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ny0265325 | [
"technology"
] | 2016/03/05 | Airbnb Hires First Director of Diversity | SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb hired David J. King III as its first director of diversity, part of a broader move by technology companies to build more inclusive work forces. Mr. King has worked on diversity issues for more than 10 years, first as the chief for diversity management and outreach at the State Department and most recently as director of the office of civil rights and diversity for the Peace Corps. At Airbnb, he will be in charge of making the company and the community of travelers that it supports more diverse. Airbnb’s mission “is to create a world where people can belong anywhere,” Mr. King said. The hiring is the latest move by a tech company to counter the industry’s poor track record in encouraging a diverse employee base. Over the last few years, tech companies including Google, Apple and Facebook have published diversity reports that show that their work forces are overwhelmingly male and white. Companies including Twitter have appointed executives to improve diversity efforts. Airbnb, an app that lets people rent out space in their homes, is used in more than 190 countries and 34,000 cities. The company, which is privately held, is valued at around $25.5 billion. The company released a diversity report in October, showing that its work force is 54 percent male and 63 percent white. In December, a Harvard Business School paper found that it was harder for hosts on Airbnb to book guests if they had names that sounded African-American. Since Airbnb is built on a diverse community of hosts and guests around the world, the company should have “the same goals for diversity within Airbnb,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s co-founder and chief executive, in a statement. In addition to hiring Mr. King, Airbnb is partnering with two women’s nonprofit groups. The company will work with the Global Fund for Women to support travel for female leaders and activists who attend training and speaking engagements across the globe. It is also working with Vital Voices , a global mentoring program, to support the travel needs of its entrepreneurs. | Airbnb;Peace Corps;Appointments and Executive Changes;David J. King III |
ny0136768 | [
"business",
"yourmoney"
] | 2008/05/02 | Determining Who Rides the Lifeboat | “I ask you, what am I? I’m one of the undeserving poor. That’s what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he’s up agen middle class morality all the time ... I don’t need less than a deserving man; I need more. I don’t eat less hearty than him, and I drink a lot more.” — Alfred Doolittle, in “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw “If investors choose to walk away because they put no money down and their free option is now worthless, we do not believe taxpayers should be held accountable. We are focused on helping homeowners who want to stay in their homes and have the financial wherewithal to do so.” — Robert K. Steel, under secretary of the Treasury for domestic finance As the mortgage crisis spilled over into a credit squeeze that threatened to bring down Wall Street, the government has tried to find ways to prevent disaster while not helping those who do not deserve help. That can be seen in the program the Federal Housing Administration initially offered to homeowners facing ballooning mortgage payments. It would refinance their mortgages, but only if they had proved they were deserving by keeping current on the payments before the interest rate reset. It turns out, as Rachel L. Swarns reported in The New York Times this week, that there are not enough of them who need help. So the program has been expanded to allow refinancings for those who had missed no more than two payments — but only if there were extenuating circumstances, like lost jobs, pay cuts or illnesses. We want to help homeowners in trouble, but only if they are deserving. Alfred Doolittle would not be surprised. Mr. Steel, in a speech this week to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in Baltimore, made clear that he did not want to bail out homeowners who are not deserving of help, a class that includes “investors” who put no money down. In the same speech, he became the first Bush administration official, at least to my knowledge, to cite the late economist Hyman Minsky in explaining what has gone wrong. Minsky is more often quoted by liberals who want to justify more government regulation of a capitalist system that is prone to excess. “Minsky,” Mr. Steel said , “described how strong economic periods fueled optimism among lenders and borrowers. Eventually during a boom, however, what is initially rational enthusiasm turns excessive as both borrowing and lending become increasingly speculative. At some point during the later stages of the speculative boom, buyers become less eager to buy and sellers become more eager to sell. That, Minsky postulated, would develop into a period of financial distress. This framework certainly seems to capture the issues and challenges of today.” As it happens, Minsky is enjoying something of a revival. Two of his books, “John Maynard Keynes,” and “Stabilizing an Unstable Economy” were just republished by McGraw-Hill, and his contention that stability is inherently unstable seems more relevant than ever in the aftermath of the period of low market volatility that ended in the current crisis. In the latter of those books, published in 1986, Minsky wrote, “If the institutions responsible for the lender-of-last resort function stand aside and allow market forces to operate, then the decline in asset values relative to current output prices will be larger than with intervention; investment and debt financed consumption will fall by larger amounts; and the decline in income, employment and profits will be greater.” In other words, without government bailouts, there can be a downward spiral. The risk now is that letting market forces operate will create such a spiral. “The undeserving speculator who lied about his loan, put very little down, and now is increasingly indifferent to handing over the keys, is creating a growing stock of unsold homes that are producing an accelerating decline for house prices,” said Robert Barbera, the chief economist of ITG. “It invites a calculation that says, ‘We are all a lot poorer, because our house values have fallen,’ ” he added. “That can become a self-reinforcing negative dynamic” that makes consumers fearful to spend and persuades them that buying a house is foolish until prices have fallen further. That now seems to be happening. Over the six months through February, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price indexes reported this week, home prices fell at an annual rate of more than 25 percent in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Miami. The Conference Board consumer confidence survey found that only 15 percent of Americans expect their income to rise over the next six months, the lowest figure since the survey began in 1967. The proportion planning to buy a house is at a 33-year low. The proportion planning to take a vacation within six months has never been lower. To reverse that dynamic, the government may eventually decide that it is necessary to bail out the undeserving as well as the deserving, no matter how repugnant that seems at the moment, and no matter how bad the inflationary impact may be. | Mortgages;Federal Housing Administration;Steel Robert K;Wall Street (NYC) |
ny0280169 | [
"business"
] | 2016/10/17 | How the Chemical Industry Joined the Fight Against Climate Change | It might seem surprising to find the world’s chemical companies on the front lines of preventing climate change, fighting to disrupt their own industries. But in a sweeping accord reached on Saturday in Kigali, Rwanda, companies including Honeywell and Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, were among the most active backers of a move away from a profitable chemical that has long been the foundation for the fast-growing air-conditioning and refrigeration business. The companies were driven less by idealism than by intense competition, and a bet that they could create more environmentally friendly alternatives. Still, some environmentalists say the aggressive move away from hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, provides a template for other industries to follow. “They learned that without a rule change, their new products couldn’t compete,” said David Doniger, director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York. “They woke up and said, ‘The science is real.’” “We wanted them restricted for purely environmental reasons. The companies wanted them restricted for many other reasons,” including profit, Mr. Doniger said. “But the point is that they had a certain common interest with the international community.” The chemical industry’s response stands in stark contrast to the foot-dragging, and in many cases the outright obstruction of climate regulations, by the big oil companies. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and others have been criticized for lobbying against rules to curb greenhouse gases for decades, even though their own researchers have warned of the risks of climate change. Some environmentalists contend that the chemical companies were allowed to have too much input into the Kigali deal. They also say the deal could have been more ambitious in timing and scope. And there are concerns that many producers in countries will not profit as quickly, consolidating the power of the world’s biggest companies. Much of the resistance to the agreement came from China and India, which feared that some of their chemical manufacturers would be shut out, or that their consumers would face higher prices . “Although we welcome the outcome and there is progress, it’s being dictated by the industry,” said Paula Tejón Carbajal, the global business strategist for Greenpeace in Amsterdam. The Kigali deal is the latest chapter in what has been at times an environmentally disastrous role played by the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry. For decades, a class of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, were used widely in air-conditioners and refrigerators, as well as in aerosol sprays and cleaning products. But scientists warned that CFCs deplete the ozone layer, which protects the earth from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Chemical companies first resisted, saying that alternatives were not economically viable. “They were awful, just like the coal industry,” Mr. Doniger said. But consumer concern about the chemicals led to slumping sales, and a handful of countries banned CFCs. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol agreement was created to completely phase out those chemicals. The alternatives available at the time, HFCs, were greenhouse gases with 1,000 times the heat-trapping potency of carbon dioxide. Concerns over those chemicals spurred campaigns by environmentalists to phase out HFCs as well. Image Air-conditioners on a summer day in Midtown Manhattan. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times This time, chemical producers raced to get ahead of any new round of regulations. Even as the switch to HFCs was taking hold in the early 2000s, Honeywell and several other companies began research and development programs to study alternatives with far lower warming potential. Europe tightened its regulations in 2011, with stricter laws aimed at phasing out HFCs in car air-conditioners. Regulators in the United States gave credits to domestic automakers for switching to HFC alternatives. In 2012, Honeywell set up a production base just north of Shanghai to make a more environmentally friendly HFC alternative known as HFO-1234yf. The company followed with a second plant north of Tokyo, and is set to open its largest production base in Geismar, La., early next year. It has spent $900 million on its alternative coolant program. Since then, Honeywell has publicly voiced its support for stricter regulations, and in 2014, was one of a group of companies to partner with the Obama administration in its bid to make amending the Montreal Protocol a priority. With the world phasing out HFCs, the company is set to reap the benefits of its investment. Though Honeywell does not break out specific figures for its chemicals business, it has said that sales of its HFC alternatives are rising fast, helping the company grow its annual revenues from its wider fluorine business by double digits to over $1 billion. “This is an area where we are aligned with the environmental benefits,” Kenneth Gayer, vice president of fluorine products at Honeywell, said in an interview. “We anticipated the need for these regulations before people were even talking about global warming. Now, the world is going to use alternatives in a big way.” Other options are now available, including systems that use propane or ammonia, and companies throughout the supply chain are racing to adopt them. Coca-Cola, for example, has put more than 1.8 million refrigerated vending machines and other HFC-free equipment into service. Still, some environmentalists caution against what they see as excessive influence by the corporate sector in shaping the way forward for cooling technologies. Daikin makes a low-cost HFC alternative called HFC32 that has a relatively small global warming impact, and is seen as useful for markets like India. Daikin, based in Osaka, Japan, makes both air-conditioning hardware and chemicals. It has been putting some of its patents in the public domain to encourage local manufacturers to use its chemicals. Ms. Carbajal, of Greenpeace, saw the aggressive promotion of HFC32 as problematic. The industry, she said, decides “what is low and what is high, and that’s why we are very concerned.” Ms. Carbajal said that while there was a range of better alternatives to HFCs, those were not the ones being adopted in some countries. “The problem is that the ambition has not been as high as we expected,” she said. Damian Thong, who heads Asia technology research at Macquarie, said Daikin had backed HFC32 in an attempt to balance warming potential and higher energy efficiency. Emissions from air-conditioners also come from generating the electricity they consume, Mr. Thong said. “The issue being glossed over is that focusing on global warming potential alone may be bad for the environment still,” he said. Despite the remaining issues, the Kigali deal was an example of an emerging dynamic, where companies pre-empt environmental policy changes by developing more planet-friendly products, then push for regulation that grows that market, environmental experts say. “More and more companies are looking further and further down the timeline to see what changes they can expect, and what they need to phase out of their products,” said Baskut Tuncak, a lawyer at the United Nations specializing in toxic chemicals. “It shows regulations do drive innovation,” Mr. Tuncak said. “The more we have a global approach, the better it is, even for businesses.” | Greenhouse gas;Regulation and Deregulation;Climate Change;Global Warming;Air conditioning;Chemicals;Honeywell;Chlorofluorocarbons;Hydrofluorocarbons |
ny0195825 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/10/18 | Farmers in Suffolk County Get State Aid for Fences to Repel Deer | Home gardeners have battled deer all over Suffolk County, but the stakes are far greater for the county’s farmers, who have sustained millions of dollars worth of deer damage to their crops. To assist these struggling farmers, New York State has begun a deer-fencing program. The program, which will provide nearly $1 million, is aimed at helping people like Ed Harbes, who has tried deer-repellent sprays and other steps, all to no avail. “I would see herds of 30 or 40 deer going to town on my pumpkin patch,” said Mr. Harbes, 26, who owns three farms on the East End and has recently installed deer fencing. “Their impact has definitely affected the bottom line. Close to 30 to 40 percent of our crop has been affected by deer damage; that amount of damage becomes a hardship.” Michael Clark, a wildlife biologist for the regional office of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, said that housing development on Long Island, as well as restrictions on hunting — which is generally barred within 500 feet of homes and businesses — have swollen the deer population. But some people suggest that more hunting, not more fencing, is a more abiding solution. “The issue with fencing is that it doesn’t solve the problem, it moves the problem,” said Joseph Gergela, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, a farmers’ group. “We know that there are a lot of Bambi lovers that don’t like the idea of hunting, but this is not Disney World and these are animals that are out of control.” CHARANNA ALEXANDER | Deer;Suffolk County (NY);Long Island (NY) |
ny0190723 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2009/05/23 | After Many Firsts, Judge Has Talent for Persuasion | ATLANTA — Many things about Leah Ward Sears impressed Andrew Young, the civil rights leader who, as mayor of Atlanta, appointed her to her first judicial post at age 27. Not least was the fact that she had been the first black cheerleader at Savannah High School. “It’s easy to integrate the football team,” Mr. Young recalled. “But it’s not easy to integrate the cheerleading squad in a majority white school.” Now regarded as a contender for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice David H. Souter, she has been breaking barriers ever since, becoming the youngest Superior Court judge ever to serve in Georgia and then, in 1992, the youngest justice on the Georgia Supreme Court and the first woman to win a contested statewide race for re-election. Thirteen years later, in 2005, she became the nation’s first black female chief justice of a state high court. But Chief Justice Sears, 53, has never dwelt for long on her status. Instead, she has focused on improving access to the courts for those who cannot afford a lawyer, even in civil cases, and on strengthening marriage. Chief Justice Sears speaks frequently about marriage, saying that divorce and custody cases make up an increasingly large share of caseloads and that children suffer when they are raised out of wedlock. “As a judge, I am often frustrated that I must work within a system designed only to pick up the pieces after families have already fallen apart or failed to come together,” she wrote in an opinion article in The Washington Post. Chief Justice Sears, who declined to comment for this article, was born in Germany, where her father, an Army colonel, was serving, then spent the latter part of her childhood in Savannah, Ga. Calling herself a member of “the affirmative action generation,” she went to Cornell University and law school at Emory University in Atlanta. When she was named to the Georgia Supreme Court at age 36 by Gov. Zell Miller, a Democrat, she stood out. “The average age of the guys was 60,” she said in a recent talk to Cornell alumni. Yet within a few years of Chief Justice Sears’s appointment, the court had moved noticeably away from the right, a change that became evident when it overturned the state antisodomy law in 1998. As chief justice, she developed a reputation for persuasion, often winning narrow victories on a court where she is viewed as part of the liberal minority even though she has always called herself a moderate with a strict military upbringing. When she voted to end the use of the electric chair for executions in Georgia, she disputed arguments that the attack on the method was a challenge to the death penalty itself. Her concurring opinion in the sodomy case enraged the religious right but struck the libertarian overtones that scholars say have defined her tenure. “To allow the moral indignation of a majority (or, even worse, a loud and/or radical minority) to justify criminalizing private consensual conduct,” she wrote, “would be a strike against freedoms paid for and preserved by our forefathers.” Chief Justice Sears has addressed same-sex marriage only indirectly, writing in an opinion that alimony should not be reduced for someone who entered into a homosexual relationship the same way it might be if the person had remarried, because such relationships did not enjoy the same legal protections as marriage. She has not discussed her views on abortion. She won her 2004 race with 62 percent of the vote, but agreed to pay $3,100 in fines after complaints were filed that she had accepted donations over the legal limit and had failed to report contributions correctly. The donations were returned shortly after being received, but at least one critic has suggested that this blemish on Chief Justice Sears’s record could cripple her chances for the nomination. While Chief Justice Sears tends to favor individual liberties, especially in criminal justice cases, she is not easy to pigeonhole. Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee for Justice, a conservative legal group, told a legal blog that among the possible nominees, Chief Justice Sears was one who had shown “at least some respect for the rule of law.” Todd G. Young, the policy director for the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm in Atlanta, said, “I think it’s fair to say that some of the criticisms hurled at her have been excessive.” In one decision where Chief Justice Sears voted with the majority, he said, the court found that a school voucher law dating from the time of desegregation was constitutional but that the court could not force the legislature to fund it. “We have not found her to be extraordinarily activist,” Mr. Young said, though he said she considered public policy along with the law in her decisions. Conservatives accused Chief Justice Sears of putting results above legal principles in the case of Genarlow Wilson, sentenced to 10 years in prison for child molestation because he had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17. The case attracted international attention and outrage, in part because Mr. Wilson was a young black man with good grades and no history of trouble. The state legislature amended the law to make the offense a misdemeanor, but declined to make the change retroactively apply to Mr. Wilson. Chief Justice Sears’s opinion reversed his sentence. Writing for the majority , she said the legislature’s act was still “the clearest and best evidence of a society’s evolving standard of decency and of how contemporary society views a particular punishment.” By that standard, she wrote, Mr. Wilson’s punishment was cruel and unusual. Among liberal supporters, there has been some consternation over her friendship with Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court , also from Savannah. When he attended her swearing in, some boycotted the ceremony. Andrew Young said the association did not worry him, noting that Justice Thomas thanked civil rights leaders. | Supreme Court;Appointments and Executive Changes;Sears Leah Ward;Georgia;Courts |
ny0058901 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2014/08/27 | American Fighting for ISIS Is Killed in Syria | WASHINGTON — Like many teenage boys who grew up in the Midwest in the 1990s, Douglas McAuthur McCain was a fan of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and loved to play basketball. But as he grew older, he lost interest in basketball as he shuttled between two suburban Minneapolis high schools. He never graduated, and in his late teens, he began to have run-ins with the law. In the decade that followed, he was arrested or cited nine times on charges including theft, marijuana possession and driving without a license. Mr. McCain moved back and forth from Minneapolis to San Diego and then abroad. Officials now know he ended up in Syria, where three days ago, Mr. McCain became the first American to die while fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He was 33. The rebels who killed him were fighting for the Free Syrian Army, a rival group backed by the United States, and they went on to behead six ISIS fighters — but not Mr. McCain — and then posted the photographs on Facebook. Mr. McCain’s death provides new insight for the authorities as they try to learn more about ISIS and identify the Americans who have joined a group that has vowed to remake the Middle East and establish an Islamic caliphate. And it is a sign that ISIS, at least in this case, is willing to use Americans on the battlefield in the Middle East rather than sending them back to the United States to launch attacks, as Western officials have feared. “His death is further evidence that Americans are going there to fight for ISIS rather than to train as terrorists to attack at home,” said Richard Barrett, a former British intelligence officer who is now a vice president at the Soufan Group, security consultants in New York. “Nor does it appear that ISIS regards Americans as assets that are too valuable to risk on the front line rather than to keep in reserve for terrorist attacks or propaganda purposes.” “This incident,” Mr. Barrett added, “also confirms that American and presumably other foreign fighters are prepared to attack where directed by ISIS.” Some of those attacks, he said, will be aimed at the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, but not all of them. “They are going to join ISIS, not the fight for the future of Syria,” Mr. Barrett said. In recent weeks, ISIS has become one of the top national security preoccupations of the Obama administration. And the news of Mr. McCain’s death comes amid public anger over the beheading of the American journalist James Foley, an act that added urgency to the Obama administration’s deliberations to expand its air campaign against ISIS into Syria. Senior administration officials and lawmakers have described ISIS as one of the most serious threats the United States has faced since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by Al Qaeda, and some believe the group is determined to attack in the United States. American officials said Tuesday that Mr. McCain’s case highlighted the difficulty of identifying Americans who want to travel to Syria to fight alongside rebels. When the United States faced a similar problem with Somalis several years ago, it was far easier for the authorities to identify those who wanted to travel there to fight because that conflict mostly attracted Somalis. And Somalis live in just a few cities in the United States. But the Syrian conflict has attracted people from all different ages and parts of the United States — including many with no connection to Syria. In May, Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a 22-year-old Florida man who had traveled to Syria to join the Nusra Front, died in a suicide bomb attack. He had an American mother and a Palestinian father. A year earlier, Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, of Flint, Mich., was killed with Syrian rebels in Idlib Province. The federal authorities learned only after he arrived in the country that Mr. McCain had traveled to Syria, according to senior American officials. In response, the American authorities included him on a watch list of potential terrorism suspects maintained by the federal government. Had Mr. McCain tried to re-enter the country, he would have almost certainly faced an extra level of scrutiny before boarding any commercial airliner bound for the United States, the officials said. It is not clear how Mr. McCain was recruited by ISIS and traveled to Syria. According to his Facebook page, he went to Canada and Sweden last year. Many Americans and Europeans who have ended up in Syria have tried to disguise their travels by passing through other countries before heading to Turkey and crossing over its porous border with Syria. His posts on Twitter, where he went by the name Duale Khalid, give clues to his mind-set. In one message from December 2012, he said that the movie “The Help,” which is about black maids in the South, made him “hate white people.” Other posts disparaged Somalis and gays. It was on Twitter that he also discussed religion. He said that he was a convert to Islam and that it was the “best thing” that had ever happened to him. “It’s funny to me how all these so call Muslim claim that they love Allah but always curse the one who try to implement his laws,” he said in one post. According to SITE, an intelligence group that monitors jihadist websites, Mr. McCain also appeared to grow more comfortable with the idea of losing his life in battle. “Ya Allah when it’s my time to go have mercy on my soul have mercy on my bros,” he said on Twitter. The Obama administration released a statement on Tuesday evening confirming his death. The fight in which Mr. McCain was killed occurred in the northern city of Marea, where ISIS and the rebels had been fighting for control in recent weeks, according to members of the Free Syrian Army. Mr. McCain and two other ISIS fighters — a Tunisian and an Egyptian — sneaked up on a group of Free Syrian Army rebels, killing two of them. The other militants responded, killing Mr. McCain and dozens of ISIS fighters. When the rebels went through Mr. McCain’s clothes, they found his American passport and several hundred dollars in cash. His death was first reported by NBC News . Much of Mr. McCain’s childhood was spent in New Hope, Minn., a Minneapolis suburb where he lived in a three-bedroom apartment with his parents and two siblings, according to Isaac Chase, a longtime friend and neighbor. Mr. McCain was the middle child, and his mother worked as a cashier at a nearby supermarket, Mr. Chase said. She attended church every week, he said. As Mr. McCain grew older, he lost interest in basketball, got several tattoos and lost a tooth. “He stuck around here,” Mr. Chase said. “I don’t think he knew what he wanted to do.” It was around that time that Mr. McCain’s father died. “He lost his anchor,” he said. When Mr. Chase last saw Mr. McCain in 2008, he said that it was not clear that Mr. McCain was working, and he appeared as though he was using drugs. That was a far different person, he said, from the boy who had strong convictions about what was right and wrong. When they were children, Mr. McCain reprimanded Mr. Chase after he stole from a gas station. “He told me who to hang out with,” he said. “He had a big heart.” | ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;Douglas McAuthur McCain;Syria;Free Syrian Army |
ny0223421 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2010/11/21 | Honor Killing in Iraqi Kurdistan: Unhealed Wound | DOKAN, Iraq — Serving small glasses of sugary tea, Qadir Abdul-Rahman Ahmed explained how things went bad with the neighbors. It was not true, he said, that his brothers had threatened to drown his niece if she tried to marry the young man down the street. “We are not against humanity,” he explained. “I told my brother, if she wants to marry, you can’t stop her.” But the couple should never have married without permission. “The girl and the boy should be killed,” he said. “It’s about honor. Honor is more important for us than religion.” Honor killing has a long history in Iraq and here in the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan. But even here, this couple’s case stood out because the man was killed, not the woman, and because of the political clout of the warring families. As some Iraqi lawmakers try to crack down on honor killing, the case — in which there have been no arrests — also illustrates how difficult it can be to uproot a deep-seated tribal honor code. More than 12,000 women were killed in the name of honor in Kurdistan from 1991 to 2007, according to Aso Kamal of the Doaa Network Against Violence. Government figures are much lower, and show a decline in recent years, and Kurdish law has mandated since 2008 that an honor killing be treated like any other murder. But the practice continues, and the crime is often hidden or disguised to look like suicide. It was in this climate that Mr. Ahmed’s niece, Sirwa Hama Amin, fell in love with her neighbor, Aram Jamal Rasool, in this village in northern Iraq. On a recent afternoon in the home of Mr. Rasool’s father, Ms. Amin, 22, showed wedding portraits of herself and Mr. Rasool: a smiling young couple in formal dress, the bride showing none of the strain that marked the pale woman displaying the photographs. Ms. Amin and Mr. Rasool, 27, grew up across the dusty road from each other, where each family had expanded in a string of houses so close together that their roofs nearly touched. Mr. Rasool’s father, Jamal Rasool Salih, 58, a retired general in the Kurdish military, or pesh merga, helped Ms. Amin’s family move to Dokan from Iran in 1993, and the two families became intertwined. Like General Salih, Ms. Amin’s brothers and uncles joined the pesh merga and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the town’s dominant political party. One of Ms. Amin’s brothers married the general’s daughter and became his bodyguard; the general’s son Aram was a regular visitor in Ms. Amin’s home. Still, when the couple fell in love a couple of years ago, they kept their passion secret, knowing their families would not approve. General Salih said he considered Ms. Amin’s relatives unruly soldiers and hellcats, always shooting people. Ms. Amin’s relatives mocked Mr. Rasool because he limped. The problems started when Ms. Amin’s brother caught her sending a text message to Mr. Rasool on her cellphone. In socially regimented Iraq, cellphones and the Internet have enabled lovers to communicate outside the censorious eyes of their families. But this liberation has come at a price, said Behar Rafeq, director of the Shelter for Threatened Women in Erbil. Of the 24 women in the shelter on a recent day, 15 had encountered threats or violence because of their communications on cellphones or Facebook, Ms. Rafeq said. Ms. Amin said her male relatives threatened to drown her and took away her phone. Mr. Ahmed, Ms. Amin’s uncle, denied the threats. If the two wished to marry, he said, the appropriate way was for General Salih, accompanied by a delegation of tribal leaders, to ask for her hand. Instead, he sent surrogates. “If someone doesn’t come and ask respectfully, how can you agree to that?” he asked. General Salih said he did not want the marriage, either. Ms. Amin became a captive in her home. One of Mr. Rasool’s brothers, Rizgar Jamal Rasool, 36, said that when he visited, he found Ms. Amin tearful and beaten, her face swollen. Ms. Amin and Mr. Rasool became desperate, she said, and plotted ways to kill themselves. On Sept. 2, 2009, she sneaked out of her parents’ house, walking across the roofs of the adjoining homes and down to a Toyota Land Cruiser. Mr. Rasool was waiting inside, with a grenade he had stolen from his father. “I said, ‘Let’s kill ourselves,’ ” Ms. Amin said. “He said, ‘No, let’s only do it if they find us.’ ” Instead, the couple went to the police, explaining that they had been threatened because they wanted to marry. Mr. Rasool was held for possession of the grenade; Ms. Amin was sent to a shelter for battered women. “He was arrested because I wanted him arrested for safety,” General Salih said. “The day they ran away, her uncle, a military captain, called me and said, ‘I’ll burn your house and kill you all if you don’t get the couple back today.’ ” The couple appealed to the court, and two weeks later, after submitting their paperwork, they were married. Though Ms. Amin’s family objected to the marriage, she said, they agreed to a truce: if the newlyweds promised to leave Dokan and never return, her relatives agreed not to hunt her down. For three and a half months the couple lived in Sulaimaniya, an hour from Dokan. Then, on Jan. 2 around 9 p.m., Ms. Amin said, she was in the bathroom when she heard gunshots and her husband shouting her name. She opened the bathroom door and saw her husband covered in blood and one of her brothers aiming a gun at her. “I saw only my brother, but someone else shot Aram,” she said. Before the smoke cleared, gunmen fired 17 bullets into Mr. Rasool’s chest and 4 into Ms. Amin’s leg and hip, General Salih said. According to Mr. Ahmed, the brother who did the shooting was Hussein Hama Amin, a soldier in the pesh merga. Mr. Amin denied killing his brother-in-law but said he paid $10,000 to another brother, and to one of Mr. Rasool’s brothers, to kill the couple. “Why should she live after she has been that irresponsible about the honor of her family?” Mr. Amin said. Ms. Amin was two months pregnant at the time. The authorities in Kurdistan have made great strides against honor killing, said Kurdo Omer Abdulla, director of the General Directorate to Trace Violence Against Women, a government agency. “Every year we see a decrease in the statistics of violence against women,” she said. For the two families, the killing did not resolve the conflict. The police arrested no one. Instead, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, tribal leaders and clerics brought the families together in a formal council session in front of more than 4,000 local residents. General Salih said he was pressed by the party to forgive his son’s killers and promise not to kill them. Ms. Amin’s family was required to promise not to kill her. The two families provide conflicting accounts on whether money was also exchanged. Her relatives said they have disowned her but would not harm her. “May God kill her,” Hussein Hama Amin said. “We will not kill her.” In General Salih’s living room, Ms. Amin dandled her 4-month-old son, named Aram after her husband. By Kurdish custom she is now disgraced and unsuitable for marriage. She lives a few hundred feet from the family that cast her out, in a house filled with weapons, afraid that her relatives will try to kill her. When she leaves the house, she is escorted by armed in-laws. General Salih remains bitter at his neighbors, the party and the tribal leaders, who have refused to make any arrests. “I’m a powerful person,” he said. “I could kill them. But I don’t.” “They should get arrested,” he said. “Instead they get salaries. There is no law.” | Honor Killings;Kurds;Patriotic Union of Kurdistan;Iraq |
ny0135657 | [
"business",
"smallbusiness"
] | 2008/04/08 | Small Meetings, Big Pluses | Small corporate meetings have a virtue — they’re small. That means they usually cost less than big meetings. They can be held at smaller hotels. Their agenda can be better attuned to the particular needs and interests of participants. And they are all the more valuable in a tough business climate. At many companies, some 70 percent of meetings consist of 50 or fewer participants. And their popularity is growing nationwide, according to Bjorn Hanson, a hotel expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Along with the trend toward smaller is better, the style of the typical meeting is changing, too, with the avowed goal of keeping the participants from nodding off. “Companies now want a meeting to be a creative experience,” said Christine Duffy, president of Maritz Travel, which manages an estimated 600 small corporate meetings and events annually. Instead of booking partitioned hotel meeting rooms known for their blandness, companies are turning to chic boutique hotels like the Setai in South Beach, Fla., where the setting for a two-day gathering may be a lounge, library, rooftop or pool and the bill is often best seen through dark glasses. Some companies book teepees at Canadian resorts just to be different. “They want unique meeting spaces that aren’t boring,” said Michael Shepard of Design Hotels, whose properties range from converted architectural antiques to cool concepts like the arty Chambers hotel in New York. Mr. Hanson said the types and locations of meetings have changed, in part, to respond to the interests of a younger generation. “The 60 million Gen Xs have changed the whole meeting demographic,” he said. “Meetings today aren’t arranged to please aging boomers who like etchings of hunting scenes on hotel walls. The Gen Xs like an aura of casualness. And if a corporate meeting doesn’t look interesting — and they have a choice — they’ll bow out.” Some meetings have moved from chain hotels to boutiques because of the price escalation at big city hotels, with New York a prime example, according to Christina Wilkes, a specialist in business travel at American Express. Boutique hotels can reduce some of the costs of the huge meetings in Chicago, Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla. That is not to say that the big hotel chains have not been part of the trend toward smaller meetings. Bob Brooks, a Hilton vice president, said, “There’s big demand for small meetings.” Hilton has a newly expanded e-Events program that lists the hotel conglomerate’s 2,400 properties online to minimize the trouble of booking meetings. Basic meeting prices range from $4,000 to more than $50,000 at Hilton properties, which include Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites and Hampton Hotels. “We’ve moved from managing 800 meetings in 2006, our first year with online service, to 5,500 meetings in 2007 and an anticipated 20,000 this year,” Mr. Brooks said. Some 20 percent are corporate with the rest devoted to leisure travel and weddings. In Hilton’s latest twist, customers can create a personalized group Web page that puts meeting-goers on the same, well, page so that everyone is tuned in on agenda revisions from tee times to what is on the dinner menu. “Companies are after cost savings — doing more with less,” Mr. Brooks said. “Localize your meetings and cut travel costs. Instead of holding a national meeting, a company will stage, say, four nearly identical meetings around the country to introduce a new product or explain a new business plan.” Supporting the growth are organizations that cater to modern meeting requirements like StarCite in Philadelphia, which provides technology. Michael Boult, a board member and former chief executive of the company, said that companies like Cisco, Lehman and Xerox are exploring ways of using online booking tools for get-togethers. Elite Meetings International, with headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif., helps simplify and speed meeting arrangements. Its chief executive and founder, Kelly Foy, said his company sorts out the great, good and so-so meeting sites. “You don’t have to go to 40 Web sites to get to what you want,” he said. Some of the traditional spontaneity and informality of small meetings remains. But there are executives who want to talk things over in privacy who meet in places like the Setai. The Indonesian-style oceanfront hotel is the site of some 36 small meetings of fewer than 30 participants each year. “The other hotels in South Beach have a party atmosphere,” the sales director, Jorge Collazo, said, describing his pitch to the financial groups (“especially hedge funds”) that dominate the Setai’s clientele. “The automotive people do a lot of incentive business here, too. Instead of one large meeting of 100 or so attendees, they find they have a better experience when they break it up into 25-guest groups.” The bill at the end can be sobering: $60,000 to $75,000 for 25 rooms for two nights with breakfast, lunch and one dinner included. “Not cheap,” Mr. Collazo said, “but you can make the get-together more interactive when the meeting is small. Attendees don’t want to speak up in front of 200 or 300 people.” Ms. Wilkes of American Express said that “how much companies spend on meetings has been largely unmanaged.” The current interest in keeping meetings within their budgets is “new to the meeting arena,” she said. “Companies are thinking more about value — what’s learned at the meetings.” Ms. Duffy of Maritz Travel said that “there are wonderful properties in Canada you can get to by helicopter.” But, she added: “At the end of the day, it’s the practicality of conducting business that matters. The participants won’t be happy if they’re meeting at a location where their BlackBerrys don’t work.” | Executives and Management;Relocation of Business;Hanson Bjorn;PricewaterhouseCoopers |
ny0165105 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2006/07/11 | Queens: Man Sentenced for Shaking Baby | A man who pleaded guilty to shaking his 3-month-old son, breaking several of his bones, was sentenced yesterday in State Supreme Court to 11 years in prison, prosecutors said. The man, Jerome Wiza, 26, of Elmhurst, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault for violently shaking his son, Nikkolas, in February because he would not stop crying, said Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney. The boy suffered brain hemorrhages and a fractured leg and ribs. As part of his sentence, Mr. Wiza must participate in making an instructional video warning parents of the dangers of shaking children. | Child Abuse and Neglect;Queens (NYC) |
ny0169375 | [
"business"
] | 2007/03/23 | Nike Posts 8% Gain; European Sales Help | BEAVERTON, Ore., March 22 (AP) — The athletic footwear and apparel maker Nike said Thursday that its quarterly profit grew 8 percent, helped by higher sales in Europe and a favorable rate of currency exchange. Earnings for the quarter totaled $350.8 million, or $1.37 a share, up from $325.8 million, or $1.24 a share, a year earlier. Revenue in the period, which ended Feb. 28 and was the third quarter of Nike’s fiscal year, grew 9 percent, to $3.93 billion from $3.61 billion. Currency exchange rate changes helped revenue by 3 percent. Future orders for athletic footwear and apparel grew 9 percent to $6 billion, including a 1 percent gain from currency exchange. United States revenue grew 2 percent, to $1.5 billion. European revenue rose 15 percent, to $1.1 billion; Asia-Pacific revenue increased 11 percent, to $589.9 million; and sales from the Americas region improved 5 percent, to $212.5 million. Nike, based in Beaverton, reported its results after the close of exchange trading. In the after-hours market, its stock gained $1.55, or 1.4 percent, to $110.15 a share. | Nike Inc;Company Reports |
ny0049939 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/10/18 | Seeking Votes at Home, Cuomo Goes Far Afield | SAN JUAN, P.R. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s re-election campaign veered far south of New York on Friday, as he tried to attract votes from Hispanics at home by making a symbolic, if brief, trip to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Mr. Cuomo marveled at the grandeur of the Palacio Nacional in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic; posed for pictures along the cobblestone streets of the Old San Juan section; and explained his trip as a “sign of respect” for Hispanic New Yorkers. “In many ways, when I’m in Puerto Rico, I feel that I’m at home,” he said later at a hotel in Old San Juan, where his campaign made stickers and buttons available, and he received the endorsement of Puerto Rico’s governor, Alejandro García Padilla. As the Nov. 4 election approaches, the focus of Mr. Cuomo’s campaign has seemed to jump from one checkbox to another on a census form. He has courted women by traveling the state on a bus called the Women’s Equality Express; addressed black congregants at churches; and appealed to Jewish voters by visiting Israel. The trip here was meant to help improve Mr. Cuomo’s rapport with Hispanic leaders, a relationship that has shown cracks at times. Some of those leaders had been frustrated that until recently, Mr. Cuomo had displayed little interest in pushing for passage of the Dream Act, which would give state tuition aid to students who are undocumented immigrants. Hispanic voters represented 9 percent of the statewide turnout in 2010, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research. Bruce N. Gyory, a political consultant, projected that their share of the vote would grow over the next decade to close to 20 percent statewide. The exit poll four years ago found that four out of five Hispanic voters sided with Mr. Cuomo. Polls conducted this year have shown that, among likely voters who identify themselves as Latino, Mr. Cuomo had a wide lead over his Republican opponent, Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive. Mr. Astorino, who speaks Spanish, has made his own effort to appeal to Hispanic voters. On Friday, he campaigned with State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., a Bronx Democrat who was born in Puerto Rico. Mr. Diaz, a socially conservative minister, has endorsed Mr. Astorino. Almost immediately after arriving at an event for elderly men and women at a catering hall in the South Bronx, Mr. Diaz pulled Mr. Astorino into the center of a pre-lunch Zumba session that was already underway. “Estoy bien?” he asked the woman next to him as he began to move. “While Governor Cuomo is enjoying himself on the island of Puerto Rico,” Mr. Astorino told a reporter, “I’m here in the South Bronx, speaking Spanish, talking to Puerto Ricans who live here.” As for Mr. Cuomo, he began his remarks at the hotel here by saying “Muchas gracias,” but that was about all he said in Spanish at the event. He stood expressionless with his hands clasped when people spoke Spanish around him. (He was joined by Hispanic elected officials from New York, among them Mr. Diaz’s son, Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx borough president.) Asked what he had accomplished here that he could not have accomplished by visiting Hispanic communities at home, Mr. Cuomo said that he often spent time with Dominicans and Puerto Ricans back in New York. “I’ve been doing that every day of my life, basically,” he said. Mr. Cuomo’s trip was short: He flew on a private plane to Santo Domingo on Thursday night, and after his stop here, returned to New York on Friday night. His agenda in the Dominican Republic included a meeting with President Danilo Medina. Later in the day, he continued on to Puerto Rico, where he met with Mr. García Padilla, and collected a gift from him: a baseball bat signed by two retired Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico, Roberto Alomar and Ivan Rodriguez. Mr. Cuomo then left for the endorsement with Mr. García Padilla, which was only a few blocks away. He had planned to walk through Old San Juan to get there, but with the temperature approaching 90 degrees, he was driven part of the way. He emerged from his sport utility vehicle in shirt sleeves. Mr. García Padilla played the role of tour guide, and Mr. Cuomo stopped for a few pictures with people, including several visitors from New York, as well as a groom-to-be. “Any second thoughts?” Mr. Cuomo asked, offering to stow the man away in his car and allow him to escape. | New York;Andrew Cuomo;Hispanic Americans;Puerto Rico;Dominican Republic;2014 Midterm Elections;Robert P Astorino;Gubernatorial races |
ny0094935 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2015/01/28 | Martin Brodeur Is Set to Retire, but He Will Stay With Blues | Last April, goalie Martin Brodeur won his final game in a Devils jersey, and he saluted the Prudential Center crowd after it serenaded him with a “Mar-ty!” chant. But he was not ready then to say goodbye to hockey. “In the back of my head,” he said recently, he knew “this is not the last time I was going to be on the ice.” The last time has now come and gone. Brodeur, who holds the N.H.L. record for career victories by a goalie and won three Stanley Cups with the Devils, will announce his retirement at a news conference Thursday in St. Louis. Brodeur, 42, spent his first 20 full seasons in the N.H.L. with the Devils, compiling 688 victories. A free agent since the end of last season, he signed with the St. Louis Blues in December after their starting goalie Brian Elliott was injured. The Blues said in a news release Tuesday that Brodeur would stay with the organization in a management role. Brodeur went 3-3, including his record 125th shutout on Dec. 29, with a 2.87 goals-against average and .899 save percentage in seven appearances with St. Louis, and has been on a leave of absence since Jan. 15. In addition to wins and shutouts, Brodeur has also played the most games and minutes of any goaltender in N.H.L. history. Image Martin Brodeur in the 2012 Stanley Cup finals. He won three N.H.L. championships with the Devils. Credit Jae C. Hong/Associated Press “What more can you say about Marty than what his statistics say and the success he’s had?” asked Lou Lamoriello, the Devils’ president, general manager and interim coach. “Not only the wins, but winning championships and conferences. He’s been a pillar of excellence and will go out as one of the best to ever play the game.” Lamoriello said he had “been in contact throughout the year” with Brodeur, and he intended to have Brodeur back in New Jersey next season in a key administrative role. “He’s going to stay in St. Louis with the team the rest of the year, they’re going to announce,” Lamoriello said. “It’s our intention to have him back next year. They gave him an opportunity to play, and he got emotionally involved. They’ve asked him to stay, travel with the team and interact with the players, and I respect that.” The Devils selected Brodeur, a Montreal native, in the first round of the 1990 draft. He became their starting goalie in 1993 and was soon the face of the franchise . In 1995, he helped led the Devils to the first of five Stanley Cup finals appearances during his tenure, which included championships that year and in 2000 and 2003. Brodeur, whose son Anthony is a goalie prospect in the Devils’ organization, won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender four times. Lamoriello found it difficult to put into words how valuable Brodeur was to the Devils’ growth. “First of all, he’s a tremendous ambassador of the game,” Lamoriello said. “Not only are the statistics there, but the team sport that he’s in and the awards he has won, you have to look at how significant he was. Not to look at how significant he was would be underestimating and underappreciating what he’s done. I really can’t explain. He’s had such a high value for us.” Brodeur’s recent seasons with the team were less decorated, despite a surprising berth in the finals in 2012. His retirement announcement will come about a year after he was pulled during a nationally televised game against the Rangers at Yankee Stadium . Brodeur appeared in only 11 games after that, as the Devils turned to Cory Schneider, whom they acquired in 2013 to be his successor. The Devils parted ways with Brodeur after last season, but Lamoriello said he wished Brodeur’s career with the team had ended differently. “I don’t want to use the word disappointing,” Lamoriello said. “There was time for a change to be made. We had made a significant trade and investment, and no one understands that better than Marty Brodeur. I certainly would’ve liked to see him play his last game as a Devil, but these days, that’s the exception, not the norm.” | Ice hockey;Martin Brodeur;Devils;St Louis Blues;Lou Lamoriello |
ny0276792 | [
"us"
] | 2016/02/25 | Colorado: Deputy and Suspect Killed During Eviction | A man who sued to stop foreclosure of his home shot three law enforcement officers trying to serve an eviction notice Wednesday, killing one and wounding the others, the authorities said. The officers fired back, killing the gunman. One officer had life-threatening injuries and the other less serious injuries, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said. The man opened fire with a rifle after Park County sheriff’s deputies went to the home near Bailey, about 45 miles southwest of Denver. A law enforcement official identified the gunman as Martin Wirth. He owned the two-story home until March 2014, when Fannie Mae took ownership, according to the Park County assessor’s office. He asked a federal judge to block the county from selling his home or evicting him and to strike down several state laws. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. Mr. Wirth ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate in 2014 as a Green Party candidate. | Murders and Homicides;Eviction;Attacks on Police;Martin Wirth;Federal National Mortgage Assn Fannie Mae;Colorado |
ny0111021 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2012/02/05 | Connecticut Shops Offer Candy Before Valentine’s Day | WITH so many fancy candy stores around Connecticut, splurging on sweets for Valentine’s Day is practically unavoidable. Here is a sampler of shops offering everything from truffles to turtles. Greenwich The Little Chocolate Company abuts the Byram River at the westernmost edge of Greenwich, with the New York state line a few feet away, but the store itself is pure Belgium. In a very limited space, Martine Coscia, the Belgian-born owner, has recreated the kind of fashionable shop you might find on the Meir, Antwerp’s main shopping street. Gleaming glass cases are filled with eye-fetching bonbons. A blackboard behind the granite counter is marked with Dutch phrases for sweets and beverages (along with their English equivalents). There’s even a stack of Tintin comic books for sale ($11). The house-made pralines and truffles rely on Belgian Callebaut chocolate for their rich, sweet, creamy-smooth base. Melt-in-the-mouth truffles come in hazelnut, pistachio, cocoa and other varieties, and pralines are flavored with cherry, ginger, caramel, marzipan, Tahitian vanilla or hot pepper ($1.79 apiece wrapped in silk paper, $2 in gift boxes). For those who prefer their chocolate in a more solid state, the Little Chocolate Company makes its own bars — espresso bean, raspberry and chili pepper, in addition to dark, milk and white chocolate — and a small selection of bark ($5 for about three ounces). It also offers fudge ($6.50 for six pieces) and biscotti ($1.75 apiece). Passing the time while your order is assembled is all the more pleasant with one of the shop’s beverages. The blackboard lists coffee, tea, milk shakes and smoothies, but the true specialty, as you might expect, is hot chocolate ($2.50 to $3.50). Options include white chocolate; “Mexican origin,” seasoned with cayenne and cinnamon; a Belgian blend that uses chocolate with 70 percent cocoa mass; and “African origin,” relying on chocolate from Ghana, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Tanzania. The Little Chocolate Company, 99 Mill Street, Greenwich; (203) 531-6190 or thelittlechocolatecompany.com . Ridgefield Sweet Pierre’s Boutique du Chocolat is in a stone-studded brick building that looks like a candy confection. While you may not want to sink your teeth into its masonry, just about everything inside will delight your palate. The shelving around the attractive yellow-paneled interior overflows with sweets and snacks suitable for almost any occasion. There are cylinders of Funkychunky popcorn, pretzels and peanut crunch ($20); packages of Lark shortbread and dark-chocolate “cha-chas” cookies, made in Massachusetts (from $1.75 to $6); Heritage Hill shortbread cookies ($18 a box); sweet and sour “bottles” and other fruit chews ($3.25 a bag); five types of licorice (starting at $3 a bag); $7 bars of bacon-chocolate peanut brittle (it’s better than it sounds); and even $5 chocolate cigars. But as its name suggests, Sweet Pierre’s true specialty is chocolates. The store carries products from Neuhaus , one of Belgium’s premier brands ($15 for a quarter-pound); Godiva ($28 for 7.2 ounces); and Chocopologie , made in South Norwalk ($25 for 16 pieces), to name just a few of the brands that are sold in boxes of various sizes. There is also an eye-dazzling selection of chocolates in a gold-rimmed glass case, with most priced at $36 a pound. Many of the truffles — with champagne, almond, pumpkin-ganache, mocha and other flavors — are made by Asher’s , from Pennsylvania; turtles, barks, chocolate-covered pretzels and a delectable array of toffees and caramels are largely from Bridgewater Chocolates . A week prior to Valentine’s Day, Sweet Pierre’s will bring in truffles made by Anna Shea , of Illinois. “She does beautiful heart truffles, with some unusual flavors,” said Nancy Saxe, who owns the shop with her husband, James. “They’re a little more expensive, but they’re worth it.” For custom-made gift baskets, call a day or two ahead. Sweet Pierre’s Boutique du Chocolat, 3 Danbury Road (Route 35), Ridgefield; (203) 431-9022 or sweetpierre.com . A second Sweet Pierre’s is located at 5 River Road, Wilton; (203) 563-0000. Litchfield There is so much candy on display at the Litchfield Candy Company that it may take you a moment or two to focus on any single item. One thing you won’t find, no matter how hard you look, is a Hershey bar. “I don’t carry those, or anything else that the big stores have,” said Elmer Odell, the owner. “I try to bring in more of the retro stuff that’s hard to find.” That includes penny candy classics like candy necklaces, candy cigarettes, Mary Janes and Bazooka gum (from 10 cents to 35 cents apiece), filling roughly 30 baskets and bins by the front window. Other baskets, attached to a wooden stand in the middle of the diminutive store, brim with hard candies, including hot-cinnamon and sour-lemon flavors ($7 a pound). Litchfield Candy also carries a dizzying assortment of softer treats: jelly beans, fruit chews and gummy bears flavored with spearmint, sour apple, watermelon, raspberry — you name it ($3.75 to $5.50 a bag). There is also licorice — 30 types in all — from Australia, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden ($9.50 a pound). At the center of the store is an island festooned with malted milk balls ($5.25 a bag), liquor-flavored “cordials” and gift boxes of marzipan ($12 for an 18-piece box of Bergen ) and chocolates ( Duc d’O from Belgium and Anthon Berg from Denmark, among several). And up by the cash register is a good selection of fresh truffles, turtles, pralines and toffee ($19 to $30 a pound). “I don’t make a lot of money at this,” said Mr. Odell, who worked as a chef before opening the store eight years ago. “But I have a lot more fun, and I meet a lot of nice people.” The Litchfield Candy Company, 245 West Street, Litchfield; (860) 567-1500 or kpsearch.com/df/litchfieldcandy/all.asp . | Valentine's Day;Chocolate;Connecticut;Sweet Pierre's Boutique du Chocolat;Little Chocolate Company The;Litchfield Candy Co |
ny0293479 | [
"us"
] | 2016/06/26 | A Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, Dinosaurs Included | WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. — In the beginning, Ken Ham made the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. And he saw that it was good at spreading his belief that the Bible is a book of history, the universe is only 6,000 years old, and evolution is wrong and is leading to our moral downfall. And Mr. Ham said, let us build a gargantuan Noah’s ark only 45 minutes away to draw millions more visitors. And let it be constructed by Amish woodworkers, and financed with donations, junk bonds and tax rebates from the state of Kentucky. And let it hold an animatronic Noah and lifelike models of some of the creatures that came on board two-by-two, such as bears, short-necked giraffes — and juvenile Tyrannosaurus rexes. And it was so. Mr. Ham’s “Ark Encounter,” built at a cost of more than $102 million, is scheduled to open on July 7 in Williamstown, Ky. Mr. Ham and his crew have succeeded in erecting a colossal landmark and an ambitious promotional vehicle for their particular brand of Christian fundamentalism, known as “young earth” or “young universe” creationism. Image Ken Ham, the president and founder of Answers in Genesis. Credit Kyle Grillot for The New York Times But it was hardly smooth sailing. The state tried to revoke the tax rebates after learning that Mr. Ham would require employees to sign a “statement of faith” that would exclude people who were gay or did not accept his particular Christian creed. Mr. Ham went to court and in January, he won. On a recent afternoon, the Australian-born Mr. Ham looked out on the workers in hard hats affixing pine planking to cover the Tyvek plastic wrap still visible on the stern. The ark stretches one-and-a-half football fields long, rises as high as a seven-story building and is said to be the largest timber-frame building in the world. Mr. Ham is betting it will become an international pilgrimage site, as well as a draw for the curious, the seculars and even the skeptics. “The reason we are building the ark is not as an entertainment center,” Mr. Ham said in an interview in a cabin overlooking the construction site. “I mean it’s not like a Disney or Universal, just for anyone to go and have fun. It’s a religious purpose. It’s because we’re Christians and we want to get the Christian message out.” The ark is also intended to serve as a vivid warning that, according to the Bible, God sent a flood in Noah’s time to wipe out a depraved people, and God will deliver a fiery end to those who reject the Bible and accept modern-day evils like abortion, atheism and same-sex marriage. “We’re becoming more like the days of Noah in that we see increasing secularization in the culture,” Mr. Ham said. Image The Creation Museum, which offers an unscientific view of natural history. Credit Kyle Grillot for The New York Times Yet his interpretation of what he calls “the Christian message” is derided by most scientists and educators, and resented even by some Christians who consider it indefensible and even embarrassing. Young earthers believe that God created the universe in six 24-hour days, and since all of history is only 6,000 years, humans coexisted with dinosaurs. An exhibit at the Creation Museum shows two smiling children playing in a lush garden next to two petite Tyrannosaurus rexes. Bill Nye , best known as “the science guy” on television and in books, said in a telephone interview, “Humans and ancient dinosaurs did not live at the same time. It’s completely unreasonable.” Science has established that the earth is billions of years old, and no worldwide flood occurred in the last 6,000 years. “We’re going to raise a generation of kids who are scientifically illiterate,” said Mr. Nye, who debated Mr. Ham at the Creation Museum in 2014, a matchup watched online by millions. A group of local atheist activists, the Tri-State Freethinkers , recently tried to put up billboards on the highway approaching the ark, calling it the “Genocide and Incest Park,” but no billboard company would agree, said the Freethinker’s founder and president, Jim G. Helton, so they plan to protest at the ark’s grand opening. “The moral of the flood story is horrible,” Mr. Helton said. “We’re not saying he can’t build his park. But we don’t think it’s appropriate for a family fun day.” Image Ben Iocco, an artist for Answers in Genesis, touching up a model of a bear inside the production facility for the Ark Encounter. Credit Kyle Grillot for The New York Times Young earth creationism gained currency only about 60 years ago, and has remained a marginal creed within Christianity. Even many Bible-believers and evangelicals accept the science showing that the universe is billions of years old — some reasoning that each of the six “days” of creation in the Book of Genesis may have lasted millions of years, not 24 hours. And of course, many Christians accept evolution. But now the young earthers are having a heyday, thanks largely to Mr. Ham and his supporters. Their ministry, Answers in Genesis , produces books, magazines, videos and curriculums used by thousands of churches and home schoolers. The Creation Museum — which sells these materials in its gift shops — claims 2.7 million visitors have come in the nine years since it opened. But about half of those visitors came to the Creation Museum in the first three years, suggesting that interest may have dropped off. The ark could change that. Mr. Ham projects that the ark will attract 1.4 to 2.2 million visitors in the first year, and will double the attendance at the Creation Museum. Inside a cavernous warehouse in an office park in Hebron, a few miles from the museum, about 50 artists, designers, carpenters, sculptors and volunteers have been working six-day weeks to prepare the exhibits for the ark. A sculptor inserted stiff gray-brown hairs one at a time into the chin of what looked like a wild boar. Another wiped off the black dye on a bear’s chest to make it look less like a contemporary black bear. A giraffe with a short neck was being baked in a large oven to set the dye on its fur. Image Answers in Genesis chose a “medium-brown” for Noah and his family. Credit Kyle Grillot for The New York Times Tim Chaffey, a content manager and writer for the Answers in Genesis ministry, explained that most of the models do not resemble animals the way they look today, but extinct species. According to young earth creationists, the ark carried up to 1,400 kinds of creatures that gradually evolved into the animals we know today. Young earthers accept the notion that nature makes small adaptations over time — but do not accept that humans and chimpanzees descended from a common ancestor. The ark designers had to scale back their initial ambition to have live animals living on board to demonstrate the truth of the Noah story, said Mr. Chaffey, a graduate of Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. And there will be only about 30 pairs of stuffed animals on the Ark Encounter because there just isn’t enough space. “We have to have dozens and dozens of bathrooms for visitors. Noah didn’t have to have that,” Mr. Chaffey said. Drawings of Noah and his seven family members hung on a wall. Their skin is “middle brown” and their faces are a blend of racial features because, as the only survivors of the biblical flood, all the races and ethnicities on earth would have descended from these eight people, Mr. Chaffey said. But in some of the displays in the warehouse, there were indications of the ministry’s dark vision of humanity. An artist, Stephanie Fazekas, stood at a computer drawing figurines of women in togas. They were prostitutes for a diorama portraying the morally decadent society that the Bible says was wiped out in a flood. Image The site of the ark under construction in Williamstown, Ky. Credit Kyle Grillot for The New York Times William Trollinger, a professor of history at the University of Dayton, has been studying Mr. Ham’s museum, website and blogs for a new book “Righting America at the Creation Museum,” written with his wife, Susan L. Trollinger, a professor of English also at University of Dayton. “He calls on Christians to participate in a culture war,” Mr. Trollinger said, of Mr. Ham. “He says, if you’re really going to be a Christian, you’re in this war against the atheistic, humanistic enemy.” In an interview, Mr. Ham railed against atheist groups for trying to prevent his project from receiving tax incentives from the state of Kentucky. Answers in Genesis claimed that the state’s denial of those tax credits violated the group’s First Amendment rights. Judge Greg Van Tatenhove of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky agreed, writing in his January decision that tourist attractions — even those that advance religion — meet the neutral criteria for the tax incentives. The ark is now in calmer waters. The workers, standing on hydraulic lifts, have covered over the Tyvek, and just in time. The Tyvek was printed all over with the slogan of its maker, Dupont: “The Miracles of Science.” | Creation Museum;Ark Encounter;Ken Ham;Creationism and Intelligent Design;Kentucky;Christianity;Answers in Genesis |
ny0008482 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2013/05/15 | For G.O.P., Incentives for Budget Deal With Obama | WASHINGTON — Ask around the White House and the Capitol, and you will quickly find reasons to doubt that Republicans will compromise with President Obama on a budget deal that includes more tax increases and spending cuts in social programs. So why does Mr. Obama keep talking to them about a deal? Because Republicans still have powerful incentives to strike one. Delaying steps to rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the subjects of Republican doomsday warnings for years, means delaying significant attempts to curb the size of the government. The longer the delay, the sharper and more immediate the changes Washington must eventually make to ease the long-term fiscal squeeze. Even if Republicans take control of Congress and the White House in the next two elections — allowing them to put in place a budget plan without major compromises — they would then shoulder the political responsibility for the inevitable pain that comes from curbing those huge and popular programs. Much as Republicans may dislike Mr. Obama and his policies, a Democratic president can provide them a measure of political cover. “There are Republicans who believe that we should wait,” Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said at a fiscal meeting held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation last week. “If we wait until 2017, which in essence is what they’re saying, I think we’re taking a huge risk.” That may be precisely what happens. For one thing, a new Congressional Budget Office report on Tuesday eased one source of pressure for a deal. Because of higher-than-expected revenues and slower-than-expected spending growth, the budget office projected that the 2013 deficit would be $642 billion — $200 billion less than projected just three months ago, and less than half its size from four years ago as a proportion of the economy. For another, events of recent years have repeatedly proven the political difficulty of overhauling benefit programs. President George W. Bush tried in 2005 to restructure Social Security through partial privatization, and a Republican Congress, frightened of political fallout, refused. After Republicans fueled by Tea Party fervor recaptured the House in 2010, conservatives had new hopes of trimming social programs. But Congressional Republicans, while winning cuts in “discretionary” spending, failed to strike a “grand bargain” curbing entitlements. Mr. Obama won re-election over a Republican ticket that, as Mr. Bush had done, proposed a fundamental restructuring in the nature of a major entitlement program benefiting older Americans. This time it was Medicare. Mr. Obama derided the Republican proposal as a “voucher” plan that would shift financial burdens onto elderly beneficiaries. “The notion of large-scale entitlement reform has lost its appeal,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican economist, citing a shift in attention toward overhauling the tax code. “You can’t fix it with this Congress and this president.” President Obama, having accepted many more spending cuts than tax increases since Republicans won the House in 2010, has set additional tax increases as the price of an entitlement deal. The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, and the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, having acquiesced to end most of the high-end Bush tax cuts late last year, have ruled out further tax increases. Substantively, opponents of a compromise argue that further tax increases would harm the economy. Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats, the opponents say, will never accept the structural changes needed for the government’s long-term solvency anyway. Politically, resisting tax increases would shield Republican incumbents from primary challenges. A recovering economy is already shrinking near-term deficits. And deferring unpopular cuts on entitlements could help Republicans win back the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016. Yet other Republicans fear that stepping away from the bargaining table could saddle the party with a different problem. Without cuts in entitlement programs, which can only come through a deal with Mr. Obama, Republican leaders will have trouble making Congress do something they acknowledge it must do — raise the debt limit. Two years ago, Republicans approached a similar moment lifted by two significant tail winds. Jittery financial markets joined voters in backing Republican demands for spending cuts. Mr. Obama needed to negotiate deep ones — now known as sequestration — to defer the threat of a government default past his re-election campaign. Those winds have shifted. Safely re-elected, Mr. Obama has promised not to negotiate any further on the debt limit. He and his advisers believe that House Republicans, who face re-election next year, have more to lose politically over a showdown. Some Republicans agree with them. “The president’s not at risk — our majority’s at risk,” said Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who serves on the House Budget and Appropriations Committees. “You plunge the country into economic crisis, you lose your majority.” He predicted “a very substantial” compromise with the White House this year, pushing debt limit votes past the 2014 election. Many Republicans fault Mr. Obama for resisting structural changes to entitlements as well as lesser changes, like raising the Medicare eligibility age, which he entertained in 2011. But Mr. Cole, like Mr. Portman, credits the president for proposing or signaling that he will bargain on reduced inflation adjustments for Social Security benefits and other government programs; additional “means testing” for Medicare, which would reduce benefits for high-income recipients; and increased out-of-pocket costs for some beneficiaries. “Those are all worthwhile steps, and we should grab every one of them,” said R. Glenn Hubbard, who advised Mr. Bush’s administration and Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Having seen both fall short in seeking far-reaching entitlement changes, Mr. Hubbard endorsed the idea of a narrower compromise so long as the tax increases it contained did not raise marginal rates, which he considers most harmful to economic growth. “This notion that you’re going to wait for a grand bargain — in our process, you could wait an awful lot of time for that to happen,” said Mr. Hubbard, now the dean of Columbia University’s Business School. “The longer we wait, the greater the risk that current beneficiaries will have to be cut.” As for the political calculus of entitlement curbs, he added, “It’s much better for Republicans to have it happen on President Obama’s watch.” Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the House Budget Committee chairman and a leading Republican advocate of entitlement changes, appears to be trying to keep the possibility of such a limited deal alive through slowly developing negotiations with his Senate Budget Committee counterpart, Senator Patty Murray of Washington. It hinges on tax code changes — and politically consequential word-parsing over whether additional revenue would come from tax increases or economic growth. “The question is, can we make divided government work?” Mr. Ryan asked at the Peterson Foundation session. “Can we get a down payment on the problem?” For all the resistance on the right to compromise, some conservative economists still hope so. “The problem will be so much worse in four years,” said Joseph Antos, a former official in President Ronald Reagan’s administration who is now at the American Enterprise Institute. He predicted that Congressional Republicans would ultimately accept a bargain including modest additional tax increases, but only after “the maximum amount of political hell.” But to call this approach a strategy, Mr. Antos added, is “very generous.” | Federal Budget;Barack Obama;Medicare;Social Security;Medicaid;Republicans |
ny0060064 | [
"us"
] | 2014/08/30 | Colorado: Former Police Officer Gets Probation in Killing of Much-Loved Elk | A former Boulder police officer convicted of killing a treasured bull elk in an upscale neighborhood was sentenced Friday to four years of probation. The former officer, Sam Carter, 37, was on duty when he killed the elk, known as Big Boy, on Jan. 1, 2013, while it grazed under a crab apple tree. He did not report firing his weapon, and then said the animal had been injured and needed to be put down. Prosecutors said text messages between Mr. Carter and another former police officer, Brent Curnow, showed that the shooting was planned. The elk was a fixture in the neighborhood, and its killing inspired marches, vigils, a tribute song and plans for a memorial. Mr. Carter was convicted of nine charges, including three felonies — forgery, tampering with evidence and trying to influence a public official — and could have been sentenced up to six years in prison. Mr. Curnow took a plea deal for the same charges and received a deferred sentence, 60 days of home detention and probation. Prosecutors said the men butchered the animal for its meat. | Elk;Boulder Colorado;Animal Abuse;Colorado;Sam Carter;Police;Criminal Sentence |
ny0248378 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2011/05/09 | Harsh Computer Evidence of Steady Decline of American Tennis | Monday is a historic day for United States tennis, one that will generate no rejoicing in the American tennis community. In the nearly 40 years since the inception of computer rankings, it will be the first time that no man or woman from the United States is ranked in the top 10 in the world in singles. It has been a long, relatively steady decline from the 1970s, when more than half of the players in the United States Open singles draws were Americans. It has been a steep, relatively abrupt drop from the time when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were still setting the global agenda for the men, and Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport and the Williams sisters were leading the way for the women. Serena Williams, after all, was a clear and dominant No. 1 just last year, before a series of health problems sidelined her, with no comeback date yet announced. But there is still no refuting the digital evidence to be officially revealed Monday or the seismic shifts at work in the sport. And there is, in truth, no precedent for this American drought since tennis became a truly international sport a century ago. Weekly computer rankings were begun in 1973 for the men and in 1975 for the women. Until then, rankings were less definitive and usually annual, issued by leading journalists, player associations or other entities. Rankings and methodology are difficult to track before 1913, but the most authoritative world rankings since then have always included at least one American in the top 10. “It certainly looks like a low point,” said Bud Collins, an 81-year-old American broadcaster, journalist and tennis historian. “The world has developed more tennis players. It used to be us and the Australians, a couple British guys and the odd French or Italian. But the rest of the world has progressed.” Globalization is indeed a major reason for the loss of American influence. Li Na became the first Chinese woman to reach the final of a Grand Slam in singles at the Australian Open this year, and the women’s top 10 last week featured players from four continents. But that statistic is misleading at a time when the game has become Eurocentric. Last week, the top 10 men were from Europe . Over all, 72 of the top 100 men and 75 of the top 100 women were European. “I think the main point here is that Europe has done a remarkable job; they are producing virtually all of the top players,” said Doug MacCurdy, the director of player development for the United States Tennis Association from 1998 to 2001. Spain, with its numerous academies and welcoming weather, is now a European counterweight to Florida as a training ground. Though former powerhouses like Sweden have faded, European federations in countries like France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic have consistently succeeded at developing top 100 talent. Gifted and driven players from European nations like Serbia have found a way to rise by leaving their countries. Players have become professional in approach, if not in name, at an increasingly early age, and the dense network of satellite tournaments in Europe and the competition among the numerous small nations working on their own to produce champions have contributed to the success. Tennis remains a major sport in Europe, attracting world-class athletes who in the United States might gravitate to more popular and visible team sports. Tennis in the United States, despite respectable junior participation numbers and healthy attendance at professional tournaments, is a niche sport. But Patrick McEnroe, the head of player development for the U.S.T.A. since 2008, denies that there is a talent deficit. “Look, obviously we’d love to get the pick of the litter, but I’m telling you there are plenty of kids out there playing right now who are damn good athletes,” McEnroe said. “Our job is to do a better job of coaching them and mentoring them, and I think, quite frankly, we fell behind in that department as a country over all in developing players from a technical standpoint and a strategic standpoint.” McEnroe says too many young Americans have learned to strike the ball but not to play the game. To combat that, he and his team are pushing the clay-court game, which they see as one of the foundations of Europe’s success in that it demands point construction, stroke variety, patience and endurance. McEnroe has asked leading prospects to practice on clay more, even if it remains a rare surface for junior tournament play in the United States. MacCurdy likes some of those moves but says Americans have “essentially priced themselves out of the market,” pointing to the prohibitive cost of elite junior tennis. “If you have kids and one of them got serious about tennis, you would probably be looking at something like $25,000 to $30,000 a year, and some people, obviously, much more,” MacCurdy said. After decades of institutional resistance, there has been a new commitment in recent years to bringing more top American prospects together to train, and there are several promising youngsters, particularly boys. The consensus is that such centralization is the best way to produce champions, as evidenced by the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in the 1980s, which produced Agassi, Jim Courier and others. But there has been no such cluster of American talent since then. The decline is relative but unmistakable. There are still three Americans in the men’s top 20: Mardy Fish , Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey. But no American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Roddick at the 2003 United States Open, the longest drought in history. In December 1990, 23 American men and 27 American women were in the top 100. Last week, there were nine men and eight women, most of whom were established veterans older than 24. If you combine men and women in the top 100, the United States ranks third worldwide behind Russia and Spain. “But for a place that likes gold medals only, that doesn’t satisfy,” MacCurdy said. The absence of Americans at the top is not the obstacle it once would have been in the United States. Rafael Nadal might be from Spain and Roger Federer from Switzerland, but their talent and enduring rivalry have made them global attractions. Cosmopolitan women’s stars like Belgium’s Kim Clijsters, who is married to an American, and Russia’s Maria Sharapova, raised in the United States, have also, to a degree, transcended nationality. But homegrown champions clearly retain a powerful appeal, and for the moment at least, the American reservoir — reliable for a century — appears to have run dry. | Tennis;United States Tennis Assn;Fish Mardy;Roddick Andy |
ny0220636 | [
"sports"
] | 2010/02/16 | Norwegian Buhunds Make Westminster Debut | Sophie schmoozed. Casper surveyed the crowd from atop his carrier. And Lola snoozed, lest she expend her energy too soon. They appeared unaware that they were making history Monday in the noisy, congested benching area at Madison Square Garden, where nearly all the noise comes from humans. The three Norwegian buhunds (farm dogs in Norway) were hours from being the first of their breed to compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show . A ring with three dogs playing to a judge is not rare. But at a show with 44 Australian shepherds, 36 pugs and 40 golden retrievers, a three-dog fight seems more like a pick-up game than an official competition. But American Kennel Club recognition of the breed came only last year, and only 25 buhunds are on the national competition circuit. “We’re used to going to shows with only one or two,” said Vali Eberhardt, as Sophie cuddled in her arms. She chose not to bring her male buhund from her home in Sammamish, Wash. “You have to call people and ask them to come.” Judy Thompson, who began handling Casper two weeks ago, said she had no problem with a three-dog playoff, even if the breed judging goes by quickly. “It would be weird if this was a mediocre group,” she said. “But the quality is so high.” Perhaps a sire named Magnus is one reason. He is Sophie’s father and Lola’s grandfather. “He’s related to just about every buhund in the U.S.,” Eberhardt said. The 134th Westminster show features 173 breeds and varieties among the 2,500 dogs at the Garden. Last year’s surprise champion, Stump, an 11-year-old Sussex spaniel who came out of a lengthy retirement to win best in show, retired upon his victory. Sadie, a nearly 5-year-old Scottish terrier, is the favorite to win, but the favorite has not won since J. R., a bichon frise, in 2001. J. R. and Stump live together in Houston, the rough equivalent of Roger Federer and Andre Agassi staying at the same house. At almost every Westminster, new breeds are added after their human lobbyists fulfill the A.K.C.’s rules. This year, in addition to the buhunds, the other breeds added are the Pyrenean shepherds (17 entered) and the Irish red and white setters (8 competing). The buhunds are herding dogs (bones of ancestors were found with Viking skeletons in Norway). “They bring sheep from field to field,” Eberhardt said. “They have a high-pitched, ear-piercing bark if the sheep are hiding behind a rock.” But the three wheaton-colored dogs, whose ancestors were favorites of the original Vikings, were quiet as they bided their time before the judging. “They’re very smart, so they get easily bored,” said Lisa Donnelly, who co-owns and handles Lola. “They say, ‘I’ve done this five times. What else is there to do?’ ” Perhaps Lola was sleeping to ward off ennui. With minutes before the breed judging, the three dogs assembled outside Ring No. 3. They were surrounded by the Pyrenean shepherds, who were to be judged next. “Come on boy,” Thompson told Casper, the nation’s top buhund. “Concentrate!” “Miss Lola,” Donnelly said to her dog. “That’s my girl. Pretty girl.” Lola and Sophie nuzzled, muzzle to muzzle. No trash-yapping was heard. The three buhunds — Casper followed by Sophie and Lola — trotted into the ring to be judged by Lynette J. Saltzman. A small crowd applauded mildly without the ardor that greets the entrance of the immensely popular Labrador retriever. In the ring next door, there was whooping. But nearly all was quiet for the buhunds. Saltzman sent them around the ring, individually and as a group, and bent down to analyze and prod them, to determine how they conform to the breed standard. Lola committed a no-no, sitting down momentarily during her examination. But Saltzman called Lola the best of breed. In such a small group, the other two dogs left with something. Casper got the best of opposite sex and Sophie the award of merit. Afterward, Eberhardt felt that Saltzman did not give Sophie enough attention. “I knew, when I saw her eyes move to Lola,” Eberhardt said. To Sophie, she said, “I’m sorry.” To others, she said, “Maybe I should have gotten a professional handler.” About a half-hour later, Pree, a 20-month-old gray Pyrenean shepherd, won her breed judging, stunning Sue Snyder, her owner and handler. “I’m in shock,” she said. A year into the breed’s recognition, she said, “It’s been a celebration all year.” After Westminster, she will retire Pree from shows to join the agility circuit . | Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show;Dogs |
ny0193067 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/02/13 | Stimulus Funds Offer Relief to New York City and State | New York State and New York City officials expressed a measured sense of relief on Thursday as they began totaling the vast sums of money for Medicaid , education, transportation and housing that could soon begin flowing here as part of the federal stimulus package . While the anticipated aid, more than $21 billion, would close much of the city’s $4 billion budget gap and significantly narrow the state’s $14 billion deficit, Gov. David A. Paterson warned that the state deficit was widening by the day. And fiscal watchdogs cautioned against treating the money as a bailout, saying that the underlying financial problems facing local and state governments would become less manageable if they were not addressed quickly. “Even with the stimulus package, there will be some very tough decisions, some very difficult cuts, and some pain that we will try to distribute evenly, and share the sacrifice throughout the state,” Mr. Paterson said on a conference call with Senator Charles E. Schumer. Mr. Schumer briefed the governor and reporters late in the day, shortly after important elements of the package, like education-funding formulas, were pinned down in Congress and the bill neared final passage. Mr. Schumer boasted that the stimulus made for a rare instance in which the balance of payments between New York and Washington went in New York’s favor. “In the dark cloud looming over our economy, this package is a silver lining,” he said in the call. “It doesn’t mean that if you’re a county executive or a mayor, or a governor for that matter, you can put up your feet and say, ‘Oh, we don’t have to make difficult choices.’ But it does mean that instead of using a meat ax, we can use a rapier.” By increasing the federal government’s share of Medicaid costs in New York to 57 percent from 50 percent, the stimulus package would provide $12.6 billion in budget relief over 27 months: $2.8 billion of that (or about $1.3 billion a year) to New York City, $8.6 billion to the state, and the rest to the state’s 57 other counties. City officials, who had yet to see the fine print in the stimulus bill, called the Medicaid number “fabulous” if true, saying that it had been the Bloomberg administration’s highest priority and that they had budgeted for only $1 billion a year in such relief. But the added Medicaid assistance from Washington quickly set off a new skirmish between the governor and New York’s hospitals and health care workers, who said that it should be used to undo Mr. Paterson’s planned Medicaid cuts. Daniel Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of New York , said in a statement that not doing so would be tantamount to “cashing in health care services for children, the elderly and disabled in order to avoid raising taxes on the wealthy.” The stimulus package would also provide $2.7 billion to New York State for a fiscal stabilization fund to prevent or make up for its cuts to education aid, which could cause widespread teacher layoffs. The state has already threatened to cut about $770 million in education financing for New York City. But Mr. Schumer and Mr. Paterson said the fund’s money would more than cover that shortfall. City officials lamented that any extra money would be distributed according to the usual state school-aid formula, which they have said favors suburban districts. But an additional $1.8 billion in federal money would be distributed directly to school districts in ways that favor the city: $1 billion to help schools in high-poverty areas meet the requirements of the reform law known as No Child Left Behind , and $800 million for special education. The state would also receive $1 billion in highway financing and $1.3 billion for transit projects, nearly all of which would go to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The authority has said it planned to spend about $500 million of the money on the Fulton Street Transit Center in Lower Manhattan. The project, plagued by soaring costs and delays, involves the renovation of a tangle of interconnected subway stations and the construction of an architecturally ambitious glass building above them. The authority has a long list of other projects that could get some of the stimulus money, including subway and commuter rail station renovation and improvements to behind-the-scenes infrastructure like rail yards and shops. One thing the stimulus bill would not do is save riders from a planned fare increase or service cuts. The bill contains money only for capital projects, not for operating expenses like salaries. The authority is still hoping that state lawmakers will pass a rescue plan, including a new payroll tax and tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges, to help it close a $1.2 billion deficit this year. The rescue would lower a planned increase in fare revenues from 23 percent to 8 percent and avert planned service cuts. The state could also eventually benefit from $8 billion included in the stimulus package for high-speed rail service, since the New York City-to-Buffalo route is one of the handful of eligible projects, according to Senator Schumer. New York would also get more than $500 million for public housing assistance, of which $390 million would go to the city’s housing authority to pay for capital improvements, including overhaul of the troubled elevators in many buildings. The authority could also win still more money in competitive grants, officials said. On a smaller scale, the stimulus includes $96 million in grants to hire police officers — which could pay for about 400 New York City recruits, according to Representative Anthony D. Weiner. And it includes $75 million for the city and $20 million for the state for homelessness prevention and programs like short-term rental assistance or helping those on the verge of eviction pay their rent. “That’s a real step forward, because you want to keep those homeless episodes as brief as possible or prevent them in the first place,” said Ted Houghton, executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York . But he expressed dismay that the package did not include more money for low-income housing construction, “when New York State has over $2 billion worth of shovel-ready affordable-housing development ready to go over the next 12 months.” The state comptroller and other budget watchdogs warned state and city officials to use their newfound financial breathing room to align spending with revenue. “The crisis has been delayed — and made worse a year from now,” said Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute . “It’s only good if the city takes this as kind of bridge financing to a vastly different future. | Obama Stimulus Plan;New York City;New York State;Infrastructure (Public Works);Education and Schools;Medicaid;Transit Systems;Budgets and Budgeting |
ny0164426 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2006/11/15 | NBC Official Is Expected to Join AOL | Randy Falco, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group, is in talks to leave his position as the No. 2 executive at the television group to take a senior operating role at AOL, Time Warner’s Internet subsidiary, according to executives briefed on the move. The move to shake up the top ranks of the two big media companies is expected to be announced as soon as this week. But it was unclear last night, the executives said, whether Mr. Falco, 52, would hold the title of president or chief executive at AOL, and what position Jonathan F. Miller, AOL’s chairman and chief executive, would maintain after the move. Spokesmen for Time Warner, AOL and NBC Universal declined to comment. Mr. Falco, two people briefed on the discussions said, is considering the position because it would be a chance to run his own business after more than three decades at NBC. Since December, Mr. Falco has reported to Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal Television, who has emerged as the most likely internal candidate to succeed Bob Wright as the chief executive of NBC Universal. While Mr. Wright’s empire, a division of General Electric, also includes the company’s movie studio and entertainment parks, the television group under Mr. Zucker oversees the NBC television network, Universal Studios, the Spanish-language network Telemundo and cable channels including USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, Bravo and CNBC. Mr. Falco’s expected departure from NBC Universal comes as its core broadcast network’s prime-time lineup is showing signs of revival after a years-long slump that left it in last place among the four major networks. Last month, the company announced a revamping plan aimed at eliminating $750 million in costs, responding to commercial pressures with such efforts as narrowing its programming in the first hour of prime time and closing the center housing the MSNBC news channel in New Jersey to consolidate operations in New York. At AOL, Mr. Falco would be taking on another considerable challenge. AOL is in the midst of discontinuing its dial-up Internet access business in favor of a free service for broadband Internet users intended to capitalize on the rapid growth of online advertising. That strategy, led by Mr. Miller and Time Warner’s president, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, has shown some early signs of success since it was introduced in August. The arrival of Mr. Falco would raise questions about Mr. Miller’s role and future at the company he has run since 2002. At the same time, it is not clear whether Mr. Falco’s position at NBC Universal would be filled. Mr. Falco, a consummate broadcaster, has been in his current role since December, with operational responsibility for the television group including affiliate relations, cable distribution and worldwide television distribution. Mr. Falco recently led a new venture, called the National Broadband Company, that was set up to distribute video around the Internet for NBC’s affiliate TV stations and any other video producer. An executive who is well liked within NBC, Mr. Falco has been particularly close to Mr. Wright and to Dick Ebersol, the head of NBC Sports. Mr. Falco served as chief operating officer for several telecasts of the summer and winter Olympic Games as recently as the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He has won six Emmy Awards for those broadcasts. Among his many responsibilities since joining the company directly after graduating from Iona College in 1975, Mr. Falco has overseen the design and creation of the “Today” show’s studio in Rockefeller Center and managed the conversion of the NBC television network to digital signals from analog. | National Broadcasting Co;Appointments and Executive Changes;America Online Inc;Computers and the Internet;Television |
ny0221440 | [
"business"
] | 2010/02/23 | Duane Reade and Its Road to Health | Good thing Duane Reade is in the pharmacy business. Over the years, the chain that seemingly dots every corner of Manhattan has been in dire need of some strong medicine for what some thought was one of the sickest patients in the private equity world. Taken private by a small firm, Oak Hill Capital Partners, in 2004 for $750 million, the deal was described only two years later by BusinessWeek as “an L.B.O. on the critical list,” adding that a “three-year debt binge turned the drug chain from gem to junk.” Like a homeowner overstretched with a big mortgage on an underwater property, some bondholders whispered back then that the company might have to file for Chapter 11. Now, we have the latest chapter in the twists-and-turns story of a New York institution. Last week, Duane Reade agreed to be sold to its giant rival Walgreen for a whopping $1.1 billion, including debt — an earthshaking deal for Manhattan that even topped the local evening newscasts. After all, there are 253 of the stores in the city, and love ’em or hate ’em, everyone’s got an opinion (type Duane Reade and Facebook into Google, and the first two results are for an “I Hate Duane Reade” Facebook page, higher than Duane Reade’s own corporate Facebook page). But Duane Reade is as much a story about selling milk and toothpaste at 2 a.m. as it is about Wall Street, financial engineering and shifts in the private equity industry. Duane Reade was born in 1960 when a couple of brothers, the Cohens, started Duane Reade on Broadway between — you guessed it — Duane and Reade streets. In 1992, after building stores all around the city, the brothers looked to cash out, as many family-run businesses do. The brothers found a willing buyer in Bain Capital of Boston, which leveraged the business and took advantage of the favorable economic winds in 1997 and sold a majority stake to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (the investment bank that was later merged with Credit Suisse ). Andrew Nathanson, a banker at D.L.J., then turned around and took Duane Reade public in 1998, just as the dot-com boom was in full swing and lifting everything under the sun, even mundane drugstores. For several years, Duane Reade continued to bumble along, expanding its footprint around New York City with its convenient yet famously cluttered stores. By 2004, the economy was just beginning to recover from the bubble’s bursting and Mr. Nathanson had left the sinking ship of D.L.J. once it was sold to Credit Suisse. Mr. Nathanson later found himself at Oak Hill, casting for acquisition targets. With debt at historically cheap prices, he went about rebuying Duane Reade, teaming up with the company’s chief executive, Anthony Cuti, taking the company private and loading it up with $500 million of debt. With private equity firms buying companies and flipping them within a year or two, Duane Reade looked like a sensible financial-engineering play. All the trend lines showed that as New Yorkers got older, Duane Reade would be in even greater demand. All they had to do was to keep the proverbial shopping cart from hitting the basket of ChapStick at the checkout line. And they blew it. By 2006, the business was hemorrhaging money and a series of scathing articles called Duane Reade a “zombie: dead, but walking among the living,” as BusinessWeek put it. It didn’t help that Mr. Cuti may have inflated the company’s income; he has since been indicted on charges of securities fraud. (Mr. Nathanson retired from Oak Hill that same year and died in a surfing accident last summer.) But here’s where the story takes a surprising, and positive, turn. While private equity firms often talk a good game claiming they are operators, and not financial engineers, Oak Hill proved that it actually could run a company. It installed a new management team led by John A. Lederer, the chief executive, that re-imagined the entire experience. Been to a Duane Reade in the last couple of months? Some of the refurbished stores are actually a delight to shop in; the sales lines are shorter and the stores refreshed. (Thank you in advance for all the e-mail messages from everyone who disagrees.) Indeed, it was these improvements that caught the eye of Walgreen’s management, many of whom had written off Duane Reade altogether. Usually rivals acquire each other to gain market share, but this deal appears to be as much about getting the knowledge that Duane Reade’s management has developed to help recreate that experience for Walgreen in other urban areas. That’s not to say that Walgreen wasn’t looking to gain market share and squeeze savings — it was — but it was also about taking advantage of its operational excellence. Walgreen first approached Duane Reade over the summer, but the talks went nowhere because Oak Hill was in the middle of refinancing its debt. But by December, Project Dakota, as it was known around Walgreen, was in full swing with the deal finally announced last week. Despite the $1.1 billion price tag for Duane Reade, the deal didn’t turn out to be a home run for Oak Hill, which is another theme of the changing landscape of private equity. Oak Hill made 1.5 times its money over six years, or about 11 percent on an annualized basis. On a relative basis to the market, that’s not a bad outcome. And considering what people were saying about Duane Reade four years ago, it is a great return. But compared with the returns of yore — firms making two, three, four times their money — this deal may actually represent the new normal. Nothing fancy, just the basics. Kind of like Duane Reade itself. | Duane Reade Drugstores;Walgreen Co;Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures;Private Equity;Executives and Management;Bain Capital;Credit Suisse Group;New York City |
ny0199143 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2009/07/30 | Time Warner Says Profit Declined 34% in Quarter | Time Warner , the media conglomerate, said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit declined 34 percent, hurt by the advertising recession and lower sales of DVDs. But the results were better than Wall Street analysts had expected, and full-year profit is expected to be flat compared with 2008. This performance, given the weak economy, suggests resiliency for the company, which has shed its cable business and plans to spin off AOL. “With half of the year behind us, I’m very pleased with what we have accomplished,” said Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive, in a conference call with analysts. Yet Mr. Bewkes added that, with respect to advertising, “our visibility remains lower than usual.” In recent years, Time Warner had designs on operating on all levels of the media industry. But today, the company, under Mr. Bewkes, has more modest ambitions: producing mass-market, big-audience television shows and movies. The task is made more difficult by the increasing fragmentation of audiences. But as Mr. Bewkes likes to point out, in such an environment, big hits become more valuable when they can be found. Most recently, Time Warner released “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which generated $400 million in box-office receipts in its first five days. Mr. Bewkes called it the most valuable film franchise ever, and there are two installments to go. While advertising across Time Warner’s businesses continued to fall, the rate of decline was less than most expected. This was similar to the performance of Viacom, the media conglomerate, which reported earnings on Tuesday, giving glimmers of hope that spending on advertising might be stabilizing. “The big picture is that the worst is behind us because there was some improvement in the ad market,” said David C. Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Company. Only Time Warner’s cable networks reported a gain in revenue, although the film unit reported a 52 percent gain in operating income, driven partly by the success of “The Hangover” and lower marketing expenses, as revenue declined. Revenue from the cable networks increased 5 percent, to $3 billion, compared with last year’s second quarter. All of the gain was attributed to a growth in affiliate fees from cable operators, as advertising declined 3 percent, or $30 million. Revenue at Warner Brothers declined 9 percent, the Time Inc. unit was down 22 percent and AOL was off 24 percent. Over all, revenue declined 9 percent, to $6.8 billion. The company’s net income was $519 million, or 43 cents a share, compared with $792 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 45 cents a share, topping the 37 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. In the conference call, executives noted that the company expected a full-year profit near that of 2008, putting Time Warner in a better position than many of its competitors. “We feel really good about how we’ve performed and we feel really good about expectations for the rest of the year,” said John K. Martin Jr., Time Warner’s chief financial officer. | Time Warner Inc;Company Reports |
ny0015519 | [
"science"
] | 2013/10/29 | Natural Allies for the Next Sandy | The floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy had barely receded in New York last fall when the suggestions started coming for ways to keep the city and other low-lying areas safe in future storms. Higher flood walls and more bulkheads were needed, some experts said. Others called for even bigger engineering projects, like storm-surge barriers, to keep the water at bay. But the most intriguing suggestions involved natural approaches. Why not return New York to its glory days as an oyster capital, some argued, and build reefs in the harbor that could help beat down a storm’s waves? Why not turn Lower Manhattan into an aquatic Shangri-La, fringing it in marshland that could reduce surging storm waters? “A lot of people want wetlands to be a solution, instead of walls,” said Philip Orton , a research scientist who studies storm surges at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. “It’s a warm and fuzzy thing.” But natural features are, at best, an uncertain solution. While some natural barriers like dunes have been shown to be very effective at absorbing much of a storm’s energy — during Sandy, shore towns with dunes suffered less damage generally than those without — it is less clear that marshes, oyster reefs, kelp beds or the like provide much protection. Interactions between a storm and natural features are complex, and the dynamics of every storm are different, scientists say, making protection difficult to quantify. “There’s a lot of people saying that wetlands can reduce storm surges,” said Rusty Feagin , an ecologist at Texas A&M University. “There isn’t a lot of empirical evidence on it.” Proponents of a natural approach say their research shows that wetlands and reefs can offer some protection, especially from waves. They note that engineered solutions like sea walls have their own problems — for one thing, they can worsen flooding and erosion elsewhere. And marshes and oyster beds provide other benefits to ecosystems. Marshes, for example, can keep up with rising sea levels brought on by climate change, because as the marsh grasses slow down water, sediment carried by the water settles out, building up the soil. And oysters filter impurities, improving water quality. But even the strongest proponents of natural defenses acknowledge that they are no match for a storm like Sandy, which produced a record storm surge of more than 13 feet in New York Harbor. “All of these have their limitations, but they can provide some risk reduction, said Nicole P. Maher, senior coastal scientist with the Nature Conservancy on Long Island who studies Jamaica Bay in Queens and other wetlands. “But once you get really deep water, it doesn’t matter if it’s a parking lot or an oyster bed or a salt marsh.” In the year since Sandy, the thinking about the use of natural defenses has evolved. On Monday, the day before the first anniversary of the storm, 10 design groups showed off their ideas in Manhattan as part of a competition sponsored by Rebuild by Design to make the region more resilient in the face of future storms and climate change. While there was plenty of talk of the need for salt marshes and oyster reefs, many of the groups took a hybrid approach — combining vegetation with engineered berms, for example, or oyster reefs with larger submerged structures designed to reduce wave energy. Image Shewen Bian of the Army Corps of Engineers near Jamaica Bay, Queens, where wetlands are being re-created, and could offer some storm protection. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times “Natural defenses are kind of the lure — everybody likes them,” said Edgar J. Westerhof, a planner working with one of the competing groups, WXY/West8. “But in the end, it’s not the whole solution.” If a marsh or reef is effective in reducing storm surge, it is because it dissipates energy as water moves over grasses, roots, oyster shells and other materials, generating friction. But friction has an effect only up to a point, said Joannes J. Westerink , a civil engineer at the University of Notre Dame who has developed modeling software that is used to simulate surges and other effects of storms. “If the storm structure is such that the water has enough time to get in, then the frictional resistance will slow it down, but it won’t stop it from getting there,” he said. Dr. Westerink has found that slower-moving storms are less affected by marshes than faster-moving ones. He has run simulations of past slow-moving hurricanes — Ike , for instance, which hit the Gulf Coast in 2008 — and found that surges in some areas actually increase as the storm travels over marshes. Those results run counter to what had long been considered a rule of thumb about wetlands and storms: that for every three miles of marsh, storm surge is reduced by about one foot. That rule was developed by researchers for the Army Corps of Engineers in 1963, who looked at only nine storms, all on the Gulf Coast. Although it is still cited in some literature, many researchers now largely discount it and view the impact of wetlands as highly variable. It also helps if there are dozens of miles of them, as there are around New Orleans and in other parts of the Gulf Coast. “It’s definitely out there that wetlands are barriers,” said Dr. Orton of the Stevens Institute. “But that’s really only true if you have a lot of space.” Narrow strips of marshland, as have been proposed for some areas around Lower Manhattan, would have almost no effect on storm surge. And much of the rest of the New York area is so developed that there are few large expanses of wetlands to buffer storms. But an area like Jamaica Bay , which stretches for nearly 10 miles from Breezy Point, Queens, to John F. Kennedy International Airport, might offer some protection, Dr. Orton said, particularly if it was restored to historical conditions, before shipping channels were dredged. Several of the design groups at the public forum called for making the bay shallower and restoring some lost marshland. But even if a narrow strip of marshland would have little impact on storm surge, it could reduce wave energy in a storm, said Dr. Westerink of Notre Dame. “The scales of motion are much smaller” with waves, he said, and even if the wetland were overrun by storm surge, it would “attenuate waves very effectively,” he added. “And waves can knock the socks off your infrastructure.” Oyster reefs could have the same effect on waves, particularly smaller ones in less severe storms, said Michael W. Beck , lead marine scientist with the Nature Conservancy. The conservancy has oyster reef development projects on the East and Gulf coasts, in which large quantities of shells, placed in shallow water, serve as a place for oyster larvae to settle. “This is a pretty standard coastal engineering problem,” Dr. Beck said. “They’re designing these all over Europe. We’re taking those designs and applying them to oyster reefs.” By reducing wave energy, the reefs help reduce erosion in nearby marshes or other shoreline areas. That makes the marshes stronger and more resilient, he said. “What you’re really hoping is that those natural habitats over all are contributing to reduced erosion and flooding from smaller, higher-frequency events,” he said. “It’s important to recognize that all of the actions we’re talking about are steps in risk reduction,” Dr. Beck continued. “There’s no one solution. Natural habitats are contributing a part to that reduction, and that’s really important.” | Hurricane Sandy;Wetlands;Reef;Hurricanes;NYC |
ny0052040 | [
"business",
"international"
] | 2014/10/15 | Ireland to Phase Out ‘Double Irish’ Tax Break Used by Tech Giants | LONDON — Ireland’s government on Tuesday responded to the clamorous criticism of its business-friendly tax arrangements by closing a loophole used by multinational giants like Google. The European Union and the Obama administration have been increasingly vocal about the tax-avoidance strategies of multinational companies and the countries that enable them. The European Commission is conducting a broad investigation into the relationships between multinationals and perceived tax havens like Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In recent decades, Ireland has based much of its economic growth and jobs strategy on its low corporate tax rate and other incentives that enticed foreign companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Abbott Laboratories. Joe Tynan, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dublin, estimates that the loophole collectively saved companies billions of euros, although it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact amount. But the change, announced on Tuesday as part of the annual budget statement, won’t necessarily make Ireland any less alluring to companies. For one, the government isn’t touching the country’s tax rate. Critics also point to the type of Irish tax strategies that have enabled Apple to potentially avoid billions of dollars in taxes over the years. Those deals, which are part of the separate investigation by the European Commission, do not appear to involve the tax loophole the Irish government says it will close. “I am skeptical as to how big a deal this really is,” said Crawford Spence, an accounting professor at Warwick Business School in Coventry, England. “In general, corporations don’t see much legitimacy in corporation tax, and Western countries don’t appear that interested in making them pay it, either.” The government is phasing out what is known as the “double Irish” provision. It allows corporations with operations in Ireland to make royalty payments for intellectual property to a separate Irish-registered subsidiary. That subsidiary, though incorporated in Ireland, typically has its home in a country that has no corporate income tax. Take Google. Its Dublin headquarters are its main hub outside the United States, employing more than 2,500 people. A Dublin-based subsidiary for Google generates revenue, mostly from online advertising, and then pays it in royalties to a separate Google unit that is registered in Ireland but is resident in Bermuda for tax purposes. Reuters reported that Adobe Systems and Yahoo were also among the multinationals with Irish-registered companies that were not tax residents of Ireland. “Aggressive tax planning by the multinational companies has been criticized by governments across the globe and has damaged the reputation of many countries,” Michael Noonan, Ireland’s finance minister, told the Irish Parliament on Tuesday as part of a budget speech. “I am abolishing the ability of companies to use the ‘double Irish’ by changing our residency rules to require all companies registered in Ireland to also be tax-resident.” Google declined on Tuesday to comment on the specifics of the double-Irish technique. “As we’ve always said, it’s for governments to decide the law and for companies to comply with it,” Google said in a statement. “We’re deeply committed to Ireland and will work to implement these changes as they become law.” Apple and Microsoft declined to comment about their Irish tax strategies. Abbott Laboratories did not respond to calls. Dublin’s defending the double-Irish provision has become steadily more difficult in the growing political debate about the tax payments made by multinationals. “I think this is part of an overall drive to try to get international companies to pay more tax,” Mr. Tynan said. “Ireland wants to be very competitive, but it has to do that within international rules, and there was a feeling that this was at the boundaries of those rules.” Along with Ireland’s tax dealings, the European Commission is also investigating Luxembourg’s relationship with Amazon and a finance unit of Fiat, the Italian automaker. The commission is also questioning Starbucks’s tax arrangements in the Netherlands. These investigations are separate from Ireland’s efforts to phase out certain tax policies. At a meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, European Union officials gave the Irish announcement a cautious welcome. The European Commission, the union’s executive arm, “will have to look at the details and how it will work in practice,” said Algirdas Semeta, the bloc’s tax commissioner, “but the intention is a very good one.” A spokeswoman for the Irish Department of Finance said the government did not know how many of the many of 1,100 or so multinationals operating in Ireland use the double-Irish technique. “As the measure largely relates to companies that are not currently within the scope of Irish taxation because they are not tax-resident here, accurate data on the number of companies affected by this change is not available,” she said, asking not to be identified by name in keeping with the department’s policy. Even as Ireland announced the end of the “double Irish,” it indicated that it was interested in creating something akin to an onshore alternative. Mr. Noonan said the government would explore developing a “knowledge development box,” which would provide tax breaks for revenue and royalties derived from intellectual property. Other European nations including Britain and the Netherlands have introduced similar programs or “patent boxes,” which allow companies based in the country to apply for a lower tax rate on profits that result from certain patents. But Mr. Noonan indicated the Irish version would be “the best in class” and would offer a “low, competitive and sustainable tax rate.” And nothing Mr. Noonan announced on Tuesday would change what has long been one of the biggest sore points for some other countries in the European Union: Ireland’s low official corporate tax rate, which is 12.5 percent. France and other countries with much higher business tax rates have long complained of being undercut by Ireland’s tax policies. The country’s tax regime has helped the government lure foreign investment crucial to Ireland’s now rapidly rebounding economy. Ireland had about 161,000 workers at almost 1,100 international companies in 2013. Approximately half of those companies are American, while about 60 percent of all the combined employees work in industries linked to computer services. Edward D. Kleinbard, a professor at the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California and a former chief of staff to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, indicated that Ireland’s abandoning the double-Irish provision was “a canny strategic move, because there is already tremendous friction between Ireland and the other members of the E.U. over its extraordinarily low corporate tax rate.” “In the long term,” he said, “what’s most important to Ireland is to preserve its low corporate tax rate — not artificial structures that reduce a firm’s tax burden even further.” | Ireland;Tax shelter;Corporate tax;Google;Regulation and Deregulation |
ny0257953 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2011/01/28 | Mexico: Smugglers Try Medieval Tech | Drug smugglers were caught last week trying to hurl drugs over the border fence with a catapult, authorities said. Acting on a tip from the United States Border Patrol , the Mexican military seized the metal-framed catapult, powered by heavy-duty elastic and mounted on a trailer, and 45 pounds of marijuana , near Naco, Ariz., last Friday. | Drug Abuse and Traffic;Mexico;Border Patrol (US) |
ny0182612 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2007/12/28 | Discover Tries Nurturing Parents | IN a bet that managing your finances is like raising your child — trying, but rewarding — the Discover credit card has a new marketing partnership with Parents magazine, the nation’s most popular glossy about the world’s most demanding job. Created by the media agency Starcom USA of Chicago, the Discover campaign is aimed at getting droves of Parents readers to sign up for the perennially also-ran Discover card, which is dwarfed in market share by Visa, MasterCard and American Express. The campaign does not try to bombard frazzled mothers with financial advice or credit card applications. Rather, like a good parent, Discover is taking a gentle and patient approach: it has placed a soft-sell campaign in Parents magazine and on its Web site, and has signed on as a sponsor of ParentsTV, a broadband television channel and Internet site presenting videos about parenting. The anchor of the Discover campaign is a monthly editorial feature and advertising gatefold in the magazine, which is published by the Meredith Corporation . Both elements offer time-management tips intended to create what Parents calls more “together time.” The Parents magazine Web site, www.parents.com , serves up content both prosaic and glamorous, like tips on toddler diarrhea or “Hot Mama: The Best Celebrity Bellies of 2007.” In the same vein, a new Discover-sponsored portal on the parents.com Web site highlights “It Moms” and the slogan, “Get it together!” The videos on this channel show parents how to teach their children to do simple household tasks. The portal has short videos of two “yummy mummies” who give advice on feeding the household pets and writing thank-you notes. In one video, a stylish blond mother cheerily instructs her toddler to write to her grandmother. The card the toddler writes on can be downloaded and printed from the Web site and features the Discover logo. But will consumers — specifically, millions of mothers — also feel compelled to fill out applications for the Discover card? Despite its popularity among existing users, who love its signature cash-back rebates, the Discover card has always been widely perceived as lackluster. Discover Financial Services, which was spun off from Morgan Stanley last summer and has struggled financially, has never been as widely accepted among retailers as the leading brands. Discover Financial Services’ stock price has been clobbered since its spinoff, losing about half of its value. Still, Discover’s pairing with Parents underscores a growing trend in which marketers are linking up disparate brands in hopes of generating something greater than either could achieve alone. “We’re trying to align the brand with content partners that are going after the same consumers,” said Mark Hosbein, a senior vice president for brand management and advertising at Discover. “Parents gives advice and tools on how to be a better parent, and Discover gives tools on how to manage money. It rolls off on our brand.” He called the partnership “high quality information, not just an advertorial here and there.” For example, the Discover-sponsored portal features Parents’ signature tips on how to reward good behavior and discussion blogs on subjects like pet allergies. Discover also plans to sponsor parenting tips for delivery to a mother’s cellphone, BlackBerry or other wireless device. Discover and Starcom, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group unit of the Publicis Groupe, declined to disclose the cost of the campaign. But Diane Newman, the publisher of Parents, said that the deal with Discover could mean much more than advertising revenue. “The powerful magazine brands are going to be the ones that integrate media this way,” she said. She said Discover “had really acknowledged that there was an opportunity to tap into the Parents’ D.N.A. and put a new twist on an idea that old: getting your kids to help you with everyday activities.” Brenda White, a vice president and director for print investment at Starcom, said that “the way this partnership has come together is indicative of magazine advertising and its possibilities.” Parents magazine — which is not to be confused with its archrival, Parenting magazine, which is owned by the Bonnier Group — has a monthly circulation of about 2.2 million readers, ranging from teenagers to retirees. Ms. Newman described her typical reader — the modern mom — as “not a juggler but an integrator,” someone who “looks at being a parent as a form of self-expression.” Perhaps those integrating, self-expressing moms will ultimately feel compelled to call the toll-free number for Discover on the Parents Web site and in the magazine. Mr. Hosbein of Discover said that his company went to Parents with the marketing idea, and was looking for more partners in what he called the lifestyle area. “There’s always a temptation to really go wide and put your name everywhere,” he said. “One of the things you have to do is pick a couple and make something really solid work.” | Discover Financial Services;Advertising and Marketing;Meredith Corporation;Starcom USA;Parents Magazine |
ny0252694 | [
"sports"
] | 2011/11/12 | Ultimate Fighting Championship Goes Mainstream With Bout on Fox | In the beginning, the Ultimate Fighting Championship was like a brawl at a carnival, the mismatched combatants entering an octagonal cage to go at it until there was a “knockout, surrender, doctor’s intervention or death.” The very first match pitted a 415-pound sumo wrestler against a Dutch kickboxer who zestfully launched his foot into the bigger man’s face. The blow left two teeth embedded in the attacker’s foot, with a third flying into the crowd. U.F.C. events were big successes, and not only because blood flowed as freely as sweat. Vigorous old arguments were being settled about who could best whom, the prizefighter or the Olympic wrestler, the Kung Fu black belt or his judo counterpart. This mingling of martial arts was an eye-opener. The sweet science of boxing suddenly seemed a wayward hypothesis. Grapplers easily took standup fighters to the ground; jiu-jitsu experts opportunely used leverage to yank on limbs at the joint as if bending apart Buffalo wings. There were forceful critics of these spectacles, people who thought a no-holds-barred fight was a shameful about-face in the march of civilization. Eight years into its existence, the U.F.C. seemed caught in a chokehold on its revenue windpipe, with many cities and states prohibiting the fights and cable companies dropping the bouts from pay-per-view telecasts. In 2001, Ultimate Fighting was sold for $2 million to the Fertitta brothers, Frank III and Lorenzo, megarich owners of a string of Las Vegas casinos and close friends of a phenomenal huckster named Dana White. What ensued was one of the greatest feats of financial alchemy in the history of sports, the transformation of cage fighting into a $1 billion-plus business. But lucrative as it is, Ultimate Fighting remains confined to a narrow demographic niche, those three initials not yet familiar in most American households. On Saturday night, however, the U.F.C. will seek to make its way into the mainstream, appearing for the first time on network television. The event: a heavyweight championship fight broadcast on Fox. “This is the fastest-growing sport in the world,” Eric Shanks, the president of Fox Sports, said hopefully of his network’s venture into the octagon. “It’s hard to find anyone under the age of 35 who doesn’t know about the U.F.C.” The fight is between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos , two names that may indeed not mean much to people unless they are men 18 to 34. That’s the sweet spot of the fan base, where mixed martial arts are bigger than any other sport in America except for the big three: football, baseball and basketball, according to research by Scarborough Sports Marketing. Outside of that single masculine group, cage fighting — dominated by the U.F.C. brand — is only about as popular as pro bull riding or Major League Soccer . So the question is: Can Saturday night fights on Fox — this one and four next year — entice the curious into the octagon and win their loyalty? That is certainly the hope, says Lorenzo Fertitta, the U.F.C.’s chief executive. To him, Saturday night’s bout is a loss leader, a freebie ordinarily costing each household about $50 on pay-per-view. The U.F.C. puts on about 15 events each year, and while it commonly fills arenas at an average ticket price of $245, pay-per-view revenues are the heart of its business model. Fight cards often draw 500,000 TV customers, or about a $25 million gross. “The U.F.C. is definitely bigger now than boxing or wrestling, maybe even the two combined, though not yet as big as either during their peaks,” said Rich Luker, creator of the ESPN sports poll. “It’s clearly the flavor of the month, but that was once true of poker and then the numbers fell like a rock.” Three years ago, Forbes Magazine referred to the U.F.C. as the “ultimate cash machine,” worth maybe $1 billion and counting. The ledger books of the parent company, Zuffa, are private but Fertitta said that while he did not know what someone might pay for the U.F.C., “I feel pretty comfortable saying we’re the most valuable sports franchise on the planet, more than Manchester United , more than the New York Yankees , more than the Dallas Cowboys .” That would put it in the $2 billion range. Frank Fertitta III is ranked No. 355 on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans, with Lorenzo at No. 359. Each owns 40.5 percent of the U.F.C., with 9 percent belonging to White. Last year, Flash Entertainment, an arm of the government of Abu Dhabi , became a 10 percent partner, brought into the company, according to Lorenzo Fertitta, “because we’re taking this thing worldwide and they can more easily open up those doors than we can.” There are two consecrated themes in the U.F.C.’s sacred text, and one is the claim that mixed martial arts will be the biggest sport in the world within 10 years, a notion many find unrealistic. But the U.F.C. already has staged successful events in Brazil , Canada , the United Kingdom, Germany and Abu Dhabi — and next year it is looking to schedule events in Japan , Macao , Singapore and Sweden . “We’re on television in 150 countries,” Fertitta said. Unlike a double-play ball or a pass-interference penalty, a fist to the face requires no further explanation for a foreign audience, and that leads to the other article of faith in the U.F.C. creed: “Fighting is in our DNA,” White said of the human species, repeating what for him is almost a ritual incantation. “We get it, and we like it. It doesn’t have to be explained to us. “This is what I believe to be true though I can’t prove it. Before any guy ever threw a ball through a circle or hit a ball with a stick, someone hit somebody else with a punch and whoever was standing around ran over to watch it. I believe fighting was the first sport on earth, and it’ll be the last sport on earth. It works everywhere, and we’re going to take it everywhere.” U.F.C. fights are sometimes a windmill of fists, feet, elbows and knees that can leave rivulets of red on misshapen faces. Other bouts end in submission holds, with lungs robbed of air by maneuvers called guillotine chokes. And yet just as often, a fight is slow-going, two exhausted men wrestling on the ground, each seeking strategic advantage in a knot of clamped limbs. However much such fighting is in the marrow, Fertitta and White do not trust it to entertain an audience on its own. They may not be able to choreograph the give and take of an actual bout, but they insist on control of every aspect of its presentation: each graphic, each dart of light, each selection of psych-up music , each word and image in the promos of the fighters, each barely clad “octagon girl” who circles the cage holding a number ostensibly meant to remind the forgetful of the round. “We came into this as fans and we think we know what fans want,” Fertitta said, adding that Fox, unlike other networks, agreed to cede all control of the production, even allowing the U.F.C. to bring in its own announcers. “Fighting is in our DNA,” said Joe Rogan, one of the commentators. “People love conflict, especially when it doesn’t involve them and they get to be the voyeur. A big part of us is chimpanzee, 98 percent or whatever, depending on who you ask. The bottom line is we enjoy violence, especially when it’s in a controlled environment. And that’s just what the U.F.C. gives us.” Rounding Up Viewers The U.F.C. flourishes within the great universe of social networks. Last month, during a fight night in Houston , Dana White, 42, sat in a backstage room in the Toyota Center, paying scant attention to the undercard bouts under way in the arena, instead staring into his phone, thumbing through the incoming traffic on Twitter . For him, this was the time of a great roundup, herding people toward pay-per-view purchases. The first fights were watchable for free on Facebook , then the next ones free on Spike TV, the cable channel. But the final fights, the best ones, would only be shown to those fans who spent the $50. “We’re talking to chat sites all over, driving people from Facebook to Spike and then to P.P.V.,” White said. “I’ve got at least 1.7 million followers on Twitter. I’m reaching out to all my people and hopefully, they’ll reach out to theirs, building the excitement.” The next hour was crucial. People were deciding whether to watch college football for free or the U.F.C. at a price. White was ready to enlist celebrity friends. He told an assistant whom to direct Twitter messages at: “Hit the Rock, hit Justin Bieber , get their people talking, growing the numbers. Hit David Spade ; hit Travis Barker; hit Snoop; hit what’s his name, Madden, the lead singer of Good Charlotte; hit Shaq; hit Bieber’s dad; hit Ryan Sheckler; hit Fergie ’s husband, Josh Duhamel ; hit MC Hammer.” There was urgency to this last-minute marketing. Pay-per-view buys have been sizably down in 2011, interrupting what had been a steady annual rise. In 2010, 11 U.F.C. events drew at least 500,000 purchasers; this year, there have been but two, according to the Web site mmapayout.com . That’s troubling for an organization that forecasts global conquest within a decade. Reasons for the decline include a fan base adept at video piracy. But more than that, some fight cards simply are less appealing than others, and this year one of the U.F.C.’s biggest draws, the heavyweight Brock Lesnar — a former pro wrestler — has been battling diverticulitis instead of opponents. The welterweight champ, Georges St-Pierre, has fought only once because of injuries. The U.F.C. galaxy needs more stars and less dark matter . Fighters with big mouths, good looks, spiked hair, flamboyant striking skills or intriguing back stories tend to be popular, though nothing can help an athlete who loses too often in the octagon. Brian Stann, winner of a Silver Star in Iraq , a man as handsome and square-jawed as any Marine ever to walk a patrol, won his bout on Memorial Day weekend as a crowd chanted: U.S.A., U.S.A.! But he was beaten last month by a trash-talker who likes playing the heavy, back in action after failing a postfight drug test a year before. “Once a fight starts everything is out of my hands,” White, the U.F.C.’s president, said, though his manipulations are visible most everywhere else. Lorenzo Fertitta, 42, with a business degree from New York University , may be the better financial strategist, but White, from the school of hard knocks, is the U.F.C.’s designated face and mouth, as well known as any of his fighters, the Vince McMahon of mixed martial arts. White, who used to teach classes in boxercise — a mix of boxing and aerobics — is regularly attired in a T-shirt. A shaved head seems to magnify his pugnacity. Add a smile to his face and he could pose for the label on a bottle of Mr. Clean. White casts himself as the sport’s shoot-from-the-hip everyman, not only the overexcited promoter — endlessly saying, “this fight’s gonna be a war like nothin’ ever seen” — but also the outraged fan, the first to badmouth a bout that “bored everyone to sleep.” He attempts to appear as a man’s man with more integrity than the next guy, ever-unafraid to call a creep a creep. White also is the face that launched a thousand bleeps, for few in public life more avidly employ common obscenities, making versatile use of his favorites as nouns, verbs and adjectives and commands and exclamations. He seems to resist taking the Lord’s name in vain. Allusions to religion are restricted to frequent use of the word “holy,” though only as a modifier before another dirty word. A common antigay slur is also part of his vocabulary. He used the word on his widely viewed video blog but goes into a rickety defensive crouch when confronted about it. He has worked with gay men; he invited some to his wedding, he said as if proffering exculpatory evidence. He said the slur in question was common coin as he grew up, “and it never, never was about somebody’s sexual preference.” Mixed martial arts is as brutally authentic as pro wrestling is outlandishly fake. But they share a certain soap operatic quality. Most U.F.C. fighters have nicknames — the Young Assassin, the Spider, the Mexicutioner, Mayhem, American Psycho — and any conceivable grudge between them is welcomed as testosterone therapy for the box office. White, too, has feuds, and they are part of the continuing U.F.C. narrative, the day-to-day heat that keeps things percolating on Web sites. Boxing promoters like Bob Arum and Gary Shaw are “crybabies” and “losers.” Reporters are belittled for dishonesty and stupidity and their credentials are withheld. Fighters who complain about take-it-or-leave-it contracts are flayed for ingratitude. These slams become theater on YouTube . One quarrel White rarely discusses, however, is one with his mother, June White, who this year published a score-settling online biography of her son. Her language is no less flinching than his, though innuendo also gets to share in the dirty work. “I never read her book but my lawyer did and he said trust me, don’t read it,” Dana White said. He began to mount an antimom, obscenity-laced counterattack but was interrupted by a public-relations chaperon who navigated him to the sanctuary of off-the-record. His umbrage sounded heartfelt, as it usually does. His presumed genuineness is at the core of his popularity. Back in that anteroom of the Toyota Center, a few fans were given a semiprivate audience with the U.F.C. boss. “This is my 40th birthday, and meeting you, Dana, is such an honor,” proclaimed a pharmaceutical salesman named Scot Bomar. “Really, this surpasses even my wedding day, I’ll tell you.” “Happy birthday, dude, but let’s not get crazy here,” White said amiably. And soon he was back to Twitter, calling out to his assistant: “O.K., let’s get busy. Hit Mike Vick, hit Ashton Kutcher , hit J-Woww.” Old Friends Reconnect White and Lorenzo Fertitta were high school friends in Las Vegas. They would have graduated together if White had not been tossed out of school, expelled, as he tells it, for slamming a classroom door to irritate a nun. Their paths diverged. White moved to Boston , where he worked as a bellhop and a bouncer and did enough boxing to conclude that even a one-way ticket to Palookaville was beyond his reach. So he taught boxercise, eventually returning to Vegas, where he and Fertitta met again at a wedding. Nearly a decade had passed since high school. The Fertittas were expanding the gambling business — Station Casinos — they inherited from their father. Lorenzo also was on the Nevada Athletic Commission. White was again teaching boxercise, sometimes to busy executives. “I agreed to meet him at some rusty boxing gym in Las Vegas, and I’ve spoken to him at least four times a day ever since,” Fertitta said. They worked out, they hung out. As Fertitta recalls it, they were at a Limp Bizkit concert when White began talking to a heavily tattooed, “scary-looking” guy named John Lewis. He was a martial arts legend, an expert in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Japanese kickboxing and judo. He fought in the U.F.C. and soon he was giving private lessons to the Fertittas and White. Mixed martial arts, one fighting technique layered upon another, was a revelation. “It was like watching ‘The Matrix’ and being told I could take the blue pill or the red pill, the one that just blows your mind,” Fertitta said. “I have a bit of O.C.D. , and I just got so into this. I wanted to know every move and countermove. It was so strategic, like playing a game of chess.” Mixed martial arts may have started out as one art versus another but after awhile every fighter was turning himself into a cross-trained hybrid, boxers learning to wrestle, karate black belts mastering submission holds. Fertitta’s new appreciation for the sport did not carry over to the U.F.C. itself. He attended one of its events in New Orleans . He said the arena was nearly empty, the production quality amateurish. No programs or T-shirts were on sale. He thought it might be “the worst-run business on the planet.” The U.F.C. indeed had fallen into a financial sinkhole, but it also had cleaned itself up, far more a genuine sport than a gaudy burlesque. Weight classes were installed, rules added: no head butts; no more kicking a downed man in the head; no more “fishhooking,” ripping apart an opponent’s mouth. In 2001, the Fertittas took a flier on it for $2 million. The biggest asset was the name itself, Lorenzo said. The boast was hard to top: Ultimate Fighting. Reality TV Comeback The brothers were busy running their casinos, which was an expanding empire. Day-to-day operations of the U.F.C. were entrusted to White. Better him than some Harvard M.B.A., Lorenzo Fertitta said. White had a rapport with fighters. He had street smarts. He was tireless. The previous owners had begun the state-by-state slog to win approval from athletic commissions, but Fertitta, who had been a regulator, knew how to hasten the pace. His pitch was straightforward: mixed martial arts was an amalgam of sports already found in the Olympics: boxing, wrestling, judo, tae kwon do. Blows to the head were less common than in boxing. Referees quickly stopped fights when a man became defenseless. Bouts were mostly only three rounds, five minutes each. This was hardly barbarian behavior. But getting the sport back on television was harder. “Cable companies and pay-per-view companies wouldn’t even meet with us,” Fertitta said. “It was nuts. I mean this is a free society. They’d put porn on the air but not us.” The U.F.C. did not return to pay-per-view until late 2001. Fertitta said he expected 150,000 buys but ended up with a fraction of that. The U.F.C. was hemorrhaging cash, he said, maybe $30 million or more in just a few years. Lorenzo Fertitta relishes the story of the U.F.C.’s comeback like any teller of a good fable that celebrates his own success. At one point, he said, his older brother Frank refused to sign any more checks to keep their investment alive. “True story, to meet the last payroll, I didn’t even go to my brother,” Lorenzo said. “I paid it myself.” Instead of giving up, the Fertittas and White decided to try one more gambit, exploring the cultural zeitgeist of reality TV. They went to Spike with a self-financed program called “The Ultimate Fighter.” The premise was straightforward: a few dozen men who want to win U.F.C. contracts live in a house, train together, booze it up, pull pranks, argue. In the first episode, in 2005, one guy peed in another one’s bed. The show was an immediate hit. “The Ultimate Fighter” is still on the air, though as part of the U.F.C.’s new arrangement with Fox — a deal estimated at $100 million a year — the show will switch over to Fox-affiliated FX. By Fertitta’s reckoning, the program developed respect for how hard the fighters trained. Certainly, the camera opened a window into their lives — their egos and ids and abs. Fans picked favorites. The show had much the appeal of “ American Idol ,” except at the end viewers were able to see the contestants beat each other up. With a boost from “The Ultimate Fighter,” the U.F.C. finally moved back into the black. In late 2006, the veteran fighter Chuck Liddell, a coach on the first season of the TV show, beat Tito Ortiz, a coach on the third season. More than a million households ordered the fight on pay-per-view. Tight Grip on the Sport The U.F.C. usually keeps about 375 athletes under contract. These are not goons fresh from barroom beat downs. Many have been wrestling stars in college; some have been Olympians. They are terrific athletes, though at the weigh-ins, two days before a bout, some look more enervated than buff. Fighters frequently try to drop 20 pounds in 48 hours. Before his most recent fight, the featherweight Kenny Florian, who normally weighs 168, needed to prune himself to 145. His mealtimes consisted of exactly 11 protein chips the size of quarters along with two crackers made from bran fiber, each flavored with a tablespoon of almond butter. A nutritionist sat nearby. After the weigh-in, he would re-inflate Florian, cautiously feeding him enzymes and electrolytes. Fighters ordinarily have two or three bouts a year — and they fight them when and where White tells them to. Some resent the U.F.C.’s autocratic ways. They may praise the company for improving the sport but they also wish they had more bargaining power. “It’s take it or leave it with the U.F.C.,” said Sean Sherk, a former lightweight champion. “It’s the top dog. It buys up the competition. What can you do? It is what it is.” Actually, dozens of promoters put on hundreds of mixed martial arts fights each week. Sometimes the “arena” is no more than a few bleachers in a warehouse. Fighters may make $100 to appear and $100 more to win. Other big promotions have competed for the growing fan base, among them World Extreme Cagefighting, Pride Fighting Championships and Strikeforce, which briefly staged prime-time fights on CBS . The U.F.C. has acquired each of these, provoking complaints of monopolistic practices. Lorenzo Fertitta said dismissively: “We bought up guys who were going bankrupt. There’s no barrier to entry. If you want to start your own league, put together three letters, buy an octagon and sign some fighters.” Complaints about antitrust violations have been made to the Federal Trade Commission, which has not disclosed whether an official investigation is under way. “I don’t want to talk about the F.T.C.,” Fertitta said. “It’s inappropriate given that they are asking us questions, and I really can’t get into any details.” The amount paid to the athletes is kept confidential but White says the U.F.C. has made “something like 40 fighters into millionaires, 20 multimillionaires, and, you know, guys making hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Certainly, there is good money at the top, and earlier this year the U.F.C. began providing health insurance . But fighters at the lower levels often earn only $6,000 a bout — double that if they win — not enough to cover the costs of diet supplements and training. The athletes sign contracts for four fights but can be dropped at any time. Jorge Lopez, 22, fought his first U.F.C. bout in September. He lost a unanimous decision. “If I don’t win next time, this could be the end of my U.F.C. career,” he said. Fighters hew the company line. Exceptions are rare. In a postfight, in-the-ring interview, Brock Lesnar told the crowd he would be drinking Coors that night, brashly disrespecting the U.F.C.’s official brand, Bud Light. He appeared later at a news conference with the appropriate beer in hand, contritely saying White straightened him out in a “whip-the-dog session.” Rob Maysey, a Phoenix lawyer, has been unsuccessfully trying to organize an association of fighters similar to the one for baseball players. “If you call a meeting about bargaining, the fighters won’t show up, afraid they’ll get ratted out,” he said. “These guys are fearless in the octagon but they’re a docile group outside it, afraid what Dana White is going to do to them.” Oddly enough, the most determined enemy of the U.F.C. seems to be the Culinary Union, Local 226 in Las Vegas. Its actual beef is with Station Casinos, which is nonunion, but it has been going after the U.F.C. as a way to pressure the Fertittas. The local has set up a Web site, unfitforchildren.org , that is a repository of White’s harangues and slurs. More significant, the Culinary Union and its labor allies have tried to influence lawmakers in New York, one of only three states that prohibit live mixed martial arts events. The ban is curious. After all, boxing is legal in the state, and mixed martial arts is commonly taught in self-defense academies. The U.F.C. has lobbied to change New York’s law. The company and its affiliates have donated $105,000 to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ’s campaigns since March 2009, according to the U.F.C. But while the State Senate this year passed a legalization bill, the measure never came to a vote in the Assembly. Some legislators say the sport is simply too violent. Five years ago, White appeared on Fox as Bill O’Reilly ’s guest. The acerbic host accused the U.F.C. of selling brutality. “What are we, ancient Rome here?” O’Reilly asked. “Is there going to be lions in the ring next?” White politely answered that mixed martial arts was safer than boxing or even high school football. These days, he also mentions cheerleading. Dr. Margaret E. Goodman, who worked for years as a ringside physician in Nevada, said data on the sport’s safety is sparse and “only time will tell” about possible long-term brain trauma. She said most of the injuries are orthopedic. Bloody bouts are usually more gory than physically dangerous. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is perhaps the bigger problem. “The U.F.C. wants the state athletic commissions to handle it, but even the jurisdictions that do some testing are insufficiently thorough,” Dr. Goodman said. Interviews with two dozen fighters yielded varied views about steroids and other enhancements. Some said use of the substances was rare; others called it epidemic. The most common response was something of a shrug. “In any sport, athletes are looking for an edge,” the welterweight Martin Kampmann said. “This must be expected.” Toned, Tattooed, Loyal Last month, the U.F.C. held one of its fan expos. Thousands of people paid $45 to stroll through the downtown convention center in Houston, looking at exercise gear and sampling power drinks. Much of America may be obese but this crowd was fit, not in a slim, distance-running way but in the manner of the well sculptured. Biceps, often tattooed, stretched the sleeves of T-shirts. The U.F.C. has its own clothing brand. Much of it is exercise wear. “We envision a U.F.C. lifestyle, a perspective on life,” said Bryan Johnston, the company’s chief marketing officer. “You can’t lead an N.F.L. lifestyle or a baseball lifestyle. That’s just drinking beer and hanging out with your friends. We’re more like golf , something you can build a life around.” Some lines at the expo were enormous. People waited for a chance to enter the octagon and pose with a championship belt slung over their shoulder. Others wanted autographs from fighters. Urijah Faber, the California Kid, was a huge draw. Well tanned, with long blond hair, he looks as if he ought to be jogging toward the ocean with a surf board under his arm. “You are so cool and laid-back, man, but you’re also a real warrior,” Sam Akaweih, 29, a physical education teacher, said to the fighter. Gilbert Gonzalez, 27, an emergency medical technician, told Faber he had named his 2-year-old son after him. “Urijah and I have this spiritual connection,” the fan later explained. “I watch him on TV and when I yell, ‘Knee him, knee him, knee that guy!’ he hears me. He knees the guy.” Other connections were at play. Most in the crowd knew the sport inside out, from the correct application of an arm bar to who fought whom three years back. The Marines are a U.F.C. sponsor. Recruiters were present, challenging young men to do 20 pull-ups. One nearby booth belonged to Fight Chix, a brand of women’s apparel. Nearby was a booth for “Jesus Didn’t Tap,” a Christian-based mixed martial arts clothing line. Tap refers to a gentle rap of the fingers, used when a fighter in a submission hold chooses to surrender. “Fighting is in the Old Testament; in fact, the Bible is real violent,” said Patrick Hutton, a partner in the company. Everyone struggles within the locked cage of life, he said, but Jesus is the only champion: “People will say, ‘Oh, the only reason Jesus didn’t tap was because his hands were nailed to the cross.’ But he could have verbally tapped and he didn’t.” A U.F.C. fan named Celeste Jackson, 24, was listening in, considering the theological issues. “I really don’t know about fighting being in the Bible,” she said, while adding unequivocally, “But I do believe fighting is in our DNA.” | Mixed martial arts;Ultimate Fighting Championship;TV |
ny0048599 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2014/11/06 | Washington Denies a Role in Yemeni Unrest | CAIRO — The Obama administration on Wednesday denied that it was interfering in Yemen’s escalating civil conflict, after supporters of the former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused the United States ambassador to Yemen of demanding that Mr. Saleh leave the country. A statement from Mr. Saleh’s political party posted on his Facebook page accused the ambassador, Matthew H. Tueller, of delivering a “warning” through an intermediary that Mr. Saleh would face international sanctions if he did not leave Yemen by Friday. A State Department spokesman, Edgar Vasquez, called the accusations “completely false.” He said that the ambassador had never held meetings with officials of Mr. Saleh’s party, the General People’s Congress, “at which any such statements have been made.” The standoff highlighted the risks for the United States as it deepens its involvement in Yemen’s incendiary political situation. The crisis gathered pace in September after a rebel group known as the Houthis, seizing on popular anger against the government, took control of Sana , the Yemeni capital. The rebels’ sudden rise has upended Yemen’s political order and challenged the authority of the current president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, an ally of the United States who came to power two years ago after Mr. Saleh stepped down as part of an internationally brokered deal. Mr. Saleh, who was president for 33 years and remains a powerful political broker, was widely suspected of aiding the Houthis as they swept into the capital. The Obama administration has blamed Houthi leaders and Mr. Saleh for stoking the latest instability. Last week, American officials asked the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions — including a travel ban and an asset freeze — on Mr. Saleh and two Houthi leaders. With their accusations on Wednesday, Mr. Saleh’s supporters seemed to suggest that the call for sanctions was simply being used as leverage by the United States to remove Mr. Saleh. A United Nations diplomat said that the sanctions committee met Tuesday and that there was “broad support” among the Council members for the sanctions. Members have until Friday to raise objections. On Wednesday, as members of Mr. Saleh’s party called for demonstrations against the United States, Ahmad Alsofi, a spokesman for the party, said that Mr. Saleh had no intention of leaving the country. “Even if NASA offered a planet,” he said. | Yemen;Ali Abdullah Saleh;Diplomats Embassies and Consulates;Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi;Houthis;US Foreign Policy;Matthew H. Tueller |
ny0003857 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2013/04/29 | Charity Promotes a New York State of Mind | A charity devoted to helping the poor in New York City is playing up its roots in its first advertising campaign. The charity, the Robin Hood Foundation, plans to introduce the campaign on Monday. The campaign, which includes radio commercials, outdoor ads and a presence in social media like Twitter, carries the assertive theme “Fight poverty like a New Yorker.” The campaign seeks to stand out by celebrating archetypal Big Apple behaviors. There are references to New York-centric subjects like the subway, taxi cabs and bicycle messengers as well as the way native New Yorkers eat, walk and spend their leisure time. The campaign also seeks to link the foundation to some quintessential New York attitudes like toughness, always being in a hurry and not suffering fools gladly. The campaign is composed of paid and donated media placements that are valued at about $1 million. The campaign is being produced internally at the foundation by senior managers who include Bill Oberlander, a longtime creative executive at New York advertising agencies like JWT, Cossette, McCann Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather and Kirshenbaum & Bond. The foundation joins a lengthy list of locally based advertisers that tried, or are trying, to sharpen their appeal in the New York market by addressing the intended audiences on the basis of shared geography, history, life style and mind-set. For example, ads for the Crawford men’s clothing store chain asked in the 1930s, “Do New Yorkers know value?” The answer was, of course, yes, as shoppers “will be amazed at what $18.75 can buy in men’s clothing!” Rheingold beer commercials in the 1950s include lyrics like “East Side, West Side, end of town and down, Rheingold extra dry beer is the beer of great renown” and “From Lexington to Madison and on both sides of Park, they ask for Rheingold extra dry before and after dark.” The Windows on the World restaurant ran ads in 1988 that carried this headline: “Why true New Yorkers won’t pay $1,000,000 for a co-op, $1,000 for a suit or $10 to park their car for half an hour.” And the Boar’s Head Provisions Company sponsored a contest in 2010 called the Five Borough Sandwich Battle, to find the city’s best sandwich. (The winner was something called the Bronx Bomber .) Media companies sometimes try to get in on the act, too, as illustrated by a recent article on the Complex.com Web site titled “Ten Ways to Pretend You’re a Native New Yorker.” The tips included “Never stop at the top of the subway stairs,” “Give tourists directions but make them work for it” and “Ignore the weather.” Robin Hood , as the foundation styles itself in the ads, is getting ready to observe the 25th anniversary of its founding in 1988 by the hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. To date, according to executives at the foundation, it has raised and donated $1.25 billion in the fight against poverty among New Yorkers, distributing the money to organizations like City Harvest. In considering plans for “celebrating our anniversary, we looked around and saw how much is left to do,” says David Saltzman, executive director at the foundation. That is captured by an ad that is part of the campaign, which carries the headline “The city will sleep when we’re done.” The ads are also serving as a curtain-raiser for the foundation’s annual gala, which is scheduled for May 13 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The 2012 gala raised more than $57 million, the foundation says. The primary reason for the campaign’s arrival at this time, however, is the attention the foundation received after being chosen to distribute the money that was raised by the benefit concert held at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 12 for victims of Hurricane Sandy. More than $70 million has been given to 391 organizations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, executives say. “Robin Hood was well known in a small community, the financial community,” says Mark Bezos, senior vice president for communications, marketing and events at the foundation, who worked on the campaign with Mr. Oberlander. Then, “along came Hurricane Sandy,” Mr. Bezos says. “It was a very public opportunity for Robin Hood to raise money and earn the trust of a lot of people.” “Those who know our work are passionate about the organization,” he adds. “Those who are not terribly aware know our ability to raise a lot of money. We’re proud of that, but it’s what we do with the money that’s the important story.” Image An ad from the Robin Hood Foundation's campaign. “We wanted to take advantage of the increase in awareness of the Robin Hood name, so we turned this campaign around quickly,” Mr. Bezos says. “With the scale of the problem we’re fighting, we’re trying to recruit foot soldiers.” Mr. Oberlander, who describes himself as “a guy selling toothpaste for 25 years coming to a nonprofit,” says there are similarities between creating ads for packaged goods and for causes. “It’s classic marketing,” he says of the goals of the foundation’s campaign, which are to raise awareness for Robin Hood and “figuring out the emotional triggers to your target audience” — in this instance, “how New Yorkers think and feel.” The ads state that “Robin Hood’s agenda and how Robin Hood behaves are similar to how New Yorkers behave,” he adds, listing traits like being “demanding, compassionate.” Talking about “fighting poverty for New York” by using the phrase “Fight poverty like a New Yorker” shines a spotlight on “a behavior everyone can get behind,” Mr. Oberlander says. That behavior is described in the outdoor ads that are part of the campaign with colorful examples like “As demanding as a New Yorker at a deli counter,” “As determined as a bike messenger approaching a yellow light,” “As relentless as a New Yorker re-swiping a fare card” and “As watchful as a New Yorker trying to find a cab at 5 p.m.” One outdoor ad sums up its message in a four-word headline: “Here, impatience is a virtue.” The outdoor ads will appear atop taxi cabs, at subway entrances and on buses, phone kiosks and newsstands. Each ad will present pithy paragraphs about the foundation. For instance, the paragraph on the “relentless” ad reads: “Robin Hood has been fighting poverty in New York for 25 years. We support education, housing, health and job training programs. And we’re not about to stop now.” The paragraph on the “impatience” ad reads: “Some things can’t wait. So Robin Hood supports health programs that improve the lives of 35,000 low-income patients each year.” And the paragraph on the “demanding” ad reads: “Robin Hood demands results from the 200 poverty-fighting organizations it supports. Because we know that every misspent dollar is a missed chance to help a struggling New Yorker.” The radio commercials take a similar tack. One begins with an announcer asking: “Do you eat pizza like a New Yorker? Park alternate side like a New Yorker? Nonchalantly walk past a celebrity like a New Yorker? Do you care about other New Yorkers like a New Yorker?” “Of course you do,” the announcer continues. “And we do, too. Robin Hood has been fighting poverty like a New Yorker for 25 years. Feeding, Housing. Educating. Passing 100 percent of all donations to New York City’s most effective schools and poverty-fighting organizations. So go to robinhood.org and fight poverty like a New Yorker.” The other radio spots follow the same template, asking additional questions about behaviors in the mode of New Yorkers like being able to “sleep through car alarms” and knowing “the best place for dim sum.” Some commercials also include Gotham-flavored phrases like “street meat,” “straphang,” “tar beach” (an apartment building rooftop on which to sunbathe), “schlep,” “High Lining” (walking the High Line) and “take your coffee regular.” Mr. Saltzman says: “We’re blessed to have Bill and Mark working here, two of the best people in communications. They are able to pull together the campaign with others here and try to harness the compassion of New Yorkers.” Mr. Oberlander demurs. “When you have an idea that’s a simple human truth, it writes itself,” he says. “I think Robin Hood’s a very optimistic, positive organization,” he adds. “There’s plenty of great things about New York we can write to.” A goal is to make sure the ads will “not be guttural or too crass,” Mr. Oberlander says, but rather express the concept that “ ‘Robin Hood does the greatest amount of good for the greatest city’ and ‘New Yorkers will get it done.’ ” *** If you like In Advertising, be sure to read the Advertising column that runs Monday through Friday in the Business Day section of The New York Times print edition and on nytimes.com . | advertising,marketing;NYC |
ny0256039 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2011/08/02 | Video Review Gives Indians a Homer and a Win in Boston | Asdrubal Cabrera’s second two-run homer of the game, originally ruled a single and overturned by replay review, broke an eighth-inning tie and lifted the Cleveland Indians to a 9-6 win over the Red Sox in Boston on Monday night. Travis Hafner homered after Cabrera’s first home run, and the Indians won for only the third time in 11 games. Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a two-run homer and Carl Crawford had a solo homer, a double and two runs for Boston, which was 20-6 in July — its first 20-win month since May 2007. Cabrera’s homer came off reliever Daniel Bard (1-5) and halted his scoreless-innings streak at 261/3, the longest active streak in the majors. “It went longer than I probably ever expected it would,” Bard said. “Streak or no streak, we’ve just got to move forward.” After Jason Kipnis singled leading off the eighth, Cabrera hit a fly ball down the right-field line that hooked around Pesky Pole and caromed off what looked like the top of the wall to outfielder Josh Reddick. Replays appeared to show the ball hitting beyond the padding on the top of the approximately 5-foot wall and bouncing back into play off a fan’s knee. After a delay of a few minutes, the umpires came back onto the field and ruled it a home run and Cabrera finished his trot around the bases, making the score 7-5. Matt LaPorta added a run-scoring double in the inning. Bard said it looked “like they got it right. It’s still tough to call.” ASTROS 4, REDS 3 The rookie Jose Altuve drove in the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice in the 10th for host Houston. The bases were loaded when Altuve hit a hard grounder to Brandon Phillips, who grabbed it and made a throw home from his knees. But catcher Ryan Hanigan could not handle the throw, allowing Humberto Quintero to score. PHILLIES 4, ROCKIES 3 John Mayberry Jr. hit a pinch-hit, game-tying, two-run homer in the ninth, and Shane Victorino homered to lead off the 10th as host Philadelphia won its fourth in a row. It was the Phillies’ 29th come-from-behind victory this season. BREWERS 6, CARDINALS 2 Nyjer Morgan hit a go-ahead, three-run double as host Milwaukee extended its season-best winning streak to seven. The Brewers (61-49) moved three and a half games ahead of St. Louis in the National League Central, their biggest lead of the season. CUBS 5, PIRATES 3 It seemed like business as usual for Carlos Zambrano against the trade-fortified Pittsburgh lineup. Zambrano (8-6) won his 13th career game against the Pirates — tied with Aaron Harang for second-most versus Pittsburgh among active pitchers — and the visiting Cubs spoiled the slugger Derrek Lee’s debut for the Pirates. Lee, acquired in a trade with from Baltimore on Saturday, hit two home runs and knocked in three runs, but the Pirates lost for the sixth time in eight games. Ryan Ludwick, picked up before the trade deadline, went 0 for 3. NATIONALS 5, BRAVES 3 Rick Ankiel hit two home runs and Livan Hernandez held visiting Atlanta to one run in six innings. Ankiel led off the bottom of the first with a homer to center — the second time this season that Washington’s opening batter hit a home run. CARRASCO SUSPENDED Cleveland pitcher Carlos Carrasco was suspended six games and fined for throwing at Kansas City’s Billy Butler. The Indians said Carrasco planned to appeal. GIANTS’ ZITO ON D.L. San Francisco starter Barry Zito is headed back to the disabled list with a recurrence of a right foot sprain that put him there earlier this season. The left-hander Jonathan Sanchez will come off the D.L. and start Friday against Philadelphia. The Giants also said that second baseman Freddy Sanchez would have season-ending labrum surgery on his right shoulder Tuesday. | Baseball;Cleveland Indians;Boston Red Sox;Los Angeles Dodgers;Oakland Athletics;McCourt Frank H Jr |
ny0288929 | [
"sports"
] | 2016/08/14 | American Women’s Fencing Team Earns a Bronze in Saber | RIO DE JANEIRO — The American women’s saber team won a bronze medal on Saturday with a 45-30 victory over Italy, thereby atoning for some disappointing finishes in the individual event. Saber is the fastest of the fencing disciplines, with points seldom lasting more than a few seconds. Almost before the match started, the Americans were on top, winning their first two bouts, 5-2 and 5-4. The team, which included the two-time Olympic individual champion, Mariel Zagunis, and Ibtihaj Muhammad, who has gained notoriety as the first American athlete to compete at the Olympics with a hijab , never let up, winning seven bouts of nine and drawing one. Dagmara Wozniak, who had dropped a late bout in the semifinal with Russia, 6-0, atoned by winning her bouts, 5-2 and 5-1. “I feel very responsible for dropping the ball against Russia,” she said after the victory. Monica Aksamit, a substitute, rounded out the team. Running, Rowing and Riding 18 Photos View Slide Show › Image Doug Mills/The New York Times None of the Americans had sparkled in the individual event . Zagunis and Muhammad were both knocked out in the round of 16; Wozniak lost in the round of 32. That left the team event as their chance to win a medal. “I’m just happy we had another shot,” Zagunis said, noting that four years ago there had been no women’s team saber. “In London we didn’t have this chance.” After a closer-than-expected 45-43 quarterfinal win over Poland, the United States faced Russia in the semifinal. Falling behind early, the United States rallied to take the lead as Muhammad beat Ekaterina Dyachenko, 10-4. But Russia pulled away in the last two bouts to win, 45-42. “I think that we fenced really well today and I’m proud of my team,” Zagunis said after that match. “We just got unlucky in the end and got a couple of bad calls.” The Americans also won bronze the only other time this event was contested, at Beijing in 2008. Zagunis was on that team, too. “It might not be the color we wanted, but it’s a medal,” Zagunis said of Saturday’s bronze. | 2016 Summer Olympics;Fencing |
ny0150689 | [
"business"
] | 2008/08/05 | Merrill’s Chief Defends Recent Sale | John A. Thain said he had to do something to stop the bleeding at Merrill Lynch . A week after he stunned Wall Street by selling billions of dollars of toxic mortgage investments for pennies on the dollar, Mr. Thain defended his decision on Monday, saying he needed to take decisive action to shore up the Wall Street giant and morale among its employees. “We have over 60,000 people working every day,” Mr. Thain said in an interview after eight tumultuous months as chief executive of Merrill. “All the efforts of these people were overwhelmed by the write-downs in the mortgage-related assets.” Mr. Thain disputed notions that he misled investors about his intentions to raise capital. And he said he sold the mortgage assets, a difficult but necessary step, because he did not know if Merrill would have a similar opportunity again. “The buyer might have gone away,” he said. “The prices of the assets might have declined.” Mr. Thain, brought in to fix the mistakes of his predecessor, is now facing criticism over his decision to raise more capital — a move that caused eye-popping dilution for Merrill’s shares. All told in July, Mr. Thain negotiated seven large-scale deals at Merrill, including what the firm says was the largest secondary offering of stock ever, at $9.8 billion. Some investors say he should have waited until January, when it would have been less expensive to raise capital after the expiration of a provision in an earlier fund-raising deal. “Why did he have to do it now?” asked Brad Hintz, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “He faces a challenge not only to talk to the outside shareholders about this, but also to reassure employees, who own a large amount of stock.” Mr. Thain has taken the most drastic steps of any Wall Street chief to move beyond the credit squeeze. The company’s fire sale of some $31 billion in mortgage assets known as collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, at a price of 22 cents on the dollar could even be an impetus for similar moves by Citigroup, Lehman Brothers or other firms. But the mortgage sale has shifted the focus away from the errors of his predecessors to the man who is sometimes called Mr. Fix-It. Mr. Thain’s suggestion that he needed to buck up his employees is an interesting statement from a man known as a quiet technocrat. Phone calls with analysts and investors seemed to turn into a discussion of C.D.O.’s or other mortgage assets, and company executives could not escape the past. Mr. Thain noted that Merrill generated $7.5 billion in revenue and $2 billion in pretax income in the second quarter. Headlines focused instead on Merrill’s $9.7 billion in write-downs. So how are employees responding? One Merrill employee, who works in the investment bank in New York, said that people are hopeful about Mr. Thain and like him, but it is just too hard to know if other assets, like residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, are going to erode. A broker in California said it just seemed to be more of the same. Customers, he said, still complain to him that “Merrill Lynch can’t control its money — why should I give you mine?” Merrill does not allow its employees to speak with reporters without approval. The mortgage market rallied in April and May, and there was some hope on Wall Street that companies like Merrill might one day collect a return on their mortgage bonds, as recounted by Mr. Thain. But in the last week of June, the mortgage market shot downward again. As Merrill’s work-out desk shopped one C.D.O. around Wall Street to dismal bids, reality hit home. Merrill executives knew by late June that it would be forced to take huge write-downs — again — in second-quarter earnings, bringing the total write-downs over a year to more than $40 billion. Immediately, Merrill executives set to work on a number of options to raise money to cover the losses, including negotiating to sell stakes in Bloomberg, the financial data provider; Financial Data Services, a back-office subsidiary; and BlackRock, the asset management firm. (Merrill ultimately retained its BlackRock stake.) At the same time, Merrill was actively shopping some $32 billion in C.D.O.’s to a number of investors, including Dune Capital, which is run by Steven T. Mnuchin, an executive at Goldman Sachs when Mr. Thain was there. The initial package consisted of pieces from 27 different C.D.O.’s. Merrill was seeking $8 billion for the package and hoping to close a deal before it announced second-quarter earnings, according to a person familiar with the offer but not authorized to discuss it. Meanwhile, Merrill squabbled with reinsurance companies like MBIA over the backing they provided for mortgage assets. And Merrill reached out to Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore government, to discuss an agreement that made raising new equity quite costly until January 2009. “What we’ve accomplished here and done over the last four to five weeks is as complex and far-reaching as anything I’ve gone through in my career,” said Gregory J. Fleming, Merrill’s president, who worked as a financial institutions banker earlier in his career. At the end of Merrill’s whirlwind month, investors are still questioning its C.D.O. sale. Not only did Merrill sell $31 billion at a fire-sale price of $6.7 billion, but it also lent $5 billion to the buyer, Lone Star, a private equity firm in Dallas. “We went to a lot of trouble to get this deal done, and we structured it in a way where there is very little chance that we ever get these C.D.O.’s back or take the same risk back,” Mr. Thain said. Mr. Thain has been accused of misleading investors because as recently as mid-July he said that he felt comfortable with Merrill’s capital levels. He said his statements like the one on the second-quarter earnings call were true when he made them. “We would not have needed to raise more capital unless we completed the C.D.O. sale,” he said. Mr. Thain said he is hopeful investors will now focus on Merrill’s core business. He believes Merrill is well positioned for the coming years because several of its businesses, like wealth management, do not depend on borrowing — or leverage, as the industry calls it. | Merrill Lynch & Co;Thain John A;Banks and Banking;Mortgages |
ny0250259 | [
"us"
] | 2011/02/16 | Pennsylvania Employees Fired in Clinic Inquiry | Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania said Tuesday that several state workers had been fired and the state’s abortion clinics would be subjected to stricter oversight as a result of an investigation into a Philadelphia clinic where, according to the district attorney, a woman and seven newborn babies were killed in deplorable conditions . Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, who ran the clinic, the Women’s Medical Society, was indicted by a grand jury last month on eight counts of murder. The grand jury report found that babies were born alive in the clinic but were killed when their spinal cords cut with scissors by clinic staff members. At least two women died during abortion procedures. “This doesn’t even rise to the level of government run amok,” Governor Corbett said in a statement. “It was government not running at all. To call this unacceptable doesn’t say enough. It’s despicable.” Governor Corbett ordered the state’s abortion clinics to be inspected at least once a year and said clinics that fail to meet basic state health standards would be closed, at least temporarily. Pennsylvania abortion clinics will also have unannounced inspections, including during evenings and weekends. The results will be posted online. Governor Corbett said 11 state employees had been dismissed or resigned since the conditions at Dr. Gosnell’s clinic became public. The clinic’s practices had been the subject of numerous complaints for at least a decade before it was closed. | Abortion;Gosnell Kermit;Corbett Tom;Philadelphia (Pa);Pennsylvania |
ny0264436 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2011/12/06 | Maple Leafs Snap Rangers’ Home Winning Streak at 7 | After 10 games at Madison Square Garden, only one team has beaten the Rangers in regulation, the Toronto Maple Leafs . And now they have done it twice, with a 4-2 victory Monday night that snapped the Rangers’ seven-game home winning streak and their five-game overall streak. “We’ve played some pretty fast teams,” Coach John Tortorella said. But “we’ve struggled against Toronto.” The Rangers entered the game with the N.H.L.’s best winning percentage and 12 victories in their previous 14 games. But the Leafs, who won by the same score at the Garden home opener Oct. 27, proved too swift again — especially their top line, featuring Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul, the N.H.L.’s No. 1 and 3 scorers coming into the game. “They were dominating every shift,” Maple Leafs Coach Ron Wilson said. “Every time the Rangers got momentum, I wanted them out there, controlling the puck.” The Leafs skated circles around the Rangers in the first half of the game. Lupul’s 13th goal of the season beat Henrik Lundqvist at 6 minutes 9 seconds of the second period for a 3-0 lead. But the Rangers are too good a team to fold up. Artem Anisimov scored at 13:00 of the second period, and Marian Gaborik added his 13th of the season on a two-man advantage 1:32 later. That set the stage for a frantic final period. With 8:17 left, Ryan Callahan almost tied it when he was set up at point-blank range off a lovely pass from Michael Del Zotto. But Callahan shot over the net. The Rangers went on a power play in the game’s last minute and pulled Lundqvist for an extra attacker, six skaters on four. But Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson stopped dangerous shots from Brad Richards and Anisimov, and Toronto’s David Steckel put the puck into an empty net with five seconds left. The defeat deprived the Rangers of the 2,500th win in club history. They will try again Thursday night at the Garden against Tampa Bay. Entering the game, the Rangers were 7-0-0 when Brandon Prust had been assessed a fighting major in the opening two minutes, and at 2:05, Prust dropped the gloves and started throwing haymakers with Jay Rosehill. But because Prust started fighting five seconds too late, that peculiar record remains unchanged. The Rangers lead the N.H.L. with 22 fights, and Prust — who was Derek Boogaard’s close friend and road roommate during Boogaard’s brief time with the Rangers last season — leads the team with 8. Prust’s fight will probably show up on HBO’s “24/7” series, whose camera crews moved in on Monday morning to document the daily life of the Rangers through the Jan. 2 Winter Classic in Philadelphia. The first episode will be presented Dec. 14 at 10 p.m. SLAP SHOTS Defenseman Michael Sauer went to the dressing room after he was shaken up in a collision with Toronto defenseman Dion Phaneuf along the sideboards in the Toronto end while both were going for a 50-50 puck with just over five minutes left in the third period. Less than a minute later, Michael Del Zotto hurt his left leg when he got tangled up with Toronto forward David Steckel. ... The Rangers wore white to accommodate the Leafs, who were traveling with their blue uniforms. It was the first time the Rangers had worn white at home since last March 7. | New York Rangers;Toronto Maple Leafs;Hockey Ice;National Hockey League |
ny0097453 | [
"technology"
] | 2015/06/18 | A Robotic Dog’s Mortality | This is the final episode in a Bits video series, called Robotica , examining how robots are poised to change the way we do business and conduct our daily lives. TOKYO — They didn’t shed, chew the sofa or bite the postman, but for thousands of people Sony’s Aibo robotic dog was the closest thing to a real canine companion. So when the Japanese company stopped servicing the robots last year, eight years after it ended production, owners faced a wrenching prospect: that their aging “pets” would break down for good. Sony introduced the Aibo in 1999 , at a price of 250,000 yen (about $2,000 at current exchange rates). The beaglelike robots could move around, bark and perform simple tricks. Sony sold 150,000 units through 2006; the fifth and final generation was said to be able to express 60 emotional states. Robot pets didn’t become the ubiquitous accessories that the Aibo’s developers had imagined, however, and the Aibo was never much more than a side project for Sony. The company was used to selling consumer products in the tens of millions, not the thousands. And by the mid-2000s Sony was losing money, its mainstay television business eroded by competition from cheaper South Korean rivals. The Aibo fell victim to company restructuring, as Sony sought to refocus on more profitable businesses. Still, Sony continued to repair Aibos until March of last year. But by then spare parts were becoming too scarce, the company said, forcing it to end the service and turn owners away. —Jonathan Soble | Robot;Sony;Pet;Japan |
ny0033741 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2013/12/07 | Korver Sets 3-Point Mark | Hawks swingman Kyle Korver set an N.B.A. record by making a 3-pointer in his 90th straight game in Atlanta’s 108-89 home win over Cleveland. He broke the mark of 89 games in a row set by Dana Barros from 1994 to 1996. | Basketball;Atlanta Hawks;Kyle Korver;Cavaliers |
ny0075980 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/05/18 | Yankees’ Chris Capuano Is Pounded by Royals in First Start | KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The televisions in the Kansas City Royals’ clubhouse on Sunday morning featured a montage of at-bats against Chris Capuano in recent years. They seemed to tell a story. First, that Capuano had pitched for a lot of teams, because there were clips of him pitching for the Mets, the Dodgers, the Red Sox and the Yankees — all stops he had made in the last five years. Second, that Capuano never seemed to get anybody out. Surely, he must have during his 11-year career — he once won 18 games and made an All-Star team. But the video showed various pitches being ripped into corners, grounded up the middle, driven the opposite way and occasionally hit into the bleachers. If the point was to encourage the Royals with positive reinforcement, visualizing what they might do to Capuano, the left-handed Yankees starter, it certainly did the trick. Capuano’s season debut, which was delayed by five weeks while he recovered from an injured quadriceps, was a quick one. He allowed four runs and was removed with nobody out in the fourth inning, the Yankees well on their way to a 6-0 loss to the Royals. The loss was the Yankees’ fifth in their last six games and the first time they had been shut out this season. It was also the end of a stretch in which they played 30 games in 31 days. On Sunday, the Yankees looked like a weary group. They were held hitless until two outs in the fourth. Their defense, shaky during the last week, continued to be so: Chase Headley, with plenty of time, bounced a throw that first baseman Mark Teixeira could not scoop up. Reliever Esmil Rogers whirled and launched a throw so far over Teixeira’s head that the ball landed in the stands. Teixeira, who was hit by a pitch on his foot, later left with a bruise on his big toe. X-rays were negative. If the Yankees do not regain their footing, at least they will get the opportunity to regain their legs with days off on Monday and Thursday, sandwiched around a two-game series in Washington. When it is complete, they will have finished a stretch of 35 games that included 25 on the road. “I think everybody here feels the same: a day off is a good thing, recharge our batteries and come back strong,” said Alex Rodriguez, who may be pressed into playing first base if the pain Teixeira felt in his toe does not subside. If it does, Rodriguez will most likely be used as a pinch-hitter, since there will be no designated hitter in Nationals Park, a National League site. Added Teixeira: “We haven’t swung the bats well. That’s the way it is — it goes in ebbs and flows sometimes during the season. It was just a bad week for us.” Both teams on Sunday paid homage to the Negro leagues, whose museum is here. The Royals wore the home uniforms of the Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro league team that included Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and Ernie Banks among its players. Both teams wore a patch with the No. 28 on it, which belonged to Banks, who died in January. “One thing I’m happy is we’re not playing two today,” said Yankees Manager Joe Girardi, referring to Banks’s mantra, “Let’s play two.” Girardi became friends with Banks during his playing days with the Cubs. The Yankees might not have scored even if they had played two. They had only three threats, two of which came with the game beyond their reach. Edinson Volquez struck out Brian McCann with runners at first and second to end the fourth, and the Yankees left the bases loaded in the eighth and had runners on second and third in the ninth when center fielder Lorenzo Cain dived to catch Didi Gregorius’s liner for the final out. The Royals and the Rays, who have put the Yankees in a funk in the last week, have the second- and third-best earned run averages in the American League. “Yeah, there’s some guys that are a little bit fatigued,” Headley said. “But by the same token, we ran into some guys that are throwing the ball well.” The Yankees could have used a commensurate performance by Capuano, who relies on his command and changing speeds. He allowed a solo homer to Salvador Perez in the second, and he lost control quickly in the fourth. He walked Cain and Eric Hosmer leading off the inning. Kendrys Morales then pushed a ground-ball single into right field to score Cain. When Perez rifled a ground-ball single into left to score Hosmer, that was it for Capuano. Rogers was greeted by Omar Infante’s run-scoring double. Girardi, asked before the game how he would know if Capuano would succeed, said: “I think it’s location, really, and the swings that they take off it. This club is dangerous. You’re going to have to locate and change speeds and be down in the zone.” Thus, the two walks, against a team that has only 79 this season — the fewest in the league — were a troubling sign, one of many for the Yankees. “It’s frustrating,” Capuano said. “It was certainly not the outing I wanted for my first outing. I wanted to give the team a little boost going into the off day.” | Baseball;Chris Capuano;Lorenzo Cain;Kansas City Royals;Yankees |
ny0083930 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2015/10/30 | Patriots Crush the Dolphins to Reach 7-0 | Even when they look sluggish, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots still dominate. Brady threw for 356 yards and four touchdowns — two to Julian Edelman in the fourth quarter — and the Patriots trounced the visiting Miami Dolphins, 36-7, on Thursday night to become the first of the N.F.L.’s five unbeaten teams to reach seven wins. Stephen Gostkowski broke Adam Vinatieri’s franchise record for consecutive field goals by connecting from 52 and 36 yards to run his streak to 26 in a row. Rob Gronkowski had 113 yards receiving and a touchdown, and Dion Lewis had 93 yards receiving and a score. The loss was the first for Miami (3-4) under the interim coach Dan Campbell. The Dolphins scored 82 points in wins over the lowly Titans and Texans in Campbell’s first two games after he replaced Joe Philbin. But they were overmatched against the Patriots, the defending Super Bowl champions. It could be an even bigger loss for the Dolphins because the four-time Pro Bowl defensive end Cameron Wake was carted off the field in the second half with an Achilles’ tendon injury. The Patriots are 7-0 for the second time in franchise history and for the first time since going 16-0 in the regular season in 2007. COWBOYS’ RANDLE TAKES LEAVE Joseph Randle was the starting running back for Dallas until Darren McFadden had the team’s first 100-yard game of the season last weekend. Now the status of Randle, a third-year player, is in question as he takes time away from the team to deal with an unspecified personal issue while already being ruled out of Sunday’s game against Seattle with a back injury. Randle appeared at practice Wednesday before leaving, and he left after a brief appearance at the team’s complex Thursday morning. Coach Jason Garrett declined to discuss the specifics of Randle’s absence. “We have players who for different reasons, at different times, can’t be here, whether it’s a family issue, a personal issue of some kind,” Garrett said. “We address them, we solve them and then move on. We certainly try to support our players in every way we can.” MANGOLD PLANS TO PLAY Jets center Nick Mangold missed practice for the second straight day with a sore neck, but he still expects to play against Oakland on Sunday. “I feel like unless I’m laying there bleeding out, I’ll be able to play,” said Mangold, who was injured in a loss to the Patriots last weekend. | Football;Tom Brady;Patriots;Miami Dolphins |
ny0002402 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2013/03/23 | Heat Extend Victory Streak to 25; Durant Leads Thunder Over Magic | Another game, another double-digit rally for the Miami Heat. And another win. LeBron James scored 29 points, Dwyane Wade added 19, and the Heat extended their winning streak to 25 games by pulling away in the second half and beating the visiting Detroit Pistons, 103-89, on Friday night. Miami shook off yet another slow start to move within eight games of tying the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers for the longest winning streak in N.B.A. history. Greg Monroe finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds for Detroit, which dropped its 10th straight game. The Heat dug their way out of a 17-point hole — and a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter — to win at Boston on Monday, and they overcame a 27-point third-quarter deficit to prevail in Cleveland on Wednesday. Detroit led by 11 in the second quarter, but the second half was pretty much all Miami. The Heat outscored Detroit by 52-35 after halftime. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing; this time of year, it’s going to be a dangerous team,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s going to be a team absolutely urgent, desperate for a playoff position or a team with nothing to lose, no pressure. Either way, you have to impose your will.” HORNETS 90, GRIZZLIES 83 Robin Lopez had 23 points, with a key put-back and a pair of free throws in the final 1 minute 11 seconds, and host New Orleans beat Memphis. Mike Conley scored 20 points while nearly leading the Grizzlies back from a 16-point fourth-quarter hole. SPURS 104, JAZZ 97 Tony Parker had 22 points in his return from an eight-game absence because of an ankle sprain, Tim Duncan added 19 points and 16 rebounds, and the Spurs escaped with an overtime victory against visiting Utah. Kawhi Leonard added 21 points for San Antonio, which remains two and a half games ahead of Oklahoma City in the West. THUNDER 97, MAGIC 89 Kevin Durant scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, Russell Westbrook had 19 points, and Oklahoma City held off host Orlando. The Magic briefly took a 1-point lead in the final period, but the Thunder hit 8 of their final 10 free throws to help seal the victory. MAVERICKS 104, CELTICS 94 Dirk Nowitzki scored 22 points, Shawn Marion had a double-double in his return from a calf injury and the Mavericks spoiled Jason Terry’s return to Dallas with a victory over Boston. Terry scored 8 points in his first game in Dallas since leaving for Boston in free agency. PACERS 102, BUCKS 78 Tyler Hansbrough had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead Indiana over visiting Milwaukee. Paul George scored 20 points, and Roy Hibbert had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 7 blocks for the Pacers, who have won three straight. TRAIL BLAZERS 104, HAWKS 93 Wesley Matthews scored 28 points to lead three Trail Blazers with at least 20 points, and Portland beat host Atlanta. The Hawks led by 11 points in the third quarter before Matthews rallied the Trail Blazers. ROCKETS 116, CAVALIERS 78 James Harden scored 20 points, Chandler Parsons and Omer Asik added 13 points each, and host Houston routed cold-shooting Cleveland. Thomas Robinson scored 15 points, and the Rockets stayed in the No. 7 spot in the West. | Basketball;Miami Heat;Pistons;LeBron James |
ny0242243 | [
"us"
] | 2011/03/28 | Richard Scrushy’s Household Sold Off in a Yard Sale | BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his casserole dish? These are the wages of sin for Richard Scrushy , the Alabama businessman who rose from working-class roots to become one of the highest-paid chief executives in the United States, and fell just as quickly to become federal prisoner No. 24463-001. His name was pried off libraries and campus buildings, and his 16,000-square-foot and helipad-equipped home was opened up to paying gawkers. In the two years since he was ordered by a judge to pay $2.87 billion to HealthSouth, the company he started in 1984, his 19 cars and his wife’s jewelry collection have been auctioned and his houses sold. Then, over the weekend, came perhaps the final indignity: a yard sale. It took place in the estate’s spacious barn, and in some ways it was like any old yard sale, with handwritten signs on colorful poster board, sodas selling for $1 and shelves full of knickknacks of debatable taste or utility. And as at any good yard sale, no one was a stranger, given that Birmingham is in many ways something of a small town and Mr. Scrushy at one time the biggest person in it. One shopper said he had worked with one of Mr. Scrushy’s childhood friends, another said she was a friend of a former family baby sitter and still another said Mr. Scrushy had spoken at her daughter’s graduation. “I respect Richard,” said Syble Marshall, who runs a day care center in town, setting up a particularly Southern kind of velvet barb. “He was an intelligent crook.” HealthSouth was founded by Mr. Scrushy and a few friends, going on to become the nation’s largest provider of inpatient rehabilitative services. It is still in business here in Birmingham, and though it has sold off many of Mr. Scrushy’s acquisitions, the company is profitable, having survived a very bad decade and the arrest of many of its executives. As his wealth and profile grew, Mr. Scrushy cut a complicated figure, a short-fused dynamo as extravagant in his personal tastes and pursuits — including recording albums with his own country music band, Dallas County Line — as he was in his philanthropy. But local opinion of him turned steadily less mixed over the past decade as his company’s stock tanked and he was sued by his shareholders and then accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors of overseeing an accounting fraud that ran into the billions. He was acquitted of criminal charges in a 2005 trial, during which the public’s attitude seemed to turn from fury to scorn. But two years later, he was convicted on unrelated bribery charges for arranging $500,000 in donations to Alabama’s former governor, Don E. Siegelman, in exchange for a seat on a state board . Mr. Scrushy, 58, is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Beaumont, Tex. Then, in 2009, a judge presiding over a suit brought by HealthSouth shareholders found that Mr. Scrushy had actively participated in the systematic reporting of false profits. He ordered Mr. Scrushy, who estimated his net worth in 2003 at $300 million, to pay $2.87 billion to HealthSouth in damages for the accounting fraud. Since then, it has become a matter of collecting it. “We got a $2.9 billion judgment, and our job is to satisfy that judgment,” said John Somerville, who represents the lead shareholder in the suit. “Part of our job is to seize assets and sell those, and that can include the $5 million lake house and that can include the $3 dollar lampshade.” In May, Freeman’s , a Philadelphia-based auction house, will hold an auction of some of Mr. Scrushy’s art collection, which includes works by Picasso and Renoir. The weekend yard sale brought in about $164,000, said John C. Jones, a representative for Freeman’s who helped arrange it. That is a tiny fraction of the $100 million in assets collected so far, but a tidy sum nonetheless. Hundreds of bargain hunters, many of them estate sale regulars who spoke in accents that would be familiar to Mr. Scrushy from his upbringing in Selma, Ala., lined up on a cool Saturday morning outside the stately back gate. Some came for vindication and others as voyeurs, but most were there for the values. When the gates opened, a few middle-aged men out front broke into a run, rushing toward the $120 monogrammed golf bags, $25 Hermès ties and various schadenfreude treasures, like a photograph of Mr. Scrushy shaking hands with Mr. Siegelman ($500) and a framed inspirational text called “The Penalty of Leadership” ($40). Not everyone was enjoying themselves. “To me, this has come to the point where it’s borderline disgusting,” said Mike Plaia, who said he showed up before 6 a.m. Mr. Plaia is Mr. Scrushy’s son-in-law. Last year, as part of a settlement, he agreed to give up certain property that the shareholders’ lawyers said had been transferred to him by his father-in-law in an effort to hide assets. On Saturday, Mr. Plaia, his wife and some friends were waiting outside the gate like everyone else, hoping to buy a childhood bicycle and other items of sentimental value. He arrived on Friday, he said, hoping to be let in early before the crowds picked the place clean. But he was turned away. This is not about raising money, Mr. Plaia said, “it’s about humiliating him and putting him on display.” Mr. Somerville pointed out that a year ago Mr. Scrushy’s third wife was allowed to take certain things from the estate, including any children’s toys she wanted, and that family photos were handed over to the Scrushys as well. About an hour after the sale opened, with shoppers trying on Armani jackets and making jokes about the décor, Mr. Plaia was standing guard over an enormous pile of clothes, including the tuxedo that Mr. Scrushy wore at one of his weddings. There were plenty of others who were not bothered by the idea of humiliating Mr. Scrushy — people who, in fact, felt that no penalty would be too severe. Ken Robertson, 62, a retired accountant, wandered around with his hands in his pockets, contemplating, he said, “how easy it is to live on other people’s money.” Mr. Robertson’s father — who recently died but had spent his working years as an accountant, first for the Birmingham steel mills and then for the Army Corps of Engineers — lost $28,000 when HealthSouth’s stock collapsed, one of so many people who saw their savings shrivel or disappear. Mr. Robertson said he was not buying anything of Mr. Scrushy’s, considering that, in a way, his family had already paid for it once. Delivering laments about greed and justice in modern America, he meandered into the inner rooms of the barn, walking past a neat stack of CDs on a table. They were albums from Mr. Scrushy’s band , and they were being given away. | Scrushy Richard M;HealthSouth Corp;Birmingham (Ala);Auctions;Tag Sales |
ny0287915 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2016/08/26 | Some Villages in Italy May Never Recover From Earthquake | PESCARA DEL TRONTO, Italy — Mostly there was silence, virtually the only sound being that of a river flowing peacefully down the mountain that swallowed this tiny hamlet when an earthquake struck early Wednesday . On Thursday, some of the nearly 130 people who once lived here returned, accompanied by firefighters, to try to retrieve a few belongings and mementos of a life that was obliterated in a few violent seconds of shaking. “Where was your bedroom?” a young fireman asked a couple from under his yellow helmet. “It was where you see that white closet,” the woman answered, indicating a few shelves without doors hanging open, over the hill. The sidewall of their two-story house collapsed down the slope, offering a glimpse of the intimacy of their lives. Italian officials now say that at least 267 people were killed in the mountain towns along the fault that erupted. But for the smallest of those places, like this one, the damage will be tallied not only in terms of the lost lives of family, friends and neighbors, but quite possibly the elimination of the towns themselves. Scenes From the Devastation in Italy 15 Photos View Slide Show › Image Remo Casilli/Reuters Pescara del Tronto is gone. Perhaps five houses are left standing. And whether the place can ever be restored to the map seems an open question. The village is administratively part of the only slightly larger town of Arquata del Tronto, where 46 people are so far counted among the dead. For these largely isolated, hilltop towns in a rural region where the economy was already in decline, and where most of the permanent residents were already aging, the earthquake may be a coup de grâce, its own death knell. Italian Towns Before and After the Earthquake Towns in a mountainous stretch of central Italy were severely damaged by an earthquake that killed hundreds of people and trapped scores under debris. “It will be difficult for people to move back into Pescara del Tronto,” Michele Franchi, vice mayor of Arquata del Tronto, said, speaking from the camp near the main town, where half the tower pinnacles collapsed. “We should even wonder whether it’s wise to rebuild it right there, considering that it almost entirely came down.” “But we need to move people out of tents quickly,” he added. “They need to see a chance for life here to restart, where possible.” Italy’s History of Deadly Earthquakes A look at earthquakes in Italy that have caused extensive damage over the last century. Of the 300 who were in the village when the quake struck, many were people who kept weekend houses to take a break from Rome, about 95 miles away. “I spent my life here,” said Enza, 52, an employee from Rome whose family home has been here for decades. “We are lucky because our house did not collapse. My mom, dad and brother left safely. But our entire lives are gone — so many friends, so many neighbors are no longer. How can we go back?” Enza was in no spirit to provide her full name. Residents do not feel like talking in Pescara del Tronto. The police and rescue officials escorted the few residents who had the courage to come back the day after the tragedy, in silence. Enza came back to recover her elderly parents’ medical devices and some clothes, so that they could feel somewhat less lost, she said. She was in Pescara del Tronto last weekend and went back to her work in Rome on Monday. Her brother took their parents safely into the street on Wednesday morning after the quake. Video Migrants from Africa have volunteered to help residents in areas of central Italy that were struck by a deadly earthquake this week. The villages hit by the quake in the Marche region are along the ancient Roman road, the Via Salaria, that leads from Rome to the Adriatic Sea. Along this stretch of road, surrounded by green woods and high rocks, are now only cranes, tents and firefighters’ jeeps and trucks. Officers assigned to different points of the road discouraged travelers from taking it. Pescara del Tronto has been a summer or weekend destination, but many travelers were not strictly tourists. “This place was home to me and to so many others,” Enza said, breaking up in tears. “Not just the physical place — we all knew each other, so we all lost many, many members of our extended family.” Enza said that, beyond the pain for lost friends and acquaintances, the worst part now was already the creeping nostalgia for a place that may have died with so many of its residents. “There used to be a stone step where we always sat down,” she said, pointing to a spot now buried under collapsed beams, roofs and stone bricks. “Our memories are completely erased.” An ambulance passed by at full speed, sirens on, in the only narrow street leading into the town. Maybe one of her friends will become famous for being the last survivor taken out of the rubbles in Pescara del Tronto, Enza hoped. “You know, the worst is that this quake did not only take our future, but also took our past,” she said. | Earthquake;Italy;Rescue;Pescara del Tronto |
ny0186108 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/03/23 | New York City’s Political Campaigning Industry Defies Downturn | Over more than two decades of consulting, George Arzt branched out from political clients to private ones — hospitals, developers and nonprofits that he said paid well and did not demand as much. These days, though, he can no longer count on those private clients to bankroll his business: some asked him to cut his fees, while others dropped his services altogether as they confronted economic woes. “I had to go back to politics to offset the losses on the other end,” said Mr. Arzt, who is running the public advocate campaign of Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn. The city is contending with gaping budget holes, companies are slashing their operations, stores are shutting down, and workers are losing their jobs. But at least one industry is still going strong: political campaigns. In interviews, consultants, pollsters, election lawyers and other strategists said that business was, in fact, very good this year. There are city elections this fall, with a fair number of competitive races already off the ground. As of March 12, 216 candidates had registered with the city’s Campaign Finance Board, an unprecedented number this early in the election cycle, a board spokesman said. At least 39 of the candidates have signed up since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg engineered an extension of term limits in November, allowing two-term incumbents like himself to run again. There are also plenty of organizations that need help shaping their message in these hard times, the consultants said. For example, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East and the Greater New York Hospital Association recently hired Knickerbocker SKD, a political communications firm, to create a multimillion-dollar campaign protesting Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposed health care cuts. “Direct mail; TV, radio and newspaper ads; rallies and fund-raising parties: all of these things have to be done if a candidate wants a shot at winning or if a special-interest group wants to be heard,” said Michael Tobman, a consultant who is working with Leslie Crocker Snyder on her campaign for Manhattan district attorney. Jerry H. Goldfeder, a veteran elections lawyer who is representing the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., in his mayoral bid, said, “My practice is booming and I feel grateful to have such interesting work during this recession.” No one can predict how much money will be spent on campaigns this year, given the number of candidates running. The total amount has already exceeded $14 million, according to the latest campaign filings, and Mayor Bloomberg is expected to spend about $80 million of his own fortune on his re-election campaign. Still, there are challenges, especially for fund-raising consultants, who are having to come up with new ways to raise money for candidates. Gone are the days when enough campaign cash to last several months could be raised with a single event, like the $5,000-a-head dinner held at a Sheraton hotel in December for Mr. Paterson. Now, fund-raiser parties are often smaller, cheaper and more intimate affairs, with cash bars and finger food instead of a formal meal. The consultants said that they were increasingly forging alliances with community organizers, who can quickly tap into vast networks of volunteers to find someone willing to play host at an event at his or home. Candidates are also spending more time personally soliciting donations on the phone. Perhaps more than ever before, the consultants said, public funds will bring a welcomed boost to campaign coffers. The city’s campaign finance system provides a $6-to-$1 match to donations of up to $175 for candidates who agree to abide by its strict fund-raising limits. “If the economy only allows you to raise $20,000 or $30,000 for your City Council race, you can still mount a viable campaign,” said Scott Levenson, who is working on Assemblyman Rubén Díaz Jr.’s bid for Bronx borough president. The candidates who started collecting donations early are at an advantage because they have already been able to build sizable war chests, Mr. Levenson said. Councilman Eric N. Gioia of Queens, who is running for public advocate, has raised more than $2.3 million so far, mostly in $10 increments, his campaign manager, Eli Richlin, said. That is almost $1 million more than the total raised by the two-term incumbent Betsy Gotbaum for the 2005 race, according to campaign finance records. In the comptroller’s race, which is shaping up to be this year’s most competitive, the leading fund-raiser is Councilman John C. Liu of Queens, who has raised $3.1 million, records show. By contrast, in 2005, Mr. Thompson, the incumbent, collected $2.3 million in private donations to finance his re-election bid. “Because of the economy, donors are much more limited in what they’ll write a check for, so you have to decide what’s the best way to do voter contact, looking at cost and trying to maximize every dollar,” said Chung Seto, who is running Mr. Liu’s campaign. “The good thing is that with technology, we don’t have to rely on TV and print ads, like in the old days.” Kimberly Peeler-Allen, a fund-raising consultant who has worked for numerous candidates running for state and city office, said, however, that there were expenses that cannot be spared. “The question that I find myself pondering with a candidate these days is, should we send a postcard invitation for the fund-raiser, which is cheaper to mail, or should we send a formal invite with a stamped envelope inside so that people can send in their checks with their reply?” Ms. Peeler-Allen said. “We might save on the postage with postcards,” she added, “but if people get that stamped envelope, chances are that your candidate is going to get back a check.” | Elections;Consultants;Politics and Government |
ny0028776 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2013/01/12 | Patriots’ Defense Cooks Up Turnovers | FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — They don’t dominate or intimidate. All they do is give you a little wiggle room — and then make you look bad. Sometimes really, really bad. The New England Patriots’ offense simply overpowers its opponent. The defense? It is a veritable turnover machine, which helps explain why the Patriots are one home victory from the A.F.C. championship game despite defensive numbers that must make Coach Bill Belichick cringe. The pass defense, once again, was one of the worst in the N.F.L. in terms of yards allowed. But it was better than last season. New England’s rushing defense ranked seventh, mainly because so many teams had to play catch-up that they all but abandoned the running game. The Patriots allowed 20.7 points a game, tied for ninth in the N.F.L. It’s not great, but it, too, is an upgrade from last season. But no team in the conference came remotely close to the Patriots’ ability to force turnovers this season. New England pretty much lapped the conference with a differential of plus-25. The Patriots’ opponent in Sunday’s divisional game, the Houston Texans, was No. 2 in the A.F.C. Their differential was a plus-12. The Patriots forced 41 turnovers over 16 games, with at least one in every game. (They have forced a turnover in 27 straight games.) Only the Chicago Bears, with 44 forced turnovers, had more. But the Bears’ differential of plus-20 still trailed the Patriots, who also led the N.F.L. in turnover differential in 2010. They were third last season, but led the A.F.C. New England’s opportunistic defense recovered 21 fumbles and had 20 interceptions, including three in the end zone by defensive back Devin McCourty. Both of those numbers led the A.F.C. The 21 fumble recoveries led the league. The Bears, the Redskins and the Giants each had more than 20 interceptions. “It’s taking advantage of your opportunities,” Belichick said this week. “If you have an opportunity to get it, then you need to get it. We practice them and hopefully when we get the opportunity, we can capitalize and make those count. Those are opportunities; you only get so many of them on defense. You need to capitalize on whichever ones you get.” It started with the season opener at Tennessee (one fumble recovery and one interception) and continued through the regular-season finale, a 28-0 victory over Miami (one interception). But the apex had to be against the Jets on Thanksgiving. The Patriots forced a Shonn Greene fumble that was recovered by Steve Gregory, setting in motion a chain of events that led to 21 points in 52 seconds. Gregory’s recovery led to one touchdown. A second fumble, by Mark Sanchez, was picked up by Gregory and returned for a touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, McCourty forced a fumble that was returned for a touchdown by Julian Edelman. The Patriots got five touchdowns from their defense — three fumbles and two interceptions. McCourty led the Patriots with five interceptions; the five were the best in the A.F.C. along with Buffalo’s Jairus Byrd. One of McCourty’s three end-zone interceptions came in the Dec. 10 game against Houston, won easily by the Patriots, 42-14. The rookie safety Tavon Wilson had four interceptions, one more than he had in his collegiate career at Illinois. “The biggest thing is just trying to read the quarterback and go from there,” McCourty said this week. “It sounds simple, but at different times against quarterbacks in this league, sometimes they do a good job of looking you off and doing different things like that. It’s just trying to read the quarterback.” He added that Belichick “is big on telling on us, ‘Just do your job.’ ” Takeaways are a big part of the job description for the Patriots. In the last three seasons, they have had turnover differentials of plus-25, plus-17 and plus-28. Since their first Super Bowl victory, after the 2001 season, the Patriots have been in the plus category in turnovers in every season but one. This season, they had the most fumbles caused since 1985. Rob Ninkovich, who moved to defensive end from his linebacker slot, forced five fumbles, as did linebacker Brandon Spikes. That was the most by a Patriots player in 20 years (Mike Vrabel also had five in 2007). Chandler Jones, one of three rookies to start on defense, forced three. He also had 6 of the team’s 37 sacks, while his fellow rookie defender Dont’a Hightower had four. You can bank on a few certainties on Sunday. The Patriots will defer if they win the coin toss. Tom Brady will throw a touchdown pass. Someone on the defense will come up with a turnover. Maybe even more than one. | Football;Patriots;Devin McCourty;Bill Belichick;Playoffs;Houston Texans |
ny0148604 | [
"business"
] | 2008/09/27 | Panel Suggests Ways Auditing Firms Can Stem Fraud | A Treasury Department panel issued final recommendations on Friday meant to encourage auditing firms to catch corporate fraud before it happens — and to protect them from going under when it does. But the nonbinding recommendations, from the agency’s advisory committee on the auditing profession, did not suggest that auditing firms be insulated from lawsuits stemming from their work for clients who engage in fraudulent activities — a hotly debated issue in the profession. Arthur Andersen, once one of the nation’s largest auditors, went out of business in 2002 after having approved the books of Enron , the energy giant that collapsed because of fraud. Since then, the profession has worried that there are too few large firms left to monitor the books of corporate America. Four large firms, known as the Big Four, now combine auditing and accounting services. The Treasury panel’s final recommendations will be detailed in a full report to be released next week. The 21-member panel was led by Arthur Levitt Jr. , a former Federal Reserve chairman, and Donald T. Nicolaisen, a former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The final report, based nearly entirely on a recent draft that is publicly available, will say that the panel “considered testimony regarding the variety of potentially catastrophic risks that public company auditing firms face.” “These include the intrinsic risks associated with the auditing of public companies and risks relating to failure in the provision of audit and nonaudit services,” according to the report. “They encompass civil damage claims, regulatory actions, and the loss of customers, employees, and units of multinational affiliates due to financial instability or loss of reputation. The committee believes these risks are real.” The final recommendations also urge the industry “come up with a way to preserve and rehabilitate troubled public company auditing firms.” That does not mean resurrecting an auditing firm that has already collapsed, like Arthur Andersen, a Treasury official said on Friday, but rather saving a struggling auditing firm from going under as it confronts a client’s fraud. “It’s designed to help a firm whose management is unable to,” said a member of the advisory panel. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying that different panel members disagreed on certain recommendations. The final report will preserve a recommendation that the S.E.C. be given the power to appoint a court-approved trustee “to seek to preserve and rehabilitate” struggling auditing firms. The accounting industry’s overseer, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board , said in a statement on Friday that it would “carefully consider those recommendations that may have an impact upon the board’s oversight of the auditors of U.S. public companies.” Other final recommendations from the Treasury panel called for larger auditing firms, which are private companies, to provide public annual reports containing “relevant firm information,” as well as nonpublic audited financial statements, to the oversight board. The panel also recommended requiring that the senior partner in charge of auditing a big corporate client’s books be required to sign those final reports. | Accounting and Accountants;Frauds and Swindling;United States Economy;Levitt Arthur Jr;Enron Corp;Public Company Accounting Oversight Board |
ny0283764 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2016/07/23 | Changing Takeover Laws and the ExamWorks Deal | The ExamWorks Group buyout and related lawsuit shows how changing takeover laws are steering shareholders toward more appraisal actions and making deals riskier for buyers. I wrote about ExamWorks and the litigation surrounding its $2.2 billion buyout by the private equity firm Leonard Green earlier this month. The complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court says that the buyout process was flawed in large part because of the participation of management and board members. It also takes a swipe at ExamWorks’ bankers, the investment banks Evercore and Goldman Sachs, as being unduly conflicted. And it says ExamWorks’ law firm, Paul Hastings, was also conflicted because it represented management, the company and the special committee. A recent case will shape how the ExamWorks case unfolds and also chart a path for the future of merger litigation. In the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in K.K.R. Financial last October, the court held that a fully informed vote of disinterested stockholders is a protection to the transaction. If bad deeds were disclosed and the shareholders approved the deal knowing about them, then the courts would look no further. Any liability goes away. This affects the plaintiff’s strategy in ExamWorks (the lawyers are two prominent plaintiffs’ firms, Prickett, Jones and Kessler Topaz). In this case, they say there is not full disclosure of the conflicts. But even if there were, the shareholder vote on the deal would destroy the ExamWorks plaintiffs’ case. The decision in the K.K.R. Financial case creates a Catch-22 for plaintiffs – you need to plead good facts for your complaint to make a case. But the disclosure of these facts means that your case goes away if shareholders approve this transaction. The K.K.R. decision is a huge boon to defendants in takeovers, encouraging them to disclose everything to avoid litigation. After all, when the time comes to vote on a deal most shareholders, particularly institutional investors, seem happy enough to accept the premium even if it was not as high as it could have been. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are still trying to game how the K.K.R. decision affects their cases. There are at least two ways around this, neither of which is happening in ExamWorks. The first is appraisal rights, where shareholders who believe they haven’t gotten good value for their shares ask a court to assess their value. In the recent Dell decision , Judge Travis Laster (who is the same judge in the ExamWorks case) made it clear that if the sale process was run improperly, then the merger price should not be used to make an appraisal rights award. Instead, it should become a matter of fair value. In the Dell case, that meant the shareholders exercising their appraisal rights received a higher price. The K.K.R. case does not apply to appraisal proceedings. And so, presumably we should see a fair bit of appraisal rights action in ExamWorks and other cases where there are questions about the deal process. The ExamWorks transaction seems ripe for an appraisal action because the premium was only 4 percent over the closing price of the stock the day before the transaction was announced. Buyers often deal with this issue by putting a condition in their deals that they are not required to close if more than 5 or 10 percent of shareholders exercise appraisal rights. But surprisingly, no such provision was put in the ExamWorks deal. And so this may leave Leonard Green with a big liability after the transaction closes, one that will not be covered by insurance. The second approach is to bring a preliminary injunction to halt the deal. In the K.K.R. case the court noted a difference between litigation that comes after the completion of the deal and litigation before its completion. Litigation after would be subject to dismissal if the facts were fully disclosed and approval was given — according to the K.K.R. rule decided by the Delaware court in October. However, before completion, when there is only the opportunity to enjoin the transaction, the old higher standards apply, requiring the company to get the highest price reasonably available. And so, in this situation and to avoid application of the K.K.R. rule, the plaintiff would try to enjoin the deal arguing that it was unfairly negotiated. The problem with this approach is that the Delaware courts have made it clear that they are opposed to halting transactions. Indeed, in the recent Delaware Supreme Court case involving the merger of C&J Energy Services and Nabors Industries, the court seemed to go out of its way to say that an injunction to halt a pending merger should be used sparingly. To be fair, it has happened. The very same judge here did so in the Del Monte case, where he enjoined the deal and stripped out all the deal protections to allow for a higher bidder. But the ultimate problem is that it does not result in money damages for shareholders (and it also means fewer attorneys’ fees for the law firms bringing these cases). And so the K.K.R. decision seems to channel shareholders into seeking appraisal rights if they feel aggrieved, and we will find out if that happens in the ExamWorks case. But this still leaves the plaintiffs in the ExamWorks case wondering whether their battle will produce a big judgment or settlement. To deal with this issue, the ExamWorks litigation is going a third route. The plaintiffs’ lawyers originally opted for the second route, a preliminary injunction. They did so to avoid the problem of the K.K.R. decision and a Delaware law that allows ExamWorks to exculpate its directors from liability for all but bad faith conduct and breaches of the duty of loyalty. At a hearing before Judge Laster two things happened. First, the judge looked favorably on a proposal by the defendants’ lawyers to have an expedited trial, because holding up the deal would be adverse to ExamWorks. Second, Judge Laster outlined how he would view K.K.R. and the issues of disclosure. In this case, he would apply “enhanced scrutiny in this context to determining whether a breach occurred.” If this was shown, he would turn to the damages and see if there was conduct in bad faith or a breach of the duty of loyalty to assess damages. In light of this, the plaintiffs dropped their request for a preliminary injunction and are now pursuing the expedited trial route, which will presumably take place after the deal closing. The plaintiffs reserved the right to bring new disclosure claims after the closing. The strategy here seems to be let the deal close and only amend for bad disclosure after that. And so the K.K.R. decision would not preclude shareholders from receiving monetary damages. It is a careful threading of the problem, and I admit I am not sure I understand exactly what the judge means here — there seem to be two assessments for breach. No doubt the law firms are also lining up appraisal clients, and this likely will be a sign of more to come. But watch the strategies and procedures here as this case will not just be about when and if lawyers can be held liable for misdeeds, but how litigation unfolds under the new game in town. Ultimately, we have two conclusions, though. Judge Laster may get a chance to detail how this litigation unfolds, and buyers beware. | Mergers and Acquisitions;Lawsuits |
ny0159814 | [
"business"
] | 2008/12/25 | Once Trusted Mortgage Pioneers, Now Scrutinized | Corrections Appended “We are team-oriented, highly ethical, extremely competitive, profit-oriented, risk-averse, consumer-focused, and we try as much as possible to squeeze out any ego. Hubris is the beginning of the end.” — Herbert Sandler, June 2005 SAN FRANCISCO — Herbert Sandler, the founder of the Center for Responsible Lending, is standing in his bayfront office watching a DVD that trains brokers to pitch mortgages by extolling the glories of the real estate boom. The video reeks of hucksterism, and it infuriates Mr. Sandler. “I would not have approved that!” he declares. “I don’t think we should be selling our loans based on home prices continuing to go up.” But the DVD was produced in 2005 by a mortgage lender that Mr. Sandler and his wife, Marion, ran at the time: World Savings Bank. And the video was a small part of a broad and aggressive effort by their company to market risky loans at the height of the housing bubble. The Sandlers long viewed themselves — and were viewed by many others — as the mortgage industry’s model citizens. Now they too have been swept into the maelstrom surrounding who is to blame for the housing bust and the growing number of home foreclosures. Once invited by Congress to testify about good lending practices, the Sandlers were recently parodied on “Saturday Night Live” as greedy bankers who handily sold their bank — and pocketed $2.3 billion in shares and cash — in 2006 before many of their loans began to sour. Last month, the United States attorney’s office in San Francisco announced dual inquiries into whether World Savings engaged in predatory lending practices or misled investors about its financial well-being. And the bank has been sued by numerous borrowers who claim they were misled into taking out mortgages they could not afford. At the center of the controversy is an exotic but popular mortgage the Sandlers pioneered that helped generate billions of dollars of revenue at their bank. Known as an option ARM — and named “Pick-A-Pay” by World Savings — it is now seen by an array of housing analysts and regulators as the Typhoid Mary of the mortgage industry. Pick-A-Pay allowed homeowners to make monthly mortgage payments that were so small they did not cover their interest charges. That meant the total principal owed would actually grow over time, not shrink as is normally the case. Now held by an estimated two million homeowners, the option adjustable rate mortgage will be at the forefront of a further wave of homeowner distress that could greatly delay or even derail an economic recovery, mortgage industry analysts say. The Wachovia Corporation , which bought the Sandlers’ bank two years ago, was so battered by the souring portfolio of World Savings that it began writing off losses now projected at tens of billions of dollars and eventually stopped offering option ARMs. Through it all, the Sandlers have maintained they did nothing wrong beyond misjudging the real estate bubble. “I didn’t mislead anybody, and to the best of my knowledge, our company didn’t, though there may have been an isolated case here and there,” Mr. Sandler said. “If home prices hadn’t declined by 50 percent, nobody would be raising these questions.” Mr. Sandler also finds it incredible that borrowers feel victimized by Pick-A-Pay. “All of a sudden their home is worth half of what it was, and they say they didn’t know.” Yet the Sandlers embraced practices like the use of independent brokers who used questionable methods to reel in borrowers. These and other practices, critics contend, undermined the conservative lending practices that the Sandlers built their reputations upon. “This product is the most destructive financial weapon ever deployed against the American middle class,” said William J. Purdy III, a housing lawyer in California who is representing elderly World Savings customers struggling to repay their loans. “People who have this loan are now trapped, and they can’t get another loan.” The Birth of Pick-A-Pay Marion Sandler, now 78, was a Wall Street analyst in the early 1960s when she and her husband decided to buy a bank that took only savings deposits and made mortgage loans — a thrift, or savings and loan , in banking shorthand — and run it themselves. Mr. Sandler, now 77, was a lawyer in Manhattan who grew up poor on the Lower East Side, the son of a compulsive gambler whose earnings were consumed by loan sharks. The Sandlers searched for a thrift in the sizzling California market and paid $3.8 million in 1963 for an Oakland enterprise called Golden West Savings and Loan Association, which later became the parent company of World Savings. It had a main office and one branch. When Reagan era deregulation arrived, the Sandlers and two other competitors were able to market option ARMs for the first time in 1981. Before that, lawmakers balked at the loan because of its potential peril to borrowers. World Savings initially attracted borrowers whose incomes fluctuated, like professionals with big year-end bonuses. In the recent housing boom, when World Savings started calling the loan Pick-A-Pay, they began marketing it to a much broader audience, including people with financial troubles, like deeply indebted blue-collar workers. As the entire thrift industry soared after deregulation, the Sandlers’ business also took off. They avoided financial problems by doing things like scrutinizing borrowers’ incomes to make sure loans were manageable and performing astute appraisals so the size of a mortgage was in line with the value of a home. “Our protection was our total underwriting of the loan,” Mr. Sandler said. “From scratch.” When many of the Sandlers’ competitors in the thrift industry later began collapsing under the weight of bad loans and investments, Congress and the media invited the couple to speak about the proper way to do business. “The deregulatory situation attracted bums, charlatans, crooks, phonies, con men,” Mr. Sandler told an ABC News program in 1990. The Sandlers also held onto World Savings’ loans rather than selling them off to Wall Street to be repackaged as securities. They say this made them more alert to risky borrowers than were lenders who sold off their loans. When foreclosures occurred, World Savings executives would drive to the house to see if they had made mistakes appraising the property or underwriting the loan. “We called these the van tours,” Mr. Sandler said. “And we would say, ‘O.K., have we done anything wrong here?’ ” More Philanthropic Work As the Sandlers’ wealth increased, so did their philanthropy. Over the years, they financed scientific research and groups like Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union . More recently they founded and financed ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism enterprise that has collaborated with The New York Times on coverage and a news archive. Its 14-member advisory board includes two top New York Times Company editors. The Sandlers’ giving intersected most directly with their business interests in 2002 when they helped create an advocacy group for low-income borrowers called the Center for Responsible Lending. The center was the successor to a smaller organization in North Carolina , whose director, Martin Eakes, had helped the elderly and minorities avoid predatory banking practices. “I said, ‘Isn’t that incredible what he is doing?’ ” Mr. Sandler recalled. “I said to Martin, ‘What would it take to do what you do on a national scale?’ ” Mr. Eakes, who became the center’s executive director, had also just helped secure a new mortgage lending law in North Carolina that prohibited, among other things, the use of prepayment penalties. “I hated prepayment penalties,” Mr. Eakes recalled, noting that such charges make it hard for cash-poor borrowers to refinance a loan for one with more manageable terms. While Mr. Sandler supported the center’s antipredatory goals, he disagreed with Mr. Eakes’s position on prepayment penalties and sought to change his mind. Mr. Sandler acknowledges that some lenders used the penalties to lock borrowers into “absolutely awful” loans. But he said his bank used the penalties to fend off unethical brokers who enticed borrowers with low-interest-rate loans that often had hidden fees. “You have to understand how independent brokers work,” Mr. Sandler says. “They are the whores of the world.” Despite that distaste, World Savings made extensive use of brokers. By 2006, they were generating some 60 percent of its loan business, he acknowledged. He said he was compelled to do so because of brokers were a dominant force in the mortgage industry. As a check on the representations that brokers made to borrowers, World Savings sought to telephone applicants to ensure that they understood the terms of their loan. These calls reached only about half of the borrowers, however, according to a former World Savings executive. Mr. Sandler did not dispute that point. Customer complaints that an unethical broker had misrepresented the terms of World Savings loans is at the heart of a lawsuit filed against the bank and others in Alameda County, Calif. The broker was sentenced to a year in prison for misleading at least 90 World Savings borrowers. Mr. Sandler points out that the company was itself a victim of this broker, that it cooperated fully with authorities, and that it was not charged with any wrongdoing. Others have also raised questions about how carefully World Savings disclosed lending terms to its borrowers. In August, a federal judge in South Carolina ruled that World Savings had violated the federal Truth in Lending Act by telling borrowers that choosing to make minimum monthly payments on Pick-A-Pay mortgages might cause their principal to grow — when in fact it certainly would occur. Wachovia, which is defending the case, has appealed the ruling. Mr. Sandler said he was not familiar with this lawsuit, but generally, he says, “Wachovia’s legal defense is deficient.” A Speedy Merger By 2005, World Savings lending had started to slow, after more than quadrupling since 1998. The next year, Wachovia bought the bank in a hastily arranged deal. The Sandlers say they sold their firm at the top of the market because they were growing older and wanted to devote themselves to philanthropy. Some current and former Wachovia officials say that the merger was agreed to in days and that it was impossible to conduct a thorough vetting of World Savings’ loans. Others say the portfolio was adequately scrutinized. “Herb and his wife had run a tight ship,” said Robert Brown , a Wachovia board member. “There was not a huge concern about it because they had not had any delinquencies and foreclosures.” Others were less sanguine. The creditworthiness of World Savings borrowers edged down from 2004 to 2006, according to Wachovia’s data. Over all, Pick-A-Pay borrowers had credit scores well below the industry average for traditional loans. “I don’t think anyone thought a Pick-A-Pay product was a customer friendly product,” says a former Wachovia executive who requested anonymity to preserve professional relationships. “It is easy to mislead them.” World Savings lending volume dipped again in 2006 shortly after the sale to Wachovia was initiated, according to the company’s federal filings. This prompted World Savings to attract more borrowers by taking a step that some regulators were starting to frown upon, and which the company had been resisting for years: it allowed borrowers to make monthly payments based on an annual interest rate of just 1.5 percent. While World Savings continued to scrutinize borrowers’ ability to manage increased payments, the move to rock-bottom rates lured customers whose financial reliability was harder to verify. Russell W. Kettell, a former chief financial officer of World Savings, says the merger created “pressure” for “a pretty good-sized increase in loan volume.” Asked if Wachovia ordered World Savings to drop its rate, Mr. Kettell said, “No, but they wanted volume and wanted growth.” A swift increase in option ARM lending had prompted federal regulators to weigh tougher controls on lending standards in 2005. Of the $238 billion in option ARM loans made nationally in 2005, World Savings issued about $52 billion, or more than one-fifth of the total. Susan Schmidt Bies, a governor of the Federal Reserve System until last year, said the surge in volume in ARM lending caught regulators by surprise, and that she regrets not acting more quickly to protect borrowers because she believes that they could not understand the risky nature of option ARMs. “When you get into people whose mortgage payments are taking half of their cash flow, they are in over their heads, and these loans should not have been sold to this customer base,” she said. “This makes me sick when I see this happening.” In March 2006, two months before the Wachovia deal, Mr. Sandler wrote regulators and objected to several aspects of the new rules, including the regulator’s conclusion that option ARMS “were untested in a stress environment.” He argued in the letter that World Savings had few loan losses in the recession of the early 1990s. Then again, the current financial crisis is far more severe than what occurred then — far more severe than anything the country has faced since the Great Depression . By the third quarter of this year, Wachovia was projecting $26.1 billion of losses on a World Savings loan portfolio worth a total of about $124 billion. About 6.2 percent of the Pick-A-Pay loans were more than 90 days late, it said, compared with an industry average of 8 percent on option ARMs and 1 percent on Wachovia’s traditional loans. Wells Fargo , which is now buying Wachovia, is more pessimistic: it expects losses of $36 billion on the loans unless efforts to stem foreclosures help rescue part of the portfolio. The losses caused analysts and others to reassess the Sandlers’ legacy. After the “Saturday Night Live” skit, Paul Steiger , the former executive editor of The Wall Street Journal and the editor in chief of ProPublica, was among those who wrote to the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels , saying the Sandlers had been unfairly vilified. Mr. Michaels apologized for the skit (which suggested that the Sandlers “should be shot”) and removed it from NBC ’s Web site. Mr. Sandler says Wachovia did not work hard enough to help struggling borrowers, and that his loans became scapegoats for other problems at Wachovia. He remains confident that losses on its loans will not reach Wells Fargo’s projections. He says World Savings was hit especially hard because it had made so many loans in volatile markets like inland California, but he disputes homeowner assertions that his option ARMs are at fault. “We have not been able to identify one delinquency, much less a foreclosure, that is due to the product,” Mr. Sandler said, adding that “if home prices had not dropped, you wouldn’t see” a single article. Over all, analysts expect the option ARM fallout to be brutal. Fitch Ratings , a leading credit rating agency, recently reported that payments on nearly half of the $200 billion worth of option ARMs it tracks will jump 63 percent in the next two years — causing mortgage delinquencies to rise sharply. Mr. Sandler says that his loans are not in the pool that will become distressed in the next few years; he says they reset at a later date. He adds that were he not sure that the market would recover he would have sold his Wachovia stock at the time of the takeover. His charity has sold off much of its Wachovia stock, but he said he and his wife retain a substantial portion of their personal holdings. Still, the Sandlers have their detractors. “As the largest and most respected regulated institution providing option ARMs, I hold the Sandlers responsible because a large percentage of home borrowers — but not all — should have been advised that it was in their best interest to have a fixed-rate mortgage,” said Robert Gnaizda, general counsel for the Greenlining Institute, a homeowner advocacy group. “I believe that financial institutions have a quasi-fiduciary responsibility not to mislead the borrower.” Mr. Sandler insists that World Savings prided itself on ethical conduct and that untoward behavior was never tolerated. “We were also a family, and you expected people to live their personal and business lives in a particular way,” he said. UPDATE: Read a 2009 letter from the Sandlers in response to this story. | Golden West Financial;Wachovia;Herbert M Sandler;Mortgage loan;Subprime Mortgage Crisis,2008 Financial Crisis;Foreclosure;Marion Sandler |
ny0050077 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2014/10/27 | Somehow, the Jets Take a Turn for the Worse | EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Jets wore all green on Sunday, perhaps believing that they could blend in with the turf at MetLife Stadium — that no one would notice if Geno Smith happened to throw interceptions on three consecutive drives in the first quarter. Or if Smith’s backup came in and happened to commit three more turnovers. Or if their defense happened to allow five touchdowns. Or if they happened to bungle a kickoff return that began with a player actually camouflaged on the ground in the end zone. Every week, it gets a little worse for the Jets: a little sadder, a little more absurd and a lot more embarrassing. In their latest foray into the tragicomic, the Jets lost their seventh straight, a 43-23 defeat to the Buffalo Bills that challenged their standard for ineptitude and secured their worst start to a season since 1996. The Jets had 10 days to prepare for this game, which hardly seemed a certain victory — none are, these days — but at least did not look like a certain loss. Then the ball was kicked, the Jets went three-and-out, the Bills scored, and that was that. In good times and, more often, bad, Coach Rex Ryan has said that opponents do not look forward to facing the Jets. He may believe it, but how can it be true? Feared teams do not have unstable quarterback situations, or have minus-15 turnover margins, or allow 20 touchdown passes in a span of seven games. Then there is that whole 1-7 thing. “We’re not a bad football team,” receiver Eric Decker said. “We just do stupid stuff.” Stupid stuff has been a franchise forte since 1960, and on Sunday, the Jets did a lot of it. The 10 penalties. The four touchdowns allowed in the red zone. The six turnovers, their most since Week 6 of the 2009 season, a game also against Buffalo, in Ryan’s first year. There was so much hope back then, with a new coach in town, a promising young quarterback and a ferocious defense. As the Jets stumble through this season, Ryan has less job security than a substitute teacher, and Smith’s recklessness with the ball makes his predecessor, Mark Sanchez, seem like a cardiac surgeon. The team has allowed 228 points, the most in the N.F.L. after Sunday’s games. “Why we’re not playing better, I don’t know,” Ryan said. No doubt wondering the same thing is General Manager John Idzik, who will be asked to assess his role in this wretched season on Monday, when he is scheduled to meet with the news media for what the team is calling his normal midyear availability. Possible topics of discussion: his mismanagement of the cornerback position; his competing interests with those of Ryan, who has been unable to fix all the stupid stuff but has also been handed a team with inferior talent; and his confidence in Smith, who was 2 of 8 passing for 5 yards and a 0.0 passer rating before being replaced by Michael Vick, in the first quarter, for the second time in four games. This benching, unlike the last, at San Diego, may not be temporary. Ryan said the Jets would evaluate the position later, but as Smith answered questions about a first quarter — about a first 11 minutes, really — that he called “just atrocious,” he seemed like a man who expected to watch next week’s game, at Kansas City, from the sideline. “I’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Smith, who had X-rays on his right shoulder after the game. “I’ve got my work cut out for myself.” The strong support that Smith forged in the locker room has eroded. No one, when asked, said he would prefer Vick to Smith, or vice versa, but several players acknowledged that Vick, whose interception and two lost fumbles led to 13 Buffalo points, energized the offense, at least in the second quarter. The Jets scored on three of their five first-half drives under Vick, cutting their deficit to 24-17 by halftime. In the second half, they gained all of 107 yards. Image With six turnovers, another blowout loss and a 1-7 record, Jets fans had seen enough on Sunday. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times “Well, we started getting first downs,” Decker said. “That gives a spark anytime.” After Smith’s third interception, a pass that sailed high of Decker and into the arms of Aaron Williams, what rumbled through the crowd was a sound familiar to generations of dejected Jets fans: the I-can’t-believe-the-quarterback-did-it-again groan. “When you start that rocky, it’s a ripple effect,” offensive lineman Willie Colon said, “and we feel it throughout the whole team.” The best play Smith made all afternoon was pushing Williams out of bounds at the 1-yard line, dislodging the ball and preventing a touchdown. As the play was being reviewed — did the ball tumble through the end zone, which would return possession to the Jets? — Percy Harvin, their new acquisition, ambled onto the field from the locker room, where he was being tested for a concussion. Harvin could have turned around and headed back, away from the carnage. Instead, he arrived just in time to see Kyle Orton flip a 1-yard pass that extended Buffalo’s lead to 14-0. Facing Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady prepared the Jets for the pummeling administered by Orton, who threw four touchdown passes and set up another score with an 84-yard toss to Sammy Watkins. His fourth scoring throw, to Watkins with 9 minutes 46 seconds left, sent loads of fans scurrying for the exits. Those who stayed were merely rubbernecking. Presuming that the Jets could duplicate their performance from a narrow loss at New England in their last game — when they controlled the ball for nearly 41 minutes and did not have a turnover — was unrealistic. But this steep a correction? “I mean, one thing we know is, it can’t get a whole hell of a lot worse,” Ryan said. Except, of course, that it could. The Jets do play again next week. | Football;Geno Smith;Michael Vick;Kyle Orton;Rex Ryan;Bills;Jets |
ny0265277 | [
"sports"
] | 2016/03/04 | They May Be Next to Lead the Country, but Can They Play Ball? | The Duke of Wellington supposedly said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. If you agree with the duke that leaders are forged in the crucible of sports, Ted Dobias has a story to tell you. Dobias, 90, who coached at New York Military Academy in Cornwall-on-Hudson for 50 years, remembers that in 1964 his baseball team was playing Cheshire Academy for the prep school championship. The score was 4-4 with runners on second and third. In a pressure-packed situation, the batter delivered a hit to right-center to win the game. That batter? Donald J. Trump . There may be no Bill Bradley (Knicks, 1967-77) or Jack Kemp (Pittsburgh Steelers, San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, 1957-69) in this year’s presidential field, but many of the candidates have athletic backgrounds of at least some note. Although none of the candidates played big-time college sports, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, did suit up for a season of football at the now-defunct Tarkio College in northwestern Missouri. Rubio was an undersize defensive back for the Owls, who competed at the N.A.I.A. level. He went on to graduate from a much bigger college football school, Florida, but did not play for that N.C.A.A. Division I powerhouse. Rubio has shown off his football skills on the floor of the statehouse in Florida, catching passes from Dan Marino and Tim Tebow. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, played football, basketball and soccer in high school, but in college he competed in a nonathletic pursuit: the debate team at Princeton, where he was debater of the year in 1992. The sport most associated with Trump in recent years is golf. He has his name on numerous courses around the world: The home of the famous Blue Monster course in Miami, Doral Country Club, is now Trump National Doral; Turnberry, the course in Scotland where Tom Watson beat Jack Nicklaus in the so-called Duel in the Sun, is now Trump Turnberry. Trump also recently feuded with the Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs and have financed a political action committee that is trying to defeat him. Perhaps Trump’s most famous sports connection was his time as an owner in the United States Football League, which he led into an ill-fated move from spring to fall . Image Gerald Ford at Michigan in 1934. Credit Michigan University/Getty Images But years before, the young Trump — nicknamed D. T. — excelled in sports in school, Dobias said. He played as an end on the freshman football team before switching to soccer, and he was “pretty good” as the basketball team’s starting point guard, too, Dobias said. But he saves his praise for Trump the first baseman. “Good hitter, good fielder, good attitude,” Dobias said. In particular, Dobias was impressed with Trump’s sense of the game. He recalled a situation in the championship game in which there was a runner on third and no outs; Trump told his coach that he thought a squeeze play was coming. Sure enough, the batter tried to bunt, and “Donald charged in and tagged him out,” Dobias said. A baseball coach from West Point came to the school multiple times to try to talk Trump into playing there, Dobias said. “He was a good athlete,” Dobias said. “I’d give him an 8 ½ out of 10.” On the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, ran track and cross-country in high school and was once a solid pickup basketball player. “From midrange, 10, 15 feet, he could kill you,” a fellow player told The Guardian . In the days before Title IX, the federal law that requires equal support for men’s and women’s athletic programs, opportunities were often limited for women and girls. Although Hillary Clinton participated in sports earlier in her school days, by her senior year in high school, her activity list was filled with the student council, the organizations committee and the like. Her devotion to baseball — specifically the Cubs — is well known. Some of the better athletes in the race have dropped out. Lincoln Chafee, the former governor of Rhode Island and briefly a Democratic candidate, wrestled at Brown; on the Republican side, Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, played tennis at Texas , and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky swam at Baylor. One of the most physically fit presidents is also frequently cited as one of the best. Theodore Roosevelt was a well-known outdoorsman who was an almost fanatical believer in fitness. He often invited champion boxers and wrestlers decades younger to meet him in the ring . Gerald Ford’s tenure as president was too short to accomplish much, but one can make the case that he was the best sportsman. Ford was the starting center for the Michigan football team and its most valuable player as a senior. In another era, he might well have gone on to a professional career. Instead, he chose law school. The 6-foot-2 George Washington, a giant for his era, set the template for the American presidency. He was said to be an astonishing horseman, swimmer and wrestler. The legend about his throwing a coin across the Potomac may be a myth, but contemporaries said they saw him win an iron-bar hurling competition by a comfortable margin. But would he have seen that squeeze play coming? | 2016 Presidential Election;Sports;Marco Rubio;Donald Trump;Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders;President of the United States |
ny0106868 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2012/04/07 | Frozen Four in the South Is a First for Hockey Final | TAMPA, Fla. — With palm trees swaying and boats meandering through a sun-kissed marina, Christian Miller could barely contain his grin. Proudly wearing a sleeveless Ferris State University T-shirt, sunglasses and flip-flops, he looked like a typical college student on spring break. “I skipped class to drive down here,” said Miller, a senior from Saginaw, Mich. “It’s hard to say I don’t like this — they should have it down here every year. It’s been a lot of fun.” But “it” is not spring break. Instead, Miller made the two-day drive from Michigan to Florida to be part of the Frozen Four, the college men’s hockey equivalent of the Final Four. For the first time in the 64-year history of the event, college hockey’s championship is being contested in the South. For a sport that typically anchors its tournament in traditional hockey sites in the Northeast and Midwest, merging hockey and sunshine in early April was an outside-the-box venture. The only other time the event was held at a warm-weather site was at Anaheim, Calif., in 1999. When heavy underdog Ferris State (26-11-5) meets top-seeded Boston College (32-10-1) in the championship match on Saturday night in the Tampa Bay Times Forum, it will be the culmination of a seven-year journey to bring college’s hockey’s ultimate prize to the South. In the summer of 2005, the Tampa Bay area was basking in the glow of hockey royalty. The Tampa Bay Lightning had won the Stanley Cup the previous year, and area representatives put together an aggressive campaign to secure the Frozen Four in competition with more obvious choices like Detroit, St. Paul, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston. The N.C.A.A. selection committee granted bids to Washington in 2009, Detroit in 2010 and St. Paul in 2011. Then came the stunner: Tampa Bay earned the right to host the Frozen Four in 2012. “I remember the call like it was yesterday,” said Rob Higgins, the executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. “It’s just something we’ll never forget. It’s such a historic moment and opportunity for us.” Higgins and the rest of the Tampa Bay contingent impressed the N.C.A.A. hierarchy with a presentation centered on the student-athlete experience. They were assisted by Martin St. Louis, a star forward for the Lightning who had competed in the Frozen Four in 1996 for the University of Vermont. “He did a great job verbalizing to the N.C.A.A. what the student-athlete experience would be like here,” Higgins said. “He helped us pitch the thing and here he is seven years later, helping us promote it, advising us on how we should handle things for the student-athlete experience. It meant a lot to have him in our community, to have somebody out making those promises side by side with us seven years ago, helping us fulfill them now.” With three professional franchises and having hosted four Super Bowls and Final Fours in both men’s and women’s basketball, Tampa is no stranger to top-level sporting events. In tandem with the University of Alabama-Huntsville, the host institution and the only top college hockey program in the South, the area rolled out an actual red carpet for this year’s participants from Boston College, Ferris State, Minnesota and Union College. When the teams’ planes landed last Wednesday, players, coaches and administrators were greeted by a red carpet on the tarmac, a steel drum band, a human tunnel of area youth hockey players with raised sticks to walk between and standard Florida tokens like oranges. A huge sand castle featuring the team logos and the Frozen Four insignia was built in the lobby at the teams’ hotel, and the reception for the athletes was held on a yacht. “We get off the plane and there’s a band sitting on the tarmac waiting to play — those things didn’t take place years ago,” said Minnesota Coach Don Lucia, who is in his 13th year at Minnesota. “It’s become a real treat for the players. It’s always been a great experience for the fans, but I think it’s really grown as far as the player experience.” Lucia, who has guided the Gophers to four national championships, said he welcomed the change of scenery. “I think it’s important to have it in traditional areas,” Lucia said. “But it’s great to have it in some nontraditional areas at times, too, because it does open up some eyes.” But not everyone in the hockey community shares Lucia’s outlook. A casual glance at Thursday’s near-sellout crowd of 18,605 for the semifinals demonstrated that many fans wore jerseys of teams not participating in the Frozen Four. “I appreciate the N.C.A.A. trying to expand their scope, but to me this is too far south,” said Brian Bakke, decked out in University of North Dakota gear. “I believe in the northern tier. It should be in Boston and St. Paul, and throw in some other rotations. This is too hot.” Despite having to carry what his wife, Jan, said was “50 tubes of sunscreen,” Bakke, who has lived in Rochester, Minn., the past 30 years, still said he would not consider missing the Frozen Four. “This is our eighth or ninth year,” Bakke said. “We’re just huge college hockey fans.” | NCAA Ice Hockey Championships;Tampa (Fla);Ferris State University;Boston College;Southern States (US);Hockey Ice;Tampa Bay Lightning |
ny0253779 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2011/10/14 | Brewers’ 4-2 Victory Ties N.L.C.S. With Cardinals | ST. LOUIS — Tony La Russa , the St. Louis Cardinals ’ manager, has made no secret of the fact that he will turn to his bullpen early and often on any given night. He had done it on Wednesday night in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, removing his team’s ace with four innings to play in a one-run contest and guiding the Cardinals to a victory. He did it again on Thursday night in Game 4, but could not replicate the result. With the scored tied and a runner on third in the fifth inning, La Russa turned to his relievers to face the heart of the Milwaukee Brewers ’ order. But Ryan Braun, who has swung a scorching bat this year, responded with a single to drive in the game’s pivotal run. Randy Wolf, overcoming some early hiccups, threw seven strong innings to help the Brewers to a 4-2 victory at Busch Stadium. The Brewers tied the series at two wins apiece, ensuring that it will head back to Miller Park in Milwaukee for at least one game this weekend after Game 5 is played here Friday. “We knew that going into this series, we were going to have our work cut out for us,” said Wolf, who became the first starter on his team this series to pitch beyond the sixth inning. “To even the series, as opposed to being 3-1, it’s a good thing for us.” No Cardinals starter has made it beyond the fifth. On Wednesday, the Cardinals’ relievers pitched four hitless innings; on Thursday, they gave up the go-ahead hit and were charged with a run of their own in four and two-thirds innings. “This is October,” said La Russa, meaning he felt a sense of urgency in each game. “This is the end of the season for these starters, too, so they are probably not as strong.” The game turned when La Russa pulled Kyle Lohse, his starter, and brought in Mitchell Boggs to face Braun in the fifth with Nyjer Morgan standing on third. “That’s kind of what they’ve been doing the whole series,” Braun said of the pitching change. “Their bullpen has been phenomenal.” Braun fell behind in the count, but then rolled a grounder just past the glove of shortstop Rafael Furcal as he dived to his right, giving the Brewers the lead, 3-2. “Boggs is the type of guy that has overpowering stuff,” said Braun, who is hitting .438 this October. “I just tried to shorten my swing up and make sure I was able to put the ball in play.” La Russa’s tinkering Thursday did not just involve his pitchers. He benched Lance Berkman, who was 3 for 32 in his career against Wolf, in favor of Allen Craig, and he moved Matt Holliday out of the cleanup spot. Holliday, who has been struggling with a hand injury since the end of the regular season, was batting .263 in seven postseason games. Both moves worked well in the early going. With one out in the second, Holliday reached out for a changeup tailing low and away in the strike zone and appeared to grimace after slicing the ball weakly toward right field. But it carried into the corner and landed just over the fence for a home run and a 1-0 lead. “It’s like trying to pitch to Brian Urlacher,” Wolf said of Holliday’s strength. “He’s a beast.” An inning later, Craig took his turn validating La Russa’s lineup moves. Like Holliday, he came up with one out and no one on base. Like Holliday, he hit an outside changeup over the right-field fence, increasing the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0. But Wolf was stellar for the rest of the game, allowing no more runs as he earned his first postseason victory at age 35. “He came through big, got us deep in the game,” Milwaukee Manager Ron Roenicke said of Wolf. “Outstanding job from him.” The Brewers’ hitters, meanwhile, worked Milwaukee back into the game, starting with a rally against Lohse in the fourth. Prince Fielder doubled into the gap in right-center field to start the inning and scored when Jerry Hairston Jr. ripped a double into the left-field corner. Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a single to center. Jon Jay corraled the ball and fired it to Albert Pujols, who relayed it home. Hairston charged toward the outside of the plate and grazed it with his left hand, arching his back to try to avoid a sweeping tag by Yadier Molina. Many in the crowd of 45,606 then threw their hands up in outrage as the umpire Mike Everitt called Hairston safe, tying the score at 2-2. “Not the biggest guy out there, so usually running over a catcher is not an option,” Hairston said. “I’d better learn how to slide.” The Brewers added a run in the sixth when Ryan Theriot bobbled George Kottaras’s bouncer to second, allowing Rickie Weeks to score from third. INSIDE PITCH Lance Berkman was named the N.L. comeback player of the year. Last season he batted .248 with the Houston Astros and the Yankees while struggling with injuries. Berkman, 35, joined the Cardinals this season and hit .301 with 31 home runs and 94 runs batted in. Jacoby Ellsbury was the American League winner. | Baseball;St Louis Cardinals;Milwaukee Brewers;Braun Ryan;la Russa Tony;Wolf Randy;Pujols Albert;Playoff Games |
ny0270955 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2016/04/14 | Presidential Debate Stage in Brooklyn Reflects Changing Economy | When Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders take the stage in Brooklyn on Thursday for their ninth Democratic presidential primary debate, they will stand amid a shining example of how the American economy has been reshaped in their lifetimes. The site, the Duggal Greenhouse, once thrummed with workers assembling components for the most sophisticated warships in the world. Now, it is a clean, well-lighted space rented out to investment banks and pop stars. Beyoncé and Madonna have rehearsed there. From a distance, that evolution may seem like another attempt to put lipstick on a fading industrial legacy. But upon closer inspection, the Greenhouse is part of a concerted effort by New York City officials and a collection of entrepreneurs to revive a historic hub of American enterprise: the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The 215-year-old Navy Yard was the birthplace of some of the nation’s most celebrated and ill-fated military ships, including the U.S.S. Missouri and the U.S.S. Arizona. At its peak, during World War II, it employed about 70,000 people. Image Michael, left, and Rick Mast of Mast Brothers Chocolate Makers inside their new 65,000-square-foot home at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times Today, only about 7,000 people work at the city-owned Navy Yard. But officials say that number could increase to 17,000 in four years, with the help of growing companies like Russ & Daughters and Mast Brothers Chocolate Makers . On Tuesday, Rick Mast, the chief executive of Mast Brothers, stood inside a vast, empty structure in the center of the Navy Yard, giggling with anticipation. He and his brother, Michael, had just taken over a 65,000-square-foot space that they said would become the headquarters and primary factory for their business. Rick Mast said they planned to double their work force to about 150 people after they move into the Navy Yard next year from their base of operations nearby. They expect to hire 100 people within three years to make, package, sell and ship chocolate from the renovated building. “The opportunity to grow in Brooklyn in a spectacular space like this, that’s huge for us,” Mr. Mast said, looking up at a vestige of the space’s shipbuilding past, an overhead crane capable of hoisting 10 tons. Image Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development, at Building 77 in the Navy Yard. Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times The chocolate factory will abut the future home of another company founded in Williamsburg, a coffee company called Brooklyn Roasting . A short walk away, teams of construction workers are turning the cavernous ground floor of a hulking building into a food-manufacturing hub that will be anchored by Russ & Daughters, a century-old purveyor of smoked fish, bagels and babka. Russ & Daughters will occupy about a quarter of the hub’s 66,000 square feet to bake, pickle and fill orders from across the country and, eventually, overseas, said Niki Russ Federman, one of the owners. Ms. Federman said the space, like those of the other future tenants of the food hub, would include a retail shop. The 300-acre Navy Yard is surrounded by guarded gates, and the absence of a place to buy lunch inside is one of the most common complaints of the people who work there. Among the planned additions is the first Wegman’s grocery store in New York City. “The more good people and delicious food there is in one place, the more of a draw it’s going to be,” said Ms. Federman, who added that she had suggested some prospective tenants to the landlord, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. In turn, Ms. Federman said she had received help finding new employees through the employment center that the development corporation runs. “We’ve already hired a number of people through the Navy Yard, and we’re not even there yet,” she said. The city is contributing about $80 million of the $185 million in planned upgrades to the food-hub building, and plans to spend an additional $30 million rebuilding a collapsed pier near the Greenhouse that will be the base for a citywide ferry service championed by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The de Blasio administration has taken up the city’s commitment to revitalizing the Navy Yard, which was a keystone of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s economic-development strategy. “We are actually making things here,” said Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development. As Ms. Glen looked out from a high floor in one of the yard’s buildings at working dry docks and structures in various states of repair, she rattled off a list of products being made or designed at the site, not all of them edible. “These are good jobs that people thought were lost to New York forever,” she said. Image The Duggal Greenhouse joins a food-manufacturing hub and a Wegman’s grocery store as one of the new additions to the 215-year-old yard. Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times Among the more ambitious tenants is Edward Jacobs, whose company, FXE Industries, is building a prototype of motorcycles it hopes to mass-produce in the Navy Yard. The group has just three employees now, but would need many more to produce the “thousands of bikes” Mr. Jacobs dreams of. “We believe that there is value in keeping everything close by,” he said, adding that being in Brooklyn exposes entrepreneurs to many different perspectives. Until more of the buildings are renovated or new ones are built, the Navy Yard is fully occupied. But some prominent companies are considering taking space there some day, including Brooklyn Brewery . Steve Hindy, the chairman and co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery, said the company’s formerly scruffy neighborhood in Williamsburg had filled with hotels and clubs that were able to afford higher rents than a manufacturer could. “The Navy Yard is an incredible success story and an example to be copied around the country,” Mr. Hindy said. “It offers the kind of long-term home that any industrial business would embrace.” He said he would not be attending the debate but would be delivering some Brooklyn beer to a neighboring building where the news media will be stationed. “Thirty years ago, when we started, the idea of a presidential debate in Brooklyn would have been pretty far beyond anyone’s imagination,” Mr. Hindy said. “It’s a real demonstration of Brooklyn’s arrival.” | 2016 Presidential Election;Political Debates;Hillary Clinton;Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders;Urban Planning;NYC;Brooklyn Navy Yard;Brooklyn |
ny0029898 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/06/11 | V.A. Loans Are Rare in New York | Joe Vollono and his wife, Monica Raquel Ortiz, are ready to buy an apartment. Actually, they were ready to buy in November, when they found a one-bedroom they loved in Brooklyn Heights and came to an agreement with the developer on the price. They were ready in January when they signed a contract, and they have been ready ever since. Yet more than seven months after the process began in earnest, they have not closed on their condominium. Why? Because Mr. Vollono, who served as an officer in the Navy submarine force for four years, wants to use a loan guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. That kind of loan is available under a 69-year-old program, with over half a million loans nationwide last year, but in New York City it is as though the program barely exists. There were only 266 Veterans Affairs loans made or refinanced in the five boroughs last year, in a city that is home to over 200,000 veterans. And while there are many thousands of apartment buildings in the city, only 30 condominiums are approved for participation in the program. In Manhattan there are two. “Nobody here knows anything about it,” Mr. Vollono said. “Imagine you had the G.I. Bill, but no universities accepted it.” The mortgage program is designed to help military veterans achieve the centerpiece of the American dream: the chance to own a house. But if you want to use what is known as a V.A. loan to buy an apartment in the biggest city in the country, you are practically out of luck. Veterans Affairs does not lend money but guarantees a portion of a veteran’s loan, even with no down payment. But the department will offer guarantees on loans only up to a certain amount, about $725,000 in New York City. That figure, based on a Federal Housing Administration estimate of home values in the entire metropolitan area, including counties like Putnam and Rockland, is too low for much of the city marketplace. Perhaps the greater obstacles to using the program in New York are the rules. For a loan to buy a condominium, the entire building must apply to Veterans Affairs for approval, since the fate of one unit is tied to that of its neighbors. Buyers or owners of units cannot apply one by one. And cooperatives are barred from the program altogether. “It’s like we are a different country,” said Stuart M. Saft, a partner at Holland & Knight and the chairman of the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums. Like other federal programs, he continued, V.A. loans “are designed for other places.” In those other places, the program generally works well. According to Jason Hansman, a senior program manager at the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, it is one of the more straightforward Veterans Affairs programs to navigate. In New York City, however, Mr. Vollono and Ms. Ortiz said they had encountered a chorus of real estate agents on their apartment search who were unfamiliar with V.A. loans. When they went into contract at One Brooklyn Bridge Park , at 360 Furman Street in Brooklyn Heights, they found that the sales team there representing the building’s sponsor appeared to have no experience with the loans either. It took almost six months for them and the sponsor’s lawyer to submit a completed application to Veterans Affairs. The final piece was sent in just two weeks ago, Mr. Vollono said, and they are awaiting approval or denial. Image One Brooklyn Bridge Park, where Mr. Vollono and his wife have been trying to buy. Credit Jessica Ebelhar/The New York Times The couple declined to give the contract price on their apartment, but according to the real estate Web site Streeteasy , one-bedrooms in the building have tended to sell over the past six months for $700,000 to $1 million. A spokeswoman for One Brooklyn Bridge Park would not comment. Mr. Vollono has a job in finance, and master’s degrees in public policy from Georgetown University and in business administration from Oxford University. Ms. Ortiz spent nearly a decade working at the State Department and now has a business importing French products. They have resources, experience with government, and even experience with the program, which Mr. Vollono used several years ago to buy a house in Newport, R.I. They are determined to make it work for them in Brooklyn, as well, so they can buy without a down payment and can keep the price they locked in months ago in a rising market. Yet the process drags on. “The sad fact is that if you were the average young veteran,” Mr. Vollono said, “you’d give up.” Mike Frueh, the director of the loan guarantee program, suggested in a phone interview that the primary reason the loans were rare in New York City was the cost of housing. He also pointed to a 2006 expansion of the program that allowed Veterans Affairs to guarantee loans in co-ops, which would make them more usable in New York City. But he neglected to mention that the co-op inclusion expired at the end of 2011. During the period that the program had the authority to lend on co-ops, a spokeswoman said, it did not receive a single co-op application from anywhere in the country. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat from the Upper East Side, introduced legislation last year that would permanently permit the participation of co-ops in the program. It would also require Veterans Affairs to promote that expansion, so that perhaps this time it might receive an application or two. Ms. Maloney said she planned to introduce the measure again during the current Congressional session. “It’s imperative that New York veterans have access to the same kind of home-buying support that veterans in other parts of the country obtain,” Ms. Maloney said in an e-mail. “Because a home is a home, whether it’s a bungalow in the suburbs or a third-floor one-bedroom in Astoria.” This is not the only federal housing program that slams into roadblocks in the city. F.H.A. loans , which allow for very low down payments, for example, have a similarly ill-fitting design. Among other restrictions, the F.H.A., like Veterans Affairs, requires condo buildings to apply as a whole and excludes co-ops. As many buildings discovered after Hurricane Sandy, co-op associations are also ineligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for repairs to their common areas, like hallways left moldy or elevators damaged and corroded by flooding. Lifting that restriction would require an act of Congress. But Mr. Vollono and Ms. Ortiz say getting a V.A. loan should require considerably less effort than that. “I had to remind the attorney and several other people on the attorney’s staff,” Ms. Ortiz recalled. “I said, ‘Don’t forget where Sept. 11 happened.’ “I’m so sick of people saying ‘We support our troops’ — show me you support our troops!” | Mortgage loan;Veteran Affairs;NYC;Legislation;Real Estate; Housing;Veteran;Cooperative;Condominium |
ny0090286 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/09/06 | Showing Parkour as Dust in the Wind | Several years ago, Ben Franke, a photographer, became interested in parkour, a sport that has roots in training designed for French commandos and that involves running, jumping over objects and doing flips off surfaces. The sport’s “freedom of movement” appealed to him, Mr. Franke said. But his interest was only casual until the Holi festival, an Indian celebration in which participants throw colored powder at one another , gave him an idea for a way to photograph parkour that would document the quickness integral to the sport. Mr. Franke got to know some parkour practitioners and began accompanying them at night to various parts of New York City. Then, after coating them with flour, Mr. Franke used a flash to photograph the athletes as they jumped and ran. In the resulting images, the flour trails behind the athletes, appearing as a sort of mist or vapor. The pictures capture a split second in time while also providing a sense of the physical movements that preceded that instant and hinting at a trajectory to come. “It shows the dynamics almost like video would,” Mr. Franke said, adding that his aim was to illustrate “the same sort of motion and energy” in a still image. Over about three years, Mr. Franke photographed parkour participants all over the city: in a park on the Lower East Side; on the steps of the New York Public Library in Midtown; under an elevated train platform; on a rooftop in Chinatown, where a man leapt over a shaft separating two tenements. Although there are elements of danger to such actions, Mr. Franke said, there are limits to the chances most athletes will take. “They’re supremely confident,” he said. “But if there’s one ounce of doubt or discomfort, they’re not going to risk themselves.” | Photography;Acrobats;Ben Franke;Parkour;NYC |
ny0049666 | [
"us"
] | 2014/10/05 | Supreme Court’s Robust New Session Could Define Legacy of Chief Justice | WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday returns to work to face a rich and varied docket, including cases on First Amendment rights in the digital age, religious freedom behind bars and the status of Jerusalem. Those cases are colorful and consequential, but there are much bigger ones on the horizon. “I’m more excited about the next 12 months at the Supreme Court than about any Supreme Court term in its modern history,” said Thomas C. Goldstein , who argues frequently before the court and is the publisher of Scotusblog . In the coming weeks, the justices will most likely agree to decide whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, a question they ducked in 2013 . They will also soon consider whether to hear a fresh and potent challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which barely survived its last encounter with the court in 2012 . The terms that concluded with those rulings riveted the nation. Now the two issues may return to the court — together. “This term could become the ‘déjà vu all over again’ term of the century,” said Pratik A. Shah , a Supreme Court specialist with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld . Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is entering his 10th term, and it is one that could define the legacy of the court he leads. Should the court establish a right to same-sex marriage, it would draw comparisons to the famously liberal court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, said David A. Strauss , a law professor at the University of Chicago. “It is only a slight overstatement to say that the Roberts court will be to the rights of gays and lesbians what the Warren court was to the rights of African Americans,” Professor Strauss said. Petitions seeking review of decisions in the marriage and health care cases have already been filed. They may be joined in short order by ones on abortion and affirmative action. “The prospect that every major social issue will collide before the justices may be historic,” Mr. Goldstein said. For now, the court has agreed to hear some 50 cases, enough to fill out its argument calendar into February. Like the cases on the horizon, some of the most significant ones are sequels to earlier decisions. In Zivotofsky v. Kerry, No. 13-628, a major separation-of-powers case, the court will return to the question of whether Congress may require the State Department to treat Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in American passports. Image Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Credit Nati Harnik/Associated Press A notation in a travel document may seem like a small thing, but presidents from both political parties have said allowing Congress to decide the status of Jerusalem in even that setting would interfere with the constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs. The court might be inclined to duck the issue, since any ruling from it could be seen as taking sides on the underlying question of American policy regarding Jerusalem. But the justices tied their own hands in 2012 , ruling that the case did not involve a “political question” beyond the federal courts’ power to decide. William P. Marshall , a law professor at the University of North Carolina, said the case had great potential for legal and political mischief. “It’s a big fight over nothing that can cause a lot of problems down the way,” he said. The justices will also take another look at race and voting in Alabama. Last year, in Shelby County v. Holder , they effectively struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which had required permission from the federal authorities before some states and localities could change their voting procedures. In a supporting brief , Alabama had urged the court to rule that way. In a consolidated pair of new cases, Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, No. 13-895, and Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama, No. 13-1138, the court will consider challenges from Democratic lawmakers who say the Alabama Legislature packed minority voters into a few districts, diluting their voting power. State officials responded that Section 5 partly justified the legislative maps, which were drawn using data from the 2010 census when that provision still stood. A divided three-judge Federal District Court panel ruled last year that the redistricting plan was lawful. In dissent, Judge Myron H. Thompson said that “there is a cruel irony to these cases” in light of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in the Shelby County case. Many of the other cases on the court’s docket have unusual facts that mask the significant legal issues they present. In Yates v. United States, No. 13-7451, for instance, the court will decide whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 , a federal law aimed primarily at white-collar crime, also applies to fish. The law makes it a crime to destroy “any record, document or tangible object” in order to obstruct an investigation, and a fisherman, John L. Yates, was convicted of violating it by throwing three undersized red grouper back into the Gulf of Mexico. The Supreme Court has been wary of stretching federal laws to fit minor crimes, ruling in June, for instance, that a chemical weapons treaty could not be used as the basis for a prosecution of a domestic dispute. In the fish case, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. told the justices that the 2002 law was not limited to financial crimes and was intended by Congress to address all sorts of obstructions of justice. Another case, Elonis v. United States, No. 13-983, will require the justices to make sense of rap lyrics, a task that will almost certainly be a new experience for most of them. (“My colleagues are all enamored of opera,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said at the University of Tulsa last month, adding that opera was “not my favorite form of cultural entertainment.”) The case concerns Anthony Elonis, who adopted the rap persona Tone Dougie and posted tirades laced with violent imagery on Facebook in the form of rap lyrics after his wife left him. He was convicted under a federal law making it a crime to issue “any threat to injure the person of another,” and he was sentenced to 44 months in prison. Image Menachem Zivotofsky, an American boy born in Jerusalem, is at the center of a case involving whether Congress may require that Jerusalem be treated as Israel’s capital in passports. Credit Evan Vucci/Associated Press The question in the case is whether Mr. Elonis’s intent mattered, and the court’s answer will affect many prosecutions for threats made using social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. On Tuesday, in Holt v. Hobbs, No. 13-6827, the court will consider whether a Muslim prison inmate in Arkansas may grow a half-inch beard. Corrections officials there say such beards can pose a threat to security, as a place to hide contraband and as a way for escaped inmates to quickly change their appearance. To decide the case, the court will apply a version of the legal test it used in June in the Hobby Lobby case , in which it ruled that some corporations could refuse to provide contraception coverage to their female workers on religious grounds. The test, set out in federal laws, including one specifically directed at protecting prisoners’ rights, requires judges to consider whether the challenged government regulation places a substantial burden on religious practices. If it does, the government must show that it had a compelling reason for the regulation and no better way to achieve it. In its last term, the court achieved a remarkable degree of consensus, with the justices deciding two-thirds of its cases unanimously. That is unlikely to be repeated. Indeed, the court will probably also be divided on the threshold question of whether review is warranted on the two biggest issues awaiting its attention: same-sex marriage and the new challenges to the health care law. The most important factor in whether the Supreme Court agrees to resolve an issue is usually whether there is a split among the federal appeals courts. But such disagreements are lacking in both sets of cases. In the same-sex marriage cases, all of the recent federal appeals court decisions have struck down state bans on such unions. In recent remarks , Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested that this might be a reason for the Supreme Court to move slowly. In the new health care challenges, there was initially a vivid split between the federal appeals courts in Washington and in Richmond, Va., which in July issued conflicting decisions within hours of each other. The appeals court here ruled that the federal government could not provide insurance subsidies to people in states that had chosen not to establish the marketplaces known as exchanges. The court in Virginia took the opposite view . It said the contested phrase in the law, limiting subsidies to “an exchange established by the state,” was “ambiguous and subject to multiple interpretations.” That means, the court said, that the Internal Revenue Service’s interpretation, allowing subsidies without regard to whether the exchange is run by a state or by the federal government, is entitled to deference. The split between the two courts was wiped out last month when the full United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the July ruling and set the case for argument in December. The Supreme Court is not required to wait. A petition seeking review of the Virginia decision has already been filed, and it takes only four votes to grant review. Four members of the court — Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — made their hostility to the Affordable Care Act more than clear in their fiery joint dissent in 2012. | Supreme Court,SCOTUS;Justice Roberts;Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage;Obamacare,Affordable Care Act;Voting Rights Act;Sarbanes Oxley;Legislation |
ny0178161 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/09/15 | No Letup in Bad News for Queens Businesses | As any small business owner will attest, the footing of a small, family-owned shop in an environment as competitive as New York City’s is never secure. But for a group of businesses along a stretch of Sutphin Boulevard in Queens, the past year and a half has brought little more than a steady drumbeat of lousy news. First, in March 2006, a five-alarm fire swept through a grocery store, which had sat in a row of shops — among them, a hair salon, an eyeglass shop, a dentist’s office, a furniture store and a pawnshop — along the bustling street in Jamaica. Although the grocery store burned down, the other shops survived the fire, sustaining smoke and water damage. Then, in late August, workers rebuilding the supermarket accidentally undermined the foundation of the building that houses the shops, causing the roof and walls of the furniture store to collapse. The city ordered the businesses, at 90-02 through 90-10A Sutphin Boulevard, to be evacuated and told neighboring homeowners to vacate their garages, which inspectors said were at risk of caving in. City officials ordered an emergency demolition of the building. Next, however, came a bit of good news: The city determined that the building was structurally sound after all, with the exception of the furniture store, Capital Wide Furniture and Mattress Warehouse. The owner, Johnny Diaz, had sunk his life savings into it, plus about $200,000. “It’s a total loss to me,” said Mr. Diaz, 41, the married father of four children. The collapse rendered about $350,000 worth of furniture unsalable, including some pieces that had been reduced to little more than scrap when the 100-foot north side wall fell in, slightly injuring one of Mr. Diaz’s three employees. He hopes that insurance will cover at least some of his losses. The other shop owners, however, had reason to believe that the worst was over. Once the gas and electricity were turned back on, they could reopen. “They said we would have the opportunity to move back, so we were very happy,” said Julio Pomariko, 61, the owner of Canal Buy and Sell, a pawnshop he opened 25 years ago. In the meantime, the building’s owner, Nick Anagnostopoulos, had workers take off the roof for required asbestos abatement work, officials said. No one, however, placed a tarp over the hole where the roof had been. It rained. Several of the business owners, including Mr. Pomariko and Dr. Harsha Mehta, whose dental office has been in the building for 25 years, fear that some of their equipment may have been ruined by recent storms. Although they have been allowed back into their businesses to retrieve some items, they have not yet been able to get everything out. Finally, the coup de grâce: This week, Mr. Anagnostopoulos told his tenants that he intended to tear down the entire building — Mr. Diaz’s furniture store, Imelda Caraballo’s New Shampoo Unisex barbershop, Mr. Pomariko’s Canal Buy and Sell, Peter Min’s Queens Vision Optical, and Dr. Mehta’s dental practice — and replace it with a new structure. Mr. Anagnostopoulos did not return calls seeking comment, but tenants and James F. Gennaro, the City Council member who represents the area and who has been trying to help the business owners, fear that the owner is not eager to save space for his old tenants. “He is using this opportunity to get out of his leases,” said Mr. Gennaro, whose father still owns a small business, Gennaro’s Jewelers, on Long Island. Mr. Gennaro and the tenants are planning to demonstrate in front of the building tomorrow to draw attention to their concerns. As for the tenants, all they want is a place to reopen their businesses, they said, preferably in the neighborhood. “I’ve been here so long, I’m afraid to look anywhere else,” Mr. Pomariko said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” | Small Business;Queens (NYC);Fires and Firefighters;Area Planning and Renewal;New York City;Asbestos |
ny0043090 | [
"sports",
"cycling"
] | 2014/05/31 | Quintana Extends Lead in Giro d’Italia | Colombia’s Nairo Quintana increased his lead in the Giro d’Italia with a win in the 19th stage, a mountain time trial. He was clocked 1 hour 5 minutes 37 seconds over the 16.7-mile route from Bassano del Grappa to Cima Grappa. Italy’s Fabio Aru was second, 17 seconds back, and Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran was third, 1:26 behind. | Giro d'Italia;Nairo Quintana;Rigoberto Uran;Biking |
ny0253425 | [
"business",
"mutfund"
] | 2011/10/09 | Getting Out of Debt? It’s Child’s Play | I’M always looking for new ways to improve my family’s financial situation, which is slightly less promising than the economy of Greece. Debts like our mortgage aren’t going anywhere, and our mutual funds languish. I don’t see an international bailout coming. We are not too big to fail; we are, in fact, the right size to fail. Austerity measures have been less than successful: my attempt to put the cats on half rations was met with their counterargument that kibble falls under the budget category of entitlement spending. Then they chewed on my ankles. Any improvement will have to come on the revenue side. Here’s what I’ve come up with — and it involves child labor . Now, before you go all human-rights crusader on me and start bringing up those agonizing pictures of sad-eyed little millworkers, let me just say that I’m talking about enlisting my own children in clean, high-tech sweatshoppery. Think of it as pioneering a trickle-up economy. I like the sound of that, since I spent a lot of time being trickled on after each of my children was born. Consider novels. That wunderkind author Christopher Paolini has sold gazillions of books about dragons. So why can’t my own kids write books, too? These days, it’s not even absolutely necessary to attract the attention of a publisher: a couple of friends have self-published their works, and now children are getting into the act, too. At least two high school friends of my son Joseph have self-published books. In an age when twenty-something sons end up moving back in and sleeping on the national couch, we should applaud this teenage enterprise. But how can I get Joe in on the action? I went through his backpack to see if any of his homework might be publishable. There was really no hope for the math handout, but there was an assignment to write a children’s book that I have high hopes for. If Justin Bieber, Madonna and Callista Gingrich can write books, why not Joe Schwartz? Having already imagined the blazing success of Joe’s first book, I started to resent his lack of future productivity. It seemed to me that he ought to be able to crank out more than just a single heartwarming work of children’s fiction. Then I remembered another, longer work he’s been noodling with for a while that has lesbian wizards and psychopaths in it. Nothing but readers! I asked him where he stood with the project. He looked up from the homework that had been occupying most of his weekend and said, snarkily, “I’m working as fast as I can, boss.” Then he got back to his homework. Well, if he’s going to be dedicated to his studies — the nerve! — I’ll have to think of other ways to exploit him. There ought to be a way to siphon off some of the energy that young people expend daily, whether on homework or Facebook or just hanging out — something along the lines of the regenerative braking on a Prius. But the practical application has so far eluded me. Then a truly bold idea struck me: gold farming. The fanciful name describes a real phenomenon. These farmers spend countless hours playing big online games like World of Warcraft — not for fun, as most players do, but to amass the virtual currency used in the game. Then they sell their winnings to well-heeled people willing to spend real money to save themselves the time it would take to gain the virtual goods and skill levels the farmers have earned. Gold farmers are real —perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in China and many developing nations eke out a living this way, and hundreds of millions of actual dollars change hands. A couple of recent novels have looked at gold farming: “Reamde,” by Neal Stephenson, and “For the Win,” by Cory Doctorow . They make gold farming sound tedious and grinding. SO again, I ask, why not Joe? He already spends so much time in front of a keyboard that he’s got a vampire tan. I got in touch with Mr. Doctorow to see what he thought of my idea. I acknowledge being a little fretful, as his book is actually a rallying cry against the exploitation of the poor and the young by the economically powerful. He even creates in his book a global union of this online proletariat, and in a clever turn on the name of the old Industrial Workers of the World, I.W.W., he calls the new organization the International Workers of the World Wide Web, or I.W.W.W.W. Instead of calling them the Wobblies, as I.W.W. members are known, he calls them Webblies. (The clever use was originally coined by the writer Ken MacLeod, but Mr. Doctorow fleshed it out.) I figured that Mr. Doctorow should appreciate my willingness to reap benefits from my own offspring instead of oppressing anonymous youngsters overseas. But he had the nerve to tell me that I was wrong, and went into a riff worthy of the podium at Davos. “Your kid is already too expensive to serve as a net source of profit,” he wrote, explaining that I had already poured so much money into feeding and clothing him that it would be just about impossible to recoup my costs. “What’s the sense of chaining a kid to a machine until you’ve destroyed his capacity for productive work,” he asks, “if you’ve sunk North American middle-class-grade capital into his rearing?” If we had any hope of setting the gold-farming plan into action, he said, he advised moving quickly. “If you want to stanch your losses, get him out of school now, before he goes off to college,” he wrote. “Talk about toxic debt.” With gold farming, he wrote, “You’ll be doing him the favor of a lifetime: teaching him a useful, future-proof trade.” He’s a gloomy Gus, this Doctorow, but he makes a lot of sense. So I again interrupted Joe during his homework and asked him if he’d be willing to play online role-playing games to help our finances. His answer was quick. “Absolutely yes.” I warned him that he might have to drop out of school to put in the necessary hours to be truly useful to me. Was he ready to give up the drudgery of homework for the drudgery of killing trolls and questing for hours on end? “I’d be crushed,” he said with a put-upon, yet saintly, expression. “But I would do it. For the good of the family.” Who says that kids today have no sense of hard work or sacrifice? | Credit and Debt;Personal Finances;Writing and Writers;Children and Childhood;Books and Literature |
ny0276324 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2016/02/23 | A Turning Point for Syrian War, and U.S. Credibility | PARIS — In case anyone missed it, Laurent Fabius, who was the French foreign minister as recently as two weeks ago, accused President Obama of letting down not just Syria but the whole world in 2013. Mr. Fabius said as much as he was leaving office in early February, when he alluded to the dangerous “ambiguities” on the part of the “principal pilot” in the Western alliance. He returned to the theme in a radio interview on Europe 1 last Tuesday, with broader strokes and in greater detail, criticizing the United States’ decision not to launch airstrikes in August 2013 after it was determined that the Syrian government had crossed Mr. Obama’s “ red line ” by using chemical weapons. It was, Mr. Fabius said, “a turning point, not only for the crisis in the Middle East, but also for Ukraine, Crimea and the world.” That is a heavy accusation to make against a crucial ally in a war that is far from over, but the harsh tone reflects the bitterness in Paris over Mr. Obama’s decision, made hours before French warplanes were due to join the bombing mission over Syria. Charges of American “passivity” have been a common theme of late at international conferences, where diplomats, foreign policy analysts and journalists play what the French newspaper Le Monde called the “blame game” for the catastrophic situation in Syria. For his part, Mr. Fabius, a former prime minister who left the Foreign Ministry to head the French Constitutional Council, hasn’t hesitated to point the finger at various targets. He has accused Mr. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria of “brutality,” Iran and Russia of “complicity,” and the United States of “ambiguity.” Criticism of Mr. Obama’s perceived lack of follow-through in Syria is oft-repeated in Paris; what’s new is that a former foreign minister, among others, is calling the United States’ decision in 2013 a world-changing event. Syria and Rebels Battle for Aleppo as Cease-Fire Collapses A drastic escalation of fighting in Aleppo has shattered a partial truce. François Heisbourg, chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank based in London, compared the moment to the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia in 1908, an event seen in hindsight as helping to set the stage for World War I. Similarly, Mr. Obama’s reversal in 2013 “is one of those turning points in history where you see the power shift,” Mr. Heisbourg said in an interview. By refusing to enforce the red line, Mr. Obama did “enormous, perhaps irretrievable” damage to American credibility, Mr. Heisbourg said. “He did it because he didn’t want to do the strikes,” Mr. Heisbourg added. “He was caught in flagrante committing a supreme act of fecklessness.” According to both Mr. Heisbourg and, it seems, Mr. Fabius, there were global consequences to Mr. Obama’s inaction, most notably in Russia’s annexation of Crimea the following year, even though Moscow in its public rhetoric continues to accuse Washington of throwing its weight around in an imperial manner. Mr. Heisbourg said the “fecklessness” of 2013 had been recognized and interpreted in numerous capitals, not just Paris, as a low point for American power and influence. “This is not just about the irritated French,” he said. “It goes much deeper.” “The next U.S. president is going to have to demonstrate early on — in circumstances that he or she would have preferred to avoid — that this was an Obama moment, not an America moment,” he said. Although Mr. Fabius expressed regret that “the world didn’t follow France’s position” and punish Mr. Assad for using chemical weapons, others are unconvinced that intervention would have changed the course of the Syrian civil war. In fact, it has been noted in the press that Mr. Fabius’s parting shot at the United States may have been an attempt to deflect criticism of France’s own diplomatic failures in the region. Western intervention in Libya , led by France and Britain, has created only greater instability there, while the war in Yemen , waged by Middle Eastern proxies with no overt Western involvement, continues unabated, suggesting no easy answers anywhere in the region. The question is not whether the outcome in Syria would have been different if the United States had led airstrikes in 2013, though it is hard to imagine it could have been any worse. Instead, the issue is the damage to the expectations Paris and other capitals still have for Washington’s role in the world. | Laurent Fabius;Syria;Barack Obama;US Foreign Policy;Bashar al-Assad |
ny0114036 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2012/11/28 | Russian Court Convicts Martial Arts Fighter in Student’s Death | MOSCOW — In a case that has drawn renewed attention to ethnic tensions in Russia , a Moscow judge on Tuesday convicted a world champion mixed martial arts fighter, Rasul Mirzayev, of negligently causing the death of a Russian college student during a fight outside a nightclub here in August 2011. Mr. Mirzayev, 26, was born in Dagestan and is one of tens of thousands of immigrants from the North Caucasus who live in Moscow. He was convicted of killing Ivan Agafonov, a 19-year-old Russian student. After announcing the verdict, Judge Andrey Fedin ordered Mr. Mirzayev released based on time served. The maximum sentence was two years in prison and he had been jailed since shortly after the episode. Family members of the victim said that the sentence was insufficient and their lawyers pledged to appeal. Mr. Agafonov’s father stormed out of the courtroom as the verdict was being read. Dozens of ethnic Russian nationalists demonstrated outside the courthouse where the police, fearing violence, had formed a cordon. Several of the demonstrators were arrested including Dmitry Dyumushkn, a burly nationalist leader who once headed a group called Slavonic Union that has been banned in Russia as extremist. Mr. Mirzayev, a featherweight fighter who stands 5 feet 7 inches and weighs about 145 pounds, admitted punching Mr. Agafonov in the face after an exchange of words that is alleged to have included an insult concerning Mr. Mirzayev’s girlfriend. Mr. Agafonov fell, hit his head on a metal drain cover and died several days later. Medical experts determined that there were some errors in Mr. Agafonov’s care, and Judge Fedin noted that those mistakes also could have contributed to his death. The dispute unfolded outside a nightclub, called Garage, where Mr. Agafonov had been drinking. He was apparently playing with a remote-controlled toy car and exchanged some words with a young woman who had accompanied Mr. Mirzayev to the club. Grainy footage of the episode, captured by a nearby security camera, seemed to show a brief altercation, with Mr. Agafonov crumpling to the ground after a receiving a swift blow. Mr. Mirzayev originally faced a more serious charge punishable by up to 15 years in prison, but prosecutors requested that it be reduced. The trial was delayed repeatedly by disputes over the testimony of medical experts and other procedural wrangling. The case had echoes of an episode in 2010, in which an immigrant from the North Caucasus shot and killed a soccer fan in Moscow, setting off riots in a square adjacent to the Kremlin. Mixed martial arts, in which fighters use both striking and wrestling techniques, traces its origins to the ancient Olympic sport of pankration, in which competitors were allowed to fight using all powers and were barred by the rules only from biting an opponent or gouging out the opponent’s eyes. Mr. Mirzayev’s future in the sport is uncertain. | Russia;Murders and Attempted Murders;Decisions and Verdicts |
ny0033853 | [
"business"
] | 2013/12/31 | The Mileage Resets as the Perks Fade | HERE’S a variation on that old chestnut employed by some local TV stations announcing the first New Year’s baby: Meet Randall Stempler, the first long-haul flier of the new year — or at least the first one that I have heard from. Bolstering the idea that hope springs eternal, Mr. Stempler said he was looking forward to a trip from Newark to Singapore commencing before the crack of dawn on New Year’s Day. As a new travel year begins, he could be seen as an inspiration for those of us who have become, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about getting on an airplane. The flying distance between Newark and Singapore is about 9,500 miles, but Mr. Stempler plans to take the long way around the globe. His flight departs Newark at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday. “To get some extra miles, I’m flying through Houston, then Houston to San Francisco, San Francisco to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Singapore. It adds up the elite-qualifying miles, which are essential for 1K status,” said Mr. Stempler, a lawyer. He is flying United, and he is already working on accumulating enough miles to continue for 2015 his Premier 1K status, the highest of United’s four levels of elite status, earned by flying at least 100,000 miles in a calendar year. “I know there a lot of people out there who fly a lot more than I do, but I like to think that for at least one day, I might be the No. 1 flier in terms of the number of miles,” he said. The trip will put about 23,000 elite-qualifying miles into his account this year. More power to him, I say from the opposite end of the air-travel joy scale. In 2014, I expect to finish writing a novel about a travel writer who hates to travel. On Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, I need to fly to Atlanta — and as usual, I’m viewing the prospect of going to the airport and trudging onto an overcrowded airplane for a long, uncomfortable cross-country flight with about as much enthusiasm as someone contemplating same-day surgery. Image Credit Chi Birmingham While I’m certainly cognizant of the value of frequent-flier miles, however that value may decline year by year, I agree with Michael Boyd, the president of the consulting firm Boyd Group International, who made predictions for air travel in 2014 on his website last week. Among them are a further diminishing of air service, and a growing awareness that a “frequent-flier account is now a union card you earn to qualify for certain non-inconveniences, not an award of great appreciation for your loyalty.” Speaking of the year ahead, let’s return to a subject that elicited a lot of reader response recently, the move by American Airlines and its credit card partner, Citigroup, to unceremoniously bounce American Express Platinum Card members from American’s Admirals Club airport lounges, effective March 22. The move came as American and Citi heavily promote their splendidly named Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard, whose annual fee of $450 includes free access to Admirals Club lounges. Scrambling suddenly to show that the Platinum Card is still worth its $450 annual fee despite the loss of free access to lounges operated by American and its merger partner US Airways, American Express has been pointing out that the card’s various benefits still include free access to Delta Air Lines Sky Club lounges, and free membership in a worldwide airport lounge network called Priority Pass. And some readers who frequently travel internationally have been telling me that they value that Priority Pass perk, with access to about 600 various lounges in airports around the world (most major airline lounges in the United States excluded). Reviews on Priority Pass lounges are mixed, however. Brian Kelly, publisher of ThePointsGuy.com, which evaluates mileage programs, describes them as “a smattering of random lounges around the world.” Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst at the consulting firm Hudson Crossing, said of Priority Pass: “It’s a nice perk, but the issue is the quality of the individual lounges. The perk is only as good as the lounge itself, and that quality can vary around the world.” Mr. Stempler, incidentally, says that his “airport vice” is sampling various lounges around the world. “I try to go to every lounge that I have access to,” he said. “I’m often running from lounge to lounge — the Priority Pass lounges, the regular airline ones and, since I’m United 1K, I also have access to the Star Alliance lounges, though not their first-class lounges.” Airport lounges, a business traveler’s best friend, can vary widely from airport to airport, airline to airline, alliance to alliance — and especially (like everything else in the extremely stratified world of air travel) by class. To get a lively conversation going among international business travelers who fly in premium classes, ask them about their favorite first-class or business-class lounges. They’ll wax eloquent over the luxuries of the Cathay-Pacific business class lounges at Hong Kong, the Virgin Atlantic and British Airways premium lounges at Heathrow, the spectacular Lufthansa First Class Terminal and lounge at Frankfurt, and on and on. Also among those who remain sanguine about air travel, there is always the lively topic of upgrades to premium cabins, the currency of elite-status programs. Hope, as I said, springs eternal. Contemplating 2014, Mr. Stempler said: “I’m going to keep up my 1K status, mainly because I do enjoy flying in general, especially when I get upgraded. And on this trip I’m upgraded all the way to Singapore.” | Frequent Flyer;Travel,Tourism;Business travel;Airlines,airplanes |
ny0245102 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2011/04/28 | Psychologist Advisers on Questioning Terror Suspects Face Ire | Critics are taking legal action to seek punishment for psychologists who, they say, designed and consulted on abusive interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists. The psychologists violated professional ethics rules, the critics say, because, they claim, the interrogations amounted to torture. In one lawsuit, in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, a human rights group based in San Francisco is trying to force New York State to investigate Dr. John Francis Leso, a psychologist whom the group accuses of overseeing abusive interrogations at Guantánamo nearly a decade ago. A similar lawsuit to force state authorities to take action against a former military psychologist has been filed in Ohio, and another is expected to be filed soon in Texas. Steven Reisner, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine who filed a complaint against Dr. Leso with a state disciplinary board, said, “The significance is this: There has been no one held accountable for the Bush administration’s torture program.” Because the federal government has been unwilling to bring criminal prosecutions, Dr. Reisner said, “we’re trying to bring an ethical complaint so they’re at least held accountable for their licensure.” So far, none of the legal efforts, which involve a small number of cases, have succeeded. But raising the issue in court has prompted fierce debate over the precise role that psychologists played in the interrogations and whether they were simply following the orders of high-ranking government officials. The cases have also laid bare the grueling specifics of coercive techniques, like isolating detainees for 30 days, depriving them of food for 12 hours, exposing them to cold temperatures or water until they begin to shiver, waterboarding them and slamming them against walls. Dr. Reisner filed a complaint against Dr. Leso last July with the Office of Professional Discipline, a division of the New York State Education Department, which oversees the licensing of psychologists. Dr. Reisner asked the state to investigate Dr. Leso for his work at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002 and 2003 as a member of the behavioral science consultation team, a group of medical professionals assigned to consult on the interrogations of detainees. The complaint accused Dr. Leso, who was then in the Army Reserve, of developing a plan of coercive interview techniques, including isolation and sleep and food deprivation. But the agency said the claims against Dr. Leso did not involve the practice of psychology as defined under New York State law, citing several reasons, including the lack of an established doctor-patient relationship. The agency closed the complaint. That led the Center for Justice and Accountability , the San Francisco human rights organization, to sue on Dr. Reisner’s behalf last November, seeking to force the Office of Professional Discipline to open an investigation and ultimately revoke Dr. Leso’s license. Dr. Leso, who left the Reserve in 2004, could not be reached for comment recently. Whatever role psychologists played in the interrogation techniques that were used may be irrelevant to what courts are being asked to decide — which is whether state regulatory authorities must investigate complaints against psychologists for work they did as part of military interrogations. “As a matter of moral turpitude, I might agree 100 percent that that psychologist should not have done that,” Justice Saliann Scarpulla said during a recent hearing in Dr. Leso’s case. “It’s not my moral turpitude or my moral sense that governs here.” If regulatory authorities determine that Dr. Leso’s conduct did not involve the practice of psychology, the case, Justice Scarpulla said, “ends as far as I’m concerned.” A lawyer for Dr. Reisner, L. Kathleen Roberts, said the state agency’s position that Dr. Leso was not practicing psychology would exclude psychologists who worked for institutions like prisons and schools from scrutiny. James M. Hershler, an assistant New York attorney general representing the state in the case, said in court that the board had reviewed the complaint and determined that it was outside its purview. “Their business is to go after real problems,” he said. “This happened eight years ago under unique circumstances.” William J. Strickland, the Society of Military Psychologists’ representative on the American Psychological Association, said the accusations against military psychologists regarding their role in interrogations were highly speculative, based solely on the basis that they spent time at Guantánamo and not on any clear evidence of wrongdoing. A suit filed this month in Ohio accuses Dr. Larry James of overseeing abusive interrogation techniques while working at Guantánamo in 2003, 2007 and 2008. The suit, filed by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, asked the court to force the Ohio State Board of Psychology to either sanction Dr. James or investigate his conduct further. The board dismissed an ethics complaint against Dr. James in January, saying it was unable to proceed. Critics of Dr. James have also asked Louisiana regulators to revoke his license there. The State Board of Examiners of Psychologists closed that complaint without taking any action, prompting a psychologist to file a suit seeking to force the board to investigate further. Last year, a Louisiana appeals court upheld the board’s decision, saying that there was no law requiring the board to act and that the person who filed the complaint had no special interest and suffered no specific harm because of the board’s decision. Dr. James did not respond to e-mails and telephone calls. In February, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists dismissed a complaint against a former military psychologist, Dr. James E. Mitchell, saying in a one-page letter that there was “insufficient evidence.” But Joseph Margulies, a law professor at Northwestern University who helped to file a complaint against Dr. Mitchell last year, disagreed with the board’s finding. Mr. Margulies’s complaint accuses Dr. Mitchell of designing and participating in abusive interrogations at secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons. Dr. Mitchell did not answer e-mails seeking comment, and his lawyer declined to comment. “These boards are subject to political oversight, and no one wants to stick their neck out, which is really an exercise in professional cowardice,” said Mr. Margulies, adding that he planned to file suit this month asking the court either to sanction Dr. Mitchell or force the board to do a more thorough investigation. Without speaking specifically about Dr. Mitchell’s case, Sherry L. Lee, the executive director of the Texas board, defended its process, saying federal laws and military confidentiality would make it difficult to investigate some cases properly. “This board does what it can do and processes the cases and goes forward when it believes it has the evidence,” she said. State courts would be reluctant to intervene in complaints against military psychologists because they would “tend toward the view that these are matters of federal policy and federal law” that the government should address, said Dr. M. Gregg Bloche, a professor at Georgetown University who is both a lawyer and a doctor. The psychologists may also benefit from circular reasoning by the government and ethical authorities, said Dr. Bloche, whose book, “The Hippocratic Myth,” explores the tension of doctors’ ethical commitments. While the Justice Department under President George W. Bush said its interrogation guidelines were legal because psychologists designed them, the American Psychological Association has said that the psychologists who consulted on interrogations had a duty to follow government guidelines, Dr. Bloche said. | Psychology and Psychologists;Interrogations;Detainees;Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba);Center for Justice and Accountability;Suits and Litigation |
ny0054294 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2014/07/30 | In the Autumn of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy Is the Ideal Marquee Player | AKRON, Ohio — Now that Rory McIlroy has won his third major , his next goal is to claim his first World Golf Championships title this week at the Bridgestone Invitational. In developmental terms, it is as if McIlroy had figured out how to run before he could walk. It is what makes his career so much fun to track. McIlroy is either going full speed ahead or falling on his behind. At his best, McIlroy’s drives are like a cross-country trucker’s: long and straight. And let’s be clear: Dudes dig the long ball, which makes McIlroy ideally suited to win over the next generation of fans. Jim Furyk, who played collegiate golf in the shadow of Phil Mickelson, then watched Tiger Woods play through, said of McIlroy, “When he’s on, he hits it so far and so straight with a driver that I think a lot of the other players look and marvel and say, ‘Jeez, it can’t be that hard from way up there.’ ” Furyk continued: “I think he’s got a lot of guts. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself, a lot of ability. He doesn’t back down.” In the autumn of Tiger Woods, what more could golf ask for than a marquee player like McIlroy, who has Arnold Palmer’s aggression, Jack Nicklaus’s competitiveness and Barbara Nicklaus’s honesty? In his first news conference since leaving Hoylake, England, with the claret jug from the British Open riding shotgun in his Range Rover, McIlroy, 25, rolled down the windows to himself instead of using pat answers to erect a wall of tinted glass. Image McIlroy’s next goal is winning his first World Golf Championships title this week. Credit Sam Greenwood/Getty Images He spoke of giving up the game for three days at 16 after finding no joy in winning an amateur event. “Just an impulsive teenager going through hormonal issues,” McIlroy said, eliciting laughter. After praising his parents for their equanimity in the face of his impetuousness, McIlroy added: “There was no panic. It was just me being a grumpy teenager.” McIlroy did not get cranky or grow defensive when confronted with the notion, put forth by Woods and others, that as hard as he is to beat at his best, his game is prone to long stretches of mediocrity. “Everyone goes through their ups and downs,” McIlroy said. He added: “I’m not afraid of my inconsistencies. It’s something that I actually quite welcome, and I know that my good is very good and my bad can sometimes be very bad. At the end of the day, it all levels out.” In truth, the inconsistent play that characterized McIlroy’s season in 2013, when he withdrew from one PGA Tour event and missed the cut at the British Open, is a memory. Since the October start of this wraparound season, McIlroy has not missed a cut in a PGA Tour event, and his worst result was a tie for 25th. In one six-week stretch beginning in April, he posted four top-eight finishes. “There’s plenty of players that would like to be as inconsistent as me,” McIlroy said, his dulcet tone smoothing over the harsh truthfulness of his words. Like the tennis star Roger Federer, whom he considers a mentor, McIlroy has the gift of being able to exude confidence without appearing cocky. McIlroy’s swagger, which would earn a PG rating — in contrast to Woods’s R-rated version — is a big part of his charm. Image From left, Keegan Bradley, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler during a practice round on Tuesday at the Firestone Club in Akron, Ohio. Credit Sam Greenwood/Getty Images “I love his demeanor,” Nicklaus said last week in a teleconference. “I love the way he sort of has a confident cockiness yet is not offensive with it.” After his two-stroke victory over Sergio García and Rickie Fowler at Royal Liverpool, McIlroy posted photographs on his Twitter account of late-night revelries with family members, friends and his new best friend, the claret jug. McIlroy also posted a photograph of himself in the gym. It was a case of a picture being worth 140 characters. Lest anyone worry, McIlroy made it clear that he had no intention of coasting the rest of the year, as he did, however subconsciously, after his eight-stroke victory in the 2011 United States Open. “I could have taken the rest of 2011 off and been totally happy,” he said. “Winning the first one is just sort of a relief, especially how I did it.” Nor will McIlroy be content to hover in the background, as happened when he won his second major, at the 2012 P.G.A. Championship, as the stars of the London Olympics were taking their bows. The week after the British Open, McIlroy was the sports story. Why give up the honors now, with the No. 1 ranking, which he held until March of 2013, in his sights? With a victory this week, McIlroy can overtake Adam Scott. “It’s great to be introduced as the Open champion,” McIlroy said, “but I need to move on from that and say I’ve got a lot more golf left this year and I want to achieve a lot more.” Before moving on, McIlroy snapped photographs of the claret jug with the same unbridled enthusiasm that anybody would a treasured new addition to the family. He took pictures of friends and family members holding it. He photographed it beside the television and on the toilet. And there it is, more reason for golf to give thanks for McIlroy. Because let’s be clear: Women love a man who puts the toilet seat down. | Golf;Rory McIlroy;PGA Tour |
ny0020434 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2013/07/14 | Liberty Are Upended by the Fever | Erlana Larkins scored a season-high 15 points and the Indiana Fever used a big third quarter to rout the Liberty, 74-53, in Newark. | Basketball;New York Liberty;Indiana Fever |
ny0219292 | [
"science"
] | 2010/05/06 | Giant Container to Collect Leaking Gulf Oil | BATON ROUGE, La. — With remote-controlled robots a mile underwater unable to seal the gushing well, and with the drilling of relief wells that would allow crews to plug the spouting cavity months away from completion, it is time for the big box. The end of the oil spill , or at least the end of much of the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, may soon be delivered by a 98-ton steel box standing four stories tall, with a fresh coat of white paint. The containment dome, as engineers are calling the structure, was built over the past week by a crew of more than two dozen welders working around the clock at a shipyard in Port Fourchon, La. On Wednesday, the dome began its journey to the site of the ruptured well, where it will be lowered by cable 5,000 feet beneath the sea to sit atop the larger of the two remaining leaks. The dome will not shut off the gushing well, which is still spilling an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day; the goal is just to keep some of the oil out of the water by capturing it and then funneling it to a drill ship, called the Discoverer Enterprise, waiting on the surface. Think of the dome as an inverted cup gathering the gushing oil, and the drill pipe as a straw carrying it to the surface. If it sounds simple, it is not. Containment domes have been used in shallow water, but never at this depth. “This is new technology,” said Bob Fryar, BP’s senior vice president for operations in Angola, who was brought to Houston for the engineering effort. “It has never been done before.” BP was leasing the Deepwater Horizon oil rig from the owner, Transocean, when it exploded on April 20. BP officials said they hoped the dome would be working by Monday. If successful, it will remove about 85 percent of the oil spilling into the sea, officials said. To construct the dome, BP turned to Wild Well Control, a contractor that helps battle oil well disasters. Wild Well Control works in a crisis relief niche that rarely attracts such international attention but often provides high drama. Despite the hopes placed on the big box, questions remain: Can it withstand the conditions nearly a mile beneath the sea? Will ice plug up the pipe? Will bad weather interrupt the work? Will the combination of gas, oil and water mix uneasily — or explosively — on the ship above? Add global scrutiny to the mix, and you have some anxious engineers. “I’m worried,” said David Clarkson, BP’s vice president for project execution, “about every part.” BP engineers in Houston have sketched out models to account for what they expect to happen in this novel approach, along with several contingency plans. To combat the ice, which is likely to form as gas bubbles out of the oil, engineers will inject warm water along the pipe, and methanol into the oil. But as so many other response efforts so far have shown, engineering problems that can be solved on the ground can prove perilously stubborn 5,000 feet underwater. “We’ll learn a lot in the first three or four days,” Mr. Clarkson said. The oil captured in the box can be stored on the Discover Enterprise — more than five million gallons in all — and then offloaded to a standby vessel to be processed, Mr. Clarkson said. It may require special treatment at a refinery before it is reused, he said. “We know that we can get the fluid into the drill ship,” Mr. Clarkson said. “We don’t know the exact conditions that will arrive in the drill ship.” On Wednesday, for the first time in several days, cleanup crews were able to conduct a controlled burn in two of the most concentrated areas of the oil spill. Officials also said that engineers had shut off one of the three leaks from the damaged well late Tuesday night, although that did not appear to greatly diminish the overall flow. Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard said the spill was close to the Chandeleur Islands. “But,” she said, “the heavy concentrations are farther offshore.” BP continued to pursue other ways to bring the well under control soon. One idea being worked on by engineers, Mr. Fryar said, is called a top kill, and involves a heavy liquid being pumped into the well to overcome the pressure of the oil coming from below. That could stop the flow of oil. Mr. Fryar said a second containment dome was being built to collect oil coming from a leak in the riser, directly above the blowout preventer. But putting the dome over that leak would make it extremely difficult to work on the blowout preventer, so no decision has been made to deploy it yet. Engineers were continuing to try to get the blowout preventer to activate fully, which would shut off the flow. But after two weeks of futility, Mr. Fryar said, “the possibility of that is lessened.” | Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline;Gulf of Mexico;BP Plc;Accidents and Safety;Offshore Drilling and Exploration;Transocean Inc |
ny0088718 | [
"sports"
] | 2015/09/18 | Unbeaten Clemson Keeps Louisville Winless | Deshaun Watson threw two touchdown passes, Wayne Gallman ran for 139 yards, and No. 11 Clemson (3-0) held off host Louisville (0-3), 20-17, in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams. | College football;Clemson;University of Louisville |
ny0099644 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/06/22 | A Show of Solidarity in Harlem Churches After Charleston Killings | The hurt could be felt in the solemnity of Sunday sermons and read on the faces of those seated in the pews for the first services in New York City since a white gunman killed nine black churchgoers last week during a Bible study in Charleston, S.C. At black churches in Harlem, congregations grew beyond the Sunday regulars to include many who felt compelled to attend in solidarity after the rampage on Wednesday in Charleston, which left some worshipers wary of the very spaces meant as their sanctuaries. The services in New York echoed those in Charleston, where the politics of guns and of the Confederate flag mixed with messages of hope and the power of community. Investigators have said the attack was racially motivated. At the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III spoke of standing tall against the history of hate that animated the killings and heralded the strength of the victims’ families, who responded to the gunman with forgiveness . “They were Christians; they had to shake off hate,” he said, his red stole swinging with the inflection in his voice. “Because, you see, hatred kills the hater faster than it does the hated.” Nearby, at the First Corinthian Baptist Church , the Rev. Michael A. Walrond Jr. addressed the congregation in somber tones as he spoke of the country’s failure to acknowledge the darker parts of its history that remain deeply ingrained. He connected the killings in Charleston , at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church , to the fatal shooting in April of an unarmed black man by a police officer in nearby North Charleston. Both deadly episodes, Pastor Walrond said, “embody the disease of our country.” Pastor Walrond said he had been so disheartened by the church killings that, uncharacteristically, he had been unable to prepare a message to deliver to the diverse crowd of worshipers and tourists who filled the sanctuary up to the balcony. “Part of the problem why we continue to visit these moments is because of a lack of honesty about how we got here,” he said. “Racism, bigotry, prejudice and hatred are elements woven into the fabric of this country.” The man accused of the Charleston killings, Dylann Roof, 21, appeared in photographs with a Confederate flag, a handgun and the emblems of defunct white supremacist groups. Online postings attributed to him profess a racist worldview that spurred the killings. Mr. Roof had been welcomed by those in the evening Bible study before he opened fire, the authorities said. “The killing and the taking of their lives was an act by a very wicked, treacherous, demonic human being who was racist to his core,” said the Rev. Henry Allen Belin III, addressing the First African Methodist Episcopal Church: Bethel . Pastor Belin said he knew three of those killed, including the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, who welcomed Mr. Roof on Wednesday to sit and pray. “No matter how many times people may try to walk in and try to destroy or kill,” Pastor Belin added, “we’ve got to say peace be unto you.” At the Abyssinian Baptist Church, Heather Simpson, 59, said she found the sermon to be empowering. “It helps us to stand firm,” she said. Tyrice Harrell, 38, who listened from the choir pit, agreed. “We can’t let this incident make us afraid to attend church,” he said. | Abyssinian Baptist Church;African Methodist Episcopal Church;First Corinthian Baptist Church Manhattan NY;Harlem;Race and Ethnicity |
ny0179438 | [
"business"
] | 2007/08/17 | Top Talent Agent Joins William Morris | In a significant strengthening of its motion picture department, the William Morris Agency completed an expensive deal to hire Ed Limato, the longtime agent to A-list actors like Denzel Washington and Mel Gibson. Nearly all of Mr. Limato’s major clients, who also include Steve Martin and Richard Gere, have agreed to follow him to the agency from its competitor, International Creative Management. “This is a game changer for us,” said Jim Wiatt, chief executive of William Morris. “It’s rare that anybody of Ed’s stature becomes available.” Mr. Limato, 71, had been embroiled in a contract dispute with I.C.M. since early July, when the agency demoted him from his position as co-president as part of a management overhaul. On Monday, Mr. Limato won the right to leave I.C.M. despite his contract when an arbitrator ruled that a California labor statute made parts of the agreement void. “William Morris is by far the best place for me and all of my clients to continue to excel in the business at the highest level,” Mr. Limato said, adding, “I expect additional clients to be joining me.” Among Mr. Limato’s undecided clients are Billy Crystal, Liam Neeson and James Caviezel. | Morris William Agency;International Creative Management;Limato Ed |
ny0032620 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2013/12/20 | Fatal Assault and Fears of War as Turmoil Builds in South Sudan | A political crisis in South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, worsened significantly on Thursday, as a deadly assault hit a United Nations peacekeeping base, the number of civilians seeking refuge in the organization’s other facilities there exceeded 30,000 and diplomats expressed fears about the potential for a civil war. Britain began evacuating its citizens on Thursday. The United States suspended operations at its embassy in Juba, the capital, this week and strongly advised Americans to leave. In New York, Jan Eliasson, the United Nations deputy secretary general, said that the peacekeeping force’s base in the town of Akobo in Jonglei State had been assaulted, “and we have reports that lives are lost.” Later in the day, India’s United Nations ambassador, Asoke Mukerji, said three Indian peacekeepers in Akobo had been killed. Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said late Thursday that communications with the base in Akobo had been lost. “We have had some communications with peacekeepers in the area subsequent to the attack, but communications are extremely difficult, and we need to get our teams in by helicopter first thing tomorrow morning before we will know more,” he said in an email. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan, the peacekeeping force known by its acronym Unmiss, said in a statement that at the time of the assault by unidentified attackers, the Akobo base housed 43 Indian peacekeepers, six United Nations police advisers and two civilians of undisclosed nationalities, and about 30 South Sudanese who had sought refuge there from mayhem in the area. Earlier Thursday, the mission reported on its Twitter account that 20,000 people were housed at its two compounds in Juba and up to 14,000 at its compound in Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, about 125 miles north of Juba. The United Nations Security Council was expected to hold an emergency meeting about South Sudan on Friday. The situation in South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been tense for months, but it has quickly deteriorated in the past five days, when the president, Salva Kiir, accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of attempting a military coup, which Mr. Machar denied. There have been unconfirmed reports that more than 500 people have been killed and that sectarian animosities between the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups have been inflamed. In a letter to Congress released Thursday night, President Obama said 45 American troops had been sent to South Sudan to “support the security of U.S. personnel and our embassy.” In a statement, Mr. Obama warned that South Sudan “stands at the precipice.” Navi Pillay, the top human rights official at the United Nations, expressed concern on Thursday about what she called the “rapidly deteriorating security situation in South Sudan and the consequences for the civilian population.” The United Nations, which has operated in South Sudan for years and aided its transition to independence, has a tense relationship with the government, and South Sudanese officials have accused the organization of taking sides in the simmering conflict with Sudan. In April, seven United Nations employees and five Indian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in Jonglei that South Sudan attributed to rebels. A year ago, the military, in what it called a miscommunication, shot down a United Nations helicopter, killing all four Russian crew members. | Evacuation;South Sudan;Coups D'Etat;UN;Salva Kiir Mayardit;Great Britain;US Foreign Policy;Diplomats Embassies and Consulates |
ny0197356 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2009/10/12 | Gay Rights Marchers Press Cause in Washington | WASHINGTON — Impatient and discouraged by what they see as a certain detachment by President Obama on their issues, gay rights supporters took to the streets Sunday in the largest demonstration for gay rights here in nearly a decade. The rally was primarily the undertaking of a new generation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocates who have grown disillusioned with the movement’s leadership. Known as Stonewall 2.0 or the Prop. 8 Generation (a reference to the galvanizing effect that the repeal of California’s same-sex marriage law had on many young people), these activists, in their 20s and 30s, are at odds with advocates urging patience as Mr. Obama grapples with other pieces of his domestic agenda like the health care overhaul and the economic recovery. “I think this march represents the passing of the torch,” said Corey Johnson, 27, an activist and blogger for the gay-themed Web site Towleroad.com . “The points of power are no longer in the halls of Washington or large metropolitan areas. It’s decentralized now. You have young activists and gay people from all walks of life converging on Washington not because a national organization told them to, but because they feel the time is now.” The rally on Sunday and a black-tie gala on Saturday hosted by the Human Rights Campaign , the nation’s largest gay rights advocacy group, made for a glaring dichotomy. Mr. Obama, who spoke at the dinner, had the crowd on its feet reiterating his pledge to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and declaring his commitment to gay rights as “unwavering.” But at the rally, some gave the speech low marks for lacking anything new and failing to acknowledge several major issues confronting the movement. In the words of Billie Myers, a musician who spoke to an eager crowd of tens of thousands on the west lawn of the Capitol, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t like your speech.” The president did not lay out a timetable to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, voice support for any of the battles going on at state levels to allow same-sex couples more recognition under the law nor mention the march. “He knows this march is happening, and he can’t even acknowledge it?” said Robin McGehee, 36, a co-director of the march. Ms. McGehee took issue with people she believes are giving the president a pass. “In our community, there are people working hard to build a relationship with the president and people screaming in the streets for their rights,” she said. “There is an urgency with the people on the streets and a sense of ‘Oh, he’ll come around’ with the people who ate dinner with him.” The Human Rights Campaign, which helped organize the last gay rights march on Washington in 2000 but had virtually no involvement in Sunday’s event, stirred up some controversy over the weekend after its president, Joe Solmonese, wrote a letter to supporters urging them to take Mr. Obama at his word. “It’s not January 19, 2017,” he wrote, referring to what would be the last day of Mr. Obama’s presidency if he were to win a second term. While generally supportive of the president, many marchers said they felt that he had not delivered on campaign promises he made to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. “I think he has a lot on his plate,” said Rachael McIntosh, 25, of Worcester, Mass. “But I’d hoped we’d be a priority.” Ms. McIntosh raised a sign that read “Nobel Peace Prize. Earn It!” Organizers of the march encountered considerable opposition from within gay political circles and from those who argued that it was hastily planned and would divert resources from campaigns at the state level. Representative Barney Frank called the march “emotional satisfaction” for its organizers and said of their intention to pressure the Obama administration, “The only thing they’re going to put pressure on is the grass.” The organizers were rating the march a success, saying that at least 150,000 people had attended, though the authorities gave no official estimate of the crowd size. The marchers included many who were not gay but attended to support gay friends. Lisa Kimmey, 25, drove all night with gay friends from Chicago so she could attend the march with them. “If I can get married, if I can get my partner’s health insurance, then everyone else in this country should be able to. It’s 2009, and it’s unbelievable to me that they don’t have that,” Ms. Kimmey said. Dave Valk, 22, the student outreach coordinator for the march, said he believed that many people his age were embracing gay rights as the civil rights struggle of their time. “There are a lot of people getting involved not just because it’s a gay rights movement but because it’s a generational movement,” he said. “People feel like they’re part of a shift, that this is important.” | Homosexuality;Demonstrations and Riots;Freedom and Human Rights;United States Politics and Government;Washington (DC);Obama Barack |
ny0161078 | [
"business",
"retirement"
] | 2006/04/11 | Willing Workers, but Little Training to Be Found | NINE years ago, when she was 67, Loretta Handlin retired after 30 years in a variety of jobs, the last in an upholstery factory. But Ms. Handlin, of Newton, N.C., soon found that exchanging her wage for a smaller Social Security check made things too tight for her and her husband, so she returned to the factory part time, supplementing her government pension. Two years later, she was laid off. By then widowed, she feared a future of scrimping on her $750 a month from Social Security, she recalled recently, so she sought other part-time work. But with slender clerical experience and virtually no computer skills, she found her options limited, and she was unsuccessful. That is, until a job-training program for older people erased those deficits and qualified her for an opening at a company that produces shipping labels. The job at Creative Label Solutions in Conover, N.C., pays her $8.50 an hour for 15 to 20 hours a week. Between that and her Social Security income, she said, "now I'm comfortable." For many older Americans and their advocates, a big question is whether there will be enough such training programs to handle the large growth expected in the number of older workers who prefer -- or need -- to remain employed but require training to do so and cannot afford to pay for it. The number of such programs is woefully insufficient as it is, the advocates say, while the Social Security Administration estimates that the number of Americans 65 and older will double in the next three decades, to 70 million. Many workplace experts say the number of older people who will hold jobs in coming years will depend to a large degree on how many receive the training often needed in ever more electronic workplaces. That, in turn, will depend on whether business and the government rise to the challenge, they say. "It will require the nation to go through an attitudinal change to make sure that older workers are not screened out from employment and training services," said Donald L. Davis, vice president for work force development at the National Council on the Aging. His Washington-based nonprofit group helps manage the only federally funded employment training program for low-income older people, the Senior Community Service Employment Program. Ms. Handlin received her training in that program. "Often employers do not encourage older workers to go through retraining because they fear the payoff will not be there," Mr. Davis said. "But research has demonstrated that older employees tend to stay with employers more than younger employees do, and the older population is much more healthy today than it was decades ago." Martin Rome, vice president for communications at Experience Works, another Washington-based group that helps carry out the program, said that for years, federal funding had allowed the program to serve "only a single-digit percentage of those who need and want the training" and who are eligible for it. To qualify, a person has to be 55 or older with a household income no more than 125 percent of the federal poverty level -- currently, in nearly all states, $9,800 for a single person and $13,200 for a couple. Because of those ceilings, Mr. Rome said, the program excludes many moderate-income older people who want to continue or resume working but are thwarted because they cannot afford the general run of work-skills schools in their areas. Mr. Rome and other advocates for older people said that future administrations would have to do better than the Bush administration in approaching the training needs. They complained, for example, that President Bush's proposed budget for the 2007 fiscal year seeks $388 million for the Senior Community Service Employment Program, down from the $432 million appropriated in this year's budget. The $432 million is expected to provide training for about 92,000 people in the program year beginning July 1, the Labor Department says. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said in recent Congressional testimony that proposals by her department -- to streamline the program by cutting overhead costs and to raise the minimum eligibility age to 65 -- would result in more training for each dollar spent and "target program resources on those most in need." Critics challenge that assessment. As for the response from business, James Seith, national director of senior community service employment for the AARP Foundation, which provides various services to older people, cited developments that he said could create a favorable atmosphere for expanding publicly and privately financed training. Among them, he said, is the participation of more than 20 national trade and business groups in an AARP-created alliance to promote the hiring of such workers at millions of businesses. Mr. Rome of Experience Works said that in the end, another demographic reality might spur the creation of such programs. Given the decline in the nation's birthrate in recent decades, he said, "there will not be enough skilled younger workers." People of all ages and income groups can learn about job-training opportunities from many of the one-stop career centers sponsored by the Labor Department. The locations of the centers are available at (877) 872-5627 or online at servicelocator.org. | OLDER WORKERS;PROFESSIONS;LABOR;AGED;RETIREMENT |
ny0287872 | [
"us"
] | 2016/08/26 | Want to Own a Newspaper? A Vermont Contest Has Trouble Finding Takers | HARDWICK, Vt. — Like most people who work for small newspapers, Vanessa Fournier wears many hats. A photographer, she shoots pictures for The Hardwick Gazette, the weekly broadsheet that has been documenting life here in Vermont’s hardscrabble Northeast Kingdom since 1889. On Wednesdays, she is the paper’s local distributor. With bundles of the freshly printed Gazette tucked into the trunk of her Honda Civic, Ms. Fournier, 61, makes her way through town, plunking down papers on countertops, slipping them into wire racks and keeping up a cheerful patter with shopkeepers. Now, she worries that both jobs could end. The Gazette’s editor and publisher, Ross Connelly, announced in June that he was holding an essay contest to find a successor to take over the paper. He said that he still had the passion for newspapering, but that at 71, he lacked the energy. Unfortunately for him, the contest has not generated the interest that he had hoped would make his plan financially viable. So he has extended the deadline to Sept. 20 from Aug. 11. When asked if he had a Plan C if he had still not received enough entries in a month, he offered a blunt analogy: He could extend the deadline again, he said, but that would be “like pounding your thumb with a hammer — it’s not going to stop hurting.” That could sum up the newspaper business these days, at least for many big dailies, which have been upended by the internet and are in a frantic race to reinvent themselves to stay relevant in today’s crowded and fragmented news media environment. The New England landscape is dotted with papers of significant lineage, many of them going through upheavals in ownership as they struggle to survive. Image Old editions of The Gazette, which has been its community’s newspaper since 1889. Credit Jacob Hannah for The New York Times The Rutland Herald, founded in 1794, calls itself “the oldest continuously family-owned newspaper in the United States published under the same name in the same city.” But financial woes forced The Herald and its sister paper, The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, neither of them very far from here, to drop to a print schedule of four days a week from seven in July. Then on Aug. 11, the papers were abruptly sold to out-of-state publishers. For now, community weeklies like The Gazette are not quite as bad off as the dailies. Some in Vermont have been sold recently but appear to be receiving new infusions of cash. The Gazette has even managed to stay afloat all these years without something that most newspapers consider essential to their future: an online presence. The Gazette has a website , but it serves only as a billboard for the essay contest. “It’s not a great time to be in the community newspaper business, but it’s the sector that has survived the shift to digital the best,” said Joshua Benton, the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, which studies the future of journalism. “Very small papers don’t face much in the way of local online competition, the ad base is almost entirely local, and they have advertising and reader relationships that go back decades.” But, Mr. Benton cautioned, the ad base can dry up, especially in the era of Amazon and big-box stores. The Gazette has been operating for 127 years, growing along with the town’s granite industry. Work at the quarries peaked in 1910, as did Hardwick’s population, hitting 3,200. The town then retrenched as it returned to its agricultural roots. Image Photos of past owners of The Gazette on a wall at the paper’s office. Credit Jacob Hannah for The New York Times It has emerged in recent years as a center of the local food movement , in which farmers, entrepreneurs and consumers buy and invest locally to support one another and help the local economy. Still, this section of Vermont lags the state in some economic indicators, and the population is now 3,000. Mr. Connelly, a trim man with close-cropped white hair and a steady gaze, who has carved out a small sitting space in front of piles of paper on his overstuffed wooden desk, has been the Gazette’s steward for three decades. He is determined to find someone to whom to pass the torch. But when the contest closed Aug. 11, he had not received the 700 essays that he said was the minimum needed to make the contest financially viable. He would not say how many he had received, nor would he share the contents of the entries, saying he did not want to skew the judging. He did say that the paper, which has a paid circulation of 2,200, grossed $240,000 last year. He had figured that, with a contest entry fee of $175, 700 essays would yield enough, $122,500, to cover the Gazette building, computers and taxes and send him on his glide to retirement. He has a few guesses about why not enough entries materialized. “Maybe the people who have experience know that you’re not going to get rich and you’re going to work your butt off,” he said. “The hours are long and the pay is not great, and so they were smart enough to say, ‘I don’t want any part of this.’” Image Mr. Connelly talking with Sandy Atkins while preparing the week’s newspaper. Credit Jacob Hannah for The New York Times “And,” he added, “there’s a generation and a half now of people who don’t even know what a newspaper is.” What it is not, he said, is social media. “For someone to hold up a Facebook post as journalism is kind of an affront,” he said. Journalism at The Gazette consists of keeping track of local government and the goings on here and in a few surrounding towns: With milk prices falling, for example, dairy farmers are banding together to increase their clout. The nearby town of Craftsbury, a Gazette reporter wrote, is “joining the 21st century” with high-speed internet. Mr. Connelly says that he has also covered topics that some readers objected to, including a big bank scandal involving a local resident and the harassment of a transgender police officer by a town official. The paper, running 10 or 12 pages, is filled with the staples of community weeklies: local sports, calendars, birth announcements and obituaries, the police blotter and reviews of artistic endeavors. In last week’s edition, one correspondent, Michael Bielawski, wrote five of the seven front-page stories. Image Vanessa Fournier, a photographer for The Gazette, delivered bundles of the paper from the trunk of her car last week. Credit Katharine Q. Seelye/The New York Times The Gazette has plenty of ads. In addition to serving as editor and publisher, Mr. Connelly is the ad salesman, since his wife, Susan Jarzyna , died five years ago. He said he had learned the importance of developing relationships with local retailers. “You have to keep going back and become a familiar face to them, and then they begin to understand that we’re a local business just like they are,” he said. “And if you have to spend four hours to get two ads, that’s what you do.” Mr. Connelly takes a dim view of the headphone-wearing, phone-obsessed, plugged-in culture. So it is little surprise that The Gazette has avoided being available online. “I don’t believe in giving away my product,” Mr. Connelly said. “That was one of the big mistakes newspapers made, because now you have people thinking it’s free.” In his view, the hard copy of the paper fosters civic engagement in a way that a smartphone does not. Image Mr. Connelly and his family used to live on the second floor of the newspaper’s building. Credit Jacob Hannah for The New York Times “When you pick up your paper, you may see a headline or a photograph that will grab your attention, and you’ll say to the cashier or the person next to you, ‘Did you see that?’” he said. “It brings people together. It is a building block of democracy.” Nor is he impressed with social media; the anonymity of it, he said, can breed anarchy. By contrast, he prints letters to the editor only if they include the writer’s signature, name, address and phone number. Mr. Connelly and his wife initially lived on the second floor of the Gazette building. Their son, Sawyer, 25, who works for a wildlife conservation group in Montana, wrote on the contest website his reminiscence of growing up at the paper. On production nights, he said, he would curl up under his mother’s desk with the family dog “and fall asleep amidst the sounds of keystrokes and the smell of coffee and ink.” He said that he and his father were unprepared to deal with his mother’s death. The Gazette, he said, “was very much the two of them.” Now, he said, “and I’m sure my mother would agree, it’s time for my father to begin his next adventure.” | Newspaper;Hardwick Gazette;Ross Connelly;Hardwick |
ny0242238 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2011/03/28 | DJ Megatron Shot to Death on Staten Island | A hip-hop disc jockey who was a featured regular on a popular music-video show, “ 106 & Park ,” was shot to death early Sunday morning a block from his home on Staten Island, the police said. The victim, Corey McGriff, 32, who went by the name DJ Megatron , was well-known within Staten Island hip-hop circles as a promoter of up-and-coming artists, but was gaining wider recognition with his appearances on “106 & Park,” on Black Entertainment Television. The police, responding to an emergency call, found Mr. McGriff dead on Osgood Avenue with a gunshot wound to his torso about 2 a.m. Sunday. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear on Sunday afternoon. A friend, Keith Robinson, said he believed it was a random killing. “This was the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Mr. Robinson, the brother of Mr. McGriff’s fiancée, Shyleen Robinson. On “106 & Park,” Mr. McGriff conducted man-on-the-street interviews on a variety of topics. He had previously worked at the radio station WQHT-FM (97.1), known as Hot 97. He often promoted Staten Island hip-hop artists on air, Mr. Robinson said. Earlier in his career, he had worked at radio stations in Boston and Philadelphia, friends said. In recent weeks, Mr. McGriff had become engaged to Ms. Robinson, 24, with whom he had a 10-month-old son, Mr. Robinson said. Mr. McGriff also had a daughter and another son. | Megatron DJ;Murders and Attempted Murders;McGriff Corey;Disc Jockeys;Radio;Staten Island (NYC) |
ny0075527 | [
"us"
] | 2015/05/04 | Texas Police Kill Gunmen at Exhibit Featuring Cartoons of Muhammad | Two gunmen were killed after they opened fire Sunday evening outside an event hosted by an anti-Islam group in Garland, Tex., featuring cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, local officials said. According to the authorities, the two assailants shot a security guard and were, in turn, shot and killed by police officers. Officials did not name the gunmen or assign a motive for the attack. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Dallas said the agency was providing investigative and bomb technician assistance to the Garland police. The City of Garland confirmed the episode in a Facebook posting . The shooting began shortly before 7 p.m. outside the Curtis Culwell Center at an event organized by the American Freedom Defense Initiative , an anti-Islam organization based in New York. “As today’s Muhammad Art Exhibit event at the Curtis Culwell Center was coming to an end,” the Facebook posting said, “two males drove up to the front of the building in a car. Both males were armed and began shooting at a Garland I.S.D. security officer.” The Garland Independent School District said in a statement that its security officer, Bruce Joiner, was shot in the ankle and taken to a hospital. He was later released. The police, fearing that the gunmen’s car might contain an explosive device, dispatched a bomb squad and evacuated the center and nearby businesses, including a Walmart. The event included a contest for the best caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, with a $10,000 top prize. Drawings of the prophet are considered offensive in most interpretations of Islam. In January, gunmen in Paris attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper known for printing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, killing 12 people. A live video stream of the Garland event on the organizer’s website recorded the moment when the crowd was interrupted by a private security guard in military fatigues, who bounded onto the stage to announce that there had been a shooting outside. “Were the suspects Muslim?” a man shouted. “I have no idea right now,” said the man in fatigues. Geert Wilders, an anti-Islam leader in the Netherlands for the Party for Freedom, attended the event and delivered a speech. After the attack, he wrote “never surrender to terrorism!” in a Twitter post, and he posted a picture of himself with what he said were SWAT forces taken before the gunmen opened fire. Pamela Geller , an outspoken anti-Islam activist and an organizer of the event, said the group decided to hold the event in the Curtis Culwell Center because members had heard that a Muslim group had a conference in the same room after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office. Ms. Geller described Sunday’s event as pro-free speech, and said that Muslims had become a “special class” that Americans were no longer allowed to offend. “The media is self-enforcing a Shariah,” she said, referring to Islamic law. “Under the Shariah you cannot criticize or offend Islam.” | Murders and Homicides;Islam;American Freedom Defense Initiative;Discrimination;Pamela Geller;Garland TX |
ny0145480 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2008/10/15 | Italians Outraged by French Mercy to Ex-Member of Red Brigades | ROME — A decision by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France not to extradite a former member of the Red Brigades, the group that terrorized Italy throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, has provoked outrage in Italy and stirred dormant tensions between the countries. The decision also raised questions about the role played by the first lady of France, Carla Sarkozy, who had visited the former member, Marina Petrella, last week and personally assured her that she would not be extradited. Ms. Petrella was convicted of involvement in murder and other crimes in Italy, and in 1993 fled to France, where President François Mitterrand had a policy of granting asylum to leftist Italian militants if they renounced violence. But later French governments moved away from that policy, and she was jailed in August 2007. This August she was released after her health deteriorated because of severe depression. She had stopped eating, her lawyer, Irène Terrel, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “She just wanted to die,” Ms. Terrel said. Mr. Sarkozy announced over the weekend that Ms. Petrella, 54 and hospitalized in Paris, would not be extradited, for what he called humanitarian reasons. Sabina Rossa, a center-left Italian lawmaker whose father was killed by the Red Brigades in 1979, said on a morning radio talk show on Tuesday that Mr. Sarkozy’s justification was unacceptable. “It’s saying that Italy is a country at risk, without democratic certainties, where a person’s health is not evaluated seriously,” she said. Ms. Rossa said France had a distorted view of what life was like in Italy during the years of terrorism. “There are people who committed atrocious crimes and left a trail of blood, but in France there are those who see them as victims of political persecution, with an aura of the romantic hero,” she said. The Red Brigades’ most notorious crime was the kidnapping and killing of a former prime minister, Aldo Moro, in 1978. Ms. Petrella was convicted of involvement in Red Brigades activities in Rome from 1977 to 1982, including the kidnapping and murder of Mr. Moro; the murder of Gen. Enrico Galvaligi, the head of antiterrorist forces in northern Italy; the murder of a police commissioner and the kidnapping of a magistrate. Since her arrest, groups in France have protested her expected extradition. Several high-profile personalities, including Mrs. Sarkozy and her sister, the actress Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, have sympathized with her. Last Wednesday, Mrs. Sarkozy visited Ms. Petrella in the hospital to personally reassure her that she would not be extradited. “We could not let this woman die,” she told the French newspaper Libération this week. A group representing victims of Italian terrorism said they would protest in Paris this month and demand that Mr. Sarkozy reverse his decision. The president of the group, Bruno Berardi, whose father was killed by a Red Brigades member in 1978, said he had already initiated a hunger strike. “Let’s see if a protest on the part of a victim of terrorism has the same effect on the French president,” he said. Ms. Terrel said Ms. Petrella was still too weak to be happy about the turn in her fortunes. “If anything, she’s relieved to be staying in Paris,” she said. | Italy;France;Petrella Marina;Red Brigades;Extradition;Terrorism;Murders and Attempted Murders;Hunger Strikes |
ny0081046 | [
"business"
] | 2015/02/25 | Donald R. Keough, Who Led Coca-Cola Through New Coke Debacle, Dies at 88 | Donald R. Keough, who led Coca-Cola through the disastrous introduction of New Coke in 1985 and the return of the original formula just 10 weeks later, died on Tuesday in Atlanta, his family said. He was 88. When the company introduced New Coke, using a sweeter formula that many consumers said they preferred to the original and to Coke’s longtime rival Pepsi-Cola, it knew it was taking a risk. But the reaction was far more intense than Coke had anticipated. “All of the time and money and skill that we poured into consumer research could not reveal the depth of feeling for the original taste of Coca-Cola,” Mr. Keough said at a news conference when the reversal was announced. “Some cynics say we planned the whole thing” as a marketing ploy to drive up sales, he said. “The truth is we are not that dumb and we are not that smart.” Nonetheless, the original formula’s return as Coca-Cola Classic led to a jump in overall sales. (The word Classic remained on the label until 2009.) Mr. Keough later suggested that his tombstone should read, “He’s not that dumb and he’s not that smart.” He was born in Maurice, Iowa, on Sept. 4, 1926, and served in the Navy at the end of World War II. He then attended Creighton University in Omaha, where he hosted “The Coffee Counter,” a local TV talk show. It preceded one hosted by Johnny Carson. “He used to tell a story about how he was a young guy in Omaha and just wanted to be in TV,” said the Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, where Mr. Keough was chairman of the board for many years. “But then there was this other young guy, he would say, who used to work twice as hard as he did — Johnny Carson.” Tired of chatting over coffee, Mr. Keough decided to learn the coffee business, and in 1950 he joined the Paxton & Gallagher Company, a wholesale grocery business and maker of Butter-Nut Coffee. In 1964 the company was absorbed by Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola eventually gave up on the coffee business, but not on Mr. Keough. He headed the company’s food division in the early 1970s, and when Coca-Cola bought Columbia Pictures in 1982, he became the studio’s chairman. (Both businesses have since been sold off.) He also helped bring Warren E. Buffett, an old friend from Omaha, onto Coke’s board, where he served for 20 years. Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s investment firm, is Coca-Cola’s largest shareholder, and Mr. Buffett’s son Howard is on its board. In 1981, Mr. Keough became president and chief operating officer and right hand to Roberto C. Goizueta, Coca-Cola’s chairman and chief executive. New Coke notwithstanding, Coca-Cola became a global titan in the dozen years they shared leadership. Mr. Keough retired from Coca-Cola in 1993, and the next day he joined Allen & Company, a boutique investment bank, as chairman. He was a close friend and confidant of Herbert Allen Jr., the son of the firm’s founder, and a fixture at the company’s annual conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, which rivals the World Economic Forum in the boldface names and corporate leaders it attracts. In 2008, at Mr. Buffett’s urging, Mr. Keough revisited the New Coke debacle in a book, “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure.” One commandment was “Assume infallibility.” “The word ‘success’ has always made me nervous, because I believe built into that word are a couple of viruses — arrogance and complacency — and left unchecked, they can ensure failure,” Mr. Keough told The New York Times that year. He served on the board of Notre Dame, which five of his six children attended, for 13 years. “His gifts to us have really been transformative,” Father Jenkins said. “We’re the Fighting Irish, for instance, but we had nothing to speak of in terms of Irish studies until his gift in the 1990s, and today we’re the most important center of Irish studies outside Ireland.” Last year the university announced it was opening its first new college in almost a century, the Donald R. Keough School of Global Affairs. Mr. Keough is survived by his wife, Marilyn; his daughters Kathleen Soto, Shayla Rumely and Eileen Millard; his sons Michael, Patrick and Clarke; 18 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. In his 2008 Times interview, Mr. Keough spoke about a lesson he learned from working in the stockyards of Sioux City, Iowa. “When I was 15 or 16 years old, I got a job buying bulls to ship to processing plants back East,” he said. “I worked for a man named Doyle Harmon, and my first day on the job, he chastised me for paying too much. He said, ‘Concentrate on the bull, not on the language of selling.’ I’ve made most of the mistakes in my career by not concentrating on the bull.” | Obituary;Coca-Cola;Soda;Donald R. Keough |
ny0007841 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2013/05/31 | Youth Brigade at French Open Is Dwindling | PARIS — The last teenager in the men’s singles draw at the French Open lasted until 4:04 p.m. Paris time on Thursday, and Lucas Pouille, a young Frenchman, would have been eliminated sooner by Grigor Dimitrov if not for a couple of rain delays. As the years and the springs (yes, this is spring) roll by, it seems ever harder to believe that Michael Chang and Mats Wilander won this title when they were just 17 or even that Rafael Nadal — a claycourt phenom if ever there was one — managed it when he was 19. “Too good; yeah, Rafa, he’s another level I think,” said the Australian 18-year-old Nick Kyrgios, the youngest player in this year’s men’s draw. Kyrgios, one of only three teens in the men’s event, lost, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, in the second round on Wednesday to the 10th-seeded Marin Cilic. Asked if he agreed with the prevailing theory that a teenager could not win the biggest titles anymore, he took his time answering. “I think the biggest difference with like the juniors and teenagers at our age is that they’re a lot fitter and stronger than we are,” Kyrgios said of the veterans. “And yeah, jeez, tough question. I think belief is probably the main thing as well. I think today I was a bit overwhelmed first game. As soon as I walked on the court, he just seemed so professional. I think I was a bit focused on what he was doing rather than what I had to do out there.” There have been some close calls: Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open at age 20 in 2008, and Juan Martín del Potro won the United States Open at 20 in 2009. But Nadal remains the last teenager to win a men’s Grand Slam singles title, taking the first of his seven French Open titles in 2005. The last teen who even managed to push deep into the second week at a major was Kyrgios’s Australian compatriot Bernard Tomic, who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2011 at age 18. Meanwhile, the statistical evidence against prodigies doing prodigious things in men’s tennis keeps piling up. Greg Sharko of the ATP Tour said that the average age of players in the top 100 in the men’s rankings has increased from 24.92 years in 2003 to 27.13 in 2012. Sharko said the average age of players in the men’s singles at the French Open has increased from 25.20 years in 2003 to 26.78 years this year. What is remarkable is how steady the rise has been: The average age of the top 100 has increased every year without fail for the last decade. At the moment, there is not one teenager in the top 100. The three who made it into the 128-player draw did so through wildcards or qualifying. Kyrgios, who received a wildcard through Tennis Australia’s reciprocal agreement with the French Tennis Federation, is ranked 262 and still plans to play in the junior tournament here. Jiri Vesely, a 19-year-old Czech who qualified, is ranked 127th. Pouille, a solidly built 19-year-old Loon-Plage, France who received a wild card, is ranked 324. “I see two reasons for all this,” said Fabrice Santoro, the retired French player who had plenty of tour success as a teenager. “The first reason is that the average level of play is higher now than ever and so for a young guy to get ranked 150 or 200 is harder than before. Image Lucas Pouille, 19, one of three teenagers in the men’s singles draw at the French Open, lost on Thursday. Credit Kenzo Tribouillard/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The other reason, which is the principal reason, is that today the physical level of the top players is so high that you just can’t have this level when you are 19. You have to work for this kind of level for years, and in my view you can’t come into a Grand Slam at that age and beat David Ferrer the Wednesday in the quarters, Rafa Nadal in the semis on the Friday and Novak Djokovic on the Sunday. “You’re dead if you do that, just dead,” Santoro said, dragging out the final “d” for emphasis. “Even to win one of those matches is a colossal effort.” Patrice Dominguez, the former national technical director for the French Tennis Federation, said that in the 2000s when the French analyzed player development their conclusion was that anyone who was not in the top 100 by age 20 would have no chance to make the top 10. “We did the research; there wasn’t anyone, it did not exist,” Dominguez said. “Now I really believe that is no longer true. Players are coming to the fore later, at 23 or 24.” One suspects that the push to increase rewards for rank-and-file players, which has seen all four of the Grand Slam tournaments dramatically increase prize money for early-round losers, will only increase career lengths for veteran players who might not once have seen the economic sense in continuing. “You can play longer,” Dominguez said. “But there is also the injury issue. You are injured for two and a half years out of 10 years in tennis.” But that extra money also pays for what once was only available to the stars: fitness trainers, physiotherapists, sophisticated medical advice. That world has already been democratized even if no one outside the top 10 can match the means of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray when it comes to a support structure. The barriers to youth do not exist to the same degree in the women’s game, where there were 15 teenagers in the French Open singles draw, including the 16-year-old Donna Vekic of Croatia and 17-year-old Ash Barty of Australia. But the only teen into the third round as of Thursday afternoon was Monica Puig, a 19-year-old from Puerto Rico. But the average age of the women has been moving steadily upward as well. According to Kevin Fischer of the WTA, the average age of French Open singles players has rising by about one year per decade since 1993. The average was 22.56 years in 1993; 23.3 years in 2003 and 24.54 in 2013. That is still more than two years younger than the men. “All we have to do is say that the teens can’t do it, and there will be a new Wilander or Chang or Nadal who will come and win something at 17 or 18,” Dominguez said with a laugh. “But overall there’s no question it’s much more difficult. The process of developing mentally and physically and psychologically is more complicated. But what I don’t think is a big problem is the technical side. You can have the technique you need to win a Grand Slam at that age.” Pouille said he had seen big changes, however, from watching video of Nadal’s first French Open victory in 2005. “There’s a world of difference in the level in my opinion,” he said. “I have the feeling he’s gotten better every year. To win a Slam now in your teens, unless you’re a magician, is awfully complicated.” Pouille said it was not a question of self-belief, however, not a question of hearing that youth cannot be served and letting it affect the results on the court. “No, no, no,” he said. “Because I’m someone who is very impatient, and if I could get it to go faster, believe me, I’m not going to hold back. When I went on the court against Dimitrov today, I wanted to win and I was definitely not telling myself, ‘Hey, I’m a bit young. If I lose it’s understandable. He has all the experience.’ Today I lost because he was better, not because of the age.” Jim Courier, a French Open champion at age 20 in 1991, believes that the trend is clear but that the possibility for teenaged exceptions remains. “I have no doubt it will happen again,” Courier said, “when a very special player comes along.” | Paris France;Tennis;French Open |
ny0274319 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2016/02/05 | A Mishandled Concussion Leads to a Review of Protocol | SAN FRANCISCO — The N.F.L. said it may change its concussion protocol after coaches and officials mishandled St. Louis Rams quarterback Case Keenum , who was not removed from a game despite being disoriented after being knocked to the ground. Video On social media and the web, commenters reacted to the news that former N.F.L. quarterback Ken Stabler’s brain had C.T.E, believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head. Late in a game against the Baltimore Ravens in November, Keenum was knocked down, tried to get up, wobbled and fell back down. Dazed, he was helped to his feet by a teammate. The Rams ’ trainer, Reggie Scott, ran onto the field to look at Keenum, who then stayed in the game . Scott was told by an official to leave the field or his team would be charged with a timeout, so he returned to the sideline. Two plays later, Keenum was sacked, and he fumbled. After the game, Keenum was found to have sustained a concussion, and he did not play in the next two games. Jeff Miller, the N.F.L.’s senior vice president of health and safety policy, said that Keenum should have been removed from the game to see if he had a concussion. “This demonstrated an area where there were definitely not best practices,” he said. He added that the team’s doctors and the league’s medical personnel would meet at the N.F.L. combine this month to discuss whether to alter the rules governing assessing concussions. Miller also said that the number of documented concussions increased by 31.6 percent , 271 in 2015 compared to 206 in 2014, partly because the number of players who were screened for concussions doubled. He also said that more players are self-reporting concussions. “That’s a positive trend in terms of the culture change,” he said. | Football;Concussion;Case Keenum;NFL; Super Bowl; Super Bowl 2015;Rams |
ny0271939 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2016/05/11 | Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Fiasco Is a Harbinger of Mainland Woes | To tourists, Puerto Rico means piña coladas and sunbathing. To Puerto Ricans, it looks very different: The unemployment rate is over 12 percent, schools and hospitals are closing, and the government debt is so huge it makes Detroit’s look modest. Puerto Rico is now supposed to pay an unfathomable $2 billion to bondholders on July 1 — which it cannot do — even as it accrues pension obligations to its workers and lets public works lapse. A relief bill is expected to be introduced in Congress on Wednesday, but even if it passes and works, the island will not be able to pull out of its financial tailspin for years. But mainland residents should not look smugly at Puerto Rico. Across America, dozens of cities, counties and states may be heading down the same financial rabbit hole. Illinois, New Jersey, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Jacksonville, Fla., to name just a few, are all facing their own slowly unspooling financial disasters. How Puerto Rico Debt Is Grappling With a Debt Crisis The new debt relief law is stirring colonial resentment, as Puerto Rican officials denounced the “junta” — or federal control board — that will soon direct this island’s failing governance and finances. The blame lies with what economists call “deferred costs.” Generous pension promises made decades ago, without enough funding, are now coming due as baby boomers retire. Bonds issued in the distant past to build bridges, highways and other projects also must be paid — even as the projects themselves could by now use expensive makeovers. You cannot necessarily see deferred costs, lurking in a shadowy realm known as “off the balance sheet.” But deferring them doesn’t make them go away. They actually compound. “New York City has $85 billion of retiree health obligations all by itself,” said Richard Ravitch, the former lieutenant governor of New York State and an informal adviser to Detroit’s financial control board. He helped New York City resolve its financial crisis in 1975; today he worries about possible replays across America. “We’ve promised more than we can pay without confiscatory levels of taxation,” Mr. Ravitch said. “Puerto Rico is just, arithmetically, the most egregious example of borrowing to cover up deficits.” Image Students playing at an elementary school in Hato Rey, P.R., on Monday. Schools, hospitals and businesses are threatened by the American commonwealth’s increasing debt crisis. Credit Erika P. Rodriguez for The New York Times In Washington, for example, the peril of deferred costs hit home for riders of the Metro last month, when transit officials announced that the entire subway system was in need of urgent repairs and would be closed in pieces, on a rolling basis, possibly for months at a time. In March, the system was closed entirely for a day after a fire broke out, similar to one that had caused the death of a passenger in 2015. Federal safety regulators found that the authority — run by the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland and the federal government — had put off fixing leaks and corroded equipment for years. Similarly, in Michigan, Flint’s nightmare of contaminated water has its roots in a decrepit local water system that was built decades ago during boom times, and is now too costly for the shrunken city to fix or replace. The streets and lighting system of East Cleveland, Ohio, are so far gone and repairs so out of reach that the dwindling city recently sought permission from the state to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy — just in time, as luck may have it, for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next door. In Puerto Rico, signs of desperation include a highest-in-the-nation sales tax — raised to 11.5 percent last year, up from 8 percent — and the mortgaging of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. Named for “the father of modern Puerto Rico,” the tourism hub was recently hocked to a Mexican investment firm to make sure planes could keep landing. Image Water fountains in Flint, Mich., near where President Obama participated in a meeting last week. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times “We have over 30 dams in Puerto Rico, and I think only one works,” said Eduardo Bhatia, the island’s senate president, in an interview earlier this year. “We’re here in the rain forest, and we have plenty of water. It’s insane.” Yesteryear’s spending decisions are coming to haunt officials around the country. Illinois, for instance, has come to grief over a century’s worth of deferred pension obligations: Last year, the State Supreme Court said it had found warnings from “as long ago as 1917” that the pension system was veering toward insolvency. The warnings did little good, and by 2003 the state was so hopelessly far behind on paying its pension costs that it opted for the same magic bullet Puerto Rico uses: borrowing to pay bills. From 2003 to 2011, Illinois borrowed more than $17 billion to try to replenish its pension system. It did not work. Today Illinois has a bigger pension gap than ever, officially $111 billion but probably much bigger in real-world terms — plus the additional $17 billion of bond debt. Another cautionary tale comes from Jefferson County, Ala., which in 2011 filed what was then the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history. The immediate cause? Deferring the cost of fixing an aging sewer system for more than 100 years, to the tune of $3.1 billion in sewer bonds. Image The Washington Metro is being closed in pieces on a rolling basis for urgent repairs. Credit Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Kicking the can that far down the road was a community effort: 20 cities and towns in Jefferson County, large and small, had shoved responsibility for their decrepit sewer systems onto the county, avoiding having to take heat from their residents for raising rates to pay for maintenance. Finally a federal judge ordered the county to fix the system, which had become a health hazard. And the cost of borrowing enough to cover a century’s worth of deferred maintenance was what ultimately sank the county. In Puerto Rico, where the island’s $72 billion bond debt is out in the open, even now there is a tendency to overlook its unfunded pension obligations, stated at $46 billion. For years, when its government was faced with bills it could not pay, Puerto Rico issued new bonds to get the money — a little like a homeowner taking out a second mortgage to buy groceries. The practice is widely known to be unsustainable. Image Debt from massive sewer improvements in Jefferson County, Ala., threatens to drive the county into a historic bankruptcy. Credit Charles Nesbitt/The Birmingham News, via Associated Press At this point, conservative Republicans see taxpayers being liable for a big bailout. Democrats say the proposed reforms will punish ordinary Puerto Ricans who did nothing wrong. Elected officials on the island see federal oversight as neocolonial rule. Creditors hear themselves called “vultures” and fear being hit with all the losses. And yet some of them have still offered to lend more money, if only to tide Puerto Rico over through the July 1 payment due date. “Their proposed ‘fixes’ are aimed at misinforming the public and dissuading Congress from doing what is right for our 3.5 million American citizens,” Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said in a statement last month. “The Commonwealth is insolvent, and the situation requires responsible efforts to find a solution.” Fewer tourists, fewer sales, fewer workers, fewer paychecks — all these mean less tax revenue for the island’s government, bigger deficits and a search for more things to tax that could discourage still more workers or tourists. The spiral is feeding itself, and while Congress gropes for solutions, the day-to-day problems keep getting worse. | Puerto Rico;Pensions and Retirement Plans;Government bond;Municipal bond;Civil service;US Economy;Debt;US;US states;Economy |
ny0141844 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2008/11/16 | Steve Breaston Emerging With the Cardinals | It is easy to go unnoticed on a team with star receivers like Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, but Steve Breaston, the Cardinals’ second-year wide receiver out of Michigan, has clearly established himself as a favorite of Kurt Warner, the team’s veteran quarterback. Breaston, right, who also returns kickoffs and punts, is on pace for 82 receptions and 1,115 yards. Although he had only 39 receiving yards in Week 9, the week after Boldin returned from a head injury, Breaston responded with 7 receptions for 121 yards last week against the 49ers. He has had just one game with fewer than 77 receiving yards since Week 3. The Cardinals’ high-powered passing game should be fun to watch this week against the Seahawks, a team ranked 31st in the N.F.L. against the pass, allowing 14 passing touchdowns while grabbing 4 interceptions. Warner can be expected to spread the ball around to his three primary receivers. Ground Game Could Help Hill When the 49ers changed quarterbacks from J. T. O’Sullivan to Shaun Hill, they hoped to have a less erratic passing game. In the first half of Monday’s game against the Cardinals, the plan worked perfectly with Hill putting together 107 passing yards and 2 touchdowns for a 106.7 passer rating. Things fell apart in the second half, when his 110 passing yards, no touchdowns and 2 interceptions resulted in a 25.6 rating and a loss. Despite the drop-off, the team seemed rejuvenated with Hill under center. Hill, a seven-year veteran from Maryland, may be able to progress more this week when facing the Rams at home. Ranked 25th in the N.F.L. against the pass, the Rams gave up 47 points to the Jets last week with much of the damage coming on the ground. If Frank Gore, the 49ers’ bruising tailback, can mimic the success of the Jets’ Thomas Jones, Hill should be able to put up decent numbers. Elam Remains Steady For 15 seasons in Denver, Jason Elam was exactly what any team would want in a place-kicker. His amazing blend of power and accuracy resulted in a record-tying 63-yard field goal in 1998 and years of success for the team. Now kicking for the Falcons, it has been more of the same for Elam, who is 19 for 21 on field goals and perfect on 22 extra points. Even his power appears to remain with two field goals of 50 or more yards. Listed as questionable with a hip injury, Elam may miss facing his old team on Sunday. | Arizona Cardinals;Football |
ny0133825 | [
"business"
] | 2008/03/31 | Doubt Cast on 2 Drugs Used to Lower Cholesterol | CHICAGO — Two widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, may not work and should be used only as a last resort, a panel of four cardiologists told an audience of more than 5,000 people at a major cardiology conference on Sunday. Instead, physicians and patients should rely more heavily on older cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, which have proven benefits and can be cheaper, the panel said. “The strongest recommendation we can make on this panel is to go back to statins,” said Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale. “They work.” Statins include drugs like Lipitor and simvastatin, the generic version of Zocor . But other, lesser-known drugs like niacin should also be tried before Vytorin and Zetia, the panel said. Vytorin and Zetia are among the top-selling drugs in the world, with combined sales of $5 billion last year. About five million people worldwide, including four million Americans, take the medicines, which have been heavily advertised to consumers in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine made a similar recommendation about the drugs in an editorial published on Sunday. Both the panel and the editorial were timed to coincide with the release of full results from a two-year clinical trial that showed that the drugs failed to slow, and might have even sped up, the growth of fatty plaques in the arteries. Growth of those plaques is closely correlated with heart attacks and strokes. Merck and Schering-Plough , the companies that make Vytorin and Zetia, said on Sunday that they disagreed with the recommendations. Vytorin and Zetia have been proved to lower cholesterol and are valuable treatments for patients, said Dr. Rick Veltri, vice president of the Schering-Plough research institute. “We feel that nothing’s changed,” Dr. Veltri said. On Monday, shares of Merck fell $6.77 to $37.74 while Schering fell $5.07 to $14.40 at mid-day. The stakes of the debate are high both medically and financially. The drugs produce about 70 percent of Schering-Plough’s profit, according to analysts. Prescriptions for the medicines have already dipped by about 15 percent since January, when preliminary results were disclosed from the trial discussed in detail on Sunday. Still, the drugs are very widely used, with about three million prescriptions written each month in the United States alone. Unlike statins, which block the liver from making cholesterol, Zetia works by blocking the intestine from absorbing cholesterol in food. Vytorin is a single pill that combines Zetia with simvastatin, or Zocor. LDL cholesterol, the harmful kind, is known as a risk factor for heart disease, and so doctors have generally assumed that lowering LDL cholesterol would reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. But proving that a drug actually cuts those risks requires an expensive, multiyear clinical trial involving 10,000 or more patients. Those studies, called outcomes trials, have been conducted for statins, and they have proved that patients taking those drugs do have a reduced risk of heart disease. No such outcomes trials exist for Vytorin and Zetia. The Food and Drug Administration initially approved Zetia in 2002 on the basis of trials that lasted no more than 12 weeks and covered only 3,900 patients. In 2006, four years after Zetia reached the market, Merck and Schering began enrolling patients in their own outcomes study, which compares people taking Vytorin to those taking Zocor alone. But the companies said Friday that the results of the trial, which had been expected in 2011, would not be available until 2012, and possibly later. As a result, doctors who prescribe the medicines are doing so without hard evidence that they help patients, said Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. “We’ve got a drug that has no clinical outcome trials,” Dr. Nissen said. “I advise my colleagues essentially to use this drug only as a last resort.” Dr. John Kastelein, the Dutch cardiologist who conducted the trial, called Enhance, that was discussed at the conference, said the companies must aggressively explore reasons that the trial failed. For example, they need to examine closely whether Zetia blocks the absorption of nutrients other than cholesterol in the intestine, or whether it has other effects on the lining of blood vessel walls. “We can use a lot better science,” he said. The recommendations released Sunday will probably have an immediate impact on clinical practice, said Dr. Douglas Weaver, the incoming president of the American College of Cardiology, which was host of the conference. Nearly half of the 30,000 cardiologists in the United States attend the conference, and many of those doctors heard the panel’s recommendations firsthand. “I do think that the drugs have been overutilized in this country,” Dr. Weaver said. Heavy marketing has probably contributed to that overuse, he added. But use will decline as more patients and doctors focus on the results of the Enhance trial. “Sometimes you have to tell people multiple times before they get the message,” he said. | Cholesterol;Drugs (Pharmaceuticals);Zetia (Drug);Vytorin (Drug);Medicine and Health;Statins (Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs);Tests and Testing;New England Journal of Medicine;Schering Plough Corp;Merck & Company Inc |
ny0211739 | [
"sports"
] | 2017/01/19 | Big Ten Universities Entering a New Realm: E-Sports | In a recognition of the popularity of e-sports on college campuses, most Big Ten universities will field teams in the multiplayer online game League of Legends and compete in a style resembling conference play, in a partnership with the Big Ten Network. Besides streaming competitions on the internet, the Big Ten Network will broadcast select games, including the championship in late March, weekly on its cable network, which is available to more than 60 million households nationally. Riot Games, League of Legends’ creator and publisher, and the Big Ten Network — which is owned by Fox and the Big Ten Conference — announced the partnership Thursday morning in a joint statement. The Big Ten does not sponsor e-sports, which are not official N.C.A.A. sports. In the first broadcast, on Jan. 30, teams from the Big Ten’s two newest members, Rutgers and Maryland, will face off, according to a Big Ten Network spokesman. “From an e-sports perspective, this is a first-of-its-kind event,” said Michael Sherman, head of Riot’s competitive collegiate program. The Pacific-12 has expressed interest in e-sports, and several individual colleges have gone further, with the University of California, Irvine, constructing a dedicated e-sports space in its student union and Robert Morris University Illinois, in Chicago, offering athletic scholarships to players. A number of popular games, including Madden-brand football video games, fall under the e-sports rubric. In League of Legends, two teams of five — composed of a set of stock characters seemingly inspired by fantasy novels — try to destroy a glowing object, called a nexus, on their opponent’s side. In the Big Ten Network’s League of Legends season, teams in the Big Ten’s East and West divisions will play each other in best-of-three, round-robin competitions, and the top four from each division will then enter a single-elimination bracket. (The two Big Ten universities not participating this year, Nebraska and Penn State, are in different divisions. The Big Ten has 14 members.) While lacking the mainstream visibility of traditional college sports, e-sports are wildly popular, even as spectator sports, among young people of the type sought after by both colleges and advertisers. Professional gaming contests frequently sell out major arenas, including Madison Square Garden, and several top European soccer clubs have signed e-sports players as brand ambassadors. Riot already runs a League of Legends College Championship, and the champion crowned by the Big Ten Network season will compete in the final rounds of that annual event. | Computer and Video Games;College Sports;Big Ten Network;Pacific-12 Conference;University of California;Robert Morris University |
ny0178445 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2007/09/14 | Clemens Prepares for Trip(s) to Boston | TORONTO, Sept. 13 — The last time Roger Clemens pitched at Fenway Park, Pedro Martínez shoved Don Zimmer to the ground and a brawl broke out in the Yankees ’ bullpen. That was in Game 3 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, and Clemens beat his old team on the way to the World Series. Clemens said definitively that he would pitch again in Boston on Sunday, after completing a more intense bullpen session Thursday at Rogers Center. “No doubt,” he said, adding that he did not expect this to be the Yankees’ last trip to Boston. “Boston’s a team we’re going to see, I think, more than these next three games,” Clemens said. “When you have teams that are very good at what they do and fighting for the same thing, it always makes for some excitement.” Because the Yankees and the Red Sox have no scheduled games after this weekend, Clemens was obviously referring to another matchup in the A.L.C.S. To get there, the Yankees must topple the Red Sox in the Eastern Division or maintain their lead in the wild-card race. Then they must win their division series, which they have not done since 2004. Clemens, 45, wants to be part of the playoff push. His last start, on Sept. 3, was cut short after four innings because of an inflamed elbow. Clemens received two cortisone injections in his right elbow last week, and he said the blisters on his right foot had also calmed down. “I think I threw my normal amount of pitches, close to 40 pitches,” Clemens said. “It’s not a game type of scenario, but it was a more violent pen than I normally would throw. “I’m pleased with it. My foot’s holding up fine, and for me that’s where it starts and ends, as far as getting over my arm issues. The elbow feels fine.” Clemens said he was eager to see how his elbow responded to a game situation, but he said he trusted that the doctor hit the right spot with the cortisone shots. As always, Clemens was outwardly confident. “I’m the old guy, I’m the old horse,” Clemens said. “I’m going to go out there and be effective.” NO REASON FOR HARD FEELINGS The last time the Yankees played the Red Sox, Joba Chamberlain was ejected for throwing two 98-mile-an-hour fastballs over the head of Kevin Youkilis. Chamberlain insisted that there was no intent behind the pitches, and he repeated that stance Thursday. “It never happened,” he said. “It didn’t happen to me. It’s over with. We live in the present, not in the past. This team is focused on doing good things right now. It’s over with. It never happened.” Asked if the fans would believe that, Chamberlain said: “The fans can think what they want. What matters is the people in this clubhouse. Everybody’s going to have their own opinion, and that’s a great part about America. But when it comes down to it, the people in this clubhouse know what happened, and that’s all that matters.” Manager Joe Torre said he did not expect Chamberlain, who threw 35 pitches Wednesday, to be used Friday. Chamberlain’s velocity dipped Wednesday, and Torre said Chamberlain had been told not to lift weights before games in which he might pitch. MEMORIES OF FENWAY Phil Hughes, who will start Sunday if Roger Clemens cannot, said he hoped to take a peek inside the Green Monster this weekend. As a child, Hughes went to two or three games at Fenway with his father, who is from Lincoln, R.I. “It wasn’t what I was used to, but it was cool,” said Hughes, who grew up near Angel Stadium of Anaheim. “It’s different; same with Yankee Stadium. It’s kind of cool to see some historical ballparks instead of just stadiums they built with huge parking lots.” Hughes, 21, grew up rooting for the Red Sox and had a Nomar Garciaparra poster with the slogan “Reverse the Curse” in his bedroom. He remembered seeing Garciaparra and Mo Vaughn hit home runs at Fenway, and watching Tim Wakefield pitch. Now, he will get a peek behind the scenes. “I’ve heard the clubhouse is really small,” he said. | Baseball;Boston Red Sox;Clemens Roger;New York Yankees |
ny0011589 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/02/22 | For Saquib Khan, Efforts to Save Staten Island Businesses Led to Charges of Fraud | Saquib Khan, the deli king of Staten Island, was in trouble. Hurricane Sandy had devastated his businesses, leaving him unable to pay his bills. His mob ties had been exposed in federal court. His financial maneuvering had just come under scrutiny by auditors. Mr. Khan saw one way out, federal prosecutors said: He wrote hundreds of checks to himself, then raced across the city from bank to bank to deposit them in accounts under his name or those of his businesses. In all, the prosecutors said, the checks totaled $82 million. It was one of the largest check-fraud schemes anywhere in the country in recent years, according to the complaint against Mr. Khan and interviews with fraud experts — a brazen example of a crime that has been on the rise since the recession hit. This is an era in which thieves steal millions with the click of a mouse. But Mr. Khan is accused of carrying out a low-tech fraud that has unexpectedly exposed holes in the security of the banking system. He took advantage of the willingness of banks to allow some customers to overdraw their accounts temporarily, prosecutors said. The criminal complaint also sheds light on Mr. Khan, one of those extraordinary characters nurtured by the city, an immigrant whose life of operatic twists has wound through tribal Pakistan, Staten Island strip malls, fund-raisers for Hillary Rodham Clinton and underground gambling halls. The banks have recovered most of the $82 million, officials said. More than $11 million of the money that Mr. Khan withdrew is now frozen in an account to be distributed to the banks to help repay their losses, his lawyer said. It appears he spent at least $2 million of the money before he was arrested on Dec. 13, according to interviews and the criminal complaint, which was brought by the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn. Mr. Khan, who declined to be interviewed, is free on $500,000 bail and trying to arrange a plea bargain with prosecutors, according to court records. His lawyer said that Mr. Khan was only trying to save his business, and that he was working hard to pay back the banks. But even experts were taken aback by the accusations. “It blows my mind,” said Frank Abagnale, the celebrated con man who inspired the Steven Spielberg movie “Catch Me if You Can” and now works as a fraud-detection consultant . “That’s way, way out there,” Mr. Abagnale said. Mr. Khan, 51, comes from a prominent family in Pakistan — relatives said he was a favorite nephew of Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a well-known politician who spoke out against the Taliban. Mr. Bilour was killed in a suicide attack in late December. Trained as a doctor, Mr. Khan came to the United States in the 1980s, but ended up working with his sister and her husband, who owned some two dozen delis across Staten Island. Image Mignosi’s Supermarket on Rossville Avenue on Staten Island is among the stores Saquib Khan owns in the borough. He was unable to pay bills after Hurricane Sandy hurt his businesses. Credit Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times From there, Mr. Khan set out on his own, building up Richmond Wholesale Company, a cigarette and grocery business that recorded $125 million in sales last year, according to Dun & Bradstreet, a financial information provider. Richmond Wholesale supplies products to delis and gas stations across the New York region. Mr. Khan also owns three delis. Mr. Khan, until recently the chairman of the board of a prominent Staten Island mosque, was known in the borough’s close-knit Pakistani community as a flashy businessman. He once had a mansion in the Todt Hill neighborhood and drove a Mercedes with a license plate that read “SKHAN.” He was also a generous supporter of politicians of both major parties, giving more than $65,000 to more than 40 campaigns in the last decade, including those of Mrs. Clinton, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former Gov. George E. Pataki. His friends said that while he reveled in his achievements, he was also a hardworking entrepreneur who built a life for himself deli by deli. “I’d rather be working in my store,” he said in 2010. “I’d rather be doing my daily business.” That comment, though, hinted at the dark side of his success. He made it while testifying at a mob trial. As he rose in the business community on Staten Island, he developed a close relationship with a soldier in the Genovese crime family, John Giglio , also known as Johnny Bull or Fat John, according to the court testimony. Mr. Khan testified that he had used that connection to pressure at least one reluctant deli owner to sell his business to him. Through Mr. Giglio, Mr. Khan said he met other high-ranking organized crime figures in gambling halls, though he was never charged in connection with these relationships. (Mr. Khan’s testimony came at the trial of Anthony Antico, who was convicted of racketeering .) Prosecutors who put together the recent criminal complaint against Mr. Khan said his fraud was an outsized version of a familiar swindle — check kiting — in which the thief takes advantage of the time it takes for banks to clear checks. The thief deposits inflated checks and then quickly transfers the money to another account before the checks bounce. Hurricane Sandy hit Staten Island particularly hard, leaving Mr. Khan desperate to recoup business lost during power failures and worse, his lawyer, Sharon L. McCarthy, said. “All he was trying to do was run his business and pay his employees,” Ms. McCarthy said. “He did not intend to hurt any of these financial institutions.” The transfers and withdrawals are complicated, but suggested a simple plan: he deposited worthless checks and withdrew real money — tens of millions worth, according to the criminal complaint. Video The Times’s Marcus Mabry and Sam Dolnick report on a Staten Island businessman who, according to federal prosecutors, engaged in an $82 million check-fraud scheme. Over two weeks in November, he wrote hundreds of checks to himself, more than a dozen a day, drawing from accounts at about six banks, the complaint said. The pattern of precise amounts — $886,841, then $874,532, then $461,232 — was an indication of fraud, experts said. The pace grew increasingly frantic. He deposited $49 million worth of checks into accounts at Capital One, a mix of legitimate ones from vendors and fraudulent ones written to himself, according to court records and interviews. The bank made those funds available without waiting for the checks to clear. That turned his fictions into millions, allowing Mr. Khan to transfer $42 million into accounts at other banks, according to a lawsuit that Capital One filed against Mr. Khan’s company. He then withdrew and transferred more money to other accounts as the fake checks kept piling up. He wrote checks worth $82 million that did not “appear to have had any legitimate purpose other than to support the ‘check kiting’ scheme,” the criminal complaint said. Ms. McCarthy called the $82 million figure “an artificial number” that represented the amount of overdrafts, but not the banks’ total loss. Soon, auditors at some of the banks — including Capital One, M & T Bank and Flushing Savings Bank — realized what was going on. Ms. McCarthy said Mr. Khan blew the whistle on himself, alerting the banks that he had withdrawn far more than was in his accounts and planned to pay it back. The banks declined to comment, and several civil lawsuits against Mr. Khan are pending. His friends on Staten Island said they were shocked by the accusations, and described him as a humble man who was always on the job. “If you had called him when he was doing cigarette wholesale, he would arrive there at 5 a.m. and be there until 8 p.m.,” one of them, Suhail Muzaffar, said. Mr. Khan’s arrest has also caused turmoil at the mosque where he was chairman, Muslim Majlis of Staten Island . He resigned late last month. He was once well respected there. Now, mosque leaders are sharply divided in their feelings toward him. A founder of the mosque recently resigned from its board after 33 years because of the taint of the Khan case. For now, Mr. Khan is working to stave off the charges and pay back the banks any way he can, including selling his business — the final twist in the deli king’s fall. | Saquib Khan;Banking and Finance;Fraud;Staten Island |
ny0277344 | [
"business"
] | 2016/11/18 | Former Drug Industry Executives Charged in Kickback Scheme | A secret relationship had made the two men rich: one, the head of a mail-order pharmacy, the other, an executive at a major pharmaceutical company who had promised to funnel millions of dollars to his partner in exchange for receiving millions of his own. They celebrated over email like characters in a classic western movie — with one saying that they would soon “ride into the sunset” together. Those were the details laid out in a complaint announced on Thursday by federal prosecutors, which brought that cinematic tale to an inglorious end. The prosecutors charged the two executives — Andrew Davenport, the chief executive of the mail-order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services, and Gary Tanner, an executive at Valeant Pharmaceuticals International — with multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a multimillion-dollar scheme to enrich themselves. The arrests represent the first charges in multiple state and federal investigations into Valeant’s business practices, including inquiries by Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission. As the questions have mounted over the last year, shares of Valeant, a major drug maker that was once a Wall Street darling, have fallen precipitously, putting the company’s future in doubt. In a statement, Valeant noted that the company and its top executives had not been charged in the case, and said it was cooperating with the investigation. A lawyer for Mr. Davenport said his client intended to defend himself, and a lawyer for Mr. Tanner said his client’s innocence would be demonstrated at trial. Of all the questions surrounding the company, its relationship to the small mail-order pharmacy Philidor drew perhaps the most scrutiny. In October 2015, Valeant revealed that it had bought an option to acquire Philidor in 2014 but had never disclosed that detail to investors. Several media outlets reported on a host of tactics Valeant was said to have used to steer its products through Philidor and increase sales, including altering prescriptions to specify that Valeant’s brand-name drug, and not a cheaper generic, be dispensed. It cut ties to Philidor that same month. According to the complaint, filed Wednesday in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mr. Tanner and Mr. Davenport were at the heart of this relationship. The government said the two concealed from Valeant a secret pact they had made to promote the pharmacy’s interests inside Valeant, including persuading Valeant to buy an option to acquire Philidor. The government contends Mr. Tanner used a secret email account, under the name “Brian Wilson” to communicate with Mr. Davenport. Prosecutors said Mr. Tanner and Mr. Davenport initiated their plan while Mr. Tanner was in charge of what was known at Valeant as “alternative fulfillment,” or the practice of using mail-order pharmacies to increase prescriptions for its brand-name drugs that otherwise might have been filled by cheaper generic alternatives. Ex-Valeant and Philidor Executives Complaint According to the federal complaint, an ex-Valeant executive was secretly paid millions of dollars to promote Philidor’s interests inside Valeant. As the scheme developed, prosecutors said, Mr. Tanner resisted efforts by Valeant’s senior leadership to seek out relationships with Philidor’s competitors, and his efforts were critical in leading Valeant into the purchase-option agreement in December 2014. Philidor profited handsomely from the relationship — prosecutors said it grew to an enterprise with 450 employees and tens of millions of dollars in revenue at the end of 2014 from a tiny start-up in 2013. Until Philidor was shut down in January, at least 90 percent of the drugs it dispensed were sold by Valeant, the federal complaint said. Mr. Tanner also benefited from the arrangement, the authorities said. According to the complaint, Mr. Davenport used a series of shell companies — including one called End Game — to secretly transfer a kickback payment to Mr. Tanner after the purchase-option agreement went through. According to prosecutors, about $40 million from the deal between Valeant and Philidor went to Mr. Davenport, who, they said, sent about $10 million of that to Mr. Tanner. The complaint said that Valeant officials questioned Mr. Tanner several times about whether he had any financial relationship with Philidor — and that he said he did not. Howard M. Shapiro, a lawyer for Mr. Tanner, said his client had simply been doing his job. “It was Gary Tanner’s job at Valeant to grow and promote Philidor,” he said in a statement. “He performed that job exceptionally well, greatly benefiting Valeant’s shareholders, and regularly communicated to his superiors what he was doing.” Mr. Davenport’s lawyer, Jonathan Rosen, said Mr. Davenport had worked “with full transparency” and added, “Philidor also benefited Valeant, which is why Valeant and its highly sophisticated and active management team sought to buy it.” Mr. Tanner was forced out of Valeant in 2015. Mr. Davenport remained at Philidor until the company shut down. Regardless of whether Valeant’s top executives were aware of the arrangement between Mr. Tanner and Mr. Davenport, Valeant benefited significantly from its ties to the pharmacy, allowing it to increase sales of ailing products and obscure more significant problems with the business, said Vicki Bryan, a senior analyst with Gimme Credit, a bond research firm. She noted that Valeant paid Philidor $100 million to enter into the purchase agreement, then quickly paid it $33 million more, according to the complaint. Image Federal prosecutors outlined on Thursday the kickback scheme that they say involved the former Valeant executive Gary Tanner Philidor’s former chief, Andrew Davenport. Credit Christopher Lee for The New York Times “This is how much Valeant valued this relationship, right off the bat,” Ms. Bryan said. When Valeant disclosed its relationship to Philidor last year, it said that the pharmacy had accounted for about 7 percent of its sales in the third quarter of 2015, or about $196 million. Beyond the relationship between Mr. Davenport and Mr. Tanner, Valeant has said in public filings that the government investigations into Philidor could include looking into whether it improperly used its ties to the pharmacy to bill third parties, such as insurers. Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Thursday that the investigation was continuing, but he declined to discuss specifics. He would not say whether his office was looking into Valeant’s accounting practices. A spokesman for Mr. Bharara said the office did not have any agreements with cooperating witnesses to make public at this time. His office has tended to make cooperation agreements public when an investigation is largely complete. The criminal complaint also refers to interviews with several unnamed former Valeant executives, but does not identify any of them as cooperating witnesses. The series of negative developments over the last year have pummeled Valeant’s stock — pushing it down to its current $17 a share from nearly $100 a share last November. Its chief executive, J. Michael Pearson, stepped down in the spring, and the problems also led to a shake-up of the board. The precipitous decline has punished a number of big hedge funds that hold large positions in Valeant — firms like Pershing Square Capital Management, Paulson & Company and ValueAct Capital Management. No hedge fund may have been hurt more than Pershing Square, the $11.6 billion firm led by the investor William A. Ackman. Mr. Ackman began buying Valeant shares in early 2015, when the stock was trading around $190, and he has remained a true believer. This year, well after concerns about Valeant’s business dealings with Philidor became apparent, he continued to argue the company had value and secured two board seats for his firm, holding one of them himself. Just last week, Mr. Ackman told his investors that he foresaw a comeback strategy for Valeant as it moved to sell off business divisions to reduce its debt obligation. He has even suggested that the company may rename itself in an effort to rebuild its reputation. Yet he has conceded that he and his firm could have done better due diligence on Valeant’s aggressive drug-pricing practices — another business strategy that has prompted controversy and protests from federal legislators. Mr. Ackman, in an email statement on Thursday, declined to comment on the criminal charges beyond the Valeant statement. | Valeant Pharmaceuticals International;Philidor;Bribery and Kickbacks;Gary Tanner;Andrew Davenport |
ny0044489 | [
"business"
] | 2014/02/02 | A Long Fight to Get What Was Theirs, in a 401(k) | Five years, two articles in this space , assistance from the Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service and prodding from one no-nonsense bankruptcy judge — that’s what it took for owners of the 401(k) plan sponsored by Penn Specialty Chemicals to gain access to their money last month. Finally, these 401(k) holders have been released from the limbo where they’d been trapped since their company filed for bankruptcy in December 2008. While such fiascos don’t occur everyday, the Penn Specialty Chemicals 401(k) case shows what can happen to account holders if their company collapses. It’s not a pretty picture. When a company goes bankrupt, the assets of its 401(k) are supposed to be transferred to account holders promptly. But that didn’t happen here. After the bankruptcy filing by Penn Specialty, a chemicals maker based in Memphis, its 401(k) holders were not only frozen out of their funds for five years, but were also charged significant fees for administrative and legal work during that time. Some of the participants even faced tax penalties because they couldn’t withdraw some of their money at age 70 1/2, as tax law requires. George L. Miller, a certified public accountant at Miller Coffey Tate in Philadelphia, was appointed trustee by the bankruptcy court to oversee the Penn Specialty 401(k). For years, he told plan participants that the I.R.S. had not issued a so-called determination letter that would have allowed the plan’s assets to be distributed. But it wasn’t clear why the I.R.S. would object. The I.R.S. manual notes that bankruptcy is usually enough evidence to support a plan’s termination and payout. Fees for administration of the 401(k), meanwhile, piled up. During 2009 and 2010, for example, fees of $111,463 were charged, or 2.8 percent of the plan’s roughly $4 million in employee assets. The fees went to the overseers of the plan — Mr. Miller and a consulting firm in Melville, N.Y., called the Comprehensive Consulting Group. But in 2011, Vanguard, the plan’s record keeper, stopped paying the overseers after receiving what it said were unsatisfactory answers to questions it had asked about the delays in paying out participants. Calls to Mr. Miller and to the Comprehensive Consulting Group last week were not returned. Shankar Iyer, 72, was principal scientist at Penn A Kem , a European chemicals company that acquired some of the operations of Penn Specialty before it folded. After a year of waiting to get at his retirement account, Mr. Iyer began asking the trustee, the I.R.S. and the Labor Department what was taking so long. He took up the fight to unlock the 401(k) for himself and for the roughly 40 other participants in the plan. Image Credit Minh Uong/The New York Times In 2012, the Labor Department opened an investigation into the case. This seemed to annoy Mr. Miller, who Mr. Iyer said told him that involving Labor Department officials would result in an even longer wait and additional costs for plan participants. Mr. Iyer, who has glaucoma and diabetes, retired last fall. He said he continued working far longer than planned because he could not withdraw any of his retirement savings — 41 years’ worth that he had earned at a variety of companies but had rolled over into his Penn Specialty account. He was also upset by the $49,728 in administrative and legal fees extracted from his account while it was in limbo. Those fees ranged from 1.5 percent to 3.75 percent of his account’s balance when they were charged. On Jan. 24, 2013, the I.R.S. sent a determination letter to Comprehensive Consulting, stating that the plan’s assets could be distributed to participants. Even that did not end Mr. Iyer’s battle. When he telephoned Comprehensive Consulting to ask for his money, he said, he was told that it had not received the letter, which an official at the I.R.S. confirmed it had sent. Finally, last August, an exasperated Mr. Iyer wrote a letter seeking help from Brendan Linehan Shannon, the federal bankruptcy judge in the district of Delaware who oversaw the Penn Specialty bankruptcy years earlier. On Sept. 5, the judge called Mr. Miller and other interested parties to a hearing in his chambers 11 days later. A lawyer for the Labor Department attended; Mr. Iyer was patched in by telephone from Tennessee. Two lawyers representing Mr. Miller, the trustee, were also there; they said the delay was the fault of the Labor Department. The judge directed the trustee to resolve the matter within two months. That deadline passed with no payout. On Nov. 26, Mr. Iyer advised the judge, who ordered Mr. Miller’s lawyer to resolve the case within a week. In early December, Mr. Iyer and all the plan participants finally received word that the money was on its way. After five years, one month and 11 days, Mr. Iyer’s funds were released in mid-January. “I got most of my money but I lost quite a bit,” Mr. Iyer said. “It is interesting to note that the fees I ended up paying exceed what Penn Specialty Chemicals contributed on my account. I have learned never to trust a 401(k).” Who knows how long the Penn Specialty employees might have had to wait, were it not for the help of Judge Shannon and two federal agencies? And who knows how much the participants would have paid if Vanguard had not intervened on their behalf? We do know, from Jason Surbey, a spokesman at the Labor Department, that the fees charged to the plan would have been larger had it not pushed the trustee to reduce what he sought to charge the plan. Americans increasingly must rely on 401(k) plans to support themselves when they have finished their working lives. You can’t help wondering: Is this any way to run a retirement system? | 401k;Penn Specialty Chemicals;Comprehensive Consulting Group;Labor Department;IRS |
ny0273670 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2016/05/13 | Former Banker Sentenced in Insider Trading Case in Britain | LONDON — A former investment banker who had worked at Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after he was convicted this week on an insider trading charge in what the British authorities have described as the largest crackdown on improper trading in Britain. On Monday, Martyn Dodgson, a former banker, and Andrew Hind, a businessman and trained accountant, were convicted of conspiracy to “insider deal,” as insider trading is described in Britain. Mr. Hind was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday. The case sprung out of an investigation called Operation Tabernula. The investigation began with a series of raids by the British authorities in March 2010. The Financial Conduct Authority of Britain accused Mr. Dodgson of improperly sharing information from the investment banks where he worked with his close friend, Mr. Hind, as part of a conspiracy that began in November 2006 and ended in March 2010. Mr. Hind acted as a middle man and helped facilitate trades for the benefit of Mr. Dodgson and himself, the Financial Conduct Authority said. The tips included inside information about the Paragon Group, Legal & General and BSkyB, the regulator said. Three other men on trial with Mr. Hind and Mr. Dodgson were acquitted of criminal charges this week. The members of the conspiracy used unregistered mobile telephones, encrypted records and safe deposit boxes to hide their improper trading from authorities, the Financial Conduct Authority said. Five people in all have pleaded guilty or been convicted of criminal charges in the investigation. | Insider trading;Banking and Finance;Financial Conduct Authority Great Britain |
ny0205373 | [
"business"
] | 2009/01/07 | Nissan Asks Dealers to Skip Detroit Auto Show | DETROIT — After Nissan said in November than it would skip this year’s North American International Auto Show , which opens here next week, a group of Nissan dealers decided they would provide staff members to run an exhibit for the company. That way, their cars would at least be on display at the show. But the dealers have canceled those plans, at Nissan’s request. Doug Fox, owner of a Nissan dealership in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a co-chairman of the auto show, said the dealers were surprised by the company’s disapproval but agreed to pull out. “They said they would really appreciate it if we would respect their decision not to be present at N.A.I.A.S. this year in any way, shape or form,” Mr. Fox said. “If that’s the way corporate feels, obviously we weren’t going to push the issue any further. As dealers, we thought we were doing the right thing to create a presence.” A Nissan spokesman, Brian Brockman, confirmed the request but declined to say why the company had not wanted its dealers to have a display. In its original announcement, Nissan said it was bypassing Detroit, as well as the Chicago auto show, “based on the fact that we have no major new products to show” and because of “the current economic conditions which will impact the shows’ marketing effectiveness.” Since then, the company has changed its mind about Chicago, leaving Detroit as the only show off Nissan’s schedule. “We worked with our Chicago-area dealers and came up with a good creative solution that we could maintain a presence while still having an eye toward the challenging market out there,” Mr. Brockman said. Patrick Olsen, editor in chief of Cars.com , a Web site that provides car-buying advice for consumers, said it was understandable that Nissan, which like other automakers was grappling with the worst selling environment in at least 25 years, would be trying to save money. But he said that letting the dealers operate their own display would have cost the company nothing. “It’s a little puzzling,” he said. “It’s the first time that an automaker this large has skipped Detroit, which is really the tent pole of auto shows. Usually you want to be there just to be seen and let the world press come and see what you’ve got.” The space Nissan would have used will instead be shared by the Korean company Kia, a lounge and smaller displays. Mr. Fox said that Nissan’s Michigan dealers would not get the usual bump in showroom business during and after the show. “I think they should be here,” he said. | Nissan Motor Co;North American International Auto Show;Automobiles |
ny0221165 | [
"business"
] | 2010/02/09 | Wall St. Stocks Fall Below 10,000 Benchmark | The Dow Jones industrial average, a closely watched barometer of the economy’s health, dipped below the 10,000 threshold on Monday, delivering a psychological setback as investors braced for more market volatility. When the final bell sounded, the Dow had fallen to 9,908.39 — its lowest level in three months — as lingering fears over a debt crisis in Europe undermined confidence in American financial institutions. Analysts played down the significance of the Dow’s tumble below the five-digit mark. But they did not deny the broader message it underscored: that the energy of last year’s rally seems to have fizzled as the market comes to terms with the reality of an uneven recovery. “Investors and traders find solace in 10,000,” said Jeffrey A. Hirsch, editor of The Stock Trader’s Almanac. “While it may not be important technically, falling below that level indicates that the whole economic picture is not as rosy as everyone had thought.” Wall Street’s focus remained on Europe, where the fallout from swelling deficits in Greece, Spain and Portugal continued to sway global markets. Investors spent Monday trying to gauge how significantly American banks would suffer if European governments could not pay back their loans. They also looked at the effect foreign defaults might have on the availability of credit worldwide. Traders seemed skeptical of reassurances from the Group of 7 finance ministers, who pledged over the weekend to closely monitor the situation in Greece but provided no firm plans for reining in huge deficits. “You can tell investors there’s no contagion, but it doesn’t matter, because people start to think there’s more than one cockroach,” said Thomas J. Lee, chief United States equity strategist at JPMorgan Chase. “Right now, it’s still a little wait and see.” The cost of insuring debt in Greece, Spain and Portugal continued to rise on Monday, suggesting investors still lacked confidence that those nations would be able to repay their debt. In the United States, the Dow fell 103.84 points, or 1.04 percent, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.89 percent, or 9.45 points, to 1,056.74. The Nasdaq composite index declined 0.7 percent, or 15.07 points, to 2,126.05. The Dow first rose above the 10,000 benchmark in 1999. Since then, it has proved to be one of the hardest levels to sustain. The Dow dipped back into four digits in the years after the dot-com bubble deflated, and it reached 10,000 again in late 2003 before peaking above 14,000 in October 2007. Today, the index is about 30 percent below its record high. In November, the Dow’s surge beyond 10,000 was considered a symbol of the strength of the nascent recovery, coming in the midst of a high-powered rally for stocks. But now, as the financial world tries to regain its footing, investors worry it may take some time before the market can sustain a level above 10,000. “The market has been bulletproof, and now the question is whether the reality of the recovery is in the same place,” said Bill Strazzullo, chief market strategist for Bell Curve Trading. “There’s a gap there.” Analysts expect volatility to persist as investors assess the threat posed by Europe’s deficits to the global recovery. Investors will get a preview of the government’s plans to gradually withdraw stimulus measures later this week, when the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, is expected to present plans to tighten credit. Overseas, markets in Europe were higher after Monday a week of wild swings. The FTSE 100 in London closed 0.62 percent higher, the DAX in Frankfurt rose 0.93 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 1.22 percent. The euro remained near a nine-month low, trading at slightly less than $1.37, amid concern that euro-using countries would have difficulty selling bonds to finance their debt. Oil, which fell 7.5 percent over two days last week, was up modestly on Monday, climbing nearly 1 percent, to $71.89 a barrel. The Treasury’s 10-year note rose 1/32, to 98 15/32. The yield fell to 3.56 percent from 3.57 on Friday. Following are the results of Monday’s Treasury auction of three- and six-month bills: | Stocks and Bonds;Economic Conditions and Trends |
ny0227690 | [
"sports",
"othersports"
] | 2010/07/04 | Great White Hope: Not Great, Little Hope Against Johnson | RENO, Nev. — The night before the fight, Frieda Jeffries awoke and saw her husband standing by a window, staring into the black Nevada night. “What’s wrong?” she said. James J. Jeffries, the anointed Great White Hope, said nothing. He did not want to be in Reno to fight the younger, slicker, more agile Jack Johnson. One century has passed since Jeffries met Johnson in his quest to reclaim the heavyweight title. This weekend, boxing historians, aficionados and descendants of both fighters are here to commemorate the bout. Most of the conversation will be about Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. Little is remembered of Jeffries, who lost the lopsided fight in the 15th round and wished it had never happened. Jeffries was a strong, speedy giant in his day. At 6 feet 2 inches and 220 pounds, he could run the 100-yard dash in 11 seconds. Before he started fighting for money, Jeffries worked as a boilermaker in East Los Angeles and was reported to have saved a man’s life by single-handedly lifting several large timbers off him after several others could not. His career was defined by beating top-name fighters in their twilight years. In 1899, at the Coney Island Athletic Club in Brooklyn, he knocked out Bob Fitzsimmons to win the title, then defended it nine times. But citing no worthy challengers, Jeffries retired in 1905 to a ranch in Burbank, Calif., where he raised cattle and alfalfa. Black fighters like Sam Langford, Joe Jeannette and Sam McVey would have given Jeffries all he wanted. But Jeffries said no black man would fight for the title on his watch. In 1908, when Johnson won the title by defeating Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, the novelist Jack London challenged Jeffries to “emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove that smile off Johnson’s face.” Jeffries was not interested in race relations, but he figured that a fight to win back the title for white America would fetch a high price. “It’s money I’m after, man,” he said. He signed papers to fight Johnson for a guaranteed $101,000 purse, movie rights and a $10,000 cash bonus. The fight was scheduled for July 4, 1910, in San Francisco. “Jeff is too old and cannot get into condition to fight anybody,” Johnson, 32, told reporters. “He’s all in, and nobody knows it better than himself. He can never get into his former good trim.” It was true. Jeffries, 35, was in no physical condition to fight Johnson, or any other professional, for that matter. He had ballooned to almost 300 pounds. Although he lost the weight in training and looked the part, his hand-eye coordination and reflexes had lost their sharpness. Jeffries tried to disguise these weaknesses by changing the schedule of sparring sessions to evade reporters. Instead of sparring with young boxers, Jeffries worked with old buddies. He soaked his hands and face in brine to toughen up the skin and refused showers because he thought they “robbed oil food from the skin.” “It was plainly evident that he was suffering a terrible mental struggle,” said Joe Choynski, his trainer and a former heavyweight from the bare-knuckle era. On June 15, when boxing opponents in Washington persuaded California to cancel the fight, Jeffries threw in the towel. He refused to fight in Reno, an obvious tactic to pull out. But the wily promoter Tex Rickard claimed impending bankruptcy should Jeffries make good on his threat. Jeffries eventually set up camp outside Reno, and persisted in a litany of complaints about the altitude, crowds, lack of privacy and pesky reporters. The great bare-knuckler John L. Sullivan, writing for The New York Times, stopped by for an interview but was turned away nastily by James J. Corbett, and the incident made news. The middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel tried to see Jeffries but was thrown out of camp because he had picked Johnson to win. It was another story for the press and another annoyance for Jeffries. On the day before the fight, Johnson was doing roadwork with his crew when Jeffries motored by. “Hallo there, Jeff.” Jeffries grunted back. He was angry, frustrated and anxious. “He let his trainers assist him in getting his muscles in shape,” Choynski said, “but he kept his own counsel, and the result was worry and the ultimate breakdown.” For reporters, Jeffries mustered a few menacing words, saying, “I propose to give him the worst beating ever given any man in the ring.” In truth, he had already been defeated. “Going to the arena, when the waiting was all over, I remember being with people and taking a long ride in a good deal of dust,” Jeffries said. “I remember seeing the big plank bowl and the crowd around it. There was a lot of yelling. I suppose there was a mob waiting to watch me go in, but I didn’t know what all the yelling was about. I was in a fog.” Moments before the fight, his corner men watched him weep in the dressing room. When Jeffries entered the ring, he refused to shake Johnson’s hand in a defiant gesture. Johnson beat him soundly. As he was being led back to his corner at the end of the fight, Jeffries said: “I couldn’t come back, boys. I couldn’t come back.” When Frieda saw his beaten body and face, she fainted. “Oh my papa,” she said when she came to. “It is over at last.” But it was not. The loss to Johnson haunted Jeffries. In his 1929 autobiography, Jeffries argued that he had been doped before the fight by a turncoat in his camp, but his story was discounted. Fairly or not, he is remembered as the “great white hope” who was not so great. | Boxing;Johnson Jack |
ny0003271 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2013/04/05 | Bertelsmann Confirms Plans to Sell Stock in RTL | The German media conglomerate Bertelsmann confirmed plans on Thursday to raise money for acquisitions by selling stock in RTL, the biggest commercial broadcaster in Europe. Bertelsmann, which controls 92 percent of RTL, said it planned to reduce its ownership to as little as 75 percent through a public stock offering and private sales to institutional investors. The company said it planned to sell RTL shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange “before the summer,” adding to existing listings in Luxembourg and Brussels, where RTL is thinly traded. No price was given, but Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London, estimated that at current market prices, the sale would raise €2 billion to €2.2 billion, or $2.6 billion to $3 billion, though at the opening price Thursday, 17 percent of RTL would have been worth around €1.5 billion. Thomas Rabe, chief executive of Bertelsmann, said last month that the company planned to raise money to fuel an expansion in digital media and developing markets, which are growing faster than the company’s core businesses in Europe. RTL, which owns television channels and radio stations in many European countries, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, has been Bertelsmann’s cash cow for years, but broadcasting is a slow-growing business. RTL does, however, also own a television production house that Mr. Rabe has identified as a key source of future growth — Fremantle Media, the television production house behind shows like “American Idol” and “The X Factor.” “We have resolved to make Bertelsmann more growth-oriented, more digital and more international in the coming years,” Mr. Rabe said at a news conference in Berlin as Bertelsmann announced its 2012 financial results last month. At the time, the company, which is privately held by the Mohn family, reported sales growth of 4.5 percent, to €16.1 billion. One driver of that growth, Mr. Rabe said, was the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series of books, published by a Bertelsmann unit, Random House. Bertelsmann recently moved to bolster its book publishing operations by agreeing to merge Random House with Penguin, which is owned by Pearson, a British media company. The companies are still waiting for regulatory clearance in Europe to complete that deal. Another potential growth area identified by Mr. Rabe is Bertelsmann’s music arm, BMG, which manages the rights to songs by artists like Duran Duran and Johnny Cash but does not operate in the troubled record label business. Bertelsmann this week announced that it had taken over full control of BMG by buying a 51 percent stake from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a private equity firm. Mr. Rabe has said the company plans to spend as much as €3 billion on acquisitions over the next three years. Instead of using it all for one big purchase, he told reporters in Berlin, Bertelsmann would prefer to do a number of midsize deals. Other areas of growth, he added, include education, professional publishing and the Fremantle content production business, prompting considerable speculation among analysts about possible takeover targets. “They clearly don’t want to use all their firepower at once,” Mr. Whittaker said. “There are plenty of niches in digital. If you look at what Axel Springer has done, that should give you a pretty good indication.” Axel Springer, a German newspaper publisher, has expanded its digital operations by buying medium-size Internet businesses like SeLoger and AuFeminin in France. While Mr. Rabe last year raised the possibility of an initial public offering of Bertelsmann stock, he said in March that this option was now “off the table for the foreseeable future.” In January, Bertelsmann gave the first indication that it was instead considering the possibility of reducing its stake in RTL. | Bertelsmann;Mass media;Mergers and Acquisitions |
ny0048913 | [
"sports",
"autoracing"
] | 2014/11/15 | No Penalty for Kurt Busch | Nascar chairman Brian France said that no disciplinary action would be taken against the driver Kurt Busch while the police in Delaware investigate a claim of domestic assault made by his former girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. Driscoll accused Busch of smashing her head against a wall three times. He has not been charged. | Car Racing;Domestic violence;Patricia Driscoll;NASCAR;Brian France |
ny0234615 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/01/16 | Trusted Bloomberg Aides Get $400,000 Election Bonuses | Patricia E. Harris , Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ’s most trusted aide at City Hall, earned $451,000, including a $400,000 bonus, for less than two months of work on his re-election campaign, according to newly released documents. The records showed that Mr. Bloomberg showered his top aides with six-figure bonuses despite a narrower-than-expected re-election victory in November. Mr. Bloomberg handed out $2.4 million in post-election bonuses to 95 campaign staff members as part of the record $108 million he poured into the contest. His total spending, the records show, was 12 times that of his opponent, William C. Thompson Jr. Two other top campaign employees — Bradley Tusk, the campaign manager, and Howard Wolfson , the communications director — earned bonuses of at least $400,000 on top of their other pay, while Maura Keaney, who ran the campaign’s field operation, earned a bonus of $150,000. Mr. Bloomberg, whose personal fortune is estimated at $16 billion, has always paid his campaign staffers generously. But his 4.6 percent victory margin had fueled speculation that he would slash his customary bonuses. In fact, he increased them. In 2005, when he won by 19.4 percentage points, he gave out $1.55 million. In 2001, when he won by 2.4 percentage points, he paid $850,000 in bonuses. Mr. Wolfson disputed the idea that Mr. Bloomberg performed poorly at the polls, citing a tough political environment for incumbents around the New York region; Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey , for example, lost his job. “The mayor bucked that trend and is extraordinarily pleased with the result and the campaign,” Mr. Wolfson said. Andrew White, who runs the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School , said that generally, private-sector employees, especially in finance, have been vastly overpaid compared with public-sector workers. “This, in a twisted way, flips that on its head,” he said. He added that paying out such sums “when so many people are struggling to make ends meet is a bit of a stunner.” Ms. Harris’s pay raised the most questions, government watchdog groups said, because it amounted to a second salary for her work at City Hall, given her blink-and-you-miss it stint on the campaign trail. The groups called the lavish pay package an alarming back-door raise for a government employee who already earns $245,760 a year in her day job, as the city’s first deputy mayor. Ms. Harris was on the campaign payroll for just 55 days, from Sept. 21 to Nov. 15, meaning that she was paid $8,200 a day, assuming that she worked weekends and holidays But her Wall Street-style compensation did not end after the election. On Nov. 16, she joined Mr. Bloomberg’s transition team, which focused on his third inauguration, earning another $41,000 for 46 days of work. “It’s mind-boggling,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor at Hunter College . He added, “It makes you wonder if the mayor understands the value of a dollar.” Aides to the mayor said Ms. Harris’s value to him cannot be overstated: She advises him on every decision he makes, from changing the city’s term limits law, to decorating the dining room walls at Gracie Mansion. On the campaign, she was his eyes and ears, they said, proofreading press releases, scouring drafts of television commercials, approving major expenditures and organizing rallies. The eye-popping amounts Mr. Bloomberg hands out are unheard of on other political campaigns, and have turned the gritty work of municipal elections into life-transforming gigs. Mr. Tusk and Mr. Wolfson were already well rewarded even before the bonuses were paid out. Mr. Tusk’s salary was $315,865 for the year, while Mr. Wolfson’s firm received $490,000. The records show that, in addition to Ms. Harris, several other city officials took time off from their government jobs to join the campaign, later receiving bonuses. Government watchdog groups worry that the lavish pay makes the employees loyal first to Mr. Bloomberg, rather than to the public. “He has completely warped the expectation of what the bargain is when you enter public service,” said Susan Lerner, the head of Common Cause/New York. The records provided new details about the mayor’s total campaign outlays. In addition to the bonuses, which averaged $25,000 per employee, he spent $34.4 million on television commercials, $20 million on campaign mailings, $10 million on office supplies and $564,000 on food. The campaign appeared to be a stimulus package for the city’s pizza industry, injecting $45,000 into the market. | Bonuses;Mayoral races;Executive Compensation;Mike Bloomberg;Patricia E Harris;Howard Wolfson;Bradley Tusk |
ny0199362 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2009/07/06 | Q & A with Stuart Elliott | Q: (Reader) There’s a Cheerios spot from 2003 that has started running again. It shows a boy going into his parents’ bedroom and he is serving his dad Cheerios because he wants dad to be heart-healthy. I am wondering why it has returned: The heart message? Thrifty recycling of a spot that may not be worn out? Both? Neither? A : (Stuart Elliott) The commercial was created by Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, part of the Publicis Groupe, for the Cheerios line of cereal sold by General Mills . “We pull old chestnuts out of the files every now and again, and this is one of those,” Doug Moore, vice president for advertising at General Mills, says in an e-mail message. “Lots of consumers told us they loved it when it first ran,” he adds, “and it grew the business.” “Great spots like these never truly ‘wear out,’ especially when they’ve been off air for some time,” Mr. Moore says. “So we feel good about giving it another run.” General Mills is not alone in pulling recent commercials off the shelf for another run. MasterCard has revived spots from 2004 and 2005, the former about a lost dog and the latter about a dinner featuring familiar brand characters like Mr. Peanut, the Vlasic stork, Charlie the Tuna and Mr. Clean. The MasterCard spots were created by McCann Erickson Worldwide in New York, part of the McCann Worldgroup unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies. Fun fact about the Cheerios commercial: It was filmed in the Brooklyn home of my New York Times colleague, Floyd Norris, and his wife, Christine Bockelmann; she wrote about the filming in an article for The Times. . Q: (Reader) Why or how did the TV commercials introducing the new Lexus IS line get created and approved, and by whom? After the highly successful American introduction of the most spectacular luxury car since the Duesenberg, Lexus dumps its well-honed image of elegance and the pursuit of perfection — for what? Law-breaking speeding, in the form of seedy guy doing wheelies? Sexual intrigue (a woman chasing a woman on a bridge)? People who have huge, gaping mouths timed to the engine’s roar, as if going fast causes lockjaw? It’s obvious that the Lexus IS line is designed for a different demographic, but did Lexus have to aim for the pits? A: (Stuart Elliott) The commercials for the new Lexus, sold by a division of Toyota Motor Sales USA, were created by the long-time Lexus agency, Team One Advertising in El Segundo, Calif., part of the Saatchi & Saatchi division of the Publicis Groupe. I forwarded the reader question to Meg Seiler, a spokeswoman for Team One, who replied by forwarding me a news release about the campaign. The release describes how Lexus “unleashes its mischievous side” with the introduction of the 2010 Lexus IS C retractable hardtop convertible, which is called “an entirely new dimension to the IS line.” The campaign is intended “to emphasize the vehicle’s adventurous, playful personality and reach consumers looking for a thrill,” says the release, which goes on to quote Dave Nordstrom, vice president for marketing at Lexus, as saying: “The IS C gives Lexus the opportunity to reveal its more dynamic and playful side. For the launch of the long-awaited IS C, we created a new advertising campaign that allows us to showcase the vehicle’s unique personality and give consumers a glimpse of the adrenaline rush the IS C delivers.” The commercials are meant, according to the release, to share with viewers “the thrill of driving top-down in a Lexus.” The spot featuring drivers with gaping mouths, as the reader puts it, is titled “Scream,” and is meant to show them “scream with excitement as the vehicles effortlessly take every turn that comes their way.” The disparity between what Lexus and Team One intend, and how the reader perceives it, is fascinating. It seems the client and agency believed the commercials ought to be significantly different from other Lexus spots to underline the differences between the IS C and other Lexus models. But to the reader, the commercials diverge far too much from the well-established Lexus image. | Advertising and Marketing;Online Advertising;Saatchi & Saatchi;Publicis Groupe SA;General Mills Incorporated;Mastercard International Inc |
ny0255056 | [
"business"
] | 2011/09/18 | Letters: The Vital Importance of Manufacturing | To the Editor: Woe is us if the headline on your recent article, “Is Manufacturing Falling Off the Radar?” (Sept. 11), is answered in the affirmative. If the economic downturn has revealed anything, it is that true, sustainable wealth creation — and the jobs that come along with it — will not arise from the gambling casinos of Wall Street. The key to a healthy economy, and the viability of a middle class, can only be found in an innovative manufacturing sector. While many Americans believe in manufacturing’s importance to the economy, many also have an outdated view of manufacturing as a sweaty, grimy business. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, as productivity gains in our increasingly high-tech manufacturing sector attest. This perception problem is at the root of the article’s provocative question. Many industry executives and associations have been working hard to change this unfortunate view, but without leadership at the national level, the problem has persisted. That is why I and others have suggested a cabinet-level Department of Manufacturing. This agency would help put industry on the strategic footing it needs — in the federal government, in the industry itself and in the hearts and minds of all Americans. It would help drive home the idea that manufacturing is the bedrock of the economy. David R. Brousell Manhattan, Sept. 11 The writer is editor in chief of Manufacturing Executive. • To the Editor: As for the financial sector replacing manufacturing in its effect on the economy, do we really need more derivative products and the like? Obviously, one benefit of the manufacturing sector, besides jobs, is the income it generates for the middle class. In my experience, the decreasing size of the manufacturing sector is directly responsible for increasing income disparities, which in turn has a direct economic impact in the form of anemic overall growth. Robert E. Anderson Allendale, N.J., Sept. 11 Tax Cuts for Business? To the Editor: In “How to Make Business Want to Invest Again” (Economic View, Sept. 11), N. Gregory Mankiw suggested a cut in corporate taxation as a first step toward encouraging companies to investment in the economy. Other business columnists have made similar recommendations, all despite news reports that some major corporations have paid either minimal or no taxes for years. Business organizations clamor for tax cuts as the solution to any problem they face. But when you ask individual business owners about their lack of investment, they often cite a lack of orders and customers. The current tax rates, especially when rarely paid, are no more a hindrance to investment than they were during the boom decade preceding the downturn. Arthur D. Aptowitz Forest Hills, Queens, Sept. 12 • To the Editor: As one possible way to encourage the economy’s long-term growth, Professor Mankiw suggested “tax reform that reduced the burden on capital income and shifted it toward consumption.” But such a view appears antithetical to any theory for responsible government policy during an economic slowdown. Consumer spending, not corporate investment, is the main driver of the economy, and depressing it further with new tax burdens would be counterproductive to any recovery. Moreover, the cost of capital is not the main impediment to new capital investment today; instead, it is lack of demand for the additional goods that might be produced. Corporate capital costs are already subsidized with historically low interest rates from the government’s aggressive monetary policy. Jeffery L. Hart Austin, Tex., Sept. 11 The writer is a partner at the law firm of Cardwell Hart & Bennett. Sales Pitches on Campus To the Editor: In “On Campus, It’s One Big Commercial” (Sept. 11), we learn that students are working as brand representatives at their schools, promoting products and assisting on corporate-sponsored field trips for late-night shopping sprees. What has happened to the long-established function of a university as a marketplace of ideas? Oh well, a plain old marketplace will have to do. David Charak Boca Raton, Fla., Sept. 12 • To the Editor: Your article on campus commercialization makes me wonder: Why not take the idea an absurd step further? Seeing that the cost of college education is growing rapidly, and that online education is still derided because a student will lose the “college experience,” I propose the following: Offer all classes online but conduct exams only at the store that bids the most for that class. It’s win-win-win: Students can go to school at a greatly reduced price, university coffers are filled and companies can ruthlessly market their wares to teenagers. And if students and the administrators want to do a little dance in the aisles on the way out from the first exam, all the better — for the store, at least. M. Adrian Mattocks, Ph.D. Worcester, Mass., Sept. 11 | Factories and Manufacturing;United States Economy;Taxation |
ny0252118 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2011/11/18 | American Sign Language Program Attracts Oregon Football Players | EUGENE, Ore. — When University of Oregon football fans cheer their team, they often hold out their hands in the shape of the letter “O,” for Oregon. If this makes some Ducks players blush, it is because many of them chose sign language to fulfill their foreign language requirement, and in sign language, the fans are saying — screaming, really — the word vagina. Twenty-nine players on the team are enrolled in the university’s American Sign Language program. Their teacher delights in telling them the true meaning of the sign when they form a spade-shaped “O” with their hands. “I did the ‘O’ once, and I never did it again,” said LaMichael James, the team’s star running back, who recently injured his right elbow. When discussing this, James spoke quietly so that those nearby would not hear. He would not make the sign. His elbow hurt, he demurred. Older players recommended the sign language course, players said, because they found it engaging and intuitive — they had grown up using different signing systems on the field. A few players said sign language was a welcome alternative to Spanish, which had been a struggle in high school. “A lot of people stereotype us and think we’re just sitting around and not doing anything,” said Dewitt Stuckey, a senior linebacker and second-year sign language student. “But in this class you have to pay attention. If not, you get completely lost.” Stuckey, who said he wants to be a counselor at a junior college, signed as he spoke. “It’s kind of rude for us not to sign when we talk,” he explained, motioning across the room to his teacher, Valentino Vasquez, who is deaf. In the first-year classroom next door, about half the students were football players. Morning practice had ended at 11:15 a.m. and class started at noon, so many arrived with their hair still wet, carrying to-go containers of burgers and fries. Standing on a box at the front of the room, their teacher, Johanna Larson, looked the part of an excited conductor. Her parents, who are deaf, had visited the class the day before, and she asked whether the students had ever met a deaf person. A player raised his hand. “When I was young, I played against a deaf school in basketball,” he said. “The referee couldn’t talk to them. We would stop playing, but they would keep playing a few seconds.” Another player mentioned Derrick Coleman , a running back at U.C.L.A., who is deaf. In fact, in 2009, Deafdigest.net , an online news source for the deaf community, counted at least 76 deaf and hard-of-hearing students who played in the N.C.A.A. Thirty-nine of them played for Division I teams. Larson plans to tell her students that Gallaudet , a leading institution for the deaf in Washington, claims to have originated the football huddle. The story goes that on a blustery day in 1894, the team’s star player, Paul Hubbard, suspected that someone on the opposing team could read their signs and was anticipating their plays. Hubbard called for his teammates to form a circle. The huddle, at least in this version of its origin, was born. Larson talks about football with her students in part because the sport is important in deaf culture, but also because she wants to reach the athletes. She first noticed large numbers of football players four years ago, when sign language was approved for the undergraduate foreign language requirement. “We suddenly had a huge group of diverse students in our class of 40 students, and I wondered, Is this because, you know the age-old adage, football players take the easiest classes?” she said. “I’ve determined that it’s not.” Colleagues made similar observations. The graduation rate for Oregon football players is 54 percent, which is on the lower end of colleges in the Pac-12. It is not unheard of for college athletes to be fast-tracked through no-show classes. At Auburn, for example, athletes were found in 2004 to be receiving high grades in courses that required no attendance and little work. Larson said the football players taking sign language at Oregon follow the same grading curve as nonathletes. “Many of them have some sort of innate ability,” she said. “They’ve been watching signals for so long, and many of the students on the team are real tactile learners with great peripheral vision.” For nonathletes in the class, being around players tested them on another level, said Jeanne Jensen, a former sign language student who graduated in June. “A lot of the people in the class grew up around only white people,” she said. “Having athletes in the class shrunk the bridge between football players, who are these borderline celebrities, and your everyday student.” After two years, Jensen said, there was a bond between the athletes and nonathletes, partly because after two years everyone could converse in sign language. For James, sign language has been a way to rib his running backs coach, with whom he is close. “He keeps asking, ‘What are you saying?’ ” he said. Others can be kept in the dark, too, which is probably a good thing because, as James learned from his teachers, there is not as much nuance in sign language. “If you’re ugly, you’re ugly,” he said. “There’s no, ‘She’s all right,’ like there is in English.” Which is why the spade-shaped “O” is so painfully awkward — to those who know sign language, there is no disguising its meaning. When Larson, a devoted Ducks fan, heard that James avoids making the sign, she was delighted. “I’m so proud of him,” she said. “We’re trying to spread the word to make the ‘O’ more of a rounded shape.” | University of Oregon;Sign Language;Deafness;Football;Colleges and Universities;College Athletics;Football (College) |
ny0045896 | [
"us"
] | 2014/02/23 | Border’s New Sentinels Are Robots, Penetrating Deepest Drug Routes | NOGALES, Ariz. — Tom Pittman has made a career as a Border Patrol agent here guarding this city’s underground drainage system, where the tunnels that carry sewage and storm runoff between the United States and Mexico are also busy drug-smuggling routes. Over the years, he has crawled and slithered past putrid puddles, makeshift latrines and discarded needles left behind by drug users, relying on instincts, mostly, to gauge the risks ahead. It is a dirty and dangerous business, but these days, there is a robot for that. Three robots, out of four in use by the agency along the entire southern border, are newly assigned to the Border Patrol station here. The reason is in the numbers: Most of the tunnels discovered along the border lead from Nogales, Mexico, to Nogales, Ariz., out of sight of the agents, cameras and drones that blanket the ground above. This month, federal agents closed the largest one found so far, a 481-foot passageway aired by fans and lit by lamps hanging from wires that ran along the tunnel’s walls. The robots are just the latest tactic in a vexing battle by the federal authorities to try to stem the flow of drugs through the tunnels, considered prime pieces of real estate by the smuggling groups that build and control them. Border Patrol agents have tried dumping concrete inside the tunnels to render them unusable, and installing cameras and motion detectors to alert them of suspicious movement underground. But still the tunnel diggers persist. The robots, valued for their speed and maneuverability, can serve as the first eyes on places considered too risky for humans to explore. “If anyone is going to get hurt, it better be that robot,” said Mr. Pittman, a supervisory agent here. Along the southern border, drug smuggling has remained stubbornly prolific, with seizures happening not just in the tunnels, but also at legal ports of entry and among illegal border crossers carrying bales of marijuana in their backpacks. Some 2.9 million pounds of drugs, mostly marijuana, were seized by Customs and Border Protection agents in the past fiscal year; 1.3 million of those pounds were seized in Arizona, the largest amount among the four states that border Mexico, according to agency statistics. Of the 45 cross-border tunnels found in the Southwest in the past three fiscal years, 25 were in Nogales — not counting the partly finished tunnels the agents found — and three more have been uncovered this year. The tunnels are part of a sophisticated enterprise. The groups that control the smuggling routes in the Mexican Nogales — the Sinaloa cartel on the east side of the city, the Beltrán-Leyva cartel on the west — have an understanding: One side pays the other to use the areas it holds, both “above ground and underground,” said Special Agent Alex Garcia of Homeland Security Investigations, who leads the border tunnel task force here. A senior American law enforcement official said Saturday that the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the world’s most-wanted drug lord, had been captured. Many of the tunnel diggers are believed to come from the copper mines of Cananea, Mexico, about 45 miles southeast of Nogales. They use tools with short handles because, in the tunnels here, there is no room to stand up straight, Mr. Garcia said. That does not bother the tunnel-detecting robots. They have cameras that look up, down and sideways, in front of them and behind them. Controlled remotely by joysticks, they glide, bump and scrape along dark, cramped areas, where the air is not safe for humans to breathe for long. One model sounds and looks like the remote-controlled Humvees sold in toy stores. The other , with its bullet-shaped body and shiny blue and silver shell, seems as if it had been pulled right off a sci-fi movie set. Among the daily duties shared by Mr. Pittman and a small group of agents certified to search confined spaces is to comb through Nogales’s drainage lines, which the smugglers often tap into to push their loads north. The agents look for signs of disturbance, like a patch of plastic on a steel pipe or scarring where the metal should be smooth. To get ready for this work, the human agents “have to put on kneepads, elbow pads — we’ve got to put on helmets, gloves,” said Kevin Hecht, the deputy patrol agent in charge of the Border Patrol station in Nogales and one of the agency’s foremost experts on illicit tunnels. “Sometimes we have to put on Tyvek suits,” he said, referring to the coveralls that protect against the hazards that can lurk below drainage lines. The robots, on the other hand, need no preparation other than the flick of a switch. They scour the tunnels much faster than the agents can, and in the complicated work of securing the border underground, to waste time is to risk losing ground to the smugglers. Eric S. Balliet, assistant special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Nogales, said the agents in the tunnel task force had closed, on average, one tunnel a month in Nogales since October 2010. (The Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, and the Drug Enforcement Administration are also part of the task force.) “At any given moment, there’s a tunnel being planned, under construction or in operation in and around this city,” Mr. Balliet said. The large tunnel found here this month linked an abandoned home in Mexico to an occupied house not far from the border. The drugs were taken from there in hollowed-out couches or inside washing machines, according to the criminal complaint; three men were arrested on drug-conspiracy charges. Many of the tunnels that are found end in inconspicuous places like this. One of them, discovered in December, exited into a backyard shed . Another, found last February, ended at an embankment behind the border fence, near a spot where a different tunnel had been closed in March 2012. Nogales, Ariz., recently banned parking on a section of International Street, which runs parallel to the fence, after a tunnel exit was found there, less than 100 feet from a border crossing. Smugglers inside the tunnel had used a jackhammer to raise a piece of concrete cut from the pavement. Then they pushed bales of marijuana through the fake bottom of a refrigerated truck parked right above the hole. Task force agents sometimes observe a tunnel for months before moving in. A whiteboard in the bunker from which they operate in Rio Rico, a town just north of Nogales, listed the nine open investigations they have had since January 2013. An inquiry might start with a tip from a disaffected tunnel digger or a breach found by one of the robots along the drainage lines in the United States. “At the end of the day,” Mr. Balliet said, “there’s an organizational structure behind these tunnels, and that’s what we’re after. The end game of every tunnel investigation is in Mexico.” | Drug Abuse;Robot;Arizona;Mexico;Smuggling;Drug cartel |
ny0172942 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2007/11/12 | St. Joseph’s Tries to Return to Former Glory | The banner that celebrates the Atlantic 10’s last perfect team and the coach turned author Phil Martelli are about the only remnants of a season that delivered everything but a promised national championship. For a St. Joseph’s program that was once the darling of college basketball, the team of late has been simply ordinary. Four years after Martelli and a future N.B.A. backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Delonte West captivated Hawk Hill and beyond, the program has not really built on the success of the 30-2 season and the magical run deep into March. Its Philadelphia gym still seems right out of “Hoosiers.” The high school all-American recruits have not flocked to the Hawks. And perhaps more bewildering than anything, St. Joseph’s has yet to return to the N.C.A.A. tournament. “Certainly, that season has changed the national perception of what St. Joseph’s is all about,” Martelli said. The Hawks stamped their reputation as the small university that could with the kind of regular season that would make any team from Tobacco Road to the hills of Westwood envious. The Hawks opened the 2003-4 season with 27 victories, reached No. 1, were a No. 1 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament for the first time and made their first trip to a regional final since 1981. The amiable Martelli was a sought-after personality. TV cameras and autograph hounds were as common at practice as layup drills. Nelson was on the cover of national magazines. And there was a frenzy late in that season everywhere St. Joseph’s played. Martelli’s beef with the CBS announcer Billy Packer was a juicy appetizer going into the N.C.A.A. tournament, where the coach with the office the size of a discount motel room promised that his Hawks would win the national title. Instead, the storybook run for St. Joseph’s ended with a 64-62 loss to Oklahoma State in the East Rutherford Regional final. Nelson, the Chester, Pa., guard who carried the Hawks all season, missed the final shot. The Hawks have not been the same since. St. Joseph’s has not exactly tumbled into anonymity. Without Nelson and West, the Hawks followed their near-perfect season with 24 victories and the Atlantic 10 title. They lost by 1 point to Xavier in the conference championship game, which denied them a shot at the automatic berth to the N.C.A.A. tournament. They won 19 games in 2005-6 and made their second consecutive National Invitation Tournament appearance. An 18-14 mark last season held them out of any postseason play for the first time since 1999-2000. Martelli fueled the run by recruiting players like Nelson, West and Dwayne Jones. While Nelson reaped the rewards for staying four years, West and Jones left with eligibility remaining and the Hawks without anyone of their caliber to replace them. “There are some days where I’ve been left scratching my head because I would have thought with recruiting, particularly local recruiting, that there would have been more of a fire, more of a yearn to be here,” Martelli said. “There are guys playing even in this city that I think I’m surprised we didn’t get them.” Take Tasheed Carr, for example. Carr was a West Philadelphia kid who followed that near-perfect season and developed a bond with Nelson. Martelli hoped that Carr would follow his favorites to St. Joseph’s. Carr turned down the Hawks and left Philadelphia, playing two seasons at Iowa State before transferring before last season to St. Joseph’s. After sitting out a year, he was voted a team captain this season. “My ultimate decision was based on me coming home, being close to my family and having a great chance to play with great guys and a great coach in Coach Martelli,” Carr said. | Basketball;St. Joseph's University;National Collegiate Athletic Assn;Martelli Phil |
ny0173308 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2007/11/25 | Knicks Finally End Slide, but They’re Not Off Slope | A new feeling swept through Madison Square Garden yesterday afternoon, something that was neither elation nor misery and not easily defined. Cautious joy? Angst-riddled relief? Modest merriment? What, exactly, should a team feel when it finally stops a losing streak that sapped morale, endangered the coach’s job security and incited nonstop vitriol? The Knicks were not sure. They had beaten an equally distraught Chicago Bulls team, 85-78, and finding the proper adjectives was of secondary concern. An eight-game losing streak, the Knicks’ worst in two seasons, was over. Isiah Thomas ’s job as coach and team president was, for the moment, secure. Speculation was officially over until the next pratfall. “It feels a lot better being on this side,” said Eddy Curry, who led the Knicks with 21 points and also had 7 rebounds. “But we got a long way to go still. I thought we came out this afternoon and played with a lot of effort, and we just stayed together. We had some moments where we could have folded — and where we have folded in the past. But today we kept pushing and we were able to get a win.” The Knicks (3-9) built a double-digit lead — amazingly, their first of the season — then lost it before surging again down the stretch to hold off Chicago (2-9). Zach Randolph overcame a rough start, hit two big shots down the stretch and finished with 20 points. Stephon Marbury, who with Thomas was a main target of the fans’ ire, had 19 points. There were no fist pumps, chest bumps or other major gestures at the final buzzer. A capacity crowd stood and clapped politely as the Knicks left the court. Quentin Richardson (15 rebounds) briefly raised his arms, but he said it was a reaction to holding off the Bulls, not because the streak had ended. It had been a rough 18 days between victories. Thomas benched Marbury, who abandoned the team for a day, then returned to a resentful locker room. The Knicks looked frayed and, at times, uninterested. Last Tuesday, the misery reached a peak when the Garden echoed with boos and chants of “Fire Isiah.” There were no such chants yesterday, and the boos evaporated by midafternoon. “When you lose eight in a row, there’s a lot of things that can go on inside your locker room, as you can see from speculation from other people that aren’t true,” Marbury said. “We’re staying together, and that’s the most important thing.” Marbury played rugged defense against Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich and made a key shot in the final minutes (although he missed two others). “I thought Marbury was great tonight,” Thomas said. “I told him, November is almost over and it’d be good to see him back.” Marbury dismissed the suggestion that he had ever strayed from his game, although it was his failings as a defender and a leader that had prompted the recent benching. “I was back to myself when it all started,” Marbury said. “I never changed. And I’m not going to change. I know what happened, and it’s behind me.” The Bulls were without Luol Deng, perhaps their best player. Their usually explosive backcourt seemed oddly out of sorts. Gordon and Hinrich combined to shoot 9 of 35 from the field, finishing with 24 points and 7 turnovers. Andres Nocioni, who replaced Deng, had 23 points and 9 rebounds. The Knicks rode Curry and Randolph and punished the undersized Bulls inside. Curry and Randolph combined for 22 free-throw attempts, 3 more than the entire Bulls roster. Randolph was shaky for most of the game, missing 7 of 13 free throws and committing 6 turnovers. But he hit two baskets in the final 61 seconds that helped put the game away. James L. Dolan, the Garden chairman, was not in attendance. He has made no recent public statement regarding his coach, and Thomas said he needed none. “In New York, you’re either dead or alive,” Thomas said. “You lose a game and you’re dead, and you win one and you basically get to survive.” The afternoon began with familiar ill will — Thomas and Marbury were booed during pregame introductions, and Marbury was booed every time he touched the ball in the opening minutes. The mood brightened quickly, as the Knicks built a 12-point lead in the second quarter. It grew to 14 in the third, and the Knicks had a fourth-quarter lead for the first time since Nov. 16, when they lost at Sacramento. The boos returned briefly as the Bulls, behind Nocioni’s shooting, tied the score twice late in the fourth quarter. But Chicago never took the lead. Thomas joked that the Knicks would be able to go out to dinner and show their faces publicly last night. The good feelings, however defined, may only last two days. The Utah Jazz, a contender in the West, arrives tomorrow night. “So you don’t necessarily relax and say it’s over,” Thomas said. “If we don’t win Monday, then it’s the same thing all over again.” | Basketball;New York Knicks;Thomas Isiah;Curry Eddy;Chicago Bulls |
ny0131838 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2012/12/26 | Japan Leader Keeps Up Pressure on Central Bank to Stimulate Economy | TOKYO — The incoming Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe , kept up his calls on Tuesday for the Bank of Japan to drastically ease monetary policy by setting an inflation target of 2 percent, and he repeated that he wants to tame the strong yen to help revive the economy. Mr. Abe, who will be sworn in on Wednesday and is expected to appoint his cabinet on the same day, is prescribing a mix of aggressive monetary policy easing and big fiscal spending to beat deflation and rein in the strong yen. “The economy, diplomacy, education and rebuilding in the northeast,” which was hit by the 2011 tsunami, quake and nuclear disaster, “are in a critical situation. I want to create a cabinet which can overcome this crisis,” Mr. Abe told a news conference. “We have advocated beating deflation, correcting the strong yen and achieving economic growth during the election, so we must restore a strong economy,” he said, adding that the stagnant economy was also undermining Japan’s diplomatic clout. Mr. Abe, who quit abruptly as prime minister in 2007 after a troubled year in office, repeated that his new government hoped to sign an accord with the Bank of Japan to aim for 2 percent inflation, double the central bank’s current target. “Once I become prime minister, I will leave it up to the BOJ to decide on specific measures on monetary policy,” Mr. Abe told a meeting with officials from the Keidanren, the major business lobbying group in Japan. “I hope the BOJ pursues unconventional measures, including bold monetary easing,” he added. His remarks were taken as maintaining pressure on the central bank to expand monetary stimulus more forcefully in order to tackle the deflation that has dogged Japan for more than a decade. Mr. Abe’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party won by a landslide in this month’s lower-house election just three years after suffering a crushing defeat. The party has threatened to revise a law guaranteeing the Bank of Japan’s independence unless the central bank sets a 2 percent inflation target. The B.O.J., which eased monetary policy in December, has promised to debate setting a new price target at its next policy-setting meeting on January 21-22. Mr. Abe and his coalition partner, Natsuo Yamaguchi, the head of the small New Komeito party, agreed on Tuesday to set the inflation target and compile a big stimulus budget, Mr. Yamaguchi told reporters after the two met. Mr. Abe is expected to draft an extra budget by mid-January. | Economic Conditions and Trends;Abe Shinzo;Japan |
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