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(By Michael Moore -- Associated Press)
 
WINTER'S TALES Russell French of Harrisville, N.H., waits at a storm shelter set up at the South Meadow School in Peterborough, N.H. More than 20,000 homes and businesses in the state awaited restoration of power after an ice storm last week but feared the worst as the next storm approached, the Associated Press reported. Sunday's storm could bring more power failures to southern New Hampshire, which was expected to get 10 to 16 inches of snow. Meanwhile, farther west, people visit a waterfront park in New York's Brooklyn borough. Snow, frozen rain and rain fell on the city Friday, with more precipitation likely over the weekend. (By Peter Morgan -- Associated Press)
 

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Sunday, December 21, 2008; Page A04

Airliner Leaves Runway, Burns in Denver Takeoff

DENVER -- A Continental Airlines jet taking off from Denver veered off the runway into a ravine and caught fire Saturday night, forcing passengers to evacuate on emergency slides and injuring nearly 40 people, officials said.

No deaths were reported, but 38 people were taken to hospitals, said Kim Day, Denver International Airport manager of aviation. None of the 107 passengers and five crew members was reported in critical condition.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The weather in Denver was cold but not snowy when Flight 1404 took off from for Houston about 6:20 p.m.

The plane veered off course about 2,000 feet from the end of the runway and did not appear to be airborne, Day said.

It was not known when the plane caught fire, but ground crews put out the flames quickly, said airport spokesman Jeff Green. The 112 people on board made it out on through slides on the Boeing 737.

The accident closed the airport's west airfield and caused delays of 40 minutes, Day said.

Cause of Skyway Collapse Probed

ATLANTA -- Federal investigators were working through the weekend to determine what caused a pedestrian bridge being built high above an Atlanta park to collapse, killing one man and injuring 18 other workers.

Contractors were pouring concrete on the "canopy walk" at the Atlanta Botanical Garden when it crumbled Friday morning, sending workers hurtling as much as 40 feet to the forest below. The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration was investigating Saturday, but spokesman Mike Wald said it could take months to determine the cause.

The 30-acre garden, near Piedmont Park north of downtown, will stay closed through the weekend out of respect for the workers and their families, according to a statement on the garden's Web site. It is set to reopen Monday.

The Web site describes the collapsed skyway as the "only canopy level pathway of its kind in the U.S."

Around the Nation

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(By Michael Moore -- Associated Press)
 
WINTER'S TALES Russell French of Harrisville, N.H., waits at a storm shelter set up at the South Meadow School in Peterborough, N.H. More than 20,000 homes and businesses in the state awaited restoration of power after an ice storm last week but feared the worst as the next storm approached, the Associated Press reported. Sunday's storm could bring more power failures to southern New Hampshire, which was expected to get 10 to 16 inches of snow. Meanwhile, farther west, people visit a waterfront park in New York's Brooklyn borough. Snow, frozen rain and rain fell on the city Friday, with more precipitation likely over the weekend. (By Peter Morgan -- Associated Press)
 

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The skyway, four stories high, was to be supported by a system of cable wires "designed to hold the structure firm and steady without impacting tree roots."

Killed in the collapse was Angel Chupin, 66, of Marietta, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office.

Ohio Ex-Official Faces Complaint

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Former Ohio attorney general Marc Dann used his campaign account to bankroll home repairs and family vacations, according to a newspaper review of state investigative reports. The reports are part of a complaint filed last week with the Ohio Elections Commission by state Inspector General Tom Charles. Dann resigned in May amid a sexual-harassment scandal in his office. He told the Associated Press in an e-mail last week that some of the new complaints were false and that the rest had no basis in law.

Jurors to Continue in Terror Trial

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Jurors considering the case of five men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at the Army's Fort Dix finished their fourth day of deliberations Saturday without reaching a verdict. The jury, which was being sequestered, agreed to resume deliberations at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Calif. Official Fights Proposition 8

SAN FRANCISCO -- The California attorney general has changed his position on the state's new ban on same-sex marriage and is urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. filed a brief Friday saying the measure that amended the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is unconstitutional and deprives gay couples of a fundamental right. After California voters passed Proposition 8 on Nov. 4, Brown said he would fight to uphold the initiative in his role as attorney general, even though he personally voted against it. He submitted his brief in one of the three legal challenges to Proposition 8 brought by supporters of same-sex marriage.

-- From News Services

Obama Expands Stimulus Goals
As Economic Outlook Grows More Dire, Early Target for Job Growth Is Bolstered
 

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By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 21, 2008; Page A01

President-elect Barack Obama has expanded his goals for a massive federal stimulus package to keep pace with the increasingly grim economic outlook, aiming to create or preserve at least 3 million jobs over the next two years.

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Obama Expands Stimulus Goals
Optimism, Hopes High for Obama White House
The more aggressive target, up from 2.5 million jobs set a month ago, comes after a four-hour meeting last week in which Obama's top economic advisers told him the economy is now expected to lose as many as 3.5 million jobs over the next year. Obama was told that could drive unemployment, currently at 6.7 percent, above 9 percent, a figure not seen since the recession of the early 1980s.

With liberal and conservative economists calling on the government to spend $800 billion to $1.3 trillion to stanch the bleeding, the greater danger to the nation, Obama was told, lies in doing too little rather than too much.

Given that gloomy forecast, Obama last week presented congressional Democrats with a proposal to dedicate $675 billion to $775 billion over the next two years to middle-class tax cuts, aid to strapped state governments and investments in domestic priorities such as infrastructure, health-care technology and education -- a package designed to jolt the economy while deterring further layoffs and putting people back to work.

Congressional aides said they have talked with Obama's team about tacking on initiatives that could drive the overall price tag as high as $850 billion, a figure more in line with economists' recommendations. But with resistance expected from Senate Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats, an Obama adviser said the team has settled for now on $775 billion as the highest figure likely to win congressional approval and be ready for Obama's signature soon after he takes office Jan. 20.

Lawrence H. Summers, the former Clinton administration Treasury secretary who has been tapped to serve as Obama's top economic adviser in the White House, said in an interview that the numbers are likely to shift as the package takes shape before Congress commences Jan. 6.

"I don't think you can regard this simply as a numbers game. It's really going to depend upon the quality of the spending programs that we're able to identify," Summers said. "If we're able to identify spending programs and effective tax measures that really can do the job, I think there would be a lot of receptiveness."

As the recession has deepened, Obama's proposal for economic stimulus has soared from $175 billion during the campaign to nearly $800 billion today, a sum that some say would fund the most expensive measure ever approved by Congress.

The rapid expansion of the package has generated fears that it could easily evolve into a grab bag of provisions that appeal to traditional Democratic constituencies such as unions, environmental activists and local officials but fail to deliver the necessary medicine for the economy.

Because they are intended to pump cash quickly into the economy, stimulus measures are released from the usual budgetary constraints that require the cost of new programs to be covered by cutting spending elsewhere or by raising taxes -- a one-time pass that could invite lawmakers to load the bill up with favored items.

Summers and other Obama advisers said they are keenly aware of the problem and are working to convince lawmakers of the wisdom of limiting the package to projects that would create a large number of jobs quickly or make a down payment on Obama's broader economic goals, such as improving the health-care system or reducing emissions that contribute to global warming.

"While this may be Christmastime, it doesn't mean there's going to be a large number of unrelated ornaments under the Christmas tree," Summers said. "There's a commitment by all of us to discipline and to doing the right things in terms of accountability."

Obama Expands Stimulus Goals
 

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Summers said Obama's budget team is "scrubbing" various proposals for "basic soundness." The team also is developing ideas to make expenditures transparent to the public, perhaps through regular progress reports or even Internet sites where "people could monitor the fraction of each project that had been spent out," he said.

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Obama Expands Stimulus Goals
Optimism, Hopes High for Obama White House
Obama also plans to mandate that states use the money within a time frame or be forced to return it. And his team is looking into public-private partnerships as a way to make the money stretch even further.

Democratic leaders, meanwhile, have agreed to ban earmarks, which target funds for lawmakers' pet projects.

A rough outline of the package has taken shape in meetings on Capitol Hill in past days. According to congressional sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan is not yet final, the money is expected to be split into three pots, with at least $100 billion going to the states, primarily to cover the rising cost of health care for the poor.

Roughly $350 billion would be invested to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize schools and help hospitals and doctors switch to computerized patient records. That category also would include projects aimed at improving energy efficiency, such as weatherizing buildings, as well as aid to the poor through expanded unemployment and food-stamp benefits.

Obama's team has also laid out a substantial tax-cutting agenda that will include a $1,000 tax credit for working families, Obama advisers said, a provision that congressional sources said is estimated to cost about $140 billion over two years. Other tax provisions could include tax breaks for businesses, an expansion of the earned-income tax credit for the poor and new credits for tuition and alternative energy, congressional aides said.

That framework will be fleshed out more fully in coming days, as Obama's team continues to communicate with Democratic leaders, his advisers said. When Democrats have reached an agreement, Obama's team will expand its outreach to Republicans, an adviser said, in hopes of convincing them not only that the nation's deteriorating economy requires immediate action, but that a massive infusion of government cash is the appropriate response.

Obama warns automakers to make key reforms
Bailout will test resolve to improve fuel efficiency and industry practices
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
New York Times
Dec. 21, 2008, 12:12AM
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CANADIANS CHIP IN $3.29 BILLION

The Canadian and Ontario governments will provide the Canadian subsidiaries of the Detroit automakers with $3.29 billion in emergency loans, the prime minister said Saturday.

The announcement follows a pledge Friday by President George W. Bush to offer $17.4 billion in emergency loans to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada's bailout plan, the equivalent of 20 percent of the U.S. aid package, will help keep the plants afloat while the automakers restructure their businesses to retain one of the country's most important economic sectors.

"We cannot afford, in the United States or Canada, the catastrophic short-term collapse of the Big Three automakers. The U.S. has signaled that they are not going to allow these companies to fail, and we will do our share of the North American package to see that this doesn't happen either," said Harper speaking at a news conference in Toronto.

Canada's automotive industry represents 14 percent of the country's manufacturing output, 23 percent of manufactured exports, and directly employs more than 150,000 Canadians. The country's largest industry within the manufacturing sector, it has been suffering from its slowest sales in 26 years.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — President-elect Barack Obama leveled a stern warning at General Motors and Chrysler on Friday after the federal government promised them billions to help them survive: "The auto companies must not squander this chance to reform bad management practices."

Once he takes office, the bailout will give him a tool to prod the industry to change, but it will also test his resolve as he pushes it in new directions.

Obama, after all, has been thinking out loud about the future of the American automobile industry for years, well before his presidential campaign began. He co-sponsored two bills in 2006, during his second year as a U.S. senator — one to raise fuel economy standards, and the other to encourage the use of alternative fuels.

His writings and speeches on the auto industry suggest a keen interest in finding ways, including new technology, to improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicles that Americans drive.

But with Detroit in a fragile financial state, it is unclear how many compromises Obama will have to make in pursuing his agenda for the auto industry, as he juggles other priorities like providing a stimulus program for the broader economy. The United Automobile Workers union, which backed Obama, will want a say in the changes he envisions for the automakers.

And the car companies, which have long lead times to develop products, will need sales of big trucks and sport utility vehicles, which may pick up again as gas prices fall, to bring in much-needed revenue.

In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote that "fuel-efficient cars and alternative fuels like E85, a fuel formulated with 85 percent ethanol, represent the future of the auto industry. It is a future American car companies can attain if we start making some tough choices now."

Obama said he wanted to help the companies and the union, pointing out that he had introduced legislation calling for automakers to receive assistance meeting health care costs, if they would invest the savings in developing hybrid-electric vehicles — an idea he repeated in his Detroit speech.

But, Obama wrote, "we can't afford to hesitate much longer."

With Detroit in crisis, there is little room for hesitation after he reaches office.

Obama's Treasury Department will have to assess whether the autoworkers union and the companies have met the requirements of the loans given them by the Bush administration, which legal experts say Obama could easily amend.

But he also has said that he wants to protect American jobs.

Soon after President George W. Bush finished announcing the terms of the $17.4 billion in assistance for the auto companies on Friday, the UAW union was calling on Obama, for whom they rallied support in important Midwestern states, to revise it.

Bush Shoe’ Gives Firm a Footing in the Market
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By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: December 20, 2008
ISTANBUL — When a pair of black leather oxfords hurled at President Bush in Baghdad produced a gasp heard around the world, a Turkish cobbler had a different reaction: They were his shoes.

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Related
Iraqi Shoe-Hurling Journalist Said to Ask for Pardon (December 20, 2008)
Tumult in Iraqi Parliament Over Shoe (December 18, 2008)
In Iraqi’s Shoe-Hurling Protest, Arabs Find a Hero. (It’s Not Bush.) (December 16, 2008) “We have been producing that specific style, which I personally designed, for 10 years, so I couldn’t have missed it, no way,” said Ramazan Baydan, a shoemaker in Istanbul. “As a shoemaker, you understand.”

Although his assertion has been impossible to verify — cobblers from Lebanon, China and Iraq have also staked claims to what is quickly becoming some of the most famous footwear in the world — orders for Mr. Baydan’s shoes, formerly known as Ducati Model 271 and since renamed “The Bush Shoe,” have poured in from around the world.

A new run of 15,000 pairs, destined for Iraq, went into production on Thursday, he said. A British distributor has asked to become the Baydan Shoe Company’s European sales representative, with a first order of 95,000 pairs, and an American company has placed an order for 18,000 pairs. Four distributors are competing to represent the company in Iraq, where Baydan sold 19,000 pairs of this model for about $40 each last year.

Five thousand posters advertising the shoes, on their way to the Middle East and Turkey, proclaim “Goodbye Bush, Welcome Democracy” in Turkish, English and Arabic.

For now, Mr. Baydan’s customers will have to take his word for it. The journalist who launched the shoes at a news conference a week ago, Muntader al-Zaidi, 29, was wrestled to the ground by guards and has not been seen in public since. Explosives tests by investigators destroyed the offending footwear.

But Mr. Baydan insists he recognizes his shoes. Given their light weight, just under 11 ounces each, and clunky design, he said he was amazed by their aerodynamics. Both shoes rocketed squarely at Mr. Bush’s head and missed only because of deft ducks by the president.

Throwing a shoe at someone is a gross insult in Arab countries, and Mr. Bush is widely unpopular in much of the region. But as he enters his last weeks in office, he seems to have gained a small foothold of appreciation here.

Noting the spike in sales, Serkan Turk, Baydan’s general manager, said, “Mr. Bush served some good purpose to the economy before he left.”

Continental Airlines Flight Skids Off Denver Runway (Update1)
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By Christian Schmollinger

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A Continental Airlines Inc. flight bound for Houston went off the runway during takeoff, injuring a “number” of passengers, the airline said in a statement.

Flight 1404, a Boeing 737-500 aircraft, was carrying 107 customers and five crew members when it left the runway at Denver International Airport during its 6 p.m. local time departure yesterday evening, Continental said in a PR Newswire release.

The company didn’t specify the number of injured people, saying they were taken to local medical facilities.

There were no deaths but 38 people were taken to hospitals, the Associated Press reported, citing Kim Day, the airport’s manager of aviation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Schmollinger in Singapore at christian.s@bloomberg.net.

(NEWS CENTER) -- Officials at the Portland Jetport say Continental Airlines has cancelled all flights out of Portland today.

The Jetport says it's because of the snow falling in New York and New Jersey. Continental's connecting flights can't make it up to Maine.

Jetport officials also say, as the storm moves up into New England, you should expect delays on other airlines as well.

Igot a call from Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich the other day. The first thing I said to him was, "You know, this call is probably being taped."

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Willie's World
Illinois scandal from politician's view 12.14.08
Willie Brown: This dinner crowd was the show 12.07.08
George Moscone empowered S.F.'s diversity 11.30.08
In this town, folks play all sides of any deal 11.23.08
More Willie's World »

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Blagojevich said he had read my column in The Chronicle last week, in which I raised questions about the "pay to play" charges being leveled against him in connection with his pending appointment of someone to fill Barack Obama's now-empty U.S. Senate seat.

I think he liked how I raised questions about the timing and manner of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's decision to charge him over what appears to be little more than loose conversations he had with his staff.

He laughed, we talked, and all in all he seemed in pretty good spirits for a guy looking at federal charges.

I wouldn't bet on him stepping aside anytime soon. If anything, his hand is getting stronger by the day.

I can't go into details, but my impression is that the whole mess started because the governor had been considering appointing a political rival, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to the Senate so she wouldn't be able to run against him when he went up for re-election in 2010.

Apparently, Obama's people weren't happy about the idea of Madigan coming to Washington, and there were some pretty heated conversations between Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which I understand will burn your ears off.

It was pretty clear that Blagojevich is going to hang tough, especially after the Illinois Supreme Court shot down Madigan's request that he be forced from office because he supposedly can't carry out his duties.

It is also pretty clear that despite all the screaming over his appearing to be "selling" the seat in return for political favors or financial considerations, his fellow Democrats are not going to strip him of his power to appoint someone to replace Obama.

Publicly, they may say that's because a special election would cost the state millions. But the truth is, the Democrats are deathly afraid that with all these corruption stories swirling around, a do-gooder Republican could win the seat and damage the Democrats' chances of holding a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

And you know what? They're probably right to be afraid. If there was a fight, the only way the Democrats could hold onto the seat would be to have Obama himself come in and campaign.

That, however, would make it a referendum on him - and Obama would not want to put himself in that position so early in his presidency, even in his home state.

I know Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after the "pay to play" stories hit the press that he wouldn't seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.

But if the governor appoints someone of impeccable credentials - say, a university president or Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's brother Bill, who used to be Bill Clinton's commerce secretary - who's going to say "no"?

Especially if it means risking a loss to a Republican.

Of course, if that doesn't fly, Blagojevich could always call Caroline Kennedy and tell her, "If New York doesn't work out, we got a seat for you right here."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I went to the party of the year Wednesday night. It was thrown by Emirates Airlines, and did they ever put on a show.

It was in the Herbst Pavilion, Building A out at Fort Mason. They had about 500 people.

They made up the place as if you were in the first-class section of their best aircraft. All red.

All these attractive, tall, model-like airline attendants were around with their helpers. And their helpers were nattily dressed guys with white tops and black pants - with tray after tray of anything you wanted to drink.

The cost? Who knows.

I mean, Hilary Swank as the hostess! They had the Lyon Opera Ballet perform during the cocktail reception.

Then a curtain opened up and you went into this dining room with huge screens all around on which they projected the story of Dubai.

Then out came the Irish river dancers and the Brazilian dancers. At the end, Swank invited everyone to come up and dance. And for an hour, Sheryl Crow performed and nobody, but nobody, left the dance floor.

Ordinarily, people at these events eat and run. But this time everybody stayed, because the door prizes were two first-class tickets and four days in Dubai - but you had to be there to win.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ran into Quincy Jones the other night. He was in town for a book signing, and I caught up with him at 1300 on Fillmore for supper.

Quincy had just been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was talking about Barack Obama's inaugural. And like everybody else, he was trying to figure out how to get on the stage at the official inaugural ball.

I told him, direct the band for Aretha Franklin and you'll be right up there.

As I was leaving, this brother comes up and says to me, "Willie Brown, even with the housing market and the economy, this has been a really great year for black people."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we got Obama."

Then he said, "But you know, come to think of it, it was a good year for white people, too."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because they finally got O.J."

Want to sound off? Send an e-mail to wbrown@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Pastor Rick Warren defends invite to inauguration
By CHRISTINA HOAG – 1 hour ago

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Under fire for opposing gay marriage, influential evangelical pastor Rick Warren said Saturday that he loves Muslims, people of other religions, Republicans and Democrats, and he also loves "gays and straights."

The 54-year-old pastor and founder of Saddleback Church in Southern California told the crowd of 500 that it's unrealistic to expect everyone to agree on everything all the time.

"You don't have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand," said Warren.

Warren also defended President-elect Barack Obama's invitation that he give the invocation at the Jan. 20 inauguration in the keynote speech he delivered at the Muslim Public Affairs Council's annual convention in Long Beach.

Obama's choice of Warren earlier this week sparked outcry from gay rights and other liberal groups, who said choosing such an outspoken opponent of gay marriage was tantamount to endorsing bigotry.

"Three years ago I took enormous heat for inviting Barack Obama to my church because some of his views don't agree (with mine)," he said. "Now he's invited me."

Warren said he prays for the same things for Obama that he prays for himself: integrity, humility and generosity.

Obama defended his choice on Thursday, saying that he has also invited Joseph Lowery, a Methodist minister and civil rights leader who supports same-sex marriage and gay rights, to deliver the benediction.

"During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that's how it should be, because that's what America's about. That's part of the magic of this country ... we are diverse and noisy and opinionated," Obama said.

Toward the end of his speech on Saturday, Warren also talked about singer Melissa Ethridge, who performed earlier in the evening. Warren said the two had a "wonderful conversation" and that he is a huge fan who has all her albums.

The openly lesbian gay rights activist even agreed to sign her Christmas album for him, he said.

Warren gained a prominent role in the presidential election in August when he hosted the Civil Forum on the Presidency, a two-hour televised show in which he interviewed Obama and his Republican opponent John McCain for an hour each on faith and moral issues.

Warren has won kudos from some liberal quarters by focusing less on traditional conservative issues such as abortion and gay rights, and instead calling on evangelical leaders to devote more attention to eradicating poverty, fighting AIDS in Africa, expanding educational opportunity for the marginalized, and global warming.

But the preacher ignited the ire of many liberals when he publicly supported California's Proposition 8, which amended the state Constitution to ban gay marriage.

Although Warren has said that he has nothing personally against gays, he has condemned same-sex marriage.

"I have many gay friends. I've eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church," he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet. But later in the interview, he compared the "redefinition of marriage" to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.

Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980 in Lake Forest, about 65 miles southeast of Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous Christian books, including "The Purpose Driven Church," which has sold more than 20 million copies.
In Cambridge classrooms, at the United Nations, and on the "Late Show with David Letterman," Harvard physicist John P. Holdren holds forth on global warming, delivering a deluge of scientific facts to underscore his warnings. Now, he'll have the ear of the president, too.

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President-elect Barack Obama used his weekly radio address yesterday to formally announce that Holdren will be his top science adviser, serving as assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Holdren "has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change," Obama said. "I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead."

Obama be warned. Holdren speaks his mind.

Former Harvard student Jason Meyer recalled the aftermath of hearing Holdren lecture on climate change. "By the end of it, you wanted to buy a bunch of canned goods and a shotgun and go live in a compound somewhere," Meyer said. "Holdren doesn't cut any corners or paint any pretty pictures."

Holdren - known to his colleagues for the breadth of his intelligence and expertise, his ability to build consensus, and his good judgment - has openly criticized the Bush administration for manipulation and distortion of science. His willingness to take strong positions on controversial topics, and his active role in crafting policies, isn't what the public traditionally thinks of as a scientist.

"Those of us who watch him work also watch how he listens," said Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences. "He's a little different because he's been outspoken, but I think people have always found him rational, reasonable, and well-versed."

Holdren sees science through a prism that fits well with Obama's larger goals, said Calestous Juma, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who began working with Holdren on sustainable technology and development issues in the early 1990s. He has been a leader in "exploring how science and technology could be used for promoting cooperation among nations, as a way of enhancing diplomatic relations between the United States and developing countries."

Holdren, 64, said in an interview yesterday that the appointment is "the biggest honor and most important thing that I've ever been asked to do." He said he first met Obama when he sat next to him at a dinner with other climate change experts 2 1/2 years ago. That experience and other interactions, convinced Holdren that the president-elect had a deep respect for science, and an interest in elevating it to new prominence so it would not be suppressed or ignored.

"I would never expect that what the scientist might prefer is always going to be the outcome," Holdren said. "But I can tell you, with great assurance, that no one will be ignoring the facts

Born in Sewickley, Penn., Holdren grew up in San Mateo, Calif., and studied aerospace engineering and plasma physics at MIT and Stanford University. Former classmates said he was known for his stellar grades, his friendly demeanor, and his leadership skills on everything from a how-to-get-people-to Mars class project to a less grandiose venture involving mixing martinis.

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The cocktail venture came during his hazing for an MIT fraternity. He and classmate J. Craig Wheeler were awakened in the middle of the night, led to a room, and told to build a machine from scratch that could mix and pour a cocktail, Wheeler recalls. Holdren played a key role in overseeing construction of the Rube Goldberg-like machine that succeeded in meeting that goal, Wheeler said.

"John was already kind of expressing his leadership ability," Wheeler said. "He was a special character, even then."

Since then, Holdren's resume has spanned a dizzying array of accomplishments. For more than a decade, he chaired the Committee on International Security and Arms Control at the National Academy of Sciences. He served on a scientific advisory panel for President Clinton. He is cochair of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy. He is a professor of environmental policy and director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Holdren also directs the Falmouth ecological research hub, Woods Hole Research Center.

His importance never made him unapproachable, former students said, but he often had a suitcase ready in the classroom - poised for a last-minute dash to a meeting in Washington, D.C.

Colleagues, students, and friends expressed deep admiration for Holdren, who lives with his wife, biologist Cheryl E. Holdren, in Falmouth. They have two children and five grandchildren.

Perhaps the best way to understand Holdren's work ethic and attention to detail, they said, is by looking at his hobbies - from his annual tradition of e-mailing friends an exhaustive analysis of wine ratings, to his love of fishing.

"After fishing at the Cape, he will go home and enter into a spreadsheet . . . the time, the wind, the light, the water, the fish we caught - where, how," said Graham Allison, a friend and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School.

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com. Bina Venkataraman can be reached at bina@globe.com.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
After a decade of losing and a lifetime of obstacles, Paul Pierce finally vanquished his doubters and his attackers by winning on the court and growing up off it.
 (Globe Photo)
By Neil Swidey
December 21, 2008
Email| Print| Single Page| Yahoo! Buzz| ShareThisText size – + As the night winds down and the TV cameras and most of the A-list athletes and C-list celebrities have left, Paul Pierce makes his way out of the VIP room, its crimson walls covered with flat screens playing an endless loop of his late-night talk-show appearances. The hip-hop on this November night is still thumping at Kings, in the Back Bay, which is either supposed to be a bowling alley dressed up as a nightclub or a nightclub dressed up as a bowling alley. But for the first time during his charity bowl, Pierce has managed to break free from the coterie of female handlers and event planners who've been covering him better than Kobe or LeBron ever did, all the while furiously thumbing on their BlackBerries with the urgency of National Security Council staffers arranging a crisis briefing.

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Wearing a black, military-style commando shirt that accentuates his career-best physique, Pierce is heading back to the lanes when he spots a tall white-haired gentleman carrying a bowling bag the same shade of tan as his slacks and walking alone toward the exit. Pierce pivots and heads over to the ruddy-faced man.

Wrapping his arm around him, Pierce smiles and says in his raspy voice, "Thank you so much for coming, Mr. Havlicek."

John Havlicek's eyes light up behind his boxy glasses. He sets down his bowling bag and returns the hug.

It's a small moment. But it's more telling than the hug they had shared a few weeks earlier. On October 28, over the cheers of a packed Garden crowd, Havlicek handed over the NBA championship trophy to Pierce before the Boston Celtics' 17th world-title banner was raised to the rafters. That moment was genuine, too, of course. No one without a SAG card can cry as uncontrollably as Pierce did during the banner-raising ceremony without it being genuine. But that exchange was also impossibly portentous and public. Havlicek, an undisputed legend who helped secure eight of those 17 banners, was officially welcoming Pierce into the club.

In contrast, this moment in the bowling alley was quiet and, as far as they knew, unrecorded for posterity. After his 10 long, mostly lean years as the face of the franchise, when all those banners looked down on him, a burden more than a benefit, Pierce was telling Havlicek how honored he was to have been granted admission.

"I respect our greats. I admire them," Pierce tells me later. "Now I'm part of that."

The 31-year-old laughs when I ask him if he expects the rest of us to address him as Mr. Pierce now. After all, it wasn't too long ago that he was known as much for his hotheaded moments on the court and his clubbing ways off it as he was for play so dazzling it would earn him the NBA Finals MVP trophy. But through all those years, he never stopped playing hard, never faked injuries like other high-salaried star athletes in this town who need not be mentioned by name (Manny), and never gave up on his community involvement or his ferocious desire to win. For his pivotal role in bringing green glory back to New England and for his perseverance through a decade when that seemed like a hopeless cause, he is our Bostonian of the Year.Continued...

We've seen him grow up right before our eyes, and it hasn't always been pretty. But in 2008, when the championship was only the capstone to a transformative year that made him a father and gave him new insight into the long-buried pain he felt as a son, we finally got to The Truth.

HE'D HAD ENOUGH.
Going into the 10th grade, Pierce wanted nothing more than to play varsity ball. He'd played JV his freshman year and barely got off the bench during summer league play. His friends told him he should be a starter. This is what high school ballplayers tell one another. So he transferred. He left Inglewood High School, down the street from where the Los Angeles Lakers played, and enrolled at nearby Crenshaw High.

His mother and his two brothers were having none of it. Jamal Hosey was older than Paul by 14 years, Steve Hosey by eight. They had a different father than Paul, but were brothers just the same. Their mom, Lorraine Hosey, had raised all three of them on her nurse's salary. And because the two older boys had used sports to avoid the minefields of their neighborhood and get to college on scholarship, they were Paul's role models. They never worried about their little brother's toughness. Once when Jamal put 6-year-old Paul in a headlock and demanded he cry uncle, the boy shot back, "You might as well just break my neck now, 'cause there's no way I'm gonna say uncle." But they did worry about his decision making.

"I came to a bump in the road, and my first instinct was to try to go around it," Pierce says now. "They encouraged me to face that bump and try to go over it."

Two weeks later, he transferred back to Inglewood High.

Flash-forward to the spring of 2007. Pierce had been with the Celtics for all nine of his NBA seasons. He'd seen players, coaches, and owners come and go. When Doc Rivers took over as coach in 2004, he'd demanded that Pierce, an All-Star, change his style of play. After half a season of shooting icy stares at his new coach, Pierce relented, agreeing to pass the ball more to all the untested young players around him. And where had it gotten him?

When Pierce went down with an injury, he was forced to watch from the bench as the storied Celtics became an NBA joke, losing 18 in a row. His friends were telling him it would never happen for him in Boston. If he wanted a ring, he'd have to leave.

He'd had enough.

He and his agent called a meeting with managing partners Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca and general manager Danny Ainge. "I went into that meeting with a lot of fear," Pagliuca says now. "We didn't have a vision for winning here without Paul."

Grousbeck, known to wear a Pierce jersey to games before he bought the team in 2002, loved the guy's intensity. He liked to talk about the game against Phoenix that same year when Pierce got his two front teeth knocked out -- the dental fragments landed next to Grousbeck's wife's courtside shoe -- and he simply grabbed a mouth guard and went back in the game. (Pierce downplays the incident with a laugh: "It was more embarrassment than pain. I'm like, 'My goodness, I just lost my grill right here in front of 16,000 people!' ")

But during the meeting, Pierce took the tack of the GM he hopes to be after he retires. A high draft pick at the end of the losing season could bring a title several years down the line. But that would be too late for Pierce. "If I was you all," he told them, "I'd take the pick and trade me for some other young pieces, and you've got your foundation."

The owners shot that down. Ainge vowed to find Pierce help, and the partners vowed to pay for it. The assurances were enough for Pierce. To the relief of his family once again, he faced that bump in the road head-on. Ainge then engineered the trades that replaced youthful promise for All-Star experience in the form of Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. "The worst thing that could have happened for Paul was to get traded," says brother Jamal. "He didn't want to leave Boston as a loser."

BEFORE THIS YEAR, PIERCE didn't know many perfect days. That had less to do with winning and losing than with how he defined perfection: being at practice. "The gym was my sanctuary," he says. "The place where you could forget about all your worries, your problems, people asking you for money, people asking you to do this, do that." Still, practice lasted only so long.

This year, his definition of perfection changed. "Now it's lying on the floor with my daughter, rolling around, playing with her. When she looks at me and starts smiling, I forget that I went 0 for 15, or I lost the game."

Prianna Lee was born eight months ago. Pierce's fiancee, Julie Landrum, had been set on the name Piper, until Pierce came up with Prianna. Pierce and Landrum began dating during All-Star weekend in Houston in 2006. Both Pierce and his family credit her with helping bring stability to his life.

"He's just a much more settled person," says brother Steve. "Now," Jamal says, "he prefers to be around his family rather than his boys."

Will there be a wedding soon? Pierce, who was engaged once before, doesn't hesitate. "Oh, definitely," he says. "We plan on going to marriage counseling this summer, and shortly after we do the counseling, we plan on doing that."

When he cradles Prianna in his arms, the troubles of the day magically go away, but he can't help but ponder the biggest unanswered question from deep in his past: Why did his father, George Pierce, walk out of his life when Paul was just a few years old and never come back?

"It's crazy," he says, "how people just don't care sometimes about the kids they have."

When Pierce was a college star at Kansas, he received a letter from his father's sister, saying she wanted to help him. Pierce was widely predicted to be a high lottery pick in the NBA draft. "At the time, you got so many people coming at you. They want to give you gifts, want to do things for you," he says. "And she was just one of them. I felt that was his way of using her to creep back into my life."

Pierce ignored the letter. He didn't need any help then.

In September 2000, when Pierce was attacked and stabbed nearly to death after an argument at a Boston nightclub, his family rushed to his bedside at what is now Tufts Medical Center. (He would later help fund the hospital's Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery, which bears his name.) Cards and phone calls poured in from around the country. But nothing from his father. "That's what hurt me the most," Pierce says, his eyes filling with tears that somehow manage to stay in. "Not hearing from him at all. Like it didn't matter if I had died or not." He finds himself wondering how his life might have been different if his dad had been involved in it. For the first time, his father is helping serve as a model -- but not in the usual way. "I want to be the dad that my father never was."

Still, this past summer he told his mother he wants to reconnect with his father one day. "There's definitely some things that I want to ask him," he says. "If I didn't have a daughter, I probably wouldn't do it. But one day she's going to ask about who her grandfather is, and I want to be able to tell her something." (From his home in California, George Pierce told me, "Paul wants to call me, he can call me. I have no problem with that.")

WHEN PIERCE WAS IN THE ninth grade, Magic Johnson drove past him in his black Mercedes with tinted windows. Magic didn't see Pierce, but Pierce saw him. "I was like, Dang! I got all excited, just because I got a glimpse of him."

Pierce, who now drives his own Mercedes -- white, with tinted windows -- thinks about that experience whenever he talks to kids. "Going into a classroom, you know they're going to listen," he says. "If my mom had told me, 'You go to school and you can be president,' I'd be like, 'Yah.' But if Magic had told me, I'd be like, 'For real?!' "

The charity bowl in November was the official launch of his new health initiative aimed at reducing obesity among inner-city kids. It was also a relaunch of Pierce himself. After a decade of viewing him as the embodiment of unrealized potential, of towering talent that could somehow never measure up, it was finally possible to envision Paul Pierce as a Celtics Legend of tomorrow. Close your eyes, and you can picture him with gray hair, attending the charity event of some as-yet-unborn Celtics star, doing his best to groove to another generation's music as the 68-year-old Havlicek had done earlier in the night, when he wasn't trading fist-bumps with the 20-somethings crowded around him.

Mr. Pierce.

Neil Swidey is a staff writer for the Globe Magazine and author of The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of Their Lives (theassist.net), now in paperback. He can be reached at swidey@globe.com.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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READER COMMENTS (25) Post a comment
  "I'm willing to bet Pierce wouldn't be risking his life for an unknown stranger in an emergent situation. Some hero!!! " Tommyboy

Funny...but I'm not only willing to bet that Pierce would... Click here to see full comment "I'm willing to bet Pierce wouldn't be risking his life for an unknown stranger in an emergent situation. Some hero!!! " Tommyboy

Funny...but I'm not only willing to bet that Pierce would risk his life for an unknown stanger, but I'd bet that you are the one who wouldn't. And I'd also bet that Pierce has done more good deeds off the court for charity than you. At least we know what Pierce has done. What have you done besides cast aspersions? by manorborn December 20, 1:45 PM Report Abuse 
 
  If you are going to name a Celtic it should be Kevin Garnett. Before his arrival Pierce was exposed as the ball hungry, poor shot selector, and selfish player he remains. If you are going to name a Celtic it should be Kevin Garnett. Before his arrival Pierce was exposed as the ball hungry, poor shot selector, and selfish player he remains. by BostonMan6-1 December 20, 1:38 PM Report Abuse 
 
  Sorry but the simple calculation of the the greatest impact for the greatest number of people - sports figures have a clear advantage.

I mean, our esteemed president elect is Time's Perso... Click here to see full comment Sorry but the simple calculation of the the greatest impact for the greatest number of people - sports figures have a clear advantage.

I mean, our esteemed president elect is Time's Person of the Year. A great choice for the same reasons as pierce, and inspiration and source of joy for a huge swath of the population. But if it's life-saving award, why not give it to the top trauma surgeon or something. or most kick-a$$ firefighter. Or field medic in Iraq.

This guy Ben did an incredible thing, and thank goodness there are people like that out there, but honestly I'd never heard of him until this contest. Like many thousands of others, I've been following Mr Pierce for a decade. by mezzb December 20, 3:01 AM Report Abuse 
 
  Hey northernrebel,
Occasionally we get some real morons who post here. Sometimes they are pretty scary and sometimes they are just unimaginably stupid.
Congratulations. You have achiev... Click here to see full comment Hey northernrebel,
Occasionally we get some real morons who post here. Sometimes they are pretty scary and sometimes they are just unimaginably stupid.
Congratulations. You have achieved the dubious combination of all of the above while at the same time resetting the bar at a new low. An indication no doubt of your extraordinary multi-tasking abilitiy. by BobLit December 19, 11:18 PM Report Abuse 
 

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