Paula Deen diabetes: Make the most of it, crisis expert urges

Paula Deen is just blowing it, y'all. That's what one crisis management expert says.

The queen of butter has officially pulled back the curtain on a poorly kept secret. She confirmed the long-swirling rumors, via interviews with USA Today and the "Today" show, that she has Type 2 diabetes. She also announced -- conveniently -- that she's the new spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, which supplies her diabetes medication.

Did she then renounce her deep-fried, butter-and-sugar dripping ways? Did she announce plans to launch a sensible exercise regimen and invite the country to come along and get healthy with her?

Nope, nope and nope. In fact, Deen suggested that she has no plans to change her cooking style, although she says she has quit drinking so much sweet tea and walks regularly on her treadmill.

And that's where Paula Deen and her entourage completely blew it, said Mike Paul of MGP & Associates PR, a New York-based crisis management firm.

As he sees it, the crisis in Deen's brand is creating a golden opportunity. Deen could forgo her caloric ways and lead the charge to help the nation combat its obesity problem, he said. She could even invite the public to join her personal journey toward health and wellness -- and in the process launch a new franchise.

"She can say, 'Throw out the deep fryer,'" Paul said. "She can say, 'No more fried chicken. Now, I'm going to make it baked, and it's going to taste just as good.'"

Instead, he said, Deen appears to be playing a cagey game with the public by trying to have her cake and eat it too (pun intended). And it could undermine her fame and fortune.

We asked Paul how he would handle this branding crisis. Here's what he said:

"If I am sitting in the war room for Paula Deen brands right now, with all the attorneys and branding experts, I would say, 'Here's the bottom line. In every crisis, there is an opportunity. You have to choose to embrace it or not.'"

First off, Paul said, Deen should confront the three-year delay between her diagnosis and Monday's confirmation. "The only reason you'd wait three years is because you were concerned about what this news would do to your brand," he said. "I would advise her to simply tell the truth, 'I was nervous and afraid about announcing it. I didn't know what it would mean.' Everybody would understand that."

He also said he'd have advised her against "reaching for the green" of an endorsement deal at the same time she was revealing her diabetes. It could smack of opportunism. "Someone, someone very unwise, thought the best way of putting a spin on this was to immediately sign on with a diabetes drug," Paul said.

That's not a deal breaker, however.

But this is, he said: Deen continues to be unapologetic about her approach to cooking (she preaches an "all things in moderation" philosophy) and seems tight-lipped about plans to change her lifestyle.

This is a gray area that the public will find problematic, he said. Most people know that a diabetes drug is not the only answer. If Deen is simply going to take the medication but not take steps to change her diet and fitness regimen in a significant way or to advise her fans to do the same, then she risks losing her credibility, Paul said.

Audiences might start to feel conned, he warned, wondering whether Deen really cares about them, or just their wallets.

But all doesn't have to be lost, Paul said.

Deen could blow up her butter empire, he suggested, and replace it with a "Southern health food" empire that could make her far more popular.

"She has an opportunity to say, 'Times are a changing, y'all.... There's a way of making something taste good, in a healthier way," Paul said. "She could say, 'I used to think that taste was most important, but now I realize that nothing is more important than my family, nothing is more important than to see my grandkids. And I need to be healthy for that. That will always trump taste. I am not going to compromise on good food and flavor; I am going to do it in a healthier way.'"

"Sure, she might lose some fans who enjoy being fat and don't want to change, but she could reach a whole set of fans who want to follow her and be just like her and get healthy," Paul said.

She could even do this in celebrity style, he said. After all, Deen knows Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Mehmet Oz and all the celebrity chefs in America. Why not throw out a challenge to her celebrity chef friends to help make over her recipes?

"I think there could be a huge opportunity that she finds in, in the midst of what someone else calls a crisis," he said.

So there you have it, the outline of a new business opportunity for Paula Deen.

Of course, neither Deen nor her representatives were available Tuesday to answer questions about what her diabetes acknowledgment might mean for the Deen brand -- much less her future career options.

Monday's forecast: Storms for Northwest, central USA

The cold and unstable airmass of the Northwest will spread into the Central Great Basin and the Central Rockies by early Monday morning as a strong cold front moves through the area. Below average temperatures in these regions will allow widely scattered light snow showers to develop through the morning hours.

Snow in the Central Rockies will be enhanced by a system and moisture pushing out of the desert Southwest. Total snow accumulations in the mountains are expected to range from 5 to 10 inches with locally higher amounts. Gusty southwest winds may create periods of drifting snow through the day.

A Winter Weather Advisory will remain in effect for the Central Rockies through Monday evening. Behind this system, chilly, below normal temperatures will persist in much of the West. Another disturbance will move across Washington in the afternoon, allowing for more rain and mountain snow showers. Meanwhile, the trough of low pressure in the Northwest will slide out of the Northern Rockies and a cold front will extend from the Upper Great Lakes through the Central and Southern Plains.

Southerly flow ahead of this front and its associated low-pressure system in the Central Plains will usher moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north. This will lead to generally light rain showers in the Lower Mississippi Valley and eastern Texas through the afternoon.

Showers will increase and spread into the Tennessee and Ohio Valley during the evening/Monday night with possible thunderstorm activity as the cold front pushes eastward.

Doomsday Clock Moved One Minute Closer to Midnight

WASHINGTON, DC, January 10, 2012 (ENS) - "Inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change," prompted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today to push the hands of the Doomsday Clock one minute closer to midnight.

"It is five minutes to midnight," said the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists group, announcing their decision at a news conference in Washington. "Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007."

The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2010, when it was pushed back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight. The clock's hands have been adjusted 20 times since its inception in 1947, when the clock was initially set to seven minutes to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock expresses how close this group of scientists belives humanity is to catastrophic destruction, symbolized by midnight on the clock. The group monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences that could inflict irrevocable harm.

"Inaction on key issues including climate change, and rising international tensions motivate the movement of the clock," said Lawrence Krauss, co-chair, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors and a professor with the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics departments at Arizona State University.

"As we see it," he told reporters, "the major challenge at the heart of humanity's survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons, and in fact setting the stage for global reductions."

"Even though climate change is happening and is getting more urgent as we speak," warned Krauss, "no comprehensive global action is happening."

"The global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in Earth's atmosphere," warned Allison Macfarlane, who chairs the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board and is a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on American's Nuclear Future, and an associate professor with George Mason University.

"The International Energy Agency projects that, unless societies begin building alternatives to carbon-emitting energy technologies over the next five years, the world is doomed to a warmer climate, harsher weather, droughts, famine, water scarcity, rising sea levels, loss of island nations, and increasing ocean acidification," said Macfarlane.

"Since fossil-fuel burning power plants and infrastructure built in 2012-2020 will produce energy and emissions for 40 to 50 years, the actions taken in the next few years will set us on a path that will be impossible to redirect," she said. "Even if policy leaders decide in the future to reduce reliance on carbon-emitting technologies, it will be too late."

Science skeptics who diminish and discount scientific findings are a "worrisome trend," said Robert Socolow, a member of the BAS Science and Security Board.

"The world needs the political leadership to affirm the primacy of science or problems will be far worse than they are today, said Socolow, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and co-principal investigator with the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University.

He and the other BAS representatives at the news conference expressed concern that, in Krauss' words, "politics trumps science" at a time when elections are coming up in the United States, Russia and France and new leadership is soon to take over in China.

Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first U.S. atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 using the imagery of apocalypse - midnight - and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion - countdown to zero - to convey threats to humanity and the planet.

While the group is opposed to nuclear weapons, it neither endorses or does not endorse nuclear power. It maintains that nuclear power must be safe and if done well could help with climate change.

The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin's Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel Laureates.

Jayantha Dhanapala is a member of the BAS Board of Sponsors, a former United Nations under-secretary-general for Disarmament Affairs (1998-2003), and ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States (1995-1997).

"The world still has over 19,000 nuclear weapons, enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants several times over," he warned today.

"Despite the promise of a new spirit of international cooperation, and reductions in tensions between the United States and Russia, the Science and Security Board believes that the path toward a world free of nuclear weapons is not at all clear, and leadership is failing," he said.

As a positive signal, Dhanapala pointed to the ratification in December 2010 of the New START treaty between Russia and the United States which reversed the previous drift in US-Russia nuclear relations.

"However," warned Dhanapala, "failure to act" on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty by leaders in the United States, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, and North Korea "continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons."

"Obstacles to a world free of nuclear weapons remain," agreed Socolow. "Among these are disagreements between the United States and Russia about the utility and purposes of missile defense, as well as insufficient transparency, planning, and cooperation among the nine nuclear weapons states to support a continuing drawdown."

"The resulting distrust leads nearly all nuclear weapons states to hedge their bets by modernizing their nuclear arsenals," Socolow warned. "Such developments appear to other states to be signs of substantial military build-ups."

There are positive signs amidst the challenges, particularly the engagement of people in determining their own future, the group emphasized.

"The Science and Security Board is heartened by the Arab Spring, the Occupy movements, political protests in Russia, and by the actions of ordinary citizens in Japan as they call for fair treatment and attention to their needs," said Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Executive Director Kennette Benedict.

"Whether meeting the challenges of nuclear power, or mitigating the suffering from human-caused global warming, or preventing catastrophic nuclear conflict in a volatile world, the power of people is essential," Benedict said. "For this reason, we ask other scientists and experts to join us in engaging ordinary citizens. Together, we can present the most significant questions to policymakers and industry leaders. Most importantly, we can demand answers and action."

Oakland Raiders fire coach Hue Jackson after one season | NFL

By The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Reggie McKenzie made clear on his first day as Raiders general manager there is a new regime in Oakland.

Soon after signing his contract to be the first general manager since longtime owner Al Davis' death, McKenzie fired coach Hue Jackson.

"There comes a time when change is necessary," former Oakland linebacker McKenzie, 48, said Tuesday. "For the Raiders, the time is now.

"The Raiders' organization, with respect and deference for all its tradition and history, is about to embark on a new era."

The era will begin without Jackson, 46, who was fired after going 8-8 in his first season as coach. McKenzie wanted to bring in his "own guy" to rebuild the organization.

Owner Mark Davis said McKenzie will decide on the new coach and the personnel decisions, with the coach reporting to the general manager.

Davis' father, Al, died of heart failure Oct. 8. Mark Davis said it is imperative the team gets a new stadium; he has had discussions with groups in Los Angeles about possibly returning the franchise to Southern California.

"The timetable is yesterday. So that's where it is. We've got to get a stadium," Davis said. "We've got to get that done. It's such a competitive business. It really is competitive. We can't compete for a lot of the players that other teams can, at times."

League commissioner Roger Goodell has said there will be no relocations to Los Angeles in 2012, but he hasn't ruled out one after that. The Raiders played in Southern California from 1982 to 1994.

Mularkey leaves Falcons for Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey as coach, a move they hope will help improve the league's worst offense.

The Florida Times-Union first reported the hire.

Mularkey's Falcons were shut down in a 24-2 wild-card playoff loss to the New York Giants on Sunday. But his long relationship with Jaguars general manager Gene Smith made him a front-runner from the beginning of the search.

Mularkey, 50, was 14-18 as Buffalo's coach; he was fired after the 2005 season. The Jaguars finished 5-11 this season; they fired coach Jack Del Rio in November after a 3-8 start.

Notes

• Veteran receiver Derrick Mason has decided to retire after 15 seasons and pursue a career in broadcasting.

Mason, 37, was a two-time Pro Bowl selection. He caught 943 passes for 12,061 yards and 66 touchdowns in his career. He spent the first eight seasons with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans and played six seasons for the Baltimore Ravens before being cut last summer.

Mason caught 19 passes for 170 yards this season with the New York Jets and Houston. The Texans released him last month.

• Police have recovered the body of Green Bay offensive coordinator Joe Philbin's son from an icy Wisconsin river and said they were trying to figure out how he died.

Michael T. Philbin, 21, disappeared early Sunday and was reported missing that night. His body was recovered from the Fox River by divers Monday. Oshkosh Police Chief Scott Greuel waited a day to release the name out of respect for the family's privacy.

"We love Michael so much and will miss him dearly," Joe Philbin said in statement released by the team. "He loved his family, friends and life. His memory will live on in the hearts and minds of all who knew him."

News of Philbin's death comes as the Packers prepare to host the New York Giants in an NFC playoff game Sunday. It was unclear whether Joe Philbin will continue to work with the team this week.