ROUND-UP: STEROIDS IN SPORTS (continued)
We've added the following to items posted previously at http://profnet.prnewswire.com/organik/orbital/thewire/lst_leads.jsp?iLRTopicID =2800
**1. MIKE PAUL, president of MGP & ASSOCIATES PR, is a crisis PR and reputation management expert who has counseled many pro athletes in crisis and can discuss the congressional hearings on steroids and baseball: "Those who are testifying, including MLB pro athletes, union reps, executives and the commissioner himself, have a two-edged sword. If they take the fifth, they will be seen as liars or having something to hide, and if they tell the truth, they will probably lose their careers and salaries that provide for themselves and their families. But the truth will set them free, because the truth will bubble to the top, either from them directly or through further investigations and media stories. This is a true test of honesty, integrity, morality and ethics." Paul is also an adjunct professor of reputation management at New York University.
**2. ROBERT TUCHMAN, president and CEO at TSE SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT: "Players involved with the congressional committee's investigation in steroids stand to lose millions in sponsorships and endorsements. Corporations want athletes with clean images to become the names and faces of their products."
_____LEADS
**1. BEHAVIOR: THE STRESS AND ANXIETY OF ROAD RAGE. KARL LAROWE MA, LCSW, clinical social worker and mental health investigator: "We all know the physical reaction to a near car crash: waves of tension washing through our muscles, held breath, clenched teeth and an immediate desire to get revenge. Stress and anxiety have become huge factors contributing to 'revenge driving,' and unless we regain control of our tendencies to flash into instant rage, the problem will only persist. Learning to release rage before it erupts into irrational behavior is a skill that anyone can learn. You just need to realize that you can calm your mind by calming your body, and let go of the need to be right in the short term for mastery of self-control in the long term."
**2. BEHAVIOR: MICHAEL JACKSON SHOWING EXTREME STRESS SIGNS DURING TRIAL. ROBERT R. BUTTERWORTH, psychologist at INTERNATIONAL TRAUMA ASSOCIATES: "Michael Jackson is beginning to manifest overt symptoms of extreme stress, as demonstrated by an increase of physical ailments and a susceptibility to illness, resulting from his presence at his molestation trial. We are beginning to see what could be a 'psychological meltdown,' as the testimony and the reality of the charges begin to penetrate his psyche. Stress has the power to not only disable one's emotional equilibrium, but it can manifest itself as a breakdown of one's physical health. Jackson's back pains and flu symptoms, both requiring hospitalization, fit this stress pattern."
**3. FASHION: SPRING FASHION TRENDS FOR PLUS-SIZE WOMEN. BRAD ORLOFF, vice president of AVENUE STORES, a plus-size retailer with 530 national stores: "This spring's in fashions are very conducive to a plus-size woman's body, particularly with Victorian fashion, which is in this year. The earthy beauty and comfort of the rich Bohemian styles are a major inspiration for the 62 percent of American women who wear a size 12 or larger. To many retailers, plus sizes have been the forgotten genre, yet who says they are not sexy? They are the smart, sexy, savvy and fashion-conscience women that are breaking out into the public eye, yet dismissed from department stores and fashion venues all together."
**4. PARENTING: THE RISING TREND OF GRANDPARENTS BECOMING INVENTORS. SHARON MULLEN, founder of INVENTIVE PARENT: "Remembering their own parenting challenges, a rising trend is grandparents, either alone or with their children, who invent parenting products. One such grandmother and her daughter, after frustration with traditional bibs, invented an all-over food- proof bib. Other inventions include a washable and reusable antimicrobial changing pad and a portable potty with disposable inserts. It's never too late to start a business, and these clever grandparents are proof that good ideas never go away."
**5. PARENTING: NEW STUDY ON FOSTER CARE ADOPTION IS MISLEADING. RICHARD WEXLER, executive director of THE NATIONAL COALITION FOR CHILD PROTECTION REFORM: "A highly publicized study claiming that more foster children would be adopted if only prospective adoptive parents were more pampered and coddled is misleading. The real reasons adoptions are lower than 'expected' are entirely predictable and buried in the study: most parents who casually call their child-welfare agency considering adoption don't want the children most foster care systems have to offer. The real news in the study is that it provides still more evidence that the so-called Adoption and Safe Families Act has failed."
**6. RECREATION: SENIORS USE POKER TO SHARPEN THEIR BRAINS. RON BURKE, CEO of EMPIREPOKER.COM: "Senior citizens are increasingly playing poker online to sharpen their brains. We find senior citizens play for lower stakes but longer periods of time than our average poker players, and there are indications that they are playing online primarily to maintain their mental sharpness."
**7. RELIGION: PROTESTANT INTEREST IN MARY COINCIDES WITH CATHOLIC BIBLICAL INTEREST. NANCY A. DALLAVALLE, Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies at FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY: "As this week's Time magazine cover story points out, many currents may be feeding Protestant Christians' interest in Mary, including the general openness and mobility of American believers. And just as Protestants seek to retrieve the story of the Blessed Mother for themselves, there is movement on the Catholic side to ground the veneration of Mary more clearly in the Bible -- from feminist readings that emphasize the sturdy fidelity of this daughter of Israel to Pope John Paul II's proposal to ground the practice of the Rosary more deeply in Scripture by adding reflections on the life of Christ to the Rosary tradition. These reflections, while still representing the differences between Protestants and Catholics, may well serve as a new and lively impetus for ecumenical discussion and faith-sharing."
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