Notebook: Thompson impressed With Obama - Green Bay Press Gazette

Latest updated news about Notebook: Thompson  impressed  With Obama from Green Bay Press Gazette
CLEVELAND — The Green Bay Packers’ brief time inside the halls of power on Friday included a glimpse of just how busy a man President Barack Obama is.

Before and during the ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn to celebrate the Packers’ Super Bowl win last February, the team’s traveling party spent 15 minutes, at most, with the president. Team president Mark Murphy, General Manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy met privately with the president for about three minutes before Obama’s speech, and then walked to the podium on the South Lawn with him. After the speech the president shook hands with every member of the team’s approximately 150-person traveling party.

“Intimidating in a way,” said Thompson in describing being inside the White House and on the South Lawn. “You know there’s serious business being taken up, and the president’s an unbelievably busy guy, every minute of his day is accounted for. I certainly think the team, the organization and the players got a kick out of it and knew they were able to do something really special.”

Thompson said Obama’s brief conversation with him, Muprhy and McCarthy essentially consisted of the president congratulating them on winning the Super Bowl, and them saying thank you.

“I was very impressed with him as a person,” Thompson said. “He looks you right in the eye, he listens. I know he has to be a politician, but I can see why people like him when they meet him. I was impressed with him.”

The Packers weren’t able to visit the White House in May or June, when most Super Bowl winners do, because the NFL owners lockout prohibited contact between teams and players. If the Packers had visited in the spring, they also probably would have visited the Supreme Court. Apparently the court’s chief justice, John Roberts, is a big Packers fan even though he was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and grew up in Indiana.

“I know he called to offer to bring us to the Supreme Court and let us sit on the (bench) and all that,” Thompson said. “And there are other things you’d like to do, so you schedule a couple-day trip, and take everybody, including guys (who signed) with other teams. But it wasn’t to be.”

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When the lockout ended, the Packers offered the White House several dates to visit, but Friday was the only one that fit with the president’s schedule. The Packers had to cancel a practice McCarthy had scheduled for Friday.

When asked if he’s concerned about the missed practice and the detour in the team’s traveling schedule, Thompson said: “I don’t think so. But we’ve about put (the Super Bowl) to bed, quite frankly. This was important enough for us to make the effort. We appreciate the White House making the effort, because it’s not easy for them to schedule something like this.”

Saturday night scratches

Cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Sam Shields, and tight end Jermichael Finley were among the 11 Packers players scratched from Saturday night’s game. Woodson by all appearances was healthy and getting the night off to avoid injury and allow other players more time on the field. Shields injured his hip Thursday night in practice, and Finley has been out with a glute injury.

The other scratches were because of injuries: receiver Brett Swain (hamstring), halfback Alex Green (hamstring), safety Brandon Underwood (knee), cornerback Davon House (hamstring), linebacker Diyral Briggs, defensive end Chris Donaldson (shoulder), guard Adrian Battles (Achilles), tackle Chris Campbell (shoulder).

Cleveland’s scratches included two possible starters, safety Usama Young and weak-side linebacker Chris Gocong.

Lineup notes

Frank Zombo started at right outside linebacker ahead of Erik Walden and played both series with the No. 1 defense.

With Woodson not playing and Shields unavailable, the Packers’ starting cornerbacks were Tramon Williams and Jarrett Bush. Pat Lee was the third cornerback in the nickel. With the No. 2 defense, Bush and Lee played in the base personnel, and Josh Gordy was the No. 3 cornerback in the nickel.

The No. 2 offensive line consisted of Derek Sherrod at left tackle, T.J. Lang at left guard, Nick McDonald at center, Caleb Schlauderaff at right guard and Marshall Newhouse at right tackle.

Hiroshima Remembers Bombing Amid Nuclear Crisis - CTV.ca

 Hot news about Hiroshima Remembers Bombing Amid Nuclear Crisis from CTV.ca
Against the backdrop of the Atomic Bomb Dome, paper lanterns float down along Motoyasu River at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. (AP / Koji Sasahara)

HIROSHIMA, Japan — The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday marked the 66th anniversary of the bombing, as the nation fights a different kind of disaster from atomic technology -- a nuclear plant in a meltdown crisis after being hit by a tsunami.

The site of the world's first A-bomb attack observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. Saturday (2315 GMT Friday) -- the time the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, by the United States in the last stages of World War II.

The bomb destroyed most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. A second atomic bombing Aug. 9 that year in Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted the Japanese to surrender.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday laid a wreath of yellow flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and reiterated Japan's promise to never repeat the horrors of Hiroshima, whose suffering continues today because of illnesses passed down over generations.

Japan has long vowed never to make or possess nuclear weapons, but embraced nuclear power as it aimed to rebuild and modernize after the war.

Crowds of people clutching Buddhist prayer beads bowed their heads Saturday in commemorating the dead as pigeons were released during the solemn gathering repeated every year before the skeletal dome of a bomb-ravaged building.

The prime minister, in his speech, also touched on Japan's more recent nuclear catastrophe at the northeastern Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, where a massive tsunami set off by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11 knocked out backup generators that powered the plant's cooling mechanisms.

Kan repeated a promise to embrace renewable energy and rely less on nuclear power.

"Japan is also working to revise its energy policy from scratch," Kan said. "I deeply regret believing in the security myth of nuclear power."

Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui stopped short of calling for a nation without nuclear power while retierating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons.

But he acknowledged that the trust people had in the safety of nuclear power had been damaged.

"Some seek to abandon nuclear power altogether with the belief that Mankind cannot co-exist with nuclear energy, while others demand stricter regulation of nuclear power and more renewable energy," he said.