Serena fined $10,000 for tirade at line judge

Defending champ's loss to Clijsters ends when she yells at official

NEW YORK - Serena Williams was fined $10,000 Sunday for a profanity-laced tirade directed at a U.S. Open line judge, and an investigation is under way to determine whether there should be additional punishment.

The
$10,000 penalty — not quite 3 percent of the $350,000 in prize money
Williams earned by reaching the semifinals at Flushing Meadows — is the
maximum on-site fine that can be issued for unsportsmanlike conduct at
a Grand Slam tournament.
The U.S. Open said in a statement that the Grand Slam Committee Administrator will “determine if the behavior of Ms. Williams
warrants consideration as a major offense for which additional
penalties canbeimposed
Williams,
who was the defending champion, also was docked $500 for smashing her
racket after the first set of what became a 6-4, 7-5 loss to Kim
Clijsters on Saturday night.

Two
points from losing in the second set, Williams faulted at 5-6, 15-30.
On her second serve there, the line judge called a foot fault, making
it 15-40 and giving Clijsters a match point. Williams began berating
the line judge and a penalty point was awarded to Clijsters; because it
happened to come on match point, it ended the semifinal.

“Last
night, everyone could truly see the passion I have for my job. Now that
I have had time to gain my composure, I can see that while I don’t
agree with the unfair line call, in the heat of battle I let my passion
and emotion get the better of me and as a result handled the situation
poorly,” Williams said in a statement released Sunday by a public
relations firm.

“I
would like to thank my fans and supporters for understanding that I am
human and I look forward to continuing the journey, both professionally
and personally, with you all as I move forward and grow from this
experience.”

 

Wilson: No second apology for ‘You lie’ words

Democratic leaders are demanding he apologize on the House floor

WASHINGTON
- One apology is enough, a digging-in-his heels Rep. Joe Wilson said
Sunday, challenging Democratic leaders who want him to say on the House
floor that he's sorry for yelling "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's health care speech to Congress.

The
leadership plans to propose a resolution of disapproval this week if
the South Carolina Republican doesn't publicly apologize to Congress.
Such a measure would put lawmakers on the record as condemning those
two words, uttered during last Wednesday's prime-time speech, that have
become a fundraising boon for the defiant Wilson and his Democratic
challenger.

Wilson
said a resolution would show that Democrats simply wanted to play
politics and divert attention from a health care overhaul that is
lagging in Congress.

"I
am not going to apologize again. I apologized to the president on
Wednesday night. I was advised then that, 'Thank you, now let's get on
to a civil discussion of the issues,'" Wilson said. "I've apologized
one time. The apology was accepted by the president, by the vice
president, who I know. I am not apologizing again."

‘See this matter end’
In
an interview taped Friday and broadcast Sunday evening, Obama said he
accepted and appreciated Wilson's apology, which was delivered through White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Obama said he preferred to move past the incident and focus on the
broad health care overhaul that took him to the Capitol in
thefirstplace.

"See,
this is part of what happens. I mean, it just - it becomes a big circus
instead of us focusing on health care," a laughing Obama told CBS' "60
Minutes."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the shouting was inappropriate.

"Well,
there's a time and a place for everything, and that was not the time or
the place for that kind of comment," he said. "This is not the time to
be demonizing anybody, calling anybody names on either side. This is a
time to try to work together to solve a practical problem. And we stand
ready to do that if the president will meet us halfway."

Sen.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., defended Wilson at a town hall meeting in
Columbia, S.C., in Wilson's district. "Joe made a mistake, but the
president's speech was awful," Graham said.

"Joe
was right about his concerns," Graham said to cheers from a crowd of
about 1,200. He called Obama's plans for paying for the program "phony
baloney."

‘Coarsening of our political dialogue’

Obama
described what he said was "a coarsening of our political dialogue"
where "the loudest, shrillest voices get the most attention" in a
nonstop news cycle.

"I
think we're debating something that has always been a source of
controversy, and that's not just health care, but also the structure
and the size and the role of government," Obama said. "That's something
that basically defines the left and the right in this country. And so,
extremes on both sides get very agitated about that issue."

Democratic
leaders decided Thursday they would move forward with a resolution of
disapproval unless Wilson — a conservative who won a 2001 special
election to earn a seat in Congress — make a public apology for
shouting after Obama said illegal immigrants would not be eligible for
low-cost health care.

The
Democratic proposals on health explicitly prohibit spending any federal
money to help illegal immigrants get health care. Still, Republicans
say there aren't sufficient citizenship verification requirements to
ensure illegal immigrants are excluded.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Minnesota Republican who might seek the White House in 2012, said Wilson's concern is valid.

"Even
if you have language that says illegal immigrants will not be a part of
this program, unless you have the enforcement mechanism in place, it
doesn't mean much," Pawlenty said. "In Minnesota, we have laws that say
illegal immigrants won't get many services, but unless somebody
actually checks — guess what — they show up and they get the services."

A spokesman for House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio said it's time to move on.

‘I will not be muzzled’
Wilson
said he allowed emotions to get away from him and compared his outburst
to the outbursts that dominated coverage of August's town hall
meetings, when members of Congress were on the receiving end of
screaming and shouting over the health care proposals.

 

Track star's father outraged at hermaphrodite reports

By theGrio via AP

2:55 PM on 09/11/2009
CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- Gender tests on running sensation Caster Semenya
determined she has internal male sexual organs, Australian newspapers
reported Friday, triggering new outrage from South Africa and her
father, who called her critics "crazy" and "sick."
The
International Association of Athletics Federations, which ordered the
testing, refused to confirm or deny the reports in the Sydney Daily
Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald that Semenya is a hermaphrodite
with no ovaries and internal testes that produce large amounts of
testosterone.
The IAAF said it is reviewing the test results on the 18-year-old runner and will not issue a final decision until November.
South
African Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile expressed his horror at the
handling of the affair and insisted Caster, who won the 800-meter race
at the world championships in Berlin last month, is female.
"We
think her human rights have been violated and her privacy invaded,"
Stofile said. "I don't know why she is being subjected to this."
Semenya
dropped out of sight Friday. The South African Press Association quoted
her coach, Michael Seme, as saying she would not take part in a women's
4,000-meter race at the South African Cross Country Championships in
Pretoria on Saturday because she was "not feeling well." Seme had said
earlier in the week that she would run.
She
had burst onto the scene by posting a world-leading time of 1 minute,
56.72 seconds at the African junior championships, and in July, the
international federation asked South African track and field
authorities to conduct the gender verification test.
Semenya won the
800 in Berlin on Aug. 19 by 2.45 seconds in a world-record 1:55.45, but
her dramatic improvement in times, muscular build and deep voice
sparked speculation about her gender.
Stofile
said that with the world being told that she is a hermaphrodite,
another youngster might be driven to commit suicide, adding: "It can be
as bad as that."
International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said the case could have serious psychological repercussions.
"This
is something that touches the very soul of the individual," Rogge told
The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The psychological but
also social consequences are really tremendous. This is something that
preferably should be handled discreetly if you have the time to do
that."
Semenya
has said she is happy the way she is and appeared on the cover of a
South African magazine earlier this week wearing makeup, gold jewelry
and a dress.

Semenya's
father, Jacob, expressed anger when contacted by the AP on Friday,
saying people who insinuate his daughter is not a woman "are sick. They
are crazy."
He said he had not been told anything by the IAAF or Athletics South Africa, the local governing body. "I know nothing," he said.
South African President Jacob Zuma condemned the media, saying they had exploited Semenya.
"I don't think we should play around with people's lives and their privacy," he said.
Stofile, speaking at a news conference, said he has no doubts about Semenya's gender.
"She's a woman, she remains our heroine. We must protect her," he said.
Ordinary South Africans shared the outrage.
"I
think it is disgusting, the way it has been handled," said Richard
Redman, 25, a film student in Johannesburg. "It shouldn't have been
made public because the girl is 18 years old. ... How is she going to
handle that? She may think of killing herself. She has lived her whole
life as a woman and now she is told she is a bit of both."
Fiona Dube, a 22-year-old, waitress, said: "I pity her because of the way she found out. I think her privacy has been invaded."
At a news conference in Greece on Friday, IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss, IAAF vice president Sergei Bubka and other association officials refused to comment.
"We would like to emphasize that these should not be considered as official statements by the IAAF," according to a statement the IAAF officials distributed. "We can officially confirm that gender
verification test results will be examined by a group of medical
experts."
Proving
one's gender isn't always so easy. Aside from the obvious physical
signs, chromosomes usually determine whether a person is male or
female. Males are born with XY chromosomes, while females have two X
chromosomes.
These people may have the physical characteristics of both genders, a chromosomal disorder, or simply have ambiguous features.
In an e-mail to the AP, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said Thursday the IAAF had obtained the results but couldn't confirm the Australian reports.
The IAAF has said Semenya probably would keep her medal because the case was not related to a doping matter.
Leonard Chuene, the president of Athletics South Africa, told the AP that all he has heard from the IAAF is that the test results will be available in November.
___
Associated
Press writers Stephen Wilson in London, Nkemeleng Nkosi in
Johannesburg, Courtney Brooks in Kleinmond, South Africa and Costas
Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece, contributed to this report.It's a watershed moment that requires courage and leadership.