Tiler Vonnuyss blog

NBA suspends Bobcats G Stephen Jackson 1 game

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – When the NBA announced before the season it planned to crack down on complaining by players toward officials, Charlotte Bobcats guard Stephen Jackson played a starring role in a video sent to teams showing behavior that would no longer be tolerated.

Now the volatile Jackson is serving as a costly example of just how serious the NBA is on the matter.

The league suspended Jackson for one game without pay on Tuesday for verbally abusing referee Eli Roe and failing to leave the court in a timely manner following his ejection from Saturday's loss to Milwaukee.

The suspension — to be served Wednesday when Charlotte visits New Orleans — will cost Jackson about $103,000 based on his $8.45 million salary this season. It comes on top of the $50,000 fine Jackson received earlier this month for verbally abusing officials after a loss at Detroit.

Jackson, averaging a team-best 18.1 points, left the practice court Tuesday before reporters were allowed in and before the suspension was announced. He told a group of reporters a day earlier he gets singled out for his direct personality.

"When things are not fair, I speak my mind," Jackson said. "I've never been a guy not to speak my mind and I guess people don't like that."

Jackson has been called for six technical fouls this season, not counting one that was later rescinded. That's tied with Orlando's Dwight Howard for the most in the NBA. Players serve suspensions once they reach 16 technical fouls on the season.

Jackson received consecutive technicals by Roe midway through the first quarter against the Bucks as he complained of being held and grabbed. Teammates Gerald Wallace and Nazr Mohammed had to usher Jackson off the court.

Referee Steve Javie hit Jackson with a technical foul on Nov. 5 against the Pistons and the league said he then shouted at the officials after the game, leading to his first fine.

"If you all saw what happened, $50,000, that's a lot of money. But welcome to the life of Stephen Jackson," he said after the fine was announced Nov. 6.

Jackson, acquired by Charlotte from Golden State before last season, has had trouble controlling his temper throughout his career. He was involved in the infamous Pacers-Pistons brawl in 2004, has clashed with coaches and served a one-game suspension while with the Warriors in 2009 when he reached 16 technical fouls.

The suspension will leave Charlotte short-handed against the Hornets, but Wallace said Tuesday despite a bruised left elbow that knocked him out of Saturday's game.

D.J. Augustin (sinus infection) also said he'll play after missing practice Monday.

Sec'y Cinton: Cabinet post will be last public job

MANAMA, Bahrain – Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that U.S. secretary of state will be her final public position, seeming to close the door on speculation that she would run for president or take another post in the Obama administration.

"I think I'll serve as secretary of state as my last public position and then probably go back to advocacy work, particularly on behalf of women and children, and particularly around the world because if you look at what is still happening to women in many parts of the world it is tragic and terrible," she told a Bahrain TV interviewer.

The interviewer began by asking if she planned to run for president.

"No, I do not," she said.

She then launched into a detailed review of her career, noting that she began as an advocate for neglected and handicapped children.

"I've had a fascinating and rewarding public career," she said, recounting her time with the Children's Defense Fund, her years in Arkansas, in the White House as first lady and in the Senate. She then said her present position would be her last in government.

Some had speculated she might succeed Robert Gates after his expected retirement next year as secretary of defense, or run as President Barack Obama's vice presidential candidate in 2012.

Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

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ABC's "This Week" — Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander; Bob Maginnis, national security analyst with the Family Research Council; R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans; Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness; Tammy Schultz, director of National Security and Joint Warfare at the Marine Corps War College; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad; Sakena Yacoobi, executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and John Kerry, D-Mass.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. and Jon Wiener, author of "Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files."

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"Fox News Sunday" — Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Moroccan parliament to probe W. Sahara violence

RABAT (AFP) – Moroccan members of parliament on Monday decided to set up a commission to probe the violent events on November 8 that marked the dismantling of a settlement camp in the Western Sahara.

"It's the first time that a parliamentary commission of inquiry will work in the (Western) Sahara," Saad-Eddine Othmani, an MP from the opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD) and one of the vice-presidents of the commission, told AFP.

According to a statement published Monday by the parliament, the commission will investigate "the events at the Gdim Izik camp and the acts of violence recently witnessed in Laayoune," the chief town in the Moroccan-controlled territory.

Moroccan security forces on November 8 stormed and dismantled the Gdim Izik camp erected outside Laayoune by some 15,000 Sahrawis who objected to living conditions inside the town.

Violence erupted, in which Morocco says that 11 security officers and two civilians were killed, while the Polisario Front, which wants independence for the Western Sahara, says the casualty toll was far higher.

"Among the objectives of this commission, which will work for at least 45 days, are the pinpointing of responsibilities for what happened in Laayoune, from the putting up of the first tents right up to the events that followed the dismantling of the camp," Othmani said.

On November 25, the European parliament said it favoured a United Nations inquiry into the violence and voiced "the greatest concern about the significant deterioration of the situation in Western Sahara."

Tens of thousands of Moroccans marched Sunday in the northern port city of Casablanca to denounce what they saw as a "biased and unjust" resolution by the European parliament, accusing Spain's opposition Popular Party of being behind it.

Spain was the colonial power in the Western Sahara until 1975, when settlers left and Morocco later annexed the phosphate-rich territory.

Morocco has already rejected the notion of an investigation into the violence by the UN force deployed in the Western Sahara, MINURSO, which is monitoring a 1991 ceasefire between government troops and the Polisario Front and is mandated to oversee a referendum on the territory's future.

Polisario, backed notably by neighbouring Algeria, wants a UN-organised referendum that would give Sahrawis a choice among three options: being part of Moroccan territory, independence or self-government under Moroccan sovereignty.

Morocco will only agree to broad autonomy under its sovereignty and rejects any notion of independence.

At L.A. Auto Show, California emerges as epicenter of electric car revolution

LOS ANGELES -- Thewas crowned as the Green Car of the Year here at the , held in a city that is trying to be as encouraging to electric vehicles (EVs) as possible.

California is the epicenter of the EV revolution -- probably half the electric and plug-in hybrid cars installed in the first year will be in this state, which has a unique combination of a lot of early adopters, great state incentives (including access to the all-important HOV lanes in traffic-clogged L.A.) and a climate that is kind to batteries.

The Coda sedan on the floor of the L.A. Auto Show. Plug in, indeed. (Jim Motavalli photo)

I drove from LAX to a Volkswagen green car event in a Volt, enjoying its combination of refinement, sophisticated electronics (GM's Rob Peterson and Britta Gross helped me use OnStar to download driving directions) and stellar green attributes.

I walked into the convention center as Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa was announcing a plan to streamline the process for installing a home charging system. The city is interesting in that it has the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a city-owned utility, which makes it pretty easy to coordinate everything.

Southern California Edison and the Electric Drive Transportation announced a new website, , that is designed to help state consumers buy EVs. It has such features as a "Plug-In Car Rate Assistant" that estimates the cost of fueling an EV and its likely impact on your electric bill.

The site also has a virtual dealership that lets you see what's on the market -- nearly everywill be for sale in California, including the cars on display at the show, from the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt to the Smart electric drive, Coda sedan (delayed for six months) and the Wheego LiFe.

I sat down with Ted Craver, chairman, president and CEO of Edison International, parent company for Southern California Edison (SCE), which supplies electricity for every area utility customer except those living in the city of Los Angeles. "California is 12 percent of the total vehicle market in the U.S.," he told me. "But it has 26 percent of the hybrid sales nationally. That supports the expectation about the number of early adopters we will have for EVs."

SCE projects a high, low and middle case for EV sales. By 2020, the high case would have 1.1 million EVs on the road, the middle case 450,000 and the low case 150,000.

"There are a lot of variables," said Brian Wynne, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association. "All we can do is gather the different variables and present a range, but California is very likely to be a hotbed of early EV sales."

Craver points to the state's mild climate, the big population of environmentally conscious consumers, and the high percentage of homes (even downtown in cities like Los Angeles) that have attached garages and off-street parking. SCE, which has a fleet of 300 alternative-power cars and trucks, is even looking to change its bucket trucks to hybrid electric.

EVs will operate at a quarter or less the cost of conventional gas cars, said Wynne. What's not to like, aside from stubbornly high purchase prices? It's not clear that EVs will be a huge hit nationally, but I'll be dumbfounded if they don't make it in California, where all systems are clearly marked "GO!"

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