Q&A: Cincinnati coach Butch Jones, Part II

If you missed it, here is Part I of my interview with Cincinnati coach Butch Jones. Today, Jones goes over some of the key questions headed into spring practice, which begins March 1.

Did you allow yourself any time to enjoy the season after the bowl win or did you rush into preparations for 2012?

BJ: We started working on 2012 during bowl prep. We wanted to finish, but were also were getting ready for the future. We stayed after in Memphis so we could enjoy the win, took a day and then we were full-fledged onto 2012. That's the thing in our profession -- you can never sit back. I thought we did some great things with bowl prep. We had our seniors meet with the junior class and talk about leadership and the things they learned.

So on to the future, what happens at the quarterback spot? Munchie Legaux and Jordan Luallen got playing time this year, so they have to be the leaders, right?

BJ: They're going to have to earn that position every day. The exciting thing is with all the youth that we have and the competition that we have, there's already a renewed spirit, there?s a renewed commitment, there's excitement and energy in our football program. That's not just with the quarterback spot. I can feel that excitement already. I think the experience that Munchie gained and Jordan gained will prove to be extremely beneficial as we move forward. But it?s also exciting because of Patrick Coyne, Brendon Kay. Throw in two youngsters who graduated high school early -- to have them here already is going to pay huge dividends as well.

What do you think when people think 2012 will be a rebuilding year? I?ve written it myself.

BJ: All we can control is ourselves -- continuing to build our football program, and not paying attention. You look at last year -- I have it sitting on my desk -- you look at preseason rankings in the Big East conference and you look at the positions. Every single one of our defensive positions was ranked 7 or 8 in our conference. The thing we have to do is focus on being a better football team. It's what you sign your name to -- it's that excellence we talk about. I don't get caught up in the outside world because I know what we have, our players know what we have. We talk about not building a team but a program, and I think we have proven across the country we are a football program. So we just have to control what we can control, our daily work ethic, how we go to class, every individual taking accountability. There's a lot of excitement here in the community and in our football program. I think change is good, change keeps people on their toes. There's a lot of competition, our junior class that are now seniors they understand the responsibility that it is in our football program. There's a great spirit right now.

Where do you think is your biggest area of strength going into 2012?

BJ: Well, we won a lot of games on special teams this year. You look at starting season with an unproven kicker, Tony (Miliano) has a lot of room for improvement, but he also made big kicks for us, Pat O?Donnell returns as well. In our secondary, those individuals have gained a ton of experience, Deven Drane continued to get better as the season progressed, along with Cam Cheatham. Now we have Trenier Orr, whom we?re high on, so we?re going to have a high level of competition. We get Dominique Battle back. You look at our defensive end position with Walter Stewart and Brandon Mills, Dan Giordano so that and then I expect our receiving corps to be much better with Anthony McClung, Kenbrell Thompkins, Alex Chisum and the experience they gained. Also, I thought our tight ends really made some big plays for us. We?re going to miss Adrien Robinson, but that's a position that could be pretty strong as well.

How about at running back? You seem to have a lot of depth there when it comes to trying to replace Isaiah Pead.

BJ: I don't know if you just replace a great back like Isaiah. He meant so much to us but that's probably one of the most competitive spots that we'll have in our football program. When you look at Ralph David Abernathy and what he brings to the table, that big kickoff return (against Vanderbilt), Jameel Poteat, Akise Teague, George Winn. And if we?re able to maintain a couple in the recruitment process, I think that's going to be a very, very competitive position as we move forward and we'll see how it goes. The mark of great coaches is they're able to adapt each and every year for their strengths and weaknesses so we have to do a great job of playing to our strength. Each team have a different personality. We just have to do a great job of putting our schemes in and allowing players to be successful in what they can do.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/29109/qa-cincinnati-coach-butch-jones-part-ii

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Israel Hackers Attack Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange

Saudi banking officials have denied reports in Israeli media that hackers have brought down the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

A top official in the Saudi banking authority said he had received no reports of customer data breach. Earlier reports by Israeli news website Haaretz suggested that the Israeli hackers, who go under the name of the IDF Team, took down Tadawul's website and caused delays on the ADX exchange site.

The attack was in retaliation for the hacking of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website, El Al Airlines and three banks on Monday. The hackers warned that if the attacks continued they would "move to the next stage and paralyse websites for a period of two weeks to a month".

The Saudi hacker who has been at the forefront of the recent cyber-war against Israel pledged to continue to strike until the government "apologised for their genocide in Palestine and Gaza".

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He said he had joined the forces with a group of pro-Palestinian hackers called "Nightmare" who claimed responsibility for attacking and shutting down the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

A spokeswoman for the exchange confirmed that the site had been attacked but said trading systems had not been affected.

"There is someone that has been attacking the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website since this morning," Idit Yaaron told AFP. He described what appeared to be a distributed denial of service attack (DDos).

Hacker 0xOmar warned he was going to attack the websites, Israeli newspapers reported.

0xOmar's first attack happened on 3 January when he claimed to have posted details of 400,000 Israeli-owned cards online.

Israel's main credit card companies admitted that 20,000 cards had been hacked.

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Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/283497/20120118/israel-hackers-attack-saudi-s-stock-exchange.htm

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Retailers have modest hopes for sales in 2012

NEW YORK/CHICAGO?? Hopefully, U.S. retailers liked 2011, because 2012 is looking like it will offer more of the same.

A consensus is emerging that the new year will again bring a slow but steady increase in business, after moderate growth last year that was capped by a holiday season that saw shoppers spend if stores gave out bargains.

"Consumers are doing everything they can in light of the current environment to be consumers," Paul Hurley, founder and chief executive of Ideeli, a flash sales website. "We're not seeing a deflationary spiral where people are putting off purchases."

The National Retail Federation at the start of its annual convention in New York said U.S. retail sales should rise 3.4 percent this year, down from an increase of 4.7 percent in 2011, which came after weak sales in 2010.

"It's realistic given the challenges that we face in the economy," NRF Chief Executive Matthew Shay told Reuters in an interview, noting that improvements in consumer spending would continue to be "incremental" for the time being.

U.S. shoppers have been held back by modest growth in income and high unemployment, currently at 8.5 percent.

ShopperTrak, a data firm that makes sales projections based on foot traffic, expects sales to be "on par" with 2011 levels.

And Customer Growth Partners gave a preliminary forecast of 5 percent to 6 percent growth for 2012, including e-commerce. That compares with an expected 5.6 percent for the year that will end this month.

Last year, e-commerce sales rose 15 percent, according to comScore.

While unemployment remains high, consumer spending growth has outpaced overall economic growth because shoppers who spent freely during the housing boom in the early 2000s were forced to pay down debt during the recession. Also, consumers with jobs are now driving sales growth, said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth, a retail consulting firm.

"The consumer is doing better and the reason is, primarily, consumers have put themselves, basically, on a financial fitness program the last few years," Johnson said.

The November-December holiday selling season came in better than most analysts had expected, with sales rising 4.1 percent, excluding autos, gasoline and restaurants, according to the National Retail Federation. That exceeded the retail trade group's initial forecast of a 2.8 percent increase.

Still, the single biggest impediment to a sizeable jump in retail sales is the anemic growth in job creation. The U.S. job market perked up in December, creating 200,000 jobs, but at 8.5 percent, unemployment is still far above levels that would allow for meaningful recovery in consumer spending.

"We've seen some improvement in the job market and if that is sustained, then we'll start to see good growth in consumer spending," said Ira Kalish, a director with consulting firm Deloitte.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46015573/ns/business-retail/

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Iranian lawmaker: Obama proposed talks; US denies (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? An Iranian lawmaker claimed Wednesday that President Barack Obama called for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Obama administration officials denied there was such a letter.

Iran has threatened to close the waterway, the route for about one-sixth of the global oil flow, because of new U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program.

Conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari revealed the content of the letter days after the Obama administration said it was warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf.

"In the letter, Obama called for direct talks with Iran," the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Motahari as saying Wednesday. "The letter also said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is (Washington's) red line."

"The first part of the letter contains threats and the second part contains an offer for dialogue," he added.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast confirmed that Tehran received the letter and was considering a possible response.

In Washington, an Obama administration official denied that Obama sent a letter to Khamanei, saying communication of U.S. views were being delivered through other diplomatic messages. The official would give no further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor pointed to earlier comments from the Obama administration that noted the U.S. had a number of ways to communicate its views to the Iranian government. He said the U.S. remained committed to engaging with Tehran and finding a diplomatic solution to its larger issues with Iran's nuclear program.

Spokesmen have been vague on what the United States would do about Iran's threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but military officials have been clear that the U.S. is readying for a possible naval clash.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the country's most powerful military force, says Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the oil route if Iran's oil exports are blocked. A senior Guard officer said earlier this month that the decision has been made by Iran's top authorities.

Iranian politicians have made the threat in the past, but this was the strongest statement yet that a closure of the strait is official policy.

Iran's regular army recently held naval war games near the vital waterway that were described by hard-liners as part of preparations to close the strait if sanctions are imposed. The Guard is planning major naval military exercises next month in the same region.

The U.S. last month enacted new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad over Tehran's nuclear program. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.

Closing the strait would have immense world economic impact. Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer, and oil exports account for 80 percent of Iran's foreign currency income. To Tehran, an oil embargo would be tantamount to a declaration of war that could provoke the Iranian leadership to block the Hormuz strait.

At issue is Iran's nuclear program. The U.S., Israel and others charge that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Their case was bolstered by a report from the International Atomic Energy late last year, citing evidence that Iran was employing methods and equipment used in making bombs.

Iran has consistently denied that, saying its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electric power and isotopes for cancer treatment.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_us

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Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? A blackout scheduled for Wednesday to protest against proposed legislation on online piracy has failed to get the support of the biggest Internet players.

Despite calls for the participation of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other big names, the biggest participants are the online dictionary Wikipedia and the social-news website Reddit.

The situation shows that, while technology companies are concerned about the legislation, the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), the companies are not prepared to sacrifice a day's worth of revenue and risk the ire of users for a protest whose impact on lawmakers is hard to gauge.

Wikipedia and Reddit will black out their pages so visitors will see only information about Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

Of the biggest tech sites that have voiced opposition to the legislation, only Google is planning any type of change to its site tomorrow. It too will have information about the bills, although users will still be able to conduct Google searches.

"Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet," said a Google spokeswoman. "So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our US home page."

That solution allows Google to keep revenue attached to its searches, while still highlighting the issue.

Microblogging service Twitter also declined to participate, with chief executive Dick Costolo taking on critics of the decision on Twitter over the weekend.

"Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish," he wrote.

Costolo followed up with a Tweet stating the company will continue to take an active role in opposing the bills.

"Watch this space," he tweeted.

That position of criticizing the bills, but sitting out the blackout is echoed by many big tech companies, including several who wrote to Congress in November to complain about the legislation, such as AOL Inc, eBay Inc, Mozilla and Zynga Inc.

"We are not adjusting the consumer experience on our properties tomorrow, but we will be helping to drive awareness of key issues around these bills to our users," said Tekedra Mawakana, senior vice president for public policy at AOL.

In November, a number of technology companies wrote to key lawmakers expressing opposition to the bill, including eBay, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Mozilla.

Still, the blackout had signed up thousands of participating sites by late Tuesday and succeeded on at least one level: attracting the attention of lawmakers and industry leaders backing the bills. They were quick to attack it.

"This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts," said Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of SOPA. "Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy."

Former senator Chris Dodd, who now chairs the Motion Picture Association of America, labelled the blackout a "gimmick" and called for its supporters to "stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy."

The legislation, designed to curb access and payments to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit groups, has been a major priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical firms and many industry groups. They maintain the proposed law is critical to curbing online piracy they say costs them billions of dollars a year.

Internet companies have furiously opposed the legislation and have ramped up their lobbying efforts in recent months, arguing it would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet.

It was seemingly on the fast track for approval by Congress until the White House criticized aspects of it over the weekend.

(Reporting By Sarah McBride and Jasmin Melvin; editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/wr_nm/us_internet_protest

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Minnesota Public Relations Blog: Kohnstamm Communications is ...

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Source: http://www.mnprblog.com/2012/01/kohnstamm-communications-is-seeking.html

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Tea Party "kingmaker" DeMint focuses on Senate races (Reuters)

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (Reuters) ? Everybody was waiting for Jim DeMint. Mitt Romney had reason to hope the South Carolina senator would repeat his 2008 endorsement of his presidential bid.

DeMint is the hero of conservatives in South Carolina, so his backing might well have clinched the crucial state for Romney. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul had just as much reason to hope DeMint might support them, and put him in the role of kingmaker in the Republican race for the White House.

At a convention of the conservative Tea Party movement in Myrtle Beach on Sunday, DeMint made clear, however, they could all stop holding their collective breath.

The Republican lawmaker, who had refused to endorse anyone, said he was definitely staying on the sidelines.

"We've got a presidential race coming up and we've got a lot of good candidates," he said.

"I know that probably folks in this room feel strongly about them in a lot of different ways, and that's why I'm not getting involved," he added to laughter from the audience.

The Tea Party - with its calls for reduced government spending and regulation - is the hottest movement within the Republican Party. It helped more than three dozen conservative candidates get elected to Congress in the 2010 elections, helping Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives.

But the Tea Party's impact on the presidential campaign has been relatively muted. There is no consensus Tea Party candidate, because the movement is split among conservatives Gingrich, Santorum and Paul. Republicans are selecting a candidate to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in the November election.

It is also unclear whether the movement that helped elect candidates from conservative, mostly white congressional districts will have the same appeal in national elections, in which the electorate is more diverse.

So instead of picking a favorite for the White House race, DeMint has a different strategy: to strengthen the Tea Party in the Senate and forge a bastion of fiscal conservatism against whoever wins the presidency.

"We need not only to take a majority in the Senate," DeMint told the convention. "We need a conservative majority in the Senate."

The idea, he said, was to have enough conservative Republicans in the chamber to keep the occupant of the White House, "whoever it is," in check. Democrats hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but many of their seats are up for grabs in the November elections.

The key to DeMint's Senate plan is a fundraising group, the Senate Conservatives Fund, which says it has so far raised $3.5 million for the 2012 campaign cycle. It has endorsed four Senate candidates in Texas, Ohio, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

In DeMint's newly published book, "Now or Never: Saving America From Economic Collapse," the senator lists the questions that the Senate Conservatives Fund asks candidates before backing them, including "Will you oppose all net tax increases?"

"Ultimately, Jim wants to see 10 to 15 conservative senators who won't change their minds on core issues," said David Woodard, a politics professor at Clemson University, who has known DeMint for 20 years and co-authored "Why We Whisper" with the senator, a book published in 2007.

"That's the way he sees his role."

DeMint has come under pressure to give a nod to a conservative presidential candidate who can stop Romney, a moderate former Massachusetts governor who is the front-runner ahead of Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina.

The vote is seen by many as a last chance for former House Speaker Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum and Texas Governor Rick Perry to prove they can compete against Romney.

DeMint endorsed Romney in his failed presidential bid in 2008, before the Tea Party movement took off.

Friends, academics, Republican strategists and even opponents in South Carolina say DeMint will not go back on his word to stay on the sidelines.

"I have to say that while I disagree with Jim on many things, I have to admire his consistency and his commitment to his philosophy," said South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian. "If DeMint endorsed Romney, he'd be the Republican nominee tomorrow."

"But as he has said he won't endorse anyone, I don't believe he will," Harpootlian added.

THE DEMINT DOCTRINE

DeMint has a record of going against the Republican Party establishment in the Senate.

Almost since he was first elected to the Senate in 2004, he has fought against party leadership over government spending and taxation, issues crucial to Tea Party insurgents bent on pulling the Republican Party further to the right.

"Jim was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party," Harpootlian said.

DeMint bucked the party line in 2010 by backing conservative Senate candidates like Marco Rubio in Florida against those favored by party leadership.

This year, his mission to add more conservatives is aimed at cutting spending, getting tough on illegal immigration, and repealing Obama's healthcare overhaul that requires people to buy health insurance by 2014 or face tax penalties.

Call it the DeMint doctrine.

He ruled out compromising with Democrats in Congress at a speech to the Tea Party convention on Saturday.

"The Democratic Party today is the party of those dependent on government who want more government. That's why we can't compromise with them, we have to beat them," DeMint said.

His rhetoric went down well at the 2010 elections but many voters are now fed up with gridlock in Congress, a sentiment that Obama is playing on as part of his re-election bid.

"If people like Jim DeMint refuse to back down and try to find a way to compromise with the other side, we end up with gridlock, which is what we've seen over the past year," said Danielle Vinson, professor of politics at Furman University in South Carolina.

"The policy of no compromise runs the risk of turning the Republicans into the minority party if the rest of the country doesn't find his (DeMint's) arguments compelling," she said.

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1951, DeMint's parents divorced when he was a child. He was raised by his mother and in his book "Saving Freedom" he describes a hard upbringing.

After college, he worked in market research before setting up his own public relations firm The DeMint Group.

Jim Guth, a politics professor at Furman University, said DeMint's experience as a business owner heavily influenced his political career.

"He really sees issues of spending and taxes from the perspective of a small business owner," he said. "It's important to understand that background."

"DeMint has little sympathy for big corporations," Guth added. "He supports lower taxes, but he would equalize taxes across the board and close loopholes for corporations."

DeMint was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998 but unlike his predecessors who backed the textile industry in his district, DeMint spoke out in favor of free trade. Later in the Senate, he made a point of speaking out against the use of "earmarks" - used by lawmakers to bring federal funding home for pet projects.

In 2010, DeMint resisted calls for a congressional earmark to renovate the Port of Charleston so it could handle large cargo ships.

"There have been some frustrations in the business community about DeMint's ideological fervor and his refusal to bring home the bacon to South Carolina," said Chip Felkel, a Republican consultant in the state. "He took some flak for it, but that's just who he is. When he says something, he means it."

"Unlike some people, this is a deep personal calling for him and his consistency has made him hugely popular with Republican voters in South Carolina," he added.

(Editing by Alistair Bell, Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_demint

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