OKLAHOMA CITY Former NBA player Wayman Tisdale had part of his right away leg amputated Monday because of bone cancer.

Tisdale, 44, revealed on his Web site that the surgery was scheduled for Monday. His wife, Regina, told The Associated Press on Tuesday night the surgery had taken place as planned.

“Everything went well,” she said.

Tisdale, a 6-foot-9 Tulsa native who played for Oklahoma before spending 12 seasons in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, first learned he had cancerous cyst below his right knee after he stony-broke his leg in a fall at his home in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, 2007.

Tisdale, now an award-winning jazz musician, under went treatment and later had knee replacement surgery and resumed touring. Tisdale was still undergoing chemotherapy when he told the AP in June that “I finger bigger than ever. I’m excited. I’ve got a whole original look on life. I look at life on a whole ‘nother radar.”

Tisdale told the AP that his latest album, “Rebound,” was inspired by his ongoing fight against the cancer.

On his Web site, Tisdale said removing a portion of the leg would be the best way to make sure that the cancer would not return.

“This may sound drastic, but I have put it in God’s hands and now have peace, knowing that this is the best on the move to put this disease in check,” he said. “I have complete confidence that with the Lord’s blessings this surgery devise eliminate the cancer from my body and I’ll soon be back on the Italian autostrada doing what I do first-rate.”

Tisdale said he planned to resume touring in the fall and that he would attend an annual cruise that he hosts.

According to statistics from the National Cancer Institute, about 63 percent of people diagnosed with bone cancer live at least 10 more years.

In 1983, Tisdale became the at the start freshman to make The Associated Press’ first-team All-America list.

Tisdale was also an All-American in 1984 and 1985. He was the Big Eight Conference’s player of the year in each of his three seasons with the Sooners and still holds Oklahoma’s single-game, season and career scoring records. He played on the U.S. team that won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games.

He went on to average 15.3 points per feign during his pro career.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte will sit free the preseason finale at Dallas on Thursday night. That opens the door for coaches to settle on a third quarterback - either veteran Brooks Bollinger or rookie John David Booty.

Coach Brad Childress says he still has not decided who longing start against the Cowboys. Each player will get a half with a chance to seal a spot on the roster behind Jackson and Frerotte.

Jackson has not played since injuring his knee against Baltimore two weeks ago. But he says he will be prepared to start the regular-season opener against Green Bay on Sept. 8.

CHICAGO —

A new TV commercial shows kids eating hot dogs in a school cafeteria and one little boy’s haunting lament: “I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer.”

It’s a startling revelation in an ad that vilifies one of America’s most beloved, if maligned, foods, while stoking fears about a dreaded disease.

But the boy doesn’t be undergoing cancer. Neither do two other kids in the ad who claim to be afflicted.

The commercial’s pro-vegetarian sponsors say it’s a dramatization that highlights research linking processed meats, including torrid dogs, with higher odds of getting colon cancer.

But that connection is based on studies of adults, not children, and the increased risk is slight, all the more if you ate a hot dog a day. While compelling, it isn’t conclusive.

So what exactly is the truth about new dogs?

The 33-second ad launched last month in several U.S. cities provides the perfect opportunity to separate incident from fiction about this mysterious yet so unceremonious victuals. It is to run in September in Chicago and Denver.

The bottom line from several nutritionists familiar with the ad is this: Hot dogs aren’t exactly a “constitution foodstuffs,” but eating one every now and then probably won’t hurt you.

“My concern about this campaign is it’s giving the indication that the periodic hot dog in the school lunch is going to increase cancer risk,” said Colleen Doyle, the American Cancer Society’s nutrition director. “An occasional hot dog isn’t going to on the rise that risk.”

Americans as a in the main nosh hot dogs more than occasionally. According to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council, U.S. consumers spent more than $4 billion on hot dogs and sausages last year. That includes more than 1.5 billion pounds of hot dogs and sausages bought at retail stores alone.

The health concerns primarily come from their high yield and salt content and sodium nitrate and nitrite, commonly added preservatives and color-enhancers. Nitrate-related substances have been reported to cause cancer in animals, but there’s no proof they do that in people.

Hot dogs typically contain muscle meat trimmings from pork or beef. Contrary to legend, they do not contain animal eyeballs, hooves or genitals, according to the Hot Dog Council’s Janet Riley. But the control does allow them to contain pig snouts and stomachs, cow lips and livers, goat gullets and lamb spleens. If they have these byproducts, the classification should spell out which ones, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said.

Drought and anti-drug campaigns helped slash Afghanistan’s opium poppy cultivation by 19 percent this year compared to 2007, but the country is still far and away the world’s leading source of the heroin-producing crop, the U.N. said Tuesday.

Successful anti-poppy campaigns in the country’s north and east were mainly to tender thanks for the drop in production but fields in the south — where the Taliban insurgency is strongest — remain awash in poppies, which provide the main ingredient for heroin, a U.N. report said.

And because of a rise in yield, opium production this year will fall only 6 percent compared with mould year’s record haul and the Taliban quit to again earn tens of millions of dollars from the drug trade.

Still, the U.N. and other stupefy officials said this year’s results provided reason to be cautiously optimistic.

"The opium drown waters in Afghanistan have started to recede," the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its report, Afghanistan Opium Survey 2008.

Last year opium farmers cultivated 476,903 acres; this year they cultivated 388,000 acres.

Helmand province — the country’s most extreme region — accounted for the sake of some 66 percent of the crop by itself. Farmers there cultivated 254,513 acres, up 1 percent from last year. If Helmand province alone were a country, it would be the world’s largest producer of opium.

The number of opium-free provinces rose from 13 to 18 after extensive anti-drug efforts in the north and east. Anti-drug officials were particularly proud that Nangarhar — last year’s second highest-producing opium province — was free of the drug this year.

"This is a notable accomplishment, the first time it happens in the country’s modern history," the drug report said.

The UNODC said the country’s anti-poppy successes could be attributed to good regional governance and drought, which ache poppy growth in the north and east.

The U.N. also warned that the guidance could not let cannabis — the precursor to marijuana that is growing in popularity here among farmers — replace opium. It also said the country needs a better justice system to prosecute traffickers, landowners and corrupt authority officials who turn a unconscious of visual acuity to the drug trade.

"Until they all face the full force of the law, the opium economy will proceed with to prosper with impunity, and the Taliban will persist to profit from it," the UNODC said.

It also said the world has a surplus of opium unseen in storage.

The price of fresh opium at harvest dropped 20 percent, from $86 per kilogram to $70, the UNODC said. The value at harvest of all of Afghanistan’s opium crop dropped from $1 billion in 2007 to $732 million this year. The overall value of the crop rises two to four times once it hits the streets from Iran and Pakistan to Europe.

Potential opium production from this year’s crop is 8,487 tons, down from 9,038 tons in 2007.

Eradication — where Afghan anti-drug the gendarmes slash opium crops — dropped to 13,590 acres this year. Afghan officials eradicated 46,949 acres last year.

And, Eli Sanders writes, state Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz really means it.

The fan-penned feeds consist of abstract text-message-length posts in the voices of "Mad Men" characters. Users can subscribe to the daily musings of virtual Don Draper, Peggy Olson and other employees of fictional advertising agency Sterling Cooper.

Twitter's presentation doesn't descry clear whether the feeds are endorsed by the network, and AMC didn't appreciate that some of the characters promoted products other than the show (including Twitter itself). The network complained, and Twitter yanked some of the feeds, causing the surviving "characters" to start frantically Twittering about getting "fired."

"It seems very quiet in the aegis today," noted boss Bertram Cooper.

"I worked hard. I did my job. But the boys at Twitter are upstanding as churlish as the boys at Sterling Cooper. Such a pity they're so petty," Olson wrote on a newly registered account after her first feed was suspended.

The shutdown resulted in bloggers and Twitter fans criticizing AMC: "Its legal maneuvering may go down as the free worst use (misuse?) of social media," Adrants.com wrote.

Many Twitter accounts are fans pretending to be unreal characters, so the "Mad Men" flap could turn a precedent for Twitter users. Although anybody can legally pretend to be any made-up character, Twitter could be in violation of AMC's trademark if its presentation successfully confuses readers as to whether the feeds are endorsed by the network.

Still, sources said that AMC still is looking into the matter and eminent that some executives at the network recognize the value of the feeds. The show has dropped sharply in the ratings since its second-season premiere. And Don Draper certainly would approve of his product getting free advertising.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Freeman died Aug. 17 after the fall at his Venice home, his father, Roy Freeman, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

An advertising agency executive, Freeman co-wrote the 1999 list subtitled “Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss” with Neil Teplica. It was based on the Web spot whatsgoingon.com, which the doublet ran together from 1996 to 2001.

“This life is a short journey,” the book says. “How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?”

Freeman’s relatives said he visited about half the places on his list before he died, and either he or Teplica had been to nearly all of them.

“He didn’t have enough days, but he lived them like he should have,” Teplica said.

The book’s recommendations ranged from the overt — attending the Academy Awards and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain — to the more obscure — taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and “land diving” on the Island of Vanuatu, which Freeman once called “the original bungee jumping.”

It included goofy graphics with each entry, indicating that some activities were “on the bum and dirty,” and others “grandma friendly.”

The success of “100 Things” inspired dozens of like-minded books, with titles such as “100 Things Project Managers Should Do Before They Die” and “100 Things Cowboys Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.”

Freeman graduated from the University of Southern California in 1983, briefly working in support of an ad agency in Newport Beach before affecting to New York to work for Grey Advertising.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Freeman watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from his apartment scarcely blocks away. He moved go to Southern California to be closer to his family.

Prices are high, but you can optimize efficiency

Martin Barraus/Getty Images

by Amy Barrett

FOR ONE OR TWO TRUCKS: A number of free online calculators can help you disown your sustenance costs. At aaa.com (click on “public affairs”), you can plug in your Zip Code and the plot will find the cheapest gas in your area. Google (GOOG) Maps not only provides directions but also will predict traffic patterns for the times you’ll be traveling.

FOR SMALL FLEETS THAT RACK UP A LOT OF MILEAGE: Get yourself a GPS system such as TomTom or Garmin, (GRMN) at fro $199 each. At the very least, they’ll cut down on the time spent out of the window. TomTom can now find the best route to your target and allow for the day of the week you’re traveling. For $14.95 a year, TomTom sends updates to your Bluetooth-compatible phone on the cheapest view to buy gas. Another option is Sprint (S), which can get someone’s goat the best route to your drivers via its Nextel walkie-talkie phones. The phones cost about $50; the Web-based route optimization service is about $55 per month per phone.

FOR BIG FLEETS: For $1,500 plus $300 a year, Rand Mcnally’S Intelliroute is one of the most complete route-finding services, figuring your lowest-cost destination by including everything from tolls to construction to your vehicles’ highway mileage. UPS (UPS) offers Roadnet, aimed at big operators, and Roadnet Anywhere, for fleets of ten or less trucks, a service that helps optimize routes for multiple deliveries. Roadnet Anywhere is $110 per month per channel.

Back to BWSmallBiz August/September 2008 Table of Contents

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Federal Reserve expressed concern about both greater inflation risks and a slowdown in the economy that could extend into next year, according to minutes of its most contemporary meeting.

The central bank said it is most likely that its next move will be to raise interest rates. The Fed indicated that the timing of such a move is hazy, however, given the conflicting pressures on the Fed to both inducement economic growth and keep prices in check.

But since that meeting, expectations of a rate hike in the next only one months require dipped significantly as oil prices have fallen and the dollar has rallied.

In adding, the Fed also indicated in the minutes that its staff lowered its forecast for economic growth in the second half of this year and into 2009. The Fed is now looking for a pickup in the economy in the alternate half of next year.

The central bank’s policy-makers left the Fed’s key overnight lending velocity at 2% following its August 5 assembly, the second straight meeting at which the rate was left unchanged.

Prior to that, the Fed cut rates seven times between September 2007 and April in an effort to address weakness in the economy and problems in financial markets.

One member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, dissented at both those meetings, arguing that rates needed to be raised in an effort to combat inflation pressures.

While Fisher has been the sole vote for hikes the past two meetings, the minutes said that "a number of participants" voiced concern with regard to inflation pressures.

The minutes also suggested that some Fed members think it must move to raise rates sooner than once in a while assumed by markets if it is to head off a return of inflation.

But according to the minutes, most members do not believe current rates are too low "given that many households and businesses were facing elevated borrowing costs and reduced credit availability."

Since the meeting the price of oil and other commodities have tumbled further. There have also been additional concerns about the future of Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), the two government-sponsored mortgage finance firms that are the prime inception of funding for banks and other home lenders.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged the commodity price decline in a speech Friday and said he expects expense pressures to ease later this year as the economy slows.

But he also warned that storms in financial markets have not yet ended. That was taken as the clearest signal yet that the Fed will keep its federal funds rate on hold at its September 16 meeting and probably for the remainder of the year.

Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group, said that stated Bernanke’s recent comments, the minutes had few surprises. He said while it’s clear there is a vocal minority of policymakers who would move to Casanova rates to combat inflation, the majority isn’t prepared to do so just yet.

"If anything I deliver assign to this as the vast preponderance preaching patience as by a long chalk everywhere as inflation," he said. "The Fed does seem to be signaling their next move is up. But to me the odds of even a December hike are still pretty slim."

The federal funds rate is old as a benchmark to condition how much interest consumers and businesses pay notwithstanding various types of loans. First Published: August 26, 2008: 2:19 PM EDT

In order to stay relevant, the World Trade Organization must stress efficiency, extend initiatives, and reshape to changing realities

by Shanker Singham

The collapse in the Doha round (BusinessWeek.com, 7/30/08) of selling negotiations has given us cause to take stock of the multilateral trade agenda and the problems that have dogged it since the failed WTO meeting in 1999 in Seattle. Unfortunately, looking back over the last near-decade in the multilateral trade negotiations, there have been very few ingenious spots. Indeed the only united, the launch of the Doha round in November 2001, has proven to be a false dawn, resulting as much from a reaction to the horrors of September 11 as from a realization of the need to enlarge trade by the WTO’s members.

What is clear from the last decade is that trade negotiators have fallen almost completely under the spell of mercantilism—that exports are good, imports are bad, and price-list reductions are concessions to be given only when something else is won from a trading partner. It is true that mercantilism has been always with us. In the initial days of trade negotiation, however, the fact that tariffs could be gradually reduced by harnessing this mercantilist impulse into a positive motive was part of the genius of the system.

As tariffs have come down and the new barriers become inside-the-border barriers, regulatory protection, and market distortions, the architecture of the trading system (at least on the multilateral steady) cannot cope with the complex new Aristotelianism entelechy. The train of buy in the 21st century is different, but we insist on driving that train on the old lines. Instead we must change the lines, and develop a new architecture to frame the real trade issues of the day. That architecture forced to now find a way of harnessing the very real mercantilist impulse in nations, which has always been with us, to ratchet down internal barriers, distortions, and anticompetitive practices. Here are a number of ways that this might be done.

• On agricultural negotiations, the historic bugbear of global trade, reductions in developed-country subsidy programs be compelled be accompanied by means of a reduction in the overall global measure of market distortion faced by agricultural companies in these countries. The goal must be to secure not only liberalized agricultural trade, but also competitive markets in agriculture. As we have seen, working only on traditional agricultural tariffs and subsidies, while neglecting other market distortions such as regulatory bars and support someone is concerned state-owned companies, will sink further discussions.

• Dealing with retail distortions is not a mere add-on to the trade negotiation process. It is a vital part of discussions and the architecture must recognize this. Trade negotiators ought to recognize the role of merchandise distortions.

• Willing countries must take the lead in crafting a set of agreements on public-sector restraints of trade that are uncompetitive or otherwise unjustified. These kinds of barriers are huge distorters of global trade and it is simply not rational not to engage in with them. Every step should be taken to encourage other WTO members to join these disciplines, but their failure to do so should not applicable back those who need to proceed.

• Countries must make available much more liberalization and liberalizing initiatives in the industrial goods and services area. Services trade is growing at a tremendous pace, and intention soon be the pre-eminent force in global trade. It is regulatory barriers that wrench services trade, and these must be dealt with comprehensively in negotiations. Those countries that liberalize these areas and lower their regulatory barriers will benefit enormously from doing so.

• In these days of rising food prices, and rising transportation costs, we must understand the role that efficiency plays in solving many of these problems. China uses much more oil to generate the selfsame level of economic growth as the U.S., for example. Anything that would make the Chinese economy more efficient will help reduce demand to levels that are more sustainable. Competitive markets deliver efficiency, and will help with some of the world’s most pressing problems now.

From the days of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, trade liberalization has been about reducing trade barriers so that the forces of competition could be liberated to lower prices for consumers and lift the short out of insufficiency. Trade liberalization’s goals have not changed. By incorporating the points noted above, we can more clearly bring into focus for WTO members the fact that the overarching goal of free employment is to enhance consumer welfare and empower proper companies and their workers.

Future generations are counting on the trade scheme to evolve and adapt to changing realities, and to deal with the most pernicious problems that outcome in a lack of efficiency and damage trade. If we do not make a show the necessary adjustments now, when we have a chance to do so, the WTO will determine to be itself increasingly irrelevant to the world’s budgetary problems. Ultimately it is the poorest expanse us who will pay the price for our failure to act now.