LOS ANGELES, May 5 (Reuters) - Redemption was sweet for Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick as he rebounded from what he assessed as two sub-par performances with a flawless display against the St. Louis Blues.

The inspirational Quick made 30 saves to complete the fifth playoff shutout of his career and lead the Stanley Cup champions to a gritty 1-0 win in Saturday's Game Three of the National Hockey League playoffs that followed successive losses in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.

Though Quick was lavishly praised by his team mates for his stellar form in front of a sellout home crowd at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, the goaltender played down his influential role in typically laid-back fashion.

"There is still room for improvement so we are going to continue doing that, get better and go to work in (Monday's) Game Four," Quick, 27, told Reuters when asked if he had been happy with his own performance.

"We were never out of it, we just won a game. We did what we had to do to win a game. Everybody worked hard.

"It's what you expect when these two teams play each other. They were just throwing pucks from everywhere, but we handled it well and cleaned up most of the rebounds."

The only goal of the night came from Kings defenseman Slava Voynov, who scored from the right circle in the second period after a lengthy scramble in front of St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott's net.

Both goaltenders had to dig deep in the face of wave after wave of attack as each team earned four power plays during another hard-hitting and tense encounter.

TAKING THE BLAME

Quick, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy last season as the most valuable player in the playoffs, has so far stopped 93 of 97 shots in this series, and none of his team mates accepts he should have taken the blame for the losses in Games One and Two.

"Obviously that's inane for him to say any of those losses are on him," said right wing Justin Williams, who saved the fifth-seeded Kings with about five minutes left on Saturday after diving full-length to knock a loose puck out of the slot.

"But that's who you want as a goaltender - a goaltender who's going to battle for you. A guy who wants to stop every puck that comes toward him. That's what he does.

"In this series we'll need him to be at his best because goals are going to be at a premium. The story for us (in Game Three) was Jonathan Quick. That's the difference for us."

Kings captain Dustin Brown agreed fulsomely, saying: "Quickie had to be really good for us, but the way he played is no surprise to anybody. We need to clean up our D-zone. They had a lot of opportunities."

St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock accepts the fourth seeds will have to do a better offensive job against Quick on Monday at Staples Center.

"We just have to come back and find a way to out-work the goalie," Hitchcock said. "I thought we did a lot of good things, we created a lot of turnovers but we didn't sustain the pressure.

"There is not much difference between the two teams. Both goalies are on top of their game. Our guy (Elliott) was great again tonight, their guy was a little bit better."

Armed with reflexes to match his surname, Quick helped his team win their first Stanley Cup last year with a series of brilliant postseason performances, allowing just seven goals in the best-of-seven finals against the New Jersey Devils.

By his own lofty standards, Quick was frustrated by his initial form against the Blues in this postseason, mishandling the puck behind the net in overtime for a 2-1 loss in Game One and allowing a last-minute goal in Game Two for another 2-1 defeat.

"I've got to stop that," Quick said before Game Three. "It's my fault two games in a row. I've got to be better."

Asked if he was perhaps too much of a perfectionist, Quick told Reuters with a dead-pan expression: "No. No. You just want to win. That's all." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Gene Cherry)

It is also the first major test of Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who swept to office seven months ago with the promise to sweep away the corruption and inefficiency that has long been the hallmark of Indonesian politics and the way the world's 17th-largest city has been run.

The project, announced late on Thursday and which has been delayed for over two decades, would mark a rare bright spot in Indonesia's growing infrastructure bottleneck which threatens to throttle what have been record levels of investment in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

"Jokowi has no choice but to build the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit railway) to satisfy the emerging middle class," said Marco Kusumawijaya, head of Rujak, a Jakarta-based urban planning think-tank.

"But this will not solve the traffic problems of the city in the long run because the backlog of demand for public transport here is so huge. You can't solve this with one or two inner-city (subway) lines."

Two consortia of Japanese and Indonesian state-owned companies were due to begin construction on the initial US$1.7 billion phase of the MRT later this year, Jokowi told reporters.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has pledged to fund nearly 75 percent of the first line with a soft loan, with the Indonesian government picking up the rest.

The city of 10 million has tried various options to reduce cars on the streets. A rule in place for years which limits car using the main thoroughfare during rush hours to cars with three people is largely ineffective because "jockeys" line the roads to be extra passengers for a small payment.

There was an attempt at building a monorail in 2005, but it became mired in bureaucracy, ran out of funding and left unfinished concrete pillars dotting the business district.

Governor Widodo is seen as breathing new life into the city. A recent spree of firing and reshuffling high-level civil servants has earned him a reputation for being a strict and results-oriented leader.

When his deputy governor put a budget meeting on YouTube late last year, in which he bluntly took to task his senior officials, it attracted more than a million views.

But after seven months, Widodo has started to face criticism over delays in vital infrastructure projects that are key to improving the city's traffic and annual flooding problems.

An odd-even license plate system designed to reduce the number of cars on the streets has been pushed back six months. And the construction of a flood mitigation system has encountered several delays even as seasonal rains continue to inundate the city.

Other social assistance programs have been criticised as being rolled out too hastily. According to media, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi recently criticised the governor's move to give free access to healthcare for the poor, saying the city's hospitals were not equipped to deal with large numbers of patients.

The governor came under more fire when two children died last month after being turned away from hospitals that were too full.

But Widodo, who ran a furniture business before turning to politics, remains hugely popular and is widely seen as a potential candidate for president, possibly in next year's election.

(Reporting By Kanupriya Kapoor, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the ability of police to use a trained dog to sniff around the outside of a home for illegal drugs that might be inside.

By a 5-4 vote, the court said the use by law enforcement authorities of trained police dogs to investigate a home and its immediate surroundings was a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and required a warrant.

"A police officer not armed with a warrant may approach a home and knock, precisely because that is no more than any private citizen might do," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.

"But introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else," he added. "There is no customary invitation to do that."

For purposes of the Fourth Amendment, Scalia said, "the home is first among equals."

The decision upheld a 2011 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court suppressing evidence uncovered at Joelis Jardines' home with the help of Franky, a chocolate Labrador retriever with a strong record of sniffing out drug stashes.

Howard Blumberg, a public defender who argued Jardines' appeal, said he was pleased with the decision.

"It's a very important decision for all citizens, because it helps ensure their right of privacy in the places where they live," he said in a phone interview.

TWO DOG SNIFF CASES

Franky's handler, Detective Douglas Bartelt, had let the dog smell near the base of the front door of the home near Miami after receiving an anonymous tip about marijuana growing inside.

Only after the dog sat down, signaling an "alert" that something was amiss, did the police obtain a warrant to search inside.

The tip proved accurate and more than 25 pounds (11.3 kilograms) of marijuana were found inside, leading to Jardines' arrest.

Blumberg said Jardines is now in a Florida state prison on unrelated charges, but that Tuesday's decision ends the case stemming from the dog's search.

The decision is the court's second this term addressing whether law enforcement complied with the Fourth Amendment in obtaining drug evidence based on a sniffer dog's "alert."

On February 19, in another Florida case, the court unanimously allowed a search of Clayton Harris' pickup truck, saying the handler of a dog that signaled the presence of drug ingredients inside could reasonably believe that the dog was reliable.

A spokeswoman for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said her office is disappointed with the Jardines decision, but that the Harris decision allows police in other cases to rely on dogs to alert them to the presence of illegal drugs and to arrest people who possess them.

IDEOLOGICAL DIVIDE BREACHED

Tuesday's vote did not follow the Supreme Court's usual ideological divide.

Joining Scalia's opinion were Justice Clarence Thomas, who is one of the more conservative justices, and the more liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

In a concurring opinion, Kagan, joined by Ginsburg and Sotomayor, wrote that the search violated Jardines' reasonable expectation of privacy, an issue Scalia did not reach.

The search dog Franky "was not your neighbor's pet," Kagan wrote.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Justice Stephen Breyer.

The latter is part of the court's more liberal wing, but sometimes votes more conservatively in criminal cases.

Alito noted that law-enforcement authorities have employed dogs' acute sense of smell for centuries and the use of Franky was not a trespass and did not violate Jardines' privacy rights.

"A reasonable person understands that odors emanating from a house may be detected from locations that are open to the public," Alito wrote. "A reasonable person will not count on the strength of those odors remaining within the range that, while detectible by a dog, cannot be smelled by a human."

Scalia said using the dog was no different from using thermal imaging technology from afar to peer inside homes without a warrant, which the court voided in a 2001 decision he also wrote.

"The antiquity of the tools that they bring along is irrelevant," Scalia wrote, referring to police.

Scalia also wrote a 2012 decision that limited the police's use of GPS vehicle-tracking devices.

The case is Florida v. Jardines, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-564.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Christopher Wilson)

The Finger Lakes is in good company, and other lakeside destinations featured in the article include: Lac Leman in France/Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, Lake George in New York, Lake Como in Italy, Lake Louise in Canada, Lakes of Killarney in Ireland, Lake Tahoe, Lake of the Woods in Minnesota, Manitoba in Canada, and Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia.

“Visitors are drawn to the Finger Lakes and it is important the national media continues to recognize it,” said AJ Shear, Communications Manager for , Ontario County’s tourism office. “In 2011, travelers to the region spent $2.7 billion and national media coverage such as this certainly plays a role. As the nation pays more attention to the Finger Lakes, that number will surely grow.”

Social media wins such as this Yahoo! blog and others continue to play a role in raising awareness of the Finger Lakes. A 2012 study conducted by Finger Lakes Visitors Connection and Young Strategies, Inc. found that half of the respondents in a visitor survey indicated using a smart-phone device while traveling and one-third use a tablet while traveling or for pre-trip planning.

“People are using digital resources to plan their trips to the Finger Lakes and while using their iPads and smartphones, they are likely to seek out these blogs and other social media platforms to influence their travel decisions,” said Shear.

Finger Lakes Visitors Connection recently hosted four New York City-based lifestyle bloggers which resulted in additional national social media wins including 1 million Twitter impressions. Golf getaway packages from Ontario County have also recently been featured in blogs for web sites such as Travel + Leisure and PeterGreenberg.com.

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Finger Lakes Visitors Connection is the official tourism promotion agency for Ontario County and is located at 25 Gorham Street in Canandaigua. For more information, please visitor call the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection at 585-394-3915.

AJ ShearFinger Lakes Visitors Connection585-394-3915

Network NBC said on Monday that Green, a former judge on the popular contest, is slated to perform his new song "Only You." Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stewart will perform material from his upcoming album, "Time," his first release of original material in over a decade.

Stewart and Green will perform on the May 8 episode, while Grammy-winning country-pop trio Lady Antebellum will promote their forthcoming album "Golden" on the May 14 episode.

Pop singer Robin Thicke, singer-producer Pharrell Williams and rapper T.I. will all perform on the May 14 episode of "The Voice," which averages about 14 million viewers over its two weekly shows.

The competition's fourth season, which installed pop singers Shakira and Usher to replace Green and Christina Aguilera as judges, reaches its climax in June, when one of the aspiring contestants will be proclaimed the winner and get a recording contract.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey. Editing by Jill Serjeant and Andre Grenon)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday urged Congress to permanently boost U.S. funding for the International Monetary Fund, saying it was essential for Washington to maintain its influence at the global lender.

The Obama administration wants Congress to shift $63 billion from an IMF crisis fund to the IMF's general accounts in order to maintain U.S. power at the international lender and make good on an international commitment made in 2010.

The request, however, has been met with skepticism from some Republicans, who see it as tantamount to approving fresh funding in a tight budget year.

"I spent much of my professional life making tough budget choices, and I can say without reservation that we must continue to invest in the IMF," Lew told a House of Representatives subcommittee.

"The IMF's balance sheet is rock solid," the former White House budget chief added, trying to allay concerns that the money could somehow be lost. He noted the IMF's assets outstrip its credits to countries in the euro zone that are deep in debt, including Greece and Cyprus.

But at a separate hearing, Republican lawmakers raised concerns about how well the IMF was helping struggling economies in Europe and the risks attached to IMF loans, suggesting Congress was in no hurry to approve any changes to U.S. contributions.

"Although this (U.S. contribution to the IMF) is often characterized as an exchange of assets ... it cannot be considered as a zero-cost or a benign contribution," said Representative John Campbell, chairman of a House subcommittee on monetary policy and trade.

Testifying before the panel, Lael Brainard, Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, defended the safety of U.S. contributions to the Washington-based lender.

"If all the credit outstanding today were to go into default ... the reserves and the gold holdings of the IMF would be more than sufficient to completely cover all of those claims," she said. "So for that reason it is extremely hard to envisage circumstances where the U.S. taxpayer would be in any way at risk."

WAIT ON VOTES

Congressional approval of the IMF funding changes is necessary to complete reforms at the lender that the international community has already agreed upon to boost the voting power of emerging economies. The reforms would make China the IMF's third-largest member.

The reform of the voting shares, known as quotas, cannot proceed without the United States, which holds the only controlling share of IMF votes. Under the reform, U.S. voting power would decrease slightly but it would still maintain its veto.

"There are other countries that would be happy to increase their quotas and eliminate the U.S. veto," Lew said. "So, I think it's a matter of urgency that we have these reforms ratified."

He said IMF funding helps preserve U.S. business interests, by pushing for a level playing field for U.S. companies and protects U.S. national security by promoting economic stability in fragile states that could descend into political upheaval.

Washington's foot-dragging on IMF funding came under criticism at last week's meetings of the IMF and financial officials of the Group of 20 nations.

"Frankly speaking, some of us are losing patience already. The decision of this nation is very important for all," Russia's deputy finance minister, Sergei Storchak, said last week, referring to the United States.

But U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday made no firm commitments. Representative Kay Granger, the chairwoman of a House appropriations subcommittee that deals with U.S. foreign programs, said it was unclear that U.S. support for multilateral development institutions was effective.

"Funds are more difficult to track when they go through multilateral institutions rather than through bilateral assistance programs," she said.

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Andrea Ricci and Kenneth Barry)

LOS ANGELES, April 21 (Reuters) - All-Stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin usually command the spotlight for the Clippers but if the Los Angeles team goes deep into this season's playoffs, it will be because of the high-octane energy of their bench.

Spearheaded by former Sixth Man-of-the-Year Jamal Crawford, the Clippers reserves are arguably the best in the NBA, time and again giving their first unit welcome relief as they explode into action with their up-tempo style.

While most teams limit the on-court minutes spent by their back-up players in the post-season, the Clippers buck that trend by sticking to their usual rotation, confident that Crawford, Eric Bledsoe and company will at the very least maintain a lead, if not extend it.

"This is the deepest team I have ever been involved with," back-up forward Matt Barnes told Reuters after the Clippers outmuscled the Memphis Grizzlies 112-91 in their playoff opener on Saturday.

"We have got 13 guys that can play, and we played 12 against the Grizzlies. We just want to keep bringing that energy out on to the court.

"We are more of an up-tempo, running team, passing lanes and getting on fast breaks. We try to change the tempo from the starting unit and we did a good job on that (against Memphis)."

Asked what made the Clippers bench players so effective, Barnes replied: "We have a lot of depth and our coach (Vinny Del Negro) gives us a chance.

"Usually in the playoffs the rotation tightens a little bit but he is still going with our normal rotation and we are able to be effective. We've got a very deep team and we play hard."

Barnes, a nine-year league veteran who has played for eight different teams, was one of three Clippers reserves who got into double figures against fifth-seeded Memphis on Saturday, contributing 10 points.

Crawford, the 2010 Sixth Man-of-the-Year when he was playing for the Atlanta Hawks, added 13 points while speedy guard Bledsoe weighed in with 15 on seven-of-seven shooting from the field, along with six rebounds and four assists.

Back-up forward and former Lakers player Lamar Odom, who pulled in seven rebounds against the Grizzlies, has long admired his fellow reserves.

"With Jamal and other players who can come off the bench and get you double-doubles, double digits in assists or rebounds, this is one of the strongest benches that I've ever seen," Odom told Reuters.

However the 33-year-old, who has played 13 seasons in the NBA, would prefer to pass judgment until the Clippers have completed their post-season.

"For me, this team is going to be rated on how we finish the season, and that's when we can kind of rate where we stand," said Odom, who was awarded the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2011, becoming the first Lakers player to land the honor.

"It's going to be important for us to finish at the top of the mountain if we're going to give ourselves some credit, especially at this time of the year when it's all about how you finish the season."

The fourth-seeded Clippers never trailed on Saturday and, though the Grizzlies cut the deficit to just one point early in the fourth quarter, the home team pulled away as reserves Crawford, Bledsoe, Odom, Barnes and Ronny Turiaf got to work.

Clippers coach Del Negro was suitably impressed that his back-up men had, once again, justified their extended minutes on court.

"The bench has been so productive for us all season," Del Negro smiled. "It's a unique thing to have the depth that we have so why not use it? They deserve the right to be out there and they have been producing for us." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Gene Cherry)

Prosecutors filed a court document Friday that recommends the 45-year sentence for Floyd Corkins II. A security guard subdued Corkins in the lobby of the Family Research Council in August after he pointed a pistol at the man. Corkins fired three shots, and the guard was the only one injured. Corkins, who was carrying nearly 100 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches, later told authorities that he had planned to kill as many people as possible and then to smear the sandwiches on their faces as a political statement.

Chick-fil-A was making headlines at the time because of its president's stated opposition to gay marriage. The Family Research Council also opposes gay marriage, and police officers who responded to the shooting scene reported Corkins said he didn't like the group or what it stands for.

The government said in making its recommendation that if not for the security guard's actions, Corkins "would have almost certainly succeeded in committing a massacre of epic portions."

"Although the defendant largely failed to bring about the violence he sought, he was still able to accomplish one of his objectives that is, to use acts of violence to terrorize and intimidate those within the District of Columbia and the United States who did not share his political beliefs and views," government attorneys wrote.

Corkins, 28, told authorities he initially wanted to make a bomb but did not have the patience. He bought a gun in Virginia the week before the shooting and received private firearms training the night before his attack.

When Corkins was arrested, he was carrying a list of four socially conservative organizations written on a piece of paper printed with the Bible verse, "With God all things are possible." He told authorities that if he had not been caught at the Family Research Council he planned to go to the next organization on his list and shoot there as well. Prosecutors did not release the list of organizations. They said approximately 50 people were working inside the Family Research Council when Corkins arrived.

Corkins pleaded guilty to three charges in February: interstate transportation of a firearm, assault with intent to kill while armed and committing an act of terrorism while armed. The first charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and the two other charges carry a maximum 30 years in prison.

Sentencing is set for April 29.

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Follow Jessica Gresko at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

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