Barca president calls early club elections

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has called club elections for the end of the season in a bid to ease the tension surrounding the embattled Catalan club.

Bartomeu took over as president a year ago after Sandro Rossell resigned following the controversial signing of Brazilian striker Neymar which led to the club being accused of tax fraud.

“I have called this press conference to say that we have called elections for the end of the season to reduce the tension that surrounds the club which I think is disproportionate and doesn’t correspond to the reality of the club,” Bartomeu said yesterday.

“It is better that the mandates are completed, but it is clear that in recent weeks the level of tension hasn’t been right. We will keep managing things as we had planned and will not change our programme.”

“We want to present ourselves for re-election. Things are positive, we started in 2010 and we want to continue.”

Former Barca president Joan Laporta, who oversaw two Champions League triumphs in his previous spell in charge of the club between 2003 and 2010, has been strongly linked with a return to the top job at the Camp Nou but is yet to formally declare himself as a candidate.

The current board’s mandate was due to run until 2016, but Bartomeu has come under fire in recent weeks after Barca’s appeal against a one-year transfer ban by FIFA for irregularities in the signing of players under the age of 16 was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

On Monday, Bartomeu sacked sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta, and former captain Carles Puyol resigned from his position as Zubizarreta’s assistant.

Barca’s turbulent start to 2015 on and off the pitch began with a shock 1-0 defeat to David Moyes’s Real Sociedad on Sunday after coach Luis Enrique had left nearly 300 million euros of talent, including Lionel Messi and Neymar, on the bench.

The two South American stars had only returned to Spain on Friday after being given two extra days’ holiday than the rest of the squad during the winter break.

Messi then sparked rumours he could leave the club he joined at the age of 13 when he missed an open training session with the club’s fans on Monday, citing a stomach bug, and then followed Chelsea players Thibaut Courtois and Flilipe Luis as well as the London club’s official account on the social networking site Instagram.

However, Bartomeu strongly denied claims in Barcelona sports daily Sport that a request from Enrique to discipline the Argentine for missing the training session had been rejected by the club.

“That story is completely false. Whoever sent it did so with the intention to damage the club.”

Bartomeu also dismissed suggestions that Messi could leave the club having signed a new contract to keep him at the Camp Nou until 2018 in May.

“Messi had a contract until 2018. He is happy and content, so we are calm.”

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Barca president calls early club elections

Maryland delays effort to recoup $55M for failed ObamaCare site - VIDEO: ObamaCare reportedly fading as midterm issue - Full Coverage: Midterm elections

FILE: Oct. 2, 2013: A man looks over the Affordable Care Act signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York. (REUTERS)

Maryland officials reportedly have agreed to delay court action seeking $55 million from the primary contractor for the state’s problematic ObamaCare website.

Officials from Maryland’s health care exchange in April fired the contractor, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, and vowed to seek court actions to recoup the money.

Both sides have struck a temporary deal so state officials can focus on the second year of ObamaCare enrollment that starts Nov. 15, according to The Baltimore Sun.  

A spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley told The Sun that officials are still “evaluating claims that we may pursue in litigation.”

The first ObamaCare enrollment, on Oct. 1, 2013, got off to a disastrous start, marked by an overwhelming public response that crashed the federal site, HealthCare.gov, and several state-run sites.

President Obama, angry and “frustrated” by the start of arguably his biggest legislative accomplishment, made sure the software problems were essentially fixed after the first several weeks by hiring industry experts to work around the clock to write better computer code and fix software bugs.

But at least two state-run sites — Maryland and Oregon’s — had to scrap their failed, multi-million dollar, online projects.

Oregon has moved online customers to the federal site after software bugs and other technical problems kept the state from fully enrolling a single customer online.

The problems and transition is estimated to cost state and federal taxpayers at least an additional $85 million — including $50 million to manually enroll thousands of customers and $35 million to Deloitte Consulting to salvage the faulty technology.

Maryland officials have decided to replace their technology, instead of fixing the system or like Oregon joining the federal exchange system.

They have hired Deloitte Consulting, which has successfully run the Connecticut exchange. The effort is expected to cost $43 million.

The decision also comes just weeks before Election Day for Democratic nominee for governor Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who was O’Malley’s point man for ObamaCare.

Maryland and contractor Noridian have blamed each other and subcontractors, including IBM, for the problems.

The decision to delay action also came amid an ongoing inspector general’s probe, which was requested in February by Maryland GOP Rep. Andy Harris.

“Millions of dollars were wasted because of a lack of oversight by Lieutenant Governor Brown, and now the state must try to recoup some of the money he allowed to be sent to companies who couldn’t deliver,” Harris told The Sun. “The federal investigation should provide critical information about how taxpayer dollars were wasted and whether fraud occurred.”

Justin Schall, Brown’s campaign manager, said: “It’s disappointing that congressman Harris would mislead the people of Maryland and play political games with a federal investigation.”

Thirty-six states are part of the federal exchange, and there are 14 state-run sites.

The president crafted the legislation to help an estimated 30 million uninsured Americans get coverage.

The administration reached its goal of enrolling 6 million people by its self-imposed March 31 deadline. And right now, 7.3 million people have enrolled in marketplace plans, paid their premiums and have access to insurance, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Maryland delays effort to recoup $55M for failed ObamaCare site - VIDEO: ObamaCare reportedly fading as midterm issue - Full Coverage: Midterm elections

Porn scandal involving former staff puts Pa. governor on defense in already-tough race - VIDEO: Porn scandal puts Pa. gov on defense - Senate races trending GOP in battleground states - Full Coverage: Midterm Elections

Porn scandal involving former staff puts Pa. governor on defense in already-tough race - VIDEO: Porn scandal puts Pa. gov on defense - Senate races trending GOP in battleground states - Full Coverage: Midterm Elections

Romeo’s People’s Democratic Movement romps home in Montserrat elections

BRADES, Montserrat, Friday September 12, 2014, CMC – The People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) has won a convincing victory in the general elections held here on Thursday, according to the preliminary results released on Friday.

The party, headed by businessman Donaldson Romeo, trounced the incumbent Movement for Change and Prosperity (MCAP) of outgoing premier Reuben T Meade, winning seven of the nine seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Romeo, who polled 1,695 votes, thanked the electorate for the”clear and convincing” victory, saying he was confident the promises outlined in the party’s manifesto would be met.

“I believe that once Montserratians are united, on island, off island, there is nothing in that manifesto that we cannot do. I expect us to do even more,” he said, adding that he would continue to “put people first.

“It is just a matter of leading a team and encouraging our nation to be of that mentality and I don’t think that is going to be difficult because they (population) have already spoken and responded to the agenda.

“Once we put people first, once we agree on everything that is important to making Montserrat a prosperous and self sustaining nation it will happen,” he added.
Meade who polled 1,140, conceded defeat, extending congratulations to the PDM for a “very clear election victory.

”Both parties have worked hard. I would like to thank all the persons who supported both PDM and MCAP and also the independents. It was an interesting election campaign and clearly one team had to win and PDM won and again my heartiest congratulations to the entire team,” he said.

Among those suffering defeat were former government ministers Colin Riley and Charles Kirnon. They received 866 and 1,070 votes respectively.

Preliminary figures released by the Montserrat Election Commission show the PDM winning 50.1 per cent of the votes to MCAP’s 35.3 per cent.

Each voter on Montserrat can vote for all candidates on the ballot paper in the island’s single-constituency system. There were 3,866 registered voters with 2,750 exercising their mandate, a turnout of 71 per cent.

The Electoral Commission said 31 candidates contested the nine seats, including the newly formed three-candidate group called the Alliance of Independent Candidates (AIC) led by former chief minister Dr Lowell Lewis. The group received just 4.1 per cent of the votes cast.

The 10 other candidates ran as stand-alone independents and collectively garnered 10.4 per cent of the votes cast.

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Romeo’s People’s Democratic Movement romps home in Montserrat elections