Oswalt pitched his first nine-plus seasons for the Astros

SOCHI, Russia -- An interactive website launched Monday by anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny paints a vivid picture of the suspected cost overruns and conflicts of interest at the Sochi Winter Olympics. Russia has spent about $51 billion to deliver the Sochi Olympics, which run Feb. 7-23, making them the most expensive games ever, even though as a winter event it hosts many fewer athletes than summer games do. Navalny claims that Russia spent twice as much as necessary to build at least 10 of the Olympic venues -- including the Bolshoi Ice Palace, the Fisht Stadium for the opening/closing ceremonies and the speed-skating arena. Allegations of corruption have dogged preparations for the Sochi Games for years, as reported by The Associated Press and others. Navalnys new website -- Sochi.FBK.info -- combines data gathered during his own investigations along with media reports and other activists analysis. Using colorful graphics, the website makes a wide range of data accessible in English and Russian. "Athletes are not the only people who compete in Sochi," Navalny, who finished a strong second in Moscows mayoral election last year, wrote on the website. "Officials and businessmen also took part in the games and turned them into a source of income." President Vladimir Putin has rejected claims about rampant corruption in Sochi, saying the inflated prices were due to the honest mistakes of investors who underestimated the costs. "If anybody has got this information, please show this to us," Putin said in a recent television interview. "But so far we havent seen anything except speculation." A 2012 report by the governments Audit Chamber found about 15 billion rubles (about $500 million) in "unreasonable" cost overruns in the preparations for the Sochi Olympics. Auditors found that the work of some staff members at Olympstroi, the state company in charge of Sochi construction, between 2008 and 2010 was "conducive to incurring unreasonable cost overruns." At least three criminal investigations against Olympstroi employees have been opened, but none of them has reached court. Olympstroi has since changed its management. The Sochi Organizing Committee would not comment Monday on Navalnys new website. When asked about it, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, said the IOC stands "against any form of corruption." "Whenever there have been concerns and accusations and information in the past, they have been passed on to the organizing committee," Bach said. Navalny does not seem to provide solid evidence of how money was stolen during the many Sochi construction projects. This has proven extremely difficult to do, because the games were not covered by Russian laws on tenders and procurement, making officials unaccountable for the money spent. Olympstroi was given free rein by Putin to "determine the ground rules for selecting investors and contractors" for Olympic venues. This created fertile ground for corruption in the allocation of funds, according to Ivan Ninenko, deputy director of Transparency International in Moscow. Olympstroi "is even less transparent than companies in (Russias) state-owned sector, where corruption is rife," he told the AP. The total amount of state contracts overseen by Olympstroi was about 700 billion rubles, or $22 billon, according to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the government official in charge of the games. A website Navalny set up in 2010, called Rospil, has monitored thousands of Russian state contracts and appealed to law enforcement agencies to get the murky ones annulled. Rospil has been successful in overturning nearly 130 contracts worth nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money. Not for the Sochi Games, though. "Opportunities for public control are very limited" for Sochi contracts, said Konstantin Kalmykov, who works for Navalny. All it takes is a presidential or government decree to award a contract to a specific firm. "If there were regular public control in place, that would be a big factor in saving funds and increasing efficiency of spending," Kalmykov said. Navalnys new website lists several Sochi construction projects with evident conflicts of interest. In one of the most glaring examples, the Ice Cube curling stadium was built by a company controlled by businessman Alexander Svishchev, the father of Dmitry Svishchev, president of the Russian curling federation, the website said, citing public records. One of the key beneficiaries of lucrative Olympic contracts was Putins childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg. Through a majority-owned subsidiary, Rotenberg holds nearly 39 per cent of the Mostotrest company, which amassed a dozen Olympics-related state contracts to build nearly all of the highways in the area. "The biggest contractor is Arkady Rotenberg, who is -- surprise! -- Vladimir Putins friend," Navalny told The Associated Press. "And we saw here the same people who are Vladimir Putins friends and who traditionally win such big tenders." Mostotrests contracts in Sochi amounted to $3.1 billion, including a $1.6 billion bypass for Sochi, as well as tunnels, bridges and railroads, the company confirmed to the AP. The Russian business daily Vedomosti in 2009 analyzed scores of tenders for Olympic contracts and discovered that the majority of bids were very close to the maximum the state said it would pay and in many cases bidders were barred from running, leaving one company to claim the contract. Mostotrest won the $1.6 billion bypass contract after firms owned by tycoons Oleg Deripaska and Roman Abramovich dropped out of the competition in 2009. Mostotrest offered to build the road for 59.36 billion rubles, just barely below the maximum state price of 60.9 billion rubles. Mike Pouncey Chargers Jersey . A top pitching prospect, one who the ball club is pinning some of its future hopes, takes the spot of a veteran who once was viewed as a future ace but who, to this point, hasnt realized his potential and may never. Derwin James Jersey .com) - Even on the day his New Hampshire football team became the nations top-ranked team two weeks ago, coach Sean McDonnell conceded something about the team they replaced at No. http://www.chargersauthenticofficialonline.com/authentic-justin-jones-jersey.html . She was a pioneer. She did things on skis that made the birds take notice. Justin Jones Chargers Jersey . The No. 5 Aztecs held Burton, the Mountain Wests leading scorer, to 11 points, 10 below his average, in beating the Wolf Pack 73-58 on Saturday night. Uchenna Nwosu Jersey .J. -- New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is going to start the off-season training program with a surgically repaired left ankle.Roy Oswalt retired from baseball on Tuesday after winning 163 games and making three All-Star teams in 13 major league seasons. The pitchers agent, Bob Garber, confirmed the decision and said Oswalt would go to work for his agency, RMG Baseball. Oswalt will be vice-president of baseball operations. "Roy is now going to be representing players with me," Garber said Tuesday night. "Hes now an agent." The 36-year-old right-hander had a 163-102 career record with a 3.36 ERA. Oswalt won 20 games in consecutive seasons (2004-05) with the Houston Astros and was the 2005 NL championship series MVP. He pitched more than 200 innings seven times but was hampered by injuries in recent years. "He was a tremendous competitor," Giants right-hander Matt Cain said. "He was one of the guys I always loved to watch pitch. I remember facing him for the first time and I knew if I gave up more than a couple runs that it wasnt going to be a good day for us. He went about his business every fifth day like a true pro." Oswalt got hurt with Houston on June 11, 2003, when he and five other pitchers combined to no-hit the New York Yankees in an 8-0 victory in the Bronx. It was the only six-pitcher no-hitter until Seattle did the same thing against the Dodgers on June 8, 2012. Oswalt strained his right groin and left in the second. He looked toward catcher Brad Ausmus after his second pitch of the inning, his 23rd of the game, and immediately was replaced. The Yankees had gone 6,980 games -- the longest streak in major league history -- without being no-hit, since Hoyt Wilhelms 1-0 victory for Baltimore on Seppt.dddddddddddd 20, 1958. Oswalt was 0-6 with an 8.63 ERA in nine outings and six starts for Colorado last year. He signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in May 2013 and missed time with a strained left hamstring. Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington was thrilled to acquire Oswalt in the middle of the 2012 season, when he went 4-3 with a 5.80 ERA in 17 appearances with nine starts. He joined the Rangers on June 22, 2012, but didnt know if the team just planned to trade him away. Washington often said Oswalt "has been a pro" in handling a tough, unclear situation that called for him to be used primarily out of the bullpen. That was after Oswalt spent two stints on the disabled list during 2011 with Philadelphia because of lower back inflammation. He went 9-10 with a 3.69 ERA in 23 starts for the Phillies that year, and his 139 innings were his fewest since 2003. He didnt go more than 59 innings in his last two years. A 23rd-round pick by Houston in the 1996 amateur draft, Oswalt pitched his first nine-plus seasons for the Astros (2001-10) and then played for Philadelphia (2010-11), Texas (2012) and the Rockies (2013). On Aug. 25, 2010, Oswalt became the first Phillies pitcher to play a position in the field in 39 years after Ryan Howard was ejected in the 14th inning of a 4-2, 16-inning home loss to the Astros. With the Phillies out of position players, Oswalt went to left field and Raul Ibanez took over at first for Howard. Oswalt drew a rousing ovation from the crowd when he caught a routine fly ball. He was the first Philadelphia pitcher to play a position since Bill Wilson on Aug. 6, 1971. Wholesale Hoodies NFL Shirts Outlet Jerseys NFL Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '