Indy hoping to make most of 2nd chance at playoffs

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis allowed one postseason-clinching chance to slip away at Houston.
It doesn't intend to let the same thing happen again at Kansas City.
"It's the playoffs. This is the playoffs," interim coach Bruce Arians said before Wednesday's practice began.
For the Colts (9-5), this is a rare second chance in a league where players and teams risk being left behind any time they miss an opportunity.
Just ask the Chicago Bears, 7-1 at midseason and now fighting just to make the playoffs. Or the Baltimore Ravens, who were in contention to earn the AFC's top seed three weeks ago. Or quarterback Alex Smith, who led San Francisco to last year's NFC championship game and a 6-2-1 record this season before losing his starting job to Colin Kaepernick.
The Colts are not looking back after making a historic turnaround.
They didn't complain when team owner Jim Irsay and new general manager Ryan Grigson started over in March by cutting team captains Peyton Manning and Gary Brackett, letting Jeff Saturday and Pierre Garcon walk away in free agency and opting to rebuild through the draft and with a handful of players who needed another chance to prove they belonged in the NFL.
They ignored the critics who pegged them as the league's worst team in training camp and projected three wins at best. They didn't despair after returning from a bye week and were told coach Chuck Pagano was taking an indefinite leave after being diagnosed with leukemia.
So they're sure not going to let the 29-17 loss at Houston linger.
Instead, they're focused on their next task — beating the reeling Chiefs (2-12), who have barely averaged 10 points per game and were shut out in Oakland last weekend.
"There's a playoff spot at stake, so it's win or go home," outside linebacker Robert Mathis said. "We can't go out and lay an egg like we did last week."
It's a simple scenario for the Colts.
Indy makes it in with a win over the Chiefs or in the season-finale against Houston (12-2) or if the Steelers (7-7) lose one of their two remaining games — Sunday at Cincinnati (8-6) or the final week against Cleveland (5-9).
But the Colts are chasing more than just a playoff spot.
A win would help them regain some momentum heading into January, allow Arians to tie the NFL record for victories after a midseason coaching change, make the Colts one of only four teams in league history to go from two or fewer wins one season to 10 or more the next, and, of course, take the pressure off Pagano if he returns to the locker room Monday as players, coaches and team officials are hoping.
Almost from the moment Pagano began chemotherapy treatments in late September, Arians and Indy's upper management targeted the Dec. 30 game as Pagano's return. With that game fast approaching, Arians has said twice this week that nothing is certain yet.
Arians said he is eager to go back to working just one job, offensive coordinator.
"Hopefully we can get this victory and secure our playoff spot and turn it back over to Chuck," he said.
Players can't wait, either.
"It would be great, I'm sure it would be emotional for a lot of people if it comes (next week)," rookie quarterback Andrew Luck said. "Hopefully, it will be soon. It will be great to have him back."
Pagano may not be the only one making a return in the next few days.
Starting safety Tom Zbikowski has missed the last three games with a knee injury. On Monday, Arians ruled him out for the Chiefs game. On Wednesday, Arians acknowledged the prognosis had improved and said Zbikowski was questionable. He did dress for practice Wednesday.
"He's moving around really well, so he is not out as I reported earlier this week," Arians said.
Yet there are plenty of other concerns, especially along the offensive line where starting center Samson Satele is out with an ankle injury and right tackle Winston Justice (biceps) and backup center A.Q. Shipley (right knee) are both questionable.
If Satele and Shipley don't play, Arians will move right guard Mike McGlynn to center and the rest of the Colts will adapt again — just as they have all season.
"I think guys understand what's at stake," Luck said. "There's a little more of a sense of urgency in terms of what to expect, but it is kind of like the playoffs."

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NFL-Giants' Cruz calls Newtown visit a revelation

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Dec 19 (Reuters) - A visit with the grief-stricken family of a six-year-old victim from last week's Connecticut elementary school massacre has left New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz looking at life through a different lens.
The National Football League player said on Wednesday the 75-minute visit to the home of six-year-old Giants fan Jack Pinto, who was a buried in a replica Cruz jersey, has altered his view on life.
"When you visit a family going through so much, facing so much turmoil in their lives ... it just helps you look at life through a different lens," Cruz, who drove to Connecticut with his girlfriend and infant daughter on Tuesday, told reporters. "It really changes your view of the way you look at things."
Pinto was among 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren, who were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, last Friday.
When Cruz heard about the child's devotion to him, he reached out to the family and wrote "RIP Jack Pinto" on the cleats he wore in Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons.
He was met outside the Pinto residence by the child's family, neighborhood kids and the local youth football team.
"Once I got there, I saw the kids there with my jersey on and I saw the family outside. They were still pretty emotional, crying, so I saw how affected they were by just my presence alone," said Cruz, one of the Giants' top players.
"I got out and gave them the cleats and the gloves. The older brother (11-year-old Ben) was still very emotional. I gave the cleats to him and signed stuff for the kids and then went inside. ... It was an emotional time."
"We got to smile a little bit, which was good for them. It was a time where I just wanted to be a positive voice ... they are a really great family."
Cruz's effort to try and comfort the family impressed Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.
"That family will remember that all their days. Hopefully, at least some of their grief may temporarily be spent, in being able to embrace Victor Cruz," said Coughlin. "The fact that he went and did that speaks volumes about what he has inside.

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Giants' Cruz calls Newtown visit a revelation

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) - A visit with the grief-stricken family of a six-year-old victim from last week's Connecticut elementary school massacre has left New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz looking at life through a different lens.
The National Football League player said on Wednesday the 75-minute visit to the home of six-year-old Giants fan Jack Pinto, who was a buried in a replica Cruz jersey, has altered his view on life.
"When you visit a family going through so much, facing so much turmoil in their lives ... it just helps you look at life through a different lens," Cruz, who drove to Connecticut with his girlfriend and infant daughter on Tuesday, told reporters. "It really changes your view of the way you look at things."
Pinto was among 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren, who were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, last Friday.
When Cruz heard about the child's devotion to him, he reached out to the family and wrote "RIP Jack Pinto" on the cleats he wore in Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons.
He was met outside the Pinto residence by the child's family, neighborhood kids and the local youth football team.
"Once I got there, I saw the kids there with my jersey on and I saw the family outside. They were still pretty emotional, crying, so I saw how affected they were by just my presence alone," said Cruz, one of the Giants' top players.
"I got out and gave them the cleats and the gloves. The older brother (11-year-old Ben) was still very emotional. I gave the cleats to him and signed stuff for the kids and then went inside. ... It was an emotional time."
"We got to smile a little bit, which was good for them. It was a time where I just wanted to be a positive voice ... they are a really great family."
Cruz's effort to try and comfort the family impressed Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.
"That family will remember that all their days. Hopefully, at least some of their grief may temporarily be spent, in being able to embrace Victor Cruz," said Coughlin. "The fact that he went and did that speaks volumes about what he has inside."

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NFL-Giants, Ravens feel the urgency of Sunday's showdown

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens, both coming off one-sided losses, are looking forward to Sunday's playoff-calibre showdown with a sense of urgency running through both teams.
The Super Bowl champion Giants need to win their last two games, including a regular season finale against Philadelphia, to ensure a place in the playoffs, while the Ravens, on a three-game losing skid, can win the AFC North title with a victory.
"We have the two-game schedule and we have to win both games to get in the playoffs and everybody's aware of that," New York coach Tom Coughlin told reporters before Wednesday's practice.
The Giants (8-6) are tied for the NFC East lead with the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, but would come up on the losing end of tiebreakers with both teams.
Since Washington and Dallas meet in their final game, two wins would guarantee the Giants a wildcard berth.
The Ravens (9-5) were beaten 34-17 at home last week by Denver, but clinched a playoff berth nonetheless for a fifth successive season. Coach John Harbaugh said it is essential the team got get on track.
"We understand what's at stake," Harbaugh told reporters in a conference call to the Giants' practice facility. "The guys are excited to play. We have plenty to play for. We're trying to play for a division championship.
"You do want to build momentum and you want to be your best at the end of the year. You want to build toward that and peak at the right time, and that's what we're really hoping to do."
Coughlin said his team had been plagued by inconsistency and that quarterback Eli Manning was the man to lead them out of the trend after the team was shut out 34-0 last week by Atlanta.
"It's our whole football team," Coughlin said, not laying the blame on any particular phase of the game.
"Hopefully, because of the position that Eli is in, he's going to lead us out of the inconsistencies," Coughlin said about a team that scored 50 points in beating New Orleans two weeks ago before being blanked by the Falcons.
The Giants hope history can repeat itself.
Last season, the up-and-down New Yorkers put it all together at the end of the season, winning their last two games to reach the postseason and sweeping four playoff games culminating in a Super Bowl triumph over the New England Patriots.
"The reality of it is we haven't been able to play to substantiate what I would say is the personality of this team," Coughlin said about the 2012 edition of the club.
"So I'm definitely counting on the veterans to go ahead and prove this and do it with consistency. Last year we did it over a six-game run, and we're in that situation again."
Ravens running back Ray Rice said he expected a high intensity showdown game against the Giants.
"They have a lot at stake and we got a lot at stake," said Rice. "We're trying to clinch the AFC North and I think they are in a three-way tie. There's going to be a playoff atmosphere on Sunday.

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Are We Regulating Ourselves Back Into Recession?

Let us put an end to self-inflicted wounds," President Gerald Ford told Congress in 1975. "And let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset." While Ford was talking about the scars from the Vietnam War, his words seem relevant today. Our nation grapples with not one divisive issue, but a basket of them, each pulling and undermining our already battered confidence, while testing our resolve and straining the limits of logic.

What are we doing to ourselves, America?

In just two short weeks, instead of closing the books after a bruising election, we've not only kept the rancor alive but have doubled down on it. In this morning's papers alone, I easily counted a dozen different areas of discourse before growing tired of it all. As my colleague Mike Santoli and I discuss in the attached video, with so much going on — and with so much wrong — is it any wonder stocks are moving in reverse at a fast clip since the second quarter correction.

"It feels like a particularly heavy round of one of these anti-business — or at least calling business to task — moments," Santoli says in the face of my long and growing list of negatives, which include higher taxes, the fiscal cliff, the Benghazi aftermath, turnover at the CIA, federal probes of FedEx and UPS over mail-order medicine, BP's record fine, further investigation into banks for money laundering, as well as another round of mandatory stress testing.
Before you go off and call me some kind of zero-regulation advocate or pessimist, all I am saying is that it strikes me as slightly counterproductive to be building up and and tearing down the banks at the same time. And Santoli seems to agree, saying that it is alarming to see how much banks have to spend on compliance, legal and regulatory issues, calling it a "massive weight."
As much as we had recently been gaining some degree of comfort over the economy, housing and jobs, it suddenly seems as if we're doing everything wrong.

''Is it ever going to be a good time to cinch up tax rates?" Santoli questions. Obviously the answer is no, and yet the markets cling to the belief that our elected officials will break ranks and reach some sort of last-minute grand bargain solution.
Maybe I am just being cynical, but I am of the mind that no major changes will emerge without first going through a period of calamity. Santoli is a smidge more optimistic, however, clinging to a ''residual hope'' that the President has a ''Nixon-to-China moment" and that his second term is not about fighting individual, ideological fight. "That is the distant hope you have to hold," he says.
How about you? Have you given up hope in the face of so much negativity?

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Judge asks Hostess to mediate with union

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Twinkies won't die that easily after all.
Hostess Brands Inc. and its second largest union will go into mediation to try and resolve their differences, meaning the company won't go out of business just yet. The news came Monday after Hostess moved to liquidate and sell off its assets in bankruptcy court citing a crippling strike last week.
The bankruptcy judge hearing the case said Monday that the parties haven't gone through the critical step of mediation and asked the lawyer for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which has been on strike since Nov. 9, to ask his client, who wasn't present, if the union would agree to participate. The judge noted that the bakery union, which represents about 30 percent of Hostess workers, went on strike after rejecting the company's latest contract offer, even though it never filed an objection to it.
"Many people, myself included, have serious questions as to the logic behind this strike," said Judge Robert Drain, who heard the case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York in White Plains, N.Y. "Not to have gone through that step leaves a huge question mark in this case."
Hostess and the union agreed to mediation talks, which are expected to begin the process on Tuesday.
In an interview after the hearing on Monday, CEO Gregory Rayburn said that the two parties will have to agree to contract terms within 24 hours of the Tuesday since it is costing $1 million a day in overhead costs to wind down operations. But even if a contract agreement is reached, it is not clear if all 33 Hostess plants will go back to being operational.
"We didn't think we had a runway, but the judge just created a 24-hour runway," for the two parties to come to an agreement, Rayburn said.
Hostess, weighed down by debt, management turmoil, rising labor costs and the changing tastes of America, decided on Friday that it no longer could make it through a conventional Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. Instead, the company, which is based in Irving, Texas, asked the court for permission to sell assets and go out of business.
It's not the sequence of events that the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's envisioned when it filed for bankruptcy in January, its second Chapter 11 filing in less than a decade. The company, who said that it was saddled with costs related to its unionized workforce, had hoped to emerge with stronger financials. It brought on Rayburn as a restructuring expert and was working to renegotiate its contract with labor unions.
But Rayburn wasn't able to reach a deal with the bakery union. The company, which had been contributing $100 million a year in pension costs for workers, offered workers a new contract that would've slashed that to $25 million a year, in addition to wage cuts and a 17 percent reduction in health benefits. But the bakery union decided to strike.
By that time, the company had reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which urged the bakery union to hold a secret ballot on whether to continue striking. Although many bakery workers decided to cross picket lines this week, Hostess said it wasn't enough to keep operations at normal levels.
Rayburn said that Hostess was already operating on razor thin margins and that the strike was the final blow. The company's announcement on Friday that it would move to liquidate prompted people across the country to rush to stores and stock up on their favorite Hostess treats. Many businesses reported selling out of Twinkies within hours and the spongy yellow cakes turned up for sale online for hundreds of dollars.
Even if Hostess goes out of business, its popular brands will likely find a second life after being snapped up by buyers. The company says several potential buyers have expressed interest in the brands. Although Hostess' sales have been declining in recent years, the company still does about $2.5 billion in business each year. Twinkies along brought in $68 million so far this year.

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Just Explain It: What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Eliminating America's dependency on foreign oil has been a policy goal for at least the last two U.S. Presidents.  According to the International Energy Agency, by 2020,  the U.S. will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's number one oil producer.

However, there's still some work to do.  The United States Energy Information Administration reported that 45% of the petroleum consumed by the U.S. in 2011 was from foreign countries.   Even though the country is well on its way to becoming self reliant, there's always a chance we could hit a major bump in the road.  The good thing is we have protection.  It's called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or S.P.R.

So here's how the S.P.R. works:

The reserve was created after the 1973 energy crisis when an Arab oil embargo halted exports to the United States.  As a result, fuel shortages caused disruptions in the U.S. economy.

The reserves are located underground in four man-made salt domes in Texas and Louisiana.  All four locations combined hold a total of 727 million barrels of oil.  The inventory is currently at 695 million barrels.  That's around 80 days of import protection.  It's the largest emergency oil supply in the world -- it's worth about $63 billion.

Only the President has the ability to tap the reserves in case of severe energy supply interruption.  It's happened three times.  Twice within the last decade.  In 2005, President Bush ordered the emergency sale of 11 million barrels when Hurricane Katrina shutdown 25 percent of domestic production.  In 2011, President Obama ordered the release of 30 million barrels to help offset disruptions caused by political upheaval in the Middle East.

Following the release order, the reserve issues a notice of sale to solicit competitive offers.  In the most recent sale involving the Obama administration, the offers resulted in contracts with 15 companies for delivery of 30.6 million barrels of oil.  To put that in context, last year the U.S. consumed almost seven billion barrels of oil — that's 19 million per day -- or about 22% of the world's consumption.

Related Link: Using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Like a Spigot

The release in 2011 had little effect on the price of gas at the pump.  Consumers paid about 2% less for a week before the prices began to climb again.

Related link: Just Explain It: Why Social Security is Running Out of Money

Did you learn something? Do you have a topic you'd like explained?  Give us your feedback in the comments below or on Twitter using #justexplainit.

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Apple to produce line of Macs in the US next year

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will move production of one of its existing lines of Mac computers from China to the United States next year.

Industry watchers said the announcement is both a cunning public-relations move and a harbinger of more manufacturing jobs moving back to the U.S. as wages rise in China.

Cook made the comments in part of an interview taped for NBC's "Rock Center," but aired Thursday morning on "Today" and posted on the network's website.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he said that the company will spend $100 million in 2013 to move production of the line to the U.S. from China.

"This doesn't mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we'll be working with people and we'll be investing our money," Cook told Bloomberg.

That suggests the company could be helping one of its Taiwanese manufacturing partners, which run factories in China, to set up production lines in the U.S. devoted to Apple products. Research firm IHS iSuppli noted that both Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles iPhones, and Quanta Computer Inc., which does the same for MacBooks, already have small operations in the U.S.

Apple representatives had no comment Thursday beyond Cook's remarks.

Like most consumer electronics companies, Apple forges agreements with contract manufacturers to assemble its products overseas. However, the assembly accounts for a fraction of the cost of making a PC or smartphone. Most of the cost lies in buying chips, and many of those are made in the U.S., Cook noted in his interview with NBC.

The company and Foxconn have faced significant criticism this year over working conditions at the Chinese facilities where Apple products are assembled. The attention prompted Foxconn to raise salaries.

Cook didn't say which line of computers would be produced in the U.S. or where in the country they would be made. But he told Bloomberg that the production would include more than just final assembly. That suggests that machining of cases and printing of circuit boards could take place in the U.S.

The simplest Macs to assemble are the Mac Pro and Mac Mini desktop computers. Since they lack the built-in screens of the MacBooks and iMacs, they would likely be easier to separate from the Asian display supply chain.

Analyst Jeffrey Wu at IHS iSuppli said it's not uncommon for PC makers to build their bulkier products close to their customers to cut down on delivery times and shipping costs.

Regardless, the U.S. manufacturing line is expected to represent just a tiny piece of Apple's overall production, with sales of iPhones and iPads now dwarfing those of its computers.

Apple is latching on to a trend that could see many jobs move back to the U.S., said Hal Sirkin, a partner with The Boston Consulting Group. He noted that Lenovo Group, the Chinese company that's neck-and-neck with Hewlett-Packard Co. for the title of world's largest PC maker, announced in October that it will start making PCs and tablets in the U.S.

Chinese wages are raising 15 to 20 percent per year, Sirkin said. U.S. wages are rising much more slowly, and the country is a cheap place to hire compared to other developed countries like Germany, France and Japan, he said.

"Across a lot of industries, companies are rethinking their strategy of where the manufacturing takes place," Sirkin said.

Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group, likened Apple's move to Henry Ford's famous 1914 decision to double his workers' pay, helping to build a middle class that could afford to buy cars. But Cook's goal is probably more limited: to buy goodwill from U.S. consumers, Howe said.

"Say it's State of the Union 2014. President Obama wants to talk about manufacturing. Who is he going to point to in the audience? Tim Cook, the guy who brought manufacturing back from China. And that scene is going replay over and over," Howe said. "And yeah, it may be only (public relations), but it's a lot of high-value PR."

Cook said in his interview with NBC that companies like Apple chose to produce their products in places like China, not because of the lower costs associated with it, but because the manufacturing skills required just aren't present in the U.S. anymore.

He added that the consumer electronics world has never really had a big production presence in the U.S. As a result, it's really more about starting production in the U.S. than bringing it back, he said.

But for nearly three decades Apple made its computers in the U.S. It started outsourcing production in the mid-90s, first by selling some plants to contract manufacturers, then by hiring manufacturers overseas. It assembled iMacs in Elk Grove, Calif., until 2004.

Some Macs already say they're "Assembled in USA." That's because Apple has for years performed final assembly of some units in the U.S. Those machines are usually the product of special orders placed at its online store. The last step of production may consist of mounting hard drives, memory chips and graphics cards into computer cases that are manufactured elsewhere. With Cook's announcement Thursday, the company is set to go much further in the amount of work done in the U.S.

The news comes a day after Apple posted its worst stock drop in four years, erasing $35 billion in market capitalization. Apple's stock rose $8.45, or 1.6 percent, to close at $547.24 Thursday.

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US economy adds 146K jobs, rate falls to 7.7 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pace of U.S. hiring remained steady in November despite disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and employers' concerns about impending tax increases from the year-end "fiscal cliff."

Companies added 146,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent — the lowest in nearly four years — from 7.9 percent in October. The rate declined mainly because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed.

The government said Superstorm Sandy had only a minimal effect on the figures.

The Labor Department's report Friday was a mixed one. But on balance, it suggested that the job market is gradually improving.

November's job gains were roughly the same as the average monthly increase this year of about 150,000. Most economists are encouraged by the job growth because it's occurred even as companies have reduced investment in heavy machinery and other equipment.

"The good news is not that the labor market is improving rapidly — it isn't — but that employment growth is holding up despite all the fears over the fiscal cliff," said Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight.

Still, Friday's report included some discouraging signs. Employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September combined than the government had initially estimated.

And economists noted that the unemployment rate would have risen if the number of people working or looking for work hadn't dropped by 350,000.

The government asks about 60,000 households each month whether the adults have jobs and whether those who don't are looking for one. Those without a job who are looking for one are counted as unemployed. Those who aren't looking aren't counted as unemployed.

A separate monthly survey seeks information from 140,000 companies and government agencies that together employ about one in three nonfarm workers in the United States.

Many analysts thought Sandy would hold back job growth significantly in November because the storm forced restaurants, retailers and other businesses to close in late October and early November.

It didn't. The government noted that as long as employees worked at least one day during a pay period — two weeks for most people — its survey would have counted them as employed.

Yet there were signs that the storm disrupted economic activity in November. Construction employment dropped 20,000. And weather prevented 369,000 people from getting to work — the most for any month in nearly two years. These workers were still counted as employed.

All told, 12 million people were unemployed in November, about 230,000 fewer than the previous month. That's still many more than the 7.6 million who were out of work when the recession officially began in December 2007.

Investors appeared pleased with the report, though the market gave up some early gains. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 53 points in mid-day trading.

The number of Americans who were working part time in November but wanted full-time work declined. And a measure of discouraged workers — those who wanted a job but hadn't searched for one in the past month — rose slightly.

Those two groups, plus the 12 million unemployed, make up a broader measure that the government calls "underemployment." The underemployment rate fell to 14.4 percent in November from 14.6 percent in October. It's the lowest such rate since January 2009.

Since July, the economy has added an average of 158,000 jobs a month. That's a modest pickup from an average of 146,000 in the first six months of the year.

In November, retailers added 53,000 positions. Temporary-help companies added 18,000. Education and health care also gained 18,000.

Auto manufacturers added nearly 10,000 jobs. Still, overall manufacturing jobs fell 7,000. That was pushed down by a loss of 12,000 jobs in food manufacturing that likely reflects the layoff of workers at Hostess.

Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that hiring by private companies was actually better in October than the government first thought. The overall job figures were revised down for October because governments themselves cut about 38,000 more jobs than was first estimated.

The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. But many economists say growth is slowing to a 1.5 percent rate in the October-December quarter, largely because of the storm and threat of the fiscal cliff.

The storm held back consumer spending and income, which drive economic growth. Consumer spending declined in October, the government said. And work interruptions caused by Sandy reduced wages and salaries that month by about $18 billion at an annual rate.

Still, many say economic growth could accelerate next year if the fiscal cliff is avoided. The economy is also expected to get a boost from efforts to rebuild in the Northeast after the storm.

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IOC strips 4 medals from 2004 Athens Olympics

By By STEPHEN WILSON | Associated Press – Wed, Dec 5, 2012 * Email0 * Share0 * * Share0 * Print LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Eight years after winning Olympic medals in Athens, four track and field athletes from eastern Europe were ordered to hand them back Wednesday because of positive doping tests. Lance Armstrong, meanwhile, can hold onto his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games for a little while longer. The International Olympic Committee executive board disqualified four athletes whose Athens doping samples were retested earlier this year and came back positive for steroids, including shot put gold medalist Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine. Also stripped were hammer throw silver medalist Ivan Tskikhan of Belarus and two bronze medalists — women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus. The case of a fifth bronze medalist, weightlifter Oleg Perepechenov of Russia, remains pending. "Athletes who cheat by using doping substances must understand that just because they get away with it one day, there is a very good chance that they will be caught in the future," WADA President John Fahey said in a statement. "The retesting and subsequent decisions of the IOC are proof of that." The IOC said it will ask the International Association of Athletics Federations to get the four medals back and readjust the results and rankings from the Athens Games. Until then, no decision will be taken on reallocating the medals. Adam Nelson of the United States finished second in the shot put in Athens behind Bilonog and would stand to move up to gold. The IOC, meanwhile, held off stripping Armstrong of the bronze he won 12 years ago in the cycling road time trial in Sydney, citing procedural reasons for the delay. IOC leaders want the medal back following the damning U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that painted Armstrong as a systematic drug cheat and led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles from 1999-2005. But the IOC said it must wait for cycling's governing body UCI to formally notify Armstrong of the loss of all his results since August 1998. The IOC wants to avoid any legal problems in connection with the eight-year statute of limitations in the Olympic rules. "The IOC today will not move," IOC President Jacques Rogge said at a news conference following a two-day executive board meeting in Lausanne. "We need to have the situation whereby the UCI notifies officially Mr. Armstrong of the fact that he will be disqualified, declared ineligible and that he should hand over his medal. "This is a legal obligation not for the IOC but for the International Cycling Union. When he will be notified, Mr. Armstrong will have 21 days to launch an appeal if he wishes. It is only after this period of 21 days that the IOC can legally take action." The intention of the IOC to wipe Armstrong from the Olympic record books remains clear. "Absolutely," IOC vice president Craig Reedie of Britain told The Associated Press. "If the UCI have the ability to remove all these titles, we should have the ability to remove a bronze medal. Once they go through their procedures, then we'll go through ours." Armstrong finished behind winner and U.S. Postal Service teammate Vyacheslav Ekimov of Russia and Jan Ullrich of Germany in Sydney. The IOC has no plans to reallocate Armstrong's bronze medal, just as the UCI decided not to declare any winners for the Tour titles once held by the American. In August, the IOC stripped Tyler Hamilton, a former Armstrong teammate, of his time-trial gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics after he admitted to doping. The Athens Games were already considered the dirtiest on record, producing 26 doping cases and catching six medalists — including two gold winners — at the time. The retroactive tests bring the number of Athens cases to 31, including 11 medal winners and three gold medalists. Since Athens, the IOC has been storing doping samples from each Olympics for eight years to allow for retesting when new detection methods become available. Last year, under prodding from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC reanalyzed about 100 samples from Athens. The IOC said Bilonog and Krivelyova tested positive for oxandrolone, while the samples from Tsikhan and Yatchenko were positive for methandienone. Bilonog's disqualification means that both shot put winners in Athens have now been disqualified for doping: Women's champion Irina Korzhanenko of Russia was stripped of gold at the games after testing positive for stanozolol. In what had been intended as a symbolic and uplifting return to the birthplace of the Olympics, the IAAF held the 2004 shot put competition in Ancient Olympia. The event has now been tarnished by the two drug scandals. In the men's event, Nelson and Bilonog finished with the same best throw, but the Ukrainian was declared the winner because his second-best attempt was longer. It was the first time an Olympic field event was decided by a second-best mark.

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