Ontario government reaches deal with some public workers

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario's government said on Wednesday it reached a deal with public employees to freeze wages for two years as part of a broader and contentious push to rein in the budget deficit.
The tentative deal with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union covers more than 35,000 workers, including government staff, a relatively small group of workers compared to some of Ontario's larger unions.
"This deal will help us meet our fiscal targets and it shows how everyone has a role to play to help Ontario eliminate the deficit," Ontario's Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said in a statement.
Last week, Ontario imposed new labor contracts on some 130,000 teachers, despite job action that included one-day strikes and teachers' refusal to carry out extracurricular activities.
Ontario's minority Liberal government reached deals with doctors and other teacher groups, but failed to agree terms with the larger group of elementary and secondary school teachers.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who said late last year that he would resign once the Liberals elect a new leader later this month, vowed last March that the government would reduce its C$14 billion ($14.18 billion) deficit by standing firm on public sector wages.
Credit rating agencies have repeatedly warned that Ontario needs to stick to tough austerity measures to curb the deficit. ($1 = $0.9872 Canadian)

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Canadian housing starts slow in December

10, 2010. REUTERS/Shaun Best
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian housing starts slowed in December but more gradually than expected as an increase in single-family starts in urban areas softened the sting of a slowdown in multiple-unit and rural ground-breakings, a report on Wednesday said.
Figures published by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp provided further evidence that Canada's long housing boom had ended, although activity remained robust in the cities of Ontario, the country's most populous province.
Seasonally adjusted, the annual rate of housing starts was 197,976 units in December, down slightly from 201,376 in November but above an average forecast of 195,000 among analysts polled by Reuters.
"Although today's numbers look a bit better than expected, they mark the fourth straight month of slowing in homebuilding activity, suggesting that Canada's once-bustling homebuilding sector is cooling," Emanuella Enenajor, an economist at CIBC World Markets, said in a research note.
The November figure was revised up from the 196,125 units reported previously.
The December numbers capped a strong 2012, with annual starts hitting 215,200, a 11.4 percent increase from 2011 and the third straight annual gain since the recession low in 2009, according to Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
"However, the year was marked by starkly different performances in the first and second halves — starts surged above 230,000 annualized in the second quarter before falling in five of the last six months of year after stricter mortgage rules weighed on demand," Kavcic said in a research note.
Fearing a bubble after three years of strong growth in sales and prices, the Canadian government tightened rules for mortgage lending as of July 2012, and home sales have begun to slow in many markets.
More slowing in housing starts is expected in 2013, though economists said historically low interest rates may limit the decline.
"If the preliminary evidence that the tighter mortgage regulations introduced in July has slowed demand is sustained, construction activity will slow further heading into the New Year," David Tulk, chief Canada macro strategist at TD Securities, wrote in a research note.
"If instead low interest rates continue to provide an irresistible incentive to prospective buyers and builders, construction will continue to run ahead of demographically supported levels (estimated to be around 185,000). In weighing the balance of risk around these two outcomes, we are biased to see starts remain close to 200,000 units in 2013 before dipping to 185,000 in 2014," Tulk said.
The CMHC said December housing starts were below the six-month trend.
The decrease recorded in December reflected a decline in rural starts, while urban starts remained stable. Housing starts were below their trends in all regions except Ontario, Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC, said in a statement.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts dipped 0.1 percent to 178,870 units, with single urban starts climbing 8.6 percent to 67,419 units and multiple starts -- typically condominiums -- dropping 4.7 percent to 111,451 units.
There was a broad disparity in activity across the country, with Ontario urban starts up 33.4 percent but all other regions down. Urban starts fell 23.9 percent in the Prairies, 11.8 percent in Quebec, 8.2 percent in British Columbia and 1.6 percent in Atlantic Canada.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of rural starts fell 14.3 percent to 19,106 units from 22,298 units in November.

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Canadian hopes to make fantasy sports TV channel a reality

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's fantasy sports geeks may soon have a cable channel to call their own, thanks to Leonard Asper, former head of a newspaper dynasty that fell victim to the rise of online media.
"The League - Fantasy Sports TV" will not feature real sporting events. Instead Asper's proposed channel will air call-in programs and talk shows that cater to the millions of North American sports fans who are now participating in virtual baseball, football and hockey leagues.
Canadian media regulators gave Asper's Fight Media Inc the go-ahead on Wednesday to operate the channel, provided it can find a distributor.
Since timely information is crucial to any fantasy player's success, Asper is betting that The League will have a hungry niche audience.
In fantasy sports, "owners" assemble their teams by drafting and trading real-life professionals, essentially betting the players they select will get hot.
Statistics from real games - say, batting average in baseball, points scored or rebounds in basketball or touchdowns and interceptions in football - go to the virtual team that "owns" each player and aggregate to form the basis for the virtual league's standings.
In Canada, fantasy ice hockey pools are particularly popular, pitting coworkers or friends against each other for cash or bragging rights.
Starting in the 1990s, the Internet made game results more accessible, and virtual leagues easier to manage - Yahoo runs one popular service. Fantasy sports enthusiasts have become a key demographic for sports networks and leagues.
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, there were 34 million players in the United States and Canada in 2010, up from 9 million in 2005.
Closely held Fight Media already operates Fight Network, a specialty channel devoted to "combat sports" such as mixed martial arts. The company is controlled by Leonard Asper, former chief executive of Canwest Global Communications.
The Asper family founded Canwest Global, once Canada's biggest media company, which crumpled under C$4 billion in debt, filing for creditor protection in 2009, and sold assets to Shaw Communications Inc and others.

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Golson hopes Notre Dame's season ends on good note

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Everett Golson's first love is basketball. Music would seem to be second on the Notre Dame quarterback's list.
He's not too bad at football, either.
A season that started in Ireland and had plenty of tests along the way ends in Miami on Monday night, when Golson and the top-ranked Fighting Irish take on No. 2 Alabama in the BCS title game.
He's made 10 starts this season and won them all, one away from matching the Notre Dame record for consecutive victories to open a career. Of course, tying that mark isn't exactly the biggest prize that Golson will be chasing when the Irish face the Crimson Tide.
Says Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin: "He's pretty good at his hobby — this being his hobby.

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Golson hopes Notre Dame's season ends on BCS note

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — When Everett Golson sees a piano, he usually sits down and starts entertaining. He plays several instruments, keeps a keyboard in his room and loves to sing.
Music is a huge part of his life, perhaps only topped by basketball.
And in Golson's spare time, he plays quarterback for Notre Dame.
"He's pretty good at his hobby," Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin said. "This being his hobby."
Golson's biggest game — and biggest opportunity — awaits Monday night when the top-ranked Fighting Irish (12-0) take on No. 2 Alabama (12-1) for the BCS national title. Golson's season started with him winning a competition to be the quarterback for a then-unranked team, and now he's got the chance to lead Notre Dame back to the top of college football.
Or in musical vernacular, to be ND's maestro.
"It is a big stage," Golson said. "I don't ride the wave too much. I'm kind of just focused on what's played between the yard lines, what's played on the field. Can't really focus on everything that's off the field because that's out of my control."
A redshirt freshman, Golson didn't play last season, instead running the scout team. He won starter job entering this season, yet even when he was picked to be under center as Notre Dame opened the season in Ireland against Navy, there was some question about how long he would actually be able to keep his spot.
Golson had all the answers. His numbers aren't catchy — 11 passing touchdowns in 11 appearances — but his record is unblemished, 10-0 as a starter.
"I think he understood more of what our coaches wanted from him," Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert said. "When they would coach him up on something, he kind of better understood that as the year went on."
One of the major issues Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly had with the Irish offense a year ago was its penchant for turning the ball over.
Golson rarely dealt with that problem.
Poised more often than not, Golson has only five interceptions in 282 attempts this season. He averages 191 passing yards per game — only 79th-best in the nation — but he's not necessarily asked to win games with wild throwing sprees, either. Kelly's mandate was simply for his quarterback to avoid the big mistake that would lose games.
So far, so good.
"First-ever college game in Dublin, Ireland, first-ever home game against Purdue, road game primetime Michigan State, night game at Notre Dame against Michigan, on the road at Oklahoma, on the road at USC, coming off the bench ... take any other quarterback this year and try to figure out if they've gone through as much as Everett Golson," Martin said. "To me it's not even close. Not even close."
It goes deeper than the experiences of 2012.
In Golson's mind, not getting a chance to play in 2011 may have been more significant in pushing his development along.
"I think me being put back on the scout team, it was just really a humbling experience for me," Golson said. "Coming in, I thought I was ready to play or had that confidence that I was ready to play, but it wasn't that way for me. I think being put back on the scout team, like I said, really humbled me, made me kind of reassess myself."
Even the Crimson Tide can see that.
When Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart first started breaking down tape of the Irish, he predictably watched every play of every game several times. And by the end of that film study, Smart knew the Golson who started the season isn't remotely close to the player who now is tasked with running the Irish offense.
"You can't give the guy the ability to run all around and make plays, yet that's what he's going to do, so it's who's got the greater will to contain and keep him in the pocket," Smart said. "So it's a tough thing. The guy is going to scramble. He's going to be a better, quicker athlete than the people we have up front."
The thing the Irish rave about most when talking about Golson is his confidence.
Even when things were tough at times this season — particularly the game against Pittsburgh when Notre Dame trailed 20-6 entering the fourth quarter, then won 29-26 on his touchdown run in the third overtime — Golson continually showed he can do the job.
"He's a very important part of our offense and he's a big playmaker," Notre Dame offensive lineman Zack Martin said. "Any time we can take a hit off of him, it's going to be big. He's a playmaker. He makes plays."
If that happens Monday, Golson may make football's equivalent of beautiful music.
"The race is not given to the swift or the strong ... but it's given to the one that endures to the end," Golson said. "We're obviously the underdogs coming into this game. ... Alabama has, like I said, a great defense, great team, bigger, faster, stronger. But it's really about who's going to endure to the end."

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Will coming playoff finally take down the SEC?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Roy Kramer remembers all the fretting when the Southeastern Conference launched its own championship game two decades ago.
"Especially from the coaches," the former SEC commissioner said Friday, chuckling a bit at those long-ago discussions. "They were convinced that would be the end of everything and we would never win another national championship."
It sure didn't work out that way, of course.
The SEC has ruled like no other conference.
Just around the corner is another momentous change to shake up the college football landscape, spurred in part by the dominance down South. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of folks in the rest of the country hoping the four-team national playoff, which starts in 2014, will make it tougher for the SEC to pile up trophies.
Kramer, for one, doesn't expect much of an impact, just as splitting into East and West brackets and tacking on an extra game between the division champs back in 1992 has done little to damage the SEC's national title prospects.
"The SEC could very well end up with three of the four playoff teams in any given year," Kramer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his retirement home near Chattanooga, Tenn. "I don't know that a playoff will significantly reduce the possibility of winning a national title. Some may believe that, but I'm not convinced it reduces the chances at all."
This much is clear: The current system is owned by the SEC.
The conference is riding an unprecedented streak of six straight national titles, and No. 2 Alabama is favored to make it seven in a row Monday night when the Crimson Tide takes on top-ranked Notre Dame in the next-to-last BCS championship game.
For better or worse, just about every major conference has followed the SEC's lead from way back in 1992 — adding news teams, starting their own title games — but the juggernaut that began it all appears more firmly entrenched than ever.
Over the last 20 seasons, the league has won nine national titles; no other conference has claimed more than four during that span. And the SEC has pitched a shutout since the 2006 season, divvying up six titles among four schools (Florida, Alabama, LSU and Auburn) while the rest of the country looked on enviously, wondering just what it had to do to break the stranglehold.
Last season, when the BCS produced an all-SEC matchup in the title game, the rest of the country screamed uncle.
Or, more accurately, playoff.
Suddenly, everyone jumped on board for what amounts to a true postseason system, albeit with not as many teams as the biggest supporters of the P-word would like.
Kramer has no doubt that Alabama's 21-0 victory over LSU in the 2012 title game accelerated the demands for a playoff among the other conferences — even though current SEC commissioner Mike Slive had proposed what is largely the same four-team format several years ago, only to be quickly shot down.
"I don't think there's any question that the added interest in trying to expand the field to some degree, to go from two to four teams, was influenced by what happened a year ago when two teams from the same conference played in the championship game," Kramer said. "That brought a significant amount of attention to it and perhaps brought on a willingness by more people to take a look at this process."
If the four-team playoff had been in place this season — and using the BCS standings as a selection guide — the SEC would have claimed half the field anyway. Florida finished third in the rankings, while No. 4 Oregon presumably would have been the other team, surely creating plenty of howls from teams such as Kansas State and Stanford (sound familiar?).
But the playoff is still a couple of years away. Heck, the powers-that-be are still trying to hammer out all the details. In the meantime, Notre Dame has set its sights on ending the SEC's dominance this season without the assistance of an extra round, having built a team around defense and a good running game — kind of like a northern version of Alabama.
Despite a perfect record (12-0) and No. 1 ranking, the Fighting Irish know what they're up against. So do the oddsmakers, who started Alabama as a 7½-point favorite and pushed it up to 9½ when the bets flowed in on the Crimson Tide.
"Obviously, the SEC has been very dominant in the national title game," Notre Dame safety Matthias Farley said.
But the conference doesn't appear quite as strong as past years, with some truly wretched teams at the bottom of the standings (Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky) and a perception that even Alabama — despite positioning itself for a third national title in four years — isn't quite as strong after losing a bunch of top players to the NFL.
The SEC split its first six bowl games, the most notable result being Florida's ugly 33-23 loss to Big East champion Louisville in the Sugar Bowl.
"If you've watched the bowl games to this point, the SEC has lost to some other teams," said Farley, sounding a bit more confident about the Irish's chances. "You just have to be better than the other team on that given day, not all the time."
Alabama is mindful of the SEC's championship streak, but keeping it alive is not a major motivational factor. Rest assured, the Tide won't be passing around the trophy to all its fellow schools should it win another.
"Certainly we take a lot of pride in our conference. We feel like we play in the best conference in America," said Barrett Jones, Alabama's All-American center. "But we don't think about it that much. The coaches don't get up at the podium and say, 'OK, let's go win one for the SEC.' We're trying to win this for us."
Jones, a senior, will be long gone by the time a playoff finally comes on line. But, like Kramer, he figures the SEC will do just fine no matter what system is put in place. The region just has too many built-in advantages: passionate (if sometimes overzealous) fans; less competition from professional sports than other regions; some of the nation's top coaches; a seemingly limitless supply of high school talent right in its own backyard.
"If you look back at the past few years, two (SEC) teams probably would've gotten in a lot of years," Jones said. "That gives you a good chance to still win a national championship. I think the playoff system will be a good thing for the SEC."
Kramer doesn't support a playoff — he's one of those who believes college football is heading down a dangerous path that will severely damage the significance of the regular season — but he doesn't see the SEC giving up its dominant position anytime soon.
Just remember what happened when the SEC went to its own version of the playoff.
"It's really worked to our advantage," Kramer said.

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BCS Championship: Tale of the tape

Everything about the BCS championship between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama seems larger than life.
Not only do these schools stand among the best ever in college football, they also lead the pack in celebrating that success and in investing for the future.
If ever college football presented a heavyweight event it's the Fighting Irish against the Crimson Tide.
So here, then, is a tale of the tape for Monday's marquee matchup in Miami.
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— FOOTBALL BUILDING
ALABAMA: The Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility, named for the current athletic director, has a 20,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center — which is soon to be replaced — plus aquatic rehabilitation pools. The building also houses athletic administrators and the football offices.
NOTRE DAME: The Guglielmino Athletics Complex, named after the booster who funded it, has a 25,000-square-foot health and fitness center, meeting rooms and the football offices. Plus, the Morse Recruiting lounge with championship banners for Notre Dame's "11 consensus national championships."
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— TROPHIES
ALABAMA: The "Hall of Champions" overlooks the lobby on the second floor of the athletic facility. It has trophy cases for the Crimson Tide's 14 national champions — including a spot where 'Bama is hoping 2012 can be added — and a large case for the 23 Southeastern Conference title teams. Prominently perched on a marble pedestal is Mark Ingram's 2009 Heisman Trophy, the program's first.
NOTRE DAME: The lobby of the Gug, as the athletics complex is called, is basically one of college football's largest trophy cases. The first thing visitors see is Notre Dame's last national championship trophy, the coaches' trophy the Irish received after the 1988 season. To the left, across the wall are seven Heisman Trophies. No other school has won more.
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— WEIGHT ROOM
ALABAMA: A new weight room is nearly completed. Trustees approved the $9.1 million, 34,495-square-foot, two-story strength and conditioning facility in August that will connect the athletic building and the indoor practice facility. It's expected to be ready in early February.
NOTRE DAME: The football players work out at the Haggar Fitness Center in the Gug. It features more than 250 pieces of weight training equipment, six flat-screen TVs and a sound system, and it's available to all Notre Dame athletes.
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— STATUES
ALABAMA: Coach Nick Saban's towering likeness stands next to Bryant-Denny Stadium, offering a good spot for fan pictures on game day. The 9-foot statue is one of five honoring Tide football coaches who have won national titles, joining Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul W. "Bear" Bryant and Gene Stallings in the Walk of Champions plaza. It was unveiled in the spring of 2011, 15 months after 'Bama won the 2009 championship.
NOTRE DAME: Walk around Notre Dame Stadium and at each entrance you'll find a statue of one of its championship-winning coaches. Knute Rockne's guards the north tunnel, facing Touchdown Jesus. Dan Devine is at Gate A. Ara Parseghian is at Gate B. Frank Leahy is at Gate C. Lou Holtz is at Gate D.
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— MASCOTS
ALABAMA: Tradition holds that the Tide's elephant mascot dates to 1930 when Atlanta Journal sports writer Everett Strupper wrote that a fan called out: "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming." The "Red Elephant" nickname for the linemen stuck. The Big Al mascot made his official debut in the 1979 Sugar Bowl, when Alabama claimed its second straight national title with a win over Penn State. A game-saving goal line stand stole some of Big Al's thunder.
NOTRE DAME: The Leprechaun became the official mascot of the Fighting Irish in 1965, though four years earlier a student first donned the costume and roamed the sidelines. Leprechaun tryouts consist of a five-minute mock pep rally, an interview with a local media personality, responding to game situations, answering Notre Dame trivia, dancing an Irish jig, and doing 50 push-ups.
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— KEEPING IN STEP
ALABAMA: The Crimsonettes, a group of energetic dancers, entertain crowds at various sporting events. They're chosen based on dancing skills, physical fitness and the ability to learn the group routine, according to the school's Web site.
NOTRE DAME: The Irish Guard. Formed in 1949 as a part of the University of Notre Dame Marching Band, the guards wear a uniform of traditional Scottish kilt and Notre Dame tartan. To the top of the shako, a guard stands 7-feet tall, and the game-day inspection of the Guard usually draws a crowd — though not for the same reasons the Crimsonettes do.
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— SLOGANS
ALABAMA: Roll Tide, Roll Tide. "Yea Alabama" was written by the editor of the student newspaper, The Rammer-Jammer, in a contest that followed a win over Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl. The lyrics include: "You're Dixie's football pride, Crimson Tide! Yea, Alabama! Drown 'em Tide!" The ending call "Roll Tide, Roll Tide" was added later.
NOTRE DAME: Wake Up the Echoes. The "Victory March" was first performed at Notre Dame on Easter Sunday on 1909. Not until 10 years later did it start being played at athletic events. The second verse starts: "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, Wake up the echoes cheering her name."
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— INTEGRATION
ALABAMA: John Mitchell became the first African-American to play for the Crimson Tide in 1971 after he transferred from junior college for his final two seasons. He was an All-American defensive end as a senior in 1972. Mitchell is now assistant head coach and defensive line coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he's coached the linemen since 1994. He started his career as Bear Bryant's defensive line coach in 1973 and became the Southeastern Conference's first black defensive coordinator at LSU in 1990. Bryant assistant Jerry Claiborne later said that a 1970 game with Southern California and star Sam Cunningham caught Bryant's attention and "did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years."
NOTRE DAME: Defensive lineman Wayne Edmonds, from rural Pennsylvania, became the first African-American to earn a monogram on the football team in 1953. He and Richard Washington were the first black student-athletes to play in a game. The 1953 team went undefeated, a season when Georgia Tech refused to play Notre Dame at home because of the black players on the Fighting Irish and the game was moved to South Bend.
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— CAMPUS SHRINE
ALABAMA: If there's not necessarily a "Touchdown Jesus" equivalent, there is Denny Chimes, where the football team captains get to leave their indelible marks. The base of the tower displays hand and foot impressions of each captain from Tide teams since the 1940s.
NOTRE DAME: The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is one-seventh the size of the French shrine where the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette in 1858. Visitors pass by peacefully, light candles and say prayers — probably a few for a Fighting Irish victory.
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— FIRST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
ALABAMA: 'Bama headed West in 1925 to capture the program's first national championship with a 20-19 win over Washington in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. — the same place Saban won his first with the Tide. The 1925 squad went 10-0 and outscored opponents 297-26, and seven organizations declared Alabama the nation's best team.
NOTRE DAME: In 1924, it was Notre Dame that capped an undefeated season in the Rose Bowl by beating Pop Warner's Stanford team for the national championship. The first of three for Knute Rockne, and 11 that Notre Dame claims. The Fighting Irish haven't played in the Rose Bowl since.
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— BEST WALK-ON
ALABAMA: Carson Tinker received a scholarship before this season but was already one of college football's most well-known walk-ons and long snappers, though for a tragic reason. His girlfriend, Ashley Harrison, was killed by a tornado when she and Tinker were thrown about 50 yards from the closet where they had huddled. Tinker has persevered and become a fan favorite with nearly 27,000 followers on Twitter.
NOTRE DAME: Rudy Ruettiger, the ultimate underdog story. He overcame a learning disability to get accepted to Notre Dame, then at 5-foot-6 and 165 pounds he made the Fighting Irish scout team. He got on the field for three plays, and had a sack on the final play of his final game. Hollywood got hold of the story, added a little melodrama, and turned it into a sports movie classic.
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— BEST QUARTERBACK
ALABAMA: Joe Namath came to Tuscaloosa from Beaver Falls, Pa., and was a 1964 All-American for the Tide team that was named national champion by some organizations. Then, of course, he became an unforgettable pro football star who guaranteed his New York Jets would upset Baltimore in the 1969 Super Bowl — before making good on it. Bart Starr, another Hall of Famer, and Kenny Stabler also went on to terrific pro careers.
NOTRE DAME: Joe Montana, another western Pennsylvania kid who grew up to become an all-time great quarterback, came to Notre Dame in 1974. In his sophomore season, he gained a reputation as the comeback kid, coming off the bench to lead the Fighting Irish from behind to beat North Carolina and Air Force. He capped his career with another remarkable comeback victory against Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl, then went on to win four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers.

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Conn. lawmaker apologizes over Facebook post

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut lawmaker has apologized after saying in a Facebook post that shooting victim and former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should "stay out of my towns."
Giffords last week visited Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 young children and six adults at an elementary school last month. The Democrat, who met with families of the victims, was critically wounded two years ago in a deadly mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.
The Hartford Courant posted images Sunday showing Republican state Rep. DebraLee Hovey's Facebook comments. In one dated Friday she says, "Gabby Giffords stay out of my towns!!"
Hovey released a statement Monday saying her comments were insensitive and that she apologizes if she offended anyone.
Hovey had said in another post that the visit was political.

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Why Ford's New Car Apps Include China's Twitter

LAS VEGAS — New car apps will allow Ford owners to call up their favorite music playlist or search for last-minute date suggestions by using voice alone. But the voice-activated car apps announced at CES 2013 included one "hidden dragon" surprise aimed at Chinese drivers rather than Americans.
Many Americans won't recognize the name of Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, among the latest car app offerings from more familiar names such as USA Today and Amazon. Yet Weibo represents a social media behemoth with 424 million users — more people than the entire U.S. population — sharing 120 million news and message posts every day. Such numbers could add up to a huge opportunity for Ford car sales in China.
Ford announced the collaboration with Sina Weibo near the end of a press event here at CES 2013 on Jan. 7. The upcoming Sina Weibo app represents one of nine newly-announced apps that include the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Kaliki, Amazon Cloud Player, Aha Radio, Rhapsody, Greater Media, Glympse, and BeCouply.
The Detroit automaker has already enjoyed big sales in China, the world's largest car market, where car ownership may reach 300 to 500 million before 2030. Ford recorded an annual sales record in China by selling more than 626,000 vehicles to Chinese buyers in 2012.
That number still falls below the 2 million Ford vehicles sold to U.S. customers in 2012. But Ford has already set aggressive goals to double production capacity and its China dealership network by 2015 — and it clearly sees car apps in smarter vehicles as a way to win over even more customers worldwide.
Ford's car apps could end up making roads in both the U.S. and China a bit safer for drivers who can't put down their smartphones or tablets. Toward that end, Ford has begun offering a license- and royalty-free program for app developers, but prohibits driving apps from having video-rich imagery, requiring text-reading or offering games to play.
This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @jeremyhsu. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
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Tide QB's beauty queen girlfriend in spotlight after title game; her Twitter account swells

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - A day after ESPN cameras lingered on her, announcers piled on compliments and at least one pro athlete made an online pass at her, Twitter was still abuzz Tuesday about former Miss Alabama Katherine Webb, who is dating Crimson Tide championship quarterback AJ McCarron.
Webb gained tens of thousands of Twitter followers during and after Alabama's 42-14 win over Notre Dame on Monday to claim its third national championship in four seasons. For her part, the surprised beauty pageant queen isn't taking it too seriously.
"It's been actually kind of fun," the 23-year-old model and Miss Alabama USA 2012 told The Associated Press.
She said at the time it all started, she was oblivious in the stands, sitting near McCarron's mother. Her iPhone had died so she didn't know about the attention until friends seated nearby showed her what was happening on Twitter and pointed out that her picture was on TV.
"I just couldn't believe it," said Webb, who, according to her pageant biography, graduated with a business degree from Alabama rival Auburn University in 2011. "I was just in complete surprise."
Dee Dee Bonner, McCarron's mother, said the two laughed as Webb's Twitter count grew.
"We were like, 'Oh my God,'" Bonner said. "She said, 'All I want to do is date your son.' We've been laughing about it. It's quite shocking."
ESPN announcer Brent Musburger remarked that Webb was a beautiful woman as the cameras revisited her. "Wow, I'm telling you quarterbacks: You get all the good-looking women," he said.
Some found the remarks from the 73-year-old Musburger out of line. On Tuesday, ESPN released this statement: "We always try to capture interesting storylines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that."
But Webb said Musburger's comments didn't bother her.
"It was kind of nice," she said. "I didn't look at it as creepy at all. For a woman to be called beautiful, I don't see how that's an issue."
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, Webb had topped 175,000 Twitter followers, trumping McCarron's 114,000. Before the game, she reportedly had about 2,000.
Webb told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that she first encountered McCarron on Twitter, and they met in early December when he attended the Miss Alabama USA pageant in Montgomery. Her biography says she was born in Montgomery and grew up in Phenix City, but now lives in Los Angeles — though Bonner said she is considering moving back to Alabama to be with McCarron.
Before Monday's game, Webb tweeted a photo of herself wearing a jersey with McCarron's number, her arms wrapped around him.
Early Tuesday, Webb posted her first tweet to her new followers: "So extremely blessed... (at)10AJMcCarron. Congrats to Alabama and making history! (hash)BCSChamps."
Webb later said she doesn't think McCarron minds the attention on her.
But when Arizona Cardinals defensive end Darnell Dockett tweeted Webb his telephone number and suggested they meet after the game, McCarron responded, telling Dockett, "(hash)betterkeepdreaming like the rest of these dudes.

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