Story By: by Krista Almanzan

A surfer rides a wave at Steamer Lane, with the Santa Cruz Wharf in the background. A long swath of Santa Cruz’s coast has been designated a World Surfing Reserve.

You may think of surfers as slackers. But in Santa Cruz, Calif., they’re city council members and business owners. And they’re also conservationists — who just got their piece of the central California coast named a World Surfing Reserve.

Long before surf music topped the charts and long before surfers had crazy nicknames, surfers have been riding the waves in Santa Cruz.

On a recent day, the crowd included “Wingnut” — also known as Robert Weaver — and other surfers. He pointed out some friends: “There’s Frosty, there’s Boots, there’s Fathead.”

Weaver calls Santa Cruz “the first place that the Hawaiians brought surf back in the 1800s.”

As the story goes, it was 1885, and three Hawaiian princes were attending a nearby military school. Homesick, they fashioned boards out of redwood and went surfing.

That long surfing history, plus the quality of Santa Cruz’s 23 surf spots, are the reason surfers, businesses and local government teamed up to get the area’s near seven-mile stretch of coast named a World Surfing Reserve. Weaver is a Reserve ambassador.

“Since I have been everywhere around the world chasing waves, I still live in Santa Cruz,” Weaver says. “So that kind of tells you where it stacks up in the grand scheme. It’s not the warmest, it’s not the biggest — but it’s one of the most consistent waves in the world.”

One of Santa Cruz’s most popular surf spots is Pleasure Point. That’s where surfer Dean LaTourette stood up on his first wave as a teen.

Decades later, he’s on the World Surfing Reserves executive committee. He says the designation is a proactive way to guard the world’s best surf spots from threats like water pollution, coastal development and beach closures.

“A lot of times, we’ll come across these development projects when they are well under way, already have gone through approval processes,” LaTourette says. “So World Surfing Reserves is a way to get ahead of the curve.”

That means in addition to catching waves, surfers may also have to catch a planning and zoning meeting.

Since there’s no legal protection that comes with being a World Surfing Reserve, the success depends on a local stewardship council. Its job is to identify and address threats to the coast.

The council includes public officials, conservationists and representatives from Santa Cruz’s multimillion-dollar surf industry.

At the O’Neill surf shop on Santa Cruz’s east side, the first wet suit created by Jack O’Neill hangs framed on the wall. Sixty years ago, he founded his global water sports company based on the simple idea of finding ways to stay in California’s cold waters longer.

Brian Kilpatrick handles marketing for O’Neill Wetsuits; he’s also on the World Surfing Reserve’s stewardship council. He says the company pays close attention to environmental issues like pollution and coastal development.

“Anything that’s going to affect the ability to get in the water and stay in the water as long as possible is a top priority for us,” he says.

Kilpatrick says the company’s success is closely tied to the preservation of the coast.

Weaver hopes other surf towns around the world will also make protecting the coast a top priority.

“That’s where there is more of a concern,” he says, “where maybe it’s underdeveloped already, and we can use the experience of what we have here to help protect them.”

That includes places like Uluwatu, Bali, in Indonesia — where environmental regulations aren’t as strict and the pressure to develop is high. It’s the next likely surf spot to become a World Surfing Reserve.

One man exits, two, or three, men enter. It is good to be the Rays.

Softening the bit of misfortune of having starter Jeff Niemann break his leg on a comebacker, the Rays will be able to tap into an embarrassment of riches as potential replacements: current major league reliever Wade Davis and a pair of top pitching prospects in Chris Archer and Alex Cobb. On many other teams, all three would be occupying rotation spots in the majors. For the Rays, they are merely emergency options.

All are talented, and whomever is picked to start in Niemann’s place (read: Cobb, for the reasons stated below) will have value in all fantasy leagues. So, let’s weigh the candidates, starting first with the Triple-A prospects Archer and Cobb.

"Both have great arms," manager Joe Maddon told MLB.com. "Different pitchers in a sense. Archer [has] a little bit more dynamic arm, little bit more velocity. Cobb is a little bit like a [Jeremy] Hellickson type — fastball, change-up kind of guy. Both good makeup.

"Cobb has done it before, did a great job for us last year. Both young with good makeups. We see both of them as being part of our future. They’re both very interesting, they are both going to be very good major league pitchers."

Cobb might not be the prospect Archer is, but he has the experience thing going for him. It is likely the Rays rely on what they know, over the unknown in Archer. In nine starts last season for the Rays, Cobb went 3-2 with a respectable 3.45 ERA and 1.34 WHIP, striking 37 in 52 2/3 innings.

Cobb, like Davis, was a candidate to make the rotation out of spring training but a numbers game sent him to Triple A to open the season. Cobb hasn’t quite been as dominant there as he was a year ago, when he went 5-1 with a 1.87 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings (just 16 walks). This year, through eight starts, Cobb is just 1-4 with a 4.14 ERA and 18 walks in 41 1/3 innings. He does have 44 strikeouts, though.

If you throw out a few bad starts, Cobb’s numbers would look a lot better. They are still better than Archer’s right now.

Archer, 23, is the power arm that tends to excite fantasy owners more. It hasn’t translated into as many strikeouts as Cobb (Archer has just 40 in 42 innings), and Archer has a bigger issue with walks (a whopping 28 so far this season). Long term, because of his high velocity stuff, Archer is the better prospect than Cobb, but he isn’t the better pitcher right now.

Cobb, 24, is good enough to start for the Rays and affect all fantasy leagues immediately. At just 5 percent ownership in CBSSports.com’s leagues, he is a huge bargain who will start for a top contender. Pick him up first, unless you play in a keeper league and want the potential of Archer right now.

The Rays’ best option to replace Niemann for the six weeks, however, (and perhaps through the All-Star break) is Davis. But Davis has worked himself into the Pitch-22 situation — the Catch-22 for pitchers — good enough to start, but too valuable in relief. And Davis isn’t stretched out to go five-plus innings every fifth day like Cobb and Archer are.

The Rays are weighing their options to fill the hole in the rotation, but they sure sound like they want to eliminate Davis as one.

"I want to talk to Wade Davis about it because I really like what he’s doing in the bullpen right now," Maddon told MLB.com. "We will probably not go in that direction. It’s probably going to come from the minor league area."

Davis, who won 12 games in 2010 and 11 in ’11, starting a total of 64 games already for the Rays, has taken well to his relief role. He has 16 strikeouts to just six walks, with a 2.06 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 17 2/3 innings.

"Part of it is I really like where he’s at in the bullpen,” Maddon told the Tampa Bay Times. "I think he’s doing a great job and he’s getting to the point where he and his body are understanding it better, and his arm, to come back a little quicker, what it takes to get ready. I like him. I’m not afraid of him in a hot moment because he’s been there before.

"He comes out there with the real slow pulse working. He’s understanding what’s going on. He gets a righty and a lefty out. He knows how to control the running game. He’s a good fielder. He does a lot of things well. Plus, you’re starting to see the 93-94(-mph fastball) again.”

Despite the praise, Davis will be relegated to a minimal role and has little fantasy value. His quality and importance to the Rays doesn’t match up to that in fantasy.

Cobb is the pickup right now, Archer is the pickup later and Davis might become fantasy viable again if he can work his way into being an option to close down the road.

It’s good to have options

• Anthony Rizzo just hasn’t cooled off. He has six homers in his past eight games, running his Triple A season numbers to .359-13-37-25-2 (.420-.704). Notably, he has also run his average against lefties to .300 (12-for-40) and his strikeout-to-walk rate has improved (7-to-5 in this past 10 games). No, he’s not necessarily closer to a call-up to the patient Cubs, but he sure is exciting to track.

• And if you think Rizzo is hot, well, look at what the Royals’ Wil Myers is doing still in Triple A. The 21-year old had a two-homer game Monday and is now at .343-13-30-32-4 (.414-. 731). It looks like he is hot right now, but April (.349-6-15-18) and May (.333-7-15-14) have been equally good to him. What is clear is he belongs in Triple A, if not the Royals’ starting outfield. Interestingly, Myers, a former catcher prospect, played third base in addition to outfield this week. Mike Moustakas (.310-5-16-16-1, .371-.540) won’t have to worry, though.

• The top four picks of the 2011 draft are all still pitching very well — Gerrit Cole, Danny Hulzten, Dylan Bundy and Trevor Bauer — but Bauer is the one that is most exciting in the near fantasy future. Bauer is too good for Double A at 7-1 with a 1.68 ERA, a .192 batting-average against and 60 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings. In his past start on May 11, he allowed no earned runs through seven innings for the second consecutive start. This time, though, he walked just one and struck out nine. The walks might be the only reason Bauer hasn’t moved up — to Triple A or the Diamondbacks’ rotation.

• Nolan Arenado, the third most-owned minor-leaguer on CBSSports.com — tied with Rizzo at 27 percent) — has been a bit underwhelming in the power department in Double A to date. Arenado has just two homers through 141 Double A at-bats. It is a bit of a disappointment for a player many figured would be a potential impact June 1 call-up for fantasy. We need to temper expectations until that power that showed up a year ago comes.

Eric Mack writes fantasy for SI.com. If you miss his Monday baseball trends, Wednesday prospect report or Friday pitching review, you can also find him on Twitter, where you can mock him, rip him and (doubtful) praise him before asking him for fantasy advice @EricMackFantasy. He reads all the messages there (guaranteed) and takes them very, very personally (not really).

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida: Tiger Woods has called on the PGA Tour to punish slow play with penalty strokes rather than the current practice of handing out undisclosed fines.

The pace of rounds came to the fore at the Players Championship this week where Kevin Na’s constant practice strokes and ‘waggles’ annoyed the crowd.

Former world No 1 Woods believes a shot penalty for a ‘bad time’ when a player is on the clock would be a far bigger deterrent than cash punishments which are believed to be around $5,000 (Dh18,365) to $10,000.

"Very simple. If you get a warning, you get a penalty. I think that would speed it up," Woods told reporters after carding a final round 73 to finish 12 strokes behind winner Matt Kuchar.

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New York: Bobby Brown says it took him a long time to come out with a new album because he’s spent so much time trying to get his life on track.

Now on tour with bandmates New Edition, Brown says he’s ready to return to his solo career with the album "Masterpiece," due out June 5. It’s his first album in 25 years.

Brown calls the album a dream and says it represents his attempt to heal himself through his music.

Brown has had a well-documented history with drugs and legal woes, but he says he’s been drug-free for more than seven years.

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Obama said in an interview that aired Thursday on ABC that he made his decision public earlier than he had planned after Biden’s weekend remark that he was “absolutely comfortable” with letting gays and lesbians marry.

Two senior administration officials said Biden and Obama met Wednesday morning, and Biden apologized for putting Obama in a tough spot. Obama responded by saying that he knew Biden was speaking from the heart, said the officials, who didn’t want to be named discussing private conversations between the president and vice president.

Biden’s remarks on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday launched a controversy that led to Obama announcing that his position on same-sex marriage, which he had previously called “evolving,” had shifted to support. When Obama’s full interview aired Thursday, he said his disclosure came sooner than planned as a result of Biden’s comments.

“I had already made a decision that we were going to probably take this position before the election and before the convention,” Obama said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Biden “probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit,” he said.

He added that he would have “preferred to have done this in my own way, on my own terms,” but “all’s well that ends well.”

Separately, Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Obama “has been the leader on this issue from day one, and the vice president never intended to distract from that.”

Once Biden’s comments drew attention to the issue, Obama made plans to announce his support next week on a previously scheduled appearance on the ABC talk show “The View,” a senior administration official said Thursday. The president and his advisers knew Obama would be asked about the issue in the wake of Biden’s NBC interview, said the official, who didn’t want to speak publicly about internal administration discussions.

Ultimately, they decided to move up the timeline and have him announce his support during the ABC interview at the White House, the official said. And a top Democrat told CNN that Obama knew the issue would come up at the convention, partly because of a push for support for same-sex marriage to be included in the Democratic Party platform, and in debates.

Multiple top Democrats told CNN the president’s senior aides are annoyed with Biden for forcing the conversation on same-sex marriage now. One source said Biden has, in the past, counseled the president against coming out for same-sex marriage, making this move that much more frustrating.

But the sources said they don’t believe it will create a lasting rift between the two leaders. Biden is known to go off-script, something Obama knew when he selected his vice president.

In explaining to ABC how his position has evolved, Obama noted that his daughters Malia and Sasha have “friends whose parents are same-sex couples. It wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. And frankly that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change of perspective, not wanting to somehow explain to your child why somebody should be treated differently when it comes to the eyes of the law.”

Asked about whether his new position is a calculated move in an election year, Obama said it would “be hard to argue that somehow this is something that I’d be doing for political advantage. Because frankly, you know, the politics — it’s not clear how they cut.”

The interview aired the same day Obama attended a fundraiser in Los Angeles, where support for same-sex marriage is strong. Movie star George Clooney hosted the event, which is raking in $15 million, according to a top Democratic source. And on Monday, openly gay singer Ricky Martin is hosting a fundraising event for Obama in New York.

But some in the African-American community have expressed strong disapproval of Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage. A Democratic official said the White House has been actively reaching out to African-American community leaders and pastors and will continue to do so in the wake of the president’s decision, but the official noted that even the president’s base won’t always agree with him on everything. “There are going to be issues you don’t agree on,” the official said.

And Obama told ABC he won’t spend much time talking about the issue, because he’s focused on the economy. The announcement puts Obama squarely at odds with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has since reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage.
“And I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name,” Romney said during a Wednesday visit to Fort Lupton, Colorado. “My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and the like are appropriate, but that the others are not.”

The issue is a divisive one in American politics, but it’s uncertain how the development might play out at the voting booth.

A Gallup Poll released Tuesday indicated 50% of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by law as valid, with 48% saying such marriages should not be legal — a dramatic shift from a few years ago. A Gallup poll in 2009 found 40% supported same-sex marriage and 57% were opposed.

But a CNN/ORC International poll, taken in late March, indicated policies toward gays and lesbians were tied for last in people’s opinions of the most-important issues facing the country.

Obama said he supports states deciding the issue on their own, but added that he was “disappointed” by Tuesday’s vote on the issue in North Carolina, where a ban on same-sex marriage was added to the constitution. Obama called the amendment discriminatory against gays and lesbians, a spokesman said earlier Wednesday.

Six states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York — and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while 31 states have voted in favor of constitutional amendments that seek to defend traditional definitions of marriage as a heterosexual union.

In February, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage beginning in June, but opponents there have pledged to block the bill and called for voters to decide the issue. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed into law a bill that permits the state’s same-sex couples to wed as of January 1, and state residents may vote to affirm such a law.

Minnesota will vote on a state constitutional amendment similar to the one in North Carolina, while Maine will have a referendum on allowing same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, two cases seeking to overturn laws forbidding the practice, one from California and another from Massachusetts, could be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in coming months.

CNN’s Josh Levs, Phil Gast, Bill Mears, Dan Gilgoff and Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

Story By: by Julie Appleby

Premature births are lowest in countries that are green. Red signals those with the worst problems.

The United States has a higher rate of babies born early — and therefore at greater risk of death or health problems – than more than 125 other countries, including Rwanda, Uzbekistan, China and Latvia, according to a report out today.

About 12 percent of U.S. babies are born at 37 weeks or less, according to the report, which found a worldwide range of as few as 4.1 percent of babies in Belarus to as many as 18 percent in Malawi. Full term is considered 39 weeks.

While nearly two-thirds of all preterm births worldwide occur in sub-Saharan African and Asia, the U.S. rate shows that “this is not just a developing country issue,” says Chris Howson, vice president for global programs at the March of Dimes.

His organization, along with the World Health Organization, Save the Children and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, produced the report. It says about 1 million preterm babies worldwide die shortly after birth, while others can suffer lifelong health problems.

Maternal risk factors include being under- or overweight, having diabetes or high blood pressure, smoking, being younger than 17 or over age 40.

Rates within countries can vary widely. In the U.S., for example, the preterm birth rate for white women in 2009 was 10.9 percent, compared with 17.5 percent for African American women, the report says.

In the U.S. and some other developed countries, preterm births are also linked with a higher use of fertility drugs, which are associated with mothers carrying twins, triplets or more, increasing the chance of early labor. Some births in the U.S. are also induced early, either because the mother is having health problems or for the convenience of the doctor or mother.

Because preterm births are costly and risky, physician groups, organizations like the March of Dimes and even some employers have worked to discourage women and their doctors from scheduling births before 39 weeks, unless there is a health reason to do so. The Obama administration launched a $40 million initiative in February to reduce the number of premature births, especially elective deliveries.

Those elective early births are also the subject of a March of Dimes education campaign, which says even though the absolute numbers are small, the risk of death for babies born just one to two weeks early is twice as high as for those born at 39 weeks.

Howson says the groups that signed on to the report have made a variety of suggestions for lowering the rate worldwide, ranging from inexpensive injections that can be given to mothers in preterm labor to help develop fetal lungs to encouraging women to have health exams before they get pregnant to check for risk factors.

“A preterm baby indicates a failure in the system,” he says.