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States look to strengthen sports agent oversight

After a college football season blemished by charges of rule-breaking agents and athletes, legislators from New Jersey to Oregon are looking to make it tougher on those who contact players improperly.

Lawmakers in New Jersey and Virginia — two of the eight states that lack sports agents laws — now want to add such legal protections. Six other states are considering proposals to strengthen the Uniform Athletes Agent Act, a model law that suffers from neglect in many states.

That includes Arkansas, where 89 House members voted unanimously on Wednesday to make violations of its agent laws — previously a misdemeanor — a felony offense.

Those pushing for changes on the state level aren't waiting for either the NFL or the NCAA to act. Four months ago, the league and the sports governing body joined the NFL Players Association, the American Football Coaches Association and several prominent agents in forming a 22-member panel tasked with cleaning up the situation.

"Up to this point, we've had laws on the books, but there hasn't been much interest or effort from the enforcement side," said Oklahoma state Rep. Todd Thomsen, a Republican who was the punter and kicker on the University of Oklahoma's 1985 national championship team.

An August 2010 review by The Associated Press found that more than half of the 42 states with sports agent laws didn't revoke or suspend a single license, or invoke penalties of any sort. Neither had the Federal Trade Commission, which in 2004 was given oversight authority by Congress.

The proposed Oklahoma measure broadens the definition of agent to cover financial planners — player reps who don't negotiate contracts but still have a financial stake in a college athlete's future earnings — while increasing the minimum fine for violations from $1,000 to $10,000 and the maximum from $10,000 to $250,000.

"We have such a minimal penalty, for most of them it's worth it just to do business here," Thomsen said.

In Oregon, lawmakers are considering a proposal that also broadens the definition of sports agents to include not just financial planners but also contract advisers and those who seek to represent high school athletes.

Jeff Hawkins, director of football operations at the University of Oregon, plans to testify in support of the proposal. He's also a member of the NCAA panel considering even broader changes.

"Enforcement really is the key to everything," he said.

Hawkins said the panel members — including the presidents of the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts as well as the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference commissioners — have tentatively agreed to a broader definition of agent that applies to any person who directly or indirectly "seeks to represent or gain financially" by representing or marketing a college athlete.

That expanded definition could potentially be applied to athletes' immediate family members, people like the father of Heisman Trophy winner and Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.

The NCAA determined Cecil Newton sought $180,000 from Mississippi State for his son's commitment out of junior college. The NCAA did not punish Cam Newton for the violation his father committed because it said it found no evidence that the player or Auburn knew about Cecil Newton's pay-for-play scheme.

The panel, which meets again next month, is also discussing a "universal recruiting calendar" that would proscribe when agents can contact potential clients on campus, similar to the NCAA's recruiting calendar for coaches.

The NCAA is also pushing for a national registration system that would allow schools, state regulators and athletes to verify an agent's qualifications and legal status through a single database, Hawkins said.

An NCAA spokeswoman said the group "continues to make progress in identifying potential solutions," including a discussion of "post-NCAA financial penalties" for prospective pros who lose their college eligibility for receiving improper benefits from agents.

NCAA rules allow agents to meet with college athletes but forbid those students from entering into contracts with agents or accepting meals, gifts, transportation or other financial incentives.

But the NCAA rules apply to athletes and schools, not the agents themselves. The NFLPA and other unions set rules for agents, but those focus more on the relationships with current pros rather than potential clients still in school.

Reports of high-profile players under investigation for alleged improper contact with agents dominated much of the 2010 college football season, with NCAA and internal investigations at Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Those inquiries led to several teams losing key players for significant chunks of the season, including Georgia star receiver A.J. Green, who was suspended by the NCAA for four games after selling a game jersey from the 2009 Independence Bowl for $1,000.

In Chapel Hill, six prominent Tar Heels lost eligibility for the season in a probe of improper benefits from agents that later expanded to include possible academic misconduct, and an assistant coach resigned in September amid questions about his close friendship with a California sports agent.

Hawkins said the Oregon legislation was a direct response to the situation in Chapel Hill. But not all states are scurrying to change how they do business.

In Missouri, 69 agents are registered with the state Division of Professional Registration and the office has received no complaints nor imposed any penalties on agents. "The law works very well," said agency spokesman Travis Ford.

"No changes are contemplated," he said.

Hawkins, who has also coached at Dartmouth and Tulane and worked in the New England Patriots' front office, said that tougher rules are needed to keep unscrupulous agents from persuading marginal pro prospects that they should leave school before graduation in search of fame and riches.

"It's not the 30 or 40 kids (who declare early for the NFL draft)," he said. "It's the thousands of them who think they should come out early."

He's optimistic that change will come, whether at the state level or within the NCAA and at the pro level.

"We've been fighting this battle for a long time," he said. "I finally think we've got people's attention."

Microsoft Extension Puts H.264 Back in Chrome Browser

Google recently shook things up by announcing that thewill no longer support the H.264 video codec. Fear not, though--Microsoft has come to Chrome's rescue with a browser extension that enables Chrome on Windows 7 to play H.264 video content in spite of the Google snub.

A post onprovides some explanation for the Google decision. "Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies."

Fair enough. But, A) Adobe Flash support is integrated into , and Flash supports H.264, so the move seems purely symbolic or political, and B) the WebM VP8 video codec that Google is supporting doesn't require patent-licensing payment right now, but is not that different from H.264 and may very well charge patent royalties in the future.

Al Hilwa, ananalyst, e-mailed me with a query regarding the Google decision. Question: "How can you put the growth of adoption of your most important software product at risk, fragment the most important standard you care about, and, at the same time, upset a lot of your developers and Web-content owners who will try to figure out how you are living up to your motto of not being evil doing this?" Answer: "You announce that you plan not to support H.264 in your Chrome browser."

Hilwa goes on to point out that the VP8 codec is still under development and is not ready for primetime. With such low penetration for VP8, Hilwa believes that asking developers and content owners to abandon H.264 in favor of the nascent codec will result in many choosing instead simply not to support the Chrome browser.

Theblog proclaims, "For many reasons - which you can read about on other blog postsand --H.264 is an excellent and widely-used video format that serves the web very well today. As such, we will continue to ensure that developers and customers continue to have an optimal Web experience."

Toward that end, Microsoft developed theto ensure that Windows customers at least will still be able to experience the vast content available on the Internet in the H.264 format.

St. Francis (N.Y.) edges Monmouth (N.J.) 62-61

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Justin Newton hit a free throw with 1.2 seconds left to give St. Francis (N.Y.) a 62-61 victory over Monmouth (N.J.) on Thursday night.

Newton hit the first of his two free-throw attempts for his only point of the game after being fouled while going for a rebound on teammate Ricky Cadell's missed 3-point attempt. St. Francis (9-11, 4-5 Northeast Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak.

Cadell hit a 3-pointer to give the Terriers a 61-59 advantage with 57 seconds left, but the Hawks (6-15, 2-7) evened the score at 61-61 with 16 seconds left as Marcus Ware scored after Jesse Steele grabbed an offensive rebound.

Ricky Cadell led the Terriers, who had only eight turnovers, with 20 points and Travis Nichols had 16 points.

Ware had 18 points and Steele and Phil Wait had 10 each for Monmouth, which was trying to win back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Snowstorm wallops Northeast, piling on the misery

BOSTON – Commuters up and down the East Coast began the all-too-familiar task of digging out cars, shoveling sidewalks and slogging and slipping through a treacherous morning commute on Thursday after a drawn-out storm dumped more than a foot of snow in some areas overnight, heaping more misery on a region that has been hit by one snowstorm after another.

Snow was still falling in parts of New England Thursday morning.

The storm started Wednesday with icy mix but overnight gave a wallop of heavy blowing snow in many places, stranding thousands of airplane passengers and leaving more than 400,000 customers in and around the nation's capital without power.

Public schools remained closed for a second day Thursday and motorists were warned of dangerous road conditions. In New York City, even the Statue of Liberty was closed for snow removal. New York's Long Island Rail Road, a commuter rail line that is nation's largest, was operating on a reduced schedule.

"It's hard because you've got mixed water, ice and snow right now," said Miguel Williams, shoveling snow on Manhattan's 10th Avenue for a company that contracts with businesses to clear the sidewalks. It's so hard, he said, that snowblowers are breaking down under the weight of the wet, heavy snow.

In a region already contending with above-average snowfall this season, the storm that began Wednesday added several more inches. In New York's Central Park, 15.3 inches had fallen as of 1 a.m. Thursday, and 19 inches had fallen in parts of New Jersey, the National Weather Service reported. Forecasts called for up to 12 inches in the Boston area, up to 8 inches in the Hartford, Conn., area and perhaps 14 inches in areas of Rhode Island before the storm moved on later in the morning. In the Philadelphia area, as much as 17 inches fell by the time the storm moved out Thursday morning.

In Portsmouth, N.H., workers were nearly out of room to stash their plowed snow.

"We probably have a five-story snow dump right now," said Portsmouth public works director David Allen. "It's time to get a lift up on it and we could probably do a ski run."

In Massachusetts, travel was made trickier with high winds. Gusts of 46 mph were reported in Hyannis, 45 mph in Rockport and 49 mph on Nantucket early Thursday. In Lynn, Mass., a roof collapsed at dairy during the storm Thursday morning. It was unclear if anyone was inside, and official weren't immediately sure it was weather related.

As the storm approached Wednesday, schools were closed, governments sent workers home early, and commutes were snarled. Cars and buses slipped and slid on highways. Pedestrians struggled across icy patches that were on their way to becoming deep drifts.

The New York area's three major airports, among the nation's busiest, saw more than 1,000 flights canceled. About 1,500 people were stuck overnight at Philadelphia International Airport, where more than 400 flights were canceled Wednesday night.

Rain drenched the nation's capital for most of the day and changed to sleet before it started snowing in earnest at mid-afternoon. The snow and icy roads created hazardous conditions for President Barack Obama as he returned to the White House after a post-State of the Union trip to Manitowoc, Wis.

Officials urged residents in Washington and Maryland to stay off the roads as snow, thunder and lightning pounded the Mid-Atlantic region. In D.C., Metro transit officials pulled buses off the roads as conditions deteriorated. Firefighters warned the heavy snow was bringing down power lines and causing outages.

In Pennsylvania, residents hunkered down as a one-two punch of the winter storm brought snow, sleet, and then more snow. More than a foot fell in Philadelphia overnight.

Since Dec. 14, snow has fallen eight times on the New York region — or an average of about once every five days. That includes the blizzard that dropped 20 inches on New York City and paralyzed travel after Christmas. When the snows arrived Wednesday, the city had already seen 36 inches of snow this season in comparison with the full-winter average of 21 inches.

The city declared a weather emergency for the second time since the Dec. 26 storm, which trapped hundreds of buses and ambulances and caused a political crisis for the mayor. An emergency declaration means any car blocking roads or impeding snowplows can be towed at the owner's expense.

In suburban Silver Spring, Md., nurse Tiffany Horairy said as she waited for a bus that she was getting tired of the constant pecking of minor or moderate storms.

"I'd rather get something like last year, with all the snow at once," she said.

Through Tuesday, Boston had received 50.4 inches of snow, a nearly 270 percent increase over normal snowfalls of 18.8 inches at the same time in the season. The central Massachusetts city of Worcester had gotten 49.3 inches while the norm is 28.7 inches. Providence, R.I., had recorded 31.7 inches for the season, twice the norm of 15.7 inches. Bradley International Airport in Connecticut had gotten 59.1 inches of snow, more than double the normal 22.8 inches, the National Weather Service has said.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in Garden City, N.Y.; Ula Ilnytzky and Eric Carvin in New York City; Lynne Tuohy in Concord, N.H.; Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn.; Angie Yack, Randy Pennell, Erin Vanderberg and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia; and Sarah Brumfeld in Silver Spring, Md.

Defense lawyer: Nev. boy's abduction staged by mom

LAS VEGAS – A lawyer for a man accused of kidnapping a Nevada boy as a way to recover $4.5 million in stolen drug money told a federal jury Wednesday the child's mother and grandmother staged the abduction then steered investigators toward the defendants.

Jose Lopez-Buelna didn't kidnap 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger in 2008 and wasn't the leader of an operation that smuggled cocaine from Mexico and distributed it in the U.S. and Canada, defense attorney Robert Draskovich said in his opening statement at the trial.

"Cole was not abducted," Draskovich said. "It was a ruse to get dad."

The boy was found alive and unharmed by a bus driver in a Las Vegas neighborhood three days after the kidnapping.

Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Puffinburger's mother, Julie Puffinburger, her one-time lawyer Dennis Leavitt, and Diane Tinnemeyer, the grandmother, were not immediately returned.

Prosecutors said Lopez-Buelna, 50, kidnapped the boy as he went after money stolen by the boy's grandfather, Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer.

Lopez-Buelna had pursued Clemens Tinnemeyer, his former courier, for months, asking friends about him and sending Julie Puffinburger a threatening note reading, "We don't play no games," federal prosecutor Margaret Honrath said.

Cole's kidnapping was driven by drugs, money and greed, Honrath said in her opening statement.

"It was time to get Tinnemeyer's attention," Honrath said. "It was their way to extort Tinnemeyer to come back to Las Vegas with their money."

Honrath said Puffinburger, his mother and her boyfriend were held at gunpoint on the floor of their home while men searched the residence for money. She said Julie Puffinburger and her boyfriend were restrained with zip ties around their wrists and ankles, and duct tape around their heads. When the men couldn't find any money, they took the boy, she said.

At the time, police characterized the incident as a message from drug traffickers to Tinnemeyer.

Draskovich countered that Cole Puffinburger's story about his abduction changed over four interviews with investigators. The lawyer accused the boy's mother of coaching him to back up her story by changing descriptions about his kidnappers and where he was held.

The mother was calm as police interviewed her in the moments after the abduction was reported, Draskovich added, even though she told authorities she was in hysterics when she received the threatening note months earlier.

"She's like Hindu-cow calm when her son has supposedly been ripped from her," Draskovich said.

Draskovich said he intended to show at trial that the mother and grandmother weren't surprised by the kidnapping because they had set it up to reveal Tinnemeyer and to chase away the men looking for him. They knew the boy was never in any real danger, he said.

Tinnemeyer was expected to testify during the trial, Honrath said.

The grandfather was arrested shortly after the kidnapping in Riverside, Calif. He and his girlfriend, Terri Lynn Leavy, were later charged with interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, according to a criminal complaint. The case was closed in February 2009 with a declaration that it was being folded into a sealed criminal case.

Draskovich told U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro he planned to call the boy to testify.

Lopez-Buelna has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to launder money, money laundering, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit hostage taking and hostage taking.

Three other men are accused in the case. Attorneys for Roberto Lopez, Luis Vega-Rubio and Erik Dushawn Webster said their clients were not guilty.

Charges vary among those defendants and include kidnapping and hostage-taking, along with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and launder money.

Another defendant, Adolph Vargas, pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and money laundering. His sentencing is set for April 29.