U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (right) flies in a Blackhawk helicopter over Kandahar, Afghanistan, Thursday en route to visit the Ramrod Forward Operating Base. While in Afghanistan, Gates was asked about civilian casualties.

The slaughter of dozens of Afghan civilians — either from a U.S. airstrike or from Taliban grenades, or both — sent President Obama and his aides grasping for the right words at a delicate stage in their efforts to win Afghan support for an expanded war.

U.S. success in Afghanistan depends on the trust and good will of ordinary Afghans to defeat a resourceful Taliban insurgency, and every time civilians die it becomes easier to distrust the Americans.

Obama, along with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have offered condolences about the deaths. At the same time, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, suggested the U.S. military may have been framed.

The awkward U.S. response reveals the fragile foundation of Obama’s expanding military campaign in Afghanistan.

“Civilian casualties in Afghanistan, however they occur, pose a risk to our efforts here,” Gates said Thursday during a visit to the war zone.

His unenviable chore: Express sorrow for civilian deaths without taking blame for an incident about which the details still are murky.

“We regret any, even one, innocent civilian casualty and will make whatever amends are necessary,” Gates said. “We have expressed regret regardless of how this occurred.”

Perhaps by Taliban design, the reported deaths came on the eve of Gates’ visit to the country and the symbolic joint visits of the Afghan and Pakistani presidents to Washington.

Continued confusion over just what happened Sunday in the western Farah province revealed how easily the high-tech efficiency of the U.S. military can be thrown off course by low-tech tactics of ambush and propaganda.

The U.S. and Afghan militaries are investigating Sunday’s incident together. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said it was not clear how long the inquiry would last.

Defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said it was likely that in the end some of the deaths would be attributed to the U.S. bombing and some to the Taliban.

Gates said he was aware of a report that the Taliban had used grenades to kill civilians at the site and put the blame on the Americans, but he said that possibility was still under investigation.

“We all know the Taliban use civilian casualties, and sometimes create them, to create problems for the United States and our coalition partners,” Gates said.

Gates went out of his way to show that Washington wasn’t tone-deaf. He opened a news conference with U.S. and Afghan reporters by saying he had reminded the troops he saw about “the importance of showing respect and courtesy to our friends and hosts, the Afghan people.”

An Afghan official said Thursday he collected the names of 147 people who residents say were killed in the disputed incident involving U.S. forces and Taliban militants.

The incident rubs salt in the growing Afghan outrage over the deaths of villagers and farmers who military officials say often are used deliberately as human shields.

Air strikes can be effective — McKiernan said Sunday’s bombing killed some Taliban militants — but they are necessarily overpowering and thus sometimes imprecise.

“Our technical capabilities provide certain assets, but in reality at the end of the day this is a war on the ground, in rural areas, village by village, block by block,” Gates said with a touch of weariness. “Very often modern techniques are very limited in what they can contribute to this fight.”

Gates’ visit, ostensibly to measure U.S. preparations for the addition of more than 20,000 new fighting forces and trainers, was shadowed by questions about the incident.

“What is critical for the success of the Afghan government and for us as the government’s and the Afghan people’s partner is that the Afghan people believe that we are on their side,” and that Americans respect and want to protect them, Gates said.

“Whenever civilian casualties occur, it tends to undermine that important point.”

Anne Gearan and Lara Jakes cover national security issues for The Associated Press. Jakes reported from Kabul.

By Anne Gearan, Lara Jakes

GLENDALE – While No. 4 Goodyear Millennium High School spent just shy of 3 1/2 hours to stun top-seeded Scottsdale Chaparral 5-2 Friday, No. 2 Catalina Foothills made fast work of upstart Prescott High 5-0 in boys tennis.

The two meet at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Paseo Racquet Center for the 4A-I state championship. Foothills has won the last four state titles.

Foothills swept the three doubles and got quick victories from Mike Tringali (6-0, 6-2) and Ravi Ram (6-0, 6-2) in singles.

“People might think (Foothills) has an advantage (getting off the court early), but the advantage for us is realizing we belong here,” Millennium coach Mo Tafolla said. “We’ve put ourselves on the map by reaching the state finals, our first ever.”

Despite its mastery of Prescott, Foothills coach Robb Salant wasn’t overly pleased.

“I wasn’t happy with how we played,” Salant said. “We can’t just come out and throw our racquets out there and expect to win. We have to work. Millennium is a scrappy team. I probably don’t like our chances as much as I did before I saw them play. Don’t get me wrong. I still like our chances and I’m glad I’m coaching this team.”

4A-I girls tennis

The only thing standing in the way of No. 4 Scottsdale Chaparral and a clean sweep of all three 4A-I girls tennis titles is No. 2 Catalina Foothills.

Last weekend, Chaparral’s Nikki Parker brought home the state singles title, and Molly Ruby and Elizabeth Hammond won doubles.

Friday at the Paseo Racquet Center in Glendale, Chaparral beat No. 1 Goodyear Millennium 5-3 to advance to team finals.

After Chaparral moved on, Catalina Foothills beat No. 6 Phoenix Sunnyslope 5-2 to set up Saturday’s 2 p.m. championship.

The highlight of the afternoon will be when Parker faces Catalina Foothills’ Zaina Sufi in a rematch of last weekend’s singles championship.

Sufi knows she needs to change things up in order to come out on top.

“I need to wait for my shots,” Sufi said. “Last time I forced it too much.

“I’m excited for it. She’s great, but I want another shot at her.”

Catalina Foothills won two of its three doubles matches to start its match and was never trailing at any time.

4A-II Boys tennis

The Palo Verde boys tennis team set the tone early in its match against Scottsdale Notre Dame on Friday, winning two out of three doubles matches in the 4A Division II semifinals at the Paseo Racquet Center.

But Notre Dame, the No. 2 seed, climbed back into it, tying the best of nine match at 4 in singles action before Palo Verde’s Anthony Monestero clinched the win, beating John Blumenreich 6-3, 6-3.

The 5-4 win puts No. 3 Palo Verde in Saturday’s championship match vs. No. 4 Chandler Seton Catholic, which upset No. 1 Scottsdale Arcadia 5-4 on Friday.

Saturday’s championship starts at 11 a.m. at the Paseo Racquet Center.

1A baseball

The Tanque Verde baseball team dominated its opening-round game Friday in the Class 1A state playoffs, beating Flagstaff Northland Prep 10-1 behind a 12-strikeout performance from pitcher Josh King, who also drove in a pair of runs.

Tanque Verde will play Pima at Tempe Diablo Complex 2 p.m. Saturday.

———

Class 4A tennis championships

Three Tucson teams will play for Class 4A tennis team championships Saturday at Glendale’s Paseo Racquet Center.

Class 4A Division I – Boys

> No. 2 Catalina Foothills vs. No. 4 Goodyear Millennium, 2 p.m.

Class 4A Division I – Girls

> No. 2 Catalina Foothills vs. No. 4 Scottsdale Chaparral, 2 p.m.

Class 4A Division II – Boys

> No. 3 Palo Verde vs. No. 4 Chandler Seton Catholic, 11 a.m.

Baseball/softball

There are 26 southern Arizona Class 4A and Class 5A baseball and softball teams in state playoff action Saturday around Arizona.

For updates on those games and all the small school state tournament action, log onto www.tucsoncitizen.com/blog Saturday for updates.

By The Arizona Republic, Citizen Staff Report

CHICAGO – Did government health officials “cry swine” when they sounded the alarm on what looked like a threatening new flu?

The so-far mild swine flu outbreak has many people saying all the talk about a devastating global epidemic was just fear-mongering hype. But that’s not how public health officials see it, calling complacency the thing that keeps them up at night.

The World Health Organization added a scary-sounding warning Thursday, predicting up to 2 billion people could catch the new flu if the outbreak turns into a global epidemic.

Many blame such alarms and the breathless media coverage for creating an overreaction that disrupted many people’s lives.

Schools shut down, idling even healthy kids and forcing parents to stay home from work; colleges scaled back or even canceled graduation ceremonies; a big Cinco de Mayo celebration in Chicago was canned; face masks and hand sanitizers sold out — all because of an outbreak that seems no worse than a mild flu season.

“I don’t know anyone who has it. I haven’t met anyone who knows anyone who contracted it,” said Carl Shepherd, a suburban Chicago video producer and father of two. “It’s really frightening more people than it should have. It’s like crying wolf.”

Two weeks after news broke about the new flu strain, there have been 46 deaths — 44 in Mexico and two in the United States. More than 2,300 are sick in 26 countries, including about 900 U.S. cases. Those are much lower numbers than were feared at the start based on early reports of an aggressive and deadly flu in Mexico.

Miranda Smith, whose graduation ceremony at Cisco Junior College in central Texas was canceled to avoid spreading the flu, blames the media.

“It’s been totally overblown,” she said Thursday.

“Everyone seems to know it’s not going to kill you and it’s not as deadly as they think,” she said. “Everybody needs to just calm down and chill out.”

Craig Heyl of Decatur, Ga., said the government overreacted.

“Swine flu is just another strain of flu. People get the flu. I guess you have to call it a pandemic when it’s a widespread virus, but I don’t think the severity of it is all that concerning,” said Heyl, 43.

Public health authorities acknowledge their worst fears about the new virus have not materialized. But no one’s officially saying it’s time to relax. And experts worry that people will become too complacent and tune out the warnings if the virus returns in a more dangerous form in the fall.

“People are taking a sigh of relief too soon,” said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Besser said the outbreak in the United States appears to be less severe than was first feared. But the virus is still spreading and its future potential as a killer is not clearly understood.

“The measures we’ve been talking about — the importance of handwashing, the importance of covering coughs, the real responsibility for staying home when you’re sick and keeping your children home when you’re sick — I’m afraid that people are going to say, ‘Ah, we’ve dodged a bullet. We don’t need to do that,”‘ Besser said.

“The thing that’s keeping me up right now is that feeling of dodging the bullet,” he added.

Peter Sandman, a risk communication specialist, says on his Web site that reminding people the risk is still real and warning them in the future if a pandemic looks imminent “will be extremely difficult.”

“Swine flu looks to be an extremely mild pandemic if it goes pandemic at all, despite WHO warnings that it may ‘come back with a vengeance’ in the fall. People are going to be very, very skeptical,” Sandman wrote.

That concern is shared by infectious disease specialists. But elsewhere, especially online, talk of hype is rampant.

“If I hear 1+ person freaking out because of the “Swine Flu” they won’t have 2 worry about dying from it. I will kill them w/ my handbag!” read a comment Wednesday on Twitter.

“Adults are acting like a bunch of crybabies in a B-rated science fiction germ-outbreak movie, wringing their hands, whining about what to do next,” Dallas Morning News reader Mark Thompson wrote in a letter to the editor posted online Wednesday.

Kari Carsey Valente of Lake Oswego, Ore., had similar thoughts in a letter on the Oregonian newspaper’s Web site.

“Is the daily front page body count really necessary? In reading the entire content of the collected articles one learns that the H1N1 strain is not likely to be more lethal than its predecessors. Give it a rest — and lots of liquid!,” Valente wrote.

Colt Ables, 22, an economics major at the University of Texas in Arlington, said he thinks the Obama administration overreacted and unfairly tried to make it seem as if Republicans have been soft on preparedness.

“This shouldn’t be about politics or about hyping up a virus to send the American people into a panic. Do yourself a favor, wash your hands and turn off the TV,” he wrote in a campus newspaper column.

Whether the media overhyped or accurately reported the dangers is a toss-up, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll published Thursday on Americans’ views of the media’s flu coverage.

The May 5 poll also found that concern about the flu peaked a week ago. But even then, only 25 percent of Americans said they worried about getting the virus.

Dr. Robert Daum, a University of Chicago infectious disease expert, says authorities acted properly when news first broke about the new flu strain.

“It’s like overcalling a snowstorm in Chicago. You want the plows out even if it’s only going to snow a flake,” Daum said. If not, and a blizzard hits, “there will be an outcry like you’ve never seen before.”

Still, Daum says authorities have been a bit awkward in “downshifting” now that it appears the U.S. situation isn’t dire.

“I think it was right to place everyone on high alert, and now right” to say it’s time to calm down, Daum said.

By Mike Stobbe, Lindsey Tanner

On the first day of the Class 4A Gila Region track championship, Catalina High School’s Owai Khairandesh set a meet record of 1 minute, 58.19 seconds in the 800 meters Thursday at Amphi.

Teammate Daniel McIver edged Sahuarita’s Daniel Conorque in the high jump, clearing 6-feet, 6-inches to Conorque’s 6-4. Each jump surpassed Conorque’s 2008 meet record of 6-2.

Catalina’s boys lead second place Rio Rico 74-43 heading into Saturday’s final day of action.

In the girls meet, Catalina’s Magda Mankel (12:06.23) beat Rio Rico’s Aeoleone Bristow (12:27.92) in the 3,200.

Catalina’s girls (42) are beating Rio Rico (23) after four events.

Softball: 5A playoffs

At Phoenix’s Rose Mofford Park, No. 6 Salpointe Catholic beat No. 10 Mesa Dobson 5-1 to advance in the 5A Division I elimination bracket.

The Lancers play No. 11 Tempe Corona del Sol at Tempe Marcos de Niza High School at noon Saturday.

No. 5 Yuma Cibola 1, No. 16 Rincon/University 0 (9 innings): At Phoenix, Rincon’s ride ended Thursday when Cibola’s Alexis Gorman hit a one-out, ninth-inning single that scored Isabella Olea for the game’s only run.

Rincon (19-14) pitcher Kelsi Redding struck out 12 hitters.

“Rincon’s pitcher kept us off- balance,” Cibola coach Shelly Bauman said. “She did her job. It was tough.”

Baseball: 5A playoffs

Ironwood Ridge (17-13), the 15th seed, sent 16 batters to the plate in the top of the fifth inning, scoring 11 runs on 10 hits and beat No. 11 Tolleson 14-0 in five innings in a 5A-II elimination game.

“If this was video game, we would have unplugged it a long time ago and started over,” Tolleson coach Scott Richardson said.

Ironwood Ridge pitcher Kyle Kilgore allowed two hits while battling stomach flu all week.

“In the beginning of the game, I felt a little queasy,” he said. “But as the game went on, the nerves came down and adrenaline took over. I had my stuff today.”

Ironwood Ridge plays Peoria Centennial at 1 p.m. Saturday at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

(5A-II) No. 6 Peoria Centennial 5, No. 7 Sunnyside 2: The Blue Devils finish the season at 21-10.

(5A-I) No. 12 Salpointe 9, No. 9 Mesa Red Mountain 6: Michael Duarte went 3 for 4 with three RBIs for Salpointe, which plays No. 4 Phoenix Desert Vista at Phoenix Municipal Stadium at 4 p.m. Saturday.

For more on high school sports, check out the Grammer School sports blog.

By The Arizona Republic, Citizen Staff Report

Play opens May 21

<h4>Unmanly comment </h4>

Boston Red Sox fans hold up a sign referring to former Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez during Boston's game against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park in Boston on Thursday. Ramirez was suspended for 50 games for using a banned substance, reportedly a female fertility drug sometimes used to mitigate side effects when ending a cycle of steroid use.

Concern about the swine flu has caused a Golden Baseball League team from Mexico to cancel its season, forcing the new Tucson Toros to try to fill six home dates and six road games.

The Tijuana Potros, also an expansion team in the independent league, were scheduled to visit Hi Corbett Field on June 23-25 and July 7-9. The Toros were set to visit Tijuana on May 26-28 and June 5-7.

Toros owner Jay Zucker said he would look for other opportunities to fill the lost dates, such as exhibitions or fantasy camps.

Mexican soccer teams have banned fans from attending recent games because of the flu epidemic, which has killed 44 people in the country and two in the United States.

As a result, the Tijuana team couldn’t risk launching its season with uncertainty about sponsors, ticket sales and stadium availability.

“We weren’t worried about our players being infected,” Zucker said. “The league just felt it couldn’t wait any longer” for the concerns to subside with the season only two weeks away.

The Toros, who now have 38 home games set, begin their season May 21 against the Chico Outlaws at Hi Corbett.

With Tijuana out, the league is down to nine teams.

Tucson will be in the South Division with Yuma, St. George (Utah) and Orange County (Calif.).

The North Division will feature Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria from Canada and Chico and Long Beach from California.

Tijuana plans to return to the league next season, team president Jose Manuel Peña said in a statement.

“We know this will pass and the Potros will be ready for next year,” he said, “but realize the timing of this natural disaster has left us with no other choice.”

Ex-Sun Devil suing NCAA

Former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller is suing the NCAA and its video-game partner, EA Sports, claiming they’ve gone too far in using the likenesses of college players who are prohibited from sharing in the games’ profits.

The class-action suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in California, claims the games make illegal use of football and basketball players’ names – through the download of team rosters – and unidentified but scarcely hidden likenesses and that the NCAA condones the practice in violation of its own rules.

EA Sports, the NCAA and Collegiate Licensing Co., the Georgia-based marketing firm that represents the NCAA, “deliberately and systematically misappropriate players’ likenesses to increase revenues and royalties at the expense of student athletes,” says the suit, filed on behalf of every football and basketball player on an opening-game roster whose jersey number appeared in an EA game.

It asks for a jury trial. No damages are specified.

BoSox titles tainted?

BOSTON – Manny Ramirez hit cleanup on the Red Sox’s two championship teams this decade. Some of his teammates on those clubs say his suspension for using a banned substance won’t tarnish those titles.

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I don’t feel like our ’07 season was tainted,” Mike Lowell said Thursday night. “This is still a 25-man team.”

Ramirez was MVP of Boston’s World Series sweep of St. Louis that gave the Red Sox their first championship in 86 years in 2004. He also had one of his best seasons that year, hitting .308 with 43 homers and 130 RBIs.

“It’s not like we wouldn’t be the world champions if, whatever this is that’s going on,” 2008 AL MVP Dustin Pedroia said. “I don’t think it tarnishes any of that stuff.”

Thursday, Ramirez was suspended for 50 games for violating baseball’s performance-enhancing drug policy.

Several Red Sox players said they didn’t know if he used such substances when he played for Boston from 2001 until he was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trading deadline last July.

“I have no idea,” said Lowell, the MVP of the 2007 World Series against Colorado.

“He’s a phenomenal hitter and I never saw anything, so I defer to asking Manny that question.”

The Associated Press

Dophins renaming stadium

MIAMI – The Miami Dolphins are renaming their home Landshark Stadium as part of a partnership with singer Jimmy Buffett.

The name change from Dolphin Stadium is the fifth since the stadium opened in 1987. Buffett’s Margaritaville enterprise includes Landshark Lager, brewed by Anheuser-Busch.

Buffett and new Dolphins owner Stephen Ross are friends. They plan to unveil a new logo for the stadium at a private event Friday, where Buffett will perform a song inspired by the Dolphins.

The Associated Press

Bike race coming to Colo.?

DENVER – Lance Armstrong wants to bring bicycle racing back to Colorado, Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday.

Ritter said Armstrong, who has a home in Aspen and has trained in the area, called him to discuss the proposal.

“He has this idea and he’s working on it from his end. There is some possibility we could bring it back,” Ritter said.

Armstrong is in Italy for the Giro d’Italia race.

A posting on his Twitter page on Wednesday said, “Had a great conversation with Governor Ritter from Colorado. Working on something. Stay tuned . . .”

Colorado had a stage race in the 1970s and ’80s known first as the Red Zinger Classic and later the Coors Classic, which grew to include two weeks of racing in California, Nevada and Colorado – with stages some years in Hawaii and Wyoming – and was considered one of the biggest stage races in the world.

It last ran in 1988.

The Associated Press

NUMBER OF THE DAY

105

Runs scored by the Diamondbacks, the No. 31 mark of 32 teams this year. How Arizona ranks in other offensive categories.

Batting average .222 (32)

Hits .207 (32)

RBIs 97 (31)

Doubles 54 (11)

Home runs 30 (12)

On base percentage .297 (32)

Slugging percentage .385 (27)

QUOTABLE

'You can't have arguably the greatest pitcher of our era, arguably the two greatest players of our era and now another very, very good player be under this cloud of suspicion and not feel like it has ruined it for everybody.'

CHIPPER JONES,

Atlanta Braves third baseman, referring to pitcher Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez being linked to steroids or drugs

———

TOROS OPENER

> Chico (Calif.) at Tucson, 7 p.m. May 21, Hi Corbett Field

> Tickets: 325-1010

———

ON THIS DATE

1968: Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Oakland A’s pitches a perfect game, beating the Minnesota Twins 4-0. It is the first perfect game in the American League regular season in 46 seasons.

1970: Walt Frazier scores 36 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 113-99 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA championship in seven games.

1984: On the day the Olympic torch relay begins, the Soviet Union announces it will not take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

The Associated Press

———

SPORTS SOUND-OFF

Ramirez couldn’t dodge drug test

Re: Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez suspended

• Major League Baseball was once a great sport. In recent years it has become a sad shadow of the past. OCOTILLOSUNSET

• Whatever happened to sports for the sake of the game? This is why people are not into sports anymore. The players are spoiled doper brats that play for the paycheck and not for the fans and just the pureness of having fun playing a game. JETMECH

• It’s high time, these “pretty boys” and pseudo “hip-hoppers” step up and really pay attention to any substance they take or are given, and play the game as it is a true sport of ability and ethics. Cheating sucks and those who engage in it are suckers! POPS

• As a Dodger fan this is not good, but . . . Manny is not the smartest person out there but he should have checked it out with a team doctor. DJQ32

By USA Today, Mike Chesnick

NEW YORK – Bank of America’s chief executive Ken Lewis laid out his plans for raising new capital to meet regulatory requirements after the government said the nation’s largest bank is facing a $33.9 billion shortfall.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC, Lewis also said Friday that the economy is bottoming and that he plans to remain in charge of the bank through the recovery.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank will raise capital through asset sales, earnings in the upcoming quarters and raising capital from private investors, Bank of America officials had said during a conference call Thursday night. The bank believes those actions should allow it to avoid needing to convert into common stock some of its $45 billion in government loans under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Bank officials said during Thursday’s call it is mulling sales of its Columbia asset management unit, as well as several other businesses, and may enter into several joint ventures. It previously said it planned to sell its First Republic Bank unit, which it inherited when it bought Merrill Lynch & Co. Those sales could help it raise $10 billion.

Another $17 billion will likely be raised through the issuance of common stock, including through converting at less than face value some preferred shares held by private investors. The rest of the capital could come from cash flow from operations in the coming quarters.

Bank of America shares rose 70 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $14.21 in morning trading Friday.

On Thursday, the government announced the results of its bank stress tests, indicating that Bank of America would need an additional $33.9 billion in capital to meet potential losses if the economy worsens. The bank will have six months to raise capital to create that financial cushion.

“We have significant opportunities to meet our target. We do not need new government money. And we do not intend to convert the existing TARP money we have. Our game plan is designed to help get the government out of our bank as quickly as possible,” Lewis said on Thursday’s call with analysts.

In the CNBC interview Friday, Lewis said he plans to remain as CEO to help the bank navigate raising the required cash to meet the government’s stress-test results and repay the TARP funds.

Shareholders voted narrowly last week at the bank’s annual shareholders meeting to split the chairman and CEO positions at the bank, stripping Lewis of the chairman’s role. Lewis served as chairman and CEO since 2001.

Walter E. Massey, president emeritus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, was elected by Bank of America’s board to replace Lewis.

Investors have been upset in recent months over a tremendous drop in the company’s stock price, continuing losses and ongoing government investigations surrounding Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

After the deal was sealed Jan. 1, Merrill Lynch reported $15 billion in fourth-quarter losses and it was learned that Bank of America had approved the early payout of billions of dollars in bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees.

Lewis pledged during the conference call Thursday to be responsive to shareholder anger, saying “you reflect on it, and try to see the trends and themes that were being stressed, and react to them.”

Lewis said he does not plan to walk away until he can help the bank complete its turnaround and repay the government loan. He told CNBC that he is likely to step down as CEO by the time he turns 65 in three years — the traditional retirement age for executives at the bank.

In the meantime, the bank said it is looking for new directors. The company lists 18 directors on its board. It’s unclear how many directors could be affected or who might step down, except Massey did say during a call with the media Thursday that the bank will seek new directors with more banking and financial experience.

Economic conditions for completing the plan and paying off the loan have improved dramatically in the past two months as the stock market has rebounded from multiyear lows and data has indicated the economic downturn might be slowing.

By Stephen Bernard, Ieva M. Augstums

For the second year in a row, the University of Arizona football team showed improvement in the NCAA’s annual Academic Progress Rate report.

The Wildcats fell one point below the NCAA’s minimum score of 925, or a 50 percent graduation rate – and were ninth in the Pac-10, only ahead of Washington State (918). But because UA showed significant improvement from last year (902), the Cats were not penalized.

In 2007 and 2006, UA lost a total of six football scholarships because of poor APR reports.

All the other Arizona teams performed higher than 925 – including the men’s indoor track program (938), which lost one scholarship this season because of a score of 921 last year.

No Pac-10 teams were penalized this season.

The scores are calculated based on data from the fall semester in 2004 through the spring semester in 2008. Each athlete receives one point per semester for remaining academically eligible and another point each semester for remaining at that school or graduating.

A mathematical formula is used to correlate a final team score, with 1,000 points being perfect. Teams that fall below 925 annually can be subjected to immediate penalties.

Across the nation, the overall four-year Division I APR increased three points to 964. And the overall scores in baseball, football and men’s basketball all showed improvement over the 2003-04 numbers.

Centenary’s men’s basketball team and Tennessee-Chattanooga’s football squad, however, didn’t make the grade with the NCAA and it cost them a chance to compete for a national championship next season.

Those teams became the first to be banned from postseason play because of poor APR scores. Jacksonville State’s football team, which is appealing a postseason ban, could join them. A decision is expected within six weeks.

NCAA president Myles Brand said Wednesday’s announcement sends a message to the nation’s college teams: Repeatedly failing to make grades comes at a heavy cost.

“I think it is a watershed because it shows the depth and severity of the penalties for schools that cannot come into compliance with academic performance,” Brand said during a conference call. “Think back as a mode of comparison to when we have recruiting infractions, and we withhold them from postseason play, that’s a big deal.”

Next year, schools with four straight years of poor scores could face the NCAA’s most severe penalty – restricted Division I membership for the entire athletic department.

Ten schools were cited in both football and men’s basketball but only two – Alabama-Birmingham and New Mexico State – play in college football’s top level. UAB was the only school in major football to receive a reduction in practice times in both sports.

The SEC led the six biggest conferences with five teams penalized. Mississippi and Minnesota were the only BCS schools sanctioned in football.

McNeese State led all schools with eight teams sanctioned, while Nicholls State was next with six.

———

LATEST UA ACADEMIC PROGRESS REPORT SCORES

———

(925 is minimum)

Men’s sports

Baseball 930

Basketball 949

Cross country 1,000

Football 924

Golf 957

Swimming 951

Tennis 945

Track (indoor) 938

Track (outdoor) 939

Women’s sports

Basketball 946

Cross country 965

Golf 975

Gymnastics 987

Soccer 992

Softball 945

Swimming 974

Tennis 965

Track (indoor) 953

Track (outdoor) 949

———

HOW UA COMPARES

Football Men’s hoops

Stanford 984 968

California 970 944

USC 956 906

Washington 954 956

UCLA 948 968

ASU 945 930

Oregon 935 975

Oregon State 930 936

Arizona 924 949

Washington St. 918 946

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

GENEVA – Up to 2 billion people could be infected by swine flu if the current outbreak turns into a pandemic lasting two years, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the historical record of flu pandemics indicates one-third of the world’s population gets infected in such outbreaks. Independent experts agreed that the estimate was possible.

In Mexico, the hardest hit country so far, high schools and universities opened for the first time in two weeks as the government’s top health official insisted the epidemic is on the decline. All students were checked for swine flu symptoms and some were sent home.

“If we do move into a pandemic, then our expectation is that we will see a large number of people infected worldwide,” Fukuda said. “If you look at past pandemics, it would be a reasonable estimate to say perhaps a third of the world’s population would get infected with this virus.”

With the current total population of more than 6 billion, that would mean an infection total of 2 billion, he said, but added that the world has changed since pandemics of earlier generations, and experts are unable to predict if the impact will be greater or smaller.

“We don’t really know.” said Fukuda. “This is a benchmark from the past. Please do not interpret this as a prediction for the future.”

Chris Smith, at flu virologist at Cambridge University in England, said the 2 billion estimate was possible.

“That doesn’t sound too outlandish to me for the simple reason that this is a very infectious virus,” Smith told The Associated Press. “You’re talking about a virus that no one in the population has seen before and therefore everyone is immunologically vulnerable. Therefore it’s highly likely that once it starts to spread, people will catch it. And since the majority of the world’s population are in contact with one another, you’re going to get quite a lot of spread.”

John Oxford, professor of virology at St. Bart’s and Royal London Hospital, agreed.

“I don’t think the 2 billion figure should scare people because it’s not as though 2 billion people are going to die. The prediction from WHO is that 2 billion people might catch it. Half of those people won’t show any symptoms. Or if they show any symptoms, they will be so mild they will hardly know they’ve had it.”

Fukuda said it also is impossible to say if the current strain of swine flu will become severe or mild, but that even with a mild flu, “from the global perspective there are still very large numbers of people who could develop pneumonia, require respirators, who could die.”

A mild outbreak in wealthier countries can be “quite severe in its impact in the developing world,” Fukuda said.

People react differently to the flu depending on their general state of health and other factors, he said. Some younger people in the Southern Hemisphere may be more vulnerable because of poor diet, war, HIV infections and other factors.

“We expect this kind of event to unfold over weeks and months,” Fukuda said. “Really if you look over a two-period that is really the period in which you see an increase in the number of illnesses and deaths during a pandemic influenza.”

So far the swine flu virus has spread to 24 countries.

Mexican dance halls, movie theaters and bars were allowed to fully reopen Thursday after a five-day shutdown designed to curb the virus’ spread. Businesses must screen for any sick customers, and restaurant employees must wear surgical masks.

Fans can attend professional soccer matches this weekend after all were played in empty stadiums last weekend.

Mexico confirmed two more deaths, for a total of 44, while 1,160 people have been sickened, up 90 from Wednesday. Despite death tolls and confirmed caseloads that rise daily, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova insisted the epidemic is waning in Mexico.

WHO raised its global total of laboratory-confirmed cases to 2,099, from 1,893 late Wednesday, and said swine flu also has caused two deaths in the United States.

This swine flu seems to have a long incubation period — five to seven days before people notice symptoms, according to Dr. Marc-Alain Widdowson, a medical epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now tracking the flu in Mexico City. That means the virus can keep being spread by people who won’t know to stay home.

Laughing and joking, high school students gathered at the entrance of the National School of Graphic Arts in Mexico City, waiting to fill out forms that asked about their health.

Of 280 students entering the school in the first 20 minutes, two showed symptoms of swine flu, including coughing and nasal congestion, said assistant principal Ana Maria Calvo Vega. Their parents were notified and they won’t be readmitted without a statement from a doctor saying they don’t have the virus, she said.

Students at a Mexico City vocational high school were welcomed with a hand sanitizer and a surgical mask. Joyful to see each other again, students embraced and kissed — some through masks.

But some worried that the virus could surge back once young people gather in groups again.

“My 17-year-old daughter is afraid. She knows she must go back but doesn’t want to,” said Silvia Mendez as she walked with her 4-year-old son, Enrique, in San Miguel Topilejo, a town perched in forested mountains near the capital.

Working parents have struggled to provide child care during the shutdown. It forced many to stay home from work, bring their youngsters to their jobs, or leave them at home.

Each school, Mexican officials said, had to be cleaned and inspected this week. Complicating the task: Many schools are primitive buildings with dirt floors and lack proper bathrooms. It was unclear how students attending those schools could adhere to the government’s strict sanitary conditions.

The government promised detergent, chlorine, trash bags, anti-bacterial soap or antiseptic gel and face masks to state governments for delivery to public schools. But some local districts apparently didn’t get the word.

U.S. health officials are no longer recommending that schools close because of suspected swine flu cases since the virus has turned out to be milder than initially feared. But many U.S. schools have done so anyway, including the school of a Texas teacher who died.

In Asia, top health officials said the region must remain vigilant over the threat of swine flu, stepping up cooperation to produce vaccines and bolstering meager anti-viral stockpiles.

The virus has so far largely spared Asia. Only South Korea and Hong Kong have confirmed cases. On Thursday, China and Hong Kong released dozens of people quarantined over suspected contact with one of the region’s few swine flu carriers.

Past experience has been the spur to WHO to make sure the world is as prepared as possible for a pandemic, which would be indicated by a rise to phase 6 from the current phase 5 in the agency’s alert scale. That would mean general spread of the disease in another region beyond North America, where the outbreak so far has been heaviest.

“I’m not quite sure we know if we’re going to phase six or not or when we would do so,” Fukuda said. “It’s really impossible for anybody to predict right now.”

Officials said the agency was likely to shorten its annual meeting of its 193 member states later this month from 10 days to five because of the outbreak, which it was scheduled to discuss.

“That is under consideration,” Fukuda said. “Sure it is possible.”

Contributions from AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London and Associated Press writers Andrew O. Selsky in Mexico City and Michael Casey in Bangkok.

By Alexander G. Higgins, Eliane Engeler

WASHINGTON – Some of the nation’s largest banks will be scrambling to demonstrate that they can raise capital after results of government stress tests leaked out, showing many need more funds. The Treasury Department will officially release results later Thursday.

The tests were designed to gauge whether any of the nation’s 19 largest banks would need more capital to survive a deeper recession. It turns out many of the banks do: Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. all need billions more, regulators have told them.

The public nature of the assessments and Thursday’s planned announcement raised questions among some critics about whether the findings will reflect the banks’ actual conditions.

The tests put banks through two scenarios: one that reflected expectations about the current recession and another that envisioned a recession deeper than what analysts predict.

Citigroup will need to raise about $5 billion, according to a government official briefed on the results who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. Earlier news reports had put that dollar figure closer to $10 billion.

Regions Financial Corp. will also need to raise more money, according to people briefed on the results, as will Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Bank of America stock rose Wednesday after reports that the Charlotte, N.C.-based company would need to collect $34 billion in additional capital. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported the figure. The Journal cited unidentified people familiar with the situation, while the Times quoted a bank executive.

Wells Fargo needs between $13 billion and $15 billion, according to Times and Journal reports Thursday. GMAC, the lending arm of beleaguered automaker General Motors Corp., is said to need $11.5 billion.

Morgan Stanley is looking at between a $1 billion and $2 billion shortfall, according to the Times.

In all, the Journal said at least seven of the banks will need a combined $65 billion. The entire group that is deemed to need more capital will require less than $100 billion combined, according to the Times.

Despite being included in the Journal’s tally, State Street is not being required to raise more capital after completing its stress test, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

Stress tests have long been a part of the bank regulation system. They help regulators decide how to supervise banks and aid banks in deciding how to limit their risk. But those conversations between banks and regulators normally take place behind closed doors.

In recent weeks, the government’s unprecedented decision to publicly release bank-test results has fanned speculation, with analysts predicting the findings and investors staking out trading positions.

Critics are concerned that all the attention could make the tests much less effective. They say regulators seem so intent on maintaining public confidence in the banks that the results will have to say the banks are basically healthy.

Officials have said they will not let any of the 19 institutions fold. That makes it almost impossible for them to say anything about a bank that would threaten its survival, since a flight by investors could force the government to step in with additional bailout money — something the Treasury Department hopes to avoid.

“There is a real question as to the legitimacy of these results,” said Jason O’Donnell, senior analyst at Boenning & Scattergood Inc.

The stress tests are a key part of the Obama administration’s plan to stabilize the financial industry.

The tests estimated how much value the banks’ loans would lose as consumers and businesses faced more trouble repaying loans.

The first test scenario envisioned unemployment reaching 8.8 percent in 2010 and housing prices dropping another 14 percent this year. The second imagined unemployment rising to 10.3 percent next year and homes losing another 22 percent of their value this year.

But economic assumptions have changed since the tests were designed in February. Unemployment already has surpassed the 8.4 percent the test’s first scenario predicts for 2009, which leaves some analysts wondering whether the tests were harsh enough.

The government is asking banks to keep their capital reserve ratios above a certain level so they can continue lending even if the economic picture darkens.

The banks that need more capital will have until June 8 to come up with a plan to raise the additional resources and have the plan approved by their regulators, officials said Wednesday.

Banks will have several options for increasing their capital. Some will be able to close the gap by converting the government’s debt into common stock. Others will have six months to attempt to raise money from private investors. If they cannot do it, the government will provide money from its $700 billion financial system bailout.

Representatives for American Express Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup and Regions Financial would not comment on the tests.

The remaining stress-tested banks are: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., MetLife Inc., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., U.S. Bancorp, SunTrust Banks Inc., Capital One Financial Corp., BB&T Corp., Regions Financial Corp., Fifth Third Bancorp and Keycorp.

Financial stocks surged Wednesday amid reports on the stress tests. Bank of America gained 17 percent, Citigroup surged 16 percent and Wells Fargo gained 15 percent.

Sara Lepro reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jeannine Aversa and Martin Crutsinger in Washington and Stephen Bernard in New York contributed to this report.

By Sara Lepro, Daniel Wagner

MEXICO CITY – Dozens of Mexican nationals quarantined in China despite having no swine flu symptoms arrived home Wednesday on a government-chartered jet, some complaining of “humiliation and discrimination” by the Chinese. But as Mexicans emerged from their own five-day swine flu shutdown, the death toll rose and many remained fearful.

Mexico City showed more of its usual ebullience during a raucous morning rush hour. Thousands of newspaper vendors, salesmen hawking trinkets and panhandlers dropped their protective masks and added to the familiar din of truck horns and street music. Cafes accepted sitting customers, and many corporate offices reopened.

Construction worker Roberto Reyes, 36, walked through the capital’s Chapultepec subway station without a protective mask.

“The news says all of this is over, so I got rid of my mask, and a lot of people are doing the same in the streets,” he said.

Many others worried about Mexico letting its guard down too quickly, especially with high schools and universities reopening Thursday, and primary schools reopening next week.

Mexico’s shutdown was designed to reduce the spread of the virus at its epicenter, and deaths did slow as the country mobilized an aggressive public health response to the epidemic that has gone on to sicken nearly 1,900 people in 21 countries.

But the virus keeps setting off more health alarms. A pregnant 33-year-old teacher in Texas who fell into a coma and had her baby delivered by Cesarean section became the first U.S. resident to die of swine flu. And Mexico announced a jump in the confirmed death toll Wednesday to 42 after testing backlogged cases.

Two of those deaths were from Tuesday. While the rate of new cases and hospitalizations has declined, epidemiologists said the virus has spread throughout Mexico. “We have seen a tendency (of the outbreak) to diminish, but not disappear,” Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said.

The Texas woman had chronic medical conditions, as did a Mexico City toddler who died of swine flu last week during a visit to Houston, health officials said. Her district said it would close schools until Monday as a precaution.

Mexico criticized China’s quarantine of its citizens as discriminatory, and First lady Margarita Zavala was up before dawn to greet the 136 passengers at Mexico City’s international airport. Authorities said 72 had been in Shanghai, 18 in Beijing, 34 in Guangzhou and 12 in Hong Kong. None had flu symptoms, Mexican diplomats said.

“It was discrimination and humiliation in my case,” said Myrna Berlanga, who said she was taken off a flight from the United States by Chinese officials and put in a mobile laboratory for five hours without food, water or a bathroom. “They took me out because of my passport,” she said.

Maria Lourdes Castaneda traveled to Hong Kong for a trade show. “Nobody wanted to give us a hotel room,” she said. “The manager of the Ramada kicked us out and told us there weren’t any rooms.”

Several other Mexican passengers said they were treated well despite being quarantined for four days.

China has defended its measures to block the virus from entering the world’s most populous nation and says it will continue strident checks on travelers from regions hit by swine flu. Its foreign ministry denied singling out Mexicans and said it hoped Mexico would “address the issue in an objective and calm manner.”

China had earlier canceled the only direct flights between China and Mexico, a twice weekly service by Aeromexico.

“This is purely a question of health inspection and quarantine,” ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Monday.

Lin Ji, a health official with China’s health department in Jilin province, said the government had decided to lift a quarantine for a group of Canadian students two days early, following pressure from Canada.

In Hong Kong, 34 passengers who arrived on a flight from Shanghai with a Mexican swine flu patient April 30 will be released from quarantine Thursday, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said. Their nationalities weren’t immediately clear.

Doctors were still running tests on the Mexican patient. Chow said he was in stable condition.

Dr. David Nabarro, senior U.N. coordinator for influenza, said countries must explain to WHO their rationale for quarantines and trade restrictions, saying their effectiveness is minimal at best.

“We want to be very clear that the World Health Organization is not recommending travel restrictions related to the outbreak of this novel influenza,” Nabarro said.

Elsewhere Wednesday, Swedish authorities confirmed the Scandinavian country’s first swine flu case — a woman who recently visited the United States. The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control said the woman, in her 50s, has recovered.

Before the Mexican nationals came home, about 20 Chinese businessmen and students, each wearing surgical masks, left the border city of Tijuana on a Chinese government flight. They had been stranded when China canceled all direct flights to Mexico.

Mexico’s government had imposed the five-day shutdown to curb the flu’s spread, particularly in this metropolis of 20 million where the outbreak sickened the most people. Capital residents overwhelmingly complied — other towns less — and government officials hailed the drastic experiment as a success.

Some, however, again urged caution. “We can’t make a prediction of what’s going to happen,” said Dr. Ethel Palacios, deputy director of the swine flu monitoring effort in Mexico City.

Mexican Finance Secretary Agustin Carstens unveiled plans Tuesday to stimulate key industries and fight foreign bans on Mexican pork products. He said persuading tourists to come back is a top priority.

Carstens said the outbreak cost Mexico’s economy at least $2.2 billion, and he announced a $1.3 billion stimulus package, mostly for tourism and small businesses, the sectors hardest hit by the epidemic.

The World Health Organization said it was shipping 2.4 million treatments of anti-flu drugs to 72 countries “most in need,” and France sent 100,000 doses worth $1.7 million to Mexico.

Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson, James Anderson and Katherine Corcoran contributed to this report.

By Juan Carlos Llorca, Lisa J. Adams

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

A group of local, state and federal politicians demanded an apology from Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for statements regarding schools checking the citizenship of students.

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva was among the politicians – all Democrats – to sign a letter criticizing Dupnik’s statements.

“It is wrong to force teachers and school administrators to become immigration officers,” the letter said.

Dupnik, a Democrat, said at a news conference last week that 40 percent of the students in the Sunnyside Unified School District were in the country illegally and that the South, Southwest and West sides had high crime rates linked to illegal immigration.

“These false charges are inflammatory and prejudicial,” the letter stated. “Your comments only further divide our community and debase a large part of the population.

“The Pima County electorate trusted you to protect and serve our community, not to humiliate and instill fear,” the letter said. “Every child is entitled to an education regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation and status.”

Dupnik called last week’s conference to clarify comments he made during a hearing on border violence held by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month.

Dupnik, who could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon, stressed last week that his statements were his opinion only. He said he knew they would be “divisive.”

He suggested that a Supreme Court ruling that forbid schools from checking the citizenship of students should be challenged, saying that it would heighten border security if the ruling was overturned.

Adelita Grijalva, a Tucson Unified School District board member, said, “I think the comments he made were simply wrong, inflammatory and egregious.

“We talk about (Maricopa County) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and say that we’re happy we don’t have a sheriff like that,” she said. “If this is the way (Sheriff Dupnik) felt, I wish he would have made those statements a year ago when he was running for re-election, and then we could have decided if that’s the type of person we wanted for sheriff.”

Grijalva said she was eager to hear Dupnik’s response because she thought his statements were “really out of character from (the) whole time he has been sheriff. I’m still unclear what the motive was.”

When he said Sunnyside had about 40 percent illegal immigrants, “how would he even know that? Sunnyside doesn’t know because it doesn’t ask.”

Eva Dong, a Sunnyside Unified School District board member for more than 10 years, said she signed the letter because she was shocked and disappointed with Dupnik’s comments.

She said she didn’t like Dupnik putting Sunnyside into a position of law enforcement against immigrants, which, she added, is against the law.

“And I’d like to know the ‘credible’ source he has that said that 40 percent of Sunnyside students are illegal immigrants,” she said.

“The large majority of our community is not involved in crime. I was in shock when I heard the things he said. That he would lump us into a category of high crime is not right,” she said.

“We’ve worked hard this year to try to remove those images. We have businesses and the university working with us to be successful,” Dong said. “You work at it and work at it and work at it, and bang, someone comes and shoots you down. It’s just very hurtful.”

Dong, who works at the Pima County Juvenile Court Center in the CAPE program, which educates children incarcerated there, also took offense at Dupnik equating illegal immigrants with crime.

Even at the center, “the majority of kids there are not illegal immigrants,” she said. “They are very, very few.”

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva

———

Elected officials who signed the letter to Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

Richard Elías, chairman of the Board of Supervisors

Regina Romero, Tucson Ward 1 Councilwoman

Adelita Grijalva, board member of the Tucson Unified School District

Eva Dong, board member for the Sunnyside Unified School District

State Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson

State Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson

State Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson

State Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-Tucson

State Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford, D-Tucson

State Rep. Phil Lopes, D-Tucson

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.

By Mary Bustamante, Eric Sagara

NEW YORK – A bankruptcy judge on Monday postponed his decision on whether Chrysler LLC can start the process of transferring its assets to a new entity partnered with Italian automaker Fiat.

Judge Arthur Gonzalez delayed the issue until Tuesday afternoon because Chrysler did not file its motion until late Sunday and people with objections need more time to review the deal.

A group of Chrysler’s lenders have refused to wipe out most of Chrysler’s debt and go along with the government’s restructuring plan. A lawyer for some of the creditors, Tom Lauria, said they have not had time to review Chrysler’s 300-page filing.

Lauria also objected to a Chrysler motion to allow the automaker to pay taxes, and he indicated that he also would object to the payment of other costs and expenses. He said if the sale to Fiat fails to go through, any money spent would be taking away from what left for the lenders later.

“We’re opposing at this point everything that the debtor is doing that is premised on the assumption that value that would be preserved through the sale,” he said. “Because if we didn’t have the sale, none of these actions make sense.

“What we’re doing is spending money today that we’re going to have to fight to get back later.”

Lauria, whose group includes lenders such as OppenheimerFunds Inc. and Stairway Capital Management, also said that some of the holdout lenders have asked to remain anonymous for now, citing fears about their safety.

“People in the group have received death threats that they believe to be bona fide and contacts with the police have been made,” Lauria said.

Other issues set to be decided Monday include approval for Chrysler to start using $4.5 billion in government loans so it can keep operating under bankruptcy protection.

Chrysler, the nation’s third-largest car manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday. The company plans to emerge in 30 to 60 days as a leaner company, with Fiat Group SpA potentially becoming the majority owner.

The biggest obstacle to the plan appears to be Chrysler’s secured lenders who hold $6.9 billion of the company’s debt.

Four banks holding 70 percent of the debt agreed to a deal that would give the lenders 29 cents on the dollar. But a collection of hedge funds refused to budge, saying the deal was unfair because they deserve to recover more than other creditors like the United Auto Workers.

President Barack Obama on Thursday chastised the funds for seeking an “unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout” after Chrysler and his auto task force cleared the company’s other hurdles, including the Fiat deal and a cost-cutting pact that the UAW ratified last week.

By Bree Fowler, Vinnee Tong

Vendors along Rocky Point's main street report business is painfully slow because few American tourists are crossing the border as fears of swine flu and concerns about drug-cartel violence mount, adding to the problems in Mexico's slumping economy.

ROCKY POINT, MEXICO – Wounded by recession and widespread drug violence, Mexico’s economy convulsed this week as fears of swine flu shut down schools, canceled public events, kept residents in their homes and turned back American tourists.

Among the hardest-hit communities is the coastal getaway of Rocky Point, the city 215 miles south of Phoenix that has been transformed from tourist mecca to virtual ghost town.

“I don’t know where the gringos are, and we depend on them,” said Fernando Lara, 31, a jewelry vendor, gazing down an empty row of souvenir stands.

Arturo Rodriguez Rico is president of CANACO, the chamber of commerce in Rocky Point, the city in Sonora, Mexico, also known as Puerto Peñasco.

He said that business was down 40 percent before the flu. Then, on Sunday night, major drug-cartel mayhem struck for the first time, with four people killed in the heart of the community.

Police tape flutters in the breeze at Rocky Point’s main intersection, where machine-gun fire riddled a Ford Fusion. Some bullets slammed into a nearby bank. Others struck the victims: two men and two women, all outsiders from Caborca and Sinaloa.

Esau Palacios, selling cow’s-head tacos at the corner, said that business is non-existent because of the one-two punch of the shootings and flu.

“People are afraid,” he said.

Across Mexico, economists worry that the flu outbreak could trigger a complete meltdown as shoppers stay home, restaurants close and workers deal with the financial strain of child care amid school closures.

“The death toll of businesses could be much worse than the number of people who die from the flu,” said Alejandro Álvarez Bejar, an economist with the World Economic Studies Network, a think tank based in Puebla, Mexico.

In the nation’s capital, Lisandro Soto looked dourly around the showroom of his Chevrolet dealership, full of cars and bereft of shoppers.

Outside, pedestrians hurried by in face masks, trying to avoid a virus suspected in the deaths of more than 150 so far in Mexico.

Car-buying was the last thing on anyone’s mind, said Soto, adding, “It’s not just Mexico that is going to get hurt. If nobody is buying Chevrolets here, jobs up there (in the United States) are going to be affected, too.”

Wednesday, Mexico’s Central Bank said that it would likely revise this year’s economic outlook, expected to contract up to 4.8 percent. That could be bad news for the U.S., which exported $151.5 billion in goods to Mexico last year.

In the past, upheavals in Mexico have had other effects on the U.S. economy. During 1994, an armed uprising in the southern state of Chiapas and the assassination of a presidential candidate spooked investors and hastened a financial implosion.

Migrants surged across the U.S. border in the wake of that collapse, known as the “Tequila Crisis.” The United States put together a $50 billion bailout package to get Mexico back on its feet.

Back in Rocky Point, streets are quiet. Vendors outnumber tourists 10 to 1. Restaurant workers – in protective masks – stand on sidewalks hoping for customers. With schools closed, children play tag near their parents’ shops.

“I’ve never seen it like this,” said Wayne Howell of Prescott, in an otherwise empty restaurant with wife Candace. “These poor people. . . . Everything has happened against them. It’s sad.”

Rodriguez Rico, the chamber president, said Rocky Point is fighting false fears, not reality. There is no swine flu in the community, he noted, and no hint of drug killings before this week.

“What can we do?” Rodriguez Rico asked, shrugging in frustration.

The few Americans who braved a visit seemed thrilled to have Rocky Point to themselves. Marlyn Friesen, 62, of Nebraska, said she was having a wonderful time on her first visit to Mexico, despite advisories by the U.S. State Department.

“We heard all about the drugs and people capturing you and not letting you go,” Friesen said. “Then, we heard about the swine flu.”

Friesen’s daughter, Melissa Friesen of Chandler, 42, scoffed at public paranoia. “You can get flu anywhere,” she said. “Besides, my company manufactures Tamiflu, so I have some with us.”

Maribel Catarino, 28, operates a curio shop on Avenida 32. She said she sold one item, a $5 hat, in eight hours. Catarino said she and her husband, also a street merchant, are struggling to support three small children.

She gazed down four blocks of stores without a single American customer, shaking her head. “It’s gotten so hard.”

By Dennis Wagner, Chris Hawle

Dr. Michelle McDonald speaks during the H1N1 influenza press conference on the flu cases in Pima County.

Six cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Pima County – four on the Tohono O’odham nation, one in Tucson and one in Marana, according to the Pima County Health Department.

Another 11 cases are suspected, but have not been confirmed.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in Arizona rose to 17 over the weekend, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services Web site.

Last week four cases of swine flu were confirmed in Arizona, all school-age children in Maricopa County who have either recovered or are recovering, officials said. The state sent samples in at least 52 more suspected cases to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, about half of which were from Pima County, said Patti Woodcock, spokeswoman for the Pima County Health Department.

If cases of the virus are found in the county, then local officials will begin “active surveillance” of hospitals and clinics, Woodcock said. That means health workers will track patients’ contacts and retrace their steps, much as they did during a spring 2008 outbreak of measles.

As they did with the measles outbreak, county health officials are urging people experiencing flulike symptoms to call their doctors instead of going to doctors’ offices or hospital emergency rooms, potentially exposing more people, Woodcock said in a statement Thursday.

In the event of an outbreak here, the county’s allotment of antiviral medication would be used only to treat patients, not to vaccinate others, Woodcock said.

Maricopa County’s health director, Dr. Bob England, said none of the patients who had the swine flu there has been hospitalized or suffered severe symptoms.

“It isn’t going to stop there,” England said. “We have lots of testing to be done, and in the coming days we’re going to have more (confirmed cases).”

England and state Health Services Department Interim Director Will Humble said it appears the swine flu that has spread across the nation in the past week isn’t any more severe than a normal influenza. If evidence mounts that that is the case, school closures could end quickly.

About 36,000 people die each year in the United States from the regular flu. The U.S. has reported only one death outside Mexico from the swine flu – a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family.

As a precaution, Tucson Unified School District leaders have canceled school field trips Friday to the Tucson Convention Center for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s “Young People’s Concert.”

Fifth-grade visits to TUSD middle schools Friday have also been cancelled.

Tarwater Elementary and Hartford Sylvia Encinas Elementary schools in the Chandler Unified School District were ordered closed for seven days. Moon Mountain Elementary School in northwest Phoenix was ordered closed on Wednesday.

Health officials said there was no known relationship between the two Chandler-area students. In the third new case reported on Thursday, the student had been home during the infectious period and could not have infected any classmates.

State Department of Health Services officials also learned Thursday that a 19-year-old Northern Arizona University student had a “probable” case of swine flu.

NAU and the Coconino County Health Department were awaiting confirmation from the CDC, but a school spokesman said it will continue to operate under normal business conditions.

“We have a residential campus here, we’re right at the tail end of the semester, finals start next week,” said Tom Bauer, a NAU spokesman. “We don’t feel this would be in the best interest of anyone at the moment to be thinking about closing because of one ‘probable’ (case). We’re not being blasé about this. We are very concerned with all of our students.”

The first case was confirmed Wednesday in an 8-year-old northwest Phoenix boy. Although he had returned to school, health officials ordered his elementary school closed for a week to prevent the disease from spreading.

England said in that case, the child had not traveled to Mexico, where the flu strain was first identified.

“There was no travel history, which, again, underscores my thought – that it’s here. It’s in the community. There are probably many more people infected than we realized,” England said. “Nobody’s cared about it because it hasn’t made people all that sick.”

The student whose illness prompted the closure of the second school also had recovered. The third student hadn’t attended school while contagious, and the fourth case is being investigated, England said.

The CDC and officials in several states have confirmed at least 120 cases of the swine flu as of Thursday. They are in New York, Texas, California, South Carolina, Delaware and scattered cases in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Georgia and Maine.

Health officials said people should treat the swine flu strain like any other flu – contact your personal doctor, and avoid spreading the virus by staying home and covering sneezes and coughs. Patients should seek additional medical help if fever persists or spikes, breathing is difficult or other severe symptoms develop.

Officials were worried that people unnecessarily visiting hospitals or clinics could make it hard to tend to trauma patients. Dr. Jeffrey Schultz, pre-hospital director at John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, said an increase in patients could affect the ability to care for them. Furthermore, people have been coming to the hospital to request they be tested for the flu, even if they don’t show symptoms.

“If you’re not having any of those symptoms, it’s unlikely, even if you request that test . . . you’d be getting that test. That wouldn’t be good health care,” Schultz said.

Arizona health officials have tested more than 400 samples since Monday in a state lab and determined that about 60 percent of them were seasonal flu.

“We’re chugging them in and out,” state health department spokeswoman Laura Oxley said. “We’re prepared to go around the clock, (but) we haven’t had to do that yet.”

Oxley said the state could receive test kits by the end of the week from the CDC that will enable health officials to confirm the virus themselves.

“We are working on it,” she said. “We want to do it, and life will be a lot easier when that comes.”

Citizen Staff Writer Ty Bowers and the Arizona Republic contributed to this article.

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference on Wednesday in the East Room at the White House.

WASHINGTON – Banks failing and the economy in shambles, the new U.S. president reassured a nationwide audience that his administration was putting America back on the right track.

“It was the government’s job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in the first of a series of radio addresses dubbed fireside chats, “and the job is being performed.”

More than seven decades later, Barack Obama borrowed heavily from FDR’s playbook as he tried to slip as effortlessly into the role of comforter in chief. “Every American should know that their entire government is taking the utmost precautions and preparations,” Obama said of the flu outbreak Wednesday night.

Balancing two wars, a creaky economy and – now, suddenly, a flu bug of near-pandemic proportions, this new president used his third prime-time news conference to assure America that its often-derided government could rise to the challenge. At the same time, he sought to inspire citizens to help themselves rather than rely solely on Washington.

This is not to say Obama will be as popular or successful as Roosevelt, a president whose record is still vulnerable to criticism. But the parallels between these two relatively young, challenged-by-crises presidents are too tempting to ignore – particularly when Obama seems to be channeling FDR as a communicator.

Like Roosevelt, Obama inherited a global economic crisis and moved quickly to address it, drawing stiff criticism even as he tried to lower expectations for a fast turnaround.

“Our troubles will not be over tomorrow,” FDR said during an Oct. 22, 1933, radio address, “but we are on our way, and we are headed in the right direction.”

Reading from the same script, Obama declared Wednesday night, “I think we’re off to a good start, but it’s just a start. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, but I’m not content. I’m pleased with our progress, but I’m not satisfied.

So far, Americans seem to be giving Obama credit for trying.

An AP-GfK poll marking Obama’s first 100 days in office found that, for the first time in years, more people think the country is headed in the right direction than not. The percentage of “right direction” voters has jumped a remarkable 31 points since October, the month before Obama’s election.

Roosevelt managed to retain the public’s support throughout the Great Depression, despite signs that much of his New Deal didn’t work. He had a gift of inspiring confidence in the future.

Are Obama’s gifts as great? So far, he has managed like Roosevelt to give many Americans a common purpose.

“We happen to have gotten a big set of challenges, but we’re not the first generation that that’s happened to,” Obama said. “And I’m confident that we are going to meet these challenges just like our grandparents and forebears met them before.”

He has benefited from his political team’s ability to use new media – such as YouTube and text messaging – to get his views out to a fast-changing public. Roosevelt used new media, too: the radio.

This was Obama’s third prime-time news conference. He’s on TV all the time. And yet, the AP-GfK poll shows that few people think Obama is overexposed.

Read the transcripts of FDR’s fireside chats. You’ll find that he spoke in plain, sometimes folksy language to methodically explain the nation’s problems and outline his proposed solutions. Agree or not with Obama’s politics, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t communicate as effectively as Roosevelt.

While FDR patiently explained to Americans that a bank doesn’t keep people’s money in vaults (“it invests your money”), Obama didn’t think it was beneath his office to offer health tips for the flu.

“I’ve asked every American to take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: keep your hands washed, cover your mouth when you cough, stay home from work if you’re sick and keep your children home from school if they’re sick,” Obama said.

“We’ll continue to provide regular updates to the American people as we receive more information,” Obama said more than seven decades after Roosevelt promised to give Americans regular radio updates.

“And everyone should rest assured that this government is prepared to do whatever it takes to control the impact of this virus.”

———

President Obama marked his 100th day in office on Wednesday, but it’s hardly the only digit that matters to the new administration.

Some highlights of Obama’s first 100 days, by the numbers:

• $3.6 trillion – Total spending in Obama’s proposed federal budget for 2010

• $1.75 trillion – Total projected deficit in Obama’s proposed federal budget for 2010

• $787 billion – Cost of tax cuts and new spending in economic stimulus package approved by Congress

• $567.5 billion – Increase in the public debt, from Jan. 20 through April 28

• $235 billion – Tax dollars spent to bail out failing financial institutions, Jan. 20-April 20

• 2.055 million – Number of jobs lost, January-March

• 908,666 – Housing foreclosures, Jan. 20-April 24

• 8,185.73 – Dow Jones Industrial Average close on April 29

• 7,949.09 – Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Obama’s Inauguration Day

• 106 – U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan since Jan. 20

• 49 – U.S. military deaths in Iraq since Jan. 20

• 27 – Bank failures

• 15 – Bills signed into law

• 12 – States visited

• 9 – Foreign countries visited

• 4 – Visits to Camp David

• 3 – Commerce secretaries nominated

• 2 – Formal news conferences

• 2 – Republicans in the Cabinet

• 1 – Visits to Hyde Park home in Chicago

• 1 – Commerce secretaries confirmed by the Senate.

• 1 – Number of college basketball teams picked by Obama that made it to the Final Four.

By Ron Fournier, The Associated Press