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ny0242797 | [
"technology"
] | 2011/03/07 | IPad’s Rivals Can’t Beat It on Price | The iPad 2, unveiled on Wednesday, offers several sleek improvements over its predecessor. But its most attractive feature is perhaps the same one its predecessor had: the price tag. And what makes that feature even more compelling is that so far, Apple ’s competitors in tablets cannot beat or even match it. The iPad 2, like the original, starts at $499. Apple says that since it introduced the original last April, it has sold 15 million of the devices, generating $9.5 billion in revenue. Analysts say this is only the start of a lucrative market for tablet computers, which could soar as high as $35 billion by 2012. The Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab were introduced recently, both to generally good reviews but at higher prices. Dozens of hardware manufacturers are scrambling to bring their own variations to market this year: Hewlett-Packard with the TouchPad, HTC with the Flyer, LG with the G-Slate and BlackBerry with the PlayBook. But prices, or even release dates, have not been announced, and industry experts say it is not yet clear whether the devices can be competitive with Apple on price. “There have been nearly a hundred competitive tablets that have been introduced since the iPad,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “But it seems that no one has eclipsed or even matched Apple on pricing.” Analysts and industry experts point to a number of reasons. Primarily, they say, Apple’s deep pockets — a staggering $60 billion in cash reserves — have allowed it to form strategic partnerships with other companies to buy large supplies of components; for example, expensive flash memory. By doing this, the company probably secures a lower price from suppliers, ensuring a lower manufacturing cost. At the same time, they say, Apple has sidestepped high licensing fees for other items it needs, like the A4 and A5 processors within the iPads. Those parts, designed in-house at Apple by a company that Apple bought, are among the costlier components needed to make a tablet computer. Mr. Sacconaghi said Apple also could subsidize some of the cost of building iPads with the money it makes through its App Store, which generates more than a billion dollars each year. This means that Apple can take a lower profit margin on the iPad, 25 percent, than it does on, for example, the iPhone , which can yield as much as 50 percent profit. Yet another advantage is Apple’s wide net of its own global retail shops and online stores; for customers, this means they can avoid a markup from a third party like Best Buy. Although other companies have some of these factors in their favor, no one but Apple has all of them. Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, who took the stage during the Apple press event Wednesday in San Francisco to announce the iPad 2, made a not-so-discreet swipe at rivals. Is 2011, he asked, “going to be the year of the copycats?” “Most of these tablets are not even catching up to our first iPad,” he said. For example, like Apple, Samsung cuts costs for making its Galaxy Tab, a seven-inch tablet, because it builds many of the components itself. And like many other tablet makers, Samsung relies on the Android mobile operating system, which Google makes available free. Even so, the Galaxy can cost as much as $549 without a contract for cellular service. “Just because a company sources internally doesn’t ensure that they get the best pricing on components,” said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, a research firm. “It doesn’t necessarily guarantee efficiency from a cost perspective.” Justin Denison, vice president for strategy at Samsung, said that in the United States, the company relegates device pricing to its carrier partners, but that he was not worried that the cost of the Galaxy, which has received generally glowing reviews, might turn prospective buyers away. He said the company was “quite happy” with early sales of the device, which it pegs at two million, adding that “consumers will decide for themselves whether the price is worth it.” But adding to the challenge for Samsung and most other tablet makers is that they rely on third parties like Best Buy to sell the devices. Apple’s retail and online stores help eliminate this problem. “You don’t see a markup in the same way a retailer would mark up an item, so it reduces that particular margin,” said Shane Greenstein, a professor at Northwestern University’s graduate business school. Shelling out billions of dollars to build glossy retail stores or to make investments in chip processors is not an option for a smaller company like Motorola, which recently spun its mobile devices business into its own independent sector. Motorola’s Xoom, a tablet with a 10-inch screen, a dual processor and front- and rear-facing cameras, costs $800 in the United States without a two-year contract with a wireless carrier. That’s roughly $70 more than the equivalent 32-gigabyte iPad 2 outfitted with both Wi-Fi and 3G functions. Alain Mutricy, a senior vice president for mobile devices at Motorola, defended the pricing of the Xoom, pointing to the tablet’s extensive memory, high-resolution display and compatibility with Verizon’s 4G LTE network, to which Xoom owners will be able to upgrade free, as justification for the price tag. “The Xoom is priced exactly where it has to be,” he said. Mr. Mutricy said he did not think the company would do anything differently to trim costs. “It’s not that we are trying to lower the price and cannot,” he said. “We are pricing the Xoom based on what we are offering consumers.” But he said that Motorola was planning to expand its line of tablets in the future that would most likely include smaller, lightweight options with a lower retail cost. Huawei, a Chinese hardware manufacturer, has said it hopes to press into the United States market later this year with the S7 Slim, a svelte, rectangular machine running Android on a 7-inch display and a 1-gigahertz processor, for $300. Ross Gan, the worldwide head of corporate communications at Huawei, said the company cut costs by using a modest marketing campaign. “We didn’t set our margins based on massive advertising campaigns,” he said in a recent interview. Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research, predicted that pricing would become increasingly important in the tablet market because as more options appeared — particularly cheaper, no-name Android-powered tablets — shoppers would want to pay less. “Consumers expect that over time, electronics get cheaper,” she said. “They’re seeing all these other devices in the market and not necessarily distinguishing between processor speeds. There’s a huge variation in price and power but from a distance, they all look like 7-inch touch screens.” Over time, analysts say, efficiency in production will help bring down costs for competitors. But the market will be hypercompetitive until then, said Ms. Alexander of IHS iSuppli. “The iPad may continue to own the market if competitors don’t get more realistic on their pricing,” she said. “Right now, it’s too high relative to what the iPad has for the product.” | iPad;Prices (Fares Fees and Rates);Tablet Computers;Apple Inc |
ny0048800 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2014/11/23 | Saints Revisit Days of Futility, Without the Fun | NEW ORLEANS — For two decades starting in the late 1960s, fans supported the New Orleans Saints as lovable losers. O.K., they were not always lovable. The Saints once lost so many games that they lost a consonant and became the Aints. Some fans wore bags on their heads. But they still showed up as clever contrarians. Last Sunday was different. In a moribund 27-10 loss to Cincinnati, the Saints committed a cardinal sin of life in New Orleans: They were boring. Players were booed at halftime. The Superdome seemed nearly vacant in the fourth quarter. Murmurs of overreaction wafted to the stadium’s upper seats. Some fans talked again of paper bags. A few called for quarterback Drew Brees to be benched. Still, the postseason remains within reach. The Saints may be muddling along at 4-6, but they are tied with Atlanta atop the N.F.C. South. Yes, the locals trail in potential playoff tiebreakers, but fortunately for them, six games remain, and New Orleans appears no more mediocre than the rest of the division. “We can get there at 7-9,” guard Jahri Evans said, not exactly stirring the souls of the Saints’ faithful this week. Paul Atkinson, a loyal fan born in 1967, the year of the Saints’ inaugural season, put a finer point on the Saints’ current campaign. “They have a below-average chance to be below-average champions of the N.F.C. South,” said Atkinson, a 47-year-old sports documentary filmmaker. Even Coach Sean Payton acknowledged that his team appeared listless. Many had considered the Saints a Super Bowl contender in Payton’s second season back from a suspension over the team’s offering of bounties to harm opponents. Not now. “I’ve not seen the Saints play as flat,” said Leroy Mitchell Jr., 47, perhaps the team’s most visible and audible fan, who wears headgear fashioned as a giant whistle and is known as Whistle Monsta. Something fundamental seems to have changed here. A Super Bowl victory in 2009 and regular playoff appearances have left fans with much more expectation and much less patience. Many are too young to remember that the Saints needed 21 years for their first winning season and playoff appearance, in 1987. That Archie Manning endured 11 seasons at quarterback here with nothing to show above a .500 record. “Somebody broke into my car and left two Saints tickets” was the signature joke during the Saints’ awful years. There were times when four wins for an entire season would have brought a parade, not a panic. In 1980, the hapless Saints finished 1-15, leaving kicker Russell Erxleben to say, “I tried to commit suicide twice, but the bullet went wide left.” Given the team’s comically hopeless past, said Taylor Beery, 35, a season-ticket holder, “I think we’re terribly spoiled.” Image Characters like Whistle Monsta haven't had much to cheer this season, even though the Saints are contending for a division title. Credit Scott Cunningham/Getty Images Mitchell, the superfan, preferred a more professorial assessment, saying in dry, clinical terms, “The typical Saints fan has amnesia and brain damage.” True, this is a flawed team. And injuries seem more plentiful here than Mardi Gras beads. Brandin Cooks, a rookie receiver and emerging deep threat, broke his thumb against Cincinnati and was lost for the season. The New Orleans secondary took a hit when Rafael Bush and Jairus Byrd sustained season-ending injuries. There are wounds of the team soul as well. Some players have questioned the discipline, leadership and third-down porousness of the Saints’ defense. Some fans bemoan the trade of running back Darren Sproles, a pass-catching sprite and elusive return specialist now in Philadelphia. Some think Payton has grown smugly predictable on offense. Players seem befuddled. “It’s frustrating because you don’t know what to do,” safety Kenny Vaccaro told reporters after the loss to Cincinnati. The fear here is that Brees, at 35, is nearing his expiration date. Brees is holding on to the ball too long, according to some, or not long enough, according to others. He spends too much time making commercials. He has shrunk like the jeans he endorses. “He’s too short this year,” Angela Torres, 50, a fan, said with a laugh. Brees has built a terrific career, but at 6 feet he sometimes appears to need a periscope to see over gigantic linemen. He has thrown 10 interceptions and 19 touchdown passes. “He can’t set his feet,” said T-Bob Hebert, a talk show host and former offensive lineman at Louisiana State whose father, Bobby, played quarterback for the Saints from 1985 to 1992. But Hebert added: “These fans are in for a rude awakening when Brees leaves. Only four or five people in the world can do what he does.” Brees is so entrenched that some fans cannot easily remember the name of his backup. “I think it’s a guy from Tulane,” said Beery, the season-ticket holder. “I forget.” Actually, it is Luke McCown, who played at Louisiana Tech. While defeat is nothing new in New Orleans, fun has been a virtue of the team and the town. On the Saints’ first-ever play in 1967, John Gilliam returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. Tom Dempsey kicked a record 63-yard field goal in 1970 and, by his account, stayed out partying for several days while teammates pranked him with a fake phone call from President Richard M. Nixon. In 2003, Saints receiver Joe Horn celebrated a touchdown by pulling a cellphone from padding below the goal posts. Jimmy Graham, the current tight end, used to dunk over the crossbar after scoring. Now, even that has been banned by what Graham considers the No Fun League. “That was our last little Alamo of personality,” Beery said. Just last week, another Saints fan, Tony Williams, 70, intercepted a ball thrown by a celebrating Bengals tight end to a Cincinnati fan in the stands. Williams drew criticism on social media but explained that, hey, this is New Orleans, and everybody here reaches for tossed souvenirs. “Mardi Gras instinct kicked in,” said Williams, a former king of the famed Zulu carnival krewe. Everyone needs to simmer down, said Bob Remy, 77, a sports historian who coordinates the Saints’ stat crew. He was third in line when the expansion team first offered season tickets, and he remains hopeful. The Saints rank second in the N.F.L. in total offense and have found balance in the running of Mark Ingram. “Everybody goes through rough times, the Yankees, Celtics,” Remy said. “We’re going to be O.K. We’re in a lousy division. It’s going to take no more than break even to win it.” | Football;Drew Brees;Jimmy Graham;Tom Dempsey;New Orleans Saints |
ny0278309 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/11/09 | Republicans Retain House Majority Despite Democratic Hopes | Republicans kept their grip on the House of Representatives on Tuesday, overcoming months of efforts by Democrats to tarnish them by association with Donald J. Trump in what proved to be a grave miscalculation. With a handful of races outstanding Wednesday morning, Democrats had a net gain of just five seats and were expected to remain in the minority, a position they have occupied since Republicans swept to power in 2010 on a wave of Tea Party fervor. In the few districts that changed hands, it was not perennially endangered Republicans in typical swing districts who were falling, but rather some incumbents who had been comfortably re-elected in the past. In an early victory, Democrats toppled Representative John L. Mica, a Florida Republican who had cruised to re-election since coming to Congress in 1993. Mr. Mica was defeated by Stephanie Murphy, a business professor and former national security specialist. Ms. Murphy was able to take advantage of a district that had been redrawn. In another redrawn Florida district, encompassing St. Petersburg, Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor turned Democrat, defeated Representative David Jolly. In New Jersey, Representative Scott Garrett, a conservative Republican who just finished his seventh term, lost to Josh Gottheimer, a former Clinton administration speechwriter. And Democrats eyed Representative Darrell Issa’s once-safe seat in Southern California, hoping to bring down the former chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, one who relished his role as an Obama administration antagonist. By Wednesday morning, his race was still too close to call, with the possibility that it would not be called for days. (The state’s vote-by-mail system allowed voters to postmark their ballots as late as Tuesday.) There was no doubt that Democrats would pick up seats this year, chipping away at the Republicans’ 247-member majority, their largest since the 1930s. But Democrats ultimately fell well short of expectations. Nonpartisan estimates had anticipated House Democrats could pick up between five to 20 out of about two dozen seats considered up for grabs — most of them held by Republicans. Election Night Live Coverage Times reporters provided real-time analysis of Donald J. Trump’s stunning upset in the presidential election on Tuesday. The possibility that Democrats could gain at least 30 seats and retake the majority was always considered far-fetched. As it became clear that Republicans could not only hold both chambers but also claim the presidency, Republicans who had braced to lose all but the House began entertaining notions of a sweep. That would open the possibility of the passage of the party’s long-stalled agenda, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Tuesday night. “If that happens, then you’ll see a lot of major legislation moving quickly, I think, in January and February,” he said. “We’re going to have to justify a majority like this.” The volatility of the presidential race infused a dash of unpredictability into the final weeks of the election. As Republicans scrambled last month to respond to a 2005 recording in which Mr. Trump boasted in vulgar terms about sexually assaulting women, the hopes of Democrats soared. How Trump Reshaped the Election Map Donald J. Trump made good on his strategy of stoking the enthusiasm of white voters to defeat Hillary Clinton. But the wave of Republican losses that Democrats had hoped for proved more a ripple, with vulnerable Republicans like Representative Barbara Comstock of Virginia holding their ground in districts where Mr. Trump’s popularity seemed to be foundering for most of the race. It appeared the decision by some Republicans to distance themselves from Mr. Trump did not harm them, and perhaps even saved them in some districts. Ms. Comstock, who represents the nation’s wealthiest district, said little about Mr. Trump until the recording became public, becoming one of the first in her party to disavow him because of it. She won a close race after Democrats hammered her for what they said were her policy similarities to Mr. Trump, a strategy employed against other endangered Republicans. Hillary Clinton won her district. Carlos Curbelo, a freshman representative of Florida, who had been outspoken against Mr. Trump throughout his race, held his seat in a re-election battle that pitted him against Joe Garcia, whom he defeated two years ago. Democrats spent more than $2 million to try to reclaim the hotly contested district. Mr. Trump won his district. Perhaps more than the strength of their candidates or platform, Republicans have gerrymandering to thank once more for their renewed House majority. After the 2010 census, responsibility for congressional redistricting fell largely to Republican-controlled state legislatures, which clumped voters in districts that would help more from the party get elected. What remains is a House remarkably insulated from national electoral swings — a contrast with the founding fathers’ image of a chamber more susceptible to the will of the people, said Michael Li, an expert on redistricting and senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program. There were concerns that anything but a Trump victory could present new obstacles for Speaker Paul D. Ryan. During the campaign, many conservative members who backed Mr. Trump expressed frustration with Mr. Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican elected official, for declining to defend Mr. Trump after the release of that 2005 recording. That frustration has metastasized into mutinous murmurings about blocking Mr. Ryan’s re-election as speaker. Before Election Day, at least a handful of Republicans had declined to say if they will back him in internal leadership elections, scheduled to be held when Congress returns early next week. But Mr. Trump’s victory is likely to pose its own problems for Mr. Ryan, who became more vocal in his support for his party’s presidential candidate in the final days before the election, mentioning Mr. Trump by name as he urged Americans to vote Republican, up and down the ticket. Though he spoke of reconciliation and unity in his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump is known for his almost uncontrollable need to retaliate for even perceived slights, a fact that could come back to haunt Mr. Ryan. As the race appeared to be turning in Mr. Trump’s favor, Mr. Ryan gave brief remarks at his own victory party Tuesday evening. He did not mention the man who would soon be president-elect but alluded to the potential for an expectation-defying election for his party. “This could be a good night for us,” Mr. Ryan said. | House races;Congressional elections;Democrats;Republicans;House of Representatives;Congress;US |
ny0234680 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2010/01/16 | N.B.A. Rookie Closes Inner Circle After Deadly Shot Is Fired | PHILADELPHIA — When Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans was 7 years old, he hit the winning basket to beat his friend Dwayne Davis’s team and remain unbeaten in a youth league. Davis was inconsolable, so Evans’s oldest brother, James, visited his locker room and invited him to a nearby Chuck E. Cheese restaurant with the family. “They don’t allow many people to get very close,” Davis said of the Evanses. Few N.B.A. stars have a tighter inner circle than Evans, who is averaging 20.6 points and 5.1 rebounds a game and is a leading contender for rookie of the year. He has four older brothers who are active in his life. And 13 years later, he and Davis remain inseparable. At the American Christian School in Aston, Pa., where Evans starred, Davis was a team manager. Davis followed Evans to Memphis in 2008 and played a similar role: answering phone calls and rebounding shots for his friend at 1 a.m. When Sacramento drafted Evans with the fourth pick of the N.B.A. draft in June, Davis too moved west. “I’m a second pair of eyes,” said Davis, who lives in a three-bedroom condominium with Evans and his trainer, Lamont Peterson, near Arco Arena. Davis, who goes by the name Gym Rat, was also in the backseat of Evans’s gold Ford Expedition when gunshots rang out in front of Evans’s aunt’s house in Toby Farms, a rough section of Chester, Pa., around 6 p.m. on a Sunday in November 2007. According to a police report, Evans, who was driving, saw his cousin Jamar Evans put a silver handgun in his hooded sweatshirt. Davis, in his statement, concurred. Neither said he saw Jamar Evans pull the trigger for the shot to the chest that killed the 19-year-old Marcus Reason. Tyreke Evans maintains that Reason charged them first. “Tyreke and I were scared,” Davis said. “We were unsure if one of us was hit or going to get in trouble.” No charges were filed against Tyreke Evans, who almost drove into a fire hydrant as he fled the scene with his cousin, Davis and Rasheen Blackwell. Evans cooperated with authorities. Jamar Evans pleaded guilty to third-degree murder last January and was sentenced to 9 to 20 years in prison a day before Tyreke was drafted. Tyreke said Thursday night that he had mailed money to his cousin. Davis said he had continued to send letters of support. “It was kind of a blessing to learn you can be blindsided,” Evans, 20, said. “Even family can be carrying a weapon.” Evans spoke on the day Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was charged with felony gun possession after carrying an unlicensed pistol into the Washington locker room. Evans expressed surprise that a star would bring a firearm into team space. “Never thought I’d hear anything like it,” said Evans, who said he did not own a gun. Kings General Manager Geoff Petrie said that in his predraft interview Evans was candid about his brush with gun violence. “He didn’t gloss over it,” Petrie said in a phone interview. “He recognized the potentially serious nature of something like that.” Evans is deferential by nature. His brother Julius lamented that he lacked “the Kobe Bryant killer instinct” as a prep star. His team would jump out to large early leads and Evans, who was often double- and triple-teamed, would lose his intensity. His former coach at American Christian, Tony Bergeron, said Evans never wanted to “step on your throat,” but added, “When he faces a challenge, that whole mind-set changes.” Last season, with Memphis reaching the Round of 16, Coach John Calipari let Evans run the point and would not allow him to slow down. Evans said Calipari constantly yelled, “You’re not showing me everything!” “Calipari taught toughness like Bob Knight but without putting a hand on the kid,” James Evans said. Big enough to be Evans’s bodyguard, Peterson, a former wide receiver at Temple who has been training Evans since high school, has also taken on the roles of chauffeur and nutritionist. Peterson served as an administrative assistant with Memphis last season. At 6 feet 6 inches and 220 pounds, Evans is what Peterson calls “a walking billboard for my work.” Evans filled the frame through supersets in the weight room and bungee cord workouts on the court. As Evans went up to shoot, Peterson pulled on the cord, simulating a defender’s tugs. “Not one of the guards we looked at before the draft could guard him,” said Pete Carril, a Kings assistant who has worked with Evans to correct a slinging motion in his overhead jump shot. “Right now, with his body and ability to finish at the rim, he’s looking down the barrel of long-term success in this league,” Carril added. When Evans was at American Christian, he did not have a car until his senior year. He rode a school bus, which friends and family referred to as “the big cheese” for its yellow color. His brothers then chipped in to buy the Expedition, the one he peeled away in from the murder scene. Two winters later, he drives a black 2010 S550 Mercedes and has broken ground on a house in Delaware. “We micromanage every cent,” Julius Evans said. The trail for Evans led home Friday against the 76ers. He arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday about 11 p.m. with a plain-clothes security guard after having dinner at his mother’s house in Chester. In Washington on Saturday, Evans will have a further reminder of what he escaped when the Kings visit the Arenas-less Wizards. “His mother still lives in the same house she lived in before the shooting,” Julius Evans said. “People are crazy if they think things have changed in our circle.” | Basketball;Evans Tyreke;Sacramento Kings;Draft and Recruitment (Sports);Murders and Attempted Murders;Arenas Gilbert;Petrie Geoff;Evans James |
ny0157241 | [
"us"
] | 2008/06/12 | Second Thoughts on Pulling the Guard From the Border | NOGALES, Ariz. — Swooping low over the Mexican border in her Blackhawk helicopter, Chief Warrant Officer Christina Engh-Schappert of the Virginia National Guard spots ... nothing. No sign of the migrants who would congregate in the washes for the mad dash to the United States. No clusters of people hiding in the bushes. Nobody in the throes of dehydration and heat exhaustion. “At first we were constantly catching clients,” Ms. Engh-Schappert said later, using the Border Patrol vernacular for illegal immigrants. “It’s gone from pretty busy to hardly anything in our sector.” Soon, she will be gone, too, along with 2,600 other members of the National Guard in Arizona , California, New Mexico and Texas where they are helping to secure the border with Mexico as part of a two-year mission called Operation Jump Start. Phased down from a peak of more than 6,000 Guard members, the mission is scheduled to end July 15, although a smattering of Guard personnel are expected to remain or return as part of longstanding cooperation with the Border Patrol. Here, they have built or shored up roads to give federal agents speedier access to the hilly and rocky terrain. They have fixed trucks and monitored cameras and sensors and stood guard in the wilderness, facilitating thousands of arrests by directing agents to illegal border crossers. But just as Guard members pack up and bid farewell to the desert, an effort is intensifying to have them stay put. The Border Patrol has given the Guard credit for helping to deter and detect illegal crossings, so much so that the governors of the four border states and federal lawmakers now wonder aloud, Why stop now? “This could be a new record for the federal government, actually abiding by a deadline,” said Dennis Burke, the chief of staff for Gov. Janet Napolitano, Democrat of Arizona, who has twice written this year to Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, to plead for an extension of the mission. “The two-year deadline was arbitrary.” Ms. Napolitano and the other governors say the Guard should stay while the Border Patrol continues a hiring frenzy toward meeting a goal of about 18,000 agents by the end of the year, double its size from 2001. It now stands at 16,471, about 5,000 more than two years ago, and the governors, as well as members of Congress, have expressed doubt that the agency will put enough agents in the field to meet its target. “It is not as easy as running some ads and thinking you are going to have well-qualified people apply and come into the Border Patrol,” said Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat whose southern Arizona district includes the border. “The risk is high, conditions are not great, the pay is average compared to other law enforcement positions. Having the Guard there for a period of time longer until they can ramp up the Border Patrol is necessary for border improvement.” In addition, the officials point out, the much-anticipated virtual fence, a suite of cameras, radars and other technology intended to enhance around-the-clock surveillance of the border, has been plagued with delays and glitches, although domestic security officials say it is getting back on track. Representative Harry E. Mitchell, a Democrat from the Tucson area, on Tuesday pressed the case for keeping the Guard in place by raising concerns that rising drug violence in Mexican border towns could spill into the United States. The reaction from domestic security officials, however, has been thanks, but no thanks. Despite questions about the strains on the Guard and the military because of the Iraq war, President Bush, heeding the suggestion of lawmakers, sent 6,000 members of the Guard to the border, with the condition that the number would drop to 3,000 after one year and that assignments would end after two. Domestic security and National Guard officials are not urging an extension, although they gush over the success of the Guard’s deployment. “It was an interim bridge so we would be able to build up agents and technology, and that has been accomplished,” David V. Aguilar, chief of the Border Patrol, said last week in a telephone interview from Washington. But, Mr. Aguilar said, “I would not be unhappy” if the Guard stayed on in large numbers. He ticked off a wealth of statistics attributed to having the Guard in play: 580 agents freed from non-law-enforcement tasks and returned to patrol, more than 1,000 smuggler vehicles seized, a 39 percent drop in arrests for illegal border crossings. But, Mr. Aguilar said, the impact of the Guard’s leaving “is going to be minimal,” because the agency had long planned for the July 15 departure. Also, he said, the Guard, as it has done for years, will continue to perform limited missions and training at the border to help federal law enforcement. Border economists and sociologists say that the Guard’s successes may be overemphasized, that the drop in arrests, for example, might also indicate fewer people were trying to enter the United States because of the souring American economy while those here no longer risk going back and forth across the border. The mission has not been trouble free. In the beginning, the Guard and Border Patrol bureaucracies did not mesh, some of those involved said, which led to confusion over orders and assignments, and which remains an occasional problem. For the most part, however, the mission has been mutually beneficial, Border Patrol and Guard members say. Recently, Capt. Tom Butler of the Ohio National Guard was helping to extend a graded, dirt road along the border fence here. Earlier, his team had helped to seal a tunnel that drug traffickers had burrowed under the fence. The projects have given him a sense of satisfaction. “This will increase their response and make it safe,” Captain Butler said of the projects. “And that does feel good.” | Illegal Immigrants;National Guard;Politics and Government;Arizona;Mexico;New Mexico;Texas |
ny0193579 | [
"business",
"smallbusiness"
] | 2009/11/05 | Report Finds 28% of U.S. Businesses Are Women-Owned | The Center for Women’s Business Research was founded nearly two decades ago by a group of women seeking to win respect for businesses run by women. But even center officials were surprised by the findings in their own report: that those businesses play a significant role in the economy. The report, which was released last month, estimated that eight million businesses — or 28 percent of all businesses — were owned by women, and that those businesses created or maintained 16 percent of all jobs in a range of industries like business services, personal services, retail, health care, communications and real estate. “Impressive,” said Gwen Martin, the center’s interim executive director. “It was something many of us knew intuitively. For the first time, we said, ‘We’re going to figure out how to quantify it.’ I think everyone was pleasantly surprised with the results.” Still, Ms. Martin said, “As good as it is, it also points out how much better it could be.” Only 4.2 percent of all revenue is generated by businesses owned by women in the United States, the report found. Armed with the new research, center officials and other women business leaders are approaching the Obama administration, the Small Business Administration and House and Senate small-business committee members to ask for more resources and new programs to support women-owned businesses. Margaret Barton, executive director of the National Women’s Business Council, a bipartisan federal advisory group that helped pay for the research, will be doing the same thing. “It certainly strengthens our hand,” Ms. Barton said. “We’ve never done a study like this before,” Ms. Barton said of the report, which was also underwritten by Wal-Mart Stores. “We’d seen anecdotally about the number of women entrepreneurs. This is a confirmation of that.” The economic impact report, Ms. Barton said, offers “recognition on the Hill and in the marketplace that women are doing much more than holding baby-sitting jobs, or proofreading papers or knitting macramé wall hangings.” But, she acknowledged, “it’s the glass half full,” citing a finding in the report that only 20 percent of women-owned businesses had employees. She said she would like to see those numbers increase. “We see that as an area of great growth and opportunity.” Ms. Martin agreed that that should be a priority. Most private and public programs focus on starting a business, she said. While those programs are still important, she said, “we need to really teach how to grow a business,” which requires different skills and motivations. “Women really have to fall in love with running a business,” she said. “They have to move in to the stage about being excited and motivated by running a business. We need help with that area.” Letty Hudson, president of Chicago Mini Bus Travel, is a prime example of the owner these groups are trying to spur on. She recently attended a meeting of Women Impacting Public Policy, a national bipartisan nonprofit group, trying to find ways to increase her business activity, which is down this year. While participants learned of the research on women and business, Ms. Hudson was able to share her own experience. She spoke of how she had created an “inner circle” group of five people whose mission was to make strategic contacts, and of how successful the group had been. “It’s a new way of doing business,” Ms. Hudson said. “Let’s help each other. Look at our own history and go back and connect people.” After she finished, a participant at her table asked her to run a national bus tour. That happened, she said, “just from me sitting there explaining how we can connect.” “Business as usual has changed,” she said. Relationships are now the key, she said. “This is the new wave on how we change the economy.” Ms. Hudson runs a business that produces revenue of more than $1 million. Ms. Barton, of the business council, said that she and others were particularly concerned about helping the “missing middle,” the majority of business owners who struggle to push annual revenue past $50,000. “We need to continue to look at that point on the spectrum,” she said. “We do well starting them out and encourage them at the top with mentoring, but it’s the missing middle we need to help nourish.” Since 1999, Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, a nonprofit organization founded by Nell Merlino, who created the Take Our Daughters to Work campaign, has concentrated its efforts on helping businesses owned by women grow. Count Me In runs a program called Make Mine a Million $ Business, which attracts hundreds of businesses each year hoping to reach the $1 million revenue threshold. In the third quarter, the leader board — the program is a yearlong race — showed that revenue for the top 25 businesses had grown 30 percent from a year earlier and that employment, along with the use of contract workers, had increased 86 percent, Ms. Merlino said. Even in this tough climate, she said, these women are moving forward. “This tells me that for all the focus the administration has on getting money moving, it is important, but it is not the only thing. It’s got to be more about the middle — it’s where the jobs come.” “The reason most business don’t grow, but particularly women, is they try to do everything themselves,” Ms. Merlino said. “Here you have this economic calamity — the most important thing to do is to hire people.” With 10 million out of work, she added, there is an extraordinary labor pool. Colette Chapman, president of Chapman Concierge, based in Morristown, N.J., which works with corporations and residential management companies to provide services to employees and residents, took advantage of that talent this year, hiring a former chief financial officer and a former equities trader. “Two years ago, I would never found that caliber of employees,” Ms. Chapman said. “They would never have consider doing it.” The recession has been good for her in other ways as well, she said, as overworked clients have taken advantage of her residential and corporate concierge services. She joined the Make Mine a Million challenge this year at the $344,000 revenue mark, hoping to raise that to $450,000 or higher. “I set the bar high,” Ms. Chapman said. “We’ll be very, very close.” | Women and Girls;Small Business;Economic Conditions and Trends;Nonprofit Organizations |
ny0089128 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2015/09/16 | Uber Case Highlights Outdated Worker Protection Laws | A dispute in California over whether Uber’s drivers are employees or contractors shows that labor laws that were passed decades ago just don’t work in the smartphone world. But it’s not just about the workplace. This litigation is becoming a Rorschach test for people’s views of the sharing economy and whether it is a force for good — or for exploitation. Or to put it another way, you know people have strong feelings about you when you are heckled at a taping of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ,” which is what happened last week to Uber’s chief executive. In the California case, a law firm based in Boston led by Shannon Liss-Riordan has brought a class-action lawsuit against Uber, contending that its drivers are illegally paid as independent contractors and not employees. As with most disputes, this one is about the money. If Uber’s drivers are employees, then they are entitled to the benefits that go with such classification, such as unemployment insurance and overtime, that are not required to be bestowed upon independent contractors. Uber’s critics say the company is exploiting workers by not paying the benefits of employment. The sharing economy, some of them say, is doomed to further enhance inequality in the United States. Uber would appear to be another example of how the average worker in America, particularly the unskilled one, can no longer make a living wage or even get a real job. Uber and its supporters, however, contend that its drivers want this system. Uber is a technology service for matching drivers and customers and therefore is a middleman no different from, say, eBay or Etsy. With Uber, drivers are independent contractors who pay 20 percent of the fare to the company. The drivers pay all their expenses and receive no benefits, like health insurance or unemployment benefits. But in exchange, they don’t need to show up if they don’t want to, don’t have set hours and are basically their own bosses. From this perspective, Uber is empowering drivers, allowing them to earn money on the side or more money than their other job without the inconvenience of a boss. Who is right? Well, this is not the old story of labor versus capital that drove a push for workers’ rights for many years. In that narrative, capital exploited less powerful workers to its benefit, so worker protections were necessary. Laws were passed and workers organized unions to ensure that there was a balance of power. In the system that has been built up from this old conflict, the benefits of employment go largely to full-time workers. Yet if you are Uber’s chief executive, you wake up every day not knowing if your work force will even show up. In the traditional economy, workers need to quit one job to take another — and there are significant costs to that. In Uber world, however, Uber drivers can work for other services like Lyft seamlessly. Many do drive for both, taking the best offer each time. It doesn’t seem like exploitation when Uber needs to pay a rate that is better than a competitor’s to attract drivers (of course, this doesn’t mean that the competition is so great, just that Uber is better). In addition, some Uber drivers are working to pick up extra money. One of my recent Uber drivers was trying to make enough extra money to take her daughter to Disneyland. Image Credit Harry Campbell Uber is something new in employee-employer relations. The sharing economy has created a work force for Uber of up to 200,000 drivers in the United States alone in the space of a few years. And it appears to be a service that people like better and can more easily use than taxis. You can take an Uber ride and see why — it is easy, convenient and almost always there (most taxis outside Manhattan don’t live up to that principle as much, to put it politely). Now the courts are trying to figure out whether Uber’s drivers are contractors or employers from a standard rooted in 19th-century labor law. It’s a standard that has many variations as the law tries to separate workers who need protection from independent contractors who can fend for themselves. But the State of California adheres to the most liberal of definitions. In S.G. Borello & Sons v. the Department of Industrial Relations , a case decided in 1989 by the California Supreme Court, the test for whether a worker is an employee or a contractor is whether the employer retains all “necessary” control over the worker. To help carry out the test, the court has enumerated 13 more factors that indicate whether a person is an employee or contractor, such as whether there is “skill” required in the occupation. California’s definition is notoriously worker-friendly — most states require actual control or the “right to control,” a higher standard than “necessary” control. Under California’s definition, Uber has an uphill battle . The company specifies enough in terms of standards, like licensing and what kind of car you can drive, as well as the ability to terminate drivers, that someone can find that “necessary” control is established, namely enough control for Uber to accomplish its business. In fact, under California law, if an employer has the power to terminate someone at will, then the employer has enough control. But this test has nothing to do with Uber’s relationship with its drivers. As another court said in a similar case involving Lyft, these drivers do not look like employees or contractors. Do they really want to have less flexibility about who they work for? Do they want the inability to work for other people or to preselect their rides? And ultimately, given their ability to quit at any time and go to a competitor or even start their own service, do they need protection? Maybe, but probably not. So we are stuck with a complicated test that produces a result that doesn’t work with the shared economy. The case is headed for trial after a judge refused to dismiss it this summer and certified it as a class-action suit. Uber is going to have to hope the jury decides that California law just doesn’t apply here. The strangest twist of all is that this legal case is most likely to have little impact. Uber has all its drivers sign arbitration agreements, which waive the right to bring class-action lawsuits, so this case covers only those who opted out since 2014 or who drove before that time. And the case covers only California drivers. The potential claim for damages will matter little to a $50 billion company. This litigation is not going to force Uber to change its practices. That is because Uber doesn’t really work unless its drivers have the flexibility that employees do not have. So Uber is likely to fight this battle in the other states where it has a better chance of winning. Uber could also restructure its relationship — going through companies that hire workers or contractors. It’s hard to see Uber simply hiring people to drive full time. That would ruin the attraction of the service, not just for Uber but for the drivers themselves. This case truly highlights the outdated nature of workers’ laws in America, not just around what it means to work for someone, but also what benefits and protections American workers need whether they are a contractor, employee or provider of services. Unfortunately, it’s yet another Internet issue that the courts can’t solve and the legislatures have yet to tackle. | Car Service;Freelancer;Uber;California;Jobs |
ny0071932 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/03/31 | Pay for Performance Extends to Health Care in New York State Experiment | For a generation, doctors in New York City’s economically depressed neighborhoods have been the ugly ducklings of the medical hierarchy. Many are foreign born and foreign trained, serve mostly minority and immigrant patients, and often run high-volume practices to compensate for Medicaid ’s low rate of payment. Now these doctors are in the vanguard of an experiment to transform New York State’s health care services for the poor from a disorganized hodgepodge into coordinated networks of doctors, hospitals and other practitioners. Medicaid officials hope to inspire these providers to work together and take a more active role in looking after their patients’ health, rather than simply waiting for them to show up when ill. The hope is that if they can do a better job of getting patients to, for example, quit smoking or manage their diabetes , doctors could reduce costly visits to hospitals and their emergency rooms. Versions of this model, commonly called accountable care organizations , are appearing around the country for Medicare recipients, with mixed results. New York, which has the country’s largest Medicaid budget , is committing more than $1 billion a year for five years to the experiment. If it works, more could follow. “If we succeed, patients will be more likely to get the right tests and medicine, doctors will benefit as we simplify the business side of their practices, and businesses will benefit as we hold down health care cost growth,” Sylvia M. Burwell, secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, said this month in New York City, during a visit to promote accountable care organizations. At the start, doctors will still be paid as they are now, typically with a fee for every service — a payment model that has been blamed for the nation’s long increase in health spending. The doctors will be eligible for bonuses if their teams improve the health of the patients assigned to them, who generally have used them in the past. In the future, if the experiment works, providers may be paid based on outcomes rather than volume of services, with better-performing groups earning more than those whose patients are in worse shape. Image Dr. Ramon Tallaj turned an unrelated collection of small medical practices into a united force of 1,200 physicians called Corinthian Medical I.P.A. Credit Edwin J. Torres for The New York Times Given the amount of money involved, the New York State project, which goes by the ungainly name of Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program, has created unlikely alliances, mainly between competing hospitals. In many cases, doctors and hospitals from different groups have served the same patients, and the jockeying over who would get to claim them — and the government money they would bring — was so fierce that the Medicaid inspector general had to step in to resolve territorial disputes. Perhaps the most unusual alliance is one that brought together more than 1,000 primarily Hispanic doctors serving Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx and Asian doctors working in the Chinatowns of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens; and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, a hospital chain that serves a largely middle-class population. The nonprofit venture they formed, called Advocate Community Providers, counts more than 770,000 patients, by far the most of the 25 groups taking part in the program. The doctors are winning respect for the characteristics that once hurt them. “They have not turned their back on the Medicaid population; they have sort of embraced it,” Jason Helgerson, the state’s Medicaid director, said. “They speak their language. They understand their culture. They are based in the neighborhoods in which these people live.” The force behind this group is Dr. Ramon Tallaj, a former health official in the Dominican Republic who moved to the United States in 1991. Dr. Tallaj, 59, turned an unrelated collection of small medical practices into a united force of 1,200 physicians called Corinthian Medical I.P.A.; they use their combined clout to negotiate with insurance companies and, in this case, the state. Dr. Tallaj also is politically active. Since 2003, he has given at least $157,000 to Democrats, Republicans and the Latino Victory political action committee, including the maximum of $64,800 to the Democratic National Committee in 2013-14, according to campaign finance records. He has visited the White House at least five times, according to White House records , usually as part of large social or health care events, including the signing of the Affordable Care Act, and he has been photographed at least twice with President Obama at more intimate donor events. But his path has not always been smooth. In 2008, a federal civil complaint accused Dr. Tallaj and a partner, St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital, of using unlicensed foreign doctors at a clinic they ran on Academy Street in the Inwood section of Manhattan. In a settlement, the hospital said it was solely responsible for hiring and credentialing and agreed to pay $210,000; Dr. Tallaj said he did nothing wrong. Looking tropical in a linen guayabera shirt, Dr. Tallaj rose to a lectern in Albany last month to talk to a state Medicaid panel about his new coalition. Where other groups gave PowerPoint presentations studded with jargon, Dr. Tallaj showed a video testimonial that cut from playground basketball to Asian and Hispanic doctors extolling their dedication in their own languages. Image Dr. George Liu, an endocrinologist, is a leader with the group Advocate Community Providers, which counts more than 770,000 patients. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times “We are the transformation that New York has been waiting for,” Dr. Tallaj said, first in Spanish and then in English, as if he were addressing a political rally. “We are different.” When he was done, the panel burst into applause, and one member was so moved she proposed adding “bunches of points” to the score for Dr. Tallaj’s group, which could bring it millions of extra dollars. For each group the state will set goals for a range of measures, such as how well the group manages diabetes cases — based on those patients’ eyesight, cholesterol readings, kidney function and other tests — and whether it can reduce preventable hospital admissions, such as those created by poor follow-up care. A group can get a bonus each year by making progress toward its goals. But some of the Medicaid panel members questioned the logic of having such a large, diverse group of doctors and patients like Dr. Tallaj’s, without any obvious connections among them. “What’s the glue that holds them together?” asked Stephen Berger, a panel member and investment banker. Mr. Helgerson suggested it was the loyalty of their patients. The sheer size of the group could also make it complicated to track patients and determine who deserves credit for any improvements in their health. Patients may continue to see any doctor they wish, even if that doctor is not in the group. “I think we’ve learned in New York City that no patient is an island,” Mr. Helgerson said. “They tend to migrate around.” Likewise, Dr. Tallaj acknowledged that if his patients did well, he could reap the benefits even if he had not seen them, though he said that was not his motivation. Image The pediatric waiting room at the Boston Road Medical Center in the Bronx. Credit Edwin J. Torres for The New York Times “One of my sons said: ‘Why are you doing this? Are you going to be making money?’ ” Dr. Tallaj recalled. He replied, “Because this is the right thing for our community, our patients.” Dr. George Liu, another leader in the group and an endocrinologist with offices on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown, said it would be a cinch for the Asian community doctors to meet the hospital admission benchmarks because their patients already did not go to the hospital very often. “People say, ‘You’re not providing the services, maybe that’s why your patients don’t go to the emergency room,’ ” Dr. Liu said, chuckling, in his office stuffed with knickknacks given to him by patients. On the contrary, he said, “I frequently see patients until 3 o’clock in the morning.” Accountable care organizations are still relatively new in health care, and New York’s experiment is one of many underway. One closely watched federal project that began in 2012 with 32 provider groups spread around the country produced overall savings and improved patients’ health, but some groups that did not save enough money have left, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. The government is now tinkering with that design. Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton, thought the idea was not as promising as some had hoped. “People thought there was maybe more waste than there actually really is,” he said. Dr. Reinhardt was also dismissive of performance bonuses for doctors. “The idea that everyone’s professionalism and everyone’s good will has to be bought with tips is bizarre.” But Mr. Helgerson said that the current model of paying for every test and procedure was not working, and that New York had to look for a new way. “Is it easy and is it guaranteed?” he said. “The answer is no.” But he added, “At the end of the day, our belief is the current path, this fee for service path, is fraught with peril.” | Medicaid;New York;Doctor;Hospital;Health Insurance |
ny0239404 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2010/12/16 | Devils Win: Two Goals for Kovalchuk and None Past Brodeur | Ilya Kovalchuk broke out of a drought with two goals, and Martin Brodeur made 29 saves as the Devils ended a five-game losing streak with a 3-0 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night at Prudential Center in Newark. “It’s a long time, but I’ll take that,” Kovalchuk said of his first two-goal game of the season. “Hopefully it’s going to be more often.” The rookie defenseman Mark Fayne also scored — his first N.H.L. goal — to give the Devils (9-19-2) their first win in December. Brodeur has three shutouts this season and a league-record 113 in his career. Kovalchuk gave the Devils a 1-0 lead with his sixth goal after only 5 minutes 30 seconds, and Fayne gave them their first two-goal lead in nine games. Kovalchuk, in the first season of a 15-year, $100 million contract, added a power-play goal in the third period. It was the Devils’ first win since Nov. 27. RED WINGS 5, BLUES 2 Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom had three goals — his first career hat trick — and an assist in host Detroit’s victory. “You always think you’re going to get one, sooner or later,” said Lidstrom, 40, who had 19 two-goal games in his 19-year career before breaking through. DUCKS 2, CAPITALS 1 Ryan Getzlaf scored 4:03 into overtime as visiting Anaheim sent Washington to its seventh straight loss, the Capitals’ worst skid since Bruce Boudreau became coach just over three years ago. SABRES 3, BRUINS 2 Drew Stafford scored all three goals as Buffalo won at home. Derek Roy assisted on each of Stafford’s goals, and Ryan Miller made 32 saves. AVALANCHE 4, BLACKHAWKS 3 Tomas Fleischmann scored three times, including consecutive power-play goals in the third period, for visiting Colorado. PREDATORS 3, SHARKS 2 Sergei Kostitsyn and Colin Wilson scored goals 44 seconds apart in the third period for host Nashville, which has won four in a row and recorded at least one point in nine consecutive games. IN OTHER GAMES Tuomo Ruutu scored goals 1:28 apart in the third period goals as visiting Carolina came from behind to beat Florida, 4-3. ... James van Riemsdyk scored his second goal of the game on a power play 14:27 into the third period as Philadelphia extended its winning streak to four with a 5-3 victory in Montreal. ... Defenseman Victor Hedman, who has two goals in 30 games this season, scored in the fourth round of a shootout to give host Tampa Bay a 2-1 victory over Atlanta. | Hockey Ice;New Jersey Devils;Phoenix Coyotes;National Hockey League;Kovalchuk Ilya;Brodeur Martin |
ny0119010 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2012/07/05 | Roundup — The Pirates, Yes, the Pirates, Are in First Place | Two months ago, an early two-run deficit would have had the Pittsburgh Pirates scrambling. Now, it is only a blip. And for the moment, so is nearly two decades of losing. Mike McKenry and Pedro Alvarez drove in two runs apiece, and the Pirates looked pretty comfortable during their first day in first place (not a misprint), beating the visiting Houston Astros , 6-4, on Wednesday. Pittsburgh has won seven of eight games to improve to 45-36 at the season’s midway point, looking much like a team that could stick around through the summer. “This stretch that we’ve had is awesome but I think this is very indicative of this ball club,” second baseman Neil Walker said. “We knew the bats were going to start coming around, and when we did we knew we were going to score a lot of runs.” Kevin Correia (5-6) will take the help. He pitched well early in the season but struggled to win as the offense limped out of the gate. Correia overcame a shaky start Wednesday, giving up three runs on six hits in six innings, walking two and striking out one. He won at home against a National League team for the first time since joining the Pirates before the 2011 season. The Astros reached Correia for two runs in the second, but the deficit lasted all of 15 minutes before Pittsburgh roared back to take the lead. “Normally the first month of the season, you give two runs early and you know it’s going to be tight,” Correia said. “Now just have complete confidence that that’s not a lead that’s going to hold against us now.” Pittsburgh has its best record through 81 games since Barry Bonds was swinging for the fences at Three Rivers Stadium 20 years ago. DODGERS 4, REDS 1 Aaron Harang pitched seven strong innings against his former team as host Los Angeles won a second consecutive game for the first time since June 9-10. Harang allowed one run and three hits, struck out five and walked one in his second career start against Cincinnati, the team he pitched for from 2003 to 2010. He last faced the Reds, and beat them, on June 21, 2002, with Oakland. In a move retroactive to June 28, the Dodgers placed Andre Ethier on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique that had kept him out of six games. CUBS 5, BRAVES 1 Bryan LaHair, Jeff Baker and Anthony Rizzo hit home runs for visiting Chicago. Chipper Jones, who had five hits in the Braves’ 10-3 win on Tuesday night, had a first-inning single to give him hits in six straight at-bats and a season-best 11-game hitting streak. BLUE JAYS 4, ROYALS 1 Carlos Villanueva pitched six shutout innings, and every Blue Jays starter had at least one hit as host Toronto won for the fourth time in six games. CARDINALS 4, ROCKIES 1 Matt Holliday went 3 for 4 to lead St. Louis at home and is now 33 for 64 (a .516 average) with four homers and 19 runs batted in over his last 16 games. Coming off one of his worst performances of the season, against Pittsburgh on Friday, Adam Wainwright gave up one run and allowed eight hits. He struck out 7 of the first 13 hitters he faced and threw a first-pitch strike to 9 of the first 10 batters. NATIONALS 9, GIANTS 4 Host Washington, undeterred by an 11:08 a.m. holiday start after a late-finishing game, rallied from an early deficit to move 15 games above .500, matching its season-high. Ryan Zimmerman hit a line-drive home run to right-center to highlight the win and missed another home run by inches. He is 10 for 20 with 4 homers and 13 R.B.I. in six Independence Day games. MARLINS 7, BREWERS 6 Hanley Ramirez hit a run-scoring single off reliever Manny Parra in the 10th inning for visiting Miami. The hit came after the Marlins rallied from a one-run deficit in the ninth, when Gaby Sanchez hit a solo home run off Brewers closer John Axford to tie the game. WHITE SOX 5, RANGERS 4 Kevin Youkilis hit a game-ending single in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift host Chicago. Alejandro De Aza, who fouled a ball off his right knee during the at-bat, led off the 10th inning with a walk against Rangers reliever Mike Adams and then stole second. Youkilis, who was acquired in a trade from Boston on June 24, ended the game with a single to score De Aza. Josh Hamilton homered for the Rangers, who had won their previous seven series. INDIANS 12, ANGELS 3 Derek Lowe, starting for host Cleveland, won for the first time in more than a month. Lowe (8-6) gave up 3 runs and 11 hits in six innings for his first win since June 1. He was 0-3 with a 7.71 earned run average in five outings between victories. Johnny Damon had three of Cleveland’s season-high 14 hits. The Indians scored 21 runs in two wins after being shut out, 3-0, in the series opener. ORIOLES 4, MARINERS 2 Chris Tillman gave up two hits in eight and one-third innings in his first start of 2012, and Adam Jones hit his 20th home run of the season to lead visiting Baltimore. Tillman took a one-hitter into the ninth, but Michael Saunders reached on an error, and John Jaso’s double on Tillman’s 125th pitch ended his day. ATHLETICS 3, RED SOX 2 Jemile Weeks hit a go-ahead single in the seventh after Coco Crisp’s leadoff triple, and host Oakland completed a three-game sweep of Boston. The Red Sox slugger David Ortiz hit his 400th career home run, but Boston could not avoid its first sweep by the A’s since May 23-25, 2008. | Baseball;Pittsburgh Pirates;Houston Astros |
ny0090327 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2015/09/06 | Weary Migrants Show Relief as They Reach Austria Safely | NICKELSDORF, Austria — The safer they finally felt, the calmer the thousands of refugees who crossed into Austria from Hungary on Saturday became. In the orderly lanes of this small Austrian border town, where hundreds jammed the tiny train station Saturday morning, many seemed to leave behind the world of war and hardship that had driven them this far, and begin the adaptation to a new, more structured way of life where they had arrived. They submitted without complaint to police measures to keep them behind barriers, in a polite line to board trains to Vienna. Only hours earlier, as the first of an estimated 4,000 people started to stream into the no man’s land between Hungary and Austria in pouring rain around 5 a.m., life had been a jostling scramble for speed and survival. New arrivals took bananas, fruit, clothes and shoes offered by Austrian and Hungarian volunteers. Forced to get off Hungarian buses and walk through 500 yards of soggy land and hard tarmac to Austria, they dashed across the crossing, but shouted “Thank you!” as, against all odds, they reached a safe and desired stop. Soaked through, dazed and with many limping after walking 24 miles or more on Friday, they jostled around the first buses that arrived to take them to the trains. But then things settled down. And the buses pulled out. At least one convoy of some 15 double-decker tourist buses ferried passengers straight to Vienna’s main station for trains going farther west to Germany . The rest went to Nickelsdorf, where Helmut Marban, chief spokesman for the police in Austria’s easternmost province of Burgenland, surveyed the station scene — a landscape of screaming or laughing children, exhausted mothers and legions of men who say they seek work or at least an escape from fighting. Many combed through and selected clothes, shoes and blankets brought in by volunteers, something that would allow them to get out of their rain-soaked clothes. Nearby, Georg Schneider, 40, a freelance video programmer from Vienna, was handing out clothes and food. He had seen on Twitter that the refugees would arrive overnight, and left home at 5 a.m. with his offerings. “Austria is slow, but ready to help,” he said, alluding to the country’s reputation for suspicion of foreigners, which recently has kindled right-wing, anti-immigrant parties, as well as a historical willingness to help the needy. For Mr. Marban, the scene was satisfying. “The challenges for everybody — physical and mental — are huge,” he noted. Yet migrants, police, railway employees and dozens of citizen volunteers seemed happy to meet them, he said. Earlier, Mr. Marban’s boss, the Burgenland police chief Hans Peter Doskozil, had stood in the rain at the Nickelsdorf border crossing. A burly man with decades of service, he had been up all night. At some point — “was it 1 or 2 a.m., I can’t remember” — his Hungarian colleagues had made it clear there would be no avoiding the trek across no man’s land for the migrants. Seeking a Fair Distribution of Migrants in Europe German and European Union leaders have called for European countries to share the burden of absorbing the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have poured into the continent this summer. “So, we have to come up with another solution,” he said stoically, outlining what at that point seemed an unlikely hope of bus service that would work. After their often-harrowing journeys, the migrants were not bothered. Many conversations with them were fractured, but went like this: “Work, big city, Germany,” and a thumbs up, which was how Mustafa Hadji, 22, from Damascus described his hopes for the future. Challenges far bigger than those observed by Mr. Marban loom for European and other world governments suddenly motivated to act to alleviate some of the searing pain of Syria’s war, which has sent 4 million refugees in neighboring countries, and displaced millions more inside the country. What will happen next week, when Hungary says it will tighten its border with Serbia? Will migrants shift to Hungary’s borders with Croatia, Slovenia or Romania? Just how many newcomers can even wealthy Germany absorb? Might Europe’s divided leaders agree on common standards and actions? Hazem 23, a chemistry student from Damascus who declined to give his last name, seemed unfazed by such questions. He and his four companions, ages 17, 19 and two 21, were among the first to show at the Nickelsdorf border crossing Saturday, swiftly charging cellphones and calling home. All had been on the road since Aug. 3 and said they had walked almost 40 kilometers, about 24 miles, Friday before boarding the bus that took them close to Hungary’s border town of Hegyeshalom. There, Burgenland police picked them up — as they have so many thousands of others in recent months — gave them food, drink, shelter and time to contemplate whether to apply for asylum in Austria or head for the real goal, Germany. “We hope to go to Germany to continue our study,” said Hazem in his decent English. Kindness, he said, had marked stages of his journey by plane to Beirut, ferry to Istanbul, and on through Greek islands and mainland to Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary, where, he said, they “unfortunately” spent eight days, finally deciding simply to walk toward Austria. “I think we’ll keep walking to the United States,” he grinned. “Oh, oops, there is a sea in the way.” | Middle East and Africa Migrant Crisis,European Migrant Crisis;Refugees,Internally Displaced People;Austria;Syria |
ny0206618 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2009/06/05 | Third Minister Resigns From Brown’s Cabinet | LONDON — Beleaguered by Labor Party plotters hoping to unseat him and by the prospect of disastrous local election results for Labor that are expected on Friday morning, Prime Minister Gordon Brown chose on Thursday to send out aides avowing to reporters, anonymously, that there was “no chance” he would resign. The prime minister’s move , reported by the BBC and the Web sites of several British newspapers, surprised nobody, given Mr. Brown’s trademark as a political pit bull. He has a reputation for fighting his corner with a tenacity born of the decade he spent playing a smoldering second fiddle to Prime Minister Tony Blair before usurping him in a party revolt two years ago. Through his aides, Mr. Brown put the matter as one of national interest. After a dismal winter of multibillion-dollar bank bailouts overseen by Mr. Brown, the aides said, and with early signs that the British economy might be past the worst of the recession, now was not the time to be replacing a prime minister the aides described as indispensable. Mr. Brown’s prospects took a turn for the worse on Thursday night with the resignation of another cabinet member , the third in 72 hours and possibly the most serious for the prime minister. James Purnell, the 39-year-old work and pensions secretary, who is considered to be a standard-bearer for the party’s “Blairite” moderate wing, called for Mr. Brown’s resignation while announcing his own. In his resignation letter, Mr. Purnell said that the prime minister’s departure would give Labor “a fighting chance of winning” a general election that is required in the next 12 months while Mr. Brown’s remaining in office would make “a Conservative victory more, not less likely.” With two junior ministers having also stepped down, and Labor lawmakers circulating a draft e-mail message demanding that he quit, Mr. Brown’s position was increasingly being compared to that of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in November 1990, when cabinet resignations and a Conservative backbench revolt combined to oust her. Mr. Brown’s next move is expected to be a cabinet reshuffle on Friday. But reports on Thursday suggested that Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer, was threatening to resign if moved and that David Miliband, the foreign minister, was also resistant, further weakening Mr. Brown’s position. Still, Mr. Brown held some trump cards, and the betting among Britain ’s political commentators was that he would survive, if only narrowly, for reasons that had much to do with the procedural minefield facing his Labor detractors. Perhaps his strongest card is that unseating a sitting Labor leader is far more difficult, under the party’s rules, than it was for the Conservatives who dumped Mrs. Thatcher. Mr. Brown’s fate is likely to become clearer by the weekend. While the overall pattern of results from the voting for many local and county councils is expected to be known by Friday, the results from the simultaneous voting for Britain’s seats in the European Parliament are not expected until Sunday. Pre-election polls have suggested that Labor could get fewer than 20 percent of the local election votes, trailing badly behind the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. It was largely because of the expectation of dismal election results that the stirrings against Mr. Brown among his own members of Parliament had reached the point that a group of Labor backbenchers drafted an e-mail message telling him to go. As reported in many British newspapers, the unsigned message paid tribute to Mr. Brown’s “enormous contribution to this country and to the Labor Party” since it took power in 1997. But, it added, “We believe that in the current political circumstances you can best serve the interests of the Labor Party by stepping down as prime minister and allowing the party to choose a new leader to take us into the next general elections.” According to the newspapers, the dissidents planned to deliver the e-mail message, and make it public, as soon as Friday, if they could gather at least 70 signatures. They were quoted as saying they already had 50 backers, but they need a minimum of 70, the number required under party rules to begin the formal process of unseating a leader. Projecting from the anticipated returns from the local elections, many Labor members fear they would lose their seats in a general election. But Labor’s rules also require the petitioners, in the absence of a resignation by Mr. Brown, to get at least 70 members to pledge their support to an alternative candidate. That seems improbable because the health minister, Alan Johnson, the only person thought to be broadly acceptable as a successor to Mr. Brown, has said that he favors Mr. Brown’s remaining in his post and leading the party into a general election. | Brown Gordon;Politics and Government;Elections;Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations;Great Britain;Labor Party |
ny0174726 | [
"nyregion",
"thecity"
] | 2007/10/21 | Ten Pins, Eight Lanes and a Bow to the Past | IF you ignore the new condo buildings scattered in the surrounding blocks, the stretch of North 14th Street in Williamsburg just west of the McCarren Park tennis courts could almost pass for the half-gentrified Williamsburg of 5 or 10 years ago. On a brisk night last week, shipping containers sat parked outside warehouses, and a metal security grate rattled along with the bass from an unseen band’s practice space. Between Berry and Wythe Avenues lies a bar called the Gutter that harks back further. In a vast attached space that used to be a comforter factory, the bar sports a working eight-lane bowling alley furnished with the remains of two ’60s-era alleys from the Midwest. An old-fashioned candy machine and a television set with rabbit ears contribute to the ambience, and the wood paneling on the walls is festooned with old black-and-white pictures of pale men with Brylcreemed hair and once-again-fashionable skinny ties. The city has heard plenty of stories of bowling alleys closing — Mark Lanes, in Bay Ridge, shut last year to make way for a six-story parking lot, and New Fiesta Bowl, in the Bronx, closed in 2005 — so the opening of an alley, even a small one attached to a bar, has a man-bites-dog feel to it. Nevertheless, the lanes were full on Wednesday night, and customers have reported waits of a few hours to bowl on weekends. • The owners, Jon Miller and Paul Kermizian, have fond bowling memories from their suburban childhoods. “We wanted to make the kind of place you find when you go out of town,” Mr. Miller said, raising his voice over the rock music booming out of the bar. “It looks a little broken-in already, like it’s been here a while.” Mr. Miller, 33, grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Williamsburg in 2000. For three years, he and Mr. Kermizian have owned Barcade, a neighborhood bar filled with vintage arcade games, but one appeal of bowling, he said, is that it reminds some of Williamsburg’s new residents of their pre-Brooklyn hangouts. “Everybody who’s here has probably come from somewhere else,” Mr. Miller said, “so they’ve all had that place, and it connects with them.” The Gutter does not allow minors, take reservations or play host to leagues, so it probably poses little threat to Brooklyn’s other remaining bowling alleys, among them Gil Hodges Lanes in Mill Basin, Maple Lanes in Borough Park and Melody Lanes in Sunset Park. Williamsburg being Williamsburg, it can be tricky to sort through the bar’s levels of irony, authenticity, kitsch culture and old-fashioned fun. Lighting fixtures bear the names of old bowling alley favorite beers, like Schlitz, but the selections on tap run more toward modern craft brews, like the Belgian-style Allagash White. • Leather bowling ball bags, on sale for $40 to $100 depending on the degree of ornamentation, hang next to the bar, and a Gutter bartender has already bought one to use as a handbag. Mr. Miller recently hashed out the bar’s appeal with a customer. “He was like, ‘The irony is pretty thick around here; I understand how this works,’” Mr. Miller said, sitting on a bench outside said the front door. Recalling all those transplants from smaller towns, Mr. Miller continued: “He found it ironic that now that people are here, they’re kind of drawn to what they were trying to get away from: a kind of townie bar where guys get old and they bowl. Now they’re here and they’re trying to get back to that. And he loved it.” Inside, bowlers who had paid $7 a game, plus $4 to rent shoes, were drinking pitchers of beer and fiddling with the electronic scoring system. Julia Murphy, a 31-year-old Baltimore native, said the bar reminded her of an old place she knew in Canton, a gentrifying waterfront area of her hometown. Her boyfriend, a 27-year-old architect named Andy Burne, compared the alley with the proliferation of condominium towers rising along the East River. “The big glass buildings that are going up, the same as on the Upper East Side, that’s not appropriate for here,” Mr. Burne said. “This kind of place is appropriate.” | Bowling;Bars;Brooklyn (NYC) |
ny0115984 | [
"sports"
] | 2012/10/04 | Phil Coppess Still Holds Twin Cities Marathon Record | ST. PAUL — The lead runner was bent slightly forward at the waist, arms and legs pumping, working the pavement like a machine. His gait was inelegant, but in the time it took spectators to think, “Where is everybody else?” the runner had passed. There was no grimacing battle down the stretch between sweat-soaked thoroughbreds, no fleet-footed challenger quietly gaining ground. It was Oct. 6, 1985, and the runner was Phil Coppess, a 31-year-old from Clinton, Iowa, on his way to setting the course record at the Twin Cities Marathon with a time of 2 hours 10 minutes 5 seconds. The second-place finisher was three minutes behind. Coppess’s time was the fastest by an American that year, and it ranks Coppess among the top 20 American marathoners ever, just ahead of Frank Shorter. Like all marathons, the Twin Cities race has hosted increasingly international elite fields, with strong contingents of East Africans and Russians. But 27 years later, Coppess’s record still stands — a fact that is all the more remarkable considering Coppess was a single parent of three who had worked full time in a factory since he was 18. Today’s marathoning elites are full-time professionals supported by coaches, agents, corporate sponsors, physiotherapists, massage specialists and nutritionists. That was not Coppess’s arrangement. “I had three kids to feed and all the usual bills — house, car,” Coppess, now 58, said in a telephone interview. “That’s just the way it was. When I went to a race, I gave it 100 percent. I couldn’t have run any harder, job or no.” Coppess was the youngest of nine children from Oxford Junction in northeastern Iowa. As a high school runner, he was not especially fast but prevailed in distance runs, the longer the better, with remarkable endurance and sheer determination. “Our family wasn’t rich,” he said. “If I went to college, it was going to have to be a full ride, and there were a lot of kids faster than me. I ran a couple track meets that summer after I graduated, in 1972, and that was about it. Said, guess I’m going to have to get a job.” That same summer, Shorter, a Yale graduate, won a gold medal at the Munich Olympics, touching off a running boom. Like Shorter, those most interested in going out for a 10-mile jaunt were graduates of college running programs. The pursuit was not popular in the blue-collar world. By 1974, Coppess was married and working the corn evaporator at the Archer Daniels Midland processing plant in Clinton. That year, he and his wife had their first child. There was no time for running, especially after a daughter was born in 1977 and another son in 1980. But during a 1979 strike at Clinton Corn, Coppess got a job at a nuclear plant where he observed some of the office workers going for a run on their lunch hour. “I thought, I used to do that.” He set out to develop his own study of distance running, gleaning training programs from magazines and connecting with runners at local races. “I remember Phil showing up at races, always interested in who I trained with and what workouts we were doing,” said Jim Ijams, a Quad Cities-area runner and at the time a recent graduate of Iowa State. “We took that stuff for granted, but he was actively seeking ways to get better.” Ijams, like many promising college runners in the 1980s, pursued a postgraduate degree in road racing. The lifestyle was characterized by sharing a cheap and charmless apartment with other runners, dozens of pairs of training shoes and some Miller Lites. They ran together twice a day. In between, they worked part time at running shoe stores and watched TV. Responsibility was limited to showing up for a given workout. There was always a diploma to fall back on. Coppess eventually designed a training regimen that dovetailed with his rotating shifts at Clinton Corn and his parenting responsibilities; he was awarded full custody of the children in a 1985 divorce. He ran 14 to 15 miles on work days, longer on his days off, carrying a palm-sized stopwatch to record each mile. “I didn’t think it was a good 20-miler unless I had gone under two hours,” he said. One day a week, he did a track workout, and on another, hills. Physical therapy consisted of weekly chiropractic adjustments. Days, weeks, months fell into a steady rhythm of running, work and child care that others saw as grinding but Coppess found satisfying. “The kids knew the routine — I’d go for a run or they’d go with me to the track, then we’d go out to eat,” he said. “I didn’t cook much.” He raced once a month, on his weekend off, always seeking bigger races with better competition. Winning the 1981 America’s Marathon in Chicago in 2:16 was pivotal. While the marathon offered no prize money, New Balance was impressed enough to sponsor his shoes and travel expenses for the next four years. “I was amazed how my times were dropping,” he said. “I just wanted to keep it up and see where it would go.” He was still largely unknown on the national running scene, living and training in small-town Iowa without training partners of note. “Phil wrote to me about running the marathon,” said Jack Moran, the race director for the Twin Cities Marathon in 1985. “I hadn’t heard of him, but I looked over his times and said, ‘Sure, I’ll give you a comp,’ ” referring to a free entry. Major fall marathons like Chicago and New York City offered appearance money as well as hefty prize purses, but they sought international fields. Moran recruited mostly Americans, and though there was no appearance money, many were attracted to the first-place prize: $20,000. (By comparison, this year’s Twin Cities Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, pays $15,000 for first, with a bonus of $25,000 for anyone who breaks Coppess’s record.) “I thought about Chicago and New York, but I was going for the win and thought Twin Cities was my best shot,” Coppess said. He took the weekend off and flew to Minneapolis. His parents made the five-and-a-half-hour drive with his three children. Coppess was confident that he could break 2:11, which he figured would be good enough for first place. As always, his strategy was simple: go out hard, a pace just under five minutes per mile, and keep it up for 26.2 miles. If others wanted to go with him, fine, and if they didn’t, that was fine, too. It was a brisk day, with temperatures at the start in the upper-30s. After six miles, he was alone in the lead. By the halfway point, he was out of sight from second place. “It was a faster pace than I’d ever run for a marathon, but every mile, I was right where I wanted to be,” he said. Coppess passed the 30-kilometer mark in world-record time. “When I hit 26 miles at 2:09 flat, I thought, I can run 385 yards in under 60 seconds, so I started to sprint but got a side-ache,” he said. “It was a pretty good payday. Until I did taxes.” He stayed overnight in Minneapolis because the hotel room was paid for, and because he did not have to work until Tuesday. | Running;Marathon Running;Coppess Phil;Minneapolis (Minn);Records and Achievements;St Paul (Minn) |
ny0070200 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/03/05 | New York City Adds 2 Muslim Holy Days to Public School Calendar | New York will become the nation’s first major metropolis to close its public schools in observance of the two most sacred Muslim holy days, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday, a watershed moment for a group that has endured suspicion and hostility since the Sept. 11 attacks. Several municipalities across the country — including in Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey — have moved in recent years to include the holy days, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, in their school calendars. But New York City, with its 1.1 million schoolchildren, dwarfs the others in its size and symbolism. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who has pledged a more tolerant and inclusive city, described the policy that begins in the coming school year as a simple “matter of fairness.” But the announcement was all the more striking for its timing, as Muslim-Americans face fresh scrutiny in the wake of terrorist attacks in Europe and new violence in the Middle East. In January, Duke University abruptly canceled plans to start broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer from the school’s chapel bell tower after threats of violence. And the shooting deaths of three Muslims last month in North Carolina prompted fears about an anti-Muslim backlash. Last week, three Brooklyn men were arrested and charged with plotting to join the Islamic State terrorist organization; two of them lived four miles from the public school where Mr. de Blasio unveiled his new policy. For Muslim activists, who have spent years trying to raise their political profile, the mayor’s announcement was taken as a significant victory, and an indication that they had matured as a constituency with tangible influence on public policy. Image Mayor Bill de Blasio with Muslim leaders on Wednesday to announce the added school holidays. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times “When these holidays are recognized, it’s a sign that Muslims have a role in the political and social fabric of America,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. At least six school districts nationally, including Cambridge, Mass.; Dearborn, Mich.; Burlington, Vt.; and Paterson and South Brunswick, N.J., have granted days off for the major Muslim holidays. Many more districts recognize the holidays in other ways, such as noting them on the school calendar or granting excused absences for observant students. But there has also been pushback. In November, education officials in Montgomery County, Md., reacted to a local campaign to recognize the Muslim holidays by deciding to eliminate all mention of religious holidays on their 2015-16 school calendar, including Rosh Hashana and Christmas. Instead, those days would be simply marked as days off. School board officials said the move was meant to ensure fairness, but the Muslim activists who had pushed for the change were stunned. “It felt like they were going to do anything they could to prevent adding the Eid holiday,” said Zainab Chaudry, who was a leader of the Equality for Eid coalition there. In New York, a group of Muslims has spent nine years pressing for inclusion on the city’s school calendar, which already recognizes several Jewish and Christian holidays. Muslims make up about 10 percent of the student body in the city’s public schools, according to a 2008 study by Columbia University. Image At a news conference on Wednesday about the addition of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays in New York City. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The administration of Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, rejected the idea, saying schoolchildren needed more time in the classroom, not less; Mr. Bloomberg also expressed concern that parents of different faiths would need to arrange child care on days that school was not in session. Mr. de Blasio had no objections: He pledged as a candidate in 2013 to close schools on the two Muslim holy days. On Wednesday, the mayor said that the changes would take effect in the coming academic year. Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son to God. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of fasting for Ramadan , which is signaled by the sighting of the crescent moon. The exact timing of the holy days changes year to year because they are based on a lunar calendar. In the coming school year, classes will start a day earlier in September to account for Eid al-Adha, which falls on Sept. 24, a Thursday; in 2016, Eid al-Fitr falls during the summer. In interviews on Wednesday, Muslim students and parents reacted with delight. Ilham Atmani, who was born in Morocco and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said she had been frustrated having to take her four children out of classes. “I know that Muslims are a minority, but we have to be recognized,” she said. Image Mayor Bill de Blasio, at a news conference Wednesday, said the addition of the holidays was “just a matter of fairness, it’s as simple as that.” Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Helal Chowdhury, 15, a sophomore at Brooklyn Technical High School, said that every year he had to choose between celebrating the holidays with his family and going to school so he would not fall behind. Helal, who wants to be a doctor, said he had had a perfect attendance record for the past several years and that school always seemed to win. “This is a big step forward,” Helal said. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this.” The mayor has also promised to close schools on the Lunar New Year, a cherished cause of Asian-American groups. On Wednesday, he said only that he was “going to keep working on that,” noting that he and schools officials had to contend with a packed academic calendar. State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat who represents Chinatown in Manhattan, said that while he was pleased with the new policy on Muslim holidays, “it’s critical that the Lunar New Year have the same result.” The mayor is also facing pressure from Indian-American groups that want schools to be closed for the Hindu festival of Diwali. Speaking at a school gymnasium in Bay Ridge on Wednesday, Mr. de Blasio, flanked by jubilant Muslim activists and city officials, was asked if he was concerned about a right-wing backlash to his decision. “People who will criticize it, I think, should go back and look at the Constitution of the United States,” Mr. de Blasio said. “We are a nation that was built to be multifaith, multicultural.” Mr. de Blasio often ends his news conferences by reciting a version of the day’s announcement in Spanish. As he prepared to do so on Wednesday, the mayor paused. “I will now talk about the Eid holidays in Spanish,” he said. “Only in New York, brothers and sisters.” | K-12 Education;Islam;Bill de Blasio;Holidays;Muslim Americans;NYC Department of Education;Carmen Farina;NYC |
ny0202061 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/09/25 | Pilot Error Puts a Kink in Bloomberg’s U2 Concert Plans | Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ’s plans to attend the U2 concert at the Meadowlands were disrupted Thursday night after the pilot of his private helicopter made a mistake during a test flight to Giants Stadium. The pilot, flying without the mayor as he familiarized himself with the area, missed the helipad and instead landed the helicopter in a bus parking lot around 7 p.m., said Trooper Mark Pierce of the New Jersey State Police. The State Police intercepted the pilot and verified his identity before clearing him to leave the area, Trooper Pierce said. However, the pilot was not allowed to enter the airspace for the rest of the evening. But the pilot’s error did not stop Mr. Bloomberg from attending the concert by the band, with whose members he has developed a relationship over common concerns about global poverty. The mayor was flown to another helipad in New Jersey around 9 p.m. and drove to the concert, said his chief spokesman, Stu Loeser. Mr. Bloomberg’s persistence seemed to have paid off. Upon his arrival, U2’s lead singer, Bono, gave him a warm welcome, Mr. Loeser said. “He makes me very proud,” Bono was quoted as telling the crowd, according to a news release from the mayor’s campaign office. “He also makes me laugh out loud. I love him very much. He’s come across the border to the U2 show. Give it up for Mayor Bloomberg.” No injuries or property damage resulted from the erroneous landing, Mr. Pierce said. And, Mr. Loeser said, the mayor drove back. | Bloomberg Michael R;Helicopters;Meadowlands (NJ);U2 |
ny0177094 | [
"us"
] | 2007/09/11 | 24-Year Term for Californian in Terrorism Training Case | SACRAMENTO, Sept. 10 — A California man convicted last year of aiding terrorists and lying to the F.B.I. was sentenced on Monday to 24 years in prison. The man, Hamid Hayat, an American citizen of Pakistani descent, was solemn and attentive in court on what was his 25th birthday. He showed little reaction as an assistant translated the proceedings and stern words of Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of Federal District Court into Urdu. “Hamid Hayat attended a terrorist training camp,” Judge Burrell said, “and returned to the United States, ready and willing to wage violent jihad when directed to do so, regardless of the havoc such acts could wreak on persons and property in the United States, and then lied to the F.B.I. on three separate occasions.” He added that the evidence “suggested a likelihood of recidivism and an unlikelihood of rehabilitation.” Mr. Hayat faced up to 39 years in prison after a jury convicted him on April 25, 2006, of one count of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on international terrorism. Mr. Hayat’s lawyers filed an appeal to void the convictions less than an hour after sentencing. The appeals lawyer said there had been jury misconduct, the exclusion of vital witnesses’ testimony and conflict of interest for Mr. Hayat’s trial lawyer. The trial lawyer, Wazhma Mojaddidi, and the appeals lawyer, Dennis Riordan, say Mr. Hayat is innocent of all charges. “My client is obviously upset,” Ms. Mojaddidi said. “He has already served two years for a crime he did not commit.” Family members at the sentencing included Mr. Hayat’s father, Umer Hayat, 49, an ice cream vendor involved in a related case. Umer Hayat also expressed disappointment, repeatedly saying his son was innocent. “This is a sad day for us,” the father said, “but I am very confident he will get out on appeal. He is innocent. We did not get justice. Justice was not served.” The father and son, residents of Lodi, a farming town with a large Muslim population, were arrested in June 2005. Federal authorities were in the middle of a lengthy undercover investigation of Muslims. Hamid Hayat was arrested on returning from Pakistan , where, F.B.I. agents said, he trained at a terrorist camp sometime between October 2003 and November 2004 and lied to the bureau when asked about it. Umer Hayat was arrested and charged with financing part of the son’s trip and lying to agents. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was eventually released for time served. Although the timing of the sentencing on Monday was coincidental, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of California , McGregor W. Scott, invoked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “We now stand on the eve of the sixth anniversary of that terrible day,” Mr. Scott said. He added that there had been no terrorism attacks in the United States since then. “It is because of prosecutions like this that we have prevented another attack against the United States,” Mr. Scott said. The defense team has repeatedly questioned the validity of the prosecution’s case, in part because the F.B.I. relied on a paid informer, Naseem Khan, who received more than $200,000 from the government and testified that there was a connection between Hamid and Umer Hayat and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s second in command. Mr. Scott said he anticipated that Mr. Hayat would appeal, noting that “these rights belong to Mr. Hayat, first as an accused and now as a convicted defendant in our American legal system.” Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento chapter, of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said the sentence sent a chilling message. “The entire Muslim community in Lodi is watching this,” Mr. Elkarra said. The court, he said, “sent a clear message to the Muslim community. You do not speak to an F.B.I. agent unless you have an attorney present.” | Hayat Hamid;Sentences (Criminal);Terrorism;Decisions and Verdicts;Islam;California;Pakistan;Federal Bureau of Investigation |
ny0191759 | [
"technology"
] | 2009/02/11 | Mark Shepherd Jr., a Force in Electronics, Dies at 86 | Mark Shepherd Jr., who as an engineer, manager and chief executive of Texas Instruments headed its rise to power as a maker of semiconductors and consumer electronics, died last Wednesday at his ranch in Quitman, Tex. He was 86. The cause was complications of pulmonary fibrosis, his son Marc Shepherd said. During his 40 years at Texas Instruments, Mr. Shepherd helped turn the company from a niche outfit catering to the needs of oil and gas companies into an electronics pioneer, producing goods for both businesses and consumers. As a hard-charging engineer, Mr. Shepherd was given the task of building Texas Instruments’ first transistors and semiconductor products, which soon found their way into calculators, computers and toys. Later, as chief executive and chairman of the company, Mr. Shepherd fought to expand the semiconductor business overseas, while also fending off budding electronics giants in Asia. Mr. Shepherd’s rise through Texas Instruments paralleled the rise of the transistor and semiconductor technology in which he specialized. In 1952, he and three other Texas Instruments engineers were sent to Bell Laboratories to learn about the company’s transistor, which had been invented in 1947. Texas Instruments bought a license for the technology and began to explore broad applications for the transistor. Former employees at Texas Instruments credited Mr. Shepherd with understanding the significant role transistors and semiconductors would play in reshaping electronics. As a replacement for clunky, unreliable vacuum tubes, the transistors led to cheaper, smaller and more stable devices like portable radios and pocket calculators. Having just learned about the transistor technology, Mr. Shepherd managed to assemble and lead a team that produced a working product in short order. Mr. Shepherd was also the head of the semiconductor team in 1958, when Jack S. Kilby invented the integrated circuit, the precursor to modern computer chips. Texas Instruments created ground-breaking products, perhaps most notably a portable calculator, based on its semiconductor technology. In addition, the company built devices like printers and PCs with the technology. Like many of the prominent engineers of his day, Mr. Shepherd demonstrated a precocious gift for electronics. He is said to have built a vacuum tube at the age of 6 and a radio shortly thereafter. He graduated from high school at 14. “I heard him say that after those early experiences he never thought of doing anything else but going into electronics,” said Max Post, a former Texas Instruments engineer who had worked with Mr. Shepherd. Mr. Shepherd went on to receive a degree in electrical engineering with honors from Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree in the same field from the University of Illinois. Mr. Shepherd applied his engineering expertise during a stint in the Navy where he served as a lieutenant for three years, working on radar and electronics systems on the U.S.S. Tucson. After jobs at General Electric and the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, in 1948 Mr. Shepherd joined Geophysical Service, which would become Texas Instruments. During his four decades at Texas Instruments, Mr. Shepherd spent time either overseeing crucial semiconductor projects directly or serving on the leadership groups approving them. He had roles as chief engineer and chief operating officer at the company before becoming its chief executive in 1969. In 1976, Mr. Shepherd was named chairman of Texas Instruments and held that position until 1988. As a manager, Mr. Shepherd was credited with driving Texas Instruments’ overseas expansion, turning the company into one of the first to open semiconductor manufacturing facilities abroad, including a factory in Japan. Through an intense focus on cost controls and computer-aided mechanisms for semiconductor manufacturing, Mr. Shepherd worked to lower the prices of Texas Instruments’ technology. “Driving the cost down was an obsession for him,” Mr. Post said. “He just kept telling everyone that the semiconductor market will only grow if we can get the cost down for consumer products.” The breadth of products introduced during Mr. Shepherd’s tenure as a prominent manager established Texas Instruments as a force in the electronics industry. “He drove T.I. into world leadership not only in semiconductors, but took the chip industry into consumer electronics with calculators, digital watches and toys where Texas Instruments dominated even companies like Hewlett-Packard and Intel,” said Michael Malone, an author who has covered the technology industry and Silicon Valley. “That was T.I.’s golden age.” Later in his career, Mr. Shepherd and Texas Instruments were forced to confront a powerful set of suppliers in Asia and falling profits on the consumer electronics products. As a result, Texas Instruments refocused its efforts on advancing semiconductor technology. After his retirement from Texas Instruments, Mr. Shepherd and his wife, Mary Alice, raised longhorn cattle at their ranch in Quitman. Marykay Shepherd, his daughter, now handles affairs on the ranch. Debra Shepherd Robinson, his other daughter, lives in Dallas. He is also survived by three granddaughters. Still an engineer to the core, Mr. Shepherd oversaw the construction of dams, fire protection systems and buildings on the ranch. | Shepherd Mark Jr;Texas Instruments Inc;Deaths (Obituaries);Computer Chips |
ny0276225 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2016/02/24 | Frans Nielsen Helps Surging Islanders Turn Back the Wild | Frans Nielsen scored twice, John Tavares had a goal and an assist, and the Islanders beat the host Minnesota Wild, 4-1, on Tuesday night in a matchup of surging teams. Matt Martin also scored for the Islanders, who have won six of their past eight games. Jaroslav Halak made 30 saves as the Islanders improved to 2-0 on a seven-game trip, their longest of the season. Nielsen deflected Tavares’s pass on the power play to make it 2-0 in the first period, and he added a short-handed empty-net goal late in the third. Tavares’s 23rd goal of the season stood after a replay review determined that Anders Lee had not interfered with Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk made 27 saves as the Wild lost for the first time in five games under their interim coach, John Torchetti. PREDATORS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2 Filip Forsberg became the youngest player in Nashville’s history to get a hat trick, and the Predators won in Toronto. Forsberg, 21, was the fifth Nashville player to post a natural hat trick, according to Elias Sports. His outburst helped the Predators improve to 11-1-3 in their past 15 games against Canadian teams, and they also earned points on the road for the ninth straight game — the team’s longest such streak. RED WINGS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1 Riley Sheahan scored in a shootout and had a tying goal in the second period, helping Detroit defeat visiting Columbus to halt a four-game losing streak. Andreas Athanasiou sealed the victory by scoring in the shootout after the Red Wings’ Petr Mrazek stopped two shots in one-on-one duels. STARS 5, JETS 3 Jamie Benn scored twice in the third period, and Dallas won in Winnipeg to end a three-game skid. The Stars scored three times in the third period, including Benn’s 30th and 31st goals of the season. Colton Sceviour put Dallas up, 3-2, 12 minutes 29 seconds into the third on a goal awarded after a video review showed that the puck had bounced off the in-net camera before ricocheting out. LIGHTNING 2, COYOTES 1 Steven Stamkos scored a goal in his fourth consecutive game, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves, and host Tampa Bay topped Arizona. The Lightning also got a goal from Cedric Paquette on a short-handed penalty shot. HURRICANES 3, FLYERS 1 Jordan Staal put Carolina ahead, and Eric Staal added an insurance score late to lift host Carolina over Philadelphia. Jordan Staal got his 16th goal, and Eric Staal’s 10th ended a 16-game scoreless streak. | Ice hockey;Islanders;Minnesota Wild |
ny0108569 | [
"sports",
"olympics"
] | 2012/05/27 | Nastia Liukin Progresses in Comeback Bid | Nastia Liukin hopped onto the balance beam at the U.S. Classic in Chicago on Saturday and walked right back into the mix for the American Olympic team that will compete in London. Liukin, the reigning Olympic champion in the all-around, gracefully flipped, twisted and split-jumped above the four-inch beam, receiving a score of 14.9, good enough to tie for third with Sarah Finnegan. Alexandra Raisman and Jordyn Wieber tied for first, with 15 points each. Liukin said she was thrilled with her performance after taking nearly three years off from the sport. More at nytimes.com . | Liukin Nastia;Olympic Games;Chicago (Ill);Gymnastics |
ny0037424 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2014/03/24 | For Wildcats, Win Over Shockers Is Perfectly Thrilling | ST. LOUIS — With about four minutes remaining in the game and a timeout called, Wichita State and Kentucky slowly began walking off the court like weary heavyweight fighters returning to their corners. Kentucky’s five freshmen were breathing heavily, and their chests heaved as they looked over their shoulders at the Wichita State players, who were celebrating a 4-point lead. From the start, the game had been gripping, an end-to-end slugfest contested in a charged, almost championship-like atmosphere. The Midwest Region bracket identified it as just another matchup during the first weekend of the N.C.A.A. tournament, but no one at Scottrade Center viewed Sunday’s game between undefeated Wichita State and Kentucky, an eight-time national champion, as a happenstance meeting. “We all know this was an Elite Eight game,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said afterward. “The winner of this game should have gone to the Final Four.” But during that timeout with roughly four minutes left, Kentucky’s young players — most of them soon-to-be N.B.A. prospects — were not thinking about the Final Four. They were wondering how they were going to survive the whirlwind team from Wichita, Kan., that was running them ragged. The Men's Bracket View and print our N.C.A.A. tournament bracket. “Coach has been telling us that the tournament would test us,” Kentucky forward Julius Randle said. “And right then, we knew what he meant.” Calipari’s young charges caught their collective breath and emerged from the timeout with a renewed focus. Instructed to drive to the basket, the Wildcats did so aggressively and went to the foul line 10 times. They made eight of those pressure shots. Suddenly it was the Shockers who blinked. They turned the ball over, missed a layup and missed a 3-pointer. Kentucky now had the lead, but Wichita State had the final shot. The Wildcats’ freshmen played smothering defense and forced the Shockers into a difficult shot that clanged off the rim. In a memorable, spirited and weighty early-round N.C.A.A. tournament game, eighth-seeded Kentucky rallied to defeat top-seeded Wichita State, 78-76. Kentucky, the 2012 national champion, moved on to play the 2013 champion, Louisville. Wichita State’s winning streak ended at 35 games. It was an outcome that left both teams drained. “We put on a wonderful show,” Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall said. “Throughout the game, I was cognizant that this was a great college basketball game. And it came down to the end. The shot just didn’t go down. In the end, they were one play better than we were.” Andrew Harrison, the Kentucky point guard who almost did not play because of a sprained elbow and ended up with 20 points, said he considered it an honor to be a part of the game. N.C.A.A. Round of 32: The Day in Pictures 14 Photos View Slide Show › Image Jeff Gross/Getty Images “It was just a joy to be out there,” Harrison said. “Even as it’s going on, you knew it was a special sort of game.” From the time this year’s N.C.A.A. tournament seedings were revealed, Sunday’s matchup was highly anticipated, with many feeling that the brackets should have been arranged to keep these two powerful teams apart until later in the tournament. It was expected to be a contrast of Wichita State’s gritty, fast-paced play — a breakneck style bred with repetition in tough, demanding practices — and Kentucky’s smooth efficiency, a byproduct of a roster cherry-picked from the cream of the high school recruiting rankings. And it did not disappoint. There were seven lead changes in the first 10 minutes of the game until the Shockers took control behind the senior Cleanthony Early, who played all but one minute of the game and scored 31 points. Wichita State took a 6-point lead into halftime and extended the lead to 9 at the start of the second half, but Calipari had made adjustments during the intermission. He had put the game in the hands of his backcourt, the twin brothers Aaron and Andrew Harrison. Criticized for their uneven play during parts of the regular season, the Harrisons methodically got the Wildcats back in the game. When Andrew Harrison fed Alex Poythress for an easy layup with about 16 minutes left, Kentucky had scored 10 unanswered points and led, 41-40. The teams traded baskets, and the lead, for the next several minutes. It became a test of wills between the Harrisons, who combined for 25 points in the second half, and Ron Baker and Early, who combined for 33 points in the second half. The Shockers still had a 4-point lead during the final official television timeout. Calipari decided to test Wichita State inside — “They put their heads down and drove right at us,” Marshall said — and Kentucky benefited with three free throws that cut the Shockers’ lead to 1. N.C.A.A. Tournament: Who Do You Hate (and Love)? Which team do you think will win? Eh, never mind that. Tell us which teams’ losses would give you the greatest joy, and which team’s success would make you most happy. The Wildcats’ James Young traded jumpers with Early, but Young came back with a 3-pointer from the wing that gave Kentucky a 73-71 lead. Back and forth the teams battled in the tense final minutes until Harrison made a foul shot to put Kentucky ahead, 78-76. When he missed the next free throw, the Shockers grabbed the rebound and called timeout near their bench with three seconds remaining. Marshall later explained that the final play was designed to feature three players. Wichita State wanted to get the ball to Early or Baker, who had combined to make 8 of 12 3-pointers in the game. The third option was the sophomore guard Fred VanVleet, who had already missed three 3-point shots. The Shockers came out to run their play. After seeing the Wichita State alignment, Calipari called timeout. When play resumed, Early and Baker were smothered by Kentucky defenders. “They took those two guys out,” Marshall said. “To their credit.” The ball went to VanVleet, who turned and lofted a shot from just behind the 3-point line near the top of the key. The shot glanced off the side of the rim. “Fred got a decent look,” Marshall said at a postgame news conference as he sat shoulder to shoulder with VanVleet. “It didn’t go in.” VanVleet nodded. Soon Calipari and his freshmen replaced Wichita State at the news conference. The players, for a change, looked refreshed. The coach looked exhausted, with bags under his eyes. “Tremendous game,” Calipari said. “That’s all I can say: tremendous game.” | College basketball;NCAA Men's Basketball,March Madness;Wichita State University;University of Kentucky |
ny0178487 | [
"us"
] | 2007/08/03 | Minneapolis Bridge Had Passed Inspections | The eight-lane bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed on Wednesday had been diligently inspected for years and had always passed, state officials said yesterday. It did not, however, get stellar grades for its condition. Additionally, officials said the bridge’s design had been considered outmoded for decades because a single failure of a structural part could bring down the whole bridge. About 11 percent of the nation’s steel bridges, mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, lack the redundant protection to reduce these failures, federal officials said. Over all, the bridge was rated 4 on a scale of zero to 9, with 9 being perfect and zero requiring a shutdown. An inspection report last year said the supporting structure was in “poor condition,” far from the lowest category. Hundreds of other working bridges are in similar shape, but the report did indicate that the bridge had possible issues that needed to be regularly inspected. The bridge has been inspected annually since 1993, but independent engineers acknowledged yesterday that there are well-known limits to how useful an inspection can be. Bridges, they said, are prone to a variety of problems, and some are hard to spot. At the Minnesota Department of Transportation, shaken engineers made it clear that they knew something crucial had somehow been overlooked. “We thought we had done all we could,” said Daniel L. Dorgan, bridge engineer at the department’s bridges division. “Obviously something went terribly wrong.” On Thursday, the United States Department of Transportation said it had told all states to inspect bridges similar in design and construction to the one that collapsed, or to review inspection reports. The department said there were 756 such bridges. In 1982, a bridge inspector looked at the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich, Conn., and did not see the metal-fatigued pin that would break nine months later, collapsing three lanes of Interstate 95 and killing three. In 1987, a New York Thruway bridge near Amsterdam, N.Y., also had a clean bill of health, but inspectors had never gone underwater into the Schoharie Creek to look at the bridge’s footings, where flood waters had scoured the concrete base. When the footings slipped, the bridge fell. Ten people died. Today, inspectors use ultrasound to check the pins in bridges similar to the Mianus one, and bridge footings receive much more attention. "I think bridge inspections are the best they’ve ever been," said David Schulz, director of the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago. The cause of the Interstate 35W bridge failure on Wednesday will probably become clear through metallurgical examinations of the wreckage, experts said, but recovering the metal parts will be delayed by the search for human remains and the need to keep investigators safe in the swirling waters of the Mississippi. The bridge was undergoing repair work this summer, and Mr. Schulz said he would be stunned if the work did not play a major role in the collapse. “It’s too much of a coincidence,” he said. But Mr. Dorgan said he saw no connection between the repair work, which was taking place mostly on the roadway, and the collapse of the steel support structure far below. Mr. Dorgan said the bridge was believed to be in good enough shape until 2020, when it was due for either a major overhaul or replacement. Parts of the bridge were considered structurally deficient because of corroded bearings and tiny metal cracks that had been spotted years ago but were considered stable. The rating of “deficient” is a common one that indicates the need for regular inspection and does not mean the bridge is dangerous, said Thomas D. Everett, a top bridge official with the Federal Highway Administration. The most visible threat to a bridge is usually corrosion. But metal fatigue — the weakening of steel by the repeated weight of heavy trucks bouncing across the bridge surface — is harder to see. Bridges in northern climates are particularly vulnerable to metal fatigue because steel becomes more brittle and prone to cracking when it is cold. “A crack is very difficult to observe visually,” said Steven J. Fenves, a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the Commerce Department, and a professor emeritus of civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “There may be paint over it, or maybe many layers of corrosion over it. It may be in an invisible place, in the second plate, not the outermost plate.” The possibility that metal fatigue could cause a bridge to fail was not even considered by bridge engineers in the 1950s and 1960s, when the Minneapolis bridge was designed and built, Mr. Dorgan said. Research at Lehigh University in the 1970s showed that stresses could be much larger than had been thought. The I-35W bridge, which had been designed according to less rigid standards devised by the American Association of State Highway Officials in 1961, had components that would not be included in a bridge built today. Fatigue cracks appeared in the approaches to the bridge, but no significant problems were detected in the center span. A study in 2001 by University of Minnesota researchers concluded: “The bridge should not have any problems with fatigue cracking in the foreseeable future.” In a study completed in 2001 by the Federal Highway Administration, 49 working inspectors from around the country visually examined test bridges in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The inspectors correctly identified fatigue cracks only 4 percent of the time. Additional techniques like X-rays, ultrasound, magnetic particles or dye can help identify cracks. Mark V. Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said yesterday that his agency would determine whether the criteria for inspections were adequate. “They may well not be enough,” he said. Or the procedures may be adequate but may not have been followed, he said. Safety board investigators will use computer modeling to study the failure, Mr. Rosenker said, and will also reconstruct parts of the bridge from the wreckage to determine the cause. The board’s final report could be many months away, he said. | Accidents and Safety;Bridges and Tunnels;Minneapolis (Minn);Mississippi River |
ny0091504 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/08/02 | Mets’ Relationship With Yoenis Cespedes? It’s a Rental | The Mets’ union with Yoenis Cespedes seems certain to be brief. Cespedes, the slugging outfielder acquired for two prospects on Friday, is a free agent after this season. The Mets have three other outfielders signed for 2016 and an aversion to the kind of lavish deal Cespedes will command. Of course, none of that matters now. Cespedes is the Mets’ shiny rental car — from Detroit, no less — with very specific instructions plugged into his GPS. The destination is the playoffs, where the Mets have not been since 2006. If Cespedes leads them there, the purpose of the deal will be fulfilled. That might not make the trade a long-term success. The Boston Red Sox made the playoffs in 1990, helped by 22 strong innings down the stretch from a rented reliever, Larry Andersen. But the Red Sox won no games in the postseason, Andersen left as a free agent, and the prospect they traded, Jeff Bagwell, starred for the Houston Astros for the next 15 seasons. Many in-season deals are not such obvious rentals, because the player stays with his new team for a while. The Mets acquired first baseman Donn Clendenon at the old June trade deadline, in 1969, and Clendenon went on to be most valuable player of their first World Series championship. He spent two more years with the Mets. For pure rentals, like Cespedes will probably be, think of players who left as free agents after one partial season: Mark Langston with the 1989 Montreal Expos; Randy Johnson with the 1998 Houston Astros; and Cliff Lee with the 2010 Texas Rangers come to mind. Or you could simply take inventory of some folks around the current Yankees. Three players and a broadcaster embody different levels of rental success: Ultimate success — David Cone, a Yankees broadcaster, was traded from the Mets to Toronto in August 1992. Cone stayed just long enough to make 11 starts, including the World Series clincher, helping the Blue Jays win their first championship. Losing Jeff Kent, a future superstar, in the trade was a small price to pay for a title. Image Carlos Beltran delivered a strong playoff performance for the Astros in 2004 but cost them two longtime major leaguers. Credit David J. Phillip/Associated Press Limited success — Carlos Beltran, the Yankees’ right fielder, landed in Houston when his first team, the Royals, traded him in June 2004. Beltran smoked 23 homers for the Astros in the regular season, then hit .435 with eight homers in the postseason. He cost two longtime major leaguers, Octavio Dotel and John Buck, but nearly delivered the first pennant in Astros history, falling one game short — which was exactly as far as he would carry the Mets, who signed him before the next season. Accidental success — Mark Teixeira, the Yankees’ first baseman, went from Atlanta to the Angels in 2008 for the low price of Casey Kotchman and a minor leaguer. Teixeira hit .358 to help win a division title for the Angels, who had no idea how big a victory it would be when Teixeira signed with the Yankees. The Angels were awarded the Yankees’ first-round pick the next June and used it to draft an outfielder from Millville, N.J., named Mike Trout. A side note to that story is that the Milwaukee Brewers nearly had the Yankees’ pick. The Brewers had traded for Cleveland’s C. C. Sabathia, who helped them to their first playoff berth in 26 years and then signed with the Yankees in free agency. The problem for the Brewers was that the Yankees also signed Teixeira, who was rated higher than Sabathia under arcane compensation rules that have since been abolished. So the Yankees forfeited their first-round choice to the Angels, instead, and gave their second-round choice to the Brewers. Milwaukee used that pick to draft Max Walla, a high school outfielder from Albuquerque. He peaked at Class A in 2013, made a brief conversion to pitcher in 2014, and is now out of baseball. Trout, of course, is the best player in the game. Boston’s Bungle Two games last Wednesday underscored the folly of the Boston Red Sox’ handling of Jon Lester last season. Boston made a below-market bid to re-sign Lester last spring (four years, $70 million), then traded him to Oakland on July 31 for Yoenis Cespedes. The Red Sox flipped Cespedes to Detroit in the winter for starter Rick Porcello, and signed him in April to a wildly above-market contract (four years, $82.5 million) through 2019. Essentially, then, the Red Sox replaced Lester with Porcello. At 26, Porcello is five years younger than Lester. But he has not been a better fit. Porcello is a ground-ball pitcher, and the Red Sox expected him to thrive with strong defense behind him. Instead, Porcello has been among the worst starters in the majors. Last Wednesday, he gave up 10 hits and five earned runs in two innings, pushing his earned run average to 5.81. The same day, Lester allowed two runs in eight innings while striking out 14 for the Chicago Cubs. Lester had a 1.66 E.R.A. in six July starts, lowering his season mark to 3.26. He is in the first year of a six-year, $155 million contract — more than twice the value of the initial deal he rejected from Boston. A Muted Homecoming One preseason narrative that never panned out was the homecoming of Mat Latos and Michael Morse, who joined the Miami Marlins in the off-season. Latos and Morse attended the Marlins’ inaugural game, on April 5, 1993. Latos, from Coconut Creek, Fla., was 5, and Morse, from Davie, was 11. “Upper tank, over first base, looking down,” Morse said earlier this season. “I remember Charlie Hough was pitching. They gave out an inaugural magazine. I still have it. This is stuff my mom always kept. They really didn’t have bobbleheads then, so they had balls with players’ faces on them, and my mom put it all in a bin. When I signed here, I was thinking, ‘I think I’ve got that bin.’ I went to the garage and opened it up, and it was like Marlins galore — newspaper articles, a jacket, a bag, all this cool stuff.” Alas, the memorabilia from this season may not stir the same warm memories. Morse, who drove in the winning run in Game 7 of the World Series for the Giants last fall, has been injured and batted just .213 for Miami. He was traded to the Dodgers with Latos, who was 4-7 with a 4.48 E.R.A., for three prospects. The Dodgers then shipped Morse to Pittsburgh for outfielder Jose Tabata. Exclusive Clubs When his career is over, Shane Victorino will mostly be known for his contributions to two World Series champions on the East Coast — the 2008 Phillies and the 2013 Red Sox. He made strong bonds with those communities and wept at his news conference in Boston last week on his way out of town. But Victorino, who was traded to the Angels, has also pulled off a rare feat involving teams much closer to his Hawaii home. He became only the 14th player to spend time with all three teams in Southern California (the Angels, the Dodgers and the Padres), part of an eclectic list that also includes Rickey Henderson, Jim Leyritz, Bobby Valentine and Fernando Valenzuela. An even more exclusive list is the shared alumni of the current and former New York teams: the Yankees, the Mets, the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. That list includes only three players — Ricky Ledee, Darryl Strawberry and Jose Vizcaino. | Baseball;Yoenis Cespedes;Sports Trades;Detroit Tigers;Mets |
ny0047897 | [
"sports",
"cricket"
] | 2014/11/26 | Cricketer in Critical Condition After Being Hit in Head by Ball | Phil Hughes, a top Australian player, was hospitalized in critical condition after he was hit in the head by a ball while batting during a game in Sydney. Hughes, 25, was struck on the side of the head in an area unprotected by his helmet. He was treated and given oxygen on the field, and he had emergency surgery for what a team doctor called a severe head injury. | Sports injury;Cricket |
ny0006538 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2013/05/18 | Spurs, Old and Bland, Advance to Western Conference Finals | OAKLAND, Calif. — Say it again: they are too bland. Say it again: they are too old. Say it again: they are once again the favorites in the West. The San Antonio Spurs rode their championship brand of smooth and steady to a clinching 94-82 victory over the plucky but overmatched Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the N.B.A. Western Conference semifinals, locking in a date Sunday afternoon in San Antonio against the Memphis Grizzlies for Game 1 of the conference finals. Pushing back a persistent Golden State defense while riding out a 1-for-13 shooting stretch from Tony Parker from tip-off until midway through the fourth quarter, the Spurs did what they have done since the late 1990s. They leaned on center Tim Duncan (19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, despite sitting out the game’s final minutes) and executed Coach Gregg Popovich’s strategy to another victory in another playoff series. “We didn’t do any sort of a new thing,” Popovich said. “It’s basketball. Everybody knows what to do.” That is because the Spurs have been doing it for so long. This is the 11th season Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili have played together, with three championships as a unit to show for it. Far closer to the end of their career than the beginning — Duncan is 37, Ginobili 35 and Parker 31 — each knows, Popovich said, “that there’s not a million chances to do this sort of thing.” “I understand where we’re at,” said Duncan, who was removed from the game with 4 minutes 28 seconds remaining. “People continue to count us out year after year, and we continue to make runs deep into the playoffs. This is a special one.” Parker shook off his horrific start to help break open a 2-point game, stretching San Antonio’s lead to 80-75 with 3:36 left in the fourth. That ended Golden State’s last, best chance to score an improbable upset. (In case there was doubt, he hit a second 3-pointer about two minutes later.) “Tonight was like a microcosm of what he is as a player,” said Stephen Curry, who guarded Parker for much of the game. “He was shooting the ball terribly the whole game, but he was still making plays, drawing defenders. Then he hits two big shots down the stretch to get them over the hump.” Popovich’s goal entering the game was to make Golden State beat the Spurs inside, sending waves of defenders toward guards Curry and Klay Thompson on the perimeter. For long stretches it worked to perfection; the two players attempted only four first-half 3-pointers, with Thompson able to connect for only 2 points. In the second half, Curry was forced to attack the rim with increasing frequency, especially as his teammates went down, one by one. First was Harrison Barnes, who exited the game about a minute before halftime after landing hard on his face and sustaining a laceration above his right eye. He returned after receiving six stitches, but scored only one second-half point before exiting again with a headache. Next was center Andrew Bogut, hobbling on a gimpy ankle, putting up just 3 points before being removed midway through the third quarter. After the game he could not walk from his locker to the shower room without wincing notably. Warriors Coach Mark Jackson had his own agenda: keeping Parker and Duncan out of the paint. Despite a stout defensive showing that largely gave him what he wanted, the Spurs found ways to make Golden State pay. Parker and Ginobili combined to shoot 4 for 22 (. 182) from the field for 18 points, but distributed 19 of the Spurs’ 27 assists (11 for Ginobili, 8 for Parker). Parker saw that he did not need to reach the basket on his penetration drives; as soon as a second defender stepped toward him, he frequently dished the ball toward a corner, often to Kawhi Leonard (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Danny Green (11 points). “Everybody did something positive to try to stay in the game,” Parker said. “At the end, my teammates, they believed in me and I finally made some shots at the end.” The victory sets up a rematch of the 2011 Western Conference first-round series, in which the Spurs, despite having a conference-leading 61 victories, fell to eighth-seeded Memphis in six games. Duncan said he has viewed Memphis as a major threat for years. “They’ve always played us tough,” he said. A primary difference between this Spurs team and the 2011 version is the 6-foot-11 forward Tiago Splitter, who scored 14 points Thursday and who, in his third N.B.A. season, has turned into a trustworthy presence in the paint. He and Duncan will be counted on to check a team that relies heavily on an inside game spurred by center Marc Gasol and power forward Zach Randolph. The coming matchup, Duncan said, “is not going to be pretty.” He added: “It’s going to be rough. If you thought this matchup was physical, it’s going to turn up about 10 notches.” Victories by the Spurs and the Miami Heat in their conference finals would set up an interesting N.B.A. finals. When they met in Miami in November, Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Green were not even in the building, sent home early by Popovich for rest at the tail end of a six-game road trip that ended with four games in five days. Despite the fact that the Spurs’ backups lost by only 105-100 to Miami, Commissioner David Stern fined San Antonio $250,000. Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra turned the tables in March when he sat LeBron James and Dwyane Wade against the Spurs, citing injuries. The Heat won anyway, 88-86. | Basketball;Spurs;Tim Duncan;Gregg Popovich;Tony Parker |
ny0056563 | [
"us"
] | 2014/09/17 | U.S. Moves to Reduce Global Warming Emissions | WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a series of moves aimed at cutting emissions of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The White House has secured voluntary agreements from some of the nation’s largest companies to scale down or phase out their use of HFCs, which are factory-made gases used in air conditioning and refrigeration. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Red Bull, Kroger, Honeywell and DuPont, the company that invented fluorinated refrigerants, have agreed to cut their use and replace them with climate-friendly alternatives. Over all, the administration estimated that the agreements announced on Tuesday would reduce cumulative global consumption of HFCs by the equivalent of 700 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2025. That is about 1.5 percent of the world’s 2010 greenhouse gas emissions, or the same as taking 15 million cars off the road for 10 years. The announcement came a week before President Obama is expected to join over 100 other world leaders at a United Nations climate change summit in New York, which will begin 15 months of negotiations as leaders work toward a global climate change agreement in Paris next year. The primary focus of that deal will be to push for enactment of new laws around the world aimed at cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, the abundant planet-warming gas caused by burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Negotiators anticipate it will take a grueling battle to achieve such an agreement, which would require the world’s largest economies — including the United States, China and India — to greatly cut their use of burning coal and oil. But climate policy advocates say small steps aimed at reducing other greenhouse gases will also help. While HFCs are less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, they have 10,000 times the planet-warming potency. But carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for centuries, while HFCs disintegrate after about 15 years. “Every drumbeat in this symphony helps. It drives it along. This is part of that drumbeat,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a research organization. “The benefits from cutting non-CO2 come much faster,” he added. “CO2 is like a supertanker – you can stop it, but it keeps drifting for a long time. Cutting HFCs are like stopping a steamboat. You stop it and that’s that.” Tuesday’s announcement also came as part of the Obama administration’s efforts to push for an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, aimed at decreasing HFCs worldwide. That agreement was designed to cut emissions of gases that harm the ozone layer. Last year, the Obama administration announced an agreement with China to jointly work toward phasing down HFCs in both countries. The administration has directed federal agencies to purchase alternatives to HFCs whenever possible, to work on expanding a list of HFC alternatives, and to fund Energy Department research into HFC alternative technologies. | Hydrofluorocarbons;Greenhouse gas;Climate Change;Global Warming;Barack Obama;US |
ny0013720 | [
"sports",
"autoracing"
] | 2013/11/01 | A ‘Tricky and Technical’ Track at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | To the naked eye, the Yas Marina Circuit, where the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place this weekend, appears to be a flowing, fast, rolling circuit. But one of the main car setup problems faced by the Formula One teams racing on the 5.5-kilometer, or about 3.4-mile circuit, is that driving it is anything but a flow experience. It requires a medium downforce setup to perfectly balance the needs of the variety of corners and long straights, in order to protect tires against excessive wear. “The track is pretty tricky and technical, especially the last sector, which has a lot of twisty, 90-degree corners,” said Nico Hülkenberg, a driver at the Sauber team. “It’s easy to get it wrong and overdo it in qualifying. “It’s not one of my most favorite circuits. I think it’s too much stop-and-go, and it’s missing a flow.” The key element of setting up the car is the tires. Because of the stop-go, twisty nature of much of the track, the rear of the car must be set up fairly soft in order to encourage the most traction possible. But if it is too soft, that leads to excessive tire wear, and if it is too stiff, that causes wheel spin, which again leads to tire wear. The surface of the track is quite smooth, but it is often covered with sand — this is a track in the desert, after all — especially early in the weekend, and that can lead to a slippery surface, a loss of traction. But the circuit also has a very long straight in which the cars run at full throttle for about 15 seconds, producing around 800 kilograms, or nearly 1,800 pounds, of downforce on the tires. As if this were not enough of a setup balancing act, the Abu Dhabi race is exceptional in that the track surface temperature will not rise during the race — as is normal — but rather, it falls radically, because the race is started in the hot sunlight of the afternoon and finishes in darkness. The track temperature falls during the race from around 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) at the beginning to 86 degrees Fahrenheit at the end. “The Yas Marina Circuit has three very different sectors,” said Tom McCullough, the head of track engineering at the Williams team. “The first one is short with a medium- and two higher-speed corners, the middle sector is dominated by long straights and tight low-speed corners, while the final sector is a relentless sequence of mainly low- to medium-speed corners. “The nature of the track is typically hard on the brakes and rear tires,” he said. “As in Delhi, Pirelli will provide the medium and soft tire compounds. The main aim during free practice on Friday will be to understand how these tires work at a very different circuit.” The soft and medium tires are also the same combination that was used in Abu Dhabi last year. But this year the tire rubber compounds are softer than last year, so there should be more drivers taking two pit stops for tire changes, rather than the single pit stop that most did last year. “The way that the track temperature falls in Abu Dhabi obviously has an effect on both wear and degradation, meaning that teams are able to do longer runs even on the softer compound later in the race,” said Paul Hembery, the director of Pirelli’s racing program. “There are some important implications for strategy here,” he added, “which means that it’s often possible to try something different in Abu Dhabi than you would in other places, which might well pay off at the end of the race.” Because the circuit is at sea level, the air is denser and that allows for more engine power; but that in turn puts more stress on the tires, especially the rear tires. “The stop-start nature of the track makes fuel consumption very high over one lap, and is further increased by the high atmospheric pressure due to being at sea level,” said Rémi Taffin, the head of track operations for the Renault engine manufacturer. “The day-to-night schedule makes ambient conditions vary significantly, plus grip levels and tire warmup and air pressure will change,” he added. “The engine needs to respond to this new set of parameters, so we are constantly monitoring weather reports throughout the weekend.” More than 15 percent of each lap is spent braking through the 13 braking areas. This, along with the hot climate, makes the circuit quite hard on the brakes both in frictional wear and in cooling them off between corners. “Abu Dhabi is very different to recent tracks,” said Valtteri Bottas, a driver at the Williams team. “The corners are quite short with lots of chicanes and big braking zones, so we will need to set the car up differently. You need good traction when exiting the corners to minimize wheel spin and your car needs to be good at taking curbs.” | Formula One;Abu Dhabi;Tire |
ny0069454 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2014/12/15 | Unfold, Open, Reveal: Hearst Reimagines Magazine Covers | IF Irving Berlin were around to update his song “ The Girl on the Magazine Cover ,” the new lyrics — minus the old-fashioned term “girl,” in all likelihood — might describe the cover of a magazine featuring a diagonal strip resembling a zipper, which when pulled down reveals an actress dressed in denim and flanked on both sides by jeans ads. Or a cover with a doorlike flap in the center, which when opened promotes the issue’s contents on one side and presents an ad on the other. Or a cover featuring a picture of a star that a reader unfolds four times to reveal four additional stars accompanied by four ads. Whether you can or cannot tell a book by its cover is a matter perhaps best left to the Book Review. When it comes to periodicals, however, Hearst Magazines is stepping up efforts to persuade readers and advertisers to rethink fundamental concepts about covers that date to, well, the days of Mr. Berlin. “In a world of click, swipe, delete, where a lot of images are fleeting, the unique selling proposition of the magazine world is our covers,” said Michael A. Clinton, publishing director and president for marketing of Hearst Magazines in New York. “And in a world of fragmentation and clutter, advertisers are looking for opportunities to make big statements.” Hearst Magazines has been redesigning covers for several years in search of configurations that will encourage Madison Avenue to spend more money — unconventional cover ads can cost as much as 50 percent more than the most expensive traditional cover ads — without turning off readers by blurring beyond recognition the line between editorial content and advertising. For instance, the February 2009 issue of Esquire had a flap in midcover that asked readers to “Open here” ; those who did saw, on one side, quotations from articles inside the magazine and, on the other, an ad for a new Discovery Channel series. Last year, “we had this idea to do more creative editorial approaches to our covers” that would involve more creative ads, Mr. Clinton recalled, a concept inspired by inventive initiatives at Hearst Magazines Digital Media and Hearst Digital Studios . “The print medium has to be innovative and reinvent itself,” he said. “This is our way of keeping the medium strong.” As for crossing a line between editorial content and ads, “the magazine industry has to be more competitive in the media ecosystem,” he said. “We’ve got to evolve with the changing marketplace.” There have been about 20 of these types of covers in 2014, Mr. Clinton said, involving Hearst mainstays like Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar and Woman’s Day, as well as newer publications like Food Network Magazine, HGTV Magazine, Marie Claire and O: The Oprah Magazine. More are on tap for next year, he added, along with adapted versions of ads for inside pages. One brand that has embraced the new kinds of covers is the cosmetics line Maybelline New York , which is sold by L’Oréal USA. “We’re always looking for ways to catch the attention of consumers,” said Karen Mlynarczyk, vice president for integrated marketing communications of Maybelline New York, “and we do a lot of research to see if the engagement and recall are there.” “No one can deny the realities of how readers are spending time with digital, but print still has tactile, physical qualities that consumers want to engage with,” she added. “And in the beauty category, touch and feel are important.” Many ideas being proposed by magazine publishers “ask a lot of the consumer,” Ms. Mlynarczyk said, and many are not offering value. “Hearst is bringing more innovative initiatives to us than the other companies.” Mr. Clinton cited production innovations by printers like Quad/Graphics that have allowed Hearst to be more creative. “In another era, a lot of this could not have happened,” he said. Examples include a six-page unit that unfolds off a back cover and wraps around a front cover to provide readers a second front cover; a kind of cover that unfolds so many times, it has been nicknamed the origami cover; and the cover of the December issue of O with three round, die-cut doors — including one in the upper left corner, doubling as the O logo — with inspirational quotations from Oprah Winfrey on one side and Ikea ads on the other. “We live in an era when the disrupters are being disrupted,” said Joel Quadracci, chairman, president and chief executive of Quad/Graphics, which is based in Sussex, Wis., “so everyone’s forced to be aggressive about thinking differently.” “What I love about what Hearst is doing is that they’re reinvesting in the product,” he added. “It’s actually quite fun for our people, figuring out how to make some of their ideas manufacturable.” Quad/Graphics is borrowing from “testing on the other side of our business, direct marketing” in working with Hearst on reconceiving the magazine cover, Mr. Quadracci said, adding: “Print is normally a passive medium, but if you put the right thing in front of the right people at the right time, they might do something. We’re using data to engage people to do something that’s measurable. When you get them to open a window or peel off a sticker, you get a higher response rate.” | advertising,marketing;Magazine;Hearst |
ny0029943 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2013/06/11 | N.S.A. Leaker Is a New Kind for an Internet Age | What does a leaker look like? Sometimes, people who reveal secrets remain in the shadows, and the public is left to guess at their motivations, agendas and states of mind. Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old man behind the recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s pursuit of phone and computer data, upended that history. He is a new kind of leaker of the wired age: an immediately visible one with a voice and the means to go direct with the public. In a era of friction-free Web communication, he disdained the shadows and stepped into view with a lengthy video interview he gave to The Guardian, which broke the story based on information he provided. He stated his motivation plainly, saying, “The public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong.” By identifying himself as the leaker, Mr. Snowden is helping to ensure that the debate occurs in the public common and goes beyond a closely held government investigation followed, perhaps, by prosecution. The video, which can be seen by all, means that he will be judged by all in real time. The video presents a portrait of a man who was not a marginal loser lashing out as he flailed in his personal life: he gave up a well-paid job and his life in Hawaii with his girlfriend and is now holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong. At first blush he appears reasonable and careful, which will make him a hard target for those who seek to marginalize him or suggest that his concerns are overblown. Of course, with visibility comes scrutiny. For the time being, the video and his interview with The Guardian are what define Mr. Snowden, but in the coming days, weeks and months, we will learn far more about his personal and professional life, and perhaps a more complicated narrative about his motivations will emerge. For the time being, we only know that he was the source of the leaks and we know his explanation of why he did what he did. Various interested parties will now set about their work, trying to make him out as a hero or a villain as it suits their agendas. And as Mr. Snowden knows better than anyone, any secrets he has will not stay that way for long. It’s important to note that Mr. Snowden did not just dump a bunch of unredacted documents on the Web and slink back to his job. He apparently thought a great deal about where the information belonged and contacted Barton Gellman, who had a long and respected career in national security reporting at The Washington Post. According to an article by Mr. Gellman in Monday’s Post, Mr. Snowden asked for guarantees about what The Post would print, and when. After The Post said it could not provide any guarantees, according to Mr. Gellman, Mr. Snowden turned to Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, who has covered national security and secrecy issues in a chronic and ferocious manner. (Mr. Greenwald disputes that timeline, saying he has been in contact with Mr. Snowden since February). In spite of the uproar around WikLeaks and a new age of electronic drop boxes, there has never been a shortage of whistles; what has been in short supply is people to blow them. In this instance, the Web is not just a repository of leaked material, but a means of changing the dynamics of the debate into a two-way affair in which the public has access to the leaker. The administration, in both its public remarks and its investigations into leaks, has tried to portray those who leak as marginal people with nefarious motivations. By using the Web and speaking on his own behalf, Mr. Snowden is not allowing himself to be defined by the government. As a whistle-blower who has come to his own defense, Mr. Snowden has engaged the public as a player in the debate. Social media, most notably Twitter, is alive with commentary about who he is and what he did. What is normally a vacuum — in which the government characterizes the leaker and those who enabled him — is now a dialogue. The debate over secrets has gone viral and as a result, is itself much less secret. In the past, few leakers would have been able to broadcast their messages to the world even before the government and the public had time to absorb the implications of what they did. Mr. Snowden is not the first whistle-blower to draw attention to himself. Daniel Ellsberg, the central figure in the Pentagon Papers affair and one of the historical figures whom Mr. Snowden pointed to as precedents, never hid who he was. Mr. Ellsberg reasoned, correctly as it turned out, that he would be seen as someone who acted in the broader interest of the country even as he divulged its most precious secrets. But Mr. Snowden’s visibility in an Internet age is more immediate and more ubiquitous. He is now the face of the opposition to state-sponsored information gathering. Even though he is in Hong Kong, he is everywhere. To those sympathetic to Mr. Snowden’s viewpoint, the information he revealed seems all the more disturbing because he comes off as calm and measured. He is a real person, not a shadow, and his arguments, while very open to debate, are based in careful rhetoric. Freedom, the right to privacy and open debate are the rare issues that surpass ideology in a very divided nation. After it was disclosed that the National Security Agency was seizing phone records, Josh Earnest, the White House deputy press secretary, said, “The president welcomes a discussion of the trade-offs between security and civil liberties.” That debate has arrived courtesy of Mr. Snowden and will begin in earnest, perhaps not on the terms or on the schedule that the president had in mind. The age of the leaker as Web-enabled public figure has arrived. | Edward Snowden;NSA;Classified Information;Washington Post;Whistleblower;Government Surveillance;Guardian British Newspaper |
ny0177037 | [
"science"
] | 2007/09/18 | Songs and Sojourns of the Season | BOMBAY HOOK NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Del. — You can learn a lot by bird-watching with an ornithologist, and not just about birds. As Russell Greenberg, head of the migratory bird center at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, gazed through powerful binoculars at a nondescript fence, a raspy chack-chack-chack sound like that of a cheap wind-up toy clattered off to the left. Dr. Greenberg, 54, a tall, bearded, wryly reserved man with a lifelong passion for birds, instantly identified the caller as a clapper rail, and though the bird remained stubbornly out of view, Dr. Greenberg seized the opportunity to share the surprising back story for a beloved cliché. “You know the old saying that so-and-so is ‘as thin as a rail?’ ” he asked. “Well, that comes from a reference to the bird.” The body of a rail, he explained, is “laterally compressed,” and looks from some angles to be almost two-dimensional. And you know the saying, “This place is for the birds,’’ as in, “What a dump”? We spent the day whizzing past dappled lakes and lush grasses in the refuge here in Smyrna, Del., stopping instead at the bleakest, barest, beige-brownest scratchpads of land we could find. As Dr. Greenberg had predicted, it was around drying mudholes and plowed-up sod farms that we would see a rich variety of migratory shorebirds: plovers with slick, licorice-jelly-bean bellies; greater yellowlegs sandpipers tottering daintily on their cracked-pencil limbs; avocets with their dusky rouge heads and their absurdly elongated, upcurling bills; and killdeer, named for the sound of their call and famed for the way they can fake a broken wing to lure would-be predators away from their nests. The birds were all down in the dumps poking and swishing for prey of their own — insects, worms, crustaceans, anything to help replenish their fat stores for the next leg of their long, possibly transequatorial flight. Now is the time of the great fall migrations, and in truth the whole world seems built for birds on the wing. Thousands of species of shorebirds, songbirds, raptors and water fowl are flying in successive waves that began last July and will continue through early November, as they abandon summer breeding grounds grown cold in favor of more clement winter homes down south. For some birds, that translocation may be nothing more than a move from New Jersey to Georgia. For others, like some sandpipers and plovers, migration means flying from as far north as the Arctic circle to the tip of Argentina, roughly 10,000 miles away. Guided by the Earth’s magnetic field, starlight and other biocompasses that scientists have yet to fully divine, the birds wheel over land and sea, alighting opportunistically en route to rest, preen and refuel. And while shorebirds may seek fleeting refuge in desolate marshes and flats, songbirds dive for the woods or their proxy. As one of the larger green patches along the Eastern seaboard, Central Park in Manhattan at the moment serves as a grand bed-and-breakfast for an ever-shifting registry of some 100 or more species of migrating songbirds. The guests rest by day, and, though birds as a rule are diurnally tuned, they do the great bulk of their migrating at night, when winds tend to be gentle and the risk of in-flight predation is low. If you look at the moon through binoculars you might well see their silhouettes flitting past. And if you listen, you can hear them calling, each species twittering a road song all its own. Scientists only lately have begun deciphering these migratory calls and using them to map avian flight paths and numbers. “The calls are very different from a bird’s normal songs,” said Irby Lovette, associate professor of evolutionary biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. They are high-pitched and clipped, each burst just a fraction of a second, and it took years for Dr. Lovette’s colleagues William Evans and Andrew Farnsworth to come up with what has been called “the Rosetta Stone of night calls,” a link between the vocalizations and the particular syrinxes behind them. Researchers are still not sure what the calls are for, but suspect that they tell a bird what its night-blinded eyes cannot: who’s out there, where are they headed, and should I follow their lead? At the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, bristling arrays of microphones eavesdrop on the nocturnal bird banter and so keep a tally of aerial traffic. The numbers are perpetually astonishing. “Last night,” Miyoko Chu, director of publications at the lab, told me on Sept. 10, “a million Swainson’s thrushes” flew over central New York. Not all birds migrate, but the capacity to migrate “is an ancient, ancient trait,” said Dr. Lovette, and it may well date back to the common ancestor of all birds, if not earlier. It is also a very plastic trait, and different bird species are known to have lost and regained the itinerant spirit multiple times, depending on the climate and prevailing real estate options. Birds migrate because they can, Dr. Greenberg said. They can fly to where the food is, to take advantage of the temperate zone’s great vernal pulses of insects and seeds, which they then turn into eggs, and stuff down the throats of their young. As a result, the clutch size of migrating birds is generally two or three times that of similar species based year-round in the tropics, where competition for every calorie is stiff. Migration is without question a difficult business, demanding that a bird put on massive fat stores to power its long nights of flight. Before departing New England for South America, for example, a Blackpoll warbler, which normally weighs about 11 grams (the equivalent of a half-dollar coin) will in a matter of days at least double its body mass. If you were to take one of these fluffy tublets and blow on its feathers, said Dr. Lovette, you would see bumps of white fat barely held in check by its skin. Nevertheless, birds are exquisitely efficient flying machines. A bird’s heart is four-chambered, like ours, but as a proportion of its body weight is six times bigger than ours. A bird’s respiratory system, its lungs and accessory air sacs, takes up 20 percent of its volume, compared with 5 percent for human lungs. As Mary Deinlein of the National Zoo has observed, “If a Blackpoll warbler were burning gasoline instead of reserves of body fat, it could boast of getting 720,000 miles to the gallon.” The fat in a Snickers bar, she added, would subsidize a warbler’s flight from summer home to winter home and halfway back. Throw in a box of Milk Duds and a 3 Musketeers, and even a rail may never again be called thin. | Birds;Migration;Science and Technology;Animals |
ny0108454 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2012/05/18 | White House to Ease Ban on Investment in Myanmar | WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday lifted most prohibitions on Americans’ doing business in Myanmar , ushering in a new era of diplomatic relations between the United States and what was until recently one of the world’s most repressive countries. With bipartisan support from Congress — though criticism from human rights organizations — the administration opened the door to the first significant investments in decades in an impoverished country of 55 million now undergoing a sweeping, if incomplete, political transformation. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have previously pledged to support nascent changes in Myanmar that began last year with the election of a new president, U Thein Sein , but relations between the United States and Myanmar are now warming with startling speed after a quarter century of tensions. Only a month ago, the administration was moving more cautiously, considering just a limited easing of sanctions that would allow nongovernmental organizations to work in areas like health and education. Since then, however, the well-known opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi , has taken a seat in Myanmar’s new Parliament along with other members of her party. That prompted the European Union and Australia to suspend their own sanctions, raising the prospect of a foreign investment boom that American corporations are eager not to miss. “So today we say to American business: Invest in Burma,” Mrs. Clinton said Thursday, referring to Myanmar by its former name as a matter of American policy. She appeared with the country’s foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, in the State Department’s Treaty Room, framed by the flags of both countries — a scene unthinkable a year ago — and described the changes that had taken place so far as “irreversible.” She pledged full American political, diplomatic and economic support to bring the country out of decades of isolation. Mr. Obama nominated his special envoy to the country, Derek J. Mitchell, to be the first American ambassador to Myanmar since 1990, when the government responded to political protests and unrest by annulling an election won by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. Mr. Wunna Maung Lwinthen announced that his country’s current representative to the United Nations, U Than Swe, would become the ambassador in Washington. “As an iron fist has unclenched in Burma, we have extended our hand,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. The administration’s steps received strong bipartisan support from Congress but also provoked criticism from human rights organizations, which warned that the administration was moving too quickly to embrace a country that had yet to enshrine basic freedoms or the rule of law fully. Praising the administration’s move, two Republican senators, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, said it struck “an appropriate balance between encouraging the process of reform now unfolding in Burma, while maintaining sufficient leverage to continue pressing the Burmese government for additional progress.” Mr. Obama did not end the sweeping American sanctions — some of which require Congressional action to remove — but suspended enforcement of most of them by granting American companies a general license to do business in Myanmar. Mrs. Clinton said the sanctions would remain on the books as “an insurance policy” in the event the country’s political transition stalled, though she emphasized that “our goal and our commitment is to move as rapidly as we can to expand business and investment opportunities.” Senior administration officials said that the Treasury Department’s office that enforces sanctions would restrict American commerce with the country’s armed forces or corporations closely linked to them in what is still an opaque, state-managed economy. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, in a video link to a recent conference in Washington, expressed support for the administration’s steps but warned against lifting sanctions entirely. Rights groups responded more harshly. The United States Campaign for Burma and United to End Genocide said American investments were premature, given that the country still detained political prisoners and continued to fight civil wars in ethnic areas. | Myanmar;United States International Relations;Embargoes and Economic Sanctions;Thein Sein;Foreign Investments;Obama Barack;Aung San Suu Kyi;Clinton Hillary Rodham |
ny0192951 | [
"business"
] | 2009/02/15 | Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids | DETROIT THE Japanese phrase genchi genbutsu translates as “go to the spot” — in other words, “see it for yourself.” Few executives embrace that philosophy as completely as Akio Toyoda, who is slated to become the next president of the Toyota Motor Corporation . Last summer, during a trip so secret that Toyota’s public relations staff didn’t know he was here, Mr. Toyoda visited a dealership in Ann Arbor, Mich., and decided to satisfy his curiosity about a pickup truck recall. Still wearing his business suit, he got down on his hands and knees on the warm blacktop to examine the undercarriage of one of the trucks, shocking his American hosts, who didn’t expect a corporate V.I.P. to be so hands-on. They, and everyone else at Toyota, had better get used to it. In June, Mr. Toyoda will take charge of a renowned company facing its most serious setback since a crisis in the early 1950s forced his grandfather, Kiichiro Toyoda, to give up control of the carmaker he founded in 1937. The momentum that allowed Toyota to become the world’s biggest and richest carmaker is screeching to a halt. It’s set to report billion-dollar losses for 2008, a stunning reversal from the record annual profits it earned earlier this decade. In the United States, its biggest car market, unsold Toyotas are piling up on storage lots while dealers, once used to waiting lists of eager customers, grapple with sales that have plunged by a third. Inside Toyota, the situation is being referred to as “the emergency,” with top management canceling routine meetings and trips to focus on overcoming a global auto slump. On Thursday, Toyota said worker buyouts, possibly shorter workweeks and executive pay reductions would be part of urgent cost-cutting. At a news conference last month announcing his appointment, Mr. Toyoda put managers on notice that he will pop up everywhere, just as he did in Ann Arbor. “I have assumed the huge responsibility of steering Toyota at a time when we’re facing a once-in-a-century crisis,” he said. “Given the circumstances, I take my responsibility very seriously.” All of this is far more challenging than anyone at Toyota anticipated even a year ago. Early this month, Toyota forecast a $3.9 billion net loss for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends in March, the first time it has lost money since 1950. It expects an even deeper operating loss of about $5 billion, its first since it was founded. The dismal financial news came only days after Toyota confirmed rumors that Mr. Toyoda, after a 25-year apprenticeship, would finally become its next president, replacing Katsuaki Watanabe, who has held the job since 2005, and who will become vice chairman. The prospect of deep losses and the abrupt announcement that a Toyoda would return to power, after people from outside the family had run the company for 14 years, have jolted the auto giant in the same way that looming bankruptcy has rattled Detroit automakers. “The financial crisis and the economy are intertwined, and the crisis is expanding significantly faster, wider and deeper than we expected,” Mr. Watanabe wrote in an e-mail message in response to questions. Even before Mr. Watanabe hands off the top job at the company to Mr. Toyoda, pieces of Toyota’s response to the crisis are being rolled out. Toyota, which has been on a steep growth curve this decade, has put new plants on hold, including a factory under construction in Blue Springs, Miss., that was supposed to open next year. The company plans to cut spending by 10 percent and is letting many temporary workers go; permanent workers thus far have been protected by a lifetime employment policy. Toyota is also rethinking its lineup of cars for every region of the world and accelerating offerings of more environmentally friendly vehicles. And it’s already planning for 2030, when it envisions a world in which hybrid vehicles — and other types, like those that run on hydrogen — dominate the roads as traditional internal combustion engines fade in importance. Toyota doesn’t plan to seek government support, either in Japan or elsewhere, Mr. Watanabe said. That fact alone illustrates the gap between Toyota and its American counterparts. “G.M., Ford and Chrysler are trying to survive,” says John Paul MacDuffie, an associate professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “All Toyota is trying to do is survive a downturn.” To do so, Toyota will rely on someone who has been groomed for this job for much of his adult life. ALONG with his last name, reminders of Mr. Toyoda’s heritage are ubiquitous in Japan. A bust of his look-alike grandfather sits in front of Toyota’s soaring glass headquarters in Toyota City, about 30 miles outside Nagoya. The original office building where Toyota was founded is near Nagoya’s bustling train station, while the traditional Japanese home of the company patriarch, Sakichi Toyoda, is on display in Toyoda City. These days, the Toyoda family — which spelled its companies’ names differently so they would be easier to write in Japanese characters — holds only a small fraction of Toyota stock. But the family still wields a powerful influence at Toyota. Mr. Toyoda insists that nepotism was not behind his elevation, and he is also quick to point out that he is captive to his family’s legacy. “I really did not have a choice to be born with the Toyoda surname,” he said on the day he was named as Toyota’s next president. Even if his last name were different, Mr. Toyoda’s appointment would set him apart, however. At 52, he is still relatively young to become a Japanese chief executive. (Mr. Watanabe, who turned 67 on Friday, was 63 when he was promoted.) Mr. Toyoda is fluent in English, perfected when he earned his M.B.A. at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., and during the years he spent in New York, working as an investment banker and management consultant and living around the corner from the Frick Collection. Unlike other Japanese executives, who rely on interpreters even when they understand a foreign language, Mr. Toyoda is content to operate in English, using it in speeches, interviews and, according to Professor MacDuffie, even at the training programs that Wharton conducts in Japan. At one recent Wharton session, Mr. Toyoda cracked jokes and eschewed a formal presentation for an off-the-cuff talk. He seemed “very much a part of the younger generation,” Professor MacDuffie said. Not surprisingly, Toyota’s American executives, who are struggling with their deepest sales decline in a generation, can’t wait for him to take charge. “Akio is a very, very good leader,” says James Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., the company’s sales arm here. “He’s passionate about the company, and passionate about the people at the company.” Mr. Lentz met Mr. Toyoda in 1995, when he was general manager of Toyota’s San Francisco region, and Mr. Toyoda was a planner and administrator at a plant in Fremont, Calif., that was a joint venture with General Motors. Late one Friday night, there was a quiet knock on Mr. Lentz’s office door. Not expecting a guest, he opened it to find Mr. Toyoda, who had come from Fremont to pick up a car to use for the weekend. Mr. Lentz got another surprise when he discovered that Mr. Toyoda was accompanied by his father, Shoichiro, then Toyota’s chairman, who had traveled to America, unannounced, to visit his son. Drop-ins continue to be part of Mr. Toyoda’s routine. In recent months, he has frequently called on Mark Templin, the general manager of Toyota’s Lexus luxury division, and one of the company’s most prominent American leaders, to discuss the future of Lexus. In January, Toyota announced that Lexus would develop its first vehicle to be exclusively designed as a hybrid. Mr. Templin hinted that other dedicated hybrids, and perhaps a premium small car like the Mini Cooper, also may be in store for Lexus. Mr. Templin, who regularly visits Mr. Toyoda in Japan, describes the Toyota headquarters desk of his boss as “full of paper.” Mr. Toyoda’s office is much smaller than those favored by American chief executives, says Mr. Templin, who adds that he has been impressed by Mr. Toyoda’s effort over decades to learn all aspects of the company’s operations. Along with his assignment at the Fremont joint venture, Mr. Toyoda has run Toyota’s operations in China and Japan and started a Web site aimed at young Japanese consumers called Gazoo.com . The site, originally meant as a way to market Toyota’s used cars, has since morphed into a popular social network. Mr. Toyoda was named to the company board in 2000, which put him in regular contact with all of Toyota’s senior leaders, and joined their ranks in 2005, when he became an executive vice president. (The ascent hasn’t been without a few glitches. Not long after becoming a board member, Mr. Toyoda lost the gold lapel pin bearing the original Toyota emblem that all directors wear each day. His status as a family member won him no special treatment, he confided last year in an interview: like everyone else, he had to pay for a replacement.) Mr. Toyoda also acquired a deep interest in his company’s automobiles, spending hours each month for the last decade testing new cars. In 2007, he even drove a four-hour stint as part of a Toyota racing team in Germany. “The Toyoda family is still kind of golden” in Japan, says Jeffrey K. Liker, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan and the author of a series of books about Toyota. “The president is the face of the company, and this time, it may be important to have the right kind of face.” ALTHOUGH Mr. Toyoda plans to respect Toyota’s corporate traditions as the company’s new president, he intends to be his own man. “I also will not be tied to the past,” he said during the news conference. “I will do my utmost to be as bold as possible.” His first moves are expected to include naming a new management team. One adviser could be Yoshi Inaba, the former head of Toyota’s North American operations. Also fluent in English, Mr. Inaba played a role in Mr. Toyoda’s tutelage and became a familiar figure with Toyota’s dealers in the United States. Once considered a leading candidate to become president himself, Mr. Inaba left Toyota to become an airport executive after he lost the job to Mr. Watanabe. Mr. Toyoda also is expected to call on his father for advice, although Shoichiro Toyoda is expected to leave Toyota’s board when his son becomes president. (Inside Toyota, Mr. Toyoda is called Akio-san to distinguish him from his father, now a robust 84, who is known as Dr. Toyoda or merely Dr. T.) The relationship between the two men has not always been easy. Mr. Toyoda, who is Shoichiro Toyoda’s only son (he has one sister), did not show an interest in joining the company until he was 28, or several years after most new hires. Mr. Toyoda, whose father was president from 1982 to 1992, said in an interview in Toyota City last year that he had a complex, dual relationship with the man who was both his father and his supervisor at Toyota. But senior company executives, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak for the company about board matters, speculated that there were two reasons the father believed the time was right for his son’s promotion: The elder Mr. Toyoda wants to be in good health when his son takes over so he can provide counsel, and he wants his son to manage the company through a downturn, and potentially enjoy the reputational benefits of a rebound. Akio Toyoda is not expected to turn the company upside down. Toyota is governed by a series of management principles that collectively represent the “Toyota Way” — practices that focus on consensus management, continuous production improvements and in-depth investigations before any strategic shifts occur. For all of its sophistication as a company, Toyota embarked on its global expansion only about a decade ago. Two successive presidents, Hiroshi Okuda and Fujio Cho, who preceded Mr. Watanabe, set the company on a trajectory that made it the world’s largest auto company, a title it took from G.M. last year. Mr. Watanabe continued the push during the last few years, opening new plants in Texas and Ontario, and starting construction on the plant in Mississippi. But critics say Mr. Watanabe misjudged the economic downturn, and shouldn’t have pursued new initiatives like the Mississippi factory. Mr. Watanabe, however, insists the factory, intended to build the hybrid-electric Prius, was not a mistake. He said by e-mail that Toyota still expected the American market to grow, and that there was “no doubt” that it will recover at some point. “For this reason, Toyota believes its investment in the Mississippi plant is essential,” he said. Even though it cut Toyota’s debt rating this month, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said the company could withstand a one- to two-year sales slump, as long as its cash, believed to be around $55 billion, holds out. “Toyota boasts a formidable degree of competitiveness among global auto manufacturers,” Osamu Kobayashi, an analyst with the agency, said in a research report. “We view Toyota as being better positioned than other global auto manufacturers to cope.” During Mr. Watanabe’s tenure, Toyota posted successive years of record profits, including about $18.8 billion in earnings in 2007. At that time, Toyota had a market capitalization of nearly $200 billion; it’s now about half that, but still dwarfs all of the Detroit auto companies combined. Some of Mr. Watanabe’s other efforts will make it easier for Mr. Toyoda to run things. He revamped quality controls after a spate of recalls and reorganized engineering operations to design cars for a global marketplace rather than simply taking Japanese models and adapting them for buyers overseas. Mr. Watanabe cites 11 research and development centers around the world, including a new safety facility in Ann Arbor, as important parts of his legacy. “Toyota’s R.& D. investment is based on expected returns over the medium to long term, rather than from a short-term perspective,” he said. “Technology, including design and product development, is necessary for Toyota’s growth.” Mr. Watanabe, long an advocate for environmentally friendly vehicles, said Toyota was watching how the world’s governments act on climate change . “Toyota does expect that policies that promote growth with a balance between economics and the environment, such as the Obama administration’s green initiatives, will be implemented not only in the U.S. but also in other countries around the world,” he said. AS Mr. Toyoda prepares to become president, one critical change awaits: opening Toyota’s management doors to outsiders. Despite its rapid growth in the United States and Europe, and an increasingly global viewpoint, Toyota remains a Japan-centric company, dominated by Japanese managers, who have yet to give significant, lasting authority to their foreign counterparts. Two Americans who rose to high-ranking positions this decade — James E. Press and Gary L. Convis — left for top jobs at other companies, Mr. Press at Chrysler and Mr. Convis at the Dana Holding Corporation, an auto supplier. Mr. Toyoda, schooled overseas, may push for more diversity, says Professor Liker. He also expects Mr. Toyoda to be a much more visible presence internationally than Mr. Watanabe, who never had a major assignment outside Japan before becoming president and made relatively few trips overseas while in the job. By contrast, Mr. Toyoda’s learning curve has included trips to Washington. And he has dined with influential lawmakers like Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, a friend of his father and a West Virginia Democrat whose state is home to a Toyota engine plant. Professor Liker predicts that Mr. Toyoda will be a globe trotter. Beyond that, his ascent signals that his family wants to return to basics as it confronts an uncertain future. Despite the gloom surrounding the industry, Mr. Toyoda has the opportunity to “take everything that looks bad, and use it as an opportunity to learn,” Professor MacDuffie said. | Toyota Motor Corp;Toyoda Akio;Automobiles;Appointments and Executive Changes;Subprime Mortgage Crisis |
ny0032902 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2013/12/11 | Wilpon Says Mets Have ‘a Long Way to Go’ | LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — It was supposed to be a triumphant moment for the Mets, Curtis Granderson onstage smiling for photographs, holding his new, pinstriped No. 3 jersey, flanked by Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson. Granderson was the biggest free-agent signing of Alderson’s tenure as the general manager. He was the newest face of the franchise, the cleanup hitter to team with David Wright. The news conference started, and Granderson said hi to his mother. He said he stayed in New York to continue his charity work. He poked fun at the Yankees. He was confident, clean-cut, charming and funny. He seemed likable and competent, the embodiment of what it seems the Mets are aspiring to be. Then later, as Wilpon, the team’s chief operating officer, met with reporters, he was asked whether the team was ready to win next season. His face went blank and his eyes stared off as he considered the question for more than a moment. “I think we’re still building,” he said. “I mean, we’d like to win next season, of course. But I can’t tell you what other moves Sandy is going to be able to make between now and opening day. We’ve got a long way to go. This is the second day of the winter meetings.” It is true that moves can still be made, but with the Mets missing the young ace Matt Harvey, it may not be realistic to think they will contend before 2015. And even if Harvey were not absent for next season after Tommy John elbow surgery, it seemed that the Mets would not spend much more money than they already have. Alderson said this week that the team might have to live with certain weaknesses, having reiterated the importance of smart, balanced spending. Alderson could probably use an upgrade at shortstop, one or two more starting pitchers, and a reliever or two. But his best return might come in a trade for Ike Davis or Daniel Murphy or both. Alderson indicated that he would not spend another $60 million on a free agent this off-season, as he did on Granderson. Instead of perhaps chasing Stephen Drew, who could command a contract worth more than $10 million a year, Alderson was open to having Ruben Tejada as his everyday shortstop. Alderson and Manager Terry Collins seemed pleased with Tejada’s progress in a recent four-week fitness and nutrition program that the team set up in Michigan. Collins seemed fine with having Tejada at shortstop, despite his spotty reputation. Collins said he spoke with Tejada after the season, looked him in the eye and could tell he was upset with himself and would work harder. After batting .289 in 114 games as the Mets’ primary shortstop in 2012, Tejada played more games in the minors than the majors last season. “I think he’s bound and determined to show everybody that he is the guy,” Collins said. Wilmer Flores and Lucas Duda were also among the players in the program and were producing good results, according to Collins. If Murphy and Davis are traded, Flores and Duda might start on the right side of the infield. Flores (22), Tejada (24), and Duda (27) are all still relatively young and, to some extent, unproven. Duda and Tejada intend to return to the fitness program in January. If the Mets do end up counting on them and Flores, maybe each will take another step, or, as Alderson said, the Mets may have to live with certain weaknesses. | Baseball;Mets;Curtis Granderson |
ny0032071 | [
"business",
"energy-environment"
] | 2013/06/25 | Algae-Engineering Joint Venture Disbands | Solazyme, a renewable oil company, and Roquette Frères, a global starch processor, are dissolving a joint venture to produce food ingredients derived from algae after failing to agree on a timeline and strategy to bring the products to market, the companies said Monday. The partnership is one of several that Solazyme, a relatively young enterprise that hopes to mass market fuel oil , has entered into with established companies to help it build manufacturing capacity for several product lines, including cosmetics, personal care items and petrochemical replacements. With Roquette, Solazyme had planned to produce and sell Almagine, a line of flours meant to replace fats or add protein to foods and beverages like crackers, ice cream and chocolate drinks. “We’re disappointed to be dissolving the joint venture,” Jonathan S. Wolfson, Solazyme’s chief executive, said in a call to investors and analysts. “Productive partnerships are the cornerstone of our business model, but it’s important to understand that not every partnership is going to end as a home run.” The partnership, formed in 2010, fell apart late Friday, Mr. Wolfson said, and is to be dissolved in the next few weeks. Mr. Wolfson said that the move would allow his company to expand the food business to commercial scale more quickly, while retaining ownership of the technology. The company, which is based in South San Francisco, has developed several strains of microalgae that can produce oils, proteins and complex sugars with specific characteristics to perform a variety of functions. The Almagine products are meant to help food manufacturers make healthier products by replacing eggs and butter with lower-saturated-fat substitutes or by increasing the protein content. In a prepared statement, Roquette said it would move forward independently to develop nongenetically modified ingredients from microalgae for nutritional products. “Roquette has invested significant resources and know-how in the commercialization of the microalgae-based food ingredients and remains committed to meeting market demands, while aligning the timing of its market launch and financial resources with its overall business objectives,” it said. Investors responded to the announcement by selling Solazyme shares, driving the stock price down 13 percent to close at $10.94. But analysts generally maintained their positive views of its future, saying that the relationship with Roquette was not the company’s most important partnership. Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst at Raymond James, said the announcement would not have much of an impact on Solazyme. “This is a classic example of what happens when a large industrial company is working with a smaller technology provider,” he said, adding that the larger company “almost always has a slower timetable. The headline is worse than the substance.” | Solazyme;Algae;Food;Roquette Freres;Genetic engineering |
ny0248021 | [
"sports"
] | 2011/05/19 | Why Animal Kingdom Is a Triple Crown Threat | BALTIMORE This is the time of year I beat back my inner wise guy and acknowledge, yes, I’d like a horse to pull into New York with a chance to become the 12th Triple Crown champion and the first to do so since Affirmed in 1978. The reason? When the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes champion shows up at Belmont Park it really feels like a grand old racetrack in Long Island. Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), Charismatic (1999), War Emblem (2002), Funny Cide (2003), Smarty Jones (2004) and Big Brown (2008) put racing front and center during their quest to sweep the sport’s holy grail. It was good for the soul of horseplayers and horse lovers alike. We got lost in weeks of prerace drama, rose to our feet when those horses pounded down Belmont’s grueling stretch and got our hearts broken a little when their bids failed. We were not, however, disappointed. But the past two years, all but the most optimistic among us doubted Super Saver or Mine That Bird could get out of here with the Preakness trophy. I was one who hoped against hope. Lookin at Lucky was better than Super Saver — except for Derby day, when he got buried coming out of the No. 1 post and lost all chance. Mine That Bird, a little gelding, got a dream trip along the rail from Calvin Borel in the Kentucky Derby and shocked everyone at odds of 50-1. Borel, however, traded him for the star filly Rachel Alexandra two weeks later and beat the Derby champion here in the second leg of the Triple Crown. No one was surprised — Rachel was better, as her Horse of the Year title proved. Now, here comes Animal Kingdom, a colt that was sent off in the Derby at odds of better than 20-1, and on Wednesday was made the 2-1 favorite in the morning line after drawing the No. 11 hole. Animal Kingdom certainly didn’t scare anyone off; a full field of 13 rivals is here to challenge him. Before the Derby, Animal Kingdom appeared to be a talented colt who offered more questions than answers. He had never raced on dirt, had not raced for six weeks and had only four career starts under his belt. The colt’s two-and-three-quarter-length victory in the Derby was complete and clear-cut. None of his competitors was compromised by a rough trip, and Animal Kingdom closed remarkably into the slowest pace since 1947, when Jet Pilot loped the first six furlongs in 1:14 2/5. Some sharp handicappers are pretty certain Animal Kingdom is going to get beat here Saturday: He’s going to bounce, in racetrack parlance, or regress after running the best race of his short life. In a game where there are a million ways to be wrong and not a single way to be right, I look at Animal Kingdom and see a Preakness champion. He will win by daylight because he is a brilliant and sturdy racehorse. View Animal Kingdom through the lens of a Derby winner and simply marvel. He has not run a bad race in his five lifetime starts, winning three of them. Animal Kingdom’s losses can be excused. Last September, he was caught in traffic in his career debut on Arlington Park’s synthetic surface and still finished second by two and three-quarter lengths. In March, his first time on grass, Animal Kingdom overcame a poor start to finish second by a head. The colt has proven unflappable. Not only has Animal Kingdom run at five different racetracks — from Chicago to Kentucky to South Florida — he has been ridden by a different rider at each stop. Not here, though, as the highly regarded John Velazquez is more than eager to get back on the colt that gave him his first Derby victory. Animal Kingdom is handy, too. He has won from the front, from pressing solid paces and by closing deep. The colt is in good hands; his trainer, Graham Motion, an Englishman, has stayed out of Animal Kingdom’s way. The colt is galloping in the mornings, and not being given timed workouts, because Motion is concentrating on keeping him healthy, happy and comfortable at Fair Hill, his bucolic European-styled training center about an hour north of here. Animal Kingdom won’t come to Pimlico until Saturday. “I think he’s super,” Motion said. “I feel good where he is at. He looks great, he looks like everything is going well, every indication is positive, but we really won’t know until he races.” Finally, there are Animal Kingdom’s genes. His great-grandsire Blushing Groom produced tough and quality racehorses like Arazi, Blushing John and Animal Kingdom’s grandsire, Candy Stripes. It was Candy Stripes who sired both Leroidesanimaux and the 2006 American Horse of the Year, Invasor, another well-traveled colt that won 11 of 12 starts, including the Uruguayan Triple Crown and the Dubai World Cup. There is no doubt here that Animal Kingdom is fast enough, strong enough and well bred enough to carry me and the rest of the sport to New York with a shot at making history. What happens then? I can’t wait to see. | Horse Racing;Triple Crown (Horse Racing);Preakness Stakes;Animal Kingdom |
ny0223100 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/11/10 | David Tarloff, Slashing Suspect, Ruled Unfit for Trial | A man accused of slashing to death a psychologist on the Upper East Side was declared mentally unfit to stand trial on Tuesday and will be sent to a state psychiatric center until he is deemed competent for court. The man, David Tarloff , 42, was scheduled to go on trial last month in the killing of Dr. Kathryn Faughey , 56, more than two years ago. But after he refused to leave his cell one day, two court-appointed doctors evaluated him and determined that he was not fit to stand trial. Prosecutors hired their own expert, but Mr. Tarloff refused to speak during a session with that doctor, who was unable to reach a conclusion about Mr. Tarloff’s mental fitness, Evan Krutoy, an assistant Manhattan district attorney, said in court on Tuesday. Consequently, Mr. Krutoy said, he could not contest the findings of the court-appointed doctors. Justice Edward J. McLaughlin said he had no choice but to deem Mr. Tarloff unfit for trial. The judge also criticized Bellevue Hospital Center, where Mr. Tarloff has been held for most of the time since he was arrested in the weeks after the killing, for not allowing staff members who treated Mr. Tarloff to speak with the prosecution’s doctor. The lack of cooperation was another reason that the doctor was unable to reach a conclusion about Mr. Tarloff’s mental fitness, Mr. Krutoy said. Bellevue’s actions, Justice McLaughlin said, could be considered “obstructionist conduct.” “The truth-telling process in this instance seemed to have been thwarted to a degree by the lack of the exchange of information,” he added. Bryan Konoski, one of Mr. Tarloff’s lawyers, said he did not believe that Bellevue was being obstructionist. The hospital’s employees also did not speak to him about Mr. Tarloff’s behavior because they were restricted by privacy laws, Mr. Konoski said. | Murders and Attempted Murders;Tarloff David;Faughey Kathryn;Upper East Side (NYC);Decisions and Verdicts;McLaughlin Edward J |
ny0182066 | [
"business"
] | 2007/12/20 | After Chief Holds a Chat, Sallie Mae Stock Plunges | You known the conference call is going badly when the chief executive tells shareholders they will have to walk through a metal detector the next time they meet. The joke, delivered on Wednesday by Albert L. Lord, the chief executive of Sallie Mae , flopped. Mr. Lord had instigated the conference call to reassure investors and analysts alarmed by the deteriorating financial health of the student loan giant. Instead, his gruff and at times profane performance baffled investors and sent Sallie Mae stock into a tailspin. For many, the 30-minute call — which Mr. Lord ended with an expletive — only underscored the troubles plaguing Sallie Mae and its hard-charging leader. Analysts had expected Mr. Lord to lay out his plans now that the company’s proposed $25 billion sale has unraveled. And they had hoped he would address how Sallie Mae, formally known as the SLM Corporation, would weather the turmoil in the credit markets. “We were all kind of shaking our heads,” said Matthew J. Snowling, an analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, who listened to the call. “He didn’t provide any real new information.” One result was a disaster for Sallie Mae stock. The shares plunged 20.7 percent, to $22.89, the worst one-day drop in the company’s history. The slide was set off in part by Mr. Lord’s suggestion that the company might re-examine its dividend. Mr. Lord, the driving force behind the company’s rapid expansion in recent years, now confronts fresh doubts about his leadership. Several shareholders were re-evaluating who was to blame for the recent collapse of the company’s buyout. Two shareholders said the call, which was meant to win over investors, instead inspired a “crisis of confidence” in Mr. Lord’s management. A spokesman for Sallie Mae said that the company would give fuller guidance on its condition next month and declined to comment on the call or the stock price drop. Shareholders certainly had much they wanted to hear about. On Friday, Sallie Mae appointed Mr. Lord, then its executive chairman, to be chief executive, a move that baffled some. The company also said that he had sold more than 1.2 million shares to meet a margin call by the company. Beyond that, shareholders hoped to hear Mr. Lord’s perspective on the buyout offer that Sallie Mae received this summer from a group of investors. The deal began to fall apart after lawmakers passed legislation cutting government subsidies to student lenders. Efforts by those buyers — including the private equity firm J. C. Flowers & Company, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase — to renegotiate the price fell apart, leading the consortium to try to walk away. Now both Sallie Mae and its proposed buyers await a court battle, scheduled for July in Delaware. The bigger issue for Sallie Mae is the turmoil in the credit markets, which has cut off the company’s ability to package the loans it makes into securities for sale to investors. The company has since relied on expensive alternate funding from JPMorgan and Bank of America, which is seeking to replace. But instead of explaining how Sallie Mae would weather those setbacks, Mr. Lord gave what amounted to a prickly defense of himself and his company’s conduct. Investors, analysts and reporters fixed onto the vagueness of his prepared remarks, which he wrote himself. Many focused on his give-and-take with analysts afterward. Mr. Lord brusquely told one analyst he would not entertain any more multi-part questions. He repeatedly and insistently referred another analyst’s question — what he expected 2008’s market to look like — to Sallie Mae’s head of investor relations. “Yes, that’s exactly right,” Mr. Lord said. “I’m the C.E.O. You should give Steve a call. Next question.” Then came the joke about the metal detector. But worst of all was the end of the call. As the operator asked if there were any more questions, Mr. Lord could be heard using an expletive in telling another executive that they should leave. The biggest shame, Mr. Snowling said, was that the attention to Mr. Lord’s word choice obscured some good news. The tightness of the credit markets affects not just Sallie Mae, but all student lenders, and Mr. Lord said during the call that his company would seek to increase its market share by buying smaller lenders’ portfolios. After the call, Mr. Snowling downgraded Sallie Mae to market perform from outperform. Even so, he said the company was better equipped than many rivals to emerge healthy from today’s market troubles. Several shareholders said they believed in the underlying strength of the company as well. “There’s a real desire among investors to own the stock,” Mr. Snowling said. “They just need the confidence. That didn’t get delivered today.” | SLM Corp;Stocks and Bonds;Lord Albert L;Student Loans |
ny0283735 | [
"us"
] | 2016/07/23 | As Dallas Sniper Prowled, Quick Decisions and Life-Altering Consequences | DALLAS — Officer Patrick Zamarripa was down. A peaceful march here had turned grisly, and a gunman’s rampage wrapped darkening downtown streets in panic, noise and the stench of gun smoke. Officer Jorge Barrientos rushed to his friend’s side and tried to seal a sucking chest wound with the only cover he could find: the plastic wrapping off a pack of cigarettes. In a summer marked by chaos and disorder, that moment was a reminder how much very different mass shootings have in common — confusion akin to the fog of war, improvisation under fire, and the way that chance decisions can put officers and civilians in harm’s way. After the gunfire began in Dallas on July 7 , officers loaded a wounded mother of four into a shot-up cruiser with flattened tires and sped to a hospital. Protesters reunited lost children with their parents. Frightened, and even bloodied, officers returned fire, and an El Centro College lawman worked with bullet fragments lodged in his stomach. And in one controversial decision , the Dallas police ended a standoff with the gunman by turning a robot into a mobile bomb-delivery vehicle. The improvisation was born of confusion. For demonstrators, for officers on the ground and for Dallas leaders, the bursts of gunfire and the hours that followed were a blur of threats, misinformation and false leads, including that multiple gunmen were triangulating on officers from elevated positions. Image Bullet holes dotted the area near where Mr. Johnson was killed after a standoff with the police. Credit Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York Times “We’ve got a guy with a long rifle,” an officer said during a radio transmission recorded by the website Broadcastify . “We don’t know where the hell he’s at.” Other mass shootings have been far deadlier than the one here that killed five officers. But few lasted longer. The gunman — Micah Johnson , 25 — lay siege for up to six hours, from the time gunshots were first reported at 8:58 p.m. until early Friday, when the authorities detonated a pound of C-4, killing him. But not even that lethal explosion seemed to stop him, according to a member of law enforcement at the scene. As his body lay amid the rubble, Mr. Johnson’s finger remained on the trigger of his AK-74 rifle. The weapon fired additional bullets. Peaceful, Then ‘So Much Chaos’ The temperature was typical for a Texas evening in July: 91 degrees. Outside Bank of America Plaza, this city’s tallest skyscraper, the protest against fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota was winding down. Demonstrators had gathered at a park called Belo Garden and then marched through downtown, past Dealey Plaza, where a sniper killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Hundreds of the marchers were headed back to Belo Garden. Officers were on the scene but had relatively few concerns. Dallas had gained a reputation as an orderly, process-oriented city, a smooth-running place whose mayor was the once the chief executive of Pizza Hut. C. D. Kirven, an activist, quickly said goodbye to another demonstrator, hoping to beat the traffic. To the north, Mayor Mike Rawlings had returned from his mother-in-law’s funeral, made a tuna sandwich and settled in to watch the Texas Rangers baseball game on television. Clay Jenkins, Dallas County’s chief executive, was also at home, watching the Disney Channel with his 10-year-old daughter. Image C.D. Kirven, an activist, was downtown for the protest against police shootings when the gunfire broke out. “It was like, ‘pow, pow, pow, pow,’” she said of the shots. Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times Just before 9 p.m., gunshots shattered the calm. So soon after Independence Day, Ms. Kirven thought they were firecrackers. “It was like, ‘pow, pow, pow, pow,’” Ms. Kirven, 39, said. “Once I heard it again, and it was closer to me, I hit the ground.” The gunfire’s roar echoed along the street. Then more shots — at a different pitch, she said, which seemed to signal that someone was fighting back. “There was just so much chaos,” she said. “Nobody could really tell where the gunfire was coming from.” At his home, Mr. Rawlings, 61, learned of the shooting when his assistant called, and he headed to the emergency operations center in City Hall’s basement. The police chief, David O. Brown , went there, too, as did Mr. Jenkins and F.B.I. officials. The drama was unfolding in real-time on social media and on television, heightening the tension and confusion. In the minutes after the shooting, one of the first calls Mr. Jenkins received was from a White House official, asking what he knew about what was happening. The mayor, meanwhile, feared a widespread gunfight on the streets of the nation’s ninth-largest city. Mr. Rawlings remembered thinking, “This is a disaster.” Under Fire, an Instinct to Protect Shetamia Taylor , 38, had driven in from a suburb in her minivan, bringing her four sons to a protest that she emphasized to them was about police violence, not the police themselves. Hours later, she heard the first shot. Then another. And then an officer yelled: “He’s got a gun! Run!” Image Shetamia Taylor, who was shot in the leg, spoke to reporters at Baylor University Medical Center on the Sunday after the attack. Credit KDFW-FOX4, via Associated Press The boys bolted. The pops came faster, and Ms. Taylor felt the force of a hot needle in her right calf. A bullet. She lunged toward her 15-year-old son, Andrew, and thrust her body over him, the two of them huddling between a car and the curb. Andrew noticed his mother’s blood. “Get my mom,” he yelled. “Get my mom out of here. Oh my God, Mom. I love you.” Ms. Taylor prayed aloud, and four officers surrounded them, she said, shielding them from the violence. One officer rubbed her back amid the chaos. “We’re going to get you out of here, Mom,” Ms. Taylor recalled him saying. “It was like whatever was going to happen to me was going to happen to him first.” The officers hoisted her into the back seat of a squad car, where an officer and her son cradled her as they drove to the hospital for surgery. She learned later that the squad car that was her ambulance came on its rims, its tires shot out by bullets, and that her other boys had sought refuge where they could: behind a pillar, at a hotel, in a stranger’s apartment. Officers Stalked Along City Streets The killer prowled the sidewalks in body armor and tan pants. He moved stealthily, using the wide columns of El Centro College as cover. The police initially said he shot at officers from inside a parking garage. But investigators, Mr. Rawlings said, now believe Mr. Johnson opened fire only at street-level and from a second-floor window of El Centro. Image The gunman used the wide columns of El Centro College as cover, and fired shots from a second-floor window. Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times In a video of the bedlam , Mr. Johnson and an officer exchange gunfire at close range, not far from where Mr. Johnson had parked a black Chevrolet Tahoe, its hazard lights flashing. The officer fires from around the corner of a column. Mr. Johnson quickly steps toward the column but comes up on the other side to find the officer with his back turned. A puff of smoke blows as Mr. Johnson fires, and the officer falls to the ground. Other officers fired on Mr. Johnson, but he stayed on the move. Darting amid the pillars and shadows, he kept officers guessing about who was firing and from where. “Those officers by squad car 2091,” an officer said on the radio. “You’re facing the wrong direction. You need to get behind some cover.” At 10:27 p.m., less than 90 minutes after the shooting started, Chief Brown issued a terse statement. It appeared that two snipers had opened fire on officers, the chief said. Three officers had been killed. The chief released another statement minutes later, describing a person of interest. The statement urged people not to approach him because he was armed and dangerous. That man, whose picture the authorities posted on social media, turned out to be a legally armed protester who had nothing to do with the attack. The chief had more grim news by midnight: The death toll had increased to four officers. But he said that the person of interest had surrendered, and that other people were being questioned in connection with the attack, including a man carrying a camouflage bag who had quickly left the area in a black Mercedes. Image Matt Walling, a deputy police chief for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, spoke of learning about the deaths of the officers. “We’ve all woken up from bad dreams, and they seem so real at the time,” he said. “It set in that it was real.” Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times In a span of hours, Matt Walling, a deputy police chief for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, raced from a command post to a hospital to the operations center. One of his officers, Brent Thompson , had been killed, and three others were injured. At City Hall, the talk of logistics paused for a quiet interruption. Someone from the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department passed out mourning badges: black plastic bars to clip onto their badges. “We’ve all woken up from bad dreams, and they seem so real at the time,” Chief Walling said. “It set in that it was real. And that we had officers that had been killed, and we had officers that had been seriously hurt. And I knew at that point that it was going to be a long road.” Disbelief and Despair at a Hospital Senior Cpl. Jaime Castro, 42, a police union representative, hurried to a hospital. A fellow union member had called him and told him an officer was down. His police radio crackled while he drove. Officer down. Officer down. Officer down. He assumed it was repeated accounts of one officer who had been shot. At the hospital, he walked around a corner and saw a friend. “He had that look on his face,” Corporal Castro said. “I knew it was going to be bad. I walk up to him and I said, ‘Who is it?’ He put his hand on my shoulder. And he said, ‘It’s Ahrens.’” Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens, known to his buddies simply as “Meat,” was a hulking officer recognized for his work on a drug squad. Corporal Castro, who had been part of the unit, recalled one summer night when the two officers crawled into some bushes before a raid. Corporal Castro whispered to his friend not to leave his side. Corporal Ahrens grabbed him by the shoulder. “I got your back,” he remembered Corporal Ahrens telling him. “I’ll take a bullet for you.” Now, at the hospital, Corporal Ahrens was alive but struggling. From a hospital room window, Corporal Castro watched and waited. Image Senior Cpl. Jaime Castro went to the hospital when he heard reports that officers had been shot. He learned there that his close friend Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens had been killed. Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times “I wanted to grab the surgeon and say, ‘Get back in there,’” Corporal Castro said. “You want to get in there and say: ‘Does he need an organ? Does he need one of my organs? I’m here, get it.’” Staring through the glass, Corporal Castro read the doctor’s lips. His friend was dead. ‘The End Is Coming’ In the operations center, officials like the city manager, A. C. Gonzalez, were overseeing an acute crisis and contemplating how to manage the reality that, in a matter of hours, more than 100,000 workers were due in downtown Dallas. “There were certainly tears in people’s eye as they were working, but they were all focused on making things happen as efficiently as we could,” said Mr. Gonzalez, whose team ultimately asked residents to treat Friday like a snow day. Around 12:30 a.m., Mr. Rawlings and Chief Brown addressed reporters. The narrative had changed. The gunman was holed up at El Centro, and the police had been negotiating with him for about 45 minutes. The man and the officers continued to trade gunfire, and he had told the police “that the end is coming, and he’s going to hurt and kill more of us, meaning law enforcement, and that there are bombs all over the place,” the chief said. The police still believed Mr. Johnson had accomplices. People who had been detained, the chief said, were not cooperating. He talked of “waiting for the suspects to break.” Image Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas received updates on the crisis throughout the night as he and other officials gathered in the emergency operations center in City Hall’s basement. Credit William Widmer for The New York Times The echoes of gunshots on the downtown streets, the presence of armed protesters and the gunman’s use of a combat tactic known as “shoot and move” all fueled the theory there was more than one sniper. “There’s always going to be a lack of clarity early on in an emergency response,” said Mr. Jenkins, the Dallas County official. “But tornadoes are not evil. They’re not trying to confuse you. A tornado whips through and it’s gone in minutes, and this guy is still shooting and telling us information that turns out not to be true.” Around the time of the news conference, the chief briefed officials about his plan to end the standoff. The authorities had developed an idea to attach C-4 to the remote-controlled robot and detonate it. “He wasn’t asking for our opinion necessarily,” Mr. Jenkins said, recounting when the chief told him and the mayor of the plan. “Both of us had words of affirmation that we supported that.” Mr. Jenkins spoke with a police officer outside the main room at the operations center. He asked for some information about the officers who had died — Officer Zamarripa, Corporal Ahrens, Officer Thompson, Officer Michael Krol and Sgt. Michael J. Smith. “He said, ‘I don’t know some, but one trained with me. He’s got two daughters — his voice cracked when he said it — ‘and he’s a good man.’ We looked at each other, and he went away.” Mr. Jenkins stood in the hallway, leaning against a table. His eyes were closed. He was praying. President Obama called from Europe and spoke with Mr. Rawlings. The mayor said of the conversation, “It was just two sad men.” | Dallas shooting;Attacks on Police;Dallas Police Department;David O Brown;Micah X Johnson;Dallas;Shetamia Taylor |
ny0190186 | [
"business",
"businessspecial"
] | 2009/05/07 | Hotels Court the Few Executives Who Are Still Traveling | AS the recession lingers and travel continues to dip, hotels are rolling out a lot more than red carpets to attract guests. Discounts, free nights, upgrades, waived fees and loyalty-program perks are some of the main ways hotels are trying to get heads in beds. What is less clear is whether these deals and promotions actually spur business travel , which has experienced significant cutbacks this year. “Whereas leisure demand can be stimulated by pricing, that really is not the case for business travel,” said Bjorn Hanson, associate professor at the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University. “If the boss says, ‘We’ve eliminated our travel budget,’ it doesn’t really matter if the employee says, ‘But I can get a really good deal on a hotel room.’ ” Even so, hotels are competing with one another to capture those customers who are still traveling, which has led to some remarkable offers in recent months. “What many hotels are doing is coming up with ideas just to get attention,” Mr. Hanson said. Hula-hooping for 20 seconds or playing “rock, paper, scissors” for a chance at a room upgrade may be among the more innovative examples of this trend. “Guests can play these games and, depending on how they do, they’ll get upgraded upon check-in,” said Niki Leondakis, chief operating officer for Kimpton Hotels, which plans to begin the promotion this summer. Another Kimpton promotion, valid through December, offers guests either a cocktail or continental breakfast for $1. Ms. Leondakis said these specials were designed to enhance Kimpton’s image as a fun place to stay and that such deals did resonate with guests, who often hear about promotions through Twitter and e-mail blasts. “It’s hard to differentiate at a time when everybody’s offering value and packages, but in the last three months, we’ve been able to increase our market share and we believe these promotions have been a big part of that,” she said. According to Smith Travel Research , hotel occupancy levels in the United States declined to 51 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared with 58 percent during the same period in 2008. While average daily rates fell only $8 nationwide, to $100 a night, the drop has been steeper in markets like New York City, where rates averaged $195 in the first quarter of 2009, versus $241 in the first quarter of 2008. Miami, Phoenix, Orlando, San Francisco and Oahu, Hawaii, also experienced big price declines. While hotel executives acknowledge that discounts and promotions are often more likely to spur leisure travel than business trips, many chains are using loyalty program enhancements to sway point-obsessed travelers their way. Members of Starwood’s Preferred Guest Program who stay at any of the chain’s hotels twice before the end of July can earn a free weekend night, redeemable through September. Another deal, aptly named Better Tomorrows, gives guests 50 percent off a second night for every night they stay through September. Meanwhile, Hilton is offering members of its HHonors reward program 1,000 bonus points every night for stays through June. And Hyatt’s Big Welcome initiative is offering Gold Passport members the chance to enter a contest (through May 13) to win 365 free nights or one of 10,000 free nights Hyatt is giving away in the United States. John Wallis, Hyatt’s global head of marketing and brand strategy, said that through these types of promotions, the chain was focusing on loyalty and customer service to attract guests, rather than simply slashing prices. “We cannot just crash rates,” he said. “It might be good in the short term, but it doesn’t make sense in the long term if you’re in the hotel business.” Another benefit of the contest, Mr. Wallis said, is that the questions guests answer on the entry form give Hyatt data about who is still traveling after widespread layoffs, while the contest raises awareness about Hyatt. “Over the last five years, on a Tuesday or Wednesday night in many cities around the world, every hotel was running at full occupancy,” he said. “Now, your first choice of where you want to stay is much more available.” Guests aren’t the only ones benefiting from this shift in the balance of power. After years of hotel price increases, companies that negotiate corporate rates with hotels finally have the upper hand at the bargaining table, and many travel managers are renegotiating deals made late last year, before prices really started to decline. “It’s our job for our customers to make sure their rates continue to be competitive,” said Neysa Silver, director of hotel solutions for Carlson Wagonlit Travel, which manages travel programs for corporate clients. However, Ms. Silver said, because these negotiations take place annually, pushing too hard for savings now, when hotels are hurting, can have repercussions when the situation changes. “You have to be conscious of looking at the savings versus your relationship with the hotels,” she said. “It’s a very careful scale because prices will upswing again, and then it will be tough for the clients.” According to the latest projections from hospitality research companies, that is not likely to happen soon, so business travelers have plenty of time to enjoy all the perks and deals while they last. | Business Travel;Budgets and Budgeting;Hotels and Motels;Prices (Fares Fees and Rates);biztravel |
ny0238385 | [
"business"
] | 2010/06/14 | In Deal-Making, Flat Is the New Up | Some bankers made rosy predictions for a big bounce-back in mergers and acquisitions this year. Yet deal volumes in the United States are recovering as if the recession just endured was run of the mill. After two down years, the value of American corporate match-making is flat in 2010. That’s no boom — but if history is any guide, it’s also nothing for bankers to complain about. After declines of 41 percent in 2008 and 22 percent in 2009, the value of announced deals in the United States so far in 2010, at $322 billion, is just a fraction off last year’s pace. That pattern is in line with the last two recessions, according to Thomson Reuters data. The downturn of the early 1990s had three dry years, and the dot-com bust brought two. So considering the depth of the latest recession, flat is the new up. True, some on Wall Street had forecast a more robust rebound. Goldman Sachs predicted “a perfect storm for M.& A.” late last year, pointing to cash-stuffed corporate coffers — now at a record, according to the Federal Reserve — and benign capital markets. Greenhill & Company also predicted 2010 would be big for deal-makers. But while last year’s fourth quarter showed a promising return of deal-making — like TPG’s buyout of IMS Health and Berkshire Hathaway’s acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe — the momentum hasn’t continued. Some may find that surprising. After all, while many companies achieved profit targets through cost-cutting during the economic downturn, the juice has probably been squeezed from that lemon. Acquiring competitors and eliminating overlap is another way to find cost reductions. For instance, while CenturyTel and Qwest have been cutting costs on their own, they now hope their merger will yield more than $600 million more in fresh savings. The trouble is that even though the United States economy has stopped contracting, big risks still weigh on the animal spirits of executives. Job growth is anemic and credit markets have had renewed volatility in the wake of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Such market turmoil may have played a role in scuttling Prudential’s bid for the American International Group’s Asian insurance business, and a $15 billion leveraged buyout of Fidelity National Information Services. Put it all together, and deal makers pining for more action should probably just consider themselves lucky to have any at all. World Cup Perks? Spain, Portugal and Greece could all do with a good run of success in the World Cup. Economists reckon that the further a team progresses in the soccer tournament, which began on Friday, the greater the lift to its national economy. For all the hype, however, any benefit outside the tournament host, South Africa, will be short-lived. Some of the golden ball’s shine may rub off on the victors. But, with 32 teams competing, there will be many more losers. Charles Kalshoven, an economist at ING, says that the further the Dutch team advances, the better it will be for the Netherlands economy, because retailers and restaurants will earn a better return on investments that they have made to capture the benefits of the tournament. Improved consumer confidence will also lead to higher spending. This effect could provide a welcome respite for the battered Spanish, Portuguese and Greek economies. Other governments struggling to impose tough austerity plans will no doubt be relieved by some temporary national jubilation if their teams do well. But the effect works both ways. For those teams that have to take an early flight home, disappointment on the field may be reflected in the national mood, both on at home and in the workplace. Besides, soccer success doesn’t guarantee a sustained lift. Spain’s historic victory in the European championship in 2008 may have given the country a short-term boost, but it did nothing for the economy in the longer run. Unemployment has doubled, to around 20 percent, from just below 10 percent, since the Spanish captain Iker Casillas lifted the Henri Delaunay trophy. Greece has fared no better since it defied the odds to win the European championship four years earlier. Expectations may be riding high, but soccer’s superstars won’t succeed where governments and central banks have failed. Miracles on the field are more likely than financial ones. | Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures;Economic Conditions and Trends;Soccer;World Cup 2010 (Soccer);Spain;Portugal;Greece |
ny0182720 | [
"us"
] | 2007/12/10 | Richard Nolte, Diplomat Who Got Caught Up in Mideast War, Dies at 86 | Richard Nolte, a Middle East expert whose three-week tenure as American ambassador to Egypt in 1967 ended when the country expelled him during the 1967 Middle East War, even though he had sympathized with the Arab cause, died Nov. 22 at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 86. The cause was complications of a stroke, said his brother, Charles. Mr. Nolte eventually became chairman of the American Geographical Society. He was a somewhat controversial choice in 1967, when President Lyndon B. Johnson named him ambassador to what was then the United Arab Republic, the temporary union of Egypt and Syria. At the time, Mr. Nolte was director of the Institute of Current World Affairs, a group that sends young scholars to study abroad. His views on the Middle East were already known. “He described himself as an Arabist,” Peter Martin, who succeeded Mr. Nolte as director of the institute, said on Wednesday. “He felt strongly that there was a case to be made for the Arab side in the Middle East impasses.” As a Rhodes scholar in the 1940s, Mr. Nolte studied Arabic, Arab history and Muslim law. He lived in the Middle East for most of the 1950s and wrote papers on the Arab cause. His views had no impact when he arrived in Cairo on May 21, 1967, as Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian forces faced off with the Israeli military. For Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of the United Arab Republic, the United States was an ally of Israel, no matter the views of its ambassador. Nasser refused to receive Mr. Nolte, then ended diplomatic relations with the United States. The war broke out on June 5. By June 11, when a cease-fire was signed, Israel had seized the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza. The day before the cease-fire, Mr. Nolte was expelled. After returning to the Institute of Current World Affairs, he began giving speeches and writing op-ed articles supporting the Arab cause, thereby talking himself out of reappointment as an ambassador, Mr. Martin said. Mr. Nolte’s interests extended well beyond the Middle East. From 1988 to 1996, he was chairman of the geographical society. The organization has provided geographical counseling to foreign policymakers since 1851, advising on matters like the Panama Canal and European borders for the Versailles Peace Treaty. Mary Lynne Bird, the current executive director of the society, said Mr. Nolte led negotiations with the University of Wisconsin in 1978 when ownership of the society’s collection of maps, journals by explorers, artifacts from explorations and surveys went to the university. Richard Henry Nolte was born in Duluth, Minn., on Dec. 27, 1920, a son of Julius and Mildred Miller Nolte. His father was a dean at the University of Minnesota and his mother was a schoolteacher. Mr. Nolte received a bachelor’s degree in European studies from Yale in 1943. After serving two years as a Navy pilot, he returned to Yale and earned a master’s degree in international relations in 1947. That year, on a Rhodes Scholarship, he began his Arabic studies at Oxford. Besides his brother, of Minneapolis, Mr. Nolte is survived by his wife of 62 years, the former Jeanne McQuarrie; four sons, Charles, of Fairfield, Conn.; Roger, of Gilbertsville, Pa.; Douglas, of San Francisco; and Jameson, of Denver; two sisters, Mimi Krebs of Marblehead, Mass., and Jacqueline Jones of Minnetonka, Minn.; and ten grandchildren. | Nolte Richard;Deaths (Obituaries);American Geographical Society |
ny0170264 | [
"business",
"yourmoney"
] | 2007/05/06 | Keypad Economics: Why Talk When You Can Type? | Talking is starting to seem so old school to many cellphone users. Almost half of all cellphone subscribers are now availing themselves of services other than voice, said a recent report from Forrester Research. That means more typing and less vocalizing. Can a study showing a rise in thumb injuries be far behind? Prices for voice minutes are falling, so cellphone carriers need new sources of revenue. That is why they have packed their tiny devices with data-driven diversions. The most popular of them is messaging, followed by the downloading of things like ringtones and games. Eleven percent of cellphone subscribers use the Internet on their phones. As with almost all new technology, young adults are leading the way. Seventy-eight percent of cellphone subscribers ages 18 to 26 use data services, Forrester says. The older that cellphone users are, the most likely they are to be flummoxed by all those newfangled features and to stick with their tried-and-true vocal cords. PHYLLIS KORKKI | Wireless Communications;Cellular Telephones;Forrester Research Incorporated |
ny0036168 | [
"sports",
"cycling"
] | 2014/03/28 | Van Garderen Wins Stage in Spain | The American Tejay van Garderen pulled away on the final uphill climb in snow and fog to win the fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya in Spain, while Joaquim Rodríguez kept the lead. | Road Cycling;Tejay van Garderen;Joaquim Rodriguez;Biking |
ny0215572 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/04/27 | Lenox Hill to Pick Up Some St. Vincent’s Patients | New York State on Monday awarded a $9.4 million grant to an Upper East Side hospital to run an urgent care center that would treat the minor emergencies of some patients displaced by the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village. The two-year grant, announced by Gov. David A. Paterson, would help Lenox Hill Hospital set up a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week center on the site of St. Vincent’s until a long-term site is found. St. Vincent’s, which has been phasing out operations, announced on Monday that it would finally close its emergency room at 8 a.m. on April 30. Patients who needed “more elaborate care,” the governor said, would be transported to either Lenox Hill or other hospitals by ambulances run by North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System . That system runs several hospitals, mainly in Queens and on Long Island, and has been negotiating to add Lenox Hill to its stable of hospitals. Terry Lynam, a spokesman for North Shore-Long Island Jewish, said the urgent care center would be able to treat about 25,000 patients a year; St. Vincent’s emergency department treated about 60,000 patients a year. Lenox Hill’s contract is for five years. Mr. Lynam said the center would probably not treat anything as serious as a heart attack. “Urgi-centers by their nature are for lower threshold illness and injuries,” he said. The urgent care center had been pursued by Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, and other politicians as a way to continue providing some level of emergency care in the Village after the loss of St. Vincent’s. But many St. Vincent’s doctors and surrounding residents have complained that it would not really fill the void. Mr. Paterson also announced an award of $4.6 million to expand four clinics affiliated with St. Vincent’s, which he said would also help pick up displaced patients. | Hospitals;St Vincent's Hospital Manhattan;Lenox Hill Hospital;North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System;Shutdowns (Institutional) |
ny0164871 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2006/10/06 | Bonds’s Trainer Is Released From Prison | SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 5 — Barry Bonds’s personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was released from prison Thursday after what Judge William Alsup of the United States District Court called “a snafu.” Anderson, 40, was being held in contempt of court for refusing to answer grand jury questions about Bonds in connection with the ongoing investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative . Anderson, who has been jailed three times in connection with the case, most recently on Aug. 28, could be returned to prison. In the late morning, the somber-looking Anderson, who had come to work wearing an ill-fitting tan prison uniform, strode out of the federal building here sporting a new navy extra-large navy sweatshirt, large gray sweatpants and laced black shoes with the tag still attached. After his release, his lawyer, Mark Geragos, had rushed to a Levi’s store in the rain to purchase clothes for his client. On Sept. 28, a federal appeals court heard six claims from Geragos challenging the contempt order. The court sent the case back to Judge Alsup for clarification on one of those claims: that the grand jury questions Anderson refused to answer were based on an illegally recorded tape of Anderson discussing steroid use by Bonds. A person in prison on federal civil contempt charges is entitled to bail if his appeal is not disposed of in 30 days. Thursday marked Anderson’s 37th day in jail. On Wednesday, the appeals court ordered that Anderson be released by 5 p.m. the next day. Judge Alsup blamed himself for “the apparent failure of this court to be clear in its findings” and the government for not supplying evidence. “Mr. Anderson should not bear the burden of these omissions,” Alsup said before releasing him on his own recognizance. Anderson is still not free of the investigation. If he is called before the grand jury again and refuses to answer questions about Bonds, he could be returned to prison. | Steroids;Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative;Bonds Barry;San Francisco (Calif);Baseball |
ny0074949 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2015/04/23 | Deutsche Bank Expects $1.6 Billion in Legal Costs | FRANKFURT — Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday that it would incur 1.5 billion euros, or $1.6 billion, in costs from legal proceedings as reports surfaced that the bank was set to accept a record penalty for its involvement in a plan to rig the benchmark rates used to set trillions of dollars in interest rates. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to confirm that the costs, which will be deducted from first-quarter earnings, were related to an investigation by United States and British authorities into banks suspected of manipulating the London interbank offered rate , or Libor. But the charge comes as Deutsche Bank, one of the last European banks with a significant presence on Wall Street, is in talks to pay the record penalty and accept a criminal guilty plea, according to people briefed on the case. Authorities are aiming to announce the settlement on Thursday, these people said, though last-minute negotiations are continuing. The Deutsche Bank fine would be the largest in the long-running investigation into whether banks colluded to set Libor at levels favorable to themselves. The previous record was set by the Swiss bank UBS, which paid $1.5 billion in 2012 to settle accusations related to its involvement. Libor is the average of how much banks say they would pay to borrow from one another and serves as the benchmark for trillions of dollars in credit-card loans and other financial instruments. A settlement would advance Deutsche Bank’s efforts to deal with an array of accusations of misconduct that have damaged its reputation, drained billions of dollars in fines and legal fees and shaken its standing as the only German bank capable of playing in the big leagues of investment banking. But the bank’s legal troubles are far from over. It also faces investigations into currency manipulation and violations of United States sanctions against countries like Iran. Despite the charge against earnings, Deutsche Bank said it would still be profitable and would report “near record” revenue for the first quarter. The bank is scheduled to report earnings on April 29. | Deutsche Bank;Libor;Banking and Finance;Fines |
ny0158534 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2008/12/19 | Lover of Backyard Pigeons Is Dealt a Setback in Court | A man whose devout feeding of pigeons in his Queens backyard resulted in fines was told by a State Supreme Court judge on Thursday that he had failed to abide by all the proper legal avenues before filing a lawsuit against the city. The Queens man, Cecil Pitts, who has been feeding pigeons for 50 of his 66 years, was cited by the health department last year for causing a nuisance because his daily feedings caused excessive waste. He was also cited for failing to show proof that one of his dogs had been vaccinated for rabies. One of Mr. Pitts’s neighbors had complained about the birds, calling 311 to report an “unsanitary pigeon condition” at Mr. Pitts’s modest three-story home in South Ozone Park. After learning that he faced $500 in fines, Mr. Pitts, who lives on $450 a month from Social Security, decided that his only option was to sue the city. Unable to afford a lawyer, he represented himself, and claimed that the health inspector trespassed without a court document, gave no warning of the inspection and overstated the number of pigeons that were there (the inspector put the bird count at 150 that day). He wanted the city to pay him $1,000 in damages and to have the fines waived. But Justice Charles J. Markey of State Supreme Court in Queens denied Mr. Pitts’s claim, saying that he had not filed an appeal with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene before suing the city. In February of this year, Judge Markey froze the late fees and penalties on the fines that Mr. Pitts owed, but lifted that stay on Thursday. Mr. Pitts did not answer calls to his home. | Pigeons;Queens (NYC);Suits and Litigation;Courts;Pitts Cecil |
ny0026645 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2013/01/20 | Syria Reacts With Outrage to War-Crimes Petition | BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government reacted with outrage on Saturday to a petition from 58 countries asking that it be investigated for war crimes, even as reports of new atrocities surfaced a day after the United Nations’ top human rights official called forcefully for the case to be referred to the International Criminal Court. “The Syrian government regrets the persistence of these countries in following the wrong approach and refusing to recognize the duty of the Syrian state to protect its people from terrorism imposed from abroad,” the Foreign Ministry said. The Syrian government uses the word terrorists as a blanket term for its opponents, many of whom took up arms after the government fired on demonstrators early in 2011. Some rebel groups have increasingly used tactics like car bombs and other weapons that kill indiscriminately. Yet opposition supporters say the government has committed by far the majority of wanton attacks on civilians, using airstrikes and artillery barrages on residential neighborhoods. The BBC reported Friday that it had found evidence of a massacre that government opponents said was carried out Tuesday in Al Haswiya, a suburb of Homs in northern Syria. The BBC reported that visibly shocked villagers said at least 100 people, almost all of them Sunni Muslims, had been killed. Soldiers escorting the BBC journalists blamed the extremist group Jabhet al-Nusra for the killings, while out of earshot of the soldiers, villagers blamed the army and said some soldiers had apologized for the killings. “Three charred bodies lay sprawled just inside one house. A trail of blood stained the cement,” the BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet reported from the scene. “In the kitchen, where china teacups sat neatly on a shelf, more than a dozen bullet casings were scattered across a floor smeared with blood. In another room, two more burned corpses were curled up next to a broken bed.” On Friday, Unicef’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, Maria Calivis, condemned what she called “the terrible price children are paying” in Syria, condemning the Haswiya killings of “whole families” and the deaths of women and children last week in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, and in explosions at Aleppo University that killed more than 80 people. Each side accused the other of responsibility for the blasts in Aleppo and for other large explosions in Dara’a and Aleppo on Thursday — possibly from surface-to-surface missiles, whose frequent use would represent another escalation in the conflict. On Friday, the United Nations commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, expressed dismay over the lack of Security Council action to halt the violence in Syria, where the death toll has surpassed 60,000. She said her job was to give voice to the victims, and “certainly they see the situation as the United Nations not carrying out its responsibility to protect victims.” Ms. Pillay strongly backed the call by 58 countries this month that the Security Council send Syria’s case to the International Criminal Court for investigation. Russia has made it clear that it will veto any such action. Syria’s statement on Saturday accused some of the countries that signed the petition of “deceit and double standards,” blaming Syria for war crimes while financing, training and hosting “terrorists.” “At the same time that they express their concern about the Syrian people and humanitarian laws, these countries ignore the political, media, logistical and military support that armed gangs are receiving,” it said. It blamed the opposition’s foreign backers for “hindering the Syrian national dialogue” proposed on Jan. 6 by President Bashar al-Assad, who said he would talk only with opposition groups he considered to be loyal to Syria. The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the main exile opposition group, began meeting on Saturday in Istanbul in an effort to form a transitional government. The group has been recognized by many countries as Syria’s sole legitimate representative, but it has yet to consolidate support among rebels on the ground or to take on concrete planning for a post-Assad future. The Western and Arab nations that pressed the opposition to reorganize its umbrella group last year had urged it to choose a prime minister, but the opposition leaders have so far been unable to agree on a candidate. A member of the opposition, Kamal al-Labwani, said the group needed to choose a prime minister to maintain credibility. The coalition has yet to produce the results it was hoping for: getting other nations to provide the support the rebels need by persuading them that the group can control the flow of arms and head off sectarian tensions and religious extremism — trends the opposition attributes to international inaction, forcing the rebels to turn to extremist sponsors. Mr. Labwani said his bloc of secular liberals would nominate Riad Hijab, the former prime minister and the highest-ranking defector, as prime minister, a choice that others are likely to oppose because they view him as too close to Mr. Assad. | Syria;Arab Spring;UN Security Council;Bashar al-Assad;Military;War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity |
ny0121711 | [
"sports"
] | 2012/09/05 | Awaiting I.O.C. Election Ruling on Japanese hammer thrower | The top court in international sports expects to take about four months to rule on the Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi’s bid to become an International Olympic Committee member. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Murofushi and the Japanese Olympic Committee were challenging the I.O.C.’s decision to annul his election as an athletes’ representative during the London Games. The I.O.C. board barred Murofushi and the taekwondo fighter Chu Mu-yen of Taiwan from accepting their posts for breaking election rules. | Olympic Games;International Olympic Committee |
ny0259867 | [
"us"
] | 2011/06/04 | Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; Backed Assisted Suicide | Dr. Jack Kevorkian , the medical pathologist who willfully helped dozens of terminally ill people end their lives, becoming the central figure in a national drama surrounding assisted suicide, died on Friday in Royal Oak., Mich. He was 83. He died at William Beaumont Hospital, where he had been admitted recently with kidney and respiratory problems, said Geoffrey N. Fieger, the lawyer who represented Dr. Kevorkian in several of his trials in the 1990s. Mayer Morganroth, a friend and lawyer, told The Associated Press that the official cause of death would most likely be pulmonary thrombosis, a blood clot. In arguing for the right of the terminally ill to choose how they die, Dr. Kevorkian challenged social taboos about disease and dying while defying prosecutors and the courts. He spent eight years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of the last of about 130 ailing patients whose lives he had helped end, beginning in 1990. Originally sentenced in 1999 to 10 to 25 years in a maximum security prison, he was released after assuring the authorities that he would never conduct another assisted suicide. His critics were as impassioned as his supporters, but all generally agreed that his stubborn and often intemperate advocacy of assisted suicide helped spur the growth of hospice care in the United States and made many doctors more sympathetic to those in severe pain and more willing to prescribe medication to relieve it. In Oregon , where a schoolteacher had become Dr. Kevorkian’s first assisted suicide patient, state lawmakers in 1997 approved a statute making it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal medications to help terminally ill patients end their lives. In 2006 the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that found that Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act protected assisted suicide as a legitimate medical practice. During the period that Oregon was considering its law, Dr. Kevorkian’s confrontational strategy gained wide publicity, which he actively sought. National magazines put his picture on their covers, and he drew the attention of television programs like “60 Minutes.” His nickname, Dr. Death, and his self-made suicide machine, which he variously called the “Mercitron” or the “Thanatron,” became fodder for late-night television comedians. In 2010 his story was dramatized in the HBO movie “ You Don’t Know Jack ,” starring Al Pacino as Dr. Kevorkian. Mr. Pacino received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his performance. In his Emmy acceptance speech, he said he had been gratified to “try to portray someone as brilliant and interesting and unique” as Dr. Kevorkian. Dr. Kevorkian, who was in the audience, smiled in appreciation. Given his obdurate public persona and his delight in flaying medical critics as “hypocritical oafs,” Dr. Kevorkian invited and reveled in the public’s attention, regardless of its sting. The American Medical Association in 1995 called him “a reckless instrument of death” who “poses a great threat to the public.” Diane Coleman, the founder of Not Dead Yet, which describes itself as a disability-rights advocacy group and that once picketed Dr. Kevorkian’s home in Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb, attacked his approach. “It’s the ultimate form of discrimination to offer people with disabilities help to die,” she said, “without having offered real options to live.” But Jack Lessenberry, a prominent Michigan journalist who covered Dr. Kevorkian’s one-man campaign, wrote in The Detroit Metro Times: “Jack Kevorkian, faults and all, was a major force for good in this society. He forced us to pay attention to one of the biggest elephants in society’s living room: the fact that today vast numbers of people are alive who would rather be dead, who have lives not worth living.” In the late 1980s, after an undistinguished career in medicine and an unsuccessful try at a career in the arts, Dr. Kevorkian rediscovered a fascination with death that he had developed during his early years in medicine, only now his interest in it was not as a private event but as a matter of public policy. As a student at the University of Michigan Medical School, from which he graduated in 1952, and later as a resident at the University of Michigan Medical Center, Dr. Kevorkian proposed giving murderers condemned to die the option of being executed with anesthesia in order to subject their bodies to medical experimentation and allow the harvesting of their healthy organs. He delivered a paper on the subject to a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1958. Gaining Attention In the 1960s and ’70s, Dr. Kevorkian shelved his quixotic campaign to engage death for social purposes and pursued a largely itinerant career as a medical pathologist. Though his friends described him as funny, witty, personable and engaging in private, those he met in work and social situations portrayed him as awkward, grim, driven, quick to anger and unpredictable. Fiercely principled and equally inflexible, he rarely dated and never married. He lived a penurious life, eating little, avoiding luxury and dressing in threadbare clothing that he often bought at the Salvation Army . In 1976, bored with medicine, he moved to Long Beach, Calif., where he spent 12 years painting and writing, producing an unsuccessful film about Handel’s “ Messiah ,” and supporting himself with part-time pathology positions at two hospitals. In 1984, prompted by the growing number of executions in the United States, Dr. Kevorkian revisited his idea of giving death row inmates a choice. He was invited to brief members of the California Legislature on a bill that would enable prisoners to donate their organs and die by anesthesia instead of poison gas or the electric chair. The experience was a turning point. Energized by the attention of lawmakers and the news media, he became involved in the growing national debate on dying with dignity. In 1987 he visited the Netherlands , where he studied techniques that allowed Dutch physicians to assist in the suicides of terminally ill patients without interference from the legal authorities. A year later, he returned to Michigan and began advertising in Detroit-area newspapers for a new medical practice in what he called “bioethics and obiatry,” which would offer patients and their families “death counseling.” He made reporters aware of his intentions, explaining that he did not charge for his services and bore all the expenses of euthanasia himself. He showed journalists the simple metal frame from which he suspended vials of drugs — thiopental, a sedative , and potassium chloride, which paralyzed the heart — that allowed patients to end their own lives. First Patient He also talked about the “doctrine” he had developed to achieve two goals: ensuring the patient’s comfort and protecting himself against criminal conviction. He required patients to express clearly a wish to die. Family physicians and mental health professionals were consulted. Patients were given at least a month to consider their decision and possibly change their minds. Dr. Kevorkian videotaped interviews with patients, their families and their friends, and he videotaped the suicides, which he called medicides. On June 4, 1990, Janet Adkins, an Oregon teacher who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease , was the first patient to avail herself of Dr. Kevorkian’s assistance. Mrs. Adkins’s life ended on the bed inside Dr. Kevorkian’s rusting 1968 Volkswagen van, which was parked in a campground near his home. Immediately afterward Dr. Kevorkian called the police, who arrested and briefly detained him. The next day Ron Adkins, her husband, and two of his sons held a news conference in Portland and read the suicide note Mrs. Adkins had prepared. In an interview with The New York Times that day, Dr. Kevorkian alerted the nation to his campaign. “My ultimate aim is to make euthanasia a positive experience,” he said. “I’m trying to knock the medical profession into accepting its responsibilities, and those responsibilities include assisting their patients with death.” By his account, he assisted in some 130 suicides over the next eight years. Patients from across the country traveled to the Detroit region to seek his help. Sometimes the procedure was done in homes, cars and campgrounds. Prosecutors, jurists, the State Legislature, the Michigan health authorities and Gov. John Engler seemed helpless to stop him, though they spent years trying. In 1991 a state judge, Alice Gilbert, issued a permanent injunction barring Dr. Kevorkian from using his suicide machine. The same year, the state suspended his license to practice medicine. In 1993, Michigan approved a statute outlawing assisted suicide. The statute was declared unlawful by a state judge and the state Court of Appeals, but in 1994 the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that assisting in a suicide, while not specifically prohibited by statute, was a common-law felony and that there was no protected right to suicide assistance under the state Constitution. None of the legal restrictions seemed to matter to Dr. Kevorkian. Several times he assisted in patient suicides just hours after being released from custody for helping in a previous one. After one arrest in 1993 he refused to post bond, and a day later he said he was on a hunger strike . During another arrest he fought with police officers and seemed to invite the opportunity to be jailed. He liked the attention. At the start of his third trial, on April 1, 1996, he showed up in court wearing Colonial-era clothing to show how antiquated he thought the charges were. From May 1994 to June 1997, Dr. Kevorkian stood trial four times in the deaths of six patients. With the help of his young and flamboyant defense lawyer, Mr. Fieger, three of those trials ended in acquittals, and the fourth was declared a mistrial. Mr. Fieger based his winning defense on the compassion and mercy that he said Dr. Kevorkian had shown his patients. Prosecutors felt differently. “He’s basically thumbed his nose at law enforcement, in part because he feels he has public support,” Richard Thompson, the prosecutor in Oakland County, Mich., told Time magazine in 1993. But on March 26, 1999, after a trial that lasted less than two days, a Michigan jury found Dr. Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder. That trial came six months after Dr. Kevorkian had videotaped himself injecting Thomas Youk , a patient suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), with the lethal drugs that caused Mr. Youk’s death on Sept. 17, 1998. Dr. Kevorkian sent the videotape to “60 Minutes,” which broadcast it on Nov. 22. The tape showed Dr. Kevorkian going well beyond assisting a patient in causing his own death by performing the injection himself. The program portrayed him as a zealot with an agenda. “They must charge me; either they go or I go,” he told Mike Wallace . “If they go, that means they’ll never convict me in a court of law.” The broadcast, which prompted a national debate about medical ethics and media responsibility, also served as prime evidence for a first-degree murder charge brought by the Oakland County prosecutor’s office. In a departure from his previous trials, Dr. Kevorkian ignored Mr. Fieger’s advice and defended himself — and not at all well. It was an act of arrogance he regretted, he said later. ‘Stopped’ “You had the audacity to go on national television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you,” said Judge Jessica R. Cooper, who presided over the trial in Oakland County Circuit Court. “Well, sir, consider yourself stopped.” On June 1, 2007, Dr. Kevorkian was released from prison after he promised not to conduct another assisted suicide. He was born Murad Kevorkian in Pontiac, Mich., on May 26, 1928, the second of three children and the only son born to Levon and Satenig Kevorkian, Armenian refugees. His father founded and owned a small excavation company. The young Jack Kevorkian was described by his friends as an able student interested in art and music . He graduated from the University of Michigan, where he pursued a degree in engineering before switching to medicine. He was the author of four books, including “Prescription: Medicide, the Goodness of Planned Death” (Prometheus, 1991). He is survived by his sister, Flora Holzheimer. Another sister, Margo Janus, died in 1994. Mr. Fieger said that Dr. Kevorkian, weakened as he lay in the hospital, could not take advantage of the option that he had offered others and that he had wished for himself. “This is something I would want,” Dr. Kevorkian once said. “If he had enough strength to do something about it, he would have,” Mr. Fieger said at a news conference Friday in Southfield, Mich. “Had he been able to go home, Jack Kevorkian probably would not have allowed himself to go back to the hospital.” Dr. Kevorkian was a lover of classical music, and before he died, his friend Mr. Morganroth said, nurses played recordings of Bach for him in his room. | Jack Kevorkian;Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide;Obituary |
ny0261406 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2011/06/09 | Aide’s Quitting Casts Doubt on Brazil’s New President | SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The resignation of the top adviser to President Dilma Rousseff under scandal-clouded circumstances has called into question the strength of her government and her own political judgment just six months after she took over. The adviser, Antonio Palocci, resigned late Tuesday as chief of staff, ending weeks of growing rancor over suspicions that he illegally enriched himself through consulting contracts while a federal legislator and coordinator of Ms. Rousseff’s presidential campaign. It was the second time Mr. Palocci had been forced from government; he resigned in 2006 amid corruption allegations while serving as finance minister for former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There are signs that Ms. Rousseff’s handling of the scandal, which has been perceived as passive and reactive, could hurt her popularity. The episode has already renewed pre-election concerns among critics that she lacks the political experience and skill to rein in Brazil ’s congress, which had become increasingly agitated over Mr. Palocci’s suspicious wealth. Early in her term the president was praised for approaching her job like a no-nonsense chief executive, a stark contrast to Mr. da Silva, a former labor union leader. But when it came time to confront legislators, including in her own party, who questioned how Mr. Palocci had increased his personal income twentyfold from 2006 to 2010, Ms. Rousseff grew hesitant. As the crisis mounted and she failed to take action, she ended up relying heavily on Mr. da Silva, a master negotiator, to try to quell the crisis in congress. Now Ms. Rousseff will have to rebuild trust with legislators at a time when her government is dealing with the effects of heavy spending by Mr. da Silva’s administration that have contributed to higher inflation. Amid the growing scandal over Mr. Palocci’s finances, the government suffered a defeat last month in its bid to tone down a revision of the Forest Code, a key piece of environmental legislation. “She will have to rework the relationship with congress and that will be a challenge,” said David Fleischer, a political science professor at Brasilia University. “She herself has to get more involved with negotiating and talking to legislators.” She will not have Mr. Palocci to help her anymore. Despite the accusations of corruption, Mr. Palocci was respected by investors and considered an anchor of economic stability for the government. “I would be lying if I said I was not sad,” an emotional Ms. Rousseff said Wednesday about Mr. Palocci’s departure. Her choice to replace him, Gleisi Hoffmann, 45, is a political newcomer with four months of experience in congress and no major government posts on her résumé. “This is not a strong government anymore,” said Alexandre Barros, managing director of Early Warning Consulting, a political consultancy in Brasilia. Ms. Hoffmann, considered by some to be a rising star in Ms. Rousseff’s Workers Party, is married to the minister of communications, Paulo Bernardo, who had been considered a favorite to take over for Mr. Palocci. She described her new job as “managerial,” implying the chief of staff post would be a more administrative role. That raised questions about who would be in charge of economic policy, Mr. Barros said. “This is a turning point for the Dilma government,” said Riordan Roett, director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “If her remake of the government is seen as weak then her legitimacy will be in doubt.” Moreover, the scandal has laid bare concerns about Ms. Rousseff’s perceived lack of political skills. Earlier in the year she was praised for standing up to labor leaders who had tried unsuccessfully to pressure her into accepting their demands for an increase of the minimum wage. But after reports in Folha de S. Paulo, a leading Brazilian newspaper, showed how Mr. Palocci’s income had ballooned from 2006 to 2010, while serving in congress, Ms. Rousseff allowed Mr. da Silva to re-enter the scene. The fallout from the Palocci scandal may be far from over. On Wednesday some opposition legislators vowed to continue to push for investigations into Mr. Palocci’s consulting arrangements and whether they could be traced to Ms. Rousseff’s campaign. As of Wednesday, opposition leaders were less than a handful of votes shy of opening up a senate investigation with wide-ranging powers. “He is like a huge walking filing cabinet about what happened in campaign finance in 2010,” Mr. Fleischer said. | Brazil;Rousseff Dilma;Politics and Government;Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations |
ny0196506 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2009/10/26 | Affair With Production Assistant Costs Steve Phillips His Job at ESPN | ESPN fired Steve Phillips on Sunday, less than a week after a newspaper revealed that he had had an affair with a 22-year-old production assistant with the network. “Steve Phillips is no longer working for ESPN,” the network said in a statement. “His ability to be an effective representative for ESPN has been significantly and irreparably damaged, and it became evident it was time to part ways.” Last week, The New York Post’s report about the short affair between Phillips and Brooke Hundley became a nationwide story, creating a serious public problem for the network. Before this season, he was elevated from work as a full-time studio analyst into the “Sunday Night Baseball” booth with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Steve Lefkowitz, Phillips’s agent, said in a statement, “Steve Phillips is voluntarily admitting himself to an inpatient treatment facility to address his personal issues.” Lefkowitz said he informed ESPN on Friday of Phillips’s intention. ESPN took action against Phillips when it learned of the affair, then announced last week that it had granted him a leave of absence. But since Wednesday, the affair became front-page news and an object of ridicule for ESPN, particularly on Deadspin.com . A letter from Hundley to Phillips’s wife, Marni, which became part of a report filed with the police in Wilton, Conn., turned into salacious fodder. When Phillips was the general manager of the Mets, he was forced to take a leave of absence in 1998 because of a series of affairs and an accusation of sexual harassment by a Mets employee. He entered counseling and returned to the Mets, but was eventually fired in 2003. | Television;ESPN;Adultery;Phillips Steve;Baseball |
ny0187346 | [
"business"
] | 2009/04/16 | Unsure of Saturn’s Fate, Dealerships Are Closing | DETROIT — Saturn, one of three brands that General Motors plans to drop, has been running ads that tell skittish car shoppers, “We’re still here.” But Saturn is getting harder to find. One of the company’s largest dealers shut down four of his six Saturn stores in Wisconsin on Wednesday. After Thursday, Saturn will no longer be in Corpus Christi, Tex. And forget about buying a new Saturn anywhere near Kansas City, Mo., or in any of the 45 cities across the United States where Saturn dealers have closed this year. G.M. has urged Saturn dealers to be patient as it explores selling or spinning off the brand. And a group of investors that includes several Saturn dealers and an Oklahoma City-based private equity firm, Black Oak Partners, announced Wednesday that it was bidding for Saturn. But the uncertainty that has clouded Saturn recently contributed to a 59 percent falloff in its first-quarter sales. With the possibility of a G.M. bankruptcy looming as well, a growing number of Saturn dealers have decided to get out now. “I see no future in the brand,” said Jeff Lundquist, who is closing Saturn of Corpus Christi after 15 years. “I will immediately become profitable by dropping Saturn, just because of the expense of the franchise. So rather than just sit here like an idiot and throw good money after bad while we wait, I pulled the trigger.” Since Jan. 1, Saturn has gone from 420 stores in the United States to 375 this week. In addition to the five stores closing this week in Wisconsin and Texas, Wolfe Automotive shut down three Saturn dealerships in the Kansas City area and one in Springfield, Mo. “We recognize that it’s a very difficult market and recognize the difficult decisions that some of our retailers are having to make,” a G.M. spokesman, Mike Morrissey, said Wednesday. “We’re hopeful that the vast majority of the retailers will stay with us through this process. We are moving fast because we understand that every day is more and more challenging in this market.” G.M. plans to update dealers later this month on the results of a feasibility study it has been conducting on Saturn. Mr. Morrissey said the investor group led by Black Oak is one of “multiple parties that have expressed an interest in the sale or spinoff of Saturn.” The Black Oak group said it would initially sell vehicles produced by G.M. but later reconfigure Saturn’s lineup to include “smaller, fuel efficient vehicles from a range of manufacturers.” The investors did not reveal terms of their offer, and Mr. Morrissey would not divulge details of G.M.’s talks with the group. The wave of Saturn closings is a preview of what will probably occur throughout G.M.’s bloated dealership network as the company sells or ends the Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer brands. G.M. has more than 6,000 dealers, about four times as many as the Japanese automaker Toyota, which surpassed G.M. last year as the world’s largest automaker. In the restructuring plan submitted to the federal government in February, G.M. said it intended to close about one-third of its dealerships by 2014. But the Obama administration’s rejection of that plan means the company must make deep cuts sooner. Some G.M. dealers already have begun downsizing or consolidating their operations. Many are trying to get rid of troubled stores now, in case G.M. files for bankruptcy protection and they have fewer options. “The car company can arbitrarily start to cancel dealer agreements, and then those franchises are literally worth nothing,” said Mark Rikess, chief executive of the Rikess Group, a dealership consulting and training firm in Los Angeles. Across all brands, about 900 dealerships closed in 2008, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association, which expects 1,200 more to shut down in 2009. “Many of those have been in the same family for generations, and it’s a little bit of a game of chicken amongst millionaires,” Mr. Rikess said. “Everybody knows there’s too many dealers, but they just don’t want to be the one that’s going to go away.” At Saturn, however, the pace of closures since G.M. revealed plans to cast off or phase out the brand has been quick. “When G.M. announced that this was no longer a core brand, our traffic was cut in half,” said Mr. Lundquist, who also owns a Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick store about 160 miles from the Saturn store he is closing Thursday. He will continue to sell used cars and operate a body shop at the Saturn location, which sold just nine new cars in March. But Mr. Lundquist, whose grandfather began selling Buicks in 1939, said G.M. killed the essence of Saturn — initially pitched to consumers as “a different kind of car company,” with no-haggle pricing and “homecoming” celebrations for buyers at the Tennessee factory — by letting it become just another G.M. brand. “The reason that I went with Saturn was that Saturn was everything G.M. was not,” he said. “Saturn was refreshing, Saturn was straightforward, and it was different. Today there is not a product that Saturn sells that’s not sold at another G.M. franchise. There is no reason for G.M. to keep Saturn anymore. It’s not different.” In Wisconsin, the dealer John Bergstrom said that he remained committed to Saturn and believed it can succeed under new ownership. But he could no longer justify having six stores. On Wednesday, he closed the four smallest, where sales had fallen at least a third since G.M.’s announcement. “It’s a nonsustainable business model at those sales levels,” said Mr. Bergstrom, who operates 25 dealerships across Wisconsin, selling domestic and foreign brands. Last week, Mr. Bergstrom and his brother drove to each of the closing stores to meet with the 145 affected employees, some of whom were transferring to other Bergstrom Automotive dealerships. “It was a very difficult tour to go and sit with these teams and go through this process,” said Mr. Bergstrom, who was one of Saturn’s original dealers. “We love Saturn, and Saturn has taught us so much about how to work with our guests. It’s been a good business for us.” “But it has not been a good business model for General Motors,” he continued. “We don’t debate their decision, but we have to live with it.” | Saturn Division of General Motors Corp;Shutdowns (Institutional);General Motors Corp;Automobiles;Subprime Mortgage Crisis |
ny0055912 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2014/09/20 | Clayton Kershaw Keeps Aiming for New Heights | CHICAGO — There has been no doubt, for a while now, that Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball. Dan Haren was aware of this when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers this spring after more than a decade with other teams. But Haren still had to be reminded of just what he was about to witness. “You’re not going to believe how much he’s going to dominate,” Josh Beckett, another veteran pitcher, told Haren in spring training. “You have to see it through your eyes.” As fall approaches, that blank canvas of spring has become a masterpiece, a portrait of pitching brilliance and perhaps the finest work in an annual series from Kershaw. He wobbled on Friday, lasting only five innings against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, but still became the season’s first 20-game winner with a 14-5 victory. “I’ve always said that wins are a team stat,” said Kershaw, who is 20-3 with a 1.80 earned run average. “Twenty’s always something that’s a benchmark for a starting pitcher, kind of a cool thing. I wasn’t great today and we scored 14 runs. Years happen like that. I don’t take it for granted. It’s obviously awesome, a huge honor.” Without his trademark command on Friday, Kershaw often turned his head to the third-base seats, frustrated with himself after missing his location. He needed 106 pitches to wade through the short workday, and he said after the game that he felt exhausted. But after giving up three runs in the first inning, Kershaw blanked the Cubs despite never retiring the side in order. He found his best curveballs and sliders when he needed them and struck out nine. “I think he showed you what he’s all about, even during that outing,” Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said. Kershaw is still poised to lead the major leagues in E.R.A. for the fourth straight season, something no pitcher has ever done. He is 17-1 in his last 20 starts, his only loss a complete game in which he struck out 11, and he has a strong case to be the National League’s most valuable player. Mattingly said he had never seen a pitcher on such a run. But as a franchise, the Dodgers have. Kershaw is a lock to win his third Cy Young Award in four seasons, as Sandy Koufax did in the 1960s. Kershaw’s string of seemingly automatic victories recalls Orel Hershiser’s charmed run in 1988, which included 67 consecutive scoreless innings, counting the postseason, and the Dodgers’ last World Series title. Image Kershaw is 6 feet 3 but seems taller on the hill, and his aggressive wind-up generates power. Credit Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images “My best pitch was my sinking fastball, and my second best pitch, which was still dominant, was my curveball,” said Hershiser, now a TV analyst for the Dodgers. “But I didn’t have a third dominant pitch. I didn’t have a dominant changeup or dominant velocity. My dominance was more in movement and change of speeds between the sinker and the curveball. “So I think he has a better chance, because of tools, to duplicate dominance over and over again, like a copy machine. What he’s running through at the beginning of the copy machine, on the original document, is better than most people.” Dodgers catcher A. J. Ellis said Kershaw’s mastery of three pitches at different ranges of velocity made him especially tough to hit. He throws a curveball around 74 miles an hour, a slider around 87 and a fastball around 93. Milwaukee’s Jonathan Lucroy got a simple scouting report from Kershaw when he caught for him in the All-Star Game: in on right-handed batters, away from left-handed batters. That was it. Kershaw retired the side in order, and Lucroy said it felt like a video game, which was not surprising. As a hitter, Lucroy is 0 for 17 against Kershaw. “He’s ridiculous,” Lucroy said this week. “He’s one of the few guys I have difficulty seeing. It’s a timing thing — his height, his delivery is so quick, and he throws all his pitches at the same arm speed, from the same arm slot. He doesn’t do anything different coming off of that arm slot. He’s probably the only guy, when he gets me out, I don’t get mad. He’s just so good.” Kershaw is 6-foot-3 but seems taller on the mound. In the stretch, he reaches high with both arms before delivering the pitch with a slide-step, keeping runners close while seeming to rush the ball to the hitter. From the wind-up, he starts with his glove at face level, turns, lifts the glove above his knee, then yanks it down. He tilts his shoulders, loading his power on his back leg, and then drives himself toward the hitter. “It is a true power position he gets himself in,” said Rick Honeycutt, the Dodgers’ pitching coach. “I think the biggest thing you would say, from the hitter’s standpoint, is you’re seeing an aggressive delivery coming at you.” Ellis compared Kershaw’s distinctiveness to that of Madison Bumgarner, the 18-game winner for the San Francisco Giants. Bumgarner throws across his body, with an almost sideways delivery, but like Kershaw he has a style all his own. “I’ve had guys tell me, ‘I could watch video all day of Clayton, and when I stand in the box it does not do justice to what I’m seeing,’ ” Ellis said. “He is unique.” Image Kershaw's preparation between starts, and in the off-season, is well known: early to the ballpark, a hard worker in the winter — standard stuff for many of the greats. What makes Kershaw different, perhaps, is that it is all a chore. Credit Christian Petersen/Getty Images When he and Honeycutt prepare for games with Haren or Zack Greinke, Ellis said, it is more of an exchange of ideas. Kershaw is different. He does not like to watch video of himself, Ellis said, and while Kershaw will take tips on how to approach certain hitters, he alone determines his plan of attack. His preparation between starts, and in the off-season, is well known: early to the ballpark, fastidious with routines, a hard worker in the winter — standard stuff for many greats. What makes Kershaw different, perhaps, is that it is all a chore. “Some guys love to work out — just love it — just for the sake of working out,” said Stan Conte, the Dodgers’ head trainer. “Clayton works out to be a good pitcher. So he really has to have a lot of discipline to force him through all the workouts he has to do every day.” Kershaw won the first game of the major league season, his first start since signing a seven-year, $215 million contract extension, a record amount for a pitcher, and he quickly landed on the disabled list with a muscle strain in his upper back, near his shoulder. Conte was worried, he said, because the injury could cost a pitcher three months. But Kershaw returned on May 6, and by June he was in a groove. In one stretch he fired 41 consecutive scoreless innings and pitched a no-hitter . Friday’s struggle notwithstanding, the benefit of the time off could be felt in October. Kershaw made four starts last fall, winning the first but then working just 16 innings in the next three. Including the postseason, he logged 259 innings. Kershaw said his body felt the same now as it did at this point last season. But he has thrown just 1901/3 innings, and until Friday had been strong enough to pitch at least seven innings in each of his last 17 starts. The Dodgers, who lead the N.L. West and clinched a playoff spot when Milwaukee lost Friday night, need him at his best next month. “He says this, and he believes it: ‘I won’t be happy until the team wins every single one of my starts and we win the World Series,’ ” Ellis said. “We all know that’s impossible.” Yet the Dodgers have won 22 of Kershaw’s 26 starts, and they will soon have another chance at a championship. Ellis reflected on this and smiled. “We’re getting closer, though,” he said. | Baseball;Clayton Kershaw;Chicago Cubs;Dodgers |
ny0240022 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2010/12/09 | Dream Act for Immigrant Students Passes House | A bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students passed the House of Representatives late Wednesday, giving President Obama an unexpected although largely symbolic victory in the final days of Democratic control of Congress on an issue he has called a top priority. The bill, known as the Dream Act, passed the House by a vote of 216 to 198 . But a vote in the Senate on opening debate on the bill was scheduled for Thursday, and the measure seemed likely to fail there. Still, Democratic leaders celebrated the House vote, which gave them a triumph in the final days of the Congressional session before they yield the majority next year to Republicans. It also gave them something to show Hispanic voters, who strongly support the measure and could play a pivotal role in the 2012 presidential election. The measure was supported by eight Republicans, including three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Thirty-eight Democrats voted against it. Democrats supported it as a way to help young immigrants who were brought here illegally as children by their parents and have seen their lives stall after they graduate from high school because they lack legal status. “They are American in everything but a piece of paper,” said Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, perhaps the bill’s most fervent champion. Republicans said the bill was amnesty for lawbreakers that would lead to a new wave of illegal immigration . They objected to expedited procedures Democratic leaders used to bring it to a vote with only one day’s notice. Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, said the bill “encourages fraud and more illegal immigration on a massive scale.” He said the rush to a vote was “a desecration of the democratic process.” The House passage drew cheers from illegal immigrant students, who have shown support in marches, sit-in protests and hunger strikes , even sending their blood to lawmakers. With Republicans holding a majority in the House and added strength in the Senate in the new Congress, the chances for any legislation legalizing illegal immigrants are dim. In a last-minute press, President Obama made calls this week to undecided lawmakers from both parties, White House officials said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and senior Pentagon officials spoke publicly to argue that the bill would create new taxpayers and help military readiness. The bill, whose lead sponsor was Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California, would give conditional legal status to illegal immigrants who came to the United States before they were 16, have been here for five years, have graduated from high school and have no criminal record, if they attend college or serve in the military for two years. In a report issued Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the House bill would reduce the federal deficit by $2.2 billion before 2020, but it could lead to costly health care and federal loan expenditures in the decade after that. | House of Representatives;United States Politics and Government;Law and Legislation;Illegal Immigrants;Immigration and Emigration;Reform and Reorganization;Obama Barack;Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act |
ny0130854 | [
"business"
] | 2012/12/05 | Willis Whitfield, Clean Room Inventor, Dies at 92 | The enemy was very small but it was everywhere. World peace, medical advancement, iTunes — all would eventually be threatened. Half a century ago, as a rapidly changing world sought increasingly smaller mechanical and electrical components and more sanitary hospital conditions, one of the biggest obstacles to progress was air, and the dust and germs it contains. Stray particles a few microns wide could compromise the integrity of a circuit board of a nuclear weapon. Unchecked bacteria could quickly infect a patient after a seemingly successful operation. Microprocessors, not yet in existence, would have been destroyed by dust. After all, an average cubic foot of air contained three million microscopic particles, and even the best efforts at vacuuming and wiping down a high-tech work space could only reduce the rate to one million. Then, in 1962, Willis Whitfield invented the clean room . “People said he was a fraud,” recalled Gilbert V. Herrera, the director of microsystems science and technology at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. “But he turned out to be right.” Mr. Whitfield, who worked at Sandia from 1954 to 1984, died on Nov. 12 in Albuquerque. He was 92. The cause was prostate cancer, his wife, Belva, said. His clean rooms blew air in from the ceiling and sucked it out from the floor. Filters scrubbed the air before it entered the room. Gravity helped particles exit. It might not seem like a complicated concept, but no one had tried it before. The process could completely replace the air in the room 10 times a minute. Particle detectors in Mr. Whitfield’s clean rooms started showing numbers so low — a thousand times lower than other methods — that some people did not believe the readings, or Mr. Whitfield. He was questioned so much that he began understating the efficiency of his method to keep from shocking people. “I think Whitfield’s wrong,” a scientist from Bell Labs finally said at a conference where Mr. Whitfield spoke. “It’s actually 10 times better than he’s saying.” Willis James Whitfield was born in Rosedale, Okla., on Dec. 6, 1919. In addition to his wife, his survivors include his sons, James and Joe; a sister, Amy Blackburn; and a brother, Lawrence. Mr. Whitfield became fascinated with electronics as a young man and received a two-year degree in the field after high school. He served in the Navy late in World War II, working with experimental electronic systems for aircraft. In 1952, he received a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Tex. By 1954 he was working at Sandia, which was involved in making parts for nuclear weapons and at the time was overseen by the Atomic Energy Commission. Mr. Whitfield’s duties soon included contamination control. By 1960, he had established his basic idea for the clean room. “I thought about dust particles,” Mr. Whitfield told Time magazine in 1962. “Where are these rascals generated? Where do they go?” The clean room was patented through Sandia, and the government shared it freely among manufacturers, hospitals and other industries. Mr. Whitfield’s original clean room was only about six feet high, built as a small, self-contained unit. Some modern electronic devices, including the iPhone, are now built in China in huge clean rooms in structures that are more than a million square feet. Workers wear protective clothing, and other anticontamination methods have been added, but they still depend on Mr. Whitfield’s approach to suck up dust. “Relative to these electronics, the particles are just massive boulders that would short out all of your electronics and make them not work,” Mr. Herrera said. “The core technology, just the cleaning part, hasn’t really changed a lot.” Mrs. Whitfield said she was often been asked if her husband was a particularly fastidious man, and she always noted that he tended not to put his shoes away. He did live in a tidy house, though, and colleagues say he never tired of getting out a flashlight and shining it sideways across his coffee table to illuminate the prevalence of tiny dust particles that most people never notice. | Whitfield Willis;Inventions and Patents;Deaths (Obituaries);Hygiene and Cleanliness |
ny0286585 | [
"sports",
"olympics"
] | 2016/09/14 | Ethiopian Marathoner Planned His Defiant Gesture | WASHINGTON — The Ethiopian marathoner who won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics and then crossed his arms over his head in an X at the finish line as an act of political defiance, said Tuesday that he planned the action months before the Games in response to the government “killing, imprisoning, repressing its own people.” The runner, Feyisa Lilesa, 26, spoke to reporters here after finally leaving Brazil and arriving last week in the United States on a temporary visa. The gesture he made at the marathon finish, and later at an award ceremony, was in solidarity with the people of his home region, Oromia, who had adopted it as part of a wave of protests to defy one of the repressive governments in Africa. “I decided three months before Rio if I win, and get a good result, I knew the media would be watching, the world would finally see and hear the cry of my people,” Lilesa said, speaking through an interpreter in a measured, calm but defiant tone. “People who are being displaced from their land, people who are being killed for asking for their basic rights, I’m very happy to stand in front of you as their voice,” he said. Human rights groups have said an authoritarian government, dominated by the Tigray ethnic group, has marginalized regions outside the capital, including Oromia, and has engineered economic projects on lands without local input. Tens of thousands of protesters have been jailed and hundreds have been killed since November 2015, according to Human Rights Watch. The Ethiopian government, an ally of the United States in the fight against extremism in the region, has denied such accusations. Since arriving in the United States, with the help of friends, Lilesa has been conducting interviews with the news media and meetings with politicians and members of the Ethiopian community, including a scheduled event in Minnesota later this week. He explained how the crackdown on protesters in his home region affected him. “I had been witnessing the suffering of my people,” he said. “This is not new to me, but we have not seen what we are seeing now when young children and pregnant women and elderly are being killed; things got worse by the day in the last nine months.” The Ethiopian government has said that Lilesa had nothing to fear if he returned and that he would be welcomed back as a hero, but Lilesa said he did not believe that. He said he was in regular contact with his family, who urged him not to return. “The Ethiopian government, the way it works, sometimes shows you this, sometimes it shows you that,” he said, showing both sides of his hand. He said he has not decided where to live or what to do next. He would like return to training, and friends have suggested moving to Arizona or New Mexico. Would he represent Ethiopia again? “I don’t think they will select me again,” he said, laughing. “But I know I can go anywhere, I’m a free man and can participate in races anywhere I decide.” He doesn’t fancy the idea of representing the United States, either, if asked. “I don’t think so; I love my country,” he said. “What I’m asking for is freedom, my people want freedom. I look forward to going back to my country once there is change.” | 2016 Summer Olympics;Human Rights;Marathon;Feyisa Lilesa;Ethiopia;Civil Unrest |
ny0007588 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2013/05/07 | A Taste of Spring That Reeks of Tradition | CAIRO — Every year, Egyptians mark the arrival of spring by flocking to the rare patches of green in this sprawling, crowded megalopolis to celebrate a holiday believed to be passed down from the pharaohs. Sham el-Nessim, the holiday’s Arabic name, means literally “smelling the breeze.” That’s not always advisable in the case of the holiday’s trademark dish: a heavily salted, aged fish called feseekh that even admirers acknowledge smells more like garbage than food. “It’s terrible!” said Muhammad Shaaban, 54, who lounged with his extended family under a tree in a Cairo park during the holiday on Monday. But he still eats the fish. “It’s an Egyptian tradition that’s been with us for 7,000 years,” he said. “We’re used to it.” These are turbulent times for Egypt as its people deal with recurrent street violence, political polarization and increasing economic distress. Recent news reflects the gloom. The government has so far failed to reach a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund that could help prop up the economy, and disagreements rage between the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s strongest political power, and its opponents over the direction of the country. A discussion about whether Muslims were permitted to wish their Christian neighbors a happy holiday on the Coptic Christian Easter this past Sunday was taken by some as an indication of how much society has frayed since the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak more than two years ago. But those worries were largely set aside on Monday as Egyptians of all classes and religions held picnics, took boat rides on the Nile and celebrated a holiday whose roots most believe date back to this land’s ancient inhabitants. They also stood by their fish. “Feseekh is Egyptian, and the ancients taught us how to make it,” said Maher Dahab, a clothing merchant standing in line at a fish shop downtown. “They built the pyramids, and they made feseekh.” Both the holiday and its stinky meal have proved resistant to attack, highlighting the long history that gives Egyptians one of the strongest senses of national identity in the Arab world. While most Arab countries were created by colonial powers drawing arbitrary lines on maps, Egypt has been Egypt for millenniums. Pride in that inheritance is something most Egyptians share, even when they disagree on much else. Image On Monday, young men danced on a Nile cruise as Muslims and Christians alike in Egpyt celebrated the ancient spring holiday of Sham el-Nessim. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times Despite declarations from a few conservative television preachers branding Sham el-Nessim a pagan holiday that Muslims are forbidden to celebrate, the country’s most prominent Islamist parties do not oppose it. “It’s an Egyptian tradition that we’ve all become accustomed to,” said Gehad el-Haddad, a senior official with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political party dominates the Parliament. Muhammad Emara, a member of the executive council of the ultraconservative Nour Party, said, “We don’t get involved in Egyptian traditions.” Nor have government warnings about the dangers of eating old, raw fish dried up demand. Two days before the holiday, the Egyptian Health Ministry released statistics for food poisoning and deaths from bad feseekh in recent years: 49 poisoned and 9 dead in 2007; 26 poisoned and 4 dead in 2008; and more than a dozen poisoned and 2 dead in both 2009 and 2010. That’s better than 1991, when bad fish poisoned 90 people and killed 18. While the ministry reported no confirmed cases of feseekh poisoning in the last two years, it warned Egyptians not to eat it, deeming it a health risk that can cause “complete paralysis or death.” One of Cairo’s most storied feseekh sellers, Abdel-Nabi Shahin, shrugged when asked about the warnings. “There are cheaters who give us a bad image,” he said, adding that the trick is clean preparation. “Some have dirty fingernails or don’t wash their hands before they work with the fish.” The job, he said, requires “cleanliness and vigilance.” Mr. Shahin, 58, is the third-generation owner of the family business, which now has two stores that draw customers from far away seeking fish they can trust. The process has changed little over the years, Mr. Shahin said. He starts with fresh mullet caught in the Mediterranean, which is washed but left intact, guts and all. It is packed in salt in wood barrels and left to sit for 45 days. After that, it is good to eat for six months, Mr. Shahin said. A kilogram of Shahin’s feseekh (about 2.2 pounds) goes for about $13, nearly twice what it cost last year because of a fish shortage, he said. He also sells a smoked fish called ringa that is imported fresh from the Netherlands and processed in a Cairo factory. It costs less than half as much, and you can’t smell it across the street as you can feseekh. Video As Egyptians celebrate spring with Sham el-Nessim, the holiday’s central meal of aged fish brings pride to some and a case of olfactory overload to others. The greatest threat to his business is not religious zealotry or government warnings but less vigilant fishmongers who seek to profit from his name, Mr. Shahin said. A fake Shahin shop opened up across the Nile last year, and he has heard of others, too. Sitting at a desk in his downtown shop recently while two of his sons sold piles of feseekh to a line of customers that stretched into the street, he fielded calls from people making sure his was the right shop. “There is only one Shahin!” he shouted into the phone. “All the others are fakes!” Customers waiting in line disputed the idea that feseekh stinks, or at least tried to. “It’s psychological,” said Muhammad Abdullah, 26. “If you smell this smell from a pile of garbage in the street you get grossed out. But if you smell it from feseekh, you don’t.” Historians say Sham el-Nessim’s genesis remains unclear. Fayza Haikal, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, said the holiday could be linked to the ancient Egyptian Festival of the Valley, which was celebrated around April and sought to revive the ancestors. This resembles the modern holiday’s focus on the revival of nature after winter, and could explain its association with the Coptic Easter and the resurrection. Even the celebrations appear similar. “They shared a meal, they had banquets, they went out, they took boats on the river; it was in some ways very close to what you see now,” Dr. Haikal said. “This is why it may relate. But I underline ‘may.’ ” The holiday has long been observed on the Monday after Coptic Easter, a merger that most likely happened during the early centuries A.D. when many ancient Egyptian practices existed alongside Christianity. The arrival of Islam in Egypt in 640 apparently did not affect the holiday. Dr. Haikal said Sham el-Nessim is now a national holiday, not a religious one, and she doubted anyone could strike it from the calendar. “Festivals are here to cheer people up, and they need something to cheer them up,” she said. “They will not give up their holidays easily.” Nor will many give up their feseekh. On Monday, large families with bags of food staked out patches of grass in the shade of scattered trees at a hilltop Cairo park named after the nearby Al-Azhar mosque and university, Egypt’s historic seat of Muslim scholarship. Some said the government’s warnings and recent reports of the police confiscating bad feseekh had made them opt out. But many still indulged, the smell of their meals wafting over the footpaths. Seated on a blanket in the shade with his wife and three daughters, Mohammed Hassan lifted a yellow-gray fish from a plate, tore it open and drizzled lime juice over its pink flesh. He said he had heard the warnings, but only bought feseekh from people he knew and trusted. “It’s excellent,” Mr. Hassan said, tearing bits of meat from the fish’s spine and popping them in his mouth. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” | Egypt;Holidays;Spring Season;Abdel-Nabi Shahin;Fish;Seafood;Cairo |
ny0163363 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2006/02/01 | It's Ice Carnival Time in the Catskills, but the Ice Isn't Cooperating | LIVINGSTON MANOR, N.Y. - IF you want to be technical, there is ice for what was supposed to be the 47th Annual Livingston Manor Rotary Ice Carnival, but it's not the kind you could skate on, just a thin mushy residue at the skating rink lying under puddles of water from yesterday's intermittent drizzle. And, for the record, there's a little snow too, but it's not the kind you can build snow dinosaurs or bears out of. Maybe, if it gets cold again, there will be a stripped-down version of the ice carnival, the biggest seasonal event in these parts. Maybe this is just an aberrant spell of unusually warm weather. But in this normally frigid corner of the Catskills, people are trying to make sense of this toothless January that on Monday brought temperatures around 50 to what's normally a winter deep freeze and yesterday was rainy and gray. "Look at this, it's unbelievable," said Barry Foster as he and Thomas Babich and George Silverman, all Rotary Club members, examined the soupy ice rink after the carnival, which draws more than a thousand people every winter, was postponed two weekends in a row. "It's devastating," said Mr. Babich, the local Rotary Club president. "It's both," replied Mr. Foster. "It's unbelievable, and it's devastating." Rotary members decided last night that there was no way to salvage the whole carnival, which usually runs two days and over the years has included performances by skating instructors from the old Catskill hotels and imported brand-name stars like Jo Jo Starbuck, Elaine Zayak or Emily Hughes. But if the weather gets cold, they hope to freeze the rink and hold a stripped-down version sometime later this month with races for local children and free hot dogs and hot chocolate. It probably won't happen soon. This week's forecast calls for daily highs from 39 to 42 instead of an extended bout of below-freezing temperatures. It's not that things don't periodically go wrong for the ice carnival, which includes an ice carnival dance, crowning of the ice carnival king and queen, a snow sculpture contest, performances by ice skaters, horse-drawn sleigh rides and the like. It's been canceled because of too much snow. There have been years when it's been too cold for people to stay out long enough to admire the snow sculptures or watch more than a few minutes of the skating. Sometimes tuba valves and trombone slides will freeze, and the Mountain Tones Community Band will decide it's too cold to keep playing. And at least once in the past it was canceled because the weather was too warm. But with all the talk of global climate change, it's hard these days just to see weather as weather. So is this just a reprieve from the normal big chill and a break from killer heating bills, or does it signal the end of the world? Who knows? Mr. Babich, who runs Babich Auto Service, thinks there's something more than normal fluctuations going on. "We have never seen weather as warm as this," he said. "We used to have more snow, and the winters used to be colder. We used to have to plow with bulldozers, not with pickup trucks. If you ask me, it has to be connected to what man's doing to the planet -- too much, too much, too fast." Mr. Silverman, 84, and Mr. Foster, 64, who have seen a lot of winters between them, agreed that winter has lost much of its sting. But Gary Siegel, who said he's serving a life sentence as chairman of the event ("I used to be Mr. Ice. Now I'm Mr. Slush.") wasn't convinced. "I don't think the weather's any different than it used to be," he said. "It probably rained when I was a kid, but what I remember was snow waist high. But I was shorter. Ask the Russians about global warming. They're having the coldest winter in memory. And, remember, it's only the end of January. I think all you can say for sure about the weather is it's consistently inconsistent." For the microproblem -- whether they can have any kind of a carnival -- forecasters at Accuweather.com predict much colder temperatures in February, perhaps below normal (as December was), and its Web site is full of scary blue arrows and headlines like "Get Ready, the Cold Is Coming!" So with four or five days of below-freezing temperatures, the Livingston Manor Rotarians could make enough ice to operate the rink. And for the long run, there's talk of building a refrigerated covered rink -- something never deemed necessary in the past. As for the world ending, experts nearly all agree that some smokestack and tailpipe gases are warming the global climate. But projections of the amount and impact of future warming remain uncertain, and debate still rages over how quickly and deeply to cut the emissions. Whether that explains the puddles on the skating rink is harder to tell. "People's impressions of the old days can be a little exaggerated," said Stephen Fybish, a weather historian in Manhattan. "I was checking the London Times index for the years 1785 to 1790. You have some people saying it's the coldest weather since the 1740's and others saying it's not like it was in the good old days." Our Towns [email protected] | LIVINGSTON MANOR (NY);FESTIVALS;WEATHER;GLOBAL WARMING;ICE;AIR POLLUTION |
ny0226221 | [
"business",
"smallbusiness"
] | 2010/10/07 | Geolocation Services Can Help Build Your Business | CHAMIN MILLS has found a new way to give customers a poke. Ms. Mills manages social media for Pacific Catch , a chain of three seafood restaurants in the Bay Area. A few months ago, the restaurant, already an avid user of social media like Twitter and Facebook , adopted Foursquare , the geolocation service that allows customers to claim special offers and earn badges by “checking in” to certain locations. When people used the Foursquare application within a few blocks of the restaurant, a special offer popped up on their mobile phones: check in five times and earn a free shrimp ceviche or a Hawaiian poke. Another special rewarded customers who checked in on Foursquare with a free side of sweet potato fries. Such offers have helped lure new customers: more than 1,400 people have checked in at Pacific Catch more than 2,800 times. “It allows you to connect with people and retain customers, which is really important to us these days,” said Ms. Mills. “It keeps people coming back.” Geolocation services have become an increasingly important marketing tool for small businesses, especially those that depend on customer traffic like restaurants, retailers and bars. The growing importance of the services, which exploit the ability of communication networks to pinpoint the location of smartphones and other mobile devices, is underscored by the recent introduction of Facebook Places , which allows users of the Facebook mobile application to check into locations and share their whereabouts with friends. Location-based services can play many roles. They offer customer-relationship tools, rewards programs, social networks, games, business directories, city guidebooks and review sites. They help businesses present coupons, reward loyal clientele and gather valuable data about customers. Foursquare, which claims about three million users and more than one million check-ins a day, has emerged as the leading geolocation service for business. “We even had a check-in at the North Pole,” said Tristan Walker, head of business development at Foursquare. “So we are officially everywhere.” But Foursquare is hardly alone. Other geolocation services include Gowalla , Loopt , Whrrl , Brightkite , Booyah , Where and Scvngr . Along with Facebook, more established players like Twitter, Yelp and even Google are also adding location-based functions. This guide, based on the experiences of small-business owners, provides tips primarily for using Foursquare, but many of the pointers also apply to other services. CLAIM YOUR SITE The first step is to claim your business listing. In fact, your business already may have a listing and customers may be checking in without your knowledge. See if your business is listed on Foursquare at foursquare.com/search . If not, you can add it by going to foursquare.com/add_venue . You also can do so via the Foursquare app on your phone by going to the “Places” tab and scrolling and clicking “add this place.” Look for the link on the venue page that says, “Do you manage this venue? Claim here” and follow the instructions to register. You will be asked to provide contact info for verification. Once approved by Foursquare, you will be able to manage the site, edit details, offer specials and view analytics. Businesses can also link their Foursquare pages to their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. And they can add buttons so customers can put the venue on their Foursquare to-do list. For more sophisticated users, Foursquare offers an application programming interface that allows developers to build their own applications on top of the Foursquare platform. SET CLEAR GOALS The next step is to establish some basic goals. Do you want to attract new customers? Retain existing ones? Obtain better data about your clientele? Do you want to build your own geolocation services and connect them to Foursquare? Do you simply want to establish an online social network? Or do you want to do all of the above? Once you have established your objectives, you can decide which functions are best suited to your business. OFFER SPECIALS Many businesses use Foursquare as a digital replacement for coupons or loyalty cards. According to Foursquare, about 15,000 venues offer specials on the site. They include buy-one-get-one-free offers, loyalty rewards and specials for the “mayor” of the venue (the person with the most check-ins). These services are free (at least for now). Foursquare remains focused on building its user base and has not revealed a business model for monetizing its traffic. Businesses can offer deals by going to the “manage specials” section on their venue page. Foursquare allows only one active special at a time, but some businesses rotate specials to keep offers fresh. Mark West used Foursquare to entice customers with a sweet offer. Mr. West opened Monique’s Chocolates, a chocolate shop in Palo Alto, Calif., in January. Like many small businesses, the shop serves a narrow demographic — chocolate lovers who live within a few miles — and reaching its target audience is tricky. At first, Mr. West tried print advertising, but was disappointed by the return on his investment. For Valentine’s Day , he bought a $360 ad in the local newspaper that attracted only about five customers; another ad in a local magazine cost $300 and drew only one customer. Shortly afterward, Mr. West went on Foursquare and offered a promotion: buy one truffle and get one free. The promotion cost nothing (other than the expense of the free truffles) and attracted about 60 new customers, about one-third of whom have become regulars. “My key is to get you here to try something,” said Mr. West. “I feel that if you like chocolate you’ll be back. From a retail perspective, your big hope is just to get the guy to show up. That’s the biggest challenge.” REWARD CUSTOMERS Beneath the technology, location-based services are fundamentally social networks. Foursquare offers an array of badges that users can earn by visiting certain locations or doing activities — and businesses can use these to lure customers. For example, Pacific Catch hosted a party that allowed customers to earn a Foursquare “swarm badge” (awarded for gathering with 50 other Foursquare users). The Pacific Catch hostess wore a bee costume and 75 people showed up just so they could claim the badge. “We are always looking to drive business at off hours,” said Ms. Mills. “I realized how many people are out there trying to get these badges.” CHECK YOUR DATA Foursquare also gives businesses a free analytics dashboard with data about check-ins and customer demographics. The goal with the analytics dashboard, said Mr. Walker, was to create a powerful customer-relationship management tool. “We want to give merchants opportunities not only to learn about all their customers, but to connect with them in real time.” The Destination Bar in New York City has used this data to live up to its name. Dan Maccarone, a partner in the bar, was an early adopter of Foursquare (in his day job he works for a technology company and helps design some aspects of the Foursquare site). Mr. Maccarone uses the Foursquare analytic dashboard to glean valuable data about bar customers, like how they break down by gender, when they check in and with whom they check in. By doing so, he can discern patterns of how business ebbs and flows throughout a week. Recently, the bar’s managers noticed that check-ins declined after 2 a.m. on Saturdays. In response, the Destination Bar started holding a late-night happy hour — spreading the word through social media. A rise in check-ins and sales followed. “I look at the Foursquare check-ins as a representation, like the Nielsen ratings,” Mr. Maccarone said. “You can tell a lot about your audience based on the breakdown of the people who are checking in because they are a good sample set of your regular customer base.” | Small Business;Foursquare;Global Positioning System;Social Networking (Internet);Online Advertising;Mobile Applications |
ny0069938 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2014/12/25 | ISIS Militants Capture Jordanian Fighter Pilot in Syria | BEIRUT, Lebanon — Militants from the Islamic State captured a Jordanian Air Force pilot on Wednesday after his F-16 fighter jet went down during a military mission against the group in northern Syria. The jet was the first to go down since a coalition of countries led by the United States began bombing the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq this year. It is also the first time since the campaign began that the jihadists have been reported to capture anyone from the military of a participating country, giving them a new form of leverage over their enemies. The Jordanian military said in a statement reported by Petra, the state-run news service, that First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh had been taken hostage after his plane “went down” and that the Jordanian government held the Islamic State and its supporters responsible for his safety. Supporters of the Islamic State, known as ISIS or ISIL, reported the capture on social media, saying that fighters had shot the plane down with an antiaircraft missile. They posted photographs of the jet’s debris and of the captured pilot in a white T-shirt and surrounded by masked gunmen. They also posted images of his military identification card . Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , a Britain-based group that monitors the war in Syria through contacts on the ground, also said that militants had brought down the plane with an antiaircraft missile. But that claim was countered by the American military command. In a statement, the command said it had evidence that “clearly indicates” that the pilot had not been shot down. “We will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery, and will not tolerate ISIL’s attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes,” the overall commander, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, was quoted as saying. American officials have lauded the contributions of their Arab allies, but also acknowledge that most of the strikes have been carried out by the United States, with its partners often playing a supporting role. Those partners — Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have avoided elaborating on their role in the campaign, mostly over fears of retribution by the Islamic State or to avoid domestic opposition from citizens who sympathize with the extremists. Jordanian news outlets spoke with the captive pilot’s father, Safi al-Kasasbeh, who said Jordanian officials had informed his family that his son had been captured and that Jordan’s military was doing all it could to ensure his return. Image Islamic State militants captured a pilot on a mission over Syria. The U.S. military denied his jet had been shot down. Credit Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group, via Associated Press The pilot’s brother, Jawad al-Kasasbeh, said by phone that Jordan’s monarch, King Abdullah II, met with his father on Wednesday in a show of solidarity but that the family had no more information than what they had heard in the media. “We don’t know what is the fate of my brother, and we ask God to bring him back home to us,” he said. The pilot is in his mid-20s and had recently gotten married. “He was very happy to start a new future,” he said. It remained unclear whether the capture would affect the participation of Jordan and other Arab countries in the fight against the Islamic State. But the group will most likely try to use it to its advantage; in the past, it has used hostages to demand ransoms and distributed grim propaganda videos of its fighters beheading Americans and Britons in what it has called revenge for their countries’ actions. A spokeswoman for the allied air campaign in Qatar referred all questions about the aircraft to the Jordanian military, but said combat missions continued unabated. Video How has ISIS, a 21st-century terrorist organization with a retrograde religious philosophy, spread from Iraq to Syria, Libya and beyond? “The incident has not changed flight ops for coalition sorties in Syria,” Capt. Malinda Singleton, the spokeswoman for the command, said in an email. American pilots have voiced concerns in recent weeks about the threat of the Islamic State ’s surface-to-air missiles and other ground fire — particularly after the recent downing of an Iraqi helicopter gunship. But American pilots typically fly well above 20,000 feet — outside the range of most of the missiles — to carry out their missions. Jawad Anani, a former foreign minister, said he expected most Jordanians to continue to back the government’s participation in the coalition. “If something — God forbid — happens to Moaz, then it will rally people behind the idea that ISIS must be fought against with all means possible,” he said. “It will also strengthen Jordan’s resolve to fight ISIS.” But Labib Kamhawi, a Jordanian political analyst and reform activist, said the capture could cause domestic opinion to shift against participation in the war, especially if the jihadists killed the pilot. “It is natural for people to express such feelings: ‘Why should our children go and get killed and captured by the enemy? For what cause?’ ” he said. | ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;Kidnapping and Hostages;Syria;US Military;Syrian Observatory for Human Rights;Raqqa Syria;Moaz al-Kasasbeh |
ny0172749 | [
"us"
] | 2007/11/23 | Riding the Rail to the Top, and Not Amused | The Mount Washington Cog Railway, which chugs up the side of New England’s tallest peak, has been called the Railway to the Moon. Some people have been taking that title a bit too literally. The White Mountain National Forest, most of which is in New Hampshire, has acted against hikers who drop their pants and moon the cog railway. Eight people were cited by undercover officers for public nudity or disorderly conduct during a sting operation in August and September after some passengers complained that they had seen more on the mountain than they had bargained for. Since most of the mountain is in the national forest, the citation is a federal charge. A spokeswoman for the United States attorney in Concord did not return phone calls. “Apparently, there were some complaints in the recent past to the owner of the cog railway, who asked for some assistance in getting it stopped,” said Alexis Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White Mountain National Forest. “Some people were amused by it, and there were others who were offended.” The steam-powered railway goes to the peak of Mount Washington, 6,228 feet above sea level. It started running in 1869. “Mooning the cog” is something of a tradition, especially for people hiking the Appalachian Trail. Its origins are unclear. Some theorize it started as a way for hikers to protest the noise and smoke coming from the train, while others say it started as, and continues to be, nothing but a joke. “Apparently, it’s been going on for a long, long time,” Ms. Jackson said. “It’s some kind of tradition.” She said she did not know if the increased enforcement would continue, but the national forest’s staff members will be on the lookout if passengers complain. “It’s not something that happens every day,” Ms. Jackson said. | Crime and Criminals;National Parks Monuments and Seashores;White Mountains (NH) |
ny0219255 | [
"us"
] | 2010/05/06 | High Court Long Shot Has a Reputation for Persuasion | Kathleen Morris was not thrilled to be working on a dry bankruptcy case. But when Ms. Morris, then a law clerk, shared her feelings with her boss, Sidney R. Thomas, a federal appeals court judge, his answer startled her. “Bankruptcy’s amazing, Kathleen,” she recalled him saying. “It’s about life. It’s about failure — it’s about overcoming failure. It’s about dreams dying.” Judge Thomas, 56, who sits on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is being considered for a seat on the United States Supreme Court ; he met with President Obama last Thursday. He is, by most accounts, a long shot on the short list, but supporters say he represents the values the president has said he wants: “a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people.” Judge Thomas has that in abundance, said Judge Richard F. Cebull, the chief United States judge for the District of Montana. “He was a practicing lawyer — in real life, representing real clients, in a real courtroom,” Judge Cebull said with gruff enthusiasm. “When it became news out here in Montana that it was being considered, I thought, ‘By golly, some brains are brewing back in Washington, D.C., for once.’ ” His long record as a lawyer in private practice, 17 years, would set Judge Thomas apart from most of the justices he would join if selected; before coming to the court, they spent the bulk of their careers on the bench, in government service or in academia. He would bring other kinds of diversity to the court as well. A graduate of Montana State University and the University of Montana law school, he would be the only current justice whose law degree is not from Harvard, Yale or Columbia. And as a Presbyterian, he would also be the sole Protestant on the court. At the Billings law firm where he was a star partner, now called Moulton Bellingham, Judge Thomas handled everything from bankruptcy — he was named trustee in 1,500 cases — to complex corporate litigation and First Amendment work for The Billings Gazette, recalled Greg Murphy, a lawyer who worked with him at the firm. While he was skilled in the courtroom, Mr. Murphy said, and administered bankruptcy cases with aplomb, what distinguished Judge Thomas was his ability to move parties toward agreement. In court and in settlement conferences, he routinely heard about the hardships and mistakes that upended the lives of Montanans. Asked how the parties reached a resolution, Mr. Murphy said Judge Thomas persuaded “through the logic of his argument and the fairness, the compassion.” Those powers of persuasion in forging consensus — a quality Mr. Obama has told his staff he would like to see in a nominee — have been evident on the appeals court, the judge’s supporters say. Like another candidate on the short list, Judge Diane P. Wood of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Judge Thomas is seen as something of a bridge builder who can get along with conservatives and liberals alike. The Ninth Circuit is an ideologically divided court , with strong factions of liberals and conservatives, and Judge Thomas is respected by both sides, said the court’s chief judge, Alex Kozinski. “People really like him, really trust him,” he said. Judge Kozinski questioned whether persuasion actually has much of a role in the strong-willed, life-tenured federal judiciary — “It really happens fairly seldom,” he said — but added that in the cases where it does play a part, “I think that Thomas is among the best.” His work habits are legendary among his clerks, as is his attention to detail. Jennifer Chacon, a former clerk, recalled handing him her first bench memorandum with a detailed review of relevant case law. “A very beautiful bench memo,” she recalled. “He said, ‘Did you look at the record? Did you really look at the record?’ ” For Judge Thomas, she said, administering justice demanded being steeped in the particulars that make every case unique, to the point of reading hundreds of pages of trial transcripts, as he did. His writing style in opinions is literary, even puckish. In a 1998 case involving a conflict of employment regulations that led to a man being promoted into a position from which other rules required that he be fired, Judge Thomas wrote that employers were “perhaps inspired by the management theories of Joseph Heller or Scott Adams.” His opinions can also be bracingly blunt, clearing away webs of logical abstraction to make a forceful point. In a 2009 case in which Public Citizen, a watchdog group, was challenging the safety plans of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Judge Thomas noted that the agency had played down the chances of airplane attacks in its risk analysis for nuclear plants and had concluded there was “low likelihood” of such an attack “both damaging the reactor core and releasing radioactivity that could affect public health and safety.” He wrote, “Unfortunately, this comforting conclusion” is contradicted by numerous risk studies, adding, “The distinction the agency draws between the risk of truck bombs and hijacked airliner attacks is inconsistent with our nation’s recent tragic experiences and common sense.” Conservatives are readying their attacks. Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee for Justice , an advocacy group in Washington, said he saw “vulnerabilities” on cases involving abortion, immigration , criminal law and more; he cited a Thomas opinion that allowed a school to discipline a Christian high school student for wearing a homemade T-shirt that read “Homosexuality Is Shameful Romans 1:27.” “The language in the case seemed to me very hostile to people who genuinely have a religious objection to homosexuality,” Mr. Levey said. Ed Whelan, a conservative lawyer who writes for National Review Online, compared Judge Thomas to the best-known liberal judge on the Ninth Circuit, Stephen Reinhardt, when he wrote last month that Judge Thomas “may be physically in Montana, but he’s jurisprudentially in Reinhardt-istan.” Judge Cebull, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said he had no concerns that his colleague’s political views might lead him into liberal activism. “He has never let his politics get in the way of sound judgment,” he said. Nickolas C. Murnion, who became friends with Judge Thomas in the 1970s at Montana State and was a law school roommate, said he and his law school friends used to riff on the concept of “the reasonable man,” a standard often used in the law to determine negligence. “We used to joke, ‘Where’s that reasonable man?’ ” Mr. Murnion recalled. “I’ll tell you,” he said, “I think Sid might be it.” Judge Sidney R. Thomas BORN: Aug. 14, 1953, Bozeman, Mont. EDUCATION: Montana State University, B.A., 1975; University of Montana School of Law, J.D., 1978. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Legal intern, Judge W. W. Lessley, Montana State District Court, 18th Judicial District; private practice, Billings, Mont., 1978-1995; adjunct instructor of law, Rocky Mountain College, Billings, 1982-1995; appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Bill Clinton on July 19, 1995; confirmed by the Senate on Jan. 2, 1996. FAMILY: Married to Martha Sheehy, two sons. INTERESTS: Hiking and skiing with his family; when in San Francisco for the court, attending Giants games. | Obama Barack;Supreme Court;Thomas Sidney R;Appointments and Executive Changes |
ny0083353 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2015/10/26 | Dwayne Harris’s Kickoff Return Eases Worries of Giants Fans | EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Standing in the end zone awaiting the kickoff, the Giants’ Dwayne Harris sensed the tension enveloping MetLife Stadium on Sunday. He also understood the importance of the next several seconds. There were roughly seven minutes remaining in the game. Harris looked over at the euphoria on the sideline of the Dallas Cowboys, who had just tied a game the Giants had led for most of the second half. Harris, a free agent who signed with the Giants in March after four seasons in Dallas, knew most of the faces on the Cowboys’ bench. “You could feel it was a big moment in the game,” Harris said. “They had just come back on us. They probably felt like they had the momentum.” Inside the stadium, the home crowd, roaring and on its feet only minutes earlier, had fallen silent, with most fans slumped in their seats. They knew the Giants’ history of fourth-quarter collapses this season. But Harris was brought to the Giants to improve their return game, and as the Dallas kick spun toward him, he imagined a long dash through a cavalcade of Cowboys defenders. Harris caught the football at the goal line, burst straight up the middle, made one cut to his right and then sprinted untouched for the winning touchdown in the Giants’ 27-20 victory. The Giants, whose special teams were most likely the weakest element of the past two losing seasons, had won a game on a kickoff return — the team’s first since 2012. And it came at a pivotal time. The Giants (4-3) did not want to take a two-game losing streak into November. The Giants’ next three games are at New Orleans, at Tampa Bay and at home against the New England Patriots. “I beat my old team, but mostly I gave my new team a lift when it really needed it,” Harris said. “You know, a return can really put a charge into the game.” None of the smiling faces in the Giants’ locker room were disagreeing. “Dallas had just scored, and before anyone had even digested that, there was Dwayne taking that kick right back, which was huge,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “You know, sometimes you have to win games in all kinds of ways.” The Giants won in all kinds of improbable ways on Sunday. The Giants’ defense has been among the league’s worst against the pass throughout the season. But against Dallas (2-4), the Giants stormed back from a halftime deficit by intercepting Cowboys quarterback Matt Cassel three times. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, the Giants cornerback who twice intercepted Cassel, said it was payback for the Giants’ season-opening defeat to the Cowboys, when poor decisions late in the game cost the Giants an almost certain victory. “We should have won that first game, so this was big to get a win from them this time,” Rodgers-Cromartie said. Rodgers-Cromartie’s first interception proved to be a turning point. With the Giants trailing by 3 points at the half, their defense had been mauled by the Dallas running game, which ended up gaining 233 yards. The Giants were much happier when Cassel, who was making his first start this year after the Cowboys benched Brandon Weeden, dropped back to pass, especially at 11 minutes 34 seconds of the third quarter, when Cassel attempted a risky throw to wide receiver Terrance Williams, who had run a deep square-out route. The pass had to travel a long way across the field, which allowed Rodgers-Cromartie plenty of time to zero in on it. The pass was also off line and short, but Rodgers-Cromartie had broken early toward it. “I knew I could get that all the way,” Rodgers-Cromartie later said. Rodgers-Cromartie was almost in a full sprint when he snatched the football out of the air and easily dashed the remaining 58 yards to the end zone to give the Giants a 17-13 lead. It was Rodgers-Cromartie’s sixth career interception return for a touchdown. On the Cowboys’ next drive, Cassel attempted another ill-advised pass, lofting a long sideline throw into double coverage. Cassel’s pass wobbled and hung in the air, and Giants safety Brandon Meriweather intercepted it at the Giants’ 1-yard line. Manning, who completed 13 of 24 passes for 170 yards without an interception, quickly threw down the right sideline for wide receiver Rueben Randle. With the Cowboys effectively bottling up Odell Beckham Jr., who had four receptions for 35 yards, Randle did his best Beckham impersonation, sticking out his right hand to make a spectacular one-handed catch for a 44-yard gain. Five plays later, Josh Brown kicked a 34-yard field goal for a 20-13 Giants lead with 3:23 left in the third. Early in the fourth quarter, Cassel was intercepted by Rodgers-Cromartie again. This time, Rodgers-Cromartie baited Cassel, hanging back to make it appear that Cassel could complete a pass over the middle. “I knew I had a real good chance at that one, too,” Rodgers-Cromartie said. That turnover did not lead to points, but it kept the Cowboys’ offense off the field for several minutes, which let a beleaguered Giants defense gain some valuable rest. But in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys took over at their 20-yard line and marched into Giants territory, where a circus catch in the end zone would allow the Cowboys to tie the game. On a first down from the Giants’ 25-yard line, Cassel was chased out of the pocket. On the run, he pointed at wide receiver Devin Street, directing him toward the right corner of the end zone. With Giants defensive end George Selvie about to flatten him, Cassel threw the football over the heads of several Giants defensive backs. Street reached high above his head, corralling the football with his fingertips as he simultaneously touched his feet on the ground inches from the sideline for the touchdown reception that tied the game, 20-20, with 7:25 to play. That is when Harris trotted out for the ensuing kickoff. Afterward, middle linebacker Jon Beason was not apologizing for the defense’s troubles against the run. “Stats can mean all kinds of things, but you have to have perspective,” Beason said. “In the end, it’s not about how many yards you give up, it’s about how many points you give up. We got three takeaways and made some stops when we had to.” Dallas had an extended drive after Harris’s kickoff return and reached the Giants’ 30-yard line, but they ultimately turned the ball over on downs. Giants Coach Tom Coughlin was happy that his team’s record against its N.F.C. East rivals was now 2-2, but he nonetheless recognized the shortcomings of the Giants’ performance. Yet he clung to the big picture. “We won,” Coughlin said. “We’re gritty and scrappy, and we battle. I like that.” | Football;Dwayne Harris;Dallas Cowboys;Giants |
ny0166680 | [
"business"
] | 2006/01/04 | Fed's Notes Offer Hope of a Brake on Rates | WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The Federal Reserve has set the stage for ending its 18-month campaign of raising interest rates, but officials signaled on Tuesday that they are entering a new period of uncertainty at the same time that Alan Greenspan prepares to retire as Fed chairman. According to minutes released Tuesday from the Fed policy committee's meeting in December, officials agreed that they would probably have to push rates only a little higher before stopping. "Given the information now in hand, the number of additional firming steps required probably would not be large," the summary said, ascribing that view to "most members" of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. On Wall Street, stock prices increased sharply in response. Major indexes rose more than 1 percent, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 129.91 points, or 1.2 percent, its largest one-day gain in a month. The minutes also suggested, though, that investors might have gotten ahead of themselves. For more than two years, the Fed has given investors explicit guidance about future rate decisions, most recently as it gradually pushed up interest rates from the lows of early 2004. But Fed committee members made clear at the December meeting that they were increasingly uncertain about both the potential course of the economy and the best way to communicate their intentions. "Views differed on how much further tightening would be required," according to the minutes. "Members thought the policy outlook was becoming considerably less certain and that policy decisions going forward would depend to an increased extent on the implications of incoming economic data." The ambiguity struck Peter Kretzmer, senior economist at Bank of America. "The markets really seized on the idea they were closer," he said, referring to an end of rate increases, "but when one thinks about it, they also highlighted just as clearly that there's uncertainty. What they really highlighted is that what they do will depend more on the data." The summary of last month's deliberations provided a wealth of new insights as the Fed prepares for the transition from Mr. Greenspan to Ben S. Bernanke, President Bush's nominee to be the next Fed chairman. The meeting minutes confirmed that Fed officials became slightly less worried about inflation pressure, even though they expected high energy prices to push overall inflation somewhat higher for a while. "Participants indicated that their concerns about near-term inflation pressures had eased somewhat," the minutes said. Policy makers said prices were being held in check by competition from foreign producers. They also noted that labor costs had risen only moderately, despite strong economic growth. And they drew comfort from findings that the spike in oil prices last summer and fall had only a "muted" impact on consumer prices. But Fed officials made it clear that they were divided about when to stop raising interest rates. They also labored mightily to preserve maneuvering room, warning that decisions would be heavily influenced by coming economic data. "Views differed on how much further tightening would be required," according to the minutes. "Members thought the policy outlook was becoming considerably less certain and that policy decisions going forward would depend to an increased extent on the implications of incoming economic data." Fed officials seemed to be warning that they might stop providing the hints on future policy decisions that they had been giving over the last two years, with phrases like a "measured" pace of rate increases. Mr. Greenspan, who is to retire on Jan. 31 after 18 years at the helm of the Federal Reserve, has long warned that the Fed will not always tip its hand on future policy. Mr. Bernanke, who is expected to win easy Senate approval as his successor, has argued for years that the central bank needs to be more "transparent." But he has not said that he favors advance guidance as a matter of principle. Many analysts agree that the last two years have been unusually predictable, and that the Fed is now entering a new stage of uncertainty. Robert DiClemente, chief United States economist at Citigroup, said: "It seems to me the consensus is less confident, and I sense that not only in the committee's own discussion but in the staff's backpedaling a bit on the outlook. It's indicative how people are more divided, and I think their willingness to guide market expectation has been diminished by that." Two major factors made it much easier for Mr. Greenspan to offer guidance on the Fed's intentions over the last two years. The first was that inflation remained low even while job creation and economic growth strengthened. That allowed the Fed to adjust policy gradually, without surprises. The other was that the Fed had reduced interest rates far below normal from 2001 to 2004 in hope of invigorating a stalling economy. But by 2004, policy makers largely agreed that rates needed to be brought back to more usual levels. Indeed, Mr. Greenspan told lawmakers early in 2004 that returning rates to normal, without disruption, would be his biggest policy challenge. "It's not a gimme putt," he remarked, borrowing a golf metaphor. With the benchmark short-term interest rate, the Federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks, now at 4.25 percent, four times the level just 18 months ago, Fed officials are evidently getting close to at least a pause. Based on prices for federal funds futures, investors are betting that the rate will climb to 4.5 percent at the next Fed policy meeting on Jan. 31, but then very little above that. Still, several analysts said that investors might have read too much into the Fed's readiness for a pause, and predicted that the federal funds rate would reach 4.75 percent or even 5 percent this year. Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y., said the Fed was keeping its options open. In a note to clients on Tuesday, Mr. Shepherdson wrote: "Clearly, there is a debate as to how much further tightening will be necessary. Still, this does not read like a Fed where everyone is looking for a reason to stop." | FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM;UNITED STATES ECONOMY;INTEREST RATES;ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND TRENDS |
ny0090417 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2015/09/24 | Fall TV Season Opens Onto a Shifting Ad Landscape | The current television landscape is a challenging one for advertisers. Ratings are down but the amount of programming is sharply up, along with the number of streaming options available, many of which allow viewers to skip commercials altogether. Now, as advertisers consider the best ways to spend their money, the excitement that once greeted the beginning of the fall television season has given way to anxiety. Industry analysts and advertising executives said the upfront market — the annual ad sales period that begins in May with lavish presentations by the networks — was unambiguously weak this year. Magna Global, an ad-buying group owned by the Interpublic Group, estimates that the total amount of money advertisers committed during the upfront market this year fell 10 percent for broadcast networks and 5 percent for cable networks. Yet, advertisers have still poured billions of dollars into the fall TV season, which begins in earnest this week with a flood of new programming. Advertising and television executives say activity has picked up during the so-called scatter market, when advertisers buy commercial time during the season, but they also acknowledge the dark clouds hovering over TV Land. “What you can’t do on the one hand is say, ‘Television is dead,’ because there’s a huge demand,” said Rob Norman, chief digital officer of WPP’s GroupM. “On the other hand, you can’t say ‘Everything is O.K., television is fine.’” Advertisers still see conventional prime-time television as a way to reach a huge audience. But as more viewers record shows to watch later and shift to on-demand and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, the notion of real-time viewing has declined, especially for scripted TV shows. And that has made it harder for networks to persuade advertisers to open their wallets. Magna Global predicts that TV advertising in the United States will fall 3.5 percent this year, to $63.3 billion. At the same time, the percentage of ad dollars going to digital media continues to rise. Advertisers are especially concerned that traditional television is losing its effectiveness as a way to reach young audiences, who are increasingly watching shows online. Image Kermit the Frog and Gonzo the Great in "The Muppets." Scripted network TV shows are having a tougher time attracting advertising dollars. Credit Eric Mccandless/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., via Associated Press According to a recent report from the research firm Forrester, 36 percent of the core television audience — defined as those aged 18 to 58 — now watch traditional television in a typical month. That is down 2 percent from last year. That shift in viewing behavior has made many advertisers rethink their marketing strategies. General Electric, for instance, has for the last several years largely moved away from prime-time advertising, said Linda Boff, the newly appointed chief marketing officer. The company, which still advertises on television during live sporting events and late-night shows, has pushed onto digital platforms like Twitter and Vine to capture the attention of younger consumers. “We want to be where our audience is spending their time, period,” Ms. Boff said. To be sure, television shows can still attract advertisers. One show that has generated significant buzz is the Fox series, “Empire,” which begins its second season on Wednesday. Advertising executives say that Fox is selling 30-second commercial spots for half a million dollars. “ ‘Empire’ has resonated,” said Lia Silkworth, an executive at Tapestry, part of Starcom Mediavest Group’s multicultural division. “As an agency, we know that there’s going to be a lot of live viewing. People aren’t going to want to miss out on being able to talk about what they saw.” Ad executives said that shows including NBC’s “Blindspot,” a one-hour drama about an amnesiac, tattooed woman discovered in a duffel bag in Times Square, and ABC’s “The Muppets” could also attract big, real-time audiences. Television networks are also coming up with new ways to lure advertisers. Fox International Channels, for example, is introducing a way for advertisers to buy global campaigns during popular shows like “The Walking Dead.” The goal, said Liz Dolan, the chief marketing officer of Fox International Channels, is to give advertisers a way to maximize their exposure during shows that huge numbers of people are watching at the same time around the world. “All brands have a need to cut through, and the big water-cooler shows cut through better than anything out there,” Ms. Dolan said. Digital alternatives are also reshaping the advertising landscape. While traditional prime-time television might give advertisers a way to reach big audiences, social media outlets like Facebook , Twitter and Snapchat can offer less expensive ways to connect with specific consumer groups. (In a recent interview, David Lawenda, the head of global marketing solutions in the United States for Facebook, said that the social network offered “prime-time reach with late-night pricing.”) These sites are also going directly for television’s heart by giving advertisers ways to reach television viewers during, for example, a commercial break, when many turn to their mobile devices and social media. Although ad money might be flowing more toward digital media, traditional television still receives a significant proportion of most advertisers’ budgets. A big difference now is that many advertisers see television as one part of a broader marketing strategy. “TV in general is on the list of ingredients that we know we want to put into our recipes,” said Ivan Pollard, a top marketing executive at Coca-Cola North America. “It’s just a question of how and how much.” | TV;advertising,marketing;Online advertising;Social Media;Empire;Facebook |
ny0265218 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/03/04 | In Republican Debate, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio Wage Urgent Attacks on Donald Trump | Get live updates about the Florida primary . _______ Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, fighting for their political lives, relentlessly demeaned and baited Donald J. Trump at Thursday’s debate, all but pleading with Republicans to abandon a candidate with a long history of business failures, deep ties to the Democratic Party and a taste for personal insults. Warning that Mr. Trump would lead the party to a historic defeat in November, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz delivered their attacks with urgency, as if trying to awaken voters who had fallen under Mr. Trump’s spell. Mr. Rubio derided Mr. Trump as untrustworthy and uncivil, while Mr. Cruz bashed him for donating money to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and to other Democrats. Mr. Trump looked on with disgust, but as in their 10 previous debates, he seemed impervious and perhaps unstoppable. At times, the face-off in Detroit also deteriorated into the kind of junior high school taunts that have startled many Republican elders but have done little to dent Mr. Trump’s broad appeal. As Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio traded insults over their manhood, Mr. Trump recalled Mr. Rubio’s innuendo that Mr. Trump’s “small hands” correlated with another part of his anatomy. Mr. Trump, who has boasted about his sexual exploits, insisted that nothing was small about him. “I guarantee you,” he continued with little subtlety, “there’s no problem. I guarantee you.” The two senators repeatedly urged Republicans to align against Mr. Trump in nominating contests over the next two weeks, saying that Mr. Trump could sew up the nomination even though a majority of voters so far have cast ballots for other candidates. “Two-thirds of the people who cast a vote in a Republican primary or caucus have voted against you,” Mr. Rubio told Mr. Trump. “The reason why is because we are not going to turn over the conservative movement or the party of Lincoln or Reagan, for example, to someone whose positions are not conservative.” The pleas reflected not only Mr. Trump’s advantage in the race, but also the party’s growing disquiet about the implications of nominating him. The specter of Mr. Trump as the Republican standard-bearer has long troubled both establishment-aligned and conservative leaders. But his initial hesitation to condemn the Ku Klux Klan in an interview on Sunday, and his success in seven states on Super Tuesday , have set off a new wave of anxiety that Mr. Trump could tarnish the party this year and perhaps beyond. Still, in a striking moment, all of Mr. Trump’s rivals on stage indicated that they would support him if he became the Republican nominee. The consensus was especially unusual in the case of Mr. Rubio, who has been caustically attacking Mr. Trump as a “con man.” While Mr. Rubio savaged Mr. Trump repeatedly on Thursday, Mr. Cruz combined his jabs with high-minded appeals to conservatives. He emphasized his support for a “simple flat tax” and a strong national defense, trying to position himself ahead of Mr. Rubio as the more competitive candidate against Mr. Trump. Fact Checks of the 2016 Election The New York Times will be checking assertions made throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Cruz also appealed directly to Mr. Trump’s supporters by saying that their desire for a political outsider to lead the country was misplaced. “For 40 years, Donald has been part of the corruption in Washington that you’re angry about,” Mr. Cruz said. “And you’re not going to stop the corruption in Washington by supporting someone who has supported liberal Democrats for four decades, from Jimmy Carter to John Kerry to Hillary Clinton.” “Donald Trump in 2008 wrote four checks to elect Hillary Clinton as president,” Mr. Cruz added, turning to Mr. Trump to demand why he had done so. “Actually, it was for business,” Mr. Trump said, before noting that he had also given to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Mr. Trump found himself on the defensive throughout the night, challenged by his rivals and the Fox News moderators to explain his inconsistent stands in the past. He also had to defend himself against a movement begun earlier Thursday by Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, who shredded Mr. Trump as a “phony” and a “fraud” who must be blocked from the nomination. Mr. Trump, offered the chance to respond to Mr. Romney with harshness or with substance, chose the former. “He was a failed candidate,” Mr. Trump said. “He should have beaten President Obama very easy.” Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio, who have been grappling for ways to halt Mr. Trump’s political momentum, seemed intent on trying to bait him into losing his cool. At one point, as Mr. Cruz tarred Mr. Trump for donating to Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign, Mr. Trump tried repeatedly to interrupt. “Count to 10, Donald — count to 10,” Mr. Cruz said. Later, in an exchange over Supreme Court nominations, Mr. Cruz taunted, “Breathe, breathe, breathe — you can do it.” That prompted Mr. Rubio to joke that his two rivals were primed for yoga, especially Mr. Trump. “He’s very flexible,” Mr. Rubio said, a quip referring to Mr. Trump’s changes in political positions. Mr. Rubio tried to get under Mr. Trump’s skin by boring in on Trump University, the defunct education and training venture over which Mr. Trump is facing civil litigation alleging that he defrauded students. Recalling that he had spoken to “one of the victims,” Mr. Rubio said that what students had gotten in the courses was “stuff you could pull off of Zillow.” “Why won’t you give them their money back?” Mr. Rubio asked. Mr. Trump, who described the litigation as “a minor civil case,” claimed that almost all students who had signed up for the courses “said it was terrific,” but he quickly lost patience with Mr. Rubio. Calling him “little Marco” — a phrase he used several times — Mr. Trump noted that the senator was losing to him in Florida polls before the state’s March 15 primary. Video The New York Times checks assertions made by the Republican presidential candidates during Thursday’s debate in Detroit. Credit Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times “The people in Florida wouldn’t elect him dogcatcher,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Rubio, his voice ragged, appeared frustrated at times as he repeatedly sought to sow doubts about Mr. Trump. He has been trying for months to catch fire against Mr. Trump, whom he holds in low regard on policy matters, and now the Florida primary looms as make-or-break for Mr. Rubio’s candidacy. “You have yet to answer a single serious question about any of this,” Mr. Rubio said, referring to Mr. Trump’s generalities on foreign affairs. As Mr. Trump responded by reiterating praise he had received from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Rubio threw his arms up and turned away in exasperation. If Mr. Trump struggled to deflect the attacks on his character, business sense and political viability against Mrs. Clinton in the fall, he seized opportunities to reassure conservatives that he would be a forceful commander in chief. Questioned by the moderators about his past advocacy for torture and for killing the families of terrorists , Mr. Trump stood firm and argued that “we should go tougher than waterboarding.” Pressed about whether military officers would carry out such orders — killing terrorists’ family members would violate the Geneva Conventions — Mr. Trump offered a boast. “If I say ‘do it,’ they’re going to do it,” he said. At another point, in a rare concession from Mr. Trump, he acknowledged that he was “changing” one of his positions in the highly charged immigration debate and was now open to offering visas for highly skilled foreign workers. He also lamented that foreign citizens “go to the best colleges” in America and “as soon as they are finished, they get shoved out,” and said he was “softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.” While his shift could appeal to some business leaders and moderate voters he would need in a general election, his campaign also issued a statement after the debate saying he would “institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exception.” Mr. Trump’s shifting positions have been a target for months, but during this debate, his rivals received help from the Fox News debate moderators. They played a compilation of video clips in which he was depicted changing his mind on issues like the war in Iraq. Mr. Trump was then asked directly if he had “a core.” “I have a very strong core, but I have never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible,” Mr. Trump said. One of the most anticipated face-offs of the night was between Mr. Trump and the moderator Megyn Kelly, who infuriated the candidate with her aggressive questions at the first Republican debate in August. Ms. Kelly and Mr. Trump breezily engaged each other on Thursday night, but Ms. Kelly was pointed if polite in her questioning. Both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz repeatedly challenged Mr. Trump to release the full transcript of his meeting with The New York Times’s editorial board earlier in the year. BuzzFeed reported this week that Mr. Trump, in off-the-record comments, had told the newspaper that he was willing to soften his hard-line immigration views. But Mr. Trump stood his ground, saying he would “never release off-the-record conversations.” Pressed by Mr. Cruz, he shot back: “I’ve given my answer, lying Ted. I’ve given my answer.” The fourth candidate, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who has positioned himself as the positive-sounding and seasoned executive in the race, largely stuck to that strategy. But Mr. Kasich, who is lagging far behind Mr. Trump and the other candidates, struggled to leave a mark in the debate. | 2016 Presidential Election;Ted Cruz;Donald Trump;Political Debates;Marco Rubio;John R Kasich;Republicans |
ny0011795 | [
"us"
] | 2013/11/03 | G.O.P. Pursues Hispanic Votes With Abortion Stance | Following this summer’s divisive abortion debate in the State Legislature, Texas Republicans see an opening for the 2014 election as they work to reach out to Hispanic voters who could be spurred to the polls by the party’s anti-abortion stance. But Democrats see the plan as a losing proposition for Republicans, arguing that the reputation of most Hispanics as socially conservative is inaccurate and that Hispanics tend to side with Democrats on the issues that matter most to them. As Texas’ demographics continue to shift, it is easy to see why both sides covet the Hispanic vote. The state’s population is 38 percent Hispanic. Although less than one-third of eligible voters in Texas today are Hispanic, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics are expected to make up a plurality of the population by 2020. Enrique Marquez, a Republican political consultant, said that when it come to the question of abortion, Democratic organizations and candidates in Texas were “completely out of sync” with Hispanics, who are predominantly Roman Catholic. Mr. Marquez added that if Texas Republicans discussed their anti-abortion views and religious beliefs while still placing a priority on the economy, they could have a winning formula in 2014. “Family values is a very powerful issue among the Hispanic electorate, but jobs still remain the top concern,” he said. The Republican National Committee recently announced its own efforts to connect with the state’s Hispanic electorate by creating targeted outreach teams to knock on doors and educate voters on the party’s stances on several issues, including abortion. But if abortion is a crucial part of such efforts, Republicans will find the strategy an exercise in futility, said State Representative Mary González, a Democrat from Clint. “This is one of those issues where stereotypes are problematic,” she said, referring to the assumption that Hispanics oppose abortion. Image A Planned Parenthood rally at the University of Texas last year. The Spanish sign reads, "Watch out!" Credit Allen Otto for The Texas Tribune But Ms. González acknowledged that many Hispanics supported the Democratic Party on issues like immigration, education and health care, not necessarily because of most Democrats’ support for abortion rights If Republican efforts to reach Hispanics during the 2014 campaign do put a focus on abortion, they will be breaking new ground. Politicking on that issue has so far been uncommon among Hispanics. Culturally, Hispanics see abortion as largely a private matter, and there is not a formidable group of political activists in the Rio Grande Valley who are outspoken about abortion rights, according to Kathryn Hearn, the community services director at the Planned Parenthood Association of Hidalgo County. Planned Parenthood clinics in South Texas serve a predominantly Hispanic population and do not perform abortions. There are two abortion facilities operated by other providers in McAllen and Harlingen that serve residents in South Texas. Patients sometimes struggle to discuss abortion and commonly use euphemisms to talk about the procedure, even when talking to clinicians, Ms. Hearn said. “When it comes to our patients and this community, this is not a sound-bite issue,” Ms. Hearn said. “It’s so personal that sometimes even after someone has had an abortion, it’s sometimes difficult for them to tell us.” Amber Salinas, a community organizer for the Texas Organizing Project, a grass-roots political advocacy group in the Rio Grande Valley, said abortion was not a mobilizing issue in the region. Image At the Planned Parenthood rally at the University of Texas last year. Credit Allen Otto for The Texas Tribune “For the people here, there are so many other things that impact them more on a daily basis — living paycheck to paycheck and being able to put shoes on their kids,” Ms. Salinas said. According to a June poll by the University of Texas and The Texas Tribune, 60 percent of Hispanics in Texas said they supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks (such a ban was passed this summer), and 49 percent said abortion laws were strict enough or should be made less strict. (The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.) Of the 58 percent of Hispanic respondents who identify as Democrats, most said they identified with without strictly holding uniformly Democratic attitudes. Some Republicans say that is an important point to remember as the party plans strategies for the 2014 election. “If you listen to talk radio and the pundits, in many instances those who speak the loudest for the Republican Party are offensive to the Hispanic community,” said State Representative Jason Villalba, a Dallas Republican. He said the key was engaging with Hispanics individually, helping them realize they stand on the same side of several issues with Republicans, including abortion, and not treating Hispanics as a “monolithic voting bloc.” The abortion issue is sure to come up often in the top 2014 Texas race, the face-off for governor. Since announcing his candidacy for governor, Attorney General Greg Abbott has repeatedly linked Hispanic ideals on family values to the Republican Party’s position against abortion while courting the Hispanic vote. Image A member of the McAllen Pregnancy Center hands out bilingual pamphlets about unwanted pregnancies. Credit Reynaldo Leal for The Texas Tribune On the Democratic side, State Senator Wendy Davis, whose 11-hour filibuster of an omnibus abortion bill propelled her and the issue onto the national stage this year, has mostly avoided the subject since declaring her candidacy. Democrats have largely painted the abortion battle as a Republican war on women and have expanded the debate into a fight over women’s health and access to health care, which they hope resonates with Hispanic voters. But Mr. Abbott’s efforts to highlight the differences in beliefs between the Republican and Democratic parties have been matched by right-wing organizations that have aired bilingual radio spots in South Texas that paint Ms. Davis as an “abortion zealot” who is backed by extremist groups. “Wendy Davis puts late-term abortion ahead of our faith, our families and Texas values,” the script of one ad read. The debate could prove harmful for Republicans. Following a court ruling to lift an injunction on restrictions set in place by the abortion law, the only two abortion clinics in South Texas discontinued abortion services Friday. But the Hispanic community is not a single-issue voting group, and immigration and education continue to be among their top concerns — two issues that Republicans do not usually spin positively, according to Calvin C. Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. “Republicans don’t have much to offer them on those two issues, so they push limits on abortion, knowing that Hispanics are more conservative than most Democrats on that issue,” he said. Until Republicans connect with voters on immigration and education policy, Mr. Jillson says, they will not improve their share of the Hispanic vote despite promoting their anti-abortion platform. | Hispanic Americans;Abortion;Texas;Voting;Polls |
ny0026691 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/01/18 | Christie Forms Panel on Guns and School Safety | After facing sharp criticism for not mentioning gun violence in his State of the State speech, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey appointed a task force on Thursday to examine gun control measures and school safety, as well as look at some of the underlying problems behind gun violence, including addiction and mental illness. On school safety, Mr. Christie, a Republican, said that he did not believe that putting armed guards outside schools was the answer for his state, but that he would be open to all of the ideas that the task force, led by two former state attorneys general, came up with. He has asked for the group to make its recommendations in 60 days. “Violence in our society has never been solely about firearms, and we would miss an opportunity to better prevent heinous crimes if we didn’t look at the complete picture,” Mr. Christie said at a news conference in Trenton. “If we are truly going to take an honest and candid assessment of violence and public safety, we have to look more deeply at the underlying causes of many acts of violence. “That means removing the stigma and evaluating issues of mental health, addiction, prevention and treatment services alongside the effectiveness of our firearms laws, enforcement mechanisms and our school safety measures.” Image Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday that he was open to listening to both sides, but expressed doubt about armed guards at schools. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press Mr. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, declined to comment on President Obama’s proposal for a federal ban on assault rifles and other measures, saying that he was focusing his efforts inside the state. He noted that the state already has such a ban and limits the rounds of ammunition in a magazine to 15. The president’s proposal recommends 10. But he did weigh into the controversy over the National Rifle Association’s mentioning Mr. Obama’s children in an advertisement unveiled this week. The advertisement, which heralds the N.R.A.’s proposal to put armed guards at schools, notes that the president’s children are provided with protection by the Secret Service. Mr. Christie called it “reprehensible” to refer to the children and said that such actions undermined the organization’s credibility and efforts to make its case. When asked if he was concerned about the organization’s political power as he considered what steps to take in New Jersey to reduce gun violence that could include stricter gun measures, Mr. Christie said, “I don’t worry about the N.R.A.” He added that he was not worried about people who are gun control advocates, either. “I am willing to listen to all of them,” he said. “As you know, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying.” In contrast to the swift action by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers in New York that led to tighter gun measures this week, Mr. Christie did not mention guns as he laid out his legislative agenda in his speech last week. With the task force, he said, he has decided to take a more “deliberate approach” to address concerns in the aftermath of the shootings in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and 6 adults at an elementary school. | NJ State of the State;Chris Christie;New Jersey;Gun Control;K-12 Education |
ny0189196 | [
"business"
] | 2009/05/02 | Bankruptcy Ties Union’s Fortunes to Chrysler’s | DETROIT — Labor unions usually dread bankruptcy, and for good reason. Their pay, benefits and pensions typically suffer significant cuts, as airline and steel workers can attest. But for the United Automobile Workers union, Chrysler ’s Chapter 11 case, which began in New York on Friday, could turn out to be — if the company survives and thrives — the Cadillac of bankruptcies. The U.A.W., for example, has received upfront protection from the Treasury Department for its pension plan and the fund that will take over responsibility for retiree medical benefits. Moreover, that fund, called the voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, will control 55 percent of the equity in the new Chrysler once it emerges from bankruptcy, and hold a seat on the Chrysler board. Of course, those hard-fought gains, and the big ownership stake, could be worthless if Chrysler does not make it. And the company’s fortunes continued to sag in April, when sales fell 48 percent compared with the same month in 2008. Chrysler will also have to wait roughly two years or more for new cars designed by its partner, the Italian automaker Fiat, to show up in Chrysler dealerships. But for now, even though Chrysler workers had to agree to lower pay and less generous benefits as part of the deal, the U.A.W. appears to be enjoying relative safety in helping steer the course of the Chrysler bankruptcy. “I’m very comfortable,” Ron Gettelfinger, the U.A.W.’s president, said Friday on National Public Radio. “It’s not like we’re going into this bankruptcy fighting with Chrysler and Fiat and the U.S. Treasury. We’re going in there in lockstep to put our agreements in place.” Labor and restructuring lawyers said such a comprehensive deal going into bankruptcy was rare. “This is extraordinary, truly extraordinary,” said Mary Jo Dowd, a partner in the financial and bankruptcy restructuring practice at Arent Fox in Washington. “I never would have thought a year ago that this would occur. These are truly unusual times.” Asked if he could recall any other union that fared as well, David L. Gregory, a labor law professor at St. John’s University, replied: “Nobody’s even close.” But the U.A.W. is also no ordinary union. Even though its membership at the Detroit automakers has shrunk to a quarter of its size in 1990, it still maintains tremendous influence in Washington, partly because of its heavy political contributions. The government, in assessing what was needed to make Chrysler viable, decided it needed to support workers, as well as suppliers, and guarantee the warranties on Chrysler vehicles. Because the union agreed to negotiate, it was made a partner, with the government and Fiat, in developing the plan to restructure the company. In contrast, other companies often use bankruptcy as a way to gain leverage over labor, so that they can lower their costs. Workers at Bethlehem Steel, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways lost all or most of their traditional pension benefits when those employers sought bankruptcy protection in this decade, though some of the shortfall was covered by the federal government. Retiree health care coverage was also cut. None of those cases, filed during the Bush administration, had the kind of federal support offered to the U.A.W. In the case of Chrysler, the Treasury said Chrysler is giving a VEBA a $4.6 billion note, payable over 13 years at a 9 percent interest rate, helping to fund roughly $10 billion in liabilities. The rest will be paid in Chrysler stock. Chrysler’s pension plans will be preserved, with the help of $600 million from Daimler, Chrysler’s former owner, the Treasury said. If Chrysler goes under, pensions will be covered in part by the federal pension agency, but workers will receive much less than they are owed. The VEBA would be in dire straits, since it would owe the Treasury and have nothing to pay it back with. The U.A.W. was ready for the probability of a Chrysler filing as far back as two months ago, people involved in the negotiations said. Its stand was clear: for it to support a bankruptcy case, workers’ health care and pensions had to be protected. But the administration, advised by Ron Bloom, the veteran restructuring expert, also insisted that the union make sacrifices. On Wednesday, Chrysler workers approved concessions, including work rule changes, that would result in lower pay and less generous benefits than in the 2007 contract. Significantly, the VEBA can begin adjusting workers’ health care benefits in 2010, two years sooner than the previous contract allowed. Chrysler workers’ concessions, similar to those granted earlier this year at Ford Motor, form the basis of a prenegotiated labor agreement with the new Chrysler, people involved in the negotiations said. Chrysler’s pension liability will shift from the defunct company to the new one, these people said, and workers will continue to have a lucrative contract. Despite the concessions, Chrysler’s most senior workers, like those at Ford, still have healthy wages and benefits; bountiful health care coverage, at least until it is adjusted; and subsidies to help bolster unemployment benefits they receive while plants are closed, as they will be at Chrysler for weeks until the sale is final. That carryover is unusual, Ms. Dowd said, since the buyers of assets in bankruptcy cases normally try to purchase them free and clear of their existing liabilities. It also means the union will not have to come to terms with Fiat once it takes over the company, or risk having its contracts abrogated. None of this sat well with some Chrysler’s debtholders, who questioned the fairness of the 55 percent stake granted to the VEBA. They did not raise objections in bankruptcy court on Friday, however. Professor Gregory said the U.A.W.’s position still carried risk. “Chrysler may be worth nothing, and 55 percent of nothing may be worth nothing,” he said. But a comeback by Chrysler after it emerges from bankruptcy could ensure the security of the retiree health care fund, which will begin selling its Chrysler shares as soon as possible, Mr. Gettelfinger said Friday. His legacy, and that of the union, could also could benefit, Professor Gregory said — if Chrysler and G.M. are able to successfully restructure. “It’s walking a very tight rope without a safety net, and a very high wire,” he said. “But if this can get some traction, they could be the envy of not just organized labor, but a lot of folks.” | United Automobile Workers;Chrysler LLC;Bankruptcies;Automobiles;Subprime Mortgage Crisis |
ny0192045 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2009/02/10 | Circulation Drops for Celebrity Magazines | THE recession has taken a heavy toll on sales of celebrity gossip magazines, a classic impulse buy at a newsstand or a checkout line, but in general, magazine circulation has held up well despite the downturn, according to figures released Monday. In recent years, obsession with the likes of Jen, Britney, Angelina and Brad had guaranteed rising sales. But many magazines in that business recorded double-digit declines in circulation in the second half of 2008, compared with a year earlier, defying the maxim that escapism sells in tough times. The numbers came from the Audit Bureau of Circulations , which collects and analyzes data for most of the industry. Gossip magazines are especially dependent on single-copy sales — as opposed to subscriptions — and across the industry, those sales dropped 11 percent from July through December. Single-copy sales traditionally have been viewed as an indicator of a magazine’s vitality and eye-catching appeal, and they can be an important source of revenue because the consumers pay the full cover price. Advertising in magazines is down sharply, many are struggling and some have folded, but the audit bureau report shows that reader interest remains strong. Based on a review of more than 500 magazines, the bureau said that overall sales fell less than 1 percent in the second half of 2008, helped by price cuts and deals aimed at retaining subscribers. In the crowded field of celebrity magazines, In Touch Weekly’s circulation tumbled 29.3 percent, to 899,000, and Life & Style Weekly fell 30.7 percent, to 472,000. Star magazine fell 10.3 percent, to 1.2 million, and the National Enquirer dropped 11.2 percent, to 891,000. OK! Weekly fared better, slipping 2.7 percent, to 910,000. But sales of People, which only loosely fits the celebrity category, increased 2 percent, to almost 3.7 million, and even single-copy sales rose slightly. Its nearest competitor, Us Weekly, dropped 1.3 percent, to 1.9 million, despite a drop of more than 200,000 in single-copy sales. The circulation reports reflect the shake-up in newsmagazines. Sales of Newsweek fell 13.1 percent, to 2.7 million, and U.S. News & World Report dropped 22.3 percent, to less than 1.6 million, after both magazines reduced their rate base — the circulation promised to advertisers — and altered their editorial focus. The change at U.S. News was especially sharp, as it moved toward consumer advice as a primary mission and went to monthly publication from weekly. Meanwhile, sales of Time held steady at more than 3.3 million, and two relative newcomers, The Economist and The Week, continued to gain on the established news weeklies. The Economist’s circulation rose 9.2 percent, to 787,000; The Week’s climbed 7.5 percent, to 516,000. Single-copy sales of the news magazines showed a sharp upswing based mostly on the popularity of postelection issues with Barack Obama on the covers, but newsstands and bookstores still accounted for a small fraction of their circulation. One category in which circulation grew was cooking magazines, from the budget-conscious to the indulgent, as the recession caused people to eat out less. Everyday Food rose 7.8 percent, to just under 1 million; Every Day With Rachael Ray climbed 7.1 percent, to almost 1.8 million; and several other cooking magazines made smaller gains. The circulation figures also offered stark proof that selling more copies is no guarantee of success when advertising is in decline. Among large-circulation magazines, the biggest circulation gainer was Domino, which grew 54.6 percent, to more than 1 million — and it closed in January. | Audit Bureau of Circulations;Magazines;Sales |
ny0246753 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2011/05/03 | Joy at Bin Laden’s Death Is Mixed With Sober Reflection | There were, of course, the joyous celebrations, the honking horns, cheering crowds and waving flags, as if war had been won and tyranny ended. But word that Osama bin Laden had at last been killed brought out other voices on Monday as well: sober, reflective, wounded still and vengeful, but also articulate in hope. As Americans streamed to the World Trade Center site and spontaneous gatherings across the New York region, there were countless more subdued scenes that captured the day’s emotion: a woman at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, praying amid flickering votive candles, her face strangely powerful in its stillness. Or a ground zero veteran tethered to an oxygen tank on Long Island, grateful that he had outlived the terrorist. Or the Muslims in a halal butcher shop in Brooklyn hoping for a new beginning in a land that might finally stop blaming them for the nightmares of terrorism. Or the quiet strollers in a Middletown, N.J., memorial garden for 9/11 victims, pondering the paradoxes of remembrance, revenge and relief. In Brooklyn, neighbors gathered outside Cheryl Stewart’s house on Coffey Street to photograph a sign on her fence that had become a part of life in Red Hook. It asked, “Where is Osama bin Laden?” and recorded the days it took to find him. Ms. Stewart, 48, a sculptor, had changed the red numbers every day, but she took the sign down on Monday. “Dead,” read a note someone had tacked up overnight, answering the question with finality. “Congratulations,” Isaura Horenstein said, her eyes brimming with tears as she hugged her neighbor. “Thank you,” Ms. Stewart said. “When I first put the sign up, I didn’t imagine it would take this long. To me, it’s a criminal justice issue. Three thousand people died. Nothing was done. And it took 9 years, 232 days, to find somebody who killed 3,000 of my neighbors. It utterly changed my city forever.” For nearly 10 years, Lee Ielpi, 66, of Great Neck, N.Y., had anticipated the day Bin Laden would be caught or killed. His son, Jonathan, a firefighter from Queens, had called him on 9/11 to say he was on his way to the trade center, and never came back. Mr. Ielpi went to the site on Monday and spoke of a flood of emotions at learning the terrorist had been slain. “I cried,” he said. “I took a look up at the sky and said ‘They got him!’ Now the day has come, and it’s a mixed emotion. It’s sad; it’s triumphant. I feel absolutely fantastic.” He paused. “I hope it brings some comfort to the families. No closure. That word should be stricken from the English language.” Nearby, John Cartier, a Queens electrician whose brother, James, also an electrician, had died on the 105th floor of the south tower, was skeptical about another overused word. “Justice is a politician’s word,” he said. “It’s all about revenge for me.” Mr. Cartier said he often went to the trade center site to remember. “I use these moments to put a face to the event,” he said. “I’m walking around with a picture of my brother, who is dead. It’s not a happy day.” By midmorning, under an iron-gray dome of clouds that contrasted with the crystalline beauty of 9/11, the trade center site had drawn large crowds of the curious and the mourning, the somber and the triumphant. Tourists snapped pictures of the rising 1 World Trade Center , vendors hawked American flags, and one sold pictures of the Statue of Liberty holding up a bloody Bin Laden head. For nearly a decade, Americans had seen him on television, in photographs and in their mind’s eye: the raptor-eyed Osama bin Laden, often gripping a Kalashnikov rifle and grinning like a gargoyle as he made his threats or gloated over terrorist strikes. Daniel Arrigo saw that face on the news again Sunday night at home in Long Beach, N.Y. A construction worker who had labored 15-hour shifts seven days a week at ground zero for five months after the attack, he had two strokes in 2003 and by 2008 was suffering from severe lung disease; he is being treated at Mount Sinai Medical Center’s World Trade Center health monitoring program . Mr. Arrigo was lying in bed, as he does most of the time, tethered to his oxygen tank and respirator, when the news came on. He and his wife, Bridget, were riveted. Because of his progressive illness, the last nine years had been hell. The couple and their three children had been evicted from their home, two cars had been repossessed and they had to rely on welfare and food stamps until his claims for worker’s compensation and disability insurance finally came through. He watched the celebratory gatherings with misgivings. “For that brief moment,” he said, “everybody was an American again, and everybody remembered. But what about the nine years that everybody’s been suffering? You don’t hear about that. People forget about us. The politicians forgot about us. The law firms made whatever deals they could make.” But Mr. Arrigo said he had one consolation. “I’m glad he died before me,” he said. There was perhaps no place in New York more delighted with the news of Bin Laden’s doom than the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, where much of the rubble of the destroyed trade center was taken, and where city workers had once sifted tons of it in search of the remains of many of the thousands who died in the calamity. The landfill is a tranquil setting now, with grass cloaking mounds of debris. The arrival of a maroon pickup truck with handgun decals marked “Terrorist Hunter” in the back window broke the serenity. At the wheel, Pete Biskoroway, 42, who lost two friends in the attacks, said: “When you come to work here, you know the towers are buried here, so it’s always on your mind. I’m sad it took so long, but I’m glad they brought him to justice, and I’m glad there’s some kind of closure to this.” Howie Thompson, 58, a landfill sanitation worker, called the news momentous. “They should make it a holiday,” he suggested, saying he was happy that Bin Laden is dead and “that justice is finally served.” Far from the celebrations, people strolled through a pacific memorial garden in Middletown, where 37 local victims of the trade center attack are remembered. A brick path on a winding lane leads through tall trees. On either side are what look like headstones of polished marble with names and faces etched in, along with attributes: “Life of the Party,” “Loving Mother,” “Devoted Wife.” “I’m sure there will probably be a lot of relief for some of the people affected by it,” Steve Bloom, 60, an insurance man, said of Bin Laden’s death. “But how they are going to feel about it? It doesn’t bring back the people they lost.” Many worried that the killing of Bin Laden would turn him into a martyr and incite waves of new violence by followers. Bill Cuff, 72, was one of them. “We’ll pay a price,” he said. “It will be an excuse to do all sorts of nasty things. I don’t believe in vengeance for the sake of vengeance. The reaction is that that just breeds more vengeance.” Fe Abellar, 69, a retired teacher, said: “I thought about the victims. I thought about their families. At the same time, I thought about our Muslim brothers at the other side of the world. Because we belong to one world. I hope one day we will achieve unity and peace.” Something similar was on the minds of residents in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, home to the city’s Little Pakistan. A group of men at a halal butcher shop called Bin Laden’s death a blessing. In the office of a Muslim community group, advocates handed out celebratory sweets. In a kebab restaurant, an Afghan waitress said she hoped people would finally stop linking her people with terrorism. Indeed, the neighborhood was alive with hope on Monday that the terrorist’s removal would mark a new beginning for Muslims in New York, many of whom have felt under suspicion since the Sept. 11 attacks. “Thank God he’s gone — it’s good news for the whole world,” said Ahmad Sajjad, the owner of a grocery store where men gathered to discuss the news. “It’s finished. Now we can go back to 2000.” But Mian Zain, a customer, was less sanguine. “Someone will take over for him,” he said. “The game is not over.” Mohammad Razvi, executive director of the Council of Peoples Organizations , a Muslim advocacy group, cloaked his building on Coney Island Avenue with a two-story American flag on Monday. “It’s a celebration for everyone,” he said. “This guy had nothing to do with Islam.” At the Islamic Cultural Center on East 96th Street in Manhattan, the imam, Shamsi Ali , agreed. He likened Bin Laden to a cancer growing in the body of the Muslim community that had finally been cut out. “We really applaud the efforts of the U.S. government,” he said. “Hopefully this will be the start of Muslim communities living in tranquillity and peace.” At the largely Afghan Hazrat Abubakr Mosque in Flushing, Queens, celebrations were being planned for the weekend, and the imam, Mohammad Sherzad, said he was overjoyed at the terrorist’s death, not least because of the violence he had perpetrated against his own people. “Everybody was happy because we suffer a lot from that criminal,” he said. “Before anybody else, he did a lot of crimes against the Muslims.” For a Buddhist, there were contradictions. “My initial reaction is like everyone else’s — this is a good thing,” said Ethan Nichtern, 32, a Buddhism teacher in the East Village. “But Buddhism says there is no monster that exists on his own, without cause, and that every living thing is sacred, including monsters. So I would chalk this up as one of the most intensely confusing moments for Buddhists so far in the 21st century.” As Bin Laden was going out, two new people were coming into the world at Roosevelt Hospital. JaDon Freddrick Jackson was born on Sunday to Tanisa Williams, a lawyer, who wondered if the world would really be a safer place for her second child. And Zain Mosher Littles was born on Monday to Cassidy Mosher, who works on costumes for films and television. Mothers and sons were reported doing well. “I hear there’s a lot of celebrating going on,” Ms. Mosher, 28, said. “I must say this person did horrible things to thousands of people. But it’s hard to celebrate someone’s death when you have life coming into yours. No matter what somebody does, taking a solemn moment when somebody dies is important.” | September 11 (2001);World Trade Center (NYC);bin Laden Osama;New York City |
ny0015680 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/10/28 | Skakel Lawyer, in a TV Twist, Is Talk Fodder | For two decades, when the tribulations of the famous and the notorious have aired on television, Mickey Sherman has been there to talk and talk: about O. J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, Michael Vick, Casey Anthony, Michael Jackson, just to name a few whose legal cases he analyzed for the camera. When Nancy Grace needed help explaining how a man accused of murder had walked free even after the victims’ bodies were found in his backyard, Mr. Sherman was there, making the CNN studio peal with laughter. “You get a client with 8 to 12 bodies buried in his yard, and there’s an immediate rush to judgment that he may have done something wrong,” he deadpanned. The public’s insatiable appetite for true-crime programming vaulted Mr. Sherman, the assured, accessible and witty defense lawyer from Greenwich, Conn., into the flashy television-personality world of photo shoots and celebrity hobnobbing. But now Mr. Sherman is the one whom the talking heads are talking about. Last week, a Connecticut judge ordered a retrial for Mr. Sherman’s most famous client, Michael C. Skakel, the nephew of Ethel Kennedy who was convicted in 2002 of killing a neighbor, Martha Moxley, when both were 15 in 1975. In a scathing, 136-page decision, the judge wrote that had Mr. Sherman not done such a poor job defending Mr. Skakel, the jury might have come to a different conclusion. “What’s unusual here,” John Berman of CNN said the next morning, “is that the lawyer — Mickey Sherman was a very well-known lawyer. Highly paid. Like I think he made more than a million dollars in this case. You don’t usually see the adequate representation then coming into play with a high-priced celebrity lawyer in cases like this. It is fascinating, fascinating to see.” The decision on Wednesday , by Judge Thomas A. Bishop, came about after Mr. Skakel’s new lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition, a Hail Mary gambit with historically slim odds, after they spent 11 years appealing and petitioning judges for a new trial. Calling Mr. Sherman’s failures “fatal to a constitutionally adequate defense,” the judge issued an assessment of his performance that might not have seemed out of place on cable TV, three times labeling Mr. Sherman’s lapses “inexcusable.” He said Mr. Sherman had failed to argue that a brother of Mr. Skakel’s, who had fallen under suspicion at one point during the long investigation, could have killed Ms. Moxley; that he had not called a witness who could have supported Mr. Skakel’s alibi; that he had not adequately contested one man’s claim that Mr. Skakel had confessed the murder to him, even though there were witnesses available to challenge the claim; and that he had presented a weak closing argument without mentioning the concept of reasonable doubt, among other problems. On Friday, two days later, Mr. Sherman said he had yet to read the judge’s decision, but also that he was pleased that his former client, who was sentenced to 20 years to life, might finally leave prison. “I’m not concerned about my future career or business,” Mr. Sherman said. “What concerns me is Michael.” Like Mr. Skakel and Ms. Moxley, Mr. Sherman, 66, grew up in Greenwich, though in a decidedly less affluent part of town. A graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law, he worked as a public defender and prosecutor in Stamford before starting a private practice in 1976. In 1991, a few years after The American Lawyer wrote about Mr. Sherman, the magazine’s publisher, Steven Brill, asked him to appear in a program he was developing that would show trials in their entirety alongside running commentary from veteran lawyers. The pilot would become Court TV, now TruTV. One of its early programs centered on Mr. Sherman’s highest-profile trial before the Skakel case, that of Roger Ligon, a Vietnam War veteran who was charged with murder for shooting someone over a parking dispute. As Court TV filmed the proceedings, Mr. Sherman constructed a novel defense, arguing that Mr. Ligon had suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Mr. Ligon was acquitted, cementing Mr. Sherman’s reputation as a defense attorney — and one who recognized what television could do for his business. Image Mr. Sherman and Mr. Skakel. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times The contemporary cult of the celebrity lawyer was arguably born with the O. J. Simpson murder case in 1994, and made television stars of a half-dozen or more of the lawyers involved. By the time he took the Skakel case, Mr. Sherman was part of that ever-expanding constellation : a fixture on Court TV and other channels, he now counted among his best friends the singer Michael Bolton and the television personality Rikki Klieman, along with her husband, William J. Bratton, the police chief who served in New York, Los Angeles and Boston. Known for his irreverence in the courtroom — he once waved a live lobster in court while defending a fisherman — Mr. Sherman made for good TV, breaking up the tension of dramatic headlines with well-placed jokes. And he enjoyed the attention, as Mr. Skakel testified at a court hearing earlier this year. Mr. Skakel said Mr. Sherman called himself a “media whore” who, during trial preparations, took a potential witness to dinner in Chicago with Mr. Bolton and the basketball coach Doc Rivers (The actor Harrison Ford dropped by). Mr. Sherman said last week that he used the celebrities’ presence to entice the potential witness so that he could learn more about how the person might testify. (He was not called to the stand.) Mr. Sherman, who was hired in part for his media experience, billed more than $1.2 million for the case. “Mickey got distracted by the glitter and the glare,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a cousin of Mr. Skakel’s, said in an interview last week. “He was not lifting up every rock, and if he had, Michael Skakel would not be in prison for the last 10 years, and Mickey knows that.” After the trial, the limousine that whisked Mr. Sherman from his Connecticut home to studios in New York City continued coming. About a year after the Skakel trial ended in June 2002, he parlayed his growing fame into a paid job as the legal analyst for CBS News, a position he held for several years. Vanity Fair did a photo shoot. His income ballooned to $854,000 in 2004, up from a low of about $96,000 in 1998. So ubiquitous did he become that he had a cameo in the 2006 film “Man of the Year,” as “Talking Head Lawyer.” Having separated from his wife, now Judy Jacobson, in 1998, Mr. Sherman finalized his divorce in 2005 and married Lis Wiehl, the legal analyst for Fox News, the next year. At the wedding, which was attended by the television hosts Geraldo Rivera and Dan Abrams, as well as Mr. Brill and the director Barry Levinson, Mr. Bolton sang “When a Man Loves a Woman.” (Mr. Sherman and Ms. Wiehl are now divorced.) But he was already running behind on paying his taxes, with debts to the Internal Revenue Service that topped $1 million by the time he was charged and pleaded guilty in 2010 to willfully failing to pay. Documents in the tax case described Mr. Sherman as an inveterate spender, one who friends and family said in letters of support could be all too openhanded with gifts. One of his representatives, negotiating with a tax officer, said Mr. Sherman’s affluent lifestyle required “plenty of cash.” Because he was a high-profile lawyer, the representative added, “image was everything.” Mr. Sherman’s license was suspended for a year and he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, spending about half of that at a minimum-security camp, and a few months at a halfway house. He now uses his prison stint as a selling point. “I am acutely aware of that black cloud that sits above your head and that of your family,” Mr. Sherman’s Web site tells potential clients. “I know all of this because I’ve been there myself!” By April 2012, Mr. Sherman was back on television, often dissecting the shooting of Trayvon Martin for Nancy Grace on the cable news channel HLN. Mr. Sherman said he understood Mr. Skakel’s need to paint him as ineffective, but in an interview last week, he offered a rebuttal to the judge’s ruling. Mr. Sherman said he had avoided implicating other possible suspects because they could give one another alibis. As for challenging the prosecution witness’s claim that Mr. Skakel had confessed, he said he believed his cross-examination had established the witness as an unreliable drug user. Some prominent members of the television legal bar expressed surprise with the ruling, which prosecutors have promised to appeal. “Astonished,” said Jeffrey Toobin on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees.” “I sat through this trial. Mickey Sherman made some very debatable moves, but this was not outside the realm of normal criminal defense.” Last week, Mr. Sherman called the decision “one hundred times worse” than going to prison “because it goes to my fabric as a lawyer.” As for the experience of having his own performance scrutinized by Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Skakel’s new legal team and now his fellow talking heads, he sounds philosophical. “They pay people like me to win,” Mr. Sherman said. “So I don’t blame them.” | Mickey Sherman;Lawyers;Michael Skakel;Martha Moxley;Murders;Connecticut |
ny0064955 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/06/28 | Lawmaker in Manhattan Pleads Guilty to 2 Felonies | A New York assemblywoman in her first term became the latest state lawmaker to be forced out of office as she pleaded guilty on Friday to two felonies in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The assemblywoman, Gabriela Rosa of Manhattan, unlike some of her convicted colleagues, was not accused of bribery; she was undone by making false statements, including one concerning a fraudulent marriage that she admitted was part of an immigration scheme. Ms. Rosa told Judge Denise Cote that she had gotten married some years ago to “regularize my immigration status.” “I married this person and it was not a real marriage,” she said. Prosecutors said that around 1996, Ms. Rosa, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, paid a United States citizen about $8,000 to enter into “a sham marriage” while she was in a relationship with a man she would later marry; she ended the sham marriage a few years later. In subsequent submissions to the immigration authorities, she falsely represented that her marriage had been bona fide, the government said. Ms. Rosa pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements, to immigration authorities and in a bankruptcy proceeding. As part of her plea, Ms. Rosa agreed to resign from the Assembly, where she had represented the 72nd Assembly District, which includes Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said that Ms. Rosa’s crimes “cut to the heart of her legal qualification to serve the people of the State of New York as a New York State assemblywoman.” “She gained the ability to run for that office only as a result of a yearslong immigration fraud, and then she compounded her lack of fitness to serve by defrauding a federal bankruptcy court,” Mr. Bharara said. Ms. Rosa also admitted that she had received $1,000 from a representative of a foreign government in connection with her election to the Assembly, a violation of the campaign finance laws, and she agreed to return the money, her plea agreement says. Although she faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when sentenced on Oct. 3, the plea agreement says that both sides have agreed that the recommended guideline range is 12 to 18 months. Ms. Rosa, 47, a Democrat elected in 2012, was among the most junior members of the Assembly. Later, outside the courthouse, Ms. Rosa told reporters that she regretted her actions, but she said that her crimes had occurred before she had become a member of the Assembly. “I didn’t get rich out of my position,” Ms. Rosa said. “I didn’t take any bribes. I didn’t do none of the things that usually you are very used to seeing in the other guys that get in this situation.” In court, a prosecutor, Howard S. Master, did not explain how the investigation into Ms. Rosa had begun, but he said she had a lawyer appointed to represent her when she became “a target” of a grand jury investigation. Ms. Rosa’s lawyer, Matthew D. Myers, said after the proceeding: “I think generally they’re investigating a lot of political corruption in this town, and maybe stumbled upon this. I can’t speak for their entire investigation, but obviously, she wasn’t a main target at the start of this investigation.” The case involving Ms. Rosa is another in a long string of public corruption cases filed in recent years by federal prosecutors involving public officials in Albany. In January, Eric A. Stevenson, a Democratic assemblyman from the Bronx, was convicted of bribery and other corruption charges; in May, he was sentenced to three years in prison. This month, Malcolm A. Smith, a Democratic state senator from Queens, was granted a mistrial in his trial on bribery and wire fraud charges; Mr. Smith, who has pleaded not guilty, is to be retried in January. And William F. Boyland Jr., a Democratic assemblyman from one of Brooklyn’s prominent political families, was convicted in March of bribery and other charges in federal court in Brooklyn. In late March, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo abruptly disbanded a panel he had established to investigate corruption in state government and develop reforms that would help deter it. His decision prompted an unusual public rebuke from Mr. Bharara, whose office received the panel’s investigatory files and is now examining the circumstances surrounding its dismissal. Born in the Dominican Republic, Ms. Rosa came to New York City in 1994. “This is my American dream,” she told The Daily News after winning the Democratic primary in 2012. Before winning her Assembly seat, Ms. Rosa worked as an aide to Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr. of Manhattan, who is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. She also served as chief of staff to former City Councilman Miguel Martinez, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to stealing more than $100,000 through his Council office and a pair of nonprofit organizations. Ms. Rosa recently campaigned on behalf of a fellow Dominican-American legislator, State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat, who lost a Democratic primary challenge on Tuesday to Representative Charles B. Rangel. Mr. Espaillat was a supporter of Ms. Rosa’s when she ran for the Assembly. | State legislature;Gabriela Rosa;Denise Cote;Fraud;Manhattan;New York |
ny0286716 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2016/09/25 | Clinton-Trump Debate Expected to Be Rare Draw in a Polarized Age | The uniquely uncivil presidential campaign is about to produce one of the biggest civic gatherings in decades: For 90 minutes on Monday night, a polarized nation will pause to watch the first head-to-head encounter between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. The total audience, network executives and political strategists say, could be as high as 100 million viewers — Super Bowl territory. That would surpass the 80 million who watched Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, the record for a presidential debate , and rank among television benchmarks like the finales of “MASH” and “Cheers.” Not all viewers will watch from their living rooms. At the Dreamland Theater in tiny Nantucket, Mass., so many are expected for a debate-watching party that the town assigned a police officer to stand watch in case of rowdiness. In Paris, many of those abroad for Fashion Week are setting middle-of-the-night alarms so they can watch the debate live — at 3 a.m. local time. “I need to feel like I’m part of this,” said Laura Brown, InStyle’s editor in chief. And in Richardson, Tex., the Alamo Drafthouse had to switch to a bigger room after overwhelming interest in a screening with refreshments like a “build a wall around it” taco salad. Mass experiences — built around news events like the moon landing, and pop culture moments for older generations like the “Who shot J. R.?” episode of “Dallas” — are rare in an age of fragmented media and the drift toward partisan outlets, where viewers can effectively choose their own news. But tight polls and curiosity about the unconventional Mr. Trump are luring viewers. In a New York Times/CBS News poll this month, 83 percent of registered voters said they were very or somewhat likely to watch on Monday. “It’s a throwback to a phenomenon that has essentially disappeared in the era of digital media,” said Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News. “This is Americans gathering around the electronic hearth.” Advertisers, including Audi cars and Tecate beer , are taking advantage, introducing debate-themed commercials in the kind of tie-in marketing usually reserved for events like the Super Bowl. Although the debate will air without commercials, cable and broadcast channels have sold millions of dollars’ worth of ads for programming before and afterward. Image Monday’s first presidential debate will be held on a spare stage on the campus of Hofstra University on Long Island. Credit George Etheredge for The New York Times Television networks and online streaming sites, including Facebook and Twitter, will carry the same feed on Monday, showing a spare debate stage at Hofstra University, on Long Island, a format that predates the blaring graphics and space-age sets that now dominate television news. Still, even if a large portion of the country is watching, what Americans see may be as much about their beliefs and preferred news outlets as what transpires onstage. About 8 percent of registered voters remain undecided, according to the New York Times/CBS News poll, a thin if crucial sliver of the electorate. And after Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump conclude on Monday, viewers are likely to return to their ideological silos, absorbing instant analysis from left-leaning anchors on MSNBC or commentators at right-leaning outlets like Breitbart News. The debate itself will be subject to instant, blow-by-blow interpretation on social media. “Regardless of where you’re watching, whether it’s Facebook Live or NBC or Fox News, there will be a moment where we all witness it,” said Charles L. Ponce de Leon , author of “That’s the Way It Is,” a history of television news. “But that moment will quickly crumble when all the instant analysis and opining comes into play.” The event’s impact is unlikely to rival that of, say, 1960, when John F. Kennedy’s smooth performance in the first televised debate helped sway voters against his opponent, Richard Nixon. That debate aired without commentary — or graphics and captions on the screen. “Journalists were of the opinion they should wait and ruminate and think about what went down, and then, a day or a week later, talk about it,” Mr. de Leon said. A Week of Whoppers From Donald Trump Mr. Trump has unleashed a blizzard of falsehoods, exaggerations and outright lies in the general election. Here's our analysis of 31 untruths from Sept. 15-21. Tom Sander, who runs a program on civic engagement at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said he was worried that voters might not have a chance to remove partisan blinders. “Many of us come to these events more to confirm what we already think we know, rather than to search for common ground,” Mr. Sander said. The candidates may hope otherwise. Mrs. Clinton has told donors privately that she expects 100 million people to watch the debate, and that 60 million of those viewers may be focusing on the campaign for the first time, a prime opportunity for her to make inroads. Many may tune in merely for the spectacle. “It’s like waiting for the Ali-Frazier fight,” said Dick Cavett, the longtime talk-show host, referring to the highly anticipated boxing bouts between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the 1970s. Mr. Cavett said he would cut short a dinner on Monday to ensure he would be in front of a TV by 9 p.m. “There’s possible drama and fireworks and insults and horror and disaster and potential enlightenment,” Mr. Cavett said. “It would attract anybody.” On the Trail: Week of Sept. 17 15 Photos View Slide Show › Image Damon Winter/The New York Times Some in TV noted that the 2008 meeting between Joseph R. Biden and Sarah Palin attracted 70 million viewers, more than any of that year’s presidential debates, a sign that civic interest may be less of a draw than seeing a colorful candidate like Ms. Palin — or Mr. Trump. The 1980 Carter-Reagan debate scored a record audience in part because it was the only head-to-head matchup between the candidates in a precable era. But Neal Shapiro, a former president of NBC News, recalled that Mr. Reagan’s unusual background as a Hollywood actor spurred interest. “People wanted to see, would they really feel comfortable with Reagan as president?” Mr. Shapiro said. “People were wondering, ‘Can I live with this guy?’” The first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012 drew 67 million viewers. Advertisers, anticipating even more this time, are using the opportunity to unveil new ads with themes that may resonate with Americans focused on the campaign. Audi’s commercial shows a man and woman, both hotel valets, battling for the right to drive an Audi RS7 luxury car, and features the slogan “Choose the next driver wisely.” American flags, and ice sculptures of a donkey and an elephant, convey the message that the car, as an Audi vice president for marketing put it, is “a metaphor for the importance of America.” In a spot set for Monday night, Tecate, a Mexican beer label owned by Heineken, features a view of the Mexican border and a Trump-like voice-over that declares, “The time has come for a wall — a tremendous wall.” The wall is revealed as a knee-high resting place for Tecate beers, “a wall that brings us together.” The ad, airing on networks including Fox News and Univision, is “absolutely not” about a political point of view or affiliation, said Felix Palau, a vice president at Tecate. “Tecate, being a Mexican beer, is a perfect protagonist of a story where a wall brings people together in a very fun way,” Mr. Palau said. The debate’s biggest televised competition on Monday is likely to be another program featuring intricate strategies and crushing blows: “Monday Night Football” on ESPN. And one famous political junkie says he may flip the channel — for a few minutes, at least — to the action on the gridiron. “The president’s fired up about ‘Monday Night Football,’” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, playfully told reporters who asked if President Obama planned to watch the debate. “There will be millions of people across the country who are quite interested to see the two candidates onstage together for the first time,” Mr. Earnest added. “I imagine the president will be one of them.” | 2016 Presidential Election;Hillary Clinton;Donald Trump;Political Debates;TV;Ratings |
ny0019748 | [
"us"
] | 2013/07/01 | Job Title Key to Inner Access Held by Snowden | WASHINGTON — Intelligence officials refer to Edward J. Snowden’s job as a National Security Agency contractor as “systems administrator” — a bland name for the specialists who keep the computers humming. But his last job before leaking classified documents about N.S.A. surveillance, he told the news organization The Guardian, was actually “infrastructure analyst.” It is a title that officials have carefully avoided mentioning, perhaps for fear of inviting questions about the agency’s aggressive tactics: an infrastructure analyst at the N.S.A., like a burglar casing an apartment building, looks for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world. That assignment helps explain how Mr. Snowden got hold of documents laying bare the top-secret capabilities of the nation’s largest intelligence agency, setting off a far-reaching political and diplomatic crisis for the Obama administration. Even as some members of Congress have challenged the N.S.A.’s collection of logs of nearly every phone call Americans make, European officials furiously protested on Sunday after Mr. Snowden’s disclosure that the N.S.A. has bugged European Union offices in Washington and Brussels and, with its British counterpart, has tapped the Continent’s major fiber-optic communications cables. On Sunday evening, The Guardian posted an article saying documents leaked by Mr. Snowden show 38 embassies and missions on a list of United States electronic surveillance targets. Some of those offices belong to allies like France, Italy, Japan and Mexico, The Guardian said. Mr. Snowden, who planned his leaks for at least a year, has said he took the infrastructure analyst position with Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii in March, evidently taking a pay cut, to gain access to a fresh supply of documents. “My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the N.S.A. hacked,” he told The South China Morning Post before leaving Hong Kong a week ago for Moscow, where he has been in limbo in the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.” A close reading of Mr. Snowden’s documents shows the extent to which the eavesdropping agency now has two new roles: It is a data cruncher, with an appetite to sweep up, and hold for years, a staggering variety of information. And it is an intelligence force armed with cyberweapons, assigned not just to monitor foreign computers but also, if necessary, to attack. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the documents suggest, the N.S.A. decided it was too risky to wait for leads on specific suspects before going after relevant phone and Internet records. So it followed the example of the hoarder who justifies stacks of paper because someday, somehow, a single page could prove vitally important. The agency began amassing databases of “metadata” — logs of all telephone calls collected from the major carriers and similar data on e-mail traffic. The e-mail program was halted in 2011, though it appears possible that the same data is now gathered in some other way. The documents show that America’s phone and Internet companies grew leery of N.S.A. demands as the years passed after 9/11, fearing that customers might be angry to find out their records were shared with the government. More and more, the companies’ lawyers insisted on legal orders to compel them to comply. So the N.S.A. came up with a solution: store the data itself. That is evidently what gave birth to a vast data storage center that the N.S.A. is building in Utah, exploiting the declining cost of storage and the advance of sophisticated search software. Those huge databases were once called “bit buckets” in the industry — collections of electronic bits waiting to be sifted. “They park stuff in storage in the hopes that they will eventually have time to get to it,” said James Lewis, a cyberexpert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “or that they’ll find something that they need to go back and look for in the masses of data.” But, he added, “most of it sits and is never looked at by anyone.” Indeed, an obscure passage in one of the Snowden documents — rules for collecting Internet data that the Obama administration wrote in secret in 2009 and that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved — suggested that the government was concerned about its ability to process all the data it was collecting. So it got the court to approve an exception allowing the government to hold on to that information if it could not keep up. The rules said that “the communications that may be retained” for up to five years “include electronic communications acquired because of the limitation on the N.S.A.’s ability to filter communications.” As one private expert who sometimes advises the N.S.A. on this technology put it: “This means that if you can’t desalinate all the seawater at once, you get to hold on to the ocean until you figure it out.” Image James R. Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence. Edward J. Snowden’s records forced him to backtrack on testimony. Credit Susan Walsh/Associated Press Collecting that ocean requires the brazen efforts of tens of thousands of technicians like Mr. Snowden. On Thursday, President Obama played down Mr. Snowden’s importance, perhaps concerned that the manhunt was itself damaging the image and diplomatic relations of the United States. “No, I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” the president said during a stop in Senegal. Mr. Obama presumably meant the term to be dismissive, suggesting that Mr. Snowden (who turned 30 on June 21) was a young computer delinquent. But as an N.S.A. infrastructure analyst, Mr. Snowden was, in a sense, part of the United States’ biggest and most skilled team of hackers. The N.S.A., Mr. Snowden’s documents show, has worked with its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters, to tap into hundreds of fiber-optic cables that cross the Atlantic or go on into Europe, with the N.S.A. helping sort the data. The disclosure revived old concerns that the British might be helping the N.S.A. evade American privacy protections, an accusation that American officials flatly deny. And a secret presidential directive on cyberactivities unveiled by Mr. Snowden — discussing the primary new task of the N.S.A. and its military counterpart, Cyber Command — makes clear that when the agency’s technicians probe for vulnerabilities to collect intelligence, they also study foreign communications and computer systems to identify potential targets for a future cyberwar. Infrastructure analysts like Mr. Snowden, in other words, are not just looking for electronic back doors into Chinese computers or Iranian mobile networks to steal secrets. They have a new double purpose: building a target list in case American leaders in a future conflict want to wipe out the computers’ hard drives or shut down the phone system. Mr. Snowden’s collection of pilfered N.S.A. documents has cast an awkward light on officials’ past assurances to Congress and the public about their concern about Americans’ privacy. It was only in March that James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, told a Senate committee that the N.S.A. did not collect data on millions of Americans. Mr. Snowden’s records forced Mr. Clapper to backtrack, admitting his statement was false. Last week, two senators challenged even the accuracy of a fact sheet prepared by the N.S.A. to counter Mr. Snowden’s claims about the phone data and Internet collection programs. Agency officials did not defend themselves; the fact sheet simply disappeared, without explanation, from the agency’s Web site. Newly disclosed slides from an N.S.A. PowerPoint presentation on the agency’s Prism database of Internet data, posted on Saturday by The Washington Post , reveal that the F.B.I. plays a role as middleman between the N.S.A. and Internet companies like Google and Yahoo. The arrangement provides the N.S.A. with a defense, however nominal, against claims that it spies on United States soil. Even in the unaccustomed spotlight after the N.S.A. revelations, intelligence officials have concealed more than they have revealed in careful comments, fearful of alerting potential eavesdropping targets to agency methods. They invariably discuss the N.S.A.’s role in preventing terrorist attacks, an agency priority that the public can easily grasp. In fact, as Mr. Snowden’s documents have shown, the omnivorous agency’s operations range far beyond terrorism, targeting foreigners of any conceivable interest. British eavesdroppers working with the N.S.A. penetrated London meetings of the Group of 20 industrialized nations, partly by luring delegates to fake Internet cafes, and the N.S.A. hacked into computers at Chinese universities. At Fort Meade, on the N.S.A.’s heavily guarded campus off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Maryland, such disclosures are seen as devastating tip-offs to targets. The disclosure in Mr. Snowden’s documents that Skype is cooperating with orders to turn over data to the N.S.A., for example, undermined a widespread myth that the agency could not intercept the voice-over-Internet service. Warned, in effect, by Mr. Snowden, foreign officials, drug cartel leaders and terrorists may become far more careful about how, and how much, they communicate. “We’re seeing indications that several terrorist groups are changing their communications behavior based on these disclosures,” one intelligence official said last week, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We’re going to miss tidbits that could be useful in stopping the next plot.” Mr. Snowden’s breach is an unplanned test of the N.S.A.’s decades-old conviction that it can operate effectively only under absolute secrecy. The agency is conducting a damage assessment — a routine step after major leaks — but the assessment itself is likely to remain classified. The N.S.A.’s assessment of Mr. Snowden’s case will likely also consider what has become, for intelligence officials, a chilling consideration: there are thousands of people of his generation and computer skills at the agency, hired in recent years to keep up with the communications boom. The officials fear that some of them, like young computer aficionados outside the agency, might share Mr. Snowden’s professed libertarian streak and skepticism of the government’s secret power. Intelligence bosses are keeping a closer eye on them now, hoping that there is not another self-appointed whistle-blower in their midst. | Edward Snowden;Government Surveillance;Classified Information;NSA;Diplomats Embassies and Consulates;Guardian British Newspaper |
ny0183091 | [
"sports"
] | 2007/12/07 | Winning Over Portland With One of Its Own | When they knew each other in the San Francisco Bay Area, and later worked together at the N.B.A. office in New York, Mike Golub could not muster up the courage to ask Cheri White for a date. Last June, he did the next best thing. He recruited her to help the once-revered and recently reviled Trail Blazers win back the city of Portland. Now Cheri Hanson, she had directed public relations operations for Golden State, Seattle and Milwaukee before returning this season to her hometown, where she began running Cokes and courtside statistics in 1974. At the time, she was 11. Hanson’s father, John White, was 44 when he became the Blazers’ news media liaison upon the team’s inception in 1970. When the offer of vice president for communications came from Golub, she wished her father were “still alive to discuss it with.” Then it hit her: her next birthday would be her 44th. Some things are meant to be, so she packed up in Milwaukee, moved west with her husband and two young sons, who were strapped into their car seats when Hanson drove a visiting reporter from his downtown hotel last weekend to the team’s suburban training facility. Hanson has always been an astute organizational ambassador who delivers. She once practically dragged the Warriors’ Chris Mullin out of the shower by the ear when he was 20 minutes late for a telephone interview with a reporter (me) back east. “Here’s Cheri, with her deep roots with the team and the city,” said Golub, the Blazers’ chief operating officer. “Her hire is one of the many statements we’ve made to the public that it’s a new regime, new players, a new time.” What a concept, recognizing and admitting that your brand has become perilously tarnished after years of mismanagement, and embarking on a campaign of credibility restoration. Could the Knicks ever have such an epiphany in New York? Perhaps, if their owner were a practical, self-made man like the Blazers’ Paul Allen, and not a spoon-fed, self-styled despot, which is how many have described James L. Dolan. When I visited the Trail Blazers’ headquarters after covering the Davis Cup final earlier this week, Golub had just read in the weekly New York Observer about the Knicks’ dysfunctional relationship with reporters who cover the team. He hadn’t yet heard how news of the death of Stephon Marbury’s father, Donald, was withheld until very late Sunday night, after the Knicks had lost to the Phoenix Suns. Astonishingly, and against every known marketing tenet, the Knicks allowed columns to be filed that were critical of Marbury on his night of personal tragedy. For his part, Golub wasn’t surprised. Before joining the Blazers in 2006, he had a brief run in his native New York in a Rangers executive position that he said was the equivalent to Anucha Browne Sanders’s former role with the Knicks. “I lived it,” Golub said, no doubt referring to Dolan’s tinderbox of a workplace, where employees dread his explosions and invariably surrender their professional judgment to a company belief that it matters little what people think as long as enough people pay. “Those people aren’t having fun,” Golub said, “and isn’t that what we’re supposed to be, a fun business that brings people together?” It was typically that way in Portland, a one-team town swept up in Blazermania until a pattern of off-court transgressions earned the offending players a collective national reputation. Jail Blazers, they were called. Before long, even Allen, the Microsoft co-founder, was wearing out his welcome, as he carped about losses in an arena arrangement gone sour, and explored selling or moving the team. “The relationship had gotten really acrimonious here between the media and the team for a long list of reasons,” Golub said. He arrived as a veteran roster was gutted and the 2006 draft was bringing the promising Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. A winning lottery ticket last spring produced center Greg Oden, albeit in need of season-ending knee surgery. Not long ago, Allen reacquired the Rose Garden and its inherent revenue streams. Sweeping changes continue. Allen recently replaced the team president Steve Patterson with Larry Miller, a former Nike executive who worked on the Michael Jordan brand. The Blazers are a long way from becoming Jordan’s Bulls, or even a winning team, but as Golub said: “All our markers are trending up — attendance, season tickets, television ratings, Web site hits. But this can be as ephemeral as the next layup. We have to continue to build back the trust.” When you’ve been very bad, qualitatively and behaviorally, you would think a franchise’s first order of business would be to bow its head and beg forgiveness, not blame everything on the messengers. In her new Rose Garden office, Cheri Hanson has a photograph that shows her at 14, sobbing in the moments after the Blazers’ only championship, in 1977 under Jack Ramsay. In Portland, where that team represents the city standard for smart, selfless play, much as Red Holzman’s 1970 Knicks do in New York, the Blazers want to build a bridge from the past to the future. They are opening their arms to the people they once pushed away. In New York, meanwhile, the Knicks keep widening the moat around Madison Square Garden. | New York Knicks;Portland Trail Blazers;Basketball |
ny0054509 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2014/07/01 | Yankees Rally Twice but Fall Closer to .500 | In the American League East, where a team has yet to set itself apart from the rest of the division, the Yankees, who have treaded water for much of the season, and even the last-place Tampa Bay Rays are still very much alive at the midway point of the season. Despite a 4-3 loss on Monday to the Rays, the Yankees (41-40) were only two and a half games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays after their 81st game of the season. The Rays, meanwhile, have won three straight games and five of their last six and are fewer than 10 games out of first place for the first time in a month. Manager Joe Girardi said every team in the division right now probably feels fortunate to be where it is “with the records that we have.” After last June, the Yankees were only one game better, at 42-39. The mark fell short of the expectations that naturally accompany a team with a record-breaking $230 million opening-day payroll, but respectable nonetheless, considering the injuries that had plagued the lineup. Image Brandon Guyer of the Rays scoring in the eighth inning on Monday. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times The 2014 Yankees are arguably in a much better position than a year ago, even without a single hitter on pace to collect 85 runs batted in and inconsistent starting pitching outside the rookie phenom Masahiro Tanaka. “It’s baseball,” Carlos Beltran said. “We’d love to be in a better position, but it is what it is right now.” Last year’s team was projected to be carried to October by one of baseball’s most star-studded lineups. Mariano Rivera was still saving games, and Andy Pettitte toed the rubber every five days. But significant injuries to Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis and others transformed Girardi’s early-season lineups into a shell of the megapayroll juggernaut that had been expected when the team was assembled the previous winter. As the Boston Red Sox were playing the best baseball in the American League and the resurgent Baltimore Orioles began to distance themselves, the Yankees slid to fourth place and six and a half games out of first by the end of June. Image The Yankees’ Brett Gardner hitting a triple in the third inning on which Ichiro Suzuki scored from first against the Tampa Bay Rays. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times This season, Beltran, C. C. Sabathia and Teixeira have incurred a nagging array of ailments, but reinforcements could be arriving before the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline. Before Monday’s game, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said that he was “ready to rock and roll” to make an effort to upgrade the roster. Those additions were needed against Rays starter Chris Archer, who was trying to become the first pitcher since Walter Johnson in the 1907 and 1908 seasons to win his first five games against the Yankees. Archer limited the Yankees to two runs on five hits in seven innings and even shook off a Beltran line drive that struck his left foot in the sixth inning. After one warm-up toss, Archer nodded to Rays Manager Joe Maddon to indicate he was able to continue, and two pitches later, Kelly Johnson flied out to shallow center field to end the inning. “Their pitcher threw the ball extremely well,” Girardi said. “He’s been tough on us in the past.” A run-scoring single by Ryan Hanigan provided the Rays with a go-ahead run in the eighth inning. Archer left the game on pace to win and continued his streak of innings pitched without allowing a home run to 542/3. Image Rays right fielder Matt Joyce rounded third on a home run in the first inning. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times But with one out in the ninth, Brian Roberts hit a home run to right field to tie the game at 3-3. The Rays scored the go-ahead run in the 12th inning, when Brandon Guyer scored on a Logan Forsythe single. Yankees starter David Phelps fared well against the Rays’ lineup, except for two full-count fastballs. In the first inning, Matt Joyce hit a solo home run, the first home run Phelps had given up in his career against the Rays over 261/3 innings pitched. Two innings later, Phelps yielded another solo home run, on a 3-2 fastball to Kevin Kiermaier, to put the Rays ahead by 2-0. In the bottom of the third inning, though, Kiermaier struggled to field a ball in the right-field corner off the bat of Brett Gardner. That allowed Ichiro Suzuki, who had been hit by a pitch, to score from first base as Gardner reached third with a triple. Jeter hit a soft grounder to second base to score Gardner and tie the game at 2-2. But the Yankees were unable to piece together another multirun inning, and Brad Boxberger pitched two scoreless innings for the victory in a 4-hour-35-minute game. | Baseball;Tampa Bay Rays;Yankees;Chris Archer;Carlos Beltran;Mark Teixeira;C C Sabathia;David Phelps |
ny0073094 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2015/03/22 | Scottish Party May Prove Crucial to Future of Britain’s Nuclear Fleet | FASLANE, Scotland — Britain’s aging nuclear-armed submarines, the force that keeps the nation in the first tier of global powers, have been the target of spirited if largely ineffectual protests by antiwar activists for more than three decades here in the fleet’s home port. But now Scotland’s growing political importance has made the future of the nuclear arsenal an issue in Britain’s general election campaign, intensifying debate over whether the country can afford its nuclear deterrent, a quarter-century after the end of the Cold War. That question is being asked because of the surging popularity of the Scottish National Party, which stands to the left of the opposition Labour Party and has promised to rid Scotland of nuclear weapons , putting it at odds with both Labour and the Conservative-led government. Despite losing its bid last year for Scotland to win independence from Britain, the Scottish National Party has gained strength in the polls and could tilt the balance of power if, as happened in the last national election in 2010, neither Labour nor the Conservatives win an outright majority in Parliament in the voting on May 7. Should Labour win the opportunity to form a government and turn to the Scottish National Party for support — a prospect analysts say is very real despite a Labour promise not to enter a formal coalition with the party — the question of abandoning the Trident missile system, moving the fleet from Scotland, or at least delaying an expensive modernization program would be on the table. Malcolm Chalmers, director of research at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said that the Scottish National Party will try to make the fleet an issue of principle, and use the nuclear debate to advance its effort to make Scotland independent. “I don’t see a scenario in which Britain will give up Trident because of the Scottish National Party, but I do see them making it awkward for the nuclear force with regard to renewing the submarine fleet, and of using the issue as a way of demonstrating their logic — that you have to have independence if you want to remove nuclear weapons from Scotland,” he said. Image Michael Curley the owner of a delicatessen, said losing them would “devastate” the town. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times Mr. Chalmers added, “There are a lot of people among the political classes and senior military figures who would like a third way in which Britain could remain a nuclear power but spend a lot less money on it.” The problem, he said, is that “it’s much harder to work out what that would be.” Britain’s strategy is to have a nuclear-armed submarine permanently at sea as a deterrent against attack. Experts say that reducing the number of submarines from the current four would undermine that stance because spare submarines are needed for maintenance reasons, or in the event of collisions. A delay in a planned upgrade of the fleet might produce few savings because of the additional costs of patching up submarines that will be 35 years old by the late 2020s. But the politics of Scotland is now crucial to the future of Britain’s nuclear deterrent. Angus Robertson, the Scottish National Party’s defense spokesman, said that Faslane is a symbol of how Scottish views on Trident have been “totally ignored” and that “repeated British governments have made decisions over the heads of people in Scotland.” Mr. Robertson said the proximity of Faslane to Glasgow, less than 40 miles away, makes Scotland’s largest population center a target for any enemy attack, fueling hostility to nuclear weapons. “There is overwhelming public opposition,” he said, citing stances taken by activists, churches and labor unions, among others. It was in the 1980s that camps of protesters against nuclear weapons sprang up around Britain, the best known at Greenham Common in Berkshire. After the end of the Cold War they mostly disappeared, but not at Faslane. Even on a cold and bleak recent winter day, a handful of volunteers huddled by wood stoves inside camping vehicles and wooden structures across the highway from the Faslane base, which is encircled by a fence topped with razor wire. Others are more concerned about the cost of modernizing the fleet, estimated by the government at 25 billion pounds — and by Mr. Robertson at perhaps four times that amount — and whether Britain can afford to remain in the nuclear club. Those on the left would like this money spent on social programs. Some members of the defense establishment believe it would be better spent on conventional forces. David Ramsbotham, a former British army general and current member of the House of Lords, said he is “very worried that we’ve got an unbalanced defense budget” with too much tied up in “expensive things like aircraft carriers, Typhoon aircraft, submarines and, of course, Trident.” He described the logic of Britain’s nuclear deterrent as “out of date thinking,” and said “the decision on Trident must be based on the analysis of our position in the world relative to it.” With Britain likely to fall below its NATO military spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product, the debate seems sure to intensify. Image Antiwar activists have protested for decades against the fleet and kept a camp. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times A decision is due next year on whether to modernize the fleet of Vanguard submarines that carry the Trident system. If the Conservatives win the election in May, Trident’s future seems assured. Speaking in Parliament in January, the defense secretary, Michael Fallon, said that the naval base is “truly Britain’s peace camp” and that the country “faces the threat of nuclear blackmail from rogue states.” The Scottish National Party has ruled out cooperation with the Conservatives. Asked about a possible deal with Labour, Mr. Robertson said eliminating the Trident program was one of three issues that “will be key to the S.N.P. after the election.” (The others are more expansionary economic policies and greater powers for politicians in Scotland.) A minority Labour government might still be able to push through a modernization of the fleet with the support of the Conservatives. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has ruled out a full coalition with the Scottish National Party, while keeping open the option of a looser arrangement. But if such a deal came about, the Scottish National Party might refuse to agree to government spending plans that included the renewal of Trident, perhaps forcing an indefinite delay. Not all Scots want to kill off Trident. In Helensburgh, a few miles from Faslane, Michael Curley, owner of the Buffet Shop, a delicatessen, said the demise of the nuclear fleet would “devastate” the town. Faslane, he said, is a “recession-free” employer immune from economic downturns. But Scottish opponents include Feargal Dalton, a former British naval officer who served at Faslane and who, as a submariner, fired an unarmed Trident missile in an exercise. Mr. Dalton now works as a teacher and represents the Scottish National Party on the Glasgow City Council, but still proudly wears a submariner’s badge. He believes that the rationale for Trident is rooted less in military logic than in the desire of London politicians for Britain to be seen as “a world player.” “Scots,” he added, “don’t see things like that.” That is certainly true at what organizers claim is the world’s oldest peace camp, a collection of brightly painted caravans, rickety wooden structures and banners opposite the well-guarded naval base. Chris Higgins arrived here last year and, a few weeks later, put on his wet suit, got into a canoe and began paddling quietly toward the sensitive military installation before finally setting off an alarm that brought armed, amphibious police. “It is scary enough when the searchlight hits you,” Mr. Higgins said, adding that, despite being arrested and fined, he would do it all again, even at the risk of drowning “or getting shot.” | Scotland;Nuclear weapon;Great Britain;Military Bases;Submarines and Submersibles;Election;Scottish National Party |
ny0244435 | [
"business"
] | 2011/04/05 | Private Jets Prepare for Campaign - On the Road | NOW that President Obama has announced his candidacy for re-election, you can almost hear the jet engines starting to rev up around the country as the most brutal form of business travel — campaigning for president — stirs to life. But don’t expect to encounter any candidates dashing for a flight at the airport. Once a major campaign gets going, the private jets roll out. To keep candidates and staff on the road efficiently, most political campaigns hire charter jet brokers to supply and manage private aircraft flights. “This is still the calm before the storm, but we’re doing some charters already,” said Marc Ramthun, the operations manager at CSI Campaign Travel Services, which supplied charter jet service to the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, as well as to earlier candidates, among them George W. Bush, Bob Dole and Michael Dukakis. Though the mad dash has not yet fully begun, potential candidates are already on the move. “We have some that are already doing three-leg and four-leg stops — not every day, but it is happening,” Mr. Ramthun said. “Things will begin to heat up very soon,” said Philip Mathews, the president of Air Partner, one of the world’s leading brokers of charter aircraft. With access to more than 5,000 airports across the country, private airplanes are a crucial part of any national campaign, given that even a primary election candidate typically needs to make multiple stops in a day — often in places far from a major airport hub. And as a candidate finally emerges from the party conventions, campaigns assemble small fleets of planes, led by an airliner-size aircraft for the candidate and staff. “The nominee will generally graduate up to a commercial-jet-sized aircraft like a 737 or a 757,” Mr. Mathews said. For candidates and their staffs, schedules are tough at first, then grueling as the primary season heats up, and finally simply inhuman as the general election approaches. Mr. Ramthun, who managed the daily operations of charter flights for the McCain campaign in the last election, offered a routine day’s schedule: “Eight-fifteen in the morning, it’s Phoenix to the Grand Canyon to film a commercial, then depart at 11 for Victorville, Calif., to meet people at an aviation plant; wheels up again at 3 p.m. for Ontario, Calif., for a rally and fund-raiser, then at 7.30 depart for San Jose for local interviews and meetings.” As an election approaches, that pace becomes even more intense, he said. Don’t try that schedule via commercial airline, not if you want to stay in a race. Without a private plane, it could take half a week to complete a similar routine campaign day’s itinerary. At this stage in the game, aside from the president, any potential candidate “with enough buzz going for them” is able to get rides on smaller private jets owned by supporters, Mr. Ramthun said. Once a candidacy is official during primary season, and travel requirements become far greater, campaigns usually start with small chartered jets, “like a Lear 35 or a Citation II,” he said. When a campaign becomes fully national, the heavy metal comes in. After the conventions, leading candidates often lease a big plane and charter smaller ones for staff, supporters and the media. Charter suppliers usually perform services like billing news organizations for transporting the reporters who cover the campaigns. “ A private aircraft really comes into its own in something like this,” said Mr. Mathews, whose company managed the press charter flights for the George W. Bush re-election campaign. Air Partner also specializes in charter flights for government agencies. Private air travel is expensive, of course. In the initial primary stages, a campaign might spend $3 million to $5 million on charters, Mr. Ramthun said. After the conventions, the leading candidates can spend up to $20 million on private air travel up to the election. Charter companies say they provide convenience, flexibility and safety. They also sell discretion. In 2008, when Senator McCain first quietly considered the then-little-known governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate, “we had to be very hush-hush” in flying Ms. Palin from Alaska to Arizona for her initial interview, Mr. Ramthun said. Since most private jet flights can easily be tracked on public flight operations Web sites, political charter operators sometimes use circuitous routing, or even switch planes en route, to throw off reporters or political competitors, “so the other guy doesn’t always know what you’re doing,” Mr. Mathews said. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, keeping the planes running on time is “a significant logistical enterprise,” Mr. Mathews said. CSI has an operations center in Albuquerque. Air Partner has one in Washington, and most members of the staff have worked previously for candidates in major political races, Mr. Mathews said. “So when a schedule goes wrong, people aren’t shrieking and panicking and running for the door?” I asked. “No,” he said. “These are folks who know their way around a political campaign.” | Presidential Election of 2008;Private Aircraft;Air Partner;CSI Campaign Travel Services;Presidential Election of 2012 |
ny0042093 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2014/05/29 | Tanaka’s Japanese Team Is Struggling Without Him | ST. LOUIS — Masahiro Tanaka went 24-0 for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2013 and led them to the Japan Series title. But what happens to a championship team when its best player leaves? Without Tanaka, who signed a seven-year, $155 million contract with the Yankees in January, the Golden Eagles were 20-28 through Wednesday and in fifth place in the six-team Pacific League, already 10 ½ games behind Orix. “They are obviously struggling,” Tanaka said through an interpreter Wednesday before the Yankees played the St. Louis Cardinals. “But it is still early, and they have time to turn it around.” Tanaka said he followed the fortunes of his old team, reading articles on the Internet and, when he has time, watching games on his computer. Asked if he felt bad that the Golden Eagles had struggled since his departure, he reiterated that the team could rebound. “Last year, we didn’t start out well, and it turned out to be a championship season,” Tanaka said, “so there is still time.” Andruw Jones, a former Yankee who now plays for Rakuten, was batting only .224 through Wednesday but had 13 home runs and 32 runs batted in. Last year, he hit 26 homers, knocked in 94 runs and was a big part of the championship run. Rakuten’s roster this season also includes Kaz Matsui, a former Met who was batting .243, and Kevin Youkilis, who played 28 games for the Yankees last year, signed with the Golden Eagles in the off-season and batted .215 in 21 games before sustaining an injury. Tanaka’s old manager, the former star pitcher Senichi Hoshino, cannot be happy with Rakuten’s results. An old-school disciplinarian, Hoshino has a reputation for being grouchy when things go wrong. “Over all, he is known for being a strict manager,” Tanaka said. “But for me, I never had a problem, and he was not that strict on me.” Still, Tanaka acknowledged, “if you get the results, they won’t be talking to you too much.” Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda, who pitched for the Hiroshima Carp before joining the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2008 season, said it was not surprising that Rakuten had fared so poorly in Tanaka’s absence. “When you lose a guy who won 24 games, it is going to have an effect,” Kuroda said. Kuroda said his team never had a similar problem. “We were bad while I was there, so it didn’t change,” he said. Yankees outfielder Ichiro Suzuki’s experience in Japan was more similar to Kuroda’s. Although Suzuki helped Orix win the Pacific League pennant in 1995 and the Japan Series the next year, the team struggled over the next four years, with Suzuki joining the Seattle Mariners for the 2001 season. “There was not much difference after I left,” he said. A FIRST START AT FIRST With Mark Teixeira having another day off to rest his inflamed right wrist, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi gave Brian McCann his first major league start at first base. A career catcher, McCann had appeared at first in three games as a Yankees substitute. “I told him he could take his shin guards with him,” Girardi said. Girardi said he wanted to give the slumping Yangervis Solarte a rest, so Kelly Johnson took Solarte’s place at third, and McCann went to first, with John Ryan Murphy catching. Although the Yankees are not deep at first base, Girardi said he did not consider McCann a long-term solution as Teixeira’s backup. “I wouldn’t make too much of this today,” Girardi said. Johnson does not have much experience at first base, either. He has started 17 games there for the Yankees this year and made three errors, including one in Tuesday night’s loss . He made only three appearances at first before this season, for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013. Solarte had no hits in three games going into Wednesday and had two hits in 23 at-bats over his last six games. | Baseball;Masahiro Tanaka;Yankees |
ny0296167 | [
"us"
] | 2016/12/08 | Libraries Become Unexpected Sites of Hate Crimes | A librarian at the public library in Evanston, Ill., was recently preparing for a program titled “The Quran: Is It a ‘Good Book’?” She gathered books to display for attendees and discovered that inside the cover of one, “The Koran for Dummies,” someone had written “lies cover to cover,” drawn a swastika and made a disparaging remark about the Prophet Muhammad. She discovered six more books about Islam and the Quran that had been similarly defaced with racist language and imagery, officials said. The vandalism was a first for the library, Karen Danczak Lyons, its director, said in an interview. There has been a spate of hate crimes targeting libraries, their books or patrons, the authorities say — offenses they had rarely seen before. These crimes coincide with a recent report by the F.B.I. that attacks against American Muslims surged last year. Ms. Danczak Lyons called the episode “troubling,” noting that libraries, which promote education, research and discussions, had unexpectedly become sites for acts of divisiveness. Image An excerpt of the vandalism done inside the book. The library filed a police report, but there have been no arrests. Some of the books had not been checked out in a couple of years, and others had been taken out over the summer. Any damage would have been noted on their return, meaning the vandalism was probably recent, Ms. Danczak Lyons said. The library has cameras, but not in every aisle, and surveillance footage offered no clues about the vandalism. In addition to the books defaced in Evanston, the American Library Association highlighted these cases from last month: • A student at the University of New Mexico was studying in the school’s library when she was approached by a man who tried to remove her hijab, the BBC reported . She evaded her attacker and was not injured. • Administrators at Reed College in Portland, Ore., discovered hateful, threatening messages and swastikas on the walls of the college’s library, KOIN 6 reported . • Anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled on the window of a library branch in Toronto, CBC News reported . “In the last year, we have had startling increases in the number of hate crimes,” Julie Todaro , president of the American Library Association, said in an interview last week. “I am stunned that I have seven or eight examples, because we have never had these kinds of crimes before in libraries,” she said. “We are in an increasingly difficult situation, because the communities are as divided as they have ever been.” The association, which represents public, academic and school libraries and has more than 58,000 members worldwide, previously learned of cases like these anecdotally. Because of a “sudden increase” in such crimes — three in a couple of weeks after one in a year — the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom is starting to formally track them, the office’s director, James LaRue , said in an email. He said it was difficult to know whether the uptick was “a blip or a trend.” “We hope to track the details, locations and frequency, the better to stay on top of it, develop training or webinars, and support our members,” he said. The New York Public Library, which serves the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, and the Queens Library reported no hate crimes in 2016. The Brooklyn Public Library did not respond to emails requesting comment. Christopher Platt, chief branch library officer at the New York Public Library, said that with these episodes came opportunities. “Our goal is to be able to sponsor better understanding, empathy to others, and to be able to cut through some of this hate and anger,” he said. “I would say that when these things do happen, we have communities who value us tremendously, and they rise up and support the library.” | Library;Muslim Americans;Hate crime;ALA;Vandalism |
ny0232027 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2010/08/04 | As Obama Talks Peace, Many Iraqis Are Unsure | BAGHDAD — The morning after President Obama spoke of bringing the war in Iraq to “a responsible end,” insurgents planted their black flag on Tuesday at a checkpoint they overran by killing the five policemen who staffed it. It was the second time in a week. The rest of the day, the police blotter looked like this: Three mortars crashed in Baghdad neighborhoods, where five roadside bombs were detonated and two cars were booby-trapped. Two other mortars fell in the Green Zone, still the citadel of power in a barricaded capital and still a target of insurgents who seem bent on proving they were never defeated. By dusk, a car bomb tore through Kut, an eastern town long spared strife. “Nothing unusual,” said Murtadha Mohammed, a 20-year-old baker, as he shoveled rolls into bags a short walk from one of the bombs. “We’ve been raised on this.” The word “disconnect” never quite captures the gulf in perceptions between two countries whose fate remains reluctantly intertwined, however exhausted each seems of the other. Moments have come and gone: transitional governments, declarations of sovereignty, the signing of agreements. Mr. Obama’s announcement Monday was another. On Tuesday, Qahtan Sweid greeted it with the cynicism that colors virtually any pronouncement the United States makes here, itself a somewhat intangible but pervasive legacy of seven years of invasion, occupation, war and, now, something harder to define. “The Americans aren’t leaving,” Mr. Sweid insisted, whatever Mr. Obama had promised. “For one million years, they won’t leave. Even if the world was turned upside down, they still wouldn’t withdraw.” From the first days after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, America and Iraq seemed divided by more than language; they never shared the same vocabulary. Perhaps they never could, defined as occupier and occupied, where promises of aid and assistance often had the inflection of condescension. These days, though, they do not even seem to try to listen to each other — too tired to hear the other, too chastised by experience to offer the benefit of doubt. In a speech that was admittedly modest, Mr. Obama declared Monday that violence continued to be at the lowest it had been in years. Iraq is indeed a safer country than it was 2006 and 2007, when carnage threatened to shred the very fabric of its traumatized society. But security, still elusive here, is an absolute; you either feel safe or you do not. The toll Tuesday — 26 dead in 8 attacks — was not spectacular for Iraq, where hundreds of people still die each month. But it came amid growing fears that insurgents are regrouping in Baghdad, Diyala, Falluja and elsewhere, eager to capitalize on the prospect of American troops leaving and the dysfunction of a political class that has yet to agree on an Iraqi government, nearly five months after the election. In an attack in the Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad, insurgents in at least two cars assaulted a checkpoint at dawn with pistols fitted with silencers, killing five policemen, then planted their flag before fleeing. In the car bombing in Kut, the death toll rose to 20 by nightfall. “Wherever the Americans go, the situation is going to stay the same as it was,” said Abdel-Karim Abdel-Jabbar, a 51-year-old resident of the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, where insurgents overran another checkpoint last week, burning the bodies of their victims and planting the same black banner. “If anything, it’s going to deteriorate. “The peace Obama’s talking about is the peace of the Green Zone,” he added. Across town, in Sadr City, a sprawling district once a battlefield between American troops and followers of Moktada al-Sadr , a populist Shiite cleric, puddles of sewage gathered near a bomb’s debris. Mr. Sweid nodded. “If it’s in your hands, then you can go ahead and be scared,” he said over the drone of a generator. “If it’s in God’s hands, then you have no right to fear.” In his speech on Monday, Mr. Obama called the Aug. 31 deadline for the military to bring the number of troops down to 50,000 the closing of a chapter. To an American audience, it might resonate that way. Less so to Iraqis. Unlike last year, Iraqi officials, mired in disputes often more personal than political, are not trumpeting the withdrawal as an assertion of an Iraqi authority. Neither Mr. Sweid nor Mr. Abdel-Jabbar knew about the August deadline. The same went for several others interviewed Tuesday. “I don’t know exactly when the withdrawal is supposed to happen,” said Abdel-Hamid Majid, a 52-year-old engineer. “All I know is it’s not far away.” Saud al-Saadi, an eloquent and informed teacher in Sadr City, was aware. But, he said, he had heard such pronouncements before, declarations of turning points in America’s experience here that seemed to hew to the logic of American politics. The American occupation was declared over before the 2004 presidential election. The two countries signed strategic agreements weeks before the Bush administration ended. “But until now, to tell you the truth, we haven’t grasped our sovereignty,” Mr. Saadi said. “There are still American troops here, they still raid houses, we don’t have a government that makes its own decisions and the American ambassador still interferes.” Mr. Saadi was neither angry nor disillusioned. And in his matter-of-fact appraisal, there was a hint of common ground between a teacher and a president. Mr. Obama did not trumpet democracy or victory. There was no reference to a mission accomplished. In a sober appraisal, he acknowledged that there would be more American sacrifice here. Mr. Saadi was no less modest. Interests, he called it. And the United States, he said, would try to secure its own. “America is not a charity organization,” he said. “It’s not a humanitarian group. There are words and there is reality, and actions don’t always match those words.” | Iraq;Iraq War (2003- );United States Defense and Military Forces;Terrorism;Polls and Public Opinion;Obama Barack;Sadr Moktada Al- |
ny0149768 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2008/09/01 | Cease-Fire by Pakistan in Attacks on Militants | PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani military, which has been criticized by the Bush administration as not pushing hard enough against Taliban militants in the country’s tribal areas, has used jet fighters and helicopter gunships in the past three weeks to strike at insurgents pouring over the border to attack American forces in Afghanistan. The air assaults have resulted in more than 400 Taliban casualties in Bajaur, an area of the tribal region where Al Qaeda and the Taliban have forged close ties, and have forced the militants to retreat from villages that they controlled, a military official involved in the operations said. But on Saturday night, the Pakistani government declared a cease-fire in the area for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins here on Wednesday. The deal was arranged after the electorally important Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a religious party, and legislators from the tribal areas said they would support Asif Ali Zardari for president in return for an end to the airstrikes. Mr. Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, is the leading candidate for president in the electoral college vote scheduled for Saturday. The cease-fire prompted concerns that whatever gains had been made against militants in the region would be squandered. Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of the North-West Frontier Province, said the Taliban would use the opportunity to regroup. “Some communities have risen up against the militants, and the government has to capitalize on this, has to prop them up,” he said. “They haven’t done it.” It was unclear whether the cease-fire would extend beyond Ramadan, politicians from the tribal areas said. The last three weeks of airstrikes, in addition to a monthlong air and ground offensive in nearby Swat, a scenic area in the North-West Frontier Province, was the most sustained campaign by the Pakistani military after months of intense pressure by the Bush administration to do more against the insurgents. Whether or not the military’s Bajaur operation was intended specifically to assist the United States, the airstrikes dovetailed with Washington’s interests. The Bush administration has said that the ability of Al Qaeda and Taliban to operate there and in other areas of the tribal belt gives them license to plot attacks against the United States. The militants, operating with impunity from havens like Bajaur, a 250-square-mile pocket of mountains and narrow valleys on the northern edge of the tribal areas, have struck American and NATO forces in Afghanistan with mounting ferocity. In that context, the Pakistani army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, was invited to a secret meeting with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, on an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea last week. It was their fifth encounter since General Kayani took over as army chief from Pervez Musharraf in November. The session at sea appears to have been more congenial than a confrontation in Islamabad in July, when Admiral Mullen told the Pakistanis that Washington had evidence of the involvement of their powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. As a result of the air campaign, more than 200,000 civilians have fled their homes, according to the World Health Organization and Unicef, which are providing assistance in the area. Many of the refugees, who are now squatting in makeshift camps or bunking with extended family, are angry at the deaths of relatives and the destruction of property. More than 40,000 people from Bajaur are now refugees in Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Most of the women in the camps arrived clad in burqas and remained inside small tents with up to 11 children squeezed together on the ground without mattresses and with very little water. The Pakistani military has met fierce resistance from the militants in Bajaur. Col. Shahbaz Rasul of the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force that is leading the army operations there, said more than 400 Taliban had been killed by airstrikes, though an official with access to Inter-Services Intelligence data said an estimated 200 Taliban had been killed. It was difficult to verify the number of casualties independently. Colonel Rasul said that the Taliban fighters were better paid than his soldiers and that they were well motivated. He said the Taliban force numbered 2,300 men under four commanders. The largest group, with about 1,200 men, fought under Faqir Mohammad, the second in command of the umbrella group Tehrik-e-Taliban, he said. There were reports that Mr. Faqir, reputed to run the most disciplined Taliban force in Bajaur, had been killed during the early days of the airstrikes. But Mr. Faqir later gave a radio interview saying he had survived by jumping out of his van before a bomb hit it, killing 11 of his fighters. The Frontier Corps has remained inside its fort at Khar, the capital of Bajaur, since the airstrikes began, Colonel Rasul said. That is largely because the corps was bloodied during three days of heavy fighting in early August, when soldiers tried to take back a post at Loe Sam from the Taliban. The village is at a strategic junction leading north to Kunar Province in Afghanistan, and about 10 miles from Damadola, where an American airstrike in January 2006 failed to kill Ayman al-Zawahri, the Qaeda deputy. In the fighting to recapture Loe Sam, 29 soldiers were killed, Colonel Rasul said. After three attempts using 400 men to take the post, the Frontier Corps had to retreat along the 16-mile road from Loe Sam to Khar. “The miscreants came in full force in numbers of men and sophistication of equipment,” he said of the surprising strength of the Taliban around Loe Sam. The Pakistani Army uses “miscreants” to describe the Taliban. Maulvi Omar, the spokesman of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, said in a telephone interview on Friday that the Taliban had lost only six people in the fight over Loe Sam. He minimized the losses elsewhere. Mr. Omar often answers reporters’ calls on a cellphone, an indication that he is in an area with phone coverage, raising questions about why the military has not been able to capture him. In the interview, Mr. Omar criticized Mr. Zardari for doing what he called America’s bidding. “If the Zardari government has promised to kill us for the sake of American aid, then he should better hand the country over to India,” he said. Meanwhile, many Pakistanis in the North-West Frontier Province and the tribal belt said that they were pleased that the government was taking firm action against the Taliban, who are now threatening the capital of the province, Peshawar, and have taken over some of the towns around it. But the airstrikes were criticized for being indiscriminate. The assault had not killed any known leaders of the Taliban in Bajaur, said Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, a former interior minister, whose constituency is close to Bajaur. The displaced civilians blamed the government for the hardships in the camps and for the destruction of their homes. Another legislator, Muneer Orekzai, said: “It’s not justice to kill 5 Taliban and 95 civilians. Everyone knows who the militants are in every village. We want a targeted operation with the army going on search and destroy operations.” In Salarzai, a cluster of villages in the northern part of Bajaur, local people had organized themselves against the Taliban, Jalal Uddin, a tribal leader, said in a telephone interview. “People are fed up with the Taliban,” Mr. Uddin said. “People are seeing the government fighting the Taliban, so they are encouraged,” he said, adding that it was disappointing that none of the Taliban leaders had been killed. As news of the government cease-fire spread over the weekend, there were indications that many of the displaced in the camps would return home. But some said they were worried about the absence of government ground forces. “If we go back now, no one is in charge, neither the militants nor the government,” said Maroof Shah, a shopkeeper from Loe Sam who brought an extended family of 23 on the trek out of Bajaur to escape the bombing. | Pakistan;Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Pakistan);Taliban;Al Qaeda;Military Aircraft;Armament Defense and Military Forces;Assaults |
ny0229141 | [
"business"
] | 2010/07/23 | John E. Irving, Canadian Industrialist, Dies at 78 | OTTAWA — John E. Irving, who helped turn his family’s lumber business into Atlantic Canada’s largest conglomerate, died Wednesday in St. John, New Brunswick. He was 78. His death was announced by James K. Irving, his oldest brother and the chairman and chief executive of J. D. Irving, the family’s privately held holding company. No cause was given, although a family spokesman said his death followed a brief illness. Along with his father, K. C. Irving, and his two brothers, Mr. Irving helped direct an expansion of the family’s business after World War II that led it to dominate the economy of their home province. Today the family is among Canada’s wealthiest and controls about 300 companies with interests in oil refining, retailing and distribution as well as lumber, paper, steel, hardware, trucking, shipbuilding, shipping, railroads, printing and consumer products. The family’s dominance of New Brunswick has not escaped criticism. Two federal government inquiries of the news media have criticized the Irvings’s near-complete control of the province’s daily newspapers, as well as many of its radio stations and weekly newspapers. Even for a family known for its avoidance of publicity, Mr. Irving maintained an unusually low profile. While the family discloses little about its internal operations, it is widely believed that he was the least active of the three brothers in its business operations. When Mr. Irving joined the family company in 1952, his father was investing heavily in its oil business in an attempt to diversify beyond its traditional base in forestry. One of Mr. Irving’s roles was to supervise the construction of an oil refinery, distribution facilities and a chain of service stations that remain highway fixtures throughout eastern Canada. Mr. Irving’s survivors include his wife, Suzanne Cameron; two sons, John K. F. and Colin D. Irving; and a daughter, Anne Cameron I. Oxley. His second brother, Arthur, remains active in the family business. | Forests and Forestry;Wood and Wood Products;Deaths (Obituaries);Irving John E.;Canada |
ny0115635 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2012/11/14 | Abu Qatada, Militant Cleric, Freed on Bail in Britain | LONDON — A militant Islamic preacher wanted in Jordan to face terrorism charges, who is depicted by British officials as a top operative of Al Qaeda , was released on bail on Tuesday after winning the latest in seven years of legal battles that have been portrayed by his lawyers as crucial tests of British justice. Heavily bearded and wearing a black turban, the preacher, Abu Qatada , 52, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, appeared to be smiling as he left the Long Lartin maximum security prison in Worcestershire in the back of a black Volkswagen minibus. When he arrived outside his London home, a small group of protesters chanted “Out, out, out,” witnesses said. His release came a day after an immigration appeals tribunal ruled that sending Mr. Othman to Jordan would violate his right to a fair trial under European human rights law. The ruling was a blow to the British government, which wants to rid the country of foreign-born militants it says are fomenting Islamic militancy. British news reports on Tuesday said the bail conditions included a 16-hour curfew, electronic tagging, a ban on Internet use and prohibitions on meeting some people. British authorities have been seeking to deport him for years, but their efforts were blocked by the European Court of Human Rights over concerns that evidence obtained from others under torture might be used against him in Jordan. The government’s exasperation was reflected in remarks by Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday. “I am completely fed up with the fact this man is still at large in our country, he has no right to be there, we believe he’s a threat to our country,” he said during an official visit to Rome. “We have moved heaven and earth to try and comply with every single dot and comma of every convention to get him out of the country. It’s extremely frustrating and I share the British people’s frustration at the situation we find ourselves in.” Mr. Othman, who is of Palestinian descent, was convicted in absentia of involvement in two bombing plots in Jordan in 1999 and 2000 and faces a retrial if returned home. Legal experts said an appeal can be made only on a point of law, and government lawyers must first work out a strategy to proceed. Keith Vaz, a Labour politician who is the head of Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, told the BBC that legal efforts over the past seven years to deport Mr. Othman had cost taxpayers £1 million, the equivalent of $1.6 million. “At the moment, it looks pretty farcical that a very dangerous man is now put on bail having gone through the court system for seven years and having cost the taxpayer £1 million,” he said, adding, “What we need to do is study the judgment carefully and to try to persuade the Jordanians to do the only thing that the courts wanted them to, which is to strengthen the Jordanian criminal code.” The ruling by the tribunal said the judges were not satisfied that “there is no real risk” that statements made earlier by witnesses under duress would not be used at a retrial. While many newspapers and politicians depict Mr. Othman as a terrorist and henchman of Osama bin Laden’s, his lawyers portray his case as testing the bounds of British justice. Mr. Othman’s solicitor, Gareth Peirce, said it was “important to reaffirm this country’s position that we abhor the use of torture, and a case that was predicated upon evidence from witnesses who have been tortured is rejected — rejected by the courts of this country, as by the European Court.” “It is important to emphasize the fundamental rules of law that we subscribe to,” she said. | Othman Omar Mahmoud Mohammed;Great Britain;Decisions and Verdicts;Terrorism;Extradition;Al Qaeda;Jordan;Deportation |
ny0193300 | [
"sports",
"othersports"
] | 2009/02/22 | A Long Time Between Nascar Victories | Matt Kenseth won the Nascar Cup series championship in 2003, but heading into this season, he had not won a race in 36 attempts. That changed when he won the Daytona 500 last Sunday . Kenseth will try to become the first driver since Jeff Gordon in 1997 to win the first two races of the year when he competes Sunday at the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, Calif. JEFFREY MARCUS YOU WON THE DAYTONA 500 WHEN THE RACE WAS CALLED BECAUSE OF RAIN WITH 48 LAPS REMAINING. DID YOU WANT TO RACE THOSE FINAL LAPS? If you’re the leader and it starts raining and you’re leading a Cup race? I’ve seen interviews when they’ve asked people, ‘Do you want go race?’ and they say, ‘Oh, yeah!’ Then they’re lying. When you’re leading that race and you have already raced two and a half, three hours and you’re leading the biggest race of the year, the biggest race of your career? No, I wanted it to rain. DID YOU GET THE MONKEY OFF YOUR BACK? When you’re used to winning, even if it’s just a couple of races a year, and you’re used to being a contender in the Chase and being a contender for the championship, and all of a sudden you’re not, it does get tough. It gets irritating. It wears on your mind a little bit. You start thinking about what’s going on, what are we doing wrong. To come out of the box and win the Daytona 500 was great for me, great for our team. It was a good morale boost and gave everybody a spring in their step, ready for the season. IF YOU WERE NOT A RACECAR DRIVER, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING FOR A LIVING? If I was not a racecar driver, I’d probably be in trouble right now. Not trouble literally, but I’d probably have a hard time getting a very good job. Racing and mechanics and going fast and being competitive — that’s all I’ve ever known or ever really thought about or dreamed about. So if I couldn’t drive, I would still be in the sport. I’d probably be a mechanic or a shock specialist or a set-up guy or something like that. WHAT KIND OF DRIVER ARE YOU OFF THE TRACK? When I drive at home, I’m a pretty calm driver on the streets. I don’t really speed a whole bunch. I think I’m a fairly cautious, somewhat considerate driver at home. I really enjoy riding motorcycles WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT RIDING MOTORCYCLES? I take more back roads and avoid traffic and interstates and big highways and stuff, more than I would if I was in my car. I’ve had some really cool motorcycle rides. Actually, last year, I probably had the most fun motorcycle ride I’ve ever had. Kyle Petty and I rode from Milwaukee — we took off on a Sunday night — and rode all the way to California, to the Ontario race the following weekend. Kyle is an awesome trip planner. He planned the whole trip, where we rode 2,400 and some odd miles and we were only on the interstate for 60 miles. We took all two-lane roads and desert roads and all this crazy stuff. | Kenseth Matt;Automobile Racing;National Assn of Stock Car Auto Racing |
ny0226719 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2010/10/01 | Oklahoma State Wins Back-And-Forth Game | Shaun Lewis intercepted Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson in the final seconds, and Dan Bailey kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to lift host Oklahoma State to a 38-35 victory. Johnson threw for 409 yards and a career-best five touchdowns but also turned the ball over five times, including a key fumble that led to a Cowboys touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) came back from a 14-point deficit, only to let Texas A&M (3-1, 0-1) do the same. | Football;College Athletics;Oklahoma State University;Texas A&M University |
ny0179056 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/08/11 | Explosive Barroom Fight Is Etched in Witness’s Mind | WEST ORANGE, N.J., Aug. 10 — It was a balmy Sunday night last October, and Huguito’s, a tavern that caters to this community’s thriving population of Latin American immigrants, was jumping. The jukebox blasted salsa and merengue. The owner, Alan Torres, worked the kitchen, helping prepare Peruvian specialties like ceviche and purple yams. A few dozen patrons were crowded around the bar, and at a table a few feet away, Jose Lachira Carranza, 28, a local man whose family members were regulars, sat drinking a beer with a friend. Then, just before 10 p.m., Mr. Carranza’s friend got into a shoving match as he approached the bar, and Mr. Carranza exploded, according to witness and police reports. He flung punches, bottles and chairs, smashing a mirror that hung on the barroom’s blond oak paneling and pummeling a group of bystanders so badly that three were sent to the hospital with cuts on their necks and gashes on their faces. “He just went berserk,” said Mr. Torres, who said on Friday that he was injured as he and two other men tried to restrain Mr. Carranza. (Family members and friends had given Mr. Carranza, an illegal immigrant from Peru, the nickname Shaka Zulu, after the African warrior, according to Mr. Torres and others.) Mr. Carranza was arrested that night, Oct. 1, 2006, on charges of aggravated assault, and later freed on $150,000 bail. He was still awaiting trial in that case and on an unrelated charge of sexual abuse of a child when he was arrested again this week in connection with last Saturday’s brutal gun and machete attack on a group of students in a Newark playground, which left three dead and another hospitalized with a bullet wound to the face. Mr. Carranza has pleaded not guilty to the bar fight, the sexual abuse and the killings. But the outburst offers a glimpse of the man whom the police and prosecutors have described as the central figure in the triple homicide that has shaken Newark’s crime-weary residents. Mr. Torres said he had seen Mr. Carranza only once or twice before the fight, but was friendly with his relatives. Mr. Torres said the violence began when Mr. Carranza’s companion pushed his way to the bar and shoved another patron, Rafael Ramirez, who shouted, “Excuse me, what’s your problem? I just want a beer.” As the two men faced off, Mr. Carranza erupted, Mr. Torres said. “He then just jumped in and got crazy, and started to throw bottles of beer and chairs, and throw punches like a mad boxer,” Mr. Torres said. The battle lasted for several minutes, according to statements witnesses made to the police, as Mr. Carranza reportedly stormed through the barroom and other patrons were unable to get him under control. Mr. Ramirez suffered the most serious injuries, according to the police. Mr. Torres said that Mr. Carranza smashed three bottles over Mr. Ramirez’s head, and that he was hospitalized with cuts to the head, face, ear and neck. Two other men, Jesus and Roberto Flores, were hospitalized with cuts on the face, ears and neck. A fourth, George Villegas, suffered injuries to his arm, but did not require medical attention, according to Capt. Matthew Feula of the West Orange police. Mr. Torres said that he had not seen Mr. Carranza or any of his relatives since the fight, but that he was not surprised to hear that he had been accused of another outburst of violence. “He had a lot of rage,” Mr. Torres said. | Newark (NJ);Murders and Attempted Murders;Assaults;Lachira Carranza Jose |
ny0230068 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/09/11 | N.Y.P.D. Denies Tape Tells of Ticket Quota | A secret recording of police commanders at a meeting in April does not capture a discussion of quotas but rather minimum productivity goals, the New York Police Department ’s chief spokesman said Friday. “It’s absurd to think that managers can’t establish goals that require minimum productivity,” said the spokesman, Paul J. Browne. “To suggest otherwise would mean no recourse but to let slackers do nothing.” In his first response to questions about the recording, which a lawyer this week provided to The New York Times, Mr. Browne said the numbers of summonses discussed on the tape, “small though they are,” did not apply to individual officers. On the tape, a police captain, Alex Perez, is heard saying at the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, that “day tours” of officers —all officers working a particular daytime shift — should write 20 summonses a week: 5 each for double-parking, parking at a bus stop, driving without a seat belt and driving while using a cellphone. (An article about the tape in The Times on Friday incorrectly reported that each officer was asked to write 20 summonses.) “You, as bosses, have to demand this and have to count it,” Captain Perez said. The captain also made clear to supervisors that he would review summonses and that nonproductive officers would face transfers to less family-friendly shifts or even dismissal. On Aug. 30, Gov. David A. Paterson expanded the state’s antiquota statute by outlawing them for tickets, summonses, arrests and stop, question-and-frisk encounters. The law prohibits using quotas as a consideration for punishment. Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, who fought for the law, said of the recordings: “To my ears, it sounds like a quota.” Mr. Lynch said the new law “defines the practice as requiring a specific number of police actions within a prescribed period.” “What separates a managerial target from an illegal quota,” he said, “is the punitive action for failure to achieve the number.” State Senator Eric L. Adams, a retired police captain who sponsored the bill, said police agencies could not circumvent the law by arguing that minimum numbers apply to entities as opposed to individual officers. “If you want 100 summonses per month, at a precinct, that attached number is eventually dwindled down to an individual,” Mr. Adams said. He said quotas robbed officers of their “most powerful tool” — discretion. | Police;Police Department (NYC);ticket quotas |
ny0149097 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2008/09/10 | Wary of Protests, Russia Puts Few Limits on Smoking | MOSCOW — On a recent summer evening, Nikolai Yashkin lighted a cigarette to relax after a long day of work as a courier. Mr. Yashkin, 58, said he had been smoking since he was a boy, and he made it clear that cigarettes were as much a part of him as the tattoo of the title of a Soviet love song on his arm. Mr. Yashkin is among the 60 percent of male Russians who smoke, and if statistics are any guide, he is already near the end of his life span. The average life expectancy of male Russians hovers around 60, and health analysts say the heavy rate of smoking here plays a big role in a looming population drop that has economists here quite worried. Yet the Russian government seems reluctant to tackle the high smoking rate. Even as it tries to forestall a sharp drop in the population with campaigns that heavily promote family life and a higher birthrate, it has barely invested in anti-tobacco ads and education. A pack of cigarettes here can cost as little as 25 cents because, unlike in the United States and many Western European countries, in Russia , tobacco is hardly taxed. The government appears to have allowed cigarette sales and smoking to flourish in part because it is wary of engaging in the kind of anti-vice campaigns that have historically produced a sharp backlash in Russia. While the Kremlin tends to keep a strong grip on Russian politics, it remains sensitive to broad-based protests over issues like inflation, pensions and housing, as well as tobacco and alcohol. Dmitri Yanin, chairman of the Consumer Societies Confederation, a nonprofit group in Moscow, and one of Russia’s top specialists on tobacco control, said officials did not want to curb smoking because they remembered the response to cigarette shortages and crackdowns on alcohol in the 1980s. “The ineffectiveness of these anti-tobacco measures is connected to the state being scared of provoking the protests of various social groups,” Mr. Yanin said. When the Soviet government ran low on state-brand cigarettes in the late 1980s, smokers took to the streets in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev. Mikhail S. Gorbachev, then the Soviet leader, had to appeal to international tobacco manufacturers to send an emergency shipment of 34 billion cigarettes. Since then, foreign tobacco companies have become among Russia’s biggest foreign investors. “Here in Russia we are seen first and foremost as investors, and only secondly as a tobacco industry,” said Aleksandr Liuty, corporate affairs director for British American Tobacco Russia, one of the most successful foreign tobacco companies here. The Kremlin has not ignored the issue. Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, and Dr. Gennadi G. Onishchenko, the chief health inspector, have acknowledged that the country must do more to combat smoking. Dr. Onishchenko has described foreign tobacco as responsible for the “ nicotine genocide” of the Russian people, and Mr. Medvedev said in June that smokers might soon have to pay more for insurance. “Fifty percent of citizens are smoking in this country,” Mr. Medvedev said. “That’s the highest rate in the world. I would not even mention alcohol.” Russia has the fourth-highest annual per capita consumption of tobacco in the world, and smoking is responsible for 42 percent of early deaths among Russian men 35 to 59 years old, according to Euromonitor International, a consulting firm. Those figures are feeding fears about what will happen to the Russian economy in the coming years if, as the United Nations Population Division suggests, the Russian population experiences a drop of 21 million people from 2000 to 2025, to 120 million people. Even so, Russia’s Parliament left for its summer recess without approving any new anti-tobacco measures. In June, Russia signed the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which mandates a series of measures against smoking within five years, but many health care specialists said they were skeptical that the government truly had the will to carry out the plan. It is not only men who are a source of concern for antismoking groups. The groups’ representatives said they believed that foreign tobacco companies were responsible for a sharp increase in recent years in the number of women who smoke in Russia. The companies have focused much of their advertising on women, and the percentage of Russian women who smoke has more than doubled since Soviet times. The tobacco treaty calls for states to impose higher prices for cigarettes, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta says such price increases have the biggest effect on reducing smoking among teenagers and people with low incomes. Three 16-year-old girls who sat smoking in a park in Moscow the other day seemed dubious that any anti-tobacco campaigns would work. “Every cigarette pack has a health warning written on it and in principle every person who buys cigarettes sees this,” said one of the girls, Maria, who did not want to give her last name because she was an under-age smoker. “It’s the same way as it is with alcohol,” she said. “More or less everyone drinks and smokes, and nothing is going to change this.” | Smoking and Tobacco;Russia;Politics and Government |
ny0004775 | [
"us"
] | 2013/04/09 | Maryland: Marijuana Measure Sent to Governor | The State Legislature approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes on Monday, and Gov. Martin O’Malley has said he will sign the measure and make Maryland the 20th state to legalize medicinal cannabis. The Democratic-controlled State Senate passed the bill 42 to 4. The House of Delegates approved it last month. The measure allows seriously ill residents to obtain medical marijuana via state-regulated programs administered by academic medical centers. | Medical Marijuana;Legislation;Maryland;Martin J O'Malley |
ny0290829 | [
"business"
] | 2016/01/09 | Greater Risk of Crash Prompts Hyundai Elantra Recall | Hyundai is recalling 155,000 2011-12 Elantra models because the electronic stability control may malfunction, suddenly reducing engine power while trying to alter the direction of the vehicle, according to a report posted in December on the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Hyundai blamed a malfunctioning sensor on the electronic stability control system, which is supposed to detect if the vehicle is sliding in a direction at odds with how the steering wheel is turned. The recall is necessary because the sensor may activate the electronic stability control when it is not needed, “increasing the risk of a crash,” the automaker told regulators. Hyundai said it was not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect. Some owners began complaining to regulators as early as 2013. “It feels as if the auto is driving on flat wheels or on ice,” a New Jersey owner wrote in 2013. | Automobile safety;Recalls and Bans;Hyundai Motor;National Highway Traffic Safety Administration |
ny0176931 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/09/20 | Brooklyn Teenager Dies in Shooting | Two teenagers were shot, one fatally, in a Brooklyn housing development last night, the police said. One of the victims, a 16-year-old boy, was shot in the neck and torso, and was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital. The second victim, 17, was shot in the back and the arm and taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was in stable condition. Neither of the victims’ names was released. The shooting happened around 6 p.m. in a courtyard in front of 99 North Portland Avenue in the Walt Whitman Houses. Both youths lived in the neighborhood, the police said. Investigators said they were not sure of the motive, but neighbors said the 16-year-old had been seen with a gun this week. | Brooklyn (NYC);Assaults |
ny0203336 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2009/08/09 | Iranian Acknowledges Torture of Some Protesters | BEIRUT, Lebanon — A top judiciary official acknowledged Saturday that some detainees arrested after post-election protests had been tortured in Iranian prisons, the first such acknowledgment by a senior Iranian official. Meanwhile, a second day of hearings was held in a mass trial of reformers and election protesters, with more than 100 people accused of trying to topple the government. The accused included a French researcher and employees of the French and British Embassies, prompting angry responses from Britain, France and the European Union. But even as the trial appeared to further the campaign by the hard-line establishment to intimidate and silence the opposition, at the expense of alienating Iranian moderates and the West, the statement on torture by the judiciary official, Iran ’s prosecutor general, revealed continued divisions within the government. Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Qorbanali Dori-Najafabadi, the prosecutor general, said “mistakes” had led to a few “painful accidents which cannot be defended, and those who were involved should be punished.” Such mistakes, he said, included “the Kahrizak incident,” a reference to the deaths of several detainees at Kahrizak detention center in southwestern Tehran. His comments came after weeks of reports that detainees had been tortured, and they fell somewhere between an admission and an accusation, as most of the arrests were made by the Revolutionary Guards and the paramilitary Basij militia, groups that are not under the control of the judiciary. Even so, the statement was likely to be incendiary in Iran, where allegations of torture by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi became a central justification of the 1979 revolution that brought the hard-line clerics to power. Detainees’ accusations of torture have already prompted a parliamentary investigation of abuses at Kahrizak, which was closed last month by order of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr. Dori-Najafabadi said his team had tried to change the situation after taking control of the arrests last month, the ILNA news agency reported, and he encouraged people to come forward with complaints. “Maybe there were cases of torture in the early days after the election,” he was quoted as saying, “but we are willing to follow up any complaints or irregularities that have taken place.” In another indication of dissension, he said a special judiciary committee had recommended the release of Saeed Hajjarian, a prominent reformist. Mr. Hajjarian’s family said he had been tortured, and has expressed concern about his health. Last week, the Iranian authorities said Mr. Hajjarian had been moved to a site with access to doctors. Mr. Dori-Najafabadi also said that about 100 people had been arrested every day after the post-election demonstrations began, and that there were efforts to release about the same number daily. There are nearly 200 detainees today, he said. At the trial on Saturday, families of the defendants gathered outside the court and were attacked by riot police officers when they began chanting slogans, Web sites reported. Zahra Mir-Younessi, the wife of one of the detainees, and several others were arrested. Inside the courtroom, the French researcher and an analyst at the British Embassy who have been accused of spying took the stand to apologize, saying they had wanted only to update their embassies on Iran’s recent political turmoil. The researcher, Clotilde Reiss, who was working at Isfahan University, said she had collected news and information about politics and the protests, and presented some of it to officials at the French Embassy in Tehran. “I realize this was a mistake,” she said, according to a transcript provided by the semiofficial Fars news agency. “I apologize to the court and the people of Iran, and I hope they will forgive me.” Hossein Rassam, a political analyst at the British Embassy in Tehran who is an Iranian citizen, also took the stand after espionage charges were read out against him. He said his job required him to gather information on Iranian politics and to convey it to his employers. He then expressed “regret,” according to Fars, and asked for a pardon and an opportunity to make up for any action that might have harmed the government. His lawyer then rose to say that Mr. Rassam’s activities were not spying, but the requirements of his job at the embassy. The trial, which opened the previous Saturday, has included confessions by prominent reformist figures, whose friends and relatives said they had been coerced through torture. The confessions Saturday appeared to be part of a strategy to link the opposition, which maintains that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ’s landslide re-election on June 12 was rigged, to foreign powers. The court appearances followed more than a month of intense diplomatic efforts by Britain and France to persuade Iran not to charge the two embassy employees and the researcher. Britain’s foreign secretary, David Miliband, said that the charges against Mr. Rassam were unjustified and that the action against Mr. Rassam and Ms. Reiss “only brings further discredit on the Iranian regime.” The French government demanded that Iran immediately release Ms. Reiss and its embassy staff member, Nazak Afshar, saying espionage accusations against them were baseless. Mr. Miliband said Britain had raised its concerns in a meeting in Tehran between Britain’s ambassador and the Iranian deputy foreign minister, and in London, where a Foreign Office official met with Iran’s ambassador. Officials at the Foreign Office had previously said they believed that they had assurances from Iran that Mr. Rassam would not face trial. British officials, speaking anonymously in accordance with diplomatic protocol, have said Mr. Rassam appeared to have been chosen as a scapegoat after Ayatollah Khamenei identified Britain as a target during the protests after the election. In a speech at Friday Prayer in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei said Britain, with a long history of colonial interference in Iran, was leading a covert international effort to manipulate the outcome of the election. As in last weekend’s session, prosecutors began Saturday by reading a long, wide-ranging list of accusations that seemed to implicate any Western organization with an interest in Iran — including media organizations, rights groups and research institutes — in a vast, seditious plot. The other defendants on trial Saturday included two prominent political analysts, Ahmad Zeidabadi and Bijan Khajehpour, as well as people the government said were members of a monarchist group and a terrorist group and who were accused of planning bombings. One defendant accused of planning bombings at the time of the elections, Muhammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, testified that he had met a number of foreigners. They included an American intelligence official in Iraqi Kurdistan known as “Frank” who he said had given him money, a phone and other assistance. | Iran;Demonstrations and Riots;Elections;Torture;Freedom and Human Rights;Ahmadinejad Mahmoud;Reiss Clotilde;Rossam Hussein |
ny0268013 | [
"technology"
] | 2016/03/14 | Top Start-Up Investors Are Betting on Growth, Not Waiting for It | SAN FRANCISCO — For the last few years, the spotlight in start-up investing has largely shone on those who poured money into a company when it was already well along on a growth path. It turns out that spotlight may have been misdirected. While some investors are throwing giant sums into more mature start-ups like Uber and Airbnb at soaring valuations, it is the venture capitalists who identify a promising company at its infancy and bet on its growth who often come out on top. Known as early-stage investors, they dominate a list of the top 20 venture capitalists worldwide that was recently created by the research firm CB Insights. About three-quarters of the top 20 are investors who put money into start-ups during their early rounds of financing. Only a handful on the list are focused on investing at a later stage in a company’s life. CB Insights generated the list using criteria such as how big a return an investor was able to produce when his or her investments went public or were acquired. CB Insights focused on the performance of investors since 2008 for the list. The top 20 includes Peter Fenton of Benchmark, who invested in Twitter when the social media company had only 25 employees and was trying to fix its once-common service failures; the company went public in 2013 . The list also includes Jim Goetz at Sequoia Capital, who was one of the few to invest in the messaging service WhatsApp before it was acquired by Facebook , and Jenny Lee of GGV Capital, who was among the earliest investors in 21Vianet, a Chinese data center services provider that has since gone public. The idea that early-stage investors can generate much larger returns has long been a core principle of venture capital: Get in early and grab a bigger stake in a company, with more opportunity for a larger return later, the thinking goes. Early-stage investments have accounted for the lion’s share of the venture industry’s gains since 1994, according to Cambridge Associates, a research firm that studied the quarterly financial reports of dozens of venture firms. Since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the industry’s returns have been generated by early-stage investments in any given year. But the value of investing in a company when it is still nascent has been somewhat obscured in recent years as hordes of nontraditional start-up investors — including mutual funds, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds — have piled into private tech companies, often when those start-ups are already proven growth stories. When Uber raised around $2.1 billion in December , for example, one of its investors was Tiger Global Management, a New York investment firm with a hedge fund component. “When you write bigger checks, it’s more natural that people will notice,” said Anand Sanwal, chief executive of CB Insights. In contrast, early-stage investing tends to involve smaller checks and puts an investor into just one of scores of start-ups, making it harder to stand out immediately. Rebecca Lynn, a managing director and co-founder of Canvas Ventures who is on the CB Insights list, said early-stage investments generally pay off more because “investors can get more of an ownership stake and you’re also part of the team.” Ms. Lynn, who invested early in the alternative lending platform Lending Club, which went public in 2014 , added that “later-stage investing is more like a stock bet. You’re along for the ride.” The Top 20 Venture Capital Investors Worldwide To identify today’s top venture investors, CB Insights, a research firm that tracks the venture capital industry, created a data-driven list. Yet there is more risk in early investing, since unproven start-ups can easily fail. “There are so many unknowns, from what the core business is going to look like to what the team is going to look like,” said Danny Rimer, of Index Ventures. He is also on the top 20 list, partly because of an early bet on King Digital Entertainment, the maker of the game Candy Crush that went public before being acquired by Activision Blizzard . (Mr. Rimer also invests in companies in their later stages.) Early-stage investing has changed in recent years. The top-returning venture-capital investments in any given year were once dominated by just a handful of brand name, early-stage venture firms. That has shifted: Over the last decade, new venture firms have contributed to an increasing share of the best investments, according to Cambridge Associates. From 2000 through 2012, 70 venture capital firms were each involved in at least one of the 10 deals that created the most value for investors. Before 2000, only 25 firms had invested in at least one top 10 deal, according to Cambridge Associates. Mr. Rimer said there was “no question” that “there are more folks putting money to work at earlier-stage investments than, say, 10 years ago.” New players have been successful partly because they have been more willing to put money into companies outside Silicon Valley, especially in China, where start-up success stories have been abundant over the last decade, Cambridge Associates said in a report last fall. That has benefited venture capitalists including Ms. Lee and Neil Shen of Sequoia Capital, who made names for themselves by investing early in Chinese start-ups that went public: Ms. Lee in the social network YY.com, and Mr. Shen in the Internet security company Qihoo 360. Mr. Shen is also on CB Insights’ list of top 20 investors. “The tech market has massively expanded, and tech is now far more accessible all around the world,” said Theresa Hajer, a managing director at Cambridge Associates. As more venture firms have snagged pieces of the top deals, more have also taken pieces of the return pool, lowering the overall gains for the venture industry as a whole. Before the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, huge returns of 25 times the original investment amount were the norm for the top investments. Since that period, it has been much rarer for the top investments in any given year to yield a 25-fold return, according to Cambridge Associates data. For the foundations, endowments and pension funds that have poured billions into venture capital funds, finding the right early-stage investor remains a challenge. Scott C. Malpass, the chief investment officer at the University of Notre Dame, said he could count on two hands the number of venture investors who could successfully identify which young start-ups would make the transition to lasting companies. “I just want to be in the top two to three companies, not the top 100, because that’s where the next Google or LinkedIn will be,” Mr. Malpass said about his philosophy of working with early-stage venture capitalists. “It’s still a home run game.” Neal Graziano, director of investments at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, an $8 billion nonprofit foundation that places money with venture investors, says three-quarters of his venture portfolio is invested with people who put money into companies at their earliest stages. “You see some of your worst performers in the early stages, but this is where you get your biggest investment returns,” he said. | Venture capital;CB Insights;Startup;Benchmark Capital;Sequoia Capital;Index Ventures;Canvas Ventures;GGV Capital |
ny0064184 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2014/06/05 | Justices Reject Call to Halt Gay Marriages in Oregon | WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request to halt same-sex marriages in Oregon. The court’s one-line order gave no reasons for declining to issue a stay. Many gay and lesbian couples have gotten married in Oregon since a May 19 decision from Judge Michael J. McShane of Federal District Court in Eugene, Ore., struck down the state’s ban on such marriages. “With marriages continuing in Oregon, we have 44 percent of the country living in a freedom-to-marry state,” said James Esseks, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented some of the plaintiffs in the Oregon case. Same-sex marriages are permitted in 19 states and the District of Columbia. State officials had declined to appeal Judge McShane’s decision. Oregon’s attorney general, Ellen F. Rosenblum, told the Supreme Court that there was “no rational basis on which to defend the state’s same-sex marriage ban.” The request to the Supreme Court that the decision be stayed came instead from the National Organization for Marriage , which opposes same-sex marriage. The organization’s brief reminded the justices that they had issued a stay in January of a federal trial judge’s ruling allowing same-sex marriages in Utah. But that request had come from state officials. In declining to grant its request for a stay, the justices may have harbored doubt about whether the group had suffered the sort of direct injury that would give it standing in the case, National Organization for Marriage v. Geiger. Last June, in Hollingsworth v. Perry , the Supreme Court ruled that proponents of Proposition 8, a voter initiative that had banned same-sex marriage in California, did not have standing to appeal a ruling striking it down. In a companion decision issued the same day, the court struck down the part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that barred the federal government from granting benefits to married same-sex couples. That second decision, United States v. Windsor , has provided the basis for an unbroken string of victories for gay rights advocates, as trial judges around the nation have cited it in striking down state bans on same-sex marriage. Decisions from federal appeals courts in some of those cases are expected shortly, and the question of whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage could return to the Supreme Court in its next term, which starts in October. | Supreme Court,SCOTUS;Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage;National Organization for Marriage;ACLU;Michael McShane;Oregon |
ny0076300 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2015/05/16 | New Look, British Retailer, to Be Acquired by Brait of South Africa for $1.2 Billion | LONDON — Brait, a South African investment firm, said on Friday that it had agreed to acquire a controlling interest in the British retailer New Look Retail Group for 780 million pounds, or about $1.2 billion. Brait will acquire a 90 percent stake in New Look from its owners, primarily funds advised by the private equity firms Apax Partners and Permira. The deal values New Look at £1.9 billion, including debt. The remaining 10 percent stake in the fast-fashion chain will be acquired by interests controlled by the family of New Look’s founder, Tom Singh, and its management, Brait said. Brait’s largest shareholder is Christoffel Wiese, a South African billionaire and the former chairman of the investment holding company Pepkor, which operates Pep, Africa’s largest single-brand retailer. In November, Steinhoff International of South Africa acquired a majority stake in Pepkor for 62.8 billion rand, or about $5.3 billion, in shares and cash. “New Look is an attractive investment opportunity for Brait,” John Gnodde, the chief executive of Brait, said in a news release . “We have been highly impressed with the management team and look forward to partnering with them.” The transaction is expected to be completed next month. Anders Kristiansen, the chief executive of New Look; Mike Iddon, its chief financial officer; and Roger Wightman, chief creative officer, will remain with the company after the completion of the deal. Mr. Kristiansen said in February that the company was ready to consider a public listing of its shares, but that it was up to the retailer’s owners to decide on a possible offering. Founded in 1969, New Look sells clothing, footwear and accessories for women and men. The company operates more than 800 stores in 21 countries, with the bulk of its locations in Britain. It had revenue of £1.4 billion for the 12 months ended in December. Brait was advised by Rand Merchant Bank and Nomura and the law firms Linklaters and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr; New Look was advised by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase and the law firm Clifford Chance. | Private equity;Mergers and Acquisitions;Brait;Apax Partners;Permira;Retail;Great Britain |
ny0092151 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/08/28 | Mexico in International Title Game at Little League World Series | The left-hander Daniel Zaragoza gave up only three hits and doubled home two runs, leading Mexicali Baja California, Mexico, to an 11-0 victory over Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and a berth in the International championship game at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa. Mexicali will play Tokyo for the title Saturday. The winner will face the United States champion a day later for the World Series championship. | Baseball;Mexicali Mexico;Tokyo;Little League World Series;South Williamsport |
ny0064072 | [
"us"
] | 2014/06/04 | Protesters Cite New Details of Albuquerque Police Shooting as Reason for Rally | ALBUQUERQUE — The 13 protesters who stormed the mayor’s office here and were arrested and jailed Monday said they were spurred by renewed outrage over the latest development in a string of fatal police shootings: An autopsy released last week showed the bullet that killed a homeless man, James Boyd, had been fired into his lower back. The shooting of Mr. Boyd, who was 38 at the time of his death in March and had a history of mental illness, was captured on video by an officer’s helmet camera and prompted a wave of protests against the Albuquerque police, who were seen firing on him at his encampment in the Sandia Foothills as he turned to get away after an hourslong standoff. The police said he had pulled two knives on them and made threats. According to the autopsy, which described the death as a homicide, Mr. Boyd was hit by two bullets, with the fatal one entering the left side of his lower back and exiting through his armpit before re-entering through the upper part of his left arm and lodging in a shoulder muscle. The other bullet hit him in the upper part of his right arm, which surgeons amputated as they worked to save his life at the University of New Mexico hospital. A toxicology analysis revealed no alcohol or drugs in Mr. Boyd’s system, the autopsy said. On Monday, in the latest of several organized protests over the episode, demonstrators pushed their way into the 11th floor office suite of Mayor Richard J. Berry, who was not there at the time. One woman chained herself in place while others strung up police tape and yelled, “Jail killer cops.” City Hall was put on lockdown, and the City Council meeting planned for that night was canceled. Thirteen people were arrested. Twelve were charged with criminal trespassing and other misdemeanors and were released early Tuesday. The 13th, David Correia, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, was charged with a fourth-degree felony, battery of a peace officer, for allegedly pushing aside a law enforcement officer as the group entered the suite. Mr. Correia said Tuesday that he would plead not guilty when he appeared in court on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the mayor said that Mr. Berry had been in New York attending the Yale C.E.O. Summit, a Yale University event held Tuesday and Wednesday at the New York Stock Exchange, but that apparently the protesters had not known Mr. Berry was gone when they staged their action. Ken Sanchez, the president of the Albuquerque City Council, said it was the second time in a month he had to call off a City Council meeting because of protests; the City Council chambers are in the basement of City Hall. He rescheduled the meeting for June 9. Asked if he thought the Berry administration had done enough to address people’s anger about the police killings, Mr. Sanchez said, “Personally, I do not.” “This has been going on for a long time,” he said. “I’m not sure if he assumed it would go away. The problem hasn’t gone away. It’s gotten bigger.” Breanna Anderson, the spokeswoman for Mr. Berry, said the mayor had met with “a wide variety of community stakeholders” over the issue. In early April, the Justice Department issued a scathing report, the product of a monthslong investigation, that rebuked the Police Department for engaging in a “pattern or practice of unconstitutional use of deadly force.” At the time, 23 people had been shot dead by the police over four years; since then, three more people have been shot and killed by city police officers. | Albuquerque;James Boyd;Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings;Murders;Richard J Berry;David Correia |
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