Column: From cancer to Super Bowl for Herzlich (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS ? The player on the screen was a 6-foot-4, 246-pound bundle of fury, flying across the field in search of another target to attack. Mark Herzlich watched himself over and over again, slamming into opponents, busting up plays and generally creating havoc for the Boston College defense.

The video he made in a college class kept him going as he sat for hours at a time for the chemotherapy he prayed would make his cancer go away.

He needed it to remember who he had been. He needed it to know he could become that player again.

"You're sitting there and your body just feels drained. You don't want to move," Herzlich said. "But I knew I had to go work out after, go do my cardio if I was going to have a chance. It kept me going."

They told him there was a chance he wouldn't walk again. No way he would play football again.

Now he's a rookie linebacker on the New York Giants, hoping to play in the biggest game of his life.

The rare cancer that almost cost him his leg is gone. The determination and spirit it took to beat it remains.

"I know my doctors know cancer, but they didn't know me," Herzlich said. "Realistically it shouldn't be possible, but somehow, some way, it is possible."

Herzlich desperately wants to play in the Super Bowl, though others might think being here with the Giants is victory enough. He's been recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined him since late November and says he feels great, but is not sure if he will be on the active list for the showdown with the New England Patriots on Sunday.

That didn't stop him from tweeting his joy about being invited here as the Giants arrived in Indianapolis on Monday for Sunday's game.

"2 yrs ago I was told I might never walk again. Just WALKED off plane in Indy to play in The (hash)SuperBowl," he told his 71,000 followers.

For a long time, playing in big games seemed to be Herzlich's destiny. He was a dominating player at Boston College, so good he was chosen ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2008 after having 110 tackles and six interceptions as a junior.

But he kept getting sharp, stabbing pains in his leg that seemed to come at random, often waking him up in the middle of the night. Doctors finally ordered an MRI and diagnosed him in May 2009 with Ewing's sarcoma, a form of bone cancer that is fatal 30-40 percent of the time ? and 90 percent of the time if it spreads to other areas of the body.

The diagnosis hit him hard. He went home and upstairs to his room, where he contemplated a future that suddenly wasn't so bright.

"It was tough, very depressing," Herzlich said. "Cancer was just something that never crossed my mind."

The depression didn't last long. Two hours later, he came down the stairs and told his father that not only was he going to beat the cancer but was going to play football again.

"OK, `' Sandy Herzlich said. "Let's do it together."

Doctors wanted to shrink the tumor by chemotherapy, then slice out a 12-inch section of Herzlich's left thigh bone and replace it with a cadaver bone. But that would have ended Herzlich's football career, and may have left him unable to walk again.

He opted for a riskier path, with chemotherapy followed by surgery to insert a titanium rod that runs from his hip to just above his knee. Then came more months of chemo, followed by five weeks of radiation to make sure the cancer was gone.

"To be on crutches for 40 years or be in a wheelchair, that wasn't a life I wanted to live,' Herzlich said. "It was risky, but it was a decision I felt I had to make. I wanted to be able to play with my children, wanted to live a life worth living."

The treatments were a success, and follow-up tests showed the cancer hadn't spread. After missing a year, he came back for a senior season at Boston College that was solid, if not nearly as spectacular as the last season he played before his diagnosis.

The NFL invited him to New York for the draft, though he wasn't a first-round pick. He wasn't picked at all, a slight that bothered Herzlich but made him even more determined to play in the NFL. The Giants ? acting on a "suggestion" by co-owner John Mara, a BC graduate ? finally signed him to a rookie contract, and he made the opening game roster.

His playing time was limited to special teams before getting a start at middle linebacker against the Eagles in late November. He played well, but injured his ankle the next week and has been out since.

The ankle, he says, is healed. It's now a numbers game to see whether the Giants will activate him for the Super Bowl.

"I can't even imagine what it would feel like," Herzlich said "To even try to put it in words what I will feel doesn't even do it justice."

One thing Herzlich is sure of is he wants to continue to offer hope to others diagnosed with cancer. He's earned his large Twitter following for his positive messages and, just before the Giants left for Indianapolis, called a young woman in Georgia who was about to undergo surgery for a tumor in her leg to offer her some inspiration.

He barely thinks about his own leg anymore, except every four months when he goes for tests to make sure the cancer hasn't returned. So far Herzlich has tested clean, and he's confident that he is truly cancer free.

___

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120202/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_super_bowl_tim_dahlberg020212

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PFT: Cam: 'I did a poor job protecting the football'

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There is no better example of New England?s odd roster composition than in the secondary.

They have four players who have changed positions. Cornerbacks are playing safety, safeties are playing cornerback, and two wide receivers are playing both positions.

The best cornerback (Kyle Arrington) was undrafted last year. The leader of the group may just be a ?street free agent? safety that was signed late in training camp. PFT spoke to a few Patriots players Thursday morning that said former Jets safety James?Ihedigbo was the leader of the secondary.

?I definitely have taken on a leadership role. I?ve played in a lot of big games in my young career in the NFL and those guys understand that,? Ihedigbo said.

He made two straight AFC title games in New York, and now has reached the Super Bowl. Ihedigbo was known as a limited player in New York that specialized in big hits with poor coverage. He makes a physical tandem with Patrick Chung, who is probably the best player in the secondary right now. Ihedigbo?says he thinks day and night of what he?s going to do in the Super Bowl.

It says a lot the Patriots are relying so heavily on?Ihedigbo, a player no other team wanted. The team is also counting on rookie undrafted free agent Sterling Moore, who was cut by both the Patriots and Raiders this year while playing safety. Now he?s at cornerback.

?There was a point, especially after being cut after I started three games at safety, where I wondered if I?d be on practice squad the rest of the season,? Moore said. ?You let that creep out of your mind.?

I asked him about the differences between the Raiders and the Patriots.

?Everybody?s more . . . ?businesslike here,? Moore said, shaking his head. ?As many superstars we have on the team, they don?t act like it.?

Devin McCourty is the somewhat fallen star of the group. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie cornerback and struggled so much this season that he?s primarily been playing safety of late. ?He?s taken the change in stride and points out the team has played its best football of late because they have settled in roles.

He admits that some of Bill Belichick?s moves come as a surprise.

?Yeah, because my football mind isn?t there yet. I can?t think how he thinks, but it usually works pretty well,? McCourty said.

McCourty said that limiting yards after the catch was an emphasis for Super Bowl Sunday. He doesn?t expect the Patriots to match up with the same Giants receivers all game. He expects the Patriots to mix up coverages quite a bit.

Moore said they are focusing on ball skills. All of the players said they expect the unexpected come gametime.

?We?ll?see things, we change it up midgame,? Moore said.

Changing on the fly has become the norm for this Patriots secondary. It?s amazing this group plays for the team slightly favored on Super Bowl Sunday.

If they can hold up one more week, it will be even more amazing this group will be a Super Bowl-winning secondary.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/02/cam-newton-i-did-a-poor-job-protecting-the-football/related/

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Democrats emboldened by Republican primary race (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama has long relished a dragged-out Republican primary contest that would leave the eventual GOP nominee battered before the fall election.

He might be getting his wish, a prospect that is firing up Democrats, galvanizing their ranks and boosting fundraising pitches and requests for volunteers.

"They've awakened some sleeping giants," said Ira Leesfield, a Miami attorney and a longtime Democratic fundraiser.

As the GOP voting shifts to contests in the Midwest and West, front-runner Mitt Romney's chief rival, Newt Gingrich, is attacking him at every turn and pledging to stay in the race well into the spring. And Romney is paying a price for it: The former Massachusetts governor's negative perceptions among voters have climbed in recent weeks, a trend that could hurt him in a general election matchup with Obama.

"The Florida primary will be a turning point in this race ? the other side is looking at what could be months of brutal, negative tactics that turn people off to politics altogether," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a fundraising pitch to supporters.

The Obama campaign's most recent fundraising report showed it had more than $80 million in the bank, a healthy sum for the coming year.

Democrats ? and Obama specifically ? are no stranger to drawn-out fights. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't drop out of the race until June 2008, but both candidates avoided driving up their negative ratings.

Obama's team is trying to take advantage of the extra time in this election year, using the next several weeks to focus on his best political asset: being president. As Republicans grind toward having a nominee, Obama is filling his time with a post-State of the Union agenda underscoring the themes of his re-election bid. That means pushing ideas with mainstream appeal, like helping struggling families refinance their homes or pay for the kids' college education.

It also means not directly engaging Romney for now because to do so would make Obama look more like a presidential candidate than the man running the country. But that has not stopped Obama from making not-so-subtle digs at Romney this week for his views on the auto industry bailout and home foreclosures.

"It is wrong for anybody to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom," Obama said in Falls Church, Va., on Wednesday in a clear reference to comments made by Romney to a Las Vegas newspaper last year.

Romney's negative ratings have climbed in recent weeks. Polling by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal showed that 36 percent had a negative feeling toward Romney, compared with 31 percent having positive feelings for him. A separate poll by ABC News and The Washington Post found 49 percent had a negative impression of Romney, a jump of nearly 20 points since September.

Democrats point to a growing storyline about Romney's work as a top executive for Bain Capital, a private equity firm, and soft support among ardent conservatives. Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter noted in a memo Wednesday that a recent Pew Research poll found nearly 3 in 5 GOP primary voters wanted another candidate to enter the race.

"You've got a lot of Republicans who are disenchanted with the `supposed' nominee in Mitt Romney," said Morgan Jackson, a North Carolina-based Democratic strategist. "As somebody who worked for John Kerry in 2004, we've seen this on our side. There were a lot of folks who liked John Kerry and voted for John Kerry but really wanted to be with somebody else."

Romney, addressing supporters in Tampa, Fla., dismissed suggestions that a lengthy primary fight would hurt his party's chances in the fall.

"A competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us, and we will win," he said.

But Gingrich gave no indication of bowing out anytime soon. His campaign even distributed signs at his Florida primary night rally that declared, "46 States to Go."

In Florida, Leesfield said he watched the negative ads and said "it put me into high gear." He had planned to raise money for Obama, but said he was now "exponentially more" interested in encouraging his fundraising network to give to Obama's campaign.

In Nevada, Erin Bilbray-Kohn, a member of the Democratic National Committee, said the Republican contest had boosted interest among Democrats organizing their volunteer base. "They're watching the Republicans and they want to do something and what they can do right now is work their precincts," she said.

Democrats have plenty of bad news on their side. The nation's unemployment rate has consistently topped 8 percent during Obama's presidency, a red line for any incumbent. A Gallup survey showed Obama's approval ratings dropping in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, all critical to his re-election. In New Hampshire, which Obama carried in 2008, he had an approval rating of about 38 percent.

With a long grind ahead among Republicans, Obama will try to show voters that he and Congress aren't completely in campaign mode.

The White House hopes the first result will be a law in which Congress polices itself on insider trading, then a deal to extend a payroll tax cut. All the while, Obama will be issuing executive orders to try to jolt the economy and win over voters. He also will keep up a brisk pace of fundraisers.

"In 2008 we needed to make change ? we needed change," said Gaylene Kanoyton, who leads the local Democratic committee in Hampton, Va. "The theme for 2012 is we need to guard the change."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120202/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama_democrats

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Create Your Own Altar | Self Help Improvement

Create Your Own Altar
<img src="http://self-help-improvement.bigsexyshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/lisa-romerein-g-bluebuddha.jpg" border="0" hspace="15" alt="

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Even though having a home altar is not a tradition in most Western countries, more and more people are creating small ?

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Self Help ? Empowerment to Improvement
Self Improvement for assistance with self esteem for women men and young adults.

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, meditation and Intervention are discussed.

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Source: http://self-help-improvement.bigsexyshow.com/self_help/create-your-own-altar/

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Landowners fight eminent domain in Pa. gas field (AP)

LAPORTE, Pa. ? A pipeline operator assured federal regulators it would minimize using eminent domain against private landowners if given approval to lay a 39-mile natural gas pipeline in northern Pennsylvania's pristine Endless Mountains.

Yet the company was readying condemnation papers against dozens of landowners even as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was considering its application for the $250 million MARC 1 pipeline. Within two days of winning approval, Central New York Oil & Gas Co., LLC went to court to condemn nearly half the properties along the pipeline's route ? undercutting part of the regulatory commission's approval rationale and angering landowners who are now fighting the company in court.

Eminent domain would give the company the right to excavate and lay the 30-inch diameter pipeline on private property. Landowners would not lose their properties and would be compensated.

The dispute could foreshadow eminent domain battles to come as more pipelines are approved and built to carry shale gas to market in states like Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

Some of the complaining landowners say the company steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on either monetary compensation or the pipeline's route. Their attorneys say the company has skirted Pennsylvania's eminent domain rules governing compensation.

Residents are fighting the pipeline on two fronts: challenging the eminent domain proceedings in court and appealing the approval by FERC. Because those challenges are pending, commission spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen declined Tuesday to comment on whether the agency was misled.

The pipeline operator, a subsidiary of Inergy LP of Kansas City, Mo., insists it's trying to reach a "fair settlement" with all residents and wants to be a good neighbor.

The company promotes the MARC 1 pipeline as key infrastructure in developing the Marcellus Shale, a vast rock formation underneath Pennsylvania and surrounding states that experts believe holds the nation's largest reservoir of gas. The high-pressure steel pipeline will connect to major interstate pipelines and the company's own natural gas storage facility in southern New York state.

Central New York Oil & Gas hopes to start construction soon and finish by July, but awaits permits from Pennsylvania environmental regulators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

It also faces the residents' legal challenge.

Many of them say they favor natural gas drilling and some have leased land to gas drillers. What rankles them is that the federal government has invested the company with the power of eminent domain, taking away their bargaining power.

"Once the government becomes involved, this is what happens. Because you lose that leverage," said Amy Gardner, who, with her husband, faces condemnation of part of their 175-acre parcel in Sullivan County.

The Gardners say the company offered them less than a third of the amount they got from another pipeline company that installed a gathering line on their land. The difference? Gathering lines ? smaller pipelines that take gas from the wellhead to a transmission line or processing facility ? are not federally regulated and companies that operate them don't have condemnation power.

Amy Gardner said a CNYOG company representative who made them the lowball offer told them to "take it or leave it." She would not publicly disclose what the company had offered.

"There's no negotiating with this company. They come and they tell you what they're going to do. They're telling you what they're going to pay. And they're counting on the government to enforce it," Gardner said in a recent interview at the Sullivan County Courthouse, where a judge has scheduled a mid-February hearing on the landowners' concerns.

The company insists it has met its obligation to negotiate and has reached private agreement with more than 80 percent of the landowners. Its attorney, Michael Wright, said there were several "meet-in-the-middle cases" involving compromise.

"It's not like we were sitting silently until the FERC order and rushed to the courthouse," said Wright, who is based in Vestal, N.Y. "To say we did not attempt to negotiate in good faith is incorrect."

Amounts offered by the pipeline company range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the amount of property taken. Court papers it filed in late December valued damages at 37 condemned properties in Sullivan County at $310,900 ? from a low of $120 to a high of $39,570 for land owned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The pipeline has been controversial since it was first proposed two years ago.

The regulatory commission considers all applications for new interstate pipelines. It received 22,000 comments on the MARC 1 project, many concerned about environmental and safety impacts. The Environmental Protection Agency also worried about potential damage to the forest ecosystem, noting the pipeline will cross dozens of pristine waterways in an area popular with hikers, hunters and fishermen.

The commission ultimately determined the pipeline would not significantly impact the environment and allowed it to proceed.

The regulators were also supposed to consider whether there would be an "unneeded exercise" of eminent domain ? the often-contentious legal process by which the government, or a party such as a public utility, takes private property for public benefit.

The power of eminent domain has traditionally been invoked for highways, railroads, schools and other public buildings. Property owners are supposed to receive fair-market value for their land, and can appeal in court if they're unhappy with the amount they've been offered.

The regulators said last year that they relied on the company's assertion it was acquiring land "through negotiated agreements with landowners, thus minimizing the need" to condemn people's land.

In reality, Central New York Oil & Gas had already prepared to take dozens of landowners to court. Within two days of getting the commission's approval on Nov. 14, it began eminent domain proceedings in court against 74 of 152 property owners along the pipeline's route through the mountains of Bradford, Lycoming and Sullivan counties.

The company isn't taking homes or booting people off their land. Rather, it needs easements for the part of each property through which the pipeline will run.

Deborah Goldberg, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, said the large number of condemnations suggests that the pipeline company "never made a serious effort to get negotiated agreements with the landowners that the landowners thought were fair." Earthjustice has intervened in the pipeline challenge.

Goldberg suggests the pace of settlements quickened because condemnation takes leverage away from the property owner.

Wright, the company attorney, acknowledged that Central New York Oil & Gas told landowners that if they challenged the company in court, forcing it to incur legal expenses, then any deal on the table would be withdrawn.

Some landowners aren't interested in the money. They're more concerned about the pipeline's route.

The company told Bob Swartz that it plans to cut a 50-foot-wide, 400-foot-long gash through an ancient stand of trees across the front of his property. When Swartz proposed an alternate route through an open field that would preserve his trees and views, the company said it wasn't interested and offered instead to pay him for the wood.

"That's not negotiation. It was their way or no way, and `we'll see you in court.' It's the little guys against Goliath," said Swartz, who has challenged the company in court.

Another landowner, Lisa Richlin, has appealed to federal regulators to force Central New York Oil & Gas to abandon plans for an access road along her property. Richlin said the road is at the bottom of a long hill and around a sharp bend where there have been many accidents, at least one of them fatal.

When Richlin pressed the company to use an alternate route a short distance away, she said, the company told her that would cause a six-month delay.

"I want them to go elsewhere. I don't want somebody to die because of stupidity," she said.

In a statement, the company said it has accommodated dozens of landowner requests for route changes, but can't do more because of "environmental, cultural and biological restrictions as well as other land use constraints."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_us/us_gas_drilling_eminent_domain

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Sony confirms Kazuo Hirai as new President and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer

Sony has just confirmed Kazuo Hirai as its new CEO and President, validating rumors that have been swirling for a few weeks now. Outgoing CEO Howard Stringer, meanwhile, has been appointed Chairman of Sony's Board of Directors. The Hirai era officially begins April 1st, while Stringer will assume his new role sometime in June (until then, he'll remain executive chairman). Today's announcement, coming a day before Sony's earnings call, brings an end to more than a year's worth of speculation, though Hirai's selection hardly comes as a surprise, considering his recent string of promotions. In April, he was named Executive Deputy President; five months later, he was promoted to Sony Computer Entertainment Chairman. According to Stringer, in fact, Sony has been grooming Hirai since as early as 2009, when the Board began designing its succession plans. Kaz, he says, stood out from the crowd:

Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature. I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead. I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success. It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of President and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now.

Kaz, for his part, acknowledges that Sony is going through some "challenging" times at this juncture, but credits Stringer with steadying the ship, and seems clear-minded about the future. "The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses - primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains," the 51-year-old PSN architect explained. "The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony's diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways."

Click past the break for Sony's full press release.

Continue reading Sony confirms Kazuo Hirai as new President and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/01/sony-confirms-kazuo-hirai-as-new-president-and-ceo/

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Video: Facebook will file for IPO

CNBC has confirmed that the social networking company, valued at more than 75 billion dollars, will file for a $5 billion initial public offering. NBC?s Brian Williams reports.

>>> big news in the business world tonight. our friends and colleagues over at cnbc have confirmed facebook will file initial paperwork tomorrow morning for a $5 billion initial public offering . the company is looking at a valuation worth of the firm of between $75 billion and $100 billion, which would vault it right into the ranks of the largest public companies on the planet.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46211825/

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