RG3, Redskins closing in on Giants with 17-16 win

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Robert Griffin III went down, the ball popped out, and the Washington Redskins scored a touchdown.

Look out, New York Giants and the rest of the NFC East. If the rookie quarterback keeps getting those kinds of breaks, it'll be hard to keep him out of the title hunt for years to come.

As it is, RG3 has the Redskins within a game of first place, leading a fourth-quarter rally in a 17-16 Monday night victory over the Giants, giving Washington a three-game winning streak in which it has dispatched division rivals — Philadelphia, Dallas and now New York — one by one.

"We know that our backs are against the wall," Griffin said. "And even though we won tonight, our backs are still against the wall."

The Redskins (6-6) appeared out of the running at 3-6 a month ago, but Griffin is proving his team can never be counted out when he's on the field.

With the Giants (7-5) losing three of four and the Cowboys (6-6) also at .500, the division is up for grabs.

Griffin did get another of his goals accomplished Monday by assuring Washington will win more games than last season's 5-11 team.

"You can put a check by that one, but there's a lot more goals that this team is stretching for and striving for," Griffin said.

Griffin completed 13 of 21 passes for 163 yards and ran five times for 72 yards, breaking Cam Newton's NFL record for yards rushing by a rookie quarterback.

His top target again was Pierre Garcon, who had eight receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown, showing no signs of the painful toe injury that forced him to miss six of the season's first nine games.

Alfred Morris ran for 124 yards on 22 carries, becoming the second Redskins rookie to run for 1,000 yards. Reggie Brooks had 1,063 in 1993.

Washington also ended a 10-game home losing streak in Monday night games, with Griffin again showing his knack for winning on a big stage.

Eli Manning completed 20 of 33 passes for 280 yards and a touchdown for the Giants, who had won 26 in a row on the road when holding a halftime lead.

They were ahead 13-10 at the break Monday against the Redskins, but they failed to finish the job for the first time since blowing a 21-0 halftime lead in a 24-21 loss to Tennessee in 2006.

Ahmad Bradshaw ran for 103 yards on 24 carries, and Victor Cruz had five catches for 104 yards for the Giants, who were uncharacteristically penalty-prone, getting flagged nine times for 73 yards.

The Giants moved the ball well all game, but the drives produced three field goals by Lawrence Tynes and only one touchdown — Manning's 4-yard pass to Martellus Bennett late in the first half.

The game's final score was Griffin's 8-yard pass to Garcon early in the fourth quarter, but the Redskins' first touchdown was one of the evening's crazy moments.

On second-and-2 from the New York 28, Griffin ran to his left and was being tackled by Stevie Brown after what would have been a 12-yard gain.

But as Griffin fell with his back to the ground, the ball popped out and went right on the fly to Washington receiver Joshua Morgan 3 yards farther upfield. Morgan then ran 13 yards for the score.

"We didn't run (that play) in practice because we wanted to save it for the game," Griffin said with a grin. "I knew he was going to be there for it. ... Joshua did a good job being in the spot where he was supposed to be."

It was the second time this season that a Griffin fumble has turned into Redskins touchdown. Garcon recovered one in the end zone in a win over Tampa Bay.

Another fumble by the Redskins — this one by Morris in the third quarter — was recovered by the Giants and set off mayhem. New York defensive tackle Linval Joseph yanked at Redskins center Will Montgomery's leg. Montgomery kicked at Joseph in response, and Joseph stomped at Montgomery. Joseph and a Redskins player were whistled for offsetting unnecessary roughness penalties.

Giants safety Tyler Sash left in the first half with a hamstring injury and eventually was ruled out for the game, and New York right tackle Sean Locklear was carted off with an injury in the fourth quarter.

Redskins linebacker London Fletcher and left tackle Trent Williams, who were limited in practice by injuries Friday and Saturday, both started. The 37-year-old Fletcher extended his consecutive games streak to 236 — every game in his 15-year NFL career.

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Katt Williams Arrested After Alleged Bar Rampage

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Katt Williams didn’t have much to laugh about this weekend after the comedian was arrested in Seattle, following an incident at a bar during which Williams allegedly attacked a woman with a cigarette, according to the Seattle Police Department.

According to police Williams – born Micah Williams – “exchanged words” with other customers at the World Sports Grille in the city’s South Lake Union area Sunday afternoon and “brandished a pool cue” at the bar’s manager.

At one point, police say, Williams – who was in town to perform at the Paramount Theatre – followed a family outside of the bar and flicked a lit cigarette into their car, striking a woman just below the eye. He also threw a rock at the car, according to police.

Police showed up at the establishment just before 2:30 in the afternoon and, after a struggle to get Williams into the patrol car, transported him to the West Precinct. Williams was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of assault, harassment and obstruction, police said.

A representative for Williams has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.

According to TMZ, he has been released on bail.

The bar incident wasn’t Williams’ only brush with police this weekend. According to the Seattle Police Department, after the 41-year-old comedian’s show Friday night, three fans claimed Williams attacked them when they tried to take a picture with him after the show. Williams’ denied the allegation, saying that the fans had forced their way into his dressing room, and no arrests were made.

Williams told police after the Friday night incident that he planned to cancel Saturday’s show and leave town, but apparently didn’t.

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Fossil fuel subsidies in focus at climate talks

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump.

"Thank God that our country is an oil producer and the price of gasoline is one of the lowest," al-Kubaisi said, filling up his Toyota Land Cruiser at a gas station in Doha. "God has given us a blessing."

To those looking for a global response to climate change, it's more like a curse.

Qatar — the host of U.N. climate talks that entered their final week Monday — is among dozens of countries that keep gas prices artificially low through subsidies that exceeded $500 billion globally last year. Renewable energy worldwide received six times less support — an imbalance that is just starting to earn attention in the divisive negotiations on curbing the carbon emissions blamed for heating the planet.

"We need to stop funding the problem, and start funding the solution," said Steve Kretzmann, of Oil Change International, an advocacy group for clean energy.

His group presented research Monday showing that in addition to the fuel subsidies in developing countries, rich nations in 2011 gave more than $58 billion in tax breaks and other production subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. figure was $13 billion.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has calculated that removing fossil fuel subsidies could reduce carbon emissions by more than 10 percent by 2050.

Yet the argument is just recently gaining traction in climate negotiations, which in two decades have failed to halt the rising temperatures that are melting Arctic ice, raising sea levels and shifting weather patterns with impacts on droughts and floods.

In Doha, the talks have been slowed by wrangling over financial aid to help poor countries cope with global warming and how to divide carbon emissions rights until 2020 when a new planned climate treaty is supposed to enter force. Calls are now intensifying to include fossil fuel subsidies as a key part of the discussion.

"I think it is manifestly clear ... that this is a massive missing piece of the climate change jigsaw puzzle," said Tim Groser, New Zealand's minister for climate change.

He is spearheading an initiative backed by Scandinavian countries and some developing countries to put fuel subsidies on the agenda in various forums, citing the U.N. talks as a "natural home" for the debate.

The G-20 called for their elimination in 2009, and the issue also came up at the U.N. earth summit in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. Frustrated that not much has happened since, European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Monday she planned to raise the issue with environment ministers on the sidelines of the talks in Doha.

Many developing countries are positive toward phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, not just to protect the climate but to balance budgets. Subsidies introduced as a form of welfare benefit decades ago have become an increasing burden to many countries as oil prices soar.

"We are reviewing the subsidy periodically in the context of the total economy for Qatar," the tiny Persian gulf country's energy minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, told reporters Monday.

Qatar's National Development Strategy 2011-2016 states it more bluntly, saying fuel subsides are "at odds with the aspirations" and sustainability objectives of the wealthy emirate.

The problem is that getting rid of them comes with a heavy political price.

When Jordan raised fuel prices last month, angry crowds poured into the streets, torching police cars, government offices and private banks in the most sustained protests to hit the country since the start of the Arab unrest. One person was killed and 75 others were injured in the violence.

Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Sudan have also seen violent protests this year as governments tried to bring fuel prices closer to market rates.

Iran has used a phased approach to lift fuel subsidies over the past several years, but its pump prices remain among the cheapest in the world.

"People perceive it as something that the government is taking away from them," said Kretzmann. "The trick is we need to do it in a way that doesn't harm the poor."

The International Energy Agency found in 2010 that fuel subsidies are not an effective measure against poverty because only 8 percent of such subsidies reached the bottom 20 percent of income earners.

The IEA, which only looked at consumption subsidies, this year said they "remain most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, where momentum toward their reform appears to have been lost."

In the U.S., environmental groups say fossil fuel subsidies include tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels.

Industry groups, like the Independent Petroleum Association of America, are against removing such support, saying that would harm smaller companies, rather than the big oil giants.

In Doha, Mohammed Adow, a climate activist with Christian Aid, called all fuel subsidies "reckless and dangerous," but described removing subsidies on the production side as "low-hanging fruit" for governments if they are serious about dealing with climate change.

"It's going to oil and coal companies that don't need it in the first place," he said.

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Associated Press writers Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report

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Karl Ritter can be reached at www.twitter.com/karl_ritter

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Court upholds $319M verdict in 'Millionaire' case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $319 million verdict over profits from the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and rejected Walt Disney Co.'s request for a new trial.

A jury decided in 2010 that Disney hid the show's profits from its creators, London-based Celador International. The ruling Monday by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found no issues with the verdict or with a judge's rulings in the case.

"I am pleased that justice has been done," Celador Chairman Paul Smith said in a statement.

Disney did not immediately comment on the decision.

The ruling comes more than two years after the jury ruled in Celador's favor after a lengthy trial that featured testimony from several top Disney executives. The company sued in 2004, claiming Disney was using creative accounting to hide profits from the show, which first ran in the United States from August 1999 to May 2002 and was a huge hit for ABC.

The jury found that Celador was owed $269.2 million, and a judge later added $50 million in interest to the judgment.

The appeals court determined the verdict was not "grossly excessive or monstrous" and that it was not based on speculation or guesswork.

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Public-private group wins bid for delinquent mortgages

A homeowner with a delinquent mortgage speaks with a mortgage specialist at a JPMorgan Chase foreclosure consultation event in New York in 2011. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters File Photo / December 3, 2012)

By Mary Ellen Podmolik




Tribune reporter

5:19 p.m. CST, December 3, 2012

A public-private partnership headed by the Illinois Housing Development Authority has emerged as one of the winning bidders in a September auction of delinquent mortgages held by the Federal Housing Administration.
 
Mortgage Resolution Fund will use $25 million of federal hardest-hit funds awarded to the state to buy 324 delinquent loans on Chicago-area properties. The loans, which were part of a neighborhood stabilization pool have an unpaid principal balance of about $62 million and the properties are valued at $40 million.
 
After the note sale closes, homeowners whose delinquent mortgages are part of the loan pool will be contacted by a new servicer in early 2013 that will offer to write down the principal balance of the loans and set up more affordable repayment terms to eligible homeowners. Those homeowners pay no cost to receive the loan modifications.
 
"We want to help as many borrowers as possible achieve long-term stability so they can stay in their homes without the fear of foreclosure," said Mary Kenney, executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
 
Separately, Florida-based Bayview Acquisitions LLC submitted a winning bid of about $70 million for 1,430 other Illinois loans in a neighborhood stabilization pool that had an unpaid principal balance of about $269 million and an estimated property value of $155 million. Another 299 delinquent Illinois mortgages were sold as part of other pools.
 
Nationally, the note sale involved about 9,400 distressed loans. Bids were submitted to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in September.
 
HUD said plans to sell another 10,000 to 15,000 distressed loans during the first quarter of 2013, and at least 40,000 during the next year in an effort to remove distressed loans from its portfolio.
 
mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Orange Bowl bid, new coach cap wild weekend for NIU

It was an incredible weekend for the Northern Illinois football program.

A 44-37 double-overtime victory over Kent State in the Mid-American Conference championship game kicked off the exhilaration Friday night at Ford Field in Detroit. That was followed by the announcement on Saturday that Dave Doeren had accepted the coaching position at North Carolina State.

On Sunday came the historic news that the Huskies were bound for Miami on New Year's Day to face Florida State in the Orange Bowl, becoming the first team from the MAC to earn a berth in a BCS bowl game.

"We're 12-1," NIU quarterback Jordan Lynch told ESPN. "We faced tons of adversity this year. We won tons of games. … We definitely deserve to be in there."

Capping things off, the school announced Sunday night the head coaching vacancy had been filled by promoting offensive coordinator Rod Carey.

"It has been crazy; it has been nuts. That's the only way to explain it," said Carey, who agreed to a five-year contract. "But it has been good. All of that has been wonderful … and what a privilege for our kids to go to the Orange Bowl. They were so excited they could barely stand up."

While some college observers vehemently argued that NIU didn't belong in the game, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher told reporters in Tallahassee that he had no such qualms.

"You don't get in this game unless you're a good football team," Fisher said. "It's easy for talking heads to say that (NIU doesn't belong). They've earned the right to be here, they've earned the right to have this opportunity.

"We know we're going to get an inspired opponent, an opponent that's going to be ready to prove something."

NIU now has its third coach in three years. Jerry Kill left after the 2010 season to take the head coaching job at Minnesota. Doeren was 23-4 in just two seasons on the DeKalb campus. NIU athletic director Jeff Compher is hoping for a smooth transition from Doeren to Carey.

"That's why they did what they did in such a short amount of time," Carey said. "Because I have been here and they want the transition to be as seamless as it can be.

"I don't have any reason today to sit here and say that I want to go somewhere else. Listen, I was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and I went to high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Joe Novak (former NIU head coach) was the defensive coordinator at Indiana when I played there. So my ties and my knowing about NIU have gone back a long time. And I have wanted to be at this place for a lot of different times in my career. And I finally got here and now this has happened. I don't know why I would want to go anywhere else."

It is not yet clear how many other members of the NIU coaching staff will join Doeren at N.C. State.

"It will be a challenge; I don't know how it will all play out," Carey said. "But I do know that this staff just won back-to-back MAC championships. And as far as I am concerned, it's the finest staff I've worked with. So I would love to coach with all of these guys for a long time."

This year, Carey helped mold an offensive line of five new starters that helped Lynch become one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation. Carey transitioned into the role of offensive coordinator after the first game of the season when Mike Dunbar had to step away from that role while battling a serious illness.

"Mike Dunbar is one of the most high-character people and unbelievable people I have ever been around," Carey said. I have learned more from that man … he and coach Doeren I have learned more from."

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter@kicker34

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China's dot-com darlings tap cheap global credit

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc paid a lower interest rate than Google Inc when it sold $750 million in 10-year bonds last month.

China's three dominant dot-com names - Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd - have successfully tapped global funding this year, stockpiling a combined $6 billion in debt despite investor skepticism about opaque Chinese companies.

The big three plan to use the money to pad their industry advantage at home, to compete better abroad, and perhaps to buy cash-starved rivals.

Ultra-low interest rates on U.S. government bonds, the benchmark against which most debt is measured, have driven down borrowing costs around the world. That has been a boon to corporate borrowers who are finding plenty of yield-hungry investors willing to extend long-term credit.

"The mature guys, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, these guys need to fund new growth. They are incredibly dominant in China, so they need to expand into international markets and create new products," said Sean O'Rourke, an analyst at Shanghai-based Redtech Advisors.

O'Rourke said the money that Baidu raised in November - a total of $1.5 billion in 5- and 10-year bonds - would be more than enough to buy some of its smaller rivals, and said there were "dozens" of potential takeover targets.

While Baidu said it intends to use this tranche of funds for cross-border acquisitions, it could potentially spend it on buying domestic competitors that have listed abroad.

Baidu's bond sale was notable both for its size and its reception in the market, which has been skeptical of U.S.-listed Chinese companies after a rash of accounting scandals. The hurdle was especially high for Baidu because it lacks the physical assets bond investors prefer, and it was seeking a 10-year term, which is a lifetime for a technology firm.

Yet it managed to sell the debt at a yield of 3.518 percent, just 185 basis points over the risk-free rate that is normally associated with U.S. Treasury bonds.

Google sold 10-year bonds in May 2011 with a yield of 3.734 percent. Treasury yields have fallen since then, so if Google were to tap the market now it might obtain a lower rate.

IPO NO GO

The bond market embrace comes at a good time for technology companies because corporate the governance scandals have all but shut down another popular funding avenue - listing of shares on U.S. exchanges.

Just two Chinese technology companies have successfully launched U.S. initial public offerings this year, including newly listed YY Inc. That's down from 15 in 2011 and way off the 41 issues in 2010.

These IPOs have raised only $153 million this year, compared with $2.17 billion last year and $4.01 billion in 2010, Thomson Reuters data shows. By contrast, Tencent and Baidu raised $2.1 billion via bond issues this year, while Alibaba has raised a massive $4 billion in loans.

"It's a lot faster and simpler to raise bonds - raising equity would result in share dilution and takes a longer time," said Thomas Chong, Internet analyst with BOCI Research in Hong Kong.

Chong said the companies were keen to borrow even though their balance sheets are loaded with cash because they need U.S. dollars but their revenue is primarily in yuan.

Tencent is expected to nearly double its free cash flow in the current year to 18.3 billion yuan ($2.94 billion), according to Nomura. Baidu's free cash flow this year is estimated to hit 8.0 billion yuan, Credit Suisse said in a report.

China's tax laws provide another incentive to borrow in the international credit markets. If Chinese companies use domestic cash to repay foreign borrowing, they would have to pay a remittance tax of as much as 10 percent, said Catherine Chan, head of investor relations at Tencent.

"Raising offshore capital to repay offshore loans through bonds issues will help optimize our tax obligation while allowing us to take advantage of the higher deposit rates in China by parking cash generated from our operations onshore," she said.

SIZE MATTERS

Credit investors and analysts doubt that the positive reception afforded to China's tech giants will trickle down to smaller players whose prospects may be less certain. That means debt markets won't replace IPOs.

Many Chinese Internet companies could use cheap bond funding right now, especially those in gaming and e-commerce. But the lesser known firms are eyed suspiciously because they lack solid assets and their cash flows are unpredictable.

"It will take some time to educate the bond market about Internet companies, given we are usually asset-light and have a shorter track record than traditional brick-and-mortar industries," said Tencent's Chan.

Even for established names, market perceptions can change rapidly: Yahoo lost 80 percent of its market capitalization since its Internet peak in 1999 while Google's stock has risen more than six-fold since its stock market debut in 2004.

"If you look at the rapid rate of changes in technology and consumer behavior, I would be concerned about holding debt in the longer term. You could, for instance, have some new platforms or delivery medium emerging and taking over from these sites," said Tim Jagger, Singapore-based portfolio manager at Aviva Investors.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Emily Kaiser)

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Romo sets TD mark as Cowboys beat Eagles, 38-33

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Tony Romo knows what matters the most when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys. So while it's nice to break Troy Aikman's franchise record for career touchdown passes, he's focused on getting his team to the playoffs.

Romo threw three second-half touchdown passes to answer a strong game by Philadelphia's rookie duo of Bryce Brown and Nick Foles, and the Cowboys sent the Eagles to their eighth straight loss with a 38-33 victory Sunday night.

The first two scoring tosses from Romo erased seven-point deficits, including a 23-yarder to Dez Bryant that was vintage Romo and broke Aikman's career mark of 165 TD passes. Romo scrambled to his right and threw back across the field to Bryant, who weaved through the Philadelphia defense to tie it at 17 in the third quarter.

Romo tied it again at 24 on a throw to Miles Austin, and had one more answer after Brown and Foles led the Eagles to a go-ahead field goal. He threw deep to Bryant for 35 yards on third down, and Bryant found his way into the end zone again by taking a screen pass 6 yards just inside the pylon for a 31-27 lead with 5:40 remaining in the game.

"It's about winning games," said Romo, who was 10 of 10 in the second half and completed his last 12 passes. "We desperately had to have this win tonight, and our team fought like heck to get a win."

The Eagles' slide continued despite 169 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Brown a week after he set a team rookie record with 178 yards on the ground.

After Romo's go-ahead touchdown pass, Dallas went up by 11 when Morris Claiborne returned a fumble by Brown 50 yards for a touchdown.

Brown's fumble snapped a streak of eight straight scoring drives by both teams. It was the second straight week that he mixed big runs with critical fumbles after losing the ball twice in last week's loss to Carolina.

"Up until that fumble, he had done a heck of a job," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "He was trying to get every stinking yard he possibly could."

Philadelphia (3-9) had a chance for an improbable rally when Damaris Johnson returned a punt 98 yards with 31 seconds left. After a failed 2-point conversion, the Cowboys recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Foles, who was 22 of 34 in his third start in place of Michael Vick, led the Eagles to a 27-24 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 43-yard field goal by Alex Henery, who now has the longest current field goal streak at 21 after Cleveland's Phil Dawson had a kick blocked Sunday.

"It was a tough loss," Foles said. "I'm proud of our team with the way they fought. We have to keep working and stick together."

Dallas running back DeMarco Murray, who started after missing six games with a sprained right foot, finished with 83 yards and a touchdown. Romo was 22 of 27 for 303 yards with no interceptions and a passer rating of 150.5.

Brown, who started his first game since high school when he filled in for LeSean McCoy last week, went in untouched on both of his scoring plays in the first half. He scooted around the left side for a 7-0 lead and trotted through a big hole up the middle to make it 14-3 midway through the second quarter.

Vick and McCoy are sidelined by concussions.

Philadelphia was in front after the first quarter for the first time all season, but Dan Bailey got the Cowboys on the board with a 39-yard field goal early in the second. DeMarco Murray's 1-yard touchdown run trimmed the Eagles' lead to 14-10 with 41 seconds left in the half.

Romo overcame a holding penalty and an 8-yard loss when Kevin Ogletree fumbled a handoff on a reverse by completing third-down passes to Jason Witten, Bryant and Miles Austin. Romo then found Witten all alone in the middle of the field for 28 yards to the 1, setting up Murray's score.

The Eagles answered by driving 52 yards in 35 seconds to a 43-yard field goal by Henery on the last play of the half. Foles completed a 29-yard pass to Jason Avant to get the Eagles in scoring range.

Brown got Philadelphia's first scoring drive going with a 42-yard run up the middle and finished it with a 10-yard run.

Trailing 7-3 early the second quarter, the Cowboys went three and out after a third-down completion from Romo to Witten was overturned on a challenge by Reid. Replay showed the ball hitting the turf as Witten grabbed it.

Two plays later, Brown went 39 yards down the sideline and later scored from 5 yards out.

The Cowboys welcomed Murray back by running him three straight times to start the game after calling 52 straight pass plays from the second quarter to the end of a Thanksgiving loss to Washington. The first time Murray went to the sideline, Romo was sacked by Brandon Graham on third-and-3.

After the first Philadelphia touchdown, the Cowboys drove down the field for Bailey's field goal. Romo found Witten for 11 yards on third-and-10 and escaped pressure to complete a pass to Cole Beasley for 13 yards to the Eagles 41. Romo also had a 15-yard scramble.

Not only did Dallas get Murray back, but the offensive line was closer to full strength. Center Ryan Cook returned after missing time with a knee injury, which allowed Mackenzy Bernadeau to return to guard after two starts at center.

NOTES: The Cowboys snapped an eight-game losing streak on Sunday night. ... Foles' first two career TD passes were against Dallas, and both were to Riley Cooper. ... Heisman Trophy contender Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M watched the game from a suite. His next game will be at Cowboys Stadium, against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 4.

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Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — The now familiar term "Asperger's disorder" is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But "dyslexia" and other learning disorders remain.

The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation's psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.

Full details of all the revisions will come next May when the American Psychiatric Association's new diagnostic manual is published, but the impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

This diagnostic guide "defines what constellations of symptoms" doctors recognize as mental disorders, said Dr. Mark Olfson, a Columbia University psychiatry professor. More important, he said, it "shapes who will receive what treatment. Even seemingly subtle changes to the criteria can have substantial effects on patterns of care."

Olfson was not involved in the revision process. The changes were approved Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., by the psychiatric association's board of trustees.

The aim is not to expand the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, but to ensure that affected children and adults are more accurately diagnosed so they can get the most appropriate treatment, said Dr. David Kupfer. He chaired the task force in charge of revising the manual and is a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

One of the most hotly argued changes was how to define the various ranges of autism. Some advocates opposed the idea of dropping the specific diagnosis for Asperger's disorder. People with that disorder often have high intelligence and vast knowledge on narrow subjects but lack social skills. Some who have the condition embrace their quirkiness and vow to continue to use the label.

And some Asperger's families opposed any change, fearing their kids would lose a diagnosis and no longer be eligible for special services.

But the revision will not affect their education services, experts say.

The new manual adds the term "autism spectrum disorder," which already is used by many experts in the field. Asperger's disorder will be dropped and incorporated under that umbrella diagnosis. The new category will include kids with severe autism, who often don't talk or interact, as well as those with milder forms.

Kelli Gibson of Battle Creek, Mich., who has four sons with various forms of autism, said Saturday she welcomes the change. Her boys all had different labels in the old diagnostic manual, including a 14-year-old with Asperger's.

"To give it separate names never made sense to me," Gibson said. "To me, my children all had autism."

Three of her boys receive special education services in public school; the fourth is enrolled in a school for disabled children. The new autism diagnosis won't affect those services, Gibson said. She also has a 3-year-old daughter without autism.

People with dyslexia also were closely watching for the new updated doctors' guide. Many with the reading disorder did not want their diagnosis to be dropped. And it won't be. Instead, the new manual will have a broader learning disorder category to cover several conditions including dyslexia, which causes difficulty understanding letters and recognizing written words.

The trustees on Saturday made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several work groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses.

The revised guidebook "represents a significant step forward for the field. It will improve our ability to accurately diagnose psychiatric disorders," Dr. David Fassler, the group's treasurer and a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said after the vote.

The shorthand name for the new edition, the organization's fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, is DSM-5. Group leaders said specifics won't be disclosed until the manual is published but they confirmed some changes. A 2000 edition of the manual made minor changes but the last major edition was published in 1994.

Olfson said the manual "seeks to capture the current state of knowledge of psychiatric disorders. Since 2000 ... there have been important advances in our understanding of the nature of psychiatric disorders."

Catherine Lord, an autism expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who was on the psychiatric group's autism task force, said anyone who met criteria for Asperger's in the old manual would be included in the new diagnosis.

One reason for the change is that some states and school systems don't provide services for children and adults with Asperger's, or provide fewer services than those given an autism diagnosis, she said.

Autism researcher Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said small studies have suggested the new criteria will be effective. But she said it will be crucial to monitor so that children don't lose services.

Other changes include:

—A new diagnosis for severe recurrent temper tantrums — disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Critics say it will medicalize kids' who have normal tantrums. Supporters say it will address concerns about too many kids being misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with powerful psychiatric drugs. Bipolar disorder involves sharp mood swings and affected children are sometimes very irritable or have explosive tantrums.

—Eliminating the term "gender identity disorder." It has been used for children or adults who strongly believe that they were born the wrong gender. But many activists believe the condition isn't a disorder and say calling it one is stigmatizing. The term would be replaced with "gender dysphoria," which means emotional distress over one's gender. Supporters equated the change with removing homosexuality as a mental illness in the diagnostic manual, which happened decades ago.

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner .

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Young down by boardwalk for benefit show

NEW YORK (AP) — Neil Young said Sunday that he couldn't see performing in the area devastated by Superstorm Sandy without doing something to help people who were affected by it.

Young and his longtime backing band, Crazy Horse, will hold a benefit concert for the American Red Cross' storm relief effort Thursday at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. The New Jersey coastline areas were hit hard by the storm in late October.

People in the New York area who suffered damage in the storm have been supporting him for 40 years, he said.

"I couldn't see coming back here and just playing and have it be business as usual," he said. Young is touring in the area, with concerts scheduled for Monday in Brooklyn and Tuesday in Bridgeport, Conn.

Minimum ticket prices for the standing-room show in Atlantic City will be $75 and $150, although Young notes there's no maximum. He hopes to raise several hundred thousand dollars for the Red Cross.

Young said he was invited to join the Dec. 12 benefit at New York's Madison Square Garden that will feature Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, the Who, Kanye West and others, but had other obligations. Besides, there's enough star power there, he said.

"It wasn't going to make much difference whether I was there or not, so I decided to go someplace where I could make a difference," he said.

Young performed at a televised benefit in 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, memorably covering John Lennon's "Imagine."

Fans can expect a two-hour plus rock show on Thursday with opening band Everest. No special guests are planned, although Young issued an invitation to "anyone who wants to come in and play with us that we know and we know can play."

It's hard to resist wondering whether Young's epic "Like a Hurricane" will make it onto the set list, given the occasion.

"Anything's possible," Young said. "We have the equipment."

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