BC is no match for Florida State, falls 38-7 (AP)

BOSTON ? Boston College's slim chance at a winning season ended with a humiliating loss.

Unable to get a first down for most of the first half, the Eagles fell behind 28-0 before barely putting up a challenge in losing 38-7 to Florida State on Thursday night.

Boston College (2-7, 1-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), which had gone to a bowl game for 12 straight years, is guaranteed its first losing season since 1998 and was eliminated from bowl contention.

That was only part of how bad it was for the Eagles.

In their first 11 offensive plays, BC collected 1 yard of total offense. After the Seminoles opened their four-touchdown lead, the Eagles were outgained 214 yards to 16.

"We got licked," BC coach Frank Spaziani said. "Couldn't get a first down; couldn't get out of our own way for a little bit there."

BC went from a one-dimensional running team to a zero-dimensional offense.

EJ Manuel threw for one touchdown and ran for another for Florida State.

The Eagles did get a brief offensive spark when backup QB Josh Bordner drove them to Florida State's 1-yard line late in the first half. That drive ended when running back Rolandan Finch fumbled before the half ended.

"We had trouble blocking and we had trouble protecting," Spaziani said of the switch. "Because of our situation with the backs, we had put a couple of things in for Josh."

With their fourth straight win, the Seminoles (6-3, 4-2) qualified for a bowl game for an NCAA-best 30th consecutive year.

Manuel completed 12 of 16 passes for 180 yards and ran 16 times for 37 yards. Devonta Freeman ran for 62 yards and two touchdowns, and Nick O'Leary caught three passes for 87 yards.

One of the few highlights for the Eagles was their standout linebacker Luke Kuechly. He had 20 tackles ? 12 solo ? his 31st straight game with 10 or more.

"I don't think with this team, with this BC team, anybody's going to quit," Kuechly said. "I don't care about what's not available. I'm going to come out and win against N.C. State" next week.

BC starter Chase Rettig completed 11 of 18 passes with one touchdown and one interception. Bordner was 1 of 2 for 37 yards, and he ran seven times for 45 yards.

Manuel did most of the damage in a dominant first half, when Florida State scored on three consecutive possessions to blow the game open. With 4:51 to play in the second quarter, the Seminoles led 28-0; they had outgained BC 214 yards to 16 and held the Eagles without a first down.

Bordner came into the game and, sharing time with Rettig on the drive, led BC 74 yards to the Florida State 1 before Finch fumbled.

Finch, a former fourth-stringer who had 243 yards against Maryland last week, had two fumbles in the game while gaining 59 yards on 28 carries.

Manuel threw for 321 yards and two touchdowns last week in a 34-0 victory over North Carolina State ? the Seminoles' fourth consecutive game with more than 425 yards of total offense. Against BC they had 307.

Florida State failed to get a first down on its first possession, but it got the ball back on the BC 2 when Anthony McCloud knocked the ball free from Finch and Smith fell on it. Two plays and a penalty later, Manuel hit Bert Reed for an 8-yard touchdown pass.

The Seminoles scored early in the second quarter on Freeman's 12-yard run and, after another BC three-and-out, Manuel completed a 58-yard pass to O'Leary before taking it in himself from 1 yard out to make it 21-0. After another BC three-and-out, Freeman marched Florida State down the field before scoring from the 3 to give the Seminoles a 28-0 lead.

Bordner entered the game for BC and, on his first snap, ran 25 yards for the Eagles' first first down of the game. From the Seminoles' 39 he hit Bobby Swigert on a 37-yard completion that brought the ball to the 2.

But Finch was stuffed for a 1-yard gain on first-and-goal, and on second down he lost the ball on his way to the line of scrimmage.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111104/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_boston_college

oakland texas judge texas judge tom brokaw maria shriver andy irons ethan zohn

The week's buzz: Tax, tips, college debt

By Allison Linn

Halloween brings ghosts, goblins, witches ? and the tax man.

We started this week with a Halloween-themed post on the growing trend of taxing sugary treats such as candy and soda. The vast majority of our readers were against the idea, with one even calling for throwing candy bars in the Boston Bay a la the Tea Party.

Are we seeing the birth of a new political movement: The Sugar Party? Probably not, but the message was clear: While some of you think people should pay an extra price for a sweet treat, most of you don?t think a sweets tax is the way to combat obesity or government funding shortfalls.

?This tax has nothing to do with obesity; what it is is simply a revenue grab by the government. Nothing wrong with candy or soda; what business is it of the government - which cannot even balance its own checkbook - to tell us what we can and cannot eat?? one reader wrote.

Other envisioned a kind of Prohibition-era response:

?When this happens I will be in the kitchen making my own, then bootlegging it to all who wants it,? one reader wrote.

Sounds yummy, but what if you?d rather enjoy your sweet treat in a restaurant? Another popular post this week reported on a study finding that the type of people who won?t tell anyone when they experience bad customer service are also the type who will tip more despite the bad experience.

On our Today Money Facebook page, many readers said that they are more than happy to tell someone if they are served a bad meal or don?t get good customer service. But some admitted that they are hesitant to speak up?? except maybe later, on Facebook.

?I don't usually say anything because I refuse to have ?new? food cooked for me after complaining about the food they served me. I will say the ribs at Ruby Tuesday really sucked yesterday and I should have said something,? one reader wrote.

If you are considering stiffing your server, maybe you should consider whether that person is working to get a costly college degree. Our readers also had a lot to say this week about a post noting that the college class of 2010 graduated with more debt than ever before.

The high cost of college?had a lot of readers wondering whether college is even worth it, and what can be done to fix the problem. One reader even wrote a college paper on it.

?

?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/04/8635244-the-weeks-buzz-taxes-tips-and-trying-to-pay-for-college

kurt warner kurt warner st. croix st. croix threadworm nick swisher pirates of silicon valley

Perry: Poor debate performances due to fundraising pressure (Daily Caller)

GOP presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been severely criticized for several clumsy debate performances.

On Wednesday night Perry offered an explanation to conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity about why he stumbled in past debates.

?I think the first 100 days is just a sprint to raise money. I mean that is what we were doing,? Perry said. ?We were spending a lot of time raising money because we knew we had to. We had, I think, four debates during that period of time and frankly I didn?t have time to prepare for those debates ? obviously it showed.?

Perry raised $17 million in the third quarter.

Greek referendum call hits markets hard (AP)

LONDON ? Markets plunged Tuesday on fears that Europe's plan to save the euro was already unraveling after the shock decision by Greece's leader to call a referendum on the country's latest rescue.

Should the Greek government lose the referendum vote ? and opinion polls say it's going to have real trouble getting enough support ? then the implications for Greece and Europe are massive. The vote could end up deciding whether Greece remains in the 17-nation euro currency union.

Markets, it seems, are taking the view that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won't be able to pull off a come-from-behind victory.

"Talk about your all-time bonehead moves," said Benjamin Reitzes, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. "It would reintroduce the risk that Greece could face a disorderly default and potentially be forced to leave the euro."

Papandreou stunned investors, as well as his own citizens and his partners in the eurozone, by announcing late Monday that a plebiscite will be held in what he called "a supreme act of democracy and of patriotism for the people to make their own decision." A confidence vote in the Socialist government will also take place at the end of this week.

The announcement came as the shine from last week's European deal appeared to be wearing off.

On Monday, sentiment was already turning sour after U.S. brokerage firm MF Global filed for bankruptcy amid reports that it had bought too much bad European debt and fears over the public finances of Italy, the eurozone's third-largest economy. Italy's debts dwarf the euro1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) that Europe's bailout fund will have at its disposal if last week's commitments are delivered.

"The 6-8 percent falls over two days have now effectively given back all the gains from the post Brussels meeting rally," said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners.

The plan presented last week by eurozone leaders was intended to be Europe's comprehensive solution to a debt crisis that's already seen three countries, including Greece, bailed out.

The three-pronged strategy of boosting the bailout fund, getting private creditors to take a bigger hit on their Greek debt holdings and forcing the banks to raise more capital was largely viewed favorably by the markets, although details need to be ironed out.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 2.9 percent to 5,385 while Germany's DAX slid 4.9 percent to 5,841. The CAC-40 in France was 4 percent lower at 3,114.

Greek shares fared much worse, with the main exchange in Athens down 6 percent.

The euro was 1.1 percent lower at $1.3700 and the yield on Italy's ten-year yield ratcheted up 0.20 of a percentage point to 6.19 percent.

Wall Street was poised for a second day of big falls ? Dow futures were down 1.3 percent at 11,738 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 2 percent to 1,225.

As well as the events in Europe, investors have a raft of economic news to digest this week, culminating in Friday's monthly U.S. jobs report.

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank also meet to decide on their monetary policies this week. The new ECB chief, Mario Draghi, will hold his first meeting and press conference Thursday. Investors will be looking for signs that the ECB is considering cutting interest rates and that it will continue its program of buying the bonds of troubled eurozone nations, especially Italy and Spain.

Earlier in Asia, stocks fell sharply.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index retreated 1.7 percent to close at 8,835.53. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 2.5 percent to 19,369.96 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.5 percent to 4,232.90. Benchmarks in Singapore, India, Indonesia and Thailand were also down.

South Korea's Kospi gained marginally to 1,909.63 and China's Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1 percent to 2,470.02.

Oil prices tracked equities sharply lower. Benchmark crude for December delivery was down $2.54 at $90.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111101/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

mitch daniels tyler clementi beebe michelle malkin goodrich death penalty gary busey

Jefferies says has no meaningful Europe exposure (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Jefferies, responding to a stock plunge and growing fear over its stability, said it had no meaningful net exposure to European sovereign debt and that it was, in fact, positioned to profit should credit quality there deteriorate further.

The statement on Thursday, meant to clarify the U.S. investment bank's trading positions and rebut an analyst downgrade this week, comes days after broker-dealer MF Global Holdings (MFGLQ.PK) filed for bankruptcy after big bets on European sovereign debt went wrong.

Shares of Jefferies Group Inc (JEF.N) plunged as much as 20 percent to $9.81 early Thursday, their lowest since March 2009, triggering a trading pause on the New York Stock Exchange.

The shares bounced back after the company's statement, but were still down 7.1 percent by early afternoon, making for a decline of 23 percent so far this week.

Jefferies said it had a short position on $178 million of Spanish debt -- a position that profits as Spanish debt weakens -- and exposure to about $140 million of debt from other European nations, including $104 million to Italy.

Its net short exposure of about $38 million was equal to about 1 percent of its net worth, or shareholders equity, Jefferies said. Positions in such debt are short-term and are marked to market daily, it added.

"After seeing MF Global go down due to leverage and a dysfunctional EU, investors, counterparties and creditors are very nervous -- it's a fire first, ask questions later type of market," said Brad Hintz, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

As of August 31, Jefferies had shareholders' equity of $3.49 billion, supporting $45.13 billion of assets, according to a regulatory filing. That means its assets were about 13 times its equity, compared with more than 30 times for MF Global.

MF Global shed two thirds of its market capitalization last week as its credit ratings were cut to junk and confidence evaporated in the firm run by former Goldman Sachs executive Jon Corzine.

On Wednesday, Egan-Jones downgraded Jefferies due to concerns about its sovereign debt exposure. In a research report, Egan-Jones said the exposure was 77 percent of shareholder equity, which in part helped to undercut Jefferies shares.

"What is happening is the money that was used to short MF Global is going over and being used to short Jefferies," said Dick Bove, analyst at Rochdale Securities. "If the company is correct, the stories are false on Jefferies."

Political turmoil in Greece and uncertainty over the euro zone continued the rush into safe-haven government bonds on Thursday, and away from countries seen vulnerable to default.

Exposure to such risky debt has undercut European banks and, particularly with MF Global, begun to hurt U.S. firms.

Investors and ratings agencies often look to a firm's liquidity position to determine whether they can survive losses from trades gone wrong. Jefferies had $2.01 billion in cash and equivalents on August 31, according to the filing.

Short sellers "brought MF Global down because it did not have a huge amount of liquidity. Now they're targeting Jefferies," said Bove.

"Jefferies has a lot of short-term debt so it's vulnerable to be taken down."

(Additional reporting by Dan Wilchins in New York, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Ted Kerr and Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/bs_nm/us_jefferies

richard stallman williston north dakota williston north dakota kody brown transylvania terrell owens terrell owens

Fisher denies union rift in letter to NBA players (AP)

Derek Fisher denied a rift in union leadership in a letter to NBA players Monday, telling them there have been "no side agreements, no side negotiations or anything close" with league officials.

A story Saturday on Foxsports.com titled "Is Fisher in Stern's pocket?" said there was a disagreement between Fisher and players' association executive director Billy Hunter and that the Lakers guard had promised NBA Commissioner David Stern that he could deliver a deal with a 50-50 split in basketball-related income.

The story said Hunter confronted Fisher last Friday, the day talks with the league broke down and led to the cancellation of the entire November schedule.

"Usually I wouldn't even dignify absurd media reports with a comment. But before these reports go any further, let me say on the record to each of you, my loyalty has and always will be with the players," Fisher wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press and other media outlets. "Anyone that questions that or doubts that does not know me, my history, and what I stand for.

"And quite frankly, how dare anyone call that into question. The Players Association is united and any reports to the contrary are false. There have been no side agreements, no side negotiations or anything close. We are united in serving you and presenting the best options and getting everyone back to work."

Players and owners made progress on a number of issues related to the salary cap system over two days last week. But the negotiations fell apart again on the third day, when the sides decided to revisit the BRI split again.

Owners are insistent on a 50-50 split, while players have proposed reducing their guarantee from 57 percent down to 52.5, which they say would transfer more than $1.5 billion to owners over six years.

"My goal, the executive committee's ONLY goal is to present you with the most fair deal possible," Fisher wrote. "A deal that is both fair on system and BRI. One isn't more important than the other. They are both extremely impactful to our business, our sport and our day to day life in the league."

Fisher put the blame squarely on owners in the letter, telling players that "if nothing more, the league and owners should understand people's livelihoods are at stake."

"They should be able to take the over 1 billion dollars we've offered them and open the doors of their arenas and let us, along with the ushers, parking attendants, everyone impacted to get back to work," Fisher added.

There have been no bargaining sessions since Friday, though Fisher told the players he would be in touch later in the week with an update.

Players will lose about $350 million with no games in November and more games could be lost without further concessions by the players, since the league has repeatedly said it won't go beyond the 50-50 split.

The Foxsports.com story identifies union leadership as a problem, saying: "This is fact: Fisher and Hunter haven't been on the same page throughout this lockout." It cites a veteran NBA player familiar with the negotiations who expressed concerns about Fisher's allegiance.

"The attempt by `sources' to divide us will be unsuccessful," Fisher wrote. "We will continue to work every day to do right by you, the businesses that depend on our league and our fans."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111101/ap_on_sp_bk_ne/bkn_nba_labor_fisher_letter

harp harp world series game 5 moammar gadhafi harry connick jr rightnow maurice jones drew

The sky's the limit for Messi

By Mark Elkington

updated 5:42 a.m. ET Nov. 2, 2011

MADRID - Lionel Messi is 34 goals short of becoming Barcelona's all-time top scorer after netting a hat-trick in the Champions League on Tuesday, and the only real question left is when he will achieve that accolade and not if.

The World Player of the Year took his Barca tally to 202 goals from 286 appearances in the 4-0 victory away to Viktoria Plzen, putting the holders into the last 16 of the competition with two games to spare.

"Messi will pass Cesar (Rodriguez) to become the top scorer in the history of the club, I consider it a done deal, and I don't rule out that it will happen this year," Barca coach Pep Guardiola told reporters.

"And he's only 24. This says it all."

Spain striker Cesar scored 235 official goals for Barcelona between 1942-55 and his total is within reach during this campaign for the Argentine on current form.

Messi, top scorer in the Champions League over the last three seasons, bagged 53 goals in all competitions last season and this year has already hit 22, including strikes in Barca's Spanish and European Super Cup wins.

So accustomed to seeing him score regularly, when Messi went three games without finding the back of the net last week local media speculated that he was out of form and needed a rest.

His response has been to score consecutive hat-tricks against Real Mallorca in La Liga on Saturday and again in the Czech Republic on Tuesday, when he was also shortlisted as a candidate for World Player of the Year again.

Messi has won the award the last two years.

"There aren't enough adjectives to define him," Barca president Sandro Rosell said. "He's the best in the world. I don't know where his limits are." (Editing by John O'Brien)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

advertisement

More news

The sky's the limit for Messi

Lionel Messi is 34 goals short of becoming Barcelona's all-time top scorer after netting a hat-trick in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Mike Stobe / Getty Images

'Cheap'?

Landon Donovan said the New York Red Bulls were the most unsporting team he had played against in Major League Soccer after a post-match melee on the field Sunday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/42803998/ns/sports-soccer/

the x factor execution execution facebook music facebook music daphne guinness daphne guinness