New Deal

LONDON -- In a new effort to attack what he called the "something-for-nothing welfare state," Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced legislation yesterday that would require most of Britain's welfare recipients to attend regular interviews to discuss job opportunities or lose their benefits.The plan is the latest in a series of measures that Blair's Labor government has taken in the past year and a half to reduce Britain's $157 billion-a-year social welfare bill and to encourage the country's welfare recipients to look for work.

SAN DIEGO -- The gusher of television money the NFL teams will get in coming years may be good news for Ravens' permanent seat license buyers. Owner Art Modell, who had already promised to freeze ticket prices for the first three years in the new football stadium at Camden Yards, said the freeze now may extend for a longer period."

Tellabs Inc. and Ciena Corp. said yesterday they will move forward with their merger, but Tellabs will pay about $4 billion for the maker of telecommunications equipment -- not the $7.1 billion the companies had agreed to in June.The drop in price reflected the loss in value of Ciena's shares after AT&T Corp. announced Aug. 22 it was no longer interested in buying the Linthicum company's technology. Under the renegotiated deal each 0.8 share of Tellabs stock will be exchanged for a Ciena share.

GREENBELT - Greenbelt is celebrating its recent designation as a national historic landmark.The whole 756.8-acre Prince George's community was a New Deal experiment in progressive new town planning, created by the prototypical Roosevelt "brain-truster," Rexford Guy Tugwell, promoted by Eleanor Roosevelt and sanctioned by the president.Greenbelt today remains a vibrant town, with a retro-deco style and children on bicycles bobbing down off-street pathways, a co-op coffee shop called the New Deal Cafe and Eleanor Roosevelt High School.

State employees have long complained about poor service and high fees charged by PEBSCO, the company that has managed their private retirement savings accounts for two decades under a no-bid contract.That criticism, along with experts who say the service should cost a fraction of what PEBSCO has charged, prompted state officials to put the business out for bid. A new contract is to be awarded today.The apparent winner? PEBSCO.State officials say the firm, formally known as the Public Employees Benefit Services Corp.

WASHINGTON -- In the wake of the dedication of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial here, one of the last of those who might be called New Deal Democrats in the Senate will kick off a campaign later this month focusing on the least fulfilled of FDR's famous four freedoms: ''freedom from want.''Paul Wellstone of Minnesota will visit the poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta towns of Tunica and Cleveland as the start of a mission sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Other locales of poverty on his planned itinerary include Kentucky, Chicago, Los Angeles and possibly New York.

AMERICAN VOTERS have rewarded President Clinton with a second term largely because he moved his Democratic Party from left to center at the same time a Republican Congress lurched too far to the right.This was an election in which the public's desire for pragmatism and moderation prevailed over those engaged in ideological wars. But passions on the political extremes run deep, and they will be heard from again and again.Mr. Clinton's task in the next four years is to stand firm against important elements that promoted his campaign not because they have a special regard for him but because they pursue their own agenda.

Fifty years ago today, Franklin D. Roosevelt died while sitting for a portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Ga. It is probably true that everyone school age or older in 1945 remembers today where he or she was when the news came. FDR was only 63 and was thought, mistakenly, by the public at large to be in good health. After 12 years as president in the dawn of the age of mass communication, he was the most familiar public figure in American history. So his death was a more sobering, saddening, personal and unexpected event than even the attack on Pearl Harbor had been over four years before.

Washington. -- "The president is dead!''The news of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death a half-century ago, on April 12, 1945, came as a shock to most Americans. Even though it had been apparent to almost everyone that he was in failing health, Roosevelt had developed such an aura of immortality that death seemed unthinkable.For Americans of my generation, the news that Roosevelt had died at his vacation home at Warm Springs, Georgia, was like a death in the family. We could remember no other president.

A man who claimed to have an armed accomplice robbed a New Deal Optical store Tuesday night of an undisclosed amount of money, county police said yesterday.Police said the man walked into the store in the 7700 block of Ritchie Highway about 8 p.m. and said to an employee, "This is a robbery. Give me all your money. I have a friend outside with a gun."The employee gave the money to the man, who ran south across a parking lot. The robber was described as a white male in his mid-20s to early 30s with reddish blond hair, about 6 feet tall with a medium build.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy wrote a letter to the pope. The urgency of the message was evident in the preeminence of the messenger: President Barack Obama himself had handed the letter to Pope Benedict XVI at the end of the historic first meeting between the two leaders in the Vatican last month. The papal spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, was peppered with questions by reporters from around the world. What did the letter say? Had the pope read the letter yet? Had President Obama asked the pope to pray for Senator Kennedy?

Once again, Terrell Suggs is to be commended for the way he is handling his contract situation with the Ravens. He is wearing the franchise tag for the second straight year, even though he wants a long-term deal (and even though the Ravens seem to favor giving him one). He's waiting for his payday patiently and quietly, and not waving his arms, shouting, "What about me?" Which he would be entitled to do if the Ravens do what appears to be the public's bidding and trade for Anquan Boldin.

Hairston agrees to deal, will stay with Reds baseball Jerry Hairston Jr., a former Oriole, will remain with Cincinnati after agreeing to a one-year, $2 million contract yesterday. The infielder-outfielder, 32, played six positions in 80 games for the Reds last season, hitting .326 while mostly batting leadoff. Hairston signed a minor league contract with Cincinnati in March and was promoted to the major league roster just before the start of the season. His new deal allows him to earn an additional $2 million in performance bonuses.

McCoy, Pitt upset No. 10 South Florida COL. FOOTBALL LeSean McCoy ran for two touchdowns and Bill Stull threw for one as visiting Pittsburgh upset No. 10 South Florida, 26-21, last night. The Panthers (4-1, 2-0 Big East) have won two of the past three games against South Florida (5-1, 0-1) in Tampa. Stull finished 16-for-27 for 228 yards. Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe was 11-for-20 for 129 yards and rushed for a touchdown. Bills' Evans gets 4-year extension NFL Wide receiver Lee Evans signed a four-year contract extension worth $37.25 million in a deal that prevents the Buffalo Bills star from becoming a free agent after this season.

I try to read every e-mail readers send me, and respond at least once to all but those who resort to unseemly language and name-calling. (You would be surprised by how many letters are not, shall we say, "family-friendly.") One of the things I've noticed in critical e-mails, ostensibly sent by conservative readers, is the frequent invocation of a person who occasionally makes news but is generally not part of our daily national political discourse: Jimmy Carter. The former Democratic president's lone term ended almost 28 years ago. And yet, for a surprising number of people, Mr. Carter is like a boogeyman lurking in America's political basement, ready to spring up at any moment and chain-saw the country in half.

It probably was a coincidence that NFL owners decided to knock two years off their collective bargaining agreement with the players union on the same day No. 3 draft pick Matt Ryan agreed to a $72 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, but that doesn't mean the two top football headlines of the week were unrelated. Quite the contrary, management has cited out-of-control rookie compensation as one of the main rationales for abandoning the current CBA in 2011, and Ryan's new deal - which guarantees him at least $34.75 million before he plays his first NFL game - conveniently illustrated the point.

NEW YORK -- JPMorgan Chase was in talks last night for a deal that would quintuple its offer for Bear Stearns, the beleaguered investment bank, in an effort to pacify angry Bear shareholders, according to people involved in the negotiations. The sweetened offer is intended to win over stockholders who vowed to fight the original fire-sale deal, struck only a week ago at the behest of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. Under the terms being discussed, JPMorgan would pay $10 a share in stock for Bear, up from its initial offer of $2 a share - a figure that represented a mere one-fifteenth of Bear's going market price.

The Ravens and fifth-year player Ed Reed reached an agreement yesterday on a six-year contract extension that will make him the highest-paid safety in the NFL. The deal will include about $15 million to $16 million in guaranteed money, according to a league source. All the terms of the contract were not available, but Reed's new deal will carry though the end of the 2012 season. According to two league sources, Reed is expected to make more than $6.5 million a season, which is more than Washington Redskins safety Adam Archuleta, who became the highest paid at the position in March when he signed a six-year, $30 million contract that included a $10 million signing bonus.

The District of Columbia and Major League Baseball agreed yesterday on a revised lease for a Washington Nationals baseball stadium. The District of Columbia Sports and Entertainment Commission and the baseball commissioner's office had been negotiating a new deal since last month, when the D.C. Council failed to vote on the previous agreement. Council Chair Linda W. Cropp said she had not seen details of the new deal but said if the agreement meets the concerns of council members, she would schedule a vote for Feb. 7. In a letter this month to Mayor Anthony A. Williams, Cropp said the council wanted a cap on construction and land acquisition costs at the $535 million approved for the project last year.

The Chicago White Sox bought out Frank Thomas for $3.5 million yesterday, making the best slugger in team history eligible for free agency. Thomas, 37, exercised a $10 million mutual option for next season on Monday, giving the team five days to decide whether to exercise its half. The White Sox could try to re-sign the two-time American League Most Valuable Player for less money. "There should be no question about the respect this organization has for Frank and all that he has helped us accomplish, including a World Series championship," general manager Ken Williams said in a statement.