Pacers beat Knicks 102-95 in Game 1

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) fouls Indiana Pacers guard George Hill (3) in the second quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) fouls Indiana Pacers guard George Hill (3) in the second quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Indiana Pacers forward David West (21) drives past New York Knicks forward Kenyon Martin (3) in the second quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Knicks' Raymond Felton (2) is guarded by Indiana Pacers' George Hill as he drives to the basket in the first quarter of Game 1 of their NBA basketball playoff series in the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Indiana Pacers David West is guarded by New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony in the first quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Every time Carmelo Anthony attacked the rim, a big body seemed to be waiting.

David West, Roy Hibbert and the rest of the Pacers are classic Eastern Conference bruisers, and the New York Knicks are countering with something closer to small ball.

"It'll be, to me, a contrast in styles most of the series," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said.

So far, the Pacers' way is bigger, badder and better.

Physical beat finesse Sunday, as the Pacers outworked and outmuscled the Knicks in a 102-95 victory in Game 1 of the East semifinals.

West scored 20 points and Paul George added 19 for the Pacers, who outrebounded the Knicks 44-30, showing the smaller team that in the rugged East, size does matter.

"I thought guys did a good job just putting them on their heels," West said. "We were attacking, we were aggressive."

D.J. Augustin had 16 points for the Pacers, who built a 16-point lead while Anthony was on the bench in foul trouble in the third quarter, and easily held on to spoil the Knicks' first second-round game since 2000.

Anthony finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds, but was frustrated by the Pacers' tough defense and by the referees. He shot 10 of 28 from the field and was perhaps thrown out of sync having to defend West, a natural power forward, inside.

"Right now, they're just being really physical with him, they're trying to bang him, they're trying to frustrate him," Knicks point guard Raymond Felton said. "But we're going to be fine. He's going to be fine."

Game 2 is here Tuesday night, and then the series takes a lengthy break before Game 3 on Saturday in Indiana.

The Pacers, who allowed the second-fewest points per game and the lowest field goal percentage in the league during the regular season, mixed in solid offense as well. They outscored New York 59-38 across the middle two quarters and were comfortably ahead throughout the fourth.

"Just a strong defensive effort and then offensively guys played with great poise," Vogel said. "Just a complete team effort, very proud of them."

Hibbert scored 14 points in thoroughly outplaying counterpart Tyson Chandler, and George Hill also had 14 for the Pacers, adding seven rebounds and six assists.

Lance Stephenson added 11 points and 13 rebounds playing in his hometown.

J.R. Smith scored 17 points, but was 4 of 15. Felton had 18 and Kenyon Martin added 12 for the Knicks, who hope to have reserves Amare Stoudemire (right knee surgery) and Steve Novak (back spasms) back for Game 3 and certainly looked as if they could use the help.

Both teams wrapped up their first-round series Friday night, the Knicks' victory in Game 6 in Boston giving them their first series victory in 13 years and sending them on to face a familiar postseason foe in Indiana, which ousted Atlanta.

The teams met three straight years from 1993-95, then again from 1998-00, splitting their six series, and this was the type of slugfest so many of those matchups were.

Indiana led 60-54 when Anthony committed his fourth foul and came out of the game with 7:48 remaining in the third quarter. The Pacers then outscored the Knicks 21-11 the remainder of the period, opening an 81-65 bulge on Augustin's 3-pointer with 31.5 seconds left in the quarter.

"They did all the little things," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "We didn't start playing until we actually got down and it was desperation and we've got to play like that from the start."

Anthony came back on to start the fourth and scored the first six points to get the Knicks back within 10. He picked up a fifth on a questionable offensive foul call with 10 minutes left and appeared to wave off a substitution when Chandler checked in, though Woodson said Chandler was going in for Martin, who was the one who exited.

But there was no final flurry, and Chandler eventually fouled out with four points and three rebounds.

Anthony wore a sleeve under his jersey covering a strap to keep his sore left shoulder in place. It was first hurt against the Pacers in April, then aggravated when Kevin Garnett pulled on his arm while setting a screen during the first-round series.

That may have contributed to his poor shooting, but certainly the Pacers had plenty to do with it, as did having to bang inside with the bigger West ? though Anthony downplayed the toughness factor.

"The physicality of this game didn't do nothing to me, to us," he said.

"It's like Coach Woodson said and I agree with him, they beat us on the glass, they beat us to the loose basketballs out there, the hustle plays, and they outworked us. I don't think that had anything do with being more physical."

The Knicks closed the first quarter with a 9-0 spurt, taking a 27-22 lead after 3-pointers by Smith and Felton to end the period. But the Pacers tightened the defense in the second, holding the Knicks to two baskets in the final 5 minutes.

Indiana outscored New York 13-4 during that stretch, taking a 52-46 lead to halftime after George hit a 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left.

The Pacers, who also were the league's best team at defending the 3-pointer, limited the Knicks to 19 attempts and actually made more (8-7). Augustin was 4 of 5 off the bench.

Notes: Anthony averaged 29.1 points in the first round, equaling the second-highest ever by a Knicks player. Patrick Ewing had 31.6 per game in a 1990 series. ... Anthony received the one first-place vote that kept LeBron James from being the NBA's first unanimous selection as MVP. "That's the furthest thing on my mind at this point in time," said Anthony, who was third in the voting behind Kevin Durant. "I'll take that vote." ... Indiana won both matchups in the conference semifinals, a 4-3 victory in 1995 and a 4-1 win in 1998. ... Indiana's Jeff Pendergraph was fined $5,000 by the NBA, the first player punished for violating the league's anti-flopping rules in the playoffs. ... Novak said he hurt his back while warming up at halftime of Game 5 against Boston, but has been feeling better each day since.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-06-BKN-Pacers-Knicks-Folo/id-e2e9e10ef01341d29f00c2a26c614fdd

miramonte elementary school mark jenkins super bowl commercials 2012 mia amar e stoudemire m.i.a. adrianne curry

B&N cuts Nook HD, HD+ prices this week, hopes you'll gift mom poetry and prose May 12

As if bringing the Nook HD and HD+ access to Google Play this week wasn't already a sweet deal, Barnes & Noble is temporarily slashing the prices for its two reading-focused tablets. The reductions will last until the end of Mother's Day, putting the 7-inch Nook HD 8GB at $149 and the 16GB at $179 (a $50 discount), with the 9-inch HD+ set at $179 for 16GB and $209 for 32GB ($90 off). Compared to other options like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 tablets, the deal may be enough to make up for both HD's lack of cameras and their UI shortcomings. Check out our reviews of the HD and HD+ if you're interest is piqued, and hit up the source link if you'd like to snag one. Full press release after the break.

Filed under: Tablets

Comments

Source: Barnes & Noble

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/wiDGt3l_TDE/

Fall Leaves Jim Lehrer 666 Park Avenue Kara Alongi Sahara Davenport Resident Evil 6 arnold schwarzenegger

Malaysia's ruling coalition hangs on against winds of change

The coalition that has governed Malaysia since independence managed to hang on in general elections that threatened to upend the status quo, but with possibly its narrowest margin of victory ever.

By Simon Roughneen,?Correspondent / May 5, 2013

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak celebrates with his other party leaders after winning the elections in Kuala Lumpur May 6. Malaysia's governing coalition won a tight national election on Sunday to extend its 56-year rule, fending off an opposition alliance that pledged to clean up politics and end race-based policies.

Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

Enlarge

Malaysia's ruling coalition won a keenly-contested election Sunday, extending its 56-year run in charge of this Southeast Asian nation but with what looks to be its narrowest majority since independence from the UK in 1957.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; // google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Ahead of the election, some analysts thought the ruling National Front was vulnerable to a challenge spearheaded by Anwar Ibrahim, a former government insider who broke with the ruling coalition in the 1990s and sought to rally anger against government corruption and a bulge of youth voters hungry for? democratic change.?

But that effort, amid charges of electoral fraud from Anwar's camp, came up short, with strong support among Malaysia's ethnic-Chinese minority and from urban Malaysians, of all backgrounds, balanced against rural Malay constituencies that still heavily favor a government that has led the country through a period of unprecedented prosperity.

Preliminary results show the National Front winning 133 seats, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, or People's Alliance, getting 87. In 2008, the ruling coalition won 140 seats against the opposition coalition's 82. That marks a gain for the opposition at national level, though it ceded control of one of the four regional administrations it held going into the poll.

Anwar charged that the loss was down ?to a rigged election. "It is unfair to expect us to form a decision based primarily on the results of an election that is considered fraudulent. We are not accepting it without reason," he said.

In a statement emailed to reporters early Monday morning, Prime Minister Najib Razak in contrast?praised the conduct of the election, which he described as ?true, fair and transparent? and asked Malaysians ?to accept the will of the people, respect the result and show the world we are a mature democracy.? The 80 per cent turnout for this thirteenth election was the highest in Malaysian history

'Ubah'

Going into the vote, the opposition ran on an Obama-esque platform of '"ubah," or "change," a mantra chanted at exuberant rallies around the country in recent weeks. More substantively, Anwar and allies focused on issues such as graft and cronyism, promising to curb ethnic favoritism in government contracts and business dealings, which minorities feel unfairly benefit the 60 percent Malay majority from which the country draws its name.

After race riots in 1969, the Malaysian government introduced a policy of race-based economic privileges for the Malay majority who, typically more rural and less educated than the ethnic-Chinese minority, were at the time bit-players in the country's private sector. Those policies continue to this day. Critics say they've merely created a class of wealthy ethnic-Malay rent seekers, who have been a drag on economic growth while leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of the nation's minorities.

Supporters of the system say it has helped redress historic economic imbalances between the races and become a crucial part of the Malaysian social-contract, preventing another outbreak of the 1969 violence that scarred the national psyche.?

The National Front is spearheaded by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the ethnic-based Malay party that has been the senior partner, with ethnic-Indian and Chinese parties, in the coalition government since independence. Anwar's coalition is composed of his People's Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR), the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP), an ethnic-Chinese group.

Backers of the Pakatan Rakyat, which hoped to better its previous best-ever showing in 2008 by winning power for the first time, expressed disappointment with the outcome. Speaking in Alor Setar, capital of the rice-growing Kedah state in the north, voter Lys Idris says she hoped for a new government. ?Last time I voted BN, but now maybe we we should go for change,? she said, speaking after voting at a school at the town's outskirts.

The opposition had hoped that the youth vote and urban disenchantment with the long-established incumbents would sway voters more than the government's record on the economy, which has seen Malaysia make a half-century jump from being one of the world's poorest countries at independence in 1956 to hoped-for developed status by 2020.

Lim Guan Eng, a key opposition figure and representative of the DAP, says opposition leaders will likely convene in the coming days to discuss their response to the election.

?The election process was disappointing,? he says. ?The ink was a sham, people could rub it off,? he adds, referring to widespread claims that voters could with minimal effort remove the indelible ink from their index fingers after voting. Voters dipped their finger in the ink after casting their ballot, with the stain meant to remain for several days, as a counter against potential repeat voting.

About 25 per cent of Malaysia's 29 million citizens are of Chinese descent, and initial results show the latter to have voted for the opposition en masse, likely wiping out the ethnic-Chinese parties that have long been crucial minority mainstays of the National Front.

Tensions?

Expressing surprise at the extent of the Chinese swing away from the victorious National Front, Prime Minister Najib said that ?I expected it but I think not... to this extent. None of us expected this extent. But despite the extent of the swing against us, BN did not fall,? he added.

The result could fuel ethnic tensions in the country, mostly dormant since the riots in 1969 left around 1000 mostly Chinese-Malaysians dead. The swing against the government suggests it has mishandled relations with minorities.

?The BN failed to fully comprehend the dynamics of race and religion in the country and they continue to manage the country by inciting fear or race and religious conflicts which are beginning to irritate many Malaysians, especially the minorities,? says Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman, Coordinator of the Malaysia Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

But for now, the Malaysia status quo remains, if shaken by a changing electorate and new demands. Najib's vow to regain the two-thirds majority that allowed the ruling coalition to amend the Constitution at will for decades ended in failure and as the seats are counted it looks like BN has its narrowest majority ever.

That result points to a likely shakeup in the ruling coalition, and wind still in the sails of the forces for political change. Lim Guan Eng says that the result, at least, means the opposition has edged closer to the National Front, meaning that even if the government has eluded Pakatan Rakyat for now, it should be in a position to mount a stronger challenge come 2018, when the next elections are due. "We have made our presence felt even more strongly this time," he says.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/pJxm_jTEJQY/Malaysia-s-ruling-coalition-hangs-on-against-winds-of-change

joe posnanski michael kidd gilchrist national championship calipari national archives

What People Close to Obama Think About the Keystone XL Pipeline

To environmentalists throughout the country, denying the Keystone XL oil pipeline would be the most important sign that President Obama is committed to combating global warming.

To people close to Obama, the pipeline is not nearly that important, and they think the debate surrounding it is overblown, if not misplaced. In interviews with National Journal Daily, people who have advised Obama over the years, including former White House aides, downplayed the effect the pipeline would have on climate change or much of anything really, besides politics.

?It?s important we focus on things that make the biggest difference in terms of global climate change and do the most to actually reduce carbon emissions, like economy-wide carbon policy or use of the Clean Air Act,? said Jason Bordoff, who left the White House this January after advising Obama on energy and climate issues in senior policy positions since April 2009. ?I don?t know how much building or not building one pipeline is going to affect either how much oil is produced in Canada or in global greenhouse-gas emissions.? Bordoff now heads up Columbia University?s new Center on Global Energy Policy.

A relatively small but loud contingent of environmental groups, led by 350.org and the Sierra Club, has harnessed the 1,700-mile, Alberta-to-Texas pipeline as their rallying cry to fight global warming. The type of oil the pipeline would move?extracted from formations called oil sands?has a heavier carbon footprint than most oil drilled in other parts of the world. This issue is so important to the Sierra Club that the group, one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in the world, announced earlier this year it was for the first time in its 120-year history lifting its policy against civil disobedience to hold a massive protest against the pipeline in Washington, in partnership with 350.org.

?Individual decisions in and of themselves are not that important,? said Joseph Aldy, who worked on energy and climate issues in the White House for the first two years of Obama?s presidency. ?If oil is $100 a barrel, Alberta will find a way to get the oil out.?

Aldy?s comment isn?t far from what then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in October 2010, several months before environmentalists had succeeded in making the Keystone XL pipeline a political lightning rod in the 2012 presidential election. The State Department must approve any transcontinental energy project like Keystone.

"We're either going to be dependent on dirty oil from the [Persian] Gulf or dirty oil from Canada," Clinton said during an event in San Francisco, according to media reports at the time. ?We're not yet signed off on it. But we are inclined to do so.?

In fact, when Aldy and Bordoff were in the White House and Clinton was in her first year as secretary of State, the administration approved in August 2009 a pipeline similar to the Keystone XL project in two key ways: It?s 1,000 miles long and moves carbon-heavy oil sands from Alberta to Wisconsin.

?We already approved one [such] pipeline when I was in the White House,? Aldy said. ?It happened before. It?s going to come up again.?

He added, though, that environmentalists are forcing a debate that helps bring climate change to the front burner. ?It?s trying to focus attention in the media and in the public sphere about doing something on climate change,? Aldy said. ?I think there is a real value to this debate.?

Aldy and Bordoff are now saying publicly what many Democratic energy and climate advisers have said more privately over the past couple of years: The Keystone XL pipeline is not that big of a deal.

?We are essentially jamming our national energy policy debate through a 30-inch pipe. It?s an unfortunately narrow space, and the tone and quality of the discussion reflects the constraint,? said Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, who has advised Obama on energy and climate issues and is close with the administration. "In the absence of a more meaningful energy-policy discussion, Keystone has become a symbolic referendum for a much larger set of issues.?

Environmentalists have been so successful at making the pipeline a referendum on Obama?s commitment to global warming that people on both sides of this issue are now genuinely unsure whether he will approve the pipeline, a decision that?s expected to come in late summer or fall.

Administration officials are careful to avoid direct answers about the pipeline and instead trot out talking points about the official regulatory review process for the project. Given the administration's reticence, the views of Obama's former advisers offer a glimpse into what the president may be thinking.

The environmentalists leading the charge against the pipeline dismiss the comments from Obama confidantes that downplay the pipeline?s impact.

?Obama's guys hate Keystone because they know he's exposed,? said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. ?It?s the one place where he can't blame his climate weakness and inactivity on Congress, since Congress has nothing to do with it.?

One notably high-profile former Obama adviser whose position differs from the several people interviewed both on and off the record for this article is Carol Browner. Browner was Obama?s top energy and climate adviser until she left in January 2011.

"Until we do have a climate policy, the idea that we should be supportive of a pipeline that will increase greenhouse-gas emissions is deeply troubling," Browner said at an energy forum in November 2011, according to a Reuters article.

She hasn?t publicly commented on the pipeline since then, and she declined to be interviewed for this article.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/people-close-obama-think-keystone-xl-pipeline-141129218.html

wanderlust gone tyler perry good deeds pretty in pink shark tank john wall gordon hayward

RolePlayGateway?

Water splashed out of the sink and onto the green formica countertops, forming a small puddle that oozed at the edge of the basin. Sol watched the streaming water from the faucet fill the cereal bowl he?d just put in the sink, turning the milk from white to a thin, translucent color. A few flakes of puffed rice bobbed on the surface, then spilled over into the drain.

?There?s my handsome son.? Sol turned and looked over his shoulder at his mother. She stood there beaming at him as if he?d hung the moon, her frame shriveled with age and her grey hair dyed pale apricot in the fashion so many of the ladies in her Bingo league sported. ?Where you off to today, huh??

Sol looked down at the white undershirt he was wearing, the worn-in jeans, and the socks on his feet. ?I?m not going anywhere,? he said, but his confusion made the statement sound more like a question than a statement of fact. ?Where are you going??

His mother was in her ?good? pearls, which were really just her best looking fake ones. Though he was sure she had real jewelry stashed away somewhere, it seemed only to come out at weddings, funerals, and Bar Mitzvahs. A brocade pair of Moroccan slippers were on her little feet and a small handbag was clutched under her arm.

?Off to see the girls!? She winked, teeth flashing in a smile. ?And Doris is bringing her granddaughter. Maybe you want to go??

There was a suggestive tone to her voice, and it didn?t take a genius to figure out what she was implying. At least once a month since he?d moved back in with her, his mother had been trying to set him up with all her friend?s daughters and granddaughters. She was forgetting though; he?d already met Doris?s granddaughter, and the girl- while charming- was a charming nineteen year old. At thirty-two, he?d felt like a pervert all through a long, awkward dinner in which his mother and Doris tried to set him up with the teenager. He?d smiled politely, nodded at all the right times, and made sure not to make contact with her when passing the peas.

Sol felt his neck go slightly warm, but said nothing for a moment. He carefully deposited his cereal bowl into the dishwasher, then turned and gave his mother a quick kiss on her brow. ?Thanks, ma,? he told her. ?But no.?

He hurried out of the kitchen before the inevitable interrogation began, passing through the formal living room his mother kept spotless and down the stairs to the basement. The air became slightly cooler as he descended. Two doors led off to separate rooms, the left leading to his temporary bedroom, the right leading to a storage space his father had once used as a workshop. It still held all of his tools, perfectly in place on his peg board as if he was going to come back for them. Sol shook his head to himself and went into his room.

The cellphone on his side table was glowing. He?d missed a call and had a voice message. He flopped onto his bed and reached blindly for the phone, then dialed his own number. The message began to play.

?Hey, Sol. It?s me, Juanita. Hey, I was wondering if... Actually, I think we better talk about this in person. Will you call me back??

Sol looked down at the phone that was cradled in his hand and sighed. Call her, one part of him was saying. Return her call. The other part of him was screaming at him to delete Juanita?s number from his phone book and write her off altogether. It was time to get over it, the voice in his head said. He scrolled through his phone book and pondered her name, face contorted into a deep frown. His hand hovered over the button to delete her- if not from his life and memory, at least from his phone.

?Argh,? he sighed, and closed his eyes. His finger descended onto the button and the phone beeped. He opened his eyes and saw that she?d been deleted. Sol felt stunned, and he swallowed hard against the knot in his throat. It refused to go down, sticking to the inside of his throat like one of those bitter horse-pills. His fingers clenched the material of the blanket he was sitting on.

That was when the panic set in. What had he done? He didn?t know Juanita?s number by heart! How was he going to get it back if he needed to call her? He didn?t know any of her friend?s numbers. He didn?t even know where she lived anymore.

?Shit,? he hissed, putting his head in his hands.

?Sweetheart!? His mother?s voice rang down from upstairs. ?I?m going out! Dinner?s in the fridge!?

He heard the door open, then close; heard her key in the lock. Minutes passed, then Sol crossed the room to his computer. He pulled up the search engine, hands poised over the keys.

How do I retrieve a deleted number on my phone?

Up came a link to a small electronics shop.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

jason whitlock beach boys tony bennett joe walsh the civil wars duggar miscarriage roman holiday

Shakira: Losing Baby Weight for The Voice Was ?Stressful?

"I knew I had to come back here to do The Voice two months after I had delivered a baby. I didn't have my four months of maternity like every woman on earth has. I'm not trying to complain, but it's been a process full of challenges."

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/QhNauRaZxRc/

Steel Magnolias Niels Bohr the Rumble 2012 Columbus Day 2012 carlina white Sam Champion Engaged Infield fly rule

Estonia's capital gives residents a free ride

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) ? Looking for a free ride? Go live in Tallinn.

Estonia's capital became the world's first to introduce free public transport for all of its residents. All that's required is a transit pass showing you're a registered Tallinner ? and the city's buses, streetcars and trams are yours for free.

"I live on a tight budget since I don't have too much work right now," said Mare Tulp, who recently registered as a Tallinn resident. "I need to save money wherever I can, so I'm very happy with the free public transit scheme. This is a good thing for the common person."

Three months after launching the initiative, city officials are hailing the experiment as a success, though skeptics call it an expensive, populist trick ahead of local elections.

The free-ride scheme is the brainchild of Mayor Edgar Savisaar, who wants to reduce congestion and pollution while alleviating expenses for the city's poor.

Savisaar has even dubbed the program the "13th monthly salary" since, he claims, families will be able to save a month's salary now that they can get around Tallinn for free.

Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas says the experiment, which will cost the city some 12 million euros ($16 million) annually in lost ticket sales, has surpassed expectations. Passenger numbers are up 10 percent, while the number of cars on city streets has fallen by as much as 15 percent, according to Tallinn's transport authority.

A recent opinion poll commissioned by the city showed that nine out of 10 Tallinn residents are satisfied with the project.

"People now move around the city more frequently during weekends," Aas said. "This means they also spend more money, which boosts the economy."

City officials say it's too early to tell how much the city's economy has been stimulated in this way.

But the program is expected to boost the city's tax revenue because the registration requirement is essentially winning the city more taxable residents.

According to city calculations, some 40,000 people living and working in Tallinn are registered in other cities and towns. But more than 5,000 new Tallinn residents have been registered since Jan. 1, compared with 3,600 residency registrations during all of last year.

With 1,000 new residents equaling an estimated 1 million euros in city tax revenue, the current registration rate would offset the program's costs this year, Aas said.

The initiative covers buses, streetcars and trolleybuses in Tallinn ? a city of 425,000. The only catch is that one must be registered as a city resident and get a transit pass for 2 euros.

Once on board, you must place the pass on an electronic reader. If you don't, expect a fine of up to 40 euros ($52) should a ticket controller emerge.

Installing the system was a breeze in tech-savvy Estonia, birthplace of Skype and pioneer of online voting.

Many European capitals, including London, have similar electronic fare systems, but the difference is Tallinners never have to top up the card with money (out-of-towners do).

The fact that the Tallinn card is personal, essentially allowing the transit authority to monitor every resident's travel pattern, has raised some "big-brother-is-watching-you" concerns. City officials have responded that tracking travel patterns will help them improve transit service.

To be sure, Tallinn is not a trailblazer with free transportation. Many small European towns, such as Hasselt in Belgium and Colomiers in France have tried it, as well as some Chinese cities. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has mulled over the idea.

But Tallinn is the first capital and the largest city after Changning City in central China to introduce free public transport, Aas said.

He said the project's two risks ? insufficient capacity and the risk of derelicts spending entire days in buses ? have not materialized so far.

Critics contend the experiment is doomed and will bankrupt Tallinn. Lawmaker Valdo Randpere from the conservative Reform Party, the ruling party in Estonia's center-right government, said the center-left Savisaar is wasting taxpayer money for his "own purposes and propaganda."

"There are lots of other areas where the city should invest but doesn't have the money," said Randpere, a former member of the Tallinn City Council. "It all sounds nice, but it's a lot of populism."

Some Tallinn residents groused about the affect the scheme is having on their business.

Andrea Green, manager of a Tallinn-based taxi company Saksa Takso, said Tallinn's free transportation is undermining entrepreneurship and risks taking jobs from cab drivers. He said orders declined 25 percent in the first two months of the year compared with the same period in 2012.

"The city should invest in improving the condition of Tallinn's streets instead," he said.

But for Tallinners on a moderate income, the free rides are a gift.

"It gives you freedom," said Tulp, as she boarded a bus on her way home to a suburb of Tallinn. "It's not just money."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-04-Estonia-Free%20Ride/id-57a09481cd0949e0b2151590e014ef1d

tyson chandler stephen hill draft tracker the pirates band of misfits cleveland browns minnesota twins bobby abreu