NEW YORK (Reuters) – Long before the 600 home runs, the dates with celebrities and the $250 million contracts, Alex Rodriguez was already a standout among baseball talent evaluators.

When he was a teenager playing for Miami Westminster Christian High School in the early 1990s, they knew he was destined for greatness. One scout who took him to eat said he always ordered grilled chicken and vegetables while many young prospects were hooked on junk food.

NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) – Josephine Spearman
alternately fought back tears and grew defiant with anger when
discussing the murder of her son, one of 11 shootings in 15
days recently that have made the neighborhood of Brownsville,
Brooklyn, one of the most dangerous in the United States.

“You can get a gun like a box of Pampers around here,” said
Spearman, 57, whose 31-year-old son Maurice was shot dead on
the main street in Brownsville, a volatile, predominantly black
area that has failed to keep pace with New York City’s famed
reduction in crime.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez belted his 599th career home run on Thursday, exuding a sense of calm and enjoyment that he lacked three years ago when trying to reach the 500 milestone.

That was a different A-Rod, a player who was affected by the constant distractions that went with being the highest paid player, in the New York glare, and playing in the shadow of local hero and team captain Derek Jeter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – American voters overwhelmingly say lowering unemployment is more important than reducing the federal budget deficit, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday.

The poll, conducted July 13-19, showed that 64 percent of respondents thought reducing the jobless rate should be a bigger priority versus 30 percent who favored focusing on cutting the budget deficit.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – George Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees owner known as “The Boss” for his colorful and tempestuous style, died in Florida at age 80, his family and baseball club said on Tuesday.

Media reports said he suffered a massive heart attack at his home in Tampa and was rushed to hospital.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Yorkers who want to end their marriages will no longer have to invent reasons under a proposed legal change that would bring the state into line with the rest of the United States by instituting no-fault divorce.

The change could be significant for the state’s many wealthy residents, who would be able to focus less on manufacturing reasons for divorce and more on dividing their assets.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Spain turned to austerity while China and the United States offered soothing words about Europe on Thursday, providing a respite in the euro-zone debt crisis that allowed markets to recover.

Spain’s governing Socialists won parliamentary approval for a 15 billion euro ($18.4 billion) austerity package by a single vote in an effort to cut its budget deficit and regain market confidence.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sought to support the battered euro on Wednesday, but the currency extended its decline on a report that China was reviewing its euro holdings.

Geithner told Europeans that financial markets want to see euro zone countries put into action their $1 trillion standby package designed to stabilize the currency, and Berlusconi called on European partners to follow his lead and impose austerity to help solve the euro zone debt crisis.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Small investors angry with Wall Street about their battered portfolios see little relief coming from the U.S. Congress as it attempts the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s.

After the financial crisis wiped out much of the retirement savings of many Americans and left thousands of mortgages under water, consumers largely are mistrustful and skeptical about their would-be saviors on Capitol Hill.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Germany inched towards a wider ban on naked short selling of stocks and Italy approved austerity measures on Tuesday to contain a euro zone debt crisis that could lead U.S. officials to urge stress tests for European banks.

A draft German finance ministry document called for restrictions on speculative trades that one government source said would be extended to all shares, widening a ban imposed last week that only covered top financial firms, euro government bonds and related credit default swaps.