The Back-Seat Driver in Your Dashboard

Remember when Mom or Dad would nag you about wasting gas by driving too fast? Now your car can do it for them.
Technology designed to coach you toward a more efficient style of driving is showing in many new cars. Options run the gamut from simple displays of fuel consumption, to interactive video games, to a gas pedal that actually pushes back when you stomp it.

Auto makers view these features as lures for younger, cash-conscious and tech-savvy buyers. They might also help car makers meet coming federal fuel-efficiency standards. Research indicates these electric noodges can make a significant dent in fuel consumption, if drivers actually follow the advice the systems give them.

Car makers are treading carefully. They want to engage their customers in the effort to conserve oil, but they don't want to irritate them and don't want to compromise safety by making eco-driving displays too distracting. Most of these technologies can be ignored or turned off if drivers choose.
Hyundai Motor Co.'s sporty new 2012 Veloster three-door coupe has a fuel-economy game programmed into the screen that also displays the car's location, onboard entertainment and telecommunications. The "Blue Max" program measures the car's fuel economy every 10 minutes and displays a score. Drivers can share their score with other Veloster owners using the car's Blue Link wireless link.
Fuel economy is important to the Veloster's young, target buyers, says Hyundai Motor America's senior manager for product planning, Brandon Ramirez. "Gen Y is into gaming," he says, which is why they chose a videogame format. Although the car just came out, Veloster owners are already comparing their scores in an online forum.

It wouldn't be the first time drivers have turned trimming fuel use into a game: Some owners of hybrids and other cars compete with themselves and each other by "hypermiling," using various techniques to cut gasoline usage.

Ford Motor Co. uses images of a plant that grows as drivers motor more efficiently in its Fusion Hybrid model. And Toyota's Prius and Camry hybrids offer detailed, displays of real-time fuel economy.

Auto makers are experimenting with these features in part because future federal fuel-economy regulations could give them valuable credits under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, rules for installing them. And researchers have found that gentle nagging by coaching systems works.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have been experimenting with ways to give drivers instantaneous feedback on their driving efficiency for about five years. UC Riverside researchers equipped the cars of about 20 people with devices that gave them information about their real-time miles per gallon. Seeing that information led to savings ranging from 5% to 15%, researchers say.

Now, the researchers are embarking on a larger, three-year study, funded with $1.2 million from the Department of Energy. It's aimed at finding how much drivers can save if they have detailed information on the most fuel-efficient route to a destination—based on traffic and road conditions—coupled with coaching technology giving drivers instantaneous performance feedback.

Savings "could go up to 30% under ideal scenarios," says Kanok Boriboonsomsin, one of the researchers on the project. It's a worthy goal, as boosting a car's mpg by 30% through hardware changes—lighter materials, new transmissions, or tiny engines—can be expensive.

Still, the word "ideal" is important: Ideal conditions for driving in a fuel-saving manner aren't easy to find or sustain.

I took a spin in one of the UC Riverside's test vehicles—a heavily modified Nissan Altima bristling with computers and antennae. Accelerating out of the parking lot, my real-time mpg sank well below the roughly 20-mpg target for city driving on the screen.

Things improved coasting downhill, but when I accelerated up the on-ramp to merge with traffic, my real-time fuel economy dipped below 10 mpg.

Michael Todd, a UC Riverside researcher who chaperoned my drive, says mashing the accelerator to get on a freeway can overwhelm the car's exhaust-scrubbing systems. So, not only is the car burning a lot of fuel, but it's adding a bigger-than-average load to air pollution.

The message from the UC Riverside data is that relatively small changes in behavior can produce fairly substantial reductions in fuel consumption.

The overall problem, Mr. Todd says, is that "most people aren't taught how to conserve fuel" when they learn to drive.

3 charged in deadly Avondale home invasion

A trio faces murder charges in connection with a deadly Northwest Side home invasion that left a 15-year-old boy dead and his mother seriously wounded, authorities said today.

The daylight home invasion happened at around 8:40 a.m. Tuesday in the 3400 block ofNorth Lawndale Avenue in the city's Avondale neighborhood, according to Chicago police.

The suspects, Sean Williams, 33, Davonta Williams, 17, and Jennifer M. Vojinovic, 27, were each charged with single counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery, home invasion, and three counts of unlawful restraint, police said.

All three were arrested by alert Albany Park District officers, who spotted the vehicle matching the plate information provided by a witness, police said. Authorities also recovered 9mm and .25-caliber handguns.

Police believe that both male suspects shot Andre Vasquez, 16, along with his Krystal Hethcoat, 33, while Vojinovic acted as the getaway driver.

According to relatives of the victims, Vasquez, a Schurz High School sophomore, and his 14-year-old sister were preparing to leave for school and one of them had just opened the apartment's front door when two males barged in.

The intruders bound Vasquez and Hethcoat in the home's basement, while the teen's sister managed to escape.

Police said the intruders bound the mother and son with duct tape while demanding money. The pair ransacked the home before shooting both Vasquez and Hethcoat.

Vasquez, was pronounced dead at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center just hours after he was shot, authorities said. His mother was in serious-to-critical condition at Illinois Masonic as of Tuesday night.

"This is unreal," Tina Quinones, an aunt of Vasquez and his sister told the Tribune. "I don't understand why this would happen. They don't have anything. There was no reason for this."

Police offered no clues on why the home was targeted by the group.

All three suspects are expected to appear before a judge later today.

Julianne Hough stars in 'Footloose' remake: movie review

“Footloose” is a remake of the 1984 musical about a city boy, played by the young Kevin Bacon, who comes to a small southern town and, literally, shakes things up. That earlier movie, which is now rather erroneously being referred to in the promotional material as a “classic,” was studded with soon-to-be Top Ten Hits and had a youth-pandering storyline: Because of a fatal accident that killed five teenagers after a night partying, the town council of a small southern community, led by a fire-breathing preacher, outlaws teen dancing.
This same premise holds for the remake, and it seems more pandering (and dated) than ever. Once again, Ren MacCormack (newcomer Kenny Wormald) is the good-hearted misfit who just wants kids to be able to have fun before they morph into old-fogy adults. Dennis Quaid, in the John Lithgow role, is Rev. Shaw Moore, and he’s actually somewhat of an improvement. Lithgow seemed to actually breathe fire whereas Quaid seems less demented, more down to earth. He’s riven without being bug-eyed.

The preacher’s troubled daughter is played by “Dancing With the Stars” phenomenon Julianne Hough, and it would have been better if her role had showcased more dancing and less acting. Co-writer and director Craig Brewer, working with the original’s screenwriter Dean Pitchford and producing team, can’t seem to work up a filmmaking rhythm. The dancing numbers, which are so tame you wonder what all the heavy-breathing was about, are awkwardly shoehorned into the melodrama. Ren, as in the original, even gets to deliver a speech to the town council citing various passages in the Bible where dance is celebrated. He’s a pretty crafty guy even though the movie makes him out to be as pure as the driven snow. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for some teen drug and alcohol use, sexual content, violence, and language.)

Want an iPhone 4S? Get in line

Demand for Apple's new iPhone 4S, combined with buyers' hunger for rival devices, could push worldwide smartphone ownership above the 50% mark for the first time ever.

Pre-orders for the phone from carriers AT&T, Sprint and Verizon are as good as sold out; and online orders from the carriers and Apple are backed up, with delivery promised by the end of the month at the latest.

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      REVIEW: Phone 4S carries on the Apple excitement
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      MORE: New iPhone 4S camera sharp

If you want one now, you'll have to shop in person and perhaps stand in line.

The iPhone is far and away the best-selling and most used smartphone, according to Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics. With the release of the iPhone 4S, which goes on sale in stores at 8 a.m. Friday, smartphones will account for half of all cellphones, up from 43% today, says Entner.

Smartphones typically offer more robust Web browsing, email, data and media streaming abilities.

Apple says more than 1 million iPhone 4S pre-orders came in on the first day of sales. Selected Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy stores, along with local Apple resellers, will also offer the iPhone.

Pricing begins at $199 (with a two-year contract) for the model with 16 gigabytes of storage. Apple has dropped the price of the predecessor iPhone 4 to $99 (with a contract); the iPhone 3GS is free with a contract.

There are more than 128 million iPhones in use worldwide, according to Apple. The second most popular smartphone is the Samsung Galaxy S, with 10 million phones in use, Entner says.

The iPhone 4S upgrade offers an improved camera, faster processor and a voice-activated personal assistant Siri which can find weather and traffic information, and set meeting times, among other things.

Apple historically has released new iPhones in the summer, but by "waiting until October, it's really increased even more pent-up demand," says Entner. "Lots of consumers were waiting for a new iPhone, and really want it."

Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, predicts sales of between 2 million to 2.5 million phones this weekend, compared to 1.7 million for the iPhone 4 launch in June 2010.

"The product may not sound as exciting as the previous iPhone, but many people are eligible for their upgrade," Munster says. "And they're ready for a new iPhone." Sprint customers are getting their first chance to buy an iPhone.

The launch comes a little more than a week since the passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which sparked fan tributes at Apple Stores and headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

Because the iPhone 4S sports only minor improvements from the iPhone 4, and no hardware upgrade, Munster predicts an all-new iPhone 5 could come much sooner — perhaps by next summer.

"Apple will get the consumer's dollar either way," he says. "Folks who can't wait will buy the iPhone 4S; the ones who can will get the iPhone 5 next year. Either way, Apple gets paid."

Bank Nurtures Asian Roots

By focusing on select customers, East West Bancorp is showing it can grow at a time when many banks are struggling to find a firm footing.

East West, based in Pasadena, Calif., pays close attention to Asia. It seeks Chinese-American clients and attracts U.S. companies that do business in China. It also finances Chinese companies' expansion in the U.S. through trade finance and commercial loans.

East West has "been smart enough to link to demographics in their ancestral homeland," said William Michael Cunningham, the owner of Creative Investment Research Inc., an advisory firm in Washington with a focus on minority banks. "It's better to be an Asian bank in California than a Hispanic bank in Texas," he said, referring to East West's reach into China itself.

The bank's niche focus has helped it expand at a time when demand for loans around the country has been soft. The strategy is paying off at some other lenders as well.

At SVB Financial Group of San Francisco, which specializes on start-ups and venture capital firms, loans rose 34% from a year earlier in the second quarter. Loan growth also has been strong at Encore Bancshares Inc. and Texas Capital Bancshares Inc., two banks specializing on Texas businesses and their owners, and at East West's Asian-American competitor Cathay General Bancorp of Los Angeles.

With $22 billion in assets, East West was among the top 10 business lenders by volume in the second quarter, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Its second-quarter income from lending—a tough number for banks to increase in an uneasy economy—rose 30% from a year earlier, to $241 million.

East West's interaction with Borrego Solar Systems Inc. is typical. Since last year, the bank has lent the San Diego solar-power-installation company more than $30 million to finance four power-purchase agreements. Borrego Chief Financial Officer Bill Bush said "it's just much easier" to work with East West because the bank has a deposit-and-lending relationship with Borrego's Taiwanese parent, Walsin Lihwa Corp., and extensive knowledge of the solar market.

Five years ago, most of East West's customers were U.S. businesses importing from China. "Today we see more exporting [to China] than we have ever seen," said East West Chairman and Chief Executive Dominic Ng in an interview. "And going forward...I would expect there will be much stronger interest in Chinese companies investing in the U.S."

East West expands in "concentric circles" from its original niche into new markets, said Keefe Bruyette analyst Julianna Balicka. She calls its growth this year "phenomenal."

East West's commercial-loan book grew 35% in the second quarter from a year earlier, and its profit rose 67% to $61 million.

East West is more profitable than the average bank. Its net interest margin, the profit margin in lending, was 4.7% in the second quarter, up 0.04 percentage point from a year earlier. The average margin at banks contracted 0.15 percentage point, to 3.61%, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

East West was founded in 1973 as a savings bank for Chinese immigrants to the U.S. After five purchases of failed banks in the past two banking crises and 10 acquisitions altogether since 1999, it has grown to almost 140 branches in six states across the U.S., and three in China.

For all its successes, East West has had its share of setbacks, too. The string of acquisitions left it with real-estate loans that went sour quickly when the financial crisis hit in 2008.

The bank "made mistakes" in its own underwriting, Ng said. "We thought we [had] made safe construction loans" In 2008, East West had a loss of almost $60 million.

But, unlike most other banks, East West raised capital early and sold bad loans fast.

And it bought United Commercial Bank—including its business in China—from the FDIC when the banking subsidiary of UCBH Holdings Inc. failed in 2009.

"That was just a home run," said Fred Cummings, president of Elizabeth Park Capital Management, an East West shareholder. "They eliminated their largest competitor" in "one of the best FDIC deals" any bank has done in the current financial crisis.

The bank's moves have cushioned it some from investor pessimism about financial stocks. East West shares have dropped 23% this year, compared with a 32% decline in the Keefe Bruyette & Woods index of regional bank stocks.

East West's biggest challenge now? "To stay focused," Ng said, "not to deviate, thinking that we can do in Europe what we can do in China."

Any time a bank is increasing loans so much faster than the industry overall, analysts start to worry about how that lending is underwritten. "You wonder how long it's going to last," said Ms. Balicka of Keefe Bruyette. "But East West, for the most part, has a good track record."

At Borrego, the solar company, Mr. Bush said he wants to do more business with East West. "They really distinguished themselves."

The GOP’s cynical embrace of Herman Cain

Some weeks ago, as I was conducting research for a book on anti-communism, I happened upon a political ad for the 1952 presidential election. The ad was notable for two reasons: It appeared in an African American newspaper, and it said in bold letters, “Let’s face it — a vote for the Democrats is a vote for Jim Crow.” This was followed by an explanation of why blacks should support the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket.

In 1952 the Democratic Party suffered from a kind of split-personality disorder, vying for votes among Northern blacks who favored desegregation and Southern whites who strongly opposed it. Its presidential ticket reflected that tension, pairing the liberal Adlai Stevenson with Sen. John Sparkman of Alabama, whose record of opposition to civil rights was well known (and listed in the GOP ad for any who might have forgotten it).
The ad was a cynical ma­nipu­la­tion — Eisenhower was no civil rights advocate — but that’s nearly beside the point. What is most notable is that the Republican Party was sincere in its cynicism. This was a bona fide effort, if not to win over black voters, then to at least dampen their enthusiasm for the Democrats. It’s a stark contrast to the Grand Old Party’s current non-approach to African American voters. And this makes Herman Cain’s recent surge in the GOP polls all the more notable.

Cain’s poll numbers are improving, he finished first in a Florida straw poll, and he seems to be an early front-runner in a handful of states that will hold primaries after the nominee has probably been already decided. But the most telling element of this rise is what his candidacy says — or doesn’t say — about the state of race in this country.

Three years ago, Barack Obama’s emergence as the front-runner in the Democratic primaries was widely understood as a barometer for race in the United States. His election spawned furious speculation that we had become a “post-racial” society. Yet his approach to governing highlights the ways in which these ideas were premature, or at least far more complicated than was generally acknowledged at the zenith of Obamamania.

The administration has been loath to address race directly, leading to tensions with some African Americans who think the president is either less willing or less able to address our specific needs than a white Democrat would be. Thus it became easy to believe that the white liberals who voted for Obama did so, in part, as a means of achieving cheap absolution for the nation’s racial sins.

That Cain’s campaign is so studiously scrubbed free of race is a commentary on the very racialization he eschews. His Web site features his stances on immigration, national security, taxation, energy and health care. There is no reference to civil rights concerns, disproportionate incarceration or what is, at this point, a racialized unemployment crisis. This is curious only because, unlike the other Republican candidates, Cain believes that he can win a solid third of the black vote. Late last month he said blacks have been “brainwashed” into voting for Democrats (always a smart move to insult the intelligence of people whose votes you’re seeking). But it would require a specific kind of brainwashing — the doctrine that epidermal allegiance should trump actual political interests — for Cain to win a third of an electorate whose key issues don’t even crack the top 10 on his Web site.
There are 40 million African Americans in this country. We are as diverse as any group of citizens. And we certainly have a stake in the issues of energy, security and health care. But electorates are selfish, and realistically, a candidate who doesn’t engage the specific interests of a group, however they’re defined, doesn’t usually win much of that group’s support. This is, significantly, the most frustrating aspect of Obama’s attempts to placate African Americans by highlighting what he has done for the country at large. The irony, of course, is that Obama is most likely wary of addressing black issues head-on because of the criticism he would receive from the kinds of white voters who are increasingly supporting Cain.

In any case, it became clear that something more than “brainwashing” was at play in recent days when Texas Gov. Rick Perry provided Cain with his own Jeremiah Wright moment — a point when race unavoidably injects itself into an otherwise raceless campaign. Recognizing the damning implications of applying the most radioactive epithet in the language to, of all things, a hunting camp, Perry’s campaign quickly denounced the word and insisted that the candidate had done all he could to literally whitewash the camp’s name with a coat of paint. Cain, a man who lived through segregation, made a milquetoast muttering about it being “insensitive,” but even that understatement was enough to provoke a riotous response among his supporters.
Indignant conservatives took to blogs and online discussions, denouncing Cain for “playing the race card” (while we’re on the subject of banned language, that cliche should’ve been outlawed long ago) and, unbelievably, defending Perry’s sign as not racist.

All this suggests that another, more curious kind of absolution is at work on the right this election season. It’s not one in which the country’s racial sins are forgiven, but one where blacks seek absolution for ever suspecting that there had been sins in the first place. At least that’s what it appeared to be when Cain played down his comments — the insensitivity of calling a slur insensitive.

At its most cynical, Cain’s campaign doesn’t offer redemption for the party associated with the Willie Horton ads, the terms “welfare queen” and “high-tech lynching,” and now “Niggerhead” so much as it suggests that there was never anything to be redeemed. Cain himself joined this mad parade of racial non-bigotry months earlier, saying he would ban Muslims from his Cabinet, or at least force them to sign special loyalty oaths. How can that be bigotry? A black guy said it.

The racial insurance policy that Cain’s candidacy offers to tea party conservatives who have been criticized as bigoted by some quarters is certainly not the entirety of his appeal. Nor was absolution the majority of Obama’s appeal to whites in 2008. But it is certainly part of it, and it works in the way that race most commonly does in this era, in subtle, inscrutable ways, maddeningly opaque, the exact extent of its influence difficult to determine.

Thus Cain’s ascent in the polls presents us with the tantalizing prospect, no matter how unlikely, that our next election will feature two African American men, neither of them post-racial but both somehow committed to publicly behaving as if we are. Cynicism, not racism, is now our foremost national sin. I plan to print up T-shirts reading “Election 2012: Vote for the Black Guy.” I expect to make a mint.

William Jelani Cobb is the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and an associate professor of Africana studies and history at Rutgers University.

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Supreme Court justices find government line in church-state case 'amazing'

In an important test of the boundaries of the separation of church and state, the US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a case examining whether a parochial school teacher may be barred from filing a discrimination lawsuit against her employer when the suit might entangle government in matters of religious faith.
The high court is being asked to decide whether Cheryl Perich and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may sue the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Mich., for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The school argues that such a suit is barred under a First Amendment doctrine that recognizes a “ministerial exception” from such litigation because it would require judges to interfere in the pastoral and religious mission of the school.

MONITOR QUIZ: How well do you know the Constitution?

Lawyers for the EEOC and for the teacher say Ms. Perich was fired in retaliation for filing a discrimination lawsuit against the school. They say there is no “ministerial exception” that would allow religious organizations to fire with impunity an employee whose job primarily involves teaching secular subjects to her students.

The high court has never before identified the contours of the ministerial exception, although such an exception has been recognized and upheld in the lower courts. It has been found to clearly apply to a pastor, priest, or rabbi, but less clear is whether it applies to other employees involved in religious duties.

The Obama administration, arguing on behalf of the EEOC, urged the court to reject the claims of the Lutheran Church and embrace a line of analysis that would have virtually eliminated the ministerial exception.
Some justices shocked

Leondra Kruger, an assistant solicitor general, said the government was basing its argument on a section of the First Amendment that guarantees the freedom of individuals to associate with each other.

Some justices took issue with the position, wondering why the solicitor general’s office wasn’t analyzing the issue through the First Amendment’s religion clauses. The two religion clauses bar the government from establishing a state-favored religion, while prohibiting laws that infringe the free exercise of religion.

The two clauses are widely considered the backbone of religious freedom in the US.

At one point, Justice Elena Kagan asked Ms. Kruger whether she believed that a church has a right grounded in First Amendment religious protections to hire and fire employees without government interference.

Kruger answered that the government was basing its argument on the freedom of association, rather than the parts of the First Amendment that deal with religious freedom.

“We don’t see that line of church autonomy principles in the religion clause jurisprudence as such,” Kruger replied. “We see it as a question of freedom of association.”

The position surprised several justices, including Justice Kagan, the Obama administration’s former solicitor general, who said she found the comment “amazing.” After the hearing, one representative of a religious association called the government’s position a “full frontal assault on religious liberty.”

Chief Justice John Roberts first raised the issue when he asked whether the administration considered anything “special about the fact that the people involved in this case are part of a religious organization.”

Ms. Kruger said, no, that there was no difference whether the group was a religious group, a labor group, or any other association of individuals.

“That’s extraordinary. That is extraordinary,” Justice Antonin Scalia declared. “We are talking here about the free exercise clause and about the establishment clause, and you say they have no special application?”
“We don’t think that the job duties of a particular religious employee are relevant to the inquiry,” she said.
After the argument, Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia Law School professor who presented the case for the Lutheran church, said he was “encouraged” by the session. He said the justices were “skeptical” of the government’s position.

Mr. Laycock argued that since the teacher in question was the equivalent of a minister and that she taught religious classes to students in addition to secular subjects, the ministerial exception should apply to her case.

Perich also spoke after the argument. “My situation really had nothing to do with religion,” she said.
Perich's story

Perich was employed as one of seven teachers at a K-8 school run by the local Lutheran church. The school had roughly 80 students.

In June 2004, Perich was diagnosed with narcolepsy, a condition in which she would fall into a sudden and deep sleep from which she could not be awakened. She sought treatment.

The school held her job open for a semester by combining classes, but in January 2005 a replacement was hired.

A dispute arose when Perich sought to return to her job in February 2005. The school board said there were no job openings for a teacher. In addition, the board expressed concern about the safety of the children if Perich collapsed while she was supervising them.

Perich threated to sue. The church countered that threatening a lawsuit violated the church’s internal conflict resolution policy. The congregation voted 40 to 11 to fire her.

The EEOC filed a lawsuit on Perich’s behalf charging the church with attempting to retaliate against an employee in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A federal judge sided with the church and threw the suit out, but a panel at the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, ruling that Perich could pursue her lawsuit.

The Sixth Circuit rejected the church’s claim that the suit should be barred by the ministerial exception.
Religious rights vs. rule of law?

During the argument at the high court on Wednesday, several justices expressed concern that Perich’s discrimination suit would excessively entangle the government in an examination of the Lutheran church’s conflict-resolution policy and its desire to have commissioned ministers teaching in Lutheran schools.

Justice Stephen Breyer asked Kruger how the government differentiated between Perich’s Lutheran case and the case of a woman who might sue the Catholic Church for gender discrimination for limiting the priesthood to men.

“The government’s general interest in eradicating discrimination in the workplace is simply not sufficient to justify changing the way that the Catholic Church chooses its priests, based on gender roles that are rooted in religious doctrine,” Kruger said.

“But the interests in this [Lutheran] case are quite different,” she said. “The government has a compelling and indeed overriding interest in ensuring that individuals are not prevented from coming to the government with information about illegal conduct.”

Justice Samuel Alito questioned whether Kruger wasn’t implicitly making a judgment about the relative importance of Catholic versus Lutheran doctrines.

“You think that the Catholic doctrine is older, stronger and entitled to more respect than the Lutheran doctrine,” Justice Alito said.

Kruger disagreed. “The government’s interest in preventing retaliation against those who would go to civil authorities with civil wrongs is foundational to the rule of law,” she said.

The case is Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (10-553). A decision is expected by June.

A.J. Burnett solid as Yankees top Tigers 10-1 in ALDS Game 4, is saved by Curtis Granderson catches

A.J. Burnett and the Yankees staved off elimination with a 10-1 win over the Tigers Tuesday night at Comerica Park, sending the series back to the Bronx for a decisive Game 5 Thursday night with a trip to the ALCS on the line.

Two hours before the game, Nick Swisher stood in the Yankees dugout and made a bold prediction.

"A.J. is going to dominate," Swisher said. "I just feel it."

Burnett had a couple of tense moments, but he held the Tigers to one run on four hits and four walks over 5-2/3 innings, giving the Yankees the performance they desperately needed with their season on the line.

PHOTOS: YANKS DRUB TIGERS IN ALDS GAME 4

The big night for Burnett and the Bombers was twice saved by an inspired night in center field from Curtis Granderson, who also contributed an RBI double in the fifth.

Joe Girardi was prepared to pull Burnett early - he had Cory Wade warming up in the first inning after the starter loaded the bases - but Burnett escaped the jam and held the Tigers in check for the next four-plus innings, his lone mistake a leadoff homer by Victor Martinez in the fourth.

The Yankees will send rookie Ivan Nova to the mound for Game 5 Thursday night, while the Tigers will hand the ball to Doug Fister in the decisive contest. The winner will take on the Rangers in the ALCS after Texas knocked out Tampa Bay Tuesday.

Girardi awoke knowing that Tuesday night's game might be the Yankees' final one of the season, and while he had faith, he realized the predicament.

"You understand that, and you think about how hard you worked," Girardi said hours before the game. "With the players, how hard they worked all year long, you don't want it to end today. You don't ever want it to end until it's the last out of the World Series that you get. And that's hard if it does."

Fortunately for the Yankees, it's not over.

Burnett's night started off in typical fashion, as he walked Austin Jackson to lead off the game. Ramon Santiago tried to bunt him to second, but he popped it up for a wasted out. Delmon Young grounded out, moving Jackson to third, then Burnett intentionally walked Miguel Cabrera and walked Martinez, loading the bases without giving up a hit.

Don Kelly, starting his first game of the series, drilled a ball to deep center that appeared to be over Granderson's head, but the center fielder - who initially broke in  - came up with a leaping catch to save three runs and take Burnett off the hook.

Poll sees a new low in Americans’ approval of Congress

After nine months of contentious battles on Capitol Hill, Americans have reached a new level of disgust toward Congress that has left nearly all voters angry at their leaders and doubtful that they can fix the problems facing the country.

Whether Republican, Democrat or independent, more Americans disapprove of Congress than at any point in more than two decades of Washington Post-ABC News polling.
Just 14 percent of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, according to the latest poll. That is lower than just before the 1994, 2006 and 2010 elections, when the majority party was on the verge of losing power in the House.

For most it’s not just a casual dislike of Congress: Sixty-two percent say they “strongly disapprove” of congressional job performance. An additional 20 percent “somewhat” disapprove.

Only 3 percent of Americans said they “strongly approve” of the performance of lawmakers on Capitol Hill — essentially as low as possible, given the poll’s margin of error of four percentage points.

With Democrats running the Senate and Republicans in charge of the House, no group of voters is pleased. Just 18 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of independents and 13 percent of Republicans approve of Congress.

“Government right now, it’s so separated and so divided,” said Jason DeMello, 37, a registered Democrat in Haverhill, Mass. “As a normal, average American, it’s discouraging that these are the people leading the country.”

DeMello said he voted for Barack Obama and believes that the president needs more time to make the changes he promised, but he is losing faith in Congress.

“I remember when 9/11, that unfortunate day, you saw all the American flags hanging on houses,” he said. “And it went away. It went away so quickly. Where’s the patriotism? Everyone is out to bicker and argue instead of coming together.”

Aaron Grady, 18, of Slidell, La., said that “Congress is pretty hit-and-miss with me. A lot of the things they do are not right. And they get some things done that I can agree with.”

Grady, who is unemployed, did not name specific things that pleased or displeased him.

The public distaste for Congress follows a prolonged fight in July and August over increasing the government’s ability to borrow money. As part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, lawmakers agreed to find at least $1.2 trillion in savings or else have a comparable amount of cuts automatically made to domestic and defense spending over the next decade. A special bipartisan congressional committee is tasked with finding those savings.

That complicated arrangement, after months of private negotiations and public disputes, has left both Congress and the president politically wounded.

Obama’s overall approval rating slipped from 47 percent before the debt-ceiling debate to 42 percent now, with 54 percent disapproving of his job performance. A record low 35 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the economy.

But the president’s new jobs package, which is supported by a narrow majority of the public, has bolstered his position on the issue. He now holds a 49 to 34 percent advantage over congressional Republicans when it comes to the public’s trust on creating jobs. That is a change from September, when they were evenly split at 40 percent each.
Some Republicans said the comparison between their leaders and the president would not matter once the GOP has a presidential nominee. “I don’t think congressional approval has a whole lot of relevance,” said Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Democrats saw the latest findings as a call for bipartisan action and compromise, particularly on the deficit-reduction supercommittee.
“It underscores the importance of this committee reaching a successful conclusion in a bipartisan agreement,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the panel, said Tuesday. Asked if such a deal was possible, Van Hollen shrugged. “We’re trying,” he said.

Overall, though, the nation’s distaste for the political system is cresting, after rapidly rising in the wake of this summer’s contentious debt-ceiling debate. Congressional approval has been cut in half since March and stands below 20 percent for the first time since October 1994, just before Republicans ended four decades of Democratic rule in the House.

Almost eight in 10 adults are unhappy with the country’s political system, with four in 10 “very dissatisfied.” The dour assessment carries over to the supercommittee, charged with crafting a deal to cut the deficit by Nov. 23: Roughly three-quarters of Americans say it’s unlikely that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will agree on a deficit-reduction plan.

Compounding the problem is that majorities in virtually all demographic and political groups oppose the automatic cuts to military and domestic spending should the committee fail to pass a bill. 

As Obama and Republicans spar over how the supercommittee should cut the deficit, more than six in 10 adults in the poll support a combination of spending cuts and taxes, while about three in 10 prefer spending cuts alone.

Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on millionaires to help close the deficit enjoys wide public support — three-quarters of adults, including majorities of independents, moderates, conservatives and Republicans, back it.

Among the few groups that don’t favor such tax increases are Republicans who strongly support the tea party movement; they oppose the proposal by more than two to one.

Polling director Jon Cohen, polling manager Peyton M. Craighill and staff writer Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.