dogs Cox's gov run

Instead, the man who wants to be governor can't keep his fledgling campaign on message.

It's haunted instead by his four-week, 2003 investigation into allegations surrounding then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a supposed party at the aion gold Manoogian Mansion. That is the 2002 party that nobody's ever proved but everybody swears -- in bars, if not courtrooms -- happened. At the time, Cox pronounced it an "urban legend."

The problem is that, six years later, the legend still looms large, resurfacing just as Cox faces a crucial aion kina moment in his political career.

"I understand. It's human nature," Cox said Wednesday in a telephone interview, referring to the persistence of the rumors and allegations surrounding the aion kinah party and the 2003 shooting death of Tamara "Strawberry" Greene, the exotic dancer who supposedly danced at the party.

"Sometimes the job of the prosecutor is to say no."

The controversy re-emerged this week, after Mark Krebs, a Michigan State Police detective, gave Oct. 20 deposition testimony that raised anew questions about Cox's handling of the case. Krebs is a witness in a lawsuit filed by Greene's family against the city of Detroit and the Detroit Police Department, alleging her death wasn't properly investigated.

Missing evidence?

Six years later, Krebs' dissatisfaction with Cox and the truncated investigation, ring clear.

He suggests that Cox's lead attorney on the case, Thomas Furtaw, was pressured to speedily wrap up the investigation and distressed when it took longer than two weeks. "For somebody to tell me to hurry up, to close this out ... I thought that was unusual," Krebs says of Furtaw, who reported to Cox daily on the investigation.

Into the bulging inventory of suspicious Manoogian-related circumstances, Krebs adds the mysterious aion power leveling disappearance of a box of computer back-up tapes. He claims a box of them, swathed in yellow police tape and locked in a Detroit police vault, was "compromised" the next morning, when State Police returned to claim it. Most of the data were missing and the protective tape had been removed, Krebs said.

Krebs' concern about police irregularities, or Cox's decision to interview Kilpatrick, but not formally interrogate him, is tantalizing but inconclusive.

After weeks of investigating, including reopening the case later after the AG had signed off, Krebs can't offer a reliable witness to the party.

Instead, he describes witnesses whose credibility dissolves. He mentions characters who sound like characters in an Elmore Leonard novel, from the witness whose meticulously kept journal is never produced to a Detroit police woman who used to be a bank teller and danced topless at the Black Orchid club.

Many tantalizing details surface. Besides Greene's death, there's the sudden, fatal heart attack in 2008 that killed Furtaw, 43, eliminating one more potential witness.

Handling the fallout

Cox admits the investigation turned up problems in Kilpatrick's administration: one mayoral bodyguard was paid for 64 hours of consecutive overtime. Expenses were out of control. Bad management was rife.

Cox says: "Criminal law isn't supposed to fix problems like officials who act high-handed or to correct bad bureaucracies."

There's as much logic in the AG's argument that he didn't want to run "a six-year Kenneth Starr" investigation and that, after four weeks, all the State Police had were more whispers and rumors -- "but no evidence of a crime."

What would Cox do differently today?

"Maybe we would have interviewed Carlita Kilpatrick," he says, referring to Kilpatrick's wife, "even though there was no prosecutorial reason to do so."

Why didn't he put Kilpatrick under oath and take testimony? Or tape-record his interview with the then-mayor? "If we'd put him under oath, his testimony would have been secret," Cox said.

Was Cox doing the bidding of wealthy potential contributors to his future gubernatorial campaign?

"At the time, I was like the accidental attorney general," he says. "I don't think I met (Compuware chairman and Kilpatrick employer) Peter Karmanos (now a Cox backer) until three years ago. I was like a nobody."

Now, he's a viable candidate for governor who announced his willingness to testify under oath about his role in the case -- and his wish to make the deposition public. The judge ruled Tuesday that depositions in the case will be sealed.

The fallout from the Manoogian "party" doesn't bother him, he insists.

"If you're in political office, you have to take the heat. I'm taking it. ... I'm not really worried about the political dynamics. At the end of the day, people are going to judge me by what I've done in eight years as the attorney general."

Sparks Pistons' win Charlie Villanueva

Then the rout began. Behind red-hot Charlie Villanueva (30 points) and Ben Gordon (22 points, eight assists, no turnovers), the aion gold Pistons outscored Charlotte 29-12 in the third, taking an 81-53 lead.

"How we closed the second quarter and started the third quarter set the tone as time went on," Pistons coach John Kuester said. "The way we closed the second quarter gave us a little cushion."

Villanueva was 13-of-17 from the field, including 2-of-4 from 3-point aion kina range. He outscored the Bobcats in the third quarter, 18-12.

Said Will Bynum: "When Charlie is playing like that, it's hard to beat us because he stretches the defense and opens it up for the rest of us. It seems like he can't miss."

The Pistons (4-4) extended the lead to as many as 35 points in the fourth quarter.

"They executed, they played great and they were much more organized and played harder. They played as a team," Bobcats coach Larry Brown said. "I admired the way they played and I was embarrassed by the way that we played."

The Bobcats (3-5) were led by aion kinah ex-Piston Nazr Mohammed with 13 points.

Bynum supplied the two highlights of the evening with a pair of crowd-pleasing dunks.

In the second quarter, the 6-foot Bynum drove past aion power leveling Gerald Wallace, found a clear path to the basket, and elevated for a right-handed baseline jam over 7-foot Tyson Chandler.

These Things I Wish for You

We tried so hard to makethings better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d know better.

I'd really like for them toknow about hand-me-down clothes and home-made ice cream and leftover aion account meatloaf.I really would.

My cherished grandson, Ihope you learn humility by surviving aion money failure and that you learn to be honesteven when no one is looking.

I hope you learn to makeyour bed and mow the lawn and wash the car - and I hope nobody gives you abrand-new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at leastone time you can see a baby calf born, and you have a good friend to be withyou if you ever have to put your old aion power leveling dog to sleep.

I hope you get a black eyefighting for something you believe in. I hope you have to share a bedroom withyour younger brother. And it is all right to draw a line down the middle of theroom, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he isscared, I hope you’ll let him.

And when you want to see aDisney movie and your kid brother wants to tag along, I hope you take him. Ihope you have to walk uphill with your friends and that you live in a townwhere you can do it safely.

If you want a slingshot, Ihope your father teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope youlearn to dig in the runescape money dirt and read books, and when you learn to use computers,you also learn how to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get razzed byfriends when you have your first crush on a girl, and that when you talk backto your mother you learn what Ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your kneeclimbing a mountain, burn your hand on the stove and stick your tongue on afrozen flagpole.

I hope you get sick whensomeone blows smoke in your face. I don’t care if you try beer once, but I hopeyou won’t like it. And if a friend offers you a joint or any drugs, I hope youare smart enough to realize that this person is not your friend.

I sure hope you make timeto sit on a porch with your grandpa or go fishing with your uncle. I hope yourmother punishes you when you throw a baseball through a neighbor’s window, andthat she hugs you and kisses you when you give her a plaster of pared mold ofyour hand.

These things I wish for you-- tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness.

Thousands of Japanese protest US base plan

Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa on Sunday to demand that a US Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.

The row over the resiting of the Futenma air base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan and sour defence ties between the two aion gold countries, seen as key in a region home to China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

It could also prove a domestic headache for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose support ratings have slipped since his aion kina landslide election victory in August.

"Okinawa's future is for us, the Okinawan people to decide," Ginowan mayor Yoichi Iha told a supportive crowd which spilled out of an open-air theatre by the beach. "We cannot let America decide for us."

Organisers put the number of protesters at 21,000.

Under a 2006 US-Japan agreement, the Futenma Marine base in the centre of the city of Ginowan is set to be closed and replaced with a facility built partly on reclaimed land at Henoko, a remoter part of the island, by 2014.

The deal, which Washington wants to push through after years of what a military official called "painful" negotiations, is part of a wider plan to aion power leveling re-organise US troops and reduce the burden on Okinawa by moving up to 8,000 Marines to Guam.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged Japan to approve the plan ahead of Obama's visit, which is scheduled to start on November 12.

Emotive issue

Hatoyama, who has vowed to build a more equal relationship with the United States, said in the run-up to his August election victory the base should be moved off the island.

That view was supported by 70 percent of Okinawa residents in a poll published this month by the Mainichi newspaper.

"I think getting rid of Futenma would be a good starting point for the removal of all the US bases from Okinawa," said a 60-year-old woman at Sunday's protest, who gave her name only as Shinzato.

Okinawa, controlled by the United States until 1972, makes up only 0.6 percent of Japan's land mass, but hosts about half the US troops in Japan. Those who live near the bases complain of noise, crime, pollution and accidents.

"It's such a wonderful place. It makes no sense to build it here," said Hiroshi Ashitomi, a long-time anti-base campaigner.

Environmentalists are anxious to protect marine life including coral and rare dugongs in nearby waters.

Others have different priorities.

"Nature is important, but the primary responsibility of a politician is to protect people's lives and property," said Kosuke Gushi, a regional assemblyman with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party that signed off on the plan while in government.

He and other backers of the existing plan, including Ginowan businessmen, say they are concerned re-opening the issue will mean an indefinite delay to the closure of Futenma, where a 2004 helicopter crash added to fears over safety.

Gushi also sees the row as potentially undermining Japan's US-dependent security policy, leaving the country vulnerable.

How to Mend a Broken Friendship

Growing up across the street from each other in Twin Falls, Idaho, Lisa Fry and Paula Turner never doubted their friendship would last forever. But after Fry married, moved to New York City and had a baby, her letters to Turner suddenly went unanswered. "Do you think I've somehow offended her?" Fry asked her husband.

Turner, meanwhile, had convinced herself she was no longer important to Fry. "She's got a family now," she told herself. "We're just too different to be close like before."

Finally, Fry summoned the courage to call her old friend. At first, the conversation was awkward, yet soon they both admitted that they missed each other. A month later, they got together and quickly fell into their old habit of laughing and sharing confidences.

"Thank goodness I finally took action," Fry says. "We both realized we were as important to each other as ever."

There are good reasons to cherish our friendships. Some years ago a public-opinion research firm, Roper Starch Worldwide, asked 2007 people to identify one or two things that said the most about themselves. Friends far outranked homes, jobs, clothes and cars.

"A well-established friendship carries a long history of experience and interaction that defines who we are and keeps us connected," says Donald Pannen, executive officer of the Western Psychological Association. "It is a heritage we should protect."

Ironically, says Brant R. Burleson, professor of communication at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., "the better friends you are, the more likely you'll face conflicts." And the outcome can be precisely what you don't want--an end to the relationship.

The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. Here's what experts suggest:

Swallow your pride. It wasn't easy, but that's what Denise Moreland of Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii did when a friendship turned sour. For nearly four months, Moreland, 45, had watched over Nora Huizenga's two young daughters, who were living with their father on the base, while Huizenga, 40, completed training as a dental hygienist in Nevada. "I felt honored to be asked to step in," Moreland says.

When Huizenga returned at Christmas, Moreland recalls, "I had so much to tell her, but she never called." One daughter had a birthday party, but Moreland wasn't invited. "I felt like I'd been used," she says.

At first, Moreland vowed to avoid Huizenga. Then she decided to swallow her pride and let her friend know how she felt. Huizenga admitted that she'd been so worried about being separated from her family that she'd been blind to what her friend had done to help her. Today she says, "I would never have figured out what happened if Denise hadn't called me on it."

When a friend hurts you, your instinct is to protect yourself. But that makes it harder to patch up problems, explains William Wilmot, author of Relational Communication. "Most of us are relieved when differences are brought out in the open."

Apologize when you're wrong--even if you've also been wronged. No one should allow himself to be emotionally abused by anyone. But over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. "A relationship can grind to a standstill if the aion kina offender refuses to make the first move at reconciliation," Wilmot explains. "Under these circumstances, it may be best if the wronged person takes the initiative and apologizes--for getting upset, for not understanding the friend's circumstances. When you apologize, give your friend the opportunity to admit that he'd screwed up."

Experts agree that one of the worst things you can do when you're upset is to start a fight. "We don't think clearly when we're arguing," says Michael Lang, a professional mediator in Pittsburgh. Instead, says Lang, ask: "What's going on? This doesn't make sense."

See things from your friend's point of view. Sociologist Rebecca Adams of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Rosemary Blieszner, professor of gerontology and family studies at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, interviewed 53 adults who each had many friendships lasting decades. "We were curious how these people managed to sustain strong friendships for so long," says Blieszner.

Tolerance is key, the researchers learned. The subjects also didn't let problems get blown out of proportion. "It's surprising how often a dispute results from a simple misunderstanding," adds psychotherapist Anne Frenkel.

Accept that friendships change. In the spring of 1996, Cindy Lawson, 34, of Chicago, and a close friend decided to co-host a friend's bridal shower. The two women agreed to share the work and the cost. Then the aion kinah friend, an attorney, took a new, more demanding job. Total responsibility for the shower fell to Lawson.

On the Saturday of the shower, Lawson did all the party decorating, then prepared dinner for 35 guests. Her co-host did not arrive from her office until shortly before the event. Later her friend complained about the cost.

Lawson was furious. But deep down, she did not want to break off ties. The two women were in a book club together, had many common friends and enjoyed dinners out together with their husbands. Instead, Lawson decided to remain friends--but not close friends.

"Friendships change as our needs and lifestyles change," Wilmot observes. "It's healthy to have a host of friends and to sometimes shift the status of one or another."

Making friends can sometimes seem easy, says Yager. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that affect all relationships. Her suggestion: Consider friendship an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture.