Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner foresees a lengthy involvement with American International Group and is not ruling out more aid to the insurance conglomerate.
Testifying before the Senate Banking committee, Geithner said Wednesday that untangling AIG's finances has proven to be more difficult than originally envisioned.
The government holds about 80 percent of AIG's assets …
DAMASCUS, Syria John McCarthy, a Briton held hostage in Lebanonfor more than five years, was freed this morning, and securitysources in Beirut said American Terry Anderson may be releasedshortly.
UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said he was hopefula second hostage would be freed today and it would be an American.He said he based his hopes on his own sources and did not elaborate.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said President Bush hadreceived no direct word that a U.S. captive would be freed. However,a U.S. medical team was on alert in Wiesbaden, Germany, in the eventan American is released.
The Muslim fundamentalist group Islamic …
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing the day higher, after the U.S. government reported an unexpected surge in hiring.
The Labor Department said Friday that private employers added 268,000 jobs last month, the most in five years.
The unemployment rate rose, however, to 9.0 percent in part because more people resumed looking for work.
The news on job growth helped lift the …
Malaysia Airlines said Monday it turned around in the fourth quarter, helping it stay in the black for 2009 despite the global economic slump.
The carrier recorded a net profit of 610 million ringgit ($179.4 million) in the three months through December _ rebounding from a loss in the previous quarter _ thanks to an increase in traffic and reduction in operating costs.
Revenue for the fourth quarter, however, declined 14 percent to 3.3 billion ringgit ($970 million) as airlines cut ticket prices amid the slump.
For the full year, the state-owned carrier reported a net profit of 490 million ringgit ($144.1 million), a better performance compared …
LONDON The outlawed Irish Republican Army firebombed the NationalGallery on Sunday, a departure from its usual tactic of attackingbusinesses. No one was hurt.
The group pledged to disrupt daily life in Britain until Britishtroops are withdrawn from Northern Ireland.
The fire broke out at 3:50 a.m. in the bookshop of a new wingof the museum on Trafalgar Square.
A spokesman at Scotland Yard said damage was slight andautomatic sprinklers doused the fire. The bookshop remained closed,but the rest of the museum opened as scheduled.
In a …
Transforming our Army is a challenging task. Doing it while at war is even more challenging. Although our primary focus remains fighting and winning the global war on terrorism, the G-1 has continued its Transformation over the last 12 months. The human resource (HR) community's goal remains unchanged: to have its personnel and finance systems in place and operational before the future force arrives.
Our nonnegotiable imperatives are: supporting the global war on terrorism, Army Transformation, keeping our warfighting units fully manned and ensuring the well-being of our soldiers, families, civilians and retirees.
The Army Vision Statement begins and ends talking about our …
There can be no quiet goodbye for a slain Hells Angel leader.
The funeral of Mark "Papa" Guardado, the 46-year-old president of the San Francisco chapter shot down after a barroom brawl, brought about 2,000 Hells Angels to Duggan's Serra Mortuary in Daly City, most driving the biggest, baddest, loudest Harleys ever.
They came Monday from chapters all over the country, not to mention Stuttgart, Germany, Alberta, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia.
An overflow crowd of hundreds of members sat or stood in the funeral home parking lot for two hours, creating a spectacle that …
IT took only one comment for Jordan Jeffries to show exactly whyMarshall football coaches wanted to lure him from Illinois toHuntington.
"When they recruited me - and probably everyone else, for thatmatter - they were looking for badasses," Jeffries said. "Pardon mylanguage."
Jeffries is blunt enough to tell it like it is even if itrequires words normally not found in family newspapers, but he alsois polite enough to apologize for it afterward.
It is a perfect example of what makes him what he is: a teen-aged, non-violent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde whose demeanordepends on his location.
"In the school, I'm a good student and a nice person," said …
The African American Theatre Program of the U. of Louisville celebrated its 10th Anniversary December 4 - 7th. The keynote speaker was Glynn Turman. Noted academicians, scholars, and practitioners included Dr. Glenda Dicherson, Dr. Paul Carter Harrison, Dr. Victor Walker, Dr. Vernell Lillie, Dr. Marvin Sims, and Dr. Mikell Pinkney, among others. The workshops and symposia were capped off by a rousing production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity, directed by the Conference organizer, Dr. Lundeana Thomas. Following is an abridged version of one paper presented at the Conference.
Originally, I was supposed to talk on a panel entitled "What is Afrocentricity." Then the title of the …
An 1,800-year-old figurine believed to have originated from the eastern stretches of the Roman Empire has been discovered by archaeologists outside the walls of the old city, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said. The 2-inch marble bust depicts the head of a man with a short curly beard and almond-shaped eyes who may portray a boxer, the authority said.
"The high level of finish on the figurine is extraordinary, while meticulously adhering to the tiniest of details," Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, directors of the excavation, said in a joint statement released Monday. Nothing similar has ever been uncovered in Israel, they said, calling it a "unique …
Suddenly the sun feels warm and alive. Birds' songs soundirresistibly sweet. The soft breeze carries a promise of excitingthings to come.
Sooner or later everybody feels the magic attraction of springthat takes you out to see what's stirring in the garden.
More's the pity, then, if you have no proper place to relax anddelight in nature.
Whether your yard is large or small, garden furniture offersunique pleasure even as it expands your living area from springthrough summer and well …
MADRID, Spain - An Egyptian who allegedly bragged that he masterminded the 2004 Madrid terror bombings that killed 191 people was acquitted of all charges along with six other lesser suspects Wednesday.
Three other lead defendants were convicted of murder by the Spanish court, culminating a divisive trial over Europe's worst Islamic militant attack, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.
Four other accused masterminds - Youssef Belhadj, Hassan el Haski, Abdulmajid Bouchar and Rafa Zouhier - were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges including belonging to a terrorist organization. They received sentences of between 12 and 18 years.
…
Testing prototype equipment is nothing new to Hodgson's Chipping Ltd. of Truro, NS. The family operation of a father and his four sons tried out the first Peterson Pacific flail chipper to hit the woods back in 1989. Not only was their hands-on experience and feedback incorporated into the design of future Peterson chippers, but the 15-year-old chipper is still working as one of Hodgson's production models.
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Thus it's no surprise that the first Levesque 240 mixed-wood processing head from Quadco is cutting its teeth on one of the Hodgsons' job sites, despite the fact that the crew was more than happy with the processing heads it had been using to that point, a pair of Hornet processors.
"I had a hard time convincing myself to try the Levesque, because we've had such good luck with those Hornets," says Vaughn Hodgson, one of the four brothers and a leading force in the growing company. "But I kept an eye on the prototype as it was being made, and I liked a lot of the ideas that were being built into it. And we've never been afraid of trying something new."
It is also no surprise, then, that the head's early performance seems promising.
Team approach
Hodgson's Chipping is a full-service contracting outfit that does almost all of its harvesting for Kimberly-Clark. The operation was started 40 years ago by McKay Hodgson. One by one the logger's four sons have joined the fray.
For his part, 40-year-old Vaughn started in the operation in 1986, after finishing a heavy-duty mechanics course. Soon after, the operation began mechanizing, starting in 1989 with a rail delimber and that first Peterson chipper. Growth has been steady since, and today the operation employs 40, including the four sons. Vaughn works as mechanic, overseeing the whole operation in an effort to keep everything running smoothly. Surprisingly to some, he says the mix of four brothers and father has served Hodgson Chipping well over the past 15 years.
"It works well. We're each in charge of a different part of the operation, so we know it's all being looked after. My youngest brother, Dale, does the trucking, Roger's in charge of the logging operation in the woods, and Paul looks after the chipping operation. My father is president, and has a say in every aspect of the business."
Operations in the woods are divided into chipping and roundwood harvesting, with all phases handled internally. For chipping, a Tigercat 860 buncher fells for a trio of grapple skidders - a Tigercat 630 and John Deere 648 GIII that feed the newer Peterson chipper bought in 1994, while a Cat 525 feeds the original 1989 Peterson.
Up until a little while ago, the roundwood side consisted of a Tigercat 860 buncher feeding two Hornet processors working at the stump, followed by Rottne and Fabtek forwarders. When it comes to choosing carriers for the processors, the Hodgsons follow a unique strategy. After two years of double-shift bunching, feller bunchers go into the pre-retirement role of processor.
"We put about 4 000 hours on the bunchers a year, so after two years we get a new one, and convert the older one into a processor. It's an easy life for a carrier, and with those hours they do the job no problem. That way the frontline bunchers are always new. We've been doing that for a few years now, and it has worked out very well."
An older Prentice 620 buncher is used as a filler as required, or for odd jobs on private land. All the logging gear runs on two shifts, but Vaughn says they have found that a slower pace serves the chippers best.
"We've tried all kinds of shifts, including 24 hours, seven days a week, but with the chippers we find that if you can get the loads you need running single shifts five days a week, it's best all around. The logging gear is run on doubles five days a week, because it's too expensive not to, and to tell the truth, we couldn't buy new chippers and afford to make the payments on single shift, at least not for the first five years."
The chipping crew targets 55 loads per week per chipper, and farms out all chip hauling except for one tractor and chip van. For logs, the weekly production target for veneer, pulp, sawlogs and stud sorts combined is 2 000 tonnes, which is hauled using the crew's seven self-loading log haulers. One float for the logging gear and two shunt tractors for the chippers keep gear moving between sites.
Lean but still mean?
With the addition of the new Levesque 240 processor, mounted on a Tigercat 860, the crew will now run three processors in the hopes of picking up extra volume.
"That's where that extra buncher comes in," Vaughn explains of the Prentice 620 FB. "Two bunchers followed by three processors will make a good match for us."
The Levesque processor is billed by Quadco as a robust 24-in processor with plenty of power for hardwoods and plenty of speed for softwoods. This is done with 1 600 cc Valmet motors that apply 9 750 lb of feed force and allow 15 ft/sec of feed speed. Designed by the same Levesque brothers who invented the Target, the 240 is aimed right at the mixed and big wood processing market already served by the Hornet (or older Target models).
This of course begs the question of why another head is needed at all. According to Vaughn, there are almost 2 000 reasons, as in the number of pounds that the mammoth Hornet outweighs the nimbler Levesque 240. While the Hornet tips the scales at over 8 725 lb, the Levesque weighs 6 800 lb. "The weight reduction was a big one for us," Vaughn notes. "There's a cost to swinging that extra weight around all day."
Vaughn expects the Levesque will be even better than his two Hornets for a number of reasons. "I like the fact that it doesn't have any sensors for the saw bar - just a simple trip switch instead. It also has big, heavy-duty Valmet motors, so the power we're used to with the Hornet is still there, and overall it is using the newest generation of components. And it's just as strong as it needs to be - I can't see where the lost weight is going to affect anything."
The lighter weight of the Levesque 240 will also allow some contractors to opt for smaller, more economical carriers. While not an issue for Hodgson's Chipping because of its carrier rotation strategy, lower capital and operating costs might attract other loggers to Tigercat 845 size models.
The new head had 300 hours on the dial when CFI spoke to Vaughn in early April, and so far has met his expectations. It has proven faster than the Hornet, he says, adding that the use of a photocell to find the butt on each new log has helped pick up extra production.
"When you pick the tree up, you don't have to make that first wasted cut to start the processing. You just push the button on your pre-set, and it finds the end of the log using the photocell. If you're in big diameter wood, making those cookies to start processing can take a lot of time."
Those first few hundred hours have also eased Vaughn's mind regarding length accuracy with the new head. He notes that 8-ft production was a no-brainer with the Hornet's mechanical plate system, while its measuring wheel did a good job on longer sawlog sorts.
"We do 8's and 10's, as well as sawlogs from 12 to 16 feet with diameter breaks that may change depending on what the different mills want. The Levesque head has a different measuring system (Allen Bradley length and diameter), so I was a little worried there. I did like the way the Levesque has a set of arms right where the measuring wheel is, so you never lose contact. It was one of the good ideas I saw in the head, and in the end I have been very happy with measuring accuracy."
The Levesque 240 is also available with an equalizing butt plate for multistemming, although this adds another 1 000 lb.
Future plans
Hodgson's Chipping continues to work at getting every last percentage point of efficiency out of its operation. As an example, the company is looking at adding MultiDAT recorders (black boxes) to its main logging gear to track downtime trends and causes. Vaughn expects to find some lost production there, and hopes to use the MultiDATs to create an operator incentive program to reward high uptime and machine cycles. Still, whether efforts like this will be enough to attract the next generation of loggers to the business is questionable, Vaughn admits.
"I have a son, and I can't see him going into this business the way it is going. I know a lot who feel the same. If someone has any brains and education today, why would you choose this lifestyle? There are just too many other options, and the rewards aren't there like they used to be to compensate for the long hours and work. We have a pretty good business, and we're in so far we have to keep going, but how you're going to convince young people to choose to get into this is beyond me."
Which in the end is too bad. Some 20 years from now, it's likely that Hodgson's Chipping will still have a couple of vintage bush chippers to pass on to the next generation.
"The weight reduction was a big one for us - There's a cost to swinging that extra weight around all day."
| New York | Seattle | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ab r h bi | ab r h bi | |||
| Jeter ss | 4 0 1 0 | ISuzuki rf | 5 0 1 0 | |
| Swisher rf | 4 1 1 0 | Seager 3b | 4 1 1 0 | |
| Golson rf | 0 0 0 0 | Ackley 2b | 3 0 1 0 | |
| Teixeir 1b | 4 0 1 0 | Carp lf-1b | 4 0 1 0 | |
| Cano 2b | 4 1 2 2 | Smoak 1b | 1 0 0 0 | |
| JMontr dh | 4 1 2 0 | MSndrs pr-cf | 0 0 0 0 | |
| AnJons lf | 2 0 1 0 | Olivo c | 3 1 1 1 | |
| Grndrs ph-cf | 1 0 1 0 | AKndy dh | 3 0 0 0 | |
| RMartn c | 3 0 0 0 | C.Wells cf | 3 0 0 0 | |
| ENunez 3b | 3 0 0 0 | TRonsn ph-lf | 1 0 0 0 | |
| Gardnr cf-lf | 3 0 0 0 | Ryan ss | 2 0 1 1 | |
| LRdrgz ss | 1 0 0 0 | |||
| W.Pena ph | 1 0 0 0 | |||
| Totals | 32 3 9 2 | Totals | 31 2 6 2 |
| New York | 020 | 001 | 000—3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle | 011 | 000 | 000—2 |
DP_Seattle 4. LOB_New York 2, Seattle 9. 2B_Swisher (25), J.Montero (1), An.Jones (7), Seager (9), Olivo (16). HR_Cano (26). SB_Ackley (5), M.Saunders (5). CS_I.Suzuki (7). SF_Olivo.
| IP | H | R ER BB SO | ||||
| New York | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A.J.Burnett W,10-11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| R.Soriano H,21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Robertson H,33 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Ma.Rivera S,41-46 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Seattle | ||||||
| Furbush L,3-9 | 5 1-3 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Kelley | 1 2-3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wilhelmsen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| League | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
HBP_by A.J.Burnett (Seager, Smoak). WP_A.J.Burnett 2, Furbush.
Umpires_Home, Tim Timmons; First, Mike Muchlinski; Second, Jeff Kellogg; Third, Mark Carlson.
T_2:49. A_18,306 (47,878).
Rain was falling at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday ahead of Game 3 of the World Series, with thunderstorms possible at night. The tarp covered the infield about four hours before the scheduled first pitch, at 8:35 p.m.
The forecast called for a 90 percent chance of rain Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service, with a chance of thunderstorms. The rain was to let up after midnight.
The series was tied at a game apiece heading into Philadelphia's first home World Series game in 15 years.
From Florida to California, they're working hard on the upcoming election _ knocking on doors in ethnic neighborhoods, manning the phones in myriad languages and distributing political flyers. But come Tuesday, they won't vote. They can't: They're not citizens.
The excitement that has made American voter registration numbers soar has trickled deep into the country's immigrant population. But almost two-thirds of the 37.5 million foreign-born people in the United States have not taken the oath of allegiance, and are shut out from casting a ballot.
Non-citizen immigrants, legal or not, are putting their time and their effort where their vote would be.
"There are a lot of people who want to be voters one day, but it can take a lot of time," said Kishan Putta, national director of Indians for McCain. "They do want to get involved. They're calling, wanting to participate."
There have been no efforts to monitor how many volunteers in union halls, ethnic organizations, campaign offices are not citizens. But leaders of immigration advocacy organizations say this population is stepping up.
"There are millions out there who have not yet become citizens, who need somewhere to plug in, to become part of the process that gets those who can out to vote," said Efrain Escobedo, director of voter engagement for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, which has used non-citizens to turn out new voters in states where Hispanics could have a big say in the presidential contest.
There are about 12.1 million legal permanent residents and 11.8 illegal immigrants in the United States. The concerns that are driving some of them to do election work are largely the same ones energizing native-born Americans _ the sagging economy, fear of unemployment, worries about health care and the quality of schools.
"These are things that keep you up at night," said Hernan Cortez, 30, a Salvadoran who has been knocking on doors to get out the vote in Aurora, Colorado.
Cortez has two children, a wife who works nights at a hospital, and mortgage payments that ballooned from $1,000 a month to $1,300 in January. He is not a citizen _ the nearly $1,400 in fees that he would have to pay for himself and his wife put naturalization beyond his means.
"I wish I could go out to vote," he said. "Instead I talk to people about how this election is going to affect our community."
Since much of their energy is focused on other recent immigrants _ a fast-growing population that has added hundreds of thousands of new voters in swing states _ non-citizens are in a position to make a difference, experts say.
When Sen. John McCain supporter Ai Thien Le, 57, takes her seat at a Virginia phonebank to encourage other Vietnamese immigrants to cast a ballot, she knows every call can help tip the numbers in this battleground state. "It's the only way our voices can be heard and our issues addressed," said Le, who has been living in the United States since 2004 _ not long enough to qualify for citizenship.
Foreign nationals who are not legal permanent residents are forbidden from making contributions, but there are no laws against non-citizens volunteering in political campaigns, said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. And the campaigns welcome the help.
"We don't ask if volunteers are citizens or not," said Hessy Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign. "Our door is open to everyone who wants to be part of the work."
The non-citizens' desires to influence the outcome of the election draws little opposition from advocates of immigration control, as long as they do not vote.
"It is teaching them about democracy without giving them rights that should be exclusive to citizens," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration control.
But some say that immigrants who entered the country illegally should be kept out of the political process. "They start out with a lack of legitimacy," said Stanley Renshon, a fellow at the center and a political scientist at the City University of New York's Graduate Center.
Non-citizen volunteers make powerful advocates because they identify with the voters on their rosters.
Candida Garcia, a Nicaraguan immigrant and legal permanent resident who cleans hallways at the University of Miami, has been putting her rapid-fire Spanish to work for Sen. Barack Obama, knocking on doors to get out the Latino vote for the Democrat in Miami.
Her husband's hours at a kitchen cabinet factory have been slashed, and her 13-year-old daughter, born in the U.S., has no health insurance. "We need a radical change in this country," she said.
Many hope their work will counteract the lack of participation that has undercut their community's electoral clout.
Ana Herrera goes door to door in the farmworker community of Avenal, California, where she is applying for residency. "People say, 'Why?' They say, 'What difference will it make?' They say, 'I have no time,'" said Herrera, walking past whole blocks where there are no registered voters.
"I tell them, if we don't help make the decisions, we're going to always be living with decisions made by others," she said.
In response to a recent article in the Central Somerset Gazette(Ken Maddock's comments, Thursday, October 28, page 11), we wouldlike to make the following points:
We are a group of young people who attend Street Youth Club. Weare writing to make our point that our youth club has closed onWednesday and we are worried that it will close for good.
There will be nothing for young people to do, causing us to roamthe streets late at night which may cause more trouble and work forthe police officers, cleaners and the community.
The young people won't feel valued because the youth club is agood opportunity for young people to mix together, make new friendsand have fun. We are disappointed because we feel that the youthclub is important to everyone that attends.
If we are going to be in the streets a lot we might start tomingle with the wrong sorts of people who could encourage us to dodrugs and smoke and things we generally don't do. Whereas if westill were able to go to the youth club we could get all sorts ofadvice and encouragement not to do these sorts of things.
If the youth clubs are closed it will also leave us with nothingto do in the holidays as the youth workers usually arrange fun tripsfor us. This year we have been ice-skating, to Brean Leisure Parkand paintballing. I was one of the people that went on all three ofthese trips and they were all great fun. The youth workers alwaysmake sure we go somewhere near a place that sells food, or they willmake us a barbecue or something we can have for lunch. The youthworkers are great fun as well; they join in with the activities,they talk to us and they always make us laugh.
Chloe Purchase, Thora Linham, Samantha Corke, Sonny Lyne, KeiranLock, Conner Sharman, Rebecca Baker, Dexter Evett, Caleb Mates,Elliot Thomas, Connor Sharman, Matthew Kerr, Lewis Lukins, JesseSeaar, Ahmed Adelrahman, Nathan Avenell, Josh Hackwood, MatthewBrailey, Jack Billett, Timmy Burr, Sam Chant, Morgan Rolli, SamBull, Neil Higdon, Sapphire Hill, Tiffy Weaver, Emily Parsons
The 14th stage of the Tour de France is under way with Oscar Freire of Spain and Julian Dean of New Zealand in the pack a day after being slightly injured when they were hit by projectiles on French roads.
Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy has donned the yellow jersey for a seventh straight race day for a 124-mile trek from Colmar to Besancon.
Seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong and 2007 winner Alberto Contador are trailing just seconds behind Nocentini.
Breakaway riders set the early pace in Saturday's ride, the last before riders head into the Alps in the third and final week.
Dean and Freire were shot at from an air rifle, their teams suspect, during a downhill ride Friday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
COLMAR, France (AP) _ Lance Armstrong lost a crucial ally for the rest of the Tour de France when teammate Levi Leipheimer withdrew because of a broken wrist. Julian Dean and Oscar Freire were lightly injured by shots from a suspected air rifle from the roadside.
For a day when nothing changed atop the standings, Friday sure was an eventful one.
Armstrong remained third after the 124-mile stage through the rolling hills of northeast France that featured three big climbs, including the demanding Col du Platzerwasel.
"It was really, really cold. To be honest I don't remember a day in the Tour that has been colder than that one," Armstrong told The Associated Press. "I guess that tactically it was pretty uneventful, none of the others favorites attacked. Perhaps the Platzerwasel wasn't as hard as we expected."
Freire and Dean, who are expected to start Saturday's stage, were hit during the descent, about 22 miles from the finish of the stage between Vittel and Colmar won by German rider Heinrich Haussler, who outclassed the pack with a solo breakaway.
Police were investigating the case.
A projectile embedded in Freire's thigh was removed by a Rabobank team doctor. Dean's right index finger was injured, said Marya Pongrace, a spokeswoman for his Garmin-Slipstream team.
Both cyclists were expected to start Saturday's mostly flat 14th stage, a 124-mile trek through plains from Colmar to Besancon, their teams said.
Armstrong, who raised concerns about his own security on the race after announcing his comeback last year, remained 8 seconds behind race leader Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy, who is not regarded as a potential Tour winner.
Armstrong's Astana teammate and main rival Alberto Contador, the Tour winner in 2007, is second, 2 seconds ahead of Armstrong.
Norway's Thor Hushovd retrieved the green jersey awarded to the Tour's best sprinter from Mark Cavendish of Britain, and Franco Pellizotti from Italy took the polka-dot jersey of the best climber off Spain's Egoi Martinez.
Even without Levi Leipheimer, who was fourth overall before his withdrawal with a broken wrist following a crash on Thursday, the Astana team was able to control the stage.
It could be a far different story during Sunday's first Alpine stage, where the torpor among the favorites since the Pyrenees last week is likely to end.
"I mean, that one is almost a guarantee because it's uphill," Armstrong said by phone. "For sure it's a decisive stage and exciting for the fans. Very different than what we've seen since Andorra."
Leipheimer and Armstrong have a close relationship within Astana, which Armstrong says is riven by "tension" with Contador.
"He's a good friend of mine so it makes it even more unfortunate, but that's cycling," said Armstrong, stressing that Leipheimer's absence is a big loss.
"You saw even there, in some stages in the Pyrenees, when there was an attack, we had four guys there. And now, one's gone," Armstrong said. "Not only does it hurt us, I think it helps the others in terms of morale, and thinking perhaps that the team has been weakened."
Astana's rivals were happy to see Leipheimer go.
"What is the best for us is that they are one guy less, it gives some opening," said Hendrik Redant, sporting director of the Silence-Lotto team of two-time Tour runner-up Cadel Evans.
Leipheimer, a four-time top-10 finisher at the Tour, including a third-place finish in 2007, was a close ally to Armstrong in the Astana team. His absence could also deliver a severe blow to the Texan's ambitions in his duel with Contador, who is regarded as the best climber in the world.
Armstrong, who was surprised by Contador's move to overtake him in the first Pyrenean stage, expects another fierce battle with the Spaniard in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier on Sunday.
"He is going to be good there," Armstrong said. "It's my intention to be up there too."
Contador said Sunday's ride isn't likely to separate the main title contenders, insisting the 5.47-mile uphill finish up to Verbier is too short to give contenders enough space to make large time gaps.
"This layout isn't favorable to attacks," Contador said. "There should have been more uphill finishes ... I would have liked a different type of course."
Leipheimer fell off his bike and broke his wrist in the last two miles of Thursday's stage. He had surgery on the wrist Friday, and Astana said he would return to the United States as soon as possible to begin his recovery.
Haussler, a 25-year-old Cervelo rider who won a stage at Paris-Nice in March, raced ahead of the second of two fellow breakaway riders in the last 31 miles and continued to build a gap on the peloton as the finish neared.
The German, who claimed his first stage victory on the Tour, crossed the line 4:11 ahead of Amets Txurruka of Spain. Brice Feillu of France was third, 6:13 back.
"I was really happy. I just got teary," said Haussler, who was born in Australia to a German father. "I just couldn't believe it. ... I was just so nervous that I was going to crash. It's a really big win for me."
___
Associated Press Writer Greg Keller contributed to this report.
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Julia forms in the Atlantic with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph).
Room for growthHe spent the last few years in exotic locales suchas Borneo, Phuket, Auckland and Kuala Lumpur managing properties.Now, 38-year-old Australian Shaun Langdon is in India with a toughjob in hand. As General Manager of the InterContinental Hotels Group- the largest global chain in terms of number of rooms - he isexpecting to set up as many as 150 properties in India over the next10 years. While the chain already has a presence in this countrythrough its up-market InterContinental and Crowne Plaza brands, hebelieves the mid-market segment has more potential - the growthprospects of Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are bright. To addsome zing, Langdon is flying in Thai, Malaysian and Italian chefs."We need to understand the needs of both Western and Indian guestsand have tailored packages for them," he says. With about 90,000rooms expected to be added over the next five years and a raft ofglobal hotel chains making their entry in India, Langdon will havecompetition aplenty.
-Rahul Sachitanand
High flying!
Not many politicians would have spent as much quality time withthe likes of Sonia Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Lal KrishnaAdvani as retired army heli copter pilot Colonel Jayanth Poovaiahhas. He has piloted them all - and many other politicians - onnumerous occasions to varied locations. Not surprisingly, Poovaiahhas many amusing anecdotes to narrate, such as the one about thetime he persuaded former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti toaddress a meeting standing on the bonnet of a car parked close tothe helipad, instead of travelling to the stage, so that they couldsave time and fly off before sunset. Poovaiah joined his old Armyfriends, G.R. Gopinath and K.J. Samuel, after they started aircharter company, Deccan Aviation, in 1997, and has been leading it(now called, Deccan Charters) since 2003. With the upcomingelections in five states, demand for heli copters is expected toshoot through the roof. "If a helicopter takes three months to do 90hours in normal times, it will do the same in just three weeksduring elections," he says. With more helicopters now available withindividuals as well as companies, Deccan Charters has managed only ahandful of bookings from Assam so far. But Poovaiah is not worried.Business has been going good since they tied up with the TataGroup's Taj Air - aptly named PowerFly
-K.R. BalasubramanyamFresh pasturesThe career of Hotmail inventorSabeer Bhatia has been very different from that of FICCI secretary-general Amit Mitra. But the two are playing an unexpected roletogether for the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. While Mitra isgearing up to contest the upcoming Assembly polls in the state,Bhatia, a one-time poster boy of Indian dot-com, has decided to helpthe party build a two-way communication platform using mobiledevices. Mitra has been close to Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjeefrom the days he chaired a Railway Expert Committee recently.Bhatia, on the other hand, took up his new role after a 15-minutechat with Derek O'Brien, one of Banerjee's lieutenants. Will both ofthem end up as ministers in Banerjee's dream Cabinet? We have towait until the results to find out.
-Kushan Mitra/Rahul SachitanandHealing touchA seemingly smallevent in Bangalore on March 17 was big enough for a host of VIPs,including Ratan Tata and Sam Pitroda, to mark their attendance. Itwas the launch of the Institute of Ayurveda and IntegrativeMedicine, or I-AIM, and a 100-bed healthcare centre, for which Tatatrusts have pumped in Rs 17 crore. The project is the result of theefforts of Darshan Shankar, 62, who has been striving to revivelocal health traditions. While I-AIM focuses on education andresearch, the centre looks at curative care. "We want to make I-AIMinto a modern Nalanda for the traditional health sciences," saysShankar, who also advises the Planning Commission on Indian systemsof medicine.
-K.R. BalasubramanyamHelping the helpersInfosys co-founder N.S.Raghavan is not sitting back after retirement. At 67, he is anevangelist of entrepreneurship and is now on a philanthropic missionto make life easier for NGOs. Raghavan has teamed up with YaleUniversity alumna Priya Naik, 30, to launch Samhita, a supportinfrastructure for donors as well as recipients. Says Raghavan: "Theportal is designed to ensure that the donation is quickly passed onto the NGO. We mandate the NGOs to provide progress reports to thedonors.'' With the government becoming more proactive in keepingtrack of the flow of funds to NGOs, Samhita's effort might turn outto be truly valuable.
-K.R. BalasubramanyamMotorheadPawan Goenka, 57, has spent thelast decade making Vice Chairman Anand Mahindra's vision of becomingthe global leader in utility vehicles a reality. Mahindra's ManFriday is now set to become the chairman of South Korean carmakerSsangyong, the group's latest acquisition. Whether Goenka will beable to bring about a reversal in Ssangyong's currently saggingfortunes remains to be seen, but the IIT-Kanpur graduate, who spentover a decade in the US before returning to India, is proud of hisnew role, in addition to running Mahindra's burgeoning automotiveand farm equipment businesses. Perhaps he could start by ensuring afacelift for all Ssangyong models.
-Kushan Mitra
NEW YORK - Americans always seem to want more pro football. Yet it's the folks abroad who might be getting an extra taste of the NFL in the future. Although talks are extremely preliminary, the NFL is investigating adding a 17th regular-season game and playing it outside the United States. The extra game would take the place of one in the preseason, allowing every team to play once abroad without sacrificing a home match.
This year, the Dolphins gave up a home date in Miami to play the New York Giants at Wembley Stadium in London. Two years ago, the Arizona Cardinals played a home game in Mexico City against the San Francisco 49ers.
"It is preliminary, but we certainly are putting resources into pulling that together," said Mark Waller, NFL senior vice president, international. "For now, we have the one game per season or two per season outside of the U.S. But we know it can be tough on home fans since we're taking a game away.
"So we have asked how do we create more inventory without taking games away from fans? That idea came up in internal conversations and we now have an international committee of owners and we talked it through with them, and they asked us to do some groundwork."
While the 17th game won't get off the ground next season, for sure, it could become a staple of the NFL's schedule by 2009 or 2010. But it would present some significant logistical and scheduling challenges.
For one, if there is another week to the regular season, does that mean openers played on Labor Day weekend, something the NFL has avoided in recent years? Or does it mean pushing the Super Bowl back a week to the second Sunday in February? Or leaving the title game where it is and eliminating the week off between conference championships and the Super Bowl?
"I don't see a huge downside to a week later. The strength of the idea warrants bringing it up for discussion," Waller said.
And what about during a Winter Olympics year such as 2010?
"It might be an issue for the Olympics," he adds with a laugh.
Where would the "foreign games" be played? And how would they be divided?
Waller notes that there won't be 16 different venues for the 17th games. More likely would be a "mini-season ticket" of perhaps four games in one city or country.
"It is very early, but our thought is what we could end up with is every week there would be one international game," he said. "We won't have all of them on the same week. And what you would do is look at taking, for instance, four games to London. Play a game in Wembley each month, having eight different teams coming through. A game in September, one in October, one in November and one in December.
"It's a great opportunity from a fan perspective, because they get half of what a fan in the United States gets, four games to eight."
Aside from England, other prime areas to get games would be Germany, which has a half-dozen quality stadiums thanks to last year's World Cup; Mexico; and Canada. Waller doubts Asia or Australia would be targeted because of the travel concerns, but he doesn't dismiss anything. Or anywhere.
"It is a complex idea and it will take a lot of work on a number of sides," Waller said. "The beauty of it is it's competitively fair."
Tullman dons toque
Chicago high-tech entrepreneur Howard Tullman was named presidentof Evanston-based Kendall College effective Sunday. Kendall offersone of the most prestigious culinary/hospitality schools in thecountry as well as a school of arts and sciences. Tullman told the i-Street Reporter that he is not pursuing a career as a distinguishedchef anytime soon. "I think the trustees saw the real need for changeand wanted someone with expertise in change management and finance,"he said. He will continue his activities with the Chicago High TechInvestors Fund, which he co-founded. The fund has invested in BlueStar Ventures, KB Partners and New World Ventures. Tullman will alsocontinue to teach a course at Northwestern and serve as chairman ofthe Cobalt Group.
Ha-Lo sues ex-CEO
Ha-Lo Industries Inc., a Niles-based promotional productsdistributor, sued former Chief Executive Officer John R. Kelley Jr.,accusing him of driving the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcythrough mismanagement. The federal court suit alleges that Kelleyurged Ha-Lo's board of directors to approve the acquisition ofStarbelly.com in July 2001. "Kelley effectively gave away Ha-Lo'sassets to Starbelly's pre-acquisition shareholders, employees andcreditors," the suit says. Kelley, who is now CEO of Chicago-basedUpshot, a marketing agency owned by Los Angeles-based EquityMarketing Inc., couldn't be reached for comment.
Intel's Indian venture
The world's largest chipmaker, Intel Corp., said Friday it willinvest about $100 million over three years to expand its chip designand software research in India. The investment will triple the numberof employees at its research and development center in Bangalore,India's technology hub, Intel Chief Executive Craig H. Barrett said.Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., currently employs 900 people inIndia.
Server war tied
Amid a dwindling market for computer servers--the powerfulcomputers used to power Web sites and networks--the newly expandedHewlett-Packard Co. pulled even with perennial market leader IBMCorp. for the first time. Both companies claimed almost 28 percent ofthe $10.5 billion market in the second quarter of 2002, according tomarket research firm IDC. The global server market shrunk for thesixth straight quarter, with revenues dropping 16 percent, from $12.6billion in the year-ago quarter. HP's May 2002 acquisition of Compaqallowed it to pull even with IBM--the first time Big Blue has seen amajor challenger for the top position in the server market.
Bloomberg News, AP
A lab technician charged with murdering a Yale grad student has been arraigned.
Raymond Clark III kept his head bowed during the three-minute appearance. The accused killer of 24-year-old Annie Le did not enter a plea. He said "yes, your honor" when asked if he understood his rights.
The judge set bail at $3 million.
Clark was arrested Thursday at a hotel and charged with murdering Le, whose body was found stuffed in the wall of a research building on what would have been her wedding day.
Police say it was a case of workplace violence, but didn't elaborate.
Clark was sent to a holding cell. His next court date is Oct. 6
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A group representing relatives of hostages in Colombia said Thursday that it will likely take at least a month for guerrillas to fulfill a pledge to free six captives.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, announced plans for the release Tuesday, saying the six hostages will include three police officers who were kidnapped in 1999.
Marleny Orjuela, who heads an organization representing hostages' relatives, said it may take one or two months to organize the release due to difficulties in communicating with the guerrillas.
"We're hopeful of having them alive and free, all of our kidnapped loved ones," said Orjuela, an activist who leads the Colombian Association of Relatives of Security Force Members Held and Freed by Guerrilla Groups.
Orjuela said she and others who have been pressing for the hostages' release plan to meet with Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon and officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated previous releases.
The FARC has held a dozen hostages, including eight police officers and four soldiers, for more than a decade.
The leftist rebel group has been fighting Colombia's government since 1964 and is estimated to have between 8,000 and 9,000 fighters.
A novel but risky attempt to use a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box to cover a deepwater oil well gushing toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico was aborted Saturday after ice crystals encased it, an ominous development as thick blobs of tar began washing up on Alabama's white sand beaches.
The setback left the mission to cap the ruptured well in doubt. It had taken about two weeks to build the box and three days to cart it 50 miles out then slowly lower it to the well a mile below the surface, but the frozen depths were too much for it to handle.
Still, BP officials overseeing the cleanup efforts were not giving up just yet on hopes that a containment box _ either the one brought there or a larger one being built _ could cover the well and be used to capture the oil and funnel it to a tanker at the surface to be carted away. Officials said it would be at least Monday before a decision was made on what next step to take.
"I wouldn't say it's failed yet," BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said. "What I would say is what we attempted to do ... didn't work."
There was a renewed sense of urgency as dime- to golfball-sized balls of tar began washing up on Dauphin Island, three miles off the Alabama mainland at the mouth of Mobile Bay and much farther east than the thin, rainbow sheens that had so far arrived sporadically in the Louisiana marshes.
"It almost looks like bark, but when you pick it up it definitely has a liquid consistency and it's definitely oil," said Kimberly Creel, 41, who was hanging out and swimming with hundreds of other beachgoers. "... I can only imagine what might be coming this way that might be larger."
About a half dozen tar balls had been collected by Saturday afternoon at Dauphin Island, Coast Guard chief warrant officer Adam Wine said in Mobile. Authorities planned to test the substance but strongly suspected it came from the oil spill.
A long line of materials that resembled a string of pompoms were positioned on a stretch of the shore. Crews walked along the beach in rubber boots, carrying trash bags to clear debris from the sand.
Brenda Prosser, of Mobile, said she wept when she saw the workers.
"I just started crying. I couldn't quit crying. I'm shaking now," Prosser said. "To know that our beach may be black or brown, or that we can't get in the water, it's so sad."
Prosser, 46, said she was afraid to let her 9-year-old son, Grant, get in the water, and she worried that the spill would rob her of precious moments with her own child.
"I've been coming here since I was my son's age, as far back as I can remember in my life," Prosser said.
In the three weeks since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, about 210,000 gallons of crude a day has been flowing into the Gulf. Until Saturday none of the thick sludge _ those iconic images of past spills _ had reached Gulf shores.
It was a troubling turn of events, especially since the intrepid efforts to use the containment box had not yet succeeded. There has been a rabid fascination with the effort to use the peaked box the size of a four-story house to place over the ruptured well. It had taken more than 12 hours to slowly lower it to the seafloor, a task that required painstaking precision to accurately position it over the well or it could damage the leaking pipe and make the problem worse.
It was fraught with doubt and peril since nothing like it had been attempted at such depths with water pressure great enough to crush a submarine. It ended up encountering an icy crystals, familiar territory for deepwater drilling.
The icy buildup on the containment box made it too buoyant and clogged it up, BP's Suttles said. Workers who had carefully lowered the massive box over the leak nearly a mile below the surface had to lift it and move it some 600 feet to the side. If it had worked, authorities had said it would reduce the flow by about 85 percent, buying a bit more time as a three-month effort to drill a relief well goes on simultaneously.
Company and Coast Guard officials had cautioned that icelike hydrates, a slushy mixture of gas and water, would be one of the biggest challenges to the containment box plan, and their warnings proved accurate. The crystals clogged the opening in the top of the peaked box like sand in a funnel, only upside-down.
Options under consideration included raising the box high enough that warmer water would prevent the slush from forming, or using heated water or methanol to prevent the crystals from forming.
Steve Rinehart, a BP spokesman in Mobile, Ala., said late Saturday a second containment device was under construction by Wild Well Control, Inc., in Port Fourchon, La., the company that built the first one.
"It's the same general idea and approach. It may be a slightly different size and shape," he said.
Even as officials pondered their next move, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said she must continue to manage expectations of what the containment box can do.
"This dome is no silver bullet to stop the leak," she said.
The captain of the supply boat that carried the precious cargo for 11 hours from the Louisiana coast earlier last week wasn't giving up hope.
"Everybody knew this was a possibility well before we brought the dome out," Capt. Demi Shaffer, of Seward, Alaska, told an Associated Press reporter stationed in the Gulf in the heart of the containment zone with the 12-man crew of the Joe Griffin. "It's an everyday occurrence when you're drilling, with the pipeline trying to freeze up."
The spot where Deepwater Horizon rig once was positioned is now teeming with vessels working on containing the well. There are 15 boats and large ships at or near the site _ some being used in an ongoing effort to drill a relief well, another with the crane that lowered the containment device to the seafloor.
There is even a vessel at the site called the Seacor Lee that is sending a live video feed from the undersea robots back to BP's operations center in Houston.
"Everyone was hoping that that would slow it down a bit if not stop it," said Shane Robichaux, of Chauvin, a 39-year-old registered nurse relaxing at his vacation camp in Cocodrie, La. "I'm sure they'll keep working on it `til it gets fixed, one way or another. But we were hopeful that would shut it down."
The original blowout was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP PLC's internal investigation.
Deep beneath the seafloor, methane is in a slushy, crystalline form. Deep sea oil drillers often encounter pockets of methane crystals as they dig into the earth.
As the bubble rose up the drill column from the high-pressure environs of the deep to the less pressurized shallows, it intensified and grew, breaking through various safety barriers, said Robert Bea, a University of California Berkley engineering professor and oil pipeline expert who detailed the interviews to an Associated Press reporter.
"A small bubble becomes a really big bubble," Bea said. "So the expanding bubble becomes like a cannon shooting the gas into your face."
___
Larimer reported from Mobile, Ala. Associated Press writers Ray Henry and John Curran in Louisiana, and Noaki Schwartz in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
The head of Tehran's anti-riot police threatened opposition protesters Tuesday with a full-scale assault if they return to the streets during government-backed events marking the takeover of the U.S. Embassy.
Reformist leaders, however, have shown no sign of backing off their calls for marches to compete with Wednesday's state-sanctioned gatherings _ which include an annual anti-American rally outside the brick walls of the former embassy compound.
Both sides have much on the line for an anniversary that is among the most potent symbols of the Islamic Revolution three decades ago.
Opposition groups seek to display their resiliency and resolve after relentless pressure from authorities. The forces of the Islamic establishment, however, appear ready to crush any attempt to revive the mass demonstrations that followed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.
The head of Tehran's anti-riot units, Gen. Ali Reza Alipour, said police would use all their "power and capacity" against protesters. Tehran's prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said even chants that "deviate" from the official ceremonies could bring arrest.
On Monday, the powerful Revolutionary Guard _ which led the postelection crackdown _ warned opposition groups against disrupting the ceremonies.
But the opposition appeared determined not to lose the moment.
Dozens of pro-reform Web sites issued appeals to join protests. The calls were given a boost last week by defiant statements from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former President Mohammad Khatami _ vowing that their challenges to the system are not flagging.
It's been more than six weeks, however, since opposition groups have managed a show of force in public. At that time, tens of thousands of protesters _ marching sholder-to-shoulder _ chanted "Death to the dictator" and clashed with police during state-run anti-Israel rallies despite harsh warnings by the Guards.
But the anniversary of the embassy seizure has an even higher value in the official propaganda calendar. A huge police presence is likely across the capital to try to snuff out any protest marches on the 30th anniversary of the takeover.
Each year, thousands of school children and others are bused to the gates of the former embassy _ often called the "Den of Spies" by Iranian officials _ and wave anti-American placards as speakers denounce Washington and Israel.
Among the honored guests are some of those who stormed the embassy 30 years ago after the United States failed to send the ousted monarch back to Iran for trial. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
State radio said a top lawmaker, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, will deliver a speech in the Wednesday ceremony. He is a related by marriage to the family of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.
The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported that all other rallies are outlawed Wednesday. The clampdown also extended to the media, which has been under severe restrictions since shortly after the June 12 election.
Foreign and local media outlets, including The Associated Press, have been issued permits that allow only coverage outside the former embassy.
In a sign of a possible hardening stance on nuclear talks, Iran's supreme leader accused the United States of trying to strong-arm Tehran.
Khamenei's statements come as Iran is asking to modify a U.N. proposal for Russia and France to turn its uranium stockpile into nuclear fuel and allay Western fears over a possible weapons program. Iran claims it only seeks a peaceful nuclear program for research and energy.
"Whenever the U.S offers a smile, it hides a dagger in his back," said Khamenei according to the state news agency IRNA. He rejected "talks in which the U.S. decides about its results in advance."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday in Marrakech that the U.N. nuclear deal could not be altered.
___
Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
WASHINGTON Wages, salaries and benefits paid to American workersrose 4.6 percent over the last 12 months, a much slower advance thanthe year before, the government said today in a report viewed asevidence that wage inflation is abating.
In fact, analysts said the more moderate rise in the LaborDepartment's employment cost index, considered one of the best gaugesof wage inflation pressures, probably played a part in the FederalReserve's move to lower a key interest rate.
The move came within an hour of the Labor Department's releaseof the report.
The 4.6 percent increase in over-all compensation costs for theyear ending March, 1991, marked a dramatic decline from a year ago,when those costs had soared 5.5 percent for a similar 12-monthperiod.
Also today, the Labor Department said that workers covered bycollective bargaining agreements settled so far this year won annualwage gains averaging 3.4 percent over the life of the pact.
Previously, those contracts had provided 2 percent annualgains.
For the last year, too, there was a substantial slowdown inbenefit cost increases, which rose 5.9 percent for 12 months endingin March, down from the 7.4 percent spurt for the year ending inDecember.
The Labor Department attributed the slowdown in benefit costincreases to lower gains in pension costs and non-production bonusesthat offset relatively large increases in health insurance costs andworkers' compensation insurance rates.
The San Jose Sharks hired former Detroit Red Wings assistant Todd McLellan as their head coach on Wednesday, bringing in a leader with Stanley Cup winning credentials to replace the fired Ron Wilson.
McLellan will be formally introduced at a news conference with general manager Doug Wilson on Thursday.
"It's a very good feeling," McLellan said in a statement released by the team. "From the first moment Doug called to the moment he offered the job, I felt comfortable. I think the Sharks have done a tremendous job. You don't get that close to 50 wins for a number of years in a row without a lot of talent. It's a matter of getting over the hump. There are some real parallels between the Wings and the Sharks."
McLellan had spent the past three seasons as an assistant in Detroit, where he was considered a bright offensive coach who led Detroit's power-play units. The Red Wings had the NHL's top power play in McLellan's first season, and the second best over his three-year tenure at 20.1 percent. McLellan helped the Red Wings knock out the Sharks in the second round of the playoffs in 2007 and win the Stanley Cup over Pittsburgh this past season.
"Todd McLellan has an excellent track record and has had success at every level of coaching in his career," Doug Wilson said. "He comes from one of the top organizations in all of sports and has been exposed to some of the brightest hockey minds in the game including Jim Devallano, Ken Holland, Scotty Bowman, Steve Yzerman and Mike Babcock, along with Jacques Lemaire, to name just a few. We feel that Todd is an excellent fit for our hockey team."
Ron Wilson was fired last month after the Sharks followed another outstanding regular season with yet another early exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was hired as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
The Sharks won the Pacific Division this season and compiled the NHL's second-best record with 49 wins and 108 points, but the Dallas Stars knocked them out of the second round in six games. San Jose ended its past three seasons with six-game series losses in the second round, and the Sharks lost to a lower-seeded team in three of their four postseasons under Wilson.
At the time of the firing, Doug Wilson said further changes are in store for that roster that is led by former MVP Joe Thornton, captain Patrick Marleau and goalie Evgeni Nabokov.
Before joining the Red Wings, McLellan spent four seasons as coach of the American Hockey League's Houston Aeros, winning the Calder Cup championship in 2003. He also was a head coach for Cleveland in the International Hockey League and at Swift Current in the WHL.
McLellan played five games with the New York Islanders in 1987-88, recording one goal and one assist.
