Hat tip to reader Nanakwame for this one. It may be 10 years since she competed in the Olympics, but gymnast Dominique Dawes is thrilled about the new medal she will soon add to her collection. Dawes and her teammates were given the bronze after China was stripped of their 2000 Olympic bronze medals because they fielded an underage competitor, Dong Fangxiao. Ms. Dawes, who has worked with Yahoo! Sports for the past two Olympics, heard the good news from another reporter. "I got calls from fellow reporters before receiving an email from the [Gymnastics International] Federation," she said. "I also got a call by my coach, Kelli Hill, to congratulate me on the medal."
Ms. Dawes said that getting the medal puts a positive ending on an Olympics that had been disappointing for Team USA, which had been shut out of medals. "It was very difficult not just for the gymnasts, but the coaches as well. When we got to Sydney, we didn't have gold medal on our minds, but we knew there was a possibility for us to get on the podium. It is good to know that now, 10 years later, we did achieve the goal that we had set out to do."
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Raiders minicamp news, notes
News, notes and quotes from the first day of the Raiders’ mandatory minicamp Friday:
– Coach Tom Cable acknowledged things went much smoother than they did a year ago, when the first minicamp practice was punctuated by fumbled snapped, dropped passes, and disorganization.
“We had two weeks before we did that minicamp, there was kind of a lull in there and that was a reason for doing it right after the draft,’’ Cable said. “I think it’s reflected in that the ball’s not on the round and we don’t look like the Keystone Cops out there.’’
– Whose who didn’t practice included quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, whose left arm is in a sling after pectoral surgery, wide receiver Chaz Schilens, dealing with general soreness, and wide receiver/return specialist Nick Miller, who has shin splints.
Miller was troubled by shin splints last year, only to later have it called a broken fibula. He spent 16 weeks inactive on game day while still on the 53-man roster.
Linebacker Ricky Brown is expected to practice once a day as he recovers from ankle surgery.
– Cable said he hoped Richard Seymour’s contract would be finalized this weekend.
“We’re trying to get it done so he’s all ours,’’ Cable said.
– Fullback Oren O’Neal, who never recovered from a serious knee injury in 2008, was waived.
– It was a mixed bag for quarterback Jason Campbell, getting accustomed to his yearly task of learning a new offense.
“I’ve been through about 10 of them, so somewhere along the like I’ve run a lot of these plays, trying to find the rhythm, get used to the guys around me and get back into the groove,’’ Campbell said.
Campbell, under the watchful eye of Willie Brown during his press session much the way Eddie Anderson monitored JaMarcus Russell, backed well off his NFL Network declaration that he considered himself the starting quarterback.
“I’m just here to work. Just here to work, get better every day,’’ Campbell said. “ I’ll let coach Cable make that decision and Mr. Al Davis. My job is to come out here every day and compete, keep working on things and try to improve the offense.’’
When Charles Woodson was a rookie, the Raiders went through the charade of listing him behind James Trapp until well into training camp.
With middle linebacker Rolando McClain, there was no such pretense.
“The day after they drafted me, I called to ask for a playbook and some DVDs to look over,’’ McClain said. “I didn’t waste any time.’’
McClain was flanked by Kamerion Wimbley on the strong side and Trevor Scott on the weak side as the defense played almost exclusively 4-3 for the first practice.
– The first minicamp practice contained little or none of the potentially exotic looks hinted at by Cable at the post-draft press briefing. No surprise, really.
“I was looking at the playbook and there are some things that we didn’t do last year.,’’ Asomugha said. “Like always, it’s a matter of how well we do it at this time of the year and then in the summer as to whether we actually play it. So it’s going to depend on us and then how comfortable the coaches feel.’’
– No longer serving as play-caller and offensive coordinator, Cable found himself with more information than usual following the first practice.
“I had a lot more notes from practice on a broad area of things, from what I saw on special teams and with the DBs, to something with the linebackers,’’ Cable said. “I kind of walked off the field feeling really good about what I saw and was anxious to look at it on film and crosscheck myself.’’
Cable on the quarterback rotation of Charlie Frye, JaMarcus Russell, Jason Campbell and Kyle Boller: “It means nothing. Don’t look anything into that. If you do, you’re wasting ink.’’
Or blog space.
– Fourth-round draft pick Bruce Campbell, who played exclusively on the left side at Maryland, lined up as the right guard with the second team. Cable said putting him at guard will give him more second-team reps.
Third-round pick Jared Veldheer was the second-team left tackle behind Mario Henderson.
“My first time looking at the playbook, I looked at it and the different language and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Now that I actually got a practice under my belt, I was like, OK, it’s not that bad,’’ Campbell said. “It’s just getting used to the game speed and basically staying low on the inside.’’
Campbell had false starts on consecutive plays during one sequence and was in some battles with defensive tackle Chris Cooper that probably went beyond the scope of a “non-contact’’ practice.
– Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, No. 85, looked much smoother catching the ball in drills and in team sessions. He did have two drops, although neither was a particularly easy catch, one over his head and the other at his feet.
– The following undrafted free agents were announced as signed: DE Alex Daniels, DT Kellen Heard, RB Chane Moline, TE John Owens, G Alex Parsons, DB Joey Thomas and RB Manase Tonga.
– Cornerback Stanford Routt signed his first- and third-round tender and practiced with the team.
– Coach Tom Cable acknowledged things went much smoother than they did a year ago, when the first minicamp practice was punctuated by fumbled snapped, dropped passes, and disorganization.
“We had two weeks before we did that minicamp, there was kind of a lull in there and that was a reason for doing it right after the draft,’’ Cable said. “I think it’s reflected in that the ball’s not on the round and we don’t look like the Keystone Cops out there.’’
– Whose who didn’t practice included quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, whose left arm is in a sling after pectoral surgery, wide receiver Chaz Schilens, dealing with general soreness, and wide receiver/return specialist Nick Miller, who has shin splints.
Miller was troubled by shin splints last year, only to later have it called a broken fibula. He spent 16 weeks inactive on game day while still on the 53-man roster.
Linebacker Ricky Brown is expected to practice once a day as he recovers from ankle surgery.
– Cable said he hoped Richard Seymour’s contract would be finalized this weekend.
“We’re trying to get it done so he’s all ours,’’ Cable said.
– Fullback Oren O’Neal, who never recovered from a serious knee injury in 2008, was waived.
– It was a mixed bag for quarterback Jason Campbell, getting accustomed to his yearly task of learning a new offense.
“I’ve been through about 10 of them, so somewhere along the like I’ve run a lot of these plays, trying to find the rhythm, get used to the guys around me and get back into the groove,’’ Campbell said.
Campbell, under the watchful eye of Willie Brown during his press session much the way Eddie Anderson monitored JaMarcus Russell, backed well off his NFL Network declaration that he considered himself the starting quarterback.
“I’m just here to work. Just here to work, get better every day,’’ Campbell said. “ I’ll let coach Cable make that decision and Mr. Al Davis. My job is to come out here every day and compete, keep working on things and try to improve the offense.’’
When Charles Woodson was a rookie, the Raiders went through the charade of listing him behind James Trapp until well into training camp.
With middle linebacker Rolando McClain, there was no such pretense.
“The day after they drafted me, I called to ask for a playbook and some DVDs to look over,’’ McClain said. “I didn’t waste any time.’’
McClain was flanked by Kamerion Wimbley on the strong side and Trevor Scott on the weak side as the defense played almost exclusively 4-3 for the first practice.
– The first minicamp practice contained little or none of the potentially exotic looks hinted at by Cable at the post-draft press briefing. No surprise, really.
“I was looking at the playbook and there are some things that we didn’t do last year.,’’ Asomugha said. “Like always, it’s a matter of how well we do it at this time of the year and then in the summer as to whether we actually play it. So it’s going to depend on us and then how comfortable the coaches feel.’’
– No longer serving as play-caller and offensive coordinator, Cable found himself with more information than usual following the first practice.
“I had a lot more notes from practice on a broad area of things, from what I saw on special teams and with the DBs, to something with the linebackers,’’ Cable said. “I kind of walked off the field feeling really good about what I saw and was anxious to look at it on film and crosscheck myself.’’
Cable on the quarterback rotation of Charlie Frye, JaMarcus Russell, Jason Campbell and Kyle Boller: “It means nothing. Don’t look anything into that. If you do, you’re wasting ink.’’
Or blog space.
– Fourth-round draft pick Bruce Campbell, who played exclusively on the left side at Maryland, lined up as the right guard with the second team. Cable said putting him at guard will give him more second-team reps.
Third-round pick Jared Veldheer was the second-team left tackle behind Mario Henderson.
“My first time looking at the playbook, I looked at it and the different language and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Now that I actually got a practice under my belt, I was like, OK, it’s not that bad,’’ Campbell said. “It’s just getting used to the game speed and basically staying low on the inside.’’
Campbell had false starts on consecutive plays during one sequence and was in some battles with defensive tackle Chris Cooper that probably went beyond the scope of a “non-contact’’ practice.
– Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, No. 85, looked much smoother catching the ball in drills and in team sessions. He did have two drops, although neither was a particularly easy catch, one over his head and the other at his feet.
– The following undrafted free agents were announced as signed: DE Alex Daniels, DT Kellen Heard, RB Chane Moline, TE John Owens, G Alex Parsons, DB Joey Thomas and RB Manase Tonga.
– Cornerback Stanford Routt signed his first- and third-round tender and practiced with the team.
iPad 3G video downscaled, blocked over AT&T network
In our early testing, iLounge has learned that some video delivery applications act differently over the 3G network than they do on Wi-Fi. The iPad’s built-in YouTube application strips both standard and HD videos to a dramatically lower resolution over the cellular data connection, something that iTunes Store video previews notably do not do, instead staying at a higher quality and consuming a greater amount of data. Other third-party applications, such as the ABC Player, refuse to work at all over the cellular connection, producing a notification pop-up that states, “Please connect to a Wi-Fi network to use this application. Cellular networks are not supported at this time.”
Nothing but bad news for Woods
CHARLOTTE, N.C. --- Finally, all the talk about Tiger Woods was mostly about his golf.
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Associated Press
Tiger Woods, who shot 7-over-par 79 on Friday in the Quail Hollow Championship, gets 'thumbs down' signs from two fans in the gallery.
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And it was more bad news.
In a shocking meltdown Friday at the Quail Hollow Championship, Woods missed the cut for only the sixth time in his career with a performance that was incomparable for all the wrong reasons.
He shot 7-over-par 79, his worst score on American soil as a pro and the second-highest of his career. He matched his highest score on nine holes with a 43 on the back nine, and that was with three solid pars on the tough closing stretch. His 36-hole score of 153 was the highest in his 14 years on the PGA Tour.
Rust? Mechanics? Distractions from a personal life in turmoil?
"It is what it is," Woods said. "Whatever it was, it wasn't good enough."
Not even close.
He missed the cut by a whopping eight shots -- and he was 17 shots behind 36-hole leader Billy Mayfair -- and headed back to Florida as speculation mounts that being caught in rampant extramarital affairs has tarnished more than his image.
Making the performance even more surprising is that Woods was coming off a tie for fourth at the Masters Tournament three weeks ago, a remarkable result considering it was his first competition since a five-month hiatus created by his crisis at home.
Woods couldn't make a putt, and he didn't make any excuses about whether his private life is affecting his golf.
"Every day I do media, I get asked it, so it doesn't go away," he said. "Even when I'm at home paparazzi still follow us, helicopters still hover around. Does it test you? Yes, of course it does. Is that any excuse? No, because I'm out there and I have the same opportunity as everybody else here in this field to shoot a good number. And I didn't do it."
Woods is to compete next week at The Players Championship.
Mayfair birdied his last hole for a 68 that gave him the halfway lead at 8-under 136. He led by one shot over two-time major champion Angel Cabrera, who had 67.
* Comments (3)
* Bookmark and Share
* Photos
Associated Press
Tiger Woods, who shot 7-over-par 79 on Friday in the Quail Hollow Championship, gets 'thumbs down' signs from two fans in the gallery.
Advertisement
And it was more bad news.
In a shocking meltdown Friday at the Quail Hollow Championship, Woods missed the cut for only the sixth time in his career with a performance that was incomparable for all the wrong reasons.
He shot 7-over-par 79, his worst score on American soil as a pro and the second-highest of his career. He matched his highest score on nine holes with a 43 on the back nine, and that was with three solid pars on the tough closing stretch. His 36-hole score of 153 was the highest in his 14 years on the PGA Tour.
Rust? Mechanics? Distractions from a personal life in turmoil?
"It is what it is," Woods said. "Whatever it was, it wasn't good enough."
Not even close.
He missed the cut by a whopping eight shots -- and he was 17 shots behind 36-hole leader Billy Mayfair -- and headed back to Florida as speculation mounts that being caught in rampant extramarital affairs has tarnished more than his image.
Making the performance even more surprising is that Woods was coming off a tie for fourth at the Masters Tournament three weeks ago, a remarkable result considering it was his first competition since a five-month hiatus created by his crisis at home.
Woods couldn't make a putt, and he didn't make any excuses about whether his private life is affecting his golf.
"Every day I do media, I get asked it, so it doesn't go away," he said. "Even when I'm at home paparazzi still follow us, helicopters still hover around. Does it test you? Yes, of course it does. Is that any excuse? No, because I'm out there and I have the same opportunity as everybody else here in this field to shoot a good number. And I didn't do it."
Woods is to compete next week at The Players Championship.
Mayfair birdied his last hole for a 68 that gave him the halfway lead at 8-under 136. He led by one shot over two-time major champion Angel Cabrera, who had 67.
News director Melville is latest to leave NECN
Tom Melville, the news director at New England Cable News, has resigned from the 24-hour news cable outlet.
Melville, who has overseen the newsroom for over a year, told the station’s staff yesterday. His last day will be Wednesday.
“After 17 years at NECN, I feel it is time for me to try something new,’’ Melville said in a statement.
NECN officials declined to comment on Melville’s departure but said in a statement: “He is the consummate professional, and we wish him the very the best as he takes on new opportunities.’’
Melville is the latest high-ranking executive to leave the station since Comcast Corp. took full ownership of network last summer from Hearst Corp., which had co-owned NECN. With that move, NECN’s general manager and president, Charles J. Kravetz, was replaced by Bill Bridgen, who also oversees Comcast SportsNet based in Burlington. Last month, Iris Adler, NECN’s longtime documentary division editor, left the network to be an executive producer at WBUR 90.9 FM, a National Public Radio affiliate.
The changes come as Comcast has rebranded NECN with expanded programming and new graphics in the past year. This week, the station officially launched a 4:30 a.m. newscast — the earliest of Boston TV stations. Called “First Thing in the Morning,’’ the program features anchors Mike Nikitas and Karen Swensen and meteorologist Danielle Niles.
Melville, who has overseen the newsroom for over a year, told the station’s staff yesterday. His last day will be Wednesday.
“After 17 years at NECN, I feel it is time for me to try something new,’’ Melville said in a statement.
NECN officials declined to comment on Melville’s departure but said in a statement: “He is the consummate professional, and we wish him the very the best as he takes on new opportunities.’’
Melville is the latest high-ranking executive to leave the station since Comcast Corp. took full ownership of network last summer from Hearst Corp., which had co-owned NECN. With that move, NECN’s general manager and president, Charles J. Kravetz, was replaced by Bill Bridgen, who also oversees Comcast SportsNet based in Burlington. Last month, Iris Adler, NECN’s longtime documentary division editor, left the network to be an executive producer at WBUR 90.9 FM, a National Public Radio affiliate.
The changes come as Comcast has rebranded NECN with expanded programming and new graphics in the past year. This week, the station officially launched a 4:30 a.m. newscast — the earliest of Boston TV stations. Called “First Thing in the Morning,’’ the program features anchors Mike Nikitas and Karen Swensen and meteorologist Danielle Niles.
Twitter: More a News Medium Than Social Network
While Twitter tends to get lumped in with other social-networking sites, a group of Korean researchers has analyzed how people use the service and found that it more closely resembles a traditional news media outlet.
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In other words, think of Twitter not as a truncated Facebook, but as a speedy news site where anyone can be a reporter but the dispatches must be no more than 140 characters long.
Haewoon Kwak, one of the researchers, presented the work Friday at the WWW2010 conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Kwak listed the ways that Twitter differs from other social-networking sites, and then described the mathematical analysis the researchers performed to show how people share information differently on Twitter than they do on other networking sites.
For the study, the research team gathered information on 41.7 million user profiles. They pulled 106 million tweets and followed 4,262 trending topics, identified through hash tags.
Unlike with most social-networking sites, a Twitter user does not need to get the permission of another user to follow that person's missives. With Twitter, anyone can follow anyone else (as long as that person makes his or her tweets public).
This approach, Kwak said, is closer to that of blogs, which can be subscribed to via an RSS feed. This led the team to wonder if Twitter was more of a news medium than a social-networking site.
The numbers backed up their idea. The team found that only 22 percent of "follows," where one person chooses to include another's tweets on their page, were reciprocal. This is far lower than the reciprocal rates of typical social media sites, such as Flickr (68 percent) and the popular Koran service Cyworld (77 percent).
And like other forms of media, including news outlets, Twitter has its stars. About 40 Twitter accounts have more than a million followers. The data indicates that amassing this level of popularity cannot be achieved simply by tweeting as much as possible. Rather, all the most popular Twitter accounts belong to celebrities, who are famous in channels other than Twitter.
The messages themselves more closely resemble those of a news dissemination medium as well. Of the tweets registered, more than 85 percent were news-related in some way.
The newsy aspect of Twitter is reflected in the question its users are now asked when posting tweets -- "What's happening?" -- as opposed to the earlier question, "What are you doing?" And many people use the service to search for up-to-the-second information about unfolding events, such as a football game or a natural disaster.
The researchers compared how often Twitter contained the first mention of a breaking news event to how often the CNN Headline News site got the scoop. While CNN broke the news first more than half the time, news appeared on Twitter before CNN a considerable number of times as well.
The question of whether Twitter is a social-networking service or a media outlet, albeit a new form of media, is a pertinent one, especially given Twitter's decision to start interspersing mini-advertisements in its search results.
On the April 15 edition of the Slate "Disrupters" business podcast (episode #4), Matthew Yeomans, a founder of the Web 2.0 consulting firm Social Media Influence, pointed out that people have different expectations with news media sites than they do with social media sites, especially in terms of privacy and level of acceptance of ads.
"If [Twitter] was to grow into a pure-play social network, then the acceptance of advertising would be a lot harder by the Twitter community than if Twitter just becomes a hardcore way of people getting information," he said.
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In other words, think of Twitter not as a truncated Facebook, but as a speedy news site where anyone can be a reporter but the dispatches must be no more than 140 characters long.
Haewoon Kwak, one of the researchers, presented the work Friday at the WWW2010 conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Kwak listed the ways that Twitter differs from other social-networking sites, and then described the mathematical analysis the researchers performed to show how people share information differently on Twitter than they do on other networking sites.
For the study, the research team gathered information on 41.7 million user profiles. They pulled 106 million tweets and followed 4,262 trending topics, identified through hash tags.
Unlike with most social-networking sites, a Twitter user does not need to get the permission of another user to follow that person's missives. With Twitter, anyone can follow anyone else (as long as that person makes his or her tweets public).
This approach, Kwak said, is closer to that of blogs, which can be subscribed to via an RSS feed. This led the team to wonder if Twitter was more of a news medium than a social-networking site.
The numbers backed up their idea. The team found that only 22 percent of "follows," where one person chooses to include another's tweets on their page, were reciprocal. This is far lower than the reciprocal rates of typical social media sites, such as Flickr (68 percent) and the popular Koran service Cyworld (77 percent).
And like other forms of media, including news outlets, Twitter has its stars. About 40 Twitter accounts have more than a million followers. The data indicates that amassing this level of popularity cannot be achieved simply by tweeting as much as possible. Rather, all the most popular Twitter accounts belong to celebrities, who are famous in channels other than Twitter.
The messages themselves more closely resemble those of a news dissemination medium as well. Of the tweets registered, more than 85 percent were news-related in some way.
The newsy aspect of Twitter is reflected in the question its users are now asked when posting tweets -- "What's happening?" -- as opposed to the earlier question, "What are you doing?" And many people use the service to search for up-to-the-second information about unfolding events, such as a football game or a natural disaster.
The researchers compared how often Twitter contained the first mention of a breaking news event to how often the CNN Headline News site got the scoop. While CNN broke the news first more than half the time, news appeared on Twitter before CNN a considerable number of times as well.
The question of whether Twitter is a social-networking service or a media outlet, albeit a new form of media, is a pertinent one, especially given Twitter's decision to start interspersing mini-advertisements in its search results.
On the April 15 edition of the Slate "Disrupters" business podcast (episode #4), Matthew Yeomans, a founder of the Web 2.0 consulting firm Social Media Influence, pointed out that people have different expectations with news media sites than they do with social media sites, especially in terms of privacy and level of acceptance of ads.
"If [Twitter] was to grow into a pure-play social network, then the acceptance of advertising would be a lot harder by the Twitter community than if Twitter just becomes a hardcore way of people getting information," he said.
Obama: Economic Uptick Isn't Mission Accomplished
April 30) -- There are two U.S. economies: the one measured by businesses's output of goods and services, and the one felt by Americans as a sense of family financial security.
It is that second, emotional take on the economy that President Barack Obama had in mind today when he refrained from trumpeting the picture of recovery painted by a new Commerce Department report on gross domestic product for the first three months of the year.
U.S. President Barack Obama during a Rose Garden event at the White House April 30 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee, Getty Images
President Barack Obama comments on the economy during an event Friday in the White House Rose Garden.
According to the government's initial estimate, U.S. economic output grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent. It was slower than the 5.6 percent rate clocked in the fourth quarter of last year -- which economists knew was unsustainable -- but marked a tremendous turnaround from the 6.4 percent decline in the first three months of 2009.
"What this number means is that our economy as a whole is in a much better place than it was one year ago," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, a few hours after the GDP numbers were released. "The economy that shrank for four quarters in a row has now grown for three quarters in a row.
"But I measure progress by a different pulse, the progress the American people feel in their own lives, day in, day out," he added, noting the country is still struggling to recuperate from 8 million jobs lost. "While today's GDP report is an important milepost on our road to recovery, it doesn't mean much to an American who has lost his or her job and can't find another.
"For millions of Americans -- our friends, neighbors and fellow citizens ready and willing to get back to work -- 'You're hired' is the only economic news they're waiting to hear."
The president's remarks underline how the jobs market overshadows any broader economic story in public life, and how closely Democrats and Republicans alike will pay attention to the employment report released by the government on the first Friday of each month between now and the midterm elections in November.
Economic insecurity is almost as politically resonant now as terrorism-related security fears were in the early years of President George W. Bush's administration. And even as he takes credit for putting the economy back on its feet, Obama has no wish to declare "mission accomplished" when so many Americans feel the economic battle is far from won.
One recent Associated Press-GfK Poll indicated that only 21 percent of Americans feel the economy is in good shape. Unemployment is at 9.7 percent, and that's not counting the more than 2 million unemployed people the Labor Department didn't include in the workforce last month because they weren't looking for work anymore.
Republicans know this too.
Speaking on National Public Radio today, House Minority Leader John Boehner pointed out that "the American people are asking the question: Where are the jobs? When are we going to get the economy going again?"
Economic insecurity also explains why the White House has effectively treated Wall Street executives as its biggest political nemesis -- much more than Republicans -- for the past five months. The financial crisis, even if over, still looms politically.
There is genuine good news in the GDP report. Consumer spending, the biggest engine of U.S. economic growth, improved at a healthier annual rate of 2.55 percent in the quarter, with Americans showing an increasing willingness to buy durable goods like refrigerators, appliances and cars. Recovering sales for American automakers -- as seen in the recent quarterly results from General Motors, Chrysler and Ford -- played a big part.
The report also indicated that inflation remained tame, giving the Federal Reserve more leeway to keep interest rates and the cost of borrowed money low for some time to come.
But with both the Fed and the White House predicting weak job growth into next year, that is the economic and political issue expected to remain at the fore.
It is that second, emotional take on the economy that President Barack Obama had in mind today when he refrained from trumpeting the picture of recovery painted by a new Commerce Department report on gross domestic product for the first three months of the year.
U.S. President Barack Obama during a Rose Garden event at the White House April 30 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee, Getty Images
President Barack Obama comments on the economy during an event Friday in the White House Rose Garden.
According to the government's initial estimate, U.S. economic output grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent. It was slower than the 5.6 percent rate clocked in the fourth quarter of last year -- which economists knew was unsustainable -- but marked a tremendous turnaround from the 6.4 percent decline in the first three months of 2009.
"What this number means is that our economy as a whole is in a much better place than it was one year ago," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, a few hours after the GDP numbers were released. "The economy that shrank for four quarters in a row has now grown for three quarters in a row.
"But I measure progress by a different pulse, the progress the American people feel in their own lives, day in, day out," he added, noting the country is still struggling to recuperate from 8 million jobs lost. "While today's GDP report is an important milepost on our road to recovery, it doesn't mean much to an American who has lost his or her job and can't find another.
"For millions of Americans -- our friends, neighbors and fellow citizens ready and willing to get back to work -- 'You're hired' is the only economic news they're waiting to hear."
The president's remarks underline how the jobs market overshadows any broader economic story in public life, and how closely Democrats and Republicans alike will pay attention to the employment report released by the government on the first Friday of each month between now and the midterm elections in November.
Economic insecurity is almost as politically resonant now as terrorism-related security fears were in the early years of President George W. Bush's administration. And even as he takes credit for putting the economy back on its feet, Obama has no wish to declare "mission accomplished" when so many Americans feel the economic battle is far from won.
One recent Associated Press-GfK Poll indicated that only 21 percent of Americans feel the economy is in good shape. Unemployment is at 9.7 percent, and that's not counting the more than 2 million unemployed people the Labor Department didn't include in the workforce last month because they weren't looking for work anymore.
Republicans know this too.
Speaking on National Public Radio today, House Minority Leader John Boehner pointed out that "the American people are asking the question: Where are the jobs? When are we going to get the economy going again?"
Economic insecurity also explains why the White House has effectively treated Wall Street executives as its biggest political nemesis -- much more than Republicans -- for the past five months. The financial crisis, even if over, still looms politically.
There is genuine good news in the GDP report. Consumer spending, the biggest engine of U.S. economic growth, improved at a healthier annual rate of 2.55 percent in the quarter, with Americans showing an increasing willingness to buy durable goods like refrigerators, appliances and cars. Recovering sales for American automakers -- as seen in the recent quarterly results from General Motors, Chrysler and Ford -- played a big part.
The report also indicated that inflation remained tame, giving the Federal Reserve more leeway to keep interest rates and the cost of borrowed money low for some time to come.
But with both the Fed and the White House predicting weak job growth into next year, that is the economic and political issue expected to remain at the fore.
AP News for iPad a missed opportunity
Having made most of my living in the news business, I'm pretty much a news junkie. As a result, I've loaded my iPad up with a lot of news applications so I can keep up throughout the day.
I'd taken some pretty strong issue with the failings of the AP News app for the iPhone, but the iPad version hits a new low in design and function.
Let's start at the beginning. When you launch the app, you are presented with a screen that has little strips of news on what appears to be a cloth background. Each strip is a story. You can get about six of these strips on the iPad screen. That's pretty silly, since the screen is so large and the strips are so small. You would think the people that designed this app would use the extra space for more content, but that isn't the case. The home screen also has a large window which is a gateway to AP photos, and another window that leads you to video.
When you click on a story, it expands, but again, doesn't use the full screen space. There is a sidebar that lets you select a story to send as email, send it to Twitter or Facebook, or enlarge the fonts. You can also save the story locally.
There is also a ridiculous feature that lets you rate the story. This feature is also in the iPhone version. I said it then, and I'll say it now: What the heck do I care how someone else rated a story? I'm going to read what I am interested in, not a bunch of other people. This is a baffling decision by the AP, and is, I guess, some misguided attempt to be "hip."
If you use the app, you'll often see the same story is listed more than once. It is exactly the same story, with the same text and transmit time. You'd think the software would be smart enough to stop two identical stories from appearing on the same page, but it amounts to another case of bad decisions and another waste of screen space.
Let's move on, quickly, to the photo feed. The AP is a world photo leader in photography, with a lot of Pulitzer Prize-winning photos to be proud of. In the app you click on a picture and you guessed it. It doesn't come up full screen. It enlarges a bit, but is still pretty small. The pictures can also be mailed, Twittered and sent to Facebook.
How about the video feature? Well, it works, but that's about it. The video window is very small, and each video starts up with an ad. The same ad. Over and over, for each video you watch. Today it was an ad for men's deodorant. If it wouldn't ruin the iPad and void my warranty, I'd spray it all over this app.
It's hard to understand what the AP is thinking. I want to get the news. I have an iPad because the larger screen appeals to me. Games and photos, look great on this device. This app fails to use the extra screen space at every opportunity.
A few other items: This app frequently crashes on launch. It's already had one update, but the crashes continue. More than once it has lost the news category choices I've made, and just has the default categories. Selecting your own categories is a festival of obfuscation. It isn't obvious that you have to drag and drop the categories to a list. There is no onscreen guidance or help of any kind.
There is an option for local news. I set it to my home town, and I got a smattering of fairly stale news from my local paper. The app also displays my local forecast and current temperature on the main page. You can have multiple locations set, but when I switched to another, I did not get weather from that location. When I deleted my original location, it still insisted on giving me the weather for Arizona, instead of the new location.
In the final analysis, this app is a train wreck. The AP is among the biggest and finest news operations in the world. They could have done this right. I'm taking it off my iPad to join the legion of rejected apps that don't belong on it.
For a look at news done right, check the Editor's Choice app from the New York Times, The BBC News app, the USA Today app, or the the News Pro app from Thomson Reuters. All these apps are superior to the AP News app in design and function.
Is my review too harsh? I don't think so. I just read the comments on AP News at the app store. It's pretty ugly over there.
The Associated Press can do better than this. I hope they will. It's time to replace the team that designed this and let the next version go to programmers who actually read the news. Now that's a concept.
I'd taken some pretty strong issue with the failings of the AP News app for the iPhone, but the iPad version hits a new low in design and function.
Let's start at the beginning. When you launch the app, you are presented with a screen that has little strips of news on what appears to be a cloth background. Each strip is a story. You can get about six of these strips on the iPad screen. That's pretty silly, since the screen is so large and the strips are so small. You would think the people that designed this app would use the extra space for more content, but that isn't the case. The home screen also has a large window which is a gateway to AP photos, and another window that leads you to video.
When you click on a story, it expands, but again, doesn't use the full screen space. There is a sidebar that lets you select a story to send as email, send it to Twitter or Facebook, or enlarge the fonts. You can also save the story locally.
There is also a ridiculous feature that lets you rate the story. This feature is also in the iPhone version. I said it then, and I'll say it now: What the heck do I care how someone else rated a story? I'm going to read what I am interested in, not a bunch of other people. This is a baffling decision by the AP, and is, I guess, some misguided attempt to be "hip."
If you use the app, you'll often see the same story is listed more than once. It is exactly the same story, with the same text and transmit time. You'd think the software would be smart enough to stop two identical stories from appearing on the same page, but it amounts to another case of bad decisions and another waste of screen space.
Let's move on, quickly, to the photo feed. The AP is a world photo leader in photography, with a lot of Pulitzer Prize-winning photos to be proud of. In the app you click on a picture and you guessed it. It doesn't come up full screen. It enlarges a bit, but is still pretty small. The pictures can also be mailed, Twittered and sent to Facebook.
How about the video feature? Well, it works, but that's about it. The video window is very small, and each video starts up with an ad. The same ad. Over and over, for each video you watch. Today it was an ad for men's deodorant. If it wouldn't ruin the iPad and void my warranty, I'd spray it all over this app.
It's hard to understand what the AP is thinking. I want to get the news. I have an iPad because the larger screen appeals to me. Games and photos, look great on this device. This app fails to use the extra screen space at every opportunity.
A few other items: This app frequently crashes on launch. It's already had one update, but the crashes continue. More than once it has lost the news category choices I've made, and just has the default categories. Selecting your own categories is a festival of obfuscation. It isn't obvious that you have to drag and drop the categories to a list. There is no onscreen guidance or help of any kind.
There is an option for local news. I set it to my home town, and I got a smattering of fairly stale news from my local paper. The app also displays my local forecast and current temperature on the main page. You can have multiple locations set, but when I switched to another, I did not get weather from that location. When I deleted my original location, it still insisted on giving me the weather for Arizona, instead of the new location.
In the final analysis, this app is a train wreck. The AP is among the biggest and finest news operations in the world. They could have done this right. I'm taking it off my iPad to join the legion of rejected apps that don't belong on it.
For a look at news done right, check the Editor's Choice app from the New York Times, The BBC News app, the USA Today app, or the the News Pro app from Thomson Reuters. All these apps are superior to the AP News app in design and function.
Is my review too harsh? I don't think so. I just read the comments on AP News at the app store. It's pretty ugly over there.
The Associated Press can do better than this. I hope they will. It's time to replace the team that designed this and let the next version go to programmers who actually read the news. Now that's a concept.
Top 10 News Items
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. News that an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is turning out to be much larger than expected dominated wires this week, causing traders to short the stocks of those companies involved, mainly BP (NYSE: BP), Transocean (NYSE: RIG) and Cameron International (NYSE: CAM). BP has estimated that several leaks at the site are causing the oil company to lose up to 5,000 barrels of oil per day, pushing clean-up costs already into the tens of millions just several days after troubles were initially seen. The Governor of Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in the state as the massive oil sheen is expected to hit land sometime this weekend. Shares of BP tumbled 13% this week, Transocean, which BP leases the rig from, fell about 16% and Cameron, which makes the cap that was supposed to stay sealed upon blow-out, fell about 18%.
2. Unsustainable levels of debt in European countries made their way back to the front of trader's list of worries this week as S&P downgraded its ratings on not only Greece but also Spain and Portugal. While some would argue that such an event was also priced into these markets, others point that the real damage could come from the contagion of these debt concerns: EU countries are tied so closely together that downgrades could get the ball roll for other countries to be downgraded. Against the dollar, the euro has not been to such low levels since mid-2009.
3. Shares of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell about 7% this week as execs were grilled on Capitol Hill and then, later in the week, the SEC referred its fraud case against the firm to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. While much of Wall Street cheered Lloyd Blankfein's snappy responses to an onslaught of questions, Main Street rejoiced as Carl Levin "stumped" other execs with "meaningful" interrogation tactics aimed at exposing the corruption within the US financial industry.
4. Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN) shares surged almost 27% on Thursday of this week, and another 9% on Friday as its Provenge cancer treatment was approved by the FDA. Full treatment with the product will cost patients $93,000. A parade of analysts rushed to raise their price targets on the momentous stock.
5. Finally giving solace to many speculative traders that like to play the M&A market, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) announced that it has made an offer to buy Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) for $1.2 billion, or about $5.70 per share. Shares of Palm surged more than 26% on Thursday.
6. The Fed held rates unchanged this week, also leaving in its "extended period" language. Also unchanged from previous FOMC meetings, Thomas Hoenig remained the lone dissenter.
7. The earnings season is now mostly behind us although a few stragglers still remain. This week we saw earnings from the likes of Ford (NYSE: F), Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), DuPont (NYSE: DD), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Visa (NYSE: V), First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).
8. The second reading on Q1 GDP came in this week, showing a 3.2% rise in economic growth. Economists had been looking for a rise of 3.3%.
9. Shares of Hertz Global (NYSE: HTZ) and Dollar Thrifty (NYSE: DTG) jumped 14% and 10%, respectively, on Monday of this week as the two company's apparently have been in talks for Hertz to buy Dollar Thrifty for $1.17 billion in cash and stock. The deal values Dollar Thrifty at $41 per share.
10. The U.S. Treasury issued a press release on Monday morning related to the sale of its 7.7 million shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) common stock. Citi shares fell more than 10% on Monday and Tuesday following the news, but bounced about 5% on Wednesday and Thursday.
1. News that an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is turning out to be much larger than expected dominated wires this week, causing traders to short the stocks of those companies involved, mainly BP (NYSE: BP), Transocean (NYSE: RIG) and Cameron International (NYSE: CAM). BP has estimated that several leaks at the site are causing the oil company to lose up to 5,000 barrels of oil per day, pushing clean-up costs already into the tens of millions just several days after troubles were initially seen. The Governor of Louisiana has declared a state of emergency in the state as the massive oil sheen is expected to hit land sometime this weekend. Shares of BP tumbled 13% this week, Transocean, which BP leases the rig from, fell about 16% and Cameron, which makes the cap that was supposed to stay sealed upon blow-out, fell about 18%.
2. Unsustainable levels of debt in European countries made their way back to the front of trader's list of worries this week as S&P downgraded its ratings on not only Greece but also Spain and Portugal. While some would argue that such an event was also priced into these markets, others point that the real damage could come from the contagion of these debt concerns: EU countries are tied so closely together that downgrades could get the ball roll for other countries to be downgraded. Against the dollar, the euro has not been to such low levels since mid-2009.
3. Shares of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell about 7% this week as execs were grilled on Capitol Hill and then, later in the week, the SEC referred its fraud case against the firm to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. While much of Wall Street cheered Lloyd Blankfein's snappy responses to an onslaught of questions, Main Street rejoiced as Carl Levin "stumped" other execs with "meaningful" interrogation tactics aimed at exposing the corruption within the US financial industry.
4. Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN) shares surged almost 27% on Thursday of this week, and another 9% on Friday as its Provenge cancer treatment was approved by the FDA. Full treatment with the product will cost patients $93,000. A parade of analysts rushed to raise their price targets on the momentous stock.
5. Finally giving solace to many speculative traders that like to play the M&A market, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) announced that it has made an offer to buy Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) for $1.2 billion, or about $5.70 per share. Shares of Palm surged more than 26% on Thursday.
6. The Fed held rates unchanged this week, also leaving in its "extended period" language. Also unchanged from previous FOMC meetings, Thomas Hoenig remained the lone dissenter.
7. The earnings season is now mostly behind us although a few stragglers still remain. This week we saw earnings from the likes of Ford (NYSE: F), Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), DuPont (NYSE: DD), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Visa (NYSE: V), First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).
8. The second reading on Q1 GDP came in this week, showing a 3.2% rise in economic growth. Economists had been looking for a rise of 3.3%.
9. Shares of Hertz Global (NYSE: HTZ) and Dollar Thrifty (NYSE: DTG) jumped 14% and 10%, respectively, on Monday of this week as the two company's apparently have been in talks for Hertz to buy Dollar Thrifty for $1.17 billion in cash and stock. The deal values Dollar Thrifty at $41 per share.
10. The U.S. Treasury issued a press release on Monday morning related to the sale of its 7.7 million shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) common stock. Citi shares fell more than 10% on Monday and Tuesday following the news, but bounced about 5% on Wednesday and Thursday.
AP Top News at 2:28 p.m. EDT
MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER — Oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico oozed into Louisiana's ecologically rich wetlands Friday as storms threatened to frustrate desperate protection efforts. The White House put a hold on any new offshore oil projects until safeguards are in place to prevent rig explosions like the one that caused the spill. Boats patrolled coastal marshes early Friday looking for areas where the oil has flowed in, the Coast Guard said, and the state of Louisiana diverted thousands of gallons of fresh water from the Mississippi River to try to flush out the wetlands, though that effort was being hampered by wind.
LeBron James will be named MVP
You knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time, but you knew. Kind of like how we all know that "Furry Vengeance" is going to be a really great movie, we're all aware that LeBron James is this season's Most Valuable Player.
Now, according to Waiting for Next Year and confirmed by Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, it's official.
LeBron James will become the 10th player in NBA history to win back-to-back Most Valuable Player Awards when results of the nationwide voting are announced Sunday, sources told The Plain Dealer.
James is expected to have a press conference at The University of Akron and accept the Maurice Podoloff Trophy and the Kia car that comes with the honor. Last season when James won for the first time, he accepted at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in his hometown.
NBA Commissioner David Stern is expected for formally give him the trophy before Monday's Game 2 against the Boston Celtics at The Q.
While James will be the 10th player in NBA history to win back-to-back MVPs, he'll be the first to do so in a season that included an off-hand free throw in the final seconds of a playoff game. Quite the honor.
There's no word yet on whether LeBron was a unanimous vote for MVP, but odds are he wasn't. Remember, he sat out a few games at the end of the season and some people think that means he shouldn't be the Most Valuable Player, despite the fact that he had one of the best statistical seasons of all-time and was somehow better than last year when he took home his first trophy. Silliness.
Like I said, considering LeBron's dominance this year, it's exactly zero percent surprising that he'll be getting another MVP. Heck, like Stan Van Gundy says, he could win the next 10. But what is surprising is that as of Sunday, LeBron James will own two Kias.
Now, according to Waiting for Next Year and confirmed by Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, it's official.
LeBron James will become the 10th player in NBA history to win back-to-back Most Valuable Player Awards when results of the nationwide voting are announced Sunday, sources told The Plain Dealer.
James is expected to have a press conference at The University of Akron and accept the Maurice Podoloff Trophy and the Kia car that comes with the honor. Last season when James won for the first time, he accepted at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in his hometown.
NBA Commissioner David Stern is expected for formally give him the trophy before Monday's Game 2 against the Boston Celtics at The Q.
While James will be the 10th player in NBA history to win back-to-back MVPs, he'll be the first to do so in a season that included an off-hand free throw in the final seconds of a playoff game. Quite the honor.
There's no word yet on whether LeBron was a unanimous vote for MVP, but odds are he wasn't. Remember, he sat out a few games at the end of the season and some people think that means he shouldn't be the Most Valuable Player, despite the fact that he had one of the best statistical seasons of all-time and was somehow better than last year when he took home his first trophy. Silliness.
Like I said, considering LeBron's dominance this year, it's exactly zero percent surprising that he'll be getting another MVP. Heck, like Stan Van Gundy says, he could win the next 10. But what is surprising is that as of Sunday, LeBron James will own two Kias.
News from the track: Richmond
Want to hear what Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have to say about each other after having a week to cool down? We do, and we'll have it for you, along with whatever else goes on at Richmond International Raceway on Friday in preparation for Saturday night's Crown Royal 400. Hang here all day while we bring you the news and notes from Friday's press conferences and happenings on the track. Check back often to keep up with the latest.
Here are some notes to get us started:
• Qualifying will start at 5:30 ET.
• At this point last season, Kyle Busch had two wins. He's winless so far this season.
• In 10 races at Richmond, Busch has eight top-five finishes.
10:45 a.m. ET: Jeff Burton says he feels he's performed "as well as anybody," they just aren't getting the results to match how they are running.
"It's bizarre to run the way we've run and post the finishes we've posted."
10:57: Burton was asked about Brad Keselowski's win in the Nationwide Series at Talladega in which Keselowski's car failed post-race inspection. Keselowski was penalized points, but kept the win.
11:00: Burton was asked if he will run for political office when he retires.
"I have not served my country, and that's something I think we all need to do and I have not done that." He doesn't know what form it will be - volunteering, political office - but said he will do something to serve his community when he retires from racing.
Burton said some penalties warrant taking the trophy and taking the points, and some penalties don't. "There's minor infractions and there's major infractions."
He added that he understands how that might look from the outside looking in, but there are small infractions that won't impact the performance of car. However, if they do impact the performance, Burton said there should be discussion about whether or not to take the win away.
11:34: Denny Hamlin said he's feeling more relaxed than ever coming to Richmond, his home track, mostly because he finally won there last fall.
11:39: Telling comment of the day so far, Hamlin talking about relationships with teammates: "It's tough at times to have a conversation with Kyle [Busch], but we make it work."
11:45: Hamlin said "everybody races Jimmie [Johnson] a little bit different."
"When you have the success he's had, people don't want to give him anything. People actually race him harder and harder. It's something he's going to have to deal with.
"Even though he doesn't rough anyone up on racetrack, I'm still going to race him hard because I want to take his spot in the sport."
Hamlin added that he thinks the so-called feud between Johnson and Jeff Gordon is based on frustration from Gordon having not won this season.
"You always want to be the leading team guy. The 48 [Johnson] has been that guy for awhile; the 24 [Gordon] wants it."
1:25 p.m.: Jamie McMurray is pacing the way in the first practice session. He's followed by Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch.
1:30: The first practice session is complete and McMurray hangs on to the top spot (at 122.466 mph). Rounding out the top 10 are: Bowyer, Logano, Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, AJ Allmendinger, Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.
1:48: The big news of the day so far is that Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson have signed extensions to remain crew chiefs for the 48 and 5 cars, respectively. Knaus' deal goes through 2015 - the same as Jimmie Johnson. Gustafson's deal is for four years.
3:30: Kyle Busch was fastest in the final practice session (124.889 mph). He was followed by David Reutimann, Joey Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon. Rounding out the top 10 were Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Scott Speed and Jeff Burton.
4:13: Jimmie Johnson said he was surprised by Jeff Gordon's pointed words following last week's race at Talladega because "it wasn't an intentional situation where I was trying to like crash him. I mean, heck, I was doing what you do in the draft which just go down and block a lane and then try to have that lane push you. I misjudged it a little bit in the mirror with the closing rate and he had to go out of bounds to not run into the back of me. In that respect, yes. But he was definitely frustrated with what had been going on from the week before."
And Johnson had this to say about racing Gordon differently: "I think from my perspective there's a point where I've got to race people how they race me. If people are pushing and showing me out of the way, I've got to do the same thing back. I've been very gracious with teammates where I've taken more lumps than I've passed out. That's what the Texas thing was about. I just got to a point where I said enough. But last weekend at Talladega was merely an accident on my behalf. I just misjudged the closing speed."
5:06: Dale Earnhardt Jr. had this to say about the recent National Enquirer story about him: "We've been in there a lot. I don't know why we keep popping up in there. I guess we are relevant in some realm. You learn a lot of new stuff about yourself that you never knew before."
And: "There is no truth to that particular story or any of the other ones for that matter if we want to set the record straight."
And: "The Enquirer is pretty creative. I have to hand it to them."
Here are some notes to get us started:
• Qualifying will start at 5:30 ET.
• At this point last season, Kyle Busch had two wins. He's winless so far this season.
• In 10 races at Richmond, Busch has eight top-five finishes.
10:45 a.m. ET: Jeff Burton says he feels he's performed "as well as anybody," they just aren't getting the results to match how they are running.
"It's bizarre to run the way we've run and post the finishes we've posted."
10:57: Burton was asked about Brad Keselowski's win in the Nationwide Series at Talladega in which Keselowski's car failed post-race inspection. Keselowski was penalized points, but kept the win.
11:00: Burton was asked if he will run for political office when he retires.
"I have not served my country, and that's something I think we all need to do and I have not done that." He doesn't know what form it will be - volunteering, political office - but said he will do something to serve his community when he retires from racing.
Burton said some penalties warrant taking the trophy and taking the points, and some penalties don't. "There's minor infractions and there's major infractions."
He added that he understands how that might look from the outside looking in, but there are small infractions that won't impact the performance of car. However, if they do impact the performance, Burton said there should be discussion about whether or not to take the win away.
11:34: Denny Hamlin said he's feeling more relaxed than ever coming to Richmond, his home track, mostly because he finally won there last fall.
11:39: Telling comment of the day so far, Hamlin talking about relationships with teammates: "It's tough at times to have a conversation with Kyle [Busch], but we make it work."
11:45: Hamlin said "everybody races Jimmie [Johnson] a little bit different."
"When you have the success he's had, people don't want to give him anything. People actually race him harder and harder. It's something he's going to have to deal with.
"Even though he doesn't rough anyone up on racetrack, I'm still going to race him hard because I want to take his spot in the sport."
Hamlin added that he thinks the so-called feud between Johnson and Jeff Gordon is based on frustration from Gordon having not won this season.
"You always want to be the leading team guy. The 48 [Johnson] has been that guy for awhile; the 24 [Gordon] wants it."
1:25 p.m.: Jamie McMurray is pacing the way in the first practice session. He's followed by Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch.
1:30: The first practice session is complete and McMurray hangs on to the top spot (at 122.466 mph). Rounding out the top 10 are: Bowyer, Logano, Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, AJ Allmendinger, Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.
1:48: The big news of the day so far is that Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson have signed extensions to remain crew chiefs for the 48 and 5 cars, respectively. Knaus' deal goes through 2015 - the same as Jimmie Johnson. Gustafson's deal is for four years.
3:30: Kyle Busch was fastest in the final practice session (124.889 mph). He was followed by David Reutimann, Joey Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon. Rounding out the top 10 were Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Scott Speed and Jeff Burton.
4:13: Jimmie Johnson said he was surprised by Jeff Gordon's pointed words following last week's race at Talladega because "it wasn't an intentional situation where I was trying to like crash him. I mean, heck, I was doing what you do in the draft which just go down and block a lane and then try to have that lane push you. I misjudged it a little bit in the mirror with the closing rate and he had to go out of bounds to not run into the back of me. In that respect, yes. But he was definitely frustrated with what had been going on from the week before."
And Johnson had this to say about racing Gordon differently: "I think from my perspective there's a point where I've got to race people how they race me. If people are pushing and showing me out of the way, I've got to do the same thing back. I've been very gracious with teammates where I've taken more lumps than I've passed out. That's what the Texas thing was about. I just got to a point where I said enough. But last weekend at Talladega was merely an accident on my behalf. I just misjudged the closing speed."
5:06: Dale Earnhardt Jr. had this to say about the recent National Enquirer story about him: "We've been in there a lot. I don't know why we keep popping up in there. I guess we are relevant in some realm. You learn a lot of new stuff about yourself that you never knew before."
And: "There is no truth to that particular story or any of the other ones for that matter if we want to set the record straight."
And: "The Enquirer is pretty creative. I have to hand it to them."
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