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Bonkers, right? All that violence, all that weird stuff with feet, organizing a 140-character army from his million-plus followers — you would have thought this reporter stepped on Baldwin's dog or, considering Baldwin's past, . But Stark, whose beat seems to revolve around  and , just reported that Hilaria Baldwin had been busy tweeting next to her husband from inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine during the otherwise very for the Sopranos actor on Thursday morning.  

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"Hilaria posted tweets at 9.53am, 10.17am and 11.09am," . If you look on Hilaria Baldwin's , some of the tweets Stark cites actually show that they were posted after the funeral let out, around 1 p.m. This is the 10:17 a.m. tweet Stark cites, presumably the one that led launched the homophobic rant: 

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So that sort of looks like Baldwin is somewhat right. But when you've got a history ofaltercation, angryfor your daughter, a racial  for a photographer, and Twitterwith the likes of Dean Skelos, well, let's just say nobody wins in a Twitter war about Twitter, and sometimes it's best to leave the attention on those resting in peace.

The 400-acre area known as Castle Rocks has been closed off and on to climbers since 2003, and may close permanently sometime this summer. Agency officials say they hope make a decision this month, depending how much feedback they receive from the public.

Mike Courtney, BLM field manager in Burley, said both the Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute tribes consider the land sacred and are worried cultural resources could be destroyed if climbing continues. BLM surveys have determined the region contains important archaeological resources and artifacts, including spearheads dating back thousands of years.

Courtney said the agency spent time combing the trail routes and climbing walls with the intention of finding middle ground with sport climbing enthusiasts. But unfortunately, Courtney said, environmental impact studies showed all the climbing areas posed at least some risk to resources the agency aims to protect.

"We kept running into resource issues with the locations of the trails and the potential climbing routes," Courtney said Friday. "We inventoried the entire area, and a lot of the areas at risk are the most desirable (climbing) areas."

Citing those and other reasons, a report from the BLM dated April 12 proposed closing the Cassia County area to climbers for good, although hikers and hunters would still have access to existing trails. Courtney said the plan targets climbing because soil erosion and vegetation destruction are most severe around staging areas, the spot near rock walls where climbers prepare for their assent.

But the BLM's plan has left regional climbers upset. They argue they've offered less prohibitive proposals that still protect the area's abundant cultural heritage and environment.

"They reversed course really quickly and went from considering the climbing management plan to coming to a decision that banned climbing right away," said R.D. Pascoe, a policy director with the climber advocacy group Access Fund.

Pascoe argues rock climbers are willing to avoid historical or archeologically significant sites, and his organization and local climbers came up with a plan that offered guidelines for when the BLM can close certain routes.

The BLM's most recent proposal, he said, unnecessarily eliminates all climbing access.

Several other routes at the nearby City of Rocks Natural Reserve will remain open for climbers. But Doug Colwell, founder of the Boise Climbers Alliance, said Castle Rocks is considered a national or even international destination by many of the sport's enthusiasts.

"When you go down there on Memorial Day weekend you will see people from other countries because it's a very well-known intermediate rock climbing area," Colwell said. "We believe there are areas we could compromise on."

Li's workforce in the southeastern city of Wenzhou has shrunk by half to 300 this year and he isn't replacing employees who leave. He said he used to borrow money but is preparing to do without credit that might no longer be available as regulators try to force Chinese banks to cool a lending boom they worry could race out of control.

"The authorities' shifting policies are not offering stable surroundings for businesspeople to be confident to work," said Li. "I won't try to get loans for my business any more. I'll wait and see how the market and policies are doing. I won't invest, either."

A cash shortage that hit China's credit markets this month was the first shock wave from what analysts say could be Beijing's most drastic clampdown on credit in two decades. The central bank has called for tighter lending standards, which should reduce risk but is likely to reduce financing for a private sector that generates China's new jobs and wealth.

China will benefit in the long run from a safer financial system, but the short-term cost could be a painful squeeze on entrepreneurs. Some say a recovery that already was faltering could weaken further.

"It's going to be a bloodbath," said Anne Stevenson-Yang, research director of J Capital Research in Beijing.

"Rates are shooting up in the private market and regular commercial loans are being pulled back very quickly," she said. "All industrial businesses here run on credit, so as soon as you close that down, they just stop producing and selling stuff."

The government has yet to say how extensive the controls will be or what it might do to ensure lending for producers who Chinese leaders have said they want to support.

Some branches of two of China's biggest lenders Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have temporarily suspended lending to businesses and individuals, the business magazine Caixin reported, citing sources at the banks.

The credit clampdown hits amid uncertainty about whether China's lackluster recovery from its deepest downturn since the 2008 global crisis is stalling.

Economic growth decelerated to 7.7 percent in the first quarter from 7.9 percent the previous quarter. May retail sales fell short of forecasts and export growth slowed. An HSBC Corp. survey of manufacturers showed June activity fell to a nine-month low and was contracting.

Tighter credit controls could cause growth to dip below 7 percent in coming quarters, according to Nomura economist Zhiwei Zhang. That would be China's weakest performance since the early 1990s.

Harder times for Chinese entrepreneurs could have global repercussions. China's slowdown already is depressing demand for iron ore, copper and other commodities, crimping the flood of money that drove a boom for Australia, Brazil and other suppliers. Demand for industrial components from Southeast Asia and factory equipment from the United States and Europe could be hurt if credit-starved manufacturers put off purchases.

The crackdown is part of a broader effort by communist leaders to shift China to slower, more sustainable growth based on domestic consumption after a decade of explosive expansion driven by exports, investment and cheap credit. The ruling party's growth target this year is 7.5 percent, down by almost half from 2007's staggering 14.2 percent.

"The episode is arguably the strongest sign yet that the leadership is willing to suffer short-term economic pain if necessary to achieve more sustainable growth," said Capital Economics analyst Mark Williams in a report.

A key goal appears to be to force banks to reduce their role in channeling money into unregulated, profitable and risky underground lending that is a pillar of support for entrepreneurs who cannot get formal loans from state banks.

Money for informal lending came at first from individuals who wanted a better return on their savings but much of it now comes from state banks. They hid the lending from regulators, who worry they have taken on undisclosed risks in the event of defaults.

Even before the credit squeeze, underground borrowers paid interest of up to 70 percent a year more than 10 times the benchmark rate for formal loans. Estimates of outstanding loans run as high as 4 trillion yuan ($650 billion), or as much as 7 percent of China's total credit.

Li, the entrepreneur in Wenzhou, said he borrowed from both state banks and informal lenders to expand his business. He said he paid 6 to 14 percent in annual interest for bank loans and up to 70 percent for underground loans.

"Is it possible to find any country whose interest rate is higher than China?" he said.

Communist leaders allowed informal lending to grow over the past decade to support entrepreneurs. But regulators began to worry after the 2008 global crisis when they found banks were putting their own money into informal lending, taking on unreported higher risks.

Money flowed to entrepreneurs to pay for equipment and raw materials but it also flooded into speculation in stocks and real estate. Regulators ordered banks to tighten lending standards but worried credit still was growing too fast.

The squeeze on China's credit markets hit after banks that quickly expanded lending this year tried to replenish their resources by borrowing from institutions that had more cash.

Analysts say bankers expected the People's Bank of China to inject extra money into that interbank market. But the central bank refused to play lender of last resort, causing a credit shortage. Interest paid by banks for an overnight loan spiked from the normal 2-3 percent to a record 13.4 percent. That ignited fears China might face a credit crisis and caused stock prices to tumble.

Some analysts said the central bank is partly to blame because it failed to make clear how tough its stance would be.

Its behavior was "extraordinarily reckless," said Williams in his report.

On Monday, the central bank blamed commercial lenders and told them to do a better job of forecasting funding needs. The official Xinhua News Agency accused banks of taking on extra risk by diverting money into speculation and unreported lending.

"It is not that there is no money but that the money is being put in the wrong place," Xinhua said in a commentary.

On Tuesday, the central bank eased off, promising "liquidity support" to banks that run short of cash.

Still, the central bank told commercial lenders again to cut back on risky practices, which will mean less credit for borrowers outside the circle of politically favored state companies.

"Small and medium-size business will take the pressure of this credit crunch, that is for sure," said Yin Jianfeng, deputy director of the finance research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank.

Many Chinese entrepreneurs have learned to live without credit. That has made them flexible and resilient but reformers say it has held back growth of private industry Beijing needs to encourage if China's growth is to stay strong.

Elsewhere in the financial system, regulators also are cracking down on other sources of financing.

Rural credit cooperatives have been ordered to review use of promisory notes, which are meant for small transactions but are being used by banks to hide loans, Caixin said this month. It said lending using promisory notes, which don't count against a bank's government-imposed credit limit, quadrupled last year to 1.2 trillion yuan ($200 billion).

The government is taking action in part because economic planners see diminishing returns from new investments.

Bank lending surged in the first three months of the year even as economic growth decelerated. Analysts said that suggested a big share of lending went to pay off other loans or trading stocks, real estate and other assets instead of industrial investment.

Total credit compared to annual economic output has risen by 50 percentage points to 210 percent since the 2008 global crisis, according to UBS economist Tao Wang.

The underground lending industry was battered by the slump in global demand in 2010. That caused a wave of business failures and defaults, prompting protests in some areas and making savers wary of lending.

Chinese leaders have promised repeatedly to have state banks lend more to the private sector. But most loans still go to state enterprises that have close ties with banks and influential officials. Entrepreneurs say it is no easier to get a loan.

The promise of more lending "is only an aspiration," said Yin, the CASS researcher. "If nothing changes in the system, the difficulty of financing the private sector will remain unresolved."

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AP researchers Fu Ting in Shanghai and Flora Ji in Beijing contributed.

The Deerfield, Ill., company missed Wall Street forecasts, and its earnings grew largely because of the comparison with last year's quarter, when a business split had hurt its performance.

Several analysts said they were surprised by a weaker than expected expansion in this year's quarter of Walgreen's gross margin, which is a basic measure of profitability. That could indicate that the nation's largest drugstore operator is losing faster than expected a key boost it had been receiving from generic drugs, said Edward Jones analyst Judson Clark.

An influx of generic medications has helped drugstore bottom lines for several quarters now because they come with a wider margin between the cost for the pharmacy to purchase the drugs and the reimbursement it receives.

The generic wave was driven by the expiration of patents protecting top-sellers like the cholesterol fighter Lipitor. But that benefit is expected to wane because there are fewer significant patent expirations waiting to refuel it.

That decreasing generic benefit plus a promotional push to boost sales in store front ends, or the area outside the pharmacy, could hurt Walgreen's profitability in future quarters, said Credit Suisse analyst Edward J. Kelly, who called the results released Tuesday "fairly disappointing."

"This quarter is not a great signal for the near-term," he wrote in an email.

Walgreen shares fell 5.9 percent, or $2.83, to close at $45.22 Tuesday, while broader trading indexes climbed slightly. But the stock price had already advanced 30 percent so far this year before Tuesday, and Clark said that gain is part of the reason shares fell so much after the company released earnings.

"We think this is still a good business and an appropriate price," he said.

Overall, Walgreen earned $624 million, or 65 cents per share, in the quarter that ended in May. That's up from $537 million, or 62 cents per share, a year ago, when the company had fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue rose about 3 percent to $18.31 billion.

Adjusted earnings amounted to 85 cents per share, excluding expenses such as acquisition and legal costs.

Analysts forecast earnings of 91 cents per share on $18.4 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Last year, Walgreen and the nation's biggest pharmacy benefits manager, Express Scripts Holding Co., had a contract squabble that kept them from doing business for about nine months. That hurt the drugstore chain's results as many Walgreen customers migrated to competitors for their prescriptions, at least temporarily.

The companies resumed doing business last September, and Walgreen says customers have been returning to its stores.

Walgreen said Tuesday that results in this year's quarter also were helped by its acquisition of a stake in European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots. That contributed about 10 cents per share to the U.S. company's adjusted earnings.

Walgreen said revenue from stores open at least a year climbed 1.4 percent in the quarter, but front-end sales barely rose.

Company leaders said that did not meet their expectations. They said a soft economy has hurt those results, especially in stores in lower-income neighborhoods.

"I can assure you that improving our front end is a high priority," CEO Greg Wasson said.

He said the company has started to customize its advertising circulars more toward individual communities. Walgreen also is using buying trends it gleans from its Balance Rewards customer loyalty program to tailor its promotions. The program lets shoppers pile up points for purchases that they can then translate into cash rewards to use at company stores, and it also gives Walgreen more insight into customer buying patterns.

Walgreen runs 8,097 drugstores nationwide, or 207 more than it did last year. That's more than the totals for CVS Caremark Corp. and Rite Aid Corp.

The 47-year-old spent the last two seasons on the Indiana Pacers coaching staff after serving the six previous years with the Los Angeles Lakers under Phil Jackson.

He will take over from Coach of the Year George Karl, who was let go at the end of a season that saw the Nuggets eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

"I'm very appreciative of the opportunity to lead this team," Shaw told the Denver Post. "Everything that's worth something, a lot of times you have to wait for it. I feel like I've waited and paid my dues."

Shaw played for seven different teams during a 14-year career and was a member of the Lakers' team that won three championships in a row from 2000-2002. (Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California is being joined by representatives of New York, Florida and Guam in seeking changes to a proposal they say would take away a state tool to protect shark populations.

California, Hawaii, New York and several other states have passed regulations on the sale and trade of shark fins, which are used in a soup considered an Asian delicacy. California's ban on the sale, trade and possession of shark fins will go into effect Monday after a compromise allowed time for restaurants and businesses to use up their existing supplies.

A letter from the representatives and the delegate from Guam states that a proposed rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries management division, the National Marine Fisheries Services, would undermine those laws. California state lawmakers were also circulating an opposition letter.

"If we are to address the problem of shark-finning head on, we must allow state and territorial statutes to complement the federal regulations and further the U.S. leadership in global shark conservation," states the letter, which has not yet been sent to the fisheries service but was given in advance to The Associated Press.

In addition to Huffman, it is to be signed by Democratic Reps. Sam Farr of California and Grace Meng of New York, Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan and Democratic Delegate Madeleine Bordallo of Guam. Their letter is dated July 8, which is when the public comment period on the proposed rule is scheduled to end.

A request for comment was left with a press officer for the National Marine Fisheries Services.

The proposal under consideration says state and territory shark fin laws are pre-empted if they are found to be inconsistent with federal fishery management plans or regulations.

Conservation and animal welfare groups have begun circulating petitions against the proposal, but representatives of the fishing industry have argued that federal pre-emption is necessary to maintain fishing of commercially viable shark species.

Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 in an effort to strengthen federal laws against shark finning in U.S. waters and require that sharks be landed with their fins still attached. Since then, the fisheries service has been working to craft regulations to implement the act.

Conservation and animal advocacy groups said fishermen have been able to sidestep the rules by taking only the fins of sharks and dumping the carcasses back into the sea. Advocates say tens of millions of sharks are killed each year for the worldwide demand of shark fins and products.

Jill Hepp, director of shark conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said states should have the right to go beyond federal rules in protecting shark populations.

"If this goes forward as they are proposing, this has the potential to undermine the states' shark fin trade ban and it would be a considerable setback for global shark conservation," Hepp said.

But John Whiteside, an attorney for Sustainable Fisheries Association, a Massachusetts nonprofit founded by four seafood processors, said the federal government should have the final say over regulations, especially fish caught in federal waters.

Not doing so would violate trade laws and run afoul of treaties the federal government has with governments around the world, he said. Commercial fishing groups were successful at getting exemptions in some states for certain species of sharks, such as the dogfish, a small shark also used for fish and chips that is sustainably harvested.

However, California provides no such exemption.

"You're building a wall around the state of California from which the free flow of legal goods is forbidden," he said. "If you have these states around the country that build these little islands, you can't have the free flow of commerce and that's what this country needs."

Jennifer Fearing, California director for The Humane Society of the United States, said the state drafted its bill specifically to ban the sale of shark fins, no matter where the shark was caught.

She noted that a federal judge let California's ban stand earlier this year after the nonprofit Chinatown Neighborhood Association argued in part that state law violated Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce.

"It's not California sharks being finned," she said. "It's dried processed shark fins arriving here already processed and dried. We have no idea where those sharks come from and the only way California can protect sharks globally is if they were not selling."

California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Washington have passed laws banning the buying and selling of shark fins, according to the Humane Society. Similar bans are in effect in three U.S. Pacific territories Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Hawaii state Sen. Clayton Hee, a Democrat who wrote the bill that made the 50th state the first to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins, said Friday that he can't think of another incentive for the rule changes unless the agencies are arguing that there are too many sharks in the ocean.

"It's baffling to me why a government agency would work to rid the ocean of its health by taking sharks," Hee said.

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Associated Press writer Oskar Garcia in Honolulu contributed to this report.

The Australian world number four has finished in the top three for the past two years at the PGA Tour event, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, and he has always enjoyed playing golf in the general area of suburban Washington.

"It's definitely a tournament I look forward to and this golf club, I think, fits my game well," Scott told reporters ahead of Thursday's opening round.

"I have had a couple of good results here over the years, and in the area for that matter, winning a while back at the old Booz Allen, so it's good to be back here this week."

Scott tied for third in 2011 before finishing alone in third place last year. He had previously triumphed at the 2004 Booz Allen Classic, held at the nearby TPC at Avenel course in Potomac, Maryland.

This week, Scott will be aiming to clinch a 10th career title on the PGA Tour, while also keeping one eye on the July 18-21 British Open at Muirfield in Scotland, the third of the year's four majors.

"I'm looking to build a bit of momentum to go into the Open and build the confidence back to where I want it heading towards a major championship," the 32-year-old said.

"I want to contend. Since the Masters, I've not really been in contention, so getting those feelings would be nice again."

Scott, who landed his first major title with a playoff victory over Argentina's Angel Cabrera at the Masters in April, heads a strong field at Congressional where American world number eight Brandt Snedeker is also competing.

DOUBLE BLOW

However, the tournament was dealt a double blow over the past week with the withdrawals of defending champion Woods and U.S. Open winner Justin Rose.

World number one Woods pulled out on the advice of his doctors to rest a left elbow strain while third-ranked Englishman Rose opted out due to fatigue since he clinched his first major victory at the U.S. Open 10 days ago.

"I'm disappointed to withdraw from the AT&T National, but the last three weeks have been extremely demanding both mentally and physically," Rose said on Monday.

"This tournament has been very good to me - especially in 2010 - and I would play if I felt I could. Tiger (Woods) and his Foundation run a great tournament, and I wish I could be there."

Rose, who won the AT&T National in 2010 when it was held at Aronimink, has been replaced in the field at Congressional by American Brendon Todd.

Also competing this week is PGA Tour veteran Ken Duke, who is still riding the crest of a wave of emotion after notching his first win on the U.S. circuit in 187 starts at the Travelers Championship on Sunday.

"I think my caddie and I will be talking about what happened last week and probably not focus on this week, but sometimes that's good because you don't think about what's going on," Duke said.

"You just go have fun. Everyone's going to say, 'I hope he wins again.' Well, I do too."

Duke, at the age of 44, became the PGA Tour's oldest first-time winner in 18 years when he edged out fellow American Chris Stroud on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

The star third baseman tweeted Tuesday night that his hip surgeon has cleared him to play in rehabilitation games, a move that angered Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, according to ESPN.com.

"You know what, when the Yankees want to announce something, (we will)," Cashman told the website.

"Alex should just shut ... up," the GM said, punctuating his comment with a profanity.

Cashman added that he planned to get in touch with Rodriguez right away.

The general manager did not respond to calls from The Associated Press.

Rodriguez had left hip surgery on Jan. 16 and has been working out since May at the Yankees' Tampa complex. The three-time AL MVP took swings in a simulated-game situation for the first time on Monday.

On Tuesday night, he posted a message on Twitter: "Visit from Dr. Kelly over the weekend, who gave me the best news the green light to play games again!" Rodriguez also posted a photo of himself and Dr. Brian Kelly, who performed the operation in New York.

Rodriguez did not stop to speak with reporters Wednesday when he drove into the team's minor league complex in Tampa, Fla.

"I will continue to work hard until my efforts get me back in pinstripes and help my team win," Rodriguez said in a statement. "The tweet was pure excitement about Dr. Kelly's prognosis."

Cashman recently said Yankees doctors have not yet cleared A-Rod for minor league rehab games.

"I don't tweet, and I really don't follow Twitter. So I probably don't really know much of what is going on. As far as I know he has not been cleared," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Tuesday night after his team's 4-3 victory over Texas.

"There's always a chain of command with injuries. There has to be and that's the process. It goes through our training staff, our doctors and our GM and then it goes to me. I'm down on the totem pole."

Before the game and Rodriguez's tweet Girardi said Rodriguez "is making progress, which is good."

"He's in sim games until they decide he's ready to go out on a rehab. It's not yet," the manager said.

New to Twitter, Rodriguez sent his first tweet on May 31. He is expected to return to the Yankees around the All-Star break, shortly before he turns 38.

Benched by the team as he slumped through last year's playoffs, A-Rod has been in the news a lot lately even though he has spent almost no time with the Yankees this season. He is among the 20 or so players who may be disciplined by Major League Baseball for their links to the now-closed Miami anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America. A first offense under baseball's drug program results in a 50-game suspension and a second in a 100-game ban, but players don't serve penalties for a first offense until after any grievance is decided.

Rodriguez admitted in 2009 that he used performance-enhancing drugs while with the Rangers from 2001-03. As baseball's highest-paid player with a $28 million salary this year, he would lose $7.65 million during a 50-game ban if it is served this year.

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AP freelance writer Mark Didtler in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.