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ny0249140 | [
"sports"
] | 2011/05/12 | Swim-Off for Roster Spot Takes Toll on Teammates | CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For nine months, Cullen Jones and Josh Schneider have been training side by side for a 22-second duel. Their 50-meter freestyle swim-off Thursday is the sport’s version of musical chairs: when the clock stops, one of them will not have a seat on the plane to the world championships in Shanghai. The race, which will take place at Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center on the first night of a USA Swimming Grand Prix meet, has drawn enormous interest in swimming circles, the buzz similar to the buildup for a boxing title bout. Seldom do swimmers, used to racing in heats of six or eight, compete head to head like gladiators in a ring. And rarely do such unique backgrounds converge in the pool. Jones and Schneider are teammates at SwimMAC Carolina but are otherwise as different as fresh and salt water. Jones, 27, is an Olympian and American record-holder with a wealth of racing experience. An African-American, he is used to being stared at on the pool deck because of the color of his skin. Schneider, 23, is a greenhorn who can almost count his total number of 50-meter long course races on both hands and toes. A former football player, he draws stares on the pool deck because of his inflated biceps. They have in common the edgy mien that separates sprinters from other swimmers, and as their high-stakes showdown draws nearer, the tension between them has gone from simmering to close to a full boil. Seven days before the race, Jones and Schneider were talking trash to each other at practice. “But they weren’t joking,” said another teammate, Nick Brunelli. “They meant it.” The swimmers’ coaches, David Marsh and Peter Verhoef, both described the situation as awkward. It is a real trial for Marsh, whose organizational oversight at the United States senior nationals last August set off the series of events that led to the swim-off. He neglected to scratch Schneider from the 100 butterfly, an event the swimmer had no intention of racing, which automatically disqualified Schneider from the 50 freestyle, the other event he was entered in that day. Schneider filed a protest and was allowed to compete in the 50. A race that requires laser focus because of its high technical difficulty took place under a cloud of confusion, with Jones and Schneider tying for second place, in 21.97, behind the winner, Nathan Adrian, at 21.70. Jones’s American record, set in 2009, is 21.40. A swim-off for the second and final world championship berth normally would have been held within days of the original race, but Schneider was sidelined after breaking his hand powering to the finish in his next event, the 100-meter freestyle. Jones agreed to a swim-off to save Schneider from having to go through a legal process to have his time validated, and the sprinters settled on the May showdown. The long buildup for the shortest of Olympic aquatic events has exacted a toll on both participants. “At this point it’s like, ‘Dude, let’s just get this over with,’ ” said Jones, who added, “There’s so much pressure, so much anxiety, because of the stakes and because it’s a teammate you’re having to race.” Jones spoke at the pool where the two will race. In an interview later in the day before a dry-land workout at a downtown Y.M.C.A., Schneider said, “I like the attention and I’m excited, but I’m ready for it to be over.” Their coaches lately have tried to defuse the tension by keeping Jones and Schneider apart whenever possible. On Friday, six days before the race, Schneider swam a tuneup race while Jones practiced in the water with the team. The next day, Jones competed in a tuneup race and Schneider swam at practice. “Unfortunately, it’s created a situation there where they each feel a certain dislike for the other person,” Verhoef said, adding, “Ideally, I’d like them to come out of this with a hungry attitude, a feeling of let’s get back to work and push each other to be the top two in the world.” Jones has been to the summit, winning an Olympic gold medal in 2008 as a member of the United States’ 400-meter freestyle relay. In the Olympic final in Beijing, he swam the third leg, giving way to Jason Lezak, whose amazing finish propelled the United States team to a world record and an upset of France in one of the most memorable races of the Games. Jones, who was born in the Bronx and raised in New Jersey, became the second African-American to hold or share a swimming world record. He lowered the American record in the 50 before the post-Olympic wave he was riding crashed. Last year he felt the pull of the world beyond the pool and found himself adrift. “I just kind of wanted to have that social life I never had,” he said. “At nationals last year, I didn’t feel like I was in the best shape. Tying with Josh was a big-time wake-up call.” Jones said he agreed to the swim-off out of a sense of fairness. “Josh and I did tie,” he said. “I feel like I paid my karma upfront.” At the Grand Prix meet here last year, Schneider edged Jones for his first significant long-course victory in the 50-meter freestyle. If Jones does not win the swim-off, he will lose a substantial amount of money from his sponsors, which include Nike. It already has cost him, Jones said, because he is paid less if he is not a member of the United States national A team, and that group is composed of those who have qualified for the world championships July 24 to 31. “When I made the decision it was ‘fair’s fair,’ ” Jones said. “But I won’t do it again.” He fell silent for a few seconds. “Yeah, I won’t do it again.” When Jones arrived on the national scene as a collegian at North Carolina State, he was hailed as a new breed of swimmer: a natural athlete who might have followed in the footsteps of his father, Roland, who played college basketball. Schneider represents swimming’s next archetype: the all-around great athlete who might have excelled in any sport. At Cincinnati’s Taylor High School, Schneider earned letters in swimming, track and field, golf and football, where he played at wide receiver and tight end. He won multiple Big East championship titles at the University of Cincinnati and added the N.C.A.A. crown in the 50-yard freestyle as a senior in 2010. “My freshman year of college,” Schneider said, “I said I think I’m done with swimming. I want to go back to football. Just talking to coaches and my family, I realized that’d be a dumb move. In football I’d most likely be a Joe Schmo. The reality of my getting to the N.F.L. is really slim. In swimming I feel like I can be in the Olympics.” Schneider said he took the same mentality to the starting blocks that he did to the line of scrimmage. “In the 50 free you have to dig deep into the innermost part of you and unlock that aggression and release it,” he said. “It’s like every down, hut-one, hut-two, go.” He came to SwimMAC Carolina last year as a 6-foot-4 piece of clay to be molded by Marsh and Verhoef, who have overhauled his stroke. Schneider is confident he will prevail in the swim-off. “I’ve put in a lot more work than Cullen has,” he said last week. “Because he misses practices. I just feel like I want it more.” Jones said he was confident his experience would prevail in the end. “Having someone who swims with me who watches what I do because I’m the older swimmer has made me more professional in a lot of ways,” he said, referring to Schneider. There can be only one winner Thursday, but Marsh sees an outcome benefiting both swimmers. “At the end of the day I think they’ll both be exponentially better for having gone through this experience,” he said, “assuming they use it to move forward.” | Swimming;USA Swimming;Jones Cullen;Schneider Josh |
ny0138337 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2008/05/15 | 2 Baghdad Attacks Attributed to Teenagers Kill 11 Others | BAGHDAD — Two suicide bombers described as teenagers carried out attacks Wednesday in suburban Baghdad as the prime minister went to the northern city of Mosul to encourage Iraqi soldiers fighting in a new offensive to rid that area of Sunni Islamic extremists. The Mosul operation follows two other offensives, in Basra and the Sadr City district of Baghdad, that the government has carried out in recent months; the other two offensives focused on Shiite militias. Iraqi and American security forces believe that Mosul is the last urban stronghold of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which American intelligence says is a homegrown militant group led by foreigners. The Iraqi Army began the offensive over the weekend and is being aided by American troops. There has long been support in Mosul for the Sunni insurgency because many former members of Saddam Hussein’s security forces live there. “The goal of this operation is to clean Mosul of the terrorist and criminal groups,” said Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who was accompanied by the ministers of interior and defense. “The operation will open a new page for civilians in Mosul, and the security forces should do everything to make this operation successful just as they are doing in Baghdad and Basra.” Basra has recently settled into relative calm, although it remains unclear if the Shiite militias are finished fighting or simply planning to resume the battle later. Clashes are still going on in Sadr City, although the past few days have been quieter since a cease-fire agreement was reached. The more damaging of the suicide bomb attacks on Wednesday occurred west of Baghdad about 5 p.m. in Abu Ghraib. It killed at least 10 people and wounded 50, some of them seriously, according to spokesmen for the Falluja and Jordanian hospitals, both in Falluja. By nightfall mosques in Falluja were calling people to donate blood, and police cars were ferrying donors to the hospitals. The bomber’s victims had been mourning the death of Taha al-Zobaie, who was killed two days ago, said Abu Mustapha, a relative who had shrapnel wounds and who would give only his nickname. The Zobaie tribe has opposed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. “He was a child about 15 years old, and he was crying,” Abu Mustapha said, describing the bomber. “I don’t think he exploded himself because I did not see him move his hands. I think someone exploded him by remote control.” The suicide bomb attack south of Baghdad occurred near Yusufiya, a town that was once heavily dominated by extremists connected to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The bomber, who was female, killed an Iraqi Army captain and wounded seven Iraqi soldiers, the American military said. Iraqis in the area described the bomber as being 8 to 12 years old, but an American military spokesman said the bomber appeared to be 16 to 18 years old. The bomber waited four hours for the captain to return to the company’s headquarters, telling soldiers there that she needed to talk to him, according to an Iraqi officer who was in the same brigade as the captain. He said Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia had put a price on the captain’s head. In Baghdad, the convoy of one of the leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party was attacked by a car bomb in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk. The leader, Ayad al-Sammaraie, was not in the convoy, but three of his bodyguards were killed and 23 people were wounded, according to the Ministry of Interior. Marine Charged in Iraq Shooting CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) — Camp Pendleton’s commanding general has ordered a marine to be tried for murder in the killing of an unarmed detainee in Falluja, Iraq. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, of New York, is among three marines accused of shooting unarmed captives in November 2004. Sergeant Nelsa, 26, is charged with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty. He told investigators in March 2007 that his squad leader had demanded help shooting four detainees after guns were found in the house where the Iraqis were held. Sergeant Nelson’s attorney, Joseph Low, has said he obeyed what he perceived as an order. Sergeant Nelson faces life in prison if convicted. | Terrorism;Iraq;Baghdad (Iraq);Mosul (Iraq);Bombs and Explosives;Sunni Muslims |
ny0194064 | [
"business"
] | 2009/11/16 | Drug Makers Raising Prices Before Reform | Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years. In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992. The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index , which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year. Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years. “When we have major legislation anticipated, we see a run-up in price increases,” says Stephen W. Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical economics at the University of Minnesota . He has analyzed drug pricing for AARP , the advocacy group for seniors that supports the House health care legislation that the drug industry opposes. A Harvard health economist, Joseph P. Newhouse, said he found a similar pattern of unusual price increases after Congress added drug benefits to Medicare a few years ago, giving tens of millions of older Americans federally subsidized drug insurance . Just as the program was taking effect in 2006, the drug industry raised prices by the widest margin in a half-dozen years. “They try to maximize their profits,” Mr. Newhouse said. But drug companies say they are having to raise prices to maintain the profits necessary to invest in research and development of new drugs as the patents on many of their most popular drugs are set to expire over the next few years. “Price adjustments for our products have no connection to health care reform ,” said Ron Rogers, a spokesman for Merck , which raised its prices about 8.9 percent in the last year, according to a stock analyst’s report. This year’s increases mean the average annual cost for a brand-name prescription drug that is taken daily would be more than $2,000 — $200 higher than last year, Professor Schondelmeyer said. And this means that the cost of many popular drugs has risen even faster. Merck, for example, now sells daily 10-milligram pills of Singulair, the blockbuster asthma drug, at a wholesale price of $1,330 a year — $147 more than last year. Singulair is now selling at retail, on drugstore.com , for nearly $1,478 a year. The drug companies “can charge what they want — it’s not fair,” Eric White, the 42-year-old owner of a small jewelry store in Queens , said as he left a pharmacy recently. Despite having drug insurance, Mr. White says he now pays $110 a month out of pocket for two brand-name allergy medicines, even as he has cut prices in his jewelry store by at least 40 percent to keep customers coming through the door. He shook his head. “What can I do?” he said. “I need my medicines.” The drug industry has actively opposed some of the cost-cutting provisions in the House legislation, which passed Nov. 7 and aims to cut drug spending by about $14 billion a year over a decade. But the drug makers have been proudly citing the agreement they reached with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee chairman to trim $8 billion a year — $80 billion over 10 years — from the nation’s drug bill by giving rebates to older Americans and the government. That provision is likely to be part of the legislation that will reach the Senate floor in coming weeks. But this year’s price increases would effectively cancel out the savings from at least the first year of the Senate Finance agreement. And some critics say the surge in drug prices could change the dynamics of the entire 10-year deal. “It makes it much easier for the drug companies to pony up the $80 billion because they’ll be making more money,” said Steven D. Findlay, senior health care analyst with the advocacy group Consumers Union . Name-brand prices have risen even as prices of widely used generic drugs have fallen by about 9 percent in the last year, Professor Schondelmeyer said. But name brands account for 78 percent of total prescription drug spending in this country. And as long as a name-brand drug still has patent protection it faces no price competition from generics. Ken Johnson , senior vice president of the industry association — the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — criticized the analysis Professor Schondelmeyer had conducted for AARP, saying it was politically motivated. “In AARP’s skewed view of the world, medicines are always looked at as a cost and never seen as a savings — even though medicines often reduce unnecessary hospitalization, help avoid costly medical procedures and increase productivity through better prevention and management of chronic diseases,” he said. But Professor Schondelmeyer’s analysis — which found prices for the name-brand drugs most widely used by the Medicare population rising by 9.3 percent in the last year, the fastest rate since 1992 — is in line with the findings of a leading Wall Street analyst, too. The report was released on Monday. Catherine J. Arnold, a drug industry analyst at Credit Suisse , said her latest study of the nation’s eight biggest pharmaceutical companies showed markedly similar results: list prices rising an average of 8.7 percent in the 12 months ending Sept. 30 — the highest rate of growth since at least 2004. As does Professor Schondelmeyer, Ms. Arnold based her price calculations on reported wholesale prices and a formula that puts more emphasis on each company’s best-selling drugs. Ms. Arnold said the prospect of cost containment under health care reform, as well as the tougher business environment, entered into the decisions of manufacturers to raise prices this year. The industry stands to gain about 30 million customers with drug insurance from the legislation pending in Congress. But the industry also faces the prospect of tougher negotiations from both public and private buyers as the government tries to squeeze savings out of the health system. “If you’re going to take price increases,” Ms. Arnold said, “here and now might be the place to do that, because the next year and the year after that might be tough.” Mr. Johnson did not dispute the Credit Suisse study or deny Ms. Arnold’s finding that American drug makers have raised prices at the fastest rate in five years. He said both studies were incomplete by failing to include rebates that drug makers give distributors. But Ms. Arnold, Professor Schondelmeyer and a 2007 Congressional study of Medicare said the rebates often accrue to the middlemen, not consumers, and higher manufacturer prices lead to higher retail prices. And the drug industry’s own major consulting firm, IMS Health , has also reported a significant run-up in prices. Back in April, IMS predicted that United States drug sales might actually decline this year. Billy Tauzin , president of the industry’s trade association, highlighted the gloomy prediction in a June 1 letter to President Obama shortly before striking the deal to cut drug costs by $80 billion. In negotiating the deal, the drug makers argued that they could not afford to give up more than that. But in October, IMS made an unusual change in the middle of its forecasting cycle, saying it now believed United States sales would grow at least 4.5 percent in 2009 — or $21 billion more than expected six months earlier. A major reason, IMS said, was higher-than-expected price increases for drugs in the United States. | Health Insurance;Pharmaceuticals;Reform;Price;Medicine and Health;AARP |
ny0184023 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2007/12/13 | The Rangers’ Normally Stingy Defense Rests | WASHINGTON — The Rangers ’ wild 5-4 overtime loss Wednesday night to the Capitals would have been stunning even if the Rangers had not beaten the Devils, 1-0, three days earlier. The Rangers, who have treated goals like rare gold bars this season, twice battled back from third-period deficits against the Capitals, only to watch their typically stingy defense get shredded by an even more impressive display of offense by Washington. And for one last slice of agony, the Capitals won a game of two-on-one rushes, with the best one of all in overtime. Defenseman Mike Green raced up the ice after a Rangers turnover and fired the winner past Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist with 1 minute 19 seconds left. “It was a very entertaining game,” Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig said. “The only thing missing was a shootout.” This was enough of a shootout for the Rangers’ tastes. They have given up as many as five goals only twice this season. “That’s a team that can score goals,” Rangers center Scott Gomez said. “We did what we had to do. We don’t want to give up five goals a game and leave Hank out there to dry, but we’ll take the point. We’ve got to work on some stuff. We were way too sloppy. And that was everyone.” The Rangers (16-12-3) suffered their fourth loss in the last five games, a stretch that makes the victory over the Devils on Sunday seem like an anomaly. The Capitals, meanwhile, have enjoyed a resurgence since firing Glen Hanlon as coach Nov. 22. They have lifted their record to 12-17-2, going 6-3-1 since Bruce Boudreau took over. In the first two meetings this season, both losses, the Capitals managed only one goal against the Rangers. But by the end of the second period Wednesday, they had two goals by forward Joe Motzko, who was playing in Hershey, Pa., last week. “I’m just happy to get on the board any way I can,” said Motzko, who had scored only one previous goal in the N.H.L. and has spent most of this season in the minors. “It’s a special night for me.” The Rangers started the game by taking a 2-0 lead in the first on goals by Gomez and forward Martin Straka. But the Capitals got one back in the first on Motzko’s first goal. From there, the Capitals built on their momentum. Motzko scored again in the second and the star forward Alex Ovechkin scored off a deflection of a shot by Green to take a 3-2 lead early in the third. The Rangers tied the score at 3-3 with Straka’s second goal, but the Capitals scored almost immediately on a long shot by defenseman Jeff Schultz. The Rangers tied the score again on a goal by Brendan Shanahan at 12:43 of the third. When the game went to overtime, the Rangers earned a point, but it was little consolation. “We weren’t very smart,” Rangers Coach Tom Renney said. “We handled the puck poorly, we managed it poorly. We had disjointed line changes, we had defensemen caught out for two-minute shifts because we couldn’t get out of our end. We weren’t very bright tonight.” The final indignity came when Shanahan got his skate stuck in a rut and fell while taking a pass from center Chris Drury in the Capitals’ zone. Washington center Brooks Laich collected the puck and set off on the game-winning two-on-one. “We weren’t happy with some of the chances we gave up when we had full control in our end,” Shanahan said. “We turned the puck over, and that’s the way it ended up in our net.” The nets had an awfully busy night. SLAP SHOTS The Rangers made defenseman Marek Malik a healthy scratch. ...Capitals center Michael Nylander, who played the last two seasons for the Rangers, missed the game, his third in a row, with an injury the Capitals have refused to describe. They said he could return early next week. | Hockey Ice;New York Rangers;Washington Capitals;Shanahan Brendan;Green Mike |
ny0053994 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2014/07/07 | European Students’ Use of ‘Smart Drugs’ Is Said to Rise | PARIS — Under heavy pressure to excel, significant numbers of European university students are using cognitive enhancers, so-called smart drugs, to keep up with academic demands, recent studies show. A lack of long-term research makes it difficult to gauge whether the use of such stimulants, with the aim of improving concentration and memory, is on the rise — and if so, to what degree — says Boris Quednow, an assistant professor and psychologist at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich. “As no longitudinal data has been produced yet, we do not know if there really is an overall increase” in smart drug use, Mr. Quednow said in an interview. “However, it is my impression from discussions with students over the last years that consumption has likely increased.” Student drug use for recreational purposes is nothing new. But substance use for competitive purposes is another matter. A Swiss study published last November, based on a survey of 6,275 students at universities in Zurich and Basel between December 2012 and January 2013, found that one in seven reported using some form of neuro- or cognitive enhancer in the months leading up to their exams. In May this year a survey carried out by a national British student newspaper, The Tab, found that one in five students reported having used Modafinil, a medically approved treatment for narcolepsy and other sleep disorders, to increase their wakefulness while studying for their exams. In an interview, an undergraduate at the University of Geneva, who asked to be identified only as Andrea to protect herself against possible disciplinary action, said she had used smart drugs to keep up with her revision work — and with other students who were using them. “You are competing with students on smart drugs who are smarter than you anyway,” Andrea said. “You almost need to take them to be on a level playing field.” The difficulty of tracking the scale of use is compounded by the absence of any official, commonly accepted definition of cognitive enhancers. Larissa Maier, one of the authors of the Swiss study, said it aimed to survey “the use of prescription drugs, illegal drugs, or alcohol for the purpose of cognitive performance enhancement or for the purpose of increased psychological well-being in academic or work-related contexts.” Students from the universities of Zurich, Basel and ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, were questioned on their knowledge and use of substances to enhance mood or cognitive function. The data obtained showed that 13.8 percent of respondents had used some form of cognitive enhancement in the months leading to their exams. Substances used, the study found, included alcohol, the most commonly reported, by 5.6 percent of respondents; methylphenidate — sold under several trade names, including Ritalin — reported by 4.1 percent; sedatives (2.7 percent); beta blockers (1.2 percent); cannabis (2.5 percent); amphetamines (0.4 percent), and cocaine (0.2 percent). The lack of an agreed and shared definition makes it difficult to compare data internationally — the inclusion of alcohol in the Swiss study for example differentiates it from most American and British studies. Excluding alcohol would cut the headline figure in the Swiss survey to about 8 percent from nearly 14 percent. Still, the study stirred an ethical and medical debate about academic doping. The short term negative effects of most drugs used for cognitive enhancement have been widely studied. Side effects may include insomnia, anxiety, sleeping disorders, headaches, restlessness, cardiac arrhythmia, irritability, aggressive behavior and psychosis. There may also be a risk of dependency. To date, however, scientific data is lacking on their long-term effects on cognitive skills. “Currently there are still no long term studies of the effects of ‘smart drugs’ on healthy people” said Barbara Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge. “We know the brain continues to develop, what we do not know is how prolonged use of cognitive enhancers affects the chemicals in the brain.” If smart drug use is growing, that may be at least partly a result of their wide availability on the Internet, with online distributors offering 100 milligram and 200 milligram Modafinil tablets at prices ranging from under $1 to a few dollars each, depending on quantity and manufacturer. The Internet may also be partly responsible for increased use in another way, contributing to an information overload that raises student stress levels, Ms. Maier suggested. “The development of the media and Internet offers new ways of learning and new options for research,” she said. “From an abundance of information, students need to learn to focus on the essentials. This uncertainty regarding the required knowledge leads, together with high time pressure, to a helplessness which some students try to overcome with neuroenhancement.” For his part, Mr. Quednow said he placed some responsibility on media coverage of the issue. “The media hype around this topic is complicit in the growing use of cognitive enhancers, as many newspaper articles suggest that they might be effective,” he said. In fact, that effectiveness is by no means proved. “A ‘smart drug,’ which actually makes people smarter and has no side effects, does not yet exist” Ms. Maier said. Ethical issues surrounding the use of smart drugs are as complicated as the medical ones, with some students and professors arguing that their use by healthy individuals amounts to a form of cheating, and advocating the introduction of mandatory pre-exam drug tests. At Paris Descartes University, a first year medical student who gave his name only as Thomas and asked not to be identified because of peer group pressures, criticized the use of smart drugs by some other students on his course. “If someone on smart drugs gets a better grade it does not mean that they are naturally smarter, but that they are able to not sleep and hence revise more,” he said. “Their decreased need for sleep makes them superior to others, and thus gives them an unfair advantage.” Yet some researchers say that the use of cognitive enhancers does not necessarily benefit learning. “An increase in performance of a specific cognitive domain after the use of prescription drugs in healthy individuals often goes along with a decrease in performance of other cognitive domains,” Ms. Maier noted. Mr. Quednow agreed. “It has been consistently shown that the improvement of focused attention and working memory normally goes along with a decrease of flexible attention and long-term memory,” he said. “Thus, stimulants are less useful for learning or for complex tasks which require flexible adaptation.” Still, that message carries little weight with a generation heading into a European job market where youth unemployment is stubbornly over 20 percent. “Using smart drugs is not a habit — it is doing what you need to do to get the work done,” said Andrea, the Geneva university student. “The universities want results,” she said, “so the ends justify the means.” | Education;Pharmaceuticals;Ritalin;Tests |
ny0078347 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2015/05/14 | Revival by Steven Stamkos Puts Lightning in East Finals | TAMPA, Fla. — So much for all those questions about what has happened to Steven Stamkos in the N.H.L. playoffs. Stamkos, a two-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner, and the Tampa Bay Lightning are headed to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in four years after Tuesday night’s 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens ended their second-round series in six games. Stamkos failed to score in Tampa Bay’s opening-round matchup against Detroit. He had three goals against the Canadiens, who fought off elimination in Games 4 and 5. The Lightning will face the Rangers, who defeated the Washington Capitals, 2-1, in overtime in Game 7 of their second-round series on Wednesday night. The Lightning are one stage away from the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2011, when they lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games. Tampa Bay won its only title in 2004. “It’s exciting,” Stamkos said. “I’ve always talked about 2011 was the most fun I’ve ever had playing this game. We’re getting right on that right now. Obviously, I want a little better result this time.” After watching Tampa Bay’s series lead shrink to 3-2, Stamkos urged his teammates to not play scared in Game 6. The Lightning responded with their best game of the series, and maybe of the playoffs. “We were talking about this game like it was Game 7,” Stamkos said. “We clogged it up good in the third period. It was as good a defensive period as we’ve played.” Of the five Canadian-based teams in the postseason, Montreal was the last to be eliminated. The Canadiens, in 1993, were the last team from Canada to win the Cup. Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist for Tampa Bay on Tuesday, finishing with six goals in the series. Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist in the clincher, while Ben Bishop stopped 18 shots to outperform Montreal goaltender Carey Price. “Our goalie continues to step up in big situations,” Lightning Coach Jon Cooper said. “The longer the series goes, Ben just gets better and better.” The Lightning finished the Canadiens despite playing without forward Ryan Callahan, who had an emergency appendectomy on Monday night. Cooper has not ruled a playoff return by Callahan. “We miss him out there for sure, but we had his name up on the board before the game as a little inspiration,” Stamkos said. Tampa Bay is headed to the conference finals just a year after being swept by Montreal in the opening round. “Last year, we were a young group; I think half the team didn’t play a playoff game” before facing the Canadiens, Kucherov said. “This year we are more mature, and we have more confidence.” | Ice hockey;Playoffs;Tampa Bay Lightning;Steven Stamkos |
ny0107385 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2012/04/23 | Building Schools Out of Clicks, Not Bricks | CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND — This past year has been a time of signs and wonders for the open educational resources movement, which pushes for free public access to educational materials. The first sign came from California, where a Stanford professor, Sebastian Thrun , decided to offer his introductory course in artificial intelligence for free online. Thanks in part to an article in The New York Times, enrollment for the class topped 160,000. And suddenly a movement that had spent a decade struggling to get the world’s attention found itself at the top of policy agendas. Unesco began its own open resources platform in November. In the United States, support is building for moves to require the recipients of public funds to make their research freely available. Governments around the world began to realize that it was cheaper to invest in “clicks instead of bricks.” The phrase was coined by John Daniel, a keynote speaker at the movement’s annual conference at Queens College Cambridge last week, in an atmosphere that at times seemed more like a revival meeting than a sober gathering of academics from 21 countries. Eko Indrajit from Indonesia explained that in a country with 19 million people of college age but where the universities can only accommodate 5 million — and where there are only 3,000 Ph.D.’s in the entire country — putting the best courses on the Internet was the quickest way to expand capacity without sacrificing quality. “We don’t believe in invisible hands,” Dr. Indrajit said. “We believe that success can be designed.” One theme heard repeatedly during the three-day meeting was the opportunity created by the world financial crisis. Cable Green, director of global learning at Creative Commons , said that policy at the state level in the United States was swinging decisively in favor of open access partly because of the skyrocketing cost of textbooks. “Textbooks cost more than tuition in many community colleges,” he said. “That can’t be right.” “Digital technology makes sharing a lot easier and cheaper,” said Nick Pearce of Durham University in Britain. Dr. Pearce, who teaches an anthropology course he described as “Sex, Death and Monkeys,” cited the rapid growth of the Pinterest Web site as an example of “the way social media allows you to treat ideas as objects.” Although initially favored by young women for sharing photos and fashion ideas, the site, which now ranks third in popularity behind Facebook and Twitter, is starting to be used in education, he said. A decade ago there were only a handful of courses available online — all of them from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Today there are more than 21,000, with more being added every week, according to Anka Mulder, president of the Open Course Ware Consortium , which hosted the conference along with Open University in Britain. “We are now on every continent except Antarctica,” she said, adding that students everywhere now live in a digital world. “My kids meet their friends online just as easily as their friends around the corner. But it has to become a lot easier, and more interesting, for students to meet online.” “At first a lot of professors didn’t trust virtual education,” said Sergio Martinez, from the University of Cantabria . With 120 courses now online, the university, though one of the smallest in Spain, gets more than 96,000 visitors a month to its Web site from all over the Spanish-speaking world. The international reach of the movement was underlined by Dr. Daniel, who said that initial concerns that the traffic would all be from richer countries to poorer ones have not been borne out. “Instead we see a course on tropical medicine from Nkrumah University in Ghana being adapted by the University of Michigan,” he said in an interview after his speech. Bakary Diallo, rector of the African Virtual University , based in Nairobi, said that when his institution began in 1997 “we hoped that African countries would take up our material.” That has indeed happened, but of the 197 countries where his students live, “Brazil is the first country, and the U.S.A. is the second.” The university, which offers a blend of online and face-to-face teaching, produces courses in English, French and Portuguese, and recently received a $15.6 million grant from the African Development Bank to expand its operations. Yet its education foundation course for teachers “is incredibly popular in Brazil. We don’t understand why,” Dr. Diallo said. Although the delegates were united in their enthusiasm for the future of online learning, there were sharp divisions around issues like the future of teaching, copyright, private education providers and the importance of credentials and university credits in motivating and rewarding students. “You don’t need a teacher for learning,” said Rory McGreal from Athabasca, the Canadian open university, arguing that most teachers “learn a lot on their own.” Rebecca Kahn from Peer2Peer University , which “organizes learning outside of institutional walls,” said her organization was “never going to have a school of medicine. We’re never going to have a school of engineering. But we can do some things better than a traditional university. We can adapt faster.” The role of open resources in enabling universities to adapt was the message of Steve Carson from M.I.T. Traditionally, universities performed three functions, he said: “providing content to students, learning activities, and assessment and certification.” The Internet’s ability to provide more and better content faster and more cheaply meant these functions “have become disaggregated,” Mr. Carson said. But he suggested they may be about to come back together in a different form. The issue of credentials, which was hardly on the agenda a few years ago, now surfaced in numerous discussions. Peer2Peer offers what it calls “digital badges” for completed work, while M.I.T.’s MITx Web site awards online “certificates”; but neither give out credit or degrees. However, credits can be earned through the online OER University , while the State University of New York’s Empire State College offers credit for prior learning. “It’s nice to talk about education for everyone, but the need for degrees still exists,” said Ellen Murphy of the State University of New York . The lack of agreement did not bother Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the Open Course Ware Consortium. “This is a very collaborative movement,” she said. “Open means open. There’s room at the table for all players.” | Education;Cambridge University;Massachusetts Institute of Technology;Stanford University;Computers and the Internet;United States |
ny0016520 | [
"us"
] | 2013/10/30 | Climate Pact Is Signed by 3 States and a Partner | The leaders of three Pacific Coast states and British Columbia have announced a broad alliance to combat climate change, including new joint steps to raise the cost of greenhouse gas pollution, promote zero-emission vehicles and push for the use of cleaner-burning fuels in transportation. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington and the premier of British Columbia said the compact could simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and create new clean-energy jobs in a region of 53 million people that is equivalent to the fifth-largest economy in the world. But while California and British Columbia have already taken steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it was unclear whether legislatures in Oregon and Washington could be persuaded to endorse the plan. Legislators in both states refused in 2009 to approve market-based plans to reduce carbon pollution. Meeting in San Francisco on Monday, the three governors and British Columbia’s environment minister pledged to harmonize their existing targets to reduce carbon pollution by 2050. The governors of Oregon and Washington said they would work toward setting limits on carbon in fuels; California has already done so. Other initiatives in the pact would further integrate the region’s electricity grid, standardize energy-efficiency requirements for appliances and streamline the approval of clean-energy projects. Carrying out those and other steps in the region, with its $2.8 trillion annual economy, could lead industries to adopt them nationwide, said Ellen Hanak, an economist and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. California’s fuel-efficiency standards, for example, have largely been adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency nationwide. Automakers are already selling vehicles nationally with fuel-saving technologies developed for California’s vast market, she said. “Our generation has an opportunity to lead on the world stage,” said British Columbia’s premier, Christy Clark, who spoke via a broadcast link from Victoria. “This agreement signals we are ready to innovate and work together to achieve a healthy, strong and secure future.” California already mandates a 10 percent reduction by 2020 in the carbon content of fuels like diesel and gasoline, which account for more than two-fifths of the state’s greenhouse gas pollution. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently upheld the legality of the standard, part of climate-change legislation that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promoted in 2007. California also has a cap-and-trade program in which major businesses, utilities, and oil and natural gas suppliers whose carbon-dioxide emissions exceed set levels have to buy emissions rights from those who emit less. British Columbia taxes carbon pollution. But Oregon and Washington’s Democratic governors are likely to find it tougher to enact similar measures. The Senates in both states are narrowly split between Democrats and Republicans, who have generally opposed carbon-reduction measures as too costly to consumers and burdensome for businesses. Some rural- and suburban-district Democrats have been skittish about supporting them as well, said William Lunch, a political science professor at Oregon State University. “If it requires legislative approval, it’s not inconceivable,” he said, referring to carbon-reduction initiatives, “as long as it’s not defined as involving revenue increases.” Anything else, he said, “is not going to happen.” Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, has convened a bipartisan group of legislators to work on climate-change measures and favors California-style curbs on carbon-dioxide emissions. Oregon’s governor, John Kitzhaber, has endorsed placing a price on carbon emissions, but his 10-year energy strategy, released last December, did not mention such programs. | Greenhouse gas;California;British Columbia;Washington;Oregon;Air pollution;Climate Change;Global Warming;Cars |
ny0029103 | [
"technology"
] | 2013/01/25 | AT&T Fourth-Quarter Earnings Hurt by Pensions and Storm | Over the holiday season, AT&T sold a record number of smartphones. But its quarterly earnings took a hit from pension costs and Hurricane Sandy. Despite the setbacks, AT&T’s business had a strong fourth quarter. It sold more smartphones than its main competitor, Verizon Wireless. It also added many new contract subscribers and increased the revenue that it gets from mobile data, the fees that people pay to use the Internet on its network. “We had an excellent 2012,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, in a statement. “Looking ahead,” he added, “our key growth platforms — mobile data, U-verse and strategic business services — all have good momentum with a lot of headroom.” On Thursday, AT&T reported a loss in the fourth quarter of $3.9 billion, or 68 cents a share, up from a loss of $6.7 billion, or $1.12 a share, from the same quarter a year earlier. The company said revenue was essentially flat at $32.6 billion. Its adjusted per-share earnings were 44 cents a share, excluding pension costs, the impact of Hurricane Sandy and the sale of its advertising units. Wall Street analysts had expected 45 cents a share on earnings of $32.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. The company, based in Dallas, said that it sold 10.2 million smartphones over the quarter, the most ever sold by any American carrier. A majority of those smartphones were iPhones: AT&T sold 8.6 million iPhones, in contrast to Verizon Wireless’s 6.2 million iPhones. AT&T did not, however, beat Verizon in an important metric for carriers: the number of new contract subscribers, who are the most valuable type of customer. AT&T gained 780,000 new contract subscribers over the quarter, compared with Verizon’s 2.1 million. In the wireless industry, subscription growth is crucial as carriers joust for the few remaining people who do not already own cellphones. Image AT&T reported a fourth-quarter loss of $3.9 billion, up from $6.7 billion a year before, on flat revenue of $32.6 billion. Credit Matt Rourke/Associated Press The iPhone, the most popular smartphone in the world, has been an important weapon for carriers to get new subscribers. Although AT&T still leads as the nation’s top seller of iPhones, Verizon has been increasing its iPhone sales every quarter, and it is getting close to catching up, said Chetan Sharma, an independent mobile analyst. “There’s always been this attachment in consumers’ minds that AT&T is the brand for iPhone,” Mr. Sharma said. “I think that’s starting to even out in the marketplace.” Similar to Verizon, AT&T last summer started offering shared data plans , which allow customers to share a single pool of data across multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets and computers. It said on the earnings call that it already had 6.6 million subscribers on these plans, about a quarter of whom are opting for plans with at least 10 gigabytes. Thanks in part to these new shared data plans, revenue from mobile data grew 14.7 percent over the quarter, to $6.8 billion, up from $5.9 billion last year. AT&T’s success with shared data plans is good news for the company, because they help to pry customers off flat-rate, unlimited data plans so that they eventually pay more for data, said Jan Dawson, an analyst with Ovum, a research firm. Indeed, AT&T said more than 15 percent of shared data plan customers were switching from unlimited data plans. AT&T also saw a rise in customers for U-verse, its digital phone, television and high-speed Internet service for households. It added 609,000 U-verse customers over the quarter, bringing the total number of subscribers to about 7.7 million. The carrier has big plans this year to attract more customers. It is in the process of a major wireless network expansion . It said late last year that it would invest an extra $14 billion to expand its wireless and broadband services through 2015. It expects that its fourth-generation network technology, called LTE, will cover 300 million people by the end of next year. Beyond making upgrades to its wireless network, AT&T has plans to offer new services that might create new revenue streams. In March, it will begin selling its new wireless home security system, Digital Life, which will allow people to use tablets or phones to monitor their homes from afar. If a burglar trips a motion sensor in the house, for example, a user can receive a text message, then call the police. Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T Mobility, has said that he believes home security will be a big opportunity to increase revenue, because only 20 percent of American homes have security systems, leaving millions of homeowners as potential buyers. AT&T’s Mr. Stephenson said he was excited about the “vibrant options” for phones set to arrive in the coming year, including devices with Research in Motion’s new BlackBerry 10 system . “I’m very optimistic about BlackBerry 10,” Mr. Stephenson said. “I hope that it’s as good as it appears to be.” | Earnings Reports;Wireless;AT&T |
ny0253074 | [
"technology"
] | 2011/10/11 | Lawmakers to Consider E.U.-Wide Consumer Code | BERLIN — The European Commission will introduce a proposal Tuesday to streamline consumer sales rules and protections across the 27-nation bloc, which supporters say could generate €26 billion a year in new cross-border sales. The commissioner who will make the proposal, Viviane Reding, said a common sales law would eliminate buyer uncertainty and unnecessary legal costs for merchants, who typically spend €10,000 or more to adapt their sales contracts to each E.U. country’s national laws. The guidelines would be optional. Both the consumer and the merchant would have to choose to make the transaction under the code instead of a country’s existing rules. “The optional Common European Sales Law will help kick-start the single market, Europe’s engine for economic growth,” Mrs. Reding said in a statement provided by her office. “It will provide firms with an easy and cheap way to expand their business to new markets in Europe while giving consumers better deals and a high level of protection.” The proposal, which requires approval from the European Parliament and Council of Ministers, has generated controversy in Brussels, where a coalition of national consumer groups and legal societies, which advise businesses and consumers on the vagaries of national laws, has formed to block the proposal. Ursula Pachl, the deputy director general of the European Consumers’ Organization, a group in Brussels representing national and local consumer associations, said an optional sales contract could undermine pro-consumer legal regimes that are already in place in much of Scandinavia and in countries like Britain and Portugal. Ms. Pachl, who is an E.U. contract lawyer, said her organization was concerned that the proposed protections would be watered down in the legislative process, even excising the provision that allows consumers to opt out of the contract. “Businesses will be discouraged from using the new, tougher, stringent requirements because of extra costs,” to adapt to the new regulations, Ms. Pachl said during an interview. “The protections will never reach out to consumers because businesses won’t choose to apply it. To make it attractive to businesses, they will lower the standard and undercut existing consumer rights.” The harmonized sales contract would be available to European businesses and also to merchants from the United States and elsewhere doing business with E.U. customers. The proposal has attracted an array of supporters, including large European companies like Nokia, and groups like Britain’s Federation of Small Businesses. On June 8, the European Parliament voted 521 to 145, with eight abstentions, in favor of a nonbinding resolution supporting an optional, E.U.-wide contract regime. Poland, which holds the E.U.’s revolving presidency through December, has made the proposal one of its priorities. Mrs. Reding plans to present her proposal, the details of which were obtained by the International Herald Tribune, on Tuesday after the measure has been translated into the Union’s 23 official languages. She will also present the results of a commission survey suggesting that 73 percent of E.U. businesses are willing to use a common sales contract. Consumer contract laws in the European Union differ from country to country, with individual members applying their own rules to issues like product returns, refunds and exchanges. Those differences, and the costs of overcoming them, have limited cross-border trade primarily to multinational companies with the legal staffs to negotiate the maze, Mrs. Reding has argued. In Europe last year, three million consumers attempted to buy products in the Union but were refused because merchants were unwilling to sell outside of their domestic markets, the commission said. In the commission survey, two-thirds of consumers said they avoided cross-border purchases because they believed foreign laws were too weak. In 2010, only 9.3 percent of E.U. businesses sold products across the internal borders of the bloc, the commission said. In submissions to the commission this year, Nokia testified that its costs of clarifying legal questions for selling products or services in individual E.U. countries varied from “a few thousand euros to several tens of thousands of euros or more,” depending on the complexities of the issues involved. “With a common sales law, Nokia could launch its consumer-targeted online activities more quickly and at a lower cost,” according to Nokia’s submission. Mark C. Hilgard, a lawyer in Frankfurt who is chairman of the corporate and business law committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany, said there were still unanswered questions regarding the proposal. Foremost, he said, were questions of whether the level of protection was rigorous enough, and which courts would have jurisdiction in cases of cross-border disputes. “In theory, the idea of a common E.U. sales contract regime is great, but legally, it is not simple at all to bring this about,” Mr. Hilgard, a lawyer with the firm Mayer Brown, said. “We don’t know yet how high the standard will be, and there are other, many other, questions that need to be answered before we could take a position on it.” The proposal has raised eyebrows in Brussels because, by making the regime optional, Mrs. Reding would circumvent the daunting, time-consuming legislative process required in pushing through harmonized laws for the European single market, which in the past has allowed individual nations or groups of nations to wield a veto over significant measures. In an interview this year, Mrs. Reding said she had chosen to pursue an optional, parallel E.U. contract law regime because it would have taken a decade to get all 27 E.U. nations to agree legislatively on a common set of binding rules. “We are taking a very innovative approach,” Mrs. Reding said, “instead of setting aside national laws.” She added that she “wanted to find a solution that respects national legal traditions, while still propelling our internal market forward.” | European Commission;European Union;Consumer Protection |
ny0056680 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2014/09/10 | G.O.P. Hopefuls, Light on Experience, Try to Build Foreign Credentials | WASHINGTON — Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky likes to note that he didn’t have a foreign policy three and a half years ago, when he was a full-time ophthalmologist. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was an appellate lawyer in Houston before he was elected in 2012, a job that put him in front of judges, not world leaders. Gov. Bobby Jindal has little reason to worry that a foreign crisis is going to rock Louisiana. So when Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state and current Stanford professor, visited him last year they spoke mostly about education reform. As President Obama prepared his strategy for combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which he will announce on Wednesday , there was no shortage of condemnation from Republicans like Mr. Paul, Mr. Cruz and Mr. Jindal, who are considering running for president in 2016. Yet they, like almost every Republican who might try to succeed Mr. Obama, have a common résumé gap: foreign policy experience. In fact, several of them will have to confront an especially glaring paradox. Like Mr. Obama when he first ran for president, they are relatively young first-term senators, with limited experience beyond the country’s borders. If the world’s unstable regions continue to dominate headlines in the next two years, some Republicans say they worry that their party’s nominee could have trouble persuading Americans to elect someone untested in international affairs. “The potential for some unforeseen events is clearly going to create a great deal of unease,” said Richard G. Lugar, the former Republican senator from Indiana who led the Foreign Relations Committee twice, in the late 1980s and the mid-2000s. With so much unrest, Mr. Lugar said, Americans will inevitably ask themselves, “What if one of these Republicans became president? Would it be any better? Are they any better prepared?” “And at the moment,” he added, “the answer is probably not.” Unlike when the elder George Bush and John McCain won the Republican nomination in part because voters put trust in their foreign policy experience, the 2016 field is likely to be dominated by candidates who lack that background — senators who have been in office just a few years and governors who have had no exposure to the complexities of war and diplomacy. Republican senators like Mr. Paul, 51, Mr. Cruz, 43, and Marco Rubio of Florida, also 43, could have an awkward case when arguing that they are better suited to address the world’s problems than Mr. Obama was when he was first elected. And while senators can point to their time in Washington as educational, the Republican governors who are weighing a White House bid, like Mr. Jindal and Chris Christie of New Jersey, have had limited global exposure. “We have just seen an incompetent senator as president, from the Republican point of view,” said Elliott Abrams, who served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and is now with the Council on Foreign Relations. “And that argues for someone with significant executive experience,” like a governor, he added. “But those people are by definition not going to have foreign policy experience.” While unstable international conditions would seem to boost Hillary Rodham Clinton, who served as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state, if Americans still associate her with the policies of an administration they view with growing disapproval, Mrs. Clinton could find her tenure as Mr. Obama’s chief diplomat a liability. “She does not want to totally identify herself with Obama foreign policy,” said Lee H. Hamilton, the Democratic former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees. “On the other hand, it’s not credible to totally separate herself.” Image Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is among the potential candidates who have sought advice from conservative thinkers. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Still, voters tend to look to their own economic prospects rather than to conflicts thousands of miles away. Even in presidential elections when foreign involvement was central, including in 1980, during the Iranian hostage crisis, the percentage of people who named international affairs as the most important issue facing the country has been outnumbered by those who cited economic concerns in Gallup polls. In a CNN/ORC International poll conducted Sept. 5 through 7, just 7 percent of respondents said the situation in Iraq and Syria was the most pressing concern facing the country today, compared with 30 percent who identified the economy as the top concern — by far the most common response. International inexperience has not prevented Republicans or Democrats from winning. Ronald Reagan, who as a former California governor had a limited background in foreign policy, defeated Jimmy Carter. (A badly deteriorated economy was even more important to voters that year.) Mr. Reagan’s pick of Mr. Bush, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and ambassador to the United Nations, helped balance the ticket. In 1992, Mr. Bush found out painfully that his credentials, which by then included winning the Persian Gulf war, did not sway voters who wanted a new direction on the economy and elected Bill Clinton. George W. Bush, the governor of Texas, persuaded voters in 2000 to overlook his foreign policy shortcomings by surrounding himself with respected hands like Dick Cheney, a former defense secretary, and Ms. Rice. The leading Republican contenders for the 2016 nomination are, to varying degrees, building their portfolios with high-profile speeches and the hiring of staff members versed in world affairs. Mr. Paul has taken pains to distance himself from the more isolationist views of his father, Ron. In an opinion article published by Time last week, with the headline, “ I Am Not an Isolationist ,” he argued for destroying Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria. Mr. Rubio, who is one of only two Republican senators to serve on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, is planning a major foreign policy speech this month. His schedule, advisers said, has included meetings with foreign dignitaries, including the former leader of the Syrian opposition coalition, Ahmad al-Jarba. Mr. Cruz has wooed leading conservative thinkers like William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard. Mr. Jindal has positioned himself as aggressively hawkish, particularly with regard to Syria. In an opinion piece published last month on the website of Fox News, he wrote of the people who beheaded James Foley, the captured photographer: “ How about we offer these people death instead of justice? ” Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Mr. Christie have been courting Republican elder statesmen. Mr. Perry has met with George P. Shultz, Mr. Reagan’s secretary of state. And Mr. Christie has met with Henry Kissinger. But conservatives acknowledge that candidates in the 2016 field have a long way to go in convincing voters they can be trusted on the world stage. “It’s not about, ‘I spent three hours with Henry Kissinger and now I’m ready to be president,’ ” said James Jay Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies for the Heritage Foundation. Mr. Carafano has met with almost all the 2016 contenders. “It really is about doing your homework,” he said. “In some ways, it’s a voyage of self-discovery.” | 2016 Presidential Election;US Foreign Policy;Rand Paul;Ted Cruz;Republicans;ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;Chris Christie;Bobby Jindal;Rick Perry;Marco Rubio |
ny0209510 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2009/12/26 | Foam and Frustration in the Air as Lakers Fall to Cavaliers | LOS ANGELES — As the exasperation mounted, so did the technical fouls, and one by one the Lakers began collecting them. Then one by one, and soon by the dozens, foam souvenirs began raining down on the court, joined by the odd water bottle. What began as a festive day, with the Lakers taking their place in the N.B.A.’s marquee Christmas Day event, ended with an abundance of frustration — with themselves and the officials — in a 102-87 thumping by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. “That was not a very nice way to spend Christmas Day, to tell you the truth,” said Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, whose viewpoint was echoed by much of the capacity crowd. The Lakers entered the day not only as the defending N.B.A. champions, but also as the owners of the best record in the league. They had won 15 of 16 games since Pau Gasol returned from a hamstring injury. But the Cavaliers, with myriad questions — not the least of which is whether LeBron James will leave town next summer — pushed them around for most of the afternoon. Cleveland got 28 points from point guard Mo Williams and 26 from James, but it was the Cavaliers’ willingness to get physical that separated them from the Lakers. Cleveland jumped to a 20-point lead in the second quarter, and when the Lakers’ comeback went nowhere in the second half, they began to bicker with the Cavaliers and the officials. Lamar Odom drew two technicals, earning an ejection, and Kobe Bryant got one for a dismissive wave after being called for a foul following complaints about earlier no-calls. Derek Fisher earned a technical foul for leveling Williams with a shoulder, and the Lakers’ bench got another when Jackson did not make a substitution in a timely manner. After two of the calls, the usually well-mannered Lakers crowd tossed down foam souvenirs that had been given out. “That said everything you need to know about the refereeing,” Lakers center Andrew Bynum said. Bryant scored 35 points, but shot 11 of 32 and got little help from his teammates. Gasol and Bynum never gave the Lakers any inside presence and Odom had 6 points and 5 rebounds before his exit. “You don’t want to lay an egg on Christmas,” Odom said. “But we did. We just didn’t compete as hard as they did. We are a lot tougher than that, mentally and physically.” The Cavaliers had looked to Friday’s game as a significant test. Other than a win at Orlando, they had shown few signs that they were ready to challenge the Celtics, or even the Magic, for supremacy in the Eastern Conference. “It wasn’t about sending a message to them,” James said. “It was about sending a message to ourselves and seeing how we match up with the best team in the N.B.A. at this point.” The league placed the Cavaliers and the Lakers on their center stage because James and Bryant are considered the two best players and biggest stars in the game. The Cavaliers also brought along Shaquille O’Neal. There was a time when Christmas Day belonged to O’Neal. The league and the networks built the holiday around O’Neal’s jolly giant persona, whether he was playing for the Lakers or, later, against them. On Friday, O’Neal was a bit player. His feud with his former teammate Bryant has waned. They were all smiles while sharing the M.V.P. award at last season’s All-Star Game, and O’Neal is averaging a career-low 10.2 points this season. He was all smiles Thursday when he handed out Christmas presents to 150 children at a Boys and Girls Club in South Central Los Angeles. But Shaq-a-Claus was not so benevolent on Friday. He leveled Fisher with a pick, floored Gasol, who was on his way to a layup, and knocked down Bryant on a drive to the basket — all in the first quarter. “That’s how big guys play,” O’Neal said of his foul on Gasol. “I don’t get anything at Christmas. I’m Santa.” O’Neal finished with modest totals of 11 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes, but his biggest contribution might have been making the lane a no-fly zone for the Lakers. “He definitely had a presence in the game,” Jackson said. “I do know that he was a factor on Kobe.” The question that will only be answered in May — whether O’Neal can solve the Cavaliers’ problems in the playoffs with a pick-and-roll — was made moot for a day. The loss did not seem to raise many questions for the Lakers. They quickly acknowledged that the Cavaliers played with more energy than they did, but there have been far fewer of these moments this season than there were last — or during last season’s playoffs. “They played harder than we did,” Bryant said. “It’s as simple as that.” One of the few Lakers who did not give in to frustration was, perhaps surprisingly, Ron Artest. He made James work before fouling out, which was when the foam started flying. Artest will forever be linked with the game at Detroit in which fans threw objects on the court and he charged into the stands to fight several of them . After soaking his feet in a bucket of ice, he was asked what he thought of the crowd’s reaction. “I don’t know,” Artest said with a laugh, one of the few the Lakers could afford. | Basketball;Los Angeles Lakers;Cleveland Cavaliers;Bryant Kobe;James LeBron |
ny0234739 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2010/01/28 | Swiss Back Away From Deal to Give Names of Wealthy UBS Clients to U.S. | The Swiss government on Wednesday backed off an agreement with the United States that required it to hand over the names of wealthy American clients of the Swiss bank UBS who were suspected of tax evasion. The announcement, which came after two Swiss courts ruled that the disclosure of client names would be illegal because it would violate the country’s secrecy laws, threatened to open a new front in the investigation into UBS by the Justice Department. While the Swiss cabinet, known as the Swiss Federal Council, said in a statement that it would continue talks with the United States on the matter, it said there was a risk that the United States would resume civil proceedings filed against UBS in a Florida court last year. That case sought to force UBS to disclose the names of 52,000 wealthy American clients suspected of tax evasion through UBS’s private bank. That lawsuit was suspended in August when the Swiss government, acting on behalf of UBS during months of intense negotiations, promised to hand over 4,450 UBS client names. The Swiss cabinet said it might put the disclosure of the names up for approval before the Swiss Parliament — but only if it received detailed information from the Internal Revenue Service on how many UBS clients had come forward under a voluntary disclosure program that ended in November. That program brought in 14,700 clients from many banks, including UBS. That could allow the Swiss to avoid having to identify people who had already come forward. I.R.S. officials said Wednesday that Switzerland needed to hew to the August deal. “We expect the Swiss government to continue to honor the terms of the agreement,” the agency said in a statement. The Justice Department declined to comment. “The Swiss right now need to do their Swiss thing — they’re trying to find a creative way to get this thing done,” said a top American government official who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. “Even in the light of the Swiss Administrative Court’s ruling, we will try to comply with the provisions of the treaty,” Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss justice minister, said after a meeting of the Swiss cabinet. The Swiss cabinet said it was not contesting Switzerland’s disclosure of 250 names to the Justice Department in February. That move was part of a deal that helped UBS avoid indictment and instead pay a $780 million fine and admit to criminal wrongdoing with its offshore private banking services sold to Americans. “An exchange of information with the U.S. authorities is only possible in about 250 cases,” the cabinet said. Finma, the Swiss regulatory agency, said in February that not turning over the 250 names could have harmed UBS and the global economy. The Swiss did not explain how the disclosure of the 250 names was not deemed to be a breach of Swiss privacy laws while disclosure of the 4,450 was. At issue is what Cono Namorato, a partner at the Washington law firm Caplin & Drysdale, said was “a very, very different definition of fraud” by the Swiss — one that distinguishes between tax evasion, or simply not paying taxes, which is not regarded as a crime, and tax fraud, which is regarded as a crime but involves ill-gotten gains from activities like money laundering or the deliberate falsification of documents. Kevin E. Packman, a tax lawyer at Holland & Knight in Miami, said that the Swiss courts “have put UBS and, to some extent, the Swiss government in an uncomfortable position. I suspect that if the courts don’t cooperate with the government to find a solution, things are going to get really ugly for UBS.” In a statement, UBS said that it “welcomes the fact that the Swiss Federal Council is pursuing a dialogue with the U.S. authorities.” “UBS’s new management will fully support the search for a solution,” it added. “As before, we will fulfill all our commitments under the agreement.” Peter J. Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit and a former Justice Department criminal fraud investigator, said that with the original August deal, “the Swiss tried to pull a fast one on their own country. They really haven’t changed their underlying bank secrecy laws, and their courts, and now their government, are saying, ‘You can’t just do that.’ The Swiss government is in a really bad situation. They have to confront the issue of bank secrecy — what do they want, what are they willing to live with.” | UBS AG;Switzerland;Tax Evasion;Politics and Government |
ny0046848 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/11/20 | New Factor in Campus Sexual Assault Cases: Counsel for the Accused | As the Columbia University student tells it, the encounter was harmless fun: A female freshman invited him into her suite bathroom, got a condom, took off her clothes and had sex with him. But as that young woman later described it to university officials, the encounter was not consensual. The university suspended him for a year. He felt the outcome was unjust, but he did not know what to do about it. His lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg of Manhattan, did. Invoking Title IX, the federal gender-equality statute that is typically used to protect the rights of female students, he sued Columbia , saying his client had been “discriminated against on the basis of his male sex.” At a moment when students who have been sexually assaulted are finding new ways to make their voices heard, and as college officials across the country are rushing to meet new government standards, a specialized class of lawyers is raising its voice, too. They are speaking out on behalf of the students they describe as most vulnerable: not those who might be subjected to sexual assault, but those who have been accused of it. To do so, they have appropriated the legal tools most commonly used to fight sexual misconduct and turned them against the prosecution, confronting higher education’s whole approach to the issue, which they describe as a civil rights disaster. “Everyone’s first blush when you think about this is: It’s sort of an ugly position to take,” Mr. Miltenberg said of defending the accused students. “My own family members have said to me: ‘What are you doing? You’re 49 years old. You have a successful business litigation practice. Why would you jump into this?’ ” Image "Most of the time I’m looking to seal the records or have this redacted upon graduation so it doesn’t follow them around for the rest of their lives," said Andrew Miltenberg, a Manhattan lawyer who is critical of college sexual assault policies. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times He said he felt compelled to get involved when he saw how colleges handled accused students. “You’ve got factual statements made that you’re not necessarily allowed to review and you’re certainly not allowed to have copies of,” he said. “You may or may not be able to present your witnesses. You probably don’t have the chance to cross-examine.” To women’s rights activists, objections like those may have an oddly familiar ring. For decades, activists have argued that campus policies were biased against accusers, who are typically women; that the officials who run the investigations lacked training; that assailants were absolved far too easily. (One recent study determined that among students found by their colleges to have committed sexual assault, fewer than one-third were expelled.) Now, defense lawyers are denouncing inconsistent standards and inadequate training, but they arrive at the opposite conclusion: The system is biased, the lawyers say, against men. Last month, 28 members of the Harvard Law School faculty published an op-ed criticizing Harvard’s sexual misconduct policies for “the absence of any adequate opportunity to discover the facts charged and to confront witnesses and present a defense at an adversary hearing,” for exceeding the parameters of Title IX and for “the failure to ensure adequate representation for the accused.” Harvard defended those policies as “an expert, neutral, fair, and objective mechanism” but said it would continue to review them. During the 12-month period it most recently tracked, the federal Education Department received 96 Title IX complaints related to sexual violence. In the previous period, that number was 32. The department does not track how many were lodged by women and how many by men. A database maintained by a group called A Voice for Male Students counted 11 lawsuits this year in which male students “wrongly accused of sex crimes found themselves hustled through a vague and misshapen adjudication process with slipshod checks and balances and Kafkaesque standards of evidence.” A group of 30 or so lawyers from across the country participate in a running email discussion about how to approach these issues; 20 or so gathered in Washington last month to share their experiences. A similar number recently stepped into the political arena when they signed a letter denouncing the Campus Accountability and Safety Act proposed by Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri; the measure is intended to help universities address sexual misconduct more effectively. “By presuming that all accusers are in fact ‘victims,’ ” the letter said, “the proposed legislation does a grave disservice to those accused of serious sexual offenses.” Image Faculty members at Harvard Law School have been critical of Harvard’s sexual misconduct policies. Credit Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times Members of this small but fast-growing legal specialty say the problem dates to 2011, when the Education Department advised colleges to take sexual assault more seriously and to lower the burden of proof for people bringing complaints. Since then, a White House task force has issued new guidelines and the Office of Civil Rights has released the names of more than 85 colleges that are under investigation for not doing enough. Faced with all that political pressure, said Joshua Adam Engel , a lawyer in Mason, Ohio, colleges are panicking. So are students. Since the beginning of the current semester, when a senior named Emma Sulkowicz began carrying her dormitory mattress as a public protest against the way Columbia had handled her sexual misconduct complaint, Mr. Miltenberg said, he gets a call from a new male Columbia student more or less weekly. The client who sued the university for discrimination argued that his suspension amounted to “a rush to judgment, pandering to the political climate on campus” and pressure from women’s groups. Columbia has sought to have the lawsuit dismissed , saying it failed to prove anti-male bias. “That argument proceeds from both a misapprehension about the nature of university disciplinary proceedings — which are not criminal prosecutions — and a misunderstanding about Columbia’s definition of sexual misconduct — which is intended to protect students not only from forcible rape, but also from unreasonable pressure to accede to sexual advances,” Columbia’s lawyers wrote in a filing last month. Colby Bruno, senior legal counsel at the Victim Rights Law Center , said the growing involvement of lawyers could be beneficial. But too often, she said, defense lawyers enter the campus proceedings “shouting from the rooftops about things that aren’t relevant to the matter at hand.” Those include due process, a set of regulations that private colleges are not required to observe, and the right to avoid self-incrimination, which applies only to people facing criminal prosecution. “It’s when the decision-makers aren’t equipped to handle attorneys that the decision-makers start getting pushed around, policies start getting changed, and that is where a school can get in real trouble with Title IX,” Ms. Bruno said. Lawyers for the accused, Mr. Miltenberg said, are not always seeking to have judgments overturned. “Most of the time I’m looking to seal the records or have this redacted upon graduation so it doesn’t follow them around for the rest of their lives,” he said. But success does not come cheaply. Litigating a case through a trial could cost $100,000, he said. Judith Grossman, a lawyer — and a feminist, she made a point of adding — got involved in the cause when her son successfully fought an accusation of sexual misconduct. “I think that there is no question that there is an issue of sexual assault in this country, on campus and off campus, but this is not the first issue in our country where a bumper sticker approach has been applied to a nuanced problem,” Ms. Grossman said. The alternative, however, is not so easy to identify. Mr. Miltenberg said he thought colleges should leave the investigation of serious crimes to the police. But the judicial system moves slowly, he acknowledged, and if a daughter of his were assaulted he would not want her sharing a campus with her accused assailant for years as the case inched toward trial. At Columbia, which recently became one of the few colleges to offer free legal help to both accusers and the accused, Suzanne B. Goldberg , a special adviser to the university’s president on sexual assault prevention and response, observed that “lawyers can help protect the rights of accused students.” But, she said, “they come at a potential cost” to what is set up to be an educational experience. “There is no cost-free solution,” she said. | College;Rape;Title IX;Columbia;Emma Sulkowicz;Discrimination |
ny0230296 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2010/09/16 | Kevin Kolb and Stewart Bradley Still Sidelined | PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Eagles Coach Andy Reid said Wednesday that quarterback Kevin Kolb and linebacker Stewart Bradley were making progress, though neither has passed the next phase of his concussion testing. Reid would not rule out either player from Philadelphia’s game against Detroit on Sunday, but it is unlikely either will play. The N.F.L. has strict return-to-play guidelines for players who show concussion symptoms, as Kolb and Stewart did in the Eagles’ opener against Green Bay last Sunday. Both players briefly returned after being hurt. Neither player practiced Wednesday, and they will not even be allowed to attend meetings until they pass the next test. | Concussions;National Football League;Kolb Kevin;Bradley Stewart;Football;Philadelphia Eagles;Reid Andy |
ny0253424 | [
"business",
"mutfund"
] | 2011/10/09 | High Corporate Profits Could Reduce Risk in Junk Bonds | AT a time of ridiculously low interest rates, some income-starved investors have been drawn to high-yield bonds , a risky but often misunderstood asset class that can add a bit of stability as well as punch to a portfolio. High-yield — often called junk — bonds paid about 8.34 percentage points more than United States Treasury issues of comparable maturity, on average, on Sept. 30. Although that is well under the double-digit point premiums that prevailed at market bottoms during the last decade, specialists say that this may still be a profitable time to consider high-yield mutual funds , which are particularly appropriate for tax-sheltered accounts. “I think the market is attractive,” said William J. Morgan, senior high-yield portfolio manager for J. P. Morgan Asset Management. Junk bonds were trading as if almost 9 percent of issues will default over the coming year, Mr. Morgan observed, even as Moody’s Investors Service projects that only 1 percent to 2 percent will do so. “I see high-yield as offering pretty decent value here,” agreed Matt Eagan, co-manager of the Loomis Sayles Bond fund, which invests up to 35 percent of assets in lower-rated securities. Mr. Eagan noted that despite weak economic growth, American companies are enjoying hefty profits, indicating that they cannot only handle interest and principal payments on their bonds but also can take advantage of today’s low interest rates should they need to refinance. “The default rate is likely to remain low,” he said, and is quite unlikely to rise much above 5 percent even if the economy skids back into recession . Default rates peaked at more than 10 percent after the 2008 meltdown, in the early 2000s and in the early 1990s. Investors who cringe at the idea of buying low-quality debt — the BBB rating is generally considered the border with investment -grade bonds — should recognize that it can act as a kind of stabilizing portfolio ballast, some specialists maintain. “A certain mix of higher-quality and high-yield bonds lowers volatility while boosting and smoothing returns,” Mr. Morgan said. Major companies, not just start-ups or fringe telecoms, are now among the biggest issuers of high-yield — the likes of Ford Motor Credit, the CIT Group, the Hospital Corporation of America, Ally Bank and Sprint Nextel. Still, the market for high-yield bonds is highly volatile and subject to periodic bouts of illiquidity like the one that occurred in August. That is when the fund category, which had been posting double-digit returns during the preceding 12 months, suffered its biggest monthly loss — 4.37 percent — since 2008, according to Morningstar. (The high-yield market had a lesser skid in the second half of September.) PRICES slumped after Standard & Poor’s, citing the political stalemate after a rancorous Congressional debt-ceiling debate, cut the United States’ credit rating. High-yield investors are very attuned to talk of defaults, but the market also suffered from the European financial turmoil and even the effects of the Japanese tsunami. “The market had a mass anxiety attack, as all risk assets did,” said Mark Vaselkiv, manager of the T. Rowe Price High Yield fund. The performance of high-yield bonds, unlike that of investment-grade issues, is very sensitive to the stock market and the economy. Good times indicate that borrowers have a greater ability to service debt, which is far more important to high-yield buyers than the rising interest rates that typically accompany faster growth and that depress the prices of better-quality bonds. The risk of rising rates, in fact, is limited for high-yield bonds because they almost always come due in 5 to 10 years, compared with 30 years or more for most other corporate bonds. Moreover, their high interest rates provide a cushion against falling prices in a rate upswing. “High-yield will outperform when interest rates go up,” Mr. Morgan said. Many specialists say the only sensible way for ordinary investors to buy high-yield debt is through mutual funds — both to obtain essential diversification and to avoid being victimized by wide gaps between buying and selling prices in a market that may have relatively little activity. Retail investors in individual bonds are taking big risks, partly because of the likelihood of unfavorable execution of orders, Mr. Vaselkiv said. Jeff Tjornehoj, a senior research analyst at Lipper, said that one excellent fund was Fidelity Capital and Income , because of consistent long-term performance, tax efficiency and annual expenses of a reasonable 0.76 percent. It returned 7 percent, annualized, in the five years through Sept. 30 but lost 10.8 percent in the quarter, according to Morningstar. Some 43 percent of its portfolio is in bonds rated B, and 12 percent are rated CCC or below; 17 percent of the fund is invested in stocks. He said the Vanguard High-Yield Corporate fund has been a high-quality “middle of the road” performer with a portfolio averaging a B rating. It returned 3.7 percent in the quarter , while charging just 0.25 percent in expenses, according to Morningstar. But there is substantial variation among the more than 500 high-yield funds, with some embracing bonds rated CCC or even lower, as well as common and preferred stocks, convertibles or even derivatives . The unwary may find the junk market downright treacherous, Mr. Tjornehoj cautioned. “The investor must accept greater volatility and a real risk of loss,” he said, pointing to the Oppenheimer Champion Income fund, which lost about four-fifths of its value in 2008 because of heavy losses on credit default swaps and mortgage -backed securities. Potential buyers should at least check a fund’s portfolio to make sure it isn’t committed to more low-quality risk than they want and isn’t overly concentrated in certain industries. Good credit analysis by fund managers should uncover issues that are candidates for a ratings upgrade. Zane E. Brown, a fixed-income strategist at Lord Abbett, noted that gambling, leisure and automotive companies are frequent high-yield borrowers, which could lead to unbalanced fund portfolios if such companies are overrepresented. He now frowns on the bonds of home builders and companies in the paper, publishing and printing industries because, he says, their prospects are generally poor. While defaults are the biggest hazard in the junk market, analysts also try to predict how much can be salvaged when they occur. The average recovery has run at 44 percent, Mr. Morgan said. ALTHOUGH many high-yield managers include a wide variety of securities in their portfolios, Mr. Brown sticks closely to corporate bonds. He avoids foreign government bonds because they are harder to analyze and are subject to sudden political change. Investors should beware of funds offering the very highest current returns, experts also said. Not only might their holdings be of very low quality, but the managers may be paying premium prices, thereby returning some principal in the guise of interest, Mr. Eagan said. With these cautions, high-yield may be appealing these days — though not the screaming bargain it proved to be when market liquidity evaporated in 2008. But Mr. Vaselkiv issued a caveat: This market may be good “as long as we don’t go into a double-dip recession,” he said. “It’s really a bet on the U.S. economy.” | Junk Bonds;Credit and Debt;Mutual Funds;Interest Rates |
ny0000871 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2013/03/16 | Benjamin Rhodes, Obama’s Voice, Helps Shape Policy | WASHINGTON — As President Obama prepares to visit Israel next week, he is turning, as he often does, to Benjamin J. Rhodes, a 35-year-old deputy national security adviser with a soft voice, strong opinions and a reputation around the White House as the man who channels Mr. Obama on foreign policy. Mr. Rhodes is drafting the address to the Israeli people the president plans to give in Jerusalem, but his influence extends beyond what either his title or speechwriting duties suggest. Drawing on personal ties and a philosophical kinship with Mr. Obama that go back to the 2008 campaign, Mr. Rhodes helped prod his boss to take a more activist policy toward Egypt and Libya when those countries erupted in 2011. Now that influence is being put to the test again on the issue of Syria, where the president has so far resisted more than modest American involvement. After two years of civil war that have left 70,000 people dead, Mr. Rhodes, his friends and colleagues said, is deeply frustrated by a policy that is not working, and has become a strong advocate for more aggressive efforts to support the Syrian opposition. Administration officials note that Mr. Rhodes is not alone in his frustration over Syria, pointing out that Mr. Obama, too, is searching for an American response that ends the humanitarian tragedy, while not enmeshing the United States in a sectarian conflict that many in the White House say bears unsettling similarities to Iraq. Three former officials of the administration — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Robert Gates and David Petraeus — favored arming the opposition, a position Mr. Rhodes did not initially support. “It’s hard for Ben in the same way it’s hard for the president,” said Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff, who worked closely with Mr. Rhodes in his previous job as the principal deputy national security adviser. “He cares about people. You can’t see what’s happening in Syria and not be torn by it. At the same time, he’s very realistic.” Normally, the anguish of a White House deputy would matter little to the direction of American foreign policy. But Mr. Rhodes has had a knack for making himself felt, not just in the way the president expresses his policies but in how he formulates them. Two years ago, when protesters thronged Tahrir Square in Cairo, Mr. Rhodes urged Mr. Obama to withdraw three decades of American support for President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. A few months later, Mr. Rhodes was among those agitating for the president to back a NATO military intervention in Libya to head off a slaughter by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. “He became, first in the speechwriting process, and later, in the heat of the Arab Spring, a central figure,” said Michael A. McFaul, who worked with Mr. Rhodes in the National Security Council and is now the American ambassador to Russia. Samantha Power, another former National Security Council colleague who joined him in advocating intervention in Libya, said: “He has a very high batting average in terms of prognostication. I don’t understand where Ben gets his ‘old man’ wisdom.” Remarkably, Mr. Rhodes seems to have amassed his influence without rankling older and more seasoned advisers — a testament, colleagues say, to a diplomatic style not always common to members of Mr. Obama’s inner circle. Mr. Rhodes has exerted influence outside the Middle East as well. In 2011, he worked with Jacob J. Sullivan, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, to persuade Mr. Obama to engage with the military rulers of Myanmar, formerly Burma, after gaining the endorsement of the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. “The person behind the scenes who played the largest role in the opening to Burma and the engagement with Aung San Suu Kyi was Ben Rhodes,” said Kurt M. Campbell, a former assistant secretary of state who led the negotiations with the Myanmar government. Engineering a shift in Mr. Obama’s Syria policy is probably more difficult than persuading him to reach out to Myanmar, officials said, given the complexities of Syria, the volatility of its neighborhood, the grinding nature of the conflict, and the president’s deep aversion to getting entangled in another military conflict in the Middle East. Not only is the United States limiting its support of the Free Syrian Army to food rations and medical supplies, the White House has designated one of the main Sunni insurgent groups, al-Nusra front, as a terrorist organization — a policy that alienated many Syrians because of the group’s effectiveness in fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Colleagues say Mr. Rhodes opposed that decision, which was pushed by intelligence advisers. He also favors equipping the rebels with more robust nonlethal gear and training that would help them in their fight against Mr. Assad’s government, a position shared by Britain and other allies. Mr. Rhodes declined to comment in detail on his role in policy deliberations, saying “my main job, which has always been my job, is to be the person who represents the president’s view on these issues.” In many ways, Mr. Rhodes is an improbable choice for a job at the heart of the national security apparatus. An aspiring writer from Manhattan, he has an unfinished novel in a drawer, “Oasis of Love,” about a woman who joins a megachurch in Houston, breaking her boyfriend’s heart. The son of a conservative-leaning Episcopalian father from Texas and a more liberal Jewish mother from New York, Mr. Rhodes grew up in a home where even sports loyalties were divided: he and his mother are ardent Mets fans; his father and his older brother, David, root for the Yankees. “No one in that house agreed on anything,” said David Rhodes, who is now the president of CBS News. Benjamin Rhodes, who worked briefly for Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s re-election campaign in 1997, was living a writer’s life in Queens on Sept. 11, 2001, when he watched from the Brooklyn waterfront as the World Trade Center towers collapsed. The trauma of that experience, he said, led him to move to Washington in 2002. Mr. Rhodes went to work for a Democratic foreign-policy elder, former Representative Lee Hamilton, helping draft the 9/11 Commission report as well as the Iraq Study Group report. That report was a template for the anti-Iraq war positions taken by Barack Obama, then a senator, whose campaign Mr. Rhodes joined as a speechwriter in 2008. At the White House, Mr. Rhodes first came to prominence after he wrote Mr. Obama’s landmark address to the Muslim world in Cairo in June 2009. The speech was notable for Mr. Obama’s assertion that governments should “reflect the will of the people,” prefiguring his policy in dealing with Mr. Mubarak and Colonel Qaddafi. In writing Mr. Obama’s speech next week, Mr. Rhodes is likely to focus on America’s unshakable support for Israel. But if history is any guide, he will slip in a reference to Syria’s democratic future. “Ben always holds on to the pen,” Mr. McFaul said. “Because of his close personal relationship with the president, Ben can always make policy through the speeches and statements made by President Obama.” | Syria;Benjamin J Rhodes;Barack Obama;Arab Spring;US Foreign Policy;US Politics;Israel |
ny0136956 | [
"business",
"yourmoney"
] | 2008/05/18 | An Alarm Is Blaring: Time to Buy | MARKET timing — trying to jump into or out of the stock market just before rallies and declines — is notoriously difficult. Most investors would probably be better off sticking with a buy-and-hold strategy. Nevertheless, anyone trying to beat the odds may be interested in a market indicator with an excellent track record — and it has just flashed a buy signal. Of course, it is just one signpost, so proceed with caution. But it may help shift the weight of market evidence toward the bulls. Called the Recession Buy Indicator, it was devised by Norman Fosback, who was editor of Mutual Funds magazine in the 1990s and the author in the mid-1970s of the popular investment textbook “Stock Market Logic.” He currently edits Fosback’s Fund Forecaster, an investment newsletter. The indicator is based on the notion that it is darkest just before the dawn — that when the economic news becomes bad enough, the stock market’s likely subsequent direction is up. Because the stock market is forward-looking, Mr. Fosback said in the most recent issue of his newsletter, it “has little use for yesterday’s, or even today’s, crises.” “The focus,” he added, “is always on the future — how will business be six months, or a year or two, from now?” When the economy appears to be on tenuous ground, as it does today, he said, “stock investors looking well out to the future are able to perceive the seeds of the next economic expansion.” It is one thing to appreciate this market cycle from a conceptual point of view, but quite another to come up with a market-timing system based on it. Mr. Fosback’s indicator focuses on the four business barometers that together make up the federal government’s index of coincident economic indicators. These four focus on industrial production, manufacturing and trade sales, nonfarm payrolls and personal income. The Recession Buy Indicator is triggered when — as is the case today — each of these four gauges is below its level of six months earlier. On such occasions, Mr. Fosback considers the economy to be in a recession or very close to it. He came up with this indicator in 1979, and since then it has set off four buy signals (not counting the current one). On average over the 12 months following those signals, according to his research, the average stock on the New York Stock Exchange had a total return of 37 percent. And in the three years after such a signal, the average gain was 106 percent. These gains are triple the stock market’s long-term average. (Mr. Fosback has also backtested this indicator to the late 1940s, the earliest period for which data on the coincident economic indicators were available, and it performed just as well from then until the late ’70s as it did in more recent decades.) NOT everyone draws the conclusions that Mr. Fosback does. Ned Davis Research, an institutional research firm based in Venice, Fla., has extensively studied the stock market’s performance during and after United States recessions since World War II. Like Mr. Fosback, the firm’s analysts found that the stock market typically hit bottom six months after a recession began, and that at such times the stock market was a “table-pounding buy.” But, in an interview, Ed Clissold, the firm’s senior global analyst, cautioned that this conclusion was based on an average, and that on some past occasions the stock market’s actual bottom came much later. That is one reason, he said, that his firm doesn’t mechanically issue a buy signal six months after the economy begins to turn downward. Instead, it prefers to await confirmation from a number of its other indicators that a bottom has been formed. In the current market, that confirmation has not yet come, he said, and his firm has a policy of not trying to predict when it will. The advantages of not automatically jumping into the market six months into a recession were clear the last time the Recession Buy Indicator flashed: in February 2001, a year and a half before the low of the 2000-2 bear market. In his latest newsletter, Mr. Fosback acknowledged that this particular signal was “the poorest performing of the 10 signals” since World War II. Even so, he argued, the average stock was still higher three years later. He agreed that many people might be wary of plunging into the market when the economic news is so bad. But, he added, his indicator is a classic illustration of the virtues of contrary opinion: “When everything seems gloomy, it’s time for the smart money to buy.” | Stocks and Bonds;Economic Conditions and Trends;Personal Finances |
ny0172267 | [
"us"
] | 2007/11/09 | Massachusetts Acting to Extend Abortion Buffer | BOSTON, Nov. 8 — The Massachusetts legislature gave final approval Thursday to a bill that requires protesters to stand at least 35 feet from clinics that offer abortions. The bill, which Gov. Deval L. Patrick is expected to sign next week, will be the nation’s strictest state law establishing fixed zones that protesters cannot enter around those reproductive health clinics that offer abortions. The current law, enacted in 2000, says protesters cannot go within 6 feet of a person in an 18-foot zone outside a clinic’s doors. The authorities said it was difficult to enforce. The bill passed the Senate unanimously on Thursday and the House in a 122-to-28 vote. Ten reproductive health clinics in the state offer abortions. The bill does not apply to hospitals . “The basic goal of the bill is to make sure patients and staff can enter reproductive health facilities without being obstructed, intimidated and harassed,” said Representative Carl M. Sciortino Jr., a Democrat who is one of the bill’s sponsors. “Current law is completely unenforceable and did not protect patients and staff the way it intended.” Opponents of the new bill say it violates free speech rights. “There’s no question there will be litigation,” said Marie Sturgis, the executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. “This certainly clashes with First Amendment rights, and is something we should all be concerned about.” The state’s Supreme Judicial Court upheld the constitutionality of buffer zones in 2001 after the current law was challenged. Proponents say the zones are meant to protect patients and staff members from unwanted attention. “We’re trying to have a very small, but important, zone of safety for patients and staff who are entering these facilities,” said Kelly O’Bryan, the political director for Naral Pro-Choice Massachusetts. “We’re not trying to silence them at all.” The call for buffer zones started in 1994 after John C. Salvi III killed two women and wounded five other people at two abortion clinics in Brookline, Mass. Colorado and Montana have buffer zone laws similar to the current Massachusetts law, and many cities and towns have similar ordinances. The country’s largest fixed buffer zone, 36 feet, is in effect in Melbourne, Fla. | Massachusetts;Abortion;Demonstrations and Riots;Freedom of Speech and Expression |
ny0021203 | [
"us"
] | 2013/09/27 | At Midterm, Every Campaign Is About Obama | Texas Democrats are trying to put together a ticket to run against the Republicans in 2014. But Texas Republicans don’t care whose names appear on the other ballot; they already know the name of the candidate they’re running against: Barack Obama. For Texas officeholders from Attorney General Greg Abbott and United States Senator John Cornyn down to your local Republican sheriff, the president is the guy on the other side. Lately, that conservative opposition has collected around House and Senate debate about repealing the federal Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. But the antipathy toward the president has animated Texas Republican politics for several years now, driving a huge change in the partisan makeup of the Texas House in 2010 and focusing Republican candidates on a common foe. Primary elections are five months off. Candidates are raising money and traveling the state, although they can’t officially file for office until November. But the campaign against Mr. Obama is well under way. This is not a new thing, but it imperils incumbent Democrats on the local and state level (and in the case of the latter, their ranks are already thin) and increases the difficulty for Democrats trying to battle their way into state offices held by Republicans for nearly two decades. Texas chooses its state officeholders in nonpresidential years. Fewer voters turn out in those elections, and those who do take part often use the opportunity to send midterm love letters to sitting presidents. An anti-Obama wave helped Republicans gain a supermajority in the Texas House in 2010. Midterm elections during Bill Clinton’s presidency also featured backlashes. Ann Richards fell to George W. Bush in 1994. Four years later, Republicans swept the statewide executive branch offices for the first time in a modern Texas election. Jimmy Carter — the last Democratic presidential candidate who carried Texas, in 1976 — saw those same voters turn around two years later and elect their first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Voters share their anger with Republicans too. Ronald Reagan’s first midterm election in 1982 was accompanied by a Democratic sweep of statewide offices, including the ouster of Gov. Bill Clements, elected in Mr. Carter’s midterm. (He won back the office in 1986, when Reagan was receiving decent marks from Texas voters.) In 1990, the Republicans thought they might have a sweep of their own, but the voters gave their fellow Texan George H. W. Bush a Hallmark card with Ann Richards’s (Democratic) face on it. Two Republican newcomers made it into office that year — Kay Bailey Hutchison as state treasurer and Rick Perry as agriculture commissioner — but the rest of the executive office candidates were washed away. Midterm beneficiaries are often the candidates from the party that doesn’t hold the White House. If the federal government is unpopular, and it often is, candidates from the party on the outs in Washington have extra ammunition. Texas voters give the president mixed grades on job performance, with 43 percent saying he is doing a good job and 50 percent disapproving of the job he’s doing, according to a June University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. A look inside those numbers reveals the polarizing effect Mr. Obama has: nearly 84 percent of Democrats gave the president high marks, and 90 percent of Republicans gave him low marks. But you do not need a poll to see it. Just look at what the candidates are saying. Republicans in Texas are loudly distancing themselves from the president and his signature program, and as soon as their opponents from the Democratic side line up, they’ll be working hard to handcuff those Democrats to a president they believe is unpopular with Texas voters. If Mr. Obama is popular a year from now, as candidates close on the 2014 general election, Democrats will be begging him to visit Texas and to appear onstage with them. If his numbers then look like his numbers today, Republicans will be begging him to appear onstage with those same Democrats. That’s the political part of the president’s job — to be the personification of his party, for better and for worse. Right now, at least in Texas, Mr. Obama figures into the calculations of every Democrat trying to decide whether to challenge a Republican, particularly at the statewide level. Their Republican opponents are counting on him. | Texas;US Politics;Republicans;Democrats;Barack Obama;House races;Congressional elections;Senate races |
ny0084291 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2015/10/06 | Officials in Guatemala Urge Residents to Leave Settlement Hit by a Landslide | SANTA CATARINA PINULA, Guatemala — From the roof of his house, Julio René Barillas can see the gash in the mountainside where the earth gave way and buried the houses below. He heard the deafening noise and saw the landslide swallow up the neighborhood just 100 yards away. “They never had a chance,” said Mr. Barillas, 61, an evangelical pastor. “There was nothing they could do.” But he said he would not leave, though it was clear that his own house was in peril. Below and above it, trees had been uprooted and the land itself seemed prepared to crumble at any moment. “This is our house. Our family’s house,” Mr. Barillas said on Monday. “I have faith nothing will happen.” Four days after a landslide destroyed the concrete block settlement of El Cambray II, burying hundreds of people, officials armed with maps moved through the neighboring streets, knocking on doors, taking count and noting the risks. In the wake of one of Guatemala’s worst natural disasters in years, officials at the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction said they would try to persuade the families living on the unstable land around the collapsed hillside to move. Sergio Cabañas, who is in charge of the recovery effort for the agency, said that a crack had appeared in the crown of the hill above the village. Six small landslides had been detected in the area. Manuel Pocasangre, a spokesman for the Santa Catarina Pinula city government, said, “It’s impossible to say why these people stay.” “Maybe they think they will get more land,” he added. “Maybe they think they won’t get a better opportunity.” The death toll stood at 152 on Monday, with 300 missing. With no hope of finding survivors, teams used backhoes and bulldozers to move the tons of earth that buried the neighborhood. The intermittent rain and the erosion caused by the rising Pinula River posed a threat to the recovery teams. A new temporary morgue was set up, and the Red Cross sent out an appeal for dry ice. Above, the town center of this gritty suburb of Guatemala City was hushed, the crowds of mourners and others that had packed the streets a day earlier had disappeared. Funeral processions made their way in and out of the town cemetery where workers had made space for new crypts. As the disaster preparedness teams zigzagged through a small settlement of about 15 houses, families who thought they would stay became rattled. Many people approached, asking for advice, although there was little to be had. But some decided not to leave until they were forced to do so. “I’ve lived here all my life,” said Fabia Alonzo, 23. “We couldn’t get this house elsewhere.” Her husband’s grandmother, Gregoria García, 85, explained the problem echoed by many families here. “I really don’t know where we’d go,” she said. “We’re poor.” Mr. Barillas, the pastor, also vowed to stay. “I have my fruit trees and I leave a simple, peaceful life,” he said. “Where would I go?” | Guatemala;Landslides,Mudslides;Guatemala;Fatalities,casualties |
ny0088487 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2015/09/02 | Portugal, Missing Deadline for Novo Banco Sale, Turns to Second Bidder | MADRID — Portugal is having trouble selling the bank salvaged from the wreckage of one of the country’s biggest private lenders. The Portuguese central bank on Tuesday missed its own deadline for selling Novo Banco, the salvaged entity, after talks with the leading bidder faltered. The Bank of Portugal did not identify the bidder, but it has been widely reported to be a Chinese insurance and asset management company. The central bank said that it would begin negotiations with a second bidder, which the Portuguese news media have identified as the American private equity firm Apollo Global Management. The firm declined to comment on Tuesday. The auction of Novo Banco is meant to complete Portugal’s restructuring and rescue of Banco Espírito Santo, which required a state-led bailout in August 2014 of 4.9 billion euros, or $5.5 billion at current exchange rates. The rescue occurred after the bank was forced to disclose unsustainable losses linked to loans it had made to other companies in the Espírito Santo family business empire. Under the bailout, the Portuguese authorities decided to break up the bank and transfer the healthy assets to a new entity, Novo Banco. The plan was to then auction Novo Banco to private investors and to recover as much of the cost of the bailout as possible. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who is seeking re-election on Oct. 4, has indicated that his coalition government wanted to complete the sale of Novo Banco as soon as possible. Image As part of a bailout of Banco Espírito Santo, the Portuguese authorities decided to break up the bank and transfer the healthy assets to a new entity, Novo Banco. Credit Hugo Correia/Reuters Banco Espírito Santo was at the heart of a complex web of family-owned companies with investments that stretched from mining projects in Angola to hotels in Portugal. The bank, led by Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva Salgado , executive chairman and the great-grandson of the founder of the family business, was increasingly used as a lender of last resort for other companies in the conglomerate. That also helped the group and its subsidiaries mask their financial problems and issue more debt to other investors. As the family group’s problems mounted, Mr. Salgado stepped down in July 2014 and was then arrested and ordered to post bail of €3 million, as part of a separate money laundering and tax evasion investigation. He was subsequently put under house arrest, pending a trial. Separately, the central bank has accused Mr. Salgado and other officials of his bank of mismanagement and concealing information when they sold debt to investors without disclosing existing losses. This summer, the Portuguese central bank made a short list of three bidders for Novo Banco, without identifying them. It then entered into exclusive talks with the highest bidder, with a view to closing the deal by the end of August. When the central bank made that list, the Portuguese news media, citing officials and bankers involved in the auction, said that a Chinese company, the Anbang Insurance Group, had made the highest offer, followed by Apollo Global Management. Fosun International, another Chinese insurance and asset management company, was reported to have been third. The collapse of Banco Espírito Santo was a blow not only to Portugal’s banking sector but also to the reputation of the government and the central bank, because it occurred only months after the country emerged from a €78 billion, three-year international bailout program. Portugal, Greece and Ireland were among the countries hit hardest in the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis . The continued difficulties of Novo Banco, linked to the investments and unchecked lending activities of Banco Espiríto Santo, have been seen as an impediment to Portugal’s securing a high auction price for the institution. On Monday evening, Novo Banco reported a first-half loss of almost €252 million, mostly because of the cost of writing off interest payments from big corporate loans inherited from Banco Espiríto Santo. Novo Banco also had to state provisions for the loss of value in some of its telecommunications holdings. | Portugal;Banco Espirito Santo;Novo Banco;Apollo Global Management;Banking and Finance;Euro Crisis;Pedro Passos Coelho |
ny0138027 | [
"us"
] | 2008/05/01 | Fewer Latino Immigrants Sending Money Home | In a sign that the economic downturn is hitting hard among Latino immigrants, more than three million of them stopped sending money to families in their home countries during the last two years, the Inter-American Development Bank said on Wednesday. Growing numbers of Latino immigrants are also considering giving up their foothold in the United States and returning home in response to a slump in low-wage jobs and the crackdown on illegal immigration , the bank reported in a survey of 5,000 immigrants from Latin America. The survey found that only half of the 18.9 million Latino immigrants in this country now send money regularly to relatives in their home countries, compared with 73 percent two years ago. “The major dynamic that is holding them back from sending money is fear,” said Sergio Bendixen, a Miami-based pollster who conducted the survey. “They don’t know whether they won’t be able to get a job anymore.” With fewer people sending money home, money transfers to some Latin American countries have started to decline, reversing five years of often spectacular growth. In the first quarter of this year, transfers to Mexico dropped 2.9 percent from the first quarter of 2007, Mexico’s central bank reported on Wednesday, the first significant decline since Mexico began tracking the transfers in 1995. For Latin America as a whole, the amount of the money transfers, which are known as remittances, remained virtually flat over the last two years, the development bank reported. It estimated total remittances to the region at $45.9 billion in 2008, an increase of $500 million over 2006. That contrasts with the period from 2001 to 2006, when the amount of remittances to the region tripled, to $45 billion from $15 billion, according to figures from the development bank, a multilateral organization based in Washington that finances development projects in Latin America. Total remittances did not drop more sharply in the last two years because those immigrants who continued to send money sent larger amounts more frequently, the bank’s survey found. “The longstanding pattern of increasing numbers of Latin American immigrants sending increasing amounts of money back home has stopped,” said Donald F. Terry, the general manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund at the development bank and the official in charge of the survey. The survey was conducted in Spanish from Feb. 9 to 23, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1 percentage point. With lower income and less job security, Latino immigrants said they were spending or saving their money here rather than sending it to support children, spouses and parents at home. Latino immigrants said life had become more difficult for them here. Of those interviewed, 81 percent said it is harder to find a good-paying job. Almost 40 percent said they were earning less this year than the previous year. The largest group of immigrants in the survey — 18 percent — worked in construction, which has been especially hard hit in the slowdown. As a result of the difficulties, among immigrants who had been here less than five years, 49 percent said they were thinking of returning home, while 41 percent said they planned to remain in the United States. Over all, slightly under one-third of the immigrants said they were thinking of leaving this country. In 2001, the last time a similar survey asked a comparable question, about 20 percent of Latino immigrants said they were thinking of going home, said Mr. Bendixen, who conducted that survey as well. However, Mr. Bendixen said that immigrant workers who participated in focus groups as part of the survey said they were not ready to leave the United States quite yet. Before taking the drastic step of moving back home, immigrants said they were taking jobs at lower wages or sometimes working two jobs to try to maintain their income, he said. “These are resourceful people who will do whatever job is available,” Mr. Bendixen said. The economic pressure appears to have fallen equally on illegal immigrants and those authorized to be in the United States. Of the immigrants interviewed in the survey, 47 percent said they did not have legal status. The others were legal immigrants and American citizens. A large majority of those surveyed — legal and illegal — said they experienced increasing hostility as a result of efforts to curb illegal immigration and punish employers who hire unauthorized immigrant workers. In the survey, 61 percent of Latinos who were American citizens and 66 percent of those who were legal immigrants said discrimination had become a major problem for them. In an interview in Phoenix on Wednesday, Yolanda, a 45-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who did not participate in the survey, said that she had started to think of going home, after 13 years in the United States. Before November, she was sending at least $400 a month to Mexico City to support her three children. This year she can manage only $300 every two months, she said. Yolanda, who asked that her last name not be published because of her immigration status, said her trouble stemmed from the crackdown on hiring of illegal immigrants, fewer jobs and higher prices. “We can’t keep up with expenses and also send money,” she said in Spanish. “If you can’t even eat, what’s the point? This is the worst it’s been, because we’ve never not had enough for food and our bills.” Mexico, which received $24.7 billion in remittances last year, will be hardest hit by the decrease. The majority of the families of an estimated 3.2 million immigrants who will no longer receive transfers are in Mexico, Mr. Terry, the bank official, said. | Immigration and Refugees;Economic Conditions and Trends;Inter-American Development Bank;United States;Latin America |
ny0075248 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2015/04/14 | Drone Strikes in Yemen Said to Set a Dangerous Precedent | WASHINGTON — An investigation of American drone strikes in Yemen concludes that the Obama administration has not followed its own rules to avoid civilian casualties and is setting a dangerous example for other countries that want to use unmanned aircraft against terrorists. The study , by the Open Society Justice Initiative , a legal advocacy group based in New York, was released on Monday at a time when Yemen has been engulfed in violence and American drone strikes have been slowed or halted. But its observations about the performance of American counterterrorism strikes from 2012 to 2014 remain relevant for assessing a novel weapons system that the United States has used in several countries and has now approved for export to a limited number of allies. Despite promises of greater openness about drone strikes, the Obama administration has continued to guard their secrecy closely and says nothing publicly about strike targets and results. The resulting information vacuum has been partly filled by independent studies by groups like the Open Society Justice Initiative, which worked with the Mwatana Organization for Human Rights , a Yemeni group that interviewed witnesses. In May 2013, in a long-planned speech on the targeted killing of terrorists , President Obama described a rigorous standard that he said guided all drone strikes. “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set,” he said. Mr. Obama said that some civilian casualties were unavoidable, adding, “For me, and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live.” But the new report questions how careful the strikes have been, based on the analysis of nine strikes in Yemen, where strikes are carried out by both the C.I.A. and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command. Each of those strikes killed civilians, the study found, with a total of 26 civilians killed, including five children, and 13 others injured. “We’ve found evidence that President Obama’s standard is not being met on the ground,” said Amrit Singh, a senior legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative and a primary author of the report. “There’s a real question about whether the near-certainty standard is being applied in practice.” Asked about the report’s findings, a National Security Council spokesman, Ned Price, said that he was “not in a position to comment on specific cases” because of secrecy rules, but that the standard Mr. Obama described in 2013 was still in place. “In those rare instances in which it appears noncombatants may have been killed or injured, after-action reviews have been conducted to determine why,” he said, adding that condolence payments were sometimes given to those injured and families of those killed. Mr. Price said administration officials “continue to work diligently toward” the goal of greater transparency. The military announced strikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria, as well as recent strikes in Somalia, but no information has been released on strikes in Pakistan or Yemen. The Open Society report also questions whether the administration is acting on its stated policy of always capturing terrorists when “feasible” rather than killing them. In two of the strikes it studied, the researchers quoted witnesses as saying the targeted individuals, who had been identified by American intelligence as members of Al Qaeda, could easily have been arrested by the Yemeni authorities. Saudi-Backed Forces Gain Momentum Annotated maps showing the Houthi rebels’ drive south, U.S. airstrikes and historical divisions. An American official, speaking about the classified operations on the condition of anonymity, said that in some cases a foreign government “only has the most tenuous reach into parts of its territory” and that capture operations “would pose profound risks to our forces.” But the official noted that foreign partners often capture and imprison terrorism suspects based on American intelligence. Drones loaded with Hellfire missiles and other munitions were first used by the United States in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and became an integral part of the American wars there and in Iraq. There were sporadic strikes against militants in Pakistan until mid-2008, when President George W. Bush sharply escalated the drone campaign there. Mr. Obama stepped up strikes in Pakistan further and expanded them to Yemen and Somalia early in his presidency. The pace of strikes has slowed, however, and is well below the peak in 2010 in Pakistan and 2012 in Yemen. Advocates of drone strikes argue that they are particularly suited for pursuing small groups of terrorists and that they kill far fewer civilians than conventional airstrikes or ground troops. American officials often assert that accounts of civilian deaths by independent groups are exaggerated, but they rarely give their own account of who was killed. “This program has no public disclosure about who’s being killed and why, and there’s no public accountability,” Ms. Singh, the report’s author, said. “If you insulate a program with secrecy, you prevent information that could correct it from coming to light.” In the most recent strike analyzed by the Open Society report, in April 2014, two drones fired on a Toyota Land Cruiser outside the town of Bayda. The report concludes that the men in the Land Cruiser, all of whom were killed, were indeed Qaeda fighters. But shrapnel from the strike hit 12 laborers in a Toyota Hilux just ahead of the Land Cruiser. Four of them were killed and five more injured, the report found, based on interviews with survivors. Based on negotiations between tribal leaders and the Yemeni government, the government paid about $55,000 in compensation and 30 Kalashnikov rifles, costs that Yemeni officials have said are generally covered by the United States. Another strike in the same province in September 2012, the report found, killed 12 people and injured two others as they rode a truck home after selling their wares in a town market. The victims included a pregnant woman and her 10-year-old daughter, as well as 15- and 17-year-old boys. The researchers found no evidence of Qaeda connections among those killed. Local news reports said the intended target was a local Qaeda leader who was not present. Again, the government compensated the affected families with cash and weapons. But the fear of strikes from the drones that regularly patrolled the skies lingered. “We live in constant fear,” the report quoted an anonymous survivor as saying. “There is no assurance that we would not be the next targets.” The brother of one of those killed was quoted as declaring, “The U.S. government should come to the region to see what targets it has hit.” Ms. Singh said, “The voices of these individuals have not been heard by the U.S. government, because no one is going over to Yemen and asking what happened.” The C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan, said at his confirmation hearing in 2013 that he believed that the United States should publicly acknowledge unintended civilian deaths in counterterrorism strikes. But it has never happened. For years, arms experts have been concerned about the example set by the United States for other countries as armed drones proliferate. Drones have been used to fire missiles by Israel and Britain as well as by the United States, but many other countries are seeking to develop or buy them. In February, in response to pressure from arms manufacturers and many countries, the Obama administration announced rules governing the export of armed drones. A State Department fact sheet said the rules required “all sales and transfers to include agreement to principles for proper use.” | Drones;Civilian casualties;Yemen;Open Society Justice Initiative;Targeted Killings;CIA;Terrorism |
ny0232811 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2010/08/10 | For Federer, His Ranking and His Age Are Nothing but Numbers | TORONTO — Roger Federer arrived at the Rogers Cup under unfamiliar circumstances. It marked his first tournament since Wimbledon, since turning 29, since hiring Paul Annacone as his new coach. This is also the first tournament since November 2003 in which Federer entered as the third seed. But Federer disagreed Monday with the notion of his imminent decline. “Being ranked No. 3 in the world is something I haven’t been in a very long time,” he said. “So it gives me motivation and a drive to come forward again.” All great athletes, even Federer, get older. Federer himself acknowledges he is no longer the player who captured 11 of 16 Grand Slam championships from 2004 to 2007. He knows, as well as anyone, that the last player 29 or older to win at a Grand Slam was Andre Agassi, at 32, at the 2003 Australian Open. Federer has not won a singles title since the Australian Open. And after 23 straight appearances in Grand Slam semifinals, he fell in — gasp — the quarterfinals at the French Open and Wimbledon. For most players, those results in one calendar year of Grand Slam tournaments — a title and two quarterfinal appearances — would constitute progress. But Federer is not most players, never has been. Practice time has been an issue. The lung infection he had in February kept Federer off the court, and he struggled through back and leg injuries during Wimbledon. Federer said he did not watch the Wimbledon final while it was happening, instead heading with his family on a luxury cruise through the Mediterranean. When they returned, he brought Annacone on board as another coach. Federer respected the work that Annacone did with Pete Sampras and Tim Henman. “The goal has always been for me to improve, and I won’t just be happy playing the same way for years and years and years,” he said. The last time he entered a tournament as the No. 3 seed was in Houston in 2003. He won that tournament, beating Agassi in the final, which boosted him one spot in the rankings, which preceded his long reign at No. 1. The top seeds here receive a bye into the second round, in which Federer will face the veteran Juan Ignacio Chela. Looming is a potential quarterfinal matchup with Tomas Berdych, who knocked Federer out of Wimbledon before losing to Rafael Nadal in the final . The field here includes 16 of the top 20 ranked players. Federer insisted he remained unconcerned with numbers — particularly 29 and 3. He said he never noticed he had fallen in the rankings until he glanced at them one day and saw his name third. “It doesn’t change my life,” he said. But there is no doubt that his life is changing, be it the first birthday of his twin girls recently, or his tennis struggles of the past seven months. Here, with a new coach in the fold, he will begin another comeback. | Federer Roger;Tennis |
ny0217477 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/04/25 | Food Cart Offerings Are Exotic and Affordable | BY 11 a.m. most weekdays, lunchtime aromas are already wafting up Cedar Street opposite Yale New Haven Hospital . And we’re not talking hot dogs. Oh, you can find franks and fries and other American basics, but they are in the minority on this block, where an international lineup of food carts offers specialties from Africa, Europe, the far, near and Middle East and South and Central America — all at prices that rarely run more than $5 or $6 (cash only) for a huge serving. Think Latino arepas, Korean bibimbap and boolgogi, Middle Eastern falafel, Ethiopian injera and spicy lentils, Indian chicken tiki masala, Pad Thai and Japanese teppanyaki. There are soups, sushi (cooked or vegetable only — no raw fish), several versions of burritos, halal-certified meat and loads of vegetarian dishes. “It’s a way to explore without spending a whole lot of money,” said Karyn Bailey, a social worker in an autism clinic, who says she has been coming to the carts once a week for the last 10 years, trying new foods. “I like the variety and the price is right.” This day it is Moroccan food, her first time at a relatively new cart called Mediterranean. There are more than 150 food carts licensed in New Haven, but the largest concentrations (nearly three dozen) are outside the hospital and the Yale School of Medicine They are well known to members of the medical community, who throng into the streets, rain or shine, year-round, to wait on lunch lines that can be 20 deep, but unknown in other parts of town. Maggie Wei, her customary large red bandana wrapped around her forehead, buzzes around the diminutive kitchen in her enclosed pushcart — at 12 years, it is the oldest of three Peking Edo carts she and her husband own here. “My cart’s pretty much like an international spot,” said Ms. Wei, who is Taiwanese. “This is Singapore noodles and that’s a Taiwanese miso soup, Malaysia-style curry chicken, barbecued pork, and I have a grilled chicken,” she said pointing out a few. “I also do a lot of vegetables. So today I have a mustard greens with ginger.” But Ms. Wei did not have to ask Masaaki Torii, who works in the nearby neurobiology lab, what he wanted. He has been a daily customer for five years, and she knows his usual is rice noodle soup with barbecued pork; for his wife, Mr. Torii gets white rice with a ground pork stew with tofu, hard-boiled egg and spicy sauce. As far as anyone can remember, the hospital cart community started more than 20 years ago, but it has increased so rapidly in the last few years that the city agencies responsible for licensing carts have decided on rules requiring, among other things, that carts be at least 15 feet from one another and that locations be assigned to vendors based on how long they have been operating there. The regulations, expected to go into effect on May 1, are aimed at easing sidewalk congestion and minimizing the scramble for prime spots nearest the hospital. “What we’re trying to do here is to do something about the chaos over there,” said Andy Rizzo, a buildings official and fan of cart cuisine who did two similar reconfigurations for smaller groups of carts near the Peabody Museum and at Long Wharf. “We need to do something about traffic, the sidewalk issues — God forbid someone in a wheelchair has to get down the street.” Vendors pay $200 a year for a vending permit, and $280 to the Health Department for a yearly license and inspection. All but the most basic vendors must take a one-day class. Cart food must be prepared on the cart or in a commercial kitchen. Those who also operate restaurants typically bring prepared food to a cart equipped to keep it at a proper temperature. At Chinese Food Healthy Way, a hospital-street cart for 14 years, Melissa Chang serves dozens of dishes that originated in her family’s restaurant, China Garden. David Jadney, a sales representative who calls on the hospital twice a week, orders General Tso’s chicken with brown rice and doesn’t have to tell Ms. Chang to go easy on the hot sauce. “Two drops,” she says. Mr. Jadney said his visits always include lunch at the carts. “I work with folks that work in New York City and they call on Columbia, Mount Sinai, and when they come here they say this is so much better than New York,” he said. “The varieties, the prices — they say this is just great.” Once you are in the vicinity, the sizzling aromas are hard to resist. Many vendors have mini-kitchens with propane-fueled grills and griddles for stir-frying Asian noodles, toasting arepas or frying eggs for the Korean bibimbap, a rice and meat dish with egg on top. Jon’s Lunch, one of the oldest carts, serves sausage-and-pepper and cheese steak subs among its mainly American food offerings. Jon Roy, the owner, buys meat fresh each morning and arrives around 8:30 a.m. to start slow-cooking a large pot of it for his sloppy Joes. “Everything’s speed out here,” he said throwing huge sausage pieces onto the griddle. “People only have a certain amount of time.” In a line at Tijuana Taco Company, 16 people deep, customers take the wait in stride as a lone cart operator prepares each burrito individually. “These are super burritos. The corn relish that he puts in there is really terrific,” said Rick Shiffman, a professor of pediatrics. “You know what’s amazing? They write nothing down. They take about 10 orders. They get them all right. I don’t know how they do it.” Suzette Franco-Camacho and her husband, Arturo, started the Taco Company carts in 1996 before they opened any of their highly rated restaurants (Roomba, Bespoke, Sabor — all now closed or sold) or made plans to open two new ones. Ms. Franco-Camacho admitted that the carts added another obligation to the already tough restaurant business, but that she and her husband felt a loyalty to customers. “Personally I think the carts are awesome,” she said. “The whole culture of cart food — it makes food accessible to people who can’t afford to come down to the restaurant.” “It all just brings the level of food up,” she added. “If your street food is good, your brick and mortar food had better be good.” | Vendors Street;New Haven (Conn) |
ny0102483 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/12/15 | Orioles Re-Sign Darren O’Day | The All-Star reliever Darren O’Day, 33, re-signed with the Baltimore Orioles on a four-year, $31 million contract. | Baseball;Darren O'Day;Orioles |
ny0013960 | [
"us"
] | 2013/11/23 | Timeline Provides Details for a Grisly Crime Against a Teacher | DANVERS, Mass. — On the morning of Oct. 22, Philip Chism, a 14-year-old student and soccer player, took a ski mask, gloves, multiple changes of clothes and a box-cutter with him to school, according to the police. Mr. Chism was later seen in surveillance videos from cameras at Danvers High School putting on the gloves and pulling the hood of a sweatshirt over his head as he followed his math teacher, Colleen Ritzer, 24, into a school bathroom, the police said in court papers released Friday. Shortly thereafter, the video showed him rolling a recycling bin into the bathroom and leaving, this time wearing a white T-shirt and a black mask. By the end of the day, Ms. Ritzer had been raped, and stabbed multiple times. Her throat was slit. Her body had been dumped into nearby woods; next to it was a folded, handwritten note saying, “I hate you all.” Mr. Chism has been indicted on charges of murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery. He is to be arraigned in Essex Superior Court on Dec. 4. The court papers provide a timeline and details of a gruesome crime that has shaken this quiet suburb, about 20 miles north of Boston. And they offer a few clues about Mr. Chism’s life: his parents had been undergoing what his mother called a “stressful” divorce, for example. But they do not address the central question of why a young man like Mr. Chism, who apparently showed no outward signs of trouble or aggression, might have mutilated, raped and murdered his teacher, who was beloved by most of her students and went out of her way to help them. Image Philip Chism, with officers at his arraignment last month, may have planned the killing of his math teacher, Colleen Ritzer, based on what he took to school, a state trooper has said. Credit Pool photo by Patrick Whittemore Dr. Eugene Beresin, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a specialist in adolescent psychiatry at the Clay Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, said such cases were “off-the-charts rare.” “I personally have never seen anything like this in the hundreds of cases I’ve had and the thousands of cases I’ve supervised,” he said. He has not been involved in the case and is not privy to any information that might help connect the dots here, and he said it was hard for him to make any sense of it. “Most kids who commit violent acts have a history, a history of something, of impulsivity, of mood disorders, or of abuse and neglect,” Dr. Beresin said. “I see kids every day who have witnessed the most horrifying sexual and physical abuse, for example, or have been abused themselves, but they don’t do this.” Any number of internal factors, such as a percolating psychosis or a neurological condition, or external factors, such as abuse, could be involved, he said. It is also possible, he added, that a motive may never be discerned. Robert C. LaBarge Jr., a state trooper, wrote in the court papers released Friday that he believed Mr. Chism “planned the crime” because he went to school “armed with a box-cutter, a balaclava/ski mask, gloves” and several changes of clothes. Mr. Chism was a student in Ms. Ritzer’s last-period class that day. An unidentified student told the police that after class, she was in Ms. Ritzer’s classroom and saw the teacher and Mr. Chism there talking about China. The student said that Ms. Ritzer then mentioned Tennessee, the state Mr. Chism left a few months before with his mother, and that Mr. Chism “became visibly upset.” She said that at first, Ms. Ritzer did not seem aware that Mr. Chism was upset but then realized he was and changed the subject. Image The body of Ms. Ritzer, 24, was found in the woods near the school where she taught math. Credit Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, via Associated Press The unidentified student also said “she observed Philip apparently talking to himself in the classroom,” the court papers said. The video cameras — now a staple in newly built schools like this one — showed Ms. Ritzer walking out of her classroom and down a hallway toward a women’s bathroom at 2:54 p.m. At the same time, Mr. Chism walked into the hallway, then ducked back into the classroom. He then emerged from the classroom with a hood over his head and went into the same bathroom, pulling on the gloves. At 3:07, he left the bathroom with a hood over his head. He went outside to the student parking lot and came back in the building at 3:09 wearing a white T-shirt. He went back to the classroom and emerged at 3:11 with a red hooded sweatshirt over his head and returned to the bathroom at 3:16 with a recycling bin. At 3:22, he emerged in a white T-shirt and a black mask, pulling the bin and heading toward an elevator and then outside. Video picked him up coming back into the school at 4:00. By 4:04, he was seen wearing a black shirt and glasses and carrying a pair of jeans. A minute later, he went back to the original bathroom, then left the school a minute after that. After the police were notified that both student and teacher were missing, they conducted a search. At 12:30 the next morning, the police found Mr. Chism walking on a nearby highway. He had a knife and a bloodstained box-cutter, they said. Asked where the blood came from, Mr. Chism said, “The girl,” according to the court papers. They also found Ms. Ritzer’s credit cards, driver’s license and underwear in his backpack, they said, then placed him under arrest and charged him with murder, to which he later pleaded not guilty. At that point, the police went to look for her body. They found it, half-naked, near the school, covered with leaves and debris. A recycling bin was nearby, as were blood-soaked gloves. Trooper LaBarge wrote that he was seeking warrants to search Mr. Chism’s apartment, where he lived with his mother and two sisters, and his computers. He said that based on prior experience, he knew that people involved in violent crimes “often will have an obsession and this obsession can include Internet searches for their victims and sexual-fetish-based Internet inquiries.” He also said he expected to find “documents describing planning the crime, the defendant’s mental status, and any nexus for the reason the defendant expressed his hate for everyone as described in the note found adjacent to the victim’s body.” The results of those searches have not been made public. | Colleen Ritzer;Philip Chism;Murders;Danvers High School Danvers Mass;Danvers Mass;K-12 Education |
ny0028547 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2013/01/23 | British Grandmother Sentenced to Death for Smuggling Cocaine Into Bali | JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian court sentenced a 56-year-old British woman to death on Tuesday for smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine onto the island of Bali, a decision that went far beyond the prosecutors’ recommendation of 15 years in prison. In May, according to investigators, customs officials at Bali’s airport discovered 8.4 pounds of cocaine hidden in the lining of the travel bag carried by the woman, Lindsay June Sandiford. A grandmother, she said she was forced to take the drugs into the country by a gang that had threatened to hurt one of her children. Dismissing the prosecutors’ call for a prison term, judges at the Denpasar District Court decided on death after finding that Ms. Sandiford, by ferrying in the drugs, had damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government’s drug prevention program. Television footage showed Ms. Sandiford sobbing. She is expected to appeal. The British Embassy said, “Britain remains strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances.” Image Lindsay Sandiford was arrested at the Bali airport last May after cocaine was found in her suitcase. Credit Made Nagi/European Pressphoto Agency Indonesia, known for its tough treatment of people who commit drug offenses and other crimes, has put five foreigners to death in drug cases since 1998. Forty foreigners are on death row for drug and other offenses. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has granted clemency to four prisoners on death row for narcotics crimes. Some analysts said the judges might have been motivated to issue the harshest possible sentence in the Sandiford case because the president’s decision to reduce the sentences of 19 drug convicts in October stirred a public backlash. “It’s possible that could have influenced the thinking of the judges,” David McRae, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia, said in an e-mail. “On the other hand, it’s not unheard-of for sentences to exceed, even significantly exceed, the prosecutor’s sentencing request.” Douglas Ramage, an analyst with Bower Group Asia, said the sentence was in keeping with Indonesian precedent. “Foreigners and Indonesians alike have been regularly sentenced to the death penalty, so in a sense, Lindsay was not treated appreciably different than others who have come before Indonesian courts on drug trafficking charges,” he said. A Briton accused of serving as Ms. Sandiford’s accomplice, Anthony Pounder, is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday. | Bali;Capital punishment;Decisions and Verdicts;Cocaine and Crack;Smuggling;Indonesia;Drug Abuse;Lindsay June Sandiford |
ny0252877 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2011/10/04 | Postseason Pressure a Pleasure to La Russa | ST. LOUIS — In the last few days, Tony La Russa , the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals , has repeatedly invoked the word fun to describe the happenings around his team during its unlikely run to the playoffs. That may seem uncharacteristic coming from a manager who has come to be known as something of a stone-faced thinker. But it also seems to reveal something about his character. The Cardinals’ division series with the Philadelphia Phillies has turned into another opportunity for La Russa, who seems to derive atypical satisfaction from the thick heat of competition, to flourish in his own idiosyncratic manner. “In a kind of perverse way, it’s fun to compete against the Phillies, because you’re seeing the best,” La Russa said of the series, now tied at 1-1. “There’s nobody better.” Over his 33 years leading three different clubs, La Russa has amassed 2,728 victories, 2 World Series championships and a reputation as one who helped popularize a tinkering style of managing. His players mostly insist that La Russa’s public persona does not match his private demeanor. “He’s totally different from the inside than he is from the outside looking in,” Lance Berkman said. “I know what I thought of him when I played against him, and I know what I think about him now, and it’s just totally different than you would expect.” Berkman added, “He’s not an overbearing guy.” There remains plenty of evidence otherwise. The Cardinals’ win over the Phillies in Game 2 on Sunday, for instance, seemed a quintessential La Russa performance, full of subtle calculation and bold action. In the second inning, La Russa went onto the field to talk to his struggling starter, Chris Carpenter, and lingered there in what appeared to be a predetermined ploy to draw Jerry Meals, the home plate umpire, to the mound. La Russa acknowledged Monday that he said a few words to Meals while on the field, but played down the significance. “I didn’t go very far at all, not at all, because you can get ejected,” La Russa said. He was substantially more verbose, though, in a live midgame interview broadcast on national television, during which he criticized Meals’s umpiring in a game in which the Cardinals were trying to rally against the formidable Cliff Lee. Almost unprompted, La Russa said: “Well, what I would add is — it’ll get me in trouble, but I’ll do it, anyway — is they’re pitching to two different strike zones. And against a good club, or any club, that’s not an advantage you want to give.” General Manager John Mozeliak said Monday afternoon that the team had received a call from the commissioner’s office on Sunday night, but that he was unaware of any fines or reprimands. Whether La Russa’s message to Meals had any effect is unclear. More tangible was the manner in which La Russa tiptoed through the final six innings of the game, pulling off a high-wire act that yielded a vital victory for the Cardinals, who were behind by 4-0 after two innings. After pulling Carpenter for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fourth, La Russa passed on using a long reliever, though he had Jake Westbrook available, and used six pitchers to close out the game. In the eighth inning, he used four relievers to face four batters, hopping in and out of the dugout each time to a round of loud boos from the Philadelphia crowd. “Every manager’s got their own style, and his has obviously worked for him,” said Marc Rzepczynski, who entered the game in the seventh. “With his style, you know he will use the pen, you know he’s not afraid to throw us out there in any situation, and late in the game, offensively as well, he’s willing to do anything.” La Russa, who turns 67 on Tuesday, has declined to discuss his plans when his current contract expires at the end of the year. Wherever he ends up, he is likely to remain a man in perpetual motion, looking for his idea of fun. “I just think he’s passionate about the game,” Berkman said. “You can tell that he really lives and dies by the competition.” | Baseball;St Louis Cardinals;Philadelphia Phillies;la Russa Tony;Lee Cliff;Berkman Lance;Playoff Games |
ny0220475 | [
"sports",
"olympics"
] | 2010/02/27 | Lindsey Vonn Misses Gate as Maria Riesch Wins Women’s Slalom | WHISTLER, British Columbia — Lindsey Vonn completed her last race of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with shoulders slumped, slowly sliding sideways on the snow after missing a gate in the women’s slalom Friday. It was a far cry from the Vonn who had been a streaking blur nine days earlier in the downhill, when she crossed the finish line with arms raised, the first American woman to win the event . Within minutes, though, Vonn had absorbed her slalom slip-up and stood at the finish area again, smiling broadly as snowflakes settled in her hair and goggles. It had been a whirlwind two weeks — if not six months — for Vonn, and when she removed her skis and walked to a quiet area beneath the massive Olympic scoreboard, her emotions were a mix of pride, reflection and relief. “I’m happy with everything I’ve done here,” she said. “Maybe a little more broken and bruised than when I came here, but I’m happy. Things happened here that I’ll remember forever.” Most surprising, she was already talking about the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. And beyond. “I will most definitely be back for the next Olympics,” she said. “It’s not that far off. I heard a rumor that Denver might try to get the 2018 Olympics, and if that happens, maybe I’ll be a five-time Olympian.” Vonn , 25, won a bronze medal in the super-G at these Games to go with her gold medal in the downhill. She had the lead halfway through the super combined, but charging after a second gold, she crashed and fell. The results were similar in the slalom, won by Maria Riesch of Germany, and in Wednesday’s giant slalom, when she broke her pinkie while slamming into a fence. Both events have been a struggle for Vonn all winter, especially after a Feb. 2 shin injury wiped out nearly all of her training. “I have learned so much in the last few months and even the last two weeks,” Vonn said. “I feel like I’ve grown up 10 years. There is no way to know how you will react when you stand in the start house of an Olympic race and you know that millions of people are watching and expecting you to win. “But at the end of the day, I learned it’s just a race. I handled the pressure and that’s going to be very useful next time. I know I can do it again.” Vonn said her finger injury had no effect on her skiing Friday, and she long ago tired of talking about the injury to her right shin that had been such prominent news on the eve of the Olympics. “There were some crazy moments here, but there were plenty of cool moments,” she said. “Things didn’t work out perfectly, but they rarely do. I might have done better, but I did my best. Winning a gold medal was my dream and I did that in the first race. I skied well in the super combined and might have been able to win a medal there, but I went for the gold when it was there to win. I skied pretty well in the super-G. “I look back and I’m proud,” she added. “I went down fighting.” Vonn said she would attend the closing ceremony Sunday and maybe another Olympic event or two on Saturday. In a few days, she will fly to Europe, where she will resume the defense of her World Cup overall title. In this season’s standings, she narrowly leads Riesch , who won her second gold medal Friday. Marlies Schild of Austria was 0.43 of a second behind Riesch to win the slalom silver medal, and Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic was third. “It’s been an amazing Olympics for me,” Vonn said. “An amazing Olympics for a lot of American Olympians. But it might be fun to get back to a normal routine.” She stopped to climb over a fence and hug her mother, Linda Krohn, who waited just beyond the finish line. Krohn said: “It’s hard to live a whole year of your life with all of it pointing toward five races that might take 10 minutes. She should be very proud of how she handled that. I know I am.” Vonn was asked if she felt strange talking about the next Olympics already. She laughed, but there was little stress in her expression when she said she was looking forward to 2014. “Things happen that can only happen at the Olympics, and I’ve known that since I was a little girl,” she said. “The day I won my gold medal was the most amazing day of my life. I only wish it had lasted a little longer.” Vonn lifted her skis to her shoulder, taking her last few steps off the mountain. “These Olympics went by so fast,” she said. “Time flies when you’re having fun.” | Olympic Games (2010);Vonn Lindsey;Alpine Skiing;Olympic Games (2014);Riesch Maria |
ny0016487 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2013/10/31 | Giants Tie Japan Series | Takayuki Terauchi drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Yomiuri Giants beat the Rakuten Eagles, 6-5, to even the best-of-seven Japan Series at two games each. | Baseball;Yomiuri Giants;Rakuten |
ny0051893 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2014/10/24 | Wizards Expect Paul Pierce to Lead Way | After spending the first 15 seasons of his N.B.A. career with the Boston Celtics, Paul Pierce has become a hired gun in the league, a sort of big-money consultant acquired to impart championship wisdom to some less-enlightened group. Last season he swaggered into Brooklyn after a trade to the Nets and began touting the team’s trophy ambitions with the type of reckless charisma the organization desperately lacked at the time. This week it was a familiar script with a new team. “When I look at the Eastern Conference, we can be right up there with the rest of the them,” Pierce said of the Washington Wizards , who signed him to a two-year, $10.8 million contract over the summer, after the Nets declined to re-sign him. “I think we match up well with pretty much anybody in the East — and not only the East, the entire N.B.A.” Wizards Coach Randy Wittman pointed out that Pierce, 37, a potential Hall of Famer, is the only one in his locker room with a championship ring. The Wizards are young, talented and seeking to believe in themselves. Pierce is confidence personified. Three minutes into an interview with a few reporters Wednesday morning at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks later beat the Wizards in a preseason game , Pierce decided that he was done answering questions, got up from his chair, put on his sunglasses and walked away. His teammates were happy to speak on his behalf. “I love his fighting spirit,” center Marcin Gortat said of Pierce. “We still need to keep building chemistry, but hopefully he’s the guy that can bring us to the finals.” That a Wizards player can mention the N.B.A. finals as a season goal, that he can do so and not be dismissed as delusional, is a testament to how the club thinks of itself after improvements in the past year or so. After a 29-53 record in the 2012-13 season, the Wizards won 44 games last season and took the Indiana Pacers to six games before exiting in the second round of the playoffs. Much of the turnaround was attributed to the continued emergence of point guard John Wall, 24, who missed a chunk of the 29-win season with a knee injury. Last season, his fourth in the league, he averaged 19.3 points and 8.8 assists a game and was named to his first All-Star team. The Wizards, then, no longer have the benefit of their opponents’ disregard. In the league’s annual preseason survey of teams’ general managers, more than half of those polled picked Washington to win the Southeast division. The Cleveland Cavaliers, retooled around LeBron James, and the Chicago Bulls, revitalized with a healthy Derrick Rose, are the obvious favorites in the East, but the Wizards have become the popular third choice. “We’re not going to be the surprise team of the conference anymore because of last year,” said Gortat, who averaged 13.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game last season, his first with the Wizards. The Wizards’ confidence this week was tinged with caution, with several players bringing up the group’s current glut of injuries as an early hurdle. The team is most concerned about Bradley Beal, 21, a talented shooting guard who fractured his left wrist in a preseason game this month and could be sidelined until December. Beal averaged 17.1 points per game last season, his second in the league, and settled in during the playoffs alongside Wall to form one of the more sparkling backcourt partnerships in the league. On top of the injuries, four players, including Nene and DeJuan Blair, will serve one-game suspensions to start the season for leaving the bench in a preseason game altercation. “We know that we got off to a slow start last year, and we can’t do that again,” Wall said. “So we’re already focused and locked in and trying to hold the fort down until those other guys come back.” Pierce, who averaged 13.5 points in 28 minutes per game last season with the Nets, will be central to that effort. It was the sudden exit of small forward Trevor Ariza that precipitated Pierce’s move to Washington. Pierce, at the late stage of his career, falls short of the multifaceted skills of Ariza. But Wittman noted that the team has not had a small forward like Pierce, who can score in so many ways, since Wittman joined the Wizards’ coaching staff as an assistant in 2009. On top of his scoring prowess, his teammates said, Pierce brings leadership and, perhaps more important, a strutting sense of possibility. With young and talented players in place and high goals within reach, that could be just what the Wizards need. | Basketball;Paul Pierce;John Wall;Wizards |
ny0116904 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2012/10/17 | Attack on U.S. Mission in Benghazi Becomes Subject of Strongest Words | HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Mitt Romney tried to use the White House’s shifting accounts of the attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, to paint a broad indictment of President Obama as commander in chief. But Mr. Obama fired back, accusing Mr. Romney of politicizing a tragedy and condemning as “offensive” his suggestion that the administration had misled the American people about nature of the attack. It says something about the murky nature of the Libyan attack, and its messy aftermath, that Mr. Romney appeared not to know that Mr. Obama had labeled it an “act of terror” the day after it occurred. Mr. Romney, disputing Mr. Obama’s account, said, “It took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.” The moderator, Candy Crowley, pointed out to Mr. Romney that the president had called it an act of terror, although she said other officials had spoken about it being a spontaneous demonstration. Likewise, Mr. Obama seemed caught off balance when he was asked why the administration had not acceded to requests from diplomats to bolster security at the embassy in Tripoli, Libya. He did not offer an answer, beyond saying that after he was informed of the assault in Benghazi that he instructed all diplomatic facilities in the region to tighten their security. These tense moments punctuated a fierce back-and-forth exchange between the candidates over the responsibilities of the commander in chief, and Mr. Obama’s record of dealing with the turmoil of the Arab Spring. Mr. Romney said the Libyan attack was part of a broader Middle East policy that was “unraveling right before our eyes.” The president accepted responsibility for the security lapses that led to the attack, saying the four Americans who were killed “are my folks.” He pledged a thorough investigation and said he would have those responsible for it hunted down. But he swiftly turned the tables on Mr. Romney, saying that his campaign had issued a news release criticizing the administration’s handling of the attack before the United States knew the fate of its personnel. “The suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics and mislead, when we lost four of our own, Governor, is offensive,” Mr. Obama said, glaring at his opponent. “That’s not what we do, that’s not what I do as president, that’s not what I do as commander in chief.” China also figured prominently in a debate for the first time, with Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama trading charges over who would be tougher in cracking down on China’s trade practices. Mr. Romney said the president had missed regular chances to label China a currency manipulator for artificially lowering the value of its currency, making its exports cheaper. Mr. Obama replied that China’s currency had risen during his administration because of constant prodding by the United States. And he jabbed twice that Mr. Romney held investments in Chinese companies and that, as a private-equity investor, had accelerated the trend of jobs being outsourced to China. But it was the disagreement over Benghazi that generated the most fireworks, erupting toward the end of an already fierce debate. The attack and its aftermath has emerged as Mr. Obama’s biggest source of foreign-policy vulnerability. Republicans have seized on it to undermine one of his administration’s major accomplishments: its claim that it has dealt a grievous blow to Al Qaeda with attacks on Osama bin Laden and other Qaeda leaders. After the debate, those on both sides spun the Libya exchange. "Time and again Mitt Romney was proven wrong, wrong on the facts," said Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts. "He was even held accountable by Candy Crowley for not telling the truth about the president acknowledging an act of terror. I think tonight Mitt Romney’s campaign fell away." But a senior adviser to Mr. Romney, Ed Gillespie, said that the administration initially said that the attack that killed the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans was "the result of a YouTube video and a spontaneous demonstration." "It’s just not the case that he condemned these attacks for what they are; it took him a long time," Mr. Gillespie added, describing the administration’s early accounts of the attack. "He did not say that the ambassador was assassinated by terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda." Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s admission, on the eve of the debate, that she bore responsibility for failing to adequately secure the mission did not defuse the issue. “Whether there was some misleading or instead whether we just didn’t know what happened, I think you have to ask yourself, why didn’t we know?,” Mr. Romney said. “This calls into question the president’s whole policy in the Middle East.” Before the debate, Mr. Kerry dismissed suggestions that the president was shifting blame to Mrs. Clinton. Her admission of responsibility for failing to defend the Benghazi mission was appropriate for the secretary of state, he said, and had no bearing on Mr. Obama, whom he said also bore responsibility as the commander in chief. The fusillade of charges, against the murky, frequently shifting narrative of the attack, has generated more confusion than clarity. On Tuesday, the exchange between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney did little to dispel the haze. | Presidential Election of 2012;United States International Relations;Diplomatic Service Embassies and Consulates;Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- );Libya;Romney Mitt;Debates (Political) |
ny0295218 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/12/18 | When Donald Trump Partied With Richard Nixon | HOUSTON — They still talk about the Saturday night here 27 years ago when Donald J. Trump partied with former President Richard M. Nixon . Dressed in tuxedos, they sang “Happy Birthday” to Texas royalty — former Gov. John B. Connally and his wife, Nellie , whose birthdays were a few days apart — as Nixon played the tune on a white baby grand piano. They dined at Tony’s, the “21” Club of Houston, and Nixon was so fond of the cannelloni pasta that he asked the owner, Tony Vallone, to write the recipe for him on a yellow legal pad. And when it was all over, Mr. Trump flew Nixon back to New York on his 727 private jet. It happened one weekend in March 1989. It was one of Nixon’s first public appearances since the Watergate scandal had forced him to resign in 1974. And it was one of Mr. Trump’s first presidential experiences, as he socialized with and had the ear of a former president for two days in Houston at a gala event, an impromptu after-party at Tony’s, a Sunday brunch the next day at a River Oaks mansion and later aboard his plane. “I think you can see a core of Trump in this,” said Barry Silverman, a Houston advertising and marketing consultant who helped coordinate the gala and was a longtime friend of the Connallys. “He obviously had a road map a lot bigger than any of us ever thought about.” Mr. Silverman and Mr. Vallone said they did not know what, specifically, Mr. Trump and Nixon had talked about at the gala or at Tony’s. But the time they spent together that weekend most likely fed Mr. Trump’s fascination with and admiration of Nixon. During the campaign, Mr. Trump borrowed phrases from him, used his speech at the 1968 Republican convention as a template for his own convention address, and spoke glowingly of Nixon in interviews. The Connallys helped bring the fallen president and the future president-elect together. They had met Mr. Trump a few months earlier at a wedding in New York in December 1988, and Mr. Connally had been a close friend of Nixon’s, serving as his Treasury secretary. Nixon was already familiar with Mr. Trump. The former president had written an unsolicited letter to Mr. Trump in 1987, informing him that Nixon’s wife, Pat, had predicted “that whenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner!” Mr. Connally invited Mr. Trump and his wife, Ivana, to Houston as special guests at “A Night for Nellie,” an event to honor Mrs. Connally at the Westin Galleria hotel on March 11, 1989. Image Richard M. Nixon after resigning the presidency in 1974. Credit Bettmann/Getty Images Houston was just coming out of the 1980s oil bust. Tens of thousands of workers had lost their jobs and homes. Banks had failed. Mr. Connally filed for bankruptcy in 1987, and he and his wife were forced to auction their belongings to help repay creditors in 1988. Then Mrs. Connally learned she had breast cancer. “A Night for Nellie” raised more than $300,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation , but it also sought to lift Mrs. Connally’s spirits — and Houston’s. Barbara Walters was there, along with the airline executive Frank Lorenzo and the elite of Houston society, including Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., an oilman, and his wife, Lynn, who hosted Nixon, Mr. Trump and others at their mansion the next day. In the hotel ballroom, Mr. Trump introduced Nixon and sat at the head table with him. Mr. Connally had assembled the seating chart for the table himself. His wife was seated with Mr. Trump on one side of her and Nixon on the other. Mr. Trump, the event’s honorary chairman, seemed to be enjoying himself. He was 42 years old, and his book “ Trump: The Art of the Deal ,” which had been published in November 1987, had enjoyed a position on The New York Times’s best-seller list for nearly a year. “Donald Trump would have made a sensational Texan,” Ms. Walters told the audience, according to The Austin American-Statesman . Mr. Connally decided late in the evening to keep the party going for some of the V.I.P.s at Tony’s. Mr. Vallone had about a half-hour to clear a third of the restaurant and put on an elaborate buffet. He has wined and dined a host of celebrities and presidents at his restaurant, including Frank Sinatra, Princess Margaret, Andy Warhol and former President Bill Clinton. But he said that night in 1989 was the most memorable. “There was tremendous enthusiasm and electricity in the air,” Mr. Vallone said. “Trump had a commanding presence. People say he’s pompous, but he was not pompous. He was very approachable. He’ll talk to the waiters. After that, I went out and bought six or eight of his books and gave them away as gifts, I was so impressed with Trump.” At Tony’s, Mr. Trump suggested he was taking a business interest in Houston. “Every time I’m in a particular city that I like, and Houston happens to be a city that I like very much, I do look,” he told KTRK-TV , an ABC affiliate, as he stood in the restaurant. Nixon stayed there until 1 a.m. The party continued well after. “Dom Pérignon was flowing like ginger ale,” Mr. Silverman said, “and it went on until 3 in the morning.” The next day, the Trumps, the Connallys and Nixon were among 36 guests at a brunch at the Wyatts’ mansion. They ate beef Wellington and sipped Champagne with dessert. Ms. Wyatt, one of Houston’s most prominent socialites and philanthropists, asked Nixon to speak about world affairs, and Nixon stood, gave a brief speech and then took questions. Asked if Mr. Trump had asked a question, Ms. Wyatt replied: “I’m sure he did. Everybody did. I was so proud of my guests because they asked such intelligent questions. I don’t have any stupid friends.” | Nixon;Donald Trump;Houston;Restaurant;US Politics |
ny0265428 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/03/02 | Democrats Turn to Hillary Clinton After Flirting With Bernie Sanders | FAIRFAX, Va. — On the eve of Super Tuesday, as Hillary Clinton urged her supporters to turn out to vote, people on the sidelines of her campaign rally here seemed less revved up than resigned. The time had come, several said, to end their romance with Bernie Sanders and settle down with Mrs. Clinton. “Bernie Sanders’s odds of getting the nomination are maybe not that great,” said Mitchell Westall, 19, of Suffolk, Va., who added that he had been intrigued by the Vermont senator’s vision. “So I’m looking at the other Democrat.” Mrs. Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, is not used to being “the other Democrat.” But as voters cast ballots Tuesday in 11 states that could give her a prohibitive lead in the race for the party’s presidential nomination, she seemed to be enjoying something of a homecoming: After eyeing, enjoying and encouraging Mr. Sanders’s insurgency for months, Democrats seemed ready to restore to Mrs. Clinton and her candidacy the air of inevitability with which she began her campaign in April. Across the country, from the crucial swing state of Virginia to deeper-blue Minnesota, from the Sanders strongholds in New England to the Clinton redoubts of the South, many Democratic voters said that despite being aware, and sometimes wary, of Mrs. Clinton’s trust issues, they were more than ready to support her. Often, they said they were swayed as much by the arguments of Mrs. Clinton’s most persuasive surrogates — delegate math, and “Fear of a Trump Presidency” — as by the candidate herself. Seeing Donald J. Trump as an existential threat to American values, many Democrats said in interviews that they were ready to eschew the dreamy Sanders revolution for the heavy artillery of Mrs. Clinton and her battle-tested campaign machine. “If this country gets a Republican, we are in big trouble, especially with Trump,” Flor Giraldo, 59, an unemployed emergency room technician, said Tuesday outside of a polling place in Chelsea, Mass. “If he gets chosen, this will be an impossible country, and I think Hillary is going to save us.” In the Boston neighborhood of West Roxbury, where Mayor Martin J. Walsh and former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday morning, her supporters acknowledged grappling with whether they could trust Mrs. Clinton and worrying that something explosive, and destructive to her candidacy, could still come to light. “I hope there’s nothing in those speeches that she made,” said Adrienne Vaughan, an immigration lawyer, referring to Mrs. Clinton’s speeches to Goldman Sachs and other financial firms, for which she was paid handsomely but has not released transcripts. Similar concerns echoed in Decatur, Ga., where Dana Calleja, 47, said she had voted for Mrs. Clinton while admitting that she had reservations. “I wish there weren’t all of the questions around the emails and Benghazi,” Ms. Calleja said, “but it all came down to qualifications.” In dozens of interviews, voters said their desire for an experienced candidate who would be favored to win in November had played a greater role in their decisions than enthusiasm for Mrs. Clinton. “I don’t vote with my emotions,” said Bridget Coughlan Hermer, 54, a teacher and Clinton supporter from Madison Lake, Minn. “I vote with my head.” Image Denise Blake of Atlanta said Donald J. Trump’s “terrifying” ascent had persuaded her to vote for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. Credit Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times Through such a pragmatic frame, Ms. Hermer saw a silver lining to Mrs. Clinton’s ties to Wall Street, which Mr. Sanders has assailed as emblematic of a rigged campaign finance system: “She knows how to earn money and keep her campaign running,” Ms. Hermer said. One thing nearly all of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters agree on is that her résumé is without compare in the primary contest. In Austin, Tex., Donald Goertz, 76, a former classics teacher, said he had voted for Mrs. Clinton because “I can’t imagine anybody more knowledgeable than Hillary.” But he said he had to fight the tug of Mr. Sanders’s message: “I like his populism.” And when his wife, Donna Bryant Goertz, 76, a founder of Austin’s oldest Montessori school, professed her affection for Mrs. Clinton, it was in the form of tough love: “I love Hillary,” she said. “I think what she needs is a strong dose of Bernie. I voted for Bernie — to push her more in the direction that we would both like her to go.” The adoration for Mrs. Clinton was less conditional in Atlanta’s West End, where African-American voters trickling into a polling place at West Hunter Street Baptist Church had warm things to say about her, but warmer things to say about her husband. “I’m comfortable because her husband was president,” said Walter Clark, 53, who drives trains for the local commuter-rail system. “She knows the ins and outs.” Who Will Win Super Tuesday? Live Estimates of Tonight’s Final Republican Delegate Count Live estimates of the number of delegates each Republican candidate will pick up on Super Tuesday. Denise Blake, 49, the executive director of a nonprofit, said that despite being tempted by Mr. Sanders’s demand for a radical fix to income inequality, Mr. Trump’s “terrifying” ascent had pushed her into Mrs. Clinton’s column. Not all of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters, of course, needed an extra nudge. Many women interviewed took visible pride in the prospect of voting for a woman for president for the first time. And in an election that has been dominated in its early stages by energy for outsider candidates, voters also expressed appreciation for Mrs. Clinton’s long career, and her ability to work within a political framework that they did not consider all that broken. “Clinton. Women power!” blurted out Chetna Maheshwari, 44, a teacher who emigrated from India, as she walked Monday evening with her daughter at the Rust Library in suburban Leesburg, Va. Ms. Maheshwari said she voted for Mrs. Clinton in Virginia’s presidential primary in 2008, and seemed uninterested in Mr. Sanders’s call for revolution. “We have a system in place, and it’s working,” she said. “Why keep changing it again and again?” She said she hoped Mrs. Clinton would build on President Obama’s record and protect abortion rights. Not unlike Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Maheshwari said she was already looking past Mr. Sanders and toward the Democrats’ ability to preserve the country’s inclusive character. But the election may hinge less on genuine passion for Mrs. Clinton than on alarm about the advancing opponent Democrats see in the fall. “Stopping Donald Trump is something that’s definitely on my mind, as he is getting a lot of support,” Mr. Westall said at the Fairfax rally. “If it comes down to him and Hillary, there is almost no choice but to vote for Hillary there.” | Hillary Clinton;2016 Presidential Election;Primaries;Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders;Democrats |
ny0196161 | [
"technology",
"companies"
] | 2009/10/16 | Investors Call Cisco’s Offer for Tandberg Too Low | Investors holding 24 percent of shares in the Norwegian videoconferencing firm Tandberg snubbed a $3 billion bid from Cisco Systems , the network equipment maker, hoping to get a higher price. Some analysts said Cisco had plenty of cash and could raise its bid to get the 90 percent shareholder approval it needs, but others said they believed it would play hardball given that no other bidders had emerged for Tandberg. The group of 21 shareholders in the company said in a statement that Cisco’s bid of 153.50 kroner per share ($27.61) was inadequate, although they did not suggest another price. “We think the price is too low,” said Amund Lunde, the chief executive of the life insurance group Oslo Pensjonsforsikring, a shareholder with 1 percent of Tandberg’s stock who is among the group of shareholders. Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., declined to comment on the shareholders’ move, but repeated its previous statement that it was offering “a fair price” and that its bid had been recommended by Tandberg’s board. Stock in Tandberg rose 1.8 percent. | Cisco Systems Inc;Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures;Tandberg |
ny0287695 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2016/08/17 | Syndergaard’s Bat, and Arm, Lift the Mets | PHOENIX — At 6 feet 6 inches and 240 pounds, Noah Syndergaard often looks better suited for a football field than a baseball diamond. His large frame and quick arm generate the power behind his high-octane fastballs, which have been clocked as high as 102 miles per hour. His strong body also helps him at the plate. In the Mets’ 7-5 win over the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, which moved them back above .500, Syndergaard produced the biggest moment of the game with his quick, strong swing and not his powerful right arm. Facing Braden Shipley, the Diamondbacks’ starter, in the fifth inning, Syndergaard crushed a two-run home run that landed nearly halfway up Section 103 in right field at Chase Field. The 415-foot shot broke a 1-1 tie and sparked the Mets’ offensive outburst. The blast was the fourth of Syndergaard’s career, and third of this season, trying a Mets single-season record for home runs by a pitcher. Tom Seaver hit three home runs in 1972, and Walt Terrell matched the feat in 1983. Syndergaard has a month and a half’s worth of starts left this season to top the record. “Noah is dangerous,” Manager Terry Collins said. “He’s got huge power.” With the victory, the Mets improved their record to 60-59. They also beat Arizona (49-70) for the first time this season in five tries. On the mound Tuesday, Syndergaard labored at times. High pitch counts have plagued him often in the second half of the season. But he was also hurt by fielding errors by third baseman T. J. Rivera, which led to Syndergaard’s exit with two outs in the sixth inning. Syndergaard (10-7) allowed four runs, only two earned, on seven hits in five and two-thirds innings. He has not pitched more than six innings since July 3. Still, Syndergaard had thrown 79 pitches through five innings on Tuesday before the fateful sixth. Rivera’s throw wide of first base put Jake Lamb on base to start the inning. Mitch Haniger’s one-out triple drove in Lamb and Welington Castillo, who had singled. Syndergaard got a pop-up for the inning’s second out, but Rivera bobbled the next ground ball for his second error of the inning. Collins took Syndergaard out when Jean Segura reached on an infield single. Rivera did not make a strong throw to first base on Segura’s grounder, nor James Loney did stretch enough for it. In the dugout, Syndergaard threw down his glove. Even though Syndergaard and the Mets’ defense were not at their sharpest, the team’s offense created enough cushion to withstand mistakes. Before the Mets’ lineup broke out, Syndergaard provided a spark. With one out in the fifth inning, a runner on base and the score tied at 1, Syndergaard came to bat against Shipley. Syndergaard whiffed at two changeups but took three pitches out of the strike zone. Facing a full count, Shipley tempted fate by firing a 91-mile-per-hour fastball down the middle of the plate. Syndergaard unloaded a quick, effortless uppercut swing that sent the ball into the right-field seats for a 3-1 Mets lead. The Mets dugout erupted. Rene Rivera clapped his hands while Jay Bruce and Kevin Long, the Mets’ hitting coach, laughed. After Syndergaard’s blast, the Mets piled on. They did this without their hottest hitter, second baseman Neil Walker, who was scratched with lower back stiffness as a precaution by Collins. Bruce, Alejandro De Aza and Jose Reyes each collected two hits. Kelly Johnson drilled a solo home run in the sixth inning. And despite his fielding miscues, T. J. Rivera sprayed four hits and scored two runs in his seventh major league game. With Syndergaard’s help, the Mets’ highest scoring output in two weeks gave them sufficient margin of error when the Diamondbacks pulled to within two runs in the seventh inning. Jeurys Familia pitched an uneventful ninth for his 40th save. | Mets;Baseball;Diamondbacks;Noah Syndergaard;Terry L Collins |
ny0049592 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2014/10/04 | Coalition Leader Warns of Long Fight Against ISIS in Iraq | BAGHDAD — The American official coordinating the international coalition fighting the Islamic State said on Friday that the Iraqi military would not be ready for a campaign to retake Mosul, the largest Iraqi city under insurgent control, for as much as a year. Mosul has become a symbol of the strength of the Islamist insurgency, which has made the city its stronghold, and of the failure of the Iraqi security forces, which wilted in June as militants swept across the Syrian border and overran the city as they pushed toward Baghdad. The broad timeline given by the official, retired Gen. John R. Allen, seemed to reflect the immense challenges facing the Iraqi military command and its international partners, including about 1,600 American troops deployed by President Obama, as they seek to rebuild the Iraqi security forces. “When it’s undertaken, the right kind of planning and preparation will have been done to make sure the outcome will favor the Iraqis,” said General Allen, a retired Marine who served in the Iraq War and was the top American commander in Afghanistan. “The operation will kick off within a year,” he told reporters, though he warned that the struggle would be protracted. Mosul is the second-largest city in Iraq. “It’s not a single battle,” he said. “It’s a campaign.” General Allen’s comments came during a brief trip to Iraq to meet with what he called “a broad range of actors across the Iraqi political and military spheres.” It was his first visit to Baghdad since his appointment by the Obama administration last month to lead the international coalition. In the northern and western parts of the country that it controls, the Islamic State has carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves and imposed a harsh form of Shariah, or Islamic law. Relief officials say more than a million people have been displaced from their homes. On Friday, the insurgents distributed leaflets demanding that all medical personnel and teachers who left areas under their control return to their hometowns within 10 days. Violators would be penalized by the confiscation of their homes and possessions, the Islamic State warned. Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein , the new United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement this week that the insurgency’s abuses “may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.” Officials fear that the longer the group is allowed to remain in control of conquered areas, the more entrenched it will become and the harder it will be to dislodge. Yet so far, the Iraqi military, despite the support of an American-led campaign of airstrikes, has not been able to make significant, sustained gains against the insurgency. Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. In response to a question about the efficacy of the aerial bombardments, General Allen said they had “slowed the momentum” of the Islamic State and provided valuable support for Iraqi forces holding strategic positions, like the Haditha Dam in Anbar Province, and for Iraqi forces retaking ground, like the battle in August at the Mosul Dam. Two more nations on Friday were poised to join the aerial campaign. In Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that his country’s forces would take part in airstrikes and that special operations units would advise the Iraqi military. In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Parliament on Friday to approve airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq. A vote was expected on Monday, and approval seemed likely. But General Allen emphasized that the strategy to beat back and destroy the insurgency would be a long and complex military and political effort. A centerpiece will be strengthening the Iraqi security forces, which have suffered from poor leadership, low morale, rampant corruption and chronic problems of logistics, intelligence and resupply, officials say. “We must build Iraqi capacity to take on the fight,” General Allen said, reiterating Mr. Obama’s vow not to deploy American combat troops to Iraq. A vital piece of the military strategy includes a plan to bolster national guard units under the authority of the provincial governors. The plan — proposed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last month — echoes a strategy employed during the Iraq War, in which moderate Sunni tribes were paid and armed to fight alongside Iraqi and American troops. General Allen was the deputy Marine commander in Anbar Province at the time and helped to guide the formation and implementation of that strategy, called the Awakening. But officials say the details of the national guard project are still being worked out, including how to engage the Sunni tribes and whether to eventually integrate Shiite militias. In the meantime, however, some Sunni tribal groups, either on their own or in collaboration with Iraqi security forces, have taken up arms against Islamic State fighters. In recent weeks, officials said, Sunni tribal fighters have played a crucial role in several battles against Islamic State. This week, for instance, an unusual de facto alliance evolved in the district of Dhuluiya, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, where Sunni fighters from the Jubouri tribe found themselves fighting alongside Shiite militias — widely feared and mistrusted by Sunnis — and Iraqi security forces. “What made us fight together is that we face the same rival,” Hussein Abdulla al-Jubouri, a tribal sheikh from Dhuluiya, said in an interview on Friday. While there was no formal agreement to fight together, he said, the various forces aligned out of common purpose. The alliance, he said, managed to repel the insurgents. “We fought as one hand,” he said. | ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;John R Allen;Iraq;US Military;Mosul;Baghdad;Awakening Movement |
ny0009790 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2013/02/11 | Few Former Collegians Excel on WTA Tour | CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Although she stands a foot and a half shorter, at 5 feet 3 inches, it seemed fair to wonder if Robin Anderson might one day become the John Isner of the women’s game. The 6-9 Isner, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 9 in 2012, remains the highest-ranked American man, at No. 16. Isner has also served as the standard-bearer of collegiate tennis on the professional circuit, having played for four years at Georgia before turning pro in 2007. But women’s college tennis has not had an equivalent representative in recent years; no one in the current WTA top 100 played college tennis. Anderson, a sophomore who plays for U.C.L.A., blasted through her opposition at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I national women’s team indoor championship here this past weekend. Anderson won her first 22 games at the event, hitting powerful serves and ground strokes that might not be expected from a player her size. Her form seemed to impress Jeff Wallace, who coaches the women’s team at Georgia. “She would be one that I’d say would be right there at the front of the line,” he said when asked if any of the current women’s players at the college level could have a major effect as a pro. But while Isner and other men’s players like 29th-ranked Kevin Anderson, an Illinois alumnus, have been able to make a successful transition from the top of the college game to the top levels of the ATP Tour, women have not been able to successfully navigate similar courses in the last several years. Still, women have shown an ability to achieve bigger pro results at younger ages than their male counterparts, a disparity that can be seen in the rankings of the tours. There are 10 teenagers inside the top 100 of the WTA rankings. The highest ranked is 19-year-old Sloane Stephens, No. 17; the youngest is 92nd-ranked Donna Vekic, 16, of Croatia. Conversely, the highest-ranked teenager in Monday’s ATP rankings is the Czech 19-year-old Jiri Vesely, who is No. 250. While there is more success by younger players on the women’s side, more and more players have been able to continue dominating at advanced ages on both tours, and the average age of top players has increased. Roger Federer and Serena Williams, the defending Wimbledon champions and the second-ranked players on their tours, are each 31. The last major college success story on the women’s side is the American Lisa Raymond, who at 39 focuses solely on doubles. Raymond won two national championships in singles for Florida in 1992 and 1993 and has since won 11 Grand Slam doubles titles (six in women’s, five in mixed). Raymond reached her first Grand Slam doubles final in 1994, one year after leaving college. She also reached a career-high ranking of No. 15 in singles in 1997 and remains the most recent former women’s college player to break the top 20 in singles. There are five women who played college tennis inside the top 200. Three of the four are rising quickly and have rankings that are career highs: the 2011 Southern California graduate Maria Sanchez is No. 114, the former Stanford player Mallory Burdette is No. 126, and the Stanford junior Nicole Gibbs is No. 199. No. 132 Julia Cohen, who has a career-high ranking of 97th, played at three different colleges. Irina Falconi, who spent two years at Georgia Tech, is ranked No. 140, down from a career-high No. 73 in 2011. “I was doing really well in the juniors,” Anderson said of her decision to go to college. “But I felt that I still needed to develop, and I felt that there were still a lot of things in my game that I needed to improve on before I moved on to go pro. I decided college was the best thing for me.” Anderson’s coach at U.C.L.A., Stella Sampras Webster, agreed that Anderson’s path would have been much more difficult if she had turned pro right away. “She would have gone out there, and it would have been tough,” said Sampras Webster, the sister of Pete Sampras. “Because right now, she’s getting so many matches. She’s gotten to play and win a lot of matches, and on the tour, you can lose your mojo very quickly. And if you don’t have that support, it can be a nightmare.” Anderson, aware of the tour’s changing demographics, said: “The average age of the top pros that are making it, they’re like 25, 26. I still have time. I have the time in college now to get better and to develop. So when I feel ready, I’ll go out there and I’ll play.” Sanchez, the highest-ranked former college player on the WTA Tour, said she thought perceptions were changing about a young woman’s career path in tennis. “When I was in high school, it definitely seemed that way, that it was either college or professional,” she said. “And if you went to college, by the time you graduated, it was going to be too late to go pro. But I think players now have changed that.” Gibbs, the reigning N.C.A.A. champion, said she thought the level of play in college tennis, compared with that of the professional ranks, was underrated. “The worlds are very different, but at the end of the day, the tennis isn’t that different,” she said during the Australian Open, where she played in the qualifying draw. Wallace, the coach at Georgia, said of players like Sanchez and Gibbs: “You just need one or two to get out there and start doing really well. And I think that opens the doors for a lot of people to believe that they can, that they could be the next one. Because there’s certainly a lot of great players out here playing in college tennis.” | College Sports;Tennis;Women's Tennis Assn;Women and Girls;Careers and Professions;Lisa Raymond |
ny0028191 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2013/01/08 | Chemical Weapons Showdown With Syria Led to Rare Accord | WASHINGTON — In the last days of November, Israel’s top military commanders called the Pentagon to discuss troubling intelligence that was showing up on satellite imagery: Syrian troops appeared to be mixing chemicals at two storage sites, probably the deadly nerve gas sarin, and filling dozens of 500-pounds bombs that could be loaded on airplanes. Within hours President Obama was notified, and the alarm grew over the weekend, as the munitions were loaded onto vehicles near Syrian air bases. In briefings, administration officials were told that if Syria’s increasingly desperate president, Bashar al-Assad, ordered the weapons to be used, they could be airborne in less than two hours — too fast for the United States to act, in all likelihood. What followed next, officials said, was a remarkable show of international cooperation over a civil war in which the United States, Arab states, Russia and China have almost never agreed on a common course of action. The combination of a public warning by Mr. Obama and more sharply worded private messages sent to the Syrian leader and his military commanders through Russia and others, including Iraq, Turkey and possibly Jordan, stopped the chemical mixing and the bomb preparation. A week later Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the worst fears were over — for the time being. But concern remains that Mr. Assad could now use the weapons produced that week at any moment. American and European officials say that while a crisis was averted in that week from late November to early December, they are by no means resting easy. “I think the Russians understood this is the one thing that could get us to intervene in the war,” one senior defense official said last week. “What Assad understood, and whether that understanding changes if he gets cornered in the next few months, that’s anyone’s guess.” While chemical weapons are technically considered a “weapon of mass destruction” — along with biological and nuclear weapons — in fact they are hard to use and hard to deliver. Whether an attack is effective can depend on the winds and the terrain. Sometimes attacks are hard to detect, even after the fact. Syrian forces could employ them in a village or a neighborhood, some officials say, and it would take time for the outside world to know. But the scare a month ago has renewed debate about whether the West should help the Syrian opposition destroy Mr. Assad’s air force, which he would need to deliver those 500-pound bombs. The chemical munitions are still in storage areas that are near or on Syrian air bases, ready for deployment on short notice, officials said. The Obama administration and other governments have said little in public about the chemical weapons movements, in part because of concern about compromising sources of intelligence about the activities of Mr. Assad’s forces. This account is based on interviews with more than half a dozen military, intelligence and diplomatic officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the intelligence matters involved. The head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, warned in a confidential assessment last month that the weapons could now be deployed four to six hours after orders were issued, and that Mr. Assad had a special adviser at his side who oversaw control of the weapons, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported. Some American and other allied officials, however, said in interviews that the sarin-laden bombs could be loaded on planes and airborne in less than two hours. Video The Times’s David E. Sanger discusses the bid to keep the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, from using chemical weapons. “Let’s just say right now, it would be a relatively easy thing to load this quickly onto aircraft,” said one Western diplomat. How the United States and Israel, along with Arab states, would respond remains a mystery. American and allied officials have talked vaguely of having developed “contingency plans” in case they decided to intervene in an effort to neutralize the chemical weapons, a task that the Pentagon estimates would require upward of 75,000 troops. But there have been no evident signs of preparations for any such effort. The United States military has quietly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there, among other things, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was reported to have traveled to Jordan in recent weeks, and the Israeli news media have said the topic of discussion was how to deal with Syrian weapons if it appeared that they could be transferred to Lebanon, where Hezbollah could lob them over the border to Israel. But the plans, to the extent they exist, remain secret. American, Israeli and other allied officials remained fixed on this potential crisis, especially as the opposition appears to have gained more momentum, seizing several Syrian military bases and the weapons stored there, and have been closing in on Damascus, the Syrian capital. In response, Syria has reached deeper into its conventional arsenal, including firing Scud ballistic missiles at rebel positions near Aleppo. Over the past week a new concern emerged: Syrian forces began shooting new, accurate short-range missiles, believed to have been manufactured in Iran. None had chemical warheads. But their use showed that the Syrian military was now deploying a more accurate weapon than the notoriously inaccurate Scud missiles they have used in previous attacks. As the fighting has escalated, American and other allied officials have said that government troops have moved some of the chemical stockpiles to safer locations, a consolidation that, if it continues, could actually help Western forces should they have to enter Syria to seize control of the munitions or destroy them. Syria’s chemical weapons are under the control of a secretive Syrian air force organization called Unit 450, a highly vetted outfit that is deemed one of the most loyal to the Assad government given the importance of the weapons in its custody. American officials said that some of the back-channel messages in recent weeks were directed at the commanders of this unit, warning them — as Mr. Obama warned Mr. Assad on Dec. 3 — that they would be held personally responsible if the government used its chemical weapons. Asked about these communications and whether they have been successful, an American intelligence official said only, “The topic is extremely sensitive, and public discussion, even on background, will be problematic.” Allied officials say whatever safeguards the Syrian government have taken, there remains great concern that the weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists fighting the government or the militant group Hezbollah, which has established small training camps near some of the storage sites. “Militants who got their hands on such munitions would find it difficult to deploy them effectively without the associated aircraft, artillery or rocket launcher systems,” said Jeremy Binnie, a terrorism and insurgency specialist at IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly . “That said, Hezbollah would probably be able to deploy them effectively against Israel with a bit of help.” | Arab Spring;Biological and Chemical Warfare;Syria;Bashar al-Assad;Benjamin Netanyahu;Leon E Panetta;Barack Obama;US Foreign Policy;Israel |
ny0040971 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
] | 2014/04/14 | Liverpool Closes In on Championship That It Last Won 24 Years Ago | LIVERPOOL, England — They sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “We Shall Not Be Moved” and, over and over, “Liiiiiverpool.” The fans at Anfield seemed never to go quiet once the game began on Sunday, and soon, perhaps, they will sing about being champions. That was the measure of Liverpool’s 3-2 victory over visiting Manchester City, a spirited and intense game that had all the ingredients of a classic: goals, drama and atmosphere in bunches. The Reds scored two goals early, but City came back with two goals, threatening to ruin the day for the home team. Then Philippe Coutinho pounced on a loose ball and buried a shot in the 78th minute, giving rise to this reality: If Liverpool wins its four remaining games, it will claim the title in England’s top league for the first time since 1990. It is a heady position for Manager Brendan Rodgers of Liverpool, which has won 10 Premier League games in a row and has dropped just 4 points in 15 games in 2014. The Reds sit 2 points ahead of Chelsea — which beat Swansea, 1-0, on Sunday to keep pace — and 7 points ahead of Manchester City, which has played two fewer games. When Sunday’s game was over, Steven Gerrard, Liverpool’s captain, gathered his teammates. The players threw their arms around one another; Gerrard blinked away tears as he addressed them. “That was the biggest statement we’ve made so far,” Gerrard said later. “That was the longest 90 minutes I’ve probably ever played in. It felt like the clock was going backwards during parts of that game.” The expectation for the match was immense. Fans packed trains out of London’s Euston station early Sunday, spilling out of the cars and into the vestibules during the three-hour journey to Anfield. When they arrived in Merseyside, they found pubs packed to the brim and scalpers roaming the streets; tickets normally priced at £52 (roughly $87) were being peddled online for as much as $4,200. Most observers labeled it the biggest league match at Anfield in nearly a quarter of a century. Emotions were running high even before kickoff. A memorial service on Tuesday will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 96 fans died, and Sunday’s prematch ceremonies included a minute’s silence, the presentation of a wreath of flowers from Manchester City and a stunning mosaic reading, “96 — 25 years,” which was displayed in the famed Kop end. The game began at 1:37 p.m., seven minutes late, because the 1989 F.A. Cup semifinal in which the catastrophe occurred was stopped after six minutes. Image Coutinho pounced on a loose ball and buried the shot in the 78th minute. Credit Peter Powell/European Pressphoto Agency A new round of proceedings about the disaster is continuing , forcing Liverpool residents to compartmentalize their feelings. There remains a desire for justice: Initial reports said the deaths, on an overcrowded terrace, were accidental, but more recent revelations have indicated that the authorities neglected to take steps to mitigate the crushing of the fans and then concealed evidence that indicated their culpability. The battle has been fought here for more than two decades, and with that charged backdrop, Liverpool’s performance on the field has stirred feelings. The Reds were not picked to be title contenders this season, with most predictions calling for them to be battling for one of the Champions League places, awarded to the top four finishers. Indeed, the only thing more surprising this season than Manchester United’s collapse into irrelevancy may be Liverpool’s rapid ascent. The Reds have done it through will and pluckiness and, often, the goals of Luis Suárez. Suárez did not score Sunday, but he did play a significant part as Liverpool was flying from the opening whistle, moving with such speed in the opening stages that it seemed as if Manchester City’s players were chasing shadows. “We just have to play with no fear,” said Rodgers, the manager. That is rarely a problem for Suárez, who will never be known as the calm, quiet type. He was booked inside five minutes after a needlessly late tackle on Martín Demichelis. True to form, Suárez came up barking at the referee, but then, true to form, Suárez dazzled moments later, slipping a perfect through ball to Raheem Sterling. Sterling, a young wing, showed no signs of nerves: He shed Vincent Kompany, then danced alongside Joe Hart, the onrushing goalkeeper, before coolly depositing the ball into the net. The Kop end of the stadium erupted anew. The fans roared even louder when Martin Skrtel headed home a perfect corner kick by Gerrard less than 20 minutes later. City, it seemed, was on the precipice of being knocked out. City, however, found some fight and controlled play for much of the rest of the game. David Silva scored off a pretty pass from James Milner early in the second half, and City benefited when Liverpool defender Glen Johnson turned the ball into his own net to level the score with a half-hour remaining. With its two games in hand, City would have been plenty pleased with a draw. Still Liverpool pushed on. Suárez, who avoided a second yellow card for diving, was not getting many useful passes from his teammates, but after Kompany could not clear the ball, Coutinho stepped into a blast that rescued the day for the Reds, if not the season. “We made a mistake, and then we lost the game,” City Manager Manuel Pellegrini said. Rodgers, referring to Liverpool’s streak, said, “Hopefully, 10 wins will become 11 next week.” It is all on the Reds now, with four games left: at Norwich, home against Chelsea, at Crystal Palace and then, on the final day of the season, a last match at Anfield against Newcastle. The singing that day could be sublime. | Soccer;Liverpool Soccer Team;Manchester City Soccer Team;Premier League |
ny0192848 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2009/02/23 | Articles on Editor Chauncey Bailey’s Killing Made a Difference | When Chauncey Bailey, the editor of The Oakland Post, in California, was gunned down in broad daylight on a city street 18 months ago, it was not the end of his journalism. In some ways, it was a new beginning. After his death, a group of reporters — some retired, some out of work — with support from foundations and the University of California, Berkeley, banded together to continue his investigation into a local business called Your Black Muslim Bakery and to look at any role the bakery may have played in Mr. Bailey’s murder and at the role of the police in its investigation. The group, named The Chauncey Bailey Project, has had a deep impact on the city’s public life, broadcasting a jailhouse videotape that suggested a wider conspiracy in the murder and which the police seemingly ignored, and helping force the resignation of the Oakland police chief, Wayne Tucker. The group has said that much of its work is done, but it says it will not shutter the operation completely until the investigation of Yusuf Bey IV, a son of the founder of the bakery, has been completed. Mr. Tucker suggested that an indictment was likely during a news conference after his resignation and that it would show a larger conspiracy in the murder of Mr. Bailey. Mr. Bey has denied culpability in the murder in an interview with one of the reporters on the project. Rebecca Kaplan, a City Council member, publicly credited the group of reporters with airing the police’s dirty laundry. “Even if everything was an honest mistake, the Chauncey Bailey case is shining a light on what we need to be looking at,” Ms. Kaplan said. Robert Rosenthal, the executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley that became the headquarters for the project, said the participants came together in part as a result of the decimation of local media, which precluded large-scale investigative work. “I think the issues of downsizing and economic turmoil are the catalyst for this,” said Mr. Rosenthal, a former editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. Bailey had a place in Oakland newspaper lore not necessarily as a gifted reporter but for his ubiquity in the community and ear for neighborhood chatter. He was once fired from The Oakland Tribune for an ethical breach, but had another act as editor of The Oakland Post. There, he began to look into Your Black Muslim Bakery, now defunct but once a prominent institution in the city’s black community. It sprouted in the late 1960s against the backdrop of the Black Power movement and was once praised for giving jobs to young African-Americans. The bakery went bankrupt in 2006, leaving a wake of violence, an unpaid loan to the city of Oakland, problems with the Internal Revenue Service, and unrest. Its founder, Yusuf Bey, died in 2003. His son Yusuf Bey IV was briefly the leader of the organization, but now sits in jail, charged with kidnapping, torture and carjacking. The charges are not related to the Bailey investigation. On Aug. 2, 2007, Mr. Bailey was shot three times with a sawed-off shotgun as he walked to work after eating breakfast at McDonald’s. Days later, a former dishwasher at the bakery, Devaughndre Broussard, was charged with the murder. The project formed in the fall of 2007. It modeled itself on The Arizona Project, which was created after the 1976 car-bomb murder of Don Bolles, an Arizona Republic reporter who had been writing about organized crime. The reporters began by examining the bakery. “Pretty soon, we found the bakery was a cesspool,” said Bob Butler, an independent journalist who was a longtime reporter for CBS Radio before he was laid off in 2006. In a series of articles published last year in The Tribune, The Contra Costa Times and on KTVU-TV, a Bay Area television station, the journalists reported a longstanding relationship between the detective in charge of the Bailey case and the younger Mr. Bey, a connection first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle. It also found that the detective had not included in his case notes data from a tracking device on Mr. Bey’s car that showed him outside Mr. Bailey’s apartment the night before the murder, the articles said. Mary Fricker, a retired reporter who had worked for 20 years at The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, pored over databases and old files and documented a pattern of sexual assault and misconduct by the founder of the bakery. She joined the project, even though she lives two hours north of Oakland in wine country, and spent many nights on a colleague’s couch. “Could the local media have done this story? No, especially because it came at a time when local media was imploding,” Ms. Fricker said. The pivotal point for the project occurred on an afternoon last spring. Over a sushi lunch in a downtown Oakland restaurant, a source slipped Thomas Peele, a reporter for The Bay Area News Group, a videotape. The tape, secretly recorded by the police, showed Yusuf Bey IV sitting with associates in a jailhouse room, bragging about being a part of Mr. Bailey’s murder. First reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, the tape raised critical questions — still unanswered — about why the police had not charged Mr. Bey in the murder. The reporting also led to a number of investigations by agencies outside Oakland. The Bailey murder case has been taken from the Oakland police and turned over to the Alameda County district attorney’s office. Jerry Brown, the California attorney general, is investigating the way police handled the case. More recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped in to investigate allegations raised by the project that the chief of internal affairs at the department had beaten a drug suspect, who later died. The project also reopened a decades-old murder case in Santa Barbara, Calif., where a precursor to the bakery operated in the 1960s. Last month, Chief Tucker, the head of Oakland’s police, announced he would step down, in part as a result of the handling of the Bailey murder investigation. “We made mistakes on that case,” he said at a news conference, and acknowledged that Yusuf Bey IV is “the one we want” to complete the case. Reporters involved in the project gently point out that they have pushed the inquiry further than Mr. Bailey might have. Mr. Bailey, who was posthumously named Journalist of the Year by the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his “fierce commitment to investigative journalism in the face of personal danger,” was not regarded as an investigative journalist. He had written a draft of an article on the bakery, but it had been killed because its reporting was subpar, according to Paul Cobb, the publisher of The Oakland Post. “There’s been more scrutiny of the Oakland Police Department because of his death than he ever would have accomplished at The Oakland Post,” Mr. Peele said. Martin Reynolds, the editor of The Oakland Tribune and an executive with The Bay Area News Group, the paper’s parent company, has been heartened by the strong reaction to the project. “The response from our readers has shown that the best way to preserve our relevance is through investigative reporting,” said Mr. Reynolds, who has steadily cut his own company’s newsrooms. “It’s what we can still do better than anyone else.” | Bailey Chauncey W Jr;Murders and Attempted Murders;Newspapers;Blacks;Oakland Post The;University of California Berkeley;Your Black Muslim Bakery;Oakland (Calif) |
ny0133984 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2008/03/24 | Rutgers’s Stringer Still Has Fans in Iowa | DES MOINES — It is always primary season in Iowa for Bill Fennelly. Every month for the past 13 years, Fennelly, the Iowa State women’s basketball coach, has hit the campaign trail, crisscrossing the state to expand his constituency one civic breakfast at a time. Wherever he goes, from Algona to Zwingle, Fennelly is following the path blazed by C. Vivian Stringer. She built the University of Iowa women’s program into a national title contender and an attendance leader in the 1980s before leaving to coach the Rutgers women in 1995. On Monday night, their paths will converge for only the second time since Stringer left Iowa and since Fennelly, a native Iowan, returned. Stringer’s second-seeded Rutgers team will face Fennelly’s seventh-seeded Iowa State squad in a second-round N.C.A.A. tournament game at Wells Fargo Arena, a 30-mile trip from the Iowa State campus in Ames. They met for the first time in 1998, in a second-round tournament game in Ames that Rutgers won, 62-61. “When the brackets came out, one of the very first things I heard was excitement that we were in and that Coach Stringer was coming back to Iowa,” Fennelly said Sunday. “She has a great amount of respect, and deservedly so.” In 1983, Stringer left Cheyney State, a program that she had guided to one Final Four, for Iowa City, which was then a Big Ten women’s basketball outpost. Within two years, Iowa led the nation in women’s basketball attendance. In her third season, Iowa qualified for the N.C.A.A. tournament. In 1993, the Hawkeyes advanced to the Final Four. “I think what she did at the University of Iowa and the fan base and the way she changed the program certainly has helped all of us,” Fennelly said. “I think it brought women’s basketball into the forefront in our state, maybe a little bit before some of the other states were doing it.” Stringer’s effect was so great, many Iowans said at the time, only half in jest, that she could run for governor. In 1986, Bump Elliott, who was then the athletic director at Iowa, suggested a state job that carried, perhaps, an even higher profile. The Hawkeyes had lost their men’s basketball coach, George Raveling, to the University of Southern California. Elliott solicited Stringer’s advice on candidates to succeed Raveling. At the end of the conversation, he said: “What about you? Would you be interested?” Elliott, who had played football at Michigan, did not consider it that far-fetched an idea. Two years earlier, Geraldine Ferraro had run for vice president on the Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale. Stringer had one of the sharpest basketball minds of anyone Elliott knew, so why shouldn’t she be a legitimate candidate? Stringer, though intrigued by the idea, quickly dismissed it. “She said she didn’t think the timing was right where a woman should coach a men’s team,” Elliott said Saturday in a telephone interview. “She didn’t say it couldn’t be done. She just said the timing wasn’t right.” That was then. What about now? In 2008, when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for president, is the timing right? “In a way, yeah, I think it is,” Stringer said Sunday, adding, “There are some women, believe it our not, some of my colleagues who I think would do well and would want to coach a men’s team.” Stringer, 60, spoke about how young men today “are probably a lot more receptive about a lot of things.” She added, “If things were a little further along on the women’s side, I would entertain the idea very much.” In the march of progress, there is still a great deal of road for the women to travel, still many rough patches to smooth over, as the radio host Don Imus made clear last year with his sexist and racist comments directed at the Rutgers team. Fennelly, too, knows he cannot let up in his campaign for women’s basketball, that he must continue adding logs to the fire that Stringer ignited. After he took the Iowa State job in 1995, he said if there was an opening in his calendar, he would gladly fill it with a community appearance to talk up Cyclones women’s basketball. Thirteen years later, “it’s still the same,” Fennelly said. “It’s my responsibility to talk to the fans, to try to connect with them,” he said. More than 9,000 fans — most of them wearing Iowa State red — cheered the Cyclones to a 58-55 victory against Georgia Tech on Saturday, and a few thousand more are expected to attend Monday’s game. The stands may be awash in Iowa State colors, but many in the crowd will probably find it hard to root against Stringer. She has retained a large and loyal following among Iowans. Before the Scarlet Knights ’ first practice here, and again after their 85-42 first-round victory against Robert Morris, Stringer was besieged by autograph seekers. Many held open her recently published autobiography, “Standing Tall,” to the title page. Whenever she returns here, where her two brothers and sister still live, it is as if she never left. As Fennelly noted, “Her impact was immediate, dramatic and I think a continuing one in our state.” Stringer’s popularity here has not escaped the notice of her players. “I guess it will change tomorrow around 8:30,” the junior center Kia Vaughn said, referring to the local starting time of the game. With a mischievous smile, she added: “I know they still want her back. But they can’t have her.” And, for now, neither will men’s basketball. | Basketball;NCAA Basketball Tournament;Rutgers The State University of New Jersey |
ny0071777 | [
"us"
] | 2015/03/07 | Federal Court in Alabama Is Asked to Clear Way for Same-Sex Marriages | ATLANTA — Lawyers for gay and civil rights groups on Friday asked a federal court in Mobile, Ala., to force the state’s probate judges to once again issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, three days after the Alabama Supreme Court ordered them to stop. The motion, filed with Judge Callie V.S. Granade of United States District Court, could trigger the next salvo in a showdown between state and federal judiciaries over same-sex marriage in one of the nation’s most conservative states. In its ruling Tuesday, the Alabama high court ruled that state law “allows for ‘marriage’ between only one man and one woman.’’ It came after a 22-day period in which gay and lesbian people could marry in some localities. The opening had been made possible by two rulings Judge Granade issued in late January that declared Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional. Those rulings came in two cases in which same-sex couples challenged Alabama’s marriage restrictions. But opponents of same-sex marriage, including Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court, have argued that Judge Granade’s rulings do not apply to the state’s probate judges — the local officials charged with issuing marriage licenses — because the probate judges were not named as defendants in the lawsuits. (Judge Granade later issued a ruling naming one of the probate judges, Don Davis, of Mobile County). Chief Justice Moore ordered the probate judges not to issue the licenses on Feb. 8, the day before Judge Granade’s rulings were to take effect. Amid the confusion, some probate judges issued licenses to gay couples while others did not. After the State Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, all probate judges stopped issuing licenses to gay couples. Friday’s motion, filed by attorneys for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and other groups, seeks to solve that problem by asking Judge Granade to convert one of the cases into a class-action lawsuit. The lawyers are hoping the judge will allow them to name all of the state’s probate judges as a defendant class. And the motion asks that all of the same-sex couples wishing to marry in Alabama be named in addition to the four couples who are currently named as plaintiffs. It also asks the court to direct the probate judges to “refrain from enforcing all Alabama laws and orders that prohibit same-sex couples from marrying or that deny recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples.” Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said he hoped the court would act quickly “to provide certainty to couples throughout the state and establish once and for all that Alabama’s same-sex couples have the freedom to marry.” The State Supreme Court’s ruling came after two conservative groups, the Alabama Policy Institute and the Alabama Citizens Action Program, filed a petition to stop gay marriage in the state. An attorney for the groups could not be reached for comment on Friday, nor could the president of the state probate judges’ association. | Alabama;Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage;Callie V S Granade;Roy S Moore;Don Davis |
ny0235112 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/01/21 | ICE Agents Crack Down on Protest at Varick Detention Center | Agents in riot gear from Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to break up a hunger strike by detainees at the Varick Federal Detention Center in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, three detainees at the center said Wednesday in telephone interviews. Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security , denied that there was “a sustained hunger strike” at Varick, but said immigration agents entered and searched a jail dormitory when detainees complaining about conditions refused to leave it. A Jamaican detainee in one dorm said “all hell broke loose” after about 100 inmates refused to go to the mess hall on Tuesday morning and gave guards a flier declaring they were on a hunger strike to protest detention policies and practices. The detainee, who asked that his name not be published for fear of retaliation, said a SWAT team used pepper spray and “beat up” some detainees, took many to segregation cells as punishment and transferred about 17 to immigration jails in other states. The 20 detainees remaining in his dorm were threatened with similar treatment if they continued the hunger strike, he said. But Mr. Chandler, in a written statement, said, “No pepper spray was used at any time during this search, and any allegations of threat or intimidation are simply untrue.” Two detainees in another dorm said they had seen eight immigration agents in riot gear dragging two detainees from the far side of the jail, while at least eight other detainees were escorted toward the segregation unit. “After we started the hunger strike yesterday the SWAT team came into the other side,” Chao Chen, 36, a chef who is fighting deportation to China, said as his immigration lawyer, Chunyu Jean Wang, translated. “On our side a gentleman from immigration came and told them not to strike.” The third detainee, an architect who said he had been a legal resident for 30 years, gave a similar account, but he would not give his name. “I don’t want to be singled out,” he said. “A lot of things are happening in the night — people are being moved secretly.” Last week, the government announced that it would close the Varick jail and transfer all detainees to the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, N.J., by Feb. 28. The three detainees said that they opposed the transfer, but that the hunger strike was part of a broader protest over detention. According to the flier, the idea for the hunger strike originated at the Bergen County Jail, one of several in New Jersey where the federal government holds noncitizens while it tries to deport them, including legal immigrants with old criminal convictions, illegal immigrants and people seeking asylum. “We are seeking answers from President Obama ’s administration in immigration reform that he promised,” the one-page flier says, asking that detention and deportation be suspended for people with family members who are citizens or legal residents. “Although many of us have turned our lives around, building a family, contributing to society in many ways and living the American dream, in spite of that we are taken away from our love ones.” The flier echoes a hunger strike statement issued last week by detainees at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas. | Immigration Detention;Prisons and Prisoners;Hunger Strikes;Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US);Manhattan (NYC);Immigration and Emigration;Demonstrations and Riots;Homeland Security Department;Obama Barack |
ny0202316 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2009/08/05 | In Africa, Clinton May Face a Kenyan Crisis | NAIROBI, Kenya — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Kenya on Tuesday night at the beginning of an 11-day Africa tour and at a time when the American government is getting increasingly fed up with Kenya’s leaders. Mrs. Clinton was whisked from the airport to her hotel in downtown Nairobi, which was under intense security by soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and enormous men wearing earpieces. Her trip takes her through seven African nations, from Kenya to Cape Verde, and focuses on good government, trade and the bolstering of food security, all priorities that President Obama forcefully laid out during his quick visit to Ghana last month. She will meet with important commercial allies, including Angola and Nigeria, which export billions of dollars worth of oil to the United States. She will also wade into conflict zones like Congo, which continues to suffer and smolder from a decade-long civil war. But the first stop will not be easy. Mrs. Clinton is ostensibly in Kenya to address the eighth annual forum on the African Growth and Opportunity Act , a piece of trade legislation that her husband, Bill Clinton, passed when he was president. But she will inevitably be drawn into Kenya’s latest political crisis: what to do about the perpetrators of last year’s election-driven bloodshed. And more trouble may be brewing. Kenya faces a punishing drought, a food crisis, power cuts and ethnic militias mobilizing in the countryside, getting ready for a possible Round 2. Last week, Kenya’s leaders decided to scuttle efforts to set up a special tribunal for the organizers and financiers of the election violence , which killed more than 1,000 people, putting forward a vague pledge to try perpetrators within existing institutions instead. Some of the top suspects are high-ranking ministers, who are reluctant to set in motion any process that might put them behind bars. Many Kenyans are now calling their government of national unity the “government of national impunity.” Western nations, especially the United States, are losing patience, but at the same time, Kenya’s leaders seem to be getting annoyed by all the outside advice. “The United States is deeply concerned by the coalition government’s decision that appears to indicate it will not pursue establishment of an independent special tribunal to hold accountable perpetrators of postelection violence,” the American Embassy said Tuesday. “Failure by Kenya to take ownership of the process of accountability at all levels will call into serious question whether the political will exists to carry out fundamental reforms.” Last year, it was Mrs. Clinton’s predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, who applied the 11th-hour pressure on Kenya’s warring politicians and got them to sign a power-sharing agreement. But on Tuesday, Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga , blasted back and said at the trade conference, “We don’t need another lecture.” He also blamed Western countries for creating Africa’s problems in the first place, saying many of the modern-day ills stemmed directly from colonialism. | Africa;Clinton Hillary Rodham;United States International Relations;Kenya;Odinga Raila |
ny0110229 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2012/05/23 | F.C.C. Weighs Treating Video Sites Like Cable Companies | BOSTON — Most consumers have no idea what an M.V.P.D. is, but they mail a check to one every month. What they call Comcast or Time Warner Cable or DirecTV, the government calls a “multichannel video programming distributor,” or M.V.P.D. for short. When that mouthful of a phrase was coined decades ago, it was pretty easy to identify what was a multichannel distributor — any cable or satellite company — and just as important, what wasn’t. But the Internet is changing that — so profoundly, in fact, that the Federal Communications Commission is now rethinking even the definition of the word “channel.” In a public comment period that ends in the coming weeks , the commission is asking whether the rules of multichannel distributors — like the right to carry certain popular channels and the responsibility to carry some less popular ones — should apply to new online distributors like Hulu and YouTube . If it decides that they should, then more companies could stream TV shows to computers and smartphones, hastening an industrywide shift to the Internet. “We recognize it’s going to have very, very broad implications,” said Austin Schlick, the F.C.C. general counsel, at a cable industry conference here on Tuesday. Many companies are urging the F.C.C. to move carefully, citing the pace of change in the media industry. The Internet has already changed what it means to publish, mail and copy — dictionaries certainly haven’t been able to keep up. “We’re barely into the second inning of how video distribution will ultimately work,” said Will Richmond, the editor of VideoNuze, an online publication that covers the industry. “Broadband delivery is leveling the playing field for new, deep-pocketed, over-the-top entrants to disrupt the traditional pay-TV model.” Going “over the top” means atop the Internet infrastructure provided by companies like Comcast. “Somebody’s going to come over the top” and sell a package of cable channels via the Internet at some point, David M. Zaslav, the chief executive of Discovery Communications, predicted at the conference on Monday. He did not name any names, but Apple, Google, Sony and Intel, among others, have all at least considered such an offering. Those companies could theoretically give consumers new ways to buy bundles of programming, breaking open the cable model — though an incumbent cable or telecommunications company would most likely still need to provide Internet access. A change to the definition of multichannel distributor could make it easier for the companies to acquire programming, analysts say — which may explain why the incumbents have opposed any such change. This notion was tested a few years ago when a Christian media company called Sky Angel tried to add Mr. Zaslav’s Discovery Channel to the lineup of family-friendly channels that it sells over the Internet. Discovery did not want to sell, but if Sky Angel were legally deemed a multichannel distributor, it would have had to, under current rules. The F.C.C. staff initially sided with Discovery, but Sky Angel persisted and this spring, the commission decided to ask for input. That is when the panel asked for input: in this day and age, how should we be defining “M.V.P.D.” and “channel,” anyway? Suddenly, television executives and public interest lobbyists were doubling as lexicographers. “If the F.C.C. comes out the right way on this, it would make it possible for online services like Sky Angel to easily carry popular cable channels and broadcast TV,” said John Bergmayer, a staff lawyer for the public interest group Public Knowledge. “Video distribution could become much more diverse — Sky Angel is a Christian service, after all, and there’s no reason different groups shouldn’t be able to buy TV services tailored to their needs.” Mr. Bergmayer said Public Knowledge wanted the F.C.C. policies to enable more competition and “demonstrate that new entrants are welcome to try to reach viewers.” Major distributors like Comcast and Time Warner Cable want the definition of M.V.P.D. to remain rather narrow, to include only those who provide the transmission path for programming, like themselves. Some broadcasters, however, want the definition to be broadened to include online video sites, because then the sites would be subject to the same rules as cable operators, called retransmission consent, and would have to pay fees for their station signals. A number of online TV start-ups, including the Barry Diller-backed Aereo, are trying to sidestep these rules. Jack Perry of Syncbak, which helps stations simulcast their signals on the Web, said his company would be able to grow more rapidly if the F.C.C. adopted a “21st-century definition of M.V.P.D.’s.” “The impact could be huge,” he said. Still other stakeholders, including trade groups that represent giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Netflix, have said that the F.C.C. should take more time before deciding. In one of many such letters to the F.C.C., the Motion Picture Association of America cautioned that “even small changes to video programming regulations can have a far-reaching impact.” All this over a four-letter abbreviation — proof that every step toward online TV will be done with care. | Federal Communications Commission;Regulation and Deregulation of Industry;Cable Television;Computers and the Internet;Hulu.com;YouTube.com;Video Recordings and Downloads;Television |
ny0036882 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2014/03/09 | Knicks Win Third Straight and Gain Ground in East | Break up the Knicks. Their third straight victory, a 107-97 triumph Saturday night in Cleveland, moved them into a tie with the Cavaliers for 10th place in the woebegone Eastern Conference and left them three and a half games behind the free-falling Atlanta Hawks for the conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. The Knicks (24-40) should be able to extend their winning streak to four on Monday night when they host the Philadelphia 76ers, who are 15-47 and have lost 16 straight games. The Hawks have lost 14 of their last 15. They have also played three fewer games than the Knicks, which partly explains why they still lead the Knicks by five games in the loss column. Positioned between Atlanta and the Knicks are the Detroit Pistons (24-38), who are one game ahead of the Knicks. In the spirit of the Eastern Conference, the Pistons have lost 9 of their last 11. For the Knicks, all of this presents an opportunity. They led, 58-50, at halftime Saturday, but the Cavaliers fought back and took an 80-77 lead early in the fourth quarter. But four 3-pointers by the Knicks in less than three minutes — two by Pablo Prigioni, one by J. R. Smith and one by Carmelo Anthony — allowed the Knicks to pull away. Anthony finished with 26 points on 10-of-23 shooting from the field, and Amar’e Stoudemire and Smith each added 17. | Basketball;Knicks;Carmelo Anthony;Cavaliers |
ny0060820 | [
"us"
] | 2014/08/13 | Missouri Police Cite Threats in Deciding Not to Name Officer Who Shot Teenager | FERGUSON, Mo. — The chief of police here said Tuesday that he had reconsidered his decision to release the name of the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager and would not do so because of concerns about the officer’s safety. The Ferguson Police Department had said it would release the officer’s name by noon on Tuesday, but then it reversed itself after it said that threats had been made on social media against the officer and the city’s police. “The value of releasing the name is far outweighed by the risk of harm to the officer and his family,” the police chief, Thomas Jackson, said in announcing a decision that was quickly criticized. The officer has been placed on administrative leave. The change came amid another day of protests in the St. Louis suburbs where the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, was shot several times on Saturday by an officer as he and a friend walked from a convenience store. The circumstances remain in dispute. The police say Mr. Brown hit the officer and tried to steal his gun; Mr. Brown’s family and friends deny that. Image Residents gathered at Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Dellwood, Mo., on Tuesday to mourn Michael Brown, a teenager shot dead by the police in nearby Ferguson on Saturday. 1 / 7 The F.B.I. has opened a civil rights inquiry into the shooting, and the case is being investigated by the St. Louis County Police. The results of an autopsy on Mr. Brown have not been released. The protests have at times turned violent: Stores have been looted, and at least one business was set on fire. The police have made more than 40 arrests since Sunday and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators. A gathering on Tuesday night turned into another skirmish with police officers, who used tear gas to disperse the remnants of a bigger crowd. Two shooting incidents were also reported nearby, but authorities told local media that it was unclear whether they were related to the protest. In one incident, a woman was injured in what appeared to be a drive-by shooting. In the other, the local media reported that police shot a man who had pulled a gun on an officer. Police, according to media reports, were responding to reports of several men with guns and wearing ski masks. During a peaceful protest march on Tuesday to the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office in Clayton, Mo., the seat of St. Louis County, demonstrators chanted “Don’t shoot!” and raised their hands over their heads — the pose they say Mr. Brown was in when he was shot. Michael Brown’s Shooting and Its Immediate Aftermath in Ferguson Updates on the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., that followed the shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed teenager, by a police officer on Aug. 9. Also Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration barred aircraft from flying below 3,000 feet over Ferguson. The county police department had asked the agency to issue the ban on Monday after its helicopters were shot at “a couple of different times,” Officer Brian Schellman, a department spokesman, said. President Obama, in his first comments about the shooting, called the death of Mr. Brown heartbreaking but urged residents to remain calm. “I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions,” the president said in a statement on Tuesday, “but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Mo., and across the country, to remember this young man through reflection and understanding.” In an interview on Tuesday with MSNBC , Dorian Johnson, a friend of Mr. Brown’s, gave a description of the shooting. He said that he and Mr. Brown had been walking in the street when an officer drove up and told them to get onto the sidewalk. The two stayed in the street after telling the officer that they were close to Mr. Johnson’s house. The officer, who had passed them, then backed up, almost hitting them in doing so. He then tried to open his door, which hit Mr. Brown, and when the door bounced shut, the officer reached out and grabbed Mr. Brown. “Mike was trying to get away from being choked,” Mr. Johnson told MSNBC. At that point, he said, the officer pulled a gun and fired, striking Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown “did not reach for the officer’s weapon at all,” he said. Image Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, held a drawing of the two of them after a news conference in St. Louis on Tuesday. Mr. Brown, 18, was shot and killed Saturday in a confrontation with the police in Ferguson, Mo. Credit Whitney Curtis for The New York Times Mr. Johnson said that he and Mr. Brown began to run, and while he ducked behind a car, Mr. Brown kept going. After Mr. Brown was shot a second time, Mr. Johnson said, he turned to face the officer with his hands up, the officer fired several more shots, and Mr. Brown fell. Benjamin Crump, a lawyer representing the Brown family, said Tuesday that Mr. Johnson had yet to be called in for questioning by the police and wanted to speak only to federal authorities. “He does not trust the local law enforcement community,” Mr. Crump said. “How could he? He saw his friend executed.” Mr. Crump, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager who was shot and killed by a neighborhood-watch volunteer in Florida in 2012, criticized the Ferguson police chief’s decision not to reveal the name of the officer who killed Mr. Brown. He said it only deepened the mistrust among blacks in the city, which is about two-thirds African-American but has a police force that is predominately white. Image Police officers in riot gear confronted a man Monday night during a protest in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting of a black teenager, Michael Brown, over the weekend. 1 / 10 Chief Jackson said a provision of state law allowed police departments to withhold an officer’s name if there were concerns about personal safety. Normally, a department has 72 hours to disclose a name. The rash of threats on social media, Chief Jackson said, led to his decision. He said he had also ordered his officers to ride two to a car because rocks were being thrown at patrol cars. The Rev. Al Sharpton, at a news conference on Tuesday in St. Louis with the Brown family, called for an end to the violence in Ferguson. “Some of us are making the story about how mad we are,” he said. “To become violent in Michael Brown’s name is to betray the gentle giant that he was.” Michael Brown Sr., the victim’s father, echoed that sentiment. “I need justice for my son,” he said. Later, a crowd gathered outside a church where members of the Brown family appeared with Mr. Sharpton. Many people urged calm, reminding one another that television cameras were present; some people made sure others did not spill into the streets. “Stay on the sidewalks,” one man said. “The whole world is watching.” | Michael Brown;Ferguson;Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings;Black People,African-Americans;Missouri;Civil Unrest;FBI |
ny0056773 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2014/09/19 | ISIS Vote Weighs Heavily on Senators With 2016 Ambitions | The Senate vote set for late Thursday afternoon on whether to allow the American military to arm and train Syrian rebels will be a display of how hard-learned lessons from the past and uncertainties about the future — both practical and political — are at work, especially for those with an eye on a promotion. Congress is home to numerous men and women with White House ambitions in 2016 and beyond. As the experiences of their contemporaries have shown, being on the wrong side of history can end those hopes, just as it has for other senators who have had their votes on issues of war and peace come back to haunt them. Consider Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose vote for the invasion of Iraq opened a lane for the candidacy of Barack Obama in 2008, or John Kerry, whose campaign for president in 2004 was hurt by the perception that he had tried to straddle his vote for the invasion with his later criticism of it. Senators who hope to run for higher office were carefully considering their votes this week. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been trying to fight off attacks from other Republicans who say he would be a liability as a presidential candidate because of his less-interventionist views, was expected to vote no. How ISIS Works With oil revenues, arms and organization, the jihadist group controls vast stretches of Syria and Iraq and aspires to statehood. \ In a speech before the vote on Thursday, Mr. Paul tried to square his belief that America cannot be the world’s policeman with his more hawkish statements lately in support of military action. “I’m not sending your son, your daughter over to the middle of that chaos,” he said. “The people who live there need to stand up and fight. I am not giving up. But it is their war, and they need to fight.” Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is considering a presidential campaign in 2016, denounced the president’s foreign policy in a speech to a group of conservatives. “Previous presidents had merely taken their foot off the gas pedal of American strength,” he said. “But President Obama has stomped on the brake.” Mr. Rubio’s considerations, like those of others looking toward 2016, reflected the complicated dynamics. Though he has deep misgivings about the president’s policies, he was expected to vote yes because he wants to back the military response. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, another possible Republican presidential contender, was set to vote no. “I do not support arming the rebels in Syria because the administration has presented no coherent plan for distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. Mrs. Clinton was on constant defense in the 2008 presidential campaign about her vote to authorize the Iraq war in 2002, when she was a senator from New York. By contrast, Mr. Obama’s outspoken opposition to the war when he was a senator helped define his candidacy and cast him as a fresh, forward-looking alternative who got it right the first time. Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. In 2004, Mr. Kerry constantly had to try to explain away his remark that he was for financing the Iraq war before he was against it. The candidates in 2016 will also have to contend with a public sentiment that has only grown since 2008: that American forces should stay out of dangerous and unpredictable foreign conflicts. The vote on Thursday will also be the last major action that the Senate takes before the midterm elections in November. Senators in tough races were struggling this week to decide whether to back the president’s request. Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, one of the most endangered Democrats, had said he would vote no. Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, a Democrat who is within a few points of his Republican opponent in many polls, announced on Wednesday that, after much consideration, he would vote with the president. “ISIL must be stopped,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. Then there are the Democrats who are deeply reluctant to see the United States become entangled in another Middle East conflict. Many of them opposed the Iraq war in 2002 and remain unconvinced that the president’s plan is the right course of action. “I have so many questions,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat who voted against the Iraq war as a House member in 2002. Given how unpredictable the situation is in Syria and Iraq, she said, how can the president guarantee that American involvement will not escalate? “How will we know?” she asked. “I worry about an open-ended conflict.” | 2016 Presidential Election;Senate;Congress;ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State |
ny0073508 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2015/04/02 | Shabazz Napier Out for Season | The Miami Heat ruled the rookie guard Shabazz Napier out for the rest of the regular season after he had surgery to repair a sports hernia. | Basketball;Miami Heat;Shabazz Napier |
ny0008999 | [
"business",
"economy"
] | 2013/05/25 | S.&P. Has More Than Doubled Under Obama | IN the 84 years that the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has been calculated, it doubled during the terms of only four presidents before Barack Obama’s election in 2008. This month that number rose to five as the index climbed to more than twice what it was when he took office. Through Friday, more than 52 months after he took office, the index was up 105 percent during his term in office, for a compound annual gain of 18 percent. There is, of course, more than a little good fortune in that statistic. Mr. Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, in the middle of a credit crisis that had caused prices to plunge and would cause them to keep falling for a few more weeks. It helps to start from a very low level. It also helps to have a central bank that drove short-term interest rates to zero, a step that both increased corporate profits and made bonds less attractive investments. In fact, the United States stock market fell from record high levels this week, and world markets quavered, in part because of comments made by the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, that the Fed might be able to begin to back off from its aggressive monetary stance later this year. Even with this week’s dip, however, the United States market has done better since early 2009 than any of the next nine largest economies in the world, as can be seen in the accompanying charts. Those charts reflect MSCI indexes, based in dollars, in each country except the United States, where the S.& P. 500 is used. The United States market lagged many others early in the recovery. But as its economy kept growing, albeit slowly, and European economies faltered and worries grew that emerging economies might experience slower growth, the American market overtook the others. Of the next nine — ranked on the size of the economies in 2009, only India’s market came close to the performance of the United States market since early 2009. Like the Chinese and Brazilian markets, it excelled early on but is now well below the peak it hit in 2011. If you put your dollars into the Italian or Spanish stock markets when Mr. Obama took office, your shares would now be worth less than you paid for them. Over all, the world’s stock markets outside the United States have risen less than two-thirds as much as the American one has. The Wall Street performance has not made Mr. Obama particularly popular among financiers. Indeed, some of the language about the president’s perceived support of socialism and hostility to capitalism during last year’s campaign was the harshest seen in any campaign since 1936, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was seeking a second term and was strongly opposed by many financiers. By the time Mr. Roosevelt died in 1945, the S.& P. 500 was 141 percent higher than it had been when he took office. But he was in office so long that the annual rate of gain was only 7.5 percent, less than half of the rate so far for the Obama administration. The other presidents whose term in office included a doubling in the S.& P. were Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Each served two full terms, and none came close to the average annual gain so far under Mr. Obama. Mr. Clinton’s 15.2 percent was the highest of that group. He had the good fortune to enter office when markets were relatively low and to leave just as the technology stock bubble was starting to collapse. There is, of course, no guarantee that a market that rises will endure. Mr. Roosevelt’s record would be better if he had left after one term in office; the market was lower when he died in 1945 than it had been when he took the oath of office in 1937 for his second term. And the president with the best stock market record in the 20th century — using the Dow Jones industrial average, whose history is longer than that of the S.& P. — is Calvin Coolidge. The Dow rose 256 percent — an annual rate of 25.5 percent — from his inauguration in 1923 until he left office in early 1929. The market went up an additional 20 percent before the crash. But by the end of 1931 all of the Coolidge gains had been lost. | President of the United States;SP 500;US Economy;Barack Obama;Stocks,Bonds |
ny0159375 | [
"business"
] | 2008/12/23 | Learning to Live With the Airline Bag Fee | Americans seem to be enamored of change these days. And despite the cries of protests when airlines started charging for checked luggage, it seems baggage fees are a change we can live with after all. With winter weather causing major disruptions at airports across the nation, air travelers are still facing challenges. But the bag fees proved to be less of a headache than many expected, especially for business travelers . “Business travelers tend to be among those that are more likely to qualify for exemptions, either through premium status or traveling on a full-fare ticket,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines, who added that the new policy had caused few bumps. “By all accounts it’s gone smoother than we anticipated,” he said. “Our biggest concern was that we might see people trying to take things that were inappropriate as carry-ons, but it hasn’t been a big problem.” About half of American’s domestic passengers check luggage. But the average number of checked items has fallen from 1.2 per customer to less than one bag, mostly due to fewer people checking two bags, Mr. Smith said. Luggage fees have settled at around $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second one, each way. Most airlines waive their luggage fees for elite frequent fliers, passengers in first or business class, customers who purchase full-fare economy tickets and those traveling on government or military fares. In addition, Continental gives customers who use its co-branded Chase credit and debit cards one free checked bag, and that benefit is extended to anyone listed in the same reservation as the card holder who checks in at the same time. Other airlines offer discounts to passengers who pay their luggage fees online: Spirit Airlines gives $10 off the first checked bag to those who prepay on its Web site, while United is offering a 20 percent discount on its first bag fee to customers who pay online through Jan. 31, 2009. So far, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and Virgin America are among the holdouts that still allow passengers one free checked bag, while Southwest still allows two free checked items. But passengers who do not fall into any of the privileged categories can still avoid fees. How? Travel light. As obvious as it sounds, traveling light — the old-fashioned obsession of many a frequent flier to reduce frustration — can reduce fees as well. Some frequent fliers have gotten packing light down to a science. “I had a trip to Germany and I was very proud of myself because I was able to do it with just a carry-on,” said Brian Lynch, who works for a manufacturer based in Elmsford, N.Y. Since he has elite status, Mr. Lynch’s packing light has nothing to do with fees, but with fear. In 2004, his checked luggage was lost 17 times. “I applied to the Guinness Book of World Records,” he said. “But I didn’t get it because until I recognized that this was an amusing pattern I didn’t save any of the receipts.” Although he always got his luggage back, he became a convert to the carry-on-only credo. Like many of his breed, he dreaded that the new luggage charges would cause cabin chaos but he hasn’t experienced that problem. “Maybe the airlines have just insulated their best customers,” he said. Perhaps not all their best customers. Nick Pandher, who works in sales for a technology company near Los Angeles, disagrees. “The overheads are really crowded,” he said. “I’ve seen many flights where they’re ready to close the door but they have to deal with bags.” Mr. Pandher said he travels with only a carry-on, packing half the clothes he needs and relying on laundry services to get through longer trips. He also avoids checking the demonstration kit he takes to client meetings, opting to ship it rather than dealing with the airport inconvenience and airline fees — which can be $100 or more extra for an oversize or overweight bag. “We just use FedEx now,” he said. “It’s $200 but we don’t have to worry about it getting there or schlepping it through the airport.” Indeed, the slow handling of checked luggage seems to be more of a deterrent than the fees, which most business travelers can put on their expense accounts anyway. “If they’re going to charge people to check baggage, they need to guarantee some kind of timeliness,” Mr. Pandher said. Another frustration for passengers is increased scrutiny of the number and size of carry-on bags. Brian Warner and his wife were passing through security at San Francisco International Airport in November when an employee — who was not wearing an airline or Transportation Security Administration uniform — asked his wife to prove her rolling suitcase was within the size limit by placing it in a metal template. “It had inches to spare,” Mr. Warner said. “It was mildly annoying.” Although he and his wife have elite status and would sometimes prefer to check luggage without charge, they generally don’t, as a result of having waited 45 minutes at the carousel in Seattle. “We’ve traveled as long as a month just with carry-ons,” he said. “We’ll go to those lengths just to avoid checking because of those nightmares.” Corey Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, said the extra carry-ons were proving to be a problem for flight attendants who “have to work harder to make sure that they fit in the overhead bins.” | Luggage;Airlines and Airplanes;Airports;Personal Finances |
ny0100736 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2015/12/29 | Michigan State Quarterback Connor Cook Carves a Legacy With Pluck and Persistence | DALLAS — Alabama’s defense led the Football Bowl Subdivision with 46 sacks this season, but the Crimson Tide seemed to try to surpass that total in compliments directed at Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook on Monday. A few players likened Cook to the Denver Broncos’ Peyton Manning for his ability to read defenses and adjust play calls. Alabama’s defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart, compared Cook to the Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan (when Ryan played at Boston College) and called Cook “by far” the best quarterback the No. 2 Tide (12-1) would face this season. “We’re not going to put a defense out there now that Connor Cook hasn’t seen,” Smart said. “It’s not about tricking him. There is not a throw that he can’t make. He makes decisions so quick.” Cook sealed his legacy in East Lansing Mich., by leading the No. 3 Spartans (12-1) to their second Big Ten championship in three years and a berth in Thursday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal in Arlington, Tex., with the winner advancing to play Clemson or Oklahoma for the national title. Hyperbole aside, the truth about Cook’s talents will be determined largely by Crimson Tide defenders who have treated most quarterbacks like human piñatas and forced opponents to pass at their peril. Cook seemed slightly uncomfortable with all the praise, but his witty and engaging personality smoothly moved along the conversation. As a senior with a 34-4 record in three years as a starter, he certainly was not going to be rattled in a hotel ballroom. “I think he’s kind of playing it down a little bit,” Spartans center Jack Allen said. “He’s a perfectionist. At practice, you see guys, they make a mistake, it’s like they shrug it off as practice. But he’ll make a mistake, and it’s like it happened in the game.” Cook’s style has been broken down into contradictions: He is accurate but does not have a gunslinger’s arm strength; he seldom outmaneuvers defenders, yet his footwork and clutch runs fueled a 22-play drive to beat Iowa in the final seconds of the Big Ten title game. “I’m not a dual threat by any means,” Cook said. “But a quarterback that I admire a lot is Tom Brady, even though he went to Michigan.” Cook explained later that he was not comparing himself to Brady, a four-time champion with the New England Patriots. When Cook arrived at Michigan State as a freshman, though, he did want to fit the mold of Kirk Cousins, a former Spartans star now with the Washington Redskins. “There were times in practice where the ball wouldn’t touch the ground,” Cook said, recalling Cousins’s workouts. “Every single ball was just right here, in the catch radius for every receiver. He was always making the right read; he was always putting in extra time in the film room. I just saw the way he carried himself on the field, off the field. “I thought, ‘Man, if I ever want to start one game here, I’ve got a lot of improvement to do.’ My goal was just to get better every single year, and with the first opportunity I got, I was going to go out there and grasp it and never look back.” Cook, who won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and tied for ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting, needs 148 passing yards to eclipse Cousins’s Michigan State career record, 9,131. Cook has also thrown for 24 touchdowns this season, one shy of Cousins’s record. “He wants to win more than anybody on the team,” wide receiver Aaron Burbridge said of Cook. “He’ll go out there, make a mistake, bounce right back and win the game for us.” Burbridge added: “I think he has the same competitive drive as Tom Brady. Those long drives in the fourth quarter, you know he’s going to get the job done. It’s not just the arm and legs; it’s the drive to win.” Like many Spartans, Cook was not highly rated as a recruit out of high school. Michigan State put Cook on its radar when he was a sophomore at Walsh Jesuit High in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where Pat Narduzzi, a Spartans assistant who is now Pittsburgh’s head coach, went to recruit another player. Cook was asked to help by throwing passes in the basketball gym for five minutes. “I’m some skinny sophomore probably throwing lollipops,” Cook recalled. Soon, he was receiving letters from Michigan State every week. When Cook threw 14 interceptions and only nine touchdown passes as a high school junior, he figured that his hopes of playing in the Big Ten were finished. “But I still got these letters from Michigan State,” Cook said. “Week after week. I’m thinking, ‘Why do they keep sending me these?’ ” Cook marveled at how the Spartans had kept faith in a three-star recruit they found by happenstance. “We’ve got guys who aren’t super highly recruited,” he said. “The coaching staff here is just very good at evaluating talent and getting guys that want to come in and are good players with good character.” Cook took Alabama’s compliments in stride. Now he wants to avoid those Crimson Tide sacks. “I just go out there and play,” Cook said. | College football;Connor Cook;Michigan State;University of Alabama |
ny0139126 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2008/02/20 | Match-Play Event Brings Risks for Top 4 in Ranking | MARANA, Ariz., — For one week each year, the normally staid golf governing bodies comprising the International Federation of PGA Tours step outside the lines and throw down some fairly risky behavior. This is that week, a week when the format is match play and the stakes are higher than only the $8 million purse at the Accenture Match Play Championship at The Gallery at Dove Mountain. The added element of risk in the risk-reward ratio starting Wednesday is this: For the first time this year, Tiger Woods , Phil Mickelson , Steve Stricker and Ernie Els , the Nos. 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-ranked golfers in the world, are playing at the same time — but all could be gone after one round. All the actuarial tables say it will not happen. But how many tables would have predicted that the No. 1 seed would have won only twice in nine years or that Nos. 1, 2 and 3 would all go down in the first round in 2002 or that 51-year-old Jay Haas would defeat then-No. 1 Vijay Singh, as happened in 2005? “You can go out there and shoot six or seven under par and you’re going home,” said Woods, who has won this event twice and who also lost in the first round in 1999. “Other times, I remember at LaCosta, one of the matches one of the guys shot 80 and advanced. It’s just the way it is. It’s match play.” That it is. Every single 18-hole match is a tournament, with a winner and a loser, a do-or-die adrenaline-laced contest. Normally, touring professionals do not think about what their competitors are doing until Sunday of a tournament, and then only if they are near the lead. In this event, and in two others on the PGA European Tour and the biennial Ryder Cup and President’s Cup, there is a Sunday shot of adrenaline every day. “All you have to do is beat one guy,” Woods said. “Just beat the guy you’re playing against, no matter how.” That head-to-head aspect of match play is one reason for its visceral appeal. Golf, in effect, becomes like a civilized form of boxing or dueling with pistols at 20 paces. Without the injuries, of course. Here the only bruises are to the players’ egos, and they are assuaged by the $40,000 check for a first-round loss. “It’s kind of do or die here,” said Adam Scott, a 27-year-old Australian who analyzed the differences between the first round of a regular stroke-play event and match play. “Even if I don’t play well on Thursday, I can get myself back into the tournament by Sunday, whereas here you’d better bring it every day. “Otherwise likely you’re probably going home because you’ve got the top 65 guys in the world here.” The finality of elimination in match play brings a pain that lingers, regardless of the round in which it occurs. Scott was one and done last year, losing to Shaun Micheel in 21 holes in the first round. In 2003, Scott lost in the semifinals to Woods. What does he consider his worst defeat? “Losing to Tiger that one year,” he said, five years later. Half the contestants will be gone by Wednesday, and the field will be whittled by 50 percent each day until only two golfers are left standing. Along the way, there will be some compelling theater out on the 7,466 yards of the Gallery. The dream scenario of sponsors and fans is that Woods and Mickelson will work their way through their sections of the draw to face each other Sunday. That would be the first time in the history of the event when No. 1 played No. 2 in the finals. The nearest thing to that came in the finals of 2004, when the No. 1, Woods, defeated the No. 3, Davis Love, 3 and 2. Woods is on a mission. He has four straight victories, the last at the Dubai Desert Classic. He has not lost since finishing second at the Deutsche Bank almost six months ago. He has the stated objective of winning the Grand Slam this year. If he wants to stay undefeated in a year for the first time since he went 36-0 in junior golf when he was 11, he will have to get past J. B. Holmes in the first match and then beat whoever wins the Mike Weir-Arron Oberholser match. Looming down the line on Woods’s side of the draw is Rory Sabbatini. If he and Woods win three matches, they will play each other Saturday. There are many ifs in any scenario predicting how the matches will unfold. One that is certain is this: There will be some casualties among the favored players in the first round. No first round in the nine-year history of the event has had fewer than 11 upsets. The folks at Accenture, who have signed on through 2010 as the sponsors, are definitely hoping there is not a repeat of 2002, when the top three were gone after one round. Odds are there will not be. But, as the players all know, in match play anything can happen. | Golf;Woods Tiger;Mickelson Phil;Stricker Steve;Els Ernie |
ny0114449 | [
"technology"
] | 2012/11/21 | New Player in E.U. Data Privacy Battle | BERLIN — In the mid-1990s, Alan Shatter, a lawyer from South Dublin in the lower house of Parliament, played a role in bringing together diverse elements of society to lift a constitutional ban and legalize divorce. This January, when Ireland assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union , Mr. Shatter, who is now Ireland’s minister of justice, equality and defense, will take on another big challenge: putting together an agreement to extend the Union’s 17-year-old data protection law to Web businesses and the digital economy. Mr. Shatter is Ireland’s lead negotiator on the issue in the Council of Ministers, the legislative body in Brussels that acts as the European Parliament’s upper house. The Union’s 27 members are at odds over how to apply E.U. data protection laws in the digital world, and an agreement could require companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to provide the bloc’s 503.7 million consumers with far greater control over their online data than people have in the United States. An important part of the proposal, which is now before two committees in the European Parliament, would require Web companies to ask E.U. citizens for their explicit consent before collecting online data and tracking Internet activity used to tailor marketing and advertising to individuals. The proposal, which was drafted by Viviane Reding, the vice president of the European Commission, has been welcomed by E.U. privacy regulators, who are battling Google over its data collection practices. But it is opposed by many large Web businesses, as well as by the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union. Opponents view the prior consent clause as an onerous condition that threatens an Internet financial model that relies on advertising to pay for content. That has raised concerns among E.U. lawmakers, who are afraid that overly burdensome regulation would stifle Internet commerce and job growth. Into this predicament steps Mr. Shatter, 61. In an interview, he said that he looked forward to working on advancing the data protection proposal, which has been packaged as a “regulation,” a rarely used binding form of E.U. law that would take effect immediately upon adoption in Brussels and apply to all 27 member countries. “There is a need to improve trust and confidence to reassure people that their personal data won’t be misused,” Mr. Shatter said. “Putting stronger data protection standards in place will make individual citizens across Europe more trustful of the technology and its use.” Mr. Shatter said he would aim for a compromise that recognized the growing importance of the digital economy to the European Union, as well as the need for hard-and-fast legal protections for E.U. citizens, who are increasingly making their purchases and many everyday decisions via the Internet. Without privacy constraints, those movements online can be tracked. “I think it is possible to reconcile the legitimate and economically important activities of the advertising industry with privacy issues,” he said. “I don’t think we can commoditize individuals and simply regard them as something of business value to be sold on.” Such strict new rules would replace a law from 1995, which was conceived as more of a legal directive that effectively limited the possibilities of wide-scale data mining for direct marketing or other commercial purposes. Because of the existing law’s optional nature and a loophole allowing companies to collect data for “legitimate interests,” Internet companies have been able largely to evade the directive’s principle of obtaining prior consent. Mr. Shatter has been part of a lot of groundbreaking. His law firm, Gallagher Shatter, was the first in Ireland to represent and win a civil judgment for a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, which it did in the early 1990s. Mr. Shatter, who is also a trained professional mediator — a skill that could serve him well — has published several books on Irish family law, as well as the 1989 novel “Laura,” a story about a custody battle involving a fictional politician. But obtaining a consensus in the Council of Ministers, whose cooperation is important to passage of a revised data protection law, will not be easy, said Simon Davies, a founder of Privacy International, an advocacy group based in London, and a lecturer at the London School of Economics. Mr. Davies is advising the European Parliament on the legislation. “The problem is not that the will to reform isn’t there. It is,” Mr. Davies said. “Everyone agrees in principle that we need to do this, but the devil is in the details. When you move into the details you find major ideological divides on both sides.” Ireland, with its educated work force and 15 percent corporate income tax rate, has become the European base for U.S. technology giants, including Microsoft, Facebook and Google. In the past, the country’s data protection commissioners have attempted to mediate disputes over privacy issues between data protection hard-liners from Germany and France, and those advocating less regulation, like Britain. Mr. Shatter said Ireland had a “pivotal role” to play in resolving outstanding online privacy issues. Final adoption of a new data protection law is unlikely to take place before the second half of next year, when Ireland will no longer hold the E.U. presidency. At best, Mr. Shatter can aim to win consensus on the main issues: prior consent and an effective enforcement mechanism that relies on substantial fines. Mr. Shatter said the prior consent requirement was essential for the law to gain political backing, as were details on how to penalize companies financially if they ignored the law. Currently, most national regulators can levy limited fines of only a few thousand, or in rare cases, a few hundred thousand, euros, the equivalent of a rounding error in the profits of many global technology companies. The current proposal puts more bite into those penalties, allowing regulators to assess fines of as much as 2 percent of a company’s annual sales. “Without a legal regime that provides sanctions for rule breaking, rules won’t generally be complied with by some of those engaged in Web-based businesses,” Mr. Shatter said, without endorsing specific levels of fines. That may not sound appealing to Web businesses, but Mr. Shatter is an optimist. His political slogan on his personal Web site is: Look forward with hope. | Shatter Alan;European Union;Privacy;Data-Mining and Database Marketing;Regulation and Deregulation of Industry |
ny0264313 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2011/12/01 | Calipari Launches Into Coachspeak as Kentucky Grabs No. 1 Ranking | LEXINGTON, Ky. — On a drizzling afternoon this week, Kentucky Coach John Calipari stood on a practice court and reminded his players that nothing comes easy. “Do you understand me?” he said. “Are you listening?” These have been heady times for Kentucky. Ranked No. 1, with a 6-0 record, it has all seemed so easy so far for Calipari’s squad. Especially considering that the Wildcats are led by three highly regarded freshmen — point guard Marquis Teague, power forward Anthony Davis and small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist — whose careers have known only success. Yet, this week, as they prepared to face visiting St. John’s on Thursday night before a showdown with No. 5 North Carolina on Saturday, Calipari made sure his players understood the challenge. Calipari posed his questions Monday, after Kentucky rose to the top ranking , thanks to a loss by the Tar Heels. What came next was more than two hours of intense practice. The pattern was the same Tuesday. “I’ve been tough on them,” Calipari said Wednesday. “Not in a mean way, but just raising the bar to get them to forget that other stuff. Forget ranking. It’s a nice badge of honor, but that badge is a target for someone else. Let’s just worry about getting better.” Calipari worked on the team’s offense and drilled the Wildcats on the importance of being in synch, of mastering plays then flawlessly executing. “We have a long way to go, both individual players and as a team,” he said. “There are things they don’t know and you can’t cover it all until you see it in a game. With young players like this, you’ve got to make them feel that we’re as good as anybody, but you want that swagger based on hard work and demonstrated performance, that they go on the court and perform.” St. John’s has even less experience than Kentucky, with a highly praised recruiting class still adjusting to the rigors of the college game. A 78-64 loss to Northeastern last Saturday dropped the Red Storm to 4-3. “We’re still in a phase of teaching our system,” the assistant coach Mike Dunlap said. “We have to keep our focus and temperament where it belongs, and that’s on improvement.” The Red Storm have been without Coach Steve Lavin for extended periods this season as he continues to recover from surgery Oct. 6 for prostate cancer. He will remain in New York on Thursday, and Dunlap will assume his role. Still, St. John’s, which will be visiting Rupp Arena for the first time since 1985, has enough talent to pose a challenge for Kentucky. “We’re not looking past them at all,” said Teague, who struggled in the season’s first four games, with 18 turnovers and 11 assists. “They’re going to come in with a lot of energy and they’re going to come in hungry.” It will be the first true road game of the season for St. John’s, which is led by players like God’sgift Achiuwa, first on the Red Storm with 58.1 percent shooting; D’Angelo Harrison, who has made 13 3-pointers; and Moe Harkless, first on the team in blocked shots and rebounds. Calipari said: “They’re young, but they’re athletic and active. You’re going to see a team that’s trying to steal every ball, that dives on the floor, that takes charges. It’s going to be a good challenge.” The last time the teams met, it was the 2001 season opener, played at Madison Square Garden and won by St. John’s, 62-61. As for the Red Storm’s record against top teams, they have five victories over a No. 1 team. The last came during the 1984-85 season, when they beat Georgetown, 66-65. Still, St. John’s is traveling to Kentucky with the confidence of youth. “We’re going to go down there,” Dunlap said, “and see if we can do something special.” | Calipari John;University of Kentucky;College Athletics;St John's University;Basketball;Basketball (College) |
ny0209322 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/12/10 | New Jersey Senate Vote on Gay Marriage Is Postponed | TRENTON — The battle over a bill that would legalize gay marriage in New Jersey shifted locations unexpectedly late Wednesday as sponsors of the legislation canceled a vote scheduled for Thursday in the State Senate, where the measure appeared headed for defeat. The sponsors, Senators Raymond J. Lesniak and Loretta Weinberg, both Democrats, withdrew the bill from the agenda in the Senate session, saying they wanted to first allow a hearing in the General Assembly, where support for same-sex marriage is believed to be stronger. But opponents were outraged by the last-minute switch and accused Democrats of abusing their leadership positions to force a controversial issue through the Legislature during the waning days of the session. The bill was passed narrowly on Monday by a Senate committee. “It makes a mockery of the legislative process,” said John Tomicki, president of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage. “They’re using the Legislature as a propaganda tool. They didn’t have the courage to bring the issue up before the election, and now they’re playing games to do things that the public doesn’t approve of at the very last minute.” Ms. Weinberg, of Bergen County, brushed aside accusations that the postponement was a tactical maneuver to avert defeat in the Senate, saying that the issue had generated so much public interest that residents deserved more time to give it thorough consideration. The Senate Judiciary Committee took testimony from scores of residents during a marathon seven-hour hearing on Monday, Ms. Weinberg said, but still had to turn away 150 others who had signed up to speak. “We think this is the fairest way to proceed, and anybody on the other side can say whatever they want to say,” Ms. Weinberg said. The switch to the Assembly is likely to increase the frenetic lobbying over the issue, which has already intensified in the past few days. Gay rights activists are pressing to win legislative approval before Jan. 19 — when Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat who staunchly supports same-sex marriage, is replaced by Governor-elect Christopher J. Christie, a Republican who opposes the measure. In recent weeks, hundreds of activists, clergy members and citizens-turned-advocates from both sides of the issue have been pressuring lawmakers, pleading their case from phone banks and pulpits, at rallies and in private meetings. By Tuesday night, the whirlwind had reached the unlikely outpost of Firehouse No. 1 in West Windsor — a quiet enclave — where opponents of the measure demonstrated outside a birthday party being held by State Senator William Baroni, the lone Republican who has said he plans to support it. Carrying signs declaring, “God says no, Baroni votes yes” and “Phony Baloney Baroni,” a half-dozen demonstrators called out to passing motorists and party guests, warning the senator that constituents would hold him accountable for his vote. “The Bible is very clear that marriage is between a man and a woman, and homosexuality is a sin,” said Bob Pawson, who said he is a longtime friend of Mr. Baroni’s and has volunteered on his campaigns. “So to promote this lifestyle — it’s actually a death style — is sending the wrong message.” Mr. Baroni, a Roman Catholic, said he respected the demonstrators’ right to air their views, but nonetheless intended to vote for the marriage bill because he considered it a matter of civil rights. “I have never voted for discrimination, and I’m not about to start now,” he said. The Assembly speaker, Joseph J. Roberts Jr., a Democrat from Camden, welcomed the chance to debate the bill, but said he was not certain when a hearing would be scheduled. Mr. Roberts said that gay men and lesbians deserved the right to marry because the state’s civil union law was inadequate. | Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships;New Jersey;Homosexuality;Law and Legislation |
ny0103346 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2012/03/18 | A Review of ‘Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace,’ at the Hudson River Museum | Most histories of the segregated South and the civil rights movement have taken the form of books, films or music. Winfred Rembert’s is carved in leather. You could call it folk art, since he wasn’t trained in any art school — he learned the craft in prison — and like many folk narratives, it is couched firmly in the details of simple, everyday life. But the work on view at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, which has distinct echoes of Jacob Lawrence , Elizabeth Catlett , Romare Bearden and Mexican revolutionary art, also offers a harrowing account of one man’s odyssey through the Jim Crow South. For Mr. Rembert, the odyssey begins with fond memories of growing up in rural southwest Georgia. Several works in the exhibition, “Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace,” with figures carved and tooled into sheets of leather and then painted or dyed, recount his upbringing by Mama, the great-aunt who took over his care after his mother gave him up as an infant. In “The Beginning” (2002), the infant Winfred is handed over to Mama, and “What’s Wrong With Little Winfred” (2002) shows him being held as a baby on the edge of a cotton field. “Saved and Saintified” (2005) and “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” (2008) show parishioners engaged in ecstatic worship, and one work commemorates Mr. Rembert’s baptism at the age of 9. There are images of “The Dirty Spoon” (2005), the juke joint where Mr. Rembert got his ideas for fashion, and of Homer Clyde’s cafe, an establishment with a “Colored Only” sign posted outside and text describing how Mr. Clyde fed even those who couldn’t pay (although he wouldn’t let you shoot pool free). Another work celebrates “Mary Douglas” (2005), better known as Miss Mary, one of the best midwives in Cuthbert, Ga. As Mr. Rembert recalls in accompanying wall text, she wore her uniform and carried her medical bag “even when she had to spend her last days at the convalescent home.” Mr. Rembert’s story is really shaped, however, by poverty and the effects of racism — which is to say, violence. He started picking cotton at age 6, and the experience of that hard labor, which extended into adulthood, is engrained in his being, as well as in his pictures, which include fields of endless white dots. “Curved cotton rows make a beautiful pattern,” Mr. Rembert says in the catalog. “But as soon as you start picking, you forget how good it looks and think how hard it is.” Wall texts offer detailed accounts of how workers were paid — even how they had to pay to rent straw hats from the commissary to protect themselves from the scorching summer sun — and how labor, tied to the post-slavery sharecropping system, was stratified by discriminatory racial distinctions. These practices permeated everyday life, of course. “Hamilton Avenue” (1999) comes with a description of how the only two whites in the Cuthbert area were the two policemen who parked in the middle of the street, “watching us.” Mr. Rembert’s life became more difficult in the 1960s, when he joined the civil rights movement. A room in the exhibition entered through a glass door comes with a warning at its entrance that the material there is disturbing. Here, we learn about Mr. Rembert’s arrest after a protest and a jailhouse beating that led to his escape, which involved stealing a car and his nearly being lynched (and castrated). After that, he was sentenced to a chain gang, where he worked — picking cotton again — for seven years. (An essay in the catalog describes how blacks were disproportionately represented in chain gangs because of the heavy sentences they received for misdemeanors.) Text accompanying “Almost Me” (1997), which depicts a black man hanged by the neck from a tree branch, is a heartbreaking account of the post-traumatic-stress effects of Mr. Rembert’s own near-lynching: “I never stopped thinking about it and having nightmares about it almost every night. Lots of times I’d get up out of the bed with Patsy and go in the bathroom and just sit there and cry.” (Patsy Gammage married Mr. Rembert five years after he was released from prison; they have eight children.) Beyond his own story, Mr. Rembert has also made some works that offer an amazingly cunning commentary on African-American life. “Michael Jordan Cemetery” (1998) pays homage to the basketball star, but at the same time critiques the expensive basketball shoes made by Nike that “cause problems for black kids.” The composition includes tombstones with the names of young people who have died in altercations over the basketball shoes, and an amazing depiction of a young man, recently shot, bleeding Nike insignia. There is usually little overlap between the art you see in museums and art in which the therapeutic benefits of its making are key. But you can almost feel the way that carving leather pictures has healed Mr. Rembert, in such a way that more recent works are celebrations of pattern and color — and blackness liberated. “The Struggle” (2010) is a clever work in which famous African-Americans are depicted in a field picking cotton, but also doing what they are known best for doing: Michael Jackson is singing and picking cotton; Mr. Jordan is playing basketball and picking cotton; Louis Armstrong has his trumpet; Oprah Winfrey is next to Sojourner Truth, and President Obama, in overalls, is picking cotton right below Michelle Obama. The largest figure in the painting is Malcolm X, and he, too, is picking cotton. The compositions of Mr. Rembert’s recent works, with their white dots and figures lined up in pattern formation along dark strips representing rows of soil, look like African textiles. “Amazing Grace” (2008) includes a musical staff with the score for the famous spiritual, which Mr. Rembert remembers hearing in the cotton fields. “I just loved to listen to the singing,” he remarks, since “singing was the only thing about the fields that I loved.” Mr. Rembert’s work is important because it offers an unvarnished view of the segregated South, from the vantage of a lived history. What makes it resonate, however, is Mr. Rembert’s incredible spirit — what one writer in the catalog calls his “grace.” You feel it throughout these works, which refuse to shrink from the horrors, but especially in that comment about singing: Even in the dreaded cotton fields, Mr. Rembert could find something to love. | Art;Yonkers (NY);Race and Ethnicity;Rembert Winfred Sr;Hudson River Museum;Rembert Winfred |
ny0209494 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2009/12/26 | Irish Bishops Quit in Wake of an Inquiry | DUBLIN (AP) — Two more Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland have resigned in the wake of a damning investigation into decades of church cover-up of child abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese. The bishops, Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field, offered an apology to child-abuse victims as they announced their resignations during Christmas Mass on Friday. Priests read the statement to worshipers throughout the archdiocese, home to a quarter of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics. Two other bishops, Donal Murray of Limerick and Jim Moriarty of Kildare, stepped down earlier following the publication on Nov. 26 of a report on a three-year investigation into why many abusive Dublin priests escaped justice for so long. The government-ordered investigation found that church leaders in Dublin had spent decades shielding more than 170 pedophile priests from the law. They began providing information to the police in 1995, but they continued to keep secret, until 2004, many files and other records of reported abuse. In their joint statement, Bishops Walsh and Field said they hoped their resignations “may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims” of child sexual abuse. “We again apologize to them,” the bishops said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence.” The Dublin Archdiocese has faced an increasing number of civil lawsuits from abuse victims, starting in the mid-1990s. The suits were filed after an abuse victim, a former altar boy named Andrew Madden, went public with the church’s effort to buy his silence. The archdiocese estimates that its ultimate bill for settlements and legal costs could exceed $30 million. A fifth bishop named in the investigative report, Martin Drennan of Galway, has said that he did not endanger children and will not resign, a position initially taken by the four bishops who have now stepped down. “Martin Drennan will have to resign,” Mr. Madden said. “We want full accountability.” He criticized the bishops’ initial position, which he said was that “as a group they were very apologetic, but individually they had done nothing wrong.” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who was put in charge of the Dublin Archdiocese in 2004 with a mandate to confront the abuse scandal, welcomed the resignations. Archbishop Martin said in an interview that the church “must ensure that the management of the past is entrusted to a new generation of people who think differently.” In his Christmas sermon, Archbishop Martin said the church for too long had placed its self-interest above the rights of its parishioners, particularly innocent children. “It has been a painful year,” he told worshipers. “But the church today may well be a better and safer place than was the church of 25 years ago — when all looked well, but where deep shadows were kept buried.” | Ireland;Christians and Christianity;Priests;Sex Crimes;Child Abuse and Neglect |
ny0075431 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/05/03 | Review: Rolling Out the Welcome Mat at Mishmish Restaurant in Montclair | Within minutes of sitting down at Mishmish , the new Mediterranean restaurant in Montclair, we were welcomed with a large plate of homemade vegetable pickles, warm focaccia and a dish of olive oil. Mishmish feels like one of those neighborhood trattorias you stumble into while on vacation. You have been walking around all day, are ravenous and are pondering divorce from your traveling partner because the two of you just cannot decide where to eat. Then you discover a little gem, and end up eating all your meals there. In fact, I have eaten at Mishmish five times since I discovered it a few months ago. Mishmish is the Hebrew and Arabic word for apricot. For Meny Vaknin, the owner and chef, it is also a symbol of the hospitality he saw growing up in the Negev Desert town of Yeruham, Israel. When guests were expected, his mother would fill a special glass dish, the kind with many small compartments, with dried apricots and other treats. It was important for his restaurant to have similar welcoming gestures, Mr. Vaknin said in an interview after my visits. “The restaurant is my house, literally and poetically,” he said. “I’m there all day, and I want guests to feel like they are coming into my kitchen.” My guests and I certainly made ourselves at home, and ordered with abandon. We could easily have had a satisfying feast eating solely appetizers. Portions were generous, as though your grandma was in the kitchen and had noticed you were getting a little thin. The hummus was creamy with tahini and olive oil, a reminder that grocery-store hummus is to homemade hummus as a chocolate Snack Pack pudding is to chocolate mousse. A radicchio fattoush salad was not fattoush-y at all, with nary a piece of bread in sight, but it did offer a bright blend of radicchio, watercress, blood orange slices and pecans, with a layer of labne, the Middle Eastern strained yogurt, a tangy contrast. Octopus, perfectly cooked each time we had it, was tender, with a good crunch thanks to a brief sojourn on the grill. It was served with a fennel purée, chickpeas, blood orange slices and almonds. Image Radicchio fattoush with watercress, blood orange slices, pecans and labne; left, grilled striped bass with oven-dried tomato olive sauce. Credit Nancy Wegard for The New York Times A few dishes were inconsistent. We were disappointed on one visit to find the fried cauliflower appetizer we had previously enjoyed to be undercooked. Another night, we received a nearly raw lamb kebab. Our waitress seemed quietly appalled and quickly whisked it away. But then a dish like the striped bass would arrive. It was a textbook-perfect piece of pan-seared fish, with crisp skin and delicate flesh. The bass, served over celeriac purée along with a lusty combination of oven-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives, reminded me of my summers in Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera, where we drank the Champagne so quickly it never had time to warm up in the hot Mediterranean sun. (O.K., that last part was fantasy, but the fish was very good.) Mussels were served in a tomato sauce rich with the flavors of garlic, fennel and onion, and made fiery with the addition of homemade harissa and dried chiles. Tomato sauces feature prominently in a number of the dishes, like the lunchtime shakshouka with eggs, and also in a riff on the traditional preparation for fish that Mr. Vaknin said was found simmering on stoves every Friday night in Moroccan-Jewish households. And the herbaceous, garlicky sauce with chickpeas is made à la minute, so it is fresher tasting and the fish — a grouper in this case — is still tender. Mr. Vaknin’s skills as a chef, honed in highly regarded New York City restaurants like Boulud Sud and East Wick , also come through in traditional bistro dishes like hanger steak and an exemplary roast chicken. I recently bought sandwiches at Mishmish for an impromptu picnic. The sabich sandwich (say that 10 times fast) is as famous in Israel as falafel. Typically made with fried eggplant, here smoked eggplant spread was slathered on a roll and topped with six-minute boiled eggs, feta cheese and sweet oven-roasted tomatoes. The sabich made me feel virtuous and luxurious at the same time, and went to the top of my list of favorite sandwiches. Until I tried the shawarma. It was unlike most shawarma you find around these parts. At Mishmish, little pieces of marinated grilled chicken thigh, a generous portion of tahini and some nice-looking greens were packed onto a crusty long roll — not the expected pita — and that, it turned out, is where they should have been all along. It was juicy to the last garlicky morsel. Lunch or dinner, Mr. Vaknin is single-minded in his quest to ensure you leave full. If you still have room for dessert, an interesting choice might be the kunefe, a puck of shredded phyllo dough filled with sweetened goat cheese, which is then — gasp — fried and soaked in syrup. If you do not have room, do as I did, and just go back for more tomorrow. | Restaurant;Montclair NJ;Mishmish |
ny0143682 | [
"business"
] | 2008/10/02 | Crisis Puts Tax Moves Into Play | WASHINGTON — A long-stalled tax bill offering incentives for the use of renewable energy and providing tax breaks to millions of families and businesses gained momentum on Wednesday, when it was strapped onto emergency legislation to shore up the nation’s financial system. By a vote of 74 to 25, the Senate passed the legislation, including the tax breaks, on Wednesday night. The tax provisions may make the bill more attractive to some Republicans in the House, which rejected a bailout bill in a stunning vote on Monday. The Senate version of the bailout package was amended, at the last minute, to include a wide range of tax breaks, as well as financial aid for certain rural schools and a measure requiring health insurance companies to provide more generous coverage to many people with mental illnesses. The latest version, virtually identical to that passed overwhelmingly by the Senate on Sept. 23, would extend the business tax credit for research and development, expand the child tax credit and protect millions of middle-income families from the alternative minimum tax , originally aimed at high-income families. It would also provide tax relief to victims of recent natural disasters, including floods, tornadoes and severe storms. The tax credits for investing in solar energy and producing wind energy are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Gregory S. Wetstone, director of government affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, hailed the efforts in Congress. “The renewable energy tax credits are critically important to the future of wind and solar energy in America,” Mr. Wetstone said. “In 2000, 2002 and 2004,” he continued, “the industry suffered a drop of 70 percent to 90 percent in the level of annual new wind power as a result of Congress’s failure to extend the tax credit, which is currently the only major federal program to support renewable energy.” Many House Democrats, led by the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, had insisted that the cost of tax breaks be fully offset by revenue increases or spending cuts. But it appeared that they were going to lose their yearlong fight with the Senate over this question. Taken as a whole, the Senate tax package would cost $150.5 billion over 10 years. Of that amount, about $43.5 billion would be offset. The Senate bill includes several revenue-raising provisions. It would, for example, keep hedge fund managers from using offshore corporations to defer taxes on compensation for their investment services. It would also freeze a tax deduction that oil and gas companies get for certain domestic production activities. The deduction, now 6 percent, is scheduled to rise to 9 percent in 2010. “With oil and gas prices on the rise, the oil and gas industry does not need tax incentives that it may have needed in the past,” said Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the chairman of the Finance Committee. Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the Senate was setting a bad precedent by trying to impose its tax legislation on the House, rather than negotiating a compromise. “The Senate leadership took an unprecedented gamble when they attached a package of tax extenders to the emergency financial rescue legislation,” Mr. Rangel said. He complained that Senate Democrats “repeatedly capitulate to demands” by Republican senators, many of whom contend that Congress should not have to pay for the extension of expiring tax breaks. To increase tax compliance, the bill would require brokerage firms to track and report the cost basis of stocks, bonds and other securities sold during the year. The cost basis is used in computing the capital gains on which investors must pay taxes. When people overstate the original value or purchase price of stock, they may pay less tax than they should. Congress estimates that the proposed reporting requirement would raise $6.7 billion in additional revenue over 10 years. The House jealously guards its power to originate tax bills. The Constitution says, “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills.” The Senate version of the bailout package is technically an amendment to a House bill that would require group health insurance plans to provide equivalence, or parity, in the coverage of mental and physical illnesses. Insurers often charge higher co-payments and set stricter limits for mental health care than for the treatment of physical illnesses. The bill would outlaw such discrimination, and the government could impose an excise tax on health plans that violated the new requirement. On the tax legislation, as on other issues in the last two years, the Senate appears likely to get its way because major bills typically need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles in the Senate. In practice, this means that the majority Democrats cannot pass contentious bills without help from some Republicans. Another sweetener added to the bailout bill would extend the “secure rural schools” program, which compensates counties for the loss of revenues they had been receiving from the sale of timber on federal lands. Counties in Oregon and several other states have laid off police officers and cut back public services since authority for the program, which provides money for schools and roads, expired this year. | Taxation;Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008);Solar Energy;Biofuels;Education and Schools |
ny0210175 | [
"sports",
"cricket"
] | 2009/12/24 | A Year That Shattered the Illusion of Cricket’s Safety | Cricket had little innocence left to lose on March 3, 2009. Images of rural arcadia conceal the reality of long histories of corruption, commercialism and violence. Yet that morning in Lahore, when terrorists attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day of a test against Pakistan, still shattered an illusion — the belief that cricket’s popularity in South Asia protected it from terrorism. None of the cricketers was seriously injured, but six policemen and two civilians, including the driver of the minivan carrying the umpires, were killed. The attack underlined a much unhappier truth, that the prominence of the game and importance of teams as national symbols might make them targets. It sentenced Pakistan to a fresh period of purdah as an international venue. It was somehow characteristic that its players responded with a vibrant, moving, ever-more-irresistible campaign to take the year’s main prize — the World Twenty20 – within a couple of months, and still more typical that Younis Khan, whose inspiring captaincy played such a part in that triumph, should have been forced from office before the end of the year. When cricket administrators were not worrying about security they were preoccupied by fears that the Twenty20 format, still an infant, might strangle other forms of the game. Those concerns merged when the lucratively glitzy Indian Premier League was forced offshore to South Africa for its second season because of security fears because it would have coincided with an Indian election. The I.P.L. survived the experience. With the demise of the rival Indian Cricket League and the U.S. indictment for fraud of financier Allen Stanford, who was funding a competition in the West Indies, it now has no real rival. If the five-day test format is under threat, it is not going without a considerable fight. The last week alone has seen two matches — Australia’s narrow defeat of the much-improved West Indies at Perth and England’s desperate and ultimately successful battle for a draw against South Africa at Centurion — among a number this year that epitomized the unmatched capacity of the five-day game to generate multiple shifts in mood and fortune, along with a sustained ratcheting up of tension. England’s resistance, literally down to the last man, precisely echoed its effort earlier in the year at Cardiff, opening act of an Ashes contest with Australia that underlined the parallel virtues of still more threatened species, the five-test series. Australia produced arguably the test performance of 2009, winning in South Africa to take immediate revenge for a series it had lost at home to the Proteas. It won the year’s second international prize, the Champions Trophy. Yet defeat in the Ashes ended its long leadership of the world rankings. It gave way to South Africa, which was deposed in turn by India in early December. That succession reflected a year in which the prizes were shared out. A reasonable case can be made that the Players of the Year were the Sri Lankan batsman Tillekeratne Dilshan, who scored six centuries in five-day tests and wowed the World Twenty20 with flamboyant strokeplay that included a revolutionary over-the-shoulder scoop; Shakib-al-Hasan, whose status as Bangladesh’s first truly world-class player was underlined by ranking as the leading all-rounder in one-day internationals; and New Zealand’s phenomenal, Atlas-like captain Daniel Vettori. If a batting average of nearly 60 from the lower order was his greatest achievement, Vettori was also part of a significant revival in finger spin, supposedly no longer a threat at test level. Vettori, Shakib, South Africa’s Paul Harris, England’s Graeme Swann, Australia’s Nathan Hauritz, Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath and the vast West Indian Sulieman Benn all did better than is expected of the breed. Benn also helped raise hopes of a still more welcome revival — by the West Indies. That team may have reached rock bottom when a contract dispute led to a replacement team playing, and losing, at home to Bangladesh. Yet Trinidad and Tobago’s vividly exuberant contribution to the Champions League, a new tournament for regional and national champions won by New South Wales, was followed by the spirited West Indies performance in Australia. Outside the test nations, the outstanding story was Afghanistan’s rise through four divisions of the minor nations before it narrowly missed qualification for the 2011 World Cup. It will be no surprise if it goes one better in the new year and claims a place in the next World Twenty20. If the prizes in the men’s game were shared out, those for women were concentrated. England won both the World Cup, played in Australia, and the World Twenty20 as well as retaining the Ashes. Claire Taylor became the first woman named as one of Wisden Cricket Almanack’s five cricketers of the year. If that was a happy arrival, regrettable departures included veteran scorer and statistician Bill Frindall and much-loved umpire David Shepherd, who both died during the year. | Sri Lanka;Cricket (Game);Terrorism;Lahore (Pakistan) |
ny0215199 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/04/04 | Readers’ Questions Answered | Church Holdings Q. I was told that Trinity Church in the financial district literally owns Wall Street — specifically, the land underneath the New York Stock Exchange. True? A. False. “Trinity Church does not and has never owned Wall Street or the land that the Stock Exchange sits on,” Diane Reed, a spokeswoman for the church, said in an e-mail message. Trinity, an Episcopal church on Broadway at the west end of Wall Street, was founded in 1696 (with help from Captain Kidd, among others). It built separate chapels and paid for its charity work, in part, through an enormous land grant from Queen Anne. At one time, its holdings stretched from Fulton to Christopher Street and from Broadway west to the Hudson River. But not Wall Street. The familiar New York Stock Exchange Building, right, as well as the ground beneath it, are owned by NYSE Euronext, the company that runs the exchange. The exchange building was built in 1901-3 by George B. Post and was designated a city landmark in 1985. Deadheads of Old Q. I was reading a century-old article about a musical debut in New York that said the audience included “deadheads.” Since Jerry Garcia’s father had probably not even been born yet, what does that mean? A. Today, of course, that fine old noun usually means an ardent fan of the Grateful Dead. But a century ago, it had several other meanings, most of them related to freeloading, said Jesse Sheidlower, North American editor at large for the Oxford English Dictionary, said in an e-mail message. Some of these senses include “a person admitted free to a theater, sporting event, etc.” Others are broader, like “sponger; deadbeat” and “a dull, lazy or boring person.” The term was used in the theater to describe the management practice, especially in the case of a debut recital or a play’s opening night, of giving away unsold tickets to pack the house, presenting a better image for critics. A long entry on “deadhead” in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang traces its first use to 1841. In “The Gilded Age” (1874), Mark Twain and C. D. Warner wrote that congressmen “always traveled ‘dead-head’ both ways.” Student Records Redux A letter about “An Old Bugaboo,” an F.Y.I. item on Feb. 28 about New York State’s requirements on the retention of student records: New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn is the first school in New York City to digitize and microfilm its student records after meeting state requirements. This has become a necessary process, as older records cannot just be tossed out, and space in schools is a vital issue. We were granted approval for our program from legal counsel at the city’s Department of Education, and financial support from the New York State Archives’ Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund. However, the New Utrecht High School budget provided a majority of the funds required. Student records, particularly high school records, are necessary to help former students to return to school later in life, to apply for government and corporate jobs, for Social Security , in making security checks and to meet eligibility requirements for numerous other reasons. The student records issue will only become more tangled in years to come unless funding is found to secure them by microfilm and digitization. Brenda Parnes Norman Ringle Ms. Parnes is a retired employee of the New York State Department of Education. Mr. Ringle is a project manager at New Utrecht High School. | Education and Schools;Historic Buildings and Sites;Trinity Church;Wall Street (NYC) |
ny0146935 | [
"business"
] | 2008/07/21 | Trying to Save by Increasing Doctors' Fees | Cutting health costs by paying doctors more? That is the premise of experiments under way by federal and state government agencies and many insurers around the country. The idea is that by paying family physicians, internists and pediatricians to devote more time and attention to their patients, insurers and patients can save thousands of dollars downstream on unnecessary tests, visits to expensive specialists and avoidable trips to the hospital. Nationally, Medicare and commercial insurers pay an average of only about $60 a visit to the office of a primary-care doctor and rarely if ever pay for telephone or e-mail consultations. Many health policy experts say the payments are not enough to let the doctors spend more than a few minutes with each patient. Robert Williamson, a 60-year-old Philadelphia man, recalls the cursory exam he received a few years ago from a harried doctor who, Mr. Williamson says, missed the danger signals and sent him home. A short time later Mr. Williamson had a stroke. For want of a careful examination by a primary-care doctor, Mr. Williamson became one of countless Americans each year whose unidentified or under-treated illnesses escalate into medical conditions with catastrophic personal and economic costs. Besides incurring $30,000 in hospital bills paid by his employer’s insurer, Mr. Williamson had to stop working as a customer service representative at Philadelphia Gas Works and go on Social Security disability, at a current cost to taxpayers of $1,900 a month. With Mr. Williamson’s new doctor, such an outcome would be much less likely. “I give him my heart and diabetes readings by e-mail and phone, without getting up out of my chair,” Mr. Williamson said. “I can get better directions, at the very moment I need them. It’s life-saving.” His current internist, Richard Baron, is one of more than 100 physicians in metropolitan Philadelphia taking part in the experiment, which is being conducted jointly by some of the region’s largest insurers. Dr. Baron still gets a fee of only about $64 for each office visit. But his five-doctor group will also receive $200,000 to $300,000 this year beyond their regular fees to keep better track of their 8,400 patients. “We are trying to do more e-mail care and telephone care, which we haven’t been paid for in the past,” Dr. Baron said. Insurers are conducting similar pilot projects in at least a half-dozen states, in experiments involving thousands of doctors and nearly 2 million patients. Many more are in the planning stages, at the urging of health policy experts and employers that provide medical benefits. The big government health care programs, Medicaid and Medicare, are also studying the concept. A Medicaid experiment already under way in North Carolina saved the government program in that state about $162 million in 2006. That was 11 percent less than the state would have spent under the old system of reimbursement, according to an audit by Mercer, a consulting firm. Earlier this month, as part of a bill to protect Medicare payments to doctors, the Senate overrode President Bush’s veto to authorize $100 million to finance a three-year Medicare pilot to further test the concept of spending more on primary care. Under the various payment experiments, family doctors are encouraged to hire additional staff to help monitor patients’ treatment and follow-up, and to help patients stay ahead of problems by sending reminders when they are due for preventive tests like mammograms and colon exams. For people like Mr. Williamson with serious chronic illnesses, the doctors take personal charge, answering patients’ phone or e-mail questions promptly. In emergencies, patients can show up at the office and see their doctors on short notice. Such features add up to a model of primary care that proponents refer to as providing people with a “medical home” — a base where doctors, staff and patients pull together as one big health-care family. Or at least that is the ideal. “It’s the latest new, new thing — testing whether medical homes can be a vehicle for pulling America upwards from the grossly inefficient swamp in which our health system is currently mired,” said Dr. Arnold Milstein, a senior consultant at Mercer who is also member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent Congressional agency. The panel has recommended that Medicare expand its plans for a medical-home pilot project next year that is expected to pay primary-care doctors in eight states $30 to $40 a month extra for each person enrolled with a chronic illness. In Michigan, the auto industry has been a major force behind one of the largest medical-home projects yet devised. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which has 4.7 million members, plans to spend $30 million this year to help primary-care doctors offer such services. About 4,900 primary-care doctors are participating, said Dr. Thomas Simmer, chief medical officer of Michigan Blue Cross. Advocates of the approach hope it will attract more doctors to primary care. Last year only 7 percent of medical school graduates chose family practice, a field with a median income of $150,000, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. That compares with $406,000 for gastroenterologists and $433,00 for cardiac surgeons, as measured by the Medical Group Management Association. The American Medical Association said that in its latest count, in 2006, there were slightly more than 251,000 practicing family physicians, general, practitioners, and internists in this country, compared with nearly 472,000 specialists. “The pipeline of primary-care doctors has been running dry for several years,” said Dr. Barbara Starfield, a health policy expert at Johns Hopkins University. Many parts of the country do not meet the generally accepted standard of one primary-care doctor for every 1,000 to 2,000 people, Dr. Starfield said. The Philadelphia pilot project is sponsored by three of the area’s largest insurers — Independence Blue Cross, Aetna and Cigna — as well as some local providers of Medicaid services, which together have agreed to spend $13 million on the program over the next three years. Dr. Baron expects the project to add as much 15 percent to the annual revenue of his medical group. He declined to specify the practice’s total gross income last year, but said that each of the five physicians earned less than the $177,000 national median for internists. To participate in the Philadelphia experiment, doctors must arrange for their offices to keep in close communication with their entire rosters of patients. Dr. Baron’s practice, besides the physicians, a business manager and clerical assistants, has added a patient educator, whom he said would cost $60,000 in salary plus $60,000 more for benefits and supporting technology. The group is also spending $25,000 for part-time services of a data analyst. Employers predict that better early care will reduce their health costs in the long run. “We want to buy our care this way, we think it’s the right thing to do,” said Dr. Paul Grundy, I.B.M.’s director of health care technology and strategic initiatives. Despite the hopes riding on the pilot projects, some experts are skeptical. “There is very little concrete rigorous evidence that the medical home will do all those wonderful things they want it to do,” said Mark Pauly, a health policy economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Even executives at Aetna and Cigna are cautious about betting on a payoff from the Philadelphia project, which was orchestrated by Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Edward G. Rendell and his office of health care reform. It is uncertain whether there will be a direct return on the investment within a “reasonable time horizon,” said Dr. Don Liss, an Aetna medical director who is an internist himself. Still, Dr. Liss added, “a reasonable body of evidence suggests that improving primary care as a foundation for health care will improve quality and access to care.” The Pennsylvania program will start expanding to other parts of the state this fall. It comes none too soon, in the view of Dr. Joseph Mambu, a family physician in Lower Gwynedd, a Philadelphia suburb. Trying to build a medical-home practice before the pilot project began, Dr. Mambu said he went into debt installing an electronic medical records system and establishing patient-friendly features like evening and Saturday office hours. “Last year, I hit the red ink because of all the technology,” he said. “Unless we get help from the insurance companies and the government, the system is going down the toilet.” But with the new medical-home money, Dr. Mambu said he expected to pay down his debts and start a patient wellness program. The insurance pilot project, he said, offers “a ray of hope.” | Health Insurance and Managed Care;Doctors;Medicine and Health;Prices (Fares Fees and Rates);American Academy of Family Physicians;American Medical Assn |
ny0031970 | [
"us"
] | 2013/06/22 | For Episcopal Church’s Leader, a Sermon Leads to More Dissent | Curaçao, the Dutch island off the Venezuelan coast, is nice this time of year. Actually, it’s nice any time of year. The temperature is in the low 80s and the seawater is nearly as warm. It must be a nice place to give a sermon. But for Katharine Jefferts Schori , since 2006 the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, memories of Curaçao will always be associated with the controversy that greeted her upon her return — another controversy in what has already been a rocky tenure as the head of a troubled, shrinking church. On May 12, Bishop Jefferts Schori preached in All Saints Church in the town of Steenrijk. Curaçao is part of the Episcopal Church’s small Diocese of Venezuela , and Bishop Jefferts Schori was making a pastoral call to a distant congregation. Her text was Acts 16:16-34 , which includes the story of a slave woman and fortuneteller whom Paul encounters in Philippi, Macedonia. As Luke, who Christians believe is the narrator, tells the story, the woman “had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortunetelling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ ” After many days, “Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.” This story has historically been read as a tale of exorcism, in which Paul delivers the woman from some sort of indwelling spirit — or, alternatively, strikes a blow for monotheism against local beliefs in plural gods. But as Bishop Jefferts Schori interpreted the passage, Paul was guilty of failing to value diversity, to see the slave girl’s beautiful “difference.” “Paul is annoyed at the slave girl,” Bishop Jefferts Schori preached . “She’s telling the same truth Paul and others claim for themselves. But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it.” Within a week, angry Episcopalians — yes, that could be an Updike title — took to the Web with outrage. Articles in Anglican Ink, The Christian Post, and other conservative publications questioned the presiding bishop’s exegetical acumen, even her standing as a Christian. Disdain for Bishop Jefferts Schori is common among church conservatives. She is supportive of marriage and ordination for gay men and lesbians, and she has taken a very hard line against dissenting dioceses, many of whose members hold more traditional views. Under her leadership, the Episcopal Church has spent millions of dollars in legal fights to keep the church buildings of congregations whose members have voted to leave the Episcopal Church, often to affiliate with more traditionalist organizations. Image Katharine Jefferts Schori Credit Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press No presiding bishop could be truly popular right now. Bishop Jefferts Schori assumed her post at a time when, on issues of sexuality and theology, it would be impossible not to make enemies in the church. That said, her rereading of Paul’s actions toward the slave girl are indeed provocative. “Bishop Jefferts Schori simply ignores what the text says, in order to give a reading that portrays Paul as a patriarchal oppressor who fails to recognize the voice of God in a low-status young girl,” said Jordan Hylden, who writes for Christian publications and will soon be ordained an Episcopal priest. The bishop’s interpretation is “so obviously wrong,” Mr. Hylden continued, in an e-mail, “that the deeper question is: Why does she feel at liberty to give a reading of Scripture that doesn’t even try to understand and explain what the text is saying?” Fidelity to the Bible text is obviously never trivial for Christians, but it is especially sensitive for Episcopalians right now. Conservatives believe that the church leadership, which now consecrates gay and lesbian bishops and permits its priests to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies, ignores biblical teachings about sexuality, in both the Old and New Testaments. Although a spokesman for the Episcopal Church said the exact number of members who have departed during Bishop Jefferts Schori’s tenure is not available, to take one example, the Anglican Church in North America, which was founded in 2009 and claims to have 1,000 congregations representing 100,000 worshipers, includes many ex-Episcopalians. Their departure has a lot to do with disagreements over how one reads the Bible. Mikeal C. Parsons, a Baylor University professor and author of a book about Acts, wrote in an e-mail that Bishop Jefferts Schori’s critics are probably right that “she interprets the text in a direction” that the original author would not recognize. “That is to say,” Dr. Parsons wrote, “I do not think the author of Acts is criticizing Paul’s actions in any way, certainly not for failing to recognize her ‘gift of spiritual awareness.’ ” On the other hand, Dr. Parsons continued, “there is nothing in the text to suggest” that the spirit in the woman was “evil.” The story is not necessarily about an “exorcism” of demonic powers. Rather, after driving the spirit out, Paul is thrown in prison, because “her owners are incensed that their financial exploitation of the girl’s divining powers have ended” — they can no longer profit from her fortunetelling. In that sense, Paul is definitely her liberator, in a literal as well as spiritual sense. But Bishop Jefferts Schori pointed out, in an interview on Friday, that elsewhere in the Bible, Paul appears to condone slavery. Her sermon was thus part of a necessary, continuing tradition of interpretation. “If the church had never reinterpreted Scripture,” the bishop said, “we would still have slavery — legal slavery.” Scripture must be read “in our own time and our own context,” because prior generations had “a limited view,” she said. “They had to have a limited view, because none of us is God.” | Episcopal Church;Katharine Jefferts Schori;Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage;Curacao;Bible |
ny0243137 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2011/03/30 | Taking the Gender Fight Worldwide | PARIS — “I am a woman, a Socialist, divorced and agnostic,” the new defense minister told the generals of her Roman Catholic country. “But we will work together very well.” Michelle Bachelet , who in 2002 became Chile ’s first female defense minister and four years later the country’s first female president, has never shied from challenging the status quo. Now the first head of U.N. Women, the three-month-old U.N. agency for gender equality and female empowerment, Ms. Bachelet is doing it again — this time turning some traditional notions of feminism on their head. “We need men. We need to obtain big important male champions,” Ms. Bachelet, a 59-year-old daughter of a general and single mother of three, said brightly during a recent interview in Paris. She hired a man as one of her two deputies — “that wasn’t by chance, I wanted gender equality” — and courts male chief executives to sign up to seven principles for female empowerment. A new three-year gender awareness program for peace negotiators focuses as much on training male mediators about rape in conflict zones as on grooming future female mediators. U.N. Women is the first high-profile international agency dedicated to gender, turning a long-held ambition of feminist activists across the world into a reality. First floated as a serious proposal in 2006, it took four years of heavy lobbying from the four U.N. units previously dealing with gender advocacy and dogged support from big hitters like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton before the body went to work in January. With a $500 million annual budget and some 405 full-time staff members, it is dwarfed by other outfits — Unicef, the agency for children, or the U.N. Development Program each count around 6,000 staff members and budgets of $1.25 billion. So the woman at the helm of this new agency matters all the more. While few dispute her star power and track record on advancing women’s rights in Chile, Ms. Bachelet’s conviction that men are indispensable to the next stage of women’s liberation is not universally shared. Nor was everyone happy with her appointment. Some African women’s organizations grumbled that a woman from a poorer country should have been chosen. Others lament that she is not focusing enough on issues like genital mutilation, H.I.V. and AIDS or maternal mortality, the most neglected of the Millennium Development Goals. “African women have been a little bit forgotten,” said Fatoumata Siré Diakité, the Malian ambassador to Germany who last week listened to a video message by Ms. Bachelet presented to a women’s conference in Germany. “She was very focused on Europe and America. She didn’t mention Africa at all. But women in Africa and Asia are the majority of women in the world.” Sure enough, as Ms. Bachelet sat in the salon of the Hotel Lutetia on Paris’s Left Bank, her list of priorities contained no explicit mention of the M.D.G.’s, as they are known in these circles. Instead, Ms. Bachelet spent nearly half an hour talking about getting more women into politics, into business and into military and peacekeeping roles — if need be with affirmative action. Her main message? Focus on female empowerment, not female victimhood. “Of course at U.N. Women we are concerned with women in precarious living conditions,” she said, stressing that violence against women was one of her top concerns. “But women will never achieve equal rights if they are not empowered.” “What we know is that empowerment does not just happen accidentally, or from one generation to another,” she went on to say. “We need some form of affirmative action.” In the developed world, she said, the fashionable debate about boardroom quotas is important, but “we need to go further.” In sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, she talks about changing inheritance laws that mean women hold only 2 percent of the land rights even though they cultivate 85 percent of the land itself. She notes that of 300-plus peace agreements signed since the Cold War ended, only 18 mention women and only 8 mention sexual violence. She is lobbying governments across the world to pay more attention to women — and put more money into U.N. Women’s coffers. “Having been a head of state gives you the possibility of getting into places others can’t go,” she said. This week she is in Latin America. Last week she met French government ministers and top E.U. officials. Before that, she urged the interim leadership in Cairo to give women a real say in post-revolution Egypt and met a number of African leaders in Ethiopia. In the Paris interview, indignation rose in her voice as she noted that only 28 countries have achieved the target set at the 1995 U.N. women’s conference in Beijing for national parliaments to have at least 30 percent female members. Of those 28, she points out, only 5 have managed without a quota law. A sigh. Then the determined smile came back. “We need a change in mind-set, a cultural change,” she said. In her own country, she changed the mind-set for good: After being nicknamed “fatty” in her early months as president, she finished her four-year (nonrenewable) term with record approval ratings of 84 percent. As health minister, this pediatrician-turned-military strategist reformed Chile’s primary care system for families. As defense minister, she improved access for women to the military and the police force. And as president she appointed a cabinet that was half female, tripled the number of free childcare places for low-income mothers and pushed through a pension overhaul that pays women a bonus for each child. She is convinced that without her stint as defense minister, surveying flood damage in the Chilean capital perched from an open tank for example, she would never have become president. “Health minister alone wouldn’t have done it — health is a service, it’s too female,” she said. Breaking the mold is her speciality. Involved in left-wing politics since studying medicine in the 1970s, she also was top of her class in a prestigious defense strategy program two decades later. A survivor of torture and exile under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship that killed her father, she is seen at once as tough and maternal. “She was our anti-Thatcher, not adopting all the male-dominated codes of power but transforming them,” wrote Paula Escobar Chavarría, magazines editor of the Chilean daily El Mercurio. “In this small land at the bottom of the world’s maps, little girls now want to be president and no one wonders if it’s possible.” Changing a country when you are its head of state is one thing. Whether Ms. Bachelet can galvanize many countries, or indeed the world, to alter attitudes toward women from the pulpit of a new U.N. agency remains to be seen. | Bachelet Michelle;Women and Girls;United Nations;Civil Rights and Liberties;Economic Conditions and Trends;Chile |
ny0063553 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2014/01/12 | Arbitrator’s Ruling Banishes the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez for a Season | Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was barred for 162 games and the 2014 postseason, the longest suspension for doping in baseball history, after an arbitrator upheld most of the punishment sought by Major League Baseball. The ruling , announced Saturday by Fredric R. Horowitz, baseball’s chief arbitrator, fell short of the initial 211-game suspension. But it raises the possibility that Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in the sport, will never play another game, particularly because he has been hobbled by injuries. The suspension amounts to a significant victory for Bud Selig, baseball’s longtime commissioner, who in recent years has tried to redefine himself as a chief executive determined to crack down on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport. With Selig planning to retire after the 2014 season, his legacy will now include an important milestone: a lengthy suspension of Rodriguez, one of the best players of his generation, one of the game’s top home run hitters and someone who for years managed to sidestep baseball’s strong suspicions that he was using banned substances. “For more than five decades, the arbitration process under the basic agreement has been a fair and effective mechanism for resolving disputes and protecting player rights,” Major League Baseball said in a statement, referring to the collective bargaining agreement that dictates the arbitration process. “While we believe the original 211-game suspension was appropriate, we respect the decision.” In a statement through his spokesman, Rodriguez criticized the ruling and vowed to challenge it in court. “The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from Day 1,” Rodriguez said. “This is one man’s decision, that was not put before a fair and impartial jury, does not involve me having failed a single drug test, is at odds with the facts and is inconsistent with the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement and the Basic Agreement, and relies on testimony and documents that would never have been allowed in any court in the United States because they are false and wholly unreliable.” The suspension will cost Rodriguez all of the $25 million the Yankees were obligated to pay him for the 2014 season. But when the suspension ends, Rodriguez will still be owed $61 million through a contract that runs through 2017. Rodriguez will have an incentive to find a way to keep playing. He has had significant hip injuries in recent years and will be 39 when he is eligible to return. If he cannot return, he could opt for a disability retirement that would guarantee his money. Major League Baseball did not make public Horowitz’s written decision, which was given to the parties and presumably includes his rationale for upholding most of the suspension. The players union, which was involved in representing Rodriguez in the arbitration, said it “strongly disagrees” with the decision. The union said in a statement, however, that it recognized “that a final and binding decision has been reached.” Although baseball rules call for 50 game bans for first-time doping offenders, Rodriguez’s suspension was stretched to 211 games because of claims by the league that he had used prohibited substances over a period of years and that he had interfered with the investigation into his conduct. Rodriguez and his team of legal advisers said they would try to appeal Horowitz’s decision in the courts, or at least to delay Saturday’s ruling through an injunction. They could press that effort through a lawsuit they have already filed against both baseball and Selig, a suit that claims that Rodriguez was the target of a “witch hunt.” His advisers could also pursue new litigation. Rodriguez was already suggesting that he would continue his defense. “No player should have to go through what I have been dealing with, and I am exhausting all options to ensure not only that I get justice, but that players’ contracts and rights are protected through the next round of bargaining, and that the M.L.B. investigation and arbitration process cannot be used against others in the future the way it is currently being used to unjustly punish me,” Rodriguez said in his statement. It is unlikely, however, that a judge would give Rodriguez much relief. Legal experts say it is unusual for a judge to second-guess an arbitrator in a labor dispute — especially in a situation like this, in which the process was agreed upon by the employers and the employees’ union. Video The suspension of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees was reduced from 211 to 162 games. Credit Credit Brian Snyder/Reuters “They may be hoping they get an Alex Rodriguez fan, but even then, I’d be surprised if any state court judge would hear his case,” said Steven G. Eckhaus, an employment law expert with the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Selig suspended Rodriguez in August, citing his “use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited, performance-enhancing substances” over many years. Rodriguez, who admitted to using performance enhancers more than a decade ago, when playing for the Texas Rangers, has denied using such drugs since. The suspension by Selig came six months after baseball started an investigation into Biogenesis of America, a South Florida anti-aging clinic that is no longer operating. Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, had reported that it obtained patient records that appeared to connect a number of professional players, including Rodriguez, to the clinic, and that the clinic’s director, Anthony Bosch, was supplying the players with banned performance enhancers. After the article appeared, M.L.B. quickly responded, but as its investigators descended on South Florida to verify the newspaper’s account, they ran into substantial resistance. Witnesses could not be trusted, they said, or sought cash payments. People associated with players targeted in the inquiry appeared to be interfering. And Bosch was denying that he had distributed performance enhancers to Rodriguez or other players. Making little headway, baseball’s lawyers then filed a lawsuit in March asserting that Bosch and other people connected to the clinic had interfered in baseball’s business. Baseball’s investigators also decided to pay for information in the case, including $125,000 for documents from the clinic — a decision that was criticized and would be cited by Rodriguez’s lawyers as an example of inappropriate tactics in the Biogenesis investigation. In June, Bosch, concerned about the lawsuit, agreed to cooperate with baseball, becoming its star witness. That put him on a path to testify against Rodriguez at the arbitration hearing, which ran, with interruptions, through most of October and November and easily outlasted baseball’s postseason. Bosch, who through his spokeswoman said Saturday that he took no joy in seeing Rodriguez punished, also provided information that baseball used in suspending 13 other players tied to Biogenesis. All were suspended for 50 games, except for Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, who received a 65-game ban. None of those players appealed their penalties. But Rodriguez did appeal. He had spent much of last season rehabilitating his hip after surgery in January 2013, and in an odd bit of timing, he played his first game of the season on the day — Aug. 5 — that Selig suspended him. Rodriguez quickly made it clear that he would fight Selig’s actions, and in the days after the suspension, he bolstered his legal team, adding Joseph Tacopina, a well-known criminal defense lawyer, to represent him in his arbitration proceedings. The arbitration, structured much like a trial, was held at baseball’s headquarters in Manhattan. It took place over about 10 days and served as an unusual counterpoint to a postseason in which the Yankees were not participants for just the second time in nearly two decades. The hearings almost became a spectacle at times, with Rodriguez supporters gathered outside on the sidewalk in what amounted to a boisterous picket line, while inside Bosch testified but Rodriguez did not. As the proceedings went on, the animosity between Rodriguez and Selig appeared to grow. In October, Rodriguez’s lawyers filed their lawsuit against baseball and Selig, contending that both had interfered with Rodriguez’s business dealings. The suit also condemned baseball’s investigative tactics. In mid-November, Rodriguez’s lawyers called on Selig to testify at the hearing. But baseball objected, and Horowitz ruled that Selig would not have to take the stand. An angry Rodriguez then stormed out of the hearing, shouting obscenities. Rodriguez took his case to the radio , telling WFAN, a New York sports-talk station, that he did not have a chance in the hearing, that Selig hated him and that “he was disgusted with this abusive process.” As a result of this process, he now faces another long separation from baseball after playing in 44 games in 2013. He is fifth on baseball’s career list with 654 home runs, six behind Willie Mays. But in the wake of Horowitz’s ruling, it remains to be seen when, and if, he will get to 661. | Baseball;Alex Rodriguez;MLB;Major League Baseball Players Assn;Bud Selig;Anthony P Bosch;Frederic R Horowitz;Doping;Arbitration |
ny0072863 | [
"business"
] | 2015/03/13 | Shares of Intel Drop After It Lowers Its Forecast | The chip maker Intel slashed nearly $1 billion from its first-quarter revenue forecast as small businesses put off upgrading their personal computers, sending the company’s shares down about 5 percent. Fewer companies than Intel had expected replaced desktop PCs running on outdated Microsoft operating systems, leading to weak demand for its chips. Intel said on Thursday that it expected first-quarter revenue of $12.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million — about 7 percent lower than its earlier forecast. | Intel;Computer Chip;Microsoft |
ny0085902 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2015/07/29 | Afghanistan and Taliban to Hold Second Round of Talks, Pakistani Officials Say | PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Afghan government officials and Taliban representatives are set to meet again for a second round of peace talks on Friday, two Pakistani government officials said Tuesday. The meetings, to be held in Pakistan, are expected to be more substantive than the previous round of talks, raising hopes that the two sides will be able to find a way to end the conflict in Afghanistan, the senior Pakistani officials said. The first round of talks was also held in Pakistan on July 7. But the entire process “is an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace initiative,” said one Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity “out of deference” to the Afghans. “We are here to facilitate.” “The second round will be more substantive and detailed,” the senior government official said. “The fact that the two sides are reconvening in less than a month is encouraging.” But another official cautioned about raising “the expectations bar too high.” “This is just the beginning of a long process,” the official said, who also requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “Both sides will have to understand each other’s positions and make a determined effort to meet halfway.” “We expect both sides to discuss confidence-building measures, including steps to bring down the level of violence before they move on to discuss the more complex issues to end the conflict in Afghanistan,” he said. He said that Afghan officials seemed ready to hold open discussions with the Taliban. The official said that efforts were being made to persuade the Taliban to send more senior representatives to the talks. “If this happens, the Afghan government would also raise the level of their delegation,” he said. In the first round of talks, the Afghan government was represented by Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the deputy foreign minister, and the Taliban delegation was led by Mullah Abbas Durrani. Asked about reports of a rift within the Taliban ranks over the peace talks, the official said there could be some groups that oppose them. “There are people who want to talk, and there could be people who would want to fight,” the official said. “But the group that has the largest number of fighters on the ground and is able to make an impact will have the sway,” the official said. “And that is the mainstream group that is holding the talks.” | Taliban;Afghanistan;Pakistan |
ny0058140 | [
"sports"
] | 2014/09/14 | Beijing Hosts Debut of Formula E as Engines Whir Rather Than Roar | BEIJING — The world’s first fully electric motor racing series, featuring battery-powered racecars that can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in three seconds, opened here Saturday. Known as Formula E , this 10-stop international circuit is approved by the International Automobile Federation and aims to inspire developments in electric car technology and attract a new generation of fans. The inaugural race, the Beijing ePrix, was unexpectedly dramatic. A crash at the last turn of the final lap involving the leading cars allowed the Brazilian driver Lucas di Grassi of the Audi Sport ABT team to win. Nicolas Prost had long been in the lead when his car touched Nick Heidfeld’s. Heidfeld’s vehicle flew end over end and landed upside down in pieces. He emerged unscathed. The Beijing ePrix took place in Olympic Park, site of the 2008 Olympics. The cars made 25 laps on the 3.44-kilometer course (about two miles), weaving between the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest. Among the 75,000 people reportedly on site were a large number of local residents who were pleasantly surprised to find an international sporting event to attend as long as they paid the park entrance fee. The series was the brainchild of the federation’s president, Jean Todt, and a Spanish businessman, Alejandro Agag, who came up with the idea in 2011. “We expect this championship to become the framework for research and development around the electric car, a key element for the future of our cities,” Agag told the event’s website. The championship has strong backing — it took $100 million to get the project off the ground — and a number of Formula One veterans like Jarno Trulli strapped into racecars. Sir Richard Branson, the four-time Formula One champion Alain Prost and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio are among the team owners. Unlike other racing series, Formula E schedules practice rounds, qualifying and races into a single day’s program instead of three, making it less disruptive to the host cities where the street circuits have been built. To engage spectators, a gimmick called the FanBoost allows fans to vote for their favorite drivers; the top three get a chance to bump their car’s power for two and a half seconds. “We have 1.4 billion people,” said Steven Lu, chief executive of the China Racing team. “If even .0001 percent of them vote, that’d be enough to win.” Image Lucas Di Grassi of Audi Sport ABT won the first Formula E electric motor race on Saturday at the Olympic Park in Beijing. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times The fan favorites proved to be di Grassi, Bruno Senna and Katherine Legge, one of two women in the 20-car race. For the series, Michelin designed an 18-inch all-weather tire intended to last an entire race. Each Formula One car receives 52 tires per race weekend; Formula E cars receive 10. All drivers drove a version of the Spark-Renault SRT_01E, equipped with a battery weighing nearly 800 pounds. It has enough power for 20 to 30 minutes of hard racing, so drivers switched cars midway through, substituting the poetry of Formula One pit stop tire changes for a hop into another vehicle. Ho-Pin Tung, a Dutch driver of Chinese descent on the China Racing team, said that the best drivers in this series would be those who mastered the ability to manage the battery’s energy. “In race mode, we will be playing around with the power all the time,” he said. “We have six different engine mappings on the steering wheel, which we have to adjust while driving.” The local fans were disappointed by China Racing’s finish, as Tung placed placing 16th and his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. placed eighth. What caught Tung by surprise the first time he drove the SRT_01E was the sound of the wind in his helmet. “It’s always there of course, but normally there’s a screaming loud engine behind you,” he said. The electric car’s motor emits an 80-decibel whir, about the same as a garbage disposal, compared with Formula One cars that sound like jet engines. “I had no idea electric cars could be so fast,” said Wang Zhigang, 60, a Beijing native who had seen racing only on television. He added, however, that he would not buy one soon. “The government gives subsidies for them,” he said, “but there are just too few charging stations. What would you do if you ran out of battery here?” But China is seeking to put five million electric cars on the road by 2020 in an effort to cut pollution. Indeed, Lu, whose team played a crucial role in bringing the race to Beijing, said that the Chinese government was willing to host because it wanted to promote electric cars. Speaking of government officials, Lu said: “They said: ‘Wow, this is really new. It’s a golden opportunity. Let’s do that.’ ” Stops on the Formula E circuit include Miami and Long Beach, Calif. The final race is in London in June. A few years ago, few believed this series could come to fruition. Standing on a hastily built viewing platform, Lu was optimistic, saying, “It’s real, it’s fast, and it’s the future.” | Electric Cars and Hybrids;Car Racing;Beijing |
ny0029413 | [
"business"
] | 2013/06/05 | In Wireless Spectrum, Competition Is Critical | For all its sleek iThing patina today, the origins of the wireless communications revolution had a decidedly Wild West feel. At the dawn of the cellular phone age, in the early 1980s, the federal government faced a crucial decision: who should get the rights to send signals across the public airwaves, potentially cracking the monopoly of the wired telephone companies? At first, officials chose big cities to introduce the technology, conducting an endless bureaucratic procedure called “comparative hearings” in which they sought to select the best among rival bids. That proved so time-consuming that they soon turned to what seemed a more effective route: give away the rights to use the electromagnetic spectrum through a lottery. They were not prepared, however, for the gold rush that followed. “People tried to get more balls in the lottery drum,” recalled Lawrence Krevor, vice president for government affairs at Sprint Nextel, who co-wrote the lottery order when he was a lawyer at the Federal Communications Commission’s wireless division. “Their wife applied; their parakeet applied; their dog applied.” Dentists, hairdressers, truck drivers, you name it, got together in syndicates to enter the lottery in hundreds of service areas around the country. They used “application mills” like Romulus Engineering of San Francisco, which for $275,000 offered a package of bids in all the 422 rural service areas in the country, with a line of credit from equipment manufacturers to prove their financial wherewithal. Ostensibly committed to deliver cellular phone service wherever they won a license, many winners instead immediately sold the license to a bona fide phone operator. And they made a bundle. The actor Ernest Borgnine hit the jackpot, as part of a syndicate. So did Chuck Hagel, the current defense secretary. Mark R. Warner, now a Democratic senator from Virginia, made a fortune by brokering spectrum between the lucky few and those who bought their licenses. Image A cellphone antenna tower. The F.C.C. allowed AT&T and Verizon to buy a large portion of the spectrum in a 2008 auction. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press The only outfit that didn’t make any money from the process seems to have been the United States government. Now, Washington is back in the business of putting vast chunks of wireless spectrum on the market. It has learned an important lesson: since 1993, the F.C.C. has leased spectrum to the highest bidder using Dutch auctions. From 2001 to 2010, it reaped a hefty $33 billion on behalf of taxpayers. But there is another lesson that the political system has not learned as well: how to foster competition. Cheap, competitive wireless broadband will be absolutely crucial for advancing the frontier of the digital economy. Yet as the government prepares to sell perhaps the last big chunk of valuable low-frequency spectrum that will be made available for wireless communications and mobile computing, pressure from Congress to raise as much money as possible threatens to get in the way of this objective. The F.C.C. expects to complete the two-part deal by next year, or 2015 at the latest. It will first offer television broadcasters an opportunity to sell their rights to a crucial portion of the spectrum, hoping that many of the marginal channels in big cities offering reruns of “I Love Lucy” and “Hawaii Five-O” will welcome the opportunity to cash out. The agency wants to acquire up to 120 Megahertz of spectrum, with 40 to 80 MHz being the more realistic goal. It will reorganize the spectrum into a big contiguous band — moving TV broadcasters into one compact block — and auction it off to wireless companies that value it much more highly. A critical concern is that AT&T and Verizon Wireless have deep enough pockets and a clear interest in keeping competitors out at any price. The two companies control roughly two-thirds of the cellular communications market and hold the licenses to 80 percent of the far-reaching, low-frequency spectrum most valued by mobile providers. Seizing on the government’s thirst for revenue, the two dominant carriers are hard at work to convince Congress that imposing limits on the spectrum they are allowed to buy would drastically reduce the amount of money the government would generate. “The reduced auction revenues would mean less (and potentially no) broadcast spectrum cleared for mobile wireless use and less (or no) surplus available to fund the Spectrum Act’s other goals,” AT&T wrote to the F.C.C. in April. Congress should not take the bait. Ten years after the 1980s lotteries started, cellphone service across the country still cost about 10 times as much per minute as a landline call. This was probably because only two wireless providers had been licensed in each service area, one of which was owned by the landline company itself. Video Wireless companies say that smartphones are threatening to overwhelm their networks, and are asking the government for help. But some experts maintain that technology already has the answers. Competition briefly flourished in the 1990s. After Congress and the Clinton administration agreed to release a new batch of spectrum that allowed new entrants like Sprint into the wireless market, the price of wireless telephone service fell by a third. Consolidation soon followed, pretty much unimpeded by the F.C.C. and Bush administration antitrust regulators. By 2004, AT&T and Verizon Wireless had nearly 60 percent of the market and wireless prices had broken their fall. Despite the established dominance of AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the F.C.C. allowed them to buy 80 percent of the spectrum in the last big auction of prized TV broadcast spectrum in 2008. Lacking adequate financial resources in the middle of the recession, Sprint and T-Mobile, the ailing third and fourth national mobile carriers, didn’t even bid. The Obama administration is trying to foster more competition. Last year, the Justice Department and the F.C.C. denied AT&T permission to acquire T-Mobile. The acquisition would have given AT&T a 45 percent national market share and entrenched a de facto duopoly which, said a former F.C.C. chairman, Julius Genachowski, “would have been terrible for our innovation economy.” These days, Sprint and T-Mobile are in better shape. In a letter last April, the Justice Department’s antitrust division urged the F.C.C. to set some limits on the spectrum that the larger carriers could acquire “to ensure that the two smaller nationwide carriers are not foreclosed from access” to the valued low-frequency airwaves. Experts like Mark N. Cooper, the research director for the Consumer Federation of America, argue that imposing caps on the big carriers might even increase rather than reduce overall revenue, because it would encourage the participation of smaller rivals who otherwise would stay out. House Republicans remain unconvinced. Instead of defending a competitive market, a group of Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee submitted a letter to the F.C.C. arguing that putting limits on Verizon’s and AT&T’s participation would mean less revenue available to pay broadcasters, build a planned public safety broadband network and reduce the deficit. “The D.O.J. submission appears oblivious of these multiple goals,” they wrote. Forgetting competition, though, would be the worst way to go. As the D.O.J.’s antitrust experts noted in their letter, an auction would be the best way to allocate spectrum if the market were truly competitive, “on the theory that the highest bidder, i.e., the one with the highest private value, will also generate the greatest benefits to consumers.” But that’s not the case when one or two firms control the market. Allowing an oligopoly to stifle the wireless economy would be costly for everybody. | Wireless;Competition law;US Politics;FCC;AT&T;Verizon Communications;Senate;Congress;House of Representatives;Congress |
ny0209997 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2009/12/01 | China Pushes Back Against Calls for Yuan Rise | NANJING, CHINA — China pushed back Monday against calls to let its currency rise, with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warning that an appreciation in the yuan could hobble Chinese growth. Speaking to reporters after a summit meeting with the European Union, Mr. Wen said the demands being made of Beijing to let the yuan strengthen were not fair. He reaffirmed China’s determination to take its own, gradual steps with regards to the currency but said that for now the yuan, also known as the renminbi, would be kept steady. “In this international financial crisis of a kind rarely seen in history, maintaining the basic stability of the renminbi exchange rate has benefited China’s economic development and benefited world economic recovery,” Mr. Wen said. “Now some countries, on the one hand, want the renminbi to appreciate but, on the other hand, engage in brazen trade protectionism against China,” he said. “This is unfair. In fact, it amounts to restricting China’s development.” The E.U. had pushed China to rethink its currency position at the summit meeting, saying the weak yuan, combined with the weak dollar, was hurting European exports. But Mr. Wen swatted away the bloc’s complaints, defending the policy and attacking critics as promoters of a dangerous protectionism that threatened the global economic recovery. The United States in particular has taken a number of steps recently to slow a surge in low-priced imports from China in sectors including steel, tires and paper. “Faced with the present complex economic conditions, we must appropriately handle trade friction and not engage in trade protectionism,” Mr. Wen said. The contentious question of the yuan’s exchange rate has dominated two days of talks with an array of high-ranking E.U. policy makers in this eastern Chinese city. The E.U. is China’s biggest market, absorbing 20 percent of its exports, and runs a large bilateral trade deficit with China. The three top economic officials representing the 16 E.U. members that use the euro pleaded Sunday for a renewed gradual rise in the yuan, which China has virtually pegged to around 6.83 per dollar since July 2008 to help its exporters weather the global credit crunch. The European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, also pressed those demands Sunday, telling Mr. Wen that the low value of the yuan was hurting parts of the E.U. economy. But in his remarks to reporters on Monday, Mr. Barroso did not mention the yuan, and he abruptly cancelled another news conference about the E.U.-China summit. A joint statement issued by the two sides was also devoid of any comments on the currency dispute. While Mr. Wen refused to yield ground on the yuan, he struck a conciliatory tone about another issue important to E.U. leaders: global warming. Mr. Wen said that China would deliver on a promise to curb carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels. China’s vow last week to cut “carbon intensity” — the carbon dioxide released in generating each yuan of economic output — by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels, was an earnest pledge, Mr. Wen said. But he also restated China’s position that developed countries must lead the way in climate change talks starting next week in Copenhagen by offering big cuts in carbon emissions. Advanced economies must also make financing and technology available to developing countries so that they can tackle global warming, Mr. Wen added. | Economic Conditions and Trends;China;Yuan (Currency);Wen Jiabao |
ny0265763 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2016/03/27 | Things to Do in Connecticut, March 26 Through April 3 | A guide to cultural and recreational events in Connecticut. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to [email protected]. Comedy BRIDGEPORT “It’s All Fun and Games,” improvisation. Through April 8. $10 to $25. The Bijou Theater, 275 Fairfield Avenue. 203-332-3228; thebijoutheatre.com. COLLINSVILLE The April Fools’ Comedy Night, with headliner Ben Hague. April 1 at 8 p.m. $15 and $25. Bridge Street Live, 41 Bridge Street. 860-693-9762; 41bridgestreet.com. MANCHESTER John Witherspoon. March 26. $25. Rich Vos. March 31 through April 3. $12 and $15. The Hartford Funny Bone, 194 Buckland Hills Drive. 860-432-8600; hartford.funnybone.com. MASHANTUCKET David Cross. March 26 at 8 p.m. $34. Fox Theater, Foxwoods Resort Casino, 350 Trolley Line Boulevard. 800-200-2882; foxwoods.com. UNCASVILLE Taylor Williamson. March 26. Adam Ferrara. April 1 and 2. $25 to $60. Comix Mohegan Sun, 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard. 860-862-7000; comixcomedy.com. WESTPORT Mitchell Walters, Vincent McElhone and Eric Haft. March 26 at 9 p.m. $20. Treehouse Comedy, at Bistro B, 1595 Post Road East. treehousecomedy.com; 203-268-5857. Film FAIRFIELD “The Sleeping Beauty,” Moscow Festival Ballet. April 2 at 8 p.m. $5 to $50. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road. 203-254-4010; quickcenter.fairfield.edu. HARTFORD “Spotlight” (2015), directed by Tom McCarthy. March 26. $7 and $9. “45 Years” (2015), directed by Andrew Haigh. March 27, 28 and 29. “The Big Short” (2015), directed by Adam McKay. March 30 through April 2. $7 and $9. Cinestudio, 300 Summit Street. 860-297-2463; cinestudio.org. HARTFORD “Colliding Dreams” (2015), directed by Joseph Dorman and Oren Rudavsky. Through March 31. “Landfill Harmonic” (2015), directed by Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley. Through March 31. $4.50 to $11. Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor Street. 860-232-1006; realartways.org. OLD SAYBROOK “The Met: Live in HD — ‘Madama Butterfly.’ ” April 2 through 5. $25 and $28. The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main Street. 877-503-1286; thekate.org. For Children BRIDGEPORT “James and the Giant Peach,” musical. Through April 3. $19 and $23. Downtown Cabaret Theater, 263 Golden Hill Street. 203-576-1636; dtcab.com. NEW BRITAIN “Handscapes,” youth drawing class. Through March 30. $22 for the month, $12 for members. New Britain Museum of American Art, 56 Lexington Street. 860-229-0257; nbmaa.org. Music and Dance DANBURY “The Sixties Show,” tribute. April 2 at 8 p.m. $40. The Palace Theater, 165 Main Street. thepalacedanbury.com; 203-794-9944. BRIDGEPORT Ricardo Sopin and Iraida Volodina, American rhythm dancing. March 26 at 9:30 p.m. $17. Premier Ballroom at Holy Trinity Greek Church, 4070 Park Avenue. 203-374-7308; premierballroomdance.net. COLLINSVILLE Switch Factory, bluegrass and folk. March 26 at 8 p.m. $10 and $20. Bridge Street Live, 41 Bridge Street. 860-693-9762; 41bridgestreet.com. FAIRFIELD “The Met: Live in HD — Madama Butterfly.” April 3 at 1 and 6 p.m. $5 to $25. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road. quickcenter.fairfield.edu; 203-254-4010. FAIRFIELD Mystic Bowie, reggae. March 26 at 7:45 p.m. $22 and $25. Robben Ford, blues. March 29 at 7:45 p.m. $45 and $48. John Brown’s Body, reggae. March 30 at 8 p.m. $22 and $25. The New Riders of the Purple Sage, rock. March 31 at 7:45 p.m. Early Elton, tribute. April 1 at 7:45 p.m. $35 and $38. Lucy Kaplansky, folk. April 2 at 7:45 p.m. $29 and $32. David Wax Museum, indie-folk. April 3 at 7:45 p.m. $28. StageOne, Fairfield Theater Company, 70 Sanford Street. fairfieldtheatre.org; 203-259-1036. HARTFORD Kimock, rock. March 26 at 8 p.m. $24 to $39. The Subdudes, roots rock. April 1 at 8:30 p.m. $39 to $77. The New Riders of the Purple Sage, rock. April 2 at 8 p.m. $34 to $49. Citizen Cope, singer-songwriter. April 3 at 7:30 p.m. $40 to $55. Infinity Hall Hartford, 32 Front Street. infinityhall.com; 860-560-7757. HARTFORD Rihanna: Anti World Tour. March 26 at 7:30 p.m. $30.50 to $126.00. “Spring Fling,” with Cage the Elephant, Silversun Pickups and others. March 30 at 7 p.m. $33.50 and $43.50. XL Center, 1 Civic Center Plaza. 860-249-6333; xlcenter.com. LITCHFIELD “Brubecks Play Brubeck,” jazz. March 28 at 7 p.m. $25 to $100. St. Michaels, 25 South Street. brubecks.bpt.me; 860-567-9465. LITCHFIELD The Kerry Boys, Irish music. March 30 at 7 p.m. Free. Oliver Wolcott Library, 160 South Street. owlibrary.org; 860-567-8030. MASHANTUCKET The Cult, rock. April 3 at 7 p.m. $40 and $50. Fox Theater, Foxwoods Resort Casino, 350 Trolley Line Boulevard. 800-200-2882; foxwoods.com. MIDDLETOWN “A Night in Ancient and New China,” Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet. April 1 at 8 p.m. $6 to $22. Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University, 283 Washington Terrace. wesleyan.edu/cfa; 860-685-3355. MILFORD Gull and Gannet Frenzy, New Haven Bird Club Field Trip in Stratford. April 2 at 11:30 a.m. Free. New Haven Bird Club, 203-984-9410; newhavenbirdclub.org. NEW HAVEN Joe Satriani, rock. March 29 at 8 p.m. $19.50 to $300. The Mountain Goats, folk rock. April 2 at 8 p.m. $25. “Africa Salon Concert,” with Thomas Mapfumo, Blitz the Ambassador and Wambura Mitaru. April 3 at 7 p.m. $10 to $20. College Street Music Hall, 238 College Street. collegestreetmusichall.com; 877-987-6487. NEW HAVEN Will Vinson Quartet, jazz. April 1 at 8:30 and 10 p.m. $15 and $20. Firehouse 12, 45 Crown Street. firehouse12.com; 203-785-0468. NEW HAVEN McLovins, funk-rock. March 26 at 8 p.m. $10 and $12. Turkuaz, funk. April 1 at 9 p.m. $15. Toad’s Place, 300 York Street. 203-624-8623; toadsplace.com. NEW LONDON “Sweet Honey in the Rock,” performance ensemble. April 1 at 7:30 p.m. $14 to $28. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Avenue. conncoll.edu/events/concerts; 860-439-2787. NORFOLK Soul Sound Revue, R&B. March 26 at 8 p.m. $29 to $39. The Subdudes, roots rock. April 2 at 8 p.m. $39 to $59. “Rave On,” tribute to Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. April 3 at 1:30 p.m. $24 to $34. Infinity Hall, 20 Greenwoods Road. 866-666-6306; infinityhall.com. OLD LYME Ravi Coltrane, saxophone. March 26. $43.19. Bobby Broom Trio, jazz. April 1 at 8:30 p.m. $41.61. Allan Harris, jazz. April 2 at 8:30 p.m. $37.92. The Side Door, 85 Lyme Street. 860-434-0886; thesidedoorjazz.com. OLD SAYBROOK Michael Packer Blues Band. March 26 at 8 p.m. $25. The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main Street. 877-503-1286; thekate.org. RIDGEFIELD The Ann Wilson Thing, blues and rock. March 26 at 8 p.m. $90. Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road. 203-438-5795; ridgefieldplayhouse.org. STAMFORD The Michael Weiss Quartet, jazz. April 2 at 9 p.m. $20. The 9th Note Jazz Club, 15 Bank Street. 203-504-8858; the9thnote.com. STORRS “Swan Lake,” Moscow Festival Ballet. April 1 at 8 p.m. $32 to $40. Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, 2132 Hillside Road. jorgensen.uconn.edu; 860-486-4226. UNCASVILLE Autograph, rock. March 26 at 8 p.m. The Cartells, jazz and rock. March 27 at 7 p.m. Free. Tony Bennett, jazz. April 1 at 8 p.m. $39 and $59. Reel Big Fish, ska-punk. April 2 at 8 p.m. Free. Mohegan Sun, 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard. mohegansun.com; 888-226-7711. WATERBURY Dancing in the Streets: Motown Revue. April 2 at 8 p.m. $39.50 to $64.50. Palace Theater of Connecticut, 100 East Main Street. palacetheaterct.org; 203-755-4700. WILTON Darius, Dan and Chris Brubeck, jazz, with Dave O’Higgins, saxophone. March 26 at 7:30 p.m. Suggested donation: $10. Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road. wiltonlibrary.org; 203-762-3950. Outdoors MILFORD Richard English Memorial Field Trip, New Haven Bird Club. April 2 at 8:30 a.m. Free. New Haven Bird Club, 203-288-1891; newhavenbirdclub.org. Spoken Word HARTFORD “The Mouth: April Fools — Stories About Getting Duped.” April 1 at 7:30 p.m. $5. The Mark Twain House and Museum, 351 Farmington Avenue. 860-247-0998; marktwainhouse.org. SOUTHPORT “Fantastic Finds,” Susan Whitcomb presents five items from Pequot Library’s collection of rare books and manuscripts from William Shakespeare. April 1 at 10:45 a.m. Free. Pequot Library, 720 Pequot Avenue. pequotlibrary.com; 203-259-0346. Theater BRIDGEPORT “Evita,” musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. March 26. $21 and $28. Downtown Cabaret Theater, 263 Golden Hill Street. 203-576-1636; dtcab.com. HARTFORD “Motown the Musical.” Through March 27. $25.50 to $95.50. Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, 166 Capitol Avenue. 860-987-5900; bushnell.org. HARTFORD “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” play by Emily Mann. March 31 through April 24. $25 to $85. Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street. 860-527-5151; hartfordstage.org. HARTFORD “Sex With Strangers,” drama by Laura Eason. Through April 17. $15 to $65. TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl Street. theaterworkshartford.org; 860-527-7838. NEW BRITAIN “Hair,” musical. Through April 3. $22 and $26. Trinity-On-Main, 69 Main Street. 860-229-2072; trinityonmain.org. NEW HAVEN “Love Letters,” play by A. R. Gurney. March 29 through April 10. $30.50 to $84.50. Long Wharf Theater, 222 Sargent Drive. longwharf.org; 203-787-4282. NEW HAVEN “Annie,” musical. March 29 through April 3. $12 to $97. Shubert Theater, 247 College Street. 203-562-5666; shubert.com. Image NEW CANAAN “Saltern Study 04, Great Salt Lake, UT” (2015), archival pigment print by David Burdeny, appears in the group show “Defying Perceptions” through April 9 at Heather Gaudio Fine Art, 66 Elm Street. For further information: 203-801-9590 or heathergaudiofineart.com . Credit David Burdeny NEW HAVEN “Cymbeline,” directed by Evan Yionoulis. Through April 16. $20 to $86. University Theater, 222 York Street. 203-432-4158; yale.edu/arts. NEW LONDON “Million Dollar Quartet,” musical. April 1 at 8 p.m. $38 to $65. Garde Arts Center, 325 State Street. 860-444-7373; gardearts.org. STAMFORD “Steppin’ Out With Ben Vereen,” Broadway songs. March 31 at 8 p.m. $35 to $70. The Palace Theater, 61 Atlantic Street. palacestamford.org; 203-325-4466. STORRS “The M.F.A. Puppet Arts Festival.” Through April 3. $21 and $30. Connecticut Repertory Theater, 802 Bolton Road. 860-486-2113; crt.uconn.edu. WEST HARTFORD “Superstition,” dance theater. March 30 through April 10. $15 to $35. Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road. 860-523-5900; playhouseonpark.org. Museums and Galleries CENTERBROOK “Text Messages,” group exhibition. Through May 15. Wednesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sundays, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Spectrum Gallery, 61 Main Street. 860-767-0742; spectrumartgallery.org. COS COB “Close to the Wind: Our Maritime History,” exhibition on Greenwich history. March 30 through Sept. 4. $8 and $10; members and children under 6, free. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Greenwich Historical Society, 39 Strickland Road. greenwichhistory.org; 203-869-6899. DANBURY “Off Peak,” photographs by Phyllis Crowley. April 2 through May 27. Reception: April 2, 2 to 4 p.m. Weekdays, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Gallery at Still River Editions, 128 East Liberty Street. stillrivereditions.com; 203-791-1474. DARIEN “Still Life Under Northern Light,” oil paintings by Murray Smith. Through March 31. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Geary Gallery, 576 Boston Post Road. 203-655-6633; gearygallery.com. FAIRFIELD “Floradora,” paintings by Susanne Andover Keany and Mollie Keller. Through March 27. Thursdays through Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 2 to 5 p.m. Art/Place Gallery, 70 Sanford Street. artplacegallery.org; 203-912-0044. FAIRFIELD “Look at Me! Recording and Sharing Our Selves,” group show. Through May 1. “Fabulous Animals: The Illustrated World of Robert Lawson.” April 1 through Sept. 18. $3 and $5; members and children 5 and under, free. Daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fairfield Museum and History Center, 370 Beach Road. 203-259-1598; fairfieldhistory.org. FAIRFIELD “Visions,” works by Bruce Horan, Dan Lenore and Trace Burroughs. Through April 24. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fairfield Public Library, 1080 Old Post Road. fairfieldpubliclibrary.org; 203-256-3155. GREENWICH “Secrets of Fossil Lake,” paleontology. Through April 17. “And Still We Rise: Race, Culture and Visual Conversations,” 40 quilts from artists of the Women of Color Quilters Network. Through April 24. “Mianus River Gorge: Photographs by William Abranowicz.” Through June 5. “Wild Reading: Animals in Children’s Book Art.” March 26 through July 3. $6 and $7; members and children under 5, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive. 203-869-0376; brucemuseum.org. GREENWICH “Wildlife Art: Field to Studio,” group exhibition. Through May 4. Mondays through Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Flinn Gallery, 101 West Putnam Avenue. 203-622-7947; flinngallery.com. HAMDEN “In the Lion’s Den: Daniel Macdonald, Ireland and Empire.” Through April 17. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, Quinnipiac University, 3011 Whitney Avenue. ighm.nfshost.com; 203-582-6500. HAMDEN “The Seed of the People: 1916 Remembered,” Irish history exhibition. Through Sept. 30. Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel. 203-582-7809; quinnipiac.edu. HARTFORD “Multiple Impressions,” group show. Through April 21. “Desperate Cargo,” sculpture and installation by Mohamad Hafez. Through April 24. “Vestiges From a Dream Pool,” sculpture by Heidi Lau. Through April 28. “Alina Gallo: Keleti Station.” Through April 30. Suggested donation, $3; members and cinema patrons, free. Daily, 2 to 9 p.m. and by appointment. Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor Street. 860-232-1006; realartways.org. HARTFORD “Sound and Sense: Poetic Musings in American Art,” Georgia O’Keeffe and others. Through April 17. “The End of Innocence: Childhood Torments in the Contemporary Art Collection.” Through June 12. “Gothic to Goth: Romantic Era Fashion and Its Legacy.” Through July 10. “40 acres: The Promise of a Black Pastoral.” Through Oct. 1. “Miniature World in White Gold: Meissen Porcelain by Johann Joachim Kaendler.” Through Jan. 16. $5 to $15; members and children under 12, free. Wednesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Weekends, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street. thewadsworth.org; 860-278-2670. MADISON “Spring Into Art,” realist paintings. Through April 2. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Susan Powell Fine Art, 679 Boston Post Road. 203-318-0616; susanpowellfineart.com. MYSTIC “Young at Art,” group show. Through April 9. “Drawn From a Private Collection: Works on Paper From 1880-2009.” Through April 19. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mystic Museum of Art, 9 Water Street. 860-536-7601; mysticmuseumofart.org. NEW BRITAIN “Andy Warhol to Sally Mann: The Collection of Kevin McNamara and Craig Nowak.” Through April 17. “New/Now: Clinton Deckert.” Through June 7. “Cycle of Life in Print: Salvador Dalí.” Through June 26. $10 to $15; members and children under 12, free. Sundays through Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. New Britain Museum of American Art, 56 Lexington Street. 860-229-0257; nbmaa.org. NEW CANAAN “Tell Me Who I Am,” group show. Through March 27. “Evidence of Nature,” mixed media works by Constance Kiermaier. March 31 through May 8. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. New Canaan Library, 151 Main Street. 203-594-5003; newcanaanlibrary.org. NEW CANAAN “Thunder Umbrella,” group show. “John Altoon: Selections From the About Women Series.” “Viewing Room: Karen Neems, Spatial Choreography.” Through April 8. Wednesdays through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. and by appointment. Silvermine Arts Center Galleries, 1037 Silvermine Road. silvermineart.org; 203-966-9700. NEW CANAAN “Glimpses Within,” works by Julia Contacessi and Jane Schmidt. Through April 18. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Sorelle Gallery Fine Art, 84 Main Street. 203-920-1900; sorellegallery.com. NEW HAVEN “In the Clouds,” works by Nancy Eisenfeld. Through April 3. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment. City Gallery, 994 State Street. 203-782-2489; city-gallery.org. NEW HAVEN “Night,” photographs by David Ottenstein. Through March 31. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. DaSilva Gallery, 897 Whalley Avenue. dasilva-gallery.com; 203-387-2539. NEW HAVEN Works by Tom Burckhardt and Becca Lowry. Through April 2. Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Fred Giampietro Gallery, 1064 Chapel Street. 203-777-7760; giampietrogallery.com. NEW HAVEN “From Clocks to Lollipops: Made in New Haven.” Through Sept. 3. $2 to $4; children under 12, free. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.; first Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Avenue. 203-562-4183; newhavenmuseum.org. NEW HAVEN Works by Stacey Alickman and Michelle Benoit. Through April 30. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Reynolds Fine Art, 96 Orange Street. 203-498-2200; reynoldsfineart.com. NEW HAVEN “Meant to Be Shared: Selections From the Arthur Ross Collection of European Prints at the Yale University Art Gallery.” Through April 24. “Everything Is Dada,” group show. Through July 3. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; weekends, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street. artgallery.yale.edu; 203-432-0600. NEW LONDON “Time and Again,” paintings by Michael Peery. Through April 24. “Dark Water, Deep Treasures: The Art of Discovery.” “Beyond Three Hundred Fathoms: Life at the Extremes.” Through May 16. “Herman Leonard: Jazz Memories.” Through May 29. $5 to $10; members and children under 12, free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams Street. lymanallyn.org; 860-443-2545. NORWALK “Welcome to Spring,” exhibition of paintings by Hunt Slonem. Through April 15. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Galerie Sono, 123 Washington Street. sonogalerie.com; 203-831-8332. NORWALK “Line,” New England Fashion and Design Association students. Through April 1. Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Maritime Garage Gallery, 11 North Water Street. 203-831-9063; norwalkpark.org. OLD LYME “Ten/Forty: Collecting American Art at the Florence Griswold Museum.” Through May 29. $8 to $10; children under 12, free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme Street. 860-434-5542; flogris.org. OLD LYME “Contemporary Look,” “Drawing Attention,” “Palate to Palette” and “Urban Landscape,” group shows. Through April 15. Suggested donation, $5. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Lyme Art Association Gallery, 90 Lyme Street. lymeartassociation.org; 860-434-7802. RIDGEFIELD “Evidence of Everything,” works by Steve DiBenedetto. “Hayal Pozanti: Deep Learning.” “Julia Rommel: Two Italians, Six Lifeguards,” paintings. “Ruth Root: Old, Odd and Oval,” paintings. Through April 3. $5 and $10. Members, K-12 teachers, active-service military families and children under 18, free. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 258 Main Street. aldrichart.org; 203-438-4519. ROXBURY “Across the River,” photographs by Colin Harrison. Through April 6. Mondays, noon to 7 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, noon to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Minor Memorial Library, 23 South Street. 860-350-2181; minormemoriallibrary.org. SHARON “How the West Was Won,” Matt Magee. March 31 through May 1. Reception: April 2, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Darren Winston, Bookseller, 81 Main Street. 860-364-1890. SOUTHPORT “Pages From Pequot: Uncovering Shakespeare,” items from Pequot Library’s Special Collections of rare books and materials. Through May 6. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pequot Library, 720 Pequot Avenue. 203-259-0346; pequotlibrary.com. STAMFORD “Why We All Need Art in Our Lives,” Carl Schumann. Through April 21. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. University of Connecticut Stamford Art Gallery, One University Place. artgallery.stamford.uconn.edu; 203-251-8450. STORRS M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition. Through May 10. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Weekends, 1 to 4:30 p.m. William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, 245 Glenbrook Road. 860-486-4520; benton.uconn.edu. TORRINGTON New Exhibition of Student Art Work. Through May 14. Nancy Marine Gallery of the Warner Theater, 68 Main Street. fivepointsgallery.org; 860-618-7222. WASHINGTON DEPOT “In the Paint,” Helen Cantrell, Lilly Woodworth and Susan Rand. Through April 7. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Washington Art Association, 4 Bryan Memorial Plaza. 860-868-2878; washingtonartassociation.org. WATERBURY “Victor Vasarely: The Absolute Eye.” Through April 10. “Legacy in Wood,” furniture by Thos. Moser. Through May 22. “What! Not White? The Victorian Bride.” Through May 29. $6 and $7; members and children under 16, free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Mattatuck Museum, 144 West Main Street. mattatuckmuseum.org; 203-753-0381. WESTPORT “Noir,” paintings, prints and drawings by Ann Chernow. Through April 23. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Avenue. 203-222-7070; westportartscenter.org. WESTPORT “Good Nature,” group show. Through April 23. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and by appointment. Amy Simon Fine Art, 1869 Post Road East. amysimonfineart.com; 203-259-1500. WINDSOR “Mixit Print Studio Trip,” group printmakers show. Through April 16. Weekdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:45 to 9:45 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Mercy Gallery, the Loomis Chaffee School, 4 Batchelder Road. 860-687-6030; loomischaffee.org/mercy. WINDSOR “Soulful Journeys,” works from the Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective. Through April 23. Thursdays, 6 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Windsor Art Center, 40 Mechanic Street. 860-688-2528; windsorartcenter.org. WOODBURY “Of Hues and Gazes,” photography by Paula F. McDonagh. Through 31. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Woodbury Public Library, 269 Main Street South. woodburylibraryct.org; 203-263-3502. | The arts;Music;Museum;Connecticut |
ny0049064 | [
"business",
"economy"
] | 2014/11/13 | U.S. Wholesalers’ Stockpiles and Sales Rose in September | Stockpiles at the wholesale level increased 0.3 percent in September after an 0.6 percent rise in August, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Sales by wholesalers rose 0.2 percent in September after a sharp 0.8 percent August decline. That big August setback in sales may have left businesses more cautious about restocking until they see more evidence of rising demand. Swings in inventories can have a big impact on overall economic growth. The inventory increase reflected a 0.8 percent rise in stockpiles of durable goods, with auto inventories rising 1.2 percent and furniture up 1.5 percent. Inventories of nondurable goods fell 0.6 percent with declines in a number of areas, led by a 5.3 percent drop in petroleum. | US Economy;Commerce Department |
ny0248574 | [
"business"
] | 2011/05/08 | Dominic Orr of Aruba Networks, on Intellectual Honesty | This interview with Dominic Orr, president and C.E.O. of Aruba Networks , a wireless networking company, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant . Q. What were some early lessons for you as a manager? A. The biggest feedback I had from my people is that I didn’t give them feedback. I was running along. I had a pretty high standard for myself, and I assumed that everybody who joined my team was operating at the same level. Good work was assumed, so I let them know only when something didn’t go well. People started telling me it would be nice if I gave them a pat on the back rather than only telling them when things were not good. Another thing I distinctly remember is that I had trouble having a difficult discussion with employees because, as a young manager, sometimes you don’t really know how to tell somebody to their face that they’re not doing a good job. I also struggled at first with this whole process of running a staff meeting. I remember bringing my H.R. person in to have her run meetings so that I wouldn’t take over, express my opinions and then everybody would sit there silently. Q. What are some other important leadership lessons? A. I have had a very good mentor — Wim Roelandts, who worked for H.P. for about three decades. He rose to become the No. 2 executive of H.P. under Lew Platt. He is someone who embraced the old H.P. way. Q. What were some lessons you learned from him? A. I would say empowering people. Basically, he would push you and give you as much as you could handle until you started failing. He would encourage you to not be afraid of failing — because when you start failing, that’s when you know where your limit is, and then you can improve around that. So he actually sometimes would reward failure because that means that you have pushed yourself. That is an unusual approach, so people under him tended to be able to really find their limits. And once they do that, they figure out a way to overcome it, because they don’t feel that inhibition. I think that is a very big thing. The whole H.P. way of management kind of molded my approach to managing people in business. Q. And boil that down for me. What is the H.P. way? A. Fundamentally, the H.P. way started with the basic assumption that each employee wants to do well, and they are capable of doing well, so as a manager you have to give them that environment to flourish. When someone does not perform, the first reaction is not to get angry at them or assume that they are incompetent, but to question whether they have they been matched to the right assignment. From the background, from the skill set, have you created a productive environment for them? So the first question as a manager is, have you done something wrong? Q. Tell me about the culture of the company you run today. A. I use a simple principle of management based on intellectual honesty. You try to be intellectually honest with yourself, meaning that you have to forget about all the face-saving issues and so on. I tell people that if you work for me, you have to have a thick skin because there’s no time to posture. I also tell people that everybody can be and will be momentarily stupid. I think that in many large companies, a lot of politics arise because somebody makes a statement in a meeting, and then it’s weeks of wasted time and effort because they have to dig in to defend that position, and then politics come into play because they now want to lobby for their position. So when I interview key executives of my staff, I tell them that they need to accept that they can be, and will be, momentarily stupid. If they can accept that and be able to say, “Oh, I was momentarily stupid; let’s move on,” then you don’t waste time dealing with that. Q. How has your leadership style evolved over time? A. The big thing that has changed from 25 years ago is how much I think about the power of the team. I used to, for example, look for two things in people: one is whether I clicked with somebody, and then I would look for best-in-class competence and star performance in a certain discipline, regardless of how they work with others. Now, whenever I’m interviewing for a new executive in any discipline, I look at how they might enhance the capability of the team. Can the dynamics work? And can this person rotate to do some other things? So I would say as I mature, I focus more and more on the performance of the team versus the performance of the individuals. Q. What else are you looking for when you’re interviewing? A. I tend to spend more and more time just understanding where they’re coming from, and do they jibe with me in terms of fundamental human decisions, not just work decisions. Obviously, everybody has different styles and values about family and hobbies, and different dynamics in the way they interact with society. But fundamentally I believe people work for three things. People work for impact — for the company or the industry or humankind. Right? They want to have fun. And they want to get rewarded, and people get rewarded in different ways — through praise, or financial returns. So, ultimately, I try to gauge how the people I’m interviewing are operating on those three dimensions, and then can they have those in this company, in my environment. Can I give this person the impact? Can I give him or her the fun? Is the compensation appropriate? Ultimately, I would say I look for people who have the passion to make the impact, and the passion will be tied to the fun. Because if don’t have the passion, it’s very hard to have the fun component work out. Q. How do you get feedback on how you manage? A. I try to set an example and to be very thick-skinned. I have a very open door. I encourage a lot of feedback so that my staff has no inhibitions to just tell me that I was momentarily stupid or I actually was wrong in some way. Sometimes I argue. Sometimes in the end I’ll say, “I still want to go with my hunch.” I think I would fail in this whole management philosophy if my staff couldn’t be intellectually honest with me. That’s one principle I try very, very hard to set by example. Q. And how do you put that into effect so people don’t take it personally? A. Just recently I handled one of those moments. I sometimes write an e-mail to someone and will add a section that begins, “Start of intellectual honesty moment,” and then I will be just doubly hard on them, and then I will write, “End moment,” and then I continue the e-mail. So you create, really, a little space for people. The point is to be very honest, and I try to do it one on one so they save face. The major thing you want to accomplish is to not make it personal. Then people will feel that you’re not attacking them. You’re just attacking the issue, the fact that he was behaving a certain way and you make it very kind of private. Having said that, I would add that I still do have occasional outbursts in my staff meetings, mainly either because I wanted to get a point across to the group or because I am genuinely upset when I feel there has been silent disagreement from somebody or if they have stubbornly not aligned with the team’s goal. Q. Why do think this is so important to your culture? A. You look at the competitive space we’re in. The only reason we have come so far and we’ll be able to sustain our gains in market share is because we have more focus and we move faster. I tell everybody, “If you think we have better talent than our competitors, dream on, because they have very deep talent, too.” The only thing that we can do is we can focus and we can move faster. And the one thing that allows me to move faster than the much bigger companies I compete with is I have less politics. The way I want to encourage my team is to tell them that we aspire to be the largest small company in our space, and the smallest part is about me not wanting to give up the speed. I don’t want politicking, and I’m truly convinced that politics arise because people dig into their position because they have ego tied to it. I’m trying to extend my speed as long as possible, and I defuse a lot of politics by telling people: “You don’t need to dig into your position. Just be intellectually honest.” That’s my tool to break up all these potential blocks of ice that then maybe become icebergs. Q. What else do you do to create that culture? A. At Aruba, if you distill our culture into one phrase, it’s customer first/customer last. The company is organized around solving big customer issues, winning new accounts. I find it’s very pragmatic. If you can create a culture that’s all customer-first, it becomes the lens for looking at problems that might otherwise be looked at in many different ways. And it also becomes a tiebreaker. When many people say, “I want to do it this way,” they’ll say, “Have you asked the customer?” If you are the customer, how do you think about it? I find that so many times it just makes the battle easier. It helps get the whole company marching in one direction. Q. What else is unusual about your culture? A. Two years ago, we adopted this new policy for all North American employees — a no-vacation policy. Basically there is no fixed vacation. There used to be a two-week vacation starting out, one week sick time. We realized it’s very hard. Some people work throughout the weekend. Others work at home, and then they need to take three hours, four hours off to go to the dentist, and you say it’s comp time. So having to track all this becomes very amorphous and hard. Fundamentally we’re saying that you of course should take time for vacation, as long as you make sure you also get your work done. Employees discuss it with their supervisors, and it has worked. For two years now, there’s no change of vacation habits. So, basically, what we realized in this day and age — and in our industry, which is information-driven — what you really want is the mind-share of your employees, not timeshare. In fact, you actually get a more powerful work force. You get more of their time when you’re saying do it anywhere, and they end up giving you more mind-share, which is more important than giving you more timeshare. So that really is a big enlightenment for me in this job — that the work force, the workplace, is fundamentally transformed because of technology. Q. Did some people say the new vacation policy was a risky step? A. Believe me, we had a huge debate. Some people said, “You’re putting pressure on me.” What you’re really putting pressure on is for them to set really clear, effective and measurable milestones. So you are really requiring managers to be much crisper in terms of expectations. That was kind of the tension, but now. two years afterward, we haven’t seen any abuse of the system. Q. How would you summarize your leadership philosophy? A. I think a leader ultimately has to lead with the heart, lead by example and lead with passion. Many people can have the strategy. They can explain things. A lot of people have the analytical skills, but fundamentally I think great leadership means that the people who you’re leading feel you, and sometimes you don’t even need to say a lot of words. And the way they feel you is they know that you care, that you believe in what you say. You have the passion and you live by it. | Executives and Management;Hiring and Promotion;Paid Time Off;Aruba Networks Inc;Orr Dominic |
ny0237864 | [
"sports"
] | 2010/06/08 | Poor Ratings for Belmont Stakes | The Belmont Stakes won by Drosselmeyer on Saturday generated a 3.0 rating for ABC, with an average of 4.86 million viewers, one of the Triple Crown race’s worst performances ever. The rating fell 32 percent and the viewership dropped 27 percent from last year, when Summer Bird won.The figures are from the period from 5:24 to 7:10 p.m. eastern, which is called the race portion. By comparison, the 2007 race, which was won by Rags to Riches, had a slightly higher rating of a 3.2, but its viewership was the same as Saturday’s. In 2000, Commendale’s victory had a 2.8 rating with 3.8 million viewers, but those figures are for the full telecast, not just the race portion, as designated by the network. In 1996, when Editor’s Note won, the full broadcast produced a 2.9 rating with a 3.68 million viewers. Belmont viewership is often low when a Triple Crown is not at stake, as was the case Saturday. ABC was also hurt by the absence of Super Saver, the Kentucky Derby winner, and Lookin at Lucky, the Preakness Stakes winner. | Belmont Stakes;Television;Horse Racing;Ratings and Rating Systems |
ny0100303 | [
"sports"
] | 2015/12/20 | Letters to the Editor | Turning to Medical Professionals for Treatment of Migraines To the Sports Editor: Re “ ‘You Can’t Put Ice Over a Migraine,’ a Lurking Malady in the N.F.L.,” Dec. 13: As a headache specialist and epidemiologist who has published research on improving migraine diagnosis and management for migraine, I applaud The New York Times for shedding light on the challenges of migraine diagnosis and treatment within the United States population. However, I am disappointed that your article did not focus on the evidence-based treatments for migraine, and instead mentioned “treatments” that are not considered evidence-based. In addition, neurologists and headache specialists are trained physicians in evaluating and treating this highly prevalent and disabling condition. In fact, there are over 500 United Council of Neurologic Subspecialties certified headache specialists in the country. Perhaps the article could have encouraged individuals to seek professional medical help from a trained medical provider. MIA MINEN, New York The writer is director of the New York University Langone Headache Center. A Horse Is Not a Person To the Sports Editor: Sports Illustrated has named Serena Williams as the newly rechristened honor of Sportsperson of the Year. She is clearly a worthy recipient. But American Pharoah was a finalist for this newly renamed award. Huh? Though the Supreme Court has anointed corporations as persons, neither it, nor any other body of substance, has done the same for those of the equine persuasion. If a thoroughbred can be Sportsperson of the Year, could I be in the running for horse of the year? ANDREW E. RUBIN, Marina del Rey, Calif. A Sport Denounced To the Sports Editor: Re “Conor McGregor Ends Title Bout With One Punch,” Dec. 14: Your coverage of the mixed martial arts fight between Conor McGregor and José Aldo was offensive and gratuitous. The video of Conor leveling Aldo and pummeling his face on the ground was an example of the mindless brutality of this “sport.” The broad coverage of Ronda Rousey, including her loss to Holly Holm, was similarly graphic and unnecessary. Mixed martial arts may be called a sport, but it is a primitive and disgusting one. It desensitizes its wild-eyed fans, who seem to derive great glee from the barbaric sight of two men or two women brutalizing each other. Might The New York Times consider ending its complicity with this awful activity? STEVE NELSON, New York Soldier Field Loses Status To the Sports Editor: Re “Still Standing in Chicago,” Dec. 13: Michael Beschloss’s article about Chicago’s Soldier Field omits an essential postscript: The United States Interior Department, following the recommendation of the National Park Service, stripped the renovated stadium (originally known as Grant Park Stadium) of National Historic Landmark status in 2006. The decision, which the Park Service based on “incompatible construction and the destruction of substantial historic material,” sent a strong message: Changes to the nation’s most venerated structures should respect, not destroy, the integrity of the original design. BLAIR KAMIN, Chicago The writer is The Chicago Tribune’s architecture critic. Gift Idea’s Message To the Sports Editor: Re “A Time Machine and Gifts That Are Less Realistic,” Dec. 13: After reading through nearly two pages of wonderful sports fantasy gifts, I was disgusted to find that your “editing elves” thought an appropriate choice of fantasy was for someone to wish to intentionally hurt an athlete. Chase Utley is a great ballplayer, always playing his hardest to help his team win. I’m sorry for what happened to Ruben Tejada, and I’ll bet Chase is, too. What a terrible message it sends to think that beating him up in a boxing ring or having a fastball thrown at his head would bring someone joy. You couldn’t do better? Shame on you. KAREN LAZAR, Oceanside, N.Y. | Migraine;Football;Mixed martial arts |
ny0123832 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2012/09/12 | Burberry Warns of Weakness in Luxury Market | PARIS — Burberry, the iconic British fashion retailer, sent shock waves through the global luxury industry on Tuesday, saying that it had begun to see signs of weakness in the market and that its annual profit would probably disappoint investors. The company, based in London, said sales were flat at stores open a year or more so far in the quarter that began in July, slowing from the previous quarter, and warned that it had observed “a deceleration in recent weeks.” Burberry, the first to update the market on recent trading, said it now expected profit for its financial year through March 2013 “to be around the lower end of market expectations.” Angela Ahrendts, the Burberry chief executive, said in a statement that “the external environment is becoming more challenging,” and that as a result the company was “tightly managing discretionary costs and taking appropriate actions to protect short-term profitability.” Burberry did not single out any particular region. Of the company’s main customers, known in the industry as traveling luxury consumers, just over a third are in Asia, a quarter in the Americas, and a little less than a third in Europe. With the Chinese economy losing steam, many in the industry fear that an important pillar of sales could be wobbling. Yet as the luxury industry’s growth in Asia has slowed, the companies note, Chinese tourists have helped support demand for its products in Europe. Burberry cautioned that China might be simply taking a breather, with an impending change in leadership leading to a decline in conspicuous consumption, as well as a fall in gift-giving by Chinese travelers. Analysts are now watching to see whether Burberry’s rivals follow with their own warnings. “It seems unlikely that Burberry would be the only one affected,” said Catherine Rolland, an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets. “Other operators have also been experiencing a slowdown, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.” Ms. Rolland said it was “still a bit too early to know” if the market was experiencing a minor setback or something more serious. Burberry reported a profit of £376 million, or $603 million, for its most recent year, and the lower end of analysts’ expectations for its adjusted pretax profit of £407 million would still be a substantial increase. But the company has been a standout performer on the stock exchange, and the latest warning comes just two months after Burberry reported a 5 percent decrease in licensing income. Burberry stock plummeted in London trading Tuesday, giving up 21 percent of its value. In Paris, shares of the industry giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton fell 3 percent, while its French rival PPR closed down 2 percent. Richemont fell 5 percent in Zurich. Burberry is showing its summer 2013 collection on Monday as part of London Fashion Week . | Luxury Goods;Burberry;Great Britain;European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- );Company Reports |
ny0107278 | [
"business"
] | 2012/04/24 | Wal-Mart Stock Falls Nearly 5% After Report of Quashed Bribery Inquiry | Wal-Mart ’s stock fell almost 5 percent on Monday, accounting for about one-fifth of the losses in the Dow Jones industrial average, as investors reacted to a bribery scandal at the retailer’s Mexican subsidiary and a report that an internal investigation was quashed at corporate headquarters in Arkansas. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Wal-Mart investigators had found credible evidence that the subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico, had paid millions of dollars in bribes to support expansion in Mexico, where the retailer has one in five of its stores. Told of this evidence in 2005, top executives in Bentonville, Ark., shut down the investigation, The Times reported. On Monday, politicians from Washington to Mexico City called for outside investigations into Wal-Mart’s conduct. The fallout for Wal-Mart could be significant. A settlement of any sort would very likely include large fines by both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Matthew J. Feeley, who works on cases involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act at the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. Any executive found guilty of a crime, moreover, could face jail time, Mr. Feeley said. Several former and current Wal-Mart executives in Mexico and in the United States were implicated in the bribery accusations or were involved in the subsequent decision not to alert law enforcement authorities. “I think there’s going to be a lot of pressure to come down hard on them as a company, not entirely because of the actual violations but because of the failure to do anything internally when those violations came to light,” Mr. Feeley said. The uncertainty made investors anxious on Monday. Wal-Mart’s stock lost $2.91 in heavy trading, to $59.54. Wal-Mart de Mexico’s stock, traded separately, fell more than 12 percent to 37.89 pesos. A Wal-Mart spokesman, David Tovar, said in a statement that the audit committee of Wal-Mart’s board had been overseeing an investigation of Wal-Mart’s compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act since the fall, and that outside legal counsel and forensic accountants were reporting regularly to the audit committee about findings. Wal-Mart hired the law firm Jones Day to look into the bribery questions. It also hired the law firm Greenberg Traurig to conduct a worldwide review of the company’s compliance with F.C.P.A., as well as KPMG to handle forensic accounting. In Washington, two Democratic representatives, Elijah E. Cummings, of Maryland, and Henry A. Waxman, of California, said they had requested a meeting with company officials and were contacting other people who might have knowledge of the bribery allegations. Critics of Wal-Mart in New York, including some elected officials, union leaders and small-business groups, said the company’s actions in Mexico cemented their opposition to Wal-Mart’s opening a store in the city. “This is precisely the type of business we do not want in our communities and I remain committed to fighting against Wal-Mart’s corporate poison from entering the five boroughs,” Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, said in a statement. Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, and the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, also issued statements criticizing Wal-Mart. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, asked Wal-Mart to detail all the spending it has done and donations it has made with regard to opening a store in New York. Wal-Mart’s current chief executive, Michael T. Duke, was told about the allegations regarding bribery in Mexico in 2005, when he was given responsibility for all foreign subsidiaries, The Times reported. The internal investigation was ended after the chief executive at the time, H. Lee Scott Jr., now a Wal-Mart board member, rebuked internal investigators for being overly aggressive, the article on Sunday said. Eduardo Castro-Wright, the former head of Wal-Mart’s United States operations who was promoted to vice chairman in 2008, was identified by a former company lawyer in Mexico as the driving force behind years of bribery when he was in charge of Wal-Mart de Mexico. Mr. Tovar declined to comment on whether the board was considering actions against the executives. Mr. Castro-Wright announced in September that he would retire, surprising analysts. The announcement of the retirement was unrelated to Wal-Mart’s query into foreign corrupt practices, Mr. Tovar said. Mr. Castro-Wright had said he would step down on July 1, 2012, and that timing has not changed, Mr. Tovar said. Mr. Castro-Wright has been a board member at MetLife since 2008. John Calagna, a spokesman for MetLife, said in a statement that “MetLife became aware of this situation through recent media reports. Wal-mart has indicated in these reports that it is investigating the matter. Therefore it would not be appropriate for MetLife to comment at this time.” Several executives involved in the inquiry no longer work at Wal-Mart, although there is no indication that their departures were related to the bribery case. Michael Fung, chief financial officer for Wal-Mart’s United States stores, retired effective Feb. 1, Mr. Tovar said. According to the article, Mr. Fung, then an internal auditor, was given a memo with a detailed account of a former executive’s complaints about bribery in 2005. And Joseph R. Lewis, a top internal investigator on the Mexico charges in 2005, also retired recently, Mr. Tovar confirmed. Craig Herkert, who is now the chief of the grocery chain Supervalu, was told about the charges in 2005, according to the article. A Supervalu spokesman, Michael A. Siemienas, said in an e-mail that “based on the information we have, this is strictly a Wal-Mart matter.” And John B. Menzer, a former Wal-Mart vice chairman who is now chief of the craft retailer Michaels Stores, was also involved. Mr. Menzer intervened in a separate investigation regarding an executive who reported to him, taking authority in the inquiry away from Wal-Mart’s corporate-investigations unit and transferring the inquiry to a subordinate of the person being investigated, according to The Times. That subordinate subsequently cleared his boss. Michaels, which filed for an initial public offering in March, said last week that Mr. Menzer had been hospitalized. Allen Questrom, a former chief of J. C. Penney and Federated Department Stores who was on Wal-Mart’s board from 2007 until 2010, said he was surprised to hear of the accusations. “It was never something that was discussed at the board level when I was there,” he said. | Wal-Mart Stores Inc;Bribery and Kickbacks;Stocks and Bonds;Mexico;Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (1977);Castro-Wright Eduardo;Menzer John B |
ny0118769 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2012/10/25 | Charles B. Wang, the Islanders’ Unorthodox Owner | On the day he elevated Garth Snow from backup goaltender to general manager in 2006, Charles B. Wang , the Islanders ’ owner, conceded that the move was unorthodox but said that much of his business career had been based on doing things differently. Of course, what some call unorthodox strikes others as, well, eccentric or weird. Shifting Snow from the goal crease to the front office has not restored the franchise to glory. In the years since, the team has made one playoff appearance and has had five consecutive postseason-free losing seasons. But then Wang was, from the start, a basketball fan and a hockey novice. Mike Milbury, a former general manager of the Islanders, recalled that Wang wanted to get rid of the team’s scouts (to rely on the league’s central scouting system) and try out sumo wrestlers as goaltenders. “He assumed that nobody could put a goal past a sumo wrestler,” Milbury said in a telephone interview from Boston. But, Milbury added, Wang’s heart was in the right place. “He was a man of his word, a guy who desperately wanted to keep the team on the Island,” he said. Wang was unable to secure a renovated or new arena in Uniondale. But the announcement on Wednesday that the team has agreed to join the Nets in 2015 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn means that the franchise is still, geographically, on Long Island. “Hello, Brooklyn!” he said at a news conference at Barclays, wearing a blue pinstriped suit and an Islanders tie. Wang, who made his fortune in the computer software business, will remain the sole owner of the Islanders. He said that he did not offer to sell a portion of the team to Bruce Ratner, the majority owner of the arena, and that Ratner did not ask. The team will not become the Brooklyn Islanders, and Snow will remain the general manager. Wang and his partner Sanjay Kumar were an odd couple, certainly in sports ownership, when they acquired the team in 2000. Wang was born in Shanghai, grew up in Flushing and attended Queens College. Kumar — who by 2007 would be in federal prison for securities fraud — immigrated from Sri Lanka. They were running Computer Associates International, a software maker that Wang had co-founded. On the day they took control, Wang offered a vow typical of owners buying losing teams: to restore it to first-class status. But, he said, “we are not medicine men promising a very quick cure.” He chided the Rangers for their high payroll and, with a gleeful smile, said, “Ooh, that’s mean to Chuck,” referring to Charles F. Dolan, the head of Cablevision, the Rangers’ owner. Over time, though, Wang has more than matched Dolan in the volume of turnover in senior management. Wang’s second general manager, Neil Smith, was fired after 40 days. “His vision of how he wanted the organization to work internally — and mine — were total opposites, and it couldn’t work,” said Smith, who built the Rangers team that won the 1994 Stanley Cup and is now a television analyst. “He owned the team, and he won.” But owning the team has been a losing proposition. By 2003, Wang said that the Islanders had lost $52.2 million on his watch. “The team has to be self-sustaining,” he said. “This is not a church that will stay open forever.” The doors to the church stayed open, however. By 2009, he told Newsday that he would not have bought the team if knew how difficult it would be, with playing at the aging Nassau Coliseum and failing to get a new or renovated arena. By then, Newsday reported, he had spent $209 million to keep the team solvent. None of that should have made any sense to Wang, who has a mathematics degree. By then he had accumulated more in losses than what he and Kumar had paid for the team: $187.5 million. Wang’s penchant for some peculiar long-term contracts might forever cling to him. In 2001, he signed Alexei Yashin to a 10-year, $87.5 million contract. But Yashin was not the superstar Wang hoped for, and Wang paid him nearly $18 million to buy out the remaining four years of the deal. Milbury said he wished he had balked at the deal, “but it was his money.” Soon after, Wang gave Michael Peca a five-year deal; Milbury said he managed to talk Wang out of giving Peca 10 years, too. Five years later, Wang wielded his checkbook to give goaltender Rick DiPietro what was then the longest contract in N.H.L. history: $67.5 million over 15 years. At the time, Wang said that “this is not a big deal,” and that it was no different than some other major commitments in his business career. “Now I’m doing it in sports,” he said, “and everybody is like: ‘Oh, my God. How could he do that?’ ” People are still asking that; the often-injured DiPietro has not lived up to Wang’s hopes for him. The same could be said for his team, which will be a lame duck at a substandard arena for three years. The future will be one in which his landlord, Ratner, is a friend who shares his passion for photography. “I’m a tenant,” Wang said, but in the sort of arena that he aspired to build, without success. | Hockey Ice;Wang Charles B;New York Islanders;Brooklyn (NYC);Long Island (NY);Kumar Sanjay |
ny0268118 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2016/03/22 | Credit Default Swaps Make Restructuring More Difficult | Several years ago I wrote an article predicting that the growth of credit default swaps would make it increasingly difficult to restructure distressed companies. The drama surrounding a Norwegian paper maker shows that, if anything, I understated the potential problem. Norske Skog, which describes itself as multinational “manufacturers of lightweight, coated and uncoated newsprint and magazine paper,” is in the midst of an exchange offer. In that respect, it is like many other companies, although Norske Skog is the rare one that is not in the oil and gas sector. The company agreed on the terms of the exchange with Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners unit and Cyrus Capital Partners LP, both of which hold some of its unsecured bonds as well as a good bit of its equity. Under the exchange offer, certain bondholders scheduled to be repaid this year and next are being asked to accept a motley package of securities, including new debt secured by some European assets, in place of their current bonds. Certain secured bondholders sued to block the exchange offer, arguing that it was not permitted by the contract under which they purchased the bonds — known as an indenture. A state court temporarily blocked the offer. After the case moved to federal court, the judge there said the exchange offer was probably impermissible under the indenture , but he refused to block it. In short, the judge was saying that any violation of the indenture could be rectified by the payment of money damages or other remedies after the fact. That is a somewhat dicey proposition when we are talking about a distressed company, but the federal court suggested these sorts of things are better addressed by bankruptcy judges. Covenant Review , the bond research organization, has since come out with a report arguing that the judge was wrong on the first point. It said the bond indenture allowed the exchange offer to include the new secured bonds. I have not seen the report, but I know who wins the fight between a research firm and a federal judge. Nonetheless, Covenant Review’s entry into the fray certainly does not make this jumble any clearer. At the same time, it has also been said that various parties in this battle have either bought or sold credit default swap contracts on Norske Skog . As a result, their incentives for supporting or opposing the exchange offer might be somewhat less than clear, since the presence of the derivatives means that they are no longer acting as “pure bondholders.” Funds that have sold swap contracts would want to avoid a restructuring until those contracts expire, whereas funds that bought the swap contracts would want to trigger them sooner rather than later. At least one fund involved in the exchange offer denied that it lacked proper incentives, although its letter was carefully phrased. That certainly suggests there are credit default swap contracts lurking out there. Despite the financial crisis, and the significant changes created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform act with regard to the regulation of the over-the-counter swap market — which includes credit default swaps — the role of the swap contracts in financial distress remains largely beyond the pale. Nobody really knows where any bondholder’s interest lies these days, and that means that workouts are inherently more complex . | Credit default swap;GSO Capital Partners;Norske Skog |
ny0261053 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2011/06/26 | Pick Your Own at Patty’s Berries and Bunches in Mattituck, N.Y. | Even as Patricia DiVello, 52, watched several children gathering strawberries on a recent afternoon at Patty’s Berries and Bunches, her pick-your-own farm in Mattituck, she was already looking forward to the next crop. A patch of blueberry bushes was just fruiting for a harvest around mid-July, the berry clusters still green with a slight purple blush. Before the blueberries, the raspberries will ripen, probably in early July; thornless blackberries come in August. “That blackberry was the best berry I ever gambled with,” Ms. DiVello said. “The ones you get in the store are so sour and tart, but these are wonderful.” You can buy containers of prepicked berries from the farm at the white lattice farm stand on the property, but Ms. DiVello says most people like to pick their own when they are still warm from the sun. Pick-your-own berries are $5 for a container (strawberries are sold by the quart; blueberries, raspberries and blackberries by the pint). Prepicked berries cost $5.50. Ms. DiVello has worked this 20-acre farm, formerly known as Harbes Berry Farm, since 1975, but she decided to change the name last year to avoid confusion with Harbes Farm and Vineyard , which has three North Fork locations and is owned by one of her brothers, Ed Harbes, and his family. Although Ms. DiVello’s parents and grandparents grew potatoes, pumpkins and cabbages on this land, she always preferred berries and flowers. Now she plants 15 blooms, including sunflowers, dahlias, zinnias, gladiolas, snapdragons and peonies. They are sold at the farm stand by the bunch ($8.50). SUSAN M. NOVICK Patty’s Berries and Bunches, 410 Sound Avenue, Mattituck; (631) 298-4679. Open daily, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., from June to October. Check picking conditions and availability at pattysberriesandbunches.com . | Long Island (NY);Fruit;Farmers |
ny0244663 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2011/04/20 | Revis Lobbies to Sign Moss and Edwards | Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said he would welcome the petulant wide receiver Randy Moss to the Jets, despite Revis’s previous assessment of Moss as a “slouch.” But Revis, speaking from a Range Rover event in Manhattan, also lobbied for the Jets to sign one of their own free agents, receiver Braylon Edwards. “We need to keep Braylon,” Revis said. “He’s made a lot of plays since he’s been here.” Revis also said that he planned to invite several defensive backs to train with him in Arizona in the first week of May. | Football;New York Jets;Revis Darrelle;Moss Randy;Edwards Braylon |
ny0064726 | [
"business",
"international"
] | 2014/06/11 | Ford to Keep Fiesta Production in Germany | BERLIN — The Ford Motor Company will keep production of the Fiesta, its top-selling car in Europe, in Germany after agreeing with workers to cut assembly costs, part of an effort to end years of losses from its European operations. The company said Tuesday that management and workers had agreed to scrap costly night shifts, increase flexibility on working hours and reassign work from suppliers to Ford, which would result in total savings of about $400 million from 2017 to 2021. Ford is hoping the cost-cutting at its plant in Cologne, where the Fiesta hatchback is made, will help its European operations to become profitable in 2015. Ford has lost money in Europe since 2011. “The agreement will make the plant more cost-efficient, ensuring that next-generation Fiesta production will be globally competitive,” Ford said. The company will also hire about 500 engineers at its development center in Cologne, one of two German factories, which employs about 4,100 people. The brand is releasing at least 25 new or upgraded vehicles from 2012 to 2017, including the EcoSport compact S.U.V. and the larger Edge model, and is pushing higher-end versions of existing models. The agreement announced on Tuesday ends months of uncertainty for employees in Germany. News outlets had reported that Ford might relocate production of the new Fiesta to Romania, where costs are lower and where 3,600 workers already produce the B-Max model at a plant in Craiova. “We absolutely looked at other plants,” Barb J. Samardzich, chief operating officer at Ford’s European division, said during a conference call. Germany has one of the highest labor costs for manufacturing in the world, with workers earning 36.98 euros, or $50.10, an hour in 2012, compared with €29.56 in Japan, €25.87 in the United States and €3.78 in Romania, according the Cologne Institute for Economic Research. Ford closed two smaller manufacturing operations in Britain last year and plans to shut an assembly plant in Genk, Belgium, cutting about 5,700 jobs in total. | Cars;Manufacturing;Ford Motor |
ny0051868 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2014/10/24 | Despite Telltale Signs, Ottawa Gunman Was Not Flagged as a Threat | OTTAWA — The Canadian police acknowledged on Thursday that the gunman who traumatized the capital in a deadly shooting rampage had not been identified as a security threat despite his criminal record in three cities, embrace of extremist ideas and intent to travel to Syria. The police also conceded that they did not even know that the gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, had been in the capital for nearly three weeks. The revelations at a news conference came a day after the gunman paralyzed the heart of the capital, killing a soldier at a war memorial before he was shot dead in the halls of Parliament. The new detailed information helped fill in vast gaps about Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s surprise assault, including chilling video footage of his arrival on Parliament Hill. Commissioner Bob Paulson of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the gunman’s motives remained largely unknown, but the commissioner said he was confident that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had acted alone and had no strong ties to other extremists. The commissioner, the head of Canada’s national police, said that much remained a mystery about the shooting frenzy that led to Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s death, trapped thousands of people in downtown Ottawa and, at one point, left Prime Minister Stephen Harper without bodyguards and separated only by a wooden door from a gunfight. “The R.C.M.P. did not even know Mr. Zehaf was in Ottawa,” Commissioner Paulson said during the lengthy news conference. “We need to look at all operations to deal with this difficult and hard-to-understand threat.” The police, he said, had only learned about Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s Syrian travel plans from his mother after his death. Nor was he among the 93 people that the national police forces monitor as being likely to travel abroad to join organizations recognized as terror groups under Canadian law. All the commissioner could offer as explanation for the violence of Wednesday was a combination of Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s growing frustration over delays in his passport application, his apparent sympathies for radicalism and his “difficult circumstances,” which appeared to include drug use, unemployment and mental health problems. Video At a news conference, the Ottawa Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released surveillance footage from outside the Canadian Parliament building during an attack Wednesday. Credit Credit Associated Press The police determined that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, who was born in Montreal, had arrived in Ottawa as early as Oct. 2. He had come to the capital, Commissioner Paulson said, apparently hoping to expedite his passport application, a process that the police had not blocked. He moved into the Ottawa Mission, a homeless shelter less than a 10-minute walk from the National War Memorial, where Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau would shoot and kill Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, the single father of a young child from Hamilton, Ontario. About two days before the attack, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was a fixture in the shelter’s main sitting room, having loud conversations on a pay phone, his frustration appearing to mount as he made call after call looking for an inexpensive “junker” car, said Paul MacIntyre, 52, a resident who overheard him. “Anybody living in a rooming house who has 600 to 700 bucks to blow on a junker,” seems out of place, he said. “With that you could get a bus ticket all the way across the country.” A striking figure, with black curls to his shoulders, a small mustache and goatee, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was frequently seen prostrate on a small prayer mat he kept for praying in the stairwells, said another resident, David Duchesne, 50. On Tuesday, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau found his junker — an aging, beige Toyota Corolla. Shortly before 9:50 a.m. the following morning, he illegally and conspicuously parked it behind the war memorial on the busy thoroughfare and transit route that also runs in front of Parliament, Commissioner Paulson said. Approaching from behind, outside Corporal Cirillo’s vision, he shot him at close range with a Winchester rifle, a firearm his criminal conviction had prohibited him from owning. He also shot at but missed a second ceremonial guard, who has not been identified. As the driver for Canada’s top military commander, who was waiting outside Mr. Harper’s office across the street, attempted to give chase on foot, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau jumped into the Toyota, made a U-turn and headed toward an entrance to Parliament Hill that has bollards to limit entry only to pedestrians. Surveillance video footage, taken from multiple angles, shows pedestrians initially hiding behind the entrance’s Gothic Revival stone entrance posts as they hear the gunfire at the war memorial and then scattering when Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau jumps out of the Toyota with his rifle. Other cameras show him running up to the entrance of the east block, one of the three structures making up the Parliament Buildings. Image Kevin Vickers, Parliament's sergeant-at-arms, has been credited with shooting the gunman just outside the party caucus rooms. Credit Chris Wattie/Reuters Waving his weapon, the gunman then menaced the driver of an empty cabinet-minister’s car, who ran away. The gunman got in and, with the driver’s door still open, raced up to the center block with its distinctive clock tower. As he ran into its main door at the base of the Peace Tower, police cruisers were in pursuit. Inside, the shooting began immediately. But 10 seconds elapsed before the first of the chasing officers reached the door. “It only took one minute and 20 seconds for this individual to go from Wellington to center block,” Commissioner Paulson said. “It was incredibly quick.” The investigation into exactly what happened inside, Commissioner Paulson said, was incomplete. But he did describe a gun battle between Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms at the House of Commons, and the gunman, with each taking shelter behind stone pillars. The head of the national police force indirectly acknowledged reports that Mr. Harper’s bodyguards, members of the mounted police, were not in his party’s caucus room as the gun battle raged immediately outside. He said that the policy had now been changed to have protection always present. The drama and anxiety stretched on for hours after Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was killed outside the entrance to the Parliament’s library as the police continued to hunt for other possible assailants. The lockdown included a room by room search of the Parliament buildings as well as of nearby office buildings. Thousands of workers were ordered away from windows and many squeezed into windowless meeting rooms in their office after being locked in their buildings. Many members of Parliament were not released from secure areas in the main Parliament building until nearly 10 hours had passed. Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa Police Service said the prolonged search had been provoked by 911 calls indicating that there had been a shooting and carjacking at a downtown shopping mall and that an armed man was hiding on the ornate copper-clad roof of the center block. Mr. Harper has blamed radicalism inspired by the Islamic State for the assault. The group is the target of an American-led aerial campaign in Iraq and Syria. The shooting came only two days after another deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces, deepening worries that the attacks could be linked to Canada’s supporting role in the campaign against the Islamic State. This week, Canada sent six fighter jets to attack Islamic State targets in Iraq following a request for assistance from the United States. Mr. Harper strongly supports the campaign against the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL. “We will not be intimidated,” Mr. Harper said when Parliament resumed on Thursday to punctuate its determination to resume normality. “We will be vigilant but we will not run scared. We will be prudent but we will not panic.” Mr. Vickers had put away his pistol and was back in his robes performing the more familiar role of parading a ceremonial mace. As he made his way along Parliament’s Hall of Honor, where the gunman was killed, Mr. Vickers passed by walls damaged by bullets. Parliament broke with protocol and allowed television stations to show the entry of the mace into the House of Commons. Members rose in a prolonged standing ovation for Mr. Vickers that, at times, seemed to put him on the verge of tears. Mr. Harper walked down the chamber to shake hands with Mr. Vickers. Normally partisan and rarely given to public gestures of warmth, Mr. Harper also embraced and shook hands with Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau, the leaders of the two main opposition parties. The prime minister and his wife, Laureen, also laid a wreath at the National War Memorial. Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, whose parents had changed his name from Michael Joseph Hall when he was a teenager, was originally from the Montreal suburb of Laval. Police said that his father is Libyan and that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau may also hold citizenship in that country. In recent years, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau lived in Vancouver and its suburbs and he was previously a resident of Calgary, Alberta. He had several, mostly petty drug-related, criminal convictions in all three cities. But Commissioner Paulson said that there were no apparent links between him a group of radical Islamists in Calgary. At the moment, he said Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s only tie to other radicals was that his email address was found on the hard drive of an unidentified man who has been arrested on suspicion of a terrorism-related offense. “What does that mean?” the commissioner asked, acknowledging that it was a weak connection. Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s parents said in a statement on Thursday that they were shocked by his actions and saddened by the corporal’s death. “He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow,” the parents, Susan Bibeau and Bulgasem Zehaf, said of the soldier in a statement given to The Associated Press. “We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless.” | Terrorism;Ottawa;ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;Canada;Nathan Cirillo;Michael Zehaf-Bibeau |
ny0272208 | [
"sports",
"autoracing"
] | 2016/05/28 | Everybody’s Favorite Formula One Throwback | The Monaco Grand Prix is probably the only race on the Formula One calendar where the poor race performances of great drivers and the superb performances of lesser drivers share the spotlight with the achievements of the finest drivers. It’s a race that is remembered as much for Ayrton Senna’s crash 12 laps from the end while dominating it in 1988 — the Brazilian lost concentration, hit a wall and lost the victory — as it is for his record of winning there six times. Alain Prost’s desire that the rain-drenched 1984 race be ended before the young Senna, who had climbed up from 13th on the grid to second, could catch him is as memorable as Prost’s four victories there. Then there are the triumphs of the outsiders, like Jean-Pierre Beltoise, a Frenchman whose only race victory came there in 1972, in the rain in an underpowered BRM car. And the Monaco Grand Prix is also remembered for its accidents, such as when Alberto Ascari flew off the track in his Lancia and into the harbor in 1955 or when Lorenzo Bandini crashed his Ferrari in the 1967 race and died three days later. The running of the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend marks the 20th anniversary of one of its wackiest editions. In that 1996 race, the French driver Olivier Panis drove his Ligier to his only Formula One victory, moving up from 14th position to finish first among the only three cars that finished the race. With a history marked by both extreme joy and horrendous pain, a history dictated by the unorthodox nature of the street circuit winding through the ancient principality on the Mediterranean, the race and Formula One could be said to have a love-hate relationship. In Monaco, the teams have the most constrained working environment of the season and the drivers have their biggest challenge. But the site also helps create one of the season’s most exciting races and attracts the greatest interest from fans, sponsors and media around the world. “I respect Monaco, I think it is a great thing to have as a part of our championship,” said Pat Symonds, the technical director of the Williams team. “But I don’t really enjoy it particularly. Yet I think it’s great to have that sort of challenge in the championship.” “Can you imagine if it didn’t exist, and someone said, ‘Well, let’s go and do it now?”’ he added. “There would be an absolute outrage, wouldn’t there?” All eyes this weekend will be on the rivalry at the top of the championship, between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of the Mercedes team. Rosberg has won the last three editions of the Monaco race and is leading the series, 43 points ahead of Hamilton, who is in third place. “It’s an incredible feeling making a car dance through those streets, one of the purest thrills you can have in a racing car,” Hamilton said. “I’ve not had the best run of results in Monaco in recent years — but last year showed I have the pace to do the job.” Rosberg’s three victories in a row in what he considers his home race — he is German but grew up in Monaco and still lives there — came while he was driving in the same team as Hamilton. While Hamilton has won the championship in the last two seasons — outperforming Rosberg over the full seasons — he has won in Monaco only once, in 2008. Symonds said Monaco was a track that seemed to invite victories by both the very best drivers as well as by the occasional odd man out who has a particular style that works well on the atypical circuit. “You need to have a car that the guys can trust; they need to have real confidence in the car,” he said. “A lot of it is about getting a car that is stable. But at the same time, if you have a car that is stable in the classic sense — there is a bit of an understeer and everything — it’s not the way to go quickly around Monaco.” “This is why I think you have people like Michael and Ayrton who were so good around Monaco — because they could keep their cars on that stability limit,” Symonds added, referring to Michael Schumacher, who won five times in Monaco, and Senna. “It is more important on those slow tracks than it is on the fast tracks. They could get it on the stability limit and they still have the confidence to take the thing to within a millimeter of the barrier, which is pretty impressive.” And while most team engineers will say that it is a track more about the driver than about the car, drivers are more likely to talk about how fabulous it feels when things are done right and how bad it feels when things are ever-so-slightly wrong. “I like Monaco if we are competitive,” said Felipe Massa, who drives for the Williams team. “If we start behind, nobody likes Monaco.” He was referring to the importance of scoring a pole position, because on Monaco’s narrow street track, with barriers so close, it is almost impossible to pass another car. “Any overtake attempt you make could end up in contact with your competitor or the wall, so you really have to balance the risk and reward,” said Joylon Palmer, a driver at the Renault team. “You have to get your move right and hope the other guy sees you. Even if you do everything right, if your rival doesn’t see you it’s likely there’ll be contact.” For the commercial promoter of the series, Bernie Ecclestone, of all the venues in the series Monaco is the one that has the most power to help negotiate a good business deal. It attracts far too many sponsors, adds far too much glamour — the movie stars from the Cannes Film Festival are regular visitors when the two events are scheduled at the same time, as they often are — and has far too much history to consider dropping it in favor of a more lucrative Formula One venue. “It’s full of lovely people, isn’t it?” Symonds said. “Logistically, it is quite difficult. It’s better now that we have the garages, but it is still very cramped, hot, you can’t hear what is going on, etc. But it is a great bit of the show. There are far too many people in Formula One who don’t appreciate the show and the importance of the show, so we need to get on with it.” | Formula One;Monaco Grand Prix;Monaco;Car Racing;Lewis Hamilton;Nico Rosberg |
ny0041118 | [
"us"
] | 2014/04/25 | A Partnership to Help the Tallest Residents in Yosemite Park | YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — In an otherworldly grove of cinnamon-colored giant sequoias, workers in June will jackhammer an old mistake: a road and parking lot that impinge on the hallowed forest. The $36 million project, which includes dismantling a gift shop, removing a tourist tram and adding elevated walkways in the grove, will improve visitors’ experiences while better protecting some of the oldest, largest and most beautiful organisms on earth, said Dean Shenk, a supervisory ranger at Yosemite National Park. The National Park Service will contribute about $8 million to the project, and the Federal Highway Administration will spend another $8 million for an improved road to the grove and an expanded parking lot at Yosemite’s southern entrance. The bulk of the cost, $20 million, will be covered by the Yosemite Conservancy , a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. Philanthropic organizations known for lending a helping hand are funneling millions of dollars into the nation’s major national parks, making infrastructure improvements, building trails and providing volunteers who sometimes perform jobs previously done by park rangers. The National Park Service’s 2014 budget of $2.98 billion is smaller than in any in the last five years, and the agency must absorb federal employees’ raises and rising utility and other costs, said Jonathan B. Jarvis, director of the service. “Because our budget is in decline, we’ve not been able to do the things we feel we should be doing,” he said. The agency oversees 401 national parks, monuments, battlefields, historic sites and other areas, 17 of them added under Presidents Obama and George W. Bush. Meanwhile, the number of park rangers is declining: Last year, there were 4,929 nationwide, down from 5,139 in 2005. Yosemite National Park , which is 180 miles east of the San Francisco Bay Area in the Sierra Nevada, consists of 1,200 square miles of skip-a-heartbeat terrain, including, near its southern entrance, Mariposa Grove, one of the few natural forests of giant sequoia in the world. Don Neubacher, Yosemite superintendent, calls its condition “an embarrassment.” “We just made a lot of mistakes there,” he said. “We didn’t know better.” For generations these towering trees — Sequoiadendron giganteum can grow to more than 250 feet — have endured man’s folly. In the 1800s, they were chopped for shingles, posts, pencils and souvenirs. Tunnels were carved through others for tourist amusement. For 100 years, Yosemite rangers doused fires, before learning that these redwoods — with fire-resistant bark — need fire to punch holes in the forest canopies, clear soil and spread seeds the size of oat flakes. Also harmful, Yosemite added a 115-car parking lot and a road, not recognizing that pavement interferes with the hydrology of the nearly 2,000-year-old trees. “There is the possibility of slow death of some of the trees,” Mr. Neubacher said. Giant sequoias can be planted and thrive elsewhere, but it is only along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, with its elevation and snowpack, that they naturally regenerate. For nearly 50 years, officials have wanted to return the grove to a more natural state. “If we believe Mariposa Grove is important to save, then we’ve got to look at outside sources,” Mr. Neubacher said. Yosemite National Park and the Yosemite Conservancy have a particularly close relationship. Mike Tollefson became president of the conservancy in 2009 — after retiring as Yosemite superintendent. His organization contributes $5 million to $10 million a year to Yosemite. “We are concerned about these trees if the climate is going to be changing dramatically,” said Sue Beatty, a Yosemite restoration ecologist and deputy project manager, adding that the planned improvements would make the trees more “resilient.” Image The parking lot, a road in the ancient grove and a tram will be removed and a gift shop dismantled. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times By rerouting walkways, tourists will no longer trample meandering 200-foot shallow roots, and by removing the road, the diversion of water from the trees will come to a halt. Some giant sequoias each require an impressive 1,000 gallons of water a day, said Nathan Stephenson, research ecologist with the United States Geological Survey. The newly designed grove, as envisioned by landscape architects paid by the Yosemite Conservancy, is expected to be a quieter and more spiritual place. “We want it to be like you’re entering a cathedral, so you have respect for the trees,” Ms. Beatty said. The problem, she said, “We didn’t have the money to do it.” Yosemite’s budget, which includes federal appropriations, charitable contributions and 80 percent of entrance fees, is $80 million to $90 million annually, down from $100 million in 2009, said Kari Cobb, Yosemite public affairs specialist. Yosemite has adapted to the new fiscal reality. Bathroom cleaning and garbage pickup are done once a day instead of twice, said Scott Gediman, a Yosemite spokesman. Volunteers, supervised by park rangers, remove invasive species, a job formerly done by rangers. At Mariposa Grove, nature walks led by park rangers — which five years ago operated five months a year — are now given only for two and a half months. Mr. Shenk, the park ranger who supervises Mariposa Grove’s interpretive guides, said he teaches visitors about “the great size, great age of these trees.” “And yet they’re surprisingly fragile,” he added. “It’s difficult for them to naturally produce.” Once the pavement is gone, he said, people will see “the majesty of the grove.” The filmmaker Ken Burns, who produced a series of national park documentaries and a short film about Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley, paid for by the Yosemite Conservancy, said, “This is one of my favorite spots in my favorite place on earth.” The grove presents a paradox, he said, “You can feel small next to the giant sequoias in Mariposa Grove, and yet you’re inspirited.” Mr. Burns blamed “an antigovernment movement” for interfering with the mission of the national parks. “People believe government should do just about nothing,” he said. “We think national parks are America’s best idea.” On June 30, 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation preserving Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley for public use “inalienable for all time.” Photographs of the ancient trees — more than of Yosemite Valley — persuaded the president and members of Congress, none of whom had visited Yosemite, to support the legislation, said Dayton Duncan, co-producer with Mr. Burns of the national park documentaries and the author of a book about Yosemite, “Seed of the Future,” paid for by Yosemite Conservancy. The Yosemite legislation is considered the birth certificate of the national parks concept, which began in the United States and spread worldwide. Not everyone approves of the current public-private partnership. “We’re dodging our national responsibility,” said Alfred Runte, a national parks historian, the author of “Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness,” and a former Yosemite ranger. “In no way were these friends groups supposed to substitute for uniformed rangers or congressional appropriations,” Mr. Runte said. Well-intentioned volunteers, he said, “are taking away park ranger jobs from educated young men and women.” At other national parks, friends groups also are playing an enlarged role. The Grand Canyon Association restores backcountry trails and renovated the trailhead at Bright Angel Trail, the well-trod path to the canyon, with new bathrooms, seating, shade structure, parking and stone masonry walls. The most successful of these groups, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy , has donated $300 million to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1981. “Philanthropy has been there from the beginning,” said Greg Moore, executive director of the Golden Gate conservancy. “It seems more important as the system has grown and federal dollars are not growing.” | Yosemite;National Park Service;National Parks and National Monuments;Philanthropy;Trees |
ny0280160 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/10/17 | Officials Fight Donald Trump’s Claims of a Rigged Vote | WASHINGTON — Republican leaders and election officials from both parties on Sunday sought to combat claims by Donald J. Trump that the election is rigged against him, amid signs that Mr. Trump’s contention is eroding confidence in the vote and setting off talk of rebellion among his supporters. In a vivid illustration of how Mr. Trump is shattering American political norms, the Republican nominee is alleging that a conspiracy is underway between the news media and the Democratic Party to commit vast election fraud. He has offered no evidence to support his claim. “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places — SAD,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday . Mr. Trump made the incendiary assertion hours after his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, tried to play down Mr. Trump’s questioning of the fairness of the election. Mr. Pence said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he and Mr. Trump “will absolutely accept the result of the election.” Mr. Trump’s words, though, appear to be having an effect on his supporters, and are setting off deep concern among civil rights groups. According to an Associated Press poll last month, only one-third of Republicans said they had a great deal of confidence their votes would be counted fairly. And election officials are worried that Mr. Trump’s continued pressing of the issue could dampen turnout or cause his supporters to deny the legitimacy of the results if he loses. Last week, Mr. Trump called the presidential election “one big fix” and “one big, ugly lie.” Jon A. Husted, the secretary of state of Ohio, said it was “wrong and engaging in irresponsible rhetoric” for any candidate to question the integrity of elections without evidence. Mr. Husted, a Republican, said he would have no reason to hesitate to certify the results of the election. “We have made it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Mr. Husted said Sunday in an interview. “We are going to run a good, clean election in Ohio, like we always do.” American elections are, unlike those in many democracies, largely decentralized, rendering the possibility of large-scale fraud extraordinarily unlikely. Further, the balloting in many of the hardest-fought states will be overseen by Republican officials, individuals who would be highly unlikely to consent to helping Mrs. Clinton rig the vote. Chris Ashby, a Republican election lawyer, said Mr. Trump’s attacks on the electoral process were unprecedented and risked creating a fiasco on Election Day. Mr. Ashby also said that Mr. Trump was “destabilizing” the election by encouraging his supporters to deputize themselves as amateur poll monitors, outside the bounds of the law. “That’s going to create a disturbance and, played out in polling places across the country, it has the potential to destabilize the election,” Mr. Ashby said, “which is very, very dangerous.” Mr. Trump’s claims, a little more than three weeks before the election, are once again forcing elected Republicans into a difficult spot as they try to balance offering assurances of the integrity of the election while not undercutting a standard-bearer many of their voters fervently support. “Our secretary of state, Ken Detzner, has been very focused on making sure we have a smooth election,” said Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, noting that Mr. Scott’s “goal is 100 percent participation and zero percent fraud.” Representatives of other Republican governors offered only a terse “yes” when asked if their state’s balloting would be conducted fairly. Yet other Republicans are appalled at Mr. Trump’s claims of widespread fraud, which are now a staple of his stump speech. “It is so irresponsible because what he’s doing really goes to the heart of our democracy,” said Trey Grayson, a Republican and former secretary of state of Kentucky. “What is great about America is that we change our leaders at the ballot box, not by bullets,” Mr. Grayson said. Still, some of Mr. Trump’s loyal backers are rousing one another with talk of insurrection should Mr. Trump be defeated. In Wisconsin, David A. Clarke Jr., the sheriff of Milwaukee County, posted on Twitter on Saturday that it was “pitchforks and torches time,” along with a photograph of an angry mob wielding weapons. Mr. Clarke addressed the Republican National Convention in July and appears regularly on television as a Trump campaign surrogate. Also, elements of Mr. Trump’s crowds have turned violent. At a rally in North Carolina on Friday, in which he alleged a large-scale conspiracy against him, one supporter lashed out physically at a protester in the crowd. And a CBS affiliate in Virginia reported over the weekend that pro-Trump demonstrators had flashed firearms outside the office of a Democratic congressional candidate near Charlottesville, in a threatening signal. Republicans are also facing signs of menace: A party office in North Carolina was set on fire and spray-painted over the weekend, an act Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter was the act of “animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina.” Still, Mr. Trump’s campaign surrogates have not hesitated to join him in questioning the fairness of the electoral process: Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, both advisers to Mr. Trump, used TV interviews on Sunday to suggest that Democrats tended to cheat in elections, accusing them of counting votes from dead people. And Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Mr. Trump’s closest congressional supporter and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has warned that “they are attempting to rig this election.” Civil rights groups have begun to express alarm at remarks from Mr. Trump that they see as goading his supporters to intimidate minorities at the polls. Arturo Vargas, the executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Education Fund, said he planned to formally contact the Justice Department as soon as this week, to ask that it guard against the kind of voting disruptions Mr. Trump has encouraged. “It is a major concern that we have this candidate promoting vigilante poll watching,” Mr. Vargas said. And Michael Podhorzer, the political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said that progressive groups were deeply concerned about the possibility of disruptions at the polls on Election Day. Mr. Podhorzer said that Mr. Trump’s recent comments about a rigged election had the potential to “incite violence and bloodshed.” Mr. Podhorzer said that Democrats would be closely monitoring polling places for signs of interference in states where voters can cast their ballots before Election Day. “We will start to see whether folks are out intimidating voters in predominantly African-American communities, and at least get a sense of what direction that might be going in,” Mr. Podhorzer said, adding of Mr. Trump’s speech, “This is beyond the pale.” Other Democrats were just as bothered but also amused about the unlikely prospect of a vast fraud plot unfolding at thousands of disparate polling places. “He’s fine with the system when he wins the primary, but now he’s pre-emptively claiming precinct-level fraud?” said Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, calling Mr. Trump’s language “unambiguously racist, but also absurd, ludicrous and pathetic.” Even Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House, who just last week all but removed himself from the presidential campaign, was forced to issue a statement. “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity,” said Mr. Ryan’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong. Mr. Pence is trying to walk a fine line. The governor, in a series of Sunday television interviews, sought to portray Mr. Trump’s criticism of the electoral process as relating entirely to what he described as unfair news media coverage. | 2016 Presidential Election;Donald Trump;Mike Pence;News media,journalism |
ny0194811 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2009/11/01 | Nothing Fancy in Philadelphia, but Still Hallowed Sports Ground | PHILADELPHIA — Some cities built their ballparks downtown to revitalize sagging neighborhoods. Others constructed them on waterfronts, shimmering palaces against picturesque backdrops. This is not one of those cities. All four of its major professional sports teams play at arenas hard on the edge of South Philly, in a no-frills part of town situated between interstate highways called Sports Complex — emphasis on sports. There are no shops or restaurants in the vicinity, save for stadium establishments and team stores. Food-distribution sites and warehouses rim the eastern edge. A military shipyard frames the southern boundary. The skyline sweeps three miles to the north. Looking for breathtaking scenery? Go elsewhere. No place is better for concentrated action than the intersection of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, which on Sunday becomes the nexus for a two-sport, all-day battle for Philadelphia-New York supremacy. At 1 p.m., more than 69,000 fans are expected to jam Lincoln Financial Field as the Eagles and Giants renew their longstanding N.F.L. rivalry. At 8:20, about 46,000 will pack Citizens Bank Park, host to Game 4 of the World Series between the Phillies and the Yankees. Give or take a few size 10 Nikes, 428 steps separate the entrances, and a crush of people will undoubtedly mosey across Pattison seeking to take in the double feature, an unwieldy feat if these stadiums were across town from each other. The Sunday forecast called for a partly sunny sky and temperatures in the 50s, making it easy for the fans to layer their jerseys, trading in Donovan McNabb (or Eli Manning) for Jimmy Rollins (or Derek Jeter) come nightfall. No truth, by the way, to the rumor that the Knicks and the 76ers, who played Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, tried to move their game to Sunday at the Wachovia Center to set up a tripleheader. Some parking lots will open as early as 6 a.m. — nothing like a little beer with your morning bagel. The public transit system will supply additional service throughout the day. Football fans have also been urged to carpool and to leave immediately after the game. Despite the acres upon acres of space, parking is apparently limited. Gates and fences carve up the asphalt on the south side of Pattison, but where one lot ends and another begins is indistinguishable. If the Flyers or the 76ers — well, not as much — were playing at the Wachovia Center on Sunday, the streets would be so clogged that fans would be wise to bring a tent and camp out. Actually, some may have thought of that, especially those who said goodbye, once and for all, to the Spectrum. A yearlong farewell tour to the 42-year-old building ended Saturday night with a concert by Pearl Jam, rocking America’s Showplace one final time. Led by Dr. J and Moses Malone, the 1982-83 Sixers, probably the best team ever to play in Philadelphia, called the Spectrum home when they were crowned N.B.A champions. The Broad Street Bullies of the mid-1970s did the same when they won their two Stanley Cup titles, inspired by Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.” Smith’s statue stands outside the main entrance, and a clip of her performance is still played before important Flyers games. That miraculous shot by Christian Laettner in 1992? It swished at the Spectrum. After the 1995-96 season, the Flyers and the 76ers moved into the gleaming Wachovia Center, which was erected on the site of what was John F. Kennedy Stadium. When the Spectrum is razed next year to clear space for a retail and entertainment project, Citizens Bank Park, which opened in 2004, will be the only remaining stadium to have witnessed a Philadelphia championship — sacred ground. Veterans Stadium, the old eyesore that once stood on the northeast corner of Broad and Pattison, nearly crumbled when the Phillies won the World Series in 1980. It was the site of similarly rare feats in 1996, when the National League won the All-Star Game (the American League has won it every year since), and in 1981, when the Eagles trampled the Dallas Cowboys to advance to their first Super Bowl . A state historical marker stands there now, next to parking lots. In the early afternoon Saturday, as the Flyers played at Wachovia Center, the lots teemed with tailgating fans enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. As one group played whiffle ball in the shadows of the Linc, another tossed a football by the Bank. A flashing sign directed the hockey crowd to one lot, concertgoers to another. Judging by the predominant attire of the fans, they had arrived six hours before first pitch. There was nowhere else for them to go, exactly how they liked it. | Baseball;Philadelphia Phillies;Stadiums and Arenas;Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Pa) |
ny0182875 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/12/26 | 2 Old Lighthouses Compete for a Historic Lens | ROCHESTER In the evening, the Rev. Thomas H. Wheeland likes to retreat to the back porch of his rectory at Holy Cross Church and look out onto Lake Ontario, illuminated by a wide beam of light from a neighboring lighthouse. Years have passed since the stone lighthouse, built in 1822, was needed to guide ships into the port of Rochester. Today it is a museum, a beacon to the city’s once-bustling past. “It’s a tremendous asset to the neighborhood and to the whole of this community,” Father Wheeland said. But lately, news that another port is laying claim to an intricate piece of the lighthouse — the soul of it, its lens — has dimmed his spirits. The Fresnel lens in use here takes the light cast by an ordinary bulb and focuses it into a beam visible for up to 15 miles. The city of Lorain, Ohio , nearly 300 miles away, and on Lake Erie, says it is the rightful owner of the lens and has begun a campaign to have it returned. “This has always been on the back of our minds,” said John Malanowski, president of the Lorain Lighthouse Foundation, a group working on the restoration of that city’s historic lighthouse. “Our goal is to restore the Lorain lighthouse and be the ones who bring the lens back.” The lighthouses themselves are joined not only by a lens, but by a similar history. Both were built as their communities harnessed locations on the Great Lakes to become significant shipping outlets. For Lorain, a predominately rural community about 30 miles west of Cleveland, the steel industry led the local economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the case of Charlotte, a working-class Rochester neighborhood hard by the port, it was the coal trade that dominated the local docks. Both ports started lighting the way for ships centuries ago, with simple lanterns fueled with whale oil or kerosene. When the French physicist Augustin Jean Fresnel (pronounced fra-NELL) invented the lens named after him, in 1822, it was considered a technological breakthrough. The thinner lenses passed more powerful beams farther, greatly increasing shipping safety. Charlotte (pronounced shar-LOT) acquired a Fresnel lens in 1853, Lorain in 1917. Both lighthouses were eventually decommissioned by the United States Coast Guard as they became obsolete. In Charlotte’s case, the waterfront changed, as sediment built up and moved the shoreline away from the lighthouse, and as redevelopment came. Charlotte’s Fresnel lens was moved to another lighthouse and then disappeared. “There are rumors that it fell into the water, but those are not true,” said Fred Amato, president of the Charlotte-Genesee Historical Lighthouse Society. In 1984, the lighthouse here was revived as a museum, the result of an effort to increase tourism and take pride in its historic past. “We wanted a light and went to the Coast Guard, and they came across one,” Mr. Amato said. The Fresnel lens, found in a Coast Guard warehouse in Cleveland, was installed in time for a summer festival that year, Mr. Amato said, that featured tall ships that drew thousands of visitors to the docks. Today, the museum is still a popular summer attraction and a regular stop for tour groups. The problem is that Charlotte’s current Fresnel lens is the one from the Lorain lighthouse, which had become a target for vandals and was on the brink of demolition. In 1987, however, the Port of Lorain Foundation formed and purchased the lighthouse with the goal of restoring it — work that goes on today. Soon, preservationists in Lorain began searching for a Fresnel lens. At one time, the Coast Guard found yet another one, but it was damaged during shipping. This fall, foundation executives in Lorain began a $3 million campaign to raise funds for further restoration and announced their determination to get its original lens back. John Cole, editor of the Lorain paper, The Morning Journal, called Charlotte’s current use of the lens “absurd” in print. “My sense is that the lens belongs in the lighthouse for which it was made,” Mr. Cole said in a subsequent interview. His opinion was brought to the attention of Mr. Amato, who said he was not swayed. A newly made replacement would cost upward of $100,000 — five times the organization’s annual budget — Mr. Amato said. “The lens is ours,” he insisted. “We’ve been maintaining it all this time, and we’ll keep maintaining it.” Robert M. Browning, chief historian for the Coast Guard, said that the lens was on loan to Charlotte until 2011, and that the dispute was not likely to be resolved until then. That both sides are determined to keep the lens does not surprise him, since they are in great demand around the country. “If I had five times as many in our collection, there would still be scores of unhappy lighthouse historians,” Mr. Browing said. “I feel like King Solomon here.” | Lighthouses and Lightships;Restoration and Rehabilitation;History;Rochester (NY);Ohio;Great Lakes |
ny0022168 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2013/09/21 | Red Sox Clinch East; Indians Win, As Do Royals | Jon Lester pitched seven strong innings as the Boston Red Sox beat the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, 6-3, on Friday night to clinch their first American League East title since 2007. Lester (15-8) allowed one run, five hits and two walks, striking out eight to win for the seventh time in nine decisions. It was his 100th career victory. Koji Uehara got five outs for his 20th save. With the crowd standing for most of the final inning, Uehara struck out Brett Lawrie to end the game and the Red Sox poured out of the dugout and bullpen. Dustin Pedroia had three hits for the Red Sox, who have won 19 of their last 25. INDIANS 2, ASTROS 1 Zach McAllister (9-9) lasted five innings and host Cleveland got two unearned runs in a rain-shortened victory that moved them into one of the two A.L. wild-card spots. The game was delayed for 1 hour 9 minutes before the umpires decided to call it after six and half innings. ROYALS 2, RANGERS 1 Neftali Feliz walked Alcides Escobar on four pitches with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning night, giving host Kansas City a victory. TIGERS 12, WHITE SOX 5 Max Scherzer became baseball’s first 20-game winner, pitching through bad weather for six innings to help Detroit to a victory at home. The A.L. Central-leading Tigers lowered their magic number to 3. REDS 6, PIRATES 5 Joey Votto homered off Kyle Farnsworth in the 10th inning as Cincinnati pulled even with host Pittsburgh for the top wild-card spot in the National League. The Pirates appeared in control through eight innings as Francisco Liriano overwhelmed the Reds, allowing two runs and three hits, walking three and striking out seven. Cincinnati scored three unearned runs in the ninth off closer Mark Melancon as shortstop Jordy Mercer threw a routine grounder into the stands. CARDINALS 7, BREWERS 6 Carlos Beltran’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning scored Kolten Wong to lift visiting St. Louis, which moved into a two-game lead in the N.L. Central. Matt Adams hit his 15th home run for the Cardinals. BRAVES 9, CUBS 5 Chris Johnson went 3 for 4 with a home run as visiting Atlanta reduced its magic number for clinching the National League East title to 1. The Braves scored four runs with two outs in the ninth inning to break open a tie game. Brian McCann and Johnson each had a run-scoring single, and Andrelton Simmons followed with a two-run double. Freddie Freeman earlier hit a three-run homer for Atlanta. David Carpenter (4-1) pitched a scoreless eighth to get the win. Kevin Gregg (2-5) took the loss for the Cubs, who wasted three home runs. Atlanta starter Paul Maholm, twice given a four-run lead, allowed eight hits and four runs in five and a third innings. Chicago’s Scott Baker allowed only four hits in four innings but gave up five runs. NATIONALS 8, MARLINS 0 Jordan Zimmermann (19-8) pitched a two-hitter and earned his N.L.-leading 19th win as host Washington clung to its slim playoff hopes. The Nationals sent 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run sixth against Marlins starter Jacob Turner (3-8) and reliever Chris Hatcher. Denard Span had two hits in the inning, including a two-run triple, and Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper had back-to-back doubles. After hovering near .500 for most of the season, the Nationals, the defending N.L. East champions, have won 29 of 40. They began the day five games behind the Cincinnati Reds for the second wild-card spot, with nine games to play. POOL PARTY CRITICIZED Some in Arizona expressed indignation after Adrian Gonzalez and about 20 other Dodgers left their Champagne-soaked clubhouse and jumped into the Chase Field pool after clinching the N.L. West title in Phoenix on Thursday. The Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks, 7-6. The Dodgers insisted they meant no disrespect, but Diamondbacks infielder Willie Bloomquist and Senator John McCain of Arizona were among those who criticized the Dodgers on Twitter. “Congrats to Dodgers for winning the west — they earned it on the field,” Bloomquist wrote. “I just wasn’t raised to boast in your opponent’s face.” McCain had harsher words, writing, “No-class act by a bunch of overpaid, immature, arrogant, spoiled brats!” | Baseball;Washington Nationals;Braves;Dodgers;Chicago Cubs;Miami Marlins;Cleveland Indians;Red Sox;Blue Jays |
ny0159798 | [
"us"
] | 2008/12/25 | Suspect in Roadway Shootings Dies | DALLAS (AP) — A former Utah state trooper suspected in several Dallas-area roadway shootings that killed at least one driver died on Wednesday a hospital official said. The former trooper, Brian Smith, died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, a nursing supervisor said. Mr. Smith, 37, had been in critical condition on life support from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police said he shot himself in the head after a brief standoff early Tuesday, more than six hours after the string of roadway shootings ended. The Dallas police said they thought Mr. Smith was responsible for at least one death in the shootings. The Garland police were still trying to verify that the gun Mr. Smith used on himself was the same one used in another man’s death. Lt. Craig Miller of the Dallas Police Department said the authorities were working to confirm that Mr. Smith was the gunman in separate shooting deaths minutes apart Monday on a Garland street and a Dallas interstate. Earlier Wednesday, police shut down the freeway to re-examine one shooting scene. | Dallas (Tex);Murders and Attempted Murders;Suicides and Suicide Attempts;Smith Brian |
ny0176248 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2007/07/26 | Hearst Continues Pursuit of Names of Steroids Users | The Hearst Corporation, which is suing the federal government to reveal the names of dozens of current and former major league baseball players who may have been provided performance-enhancing drugs, filed response papers in federal court yesterday. Hearst argued that the government should reveal to the public the names, which were blacked out in a search warrant, because it has provided a witness, who has the same information, to a third-party investigator. The suit involves the case of Kirk Radomski, a former Mets batboy who admitted to distributing performance-enhancing substances and money laundering. When Radomski pleaded guilty, on April 27, the search warrant executed on his home on Long Island was unsealed, but the names of athletes the government may have evidence he provided drugs to were redacted. Part of Radomski’s plea agreement stated that he must cooperate with George J. Mitchell , baseball’s chief steroid investigator. There has been widespread speculation that his cooperation meant that the government would provide Mitchell with the blacked-out names in the original search-warrant affidavit. When Hearst, which owns 12 newspapers, filed suit in June, it argued that because the government had provided Mitchell, who has no legal standing, with a copy of the affidavit, the public was entitled to the same information. The government, however, said it did not provide Mitchell with an original copy of the affidavit but did say that Radomski had been encouraged to cooperate with Mitchell. The government also said the names should remain sealed because revealing them would inhibit a developing investigation. In its filing yesterday, Hearst said, “Senator Mitchell has been charged by his client with uncovering steroid use in M.L.B. and has pledged to a public report of his findings.” It added, “He has no obligation to the government,” and the government “appears not to have imposed any conditions on Mitchell’s use of those names.” According to Daniel C. Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School, Hearst’s response highlighted the clash between the government’s treatment of Mitchell as a cooperating investigator, and Hearst’s effort to paint Mitchell as a member of the public. “Given the deference usually paid to the government’s investigative concerns, Hearst still has an uphill battle to gain disclosure,” Richman said. | Steroids;Baseball;Hearst Corp;Mitchell George J |
ny0046985 | [
"us"
] | 2014/11/18 | Doctor Being Treated for Ebola in Omaha Dies | WASHINGTON — This time, the challenge of Ebola was much steeper for the doctors and nurses at Nebraska Medical Center , one of a handful of hospitals specially designated to handle cases of the deadly virus in the United States. Unlike the two Ebola patients they had successfully treated earlier this year at the hospital’s biocontainment unit in Omaha, the man who arrived from Sierra Leone on Saturday, Dr. Martin Salia, was in extremely critical condition. Dr. Salia, a legal permanent resident of the United States who had been working as a surgeon in Sierra Leone, died early Monday morning, barely into his second day of treatment, but almost two weeks into his illness. “Even the most modern techniques that we have at our disposal are not enough to help these patients once they reach a critical threshold,” said Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, chancellor of the University of the Nebraska Medical Center, the hospital’s academic partner. Dr. Philip Smith, the medical director of the biocontainment unit, said that Dr. Salia, 44, had initially been tested for Ebola in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, on Nov. 7, but that the test came back negative. He was retested there on Nov. 10, at which point the results were positive. Dr. Smith said such false negatives were not uncommon early in the illness. Dr. Daniel W. Johnson, a critical care specialist at Nebraska Medical Center, said that Dr. Salia’s kidneys had stopped functioning and that he was laboring to breathe when he arrived at the hospital late Saturday afternoon after a 15-hour flight. Doctors quickly tried two treatments they had used on their other Ebola patients: an experimental antiviral drug and a plasma transfusion from the blood of an Ebola survivor , which researchers believe may provide antibodies against the virus. But Dr. Salia was already so ill that within hours of his arrival at the hospital, he needed continuous dialysis to replace his kidney function. By the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, he was in respiratory failure and needed a ventilator, Dr. Johnson said on Monday. Around the same time, he added, Dr. Salia’s blood pressure plummeted. “He progressed to the point of cardiac arrest, and we weren’t able to get him through this,” Dr. Johnson said at a news conference in Omaha. “We really, really gave it everything we could.” Video Dr. Daniel W. Johnson, the director of critical care at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discussed how Dr. Martin Salia died after being brought to the hospital with advanced Ebola symptoms. Credit Credit Eric Francis/Getty Images Dr. Smith said he did not know how Dr. Salia had contracted the virus. “He worked in an area where there was a lot of Ebola disease, much of it probably unrecognized,” Dr. Smith said, “and there were many opportunities for him to have contracted it.” In the frenetic neighborhood of Kissy, on the eastern end of Freetown, an eerie quiet hung over the United Methodist Hospital on Monday as news spread that Dr. Salia had died. He was the chief medical officer and the only surgeon at United Methodist Kissy Hospital, according to United Methodist News Service. Leonard Gbloh, the administrator of the hospital, said he did not think Dr. Salia could have contracted Ebola there. “We have not been taking Ebola patients here” he said. “And we had stringent control measures in place to prevent it entering.” The hospital even stopped all surgical work several months ago as a precaution, Mr. Gbloh said. Now, the hospital is being decontaminated and several staff members who came into contact with Dr. Salia after he fell ill are in quarantine there. But Mr. Gbloh said that Dr. Salia — whose wife and two children live in New Carrollton, Md. — had also been working at other hospitals and clinics in the area. He said that Dr. Salia would be remembered as kind and dedicated, adding, “He was a great professional, always willing to work overtime.” Yahya Tunis, a spokesman at the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, said he had known Dr. Salia well. He recalled how, during a doctors’ strike earlier in the Ebola outbreak, Dr. Salia had turned up at Connaught Hospital in Freetown and persuaded his colleagues to return to work. “He had left the comforts of America to come and work here in his home country,” Mr. Tunis said. “We are very saddened by his passing.” Despite signs that Ebola is in decline in eastern parts of Sierra Leone, as well as in neighboring Liberia, the virus is still rampant in Freetown and its environs. According the government’s count, the country saw more than 500 new cases last week, with the highest number in Freetown. Five other doctors in Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola; all have died. Although the State Department arranged for Dr. Salia’s travel to Omaha from Sierra Leone on a specially equipped plane, patients or their sponsoring organizations are typically responsible for the costs of such evacuations. Dr. Salia is the second patient to die of Ebola in the United States. The first, Thomas Eric Duncan , died in early October at a Dallas hospital after traveling there from Liberia. Two nurses who cared for Mr. Duncan, Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson , also contracted the virus but recovered. Two other Americans who contracted Ebola in West Africa, Dr. Rick Sacra, a missionary doctor, and Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman, recovered after being treated at the Nebraska unit in September and October. But both arrived there earlier in their illness and did not need dialysis or a ventilator. Each patient at the Nebraska unit has received a different experimental drug, and doctors say it is hard to know whether they helped Dr. Sacra and Mr. Mukpo. Dr. Salia’s body will be cremated, Dr. Smith said, adding that he and his staff are still waiting for the results of Dr. Salia’s blood tests, which will show how much virus he had in his body. Dr. Smith said the nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists who had cared for Dr. Salia would monitor their temperatures and be on alert for any symptoms of the virus in the coming weeks, logging the results into an electronic database that will be checked daily. But they will continue to work, he said. “The staff gave it everything and then some,” said Rosanna Morris, the hospital’s chief nursing officer. “Now they need a little time to grieve and really find peace within themselves, awaiting our next patient.” | Ebola;Omaha;Martin Salia;Nebraska Medical Center;Sierra Leone |
ny0043837 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2014/05/15 | South Sudan Cease-Fire Proves to Be Short-Lived | ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — An agreement for a cease-fire in South Sudan that was signed Friday barely made it into the new week before violence resumed in the seething conflict that has already left thousands dead and displaced more than 1.3 million people. A previous pact, signed in January, also failed almost immediately . As early as Monday, South Sudan’s minister of defense, Kuol Manyang, said there had been new fighting in Upper Nile State. On Wednesday, the government and the rebels accused each other of violating the short-lived accord. In an interview from Juba, South Sudan’s capital, Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for President Salva Kiir, said the government had been attacked by the rebels, led by Riek Machar, the former vice president under Mr. Kiir. Yohanis Musa Pouk, a spokesman for Mr. Machar, asserted that Mr. Kiir had violated the cease-fire to avoid the establishment of an interim government and elections that might leave him out of power. He called the cease-fire a good agreement, “but we know that the government won’t honor it.” “Nobody will talk about elections if there is insecurity in the country,” Mr. Pouk said. Sunday Okello Angoma, a researcher on South Sudan at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University, said, “The two sides don’t seem to be ready to implement any peace agreement.” Mr. Angoma said that Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar seem to make cease-fire agreements fairly easily. Putting them into effect is something else. The civil war has so disrupted the fragile country, which became independent of Sudan only in 2011, that United Nations agencies warned last month of famine without a major relief effort. Mr. Angoma urged the establishment of an international peacekeeping force large enough to keep order. A South Sudanese research organization stimulated the debate over an interim government with a proposal published over the weekend and sent to negotiators in Addis Ababa. “The mission is to lay the foundation for sustained peace, economic growth, poverty reduction and the structure for resilient institutions,” said Lual Deng, the managing director of the research organization, the Ebony Center for Strategic Studies in South Sudan and, until 2011, a minister in the Sudanese government. The proposal suggested a collegiate presidency of five individuals who would rotate every six months. The presidency would have a representative from each of South Sudan’s three chief regions — Greater Bahr el Ghazal, Greater Equatoria and Greater Upper Nile — a representative from the army, and a woman. Mr. Deng said that by putting an emphasis on the regions, the arrangement could avoid ethnic dominance by either Mr. Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group, or the Nuer, which largely supports Mr. Machar. Longstanding tensions between those groups burst into open warfare last December after Mr. Kiir accused Mr. Machar of plotting to overthrow him . The proposal also suggests a cabinet of technocrats. Mr. Deng said that the interim government would be installed, without elections, after Mr. Kiir’s term that officially ends next year. Mr. Pouk said Mr. Machar’s delegation had not seen the proposal but was working on its own plan. Mr. Ateny opposed the idea of installing five individuals who were not elected to lead the country. “President Kiir is the one to head South Sudan until people decide to vote him out,” he said. | South Sudan;Salva Kiir Mayardit;Riek Machar;Military |
ny0253172 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2011/10/28 | John Edwards Loses Bid to Get Campaign Finance Case Dismissed | GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal judge on Thursday rejected former Senator John Edwards ’s request to dismiss criminal campaign finance charges against him, all but ensuring that Mr. Edwards will go to trial in January. The ruling, by Judge Catherine C. Eagles of United States District Court here, came after a full day of arguments on Wednesday. “After all these years, I finally get my day in court,” Mr. Edwards said as he left the courtroom Thursday morning. “I never for a second believed I violated campaign laws.” Mr. Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has been charged with violating finance laws to hide an extramarital affair during his 2008 presidential campaign. Abbe Lowell, a powerhouse Washington criminal defense lawyer who recently joined Mr. Edwards’s legal team, spent much of the hearing arguing that the government’s case was vindictive, politically motivated and based on an overly broad definition of campaign contributions. Prosecutors countered that the case was straightforward. Mr. Edwards solicited the money and used it, in effect, to try to influence the outcome of the 2008 campaign, they said. If convicted, Mr. Edwards faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. The nearly $1 million in question came from two wealthy supporters who provided cash, travel and living expenses for a campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter, with whom Mr. Edwards fathered a child, and a former campaign aide, Andrew Young, and his family. Mr. Young, who for a time claimed to be the child’s father, is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution when Mr. Edwards goes to trial. Lawyers for Mr. Edwards argued Wednesday that the money was never a campaign contribution. Rather it was a gift, they said, that Rachel Mellon, a 101-year-old banking heiress, and the late Fred Baron, Mr. Edwards’s national campaign finance chairman, gave to help Mr. Edwards. In a legal twist in the case, Mr. Young is scheduled to answer contempt of court charges in a hearing next month related to his behavior in a civil case winding its way through state court in North Carolina. That case centers on a sex tape purported to feature Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter and several photographs that may include images of Mr. Edwards and the daughter he had with Ms. Hunter, who was born in 2008. Ms. Hunter claims Mr. Young stole the material from her. Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter have given depositions in the case. Records in the sex-tape case have been sealed, but federal prosecutors investigating Mr. Edwards issued a subpoena ordering Mr. Young to turn over thousands of pages of documents. In Mr. Edwards’s bid to get the charges dropped, his lawyers claimed Wednesday that the government conducted an overly elaborate investigation and spent a disproportionate amount of resources investigating the charges at the behest of the United States attorney at the time, George Holding, a Republican appointee of President George W. Bush who stayed on after the Democrats took the White House in 2008 to finish the Edwards case. Judge Eagles rejected arguments that Mr. Holding, who has supported Mr. Edward’s political opponents, pursued the case to further his political ambitions. Mr. Holding, who has since left the Justice Department, recently announced he is running for Congress. | Edwards John;Campaign Finance;Decisions and Verdicts;United States Politics and Government |
ny0071986 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2015/03/31 | Jay Z Reveals Plans for Tidal, a Streaming Music Service | As Jay Z sees it, there is a clear solution to the problems facing musicians in the streaming age. They should band together — behind him, of course. On Monday, Jay Z, the rap star and entertainment mogul, announced his plans for Tidal , a subscription streaming service he recently bought for $56 million. Facing competition from Spotify, Google and other companies that will soon include Apple, Tidal will be fashioned as a home for high-fidelity audio and exclusive content. But perhaps the most notable part of Jay Z’s strategy is that a majority of the company will be owned by artists. The move may bring financial benefits for those involved, but it is also powerfully symbolic in a business where musicians have seldom had direct control over how their work is consumed. “This is a platform that’s owned by artists,” Jay Z said in an interview last week as he prepared for the news conference announcing the service. “We are treating these people that really care about the music with the utmost respect.” The plan was unveiled on Monday at a brief but highly choreographed news conference in Manhattan, where Jay Z stood alongside more than a dozen musicians identified as Tidal’s owners. They included Rihanna, Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Jack White, Alicia Keys, the country singer Jason Aldean, the French dance duo Daft Punk (in signature robot costumes), members of Arcade Fire, and Beyoncé, Jay Z’s wife. The stars stood side-by-side and signed an unspecified “declaration.” Jay Z did not speak, but Ms. Keys read a statement expressing the musicians’ wish “to forever change the course of music history.” Jay Z’s plan is the latest entry in an escalating battle over streaming music, which has become the industry’s fastest-growing revenue source but has also drawn criticism for its economic model. Major record labels, as well as artists like Taylor Swift, have also openly challenged the so-called freemium model advocated by Spotify, which offers free access to music as a way to lure customers to paying subscriptions. Tidal, which makes millions of songs and thousands of high-definition videos available in 31 countries, will have no free version. Instead, it will have two subscription tiers defined by audio quality: $10 a month for a compressed format (the standard on most digital outlets) and $20 for CD-quality streams. “The challenge is to get everyone to respect music again, to recognize its value,” said Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter. “Water is free. Music is $6 but no one wants to pay for music. You should drink free water from the tap — it’s a beautiful thing. And if you want to hear the most beautiful song, then support the artist.” As a superstar artist and influential executive through his company Roc Nation, Jay Z has unusual power in the music industry. He is said to be courting new artists aggressively to join the service and offer Tidal special material and “windows,” or limited periods of exclusive availability. Yet Jay Z is entering the streaming fray as a boutique competitor against some of the most powerful companies in the business. Spotify has 60 million users around the world, 15 million of whom pay; Apple is expected to introduce a subscription streaming service this year. Last fall, Tidal’s parent company, the Swedish technology firm Aspiro, said it had 512,000 paying users. In addition, the broader market for streaming music includes YouTube and the Internet radio giant Pandora. Tidal faces other hurdles, like whether Jay Z can attract artists from beyond his inner circle. And while Tidal may have the support of individual artists, in many cases the distribution rights to their music are controlled by record companies. Lucian Grainge, the chairman of the Universal Music Group, said he welcomed Tidal’s arrival. “We like lots of services and we like lots of competition,” Mr. Grainge said. “Jay is an artist as well as an entrepreneur. He’s a winner, and we like winners.” Speaking by phone from Los Angeles — where he was periodically interrupted by parenting duties for his 3-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy — Jay Z described his vision for Tidal as an outlet where musicians and fans “can all just camp out and listen to music,” and where artists would “always be on album cycle,” meaning in constant promotion mode. Music executives briefed on his plans were more prosaic, calling it a hub for entertainment content and social media. Other ideas, like links for concert tickets and merchandise sales, have been discussed as possibilities. Vania Schlogel, a Tidal executive, said that a majority of the shares in the service would be set aside for artists. She and Jay Z declined to reveal specifics about the equity deals. But one executive involved in the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deals were private, said that participating artists were being granted shares in exchange for their good-faith efforts to supply exclusive content — a sign, perhaps, of the confidence that the artists and their managers have in Jay Z’s ability to get things done. In describing the service, Jay Z emphasized the question of fair play for musicians, calling the current system “criminal.” “Everyone knows that the pay system is unfair to artists,” he said. “Everywhere else, everyone gets compensated for their work. Music is everywhere — you consume it every day, everywhere you go. The content creator should be compensated. It’s only fair.” Like other streaming services, Tidal pays a small royalty each time a song is listened to. Ms. Schlogel declined to comment on the company’s rates other than that they would be higher than services that have free tiers supported by advertising. Last fall, Ms. Swift sent shock waves through the music business when she withdrew her music from Spotify, apparently because she did not want it offered free. About a month later, Jay Z approached the board of Aspiro, according to an Aspiro disclosure. Jay Z dismissed a suggestion that his interest had been prompted by Ms. Swift’s move, saying that his plans “have been in the works for a year.” Jonathan Prince, a spokesman for Spotify, said in response to a question about competition from Tidal, that “we think it’s good for artists and labels to be on Spotify, because that’s where the music fans are, and we are confident that’s where artists and labels will want to be.” Early Monday, artists associated with Tidal began promoting the service on social media through the tag #TIDALforALL . That stirred excitement among fans, although some in the music business and the technology world remain skeptical about Tidal’s chances against players like Apple and Spotify. “I think Jay Z is about to find out the limits of his celebrity,” said David Pakman, a venture capitalist and former digital music executive. “I am sure he will lure exclusive content onto the service but that will reach a limited audience.” Jay Z said he was not concerned about the competition as long as he was able to put forth the service that he has envisioned. “I just want to be an alternative,” Jay Z said. “They don’t have to lose for me to win.” | Jay Z;Audio Recordings; Downloads and Streaming;Music;Aspiro;Tidal |
ny0215344 | [
"us"
] | 2010/04/02 | Basketball 101, Through Jaded-Colored Glasses | Dan McGrath is a columnist for the Chicago News Cooperative. I thought of Rus Bradburd last weekend while watching West Virginia and Kentucky play for a berth in the N.C.A.A. tournament’s Final Four. West Virginia’s coach, Bob Huggins, once went four years with a zero graduation rate and had 21 players turn up on city police blotters when he coached at Cincinnati. Kentucky’s coach, John Calipari, reached the Final Four twice previously with Massachusetts and Memphis, but both appearances were vacated because of N.C.A.A. infractions. They’re two of the most prominent and highly paid figures in college basketball. The coach-turned-writer Rus Bradburd has a healthier sense of the game than either of them. He speaks with self-deprecating candor when he observes that basketball has been pretty good to him ... since he quit trying to play it. From his seat far down the bench on two of North Park College’s three consecutive Division III national championship teams in the late 1970s, Bradburd decided he was “the worst player in North Park history.” But that debatable opinion didn’t diminish the love of the game he developed as a ball-handling savant on Chicago playgrounds. So he went into coaching, and spent 14 years as a top-level assistant to Don Haskins at Texas-El Paso and Lou Henson at New Mexico State, both Hall of Famers. Over time, though, the demands of the job and the direction of the game led to a disillusionment that Bradburd began to articulate as he pursued a master’s in fine arts at New Mexico State. His transition from jaded basketball lifer to accomplished author has resulted in two highly provocative, critically acclaimed books that use the sport for illuminating character studies: Bradburd’s own in “Paddy on the Hardwood” and Nolan Richardson’s in “Forty Minutes of Hell.” Where “Paddy”is a sweet, engaging recapitulation of the two years Bradburd spent coaching what passes for pro ball in Ireland, “Forty Minutes” is a sharp-elbowed biography of Coach Richardson, whose crash-and-burn departure from Arkansas in 2002 overshadowed 17 years of heady success, including a national championship. Black coaches’ struggles for acceptance, in a game that black players have long dominated, gives the book a strong historical underpinning. “I’ve always been drawn to stories,” Bradburd said in an interview from New Mexico State, where he teaches writing. His own story is also one worth telling. Bradburd, 50, literally wrote his way into coaching the college game — he sent letters to every college coach he could think of in 1982, after one year as coach at Von Steuben High School, his alma mater. Fate delivered him to Haskins at Texas-El Paso. “Even then, I must have been a better writer than I was a coach,” Bradburd said. “I’d never been to El Paso and didn’t know anybody there. That letter got me hired sight unseen.” Haskins made history in 1966 (Texas-El Paso was then Texas Western) when his team with five black starters beat Adolph Rupp’s all-white Kentucky squad for the N.C.A.A. championship. Nolan Richardson played for Haskins. So did Tim Hardaway, partly as a result of Bradburd’s Chicago connections. A point guard from Carver High School with big-time talent and Chicago-bred toughness, Hardaway was a standout at Texas-El Paso and a five-time N.B.A. all-star after the Golden State Warriors picked him in the first round of the 1989 draft. “For the rest of my time in coaching, I was known as the guy who recruited Tim Hardaway,” Bradburd said. “You could do worse.” Bradburd’s coaching these days is pretty much limited to Basketball in the Barrio, the name of the camp he runs for El Paso youngsters each summer that blends basketball drills with cultural enrichment. He hasn’t owned a television for 20 years but keeps up with his sports friends via the Internet. One of them is Tim Floyd, a colleague on Haskins’s staff who returned to Texas-El Paso this week four jobs after he was Jerry Krause’s ill-fated choice to coach the post-dynasty Bulls in 1998. “I begged Tim not to take that job,” Bradburd said. “I said, ‘What can you do that Phil Jackson didn’t do?’ He said, ‘Rus, it’s $1.5 million a year.’ I said, ‘You’re making $750,000 in Ames, Iowa — how much do you need? Is it worth it to double your salary and commit career suicide?’ ” Floyd’s run with the Bulls ended badly — he was pushed out the door on Christmas Day 2001 after two and a half desultory seasons. He wasn’t the first coach and certainly not the last to follow the money, but Bradburd sees the practice as symptomatic of the corrupting influence that money exerts on sports at almost every level. “There’s a certain self-importance that occurs when there’s so much money involved,” he said. “We were about to play Fullerton State one year when I was at New Mexico State. One of their players was shot and left paralyzed, and there was talk of canceling the game. We’re wondering: ‘Can they do that? How will it affect their mental state? Would we be better off playing them now or later?’ “A kid was shot, and we sounded like the most insensitive jerks in the world talking about what it meant to us. We were not. We were just caught up in our own little world where winning basketball games was what mattered more than anything.” The game Rus Bradburd studied from the North Park bench has changed, almost beyond recognition. He’s more comfortable writing about it than living it. It’s a better way to express his love. | Basketball;Writing and Writers;Coaches and Managers;College Athletics;Chicago (Ill) |
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