Governor names team to review Detroit finances

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed six people Tuesday to conduct a 60-day review of Detroit's municipal finances and decide if the state should put an emergency manager in charge of the city's checkbook, the state Treasury Department says.

Department spokesman Terry Stanton said the team includes Treasurer Andy Dillon, who determined last week that Detroit's budget was off track and headed toward a crash.

The city now is operating under a consent agreement between Mayor Dave Bing and the Snyder administration designed to head off the appointment of an emergency financial manager.

"My administration has worked, and will continue to work in collaboration, with Mayor Bing and city officials to ensure a revitalized and successful Detroit," the Republican governor said in a statement. "However, given the financial crisis that continues to grip the City of Detroit, we must move quickly to ensure city residents have continued access to essential services they expect and deserve."

Bing said Tuesday's announcement was "no surprise."

"The state had indicated last week that it planned to appoint a financial review team," the Democratic mayor said Tuesday night. "My administration will continue to focus on my restructuring plan, in cooperation with the City Council, to hopefully eliminate the need for an emergency financial manager."

Bing has said he will lay off 400 to 500 city employees in the new year, roughly 5 percent of the workforce.

Detroit is billions of dollars in debt and has a budget deficit topping $200 million. It's been meeting payroll and paying bills from millions of dollars in bond money from a state-controlled escrow account.

The review team will operate under a 1990 state emergency manager law and must report its findings to the governor within 60 days. The governor also can ask for a quicker report or can extend the deadline by 30 days. The team is to reach a finding on whether a serious financial problem exists and, if so, whether "a satisfactory plan exists to resolve the problem," Stanton said. A new emergency manager law that the Legislature passed last week doesn't take effect until March.

Besides Dillon, the review team includes state Auditor General Thomas McTavish; Ken Whippel, board chairman of Korn/Ferry International; Darrell Burks, a senior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers; Ronald Goldsberry of Deloitte Consulting; and Frederick Headen, a legal adviser for the state Treasury Department.

Tuesday's appointments follow Dillon's announcement Friday that his preliminary financial review determined Detroit was not on target to fulfill promises to the state that allowed the city to avoid having an emergency manager.

Detroit has been experiencing a fiscal meltdown for years.

"We strongly feel that the review team will not find anything different in the city's financial condition from what we had previously revealed to the state," Bing said.

An estimate in August projected a cash deficit of $62 million for the city by June 30, 2013. But an October estimate placed the projected deficit at $84 million, while November's had it at $122 million.

The cities of Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Flint, Ecorse and Allen Park currently are under emergency managers, as are the Muskegon Heights, Highland Park and Detroit public school districts.

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Justice reaches settlement with Penguin on e-books

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department announced Tuesday it has reached a settlement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc. in its lawsuit accusing the nation's largest book publishers of colluding with Apple Inc. to raise e-book prices on customers.

The settlement, if approved by a federal judge, leaves Apple and Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, which does business as Macmillan, as the only defendants standing against the federal government's charges that Apple, the multimedia and computer giant, conspired with several publishers in the fall of 2009 to force e-book prices several dollars above the $9.99 charged by Amazon.com on its popular Kindle device.

The Justice Department, which sued in April, settled with Hachette Book Group, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC and Simon & Schuster Inc. earlier this year. The trial is scheduled to begin in June.

"The proposed settlement with Penguin will be an important step toward undoing the harm caused by the publishers' anticompetitive conduct and restoring retail price competition so consumers can pay lower prices for Penguin's e-books," said Jamillia Ferris, chief of staff and counsel at the Justice Department's antitrust division.

Apple Inc. has said the government's accusation that it conspired with major book publishers to raise the price of e-books is untrue.

The proposed settlement was filed in federal court in New York.

The settlement had been expected by some industry observers as a means to simplify Penguin's impending merger with Random House, which is not a defendant in the case. That deal would create the world's largest publisher of consumer books.

Under the settlement, Penguin "will be prohibited for two years from entering into new agreements that constrain retailers' ability to offer discounts or other promotions to consumers to encourage the sale of the Penguin's e-books," and must submit to "a strong antitrust compliance program" that includes telling federal officials about any joint e-book ventures or any communications with other publishers, Justice Department officials said.

The Justice Department's lawsuit stems from agreements reached between major publishers and Apple in 2010 that allowed publishers to set their own prices for e-books, an effort to counter Amazon's deep discounts of best sellers. The department and 15 states said Apple and the publishers cost consumers more than $100 million in the past two years by adding $2 or $3, sometimes as much as $5, to the price of each e-book.

E-books are believed to comprise around 25-30 percent of total book sales.

Penguin Books is scheduled to merge with Random House, which is owned by German media company Bertelsmann. The resulting combination will have around a quarter of the market for consumer books. "Should the proposed joint venture proceed to consummation, the terms of Penguin's settlement will apply to it," the department said.

Last week, the European Union's competition watchdog accepted proposals by four publishers and Apple to end agreements that set retail prices for e-books — a practice the EU feared violated competition rules. The agreement was legally binding on Hachette Livre; Harper Collins; Simon & Schuster; and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan. That deal was also binding on Penguin.

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Stocks gain on optimism that a budget deal is near

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks climbed on Wall Street Tuesday, pushing the Standard and Poor's 500 to its highest level in two months, on optimism that lawmakers are closing in on a budget deal that will stop the U.S. from going over the "fiscal cliff" at the beginning of next year.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 115.57 points to 13,350.96, its biggest one-day gain in almost a month. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 16.43 points to 1,446.79, its highest close since Oct. 18. The Nasdaq composite rose 43.93 points to 3,054.53.

House Speaker John Boehner told reporters he remains hopeful that a fiscal cliff compromise can be reached, but says President Barack Obama has yet to offer a balanced deficit-cutting plan. Boehner said Obama's latest offer for $1.3 trillion in tax increases over the next decade with $850 billion in spending cuts is not enough. The White House says that President Obama has moved halfway to meet Boehner on a budget deal.

"People are cheering the prospect for some compromise in Washington right now," said Joe Costigan, director of equity research at Bryn Mawr Trust Co. "At the moment there is some pretty good news and the market is reacting favorably to it, but the deal isn't done yet."

Stocks slumped after the presidential election Nov. 6 on concern that a divided government would struggle to reach an agreement before Jan. 1, when a series of series of tax increases and government spending cuts are scheduled to take effect if no deal is reached. Those measures could push the U.S. back into recession. The S&P 500 has since recouped all of those losses.

Some investors say stocks are already pricing in too much optimism. Any deal, while ensuring that the economy avoids the full impact of the "fiscal cliff," will still involve higher taxes and less government spending. That will be a drag on economic growth, said David Wright, a managing director and co-founder at Sierra Investment Management in Santa Monica, Calif.

"There are just too many naive people thinking that the agreement itself is a significant event — it isn't," Wright said. "The implementation is going to be negative for the economy."

Stocks added to their gains after the Standard & Poor's rating agency said at midday that it had raised Greece's credit grade by six notches to B-, lifting the country out of default. The threat of a Greek default had roiled markets in the first half of this year. Investors worried that the heavily indebted nation would leave the euro, opening the way for a break-up of the currency block. The ratings firm said the upgrade reflected its view that the other 16 countries using the euro are determined to keep the Greece inside the currency union.

The Dow Jones is up 2.5 percent in December and is on track to close higher for a fourth straight year. The index has advanced 9 percent in 2012. The S&P 500 is also up for the year, gaining 15 percent.

Allstate Corp. gained 56 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $41.35 after the company's board of directors approved a plan to buy back up to $1 billion of the insurer's shares by the end of the year.

Eli Lilly also advanced after saying it would buy back its own stock. The drugmaker rose $1.18, or 2.4 percent, to $49.52 after saying that its board had approved a $1.5 billion share buyback.

Apple gained $15.07, or 2.9 percent, to $533.90. Samsung Electronics Co. said it had withdrawn its requests to have sales of certain Apple products banned in Europe, though the company is still suing Apple over the use of certain technology licenses.

Apple has rebounded in the last two days. It closed at its lowest in 10 months Dec. 14 as investors worried that intensifying competition in the smartphone market would erode Apple's profit margins.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed 5 basis points to 1.82 percent. The yield on the note has risen 20 basis points since the start of December.

Among stocks making big moves today;

— Arbitron, a provider of radio ratings, surged $8.99, or 24 percent, to $47.03 after TV ratings company Nielsen said it would buy it for about $1.26 billion.

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Cliff talks hit a lull with Boehner's 'Plan B'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just two weeks from an economy-threatening deadline, fiscal cliff talks hit a lull Tuesday as House Speaker John Boehner announced that Republicans would also march ahead with their own tax plan on a separate track from the one he's been pursuing with President Barack Obama.

The White House and leading congressional Democrats immediately rejected Boehner's "Plan B," which would extend soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts for everyone making less than $1 million but would not address huge across-the-board spending cuts that are set to strike the Pentagon and domestic programs next year.

"Everyone should understand Boehner's proposal will not pass the Senate," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Boehner's surprise move came after significant progress over the past several days in talks with Obama — talks that produced movement on tax rate hikes that have proven deeply unsettling to GOP conservatives and on cuts to Social Security benefits that have incensed liberal Democrats.

Just Monday, Obama offered concessions, including a plan to raise top tax rates on households earning more than $400,000 instead of the $250,000 threshold he had campaigned on. And the two sides had inched closer on the total amount of tax revenue required to seal the agreement. Obama now would settle for $1.2 trillion over the coming decade while Boehner is offering $1 trillion.

By contrast, protecting income below $1 million from a hike in the top tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent would raise only $269 billion over the coming decade.

But the outlines of a possible Obama-Boehner agreement appeared to have shaky support at best from Boehner's leadership team and outright opposition from key Republicans like vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a House GOP aide said. That aide spoke only on condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.

Though Obama spokesman Jay Carney had nothing good to say about Boehner's new option, he said, "The president is willing to continue to work with Republicans" toward a broader agreement.

The narrower Plan B faced plenty of opposition. Democrats announced they would oppose it, and many conservative Republicans continued to resist any vote that might be interpreted as raising taxes. Republicans were refining the measure Tuesday in hopes of building support among the GOP rank and file, but passing the measure exclusively with GOP votes could prove difficult.

"I think it's a terrible idea," said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. "For a lot of reasons."

Republicans noted that top Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York have in the recent past supported the million-dollar threshold for rates hikes. "We've had an election on the President's tax plan, the President won, and Republicans can't turn the clock back," said Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon.

Boehner's back-up plan would extend current income tax rates except for income exceeding $1 million, set a 20 percent tax rate on capital gains and dividend income for income over $1 million instead of 15 percent now, and retain current rules regarding the estate tax instead of tighter parameters sought by Obama.

It would also prevent an expansion of the alternative minimum tax that would otherwise hit 28 million middle- and upper-class Americans with an average $3,700 increase on their 2012 tax returns.

Several rank-and-file House Republicans said the message they heard at an evening caucus was that passing plan B would strengthen Boehner's hand in negotiating steeper spending cuts with Obama.

If the Senate decides not to vote on the House bill or ignores it, "That's not our problem," said Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio. "The ball's in Harry Reid's court."

Democrats said Boehner's move made it clear he was abandoning efforts to reach an agreement with Obama — much as he quit talks with Obama 18 months ago.

"Plan B is yet another example of House Republicans walking away from negotiations," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., top Democrat on the Budget Committee.

At the White House, officials remained cautiously optimistic that the talks could get back on track despite Boehner's maneuvering.

Boehner, however, said Obama is the one proving to be too inflexible, even as he held out hope that talks with Obama might yet bear fruit.

"He talked about a 'balanced' approach on the campaign trail," Boehner said. "What the White House offered yesterday — $1.3 trillion in revenue for only $850 billion in spending cuts — cannot be considered balanced."

Boehner also displayed new flexibility on the politically explosive issue of raising the Medicare retirement age from 65 to 67. Boehner said the idea — anathema to Democrats — didn't need to be dealt with this year but could be kicked over into a broader negotiation next year.

"That issue has been on the table, off the table, back on the table," Boehner said. "I don't believe it's an issue that has to be dealt with between now and the end of the year."

Just Monday, the Capitol bristled with optimism that Boehner and Obama might strike a bargain.

In a new offer, Obama dropped his long-held insistence that taxes rise on individuals earning more than $200,000 and families making more than $250,000. He is now offering a new threshold of $400,000 and lowering his 10-year tax revenue goals from the $1.6 trillion he originally sought.

The new Obama plan seeks $1.2 trillion in revenue over 10 years and $1.2 trillion in 10-year spending reductions. Boehner aides say the revenue is closer to $1.3 trillion if revenue triggered by a new inflation index is counted, and they say the spending reductions are closer to $930 billion if one discounts about $290 billion in lower estimated debt interest.

The two sides also differ on the estate tax, extending unemployment benefits and how to address the need to raise the government's borrowing cap to prevent a first-ever U.S. default and a re-run of last year's debt crisis.

The White House was facing its own backlash, with labor, liberal and elderly advocacy groups mounting an organized campaign against any adjustments in cost-of-living for Social Security beneficiaries.

"President Obama and other Democrats campaigned saying Social Security doesn't affect the deficit," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future. "Social Security recipients are going to notice and they are either going to blame John Boehner or President Obama."

The change would reduce annual cost-of-living increases for beneficiaries of Social Security and other government programs. It also would push more people into higher tax brackets by making smaller annual adjustments to brackets.

The administration appeared confident that most Democrats would reluctantly vote for the idea in an attractive enough budget package, particularly one that has the backing of Obama.

"I think many of us still have faith that the president will ultimately, if he strikes a deal with the Republicans, give us a plan that we can vote on that provides that fairness and balance," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.

White House spokesman Carney described the inclusion of the inflation adjustment as "a technical change" that was "not directed at one particular program." He also said that if instituted, the administration would ensure that the most vulnerable beneficiaries would not be affected.

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Investors turn against gun makers after massacre

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Investors shunned some of the nation's largest gun makers Tuesday, putting up for sale the manufacturer of the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle used in the Connecticut school shooting and worrying that the attack could soon bring stricter gun laws.

Stocks of other gun companies fell, and one sporting-goods chain said it would temporarily stop sales of military-style firearms. In Washington, some former opponents of gun control signaled that they may change their position, potentially giving stricter gun laws their best chance of passage in years.

The most notable rejection of the gun industry came when the private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced it would sell the maker of the rifle used in the massacre, which it called a "watershed event."

The shooting "raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level," Cerberus said in a news release. "We are investors, not statesmen or policy makers."

In an acknowledgment of the changing political climate, the National Rifle Association promised "to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again." It scheduled a Friday news conference.

Bushmaster, Remington and DPMS are among the brands made by Freedom Group Inc., the largest firearms maker in the U.S.

The Madison, N.C., company sold 1.1 million rifles and shotguns last year, along with 2 billion rounds of ammunition. Its customers include law enforcement and military agencies, as well as retailers who serve hunters and gun enthusiasts.

Cerberus, a large private-equity firm best known for investing in Chrysler and other troubled corporations, appeared to have been under pressure from two sources: investors and the threat of more gun control.

Officials at California's huge teacher pension fund said they were reviewing a $600 million investment in Cerberus in light of the Connecticut shooting. Through its stake in Cerberus, the California State Teachers' Retirement System owns a 2.4 percent stake in Freedom Group.

Pension fund spokesman Michael Sicilia confirmed the fund owns about $4 million in shares of Sturm Ruger & Co. and $1.7 million in Smith and Wesson.

Cerberus filed papers in 2009 to take Freedom Group public, but it withdrew the bid in 2011 without saying why. A Cerberus spokesman declined to comment Tuesday beyond the company's statement.

Freedom Group has lost money in four of the last five years, according to financial filings on its website. Revenue in 2011 was $775 million, down from $848.7 million in 2009. Slightly more than half of its 2011 revenue came from guns, much of the rest from ammunition.

The assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 restricted the sale of some types of guns like those made by Bushmaster. The adoption of a similar law "could have a material adverse effect on our business," Freedom Group said in a statement.

In 2010, Freedom Group said it would close its Bushmaster plant in Windham, Maine, and shift the work to a plant in Ilion, N.Y. At the time, New York Sen. Charles Schumer praised the move as a way to strengthen Remington's ability to compete for Defense Department gun contracts.

Firms like Cerberus are basically privately run pools of money that invest in companies on behalf of pension funds. On Tuesday, the fund attempted to distance itself from the national debate.

"It is not our role to take positions, or attempt to shape or influence the gun control policy debate," the firm said. "That is the job of our federal and state legislators."

Meanwhile, Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. suspended sales of all "modern sporting rifles," the industry term for military-style guns. The company also removed all guns from display at its store closest to Newtown.

Dick's has not promoted military-style guns as much as some other retailers. Its circular distributed in newspapers on Sunday had a full page of hunting rifles, but no military-style ones.

By contrast, St. Paul-based retailer Gander Mountain featured in its own flier the Black Rain Ordnance PG9, a military-style semiautomatic rifle, for $2,000. Other military-style guns were also advertised, including several from Bushmaster. Such ads are generally printed well in advance and would have been prepared before Friday's shooting.

A Gander Mountain spokesman declined to comment on whether it would change its gun lineup.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which offers Bushmaster rifles in some stores, said it would not change the guns it sells, but company spokesman David Tovar said the web listing for the Bushmaster "was taken down in light of the tragic events."

All the talk about additional gun control appeared to be driving increased gun sales, though. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said it received a record 4,154 requests for background checks on Saturday, the day after the shooting.

That was slightly more than on its normal biggest day, Black Friday.

Bob Irwin, CEO of The Gun Store in Las Vegas, said customer traffic has jumped since the school shooting, with many customers concerned that more gun laws will be enacted. He has not pulled any guns from the shelf.

"My belief is the individual nutcase did this," he said. "The company that manufactured the gun didn't. That seems silly to deprive my normal customers of product because somebody misused a product from the same company."

Irwin agreed that the Connecticut attack demanded some kind of action. He suggested adding more security officers at schools.

Shares in publicly traded gun makers declined for a third-straight day.

Shares of Sturm, Ruger & Co. dropped 7.7 percent to close at $40.60. They have fallen almost 11 percent since Thursday, the day before the shooting. Shares of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. fell 10 percent to $7.79 — down almost 15 percent from their Thursday close.

Outdoor goods retailer Cabela's Inc. fell almost 6 percent to close at $38.77.

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Zelinka has strike for missed drug test;athletes have mixed feelings on protocol

Jessica Zelinka had flown to Ontario for the Olympic Heroes Parade in September when drug testers knocked on her door in Calgary to find her not home. Her absence was considered a missed doping test, the first strike for one of Canada's top track and field athletes. Three strikes is an anti-doping violation, and can come with a suspension of up to two years. Some athletes are quietly complaining that they've become slaves to what they call a draconian anti-doping system desperate to keep up with the cheaters, saying they have to sign away their dignity and privacy to prove they're clean. Few are keen to talk openly about it. "It's really a system that's flawed on so many levels," says Zelinka's husband Nathaniel Miller, an Olympian in water polo. "It has nothing to do with athletes trying to avoid testing, but everything to do with athletes trying to just be normal human beings and have their own dignity and freedom respected. "I don't think the current system does that." Canada's top athletes must provide a schedule of their daily whereabouts in three-month blocks to the country's doping watchdog, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. In the days following her bronze medal run at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and husband Bronsen Schliep took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. They pitched a tent in a national park. Lopes-Schliep emailed the longitude and latitude of the campsite to her manager Kris Mychasiw, in case the drug testers needed to find her. "The longitude and latitude, that's hardcore to expect an athlete to do that," Mychasiw said. "Thank God for smart phones. She sent the update in: 'We're in a tent, somewhere along the road, and here's the longitude and latitude.'" Athletes are also required to designate a specific hour each day — any time between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. — when they're available for unannounced drug testing in their home. "If you're a regular employee in Canada, this entire policy and procedure is illegal," Miller says. "You're not allowed to do random testing in a person's place of living, they can't send a drug tester to your house to test you for privacy reasons. And yet, because you represent your country as an athlete, those rights go out the window." Athletes must notify the CCES of any scheduling changes. Zelinka forgot to do that. She argued she was caught up in the stresses of a move to Connecticut, last-minute plans to participate in the Olympic parade in Toronto, and the added demands on her schedule that come with being a mom. Zelinka, whose daughter Anika is three, appealed the missed-test ruling. Her appeal was recently denied. Two more strikes in 18 months will be an anti-doping violation. "It's not like you're trying to hide something or trying to throw them off, which of course was absurd because she was at a very public celebration of Olympic sports," Miller said. "Her actual whereabouts were well-known to everybody, and anyone." The CCES was formed in the fallout from the 1988 Ben Johnson scandal. Jeremy Luke, director of the Canadian anti-doping program, says the organization is complying with the World Anti-Doping Code. "That code outlines the length of sanctions that can be imposed on athletes, the testing protocols, and then included in that, is what we call 'athletes whereabouts requirements,' which is an international standard that's implemented in Canada but also implemented around the world in other countries," said Luke. Athletes unhappy with the testing protocol know their point of view might not be a popular one, especially coming on the heels of revelations of widespread doping in cycling, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong. "You're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because if you speak out loudly against it, the immediate perception is: oh well, they're trying to hide something," Miller said. "Canadian athletes for the most part are strong advocates for drug-free sport, so you don't want to be criticizing an agency that you support — even though you don't support their methods." Andreanne Morin, a rower and a member of WADA's athletes council, said Armstrong is the best argument for unannounced testing at home. "It's not because (anti-doing officials) want to be complicated, or they want to be annoying," she said. Morin, a member of the women's eight that won silver at the London Olympics, referred to the 202-page report on Armstrong's doping investigation, and evidence that the fallen U.S. cycling star used the blood-boosting hormone EPO. "These guys would do EPO at night, and it's only detectable in your first urine sample in the morning. They would literally go into their hotel rooms, lock the door, and not answer it to absolutely anyone until they'd done their first urine in the morning," Morin said. Many athletes complain the testing is excessive. Mychasiw said Lopes-Schliep and teammates Nikkita Holder and Phylicia George were tested more than 50 times last season between them. Miller noted that the 31-year-old Zelinka was tested four times in the span of six days at the Olympic trials last summer in Calgary — the day before the trials started, the day of each of her victories in the heptathlon and hurdles, and blood tests the day after the meet. "That is not just overkill, it's a huge waste of funding that makes no sense," he said. A test costs between $500 and $800. What bothers the heptathlete and her husband most is the unannounced testing in their home. Protocol demands that from the moment an athlete answers the door, they're not allowed out of the tester's sight. "So you're in your pyjamas, they have to come with you into your bedroom if you want to get changed, you have to get changed in front of them, you have no privacy," Miller says. "Then with women's monthly cycles, if you're caught in the middle of your monthly cycle and there's the desire to freshen up, you don't have that right, you have to do that in front of this complete stranger in your home in your bathroom — what is supposed to be your private domain." Collecting a sample requires a doping control officer watching an athlete urinate into a bottle. Some officers demand athletes "drop their pants to their knees and pull their shirts up to their chests," said sprinter Justyn Warner. Others are slightly more discreet, and "will watch over my shoulder." Warner found it tricky to provide his whereabouts to the CCES in the months leading up to his recent marriage to Holder, a hurdler. "We were kind of at both places, so she would be at my house, I would be at her house, and it made it hard to kind of pick that hour when you always had to be home," said Warner, who anchored Canada's 4x100-metre relay team that crossed third at the London Olympics but was then disqualified for a lane violation. Warner said there were plenty of mornings of rushing home before sunrise. "It's just the way they go about it, something needs to change in that aspect," Warner said. "But I don't complain about it. I wouldn't care if I got drug tested every week just to show people that I'm a clean athlete." Holder once received a strike for a missed filing because she didn't properly click "submit" on the CCES online form athletes use to report their whereabouts. "It's incredibly onerous and doesn't work on all devices," said Miller, pointing out that Zelinka has been using a computer at a local library since their move to Connecticut because the program doesn't work on her iPad. The CCES website has a video tutorial on using the program, and once offered prizes such as gift certificates as incentives for athletes to submit their forms quickly. Morin said there have been suggestions of tracking athletes by GPS. "But I think that's even more invasive than what currently exists," Morin said. Three-time world boxing champion Mary Spencer said unannounced testing might be intrusive but it's necessary. She's has had postpone plans to produce a sample, including one Saturday night she was on her way out with her roommates. She made a pit stop in the upstairs bathroom, and didn't hear the knock of doping control officers at her front door. "They all screamed up the stairs at the same time 'Don't pee!' because they heard the bathroom door shut and the drug testers had shown up. I'm like 'What the heck? Is there something wrong with the plumbing?'" Spencer said laughing. "Seriously, this is what I think: If one of my competitors was doping, I would want them to do everything they could to catch a cheater. So for that reason, I am willing to break up a Friday or Saturday to accommodate them." There are about 400 elite athletes in the Canada's registered drug testing pool, according to Luke. In the quarterly period between July and September of 2012, there were 1,321 urine tests conducted as part of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program, plus 208 blood tests. There were two anti-doping violations in that time — one for testosterone and one for marijuana. Athletes complain that testing protocol isn't as strictly enforced in other countries as it is here. At the London Olympics, Canada's former WADA chief Dick Pound pointed to Jamaica and Belarus as two countries where tests are not rigorous enough, saying it's often difficult to track down athletes to test them. Catriona Le May Doan estimates she's been tested "thousands" of times, and jokes about it now. But the two-time Olympic speedskating champion believes there's no alternative when it comes to keeping sport clean. "It makes me adaptable to pee anywhere," she said. "If I ever get stuck in my car, I have no problem. I can pee in a cup." "People say, 'Oh the system is skewed,'" she added. "But for athletes who are in the system, you have to trust it. Because that's all you have. It's always been a situation where you do it because you want to be part of it. You want people to trust you and you want to trust others."

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Former Lance Armstrong teammate banned for 2 years

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- David George became the latest former teammate of Lance Armstrong to be banned from cycling for doping on Wednesday, receiving a two-year suspension after he chose not to give evidence at a hearing before South Africa's anti-doping body. George did not attend Saturday's disciplinary proceedings and claimed that he had taken the blood-booster EPO in isolation and there was no doping infrastructure in his case, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport said in a statement. The two-time Commonwealth Games medalist and former Olympic cyclist had been given a chance to speak at the hearing, where his punishment could have been reduced if he provided information on how he obtained the drug. ''George claims his EPO doping was isolated to himself and he could not provide us with information in terms of an infrastructure of doping,'' SAIDS chief executive Khalid Galant said. ''Hence he received the standard two-year ban as there were no grounds for a reduction in this sanction.'' The South African rode on Armstrong's U.S. Postal team in 1999 and 2000. Armstrong was banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping following a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which largely hinged on evidence from Armstrong's former teammates, including Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton. The 36-year-old George admitted last month that he used EPO, or Erythropoietin, after failing an out-of-competition test in August. ''He (George) admitted guilt prior to the hearing and preferred the sanction to be determined as soon as possible,'' Galant said Wednesday. ''The athlete has the right to waive his participation in a hearing without prejudice.'' In a statement admitting his guilt, George said cycling had been ''a confusing space'' for him. ''Although it has given me incredible moments it has also given me experiences that no person or young athlete should have to go through,'' George said in November. SAIDS said George had agreed to help South Africa's anti-doping body with its test planning in an ''attempt to atone for the doping offense to the cycling community.'' George was required to forfeit any prize money or competition points gained after Nov. 5. Galant said his victory at this year's Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike race with riding partner Kevin Evans was rescinded and the results would be ''re-issued.'' George was caught after his biological passport - an analysis of an athlete's blood profile - showed suspicious activity and triggered a urine test. EPO is a hormone that artificially increases the red blood cell account and enables athletes to carry more oxygen in their blood, improving their endurance.

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Former Lance Armstrong teammate David George banned for 2 years for doping with EPO

JOHANNESBURG - Lance Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service teammate, David George, was banned for two years for doping after choosing not to give evidence at a hearing, South Africa's anti-doping body said Wednesday. George did not attend Saturday's disciplinary proceedings and instead claimed that he had taken the blood-booster EPO in isolation and there was no doping infrastructure in his case, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport said in a statement. The two-time Commonwealth Games medallist and former Olympic cyclist had been given a chance to speak at the hearing, where his punishment could have been reduced if he provided information on how he obtained the drug. "George claims his EPO doping was isolated to himself and he could not provide us with information in terms of an infrastructure of doping," SAIDS chief executive Khalid Galant said. "Hence he received the standard two-year ban as there were no grounds for a reduction in this sanction." The South African rode on Armstrong's U.S. Postal team in 1999 and 2000. Armstrong was banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping following a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which largely hinged on evidence from former teammates of Armstrong. The 36-year-old George admitted using EPO, or Erythropoietin, last month after failing an out-of-competition test in August. "He (George) admitted guilt prior to the hearing and preferred the sanction to be determined as soon as possible," Galant said Wednesday. "The athlete has the right to waive his participation in a hearing without prejudice." In a statement admitting his guilt, George said cycling had been "a confusing space" for him. "Although it has given me incredible moments it has also given me experiences that no person or young athlete should have to go through," George said in November. SAIDS said George had agreed to help South Africa's anti-doping body with its test planning in an "attempt to atone for the doping offence to the cycling community." George was required to forfeit any prize money or competition points gained after Nov. 5. Galant said his victory at this year's Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike race with riding partner Kevin Evans was rescinded and the results would be "re-issued." George was caught after his biological passport — an analysis of an athlete's blood profile — showed suspicious activity and triggered a urine test. EPO is a hormone that artificially increases the red blood cell account and enables athletes to carry more oxygen in their blood, improving their endurance. "We will continue to aggressively target EPO dopers and we will be increasing out-of-competition testing of cyclists for EPO," Galant said.

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IOC strips 4 medals from 2004 Athens Games for doping, postpones decision on Armstrong medal

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - The IOC has stripped medals from four athletes caught doping at the 2004 Athens Olympics — including one gold medallist — and postponed a decision to revoke Lance Armstrong's bronze from the 2000 Sydney Games. The IOC on Wednesday disqualified four athletes whose Athens doping samples were retested earlier this year and came back positive, including shot put gold medallist Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine. The others are hammer throw silver medlist Ivan Tskikhan of Belarus and two bronze medallists — women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus. The case of a fifth bronze medallist , weightlifter Oleg Perepechenov of Russia, remains pending. The IOC put off a final decision on stripping Armstrong of the bronze medal he won in the road time trial in Sydney. The IOC wants the medal back following the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's report that led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. But the IOC said it will wait for cycling's governing body UCI to formally notify Armstrong of the loss of all his results since August 1998.

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IOC not ready to move on Armstrong's Olympic medal

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong will hold on to his 2000 Sydney Olympic bronze medal a little longer after the International Olympic Committee said it would wait for the international cycling union to inform him before moving to strip him of it. The 41-year-old had his seven Tour de France victories nullified and was banned from cycling for life in October after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against him. USADA published a report that said the now-retired rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." The IOC decided after its Executive Board meeting it would wait for the UCI to inform the athlete and give him the right to appeal. "The IOC today will not move because we need to have the situation whereby the UCI notifies officially Mr Armstrong of the fact that he will be disqualified and declared ineligible and that he should hand over his medal," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters. "When he will be notified Mr Armstrong will have 21 days to launch an appeal. It is only after that period that the IOC can legally take action." Armstrong, who won the medal in the individual time trial, has repeatedly denied doping and never tested positive for drugs. His accusers, however, said Armstrong - one of the world's most famous athletes who also is well known for his cancer-fighting charity work - was not only a willing participant, but the ringleader, ordering team mates to cheat. In addition to financial payments, emails and laboratory test results that the agency said proved the use of performance- enhancing drugs by Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team, 26 people gave sworn testimony, including 11 former team mates.

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