Some of the fast-track reforms he championed in August 2011 have been slowed down by the governing body's legislative process. Simplifying the rule book has proven trickier than expected. His own enforcement staff got swept into a major scandal earlier this year, and Emmert has come under increasing scrutiny for presiding over all of this.

Yes, it's been a rough start to 2013.

"It's just a demonstration that this is a membership association and decision-making is hard. It's hard to find agreement among all the members and that's the nature of democratic processes," Emmert told The Associated Press this week. "As Winston Churchill put it, it's the worst of all systems except for everything else."

At least Emmert can still laugh a little as the NCAA's board of directors prepares to meet Thursday. A lot has changed since the committee last met in person in mid-January.

Shortly after that meeting, Emmert announced publicly that the NCAA had botched its investigation of the University of Miami. A monthlong external investigation confirmed the initial findings and led to the ouster of NCAA enforcement director Julie Roe Lach. As speculation swirled about Emmert's own future, the board issued a rare -- and perhaps unprecedented -- vote of confidence in his leadership.

Last month, the board suspended rules passed in January that would have deregulated which coaching staff members could perform recruiting tasks and what printed materials could be sent to recruits. It also agreed to take a second look at a new rule that would have prohibited coaches from scouting future opponents in person and watched closely as at least 75 schools, the minimum needed to override a board vote, objected to allowing coaches unlimited contacts with recruits outside the traditional non-contact periods.

Those rules went into effect in men's and women's basketball last summer, and the coaches approve. Football coaches don't see it the same way.

"We have serious concerns whether these proposals, as currently written, are in the best interest of high school student-athletes, their families and their coaches," the Big Ten coaches and athletic directors said in critiquing the changes in February. "We are also concerned about the adverse effect they would have on college coaches, administrators and university resources."

It's enough to even make Emmert consider the possibility of implementing sport-specific rules -- something that would cut against his initial argument to shrink and simplify the NCAA's massive rulebook.

There was also Emmert's annual Final Four press conference, which turned contentious. Emmert now acknowledges the tone didn't help either side but made no apologies for what was said.

Two more enforcement staff members have left in the past month, and during Tuesday's opening remarks to a seemingly friendly audience at the NCAA's second Inclusion Forum, Emmert was questioned about the impact of the academic reforms that established new, tougher eligibility standards for incoming freshmen. The man who asked wondered if it would cause a growing disparity among college athletes from low-resource schools. Emmert explained that the new standards would lead to better results, such as higher graduation rates, rather than negative consequences.

In the background are a number of lawsuits against the NCAA, including the high-profile suit from Ed O'Bannon and others over the use of amateur athletes' images. Some critics have continued to call for a change at the top.

Don't bet on it after the board's unusual February announcement.

"Well, it was (unusual), but it was an unusual moment," Emmert said when asked directly about the vote of confidence. "They decided to take that action and there was, at that moment, I think so much discussion out there that they felt the need to make clear that they were supporting what I was engaging, a task that they wanted me involved in. I have great confidence in the board and the agenda we are trying to work through."

Several board members did not return messages seeking comment from the AP.

The hardest part is that little has gone right lately for Emmert and the Indianapolis-based NCAA. Thursday's agenda illustrates what's at stake.

More discussion is expected on a rule passed in October 2011 that allowed schools to give athletes up to $2,000 beyond the cost of tuition, room and board, books and fees. It was later overridden by the membership and the board has spent more than a year working on a new proposal.

Additional discussions are expected on a second phase of rulebook changes.

The board plans to talk about the recruiting rules that are now on hold. The board could take action, though the American Football Coaches Association has said the NCAA has asked the organization to serve on an advisory committee that will help draft modified legislation.

That's why Emmert describes this meeting as "framing" the big issues for the future rather than a headline-grabbing action meeting.

"We've been making really good progress, really great headway on a whole host of issues most notably the academic and rules reforms," Emmert said. "The work we've conducted on all of our enforcement work and those things have been really positive. Obviously, the distractions of the Miami case and the way that was handled have been frustrating to no end."

David Sejusa, one of only six generals in the Ugandan military and a member of its high command, said in a recent letter to the head of the internal security service that he wants an investigation into allegations that those opposed to Museveni's son as a future leader could be targeted for assassination.

The allegations by a military official believed to be near the center of power have shocked many in Uganda. The army's top commander ruled Sejusa "out of order" and accused him of subverting the country's military laws. Some analysts now believe the apparent division among the military's top brass suggests a power struggle amid uncertainty over when Museveni, in power for almost three decades, will retire and who might replace him.

Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, the army's top commander, issued a statement Tuesday saying the military was offended by Sejusa's letter, in which Sejusa alleged that the idea of Museveni's son taking over as president when his father retires "is becoming divisive and creating fertile ground for causing intrigue" in the armed forces.

"The (Ugandan military) takes exception to the fact that the spirit of the general's letter simply champions the agenda of the radical and anarchic political opposition, hence rendering him partisan," Nyakairima's statement said. "I would like to take this opportunity to reassure the general public that the (Ugandan military) is a cohesive, effective, efficient and pro-people force ... loyal to the people, the commander-in-chief and the constitution of Uganda."

Museveni's son, a senior army officer named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted over the years, leading some to believe he's being groomed to succeed his father. Last year he was made an army brigadier in changes that also saw him become the top commander of the country's special forces, an elite unit widely seen as the most powerful in the military. The special forces guard the country's oil installations and are also in charge of the president's security. In this position Kainerugaba answers to his father.

Museveni, himself a serving army general, has never publicly said he wants his son to succeed him. But rumors to the contrary have persisted, fuelled in part by the son's strong position in a military institution that wields substantial power in this East African country.

Angelo Izama, a Ugandan analyst who runs a security think tank called Fanaka Kwawote, said there was likely a power struggle within the army ranks as the older generation of army officers gradually loses power to the new guard, of which Kainerugaba is the most prominent member. Sejusa is one of the original bush-war fighters at the side of Museveni when his rebels took Kampala in 1986.

"The younger officers are now effectively in charge," Izama said. "Some of these things reflect the older officers' disenchantment with this state of affairs. Succession has already begun in the military, and it has proceeded apace."

It remains unclear if Museveni will seek another term in office when his current one expires in 2016.

Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, a prominent Ugandan lawyer and political analyst, said Sejusa had given voice to an issue that few in the military have the courage to speak of.

"It's a fact that he's not alone in thinking this way about Museveni's son," Rwakafuuzi said. "Many of the army officers haven't spoken their mind, but they know that Muhoozi's meteoric rise does not augur well for politics in this country."

Now, he's got an app.

Koger came to Philadelphia this week to demonstrate the i-limb ultra revolution, a prosthetic developed by the British firm Touch Bionics. Using a stylus and an iPhone, Koger can choose any of 24 grip patterns that best suit his needs.

It's the latest evolution in equipment for Koger, a 34-year-old married father of three from Owensboro, Ky., who lost his hands in an all-terrain vehicle accident in 2008.

"Five years ago, I couldn't pull my pants up by myself," said Koger. "Today, I go hunting and do some of the things that I probably never imagined I could have done five years ago."

The technology indicates how rapidly the field of prosthetics is changing, benefiting patients from injured military members to victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Practitioners say increased government research in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is driving some of the advances.

In Koger's case, he was shocked by a downed power line. He went into a coma and had no idea until he woke up three days later that doctors had amputated both his limbs at mid-forearm.

His wife spent those three days researching prosthetics, Koger said.

Since then, he's used a variety of prostheses, which he considers like tools different extensions for different tasks. Electric hooks have allowed him to pursue his passion for hunting. Myoelectric hands, which react to electrical impulses generated by his remaining arm muscles, offer more precise movements.

The previous version of Koger's myoelectric device required programming by a prosthetist, meaning Koger had to fly to Advanced Arm Dynamics in Dallas. The prosthetist would work with Koger to pick a few grip patterns such as pinching, pointing or shaking hands to program into the i-limb.

Yet sometimes Koger would get home and realize they weren't the ones he needed. Now, the latest i-limb comes with iPhone or iPad app that allows Koger to reprogram his hand with the touch of a stylus. On Thursday, he demonstrated by gripping an orange, a baseball and a can of soda.

The i-limb allows fingers and thumbs move independently to conform around certain objects, said Ryan Spill, a prosthetist for Advanced Arm Dynamics' new office in Philadelphia, who is working with Koger. The thumb is also motorized, not passive, as in previous prostheses.

The Boston Marathon bombings, which wounded more than 260 people including many with serious leg injuries, have shined a light on the advances in prostheses. But experts note that technology for upper extremity bionics, which involve fine motor skills, is much different from what's needed for lower extremities, which focuses on weight distribution and gait.

There have also been huge advances in computerized knees and feet, said Joe Reda, assistant director of orthotic and prosthetic services at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, N.J.

"The changes are happening rather rapidly now and I think it's because of our wars overseas," said Reda. "The government is trying to put more money into research and development."

The i-limb ultra revolution costs about $100,000, though some insurance might cover it. Koger, who received his free in exchange for testing them and providing feedback, met Friday in Philadelphia with other amputees interested in the new technology.

Mark Dowling, 50, of Newark, Del., lost his arm to cancer several months ago. He said he cried while watching Koger demonstrate how the hand worked.

"I'm very touched with his story," Dowling said.

___

Online:

http://www.jasonkoger.com

http://www.touchbionics.com

http://www.armdynamics.com

___

Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund with Alliance for a Better Community, HOPE, MALDEF, NCLR and media partners ABC 7, La Opinion, and Telemundo 52 have joined together to host the Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Forum. Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel will hear from members of the Latino community on Saturday, May 4 at the Coconut Grove Auditorium at Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.

ABC 7 Reporter Carlos Granda will moderate the forum and La Opinion Reporter Pilar Marrero, Loyola Marymount University Professor Fernando Guerra and KNBC 4 Reporter Lolita Lopez will serve as panelists that will ask questions that highlight the diverse perspectives of Latino stakeholders on the City, its future, and what issues are most important for the candidates to address days before the May 21 election.

Questions were shaped by community forums held in key regions of the city, including Boyle Heights, Northeast Los Angeles, Mid-City/Pico-Union, South Los Angeles, Northeast San Fernando Valley, and the Central San Fernando Valley that targeted this increasingly significant sector of the electorate. Latinos are poised to play a decisive role in the election this month, with the community accounting for half the population and one-third of all voters in Los Angeles.

The Forum is open to the organizations' Los Angeles-based constituencies and members of the community at large.

What:Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Forum

When and Where:

Saturday, May 4, 2013 Registration 9 A.M. 10 A.M.Forum: 10 A.M. 12 P.M.Robert F. Kennedy Community SchoolsCoconut Grove Auditorium701 S. Catalina Street. Los Angeles, CA 90005

About NALEO Educational FundNALEO Educational Fund is the nation's leading organization that facilitates the full participation of Latinos in the American political process, from citizenship to public service.

Contact: Amanda Bosquez, (202) 546-2536, ext. 12, (361) 548-6989 (cell)

Paula Valle Castanon, (213) 747-7606 ext. 4414, (323) 253-6431 (cell)

SOURCE NALEO Educational Fund

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Led Zeppelin, that band that wrote the book on heavy rock, is now helping to rewrite the book on digital publications.

Acclaimed rock photographer Neal Preston's new e-book breaks ground for the genre with interactive video, 80 contact sheets and photos never previously published.

Preston followed the band throughout the '70s and opened up his vast archive to create a rich, intimate experience with the world of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Sharon Waxman grilled Preston on "Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury," which was published on Monday and available on iTunes. You've had this archive forever, but you only published many of these photos now. Were you just waiting for the iPad to be born?

No. I wasn't even waiting for computers to be born. This is the direction that book publishing is taking. It's a little leap of faith, we're in uncharted territory here.

How so?

It differs exponentially from a traditional coffee-table book. The photos look killer on the new iPad with the retina display. It was a way to really give the fans even more of what they so crave - all that behind-the-scenes stuff. In this kind of book you can include so much more -- audio captions, video interviews.

You shot that famous photo of Jimmy Page drinking from a Jack Daniels bottle backstage. Do you tell that story?

There's audio caption of taking that photo. Sometimes you remember shooting a picture, sometimes you don't. I remember that photo. I happened to be sitting to his right in the dressing room; I had a Nikon with a 24mm lens on my lap, and I was going to say something to Jimmy and I saw the bottle move toward his mouth and I picked up the camera, shot one frame, and I don't know if he even realized I was there shooting it.

Was he upset that you published it?

I don't believe we released that photo initially. I was brought in to work for them. In 1970 I was 18 and I ended up at press conference to announce that Led Zeppelin had supplanted the Beatles as No. 1 band in the world in a MelodyMaker poll.

The reason I was hired was they were notoriously cloistered. Not secretive but with very small inner circle unlike the Stones, when Mick Jagger had 100 people getting his laundry. It was pretty amazing they let any photographer come in and have the run of the store. I was that guy.

How did that come about?

Danny Goldberg, their publicist, hired me. I'd done work for the band through Atlantic Records. He called me up and said: "Pack your bags if you want to go on tour with us." I got that call in November 1974. January 1975 I was working for them.

What's so great about these images is you really feel like you're on stage with those guys.

In one of those, Jimmy's looking right at me, there's dry ice, you see Robert - during song called "No Quarter." Right after I shot that he came up to me and started talking to me. Reason I love that photo is that it feels like being on stage with Led Zeppelin. It sucks you right in.

Access is the currency I have to trade in. Night after night, day after day, week after week, as a photojournalist, you become invisible. When you become invisible, that's when you can capture the magic.

Did the band approve the photos in book?

No, the band was not part of this book, though they received it and I understand they like it very much. This was a different platform, and a new one, and one that hasn't really been exploited in terms of this kind of book, this kind of band.

This book is $9.99 - it's inexpensive compared to a coffee-table book. Is this the world photographers live in now? It's a digital book. You can't have tactile experience with it. However, this is the way publishing is going. There are two things that I hope people get out of this book. One is for the fans, it's a total wet dream. It's right up the vein.

To get the contact proof sheet - you start to see photographically how I think. They can hear the stories they wouldn't hear unless they were up in my house having dinner. And I hope fans get a sense of how much of myself I've put into this book.

I'm very proud of my writing. Stevie Nicks did my intro, because back in the day, she was the first person who sat and looked at a stack of my prints, and said, "You've got to do a book."

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Theis that the set will last a full day without a charge. But, with normal face-computer use, such as checking emails, taking some pictures, and recording short video, the "poor" battery life lasted five hours, before it "unceremoniously shut itself down," . Not that a lot of people are going to want to walk around for more than five hours with a computer on their heads, but still: Google promised a full day of wearability, and with heavier use, other users saw way worse results. One six-minute video drained 20 percent of the battery for Glass enthusiast (and ) . Another Glass reviewer  that a 30-minute video will suck the entire set dry. 

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One hacker hasan exploit that would allow anyone to take over Google Glass, which is about as scary as it sounds: It's like someone gaining access to your phone or computer, but even worse because they can see everything you do. The hacker, Jay Freeman (who goes by the name saurik), has a long technical explanation on his blog, but basically the upshot is as follows: "This means that if you leave your device in someone else's hands, and it has an unlocked bootloader, with just a minute alone they can access anything you have stored on it."

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In addition, Google Glass doesn't have any PIN lock, like smartphones, which as Engadget's Stevens points out, makes the new gadget particularly vulnerable. "There's no way of setting any kind of protection on the thing itself, meaning if you should set it on your desk and walk away, anybody can pick it up, put it on and start sending uncouth emails and pictures to your contacts," Stevens writes.

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Stevens said it took him a while to get Google's high-tech frames to sit well on his face. Shana Lynch, the managing editor of Silicon Valley Business Journal,her pair only felt comfortable after Google specially fixed it to her face. Of course, not everyone will have that luxury — never mind the people who have to fit them over prescription glasses. Google hasthat it will have a real-glasses compatible version of Glass, but for now the gadget will awkwardly sit itself over prescription glasses, taking that awkward 3D movie experience out in the open. "Depending on the size and shape of those glasses, the eyepiece may be partially blocked by the frame," Stevens writes. "After letting dozens of people briefly try these on, a few with eyesight difficulties were simply unable to focus on the display at all."

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There is another design feature that Google may not have thought all the way through. The titanium band doesn't fold up, so Google Glass is more or less impossible to store. You can't fold it into your shirt, like a pair of sunglasses, or comfortably slip it in your purse. 

From Stevens: "Colors, too, aren't exactly consistent and the whole thing similarly lacks the accuracy of a modern LCD or OLED panel. It almost has the look of an old-school, passive-matrix LCD, with its occasionally murky hues." But he is the only reviewer we could find on an extensive search these past few days who had this gripe. 

Google Glass chimes whenever your face gets a new message, but users can only read the first few lines of text on the screen in front of their eyes. After that, the act of browsing texts involves a bunch of tapping. You can't compose full emails, and all message responses have to be performed with voices, meaning you might not want to say something too private to someone. The speech-to-text doesn't work that well so far, either, so you'd probably only want to dictate a short reply. In addition, none of this works with an iOS device. But, hey, it's still early. This is what beta's for — for now.

The contract period begins April 30, 2013 and provides coverage for years 2014 through 2016. Three additional terms of two years each may be negotiated for a total possible contract life of over nine (9) years. The estimated contract value is $239 million annually assuming 35,000 participants, but may vary significantly depending on actual non-career employee plan participation.

Afterconducting a highly competitiveand rigorous evaluation of technical aspects, pricing, and other factors in the proposals, the Postal Service determined that the UnitedHealthcare proposal represented the best value. The new contractensures the Postal Service's compliance with PPACA while providing non-career employees affordable essential health plan coverage at group rates provided through the Postal Service.The Postal Service has a long history of being a responsible employer and today's announcement builds on that history.

Approved by Congress in 2010, the PPACA requires employers with more than 50 employees to offer qualifying employees specified levels of coverage at an affordable cost by January 2014. The Act extends coverage to employees who are paid for an average of 30 hours per week for a specified period of time. (No change is required for Postal Service career employees since the coverage provided under the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program satisfies PPACA requirements.) Coverage becomes effective in January 2014.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 152 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With more than 31,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private-sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 42nd in the 2012 Fortune 500. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for seven years and the fourth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service onand at .

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service

Since the start of the talkies all the way through today, "female journalist" has been a classic archetype in film and television. But whereas being a female reporter was once synonymous with tenacity, superior intellect, and wit, today's fictional female reporter serves as shorthand for new media reporter/blogger: young, naïve, and morally bankrupt.

In 1931, Dance, Fools, Dance was released, starring a young Joan Crawford. Crawford played a spunky, educated woman who willfully forgoes the jazzy socialite lifestyle to become a reporter. By the film's end, she not only avenges her brother's death and takes down a murderous gangster played by the devilish Clark Gable — she also gets the guy.

Over the next couple decades, the female reporter was depicted as an agile journalist who shifts easily between "sob sister" stories — ones that captured the emotional angle of a hard-news piece — to a hard-boiled, news hawk investigator. These latter types of female characters happily went toe-to-toe with their male colleagues and wittily, sometimes viciously, buttted heads with their male editors.

We saw these roles from screen legends Barbara Stanwyck, Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Rosalind Russell. Each, in her turn, developed the character of the work-a-day hack, ambitious scribe, quick-witted investigator and, crucially, the woman underestimated.

These early fictional female reporters were often a bit older, generally unmarried, and sometimes divorced. In 1945's Christmas in Connecticut, for example, Barbara Stanwyck played a food writer who lies to everyone about being married and having children so she can write a column. The column and her career give her fame and the means to remain independent.

These female journalist characters were ambitious, tenacious workaholics who often consciously decide to be childless. Or if our heroine does have a child, the film shows that it was out of wedlock. Sometimes this character adopts a kid (Woman of the Year), other times she pretends a child was hers (Christmas in Connecticut). Still other times, she pretends her own child isn't hers (Forbidden).

In other words, this early archetype embraced human complexity and celebrated ambition.

By the 1960s though — and all the way through the 1990s — the tough, seasoned female reporter besting her male colleagues and bumping up against life's tough choices had faded. (A notable exception: Television's salty, over-40, recovering alcoholic, single mother Murphy Brown, played by Candace Bergen.)

America said goodbye to the hardboiled female journalist. The nation said hello to an adorable young television reporter, magazine writer, or columnist.

This character is cute, single, bubbly, quirky, and naïve. Think Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Brooke Shields in Suddenly Susan, and Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City.

Did Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw ever truly report a story? If she did, we all missed it.

And then came the next sad phase: From the late 1990s through today, the fictional female journalist has once again become ambitious and career driven. She is unmarried and unconcerned with life outside of work. But unlike the fictional female reporters of the 1930s and 1940s, this new archetype is portrayed as ridiculously young and embarrassingly green; so green, in fact, that she resorts to shoe leather reporting as a last resort, not a first.

Eventually for these women, an older male editor/reporter will step in to guide the young lady cub, because this type of fictional female reporter is just a girl. She is clueless, sloppy, and morally bankrupt. Even more, she's always willing to sleep with a source, or an editor, for a story.

With the rise of blogs and hyper-competitive journalism, this recent fictional female reporter has all but usurped the fictional male reporter in popular culture; think Katie Holmes in Thank You For Smoking, Rachel McAdams in State of Play, or Kate Mara in House of Cards.

In Thank You for Smoking, Holmes's Heather Holloway lacks any grasp of journalistic ethics. She dives into a sexual tryst with a nasty lobbyist she's writing about. At one point, she gets all hot and bothered when she sees her lover on television and pants, "I want to fuck you while I watch you on TV."

Unsurprisingly, the lobbyist screws her literally and, later in the film, figuratively.

As far as American pop culture is concerned, the fictional female reporter has become shorthand for the new media climate. Now nearly every time a film calls for a journalist or blogger, in walks a plucky brunette sporting hipster glasses. She's ready to tussle with her old-school editor — and sleep with anyone who gets between her and a scoop!

Back in the real world, however, young underpaid female reporters make up the lowest rungs of most newsrooms. And we rarely see them advance to the top of the newsroom.

Real-life female reporters are a tough group. We are constantly and gingerly navigating the power dynamic intrinsic to the reporter-source relationship, and the mine field of egos back in the newsroom.

In film and television, the young, plucky, morally-bankrupt fictional female blogger isn't struggling against steel-ceiling newsrooms. Neither is she deftly navigating the myriad complex relationships at work and at home.

This disconnect between art and life is not nearly so sharp across the pond. European television and film are introducing viewers to a whole new group of female reporters. For example, Swedish television's Annika Bentzgon: Crime Reporter, starring Malin Crepin, and in the Franco-Polish film Elles, starring Juliette Binoche as Anne.

In both instances, the lead characters are senior reporters who could eat Zoe Barnes for dinner and pick their teeth with the bones of Barnes' copy. These women are older workaholics, struggling with being a wife and mother.

In Annika and Elles, reporters experience what most women and men grapple with in the real world: balancing life and work. Annika and Anne are constantly being derided by their husbands and acquaintances for putting the story and their jobs before their family. Of course, this isn't true. Annika and Anne are shown cooking, cleaning, and picking the children up from school. These women are, however, emotionally guarded. This is something real-life female journalists know all too well.

American popular culture's depiction of the modern female journalist is as a sort-of masculine fantasy and scapegoat. The image that is emerging out of Europe is a decidedly grittier version of the female reporter's reality. If only Hollywood could get it right...

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison for plotting to blow up synagogues in New York City, only the third conviction under a state terror statute passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks.

Mohamed Mamdouh, 22, a Moroccan-born U.S. citizen, appeared in a state court in Manhattan after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy as a crime of terrorism and two related weapons charges.

Prosecutors accused him of planning to bomb various synagogues with a co-conspirator, Ahmed Ferhani, in retaliation for what they believed to be shoddy treatment of Muslims throughout the world.

Ferhani, 28, an Algerian, was considered the driving force behind the plot and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March.

Prosecutors, who joined Mamdouh's defense lawyer in recommending the five-year sentence, said Mamdouh's role was less significant. He had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison for his most serious charge.

The two men were arrested in May 2011 when Ferhani purchased guns, ammunition and what he believed was a live grenade from an undercover officer as Mamdouh waited a few blocks away, prosecutors said.

"Their intent was to create chaos and to intimidate and coerce Jews living in New York City, and thereby send a message far beyond New York," prosecutor Gary Galperin told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus in court on Friday.

Police characterized the men as "lone wolf" terrorists with no known ties to militant organizations. Defense lawyers initially accused law enforcement of entrapment.

Mamdouh did not offer a statement in court on Friday. His lawyer, Aaron Mysliwiec, said he was "genuinely remorseful" for a mistake he made while at a low point in his life.

In imposing the sentence, Obus said society cannot tolerate such plots, particularly "in light of recent events," an apparent reference to last week's bombings at the Boston Marathon.

The case is one of only two brought under the state anti-terrorism statute by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

The other involves a Dominican-born U.S. citizen, Jose Pimentel, who was arrested in November 2011 after an informant allegedly recorded him over several months as he bought bomb-making materials and plotted to target police stations in the New York metropolitan area. He has pleaded not guilty, and his case is still pending.

The statute acts as a "booster," allowing longer prison sentences when attached to underlying crimes.

In 2007, a Bronx gang member named Edgar Morales became the first defendant convicted under the terror statute, but an appeals court overturned his conviction after ruling that the statute could not be used to prosecute violent gangs under the theory that they terrorized the community.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Alden Bentley)

Administrators for the awards met Friday for the fourth and final time to determine the eligibility of certain shows and ruled that the quartet of actresses who rotate as the lead in "Matilda" are not eligible in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical category.

The group did rule that the four Sophia Gennusa, 9; Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro, all 10 will receive Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre, a non-competitive commendation. "The Tony Awards Administration Committee wishes to recognize their outstanding performances this season," the committee said in a statement.

A Tony Award representative explained Friday that the four girls were not deemed eligible in the category of Best Actress because of the number of their individual performances each week. Each plays the role twice a week.

The use of four rotating Matildas in New York echoes the way it was done in Britain, to huge success. All four actresses in London were jointly declared best actress at the Olivier Awards, the most prestigious honor in British theater.

The move by the Tonys seems strange since the three boys rotating the lead of "Billy Elliot the Musical" David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish all took home a joint best actor Tony in 2006.

The producers of the show were diplomatic in their response: "The 'Matilda' producers appreciate the decision of the Tony Administration committee and The Tony Honors."

The four girls one from New York City, two from the surrounding region and one from Pennsylvania are each making their Broadway debuts. Reviews for the show have been excellent, with raves for each of the Matildas.

The show "Matilda," which opened April 11 at Shubert Theatre, is a witty musical adaptation of the beloved novel by Roald Dahl and is true to his bleak vision of childhood as a savage battleground.

The 2 1/2-hour musical tells the story of a precocious and slightly telekinetic Matilda Wormwood, an English girl who loves to read despite the disdain of her sleazy parents. She is befriended by a kindly teacher but opposed by the fearsome school headmistress.

Tony nominations are Tuesday and the award ceremony in June 9.

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Online:

http://www.matildathemusical.com

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