Courtfighter Symbol Familiarize Muslims, Christians, Jews With The Dragon by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com

Courtfighter Symbol Familiarize Muslims, Christians, Jews With The Dragon Part I by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com



Above: Official symbol of the Courtfighter
organization. Scales of Law in the State of
PA. The Two Dragons are reflecting the
Human Scale. And the Dragon Face on the
ledge reflects the Holy Book that are common
symbols for court justice for all.

The Dragon at your left. The Dragon at the your right. Kids love dragons. But how do adults feel about the Dragon? The Dragon, a living winged serpent, now extinct, large aquatic-like reptile-like, mammal having a lion's claws, the tail of a serpent, and scaly skin, is believed that it once lived throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, Spain, France, Italy, the Americas, and Australia. Ancient and modern Muslims, Christians, and Jews believe this. Pre-Judaic text backs this fact up.

The dragon is a fabulous and universal symbolic figure found in most cultures throughout the world. Dragons were a symbol of both good and bad (evil). According to ancient eastern text, in this order, -middle earth in Iraq, Africa, and China- the larger species of dragons were very dangerous to humans. And the smaller species of dragons were very safe. The Mesopotamian Creation Text, starting point of a Genesis, include the notion of a Dragon common to Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The name of that common Dragon linking their understanding that dragons were real animals on earth is Lilith.



Above: Official symbol of the
Courtfighter organization.
Scales of Law in the State of PA.
The woman represents Lady Justice,
without the blindfold. The Dragon
is reflecting the Human Scale,
and/or the Holy Book that are
common symbols for court
justice for all.

The belief that a Lilith was real can be found in the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish philosophy. Lilith, the word, is in the Hebrew and Arabic language. Today, most people say the word Dragon and not Lilith. It’s important to note that Lilith has been connected to the Angel too. This Angel connection to Lilith came along after the original usage of Lilith meaning, the dragon animal. Lilith has also been connected to a wife of Adam and a female demon. This wife of Adam and female demon connection to Lilith came along after the original usage of Lilith meaning, the dragon animal.

Sadly, Lilith the Angel, a wife of Adam, and a female demon were all discriminative views of the woman. These views were also designed by man, to attempt to deny women from having any leadership role in court. In Biblical times, and before, the court was one of the most authoritative roles where a man or woman could end up playing out. Justice was higher than marriage. Men, at some point during Pre-Judaic text, did not desire women to be a part of carrying out justice. By the time the Genesis text, in Judaic text, came about all kinds of connections between the Dragon and the Woman appeared to express that court became ruined by unfairness.

Suddenly, the Dragon was no longer considered reality. The bones or fossils of Dragons meant nothing. The symbolic dragon became reality. The symbolic dragon became a bad word. And no one wanted to have his or her name associated with Dragon. Throughout time, women fought to have their name disassociated with Lilith because the symbolic woman became reality. And the symbolic Lilith became a bad word.

Today, Courtfighter uses the symbol of the Dragon and the symbol of the Woman based on the original meanings the Pre-Judaic text meant them to be. The Dragon reflected justice as in the highest authority any animal would be connected to according to its kind. The Woman reflected justice as in the highest authority any female human would be connected to according to her kind.

Because animals, any sort of beast, can become destructive and eventually can become tamed, the Dragon can represent the court. Because women, any sort of woman, can become scholars and eventually become fair, the woman can represent justice.

Interestingly, Pre-Judaic text explained that the scholar or woman was primarily a person who could fix or heal the human body. Women are known to help fix or heal the man. Also, Pre-Judaic text viewed the woman as a tough adventurer and, sometimes, freedom fighter dedicated to life and the pursuit of happiness. Men were viewed exactly the same when it came to being viewed as sometimes, freedom fighter dedicated to life and the pursuit of happiness. And this clearly made the higher difference between the dragon and men and woman. Ultimately, it would take the role of the safe Dragon, the safe man, and the safe woman to promote justice for the earth.

However, as was mentioned earlier by the time Muslims, Christians, and Jews began to use the word Dragon, the dragon became negative. But the woman survived most of the negative view put on them.

However, the traditional west eastern dragon attributes and associations are symbols bearing the following five elements: Water, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Wood. The main danger that court dragons pose is not their ability to swim, fly, run after a person, cry, or vocalize, but their ability to strike during litigation before the person can react. In contrast to European dragons that are considered sinful (evil), Chinese (Western) dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, and floods.

Mickey J, A.K.A. David Keith, At the WPAC Chapter School by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810

Mickey J, A.K.A. David Keith, At the WPAC Chapter School by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810



Above: Mickey J, second from the left, at WPAC Chapter
School Jan 14, 2010.

Study Names a Delaware Valley Area the ''Hungriest'' in the US

Study Names a Delaware Valley Area the ''Hungriest'' in the US

by KYW's Lynne Adkins

A new study finds that the second hungriest area in the United States can be found in the Philadelphia region.

The area -- the first Congressional District (above) -- includes South Philadelphia and parts of North Philadelphia and Chester.

The study, by the Food Research and Action Center, claims that the region comes in second to a portion of the Bronx in a ranking of people having the hardest time putting food on the table.

Bill Clark, president of Philabundance, say that a main reason is the area's lack of what he calls "community agency" coverage:

For full story go to:

http://www.kyw1060.com/

Pa. House Approves Ban on Cell Phoning While Driving

by KYW's Tony Romeo

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed and sent to the Senate a bill that would ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving.

Voting to make the use of handheld cell phones in traffic a "primary" offense in Pennsylvania represents a U-turn for the state House. But it’s unclear whether the Senate will go along.

State senator John Rafferty, a suburban Philadelphia Republican who is the new chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, says he can’t predict what the Senate will do -- though he says the bill will get consideration:

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Haiti's homeless plead for tents after earthquake

Haiti's homeless plead for tents after earthquake

U.S. Marines move a crowd back as they get ready to unload aid in a makeshift refugee camp in Carrefour, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010. The Marines unloaded hundreds of boxes of ready-to-eat meals at the camp Tuesday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The dusty soccer field lined with spacious tents is an oasis for earthquake survivors among Haiti's homeless sheltering by the hundreds of thousands in squalid camps.

Competition for the canvas homes has boiled into arguments and machete fights, a sign of the desperation felt by the hundreds of thousands of people without homes struggling for shelter in this wrecked city. Haiti's president has asked the world for 200,000 tents and says he will sleep in one himself.

Fenela Jacobs, 39, lives in a 13-by-13-foot (4-by-4-meter) abode provided by the Britain-based Islamic Relief Worldwide. She says the group offered her two tents for 21 survivors but she ended up putting everyone in one tent after people threatened to burn both down if she didn't give a tent up.

Still, she says living in the 6-foot-high (2-meter-tall) khaki home with a paisley interior is better than the makeshift shelters crafted from bed sheets propped on wooden sticks where her family was living before.

"It's a lot more comfortable," Jacobs said, though she added it gets really hot inside the tent in Cazo, a Port-au-Prince neighborhood hidden in the hills behind the international airport.

Tents are in desperately short supply following the 7.0-magnitude quake on Jan. 12 that killed at least 150,000 people.

The global agency supplying tents said it already had 10,000 stored in Haiti and at least 30,000 more would be arriving. But that "is unlikely to address the extensive shelter needs," the International Organization for Migration stressed.

The organization had estimated 100,000 family-sized tents were needed. But the U.N. says up to 1 million people require shelter, and President Rene Preval issued an urgent appeal Monday calling for 200,000 tents and urging that the aircraft carrying them be given urgent landing priority at Port-au-Prince airport.

In solidarity with earthquake victims, Preval plans to move into a tent home on the manicured lawn of his collapsed National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour told The Associated Press.

"It is a decision that the president has made himself," Delatour said.

The Haitian government and international groups were preparing a more substantial tent city on Port-au-Prince's outskirts.

Brazilian army engineers with the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti have cleared and leveled 12 acres (five hectares) north of the city, planned as the first of more than a half-dozen sites that officials hope will shelter the displaced before the onset of spring rains and summer hurricanes.

Col. Delcio Monteiro Sapper said the Interamerican Development Bank wants to clear a total of 247 acres (100 hectares) owned by Haiti's government that could house 100,000 quake refugees.

Helen Clark, administrator of the U.N. Development Program, said providing shelter is a pressing priority that requires innovative solutions.

"China, for example, set up 400,000 semi-permanent houses after the Sichuan earthquake," she said in a statement. "Similar initiatives will need to be considered and supported for Haiti."

On the soccer field in the Cazo neighborhood, the tents are marked "Qatar Aid," a gift from the Gulf state, but some Haitian quake survivors have personalized theirs - one flies a Haitian flag, another has a Jamaican flag with a picture of Bob Marley.

"This was miserable," said Islamic Relief Worldwide's Moustafa Osman, from Birmingham, England, pointing to the few remaining homemade shelters at the site. "People were living like this everywhere."

Osman's own supply of 1,000 tents has yet to make its way to Haiti, stuck somewhere en route or possibly even waiting in containers that have arrived at Port-au-Prince airport but have yet to be unpacked.

He persuaded a Qatari search and rescue team that was leaving Haiti to donate their 82 tents. He desperately needs at least 16 more for the soccer field settlement, which houses 500 people. Latrines and showers are also yet to arrive.

Osman doesn't speak the local Creole language, so he went to a mosque and hired two Haitians to translate for him. He said he made clear to them that "we are not here for the Muslims, we are here for all the people."

He then negotiated with the St. Claire Roman Catholic Church for permission to use the field on their land for his camp and cleared it with Haiti's government. Fights broke out Sunday when workers were distributing tents, with families trying to get the shelters and others competing for space.

Osman confiscated a machete and temporarily evacuated his staff from the camp.

He worries there will be violence if he doesn't get the tents needed to house the remaining families. He hired two men among the refugees, clad them in blue vests marked Islamic Relief Worldwide and put them to work as go-betweens linking the people in the camp and his staff.

Desperation is also prompting disturbances around food handouts.

Brazilian troops in armored personnel carriers occasionally fired pepper spray and trained their guns on a jostling, unruly crowd of people lined up for good near the partially collapsed National Palace.

"They treat us like animals, they beat us, but we are hungry people," said Muller Bellegarde, 30, who had been waiting an hour and a half in the broiling sun

Some left without getting food because they were fearful of the pepper spray and guns or of thugs who grabbed food from some who received it.

"The help is good but the way they're doing it is bad. This is anarchy," said Thomas Louis, 40, who trying to get rice and oil for his children, aged 2 and six months.

U.S. officials say the rescue phase of the operation is over and the focus has shifted to relief and recovery.

"Outside of the food area, the two prime worries are: one, medical services or medical equipment, and, two, shelter," said Lewis Lucke, U.S. special coordinator for relief and reconstruction.

He said officials are seeing so many people unable to return to their homes that they are scrambling to get them plastic sheeting and other shelter. "This is one of our main priorities."

The U.N. reported Tuesday that more police officers were reporting for duty and Port-au-Prince was generally secure but there had been isolated looting. It said commerce was increasing, with banks, supermarkets and gas stations returning to operation.

The U.S. government is donating its old and unused embassy building in downtown Port-au-Prince to Haiti's government, which will use it as a temporary legislature, according to Delatour, the tourism minister.

The building, next door to the partially collapsed Parliament building, will be rented at a nominal $1 a year, Delatour said. One senator was killed in the collapse and another was trapped for days, but rescued.

There are 54 confirmed American dead in Haiti, and U.S. officials were seeking to confirm 36 other possible deaths, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Monday.

Obama's speech to tout plans to energize economy

Obama's speech to tout plans to energize economy

President Barack Obama announces economic initiatives for struggling middle class families, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across from the White House in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will try to pivot past rocky times for the nation and himself Wednesday night in his first State of the Union address, offering a skeptical public repackaged plans to energize the economy, stem a tide of red ink and strengthen anti-terror defenses.

He'll also be trying to revive his own "yes we can" image.

One year into office, Obama faces urgent challenges as he addresses lawmakers gathered in the Capitol and a prime-time television audience at home for the constitutionally mandated ritual of U.S. governing. The country has lost more than 7 million jobs since the recession began two years ago, unemployment is stuck at 10 percent and the government is grappling with a record $1.4 trillion deficit.

Obama's presidency is troubled as well. The percentage of Americans giving a thumbs-up to his performance has fallen precipitously, from 74 percent when he took office to 56 percent now. He hasn't had a breakout legislative or diplomatic victory, and he's failed to break Washington's partisanship as promised. Then last week, an upset Republican victory in a Massachusetts Senate race threw Obama's signature domestic priority, a sweeping health care overhaul, into jeopardy and shined a spotlight on the economic angst now being taken out on him.

Against that backdrop, Obama will be using one of the presidency's largest megaphones to press several themes. They will be fleshed out in greater detail afterward, as the president travels to Florida on Thursday for a post-speech focus on jobs and when he submits his fiscal 2011 budget to Congress on Monday.

Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia will deliver a televised response Wednesday night, two months after putting his state in GOP hands in one of the party's major recent election victories.

Among the freshly sharpened messages Obama intends to weave through his remarks: He's a fighter for struggling families and against wealthy special interests; he relates personally to Americans' everyday concerns; he has come far in one year but has made some errors along the way and has much more to do. And he does not intend to fling aside an ambitious agenda on health care, energy, education, immigration and other issues in favor of trimmed-down goals.

In fact, Obama will argue that his sweeping ideas for change are as much a part of putting the economy back on track as more immediate job creation and economic security proposals.

"If we don't get that stuff right, then it's going to be very difficult for us to answer the anxieties that people feel over the long term," Obama said this week in an interview with ABC News. "I am not backing off the need for us to tackle these big problems in a serious way."

Advisers say the president doesn't plan to reshape his agenda as much as better explain and defend it:

- He'll map a way forward for mired health care legislation, now facing several options for passage, all problematic. Obama will also acknowledge the long, messy debate that has soured many on the idea and try to make a far-reaching overhaul relevant and attractive again to voters. "We have to move forward in a way that recaptures that sense of opening things up more," he told ABC.

- He'll talk about why he thinks the nation's future economic health also depends on reshaping financial industry regulations to place tighter rules on Wall Street, another immediate domestic priority. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will detail "what he would find acceptable on that."

- He'll renew his call for immigration reform, a volatile issue once considered a first-year priority but lately sent to the back burner. Obama is expected to prod Congress to craft a plan to tighten the border with Mexico, crack down on employers who exploit illegal workers and resolve the status of roughly 12 million people who live in the U.S. illegally.

- He will give specifics on how he believes Washington's combative, partisan, gridlocked way of doing business can be changed.

On national security, Obama will detail his administration's efforts to combat terrorism around the globe, which have seen some success but have been overshadowed by the attempted airline attack on Christmas Day and political difficulties in Pakistan. He also will address the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea, this month's devastating earthquake in Haiti and his larger ambition to restore the U.S. image around the world.

But bread-and-butter issues - lost jobs, difficulties paying for college or retirement, soaring deficits, anger at Wall Street fat cats - will dominate the speech.

"What he'll discuss more than anything is getting our economy moving again," Gibbs said.

The first priority is reversing persistent joblessness, and Obama is expected to push anew for job-creation proposals such as giving tax credits to small businesses to add workers and incentives to families to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient. Neither proposal made it into a jobs bill passed by the House in December.

He also plans to propose modest new measures to help with the financial struggles of the middle class - money for child care, helping out aging parents, saving for retirement, and paying off college debt, for example.

Aware of increasing voter concern about the government's red ink, Obama also plans to talk about various efforts at what Gibbs called "a slow chipping away" at the deficit. The White House announced Obama would ask Congress to freeze spending on some domestic programs for three years - though the savings would total just $250 billion over 10 years, a tiny fraction of the annual deficit.

Other issues likely to get a mention in Obama's speech, still being crafted on Tuesday:

- A record $8.8 billion in federal funding in the next fiscal year to help military families with child care, counseling, financial services and other programs, a top priority for first lady Michelle Obama.

- The president's campaign promise, as yet unfulfilled, to lift the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

-A new plan for a better and quicker response to bioterrorism threats.

(This version CORRECTS that $8.8 billion is total for military families, not boost)

Mickey J, A.K.A. David Keith, At The Ritz Place In Center City by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810

Mickey J, A.K.A. David Keith, At The Ritz Place In Center City by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810


Above: Mickey J, far right, Regina King, actress, and
friend. The affair is at the Ritz Place in Center City, for Regina
King's new tv show, called 'Southland.'





Above: At Left Mickey J, Patti Jackson middle, and
friends of the Regina King new tv show, called 'Southland.'

City Talks Funding With Ethnic Parade Organizers

by KYW's Mike Dunn

Organizers of six ethnic parades in Philadelphia were scheduled to meet on Monday with Nutter administration officials about whether the mayor will be chipping in to help defray the costs of this year's parades.

The budget crisis last year prompted Mayor Nutter to end the long tradition of the city picking up the tab for parades, including six smaller ethnic parades like those marking St. Patrick's Day and Columbus Day.

City councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez was spearheading Monday's meeting between parade organizers and officials with the administration:

"They have assured that they are going to make a presentation that will make the parade officials happy."

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Area Lawmaker Anthony Williams Considers Run for Pa. Governor

Area Lawmaker Anthony Williams Considers Run for Pa. Governor

by KYW's Tony Romeo

Pennsylvania state senator Anthony Williams (D-Phila.) says he’s thinking about jumping into the race for governor.

Williams says that with fellow Philadelphian Tom Knox out of the race (see related story), he wants to be sure there’s a candidate that represents certain key issues, including the economic problems in Philadelphia and the state:

“Twenty-three percent of the people in Philadelphia are on food stamps. Philadelphia is the fifth largest city, it is either third or seventh, depending upon what you look at, in terms of poverty, being the poorest cities in the country. That is dragging down its economy, that is dragging down the state.”

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Obama plans to help a middle class 'under assault'

Obama plans to help a middle class 'under assault'

President Barack Obama announces economic initiatives for struggling middle class families, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across from the White House in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Declaring America's middle class is "under assault," President Barack Obama unveiled plans Monday to help hurting families pay their bills, save for retirement and care for their kids and aging parents. His comments previewed Wednesday's State of the Union Address.

Obama's proposals won't create jobs, but he said they could "re-establish some of the security that's slipped away." His remarks aimed to lift the nation's dour mood and show he is in touch with the daily struggles of millions of people as resentment runs high about lost jobs and the economy.

The initiatives amount to a package of tax credits, spending expansions and new mandates on employers to encourage retirement savings by workers. Most of them will be included in Obama's budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, and they will require approval from Congress. Obama will release that budget Feb. 1.

The president's latest rollout of ideas served as a preview of his prime-time State of the Union address. The economic elements of that speech will also cover Obama's plans to boost job creation and reduce swelling budget deficits - areas of concern to the public.

Obama's address will outline his second-year agenda across a spectrum of issues, including tighter rules on Wall Street behavior and a push for financial discipline in Washington. He also is expected to touch on the controversial issue of gays in the military.

Among the president's economic ideas:

- Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.

- Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

- Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.

- Requiring employers who don't offer 401(k) retirement plans to offer direct-deposit IRAs for their employees, with exemptions for the smallest firms.

- Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well.

The White House maintained that its imperative still is to create jobs. Unemployment remains in double digits, and the economy is the public's top concern. Yet Obama said that squeezed families need help in other ways, too: paying for child care, helping out aging parents, saving for retirement, paying off college debt.

What matters ultimately to people, Obama said, is "whether they see some progress in their own lives. So we're going to keep fighting to rebuild our economy so that hard work is once again rewarded, wages and incomes are once again rising, the middle class is once again growing."

Less clear was how much the programs would cost or where the money would come from.

Officials deferred comment until the release of the budget.

Obama, whose poll numbers are off, is trying to sharpen his economic message in a way that shows people he is on their side. White House officials say they know people have been turned off by the long, messy fight for health insurance reform. Plus, there's a perception that families have gotten far less help than big banks.

The economy is growing, but not fast enough to bring down widespread joblessness. The unemployment rate is at 10 percent and most economists say it could take until at least 2015 for it to return to more normal levels.

The plans Obama set forth came from the yearlong work of a task force, led by Vice President Joe Biden, that was charged with helping the middle class.

"We're talking about dignity. We're talking about security," Biden said. "We're talking about knowing your pension is safe, your health insurance is reliable, your elderly parents and your children are going to be cared for, your neighborhood is safe."

Obama's initiatives also include expanding and simplifying a tax credit that matches retirement savings, and making 401(k) rules easier to understand.

On the matter of gays in the military, Obama has vowed to lift the ban on gays serving openly, and several lawmakers support a repeal of the law. But some senior military advisers and members of Congress have urged the president not to shake up the status quo at a time of two wars.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he had planned to convene a hearing on the issue in January, but that the Obama administration asked him to hold off until the president's national address.

"We were told by the Pentagon that they expected the president to say something in the State of the Union on it," Levin said.

Levin, who favors repealing the law, said he does not know what Obama will say. He said he plans to hold hearings in February and would like to hear testimony from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mike Mullen.

Boondocks at Phila. Front Page News

Boondocks at Phila. Front Page News

Comics

Former Phila. News Anchor Ken Matz Dies of Cancer

by KYW’s Al Novack

Former Philadelphia news anchor and KYW staff member Ken Matz has died following a battling with cancer.

Ken began his broadcasting career at WRAW in Reading and then in Harrisburg before moving on to WIBG where he gained recognition from 1969 to 1976 winning several AP awards. After leaving WIBG, he joined the KYW Newsradio line-up as an anchor for several years.

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Manning, Colts drop Jets 30-17 to reach Super Bowl

Manning, Colts drop Jets 30-17 to reach Super Bowl

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (18) gets protection as he passes against the New York Jets during the AFC Championship NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010, in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- This is perfect for the Indianapolis Colts: They have Peyton Manning and they're back in the Super Bowl.

The four-time MVP threw three touchdown passes and the Colts rallied from an 11-point, first-half deficit to beat the New York Jets 30-17 Sunday in the AFC championship game.

The Colts (16-2) are now headed back to the NFL title game for the second time in four years and their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history.

Better yet, they're heading back to their lucky city - Miami, where they've played all four of those games.

"I thought we just kept our mouths shut and went to work this week," Manning said.

The big-talking Jets, and their equally big-talking coach, Rex Ryan, were all the incentive they needed.

A month ago, when the New Yorkers were last in town, Indianapolis coach Jim Caldwell pulled his starters in the third quarter and gave up a chance at a perfect season to focus on a Super Bowl run.

This time, Manning was on the field for the very last play.

"We talked about being patient against these guys," Manning said. "We knew it would be a four-quarter game."

The Colts will face either New Orleans or Minnesota in two weeks. Manning was the MVP when the Colts beat Chicago in the Super Bowl three years ago.

Fans counted down the final seconds, streamers and confetti hung in the air, flash bulbs popped incessantly and when the official announcement was made, roars cascaded from the rafters.

The Colts' career rushing leader, Edgerrin James, presented the team with the Lamar Hunt Trophy, which goes to the AFC champs, and some players savored the celebration by staying on the field long after the official celebration ended.

"The guys have always been a very confident bunch and they do a great job of hanging in there," Caldwell said. "Peyton had just an outstanding game. He's one of those guys that can adjust to different situations. ... A real champion."

Manning finished 26 of 39 for 377 yards. He became the first player in league history with seven 300-yard postseason games. That broke a tie with Kurt Warner and Joe Montana.

The Jets' magical run ended with their first road loss in six games.

New York (11-8) built a 17-6 lead and took advantage of trick plays. But the Jets lost running back Shonn Greene with a rib injury in the second half, and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez was shut out over the final two quarters.

"Today wasn't our day. There's no question," said Ryan, who declared his Jets the Super Bowl favorites before the playoffs. "You have to give credit to the Colts. Obviously they're the cream of the crop right now."

Caldwell became only the fifth rookie coach to reach the Super Bowl. Only two others - San Francisco's George Seifert and Don McCafferty, of the Baltimore Colts - have won it.

But Caldwell does have Manning, who drove the Colts right through New York's No. 1 ranked defense with his uncanny precision.

Manning kept dropping passes right over the fingertips of defenders, and the Jets couldn't stop him.

Pierre Garcon set career highs with 11 catches for 151 yards. Rookie Austin Collie had a career-best seven catches for 123 yards, his first 100-yard day as a pro. And the Jets allowed three TD passes for the first time all season.

After falling behind late in the first half, Manning responded. He took the Colts 80 yards in four plays, hooking three straight times with Collie, including the 16-yard TD pass that made it 17-13 with 1:13 to go in the half.

Manning was just getting started.

The next time he got the ball, he took the Colts 57 yards in eight plays, connecting with Pierre Garcon in the back corner of the end zone to make it 20-17 with 8:03 left in the third quarter.

Clark and Garcon each topped 100 yards receiving Sunday.

He sealed it midway through the fourth when Dallas Clark caught a 15-yard TD pass to make it 27-17.

But it didn't look like it would go this way during a scoreless first quarter.

The Colts uncharacteristically struggled to get first downs, and settled for field goals instead of scoring touchdowns.

New York also changed philosophies, creating its big plays through the air.

Sanchez, the fourth rookie quarterback to lead his team to the conference title game and lose, used a beautiful play-action fake to fool rookie cornerback Jacob Lacey. Lacey, who started in placed of the injured Jerraud Powers, was burned for an 80-yard TD pass by Braylon Edwards giving the Jets a 7-3 lead.

After the Colts cut it to 7-6, Jets receiver Brad Smith lined up in the Tigercat formation and connected with Jerricho Cotchery for a 45-yard pass to the Colts 12. It was Smith's first career completion out of an offensive formation. Three plays later, Sanchez barely avoided a sack and found Dustin Keller for a 9-yard TD pass to make it 14-6 with 4:53 to go in the half.

The Jets made it 17-6 after Joseph Addai's fumble set up Jay Feely's 48-yard field goal.

That's when Manning the Colts took over - and closed it out.

NOTES: Sanchez was 17 of 30 for 257 yards with two TDs and a late interception. .... Curtis Martin, the Jets' career rushing leader, was New York's honorary captain. ... The Colts have won both AFC title games played in Indy by coming back from double-digit deficits. The Colts trailed New England by 18 points four years ago at the RCA Dome. ... All four of the Colts' Super Bowl appearances have been in Miami. ... Referee Tony Corrente mistakenly called the Jets the Giants on the coin toss. ... Cotchery caught five passes for 102 yards, while Edwards finished with two receptions for 102 yards.

(This version CORRECTS Colts 30, Jets 17. SUBS 3rd graf to correct record to 16-2; SUBS 4th graf to show Colts have played all four Super Bowls in Miami.)

Uncertainty on Bernanke vote raises economic fears

Uncertainty on Bernanke vote raises economic fears

FILE - In this July 22, 2009 photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Bernanke faced mounting Senate opposition for another four-year term Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, even as the White House described President Barack Obama as confident about his confirmation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A defeat of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's quest for another four-year term could raise the risk of a "double dip" recession if political jousting over a successor were to drag on for months, economists warn.

But Bernanke's prospects appeared to brighten Sunday, with three more senators, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, predicting he'll be confirmed. A vote is expected later this week.

Still, the chance of Bernanke's defeat has unsettled Wall Street, contributing to last week's 4 percent loss by the Dow Jones industrial average, its worst performance in 10 months. If Bernanke were rejected, uncertainty over a successor would further roil global markets, at least in the short run.

Anxiety, along with sagging investments, could cause consumers and businesses to cut spending. Joblessness, already at 10 percent, could worsen. And the recovery might fail.

Economists who fear a double-dip recession - in which the recovery would collapse into another recession - regard it as a worst-case scenario. But they don't rule it out, either.

Lynn Reaser, chief economist for the National Association for Business Economics, is among them. She sees the likelihood of a double-dip as less than 50 percent.

"It will become more acute if there are delays in confirming a successor," she says, noting that the economic recovery remains fragile, with spending still weak, credit tight and job creation scarce.

"All the political angst over the confirmation couldn't have come at a worse time for the economy," Reaser says.

A Bernanke loss would heighten uncertainty about Fed policies on interest rates and stimulus measures. In part, that's because Bernanke devised the unconventional supports for the economy and likely knows how best to safely wind them down, notes Edward Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research.

But even more worrisome for the markets and the economy would be if Bernanke's Senate foes are seen as having meddled with the Fed's independence for political reasons.

The dollar would likely fall. Higher interest rates and inflation fears would follow, stoked by uncertainty and shaken confidence. And all that would probably unsettle consumers and business, making them less likely to spend, hire or invest.

Bernanke's confirmation, which had seemed assured, was suddenly thrown into doubt last week as resistance grew among some Senate Democrats. And some senators who had supported Bernanke said they were now undecided.

The Fed chief's term expires Jan. 31. If Bernanke isn't confirmed by then, Vice Chairman Donald Kohn is expected to step in as chairman and run the central bank temporarily.

Bernanke is widely credited with helping to prevent the Great Recession from turning into a second Great Depression. But his support of Wall Street bailouts during the height of the financial crisis has angered Americans struggling with 10 percent unemployment and soaring home foreclosures.

Backlash from Democrats over Bernanke's role in the bailouts intensified after Democrats suffered a stunning upset in the Massachusetts Senate race. Democrats are eager to appear allied with ordinary Americans disgusted with Wall Street's excesses.

Higher interest rates that could follow a Bernanke defeat would make it costlier for the government to pay down its record-high debt. Right now, low rates are allowing the Treasury Department to manage its debts.

If investors think the White House and Congress will choose a successor who would keep the Fed pumping money into the economy and hold interest rates at record lows for too long, it would erode trust in the Fed's oversight of the economy.

Continued low rates would please many ordinary Americans. But it would risk creating new speculative bubbles and stoking inflation.

Some economists say that in long run, they most fear that global investors would see a rejection of Bernanke as setting a precedent for Congress to intrude on"monetary policy." That refers to the Fed's decisions on whether and when to adjust rates to influence economic activity, inflation and employment.

The Fed's independence in monetary policy is vital to public confidence in the central bank. If it's undermined, the Fed could lose its credibility on Wall Street, which would fan inflation pressures and send up interest rates, choking the economic rebound.

"Do we get to the point where instead of having an independent Fed chairman who keeps his hand on the wheel and does what is right for the economy, we have a Fed chairman spinning the wheel at the behest of Congress?" says Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland.

Speaking on Sunday talk shows, Senate Republican leader McConnell and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, predicted the Senate would approve Bernanke's confirmation. And over the weekend, President Barack Obama phoned Senate allies and was given assurances that Bernanke's approval is likely.

The Fed chief's supporters need 60 votes to stop opponents from blocking confirmation, though the confirmation vote itself requires only 50 votes. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent liberal from Vermont, and Republican senators Jim Bunning of Kentucky, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana are leading an effort to block confirmation. All told, about a dozen senators have indicated they'll vote against Bernanke.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told "Fox News Sunday" that lawmakers would send a worrisome message to financial markets by "playing politics in any way" with Bernanke's nomination.

Investors have generally signaled their faith that Bernanke has the know-how and political will to sop up the money the Fed pumped into the economy during the financial crisis and prevent an outbreak of inflation.

A major challenge for the Fed will be deciding when to start boosting rates and when to phase out some big emergency economic revival programs.

One such program is the Fed's purchase of mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as a way to keep mortgage rates down. The Fed is on track to buy $1.25 trillion in those securities by the time the program is scheduled to end at the end of March. But the Fed hasn't ruled out continuing to buy mortgage securities after then to support the economy.

First appointed to the Fed by Republican President George W. Bush, Bernanke is likely less objectionable to Republicans than other potential alternatives, such as White House economic advisers Larry Summers or Christina Romer, or Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

A change in leadership wouldn't immediately mean a shift in Fed policy. That's because rates are expected to remain a record lows through much of this year to nurture the recovery.

No Fed chairman has been rejected by the Senate. The most "no" votes cast against a Fed chairman was Paul Volcker in 1983. The count: 84-16.

Bin Laden endorses failed attempt to bomb US jet

Bin Laden endorses failed attempt to bomb US jet

FILE - This is an undated photo of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden issued a new audio message claiming responsibility for the Christmas day bombing attempt in Detroit and vowed further attacks.

CAIRO (AP) -- Osama bin Laden endorsed the failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day and threatened new attacks against the United States in an audio message released Sunday that appeared aimed at asserting he maintains some direct command over al-Qaida-inspired offshoots.

However, U.S. officials and several researchers who track terrorist groups said there was no indication bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants had anything to do with or even knew in advance of the Christmas plot by a Yemen-based group that is one of several largely independent al-Qaida franchises.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said al-Qaida's core leadership offers such groups strategic guidance but depends on them to carry it out.

"He's trying to continue to appear relevant" by talking up the attempted attack by an affiliate, the spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said.

The one-minute message was explicit in its threat of new attacks. Like the airline plot, bin Laden said they would come in response to America's support for Israel.

"God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues," bin Laden said in the recording, which was released to the Al-Jazeera news channel.

"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11," he said of the Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25 botched attack.

"If our messages had been able to reach you through words we wouldn't have been delivering them through planes."

Directing his statements at President Barack Obama - "from Osama to Obama," he said - bin Laden added: "America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine."

The message, which White House officials said could not immediately be authenticated, raised again the question of how much of a link exists between al-Qaida's top leadership along the Afghan-Pakistani border and the handful of loosely affiliated groups operating in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Iraq.

The al-Qaida leader, who was last heard from in September, seemed intent on showing he remains more than an ideological figurehead, as most analysts have suggested he has become during the terror network's evolution into decentralized offshoots. But some questioned whether al-Qaida's core leadership was involved.

"They weren't putting the final touches on this operation," said Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator for the New York-based NEFA Foundation, which researches Islamic militants.

Still, the Saudi and Yemeni leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in Yemen a year ago, have a long history of direct personal contact with bin Laden. It is plausible that - if they were able to - they would have informed bin Laden of the airliner plot and sought his approval, Kohlmann said.

The Yemen-based group's leader, Nasir al-Wahishi, was once bin Laden's personal secretary, and its top military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, trained in bin Laden's main camp in Afghanistan, Kohlmann said.

Two of the group's top members were detainees at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison who were released in November 2007.

The Yemen offshoot is largely self-sustaining, with its own theological figures, bomb makers and a network for funneling in recruits.

"The training and the definition of the attack was by the local leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."

"So, in many ways you can say bin Laden is exploiting for his benefit this particular attack. Bin Laden still wants to claim leadership for the global jihad movement."

U.S. investigators say the Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25 attempted bombing told them he had been trained in Yemen and given the explosives there by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to blow up the plane with an explosive powder hidden in his underwear as the aircraft approached Detroit Metro Airport. The device failed to detonate.

Bin Laden's message came four weeks after the Yemen-based group made its own claim of responsibility for the bomb plot with a different justification - linking it to Yemeni military attacks on al-Qaida targets with the help of U.S. intelligence.

There was no way to verify the voice on the audio message was actually bin Laden's, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to him. U.S.-based IntelCenter, which monitors militant messages, said the manner of the recording's release, its content and other factors indicated it was credible.

White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" that whatever the source, the message "contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents."

On Friday, Britain raised its terror threat alert to the second-highest level, one of several recent steps the country has taken to increase vigilance after the Christmas Day bombing attempt. The online edition of Britain's The Sunday Times reported that the heightened alert was prompted in part by an Islamic terrorist plot to hijack an Indian passenger jet and crash it into a British city.

Since the Christmas Day attempt, the Yemeni government, at the U.S.'s urging has stepped up its attacks on the group's hide-outs in the rugged country's remote hinterland.

Analysts have long debated how much control bin Laden, who is believed to be somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, really has over the various organizations using his group's name.

"There's definitely communication, there's definitely a process of seeking approval and swearing allegiance, but I don't think that means they go to bin Laden every time they have a question," Kohlmann said.

The al-Qaida offshoot in Iraq demonstrated such independence, carrying out a frenzy of bombings, beheadings and kidnappings targeting foreigners and Shiite Muslims.

That prompted al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, to write to the group's leader, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to ask him to avoid "unnecessary bloodshed." The message implied al-Qaida in Iraq's actions threatened to turn away some of al-Qaida's supporters.

Al-Zarqawi was killed in a 2006 U.S. airstrike.

150,000 Haiti quake victims buried, gov't says

150,000 Haiti quake victims buried, gov't says

A girl cries after receiving food in an improvised distribution center organized by the UN as a United Nations peacekeeper from Brazil kneels to talk to children at the Cite Soleil neighborhood in Port- au-Prince, Sunday, Jan 24, 2010. Haiti's government has declared an end to searches for living people trapped under debris, and officials are shifting their focus to caring for the thousands of survivors living in makeshift camps.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The truckers filling Haiti's mass graves with bodies reported ever higher numbers: More than 150,000 quake victims have been buried by the government, an official said Sunday.

That doesn't count those still under the debris, carried off by relatives or killed in the outlying quake zone.

"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble - 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.

Dealing with the living, meanwhile, a global army of aid workers was getting more food into people's hands, but acknowledged falling short. "We wish we could do more, quicker," said U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince.

In the Cite Soleil slum, U.S. soldiers and Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops distributed food. Lunie Marcelin, 57, said the handouts will help her and six grown children "but it is not enough. We need more."

Yet another aftershock, one of more than 50 since the great quake Jan. 12, shook Port-au-Prince on Sunday, registering 4.7 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of further damage.

The Haitian government was urging many of the estimated 600,000 homeless huddled in open areas of Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million, to look for better shelter with relatives or others in the countryside. Some 200,000 were believed already to have done so, most taking advantage of free government transportation, and others formed a steady stream out of the city on Sunday.

International experts searched for sites to erect tent cities for quake refugees on the capital's outskirts, but such short-term solutions were still weeks away, said the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency.

"We also need tents. There is a shortage of tents," said Vincent Houver, the Geneva-based agency's chief of mission in Haiti. Their Port-au-Prince warehouse has 10,000 family-size tents, but some 100,000 are needed, he said. The organization has appealed for $30 million for that and other needs, and has received two-thirds of that so far.

In the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the casualty estimates have been necessarily tentative. Lassegue told The Associated Press the government's figure of 150,000 buried, from the capital area alone, was reported by CNE, a state company collecting corpses and burying them north of Port-au-Prince.

That number would tend to confirm an overall estimate of 200,000 dead reported last week by the European Commission, citing Haitian government sources. The United Nations, meanwhile, was sticking Sunday with an earlier confirmed death toll of at least 111,481, based on recovered bodies.

The final casualty estimates, which the European Commission said also include some 250,000 injured, will clearly place the Haiti earthquake among the deadliest natural catastrophes of recent times. That list includes: the 1970 Bangladesh cyclone, believed to have killed 300,000 people; the 1974 northeast China earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people; and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with 226,000 dead.

One who wouldn't die in Port-au-Prince was Wismond Exantus, who was extricated from the rubble Saturday. He spoke with the AP from his cot in a French field hospital on Sunday, saying the first thing he wanted to do was find a church to give thanks.

He spent the 11 days buried in the ruins of a hotel grocery store praying, reciting psalms and sleeping, he said. "I wasn't afraid because I knew they were searching and would come for me," he said.

With such rescues now increasingly unlikely, Haiti's government has declared an end to search operations for the living, shifting the focus more than ever to caring for the thousands surviving in squalid, makeshift camps.

The World Food Program had delivered about 2 million meals to the needy on Friday, up from 1.2 million on Thursday, Sheeran said. But she acknowledged that much more was needed.

"This is the most complex operation WFP has ever launched," she said. "Food distribution is very difficult," said Dr. Henry Ariel of the Haitian Health Ministry. "The food doesn't reach up to now everyone."

The scene Sunday at Cite Soleil, the capital's largest and most notorious slum, showed the need.

Thousands of men, women and children lined up and waited peacefully for their turn as the American and Brazilian troops handed out aid - the Americans gave ready-to-eat meals, high-energy biscuits and bottled water, the Brazilians passed out small bags holding uncooked beans, salt, sugar and sardines, as well as water.

The need for medical care, especially surgery, postoperative care and drugs, still overwhelmed the help available, aid agencies reported. In the isolated southern port city of Jacmel alone, about 100 patients needed surgery as of Friday, the U.N. reported. Medical personnel were there, but not the necessary surgery supplies.

In Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said its inflatable hospital - six large inflatable tents flown in from France - was preparing for its first operations.

At the Choscal hospital in Cite Soleil, the operating room has been busy with obstetric cases and some machete and gunshot wounds, Doctors Without Borders said, as looting and violence sputtered on among the ruins. The numbers of young men scavenging for goods seemed lower, however, since most shops were already entirely cleaned out.

The world's nations have pledged some $1 billion in emergency aid to Haiti. Organizers of Friday night's "Hope for Haiti Now" international telethon reported the event raised $57 million, with more pledges from ordinary people still coming in.

Mickey J, A.K.A. David Keith, At The Philadelphia 'Brandywine' by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810

Mickey J, A.K.A. David Keith, At The Philadelphia 'Brandywine' by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (610) 931-8810



At the 'Brandywine' in Delaware Pa.
Mickey J., a.k.a., David Keith, at left.



Mickey J., above right, was the special
guest for Patty Jackson's birthday event
2010.

New ''Please Touch'' Exhibit Highlights Importance of Trees

by KYW's Karin Phillips

The "Please Touch" Museum is giving visitors a taste of the great outdoors with a new exhibit about trees.

Despite the winter chill, visitors can come inside the Please Touch Museum and play among the trees in a new exhibit, "Exploring Trees Inside and Out."

Jen Bush is vice president of education for the museum:

"It's about connecting children and nature -- our families with our young kids -- to nature and trees, and the importance of trees in their lives."

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Stars unite to help Haiti in telethon

Stars unite to help Haiti in telethon

In this image released by Hope For Haiti Now, Wyclef Jean performs at "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief", on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 in New York.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Though the all-star telethon was titled "Hope for Haiti Now," for most of its two hours, it was filled with tear-jerking, depressing moments, from mournful songs and grim-faced pleas from celebrities to the suffering faces of the quake-battered victims themselves.

It took Haiti's own native son to lift Friday evening's despairing tone to one of hope and even revival.

"Enough of this moping, man, let's rebuild Haiti, let's show 'em how we do it where we come from!" Wyclef Jean, the singer and producer, shouted after singing the downbeat "Rivers of Babylon," with a Haitian flag around his neck.

He segued into the joyful tune "Yele" with an island beat, as musicians danced around him, singing the refrain: "Earthquake, we see the earth shake, but the soul of the Haitian people will never break!"

Jean showcased the resilient spirit of a nation in the midst of catastrophe. On Jan. 12, a powerful earthquake struck the already impoverished country, killing an estimated 200,000 people, displacing many more and reducing much of Haiti to ruins.

The telethon, shown on all the major networks and streamed live on many Web sites, was quickly put together by George Clooney and MTV Networks, along with the help of others, to raise millions of dollars for the Caribbean country.

The list of participating celebrities rivaled any top awards show: Justin Timberlake, Brad Pitt, former President Clinton, Muhammad Ali, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Halle Berry, and many more. Luminaries like Steven Spielberg worked the phone banks, talking to donors.

"Hey Steven Spielberg, it's really cool to talk to you," one woman said to the Academy Award-winning filmmaker.

John Mayer called in a $500,000 donation before the telethon began, according to a representative for MTV. Officials did not have an immediate total for the relief funds raised by the telethon.

Some stars like Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood recounted tragic moments from the quake; others like Denzel Washington offered inspirational words. Most of the musical performances were downcast, emotional songs. John Legend sang "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Kid Rock, Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow sang "Lean On Me." Beyonce, with Coldplay's Chris Martin backing her on piano, revised her hit "Halo" with new lyrics: "Haiti we can see your halo, we pray you won't fade away."

Madonna provided one of the few upbeat moments with her choir-backed performance of "Like A Prayer."

Jay-Z, Rihanna and U2's Bono and The Edge debuted a new song, "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)," as Jay-Z rapped from London: "When the sky falls, and the earth quakes, we gon' put this back together, we won't break."

The telethon was broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti, where CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed quake victims and anchored news clips of the tragedy.

Haitians were able to listen on Radio One Haiti.

A crowd made up mostly of Haiti's wealthier elite gathered Friday night at Break Time, one of the only restaurants still open in Port-au-Prince, and one of the only places residents could watch the telethon.

Owner Patrick Alexis said he enjoyed seeing the celebrities but was skeptical the money would get to people who need it.

"It's easy to do a telethon on behalf of the Haitian people, but who will really get the money? I know my country, I know my people, I know the leaders," he said.

Rabbel Bertrand, 16, who was heading to New Jersey because his school collapsed, was surprised by the attention being given his country.

"I didn't realize all those celebrities knew Haiti. When you talk about Haiti, people usually just talk about the bad things," Bertrand said.

Viewers can purchase performances from the evening on Saturday by way of iTunes for 99 cents, with those proceeds going to relief aid as well.

The telethon won't be the last major celebrity effort for Haiti; BET plans to hold its own all-star telethon on Feb. 5, with Diddy and Queen Latifah as hosts. It will also be aired on MTV and VH1.

Memorial Service Held for Teddy Pendergrass

Hundreds of people turned out in Philadelphia on Friday to bid their farewells to R&B legend Teddy Pendergrass.
Pendergrass died January 13th after battling colon cancer. He was 59.

Fans attended the viewing at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church for hours. Many sang or hummed his songs, saying they will never forget him.

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Haitians mourn as rescuers find another in rubble

Haitians mourn as rescuers find another in rubble

A man is rescued by a French search and rescue team after being trapped in rubble for 11 days in the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. Rescuers pulled a 23-year-old man alive from the rubble of a fruit and vegetable shop in Haiti, 11 days after an earthquake crumbled the capital city.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Hundreds gathered for the funeral of the archbishop of Haiti's stricken capital on Saturday, a rare formal ceremony that captured the collective mourning of a shattered nation where mass graves hold many of the dead.

Meanwhile, as the U.N. said the Haitian government had declared an end to searches for living people trapped in the rubble, yet another survivor was rescued. French officials said they reached the 23-year-old man by digging a tunnel through the wreckage of a fruit and vegetable shop where the man had been buried for 11 days.

He was placed on a stretcher and given intravenous fluids as onlookers cheered. Rescuers said he was in good health.

"Life doesn't stop when a government says stop," said Lt. Col. Christophe Renou, a French Civil Protection official who is part of a team working at the site. "There is still some hope, but it is going to take some luck and God's help because there are so many destroyed buildings."

Authorities have stopped short of explicitly directing all teams to halt rescue efforts, and hopeful searchers continued picking through the ruins. But U.N. relief workers said the shift in focus is critical to care for the thousands living in squalid, makeshift camps that lack sanitation. While deliveries of food, medicine and water have ticked up after initial logjams, the need continues to be overwhelming and doctors fear outbreaks of disease in the camps.

"It doesn't mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act," U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. She added that, "except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading."

All told, some 132 people have been pulled alive from beneath collapsed buildings by international search and rescue teams, she said.

Experts say the chance of saving trapped people begins diminishing after 72 hours. One mother still missing her children said it's too soon to give up.

"Maybe there's a chance they're still alive," said Nicole Abraham, 33, wiping away tears as she spoke of hearing the cries of her children - ages 4, 6 and 15 - for the first two days after the quake.

Only a small number of funerals have been held since the 7.0-magnitude quake struck, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city. An estimated 200,000 people died, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission. The United Nations said Saturday the government had preliminarily confirmed 111,481 bodies, but that figure does not account for corpses buried by relatives.

While the two-hour ceremony was held for Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot and vicar Charles Benoit, who also perished in the Jan. 12 earthquake, people in the crowd of about 2,000 wept for deeply personal losses.

"We feel like we have lost everything. Our child, our country, our friend," said Junior Sant Juste, a 30-year-old father whose 3-year-old daughter died when his home collapsed.

The Mass, celebrated in a small park near the collapsed cathedral, offered "a way to share the pain and find solidarity," said his wife, Roth Boisrond.

As any as 200,000 people have fled the city of 2 million, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. About 609,000 people are homeless in the capital's metropolitan area, and the United Nations estimates that up to 1 million could leave Haiti's destroyed cities for rural areas already struggling with extreme poverty.

The quake destroyed key government buildings including the National Palace, hampering the work of what was already a weak and inefficient state. In the days after the quake, aid groups complained about the U.S. military control of the international airport, which became key for supplies because of a damaged seaport.

Flights have since increased, but President Rene Preval and former French Cabinet Minister Nicole S. Guedj on Saturday appealed for the creation of a U.N. humanitarian intervention force to coordinate and mobilize aid in international disasters. The force could be known as the Red Helmets, they suggested, as opposed to the blue-helmeted U.N. military peacekeepers.

"The great problem is the coordination of aid," Preval told reporters at the archbishop's funeral. "What's needed is that the aid be organized at a global level so that it can be mobilized rapidly so there will be no confusion on the ground."

In Miami, Latin pop stars helped raise money for the American Red Cross to aid earthquake victims. Shakira, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee, Juanes and others were scheduled for a Satuday live edition of a Univision variety show.

Small Biz Owners Using Wifi Hot Spots as Mobile Offices

by KYW's John McDevitt

Who needs an office when there is free wi-fi. Area small business owners are utilizing the perks of coffee shops to conduct business.

Free WI-FI at places like La.Va at 21st and South has many small business owners working on their computers, even meeting with clients at one of the tables while sipping on coffee.

La.Va employee, Tyler say he sees it all the time:

"It's almost like its a public living room or public office, I guess."

Curt Alexander owns Urban Jungle landscaping which will be at 15th and Passyunk..

For full story go to:

http://www.kyw1060.com/

Tom Knox Withdraws from Pa. Governor Race, Backs Onorato

by KYW's Tony Romeo

Former Philadelphia mayoral candidate Tom Knox is out of the race for Pennsylvania governor.

Businessman Tom Knox says he is dropping out of the race for governor and endorsing Allegheny County chief executive Dan Onorato, whom Knox says shares his vision.

Knox, who spent millions of his own money running for mayor of Philadelphia, told reporters on a conference call on Friday that he was prepared to do the same in a run for governor:

“I was going to, by and large, just fund it completely. I was just about to put $5 million in, just to show people that we were for real. Believe me, it’s not the money -– it’s not the money at all. And you know I’ve done really well in life, and I can afford to do this if I want to.”

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Hundreds Line Up for Teddy Pendergrass Viewing in Cheltenham

by KYW's Steve Tawa

A viewing was being held on Friday for rhythm-and-blues legend Teddy Pendergrass, who passed away last week at the age of 59, ahead of Saturday's funeral.

The famous and not-so-famous were there because they found a connection to the man who possessed that unique voice and stage presence. Among them was Hamin Melvin, son of the late, great Harold Melvin, whose "Blue Notes" included Pendergrass.

For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/

Obama vows to fight for jobs in retooled message

Obama vows to fight for jobs in retooled message

President Barack Obama holds a town hall style meeting at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio,, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010.

+ ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) -- President Barack Obama tried to revive his battered agenda and rally despondent Democrats on Friday with a renewed emphasis on jobs. His visit to this struggling Rust Belt city capped a tough first-anniversary week for a presidency that suffered jolts at the hands of Massachusetts voters and the Supreme Court.

"I'm not going to win every round," Obama told a town hall audience. But, striking a populist tone on a campaign-style swing, Obama pledged, "I can promise you there will be more fights in the days ahead."

He used the word "fight" or some variation over a dozen times as he tried out a revamped message focused mainly on the economy, part of a stepped up effort to persuade Americans he's doing all he can to create jobs.

"This isn't about me. This is about you," he said.

And while he has recently voiced a willingness to find common ground in the divisive health care debate, he insisted he was not ready to abandon the cause or to drop his environmental and energy agenda even with the strengthened GOP hand in the Senate.

"There are things that have to be done," he said. "And that means marching forward, not standing still." He acknowledged "we had a little bit of a buzz saw" on health care overhaul.

Instead of the anniversary celebration Obama might have expected, the week was one of the worst in recent times for the White House, with much hand-wringing and blame-casting among dazed Democrats in the halls of Congress.

The week brought two major shifts to the political landscape.

Little-known Republican Scott Brown's seizing of the Massachusetts Senate seat held for decades by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy cost Democrats their filibuster-proof supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate and seriously threatened Obama's entire domestic agenda. It means Republicans will be able to stop or seriously slow down legislation at will.

The GOP victory was also a poor omen for November's midterms, continuing a trend that began with Democratic losses in November in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. Also, a succession of Democratic lawmakers have decided to retire rather than face voters this year.

Thursday's Supreme Court ruling overturning limits on corporate political spending opened the way for businesses and special interests to spend money freely on commercials for or against individual candidates. Obama said the 5-4 decision would allow wealthy special interests to "drown out the voices of everyday Americans."

The opinion could have an impact on this fall's races that could disproportionately work to the disadvantage of Democrats.

While the ruling also opened the way for unions to spend directly on campaign commercials, union membership has been steadily declining. It's down from its peak of about 35 percent of workers in the 1950s to 12.3 percent in 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. The bureau said the decline was hastened by the recession.

Republicans sought to capitalize on their Massachusetts windfall by stepping up their attacks on Obama and congressional Democrats.

House Minority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, asserted that his home state "is desperate for a plan to put Americans back to work." But he claimed Obama's health care and climate-change proposals would destroy jobs.

"Like the people of Massachusetts, Ohioans are saying `enough is enough' of the big-government agenda," Boehner wrote in an op-ed piece in Friday's Cleveland Plain Dealer. Ohio's unemployment rate climbed to 10.9 percent in December, up from 10.7 percent in November and the ninth successive month of double-digit unemployment.

Buoyed congressional Republicans have their sights on winning back majority control they lost in 2006, seeing potential gains in Ohio, Michigan, New York and Arkansas.

Obama last came to this northeastern Ohio county in 2008 for a campaign speech on the economy at a drywall factory that closed two months later. En route Friday to a wind turbine plant, his motorcade whizzed by a snowy landscape of scores of buildings either for lease or sale.

Obama told his audience at the Lorain County Community College "the worst of this economic storm has passed. But families like yours and communities like Elyria are still reeling from the devastation left in its wake. Folks have seen jobs you thought would last forever disappear."

He said a new stimulus spending bill emerging in Congress - the White House is calling it a "jobs" bill - must include tax breaks for small business hiring and for people trying to make their homes more energy efficient - two proposals he wasn't able to get into a bill the House passed last month

Obama defended as necessary his administration's widely unpopular moves to bail out financial and auto companies. He also stepped up his recent attack on bankers and bonuses, defending his proposal to tax big banks to recover bailout costs and to limit their size and activities.

With the town hall meeting, tours of a wind turbine plant and classroom, an impromptu diner stop and even the lack of a necktie, Obama's day had the feel of one from his campaign.

Outside the town hall meeting were groups of anti-Obama protesters. "He's done a lot, but they are all negative things," said Ray Angell, 65, of Twinsburg, Ohio, a conservative active in the anti-tax Tea Party movement. He cited the stimulus package and climate change proposals.

In an interview with ABC News this week, a reflective Obama said that he recognized "remoteness and detachment" had set in and that he blamed himself for not communicating better. "I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people," he said.

Strategists of both parties said Obama needs to do more to reach out to Republicans, pointing out that few recent presidents have had filibuster-proof majorities in Congress and yet have managed to pass major legislation.

Also, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton managed to snap back from huge first-term midterm losses for their respective parties in to win big re-election victories.

Doug Schoen, a Democratic consultant who was Clinton's pollster, said Obama should take a cue from his former boss.

"He absolutely has to move to the center," Schoen said, "change his focus, try to reach out to the Republicans and try to change his rhetorical approach as well as the way he governs."