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ny0126333 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2012/08/24 | Bill Clinton, in New Commercial, Channels Obama | WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton is not only campaigning for President Obama in his re-election bid. In a new 30-second commercial released on Thursday by the Obama campaign, he is practically channeling him. “This is a clear choice,” Mr. Clinton says of the race between Mr. Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney. Describing the Republican economic blueprint as deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, Mr. Clinton says, “That’s what got us in trouble in the first place.” His words could have been lifted from a recent commercial by Mr. Obama, called “ The Choice ,” in which the president presents himself as a defender of the middle class against predatory Republicans. Even the settings are similar: both men, seated in well-appointed rooms and wearing conservative suits, speaking straight to the camera. It is the most visible effort yet by the last Democratic president in support of the current one — and it marks the beginning of a period of intensified engagement by Mr. Clinton, whose relationship with Mr. Obama has traveled from bitter antagonism to chilly distance to a cautious embrace. In two weeks, he will have the coveted role of placing Mr. Obama’s name into nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. For the Obama campaign, Mr. Clinton has obvious appeal: he is a popular former president with a strong economic record and a reputation as a defender of the middle class. But Mr. Clinton may be most valuable because of his credibility with a voting constituency that Mr. Obama has struggled with, working-class whites. “There is no Democrat who is more trusted than President Clinton by white working-class voters for having their interests at heart and being on their side,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster who is working with Priorities USA Action, a “ super PAC ” that supports Mr. Obama. “When it comes to what it takes to make the economy work for the middle class, Bill Clinton is a virtual Good Housekeeping seal of approval.” Mr. Clinton could help blunt what Obama campaign officials say is a calculated effort by Mr. Romney to peel working-class whites away from the president by suggesting, in recent ads, that Mr. Obama dismantled a central plank of Mr. Clinton’s welfare reform law that requires welfare recipients to work in return for benefits. Although in the Obama ad, Mr. Clinton does not address that claim, which has been discredited by fact-checkers, he makes it clear that he believes Mr. Obama, not Mr. Romney, is the right choice to “rebuild America from the ground up.” Mr. Clinton’s words are intercut with images of a construction worker heaving a lunchbox out of a pickup truck and Mr. Obama talking to voters over a kitchen table (the same image appears in Mr. Obama’s ad). Mr. Obama has struggled with working-class white voters since the 2008 campaign when he declared during a fund-raiser that people in economically depressed small towns cling to “guns, or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them,” a comment that was seized on by his Democratic opponent at the time, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a last-ditch effort to deny him the nomination. The Obama campaign has hoped to hold on to more of those voters this year by portraying Mr. Obama as their defender against the favor-the-rich policies of Mr. Romney. Campaign officials said they would use Mr. Clinton as much as he will let them, and he seems game for it. But they will have to compete for his time. The two other members of the Clinton family — Mrs. Clinton, the secretary of state, and Chelsea Clinton, a correspondent for NBC News — are both barred from politics. That means for any Democratic candidate seeking the Clinton imprimatur, Mr. Clinton is the only choice. | Clinton Bill;Obama Barack;Presidential Election of 2012;Political Advertising |
ny0164379 | [
"us"
] | 2006/11/24 | Using Fiction in a Real Fight Against Drugs | MERCED, Calif., Nov. 23 (AP) — California officials have adopted the idea of fotonovelas, the small picture books popular in Mexico, in hopes of persuading immigrant laborers to resist the easy-money temptation of the methamphetamine trade. Thousands in the Central Valley, a broad agricultural swath that runs up the middle of the state, have read the story of Jose, a farmworker who endangers his family by working for a drug ring. The story, “No Vale La Pena,” or “It’s Not Worth It,” has also inspired a Spanish-language film, and officials from other states have requested copies of both projects. Community leaders in and around Merced, about 130 miles southeast of San Francisco, saw the fotonovela concept as an effective way to reach immigrant workers. “We were trying to get that message across to a population that has a very low literacy level and that’s really isolated,” said a public relations executive, Virginia Madueno, who created the booklet. The Central Valley is a primary distribution point for methamphetamine, according to a Department of Justice report released last month. Mexican drug cartels have begun to dominate the trade in the area. Sheriff Mark N. Pazin of Merced County said cartels accounted for more than 80 percent of the arrests on methamphetamine-production charges in 2003. The federal report said the cartels were trying to expand into other areas with large immigrant populations. “No Vale La Pena” ends sadly. Jose, recruited by a drug lord, hides his methamphetamine laboratory from his wife and exposes their daughter to a fatal dose of chemicals. The first publishing run, of 15,000 copies, was soon exhausted, said Ben Duran, the president of Merced College, who helped create the storybook using donations. More were printed, and the book is now available at many supermarkets catering to Hispanics across California. Last year, Mr. Duran started working on a film based on the story, styled to look like a Mexican soap opera. He played the drug kingpin in the film, made with help from the sheriff and $100,000 in federal financing. It has been shown in classrooms, at nurses’ conventions and at commercial theaters in several states. | Methamphetamines;Drug Abuse and Traffic;Immigration and Refugees;California |
ny0133270 | [
"science"
] | 2012/12/25 | From Bang to Whimper: A Heart Drug’s Story | On June 23, 2005, American medicine managed to take a small step forward and a giant step backward at precisely the same time, with government approval of the first medication to be earmarked for a specific racial group. It was BiDil, a drug designed to treat heart failure in blacks. Enthusiasts hailed BiDil’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration as a landmark event in the nascent field of pharmacogenomics, which aims to create drugs tailored to fit an individual’s genetic makeup as precisely as a bespoke suit drapes its owner’s shoulders. Critics just winced and clocked one more misstep in medicine’s long history of race-related disasters. You would think that the elucidation of the human genome would have cleared up most of the hoary untruths surrounding race and health. But as Jonathan Kahn makes clear in his worthy if convoluted review of the events surrounding the birth of BiDil, the genome has in many respects only made things worse. It has been clear for decades that race has minimal relevance to the body’s inner workings. Research has repeatedly shown that the biologic variations among individuals of the same race are reliably great enough for race to retain little utility as a biologic predictor. You might as well sort people by height. Or, in the words of an editorial writer for Nature Biotechnology in 2005, “Pooling people in race silos is akin to zoologists grouping raccoons, tigers and okapis on the basis that they are all stripy.” But old misconceptions die hard, particularly for entrepreneurs eagerly awaiting cash bonanzas from the genomic revolution. Race may be irrelevant; it may be, as Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, put it, “a weak and imperfect proxy” for genetic differences. But it is also a familiar concept — and asking people what race they are is substantially cheaper than genotyping them. So in a peculiar paradox, race has come to serve in some circles as a crude surrogate for genetic analysis until actual genomic medicine comes along — a temporary bridge from now to later, known to be flawed but still a quasi-legitimate stand-in for the real thing. Against this background unfolds the story of BiDil, a drama of greed and good intentions. Several observations prompted the drug’s development. Among them was the common assertion from the last century that blacks with heart failure were more likely to die than whites. (Mr. Kahn does an impressive job of researching and debunking this statistic.) Then there was the belief that blacks often reacted badly to some of the newer drugs used for treating heart failure, and the results of a study dating from the 1980s suggesting that many black patients did well with two old standby drugs. Those two drugs were (and are) on sale as generics, costing pennies a pill. But just suppose they were combined into a single pill that could be then specifically marketed to patients who just happened to be thought in particular need of effective medication? Now there was a pharmacologic and marketing plan that would extend a lucrative new patent for decades. And so it came to pass that a collection of eager investors and some of the nation’s foremost cardiologists smiled on the results of an industry-sponsored trial performed on self-identified black subjects with heart failure: The two cheap drugs combined into the not-so-cheap BiDil reduced mortality by 40 percent compared with placebo. This figure was impressive enough to end the trial early and speed BiDil to market. How did whites do on BiDil? Nobody bothered to check. Mr. Kahn deserves credit for teasing out all the daunting complexities behind these events, including the details of genetic analysis, the perils of racial determinations and the minutiae of patent law. Unfortunately, though, he suffocates his powerful subject in a dry, repetitive, ponderous read. A law professor with a doctorate in history and longstanding interest in race issues, Mr. Kahn trudges a partisan path through the drama in which he himself was a player. (He testified before an F.D.A. advisory committee that BiDil should be approved without racial qualifications.) He heads bravely into many statistical thickets, but omits relevant clinical data; he repeatedly refers to the trial that led to BiDil’s approval, for instance, but I could find its numerical findings nowhere in the book and had to look them up. In a story that fairly drips with potential human interest, he offers the reader not one sip. The issues raised on every page are so important and so thought-provoking that it would be irresponsible to warn interested readers away. Still, it would be almost as irresponsible to misrepresent the difficulty of the journey. As it happens, BiDil itself has had a remarkably inglorious career. Despite its much-trumpeted release, patients did not request the medication, and practicing doctors did not prescribe it. NitroMed, the company that developed it, sponsored no further studies and failed in 2009. The drug still lingers on the market; Mr. Kahn writes that BiDil may be resurrected in sustained-release form — that other time-honored technique for wringing a few more years from a drug’s patent. For a parable of early 21st-century medicine, as it treads water between past and future and never hesitates to reach for a buck, it doesn’t get much better than BiDil. | Bidil (Drug);Drugs (Pharmaceuticals);Blacks;Heart;Race and Ethnicity;Advertising and Marketing;Books and Literature;Race in a Bottle (Book);Kahn Jonathan |
ny0247734 | [
"sports",
"autoracing"
] | 2011/05/28 | A Slow Beginning for Spanish F1 Team | After Fernando Alonso became Formula One world champion in 2005 and 2006, his sport suddenly became one of the most popular in Spain, and the country had not only a top driver, but, riding on the wave of its economic boom, it also had two Grand Prix races, one in Barcelona and the other in Valencia. The only thing missing was a Spanish team. That would be resolved in 2009, when the International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, announced that it was looking for new, low-budget teams to join the series, and the idea of a national Spanish team, called Hispania Racing Team, or HRT, was born. Although the project was begun by the former Spanish driver Adrian Campos, it nearly fell through — like the USF1 project at about the same time — until a last-minute investment and purchase by the Spanish entrepreneur José Ramón Carabante and the help of a German racing team owned by Colin Kolles. Kolles, a Romanian, had experience running teams in Formula One and was ready for the new challenge of starting one from scratch. Although he has built the team at his own racing team’s factory in Germany, it is still Spanish-owned and has offices in Spain as well. José Carabante, the team’s chief executive and son of the owner, said last weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix that he hopes to eventually move the team entirely to Spain. “We are always thinking of the possibility to move all the team to Spain, and we are working hard on this,” he said. “I think the idea of having all the team together, especially here in Spain, will make us a strong team.” The team finished second to last in the standings last season, ahead only of the Virgin team, and it struggled to stay afloat financially. In its first season it had used chassis supplied by the Italian company Dallara, but the rules required it — and all teams — to build its own car for 2011. “We had a very busy winter,” Kolles said. “We had to redesign the whole car, now we are looking into bringing developments into the car. It is quite a big change for a small team, but we have done it.” This year the drivers are Vitantonio Liuzzi, an Italian, and Narain Karthikeyan, an Indian who raced at the Jordan team several years ago and at Kolles’s teams in the junior formulas. Liuzzi started in Formula One six years ago at the Toro Rosso team, before joining the Force India team, from which he was suddenly dropped in February. “I linked myself with this challenge because I saw a team that could make a step forward,” Liuzzi said of Hispania. “It has some good engineers, some really interesting technical people, an interesting structure that needs some development and some tuning, but together with a big effort from everybody I think it can make a big step forward.” “Even Red Bull, in their first year, didn’t win the championship,” Liuzzi added. “They took six years to do it.” Kolles said the biggest challenge for a new team like Hispania is making due with a small staff and budget. Whereas the top teams, like Ferrari or McLaren, have a staff of nearly 1,000 employees, Hispania has only 130. “It is all about the people, and all the people have to move all in one direction,” Kolles said. “Money is important, but also the people have to work efficiently with the money they have. And they have to be innovative, and the less money you have, the more innovative they have to be. Because we don’t have five shots, we have only one shot for something.” At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March, Hispania became the first and only victim of Formula One’s new rule stipulating that cars that fail to qualify within 107 percent of the lap time of the fastest car are not permitted to take part in the race. But for a team that had only finished building its new car just in time for that race, without having a chance to test it during the winter, Hispania has done well to qualify both cars in the four races since then. “After our first season it was not an easy beginning,” Carabante said. “Now I think we are in a different position and the result is clear: We are improving in all the areas. Every race we are looking at how we can improve, and the result is clear.” | Spain;Formula One;Automobile Racing |
ny0260554 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2011/06/29 | Wimbledon 2011: Sharapova and Vujacic, Athletes Who Are a Couple | WIMBLEDON, England — Watching Maria Sharapova ’s power and precision, the Centre Court crowd at Wimbledon fell into an awed silence Tuesday, one that was broken before or after some points by the clapping of one person. Without a word, Sasha Vujacic was communicating everything his fiancée, Sharapova, needed to hear during her 6-1, 6-1 quarterfinal victory against Dominika Cibulkova. Sharapova and Vujacic have a telepathy usually seen in old, married couples, never mind that they have yet to set a wedding date. If anyone can understand the loneliness and loveliness of the sporting life, it is Vujacic. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, he performed in pressure-filled games in front of large and often hostile crowds and won two N.B.A. championships. “There is that level of understanding of what it takes,” Sharapova said. Since Vujacic, now with the Nets , joined her traveling party after finishing his basketball season, Sharapova has advanced to her first two Grand Slam semifinals since her title run at the 2008 Australian Open. The ticket she punched Tuesday to Wimbledon’s semifinals was especially sweet, coming on the surface where she first had major success and on the heels of a career-threatening shoulder injury that shook her confidence to its core. “I’ve put a lot of work in to get to this stage,” Sharapova said, adding: “It’s great, the fact that I’ve had the experience of being in those stages. But I haven’t been for a while, so it’s a nice and refreshing feeling to have.” For 60 minutes under the Centre Court roof, Sharapova was her old young self, blasting forehand winners down the lines and serving with the fearlessness of the teenager who stared down Serena Williams to win the 2004 Wimbledon title. She finished with 23 winners to Cibulkova’s 3 and had 5 aces against 1 double fault, but said she was not looking beyond her next match, against Sabine Lisicki. “Just focused on that particular match and not thinking too far ahead,” she said. The tennis court is Sharapova’s office, and the focus she brings to her job would be off-putting to many high-powered mates, especially those inclined to see her work as essentially child’s play. During a hitting session Sunday, her most recent day off, Sharapova was working on her serve, and for good reason. In her first four matches, she had 14 aces and 18 double faults and had been broken 6 times, although she did not drop a set. Her coach, Thomas Hogstedt, dropped a ball bag the size of an airplane carry-on outside the baseline and left to run an errand, depositing three balls in Vujacic’s hands. For several minutes, Sharapova struck serve after serve as Vujacic fed her the ball, bouncing it to her as if feeding a jump shooter in stride. No words passed between them. A couple of times, Sharapova got Vujacic’s attention by nodding at him as if he were a ball boy. Once the session was over, Sharapova collected her racket bag and her fiancé, and they left the court side by side. On days of her matches, Vujacic walks a few paces behind her, exchanging smiles and hellos and handshakes with players, trainers, coaches — anybody who crosses his path, it seems — while Sharapova moves as if wearing blinders. Vujacic , 27, a 6-foot-7 guard from Slovenia, knows from intense after sharing a backcourt with Kobe Bryant during his six and a half seasons with the Lakers. And while possessing a personality so sunny that others seem to luxuriate in it, Vujacic, like his fiancée, has another side. On the Internet, one can follow Vujacic on his home page on what is described as “The Official Web Site of ‘The Machine.’ ” “It obviously helps that he’s an athlete and understands the perspective and the mind-set going into matches and being an athlete,” said Sharapova, a Russian who at 24 will be the oldest women’s semifinalist. “It’s quite different to many other things in life and careers.” Consider the afternoon nap. It is as ingrained a routine among professional athletes as the power lunch is in the business world. Sharapova sounded relieved she had found a partner who did not view her sleeping habits as slothful. “I think anyone else would be, ‘You’re going to take a nap in the afternoon?’ ” she said. “It’s really nice in the beginning. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s the way things work.’ I don’t even need to explain it.” Vujacic agreed. “Being an elite athlete is something that’s hard to explain if you haven’t done it,” he said. Being a spectator, he added, is the worst. During Sharapova’s matches, Vujacic sits ramrod straight and taps his hands on his knees. After she ices a point or a game, he raises his right fist and keeps it in the air in case Sharapova glances his way. Sharapova played her third-round match Monday against Shuai Peng on Court 2, and by the end of the first set of her 6-4, 6-2 victory his baby blue T-shirt was stuck to his skin. “You can see I’m all sweaty from watching her play,” he said afterward. When Sharapova watches Vujacic play, she said, she gets “a lot more nervous than I have been in my life.” She added: “It’s a lot tougher to be on the sidelines. That’s what I’ve learned.” This spring, at a tournament in Southern California, Sharapova spoke of a steep learning curve in understanding the nuances of basketball. It was around the time of the N.C.A.A. tournament, and when the subject of the event came up, she demurred. “You just spoke a foreign language to me,” said Sharapova, who is fluent in Russian and English, and conversant in French. “I can speak N.B.A. I can’t speak anything else.” Sharapova’s softer, self-deprecating side emerges when she talks about Vujacic, whom she met at a friend’s barbecue in the fall of 2009. It did not take them long to realize they had a lot in common. “We’re both big competitors, and we had very similar upbringings in terms of sport,” Sharapova said. How are they different? “I think he likes to practice more than I do,” she said, laughing, then added: “He just loves his sport so much. I mean, he slept with his first pair of basketball shoes. I certainly never slept with mine.” With a sparkle in her eyes, Sharapova said, “I slept with a pair of high heels.” Sharapova was 17 when she won the first of her three Grand Slam singles titles here. After dispatching Williams, the two-time defending champion, in 2004, she looked for a cellphone to call her mother back home. Seven years later, she and Vujacic are searching for a home of their own in the hills above the Palos Verdes peninsula in Los Angeles. On Sunday, Sharapova and Vujacic were exiting the practice court when they ran into Tracy Austin, a two-time Grand Slam champion who lives in Southern California. The area is great for single people, Austin said, and then amended herself. For young people, she meant. Sharapova laughed. Even as she edges closer to another Wimbledon women’s singles title, Sharapova is reveling in her partnership. | Sharapova Maria;Tennis;Wimbledon Tennis Tournament;New Jersey Nets;Vujacic Sasha |
ny0220358 | [
"business"
] | 2010/02/18 | Donald Welsh, 66, Co-Founder of Budget Travel Magazine, Dies | Donald E. Welsh, a publishing entrepreneur who helped found Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Budget Living and many children’s magazines, died on Feb. 6 in Tortola, the British Virgin Islands. He was 66 and lived in Boston Corner, N.Y. The cause was drowning, his wife, Bourne F. Welsh, said. After starting his magazine career at Fortune, Mr. Welsh jumped to Rolling Stone, published by Jann Wenner. He was associate publisher there before becoming founding publisher of another Wenner magazine, Outside. He left to run another company’s magazine division and began to focus it on children’s publications. His young daughter, Leah, had asked him for a subscription to People, Mr. Welsh recalled in a 1985 interview with Forbes, and he thought there had to be a more appropriate children’s magazine available. But he was disappointed with what he found. “Children’s publications talk down to the kids, and they’re always teaching,” he said, “and they always seem to have lambs and bears in the margins of the pages.” So Mr. Welsh began striking licensing deals with brands like Barbie, the Muppets and Mickey Mouse, creating more than 20 magazines for children of the 1980s that would also please their young professional parents. In 1987, he bought the division that he had been leading, which he renamed the Welsh Publishing Group, and in 1994 he agreed to sell it to Marvel Comics. Mr. Welsh then began Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, along with Mr. Frommer, in 1998. He sold it to Newsweek a year later. In 2002, he introduced Budget Living, a chic magazine for young professionals on a budget. It won awards for the best new magazine from industry publications as well as the American Society of Magazine Editors’ highest honor, the general excellence award. Nonetheless, Budget Living was shut down in 2006 because of weak advertising sales. His most recent magazine was a joint venture with Forbes called ForbesLife MountainTime. “He created a corporate culture that rewarded experimentation,” Sarah Gray Miller, the first editor of Budget Living, said by e-mail. “Don Welsh was absolutely fearless, and encouraged everyone who worked for him to take risks.” Though his interest in the outdoors was not sparked until he worked at Outside, his wife said, he became an enthusiast. He would corral fellow publishers into semi-regular Outward Bound trips that he led, and he took up scuba diving, fishing, climbing and running. “Would you say he was a strong outdoorsman? No, but he tried everything,” Mrs. Welsh said. “His whole motto was, ‘Life should be lived like a cavalry charge.’ ” Donald Emory Welsh was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on Oct. 6, 1943, to Edward and Clevelle Welsh. He graduated from Columbia College and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He married Bourne Floyd in 1966, a year after graduating from Columbia. He passed the Ohio bar, then worked for the Cleveland Trust Company before going into magazines, first in advertising sales for Fortune. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his brother, Edward Welsh of Gates Mills, Ohio; his children, Leah Welsh of Raleigh, N.C., and Philip Welsh of New York; and two grandchildren. Even as the economy battered the magazine publishing industry, Mr. Welsh remained devoted to it. “I spent my whole life at magazines,” he said in 2003. “One year I got out of magazines, and now I think, ‘Why did I do that?’ I only understand magazines.” | Magazines;Welsh Donald E.;Deaths (Obituaries);Travel and Vacations |
ny0213705 | [
"us"
] | 2010/03/28 | A Promise of Jobs Remains Only Partly Fulfilled | When Ronald Bender and about 260 other workers were unexpectedly laid off from a North Side window factory 15 months ago, they staged a sit-in and gained national attention as symbols of a work force battered by hard times. A few months later, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. visited the former Republic Windows & Doors factory to herald its reopening by a new company that promised to rehire the workers, and it seemed their immediate troubles were over. Local politicians joined Mr. Biden on a stage to deliver speeches to a cheering crowd, applauding one another and the jobs the factory would create. Mr. Bender had thought he might be rehired for one of those new jobs, but today he is still living on unemployment benefits. Only about 30 workers have been hired back. The rest are waiting. The new company underestimated the difficulties of refashioning the factory and perhaps overestimated demand for its energy-efficient windows. “It’s hard to get up and think, ‘Well, I’m not going to work today,’ ” said Mr. Bender, 57, who spent 14 years at the factory. ” The struggle of former Republic workers is a reflection of the diminishing job market that has hit the state especially hard. The unemployment rate in Illinois in February was 11.4 percent, the worst it has been since 1983 and higher than the national rate. For Mr. Bender and dozens of other former Republic employees, the difficult circumstances have led to a seemingly endless cycle of job applications and rejections. Mr. Bender has applied for manufacturing and security jobs, and even cleaning work, but he has not been able to find anything. He has tried to stay busy by doing work around the house, but he said that he was disappointed that more workers had not been rehired, and that he hoped to be back with his friends making windows soon. Much depends on the success of Serious Materials, the California-based company that bought the factory last February, which brought with it the favorable publicity from the company’s promise to put all of Republic’s employees back to work. As a builder of energy-efficient windows, Serious Materials has become a prominent beneficiary of the Obama administration’s efforts to create so-called “green jobs.” The company hopes to see increased demand for its windows because of financing for energy-saving building materials included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. At the factory last April, Mr. Biden said the rehired workers would serve as an example of jobs created by the recovery act. It was a highly publicized event attended by Mayor Richard M. Daley and Senators Richard J. Durbin and Roland W. Burris. A Serious Materials promotional flier said all the workers would be back by the end of 2009. After the cameras left, the real picture turned out to be far more complex. In an interview this month, Kevin Surace, the chief executive of Serious Materials, said he had not rehired many workers because it took longer than expected to get the factory running again because much of the equipment was missing or damaged. The weatherization program in the recovery act has also moved slowly, Mr. Surace said. As of February, less than 8 percent of the weatherization money had been spent, according to the Energy Department. Meanwhile, the former owner of Republic Windows, Richard B. Gillman, awaits trial in state court on charges that he plotted to steal money from employees and creditors in what prosecutors called a criminal case of “corporate greed.” Prosecutors said Mr. Gillman secretly loaded 10 semitrailer trucks with equipment to furnish a new factory in Iowa, an action that workers had complained about loudly during their sit-in. Mr. Gillman pleaded not guilty and was released after posting 10 percent of his $5 million bond. His lawyer, Ed Genson, called the charges a publicity stunt by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and said Mr. Gillman had had permission to remove the equipment. By the time the workers were able to begin producing windows again at the end of last year, Mr. Surace said, it was winter, a period when business slows in Northern cities. “It took us an awful lot longer than we had hoped,” Mr. Surace said. “That’s our fault, not anyone else’s. It just took that long. We didn’t realize what shape things were in. We would have loved to bring everyone back.” Now that orders have increased and the factory has dozens of dealers carrying its products, Mr. Surace said he hopes to have 100 workers back by the end of the year. They are being rehired based on seniority and on which positions most need to be filled, he said. The Chicago factory is an important element of the future plans of Serious Materials, a private company whose rise was highlighted when Mr. Surace was named 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine. The start-up has reported that it has raised more than $120 million in capital. Among five Serious Materials factories across the country, the one in Chicago is the largest and the company’s primary supplier to Midwest outlets. Earlier this month, the company was chosen for a high-profile project to retrofit more than 6,500 windows in the Empire State Building. And Mr. Surace said he had toured Willis Tower, formerly called Sears Tower, to explore the possibility of retrofitting its windows. Ricky Maclin, a 56-year-old glass-line worker, was rehired in late January. “When you’re used to working,” Mr. Maclin said, “that’s just what is in your blood, and that’s all we ever really wanted was our jobs. One of the things that for me made unemployment more bearable was knowing I did have a job to come back to, as opposed to millions of people that are just unemployed and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.” As vice president of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, Mr. Maclin regularly attends labor rallies and talks about his experience with the sit-in. The union, which helped obtain severance and accrued vacation pay for its members to resolve the dispute, has negotiated a contract with Serious Materials that requires the recall of all members before anyone else is hired. “We are a family,” Mr. Maclin said. “It’s not the same sitting at the Christmas table if Grandma isn’t there and Aunt Claire and Uncle Bob. You know, you don’t feel whole. That is pretty much the atmosphere at the plant now. We win, lose and fight as a family.” Rocio Perez agreed, saying she has missed the colleagues she had at Republic for seven years. Ms. Perez, 38, a single mother of five, has not been rehired and juggles priorities to pay bills. She has tried to make the most of her free time by taking English classes at night at Truman College. “He can’t recall people without the work,” she said in Spanish. “He inherited a disaster of a situation." Ms. Perez said she looked back on the upheaval of the last 15 months as a mostly positive experience because she learned to stand up for herself. She was surprised, she said, to discover that her children had learned the same lesson. When their school faced closing, her daughters said they wanted to follow her example by speaking at a Chicago Board of Education meeting in support of their school. “I really saw the example we had made by taking our factory and fighting back,” Ms. Perez said. “It was a way for our children who are the future to defend themselves as well.” The school, Peabody Elementary School, was saved. Maybe her job will be, too, she said, adding, “We’re going to wait, and we’re going to hope.” | Chicago (Ill);Labor and Jobs;Factories and Manufacturing |
ny0056460 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/09/28 | At the Wedding Dresser, Altering Before the Altar | Off the main drag of Flatbush Avenue and its jerk chicken counters and Caribbean grocers stocking fresh coconuts and live crabs is a six-story apartment building at 45 Linden Boulevard. With crown molding and an intricate tiled floor, the lobby evokes prewar opulence, now a little worse for wear. There are 57 units in the building, but 4E is surely the busiest. The space doubles as Susan Ruddie’s home and her bridal atelier, the Wedding Dresser . “We used to have a living room,” Ms. Ruddie said. “Now all the furniture is in storage.” Brides enter Ms. Ruddie’s studio through a door papered in thank-you notes, Christmas cards, even birth announcements, from women whose dresses she tweaked. There they will find Ms. Ruddie, 54, a former Broadway costume designer, squatting to fix a chiffon hem or digging through boxes of embellished trims for her accessories line. Stoles, shrugs and headpieces hang on the walls, flanking two tri-fold mirrors. Manoela Brittes, a seamstress, will be hunched over a worktable. Rolling racks hold dozens of dresses stuffed into garment bags, and next to them are boxes labeled “marabou” and “ostrich feathers.” On the windowsill, a trio of red geraniums adds a pop of color to a room full of bolts of fabric in every hue of cream and ivory. The Wedding Dresser aims to fill a need that is increasingly common. Instead of buying from a salon with in-house alterations, many brides are purchasing gowns online, wearing vintage frocks or snatching off-the-rack options from J. Crew. Ms. Ruddie alters these dresses for an average of $550. She enlists a team of specialists — beading experts, independent designers — to tackle specific parts of a gown. In a pinch, they can turn around alterations in a matter of days. “We had a bride from Bahrain who ordered a dress from Italy and had it shipped directly to us,” Ms. Ruddie said. “We got it on a Thursday and delivered it to her at the Plaza Hotel that Saturday.” Though she sees as many as 45 brides a week during August and September — her busiest season — Ms. Ruddie seeks to foster lasting connections with her clients. Her business has grown through word of mouth. Jennifer Kaponyas, 31, swung by on a recent Sunday afternoon to pick up a surfer-girl dress for her Long Beach, N.Y., wedding. She learned about the Wedding Dresser when she accompanied a friend to an appointment. Ms. Kaponyas was so impressed that she traveled from Long Island when it was time for her own fittings. Brides are understandably anxious about alterations — after all, gowns hold more significance than the average pair of pants. Lindsay Cohen, 29, will wear her mother’s lace wedding gown from 1974 to her ceremony in Pittsburgh. She was confident that Ms. Ruddie would respect the heirloom garment. “Susan has an appreciation for the past,” she said. Ms. Cohen wanted to ensure that the gown was in good hands, because it has become a good luck charm. “This dress has good karma,” she said. “My parents have been married almost 40 years.” Thanks to her years in the theater, Ms. Ruddie is a font of diva-approved tips. She taught Casey O’Connor, 31, how to delicately kick the sequin-encrusted train of her slinky, silvery Jenny Packham gown out of the way to prevent a faceplant at her outdoor Italian wedding. As Ms. O’Connor twisted her blond hair into a topknot, Ms. Ruddie advised her to soak it in olive oil and wrap it before getting on the plane, to prevent frizziness. “Have a great time and send pictures!” Ms. Ruddie called as Ms. O’Connor strode out the door, a bride momentarily relieved of at least one worry. | Wedding Dresser;Ditmas Park Brooklyn;Weddings and Engagements;Susan Ruddie;Dress;Fashion |
ny0090739 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2015/09/12 | House Rejects Iran Nuclear Deal | WASHINGTON — Following the playbook of their crusade against the Affordable Care Act, congressional Republicans on Friday showed no sign of letting up in their effort to pressure the White House over the Iran nuclear accord, even after the Senate effectively settled the matter and blocked a Republican resolution aimed at stopping the deal. The House, as expected, rejected the Iran deal overwhelmingly, a vote that was sharply along partisan lines. Some House Republicans also said they were contemplating a lawsuit that would claim that the White House failed to disclose the full details of the nuclear accord as required by a law adopted last spring. And the Senate has scheduled a repeat vote on Tuesday, trying to bait any wavering Democrats to switch their position. Senate Democratic leaders said they were confident their ranks would hold. But there was some exasperation as they recognized that they would be in for a protracted battle, at least through the 2016 presidential and congressional elections and possibly beyond. “This highlights one of the great problems we have wrestled with over the last couple of years, which is nothing is ever over,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence. “We used to have political fights and when they were done, you moved on to the next fight. But unfortunately in today’s climate nothing is ever over. It’s re-litigated constantly.” On Friday, House Republicans began venting their rage by forcing Democrats to vote on a resolution approving the Iran agreement rather than on the long-anticipated measure disapproving the accord — a maneuver intended to show how little support the deal had in the Republican-controlled chamber, and to force Democrats to be on record in backing the agreement. Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, denounced the deal, offering a long litany of how it would fail to achieve goals promised by President Obama, including stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. “This is all without Iran cheating,” Mr. Boehner said. “That’s right, this is such a bad deal the ayatollah won’t even have to cheat to be steps away from a nuclear weapon.” Shortly after Mr. Boehner’s floor speech, House Republicans added the exclamation point: The measure in support of the Iran deal failed with 244 Republicans and 25 Democrats voting against it and 162 Democrats in favor. While the vote certainly demonstrated Republican opposition, it also showed the success of a concerted effort by Democratic leaders to build support for the Iran deal. The 162 Democrats in favor was comfortably above the 146 needed to sustain a presidential veto in the event that Republicans had managed to pass legislation rejecting the accord. In the Senate, Democrats also have a comfortable margin to sustain a veto. House Republicans also approved a measure barring Mr. Obama from easing sanctions against Iran, which is a core component of the deal. Under the agreement, which was negotiated by the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, Iran is to gain some relief from sanctions in exchange for greater international oversight, and new restrictions, on its nuclear program . The bill, which bars the easing of sanctions until the day after Mr. Obama leaves office, was approved by a vote of 247 to 186, with just two Democrats joining 245 Republicans in favor. All 186 opposed were Democrats. Republican aides and strategists said that they viewed their opposition to the Iran deal quite similarly to their opposition to Mr. Obama’s heath care overhaul. In the case of the Iran issue, they said there was even more reason to continue pressing the case given that some Democrats were also against the deal. On health care, by contrast, Democrats had been united behind the president. Representative Peter Roskam, Republican of Illinois, a fierce critic of the accord, said that easing sanctions on Iran would allow it to increase its financing of terrorists. “The bill itself gives $150 billion in sanctions relief to the Iranian government,” Mr. Roskam said. “Then the question is what do we expect from $150 billion. Is it all going to go to pave roads? Is it going to go build schools in Tehran? Is it going to fix water systems? I don’t think so.” Speaking to reporters this week, Mr. Roskam said he was also leaving open the possibility of a lawsuit aimed at forcing the White House to provide the text of separate agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Republicans, including Mr. Roskam, expressed confidence that the American public was on their side, and that Mr. Obama and Democrats would be held accountable for Iran’s conduct in the Middle East and beyond once the deal was put in place. Democrats, meanwhile, said the Republicans were engaged in a futile exercise. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, snickered at the prospect of Republican lawsuits. “Maybe they decided to take a breather on suits on the Affordable Care Act to file some new lawsuits against this administration,” he said at the Capitol on Thursday. “They are sure keeping the lawyers busy.” Mr. Obama, in a statement, said, “Today’s vote in the House of Representatives is the latest indication that the more members have studied the historic deal that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the more they have come out in support of it.” Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, urged support for the Iran accord in a speech on the House floor, saying it offered the best chance of slowing Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon. “If the deal is rejected by America, the Iranians could have a nuclear weapon within a year,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The choice is stark.” | US Politics;Nuclear weapon;Iran;2016 Presidential Election;Legislation;House of Representatives;Congress |
ny0182316 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/12/11 | U.S. to Limit Flights at Kennedy | WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 — The Transportation Department plans to announce next week that it will impose limits on the number of flights landing and taking off at Kennedy International Airport in an effort to ease congestion and delays, according to officials involved in the deliberations. For passengers, industry experts said, the move could initially result in fewer flights and higher fares but potentially fewer long delays and missed connections. In addition, the experts said that if limits were introduced, they would eventually have to be extended to La Guardia and Newark Liberty International because the caps at Kennedy could lead airlines to shift some flights to those airports. “Will people get hurt? Of course they will,” said Darryl Jenkins, an aviation consultant who currently teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He added, “The flying public is the one that always gets hurt in these things.” Mary E. Peters, the United States transportation secretary, is expected to give President Bush a list of suggestions next week on how to reduce aerial gridlock in the New York area. The government wants to formulate a plan before the end of the year so the airlines and air traffic controllers can begin preparing for next summer’s travel season. The congestion and subsequent delays at Kennedy, which send ripples across the country and sometimes overseas, came about after Jan. 1, when Congress tried to increase competition by lifting limits on the number of takeoffs and landings. Although the details of the new plan were still being worked out, industry and government officials said that some flights would be redistributed via an auction and that a few new slots would be created as air traffic control technology improves. The auction system, which is untested in this country, could result in less competition among more-established airlines and diminish access to the market for smaller airlines trying to introduce new flights. “Those that dominate will forever dominate,” said Ed Faberman, the director of the Air Carrier Association of America, which represents smaller airlines. Mr. Faberman, whose members include Spirit, ATA and Air Tran, added, “If you are at Kennedy now and you have only a few flights or you want to get into Kennedy and you’re only given a few flights, you won’t survive.” But the large airlines say that depriving them of any slots to pare down traffic would represent taking their property. “We would oppose any auction process that seizes the existing assets of the airlines that have invested hundreds of millions, if not billions, over the years” to build terminals and other facilities, said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents most major airlines. Paul Hudson, the executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, said that auctions would impose greater costs on airlines by forcing them to bid for the right to operate some flights, and that they might pass that cost along to passengers. “You’re likely to see a situation like we have with the shuttle,” Mr. Hudson said, referring to flights between New York, Washington and Boston. “You have a duopoly, and a very few airlines are basically controlling the system.” The Bush administration remains determined to apply what it calls market mechanisms to solve the congestion problem. But winning consensus for an auction system will be hard because of opposition from some airlines and from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates New York’s airports. “This suggestion that auctions could be used at the New York airports is lunacy,” said Robert Mann, president of R. W. Mann & Company, an airline industry consultant. He called it “reliance on economic and game theory that has no basis in reality, including the actual starting conditions and real world constraints.” Despite the objections, the Transportation Department appears intent on allocating scarce landing slots at Kennedy because its earlier preference — charging airlines more for operations at peak hours — was dropped as a result of resistance from the Port Authority, which collects landing fees based on the weight of an aircraft. “They are doing whatever they can to divert attention from the capacity problem they haven’t fixed,” said William R. DeCota, the director of the aviation department at the Port Authority. “You’re going to tell an airline they will get some flights, but only at weird times? Or that the rich airlines are going to get them?” Mr. DeCota said that if slots were auctioned only at New York-area airports and not in other parts of the country, “there’s going to be a lot of basis for people to stop it” in court. | Airlines and Airplanes;Airports;Kennedy International Airport (NYC);Delays (Transportation);Transportation Department |
ny0111016 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2012/02/05 | Rescuing the Birds Many Love to Hate | JUST as they ignore the pigeons that make up so much of their city’s meager wildlife, passers-by paid little attention to the curious scene on 29th Street and Ninth Avenue one brisk morning in December. Jennifer Dudley, 44, a strawberry-blond opera singer, studied the corner of a mail distribution center entrance. A rumpled pink bathroom towel stained with bird feces lay on the ground. Nearby were a splay of cracker bits and the bottom half of a crudely cut plastic cup. “They probably told him to shoo,” Ms. Dudley said, hypothesizing that building security had ushered the wounded pigeon from its resting place. Another clue: “This should be green,” she added, standing above a mound of dark excrement a few steps away. “He’s definitely sick, but not starving to death.” Pacing down the street, she pointed to a grate. “He came down this way but didn’t stop because he knew he could get caught.” She turned the corner and smiled. Tattered and ill, head burrowed into its chest, the pigeon shivered in a building crevice. Its left wing hung lamely. Ms. Dudley reached into her bag of tools and removed a pair of towels. She snatched the pigeon before it could hobble away, held it to her bosom and stroked its head with her finger. The bird put at ease, she examined its flaky skin, pried open its mouth to find signs of dehydration, massaged its throat to check for lumps and then lowered it into a paper shopping bag for transport to a rehabilitation center. The amenities at the building had been left the night before by the person who reported the bird to New York City Pigeon Rescue Central , the group to which Ms. Dudley belongs. The city provides virtually no official services for its ubiquitous and little-loved gray birds, first brought here from Europe as food by settlers. So the rescuers fill a niche. The group, one of a few in the city dedicated to pigeon welfare , functions through a Yahoo message board, active since 2004. Membership officially exceeds 400, but the core is a fastidious, perpetually concerned team of about dozen pigeon lovers, animal activists and eccentrics, some perhaps finding meaning in fighting for a neglected cause. The board hums with constant discussion about topics like the ethics of euthanasia and tips for fostering baby birds. New Yorkers who spy wounded pigeons can fill out a “Bird Down Report” online or can call the rescue group’s hot line, which leads to the voice mail of one of the group’s founders, Al Streit, who also helps run the rescue and advocacy group Pigeon People with his wife, Gela Kline. Other requests are referred to Mr. Streit by groups like New York City Audubon and New York City Animal Care and Control. Ms. Dudley said the group averaged about 20 rescues a month, more during the spring and summer baby seasons. Not everyone deems the group’s mission a worthy cause. Rescuing a single injured animal can have a meaningful impact on the population of an endangered species. “If you rescue a whooping crane with a broken leg, that’s going to make a difference,” Dr. Charles Walcott, a former director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology , said; but pigeons are not whooping cranes. “I think it’s very nice that someone is willing to take care of these sick animals in the city,” Dr. Walcott said, “but as a nasty biologist I think it probably doesn’t make any difference in the big scheme.” But, he added of the rescuers, “This is their connection with nature, and I think that’s totally laudable.” Not far from the scene of the day’s rescue, Ms. Dudley sat at a diner eating eggs, her fellow customers oblivious to the wild bird nestled comfortably in her bag. “He’s in heaven,” she said, peering in. Ms. Dudley was born in Maine, studied theater at New York University, fell for opera and is now a freelance mezzo-soprano soloist. A state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator, she fosters several pigeons at home. When she leaves her apartment, she likes to keep classical music playing for them. When asked what pigeon fanciers are often asked — “why pigeons?” — she offered her meditation. “Lots of us see how pigeons are maligned and ignored,” she said. “If you have that thread running through you, you know what it’s like. I know what it feels like to be ignored. At worst, maligned. I think lots of us feel that way, even if they won’t say it.” She checked the time on her smartphone; the bird in the bag was soon due for its appointment. Ms. Dudley arrived that afternoon at the Wild Bird Fund , at 87th Street and Columbus Avenue, the only place of its kind in Manhattan that treats pigeons. The clinic currently operates inside Animal General, a veterinary hospital lending its space until the Wild Bird Fund opens its own across the street. Caged pigeons in the prep room observed Ms. Dudley enter with Rita McMahon, a rehabilitator. Ms. McMahon and another rehabilitator secured the rescue pigeon against an operating table. It did not resist as they fanned out its wings and strapped it down with medical tape. The room was cleared and the X-ray fired on the spotlighted bird. The resulting skeletal image, suggesting a broken collarbone, resembled a stark work of modern art. The prognosis was bleaker for another bird, named Skipper, that Ms. Dudley had brought from home. An X-ray indicated a yellow node on its left wing was swelling and starting to eat away at the bone; an infection was also festering on its leg. Ms. Dudley nuzzled Skipper’s head as she listened to the report. “He’s such a fighter,” she said. “He flew in through my window.” Euthanasia was proposed but, to Ms. Dudley’s relief, quickly dropped; Ms. McMahon suggested a new antibiotic treatment. A week later, the rescue pigeon rested in the Wild Bird Fund’s temporary bird rehab center: Ms. McMahon’s apartment. The living room was filled with animal carriers containing pigeons trembling from lead poisoning and suffering from broken bones. The rescue pigeon stood in a newspaper-floored cage, looking sullen and confused. A piece of granite was provided for perching, along with a bowl of vitamin-infused water. The scrawny baby pigeon in the cage below looked worse off. Arina Hinzen, a rehabilitator working at the center, had to periodically use a needle to drain an inflated air pocket on its neck caused by a ruptured air sac. “Without us he would probably die,” she said. Two weeks later, its wing unhealed, Ms. Dudley’s rescue pigeon would be euthanized. But at the time there was still hope. When Ms. Hinzen reached into its cage, the ragged bird tensed and puffed up. She pulled out her hand. “At least he’s safe now,” she said. “That’s what matters.” | Pigeons;New York City Pigeon Rescue Central;New York City |
ny0209144 | [
"science",
"earth"
] | 2009/12/16 | In Copenhagen, ‘To Be Elaborated’ Signals a Stalemate | COPENHAGEN — In a symbolic S O S, a United Nations functionary carried an orange-and-white life preserver to a news conference on Tuesday. The gesture seemed lighthearted, but the message was not: Progress has been halting in international climate negotiations here. Yvo de Boer, the top United Nations climate official here, and Connie Hedegaard, the Danish chairwoman of the talks, ticked off the daunting issues facing small working groups in the final days of the two-week conference. Like windblown leaves, copies of a draft text sprinkled with the phrase “to be elaborated” flew around the halls of the conference center, testifying to the stalemate on some crucial issues. Mr. de Boer said the disputes reflected the challenge of finding common ground among 193 countries large and small, rich and poor, vulnerable and resilient, on layered issues that include cutting emissions and paying to deliver more energy choices to nations that have hardly any. “There are 400 million people in India who lack access to electricity,” he said. “How do you switch off the light bulb that you don’t have?” The Animals Rise Up Some came dressed like pigs and dairy cows. Others carried giant papier-mâché fruits and vegetables on sticks. Agriculture was the theme of the event, a noon protest that drew 300 to 400 people to Islands Brygge, a neighborhood on the south side of the inner canal here. Organized under the slogan “Resistance Is Ripe,” they contended that agricultural issues were being overlooked or mishandled by the government delegates gathered at the Bella Center. Surrounded by dozens of police officers in vans, on horseback and on foot, the motley assemblage of cows, pigs, clowns, foods and a brown elephant on wheels — its exact meaning was never quite made clear — sallied through the streets as protesters gave speeches by loudspeaker, played reggae music and banged on drums. Messages extolling the virtues of organic and small farms and the benefits to the climate of a vegan diet were abundant. “Free the 21st-century slaves!” read a banner depicting a cow. “Reclaim the Fields!” said another. Things ended peacefully in a driving wet snow outside the Danish Agricultural Association, where the crowd had dwindled to a few dozen. Nuclear Pros and Cons In a restaurant in an 18th-century warehouse on the waterfront, power brokers from the nuclear industry made their case that the atom would play a big role in a cleaner-energy world. The reception was a counterpoint to weekend exhortations by the anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott , who urged marchers outside the Bella Center to reject nuclear power as a “wicked” technology spewing waste and plutonium. Laurent Corbier, vice president for sustainable development for Areva, the French electricity provider, triumphantly noted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change listed nuclear power as a suitable "mitigation technology” in its 2007 report. But he warned that some countries were trying to exclude nuclear plants along with large dams from lists of projects that countries could get credit for as steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions under a proposed global treaty. “Nuclear must be part of the solution,” he declared. Thomas M. Kerr, a senior energy analyst from the International Energy Agency in Paris, said that nuclear plants would have to play some role in meeting the energy needs of a growing human population while fossil-fuel emissions were reduced. But nuclear plants alone will not meet the challenge, he said. So after snatching one more hors d’oeuvre, he headed for the door to hail a cab and go to a dinner with the solar industry. In This Room, Star Power One of the hardest rooms to get into in Copenhagen is the one where mayors from across the globe have gathered to boast about their green credentials. They are part of a group called Local Governments for Sustainability, which has been holding standing-room-only presentations since the opening of the climate conference last week. The organization has 1,100 delegates here, the largest number of any entity except Denmark, the host country. Their numbers reflect the mushrooming effort by urban areas, where half the world’s population lives, to drive the conversation on tackling climate change and, perhaps more important, to secure financing for causes like mass transit. Yet the mayors’ thunder was stolen to some degree on Tuesday by a governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. Mr. Schwarzenegger made a pitch for the role of “subnational governments” like his, which is in the vanguard among American states on environmental issues. But first he had to declare how “fantastic” it was to be in a foreign country where so many people speak with a non-American accent, just like him. “I have been here for movie promotions and weight lifting and body building,” he mused. “I never thought I would get here as the governor of the great state of California and talking about climate change.” | United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;Global Warming;Greenhouse Gas Emissions;International Relations;Copenhagen (Denmark);Schwarzenegger Arnold |
ny0010404 | [
"technology"
] | 2013/02/21 | Some Victims of Online Hacking Edge Into the Light | SAN FRANCISCO — Hackers have hit thousands of American corporations in the last few years, but few companies ever publicly admit it. Most treat online attacks as a dirty secret best kept from customers, shareholders and competitors, lest the disclosure sink their stock price and tarnish them as hapless. Rarely have companies broken that silence, usually when the attack is reported by someone else. But in the last few weeks more companies have stepped forward. Twitter, Facebook and Apple have all announced that they were attacked by sophisticated cybercriminals. The New York Times revealed its experience with hackers in a front-page article last month. The admissions reflect the new way some companies are calculating the risks and benefits of going public. While companies once feared shareholder lawsuits and the ire of the Chinese government, some can’t help noticing that those that make the disclosures are lauded, as Google was, for their bravery. Some fear the embarrassment of being unable to fend off hackers who may still be in high school. But as hacking revelations become more common, the threat of looking foolish fades and more companies are seizing the opportunity to take the leap in a crowd. “There is a ‘hide in the noise’ effect right now,” said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a nonprofit security research and education organization. “This is a particularly good time to get out the fact that you got hacked, because if you are one of many, it discounts the starkness of the announcement.” In 2010, when Google alerted some users of Gmail — political activists, mostly — that it appeared Chinese hackers were trying to read their mail, such disclosures were a rarity. In its announcement, Google said that it was one of many — two dozen — companies that had been targeted by the same group. Google said it was making the announcement, in part, to encourage other companies to open up about the problem. But of that group, only Intel and Adobe Systems reluctantly stepped forward, and neither provided much detail. Twitter admitted that it had been hacked this month. Facebook and Apple followed suit two weeks later. Within hours after The Times published its account, The Wall Street Journal chimed in with a report that it, too, had been attacked by what it believed to be Chinese hackers. The Washington Post followed. Not everyone took advantage of the cover. Bloomberg, for example, has repeatedly denied that its systems were also breached by Chinese hackers, despite several sources that confirmed that its computers were infected with malware. Computer security experts estimate that more than a thousand companies have been attacked recently. In 2011, security researchers at McAfee unearthed a vast online espionage campaign, called Operation Shady Rat, that found more than 70 organizations had been hit over a five-year period, many in the United States. Video Nicole Perlroth reports on how companies hit by hackers are calculating the risks and benefits of disclosure. “I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly) with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact,” Dmitri Alperovitch, then McAfee’s vice president for threat research, wrote in his findings. “In fact,” said Mr. Alperovitch, now the chief technology officer at Crowdstrike, a security start-up, “I divide the entire set of Fortune Global 2000 firms into two categories: those that know they’ve been compromised and those that don’t yet know.” Of that group, there are still few admissions. A majority of companies that have at one time or another been the subject of news reports of online attacks refuse to confirm them. The list includes the International Olympic Committee, Exxon Mobil, Baker Hughes, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, the British energy giant BG Group, the steel maker ArcelorMittal and Coca-Cola. Like Google, some companies have stepped forward in the interest of increasing awareness and improving security within their respective industries, often to little avail. In 2009, Heartland Payment Systems, a major payment processing company, took the unusual step of disclosing a major data breach on its systems that potentially exposed millions of credit and debit card customers to fraud. It did so against the advice of its lawyers. “Until then, most people tried to sweep breaches under the rug,” said Steve Elefant, then Heartland’s chief information officer. “We wanted to make sure that it didn’t happen to us again and didn’t want to sit back while the bad guys tried to pick us off one by one.” Heartland helped set up the Payments Processors Information Sharing Council to share information about security threats and breaches within the industry. Again, the company’s lawyers thought it was a bad idea. “But we felt it was important.” The effort did not stop its other members from sweeping their own breaches under the rug. Last year, Global Payments, a major payment processor, did not disclose that it had been the victim of two major breaches that potentially affected millions of accounts, until the attacks were reported by a well-known security blogger. Even then, it did not offer details that other companies could use to fortify their systems. Last week, President Obama signed an executive order that encouraged increased information-sharing about online threats between the government and private companies. But compliance with the order is voluntary, a weakened alternative to an online security bill that stalled in Congress last year after the Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group that itself was hacked, led an effort to block it, saying that the regulations would be too burdensome. In Washington on Wednesday, several senior administration officials presented a new strategy for protecting American intellectual property by urging firms to step forward when attacked. “There has been a reluctance by companies to come forward because of the concern about the impact on their shareholders or others,” said Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the Justice Department. In October 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a new guidance that specifically outlined how publicly traded companies should disclose online attacks, but few disclosures have come because of it. “Quite frankly, since then, there hasn’t been an abundance of reporting on cyberevents despite the fact that they are clearly happening,” said Jacob Olcott, a specialist in online risks who managed a Senate investigation into the disclosure practices. The best hope, Mr. Olcott said, is that as investors start paying more attention to the threats, they will demand that companies disclose them. “I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Mr. Elefant said. “There are an awful lot of lawyers out there trying to keep companies from exposing that these breaches are happening. And they are happening.” | Hacker (computer security);Companies |
ny0261713 | [
"business",
"economy"
] | 2011/06/06 | Treasury Auctions Set for This Week | The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday. At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.03 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.10 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.03 percent. The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week: MONDAY Florida Board of Education, $145.2 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Florida Department of Transportation, $149 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. TUESDAY New York City, $100 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. New York City, $59 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. WEDNESDAY Wisconsin, $57.1 million of Madison Area Technical College general obligation bonds. Competitive. THURSDAY Jacksonville, Fla., $88 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. Santa Clara, Calif., Unified School District, $172.2 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK Atlanta Public School System, $100 million of certificates of participation. Citigroup Global Markets. Baltimore, $165 million of water and wastewater bonds. Bank of America. Birmingham, Ala., Water Works Board, $134 million of water revenue bonds. Morgan Keegan. California Health Facilities Financing Authority, $189.8 million of refinancing revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley. Carlsbad, Calif., Unified School District, $53 million of general obligation bonds. Piper Jaffray. Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, $374 million of revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Tex., Independent School District, $55 million of school construction bonds. FirstSouthwest. Eugene, Ore., $75 million of electric utility system revenue and refinancing bonds, J. P. Morgan Securities. Franklin County, Ohio, $316.7 million of hospital facilities refinancing revenue. Barclays Capital. Georgia Municipal Gas Authority, $50 million of gas revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Houston, $430 million of combined utility system revenue bonds. Bank of America. Imperial Irrigation District, California, $77 million of electric system refinancing revenue bonds. Goldman Sachs. Kent Hospital, R.I., Finance Authority, $106.4 million of revenue and refinancing bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Utility, $99.5 million of power supply project revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley. Massachusetts Port Authority, $211 million of special facilities revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets. Metropolitan Boston Transit Parking Corporation, $304 million of parking revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets. New Jersey Higher Education Commission, $326.5 million of fixed rate private loan financing bonds. Bank of America. Ohio, $90 million of general obligation bonds. Citigroup Global Markets. Orlando, Fla., Utilities Commission, $70.7 million of utility system revenue refinancing bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Sacramento Unified School District, $110 million of election refinancing bonds. Morgan Stanley. Southern California Water District, $166.2 million of water revenue refinancing bonds. Morgan Stanley. Stratford, Conn., $51.9 million of pension obligation refinancing bonds. Morgan Keegan. Tarrant County, Tex., Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corporation, $98 million of hospital revenue bonds. Citigroup Global Markets. Valdez, Alaska, $375 million of BP pipeline revenue refinancing bonds. Goldman Sachs. Washington State, $421 million of public power utility debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets. | Credit and Debt;Stocks and Bonds;Auctions |
ny0189334 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2009/05/18 | Norway Wins, While Russia Calls the Tune | MOSCOW — A Belarussian-born, Russian-speaking singer representing Norway took first place in the annual Eurovision song competition held here over the weekend, against a backdrop of controversy after the police cracked down on a gay rights rally. Gay rights activists had called on singers and fans to boycott the contest on Saturday night, which was held in Moscow for the first time as the result of Russia’s Eurovision win, by Dima Bilan, last year. Earlier Saturday, the police detained 40 demonstrators who had gathered near Moscow State University, including a Briton and an American. None of the Eurovision performers withdrew or mentioned the gay rights rally from the stage, nor did the packed stadium give any indication that fans had stayed away. Alexander Rybak, 23, took first place with “Fairytale” — an instrumental, voice and dance performance about a bittersweet love story that drew comparisons to a Chagall painting come to life. Mr. Bilan’s victory in Belgrade in 2008 was touted as proof of a re-emergent Russia, riding high on oil wealth, and its ability to play host to such a large-scale international event has been treated as something of a dress rehearsal for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, which will be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Although Russia has been hit hard by the economic crisis and plummeting oil prices, organizers did not skimp on the glitz, or security, for this staging of Eurovision, which they said cost at least €24 million, or $32 million. Olympiisky Stadium, built for the 1980 Summer Games, was cordoned off by the police, and traffic was restricted during the competition, which featured elaborate special effects and a performance by Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian circus troupe. Russians were deeply divided over their country’s entry for the competition this year, a song called “Mamo” that managed to encapsulate Russia’s post-Soviet geopolitical angst. It was written by an ethnic Georgian composer of Russian pop hits, sung by an ethnic Ukrainian, with a chorus in Ukrainian. Ironically, Ukraine’s entry, Svetlana Loboda, drew loud cheers for her rousing performance of “Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl).” Georgia pulled out of Eurovision this year after its entry, a group called Stephane and 3G, was warned that songs with political overtones would not be allowed. The group was planning to perform a song called “We Don’t Wanna Put In,” mocking Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin. Russia and Georgia fought a short, brutal war last summer over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russians took solace in Mr. Rybak’s win. Afterward, he thanked the audience in fluent Russian: “Thank you so much, Russia. You are just great, thank you.” In a televised discussion about the Eurovision results, broadcast live in the middle of the night, Russian celebrities praised Mr. Rybak as “nash,” or “ours.” | Eurovision Song Contest;Homosexuality;Demonstrations and Riots;Russia;Moscow (Russia);Norway |
ny0235419 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/01/30 | Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Takes On Wall Street | For three days this week, the 104th archbishop of Canterbury told economists, theologians and others attending a Wall Street conference that the “fat cats” of the world were not necessarily bad people, just victims of a terrible misunderstanding. The misunderstanding — shared by people with lots of money, people with aspirations of having lots of money and those with neither — is that money is equated with wealth, he said. And wealth, said the archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan D. Williams, leader of world’s 80 million Anglicans — including members of the Episcopal Church in the United States — is the sum of one’s loving relationships with people. It is not, he said, “the number of naughts on the end of a balance sheet.” The soft-spoken archbishop, wearing a priest’s collar and scuffed black shoes, was the star attraction at a three-day conference called “Building an Ethical Economy,” sponsored by Trinity Church. It ended on Friday. He exchanged views with a couple of economists, answered questions from the audience and made thoughtful remarks on a variety of weighty topics, including income distribution, justice, the environment, civic duty, intergenerational responsibility, recovering “the language of virtue” from an ocean of commercial lingo and how Jesus would answer the question, “What does a good life look like?” “The Gospels give us a good picture of what the good life looks like,” Archbishop Rowan said. It resembles, he said, the disciples, extended family and devoted followers who surrounded Jesus during his ministry — a group of people united by “a common identity shaped by the fact that each depends on all others.” His audience seemed enraptured. It was harder to tell what the wealth makers and wealth seekers just outside the church, in the heart of the financial district, would make of the archbishop’s viewpoint. Few of them seemed to have registered for the conference. When a reporter asked several well-dressed men walking by, “What does a good life look like?” he was regarded with suspicion. “A good life is having a job, and I’m going to lose mine if I’m late for my meeting,” said one of the few who paused long enough to say anything at all, before striding past the True Religion Brand Jeans store. During the session on Thursday, at least one voice seemed to speak for Wall Street. The voice belonged to Susan Lee, an economist and a panelist at one of the discussions. She said that perhaps economists and theologians could agree in theory about what the archbishop said. “But in practice,” added Ms. Lee, a former editorial page editor at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, “our two groups seem to live on different planets.” Theologians just do not seem to get it where money is concerned, she said. “They assume that there can be profit without private property, work without incentive, enterprise without income inequality .” The name of the game, Ms. Lee said, is not income redistribution, but income generation. If the economy does not generate money, there is no money to distribute or redistribute, she said. The archbishop took notes as she spoke. When it was his turn again, he said he was not against the generation of wealth; he was against the accumulation of it in sums far beyond the capacity of anyone to meaningfully use it. And he said he opposed what he called “the logic of some kinds of capitalist practice that leads to the invention of more and more recondite, metaphysical, unreal forms of wealth” — a reference to derivatives — that may look good on paper but “correspond to nothing.” “You say theologians don’t talk about the real world,” he added. “But sometimes in recent years, it’s the economists that don’t talk about the real world.” The audience — divinity students, scholars and elderly people who looked either like Adlai E. Stevenson in his later years or Dame Judi Dench — erupted in soft applause. | Williams Rowan;Economic Conditions and Trends;Trinity Church |
ny0133842 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2008/03/31 | For Yankees, It’s Still ‘Win,’ but Not ‘Win Now or Else’ | The evidence is unmistakable. As opening day dawns in the Bronx on Monday afternoon, the most decorated franchise in sports is in transition. After 85 seasons at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees are saying farewell to their home. After 35 seasons, George Steinbrenner is letting his sons, Hank and Hal, run the business. After 12 seasons, Joe Torre has moved on, and Joe Girardi is the manager. A pattern was also broken last winter. After each of the previous six October failures, the Yankees had splurged on a superstar to patch a perceived weakness. It has not worked yet, and this winter, the Yankees passed on a deal for Johan Santana. Their most notable acquisition was a middle reliever, LaTroy Hawkins. The Yankees are still spending their usual $200 million or so to return to the playoffs for a 14th consecutive season. But their focus now stretches beyond the immediate. “I think the foundation’s extremely strong,” Hank Steinbrenner said. “I’d love to win it this year, and we might. We’ve got just as much hope as maybe the other four top teams. “But we want to be in position like we were in the late 1990s — and like they were in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, where we were the favorites almost every year. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win it, but at least be good enough to be considered the favorite every year. “And I won’t hold back anything to achieve that.” The Yankees might not be the favorites this season — the Boston Red Sox’ title team returns largely intact — but they are formidable. They won 73 of their last 112 games last season, and the lineup that produced a staggering 968 runs, the most for the Yankees since 1937, retained all of its thumpers. “You probably have a one, a couple of twos, and a lot of threes, fours and fives,” Girardi said, referring to the ideal spots in the order for his hitters. “I think there’s an opportunity to drive in a lot of runs and score a lot of runs all over this lineup.” The more pressing issue is run prevention. The Yankees had a higher earned run average than the Kansas City Royals last season (4.49), and rookies started 51 games. This season, the Yankees have given rotation spots to Phil Hughes, 21, and Ian Kennedy, 23, who will both be limited in total innings. Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte will also start, each with an issue to overcome. Wang fizzled in the playoffs, Mussina had the fewest innings and the highest E.R.A. of his career last season, and Pettitte is on the disabled list with back spasms. “It’s not the same kind of season where you walk in with four established starters and you know where everybody stands,” Mussina said. “We’ve got a couple of young guys we’re hoping can step up and have good years. These kids know what they’re doing, and we’ve got a chance to have a real good year. Does that mean it’s going to be the same five guys starting all year? Who knows?” First baseman Jason Giambi played for winning teams in Oakland that relied on young starters and, naturally, he said he was confident in Hughes and Kennedy. He added that it was wise of Girardi to keep Joba Chamberlain in a setup role. “Having Joba back in the bullpen is huge for us, any time you can start cutting out the innings to win games,” Giambi said. “I remember playing the old Yankees that were winning World Series, and if you weren’t winning after six innings, the game was over. “I know someday, if that’s what he chooses to do, Joba’s going to be a great starter. But I think the best fit for our team right now is him in the bullpen.” The Yankees’ front office sometimes worried that Torre overused his favorite relievers. One criticism of Girardi as the Florida Marlins manager in 2006 was his use of young starting pitchers. Three of Girardi’s mainstays — Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Aníbal Sánchez — were all injured the next season. Marlins catcher Matt Treanor said Girardi should not be blamed for their injuries. But Treanor said Girardi’s expectations would be high, no matter who was pitching. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or a veteran guy — he’s going to expect the same from you on the field,” Treanor said. “He expects you to get the job done. One time in spring training, somebody said, ‘I’m going to try to do this.’ I remember his comment was, ‘I can get a truck driver to try.’ So basically that means you’re out there to do it, by whatever means you have to do it.” Mussina said Girardi has been more vocal during games than Torre, speaking sometimes with the technical knowledge of a former catcher, sometimes with the authority of a manager. It is no better or worse than Torre’s hands-off style, Mussina said; it simply is different. Torre “kind of sat back and let the guys make mistakes and then gave them instruction,” Mussina said. “Joe may not let it go that far. He may make sure he reminds people of stuff before it ever happens.” Torre’s style was valuable in the clubhouse, where his teams never panicked and showed up for October. He was popular with most players, but so far Girardi is, too. “He’s young, he’s out to prove himself and he’s hungry,” Giambi said. “He’s got a great rapport with the guys in this room. He’s excited about it.” The excitement is everywhere, from ownership on down. This a transition year, undoubtedly, though the mission is the same as ever. “We’re going to be one of the teams that can win the World Series, and I think we can only get better the next few years,” Hank Steinbrenner said. “Our plan is to be a dominant force from now on, and to do whatever we have to do.” | New York Yankees;Baseball;Girardi Joe;Steinbrenner Hank;Steinbrenner Hal |
ny0145713 | [
"business",
"economy"
] | 2008/10/14 | Professor and Columnist Wins Economics Nobel | Paul Krugman , a professor at Princeton and an Op-Ed page columnist for The New York Times , was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science on Monday. The prize committee cited Mr. Krugman for his “analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.” Mr. Krugman, 55, is probably more widely known for his Op-Ed columns in which he has been a perpetual thorn in President Bush’s (and now John McCain ’s) side. His columns have won him both strong supporters and ardent critics. The prize, however, was awarded for the academic — and less political — research that he conducted primarily before he began writing regularly for The Times. “To be absolutely, totally honest, I thought this day might come some day, but I was absolutely convinced it wasn’t going to be this day,” Mr. Krugman said in an interview on Monday. “I know people who live their lives waiting for this call, and it’s not good for the soul. So I put it out of my mind and stopped thinking about it.” Mr. Krugman won the prize for his research, beginning in 1979, that explained patterns of trade among countries, as well as what goods are produced where and why. Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and will exchange only the kinds of goods that they are comparatively better at producing — wine from France , for example, and rice from China . This model, however, dating from David Ricardo’s writings of the early 19th century , was not reflected in the flow of goods and services that Mr. Krugman saw in the world around him. He set out to explain why worldwide trade was dominated by a few countries that were similar to one another, and why a country might import the same kinds of goods it exported. In his model, many companies sell similar goods with slight variations. These companies become more efficient at producing their goods as they sell more, and so they grow. Consumers like variety, and pick and choose goods from among these producers in different countries, enabling countries to continue exchanging similar products. So some Americans buy Volkswagens and some Germans buy Fords. He developed this work further to explain the effect of transportation costs on why people live where they live . His model explained under what conditions trade would lead people or companies to move to a particular region or to move away. Mr. Krugman’s work has been praised for its simplicity and practicality — features economists are often criticized for ignoring. “Some people think that something deep only comes out of great complexity,” said Maurice Obstfeld , an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who wrote a textbook on international economics with Mr. Krugman. “Paul’s great strength is to take something very simple and make something new and very profound.” Mr. Krugman applied his skill at translating complex ideas into clear, entertaining prose to his Times columns, which he began writing in 2000. In recent years, in his column and a related blog on nytimes.com , nearly everything about the Bush administration — from health care policy to Iraq to “general incompetence” — has been the object of his scorn. Along the way, Mr. Krugman has come in for criticism himself from both economists and lay readers. “Much of his popular work is disgraceful,” said Daniel Klein, a professor of economics at George Mason University, who this year wrote a comprehensive review of Mr. Krugman’s body of Times columns. “He totally omits all these major issues where the economics conclusion goes against the feel-good Democratic Party ethos, which I think he’s really tended to pander to especially since writing for The New York Times.” But he has equally fervent fans of his popular work. “I praise today’s prize as being deserving and even overdue, but more than that I reproach the Pulitzer committee, which owed him at least a couple of prizes in the past,” said Paul A. Samuelson, a previous winner of the Nobel in economic science. “Paul Krugman is the only columnist in the United States who has had it right on almost every count from the beginning.” Mr. Krugman said he did not expect his award to have much effect on how colleagues and his popular readership — whether they be friends or foes — regard him. “For economists, this is a validation but not news,” he said. “We know what each other has been up to.” “For readers of the column,” he added, “maybe they will read a little more carefully when I’m being economistic, or maybe have a little more tolerance when I’m being boring.” He said he did not expect the prize to silence his critics, given the treatment of another outspoken laureate, the 2001 winner Joseph E. Stiglitz . Mr. Stiglitz has been both praised and criticized for his writings on whether globalization in its current form has been beneficial. “I haven’t noticed him getting an easy time,” Mr. Krugman said. “People just say, ‘Sure, he’s a great Nobel laureate and he’s very smart, but he still doesn’t know what he’s talking about in this situation.’ I’m sure I’ll get the same thing.” Mr. Krugman first gained a popular following while writing about economics for Slate magazine and Fortune in the 1990s. He frequently weighed in on contemporary free trade debates related to his research. “He was appalled by the monster he created,” said Michael Kinsley , the founding editor of Slate, who hired Mr. Krugman. “He’d come up with this theory about why sometimes free trade wasn’t the best policy, and suddenly everyone was citing it as an argument against free trade, while he thinks it applies once in a blue moon.” While Mr. Krugman’s popular writing is now more focused on politics and his research more concentrated on international finance, he has occasionally returned to his interest in trade. In the last year he has written several times about the negative results of free trade, both in his column and in a paper he wrote for the Brookings Institution about whether trade with poor countries increases inequality in developed nations like the United States. In 1991 Mr. Krugman received the John Bates Clark medal , a prize given every two years to an economist under 40 who has made a significant contribution to economic knowledge. He follows a long list of Clark medal recipients who have gone on to win Nobels in economic science, including Mr. Stiglitz and Mr. Samuelson. Mr. Krugman, who grew up on Long Island and has a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a doctorate from M.I.T. , has been teaching at Princeton since 2000. This semester, he is teaching a graduate-level course in international monetary theory and policy. He often teaches all-freshman seminars on issues related to economics. Mr. Krugman joins another Princeton economist, albeit one of different ideological leanings, who has been in the news recently: Ben S. Bernanke , the chairman of the Federal Reserve who, coincidentally, offered Mr. Krugman his Princeton post. Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Krugman were fellow graduate students at M.I.T. in the 1970s. Their era at M.I.T. produced several other economists who went on to prestigious careers in public policy, including Olivier Blanchard and Kenneth Rogoff , the current and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund . Monday’s award, the last of the six prizes, is not one of the original Nobels. It was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in Alfred Nobel’s memory. Mr. Krugman was the sole winner of the award this year, which includes a prize of about $1.4 million. Still, his collaborators and mentors in his international trade research — some of whom were considered competing candidates for the prize — extended their praise. “Lots of people are saying to me, ‘Why didn’t you get it?’” said Jagdish Bhagwati , an economics professor at Columbia who helped Mr. Krugman publish one of his seminal papers when other academics thought it was too simple to be true. “Given the fact that I didn’t get it, this is the next best thing.” | Paul Krugman;Princeton;International trade |
ny0215910 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2010/04/16 | Mike Pelfrey’s Performance Helps Mets End Losing Streak | DENVER — In the somber moments after another depressing defeat Wednesday night, David Wright stood at his locker and declared that the Mets had better start winning games soon, and it didn’t matter how it happened. The Mets had just lost their fourth consecutive game and the fifth in their last six, and a hint of early desperation was noted. Less than 24 hours later, Wright’s declaration was heeded, thanks in large part to Mike Pelfrey, the starting pitcher, whose performance led the Mets to a 5-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Pelfrey pitched seven stellar innings and Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez each contributed a scoreless inning as the Mets shut out Colorado for the first time at Coors Field. “It starts with the starting pitching,” Wright said. “It’s a little easier when you don’t give up any runs. It gives us a lot of momentum when you have a pitcher go out there and from pitch one, you can tell he’s going to throw the way he threw the ball today.” If there was one thing the Mets desperately needed and sorely lacked over their four-game losing streak, it was a dominating pitching performance. Other problems are facing the team, but mostly the Mets found themselves sagging under the weight of early deficits thanks to ineffective starts. Pelfrey provided that missing element with 108 pitches, 70 of them strikes. Unaffected by pitching at hitter-friendly Coors Field, he scattered five hits and allowed only two runners to reach second base. Perhaps most important, he walked nobody. “That’s three pretty good outings for him if you include spring training,” Manager Jerry Manuel said. “To see him with a power sinker, four-seam fastball and then drop a curveball to start a hitter off with later in the game, that was very impressive.” Pelfrey, who has two of the Mets’ three victories, actually produced more runs than the entire Rockies lineup. In addition to his astute pitching, he also had a single and a run batted in. He scored a run, too. But it was his work on the mound that carried the day. With excellent command of his fastball, and a split-finger fastball that made the Rockies hitters flail, Pelfrey never allowed Colorado to combine more than one hit in an inning. Afterward, Pelfrey praised catcher Henry Blanco, who he said was invaluable with his pitch calling and tactical advice in the dugout while the Mets were batting. “He’s pretty good back there,” Pelfrey said. “It’s a tough game, and he makes it pretty easy. It probably wasn’t as good as he made it look.” While Pelfrey’s pitching was superb, the Mets’ play offensively was not as crisp. They scratched out five runs by hustling and taking advantage of Colorado mistakes, including a wild pitch and an error, and hard running by Angel Pagan, who beat a throw to avoid a double play, which allowed Jason Bay to score in the fourth inning. But there were also mistakes. In the third inning, Luis Castillo was caught in a rundown after he didn’t pay attention on what was supposed to have been a double steal. Jose Reyes was on second base with nobody out and signaled to Castillo that he was going to attempt to steal third, but then didn’t go because Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa was paying close attention. Castillo never looked up to see that Reyes had held at the bag, which is the duty of the trail runner, and was eventually tagged out in the rundown. Later, Reyes was caught trying to steal third. “We don’t mind the aggression,” Manuel said. “But we have to be a little smarter about it.” In the end, the missed plays did not matter, mostly because of Pelfrey, who so far this season has been the Mets’ best starter. Jeff Francoeur faced Pelfrey 19 times with the Atlanta Braves and has a good sense of what hitters must contend with. Pelfrey has an easygoing demeanor, but at 6 feet 7 inches, standing atop the pitcher’s mound, he can be an intimidating force with a baseball in his hand. That was exactly what Francoeur told Pelfrey last season after Francoeur was traded to the Mets. Francoeur reminded Pelfrey of it again during spring training. “I told him, ‘It’s hard facing you,’ ” Francoeur said. “ ‘Use that. Pitch inside and don’t let guys get comfortable.’ ” On Thursday, the Rockies never did. INSIDE PITCH Jeff Francoeur was 2 for 4 and raised his batting average to .438. He has hit safely in all nine games. ... The Rockies were shut out at home for the first time since Sept. 6, 2008, against Houston. ... Jerry Manuel said Wednesday that he was ready to use Ryota Igarashi as his eighth-inning man, but he went with Pedro Feliciano in the eighth Thursday. Igarashi would have come into the game in the seventh if Mike Pelfrey had allowed one more base runner. ... Asked if he was ready to bat third in the lineup, Jose Reyes said he would talk it over with Manuel before Friday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. | New York Mets;Baseball;Pelfrey Mike |
ny0026919 | [
"us"
] | 2013/01/11 | Monks in California Reconstruct Monastery Building From Spain | VINA, Calif. — The rebirth of a medieval Cistercian monastery building here on a patch of rural Northern California land was, of course, improbable. William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, brought the dismantled Santa Maria de Óvila monastery from Spain but failed to restore it. The City of San Francisco, after some fitful starts at bringing the monastery back to life, left its stones languishing for decades in Golden Gate Park. The Great Depression, World War II and lethargy got in the way. But an aging and shrinking order of Cistercian monks have accomplished what great men and cities could not: the reconstruction of Santa Maria de Óvila’s most architecturally significant building, a 12th-century Gothic chapter house. The monks ascribed the successful restoration to their faith, though years of tenacious fund-raising, as well as a recent alliance with a local beer brewer, also helped. “The meaning that this holds for us, and the link to hope, is that it may take generations,” the Rev. Paul Mark Schwan, the abbot of the New Clairvaux monastery , said of the restoration. “What appears dead, or almost dead, rises again.” With the major work complete, the chapter house was opened to the public last year. “We got into possession of the stones, and they’ve come home — a long ways from Spain, but back on Cistercian land with Cistercian monks returning it to sacred space,” Father Schwan said on a recent chilly afternoon, standing just inside one of the arched entrances, his voice resonating off the limestone walls and vaulted ceilings. “I look at this, and it’s remarkable we’ve come this far, that this is actually all put back together.” Image A medieval chapter house was rebuilt using stones from a 12th-century Spanish monastery. The monks spent years pursuing the project, even teaming up with Sierra Nevada Brewery, in nearby Chico, to produce Trappist-style premium beers. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times With two-thirds of the original stones and modern earthquake-resistant reinforcements, Óvila’s chapter house now sits, perhaps incongruously, in an open field near the abbey’s modest church and vineyards, a couple of hours north of Sacramento. It was in 1167 that King Alfonso VIII of Castile founded Santa Maria de Óvila in the province of Guadalajara, an area that he had reconquered from the Moors and that he hoped to populate with Christian settlers. For centuries, the monastery thrived as a home to Cistercian monks, a Roman Catholic order that hewed to the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict and its emphasis on self-sufficiency, manual labor and prayer. The monastery declined, however, and by the time it was shuttered by the Spanish government in 1835, there were only four monks left. The monastery fell into disrepair — the chapter house was being used as a manure pit — and was forgotten until it caught the eye of Hearst’s art dealer, Arthur Byne, in 1930. Hearst, the larger-than-life newspaper publisher who inspired “Citizen Kane,” had already built Hearst Castle on California’s Central Coast, complete with the facade of an ancient Roman temple he had bought in Italy for his estate’s Neptune Pool. But Hearst was looking to build something even bigger near Mount Shasta, in the forest about 120 miles north of Vina, where his mother’s summer home, called Wyntoon, had recently burned down. Hearst wanted to build an eight-story medieval castle facing the McCloud River, and parts of the Spanish monastery would fit right in. According to American Heritage magazine , Spanish farmers and laborers from surrounding villages were hired to dismantle and haul the monastery’s most important buildings. A rail track was laid, and roads and a bridge were built to transport the massive stones. Eventually, 11 ships containing much of the monastery arrived in San Francisco. Image The chapter house at the New Clairvaux monastery in Vina, Calif. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times But Hearst, whose fortune was dented during the Depression, ultimately abandoned the project and gave the monastery to San Francisco. The city’s plans to use it as part of a museum of medieval art in Golden Gate Park went nowhere. The crates containing the stones caught fire in the park a couple of times, and the stones were left to the elements. In 1979, an art historian, Margaret Burke, participated in San Francisco’s last attempt to restore the monastery. For four years, Ms. Burke inspected the stones to determine what could be saved. “I found that the chapter house was the only building that would be feasible to rebuild,” Ms. Burke recalled. The city, though, could not raise the money for the project. Over the decades, the monks here had watched the situation with growing despair. A chapter house serves as the heart of an abbey, the place where monks gather daily for readings and meetings. What’s more, Cistercian architecture, in its simplicity and austerity, was a reflection of the order’s faith. “Our architecture was considered part of our prayer, and it still is,” Father Schwan said. “It’s not just the matter of a building. It expresses that vision of what we desire to strive for in our relationship with God.” Image The house’s stones were bought in Spain by William Randolph Hearst in the 1930s, then abandoned in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for decades. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times After years of lobbying, the monks in 1994 persuaded San Francisco to give them the stones on the condition that they begin the restoration work within a decade. It was not easy. Like other Cistercian abbeys in developed nations, this one was losing members. When Father Schwan, now 56, entered the monastery here in 1980, there were 35 to 37 monks. Now there are 22, with half of them 80 or older. “When I entered, there were two people buried in the cemetery,” he said. “We’ve got 16 or 17 in the cemetery today. I’ve actually helped bury every one of those monks, except one.” Workers broke ground on the reconstruction in 2004, and the monks eventually raised $7 million for the project. A couple of years ago, the monks also teamed up with Sierra Nevada Brewing, in nearby Chico, to produce a series of premium Trappist-style beers called Ovila. To cut down on costs, the monks chose to buy limestone from Texas instead of Europe to supplement the original stones. Though the monks are working to raise an additional $2 million to put the finishing touches on the restoration, they are already able to use the chapter house the way their Spanish predecessors did. That was not the fate of the other 12th-century Cistercian monastery that Hearst, ever the voracious collector, had dismantled and shipped from Spain in 1925. That monastery, St. Bernard de Clairvaux, ended up gathering dust in a warehouse in Brooklyn because of Hearst’s declining fortune. After Hearst died in 1951, St. Bernard de Clairvaux’s stones changed hands a couple of times before ending up in North Miami Beach, where the reassembled monastery buildings now serve as an Episcopal parish and tourist attraction . | Monasteries;Restoration and Renovation;William Randolph Hearst;Architecture;California;San Francisco;Spain;Vina CA |
ny0104956 | [
"business",
"energy-environment"
] | 2012/03/23 | Inching Toward Energy Independence in America | MIDLAND, Tex. — The desolate stretch of West Texas desert known as the Permian Basin is still the lonely domain of scurrying roadrunners by day and howling coyotes by night. But the roar of scores of new oil rigs and the distinctive acrid fumes of drilling equipment are unmistakable signs that crude is gushing again. And not just here. Across the country, the oil and gas industry is vastly increasing production, reversing two decades of decline. Using new technology and spurred by rising oil prices since the mid-2000s, the industry is extracting millions of barrels more a week, from the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the prairies of North Dakota . At the same time, Americans are pumping significantly less gasoline. While that is partly a result of the recession and higher gasoline prices, people are also driving fewer miles and replacing older cars with more fuel-efficient vehicles at a greater clip, federal data show. Taken together, the increasing production and declining consumption have unexpectedly brought the United States markedly closer to a goal that has tantalized presidents since Richard Nixon : independence from foreign energy sources, a milestone that could reconfigure American foreign policy, the economy and more. In 2011, the country imported just 45 percent of the liquid fuels it used, down from a record high of 60 percent in 2005. “There is no question that many national security policy makers will believe they have much more flexibility and will think about the world differently if the United States is importing a lot less oil,” said Michael A. Levi, an energy and environmental senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations . “For decades, consumption rose, production fell and imports increased, and now every one of those trends is going the other way.” How the country made this turnabout is a story of industry-friendly policies started by President Bush and largely continued by President Obama — many over the objections of environmental advocates — as well as technological advances that have allowed the extraction of oil and gas once considered too difficult and too expensive to reach. But mainly it is a story of the complex economics of energy, which sometimes seems to operate by its own rules of supply and demand. With gasoline prices now approaching record highs and politicians mud-wrestling about the causes and solutions, the effects of the longer-term rise in production can be difficult to see. Simple economics suggests that if the nation is producing more energy, prices should be falling. But crude oil — and gasoline and diesel made from it — are global commodities whose prices are affected by factors around the world. Supply disruptions in Africa , the political standoff with Iran and rising demand from a recovering world economy all are contributing to the current spike in global oil prices, offsetting the impact of the increased domestic supply. But the domestic trends are unmistakable. Not only has the United States reduced oil imports from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries by more than 20 percent in the last three years, it has become a net exporter of refined petroleum products like gasoline for the first time since the Truman presidency. The natural gas industry, which less than a decade ago feared running out of domestic gas, is suddenly dealing with a glut so vast that import facilities are applying for licenses to export gas to Europe and Asia . National oil production, which declined steadily to 4.95 million barrels a day in 2008 from 9.6 million in 1970, has risen over the last four years to nearly 5.7 million barrels a day. The Energy Department projects that daily output could reach nearly seven million barrels by 2020 . Some experts think it could eventually hit 10 million barrels — which would put the United States in the same league as Saudi Arabia . This surge is hardly without consequences. Some areas of intense drilling activity, including northeastern Utah and central Wyoming , have experienced air quality problems. The drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses highly pressurized water, sand and chemical lubricants that help force more oil and gas from rock formations, has also been blamed for wastewater problems. Wildlife experts also warn that expanded drilling is threatening habitats of rare or endangered species. Greater energy independence is “a prize that has long been eyed by oil insiders and policy strategists that can bring many economic and national security benefits,” said Jay Hakes, a senior official at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration. “But we will have to work through the environmental issues, which are a definite challenge.” The increased production of fossil fuels is a far cry from the energy plans President Obama articulated as a candidate in 2008. Then, he promoted policies to help combat global warming , including vast investments in renewable energy and a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions that would have discouraged the use of fossil fuels. More recently, with gasoline prices rising and another election looming, Mr. Obama has struck a different chord. He has opened new federal lands and waters to drilling, trumpeted increases in oil and gas production and de-emphasized the challenges of climate change. On Thursday, he said he supported expedited construction of the southern portion of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada . Mr. Obama’s current policy has alarmed many environmental advocates who say he has failed to adequately address the environmental threats of expanded drilling and the use of fossil fuels. He also has not silenced critics, including Republicans and oil executives, who accuse him of preventing drilling on millions of acres off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and on federal land, unduly delaying the decision on the full Keystone project and diverting scarce federal resources to pie-in-the-sky alternative energy programs. Just as the production increase was largely driven by rising oil prices, the trend could reverse if the global economy were to slow. Even so, much of the industry is thrilled at the prospects. “To not be concerned with where our oil is going to come from is probably the biggest home run for the country in a hundred years,” said Scott D. Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources , which is operating in West Texas. “It sort of reminds me of the industrial revolution in coal , which allowed us to have some of the cheapest energy in the world and drove our economy in the late 1800s and 1900s.” The Foundation Is Laid For as long as roughnecks have worked the Permian Basin — made famous during World War II as the fuel pump that powered the Allies — they have mostly focused on relatively shallow zones of easily accessible, oil-soaked sandstone and silt. But after 80 years of pumping, those regions were running dry. So in 2003, Jim Henry, a West Texas oilman, tried a bold experiment. Borrowing an idea from a fellow engineer, his team at Henry Petroleum drilled deep into a hard limestone formation using a refinement of fracking. By blasting millions of gallons of water into the limestone, they created tiny fissures that allowed oil to break free, a technique that had previously been successful in extracting gas from shale. The test produced 150 barrels of oil a day, three times more than normal. “We knew we had the biggest discovery in over 50 years in the Permian Basin,” Mr. Henry recalled. There was just one problem: At $30 a barrel, the price of oil was about half of what was needed to make drilling that deep really profitable. So the renaissance of the Permian — and the domestic oil industry — would have to wait. But the drillers in Texas had important allies in Washington . President Bush grew up in Midland and spent 11 years as a West Texas oilman, albeit without much success, before entering politics. Vice President Dick Cheney had been chief executive of the oil field contractor Halliburton . The Bush administration worked from the start on finding ways to unlock the nation’s energy reserves and reverse decades of declining output, with Mr. Cheney leading a White House energy task force that met in secret with top oil executives. “Ramping up production was a high priority,” said Gale Norton , a member of the task force and the secretary of the Interior at the time. “We hated being at the mercy of other countries, and we were determined to change that.” The task force’s work helped produce the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which set rules that contributed to the current surge. It prohibited the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act, eliminating a potential impediment to wide use of the technique. The legislation also offered the industry billions of dollars in new tax breaks to help independent producers recoup some drilling costs even when a well came up dry. Separately, the Interior Department was granted the power to issue drilling permits on millions of acres of federal lands without extensive environmental impact studies for individual projects, addressing industry complaints about the glacial pace of approvals. That new power has been used at least 8,400 times, mostly in Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico , representing a quarter of all permits issued on federal land in the last six federal fiscal years. The Bush administration also opened large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico and the waters off Alaska to exploration, granting lease deals that required companies to pay only a tiny share of their profits to the government. These measures primed the pump for the burst in drilling that began once oil prices started rising sharply in 2005 and 2006. With the world economy humming — and China , India and other developing nations posting astonishing growth — demand for oil began outpacing the easily accessible supplies. By 2008, daily global oil consumption surged to 86 million barrels, up nearly 20 percent from the decade before. In July of that year, the price of oil reached its highest level since World War II, topping $145 a barrel (equivalent to more than $151 a barrel in today’s dollars). Oil reserves once too difficult and expensive to extract — including Mr. Henry’s limestone fields — had become more attractive. If money was the motivation, fracking became the favored means of extraction. While fracking itself had been around for years, natural gas drillers in the 1980s and 1990s began combining high-pressure fracking with drilling wells horizontally, not just vertically. They found it unlocked gas from layers of shale previously seen as near worthless. By 2001, fracking took off around Fort Worth and Dallas , eventually reaching under schools, airports and inner-city neighborhoods. Companies began buying drilling rights across vast shale fields in a variety of states. By 2008, the country was awash in natural gas. Fracking for oil, which is made of larger molecules than natural gas, took longer to develop. But eventually, it opened new oil fields in North Dakota, South Texas, Kansas , Wyoming, Colorado and, most recently, Ohio . Meanwhile, technological advances were making deeper oil drilling possible in the Gulf of Mexico. New imaging and seismic technology allowed engineers to predict the location and size of reservoirs once obscured by thick layers of salt. And drill bits made of superstrong alloys were developed to withstand the hot temperatures and high pressures deep under the seabed. As the industry’s confidence — and profits — grew, so did criticism. Amid concerns about global warming and gasoline prices that averaged a record $4.11 a gallon in July 2008 ($4.30 in today’s dollars), President Obama campaigned on a pledge to shift toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. His administration initially canceled some oil and gas leases on federal land awarded during the Bush administration and required more environmental review. But in a world where crucial oil suppliers like Venezuela and Libya were unstable and high energy prices could be a drag on a weak economy, he soon acted to promote more drilling. Despite a drilling hiatus after the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 rig workers and spilled millions of barrels of crude oil into the ocean, he has proposed expansion of oil production both on land and offshore. He is now moving toward approving drilling off the coast of Alaska. “Our dependence on foreign oil is down because of policies put in place by our administration, but also our predecessor’s administration,” Mr. Obama said during a campaign appearance in March, a few weeks after opening 38 million more acres in the gulf for oil and gas exploration. “And whoever succeeds me is going to have to keep it up.” An American Oil Boom The last time the Permian Basin oil fields enjoyed a boom — nearly three decades ago — Rolls-Royce opened a showroom in the desert, Champagne was poured from cowboy boots, and the local airport could not accommodate all the Learjets taking off for Las Vegas on weekends. But when crude prices fell in the mid-1980s, oil companies pulled out and the Rolls dealership was replaced by a tortilla factory. The only thriving business was done by bankruptcy lawyers and auctioneers helping to unload used Ferraris, empty homes and useless rigs. “One day we were rolling in oil,” recalled Jim Foreman, the general manager of the Midland BMW dealership, “and the next day geologists were flipping burgers at McDonald’s .” The burger-flipping days are definitely over. Today, more than 475 rigs — roughly a quarter of all rigs operating in the United States — are smashing through tight rocks across the Permian in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Those areas are already producing nearly a million barrels a day, or 17 percent more than two years ago. By decade’s end, that daily total could easily double, oil executives say, roughly equaling the total output of Nigeria . “We’re having a revolution,” said G. Steven Farris, chief executive of Apache Corporation , one of the basin’s most active producers. “And we’re just scratching the surface.” It is a revolution that is returning investments to the United States. Over several decades, Pioneer Natural Resources had taken roughly $1 billion earned in Texas oil fields and drilled in Africa, South America and elsewhere. But in the last five years, the company sold $2 billion of overseas assets and reinvested in Texas shale fields. “Political risk was increasing internationally,” said Mr. Sheffield, Pioneer’s chief executive, and domestically, he was encouraged to see “the shale technology progressing.” Pioneer’s rising fortunes can be seen on a 10,000-acre field known as the Giddings Estate, a forsaken stretch inhabited by straggly coyotes, rabbits, rattlesnakes and cows that forage for grass between the sagebrush. When Pioneer bought it in 2005, the field’s hundred mostly broken-down wells were producing a total of 50 barrels a day. “It was a diamond in the rough,” said Robert Hillger, who manages it for Pioneer. Mr. Hillger and his colleagues have brought an array of new tools to bear at Giddings. Computer programs simulate well designs, minimizing trial and error. Advanced fiber optics allow senior engineers and geologists at headquarters more than 300 miles away to monitor progress and remotely direct the drill bit. Subterranean microphones help identify fissures in the rock to plan subsequent drilling. Today, the Giddings field is pumping 7,000 barrels a day, and Pioneer expects to hit 25,000 barrels a day by 2017. The newfound wealth is spreading beyond the fields. In nearby towns, petroleum companies are buying so many pickup trucks that dealers are leasing parking lots the size of city blocks to stock their inventory. Housing is in such short supply that drillers are importing contractors from Houston and hotels are leased out before they are even built. Two new office buildings are going up in Midland, a city of just over 110,000 people, the first in 30 years, while the total value of downtown real estate has jumped 50 percent since 2008. With virtually no unemployment, restaurants cannot find enough servers. Local truck drivers are making six-figure salaries. “Anybody who comes in with a driver’s license and a Social Security card, I’ll give him a chance,” said Rusty Allred, owner of Rusty’s Oilfield Service Company. If there is a loser in this boom, it is the environment. Water experts say aquifers in the desert area could run dry if fracking continues expanding, and oil executives concede they need to reduce water consumption. Yet environmental concerns, from polluted air to greenhouse gas emissions, have gained little traction in the Permian Basin or other outposts of the energy expansion. On the front lines in opposition is Jay Lininger, a 36-year-old ecologist who drives through the Permian in an old Toyota Tacoma with a hard hat tilted on his head and a federal land map at the ready. A former national park firefighter, he says he is now battling a wildfire of a different sort — the oil industry. Nationally, environmentalists have challenged drilling with mixed results. Efforts to stop or slow fracking have succeeded in New York State and some localities in other states, but it is spreading across the country. In the Permian, Mr. Lininger said, few people openly object to the foul-smelling air of the oil fields. Ranchers are more than happy to sell what water they have to the oil companies for fracking. Mr. Lininger and his group are trying to slow the expansion of drilling by appealing to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to protect several animal species, including the five-inch dunes sagebrush lizard. “It’s a pathetic little lizard in an ugly desert, but life needs to be protected,” he said. “Every day we burn fossil fuel makes it harder for our planet to recover from our energy addiction.” Mr. Lininger said the oil and ranching industries had already destroyed or fragmented 40 percent of the lizard’s habitat, and 60 percent of what is left is under lease for oil and gas development. The wildlife agency proposed listing the lizard as endangered in 2010 and was expected to decide last December, but Congressional representatives from the oil patch won a delay. Oil companies are working on a voluntary program to locate new drilling so it will not disturb the lizard habitat. But for Mr. Lininger’s group, the Center for Biological Diversity, that is far from sufficient. Brendan Cummings, senior counsel of the center, said protecting the lizard was part of a broader effort to keep drilling from harming animals, including polar bears, walruses and bowhead whales in the Alaskan Arctic and dwarf sea horses and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. “When you are dealing with fossil fuels, things will always go wrong,” Mr. Cummings said. “There will always be spills, there will always be pollution. Those impacts compound the fragmentation that occurs and render these habitats into sacrifice areas.” A Turn Toward Efficiency If the Permian Basin exemplifies the rise in production, car-obsessed San Diego is a prime example of the other big factor in the decline in the nation’s reliance on foreign oil. Just since 2007, consumption of all liquid fuels in the United States, including diesel, jet fuel and heating oil , has dropped by about 9 percent, according to the Energy Department . Gasoline use fell 6 to 12 percent, estimated Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. Although Southern California ’s love affair with muscle cars and the open road persists, driving habits have changed in subtle but important ways. Take Tory Girten, who works as an emergency medical technician and part-time lifeguard in the San Diego area. He switched from driving a Ford minivan to a decidedly smaller and more fuel-efficient Dodge Caliber . Fed up with high gasoline prices, he also moved twice recently to be closer to the city center, cutting his daily commute considerably — a hint of the shift taking place in certain metropolitan areas as city centers become more popular while growth in far-out suburbs slows. “I would rather pay a little more monthly for rent than for just filling up my tank with gas,” he said, after pulling into a local gas station to fill up. Mr. Girten is one of millions of Americans who have downsized. S.U.V.’s accounted for 18 percent of new-car sales in 2002, but only 7 percent in 2010. The surge in gasoline prices nationwide — they are already at a record level for this time of year — has contributed to the shift toward more fuel-efficient cars. But a bigger factor is rising federal fuel economy standards. After a long freeze, the miles-per-gallon mandate has been increased several times in recent years, with the Obama administration now pushing automakers to hit 54.5 m.p.g. by 2025. As Americans replace their older cars — they have bought an average of 1.25 million new cars and light trucks a month this year — new technologies mean they usually end up with a more efficient vehicle, even if they buy a model of similar size and power. California has long pushed further and faster toward efficiency than the rest of the country. It has combated often severe air pollution by mandating cleaner-burning cars, including all- electric vehicles , and prodded Washington to increase the fuel efficiency standards. Thousands of school buses, trash trucks, tractor-trailers and street sweepers and public transit buses in the state run on natural gas, which is cheaper than gasoline and burns more cleanly. That switch cuts the consumption of foreign oil, as does the corn-based ethanol that is now mixed into gasoline as a result of federal mandates. Longer-term social and economic factors are also reducing miles driven — like the rise in Internet shopping and telecommuting and the tendency of baby boomers to drive less as they age. The recession has also contributed, as job losses have meant fewer daily commutes and falling home prices have allowed some people to afford to move closer to work. The trend of lower consumption, when combined with higher energy production, has profound implications, said Bill White, former deputy energy secretary in the Clinton administration and former mayor of Houston. “Energy independence has always been a race between depletion and technologies to produce more and use energy more efficiently,” he said. “Depletion was winning for decades, and now technology is starting to overtake its lead.” | Oil and Gasoline;Energy industry;Energy Efficiency |
ny0151022 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2008/08/27 | Rebel Fighting in Philippines Intensifies | MANILA — Fighting in the southern Philippines between government troops and Islamic separatists is intensifying by the day, with the number of the displaced now reaching 300,000, officials and aid workers said Tuesday. Army officials estimated that 150 rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been killed in the past five days and said that government troops overran 15 rebel camps during one of the most significant offensives since peace negotiations began 11 years ago. The military said the assaults, which started in several provinces in the southern region of Mindanao last week, are directed at three commanders of the front who they say were responsible for a rampage this month in which 33 people were killed. “We have not really physically collected these casualties. We can only say we have inflicted heavy casualties because of the advances of the troops,” General Alexander Yano, the armed forces chief, told ABS-CBN television on Monday. Relief officials said most of the displaced were from the Muslim areas. Volunteer groups who are helping the refugees in Mindanao called on the government Tuesday to stop the offensive because of the worsening humanitarian crisis in many Muslim areas. “We are calling for a cease-fire, for both sides to talk rather than shoot each other,” said Rexall Kaalim, an officer of Bantay Cease-fire, a volunteer group in Mindanao. He said the number of casualties is increasing and that many refugees are sick or have died in evacuation centers. On its Web site, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it had killed 13 government soldiers since last week and reported the downing of a helicopter gunship, claims that the military denied. Gilbert Teodoro, the defense secretary, said on Monday that the offensives will not stop until the three front commanders are captured. Advisers to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the peace negotiations could not resume unless these rebel leaders were turned over to authorities, a demand that the front’s leadership rejected. The intensified fighting followed the collapse of a peace deal on Aug. 5 that many Filipinos opposed, leaving the peace process in tatters, although the Arroyo administration has been trying to revive it. “There is no all-out war. What we are doing, we are doing to have all-out peace in Mindanao,” Mrs. Arroyo said in a speech on Monday. Her administration is exerting pressure on the 11,000-strong front, which has been fighting for Muslim self-rule since the 1970s. On Monday, Norberto Gonzales, the national security adviser, told reporters that the front commanders responsible for the attacks this month had ties with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network. A defense official said that the government was studying the possibility of declaring certain factions of the front terrorists. The front’s leadership has denounced the government for insisting that it was a terror group and said that a terrorist label might force them out of the peace process. The interior secretary, Ronaldo Puno, said Tuesday that the government was also investigating any links between the front and the communist New People’s Army. Meanwhile, a C-130 transport plane from the Philippine Air Force carrying two pilots and seven crew members was believed to have crashed Tuesday taking off from Davao City. Officials said they had recovered body parts and debris and are investigating reports from fishermen that they saw an aircraft plunge into the sea after it was hit by lightning. | Philippines;Civil War and Guerrilla Warfare;Armament Defense and Military Forces;Islam;Moro Islamic Liberation Front |
ny0291512 | [
"technology"
] | 2016/01/23 | Google Pays Britain $185 Million to Settle Back Taxes | SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Friday agreed to pay 130 million pounds, or about $185 million in back taxes to Britain, making it the latest United States technology company to settle claims that it does not pay its fair share of taxes in Europe. The sum covers taxes from 2005 to 2015 and Google said it would change how it calculates its tax payments in Britain so they are based on a percentage of local sales derived from the country. “We will now pay tax based on revenue from U.K.-based advertisers, which reflects the size and scope of our U.K. business,” a Google spokesman wrote in an email. “The way multinational companies are taxed has been debated for many years and the international tax system is changing as a result.” Last April, Britain adopted a so-called Google tax that would impose a levy on any international company that did not fairly pay taxes on profits generated from its British operations. Google, which is now owned by a holding company called Alphabet and has its European headquarters in Ireland, is hardly the only technology company with European tax problems. Various countries, including Germany and France, have criticized the complicated tax structures tech companies use to reduce their local taxes. Many of them route sales through lower-tax countries like Ireland, even if the sales are made in other nations. In May , Amazon, which had been funneling most of its sales taxes through Luxembourg, a low-tax haven, said it would start paying taxes in European countries where it has large operations. Apple reached a deal to pay local Italian tax authorities in December after authorities there looked into whether the company tried to lower its taxes by moving more than $1 billion in revenue from its Italian operations through an Irish subsidiary. The executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission, is also investigating whether Apple and Amazon receive unfair state support through low-tax agreements in Ireland and Luxembourg. | Corporate tax;Google;Great Britain;Alphabet;Europe |
ny0104167 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2012/03/26 | N.C.A.A. Tournament — Kansas Beats North Carolina to Go to Final 4 | ST. LOUIS — Roy Williams cries as easily as some people take jump shots. Williams, the North Carolina coach, figured to be teary after the Tar Heels let a chance at their 19th Final Four appearance slip away in the final minutes on Sunday against Kansas. And the worst part was admitting what happened. “We panicked a little bit out there,” Williams said. In a fast-paced Midwest Region final that was tight throughout, Kansas scored the last 12 points to win, 80-67, at the Edward Jones Dome. The top-seeded Tar Heels collapsed down the stretch, missing their final nine shots and 14 of 16 in the face of a Kansas triangle-and-two defense — this after North Carolina shot 63.6 percent in the first half. North Carolina (32-6) missed all 10 of its second-half 3-point attempts and did not score a point after a Harrison Barnes free throw with 3 minutes 58 seconds to play. Until then, the Tar Heels’ offense appeared to be running well enough without point guard Kendall Marshall, who missed his second consecutive game with a broken bone in his right wrist. “It was pretty there for a while,” Williams said. “It just wasn’t very pretty those last five minutes.” The Jayhawks (31-6) will play East champion Ohio State (31-7) in a national semifinal Saturday in New Orleans, the first Final Four appearance by Kansas since its 2008 national championship. Williams has coached twice against Kansas in the N.C.A.A. tournament since leaving Lawrence for Chapel Hill in 2003, and both times the Jayhawks sent the Tar Heels home. The first was at the 2008 Final Four. Tyshawn Taylor had 22 points and Thomas Robinson, named the regional’s most outstanding player, 18 points for second-seeded Kansas. And two big blocks in the final minutes by the Kansas seven-footer Jeff Withey, who was playing with four fouls, helped the Jayhawks pull away. Withey finished with 15 points, making all five of his shots from the field, and three blocks. “The first half, we didn’t guard anybody,” Kansas Coach Bill Self said. “It was a horse contest. And they’re not the type of team you want to get in a horse contest with. But second half, I thought we did such a good job of not letting them be comfortable.” After 13 lead changes and 15 ties, Kansas led by one with under four minutes to play when the Tar Heel 7-footer Tyler Zeller blocked Taylor on a drive. Moments later, Taylor stole the ball, and Elijah Johnson — shooting 2 for 10 from the field to that point — sank a pull-up 3-pointer from the left wing. “I couldn’t stop shooting,” said Johnson, among the most dependable Jayhawks in the second half throughout the tournament. “I wouldn’t want to go home tonight saying, I could have shot that 3.” With 2 minutes 4 seconds to play, the 6-foot-11 Tar Heel John Henson, playing gamely after twisting his right ankle in the first half, drove for the basket. But Withey, the Big 12 defensive player of the year, swatted the shot, spied Taylor and tipped it ahead to him for a fast-break layup and a 3-point play. “I saw him coming down the middle and I stepped up,” Withey said of Henson. “I just threw my hands up and he shot it into my hands. Then I looked while the ball was still in the air, I looked at Ty, and I just knew I had to tip it to him. So I just put all my force into it.” Taylor said: “He made eye contact with me after the block, and as soon as he landed back on the ground, he just tipped it out as hard as he could.” Then Stilman White, starting again for Marshall, briefly saw an opening and drove. Withey blocked that, too. Kansas broke the other way, and Travis Releford finished with a two-handed dunk to make it 76-67 with 1:29 remaining. After a 3-point miss by White, Releford sank one of two free throws for a 10-point lead with 49 seconds left. “A lot of times, a guy with four fouls won’t guard you because he wants to stay in the game,” Williams said. “That’s why you have to congratulate Kansas. It wasn’t just us missing shots. Jeff was a load inside.” Releford dribbled out the final seconds as he and Taylor looked toward the stands and waved their arms, an unnecessary gesture since the crowd of 24,107 was already up and cheering. The preponderance of blue — and not the Carolina shade — suggested that Kansas fans had bought most of the tickets dumped by Ohio and North Carolina State fans after their teams lost in the regional semifinals. James Michael McAdoo had 15 points for North Carolina, one of four double-figure scorers. Williams had hoped that Marshall, who took part in noncontact drills at practice Saturday, might play Sunday. But Marshall felt sore afterward, and again Sunday morning, so Williams ruled him out. North Carolina missed Marshall in those final minutes as everything fell apart. “The emotions took over a little bit in the last four minutes, where Kendall’s a security blanket,” Williams said. “He’s trying to coach on the bench. He’s a lot better player than he is a coach.” | University of Kansas;University of North Carolina;Williams Roy;Taylor Tyshawn;Robinson Thomas;Zeller Tyler;Marshall Kendall;Basketball (College);NCAA Basketball Championships (Men) |
ny0034848 | [
"sports"
] | 2013/12/14 | Win or Lose, Thanks for the Memories | WINNERS LeBron James Won another big one. Watch out Michael Jordan. Rafael Nadal Back at No.1 and no more tape on his knee. Bayern Munich Wunderteam wins Champions League this time. Andy Murray First British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years. Adam Scott First Australian to win golf’s Masters. Sir Alex Ferguson Gone but hardly forgotten, with ManU struggling. Thomas Bach Olympic fencer turned I.O.C. president. Tokyo From Fukushima fallout to 2020 Olympics host. Wrestling Muscled its way back into Olympic Games. All Blacks Unbeaten all year, a first in the professional era. Missy Franklin Six world golds in the pool: Not bad for an amateur. Sebastian Vettel Time to change more Formula One rules? David Stern Last finals for N.B.A.’s mastermind is a classic. Cristiano Ronaldo A hat trick to put Portugal into World Cup finals. Wilson Kipsang 2:03.23 in the Berlin marathon. Inbee Park First three legs of a women’s golf Grand Slam. Bob and Mike Bryan First three legs of a men’s tennis Grand Slam. Adam Nelson Olympic champion in shot put, nine years late. Brianna Rollins Overcame all hurdles and opposition. Larry Ellison Keeps America’s Cup after comeback of the year. Serena Williams Closing fast on Navratilova and Evert. Marion Bartoli Surprise Wimbledon singles title and then shock retirement. Tina Maze Her 2,414 points a World Cup ski circuit record. Sachin Tendulkar India’s cricketer bows out a hero. Mariano Rivera New York’s reliever does the same. Tiger Woods Major drought continues but many other victories. Phil Mickelson So he really does love links golf. Mumbai Indians I.P.L. and Champions League Twenty20 champs. Justin Rose Nice guys do finish first, even at U.S. Open. Usain Bolt His sport needs him more than ever. Olivier Morin News photographer caught Bolt with lightning bolt. Sun Yang Three more world golds for China’s best swimmer. Robinson Cano Goodbye, Yankees; hello, $240 million. Chris Froome Second straight Brit to win the Tour de France. Mo Farah No post-Olympic letdown for distance king. Katie Ledecky Best distance swimmer since Janet Evans. John Harbaugh Ravens coach won Super Bowl over brother Jim’s 49ers. Playoff beards Unsightly but worked beautifully for Boston Red Sox. LOSERS Lance Armstrong Only dug the hole deeper with Oprah. Team New Zealand Lost an 8-1 lead and the America’s Cup. Istanbul Crackdowns and tear gas and no Olympics again. Tyson Gay Positive news was not good news. Alex Rodriguez Facing a 211-game suspension. Track and field Too many empty seats at Moscow worlds. Roger Federer Just one title and 4-10 versus the top 10. Rory McIlroy Just one title and a world of distractions. Derrick Rose Gulp, time for another comeback. David Moyes Sir David? Not for the moment. Jamaica Doubts about its sprinters and anti-doping. American men’s tennis Nobody in top 10; only two in top 50. Yelena Isinbayeva Gold in the pole vault, but then came the presser. Viktor Troicki 2010 Davis Cup hero banned from 2013 Davis Cup final. Tim Tebow High Q rating but low quarterback rating. Super Bowl lighting 34-minute blackout in the Superdome. Lindsey Vonn Good times with Tiger but bad crash at worlds. Presidents Cup Still more exhibition than competition. Fed Cup None of Russia’s top-11 players made it to final. Ibra No World Cup finals for Sweden and one of soccer’s greats. San Antonio Spurs 28 seconds from the N.B.A. title and then… Brazil Fears about World Cup security, organization. José María del Nido Seven years in jail for former F.C. Sevilla president. Aaron Hernandez Star N.F.L. tight end indicted for murder R.I.P. Nelson Mandela, 95 Embraced the Springboks and healed a nation. Stan Musial, 92 The Man was one of the great hitters. Classy, too. Andrew Simpson, 36 British sailing gold medalist died when AC72 flipped. Pietro Mennea, 60 World record in 200, Olympic gold for Italy. Ken Norton, 70 Broke Ali’s jaw, but Ali later beat him twice. Hjalmar Andersen, 90 Triple speedskating gold in Oslo at ’52 Olympics. Allen Simonsen, 34 Danish driver killed in crash in Le Mans race. Brad Drewett, 54 Head of A.T.P. who helped tennis rise in Asia. Jerry Buss, 80 Owner of Lakers when Showtime was good time. Pedro Rocha, 70 Four World Cup finals in soccer for Uruguay. Walt Bellamy, 74 Hall of Famer averaged 31.6 ppg as N.B.A. rookie. Ken Venturi, 82 Great golfer and commentator; won ’64 U.S. Open. Bill Sharman, 87 Bob Cousy’s backcourt mate with Celtics; coach. Peter Graf, 75 Steffi’s volatile father and first coach. Valdis Muiznieks, 78 Latvian played hoops in three Olympics for U.S.S.R. Gussy Moran, 89 Her lace knickers caused stir at Wimbledon. Bum Phillips, 90 Folksy N.F.L. coach who favored cowboy hats. Otavio da Silva, 20 Brazilian soccer referee killed by crowd. Deacon Jones, 74 Star N.F.L. defensive end who coined term “sack.” Caleb Moore, 25 Snowmobile racer who died in Winter X Games. Soraya Jiménez, 35 First Mexican woman to win Olympic gold medal. Cayetano Ré, 75 Paraguayan striker and national soccer team coach. Bill Foulkes, 81 Busby Babe played 688 games for Manchester United. Christian Benítez, 27 Ecuadorean national team striker, died in Qatar. “Mad Dog” Vachon, 84 Went from Olympics to pro wrestling villainy. Martin Richard, 8 Youngest of three killed by Boston Marathon bombs. | LeBron James;Rafael Nadal;Bayern Munich Soccer Team |
ny0210543 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/12/22 | New York Region Digs Itself Out of Weekend Snowstorm | Enduring hobbled trains and ice-slicked roads, residents of the New York region and the rest of the East Coast mostly made it to work and school on Monday after weathering a weekend storm packed in places with two feet of snow and mounds of irritation. In New York City, where the snow depths were about 10 inches, the 1,600 public schools opened on time on a chilly but radiant morning, even if many of the 1.1. million students slipped and skidded or threw snowballs on the way. But on the East End of Long Island, with unplowed back roads too treacherous for children to walk or parents to drive, schools were closed in places like Montauk, East Hampton, Bridgehampton and Amagansett. In a prearranged telephone chain, Amagansett’s Parent-Teacher Association president called each of the class parent representatives on Sunday night and they contacted parents in each class. “The side roads are really quite slippery,” said Eleanor Tritt, superintendent of the Amagansett district, a single stately brick building encompassing prekindergarten to sixth grade. “Our primary concern is safety, and it’s really not safe for buses to be riding on the side roads as well as children who might be walking to school or the parents who drive them.” The eastern half of Long Island was probably hit more severely than anywhere else in the region, with four-foot-high snow drifts in spots that crippled all manner of transportation. The Long Island Rail Road , part of New York City’s commuter lifeblood, operated erratically during the morning rush, with one stretch from Greenport on the North Fork to Ronkonkoma shut down entirely as crews dug out heavy drifts and restored balky engines and switches. The railroad had to dispatch buses to take commuters to stations where they could pick up trains to Pennsylvania Station. At metropolitan New York’s three major airports, where 1,200 flights were scratched on Sunday, individual airlines were swamped by passengers scrambling feverishly to find seats on already crowded planes so they could make it home for Christmas. At Newark Liberty International Airport, Michael Kennedy, 18, landed at 8:30 a.m. on the Continental redeye from San Francisco, too late to catch his flight to Albany, from where he planned to visit his hometown, Guilderland, N.Y. Continental told him his only option was to fly standby, but all the afternoon flights to Albany were full and the next possibly available seat was on the 9 p.m. flight. Mr. Kennedy called his parents and asked for a ride home — a three-hour drive each way — and they obliged. “It takes less time than flying,” he said. A tally kept by The Associated Press blamed the storm for at least seven deaths; they were in Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. | Snow and Snowstorms;New York City;Transit Systems;Long Island Rail Road Co;Long Island (NY);Montauk (NY) |
ny0194340 | [
"business",
"energy-environment"
] | 2009/11/19 | U.S. Has an Energy Surplus That Could Last | AFTER years of widespread concern over how to refine enough gasoline, how to deliver enough megawatts of electricity and how to keep from drowning in carbon dioxide, the United States suddenly has fuel and energy in surplus, and the country is looking greener. Can it last? And would that be a good thing? The recession was hardly anybody’s idea of a good way to put the country on a sensible energy diet. But it may have done just that. Many coal plants whose emissions were spreading acid rain, mercury and the ingredients of global warming have not been running as much lately, and the price of coal was down by half in the last year — like the price of oil . Demand for electricity was down 1 percent last year and another 4 percent in the first half of 2009; ordinarily, electric use would be expected to grow 5 percent in three to four years. Industrial demand was down to levels not seen since the 1990s. “We’re probably down 7 to 8 percent this year,” said Anthony F. Earley, chief executive of DTE, the parent of Detroit Edison. “Traditionally, we would expect to recover that in a year or two, but I don’t think anyone here believes this is going to be a traditional recovery.” Other electric systems as diverse as the Tennessee Valley Authority and Florida Power and Light have also seen demand drop. Many utilities, said Amory B. Lovins, an expert on energy efficiency, are “unexpectedly finding patterns of declining demand in previously robust sectors that they think may represent a basic change in previous trends.” This might be an “inflection point” in the American economy, said Mark Cooper, a research fellow and energy expert at the Vermont Law School, when new houses stop getting bigger (or getting built), and appliances and other devices using electricity do more work with less power. Improvements in efficiency are likely to continue. Congress has mandated lots of them, including that the general purpose incandescent lightbulb be phased out, beginning in 2012. In fact, if this recession is an inflection point, it is not the first. Jay Apt, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and executive director of its Electricity Industry Center , said that growth in use of electricity had been exponential from the 1950s until about 1973, and linear since then. Part of the reason was that by 1973, “We’d just about finished air-conditioning the country,” he said. And part was a de-industrializing economy. Industrial use of electricity in 2008 was about the same as in 1994, he said. That is partly because industries are more efficient, and partly because industrial growth has moved abroad, where electricity is cheaper. “There is really profound uncertainty” about the future level of demand for electricity. On one hand is industrial stagnation, growing efficiency and price increases brought on by carbon controls and population growth, and on the other, proliferation of new devices that use electricity, including plug-in cars, Professor Apt said. A carbon cost, if Congress agrees on a climate bill, could further retard demand. For example, if consumers had to pay $30 for each ton of carbon emitted by the electric system, rates would increase by 15 to 20 percent. That might stunt growth, as rate increases did in the 1970s when there were higher oil and natural gas prices and expensive nuclear plants were being completed. In the transportation fuel market, demand for gasoline in the United States has probably peaked, because miles traveled are down. Explanations vary. One is that the population is aging and older people drive less. Lester R. Brown, a natural resources expert, said another is that young people who once went cruising in their cars now socialize with Facebook and Twitter. Stricter fuel-economy standards are also about to kick in. Their effect depends on how quickly the current car fleet is replaced, but with a new fuel-economy average of 35.5 miles a gallon — a 40 percent increase to be phased in by 2016 — gasoline demand and prices seem poised to decline. Corn ethanol is already cutting demand for crude oil and for products from refineries. If the government mandate for ethanol from nonfood sources like wood or plant wastes is realized, gasoline demand could drop further. And if there is slow growth or no growth in liquid fuels or electricity, any greener substitutes — electricity from wind, ethanol from wood chips — could displace a dirtier incumbent fuel. STILL, the consensus in the power industry is that demand will come back, but slowly. David K. Owens, vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade association of the investor-owned utilities, said the average residential customer had 26 devices in the home running on electricity. Yes, many devices will do more with less power in the future, he said, so “you are a more efficient user of electricity, but you just have more stuff.” The growth in use of electronic devices — cellphones, televisions, computers and other devices that use electricity to handle information — is huge, 9 to 12 percent of energy consumption, by some estimates, in a category that hardly existed 20 years ago. Then, add in the plug-in car, either hybrid or pure electric. A residential customer who uses 500 kilowatt-hours a month of electricity might use another 100 for a plug-in car, said Mr. Owens. (Depending on the car, that would be enough to travel 300 or 400 miles.) That would create demand for energy, but probably not for new generating stations, because the cars could be charged at night when other demand was light. In April, Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission , said that because of the combination of renewable energy and energy conservation, the United States might not need to build any coal or nuclear plants to meet the base-load capacity that runs around the clock and is supplemented by natural gas and other sources at peak periods. “We may not need any, ever,” he said. But flat demand would not mean the end of power plant construction, because old plants wear out. “By 2050, 70 percent of existing capacity will be gone,” said William D. Johnson, president and chief executive of Progress Energy. Nearly all the nuclear reactors will be at least 50 years old by then, Mr. Johnson said, and renewables, efficiency or policies that discourage use will not replace all the retiring plants. “We need to think about how we’re going to replace that,” he said. “We’re going to be building a lot of something.” | Coal;Conservation of Resources;Alternative and Renewable Energy;United States;Environment |
ny0200324 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2009/09/20 | Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs | CAIRO — It is unlikely anyone has ever come to this city and commented on how clean the streets are. But this litter-strewn metropolis is now wrestling with a garbage problem so severe it has managed to incite its weary residents and command the attention of the president. “The problem is clear in the streets,” said Haitham Kamal, a spokesman for the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs. “There is a strict and intensive effort now from the state to address this issue.” But the crisis should not have come as a surprise. When the government killed all the pigs in Egypt this spring — in what public health experts said was a misguided attempt to combat swine flu — it was warned the city would be overwhelmed with trash. The pigs used to eat tons of organic waste. Now the pigs are gone and the rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods like Heliopolis and in the poor streets of communities like Imbaba. Ramadan Hediya, 35, who makes deliveries for a supermarket, lives in Madinat el Salam, a low-income community on the outskirts of Cairo. “The whole area is trash,” Mr. Hediya said. “All the pathways are full of trash. When you open up your window to breathe, you find garbage heaps on the ground.” What started out as an impulsive response to the swine flu threat has turned into a social, environmental and political problem for the Arab world’s most populous nation. It has exposed the failings of a government where the power is concentrated at the top, where decisions are often carried out with little consideration for their consequences and where follow-up is often nonexistent, according to social commentators and government officials. “The main problem in Egypt is follow-up,” said Sabir Abdel Aziz Galal, chief of the infectious disease department at the Ministry of Agriculture. “A decision is taken, there is follow-up for a period of time, but after that, they get busy with something else and forget about it. This is the case with everything.” Speaking broadly, there are two systems for receiving services in Egypt: The government system and the do-it-yourself system. Instead of following the channels of bureaucracy, most people rely on an informal system of personal contacts and bribes to get a building permit, pass an inspection, get a driver’s license — or make a living. “The straight and narrow path is just too bureaucratic and burdensome for the rich person, and for the poor, the formal system does not provide him with survival, it does not give him safety, security or meet his needs,” said Laila Iskandar Kamel, chairwoman of a community development organization in Cairo. Cairo’s garbage collection belonged to the informal sector. The government hired multinational companies to collect the trash, and the companies decided to place bins around the city. But they failed to understand the ethos of the community. People do not take their garbage out. They are accustomed to seeing someone collecting it from the door. For more than half a century, those collectors were the zabaleen, a community of Egyptian Christians who live on the cliffs on the eastern edge of the city. They collected the trash, sold the recyclables and fed the organic waste to their pigs — which they then slaughtered and ate. Killing all the pigs, all at once, “was the stupidest thing they ever did,” Ms. Kamel said, adding, “This is just one more example of poorly informed decision makers.” When the swine flu fear first emerged, long before even one case was reported in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak ordered that all the pigs be killed in order to prevent the spread of the disease. When health officials worldwide said that the virus was not being passed by pigs, the Egyptian government said that the cull was no longer about the flu , but was about cleaning up the zabaleen’s crowded, filthy, neighborhood. That was in May. Today the streets of the zabaleen community are as packed with stinking trash and as clouded with flies as ever before. But the zabaleen have done exactly what they said they would do: they stopped taking care of most of the organic waste. Instead they dump it wherever they can or, at best, pile it beside trash bins scattered around the city by the international companies that have struggled in vain to keep up with the trash. “They killed the pigs, let them clean the city,” said Moussa Rateb, a former garbage collector and pig owner who lives in the community of the zabaleen. “Everything used to go to the pigs, now there are no pigs, so it goes to the administration.” The recent trash problem was compounded when employees of one of the multinational companies — men and women in green uniforms with crude brooms dispatched around the city — stopped working in a dispute with the city. The government says that the dispute has been resolved, but nothing has been done to repair the damage to the informal system that once had the zabaleen take Cairo’s trash home. The garbage is only the latest example of the state’s struggling to meet the needs of its citizens, needs as basic as providing water, housing, health care and education. The government announced last week that schools would not be opened until the first week of October to give the government time to prepare for a potential swine flu outbreak , a decision that could have been made anytime over the past three months, while schools were closed for summer break, critics said. Officials in the Ministry of Health and other government ministries said they had not made this decision — and that they had counseled against pre-emptive school closings. It appears to have been ordered by the presidency and carried out by the governors, who also ordered that all private schools, already in class, be shut down as well. “We did not propose or call for postponing schools, so the reason is not with us,” said an official in the Ministry of Health who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the news media. The heads of three large governorates, or states, in Egypt announced Wednesday that their strategy for keeping schoolchildren safe was to take classes, which on average are crowded with more than 60 students, and split them in half and have children attend school only three days a week, another decision that was criticized. There have been more than 800 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Egypt, and two flu -related deaths. “The state is troubled; as a result the system of decision making is disintegrating,” said Galal Amin, an economist, writer and social critic. “They are ill-considered decisions taken in a bit of a hurry, either because you’re trying to please the president or because you are a weak government that is anxious to please somebody.” Cairo’s streets have always been busy with children and littered with trash. Now, with the pigs gone, and the schools closed, they are even more so. “The Egyptians are really in a mess,” Mr. Amin said. | Cairo (Egypt);Pigs;Swine Influenza;Waste Materials and Disposal;Mubarak Hosni;Epidemics |
ny0281505 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2016/10/14 | Boston University Won’t Celebrate Yet (the Season Just Started) | BOSTON — As the college hockey season enters its second weekend, Boston University Coach David Quinn is itching to learn the answer to a question: Are his players listening to him, or are they listening to the hype? The Terriers are considered leading contenders to win the national championship on the strength of a remarkable collection of talent assembled by Quinn’s assistants. Four B.U. players were selected in the first round of the N.H.L. draft in June. Only two other colleges — North Dakota and Wisconsin — have two first-rounders suiting up this year. Two other B.U. freshmen were selected later in the draft, in the second and fifth rounds. The roster also has five players chosen in previous drafts, giving the Terriers a total of 11 drafted players, or about half the roster. While this year’s draft, then, was a triumph for Quinn and his staff, it also left him worried. Articles soon labeled the Terriers a juggernaut, a sure bet for the Frozen Four. On social media, some users called Boston University the N.H.L.’s 31st franchise. Quinn, 50, a former first-round draft choice, knows how easily a sure thing can be derailed. A star at B.U. under his mentor, Jack Parker, Quinn saw his promising career derailed by a form of hemophilia. “We’re talking about guys 18 to 21 years old — kids, really,” Quinn said. “When you’re on TV and everybody’s talking about you, it’s easy get ahead of yourself.” Image Clayton Keller, a center taken seventh over all in the N.H.L. draft in June, by the Arizona Coyotes, was one of four B.U. players chosen in this year’s first round. Credit Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times Quinn’s first-rounders all were chosen in the top 20 of the draft : Clayton Keller, a crafty center taken seventh over all by the Arizona Coyotes; defenseman Charlie McAvoy, taken 14th by Boston; a Canadian defenseman, Dante Fabbro, who was drafted 17th by Nashville; and winger Kieffer Bellows. Bellows, son of the former N.H.L. player Brian Bellows, was selected by the Islanders with the 19th pick. Yet while B.U. has an impressive collection of talent, it remains short on experience. The Terriers’ most highly regarded players are underclassmen, and the team’s top scorer, the sophomore Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, had 30 points last season, far fewer than the N.C.A.A. leaders. North Dakota’s returning all-American Brock Boeser, for example, piled up 60 last season. Plenty of teams also have the horses to take a run at the N.C.A.A. title. North Dakota, the defending champion, is returning Boeser and its star goalie, Cam Johnson. Last year’s runner-up, Quinnipiac, has another strong team. Michigan has a freshman class second perhaps only to the one at B.U., and Denver, Boston College and Minnesota-Duluth are also seen as contenders. “People think we’re good?” Quinn said. “There’s a lot of questions. Can they mature? Are we mentally tough? You need a lot more than talent to win.” That was why, when the Terriers gathered for their first meeting on Sept. 6, Quinn delivered a stern message. “You know what everybody is sick and tired of hearing about?” he recalled telling his players. “You guys. And, frankly, I’m tired of hearing about how good you are, too.” Following Quinn’s lead, B.U.’s captain, the senior defenseman Doyle Somerby, said he was trying to set a tone of “squashing egos” and emphasizing team play and team success, not individual statistics. “Everyone, drafted or not, will be unloading equipment from the bus” when B.U. is on the road, said Somerby, a fifth-round pick of the Islanders. In practice, Quinn said, he wants his players to feel pressure, to force them to concentrate. Small mistakes are called out. “We want the players to focus on every little detail,” said the assistant coach Scott Young, a two-time Stanley Cup winner. “That’s how it will be in the N.H.L.” First-rounders are not spared. In the first skates of the season, Keller, the Arizona draftee, went offside — a mental error. Quinn blew the whistle, told Keller his mistake was not acceptable and ordered him to repeat the drill. “He’s got a unique style, and it definitely gets you out of your comfort zone,” Keller said. “But I like it.” Sometimes Quinn sits players down to watch video of practices so they can see their mistakes. Last week, the alternate captain Nikolas Olsson got the treatment. Quinn thought Olsson had pursued a puck carrier at less than top speed. “Don’t glide, skate!” Quinn told him. “Would you do that in a game?” B.U. won its opening game last weekend at Colgate, 6-1. Keller had a goal and an assist. But bigger tests arrive this weekend, when the Terriers will travel to Denver for two games, and the next weekend, when Quinnipiac visits Agganis Arena in Boston. Image Another first-rounder, Boston University winger Kieffer Bellows, front, was selected by the Islanders with the 19th pick. Credit Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times Quinn, a trim 6 feet with a shock of dark hair and piercing blue eyes, knows all too well the disappointment that hockey can dish out. “I thought I was going to have a 12-year career in the N.H.L., and then … ,” he said, letting his thought go unfinished. “It was tough.” Quinn said he had struggled after his playing days ended, drinking beer and gaining weight. He broke out of his funk, he said, the day he saw fear and sadness in his mother’s eyes as she spoke to him. “It was like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “You can have your pity party, but then dust yourself off.” He soon realized he could live out a different hockey dream behind the bench. After moving to other programs and coaching jobs, he returned to Boston in 2004 to work as Parker’s assistant. When Parker retired in 2013, Quinn came back again, as head coach. His second season brought another dark moment. The Terriers were leading Providence College by a goal in the national championship game when goaltender Matt O’Connor, fielding a harmless shot, tried to shake the puck out of his glove and instead allowed it to trickle into his net . Stunned, B.U. gave up another goal moments later and lost, 4-3. That game, Quinn said, and his own career continue to influence how he coaches today. “There is going to be adversity,” he said. “Never take anything for granted. You don’t want to be 50 wondering what would have happened if you had maximized your potential.” | Ice hockey;College Sports;BU;David Quinn;College |
ny0030509 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2013/06/19 | Vandals Hit Mixed Suburb of Jerusalem | JERUSALEM — The tires of 28 cars were slashed and anti-Arab graffiti was sprayed early Tuesday in Abu Ghosh, a quiet Arab-Israeli suburb of Jerusalem whose famous hummus makes it a popular destination for Jews and tourists. The episode was the first “price tag” attack in Abu Ghosh, a Muslim-majority town with a number of Christian holy sites and some Jewish residents that many see as a symbol of coexistence. It came two days after Israel’s security cabinet expanded the legal tools available for investigating and prosecuting the racist, nationalistic vandalism that its perpetrators say they are exacting as a price for actions that they oppose by Palestinians or the Israeli government. The security cabinet declared the vandals a “forbidden” group but refused to deem them a terrorist organization, as law enforcement officials had requested. Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli police, said that since the beginning of the year, there had been at least a dozen such episodes of vandalism in the Jerusalem area, focused on Muslim residential areas or Christian institutions. Over all, Mr. Rosenfeld said, the police logged more than 165 complaints of racially motivated crimes against both Arabs and Jews in the first four months of the year. It was unclear what in particular might have prompted the attack in Abu Ghosh, a village of 6,000 about six miles west of Jerusalem where the words “assimilation” and “Arabs out” were spray-painted near the slashed tires. One of the oldest inhabited areas in Israel, Abu Ghosh was the rare Arab village to remain neutral during the fighting that led up to Israel’s establishment in 1948. In 2010, it made the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the largest vat of hummus (about 9,000 pounds, served in a 20-foot-wide satellite dish). “I saw this in the West Bank, I saw this in Samaria, but I never dreamed the extreme right wing would get to my home in Abu Ghosh,” Khatem Ibrihim, whose tires were slashed, said Tuesday on Israel Radio. “Why? Because we teach everyone what coexistence is,” Mr. Ibrihim added. “My neighbor here is Jewish, and his tires were also slashed.” Condemnation was quick from both sides of the political spectrum. Shelly Yacimovich, the Labor Party leader who leads the opposition in Parliament, said such acts were hate crimes that hurt Israel’s image in the world as well as relations between its Jews and Arabs. Naftali Bennett, the head of the conservative Jewish Home Party, who on Monday reiterated his opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state, called the vandalism “non-Jewish” and “immoral.” “There is a group of people who seek evil who want to create a chain of hatred and violence between Jews and Arabs in our country,” Mr. Bennett wrote on his Facebook wall. “A group that puts tools in the hands of our enemies in the world to blacken our name. We will not let them succeed.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said in a statement that the episode “contravenes the precepts of Judaism and the values of our people and our state.” The move by the security cabinet, he added, will enable the government “to take strong action against those who perpetrate such crimes.” But Jawad Ibrahim, who sits on the Abu Ghosh Council, said he was not confident that the strong statements would be followed up with serious investigation or punishment. “In truth, we know that the security establishment handles these people with kid gloves,” Mr. Ibrahim said in a radio interview. “If the situation were the other way around, it would treat the matter completely differently. We don’t delude ourselves.” | Graffiti;Vandalism;Israel;West Bank;Judaism;Islam;Palestinians |
ny0241571 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2011/03/02 | Internet Cheating Scandal Shakes Japan Universities | TOKYO — At first, the postings on a popular Web site last week seemed innocuous enough: a user soliciting help for answers to a series of difficult math and English questions. But it later became clear that the questions were taken straight from an entrance exam to prestigious Kyoto University. And they were being posted — and being answered by other users — while the exam was still under way. On Tuesday, the police began a manhunt for one or possibly more users who are believed to have used a single online handle, “aicezuki,” to cheat on exams at Kyoto University and three other top universities. The schools say they suspect test takers used cellphones to post the questions on the site and get the answers while the tests were still in progress. While it is unclear whether more than one person was involved, the episode has become a national scandal, raising questions about how to monitor the grueling exams, the main route to success in Japan , in an era of smartphones and instant Internet access. It also touched a nerve in a proudly egalitarian nation that has struggled to come to terms with its growing economic and social inequalities. Many here are wondering aloud whether admission to top universities — a ticket to a top corporate or government job — remains as merit-based as it used to be, or whether some young people are unfairly getting a leg up, in this case from misuse of new technologies. “This is a heinous act that undermines the fairness that should be the basis of the university entrance system,” Japan’s largest daily newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, warned in an editorial on Monday. Stung by the outcry, the Education Ministry said it might ban cellphones and other communications devices at exam sites. South Korea, which has similarly demanding admissions tests, imposed such a ban after a 2004 cheating scandal that also involved cellphones. During the current scandal, Japan’s national NHK broadcaster has repeatedly shown footage of Korean students passing through metal detectors before taking exams. Japan’s education minister, Yoshiaki Takaki, said that measures must be taken immediately to ensure the fairness of the exams, which are given every year in late winter and early spring. “This is unforgivable,” Mr. Takaki told reporters. One of the four Japanese schools, Waseda University in Tokyo, said it would compare the answers posted on the site with the completed entrance exams of 9,935 applicants, to see if any match. It may also ask the 462 teachers and graduate students who monitored the exams if they noticed anything suspicious. The exams often take one or two days, and are usually administered in large halls where up to hundreds of applicants scribble in hushed silence. “The fairness and justice of our exams are the basis of our institution,” said Zenta Uchida, a spokesman for Waseda. The four schools, which also include Doshisha University in Kyoto and Rikkyo University in Tokyo, have asked the police for help, and promised to take measures to prevent cheating by cellphone in the future. Toshiyuki Awaji, the vice president of Kyoto University, said in a statement that anyone found to have cheated would be denied entry to the school. The suspected cheating took place during this year’s entrance exams. The universities said they believed that at least one applicant used his cellphone either to type out exam questions and post them on the site or to take photos, which would have been posted with the help of an accomplice at a different site. The questions were posted on a site run by Yahoo Japan called Chiebukuro, or “Pearls of Wisdom,” on which users can ask each other for answers to questions. Yahoo Japan, which is a separate company from the American Internet portal, said it would cooperate with the authorities. In the case of Kyoto University, a user posted six math questions on Friday and two English questions on Saturday, all from the university’s two-day-long entrance exam, the university said. It said one of the postings could have been made only by someone who was physically present at the exam, since it involved a correction to the question that was written on a blackboard. Users on the Yahoo site posted answers to some of the questions within minutes, in time to be used for the exam. The universities said it was unclear if those who gave answers knew the questions came from an entrance exam. The postings gave no indication where the questions came from. While cheating itself is not a criminal offense, the police said they would investigate whether those involved had violated laws that prohibit obstructing the operations of institutions like schools. | Japan;Cheating;Colleges and Universities;Education (K-12) |
ny0171693 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2007/11/16 | After a Death, Use of Taser in Canada Is Debated | OTTAWA, Nov. 15 — A video recording showing an emotionally wrought immigrant dying after being hit with a police Taser at an airport last month has touched off a fierce debate in Canada on police actions in the case and the rules governing use of the weapon. The 10-minute recording, which was widely broadcast Wednesday night, was made last month by another passenger and initially seized by the police. It shows a Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, being hit just 46 seconds after four members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived to subdue him at the airport in Vancouver, British Columbia. The recording also supports accounts from witnesses who said the police officers did not appear to be in danger when the weapon was fired at least twice. Mr. Dziekanski was the 18th person to die since July 2003 after being hit by a Taser in Canada, a country where the weapons may be owned only by police forces. Amnesty International estimates that in the United States, a country with roughly nine times the population of Canada, 280 people have died after being struck by police Tasers since 2001. Tasers can also be used by civilians in many states. Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International in Canada, which has called for a suspension of Taser use, said, “There is a very good likelihood that the Taser was used well before the situation called for it.” The federal minister for public safety, Stockwell Day, said in Parliament on Wednesday that he had ordered a review of the police use of Tasers in Canada shortly after Mr. Dziekanski’s death. Mr. Dziekanski, a 40-year-old construction worker, arrived in Vancouver on Oct. 14 to begin a new life with his mother. After a 10-hour delay caused by immigration processing, Mr. Dziekanski became upset when he could not find his mother, Zofia Cisowski, who waited several hours before returning to her home in Kamloops, British Columbia, under the mistaken impression that her son had not arrived in Canada. Unable to speak English, Mr. Dziekanski became distressed and began shouting in Polish, moving furniture around, shoving a computer off a desk in an arrival area and, at one point, throwing a chair. His actions soon attracted the attention of other passengers and security officials. The recording shows that when airport security officials first appeared, passengers could be heard shouting to them that Mr. Dziekanski did not understand English. Moments later, four members of the Mounties arrive in the waiting area wearing bulletproof vests. Mr. Dziekanski repeatedly shouted either the Polish word for “help” or “police,” which sound similar, before walking away with his arms raised in the air. There was a brief conversation followed by a loud sound, apparently a Taser shot, and Mr. Dziekanski fell to the ground screaming in pain. The recording captured what appeared to be a second Taser shot as three officers piled onto Mr. Dziekanski to subdue him. One minute and eight seconds after the police arrived, Mr. Dziekanski appeared to have stopped moving, and the recording ended shortly afterward. An autopsy showed no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his system, but was unable to determine a cause of death. The Polish government has sent two lawyers to Vancouver to investigate the death and raised the issue with Canadian officials and diplomats. After watching the recording, Piotr Ogrodzinski, the Polish ambassador to Canada, said he found the use of a Taser on Mr. Dziekanski to be excessive. “He was desperately in search of assistance or help,” Mr. Ogrodzinski said. “He did break a computer and throw a stool, but there was no gesture suggesting that he intended to fight anybody. Here was a very helpless person, a disoriented person.” When the police seized the recording at the airport from Paul Pritchard, who was returning home to Victoria, British Columbia, they characterized it as an important piece of evidence. Mr. Pritchard recovered the recording after threatening legal action and it was released it to the news media late Wednesday. A spokesman for the Mounties, Cpl. Dale Carr, said, “It’s just one piece of evidence, one person’s view.” A coroner’s inquest, which will not determine legal fault, has been ordered for the case. Some critics of the police are calling for criminal charges against the police officers. The case is being reviewed by an independent commission that investigates complaints about the Mounties. | Canada;Police;Immigration and Refugees;Taser |
ny0151247 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2008/08/16 | Manny Stars as Manny in a New Summer Hit | LOS ANGELES — It is another lazy, midweek summer evening at Dodger Stadium. The baby blue of the outfield walls, the palm trees and shrub-covered hills that sit beyond them, and the poetry of the broadcaster Vin Scully have always lent an air of serenity to the baseball played here. This night is no different until Manny Ramírez grabs his bat by the barrel, lowers his head and begins a slow walk from the on-deck circle to home plate. By the time Ramírez reaches the batter’s box, it is mid-October. Fans around the stadium have risen to their feet, and almost immediately chants of “Man-ny, Man-ny” emanate from the left-field bleachers or the upper deck. As Ramírez kicks at the dirt, camera flashes pop. They continue with each pitch. When Ramírez swings and misses, the stadium exhales in unison. It has been just over two weeks since Ramírez was acquired from the Boston Red Sox, and the enigmatic left fielder, who had been a negative influence in Boston has been a positive one for the Dodgers . Ramírez was batting .438 with 5 homers and 16 runs batted in entering Friday night’s game against Milwaukee. The Dodgers have won four in a row and 8 of 13 since the trade, pulling into a first-place tie with Arizona in the National League West. “This is the biggest thing since Gibson hit his home run,” said Ray Gonzales, a Dodger fan since the 1960s, referring to Kirk Gibson’s game-ending home run in the 1988 World Series opener, the last time the team won a playoff series. The Dodgers sold 230 season tickets and more than 27,000 tickets between the announcement of the trade on July 31 and Ramírez’s debut the next day. The Dodgers are averaging 50,391 fans since Ramírez arrived, an increase of nearly 6,000 a game. The Dodgers have tried to piggyback on Ramírez’s popularity by stocking concession stands with Ramírez’s No. 99 jersey, two T-shirts — including one with “Mannywood” emblazoned across it — and a pin. The team said it had sold 5,000 Ramírez T-shirts since he arrived. One item that has not moved much is the long-haired Manny wig, which arrived Wednesday. The team said only 300 had sold the first two nights, a testament either to their poor imitation — they bear a closer resemblance to a horsetail than Ramírez’s dreadlocks — or the $25 price tag. Marcos Garcia bought his dreadlocked wig for a few dollars at a costume shop. He was seated in the left-field bleachers, where the passion for Ramírez appears to be — like Garcia’s wig — more organic. To them, it was no mystery why Ramírez has been embraced so enthusiastically. “He’s a little weird, but who isn’t here,” said Luke Seanez, dressed in a Dodgers jersey with Ramírez’s name and number. Indeed, those who have endeared themselves to Los Angeles sports fans have done so not just because they score, but because they do it with style. Kobe Bryant is followed by drama on and off the court. Fernando Valenzuela had his corkscrew windup, his eyes rolling up to the heavens. Wayne Gretzky arrived with an actress wife. Magic Johnson directed Show Time with a perpetual grin. Ramírez might hit a home run one inning, and in the next fall down trying to chase a fly ball. Dodgers fans waiting for a Manny moment — losing an earring while rounding third base or making a cellphone call during a pitching change — got one on Monday. Ramírez was late getting out to his position for the ninth inning. Thinking he had been pulled from the game, he had been in the bathroom. “He’s quirky and I think people in L.A. are very accepting of that,” said Ellie Myer, who was with her son and his family. “The only thing that’s guaranteed is he’s going to show up in a white uniform and you know darn well he’s going to go home dirty. I don’t think you ever know what to expect.” This, Myer says, is the essence of relevancy in Los Angeles. “Just don’t be boring,” she said. So far there has been no sign of the boorish Ramírez, the one who earlier this season knocked down the Red Sox’ traveling secretary when he was upset over a ticket request, the one who has gone through bouts of loafing. Ramírez’s ability to entertain — as well as swing the bat — has also led to another change in behavior. The fans are still late in arriving, but no longer do they head for the exits in the seventh inning. “It keeps everybody in here a little more interested also,” said reliever Joe Beimel. “I’ve played in Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. It’s definitely a lot more fun coming out here and playing in front of 50,000 every night.” Ramírez has made his teammates’ jobs easier in other ways, too. His presence in the cleanup spot has meant that those hitting in front of him can be more selective. Those behind him are more likely to bat with runners on base. Jeff Kent is 14 for 30 with eight R.B.I. since moving into the third spot in the order a week ago. Kent, who won the N.L. most valuable player award while batting in front of Barry Bonds, dismissed the idea that he has been helped by having Ramírez batting behind him. But Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said it had clearly helped. “What I’m seeing is Jeff being the hitter he is and not having to go outside his zone,” Torre said. “Now, he’s a little more patient.” Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel, who managed Ramírez in the minor leagues and worked with him as the Cleveland Indians’ hitting coach, said that with Ramírez and another recent addition, Casey Blake, he would not be surprised if the Dodgers — who are 13th in the league in runs scored — lead the league over the last seven weeks of the season. “He’s going to help them relax,” he said. “When I talk to hitters, I tell them about staying tension free. Manny’s life is tension free.” Ramírez was even easygoing when it came to getting his hair cut, something Torre asked him to do upon arriving. While he only took a finger’s length off it Thursday, Ramírez was hardly bothered. It was also enough that Torre could read the name on the back of Ramírez’s jersey. “As Billy Crystal said in ‘Analyze This,’ it’s a process,” Torre said. And so it is, with movie references being used to describe the state of Hollywood’s latest summer romance. | Los Angeles Dodgers;Baseball;Ramirez Manny;National League |
ny0174159 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2007/10/16 | Picking on Hall Pays Off in Yards for Giants | ATLANTA, Oct. 15 — The Giants first worked over the beleaguered Atlanta cornerback DeAngelo Hall with Amani Toomer and his deceptive moves. Then they punished Hall with Plaxico Burress’s size. By the end of the first quarter Monday night, the 5-foot-10 Hall probably could not decide who he wanted lining up across from him at left cornerback, because the Falcons’ alleged best cover man could not handle either Toomer or the 6-5 Burress. The Giants’ ability to beat the Falcons’ strength — Hall, their Pro Bowl cornerback — was a key to their building an early 14-point lead on the way to a 31-10 victory at the Georgia Dome. The Falcons had their starting defensive line for the first time this season, but their best pass rushers, Rod Coleman and the former Jet John Abraham, could not get to Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who was making quick throws to his wideouts. After the Giants’ first possession was extended by a roughing-the-kicker penalty, Manning took them to a touchdown. He hit Burress with a 15-yard completion over the middle on third-and-9 from the Atlanta 47. Manning then connected with Toomer for a 10-yarder in front of Hall. Moments later, a 10-yard pass to tight end Jeremy Shockey, with Hall covering, gave the Giants a first down at the Atlanta 12. Two plays later, Toomer lined up right, faked outside, then slipped inside Hall’s coverage and caught a 5-yard touchdown pass. On the Giants’ next possession, Burress beat Hall on the right side for an 18-yard gain to the Atlanta 39. Two plays later, Toomer ran Hall down the right side, cut to the sideline and caught a 17-yard pass at the 1-yard line before falling out of bounds. Reuben Droughns plunged in from the 1-yard line, and the extra point kick made it 14-0. Burress continued to haunt the Falcons in the first half, but this time Hall was not the victim. On first down from the Atlanta 43, Burress found himself wide open down the middle of the field and Manning delivered a nice and easy toss for the touchdown. “They have developed this timing and knowledge of where Plaxico is going to be and that is a big factor in the confidence level,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said of Burress and Manning. In the first half, Burress had five receptions for 89 yards, and his touchdown catch tied him with New England’s Randy Moss for the most scoring receptions in the N.F.L. Toomer finished with seven receptions, becoming the leading receiver in Giants history with 587 career receptions. “He made big plays tonight, consistent plays tonight,” Coughlin said of Toomer. The Giants, perhaps, got a little too confident with the passing game in the third. They were moving the ball with the run when Manning tried to go deep down the right sideline to Toomer, and Hall leaped to make the interception of the underthrown ball. Hall’s return and a penalty on Shockey for a trip gave the Falcons the ball at the Giants’ 44. Atlanta, however, seems harmless on the opponents’ side of the field. The Falcons came into the game with only four touchdowns on 32 possessions on the opponents’ side of the 50. When Atlanta punted the ball following the Hall interception, it was the third time in the game it failed to get a touchdown with the momentum of being inside Giants’ territory. The Giants pushed the lead to 24-10 in the fourth with the help of more Manning-to-Toomer passes. Toomer beat Hall inside for plays of 16 yards and 11 yards as the Giants moved to the Falcons’ 11-yard line before settling for a field goal. | New York Giants;Atlanta Falcons;Toomer Amani;Burress Plaxico;Football |
ny0127416 | [
"us"
] | 2012/01/07 | A Hidden Cost of Military Cuts Could Be Invention and Its Industries | WASHINGTON — Military spending has transformed the faded farmlands of northern Virginia into a land of glass-block office parks, oversize homes and sleek cars. Average household incomes there are among the highest in the United States. The wellspring of this prosperity is not just the Defense Department’s vast payroll, nor just the fat profit margins of its contractors. It is also the Pentagon’s unmatched record in developing technologies with broad public benefits — like the Internet, jet engines and satellite navigation — and then encouraging private companies to reap the rewards. And as the Pentagon confronts the prospect of cutting its budget by about 10 percent over the next decade, even some people who do not count themselves among its traditional allies warn that the potential impact on scientific innovation is being overlooked. Spending less on military research, they say, could reduce the economy’s long-term growth. “If catalyzing innovation is going to be an important part of our economic strategy, then we better be careful how we handle” the military budget, said Daniel Sarewitz, director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. “I’d like to see a lot less weapons and a lot less focus on them, but it’s not all about that.” In the political debate over Pentagon cuts, the potential effect on innovation has been largely ignored. Pentagon officials and their allies have instead warned that a sharply smaller military budget would expose the nation to harm, and that such cuts would result in a large and immediate rise in unemployment. Independent economists and analysts say that concern about the short-term economic impact is largely misplaced. While reducing the Pentagon’s budget would cause considerable economic pain — some workers would lose their jobs; some contractors would lose their most important customer — research suggests it would be less painful than cutting other kinds of government spending, like education or transportation. A significant portion of the military budget, including the wages of armed forces personnel, is spent abroad. And military spending in this country, like building a new runway at a domestic Air Force base, tends to bring fewer spillover benefits than many other forms of government spending, like a new runway at a commercial airport. “As a source of job creation, military spending is not particularly good,” said Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “You can argue for the benefits in geopolitical terms, but if we’re talking about jobs and the economy, it doesn’t make sense.” The one exception may be Pentagon spending on research and development. The Pentagon spends about 12 percent of its budget in that area, about $81.4 billion during the most recent fiscal year. That is roughly 55 percent of all federal spending on research and development. Administration officials, members of Congress and Pentagon planners could choose to spare the research budget when making cuts. Historically, however, significant reductions to the Pentagon’s budget have led to reductions in research spending, too. Through both flush and lean times for the Pentagon, research spending has accounted for a roughly similar share — between 9 and 13 percent — of the overall budget. It is a pot of money with a remarkable record of success. The Navy, which started budgeting for research in 1946, counts 59 eventual Nobel laureates among the recipients of its financing, including Charles H. Townes, whose pioneering work in the development of lasers laid the groundwork for compact discs and laser eye surgery. The other armed forces claim similar numbers of laureates, albeit with considerable overlap. The results of this research played a key role in the blossoming of high technology as a driver of the nation’s economic growth. In northern Virginia, many of the largest companies continued to work for the Pentagon while also pursuing private contracts. Companies with names like the Science Applications International Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation and CACI International built large campuses employing thousands of workers, mostly around the growing Tysons Corner crossroads. Other local technology companies with roots in military research focused on the broader market and became household names, including famous flameouts like AOL and MCI. Other clusters of technology companies grew up around universities that have been large recipients of military research money, creating Silicon Valley in California, the Route 128 corridor around Boston and the Research Triangle in North Carolina, where the Army opened its Research Office in 1958. Professor Sarewitz, who studies the government’s role in promoting innovation , said that the Defense Department had been more successful than other federal agencies because it is the main user of the innovations that it finances. The Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, which also finance large volumes of research, are not major consumers of energy or healthcare. The Pentagon, which spends billions each year on weapons, equipment and technology, has an unusually direct stake in the outcome of its research and development projects. “The central thing that distinguishes them from other agencies is that they are the customer,” Professor Sarewitz said. “You can’t pull the wool over their eyes.” Another factor is the Pentagon’s relative insulation from politics, which has allowed it to sustain a long-term research agenda in controversial areas. No matter which party is in power, the Pentagon has continued to invest in clean-energy technology, for example, in an effort to find ways to reduce one of its largest budget items, energy costs. The looming Defense Department cuts come from two sources. The Obama administration, as part of its deficit-reduction plan, has committed to cut military spending by $450 billion over the next decade. And the failure of Congress to agree on a plan for deficit reduction by a November deadline triggered a law requiring another $500 billion in Pentagon cuts over the next decade, starting in 2013. The combined effect would cut the Pentagon’s planned 2013 budget by 17 percent.President Obama outlined his vision Thursday for the first round of cuts, saying that military needs to become leaner and more technologically sophisticated. And military leaders say that they have embraced the necessity of a smaller budget. But they continue to warn that the second round of cuts would go too far. The defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, in increasingly strident public remarks, has warned that the cuts would leave behind a “hollow military.” And he and others have warned of grave consequences for the economy. Military spending does not compare well economically with many other forms of government spending, some experts say. Professor Pollin calculated in a recent analysis that $1 billion in spending on health care produced an economic benefit about 14 percent larger than spending on defense. The impact of spending on transportation, education and energy were even larger. A recent study of federal spending since World War II by Alan Auerbach and Yuriy Gorodnichenko, both economists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that the economic benefits from nonmilitary spending were at least 50 percent larger than those from defense spending during periods of normal growth. Some economists, however, argue that such studies fail to account for the economic value of security and stability. The crucial benefit is not what defense spending provides but what it prevents, Joshua Aizenman, a professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Reuven Glick, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, wrote in a 2006 paper . Other analysts see reasons that Defense Department cuts might cause disproportionate pain. Military contractors may struggle to find new customers for highly specialized products and services. And rank-and-file military personnel may struggle to find jobs. The unemployment rate for recent veterans was 13.1 percent in December, while the overall rate dropped to 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the flip side, some scientists say the military’s record of research success is unlikely to continue. The government is no longer the dominant source of spending on research and development. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that private spending on research and development began to exceed government spending in 1990; other studies put the crossing point a few years earlier. By 2007, the private sector was spending about $2 on research for every federal dollar. In response, the military has increasingly focused on cherry-picking promising ideas. A 2009 report by an advisory panel of independent scientists concluded that the shift was reducing the chances for the transformative discoveries that once emerged with remarkable regularity. “In the present program, evolutionary advances are the norm, and revolutions are less likely to be fostered than they should be,” the report said. The Pentagon “is getting what it asks for in tightly managed and focused research programs, but is reducing the potential for true breakthroughs.” Others are more optimistic. John Alic, a consultant who was a longtime staff member in the Office of Technology Assessment, a defunct arm of Congress that evaluated technological issues, said that he had come to believe that the Pentagon had an inherent advantage in funding research and development. “War matters more,” he said. “People take it more seriously.” | Defense Department;Federal Budget (US);Science and Technology;United States Economy;Series;Next War The (Series) |
ny0262917 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2011/12/20 | James Leaves ESPN to Run for U.S. Senate | Craig James left his position at ESPN as a college football analyst to run for the United States Senate in Texas. James filed the paperwork to run Monday. ESPN said that as a result, he could no longer work for the network. James, 50, a star tailback at Southern Methodist and with the New England Patriots in the 1980s, has been flirting with entering politics for more than year. He has never held public office. His late entry puts James in a primary field crowded with well-known and wealthy candidates who are vying for the seat vacated by the retiring Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison. | James Craig;ESPN;Senate;United States Politics and Government;Texas;Football;Football (College) |
ny0163085 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2006/02/26 | Off-Season of Divided Attention for N.F.L. | INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 25 - The National Football League's stalled labor negotiations have created an uncomfortable backdrop for the scouting combine. Players are still being measured, timed, tested and evaluated with the usual zest at the RCA Dome. But preparations for the April draft and the start of the free-agent signing period Friday have been mixed with concern about the lack of a labor contract extension. The agreement between the owners and the players does not expire until after the 2007 season. Without a new deal, however, the 2006 season will be the final season played under a salary cap. Gene Upshaw, the union chief, left Indianapolis on Friday without any progress being made in negotiations. If the league were to play the 2007 season without a cap, a lockout could follow. The N.F.L. has not had a work stoppage since 1987. "The fact that we have labor peace does one amazing thing," Leigh Steinberg, one of the N.F.L.'s most prominent agents, said Friday. "It creates certainty in fans' minds that games will be played, and it has allowed the N.F.L. to catapult to the No. 1 entertainment attraction in the United States. And it has ushered in an era of unparalleled prosperity for everyone involved. "If we pull the genie out of that bottle, I don't know that it ever comes back," Steinberg added. "If we get to that uncapped year, and we get all sorts of proud men with their backs against the wall, I don't think we ever get back to where we are now. So I hope that doesn't happen." One issue that has complicated labor negotiations is a division among owners regarding revenue sharing. Eight of the league's 32 teams -- Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, New England, Philadelphia and Washington -- reportedly generate far more revenue than the other 24 teams. Those eight teams feel they should not be forced to share locally generated revenue from luxury boxes, naming rights, satellite radio, local radio and other sources. "I think there has been a mischaracterization that large-market teams are not in favor or supportive of revenue sharing," Bob McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans, said Thursday in a conference call. "There's really not any opposition to revenue sharing as such, nor is there any opposition to helping small-market clubs that might need help. "Where the separation comes is when you start talking about revenue sharing that goes beyond that," McNair added. "I think everyone in the league wants all the clubs to be competitive. When it goes beyond any requirement to be competitive, and it's just a redistribution of profits, that's a different issue." Players and owners remain far apart on other key issues. Some players believe that too many conditions are being attached to signing bonuses, giving owners unfair leeway to void the bonuses. "In the old days, a signing bonus was a signing bonus," Steinberg said. "Today, a signing bonus is modified in many contracts for everything from testing positive for drugs, to contract holdouts, leaving camp, conduct detrimental and adverse public statements." Meanwhile, many teams are expected to approach this year's free agency with caution. Some of the more prominent free agents, like Shaun Alexander and Edgerrin James, may not find as many suitors as they anticipated. Arizona, Minnesota, Green Bay, Cleveland and San Diego are significantly under the cap. By contrast, Oakland, Kansas City, Washington and Denver are significantly over the cap, and will have to restructure contracts or cut players by Friday. In approaching this off-season, team executives have drawn up two game plans -- one with a new deal in place and one without. But the uncertainty has been frustrating. "It's not a comfortable feeling right now, I would imagine, for any club," Tom Coughlin, the Giants' coach, said here Friday. "You really can't get any answers to any of the financial questions you're dealing with. We need to get this thing settled and move forward as a league." Operating without a cap in 2007 could change the competitive balance quickly, with high-revenue teams spending more freely than others. "If we were to go into an uncapped year, that would be the wild, wild West," Steinberg said. "Teams can spend whatever they choose to spend. That would be a real opportunity for a few teams to really enhance their roster. There are some very competitive people in the National Football League. That uncapped year would trigger a spending frenzy." McNair held out hope that a deal would be worked out soon. But considering the numerous issues yet to be resolved, the N.F.L. seemed poised for an off-season of labor uncertainty. | HOUSTON TEXANS;NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE;LABOR;DRAFT AND RECRUITMENT (SPORTS);FOOTBALL;ORGANIZED LABOR |
ny0293087 | [
"us"
] | 2016/06/28 | Pastors Praise Anti-Gay Massacre in Orlando, Prompting Outrage | After the massacre in Orlando, Fla. , American religious leaders spoke in a largely unified voice, condemning the killer and mourning the dead. But at some extreme conservative Christian churches, there was another message: good riddance. In the weeks since 49 people were slaughtered at a gay nightclub, remarks by pastors celebrating the deaths have brought attention to several outposts of anti-gay hostility across the country that until now had been operating mostly under the radar. “The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die,” Roger Jimenez, a Sacramento preacher, exhorted his congregants on June 12, the day of the assault. “The tragedy is — I’m kind of upset that he didn’t finish the job! Because these people are predators! They are abusers!” Mr. Jimenez’s sermon received widespread attention after a video of it appeared online, and then a torrent of denunciation from gay rights advocates, fellow pastors and pretty much everyone who saw it. But his sentiments were also echoed in at least a few other churches. Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Arkansas State University who has researched Christian extremists, said she had tracked about five churches — in California, Texas, Arizona and Tennessee — where preachers had endorsed the killings in Orlando. They are not as well known as the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., which has become infamous for demonstrations at military funerals. But their views about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and what should happen to them, can be just as troubling. Many of the preachers identify themselves as so-called independent Baptists, meaning that they are not a part of any of the denomination’s groupings, such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Barrett-Fox said the Baptist emphasis on church autonomy — recognizing no central authority — allowed pastors to interpret the Bible for themselves. “One of the consequences of that is you can get whole congregations that spin further and further away from the norm of what is accepted theology,” she said. The independent Baptist churches where anti-gay hatred has flourished tend to have small congregations, more likely to number in the dozens than the hundreds, experts said. Sermons posted online since the attack have been interspersed with dehumanizing labels for L.G.B.T. people reminiscent of those used by the perpetrators of historical genocides. The Orlando victims were “sodomites,” “reprobates,” “perverts” and “scum of the earth,” preachers have said. In a sermon at a church in Fort Worth, Pastor Donnie Romero told his congregants that every gay person is a pedophile. He was praying that the injured Orlando victims would not survive, he said, “so that they don’t get any more opportunity to go out and hurt little children.” “I’ll pray to God that God will finish the job that that man started,” he added, referring to the gunman, Omar Mateen . While the pastors have stopped short of calling congregants to arms, they say little to discourage it, either. “I don’t believe it’s right for us to just be a vigilante,” said Steven Anderson , the leader of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., in a video response to the massacre. But, he added, “These people all should have been killed, anyway, but they should have been killed through the proper channels, as in they should have been executed by a righteous government.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said it was alarmed by the comments of extremist pastors after the mass shooting in Orlando. Heidi Beirich, the center’s director of intelligence, warned that they should not be dismissed as empty rhetoric. “I think it is entirely possible that someone could be inspired by this and kill gay people,” Ms. Beirich said. “This kind of message is exactly akin to Hitlerian ideas of exterminating Jews. It’s that extreme. It’s basically genocidal toward a population.” Messages left with the pastors in Sacramento, Fort Worth and Tempe were not returned. Of course, an overwhelming majority of Christians, including Baptists, reject hateful messages about L.G.B.T. people. As a video of Mr. Jimenez’s remarks was shared widely online, a group of more than 700 Sacramento area pastors denounced them . A petition calling for Mr. Jimenez’s removal collected more than 8,000 signatures. About 100 protesters gathered outside the church . After the Orlando killings, some gay rights advocates have noted how far many mainstream religious leaders have shifted toward acceptance of gay men and lesbians since an earlier tragedy in 1973. Back then, when an arson fire at a gay New Orleans bar killed 32 people, churches refused to bury the dead . Jay Brown, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, said the L.G.B.T. advocacy group was appalled by the incendiary comments of Mr. Jimenez and other pastors. “But on the other hand, we’ve seen an enormous amount of inspirational comments from faith leaders,” he said. Mr. Brown recalled how Utah’s lieutenant governor, a Mormon, gave a speech in which he apologized for his role in perpetuating homophobia. Around the same time, a Catholic bishop in Florida issued a public call for believers to stop demonizing gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people. On Sunday, Pope Francis said gays deserved an apology from the Roman Catholic Church. However, while many conservative Christian leaders no longer want to be seen as anti-gay, the change in tone should not be interpreted as full acceptance, Dr. Barrett-Fox said. The “love the sinner, hate the sin” approach to homosexuality continues to be deeply woven into Christian thinking. When all is said and done, Dr. Barrett-Fox said, “They don’t really believe that these people had a right to be peacefully doing what they were doing, partying at a gay bar.” | Orlando Shooting;Gay and Lesbian LGBT;Christianity;Roger Jimenez |
ny0020550 | [
"business"
] | 2013/07/25 | Sales in U.S. and Asia Help Propel Profit at Ford | DEARBORN, Mich. — The Ford Motor Company said on Wednesday that its net income rose 19 percent in the second quarter, to $1.2 billion, as it reported record sales in North America and Asia and reduced losses in Europe. Ford surpassed analysts’ expectations by reporting global revenue of $38.1 billion, an increase of 15 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Pretax operating profit was $2.6 billion, up $726 million. Strong sales in North America continued to carry the company as it lost money in Europe and restructured its operations there and invested heavily in China. It was the 16th consecutive profitable quarter for Ford. Ford said its market share grew in its four crucial global markets: Europe, South America, Asia Pacific Africa and North America, where it grew nearly a full percentage point to 16.5 percent. “Our One Ford plan continues to deliver profitable growth around the world,” Alan R. Mulally, the company’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. Ford’s shares rose 2.5 percent to close at $17.37. The record sales in North America, as well as the gradually improving European market, prompted Ford to raise its full-year outlook, which now calls for pretax profit to equal or surpass 2012. “We’ve already blown past what we did last year,” Robert L. Shanks, chief financial officer, told reporters at Ford’s headquarters here. The automaker reported a pretax loss of $348 million in Europe but said that was an improvement from both the second quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year. Ford said it expected to lose $1.8 billion in Europe this year, less than the $2 billion it had previously projected. Daimler, which makes Mercedes-Benz cars, also reported improvement in Europe, with net income more than doubling from the period a year ago. Ford’s European market share increased this quarter to 8.1 percent from 7.6 percent, a significant development “because the industry is down, and our retail share is up in a down industry,” a company spokesman, Jay Cooney, said. Ford managed to increase its market share in Europe with the introduction of new models of the Kuga small utility vehicle, the Ranger pickup and B-Max compact crossover, Mr. Shanks said. “I think the industry is still under a dark cloud because, as a whole, it still hasn’t taken out the excess capacity there,” Mr. Shanks said. In Europe, Ford said it would focus on retail sales at the expense of the fleet market, and expected to bolster its bottom line after closing two plants in Britain this week and another, in Genk, Belgium, late next year. In the Asia Pacific region and China, in particular, Ford said it recorded its highest pretax profit of any quarter. Over all, the region’s pretax profit was $177 million, in contrast to a $66 million loss in the second quarter last year. Market share grew one percentage point, to 3.6 percent. Ford also reported that its market share in China surged to 4.3 percent, from 2.8 percent, its best quarterly figure there ever. The automaker is investing heavily in China, adding jobs, plants and new vehicle models. Ford introduced three small to medium-size utility vehicles during the first four months of the year, and plans to introduce five plants, add 300 dealerships and double its work force by 2015. South America also returned to profitability, fueled by the popularity of the Ranger and EcoSport models, Mr. Shanks said. Pretax profits there totaled $151 million, compared with $5 million last year. Ford’s market share grew slightly to 9.6 percent, from 9.4 percent. The quarter’s results also prompted Ford to raise its expectations for sales in the United States, Europe and China this year. It projects that the industry is on track to sell 15.5 million to 16 million vehicles in the United States. As a sign of this confidence in North America, Ford on Tuesday said it would hire 800 more salaried workers this year. | Cars;Earnings Reports;Ford Motor |
ny0221221 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/02/08 | Officer Is Shot and Suspect Is Killed in Newark | An Essex County Sheriff’s officer was hospitalized Sunday night after a fatal firefight with a man in Newark, the police said. The suspect, who was not identified, died in the exchange of gunfire. The police said the shots were fired shortly before 11 p.m. at 646 Sanford Avenue. Police officials said the circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear. The officer was taken to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where he was in critical but stable condition, the police said. The man, who was not identified, died from his wounds, the police said. | Newark (NJ);Police |
ny0181095 | [
"business"
] | 2007/08/25 | In the Corner With the Gladiators: Trying Out the Life of the Cut Man | I GRABBED the mixed martial arts fighter Delson Heleno by the back of the neck and stared into his fiery brown eyes. Delson is a Brazilian-born welterweight, 29 years old, 5 foot 11 and 170 pounds, with a coffee-colored complexion and cauliflower ears. His shaved head was glistening with sweat and his chest heaved in anticipation of his bout in the International Fight League World Championship Semifinal. “Grease you right up,” I said, feigning the confidence of an experienced cut man. Extending the index finger of my latex-gloved right hand, I dabbed smears of Vaseline above Delson’s eyebrows, across his forehead and along his cheeks. If ancient war paint was used to terrify opposing warriors, the Vaseline served a protective purpose by lubricating the skin to reduce the friction of an adversary’s blows and the chances of suffering facial cuts. “Also there,” Delson said with a grunt, flaring his nostrils. I dabbed two more smears of Vaseline under his nose. Then I tapped the knuckles of my latex gloves against the fists of his leather boxing gloves and returned to a ringside seat. My mentor, Carlos Vargas, grinned at me. A 50-year-old Bronx-born Army veteran with a silver mustache and tattooed arms, he was decked out in a black snap brim cap, black pants and a black satin jacket with “The Cut Man” in silver thread across the back. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to get yourself hired,” he said. I surveyed the boisterous spotlighted floor of the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., musing over that strangely appealing prospect. At age 55, my chances of becoming a professional pugilist like Delson were nil. Earlier that day, I joined Carlos in obtaining a license from the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. By paying a $25 fee and certifying that we did not have criminal records, we qualified as “seconds,” with officially sanctioned access to the fighters’ locker rooms and the corners of the ring. My original intention in becoming a cut man was to get a personal perspective on mixed martial arts, one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. But what started as a whimsical executive pursuit was now turning bloody serious amid the ferocious fight between Mr. Delson’s team, the New York Pitbulls, and the Tokyo Sabres. Mixed martial arts competitions, which combine elements of boxing, wrestling, karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, aim to identify the best fighters no matter their individual styles. The first bouts promoted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the early 1990s were virtually unregulated brawls reminiscent of Roman gladiatorial battles. Condemned by Senator John McCain of Arizona as “human cockfighting,” these “no holds barred” contests were subsequently banned in 36 states. In 2002, the Ultimate Fighting Championship gained legitimacy by introducing safety rules. Fighters were required to wear mouthpieces and 4-, 6-, or 8-ounce boxing gloves, and to compete according to weight classes. Shoes and all types of clothing except athletic shorts were banned. The group also prohibited hair pulling, biting and blows to the back of the head and the groin. Pay-per-view ratings soared. According to TV Week, the Ultimate Fighting Championship surpassed both boxing and World Wrestling Entertainment in 2006, with an industry record gross of about $222 million. Last year also brought the debut of the International Fight League, a competing mixed martial arts organization. Having recently signed a contract with the Fox Sports Network, it is the first mixed martial arts league with events shown on broadcast television. In contrast to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which stages bouts between individual fighters in an octagonal cage, the International Fight League consists of 12 teams with 5-man rosters who do battle in an oversize boxing ring. In an International Fight League event, the team that earns three or more individual victories wins the match. As with many of his peers, Carlos learned how to be a cut man after retiring from an amateur boxing career. In boxing, cut men are paid at the discretion of the boxer. The International Fight League pays its cut men a flat fee of $500 an event. Carlos estimated that there are “maybe a few hundred” full-time cut men worldwide. But even though he still maintains a day job as a firefighter in Northridge, Calif., he said he gets his greatest satisfaction from working mixed martial arts events. “I love the battle, the competition, the art of war,” he confided, quickly adding, “but I also love helping keep the fighters safe from serious injury.” One of the first things he taught me in our informal training sessions was that cut men do not cut anymore. The term harks back to an era when cut men drained wounds on boxers’ faces by actually slicing them open. That outdated myth was immortalized by Sylvester Stallone in the first “Rocky” movie when he was partly blinded by a swollen eye and ordered his corner man, “Cut me, Mick!” Under today’s state-sanctioned guidelines, cut men use Q-Tips and sterilized gauze pads. They are permitted to apply only three substances other than Vaseline and ice to treat injuries. Epinephrine (adrenaline) may be used to decrease blood flow; thrombin and Avitene may be used as blood coagulants. Often, the most effective ringside remedy for swollen bruises is the enswell, a screw-top steel jar packed with ice that is applied directly to the injury. Of course, cut men like Carlos take their greatest pride in preventing injuries by wrapping their fighters’ hands before the bout. State-sanctioned guidelines limit the materials to gauze and tape. State inspectors are present in the locker rooms before International Fight League bouts. They scrutinize each wrap to make sure that no foreign objects like metal bars or nails are added and that the tape has not been frozen to create an illegal hard pack. “Wrapping is still an art,” Carlos insisted. “Every guy wants his a little different. Boxers like real tight wraps to protect their fists. Mixed martial arts fighters like looser wraps so it’s easier for them to use their hands to grapple with their opponents.” As I discovered, a cut man is a human jack-in-the-box as well as a jack of all first-aid trades. Carlos and I must have bounded between our seats, the Pitbulls’ bench and the Pitbulls’ corner in the ring at least 50 times, smearing on Vaseline, applying ice packs and enswells, and stanching bloody wounds with Q-Tips dipped in epinephrine. Caught up in our own frenzy, I started to see the violence in the ring almost as an abstraction, a kind of slow-motion cartoon war. Thanks in part to Carlos’s artistry, the Pitbulls team won the first three of its five three-round bouts, thereby securing a berth in the I.F.L. World Championship Finals on Sept. 20. After his individual victory, the middleweight Dan Miller said his wrap was so good he “didn’t feel anything” in his hands when he punched his opponent. “That’s what every cut man wants to hear,” Carlos declared, beaming with joy. My contributions yielded decidedly mixed results. I did manage to help Carlos salve the cuts that the heavyweight Bryan Vetell sustained en route to his individual victory. But the two Pitbulls I personally prepped with Vaseline — the welterweight Delson Heleno and the light heavyweight Tim Boetsch — did not fare well. Delson lost a split decision after illegally kneeing his opponent in the groin; Tim lost a unanimous decision after his opponent pummeled him with combination punches. “Guess I didn’t grease those guys enough,” I whined as I stripped off my latex gloves after the last bout. Carlos nodded sympathetically and then patted me on the back. “The fighters are the ones who win or lose their fights,” he allowed. “A cut man can only do so much.” | Martial Arts;Boxing;Athletics and Sports |
ny0096298 | [
"business"
] | 2015/01/15 | Devil May Be in the Details on European Central Bank Bond-Buying | FRANKFURT — A court opinion issued on Wednesday makes it all but certain that the European Central Bank will announce a major round of economic stimulus next week, after months of contentious internal debate. But much mystery remains about how the bank will deploy quantitative easing — buying government bonds on a large scale to pump money into the economy. The central bank still needs to decide the amount and the mix of bonds, including whether riskier nations such as Greece should be avoided. They must also navigate thorny political issues, like the concerns of Germany, whose opposition to E.C.B. bond-buying has long been the main impediment to action. It is a moment of truth for the central bank and a test of whether its president, Mario Draghi, can finesse the details while leaving no doubt about his institution’s resolve to reinvigorate the eurozone economy. If it is not big or broad enough, the program might not work to revive the region. And many of the economists who have been saying for a year or more that the European Central Bank needs to take this stimulus step contend that when the move finally comes, it could be too little, too late. Some even predict that at its much-anticipated meeting next week, the central bank will announce only its intention to engage in bond-buying and wait until the next meeting, in March, to provide the details. “They have always been too late,” said Adalbert Winkler, a former economist at the central bank who is now a professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and an advocate of quantitative easing. “The last five years, if they had been more aggressive, maybe we could have avoided this discussion.” A solid majority on the central bank’s 25-member Governing Council appears, based on recent public statements, to favor broad bond-buying. Their position was strengthened by the opinion submitted to the highest European appeals court on Wednesday in response to a lawsuit by German citizens seeking to block a previously planned bond-buying program that Mr. Draghi announced in 2012 but never deployed. The opinion, by an adviser who considers legal arguments for the court, affirmed the European Central Bank’s freedom to intervene in bond markets, with only minor restrictions. The opinion — it is not binding, but the court typically follows such guidance — could also help insulate the central bank from future lawsuits by warning lower courts to be cautious about interfering in monetary policy. In principle, quantitative easing is simple and well tested. It has been used by the Federal Reserve in the United States, which began a series of bond-buying programs in the aftermath of the financial crisis that is credited with helping to revive the American economy. Britain, too, has used quantitative easing to similar effect. Under such a program, the central bank buys large amounts of government bonds and other assets, paid for with newly created money. Such purchases help drive down market interest rates, inject money into the economy and push inflation up from dangerously low levels considered incompatible with growth. After that, it gets complicated. Should the European Central Bank buy bonds from all 19 eurozone countries, and in what proportions? If from all eurozone members, then how should it handle Greece? The country is poised to elect a new government that could repudiate some of the billions of euros of loans the country owes as part of its international bailout. And how to keep the Germans on board? Mr. Draghi has resolved to jolt inflation back to the central bank’s official target of “below, but close to” 2 percent. And yet, consumer prices fell at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in December, raising the specter of a downward price spiral that could further undercut wages and growth. Because of the large number of unanswered questions, the European Central Bank may not be ready to announce details of a bond-buying program next week. “It’s almost impossible for the E.C.B. in this environment not to act,” said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at Eurasia Group. But, he said, “We think it’s a two-step move — announcement in January, further details in March.” Some elements of such a program are a given. The central bank would buy bonds on the open market — not directly from governments, which would be a violation of its charter. But the bank will have to figure out how to deal with the lack of Pan-European assets comparable to the United States Treasury bonds that the Fed purchased in its quantitative easing program. The simplest and most likely option would be to buy bonds in proportion to each eurozone country’s share of the central bank’s capital, which is calculated according to each member state’s population and gross domestic product. The drawback to this method is that it would mean buying large quantities of German government bonds, which are already in heavy demand — so much so that on Wednesday the yield on the 10-year German bond reached a new low. Germany accounts for 18 percent of the European Central Bank’s capital, more than any other country. (Malta, with 0.65 percent of the central bank’s capital, has the smallest share.) Market interest rates on some other German government bonds are already below zero. So it is not clear what purpose, if any, would be served by pushing the rates even lower, as would happen if the European Central Bank started buying. A second option would be to buy only highly rated government bonds — those of France, Finland and Germany, say, while avoiding the bonds of governments with riskier finances, like Portugal or Greece. That approach would answer German concerns that taxpayers could be stuck with the bill if some eurozone governments were to default on their debt. In theory, if the European Central Bank drove up the prices of highly rated bonds, private investors would turn to the bonds of weaker countries instead. But it is not certain that would happen. If not, the E.C.B. would not achieve its goal of providing relief in heavily indebted countries like Italy. A third option would be to buy bonds in proportion to the outstanding debt of each eurozone country — the higher the debt level, the more bonds the central bank would buy. This alternative would favor countries that are the most deeply in debt and need the most help, like Italy. But conservative critics in Germany would probably complain that these countries were being rewarded for irresponsibly running up huge debts. Every option has negative side effects. But Mr. Winkler of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management said that did not mean the central bank should sit on its hands. “If you are about to drown,” he said, “you don’t worry about the possibility of having a heart attack a week later." Whatever the method used by the central bank, the next big question is how much to buy. The central bank has implicitly set a target of expanding its balance sheet, a measure of the volume of its stimulus, by 1 trillion euros, or about $1.18 trillion. The bank has already been buying private sector assets, including bundles of real estate loans. But the amount so far, about €33 billion, is clearly inadequate to meet the balance-sheet goal. Most of the rest would have to come from government bonds, the most abundant asset available. Analysts at Nomura in London estimate that the European Central Bank would have to spend at least €700 billion on eurozone government bonds. But rather than setting the long-range target, Nomura analysts said in a note to clients last week, the central bank will probably announce monthly targets of around €55 billion, which could be adjusted to reflect changes in the inflation rate or other economic developments. Among economists, there is widespread skepticism about whether any amount of bond-buying will solve the eurozone’s growth and inflation problem. There is already plenty of money in the system, they say. The problems, many economists argue, lie in economic drags that are beyond the control of Mr. Draghi and the central bank — that it takes too long to get a building permit in Italy, for example, or that there are too many restrictions on hiring and firing in France. “I don’t think what he does,” said Carl B. Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y., “is going to make any difference for the economy.” | Quantitative easing;European Central Bank;Mario Draghi;Germany;Debt;Federal Reserve;Europe;Frankfurt;Greece |
ny0017520 | [
"us"
] | 2013/10/22 | Medicaid Expansion Is Set for Ohioans | COLUMBUS, Ohio — As a Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee in the 1990s, John R. Kasich wielded a ferocious budget ax. On Monday, as Ohio’s governor, Mr. Kasich defied his party’s majorities in the state legislature to push through a multibillion dollar expansion of Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law. By a 5-2 vote, an obscure committee, the Controlling Board, which normally oversees relatively small adjustments to the state budget, accepted $2.5 billion in extra Medicaid funds from the federal government. The money, recently approved by Medicaid administrators in Washington, will provide coverage for 275,000 Ohioans who have not been eligible for the program, the Kasich administration said. The vote was an extraordinary — and possibly illegal, critics in Mr. Kasich’s own party said — end run by the governor around the General Assembly. Mr. Kasich, who initially declared himself an opponent of the Affordable Care Act and who has declined to set up a state online health insurance marketplace, has argued all year that his sense of Christian compassion, not to mention cool economic practicality, favored extending Medicaid to poor adults and those with disabilities who do not currently qualify. But Republican majorities in both houses of the General Assembly blocked expansion. Opponents expressed disbelief that Washington would keep its promises under the health care law to pay almost all of the costs of expanding Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor, and worried that Ohio taxpayers would have to pay. A budget sent to the governor by the General Assembly forbade Medicaid expansion without lawmakers’ approval. Mr. Kasich vetoed that item. At least three bills to expand Medicaid have failed. Mr. Kasich, who has championed job creation as he prepares for a re-election campaign next year in his swing state, has argued that expanding Medicaid eligibility will be an economic booster shot, because companies will be lured to Ohio by a healthier work force. Expansion is supported by state hospitals, the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Under the Affordable Care Act, low-income workers are to receive federal subsidies to buy insurance starting in 2014. But there is a “coverage gap” for some who earn less than the poverty level but do not currently qualify for Medicaid. The federal law allows states to expand Medicaid eligibility to people with incomes of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $15,860 for an individual. The 2012 Supreme Court decision that upheld the law also allowed states to opt out of Medicaid expansion. With Monday’s vote, Ohio became the 25th state plus the District of Columbia to expand Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Nearly a dozen Republican governors have moved to do so, despite the efforts of Congressional Republicans to “defund” the health care law. Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, a Republican, waged a long and finally successful fight to expand Medicaid. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Corbett reversed himself and recently endorsed a Medicaid expansion plan in defiance of the State House. Mr. Kasich, who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and is thought by some analysts to still harbor ambitions in that direction, proposed expanding Medicaid in his budget address in February. He was represented at Monday’s hearing by Greg Moody, of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation. The office’s Web site, makes the administration’s case for Medicaid expansion. “No matter what Ohio decides on Medicaid, health insurance premiums are going up as a result of Obamacare,” it said. “It would make a bad situation far worse if Ohio does not extend Medicaid coverage and reclaim its share of federal taxes to support jobs here in Ohio — jobs that will be created in other states with our money if Ohio does not extend coverage.” The seven-member controlling board includes the state budget director and six senior members of the Legislature appointed by both parties. As of this weekend, the outcome of the vote seemed uncertain. But on Monday morning, House Speaker William G. Batchelder replaced two members of his party who opposed Medicaid expansion. One of the new members voted for the expansion, the other against. Mr. Batchelder was one of 39 House Republicans who protested last week that the governor’s decision to take the matter to the Controlling Board violated state law. Speculation around the Ohio Statehouse was that Republican leaders wanted to support the governor but did not want to submit to a roll-call vote exposing their troops to reprisals by Tea Party groups staunchly opposed to the federal health care law. Immediately after the vote, the conservative 1851 Center for Constitutional Law announced it would sue over the decision to go through the Controlling Board. Maurice Thompson, director of the center, called it a vote “of a small oligarchy” of legislators, “some of whom were switched out at the last minute for politically expedient reasons.” Mr. Batchelder said in a statement that he replaced two members because both men were candidates to succeed him, and he did not want their competition to influence the decision. Mr. Kasich said the vote built on efforts by his administration to improve Medicaid. His administration says it has lowered the program’s rate of increase in costs to 3.3 percent annually from almost 9 percent a year before he took office. “Together with the General Assembly we’ve improved both the quality of care from Medicaid and its value for taxpayers,” Mr. Kasich said in a statement. “Today’s action takes another positive step in this mutual effort.” | Ohio;Medicaid;John R Kasich;Obamacare,Affordable Care Act |
ny0251816 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2011/02/22 | 31 Killed as Suicide Bomber Attacks Census Office in Northern Afghanistan | KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber wearing a vest with explosives blew himself up Monday, killing 31 people, as residents lined up for identification cards at a census office in northern Afghanistan , Afghan security officials said. The attack at the government center in Imam Saib, a remote district of Kunduz Province, was the fifth suicide bombing with major casualties in Afghanistan in four weeks. All the victims were civilians, said Abdul Rahman Saidkhaili, the provincial police chief. He said the target had been the district governor, whose office is next to the census department’s. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying that a member from Logar Province had carried out the attack and that its goal was to halt a new program backed by NATO to enroll large numbers of people into the Afghan Local Police, an auxiliary group intended to safeguard neighborhoods. “He entered the recruitment and enrollment center of the Afghan government and foreigner-supported program called the Local Police and carried out a martyrdom attack,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman for northern and eastern Afghanistan. Local officials disputed Mr. Mujahid’s depiction of the office as a recruitment center. “It was a census office,” said Mohammed Ayoub Haqyar, the district governor. “There might be people or youths lined up for ID cards who later wanted to join either Afghan Local Police” or other organizations, he said. Because of widespread joblessness, the office attracted many youths “eager to join the Afghan security forces,” Mr. Haqyar said, “but there were people who were not the age to join the police or army — some were over 60 and some were less than 15 years old.” The attack came three weeks after Mr. Saidkhaili and other local officials said that the province had been cleared of insurgents. Pashtuns who live in the areas previously dominated by the Taliban said that the clearing operations appeared to have been superficial and that the insurgents were already returning. “The Taliban were responsible for an attack on a German patrol in recent days,” said Abdul Momin Omarkhel, a Pashtun whose brother, the governor of Chardara, a predominantly Pashtun district of Kunduz Province, was assassinated several weeks ago. “While it is true that the government had an operation in Chardara and claimed it had removed the Taliban, they couldn’t maintain security there, and we are seeing signs of Taliban tentacles again in some area of the district.” Ethnic tensions run high in Kunduz, a melting pot of Tajiks, Pashtuns and Uzbeks. It was the Taliban’s stronghold in the north when they ruled the country. There has been a controversial effort to establish an Afghan Local Police program in the province, with some Pashtuns worried that mostly non-Pashtuns would take the jobs and Pashtuns would then become targets. Also on Monday, in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban commander from the Panjwai District of Kandahar Province announced that he was renouncing violence and joining the government, bringing 30 fighters with him. The decision by the commander, Toor Jan, 28, underscores the opening that exists for the Afghan government’s reintegration program, which seeks to persuade lower-level fighters to lay down their arms and offers the opportunity for midlevel leaders to reconcile. Still unclear, however, is whether the Afghan government can protect them. Mr. Jan, who most recently had been in Pakistan but had been a front-line fighter in the Panjwai and Arghandab Districts, crossed the border with eight of his men sometime in the last few days. He said the intelligence director in Kandahar and the provincial council chief, Ahmad Wali Karzai, had promised him protection from both Taliban and NATO forces, as well as government jobs for him and his men. But that has proved difficult for the government to deliver in the past, and it remains to be seen if the program is working better now. The local authorities in Nangahar Province in eastern Afghanistan said a family of six — including the father, a soldier in the Afghan National Army — were killed Sunday night in a NATO airstrike. NATO forces said they were investigating the allegation. | Afghanistan;Terrorism |
ny0133998 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2008/03/23 | In Easy Victory, Rutgers Gives Itself a Workout | DES MOINES — With 2 minutes 20 seconds left in the Rutgers women’s basketball team’s 85-42 victory against Robert Morris on Saturday, Essence Carson staggered to the bench with a bloody lip. The wound, which required two stitches to close, came courtesy of her Rutgers teammate Kia Vaughn, who elbowed Carson while they were fighting for a rebound. After delivering an early knockout punch to the Colonials, the Scarlet Knights spent the second half sparring with one another, as if it were another practice and not the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament. Rutgers , the No. 2 seed in the Greensboro Region, was coming off defeats to Connecticut and Louisville. But it shot 61.8 percent from the field in the first half while holding the 15th-seeded Colonials to 20 percent shooting. Robert Morris’s leading scorer, Sade Logan, was held to one field goal in the first half. She finished with a season-low 10 points, 15 below her average, and shot 3 of 15 from the field. “We didn’t show who we really are,” said Robert Morris Coach Sal Buscaglia, whose team finished 23-10. The Scarlet Knights (25-6), who are motivated to show they are better than a No. 2 seed would suggest, moved on to face Iowa State on Monday. The Cyclones defeated Georgia Tech, 58-55, in the first game at Wells Fargo Arena with an assist from a crowd of 9,048 that was tipped heavily in their favor. The Cyclones, whose campus is 35 miles north of the arena, will have the crowd on their side again against Rutgers, but if the Scarlet Knights play as well as they did Saturday, it may not matter. “That was the best defense we played this year,” Logan said. “It was hard to get open and we couldn’t make our shots.” Rutgers, on the other hand, had stretches where it appeared as if it could not miss. Epiphanny Prince, a sophomore guard, was 4 of 4 from beyond the 3-point arc and finished with 21 points. Brittany Ray, also a sophomore guard, made all five of her shots, including four 3-pointers. Vaughn, a junior center, had 22 points and 11 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season. In the locker room at halftime, the Rutgers players customarily talk about what they have to do better before the coaching staff offers its two cents’ worth. But with a 48-21 halftime lead, the players sat in wide-eyed silence. “We didn’t have anything to say,” Prince said. Carson, a three-time Big East defensive player of the year, had a big role in Logan’s having her worst game of the season. Before her lip became too swollen for her to speak, Carson tried to explain how she got hurt. “I was going up for my rebound and she was going down,” she said. Vaughn, who was seated nearby, corrected her. “It was my rebound,” she said, smiling. Vaughn scored her final points with five seconds left, on a layup after receiving a pass from Katie Adams, a senior reserve. Adams is described as the team’s hardest worker, but she seldom plays in games. Her teammates have so much respect for her that they were urging her to take the last shot. “I would have rather seen her take the shot than pass it to me,” Vaughn said. It crossed her mind, Adams said, “but I wasn’t really open.” Adams does not log many minutes, but she is right in the thick of things in practice. She has the wounds to prove it, including a purple bruise on her left knee. “I got that from Rash,” she said, referring to the backup center Rashidat Junaid. Carson’s and Vaughn’s collision under the basket was nothing new. “It gets a lot worse than that at practice,” Adams said, laughing. Bloodied lips and Logan’s bruised ego could mean only one thing: after its recent struggles, Rutgers has its sting back. | NCAA Basketball Tournament;Basketball;College Athletics;Rutgers The State University of New Jersey |
ny0214362 | [
"us"
] | 2010/03/31 | Boise Transforms an Interchange, a New Gateway to the City | BOISE, Idaho — For 14 years Doug Stirling has worked the register at the Airport Chevron and watched as this city and its ambitions grew around him. In came the transplants from California and elsewhere. Out crept development from downtown. Up ticked the traffic and the congestion at the crossroads he calls home, Exit 53 on Interstate 84, one of the busiest intersections in all of Idaho. “I don’t know if it’s nicer,” Mr. Stirling said of his city, “but it’s more metropolitan.” Now, Exit 53 is no longer just an off ramp. It is the Vista Avenue Interchange , and its ascendance will soon be complete thanks to $17.8 million in stimulus money. While plenty of other stimulus projects in Idaho cost more, it is hard to imagine one being cast as more transformative than the replacement of this humble highway overpass. To hear some state officials, the future of the region is at stake. “Vista is the gateway to the airport, downtown, the Capitol and Boise State University,” Gov. C.L. Otter said the day of the groundbreaking last August. “A modern, safe interchange will position the entire Treasure Valley for further economic growth and prosperity.” The project is celebrated in an exhibition and video kiosk at the airport, near the baggage claim area. The Idaho Transportation Department is producing its third online video on the changes under way, and the department corresponds on its Facebook page with motorists both excited and wary of the project. A page about the interchange is being added to the state driver’s education manual. Education is at the core of the promotion, said June Sparks, a transportation department spokeswoman and a star of the videos . Vista will feature Idaho’s first “single point urban interchange,” which is a centralized signal system that coordinates all traffic entering, exiting or crossing the highway. Other states have similar intersections, but Ms. Sparks said Idaho wanted to make sure its motorists knew “how to drive through it.” Ms. Sparks posted photographs on Facebook this month showing progress on the project. “The butterfly,” she wrote, “is getting ready to emerge from its giant construction chrysalis.” | Boise (Idaho);Roads and Traffic;American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) |
ny0128051 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2012/06/05 | Tibet: Negotiators Resign | Two senior envoys of the Dalai Lama who negotiated with China in nine rounds of talks have resigned, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile in India . The envoys, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, said in a statement that they were resigning because of the “deteriorating situation inside Tibet ,” which, since 2009, has prompted 38 Tibetans to set themselves on fire. The envoys expressed disappointment over China’s rejection of a plan for “genuine autonomy” for Tibet put forward by the Dalai Lama in 2008, and they said current circumstances made substantive dialogue difficult. The last round of talks took place in 2010. The Tibetan exile government said a task force on talks would meet again in December, after China announces its new leadership in the fall, with the aim of renewing negotiations. | Dalai Lama;Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations;India;Tibet;China |
ny0276171 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2016/02/24 | Merger of Time Inc. and Yahoo Could Repeat a Disaster | If tragedy plus time equals comedy, what does Yahoo plus Time equal? Maybe the same thing, or worse. News that Time Inc., the $1.5 billion publisher of magazines including People, is weighing a bid for the core of Yahoo, the troubled $30 billion Internet company, evokes memories of the disastrous combination of AOL and Time Warner. Combining print and digital may make more sense now than when the $165 billion AOL-Time Warner merger was hatched in 2000, but the financial contortions certainly do not. Citigroup bankers have pitched the idea of using a reverse Morris Trust so that the smaller Time can absorb Yahoo’s Internet business tax-free, according to Bloomberg. Yahoo’s tortuous history of seeking clever ways to break itself up gives further reason for pause on this latest idea. In December, Yahoo ditched plans to spin off its valuable stake in the Chinese online commerce powerhouse Alibaba. After Yahoo devoted years to studying the mechanics, the United States government signaled that Yahoo would have to pay Uncle Sam its cut. That’s why Yahoo is now studying other options. Time could maybe find a way to make good use of Yahoo’s nearly one billion users. In theory, there should be opportunities to sell advertising more tactically and find more readers. Time did not, however, capitalize on a similar strategy when its former corporate parent, Time Warner, was absorbed by AOL. Indeed, Time’s chief executive, Joseph A. Ripp, served as vice chairman of AOL after the merger. That deal was supposed to give Time’s publications access to millions of eyes. The experiment failed badly. What’s more, the arcane and rarely enlisted deal structure Time would use has tripped up others. Procter & Gamble, for one, wound up having to abandon its reverse Morris Trust plan to unload Pringles a few years ago for a straight sale to a different buyer. Yahoo can ill afford further delays to sorting itself out, and the maneuver is a time-consuming one. With other deep-pocketed suitors like Comcast and Verizon circling, there may yet be a simple solution for Yahoo. Of course, Paul Taubman’s investment bank, PJT Partners, one of three firms advising Yahoo’s board panel, just used a reverse Morris Trust to acquire Blackstone’s advisory business. Mr. Taubman also worked on the AOL-Time Warner deal. Yahoo at least has the benefit of experience. | Mergers and Acquisitions;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Yahoo!;Time Warner;Joseph A Ripp |
ny0137092 | [
"nyregion",
"nyregionspecial2"
] | 2008/05/11 | A Welcome Into Artists’ Creative Spaces | The Studio: An Alternative Space for Contemporary Art, in Armonk, closed its gallery last November, but the 10-year-old nonprofit group is still living up to its name by providing opportunities to view contemporary art. “Our main focus is helping the artist and giving artists exposure,” said Katie Stratis, the Studio’s director. In that spirit, Ms. Stratis said, the Studio will present its first Artists Open Studios weekend on May 17 and 18, when nine artists from Armonk to Yorktown Heights will invite the public into their work spaces. Visitors can view mixed- media art by Laurel Garcia Colvin and Katherine A. Cresci; photo-collages with drawings by Stephen F. Gordon; expressionist and abstract prints by Ed Colker; oil landscape paintings by Elaine Galen; acrylic color studies by Joyce Wenglowski; wood sculptures by Loren Eiferman; mixed- media nature works by Francesca Samsel, and abstract paintings by Tedd Stratis. In addition, figurative and abstract works by 12 sculptors will be on view in the Studio’s perennial garden throughout the weekend, while sculpture, video art and works on paper by 9 artists can be seen in a show at the Copperhead Press in Yorktown Heights. The self-guided tour begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Studio both days. A continental breakfast and a packet including studio addresses, maps and other information will be available. The studios and other sites will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine; www.thestudionyalternative.org ; (914) 273-1452. A $5 donation is requested. On May 17 the event will extend south to White Plains, when 18 studios at the Westchester Arts Council’s Arts Exchange will be also be open to visitors. The hours are noon to 5 p.m.; (914) 428-4220. Ms. Stratis says the Studio, an all-volunteer organization, is observing a long tradition by serving as a gallery without walls. “It’s been going on for hundreds of years, especially in Europe, where people would turn their ateliers into galleries,” she said. “Many dealers have also gotten their start in their own homes.” She said the group looks for suitable spaces wherever it can find them, mainly in colleges, libraries and offices. The Studio also arranges tours and lectures and maintains the public sculpture site at North Castle Town Hall in Armonk. | Art;Nonprofit Organizations |
ny0129786 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2012/06/01 | Former Manager Testifies for Clemens | Phil Garner , Roger Clemens ’s manager for two and a half years with the Houston Astros , became the latest witness to speak glowingly of Clemens’s leadership and work ethic at his federal perjury trial in Washington. The testimony is part of the defense’s effort to portray Clemens as an athlete who achieved success late in his career through hard work, intelligence and unrivaled intensity. ¶ Max Scherzer retired nine consecutive batters before departing in the seventh inning, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3, on the road to avoid a four-game series sweep. (AP) | Garner Phil;Clemens Roger;Baseball;Steroids;Perjury;Houston Astros |
ny0065553 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2014/06/21 | Afghan Leader Backs U.N. Election Role | KABUL, Afghanistan — Seeking to quell a political crisis surrounding the June 14 election to choose his successor, President Hamid Karzai reversed course on Friday and suggested that the United Nations get involved in helping Afghanistan settle disputes over the voting. In a meeting with Jan Kubis, the United Nations special envoy for the country, Mr. Karzai said the involvement of the international organization would be “a good step toward ending the problems, because any organization that can help Afghanistan in this issue is appreciated,” according to a statement from his office. Until now, Mr. Karzai had dismissed any suggestion that Afghanistan needed help running the election, and said that foreigners should stay out of the country’s politics. The election, whose ballots are still being counted, was a runoff between Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who won the most votes in the first round in April, and Ashraf Ghani, who placed a distant second in that balloting. Mr. Abdullah’s followers said early tallies showed suspicious vote totals in the runoff in areas where Mr. Ghani is popular, and raised allegations of widespread fraud. Mr. Abdullah has accused the Independent Election Commission of colluding with Mr. Ghani and Mr. Karzai to steal the election and has boycotted the vote-counting and adjudication process. His stance has threatened to derail the election, a make-or-break moment for Afghanistan as foreign troops prepare to depart by the end of the year. Thousands of Mr. Abdullah’s supporters plan to stage demonstrations across the country against the electoral commission, raising fears that the protests might devolve into violence that could break along ethnic lines. Mr. Abdullah had suggested earlier in the week that a resolution to the crisis might involve the United Nations, a notion that the agency quickly shot down. The United States, once intricately involved in the day-to-day running of Afghanistan, has also made it clear that the dispute should be sorted out by Afghans. Yet Mr. Karzai’s comments revived the possibility that the international community might once more have a hand in the selection of a new Afghan leader. “We note the comments made by presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah about a potential United Nations role, as well as those of President Karzai today,” said Ari Gaitanis, the United Nations spokesman in Afghanistan. “At the request of the parties, the United Nations stands ready to help facilitate an Afghan-led process in which both parties will cooperate, and we would need to hear more details about any proposal.” For years, Mr. Karzai derided the West for meddling in the country’s affairs, and he fought to keep foreign representatives off the electoral complaints commission, which adjudicates charges of fraud, arguing that it would be a violation of Afghan sovereignty for them to take part. He has also taken the American-led coalition forces to task over civilian casualties, assailed his Western allies in terms similar to Taliban rhetoric, and refused to sign a security agreement with the United States that his aides had negotiated. In some respects, it was the international community’s involvement in the last presidential election in 2009 that first soured the relationship. Mr. Karzai at first claimed to have won outright in the first round, but the United States pressured him into acceding to a runoff against Mr. Abdullah after evidence surfaced of pervasive fraud. After having pushed issues to the brink of rupture many times, Mr. Karzai appeared on Friday to be trying to pull others back from the brink. Some officials in Kabul greeted the change of tack with suspicion, and the State Department reacted cautiously. “We need a clearer understanding of these proposals,” Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We continue to urge all candidates to work through the legally established Afghan mechanisms to resolve allegations of fraud and misconduct.” Mr. Ghani welcomed the idea. “We don’t have any problem with the United Nations conducting an investigation of the votes,” said Seddiq Patman, a spokesman for Mr. Ghani. “Any neutral organization that wants to investigate in this regard is welcomed by us.” It was not clear whether Afghan law would support any plan for United Nations involvement that would circumvent the electoral system, but given that Mr. Abdullah had already essentially repudiated the system, the distinction hardly seemed to matter. Perhaps more pertinent was whether Mr. Abdullah would accept a United Nations role as a solution to the impasse. “What is important for us is that the process must be given some credibility and legitimacy,” said Wahid Omar, a senior adviser to the Abdullah campaign. He added, “Dr. Abdullah is planning to meet with Jan Kubis to talk about the process.” The prospect of street protests by Mr. Abdullah’s supporters remained on Friday, with at least one major road blocked by large tents and several hundred protesters. Mr. Abdullah’s campaign officials said senior leaders were not involved in organizing the protests and were unsure whether they would materialize. But late on Friday, the Facebook page of one of Mr. Abdullah’s vice-presidential running mates exhorted followers to turn out for protests Saturday morning. Afghan and Western officials worried that the protests could get out of hand and turn violent. | Mazar i Sharif;Afghanistan;Civil Unrest;Afghan National Police;Abdullah Abdullah;Ashraf Ghani;Hamid Karzai;UN |
ny0011905 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2013/11/04 | Vigilante Groups Kill 5 in South Africa | JOHANNESBURG — Five people thought to be criminals were killed on Sunday by an enraged mob in a South African township, the police said, the latest act of vigilantism in a country plagued by high rates of violent crime. The killings in the township of Khutsong followed other flare-ups in the area known as the West Rand, a sprawling group of communities west of Johannesburg that has fallen on hard times as gold mines have closed. Another township in the area, Bekkersdal, has been the scene of periodic riots the past few weeks by residents angry at the failure of local officials to provide services like garbage collection. In Sunday’s episode, the police said in a statement, about 400 men had gathered in an open field to air their grievances about gangsters in the area and then split up into vigilante groups. They first attacked a 61-year-old traditional healer, setting his house afire and burning him to death. Two young men who the police said belonged to a criminal grouping known as the Casanova Gang were then burned to death. The vigilantes then moved to another neighborhood, where two others thought to be gangsters were stoned to death. Several people were also injured during the rampage. | South Africa;Vigilante;Crime |
ny0020090 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/07/15 | In the Business of Death, but Never Living in Fear of It | Edward I. Koch’s choice of a final resting place did not thrill Richard J. Moylan. It was an understandable reaction. After all, Mr. Moylan is president of historic Green-Wood Cemetery , which is in Brooklyn, and the former mayor had practically shouted his refusal to go through eternity anywhere but in Manhattan. Long before his death in February at age 88, he let it be known that he had bought a burial plot in Trinity Church Cemetery in Washington Heights. “He wanted to be in Manhattan, which I understood,” said Mr. Moylan, who has guided Green-Wood and its 478 acres, 130 employees and roughly 560,000 souls since Mr. Koch’s third term, in the second half of the 1980s. “But as the mayor of New York City, ” he said, “it should not have mattered. It was his beloved Manhattan. And that troubled me a little because, you know, Brooklynites have that little inferiority complex.” No hard feelings, though. “The nice thing,” Mr. Moylan said over lunch at the cemetery, “was that he brought attention to being memorialized.” Five years ago, Mr. Koch even discussed his burial plans at a gathering of the New York State Association of Cemeteries. Notwithstanding the topic, Mr. Moylan said, it was not a grave occasion. Green-Wood, still recovering from serious damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy, may not have snagged Mr. Koch, but it does not lack for New York mayors. It is home to at least 10 of them, including DeWitt Clinton, Seth Low and William J. Gaynor. Not to mention that across its 175 years, the cemetery has played permanent host to a long roster of the celebrated and the notorious, and many thousands in between, including about 60 people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One Green-Wood notable is about to have his annual visit from afar. That would be Townsend Harris, who in 1847 founded an academy that later became City College of New York. He was the first American consul-general in Japan after that country ended more than two centuries of self-imposed isolation. Harris plunked himself down in Shimoda, southwest of Tokyo on the Izu Peninsula. Every summer, pilgrims from Shimoda journey to Green-Wood to pay homage to him on the grassy knoll where he has lain since 1878. They have done this for all but one of the last 28 years — there was a scheduling conflict in 2005 — and the 2013 delegation is expected this week. It is a remarkable display of fidelity. If any other historical figure at Green-Wood has so loyal a following, Mr. Moylan said, “we’re not aware” of it. Lunch with him was not the easiest proposition. Dining outdoors on the cemetery grounds would have been pleasant, but picnicking is not encouraged, he said. And the surrounding neighborhood is not exactly awash in tempting restaurants. We settled for a small, comfortable dining room above the offices near Green-Wood’s arched main entrance. Lunch consisted of takeout pizza — half regular, half extra cheese — delivered from Luigi’s, nearby on Fifth Avenue. The fanciest part of the meal was the water: San Pellegrino. Mr. Moylan, 58, was born into the cemetery business. His father, Joseph Moylan, installed monuments at Green-Wood. As a teenager, the son worked part time on the grounds as a landscaper (never actually digging a grave, he said). He rose through the ranks to become president. Image Richard J. Moylan, president of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where his father also worked. Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times Joseph Moylan is buried there. Eleanor Moylan, divorced from him in life, is next to him in death. Her brother and her mother lie not far away. The interviewer went for the obvious: “I guess the inevitable question —” He did not get to finish. Mr. Moylan broke in with a slight sigh. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be here, too, I guess.” He predicted that so will his wife, Gloria, a public-school teacher. They live in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “It was pretty much all I knew,” he said of growing up at Green-Wood. “Coming here as a kid. Going to other cemeteries as a kid. It was natural. I didn’t think about it as a place where people were buried. It was: ‘Gee, what a nice lake!’ ” Years spent in a graveyard might inspire one to reflect deeply on death: Where indeed is its sting? Should it really be not proud? Is truly no man an island? Might it in fact be O.K. to go gentle into that good night? But for Mr. Moylan, the afterlife is not even an afterthought. “When you’re gone, you’re gone,” he said, adding this about death: “I don’t think about it. I really don’t. I’m healthy. When I go, I hope it’s quick. I feel” — he struggled briefly to find the right words — “like I just want to do something good while I’m here. I think I have, and I think that’ll be the measure.” His mission has been to make nondenominational Green-Wood a welcoming place for the living as well as for the dead, by scheduling regular tours and arranging programs like Memorial Day concerts featuring the works of composers interred there. Leonard Bernstein, anyone? This commitment is not without certain perils. “We’re still pretty active,” Mr. Moylan said. “We have 1,200 burials a year and 2,800 cremations. So it’s a delicate balance between mourners and tourists, in a sense.” Once in a while, the balance has gone a tad awry, as it did 10 years ago with a film series in the cemetery’s chapel. Scheduling a movie like “Night of the Living Dead” was probably not the wisest move, Mr. Moylan now acknowledged. When some eyebrows shot skyward, that film was dropped, along with other horror flicks. His emphasis on making Green-Wood more inviting to the living is based on an assumption that room will inevitably run out for new burials. In five years, he estimated. His finance officer, he said, puts it at 10 years. The projections seem to have some elasticity. The five-year estimate, for example, has already been around for several years. That is because death has, in a fashion, been held at bay. “Everybody’s living so much longer,” Mr. Moylan said. “And people are cremating more.” No surprise there. Do the math. The starting price for a Green-Wood burial is about $12,000, and that is for a somewhat crowded grave, accommodating three bodies. By comparison, cremation is a bargain. It costs a mere $429, with the charge for depositing the remains there starting at $1,850. But relatively few people entrust a loved one’s ashes to the cemetery. “They keep him at home,” Mr. Moylan said. “They keep him on the shelf. Which is fine while you’re alive. But when you die, and they clean out your apartment, it winds up in the Dumpster, or it winds up in the ocean.” Not good. “You should be memorialized somewhere,” he said, getting back to the part of Mr. Koch’s farewell that pleased him. “The only thing that, at least by law, needs to last forever,” he said, “is the cemetery.” | Cemetery;Historic preservation;Funerals;Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn NY;Brooklyn;Edward I Koch;Richard J Moylan |
ny0202060 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/09/25 | Brooklyn Man Is Accused of Trying to Aid Terrorists | Federal officials announced charges against a Brooklyn man on Thursday, saying he traveled overseas intent on joining a terrorist group and fighting United States forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. Authorities said the man, Betim Kaziu, 21, a former building porter who was born and raised in Brooklyn, flew from Kennedy International Airport to Cairo in February in the first leg of a journey he hoped would take him to Pakistan for militant training. Authorities said that while in Egypt he made repeated attempts to buy weapons and tried to join a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda. In addition, authorities said, Mr. Kaziu made efforts to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. In a three-page indictment, unsealed Thursday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, authorities said Mr. Kaziu eventually made it to Kosovo, where he was arrested by Kosovar law enforcement authorities in late August and returned to the United States. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. If convicted, he could face life in prison. A federal magistrate on Thursday ordered him held without bail. His court-appointed attorney, Henry J. Steinglass, declined to comment. “This case is a textbook example of a successful international effort to investigate and apprehend those who would engage in terrorist acts and pre-empt their plots,” Benton J. Campbell, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement. The allegations shocked Mr. Kaziu’s family in Brooklyn. “This is totally unlike him,” said a sister, Sihana Kaziu, who added that he was never violent and had a “big heart.” Ms. Kaziu said her brother, a Muslim, did not grow up particularly religious. One of four siblings, he played football in high school before dropping out, she said. He later got his high school equivalency diploma and around age 18 became interested in the Koran and said he wanted to dedicate his life to God, a prospect that pleased his parents, she said. He told his family that he was going to Egypt to study Arabic, and kept in touch regularly by e-mail. In August, Mr. Kaziu notified his family to say he was off to Kosovo and Macedonia, the family’s ancestral home, to visit friends and relatives, Ms. Kaziu said. They did not hear from him again for weeks, then learned that he had been arrested with three other men in Kosovo. A foreign news account said the men were arrested on suspicion that they planned to commit terrorist acts, and it said weapons, including two AK-47s and five hand grenades, were found in searches of locations associated with the case. Ms. Kaziu said her brother told them that he was visiting a friend when the house was raided and that the weapons belonged to his friend’s father. She also said her brother had expressed confidence that he would be acquitted. | Terrorism;Egypt;Brooklyn (NYC) |
ny0233623 | [
"business",
"economy"
] | 2010/08/15 | Budgets Tight, School Supply Lists Go Beyond Glue Sticks | When Emily Cooper headed off to first grade in Moody, Ala., last week, she was prepared with all the stuff on her elementary school’s must-bring list: two double rolls of paper towels, three packages of Clorox wipes, three boxes of baby wipes, two boxes of garbage bags, liquid soap, Kleenex and Ziplocs. “The first time I saw it, my mouth hit the floor,” Emily’s mother, Kristin Cooper, said of the list, which also included perennials like glue sticks, scissors and crayons. Schools across the country are beginning the new school year with shrinking budgets and outsize demands for basic supplies. And while many parents are wincing at picking up the bill, retailers are rushing to cash in by expanding the back-to-school category like never before. Now some back-to-school aisles are almost becoming janitorial-supply destinations as multipacks of paper towels, cleaning spray and hand sanitizer are crammed alongside pens, notepads and backpacks. OfficeMax is featuring items like Clorox wipes in its school displays and is running two-for-one specials on cleaners like gum remover and disinfectant spray. Office Depot has added paper towels and hand sanitizer to its back-to-school aisles. Staples’ school fliers show reams of copy paper on sale, while Walgreens’ fliers are running back-to-school discounts on Kleenex. State and local school financing, which make up almost all of public schools’ money, is falling because of budget-balancing efforts and lower property- and sales-tax revenue. “Some of the things that have been historically provided by schools, we’re not able to provide at this point,” said Barbara A. Chester, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. On the list for pre-kindergartners at McClendon Elementary in Nevada, Tex.: a package of cotton balls, two containers of facial tissue, rolls of paper towels, sheaves of manila and construction paper, and a package of paper sandwich bags. Pre-kindergartners in the Joshua school district in Texas have to track down Dixie cups and paper plates, while students at New Central Elementary in Havana, Ill., and Mesa Middle School in Castle Rock, Colo., must come to class with a pack of printer paper. Wet Swiffer refills and plastic cutlery are among the requests from St. Joseph School in Seattle. And at Pauoa Elementary School in Honolulu, every student must show up with a four-pack of toilet paper. For the retailers, back-to-school season is second only to the holidays, and parents’ longer school-supply lists are a bonus — especially at a time when shoppers are reluctant to spend. While the impact is not enormous, retailers are looking for anything to lift sales. “It’s newfound business that the retailers didn’t have a year or two ago,” said Steve Mahurin, executive vice president of merchandising for Office Depot. The shift is notable even at stores that sell much more than office supplies. “When I walk through the back rooms of our stores where the layaway orders are stored, not only are you seeing things you expect to see — computers, apparel,” said Mark Snyder, chief marketing officer of Kmart, “you’re seeing these sort of household supplies that teachers are asking, school systems are asking, kids to now bring.” For several years, the lists have been getting lengthier, but in many parts of the country, educators and retailers say, the economic downturn has also pushed them into uncharted territory. “It’s definitely spiked this year,” said Bob Thacker, senior vice president of marketing and advertising at OfficeMax. Many stores have tailored their offerings to reflect the demands of local schools, collecting the back-to-school supply lists and stocking inventory accordingly. Mr. Thacker said the change had meant bigger orders this summer of things like cleaning supplies and paper towels. “It’s just changed the way our merchants buy things for their different areas,” he said. In some places, though, parents being asked to make up depleted school budgets are under budget pressure, too, which has left schools without a clear solution. Malcolm Thomas, the superintendent of the Escambia County school district on Florida’s Gulf Coast, has put supplies like plastic bags, Kleenex and soap under an “optional” category because “we know that people in our community are hurting,” he said. He also seeks donations from local businesses. If those efforts don’t bring in enough supplies, it means either his teachers — who start at a salary of $32,500 — usually pay for the supplies themselves, or the district “would probably have to get into cutting personnel if we had to supply absolutely everything,” he said. In Noblesville, Ind., Kristi Smith, 41, a teacher’s aide, said she was sympathetic to the cost pressures at her daughters’ elementary school, but she also thought the supply list was a little extreme. “Sometimes I think it’s too much,” she said. “Is my fourth grader really going to use 50 pencils herself?” Ms. Cooper, the Alabama mother, spent her summer making the most of the school-supply stores’ new interest in classroom supplies. “Each week I go to the stores’ Web sites — Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot,” she said, and posts the deals on a blog for fellow bargain hunters. “All three of these major stores are offering jaw-dropping deals every week,” she said. And as overwhelming as it might seem to some parents, she would rather buy the goods than expect Emily’s teacher to do so, she said. “We don’t expect Wal-Mart cashiers to buy the plastic bags for our groceries, or the mailman to pay for the gas to deliver our mail,” Ms. Cooper said. | Education and Schools;Budgets and Budgeting;Shopping and Retail;Cleansers Detergents and Soaps |
ny0207621 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2009/06/07 | Experts Say Full Disclosure May Not Always Be Best Tactic in Diplomacy | WASHINGTON — President Obama laid down a marker in Cairo last week for candor in American diplomacy. The United States, he declared, will “say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs” — a line that drew applause from his Arab audience. But candor and diplomacy are not synonymous, and if Mr. Obama were to apply the same approach to thorny problems like Iran and North Korea, it might not produce the intended results, according to foreign affairs experts. Some say he risks forsaking the advantages of “constructive ambiguity,” the diplomatic practice of fudging differences, credited to Henry A. Kissinger. Already, senior Israeli officials are complaining privately that Mr. Obama’s call for a blanket freeze in the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank contravenes verbal agreements between the Bush administration and the previous Israeli government. As a practical matter, few analysts expect the Obama administration to rewrite the rules of diplomacy, which have always relied on a mix of public pronouncements, tacit understandings and back-channel talks. “There are two home truths in diplomacy,” said Thomas R. Pickering, one of the nation’s most experienced career diplomats and a former under secretary of state. “One is, don’t tell lies. The other is, you can say more in private than you can in public, but they have to be consistent.” On the issue of North Korea, the United States is engaged in extremely quiet negotiations with China and Russia over how to respond to the North’s recent nuclear test and missile launches. China, in particular, bridles at public pressure from the United States to crack down on North Korea’s financial flows or to inspect ships suspected of carrying nuclear parts. In this case, administration officials and outside experts said, the White House is likely to say little publicly about Beijing’s role, aside from repeating the mantra that it hopes officials in North Korea will return to multiparty talks with China, the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan. Washington’s relations with China are founded on one of the most famous examples of “constructive ambiguity” in modern diplomacy: the Shanghai Communiqué . In the agreement, negotiated by Mr. Kissinger, the United States implicitly acknowledged the existence of a single China, but left the language vague enough to maintain its support of Taiwan even as it normalized relations with Beijing. “There are times with authoritarian regimes that you are trying to nudge in a positive direction when you do not want to say things too publicly,” said R. Nicholas Burns , a former under secretary of state for political affairs, who handled the talks on Iran’s nuclear program during the Bush administration. Mr. Burns, who now teaches at Harvard, cautioned that such an approach worked only in certain cases. In other cases, he said, the United States needed to articulate its values clearly and publicly. Iran may soon supply the White House with its next challenge in balancing public and private diplomacy. Until now, Mr. Obama has rolled out a series of symbolic gestures to the Iranian government : a videotaped greeting on Iran’s New Year, invitations to July 4 parties at embassies and so on. But at some point, analysts say, the White House will have to decide whether to pursue more substantive talks on issues like Tehran’s nuclear program. Given the political realities on both sides, much of those negotiations are likely to be confidential and may involve a creative use of ambiguity on issues like whether Iran should be allowed to continue enriching uranium. Some analysts pointed out that Mr. Obama, in his reference in Cairo to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, did not mention enrichment, suggesting, perhaps, that he wanted to keep his options open. What makes the president’s declaration about public and private talks with the Middle East unusual, experts say, is that he applied it to Israel, one of America’s closest allies. “The basic rule of diplomacy,” Mr. Burns said, “is that with allies, you try to solve problems quietly.” When he was American ambassador to NATO in 2003, Mr. Burns said, he lamented that the United States and Europe did not try harder to hash out their differences over the Iraq war behind closed doors. In that case, two sides said the same things to each other publicly that they said privately. A result was that Congress began calling the French fries served in its cafeteria “freedom fries.” Some Israelis, and their supporters here, cite their longstanding alliance in raising concerns about the very public settlement dispute. A recent letter to Mr. Obama , backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the United States’ leading pro-Israel lobbying group, and signed by 328 members of Congress — declared, “The proven best way forward is to work closely and privately together, both on areas of agreement and especially on areas of disagreement.” Indeed, Israeli officials say the Bush administration signaled in meetings beginning in 2003 that it would not oppose building in existing settlement areas to accommodate growing families, even though Israel pledged to freeze settlement construction when it signed the so-called road map for peace. “I believe we need to talk with honesty and sincerity, and to try to keep the public discourse dignified and more moderate,” said a senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to aggravate the dispute between Washington and Jerusalem. Still, Mr. Burns, who supports pushing Israel on settlements, said the Middle East might be a rare case in which candid diplomacy, even with an ally, makes sense. “Most Palestinians and many Arabs have lost faith in the peace process,” he said. “One of the major issues for the United States is to regain credibility. This is a down payment the Obama administration is making with the Arab world, and they’re saying it publicly.” | Obama Barack;United States International Relations;International Relations |
ny0252131 | [
"business"
] | 2011/11/27 | Data Furnaces Could Bring Heat to Homes | TO satisfy our ever-growing need for computing power, many technology companies have moved their work to data centers with tens of thousands of power-gobbling servers. Concentrated in one place, the servers produce enormous heat. The additional power needed for cooling them — up to half of the power used to run them — is the steep environmental price we have paid to move data to the so-called cloud. Researchers, however, have come up with an intriguing option for that wasted heat: putting it to good use in people’s homes. Two researchers at the University of Virginia and four at Microsoft Research explored this possibility in a paper presented this year at the Usenix Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Computing. The paper looks at how the servers — though still operated by their companies — could be placed inside homes and used as a source of heat. The authors call the concept the “data furnace.” They acknowledge that it is more likely that data furnaces, if adopted, would be placed first in basements of office and apartment buildings, not in individual homes. But as a “thought-provoking exercise,” the authors give homes the bulk of their attention. If a home has a broadband Internet connection, it can serve as a micro data center. One, two or three cabinets filled with servers could be installed where the furnace sits and connected with the existing circulation fan and ductwork. Each cabinet could have slots for, say, 40 motherboards — each one counting as a server. In the coldest climate, about 110 motherboards could keep a home as toasty as a conventional furnace does. The rest of the year, the servers would still run, but the heat generated would be vented to the outside, as harmless as a clothes dryer’s. The researchers suggest that only if the local temperature reached 95 degrees or above would the machines need to be shut down to avoid overheating. (Of course, adding a new outside vent on the side of the house could give some homeowners pause.) According to the researchers’ calculations, a conventional data center must invest about $400 a year to run each server, or about $16,000 for a cabinet filled with 40 of them. (This includes the costs of building a bricks-and-mortar center and of cooling the machines.) Having homes host the machines could reduce the need for a company to build new data centers. And the company’s cost to operate the same cabinet in a home would be less than $3,600 a year — and leave a smaller carbon footprint, too. The company’s data center could thus cover the homeowner’s electricity costs for the servers and still come out way ahead financially. THE machines would remain under the remote control of the company’s centralized data center, and their workings would remain opaque. Network traffic and data would have to be encrypted. Sensors would warn if the cabinet was opened. If a server failed, its tasks would be automatically reassigned to another — in cloud computing, software is built with the expectation that an individual machine can break at any time. A data furnace would be best suited for computing tasks that aren’t time-sensitive and can be broken into chunks performed by thousands of machines — say, for scientific research. The idea awaits one big-name Internet company to give it a try — and to be willing to give prospective users enough financial incentive so they’ll consent to have servers take the place of their furnaces in the basement. I asked Kamin Whitehouse, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Virginia and a co-author of the research paper, how the computer science world had reacted to the idea. “We’ve gotten a very strong response, more than I usually get after publishing a scientific paper,” he said. “We heard from several people who are already heating their homes with computer systems, which shows that it works. Our contribution is to show that the data furnace also has lower cost and lower energy than a conventional data center.” Winston Saunders, a physicist who serves as an alternate board member of the Green Grid , a nonprofit industry group that promotes environmentally friendly data centers, read the data furnace paper and is enthusiastic about the concept. Mr. Saunders is director of data center power initiatives at Intel, but spoke on behalf of the Green Grid. “I’ve got a little house in the middle of the Oregon mountains.” he said. “I have baseboard electric heaters in it right now that cost me a fortune to run. What if I had a ‘baseboard data center’? It would just sit there and produce the same amount of heat with the same amount of electricity. But it would also do computing, such as decoding DNA, analyzing protein structures or finding a cure for cancer.” I.B.M. Research-Zurich is designing water-cooled servers whose waste heat can be carried in pipes to nearby buildings. Next year, it plans to demonstrate the technology with SuperMUC, a supercomputer under construction in Munich that will be more powerful than 110,000 PCs. Many cities in Europe already have insulated pipes in place for centralized “district heating.” Heat generated by data centers is beginning to be distributed to neighboring homes and commercial buildings — in Helsinki, for example. But for the rest of us, without such pipes near our homes, the computing would need to be done under our own roof to put the heat to good use. If tech companies with data centers like the economics of home-based data furnaces, they could offer heating for homeowners at an irresistible price: free. | Data Centers;Heating;Computers and the Internet;Energy Efficiency;Real Estate and Housing (Residential) |
ny0116399 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2012/10/18 | Injured Ray Lewis May Return for Ravens | The Ravens have not abandoned hope of having Ray Lewis back in uniform this season. Although Coach John Harbaugh said Monday that Lewis was out for the year, Baltimore on Wednesday placed him on injured reserve with the designated-to-return tag. Lewis, who tore his right triceps Sunday and was scheduled to have surgery Wednesday, will be eligible to return in six weeks. “There’s an opportunity, and we’re going to keep the door open,” Harbaugh said. Another Ravens linebacker, Terrell Suggs, practiced Wednesday for the first time this season after missing months with a torn right Achilles’ tendon. WAITING AND SEEING ON GARCON Washington Coach Mike Shanahan said that receiver Pierre Garcon’s foot injury was “very much a mystery” and that he could be sidelined for a couple of days or several more weeks. Garcon has missed three of the last five games with a painful inflammation below the second toe in his right foot. He did not practice Wednesday. Garcon said he probably tried to return too soon when he played in Weeks 4 and 5. BROWNS INTRODUCE NEW CHIEF On the same day the vice-presidential candidate Paul D. Ryan rerouted his campaign trail through Cleveland’s practice, the Browns ushered in their own new administration: Joe Banner was introduced as the new chief executive by Jimmy Haslam III, the new owner. Banner, 59, spent 19 years with the Philadelphia Eagles. He will not officially begin handling the Browns’ day-to-day operations until Oct. 25, when Haslam’s acquisition of the team will be completed. Banner’s arrival signals the end of Mike Holmgren’s tenure as Browns president and could lead to a further shake-up. Holmgren is expected to stay on until the end of this season, his third with the club, and then retire. The prospects for Coach Pat Shurmur and General Manager Tom Heckert are uncertain. Ryan stopped by the team’s complex with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a lifelong Cleveland fan, as the Browns were beginning practice. While addressing the huddled players, Ryan confused Colt McCoy, the backup quarterback, for the starter, Brandon Weeden. BEYONCé TO PERFORM The N.F.L. confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Beyoncé would be the halftime show performer at the coming Super Bowl . JETS CUT CONNER Fullback John Conner was waived by the Jets with an injury settlement. Conner, a fifth-round draft pick in 2010, has been dealing with knee and hamstring injuries. Coach Rex Ryan said the Jets needed the roster spot, adding that Conner could be back. The Jets signed linebacker Marcus Dowtin, an undrafted free agent from North Alabama, from the practice squad to take the spot. A CHANCE TO EVALUATE BOWERS Tampa Bay defensive end Da’Quan Bowers practiced for the first time this season, opening a three-week window in which the Buccaneers must determine if he will be able to return from a torn Achilles’ tendon. If Bowers is not activated by Nov. 7, he has to be placed on injured reserve. AROUND THE LEAGUE Linebacker Jonathan Vilma practiced with the Saints after months of rehabilitation on his surgically repaired left knee and could play this weekend. ... Safety Kam Chancellor is set to play for Seattle against San Francisco on Thursday despite an ankle injury that limited him in practice this week. ... Titans quarterback Jake Locker practiced for the first time since dislocating his nonthrowing shoulder, and Coach Mike Munchak said he was on target to return Oct. 28. Matt Hasselbeck will start Sunday. ... Linebacker Aaron Curry returned to practice with the Raiders for the first time since May after dealing with knee problems in recent months. ... Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, the 17th overall pick in April’s draft, who hurt his knee while working out over the summer, could make his debut Sunday night. | Football;Lewis Ray;Baltimore Ravens;Suggs Terrell |
ny0222739 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2010/11/29 | New Deficit-Cutting Plans to Come From Liberal Groups | WASHINGTON — As President Obama ’s fiscal commission faces a deadline this week for agreement on a plan to shrink the mounting national debt, liberal organizations will unveil debt-reduction proposals of their own in the next two days, seeking to sway the debate in favor of fewer reductions in domestic spending, more cuts in the military and higher taxes for the wealthy. The proposals from two sets of liberal advocacy groups highlight the deep ideological divides surrounding efforts to deal with the nation’s budgetary imbalances, even as Mr. Obama’s bipartisan commission works to finalize its recommendations by Wednesday — and struggles for a formula that would get the backing of at least 14 of its 18 members, the threshold for sending its proposal to Congress for a vote. Inside the commission, expectations remain low that a supermajority can agree on a plan, given most Republicans’ opposition to raising taxes and most Democrats’ resistance to deep spending cuts and reducing future retirees’ Social Security benefits. Yet the panel’s proponents hope that agreement among even a bipartisan minority can be the basis for future action to arrest the unsustainable growth of government debt in coming years. Over the holiday week, the commission’s staff revised the draft plan from its chairmen — Alan K. Simpson , a former Senate Republican leader, and Erskine B. Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton — to reflect contributions made at meetings this month by the rest of the commission, six senior members of Congress from each party and four business and union leaders. Even if the commission fizzles, its chairmen’s plan and the alternatives — about a half-dozen packages from centrists and conservatives, and now the two from the liberal groups — have demonstrated a rough consensus for all their differences: action is needed once the economy recovers, and the fiscal problem cannot be resolved by spending cuts or tax increases alone. Both military and health care spending should be on the cutting table. So should “tax expenditures,” the scores of popular but costly tax breaks for individuals and corporations, including the mortgage-interest deduction. And Social Security’s finances require a long-term fix. Nothing of the sort is before the lame-duck session of Congress that resumes this week. Instead, the parties and Mr. Obama are in effect fighting over how much to add to the long-term debt: Democrats want to extend the expiring Bush-era tax cuts except for rates in the highest income brackets, at a projected 10-year cost of about $3 trillion, while Republicans want to make all the tax rates permanent, which would cost more than $4 trillion — roughly the same amount the Bowles-Simpson plan would save in a decade. And while Mr. Obama and Congressional Republicans agree that lawmakers should not earmark spending for special projects, a ban would hardly dent the projected annual deficits. On Monday, the progressive policy organizations Demos, the Economic Policy Institute and the Century Foundation will unveil a liberal blueprint . Their report says that unlike the centrist plans, this version “stabilizes debt as a share of the economy without demanding draconian cuts to national investments or to vital safety net programs.” It would, however, leave the debt at a higher level as a share of the economy than the centrist plans. On Tuesday, a separate coalition of liberal groups, economists and labor leaders — the Citizens’ Commission on Jobs, Deficits and America’s Economic Future — will release a similar outline . Both plans are comparable to one recently proposed by Representative Jan Schakowsky, a liberal Democrat from Illinois who is a member of the Bowles-Simpson commission. Ms. Schakowsky opposed the chairmen’s draft as too hard on the middle class. The liberal plans’ differences with centrists and conservatives include the following: ¶Timing. While other debt-reduction plans would take effect as early as 2012, the progressives oppose any austerity measures until perhaps 2015, once unemployment is at or below 6 percent. ¶Stimulus spending. Most of the plans call for immediate additional stimulus measures, arguing that they will help create tax-paying jobs and reduce spending for relief to the jobless. But the liberals seek more spending in the short and long term: for now, financing for unemployment assistance, public works projects and aid to state and local governments to prevent continued layoffs of teachers and other employees, and for years beyond, “pro-growth investments” in areas like education, infrastructure, child care, rural broadband and scientific research. ¶Military spending. All the plans would reduce projected spending for the military, but the liberal plans would cut deeper. ¶Health care cost constraints. Congressional Republicans, including Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who has a comprehensive conservative plan, would repeal the new health care law. Mr. Ryan would also privatize Medicare , Medicaid and Social Security in the future. In contrast, the liberal and centrist plans would expand on the new law’s long-term savings policies. The liberal plans, however, would rely more on limiting payments to doctors, hospitals and other care providers and less on increasing out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries, except for upper-income people. The liberals also call for a public option to compete with private insurers in new exchanges for consumers, and for the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription-drug prices. ¶Social Security. While centrist plans would raise payroll taxes for the affluent and reduce benefits scheduled for many new retirees in future decades, the progressive plans would only raise taxes to make the program solvent until late in the century. Liberals and centrists would raise the cap on taxable wages to cover 90 percent of all wage income; the level has slipped from that level in recent years. If it applied in 2012, for example, workers would pay Social Security taxes on income up to about $156,000 instead of $113,700. ¶Taxes. The progressive plans rely heavily on higher revenues from the rich and would reduce taxes for low-wage workers. The centrist and liberal plans eventually would end the Bush tax rates, restore estate taxes , and limit or eliminate tax breaks for corporations and individuals — so-called tax expenditures — that cost more than $1 trillion in revenues annually. The liberals would use the revenues for deficit reduction and increased domestic spending; centrists would use them to pare the deficit and to significantly lower individual and corporate income tax rates. The liberals also call for a surcharge on income above $1 million. They would limit other tax breaks that benefit the affluent and tax capital gains and dividends at higher ordinary income rates. The liberal plans would impose a carbon tax to encourage clean energy and to raise revenues, which would be split between deficit reduction and energy rebates for consumers. They would also raise the federal gasoline tax to replenish the federal highway trust fund. Both liberal plans would impose a tax on financial transactions to raise revenues and discourage speculation. | Federal Budget (US);United States Economy;Taxation;United States Politics and Government;Obama Barack;Simpson Alan K;National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform |
ny0112858 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2012/02/14 | Berdymukhammedov Re-elected President of Turkmenistan | MOSCOW — The final results are in for the presidential election in Turkmenistan on Sunday, though most political scientists who have looked at the country say the results were final months ago. The incumbent, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov (pronounced gur-BAHN-goo-lee bair-dee-mukh-ha-MAY-doff), a dentist by training, won with 97 percent of the vote, trouncing seven token competitors. All the candidates were from the same — in fact, the only — party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. The results give Mr. Berdymukhammedov another five-year term as president of Turkmenistan, an oil- and gas-rich former Soviet republic bordering Iran and Afghanistan. By the standards of Turkmenistan, where a repressive former leader spun an elaborate personality cult for decades before his death in 2006, Sunday’s election did represent progress. It was the second in the country’s post-Soviet history to feature more than one candidate, and the result was not unanimous. Still, it illustrates the dominant form of rule in Central Asia: authoritarian governments that hold elections that are not considered free or fair. The primary Western monitoring group, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declined to send observers to this one, citing lack of real competition. “The goal of elections is not to create a mechanism for expressing the will of the people,” Azhdar Kurtov, a Russian analyst of the region, wrote about the Turkmen elections on the Web site fergana.ru . Instead, he wrote, they are meant “to trick those people, and the rest of the world, into believing Turkmenistan has a political process.” One rationale for holding an obviously rigged election, political scientists say, is that outside of a few monarchies in the Middle East, military juntas and at least nominally Communist countries like China or Cuba, the countries often have no other mechanism to bestow legitimacy. “For a dictator, calling an election, even one that the dictator intends to rig, involves some risk,” Daniel Treisman, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a scholar of former Soviet states, said of the phenomenon. “Not to hold elections may signal a sense of vulnerability, which could encourage potential opponents and elite rivals to challenge him.” Mr. Treisman noted studies showing that since World War II , three-quarters of all authoritarian governments have conducted some form of national elections. Aleksandr Cooley, a Central Asia expert at Barnard College at Columbia University, said governments in Central Asia had shifted from emphasizing transition toward Western-style democracy to speaking of an “indigenous” tradition of voting overwhelmingly for the incumbent. “It’s meant to emphasize the deep level of support he has,” he said. “The system does not derive its legitimacy from competition, but from the sheer numbers and decisiveness of victory. It’s a different kind of exercise.” Mr. Berdymukhammedov’s competitors in the election included his minister of water resources, who delivered speeches before a giant poster of the president, news agencies reported. A man who answered the phone at the press office of the Turkmen Embassy in Moscow, and who declined to be cited by name, said the candidates in the election “all have different platforms.” Turkmenistan’s first president after independence, Saparmurat Niyazov, took the sobriquet Turkmenbashi, or Father of All Turkmens, and renamed a city and the month of January after himself. Yet behind this cartoonish megalomania lay a darkly repressive police state. Amnesty International has accused the government of torturing prisoners. When he succeeded Mr. Niyazov in 2007, Mr. Berdymukhammedov hinted at a need for reform, but the pace since then has been slow, and a new cult of personality may be taking hold. Mr. Berdymukhammedov’s rise illustrates an alternative model of political ascent. He first became prominent when he was Mr. Niyazov’s health minister, by advocating the replacement of gold fillings and teeth with more natural-looking dental crowns. That became one of the signature eccentric initiatives of the former leader, who had his own Soviet-era gold teeth swapped for white. By the time Mr. Niyazov died in December 2006, after ruling for 21 years, Mr. Berdymukhammedov had put himself in position to oust rivals and assume the presidency. During the voting on Sunday, folk ensembles sang in praise of the new leader, calling him by his nickname, Arkadag — Turkmen for “the protector.” | Berdymukhammedov Gurbanguly;Turkmenistan;Elections;Politics and Government |
ny0100014 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2015/12/04 | Dominican Republic: Court Blocks an Abortion Law | A Dominican court has blocked a new law that would have decriminalized abortions for the first time if a pregnant woman’s life was at risk, backing a complaint filed by several religious groups. The ruling issued late Wednesday by the Constitutional Tribunal cannot be appealed and upholds a law from 1884. Critics of the ruling said it would put the health of women at risk. Human rights groups estimate that nearly 85,000 clandestine abortions are performed every year in the Dominican Republic, with about 15,000 women being hospitalized in serious condition as a result. Happy Marriage, one of the groups that filed the complaint, said the law violated the Constitution, which states that the right to life begins when a couple conceive. | Dominican Republic;Abortion;Women and Girls;Constitution |
ny0057702 | [
"business"
] | 2014/09/23 | U.S. Acts to Curb Firms’ Moves Overseas to Avoid Taxes | WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced rules on Monday that are aimed at making it more difficult for American companies to lower their tax bills by relocating overseas and that would wipe out the benefits for those that do. It is the administration’s latest move to sidestep a paralyzed Congress and tackle a politically charged element of President Obama’s agenda. “While there’s no substitute for congressional action, my administration will act wherever we can to protect the progress the American people have worked so hard to bring about,” Mr. Obama said in a statement after the regulations on the so-called corporate inversions were announced. The changes will affect only deals that were completed starting Monday. But they could include pending inversion deals, like the one involving AbbVie, an Illinois-based pharmaceutical company that is in the process of acquiring its smaller British rival , Shire, or the Minneapolis medical device maker Medtronic, which is acquiring Covidien in Ireland. It is calculated to make companies considering such deals “think twice” before doing so, Mr. Lew said. Burger King announced last month it would acquire the Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons, focusing new attention on the pace of inversions. “For some companies considering deals, today’s actions will mean that inversions no longer make economic sense,” Mr. Lew said. “These transactions may be legal, but they’re wrong.” Still, some Democrats, including those who have been the harshest critics of corporate inversions, said the actions were far too limited to substantially reduce the practice. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said the Obama administration had been hemmed in by the limits to its legal authority, yielding a set of rules that most likely will hold up in court but have little substantive effect. “Certainly they made a good effort, but what this administrative action shows is that the only real way to stop inversions is legislative,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. In particular, he said Congress must pass legislation that stops a practice known as “earnings stripping.” That is when a parent company loads up a United States subsidiary with debt, the interest on which is deductible, to avoid paying taxes on income. Mr. Schumer also said Congress should define an inversion more tightly.. “The administration wanted to go as far as they legally could, but they’re very careful,” Mr. Schumer said, adding that he hopes a bipartisan deal for legislation on the issue can be reached in November. Image Burger King said last month that it was buying the doughnuts-and-coffee chain Tim Hortons of Canada in a move some claim was to lower its tax bill. Credit Warren Toda/European Pressphoto Agency While Mr. Lew said his preference was for Congress to act on a broad business tax overhaul that would include anti-inversion provisions, it had become clear that would not happen before the November postelection session. In the meantime, he said Treasury was exploring additional administrative steps to attack inversions, something the president said he supported. “We’ve recently seen a few large corporations announce plans to exploit this loophole, undercutting businesses that act responsibly and leaving the middle class to pay the bill, and I’m glad that Secretary Lew is exploring additional actions to help reverse this trend,” Mr. Obama said. An increasing number of United States companies are reaching deals to reorganize overseas, which has created a new opening in the run-up to the midterm congressional elections for Mr. Obama to make his signature argument about economic fairness. The president has said that companies that invert for tax purposes lack “economic patriotism.” The guidelines use existing Treasury regulations to crack down on complicated transactions like internal loans, stock purchases and sales that such inverted companies use to substantially reduce the tax they owe in the United States. They would short-circuit so-called hopscotch loans — when an American parent company uses its foreign subsidiary’s earnings without paying United States taxes — making the loans count as American property. The rules also prevent inverted companies from taking advantage of a strategy known as decontrolling, when an inverted company essentially has its foreign entity buy enough stock from the American parent that it has access to earnings from the overseas branch without ever paying United States taxes on them. They could still make the stock purchases, but the tax benefit would vanish. And inverted companies could no longer transfer cash or property from an overseas entity to the new foreign parent company without paying taxes in the United States. In addition, Treasury plans to tighten an existing requirement that an inversion can take place only if the former owners of the American company own less than 80 percent of the resulting firm, and if the foreign entity is valued at more than 20 percent. Democratic lawmakers, including Mr. Schumer, have proposed adjusting that threshold to 50-50. Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who is the chairman of the Finance Committee, said Treasury’s move “reinforces the urgency for action before this growing wave of inversions erodes our nation’s tax base, but only Congress has the full range of tools to address both the immediate problem and ensure U.S. businesses continue to be competitive in the global economy.” He said doing so would require “a series of stopgap reforms” that should be part of a comprehensive tax overhaul. “Congress should move a bipartisan bill in the lame-duck session as an immediate action to address inversions, to create incentives so businesses will remain in or move to the U.S., and to use that legislation as a springboard to comprehensive tax reform,” Mr. Wyden said. Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the finance panel, said he would work with Mr. Wyden on a stopgap measure to tackle the issue. “In the end, any solution that permanently addresses inversions must be legislated by Congress,” Mr. Hatch said. | Corporate tax;Tax shelter;Jacob J Lew;Treasury Department;Barack Obama;US |
ny0070297 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2015/03/05 | Next Step for Anirban Lahiri, India’s Top Golfer: U.S. Debut | DORAL, Fla. — First came Jordan Spieth, who won his first PGA Tour event as a teenager. He was followed by Patrick Reed, 24, who became the youngest winner of a World Golf Championships event here last year. Last month, Brooks Koepka, 24, won the Phoenix Open, and Daniel Berger, 21, lost in a playoff on Monday in the Honda Classic. Need further proof that professional golf’s youth boom is in full flower? Meet Anirban Lahiri, a 27-year-old from India who will make his United States debut this week at the Cadillac Championship at Doral. Lahiri, the No. 1 player on the Asian Tour, has four victories in the past 11 months, including the Malaysian and Indian Opens. At No. 35 in the world, Lahiri is two spots ahead of Brandt Snedeker, once fourth in the world. Lahiri is also ranked higher than major winners like Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Dufner, Webb Simpson — and Tiger Woods, whose brain he picked when Woods played an exhibition in India. “You couldn’t help but be inspired by things he did when we were kids,” Lahiri said of Woods, whose confident demeanor left a lasting imprint on the younger generation. “I’ve always believed that I can win, and I’m glad that it happened,” Lahiri said Wednesday, adding, “It’s time for me to take the next step and prove that I can compete, contend and maybe even win events like this.” Nick Price, the International team captain for this year’s Presidents Cup, has been following Lahiri’s progress with great interest. Lahiri is positioned to become the first Indian player to compete in the biennial event, in October in South Korea. “Looks like he can make a big putt on a big occasion,” Price said, adding, “He’s very calm, collected, and I think he’s going to be an asset to our team.” Lahiri did not have to blaze a trail to get here. The path he traveled was plotted by Arjun Atwal, who in 2010 became the first player from India to win a PGA Tour event. Before Atwal there was Jeev Milkha Singh, the first Indian to participate in the Masters. Singh climbed to a career high No. 29 in the world rankings in March 2009. Great things are expected of Lahiri, who is getting a head start on his predecessors. Atwal was 37 when he won the Wyndham Championship, the same age as Singh when he crashed the world top 30. “I would never put myself ahead of them,” said Lahiri, who recounted a conversation he had with Atwal during a tournament last year in Japan. Image Lahiri playing last month. He said he first played golf just to spend time with his father. Credit Azhar Rahim/European Pressphoto Agency This is what he said Atwal told him: “You know, we have done all these things that everyone looks up to. You have the opportunity to do that at 27, 28. We did it at 35, 36. So you’ve got that much more time to outdo us and outdo yourself.” Lahiri was moved, and motivated, by Atwal’s words. He said he wanted to create a ripple effect that created greater participation in the game and higher expectations. “I’m getting the opportunities at a much younger age than they did, and for me, that is the greatest gift: time,” Lahiri said. He added, “So how I utilize that, how I capitalize on that opportunity, is critical for me personally in my career, but also for someone to have that is great for golf in India, as well.” India has fewer golf courses than South Florida does, and many of them, Lahiri said, were built for the Army. Because his father is a military doctor, Lahiri had access to courses that otherwise would have been off limits to him. “I think one of the issues in India, there’s not as many courses as America; it’s not as public a sport,” Lahiri said. “And yeah, a lot of the credit for my exposure to the game goes not just to my dad but also to the armed forces.” Lahiri was drawn to the game because it was a chance to spend time with his father, Dr. Tushar Lahiri, a recreational player. “I would just go out there and I would go pick up golf balls for him, and we would go chip, putt for 15 minutes because it was getting dark,” Lahiri said. “That’s how it all started.” When he took up the game, he was 8 years old. He had the impression that no other children played the sport. “I was the only person on the golf course who was under the age of 30,” Lahiri said, adding: “Then I played a junior event when I was about 12. That’s the first time I saw kids my age play.” The tournament, Lahiri said, was held at Royal Calcutta Golf Club, and the fairways were the most pristine he had ever seen. “I had always teed the ball up two inches in the air because that’s the kind of grass we had on the Army courses,” he said. Lahiri said he finished fifth in the eight-player field. “It was fantastic,” he said. “My dad, he’s always been very inspirational. He said to me, ‘Look at it this way: doesn’t matter how you play; you’re going to have the opportunity to play four days on such a beautiful golf course, which you won’t get otherwise, so why don’t you just enjoy yourself?’ I think that’s the same attitude that I keep with me.” | Golf;Anirban Lahiri;Nick Price;Arjun Atwal |
ny0018909 | [
"business"
] | 2013/07/10 | Fork in the Road for Barnes & Noble | William Lynch was brimming with the enthusiasm of a start-up entrepreneur. It was January 2012, and Mr. Lynch, Barnes & Noble’s chief executive, was showing off the company’s shiny Palo Alto, Calif., offices, a 300-person outpost that was the center of its e-reader operations. He and other executives proudly displayed their new devices, talked about plans to expand and promised that the bookstore chain could go head-to-head with the giants of Silicon Valley. “We’re a technology company, believe it or not,” Mr. Lynch said. But only 16 months later, Barnes & Noble’s digital plans are crumbling. Last month, a disastrous earnings report coincided with the company’s announcement that it would no longer manufacture color tablets. And on Monday, Barnes & Noble announced that Mr. Lynch, the young, tech-savvy architect of the company’s digital strategy, had abruptly resigned. A new chief executive was not named. That leaves the nation’s only major bookstore chain without a clear path forward, reviving fears among publishers, authors and agents — who are deeply dependent on a viable Barnes & Noble — about its future. Barnes & Noble executives have acknowledged one fact: the digital business that was to be the centerpiece of its growth strategy must be retooled. After introducing its first black-and-white e-reader in 2009, called the Nook, Barnes & Noble joined the tablet race, a move that industry experts have pointed to as a source of the company’s current troubles. Barnes & Noble’s inexpensive color tablets aimed for a niche in the market below the iPad. But while the company grabbed close to 25 percent of the e-book market, its digital division was getting pummeled by larger competitors, and bleeding money. “Barnes & Noble was in a Catch-22. They had to do something in digital and Nook was their best shot at it,” said Peter Wahlstrom, a retail analyst with Morningstar Equity Research. “William Lynch had a good vision, but he was overwhelmed and fighting with one hand behind his back.” Mr. Lynch’s departure, which was effective immediately, leaves Leonard Riggio, the chairman of Barnes & Noble, with a much more visible and powerful role within the company. Mr. Riggio, who built the company into a national force, is known to cherish the physical bookstores. His increased influence, analysts said, could shift the company’s focus more toward the retail side of the business. Mr. Riggio, the public face of Barnes & Noble for decades, declined a request for an interview on Tuesday. But in meetings and memos in the last two days, Barnes & Noble employees have been assured that despite the recent tumult, their fundamental mission remains the same. Image William Lynch had been enthusiastic about the Nook. Credit Peter DaSilva for The New York Times “As you know, we reported year-end results two weeks ago, and Barnes & Noble Retail and Barnes & Noble College delivered very solid performances and remain profitable businesses,” Mr. Riggio wrote in an e-mail to employees after the resignation of Mr. Lynch was announced. “While the losses were significant in the Nook business, I feel certain we will get the business back on track.” For the fiscal fourth quarter, the Nook unit showed a $177 million loss in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, more than doubling the loss from the period a year earlier. Sales fell 34 percent, to $108 million. “We’re trying to figure out the right strategy, but it can’t happen overnight,” said one executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly. “E-books are still expanding, and we still have a piece of that market. We just have to find other ways to grow our digital business.” Analysts said the resignation of Mr. Lynch could increase the likelihood of a formal split of the company. In April 2012, the Nook was spun off as a separate business from Barnes & Noble’s nearly 700 retail stores. Microsoft, which paid hundreds of millions of dollars for 17.6 percent of the Nook division, has expressed interest in buying the entire division, but it is unclear if a deal will be reached. “The question is, can they truly take the Nook and sell it to someone who’s interested?” said Jack W. Perry, a publishing consultant. “I don’t know if the Nook name has the value to it. But with the customers Barnes & Noble has, there’s still value there.” In February, Mr. Riggio indicated that he wanted to buy the retail stores and take them private, but he has not publicly acted on those plans since. On Monday, the company said it was reviewing its strategic plan and would provide an update “when appropriate.” Michael Norris, a senior analyst with Simba Information, said Barnes & Noble was “in a period of serious and meaningful transition.” “I think that they need to really ask themselves what kind of business they want to be in,” Mr. Norris said. “And they need to figure out how they expect to make money from both the bookstore business and the e-reader business.” John Tinker, an analyst for the Maxim Group, said the retail stores were still an attractive property, something that had been obscured by missteps from the digital division. Mr. Lynch, who came to Barnes & Noble with a background in technology and e-commerce rather than book-selling, spent most of his time focused on the digital side of the company. Mr. Riggio has expressed support of the Nook business to employees, but has always devoted his energies to old-fashioned retail book-selling. “The huge losses and the huge noise on the Nook side are masking a very interesting business on the retail side,” Mr. Tinker said. “If there’s one thing that Riggio is good at, it’s running stores.” | BN Nook;Barnes and Noble;Leonard Riggio;William J Lynch Jr;EBooks EReaders;Tablet computer;Publishing |
ny0012112 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2013/11/02 | Johnny Kucks, Who Pitched Yanks to Title, Dies at 81 | Johnny Kucks, a sinkerballing right-hander who was just 24 when he shut out the Brooklyn Dodgers to clinch the 1956 World Series for the Yankees in the seventh game, died on Thursday in Saddle River, N.J. He was 81. The cause was cancer, his daughter Laura-Jean Arvelo said. Tall and lanky with a sidearm-to-three-quarters delivery that gave his pitches a downward drive, Kucks threw, in baseball parlance, a heavy ball. At his most effective, he forced hitters to hit the top of the ball, resulting in a lot of groundouts. When he was on his game, his infielders were busy, and his outfielders were not. Kucks’s big-league tenure lasted six seasons and was mostly undistinguished; he won 54 games and lost 56, with an earned run average of 4.10. But few players of his middling stature have had such a pinnacle experience. In 1956, Kucks was in just his second season with the Yankees and was not expected to be part of the starting rotation; he went 8-7 the previous year as a spot starter and reliever. But when other pitchers faltered, he became the Yankees’ second-most reliable starter, behind Whitey Ford. He won 14 games before the end of July, making the American League All-Star team, and finished the season 18-9, with a shutout of the Chicago White Sox on 73 pitches on Aug. 24. Still, he was something of a surprise choice to start the seventh game of a World Series. Kucks had faltered in September, and when he had been called on to pitch in relief against the Dodgers in the first two games, both of which the Yankees lost, he had not fared well. Moreover, Ford was available, having won Game 3 four days earlier. But Kucks pitched brilliantly, giving up just three singles as the Yankees clubbed four home runs and won easily, 9-0. Sixteen of the 27 Dodgers outs were recorded on ground balls. Just two fly balls made it to the outfield. Kucks struck out Jackie Robinson to end the game — Kucks’s only strikeout that day — and although no one imagined it at the time, it was Robinson’s final major league at-bat . Traded to the New York Giants afterward, Robinson decided to retire. The game was also the last time Brooklyn would play in baseball’s postseason. After the 1957 season, the team moved to Los Angeles. John Charles Kucks Jr. was born in Hoboken, N.J., on July 27, 1932. His father was a butcher. He graduated from Dickinson High School in Jersey City and played one year of minor league ball in the Yankees’ organization before serving in the Army. He married the former Barbara Daum in the mid-1950s; she died seven years ago. In addition to Arvelo, his daughter, his survivors include another daughter, Rebecca Gattoni, and four grandchildren. He had lived for many years in Hillsdale, N.J. In May 1957, Kucks was part of a notorious episode in Yankees history when he joined a coterie of teammates — including Ford, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Hank Bauer — who were celebrating Martin’s 29th birthday at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan. After a scuffle broke out at the club between the players and members of a bowling team, Bauer was accused of hitting one of the bowlers. He was eventually cleared of all charges, but the players were fined, and the publicity embarrassed the Yankees, who traded Martin to Kansas City shortly thereafter. In 1959, the Yankees sent Kucks to Kansas City in a trade for Ralph Terry, who three years later became the only other Yankee to pitch a shutout in the seventh game of a World Series. In the history of baseball, that feat has been performed only nine times, yet Kucks’s gem is rarely remembered, perhaps because he was overshadowed. He had the misfortune of pitching two days after his teammate Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in Series history. Both men received bonus gifts. “Larsen got a car,” Kucks told The Associated Press in 2000. “I got a fishing rod.” | Johnny Kucks;Baseball;Obituary;Yankees |
ny0278975 | [
"us"
] | 2016/11/13 | Jury Deadlocks in Trial of Ex-Officer in Killing of Unarmed Black Driver in Cincinnati | The murder trial of a white former University of Cincinnati police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black driver last year ended in a mistrial on Saturday after the jurors told the judge they were unable to reach a verdict. The jurors first informed the judge on Friday that they were deadlocked, but they were told to continue deliberations. On Saturday morning, the judge declared a mistrial. Image Ray Tensing, a former University of Cincinnati police officer, shown in his booking photo. Credit Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Officer Ray Tensing fatally shot Samuel DuBose , 43, during a traffic stop as Mr. DuBose started to drive off. Mr. Tensing, 26, claimed that he felt that Mr. Dubose’s car was dragging him and that he fired at him because he feared he would be run over. The encounter was captured on video and set off protests. Mr. Tensing was charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter. A murder conviction — which requires jurors to find that he had intentionally killed Mr. DuBose — carries a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. A conviction on voluntary manslaughter — which requires them to find that he acted in a fit of rage or sudden passion — carries a sentence of up to five years . Looking for Accountability in Police-Involved Deaths of Blacks What happened in recent cases where blacks were killed by the police or died in police custody. The jury of 10 whites and two blacks began deliberating just after noon on Wednesday. On July 19, 2015, Mr. Tensing pulled over Mr. Dubose’s 1998 Honda Accord a few blocks south of campus for having no front license plate. Body-camera video released by prosecutors shows Mr. Tensing asking Mr. DuBose for his license and Mr. DuBose eventually acknowledging he does not have one with him. Mr. DuBose shows the officer the missing license plate in his glove box. After the officer starts to open the driver’s door, Mr. DuBose pulls it closed and restarts the car. In several chaotic seconds, the engine can be heard revving, the officer reaches into the car with one hand, yells “stop” twice, and draws and fires his gun once with the other hand. Image Audrey DuBose, the mother of Samuel DuBose, was comforted by her son Aubrey at a news conference in July 2015 after murder charges were announced in Samuel DuBose’s death. Credit John Minchillo/Associated Press Mr. DuBose, a father of 12 with a previous conviction for selling marijuana , was shot in the head. The authorities said that several bags of marijuana and more than $2,500 in cash were found in the car. His license had been suspended indefinitely months before. The shooting — then the latest in a string of police killings of unarmed blacks, including ones in Staten Island, Cleveland, Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo. — caused an immediate uproar. Ten days later, Mr. Tensing was indicted on murder charges as the Hamilton County prosecutor, Joseph T. Deters, called the episode a “senseless, asinine shooting.” At demonstrations across the country, protesters chanted, “I am Sam DuBose.” Mr. Tensing was fired after the indictment. A report by a risk-consulting firm hired by the university said that the video showed that Mr. Tensing was not being dragged, that the car had barely moved before the gunshot was fired and that Mr. Tensing had made several critical errors — including drawing his gun and reaching into the car. In January, the university agreed to pay $4.85 million to Mr. Dubose’s family and provide an undergraduate education to his 12 children. At trial, prosecutors and their expert witnesses told jurors that the video showed that Mr. Tensing was not being dragged. Mr. Tensing, who had four years of law enforcement service with various departments, testified on Tuesday that his arm was caught inside Mr. DuBose’s car as it began to move and that he feared for his life. Regardless of what the video showed, Mr. Tensing’s lawyer said, the officer had the “perception” that he was being dragged and fired in self-defense. | Ray Tensing;Samuel Dubose;Cincinnati;Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings;University of Cincinnati;Civil Unrest;Video Recordings; Downloads and Streaming;Murders and Homicides;College |
ny0229635 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2010/09/03 | Royal Bank of Scotland Plans to Cut 3,500 Jobs | LONDON — Royal Bank of Scotland , the bank controlled by the British government, said on Thursday that it planned to cut an additional 3,500 jobs and close 10 offices in Britain to reduce costs. The job cuts, which represent about 2 percent of the remaining work force, would affect staff members working in its technology department and in administration. The bank has already eliminated more than 15,000 jobs over the last two years. The bank said it would close offices in Leeds, Bolton and Bradford and seven other places across the country. “Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild R.B.S. and repay taxpayers for their support,” the bank said in a statement. “We continue to make efficiencies across our business and adjust our plans in line with the divestments we have been required to make by the European Union.” Royal Bank had to sell branches to comply with European regulations on state aid. Banco Santander of Spain bought 318 branches for £1.65 billion, or $2.6 billion, last month, gaining access to more than 1.8 million customers. The bank’s chief executive, Stephen Hester, has announced wide-ranging job cuts and asset sales since he took over two years ago. His mandate is to slim down the bank, which ran into trouble after an acquisition spree, and revive the business so as to be able to repay government aid. This summer, Mr. Hester sold units in Argentina, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. In a sign that Mr. Hester’s strategy is paying off, the bank reported in August its first profit since 2007, in the six months ended in June. But Mr. Hester also said that the bank might still have a full-year loss. Other banks are also planning job cuts in Britain. Barclays is cutting about 300 jobs in administration, and Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, announced the elimination of 75 positions. Banks, including Royal Bank, were still adding staff to their investment banking operations at the beginning of this year, after a busy market for trading had helped profits in 2009. But income from trading started to decline again this year as investors became more cautious. | Royal Bank of Scotland Plc;Layoffs and Job Reductions |
ny0081778 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/11/06 | Matt Harvey Wins N.L. Comeback Player Award; Alex Rodriguez Denied in A.L. | A New York baseball star whose off-the-field activities are fodder for the city’s gossip pages was chosen Thursday as a comeback player of the year. Alex Rodriguez? No, it was Matt Harvey. Rodriguez exceeded all expectations last season in his return to the Yankees from a yearlong suspension for his role in a performance-enhancing drug scandal. But he was beaten by the Texas Rangers’ Prince Fielder for the American League comeback player award; Harvey, the Mets pitcher, won the award in the National League. The honors were voted on by the 30 beat reporters who cover each team for MLB.com . Harvey, who missed 2014 after Tommy John surgery, was 13-8 with a 2.71 E.R.A., helping anchor a starting rotation that was among the best and deepest in baseball as the Mets reached the World Series for the first time in 15 years. Fielder helped the Rangers get to the playoffs after missing most of 2014 because of a herniated disk in his neck. Fielder returned to hit .305 with 23 home runs, 98 R.B.I. and an .841 on-base plus slugging percentage. Rodriguez, 40, had a strong case for the award. He hit .250 with 33 home runs, 86 R.B.I. and an .842 OPS. Like Fielder, Rodriguez was mostly used as a designated hitter, and his chances might have been hurt because his absence in 2014 was self-inflicted. Rodriguez’s comeback extended beyond numbers. He softened some critics by being a model citizen for the Yankees. He even publicly turned the other cheek when the team refused to pay a $6 million marketing bonus tied to his climb up the career home run list. (The dispute was later settled in a compromise.) He also earned praise for his work as a television analyst in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Harvey’s return was not so free of bumps. He appeared tentative in September when his agent, Scott Boras, and the Mets’ general manager, Sandy Alderson, went back and forth in the news media over an innings limit for Harvey this year. Eventually, Harvey asserted himself, and he and Manager Terry Collins came to an agreement that he would pitch whenever called upon. But Harvey then created headlines when he showed up late for a workout during the playoffs, saying he had overslept. There was also some mild criticism awaiting him after the final game of the World Series, in which he harangued Collins into letting him pitch the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead. But he allowed a walk and a double and then was replaced as the Kansas City Royals tied the score and won in extra innings, clinching the championship. In that regard, Harvey had something in common with Rodriguez, who had a chance to change the direction of the Yankees’ wild-card loss to the Houston Astros with one swing. But he flied out with the tying runs on base, their last real threat. It was an unsavory end to a gratifying season for Rodriguez and Harvey, providing them both with something else to come back from. EXTRA BASES Mets right fielder Curtis Granderson underwent surgery Thursday to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb, which was injured when he slid into second base in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. He is expected to be ready for spring training, the team said. | Baseball;Matt Harvey;Prince Fielder;Awards;Mets;Texas Rangers |
ny0219271 | [
"business"
] | 2010/05/06 | Business Travel Picks Up, With an Eye on Savings | BUSINESS travel has often been depicted with a dash of style and adventure. Think of Eva Marie Saint in “North by Northwest,” the various James Bond movies, or George Clooney in “Up in the Air.” Boarding a railcar, ocean liner or jet seemed to be a reward in itself. Tell that to today’s typical traveler, who takes a bus to the airport, pays through the nose for a sack of takeout food before boarding the plane and totes everything from laptop to a change of socks in a single bag. This is the state of business travel , spring 2010. The good news for the travel industry, analysts say, is that companies are loosening purse strings after a tough year and a half. But for now, the emphasis is on putting off the Ritz. When and if the comforts of the past return depend on how much businesses are willing to spend and what concessions they can wring out of airlines, whose profits now depend on charging for amenities as basic as pillows. Despite technology that allows travelers to book a ticket online, check in at a kiosk and even slide a bag through a screening machine without removing their computer, delays, added costs and crowds are now a normal part of the experience. “Companies are not saying, ‘It’s O.K. to stay at the Ritz.’ They are keeping a very keen eye on expenses because of any unforeseen circumstance,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research . On her most recent trip to London , Meredith E. Rutledge, an assistant curator at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland who often sets out in search of valuable memorabilia, combined three activities that in the past might have called for individual visits. She hunted for new artifacts for the hall’s sprawling displays; collected costumes worn by the Supremes from a museum in Newcastle, England , for shipment back to Cleveland, and met with members of the Hollies and ABBA to prepare for the bands’ induction in March. Instead of booking a hotel, however, Ms. Rutledge stayed with family, and instead of cabs she used the subway to get around town. “We’re a nonprofit organization, and we must always be prudent,” Ms. Rutledge said. A new study by Forrester found that about 10 percent fewer business travelers booking online are expected to hit the road in 2010 compared with 2008. That’s a significant improvement from 2009, when business travel slumped by 25 percent from 2008 in the throes of the recession . But budgets are staying tight, the review of more than 4,000 business travelers showed. More than half of those who responded said they expected their companies to spend the same amount in 2010 as they did last year, and an additional one-fourth of those companies are continuing to scrutinize spending for ways to cut back. The scare caused by a terrorism incident on a plane trying to land in Detroit at Christmas and the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano that snarled European travel in April “couldn’t have come at a worse time, because we are finally seeing meaningful business travelers return to the skies,” Mr. Harteveldt said. Those uncertainties are part of the reason companies are waiting as long as they can to approve travel and why business travelers are booking much closer to their travel dates than in the past. According to research by the Travel Leaders Group, a national travel agency, almost all domestic trips are booked within two weeks or less, and about three-quarters of international travel is booked within three weeks or less. In an earlier time, those travelers might have expected to pay higher prices than if they had booked sooner. But travel Web sites have made it possible to hunt for last-minute bargains, while corporate travel departments are learning to bargain hard with airlines, not just on fares but on perks. But the fees charged by airlines on everything from bags to window seats are making it hard for companies to figure out what the real cost of a plane ticket will be. That could be a reason some travelers are forgoing airplanes. In 2008, two-thirds of travelers said that they had taken a plane trip for business at least once during the last 12 months, according to Forrester. By the first quarter of 2010, that had fallen to 58 percent, and a growing number of travelers chose simply to drive their own cars, the Forrester numbers show. Luke Song, a high-fashion milliner based in suburban Detroit, is among them. This spring, he drove to Louisville, about 360 miles from Detroit, “because I wanted to travel in comfort,” he said. Despite his expanding business — he has sold hundreds of hats similar to the one he designed for Aretha Franklin to wear at President Obama ’s inaugural, and his work has appeared in countless magazines as well as in the Detroit Institute of Arts — Mr. Song is keeping a lid on expenses. This year, for the first time in 12 years, Mr. Song skipped the industry’s biggest millinery trade show, meeting instead with buyers whom he encouraged to travel to his showroom. Ms. Rutledge also does her best to convince donors to visit the Rock Hall in Cleveland, which she calls an “important tool” in her efforts to land new exhibits — and save money on travel. “We often try to get people to come to us instead of vice versa,” she said. Mr. Song and Ms. Rutledge said they constantly keep an eye on airfares, which threaten to creep up again this summer because of rising oil prices. In late April, the German airline Lufthansa said it was adding $10 to its fuel surcharges of $150 each way on international flights from the United States to Europe . The surcharge is as much as $216 each way to other destinations. Mr. Harteveldt said a growing number of companies are pushing airlines to include some of the recently added incremental costs in the fares they negotiate with corporate travel departments. For example, airlines might provide a traveler with a voucher for a meal or beverage on a plane, include the price of access to an express security line or a place in a priority-boarding group, giving passengers the first chance at stowing their gear in overhead compartments. For airlines, the choice may be between keeping a corporate customer and losing some of the fees that helped offset the 25 percent decline in passengers from 2008 to 2009. Continental , which announced on Monday it is merging with United Airlines , estimates it will collect $350 million this year on baggage fees, although Ms. Rutledge is allowed to check a bag free when she checks in using her Continental credit card, because the airline is the Rock Hall’s official partner. Industrywide, airlines collected $7.8 billion last year in all manner of fees, collectively called “ancillary revenue,” according to the Transportation Department. Continental is collecting an additional $100,000 a day by charging economy-class passengers for seats with extra legroom. “That’s revenue we never collected before,” Jeffery A. Smisek, chief executive at Continental, told analysts and reporters on a conference call in April. Mr. Smisek will run the merged airline. The same difficulties experienced by the airlines extend to hotels, but there were signs of improvement in the first quarter. At Marriott International , room nights sold to corporate travelers — those booked through travel departments — rose 16 percent in the first quarter from the same period in 2009, and they were up 21 percent in March alone. Rooms booked by those attending meetings rose 15 percent in the quarter and 50 percent just in March. “The recovery is clearly occurring faster than we anticipated,” Arne M. Sorenson, Marriott’s president, told analysts in April. But Mr. Sorenson remains cautious. “Hotel demand is highly correlated to the economy,” he said, and high unemployment is still cause for concern. Given that his business is based in Detroit, where his customers have cut back on many luxury purchases, although not his hats, Mr. Song has learned to keep things lean. When he does fly, it is strictly in coach, and he carries only a rolling suitcase and a laptop bag. To save money on baggage fees, and avoid losing his designs, he ships his cases of sample hats and materials ahead to his clients, which include celebrities like Paris Hilton and boutiques worldwide. Even Mr. Song’s streamlined approach is more than many travelers try these days, however. Many are making do with a single bag that holds both computer and a week’s worth of gear. “Travelers are taking papers, electronics, cords, files, computers and clothing, and they need it to fit and be organized,” said Candyce Johnson, vice president for marketing and merchandising at Eagle Creek, a popular maker of business luggage. Baggage fees, which major airlines began to charge in 2008, have revolutionized the way business travelers look at luggage. Two years ago, Eagle Creek offered only two styles that were meant to accommodate clothing as well as a laptop. Now, its lineup includes 17 such “laptop solutions,” as Eagle Creek calls them, and more are coming in 2011. “Our customers want intuitive products,” Ms. Johnson said. “They don’t want to have to think about their bag or their stuff.” But they also do not want to be boring. One of Eagle Creek’s most popular bags comes in an orange shade the company calls Crush, and consumers are demanding more bags that are not easily identifiable as laptop bags. “If you look in airplanes’ overhead bins, you’ll see that traditional luggage has lost its relevancy,” she said. Mr. Song is participating in another business travel trend: virtual meetings. Rather than fly to Asia or Europe, which would take at least a week out of his schedule, he does business overseas by e-mail or increasingly, Web conference calls via Skype or virtual conferencing. Forrester’s research reflects the trend. “There is a chunk of business travel that existed a few years ago that has gone away and had nothing to do with the recession. It had to do with the strength of technology,” Mr. Harteveldt said. “A lot of business travelers have realized how productive they could be by taking advantage of technology.” But in some cases, there simply isn’t a substitute for hitting the road. “We’ve traveled from Birmingham , Alabama , to Birmingham, England, and from Texas to Toronto to Tokyo ,” Ms. Rutledge said. “When we have the opportunity to acquire an important collection, often we have to travel to see it — and we find creative ways to make it happen.” | Business travel;Budget;Price |
ny0192112 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2009/02/19 | Selling Stimulus, Obama Tours Battleground States | WASHINGTON — A trend is emerging in President Obama ’s out-of-the-gate travel itinerary: Top billing has been given to states that turned from red to blue last fall. So far this year, Mr. Obama has visited Ohio , Virginia , Indiana , Florida and Colorado . He toured a factory that makes wind turbines, listened to the financial worries of voters at two town-meeting-style events and signed the economic stimulus bill before a cheering crowd. Given these early destinations, is the president already eyeing re-election? No, his advisers say. But Mr. Obama makes little attempt to sidestep the fact that his political fortunes will almost certainly rest on the actions he takes during the early months of his term. Waves of applause have greeted the president in city after city. Yet at a stop in Florida last week, he conceded that his welcome would sour if the $787 billion economic recovery package produced no results three years from now. “I’m not going to make any excuses,” Mr. Obama said. “If stuff hasn’t worked and people don’t feel like I’ve led the country in the right direction, then you’ll have a new president.” When he told his audience that an economic recovery would be “measured in years, not weeks or months,” he was interrupted by a fan seated near the stage. “You have eight!” the man said, optimistically referring to the number of years Mr. Obama could serve in the Oval Office. “For our TV audience, somebody said I had eight — which we’re not clear about yet,” Mr. Obama responded with a smile. Presidents seldom predict their political demise, and Mr. Obama has not come close to doing so. But the rush of presidential travel over the last week — particularly the trips to some of the most competitive states — suggests that the White House is intent on playing offense from the opening weeks of the administration. A president, of course, has to travel somewhere. And because Mr. Obama has pledged to leave Washington every week, he is bound to turn up occasionally in a battleground state. But the back-to-back trips to newly minted Democratic states, all of which voted Republican for years, have drawn notice. “It is a coincidence,” Dan Pfeiffer , the deputy White House communications director, said in an interview. “We’ll certainly visit states of all shapes and sizes, regardless of who won.” On Wednesday, Mr. Obama is breaking the pattern by making a trip to a Republican state, appearing in Arizona to present his plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosures. Democrats have long considered Arizona as a target of electoral opportunity, but did not try to compete there last year because home-state Senator John McCain was on the Republican ticket. The trip to Arizona early in Mr. Obama’s presidency suggests that Democrats are not likely to concede the state and its 10 electoral votes next time. Democrats could benefit from the increase in Hispanic voters there, and it is a reasonably good bet that neither Mr. McCain — nor any other Arizonan — will be on the Republican ticket in 2012. The presidential trips are coordinated through a variety of White House offices, including legislative, political and policy advisers. Each of the trips so far, aides said, has been made with a specific message in mind, rather than the outcome of the 2008 campaign. When Mr. Obama went to Bedford Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland , just a few days before his inauguration , he wanted to showcase investments in alternative energy sources. A trip to Elkhart, Ind., last week was meant to emphasize the city’s high unemployment rate, 15 percent. And Fort Myers , Fla., was selected because the city is suffering one of the nation’s highest rates of foreclosure. “We very specifically chose those places because of what they highlight,” Mr. Pfeiffer said in an interview late Tuesday afternoon from Denver , his voice crackling over the noise of Air Force One, which was firing up its engines for the flight to Phoenix . Taken together, the destinations offered Mr. Obama an early tour of five states that delivered 80 electoral votes for the Democratic ticket last November. While the president has yet to visit North Carolina , another red-to-blue state, the White House invited The News & Observer in Raleigh , N.C., to interview Mr. Obama late last week, along with a handful of other newspapers from across the country. The front-page headline in the next day’s edition? “Obama on N.C.’s Big Issues.” The strategy is to take advantage of the presidential megaphone, aides said, whether by granting rare White House interviews or scheduling presidential visits. The effort is aimed at going beyond keeping Mr. Obama’s base of core supporters energized. One day last week, inside the Harborside Events Center in Fort Myers, Florida Republicans joined Democrats for a question-and-answer session with the president. “We’re happy he’s a Democrat,” said Sarah McClinton, 64, a retired school teacher who is the vice chairwoman of the Lee County Democratic Party . “But we know we have to share him now.” | Barack Obama;Stimulus 2009;Election |
ny0184369 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2009/03/04 | Blockbuster Hires Help to Restructure Its Debt | Blockbuster , the struggling video rental chain, has hired the law firm Kirkland & Ellis to help it restructure its debt, the company said on Tuesday. The company is seeking to refinance lines of credit that are coming due August, a Blockbuster spokeswoman, Karen Raskopf, said. Kirkland, one of the top law firms specializing in bankruptcy and restructuring, will assist the retailer in that effort. “We have hired Kirkland & Ellis for assistance with our ongoing capital financing and capital raising initiative,” Ms. Raskopf said. “We do not intend to file for bankruptcy.” Ms. Raskopf added that Blockbuster had also held talks with investment banks specializing in restructuring and was close to hiring Rothschild, a person familiar with the negotiations said. If it fails to refinance that credit line — a possibility, given the current dismal environment for lending — the company will draw upon its cash flow, delay store remodelings and cut spending to continue operating through 2009. The company had $615 million in debt on its balance sheet as of Sept. 30, according to CapitalIQ. Once synonymous with home movie viewing, Blockbuster has faltered as it seeks to compete against newer online rivals. In January, Blockbuster announced that it had formed a partnership with CinemaNow to deliver movies on demand over the Internet, an effort to keep up with a similar service from its rival Netflix. It appeared to make some progress last year, when it narrowed losses to $20.6 million in the third quarter, beating analysts’ expectations. But many analysts remain concerned about its competitive prospects amid a slowing economy. Blockbuster has sought to broaden beyond video rentals and sales. One of its more unusual efforts came last year, when it proposed a takeover of Circuit City Stores, the electronics retailer. The bid was made with the support of a big Blockbuster shareholder, Carl C. Icahn, but many analysts questioned the benefits of such a combination. That plan was dropped after only three months. Circuit City subsequently filed for bankruptcy and later began liquidation. In December, Blockbuster agreed to sell tickets for Live Nation, the concert promoter, through 500 of its stores. Based in Dallas, Blockbuster has 8,000 employees worldwide, according to its Web site. Shares in Blockbuster plunged 77 percent, to 22 cents on Tuesday. They have fallen 92 percent in the last 12 months. | Blockbuster Inc;Kirkland & Ellis;DVD (Digital Versatile Disc);Bankruptcies |
ny0178606 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2007/08/04 | Monsoon Rains Kill 186 in India and Bangladesh | LUCKNOW, India , Aug. 3 (AP) — Torrents of water washed away homes, crops and cows, leaving hungry and frightened villagers perched in treetops or on roofs as the death toll rose Friday from monsoon rains across northern India and Bangladesh . Vital to farmers, the annual rains are a blessing and a curse for the subcontinent — a fact highlighted by official tallies. At least 186 people have been killed in recent days and 19 million have been driven from their homes this year. The South Asian monsoon season runs from June to September as the rains work their way across the subcontinent. It is always dangerous — last year more than 1,000 people died, most from drowning, landslides or house collapses. This year, estimates of total deaths vary from a few hundred to well over a thousand. With hundreds of villages submerged across the fertile plains that stretch along the southern edge of the Himalayas, people took refuge wherever they could. In Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India, women and children were spotted screaming for help from treetops. In parts of the state — where an additional eight inches of rain fell on Friday — river levels rose so quickly that villagers had no time to save any belongings. Vinod Kumar, a resident of a flooded village in Basti district, told Eenadu TV that he had made it out, but lost everything. “The officials are saying relief is coming, but nothing has come so far,” he said. Health workers were fanning out across parts of Bangladesh and India to try to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases like diarrhea, typhoid and cholera. In northwestern Bangladesh, Rahmat Sheikh, a farmer, and his family were among 2,000 people who had fled their village for higher ground. “The floods have taken away all I had,” Mr. Sheikh, 40, said. “Rice paddies in the field, two cows and my house all are gone. I don’t know how we will now survive.” With many farms and crops destroyed, costing an already poor region millions of dollars, food shortages are becoming a problem. A woman in Uttar Pradesh, who identified herself only as Savitra, said she had not eaten in two days. “Whatever we had at our home was washed away,” she told Eenadu. | Floods;Bangladesh;India |
ny0075058 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/04/15 | Blue Jays, Bills, Timberwolves and Oilers Are Parched in the Postseason | Saturday, Oct. 23, 1993. SkyDome, Toronto. Bottom of the ninth, two men on, one out. Mitch Williams of the Philadelphia Phillies is on the mound, facing Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays . On a 2-2 count, Carter drives the ball over the left-field wall , and with the game-winning home run, Toronto wins its second consecutive World Series. The Blue Jays have not been back in the playoffs since. At 21 years and counting, Toronto is riding the longest playoff drought in the major North American leagues, a dubious title it claimed after the Kansas City Royals ended a 28-year absence by making the 2014 playoffs. The Jays’ playoff wait is eight years longer than that of the runners-up, the Seattle Mariners, who have had 13 years without a postseason since losing to the Yankees in the 2001 American League Championship Series. Things turned sour for the Jays immediately after Carter’s magical moment. They put up four straight losing seasons before a mini-revival that peaked with an 88-74 record in 1998, led by a Cy Young Award performance from Roger Clemens, who was 36. They have not hit 88 wins since. Image Doug Flutie (7) and the Bills lost a game to Frank Wycheck and the Tennessee Titans in the final seconds in 2000. Buffalo hasn't been back to the N.F.L. playoffs since. Credit Photographs by Jeff Haynes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images There is hope. Last year’s team was a respectable 83-79 after a very fast start. This year’s team has started 4-3 and is expected to be a contender in a potentially wide-open American League East. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion provide power, and the newcomers Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin and a crop of promising rookies may finally end the playoff wait. The Buffalo Bills ’ last taste of the N.F.L. playoffs ended on a play perhaps more memorable than Carter’s famous blast. In January 2000, the Bills led their wild-card playoff game against the Tennessee Titans by a point with 16 seconds left. After a kickoff, Frank Wycheck tossed the ball to Kevin Dyson. It was ruled a lateral pass, though that is disputed to this day . Dyson broke clear and ran for a touchdown . They call it the Music City Miracle. A brutal loss for the Bills. But they had been in the playoffs in 10 of the previous 12 years. Surely another chance would come soon? Nope. Since then, Buffalo has had two 9-7 seasons, including last year, but no playoff appearances, a run of 15 seasons. Not far behind are the Raiders and the Browns (12-year waits) and the Rams (a 10-year wait). The Minnesota Timberwolves were in the N.B.A. playoffs for the eighth straight year when they faced off against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals in 2004. Despite home-court advantage and strong performances from Kevin Garnett and Latrell Sprewell, they lost that series, four games to two. Image Kevin Garnett led the Minnesota Timberwolves to the N.B.A. finals in 2004, but they have gone 11 seasons without a playoff appearance. Credit Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press A bright future did not await. The next season, a record of 44-38 was not good enough to sneak into the playoffs. They have not had a winning record since, and currently have the worst record in the league at 16-65. That is 11 seasons without a playoff trip. Depending on the results of the lottery, the Wolves could get a top draft pick. Since their last playoff trip, the Wolves have had eight top-10 picks. Three were traded away; the other five were used on Corey Brewer, Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn, Wesley Johnson and Derrick Williams (at No. 2 over all). On the plus side, one of those picks was used to acquire Kevin Love, who provided many bright moments before being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It has been a good year for Canadian teams in the N.H.L., with five of the seven making the playoffs, the most since 2004. But not the Edmonton Oilers , whose playoff drought now extends to nine years. No other team has waited more than six. Like several of these franchises, Edmonton’s last playoff appearance was a successful one. The Oilers made the 2006 Stanley Cup final, only to lose a hard-fought seven-game series to the Carolina Hurricanes. Defenseman Chris Pronger, who had 16 assists in that playoff run, requested a trade in the off-season, and though Shawn Horcoff, Fernando Pisani and others hung around for a few seasons, the team could never recapture the magic. As for the fifth major North American league, the booby prize again goes to Toronto. Despite a big fan base that put it second in attendance last year, Toronto F.C. has never made the Major League Soccer playoffs in its eight years of existence. The team has never even had a winning record. Despite the acquisition of striker Jozy Altidore, this year could be another long season. Toronto is 1-3. | Baseball;Playoffs;Kansas City Royals;Bills;Timberwolves;Toronto Soccer Team;Edmonton Oilers;Blue Jays |
ny0231259 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/09/06 | Soares, District Attorney, Criticized in Steroid Case | As the district attorney for Albany County, P. David Soares has made a name for himself around the state by investigating top New York public officials, most recently weighing whether to prosecute Gov. David A. Paterson on perjury charges. But now Mr. Soares is confronting questions about whether he himself acted improperly in his effort to prosecute the operators of a pharmacy in Florida at the center of a national steroid scandal that implicated major sports figures. A federal judge in Florida has allowed the operators of the company, Signature Pharmacy, to proceed with a lawsuit that accuses Mr. Soares and his office of federal civil rights violations. In denying Mr. Soares’s motion to dismiss the suit, the judge, Gregory A. Presnell, used biting language to criticize Mr. Soares, saying he had led a case riddled with flaws, including arrests that potentially were illegal, as Mr. Soares sought to attract maximum media attention. More broadly, Judge Presnell said he failed to understand why Mr. Soares believed he had a legal basis to pursue the investigation, noting that Signature had no offices in New York and that the people charged had never set foot in the state. “New York simply appears to have been just one of the many states to which Signature shipped or filled prescriptions,” the judge wrote in a ruling issued in June. “In short, there is nothing in the record to suggest that Signature had any unique or particular nexus to the State of New York or Albany County. That the Albany D.A.’s office would participate in an investigation — and later attempt to prosecute a case — of this magnitude is baffling.” The lawsuit centers on an investigation that Mr. Soares initiated several years ago that ultimately led to a highly publicized raid on Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla., which prosecutors had alleged was the supplier of at least $10 million of controlled substances sold to customers in New York. The raid, in February 2007, led to the arrests of five people associated with Signature: Naomi and Robert Loomis, the couple that owns the pharmacy; Kenneth Michael Loomis, Mr. Loomis’s brother and a pharmacist at the company; and two former employees, Kirk Calvert and Tony Palladino. Judge Presnell also questioned the legality of the arrest warrants because they were obtained based on an original indictment against the defendants and not on a second superseding indictment. The judge also questioned whether Mr. Soares even had jurisdiction to conduct an inquiry in Florida, noting that the defendants were arrested based on warrants issued in New York and not in Florida. He also described the extent to which the Albany district attorney’s office sought to orchestrate media coverage for the raid, saying that Mr. Soares and a top deputy on the case, Christopher Baynes, “appear to have been focused in significant part on ensuring that plaintiffs’ arrests and the raids would be covered by the media.” In his ruling the judge also appeared to go out of his way to note that, as of April 2009, Mr. Soares, who was first elected district attorney in 2004, had never prosecuted a felony case as a lead attorney, had never presented a case to a grand jury and had never secured a sealed indictment. The indictments against the Signature defendants were obtained by Mr. Baynes. The ruling by Judge Presnell was the second setback Mr. Soares faced in the Signature case. In 2008, a judge in Albany threw out criminal indictments against the five Signature defendants, citing a series of blunders and missteps by Albany County prosecutors that he said had prejudiced the case. On Thursday, Robert Bonner, a private lawyer representing the Albany district attorney’s office, defended Mr. Soares’s conduct in the case and said that Judge Presnell’s decision had been appealed. He also noted that Mr. Soares’s office had filed new charges against the same five defendants from Signature Pharmacy. But Amy Tingley, a lawyer representing the Signature plaintiffs, said the judge’s decision buttressed their case. “We feel very satisfied that the federal judge recognized the improprieties of these prosecutors’ conduct and the damage it caused,” she said, adding that Signature lost so much business as a result of the case that it was forced to shut down in 2008. Joel B. Rudin, a lawyer in Manhattan who specializes in cases of prosecutorial misconduct, called Judge Presnell’s order unusual and said it was highly damaging to Mr. Soares. “It lays out a very strong case of misconduct in the investigation and arrest of the plaintiffs,” he said, “and shows a persistent attempt to orchestrate the media to damage the reputation of this company and its owners.” Mr. Soares has described Signature as being at the center of a nationwide ring of shady Web sites and unethical doctors who had made steroids and other controlled substances easy to obtain over the Internet. Prosecutors charged that the Web sites enabled doctors to provide prescriptions to a host of people — including professional baseball and football players seeking to improve performance — they had neither met nor diagnosed. Signature Pharmacy, prosecutors said, filled the prescriptions. Mr. Soares has been at the center of several high-profile cases involving New York political figures in the last few years. Most recently, Judith S. Kaye, the former chief judge of the State Court of Appeals, issued a report saying that Governor Paterson misled state ethics regulators while testifying under oath about tickets he had obtained to a New York Yankees’ World Series game last year. But she left it to Mr. Soares to decide whether to pursue perjury charges against the governor. One of Mr. Soares’s more high-profile cases involved an investigation into the way the administration of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer handled the politically sensitive travel records of a rival, Joseph L. Bruno, a former Republican Senate majority leader. Mr. Soares drew criticism for his handling of that investigation after issuing conflicting assessments of the case and after interviewing Mr. Spitzer and other officials informally, rather than under oath. He ultimately filed no charges. | Soares P David;Decisions and Verdicts;Suits and Litigation;Steroids;District Attorneys;New York State |
ny0012151 | [
"us"
] | 2013/11/20 | In Stance on Renewal of Old Health Policies, States Run the Gamut | Just a few days after President Obama said that millions of consumers should be able to keep their old insurance plans for another year — even if they did not meet the requirements of his health care law — he is finding support among states that would not exactly be described as allies. Of the 13 states that have so far said they will allow consumers to renew canceled plans, all but four are led by Republican governors and have generally been opposed to the new health care law. Of the eight that have said they will not carry out the policy, six are in Democratic-led states, many of which have actively worked to put the law into effect and have argued that allowing such an extension could undermine its success. They include New York, which announced its decision on Tuesday, and Massachusetts. Many other states, including California and New Jersey, are still weighing their options. The new plans being offered under the Affordable Care Act require that insurers cover a wider range of benefits than many of the old plans. In addition, the insurers are prohibited from turning away people with existing medical problems or charging them more. Mr. Obama’s announcement last week came after the political uproar prompted by millions of consumers’ receiving notices that their health plans were being discontinued because they no longer complied with the law. Many states with low numbers of such cancellations were those that had let insurers temporarily avoid the law’s requirements by offering early renewal of existing plans. Those renewals allowed people to keep their existing plans through next year. The goal was to smooth the transition for consumers, commissioners in those states said. “It turned out to be a good decision,” said Mike Chaney, the insurance commissioner in Republican-led Mississippi, who said fewer than 500 people in his state received notice of discontinued policies because he encouraged the major insurers to offer the option of renewing for an additional year. Mr. Chaney said insurers could have chosen to cancel policies in his state anyway, but “I would have hammered them if they did.” Several other Republican-led states, including Oklahoma, Utah and New Mexico, also reported few cancellations and cited their policies on early renewals as one of the reasons. However, the final decision was up to insurers. For that reason, in some states that permitted early renewals there were still hundreds of thousands of canceled policies. In Florida, Kevin McCarty, the insurance commissioner, said the state allowed insurers to offer customers the option of early renewal. “If they liked their plan, they got to keep their plan,” he said paraphrasing a comment by Mr. Obama that has been often repeated by critics who say he broke his promise. But Florida Blue, the state’s largest insurer, decided to discontinue the plans of about 300,000 people, including 40,000 whose coverage will end by Jan. 1. Now it is working to offer those customers the option of extending their plans for an additional year under Mr. Obama’s proposal, Mr. McCarty said. Whether the move will ultimately be good for consumers is unclear. Proponents of the health care law, including several states that have most enthusiastically embraced it, have argued that renewing old plans will undermine the success of the fledging insurance marketplaces. They have also asserted that some of those plans have fewer benefits than new ones devised to comply with the new law. There is also little indication of how many people who got cancellation notices will decide to renew. They may find better deals on the new insurance marketplace, especially if they qualify for tax-credit subsidies. “I do not believe his proposal is a good deal for the State of Washington,” Mike Kreidler, Washington’s state insurance commissioner, said in a statement after the president’s announcement last week. Other states that have said they will not put Mr. Obama’s proposal into effect are Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont and Indiana. Although New York said it did not plan to allow the estimated 100,000 canceled policies to be renewed, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo did not completely close the door to the idea. “If it is causing a problem for someone we will certainly look at it,” he said Monday. “Our program has actually been working well.” California, which has an active state insurance marketplace, is scheduled to decide the issue on Thursday. Its insurance commissioner has supported Mr. Obama’s proposal, while the head of its marketplace has raised concerns about it. In California, insurers were required to cancel their noncompliant plans by the end of the year if they were also participating in the state marketplace. Keith Cruickshank, who lives in the San Diego area, got a cancellation notice from his insurer, Kaiser Permanente, and said the new policy he found in the state marketplace for himself, his wife and their son would cost an additional $4,000 or so a year. “We support Obamacare, but are being singled out because we are healthy and earning above the subsidy level,” Mr. Cruickshank said. If given the choice to renew his old plan, he says he would. Still, there is no guarantee prices on those old plans will not also rise. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina announced Tuesday that it had filed documents with the state, which has said it will work to carry out Mr. Obama’s plan and allow about 230,000 customers to renew their noncompliant plans. But it also said that those customers would see rate increases of 16 percent to 24 percent. For the states that choose to go ahead with Mr. Obama’s proposal, regulators and insurers must quickly work out tricky logistical details like approving rates for the coming year and working to return customers to their computer systems. Some state insurance commissioners in states that were already allowing early renewals said they had a head start. In Kentucky, which has generally embraced the health care law and has said it will carry out Mr. Obama’s proposal concerning canceled policies, regulators have already reviewed rates for insurers that offered renewals of their noncompliant plans. Therefore, they expect the process for state residents whose policies were canceled — about 280,000 of them — to be fairly straightforward. “All of that regulatory due diligence that we had to do, we’ve already done it,” said Sharon Clark, the state’s insurance commissioner. “I feel for some of my colleagues who are having a much more difficult time than I am.” | US states;Health Insurance;Obamacare,Affordable Care Act;Barack Obama |
ny0037541 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2014/03/23 | Wilbekin Drives, and Florida Cruises Past Pittsburgh | ORLANDO, Fla. — Scottie Wilbekin limped slightly as he headed toward the Florida bench. He sat down and was given an ice bag for his bruised left knee, a symbol of sorts for his gritty play and timely leadership that lifted the Gators to a 61-45 victory Saturday over Pittsburgh. Wilbekin’s 21 points came on an array of drives and jumpers, most coming at crucial moments as No. 1-seeded Florida ousted the ninth-seeded Panthers from the N.C.A.A. tournament. It was the 28th consecutive victory for the Gators and sent them to the South Regional semifinals next week in Memphis. It also marked the fourth trip in a row to the Round of 16 for Florida, which failed to reach the Final Four in its three previous appearances. For Wilbekin, it was a journey that began with a five-game suspension for violating team rules to start the season and continued here at Amway Center with the second-highest point total of his senior year. Michael Frazier scored 10 points, and Casey Prather and Will Yeguete added 8 apiece for Florida (34-2). N.C.A.A. Round of 32: The Day in Pictures 14 Photos View Slide Show › Image Jeffrey Phelps/Associated Press Two free throws by Prather had put Florida ahead, 40-27, with 9 minutes 38 seconds to play. Wilbekin followed with a 3-pointer for a 14-point lead, and Pittsburgh pulled no closer than 8 the rest of the way. Talib Zanna led the Panthers (27-9) with 10 points, and Lamar Patterson had 8 points and 8 rebounds. Zanna worked free inside for a layup that brought the Panthers to 49-41 with 5:29 remaining, but from there, Wilbekin assured the Gators of advancing. Wilbekin, whose injury was not serious, scored 13 of his points during a six-minute stretch in the second half, preserving the Gators’ momentum with acrobatic and versatile moves. With 11 seconds left in the first half, Wilbekin jogged up the floor looking like he was about to run a play the Gators had just called in a timeout. But he never altered course, squaring his shoulders and gathering speed before launching a running 3-pointer that dropped through the basket as the horn sounded. “Coach called for Scottie to go get a shot, and he made it,” Florida forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. “He makes tough shots; that’s what he does.” N.C.A.A. Tournament: Who Do You Hate (and Love)? Which team do you think will win? Eh, never mind that. Tell us which teams’ losses would give you the greatest joy, and which team’s success would make you most happy. Wilbekin did not break stride as he circled back and headed toward the locker room as if he were in a home run trot. He grinned toward the Florida bench and kept going into the tunnel with his teammates in tow. The basket put the Gators ahead, 27-22, matching their biggest lead in a first half that had both teams cautiously trying to locate weaknesses in the other. Frazier knocked down a 3-pointer for a 20-15 lead with four minutes to play, but that was only the second shot from beyond the arc that Florida attempted. The Gators opened up in the second half, finishing 6 of 9 on 3-point shots. Pittsburgh looked tentative on several possessions early as it gauged the Gators’ pressure. The Panthers had only three turnovers while dismantling Colorado Thursday, but against the Gators they committed four in the first half. Pittsburgh was trying to reach the Round of 16 for the first time since 2009 and had peaked at a perfect time for a tournament run. The Panthers had won six of their last eight games, coalescing behind the rising play and leadership of the seniors Zanna and Patterson. Still, their 29-point rout of Colorado offered little insight on how they might fare against the tournament’s No. 1 seed. “They beat us on the glass and beat us to loose balls, and we got to give them credit,” Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon said. “They’re good, and there’s a reason they’re the No. 1 seed. They’re the most physical and oldest team we’ve played all year, and they showed it.” | College basketball;NCAA Men's Basketball,March Madness;Scottie Wilbekin;University of Florida;University of Pittsburgh |
ny0174582 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/10/26 | Manhattan: City Expands Recycling | The city is expanding a pilot program that puts recycling containers in public places like parks and ferry terminals, and will be placing bins for paper, glass, metal and plastic next to trash cans on streets in Battery Park City, the Sanitation Department said yesterday. The program started this year with the placement of recycling bins at several parks and at both Staten Island Ferry terminals. | Recycling of Waste Materials;Manhattan (NYC) |
ny0038456 | [
"us"
] | 2014/04/05 | Judge Says Ohio Must Recognize Same-Sex Marriages Performed Out of State | A federal judge in Cincinnati declared Friday that he would require Ohio to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other states, the latest in a series of court decisions around the country overturning restrictive state marriage laws and amendments. The judge, Timothy S. Black, for the Southern District of Ohio, made the announcement at the close of oral arguments in a case brought by four same-sex couples, each of whom sought to have both people listed as parents on birth certificates. In an unusual move, Judge Black said he would issue a written ruling on April 14, stating that Ohio’s refusal to recognize valid same-sex marriages violated constitutional protections, according to lawyers from both sides. He said that he would issue a permanent injunction, barring the state from denying all the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples who were validly married elsewhere. Unlike recent federal court decisions in other states, including Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Virginia, the new decision will not require Ohio to allow same-sex marriages within the state. But gay rights advocates called it an important breakthrough. “This is a huge day for married same-sex couples in Ohio and, most significantly, for their children,” Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, which argued the case, said in a telephone interview from Cincinnati. “Children already born and children soon to be born were being forced by Ohio to travel through life without the security of an accurate birth certificate and without the state’s recognition that they have two parents, not just one.” Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine, said the state planned to appeal the order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The case will join several other same-sex marriage-related suits, both from neighboring states within the same circuit and in other regions, that will be argued in federal appeals courts in the months ahead. In the Ohio case, the state argued that the federal courts should not overturn its traditions and the decision of its voters in 2004 to limit marriage to a man and a woman. But Judge Black said there was no basis for discrimination and for stigmatizing the children of same-sex couples. In another recent decision, already under appeal, Judge Black ruled that death certificates in Ohio must acknowledge the marital status of surviving spouses in same-sex marriages. But that ruling applied only narrowly, while Judge Black said Friday that his new decision would require the state to recognize all valid marriages, and for all purposes, such as taxation and birth certificate listings. One couple in the suit were married in New York and adopted a child from Ohio. They then asked Ohio to issue a new birth certificate listing them both as parents. Each of the other three couples included a pregnant woman, expecting this spring, and they wanted to ensure that the children would have two legal parents from birth. “We had a lot of pregnant woman in the courtroom today,” said Ms. Sommer, of Lambda Legal, who said she had tears in her eyes as she heard the judge’s announcement. Last year, as it overturned one part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, the United States Supreme Court said the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages performed in states. The Supreme Court has not considered the other provision of the marriage act, which holds that a state does not need to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. In the ruling he previewed Friday, Judge Black will, in effect, be declaring that the second provision of the federal law violates the right to due process and to equal protection under the law. | Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage;Discrimination;Ohio;Timothy S Black |
ny0029582 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/06/20 | State Expected to Drastically Reduce Role of L.I. Power Authority | The Long Island Power Authority would cede most of its control over the electric grid on Long Island and freeze rates for two years under a proposal that state lawmakers are expected to approve on Thursday. The plan calls for the power authority — which has been harshly criticized for its response to storms, including Hurricane Sandy — to sharply cut the size of its staff and reduce its role in managing the power-distribution system. A Newark-based utility, Public Service Enterprise Group, was already scheduled to assume operation of the grid on Jan. 1. After that, the power authority, which has traditionally been stocked with politically connected employees, would no longer take charge in times of crisis. Instead, the utility’s managers would decide how to prepare for impending storms, restore power and communicate with elected officials and customers. “LIPA as we know it will no longer exist on Jan. 1, “ said Larry Schwartz, secretary to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, at a news conference in Albany on Wednesday. “The ratepayers of Long Island lost confidence in the ability of LIPA to run that utility effectively.” Sitting beside the governor, Mr. Schwartz said that the authority’s name would be replaced by P.S.E.&G. on the trucks and uniforms of the utility’s workers. Most of the 90 jobs at the power authority would be eliminated, and its board of directors would shrink to 5 members from 15. But the directors, all of whom would be appointed by Mr. Cuomo, would continue to have final say on the rates charged to the authority’s 1.1 million customers. Mr. Cuomo has promised that electricity rates on Long Island, already among the highest in the country, will be frozen through 2015. But it is unclear what will happen to rates after that. According to the proposal, the state will stop collecting gross receipts tax from the authority, saving LIPA about $26 million a year. Reinventing the power authority has been complicated by the $6.8 billion debt taken on by its predecessor, the Long Island Lighting Company, to build the Shoreham nuclear power plant, now long shuttered. State officials hope to refinance some of that at lower rates, assuming the near-privatization of the system will not jeopardize the authority’s tax-exempt status. Unlike other big utilities in the state, the power authority would not be regulated by the Public Service Commission. The legislation calls instead for the creation of a Long Island office of the State Department of Public Service, which would review the authority’s finances and advise the board. Still, the state’s comptroller and consumer advocates have expressed concerns about continuing the unusual structure that has controlled the distribution of electricity on Long Island for 15 years. They worry about a shortage of staff members to field complaints and to offer sufficient oversight of spending. “We must consider whether a Department of Public Service without enforcement powers will adequately protect ratepayers and control rates, what the short-term and long-term cost implications of the debt restructuring will be to ratepayers, and how service levels on Long Island will be affected,” said Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller, who will review contracts between the utility and vendors but not the amended contract that the authority must negotiate with the utility by Jan. 1. | Hurricane Sandy;LIPA;Long Island;Legislation;New York;Public Service Enterprise Group;Electric power |
ny0017687 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2013/10/25 | Tibetans Call China’s Policies at Tourist Spot Tacit but Stifling | XIAHE, China — Buddhist monks in flowing burgundy robes hurried along the dirt paths of the Labrang Monastery, trying their best to ignore the scrum of Chinese tourists following their every move, many with cameras fit for paparazzi. Pilgrims and those less spiritually inclined wandered through the ornate complex here in the mountain town of Xiahe to gaze upon towering Buddha statues bathed in incense. Some tourists held back to indulge in distinctly unenlightened pursuits, smoking cigarettes and pouting at smartphones in the high-tech vanity ritual known as the selfie. One of the most important sites in Tibetan Buddhism, Labrang presents an idyllic picture of sacred devotion that is carefully curated by the Chinese government, which hopes to convince visitors that Tibetan religion and culture are swaddled in the Communist Party’s benevolent embrace. But behind closed doors, many of the monastery’s resident monks complain about intrusive government policies, invisible to tourists, that they say are strangling their culture and identity. “Even if we’re just praying, the government treats us as criminals,” said a young monk, who like others interviewed recently spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid government repercussions. Image Tourism has increased greatly across the Tibetan plateau. Credit The New York Times Such frustrations, many monks say, are what have driven more than 120 Tibetans to set fire to themselves since 2009, including 13 in the Labrang area, in a wave of protests that has gone largely unreported in Chinese news media. International human rights advocates say that rather than address the underlying grievances — including Beijing’s deeply unpopular campaign to demonize the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader — Chinese authorities have responded with even harsher policies that punish the relatives of those who self-immolate and imprison those who disseminate news of the protests to the outside world. Exile groups and analysts say Labrang and a handful of other monasteries across the vast Tibetan plateau in Central Asia have become showcases for Beijing’s strategy, which seeks to stifle dissent in well-trafficked tourist sites without scaring away visitors. Monks here describe a largely unseen web of controls that keep potential troublemakers in line: ubiquitous surveillance cameras, paid informers and plainclothes security agents who mingle among the busloads of tourists. Hidden from the throngs are the political education sessions during which monks are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama. Stiff jail sentences await those who step out of line. “If we don’t obey, it will be terrible for us,” the monk said. Founded in the early 18th century, the Labrang Monastery is tucked into the dusky hills of northwestern Gansu Province. Each day, hundreds of Chinese tourists arrive to spin colorful prayer wheels lining the monastery perimeter and sip tea at hotels designed to resemble Tibetan nomadic tents. Along the town’s main street, they buy turquoise-encrusted amulets, dress up in monks’ robes and take turns trying on the ceremonial yellow hats that resemble mohawk-style haircuts. Officials hope that a recently completed airport will draw even bigger crowds. In a monastery courtyard surrounded by whitewashed mud walls, a Chinese family from the provincial capital, Lanzhou, knelt down to pray to Buddha. “If you ask nicely, he’ll make your wish come true,” said the mother, Ming Yang, who acknowledged that her understanding of Buddhism ended there. Image Chinese tourists on the Qinghai grasslands near Xiahe. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times With an eye on the lucrative prestige of a Unesco World Heritage listing, the central government is giving the monastery a $26 million face-lift. Around 1,000 monks and 65,000 volumes of Buddhist scripture are housed in the sprawling complex, which local officials say is in dire need of structural improvements. Yet locals complain that much of the construction is aimed at increasing tourism, rather than benefiting Tibetans. “It looks fancy, but in reality all the improvements are for Chinese people,” one said. Tourism is rapidly reshaping much of the Tibetan plateau. According to the Xinhua state news agency, six million tourists visited Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, in the first eight months of this year, a 20 percent increase over the same period in 2012. The boom has attracted several international hotel chains to the city, which is under de facto martial law. In May, Tibetan exile groups started a boycott campaign against the InterContinental Hotels Group, which is building a 2,000-room luxury resort next to the historic residence once occupied by the Dalai Lama. In the wake of violent anti-Chinese protests that swept Tibet in 2008 and the wave of self-immolations that followed, security forces have tightened their grip. The crackdown reaches deep into the folds of Tibetan spirituality. According to the International Campaign for Tibet , officials have posted notices in Tibetan areas declaring it illegal to pray for self-immolators or to show solidarity “by burning incense, chanting religious scriptures, releasing animals from killing and lighting candles.” At least two monks have been jailed for praying on behalf of self-immolators, the group said. Exile groups say such tactics only alienate Tibetans further. “Even lighting a butter lamp or incense stick becomes an act against the state,” Kate Saunders, communications director for the organization, said from London. Image Tourists watch Tibetan monks emerging from a hall at Labrang Monastery. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times Yet local enforcement has been erratic. Nowhere is this more clear than at Labrang, where a framed photo of the Dalai Lama sits on an altar beside a large golden Buddha. For years, the government has banned photos of the Dalai Lama and forbidden Tibetans to worship him as a religious figure. Monks at Labrang said they believed that local officials had decided to quietly tolerate such photos in an effort to head off further unrest. On the tour, few of the Chinese day-trippers seemed to recognize the older, bespectacled man Beijing has called “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” The monk guiding the group made no mention of his identity, lest it threaten the ticket sales and donations needed to cover operating costs. But being the main attraction on a Buddhist safari has spiritual drawbacks. “Chinese tourists just barge in when we’re studying,” a middle-aged monk said as he fingered a set of prayer beads. “It knocks on our minds, but they don’t care.” Such complaints appear to be falling on deaf ears. During a tour of the region in July, China’s top official in charge of ethnic minorities, Yu Zhengsheng, insisted that economic development was the panacea for what ailed Tibetans. In the same breath, he condemned the Dalai Lama’s “middle way,” which calls for genuine autonomy in Tibet but not independence, saying it conflicts with China’s political system. “Only when people’s lives have been improved can they be better united with the Chinese Communist Party and become a reliable basis for maintaining stability,” he said, according to Xinhua. But local Tibetans seethe at China’s refusal to recognize their most basic aspirations. “Our hope is that the Dalai Lama can return,” said a monk, looking out for eavesdroppers while sitting at a cafe. “Without him, there is no chance our religion and culture will survive.” | Tibet;Monasteries;Communist Party of China;Gansu Province China;Labrang Monastery Gansu Province China |
ny0048282 | [
"sports"
] | 2014/11/30 | Letters to the Editor | Why Was Beckham’s Catch A Big Deal? To the Sports Editor: Re “Tested, and Applauded,” Nov. 25: So what’s the big deal about Odell Beckham Jr.'s one-handed catch for the Giants? Any reasonably talented nonprofessional football player can make the average play; N.F.L. players are paid millions of dollars to make the unusual, above-average play. In this context, that’s all Beckham did last Sunday: an above-average job catching a football, albeit one-handed. It should be noted that major league baseball players regularly make spectacular and critical catches. In this context, their defensive play and manifested skill levels should be considered more noteworthy in relation to N.F.L. skill levels in general and Beckham’s catch in particular. EARL BEAL, Terre Haute, Ind. Unequal Pay in Golf To the Sports Editor: Re “Seeking Par Off the Greens,” Nov. 26: For most professional tournaments, the purse of the winning golfer in any particular week on the PGA Tour is roughly the same as the entire purse for all female professionals in that week’s L.P.G.A. Tour event. The obstacles to female golfers can be removed only when the women are paid substantially more than what they are being paid now. LEW LERMAN, Fairfield, Conn. Academics First To the Sports Editor: Re “Columbia Will Take Look at Football Team’s Futility,” Nov. 22: With millions of dollars being invested in college sports throughout the country in recent years, we must be mindful that Columbia, Cornell and other Ivy League universities are academic institutions of the highest quality and that this has always been their mission. It is always satisfying to belong to a winner, but the winners we should be placing our greatest investment in are the students and graduates these universities produce. Don’t get caught up in the mistaken idea that any institution of higher learning achieves its goal of academic quality on the playing fields. WILLIAM E. ZITEK, Shelter Island Heights, N.Y. Rose’s Wrong Message To the Sports Editor: Re “Bulls’ Rose Takes a Seat, and a Stand,” Nov. 21: When a professional athlete like Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls starts to think about his physical condition decades after he has played the game, it’s time to retire instead of sitting out every time he feels a little ache or pain. William C. Rhoden condones the actions of Rose and San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich. But they are becoming co-conspirators in the game’s eventual extinction. There will be no N.B.A. if fans stop buying tickets because they don’t know whether the players they want to see are going to actually play. JACK STUTMAN, Orlando, Fla. | Golf;Football;College Sports |
ny0204440 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2009/01/02 | Roethlisberger Injury Highlights Steelers’ Concussion Team | When Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sustained at least the third concussion of his career on Sunday and was carried off on a stretcher, endangering his availability for his team’s first playoff game on Jan. 11, he was whisked not just to a local hospital but straight into Pittsburgh’s notable history with brain injuries. The former Steelers Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk died before the age of 51 and were later found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, degenerative brain damage similar to that found in boxers with dementia. Those findings and those involving two other N.F.L. players have convinced many experts that football’s repeated and often undiagnosed head trauma can cause significant long-term damage. The Steelers’ concussion-management team — the neurosurgeon Joseph Maroon and the consultants Mark Lovell and Micky Collins — has, however, spent more than 10 years developing the computer-based neurological test now used by hundreds of high school, college and N.F.L. teams to avoid further injury. That visibility has helped their practice at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center attract football players ages 8 to 38 from across the country, making Pittsburgh the virtual hub of modern concussion management. That the Steelers have had three of the five known N.F.L. cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy is largely coincidental. The Webster and Long discoveries were made only on a hunch by a neuropathologist working in a coroner’s office near Pittsburgh, where the two players had died. Moreover, experts have said that the findings were evidence of football’s overall danger rather than neglect by Steelers personnel. Roethlisberger has sustained at least two concussions on the field and one in a motorcycle accident since 2006. Little has been revealed about his treatment and prognosis, other than the repeated optimism of Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin, because team policy forbids public discussion of specific player injuries. Maroon, the Steelers’ neurosurgeon since 1981, was authorized to speak only generally about concussions and his approach to them. He is the only member of the Steelers’ concussion management team to care for Webster (who played for the team from 1974 through 1988), Long (1984-91) and Strzelczyk (1990-98). He said that their brain damage would not affect his handling of any current player, including Roethlisberger. “They all played in a different era,” Maroon said. “Particularly Webster and Long, they played before there was neuropsychological testing, and all teams in the N.F.L., with concussions, kind of shook it off.” He added, “I’m terribly concerned that we utilize all tools to make certain as best we can with the knowledge we have now.” Maroon, a member of the N.F.L.’s 14-member committee on concussions, also noted that it was unknown whether Long’s suicide by drinking antifreeze and Strzelczyk’s steroid use might have factored in their brain damage — a contention outside experts doubted at an N.F.L. conference in 2007. On Sunday, Roethlisberger was tackled hard by two Cleveland Browns, slamming the back of his head against the turf and lying inert for more than 10 minutes. Normal Steelers procedure is for the player to sit on the bench and be questioned about his location, identity, the play and so on, to gauge any amnesia. Motor and sensory tests are typically followed by more memory exercises, and doctors ask if the player has any nausea, a severe headache or visual distortion. Even if he passes all tests, Maroon said, the player sits for 15 minutes and then is retested, both before and after physical exertion, to see if symptoms return. If they do not, he can return to the game — a practice the N.F.L. claims is safe for its players but is known to be dangerous for amateur athletes. Anything but the slightest concussion, Maroon said, calls for the player to leave that game permanently. Roethlisberger was injured shortly before halftime and did not return. He has not made any public comments since. Every player suspected of having a concussion would later undergo the ImPACT neurological test, Maroon said, sometimes after the game but usually the next day. The 20-minute computer test more objectively evaluates memory, brain processing and visual motor skills. If the player scores significantly lower than his baseline number from the preseason, he is to be held out of practice because his brain is considered more susceptible to another concussion and greater damage. Given that Roethlisberger was immediately taken to a local hospital, it is highly unlikely that he had taken an ImPACT test before Tomlin addressed the news media after the game and characterized the injury as relatively mild. Tomlin said, “He is not permanently injured or scarred at this point — he just has a concussion.” He also expressed optimism that Roethlisberger could return to practice in several days. Several concussion experts, including the former Steelers doctor Julian Bailes, bristled at Tomlin’s remarks. They said that concussions could not be deemed fully healed for at least two or three days and that Tomlin’s immediate, public optimism — while not uncommon — misrepresented the seriousness of brain injuries. “Research has shown that symptoms and manifestations of concussion can become apparent days later and are not always apparent immediately following the injury,” said Bailes, the chairman of neurosurgery at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, who served as a Steelers team doctor from 1988 to 1998. “Why the rush to judgment? I think it’s a disservice to the science. If the public doesn’t realize — players, coaches, parents, trainers, fans — that concussions can have later manifestations, it can present a real danger.” On Tuesday, Tomlin said he had merely repeated what a team doctor or trainer told him. He added: “If somebody sustains a concussion, usually it’s 48 hours turnaround before you get some evidence of what they’re capable of being. They had enough information at that point to lead them to believe he might be capable of doing it this week.” Roethlisberger sat out practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, and his status remains uncertain. Maroon did not say what tests he had taken and when, but he said it was the Steelers’ procedure to give another ImPACT test two days after the first. If all objective and subjective signs of injury are gone, the player is cleared to practice, he said. Steelers safety Troy Polamalu went through this process in October, when he sustained a concussion against Cincinnati and missed no subsequent practices. He never appeared on the N.F.L.’s three mandatory injury updates for that week, indicating the team’s conviction that he would play that Sunday. “Concussions are weird in the sense that you don’t know the severity of it,” Polamalu, who has had six documented concussions since high school, said this week. “You can’t really measure it too much. Not only that, it’s the worst injury you can sustain in sports. You can live life without legs, your arms, but it’s hard to go on in life without your mind.” As for how the mounting concussion histories of players like Polamalu or now Roethlisberger might cause long-term cognitive problems, the N.F.L.’s committee on brain injuries has consistently contended that there is no known risk. A pamphlet the league gives all players states, “Current research with professional athletes has not shown that having more than one or two concussions leads to permanent problems if each injury is managed properly.” This claim has been widely disputed by outside experts — including Bailes, who co-authored several survey-based studies that found a heightened incidence of cognitive impairment, depression and dementia among retired N.F.L. players who recalled having many concussions. “What are the effects going to be 20 years from now? Thirty years from now?” Bailes said of Roethlisberger. “What are the long-term implications for him? It’s not just the rush to get him back for the playoffs. There are great concerns about these things.” Maroon again declined to discuss Roethlisberger specifically, but he countered that each player and concussion required individual scrutiny and care. “There are so many factors that have to be considered,” Maroon said, adding that all decisions would be made in Roethlisberger’s best interest. All of those considerations and more will be made with Roethlisberger this week. The only signal that Roethlisberger himself has given came on Sunday: Lying supine on the stretcher, he flashed to the home crowd and millions of fans on television a gutsy thumbs-up, the sign everyone wanted to see. | Football;Concussions;Pittsburgh Steelers;National Football League |
ny0130012 | [
"business"
] | 2012/06/23 | Former A.I.G. Executives in a Deal Ending Prosecution | Five former executives of the American International Group and Gen Re, a Berkshire Hathaway unit, admitted on Friday that they had conducted a fraudulent reinsurance transaction as part of a deal to end a years-long criminal case against them. All five entered into deferred prosecution agreements, meaning their indictments are to be dismissed in a year. They also agreed to fines ranging from $100,000 to $250,000. In 2008, a former Gen Re chief executive, Ronald Ferguson; the chief financial officer, Elizabeth Monrad; the senior vice president, Christopher Garand; and the assistant general counsel, Robert Graham; and an A.I.G. vice president, Christian Milton, were convicted of engineering a reinsurance deal to fraudulently increase A.I.G.’s reserves. Those convictions were thrown out by a federal appeals court in 2011 but a new trial was scheduled. | American International Group Inc;Courts and the Judiciary;Ferguson Ronald E;Graham Robert;Milton Christian;Berkshire Hathaway Inc |
ny0193745 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2009/11/20 | French Study Seeks $52 Billion Bond Issue | France moved a step closer Thursday to issuing billions of euros in bonds to raise money to promote growth industries, even as a leading research group warned it could damage the country’s long-term fiscal future. Two former prime ministers, commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy to study the most promising areas of investment, submitted proposals for a total of 35 billion euros ($52 billion) in new state spending. The two former leaders, Michel Rocard and Alain Juppé, recommended that about half, 16 billion euros, go to universities and research. They also suggested investment should be focused on measures preparing France for a low-carbon economy, notably in transportation, urban design and energy policy. The “grand loan,” as the bond has been known since Mr. Sarkozy floated the idea in June, when the country was still in recession, comes at a time when economists at home and abroad are warning of rising debt levels and their implication for economic growth in years to come. European Union officials have called on member states to begin planning now to wind down economic stimulus measures starting in 2011 to prevent budget deficits and debt levels from spiraling out of control, possibly undermining confidence in the euro. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in a semi-annual economic outlook, added its doubts about the “grand loan” as well. “Such a measure risks being pro-cyclical, coming too late to aid the recovery and making the task of inevitable fiscal consolidation more difficult,” the organization, based in Paris, said Thursday. “Possibly attractive projects should be financed via spending cuts in less attractive categories, or by increasing inheritance and property taxes, as is currently being discussed.” Even without the “grand loan,” France’s budget deficit was projected to peak in 2010 at around 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, with public debt set to rise above 90 percent of G.D.P., the O.E.C.D. said. Mr. Sarkozy is expected to announce his final decision on how much money will be raised and what to spend it on in early December. | France;Sarkozy Nicolas;Government Bonds;Budgets and Budgeting |
ny0116805 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2012/10/28 | A Review of the Tap Room at Crabtree’s Kittle House, in Chappaqua | ON a recent frosty night, I was in the mood for soup, a four-letter word that in no way does justice to the root-vegetable velouté that cascaded from a silver pitcher into my waiting soup plate in the Tap Room at Crabtree’s Kittle House in Chappaqua. The velvety purée, laced with pumpkin oil and chive labneh, and decorated with a tuft of greenery, was the sort of dish that can set the course of an evening: not only was the service swell, and the mood convivial, but the kitchen knew exactly what it was doing. With its copper-clad ceilings, rough stone and hand-sawn timbers, its dark corners brightened by tiny pumpkins and white linens, the Tap Room reminds me of a Scottish pub I once loved. The pretty round face of an antique clock presides like a full moon. The food is just delicious, and rustic in the way Marie Antoinette was when she dressed up as a shepherdess. There’s craft beer on tap, and a hot dog on the menu (O.K., an $12 Wagyu beef hot dog), but you can also turn to a sumptuous terrine of foie gras anointed with madeira gelée and strewed with impossibly small flowers, to be spread on truffled brioche. There’s a spot-on Caesar salad for those who must have one, but you can opt for the earthy, unearthly Kittle House chopped salad, molded like a little fez, bound with Champagne dressing, and bearing a lode of good things to eat: little lettuces, crisp jicama, Fuji apple, tomato, cucumber, red pepper, aged New York Cheddar, black-eyed peas and wisps of red radish. The amuse bouche was a tidy parfait of Hudson Valley apple cider granita, miso foam and green tea dust. Such high-toned fare comes at the hands of Marc Lippman, the chef, who gained attention at Ocean Drive, in Norwalk, Conn., and before that at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, in Los Cabos, Mexico. Once staid and a little fussy, the historic Crabtree’s Kittle House — owned by the Crabtree family since 1981 — is lately more at ease with itself. During a recent renovation, it was out with the chintz and in with the earth tones. And while the main dining room still attracts “special occasion” diners, the Tap Room invites a certain spontaneity: on a Wednesday, we dined without having made a reservation (reservations go fast on weekends, when there’s often a full house). Weeknight or weekend, you’ll eat well. To start, the artisanal salumi plate held spicy La Quercia prosciutto, sweet fennel salami and robust barolo saucisson sec, plus grainy mustard and a bracing grape mostarda (but not, alas, the promised cured duck sausage). Rock shrimp tempura dipped in chipotle aioli was great snack food, although it was more damp than crispy. Among main dishes, the luscious lobster roll was my favorite; it came with exquisitely thin, freshly made potato chips and a brisk “firecracker” coleslaw. We also liked classic eggplant parmigiana; Loch Duart salmon, crisped to perfection and set on silky cauliflower purée; and a neatly sliced hanger steak steeped in a fruity red wine sauce. One dish was too “down home” for my taste: super-smoky barbecued chicken with a dull sweet potato purée and bitter collard greens. Worthy desserts include a pretty lavender vacherin with meringue caterpillars and blackberry coulis, flawless crème brûlée and warm pecan pie with whipped cream (which has been on the menu forever, for good reason). Sugary variations on the “Kittle” theme include a “Kittle Krack” macadamia-nut pie and a “Kittle Kat” chocolate-mousse bar — both very rich indeed. There is also the Kittle House cat, who as a throng of guests departed on a Friday night dropped a dead mouse on the front stoop. The ensuing shrieks and general merriment, combined with swarming parking valets and diesel fumes from an idling charter bus, made me nostalgic for that measured midweek dinner, after which we’d stepped out into the cold — alone — and paused to smell the late red roses blooming under the stars. The Tap Room at Crabtree’s Kittle House 11 Kittle Road Chappaqua (914) 666-8044 kittlehouse.com DON’T MISS THE SPACE A relaxed alternative to the more formal restaurant at the stately Kittle House. The dusky main room has an antique English wood bar; the porchlike annex is a bit brighter. The staff gamely provides flashlights for those struggling to see the menu. Outdoor dining among lawns and hedges in warm seasons. Wheelchair access at front door. THE CROWD Mostly adult. Dressy casual. Impeccable service. Live piano on weekends. THE BAR Full bar. Craft beers on tap (look for the Liquid Gold or Pumpkin Ale from Captain Lawrence Brewing Company ). The wine list runs deep, offering good value on hard-to-find wines. Shorter list for beginners, and strong selection of wines by the glass. THE BILL Starters, $10 to $25 (for foie gras), main courses, $12 to $24, desserts, $9 to $12. WHAT WE LIKED Root-vegetable velouté, chopped salad, foie gras terrine, artisanal salumi, lobster roll, cheeseburger and French fries, eggplant parmigiana, salmon with cauliflower purée, hanger steak with red wine sauce, lavender vacherin, vanilla crème brûlée, pecan pie. IF YOU GO Tap Room menu available Sunday, 3 to 9 p.m.; Monday to Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m. Reservation recommended. Valet parking on weekends. RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K. Don’t Bother. | Restaurants;Chappaqua (NY);Crabtree's Kittle House;Crabtree's Kittle House (Chappaqua NY) |
ny0216520 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2010/04/09 | Netanyahu Cancels Trip to U.S. Nuclear Summit | JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has canceled his plans to attend the Nuclear Security summit meeting in Washington next week and will send a minister in his place, Israeli and American government officials said Thursday. The official declined to explain the last-minute cancellation. But Israeli news media reported that the prime minister feared that Muslim states were planning on using the occasion to raise the question of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear armed power in the Middle East, but it refuses to discuss the issue and has declined to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The official said that Dan Meridor, the minister for intelligence affairs, would attend the meeting, which starts Monday. In Washington, an administration official confirmed that Mr. Netanyahu had canceled his plans to attend. The official said the United States believed that the cancellation was linked to Israeli concerns that the meeting would be used by some countries to focus on Israel’s nuclear program and its refusal to sign the nonproliferation treaty. Leaders of nearly four dozen countries are scheduled to attend the meeting, where President Obama is hoping to reach an agreement on securing vulnerable nuclear stockpiles in an attempt to keep them safe from terrorists. But that issue could be further complicated if attending leaders insist on broadening the conversation to include Israel’s reported arsenal. Many Muslim countries, while acknowledging their concern over Iran’s nuclear program , have insisted that the entire region must be made nuclear free. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday quoted a senior Israeli official as saying, “In the last few days, we have received reports about the intention of several participant states to depart from the issue of fighting terrorism and instead misuse the event to goad Israel” over the treaty. The summit meeting is not supposed to focus on individual nations, but the weapons of North Korea and the nuclear program of Iran, as well as possible sanctions against Iran, are expected to be discussed. Meanwhile, work on possible wording for new sanctions resolutions began at the United Nations on Thursday, where the five permanent members of the Security Council, along with Germany, met to begin discussions. The Israeli prime minister’s cancellation also comes against the background of recent tensions between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government over the terms for restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians . The United States has asked Israel to take certain steps, and Mr. Netanyahu has yet to respond. The main disagreement is over Israel’s building in contested East Jerusalem. | Nuclear Weapons;Israel;United States International Relations;Netanyahu Benjamin |
ny0156164 | [
"business",
"yourmoney"
] | 2008/06/28 | Let Checks Be a Stimulus for Saving Money | IT’S one of those classic ant-versus-grasshopper financial decisions, and millions of Americans are facing it. What should you do with your stimulus check? Spend it, as human nature and Congress intend? Or take a few minutes to reflect upon the rising cost of gas and energy, the likely pinch of expenses yet to come — or bills begging to be paid — and save it? With about two-thirds of the $100 billion in stimulus checks distributed thus far, and millions of people still waiting for theirs (myself included), now is a good time to tune in to the Zen part of your financial brain before you make any decisions. Rather than impulsively dashing to Nordstrom or buying season tickets to your favorite team’s games, just sit with the various possibilities this money offers and think hard before you spend a dime. The government, of course, is handing out these billions of dollars in the hope that people will splurge. And there are some economic theories as to how a nationwide shopping spree could benefit us all. But for every economic argument there is a countervailing one, and I am not going to concern myself with those pros and cons. What matters more is each individual’s financial wellbeing. Wouldn’t it serve our country’s economic health if people used the stimulus to take the path that was fiscally smartest, according to their own situations? After all, rich or poor or somewhere in the middle, far too many of us are stretched to the point where financial sanity is harder and harder to maintain. Someday, historians will look back on this decade as the Crazy Aughts, when spending more than you earned — as long as your house or credit card covered you — was accepted and virtually expected. Don’t think of this as a finger-wagging from on high. I’ve been there, done that and I’m still paying for it. But in light of the windfall many people are anticipating, some numbers bear repeating. The personal savings rate, in terms of disposable income, has swooped down to noteworthy lows. By some measures, Americans have not saved so little since the Depression. In 2006, according to the Commerce Department, the savings rate dipped below zero. Does that mean people have been living beyond their means? Well, officer, it depends on how you define “means.” We have certainly found ways to keep spending. I’m beginning to wonder if we know how to stop. Consumer debt continues to rise, according to the Federal Reserve report on credit released this month. Revolving debt in this country, which primarily consists of credit card debt, was $800 billion five years ago. It was nearly $1 trillion through April — $957 billion, if you want the exact size and depth of the hole we’re digging. But I refuse to take the pile-up of scary economic indicators and rising fuel costs as an excuse to panic. Good things can grow from this muck we’re in. Over all, my debts are minor (and manageable) compared with some, but my husband and I still owe $11,817 on a home equity loan. When I look at the loan statement, I wonder whether the upgrades were worth the angst of carrying extra debt. The larger point being: all that money, spent on what, for what? WITH that question in mind, it’s worth rethinking what you want your stimulus check to stimulate. Here’s a thought. One of the oldest chestnuts in personal finance is, “Pay yourself first.” Knocking down high-interest debt and building your emergency savings (money for gas) would top that list. But the budgeting system I try to follow also insists that you must spend a small percentage of your income every week or month on pure, frivolous fun. It’s like tithing, but on your own behalf. So take 2 or 5 or 10 percent of your stimulus check as a bonus (it’s your money, after all). Then think like the ant and store the rest. You’ll be doing yourself — and the economy — a great service. | Economic Stimulus Act of 2008;Personal Finances;Economic Conditions and Trends;Credit;United States Economy |
ny0251936 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2011/02/25 | Mets’ Ike Davis Goes From Surprise to Fixture at First | PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. The common perception of the 2010 Mets is that they were an unmitigated disaster . Things were pretty bad, on and off the field, but the disaster was not total. Four players came along who were a pleasure to watch, for their effort as well as for their skills, and they are back this year — R. A. Dickey, Josh Thole, Angel Pagan and Ike Davis . If Mets fans put on blinkers and do not look at the underachievers and the injured and the deadwood, they can recall Dickey tossing his knuckleball, Thole taking over at home plate, Pagan playing 151 games of alert baseball, and Davis — well, what do fans remember most about Davis? Perhaps it was the three times he caught a foul ball while moving fast and tumbling into the Mets’ dugout. “It’s not like I practiced it,” Davis said the other day. One would like to think there is no spring training for headfirst dives into the dugout, even if he had alert teammates like Alex Cora, now departed, ready to catch him , like a spotter in an Olympic gymnastics competition. Davis, 23, played like an enthusiastic rookie, and he showed enough power and fielding ability to own first base going into this season. He can only get better. Somebody else is going to have to be the pleasant surprise this year. “I think he’s going to be one of the premier first basemen in baseball,” said the new manager, Terry Collins, who is spreading the late-February enthusiasm that makes spring training such a delight, every year, in all 30 camps. Everybody is improved. Everybody is hustling. Anything can happen. Look at the San Francisco Giants last year. They kept mixing and matching until they had won the World Series. Enough hallucinations from Mets camp. Ike Davis is a given at first base. That’s as much optimism as this team can support at the moment. Davis batted .264 with 19 homers and 71 runs batted in after his call-up on April 19. He hit some attention-gathering long balls and made some flashy plays at first base, enough to make Collins, who observed Davis last year at Buffalo in his role as the Mets’ minor league coordinator , expect more this time around. “He’s got enormous power,” Collins said Tuesday. “As he continues to play, he’ll be more selective. I can see Ike Davis as a No. 4 hitter.” Does the manager worry that Davis will try to come up with more long-distance homers? “That’s why we have hitters in the cage for three, four minutes, so they can work on things,” Collins said. “Ike Davis is a power hitter. I’m not going to make him into a singles hitter.” Davis said he was working on shortening his swing, so he does not commit to a long sweep too soon. But he added, “I want to hit every ball 800 feet.” He made nine errors in 147 games last year but impressed everybody, particularly his pitchers, with his glove and range. “His range to his right is exceptional,” Collins said. “It changes the whole defense because your second baseman can play up the middle.” Dickey, who became just about the heart of the team last year — not easy for an itinerant knuckleballer about to turn 36 — admires Davis’s range. It is not illegal to at least drop the name Keith Hernandez in the discussion of a left-handed first baseman who can move and handle the ball. “I’m still going to make mistakes, but I’m working on it,” Davis said. He is an enthusiastic player. That comes across up close, but it is also transmitted on the field. Davis was prepared for the majors. He probably should have been up on opening day, given the ragtag oldies the Mets took north, but he hit .364 in 10 games in Buffalo, as the Mets held spring cleaning on the fly. To his delight, Davis discovered Mets fans were waiting for him. “They know their minor leaguers,” Davis said. “They knew who I was. They want to win.” He busted up a few games and became a favorite quickly. It helped that fans could see his smile from the upper deck. They sensed he was going to handle New York. The fans also knew that he has a pedigree, in that his father, Ron Davis , broke in with the Yankees in 1978 as a setup man for Goose Gossage and won 14 games in 1979. In Ethnic City, fans learned that Isaac Davis is half Jewish, from his mother, Millie , which instantly made him a New Yorker. “I’m 6-foot-4, I have a dark beard and a big nose,” Davis said Tuesday, noting how fans sometimes recognize him when he goes out for a movie or a meal. He’s not all city boy — he and his dad did a lot of hunting and fishing over the winter — but he also enjoyed sharing a high-rise apartment last season, in Long Island City, Queens, with a great view of Manhattan. He likes Queens because he does not have to cross a bridge to the ballpark, but is not sure he wants to pay penthouse rent again this year, although he can probably afford it. It is not clear where the Mets are going as a team, but Ike Davis seems set. | Davis Ike;Baseball;New York Mets |
ny0166619 | [
"nyregion",
"metrocampaigns"
] | 2006/01/03 | Council Ready to Fill the Job of Speaker | City Councilwoman Christine C. Quinn's candidacy for Council speaker received the support of the powerful Democratic organizations in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn yesterday, all but ensuring that she gets the job. While the speaker will not be officially chosen until tomorrow, by a majority vote of the 51-member Council, Ms. Quinn had enough votes last night to make the election a formality, Council members and Democratic leaders said. Ms. Quinn did not return phone calls yesterday, but issued a statement through an aide. "I am gratified for the support of my colleagues," she said. "I look forward to the vote on Wednesday, and to working with them to improve the lives of all New Yorkers." Ms. Quinn, 39, represents the Manhattan neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Clinton and parts of SoHo and Murray Hill. She would succeed Gifford Miller, who is leaving the Council under the city's term limits law after his unsuccessful bid for mayor. She would be only the third speaker -- and the first woman and first openly gay council member -- to serve in the position since it was created by the 1989 City Charter revisions. After months of maneuvering, Ms. Quinn emerged as the likely winner after Democratic leaders in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn decided over the weekend to support her instead of her closest rival, Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn. Five other Council members had also vied for the position: Lewis A. Fidler of Brooklyn; Leroy G. Comrie Jr., Melinda R. Katz and David I. Weprin of Queens; and Joel Rivera of the Bronx. In a statement last night, Mr. de Blasio thanked his supporters and urged them to support Ms. Quinn. "I've given this race my all, but my colleague Christine Quinn has the support to win," he said. "Now it's time to unite the Council and ensure a strong speaker, so I am supporting Chris." The speaker's position has taken on increasing importance in recent years as a counterbalance to the mayor, and under Mr. Miller, the Council approved a flurry of legislation that reshaped a host of policies, including the city's campaign finance laws and noise and building codes. In addition, the speaker wields enormous influence over the city's $50.2 billion budget, and most land use and zoning issues. The speaker, widely regarded as the second-most-powerful city official, earns $29,000 a year in addition to the $90,000 salary earned by members of the Council. Ms. Quinn, a close ally of Mr. Miller's, is perhaps best known for rallying opponents against the Bloomberg administration's plan to build a football stadium in her West Side district. Since joining the Council in 1999, she has championed socially progressive health and worker benefits laws. As in the last speaker's race, in 2001, the selection was largely determined by an alliance of the Democratic organizations in Queens and the Bronx, which can deliver the votes of as many as 21 council members. In return, those members are expected to be rewarded with key leadership posts in the Council. Ululy Rafael Martinez, a spokesman for the Bronx Democratic Party, said he expected his county's members to once again reap the benefits of supporting the winner. But he added, "In terms of the spoils, and what gets distributed, that's yet to be decided." This year, Brooklyn Democratic leaders also played a role in selecting the next speaker. Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the new Brooklyn Democratic leader, said he had called party leaders in Queens to pledge his support for Ms. Quinn. "I wanted to make sure that we sat at the table," he said. "Last time around, most of the members were shut out because they were backing the candidate who lost." Mr. Lopez and the other county Democratic leaders began placing calls yesterday to individual council members urging them to support Ms. Quinn, effectively bringing an end to the speculation and gossip that had preoccupied members, their aides and lobbyists. Councilman John C. Liu of Queens, who had preferred Mr. de Blasio, said he would support the decision of the Queens party. He said both Ms. Quinn and Mr. de Blasio were strong leaders, with similar public policy agendas. "It's almost like choosing between chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate swirl ice cream," he said. "In the end, both are equally pleasing to my palate." Several council members described Ms. Quinn as a hard worker who not only listened to her colleagues but was politically savvy enough to collaborate with them on legislative issues and to share credit. "She understands the need to compromise," said Councilman Tony Avella of Queens. "The nature of legislation is putting a good idea forward." Mr. Fidler, who had also sought the speaker's position, said Ms. Quinn was the candidate who had appeared to be "most acceptable to everybody" in part because she was well-liked and respected by the other members. "When I shake her hand, I know that her word is good, and that's very important," he said. | MANHATTAN (NYC);QUINN CHRISTINE C;LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP |
ny0273567 | [
"technology"
] | 2016/05/12 | Facebook’s Bias Is Built-In, and Bears Watching | Facebook is the world’s most influential source of news. That’s true according to every available measure of size — the billion-plus people who devour its News Feed every day, the cargo ships of profit it keeps raking in, and the tsunami of online traffic it sends to other news sites. But Facebook has also acquired a more subtle power to shape the wider news business. Across the industry, reporters, editors and media executives now look to Facebook the same way nesting baby chicks look to their engorged mother — as the source of all knowledge and nourishment, the model for how to behave in this scary new-media world. Case in point: The New York Times, among others, recently began an initiative to broadcast live video. Why do you suppose that might be? Yup, the F word . The deal includes payments from Facebook to news outlets, including The Times. Yet few Americans think of Facebook as a powerful media organization, one that can alter events in the real world. When blowhards rant about the mainstream media, they do not usually mean Facebook, the mainstreamiest of all social networks. That’s because Facebook operates under a veneer of empiricism. Many people believe that what you see on Facebook represents some kind of data-mined objective truth unmolested by the subjective attitudes of fair-and-balanced human beings. None of that is true. This week, Facebook rushed to deny a report in Gizmodo that said the team in charge of its “trending” news list routinely suppressed conservative points of view. Last month, Gizmodo also reported that Facebook employees asked Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s chief executive, if the company had a responsibility to “help prevent President Trump in 2017.” Facebook denied it would ever try to manipulate elections. Even if you believe that Facebook isn’t monkeying with the trending list or actively trying to swing the vote, the reports serve as timely reminders of the ever-increasing potential dangers of Facebook’s hold on the news. That drew the attention of Senator John Thune, the Republican of South Dakota who heads the Senate’s Commerce Committee, who sent a letter on Tuesday asking Mr. Zuckerberg to explain how Facebook polices bias. The question isn’t whether Facebook has outsize power to shape the world — of course it does, and of course you should worry about that power. If it wanted to, Facebook could try to sway elections, favor certain policies, or just make you feel a certain way about the world, as it once proved it could do in an experiment devised to measure how emotions spread online. There is no evidence Facebook is doing anything so alarming now. The danger is nevertheless real. The biggest worry is that Facebook doesn’t seem to recognize its own power, and doesn’t think of itself as a news organization with a well-developed sense of institutional ethics and responsibility, or even a potential for bias. Neither does its audience, which might believe that Facebook is immune to bias because it is run by computers. That myth should die. It’s true that beyond the Trending box, most of the stories Facebook presents to you are selected by its algorithms, but those algorithms are as infused with bias as any other human editorial decision. “Algorithms equal editors,” said Robyn Caplan, a research analyst at Data & Society, a research group that studies digital communications systems. “With Facebook, humans are never not involved. Humans are in every step of the process — in terms of what we’re clicking on, who’s shifting the algorithms behind the scenes, what kind of user testing is being done, and the initial training data provided by humans.” Everything you see on Facebook is therefore the product of these people’s expertise and considered judgment, as well as their conscious and unconscious biases apart from possible malfeasance or potential corruption. It’s often hard to know which, because Facebook’s editorial sensibilities are secret. So are its personalities: Most of the engineers, designers and others who decide what people see on Facebook will remain forever unknown to its audience. Image Credit Stuart Goldenberg Facebook also has an unmistakable corporate ethos and point of view. The company is staffed mostly by wealthy coastal Americans who tend to support Democrats , and it is wholly controlled by a young billionaire who has expressed policy preferences that many people find objectionable. Mr. Zuckerberg is for free trade, more open immigration and for a certain controversial brand of education reform. Instead of “building walls,” he supports a “ connected world and a global community .” You could argue that none of this is unusual. Many large media outlets are powerful, somewhat opaque, operated for profit, and controlled by wealthy people who aren’t shy about their policy agendas — Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, Fox News and The New York Times, to name a few. But there are some reasons to be even more wary of Facebook’s bias. One is institutional. Many mainstream outlets have a rigorous set of rules and norms about what’s acceptable and what’s not in the news business. “The New York Times contains within it a long history of ethics and the role that media is supposed to be playing in democracies and the public,” Ms. Caplan said. “These technology companies have not been engaged in that conversation.” According to a statement from Tom Stocky, who is in charge of the trending topics list, Facebook has policies “for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality” of the items that appear in the trending list. But Facebook declined to discuss whether any editorial guidelines governed its algorithms, including the system that determines what people see in News Feed. Those algorithms could have profound implications for society. For instance, one persistent worry about algorithmic-selected news is that it might reinforce people’s previously held points of view. If News Feed shows news that we’re each likely to Like, it could trap us into echo chambers and contribute to rising political polarization. In a study last year , Facebook’s scientists asserted the echo chamber effect was muted. But when Facebook changes its algorithm — which it does routinely — does it have guidelines to make sure the changes aren’t furthering an echo chamber? Or that the changes aren’t inadvertently favoring one candidate or ideology over another? In other words, are Facebook’s engineering decisions subject to ethical review? Nobody knows. The other reason to be wary of Facebook’s bias has to do with sheer size. Ms. Caplan notes that when studying bias in traditional media, scholars try to make comparisons across different news outlets. To determine if The Times is ignoring a certain story unfairly, look at competitors like The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. If those outlets are covering a story and The Times isn’t, there could be something amiss about The Times’s news judgment. Such comparative studies are nearly impossible for Facebook. Facebook is personalized, in that what you see on your News Feed is different from what I see on mine, so the only entity in a position to look for systemic bias across all of Facebook is Facebook itself. Even if you could determine the spread of stories across all of Facebook’s readers, what would you compare it to? “Facebook has achieved saturation,” Ms. Caplan said. No other social network is as large, popular, or used in the same way, so there’s really no good rival for comparing Facebook’s algorithmic output in order to look for bias. What we’re left with is a very powerful black box. In a 2010 study , Facebook’s data scientists proved that simply by showing some users that their friends had voted, Facebook could encourage people to go to the polls. That study was randomized — Facebook wasn’t selectively showing messages to supporters of a particular candidate. But could it? Sure. And if it happens, you might never know. | Facebook;News media,journalism;Gizmodo;Social Media;Data Mining,Big Data;Conservatism in the United States |
ny0068209 | [
"sports"
] | 2014/12/17 | Grizzlies Halt Warriors’ 16-Game Winning Streak | Marc Gasol scored 24 points, and the Memphis Grizzlies stopped the Golden State Warriors’ 16-game winning streak, the longest active run in the N.B.A., with a 105-98 victory at home on Tuesday night. Mike Conley and Zach Randolph each scored 17 points, and Randolph had 10 rebounds as Memphis earned its fifth straight win. Vince Carter added a season-high 16 points, and Jon Leuer had 11. The Warriors came in with the N.B.A.’s best record at 21-2. They lost for the first time since Nov. 11 against the Spurs, also the last team to beat Memphis. This was the first time in N.B.A. history in which each team in a game had 19 or more wins in the first 24 games. The Golden State star Stephen Curry missed back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 10 seconds. He finished with 19 points but was 9 of 25 from the field. Klay Thompson scored 22 points for the Warriors, and Marreese Speights had 18. Harrison Barnes scored 11 points while playing with a mask to protect a broken bone in his face. The Warriors trailed by as many as 14 points and pulled to 2 behind twice in the fourth quarter, the last time at 90-88 on an alley-oop dunk by Shaun Livingston with 5 minutes 9 seconds to go. The Grizzlies’ reserves helped fuel one of the best runs in franchise history in the second quarter, with Memphis scoring 20 straight points while hitting its first six shots of the period. Carter hit three of his 3-pointers in the surge, helping Memphis to a 57-49 lead at halftime. The Warriors used a 14-2 run in the fourth to get close but could not finish off the comeback. WIZARDS 109, TIMBERWOLVES 95 John Wall scored 21 points and equaled a career high with 17 assists, and Rasual Butler had 23 points as Washington won its fifth game in a row against visiting Minnesota. Washington scored 14 straight to take a 14-2 lead less than four and a half minutes into the game. Wall had 10 points and 6 assists in the first quarter. Thaddeus Young, who led a third-quarter charge, had a season-high 29 points for Minnesota, which has lost nine of 10. Shabazz Muhammad had 21 points. Free throws hurt the Timberwolves. They shot just 20 for 35 and missed 10 of 14 in the first half as they trailed by 46-36. Young led Minnesota back in the second half, scoring 19 points in the third quarter, shooting 9 for 10 from the field. The Wizards led by 74-69 after three quarters. Butler led Washington with 18 fourth-quarter points as the Wizards pulled away pulled away early in the quarter. They led by 89-75 with 8:43 to play. PELICANS 119, JAZZ 111 Anthony Davis returned after missing games with a chest injury and scored 31 points, and New Orleans overcame a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit for a win at home over reeling Utah. Davis, who sat out most of Friday’s victory over Cleveland and all of Sunday’s loss to Golden State, played with a protective vest that did not appear to inhibit him. He had nine rebounds and three blocks, with all three rejections coming in the pivotal final four minutes. Ryan Anderson hit six 3-pointers and finished with 28 points for New Orleans, while Tyreke Evans added 19 points, scoring 9 during the Pelicans’ 41-point fourth quarter. Enes Kanter scored 29 points for Utah, which has lost three straight and 12 of 13. Gordon Hayward scored 17 for the Jazz, who lost despite scoring 68 points in the lane. MINNESOTA BIG MAN OUT Ronny Turiaf, the Timberwolves’ backup center, will miss the rest of the season while recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right hip. The surgery went as planned Tuesday in New York. Turiaf appeared in only two games this season, his second with the Timberwolves. They are his seventh team in 10 seasons in the league. The Timberwolves are already missing the starters Ricky Rubio (ankle), Nikola Pekovic (foot, wrist) and Kevin Martin (wrist) for the long term. The backup point guard Mo Williams has missed the last six games with a back injury. | Basketball;John Wall;Timberwolves;Wizards;Memphis Grizzlies;Golden State Warriors |
ny0156327 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2008/06/10 | Chávez Goes Over the Line, and Realizes It | President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela started this month as the most prominent political supporter of Colombia ’s largest rebel group and a fierce defender of his own overhaul of his nation’s intelligence services. But in the space of a few hours over the weekend, he confounded his critics by switching course on both contentious policies. In doing so, Mr. Chávez displayed a willingness for self-reinvention that has served him well in times of crisis throughout his long political career. Time and again, he has gambled by pushing brash positions and policies, then shifted to a more moderate course when the consequences seemed too dire. And while Mr. Chávez has been accused of speaking like an autocrat and of trying to rule like one, his recent actions confirm that Venezuela’s democracy, however fragile it may seem at times, still serves as a check on the president’s wishes. Few issues illustrated the resilience of dissent in Venezuela like the debate around Mr. Chávez’s intelligence law, which would have abolished the secret police and military intelligence and replaced them with new intelligence and counterintelligence agencies. Drafted in secret and enacted through a presidential decree, the breadth of the law shocked Mr. Chávez’s political opposition. The law would have forced judges in Venezuela to support the intelligence services and required citizens to cooperate with community-monitoring groups, provoking widespread fears that the government wanted to follow Cuba in creating a societywide network of informants whose main purpose was to nip antigovernment activities in the bud. Henry Rangel Silva, the head of the secret police, appeared on state television to defend the law, but ended up making matters worse when he acknowledged that his spies were already tracking political candidates, a revelation that appeared to reinforce concerns that the aim of the intelligence overhaul was to quash challenges to Mr. Chávez’s rule, which is settling into its 10th year. The uproar in reaction to the law was intense, coming from human rights groups, news organizations, Roman Catholic leaders and, of course, editorial cartoonists who immediately labeled the law with a name that stuck, “the Getsapo Law,” a play on the words Gestapo and sapo, which literally means toad in Spanish but in Venezuelan slang translates as snitch. With regional elections scheduled this year, Mr. Chávez may have wanted to limit the potential damage of the backlash to his Socialist party’s candidates. But he may also have recognized a good time to withdraw a law that, in his own words, had passages that were “indefensible.” Mr. Chávez convened a commission to rewrite the most polemical parts of the law. “Chávez has incredible political instincts,” said Fernando Coronil, a Venezuelan historian at the University of Michigan. “He has shown to have had, with few exceptions, the pulse of the country, to read its changing political mood better than anyone else.” That said, Mr. Chávez has seemed tone deaf to that mood at times. In December, voters narrowly rejected his broad constitutional overhaul that would have vastly expanded his powers. But Mr. Chávez has proved astute enough to know when his policies do not find enough support, as when he recently withdrew a Socialist-inspired school curriculum and an increase in bus fares. Indeed, the national temperament is now much less buoyant than in December 2006, when voters re-elected Mr. Chávez to a six-year term, and his handlers may have recognized the shift. Despite record oil prices, economic growth is slowing and inflation is soaring. The nationalization of telephone, electricity, oil and steel companies has scared off foreign investment. While shortages of some items have eased, many basic food items remain in short supply. Amid these woes, propaganda billboards with the president’s image have become much less ubiquitous on the streets of Caracas than just six months ago, as if to deflate his cult of celebrity a bit. Mr. Chávez’s shift in his policy on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to the point of calling on them to end their guerrilla war, suggests a similar ability to recognize when some of his gambles are not paying off. Claims have mounted in recent weeks that Mr. Chávez’s government tried to provide financing and arms to the FARC, accusations adamantly denied by Venezuela. But in the face of the recent killing of several FARC commanders, coupled with Colombia’s capture of a Venezuelan military officer accused of providing ammunition to the FARC, Mr. Chávez may have recognized that his call for other countries to recognize the guerrillas as a legitimate force was potentially isolating for Venezuela, especially if proof emerged of military or financial support for the rebels. That could have serious economic consequences, including American sanctions on trade, a thorny issue for both countries given Venezuela’s position as a leading supplier of oil to the United States. Some of Mr. Chávez’s critics say he may have had his international standing in mind, with the FARC increasingly viewed as a marginalized force both militarily and ideologically. “Chávez’s change of tactics is a way for him to buy his way out of a situation in which Colombia presents a case against him in a venue like the Organization of American States,” said Diego E. Arria, a former Venezuelan envoy to the United Nations. | Venezuela;Chavez Hugo;Politics and Government;International Relations;Colombia;Intelligence Services |
ny0109263 | [
"us"
] | 2012/05/26 | Game Is Designed to Help Doctors to Spot Drug Abuse | CHICAGO — As Dr. Danielle McCarthy listens to a man beg for a prescription for painkillers, she weighs her possible responses. A 31-year-old emergency room physician, she listens patiently as the man tells her that “every morning I wake up in pain,” describing the agony he continues to endure, three years after being injured in a car wreck. He has tried physical therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatment, he says. Nothing works except pills, he insists, as his voice grows louder and more demanding. Their exchange is similar to conversations that take place on almost every shift at Northwestern Memorial Hospital here, Dr. McCarthy said. But it is fiction — part of an interactive video game designed to train doctors to identify deceptive behavior by people likely to abuse prescription painkillers. The patient is an actor whose statements and responses are generated by the program. The video game was designed based on research by Dr. Michael F. Fleming at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and draws on technology used by the F.B.I. to train agents in interrogation tactics. It teaches doctors to look for warning signs of drug abuse, like a history of family problems, and to observe nonverbal signs of nervousness, like breaking eye contact, fidgeting and finger-tapping. The game, which is in its final phase of testing, is aimed at primary care and family doctors, who often feel uncomfortable and unqualified assessing their patients in this regard. “This isn’t something medical students have traditionally been trained for,” Dr. Fleming said. “These are hard conversations to have.” It can be a thorny matter, Dr. McCarthy said, because physicians are trained to help patients, but they do not want to enable drug abuse. “You don’t want people to be in pain,” she said. “And you’re put on the spot. I’ve had patients yell at me. I’ve never been hit, but once or twice I’ve felt physically threatened.” In 2009, for the first time, the number of deaths from drug overdoses surpassed those from highway traffic accidents, according to Gail Hayes, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . She said misuse of prescription medication has been largely the cause. About 75 percent of overdoses involved prescription drugs, she added. So health care professionals are searching for better ways to distinguish patients who can be trusted to use prescription pain medications properly from those out to abuse them. According to the C.D.C., prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, fueled by the use of highly addictive opioid analgesics like OxyContin. The Web-based interactive video game, which will soon be available online for a fee to medical schools and health care providers, includes about 2,000 statements by the patient, ranging in tone from charming to irate. A doctor can choose from 1,500 questions and responses, selecting one from five to seven options that appear on the screen when it is time to speak to the patient. The dialogue is drawn from research by Dr. Fleming, based on interviews with more than 1,000 patients who were receiving opioids for pain. “We have 95 percent of what a patient and doctor would say or do,” he said. Sharp skills are needed to assess a patient’s motives, he said, because an objective measurement, like from a blood test or an X-ray, is not available to gauge pain, and the opioids can be highly addictive. The game’s software was developed by Dale E. Olsen, a former professor of engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He is the founder and president of Simmersion , a company that has created simulation training programs for the F.B.I. The game’s development was financed by a $1 million grant from the Small Business Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Olsen, who has a Ph.D. in statistics, said the game would cost users about $50 an hour. It is designed to be used for 10 sessions of 15 to 20 minutes each. He said customers would most likely include medical schools, as well as private and government health care providers. The game encourages doctors to adopt a more collaborative and less accusatory approach with patients, Dr. Olsen said. “The goal is to build rapport,” he said. Dr. McCarthy, wearing headphones and blue scrubs, faces the computer screen, where the patient, named Tom, a trim man with a neatly cropped beard, is asking for pain medication. The physician asks Tom to describe his pain. Tom points vaguely to his lower back. She asks about whether he has ever had any problems with pills. He acknowledges that he once accidentally took too many pills, but that it was “no big deal.” When she asks him to submit to a drug screening, he is testy, but agrees to do so if she insists — “and then I want my pills.” At the end of the interactive portion, the game awarded Dr. McCarthy high marks for communication skills, for asking for a drug test and for declining the request for a prescription. She lost points for not asking enough questions. Dr. McCarthy nodded at the screen in acknowledgment of her score. She explained that there are time constraints in her work. “We move pretty quickly in the emergency room,” she said. “We’re not usually going to have time for 60 questions.” She sometimes has had a hunch that a patient was exaggerating or fabricating pain, she said. She found the training useful, she said, because it offered new suggestions of responses to patients. | Doctors;Pain-Relieving Drugs;Computer and Video Games;Emergency Medical Treatment;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;Northwestern University;Chicago (Ill);Drug Abuse and Traffic;Pain;Drugs (Pharmaceuticals) |
ny0006562 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2013/05/27 | Nonprofit Applicants Chafing at I.R.S. Tested Political Limits | When CVFC, a conservative veterans’ group in California, applied for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, its biggest expenditure that year was several thousand dollars in radio ads backing a Republican candidate for Congress. The Wetumpka Tea Party, from Alabama, sponsored training for a get-out-the-vote initiative dedicated to the “defeat of President Barack Obama” while the I.R.S. was weighing its application. And the head of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, whose application languished with the I.R.S. for more than two years, sent out e-mails to members about Mitt Romney campaign events and organized members to distribute Mr. Romney’s presidential campaign literature. Representatives of these organizations have cried foul in recent weeks about their treatment by the I.R.S., saying they were among dozens of conservative groups unfairly targeted by the agency, harassed with inappropriate questionnaires and put off for months or years as the agency delayed decisions on their applications. But a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review. “Money is not the only thing that matters,” said Donald B. Tobin, a former lawyer with the Justice Department’s tax division who is a law professor at Ohio State University. “While some of the I.R.S. questions may have been overbroad, you can look at some of these groups and understand why these questions were being asked.” The stakes are high for both the I.R.S. and lawmakers in Congress, whose election fortunes next year will hinge in no small part on a flood of political spending by such advocacy groups. They are often favored by strategists and donors not for the tax benefits — they typically do not have significant income subject to tax — but because they do not have to reveal their donors, allowing them to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into elections without disclosing where the money came from. The I.R.S. is already separately reviewing roughly 300 tax-exempt groups that may have engaged in improper campaign activity in past years, according to agency planning documents. Some election lawyers said they believed a wave of lawsuits against the I.R.S. and intensifying Congressional criticism of its handling of applications were intended in part to derail those audits, giving political nonprofit organizations a freer hand during the 2014 campaign. After the tax agency was denounced in recent weeks by President Obama, lawmakers and critics for what they described as improper scrutiny of at least 100 groups seeking I.R.S. recognition, The New York Times examined more than a dozen of the organizations, most of them organized as 501(c)(4) “social welfare” groups under the tax code, or in some cases as 501(c)(3) charities. None ran major election advertising campaigns, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, the main activity of a small number of big-spending tax-exempt groups that emerged as major players in the 2010 and 2012 elections. But some organized volunteers, distributed pamphlets and held rallies leading up to the 2010 elections or the 2012 presidential election, as conservatives fought to turn out Mr. Obama. A report issued this month by the Treasury Department’s inspector general, J. Russell George, found that inappropriate criteria, including groups’ policy positions, were used to flag some cases and that specialists in the I.R.S. office in Cincinnati, which reviews all tax-exemption requests, sometimes asked questions that were irrelevant to the application process. And agency officials have acknowledged that specialists inappropriately used keywords like “Tea Party” and “Patriots” in searching through applications. But some former I.R.S. officials disputed several of Mr. George’s conclusions, including his assertion that it was inappropriate to ask groups about their donors, or whether their leaders had plans to run for public office. While unusual, the former officials said, such questions are not prohibited if relevant to an application under consideration. “The I.G. was as careless with terminology as the Cincinnati office was,” said Marcus S. Owens, who headed the I.R.S.’s exempt organizations division until 2000. “Half of those questions have been found to be germane in court decisions.” I.R.S. agents are obligated to determine whether a 501(c)(4) group is primarily promoting “social welfare.” While such groups are permitted some election involvement, it cannot be an organization’s primary activity. That judgment does not hinge strictly on the proportion of funds a group spends on campaign ads, but on an amorphous mix of facts and circumstances. Image Several conclusions about the I.R.S. by J. Russell George, an inspector general, were disputed by some former agency officials. Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters “If you have a thousand volunteer hours and only spend a dollar, but those volunteers are to help a particular candidate, that’s a problem,” Mr. Tobin said. Agents may examine when and for how long a group advocates policy positions, in part to see whether those positions are associated with a specific candidate, which can be relevant to the group’s tax status, tax lawyers and former I.R.S. officials said. Agents may look at what a group publishes in print or on a Web site, whether it provides funds to other organizations involved in elections or whether a group’s officers are also employed by political parties. They may also consider other public information, former officials and tax experts said, though they are required to ask the organization to provide those materials or comment on them before the information can be included in an application review. “My experience has been that the agents immediately start Googling to see what the organization is doing outside of the application,” said Kevin J. Shortill, a former tax law specialist in the I.R.S.’s exempt organization division. “And that explains why you get these requests for information like, ‘Please print out your Web site and send it in.’ ” Emerge America, which trained women to run for office, was granted 501(c)(4) recognition in 2006, but its status was revoked in 2012. Training people how to run for office is not in itself partisan activity, but the I.R.S. determined that the group trained only Democratic women and was operated to benefit one party. At least some of the conservative groups that are complaining about I.R.S. treatment were clearly involved in election activities on behalf of Republicans or against Democrats. When CVFC, the veterans’ group, first applied for I.R.S. recognition in early 2010, it stated that it did not plan to spend any money on politics. The group, whose full name in its application was CVFC 501(c)(4), listed an address shared with a political organization called Combat Veterans for Congress PAC. CVFC told the I.R.S. that it planned to e-mail veterans about ways in which they “may engage in government” and provide “social welfare programs to assist combat veterans to get involved in government.” But later in 2010, as it awaited an I.R.S. ruling, the organization spent close to $8,000 on radio ads backing Michael Crimmins, a Republican and a former Marine, for a House seat in San Diego, according to Federal Election Commission records. The spending is not detailed in the group’s tax return for 2010, raising questions about whether it properly accounted for the expense to the I.R.S. The group also checked off a box marked “No” when asked if it had engaged in direct or indirect political activities on behalf of a candidate for political office. The group received two rounds of questions from the I.R.S. in 2012, according to its lawyer, Dan Backer. They included queries about the group’s donors and its exact relationship with Combat Veterans for Congress PAC. The agency also asked about CVFC’s activities, but the group neglected to bring up its radio ads in its follow-up responses. Mr. Backer called the agency’s questions “sweepingly overbroad” and said the group had answered them appropriately. In Alabama, the Wetumpka Tea Party organized a day of training for its members and other Tea Party activists across the region in the run-up to the 2012 election. The training was held under the auspices of the Adopt-a-State program, a nationwide effort that encouraged Tea Party groups in safely red or blue states to support Tea Party groups in battleground states working to get out the vote for Republicans. Adopt-a-State was a key component of Code Red USA, a get-out-the-vote initiative organized by a conservative political action committee. The goal of Code Red USA was made clear in one of its fund-raising videos, which told supporters: “On Nov. 6, 2012, Code Red USA authorizes the defeat of President Barack Obama.” Becky Gerritson, Wetumpka’s president, said in an e-mailed statement that her group engaged “mostly in education on all sorts of topics” and that the day of training was just one of a variety of events that it held for “educational purposes.” Some groups appeared to be confused or misinformed about the I.R.S. rules applying to their activity. Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, another Tea Party group that has complained about the scrutiny it received from the I.R.S., sent out regular e-mails to members about Romney campaign events and organized protests around the state to “demand the truth about Benghazi” when Mr. Obama visited before the 2012 election. The coalition also canvassed neighborhoods, handing out Romney campaign “door hangers,” Mr. Zawistowski said. The I.R.S. usually considers such activities to be partisan. But when Mr. Zawistowski consulted his group’s lawyers, he said, he came away understanding that the I.R.S. was most concerned with radio or television advertising. He said he believed that other activities, like distributing literature for the Romney campaign, would not raise concerns. “It’s not political activity,” he said. | Internal Revenue Service Political Profiling;Tea Party movement;Campaign advertising;IRS;J Russell George;Treasury Department |
ny0134670 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2008/04/18 | Jets Mix Serendipity With Study in Draft | HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — In preparation for the coming N.F.L. draft, the Jets evaluated more than 1,200 players, interviewed around 450 and pieced together a draft board with 397 names. Despite all that preparation, draft-day decisions often come down to something trivial. Like a bathroom break. Last year, after the Jets traded up to select cornerback Darrelle Revis in the first round, General Manager Mike Tannenbaum went to the restroom. While there, he bumped into the defensive assistant Bryan Cox, who congratulated Tannenbaum on the pick and reminded him about a linebacker named David Harris. The Jets traded up again and selected Harris in the second round. “It’s a collaborative effort,” a chuckling Tannenbaum said at a news conference Thursday. “Everyone’s input is sought.” If last year’s draft were conducted again this spring, Terry Bradway, the Jets’ director of player personnel, ventured that both Revis and Harris could go in the top 10 based on their performances as rookies. Therein lies the beauty of the N.F.L.’s annual selection process. All the time, money and preparation fail to guard against uncertainty. Especially this year. The Jets pick sixth over all in an uncertain draft, and hold second-, sixth- and seventh-round choices, along with two selections in the fourth. They lost their third- and fifth-round picks by trading for Carolina defensive tackle Kris Jenkins. Possibilities abound. Arkansas running back Darren McFadden and the Ohio State defensive hybrid Vernon Gholston are two, along with the chance the Jets will move in an opposite direction from the route they took last season, trading down to select a cornerback and fill one of their remaining needs. They filled most needs during free agency, signing eight players, adding needed size up front. They brought in two offensive starters in guard Alan Faneca and tackle Damien Woody, Jenkins and another hybrid linebacker/defensive end in Calvin Pace. The Jets also handed out extensions to safety Kerry Rhodes and defensive tackle Sione Pouha, while guaranteeing the $11 million remaining on receiver Laveranues Coles’s contract. “All that was done with the goal of giving us as much flexibility heading into next weekend as possible,” Tannenbaum said. “Our stated goal remains the same: We want to primarily build this team through the draft.” The Jets typically revealed little Thursday. Their draft board is mostly set, save any tweaks next week. College players are still interviewing at the team’s facility, including six on Friday. Bradway also said this draft was deeper than last year’s. Mostly, the Jets talked philosophy. They prefer selecting the best player on their draft board, but will incorporate their needs in that decision. They did not rule out trading the sixth pick, but believe trade activity will heat up late next week, earlier than usual, because less time is allotted between picks this draft. “It seems like a pretty fluid situation,” Tannenbaum said of the early part of the first round. “We have to be comfortable with six players, and we’re finalizing that now. That’s the only part of the process we can control.” McFadden remains an intriguing possibility, if available, but he comes with baggage and character issues the Jets typically avoid. The Jets also like Gholston, although some consider him a similar player to Pace. They also did not rule out drafting a quarterback, despite the return of Kellen Clemens and Chad Pennington, both of whom started a significant portion of last season. Tannenbaum pointed out that when the Jets selected Pennington in the first round in 2000, they already had quarterbacks Vinny Testaverde and Ray Lucas on the roster. On the subject of defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson, who the Jets have tried but failed to trade this off-season, Tannenbaum said: “He’s on the team right now, until something changes. We expect him to be here.” Robertson could be moved in a draft-day trade. EXTRA POINTS During Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Washington, he blessed the newborn baby of quarterback Kellen Clemens. | Football;New York Jets;National Football League |
ny0020775 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2013/09/04 | Playing Detective in Finding Films of Opponents | Every day during his numerous trips through the United States Naval Academy’s football offices, Todd Green passes rooms where coaches and players are gathered watching video that he, the team’s video coordinator, has collected, vetted and organized. And more often than not, footage that he has negotiated for. Video coordinators have a thankless job. They are overworked, anonymous to fans, and rarely receive the recognition they deserve for compiling what essentially determines a team’s game plan each week. They are also forced to navigate rules about the exchange of game film that can turn their profession into a strange alchemy of dogged legwork of a detective and the backslapping of a car salesperson. The film format itself has evolved over the years — from reel film to videotape to digital files — but the collection of the video still depends on one principle: cooperation from opposing teams. Most conferences have rules that all teams must exchange game film with one another. For example, if Southern California wants to prepare for a game against Stanford, then Stanford must send U.S.C. film from that season and vice versa, or they would face a penalty from the Pacific-12. The process becomes trickier once teams try to exchange with nonconference teams. For the most part, opponents are cooperative, but they are under no requirement to exchange films with a nonconference team. It is simply a gentleman’s agreement when they do. If a team decides not to exchange video, then it falls on the video coordinator to try to get that film in some other way. “They all know we’ll find a way to get it, and it just makes the job easier if they cooperate,” the U.S.C. video coordinator Eric Espinoza said. “Plus, they know that one day, they might need a favor.” A few years ago when Pete Carroll was the coach at U.S.C., Nevada called Espinoza to get film of U.C.L.A. The video coordinator told Espinoza that he had called U.C.L.A. but had met with resistance. Espinoza spoke to his coaching staff and asked whether he should give Nevada the film. The coaches agreed on one condition: that Nevada send along its own film of their celebrated, and much imitated, pistol offense, footage that was rarely given out. U.S.C.’s reasoning was simple: Rick Neuheisel, who had recently been hired by U.C.L.A., had installed the pistol with the Bruins after being tutored by Nevada’s coaches. Image Like other video coordinators, Eric Espinoza at Southern California must lean on his connections sometimes to get footage. Credit Stuart Palley for The New York Times Nevada agreed to give U.S.C. the film, and in Neuheisel’s three years at U.C.L.A., the Trojans stomped the Bruins three times by a combined 106-21 score. Complicating matters is that some teams make agreements to exchange video on the condition that the video not be shared with other teams. Yet that does not always guarantee secrecy. One video coordinator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue can be so sensitive, said that when he once came upon a situation in which a team had agreed not to release another team’s video, he simply asked one of his coaches if he knew someone on that team’s staff who could help. The coach called his friend and was able to secure the film. “I don’t even know if there were any other coaches on that team’s staff who knew about it,” the video coordinator said. A coaching switch can also make a video coordinator’s life difficult. Because a team’s video from the previous season would show the previous coach’s formations, a video coordinator must find video from the new coach’s former team. “A lot of times, we’re restricted by what the coaching staff wants to do,” Espinoza said. “A lot of times, there’s a reason they don’t want to give something out. But it’s silly, too, because the other schools are going to find a way to get it.” What separates the film that each team owns from the footage shot by broadcast cameras is that it does not focus on the ball. Instead, cameras are set up on the side of the field and in the end zone by each team’s video department to capture panoramic shots of the entire field. The sideline camera, usually placed somewhere in the press box area, captures all the movement before the snap and all the action on the field, like the routes of wide receivers and the movement of defensive backs. The end zone camera, sometimes placed on a scoreboard, focuses on the line, and can help coaches determine defensive and offensive alignment, and also nuanced movement within the lines, like blocking tactics and blitzes. Also, the end zone camera can capture a quarterback’s movements that might, among other things, give away a snap count. This footage makes some coaches protective of the video, regardless of the collateral damage on their video coordinators. “They don’t understand, and really, they don’t need to understand,” said Tennessee’s video coordinator, Joe Harrington, who has been at the university since 1990. “You work for Type A guys who are under a lot of pressure to win.” Image Teams, like Southern California, shoot video from multiple angles to analyze each of them later. Credit Stuart Palley for The New York Times With a click of a button, teams can access hours of film through an online database. But the task of collecting video used to be much more challenging. Video coordinators used to take tapes with them to an airport on Sunday mornings after games so they could be delivered that same day to their opponents. Then they would have to wait at the airport to receive the video the opponents had sent. In the off-season, teams shipped video through the mail. Such a task often led to gamesmanship. One off-season, Harrington made a deal to exchange video with a large nonconference team that Tennessee was going to play that season. Harrington carefully packed a box full of tapes and mailed it. Months passed without Harrington’s receiving a similar package. Harrington called the video coordinator to see what had happened. His counterpart said that the coaches had changed their minds and no longer wanted to make an exchange, Harrington said. The box Harrington had sent had not been opened, he was assured, and it was going to be sent back in the condition it was received. But when the box arrived back at Tennessee, Harrington said, the tapes were out of order. Infuriated, Harrington called all of Tennessee’s opponents from the previous year and asked them not to send video to that team. After the video coordinator from the uncooperative program failed to get film of Tennessee, he called Harrington and again asked for an exchange. Harrington begrudgingly consented, but he delayed sending the film until during the week of the game, which Tennessee won. “I felt I had played a small part of that,” Harrington said. The digital era of video has erased much of that mischief. But the responsibilities of video coordinators have expanded. Now they must churn out high-definition videos for recruiting purposes and set up online access to film for road games so coaches can have access to all the data they need. “Coaches want so much, so they know they have to give stuff up,” said Bill Toof, Boston College’s video coordinator since the 1980s. “It’s evolved to where the cloak-and-dagger stuff is almost out of the picture.” But not completely. Last season, Michigan State accused Ohio State of editing its tapes to exclude some movement before the snap. Neither program allowed its video coordinator to comment. Several coordinators said they had been asked by a coach to cut out something important from a video, like pre-snap movement. But if video coordinators do, they risk losing their job if the team is reprimanded by the conference. If coordinators do not, they risk damaging their relationship with the coach. Green, Navy’s video coordinator, said he regularly received film without pre-snap motions from one opponent. But because Navy does not belong to a conference, it has little recourse. So Green makes phone calls and tries to get the complete video from another team. After a few phone calls, he usually can get his hands on his opponent’s complete game film, with all the pre-snap motions, from another team. Just part of the job for a veteran video coordinator. | College football;Video;USC;Eric Espinoza |
ny0246486 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2011/04/13 | For Knicks, Ready or Not, Playoffs Await | Over the course of a few hours Monday evening, the Knicks learned their playoff position (sixth), their opponent (the Celtics) and their first-round disposition (likely testy). If there are any lingering mysteries, they concern only the Knicks themselves. Their identity is loosely established, having played a mere 27 games with Carmelo Anthony, and just 18 with Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups in the lineup. They will gain no clarity before Game 1 of the playoffs. Stoudemire missed his third straight game Tuesday as the Knicks closed out their home schedule with a 103-90 loss to the Chicago Bulls, the top team in the East, snapping their seven-game winning streak. Although his sprained left ankle is improving, Stoudemire will probably be held out of Wednesday’s season finale in Boston as well. So whatever the Knicks have become, in two months of fits and spurts, that is who they will be when they open the playoffs, most likely on Sunday. They are presumed to be a better-than-average low seed — the proverbial team no one wants to play — because of their star power. “I think that we are probably the most dangerous first-round team in the N.B.A.,” Billups said. “When I say that, it’s because we are fresh and we are new. We are dangerous. We got a lot of weapons and we can move the scoreboard.” Their talent, however, is largely concentrated among three players, all of whom have to be at their best for the Knicks to have any chance of beating the Celtics, the defending Eastern Conference champions. Stoudemire has not played since turning his ankle in Philadelphia last Wednesday. Billups previously missed six games with a bruised thigh, disrupting the Knicks’ initial efforts to create some chemistry after the late-February trade that brought Anthony and Billups to New York. The Knicks (42-39) could have used two more meaningful games to tune up their offense and defense. But with nothing left to gain, Coach Mike D’Antoni is exercising caution; he said he would probably hold Stoudemire out of the finale. Stoudemire’s ankle seems sturdy. He ran wind sprints prior to Tuesday’s game and declared himself ready to play. ”I’m 100 percent,” he said, wearing a sweat-soaked T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Clinched.” Asked if he could play if needed, Stoudemire said, “No question.” D’Antoni let competitiveness override his good sense Tuesday, sending Anthony and Billups back onto the court with 6 minutes 33 seconds left and the Knicks down by 12. He pulled them two minutes later and afterward said he regretted putting them in. The playoff bracket was set Monday night, when the Celtics — who were resting Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce — lost to the Washington Wizards. They will probably do the same Wednesday. The Knicks are 0-3 this season against the Celtics, but only one of those games involved Anthony. They were competitive in the fourth quarter of all three games. Are the Knicks a dangerous sixth seed? D’Antoni embraced the notion cautiously. “Us? Yeah, we can be that,” he said. “I think we have enough talent on the team.” He quickly added, “I don’t think we’re battle-tested, so you don’t know what you have. But I do know we have a lot of talent out there.” Although the Celtics (55-26) have struggled over the last month, going 9-11, they remain formidable, with four elite players and a deep, experienced supporting cast featuring Glen Davis, Jermaine O’Neal, Delonte West and Carlos Arroyo. “That’s one of the best teams in the league,” Billups said. “A lot of veterans who know how to win.” The Knicks paid little heed to Boston’s recent swoon, noting that the Celtics similarly stumbled last April before marching to the N.B.A. finals. The Celtics have been to the finals twice in the last three years and won the championship in 2008. “I’ve been on those teams, where it’s pretty much veteran teams and the regular season is just not that much fun,” said Billups, who has played in two finals. “You look forward to the playoffs and I think that’s the kind of team that they are. We got our hands full.” | Basketball;Sports Injuries;New York Knicks;Stoudemire Amare;Playoff Games |
ny0277882 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/11/10 | Obama Calls for Unity, but Signature Acts Remain in Jeopardy | WASHINGTON — Standing in the Rose Garden, where he once marked the Paris climate accord, celebrated the Supreme Court decision saving his health care law and unveiled the Iran nuclear deal, President Obama promised on Wednesday to “root for” Donald J. Trump, even though Mr. Trump has vowed to topple those and other pillars of Mr. Obama’s legacy. “Everybody is sad when their side loses an election,” the president declared. “But the day after, we have to remember that we’re actually all on one team. This is an intramural scrimmage.” For Mr. Obama, however, this scrimmage could result in the reversal or dismantling of several of his most cherished achievements — laws and agreements that required years of negotiation, heavy doses of political capital, and, in some cases, a stroke of luck. The White House acknowledged that Mr. Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, was in genuine jeopardy. Mr. Trump has vowed to repeal it as one of his first acts in office, and a Republican-controlled Congress will prod him to do so. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Obama would lobby Mr. Trump to keep it in place — an effort that suggests Mr. Obama believes that Mr. Trump can be persuaded on certain issues. The president invited Mr. Trump to visit the White House on Thursday, and in his remarks, Mr. Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward his successor. “We all want what’s best for this country,” he said. “That’s what I heard in Mr. Trump’s remarks last night. That’s what I heard when I spoke to him directly. And I was heartened by that.” Mr. Obama also said he “could not be prouder” of Hillary Clinton. But as the White House absorbed her defeat and cranked up the machinery to transfer power to Mr. Trump, there was an undercurrent of anger among his allies that she had squandered the opportunity left to her by a popular president. “President Obama, with an approval rating above 50 and an unemployment rate below 5, did all he could to set the table for a Democrat to succeed him,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. How Trump Reshaped the Election Map Donald J. Trump made good on his strategy of stoking the enthusiasm of white voters to defeat Hillary Clinton. “Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential presidents,” Mr. Pfeiffer added. “Tuesday is a bitter pill to swallow, but it won’t change that fact.” The president’s remarks capped an emotional day at the White House. Dozens of staff members spilled into the Rose Garden to applaud their boss. Just before he spoke, Mr. Obama pulled a handful of aides into the Oval Office for a pep talk. Earlier on Wednesday morning, several had cried during the daily senior staff meeting. As night fell, Mr. Obama welcomed current and former members of his cabinet to the White House for a thank-you party that was supposed to have been a celebration of Mrs. Clinton’s victory and his administration’s work. Instead, it was a gathering of stunned officials, and an aide said Mrs. Clinton would not attend. For weeks, Mr. Obama campaigned like a happy warrior for Mrs. Clinton. But asking people to vote to preserve his legacy was less effective than asking them to vote for him. Some former officials held out hope that the president’s health care legacy could be preserved, saying that Mr. Trump would hesitate to deprive 20 million people of health insurance without any substitute, and that Republican lawmakers, having spent more time trying to scrap the existing law than shape a new one, have no consensus on a replacement. New presidents are often less zealous in unraveling their predecessors’ achievements than in vowing to do so on the campaign trail. Richard M. Nixon left Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society legislation largely intact; Ronald Reagan, after defeating Jimmy Carter, did not kill off the Education Department. “By the time people go after these institutions, they have constituencies of their own,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. He added, “Given the impulsiveness and the way he goes from pillar to post, it’s impossible to predict what Trump will do.” Mr. Trump could undermine a major part of the health law by directing the Justice Department to alter its position in a lawsuit filed by House Republicans. At issue in the litigation are “cost-sharing subsidies” that help pay doctor and hospital bills for millions of lower-income people. A federal district judge has already ruled against the administration, finding that Congress never appropriated money for these subsidies. Republicans will not have a 60-vote majority in the Senate, so they could not overcome a filibuster by Democrats trying to preserve the law. But Republicans could dismantle other elements, including the expansion of Medicaid, using a budget procedure known as reconciliation, which does not require a supermajority. Congress approved such a reconciliation bill in January, which Mr. Obama promptly vetoed. The president’s big international agreements face a similarly perilous future. If Mr. Trump were to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord — which he has vowed to do, labeling climate change a “hoax” — the agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would remain legally binding on the United States for four years, but it would lose much of its impact. Mr. Obama’s mammoth Asian trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, was in political trouble even before the election. Now, analysts said, it is unlikely to ever get a vote. Mr. Trump has said he would have struck a better nuclear deal with Iran, suggesting he might try to reopen talks. But four other countries also signed the deal, and there is no sign that they would go along with him. Reopening negotiations could also prompt Iran to restart its uranium centrifuges, putting the country back on a path to a nuclear weapon. But the Iranians have been unhappy with the existing deal because the United States has not lifted direct sanctions, chilling foreign investment. That could provide Mr. Trump with an opening, experts said. “Reopening the agreement means reopening it for the Iranians, too,” said Martin S. Indyk, executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. “Given that they’re more unhappy with it than we are, President Trump may discover there’s more in this deal for our side than he first realized, especially if the alternative is that the Iranians restart their nuclear program.” Mr. Obama and his top advisers have always recognized the fragility of his legacy items, especially those achieved by bypassing a recalcitrant Congress. After all, the president himself began plotting almost immediately after winning the White House in 2008 how to accomplish his campaign promises, which included rolling back some of George W. Bush’s policies. During Mr. Obama’s transition, his advisers consulted a book, “With the Stroke of a Pen,” which documented the use of executive orders throughout American history, and compiled a set of actions the president could take on his own. Now Mr. Trump is likely to do the same, said Gregory B. Craig, Mr. Obama’s first White House counsel, who led that process during his transition. “During the first 100 days, the presidency will likely become a vehicle for moving the Republican agenda forward,” Mr. Craig said. “Nothing with Obama’s name on it is safe. It will be: ‘Let’s pull out the list of Obama’s sacred cows and slaughter them, one by one.’ ” | 2016 Presidential Election;Barack Obama;Donald Trump |
ny0294493 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2016/06/12 | China Tries to Redistribute Education to the Poor, Igniting Class Conflict | BEIJING — Cheng Nan has spent years trying to ensure that her 16-year-old daughter gets into a college near their home in Nanjing, an affluent city in eastern China. She wakes her at 5:30 a.m. to study math and Chinese poetry and packs her schedule so tightly that she has only 20 days of summer vacation. So when officials announced a plan to admit more students from impoverished regions and fewer from Nanjing to local universities, Ms. Cheng was furious. She joined more than 1,000 parents to protest outside government offices , chanting slogans like “Fairness in education!” and demanding a meeting with the provincial governor. “Why should they eat from our bowls?” Ms. Cheng, 46, an art editor at a newspaper, said in an interview. “We are just as hard-working as other families.” Parents in at least two dozen Chinese cities have taken to the streets in recent weeks to denounce a government effort to expand access to higher education for students from less developed regions. The unusually fierce backlash is testing the Communist Party’s ability to manage class conflict, as well as the political acumen of its leader, Xi Jinping. The nation’s cutthroat university admissions process has long been a source of anxiety and acrimony. But the breadth and intensity of the demonstrations, many of them organized on social media, appear to have taken the authorities by surprise. At issue is China’s state-run system of higher education, in which top schools are concentrated in big prosperous cities, mostly on the coast, and weaker, underfunded schools dominate the nation’s interior. Placement is determined almost exclusively by a single national exam, the gaokao , which was administered across China starting on Tuesday. The test is considered so important to one’s fate that many parents begin preparing their children for it before kindergarten. The government has threatened to imprison cheaters for up to seven years. The exam gives the admissions system a meritocratic sheen, but the government also reserves most spaces in universities for students in the same city or province, in effect making it harder for applicants from the hinterlands to get into the nation’s best schools. The authorities have sought to address the problem in recent years by admitting more students from underrepresented regions to the top colleges. Some provinces also award extra points on the test to students representing ethnic minorities. Image Demonstrators in Zhengzhou protested in May over what they said was a lack of university student placements in Henan Province. They held signs reading, “Fairness in education.” Credit Chinatopix, via Associated Press This spring, the Ministry of Education announced that it would set aside a record 140,000 spaces — about 6.5 percent of spots in the top schools — for students from less developed provinces. But the ministry said it would force the schools to admit fewer local students to make room. Against the backdrop of slowing economic growth, the plan set off a flurry of protests and counterprotests. In Wuhan, a major city in central China known for its good universities, parents surrounded government offices to demand more spots for local students. In Harbin, a northeastern city, parents marched through the streets, calling the new admissions mandate unjust. But in Luoyang, a city in Henan Province, one of China’s poorest and most populous, protesters countered that children should be treated with “equal love.” And in Baoding, a few hours’ drive southwest of Beijing, parents accused the government of coddling the urban elite at the expense of rural students. “When they need water, land and crops, they come and take it,” said Lu Jian, 42, an electrician who participated in the protests in Baoding. “But they won’t let our kids study in Beijing.” The government has responded cautiously, censoring news reports of the outcry and ordering the police to contain the demonstrations. Analysts said the protests posed a delicate challenge for President Xi, whose signature slogan, the “China dream,” is a vaguely defined call for national rejuvenation that many associate with a promise of educational opportunity. “The traditional Chinese dream is the hope of advancement for children through a relatively open, meritocratic and egalitarian system,” said Carl F. Minzner, a professor of law at Fordham University and an expert on Chinese government. “Popular outrage is triggered when there’s a perception that this is being challenged.” Mr. Xi has argued that high levels of inequality in China could shake the party’s hold on power, and his government has sought to ease frustration in poorer areas by investing in education, health care and social services. But party leaders are also wary of alienating a growing and increasingly outspoken urban middle class. “The question is how far are they willing to go in reallocating the privileges enjoyed by established urbanites, many of them state employees,” Professor Minzner said. Over the past two decades, the government has opened hundreds of new institutions of higher education, and university enrollment surged to 26.2 million in 2015 from 3.4 million in 1998, though much of the growth has been in three-year polytechnic programs. At the same time, job prospects for college graduates in China have dimmed in recent years. That has left parents worried about wasting their life savings on substandard schools and even more desperate to get their children into the better ones. Dissatisfaction with the gaokao (pronounced GOW-kow) is also rising. The test, modeled after China’s old imperial civil service exam, was intended to enhance social mobility and open up the universities to anyone who scored high enough. But critics say the system now has the opposite effect, reinforcing the divide between urban and rural students. The top universities in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing are the most likely to lead to jobs and the hardest to get into. Students from less developed regions are vastly underrepresented at these colleges. That is because they attended schools with less money for good teachers or modern technology and because the admissions preference for local applicants means they often need higher scores on the gaokao than urban students. “It is a system that benefits the privileged at the expense of the disadvantaged,” Sida Liu, a sociologist at the University of Toronto, wrote in an email. “Without the improvement of schools in these regions, I would not expect any major change in educational inequality in China.” The government’s plan to address inequality by taking university spots away from local students, though, tapped into frustration among parents in China’s most modern cities who are unhappy with a shortage of high-quality schools. Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, described the backlash as “an outburst of a long-repressed grudge,” adding that a drastic overhaul of the system should be considered. A set of national universities could rely on the gaokao to admit students from across the country, he suggested, while provincial colleges could focus on recruiting local students so they would look more like public universities in the United States. But any change is likely to draw criticism, given limited resources and ethnic and regional prejudices. A common complaint, for example, is that students from Xinjiang, the far western region that is home to China’s Muslim ethnic Uighur population, receive a subpar education and should not get extra exam points. A group of parents in Beijing has filed a complaint with the education ministry contending that minority students at an elite high school who had been recruited from across China should not be treated as residents of the city, and that, instead, spaces should be freed up in Beijing’s universities for other local children. In poorer provinces like Henan, public anger is often directed at local governments for underinvesting in education and therefore dooming children in a society with a wide gap between rich and poor. “When students from Beijing get into top universities and our students fail to do so, some become migrant workers,” said an open letter circulated by parents in Henan last month. “Who is to blame?” | China;College;School Admissions;Civil Unrest;Income Inequality;Tests |
ny0196414 | [
"us"
] | 2009/10/19 | Amid Ruin of Flint, Seeing Hope in a Garden | FLINT, Mich. On one side of the fertile lot stands an abandoned house, stripped long ago for scrap. On the other side, another abandoned house, windows boarded, structure sagging. And diagonally across the street, two more abandoned houses, including one blackened by a fire maybe a year ago, maybe two. But on this lot, surrounded by desertion in the north end of Flint, the toughest city in America, collard greens sprout in verdant surprise. Although the broccoli and turnips and snap peas have been picked, it is best to wait until deep autumn for the greens, says the garden’s keeper, Harry Ryan. The frost lends sweetness to the leaves. His is not just another tiny community garden growing from a gap in the urban asphalt. This one lot is really 10 contiguous lots where a row of houses once stood. On this spot, the house burned down. (“I was the one who called the fire department.”) On that spot, the house was lost to back taxes. (“An older guy; he was trying to fix it up, and he was struggling.”) Garbage and chest-high overgrowth filled the domestic void of these lots on East Piper Avenue until four years ago, when Mr. Ryan decided one day: no. After receiving the proper permission, he began clearing the land. Rose Barber, 56, a neighbor who keeps a 30-inch Louisville Slugger, a Ryne Sandberg model, by her front door, offered her help. Then came Andre Jones, 40, another neighbor, using his shovel to do the backbreaking work of uncovering long stretches of sidewalk, which had disappeared under inches of soil, weeds and municipal neglect. East Piper Avenue now has its sidewalk back, along with a vegetable garden, a grassy expanse where a children’s playground will be built, and, close to one of those abutting abandoned houses, a mix-and-match orchard of 18 young fruit trees. “This is a Golden Delicious tree,” Mr. Ryan says, reading the tags on the saplings. “This is a Warren pear. That’s a McIntosh. This is a Mongolian cherry tree. ...” In many ways, this garden on East Piper Avenue reflects all of Flint, a city working hard to re-invent itself, a city so weary of serving as the country’s default example of post-industrial decline. Nearly every day its visitors’ bureau sends out a “Changing Perceptions of Flint” e-mail message that includes a call to defend the city’s honor: “If a blogger is bashing Flint and Genesee County, go post a positive message. If there is an article about the depressed economy in Flint, go post something uplifting.” But uplifting and depressing both describe Flint, where encouraging development grows beside wholesale abandonment. You can visit one of the first-class museums (at the moment, the Flint Institute of Arts has a music-enhanced exhibit of rock ’n’ roll posters), then drive past rows of vacant, vandalized houses that convey a Hurricane Katrina despair — though Flint’s hurricane came in the form of the automobile industry’s collapse. No question: Downtown Flint, about five miles from Mr. Ryan’s garden, suddenly feels vital. A large civil engineering firm has built an office there, and the headquarters of a second large firm is about to open. New dormitory rooms at the University of Michigan-Flint are full. New restaurants have popped up, including an Irish pub in a long-closed men’s clothing store. An old flophouse is now a smart apartment complex. The majestic Durant Hotel, vacant for 35 years, is being transformed into apartments for students and young professionals. And just last week, General Motors announced a $230 million investment in four local factories as part of its plan to build a new generation of fuel-efficient cars. But Dayne Walling, the recently elected mayor, says these developments, while exciting, tell but one side of the city’s story. The other side: a steep decline in the tax base, an unemployment rate hovering around 25 percent, rising health care and pension costs, drastic cutbacks in municipal services, a legacy of fiscal mismanagement — and, of course, the loss of some 70,000 jobs at General Motors, the industry that defined Flint for nearly a century. The job loss, compounded by the recession, has led to an astonishing plunge in the city’s population — to about 110,000, and falling, from roughly 200,000 in 1960. Thousands of abandoned houses now haunt the 34-square-mile city; one in four houses is said to be vacant. As a result, Flint finds itself the centerpiece of a national debate about so-called shrinking cities, in which mostly abandoned neighborhoods might become green space, and their residents would be encouraged to live closer to a downtown core. The matter is being pressed here by the Genesee County Land Bank, which acquires foreclosed properties and works with communities to restore or demolish them. It has been sponsoring a series of forums titled “Strengthening Our Community in the Face of Population Decline.” Mayor Walling, though, prefers to talk about sustainable cities, rather than shrinking cities. He imagines the Flint of 2020 as a city of 100,000, with a vibrant downtown surrounded by greener neighborhoods, in which residents have doubled their lot sizes by acquiring adjacent land where houses once stood. “We’re down, but we’re not out,” he says. “And that’s a classic American story.” Part of that classic story is up in the north end, on East Piper Avenue, where some people are trying to make use of one of the few abundant resources in Flint: land. Harry Ryan, 59, the child of auto workers, traveled for years as a rhythm and blues musician before returning to follow his parents into the auto plants. He got laid off, found other employment, and is now retired, with gray in his moustache and a stoop to his walk. In 2005 he went to the land bank — he is on its advisory board — and received permission to plant a garden on a lot it owns a few yards from the broken side window of an abandoned house. He and some neighbors cleaned brush, removed the remnant pieces of concrete of demolished houses, and planted hardy turnips and greens. But the garden could not contain their growing sense of pride in their community. Soon they were mowing front lawns all along East Piper Avenue — for free, and without seeking permission. “We just cut everybody’s property, even if they were sitting on the porch,” he says. “Sometimes they wouldn’t say anything, and that would get us mad.” That first year, Mr. Ryan and Ms. Barber, who works nights at the post office, bagged up the greens and gave them away, often by just leaving a bag at the door of someone they suspected could use the food but was too proud to ask for it. But they also ate some of what they harvested; Mr. Ryan still savors that first batch of collard greens he had with some smoked turkey. Today, the ever-expanding garden continues to feed people. Front lawns are still mowed, though now by neighborhood children paid through a county grant. Ms. Barber still works in the garden, and Mr. Jones has expanded his sidewalk mission to the cross street of Verdun, where he has cleared a path past the shell of a house lost to arson. When asked why he does the work, he just says, “It needs to be done.” As for Mr. Ryan, he is working on a plan to build a power-generating windmill in the garden on East Piper Avenue in the great Michigan city of Flint. That’s right: a windmill. | Flint (Mich);Economic Conditions and Trends;Gardens and Gardening;Abandonment |
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