Rangers lean on Lewis' arm for Game 6

Colby Lewis

By R.B. FALLSTROM

updated 7:58 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2011

ST. LOUIS - It's already been a productive postseason for Colby Lewis. Next up, a shot at the biggest prize yet.

In Game 6 of the World Series on Wednesday night, Lewis gets the first chance to pitch the Texas Rangers to their first title. No doubt while pitching oh-so-carefully against Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals, he'll be leaning on past October triumphs.

"Well, you definitely think when you're in a kid, you want to be in this position, be on this stage," Lewis said. "I think just being in the situation that we were last year throughout the playoffs gives you more of an edge, more relaxation. That's for sure."

Jaime Garcia is back home where he's most comfortable, and the wild-card Cardinals are back in a familiar win-or-go-home mode, heading into a mound rematch from Game 2.

Three of Garcia's four postseason starts have been at Busch Stadium and the 25-year-old lefty has a 1.93 ERA at home. He outpitched Lewis in the first matchup with seven innings of scoreless, three-hit ball before the bullpen failed in a 2-1 loss.

Garcia was in top form in Game 2 with seven strikeouts and one walk.

"It's been the same for me the last two months basically, and I'm still going to try to do the same thing. Don't change anything, don't try to do too much because this is the World Series. That's kind of how I feel," he said.

Lewis beat the New York Yankees in the clinching Game 6 in the AL championship series last year. He doesn't mind being on the road, getting nine of his 14 wins with a 3.43 ERA, and has been stingy all postseason with a 2.95 ERA.

Facing Lewis in Game 2, the Cardinals were limited to one run on four hits with one extra-base hit in 6 1-3 innings. Manager Ron Washington expects to see the same pitcher again, and is confident there'll be zero stage fright.

"He totally believes in what he's trying to do out there," Washington said. "He never gets away from what he does best. Colby never doubts what he's capable of doing, and I think that's what makes him apart from some guys at this stage."

Garcia had plenty of must-win starts in September, steeling him for the postseason. The Cardinals overtook the faltering Braves on the final day of the season and Garcia was a key contributor, going 3-0 the final month.

He doesn't plan on changing much from his Game 2 start.

"It doesn't matter which team, which lineup, what part of the season it is," Garcia said. "It's just going out there and worrying about the little things that you can control."

The bigger question in La Russa's mind is what to expect from the lineup. The Cardinals were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position in their 4-2 loss in Game 5 loss Monday night at Texas.

"Our confidence is very good that he's going to pitch well," manager Tony La Russa said. "And we're challenging our bats to do more."

La Russa twice declined discussing a potential Game 7 starter, although ace Chris Carpenter volunteered for duty on two days' rest. Carpenter, who allowed two runs in seven innings in Game 5, played catch Tuesday and said he felt fine.

"I think everybody's available for the rest of the year, don't you?" Carpenter said to reporters. "Whatever (La Russa) needs."

Kyle Lohse would be on regular rest but has struggled in the postseason. Edwin Jackson allowed three runs in 5 1-3 innings, throwing 109 pitches in Game 3. Fifth starter Jake Westbrook is a fringe option, having worked just one inning in the postseason.

"There isn't any part of me that doesn't want to have a Game 7," La Russa said. "But every other part of me says let's think about Game 6 first."

Matt Harrison, who lasted just 3 2-3 innings in the Cardinals' 16-7 blowout in Game 3, would be on turn to start Game 7 for the Rangers.

"We have two games to do it, we've got to play .500 ball," Lewis said. "But we definitely want to get it done as soon as possible, that's for sure."

Washington said he's tired of getting asked about pitchers being fatigued. Though the Rangers have two games to do it, there'll be no holding back.

"Every single person that's still playing baseball right now is tired," Washington said. "So that's no excuse."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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We'll have to wait for Game 6

HBT: Game 6 of the World Series was postponed until Thursday, meaning the Rangers might have Derek Holland available for relief in Game 7.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45039405/ns/sports-baseball/

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Source: http://perpetual-elaboration.com/online-insurance-quotes-finding-leading-rates/

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Obama's Executive Order of the Day: Easing Student Loan Payments (The Atlantic Wire)

President Obama plans to announce today a two-pronged executive action to relief Americans' ever-growing student-loan burden.?According to The New York Times, the president will?"use his executive authority to expand the existing income-based repayment program with a 'Pay as You Earn' option that would allow graduates to pay 10 percent of their discretionary income for 20 years and have the rest of their federal student loan?debt forgiven." That's a bit better than low-income students' current situation, under which they "must pay 15 percent of their discretionary income for 25 years before having their debt forgiven." The second part of Obama's initiative "would allow the estimated 5.8 million people who hold both direct government student loans and government-backed private loans to consolidate their debts into one government loan"--getting borrowers an up to 0.5 percent reduction in their interest rate, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal notes that today is "the third day in a row Mr. Obama has announced an executive action aimed at bypassing Congress" meant to "jolt the economy." According to The Times more than 30,000 have petitioned the president for student-loan relief.?Last week the Federal Reserve reported that Americans now owe more than $1 trillion in student loans, which has exceeded credit card debt for the first time.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20111026/ts_atlantic/obamasexecutiveorderdayeasingstudentloanpayments44145

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Another Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in China (AP)

BEIJING ? A British human rights group says another Tibetan Buddhist monk has set himself on fire in a protest against Chinese rule over the Himalayan region. It is the 10th self immolation this year.

The London-based Free Tibet group said in a statement that the the monk set himself ablaze early Tuesday outside a Tibetan monastery in southwestern Sichuan province's Garzi prefecture.

The group said it was unable to confirm the monk's age or name. It was unsure of his condition and whereabouts.

At least nine Tibetans in their late teens and 20s have self-immolated since March, with five or more of them dying from their injuries. All but one of those occurred in Aba, a town in Sichuan near Tibet that has been the site of a series of protests.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tibet

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Romney keeps attacks focused on Obama, not rivals (Reuters)

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney kept his attacks focused on President Barack Obama rather than his Republican rivals on Monday, after picking up a big endorsement in New Hampshire.

The former Massachusetts governor ripped Obama's handling of the economy at a rally that followed Romney's filing of official paperwork to compete in the New Hampshire presidential primary, likely to be held in mid-January.

"President Obama for too many years has taken his guidance from the social democrats of Europe," Romney said on the statehouse steps in Concord, New Hampshire. "The right course is not to believe in Europe but to believe in America."

Romney had come under criticism from leading New Hampshire Republicans after it was revealed his campaign had lobbied Nevada to move its presidential caucus to January 14 from early February, a step that threatened to push New Hampshire's traditional first-in-the-nation primary into December.

On Saturday, Nevada Republicans voted to move the caucus back to February 4, clearing the way for New Hampshire to schedule its primary in mid-January. An announcement on the date could come within days.

Romney over the weekend won the endorsement of former New Hampshire Governor John H. Sununu, a power broker in state Republican politics who also served as chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush.

Sununu called Romney "a solid conservative who is committed to reducing taxes, cutting spending and preserving America's military strength."

The endorsement drew a rebuke from former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who has staked his campaign on a strong showing in New Hampshire.

Huntsman criticized the frontrunner for changing his positions on issues including healthcare, abortion and gun control.

"When you look at his past statements, positions and voting record, the idea that Mitt Romney is a principled conservative is an impossible conclusion," Huntsman wrote.

With President Obama preparing to visit Nevada to criticize Republicans for failing to back his jobs bill, Romney's campaign released a new anti-Obama video.

The video said Nevada has the highest rates of unemployment -- 13.4 percent as of September -- and mortgage foreclosure in the nation.

Romney has proposed cutting government spending and regulations as a solution to high unemployment and falling home values.

"America should be led by free people choosing their course in life," he said on Monday. "Government has become too intrusive, too big, too fat."

(Reporting by Jason McLure; Editing by Ros Krasny)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/pl_nm/us_campaign_romney

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Assange: Financial blockade may close WikiLeaks (AP)

LONDON ? WikiLeaks ? whose spectacular publication of classified data shook world capitals and exposed the inner workings of international diplomacy ? may be weeks away from collapse, the organization's leader said Monday.

Although its attention-grabbing leaks spread outrage and embarrassment across military and diplomatic circles, WikiLeaks' inability to overturn the block on donations imposed by American financial companies may prove its undoing.

"If WikiLeaks does not find a way to remove this blockade we will simply not be able to continue by the turn of the new year," founder Julian Assange told journalists at London's Frontline Club. "If we don't knock down the blockade we simply will not be able to continue."

As an emergency measure, Assange said his group would cease what he called "publication operations" to focus its energy on fundraising. He added that WikiLeaks ? which he said had about 20 employees ? needs an additional $3.5 million to keep it going into 2013.

WikiLeaks, launched as an online repository for confidential information, shot to notoriety with the April 2010 disclosure of footage of two Reuters journalists killed by a U.S. military strike in Baghdad.

The Pentagon had claimed that the journalists were likely "intermixed among the insurgents," but the helicopter footage, which captured U.S. airmen firing on prone figures and joking about "dead bastards," unsettled many across the world.

The video was just a foretaste. In the following months, WikiLeaks published nearly half a million secret military documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a whole the documents provided an unprecedented level of detail into the grueling, bloody conflicts. Individually, many raised concerns about the actions of the U.S. and its local allies ? for example by detailing evidence of abuse, torture and worse by Iraqi security forces.

Although U.S. officials railed against the disclosures, claiming that they were putting lives at risk, it wasn't until WikiLeaks began publishing a massive trove of 250,000 U.S. State Department cables late last year that the financial screws began to tighten.

One after the other, MasterCard Inc., Visa Europe Ltd., Bank of America Corp. Western Union Co. and Ebay Inc.'s PayPal stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks, starving the organization of cash as it was coming under intense political, financial and legal pressure.

Assange said Monday that the restrictions ? imposed in early December ? had cut off some 95 percent of the money he believes his organization could have received.

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson defended the estimate as "conservative," noting that in 2010 the average monthly donation to WikiLeaks had been more than 100,000 euros ($140,000), while in 2011 the amount had fallen to between 6,000 and 7,000 euros.

Each company has given its own explanation for the blockade, expressing some level of concern over the nature of the secret-spilling site. But WikiLeaks supporters often point out that MasterCard and Visa still process payments for fringe groups such as the American KKK or the far-right British National Party and that neither WikiLeaks nor any of its staff have been charged with any crime.

Assange said his group was being subjected to corporate censorship, a sentiment backed by Dave Winer, a visiting scholar at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

"This was done without due process, without any charges, and has been in place since December last year," he said in a blog post about the blockade. "If I want to give $100 to WikiLeaks, and if I want to use my credit card to do so, who are they to say I can't?"

WikiLeaks has recently taken steps to work around the blockade, including a series of auctions and moves toward cell phone-enabled donations. Assange said Monday that his group was switching its focus from soliciting small-time donations, which typically net about $25, to getting money from a "constellation of wealthy individuals."

He didn't elaborate, but Assange has several wealthy backers, including Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith, whose manor house in eastern England has been put at Assange's disposal while he fights extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.

A decision on whether to extradite him is expected in the next few weeks. Speaking to journalists after Monday's appearance, Assange put his chances of being extradited without the possibility of appeal at "30 percent."

Also looming in the background is a U.S. grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks' disclosures. Earlier this month a small California-based Internet provider became the second company to confirm it was fighting a court order demanding customer account information as part of the American WikiLeaks inquiry.

WikiLeaks' suspected source, U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, remains in custody at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas.

___

Online:

WikiLeaks: http://wikileaks.ch/

Frontline Club: http://www.frontlineclub.com/

___

Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_hi_te/eu_britain_wikileaks

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About 130 arrested at Occupy Chicago protest (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? About 130 protesters were arrested at an Occupy Chicago demonstration early Sunday after they erected tents and refused to leave a park next to Lake Michigan after its closing time, police said.

The breakup of the protest in Grant Park was the second mass arrest of demonstrators from Occupy Chicago in the past week. A week ago, about 175 protesters were arrested.

In Philadelphia Sunday, 15 people were arrested when a group of protesters blocking traffic refused to move, authorities said. They face misdemeanor charges of obstructing a highway.

The Philadelphia arrests were the first there since Occupy Philadelphia began in sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York.

In Chicago, the protesters were charged with violating a city ordinance, the equivalent of the lowest misdemeanor, and most were released after agreeing to appear in court, police said.

Grant Park, the site of large protests against the Vietnam War during the Democratic Party's convention in Chicago in 1968, is supposed to be closed after 11 p.m., police said.

The protests, which launched more than a month ago in New York and focus on anger over government bailouts of big banks and persistent high unemployment, have sprung up across the United States and in other countries.

The demonstrations focus on what protesters see as unequal treatment of the 99 percent of Americans versus the top 1 percent of earners, but critics have said the groups lack clear objectives.

Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have been arrested in New York since the protests began. There have also been numerous arrests in Tampa, Florida, Cincinnati, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Denver and other cities.

(Reporting by David Bailey, additional reporting by Dave Warner in Philadelphia, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/us_nm/us_usa_wallstreet_protests_chicago

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Crowded, stretched world awaits 7 billionth baby (Reuters)

BAGHPAT, India (Reuters) ? The world's 7 billionth person will be born into a population more aware than ever of the challenges of sustaining life on a crowded planet but no closer to a consensus about what to do about it.

To some demographers the milestone foreshadows turbulent times ahead: nations grappling with rapid urbanisation, environmental degradation and skyrocketing demand for healthcare, education, resources and jobs.

To others, a shrinking population, not overpopulation, could be the longer-term challenge as fertility rates drop and a shrinking workforce is pushed to support social safety for an ageing populace.

"There are parts of the world where the population is shrinking and in those parts of the world, they are worried about productivity, about being able to maintain a critical mass of people," Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, told Reuters.

"Then there are parts of the world where the population is growing rapidly. Many of these countries face challenges in terms of migration, poverty, food security, water management and climate change and we need to call attention to it."

The United Nations says the world's seven billionth baby will be born on Oct. 31.

No-one knows what circumstances the baby will be born into, but India's Uttar Pradesh -- a sugarcane-producing state with a population that combines that of Britain, France and Germany, in a country expected to overtake China as the world's most populous by 2030 -- provides a snapshot of the challenges it could face.

Pinky Pawar, 25, is due to give birth in Uttar Pradesh at the end of the month and is hoping her firstborn will not join the estimated 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, with little hope of an education or a job.

"I want my child to be successful in life, so I must do my best to make this possible," she said, her hands over her swollen belly as she sat outside her mud and brick home in Sunhaida village.

In Sunhaida, poverty, illiteracy and social prejudice mark a life dominated by the struggle for survival that mirrors millions of others across the world.

RESOURCE CRUNCH

With the number of people on earth more than doubling over the last half-century, resources are under more strain than ever before.

First among the short-term worries is how to provide basic necessities for the additional 2-3 billion people expected to be added in the next 50 years.

Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries as rising rural populations move to towns and cities.

"The problem is that 97.5 percent of it (water) is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that's fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen," says Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation.

"So there's not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world."

Nutritious food is in short supply in many parts of the globe. The World Bank says 925 million people are hungry today, partly due to rising food prices since 1995, a succession of economic crises and the lack of access to modern farming techniques and products for poor farmers.

To feed the two billion more mouths predicted by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation says.

But just as research, development and expansion of agricultural programs are critical, the public dollars pledged to this effort remain a pittance of what is needed, and are in fact in danger of sharp decline, experts say.

"We have to raise productivity," Robert Thompson, who serves on the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council and is former director of rural development for the World Bank. "I think we can do it all if we invest enough in research. But at the moment we aren't."

Climate change could be the greatest impediment to meeting the food target as rising temperatures and droughts dry out farmlands which are then inundated by intense floods and storms.

The way climate change has been handled offers a window on how tricky it is to tackle global, long-term problems, however.

While it's clear what needs to be done, U.N. climate talks have largely stalled.

"There is a reason why these negotiations are relatively slow," said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe, referring to the economic downturn and arguments between rich and poor nations over carbon cuts.

"But if you compare it to the urgency and the fact that many governments clearly understand the urgency, it is a failure of governments that they can't move forward."

CITIES BURSTING AT SEAMS

Experts say demographic imbalances will also place serious strains on towns and cities across the world as mostly middle-class blue-collar migrants move from poorer rural areas to richer urban centres.

China's capital Beijing -- with its almost 20 million inhabitants -- is now the world's 13th most populous city, its population almost doubling over the last decade, reflecting a trend mirrored worldwide, particularly in developing nations.

Cities in Africa, Asia and South America are bursting at the seams from migrants seeking better jobs or as farmers flee droughts, floods and other environmental disasters.

In 1950, about 730 million people lived in cities. By 2009, it was nearly 3.5 billion and in four decades it will be 6.3 billion, the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a March 2010 report.

That explosive growth stretches limited resources and infrastructure and places megacities on a collision course with a predicted increase in extreme flooding, storms and rising sea levels from climate change, U.N. Habitat says.

Experts say the lack of coordinated planning is exacerbating the problem.

"Any kind of plan for decentralising the population requires a series of policies that work together," said Wang Jianguo, a senior project officer on urbanisation at the Asian Development Bank's Beijing office.

"If you only have a population policy without an employment policy, without an industry development policy, education, medical policy, it won't work."

DEMOGRAPHIC ANOMALY

One important policy tool to manage a growing population is to give women access to family planning, experts say, adding that 215 million women worldwide want it but do not get it.

Access to education is also important as it motivates women to reduce their fertility and improve their children's health.

A lack of such education has meant that while the overall populations continue to rise in countries such as China and India, the number of women is falling because of a preference for boys leading to deliberate abortions of female babies.

The world is also seeing a demographic anomaly: a declining population in some richer countries has led to an imbalance between the working population and retirees who need expensive social safety nets.

The global fertility rate -- the number of children born per couple -- is around 2.5, but in richer countries this number has already nosedived.

And while exact predictions vary, most suggest the global population will peak at around 9 billion around 2070 and then start to fall, perhaps very fast.

"We thought that overpopulation was going to force humanity to expand outward to the stars," says Jack Goldstone, professor of social science and a leading demographics expert at Washington's George Mason University.

"That doesn't look like the problem at all. And the policy framework isn't set up at all to handle these longer-term issues."

(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee and Michael Martina in Beijing, Deborah Zabarenko in Washington, Peter Apps in London, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, David Fogarty in Singapore and Carey Gillam in Kansas City; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/india_nm/india601168

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Michigan State Hail Mary: Wisconsin Beaten By Spartans on Late Touchdown (VIDEO)

EAST LANSING, Mich. ? Keith Nichol caught a 44-yard Hail Mary on the game's final play for a tiebreaking touchdown, giving No. 15 Michigan State a stunning 37-31 win over No. 4 Wisconsin on Saturday night.

With the game tied and 4 seconds left, Kirk Cousins rolled out to his right and threw one last pass. The ball went into the end zone but caromed off Michigan State receiver B.J. Cunningham's facemask back to Nichol, who caught it just outside the end zone and struggled for the goal line, fighting two Wisconsin defenders and just barely breaking the plane.

The former backup quarterback was initially ruled short of the end zone, but officials overturned the call after a review, giving the Spartans (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) the win and knocking the Badgers (6-1, 2-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Russell Wilson had led the Badgers from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to tie the game with 1:26 left on a to 2-yard touchdown pass to Montee Ball.

The wild game ? in which both teams blew two-touchdown leads ? featured an even more memorable finish. Wisconsin trailed 31-17 in the fourth quarter before Wilson ran 22 yards for a touchdown and made several spectacular throws on the move to set up the TD pass to Ball to tie it at 31.

Michigan State then survived a harrowing moment when Cousins fumbled deep in Spartan territory. Offensive lineman Dan France fell on the ball with 42 seconds left.

At that point, Wisconsin was eager to use timeouts, trying to get the ball back, but on second-and-20 from his own 24, Cousins found B.J. Cunningham for a 12-yard gain. The Spartans then picked up a first down on an 11-yard shovel pass to Keshawn Martin.

The drive appeared to stall at the Wisconsin 44, but the Spartans had time for one more play ? one that will go down in Michigan State history along with last year's fake field that beat Notre Dame in another extraordinary night game at Spartan Stadium.

Cousins was able to buy enough time for receivers to get down the field. Cunningham was in the end zone, and the ball bounced off his helmet and into Nichol's arms. After Nichol caught the pass, Michigan State players immediately started spilling onto the field, even though officials ruled that Wisconsin's Mike Taylor had stopped him short. When the call was reversed and a touchdown was awarded, the celebration began again.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/22/michigan-state-hail-mary-wisconsin-college-football_n_1026982.html

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