U.S. court rejects Apple's bid to raise damages in Samsung case

(Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co did not willfully infringe on some of Apple Inc's patents, a U.S. federal court has ruled, foiling Apple's attempt to ratchet up the $1.05 billion in damages it was awarded last August by a U.S. jury.

The ruling removes a dark cloud hanging over Samsung, which, if the decision had gone the other way, could have been forced to pay triple the original judgment, or more than $3 billion in the worst-case scenario for Samsung's balance sheet, according to analysts and patent experts.

As it stands, Samsung is forging ahead of its arch rival in the smartphone market that Apple virtually created with its first iPhone in 2007. In December, the same U.S. court denied Apple's request for a permanent injunction against Samsung's smartphones.

Tuesday's ruling overrules the jury's finding that Samsung acted "willfully" when it violated several of Apple's patents, a finding that could have formed the basis to triple the damages owed by Samsung.

"To the extent that Apple does address lost downstream sales, Apple discusses only Samsung's gains and makes no attempt to identify any specific losses Apple has suffered," U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh wrote in her ruling.

Koh said the court could not enhance the damages "given that Apple has not clearly shown how it has in fact been undercompensated for the losses it has suffered due to Samsung's dilution of its trade dress," or, the look and feel of its products.

She said the jury, which had examined the case earlier and found that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad, had ample opportunity to compensate Apple for Samsung's use of its product designs.

Koh also denied requests from both Samsung and Apple for a new trial. Samsung had said a major patent verdict in favor of Apple should be overturned and Apple had sought a new trial to overturn some of the jury's findings and to try other issues on which the jury failed to rule.

The judge also denied Apple's motion for judgment that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes a patent that relates to its iPad design. The jury earlier exonerated Samsung on the patent used to ban Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales.

Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patent dispute that mirrors the struggle for industry supremacy between the two companies, which together control around half of worldwide smartphone sales that grew 43 percent in 2012 to 700 million units worth more than $200 billion.

Samsung shipped 213 million smartphones to take 30 percent of the market in 2012, while Apple sold 135.8 million iPhones with 19.4 percent of the market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Since Apple first took Samsung to the court in early 2011, Apple has been more successful in its U.S. litigation campaign, winning the $1.05 billion damage award and a pre-trial sales ban on some Samsung products.

Samsung has since fought back and scored some favourable rulings, including Tuesday's ruling that prevents any higher damages.

The ruling also comes as investors worry Apple is losing its dominance in consumer electronics after it missed Wall Street revenue forecasts for the third consecutive quarter last week on weaker-than-expected iPhone sales.

By comparison, Samsung, once seen as quick to copy the ideas of others, now sets the pace in innovation and widened its lead over Apple on the back of aggressive marketing of its wide product range last year.

Shares in Samsung, the world's top smartphone maker by units shipped, closed up 2.2 percent on Wednesday in Seoul, beating a 0.4 percent gain in the wider market.

The case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Matt Driskill)

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A-Rod implicated in PED use again as MLB probes

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez is in the middle of Major League Baseball's latest doping investigation after an alternative weekly newspaper reported baseball's highest-paid star was among the big leaguers listed in the records of a Florida clinic the paper said sold performance-enhancing drugs.

The Miami New Times said Tuesday that the three-time AL MVP bought human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing substances during 2009-12 from Biogenesis of America LLC, a now-closed anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., near Rodriguez's offseason home.

The new public relations firm for the New York Yankees third baseman issued a statement denying the allegations.

New Times said it obtained records detailing purchases by Rodriguez, 2012 All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera, 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon and 2011 AL championship series MVP Nelson Cruz of Texas.

Cabrera left San Francisco after the season to sign with Toronto, while Oakland re-signed Colon.

Other baseball players the newspaper said appeared in the records include Washington pitcher Gio Gonzalez, who finished third in last year's NL Cy Young Award voting, and San Diego catcher Yasmani Grandal.

Biogenesis, which the New Times said was run by Anthony Bosch, was located in a beige, nondescript office park. The former clinic is no longer listed as a business in its directory,

"There was a flier put out by the building management a couple weeks ago. It was put on all the doors and windows of all the offices," said Brad Nickel, who works in a cruise planning company on the floor above where the clinic was located. "It just said this guy's not really a doctor, he doesn't belong here, he's no longer allowed here, call the police or the building management if you see him."

The New Times posted copies of what it said were Bosch's handwritten records, obtained through a former Biogenesis employee it did not identify.

Bosch's lawyer, Susy Ribero-Ayala, said in a statement the New Times report "is filled with inaccuracies, innuendo and misstatements of fact."

"Mr. Bosch vehemently denies the assertions that MLB players such as Alex Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez were treated by or associated with him," she said.

Rodriguez appears 16 times in the documents New Times received, the paper said, either as "Alex Rodriguez," ''Alex Rod" or the nickname "Cacique," a pre-Columbian Caribbean chief.

Rodriguez admitted four years ago that he used PEDs from 2001-03. Cabrera, Colon and Grandal were suspended for 50 games each last year by MLB following tests for elevated testosterone. Responding to the testosterone use, MLB and the players' union said Jan. 10 they were authorizing the World Anti-Doping Agency laboratory outside Montreal to store each major leaguer's baseline testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratio in order to detect abnormalities.

"We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances," MLB said in a statement. "Only law enforcement officials have the capacity to reach those outside the game who are involved in the distribution of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. ... We are in the midst of an active investigation and are gathering and reviewing information."

A baseball official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements, said Monday that MLB did not have any documentation regarding the allegations. If MLB does obtain evidence, the players could be subject to discipline. First offenses result in a 50-game suspension and second infractions in 100-game penalties. A third violation results in a lifetime ban.

Rodriguez is sidelined for at least the first half of the season after hip surgery Jan. 16. A 50-game suspension would cost him $7.65 million of his $28 million salary.

"The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true," Rodriguez said in a statement issued by a publicist. "He was not Mr. Bosch's patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story — at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez — are not legitimate."

Jay Reisinger, a lawyer who has represented Rodriguez in recent years, said the three-time AL MVP had retained Roy Black, an attorney from Rodriguez's hometown of Miami. Black's clients have included Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith.

Bosch did not return a phone message seeking comment.

MLB hopes to gain the cooperation of Bosch and others connected with the clinic, another baseball official said, also on condition of anonymity because no public statements on the matter were authorized. In order to successfully discipline players based on the records, witnesses would be needed to authenticate them, the official said.

Players could be asked to appear before MLB for interviews, but the official said MLB would be reluctant to request interviews before it has more evidence.

Rodriguez spent years denying he used PEDs before Sports Illustrated reported in February 2009 that he tested positive for two steroids in MLB's anonymous survey while with the Texas Rangers in 2003. Two days later, he admitted in an ESPN interview that he used PEDs over a three-year period. He has denied using PEDs after 2003.

If the new allegations were true, the Yankees would face high hurdles to get out of the final five years and $114 million of Rodriguez's record $275 million, 10-year contract. Because management and the players' union have a joint drug agreement, an arbitrator could determine that any action taken by the team amounted to multiple punishments for the same offense.

But if Rodriguez were to end his career because of the injury, about 85 percent of the money owed by the Yankees would be covered by insurance, one of the baseball officials said.

Gonzalez, 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, posted on his Twitter feed: "I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance provided by him. anything said to the contrary is a lie."

Colon was not issuing a statement, agent Adam Katz said through spokeswoman Lisa Cohen.

"We are aware of certain allegations and inferences," Cruz's law firm, Farrell & Reisinger, said in a statement. "To the extent these allegations and inferences refer to Nelson, they are denied."

Cruz and Gonzalez had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Cruz hit 24 home runs last year for the Rangers.

The New Times report said it obtained notes by Bosch listing the players' names and the substances they received. Several unidentified employees and clients confirmed to the publication that the clinic distributed the substances, the paper said. The employees said that Bosch bragged of supplying drugs to professional athletes but that they never saw the sports stars in the office.

The paper said the records list that Rodriguez paid for HGH; testosterone cream; IGF-1, a substance banned by baseball that stimulates insulin production; and GHRP, which releases growth hormones.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Kay in Coral Gables, Fla., and Curt Anderson in Miami, and AP Sports Writers Howard Fendrich and Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

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Ke$ha bringing her “crazy beautiful life” to MTV series

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Singer Ke$ ha is coming to cable television with a new reality series that promises to document the “drama, madness and euphoria” of her professional and personal life, MTV said on Tuesday.

“Ke$ ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life,” will premiere on MTV in April, the network said.

“You might have heard my voice on the radio, seen me onstage or in a music video, but that’s only a part of the story,” the 25-year-old singer, known for hits including “Tik Tok” and “We R Who We R,” said in a statement.

“With this documentary series I’m revealing a more complete picture of what my life is really like. It’s not all glamorous but it’s all real,” she added.

MTV said the “no-limits” series would depict the music star “as she navigates the drama, madness and euphoria of her professional and personal life while recording a new album and traveling the globe.”

The show was shot over two years by the singer’s brother Lagan Sebert, working with minimal crew, providing what MTV said was an unfiltered, “real and raw” look at her life.

Lagan, a journalist, said that as he watched his sister’s ascent, “I soon realized that the most amazing story was happening in my own family and it became my mission document it … I set off on a two year long journey to tell my sister’s story.”

Ke$ ha has sold 3 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide and has won MTV Europe‘s best new act award. Her most recent album was 2012′s “Warrior.”

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.

Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after getting a double-arm transplant.

Wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, the former soldier said he could get by without legs, but he hated living without arms.

"Not having arms takes so much away from you. Even your personality, you know. You talk with your hands. You do everything with your hands, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," the 26-year-old New Yorker told reporters Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Doctors don't want him using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery, which has been performed in the U.S. only seven times.

That's the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.

"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better, and you're still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There's a lot of people who will say you can't do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."

Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of the team that conducted the surgery, said the new arms could eventually provide much of the same function as his original arms and hands. Another double-arm transplant patient can now use chopsticks and tie his shoes.

Lee said Marrocco's recovery has been remarkable, and the transplant is helping to "restore physical and psychological well-being."

Tuesday's news conference was held to mark a milestone in his recovery — the day he was to be discharged from the hospital.

Next comes several years of rehabilitation, including physical therapy that is going to become more difficult as feeling returns to the arms.

Before the surgery, he had been living with his older brother in a specially equipped home on New York's Staten Island that had been built with the help of several charities. Shortly after moving in, he said it was "a relief to not have to rely on other people so much."

The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.

"We'll get it back together. We've been through a lot worse than that," his father, Alex Marrocco, said.

For the next few months, Marrocco plans to live with his brother in an apartment near the hospital.

The former infantryman said he can already move the elbow on his left arm and rotate it a little bit, but there hasn't been much movement yet for his right arm, which was transplanted higher up.

Marrocco's mother, Michelle Marrocco, said he can't hug her yet, so he brushes his left arm against her face.

The first time he moved his left arm was a complete surprise, an involuntary motion while friends were visiting him in the hospital, he said.

"I had no idea what was going through my mind. I was with my friends, and it happened by accident," he recalled. "One of my friends said 'Did you do that on purpose?' And I didn't know I did it."

Marrocco's operation also involved a technical feat not tried in previous cases, Lee said in an interview after the news conference.

A small part of Marrocco's left forearm remained just below his elbow, and doctors transplanted a whole new forearm around and on top of it, then rewired nerves to serve the old and new muscles in that arm.

"We wanted to save his joint. In the unlucky event we would lose the transplant, we still wanted him to have the elbow joint," Lee said.

He also explained why leg transplants are not done for people missing those limbs — "it's not very practical." That's because nerves regrow at best about an inch a month, so it would be many years before a transplanted leg was useful.

Even if movement returned, a patient might lack sensation on the soles of the feet, which would be unsafe if the person stepped on sharp objects and couldn't feel the pain.

And unlike prosthetic arms and hands, which many patients find frustrating, the ones for legs are good. That makes the risks of a transplant not worth taking.

"It's premature" until there are better ways to help nerves regrow, Lee said.

Now Marrocco, who was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and hand-cycling a marathon.

Asked if he could one day throw a football, Dr. Jaimie Shores said sure, but maybe not like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

"Thanks for having faith in me," Marrocco interjected, drawing laughter from the crowd.

His mother said Marrocco has always been "a tough cookie."

"He's not changed that, and he's just taken it and made it an art form," Michelle Marrocco said. "He's never going to stop. He's going to be that boy I knew was going to be a pain in my butt forever. And he's going to show people how to live their lives."

___

Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee and AP writer David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.

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Roseanne Barr to guest star on NBC's 'The Office'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Roseanne Barr is dropping into NBC's "The Office."

The network said Barr will guest star as a talent agent named Carla Fern in scenes set to tape Wednesday. The agent agrees to help office manager Andy Barnard realize his show business dream. Series regular Ed Helms plays Andy.

Barr is taking a break from her stand-up comedy act in Las Vegas for "The Office" visit. The workplace comedy is in its final season, and producer Greg Daniels has promised a memorable end after nine years.

"The Office," adapted from the British series of the same name, ranks among NBC's most popular shows. Barr knows something about bringing a long-running hit to an end: Her sitcom "Roseanne" aired from 1988 to 1997.

___

Online:

http://www.nbc.com/the-office/

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Airlines had earlier 787 battery issues

Japan's two biggest airlines replaced below-par lithium-ion batteries on their Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners in the months before separate incidents led to the technologically advanced aircraft being grounded worldwide due to battery problems.

Comments from both All Nippon Airways, the new Boeing jetliner's biggest customer to date, and Japan Airlines Co Ltd point to reliability issues with the batteries long before a battery caught fire on a JAL 787 at Boston's airport and a second battery was badly charred and melted on an ANA domestic flight that was forced into an emergency landing.

ANA said it changed 10 batteries on its 787s last year, but did not inform accident investigators in the United States because the incidents, including five batteries that had unusually low charges, did not compromise the plane's safety, spokesman Ryosei Nomura said on Wednesday.

JAL also replaced batteries on the 787 “on a few occasions”, said spokeswoman Sze Hunn Yap, declining to be more specific on when units were replaced or whether these were reported to authorities.

ANA did, however, inform Boeing of the faults that began in May, and returned the batteries to their manufacturer, GS Yuasa Corp. A spokesman for the battery maker declined to comment on Wednesday. Shares of the company fell 1.2 percent.

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said the airplane maker could not comment as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has indicated this is now part of their investigation.

LITTLE HEADWAY

The New York Times earlier quoted an NTSB spokeswoman as saying the agency would include these “numerous issues” with the 787 battery in its investigations.

Under aviation inspection rules, airlines are required to perform detailed battery inspections once every two years.

Officials are carrying out detailed tests on the batteries, chargers and monitoring units in Japan and the United States, but have so far made little headway in finding out what caused the battery failures.

Japan's transport ministry said the manufacturing process at the company which makes the 787 battery's monitoring unit did not appear to be linked to the problem on the ANA Dreamliner that made the emergency landing.

The NTSB said on Tuesday it was carrying out a microscopic investigation of the JAL 787 battery. Neither it nor the Japan Transport Safety Board has been able to say when they are likely to complete their work.

The global fleet of 50 Dreamliners - 17 of which are operated by ANA - remain grounded, increasing the likely financial impact to Boeing, which is still producing the aircraft but has stopped delivering them, and the airlines that fly the Dreamliner.

Boeing is due to report its latest quarterly earnings later on Wednesday, and ANA posts its earnings on Thursday. ANA shares rose 0.56 percent on Wednesday.
 

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Shootings wound 8 from Hermosa to South Shore

At least eight people were shot across Chicago overnight, including two men wounded at a West Side gas station where a clerk was slain last summer, authorities said.

The men, 31 and 34, were sitting in a car in front of the gas station in the 3300 block of West Washington Boulevard in East Garfield Park around 10:30 p.m., according to police.

Someone parked a van in the street, got out, walked up and shot them, police said. They were taken to Stroger Hospital and were expected to survive, police said.

In July, a clerk was shot and killed at the station about two hours before his shift was to end, according to police and the man's family.

In other shootings:

• About 2 a.m. a 26-year-old man was shot above the knee after he stepped onto a porch in the 2200 block of West 71st Street in the West Englewood neighborhood to smoke, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center and was reported stable.

•  Someone inside a car shot at a 37-year-old man in the 2400 block of West Huron Street in the West Town neighborhood about 12:15 a.m., police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital.

•  Another man, 38, was shot while driving in the 7200 block of South Champlain Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood about 9:45 p.m. Monday. He crashed into a pole after suffering a wound to the lower back, police said, and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center.

• Just before 9 p.m., someone shot a 23-year-old man in the abdomen in the 8300 block of South Carpenter Street, police said. The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center from near 83rd and Morgan Street, where he had walked after getting shot.

•  A 26-year-old man who had been shot in the right arm in the 2100 block of North Tripp Avenue in the Hermosa neighborhood was found a couple blocks away on Fullerton Avenue around 7 p.m., police said. He was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, police said.

•  A 20-year-old man was in serious condition after someone shot him in the back in the 6200 block of South Artesian Avenue about 5:10 p.m. Monday in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.  He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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Yahoo sees revenue climb this year, but long road ahead

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc forecast a modest uptick in revenue for the current year as it revamps its family of websites but Chief Executive Marissa Mayer warned it would be a long journey to revive the Internet company's fortunes.

In Yahoo's first financial outlook since Mayer became CEO in July, the company outlined a plan to trigger a "chain reaction of growth" by overhauling a dozen of its online services to increase the amount of time users spent on its websites.

It also pointed to strength in its search advertising business and progress made in improving its internal operations.

Yahoo's shares were 3 percent higher in after hours trade after the revenue projection was disclosed during an analysts conference call, shedding some ground after earlier rising as much as 4.5 percent.

But weakness in Yahoo's display ad business, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of the company's total revenue, caught some analysts by surprise.

"While the road to growth is certain, it will not be immediate," said Mayer, a former Google Inc executive and Yahoo's third full-time CEO since September 2011.

Yahoo said that revenue, excluding fees it pays to partner websites, will range between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion in 2013, implying an annual growth rate of 0.7 percent to 3 percent.

Finance Chief Ken Goldman also warned investors to expect "an investment phase" in the first half of the year, which he said would impact profit margins.

"What was clear from the call is that this is a long-term turnaround story," said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter. "We shouldn't expect anything to just snap back and correct itself."

During the fourth quarter, Yahoo's net revenue increased 4 percent year-on-year to $1.22 billion, as search advertising sales offset a 10 percent decline in the number of display ads sold on Yahoo's core properties.

Mayer said the decline was the result of less activity by visitors to its popular websites, such as its Web email service, and to a lesser extent due to users accessing the Web on smartphones, where Yahoo's ad business is not as strong.

Efforts to revamp its mobile properties, begun last year with a redesign of the photo-sharing service Flickr, remain on track, said Mayer, noting that Yahoo now has 200 million monthly mobile users.

"From a monetization perspective this is still a very nascent source of revenue for us. With any platform shift, revenue always followed users and mobile will be no different," she said.

Mayer took over after a tumultuous period at Yahoo in which former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after less than 6 months on the job over a controversy about his academic credentials and in which Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board and cut his ties with the company.

Yahoo's stock has risen roughly 30 percent since Mayer took the helm, reaching its highest levels since 2008.

Part of the stock's rise has been driven by significant stock buybacks, using proceeds from a $7.6 billion deal to sell half of its 40 percent stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with B. Riley Caris.

Yahoo said it repurchased $1.5 billion worth of shares during the fourth quarter.

The company's fourth-quarter net income was $272.3 million, or 23 cents per share, versus $295.6 million, or 24 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, Yahoo said it had earnings per share of 32 cents, versus the average analyst expectation of 28 cents according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the first quarter, Yahoo said it expects revenue, excluding partner website fees, of $1.07 billion to $1.1 billion, trailing the $1.1 billion that Wall Street analysts expect on average.

Shares of Yahoo were up 59 cents at $20.90 in after-hours trading on Monday.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Edwina Gibbs)

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Mayor: New Orleans deserves Super Bowl spotlight

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 20-story-high mural of the Lombardi Trophy, affixed to the glass exterior of a bustling hotel that was once a shattered symbol of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, rises like a beacon above the expansive white roof of the Superdome.

The Super Bowl is back in the Big Easy, finally, after 11 years, giving New Orleans a spotlight of global proportion to showcase how far it has come since Katrina left the city on its knees and under water in August of 2005.

"The story is much, much bigger than the Super Bowl," Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Monday afternoon. "This is a story about the resurrection and redemption of a great American city.

"The Super Bowl gives us an opportunity to reflect on where we've been and where we're going."

From 1970 to 2002, New Orleans was a regular host of the Super Bowl and hopes to become one again. This Sunday, when the Baltimore Ravens meet the San Francisco 49ers in the Superdome, the Crescent City will host the NFL's marquee game for the 10th time, tying Miami for the most of any city. If all goes well, it hopes to get back in the rotation.

Jay Cicero, president of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, said his group will ask the NFL for permission to put together a bid for the 2018 Super Bowl, coinciding with the city's celebration of its 300th anniversary.

It is that history, which produced a colorful culture driven by a mix of European, Caribbean and African influences, that makes New Orleans such an attractive Super Bowl city, noted political consultant James Carville said.

"This is not just a city. This is a culture," said Carville, who lives in New Orleans and serves as the co-chairman of the Super Bowl host committee with his wife and fellow political pundit, Mary Matalin. "We have our own food, our own music, our own social structure, our own architecture, our own body of literature. By God, we have our own funerals."

Carville pointed out that Dallas spent about $38 million to host a Super Bowl two seasons ago, that Indianapolis spent about $25 million a year ago, and that New Orleans spent about $13 million.

"I wish that I could tell you that it's because we're just so much more efficient," Carville said. "The truth of the matter is we don't have to create anything in New Orleans. It's here. It's been here for 294 years. We just have to take what we have, shine it up a little bit, add a little something here and there — but 294 years of history and culture stand on its own."

Of course, Carville was not counting the billions of dollars spent in the past seven-plus years to rebuild New Orleans since Katrina pushed tidal surges through crumbling levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

Extensive renovations to the Superdome, done in several phases during six years, ran about $336 million, transforming the stadium to a facility better equipped to host a Super Bowl than it was back in 2002. The lower bowl has all new seats, wider concourses and more concession areas, not to mention exclusive "bunker" clubs for those who pay top dollar. There are four high-end club lounges around the second deck which did not exist before the storm. The smaller suites ringing the stadium have all been remodeled and more have been added to total 152.

The faded gray siding that lined the stadium when the Super Bowl was last played there has been replaced. The dents from flying storm debris are gone and it has been restored to its original, glistening champagne color, which serves as the canvass for nightly light shows. The roof was completely rebuilt and there is now a public plaza called Champions Square adjacent to the dome, where part of a shopping mall used to be.

The Louis Armstrong International Airport has undergone $350 million in upgrades, with work going on right up until this month.

Streets throughout much of the city, including downtown and the French Quarter, have been repaved.

A new streetcar line, which opened on Monday morning, can shuttle people from the city's main train and bus station a few blocks from the Superdome to Canal Street, where downtown meets the French Quarter.

There are more restaurants in the metro area than before Katrina. Hotels throughout downtown have been renovated and some new ones have gone up, adding more than 4,000 more rooms than there were in 2005.

The 1,200-room Hyatt Hotel, with the signature giant Lombardi Trophy mural,, finally reopened a little more than a year ago after a $275 million renovation. During Katrina, hundreds of its windows blew out, leaving shredded curtains flapping in the wind. Now it is home to new restaurants and rebuilt convention space.

"The city looks great," said Jerry Romig, the Saints' 83-year-old public address announcer, a lifelong New Orleans resident who has been involved in some capacity in the previous nine Super Bowls. "It's never looked better."

He also takes issue with the idea that sympathy for New Orleans' suffering played a role in NFL owners awarding the city this Super Bowl.

"The New Orleanean's attitude is they would be very upset if the NFL was going to throw you a bone because you went through a hard time," Romig said. "The New Orleanean would think, 'We should get this game every year because we're the best place for it.' ... We've got everything that's necessary to make it a success and that's being shown better this year than past years."

Pockets of the city still bear obvious scars from Hurricane Katrina, most notably in eastern and low-lying portions of the city — like the lower Ninth Ward — were many homes were wiped out and many residents were too poor to rebuild.

So-called "Katrina tours" are still offered, with vans carting the curious to areas where they can see the remnants of the devastation — abandoned, crumbling homes and schools, and streets overgrown with weeds and brush.

When the city was bidding for the 2013 Super Bowl, it floated the idea of a Super Saturday of Service, whereby volunteers could undertake community projects to improve the city. This Saturday, restoration work will be done on five properties run by the New Orleans Recreational Department, including a high school football field where the Archie Manning's sons once played. After Sunday, the field will be the new home of the turf used in the Super Bowl.

Despite the community's ongoing needs, New Orleans has proved repeatedly in recent years that the heart of the city can successfully stage major national events. It hosted college football's BCS national championships in 2008 and 2012, an NBA All-Star game in 2008 and an NCAA men's Final Four in 2012.

Yet given how New Orleans was once a regular Super Bowl city, the return of the NFL's biggest game carries more symbolic weight than any single event since the storm.

"This is just another huge example of how the people of this city, who were 15 feet under water, are now on top of the world," Landrieu said.

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Soldier talks about his new arms after transplant

BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital on Tuesday to discuss the new limbs.

The transplants are only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever conducted in the United States.

The infantryman was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. The New York City man also received bone marrow from the same dead donor. The approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new arms with minimal medication to prevent rejection.

The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.

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