iTunes’ Official Music Charts for the week ending Nov. 21, 2011:

Top Songs:

1. “We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris),” Rihanna
2. “Sexy and I Know It,” LMFAO
3. “It Will Rain,” Bruno Mars
4. “Rumour Has It / Someone Like You (Glee Cast Version),” Glee Cast
5. “Take Care (feat. Rihanna),” Drake
6. “Good Feeling,” Flo Rida
7. “Someone Like You,” ADELE
8. “Without You (feat. Usher)”, David Guetta
9. “The Motto (feat. Lil Wayne),” Drake
10. “You Da One,” Rihanna
___

Top Albums:

1. “Take Care,” Drake
2. “Camp,” Childish Gambino
3. “21,” ADELE
4. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 1 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack),” Various Artists
5. “Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album, Vol. 2,” Glee Cast
6. “Mylo Xyloto,” Coldplay
7. “Christmas,” Michael Buble
8. “Ceremonials,” Florence + The Machine
9. “Blue Slide Park,” Mac Miller
10. “Talk That Talk,”Rihanna

¤ Rihanna With The #1 SONG; 2 Songs And A Feature In The TOP 10 Songs + An Album In The TOP 10 Albums

¤ Drake With 2 Songs In The TOP 10 Songs + The #1 ALBUM In TOP 10 Albums

¤ Rap Industry Rookie Mac Miller With His Debut Album Premiering At #9 In The TOP 10 Albums

Joe Frazier had to throw his greatest punch to knock down “The Greatest.”
A vicious left hook from Frazier put Muhammad Ali on the canvas in the 15th round in March 1971 when he became the first man to beat him in the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden.
“That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life,” Frazier said.
It was his biggest night, one that would never come again.
Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at 67, will forever be associated with Ali. No one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin’ Joe.
“I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration,” Ali said in a statement. “My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones.”
They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and  once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Thrilla in Manila in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together. Neither gave an inch and both gave it their all.
In their last fight in Manila in 1975, they traded punches with a fervor that seemed unimaginable among heavyweights. Frazier gave almost as good as he got for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he tried to go out for the final round, unable to see.
“Closest thing to dying that I know of,” Ali said afterward.
Ali was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected him as a fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his heavyweight title against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so big Frank Sinatra was shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters earned an astonishing $2.5 million.
The night at the Garden 40 years ago remained fresh in Frazier’s mind as he talked about his life, career and relationship with Ali a few months before he died.
“I can’t go nowhere where it’s not mentioned,” he told The Associated Press.
Bob Arum, who once promoted Ali, said he was saddened by Frazier’s passing.
“He was such an inspirational guy. A decent guy. A man of his word,” Arum said. “I’m torn up by Joe dying at this relatively young age. I can’t say enough about Joe.”
Frazier’s death was announced in a statement by his family, who asked to be able to grieve privately and said they would announce “our father’s homecoming celebration” as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson posted his condolences on Twitter. Tyson wrote, “As a young fighter it has always been an honor to be compared” to Frazier.
Also, the International Boxing Hall of Fame announced its flags in Canastota, N.Y., will fly at half-staff in memory of Frazier. Frazier was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990.
Manny Pacquiao learned of the death shortly after he arrived in Las Vegas for his fight Saturday night with Juan Manuel Marquez. Like Frazier in his prime, Pacquiao has a powerful left hook that he has used in his remarkable run to stardom.
“Boxing lost a great champion, and the sport lost a great ambassador,” Pacquiao said.
Don King, who promoted the Thrilla in Manila, said Frazier always fought with courage and for respect.
“One cannot underestimate the contribution Smokin’ Joe and Ali made to progress and change by creating the space, through their talent, for black men to be seen, visible and relevant,” King said. “The Thrilla in Manila helped make America better.”
Though slowed in his later years and his speech slurred by the toll of punches taken in the ring, Frazier was still active on the autograph circuit in the months before he died. In September he went to Las Vegas, where he signed autographs in the lobby of the MGM Grand shortly before Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s fight against Victor Ortiz.
An old friend, Gene Kilroy, visited with him and watched Frazier work the crowd.
“He was so nice to everybody,” Kilroy said. “He would say to each of them, ‘Joe Frazier, sharp as a razor, what’s your name?’”
Frazier was small for a heavyweight, weighing just 205 pounds when he won the title by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their 1970 fight at Madison Square Garden. But he fought every minute of every round going forward behind a vicious left hook, and there were few fighters who could withstand his constant pressure.
His reign as heavyweight champion lasted only four fights - including the win over Ali - before he ran into an even more fearsome slugger than himself. George Foreman responded to Frazier’s constant attack by dropping him three times in the first round and three more in the second before their 1973 fight in Jamaica was waved to a close and the world had a new heavyweight champion.
“He would not back up from King Kong,” Foreman said. “I know, I knocked Joe down six times. When our fight was over, Joe was on his feet looking for me.”
Two fights later, he met Ali in a rematch of their first fight, only this time the outcome was different. Ali won a 12-round decision, and later that year stopped Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire.
There had to be a third fight, though, and what a fight it was. With Ali’s heavyweight title at stake, the two met in Manila in a fight that will long be seared in boxing history.
Frazier went after Ali round after round, landing his left hook with regularity as he made Ali backpedal around the ring. But Ali responded with left jabs and right hands that found their mark again and again. Even the intense heat inside the arena couldn’t stop the two as they fought every minute of every round with neither willing to concede the other one second of the round.
“They told me Joe Frazier was through,” Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.
“They lied,” Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.
Finally, though, Frazier simply couldn’t see and Futch would not let him go out for the 15th round. Ali won the fight while on his stool, exhausted and contemplating himself whether to go on.
“It was unworldly what we had just seen,” Arum said. “Two men fighting one of the great wars of all time. It’s something I will never forget for all the years I have left.”
It was one of the greatest fights ever, but it took a toll. Frazier would fight only two more times, getting knocked out in a rematch with Foreman eight months later before coming back in 1981 for an ill advised fight with Jumbo Cummings.
“They should have both retired after the Manila fight,” former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. said. “They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day.”
Born in Beaufort, S.C., on Jan. 12, 1944, Frazier took up boxing early after watching weekly fights on the black and white television on his family’s small farm. He was a top amateur for several years, and became the only American fighter to win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo despite fighting in the final bout with an injured left thumb.
“Joe Frazier should be remembered as one of the greatest fighters of all time and a real man,” Arum told the AP in a telephone interview Monday night. “He’s a guy that stood up for himself. He didn’t compromise and always gave 100 percent in the ring. There was never a fight in the ring where Joe didn’t give 100 percent.”
After turning pro in 1965, Frazier quickly became known for his punching power, stopping his first 11 opponents. Within three years he was fighting world-class opposition and, in 1970, beat Ellis to win the heavyweight title that he would hold for more than two years.
Foreman finally took the title from him in a 1973 fight that was as shocking as it was vicious. Foreman knocked Frazier down six times to win in two rounds, and the first knockdown inspired a call at ringside that is among the most famous in sports history.
“Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” Howard Cosell yelled into his ABC microphone.
In Philadelphia, a fellow Philadelphia fighter, longtime middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, said Frazier was so big in the city that he should have his own statue, like the fictional Rocky character.
“I saw him at one of my car washes a few weeks ago. He was in a car, just hollering at us, ‘They’re trying to get me!’ That was his hi,” Hopkins said. “I’m glad I got to see him in the last couple of months. At the end of the day, I respect the man. I believe at the end of his life, he was fighting to get that respect.”
He was a fixture in Philadelphia where he trained fighters in a gym he owned and made a cameo in “Rocky.”
Mayor Michael Nutter said Frazier “represented the heart and soul of boxing in our great city. In the ring and in the neighborhoods, he carried himself with dignity and courage. He was a true ambassador for our city.”
It was his fights with Ali that would define Frazier. Though Ali was gracious in defeat in the first fight, he was as vicious with his words as he was with his punches in promoting all three fights - and he never missed a chance to get a jab in at Frazier.
Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.
After a trembling Ali lit the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked what he thought about it.
“They should have thrown him in,” Frazier responded.
He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year - a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New York - he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and is mostly mute.
“I forgive him,” Frazier said. “He’s in a bad way

Employers advertised more jobs in September than at any other point in the past three years, a hopeful sign that companies may step up hiring.
Businesses and governments posted 3.35 million job openings, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s a 7 percent increase from August and the most since August 2008, one month before the financial crisis intensified.
Even with the gain, there’s heavy competition for each job. Nearly 14 million people were out of work in September, which means an average 4.2 unemployed workers were competing for each opening. That’s slightly better than August, but it is still more than twice the 2 to 1 ratio that economists say is healthy.
Companies typically take from one to three months to fill a position. So the increase in postings suggests hiring could pick up in the coming months.
Job openings have rebounded from a decade low of 2.1 million in July 2009. Still, there were 4.4 million openings in December 2007, when the recession began.
The economy added 158,000 net jobs in September. Hiring slowed a bit in October, as employers added only 80,000 jobs, the fewest in four months. Still, the unemployment rate dipped in October to a six-month low of 9 percent, from 9.1 percent, because more people said they found jobs.
And October may end up looking better if the government revises the job totals, as it did with the August and September figures.
Initially, the government said employers added zero jobs in August. The department now says there was a net gain of 104,000 jobs that month. September was also revised sharply higher.
The modest improvement in the job market reflects a pickup in economic growth. The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in July-September quarter, its best quarterly growth in a year. In the first half of this year, the economy expanded at the slowest pace since the Great Recession ended in June 2009.
Consumers boosted their spending significantly in the third quarter, compared to the April-June quarter. Americans spent more even in the face of fears of a new recession and wild gyrations in the stock market.
But it’s not clear the greater spending is sustainable, adding to companies’ worries about future growth. People have been dipping into savings to finance their spending, and that may not last.
Without more jobs and pay raises, consumers are unlikely to keep increasing their spending. Consumer spending is important because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

An explosive sex abuse scandal and allegations of a cover-up rocked Happy Valley after former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, once considered Joe Paterno’s heir apparent, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over 15 years. Among the allegations was that a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assault a boy in the shower at the team’s practice center in 2002.
Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school’s facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids, where authorities say he encountered the boys. The grand jury investigation also resulted in perjury charges against Tim Curley, Penn State’s athletic director, and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business. They were accused of failing to alert police - as required by state law - of their investigation of the allegations.
“This is a case about a sexual predator  who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” state Attorney General Linda Kelly said Saturday in a statement.
Paterno, who last week became the coach with the most wins in Division I football history, wasn’t charged, and the grand jury report didn’t appear to implicate him in wrongdoing.
Under Paterno’s four-decades-and-counting stewardship, the Nittany Lions became a bedrock in the college game, and fans packed the stadium in State College, a campus town routinely ranked among America’s best places to live and nicknamed Happy Valley. Paterno’s teams were revered both for winning games - including two national championships - and largely steering clear of trouble. Sandusky, whose defenses were usually anchored by tough-guy linebackers - hence the moniker “Linebacker U” - spent three decades at the school. The charges against him cover the period from 1994 to 2009.
Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts. Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, were expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg.
The allegations against Sandusky, who started The Second Mile in 1977, range from sexual advances to touching to oral and anal sex. The young men testified before a state grand jury that they were in their early teens when some of the abuse occurred; there is evidence even younger children may have been victimized. Sandusky’s attorney Joe Amendola said his client has been aware of the accusations for about three years and has maintained his innocence.
“He’s shaky, as you can expect,” Amendola told WJAC-TV after Sandusky was arraigned. “Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life and having the distinguished career that he’s had, these are very serious allegations.”
A preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday would likely be delayed, Amendola said. Sandusky is charged with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, as well as single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.
No one answered a knock at the door Saturday at Sandusky’s modest, two-story brick home at the end of a dead-end road in State College. A man who answered the door at The Second Mile office in State College declined to give his name and said the organization had no comment.
The grand jury said eight boys were targets of sexual advances or assaults by Sandusky. None was named, and in at least one case, the jury said the child’s identity remains unknown to authorities.
One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a “soap battle” in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky’s hands, the grand jury report said.
He said he traveled to charity functions and Penn State games with Sandusky, even being listed as a member of the Sandusky family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and 1999 Alamo Bowl. But when the boy resisted his advances, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the Alamo Bowl, the report said.
Sandusky also gave him clothes, shoes, a snowboard, golf clubs, hockey gear and football jerseys, and even guaranteed that he could walk on to the football team, the grand jury said, and the boy also appeared with Sandusky in a photo in Sports Illustrated. He testified that Sandusky once gave him $50 to buy marijuana, drove him to purchase it and then drove him home as the boy smoked the drug.
The first case to come to light was a boy who met Sandusky when he was 11 or 12, the grand jury said. The boy received expensive gifts and trips to sports events from Sandusky, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky’s home, jurors said. Eventually, the boy’s mother reported the allegations of sexual assault to his high school, and Sandusky was banned from the child’s school district in Clinton County in 2009. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.
But the report also alleges much earlier instances of abuse and details failed efforts to stop it by some who became aware of what was happening.
Another child, known only as a boy about 11 to 13, was seen by a janitor pinned against a wall while Sandusky performed oral sex on him in fall 2000, the grand jury said.
And in 2002, Kelly said, a graduate assistant saw Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in a team locker room shower. The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Paterno, who immediately told Curley, prosecutors said.
Curley and Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half later, Kelly said.
“Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law,” Kelly said.
There’s no indication that anyone at school attempted to find the boy or follow up with the witness, she said.
Curley denied that the assistant had reported anything of a sexual nature, calling it “merely ‘horsing around,’” the 23-page grand jury report said. But he also testified that he barred Sandusky from bringing children onto campus and that he advised Penn State President Graham Spanier of the matter.
The grand jury said Curley was lying, Kelly said, adding that it also deemed portions of Schultz’s testimony not to be credible.
Schultz told the jurors he also knew of a 1998 investigation involving sexually inappropriate behavior by Sandusky with a boy in the showers the football team used.
But despite his job overseeing campus police, he never reported the 2002 allegations to any authorities, “never sought or received a police report on the 1998 incident and never attempted to learn the identity of the child in the shower in 2002,” the jurors wrote. “No one from the university did so.”
Lawyers for both Curley and Schultz issued statements saying they are innocent of all charges.
In response to a request for comment from Paterno, a spokesman for the athletic department said all such questions would be referred to university representatives, who released a statement from Spanier calling the allegations against Sandusky “troubling” and adding that Curley and Schultz had his unconditional support.
He predicted they will be exonerated.
“I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years,” Spanier said. “I have complete confidence in how they handled the allegations about a former university employee.”
Sandusky, once considered a potential successor to Paterno, drew up the defenses for the Nittany Lions’ national-title teams in 1982 and 1986. The team is enjoying another successful run this season; at 8-1, Penn State is ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 and is the last undefeated squad in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lions were off Saturday.
As the head football coach, Paterno has spent years cultivating a reputation for putting integrity ahead of modern college-sports economics. It’s a notion that has benefited Penn State’s marketing and recruiting efforts over the decades and one that the Big Ten school’s alumni proudly tout years after they leave.
“We’re supposed to be one of the universities to follow after, someone to look up to,” said sophomore Brian Prewitt of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “Now that people on the top are involved, it’s going to be bad.”

An arrest warrant was issued for Terrell Owens after he failed to show up for a court date regarding child support payments.
Diana Bianchini, a spokeswoman for Owens, said Saturday the free-agent wide receiver tried to reschedule an Oct. 24 hearing in Contra Costa County Court because he had set up a televised workout in the hopes of hooking on with an NFL club. No teams attended the workout.
According to Bianchini, Owens was looking for a new attorney and was representing himself while trying to change the court date. She said his new attorneys will deal with the warrant issued this week.
Bianchini said Owens is seeking to modify his child support payments because they were based on the approximately $12 million a year he was making in 2007 when he played for the Dallas Cowboys.
The 37-year-old Owens has been rehabilitating a left knee injury that required surgery. He played 14 games for the Cincinnati Bengals last season, making 72 receptions and scoring nine touchdowns.

Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has liver cancer and is under hospice care.
The 67-year-old boxer was diagnosed four or five weeks ago, Frazier’s personal and business manager said Saturday. Leslie Wolff told The Associated Press that doctors have not yet told Frazier how long he has to live.
“We have medical experts looking into the all the options that are out there,” Wolff said. “There are very few. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop looking.”
Wolff, who has been Frazier’s manager for seven years, said the boxer had been in out and out of the hospital since early October and receiving hospice treatment the last week.
“We appreciate every prayer we can get,” Wolff said. “I’ve got everybody praying for him. We”ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle.”
Frazier’s illness was first reported by the New York Post, citing an unidentified source.
Frazier was the first  man to beat Muhammad Ali, knocking him down and taking a decision in the so-called Fight of the Century in 1971. He would go on to lose two more fights to Ali, including the epic “Thrilla in Manila” bout.
Frazier was bitter for many years about the way Ali treated him then. More recently, he said he had forgiven Ali for repeatedly taunting him.
Smokin’ Joe was a small yet ferocious fighter who smothered his opponents with punches, including a devastating left hook he used to end many of his fights early. It was the left hook that dropped Ali in the 15th round of their “Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in 1971 to seal a win in a bout where each fighter earned an unheard of $2.5 million.
While that fight is celebrated in boxing lore, Ali and Frazier put on an even better show in their third fight, held in a sweltering arena in Manila as part of Ali’s world tour of fights in 1975. Nearly blinded by Ali’s punches, Frazier still wanted to go out for the 15th round of the fight but was held back by trainer Eddie Futch in a bout Ali would later say was the closest thing to death he could imagine.
Frazier won the heavyweight title in 1970 by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their fight at Madison Square Garden. Frazier defended it successfully four times before George Foreman knocked him down six times in the first two rounds to take the title from him in 1973.
Frazier would never be heavyweight champion again.
In recent years, Frazier had been doing regular autograph appearances, including one in Las Vegas the weekend of a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in September.
“I was very sad to hear the news. It’s a tragedy,” leading British promoter Frank Warren said. “He’s one of the greatest fighters of his generation and one of the best heavyweights in history. It’s a sad thing and I know everyone in boxing will be wishing him well.”

BC-BKN—NBA Labor, 12th Ld-Writethru,1156
NBA players get new offer, and deadline to take it
Eds: Updates with details of Jordan’s attendance. With AP Photos.
AP Photo NYLL107, NYLL105, NYLL101, NYLL102, NYLL106, NYLL103, NYLL104
By BRIAN MAHONEY
NEW YORK (AP) - Commissioner David Stern gave NBA players an offer and a deadline: Accept a chance to earn up to 51 percent of basketball-related income by Wednesday or get ready for a deal that’s a whole lot worse.
He wouldn’t call it an ultimatum, but it didn’t sure sit well with the union.
“The players will not be intimidated,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler said early Sunday after eight hours of negotiations stretched late into the night. “They want to play, they want a season, but they are not going to sacrifice the future of all NBA players under these types of threats of intimidation. It’s not happening on Derek Fisher’s watch; it’s not happening on Billy Hunter’s watch; it’s not  happening on the watch of this executive committee.”
Kessler said the proposal was really 50.2 percent for the players and called the chance of them ever reaching 51 percent a “fraud” and an “illusion.”
Whatever. If players don’t agree to it by Wednesday, Stern said they would get a deal that would guarantee them just 47 percent of BRI and call for a flex salary cap.
“We hope that this juxtaposition will cause the union to assess its position and accept the deal,” Stern said.
Thus ended another frustrating day, one that puts a lengthy 2011-12 season in doubt.
“Today was another sad day for our fans, for arena workers, our parking lot attendants, our vendors. Very frustrating, sad day,” union president Fisher added. “We, for sure, unequivocally, made good faith efforts to try to get this deal done tonight. And we’re at a loss for why we could not close it out.”
And it remains difficult to see how they can. Stern certainly wouldn’t speculate on the chances.
“I’m not going to make percentage guesses or anything like that. We want our players to play. We’d like to have a season,” he said. “These are the terms upon which we’re prepared to gear up and get in as many games as possible.”
Players and owners met with federal mediator George Cohen for more than eight hours, and Stern said Cohen offered six “what if?” recommendations relating to the BRI split and the salary cap system.
Stern said owners accepted the first five and would put them in writing in a formal proposal to the players, hopefully Sunday. But it wasn’t acceptable Saturday, with Stern saying Kessler rejected it.
“I think it’s fair to say that speaking on behalf of the union, Mr. Kessler rejected the mediators’ recommendations and our proposal,” Stern said. “But hope springs eternal, and we would love to see the union accept the proposal that is now on the table.”
Though insistent on no more than a 50-50 split, owners will offer the players a band that would allow them to receive between 49 percent and 51 percent of revenue. However, Stern’s description of how it would work was confusing, and Kessler said under “the wildest, most unimaginable, favorable projections and we might squeeze out to 50.2.”
Fisher said the players’ proposal would have given them about 51 percent, with a portion taken out to use for retired players’ benefits
Day 128 of the lockout came at the end of a tenuous week in which both sides seemed as much at odds with themselves as each other. Some players took part in conference calls to discuss the option of decertifying the union and filing an antitrust case against the league, while hardline owners were in favor of offering the players 47 percent now and not going beyond 50.
Although the lengthy meeting offered hope of compromise - despite the rare attendance of Hall of Famer and Charlotte owner Michael Jordan, and Portland billionaire owners Paul Allen, considered to be hard-liners - Kessler said owners never really made any.
“They came in here with a prearranged plan to try to strong arm the players,” he said. “They knew today they were sticking to 50, essentially 50.2. They were going to make almost no movement on the system, and then they were going to say, ‘My way, or the 47 percent highway.’”
He added there was no reason to talk again before Wednesday if the owners stick to their current position.
Other items in the new owners’ proposal related to rules for teams paying the luxury tax and for the use of the midlevel exception. Players have said the system issues are just as important as the BRI split, because they fear owners’ proposals essentially would prevent teams in the biggest markets from being free agent options.
A month of the season already has been lost, and more games could be in jeopardy soon. Nobody said the decertification threat made any real impact on the discussions, but Fisher also said there’s not a deal yet that’s worth a vote.
If they can’t agree to one by Wednesday, it will be even harder to find common ground. Players already rejected a flex cap in June.
Fisher and Kessler again questioned the owners’ willingness to negotiate, but Stern said they were ready to make a deal - by Wednesday.
“We want to allow the union enough time to consider our most recent proposal, and we are hopeful that they will accept,” he said.
As for the Wednesday deadline, he added that it “doesn’t aid the negotiating process to just leave it hanging out there.”

Oklahoma residents more accustomed to tornadoes than earthquakes have been shaken by weekend temblors that cracked buildings, buckled a highway and rattled nerves. One quake late Saturday was the state’s strongest ever and jolted a college football stadium 50 miles away.
It was followed early Sunday by a jarring aftershock. But although homes and other buildings cracked and suffered minor damage, there were no reports of severe injuries or major devastation.
Saturday night’s earthquake jolted Oklahoma State University’s stadium shortly after the No. 3 Cowboys defeated No. 17 Kansas State.
“That shook up the place, had a lot of people nervous,” Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon said. “Yeah, it was pretty strong.”
The magnitude 5.6 earthquake was Oklahoma’s strongest on record, said Jessica Turner, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Centered near Sparks, 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, it could be felt throughout the state and in  Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, northern Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. It followed a magnitude 4.7 quake early Saturday that was felt from Texas to Missouri.
A magnitude 4.0 quake that struck at 3:39 a.m. Sunday was an aftershock centered some 36 miles east of Oklahoma City in the same region, Turner said. Like Saturday night’s quake, it was shallow, occurring about 3 miles underground, she said.
Oklahoma typically has about 50 earthquakes a year, and 57 tornadoes, but a burst of quakes east of Oklahoma City has contributed to a sharp increase. Researchers said 1,047 quakes shook Oklahoma last year, prompting them to install seismographs in the area. The reason for the increase isn’t known, and Turner said there was no immediate explanation for the weekend spurt in seismic activity.
Several homeowners and businesses reported cracked walls, fallen knickknacks and other minor damage. The Shawnee Fire Department told KWTV in Oklahoma City that one spire on the administration building at St. Gregory University had been damaged and another one was leaning.
An emergency manager in Lincoln County near the epicenter said U.S. 62, a two-lane highway that meanders through rolling landscape between Oklahoma City and the Arkansas state line, crumpled in places when the stronger quake struck Saturday night. Other reports Sunday were sketchy and mentioned cracks in some buildings and a chimney toppled.
“Earthquake damage in Oklahoma. That’s an anomaly right there,” Todd McKinsey of Moore told The Oklahoman newspaper after the magnitude 5.6 earthquake centered 50 miles away left him with cracked drywall. Most earthquakes that have hit the region have been much smaller.
The crowd of nearly 59,000 was still leaving Oklahoma State’s Boone Pickens Stadium when the earthquake hit, and players were in the locker rooms beneath the stands. The shaking seemed to last the better part of a minute, rippling upward to the stadium press box.
“Everybody was looking around, and no one had any idea,” Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden said. “We thought the people above us were doing something. I’ve never felt one, so that was a first.”
A few hours before dawn Sunday, the latest quake set nerves on edge anew.
Jessie Plumb, a registered nurse at Prague Community Hospital, said she and other staffers felt the 4.0 magnitude quake while on the second floor of the building.
“It kind of gave a little bit of a shake, a little bit of rock ‘n roll,” she said by telephone. “I would say it was 20 or 25 seconds.”
Plumb said she was anxious because of the number of earthquakes in so short a span and the fact that they were so strong.
Saturday’s late-night quake was slightly less in intensity than the one that rattled the East Coast on Aug. 23. That 5.8 magnitude earthquake was centered in Virginia and felt from Georgia to Canada. No major damage was reported, although cracks appeared in the Washington Monument, the National Cathedral suffered costly damage to elaborately sculpted stonework, and a number of federal buildings were evacuated.
Oklahoma has had big earthquakes before. USGS records show a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck El Reno, just west of Oklahoma City, in 1952 and, before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, a quake of similar magnitude 5.5 struck in northeastern Indian Territory in 1882.
Turner said an active spate of earthquakes started in the region in February 2010 and the latest activity appears to be part of that trend. But experts are still puzzling out why the latest quakes have been concentrated in such a small geographic area around Sparks, she said.
The magnitude 4.7 quake early Saturday appeared to be a prelude, or foreshock, to Saturday night’s more potent quake, and Sunday’s was an aftershock, Turner said.
“If these are going to continue to happen, we can’t predict,” she said

A person close to the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City says the demonstrators’ first financial report will show they have raised $454,000 and have spent just more than $50,000 in the movement’s first five weeks.
The person provided the financial report to The Associated Press. The report was being released Friday evening in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, where the protesters have an encampment. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the spreadsheet analysis hadn’t been released.
The loosely assembled group’s spreadsheet shows most of the spending is for food, clothing, laundry, medical supplies and treatment, Internet services, cameras and telephone and computer expenses.
Park expenses including sanitation have cost more than $1,100.

Appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. plans to cut 5,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its workforce in North America and Europe, as it faces soft demand and higher costs for materials.
The world’s biggest appliance maker also on Friday cut its 2011 earnings outlook drastically and reported third-quarter results that missed expectations, hurt by higher costs and a slowdown in emerging markets. Shares fell over 14 percent Friday.
The company, whose brands include Maytag and KitchenAid, has, like other appliance makers, been squeezed by soft U.S. demand since the recession and rising costs for materials such as steel and copper. Due to its size, Whirlpool’s performance provides a window on the economy because it indicates whether consumers are comfortable spending on big-ticket items.
Whirlpool has raised prices to combat higher costs, but demand for items like refrigerators and washing machines remains tight. Whirlpool is also facing discount pressure from competitors.
To  offset slowing North American sales, Whirlpool has turned to emerging markets. But the company said Friday that sales have slowed there, too. The company revised its demand forecast globally. It now expects demand to decline 3 percent to 5 percent in North America, in 2011, down from a 1 percent to 2 percent prior decline forecast.
It expects flat demand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, from prior expectations of a 1 percent to 2 percent rise in demand.
In Latin America, it now expects demand to be flat to up 5 percent, from prior expectations of a 5 percent to 10 percent increase. And in Asia it expects demand to rise 2 percent to 4 percent from earlier expectations of a 4 percent to 6 percent increase.
Steep costs and the dour global economy are affecting the entire appliance industry. Swedish appliance maker Electrolux said Friday that its third-quarter net income fell 39 percent and also cut its forecast for demand in North American and Europe for the year.
Whirlpool jobs to be cut are mostly in North America and Europe. They include 1,200 salaried positions and the closing of the company’s Fort Smith, Ark., plant.
The Fort Smith plant shutdown will affect 884 hourly workers and 90 salaried employees. An additional 800 workers were on layoff from the factory and on a recall list.
Whirlpool will also relocate dishwasher production from Neunkirchen, Germany, to Poland in January 2012.
The company expects the moves will save $400 million by the end of 2013. They’ll cost $500 million in restructuring costs however, which will be recorded over the next three years, including a $105 million charge in the fourth quarter, $280 million charge in 2012 and $115 million charge in 2013.
Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool’s third-quarter net income more than doubled to $177 million, or $2.27 per share, from $79 million, or $1.02 per share. Adjusted earnings of $2.35 per share fell short of analyst expectations for $2.73 per share.
Revenue rose 2 percent to $4.63 billion, short of expectations for $4.74 billion.
“Our results were negatively impacted by recessionary demand levels in developed countries, a slowdown in emerging markets and high levels of inflation in material costs,” CEO Jeff Fettig said.
Unit shipments fell in all regions except Asia, where they rose 4 percent.
In North America, revenue fell 2 percent to $2.4 billion, and in Latin America, revenue rose 8 percent to $1.2 billion.
The company now expects 2011 net income will be $4.75 to $5.25 per share. Its prior guidance was net income would be at the low end of a range between $7.25 and $8.25 per share.
Separately, Whirlpool has complained to authorities that some companies, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, have been selling appliances at less than fair value in the U.S., a practice known as dumping. Whirlpool said the Commerce Department issued a preliminary determination that the companies are violating international trade laws. The investigation is ongoing.
Whirlpool’s stock fell $8.67, or 14.3 percent, to close at $51.80 Friday. The stock has already sunk 42 percent this year.