won’t be kissing Magic Johnson on the cheek anytime soon.
The two, known for their courtside kiss during the 1988 NBA Finals, are at odds over old rumors dredged up in Earvin "Magic" Johnson’s soon-to-be released book When The Game Was Ours.
"I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it,” Thomas told SI.com
Johnson, who co-wrote the book with former Celtics forward Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan, says Thomas questioned his sexuality and spread rumors that he was gay after Johnson tested positive for HIV.
“The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts,” Johnson wrote. “It was like he kicked me in the stomach.''
Thomas says the accusation came as a shock. The former Piston’s point guard and Hall of Famer denied talking behind Johnson’s back, especially about AIDS, which he says claimed the life of his brother five years ago.
"I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' Thomas told SI. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me.”
Magic also revealed his role in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team along with Michael Jordan and players like Karl Malone and Scottie Pippin.
"I'm glad that he's finally had the nerve and the courage to stand up and say it was him, as opposed to letting Michael Jordan take the blame for it all these years,'' Thomas said.
Thomas had an opportunity to comment six months ago when MacMullan reached out to him, but he says he declined through his publicist.
There were no hard feelings expressed in the book by Bird, who fired Thomas as coach of the Indiana Pacers in 2003. As for Magic though, Thomas says, “I'm tired of getting punched and people using me because they think I'm not going to say anything. Those days are over. Game on.''
Friday, October 23, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
JOAO...BOTH OF THE SENTENCES ON THE LAST ENTRY WERE RUN-ONS. TRY TO EXPRESS YOUR SUMNMARY IN THIS ONE IN SINGLE THOUGHTS RATHER THAN RUN ONS.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- My mother died last week. Mary Elizabeth Rollins was 91 and had lived a glorious and full life.
As I was flying to California for her funeral, I read the Time magazine cover story written by my friend, the superb writer Nancy Gibbs, titled, "The State of the American Woman." This article no doubt was inspired by a fascinating new report released last week: The Shriver Report, "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," sponsored by California's first lady and former news reporter Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank.
To quote from the report: This is not just a women's story. This is a report about how women becoming half of the nation's workers "changes everything" for men, women, and their families.
And I reflected on the changing roles of women in my mother's lifetime, I knew how happy and proud she would be for the opportunities today's women -- including her daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters -- would have. In a way she was not just a spectator to those changes, she was a participant and a pioneer. She was not a woman's libber. She just got up every day and led by example.
She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1918, the oldest child of Irish immigrants.
Don't Miss
TIME: Shriver: The unfinished revolution
In Depth: Commentaries
She was a remarkable woman who lost her own mother at 16. She raised her four younger brothers and sister, the two youngest being 4 and 5, while finishing high school and never missed a beat. Although an outstanding student, her family obligations eliminated the possibility of going on to college. Her father had a job that kept him away from home most weeks of the month and she cooked and cleaned and ran a household while her classmates got to do the ordinary things high school kids do. She never complained.
She married my father, her high school sweetheart in October of 1941 on short notice. With the war raging in Europe and the Pacific, my father who, in 1939 had volunteered for a year of service in the National Guard in Massachusetts, was activated indefinitely to serve at the pleasure of his country.
His unit, the 211th Coast Artillery Regiment was being dispatched to fight somewhere in the Pacific when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. His anti-aircraft artillery battalion was on its way to California to ship out but was suddenly reassigned to protect military installations in the San Francisco Bay area including Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo, California, the largest submarine base on the West Coast.
Knowing he was going to be stateside for a few months, he sent for his new bride and she came to California in April of 1942 and worked in the war effort at the Army arsenal nearby.
The honeymoon was short lived, as my father was reassigned to the Aleutians after the Japanese invaded the islands in June 1942. My mother, pregnant with yours truly, returned to Boston and didn't see my father for another 22 months.
Shortly after being released from the service, my mom and dad headed to California with their 4-year-old son. It was a glorious time to be in California, the population was less than 10 million, and many who moved there found it a place of dreams and opportunities. He went to work the second day he arrived at Mare Island shipyard, the same place he had guarded during the war, and spent the next three decades building and repairing nuclear submarines.
My mother moved right on from mothering her siblings to mothering her own without missing a beat. Cooking, cleaning, ironing and doing everything she could for us was her full time job. When I was in high school and things got financially rough with five kids going to Catholic schools, she went to work in Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo.
At that time in 1967, only one third of women worked outside the home. She worked first as the night switchboard operator. She would arrive home exhausted at 7 a.m., cook our breakfast and get us off to school. She would then sleep a few hours before getting up and doing her housework before we returned home from school.
She continued to work at home at the same pace. At work she was full time and took any assignment or class she could to advance and get on to the day shift. Her children still always came first and I can attest we were never neglected. She worked for the next 20 years and retired as the business office manager handling industrial claims for Mare Island workers. After retirement she volunteered for another 20 years in the local hospital serving sick patients and helping in any way she could.
Her life revolved around her family, her faith, and her friends. She was a strong woman who together with my late father -- they were married for 65 years -- held it all together with an energy and joy that inspired others.
By the end of this year, the majority of workers in this country will be women, as are the majority of voters. America could just as easily have elected Hillary Clinton president as President Obama.
Mom would be proud of the progress women have made in her decades on this earth. She would be saddened that many of those same successful women are forced to have greater anxiety about financial security. But the life of her youngest grandchild, my 14- year-old daughter, will be full of opportunity that my mother's generation could only dream of. Many women like her helped make those opportunities come about and flourish. We are all grateful. And you will not be forgotten.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Rollins.
As I was flying to California for her funeral, I read the Time magazine cover story written by my friend, the superb writer Nancy Gibbs, titled, "The State of the American Woman." This article no doubt was inspired by a fascinating new report released last week: The Shriver Report, "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," sponsored by California's first lady and former news reporter Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank.
To quote from the report: This is not just a women's story. This is a report about how women becoming half of the nation's workers "changes everything" for men, women, and their families.
And I reflected on the changing roles of women in my mother's lifetime, I knew how happy and proud she would be for the opportunities today's women -- including her daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters -- would have. In a way she was not just a spectator to those changes, she was a participant and a pioneer. She was not a woman's libber. She just got up every day and led by example.
She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1918, the oldest child of Irish immigrants.
Don't Miss
TIME: Shriver: The unfinished revolution
In Depth: Commentaries
She was a remarkable woman who lost her own mother at 16. She raised her four younger brothers and sister, the two youngest being 4 and 5, while finishing high school and never missed a beat. Although an outstanding student, her family obligations eliminated the possibility of going on to college. Her father had a job that kept him away from home most weeks of the month and she cooked and cleaned and ran a household while her classmates got to do the ordinary things high school kids do. She never complained.
She married my father, her high school sweetheart in October of 1941 on short notice. With the war raging in Europe and the Pacific, my father who, in 1939 had volunteered for a year of service in the National Guard in Massachusetts, was activated indefinitely to serve at the pleasure of his country.
His unit, the 211th Coast Artillery Regiment was being dispatched to fight somewhere in the Pacific when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. His anti-aircraft artillery battalion was on its way to California to ship out but was suddenly reassigned to protect military installations in the San Francisco Bay area including Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo, California, the largest submarine base on the West Coast.
Knowing he was going to be stateside for a few months, he sent for his new bride and she came to California in April of 1942 and worked in the war effort at the Army arsenal nearby.
The honeymoon was short lived, as my father was reassigned to the Aleutians after the Japanese invaded the islands in June 1942. My mother, pregnant with yours truly, returned to Boston and didn't see my father for another 22 months.
Shortly after being released from the service, my mom and dad headed to California with their 4-year-old son. It was a glorious time to be in California, the population was less than 10 million, and many who moved there found it a place of dreams and opportunities. He went to work the second day he arrived at Mare Island shipyard, the same place he had guarded during the war, and spent the next three decades building and repairing nuclear submarines.
My mother moved right on from mothering her siblings to mothering her own without missing a beat. Cooking, cleaning, ironing and doing everything she could for us was her full time job. When I was in high school and things got financially rough with five kids going to Catholic schools, she went to work in Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo.
At that time in 1967, only one third of women worked outside the home. She worked first as the night switchboard operator. She would arrive home exhausted at 7 a.m., cook our breakfast and get us off to school. She would then sleep a few hours before getting up and doing her housework before we returned home from school.
She continued to work at home at the same pace. At work she was full time and took any assignment or class she could to advance and get on to the day shift. Her children still always came first and I can attest we were never neglected. She worked for the next 20 years and retired as the business office manager handling industrial claims for Mare Island workers. After retirement she volunteered for another 20 years in the local hospital serving sick patients and helping in any way she could.
Her life revolved around her family, her faith, and her friends. She was a strong woman who together with my late father -- they were married for 65 years -- held it all together with an energy and joy that inspired others.
By the end of this year, the majority of workers in this country will be women, as are the majority of voters. America could just as easily have elected Hillary Clinton president as President Obama.
Mom would be proud of the progress women have made in her decades on this earth. She would be saddened that many of those same successful women are forced to have greater anxiety about financial security. But the life of her youngest grandchild, my 14- year-old daughter, will be full of opportunity that my mother's generation could only dream of. Many women like her helped make those opportunities come about and flourish. We are all grateful. And you will not be forgotten.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Rollins.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Animals rights activists dog Michael Vick
Animals rights activists dog Michael Vick
By Sean Maher
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 10/18/2009 04:34:24 PM PDT
Updated: 10/18/2009 10:16:17 PM PDT
Animal rights activists and dog lovers, offended by what they called an insincere public apology and an insensitive NFL policy toward dogfighting, gathered Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum to protest the arrival of the Philadelphia Eagles' Michael Vick.
"We just really want to make it clear to both Vick and NFL that we haven't forgotten what happened, and the 18 months he served was just a slap on the wrist for the truly heinous nature of his crime," said organizer Hope Bohanec, who works with the San Rafael-based nonprofit In Defense of Animals.
"Vick killed these dogs because they were too gentle to fight and win. He could have found them homes," she said.
"Some of them he hung, he electrocuted, drowned them, and some he just beat to death. It's beyond animal abuse. It's truly sadistic."
Bohanec said the group has not detected much remorse in Vick's statement since being released from federal prison on dogfighting-related charges.
"He seems sorry he was caught," she said. "He apologizes to his fans and his wife, but he hasn't apologized to his victims, to the dogs."
Vick, 29, was sentenced in December 2007 to serve 23 months in prison with three years on probation for several dogfighting crimes. He was released in May after serving about 19 months and signed with the Eagles in August. He was suspended indefinitely from the NFL while serving his sentence and was suspended for the first two weeks of the 2009 season.
About three dozen volunteers held signs and handed out fliers as people attending the game walked by at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, many of them pausing to shout, "Give him a second chance" and "Get over it."
"He paid his debt to society," said Anthony Foster, 33, of Vallejo. "He went to jail, he did his time, and he did everything they asked him to do. He made some mistakes, but that was his culture. I think he's a good dude and he learned from his mistakes. If you do that, you should get that second chance."
Tom Miller, a 47-year-old Oakland fan who joined the protest, said he supports the Raiders but could not bring himself to buy a ticket because he feels the NFL has shown that it condones Vick's behavior.
"You can't appeal to their morality, but you can appeal to their pocketbook," he said.
Humane Society of the United States President Wayne Pacelle said in August that Vick "has pledged to make a long-term commitment to participate in our community-based outreach programs to steer inner-city youth away from dog fighting."
Dr. Elliot Katz, a veterinarian and president of In Defense of Animals, wrote letters last week to both NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Vick's agent, asking that dogfighting and cockfighting be explicitly added to the criminal offenses section of the league's Personal Conduct Policy for players.
"Animal cruelty in itself is not only condemned, but it is recognized as the most consistent predictor of violence against humans," Katz wrote.
"By specifically including dogfighting and cockfighting in your list of 'criminal offenses' you are steering young men clear of activities that will bring them, their families and society greater pain. The NFL must make players and developing players know that torturing animals should not be a source of entertainment, nor does it make one appear competitive and 'tough' and that it will actually prohibit them from becoming successful and respected athletes."
Reached for comment by e-mail, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote, "Illegal conduct of that nature is already covered by the policy, as evidenced by the fact that Michael Vick was suspended indefinitely in 2007 after pleading guilty to the charges against him."
By Sean Maher
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 10/18/2009 04:34:24 PM PDT
Updated: 10/18/2009 10:16:17 PM PDT
Animal rights activists and dog lovers, offended by what they called an insincere public apology and an insensitive NFL policy toward dogfighting, gathered Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum to protest the arrival of the Philadelphia Eagles' Michael Vick.
"We just really want to make it clear to both Vick and NFL that we haven't forgotten what happened, and the 18 months he served was just a slap on the wrist for the truly heinous nature of his crime," said organizer Hope Bohanec, who works with the San Rafael-based nonprofit In Defense of Animals.
"Vick killed these dogs because they were too gentle to fight and win. He could have found them homes," she said.
"Some of them he hung, he electrocuted, drowned them, and some he just beat to death. It's beyond animal abuse. It's truly sadistic."
Bohanec said the group has not detected much remorse in Vick's statement since being released from federal prison on dogfighting-related charges.
"He seems sorry he was caught," she said. "He apologizes to his fans and his wife, but he hasn't apologized to his victims, to the dogs."
Vick, 29, was sentenced in December 2007 to serve 23 months in prison with three years on probation for several dogfighting crimes. He was released in May after serving about 19 months and signed with the Eagles in August. He was suspended indefinitely from the NFL while serving his sentence and was suspended for the first two weeks of the 2009 season.
About three dozen volunteers held signs and handed out fliers as people attending the game walked by at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, many of them pausing to shout, "Give him a second chance" and "Get over it."
"He paid his debt to society," said Anthony Foster, 33, of Vallejo. "He went to jail, he did his time, and he did everything they asked him to do. He made some mistakes, but that was his culture. I think he's a good dude and he learned from his mistakes. If you do that, you should get that second chance."
Tom Miller, a 47-year-old Oakland fan who joined the protest, said he supports the Raiders but could not bring himself to buy a ticket because he feels the NFL has shown that it condones Vick's behavior.
"You can't appeal to their morality, but you can appeal to their pocketbook," he said.
Humane Society of the United States President Wayne Pacelle said in August that Vick "has pledged to make a long-term commitment to participate in our community-based outreach programs to steer inner-city youth away from dog fighting."
Dr. Elliot Katz, a veterinarian and president of In Defense of Animals, wrote letters last week to both NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Vick's agent, asking that dogfighting and cockfighting be explicitly added to the criminal offenses section of the league's Personal Conduct Policy for players.
"Animal cruelty in itself is not only condemned, but it is recognized as the most consistent predictor of violence against humans," Katz wrote.
"By specifically including dogfighting and cockfighting in your list of 'criminal offenses' you are steering young men clear of activities that will bring them, their families and society greater pain. The NFL must make players and developing players know that torturing animals should not be a source of entertainment, nor does it make one appear competitive and 'tough' and that it will actually prohibit them from becoming successful and respected athletes."
Reached for comment by e-mail, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote, "Illegal conduct of that nature is already covered by the policy, as evidenced by the fact that Michael Vick was suspended indefinitely in 2007 after pleading guilty to the charges against him."
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sports and Violence
Posted: Sunday October 18, 2009 11:35AM; Updated: Sunday October 18, 2009 9:33PM
UConn's Howard killed in stabbing Story Highlights
UConn cornerback Jasper Howard died Sunday following an off-campus stabbing
Howard, the Big East leader in punt returns in '08, had 11 tackles in Saturday's win
STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut football player who was an expectant father was stabbed to death early Sunday after an on-campus dance, just hours after helping his team to a homecoming victory.
Jasper Howard, 20, of Miami, and another student were stabbed during a fight after a fire alarm was pulled during a university sanctioned dance at the UConn Student Union just after 12:30 a.m., police said.
Police had not identified a suspect or released the name of the other victim.
Connecticut coach Randy Edsall said the team was heartbroken and devastated over the loss of Howard, a junior and the team's starting cornerback who came to the school to get away from the violence on the streets of his hometown. He became the first person in his family to go to college.
"I know this," Edsall said, his eyes red and welling with tears, "he loved UConn; he loved his teammates; he loved everything about this."
Edsall said Howard's death was especially tragic, because he was about to become a father. No additional information about the expectant mother, identified by Edsall as Howard's girlfriend, was provided by police or the university.
The coach gathered his team at its training facility at 6 a.m. to deliver the news.
"As Jazz looks down on us, I can promise him and his family, that son or daughter will have 105 uncles," punter Desi Cullen, a team captain, said at an afternoon news conference. "And we will do what it takes to not get through this, but to grow from it."
UConn Police Major Ronald Blicher said this is the first homicide at the university in the more than 30 years he has been associated with the school.
Blicher said Howard was stabbed following a fight between two groups that included students and non-students. The altercation broke out just after a fire alarm went off in the student center, forcing the evacuation of about 300 people, from a "Welcome Back" party and dance sponsored by the school's West Indian Awareness Organization.
Police and the school declined to say whether any other athletes were involved in the incident.
Police cordoned off the crime scene near the university's Gampel Pavilion basketball arena for much of the day.
"Certainly not all 300 saw this event," Blicher said. "We have been actively interviewing people through the night and day, and we continue to seek anybody who might have information."
Police were trying to determine whether the alarm and the fight were related.
The university community was sent messages warning them to be cautious, but Blicher said officials don't believe anyone else is in danger and that the stabbing did not appear premeditated.
"The university does not have an individual walking around just stabbing people," Blicher said.
Howard and the other stabbing victim were taken to Windham Community Memorial Hospital, where the second victim was treated and released. Howard was later airlifted to Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, where he died from his injuries.
Edsall drove to the hospital Sunday morning and was asked to identify Howard's body.
"One of my sons has been taken away," the coach said.
University President Michael Hogan told The Associated Press the stabbing is a tragedy for the entire university community.
"I was in the locker room after the game yesterday. It was such a joyous moment," Hogan said. "To go from that game and such a victory to the developments at 12:30 last night is such a tragedy."
Howard had a career-high 11 tackles Saturday against Louisville and made perhaps the game's biggest play, forcing a fumble just as Louisville was about to score with UConn up 21-13 in the third quarter. UConn won 38-25, and following the game, Howard, who led the Big East in punt returns last season, talked to the AP about the play.
"I felt my hand go on the ball and I felt that I had a chance to get it out. I just stripped it out. It was a big play. We needed it," he said.
Corey Bell, director of football operations at the University of Miami, coached Howard at Miami Edison High School.
He told The Miami-Herald Sunday that he was stunned.
"I'm real close to all my guys, but Jazz and I were real close," Bell said. "We spoke at least once every week. He's a great kid, coachable, dependable, real tough mentally and talented. He had dreams of getting to the next level and making it and taking care of his mom and his sister."
New England Patriots cornerback Darius Butler, described by Edsall as the player who taught Howard the ropes while at UConn, was shaken by the news.
"It hasn't settled in, but it was tough on the UConn family," Butler said. "He's in my thoughts and prayers."
The Associated Press left a phone and e-mail message with the university's media relations department that were not immediately returned.
The school was arranging for Howard's parents to come to Connecticut. The junior also had two teenage sisters.
The student union was reopened late Sunday, and the snack shop there was soon doing a brisk business.
Aaron Price, a 19-year-old music major, said he was a bit concerned that nobody had yet been arrested, but didn't fear for his own safety.
"I've never felt unsafe," he said. "I've never even thought about whether or not I felt safe."
Gov. M. Jodi Rell visited the campus Sunday to offer her condolences and any assistance the university might need.
Edsall said the team will not practice until Tuesday, but plans on playing next Saturday at West Virginia. He said they would wear some remembrance of Howard, and would plan a more permanent memorial at the team's training center.
"The Howard family will get through this, as well as the UConn family," Edsall said. "Because we are determined and we are willing to make sure that Jazz will be honored in the right way, and how we do things is what he'll be expecting out of all of us."
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
UConn's Howard killed in stabbing Story Highlights
UConn cornerback Jasper Howard died Sunday following an off-campus stabbing
Howard, the Big East leader in punt returns in '08, had 11 tackles in Saturday's win
STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut football player who was an expectant father was stabbed to death early Sunday after an on-campus dance, just hours after helping his team to a homecoming victory.
Jasper Howard, 20, of Miami, and another student were stabbed during a fight after a fire alarm was pulled during a university sanctioned dance at the UConn Student Union just after 12:30 a.m., police said.
Police had not identified a suspect or released the name of the other victim.
Connecticut coach Randy Edsall said the team was heartbroken and devastated over the loss of Howard, a junior and the team's starting cornerback who came to the school to get away from the violence on the streets of his hometown. He became the first person in his family to go to college.
"I know this," Edsall said, his eyes red and welling with tears, "he loved UConn; he loved his teammates; he loved everything about this."
Edsall said Howard's death was especially tragic, because he was about to become a father. No additional information about the expectant mother, identified by Edsall as Howard's girlfriend, was provided by police or the university.
The coach gathered his team at its training facility at 6 a.m. to deliver the news.
"As Jazz looks down on us, I can promise him and his family, that son or daughter will have 105 uncles," punter Desi Cullen, a team captain, said at an afternoon news conference. "And we will do what it takes to not get through this, but to grow from it."
UConn Police Major Ronald Blicher said this is the first homicide at the university in the more than 30 years he has been associated with the school.
Blicher said Howard was stabbed following a fight between two groups that included students and non-students. The altercation broke out just after a fire alarm went off in the student center, forcing the evacuation of about 300 people, from a "Welcome Back" party and dance sponsored by the school's West Indian Awareness Organization.
Police and the school declined to say whether any other athletes were involved in the incident.
Police cordoned off the crime scene near the university's Gampel Pavilion basketball arena for much of the day.
"Certainly not all 300 saw this event," Blicher said. "We have been actively interviewing people through the night and day, and we continue to seek anybody who might have information."
Police were trying to determine whether the alarm and the fight were related.
The university community was sent messages warning them to be cautious, but Blicher said officials don't believe anyone else is in danger and that the stabbing did not appear premeditated.
"The university does not have an individual walking around just stabbing people," Blicher said.
Howard and the other stabbing victim were taken to Windham Community Memorial Hospital, where the second victim was treated and released. Howard was later airlifted to Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, where he died from his injuries.
Edsall drove to the hospital Sunday morning and was asked to identify Howard's body.
"One of my sons has been taken away," the coach said.
University President Michael Hogan told The Associated Press the stabbing is a tragedy for the entire university community.
"I was in the locker room after the game yesterday. It was such a joyous moment," Hogan said. "To go from that game and such a victory to the developments at 12:30 last night is such a tragedy."
Howard had a career-high 11 tackles Saturday against Louisville and made perhaps the game's biggest play, forcing a fumble just as Louisville was about to score with UConn up 21-13 in the third quarter. UConn won 38-25, and following the game, Howard, who led the Big East in punt returns last season, talked to the AP about the play.
"I felt my hand go on the ball and I felt that I had a chance to get it out. I just stripped it out. It was a big play. We needed it," he said.
Corey Bell, director of football operations at the University of Miami, coached Howard at Miami Edison High School.
He told The Miami-Herald Sunday that he was stunned.
"I'm real close to all my guys, but Jazz and I were real close," Bell said. "We spoke at least once every week. He's a great kid, coachable, dependable, real tough mentally and talented. He had dreams of getting to the next level and making it and taking care of his mom and his sister."
New England Patriots cornerback Darius Butler, described by Edsall as the player who taught Howard the ropes while at UConn, was shaken by the news.
"It hasn't settled in, but it was tough on the UConn family," Butler said. "He's in my thoughts and prayers."
The Associated Press left a phone and e-mail message with the university's media relations department that were not immediately returned.
The school was arranging for Howard's parents to come to Connecticut. The junior also had two teenage sisters.
The student union was reopened late Sunday, and the snack shop there was soon doing a brisk business.
Aaron Price, a 19-year-old music major, said he was a bit concerned that nobody had yet been arrested, but didn't fear for his own safety.
"I've never felt unsafe," he said. "I've never even thought about whether or not I felt safe."
Gov. M. Jodi Rell visited the campus Sunday to offer her condolences and any assistance the university might need.
Edsall said the team will not practice until Tuesday, but plans on playing next Saturday at West Virginia. He said they would wear some remembrance of Howard, and would plan a more permanent memorial at the team's training center.
"The Howard family will get through this, as well as the UConn family," Edsall said. "Because we are determined and we are willing to make sure that Jazz will be honored in the right way, and how we do things is what he'll be expecting out of all of us."
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Obama calls for $250 payments to seniors
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama called on Congress Wednesday to approve $250 payments to more than 50 million seniors to make up for no increase in Social Security next year. The Social Security Administration is scheduled to announce Thursday that there will be no cost of living increase next year. By law, increases are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year.
It would mark the first year without an increase in Social Security payments since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.
"Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession," Obama said in a statement. "This additional assistance will be especially important in the coming months, as countless seniors and others have seen their retirement accounts and home values decline as a result of this economic crisis."
Obama's proposal is similar to several bills in Congress. The $250 payments would also go to those receiving veterans benefits, disability benefits, railroad retirees and retired public employees who don't receive Social Security. Recipients would be limited to one payment, even if they qualified for more.
The White House put the cost at $13 billion. Obama said he would not allow the payments to come out of the Social Security trust funds, further eroding the finances of the retirement program. Social Security already is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in each of the next two years.
However, Obama did not offer any alternatives to finance the payments. A senior administration official said Obama was open to borrowing the money, increasing the federal budget deficit. The official, who requested anonymity, was not authorized to speak on the record.
Obama also announced Wednesday that the IRS would soon issue tax guidance preventing reductions in contribution limits for certain retirement funds, including 401(k) plans and Individual Retirement Accounts. There has been concern among some in the financial industry that federal law could require the limits to be reduced because inflation will be negative this year.
The $250 payments would match the ones issued to seniors earlier this year as part of the massive economic recovery package enacted in February. Several key members of Congress have said they are open to providing relief to seniors to make up for no increase in Social Security payments.
"We're looking at a way to address it," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Social Security. "I'm not sure what the exact answer is yet, but we're looking at ways to address that."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he supports the $250 payments, as did Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security in the House.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has introduced a bill calling for similar payments.
"I think that the Obama administration and many members of Congress understand that we simply can't turn our backs on senior citizens," Sanders said.
Other lawmakers said seniors shouldn't get the extra payments because the formula doesn't call for it.
"I think it would be inappropriate," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. "The reason we set up this process was to have the Social Security reimbursement reflect the cost of living."
Social Security payments increased by 5.8 percent in January, the largest increase since 1982. The big increase was largely because of a spike in energy costs in 2008.
Inflation has been negative this year largely because energy prices have fallen. Gasoline prices have dropped 30 percent over the past year while overall energy costs have dropped 23 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Social Security payments, however, cannot go down. The average monthly Social Security payment for retirees is $1,160.
Advocacy groups said the payment will be welcomed by seniors hit hard by falling home values and shrinking investment portfolios.
"The likelihood of losing an average annual COLA increase of about $200 to $300 in 2010 may sound like no big deal to some, but for millions of seniors who've already seen a third of their Social Security eaten up by health care costs, this proposed COLA relief could truly make the difference" said Barbara B. Kennelly, a former Democratic member of Congress from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
AARP CEO A. Barry Rand said, "For nearly 35 years, millions of Americans have counted on an annual increase in their monthly Social Security checks to make ends meet."
It would mark the first year without an increase in Social Security payments since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.
"Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession," Obama said in a statement. "This additional assistance will be especially important in the coming months, as countless seniors and others have seen their retirement accounts and home values decline as a result of this economic crisis."
Obama's proposal is similar to several bills in Congress. The $250 payments would also go to those receiving veterans benefits, disability benefits, railroad retirees and retired public employees who don't receive Social Security. Recipients would be limited to one payment, even if they qualified for more.
The White House put the cost at $13 billion. Obama said he would not allow the payments to come out of the Social Security trust funds, further eroding the finances of the retirement program. Social Security already is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in each of the next two years.
However, Obama did not offer any alternatives to finance the payments. A senior administration official said Obama was open to borrowing the money, increasing the federal budget deficit. The official, who requested anonymity, was not authorized to speak on the record.
Obama also announced Wednesday that the IRS would soon issue tax guidance preventing reductions in contribution limits for certain retirement funds, including 401(k) plans and Individual Retirement Accounts. There has been concern among some in the financial industry that federal law could require the limits to be reduced because inflation will be negative this year.
The $250 payments would match the ones issued to seniors earlier this year as part of the massive economic recovery package enacted in February. Several key members of Congress have said they are open to providing relief to seniors to make up for no increase in Social Security payments.
"We're looking at a way to address it," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Social Security. "I'm not sure what the exact answer is yet, but we're looking at ways to address that."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he supports the $250 payments, as did Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security in the House.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has introduced a bill calling for similar payments.
"I think that the Obama administration and many members of Congress understand that we simply can't turn our backs on senior citizens," Sanders said.
Other lawmakers said seniors shouldn't get the extra payments because the formula doesn't call for it.
"I think it would be inappropriate," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. "The reason we set up this process was to have the Social Security reimbursement reflect the cost of living."
Social Security payments increased by 5.8 percent in January, the largest increase since 1982. The big increase was largely because of a spike in energy costs in 2008.
Inflation has been negative this year largely because energy prices have fallen. Gasoline prices have dropped 30 percent over the past year while overall energy costs have dropped 23 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Social Security payments, however, cannot go down. The average monthly Social Security payment for retirees is $1,160.
Advocacy groups said the payment will be welcomed by seniors hit hard by falling home values and shrinking investment portfolios.
"The likelihood of losing an average annual COLA increase of about $200 to $300 in 2010 may sound like no big deal to some, but for millions of seniors who've already seen a third of their Social Security eaten up by health care costs, this proposed COLA relief could truly make the difference" said Barbara B. Kennelly, a former Democratic member of Congress from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
AARP CEO A. Barry Rand said, "For nearly 35 years, millions of Americans have counted on an annual increase in their monthly Social Security checks to make ends meet."
Monday, October 12, 2009
Mexico's 'narco-lawyers' risk everything
Reporting from Culiacan, Mexico, and Monterrey, Mexico -- Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, once hailed here as "the Bulletproof Lawyer," could outrun the bullets no longer.
Villanueva, one of Mexico's most controversial attorneys, was shopping in Monterrey in August when hooded gunmen with automatic weapons tracked her down amid stalls of handbags, perfume and videos, then pumped more than a dozen shots into her body.
The killers delivered a final shot to the head before fleeing the covered market, busy with shoppers at midday on a Sunday.
Villanueva, 56, a single mother known for her combative courtroom manner and for having survived four attacks, was probably the best known among the ranks of Mexican lawyers who practice a particularly dicey specialty: defending accused drug lords.
That club shrank even more later that month, when killers slit the throat of another prominent defense lawyer, Americo Delgado, as he left his home office outside Mexico City. There have been no arrests in either slaying, and Mexican authorities have offered no motives. Officials have not said whether they believe the cases are related.
The unsolved killings have focused attention on the lives of the so-called narcoabogados, or "narco-lawyers" -- important but often-overlooked players in the drug wars that have roiled Mexico for nearly three years. The evolution of narco-lawyers and the violence they increasingly face highlight the weaknesses of a judicial system that is all too often manipulated by powerful drug cartels.
These attorneys range from respected legal whizzes hired to find soft spots in government indictments to briefcase-toting henchmen who take advantage of their jail access to help clients run their drug businesses from behind bars. Some jailed kingpins have employed dozens of lawyers at a time, in part to manage far-flung enterprises: buying and selling properties, paying smugglers, bribing police.
Few drug lawyers seek publicity because of a stigma that often leaves them shunned by colleagues with tamer client lists. Big-name law firms frequently assign rookie staffers to such cases.
It can be dangerous work -- attorneys complain they are increasingly caught up in the country's drug violence. Triggermen might be sent by a rival cartel, dirty cops or even a client disgruntled with the way his case is proceeding.
"They don't want to hear explanations. They hire the lawyer and want a secure outcome, whatever it costs," said Cesar Luis Vea Vea, president of a lawyers federation in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, a drug-trafficking hot spot. "Declining to take on a client can also have risks."
When slayings occur, some say, authorities do little to solve them.
Yet the fees for handling drug cases can be intoxicating, and it doesn't always take superior courtroom skills to win a client's release (a favored method in Mexico is through a judicial ordercalled an amparo). In an opaque justice system rife with corruption, who you know may matter more than what you know about the law.
Drug suspects "seek lawyers who are known to have special influence," said Vea, a former judge.
Villanueva defied many of the usual rules. She went public on behalf of her clients and seemed ever willing to take on more, no matter how radioactive. She represented members of rival cartels. Salty-tongued but devoutly religious, she was a rare woman in a criminal-defense bar dominated by men. Villanueva saved her sharpest comments for corrupt Mexican politicians, and often said they were less trustworthy than drug capos.
When she was killed Aug. 9, Villanueva had a file cabinet full of incendiary cases, including that of a former top federal police official, Javier Herrera Valles. He was jailed last year for allegedly helping traffickers after dismissing the government's drug war as a failure and accusing his boss, public safety chief Genaro Garcia Luna, of corruption.
Villanueva also once represented the man whose testimony helped lead to the 1996 capture of Juan Garcia Abrego, the former chief of the Gulf cartel now imprisoned in the United States. Her recent client list included Noe Ramirez Mandujano, who is charged with taking bribes from Sinaloa traffickers while running the federal attorney general's organized-crime unit.
"She had many open fronts," said Ricardo Ravelo, a Mexico City journalist who interviewed Villanueva for a 2006 book called "Los Narcoabogados."
Villanueva reached folk-hero status after surviving a bombing of her Monterrey office and three shootings from 1998 to 2001. At the time of her death, she bore bullet wounds in her legs, stomach, head and buttocks. Mexican songwriters composed ballads, or corridos, in honor of Villanueva's exploits, calling her the "Lady of Steel" as well as "the Bulletproof Lawyer."
But persistent whispers circulated that her legal work crossed the line into criminal activity. Villanueva was arrested in 2006 in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a federal police official, but was never convicted. She remained unapologetic.
"I'm a lawyer. I don't agree with what my clients do," she told a Mexican newspaper five months before she died.
By contrast, Delgado, who was knifed outside an office he kept in the state of Mexico, plied his trade quietly. Bookish and unflashy in his suit and sensible shoes, the 81-year-old attorney looked more college dean than ace drug lawyer.
Delgado, who like Villanueva was from industrial Monterrey, was considered the go-to expert on extradition cases and was thought to be close to victory in fighting the transfer of Benjamin Arellano Felix, a leader of the Tijuana-based cartel that bears his family's name. Arellano Felix was arrested in Mexico in 2002 and convicted on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges, but is still sought by U.S. authorities. At one time, he had 41 registered lawyers.
Delgado also successfully fought a U.S. extradition request for Jesus Amezcua, a trafficker from the state of Colima known as one of the "methamphetamine kings."
Associates and others who knew Delgado say he was well aware of the perils of his craft and refrained from promising too much or overcharging.
"He used to say, 'I don't belong to them nor get involved with them,' " said Arturo Arredondo, a Monterrey lawyer who grew up with Delgado and remained close until the Aug. 28 slaying. "He was a technician."
Last year, Delgado was honored for his long legal career by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a national lawyers federation.
The circumstances of his killing -- a knife assault by three men -- looked more like a robbery than one of Mexico's bullet-riddled gang hits.
But he may have been targeted because of a bloody rivalry between gangs. Delgado most recently served as defense lawyer for Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a suspected kingpin from Sinaloa. Beltran Leyva's faction has been at war with former allies led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's top fugitive.
"To take the case of an important figure, a figure at war with the organization to which he used to belong, is extremely risky," Ravelo said.
During the last year, Delgado may have been in contact with Villanueva, the slain attorney whose former client helped bring down onetime Gulf cartel kingpin Garcia Abrego, Ravelo said. Delgado had been working to win the return of Garcia Abrego on grounds that he was handed to U.S. authorities illegally after his 1996 capture in Mexico.
The killings of the two attorneys have generated fear among people close to the pair. Colleagues at Villanueva's law office, a modest, olive-green house decorated with religious-themed paintings and sculptures, declined to be interviewed. Delgado's family also demurred.
Lawyers in Monterrey have called on authorities in the state of Nuevo Leon to do more to solve the killings, as well as the slayings of other colleagues who handled drug cases. Two were former associates of Villanueva.
"It seems to us very strange that in Nuevo Leon all the crimes against lawyers are unsolved, and we don't know the motives," said Adolfo Trevino, who heads the local lawyers association. "It's due to deficiencies in the investigation."
Lawyers have also been slain in the states of Sinaloa, Guanajuato and Morelos. In March 2008, gunmen stormed a law office in the city of Guadalajara and killed seven attorneys. The firm represented a son of Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel leader, and had defended Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who was Mexico's drug czar until he was arrested in 1997 on charges of helping the so-called Juarez cartel.
A lawyer who turned up dead in Guanajuato in August appeared in a YouTube video posted later in which he confessed to working for La Familia, a violent drug-trafficking gang. The attorney, Jesus Armando Mancera, said his job was to demand extortion payments from merchants and vendors of pirated CDs and other goods.
More than 13,000 people nationwide have died since President Felipe Calderon launched a war on the drug cartels in December 2006. Though lawyers -- along with prosecutors and judges -- represent a small percentage of that toll, attacks on them underscore the ability of the cartels to strike back at the judiciary system.
The risks inspire a cloak-and-dagger existence for major-league drug lawyers. A Sinaloa attorney who handles big-time drug cases asked a pair of Times journalists to turn off their cellphones during a meeting at a restaurant in Culiacan recently, fearing an active line might steer enemies to his location. Two associates sat watch as he discussed his work on condition that neither he nor his clients be identified.
The lawyer, from a poorer part of Mexico, moved to Culiacan to attend college, and, following law school, began with nickel-and-dime cases in the local courts. After a few victories, he caught the eye of drug-cartel representatives and accepted their offer of work.
He exudes nervous energy -- pacing, whispering into one of his three cellphones, giving away little about where he is going or who he will see.
Drug clients, like his, bring in the kind of handsome fees that can pay for top-shelf office space in Culiacan's pricey Old Town section. But they also play havoc with a lawyer's nerves, often ignoring his best legal advice while making it clear that there is no option but to win.
"If they think you have done them wrong, it's . . . " the attorney said. He finished by drawing his finger across his throat.
Villanueva, one of Mexico's most controversial attorneys, was shopping in Monterrey in August when hooded gunmen with automatic weapons tracked her down amid stalls of handbags, perfume and videos, then pumped more than a dozen shots into her body.
The killers delivered a final shot to the head before fleeing the covered market, busy with shoppers at midday on a Sunday.
Villanueva, 56, a single mother known for her combative courtroom manner and for having survived four attacks, was probably the best known among the ranks of Mexican lawyers who practice a particularly dicey specialty: defending accused drug lords.
That club shrank even more later that month, when killers slit the throat of another prominent defense lawyer, Americo Delgado, as he left his home office outside Mexico City. There have been no arrests in either slaying, and Mexican authorities have offered no motives. Officials have not said whether they believe the cases are related.
The unsolved killings have focused attention on the lives of the so-called narcoabogados, or "narco-lawyers" -- important but often-overlooked players in the drug wars that have roiled Mexico for nearly three years. The evolution of narco-lawyers and the violence they increasingly face highlight the weaknesses of a judicial system that is all too often manipulated by powerful drug cartels.
These attorneys range from respected legal whizzes hired to find soft spots in government indictments to briefcase-toting henchmen who take advantage of their jail access to help clients run their drug businesses from behind bars. Some jailed kingpins have employed dozens of lawyers at a time, in part to manage far-flung enterprises: buying and selling properties, paying smugglers, bribing police.
Few drug lawyers seek publicity because of a stigma that often leaves them shunned by colleagues with tamer client lists. Big-name law firms frequently assign rookie staffers to such cases.
It can be dangerous work -- attorneys complain they are increasingly caught up in the country's drug violence. Triggermen might be sent by a rival cartel, dirty cops or even a client disgruntled with the way his case is proceeding.
"They don't want to hear explanations. They hire the lawyer and want a secure outcome, whatever it costs," said Cesar Luis Vea Vea, president of a lawyers federation in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, a drug-trafficking hot spot. "Declining to take on a client can also have risks."
When slayings occur, some say, authorities do little to solve them.
Yet the fees for handling drug cases can be intoxicating, and it doesn't always take superior courtroom skills to win a client's release (a favored method in Mexico is through a judicial ordercalled an amparo). In an opaque justice system rife with corruption, who you know may matter more than what you know about the law.
Drug suspects "seek lawyers who are known to have special influence," said Vea, a former judge.
Villanueva defied many of the usual rules. She went public on behalf of her clients and seemed ever willing to take on more, no matter how radioactive. She represented members of rival cartels. Salty-tongued but devoutly religious, she was a rare woman in a criminal-defense bar dominated by men. Villanueva saved her sharpest comments for corrupt Mexican politicians, and often said they were less trustworthy than drug capos.
When she was killed Aug. 9, Villanueva had a file cabinet full of incendiary cases, including that of a former top federal police official, Javier Herrera Valles. He was jailed last year for allegedly helping traffickers after dismissing the government's drug war as a failure and accusing his boss, public safety chief Genaro Garcia Luna, of corruption.
Villanueva also once represented the man whose testimony helped lead to the 1996 capture of Juan Garcia Abrego, the former chief of the Gulf cartel now imprisoned in the United States. Her recent client list included Noe Ramirez Mandujano, who is charged with taking bribes from Sinaloa traffickers while running the federal attorney general's organized-crime unit.
"She had many open fronts," said Ricardo Ravelo, a Mexico City journalist who interviewed Villanueva for a 2006 book called "Los Narcoabogados."
Villanueva reached folk-hero status after surviving a bombing of her Monterrey office and three shootings from 1998 to 2001. At the time of her death, she bore bullet wounds in her legs, stomach, head and buttocks. Mexican songwriters composed ballads, or corridos, in honor of Villanueva's exploits, calling her the "Lady of Steel" as well as "the Bulletproof Lawyer."
But persistent whispers circulated that her legal work crossed the line into criminal activity. Villanueva was arrested in 2006 in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a federal police official, but was never convicted. She remained unapologetic.
"I'm a lawyer. I don't agree with what my clients do," she told a Mexican newspaper five months before she died.
By contrast, Delgado, who was knifed outside an office he kept in the state of Mexico, plied his trade quietly. Bookish and unflashy in his suit and sensible shoes, the 81-year-old attorney looked more college dean than ace drug lawyer.
Delgado, who like Villanueva was from industrial Monterrey, was considered the go-to expert on extradition cases and was thought to be close to victory in fighting the transfer of Benjamin Arellano Felix, a leader of the Tijuana-based cartel that bears his family's name. Arellano Felix was arrested in Mexico in 2002 and convicted on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges, but is still sought by U.S. authorities. At one time, he had 41 registered lawyers.
Delgado also successfully fought a U.S. extradition request for Jesus Amezcua, a trafficker from the state of Colima known as one of the "methamphetamine kings."
Associates and others who knew Delgado say he was well aware of the perils of his craft and refrained from promising too much or overcharging.
"He used to say, 'I don't belong to them nor get involved with them,' " said Arturo Arredondo, a Monterrey lawyer who grew up with Delgado and remained close until the Aug. 28 slaying. "He was a technician."
Last year, Delgado was honored for his long legal career by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a national lawyers federation.
The circumstances of his killing -- a knife assault by three men -- looked more like a robbery than one of Mexico's bullet-riddled gang hits.
But he may have been targeted because of a bloody rivalry between gangs. Delgado most recently served as defense lawyer for Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a suspected kingpin from Sinaloa. Beltran Leyva's faction has been at war with former allies led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's top fugitive.
"To take the case of an important figure, a figure at war with the organization to which he used to belong, is extremely risky," Ravelo said.
During the last year, Delgado may have been in contact with Villanueva, the slain attorney whose former client helped bring down onetime Gulf cartel kingpin Garcia Abrego, Ravelo said. Delgado had been working to win the return of Garcia Abrego on grounds that he was handed to U.S. authorities illegally after his 1996 capture in Mexico.
The killings of the two attorneys have generated fear among people close to the pair. Colleagues at Villanueva's law office, a modest, olive-green house decorated with religious-themed paintings and sculptures, declined to be interviewed. Delgado's family also demurred.
Lawyers in Monterrey have called on authorities in the state of Nuevo Leon to do more to solve the killings, as well as the slayings of other colleagues who handled drug cases. Two were former associates of Villanueva.
"It seems to us very strange that in Nuevo Leon all the crimes against lawyers are unsolved, and we don't know the motives," said Adolfo Trevino, who heads the local lawyers association. "It's due to deficiencies in the investigation."
Lawyers have also been slain in the states of Sinaloa, Guanajuato and Morelos. In March 2008, gunmen stormed a law office in the city of Guadalajara and killed seven attorneys. The firm represented a son of Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel leader, and had defended Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who was Mexico's drug czar until he was arrested in 1997 on charges of helping the so-called Juarez cartel.
A lawyer who turned up dead in Guanajuato in August appeared in a YouTube video posted later in which he confessed to working for La Familia, a violent drug-trafficking gang. The attorney, Jesus Armando Mancera, said his job was to demand extortion payments from merchants and vendors of pirated CDs and other goods.
More than 13,000 people nationwide have died since President Felipe Calderon launched a war on the drug cartels in December 2006. Though lawyers -- along with prosecutors and judges -- represent a small percentage of that toll, attacks on them underscore the ability of the cartels to strike back at the judiciary system.
The risks inspire a cloak-and-dagger existence for major-league drug lawyers. A Sinaloa attorney who handles big-time drug cases asked a pair of Times journalists to turn off their cellphones during a meeting at a restaurant in Culiacan recently, fearing an active line might steer enemies to his location. Two associates sat watch as he discussed his work on condition that neither he nor his clients be identified.
The lawyer, from a poorer part of Mexico, moved to Culiacan to attend college, and, following law school, began with nickel-and-dime cases in the local courts. After a few victories, he caught the eye of drug-cartel representatives and accepted their offer of work.
He exudes nervous energy -- pacing, whispering into one of his three cellphones, giving away little about where he is going or who he will see.
Drug clients, like his, bring in the kind of handsome fees that can pay for top-shelf office space in Culiacan's pricey Old Town section. But they also play havoc with a lawyer's nerves, often ignoring his best legal advice while making it clear that there is no option but to win.
"If they think you have done them wrong, it's . . . " the attorney said. He finished by drawing his finger across his throat.
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