Disney drops “Little Mermaid” re-release as 3D sales disappoint

(Reuters) – Walt Disney canceled plans for a 3D version of its 1989 animated hit “The Little Mermaid” after disappointing re-releases of “Monsters, Inc” and “Beauty and the Beast” in the format.

The film was the last of four releases for which Disney announced plans to convert some of its animated films after “The Lion King” generated domestic ticket sales of $ 94 million in 2011. “Monsters, Inc, its most recent film converted to 3D, had domestic ticket sales of only $ 30.6 million, according to the site Box Office Mojo.

Disney began 3D conversion of the underwater animated film in November, animated studio chief John Lasseter, said in interviews in November. Conversion of existing films to 3D are considered generally inexpensive and are viewed by Disney as generating publicity to boost the DVD sales of older films.

Disney said will release a fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie on July 10, 2015, the studio said in an email announcing its revised release schedule.

The company said it would release two of its Marvel big-budget films in 3D next year: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

(Reporting By Ronald Grover. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Turning to the Web for a Medical Diagnosis

Thirty-five percent of American adults said they have used the Internet to diagnose a medical condition for themselves or someone else, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Women are more likely than men to turn to the Internet for diagnoses. Other groups more likely to do so are younger people, white adults, people with college degrees and those who live in households with income above $75,000.

The study, released by Pew’s Internet and American Life Project on Tuesday, points out that Americans have always tried to answer their health questions at home, but that the Internet has expanded the options for research. Previous surveys have asked questions about online diagnoses, but the Pew study was the first to focus on the topic with a nationally representative sample, said Susannah Fox, an associate director at Pew Internet. Surveyors interviewed 3,014 American adults by telephone, from August to September 2012.

Of the one in three Americans who used the Internet for a diagnosis, about a third said they did not go to a doctor to get a professional medical opinion, while 41 percent said a doctor confirmed their diagnosis. Eighteen percent said a doctor did not agree with their diagnosis. As far as where people start when researching health conditions online, 77 percent said they started at a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo, while 13 percent said they began at a site that specializes in health information.

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DealBook: The Banker Who Put His Faith in Armstrong

When Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah Winfrey about his suspected use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs is broadcast on Thursday, an investment banker will most likely be watching it very carefully (and nervously): Thomas Weisel.

Mr. Weisel is a legend in finance and Silicon Valley. He was the banker behind Yahoo’s public offering and some of the biggest deals during the dot-com bubble. He famously sold the firm he ran, Montgomery Securities, for $1.2 billion in 1997. And he sold his next firm, Thomas Weisel Partners, for $300 million to Stifel Financial in 2010.

But it is Mr. Weisel’s extracurricular activity that connects him to the news of the moment: he was Mr. Armstrong’s biggest financial backer and the single individual most responsible for the money machine that propelled Mr. Armstrong’s career.

Depending on what Mr. Armstrong says in the interview about his purported doping, Mr. Weisel, who was a co-owner of the United States Postal Service Pro Cycling Team through a cycling management firm that he helped found called Tailwind Sports, could be subject along with his partners to lawsuits from corporate sponsors seeking millions of dollars. Already, there is a False Claims Act case contending that Mr. Armstrong and the team defrauded the Postal Service.

Perhaps more anxiety-producing is what Mr. Weisel may have known, or should have known, about a team that for years ran “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen,” according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

Its report last year did not name Mr. Weisel, but did say that Mr. Armstrong was assisted by a “small army of enablers, including doping doctors, drug smugglers, and others within and outside the sport and on his team.”

Mr. Armstrong is expected to admit to doping in an effort to persuade officials to lift his lifetime ban from Olympic sports. To do so, however, he would probably need to lay out in explicit detail how the program worked and implicate those who were part of it. Late Monday, The New York Times reported that Mr. Armstrong had confessed in the interview with Ms. Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs. The Times also reported that he was in discussions with the Justice Department to possibly testify in a federal whistle-blower case against several team officials and owners, including Mr. Weisel.

Mr. Weisel is currently not talking. When I called Mr. Weisel seeking a comment, his assistant told me: “He’s not commenting. And he’s not returning any calls.”

For a glimpse of the way Mr. Weisel thinks about performance-enhancing drugs in cycling, here’s what he had to say about the matter four years ago: “Handle the problem below the surface and keep the image of the sport clean,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “In the U.S. sports — baseball, basketball, football — most fans couldn’t care less.”

For Mr. Weisel, the team and Mr. Armstrong were an all-consuming passion. He would go every year to the Tour de France and at times travel in the team’s pacer car, occasionally yelling instructions to Mr. Armstrong over the radio system. He rode the team’s bus, ate meals with them and ultimately celebrated each year’s victory. On the wall of his office in San Francisco, he displayed Mr. Armstrong’s yellow jerseys.

Always the consummate banker, Mr. Weisel even tried to help Mr. Armstrong raise funds to buy the Tour de France itself. (The effort never went anywhere.)

Mr. Weisel’s name has occasionally come up in connection with accusations of doping on the team.

The wife of the famed cyclist Greg LeMond, Kathy, reportedly testified under oath in a deposition in 2006 that she had been told by one of Mr. Armstrong’s mechanics that Mr. Weisel, along with Nike, paid $500,000 though a Swiss bank account to the honorary president of the International Cycling Union to silence a drug test Mr. Armstrong purportedly failed in 1999.

Nike has vehemently denied the contention. So far, Mr. Weisel has not commented publicly.

When Floyd Landis, one of Mr. Armstrong’s former teammates, tested positive in 2006, he denied using performance-enhancing drugs under pressure from Mr. Armstrong. Soon after, Mr. Weisel set up the Floyd Fairness Fund with some of Tailwind’s co-owners to help pay his legal bills. Mr. Landis later confessed to doping in 2010.

Mr. Weisel, a longtime athlete who was a champion speed skater as a teenager, became a cycling enthusiast in the 1980s and took up racing himself. Sports dominated his life: he often said that he liked to hire athletes to work for him at the bank because of their competitive instincts. He was also the chairman of the United States Ski Team Foundation. In 1987, while still working as a banker, he started Montgomery Sports, to begin his first cycling team. In the early 1990s the team was called Subaru-Montgomery; it later became Montgomery-Bell (Bell Sports was a client that he took public) and then was renamed for the Postal Service. (Yahoo, another client, was also a sponsor of the team.)

According to a biography of Mr. Weisel, “Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier and Athlete,” he invested more than $5 million in the early teams and lost money on the investment. Mr. Armstrong was one of Mr. Weisel’s early riders for the Subaru-Montgomery team. He later left the team to join the Motorola team. After his bout with cancer, Mr. Armstrong joined what was the Postal Service team in 1998.

Tyler Hamilton, another former teammate of Mr. Armstrong, told “60 Minutes” that the team was pushing performance-enhancing drugs on its cyclists long before Mr. Armstrong battled cancer and then in 1998 rejoined the team.

“I remember seeing some of the stronger guys in the team getting handed these white lunch bags,” Mr. Hamilton said on “60 Minutes” about when he joined the team in 1995. “So finally I, you know, started puttin’ two and two together and you know, basically there were doping products in those white lunch bags.”

Given how widespread the doping now appears to have been on the Postal Service team based on testimony of 11 teammates, and charges against the team’s director and several of its doctors, you wonder how much due diligence its founding banker did on the most prominent deal of his career.

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'Les Miz,' 'Argo' win big at Golden Globes, but Jodie Foster is talk of show

The epic musical “Les Miserables” dominated the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night with three trophies, including one for best musical or comedy. But the evening belonged to Ben Affleck.

Affleck’s political thriller “Argo,” about a CIA plot to rescue Americans trapped in Iran in 1979-80, won for best dramatic film and director for Affleck. It was a bit of vindication, perhaps, for the filmmaker, who was surprisingly absent last week when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its Oscar nominations for director.

Since the Oscar snub Thursday, Affleck has not only won a Golden Globe but he also received a Critics’ Choice Movie Award for directing as well.

PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2013 red carpet

“Les Miz” was the most honored film of the ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s International Ballroom and telecast live on NBC. Besides best musical or comedy, it won lead actor for Hugh Jackman, who admitted in his acceptance speech that at one point he almost quit the project after a grueling rehearsal. And Anne Hathaway sang her way to a supporting actress win as the tragic Fantine.

With her pixie haircut and tasteful white gown, Hathaway was reminiscent of a young Audrey Hepburn.

“Thank you for this lovely blunt object,” Hathaway told the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. “I’ll forever use it as a weapon against self-doubt.”

PHOTOS: Nominees & winners | Red carpet

The wins for “Les Miz” and “Argo” as well as the two Golden Globes for “Django Unchained” help give those films momentum leading to the Oscars on Feb. 24. But those honors do little to bring clarity to a topsy-turvy awards season that has seen plenty of outstanding movies to choose from — but few clear-cut front-runners.

For example, Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” went into the evening with seven Golden Globes nominations — more than any other film. Former President Bill Clinton even appeared to a standing ovation and thunderous applause to introduce the clip for the historical epic. But instead of “Lincoln” by a landslide, the film about the 16th president’s struggle to end the Civil War and slavery won only one honor: lead actor in a drama for Daniel Day-Lewis.

One of the most stunning moments came courtesy Jodie Foster, who took to the stage to give a ... retirement speech? A coming-out speech? It was hard to tell. She was receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement when she ramped up to confess that she was … single. And while she seemed to take pains to sidestep addressing her sexual orientation she did thank her ex-partner and co-parent of her two boys, Cydney Bernard.

PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2013 red carpet

Her speech was also a rant in favor of privacy that brought many people to its feet. Foster noted that she has lived virtually her entire life in the public eye yet wanted to keep some things private. “I have given everything up there from the time I was 3 years old,” she said. “That is reality enough.” Even backstage, talking face-to-face with the media, she was cryptic about what, exactly, she was trying to say with her speech. (Memo to Foster: Nothing will destroy an attempt at privacy like telling the world you want to keep your life private.)

In other film awards, Jessica Chastain won lead actress in a drama for her role as a CIA operative who helps track down Osama bin Laden in “Zero Dark Thirty.” Jennifer Lawrence won lead actress in a comedy or musical for “Silver Linings Playbook” for her performance as a widow in the quirky romantic comedy. “I beat Meryl!” Lawrence joked as she accepted the trophy. (Meryl Streep was nominated in the same category, for “Hope Springs.”) Among Lawrence’s thank-yous: “Thank you, Harvey Weinstein, for killing whoever you had to kill to get me up here.”

Christoph Waltz won for supporting actor for playing a bounty hunter in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.” The maverick filmmaker was a surprise screenplay winner for the controversial spaghetti Western set during the slavery era, beating out such favorites as the writers of “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Lincoln,” “Argo,” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”

PHOTOS: Moments from the show

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting this,” said an effusive Tarantino. “I'm happy to be surprised.”

Austria’s “Amour” won foreign language film, and “Brave” won for animated film. Mychael Danna won for writing the score for Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi.” Original song went to pop singer Adele and Paul Epworth for “Skyfall,” the title tune for the latest James Bond installment.

On the TV side, the Golden Globes honored Showtime’s “Homeland” and HBO’s “Game Change” and "Girls" with multiple trophies.

Golden Globes 2013: List | Red Carpet | Winners | Ballot | Show moments | Quote

“Homeland,” the political thriller that counts President Obama as one of its biggest fans, won its second consecutive award for drama series. Claire Danes won her second-in-a-row Globe for lead dramatic actress in the series. Her co-star Damian Lewis took lead actor.

“Game Change,” the drama about then-Gov. Sarah Palin’s run for the vice presidency in 2008, also performed well. It snapped up three awards: miniseries or TV movie, supporting actor for Ed Harris, and lead actress for Julianne Moore for her uncanny channeling of Palin.

“Girls” won best comedy series while its young star and creator, Lena Dunham, won for lead actress. Don Cheadle won lead actor in a comedy series for Showtime’s “House of Lies.” Kevin Costner won lead actor in a miniseries or TV movie for History Channel’s “Hatfields & McCoys.” Maggie Smith won for supporting actress in a TV series, miniseries or movie for playing the acerbic dowager in PBS' “Downton Abbey.”

After a controversial three-year stint as host, Ricky Gervais turned over the emcee duties to Globe nominees Amy Poehler (“Parks & Recreation”) and Tina Fey (“30 Rock”). The pair were only slightly less irreverent, skewering Hollywood by poking fun of pill-popping Hollywood and “rat-faced” TV types and joking about the controversy surrounding Kathryn Bigelow's “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Cracked Poehler: “When it comes to torture, I trust the woman who spent three years married to James Cameron.”

ALSO:

PHOTOS: Moments from the show

VOTE: Play-at-home Globes ballot

PHOTOS: Red carpet fashion at the Golden Globes

susan.king@latimes.com and rene.lynch@latimes.com

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Jan. 14

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

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Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He also wrote the NYT bestselling book "Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects for Dads and Kids to Share."

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Wheels Blog: The Seventh-Generation Corvette Is Unveiled in Detroit

DETROIT — The Stingray is back, in name and in spirit.

At an invitation-only gathering hours before the North American International Auto Show was scheduled to open for press previews, General Motors introduced the 2014 Corvette, the seventh generation of Chevrolet’s hallmark sports car.

Underscoring the importance of this vehicle was Chevrolet’s revival of the long-dormant Stingray badge, a name it first used on a 1959 racecar built by G.M.’s design chief, Bill Mitchell. The hope for that original Stingray racecar was to beat Europe’s best, and G.M. still seems to be thinking along those lines.

According to G.M.’s president for North America, Mark Reuss, the latest Stingray is a potential worldbeater.

“Like the ’63 Sting Ray, the best Corvettes embodied performance leadership, delivering cutting-edge technologies, breathtaking design and awe-inspiring driving experiences,” Mr. Reuss said. “The all-new Corvette goes farther than ever, thanks to today’s advancements in design technology and engineering.”

The release of a new Corvette is always highly anticipated by auto enthusiasts; speculation about “C7″ — shorthand for the seventh generation — has run high. Would it get a twin-cam turbocharged powertrain? Would Chevy switch to an exotic midengine chassis?

In actuality, the 2014 model will again have a pushrod V-8 engine in its nose, driving the rear wheels. That conservative approach might be seen as a timid compromise from a company that has just begun to get back on solid financial footing. But the front-engine, rear-drive layout has long defined the Corvette, and this car, like its C6 predecessor, may well show its taillights to cars with specs that more closely conform to what is considered state of the art.

While automakers are quick to toss around the words “all new” to describe their latest offerings, however warmed over they might be, in this case the term is justified — the 2014 Corvette shares only two parts with its predecessor.

The C7 Corvette’s styling is in keeping with the brand’s persona, yet it projects a more aggressive image than previous generations. The clean front fascia is devoid of parking lights, and is energized by a sharp edge where it meets the hood, which is itself defined by a prominent bulge and more hard edges. The curve of the front fenders peaks at yet another edge that blends seamlessly into the body side at the A-pillar. The body’s flanks are defined by character lines that race back from vents behind the front wheel, not unlike those of previous Corvettes, but here those lines are more sharply drawn, with the upper line sweeping up and back to define the shape of the rear quarter panel. The lower character line projects from the body, forming a wing of sorts that flows out of the front fender and terminates at the rear of the door. The coupe’s roofline arcs smoothly to meet the rear spoiler, rather than terminating at the rear window, as in the C6. The individual rear taillights that have long been a part of Corvette design are now paired in a deep recess on each side. Four large exhaust pipes exit center-stage, rear.

The sheet-molded fiberglass body, with carbon-fiber hood and roof panels and carbon-nano composite underbody panels, is 37 pounds lighter than the C6’s body. It rides on a new aluminum frame that is 57 percent stiffer and 99 pounds lighter than the current model’s. The wheelbase is about one inch longer than that of the C6, and the track is almost an inch wider — changes said to provide a more stable feel at high speed.

Inside the cockpit, considerable effort was lavished on upgrading what has generally been considered a blighted zone. Optional carbon fiber trim and real aluminum combine with plastic in a wraparound configuration. The steering wheel, with a 14.1 inch diameter, is smaller than that of the previous model, and two seat choices are offered, with the competition sport version providing more side bolstering to hold occupants in place in spirited maneuvers. Indicative of the car’s purpose is the inclusion of a console-mounted steel grab bar for the passenger.

Under the hood, Chevrolet’s 6.2-liter small block V-8 — now in its fifth-generation design — produces an estimated 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque. At low speed, torque output exceeds that of the previous 6.2-liter engine by 50 pound-feet. The engine shares few parts with prior Corvette V-8s and is fitted with direct fuel injection that, in combination with other refinements, enables a high compression ratio of 11.5:1. Active Fuel Management, G.M.’s system for deactivating cylinders when they are not needed, lets the car cruise on four cylinders in some driving modes. Final fuel-economy numbers are not yet available.

Two transaxles will be offered: a 6-speed automatic with paddle-shift mode or a 7-speed manual with rev-matching capability — an electronic version of the heel-and-toe shifting techniques that competition drivers employ to enable smooth gear changes when negotiating twisty bits.

The Corvette driver will be able to select from among five driving modes: weather, Eco, Tour, Sport and Track; the default setting will be Tour. Changing modes alters 12 vehicle attributes, including throttle response, shift points, engagement of the limited-slip differential engagement, shock damping and more. Four-piston Brembo brakes provide stopping power, and electric power steering sets the course.

An optional Z51 performance package adds an electronic limited-slip differential that can continuously vary torque split between the rear wheels, dry-sump oiling, upgraded shock absorbers, a revised version of the automaker’s Magnetic Ride Control suspension-regulating system, close-ratio gears for the manual transmission, larger brake rotors and aerodynamic refinements that incorporate air-flow management for cooling of heat-stressed components.

Like its predecessor, the 2014 Corvette Stingray will be built at a G.M. plant in Bowling Green, Ky. The car is expected to arrive at dealerships in the third quarter of this year.

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Jan. 13

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

Note: Ad-blocking software may prevent display of the puzzle widget.

Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He also wrote the NYT bestselling book "Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects for Dads and Kids to Share."

Read more by Ken Denmead

Follow @fitzwillie and @wiredgeekdad on Twitter.

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“Jurassic Park 4″ to arrive June 2014, Steven Spielberg to produce

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Jurassic Park 4″ will arrive in theaters June 13, 2014, Universal announced on Friday. Steven Spielberg won’t be directing this time around, but he is going to produce the project with Frank Marshall.

Universal has yet to pick a director for the fourth installment of the dinosaur film franchise, which it plans to shoot and release in 3D. The studio and Spielberg have converted the original film to 3D and it will be a re-released in theaters on April 5. Spielberg was very involved in the conversion according to executives at the studio, trying to ensure it merited a theatrical re-release.

The three movies have grossed close to $ 2 billion worldwide to-date with the original film alone making $ 914 million. Based on Michael Crichton’s novel and characters, the film has also spawned an amusement park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Spielberg, who this week postponed his next directing job in “Robopocalypse,” directed the first two films before handing off the third to Joe Johnston. He confirmed at Comic-Con in 2011 that a writer was working on a new version, divulging little more. Giving the film a release date firms up the time table as Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver work on the script.

“Jurassic Park 4″ will open in a summer already teeming with sequels. Universal has scheduled it one week before the next “How to Train Your Dragon” and two weeks before the next “Transformers.” Both the final “Hobbit” movie and the next “X-Men” movie are set to open in July while the next “Spider-Man” and “Planet of the Apes” films will debut in May.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.

There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.

“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.

While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.

There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.

In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”

There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.

As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.

According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.

Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.

Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.

The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.

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Treasury Will Not Mint $1 Trillion Coin to Raise Debt Ceiling

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Saturday that it will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to head off an imminent battle with Congress over raising the government’s borrowing limit.

“Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” Anthony Coley, a Treasury spokesman, said in a written statement.

The Obama administration has indicated that the only way for the country to avoid a cash-management crisis as soon as next month is for Congress to raise the “debt ceiling,” which is the statutory limit on government borrowing. The cap is $16.4 trillion.

“There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills, or it can fail to act and put the nation into default,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “Congress needs to do its job.”

In recent weeks, some Republicans have indicated that they would not agree to raise the debt limit unless Democrats agreed to make cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security.

The White House has said it would not negotiate spending cuts in exchange for Congressional authority to borrow more, and it has insisted that Congress raise the ceiling as a matter of course, to cover expenses already authorized by Congress. In broader fiscal negotiations, it has said it would not agree to spending cuts without commensurate tax increases.

The idea of minting a trillion-dollar coin drew wide if puzzling attention recently after some bloggers and economic commentators had suggested it as an alternative to involving Congress.

By virtue of an obscure law meant to apply to commemorative coins, the Treasury secretary could order the production of a high-denomination platinum coin and deposit it at the Federal Reserve, where it would count as a government asset and give the country more breathing room under its debt ceiling. Once Congress raised the debt ceiling, the Treasury secretary could then order the coin destroyed.

Mr. Carney, the press secretary, fielded questions about the theoretical tactic at a news conference last week. But the idea is now formally off the table.

The White House has also rejected the idea that it could mount a challenge to the debt ceiling itself, on the strength of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which holds that the “validity of the public debt” of the United States “shall not be questioned.”

The Washington Post earlier published a report that the Obama administration had rejected the platinum-coin idea.

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