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ny0035323 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/03/02 | A Review of Ichiro in White Plains | Sleekly designed Asian fusion restaurants have popped up all over Westchester in recent years with lounge-style lighting, pumping music and menus that are not as much a fusion as they are a gathering of offerings from Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Korean and Thai cuisines. The quality of the food varies widely, but Ichiro , the White Plains outpost of a popular restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which opened last June, is one of the best. The restaurant starts with wonderfully sourced ingredients: tender meats, crisp vegetables, fresh fish. Sourcing is paramount with sushi, a large component of the menu, and Ichiro’s offerings, as well as the sushi chef’s skills, are impressive. The tuna was a rich and bright maroon, and so yielding you could cut it with your chopstick. Salmon and red snapper were just as tender and full of flavor. The popular items that sushi purists so disdain were created with equal care; the spider roll was made with grease-free fried soft shell crab and the California roll featured perfectly ripe slices of avocado. Image The tuna in the sushi deluxe is so yielding that diners can cut it with a chopstick. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times If you are in the mood for sushi alone, there is more extraordinary fare to be had at a place like Sushi Nanase, also in White Plains. But Ichiro can accommodate all kinds of cravings. In addition to other Japanese entrees, including a tasty steak hibachi and a delicate chicken teriyaki, there is an appetizer of rich and earthy Korean barbecue short ribs and a decent chicken pad thai, served with plenty of peanuts and lime wedges. Perhaps the best choice over several visits was a pan-seared sea bass. Cooked to a terrific outer crispiness but still moist on the inside, the fish was well-seasoned and served with a complex yuzu orange miso sauce. Ichiro excels at sauces, all of which are made in-house. The apple ginger dressing on the house salad was miles ahead of the bottled versions used at most sushi joints, and the battered, fried rock shrimp were elevated by the spicy yuzu and green tea aiolis that accompanied the dish. There are some misses on the menu, most notably the ginger duck, which was overwhelmed by mounds of ginger and swam in so much sauce that the duck’s skin lost most of its crispiness. But the biggest challenge to visiting Ichiro is the thumping pop soundtrack that pounds in the background most nights. Management is clearly looking to draw White Plains’ singles scene into its bar area, but on a recent Saturday night there was no one there, and plenty of people trying to enjoy a good meal but barely able to focus on their food, let alone have a conversation. Image Pan-seared sea bass is served with a complex yuzu orange miso sauce. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times The restaurant’s staff members are attentive and helpful. When I complained about the music on a Sunday night, they changed my seat to a (slightly) quieter spot and switched the music to a gentler beat. It was a huge relief. In keeping with the lounge theme, Ichiro is also a bit too darkly lit for a restaurant. It’s a shame, because the kitchen puts out beautifully plated items that are worth seeing, and cannot be had just anywhere. There is a list of robatayaki (Japanese barbecue), including king crab legs roasted to a nutty, smoky deliciousness, and served, still moist, with a lovely citrus sauce. There are more than 30 cold sakes available from the bar. And there is an unusually full dessert menu. The best choices include mini hazelnut ganache cakes and chocolate cakes. The latter are done lava-style, which is far too ubiquitous, but somehow in this setting tasted fresh again. Context can be everything. Despite the too-loud music and the too-dark lighting, when I came in from one of February’s endless snowfalls on my first visit — to a bowl of Ichiro’s subtle miso soup and a glass of hot sake — there wasn’t anywhere else I would have rather been. | Restaurant;White Plains NY;Ichiro |
ny0290776 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2016/01/07 | Antarctic Life: No Dogs, Few Vegetables and ‘a Little Intense’ in the Winter | VILLA LAS ESTRELLAS, Antarctica — Children at the schoolhouse here study under a portrait of Bernardo O’Higgins , Chile ’s independence leader. The bank manager welcomes deposits in Chilean pesos. The cellphone service from the Chilean phone company Entel is so robust that downloading iPhone apps works like a charm. The inhabitants here say it could be any Chilean village. Except that Villa Las Estrellas is in Antarctica. Fewer than 200 people live in this outpost founded in 1984 during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet , when Chile was seeking to bolster its territorial claims in Antarctica. Since then, the tiny hamlet has been at the center of one of Antarctica’s most remarkable experiments: exposing entire families to isolation and extreme conditions in an attempt to arrive at a semblance of normal life at the bottom of the planet . “It gets a little intense here in winter,” said José Luis Carillán, 40, who moved to Villa Las Estrellas three years ago with his wife and their two children to take a job as a teacher in the public school. He described challenges like trekking through punishing wind storms to arrive at a schoolhouse concealed by snow drifts, and withstanding long stretches with only a few hours of sunlight each day. “But this place is unique,” Mr. Carillán said. “Only a few people on earth step foot in Antarctica, and fewer still live here for long periods of time.” Image Children being picked up from school in Villa Las Estrellas. Most of the students at the village’s small school, who generally number less than a dozen, are the children of air force officials who operate a nearby base. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The United States, China, Russia and most other nations with research stations in Antarctica tend to frown on bringing anyone but researchers and support teams to the planet’s coldest and windiest continent. But Chile and a neighbor in South America, Argentina, have taken a rare route to putting down stakes here, nurturing small Antarctic settlements that include families with children. Argentina founded its Antarctic outpost even earlier, in 1953. The settlement, on Graham Land at the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula, is called the Esperanza Base. It also has a school, a cemetery and even a scout troop claiming to be the southernmost in the world. Esperanza Base’s motto sums up what it is like for some who have moved to Antarctica: “Permanence, an act of sacrifice.” The historical rivalry between Chile and Argentina is thought to have influenced their ambitions in the Antarctic (along with suspicion over maneuvering by Britain and other traditional powers). Seeking legitimacy for its territorial claims in the late 1970s, Argentina’s military dictatorship flew a woman who was seven months pregnant to Esperanza Base. She gave birth there in 1978 to a son, Emilio Marcos Palma . Not to be outdone, military officials in General Pinochet’s government celebrated the birth of Juan Pablo Camacho in 1984 in Villa Las Estrellas. Nicknaming him “the penguin,” they contended that he was the first baby conceived and born in Antarctica, drawing a contrast to Argentines born to mothers who might have given birth in Antarctica but became pregnant elsewhere. Such tit-for-tat was normal in the 1970s and ’80s, when Chilean and Argentine leaders regarded one another with bountiful mistrust. Since then, tension has eased significantly, while Villa Las Estrellas, in the South Shetland Islands off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, has emerged as a coveted hub for flying into a continent in flux as various nations bolster their scientific research. Image Facilities at the base run by the Chilean Antarctic Institute. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The Chilean Air Force transports researchers from various countries on C-130 Hercules military planes that make the three-hour trip to Punta Arenas, a city of nearly 125,000 near the southern tip of Chile, several times a month. A sign at the air base near Villa Las Estrellas points out that the city of Iquique in northern Chile is only 4,675 kilometers, or 2,905 miles, away. Most of the students at the village’s small school, who generally number less than a dozen, are the children of air force officials who operate the base; some of the parents say the isolating experience strengthens family bonds. That Villa Las Estrellas is so remote — its name can be translated as Hamlet of the Stars, since the lack of artificial light pollution here enhances gazing into the heavens — sits just fine with many who live here. “People in the rest of Chile are so afraid of thieves that they build walls around their homes,” said Paul Robledo, 40, an electrician from Iquique (pronounced E-key-kay). “Not here in Antarctica. This is one of the safest places in the world.” What Villa Las Estrellas gains as a sanctuary from crime, though, it loses in some other comforts. Animals like Adélie penguins and elephant seals can be glimpsed around the village, but those used to the companionship of dogs are out of luck. All dogs were banned because they might introduce canine diseases to Antarctic wildlife. Air force families live in small homes here, while researchers stay at the spartan lodging operated by the Chilean Antarctic Institute, sleeping in bunk beds not unlike those found on an aircraft carrier. A Ping-Pong table in the living room offers some diversion. They take their meals together in a cramped canteen. Image A gym allows the Chileans at Villa Las Estrellas to play an occasional game of soccer against visiting researchers from Russian and Chinese bases. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Recently, the menu for lunch was a dish containing mashed potatoes, chicken and ground beef, washed down with Fanta orange soda. For dinner that day: ditto, though the Fanta was replaced by Coca-Cola. After one Chilean scientist suggested that a nutritionist might be needed here, Enrique Nicoman, 59, the cook at Villa Las Estrellas, made it clear that such comments were not welcome. “It’s not like there’s a market nearby with fresh vegetables,” said Mr. Nicoman, who worked for years as a cook in the Chilean Navy before moving here. “I mean, we’re in Antarctica, where everything needs to arrive by plane or sea vessel.” Using one’s imagination is essential for making the most out of living in a place with a lot of downtime indoors. In his book, “Antarctic Impressions,” the Russian volcanologist Vladimir Kiryanov described how some at Russia’s research bases playfully carved out their own territorial claims, inventing the Dukedom of Pinsk, the Principality of the Treasure Hunter Yury Kharchuk and the sovereign state of Immortia. A gym allows the Chileans at Villa Las Estrellas to play an occasional game of indoor soccer against visiting researchers from Russian and Chinese bases. A small chapel perched above the settlement offers a quiet place to pray. Image Chileans on a mission to collect water samples at the Fildes Peninsula on King George Island, Antarctica. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Some here say that those who adapt to stretches of relative seclusion in Antarctica can find it hard to re-adapt when they return to mainland Chile. They call this condition “hermit’s syndrome,” describing the shock of socializing with family and friends after long periods in Antarctica. Technology is supposed to ease such communication. Some rely on Skype to talk to loved ones back home; others simply use their cellphones. But new technologies can also reinforce how far Antarctica remains from the rest of the world. The dating app Tinder, for instance, works well enough in Villa Las Estrellas. But some researchers joke that the village’s gender imbalance (only about 10 percent of inhabitants here are women) and small population show that such services may not have been intended with Antarctica in mind. No wonder letting off steam here is serious business. At a recent barbecue to celebrate making it an entire year in Antarctica, Chilean Navy personnel in Villa Las Estrellas drank bottles of pisco, a brandy made in Chile, and of Great Wall, a Chinese red wine given to them by guests — researchers from China’s aptly named Great Wall research station . Despite the challenges, many Chileans still covet a chance to live in Villa Las Estrellas. “This is one of the world’s last frontiers,” said Macarena Marcotti Murúa, 25, a veterinarian who arrived in November to work at the post office. Some are drawn here by a sense of adventure, others by higher salaries than in Chile for comparable jobs. Residents of Villa Las Estrellas seem to have their own reasons for moving to Antarctica. “I approach this like a vacation,” said Robinson Montejo, 59, the manager, and only employee, of the branch here of the Chilean Banco de Crédito e Inversiones. Inevitably, he spends a lot of time alone, waiting for the occasional customer to come in from the cold. “This is the right place for a little peace and quiet.” | Antarctica;Chile;Argentina;Research;Military |
ny0189969 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2009/05/19 | Joint Chiefs Chairman Criticizes Afghan Air Strikes | WASHINGTON—The United States cannot succeed in Afghanistan if the American military keeps killing Afghan civilians, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Monday. In remarks to scholars, national security experts and the media at the Brookings Institution, Admiral Mullen said that the American air strikes that killed an undetermined number of civilians in Afghanistan’s Farah Province two weeks ago had put the U.S. strategy in the country in jeopardy. “We cannot succeed in Afghanistan or anywhere else, but let’s talk specifically about Afghanistan, by killing Afghan civilians,” Admiral Mullen said, adding that “we can’t keep going through incidents like this and expect the strategy to work.” At the same time, Admiral Mullen said, “we can’t tie our troops’ hands behind their backs.” Admiral Mullen’s comments on the civilian casualties from the Farah air strikes, w hich have caused an uproar in Afghanistan , reflect deep concern within the Pentagon about the intensifying criticism from Kabul against the American military. Admiral Mullen, who noted that commanders in the region had in recent months imposed more restrictive rules on air strikes to avoid civilian casualties, offered no new solutions in his remarks. He only said that “we’ve got to be very, very focused on making sure that we proceed deliberately, that we know who the enemy is.” Earlier, a senior spokesman for the American military provided its most detailed accounting yet of the Farah air strikes. By midafternoon on May 4, after a battle between Afghan police and army forces and Taliban fighters had raged for hours, Marines Special Operations forces called in air strikes. Three F-18 fighter-bombers, flying in succession over several hours, dropped a total of five laser-guided and satellite guided bombs against Taliban fighters who were firing at the American and Afghan forces, said the official, Col. Gregory Julian, in an email message late Sunday. Villagers, however, have reported that an even heavier bombardment came after 8 p.m. when they said the fighting appeared to be over and the Taliban had left the village. The military has disputed this version of events, saying the Taliban fighters continued to fire at American and Afghan troops, requiring additional air strikes. These came from a B-1 bomber, which dropped three 500-pound satellite-guided bombs on a tree grove, four 500-pound and 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs on one building, and one 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb on a second building, Colonel Julian said. Villagers have said they sought safety from the initial air strikes in a compound of buildings, but it was not clear whether these were the same buildings the American aircraft later bombed. Villagers said the bombings were so powerful that people were ripped to shreds. Survivors said they collected only pieces of bodies. In all, Colonel Julian said, eight targets were attacked over a seven-hour period, but he denied reports from villagers that a mosque had been damaged in the strikes. Colonel Julian and other American military officials have said that the Taliban deliberately fired at American and Afghan forces from the rooftops of buildings where civilians, including women and children, had sought shelter, to provoke a heavy American military response. Colonel Julian said at the peak of the fighting that day, some 150 Afghan soldiers and 60 Afghan police, along with their 30 American trainers, as well as two Marine Special Operations teams that made up a quick-reaction force, were battling about 300 militants, including a large number of foreign fighters. Afghan government officials have accepted handwritten lists compiled by the villagers of 147 dead civilians. An independent Afghan human rights group said it had accounts from interviews of 117 dead. American officials say that even 100 is an exaggeration but have yet to issue their own count. Last week, a senior military investigator, Brig. Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III of the United States Army, went to Afghanistan to conduct an in-depth inquiry for the region’s overall military commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus. American military officials said his review will likely incorporate another military inquiry that was ordered immediately after the incident, and led by Brig. Gen. Edward M. Reeder, who oversees allied a task force of allied Special Operations forces in Afghanistan. | Afghanistan War (2001- );Civilian Casualties;Afghanistan;Bombs and Explosives;Military Aircraft |
ny0042172 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2014/05/16 | Egypt Tells 3 They Must Pay to See Evidence | CAIRO — An Egyptian court said Thursday that three jailed journalists must pay $170,000 for a copy of the video footage that prosecutors say shows the defendants fabricated news reports to foment unrest. The price charged for access to the evidence is the latest in a string of irregularities in the case. The three journalists have been jailed since December on charges that they formed an Islamist cell and conspired with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false images of civil strife in Egypt. All three journalists worked for the English-language arm of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel, which Egypt’s new military-backed government considers biased in favor of its Islamist opposition. Prosecutors have not yet publicly disclosed any of the allegedly false news reports. Nor have they shown any evidence that reports were fabricated. Images of unrest on Egyptian streets and campuses were easier to find than to fabricate in the weeks before the journalists’ arrests. The prosecution has also made no attempt to link the defendants to the Muslim Brotherhood. The defendant who prosecutors say is the ringleader of the Islamist cell is Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a dual citizen of Egypt and Canada who previously worked as a producer for CNN and as a reporting assistant for The New York Times. He drinks alcohol and calls himself “a liberal,” and last June he marched in a demonstration against Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was president at the time. Image From left, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed in a defendent's cage on Thursday. Credit Hamada Elrasam/Associated Press Another defendant, Peter Greste, is an Australian who previously worked for the BBC. Mr. Greste is not a Muslim, and he had spent only a few days in Egypt before his arrest. He said in court that his passport shows he had never spent time in any country where the Muslim Brotherhood is active. The third journalist charged is Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian with a long record of work for other international news organizations. Another journalist, Abdullah Elshamy of Al Jazeera’s main Arabic language channel, has been held since August without charges. This week he smuggled out of prison a short video message . Looking gaunt and sickly, he says in the video that he has been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days to protest his imprisonment. Prosecutors maintain that the evidence against the three defendants is contained on five CDs of videos and images that were taken from their computers, and defense lawyers say they have not seen any of it. The defense lawyers said Thursday that the prosecutors began asking about a week ago for $170,000 for copies of the evidence. Addressing the issue in court, defense lawyers complained that they could not represent their clients without a chance to review the evidence. But Judge Mohammed Nagi Shehata nonetheless told the defense to pay up. “It’s you who didn’t perform your duty,” he said, speaking from behind dark sunglasses, a hallmark of his presence on the bench. “The prosecution’s deputy told you it would cost this much, and you said, ‘I’m not going to pay.’ ” | Arab Spring;Al Jazeera;Muslim Brotherhood Egypt;Mohamed Fadel Fahmy;Peter Greste;Baher Mohamed;News media,journalism;Egypt |
ny0194792 | [
"science",
"earth"
] | 2009/11/01 | Debate Flares on Limits of Nature and Commerce in Parks | POINT REYES STATION, Calif. — It seems a perfect marriage of nature and commerce. As boats ferry oysters to the shore, pelicans swoop by and seals pop their heads out of the water. But this spot on the Point Reyes National Seashore has become a flashpoint for a bitter debate over the limits of wilderness and commercial interest within America’s national parks. The National Park Service has said it cannot renew the permit to farm oysters in a tidal estuary here, which lapses in 2012, because federal law requires it to return the area to wilderness by eliminating intrusive commercial activity. Kevin Lunny, the owner of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company , says he feels persecuted by the National Park Service and has sought legislation that could allow him to continue operating. He argues that the 70-year-old oyster farm, which predates the park, is part of the historical working landscape of the area — and every bit as in need of protection as the harbor seals and eelgrass that share the bay. Mr. Lunny and his allies also accuse the park service’s regional office of issuing faulty scientific reports exaggerating the threat that the oyster farm poses to baby seals and flora in the estuary — accusations given credence last spring by the National Academy of Sciences. The battle has split the local towns into passionately opposed camps: The Point Reyes Light, a local newspaper, has been critical of the park service, as have many sympathetic ranchers. But other residents and environmental groups cast Mr. Lunny as a savvy businessman manipulating public opinion to win favored status at the expense of the estuary. The furor over the oyster lease has also drawn in partisans across the country because it plays into an old debate: Are the national parks primarily for preserving untouched wilderness, or for preserving the historic human imprint on the land, too? Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has thrown her support behind the oyster farm. A provision she attached to the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill for the Interior Department , passed by Congress recently, would give Interior Secretary Ken Salazar the option to extend the oyster farm’s lease for 10 more years. Some environmental groups worry that the provision could set a precedent for hundreds of other private leaseholders in the national parks looking to extend their stay. For example, some owners of fishing cabins and other vacation properties in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin want to stay on in perpetuity for similar historical reasons. And federal legislation has been introduced several times to allow the private herds of a hunting club in the Channel Islands National Park in Southern California to remain on the land. Ms. Feinstein included language in the provision saying that it should not be seen as a precedent, but the environmentalists say those words could prove meaningless. “This exception is not just about the slippery slope,” said Jerry Meral, vice chairman of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, which has helped organize opposition to the lease extension. “It’s the beginning of the end of wilderness.” Foes of the provision also include the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Point Reyes National Seashore Association here. By siding with the oyster farm, Ms. Feinstein has symbolically crossed swords with the Obama administration: Jon Jarvis, President Obama’s new director of the National Park Service, supported ending Mr. Lunny’s lease when he oversaw Point Reyes as a regional parks official. Many people concerned with protecting the commercial tradition in parks see Mr. Jarvis’s desire to end the lease as evidence that he will usher in an era of antagonism. “Half the parks have farms or working orchards,” said Gary Paul Nabhan, who served on the National Park System Advisory Board in the early 1990s. “This isn’t a side issue — it is fully as important as wilderness.” Mr. Jarvis declined to be interviewed about Drakes Bay. Aides at the park service said he saw no benefit in discussing the issue with reporters. The Drakes Bay farm is a collection of low-lying shacks, residential trailers and piles of shucked oyster shells. Like many of the cattle ranches that surround it within the park, it predated by many decades the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962. In a common arrangement, the federal government bought the land from the owners, who kept the right for occupancy and use until 2012. Unlike the parkland, however, the tidal bay was designated “potential wilderness” — the highest level of protection in a national park — by Congress in 1976. The Interior Department’s solicitor general has interpreted Congress’s action to mean that the park service must get rid of any commercial operations that extract wildlife as soon as it can. Mr. Lunny, a rancher whose cattle land is in the park just up the hill from the oyster farm, bought the farm’s lease in 2005, although at the time the park service warned him that it intended not to renew. He contends that the original lease included a clause that allows him to renew and has hired a lobbyist to promote his view in Washington. The park service says that the clause has been superseded by the wilderness legislation. Mr. Lunny also says that he produces roughly 40 percent of the oysters grown in California. Without him, he adds, oysters would be imported from overseas, costing consumers more and taxing the environment through fuel emissions. And he says he is providing environmental services like cleaning the bay of debris and replenishing the native oyster population that filtered the bay before it was overfished by native Indians. The park service counters that there is no evidence native oysters were ever there in large numbers. The fight might have been cast as a simple matter of abiding by a wilderness designation, but after the park service worried that Mr. Lunny was beginning to lobby to extend his lease, they moved to counter him. Managers at Point Reyes produced their own documents saying that the oyster operation’s motorboats were thrashing the eelgrass. The oyster operations, the documents said, were spooking the mother seals off the sandbars and disrupting the birthing season, reducing the number of seals at one site by 80 percent in two years. The findings were furiously contested by Mr. Lunny, and Ms. Feinstein asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the documents and produce its own report. Issued in May, it found insufficient data to determine whether the seals or other wildlife were being significantly harmed. And it criticized the park service’s reports, saying they had “exaggerated the negative and overlooked potentially beneficial effects of the oyster culture operation.” Corey Goodman, an academy biologist who studied the science separately for the Marin County Board of Supervisors, said in a letter to Secretary Salazar that “Jon Jarvis participated by steadfastly defending the use of distorted science by his subordinate.” But Mr. Jarvis, while acknowledging some problems with the science, vigorously stood up for his staff members. Tom Strickland, the assistant secretary of Fish and Wildlife and Parks, emphasized that Mr. Jarvis was simply seeking to abide by the law. He said that if Ms. Feinstein’s provision became law, Mr. Salazar would review the issue again. But many residents of Point Reyes say this will just bring a new round of conflict. “Rather than heal a rift, this legislation arms everyone with howitzers,” said Mark Bartolini, executive director of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association. “It is a lose-lose decision, and this is a fight that can go one for years.” | Point Reyes National Seashore (Calif);National Park Service;National Parks Monuments and Seashores;Fish Farming;Oysters;Kaufman Leslie;Jarvis Jon;Interior Department |
ny0223378 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/11/21 | In TheaterWorks’ ‘God of Carnage,’ Adults Turn Savage | THEY seem like such lovely people. With their nice clothes and their art books and their careers in fields like corporate law and “wealth management.” But children will be children, and one couple’s son has had a playground altercation with the other couple’s son, and teeth were lost. So now the adults are getting together to work it all out, in a civilized manner, over espresso. But the civilized aspect won’t last long. That’s the joy of Yasmina Reza’s comedy “God of Carnage,” which opened at TheaterWorks in Hartford on Nov. 12. Pretty soon all four adults are behaving in fairly savage, childish ways. This production is something of a coup for TheaterWorks. It’s the second licensed production of the play since its Broadway run, which began in 2009. “God of Carnage,” translated by Christopher Hampton, won the Tony Award for best play and, before that, the Olivier Award, London theater’s Tony equivalent. “We’re certainly beyond thrilled to have it,” Steve Campo, artistic director of TheaterWorks, said in a telephone interview from Hartford. “This is one of the most popular plays that’s been on Broadway in recent years. It’s an absolutely astonishing gift to us and to our audiences.” This is also the play’s East Coast regional premiere; the first licensed production opened at the Seattle Repertory Company last month. The team that TheaterWorks has put together begins with the director, Tazewell Thompson, who did “Broke-ology” there earlier this fall. Wynn Harmon and Candy Buckley play the roles originated by James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden on Broadway; Royce Johnson and Susan Bennett play the Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis roles. Some critics have suggested that it takes four stellar performances to make a great entertainment out of “God of Carnage,” that it’s just a fancied-up Punch and Judy show. But Mr. Campo hasn’t even seen earlier productions of the play. He rarely does, he said, when he is considering a play for TheaterWorks, because he doesn’t want to be influenced by the performances. It’s the playwright who earns his praise. “Yasmina Reza is so intelligent and so able to find what it is that abides in even the most sophisticated of adults,” he said. “And that which abides is the ability to be idiotic.” “And it’s delightful,” he continued. “It’s wicked, in a way. There’s a kind of naughtiness in what she reveals.” | Theater;Connecticut |
ny0120568 | [
"business",
"mutfund"
] | 2012/07/08 | Three Mutual Funds That Turned Back the Tide of Losses | RALPH STANLEY, the bluegrass artist, sings that he is a “man of constant sorrow.” If he were a money manager, he would have felt right at home in the financial markets in the second quarter, which gave many investors nothing but woe. The average return in nearly every mutual fund sector tracked by Morningstar was negative. Still, some managers found a few profitable places in an otherwise doleful time. Two of them work in sectors seen as safe harbors — utilities and health care stocks. A third, whose fund ended up with a small loss in the quarter, trades in currencies. A Nuclear Bounce Lately, bad news has indirectly helped Douglas C. Simmons, manager of Fidelity Select Utilities Portfolio . For him, the nuclear disaster in Japan last year brought a chance to buy good companies at bargain prices. After the accident, investors dumped United States utilities that generate a lot of their power with nuclear plants. But Mr. Simmons said he believed that American utilities weren’t exposed to the same risks as their Japanese kin. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission “looked at Fukushima and said, ‘We’re different than Japan,’ ” he said, referring to the accident site. “We’ve since seen a rebound” in stocks of utilities with exposure to nuclear power. One of Mr. Simmons’s bigger holdings — Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C. — benefited in the second quarter. Thanks to its merger with Progress Energy in Raleigh, N.C., Duke is the largest electric utility in the United States, with 7.1 million customers in six states in the Southeast and Midwest. “Duke is aspiring to be the next gold standard” in its industry, he said, adding that “the ascension to quality is where you make the most money” in utilities stocks. Many investors buy utilities for their dividend yield. Mr. Simmons says he differs in that he’s drawn more to total return: the combination of a dividend and price appreciation. He also concentrates his portfolio, betting big on his favorite stocks. He held shares in only 30 companies as of April 30, compared with more than 100 for the average stock fund followed by Morningstar. To hedge his bets, he gives his top holdings roughly equal weight, he said. His largest, FirstEnergy in Akron, Ohio, accounted for about 10 percent of the portfolio at the end of April, while the next three — NextEra Energy, Edison International and Duke — each accounted for more than 8 percent. His fund, which carries an expense ratio of 0.86 percent, returned 7 percent in the second quarter. Seeking Breakthroughs Where some funds can benefit from bad tidings, Kris H. Jenner, manager of the T. Rowe Price Health Sciences fund , typically gains his fund’s profits from happy ones. His specialty is finding companies with drugs, devices and even business processes that can radically improve the treatment of diseases. “It’s unusual to find something transformational,” he said, “but that’s our holy grail.” One of his larger holdings, Gilead Sciences in Foster City, Calif., already managed one such transformation in H.I.V. therapies and is working toward another in the treatment of hepatitis C. “In the mid-90s, H.I.V. therapy was multiple pills a day,” he said. “In 2012, it’s one a day. The company that has led the way has been Gilead, and they’re poised to do it again with hepatitis C.” Gilead’s hepatitis drug is in what Dr. Jenner, a physician, called the “sweet spot” for identifying promising treatments that may become profitable investments: the two years before and the two years after Food and Drug Administration approval. “The reason is that you still have some uncertainty about the product — how good it is, how safe it is, how commercially successful it will be,” he said. Unlike Mr. Simmons, Dr. Jenner spreads his bets among many stocks. His fund had more than 200 at the end of March. But once he buys, he tends to stay. His most recent stock turnover ratio was less than 20 percent a year; on average, he held each one for more than five years. “Breakthrough therapies often create more value than I expect,” he said. “I’m willing to let that play out a little longer than someone else might.” Dr. Jenner’s fund, which has an expense ratio of 0.82 percent, returned 5.8 percent in the second quarter. Confidence in the Dollar Stocks, whether shares in workaday utilities or breakthrough-seeking drug makers, are standard fare in investing. The currencies traded by Dori Levanoni, a manager of the John Hancock Currency Strategies fund , are considered racier — typically tools for hedging, not building a college fund or retirement trove. But Mr. Levanoni said currencies might have a place in retail investors’ portfolios because they could provide both return and diversification. “We think about a currency in the same way we think about any asset: someone is buying or selling, and we’re trying to figure out who’s trading and why,” he said. Mr. Levanoni can bet that particular currencies will rise and buy them, or he can bet that they will fall and sell them short. He said he uses only the most common derivative securities, such as currency options and forwards, in his trades to keep his fund as simple and transparent as possible. “People think of currencies as an alternative asset class,” he said, “but we’re trying to be the most boring alternative investment you can have.” In the second quarter, his shareholders benefited from his bullish view of the American dollar and his bearish view of the Australian dollar and the Swiss franc. He liked the American dollar because he thought investors would continue to flock to United States Treasuries as financial difficulties abounded elsewhere. Domestic growth may be slow, and government debt may be growing, but other major economies have fared worse. And even growth in China, long a darling of investors, has slowed lately. Mr. Levanoni’s bearishness about the Australian dollar sprang from China’s slowdown. Australian commodity exports to China had boomed, and “the Australian dollar got above our judgment of its long-term fair value,” he said. “Versus the U.S. dollar, it has ranged form 60 cents to $1.10. At 60 cents, we thought it should rise, but parity with the dollar was too high. About 80 cents is reasonable.” At the end of the second quarter, the Australian dollar was still trading at rough parity with the American dollar. Mr. Levanoni’s fund, which has an expense ratio of 1.56 percent, lost 0.52 percent in the second quarter. | Mutual Funds;Nuclear Energy;Drugs (Pharmaceuticals);US Dollar (Currency);Stocks and Bonds;Fidelity Investments;T Rowe Price Group Inc;John Hancock Funds LLC |
ny0232200 | [
"us"
] | 2010/08/20 | Raj Patel Meets Benjamin Creme | Scott James is a columnist for The Bay Citizen. Raj Patel has met his maker, so to speak. Mr. Patel, a San Francisco author and economist, woke up one day earlier this year to discover that he had unwillingly been declared the messiah by followers of the New Age group Share International , founded by Benjamin Creme, a London mystic. It was a revelation that made Mr. Patel the focus of unwanted attention by thousands of worshipers and thrust him into a surreal international news media frenzy. Last week Mr. Creme visited the Bay Area, and the two men met for the first time, over cookies in a private home in Berkeley, a possible finale in the timely tale of a mortal mistaken for a god. After the meeting, both men have decided to call the events of the past several months “a case of mistaken identity.” They seemed impressed with each other, with Mr. Creme saying he found Mr. Patel quite intelligent and charming. Mr. Patel had a different impression of Mr. Creme: “Bonkers.” In January, devotees of Mr. Creme’s decades-old prophesies concluded — based on a series of clues and unverified information on the Internet — that Mr. Patel was the earthly manifestation of Maitreya, The World Teacher. Mr. Creme, who said he received telepathic messages from the immortal Maitreya to share with followers, did not endorse the claim. But he did not forcefully deny it either. The story first appeared in this column, then London tabloids devoured the tale mercilessly, and Stephen Colbert, the comedian, devoted an entire segment of his “Colbert Report” on Comedy Central to ridiculing the deification. Although Mr. Creme has finally released Mr. Patel from his divine burden, it doesn’t mean that he has given up on the idea of a messiah for these troubling times. In fact, his meeting with Mr. Patel was just part of an extended visit to the Bay Area to recruit new believers. A crowd of more than 600 gathered at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on a recent Sunday afternoon to hear Mr. Creme. Looking his 87 years, he was gently assisted to center stage and then sat stoically as an audio recording played his voice, in a slow Boris Karloff cadence, purportedly channeling the words of Maitreya. “My plan is to show you that the way out of your problems is to listen again to the true voice of god within your hearts, to share,” he said. When the recording ended, Mr. Creme spoke about the various crises in the world, including the growing imbalance between rich and poor that he ascribed to “an outmoded way of living” — a message that seemed to resonate with the mostly white crowd, some of whom had arrived in Mercedeses and BMWs. Mr. Creme went on to explain that invisible “brothers” from other inhabited planets in our solar system had been on Earth to help mankind escape its problems and usher in a new age. J. Gordon Melton, a religious scholar who has studied Share International and Mr. Creme since the 1970s, described the group as “small and harmless.” The group’s messianic message — that a compassionate savior will come and teach the world better ways — “in hard economic times and war has an appeal,” Mr. Melton said. But, he added, non-Christian messiahs tend to face fierce opposition in the United States. That became clear at Mr. Creme’s appearance when a man in the audience disrupted the event by pointing and shouting, “Don’t believe these lies! This man is the devil!” Mr. Creme said later that he had faced such acrimony in the past, although it was rare. He said he had brought his message to San Francisco more than 30 times and generally felt welcomed. During his Bay Area visit, Mr. Creme was asked about the news of the day, a federal court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in California. Was this a sign of the compassionate new age? Mr. Creme explained that while he personally supported same-sex nuptials, Maitreya did not approve of gay and lesbian couples’ raising children — the new age promoted by Share International should not include same-sex parents. In addition to the private meeting in Berkeley, Mr. Patel attended the Sunday lecture for three hours, and concluded that Mr. Creme was “a sweet, pleasant old man” who ultimately “was like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland who said she could believe in six impossible things before breakfast.” But Mr. Patel was inspired in one sense. As the author of best-selling books about big ideas — the first two were about food and economics — he is now considering writing about the whole notion of saviors. He will certainly have a unique perspective. | Patel Raj;Creme Benjamin;Writing and Writers;Religion and Belief |
ny0078082 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2015/05/12 | Life Without Tom Brady? The Patriots Will Rely on Jimmy Garoppolo | The suspension of Tom Brady means the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots have to face playing without their star for four games. How will they fare? There is not a lot of history to go by. After taking the starting job from an injured Drew Bledsoe in Game 3 of the 2001 season, Brady has started every game, with the only exceptions coming in the 2008 season. THE PAST In 2007, the Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season, and Brady won the Most Valuable Player Award. When he sustained a knee injury in the season opener the next year, Matt Cassel took over, giving us the only recent look at the Patriots without Brady. The results were not terrible. Cassel led the team to a 11-5 record, but New England missed a playoff berth on a tiebreaker, despite winning its last four games. It was one of only two seasons in the Brady era when the Patriots did not make the playoffs, the other being 2002, his second year as a starter. Cassell’s numbers were reasonable; he ranked between eighth and 12th in most of the key passing statistics, even while getting sacked a league-leading 47 times. Still, that was a big drop-off from Brady, who had been No. 1 in almost every category the previous year. Nevertheless, Cassell parlayed his performance into a contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he had mixed results. Brady was back the next season, winning comeback player of the year. The Patriots returned to the playoffs, though they won only 10 games. That was the last time New England has won fewer than 12. THE PRESENT As of now, the Patriots’ backup is Jimmy Garoppolo, who was drafted out of Eastern Illinois last year in the second round. He served as Brady’s understudy, appearing briefly in six games. It is hard to make reliable judgments from his brief late-game appearances, but he was 19 of 27 passing for 182 yards and one touchdown. Image Matt Cassel started at quarterback in 2008 after Brady sustained a knee injury in the season opener. Credit Jim Rogash/Getty Images Still, quarterbacks drafted in the second round do not generally have stellar careers. For every Colin Kaepernick and Geno Smith who become stars, or at least starters, there are a few who become career backups (say Jimmy Clausen) and several more straight-up busts (say Pat White or Brian Brohm). The trouble is, it is hard for even expert scouts to tell for sure until a quarterback gets into a game and shows what he can do. Having the Patriots organization around him will certainly help Garoppolo, but his replacing a great brings a serious level of uncertainty to New England. THE FUTURE Barring a successful appeal, Brady will serve his suspension from the start of the regular season, perhaps the worst time from the Patriots’ point of view. The Patriots face a tricky lineup of games without Brady. They open at home against the Steelers, who were 11-5 last season. That is followed by what might be their toughest divisional game of the season in Buffalo. After an easy game against the Jaguars and a bye, New England must travel to Dallas to face the Cowboys, who were 12-4 last year. And which team do the Patriots play in what would be Brady’s return in Week 6? The Indianapolis Colts, who brought the Patriots’ underinflated footballs to the attention of the N.F.L. during the A.F.C. championship game. Starting with Game 6, New England’s schedule becomes much easier, with only a game at Denver in Week 12 looking very frightening. There is one other saving grace for the Patriots. They have no clear rival in the A.F.C. East. Last year they won the division by three games over the resurgent Bills, who were 9-7 but could easily regress this year under their new coach, Rex Ryan. The Dolphins were 8-8, and the Jets were awful. Even if the Brady suspension costs them a win or two, the Patriots still have to be considered comfortable favorites to win that division. And Brady will be eligible for the playoffs. | Football;Tom Brady;Matt Cassel;Jimmy Garoppolo;Patriots;Cheating |
ny0090066 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2015/09/30 | Larry Brown Suspended and S.M.U. Basketball Sanctioned by N.C.A.A. | DALLAS — The N.C.A.A. banned the S.M.U. men’s basketball team from postseason play on Tuesday and suspended its veteran coach, Larry Brown, for nine games after concluding that he lied to investigators, ignored academic fraud and fell far short of expectations in leading his staff when it came to compliance. In a scathing report, the N.C.A.A. noted that Brown had previously coached at Kansas and U.C.L.A., yet made “choices against his better judgment when it came to compliance issues” at S.M.U., where he is preparing for his fourth season. “These choices included not reporting possible violations in his program, initially lying to the enforcement staff during the investigation and providing no specific guidance to his staff on rules compliance,” the N.C.A.A. said in punishing S.M.U. for its 10th major infractions case over the years. S.M.U. did not immediately comment on the findings, which it can appeal. The N.C.A.A. said Brown had acknowledged “his failed judgment” during a hearing on the case and that it found him “reflective and remorseful.” “But I realize, you know, in hindsight that was a terrible mistake on my part,” Brown said, according to the N.C.A.A. report. “I wish I could have changed all that. But we had that interview with the N.C.A.A., I don’t know why I lied. You know, dealing with people that I really care about, and I used terrible judgment, and I tried to acknowledge that as quickly as I could, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. I realize that.” Brown led Kansas to the 1988 national championship before returning to the N.B.A. as San Antonio’s coach. But the Jayhawks were banned from postseason play the next season and placed on probation for recruiting violations during Brown’s tenure. U.C.L.A. was 42-17 in Brown’s two seasons, but the Bruins’ runner-up finish in the 1980 N.C.A.A. tournament was later vacated by the N.C.A.A. after two players were determined to be ineligible. The S.M.U. infractions were revealed more than eight months after the school acknowledged an N.C.A.A. investigation and months before the Mustangs went to the N.C.A.A. tournament for the first time since 1993. The basketball team will also lose nine scholarships over the next three seasons. S.M.U.’s acknowledgement of an investigation in January came after an appeal of an academic suspension that sidelined sophomore guard Keith Frazier the rest of the season. That was also days after assistant coach Ulric Maligi, who recruited Frazier out of Kimball High in Dallas, took an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons. Maligi is no longer on staff. While no names were revealed in its report, the N.C.A.A. said a former assistant men’s basketball coach encouraged an athlete to enroll in an online course to meet N.C.A.A. initial eligibility standards and be admitted to the university. The N.C.A.A. also said a former men’s basketball administrative assistant hired by Brown then completed the coursework; she then provided false information to N.C.A.A. investigators and also tried to influence the player to also provide false information. According to the report, Brown learned of the misconduct in 2014 and did not report it to anyone for more than a month. When asked by the N.C.A.A. enforcement staff about the potential violations, he initially denied having any information about conversations with the former administrative assistant and player. He later explained why. “Now, this might sound so silly, when all these allegations are read, and when (enforcement staff) was basically taking the position I didn’t do the right thing, I can’t argue with that,” Brown said, according to the N.C.A.A. “There is no excuse for not going to (the athletic director) when (the student-athlete) told me he didn’t do this online the course. That’s all he said to me. There is no excuse for that, there is no excuse to go before the committee and not tell the truth when a question is directed at you. I have no excuse for that. I did not do that promptly.” | College basketball;Larry Brown;Southern Methodist University |
ny0151034 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2008/08/27 | Joba Chamberlain’s Return Is Far From Scripted | Before the season started, the Yankees meticulously planned every step of Joba Chamberlain ’s development. But now that he is injured, the Yankees insist there is no plan beyond Thursday, when Chamberlain will throw his third bullpen session. Chamberlain, who has been out since Aug. 4 with a rotator cuff problem, said he felt fine after Monday’s session and would not need to face hitters before returning to the team. “I don’t think the hitters are going to be any different,” he said. “Just to see them? I don’t know. You’ve still got to attack them like nobody’s there.” Manager Joe Girardi said there would still be time in the minor league season for Chamberlain to pitch there first, if that is what the Yankees choose. “It’s possible,” Girardi said. “We just have to see how he feels after Thursday’s bullpen session. He felt good yesterday and was really sharp, so I’m encouraged by that. When you throw the ball where you want to, that means you feel good.” Chamberlain may return as a reliever, although the Yankees still view him as a starter. Their standing in the pennant race has no impact on his timetable, according to General Manager Brian Cashman. “We’re going to do what’s right for him, first and foremost,” Cashman said. “Everything we’re going to do is going to be to make sure we get it right by him, which means it’s right by us.” The Yankees’ other injured starter, Chien-Ming Wang, is out for the season with a ligament tear in his foot. Wang said he did not wear a protective boot when he exercised, but he still wears it away from the park and has not thrown since sustaining the injury June 15. CANÓ IS HOT AGAIN It was such a subtle injury, but it made a profound impact on Robinson Canó. In the fourth inning on July 27 at Fenway Park, Canó was jammed on a pitch by the Boston Red Sox’ Jon Lester and grounded out to shortstop. With one painful swing, Canó jammed his left thumb and brought his hot streak to a sudden halt. “It bothered me a lot,” Canó said. “I had to swing way up front and not get jammed, or I would feel the pain in there.” Before that pitch, Canó was hitting .500 (18 for 36) since the All-Star break. From that point through last Thursday, Cano hit just .224 (19 for 85). He heated up over the weekend in Baltimore with seven hits in 13 at-bats. “He was real good after the break, and then he had the thumb injury,” Joe Girardi said. “He seems to be real hot again.” Girardi’s predecessor, Joe Torre, would tell players who had disappointing seasons that, after a certain point, they would have to accept that their final numbers would be lackluster. The only thing to do, Torre would say, was make the most of the season that remained. That seems to be Canó’s approach, though with a .269 average coming into Tuesday’s game, he did not concede that his overall numbers would be poor. “We’ve got a month,” he said. “You never know what can happen. I would say, in my mind, I can still raise my average more. I’m not thinking about .300, but I think I can still be a lot better than .260. It’s not about my numbers right now, it’s about winning.” HUGHES STRUGGLES The Yankees will add players when rosters expand Sept. 1, but Phil Hughes will not necessarily be one of them. Hughes went 0-4 in April before a prolonged stint on the disabled list with a fractured rib, and Brian Cashman said his mechanics had been off at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he had no record and a 8.47 earned run average in four starts. “No one is going to get called up unless they earn their way back, period,” Cashman said. “There are no guarantees, no promises. We’re going to bring people up here we feel can help us, period.” Two players doing especially well for Scranton lately are the left-hander Chase Wright, who is best known for allowing four consecutive homers to the Red Sox last season, and center fielder Melky Cabrera. Wright, who was hurt at the start of the season, is 2-0 with a 2.05 E.R.A. for Scranton after going 8-2 at Class AA Trenton. Cabrera, who was demoted Aug. 15, was hitting .400 in his first eight games for Scranton. He is 12 for 30, but 11 of his hits have been singles, continuing his pattern with the Yankees. CASHMAN SUPPORTS REPLAY The former umpire Bruce Froemming was at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, inspecting the replay equipment that was installed in the umpires’ dressing room. The first Yankees game to be played under new instant-replay rules will be Friday. Brian Cashman has supported the idea for years, but an overwhelming majority of general managers endorsed it for the first time at their meetings in November. “I’m sure there will be bugs along the way, but every good idea is worth working through any issues that may come up over time,” Cashman said. “It’s better for teams, managers, players, coaches and fans.” MOLINA HANDS OUT T-SHIRTS In the culture of the clubhouse, handing out a personalized T-shirt to your teammates is a sign that a player has arrived. Catcher José Molina is the latest Yankee to distribute a shirt in his honor, poking fun at himself in the process. Molina, who is not known for a svelte physique, gave teammates a navy T-shirt that said, “It’s Panda Time,” with a picture of the rotund character from the animated movie “Kung Fu Panda.” Panda is Molina’s nickname, and he signed his uniform number, 26, on the panda’s belly on his shirt. | New York Yankees;Chamberlain Joba;Baseball |
ny0010041 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2013/02/17 | In Korea, Changes in Society and Family Dynamics Drive Rise in Elderly Suicides | SEOUL, South Korea — Even with the explosive growth of suicides in South Korea, the case of the 78-year-old widow was shocking enough to merit attention in the recent presidential election and hand-wringing in the news media. Rather than quietly taking her life at home as many South Koreans do, the woman staged her death as a final act of public protest against a society she said had abandoned her. She drank pesticide overnight in front of her city hall after officials stopped her welfare checks, saying they were no longer obligated to support her now that her son-in-law had found work. “How can you do this to me?” read the suicide note that the police said they had found in a purse next to her body. “A law should serve the people, but it didn’t protect me.” The woman’s death is part of one of South Korea’s grimmest statistics: the number of people 65 and older committing suicide, which has nearly quadrupled in recent years, making the country’s rate of such deaths among the highest in the developed world. The epidemic is the counterpoint to the nation’s runaway economic success, which has worn away at the Confucian social contract that formed the bedrock of Korean culture for centuries. That contract was built on the premise that parents would do almost anything to care for their children — in recent times, depleting their life savings to pay for a good education — and then would end their lives in their children’s care. No Social Security system was needed. Nursing homes were rare. But as South Korea’s hard-charging younger generations joined an exodus from farms to cities in recent decades, or simply found themselves working harder in the hypercompetitive environment that helped drive the nation’s economic miracle, their parents were often left behind. Many elderly people now live out their final years poor, in rural areas with the melancholy feel of ghost towns. Such social shifts are not uncommon in the industrialized world. But the sudden change has proved especially wrenching in South Korea, where parents view their sacrifices as the equivalent of a pension plan and where those who are suffering are falling victim to changes they themselves helped unleash as they rebuilt the economy from the devastation of the Korean War. “The family was always an extended self,” said Park Ji-young, a professor of social welfare at Sangji University in Wonju. “Children were everything they had for their future — for health care, financial support and a comfortable life in old age. Their children’s success was their success.” Making matters harder for the elderly, the government has been caught by surprise by the quick erosion of the traditional family structure. The government began building a public pension system in 1988, but people say that in most cases the payments barely cover basic living costs, and many of the oldest South Koreans are not covered because they were past working age when the system was created. A government report in 2011 said that only 4 of every 10 people over 65 had a public or private pension or retirement savings. And as the woman who poisoned herself in August discovered, the law denies welfare to people whose children are deemed capable of supporting them. That leaves some parents the humiliating choice of asking for help from their children or their government, which can grant exemptions if they can prove their children are unwilling or unable to help. In a country that puts great value on retaining face, experts on the elderly say that is a painful choice. Professor Park said some kill themselves because they feel betrayed; others are driven by a fear of harming their family’s chances of getting ahead. They are succeeding at alarming rates; the suicides among people 65 or older ballooned to 4,378 in 2010, from 1,161 in 2000. The number of suicides among other adults and teenagers also surged, though those deaths are generally attributed to the stress of living in a highly competitive society rather than the changes in the family structure that are driving the elderly to despair. Until the country’s rapid-fire industrialization in the late 1900s, South Korean life followed a well-trod path. Parents lived with their eldest son’s family — parents without a son often adopted one from a relative, which also continued the male lineage of the family — and sacrifices were rewarded. Historically, towns would erect monuments to their “filial children,” and some rural towns still award prizes, like televisions or cash, to solicitous adult children. As the chances for riches grew in recent years, parents began going to lengths to try to ensure their children’s success, and by extension their family’s, that make other countries’ versions of helicopter parenting seem tame. Some parents, the “edu poor,” drained their savings to pay for cram schools that operate after regular school and on weekends. A growing number of families even split up for years so the mothers can take their children abroad to become fluent in English, which is crucial to getting good jobs at big corporations. The fathers of many of South Korea’s crop of golf prodigies, meanwhile, often leave their jobs to become their children’s financial managers. Many parents also drastically draw down savings accounts to help pay for their children’s homes. The country’s biggest daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, railed in an editorial against “this ludicrous custom where parents sell their future to support their children.” Other newspapers and advocates for the elderly have also begun to call more loudly for change, with the mass-circulation daily Dong-A Ilbo using the case of the woman who poisoned herself to suggest the government provide more assistance. “Our society’s family system is disintegrating too fast to require children to support their old parents,” an editorial said. The tearing away at the family has become enough of an issue that a novel on the topic, “ Please Look After Mom ,” has become one of the country’s biggest-selling books in years. The government says it is trying to help, proposing a higher retirement age so people can save more money, but that is a tough sell amid rising youth unemployment. It also began mandating that municipalities set up suicide prevention centers for all ages, and those offices have claimed some successes. Kim Man-jeom, 73, was one. After her husband died in 2011, she was dismayed that her sons did not invite her to live with them, but she also dreaded becoming a burden. “When I saw a necktie, I considered hanging myself,” she said in an interview. She was saved, she says, by an empathetic social worker. But in a telling sign that the root cause of distress — the fraying of the social fabric — has not been dealt with systematically, a small but growing number of elderly Koreans are dying with no one to claim them or perform the traditional rituals thought to ease their way in the afterlife. Kim Seok-jung, who started a company in the southern city of Pusan to care for their belongings, says he is haunted by the case of a 73-year-old whose body was found last February, months after her death. “The calendar on her wall stopped at October,” Mr. Kim said. “When I see these old people, I see how my own generation will die.” | South Korea;Old age,elderly,senior citizens;Suicide;Family |
ny0152479 | [
"us"
] | 2008/08/23 | Rabbis Debate Kosher Ethics at Meat Plant | An immigration raid at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant has opened a wide rift among Jewish leaders over the company’s ethical conduct and led to new interest in a campaign to create wage and safety standards for workers producing kosher food. The Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa , lost about half its work force when 389 illegal immigrants were detained there in May, causing shortages of kosher meat and poultry in butcher shops and supermarkets across the country. Immigrants caught in the raid told labor investigators of unpaid overtime, lax safety measures and under-age workers at the plant. Their stories have troubled many kosher consumers and given impetus to a campaign known as Hekhsher Tzedek (which means “justice certification” in Hebrew) to create an additional seal of approval for kosher-certified products, indicating that the producers met certain standards for the treatment of workers. “People want kosher food that is produced in an appropriate manner according to both ritual law and ethical law,” said Rabbi Morris J. Allen of Mendota Heights, Minn., who is leading the effort backed by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, representing the synagogues of the Conservative movement, and the Rabbinical Assembly, the organization of Conservative rabbis. But while Rabbi Allen and others have criticized Agriprocessors, some Orthodox Jewish leaders rallied to the company’s defense. After touring the Postville plant on July 31, a delegation of 20 Orthodox rabbis, including leaders of kosher certification organizations from the United States and Canada, concluded Agriprocessors was “an A-1 place,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, an Orthodox group. “An old medieval plant we didn’t see,” said Rabbi Lerner, who organized the trip. “We saw a Cadillac with top-of-the-line machinery and a heavy emphasis on safety, security and health.” A spokesman for the company, Menachem Lubinsky, said it had been unfairly singled out for labor violations that were unproven accusations. Mr. Lubinsky told The Jewish Week newspaper that Agriprocessors was facing a “Dreyfus trial in the media,” referring to the case of a Jewish military officer in France who was unfairly tried for treason in the late 19th century. Agriprocessors managers, at first stunned by the immigration raid, have since gone on the offensive, revising management practices and hiring lawyers and public relations advisers in an effort to rebuild the company’s reputation, especially among Jewish consumers. The Postville plant has been owned since 1987 by Aaron Rubashkin and his family, Lubavitch Hasidic Jews who built the company from a Brooklyn butcher shop into a kosher meat giant controlling more than 60 percent of the market, with annual kosher sales of more than $80 million, according to analysts’ estimates. Agriprocessors specializes in glatt kosher beef, the highest kosher certification that is reserved for meat from animals with smooth lungs bearing no lesions. The shortages after the raid highlighted the company’s dominance in the kosher meat market, with brands like Aaron’s Best, Shor Habor and David’s. Kosher experts said that Mr. Rubashkin and his son Sholom, until recently the chief executive in Postville, had vastly extended the distribution of kosher products across the United States by selling them to major supermarkets along with nonkosher beef. But workers at the Postville plant had long complained of forced overtime, frequent accidents and extortion by floor supervisors who sold jobs for cash. Their complaints were amplified after the raid, when nearly 300 illegal immigrant workers, most from Guatemala, were criminally prosecuted, with most sentenced to five months in prison followed by deportation. On Aug. 5, Iowa labor authorities said they had found 57 cases of under-age workers employed at the plant, and they called on the state attorney general to bring criminal charges against Agriprocessors for “egregious violations” of the state’s child labor laws. On Friday, the Iowa labor department announced 31 citations against Agriprocessors for safety violations and proposed $101,000 in fines. Kerry Koonce, the department’s spokeswoman, said 21 violations were serious and 6 were repeat offenses cited earlier this year by authorities, which the company had agreed to correct. The violations, found in inspections that began on July 8, included inadequately shielded meat-cutting saws and improper storage of compressed gas cylinders — “a very high number for one inspection,” Ms. Koonce said. One repeat violation was a hole large enough for a worker to fall through in the plant floor, she said. Mr. Lubinsky, the spokesman, said Agriprocessors was not aware of under-age workers in its plant and had moved swiftly to fire four workers under 18 who were discovered by managers. In a statement on Friday, the company said all of the safety issues identified by Iowa inspectors in July were remedied within days. The company denied that it had failed to correct any earlier violations. A low-level Agriprocessors floor supervisor pleaded guilty this week to criminal immigration charges, the only manager convicted to date. Higher managers remain under criminal investigation. The Agriprocessors raid in May fueled a fundamental debate between the Orthodox and Conservative movements of Judaism. The Orthodox, who include the majority of Jews who keep kosher, adhere to a strict interpretation of Jewish law, while the Conservative movement has a more liberal interpretation emphasizing social justice. Among Conservative Jews, a minority observe kosher laws strictly. Rabbi Allen said the Hekhsher Tzedek campaign grew out of his efforts to promote kosher practice in his synagogue, and his participation in a Jewish commission of inquiry that went to Postville after an article in 2006 in The Forward, the weekly Jewish newspaper, about conditions there. The commission’s report found “significant issues of concern, including health and safety.” Since then a rift has grown between Rabbi Allen’s group and Agriprocessors and its supporters. Several rabbis supporting the Hekhsher Tzedek campaign joined a protest at the Postville plant in July. Last month, a New York public relations firm representing Agriprocessors, 5W Public Relations, posted fake blog comments under Rabbi Allen’s name on FailedMessiah.com , a Web site that is fiercely critical of the Rubashkins, and on the Web site of JTA, the Jewish news agency. Shmarya Rosenberg, who runs FailedMessiah.com, traced the fraudulent comments on his site to a 5W address. JTA reported that one false posting in Rabbi Allen’s name came from an address belonging to a 5W executive, Juda Engelmayer. The postings seemed intended to discredit Rabbi Allen by making him appear to use crude, arrogant language. In a statement, 5W confirmed that the postings came from its offices but said that they had been made by an intern without approval. The Hekhsher Tzedek campaign has broadened its ambitions beyond Agriprocessors, hoping to see its “God Housekeeping Seal” adopted by kosher food producers nationwide. On Aug. 1, the campaign unveiled proposed “social justice criteria” for the seal, including standards for wages and benefits, worker safety, animal welfare and environmental protection. In coming days, the two Conservative Jewish organizations behind the campaign will send out a mailing calling on rabbis to preach about it during Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Rabbi Allen said the campaign was not seeking to change ancient kosher dietary laws, which are traditionally administered by Orthodox Jews. “We are not revising, we are enhancing,” he said. But some Orthodox leaders predicted that the campaign would be spurned by Orthodox Jews. Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel, a national Orthodox group, warned that the Hekhsher Tzedek was likely to backfire by raising the price of kosher food. The campaign’s leaders appear “not so much interested in ensuring fair treatment of employees and the like as they are in redefining the very concept of kashrut” (the Hebrew word referring to kosher laws and practice), Rabbi Shafran said. “That, in our view, is deeply troubling.” Meanwhile, the negative news from Agriprocessors spurred Orthodox leaders to action. David Eliezrie, a California rabbi who joined the trip to Postville, called the delegation “the New York Yankees of rabbis.” Aaron Troodler, another delegation member, said Agriprocessors had paid for the rabbis’ travel. They saw changes that Agriprocessors had made since the raid, according to the report of their trip. They met with James Martin, a former federal prosecutor recently hired as a compliance officer, and were told of a toll-free hot line he set up for confidential worker complaints. Workers interviewed on video by Yair Hoffman, a delegation member, said Agriprocessors now pays a starting wage of $10 an hour, up from $7.25 before the raid. Jacobson Staffing, an outside company that has taken charge of hiring, has enrolled the company in E-Verify, a federal program devised to block illegal immigrants from getting jobs. After the three-hour tour, the rabbis issued an unqualified endorsement. They said they did not intend to delve into conditions before the raid or address the plight of the immigrant workers caught in the raid. “I have no firsthand knowledge of what went on before,” Rabbi Lerner said. “But if you take away preraid, you’ve got to say it’s a wonderful situation now.” | Kosher Foods;Agriprocessors Inc;Iowa;Illegal Immigrants;Rabbis;Ethics |
ny0218399 | [
"business"
] | 2010/05/28 | Costco Posts 46% Rise in Profit as Sales Grow 12% | The Costco Wholesale Corporation said Thursday that its quarterly profit rose 46 percent as shoppers began buying nonessential items, driving sales up 12 percent. Costco said it earned $306 million, or 68 cents a share, up from $210 million, or 48 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted for special items in each period, the profit rose to 66 cents a share from 53 cents. Revenue in the period, which ended May 9 and was the third quarter of Costco’s fiscal year, rose to $17.78 billion from $15.8 billion. Membership fees, which are part of the revenue figures, rose to $395 million from $329 million. “I think if there is a silver lining to this horrible economy over the last year and a half, it is that the warehouse clubs and us in particular are the extreme value proposition,” said Richard A. Galanti, Costco’s chief financial officer. “People are shopping with us more frequently than they used to.” Profits matched, and sales exceeded, analysts’ estimates. Shares of Costco, which is based in Issaquah, Wash., rose $2.76, or 4.9 percent, to close at $58.74 on Thursday. Costco said it had more business from everyday consumers and businesses like small restaurants, which helped keep the bulk of the company’s business in food. But small luxuries like patio furniture sold out quickly while television sales slumped. Mr. Galanti said shoppers were coming in more often but average spending per visit fell slightly. Shoppers are buying more food and necessities and fewer televisions than last year, he said, but that is somewhat offset by sales of housewares, exercise gear and other discretionary items. “My view is we’ve got them coming in more frequently, and it is not like they’re buying it somewhere else,” he said on Thursday. “And when they start buying it, they are buying it at us.” Sales at stores open at least a year grew 10 percent. Excluding the impact of higher gas prices and changes in currency exchange rates, they rose 4 percent. | Costco;Company Reports;Shopping and Retail;Sales |
ny0228096 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/07/29 | After an Ugly Breakup: What They Did and What They Said They Did | The independent counsel’s 54-page report released on Wednesday reads, in large part, like a how-not-to guide to government management. Based on the sworn testimony of more than 30 witnesses, including Gov. David A. Paterson , and documentary evidence — phone logs, travel calendars, court records — from more than 40 sources, the report is comprehensive and filled with intriguing details, though it raises as many questions as it answers. Recounting telephone conversations among aides to Governor Paterson and top officials in the State Police, and with Sherr-una Booker , the woman whose ugly breakup with David W. Johnson , a Paterson aide, is at the center of the inquiry, it chronicles what the independent counsel, Judith S. Kaye , deemed “errors in judgment.” The footnoted report also exposes missteps, failures of memory, efforts among members of the Paterson administration to hide things from one another, instances in which they felt that they had been lied to or enlisted in questionable behavior, and what seem like some very strained rationalizations. Asked, for example, whether a statement his staff had prepared for Ms. Booker to give to the press was “accurate or inaccurate,” Governor Paterson responded, “I would say it was neither.” The report also shows that Mr. Paterson contacted Ms. Booker, even after referring the matter to the office of the attorney general for investigation, leaving a voice mail message that began, “Sherri, this is David,” and pleaded, “Please help me.” And throughout the nearly three months between Mr. Johnson’s Oct. 31, 2009, dispute with Ms. Booker and the start of the investigation, Mr. Paterson displayed a lack of curiosity, never looking into whether there had been an arrest report or an order of protection in connection with the episode. While Ms. Kaye, the former chief judge of New York State, finds “no evidence” of criminal wrongdoing by anyone other than Mr. Johnson — whose fate is in the hands of local prosecutors — she chastises the governor and others, and calls for some changes in State Police protocol. Here is a guide to the major players in the investigation, their conduct and testimony, and Ms. Kaye’s conclusions: Conduct NOV. 1, 2009 At the governor’s apartment in Manhattan, Mr. Johnson told Mr. Paterson that he and Ms. Booker had had an acrimonious argument the night before, and that it had resulted in a 911 call. “According to the governor, Johnson did not inform him of any physical dimension to the incident and did not appear to be concerned about any police follow-up action.” “I think I may have asked him, ‘Is anything coming of this?’ and he didn’t seem to think so,” the governor testified. “And I said, ‘You know, if it does, you know, keep the office posted,’ or something like that.” JANUARY 2010 Mr. Johnson asked Deneane Brown, a state employee who had been in contact with Ms. Booker, to take Mr. Paterson lunch in Manhattan, and “the governor told Brown that the incident with Johnson and Booker never should have happened.” Ms. Brown said the governor told her he “was going to deal with the situation himself,” but Mr. Paterson testified that he “never told Brown that he intended to ‘handle’ the situation.” FEB. 4 Worried about rumors of a coming article in The New York Times, the governor spoke to an editor for more than 30 minutes, saying that he saw the dispute as “just a bad breakup,” and that there had been “no incidents of violence, or police interacting, or — uh, you know — police reports.” Mr. Paterson later testified that he meant there had been no arrests. The editor asked about an order of protection relating to the episode; in testimony, the governor said this was the first he had heard of such a thing (he said he later asked Mr. Johnson about the order and was told there was not one). FEB. 16 The governor asked Ms. Brown to urge Ms. Booker to make a statement to reporters, and directed his press secretary to draft one. Mr. Paterson testified that he provided “sort of neutral language” saying the relationship had “ended in an unfriendly way, but there’s no current acrimony,” and added that he was “clearly looking out for myself.” Ms. Brown was provided a draft statement that said, “There was nothing acrimonious about our relationship or its ending.” She testified that she had created a new e-mail account “because she believed that the proposed statement was untrue and she was uncomfortable sending it.” She added that Ms. Booker declined to issue the statement “because she refused to say anything false.” Asked about the statement, Mr. Paterson said, “I would just say it was a statement designed to get the media off of my back.” FEB. 17 Governor Paterson and Ms. Booker had a 40-minute phone conversation. Ms. Booker testified that the governor told her “the story was ‘going to blow over,’ ” and that she told him, for the first time, the details of the original episode. The governor testified that he came away “with the impression that, from Booker’s perspective, it was a frightening experience.” FEB. 17 Peter E. Kauffmann, the governor’s director of communications, spoke to an official at the New York Police Department, and then read Mr. Paterson portions of the police report about the dispute and told him about the order of protection. “Kauffmann testified that the governor then proceeded to explain to him that in a legal sense, an order of protection did not exist unless it had been served on Johnson,” the report says. That day, the governor’s office released a statement saying there was no evidence to “substantiate any claims of violence committed by David Johnson.” FEB. 24 The governor announced at 9:03 p.m. that he had referred the matter to the attorney general for investigation. At 9:40 p.m., he left a voice mail message for Ms. Booker asking for her help. “They’re trying to make it look like I pressured you into dropping the court case,” he said, referring to The Times. “I hope, uh, you remember that I was not trying to make you do anything, and I hope your lawyer will do something to help me here, because this, uh, doesn’t look good for me.” He added, “And, to be honest with you, I believe you.” He later testified “that he was not thinking when he left the message,” the reports says, and that his distress may have gotten the better of his judgment. Conclusions Ms. Kaye says that it is unclear whether Mr. Paterson knew of Ms. Booker’s scheduled appearance in Family Court, and that there was “no evidence that the governor wrongfully induced or attempted to induce Booker not to appear.” As for contacting Ms. Booker after referring the matter to the attorney general, she writes, “The governor understood (or should have understood) that Booker would be an important source of information” in the investigation. “The governor did not ensure that the executive chamber made appropriate inquiry or took any appropriate action with respect to Johnson.” Instead, “the governor relied solely on Johnson as a basis to make denials to the media. It is hard to reconcile this conduct with the governor’s expressed commitment to the cause of domestic-violence prevention.” Conduct OCT 31, 2009 Starting around 9 p.m., Mr. Harris had a series of conversations with Ms. Brown, who had gone to Ms. Booker’s apartment. Ms. Brown testified that Mr. Harris asked whether Ms. Booker had been physically hurt and, according to the report, that he “seemed to be predominantly concerned about whether Booker was going to file a police report.” Mr. Harris, though, told investigators his main concern was whether Mr. Johnson had used his state position to interfere with the local police. OCT. 31, At 10:02 p.m., Governor Paterson called Mr. Harris and they spoke for about 40 minutes; Mr. Harris testified that they did not discuss the episode, but instead talked about mutual friends, the World Series and their plans for the evening. NOV. 1 There were at least five calls between Mr. Harris and Ms. Brown, one lasting more than 20 minutes. Mr. Harris testified that he was trying to find out whether there was any inappropriate intervention by state officials, and then “turned his attention to the issue of potential media exposure.” He said he asked Ms. Brown to take Ms. Booker to dinner and “sort of get her to understand that if this thing moves the distance, that it’s not just going to be the governor, the media is going to manipulate what is essentially a private situation between two people.” “If you are asking me if it is possible I might have said to her, you know, please tell her not to go to court, it’s possible that I said it,” Mr. Harris testified. Conclusions Ms. Kaye says that despite Mr. Harris’s having asked Ms. Brown “to steer Booker toward ‘noninterventionist’ ways of resolving” the dispute, “there is no evidence to support a witness tampering charge” because the conversations mostly occurred before the Family Court proceeding was initiated. “Harris was more concerned about protecting the governor from potential negative media coverage.” Conduct OCT. 31, 2009 After clearing it with his superior, Major Day called Ms. Booker on her cellphone and then at home; they spoke for nearly two minutes. Major Day testified that he had called for the purpose of “checking on her,” and that he was trying to help. But Ms. Booker said that he asked her not to file charges, and that he was “trying to sweep it underneath the rug.” A friend of Ms. Booker’s who had listened in on the conversation characterized the call as “a whole bunch of yelling.” NOV. 3 With the governor and Mr. Johnson scheduled to attend an election night party in Midtown Manhattan, Major Day asked a lieutenant in the security detail to look up Mr. Johnson’s criminal history using a Web program called eJustice. The lieutenant was not authorized to use the system, so he asked a senior investigator to log in and then leave the room. That afternoon, Major Day also obtained a printout from the New York Statewide Police Information Network showing that a temporary order of protection had been filed against Mr. Johnson. That evening, he asked a New York detective providing security at the event in Midtown to find out whether Mr. Johnson would be arrested that night and he was told that there was no warrant. He told investigators that his primary concern was for the governor’s security. “If Johnson was to be arrested or served,” the report says, “Day testified he did not want either of these events to occur when Johnson was with the governor.” NOV. 3 Police reports in hand, Major Day again called Ms. Booker, and spoke to a friend who characterized his behavior as “aggressive and rude,” according to the report, and said he warned that if Ms. Booker pursued an order of protection, “the situation could ‘get out of hand.’ ” Major Day, though, denied this. Conclusions Major Day, who spoke to investigators on three occasions, initially “withheld key facts,” according to the report, and later “acknowledged that his previous testimony had been incomplete and inaccurate.” Correcting his testimony precludes prosecution for perjury, the report says, but it notes that the security detail’s “protective function obviously does not require or authorize law enforcement officers to testify inaccurately.” “At the very least, evidence shows that Day inserted the State Police into a local law enforcement matter, simply because a member of the executive chamber was involved and had asked him for assistance.” “It is a violation of State Police protocol and eJustice regulations to access a criminal history without a legitimate investigative purpose,” the report says. Conduct OCT. 31, 2009 Ms. Booker testified that Mr. Johnson choked her, threw her against a dresser and tore off her Halloween costume, then tried to stop her from calling the police. He can be heard in the background of her first 911 call, at 8:08 p.m., denying her accusations. Upon leaving her Bronx apartment, he made several phone calls, dialing three numbers in an effort to reach Mr. Harris, and ultimately reached Major Day. OCT. 31 Mr. Johnson asked Ms. Brown to go to Ms. Booker’s apartment. FALL 2009 Sometime after the Oct. 31 episode, Mr. Johnson tried to obtain a pistol permit through the State Police, but was told to go through his local jurisdiction. Instead, he filled out the application and sent it to the State Police superintendent’s office (there is no evidence any permit was issued). Conclusions Ms. Kaye says that the evidence “warrants consideration of possible charges,” and that she shared investigative material with the Bronx district attorney, who is looking into the original Oct. 31 episode. “His attempt to obtain a pistol permit through State Police channels is evidence that he believed that his relationship with the State Police entitled him to seek favors from them.” | Paterson David A;Johnson David W;Special Prosecutors (Independent Counsel);Booker Sheer-una;Kaye Judith S;Brown Deneane;Kauffmann Peter E;Police;New York State |
ny0010226 | [
"science"
] | 2013/02/19 | Drugging Fish, Naming a Moon and More | It was a momentous week for asteroids — one that struck Earth, and one that didn’t. On Friday morning, people of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk looked up to see a bright object streak across the sky. About a minute later, they were buffeted by a thunderous shock wave that shattered windows and caused hundreds of injuries. Scientists used recordings of ultra-low-frequency sound waves to estimate that the asteroid that entered the atmosphere at 40,000 miles per hour was 55 feet wide, weighed 10,000 tons, and released energy 30 times that of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Astronomers had no chance of spotting the asteroid beforehand, because it came from the same direction as the rising Sun. An even larger asteroid, designated 2012 DA14, which astronomers had been diligently tracking, passed a close, but not too close, 17,200 miles from Earth. The two, coming from different directions, were unrelated. POLLUTION Drug-Addled Fish The chemicals of modern human civilization — nitrogen fertilizers, artificial sweeteners, prescription drugs — wash into bodies of water with unknown effects on wildlife. Image Perch exposed to an anti-anxiety drug were more active. Credit Bent Christensen Swedish scientists were curious about what a common anti-anxiety drug, Oxazepam, might be doing to wild European perch. In the experiment , the fish became less anxious. They were more active, ate faster and had less regard for their fellow fish. Such behavioral changes, if reflected in the wild, could alter the ecological balance. A less anxious perch might boldly venture out and get itself eaten by a predator. NOMENCLATURE Hurricane? Superstorm? What are weather officials to do when a giant storm loses hurricane status just before it comes ashore? That was the conundrum the National Hurricane Center faced in October as Hurricane Sandy headed up the Atlantic coast. As forecast, the winds dropped below hurricane levels as the storm approached landfall. Once it was classified as a post-tropical cyclone, the center could no longer issue official advisories and passed the task to local officials. Image Credit Beatrice de Gea for The New York Times In a report released last week, the center called on its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to change the rules so that it could still issue advisories to emphasize the dangers of storm surges even after the winds weaken slightly. MEDICINE A New Way to See It is not a bionic eye, but it is a first technological step to restoring vision for the blind. On Thursday the Food and Drug Administration approved what amounts to an artificial retina — special glasses that contain a camera and a video processor, which send signals to a sheet of electrodes that have been implanted in the eyes. The electrodes send the signals to the brain. The treatment is the first to give sight to the blind, although only rudimentary aspects — the outlines of objects and contrasts between light and dark. Still, that is enough to enable at least some of the blind patients using the device to detect street crosswalks, the presence of people or cars, or even to read large type. EVOLUTION A Multitalented Gene A single gene mutation 35,000 years ago appears to help explain the distinctive appearance of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and other East Asian people. Scientists engineered mice with the East Asian version of this gene, called EDAR, and these mice indeed had thicker hair shafts characteristic of East Asians. To the surprise of the researchers , the genetically engineered mice also had more sweat glands. A Chinese member of the research team tested people in China and found that they had more numerous sweat glands than people elsewhere. The researchers said the mutation occurred in central China, where extra sweat glands would have been a boon to the hunter-gatherers who lived in the warm, humid region. Image A single gene mutation may explain East Asians’ thick hair. Credit Getty Images ASTRONOMY Name That Moon William Shatner may get to name a moon of Pluto. In 2011 and 2012, astronomers at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., using the Hubble Space Telescope, spotted two undiscovered bodies orbiting the former planet and designated them P4 and P5 — the fourth and fifth known moons of Pluto. The institute is inviting the public to vote on more permanent names in a poll at plutorocks.com. Voting ends at noon on Feb. 25. In classical mythology, Pluto is the lord of the underworld, so the nine names proposed by the astronomers included Styx (the river that divides Earth from the underworld) and Cerberus (the three-headed dog guarding the gates to the underworld). Mr. Shatner, best known as Capt. James T. Kirk of “Star Trek,” suggested Vulcan and Romulus, the names of fictional worlds on the show; Romulus is taken (it’s a moon around an asteroid), but the astronomers took him up on Vulcan, adding that to the poll. Of the more than 288,500 ballots cast as of Monday afternoon, Vulcan led the tally with more than 87,000 votes. After the polls close next Monday, the astronomers will confer with the International Astronomical Union on the final names. | Pluto;Moon;Outer space;Hurricane Sandy;Mice;Genetics and Heredity;Fish;Pharmaceuticals;Water pollution;Chemicals |
ny0168587 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2006/06/26 | Three Injured in Midtown Crash | A car jumped a curb in Midtown yesterday afternoon and struck two pedestrians before it crashed into a telephone booth at the southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 46th Street, the police and witnesses said. The pedestrians, a woman and a man, were thrown in the air and landed about 10 feet from the vehicle, a Volkswagen Jetta, at the foot of the crosswalk on 46th Street, witnesses said. Two police officers passing by on Eighth Avenue rushed to aid the pedestrians, as well as the driver and passenger. It was unclear last night what caused the driver to lose control of his car; witnesses said he might have suffered a seizure. The driver, his passenger and the pedestrians were taken to St. Vincent's Midtown Hospital and Bellevue Hospital with injuries that did not seem life-threatening, a Fire Department spokesman said. | Accidents and Safety;Manhattan (NYC) |
ny0157000 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2008/06/24 | Death Creates More Turmoil in S.I. Congressional Race | The death on Sunday of Francis H. Powers, the man selected by Republican leaders on Staten Island as their candidate for the Congressional seat being vacated by Representative Vito J. Fossella , has once again plunged party leaders on Staten Island into uncertainty. Mr. Powers, who died at 67, apparently from a heart attack, was selected by Republican leaders on Staten Island and in Brooklyn after a number of elected officials decided against running. Republican officials on Staten Island insisted on Monday that it was too soon to speculate about what the party might do. “I think it would be inappropriate for me to discuss what this means, politically,” said John S. Friscia, the chairman of the Republican Party on Staten Island. “It’s a terrible loss for the Powers family and for the Republican Party committee.” Nonetheless, there are some rather time-sensitive political realities that cannot be ignored. For one thing, petitioning — the process of collecting signatures to allow candidates to qualify for a place on the ballot — ends in about two weeks. As a result, party officials will have to determine whether to file Mr. Powers’s petitions, and thereby leave the matter of who would succeed him on his place on the ballot to his campaign’s vacancy committee. Another option would be for yet another candidate to emerge and begin to collect signatures — a prospect that would require lightning speed at preparing those petitions. “In terms of where the party goes from here, everyone is now pretty much in the background because of Frank’s death,” said Guy V. Molinari, former Staten Island borough president and the dean of the party on the island. “But the fact of the matter is, for the sake of the party — and the stakes are high — they really have to start moving on the process,” Mr. Molinari said. As part of the petitioning process, every candidate names a committee on vacancies, typically a group of five people that includes friends or party officials. That committee is charged with filling the place on the ballot should the candidate drop out or die. But some Republican leaders expressed concern on Monday that Mr. Powers’s campaign team might not yet have collected the 1,200 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. They added that Republican leaders would most likely begin focusing on their options in earnest this week, after Mr. Powers’s funeral. “The Republicans have several directions that they can take,” said Richard Flanagan, an associate professor of political science at the College of Staten Island. “They can have someone from within the party ranks — like one of the district leaders — who takes one for the team. Or this situation may embolden one of the front liners among the elected officials to get in the race.” There are several well-known elected officials on the island who have declined to run for the seat. They include City Councilman James S. Oddo, State Senator Andrew J. Lanza, District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan Jr. of Staten Island, and Stephen J. Fiala, the county clerk and commissioner for jurors on Staten Island. In an interview on Monday, Mr. Lanza said that he would not run. Mr. Donovan and Mr. Oddo said that they, too, would not reconsider their earlier decisions. And, in a statement, Mr. Fossella said: “My plans for the future have not changed. I am not running for re-election.” Mr. Fossella announced last month that he would not run for re-election. The congressman was arrested in Alexandria, Va., on May 1 on charges of driving while intoxicated and admitted soon after that he had fathered a daughter, who is now 3, out of wedlock. Dr. Jamshad Wyne, a cardiologist who is the finance chairman of the Staten Island Republican Party, is also a candidate for the seat, but he has little support among the party’s leaders. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in New York and Washington have endorsed a city councilman, Michael E. McMahon, for the seat. Stephen A. Harrison, a Brooklyn lawyer, is also a Democratic candidate. Mr. Harrison ran against Mr. Fossella in 2006. | Staten Island (NYC);Powers Francis H;Fossella Vito J Jr;Republican Party |
ny0292488 | [
"us"
] | 2016/06/02 | U.C.L.A. Shooting Was Murder-Suicide, Police Say | LOS ANGELES — Two men were killed in a shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, prompting thousands of frightened students and staff members to hunker down or run for shelter as the police went door to door searching for the gunman or other victims. After a lockdown that lasted throughout the morning, the Los Angeles police said that the gunman was among the dead, and declared the campus safe. “A homicide and a suicide occurred,” Charlie Beck, the Los Angeles police chief, said. “It appears it is entirely contained. We believe there are no suspects outstanding and no continuing threat to U.C.L.A.’s campus.” A gun was found at the scene, and Chief Beck said, “There is evidence there that could be a suicide note.” The shooting victim was William S. Klug, an associate professor in U.C.L.A.’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, said Alan Garfinkel, a professor of integrative biology and physiology who worked closely with Mr. Klug for the past five years. Image The victim was identified as William S. Klug, an associate professor in U.C.L.A.’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Credit Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters Mr. Garfinkel, who was attending a meeting in a nearby building when the shooting occurred, said he had been informed of Mr. Klug’s death by Los Angeles and campus police officers. “He was an extremely sweet and kind person,” Mr. Garfinkel said. “It’s so mind-blowing that this happened to him of all people.” He described Mr. Klug as a devout Christian, adding that the two would often have debates in front of students about ethics and religion. The shooting took place about 10 a.m. inside a small office in the Engineering IV building, officials said. There were hundreds of people in the building at the time. The campus was placed on lockdown, with text message and email alerts sent out to students and employees telling them to shelter in place or, if they were in the open, to find shelter. It was not until more than two hours later that the authorities declared the situation was resolved and officials began to lift the lockdown. Earlier, police officers went building by building, escorting groups of people out who had their hands raised. The people then knelt on the ground as officers searched their backpacks and purses for weapons. Melanie Beecher, a first-year student, said she had reached her philosophy class shortly after receiving the first alert. Image The U.C.L.A. police chief, James Herren, said officers would continue to sweep the campus until they were certain it was safe. Credit Christine Armario/Associated Press “Immediately we barricaded the doors, blocked openings with trash cans, turned off the lights and pulled down the blinds,” she said. Ms. Beecher added that she had called friends who had not yet arrived, telling them to stay in their dormitories. “We have been getting frequent alerts and have been able to live stream the news,” she said. The lockdown meant that any student who left a dorm room was unable to re-enter it, even with a key. “Our R.A. has instructed us to stay in our rooms no matter what,” said Izzy Gardner, a first-year student who spent the time in her room. “There are tons of rumors going around, and it’s hard to determine what is true and isn’t true. People are pretty shaken up.” Ceci Falktoft, another first-year student, was walking to a meeting with a professor when she saw people running, she said. Without knowing why, she ran, too, learning about the shooting after she asked others what was happening. Ms. Falktoft ran to Powell Library, where staff members handed out snacks to the many people hiding or studying there and told them they could not leave. All classes and on-campus activities were canceled for the rest of the day Wednesday. But Scott Waugh, U.C.L.A’s executive vice chancellor, said he wanted to resume normal routines as quickly as possible, especially because this is a crucial time of year for many students, with finals coming up, followed shortly thereafter by commencement. Classes will resume on Thursday, he said, and professional counselors would be available on campus. The Los Angeles police, the university police, the F.B.I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the incident. Hundreds of law enforcement officers scoured the building where the shooting occurred and surrounding buildings. | College;Murders and Homicides;School Shootings and Attacks;William S. Klug;University of California; Los Angeles;Los Angeles;Mainak Sarkar |
ny0291980 | [
"science"
] | 2016/01/14 | Godzillium vs. Trumpium: Some Suggestions to Add to the Periodic Table | What would you name a new element on the periodic table? That’s a question that groups of scientists from Japan, the U.S. and Russia will have to decide as they replace the current identifiers of four elements — 113, 115, 117 and 118 — with something a little more evocative. With the ushering in of these four superheavy elements, and the approval of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the Periodic Table’s seventh row will be complete. Though the researchers have yet to put forth their suggestions, tons of ideas are already floating around science circles. One online petition aims to name “heavy metal” 115 “lemmium” after the deceased Motörhead frontman Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister , and has already reached more than 145,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon . Another, with more than 44,000 signatures, wants to name element 117 “octarine” after the late Terry Pratchett and his Discworld book series. We recently solicited reader suggestions. Many proposed naming them after prominent scientists such as Rosalind Franklin, Ada Lovelace, Nikola Tesla and Carl Sagan or after chemistry professors that they admired in college and high school. Others tapped into popular culture, picking “adamantium” after the material, in Marvel lore, that makes Wolverine’s indestructible claws, and “unobtanium,” the coveted element from the movie Avatar. Donald Trump is shaking up this contest, too — readers suggested “trumpium,” “trumpillium,” “trumpissum” and “AnyoneButTrumpium.” Here are some other standouts: Rikenium The most popular suggestion we received was to name element 113 after Riken institute in Japan. The team of scientists from the institute were the first researchers in Asia to discover an element and gain the right to name it. But “Rikenium” does not follow the rules set out by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which ultimately must approve the winning names (Riken is an institute, not a place, and therefore would most likely be disqualified as a contender). Ghiorsonium David Bernklau, a reader from Brooklyn, suggested naming one of the new elements after Albert Ghiorso, who codiscovered an astonishing 12 elements, a record. Over the course of 30 years, his inventions contributed to the discovery of americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, lawrencium, rutherfordium, dubnium and seaborgium. Seaborgium was named after his colleague Glenn Seaborg, a nuclear scientist. “In a nutshell, it is unbelievable that an element has yet to be named after him!” said Mr. Bernklau. Godzillium Several people suggested naming one of the new elements after the 300-foot-tall mutant lizard. “Godzillium,” Susan Sampson wrote, “is mythical, Japanese, and worthy of an element that is unnatural, radioactive and rapidly self-destructive.” Nipponium This popular suggestion comes from a Japanese word for Japan, “Nippon.” This name actually isn’t a newcomer to the periodic table. In 1908, Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa ascribed nipponium, with the symbol Np, to what he thought was element 43. It appeared in periodic tables in Britain, according to the book “ The Lost Elements .” But other scientists were unable to isolate the element. Later analysis of Dr. Ogawa’s samples in 1930 showed that Dr. Ogawa had actually found element 75 , which is just one row directly below element 43. Unfortunately by the time researchers realized the mistake it was too late: element 75 had already been named rhenium in 1925. Dr. Ogawa died a few weeks after learning the fate of nipponium. Element 43 was later found and named technetium in 1937 and the symbol “Np” was used to describe neptunium in 1940. Sisyphisium Lisa DeBenedittis said she would bestow the name sisyphisium on element 118 because it is the heaviest synthetic element. Her logic: “The credit for discovering element 118 — the heaviest ever created — has been assigned to the Dubna and Lawrence Livermore teams. The element has a checkered history: a 1999 claim to have made it was retracted two years later amid accusations that data had been falsified .” “Therefore, I look to two attributes: its heaviness and its second appearance, as noteworthy. Like the heavy boulder that Sisyphus was condemned to push up a mountain, only to watch it roll down, for eternity, this name evokes 118’s emblematic characteristics.” Narcissium Holly Triebe also decided to borrow a name from Greek mythology for her suggested name. She went with “narcissium” after the handsome hunter, Narcissus, who upon looking into a pool of water, fell deeply in love with his reflection and stared at it until he died. “This word suits any of the newfound elements because they are all man-made elements, and scientists have begun to play God in this aspect. They decide what is created and what they believe is necessary,” she said. “It is a form of self-importance because the elements present on Earth are no longer good enough.” | Chemistry;International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry;Riken Institute;Albert Ghiorso;Masataka Ogawa |
ny0123876 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
] | 2012/09/12 | U.S. Avenges Loss to Jamaica in World Cup Qualifying | COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jurgen Klinsmann shouted. He pleaded. He gestured frantically, bending his knees and hunching over as if poised to pounce when his players happened to come near. Klinsmann, the United States national team coach, wore a path in front of the Americans’ bench on Tuesday night, never sitting down during a World Cup qualifying match against Jamaica that was more meaningful — and difficult — than many observers expected. It was not supposed to be this way. A home match against the Reggae Boyz, as Jamaica’s team is known, in the semifinal stage of qualification might generally have been a tame affair. But after the United States lost for the first time to Jamaica last week in Kingston, Klinsmann acknowledged that he “desperately, desperately” wanted to make up for the lost points in the return match. That was why there was emotion and uncharacteristic pressure at Crew Stadium. It was why, when the final whistle finally sounded, Klinsmann pumped his fist, spun around and clapped his hands over his head in glee. The United States’ 1-0 victory was certainly edgier than anyone would have liked, but it ultimately served its purpose. With two games remaining in the six-game semifinal stage of regional qualifying, the United States’ prospects for advancement are positive. The Americans are tied with Guatemala with 7 points; Jamaica also has 7 points but trails on goal differential. The top two teams in the group after next month’s matches will advance to the final stage. “We on the sideline wanted the players to feel our sense of urgency,” Klinsmann said afterward. “We couldn’t afford, not even for a minute, to slowly get into this game.” Forward Herculez Gomez provided the game’s only goal, bending a free kick over the Jamaican defensive wall in the 55th minute. The shot, which sent Klinsmann and the Americans’ bench into delirium, surely came as a relief to the Americans, who had dominated possession for most of the opening hour and pounded the Jamaican penalty area, sending shots over and around the goal, as well as off its frame. In an odd twist, the goal was not even necessarily among the Americans’ best chances; goalkeeper Dwayne Miller made several outstanding saves but failed to keep out Gomez’s shot, diving to his left but succeeding only in pushing the ball into the side netting. “Maybe sometimes, you need a little luck when you hit crossbar four times,” midfielder Clint Dempsey said. That failure to break through early only added to the taut feeling at Crew Stadium, a charming site with a view of the downtown skyline rising above the scoreboard at one end of the field. The support of the home crowds has often been an issue for the United States when it plays qualifiers — most notably against Latin American countries — but Columbus has generally been a refuge. The mood here was particularly dizzying Tuesday, as the stands were awash in red, white and blue and each of the 23,881 fans received a miniature American flag. To honor the memory of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the crowd stood and cheered from the 9th minute through the 11th minute, and three firefighters from New York City took part in the pregame coin toss after addressing the American players on Monday night. All of it contributed to the frenzy that never ebbed as the United States buzzed around the field early on. While many of the players reveled in the atmosphere — “There’s no bigger home-field advantage in America than there is here,” goalkeeper Tim Howard said — Klinsmann anxiously awaited a breakthrough. A former star striker for Germany, Klinsmann knows well the vagaries of World Cup qualifying, and he ruefully recalled how close his country came to missing out on the 1990 World Cup only to avoid disaster and go on to win the tournament. “Let’s not waste time, let’s not waste points,” Klinsmann said he told his players. They did not. Unlike in Jamaica, where the United States struggled to maintain possession and had little flow to its attack, the Americans stretched the field Tuesday. With five changes in the starting lineup, the American team — which was still without the injured Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley — got energy from midfielder Graham Zusi and leadership from the return of the captain Carlos Bocanegra. Danny Williams, seemingly reinvigorated by a return to his natural role in the midfield, helped provide fluidity, and defender Steve Cherundolo pushed forward to offer the width Klinsmann craved after last week’s attack so often stalled in the center of the field. While the goal ultimately came from a free kick, the Americans’ quality shone through. They dominated play. They moved and passed crisply. They did not give in to their early frustrations. After the disappointment in Jamaica four days earlier, there was a palpable sense of release from the United States players as they headed for their bus. “I’m ecstatic about the 3 points,” Cherundolo said. “And I don’t think anyone could say we didn’t deserve them tonight.” | Soccer;United States;Jamaica (West Indies);World Cup (Soccer);Gomez Herculez |
ny0021412 | [
"business"
] | 2013/09/29 | Jonathan Klein of Getty Images, on Useful Critiques | This interview with Jonathan Klein , chief executive of Getty Images, a distributor and creator of photographs and other media, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant . Q. Any early leadership lessons for you? A. My father was C.E.O. of a manufacturing company in South Africa. He wasn’t entrepreneurial, though. He worked for the same company his whole career. He just made his way up from an engineer to running the company. We sort of grew up with business around the dinner table. I have two older brothers. One had his first C.E.O. gig when he was 24, and the other has always had his own companies. I went into law, then spent 10 years in investment banking before deciding that I wanted to do my own thing. Q. Tell me more about those dinner-table conversations. A. More often than not, the conversation had to do with both the challenges and the joy in managing people. And he had challenges that I have not had to face because he had thousands of workers in apartheid South Africa. We were brought up in a very liberal household, so he felt very strongly about what his obligations were toward his people. Q. Were there certain expressions he would often use with you? A. The main ones were around your word and reputation. He would always say you could spend a lifetime creating a good reputation, and you could lose it with just one bad judgment. Always focus on the long term, because the short term is, by definition, short. And he would say: “Jonathan, you talk too much. There’s a reason you have two ears and one mouth. If you’d shut your mouth, you might learn something.” Q. And what were your school years like? A. I was a rebel. I was challenging authority all the time. It’s partially my personality and partially my upbringing. Because of growing up in South Africa, I associated authority with bad stuff. So whenever somebody told me to do something or not to do something, I would challenge it. Q. And after college? A. I went to study law in London. I had decided when I was 7 that I was going to be a lawyer because everybody told me that I was so articulate and argumentative and kind of difficult, so I should be a lawyer. But I didn’t like it. It felt almost like an extension of the private school and Oxford-Cambridge system in England. So I began working at an investment bank, and I stayed for 10 years, working with entrepreneurial and smaller companies until I decided to build a business myself. Image Jonathan Klein, C.E.O. of Getty Images, a distributor and creator of photographs and other media, advises against critiquing others' work in too much detail. "In fiddling over the small stuff," he says, "you take away all the empowerment." Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Q. What are other leadership lessons you’ve learned from running Getty Images? A. I’ve learned a lot from my executive coach. Anytime someone came to me to show me their work, I would critique it. I would almost behave like a schoolteacher — my mother was a teacher — and bring out the metaphorical red pen. And what I didn’t appreciate at the time is that before you mess around the edges, you’ve got to say to yourself, “Am I going to make this significantly better, or am I going to make it only 5 or 10 percent better?” Because in fiddling over the small stuff, you take away all the empowerment. Basically it no longer becomes that person’s work. And after a while, those people get into the habit of giving you incomplete work, and then you have to do it for them. I also used to always debate and argue whatever point was under discussion. And my coach said: “You’ve got to stop. You’ve got to pause, and think, ‘Are you debating the point to get a better outcome or because you just like getting the last word and you like winning?’ If you’re debating to get a better outcome, absolutely do it. If you’re debating because of the latter, cut it out.” Q. You’ve taken the company from a start-up to about 2,000 employees. What are your thoughts about fostering culture? A. I learned very quickly that titles, especially mine, do not matter, and that you have to find ways to get people to do things because they think it’s the right thing to do, and so you need to explain the reasons behind your decisions. We also went through a period when we acquired a lot of companies, and everybody was still feeling like they belonged to their original team rather than being part of Getty Images. So I wrote seven leadership principles, and they are still the bedrock of the company. Q. What are they? A. The first is “trustworthiness, transparency and openness;” followed by “the obligation to care;” “lead by example;” and “raise the bar.” Then “one voice, collective responsibility,” which is about creating a culture of us and we, not me and I. Next is “bring me solutions,” because in a lot of organizations the person who points out a problem gets credit. Here, you’ve got to also come up with a solution. And, finally, “no silos.” Every year, everybody is rated on how well they live up to those principles. Q. How do you hire? A. I always ask, “Of all the jobs you’ve done, what was your favorite?” Then I’ll ask, “Why?” And I always ask: “What do you enjoy most about working and what do you enjoy least? And what do you do when you’re not working?” I’m really trying to put together the person’s narrative. Q. And when a new hire hasn’t worked out, what’s typically been the problem? A. One problem is when people don’t ask enough questions, and have too many opinions. They don’t spend enough time trying to understand the business, the people and the culture, and they reach conclusions too quickly. And then the company turns against them because they were disrespectful to what we’ve achieved, or think we’ve achieved. Q. What advice would you give to college seniors? A. Be open to anything. And I don’t say “follow your passion,” because you usually don’t know what your passion is when you’re that age. You can’t. So I’ve always told people you’ve just got to be open to stuff. Expect the unexpected, and then prepare for it. | Management;Job Recruiting and Hiring;Jonathan Klein;Getty Images |
ny0129336 | [
"business"
] | 2012/06/07 | Hovnanian Posts First Profit in 2 Years | The home builder Hovnanian Enterprises posted its first quarterly profit in more than two years on Wednesday as home deliveries grew, sending its shares up 25 percent. Housing starts last month rose across the board. Residential construction in the first quarter grew at its fastest rate in nearly two years and is expected to contribute this year to economic growth for the first time since 2005. “As evidenced by our four consecutive quarters of year-over-year net contract growth for the first time since 2006, we are encouraged that the home-building industry may be entering the early stages of a recovery,” the chief executive, Ara Hovnanian, said in a statement. Strong results were reported earlier from Hovnanian’s larger rivals, Toll Brothers, D. R. Horton and the Lennar Corporation. Hovnanian, which builds single-family homes, town houses, condominiums and resorts, said contract backlog at the end of the quarter rose 49 percent to $762.8 million. Home deliveries grew 25 percent. The company reported earnings for the quarter of $1.8 million, or 2 cents a share, in contrast to a loss of $72.7 million, or 69 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue in the period, which ended April 30 and was the second quarter of Hovnanian’s fiscal year, rose 34 percent to $341.7 million. Home deliveries rose to 1,207 in the quarter. Shares of Hovnanian, which is based in Red Bank, N.J., rose 31 cents, or 18 percent, to $2.01. They touched a two-month high of $2.10 earlier in the session. | Company Reports;Real Estate and Housing (Residential);Hovnanian Enterprises Inc |
ny0198846 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/07/07 | Who Would Lead New York if Paterson Left? Who Knows? | ALBANY — The question is delicate, if not somewhat ghoulish. But given the unpredictable tumult that has come to characterize politics in Albany over the last year and a half, it is hardly unthinkable: What would happen if Gov. David A. Paterson were to die suddenly, resign or become so incapacitated that he could no longer carry out his duties as governor? Who would lead the state then? In ordinary circumstances, politicians and legal scholars could trace a straight line of succession from the governor to the lieutenant governor to the Senate president to the Assembly speaker. But the state has no constitutional contingency plan for the situation it faces now: a vacancy in the lieutenant governor’s office and a dispute over who is the rightful Senate president. And no one seems to know who is next in line. Even the governor says he is unsure, and he has not left the state since the Senate dispute began on June 8, to avoid any confusion about who is running the government, his office said. He has turned down an invitation to attend the National Governors Association’s annual meeting in Mississippi later this month and even scuttled plans in late June to attend a wedding just across the Connecticut line. “That’s the problem. No one knows,” said Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris, who along with the government watchdog groups Citizens Union and Common Cause urged Governor Paterson on Monday to appoint a lieutenant governor as a way of breaking the stalemate that has left the State Senate divided 31 to 31. (Under the State Constitution, the lieutenant governor casts the Senate’s tie-breaking vote.) The Constitution provides no process for filling a vacancy of the lieutenant governor’s office, so it has been empty since Mr. Paterson was unexpectedly elevated to the governor’s office when Eliot Spitzer resigned. But Mr. Gianaris, a Democrat, and the nonpartisan government watchdogs argued that a section of the New York State Public Officers Law, which governs powers and duties of state officials, allows the governor to fill elected offices for which there is no provision explicitly spelling out how the vacancy should be handled. “The current situation is extraordinary and requires a deeper look at the relevant legal authority,” Mr. Gianaris wrote in a letter to the governor, which was also signed by Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, and Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York. “You have the power to resolve the ongoing dispute by appointing a lieutenant governor to preside over the Senate.” Mr. Paterson said the proposal was under review, but was noncommittal. In a written statement, he said, “I look forward to working with these groups and others to find a way to end the stalemate.” Albany entered its fifth week of gridlock on Monday with no resolution in sight. In the latest legal maneuver, an upstate Democratic senator, Darrel J. Aubertine, sued the State Assembly to compel it to take up the dozens of bills Senate Democrats passed last week in a disputed session. The Senate has not held a session with the participation of both parties since June 8, the day that two Democrats joined Senate Republicans to mount a surprise vote to oust Malcolm A. Smith, the Democratic leader, from power. One of those Democrats later switched back, leaving the chamber split 31 to 31. If Mr. Paterson, a Democrat, were to follow through with the suggestion to appoint a lieutenant governor, his move would almost certainly result in a strong reaction from Republicans and be fertile ground for a legal challenge. “If the governor wants to violate the Constitution, I guess he can do it,” said Senator Dean G. Skelos, leader of the Republicans. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, encouraged the governor to act. “The governor should exercise his power under this statute to appoint someone as soon as possible,” said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman of the Upper West Side. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo frowned on the idea, pointing out that the Constitution calls for the governor and the lieutenant governor to be chosen at the same time. The governor’s appointment of a lieutenant governor, he said in a statement, “would not provide long-term political stability, but rather the opposite, by involving the governor in a political ploy that would wind through the courts for many months.” Even before the Senate revolt, when the line of succession was clear, Mr. Paterson refrained from transferring his powers to the Senate president, not even when he left the state, or when he underwent outpatient eye surgery on three occasions last year. His office applies what aides refer to as the “effective absence rule,” which means that the governor is not effectively absent from the state — and therefore considered able to perform his duties according to the Constitution — if he is reachable and in constant communication with his office. “The Constitution was written before modern communication was available,” said Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for Mr. Paterson. “And with modern communication, the governor is able to continue to exercise his powers.” Still, there is some legal uncertainty about what is considered an absence, as Mr. Paterson has shown by sticking close to home in recent weeks. In an appearance at the Statue of Liberty with Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey on the Fourth of July, Mr. Paterson made a point of mentioning that Liberty Island was indeed part of New York. Mr. Corzine then joked that Mr. Paterson had better be careful not to fall in the water on the boat ride back because he could end up in New Jersey waters. | Paterson David A;State Legislatures;Politics and Government;Constitutions;New York State |
ny0069919 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2014/12/25 | Jeb Bush’s Emails as Governor of Florida Show His Agenda and Goals | WASHINGTON — One month before Jeb Bush was sworn in as governor of Florida, he was already musing about bold plans to reduce the size of the state government. “One of our goals should be to have fewer government employees each year we are serving,” Mr. Bush wrote to two aides in an email in December 1998. “We need a baseline from which to start. Labor has huge potential to be reduced, possibly in half.” The Saturday after he was inaugurated, Mr. Bush forwarded that message to another aide and asked, “Can you make this happen?” Mr. Bush — who announced this month that he was “actively exploring” a presidential bid — left office in 2007 after two terms. In those eight years, the state government in Tallahassee had been transformed by his hard-charging and driven style. And while he did not slash the number of state employees by half, he did privatize thousands of public jobs. The email forecasting that move is one of hundreds of thousands from two accounts — one a government address, the other personal — sent during his time in office and obtained by The New York Times through a public records request. The messages illustrate, hour by hour, the business of governing what was then the country’s fourth most populous state. Often, Mr. Bush is simply an electronic traffic cop: replying, forwarding and copying a barrage of pleas for jobs and appointments, visits and routine complaints by Florida residents. But they also showcase Mr. Bush’s aggressive, and personal, approach in carrying out a conservative agenda in a state that, like others in the South, had been dominated by Democrats for generations. He was the first Republican governor in Florida since Reconstruction to enjoy a Republican-controlled Legislature, and Mr. Bush used his party’s newfound strength to cut taxes, carry out sweeping changes in education policy, eliminate Civil Service protections for state employees and outsource some functions of state government. He was fixated on “big, hairy, audacious goals” — “BHAGs,” as he liked to say — and could be blunt on what they were and how they could be achieved. In an email to a friend who was close to a teachers’ union leader about his effort to institute higher-education standards, Mr. Bush instructed his friend to tell the union leader “that a reformed system will be a better one for dedicated teachers.” “I believe they know this, but they also know that it won’t be so good for the bottom third of teachers that U.T.D. spends most of its resources defending,” Mr. Bush said in March 1999, referring to the union, the United Teachers of Dade. Mr. Bush sought this month to get ahead of the anticipated public records requests, and perhaps score some political points, by announcing in an interview with a Miami television station that he would voluntarily post about 250,000 emails on his own website. “Part of serving or running, both of them, is transparency, to be totally transparent,” Mr. Bush said. Did Someone Say ‘2016’? Presidential Contenders Circle Ready or not, the midterm elections signal the unofficial start of the next presidential campaign. Assessing the prospects of some likely candidates. But Florida’s public information laws are among the most open in the country, and Mr. Bush knew the messages would be open to public scrutiny whether he posted them on the website or not. The emails he releases are likely to include only those publicly accessible under state law, meaning that messages regarding legal and personnel matters will not be available. Mr. Bush seemed to have been mindful of that eventuality while he was in office and was careful with his language. But he did occasionally offer insight into the way he views the world. Responding to a constituent in October 2000 who wrote him about a motorcycle helmet law, Mr. Bush offered a glimpse of his conservative philosophy in explaining why he opposed the measure, saying he did not want to “overextend governments role in our daily lives.” “Think about how many times we could use government to decide what is and is not healthy or good for us — I am not sure that is the state we want to live in,” he wrote. He was less of a hard-liner, though, when a gay Floridian hoping to win a job in Mr. Bush’s administration gently asked if his sexual orientation would present a problem. “On the other stuff, don’t ask, don’t tell is fine with me,” Mr. Bush responded, appropriating the terminology President Bill Clinton used regarding gays in the military. “What you do in your private life is your business. If it crosses over into the public policy realm, then that is another matter. If you are comfortable with that, then we can proceed.” Mr. Bush’s willingness to engage his correspondents even extended to what may be considered hate mail. When one of them accused him of acting like a Nazi, the governor responded: “Chill out, John. Do you really believe my rhetoric is fascist and Nazi like? Take a deep breathe and relax.” Mr. Bush’s love of email has long been well known among political professionals. He is famously accessible to friends, donors, constituents and reporters via email, and during his time as governor was quick to adopt what was then the cutting edge of wireless technology: the BlackBerry. The device became so central to his image as a details-obsessed executive engrossed in a range of policy minutiae, a BlackBerry, sitting in its charging station, is in the background of his official state portrait. The BlackBerry allowed him to be in touch whenever he was traveling and to set the parameters of those electronic conversations. His awareness of what should and should not be included in the emails is on display during the 2000 presidential election and the contentious Florida recount that followed. Mr. Bush fielded hundreds of emails about the election, but there appear to be no messages to his brother George W. Bush or his father from those public accounts. With the recount underway, though, Mr. Bush did express his anger at what he saw as Democratic attempts to stop his brother from carrying Florida and winning the election. “I am sickened by the ‘second campaign’ now being waged,” he wrote to a constituent in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “It degrades our great state and more importantly, does threaten our democracy.” For all the incoming messages he received, Mr. Bush still expressed occasional wonder about the personal interaction. After receiving a message from a self-described “51-year-old white male” who worked for the State Department of Corrections and who said he had been discriminated against “many times,” the governor forwarded the note to aides with a note of his own. “The age of direct communication has allowed people to give their opinion to whomever they like,” he said, “and by God, they do it.” | Jeb Bush;Email;Florida;2016 Presidential Election;Republicans;George W Bush;Civil service |
ny0203536 | [
"business"
] | 2009/08/08 | The Postal Service May Be Headed the Way of the Pony Express | So you think your business has problems. Consider the plight of John E. Potter, the chief executive of the second-largest employer in America. On the one hand, he has a guaranteed monopoly for much of his business. On the other hand, monopoly or not, the combination of the Internet and the recession is absolutely crushing his company, just as it is for so many other companies across the country. His last quarter’s results , which were announced on Wednesday, revealed a loss of $2.4 billion. The business is on track to lose a staggering $7 billion in 2009, on around $68 billion in revenue. That’s practically General Motors territory. What can he do to fix the situation? Surprisingly little. His employees have clauses in their union contracts that forbid layoffs. Nor can he renegotiate their gold-plated benefits, the way, say, the auto companies did when their backs were against the wall. Political pressure makes it nearly impossible to shut down any of his company’s 34,000 facilities, no matter how outmoded or little used. He can borrow money, but under the law, he can add only $3 billion in debt a year — an amount that isn’t going to come close to covering his losses. Oh, and get this. Every year between now and 2016, he has to put aside over $5 billion to finance health benefits for future employees. You read that right: future employees. There isn’t another business in the country that finances benefits for employees it hasn’t even hired yet. Welcome to John Potter’s world. He’s the nation’s postmaster general. Yes, that’s right: for the last nine years, he has run the United States Postal Service, which, since 1970, when it stopped being a government department and started becoming self-sufficient, has been the oddest of ducks. It is expected to operate as a business, turning a profit and so on, and yet it is still subject to Congressional oversight and all sorts of legal constraints, like that ridiculous health benefit prefinancing for future employees, which was part of a big 2006 postal reorganization bill. (Its main purpose, it would seem, is government accounting: those funds get counted against the federal deficit.) Even so, until recently, Mr. Potter had had a pretty successful run. A smart, likable, lifelong Postal Service executive, he got it through the anthrax crisis early in his tenure. He saw it through 9/11 (in no small part by engaging Federal Express to fly long-distance mail during the day, when its planes were empty, something it still does). He has overseen productivity gains and, according to a poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports, a rise in customer satisfaction. Between 2001 and 2006, he even eliminated the Postal Service’s $11.3 billion debt. That year, 2006, was also when demand for mail service peaked, with 210 billion pieces delivered. But the last few years have been brutal. The Postal Service lost more than $5 billion in 2007, and another $2.4 billion in 2008. And, of course, it is on track to lose that whopping $7 billion in the current fiscal year. (Its fiscal year ends in September.) The amount of mail being sent is dropping like a stone — it will be down to 175 billion pieces in 2009. Mr. Potter has reduced the Postal Service’s head count to 650,000, from 800,000, almost entirely through attrition. He has cut costs every way he can think of. And still the losses mount. A few weeks ago, the Government Accountability Office added the Postal Service to its list of “high risk” federal agencies, meaning that it is in such dire straits that it needs “to restructure to address its current and long-term financial viability.” Indeed, if something doesn’t change by the fall, the Postal Service will have to renege on those health benefit prepayments — despite its legal obligation to pay them — or start missing payroll. “U.S.P.S. must align its costs with revenues, generate sufficient earnings to finance capital investments, and manage its debt,” the G.A.O. said. Just like any real business would. “If you are asking me to run it like a business, give me the same tools that someone would have in the private sector,” Mr. Potter said when I spoke to him recently. But as I discovered on Thursday, when I watched a Senate hearing on the current Postal Service crisis, that’s not likely to happen. For one thing, Mr. Potter isn’t really asking for the tools he needs to turn the Postal Service into a real business. He is asking Congress to relieve it from the health prepayments, which he is likely to get, at least temporarily. He is also asking that the Postal Service be allowed to reduce mail service to five days a week, and to eliminate some postal branches . These aren’t exactly revolutionary ideas — yet they are viewed as highly controversial in Congress, which frets that constituents might get angry if the local postal branch closes. But even if Mr. Potter were to get his way on these two items, they would still be only stop-gap measures that fail to tackle the bigger question. As the Internet continues to erode the use of snail mail, does the Postal Service’s business model still make sense? Do we even still need the government to deliver the mail anymore? To me, the answer is obvious: no. Think for a minute about the mail that comes into your home. In the modern age, very little of it is personal mail. The vast majority is commercial mail of some sort — advertisements, bills, movies from Netflix or catalogs. Once upon a time, said Rick Geddes, an associate professor in the department of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, the postal service was viewed as “a way to bind together the nation. In subsidizing mail service to rural communities you were keeping them connected to the rest of the country.” But today, he added, “it is kind of silly to say we are binding together the nation through advertisements and catalogs.” These days, the main justification for keeping the postal service as a quasi-government entity is the belief that no private company would be willing to deliver the mail to sparsely populated rural areas of the country. People fear that it would be a little like airline deregulation: communities that weren’t large enough to justify flights in the newly deregulated environment lost their carriers. But that mission of universal service has all but blinded just about everyone connected with the Postal Service. Congressmen — many of whom, after all, come from rural areas — are loath to give the Postal Service too much free rein for fear that Mr. Potter’s minions will start shutting down post offices. (Never mind that 2,000 of them serve fewer than 100 people each.) The postal unions, with their no-layoff clauses, have used universal service to justify benefits so generous the Postal Service would save $600 million just by bringing them in line with other federal employees. As for Mr. Potter himself, while he may want more freedom to run the Postal Service like a real business, he, too, seemed surprisingly wedded to outmoded ideas about mail service in America. “This country needs to have and to protect universal service,” he said. “Our business is all about making sure every American can stay connected with every other American.” I failed to ask him the obvious follow-up question: Don’t e-mail messages now do that? For most of us, of course, it does — and that will increasingly to be the case, as broadband makes it way into, yes, even those rural areas that everyone is so worried about. Michael A. Crew, a professor of regulatory economics at Rutgers told me that that while the Postal Service’s “short-term situation is bleak, its long-term situation is really bleak.” He is one of a number of experts who say they believe that even when the recession ends, the Postal Service’s woes won’t be over. As businesses look to save money in the recession, for instance, they are starting to do end-arounds the Postal Service. Online bill-paying is become ever more popular. Evite is starting to replace mailed invitations to parties. None of that business is ever coming back. Which is why, instead of trying to find short-term, piecemeal solutions to the current crisis, those involved in managing and overseeing the Postal Service ought to be thinking harder thoughts about blowing up its business model. Maybe the Postal Service should turn itself into a giant outsourcer, handling some tasks but handing out others, for a fee, to more efficient companies. Maybe the government should allow companies to bid on lucrative urban delivery — with the proviso that they also deliver to rural areas. Maybe some areas should get mail deliveries less frequently than others. Maybe there should be radically different pricing structures. Maybe it should even lose its monopoly on first-class mail. I mean, why not? Mr. Geddes, the Cornell professor, says he believes that the only solution is for the Postal Service to become “just another company” — lose its monopoly, shed its bureaucratic mind-set, become able to negotiate freely with its unions, and answer to shareholders instead of Congress, which is always going to resist significant change that might upset a constituent. Only when that happens will it be able to bring its costs in line with its revenue. “The post office is not broken,” Mr. Potter insisted. But surely it is. And its current crisis brings to mind Rahm Emanuel’s line that you never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Alas, here in the middle of its worst financial crisis ever, the Postal Service and Congress seem utterly intent on wasting it. | Postal Service;Layoffs and Job Reductions;Reform and Reorganization;United States Politics and Government;Shutdowns (Institutional) |
ny0177268 | [
"nyregion",
"thecity"
] | 2007/09/16 | When He Was Seventeen | EARLY on the morning of April 1, 1980, the month before I turned 17, members of the Transport Workers Union walked off their jobs and my adolescence began in earnest. I don’t remember the particulars surrounding the strike, but because I couldn’t get from my Greenwich Village home to the High School of Music and Art on West 135th Street, Easter Vacation (the seasonal breaks from public school then still retained their nonsecular designations) extended into Transit Strike Vacation. Serendipitously, around the same time, the mother and stepfather of my friend Patrick set out on an African safari, leaving Pat and his sisters alone in their Bleecker Street town house for however long an African tourist safari circa 1980 can be expected to have lasted. For maybe a dozen of us, the house became home base. We assembled there, ate there, slept there. We kibitzed and played cards and listened to records and watched TV (regular broadcast TV, I should add). We drank beer and smoked cigarettes, lots of both. People lost their virginity, fell in love. Hearts were broken. Friendships and animosities were formed. More important, none of us ever went home, or if we went home it was just to change clothes. For me, the 11-day transit strike marks the true beginning of a critical shift: from the existence I had until then, one shared mostly with my parents (nurturing, comfortable, semi-claustrophobic), to one that I would fill with friends, girlfriends and my own interests, a life full of exhilarating, scary and sometimes awesomely boneheaded decisions. I know that for some, adolescence is a process of breaking up with one’s parents. The guiding equation of childhood is need, and whether your needs have been met or gone wanting, upon adolescence they’re replaced wholesale by the entirely different condition of desire, of the kind that parents, qua parents, are inherently unequipped to address. The resulting struggle between parent and child can fall anywhere on the spectrum between “An American Tragedy” and “Portnoy’s Complaint.” Both of those novels, though, situate their coming-of-age narratives in far more parochial places and far more restrictive times than New York in the early 1980s. My parents took most of the changes I underwent in stride: Hip town, hip kids — that much seems exactly the same today. But some things have changed a lot over the past 27 years. The level of permissiveness, for one. For example, until I was 16 I’d been subject to a somewhat arbitrary curfew, unless I could persuade my parents that I’d be “spending the night at a friend’s,” that dubiously reassuring pitch. Then I’d presented them with a radical proposal: that I be subject to no curfew at all. My logic wasn’t impeccable, but it was persuasive. Rather than complain that none of my friends were subject to curfew restrictions (which was true, but who wanted to encourage the old “I don’t care what so-and-so’s mother lets him do; I’m not so-and-so’s mother, I’m your mother” routine?), I told them honestly that leaving wherever it was that I happened to be in order to arrive home at the designated time meant that I was traveling alone throughout the city. What, I argued, was the difference between midnight and 4 a.m., except that if I were allowed to stay out until whenever with my more liberated friends, I would be traveling within the safety of a large group? My parents thought about it — and agreed. Never mind that I was often just traveling the three blocks from Pat’s. My parents probably knew that. Not much got by my parents. They probably also knew that Pat’s house was kind of a gateway drug; that I also was going, or very soon would be going, to bars, clubs, and parties all over the city, sometimes even — gasp! — across the river in Brooklyn. I should confess that I can’t imagine making a similar arrangement with my own kids, the oldest of whom is two years from high school. Are you kidding? The kid’s going to be 12, and my heart’s in my mouth if I send her out for a quart of milk. When you have kids of your own, Channel 5’s “It’s 10 o’clock — do you know where your children are?” isn’t quite the fodder for hilarity that it was once upon a time. It should also be acknowledged, though, that in allowing me to keep my own hours, my parents were adhering to the norm as fully as I would be violating it by permitting my kids to do as I was. IT’S time to speak a little of the nature of my relationship with my parents during this period, and of the relationships most kids I knew had with their parents. My folks could be strict, even inflexible, but mostly concerning some aspect of my behavior that impinged directly upon them. When it came to what I chose to do outside the house, they had a single word they frequently directed at me. That word was “big” — as in “You’re big,” usually delivered with a kind of verbal shrug. “Big” as a concept was just nebulous enough to be meaningless if defined outside the specific context in which it was meant to be applied: Certainly you could be “big” at 4, meaning that you weren’t supposed to blow bubbles in your chocolate milk; you could be “big” at 10, meaning you wrote your own thank-you notes. But apron strings were untied a lot younger then, and as you grew up it became a word that, when used by your parents in reference to you, signified that as far as they were concerned you were both capable of and responsible for making your own decisions, even if they were stupid ones. The first time I went to a party, for instance, I made the monumentally stupid decision to sample every type of alcohol available, in immoderate quantities. I returned home, greeted my parents as nonchalantly as I could manage, and threw up all over myself. “Scucciamens,” my father said, not unaffectionately employing a Sicilian insult, as he put me to bed after cleaning me up. “Here’s a pot if you have to puke again. Grab the wall if the room starts to spin.” “Big” took for granted that things that are now considered taboo to varying degrees (for example, teenage experimentation with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, peculiar music and clothing, and sex, to name them in the order I discovered them) were necessarily the very things with which kids were going to court encounters, and that such encounters weren’t avoidable accidents but had been sought out, preceded by curiosity and that desire I was talking about earlier. The idea was to let the hormonal fires raging at the core of adolescence consume some of the fuel that fed them, while putting it all in a kind of useful perspective. I remember my mother talking frankly to me about her various drug experiences. “Heroin, ugh,” she told me. “I threw up.” I never tried it. I’M sure some variation of “big” exists now, but as far as I can tell, the social conditions that defined it when I was 17 no longer obtain among the members of what I shall call, for lack of a better term, the educated middle classes of New York. Things were — let’s face it — different then. I will admit to a degree of geezerdom in declaring that New York in 2007 isn’t nearly as interesting a place as New York in 1980. For that matter, New York wasn’t even as interesting a place in 1985 as it was in 1980. Despite New York’s reputation then for dangerousness, even lawlessness, nobody walked around saying: “My! What a bankrupt and anarchic city! Raise the drawbridge! Another day, another struggle to survive!” The city went about its business, and in many ways the place was heady and wide open in ways that just aren’t possible now. It’s not just that huge swaths of town have become wall-to-wall enclaves of the well-to-do, with their attendant intolerance for heterodoxy and disorder. In 1980 there were still the vestigial remains of the various downtown revolutions that had reinvigorated New York’s music and art scenes and kept Manhattan in the position it had occupied since the 1940s as the cultural center of the world. CBGB hadn’t yet closed (or become a tourist trap); it was then one of the few places where interesting new bands could perform. Max’s Kansas City (for live music) and the Mudd Club (for dancing) were still thriving, as well as lesser-known joints like TR-3 and the Rock Lounge. A generation of New York kids was introduced to reggae at Tramps’s “Mod Mondays.” British bands whose United States record sales numbered in the thousands headlined at clubs like Hurrah and Irving Plaza. No one worried about H.I.V. (granted, that was a fool’s paradise). There was no such thing as crack cocaine, and pot didn’t provide the elephant-gun dose of THC that today’s hydroponic stuff does. The country’s divorce rate peaked around 1980 (I was one of three kids I knew whose parents stayed together), which put something of a crimp in the ideal of parental oversight à la “Father Knows Best” — it wasn’t unusual to run into a friend’s father or mother dancing the night away at the same club you’d gone to. Maybe most important, I’m one of thousands of aging New Yorkers who took their first legal drink while still in high school. The banishment of the 18-year-old drinking age — and the relegation of American adults of that age to Junior Grown-Up status — meant that certain behaviors were abruptly criminalized. Close readers of this article may have gathered that some of the pertinent laws were mostly honored in the breach to begin with, and that is indeed the case (I had no trouble obtaining alcohol at 14), but when the drinking age rose to 21 in the mid-’80s, with concomitantly tougher enforcement, the handwriting was on the wall. Above all, I lament the loss of this majority, this legitimacy of behavior, this legal bestowal of the idea of “big.” But the point is that many of the places we gathered, and many of the activities we took part in, abruptly became verboten. At 17 my friends and I didn’t partake of sanctioned, homogenized “teen culture.” We participated in culture, period, meaning that often we made it ourselves. We were perfectly aware that certain aspects of Western civilization, whether or not they would appear on network television or play on Top 40 radio, had their point of origin in the fertile brains of teenagers. I’m happy to provide an unscientific postmortem on the casualty rate sustained by those of us raised according to those bygone mores, in those pre-AIDS, pre-crack, pre-Reagan (and pre-Giuliani) times. Most of us survived, and prospered. Many of us are raising our own children. True, one guy died of complications arising from alcoholism — at 28. Some people struggled with substance abuse. A couple of girls had children while they were still arguably children themselves. There was some anorexia. Not everybody got into the college of his choice. And some kids, running loose on the streets at all hours, fell victim to crime. Riding the subway early one morning in 1981, I was the victim of an attempted mugging. The attempt failed — they were younger than I — but I was shaken up, and when I got home and found my father reading in his study, which it was his habit to do until late at night, I startled him by lighting a cigarette. It was the first time I’d smoked in front of him. “You really shouldn’t,” he said, “but you’re big.” | Children and Youth;New York City |
ny0032080 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2013/06/25 | In Criticizing Rival Products, a Dove Campaign Is Called Unfair | DOVE, the Unilever brand, has been widely lauded for its latest advertising effort, an online video with a forensic sketch artist that compares the negative self-image some women have with the more complimentary impressions of strangers. But the response to an advertising campaign that Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash introduced in the fall has been decidedly less flattering, and brought a stinging rebuke from the National Advertising Division. The campaign includes a print ad showing a bottle of Dove body wash next to a bottle, meant to represent competitors, that is wrapped in barbed wire and described with a single word: “Harsher.” The headline asks, “Doesn’t your skin deserve better?” Online videos pit Dove against other body washes in side-by-side tests. In the videos, an actress places pieces of pinkish paper that she says “were designed to react like real skin” in jars of water containing either Dove or a rival product and shakes them vigorously. In every case, the non-Dove brands strip more color from the paper. The Dial Corporation, another company in the body wash category, filed a complaint over the campaign with the National Advertising Division , the investigative arm of the ad industry’s voluntary self-regulation system, which operates under the aegis of the Better Business Bureau. In a written decision released on June 19, investigators ruled that the advertising with barbed wire should be discontinued because “while consumers may not literally believe that body wash is as harsh on skin as barbed wire, such imagery nonetheless communicates an unsupported and disparaging message that competing products can seriously damage the skin.” The investigation also concluded that Dove lacked evidence “to support its unqualified claim” that competing body washes were harsher, and to assert in advertising and packaging that it had “proven best care,” and should discontinue both practices. The brand also should withdraw the online videos in which competing washes produced more visibly faded test paper because the demonstrations were neither “sufficiently reliable to demonstrate real-life surfactant damage” nor “accurately reflect how body wash is used in real life,” according to the ruling. Unilever is appealing the decision to the National Advertising Review Board, which also is administered by the Better Business Bureau. A five-member panel representing advertisers, advertising agencies and the public sector, usually academics, will review the decision. Image The National Advertising Division, which investigates industry complaints, found that this ad for Dove body wash went too far. “We respect the self-regulatory process, but we believe in our methodology and the quality of our science, which is why we’re appealing the N.A.D. decision,” said Rob Candelino, a marketing vice president at Unilever, who declined to discuss specifics of the case while the appeal was pending. “We disagree with the assessment of the evidence and the way it was interpreted.” The campaign is primarily by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, owned by the WPP Group, with online videos by Evidently , an online content agency. It will continue to run online and offline while the decision is being appealed, Mr. Candelino said. The Dial Corporation did not respond to a request for comment. From 2010 through 2012, 19 of 339 decisions were appealed to the National Advertising Review Board , and none were overturned. The board upheld the decision 16 times (in one case ruling that the decision had not been critical enough) and in three cases upheld some aspects of the decision and overturned others. “As an industry, we want people to believe that advertising is believable,” said Robin Hafitz, chief executive of Open Mind Strategy , a research company, who previously served on the National Advertising Review Board. She said that advertisers follow the precedents established by the rulings more closely than their advertising agencies, since it is the advertisers themselves that are held accountable. “It resonates more within the businesses,” Ms. Hafitz said. “Agency work dies all the time because it’s not supported.” David Vinjamuri, author of “ Accidental Branding ” and an adjunct professor of marketing at New York University, said that naming competitors in advertising was risky because consumers may perceive the advertiser as “meanspirited or petty.” He added that barbed wire “is very troubling imagery for the category and very jarring to see in this context,” especially in light of the finding that Dove was not on firm footing to make the claims. “It’s the kind of thing that even if you had all the evidence and you unequivocally knew it was true, you’d still hesitate to do it,” said Mr. Vinjamuri. “It’s like talking about a car’s safety in terms of showing deaths instead of showing healthy children.” The Dove campaign singles out the Procter & Gamble brand Olay as being comparatively harsh. Procter has traditionally not named competitors in ads, trumpeting brand benefits rather than “reacting to competitors,” wrote Laura Brinker, a company spokeswoman, in an e-mail message. Referring to the ruling against the campaign, Ms. Brinker wrote that Procter & Gamble was “pleased that N.A.D. has reviewed our competitor’s claims to help set the record straight.” To the detriment of bar soap, the body wash category has been on the rise, growing 10 percent in the United States from 2010 to 2012, according to Mintel, a market research firm. Dove leads the category domestically, with a 13.2 share; followed by Bath & Body Works, from Limited Brands, with a 10.2 percent share; Suave, another Unilever brand, with a 7 percent share; and Dial, with a 6.9 percent share, according to year-end data for 2012 from Euromonitor International, a market research firm. Dove spent $57.1 million on advertising in 2012, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP. Dial spent $2.6 million. | advertising,marketing;Unilever;Dial;National Advertising Review Board;Better Business Bureaus |
ny0213132 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2010/03/02 | Runway at Kennedy Airport Is Shut Down for Repairs | Apaamoore Agambila was not thrilled to learn that the largest runway at Kennedy International Airport would be shut down for repairs on Monday. Heavy snowstorms and stricter security measures had already turned flights into major headaches for many travelers this winter. Few expected that closing one of Kennedy’s four runways would help matters in the short term. But Mr. Agambila, a Manhattan lawyer, hoped for the best, and with clear skies overhead, he was on schedule to fly to Buffalo on Monday afternoon to take a deposition on Tuesday. “I heard it on the news, and they said it was just one runway,” said Mr. Agambila, 49, as he waited for his flight on JetBlue. “I said, ‘I hope it’s not my runway.’ ” That travelers at Kennedy, one of the nation’s busiest airports, frequently face long waits is no secret. Last year, one of every five departures was late. To minimize those holdups in the long term, the airport has embarked on a four-month, $376 million project to widen the runway, replace its asphalt surface with concrete and add taxiways. Once completed, the improvements are expected to ease delays considerably. To cope with reduced runway space in the meantime, airlines have agreed to cut the number of flights out of Kennedy during the project. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue , two of the largest carriers at the airport, have each reduced departing flights by 10 percent compared with last March. “Ideally, travelers will feel no impact from this project,” said John Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration said, there were no departure delays from Kennedy on Monday attributable to the runway repairs. The airport handles, on average, 1,050 daily flights during the winter season, and it will hold that number steady until July. Normally, it would jump to about 1,300 starting in June, as the summer vacation season gets under way. It is not clear if this will affect ticket prices. For some travelers, the repairs are one more factor that could put a wrinkle in travel plans. Many said they were being extra cautious about calling ahead and getting to the airport early. “You never know,” said Jon Huff, 71, of Virginia, as he waited for a connecting flight to Tel Aviv on El Al Airlines in Terminal 4. “You try to schedule your flight so you get in with enough lead time.” Patricia Cortez, 25, a waitress from the Bronx, faced a three-hour delay for her flight to Kingston on Air Jamaica. Ticket agents told her it was because of a mechanical problem on the aircraft. Whatever the cause, the delay did little to dampen her enthusiasm about a weeklong vacation on the beach. “I don’t mind waiting,” said Ms. Cortez, bundled in a red parka with a fur-trimmed hood, adding, “I’ve been wearing this coat since November, and when I get there I’m finally going to take it off.” | Kennedy International Airport (NYC);Airports |
ny0054956 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2014/07/12 | Republican Jews Alarmed at the Prospect of a Void in the House and Senate | WASHINGTON — Jewish Republicans know they are not many in number. But at a recent gathering at the St. Regis Hotel in downtown Washington, they pondered the meaning of an especially alarming figure: zilch. As in zip, bupkis, zero. The stinging defeat last month of Eric Cantor, the House majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish politician in American history, has created the possibility of Republicans having no Jewish representation in the House or Senate for the first time in more than a half-century. “Sometimes, a Jewish person just wants to be able to go to Congress and speak with a Jewish person,” Beverly Goldstein, a Republican donor from Beachwood, Ohio, explained in the hotel lobby after a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “And Chuck Schumer is not it for us,” she added, referring to the Democratic senator from New York. Excluding the soon-to-be-retired Mr. Cantor, there are now 31 Jewish members of Congress — 30 of them Democrats and an independent senator from Vermont, Bernard Sanders, who generally votes with Democrats. Decades after a Reagan era that was relatively rich in Jewish representation on the Republican side of both the House and the Senate, Republican Jews are grappling with what it means for a party that casts itself as the protector of Israel to potentially not have a single one of its children in Congress. Some Democrats, of course, depict Mr. Cantor’s loss as the removal of a final fig leaf from what has become a homogeneously Christian party with little room for religious and ethnic minorities. Others said the loss of Mr. Cantor, a conservative standard-bearer deemed insufficiently conservative by voters who preferred a Tea Party challenger, revealed the Republicans’ exclusion of moderates of any stripe. “It is a very right-wing party, more so than in the past,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York. “And by so doing it is alienating most of the Jewish electorate, and becoming an increasingly monochromatic party without minorities of any kind.” Despite their overwhelmingly Democratic leanings nowadays, Jewish members of Congress have a varied political heritage. Early Jewish representation on Capitol Hill included Whigs and Know-Nothings. Florida sent David Levy Yulee, an inflammatory Whig-Democrat and secessionist known as the “Florida Fire Eater,” to Washington as a territorial delegate in 1841 and then as a Democratic senator in 1845, according to Kurt F. Stone, author of “The Jews of Capitol Hill.” The same year Yulee came to the Senate, the first Jewish congressmen were elected, including Lewis Charles Levin of Pennsylvania, a member of the Know-Nothing Party, staunch nativist and anti-Catholic. Mr. Levin argued for a limit to the cubic footage of ships from Ireland, accused the pope of plotting to build a tunnel to America under the Atlantic Ocean and died in a mental hospital. His widow converted to Catholicism. One of the first Jewish giants of Capitol Hill was Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana, elected to the Senate as a Whig in 1853, before becoming a Democrat in 1859. A slave owner, but also a celebrated intellectual, he was reluctant for the Union to split but eventually joined the Confederacy, serving first as its secretary of war and ultimately as secretary of state. Image Bruce Blakeman is one of several candidates rushing to fill the void. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times After the Reconstruction era, which largely proved a wilderness for Jews of both parties, New York elected the country’s first Jewish Republican congressman, Edwin Einstein, in 1879. Jewish Republicans consistently served in Congress from then until the World War II period, when the 1941 and 1945 Congresses both lacked a Jewish Republican. In 1947, New York elected Jacob K. Javits, a Republican, to the House. His brief absence in 1955 to serve as the state’s attorney general arguably left the last void for Jewish Republicans — depending on how one categorizes Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who served five terms and whose father was of Jewish descent. But as the number of Jewish members of Congress climbed to a high point of 47 in 2009, the number of Jewish Republicans had dwindled to two. The defection that year of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to the Democrats left Mr. Cantor as the last man standing. Mr. Cantor’s startling fall has, however, been a blessing for a handful of Jewish Republican candidates who are suddenly being showered with attention from donors. “Jewish Republicans are for better or worse panicking that there is going to be no representation,” said Adam Kwasman, a Jewish Tea Party candidate for Congress who has Leviticus 25:10 tattooed in Hebrew on his right shoulder (“Proclaim liberty throughout the ends of the earth unto all its inhabitants”) and script from the Declaration of Independence on his left. “There has been a priority shift in the heart and soul of Republican Jews across the country,” he said. “They were far more relaxed before Cantor lost.” Mr. Kwasman, a 31-year-old Arizona state representative, was speaking last month after the donor-rich event at the St. Regis. After schmoozing with high-powered “machers” who are worried about the scarcity of Jewish members and a growing isolationist streak in the Republican Party, he unfolded the Menorah Psalm, with commentary, that his mother had given him to read on the flight to Washington. “Apparently King David used to have that psalm on his shield,” Mr. Kwasman said. “To give him power and strength.” The current crop of Republican Jewish candidates need all the strength they can get. Bruce Blakeman, who is running to succeed Representative Carolyn McCarthy in New York’s Nassau County, benefited from being deemed “on the radar” by the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” program, which identifies up-and-coming talent. In liberal Los Angeles, Elan Carr, an Iraq war veteran who lit the Hanukkah menorah in Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad palace and features a picture on his campaign website of his family posing before Jerusalem’s Old City, is hoping to replace Representative Henry A. Waxman, a Jewish Democrat. And in the Democratic-leaning Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., Micah Edmond, an African-American who converted to Judaism as a teenager, is viewed as a long shot to succeed Representative James P. Moran, a Democrat. Mr. Kwasman, a product of Jewish day school in the Tucson suburbs who says he tries to make Shabbat dinners with his parents whenever possible, is the Jewish candidate most affiliated with the Tea Party, opposing gun control and any form of amnesty on immigration and talking about bringing “Kosher Tea” to Congress. He was endorsed by Joe Arpaio, the Maricopa County sheriff who has been the subject of a Justice Department investigation because of his crackdowns on undocumented workers. House analysts consider Mr. Kwasman the underdog against a more moderate Republican in the August primary. The Jewish Republican candidate that congressional analysts give the best shot at winning is State Senator Lee Zeldin of New York, who is taking on Tim Bishop in Suffolk County, Long Island. On a recent afternoon, Mr. Zeldin, a baby-faced Iraq war veteran, sipped coffee across the street from Fox News’s studios in Manhattan, where he had just finished a brief appearance on television in which he criticized President Obama’s foreign policy. His face rendered even smoother by the television makeup, Mr. Zeldin said he had come to appreciate how vital a bridge Mr. Cantor had been to “Jewish organizations, pro-Israel, philanthropists.” Since the majority leader’s defeat, he said, those organizations were looking for another strong connection to Congress. “I haven’t spoken to everybody,” said Mr. Zeldin, who met recently with the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “But the people I have spoken to are disappointed, they are very emboldened to want to help us. They are asking themselves if they could have done more to ensure that Cantor didn’t lose in the first place. It’s certainly on the top of everyone’s mind as far as the Jewish community goes.” While concern for Israel drives much of the eagerness to elect Jewish Republicans, there are intangibles, too. Michael Goldstein, who is married to Ms. Goldstein, the donor from Beachwood, acknowledged at the St. Regis that his viewpoint was well represented by conservatives in Congress. “So why do we need Jews?” he asked. “It makes me feel better. You want your own people there.” | Judaism;Republicans;House races;Congressional elections;US Politics;Republican Jewish Coalition;2014 Midterm Elections;St Regis Hotel NYC;Eric Cantor;US |
ny0284183 | [
"us"
] | 2016/07/22 | Hollywood Screenwriter Subpoenaed for Hours of Bergdahl Tapes | The only time the public has heard Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl explain in his own voice why he left his base in Afghanistan — to expose problems in his Army unit, he said, and to “prove to the world” his soldiering skills — was on taped interviews broadcast on the podcast “Serial.” Now, Army prosecutors trying to send Sergeant Bergdahl to prison for life apparently want his court-martial jury to hear the tapes as well. Mark Boal, the Hollywood screenwriter and producer who recorded the interviews, said Thursday that prosecutors have told him that they intend to subpoena all of his tapes of Sergeant Bergdahl, even those not used in the podcast. Mr. Boal, who as a reporter was embedded with the military in Iraq and later wrote “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” taped 25 hours of conversations in the months after Sergeant Bergdahl’s repatriation in 2014, following five years of Taliban captivity that ended when President Obama approved a controversial swap for five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The two men spoke as Mr. Boal was researching a possible movie, book and other projects, and later provided the tapes to “Serial,” which used them as the basis for its second season. Only a small fraction of the 25 hours of conversations was broadcast. Lawyers for Mr. Boal are moving to defeat the summons: They have asked a federal court in Los Angeles to block the subpoena, invoking his First Amendment rights and arguing that it would violate Justice Department guidelines. The department views such actions against journalists as a last resort, only if the information is essential to a successful prosecution and all other reasonable means to obtain it have been exhausted. Civilians may be subpoenaed in military cases, but it can be a cumbersome process that requires Justice Department cooperation. In a court filing, one of Mr. Boal’s lawyers, Jean-Paul Jassy, indicated that an Army prosecutor suggested that he was seeking the interviews that were not broadcast in hopes of finding inconsistencies between what Sergeant Bergdahl told Mr. Boal and military investigators. Mr. Jassy characterized that as “nothing more than a fishing expedition.” Mr. Boal promised Sergeant Bergdahl that he would keep certain portions of the interviews confidential, or “off the record,” Mr. Jassy wrote. “Journalists need their interviewees and subjects to have confidence that statements made ‘off the record’ will remain that way,” Mr. Jassy said. He added that it was important that reporters “are not perceived — and do not actually become — agents of the government, and particularly not criminal prosecutors.” A spokesman for Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., whose commander, Gen. Robert B. Abrams, has authorized charges against Sergeant Bergdahl, declined to comment about the subpoena. Eugene R. Fidell, the sergeant’s defense lawyer, said he had “no comment at this time.” A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. Julie Snyder, an executive producer of “Serial,” said the Army had not threatened to subpoena the podcast producers — or reached out to them in any way — for the same material. Sergeant Bergdahl, 30, is scheduled to face court-martial next year on charges of desertion, which carries a potential five-year sentence, and endangering troops sent to search for him, which carries a potential life sentence. Mr. Boal said he supported the military’s due process involving Sergeant Bergdahl. But of the subpoena, he said, “This is nuts, because there’s no way President Obama and the Department of Justice support what the military prosecutor is proposing, yet the prosecutor is using the power of commander in chief and the authority of the Department of Justice in a way that subverts their own very publicly stated principles and policies.” The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press , a First Amendment advocacy group, intends to file legal papers supporting Mr. Boal, the organization’s executive director, Bruce D. Brown, said. “Since it issued new guidelines to protect news-gathering, this administration has made it clear that it wants journalists like Mark Boal to be free to do their jobs,” Mr. Brown said. “That protection should be just as robust in a military court.” | Mark Boal;Bowe Bergdahl;Desertion;Taliban;Afghanistan;Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press;Serial podcast;Afghanistan War;Podcast;Justice Department |
ny0043158 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2014/05/30 | Iraq War Inquiry Gets Bits of Leaders’ Talks in Britain | The British government agreed on Thursday to give the “gist” of conversations between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush while they were in office to an inquiry panel looking into the Iraq war. The agreement between the government and the inquiry, led by John Chilcot, will allow publication of some selected quotations from Mr. Blair’s exchanges with Mr. Bush, but will not include any of Mr. Bush’s replies, Mr. Chilcot said in a letter to Jeremy Heywood, the British government’s top civil servant. “Detailed consideration of gists and quotes requested by the inquiry” has now begun, and quotations will be kept to “the minimum necessary to enable the inquiry to articulate its conclusions,” Mr. Chilcot said. The deal comes after months of deadlock over what would be released; the report is expected to be published before the end of the year. At issue are about 25 written notes from Mr. Blair to Mr. Bush and more than 130 records of conversations. The inquiry was set up in 2009 and was expected to report in 2010. The last public hearings took place in 2011. | Great Britain;Iraq War;George W Bush;Tony Blair |
ny0279022 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2016/11/13 | Southern Football’s Rise Can Be Seen in Rock Hill, S.C. | ROCK HILL, S.C. — Every Monday, the local newspaper reports how the graduates of this city’s three high schools who now play college football fared over the previous weekend. This week, it noted that Northwestern High’s Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State’s quarterback and a potential first-round N.F.L. draft pick, threw five touchdown passes in a win over Kansas State. It reported that the former South Pointe High star Cory Neely led Marshall in tackles, with 11, in a loss to Old Dominion. And it reported a down game for Rock Hill High’s Deshaun McFadden, who was without a catch for North Carolina A&T for the first time this season, though the Aggies remained undefeated with a win over South Carolina State. Beyond sating the demands of readers in the place that calls itself Football City, U.S.A., the weekly roundup reminds the current players at Northwestern, South Pointe and Rock Hill of what is possible. Some of the athletes they grew up watching and reading about, these young players know, have gone on to play beyond college. Image Eli Adams, a defensive end at South Pointe, stretching before a home game. Adams, whose father, Daniel Adams, played at Rock Hill, has offers from South Carolina and East Carolina. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times “Everyone wants to be the next Jadeveon Clowney, Stephon — I can go through the whole list of people from Rock Hill who went to the N.F.L.,” said Eli Adams, a junior defensive end at South Pointe, referring to Clowney, the league’s No. 1 pick in 2014, and Buffalo Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore. “Everyone’s working to grab their dreams,” Adams added, “’cause in this town, everyone knows you can.” San Pedro de Macorís, in the Dominican Republic, is famous for producing Major League Baseball players, just as New York City once set the bar for high school basketball talent. Over the past couple of decades, Rock Hill has been a little like that for football. Northwestern High’s Derek Ross was a cornerback for Ohio State, and then for several N.F.L. teams. Rock Hill High’s Chris Hope played safety at Florida State before a long Pro Bowl career that included a victory in Super Bowl XL with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The former Bearcat Tim Jones starred in the early 1990s at linebacker at Clemson, and now works back at Rock Hill High. The former Notre Dame all-American defensive back Jeff Burris, who played at Northwestern High, returned to South Bend as a coach this season. That Rock Hill is now nationally renowned as an incubator of football talent is partly a consequence of arbitrary fortune: From 2012 to 2014, it happened to produce consecutive first-round N.F.L. picks in Gilmore, Minnesota Vikings receiver Cordarrelle Patterson and Clowney. Image Jadeveon Clowney as a South Pointe player in 2010. The N.F.L.’s top draft pick in 2014, Clowney, a Houston Texans defensive end, is the biggest star Rock Hill has produced. Credit Melissa Cherry/The Herald, via Associated Press Despite a name that conjures images of a dusty, one-stoplight town that has no business mass-producing football stars, Rock Hill is actually a growing city of 70,000 — one of the largest in South Carolina — about 20 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., and right off the interstate highway that links that city with South Carolina’s capital, Columbia. And its track record of professional-quality football has helped produce a virtuous cycle of talented players. “The continuing success we’ve been able to have means the expectations are there, the standards are there,” said Doug Echols, Rock Hill’s mayor since 1998, whose first job in town, in the 1970s, was as Northwestern’s football coach. “That spills over into quality coaching, kids’ interest, district support, community support.” But Rock Hill also reflects the shift in high school football’s national center of gravity to the South over the past several decades. Over five recent national recruiting classes, according to SB Nation , the greatest number of top recruits were produced not only by extremely populous and sunny states like Florida, Texas and California — the three leaders, in that order — but also by the Southern football factories Georgia (fourth), Louisiana (sixth), Alabama (seventh), Virginia (eighth), North Carolina (ninth) and Tennessee (tenth). The N.F.L. draft numbers are even more stark : Seven of the 10 states with the most picks per million people were in the South. South Carolina was No. 1. Image Members of the Northwestern High School team squaring off at the line of scrimmage. The team won a South Carolina state championship last season. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times For Tom Lemming, a recruiting expert who has published Prep Football Magazine for nearly four decades, the ideal community for high school football “has got to be a town that doesn’t have a professional team, one that has a tradition for high school football, builds the kids up with youth leagues and youth programs — which towns in the South do much more than in the North.” In the South, Lemming added, “they grow up not wanting to be a racecar driver, a baseball player, a basketball player — but a football player.” And while the N.F.L. draft disperses talent without much regard for geography, college recruiting is different. Players are more likely to choose a college program near where they grew up, particularly home-state teams that they have rooted for and that their families can easily travel to for games. Who is best on Friday night, then, influences who is best on Saturday. The dominance of Southern high school football is no doubt a factor in Southeastern Conference teams’ winning eight of the last 10 national championships, as well as Florida State’s title three seasons ago out of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the title game appearance last season by Clemson, which is a couple of hours’ drive from Rock Hill. Image Linda Gilmore, working the concession stand during a game at South Pointe, has a son on the team there and another, Stephon Gillmore, who played for the school and is now a Buffalo Bills cornerback. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times Gilmore, for example, was coaxed to South Carolina in part by state pride, according to his mother, Linda, who can be found selling popcorn and soda at the South Pointe concessions booth on Friday nights while another son, Steven, takes the field for the Stallions. Steve Spurrier, the Gamecocks’ coach during Gilmore’s recruitment, took six assistants to the Gilmores’ home in Rock Hill. They ate apple pie. Spurrier told Gilmore, “We need for you to stay in state, come here, and change our program.” Two years later, Spurrier returned to South Pointe and persuaded Clowney to stay in state. Inspired by Pros In Northwestern High’s purple-and-gold weight room one Thursday morning several weeks ago, music by Wiz Khalifa and Young Dolph blasted out of speakers as the team followed a lifting protocol projected onto the wall. The ratio of players to coaches seemed like that at a top college program. On the wall of a narrow hallway off the weight room are listed all the Northwestern graduates who have gone on to the N.F.L., including in recent years the Vikings’ Patterson, who is also a punt and kick returner; Houston Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph; and Baltimore Ravens tight end Benjamin Watson. “It motivates me to keep pushing,” said Logan Rudolph, a tight end who has committed to Clemson. Rudolph also has motivation closer to home: He is the younger brother of Mason Rudolph, the Oklahoma State quarterback. Image While working out at Northwestern High, Chance Miller spotted for his teammate Josiah Ivey, on the bench, while another player, Raekwon Caldwell, lifted beside them. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times High school football’s ability to catapult heroes to wider prominence has been an important part of Southern life for nearly a century, said Andy Doyle, a historian of sports and the South at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. Success in the sport brought validation and led to another Southern archetype: the local boy made good, through football. “‘This boy from Gunnersville, this boy from Andalusia, this boy from Opp, Alabama’ — wherever,” said Doyle, imagining what Southern townspeople told themselves over the decades. “‘He’s playing at the university. I’m now attached to the university. I’m a fan.’ This feeds on itself.” By the 1970s and ’80s, this mind-set pervaded parts of South Carolina. But it was the nearby towns like Spartanburg, Gaffney and Union that were football hubs. “Rock Hill hadn’t beaten Spartanburg in, like, 19 years,” said Jim Ringer, who took over the Rock Hill High football team in the early 1980s and coached it for 22 seasons. “It wasn’t real good when I first went there,” Ringer added, “but we were able to get the district to buy in and invest in the programs.” Image Christian Hunt, South Pointe’s 6-year-old ballboy, greeting the team’s players as they enter the field. An ability to spur children’s interest in football at an early age has been one of the keys to Rock Hill’s football success. Like Northwestern, South Pointe won a 2015 state title in its division. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times Ringer and Jimmy Wallace, the coach of Northwestern at the time, lobbied the school district for money. They held clinics together. They emphasized academics and tutoring, making their school district enviable. Youth football programs soon cropped up. The city runs teams for young children, while the Y.M.C.A. administers the pre-middle school squads. Northwestern’s first championship came in 1989. For a time, Rock Hill High was also excellent, but when South Pointe High was created about a decade ago to deal with the school district’s rising population, it supplanted Rock Hill High as the city’s second football contender. Last year, Northwestern and South Pointe won state championships in their divisions, which are determined by school enrollment. They are in the hunt again this season, which was delayed two weeks because of Hurricane Matthew. “Friday night is the most important night in the week” in the South, Lemming said. “It’s not like that in the North anymore.” Image The South Pointe mascot, a stallion, awaiting halftime. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times Following Footsteps Clowney is the biggest star Rock Hill has produced. But Rock Hill was recognized for its talent as early as 1990, when Burris, a star running back, went to Notre Dame and later to the N.F.L., where, as a cornerback, he was a first-round pick who lasted 10 seasons. Burris now works on the Notre Dame coaching staff. His brother, Pat, who played for Arkansas, is an assistant coach at South Pointe. Their cousins are the Adamses: Daniel Adams was the fullback to Burris’s tailback when Northwestern won that first title, and Daniel’s son, Eli, is now a star on South Pointe’s defensive line. Eli Adams’s two offers so far are from East Carolina and South Carolina. It would not be surprising if he followed the path taken by Clowney — a role model for Rock Hill’s next generation — down the interstate to Columbia and the Gamecocks. Like many people in Rock Hill, Adams has a Clowney story. “I was a little kid,” he said. “I went up to him — I had a football game — and he was standing out there. I was like, ‘One day, I’m going to be better than you.’ “I don’t think he’d remember that,” Adams said, “but I actually said that to him.” | Football;Rock Hill;K-12 Education |
ny0190035 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2009/05/26 | Test Delivers a Message for Domestic Audience | SEOUL, South Korea — When North Korea suddenly announced Monday that it had conducted a second nuclear test, the initial view across the region was that this had been yet another defiant gambit by the North to extract more concessions from Washington. That has been the oft-repeated pattern in the past, and is likely to be one motivation now as well, say North Korea watchers. But this time around, North Korea’s succession crisis is the primary impetus, many experts believe, suggesting that the audience for the test is its own population as much as the United States. Monday’s test is the culmination of a shift toward a more assertive foreign policy, which some analysts say seems to have begun not long after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il , is believed to have suffered a stroke in August. Speculation about a successor has focused on his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, which would continue the family dynasty to the third generation — one unique among Communist nations. Some experts say the test was a display of might aimed at showing solidarity with North Korea’s powerful military, whose support would be essential in securing Mr. Kim’s choice of successor. Others believe the intended audience was North Korea’s largely impoverished population, in hopes a display of technological prowess could serve as the elder Mr. Kim’s legacy in a government that has failed to deliver even basic food and electricity. Either way, the North Korean government most likely hopes the test will help ensure a smooth transition of power — and, perhaps, show that the elder Kim is still in charge, at least for now. “Kim Jong-il wants to show that he has given his nation mighty nuclear power,” said Yoon Deok-min, a senior researcher at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, a Seoul-based research organization. “This test was absolutely a domestic demonstration.” Analysts called the test a sign that the ruling family may be preparing for a transition. Last month, Kim Jong-il’s brother-in-law, Jang Seong-taek, joined the National Defense Commission, the most powerful group in the government, said Kim Sung-han, an international relations professor at Korea University in Seoul. He said Mr. Jang’s promotion might be a move to secure support from the military in case Mr. Kim’s health worsens. In April, South Korean news media reported that Kim Jong-un, who is in his mid-20s, was appointed to a low-ranking job in the commission. Mr. Jang, Kim Sung-han said, may also be a caretaker until the younger Kim is old enough to assume power in a society that values seniority. “The test is a signal of Kim Jong-il’s desire to build good ties with the military,” he said. “The military is key to the succession.” To be sure, as North Korea experts admit, trying to fathom this highly secretive government’s motives is an exercise in tea leaf reading. And most North Korea watchers agree that the North is still keen to use nuclear brinksmanship to extract as much aid and food as possible out of Washington, in what has become a tried-and-true strategy. It tried this in 1998, when it fired a multistage rocket over Japan, following up months later with an offer to halt long-range missile tests. Those concessions resulted in a thaw in ties with Washington that led to a groundbreaking visit two years later by then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The problem is that these improvements in relations have often proved short-lived. Just a year ago, North Korea blew up the cooling tower at its main nuclear weapons plant after agreeing to give up its weapons program. But it reneged on that promise in April, restarting its program out of anger at United Nations sanctions for a long-range rocket test. There are also those who say the North’s main objective in Monday’s test was simply to advance its nuclear technology, in order to build an independent deterrent along the lines of Israel’s or Pakistan’s. Early seismic readings show the underground blast, in North Korea’s northeast, was much more powerful than its first nuclear test three years ago, news reports in South Korea said. Most experts agree that the North sees development of nuclear bombs and other weapons as the best way to ensure the current government’s survival. They also say it hopes that this will force the United States to accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, just as it dropped its objections to India, and eventually normalize relations. “It is like proposing to someone with a pistol,” said Masao Okonogi, a political scientist at Tokyo’s Keio University. “There is a big gap between North Korea’s goal and its means. But this is the only way that North Korea knows how to operate.” Mr. Okonogi believes that the North conducted Monday’s test mainly to grab Washington’s attention. He said there was a perception among North Korean leaders that their nation has been a lower priority for the new administration of President Obama — a view that does reflect an administration strategy of trying to play down North Korea, given the succession crisis and the current focus on Iran. “They want to be recognized as a nuclear-armed nation,” said Mr. Kim of Korea University. He added, with some hyperbole, “If Washington would do that, I’m sure the North would even be willing to send troops to help in Afghanistan.” | North Korea;Nuclear Tests;Kim Jong Il |
ny0149312 | [
"nyregion",
"thecity"
] | 2008/09/21 | For a Sick Subway Rider, a Stretcher Would Be Nice, but Kindness Helps | I PICKED at my muffin, thinking how distasteful it was to eat on the subway. Then I took another bite as the C train hurtled along under Eighth Avenue. Crammed next to me at the end of the car, on one of those seats not quite big enough for two, sat a prim young woman with her hair pulled perfectly back, reading a book about Jesus. A teenager across from me, big jeans hanging down on his hips, nonchalantly removed the unsavory parts of his turkey sandwich and dropped them to the floor. As the train approached 14th Street, I got up, ready to depart. That’s when a spasm ripped down my back. A middle-aged woman, the companion of the teenager with the turkey sandwich, then broke the first rule of subway travel: No contact with strangers. “You O.K.?” she asked, eyes wide with concern. I was surprised that she had noticed anything was wrong. Then I realized that I had let my backpack, which contained my new laptop, crash to the floor. As ripples of pain careered through my body, I desperately wondered what I was going to do. When I looked up, the woman was kneeling next to me and screaming, “Stop the train!” But even as I realized that I was lying on the filthy subway floor, I felt the calm that comes with returning from deep unconsciousness. Above me, strangers were comparing notes and shouting orders: “Get the conductor!” “I saw her stand and just thought she was stretching.” “Did someone call 911?” I started to assure everyone that I would be fine. But then I realized that if I shifted even an inch, an intense throbbing ricocheted through me. I told them I couldn’t move because of my back. A young woman with a familiar face lowered her head next to mine. “Do you want me to pray for your back?” she asked sweetly. At first I wasn’t sure I’d heard right, but then I recognized her. What I really wanted was an extra-strong shot of some serious drugs, but it didn’t feel wise to say no to prayers. For years, I used to groan along with my fellow riders when the fuzzy loudspeaker on the subway announced a train delay “due to a sick passenger,” something that happened 6,135 times last year, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority . I never imagined that one day the passenger would be me. Although I was only a few feet from the platform, I wasn’t going anywhere. The train was taken out of service. Within moments, the car was empty except for an employee from the transportation authority and a clean-cut 20-something man with rosy skin and slicked-back hair. He asked if there was someone he could call. My younger brother, who was in the final week of his senior year at Columbia, would later wake up to a message from a guy named Steven telling him that his sister had fainted on the train. AS I lay there on the grimy subway floor, the transportation employee asked if Steven and I were together. Steven said no, but he offered to stay with me. Not wanting to delay him, I said I’d be fine. Then he, too, was gone, and I was lying alone, immobile, staring at the underside of the empty C train seats. Because the train door had been left open, I could feel curious eyes peering in at my limp body. As the minutes ticked by, I reflected on the frustrations and resentments that my fellow passengers must have been feeling. I began feeling frustrated myself, and when a second transportation person peeked inside, I snapped at him, “If I was dying, I’d be dead by now.” Meanwhile, paramedics from the New York Fire Department were searching for me underground. I later learned that the dispatcher had given them the wrong subway entrance. When they eventually found me, maybe 20 minutes after I had collapsed, they were equipped with neither painkillers nor a stretcher. They were very kind, but there was little they could do other than offer their arms for support. I would have to battle my way to the street or remain on the C train forever. I managed to make it onto the platform, overjoyed to rejoin the waves of New Yorkers in motion. But just as a mariachi group marched by, the spasms became too much to bear. Once more, I was on the ground, this time the station floor. Because the elevator was broken, the paramedics couldn’t bring down a stretcher, so one of them arrived with one of those “Baywatch”-style boards used for ocean rescues. But I had been watching the way a police officer who was assisting at the scene had been swinging my backpack, and I didn’t want my body swung similarly. So I told them I didn’t feel comfortable going on the board. A paramedic suggested getting permission from a doctor to give me liquid Valium to ease the spasms, but the idea of having an IV stuck into my arm in a dirty subway station frightened me more than the pain. So again I struggled to stand up, and then shuffled ahead slowly, feeling a sudden kinship with the tiny, short-legged bronze statues by Tom Otterness that decorate the station. At long last, I made it up the subway stairs and onto the street. A stretcher sat waiting on the sidewalk, and relief rushed over me. Lying down, I got a glimpse of a whole new side of 14th Street: the underside of the buildings, foliage spilling over the banisters of rooftop gardens, the sky. As the paramedics rolled me toward a waiting ambulance, a woman shouted, “Feel better, honey!” One month later, after successful surgery, I would learn that a dislodged piece of spinal disk, a little larger than a jellybean and the consistency of lobster meat, was triggering all the agony. That sunny morning, as soon as I was inside the ambulance, the tears began to flow. Only then, safe from the crowds and cushioned by the soft padding of the stretcher, did I let myself feel the terror of being paralyzed in a place of perpetual motion. | Subways;Metropolitan Transportation Authority;New York City |
ny0171842 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2007/11/17 | Hollywood Writers to Resume Talks | LOS ANGELES, Nov. 16 (AP) — Hollywood film and TV writers who have been on strike for nearly two weeks will return to contract negotiations on Nov. 26, their union and producers said Friday. In a joint statement, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said both sides had agreed to return to formal negotiations. The statement said no other details would be released. Meanwhile, writers would continue on the picket line, said Gregg Mitchell, a spokesman for the guild. Some writers applauded the decision to return to talks. “You can’t get a deal until two sides sit down and talk about it,” said Sean Jablonski, a writer for the FX drama “Nip/Tuck.” Since the strike began Nov. 5, late night talk shows and some sitcoms have gone to reruns. Other programs have only a few episodes left before they run out of scripts. | Writers Guild of America;Strikes;Writing and Writers |
ny0074145 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2015/04/10 | French Broadcaster TV5 Monde Recovers After Hacking | PARIS — The French television broadcaster TV5 Monde was back on the air Thursday, a day after hackers claiming to support the Islamic State militant group carried out a wide-ranging cyberattack on the network. The attack prompted strong reactions from the French government, which called on the nation’s media outlets to remain vigilant. The network was able to completely resume normal broadcasting around 6 p.m. Earlier in the day, it regained control of its social media accounts and put its website back online. In a video published on TV5 Monde’s Facebook page early Thursday, Yves Bigot, the network’s director, said that the “extremely powerful” cyberattack started at 10 p.m. Wednesday. The French Network and Information Security Agency, which operates under the authority of the prime minister to prevent and defend against cyberattacks, called the breach “serious” and said it had sent computer security experts to assist TV5 Monde. “This morning we had sent four people, and in view of the situation, that team was strengthened,” said Clémence Picart, a spokeswoman for the agency. “Now we have 13 people on location who are with the TV5 Monde teams in order to understand the attack and put an end to it.” A group calling itself the CyberCaliphate claimed responsibility for the attack, using the same name as hackers who took over the social media accounts of the United States Central Command in January and hacked into Newsweek’s Twitter feed in February. The claim of responsibility has not been confirmed, and French journalists who cover technology noted that it was difficult to determine whether the CyberCaliphate had been involved. Image The website of the French television broadcaster TV5 Monde on Wednesday. The network regained control of its social media accounts on Thursday, and its website was back online. Credit TV5, via Associated Press Prime Minister Manuel Valls condemned the cyberattack on Twitter , calling it an “unacceptable attack on freedom of information and of expression.” The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation. On Thursday evening, the culture and interior ministers met with the heads of French broadcasters to discuss ways to prevent such attacks in the future. At a news conference after the meeting, the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said that many elements pointed to the idea that a “terrorist act” was the cause of the cyberattack. But he said it was too early to say who exactly had been behind it. Fleur Pellerin, the culture minister, said the French news media had to remain careful about potential flaws and vulnerabilities in their broadcasting and internal communication systems. “We cannot rule out that similar attacks might happen yet again, that they might already be planned,” Ms. Pellerin said at the news conference. TV5 Monde is a French-language television network based in Paris that broadcasts news, feature programs and movies globally. Media organizations in France are appealing targets, said Damien Leloup, a technology writer for the French newspaper Le Monde, because of their prominence online. In January, supporters of the Syrian government were able to penetrate Le Monde’s Twitter account , and he said that other media were likely to suffer similar attacks. “If you can get on the Twitter account of Le Monde or Le Figaro or Libération, you have hundreds of thousands of followers, and you don’t have so many companies in France with such big networks, so those media are tempting targets,” Mr. Leloup said. TV5 Monde was a particularly attractive target because it is widely watched in the French-speaking parts of Africa, and taking over its broadcasts and social media accounts could be a way to reach a large audience with a political message, Mr. Leloup said. Screenshots of the hacked websites and social media accounts of TV5 Monde showed banners reading “I am ISIS ,” a reference to the “Je suis Charlie” slogan that became popular after the January attacks in and around Paris that left 20 people dead, including three gunmen, one of whom claimed links to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. In the week after those attacks, the French authorities reported a surge of cyberattacks by Islamist hackers against about 19,000 French websites. A screenshot of TV5 Monde’s hacked Facebook page showed a statement, purportedly by the CyberCaliphate group, that said President François Hollande had made “a great mistake” in supporting the American-led military coalition carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. “That’s why Parisians received January ‘gifts,’ ” the statement said. | Hacker (computer security);ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;TV;France;TV5 Monde |
ny0125118 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2012/08/16 | Bill Curry to Step Down at Georgia State | ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia State football coach Bill Curry announced Wednesday he will retire after the 2012 season. Curry, 69, also has coached at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky. His time spent at Georgia State was unique. He was hired in 2008 to start the program and led the Panthers to a 6-5 record in their inaugural 2010 season. “The opportunity to start a football program at a university that I love, in my hometown, and the privilege to coach these young men has been one of the highlights of my career,” Curry said. “This has been a labor of love, but after this season, it will be the right time to step away from coaching. I am blessed with good health, but I am ready to move on to other things in my life and devote more time to my wife, Carolyn, and our children and grandchildren.” Georgia State finished 3-8 in 2011, leaving Curry 9-13 in two seasons. Georgia State announced in April it will move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2013 as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. With Curry’s announcement, the school will make that move with a new coach. Georgia State will play in the Colonial Athletic Association this season. Athletic director Cheryl L. Levick said the school will conduct a national search for a new coach following the season. “As much as we would all love for Bill Curry to be our football coach forever, we certainly understand and respect this very personal decision,” Levick said. “Bill remains as committed as ever to his role as head coach and mentor to these young men in this final chapter of his coaching career. I think he is invigorated by the unique challenges of this season as we build toward our move to FBS and the Sun Belt.” Curry’s contract ends on June 20, 2013. Following the season, he plans to assume a role working with Georgia State University president Mark Becker at least through the end of the contract. His overall record is 92-118-4 in 19 seasons. He won the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year Award in 1989 after leading Alabama to a Southeastern Conference championship. Curry, an alumnus of Georgia Tech, was a center in the NFL for 10 seasons with the Green Bay Packers (1965-66), Baltimore Colts (1967-72), Houston Oilers (1973) and Los Angeles Rams (1974). He played in two Pro Bowls. He worked for 11 years as a college football analyst for ESPN before he was hired by Georgia State. | Curry Bill;Georgia State University;Football (College) |
ny0043184 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2014/05/30 | Steve Ballmer Said to Sign $2 Billion Deal to Buy Clippers | The former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has agreed to pay $2 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers, according to a person briefed on the negotiations. If approved by the National Basketball Association, the sale would end a troubling situation for the league and rank as one of the largest deals in sports history. Mr. Ballmer emerged Thursday night as the last suitor standing in a dizzying bidding process that started when the N.B.A. announced last month that it would try to force Donald Sterling to sell the team. Mr. Sterling had been recorded making racist comments in a private conversation, an episode that touched off a national discussion about race and delivered a public-relations blow to the league during its showcase period, the playoffs. Rochelle Sterling, Mr. Sterling’s wife and a co-owner of the Clippers, signed the deal with Mr. Ballmer, and their contract will be sent to the N.B.A. for final approval, the person briefed on the negotiations said. Mr. Ballmer, 58, was already vetted by the league in 2013 when he was part of an investor group seeking to buy the Sacramento Kings, which means the process could be expedited. But the deal faces possible obstacles. Mr. Sterling’s position remains uncertain. He was said to have authorized his wife to negotiate with potential buyers , but she needed his power of attorney to sign off on an agreement. Mr. Sterling’s lawyer, Maxwell Blecher, said Wednesday that Ms. Sterling did not have it . Mr. Blecher also said that, as incentive to agree to sell the team, Mr. Sterling wanted the N.B.A. to drop its charges that he had violated the league’s constitution. Mr. Sterling, who has vowed to fight the league in its efforts to terminate his ownership of the Clippers, is scheduled to appear at a special hearing Tuesday to answer to charges that he damaged the N.B.A. by making the racist statements. He was barred from the league for life last month. Commissioner Adam Silver said last week that he would prefer for the Sterlings to sell the team voluntarily. A vote of the league’s other owners could force them to sell. The Los Angeles Times was the first to report that Mr. Ballmer had reached an agreement with Ms. Sterling. If the Clippers sell for $2 billion, the price would be the highest paid for an N.B.A. team, far exceeding the $550 million that the Milwaukee Bucks recently sold for . Major League Baseball’s Dodgers, the Clippers’ Los Angeles neighbors, sold for $2.15 billion two years ago. But a critical difference is that the Dodgers’ buyers received much more for their money: the team, as well as Dodger Stadium; an expiring local television contract that the new owners flipped into a long-term, multibillion-dollar payout from Time Warner Cable to start their own network; and a joint venture on the parking lots and land around the stadium with the former owner, Frank McCourt. Image Donald Sterling authorized his wife, Rochelle, to negotiate with potential buyers of the Clippers, which they co-own. Credit Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press In addition to a suddenly ascendant team with a miserable past, Mr. Ballmer would have a training center and a lease at Staples Center that excludes luxury-suite revenue. The team, under new ownership, would benefit from the boons expected in their next local cable contract and the N.B.A.’s next round of national deals. The new local and league contracts will start in the 2016-17 season. Three bidders had emerged as the top contenders for the team. One group including Oprah Winfrey; the entertainment mogul David Geffen; Larry Ellison, the software tycoon who runs Oracle and made a losing bid to buy the Golden State Warriors; and Mark Walter and Todd Boehly, two of the principals of Guggenheim Partners, which put together the group that acquired the Dodgers two years ago. A second group in the bidding for the Clippers included Antony P. Ressler, who runs the private equity firm Ares Management, and the former N.B.A. player Grant Hill. Mr. Ballmer submitted a bid without any partners. The purchase of the Clippers would open a new chapter in the life of Mr. Ballmer, a technology billionaire who has lately found himself without much of an occupation. He left his chief executive job at Microsoft this year, under pressure from its board of directors to accelerate his retirement after the company had struggled in a number of key new markets. But unlike his fellow Microsoft billionaires, Mr. Ballmer has done little besides work at Microsoft for the past 34 years. William H. Gates, a Microsoft co-founder and former chief executive, has become a philanthropist, and Paul Allen, another co-founder, owns the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks. Mr. Ballmer is relatively unflashy, even though his net worth is estimated at $20 billion by Forbes. He grew up in Detroit, the son of a Ford Motor Company manager, and was known as a commanding, sometimes bullying leader at Microsoft who underestimated major changes in technology that helped lead to the rise of competitors like Google and Apple. He has made no secret of his passion for sports, particularly basketball. In interviews while he was running Microsoft, Mr. Ballmer said he made a point of attending as many of his son’s high school basketball games as possible. He tried unsuccessfully to bring an N.B.A. franchise back to Seattle in 2013 as part of an investor group seeking to buy the Sacramento Kings . Like many people in the Seattle area, Mr. Ballmer had felt the sting of the SuperSonics’ departure for Oklahoma City, where they became the Thunder. The $1.1 billion paid for the Miami Dolphins in 2009 is the peak price for a N.F.L. team, with the Cleveland Browns, who were sold two years ago, a little behind. N.F.L. franchises share in the most lucrative national television deals of all the major leagues. No one knows if Mr. Sterling would have put the Clippers on the market in his lifetime unprompted. But the timing for a sale seems fortuitous. With the Lakers suddenly the losing team in town, the Clippers are considered a prized commodity. They have stars like Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and a brand-name, title-winning coach, Doc Rivers. And just getting rid of Mr. Sterling, who has, by nearly universal opinion, run a laughingstock of a franchise, should make the team more valuable to a willing buyer. | Basketball;Clippers;Steven A Ballmer;Rochelle Sterling;Donald Sterling;NBA;David Geffen;Oprah Winfrey;Los Angeles |
ny0289797 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2016/01/11 | Amid Flashy Australian Compatriots, Samantha Stosur Quietly Stays the Course | BRISBANE, Australia — The tempestuous Nick Kyrgios, with his whip of a forehand and meticulously razored etchings in his eyebrows and hair, will command some attention next week as a local in the Australian Open. As will another Aussie, Bernard Tomic, a slowly reforming wild child whose arrest in Miami in July barely derailed a season in which he broke into the top 20 for the first time. And as long as he lasts in the tournament, the elder statesman Lleyton Hewitt will be a crowd favorite in what he has said will be his final tournament. Oh, and then there is the best Australian player of the past decade. That player, Samantha Stosur, is the only Australian to have been ranked in the top 10 in singles within the last nine years, peaking at No. 4 in 2011. In that year, she defeated Serena Williams in the final of the United States Open , handing Williams one of just four losses in her 25 major final appearances. Stosur, now ranked 27th, had her run of six and a half years as the highest-ranked Australian in either women’s or men’s singles come to an end in September when she was passed by Tomic, but with the current uncertainty atop the women’s tour, she may have the best chance of any Aussie to win a major title this year. At 31, she is still younger than Williams and Flavia Pennetta, the only winners of major titles on the women’s side last year. At the Brisbane International last week, Stosur said she felt only somewhat eclipsed by the headline-grabbing young stars. “I’m not too far behind Bernie, so hopefully, I’m still there,” Stosur said, referring to the 23-year-old Tomic. “At the end of the day, there’s still going to be expectation, and no greater expectation than what I’m going to put on myself.” After Stosur earned her 500th career win in August, the retired Australian doubles champion Todd Woodbridge used the occasion to campaign for a player who he said the public thinks is “not doing very well.” “I think it’s time we acknowledged we have an incredibly accomplished player that by virtue of her quiet nature doesn’t get the respect she deserves,” he wrote in a column for Tennis Australia. In an interview last week, Woodbridge said Stosur’s personality was reminiscent of the Australians who dominated the sport for much of the mid-20th century. “Sam’s never sought the limelight; she’s happy to do her tennis and then that’s it,” he said. “In this world of social media in sport, I think she’s a throwback to the golden age of Australian champions, in terms of being humble. You just went along and did your stuff. And the world has changed in that perspective.” Woodbridge compared Stosur’s achievements to those of the two-time United States Open champion Patrick Rafter, and said her body of work had more meat to it than sizzle players like Kyrgios, who last week led an Australian pairing to victory in the Hopman Cup exhibition event in Perth. “It’s not a flash in the pan,” Woodbridge said. “I just don’t think Australians have realized the consistency that she has played with, and that’s what I get frustrated with. You can look at a Nick and go, ‘He’s great to watch,’ and that, but he hasn’t won a tournament yet, and he’s got a lot of ground to make up before he sits anywhere near the status of what Stosur does.” Rennae Stubbs, a television commentator and former doubles partner of Stosur’s, said one reason for Stosur’s relatively low profile was that her two best major tournaments were the French Open and the United States Open, which draw the least news media coverage in Australia. “Sam has those great runs at the French, semis, finals, but it takes her winning a Grand Slam at the U.S. Open, beating Serena, to get some kind of notoriety — and I still think that she didn’t get enough after that,” Stubbs said. “Ironically, the two times that really get a lot of press from the Australian tennis side are Wimbledon and Australia. Unfortunately for Sam, those are her two worst events over the past decade.” In 24 appearances in Melbourne and Wimbledon, Stosur has never reached the quarterfinals; she has made that round or better six times in Paris and New York. Woodbridge said one great run in Melbourne, or even an admission of the nerves that have handcuffed her at home, could change impressions of Stosur, who often hides her emotions behind sunglasses on court and unrevealing statements to the news media. “I think Australians would love to hear her come out and say: ‘You know what? Yeah, I’ve struggled, and it really annoys me that I haven’t come to grips with it,’ ” he said. “She could probably be a little more honest in those emotions.” Stubbs said sexism in Australia had also played a significant role in the absence of appreciation for Stosur’s achievements. “Sadly, I think it’s part of a very typical misogynistic world where men tend to follow more of the men’s game, whether it be any sport,” Stubbs said. “If there were more women writers, more women editors, more women buying sponsorships, et cetera, you’d have the question to be asked: What about Sam Stosur? She’s been in the top 20 for so many years; why doesn’t she get more publicity? Sadly, Australia is a little bit more sexist than a lot of countries.” Stosur, reacting to Woodbridge’s column, expressed a similar sentiment in August. “I’d like to think I get some recognition,” she said, smiling. “But again, I think it’s still probably different; if I was a guy, then it would probably be more. That’s just the way society unfortunately still is at the moment.” Stubbs said she would understand if Stosur were frustrated by the imbalanced coverage, even if it wouldn’t be in her personality to complain about it publicly. “All of these guys get all this attention and all this publicity for all the wrong things, and Sam has always done everything right — every single thing,” Stubbs said. “She’s always trained harder than the person beside her. She’s always acted in the best of intentions.” | Tennis;Samantha Stosur;Australia |
ny0281809 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2016/07/04 | Détente May Be Short-Lived for Svetlana Kuznetsova at Wimbledon | WIMBLEDON, England — When Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia reached across the net to embrace her American opponent, Sloane Stephens, after a hard-fought 6-7 (1), 6-2, 8-6 victory on Sunday afternoon, she did so without hesitation, but also with a purpose. “I saw her having her hands like that, so definitely I hug her,” Kuznetsova said. “Great, great sportsmanship. I think it’s a great example for the next generation: You don’t have to have hate for each other. It’s all about peace, not war. We have to show that, because sometimes they mix sport with politics. It’s very important that we show for the next generations that this is out of that, you know? To give a good example.” Relations may be strained between Kuznetsova’s native Russia and the United States, but she is conscious of her role as a symbol of shared values in sports that transcend political differences. “This has nothing to do with our countries,” Kuznetsova said. “This is the thing, you know? Here, we are united. Doesn’t matter what country you are. We have a difficult relationship with Ukraine now, Russia. But we have nothing to do with that. We are doing sports; we are out of politics. We are really true athletes who work hard every day. We don’t depend on politics.” Kuznetsova does see politics, however, in the recent decision to bar Russian track and field athletes from competing at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where Kuznetsova plans to represent her country. “This is, for me, politics,” she said, smiling ruefully and shaking her head. “Suddenly, everything has to go against Russia. Suddenly, in Russia, they’re all bad, and all the world is good. For me, it’s a little bit funny. I have nothing to do with that. I hope they resolve it. And the clean athletes who deserve to go to the Olympics, they will go. For me, I think this is the key.” Kuznetsova’s next opponent, Serena Williams, is a four-time gold medalist herself, and from a similar generation of the game — Kuznetsova turned 31 last week; Williams is 34. They first played each other on tour 12 years ago, and Kuznetsova says their common experiences make for shared outlooks on the game. “You look at things with the same view position, I would say,” Kuznetsova said. “Some young girls, they do some things, and we older ones, we look at them, like, O.K., you need some experience.” Kuznetsova handed Williams one of her four defeats of the year in March in Miami but lost in their most recent match in Rome. Williams, who has won nine of the 12 matches between the two, said there would be few surprises in their fourth-round clash at Wimbledon. “Playing someone you haven’t played before is a little bit tricky, because they present different things, and you’re not quite sure how they play,” Williams said. “But going up against someone like Svetlana, she knows my game; I know her game. Then it’s just really down to who’s really going to fight to win it.” Williams won convincingly on Sunday after going down an early break against Annika Beck of Germany, losing only four points in the second set — and none on her serve — for a 6-3, 6-0 win. “It gives me a lot of confidence,” Williams said of the emphatic finish to her victory. “I know what it takes to win these tournaments. It’s just about now just doing it.” The American CoCo Vandeweghe, who won, 6-3, 6-4, over sixth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy is also playing with considerable confidence on the grass, her preferred surface. Vandeweghe, who is from a family of basketball players, plays above-the-rim-style tennis, ideal for the slick lawns of Wimbledon, with a booming serve and easy power that quickly overwhelmed Vinci. Vandeweghe, who made her first Wimbledon quarterfinal last year and lost a close three-set match to Maria Sharapova, won her second career grass-court title last month in the Netherlands. She will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the fourth round, and then could face either Williams or Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. “I’ve never really doubted myself on the possibility of beating good players, beating players in a big tournament,” Vandeweghe said. “I’ve never doubted that capability of doing it. But you have to prove it, and do it, in every tournament, or the majority of tournaments. I think that’s what I’ve been doing a better job of the last two years of playing: beating the better players for a majority of the time, and not just flash-in-the-pan sorts of moments.” | Wimbledon Tennis,Wimbledon;Tennis;Svetlana Kuznetsova;Sloane Stephens;Serena Williams;Russia |
ny0016947 | [
"us"
] | 2013/10/24 | Case Explores Rights of Fetus Versus Mother | JACKSON, Wis. — Alicia Beltran cried with fear and disbelief when county sheriffs surrounded her home on July 18 and took her in handcuffs to a holding cell. She was 14 weeks pregnant and thought she had done the right thing when, at a prenatal checkup, she described a pill addiction the previous year and said she had ended it on her own — something later verified by a urine test. But now an apparently skeptical doctor and a social worker accused her of endangering her unborn child because she had refused to accept their order to start on an anti-addiction drug. Ms. Beltran, 28, was taken in shackles before a family court commissioner who, she says, brushed aside her pleas for a lawyer. To her astonishment, the court had already appointed a legal guardian for the fetus. “I didn’t know unborn children had lawyers,” recalled Ms. Beltran, now six months pregnant, after returning to her home north of Milwaukee from a court-ordered 78-day stay at a drug treatment center. “I said, ‘Where’s my lawyer?' ” Under a Wisconsin law known as the “cocaine mom” act when it was adopted in 1998, child-welfare authorities can forcibly confine a pregnant woman who uses illegal drugs or alcohol “to a severe degree,” and who refuses to accept treatment. Now, with Ms. Beltran’s detention as Exhibit A, that law is being challenged as unconstitutional in a federal suit filed this month , the first in federal court to challenge this kind of fetal protection law. Its opponents are hoping to set an important precedent in the continuing tug of war over the rights of pregnant women and legal status of the unborn. Wisconsin is one of four states, along with Minnesota, Oklahoma and South Dakota, with laws specifically granting authorities the power to confine pregnant women for substance abuse. But many other states use civil-confinement, child-protection or assorted criminal laws to force women into treatment programs or punish them for taking drugs. “This is what happens when laws give officials the authority to treat fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses as if they are already completely separate from the pregnant woman,” said Lynn M. Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York, of Ms. Beltran’s arrest and confinement. The Wisconsin law, according to the suit filed in United States District Court in Milwaukee, deprives women of physical liberty, medical privacy, due process and other constitutional rights. It is also based on faulty information about the risks to newborns and ultimately does more harm than good, the suit argues, by scaring pregnant women away from prenatal care. Bonnie Ladwig, a retired state representative who helped write the law, called it an appropriate effort to prevent harm. “It’s the same as abuse of a child after it’s born,” she said. “If the mother isn’t smart enough not to do drugs, we’ve got to step in.” The law is intended “to help both the woman and her baby,” said Susan Armacost, the legislative director of Wisconsin Right to Life , whose group lobbied hard for the measure. Similar policies have won strong support from anti-abortion groups around the country, in part because they advance the goal of granting independent personhood and rights to the unborn child. The suit is being argued by National Advocates for Pregnant Women along with the Reproductive Justice Clinic of the New York University School of Law and Linda S. Vanden Heuvel , a Wisconsin lawyer who was eventually hired by Ms. Beltran’s mother. Wisconsin officials have not yet responded in court and declined to comment. Ms. Paltrow’s group has documented hundreds of cases nationally over the last decade in which women were detained, arrested or forced to accept medical procedures in the name of fetal protection, with low-income and minority women affected disproportionately. In the most extreme example, Alabama has applied a 2006 “chemical endangerment of a child” law, originally passed to protect children from methamphetamine laboratories, to prosecute about 100 women whose newborns tested positive for drugs, sending several new mothers to prison. Courts in more than 20 states have blocked the use of criminal child-abuse or related laws against pregnant women. But in January the Alabama Supreme Court upheld use of the endangerment law from the moment of conception. In Wisconsin, because child-welfare proceedings are confidential, no one knows how often the 1998 law has been used, but anecdotal evidence suggests it may happen a few times each year at least. Many medical experts say that these laws are based on exaggerated perceptions of the risks to newborns and are medically counterproductive. In 2011, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that “incarceration and threat of incarceration have proved to be ineffective in reducing the incidence of alcohol or drug abuse” and that mandated testing and reporting lead women to avoid prenatal care that “greatly reduces the negative effects of substance abuse during pregnancy.” Dr. Cresta W. Jones , an obstetrician and a fetal medicine specialist at the Medical College of Wisconsin who sees many women with histories of drug or alcohol abuse, said that even sporadic detentions had sowed fear. “The women are scared to come in if they have dependency problems,” she said. “When you allow them to be honest you get better outcomes in their pregnancies.” She and other experts said that while fetal alcohol syndrome is a proven but unpredictable threat, the impact of illegal drug use on newborns is generally less serious and more treatable than is popularly believed. Ms. Beltran thought she was being helpful when, in her first prenatal visit, on July 2, to a clinic at St. Joseph’s Hospital, she discussed her medical history. Ms. Beltran, who worked as a bartender and waitress and became pregnant by a boyfriend who remains close, told the physician assistant that she had become addicted last year to Percocet, a painkiller. But she had willed herself off it the previous fall, even going to the hospital in November for withdrawal symptoms. She said she was unable to afford a prescription for Suboxone, which blocks other opiates and is widely used in treatment, including during pregnancy. So she obtained some from a friend and, on her own, reduced the dosage over time, stopping altogether three days before her appointment at St. Joseph’s. She said that in May, before she knew she was pregnant, she had taken one Vicodin tablet for a toothache. The physician assistant, apparently skeptical, said she should get a prescription for Suboxone because withdrawal could be hard on the fetus, Ms. Beltran recalled. “But I told her I’d already tapered off and quit,” she said. A urine test that day found traces of Suboxone but no signs of other opiates, and later tests found her clear of both drugs. Two weeks after that prenatal visit the social worker showed up unannounced at Ms. Beltran’s home, telling her to restart Suboxone treatment or face a court order to do so. “I told her I’m off this stuff and I don’t want to go back on it,” she recalled, admitting that she lost her temper and shut the door on the social worker after saying, “Maybe I should just get an abortion.” Two days later, the sheriffs arrived to take her to the county jail and the initial hearing. The case against Ms. Beltran was bolstered by the statement of Dr. Angela Breckenridge , an obstetrician at the West Bend Clinic South at St. Joseph’s Hospital. In a letter dated July 16, Dr. Breckenridge said that Ms. Beltran had “openly admitted” taking opiates during pregnancy and was still using Suboxone. “She exhibits lack of self-control and refuses the treatment we have offered her,” wrote Dr. Breckenridge, who, according to Ms. Beltran, had not personally met or examined her. She recommended “a mandatory inpatient drug treatment program or incarceration,” adding, “The child’s life depends on action in this case.” Dr. Breckenridge did not respond to requests for comment. A hospital spokeswoman said, “We are confident that our medical staff acted in good faith.” On threat of jail, Ms. Beltran remained at Casa Clare , a treatment center two hours north in Appleton, Wis., until Oct. 4, when the center sent her home. She lost her job and now hopes to find temporary work over the holidays. Her due date is Jan. 15, and she already has a hand-me-down crib in her bedroom. “I’m scared they can just come back after my baby’s born,” she said. “This is supposed to be the happiest part of my pregnancy, and I’m just terrified.” | Alicia Beltran;Pregnancy;Drug test;Lawsuits;Child Abuse;Women's rights,Feminism;Wisconsin;National Advocates for Pregnant Women;Drug Abuse |
ny0185665 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/03/30 | In New York, Top Earners Hold Mixed Views on Higher Taxes Plan | A lot of people would probably love to have the headaches of someone who earns more than $500,000 a year. But those headaches grew over the weekend with the announcement in Albany of new tax brackets for the highest earners. While there were no tears spilling into Champagne flutes over brunch on Sunday, there were voices of frustration among those facing higher payments to the State of New York Jorge Colmenares, founder and owner of Miracol Energy, an investment firm in renewable energy, said that he earned more than $500,000 and that he was happy to do his part. But he wondered about the negative effects of higher taxes on consumers. “If you continue to take away from people in the form of taxes, it is restricting them more in spending,” he said while shopping on Madison Avenue. “On the one hand, I would agree: With the wealth that you can create, you should give back. But is the government using that money correctly? There’s a lot of skepticism these days as to whether that’s actually going to be the case.” Carmine A. Nicoletti, 51, of Great Neck, who owns a printing company in Queens, declined to state his income, but said that his household earned enough to fall into one of Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposed tax brackets. “I’m O.K. with it,” he said of paying more taxes, while at Via Quadronno restaurant on the Upper East Side. “I’d rather pay my share if the economy is going to benefit. I mean, I don’t like to pay taxes, but I don’t mind if it helps my country. It shouldn’t affect my family.” Julian N. Carter, 42, of the Upper East Side, said that he fell into the $500,000-and-higher tax bracket as a banker at Société Générale and that he supported the new tax. “I’m absolutely in favor of it,” he said outside the restaurant Frederick’s Madison on Madison Avenue. “Listen, the reality is that someone has to pay the bill, and it has to come from taxes. You can’t be selfish. My view is you have to redistribute.” As much as he earns, he said, he expects to cut back on expenses. “My savings are going down and the expenses are still there, but we all have to downsize,” he said. “It’s the elephant in the room. We’re going to have to pay.” Opinions on the tax increase were divided in some households, such as that of Mr. Colmenares, 43, and his wife, Mariela, 41. She is for it. “In this economy, people who are making more than $300,000 should pay more,” she said as the couple shopped on Madison Avenue with their son, Andres, 6. “The people that are fortunate enough to enjoy that higher standard of living should help more.” He said that while he was happy to do his part, he was leaning closer to being against. “It’s the quintessential dilemma: giving the money to the government or having the individuals use it to stimulate the economy themselves,” he said. “I think people should be able to use it themselves.” David Fandetta, 51, and John-Peter Hayden Jr., 68, would have agreed with Mr. Colmenares. The two sellers of rare books were shopping on Madison. “We’re trying to do our bit,” Mr. Hayden said. “You’ve got to go out and spend.” Mr. Fandetta said that their business was down as much as 20 to 30 percent, judging from their sales at the recent New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show. “It’s the wrong time to raise taxes,” he said. “Everybody’s trying to squeeze every nickel out of every rock. They need my 8 percent? Start laying off some bureaucrats. We have a bloated bureaucracy, and that’s bloated with a capital B.” A tax increase could make matters much worse, he added. “That might make the difference,” he said. “It’s closing a small business.” | High Net Worth Individuals;Income Tax;New York State;Economic Conditions and Trends |
ny0275882 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2016/02/08 | De Blasio Announces New Safety Measures After Fatal Crane Collapse | Two days after a 38-year-old man was killed by a crawler crane that collapsed onto a Lower Manhattan street as workers tried to secure it against accelerating winds, Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City was lowering the wind-speed threshold at which such equipment must be shut down. The change, which was to take effect on Monday, was one of several new policies Mr. de Blasio announced on Sunday as investigators worked to determine what caused the fatal collapse and officials faced questions about the city’s protocol for ensuring crane safety. The new rules would require crawler cranes to stop operating and go into safety mode under two scenarios: when there is a forecast for steady wind speeds of 20 miles per hour or higher or gusts of at least 30 m.p.h., and when actual readings reach those levels. Previously, such cranes could operate until measured wind speeds reached 30 m.p.h. or gusts increased to 40 m.p.h., though individual manufacturers sometimes set stricter standards. “If at the end of one workday there is a forecast for these kinds of wind levels the next workday, we will require that the crane be put into secure mode the day before,” Mr. de Blasio said. The fine for failing to take appropriate precautions would be increased to $10,000 from $4,800, he said. The operator of the crane that toppled onto Worth Street in TriBeCa during the morning rush on Friday was working under a 25 m.p.h. limit for securing it, and city officials said workers had begun to lower it as winds neared 20 m.p.h. Mr. de Blasio said forecasts had not indicated that winds would climb above 25 m.p.h. on Friday. City officials said a preliminary analysis based on recorded wind speeds in Central Park showed that the new standards would have put crawler cranes out of operation on 40 days in 2015. The previous rule shut them down for only seven days. Officials said the new rules were temporary and would be in place until a task force, to be convened by the mayor, recommended long-term restrictions within 90 days. Video A crane collapsed in Lower Manhattan Friday morning, killing at least one person and injuring several others. Credit Credit Stephanie Keith for The New York Times In the wake of the accident on Friday, the city ordered that 376 currently operating crawler cranes, as well as 43 larger tower cranes, be secured. A National Weather Service forecast predicted wind speeds of 11 to 16 m.p.h. on Monday. As a further safety measure, uniformed personnel, including police officers, will now help enforce sidewalk and street closings related to crane use, a task previously left to construction crews, with city oversight. The new policies also call for operators to notify nearby residents and businesses before a crane is moved, as opposed to only when a crane is first installed. Mr. de Blasio said officials were still evaluating what role wind conditions, human error or structural or equipment problems might have played in the collapse, which sent the crane’s 565-foot boom crashing across roughly two full city blocks. The crew, in trying to secure the crane and redirect pedestrians away from the area, “was doing exactly what they were supposed to do at that time,” he said. Three people injured in the collapse have been released from the hospital, Mr. de Blasio said. The crane itself was cut up and removed from the street by Sunday afternoon; some of the surrounding blocks remained closed as workers continued to repair water main leaks. “We all know there is a construction boom going on in our city,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Although we value the work that’s being done, we value what it means for our economy, we value the jobs that are being created — nothing is more important than the safety of our people.” Construction executives interviewed on Sunday said that while they were not familiar with details of the new rules, they did not oppose them. Ross Spivak, president of RES Consulting NYC, which plans to use crawler cranes on a coming project in Manhattan, said while the new regulations could not eliminate all potential dangers, he supported stricter enforcement. “I have no issue with the fines,” he said. “I don’t think it’s smart to take risks.” | Derricks and Cranes;Bill de Blasio;NYC;TriBeCa Manhattan;Accidents and Safety;Wind |
ny0187818 | [
"science"
] | 2009/04/21 | Ants Adjust Foraging So the Colony Eats Right | For most creatures, eating right is a solitary pursuit. But how do social insects, for whom relatively few members of the group are responsible for the food supply, maintain the appropriate levels of nutrients for everyone? In a study of green-headed ants, Audrey Dussutour and Stephen J. Simpson of the University of Sydney in Australia provide an answer. The foragers of the colony, they report in Current Biology , adjust their food collection and nutrient processing as the situation demands. The researchers provided colonies with a choice of two foods with complementary proportions of protein and carbohydrate. They found that in colonies with larvae, foragers were able to maintain consistent levels of protein and carbohydrate no matter what the choices were, and that the level of protein was higher than in colonies without larvae. “Ants are able to listen to the nutritional need of the larvae,” which need more protein, said Dr. Dussutour, now at Paul Sabatier University in France. The researchers then forced colonies to consume unbalanced diets. In colonies with larvae, if the food was low in protein the ants would collect more of it to maintain a certain level of protein. Conversely, they would collect less high-protein food. But the researchers also found that the foragers were removing excess protein, discarding it after digesting the carbohydrates in the food. Over all, Dr. Dussutour said, the colony acts as a collective mouth and gut, manipulating the available nutrients. | Ants;Food;Research;Science and Technology |
ny0170226 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/05/01 | New York Gambling Treatment Court Stresses Help | AMHERST, N.Y. — The docket in front of Justice Mark G. Farrell one recent Tuesday afternoon looked like a routine roster of small-time crime: petty larceny, attempted burglary, check forgery. But the offenders shared a single motivation: money to gamble. Such is the criminal parade in the country’s first and only gambling treatment court. Following the model of about 2,000 “therapy courts” devoted to drugs and spousal abuse that have opened nationwide in the last two decades, the setup here allows defendants to avoid jail time if they follow a court-supervised program that includes counseling sessions, credit checks and twice-monthly meetings with Justice Farrell. “I realize this is demanding,” the judge said the other day as he ordered Andrew Hallett, 19, who forged his father’s checks to feed a bingo and lottery addiction, to attend Gamblers Anonymous meetings twice a week. “If you continue to apply yourself to the program, and you continue to go to the self-helps, we’ll get you through it.” Mirroring the rise in gambling nationally and the opening of two new casinos near this suburb of Buffalo, the court’s caseload has grown steadily since it opened in 2001, to several dozen cases a year from a handful. And as gambling has become more popular, with the growth of online poker and with New York State lottery revenues nearly doubling to $6.8 billion over the past six years, Justice Farrell’s docket includes middle-aged parents with college degrees and steady jobs as well as young drug users with criminal records. “Gambling has become almost a genre in our society,” said Justice Farrell, who lectures defendants with a stern voice and a no-nonsense tone. A majority of the gamblers he sees can hold their own, he said, “but it’s the 5 percent that have problems, and we’re seeing an expression of it in gambling court.” The gambling court is too small and too young to show statistically significant results, but its staff members say that more than half the 100-plus defendants so far have completed the treatment program, and only one has been arrested again — on an offense not connected to gambling. But drug courts have shown some impressive results: a 2003 study in Washington State found that participants were 13 percent less likely to become repeat offenders than defendants who went through the regular criminal system, saving $3,759 per participant in potential administrative costs and $3,020 in costs to victims. The idea of expanding therapeutic courts to problem gamblers seems to be gaining momentum. Judges and lawyers in Buffalo have recently started steering gambling-related cases toward Amherst, and Justice Farrell has been in demand on the speaking circuit, talking about the program to prosecutors, counselors and other officials in 15 states since 2002. Don E. Dutton, commissioner of the New Mexico Gaming Control Board, said a statewide task force there plans to recommend the start of such a diversion program by year’s end. Jeffrey J. Marotta, who manages the Oregon Problem Gambling Services in that state’s Department of Human Services, said his agency expects to start a pilot program soon. And in Louisiana, the state attorney general in 2004 set up a diversion program in which gamblers charged with nonviolent crimes can avoid trial if they get treatment. Keith S. Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, said California and Illinois have expressed interest in starting gambling courts. Also, Arizona trains its probation officers to watch for problem gamblers. Justice Farrell, a 59-year-old lawyer, has spent about 35 hours a week since 1994 running Amherst Town Court. With 43,000 cases a year, it is one of the larger of New York’s approximately 1,250 town and village courts, which handle two million criminal, domestic-violence, landlord-tenant, traffic and other cases each year. Justice Farrell started a diversion program from drug crimes in 1996, and for domestic violence in 1999. Justice Farrell, who said he will visit local casinos a few times a year, “lose $100 and figure out what kind of idiot I was,” noticed the spike in gambling-related crime by looking for warning signs similar to those he saw with drug addiction and domestic violence. In a two-and-a-half-week span a few years ago, he said, he saw a dozen cases of car theft, larceny and other crimes committed by otherwise unlikely suspects, and called in experts who determined that gambling was the common theme. Soon, the gambling court was born. As with drugs and domestic violence, the gambling defendants must plead guilty to be eligible for the diversion program, which gives Justice Farrell broad discretion to defer punishment for up to a year and dismiss charges for those who complete the prescribed treatment regimen. But he said gambling can be more complicated, because the connections to the crimes are indirect. For example, there is no urine test to identify gamblers, and society generally treats addiction to cards or dice as a character flaw rather than a psychological disorder. “People are more likely to admit they are a heroin addict than a gambling addict,” Justice Farrell said. So the judge and his staff members screen defendants after arraignments by asking those accused of, say, check forgery, why they needed the money. Court-appointed counselors look for signs of impulsiveness and weak self-control. The gambling court meets every other Tuesday for an hour — just before the much busier drug court session — and on one recent afternoon it started by distributing leaflets on gambling addiction to all the defendants. Then the defendants heard from Karreen Kelly, a graduate of the drug court program after an arrest for driving while intoxicated, who said she spent “two years drinking in my bedroom” to deal with her husband’s compulsive betting. Mrs. Kelly, who is 45 and works in retailing, said that constant calls from loan sharks and credit-card companies, and the loss of more than $160,000, led her to consider suicide with a bottle of tranquilizers and a 12-pack of beer. “When he started gambling, I didn’t think anything of it,” she said between sobs. “I had no time because I was working and with kids.” Over the hourlong session, a young woman numbly admitted that she had relapsed, both using drugs and buying daily scratch-off lottery tickets. A man in sweat pants told a story about “replacing one addiction with another,” explaining that he had recently been in jail and found himself losing $400 gambling with cellmates. In another case, a man whose habits included sports betting, dice and animal fights had missed a scheduled counseling session. “You need to be where you’re scheduled to be,” Justice Farrell warned him. “You play ball with me, I’ll play ball with you.” Mr. Hallett, pencil-thin under a puffy ski jacket, started playing bingo at church before he turned 12, experimented with slot machines while on a cruise and soon was buying 15 to 20 lottery tickets at a time while also sneaking out for bingo. “It was like a rush of adrenaline,” he recalled. “You’re hooked on that feeling.” Mr. Hallett said he drained his bank account, then manipulated accounts at the doctor’s office where he worked, to keep finding the money to gamble. When he was fired, he took a job at Target and soon was caught stealing gift cards. He sold his stepsister’s DVDs, prompting his father to put locks on the bedroom doors. Then his father had him arrested this year for forging checks. Judith Munzi, a gambling recovery counselor at Jewish Family Service of Buffalo and Erie County, stood with Mr. Hallett in court and told Justice Farrell that the young man was a motivated patient, but that he suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and may need to change his medication. “The judge makes you not want to do something,” Mr. Hallett said afterward, vowing to stay out of trouble. The three therapeutic courts, run under the broader auspices of the town court system, which pays the judge’s $69,500 annual salary, receive about $50,000 a year in grants and donations to cover the cost of urine tests, educational materials, computers, travel expenses and overtime for police officers who search for defendants with outstanding warrants. Treatment costs are separate. While Justice Farrell’s court handles only misdemeanors involving $1,000 or less, or felonies in which charges were reduced through plea bargains, the authorities here have also seen a rise in more serious offenses rooted in gambling. John C. Doscher, chief of the white-collar crime bureau in the Erie County district attorney’s office, said his group has convicted nine people of stealing $100,000 or more in gambling-related crimes since 2005. Among them was Judith Ann Scheitheir, who pleaded guilty in January to stealing $350,000 from the plant nursery where she worked to cover her credit-card debts and losses at casinos in Niagara Falls and Ontario. And Kenneth Mangione, chief financial officer at a boarding school for troubled children, was sentenced in March to six months in jail and ordered to repay $50,000 after he confessed to stealing almost $200,000 from the school to cover gambling losses. When asked where the stolen money was, Mr. Doscher recalled that Mr. Mangione told prosecutors, “It’s at the casino.” In gambling court, where Justice Farrell presides in front of a floor-to-ceiling mural that includes the American flag and a bald eagle, the numbers are smaller, but the stories are similar. Experts said that therapeutic courts remain a rarity because many judges consider them an administrative burden, lawyers are often wary of letting their clients admit to an addiction on top of any particular crime, and financing is scarce. “The easier thing to do is to sit back and see if it works elsewhere,” said Carson Fox, director of operations at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. It seems to be working for an up-and-coming boxer identified in court as Leslie R. After being arrested for petty larceny, he recently completed a year of treatment. Justice Farrell gave the boxer a certificate and a key chain with the inscription, “Amherst Court: Where Treatment and Justice Meet,” along with a copy of “The Little Engine That Could,” the classic children’s book. “I think Judge Farrell is very strict, but he’s fair,” Leslie R. said. “I don’t plan to be back here again.” | Gambling;Crime and Criminals;Courts;New York State |
ny0026190 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
] | 2013/08/22 | Sharapova, Citing Shoulder Injury, Will Miss Open | After an uncharacteristically tumultuous summer, third-seeded Maria Sharapova announced Wednesday night that she was withdrawing from next week’s United States Open because of a right shoulder injury. “Maria has informed us that she will be unable to compete at the U.S. Open this year due to a right shoulder bursitis and has withdrawn from the tournament,” the tournament director, David Brewer, said in a statement. “We wish her a speedy recovery and look forward to her return to New York next year.” Sharapova later posted on Facebook: “Withdrawing from the U.S. Open has been a really tough decision to make. I have done everything I could since Wimbledon to get myself ready but it just wasn’t enough time. I have done many tests, received several opinions and it all comes down to taking the proper amount of time to heal my shoulder injury properly.” With Sharapova’s withdrawal, No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska will move to the No. 3 seed, and all subsequent seeds will move up a spot. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia will become the new No. 32 seed and a lucky loser from the final round of the qualifying tournament will take Sharapova’s slot in the 128-player draw. The American Mardy Fish also withdrew from the tournament Wednesday, citing continuing health concerns. Fish has struggled with physical and mental health problems. Sharapova, 26, was first affected by right shoulder problems five years ago and had surgery to repair two tears in her rotator cuff in October 2008. When she returned to the tour 10 months later, she struggled with inconsistent serving. But Sharapova, the 2006 United States Open champion, steadily returned to previous form, returning to the No. 1 ranking and completing the career Grand Slam by winning the French Open last year. She made the French Open final again this year, but lost to Serena Williams. After that loss, Sharapova’s season turned inside out. At a news conference for Wimbledon, the normally composed Sharapova lashed out at Williams for comments she had made in an article in Rolling Stone and directed attention toward the marital status of Williams’s coach and boyfriend, Patrick Mouratoglou. With Sharapova dating the Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, who had been previously coached by Mouratoglou as well as romantically linked with Williams, the episode became a spectacle and an uncharacteristic distraction for Sharapova. Perhaps to the dismay of the British tabloids, Sharapova lost in Wimbledon’s second round to the 131st-ranked qualifier, Michelle Larcher de Brito. After Wimbledon, Sharapova announced that she was parting with her coach of two and a half years, Thomas Hogstedt. She then announced the splashy hire of the eight-time Grand Slam winner Jimmy Connors, who had little association with the modern women’s game. Sharapova was forced to withdraw from her next two tournaments, however, in Stanford, Calif., and Toronto, because of a hip injury she sustained during her loss at Wimbledon. Their first match together resulted in a loss to 17th-ranked Sloane Stephens in the first round of the Western & Southern Open last week in Mason, Ohio, leading Sharapova to end her partnership with Connors. “It’s not the right fit at this time in her career,” Max Eisenbud, Sharapova’s agent, said in a statement. Though she seemed to have found a sturdy interim replacement coach in her previous coach, her father, Yuri Sharapov, the distractions continued. As she arrived in New York to prepare for the year’s final Grand Slam event, The Times of London reported on Tuesday that Sharapova was planning to change her surname for the tournament to Sugarpova, to promote her boutique line of candies. Eisenbud dismissed the report Tuesday. Despite the off-court circus, Sharapova continued preparing for the tournament, practicing as recently as Wednesday afternoon in Louis Armstrong Stadium with her father looking on. But about seven hours later, Sharapova’s withdrawal was announced, and her unpredictable tournament lead-up had turned sour. | Tennis;US Open Tennis;Maria Sharapova |
ny0168072 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2006/01/12 | Girl, 7, Found Beaten to Death in Brooklyn | A 7-year-old girl was found beaten to death yesterday inside her home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where she had been isolated from her five brothers and sisters, bound to a chair in her room and sexually abused, law enforcement officials said. She weighed just 36 pounds. The girl, Nixzmary Brown, died of at least one blow to the head, the city medical examiner said. Investigators say they believe her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, killed her when he banged her head against a faucet in the bathtub. Mr. Rodriguez and the girl's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, were charged with murder last night. Mr. Rodriguez was also charged with other crimes, including sexually abusing Nixzmary and a sister. Later in the day, a 2-month-old boy in Brownsville, Brooklyn, whose mother was undergoing treatment for drug abuse, was found dead in his crib. The cause was not known last night. Nixzmary's family had been investigated twice by the city's child welfare agency -- in May for neglect, and again in December after it received a tip that she was being abused. A spokeswoman for the agency, the Administration for Children's Services, said yesterday that investigators interviewed the girl, her relatives and officials at her school after the December tip, as well as the child's doctor, but detected no signs of imminent risk. Agency officials would not say if their investigators visited Nixzmary's home. A law enforcement official said Nixzmary had been forced to eat cat food and, because she was confined to her room, had to use a litter box. The official said that Mr. Rodriguez was "emotionless" when he talked to investigators last night, and that he tried to portray the girl as a troublemaker. Nixzmary, who was 45 inches tall, was the fourth child from a family known to city child welfare authorities to die in a parent's home in the last two months. The deaths come as the city has aggressively pursued a strategy of keeping troubled families together whenever possible with intensive services instead of placing children into foster care. City officials acknowledge that the spate is unnerving, but say it is not necessarily a reflection on city policy. They say there were 30 deaths of children known to the authorities in 2005, down slightly from 33 in 2004. Staff members at Nixzmary's school, Public School 256, had seen hints of abuse in recent months, including a cut on the girl's forehead, and had noticed that the girl had missed weeks of school, law enforcement officials said. Someone at the school contacted the authorities last month, city officials said. Nixzmary's mother, Ms. Santiago, 27, told investigators that after discovering her daughter unconscious, she alerted a neighbor who in turn called the authorities, the police said. Nixzmary was pronounced dead at her home, the police said. After discovering Nixzmary, the police sent her five siblings to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center for observation. The children, ranging in age from 6 months to 9 years, were later taken into the custody of the Administration for Children's Services, an agency spokeswoman said. The agency is reviewing its policies for dealing with abuse reports, and last month it issued separate reports on the death of two children last year who had been removed and eventually returned to their homes. The reports were critical of the agency's handling of the cases. But John B. Mattingly, the commissioner of children's services, said in a statement: "We do not believe there are systemic issues here, nor do we believe there are ideological issues. There are clearly practice issues and that's what we are addressing right now. The first thing we need to go after is reinforcing everyone's focus on safety." Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called Nixzmary's death "a great tragedy" and voiced his confidence in Mr. Mattingly. "A.C.S. was called, somebody alerted them, they tried to do an investigation, obviously not fast enough," the mayor said. "And John Mattingly is looking at it. Over all, A.C.S. does a very good job, but any tragedy, anybody that slips through, is one too many." Outside the three-story apartment building on Greene Avenue where Nixzmary had lived, investigators could be seen removing evidence, including a small wooden school chair with bits of white twine attached to its legs. They brought out a computer, a DVD player and a paper evidence bag marked: "Pink towel with blood on it." The family's neighbors remembered them as distant, saying they kept to themselves and did not socialize. At least one neighbor said he saw signs of something worse. Perry Robinson, 49, said his 11-year-old cousin would play with Nixzmary in a nearby park. "I saw her with welts on her arms, and limping as she was walking," Mr. Robinson said. He said that she told him that she had fallen. Other times, she explained the injuries differently, saying that Mr. Rodriguez had struck her, and had threatened that if she told anyone, he would kill her and her mother, Mr. Robinson said. At least once, Mr. Robinson said he saw Mr. Rodriguez grab the girl. "He was so domineering," he said. "I thought he'd break her arm." The circumstances of the other child's death yesterday were less clear. The boy, Michael Segarra, was found in his crib about 2:15 p.m. when a neighbor came by to get a cigarette from his mother. The neighbor, Monique Whitfield, said that the door to the apartment, at 663 Howard Avenue in Brownsville, was open, and that the boy's mother, Melisa Segarra, was asleep. Ms. Whitfield said Michael lay face down in the crib with his arms splayed out. She went to turn his face and saw that his whole body was cold, stiff and purple. "I said, 'Come and see the baby,' " she said. Ms. Segarra replied, "You check the baby," she said. After much urging, she said, she was able to get Melisa up to check on Michael, and when she saw her son, "she started screaming." Ms. Segarra was questioned by the police yesterday, a law enforcement official said. There was no one home at her apartment last night. An official with knowledge of the case said that the child welfare agency had been involved with Ms. Segarra because of past drug use and that she was undergoing treatment under the agency's supervision. | BROOKLYN (NYC);CHILDREN AND YOUTH;CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT |
ny0133176 | [
"business"
] | 2012/12/22 | Some Columns Revisited: Apple, ‘The Voice’ and Gay Marriage | After Apple introduced its iPhone 5 in China last week, Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, hailed the rollout as the company’s most successful ever, with two million handsets sold the first weekend. It’s the kind of news that in the past has sent Apple stock soaring. This time investors fled. Apple stock dropped 4 percent the day of the China event, hitting a 10-month low. What’s happened to many investors’ favorite stock? Apple is still the world’s largest company by market capitalization by a comfortable margin, and shareholders can hardly complain: even after last week’s decline, its shares have gained 28 percentthis year through Friday, compared with 15 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. But since reaching a peak above $700 in September, Apple shares are now barely above $500 — deep into bear market territory — and their luster has dimmed. Apple’s situation is one of the topics I wrote about this year that warrant an update as the year ends. In February, I pointed out that Apple’s huge market capitalization and exponential growth might cause it to confront the law of large numbers, which posits that variables — in this case, exceptional share gains — tend to revert to a mean. That seemed to hit a raw nerve with Apple enthusiasts, and many responded with furious e-mails. Hardly anyone was raising any doubts about Apple shares then. Of 57 Wall Street analysts covering the company, 52 rated it a buy or strong buy in February, and only one — Edward Zabitsky, the chief executive and founder of ACI Research in Toronto — rated it a sell. Mr. Zabitsky specializes in telecommunications and has been something of a Cassandra about Apple for years. He’s a favorite target of the Web’s “iPhone death watch,” which takes aim at anyone who questions the Apple juggernaut. “I can’t say I’m getting any more respect, but there’s definitely less hostility, that’s for sure” Mr. Zabitsky told me this week. “I was all alone out there. People make fun of things they don’t understand. I guess it made them feel better to insult someone like me. But the factors I warned about have been coming to the fore. People are starting to understand what I’m saying.” What he’s been saying is that Samsung has surpassed Apple as the leading handset maker; apps have become more important than the devices that carry them; and handsets are increasingly being evaluated on their ability to access the cloud and interact with other devices — trends that he believes put Apple at a long-term disadvantage. “When I predicted Samsung would be the market leader in unit sales, people wanted to sue me for slander,” Mr. Zabitsky said. “But Samsung has not only surpassed Apple in sales, it’s out-innovating Apple. Have you seen the new Galaxy Note II? It’s amazing.” And Apple’s stumble over its maps application for the iPhone 5, which led to a rare apology in September, illustrated both the growing power of apps and the company’s fallibility. Mr. Zabitsky said he didn’t fault Apple for developing its own maps app, but criticizes its decision to supplant Google Maps on the iPhone 5. “It wasn’t ready for prime time,” he said of Apple’s version. (Google said iPhone users downloaded 10 million copies of Google maps app for the iPhone in just 48 hours after it became available last week.) Of course, the recent slide in Apple’s shares could turn out to be a rare buying opportunity, a mere blip in the stock’s rise to new heights. Fifty of 57 analysts still rate it a strong buy or buy, and Mr. Zabitsky remains the lone analyst with a sell recommendation. His target price is $270, unchanged since February. “The trends I’ve mentioned still haven’t played out,” he said. “I know people don’t want to hear that, but my job as an analyst isn’t to make people feel good.” ‘THE VOICE’ There were plenty of skeptics when NBC introduced its singing competition “The Voice” in April 2011. No wonder: NBC was the long-struggling fourth-place network, and the reality-competition juggernaut “American Idol” on Fox was firmly ensconced at the top of the ratings, with Simon Cowell’s hotly anticipated “X-Factor” waiting in the wings. “The Voice” proved a surprise hit, displacing “Idol” last March as network television’s No. 1 show. But even then, critics dismissed it as a fluke that benefited from the halo effect of the Super Bowl , which ran on NBC. And some TV executives ridiculed NBC’s decision to use “The Voice” as a lead-in for a new dramatic series, “Smash,” about the making of a Broadway musical, which they deemed too sophisticated to appeal to a broad network audience. NBC executives were cautious. “We’re not going to move to second place, let alone first, just on this show,” Steve Burke, NBCUniversal ’s chief executive, told me in March . “The Voice” completed its latest season with a two-hour live installment on Tuesday and delivered an average of 14.1 million viewers, a record for the show’s finale. Against long odds, and thanks in large part to “The Voice,” NBC was the No. 1 network during the November ratings sweeps for viewers 11 to 49 years old, the group most sought-after by advertisers. NBC had a 23 percent gain in viewers compared to a decline at every other network. NBC has now been the top network for viewers 11 to 49 for 10 of the last 12 weeks, something that hadn’t happened in nearly a decade. NBC executives are pinching themselves. “We were a distant fourth last year,” Bob Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, told me just before “The Voice” finale. “We would have been happy to be a solid No. 3. To be No. 1 or tied for No. 1 every week, that’s almost unbelievable.” NBC has made the most of “The Voice’s” visibility to introduce new shows. The critically acclaimed “Smash” is returning for a second season in February after defying skeptics and emerging last season in a tie for the top-rated drama in its 10 p.m. time slot. And NBC has used “The Voice” to expose audiences to its shows “Revolution” and “Go On,” which are this season’s No. 1 new drama and comedy. Two other new shows, “Chicago Fire” and “The New Normal,” have also performed well. “ ‘The Voice’ has done exactly what we hoped for and more,” Mr. Greenblatt said. Can NBC sustain its newfound success? Next year the network is producing two cycles of “The Voice,” leading to concerns about overexposure. And because of scheduling issues, it’s tampering with the formula, shuffling its popular hosts and adding the pop stars Usher and Shakira to the lineup. But Mr. Greenblatt is confident the show’s producer, Mark Burnett, a reality TV legend, can pull off the balancing act. “We’re very mindful that we don’t want to kill the goose,” Mr. Greenblatt said. REPLACEMENTS LTD. Bob Page, the gay North Carolina entrepreneur who transformed an interest in flea markets into an $80 million-a-year used-tableware business, Replacements Ltd., had despaired of ever being able to marry in his home state. After his company openly opposed a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage — the only company in North Carolina that did — angry customers wrote e-mails and letters and said they would never buy from his company again. Others at the company worried about his safety . In May, North Carolina voters overwhelmingly approved the ban, now enshrined in the state’s constitution. But since word of his stand and the hostile reaction spread, Mr. Page said, he has received over 5,000 e-mails and letters, nearly all of them positive, and has replied to almost all of them. “I’ve been amazed,” he said recently. “We’ve literally had responses from all over the world, as far away as Hong Kong. People have written to say they’re leaving their china and silver to us in their wills. A woman in San Francisco, who isn’t gay, placed a $20,000 order.” Even a best-selling novelist took up the cause: “Anne Rice put us on her Facebook page, and she has over 600,000 followers. Our sales had been a little lackluster, but now business is up substantially.” Even so, “life isn’t about money,” Mr. Page said, adding that he’s “elated” over the nationwide advance of the cause he supported. In November, voters in four states backed gay marriage. In contrast to what happened in North Carolina, major corporations like Amazon, Starbucks and Nike backed the campaigns. In May, President Obama became the first president to support gay marriage. Mr. Page, his partner, Dale Frederiksen, and their twin sons were invited to a White House Christmas party. And this month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear cases challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which deprives married gay couples of federal benefits and recognition, and Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in California. “I’m thrilled and I’m scared to death,” Mr. Page said of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the cases. “I’ve done a lot of reading and in my heart, I think Justice Kennedy will do the right thing.” (Justice Anthony Kennedy is widely perceived as a potential swing vote on the issue.) “He wrote the opinion that overturned the anti-sodomy laws, and that gives me great hope.” Should the Supreme Court rule that state bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional, it might mean that Mr. Page and Mr. Frederiksen can be married in North Carolina. “That may be too much to hope for,” Mr. Page said. “But the country is moving forward. I know we’ll get there.” | Apple Inc;Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships;The Voice (TV Program);Television;NBC Universal;Stewart James B;Page Bob;Replacements Ltd;North Carolina;Voice The (TV Program) |
ny0157066 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2008/06/24 | Lawyer Says N.B.A. Is Trying to Intimidate Donaghy | The N.B.A. ’s attempt to recoup nearly $1.4 million in restitution from the disgraced referee Tim Donaghy is “a transparent attempt at witness intimidation,” his lawyer said Monday. In a court filing, the lawyer, John Lauro, accused the league of making the claim as retaliation for Donaghy’s recent assertion that league officials manipulated the outcomes of games. The restitution issue will be heard Wednesday by Judge Carol Bagley Amon in United States District Court in Brooklyn. It is possible that Amon will rule from the bench. N.B.A. officials declined to address Lauro’s statements, saying the matter would be dealt with Wednesday. Donaghy pleaded guilty to two felony charges in August after admitting he provided inside information to professional gamblers and helped them pick games. The government has not accused him of fixing games or making calls to change the point spread. Donaghy is scheduled to be sentenced July 14. He could face up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, but is expected to receive a lighter sentence for cooperating with the authorities. The N.B.A. made its restitution claim June 5, saying it had the right to recoup legal fees and the cost of an internal investigation, as well as a portion of Donaghy’s salary for the four seasons in which he bet on games. In response, Lauro filed for a subpoena seeking a copy of the N.B.A.’s internal investigation and billing records. The N.B.A. last week filed 39 pages of records, but most of the information was redacted. Lauro is seeking more information about the league’s investigation and restated his request for a subpoena in Monday’s letter to the court. He argued that most of the costs cited by the N.B.A. were unrelated to Donaghy’s actions. “Much of the N.B.A.’s claim centers on its desire to recoup legal fees for an investigation of the activities of other referees and to address widespread gambling by referees, all of which has nothing to do with Mr. Donaghy,” Lauro wrote. The legal maneuverings by Donaghy briefly upstaged the N.B.A. finals two weeks ago. In a June 10 sentencing letter, Donaghy said that league officials directed referees “to manipulate games” in order to “boost ticket sales and television ratings.” Commissioner David Stern dismissed the accusations as “baseless.” | Donaghy Tim;National Basketball Assn;Officiating (Sports) |
ny0139912 | [
"us"
] | 2008/02/26 | California Creates Cabinet Post to Manage Volunteers | LOS ANGELES — California is a state with frequent natural disasters and vast numbers of people who want to help. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says a recent oil spill in San Francisco Bay helped demonstrate that “volunteerism can be moved a notch.” To that end, Mr. Schwarzenegger is creating a cabinet-level office for volunteer management, which his administration says is the first such state cabinet position in the country. He is scheduled to announce the move on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Under the change, the governor’s commission for volunteerism, California Volunteers, will maintain its staffing and budget. But its executive director will gain expanded duties as a cabinet secretary, playing a role in disaster-related planning and response efforts and coordinating volunteers at disaster sites. The office will also manage donations that flow into the state for disaster relief, a responsibility now held by the state’s Office of Emergency Response. It is the first time a governor’s commission overseeing federal money to manage volunteers — panels required by law since 1993 — has been elevated to a cabinet role. In a telephone interview, Mr. Schwarzenegger said recent disasters had demonstrated that volunteers were “many times unable to do the kind of work they want to for the state because we are not as organized as we can be.” He said his wife, Maria Shriver, who is the honorary chairwoman of California Volunteers, helped make the case for giving the office greater prominence and responsibility. “I have a father-in-law and mother-in-law who have relied on volunteers their whole life,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said, referring to R. Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics. “It is something I am very familiar with.” California, like many states, relies on volunteers in natural disasters and other emergencies. The state, always on earthquake watch, is also prone to wildfires and mudslides. Last fall, over 10,000 residents registered to volunteer in San Diego during the wildfires, and $23 million in private donations poured into the state. But when 2,000 people showed up to help after the San Francisco oil spill, “they had good intentions but didn’t know what to do with them,” said Karen Baker, the head of California Volunteers, who will become the new secretary for service and volunteering. The various California agency heads, Ms. Baker said, “didn’t have a fellow cabinet member to talk to them, and so the governor finally called me and said, ‘Get down here with me.’ It was chaos. There were monks who got arrested.” The state is also facing a budget crisis, with a deficit of billions of dollars. Part of the role of the elevated office will be to drum up more private and corporate money for volunteerism efforts. “We have no illusions of this being a substitute for government,” said Daniel Zingale, Ms. Shriver’s chief of staff and a senior adviser to the governor. “But we do believe there is a role for citizen engagement during tough budget times.” | Volunteers;California;Disasters;Schwarzenegger Arnold |
ny0167489 | [
"business"
] | 2006/01/07 | Ex-Wal-Mart Executive Expected to Plead Guilty to Fraud | The former vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, Thomas M. Coughlin, has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges that he defrauded the company of at least $350,000, people close to the negotiations said yesterday. Mr. Coughlin, once the retailer's No. 2 executive, was ousted last year amid accusations that he used fake invoices and misappropriated gift cards to pay for items like contact lenses and a custom-made dog kennel. He has agreed to plead guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, people close to the inquiry said, and is scheduled to enter the pleas this month in federal court in Fort Smith, Ark. Defense lawyers and prosecutors expect Mr. Coughlin to be sentenced to slightly more than two years in prison, said people close to the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the matter is still open. The court is also expected to order Mr. Coughlin to make restitution to Wal-Mart for benefits he received and money he misappropriated. The guilty plea casts considerable doubt on Mr. Coughlin's assertion that he used company money to reimburse himself for a secret campaign, approved by senior executives, to pay union members for information about their organization drives, a potential violation of federal law. Mr. Coughlin is still expected to advance that argument before a judge during sentencing. A person close to the matter said that the plea agreement explicitly mentions a plan to use Wal-Mart's money to buy information that would disrupt efforts to unionize Wal-Mart Stores. Neither the United States attorney for the Western District of Arkansas nor Wal-Mart, after sifting through thousands of pages of documents, found evidence that such a proposal existed, people close to the investigation said. A representative for Wal-Mart declined to comment last night. The plea agreement, which has been in the works since October, represents a staggering outcome for Mr. Coughlin, who was once considered a strong candidate to become chief executive of Wal-Mart. Mr. Coughlin came to Wal-Mart in 1978 as a chief of security, rose quickly and two decades later, oversaw Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Walmart.com. Mr. Coughlin, a hunting buddy of Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, was a celebrated figure within the company, viewed as the final link to the retail chain's humble roots. But according to legal documents that Wal-Mart made public last year, Mr. Coughlin had for years relied on an intricate web of underlings to routinely approve purchases of gifts for himself ($900 worth of duck hunting gear) and even his son (a $1,700 computer). Mr. Coughlin retired from Wal-Mart in January 2005 but remained on the board until March, when he was forced out. A former aide to Mr. Coughlin, Robert Hey Jr., pleaded guilty in November to charges of wire fraud. In one instance, according to a Wal-Mart report, Mr. Coughlin directed a subordinate to buy $2,000 worth of gift cards, which he said would be given to low-level employees to improve morale. Instead, Mr. Coughlin used the cards to buy wine and hunting gear, the report said. In another case, Mr. Coughlin bought an all-terrain vehicle from a potential Wal-Mart supplier, using $8,500 in company money and permitting the supplier to cover the remaining $2,200, according to records. The arrangement violated Wal-Mart's ban on gifts from vendors that it has done or may do business with. In the end, Mr. Coughlin's use of company money was discovered by a cashier, according to Wal-Mart. The employee tipped off executives when Mr. Coughlin tried to use a gift card, intended for rank-and-file workers, to buy a pair of contact lenses. In July, Wal-Mart sued Mr. Coughlin, seeking to prevent him from collecting about $12 million in retirement benefits and to recover money the company said he had fraudulently siphoned from the company In November, a state judge in Arkansas tossed out part of the lawsuit, citing an agreement that barred the former executive and the company from suing each other. Wal-Mart had asserted that Mr. Coughlin's conduct invalidated his retirement pact. But a local judge ruled that Arkansas law did not require an executive to disclose misconduct before signing a release from liability. Wal-Mart, the court said, could pursue only claims of misconduct said to have been committed after Mr. Coughlin signed the agreement. One question that remains is whether Mr. Coughlin's plea would lead the town of Bentonville, Ark., to reconsider the name of its new public library. The building, constructed with the help of $4 million from the Wal-Mart/Sam's Club Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, was recently christened the Coughlin Library. | WAL-MART STORES INC;FRAUDS AND SWINDLING;EXECUTIVES AND MANAGEMENT |
ny0135571 | [
"business"
] | 2008/04/30 | Cox Enterprises to Acquire Adify, an Ad Tech Firm | Cox Enterprises, a media company with broad holdings in newspapers, radio and television, said Tuesday that it would pay $300 million in cash for the advertising technology company Adify. The move would put Cox in competition with companies like Google that have built up big online advertising franchises. Adify, founded in 2005, helps Internet publishers build vertical advertising networks. These are groupings of sites about specific content, like travel or business, where advertisers can buy space on all the sites simultaneously. The acquisition will help Cox build vertical networks around its existing properties, said John Dyer, executive vice president for finance at Cox. For instance, the company could build a network for travel-related advertising around the Travel Channel’s Web site. But the major appeal of Adify is that it helps other publishers build their own ad networks under their own brand names. “Vertical online ad networks are going to be a very important growth area,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst for eMarketer, a research firm. Acquiring Adify will put Cox in direct competition with Google’s DoubleClick division. DoubleClick said in March that it would introduce a product to help publishers create vertical networks — which is precisely Adify’s business model — in the second half of this year. Other publishing companies besides Cox have been trying to build online revenue through joining or building ad networks. BET Networks said in January that it had introduced a network focused on “urban and African-American consumers.” Forbes .com built one for finance blogs in March, and last November, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia created a lifestyle network. Adify helped build the Forbes and Martha Stewart networks. Cox is itself a member of advertising networks like Yahoo’s newspaper consortium and quadrantONE, a new venture started by the Tribune Company, the Gannett Company, the Hearst Corporation and The New York Times Company. Both these networks help Cox fill advertising space on the Web sites of its newspapers, like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The sale puts Adify in a position where it will woo companies that compete with its new parent. Current clients — and Cox competitors — include the Washington Post Company, Time Warner and Reuters. Cox said it was not worried about conflicts of interest. “We’ve managed that from newspapers to radio to TV to cable TV,” Mr. Dyer said. “There’s an intersection — one might call it a competition — between those businesses as far as advertisers are concerned, and we’ve done that for a whole lot of years and done that quite successfully.” Russ Fradin, the chief executive of Adify, said the deal had come about when his company had been seeking its third round of venture-capital financing two or three months ago. (It had raised $8.25 million in its first round, and $19 million in its second round in 2007 from investors that included Time Warner Investments and NBC Universal.) Adify approached Cox about becoming a strategic investor, and Cox responded that it wanted more than that. Mr. Hallerman of eMarketer called the deal “one of the few that we’ve seen where the newspaper industry has gone beyond its normal playing field.” Adify, with about 80 employees, will remain based in San Bruno, Calif., and will be a stand-alone unit under Cox TMI, a Cox holding company. Mr. Fradin will stay on as Adify’s president. | Cox Enterprises Inc;Advertising and Marketing;Newspapers;Television;Radio;Adify;Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures |
ny0274106 | [
"us"
] | 2016/02/04 | Massachusetts: Bulger’s Girlfriend Is Staying Silent | The woman who spent 16 years on the run with the Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger pleaded guilty Wednesday to a criminal contempt charge for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating whether other people helped him as a fugitive. Catherine Greig, 64, entered her plea in Federal District Court in Boston without having any agreement or sentencing recommendation from prosecutors. She is serving an eight-year prison term for helping Mr. Bulger, 86, while he was on the lam. Mr. Bulger is serving a life sentence for racketeering. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV told her that because there is no maximum penalty for the contempt charge, he could sentence her to any term, including up to life in prison. After the hearing, Ms. Greig’s lawyer, Keven Reddington, said, “Yeah, she loved him and still does.” | Catherine Elizabeth Greig;Whitey Bulger;Organized crime;Boston;Fugitive;Ex Cons;Racketeering;F Dennis Saylor IV |
ny0039188 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2014/04/16 | At U.N., a Grim Viewing of Alleged Syrian Torture | UNITED NATIONS — Members of a deeply divided United Nations Security Council spent two hours on Tuesday morning looking at pictures of mutilated, skeletal corpses that were said to have been taken by a former Syrian Army photographer . Some victims, who were allegedly detained by the Syrian government, had been starved for weeks, which explained why ribs poked out and abdomens looked like sunken valleys, a forensic pathologist told the Council. One person appeared to have been strangled by a metal belt from an automobile engine. The ankles of several were scarred; the pathologist said they had probably been shackled and starved, so that the skin had lost all strength. These and more photographs were shown to the Council in an effort by France to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court. They were part of a collection smuggled out of Syria by a defector known by the code name Caesar. An international panel of experts hired by Qatar, one of the Syrian government’s staunchest critics, found the photographs to be authentic and Caesar to be credible. Aside from the pathologist, Dr. Stuart J. Hamilton, the panel included a forensic imaging expert and three war crimes prosecutors. New details on Tuesday emerged about Caesar and his photographs. His job was to chronicle the deaths of detainees during the Syrian conflict. For two years, he took pictures of the dead as his job demanded. He also made copies of each photograph, smuggling them to a member of the opposition. His own death was faked so that he could escape the country. Dr. Hamilton, a career forensic pathologist with the British Home Office, said that out of 55,000 pictures, he had vetted only 5,500 representing roughly 1,300 victims, mostly men of fighting age. David Crane, one of three prosecutors on the panel, said he had been skeptical when first informed of the archive. “This all seemed too good to be true,” Mr. Crane, who prosecuted the former Liberian president Charles Taylor, told reporters after briefing the Council. “Most of these thugs don’t write this stuff down,” he added. The photographs, he said, provided direct evidence of “widespread industrial killings.” Image From left, David Crane, a prosecutor; Gérard Araud, the French envoy; and Dr. Stuart J. Hamilton, a forensic pathologist, discussed photographs. Credit Michael Loccisano/Getty Images The photographs are something of a mixed blessing for the Council. If authentic, they are gripping evidence of torture by the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Even so, the prospects of prosecution in the short term seem slim. Syria’s principal ally on the Council, Russia, wields veto power. Russia chose to send a midlevel diplomat from its mission, Igor Panin, to Tuesday’s briefing, which was closed to reporters. Mr. Crane said later that Mr. Panin had questioned him as if they had been in a court of law, asking pointedly about the veracity of the evidence and how it was obtained and stored. The Russian Mission declined to comment. The French ambassador, Gérard Araud, said it would be weeks before a resolution would be drafted. “We know the Security Council is divided. We know it’s practically impossible to get a decision from the Security Council,” he said, adding that he hoped all 15 members would be moved by the horrors captured in the pictures. “There are times when we must speak out,” he said. “We must appeal to human conscience.” The United Nations has not independently verified the authenticity of the images. But its own human rights investigations have reported evidence of torture inside government detention centers along with executions by Islamist groups fighting to topple the Assad government. Diplomats who attended the session said that what was most unusual about it was the total silence that followed the experts’ briefing. No one rushed to speak. The American ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said later in a statement: “Nobody who sees these images will ever be the same. The perpetrators of these monstrous crimes must be held accountable, and the international community must unite in the face of such horrors.” Whoever took the pictures was vigilant about record-keeping. Some corpses were photographed along with what Dr. Hamilton said appeared to be their identity cards. Those cards and faces were blurred. Dr. Hamilton said he had seen nothing like the archive in his career. But Mr. Crane said no investigation into war crimes in Syria could focus on one side, no matter how solid the evidence. “A credible justice mechanism has to take into account all sides,” he said. “This is not about Assad. This is not about the other side.” He added, “There’s nobody not culpable anymore.” | Torture;UN;Syria;UN Security Council;War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity;France;Qatar;Bashar al-Assad;Photography |
ny0209604 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2009/12/07 | U.K. Weighs a Fast Track to a Low Carbon Future | Britain, which has long lagged behind its European neighbors on high-speed rail, is considering a new network of fast trains that politicians hope could help fight climate change by drastically cutting the number of short-haul flights both domestically and to the Continent. But environmentalists, while eager to get travelers out of planes and cars and onto trains, question whether a huge new infrastructure project, costing tens of billions of dollars, is the best way to help meet the country’s tough carbon-reduction targets. The money might be better spent on smaller, less expensive measures to improve the existing train system, which could make a dent in emissions much more quickly, they argue. Both the Labour government and the opposition Conservative Party, which is pressing to take power in legislative elections expected in May, are enthusiastic about a proposed new fast line running from London to Birmingham and northern English cities like Manchester and Leeds. They hope it could be the first leg of a bigger high-speed service reaching all the way to Scotland, and eventually even a network crisscrossing the country. Andrew Adonis, the transport secretary, said that such a system could significantly cut travel times from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, to two and a half hours from four and a half now, and virtually eliminate flights on those routes. That would be an environmental boon, he said. Lord Adonis acknowledged that constructing a high-speed line would itself create carbon emissions. But he said new capacity would almost inevitably be needed on major travel corridors in the decades to come. And compared with the alternatives — new highways or a big increase in flights — high-speed trains would be the most carbon-efficient way to provide it. “It is important to establish first that there is going to be, over the next generation, a requirement for the additional capacity,” Lord Adonis said. “But the argument does appear to be strong in that regard.” Fast electric trains are already more efficient than older diesel ones, and their carbon emissions will shrink as Britain increases production of renewable power, making the electricity that runs them cleaner, said Stephen Hammond, a lawmaker who is the Tories’ spokesman on rail issues. Environmental campaigners are not so sure. While train travel is greener than flying, hefty emissions would come from the tunneling and bridge-building involved in constructing a new line, and from making and transporting the concrete and steel that would be used. With public funds tight and a full high-speed network estimated to cost as much as £69 billion, or $114 billion, they argue that there may be better ways to spend the money. “I don’t think we should be getting too excited about High Speed 2 as a green solution,” said Cat Hobbs of the Campaign for Better Transport, an advocacy group. High Speed 2 is the name of the proposed project, and of the company set up by the government to develop detailed plans for it. Projected carbon dioxide reductions from creating a high-speed network “are not that impressive given the amount of money that you’re spending,” Ms. Hobbs said. She and others say that immediate measures like electrifying existing train lines, cutting fares — which are among the highest in Europe — to attract passengers and lengthening trains to ease overcrowding offer better ways to cut carbon emissions. Britain, the first country in the world to bind itself legally to strict emission-cutting targets, has promised to reduce carbon output by 80 percent by 2050. Ms. Hobbs and other campaigners said they were waiting for the environmental estimates in a report expected by the end of December from High Speed 2. Lord Adonis said officials would announce a decision on a new line in February or March. Britain’s only existing high-speed line connects London to the Channel tunnel. For years before it opened, just two years ago, travelers bumped through the English countryside at a leisurely pace before whizzing across France on a choice of high-speed tracks. Now, “we’re the nearest we’ve ever gotten in this country to taking it forward,” said Julie Mills, director of Greengauge 21, a group pushing for a fast network. Since a series of train accidents and embarrassing mishaps early in the decade, officials have poured billions of pounds into rail modernization and pressed the private companies that run train services to perform better. New rolling stock has been ordered and big electrification projects are underway, as is the £16 billion Crossrail, a new route intended to smooth travel in and around London. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Lord Adonis have expressed strong support for a new north-south high-speed line, as have the Conservatives. If approved, work would probably start first on a London-Birmingham line, with a connection to Heathrow Airport. Track could then be extended to Scotland, with stops in big northern English cities like Manchester and Liverpool. A London-Scotland line could cost £34 billion, and most of it would have to come from government coffers. While the price tag looks daunting at a time of painful budget constraints, advocates argue that it would be at least five years before the bulk of the funds would be required, because of the planning needed before construction can start. Greengauge 21 is calling for a network of fast trains including two north-south lines and three east-west connections, at a total cost of £69 billion. “You wouldn’t invest that amount of money just for the carbon benefits, you do it for the other benefits, too,” Ms. Mills said. “High-speed rail is a sustainable way of supporting economic growth and regeneration.” Lord Adonis said High Speed 2’s report would offer an opinion on the feasibility of such a network, although he said it would take decades to build. Mr. Hammond said the Conservatives would like to see it happen eventually but had made a firm commitment only to the first north-south line. Environmentalists are pressing for a more modest rail expansion, detailed in a proposal from the Association of Train Operating Companies to reopen 14 smaller rail lines that were closed in the 1960s. A number of good-sized towns have no links to the rail network, but in many places old track beds are still in place and could be restored to service at minimal cost, said Richard S. Dyer, transport campaigner at Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group. Lord Adonis said ministers were considering reopening lines only in a handful of cases where usage would be enough to justify the cost. The Tories would keep the option open by imposing a five-year moratorium on development that would damage old track beds, Mr. Hammond said. Mr. Dyer said that while politicians tended to like big projects that grab headlines, “you can sometimes get better results from things that are smaller and less sexy.” | Railroads;Great Britain;Energy Efficiency;Infrastructure (Public Works) |
ny0208745 | [
"business"
] | 2009/12/02 | E-Commerce and Electronics Sales Rose in November | Despite reports of weaker spending on the Friday after Thanksgiving , the nation’s stores appear to have fared much better this November than last year — when consumers were so spooked by the deteriorating economy that they essentially went into hiding. Data to be published on Wednesday showed sales in November rose in some major retailing categories and fell in others. The top-performing sectors last month were retail e-commerce (up 12.3 percent, compared with November 2008), electronics (up 6.6 percent), jewelry (up 4.6 percent) and appliances (up 3.5 percent), according to SpendingPulse, an information service of MasterCard Advisors. Sales of luxury goods tumbled 7.3 percent, clothing declined 5.7 percent and footwear dipped 2 percent. A clearer picture of the early weeks of the holiday shopping season will emerge on Thursday, when the nation’s chains each report their November sales results. Retailing analysts at Thomson Reuters expect stores to post a 2.3 percent sales increase for November, in contrast to a 7.8 percent decline a year ago. Last year on the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday , sales were surprisingly strong in some big retailing categories, like clothing (up 2.7 percent), footwear (up 10.4 percent) and jewelry (up 5.7 percent). Sales in those sectors were about the same as this past Friday, said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at SpendingPulse, which estimates sales for all forms of payment, including cash, checks and credit cards. “It’s a somewhat optimistic start, even though the numbers are relatively flat,” Mr. McNamara said. Additionally, the International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry group, said recent reports about Friday shopping might underestimate November’s overall performance because some holiday sales this year happened earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, as more stores offered online deals or opened that day. So far, the electronics sector has been a standout, with sales on Friday up 8 percent year-over-year. The results were helped by releases of video games in November, Mr. McNamara said. For the month of November, sales of electronics climbed 6.6 percent, well above last year, when sales declined 12.9 percent. But in a familiar theme, the improved results were still not as high as the peak in 2007, when sales rose 15.8 percent. “Electronics and online shopping were the big winners during the launch of the post-Thanksgiving holiday season,” Michael P. Niemira, the director of research and chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said in a statement on Tuesday. Indeed, customer traffic at many major consumer electronics retailers was heavy over Thanksgiving weekend, the Consumer Electronics Association said in a news release this week. Sales of appliances were also strong, up 3.5 percent in November, as consumers shopped to replace old or broken household items. There was even discretionary spending in less practical sectors, like jewelry. Sales were up 4.6 percent compared with last year, the third consecutive month of growth for that category. “Jewelry had nowhere to go but up,” Mr. McNamara said, adding that sales in November 2008 plummeted 18.4 percent. In November 2007, sales declined 5.9 percent. The peak for the sector was in 2006, when sales rose 19.5 percent, to $2.6 billion, in contrast to this year’s $2.1 billion. Historically, jewelry sales spike at the end of the year. “Jewelry tends to be a very late season surge,” Mr. McNamara said, adding that the last 10 days of the season are big sales days. Exactly how many consumers hit the stores on Thanksgiving weekend was not clear. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, said on Sunday that 195 million consumers visited stores and Web sites from Thursday to Sunday, up from 172 million last year. A different report, from ShopperTrak, a research and consulting firm, looked at customer traffic on Friday and Saturday and said it declined slightly from last year. Sales this holiday season, typically defined as the combined months of November and December, are expected to be about the same as last Christmas, when retailers posted their worst sales figures in decades. The National Retail Federation estimates holiday sales will decline 1 percent, while the International Council of Shopping Centers estimates sales will increase 1 to 2 percent. | Black Friday (Shopping);Shopping and Retail;Sales |
ny0044433 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2014/02/04 | Devils Lose to Avalanche in Overtime | Ryan O’Reilly scored a power-play goal 28 seconds into overtime, and the Colorado Avalanche rallied for a 2-1 victory over the host Devils. The Avalanche tied the game with 1:47 left in regulation after they pulled goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere with 2:30 remaining. It was the third straight game in which the Devils have given up a late goal to force overtime. The Devils have lost their last two. Ryan Carter scored in the first period for the Devils. ■ James Neal scored at 3:05 of overtime, helping the host Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators, 2-1. Ottawa’s Stephane Da Costa and Pittsburgh’s Brian Gibbons scored in the first period. (AP) | Ice hockey;Colorado Avalanche;Devils;Ryan O'Reilly |
ny0008451 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2013/05/23 | Mike Krzyzewski Will Remain as U.S. Olympics Coach | Mike Krzyzewski will remain the head coach of the USA Basketball men’s national team through the Summer Olympics in 2016. Since he took over in 2005, Krzyzewski helped to lead the program’s resurgence, collecting Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and a world basketball title in 2010. At the London Games last summer, most signs pointed to Krzyzewski leaving the job, which he performed in addition to his regular work as head coach at powerhouse Duke. His decision was first reported by Sports Illustrated on Wednesday and confirmed by a person with knowledge of Krzyzewski’s plans. That person was not authorized to speak publicly because USA Basketball had scheduled a media teleconference for Thursday morning. In an e-mail message, USA Basketball did not name Krzyzewski but said the coach it would name Thursday would conduct a 2013 mini-camp and work the 2014 F.I.B.A. World Cup and the next Olympics. Krzyzewski, 66, is the winningest coach in college basketball, his victory count now at 957. His record in international competition is 62-1. After the Summer Olympics in 2008, Jerry Colangelo, managing director of USA Basketball, met with Krzyzewski in Chicago and convinced him to return over deep dish pizza and red wine. No word on if similar methods were employed this time around. | Mike Krzyzewski;USA Basketball;Coaches;2016 Summer Olympics;Basketball |
ny0087937 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
] | 2015/07/14 | Player Ratings: U.S. (1) vs. Panama (1) | In its final group-stage game at the Concacaf Gold Cup, the United States national team came out flat and was forced to rally for a draw against a motivated Panama squad. In all three games at the tournament, Coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad has been outplayed early, and with the knockout stage set to begin this weekend, there is little margin for error. Before Monday’s game in Kansas City, Kan., the United States team knew it had won Group A, whereas Panama needed victory to clinch a berth in the quarterfinals. From the opening whistle, Panama dominated the game, and its goal from Blas Pérez in the 34 th minute was deserved. In the second half, the U.S. team began to raise its level, and it found the equalizer in the 55 th minute from Michael Bradley. Despite advancing with 7 points, Klinsmann’s team surely will be disappointed with Monday’s game and with the group stage over all. The United States did not put in a dominant performance in any of the three games. The team has not looked prepared in the early going of any game, and another poor start now could lead to elimination. Panama, on the other hand, finished the group stage with three draws and a third-place finish. It will now have to wait to see if it is one of the two best third-place finishers, which qualify for the quarterfinals. The challenge for Klinsmann will be finding out what has been wrong and to what extent he should change his team for the next game. Gold Cup rules allow teams to make as many as six roster changes for the quarterfinals; players added must come from the 35-man roster submitted before the tournament. Player ratings, from 1 (abysmal) to 10 (world-class): STARTING LINEUP Brad Guzan: The Aston Villa goalkeeper was called into action several times throughout the game. He made a nice save in the 22 nd minute on Valentin Pimentel and then a save on Miguel Camargo in 73 rd . There was nothing he could have done on Blas Pérez’s goal. Rating: 6.0 Fabian Johnson: As the team’s only Champions League-bound player, Johnson was by far the Americans’ most consistent player on the backline, as Panama had little success attacking down his side of the field. In the second half, he made effective runs forward as the U.S. began to press for the winner. Rating: 6.5 John Brooks: It was a bad first half for Brooks. His low point came as he was out of position to guard Luis Tejada’s low cross on Pérez’s goal. He also picked up a needless yellow card, which will have him suspended for the quarterfinals. Brooks improved significantly in the second half, though, as he won impressive aerial duals and made important challenges to stop dangerous opportunities from Panama. Rating: 5.5 Ventura Alvarado: The Club America defender struggled mightily in the opening half. He was primarily at fault for Panama’s goal, as he was easily turned by Tejada. In the second half, he was largely invisible as Panama tired. His best moments came when he put himself in good position to cover for an out-of-position Timothy Chandler. Rating: 4.0 Timothy Chandler: It was a night to forget for the Eintracht Frankfurt right back. He routinely turned the ball over in bad areas in the first half, and he had little success getting forward. He was out of position multiple times. Jurgen Klinsmann will probably be left wondering whom to start at right back in the knockout stage. Rating: 3.5 Kyle Beckerman: The Real Salt Lake midfielder had difficulties dealing with Panama’s pace in the first half. In the second half, his chemistry with Michael Bradley became more apparent. He did well to sit back in a more withdrawn role to free up space for Bradley. Defensively, he helped break up Panama’s chances, making a nice tackle on Camargo in the 65 th minute. Rating: 5.0 Alfredo Morales: In his first appearance in an official game for the U.S. team, Morales made no positive contributions on offense or defense. Panama’s players found their way through him easily. Rating: 4.0 Michael Bradley: Except for a potent shot in the 18 th minute, the team captain had a subpar first half. In the second half, he was far more involved, thriving as the U.S. team regained momentum. He scored the equalizer on one of his trademark runs in the box. It was not a complete performance from Bradley, but his best moments were impressive. Rating: 6.0 Alejandro Bedoya: It was a challenging night for Bedoya, who played in his first game since injuring a knee two months ago. He was slow at the start, but he found his way into the game in the second half. His left-footed assist to Bradley was perfect. He tired soon after and had to be removed, but his return to the team was positive. Rating: 6.5 Chris Wondolowski: He played only the first half but was arguably the team’s best player in that stretch. In the 18 th minute, he sprung Bedoya out wide for a chance. In the 41 st minute, he hit a terrific pass to Bedoya again, sending Bedoya in alone, where he appeared to have been fouled from behind. Rating: 6.0 Gyasi Zardes: The Galaxy attacker drew a start at forward but drifted back into the midfield several times. His first touch let him down and resulted in turnovers in the first half. His second half was slightly improved, as he was part of scoring chances. But it was a step back from his nice outing Friday against Haiti. Rating: 4.5 SUBSTITUTES DeAndre Yedlin: Coming on at halftime, Yedlin gave the U.S. team an edge in speed it desperately needed. His touch occasionally let him down, but his work rate was impressive. Even when he made mistakes, he was a handful to defend. Rating: 6.0 Clint Dempsey: After coming on at halftime, Dempsey was instrumental in the team’s turnaround. On the equalizing goal, he hit a remarkable pass to swing Bedoya into a dangerous position on the left side of the box. For the final 30 minutes, Dempsey was always involved when the U.S. team raised its game. Rating: 7.0 Aron Johannsson: The AZ Alkmaar forward came into the game in the 72 nd minute for a tiring Bedoya when the U.S. team was pressing hard for a winner. He was active, and his chemistry with Dempsey looked promising. Rating: 5.5 | Soccer;US Men's Soccer Team;Clint Dempsey;Michael Bradley;Jurgen Klinsmann |
ny0223500 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2010/11/07 | Tom DeLay Upbeat at Trial but Missing G.O.P. Spotlight | AUSTIN, Tex. — On the day after Republicans trounced Democrats in the midterm elections, Tom DeLay strolled around a courtroom here with an American flag lapel pin, looking carefree and chatting with strangers at his money-laundering trial with the habitual charm of a seasoned politician. “I’m doing great; it’s a great day,” said Mr. DeLay, the former House majority leader, gripping the hand of a spectator as if he wanted her vote. An hour later, during a break in testimony, Mr. DeLay faced a brace of cameras and crowed over the heavy Republican victory in Texas, where he almost single-handedly redrew the districts in 2003 to get more of his party members elected. Then he acknowledged, a bit wistfully, that the charges he faces in state court had, in effect, ended his career. He has no ambition to run for office again, he said. “I would have liked to have been there, to have been a leader in this election,” said Mr. DeLay, who used to be called The Hammer because of his no-holds-barred electioneering style. “I have been found guilty of nothing. Now I’m standing trial on a political vendetta brought by a rogue D.A.” This is a trial about American politics, about the way modern campaigns are financed, the way money fuels victories, the way the donations flow toward power. It is also a window on the bare-knuckle partisan politics of Texas, where a district attorney’s office controlled by Democrats has managed to derail the political career of the Republican politician most responsible for ousting several powerful Democrats from Congress. What remains unclear is whether Mr. DeLay actually committed a crime under state law. That will be up to a jury of six men and six women, unless the defense can persuade Judge Pat Priest to dismiss the charges after the prosecution rests its case. Mr. DeLay resigned in 2005, after two decades in Congress, the day he was indicted here in Travis County, a Democratic bastion. At the time, Mr. DeLay was also under investigation by the Justice Department for his ties to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but that inquiry ended this year without any charges against him. Many of the facts are not in dispute. In 2002, Mr. DeLay formed a state political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, with the goal of winning a majority in the Texas House and electing its first Republican speaker since Reconstruction. The committee quickly raised nearly $200,000 from corporate lobbyists, many of them in Washington. Corporate donations cannot be legally given to Texas candidates, so the Texas committee sent the money to the Republican National Committee , which in turn sent the money from a separate, noncorporate account to seven Republican candidates in Texas. Six of those candidates won. The Republicans took the Texas House, and the next year forced through a Congressional redistricting plan that led to the defeat of several senior Democrats. Mr. DeLay had orchestrated the redrawing of the lines. The fight had so incensed Democratic legislators that they left the state en masse in a failed effort to prevent a vote on the new map. Terry Nelson, who was the director of political operations for the Republican National Committee in 2002, testified Thursday that one of Mr. DeLay’s political associates, James Ellis, had asked him to do the money swap. He said the national committee often performed the same maneuver for state party committees, but not for political action committees. He said Mr. Ellis had told him the request came from Mr. DeLay himself. “Tom DeLay wanted us to do that,” Mr. Nelson testified, according to The Austin American-Statesman. It was the first time in a week of testimony that a witness directly linked Mr. DeLay to the transaction. But Mr. DeLay’s lawyers have argued that the transaction, while admittedly an end run around the state ban, did not break the state money-laundering law. The corporate money, they point out, remained in a separate account, and the noncorporate account had more than enough in contributions from individuals to cover the money sent to the Texas candidates. “It’s different money,” the lead defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has argued at several points. Prosecutors argue that this distinction makes no difference if they can prove that Mr. DeLay and his two political associates, Mr. Ellis and John Colyandro, conspired to circumvent the state ban on corporate money in elections. Mr. Ellis led Mr. DeLay’s federal political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, while Mr. Colyandro was the director of the state political action committee. Both face lesser charges and will be tried later. The state law defines money laundering as taking proceeds from a criminal activity and, through some financial transaction, putting them to a different purpose. The prosecutors argue that a conspiracy to use the corporate donations in state races amounts to an illegal activity, so the money can be considered ill-gotten. “They were acting with the intent to put corporate money into Texas legislative campaigns,” the lead prosecutor, Gary Cobb, said in an interview. “If you have an agreement to do that, it is a conspiracy.” Nonsense, say Mr. DeLay and his legal team. “They are stretching the law beyond all recognition,” said Matt Hennessy, one of Mr. DeLay’s lawyers. Outside the presence of the jury, Judge Priest has made it clear that he agrees that the existence of separate accounts means little if the people involved in the transaction had a criminal intent. “Money is absolutely fungible,” he said. “It’s like beans.” The testimony has offered a rare glimpse into the world of campaign finance. Lobbyists testified that they were asked to give to Mr. DeLay’s committees according to a tiered plan — gold, silver and platinum memberships — and that the more money they gave, the more access to him they received. Lori Ziebart, a lobbyist for El Paso Energy, described going on junkets to golf resorts in Puerto Rico and Virginia to meet with Mr. DeLay, a privilege for which the company made $50,000 donations each to his federal and state committees. Mr. DeLay’s daughter, Danielle DeLay Garcia, spent the better part of Tuesday on the stand, exchanging looks with her father as she answered questions from the prosecutors in a cheerful voice. She explained her interlocking and overlapping jobs in 2002 as her father’s campaign manager and as an event planner for both his state and federal political action committees. But she maintained that he had little to do with the day-to-day running of the state committee. “He was too busy,” she said. “It wasn’t his thing. It wasn’t his PAC.” In 2002, Mrs. Garcia earned $84,500 from the committees for planning events and about $60,000 for running her father’s campaign, which she said was a relatively small salary for a campaign manager. “I know I was underpaid,” she said on the stand, smiling and looking directly at her father. Mr. DeLay began to giggle. “He’s laughing,” said Mrs. Garcia, who is now a sixth-grade science teacher. The testimony also shed light on the trouble that Mr. DeLay’s state political action committee had in raising money from individuals in Texas as the 2002 campaign season wore on. Warren Robold, a Washington-based fund-raiser who solicited most of the corporate donations to the state political action committee, testified that he received several urgent e-mails from Mr. Colyandro, its director, in August and September. “Any news?” Mr. Colyandro wrote on Sept. 16 in an e-mail introduced into evidence. “I need dollars desperately. Sorry to sound so needy.” Around the same time, on Sept. 13, Mr. Colyandro signed the check for $190,000 that was sent to the Republican National Committee, according to the indictment. None of this testimony has dampened Mr. DeLay’s outward optimism. During breaks in testimony, he has described the charges as trumped up and politically motivated. He juts out his jaw and says he will prevail. “I have withstood 15 years of the Democrats’ frivolous attacks,” he said. | Delay Tom;Elections;Campaign Finance;Republican National Committee;United States Politics and Government |
ny0152401 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2008/08/24 | Obama Chooses Biden as Running Mate | WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware to be his running mate, turning to a leading authority on foreign policy and a longtime Washington hand to fill out the Democratic ticket, Mr. Obama announced in text and e-mail messages early Saturday. Mr. Obama’s selection ended a two-month search that was conducted almost entirely in secret. It reflected a critical strategic choice by Mr. Obama: To go with a running mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his résumé, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce Mr. Obama’s message of change. Mr. Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is familiar with foreign leaders and diplomats around the world. Although he initially voted to authorize the war in Iraq — Mr. Obama opposed it from the start — Mr. Biden became a persistent critic of President George W. Bush’s policies in Iraq. The brief text message from the Obama campaign came about 3 a.m., less than three hours after word of the decision had begun leaking out. “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com . Spread the word!” His e-mail announcement began: “Friend — I have some important news that I want to make official. I’ve chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.” The selection was disclosed as Mr. Obama moves into a critical part of his campaign, preparing for the party’s four-day convention in Denver starting on Monday. Mr. Obama’s aides viewed the introduction of his vice presidential choice — including an afternoon rally Saturday at the old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the same place where Mr. Obama announced his candidacy on a freezing winter morning almost two years ago — and a tour of swing states as the beginning of a week-long stretch in which Mr. Obama hopes to dominate the stage and position himself for the fall campaign. Word of Mr. Obama’s decision leaked out hours before his campaign had been scheduled to inform supporters via text and e-mail message, and hours after informing two other top contenders for the vice presidential nomination — Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia — that they had not been chosen. As the selection process moved to an end, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, whom Mr. Obama had defeated in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, had slipped out of contention — to the degree that Mr. Obama had never seriously considered her. Mr. Biden is Roman Catholic, giving him appeal to that important voting bloc, though he favors abortion rights. He was born in a working-class family in Scranton, Pa., a swing state where he remains well-known. Mr. Biden is up for re-election to the Senate this year and he would presumably run simultaneously for both seats. Mr. Biden is known for being both talkative and prone to making the kind of statements that get him in trouble. In 2007, when he was competing for Mr. Obama for the presidential nomination, he declared that Mr. Obama was “not yet ready” for the presidency. The McCain campaign jumped on that early Saturday, as it responded to the selection, offering a glimpse into the line of criticism that awaits the Democratic ticket. “There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden. Biden has denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be President,” said Ben Porritt, a spokesman for Mr. McCain. Although Mr. Biden is not exactly a household name, he is probably the best known of all the Democrats who were in contention for the spot, given his political and personal history (not to mention his regular appearances on the Sunday morning television news shows). He first ran for the Senate from Delaware when he was just 29. Mr. Biden has run twice for the presidency himself, in 1988 and again in 2008, dropping out early in both cases. He was also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during two of the most contentious Supreme Court nomination battles of the past 50 years: the confirmation proceedings for Robert H. Bork, who was defeated, and Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed after an explosive hearing in which Anita Hill had accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment. Mr. Biden led the opposition to both nominations, although he came under criticism from some feminists for not immediately disclosing what were at first Ms. Hill’s closed-door accusations against Mr. Thomas. Mr. Obama’s choice of Mr. Biden suggested some of the weaknesses the Obama campaign is trying to address at a time when national polls suggest that his race with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is tightening. Chief among Mr. Biden’s strengths is his familiarity with foreign policy and national security issues, highlighted just this past weekend with the invitation he received from the embattled president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, to visit Georgia in the midst of its tense faceoff with Russia. From the moment he dropped out of the presidential race, he had been mentioned as a potential Secretary of State should either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton win the election. He is also something of a fixture in Washington, and would bring to the campaign — and the White House — a familiarity with the way the city and Congress works that Mr. Obama cannot match after his relatively short stint in Washington. At 65, Mr. Biden adds a few years and gray hair to a ticket that otherwise might seem a bit young (Mr. Obama is 47). He is, as Mr. Obama’s advisers were quick to argue, someone who appears by every measure prepared to take over as president, setting a standard that appears intended to at least somewhat hamstring Mr. McCain should he be tempted to go for a more adventurous choice for No. 2. He has a long history of making statements that get him in trouble. He was forced to apologize to Mr. Obama almost the moment he entered the race for president after he was quoted as describing Mr. Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” a remark that drew criticism for being racially insensitive. While campaigning in New Hampshire, Mr. Biden said that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” Mr. Biden quit the presidential race this year after barely making a mark; he came in fifth in Iowa. He was forced to quit the 1988 presidential race in the face of accusations that he had plagiarized part of a speech from Neil Kinnock, the British Labor Party leader. Shortly afterward, he was found to have suffered two aneurysms. He is also, at least arguably, a Washington insider, having worked there for so long, though he still commutes home to Wilmington every night by train. The choice by Mr. Obama in some ways mirrors the choice by Mr. Bush of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000; at his age, it appears unlikely that Mr. Biden would be in a position to run for president should Mr. Obama win and serve two terms. Shorn of any remaining ambition to run for president on his own, he could find himself in a less complex political relationship with Mr. Obama than most vice presidents have with their presidents. Mr. Biden was born in Scranton, grew up in the suburbs of Wilmington, Del., and went to Syracuse Law School. As a young man, he was in the center of a gripping family drama: barely a month after he was elected to the Senate, his wife and their three children were in a car accident with a drunken driver resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. His two sons survived, and Mr. Biden remarried five years later. | Obama Barack;Biden Joseph R Jr;Presidential Election of 2008;Democratic Party;United States Politics and Government;Elections;Presidents and Presidency (US);Vice Presidents and Vice Presidency (US) |
ny0187933 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/04/09 | Woman Jumps to Her Death in Queens Center Mall | A woman jumped to her death in the Queens Center Mall atrium about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, landing on and injuring a high school student four levels below, officials said. The crowds in the shopping center in Elmhurst screamed and ran, and police officers had to arrive soon to help calm the crowd. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the woman was in her early to mid-50s and in the company of two teenagers when she jumped. He declined to release her identity immediately. A waist-high glass barrier runs around each floor of the atrium. It appeared that the woman jumped from near a T-Mobile cellphone kiosk on the third floor in the center of the atrium, and landed among some teenagers using electric massage chairs on the lower level, which is below ground level. Police officers and emergency service workers cordoned off sections of the mall and shut down some escalators leading to the lower level. The police also worked to keep onlookers back from the barriers on the floors above, where they had swarmed to get a glimpse of the confusion below. The lower level was packed with high school students, many of them on spring break. The injured student, Derrick Muñoz, 17, a student at Amityville High School in Suffolk County, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center. He was expected to survive. His father, Ruben Muñoz, happened to be in the area and arrived at the mall just before his son was taken to the hospital, he said in an interview outside the emergency room entrance at the hospital. “We’re waiting to hear from them now, what his status is. They need to do tests on his head,” Mr. Muñoz said. Derrick’s stepbrother, Jonathan Santana, 23, said in an interview at the hospital that Derrick was knocked out by the impact but regained consciousness in the ambulance. Doctors told him that Derrick was conscious in the hospital and had a large gash on his head, he said. Derrick was struck while reclining in one of four leather massage chairs; his girlfriend was in the chair beside him, the stepbrother said. The electric massage chairs cost a dollar to operate. A sign on each one says, “Sit back and relax.” After the crowd confusion subsided, custodians at the mall wrapped the four chairs in black plastic to take them out. One was damaged. A witness, Shanell Williams, 26, said she was serving customers at the NYS Collection, a sunglasses kiosk on the second floor, when she said she heard a loud thump. “First I thought it was a gunshot, and I said, ‘I’m out of here,’ ” Ms. Williams said. “People started screaming. There was pandemonium and chaos. And I looked below to the lower level and people were screaming that someone had jumped from above.” | Queens Center Mall;Queens (NYC) |
ny0121251 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2012/07/14 | Chinese Exports to U.S. Surge as the Domestic Economy Cools | WASHINGTON — A weakening Chinese economy, underlined by a further slowdown disclosed on Friday in Beijing, is starting to pose a headache for United States officials and the two presidential campaigns, as Chinese companies shift toward a greater reliance on selling to the American market. A real estate bust in China and sweeping layoffs in the country’s construction sector, together with slower growth in retail sales and declining exports to Europe, have left one area that is thriving: exports to the United States. But the result is a swelling American trade deficit with China in an election year. The bilateral deficit widened 10.2 percent in the first five months of this year compared with the gap in the period a year earlier, and preliminary data suggest that it widened further in June. The deficit could swell even more as November approaches. The weakness of the Chinese economy is holding down its demand for American exports, even as Chinese exporters show a laserlike focus on selling to the American market. The Obama administration has stayed silent about the Chinese export surge to the United States because it does not appear to stem from an explicit policy drafted in Beijing. The American market has become more appealing for many companies in China because of slowing demand in their home market and from Europe, as opposed to government subsidies or other policies. But a call by China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, on Tuesday for increased investment spending has stirred some concern in Washington. American officials had been pressing China to expand consumption instead of building ever more factories that could someday produce even more exports. “I think it’s worrisome because if China is going to do its tried and tested way of responding to an economic slowdown by increasing investment, it just sets the stage in the future for increased trade frictions,” said an American trade official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities. Exporters like the Shenzhen Ezoneda Technology Company, a manufacturer of electrical extension cords and computer cables in southeastern China, are finding an attractive market in the United States and are becoming better able to supply it. After struggling as recently as late winter to recruit enough workers, exporters are now able to run assembly lines flat out as companies supplying the domestic Chinese market lay off workers or slow their hiring. “It is easier to find workers now than in February, it is easier to find workers this year compared to last year,” said Nick Tan, the sales manager at Shenzhen Ezoneda. At the same time, slumping demand for steel and other commodities by construction companies and other businesses supplying the Chinese domestic economy has made it cheaper for exporters like Shenzhen Ezoneda to buy materials. China announced on Friday that its economy grew at an annual rate of 7.6 percent in the second quarter, down from 9.5 percent in the period a year earlier. It was the sixth consecutive quarter of falling growth and the weakest officially acknowledged growth rate since the first quarter of 2009, at the bottom of the global financial crisis. But the Chinese government also said on Friday that nationwide electricity production actually dropped 0.9 percent in June from a year earlier. That could be a sign of a much deeper slowdown. Lombard Street Research in London estimated China’s annualized growth rate during the second quarter at a little less than 4 percent. The Obama administration portrays its China policies as a success over the last three and a half years, pointing to a 7.2 percent appreciation in the renminbi against the dollar since President Obama took office. This has made Chinese exports costlier in the United States and American goods more affordable in China. Add in faster inflation in China than in the United States over most of this period and the renminbi’s real appreciation was 10.2 percent through May. But the renminbi has slipped 1 percent against the dollar from its peak on May 2. The difference in inflation rates has also reversed in recent months, with producer prices in China down 2.1 percent in June from a year ago, even as they rose 0.1 percent in the United States. The administration has stayed silent during the renminbi’s modest retreat, not least because there is little evidence that the Chinese government has played much role in it. The renminbi has fallen less against the dollar than most emerging-market currencies in recent weeks. Chinese companies have been slower in recent months to convert the dollar receipts from their exports back into renminbi, reducing demand for the Chinese currency. The renminbi has seemed less likely to appreciate and many companies are seeking ways to diversify their operations and investments overseas. China’s central bank has actually been restraining what would otherwise be a faster fall in the renminbi. It has done so by frequently pegging the start of each day’s trading at a stronger level against the dollar than the close of the previous day’s trading. Chinese economic weakness, coupled with rising exports, poses challenges for presidential campaigns. Mitt Romney , the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has portrayed China as an economic powerhouse that bends trade rules and has called for labeling China as a currency manipulator and challenging it on trade policies from his first day in office. Asked about the latest signs of economic weakness in China, Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, responded in a statement on Friday that, “Regardless of China’s economic performance, Governor Romney will insist from Day 1 that they put an end to their intellectual property theft, market restrictions and currency manipulation.” The Obama administration faces constant pressure from labor unions to take a more confrontational stance toward China on trade. But the unions, generally supportive of his re-election bid, have stayed largely quiet in recent weeks. | Economic Conditions and Trends;Renminbi (Currency);International Trade and World Market;China;United States;US Dollar (Currency);Presidential Election of 2012;Romney Mitt |
ny0008631 | [
"sports"
] | 2013/05/12 | Partly Blind Pole-Vaulter Misses a Medal | Charlotte Brown, a partly blind 15-year-old pole-vaulter, cleared three heights at the Texas state championships in Austin but did not win a medal. Her best vault of Saturday’s final was 10 feet 6 inches, and she missed at 11-0. | Track and field;Pole vault;Blindness;Charlotte Brown;Texas |
ny0203300 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/08/09 | Connecticut: ‘Reviewing Every Route’ | Connecticut’s 166 districts provided daily transportation to 470,000 public school students in 2008, or about 82 percent of the school-age population, according to the State Education Department. State law allows districts to set their own rules for assigning busing, but recommends that elementary students walk no more than a mile to a bus stop or school; middle school students no more than 1.5 miles, and high school students no more than two miles — or less in areas with heavy traffic and no sidewalks. William D. Moore, executive director of the Connecticut School Transportation Association, said he had heard of a handful of districts that were trimming their bus fleets or reorganizing bus routes this fall to save money. But he said that lower diesel prices this year had helped districts to maintain service without swelling expenses, and that daily bus ridership across the state had remained “fairly constant.” Stamford, which transports two-thirds of its 16,000 students, expects to save $280,000 this year by eliminating four buses from regular service. But the district did not change its mileage standard, which is based on the state’s recommended walking distances — instead, it will lengthen some routes, consolidate stops and pick up children earlier in the day. “We’re reviewing every route,” said Steve Schneider, the district’s transportation director. WINNIE HU | Education and Schools;Connecticut;Buses |
ny0110435 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2012/05/12 | Poland: Unionists Protest New Retirement Age | Hundreds of Polish trade union members protesting against plans to raise the retirement age chained together barriers meant to keep them out of Parliament on Friday, locking lawmakers in for more than an hour. “We will decide when they will leave,” a Solidarity trade union leader, Piotr Duda, said. “At least for once we will decide something instead of them.” The union members took their action after lawmakers voted to raise the retirement age to 67 for most Poles, part of the government’s efforts to cut state debt, maintain growth and maintain investor confidence. Until now, women were allowed to retire at age 60 and men at 65. | Poland;Solidarity;Organized Labor;Demonstrations Protests and Riots |
ny0198948 | [
"technology"
] | 2009/07/09 | Cyberattacks Jam Government and Commercial Web Sites in U.S. and South Korea | SEOUL , South Korea — A wave of cyberattacks aimed at 27 American and South Korean government agencies and commercial Web sites temporarily jammed more than a third of them over the past five days, and several sites in South Korea came under renewed attack on Thursday. The latest bout of attacks, which affected service on one government and six commercial Web sites in South Korea, was relatively minor, and all but two of the sites were fully functional within a few hours, an official from the state-run Korea Communications Commission said. “An aggressive distribution of vaccine programs against the attack has helped fight back,” the official, Shin Hwa-soo, said. “But we are not keeping our guard down. We are distributing the vaccine programs as widely as possible and monitoring the situations closely because there might be a new attack.” Officials and computer experts in the United States said Wednesday that the attacks, which began over the July 4 weekend, were unsophisticated and on a relatively small scale, and that their origins had not been determined. They said 50,000 to 65,000 computers had been commandeered by hackers and ordered to flood specific Web sites with access requests, causing them to slow or stall. Such robotic networks, or botnets, can involve more than a million computers. The Web sites of the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department were all affected at some point over the weekend and into this week, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing American officials. A White House spokesman, Nick Shapiro, said in a statement on Wednesday that “all federal Web sites were back up and running” by Tuesday night and that the White House site had also been attacked. He said, “The preventative measures in place to deal with frequent attempts to disrupt whitehouse.gov ’s service performed as planned, keeping the site stable and available to the general public, although visitors from regions in Asia may have been affected.” The Web site of the New York Stock Exchange also came under attack, as well as the sites of Nasdaq, Yahoo ’s finance section and The Washington Post . Researchers who are following the attacks said that they began July 4 and focused on the small group of United States government Web sites, but that the list later expanded to include commercial sites in the United States and then commercial and government sites in South Korea. Files stored on computers that are part of the attacking system show that 27 Web sites are now targets. In South Korea, at least 11 major sites have slowed or crashed since Tuesday, including those of the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, the mass-circulation newspaper Chosun Ilbo and the top Internet portal Naver.com, according to the government’s Korea Information Security Agency. On Wednesday, some of the South Korean sites regained service, but others remained unstable or inaccessible. “This is not a simple attack by an individual hacker, but appears to be thoroughly planned and executed by a specific organization or on a state level,” the South Korean spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with the American authorities to investigate the attacks. The spy agency said the attacks appeared to have been carried out by a hostile group or government, and the news agency Yonhap reported that the agency had implicated North Korea or pro-North Korean groups. A spokesman at the intelligence agency said it could not confirm the Yonhap report about North Korea’s possible role. The opposition Democratic Party accused the spy agency of spreading rumors to whip up support for an antiterrorism bill that would give it more power. Although most of the North Korean military’s hardware is decrepit, the South Korean authorities have recently expressed concern over possible cyberattacks from the North. In May, South Korean media reported that North Korea was running a cyberwarfare unit that operated through the Chinese Internet network and tried to hack into American and South Korean military networks. United States computer security researchers who have examined the attacking software and watched network traffic played down the sophistication and extent of the attacks. “I would call this a garden-variety attack,” said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks, a network security firm that is based in Chelmsford, Mass. He said that the attackers were generating about 23 megabits of data a second, not enough to cause major disruptions of the Internet at most of the sites that were being attacked. “The code is really pretty elementary in many respects,” he added. “I’m doubting that the author is a computer science graduate student.” As for possible origins, there were only hints. One researcher, Joe Stewart, of Secureworks’ Counter Threat Unit in Atlanta , said the attacking software contained the text string “get/China/DNS,” with DNS referring to China ’s Internet routing system. He said that it appeared that the data generated by the attacking program was based on a Korean-language browser. Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said that the agency was aware of the attacks and that it had issued a notice to federal departments and agencies, as well as to other partner organizations, advising them of steps to take to help mitigate attacks. | Computer security;South Korea;Computers and the Internet |
ny0026583 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2013/01/02 | Sam Khalifa: Briefly a Rising Star, Forever a Mourning Son | TUCSON — It was called the Masjid of Tucson, a mosque where Muslims could worship and study the Koran in the Arizona desert under the idiosyncratic tutelage of Rashad Khalifa, its founder. On Jan. 31, 1990, the mosque, at the intersection of Sixth and North Euclid, near the University of Arizona campus, became the scene of a murder investigation. Khalifa was found near the kitchen that morning, stabbed to death. It appeared to investigators that whoever had killed him had also tried to set fire to the body in an effort to destroy evidence. A Ph.D.-educated Egyptian-American, Khalifa had founded his masjid as part of a midlife revelation that he was a messenger of God. In practice and study, Khalifa’s teachings about the Koran were infused with science, modernity and, more than anything, numerology. The number 19, he taught, was “the miracle’s common denominator,” a code that unlocked the Koran, like a secure password. Much of Islam teaches that the Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger of God, but Khalifa added himself to the list, getting his message out through books, videos and a newsletter called Muslim Perspective. His scholarship was curious to some and blasphemy to others. He began to receive threats against his life. Once he had been killed, conspiracy theories quickly circulated about who might have been responsible. Tucson investigators eventually came to focus on a local person of interest whose trail they soon lost. It was not until 2006, when grant money from the Justice Department helped jump-start the city’s backlog of cold-case homicide investigations, that new DNA tests of bloodstains from the crime scene led to the arrest of a man named Glen Francis, who was then living in Canada. As opening arguments in Francis’s murder trial began on Dec. 11 in Pima County Superior Court here, Sam Khalifa, the son of the victim, sat in the mostly empty gallery. He is 49 now and drives a cab here. But at one time, he was the starting shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates . Despite his middle-age paunch and the fatigue he wears on his face, Khalifa still resembles the handsome, dark-featured 22-year-old on his 1986 baseball card. In the mid-1980s, Khalifa was the rare Muslim baseball player and, according to Major League Baseball, the very first son of an Egyptian to play in the big leagues. His boyhood narrative included a year spent playing on a makeshift sand field in Tripoli, Libya. The Arab world back story lent some flavor to his steady development from the minors to the major leagues. The Pirates drafted him in the first round in 1982 out of Tucson’s Sahuaro High School. By 1985, with Pittsburgh going through a series of shortstops, Khalifa replaced the injured Johnnie LeMaster in the starting lineup. In the end, Khalifa played parts of three seasons in Pittsburgh, but by the 1989 season, he found himself being moved around the infield at the Pirates’ Class AAA affiliate in Buffalo, plagued by the sense that the organization had given up hope that he would ever be its everyday shortstop. One night during a trip, Khalifa missed a team bus and simply flew home. Five months later, his father was killed, upending his life further and dashing whatever thoughts he had of spring training with another team. “I know Cal Ripken lost his father one year and he later joined his team, which is respectable, but it wasn’t for me,” Khalifa said during one of several recent conversations. “I think it would have been hard for me to focus on the game.” It was also hard for Khalifa to focus on his father’s murder, yet he could not help it. Over the next two decades, as the murder investigation went cold, Khalifa got a college degree, drove a cab, tried some sales jobs, tried to get over his anger. Then he went back to driving a cab. The night before the trial, Khalifa stood beside his taxi. He did not much seem to relish revisiting his playing days, good or bad, or whatever feelings are still attached to them. He tended to describe his abilities by playing them down. Nor did he welcome any newfound attention on those years now that the trial was finally happening. Image Sam Khalifa was born in California. His family lived in several spots in the Middle East, where he played baseball, before settling in Tucson. Credit Samantha Sais for The New York Times At one point, he said his big-league career should have lasted 5 or 10 years. It was one of the rare times the dreams of his athletic past broke through. A Childhood on the Move One day last month, Khalifa parked his taxi in the courthouse garage and arrived just as jury selection had taken a pause for lunch. In the hall, he spoke briefly with his mother and younger sister, who had been there from the start of proceedings that morning. Khalifa was wearing tan pants, a loosefitting short-sleeve black shirt and a windbreaker. He can, if prompted, still conjure his baseball promise. “You were asking me if I was fast,” Khalifa said at lunch that day. “I was quick, and my range was sufficient to make all the plays.” He admired the agility and enthusiasm with which Ozzie Smith, a Hall of Fame shortstop, played the position. “I watched him make plays against us that were just like you watch on the highlight reel,” Khalifa said. “I made a couple of those, you know — in the minors, and maybe even a handful in the big leagues.” And then, to state the obvious, he added, “But Ozzie did it quite frequently.” Khalifa laughed a little. One year in the minors, he broke his arm twice, just above his wrist, but he said he otherwise had no nagging injuries. His knees are good. After a pastrami sandwich and French fries, he looked at a dessert menu that featured more than 20 flavors of ice cream and chose salted caramel. Khalifa was born in Fontana, Calif., while his father was working on a Ph.D. in plant sciences at the University of California, Riverside. During his youth, the Khalifas twice relocated to the Middle East as his father took on a series of jobs as a specialist in agricultural or horticultural science. When he was little, Sam said, the family moved to Alexandria, Egypt, when his father had a position doing research for the Ministry of Agriculture, the first of many stops in a childhood of relocations and intermittent athletic progress. Sam was 12 when the hopscotching family moved for a year to Tripoli. There, Sam’s father worked as an agricultural consultant to the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Sam recalled a few details about life in Libya in the 1970s. He remembered attending a local mosque with his father, attending the Oil Companies School, and playing baseball on a sand field with the children of Americans employed by oil companies. “They’d spray it with water, and then roll it with a steamroller,” he said of how the sand was fabricated into an infield. “Like a Zamboni type of thing.” Khalifa’s American mother grew up in Tucson, and that was where the family ultimately settled when Sam was entering high school. At Sahuaro High School, football was his fall sport; in the spring, he played baseball for a local coaching legend, Hal Eustice. On the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame Web site , the local organization lists Khalifa’s high school accomplishments: named all-city quarterback by The Arizona Daily Star in 1982, the same year he played shortstop on a state-title-winning baseball team; selected No. 7 over all in the major league draft, the highest ever for an Arizona scholastic player; signed a letter of intent to play baseball at Arizona State but turned professional instead. The Pirates gave him a $100,000 signing bonus, Khalifa said. Death Threats Rashad Khalifa, 54 when he was killed, had first come to the United States and earned a master of science degree in horticulture at the University of Arizona in 1962, and later a Ph.D. in plant sciences at U.C. Riverside. Three decades on, with his son working his way to the big leagues, Rashad Khalifa, according to Sam, was working for the State of Arizona in Mesa. A car accident during his commute one day contributed to his father’s decision to devote himself full time to his masjid, to Islamic teaching and study. Years before, while Rashad Khalifa was working for Monsanto in St. Louis, his faith had brought into his life a prominent pro football player named Bobby Moore, then one of the few African-Americans on the N.F.L.’s St. Louis Cardinals. The player changed his name to Ahmad Rashad. Image Sam Khalifa played parts of three seasons in Pittsburgh. Credit Rick Stewart/Getty Images Sam said his father was always a big supporter of his baseball career, especially when he hit the big time with the Pirates. “It’s been a great thing, thank God, to watch him grow and see this,” Rashad Khalifa said in a 1986 article published in a magazine called Saudi Aramco World, named for the Arabian American Oil Company. The Aramco World article noted that Pirates broadcasters had called Sam the Cairo Kid, even if neither he nor his father actually hailed from there. Rashad Khalifa, growing ever more serious about his faith and his scholarship, even cut Sam slack about his fealty to Islam. Not that he ever lost his own ordering of what mattered most. “He wanted it to be the most important thing for me, more important than baseball,” Khalifa said of his faith. “He was all about making sure that in your mind and in your soul you knew what your priorities were, and that was to make sure that God was the most important thing in your life.” When Khalifa began publishing books, one of his first, published under the name Islamic Productions, was called “The Computer Speaks: God’s Message to the World.” The computer, Khalifa believed, was a latter-day “creature made of earthly materials” through which the Koran was broken down mathematically, and God’s true message, the miracle of 19, was revealed. In the appendix of his translation “Quran: The Final Testament,” Khalifa described how in the 1970s, he wrote the Koran into the computer and discovered what he saw as the purified word of God revealed through a mathematical system, correcting the distortions of prior English translations. “I used a time-share terminal, connected by telephone to a giant computer,” he wrote. He had removed two verses from the Koran for not conforming to the pattern. In a 1988 video sermon, Rashad Khalifa seems not so much a firebrand as a balding professor lecturing with authority and occasional humor on his new job as messenger of God, a calling that he said he had “chickened out” of announcing previously. Even though his father is often referred to in articles as an imam or cleric, Sam Khalifa is not comfortable with those terms and all that they can imply these days. “Rashad didn’t interpret the Koran” but just stated facts that were uncomfortable to much of the Muslim world, he said, including that worship of the Prophet Muhammad alongside God is a form of idolatry. The threats against Rashad Khalifa’s life came soon enough. His sister later said that his worry grew so great that he feared he was under surveillance while he was bent in prayer. In 1989, the Tucson police told Rashad Khalifa that an F.B.I. raid of a storage unit in Colorado had revealed evidence of a possible plot against him by an American-based Islamic sect called Al Fuqra. The group was said to be founded by Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, the cleric whom, years later, The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl was seeking to interview in Pakistan when Pearl was kidnapped and killed. Sam Khalifa, struggling to keep his major league dreams alive, knew of the controversy and fear back home. “My father, he was responsible for his own actions, and I am, too,” Sam Khalifa said. “I was playing baseball, he was doing what he was doing. Naturally, I was concerned for him, but I wasn’t going to be able to stop what he wanted to do.” Image Rashad Khalifa, Sam's father, was murdered in 1990. Credit Arizona Daily Star Playing With the Pirates “Pirates Promote Worldly Shortstop,” read the headline in The Chicago Tribune when the 21-year-old Khalifa was called up in June 1985 from Class AAA Hawaii of the Pacific Coast League. The article noted that Khalifa got six hits in his first 11 at-bats in the big leagues, even though he was considered more of a fielder than a hitter. “He’s got quickness, and in the game of baseball, he’s very intelligent,” Chuck Tanner, then the manager of the Pirates, said of Khalifa at the time. “He’s come by leaps and bounds because of his desire and his ability to learn. He’s going to be a good, solid major league shortstop.” Khalifa’s rookie year was his best with the Pirates. He hit .238, including 14 doubles, over 95 games. But he also encountered something relatively unfamiliar to him: slumps. And the Pirates were having a miserable season, mired in the cellar of the National League East. The organization was well beyond the feel-good “We Are Family” 1979 World Series team of Willie Stargell and Omar Moreno and not yet the divisional dynasty with the dream outfield of Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Andy Van Slyke. Pittsburgh lost 104 games in Khalifa’s rookie year. The team was up for sale, and current and former players were being called to testify before a grand jury looking into a cocaine ring in the clubhouse. Khalifa “played adequately but the team was struggling big-time, so it was hard for any rookie to show everything he could do,” said Steve Demeter, a first-base coach for the Pirates in 1985. After the season, Tanner was fired, and Jim Leyland was given his first big-league managerial job. Leyland, now the manager of the American League champion Detroit Tigers, recalled that he had Khalifa platooning at shortstop in 1986 with Rafael Belliard. “Sammy was the more overall talented guy; they thought he was going to hit,” Leyland said in a recent interview. Like others who readily recall Khalifa, Leyland called him “a good kid” before suggesting his problems were more mental than physical. “I wasn’t really sure that he was into it as much as you need to be to maybe max out your ability,” Leyland said. Bonds joined the team (Khalifa recalls he was skinnier back then). So, too, did Bonilla, who had been Khalifa’s roommate when the two played in Class A ball. But Khalifa was on his way out of baseball. That season with the Pirates, Khalifa hit another slump, and his batting average withered to .185. He was sent back to the minors — to Honolulu, to Vancouver, to Harrisburg and to his last stop, Buffalo. The Bisons had a promising shortstop, Jay Bell, who eventually nailed down the job in Pittsburgh. Bell, the current hitting instructor for the Pirates, recalled that Khalifa was hard on himself. “That was one of the things that I remember about Sammy, was the fact that there was no separation of the game at the park or away from the park,” Bell said. “It was more about constantly grinding over what had happened during the game, good or bad, instead of just walking away from it and separating.” The last straw for Khalifa came one night during a road trip. He remembered that he called the team trainer to say he would be on the team bus in five minutes. The Bisons, then managed by Terry Collins, now the manager of the Mets, left him behind anyway, he said. Khalifa flew home to Tucson instead of catching up with the team, and the Pirates suspended him. In an item in The Sporting News at the time, Khalifa told a reporter: “I had a lot of different feelings. I was frustrated, so I decided to come home.” Chuck LaMar, the minor league director for the Pirates, summed up Khalifa as “basically confused.” “He’s so confused about what he wants to do that I think he’ll be out all year,” LaMar said at the time. Image Glen Francis, right, during his trial in the murder of Rashad Khalifa. Francis was represented by Sean Bruner, left, a public defender. Credit Benjie Sanders/Arizona Daily Star Back home, his father encouraged him not to give up, Khalifa said, and it seemed he would not. Joe L. Brown, the former general manager of the Pirates who guided the team to World Series championships in the 1960s and 1970s, tried to arrange a spring training tryout with the San Diego Padres, Khalifa said. But then his father was murdered in the middle of a January night — a time when Rashad Khalifa liked to work in peace and quiet — and Sam never made it to a Padres tryout. The Murder Trial Some 23 years after Rashad Khalifa’s death, the Pima County Attorney’s Office had a murder case to prosecute. Three years after the case was reopened, the authorities arrested Glen Francis in Calgary, Alberta. Francis fought extradition for two years, but ultimately went on trial here last month. Not much is known about Francis. Sean Bruner, of the Pima County Public Defender’s Office, cast his client as somebody who moved around to pick up the odd job, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who came to Tucson in 1990 to work illegally. Bruner suggested Francis was an unlikely suspect for a murder that might have been driven by religious zealotry. Francis appeared to have lived in the area under an alias, according to the judge’s pretrial factual findings in the case. And he was at least once picked up by federal authorities, who took care to take a DNA sample. Ultimately, with the local cold case squad revived, that DNA sample was matched to blood evidence taken from the murder scene in 1990. The question of whether people had been out to kill Khalifa for religious reasons had taken interesting turns over the intervening years. Two men arrested as a result of the F.B.I.’s 1989 raid of the reputed Al Fuqra storage unit in Colorado were ultimately convicted of conspiring to kill Khalifa. It was even believed by law enforcement that one of the people involved in tracking Khalifa was Wadih el-Hage, who is serving life in prison for his role in the 1998 bombings of United States embassies in Africa. But prosecutors, all these years later, have made little effort trying to determine or prove Francis’s possible motive, beyond some long-ago statements Francis might have made about Khalifa’s teachings and murder. Whether he was acting on the orders of others has not been raised. The case they put on last month was almost strictly driven by the DNA evidence. “They had all these big names and big-time people wanting to kill this guy, and there’s no motive for this guy, there’s no history for this guy, there’s no nothing,” Bruner said of Francis. During opening arguments, Sam Khalifa sat with his sister while their mother watched from a chair at the back of the room. He and his family had waited a long time for justice. In the end, the trial moved quickly, and the verdict was returned briskly. Glen Francis was found guilty of Rashad Khalifa’s murder. Back to Work Sam Khalifa bought his parents’ old house years ago and now rents it out. He has recently done some football and baseball coaching at his alma mater, Sahuaro High School. It’s about all the exercise he gets, he said with an implied shrug. In public, he has a habit of looking behind him. Sometimes, it’s just a glance; other times, he turns his body. Asked about it, Khalifa smiled shyly and speculated that it had something to do with years spent in a cab. He leases the cab and can make his own hours, and he generally drives between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., he said. He’s fluent in Tucson’s many Mexican restaurants. He admitted to watching this year’s World Series between the Tigers and the Giants. “Exciting,” he said. But his major league life seemed pretty well buried. After court one day during the trial, Khalifa fished from the trunk of his cab one of his father’s writings, “Quran, The Final Testament.” It was getting to be evening. Khalifa was going back to work. The masjid, now a piece of rental property at a busy intersection, still has the words “Happiness Is Submission to God” painted on the side, visible as you drive past on North Euclid Avenue. The property is now in a family trust. In the course of his work, Sam Khalifa — once a Muslim baseball curiosity, ever so briefly a shining prospect, long the mourning son of a murdered father — drives by it all the time. | Rashad Khalifa;Islam;Murders;Sam Khalifa;Baseball;Pittsburgh Pirates;Tuscon AZ;Glen Francis |
ny0117528 | [
"business"
] | 2012/10/09 | Wal-Mart and American Express Join In Prepaid Card Deal | Wal-Mart Stores is taking another leap into the banking world, announcing on Monday a prepaid card and debit account with American Express that will give low-income consumers access to features like smartphone deposits. It is a surprising alliance between the discounter Wal-Mart and American Express, which until recently has been focused on high-end consumers. The move is intended to strengthen both companies’ position in the prepaid card market — which, unlike credit and debit cards, is largely unregulated and has far fewer consumer protections. The account, called Bluebird, will be available next week. The companies are positioning it as an option for people turned off by bank fees. “The only fees consumers will ever pay are clear, transparent and within their control,” such as out-of-network A.T.M. fees, the companies said in a release. Wal-Mart and American Express declined to give details of the financial relationship between the two companies, but indicated both would profit from the card. The fees disclosed by the companies were generally lower than those Wal-Mart now charges for its prepaid MoneyCard. Bluebird means prepaid card holders can have access to features that are usually associated with credit cards, like American Express’s customer service, roadside assistance and mobile banking. But consumer advocates say shoppers should be careful in the largely unregulated world of prepaid cards. The nation’s consumer financial watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is preparing restrictions on prepaid debit cards. The agency says it has concerns about high fees and inadequate disclosures. Advocacy groups have questioned whether prepaid card issuers clearly explain to cardholders the fees that come with products, including charges to activate the card, load money on it, check a balance at cash machines and speak to customer service. Consumer advocates have said that the cards, which are typically marketed to lower-income customers, have so many fees that they erode money loaded onto the card. Prepaid cards work much like debit cards, except that they are not tied to a traditional, regulated bank account. The cards are part of a larger strategy by lenders to tap into the so-called unbanked or underbanked population — customers who use few, if any, bank services. Such people are considered a $45 billion market, according to the Center for Financial Services Innovation, which provides advisory services. For the Bluebird account, customers can sign up free online or via mobile phone, or pay $5 in a Walmart store. They receive a card stamped with the American Express logo, which they can use anywhere American Express is accepted. They can set up direct deposit for paychecks and deposit other checks by taking a mobile phone picture of them. And they can withdraw cash. The companies do not perform a credit check before creating an account. American Express and Wal-Mart said there would be no minimum balances to maintain, no monthly or annual fees and no overdraft fees (the account does not allow overdrafts, as it does not issue paper checks). It will cost $2 per out-of-network A.T.M. withdrawal, and $2 per withdrawal without direct deposit, but the companies did not disclose other fees as of now . Wal-Mart’s MoneyCard prepaid card costs $3 to buy, $3 a month and $3 to reload. “We know that the model is financially sustainable for both partners,” said Daniel Eckert, vice president of financial services for Wal-Mart U.S. David Robertson, publisher of The Nilson Report, an industry publication for payment systems, said companies in deals like this typically shared the amount charged to merchants when a card was used. He said he expected that Wal-Mart had negotiated a lower merchant-fee rate for card use at a Walmart than competitors would receive. Mr. Robertson said Wal-Mart had most likely realized that its MoneyCard, run by the company Green Dot, was not appealing to all customers. “This market is growing, and it’s moving beyond just that chunk of people that we consider to be underbanked,” he said. “It includes people who might be wanting to buy a prepaid card for other reasons, like budgeting purposes.” Green Dot’s stock declined 20.2 percent on Monday, though Mr. Eckert said that Wal-Mart would continue to offer its MoneyCard. Wal-Mart’s financial services plans were once more ambitious: to get a federal bank charter, meaning it could make loans and get deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But there was opposition from the banking industry and politicians who were worried about small banks. Five years ago, Wal-Mart ceased trying to get a charter, and instead started building services that did not require a charter. Lenders have been clamoring to grab a bigger piece of the booming prepaid card market. In 2009, consumers held roughly $29 billion on prepaid cards, according to the Mercator Advisory Group, a payments industry research group. By the end of 2013, that is expected to swell to $90 billion. A number of the nation’s largest lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Regions Financial and Wells Fargo, are aggressively rolling out prepaid card offerings. One incentive for banks to dive in is that prepaid cards are not restricted by the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law. Thanks to the exemption from Dodd-Frank, banks can charge merchants high fees when a consumer swipes a prepaid card. A recent study by Pew, a nonprofit research group, also indicated that some customers were unaware their prepaid cards were not necessarily protected by the F.D.I.C. Dan Schulman, group president of enterprise growth for American Express, said in a call with reporters that Bluebird was not F.D.I.C.-backed, but that under money-transmittal regulations, American Express was required to hold assets to back up 100 percent of the money in accounts. Prepaid cards have increasingly come under fire from regulators. Last month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency brought an action against Urban Trust Bank in Orlando, Fla., which has branches in Walmart stores. The regulator said it discovered “unsafe and unsound banking practices” related to the community bank’s prepaid card offerings. | Credit Cards;Wal-Mart Stores Inc;Shopping and Retail;Banking and Financial Institutions;Debit Cards;American Express Company |
ny0275704 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/02/07 | In the Republican Debate, Here’s What to Look For | Here’s how we analyzed the Republican debate, and our live fact checks . ____ _ The Republican presidential candidates face off Saturday night at 8, just days before the New Hampshire primary, which could further narrow the field. We asked New York Times political reporters what they would be looking for in the debate (and here’s how to watch ). _______ Having lost the Iowa caucuses after months of predicting a win there, Donald J. Trump could be the story of the night. Will he look and sound tense, cautious, maybe even a little scared as he faces the possibility of back-to-back defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire that would really make him a loser? Or, win or lose, will he keep swinging like the same old outrageous Trump his supporters love? — Patrick Healy _______ How will Marco Rubio hold up as he bears the brunt of his rivals’ attacks? First Mr. Trump was the primary focus of his rivals. Then it was Ted Cruz. Now it seems inevitable that Mr. Rubio will serve as the preferred debate punching bag. His ability to weather the onslaught will offer insights about his strengths as a candidate and whether he has the mettle to survive once the field narrows. — Jonathan Martin _______ Mr. Bush’s top surrogates, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, have said he needs a stronger showing in New Hampshire than his fellow Floridian, Mr. Rubio, or “Jeb is toast,” in Mr. Graham’s words . I’ll be looking for Mr. Bush to go on the offensive against Mr. Rubio instead of his usual target, Mr. Trump, early and often. — Nick Corasaniti _______ Mr. Trump needs a strong performance after skipping the last debate and then coming up short in the Iowa caucuses. I’ll be watching not only how aggressively he goes after Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz, but also what line of attack he chooses. One of his new advisers criticized Mr. Rubio on immigration in recent days, which could be a useful path back. But Mr. Trump needs to be mindful of not coming off as too hot. — Maggie Haberman _______ For days, Mr. Cruz has taunted Mr. Trump as a “fragile soul,” afraid of the debate stage he avoided last week. Now that Mr. Trump is set to return, Mr. Cruz might have his sights set elsewhere anyway. While the Texas senator is likely to tweak Mr. Trump plenty, his more pressing concern may be the rise of Mr. Rubio after a strong Iowa finish. Expect the heaviest fire from Mr. Cruz to be directed his way. — Matt Flegenheimer _______ How is this debate different from all the other debates? The Rubio-Trump dynamic. Until now, Mr. Trump has typically taken aim at Mr. Bush, Mr. Cruz or Rand Paul, who left the race this week. We’ve never seen a real encounter between him and Mr. Rubio. But with Mr. Rubio rising in state polls after a strong showing in Iowa, will Mr. Trump come out strongly after the Florida senator, who is now his closest rival? Technically, there should be little incentive for Mr. Trump to target Mr. Rubio, since they are not chasing many of the same voters. But that never stopped Mr. Trump before. — Nicholas Confessore _______ Mr. Bush recently said Mr. Trump is like “a little teddy bear” on the debate stage. I’m curious to see just how genial the exchanges between two men will be (my guess is not very) — and how Mr. Bush will perform now that the blustery billionaire is back onstage after skipping the last debate. — Ashley Parker _______ I’ll be watching to see if Ben Carson goes after Mr. Cruz for spreading rumors the night of the Iowa caucuses that Mr. Carson would be suspending his campaign. He has been uncharacteristically aggressive on the issue, and it will be interesting to see if he demands an apology in person. — Alan Rappeport _______ How big and messy will the inevitable pile-on of Mr. Rubio be, and how will he respond? He has struggled in some debates when things didn’t go his way — like the time he had to defend his support of immigration legislation after Fox moderators showed a montage of his shifting positions over the years. And there were times he got the best of his antagonists — flipping the script on Mr. Bush as he tried to hit him for missing votes in the Senate. Which Marco Rubio shows up tonight could determine a lot about his upward-moving campaign. — Jeremy W. Peters _______ At a campaign event on Monday, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey suggested that New Hampshire voters would sharply narrow the field next week. In the spirit of the Super Bowl, this debate should feature the intensity of a sudden death overtime. — Steve Eder _______ Despite ample evidence suggesting otherwise, Mr. Christie insisted this week that he and Mr. Rubio were the top two contenders in New Hampshire. I’ll be watching to see how Mr. Christie uses his last big opportunity to make an impression before Tuesday’s primary, since he seems to have faded here recently, and his campaign hinges on his performance in the state. And after he derided Mr. Rubio as “the boy in the bubble,” I’ll be watching to see if he unleashes any other creative insults. — Thomas Kaplan | 2016 Presidential Election;Political Debates;Republicans;New Hampshire |
ny0225773 | [
"us"
] | 2010/10/10 | Decking Out, in Miniature, for the Holidays | Everything is a bit more magical in miniature. This includes the holidays. Lindsay Mican Morgan, the nimble-fingered curator charged with embellishing the Art Institute’s Thorne Miniature Rooms for the Christmas season, agreed. “There is something so childlike about it all,” she said. The rooms, known for enchanting both children and adults with their detail, are one of the Art Institute ’s most popular exhibits, attracting thousands of visitors a year. They influenced Wes Anderson’s film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and are rumored to have inspired Orson Welles’s lighting of “Citizen Kane” after he saw them at the Century of Progress International Exposition in 1933. Yet to many they go unnoticed, tucked away on the basement level of the museum, next to the restrooms and the children’s exhibit. After months of researching and fabricating the details, Ms. Morgan has crafted holiday trimmings for 7 of the 68 rooms, which are models of European and American interiors dating to as early as the 13th century. It is the first time the rooms have been altered from their original design, and this will begin an annual tradition of dressing them up for the holidays. Among the decorations are wreaths and garlands, a Christmas tree, an Otto Natzler mid-20th-century menorah and a replica of a wassailing bowl from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Ms. Morgan said she hoped to add decorations to two more rooms each year, but not to all 68. “It would be an installation nightmare,” she said of the trimmings, which go up Nov. 1 and come down soon after New Year’s Day. “I call up places and I’m like, ‘O.K., how small you got?’ ” Ms. Morgan said of her job to track down materials that would match the one-inch to one-foot ratio the rooms employ. Her answer to vendors often is: “Nope, not small enough. Do you have anything smaller?” “The key to making miniatures is to use as little and as fresh glue as you can manage; otherwise, it becomes a big glue ball,” Ms. Morgan said as she adhered a one-eighth-inch gold bauble onto a Victorian Christmas tree ornament before filling it with tiny sweets, spun-sugar candies and walnuts made by a miniaturist in Italy. Andrea Everman, a local puppet maker commissioned to help Ms. Morgan with the project, said, “Everything looks like crumbs in a Ziploc bag until you pull them out.” Mary Grady O’Brien, a folk artist living in Highland Park who has been fashioning miniatures for more than 35 years, made a walnut-size porcelain doll for under the Christmas tree in the English Drawing Room of the Victorian Period. “I’ll do anything,” Ms. O’Brien said when Ms. Morgan asked her to contribute to the Thorne collection. Ms. Morgan, who often wears an embroidered ivory satin jacket that resembles upholstery fabric in the French Salon, began her research in April. She learned that Christmas had been outlawed during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, so no decorations will adorn the English Bedchamber, only a placard explaining the law. Mount Vernon, the estate of President George Washington, provided her with Martha Washington’s Christmas recipe for “the craziest turducken ever,” Ms. Morgan said. The elaborate Christmas pie contained five different birds stuffed into one another, plus a hare and a wild fowl, which were then covered in a crust and baked for four hours. The recipe will be displayed next to the Virginia Parlor. In the spirit of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, the rooms’ creator and patron who employed prominent architects and window dressers to construct more than 100 rooms over 11 years, perfection is a must. Each holiday item, dozens in all — some created by Ms. Morgan and others from as far away as South Africa, Italy and Germany — is done with historic accuracy and in painstaking detail. “I can’t just switcheroo history,” Ms. Morgan said. The Christmas tree in the Victorian drawing room, made by Ms. Morgan and Ms. Everman, took about 50 hours to create. They experimented with different grades of paper for the ornaments, dehydrated plant materials for the greenery and a laser-cutting machine for the minute details of making a realistic tree. They finally settled on foil-lined origami paper for its crispness and flocking powder for its softness; they passed on the laser-cutter in favor of old-fashioned hand cutting. They used real gold beads, tinsel from France, trimmings from Germany and gold wire from India as fine as hair. The details are not lost on viewers, Ms. Morgan said. “The one I probably hear the most about is the New Mexico Room ,” she said, which has saguaro cactuses painted into the scenery. The plant is native to Arizona, not New Mexico, which many viewers notice. “I can’t change something that was made in the 1930s,” she said. “We’re not going to paint over the saguaro cactuses at the museum, sorry.” But Ms. Morgan said she might try decorating that room next year. “I think it could be fun with a little Mexican-influenced Christmas,” she said. “Even with the saguaro cactuses.” | Art Institute of Chicago;Christmas;Chicago (Ill) |
ny0075102 | [
"business",
"mutfund"
] | 2015/04/12 | Three Ways to Beat a Benchmark | The bull market rumbled past its sixth birthday in March. Despite that marathon climb, fund managers are still finding underappreciated stocks. The stewards of three of the top-performing funds of the first quarter grabbed gains in the health care sector and Japan. Thomas R. Vandeventer, portfolio manager of the Tocqueville Opportunity fund , calls health care “the engine behind the portfolio for the last couple of years.” Investments in the sector accounted for about a third of his fund’s assets at the end of 2014 — more than double the share of its average peer, according to Morningstar. Why make that big bet? Mr. Vandeventer said he believed that genetic science was continuing to increase the ability of companies to create drugs that can zero in on particular cancers. He called that development “one of the great revolutions we’ll see in our lifetimes.” Mr. Vandeventer started to manage the fund in 2010, and one of the first health care stocks he bought was Pharmacyclics , the maker of a drug for a cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia. “When we looked at the drug, it checked a lot of boxes for us,” he said. “It’s taken orally and once a day, and it has better side effects” than competing treatments. In March, Pharmacyclics received a takeover offer from AbbVie at $261 a share. Mr. Vandeventer said he had begun buying when the stock was trading at about $25. “That was a home run for the fund,” he said. Mr. Vandeventer is unusual among active managers in that his fund holds a high number of stocks — 238, compared with 148 for the average actively managed fund tracked by Morningstar. He does that for diversification: Holding more stocks means more protection from losses for his shareholders, he said. And while he may seem to be trudging along with an overstuffed pack, his holdings pale next to the number of companies in his benchmark index, the Russell 2500 Growth Index . Following so many stocks can be challenging. He has developed a quantitative screen he runs regularly against the thousands of mid- and small-capitalization stocks that he might buy. If the screen highly ranks a company that the fund does not own, Mr. Vandeventer starts digging to see what he might have missed. The fund, which has an expense ratio of 1.3 percent, returned 11.3 percent in the first quarter, compared with 0.95 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. It returned an annualized average of 18 percent over the five years ending March 31. HEALTH CARE bets have lately helped the BlackRock Mid-Cap Growth Equity fund , too. Like Mr. Vandeventer, its managers have overweighted the sector. Health care accounted for nearly a fifth of the fund’s assets at the end of February, and its top holding was a health care stock, United Therapeutics . Based on its price/earnings ratio, United Therapeutics looks cheap considering the growth rate of its earnings, said Lawrence G. Kemp, one of the fund’s co-managers. United Therapeutics, known for its treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, was recently trading at a P/E of 28.2, compared with an industry average of 47.4, according to Morningstar. Mr. Kemp and his co-managers have made an even bigger bet on consumer discretionary companies, which represented nearly 40 percent of assets at the end of February. Among their favorites is Netflix. The company leads its industry in technology and content spending, creating a high barrier for competitors, said a fund co-manager, Philip H. Ruvinsky. Netflix has built a dominant market position in the United States, and Mr. Ruvinsky said he expected the same abroad. Image Thomas Vandeventer, portfolio manager of the Tocqueville Opportunity fund, called health care “the engine behind the portfolio for the last couple of years,” with investments in the sector accounting for about a third of assets. Credit Jake Naughton for The New York Times Another entertainment holding is the Madison Square Garden Company, which owns sports teams, including the New York Knicks and Liberty basketball teams; cable channels; and other venues besides its arena. Mr. Ruvinsky said the market mistakenly valued the company based on current earnings, failing to account fully for the value of its “trophy assets.” The Knicks, for example, are most likely worth billions, given that the Los Angeles Clippers sold last year for $2 billion, he said. In March, the company, which has a market capitalization of $6.4 billion, announced plans to separate its media and its sports and entertainment businesses into two companies. “When the separation becomes effective, we believe MSG TV networks will trade on its earnings potential, and the sports and entertainment businesses will trade on the value of the assets,” Mr. Ruvinsky said. The BlackRock managers separate their holdings into three baskets: superior, durable and periodic growers. Netflix goes in the superior basket, and Madison Square Garden into the durable one, Mr. Ruvinsky said. The fund returned 11.4 percent in the first quarter, and its A shares carry a net expense ratio of 1.39 percent. It returned an annualized average of 14.9 percent over the last five years. AS in health care, big changes are happening in corporate Japan. But the impetus there is not new technology, said Archibald Ciganer, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Japan fund . It is a new approach to corporate governance paired with an improving economy, he said. “For the past couple of decades, Japanese companies haven’t been run in an aggressive manner,” Mr. Ciganer said. “Either they weren’t run for shareholders or deflation was pressuring them so much that they couldn’t be aggressive.” Image Philip Ruvinsky, left, and Lawrence Kemp are managers of the BlackRock Mid-Cap Growth Equity fund. The fund has made big bets on two entertainment companies, Netflix and the Madison Square Garden Company. Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times Mr. Ciganer said two developments changed the way Japanese companies operate: growth in the share of Japanese stocks owned by foreigners and a government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, committed to vanquishing deflation and reinvigorating the economy. “This could be a once-in-a-generation turning point,” he said. Foreign investors like T. Rowe Price demand more transparency and responsiveness than Japanese companies typically provided, Mr. Ciganer said. When outsiders represented a smaller share of the market, those demands could be ignored. Now Japanese companies are hewing more to United States and European norms of governance, he said. Consider Japan Tobacco, one of the fund’s top 10 holdings. “It was one of the first companies to be in this new wave of Western-style corporate governance,” he said. “They stepped up the dividend payout, and they started buying back stock.” Even holdouts have begun to change, like Fanuc, a maker of industrial robots. “Before, they wouldn’t even meet investors — they wouldn’t have results meetings or calls,” Mr. Ciganer said. Lately, the company has said it will establish an investor relations department and start returning more cash to shareholders, he said. Mr. Ciganer took over the fund at the end of 2013. He had worked as analyst on it for the previous seven years, and he does not predict major changes in its investment style under his management. “We have a responsibility to our clients to not do anything revolutionary,” he said. He has been selling off holdings to shrink the number of stocks; the fund held 75 at the end of last year. He said he believed that a more concentrated portfolio contributes to active management, adding that when managers do not concentrate, their funds can end up looking too much like their benchmark indexes. “If you’re going to be a closet indexer,” he said, “people might as well buy an E.T.F.” The fund, with an expense ratio of 1.05 percent, returned 13 percent in the first quarter. It returned an annualized average of 7.9 percent over the last five years. | Mutual fund;Tocqueville Asset Management;T Rowe Price Group;BlackRock;Japan;Health Insurance;Stocks,Bonds;Pharmacyclics;United Therapeutics |
ny0068750 | [
"business"
] | 2014/12/09 | Madoff Aide Gets 10 Years in Prison for Role in Fraud | Bernard L. Madoff’s former director of operations for investments, Daniel Bonventre, 67, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $155 billion for his part in the company’s long-running multibillion-dollar fraud. (The sum is symbolic.) Four of his co-defendants — Mr. Madoff’s former secretary, Annette Bongiorno, 66; the computer programmers Jerome O’Hara, 51, and George Perez, 48; and the account manager JoAnn Crupi, 53 — are expected to learn their fate in coming days. Prosecutors said Mr. Bonventre and Ms. Bongiorno were the most culpable because of their “40-year involvement at the very heart of the fraud.” They sought a 20-year sentence for Mr. Bonventre. His “hubris and lack of remorse is simply staggering,” prosecutors wrote. After his sentence was pronounced, Mr. Bonventre said, “I was used by the ultimate con man.” | Daniel Bonventre;Bernard L Madoff;Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes;Fraud;Criminal Sentence |
ny0220300 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2010/02/20 | Differences in Priorities Drive U.S. Rift With China | BEIJING — When President Obama met with the Dalai Lama in the White House on Thursday, he was following a tradition that all recent American presidents had dutifully honored. Yet, to some Chinese Mr. Obama’s support of the Dalai Lama represents something more troubling and disrespectful. The meeting, while low-profile, and the routine announcement last month of American arms sales to Taiwan , were taken as the latest signs that despite China ’s rapid ascent, the American government still refused to compromise on issues that China considered sacrosanct: matters of sovereignty and territorial integrity. On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called in Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the American ambassador here, to lecture him on the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, whom China considers a separatist. “At this time, China and the U.S. cannot find any agreement on strategic issues,” said Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University. Few American officials would disagree. The rift in United States-China relations has arisen in part because the two countries have completely different items at the top of their foreign policy agendas and are talking past each other, American officials say. They say that China emphasizes sovereignty issues while refusing to give any weight to the Obama administration’s two top priorities in the relationship: containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and rebalancing currencies and trade. The Americans have also highlighted issues of Internet censorship and security. “There’s not a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram,” an American official involved in China policy said on the condition of anonymity, following diplomatic protocol. “What’s really the most worrisome is the degree to which we have that disconnect.” Those tensions are likely to worsen in coming months as domestic pressures in each country push the governments to assert their agendas more boldly, and as China’s confidence in its economic system continues to grow. On the American side, a struggling economy is forcing the Obama administration to make currency valuation and market liberalization top priorities. With an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent and midterm elections coming up, American officials are aware that pushing China to raise the value of its currency, the renminbi , and allowing American companies greater access to some Chinese markets could be important political victories for Mr. Obama and his party. “We’ve got to look at the risk of a more populist American public and the U.S. Congress deciding that China is the reason our economy isn’t growing enough,” the American official said. Economists say the renminbi is undervalued by 25 to 40 percent, a wider gap than at any other time since 2005, when, under pressure from the Bush administration, China decided to allow the renminbi to float in a narrow band against the dollar and other currencies. The renminbi appreciated 21 percent, but has not moved at all since July 2008. This month, Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, rejected an unusually public call by Mr. Obama for China to revalue its currency, saying that “the value of the renminbi is getting to a reasonable and balanced level.” The problem for the Americans is that job creation is also a priority for the Chinese government, because the legitimacy of the Communist Party is based largely on economic growth. A year ago, when the global recession resulted in a severe slump in exports, Chinese officials said 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs. The export industry in China is only now starting to recover, and the low value of the renminbi is crucial for Chinese companies selling goods abroad. “With economic and trade issues, we’re in for a very difficult year,” said Kenneth G. Lieberthal , a scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked on China policy in the Clinton administration. “I see Chinese protectionism growing on the ground as well as on the U.S. side, with midterm elections coming up.” But some economists say China is likely to let the renminbi rise by about 5 percent to help stave off inflation, a growing concern among Chinese policy makers. Historically, high inflation has stirred unrest in China. Economists say the Obama administration and European allies can press China to revalue the renminbi by threatening to impose more tariffs on manufactured goods. Last fall, the American government imposed tariffs on Chinese tires and steel pipes. European officials have privately said that China’s increasingly unyielding stance on issues like human rights has made it politically easy for European governments to toughen up on tariffs. Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University, said he expected the Chinese government to raise the value of the renminbi by a few percent by the spring. But raising the value too quickly could lead to widespread bankruptcies among manufacturers here, he said. “China must recognize the pressures on the other countries, but the other countries need to recognize that China will not be able to adjust quickly,” he said. Iran’s nuclear program is the other top priority for the White House. China says it does not support economic sanctions against Tehran, despite widespread suspicions that Iran wants to create nuclear weapons. So the question for the Obama administration is how to ensure that China will not block a United Nations Security Council vote on sanctions. Iran is a major supplier of oil to China, and China balks at siding with Western nations against Muslim governments, partly because its officials are sensitive to ethnic unrest by Uighur Muslims in western China. “China just doesn’t see Iran as part of its core national interest, except for that fact that Iran collects a lot of natural resources for them,” the American official involved in China policy said. But Russia, which had previously opposed sanctions, has been showing signs of reaching the limits of its tolerance with Iran, and the White House hopes that China will give in if Russia supports sanctions. Despite China’s newfound confidence, the American official said, China still does not want to be seen as a lone spoiler on major global issues. “Eventually,” he said, “the Chinese will cave once they’ve gone as far as they can go without looking like they’re the ones blocking all this.” | China;United States;United States International Relations;Economic Conditions and Trends;Dalai Lama;Obama Barack;Huntsman Jon M Jr |
ny0033353 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2013/12/10 | Scores of Leaders Heading to South Africa for Service | JOHANNESBURG — From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, from Scandinavia to the Caribbean, heads of state from around the world are descending on South Africa to take part in an enormous farewell to Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, presenting the government with a security test, logistical challenge and protocol quiz all rolled into one. South African authorities scrambled on Monday to receive scores of visiting dignitaries — and tens of thousands of their own people — for the national memorial, which will take place in the World Cup soccer stadium where Mr. Mandela made his last public appearance, in 2010. “The world literally is coming to South Africa,” said Clayson Monyela, the head of public diplomacy in the South African government. “I don’t think it has ever happened before.” The government said the ceremony in the stadium would rank “among the biggest gatherings of world leaders in history.” It was expected to exceed the number of world leaders that attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, which had heads of state or government from more than 70 countries, described then as an unprecedented collection of power for a papal funeral. “Pope John Paul’s funeral brought together 70 heads of state & 14 leaders of other regions,” Mr. Monyela said on Twitter on Monday. “We’re already over 91 & counting.” As workers busied themselves constructing a stage at the stadium and putting up panels of bulletproof glass to protect the visiting dignitaries, President Obama boarded Air Force One on Monday with his wife, Michelle, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Mr. Obama will be among the foreign politicians speaking at the event. But he could find a somewhat chilly reception backstage, considering that President Raúl Castro of Cuba and President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, who has sharply rebuked the Obama administration over revelations that the National Security Agency had spied on her, are among the other speakers. According to the official program released Monday, the memorial will begin with a choir singing South Africa’s national anthem. Four of Mr. Mandela’s grandchildren will give tributes, and South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, will deliver the keynote address. As members of Parliament gathered in Cape Town and added to the tributes since Mr. Mandela’s death on Thursday, the South African government said that delegations from Benin, Canada, Chad, China, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya and Senegal were expected to land at Waterkloof Air Force Base near Pretoria on Monday. Others were arriving at O. R. Tambo International Airport outside Johannesburg, including the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and his predecessor, Kofi Annan. Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, were to travel to South Africa on Air Force One as Mr. Obama’s guests; former President Bill Clinton was to make his way to South Africa separately. Another former president, Jimmy Carter, will attend as a member of The Elders — a group of veteran global figures sponsored by Mr. Mandela, the group said Sunday. The elder President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, will not attend. After Tuesday’s memorial service, Mr. Mandela’s body will lie in state for three days in the Union Buildings in Pretoria — once the seat of white power — before his burial on Sunday in his childhood village, Qunu, in the Eastern Cape region. Britain’s royal family said Monday that Prince Charles would represent Queen Elizabeth II in Qunu, while Prime Minister David Cameron said he would attend Tuesday’s memorial. The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation published a list on Monday of more than 80 countries that are sending delegations to either the memorial or the funeral to bid “a final farewell to the late Former President Nelson Mandela.” The Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be represented by their presidents, as will Niger and Nigeria. Royalty will include Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Queen Rania of Jordan, the wife of King Abdullah, not to mention the crown princes of Denmark, Norway and Japan. Representatives of the African Union, the Arab League, the Commonwealth and the European Union will be there, as will some of Mr. Mandela’s fellow Nobel Peace laureates, like Mr. Obama, Mr. Carter and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia. President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya is coming, even though the services fall during the weeklong observation of the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, already underway in the capital, Nairobi. There will be some notable absences as well. The Dalai Lama, through a spokesman, said he would not attend. While the spokesman did not give a reason, the Dalai Lama has been unable to obtain visas to South Africa in the past, which critics say stems from the government’s unwillingness to anger China, an important economic partner. The soccer stadium is in Soweto, the onetime segregated township where protests and the killing of protesters in 1976 hastened the uproar against apartheid at a time when Mr. Mandela was in prison. He was released in 1990 and became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. | Nelson Mandela;Obituary;South Africa;Funerals |
ny0276935 | [
"business"
] | 2016/11/03 | Start-Ups for the End of Life | Death and dying can be costly, but they are rarely considered a business by consumers. Many would rather not ponder critical decisions about feeding tubes, funeral homes and other end-of-life issues until the need is thrust upon them. But as our population ages and the industry gets more attention, new firms — many of them technology companies — are setting out to compete on price and convenience. This $18 billion funeral industry has long been a technology holdout, said Dan Isard, president of the Foresight Companies , a financial management firm in Phoenix, which specializes in funeral and cemetery professions. Mr. Isard said funeral directors “would rather sit across from someone and talk to them, listen to them, than have them go online and try and figure it out for themselves.” That is also one reason the death care industry, as it is called in the industry, has been able to maintain its lack of pricing transparency. But with nearly 2.6 million people dying annually in the United States , entrepreneurs see an opportunity to innovate. A new crop of tech start-ups is hoping to capture a slice of that sector. Many are founded by millennials, who have grown up online and expect to shop for — and curate — everything there. As baby boomers become more comfortable shopping online, these start-ups are finding a highly engaged audience. And those in their 20s and 30s, hitting major life events like marriage, the birth of a child or the loss of a parent, also require planning services. The typical customer would be someone like Michelle LaBerge, a resident of Oshkosh, Wis., who recently turned 50 and helped her parents move into an assisted living community. Those events reminded her that she needed to get her own affairs in order. She was put off, however, by the hassle and expense of having to consult a lawyer. But when she ran across a Groupon offer in February from a start-up called Willing , which provides state-specific estate planning documents online that can be updated any time, she decided to try it. For $30, Ms. LaBerge created a will customized to suit her particular circumstances. “It was very easy,” she said. “I compared it to my parents’ will, done by an attorney, and it looked the same.” The founders of Willing, Eliam Medina and Rob Dyson, wanted to create a platform that allowed users to complete their own estate planning documents like a will, power of attorney and health care directive. “If you look at what TurboTax has done for tax planning, we wanted to do the same thing for estate planning,” said Mr. Medina, the company’s chief executive. An early version of the platform was introduced in Florida in January 2015. Consumers were invited to try the service free and about 500 wills were created, Mr. Medina said. That summer, Willing, based in Miami, went through the start-up incubator Y Combinator, where it expanded to all 50 states. The company has raised $7 million. Mr. Medina says 25,000 wills a month are created on the platform. Until the 2008 recession, the funeral industry had largely been unchanged, said David Nixon, president of Nixon Consulting , which works with funeral home owners. But since then, consumers have been actively looking for deals and other ways to simplify the funeral process. Enter the start-up Parting , founded about a year ago in Los Angeles, an online directory of funeral homes searchable by ZIP code, which allows users to compare prices and services, and view the homes’ locations. A team of people posing as shoppers seeks out pricing and services information from funeral homes that are unaware the information is for the site. An increasing number of funeral directors, however, are voluntarily working with Parting to put their information in the database, which now has more than 15,000 funeral homes. It is backed by an angel investor and is increasing about 27 percent a month in searches and visitors, said Tyler Yamasaki, a founder. Still, it has been an uphill battle getting these traditionally small, mom-and-pop companies to promote themselves, Mr. Yamasaki said. “It’s a big, slow industry and a lot of these funeral homes aren’t open to start-ups,” he said. Funeral homes can get a free basic listing on Parting or pay for a premium listing, which increases their visibility. If a home gets a customer through the listing, Parting collects 12 to 15 percent of the funeral bill as its fee. Another start-up in Los Angeles, Grace , is tackling all of the issues that can overwhelm family members coping with grief after the death of a loved one. There is little guidance about what to do when someone dies, said Alex Kruger, Grace’s co-founder and chief executive. “Like what are the 60 things I need to do in the next three months? At Grace we say, ‘Here are the 17 things you need to do this week’ and you can check them off as you do them. Here’s what you do the week before someone dies, when they die and then two weeks later.” Today, most of Grace’s customers call in and are helped by staff members who are also licensed funeral directors — including Mr. Kruger and his co-founders. “In some ways death is still handled by talking to other people,” he said. Grace connects families with vetted providers, including estate lawyers, financial planners, funeral homes and caterers. Customers receive a list of tasks to complete before and after a death, including the necessary paperwork, but the staff can also help with funeral planning, filling out forms and other tasks. Mr. Kruger said Grace has had some unusual requests, like shipping a body to Romania and closing a deceased individual’s Tinder account. The company, founded in June, has raised under $2 million in seed funding and transactions are growing about 20 percent a month. Grace’s services are offered only in Southern California, but Mr. Kruger said they would be in Northern California by the end of the year and in additional states next year. Possibly the most difficult situation consumers face is to decide how to be cared for at the end of their lives, and communicating that to family members. Cake , a start-up in Boston created at M.I.T.’s Hacking Medicine conference’s Grand Hack in 2015, helps users decide end-of-life preferences, like the extent of life support or what to do with their Facebook page. It then stores the choices in the cloud and shares them with those who are designated. The start-up has been self-financed until now but is now closing a seed round, said Suelin Chen, a founder and chief executive. The platform asks users a series of questions to help them determine their preferences. Their answers are used to populate their Cake profile, to which they can add notes and instructions to family members or friends. An environmentalist, for instance, could learn that others sharing his green values donated their bodies to science. Or the person could arrange for a biodegradable burial . “People get very inspired by what other people do. It’s a part of living,” Ms. Chen said. And now it’s part of dying, too. | Death;Funerals;Startup;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Small business;Wills and Estates;Entrepreneurship;Withdrawal of Life Support |
ny0232144 | [
"technology"
] | 2010/08/02 | Bing and Google in an Arms Race for Features | Edwin Perello discovered that Bing, the Microsoft search engine, could find addresses in his rural Indiana town when Google could not. Laura Michelson, an administrative assistant in San Francisco, was lured by Bing’s flight fare tracker. Paul Callan, a photography buff in Chicago, fell for Bing’s vivid background images. Like most Americans, they still use Google as their main search tool. But more often, they find themselves navigating to Microsoft’s year-old Bing for certain tasks, and sometimes they stay a while. “I was a Google user before, but the more I used Bing the more I liked it,” Mr. Callan said. “It’s more like muscle memory takes me to Google.” Bing still handles a small slice of Web searches in the United States, 12.7 percent in June, compared with Google’s 62.6 percent, as measured by comScore, the Web analytics firm. But Bing’s share has been growing, as has Yahoo’s, while Google’s has been shrinking. And while no one argues that Google’s dominance is in immediate jeopardy, Google is watching Microsoft closely, mimicking some of Bing’s innovations — like its travel search engine, its ability to tie more tools to social networking sites and its image search — or buying start-ups to help it do so in the future. Google has even taken on some of Bing’s distinctive look, like giving people the option of a Bing-like colorful background, and the placement of navigation tools on the left-hand side of the page. The result is a renaissance in search, resulting in more sophisticated tools for consumers who want richer answers to complex questions than the standard litany of blue links. The competition is a remarkable and surprising twist: Microsoft, knocked around for so long as a bumbling laggard, has given the innovative upstart Google a kick in the pants. As the search engines introduce feature after competing feature, some analysts say they have set off an arms race, with the companies poised to spend whatever it takes to win the second phase of Web search. “There is a cold war going on,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, senior Internet and software analyst at Caris & Company, who watches both companies. “Clearly, you can see how Bing’s competition is forcing Google to try and catch up in some places.” Google officials agree there is more competition, but say they are not simply reacting to the younger search engine. Google’s new features have not been in response to Bing, said Marissa Mayer, the company’s vice president for search products and user experience. “A lot of these things have been in the works for a long time,” she said. “Left-hand navigation we worked on for almost two years. We wanted to make sure we had it exactly right.” Microsoft’s gains are far from staggering. Its share of searches has grown to 12.7 percent, from 8 percent, since Bing was introduced in May 2009, and Yahoo, which has a search deal with Microsoft, still handles a larger share of searches than Bing. And in the newest search frontier, mobile devices, Google has even more market share than on the Web at large. Still, Bing’s gains have impressed analysts, who have watched Google fend off repeated assaults on its lucrative search and ad business, which accounts for some 95 percent of its revenue. Building a more comprehensive, faster and more accurate search engine than Google is a daunting challenge, and a long list of big companies and start-ups have failed in their attempts. Microsoft endured plenty of ribbing as it spent years building and then scrapping search systems meant to help it compete against Google. But it kept experimenting until it found a way. Microsoft has spent billions of dollars building the computing centers needed to power search and advertising systems and acquiring start-ups with niche expertise. In addition, it has thrown money at consumers, through cash-back programs on purchases, and at partners willing to promote Bing ahead of Google. Over the last year, Microsoft’s online services division lost $2.36 billion on revenue of $2.2 billion. With Bing, Microsoft has tried to attract people like Mr. Callan by excelling at answering frequently asked questions, like those related to travel, health, shopping, entertainment and local businesses. For example, Bing has flight search and prediction tools that reveal price fluctuations for certain routes, and advises customers whether to buy or wait. Bing Health uses data from sources like the Mayo Clinic and Healthwise. The hope is that “somebody would come back just for that and then, down the line, they would do other types of searches, too,” said Danny Sullivan, a longtime industry analyst and editor in chief of the blog Search Engine Land . People do not always want to click on links and dig through pages to hunt out information, so when Bing started in May 2009, it pulled relevant information and stuck it on the top and left-hand side of the results pages. Search “Angelina Jolie,” for instance, and see a slide show and a list of her movies on top and related links on the side. “We said, ‘Let’s change the entire way we lay out pages,’ ” said Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president for Microsoft’s online audiences business. “We will not be shackled by blue links.” Google, meanwhile, has quietly introduced its own new features that have in several instances looked a lot like Bing’s. For example, in May, it too added the left-hand navigation tools — though Ms. Mayer of Google pointed out that many of the tools had already been available, just not easily visible from the search page. “Certainly there’s been increased competition in the space,” Ms. Mayer said of Bing. “When there’s more competition, everyone’s search gets better, that serves the users a lot better.” Bing’s travel tool uses technology from Farecast, which Microsoft bought in early 2008. In July, Google announced plans to acquire ITA Software for $700 million; ITA makes the same comparison shopping software for flights that Bing’s Farecast uses. Then there is the look of the main search pages for each site. Microsoft has argued that the vivid images ever-present behind the Bing search box have helped its appeal; young people and women have shown a particular fondness for Bing. In June, Google offered people the option to have a colorful background image like the Golden Gate Bridge on its main search page rather than the stark, white page that helped make Google famous. Google has also played catch-up to Microsoft in offering ways to search for and digest more images in one go, and has trailed in adding some tie-ins to social networking sites. “Google’s new innovations have come at a slower pace,” Mr. Aggarwal said. “There was no one challenging Google until Microsoft decided it was a business they would not give up.” Still, Mr. Sullivan and other analysts also say Google has been making many significant but subtle behind-the-scenes changes that make it better at responding to obscure and complex queries. Google made 500 tweaks to its secret search algorithm last year and introduced personalized search, which customizes results based on what users frequently click on. Google executives often chide Microsoft that it overengineers software like Office and bombards people with needless features. But now Google has swapped its clean, simple approach to search in favor of a feature war with Microsoft. “Google seems to do things because Bing has done something,” Mr. Sullivan said. “It’s a kind of knee-jerk thing — we have to do this product now because we don’t want people to think we’re weak.” | Search Engines;Google Inc;Microsoft Corp;Bing;Computers and the Internet |
ny0138193 | [
"business",
"yourmoney"
] | 2008/05/24 | Heading Off New Account Fraud | One of the scariest types of identity crimes is something called new account fraud. This happens when a criminal steals your personal information, opens credit or other accounts in your name and goes on a spending spree. Here are a few things you can do on your own to prevent the crime. Fraud Alerts Fraud alerts are a signal to companies that they should double-check the identity of a credit applicant before opening an account. You are supposed to create an alert only if you’ve already been a victim or think that you may be, though companies like LifeLock argue that most Americans fall into the latter category. You can place a 90-day alert on your credit files with the three largest credit reporting agencies. When you call any one of them, that company is required to automatically inform the others. Equifax: 1-888-766-0008 Experian 1-888-397-3742 TransUnion 1-800-680-7289 Credit Freezes When you place a freeze on your credit files, no companies can look at them unless you have an existing business relationship with them. The practical effect is to shut down most new account fraud, since most companies want to see your file before issuing new credit in your name. Rules on freezes differ by state, though it generally is not free to impose one. Go to financialprivacynow.org and click on “Lock up credit files with a security freeze” to see a list of rules and instructions by state. RON LIEBER | Identity Fraud;Credit;Frauds and Swindling;Banks and Banking;Credit and Money Cards |
ny0180375 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/08/06 | Housing Crackdown Hits Indian Immigrants | ISELIN, N.J., Aug. 3 — With the workweek behind him, Deepu Dass focused on a pesky bald spot in his front lawn here. As he sprayed the patch with water, urging the grass toward the perfection achieved by several neighbors, he said confidently: “I planted seeds.” Two of his three roommates chatted behind Mr. Dass on the porch, waiting to sit down to a dinner of chicken biryani, followed by a nighttime trip to Atlantic City. The men — all Indian immigrants here on worker visas without their families — rent rooms month to month in this white, four-bedroom Cape Cod, where the kitchen shelves are stocked with food in bulk and the walls are decorated with reminders of home. “That’s Kerala,” said Mr. Dass, pointing to a silkscreen of a village fishing scene from his home state. “They call it God’s own country because it’s so beautiful.” There have been up to six men sharing the house, whose owners include Suresh Kumar, president of NexAge Technologies USA, a nearby software company where the tenants work. But the unusual arrangement — and the unsightly lawn — caught the attention of local housing inspectors, and in May Woodbridge Township cited Mr. Kumar for several violations, including an unauthorized boarding house and an illegal multifamily dwelling. He has until Aug. 16 to resolve the situation, which may mean kicking his workers out. Mr. Kumar’s were among more than 300 notices of violation that the authorities handed out from January through May to homeowners in the 10 communities that make up Woodbridge Township, part of a stepped-up inspection effort the mayor announced last year. Additional inspectors were hired and given computers for quicker access to housing records. A hot line was set up for anonymous complaints. (Officials said they did not keep records of how many citations they gave last year.) But in a twist to the familiar tales of suburban authorities breaking up illegally subdivided homes crowded with Hispanic day laborers, the mayor’s crackdown here has hit another group of immigrants: middle-class Indians who rent rooms or parts of rooms to Indian students, technology workers and others seeking a first foothold in this country. Homeowners with South Asian surnames have received nearly a quarter of the violations, according to records provided by the township; the 2000 census showed Indians made up about 9 percent of the population, and their numbers have almost certainly grown since. Officials say many of their investigations begin with complaints from neighbors or contractors. The inspectors have found small houses overcrowded with people who are not related to one another, but have also questioned an extended family of seven and a couple who split their house with another family. In another case, a house with five renters, including a few students, was cleared out by the owner after the township sent him a violation letter. A family of eight has moved in, three more people than were there before. “You buy a house and you’re a family, you expect families to live around you,” explained John E. McCormac, the mayor of Woodbridge, a central New Jersey township of nearly 100,000 residents. “We’re a community of single-family residential streets. We should stay that way.” Mr. McCormac said that housing inspectors were not singling out any ethnic group and that none of the inspections had prompted arrests by federal immigration authorities or the police, as they have in places with many day laborers. Indian-American community leaders said they had good relations with the mayor, and there has been no suggestion that the residents of these houses are here illegally. But the mayor’s rationale for the crackdown — to clean up potentially dangerous living situations, like a house in Iselin found to have as many as 10 people living in a basement, and another house that was used as an unlicensed day care center — is similar to those cited by leaders in heavily Hispanic areas. Sharmila Rudrappa, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of “Ethnic Routes to Becoming American: Indian Immigrants and the Cultures of Citizenship,” said it was common for Indian families to live in joint households both in their homeland and in the United States. “My father’s brother is married to my mother’s sister,” she said. “The two families had five kids between them. We lived together for a few years, and it was kind of a wonderful way to grow up.” The joint family arrangements have become harder to maintain in crowded Indian cities, but in American homes the practice is alive and well. “It’s a way to ease immigration,” Professor Rudrappa said. “You help family out. Family members coming from India might not know how to drive, and grocery stores can be unnerving.” The stepped-up inspections reveal the extent to which immigration is transforming suburban swaths like Iselin, the source of almost a third of Woodbridge’s violations. Oak Tree Road, the congested artery that runs through Iselin’s downtown, is lined with Indian businesses, including supermarkets, bridal centers and jewelry shops. Indian families started moving here in large numbers in the 1980s and early 1990s, and by the 2000 census, 17 percent of Iselin’s 16,700 residents identified themselves as Asian Indian. Some moved for the affordable homes, to open businesses and for the convenience: the town has its own New Jersey Transit train station and an exit off the Garden State Parkway. Many have brought relatives, though the census data for the township indicates that the size of Indian households here — three people — is no larger than average. Rakesh Patel, 34, a technology worker at a New York investment bank, said he had his three-bedroom, two-story house built here seven years ago “for family and friends.” He and his wife, two children and his parents moved from a cramped apartment in Edison. Mr. Patel’s cousin’s sister has joined the household, and Mr. Patel’s sister and three family members may soon come to stay for a while. Other relatives often visit for months at a time. “Why not?” asked Mr. Patel, noting that he also stayed with his uncle when he first came to the United States from India in 1996. “I pay $9,000 a year in taxes.” Tom Rokita, who lives across the street from the Patels and several other large South Asian families, said that cars had lately clogged the neighborhood, and garbage had drifted onto his well-tended garden. “The mayor is clamping down on the violations very nicely,” said Mr. Rokita, who has lived in Iselin 45 years. Of his neighbors, he said: “I have no problem with them. Except for the litter.” After an anonymous complaint, inspectors paid three separate visits to Mr. Patel’s home in May. Mr. Patel was surprised by the visit and said he had had a good relationship with town officials in the past, when he worked with them to make sure his basement met local regulations. It is now a place where his children play, and where his father, age 59, does his morning yoga. Finally, inspectors determined that everyone living in the house belonged to one family, and found the property to be “in compliance.” Mayor McCormac conceded that many of the complaints had been unjustified and, as in Mr. Patel’s case, turned out to be cases of cultural differences in the definition of family more than illegal subdivisions. “The town is not bothered by the big families,” said Mahesh Shah, a past president of Iselin’s Indian Business Association, who has consulted with the mayor about the crackdown. “But if someone buys a place as a hostel and doesn’t take care of the house, that’s the situation they are talking about. “Neighbors are complaining,” he added. “They are voters, and the township has to do something about it.” Pradip Kothari, a community leader who is known as Peter, received violations at two properties in the township this year, and he said they were fair. But he also questioned whether the housing ordinances were being applied evenly across ethnic groups. “It looks like something is not right,” Mr. Kothari said of the high numbers of Indians receiving citations. “I’m not going to say the mayor is discriminating. But the guidelines should be very clear and loud. People should not have any perception that selective enforcement of the law is taking place.” Mr. Kumar, the owner of the house where Mr. Dass lives, said he was unsure what he was supposed to do. There is no outright ban on unrelated roommates cohabitating. Owners can register with the township to use their homes as rental properties, but questions remain as to what makes such an arrangement a rooming or boarding house, which requires a separate license. “There are a large number of I.T. companies in the Woodbridge and Iselin areas, and a lot of them rent houses for their workers,” Mr. Kumar noted. For the new arrivals, the houses in Iselin are a soft landing in familiar surroundings. “Who can stay there?” he asked. “Is it only families?” | Housing;Immigration and Refugees;New Jersey;India |
ny0296098 | [
"business"
] | 2016/12/30 | Costly Drug for Fatal Muscular Disease Wins F.D.A. Approval | The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug to treat patients with spinal muscular atrophy, a savage disease that, in its most severe form, kills infants before they turn 2. “This is a miracle — seriously,” Dr. Mary K. Schroth, a lung specialist in Madison, Wis., who treats children who have the disease, said of the approval, which was made last week. “This is a life-changing event, and this will change the course of this disease.” Dr. Schroth has previously worked as a paid consultant to Biogen, which is selling the drug. The drug, called Spinraza, will not come cheap — and, by some estimates, will be among the most expensive drugs in the world. Biogen, which is licensing Spinraza from Ionis Pharmaceuticals, said this week that one dose will have a list price of $125,000. That means the drug will cost $625,000 to $750,000 to cover the five or six doses needed in the first year, and about $375,000 annually after that, to cover the necessary three doses a year. Patients will presumably take Spinraza for the rest of their lives. The pricing could put the drug in the cross hairs of lawmakers and other critics of high drug prices, and perhaps discourage insurers from covering it. High drug prices have attracted intense scrutiny in the last year, and President-elect Donald J. Trump has singled them out as an important issue. Image Princess Fiona, Blake’s service dog, and the braces Blake wears for physical therapy. Credit Philip Scott Andrews for The New York Times “We believe the Spinraza pricing decision is likely to invite a storm of criticism, up to and including presidential tweets,” Geoffrey C. Porges, an analyst for Leerink Partners, said in a note to investors on Thursday. Mr. Porges said the price could lead some insurers to balk or to limit the drug to patients who are the most severely affected, such as infants, even though the F.D.A. has approved Spinraza for all patients with the condition. “What you will have is a standoff with payers,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “How is this all going to play out?” The price of the drug would be comparable to some other drugs that treat rare diseases. A spokeswoman for Biogen said the company set the price after considering several factors, including the cost to the health care system and the clinical value it brought to patients. She said that the company has also consulted insurers about covering the drug, and that while the talks are in their early stages, insurers have responded positively to the drug’s effectiveness. “We are working to help ensure no patient will forgo treatment because of financial limitations or insurance status,” said the spokeswoman, Ligia Del Bianco. She said Biogen, like many companies that sell expensive drugs, had set up a program to help families navigate insurance approvals and other logistics, and will provide financial assistance. Image Blake entering her family’s home in Cincinnati. Credit Philip Scott Andrews for The New York Times Kenneth Hobby, the president of Cure SMA , a patient advocacy group that invested $500,000 in early academic research that led to the development of Spinraza, said more important than the list price of the drug is whether patients who need it will get it. “Are our families going to get access to the drug in the end?” he said. About 1 in 10,000 babies are born with spinal muscular atrophy — or about 400 a year in the United States — and it is among the leading genetic causes of death in infants. People with the disease have a genetic flaw that makes them produce too little of a protein that supports motor neurons, leading muscles to atrophy. Spinraza addresses the underlying genetic cause of the disease and enables a backup gene to produce more of the necessary protein. Blake Farrell, 6, has the disease. As an infant, Blake reached developmental milestones, learning to roll over, sit up and crawl at all the right times. “She was doing everything on target,” Kacey Farrell, Blake’s mother, said recently from the family’s home in Cincinnati. But as she approached her first birthday, Blake started regressing. She struggled to sit on her own and stopped crawling. At 14 months, tests revealed that Blake had a moderate form of spinal muscular atrophy. As she got older, the muscle loss caused her bones to weaken, and she suffered fractures. She could no longer sit up in the bathtub, and had trouble swallowing food. In May of 2015, when she was 4, Blake was accepted into a clinical trial for Spinraza, also known as nusinersen. A third of the patients in the study were given a placebo, so the Farrells were not sure if she was getting the real thing. But after receiving her first few doses, which were injected into her spinal fluid, Blake started to improve. She joined her two sisters in the bathtub, sitting up on her own. One day, she even scooted across the floor. “I was just in shock,” Ms. Farrell said. “These were all things we hadn’t seen her do since she was 8 months old.” Image Blake’s sisters, Finley and Holland, look out on the construction site outside their living room window. The family is building an accessible bedroom for Blake. Credit Philip Scott Andrews for The New York Times In an analysis of 82 infants in the clinical trial that led to the approval, 40 percent of babies on the drug reached milestones such as sitting, crawling and walking. None of the babies that received a placebo did. The F.D.A. approved the drug months ahead of time and, because the drug treats a rare pediatric disease, granted Biogen a special voucher that it can use to gain priority review of a future drug that would not otherwise qualify for the program. The F.D.A. said the most common side effects were respiratory infections and constipation, and there is a warning about possible low blood platelet counts and toxicity to the kidneys. Even though trial investigators did not know which patient was receiving Spinraza, “anecdotally, it just seemed quickly obvious to us that some patients were following a very different trajectory than what we were used to seeing,” said Dr. John Brandsema of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the investigators. He said that while the patients who improved were the most remarkable, the drug also appears to stop the progression of the disease in other patients. “It’s hard not to use very exaggerated terms when you are talking about this, because it really is a pretty major step forward,” Dr. Brandsema said. For now, Blake receives Spinraza free because she is enrolled in an extension study of the drug. But her father, Nick Farrell, a lawyer, said cost is a concern. “That is a whole lot of money,” he said, adding that among parents of children with the disease, access is already a major topic. “The conversation has already started about, O.K., what’s the next step here?” | Pharmaceuticals;Biogen Idec;Spinal muscular atrophy;Health Insurance;FDA |
ny0192988 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/02/12 | Her Time Short, a Brooklyn Woman Exerts a Passion to Paint | A year and a half ago, Cordula Volkening’s doctors gave her a grim diagnosis: brain cancer. Still, having been told that she might have a year to live, she decided to embark on a career as a painter. Ms. Volkening, a 52-year-old mother of two from Brooklyn, said she thinks of painting as a coping mechanism. Years ago, as an art student in Germany — before immigrating to Brooklyn and starting her own interior construction design business — she considered painting her passion. Now she finds that painting keeps her in the moment, instead of worrying about the future, or pining for her healthier past. “I wanted to make the most of my remaining time; it’s keeping me sane,” said Ms. Volkening, whose speech has been impaired by her condition. “When I paint, it’s happy, it’s independent.” She is painting not only for her state of mind, but also for the future of her two children, who live with Ms. Volkening’s former husband: her son, Skye, 16, an aspiring actor, and her daughter, Eden, 13. Ms. Volkening paints quickly and often finishes several paintings a day. She finished 30 paintings in her first three months and went on to have three art shows in Brooklyn at which she sold thousands of dollars’ worth of her work, to leave to her children, to augment what her life insurance policy provides. One show had the fatalistic name “YOU: Would You Like an Invitation to My Destination?” but Ms. Volkening is far from maudlin about her situation. After a year of ineffective operations and chemotherapy treatments, Ms. Volkening has now given up on medical treatment, after being told that it would give her some more time but leave her too weak to paint. Ms. Volkening, who moved to New York from Germany in 1985, raised her children in Park Slope and had a business planning and executing renovations of Park Slope apartments. After she had a seizure in June 2007, a CAT scan revealed a brain tumor, part of which she had surgically removed. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation, and doctors gave her a year to live, at best. She started sketching in the hospital and once she got out, she was unable to continue her hands-on design work. Lacking money, she gave up her apartment and took a spare room with relatives in Brooklyn, which allowed her to rent art studio space at the Brooklyn Artists Gym on Seventh Street. Steroids, for her condition, affect her sleeping patterns, so she gets up well before sunrise and takes two subways to the studio. Ms. Volkening even tried a special experimental study at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, which involved spending her days with electrodes attached to her head. But by last March, the tumor was back and doctors operated again, which damaged her speech capacity, and last September, doctors found a second, inoperable tumor and said that heavy chemotherapy could give her a few more months but probably would leave her without the energy to paint. Ms. Volkening said she would essentially opt for quality over quantity. So she spends her remaining time in a comfortable chair by a window at the studio. She painted years ago but with more mental interference, she said, making it more of an “intellectual pursuit” than the urgent, spontaneous process it is now. Now the brush itself seems to decide what to paint. “I paint what comes out,” she said. “It’s not intellectual — it’s instinctive.” She paints rapidly, and her images are primal and powerful. There are insistent brush strokes, bold colors and bleak backgrounds. There are faces laughing and others cringing. There are winged characters flying into the beyond. There are people hugging each other. Different as they are, she said, they all reflect aspects of her condition. She said the terminal illness has simplified things, washing away the worry and petty preoccupations that almost made life harder when she had plenty of it. And she has never felt more connected to the canvas and to her creativity. Mostly, she wants the best for her children. Before her diagnosis, her daughter was always clingy, and her son always seemed independent and was often out with his friends. Now it is reversed: the boy talks intimately with her about difficult things, and the girl will not talk about it. She said her illness has driven her to paint, and she calls every painting a “gift” from the cancer. She said her painting style is shaped by one thing: “I have nothing to lose.” | Cancer;Tumors;Art |
ny0031510 | [
"sports"
] | 2013/06/23 | Lethal Force Wins Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Ascot | Lethal Force sprinted to victory by two lengths in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, the headline race on the fifth and final day of Royal Ascot in England. Society Rock, the favorite, was second and Krypton Factor finished third. ■ Thomas Chippendale collapsed and died shortly after winning the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. The 4-year-old colt held off Dandino at the finish, but collapsed after passing the finish line. (REUTERS) | Horse racing;England;Fatalities,casualties |
ny0260759 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2011/06/17 | City Reduces Chronic Absenteeism in Public Schools | At Public School 309 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, students wear necklaces with colorful pendants, each marking a month in which they did not miss a day of school. At P.S. 75 in the South Bronx, a row of young adults welcomes students each morning as they walk in the door. Some 40,000 city children got daily automated wake-up calls from Magic Johnson and other celebrities to remind them to show up for class, and City Hall offered prizes like baseball tickets and gift certificates. Throughout New York, educators and politicians have been increasing their focus on attendance in recent years, and their efforts appear to be paying off, at least in elementary schools: 1 in 15 elementary students were absent on a given day this year, compared to 1 in 13 four years ago and 1 in 9 in 1995. And there have been even more significant strides in combating chronic absenteeism in early grades, according to a new study by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School: In the 2009-10 school year, according to the report, there were 105 elementary schools where 30 percent or more of students missed at least a month of class, down from 216 three years earlier. The problem has hardly disappeared. Last year, at 42 percent of the city’s 700 elementary schools, one in five students missed a month or more of school, according to the New School study. But four years ago, that was true of 58 percent of the schools. And high school attendance is worse and tougher to fix: 34 percent of the city’s high school students missed a month or more of school last year. “We were surprised by the results,” said Kim Nauer, a New School researcher. “The number of elementary schools with virulent absenteeism problems is going down. But thousands of kids are still in schools where a third of their class might be gone on any given day.” Researchers and city officials credited the improvements, in part, to a change the Education Department made two years ago in beginning to specifically track chronic absentees, defined as students who miss 20 days or more in a school year, along with tracking average attendance in schools, the traditional benchmark. “Changing the way we count attendance is so essential to turning things around,” said Hedy N. Chang, the director of Attendance Works, a policy group. There are countless causes of chronic absenteeism, including illnesses like asthma, safety concerns, transportation problems and lax parents. It is one of the best-known predictors of future dropouts, and according to another new study, a driver of the city’s low test scores. Following about 64,000 New York City students through third and fourth grades between 2006 and 2008, that study, by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, found that as attendance improved, so did performance on state tests. It also found that the attendance environment at the school mattered: at schools with high absentee rates, students who improved their individual attendance got less of an achievement bump than those at schools with near-perfect attendance. Poverty and race are closely tied to chronic absenteeism, the study found. Among black and Hispanic children in the study, more than 90 percent of whom qualified for free or reduced-cost lunch, more than one in five were chronically absent. Asian-Americans had the lowest rate of chronic absenteeism, 4 percent, though 84 percent of them qualified for the lunch program; 12 percent of white students in the study were chronically absent, though they were economically better off. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s researchers said the predicted improvement on tests from good attendance amounted to a fifth or a quarter of the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian classmates. At P.S. 309, where the students proudly wear their attendance tags around their necks, chronic absenteeism has fallen from one in four students to one in five over the last two years. This year, the principal, Emily Zucal, began an early-morning fitness program to help lure students, as well as monthly assemblies and pizza parties for those who do not miss a day. “Kids really want to be called out in front of their peers and be celebrated,” Ms. Zucal said. “And the nice thing is, rewards for attendance are completely blind of everything else, like behavior and grades.” At P.S. 75, a hulking old school near an entrance ramp to the Bruckner Expressway, a dozen young adults in matching uniforms form a line between the school buses and the entrance door, greeting children with hugs, high-fives and sometimes stickers. They work for City Year, a federal program that places mentors in high-poverty schools. A spokesman for City Year, Ian Rees, said that in the last year the program had been working to prevent dropouts by focusing on what he called the ABCs: absenteeism, behavior and course performance. A city pilot program allowed City Year mentors at seven schools this year to see student attendance data for the first time, so they could focus their tutoring and attention on students having trouble. On Tuesday, Shimee Housey, 12, a fifth grader who was frequently late last year, shyly accepted a rainbow sticker from Heather Slivko-Bathurst, 22, one of the mentors, as he arrived at school. “They help kids gather up focus in class, and help us learn,” Shimee said. City Year had only few thousand dollars to spend on incentives, so mentors offered things like origami fortune tellers with fortune cookies attached for those who showed up early to school. But the City Hall pilot program, which included 25 schools this year and will grow to 50 schools in the fall, offered some richer prizes: for example, Angel Lopez, the fourth grader with the most-improved attendance at P.S. 75, got to stand in center field at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday with other students at a special ceremony before the first pitch. This year, overall attendance at P.S. 75 improved slightly, following the citywide trend. But among the 130 students with the worst attendance who were the focus of the mentoring, the wake-up calls, help from a health clinic and the incentives, “we’ve seen a lot of dramatic improvements,” Richard Gugliotta, an assistant principal, said. “If nothing else,” he added, “we were annoying people into bringing their kids to school, which was fine with me.” | Education (K-12);Absenteeism;Education Department (NYC);New York City |
ny0269121 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
] | 2016/04/16 | Jose Cuervo Said to Be Making Arrangements for an I.P.O. | Happy hour is coming to the initial public offerings market. Jose Cuervo, a brand of tequila that is over two centuries old, is preparing for an I.P.O., according to people with knowledge of the matter. The family-owned Mexican company is working with JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to prepare for the deal, said the people, who asked not to be named because the process is still private. The initial offering of stock could raise about $750 million, the people said. Jose Cuervo has not decided whether it will list in the United States, Britain or Mexico, one of the people said. The Beckmann family has owned Cuervo, the top-selling tequila brand, for centuries. In 1758, José Antonio de Cuervo y Valdés received land in modern-day Mexico from the Spanish king and started producing tequila. The billionaire Beckmann family is made up of direct descendants of the 18th century founder. Cuervo is made in the central Mexican town known as Tequila, using blue agave from the region in its production. Representatives from the banks declined to comment, and a representative for Jose Cuervo did not immediately respond. Jose Cuervo almost did a deal with Diageo, the British spirits giant, five years ago. The two were in talks for Jose Cuervo to sell its brand, but ultimately the two sides failed to agree on a price. Analysts at the time valued Jose Cuervo at $3 billion. Shortly after, speculation rose that Cuervo would instead pursue a public debut. Bloomberg reported last month that Jose Cuervo was considering an I.P.O. | IPO;Tequila Cuervo;Family business;Tequila;JPMorgan Chase |
ny0223690 | [
"science"
] | 2010/11/30 | Deer in the Headlights - Science Q&A | Q. Why do deer get transfixed by car headlights and just stand there in harm’s way? A. “Deer are crepuscular,” said David C. Yancy, a deer biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Their activity peaks within an hour or so on either side of sunrise and sunset, so their vision is optimized for very low light. When a headlight beam strikes eyes that are fully dilated to capture as much light as possible, deer cannot see at all, and they freeze until the eyes can adjust. “They don’t know what to do, so they do nothing,” Mr. Yancy suggested. Continuing research at the University of Georgia on whitetail deer vision suggests that by human standards, deer are legally blind. A researcher interviewed in the September/October issue of Arkansas Wildlife estimated their vision at 20/200: where a person with normal eyesight can discern an object’s details at 200 yards, deer need to be within just 20 yards away. (They are better adapted to detecting motion.) Deer-car collisions peak with the fall breeding season, with males moving around to find receptive females — and unreceptive females in retreat — and no one has figured out a good way to prevent them, Mr. Yancy said. For now, he added, the combination of “deer crossing” signs, articles to warn the public, and defensive driving will have to do. C. CLAIBORNE RAY | Deer;Eyes and Eyesight;Science and Technology;Roads and Traffic |
ny0028026 | [
"sports",
"cricket"
] | 2013/01/31 | Long-Suffering New Zealand Cricket Fans Suffer Some More | WELLINGTON — Just over 12 months ago, long-suffering New Zealand cricket fans had hopes that their national team might be on the verge of finally turning things around. A rare test victory in Australia was sandwiched by triumphs over lowly Zimbabwe, and there was a new sense of confidence in a team captained by Ross Taylor. And then the chaos returned. New Zealand endured another turbulent year as its coaching merry-go-round continued and Taylor was controversially dismissed as captain. Since 2008, when John Bracewell quit as national coach to take up a role at the English county team Gloucestershire, New Zealand has seen Andy Moles, Mark Greatbatch and John Wright come and go as head coaches. Moles lasted less than a year after losing the confidence and respect of influential senior players. Greatbatch was basically a fill-in until Wright was appointed in 2010. Wright, who enjoyed success as the coach of India, left in July last year after turning down a contract extension because he felt he was unable to continue working with New Zealand Cricket’s director of coaching, John Buchanan. Mike Hesson, who currently holds the head job, is in the early stages of his tenure, but he has already been embroiled in controversy following his poor handling of the Taylor affair, which resulted in New Zealand’s most consistent batsman making himself unavailable for the recent tour of South Africa. New Zealand was bowled out for 45 in the first innings of the first test in Cape Town after its new captain, Brendon McCullum, chose to bat first on a bowlers’ pitch. The Black Caps followed that up by being reduced to 47 for six in the first innings of the second test, and that simply added fuel to the fire of discontent among New Zealand cricket fans and its former players. Many believe Hesson is not experienced enough to be coaching New Zealand and that Taylor should never have been stripped of the captaincy. “I really despair at the moment at the lack of guidance that’s got us to where we’ve got to, and the lack of understanding of what competing on the world scene is all about,” said John Morrison, a former New Zealand cricketer who played 17 tests and 18 one-day internationals between 1973 and 1983. “They are up against the best pace attack in the world, but the stats don’t lie,” he said. “Getting out for 45 and being 47-6 is unacceptable because we’re now teetering on the brink of really being the easy-beats of the international world.” New Zealand will always be first and foremost about rugby, but cricket has been played for more than a century here and is the main summer sport. In 1930, it became the fifth country to play a test, but it had to wait a while longer to celebrate its first victory, in 1956. Test success has been sporadic since, but in the one-day game, New Zealand has reached the semifinals of the World Cup in 2007 and 2011, made the final of the Champions Trophy in 2009 and reached No. 2 in the world rankings. Currently, it is ranked eighth in all three forms of the game, just above Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. “When you get to that point, your bargaining power diminishes because the major forces in cricket like England, India, Australia and South Africa don’t want to play us because the TV networks don’t want us, the crowds don’t want us, the sponsors don’t want us,” Morrison said. “That’s the real loss we’re going to suffer if this poor performance continues.” Image Kane Williamson, left, and Bredon McCullum of New Zealand running between the wickets this month in the first test against South Africa, which won by an innings and 27 runs. Credit Mike Hutchings/Reuters The recent performances in the one-day series against South Africa will have eased some of the pressure on Hesson and his team after the woeful test matches. New Zealand’s 2-1 series victory was its first on South African soil in 60 years in any form of cricket. But it does not conceal the fact that New Zealand Cricket has been malfunctioning for years. The mishandling of Taylor’s dismissal is symptomatic of that. Taylor was told in a hotel room two days before a test in Sri Lanka he was being stripped of the captaincy at the end of that series because Hesson believed McCullum, whom he had close ties with while at the Otago provincial team, would do a better job. After the New Zealand team returned home, Hesson, whose only previous international coaching experience was in Kenya, insisted he had meant only that Taylor would lose the captaincy of the one-day and Twenty20 sides, not of all three forms of the game. Taylor is adamant that Hesson and the other members of the New Zealand management team who were present at the time never said that and that he was being completely stripped of the captaincy. New Zealand Cricket has since apologized to Taylor for the breakdown in communication and how he was ousted. Even the relationship between Buchanan and the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, David White, is a strained one following Taylor’s dismissal, with the director of coaching describing it as “frosty.” Buchanan wanted Taylor to remain as captain but was overruled. Buchanan has also stated that performances like the ones in the test matches in South Africa will repeat unless the whole New Zealand Cricket organization and the players commit to working with integrity, trust, honesty and accountability, suggesting that that has not been the case. Morrison, who has not been a great admirer of Buchanan or New Zealand Cricket in recent times, agrees. “The whole Taylor saga was just the tip of a not very pleasant iceberg of distrust and lack of integrity,” he said. “They’ve got to change the culture,” he added. “That’s got to come from the New Zealand Cricket board and from the leadership, otherwise we’re going to stagger from disaster to disaster I think. “I don’t think all is lost, but I do think some people are going to have to make some very sound and brave moves and we’re going to have to have some very good leadership to get out of this mire that we’re in at the moment.” Taylor is expected to return to the side for the home series against England, which gets under way with three Twenty20 games starting Feb. 9. Also, he has been selected to play in two warm-up Twenty20 matches against England next week. England is ranked second in tests and one-day internationals and fourth in Twenty20, so the New Zealand team certainly needs him. But it is hard to see his relationship with Hesson being anything more than cordial after the coach basically said he had no faith in Taylor’s abilities as a leader, then virtually accused him of lying about what had happened in that hotel room. The pair will meet for clear-the-air-talks before the England series begins. | Cricket;New Zealand |
ny0284458 | [
"sports",
"olympics"
] | 2016/09/04 | A Paralympian Races to Remove Obstacles for the Next Generation | CLARKSVILLE, Md. — Growing up on a dead-end street in suburbia, Tatyana and Hannah McFadden raced their wheelchairs up, down and all around. Their family challenged cul-de-sac convention, but also fit right in. Two moms, three children, a grandma and two dogs. A basketball hoop in the driveway. Purple wheelchairs scattered throughout the garage. Sports equipment, and prosthetic legs, stuffed in cramped closets. “It’s been just such an amazing year,” Debbie McFadden said, standing alongside her daughters on the backyard patio. Dozens of camera phones clicked. The buttercream on the sheet cake told the rest of the story: “Tatyana & Hannah Go for the Gold!” was written in red script across the icing, and two tiny wheelchairs raced on a fondant track. The daughters were raised to believe they could do anything, no matter what the physical impairment, and this is what their uncommon determination has wrought: At the Paralympic Games, which begin Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, Tatyana McFadden could become the first athlete to sweep every distance in wheelchair racing. She will compete in the 100 meters and the marathon — and everything in between. She could leave Rio with seven gold medals. Her sister Hannah is racing in three of the same events, including the 4x100 relay. If the McFaddens finish side-by-side on the podium, they will be the first sisters to do so in a Paralympics. The odds of this? Longer than a marathon, especially given their start. “You know, when Tatyana and Hannah came here, Tatyana was told by doctors at Johns Hopkins she probably wouldn’t live long, and they said Hannah would never be active,” Debbie McFadden told the gathering at their Rio send-off party. Image From left, Hannah, Tatyana and Ruthi McFadden posed for their mother Debbie before a Rio send-off party at their house in July. Credit Andrew Biraj for The New York Times One of the best athletes most Americans have never heard of, Tatyana McFadden may be hard to miss in the coming months. Her Phelpsian medal quest will be a focal point for NBC’s Paralympics coverage — more than 70 hours across NBC’s networks and sports app, compared with six hours of coverage for the London Paralympics four years ago. “In the U.S., you don’t know about the Paralympics,” said Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee. “You’re going to get to know. Give your people a chance to get to know Tatyana. It will take their minds off the presidential election.” McFadden’s image appears on more than a million Coke cans. Her orphanage-to-ESPY life story will be told, and retold, in commercials. In the time leading up to Rio, BP became the first United States Olympic Committee corporate partner to sponsor more Paralympians than Olympians. Now that Michael Phelps has packed up his Speedo and gone home and Simone Biles has clapped her last cloud of chalk into the rafters, will the American public stay for the Paralympics after-party? “We’re on the cusp of breaking the barriers for Paralympic sport,” Tatyana McFadden said. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication, trying to teach society what it means to be a Paralympian, that we’re not any different, that we’re just like the Olympians, with the same training sites, sponsorships, medals and venues.” If not the same rewards. The United States Olympic Committee awards $25,000 to every American who wins an Olympic gold versus $5,000 for every Paralympic gold; $15,000 for Olympic silver versus $3,500 for Paralympic silver; and $10,000 for Olympic bronze versus $2,500 for Paralympic bronze. There is also a significant difference between prize purses in major marathons. The New York City Marathon, for example, awards able-bodied winners $100,000; its wheelchair division winners receive $15,000. “It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Tatyana McFadden said. “That bar needs to be raised.” “If you don’t speak out, it’s going to stay the same,” she said. “Because I’ve been in the sport for a bit, I can be an educator. I want to give back for the next generations to come, however long I’ll be racing. I think it’s really, really important to have that voice.” Image A banner with a picture of Tatyana McFadden hung from a tree in the family’s backyard at the send-off party. Credit Andrew Biraj for The New York Times A ‘Unique Household’ Born with spina bifida and adopted from a Russian orphanage, Tatyana McFadden, 27, is paralyzed from the waist down. Hannah McFadden, 20, adopted from Albania, born without a femur in her left leg, is an above-the-knee amputee. She uses a prosthesis to walk and a wheelchair to race. Ruthi McFadden, 17, also adopted from Albania, is the outlier — no wheelchair, no prosthetic leg to pop off at airport security and hand to a T.S.A. agent, as Hannah does for kicks. She has no desire to run the length of a basketball court, let alone a marathon. “I don’t like to sweat,” she tells her sisters. “Our family is a very unique household,” said Hannah McFadden, legs slung over an ottoman in the living room. “If you took a family photo right now, you got Grandma with an oxygen tank, probably sassing the photographer.” (The oxygen tank comes courtesy of decades of smoking; the sassing comes naturally.) She continued: “Ruthi talking about all the boyfriends she has. Tatyana wishing she had all the boyfriends. And me saying, ‘Where’s the food?’ You’d have all those different things going on and oh, yeah, and then parents, Deb and Bridget. We have two moms. “That was just the way it was. Having two moms wasn’t what really stood out about this family,” she said, in the deadpan of a mockumentary. Earlier this year, after People magazine published a feature article with the headline, “Meet My Two Moms: Wheelchair Racing Sensation Tatyana McFadden Reveals How She Was Saved From a Bleak Russian Orphanage,” the family collectively chuckled. It was not exactly breaking news. Debbie McFadden and Bridget O’Shaughnessey have been partners for 32 years. They kept their relationship and their shared parenting role low-key because they did not want headlines to read, “Raised by Two Moms, McFadden Wins Gold.” “I’ve been public about it,” Tatyana McFadden said, “but I haven’t been always, ‘Oh, these are my two moms, these are my two moms, these are my two moms.’ Image Debbie McFadden gave her daughter Tatyana a kiss at the finish line of the New York City Marathon in 2013. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times “It’s something I grew up with, and it’s not any different to me. Our parents have been together, what, more than 30 years? They’re a great example of what love and relationships look like.” They met when Debbie McFadden was still recovering from the effects of Guillain-Barré syndrome , a rare autoimmune disease. While she was in graduate school, the condition left her paralyzed from the neck down. As a result, she relied on an electric wheelchair for four years and then crutches for eight. The obstacles Debbie McFadden faced while disabled — limited job and educational opportunities, snap judgments based on physical appearance — came to define her life’s work, as an advocate and a mother. “This can never be,” she told herself. She became the United States commissioner of disabilities in 1989, appointed by President George H. W. Bush. “Why, sir, this job?” she recalled asking the president. “Because you’re a pain in the ass,” he replied. “I’d rather have you working for me than against me.” (Bush, 92, did not recall the specific interaction, but spoke highly of McFadden, a spokesman, Jim McGrath, said.) McFadden helped write the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, the milestone legislation that prohibits discrimination based on disability. “She makes the impossible happen,” Hannah said. “That woman does not know the word ‘no.’” Debbie McFadden now serves as her daughters’ manager, or “momager,” as they call it. Image In 2006, at age 16, Tatyana McFadden raced in high school track meets alongside able-bodied runners for the first time after winning a lawsuit against her school system. Until then, she had raced in separate events, usually by herself. Credit Chris Gardner/Associated Press O’Shaughnessey, who works in information technology for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, is the behind-the-scenes parent, the one fixing wheelchairs and wearing a headlamp for late-night wheelchair workouts on the track. She is the steady pace runner, the quiet complement to her force-of-nature partner. On a stage in Times Square this summer, surrounded by Olympians and Paralympians, Tatyana McFadden described her early years in St. Petersburg, Russia. “For the first six years in the orphanage, I received no medical treatment, so no wheelchair available,” she said, addressing the crowd at a news media event. “And I taught myself how to walk on my arms, using my arms as my legs to get around the orphanage.” The next speaker, Michelle Obama, waited in the wings. “The sixth year changed my life for the better, when a woman happened to walk through the door, and that’s my mom Deborah McFadden. She’s here today.” She paused for applause and then continued. Tatyana McFadden said sports had changed her life, and had perhaps saved it. Given her weak physical state at the time of her adoption, her parents signed her up for every sport they could find to build her strength. “See that wooden fence?” Debbie McFadden said as she pulled into the parking lot outside the home of the Bennett Blazers, an adaptive sports program. “That’s where she was when we first put her in the racing chair and said, ‘Go.’” A Lawsuit and a Legacy Inside the gym, Tatyana’s legacy is everywhere — in her trademark candy purple racing chairs, still used by the current Blazers, and the imprint she has made on the children there today. She is their Stephen Curry, their Serena Williams, their autographed poster on a bedroom wall. “Tatyana brings pride and recognition,” said David Elbert, whose daughter, Ruby, is part of the Blazers program. “She makes these kids stand up taller sometimes. Last Paralympics, Tatyana was on the gas pump. You pulled into BP, and Ruby was like, ‘Whoa.’” Image Hannah, left, and Tatyana McFadden ate at a cafe after a training session in Champaign, Ill., in June. Credit Daniel Acker for The New York Times In seventh grade, Ruby broke down Tatyana McFadden’s lawsuit against the Howard County school district for a social studies assignment. When McFadden was 15, Ruby’s age now, she was the youngest member of the 2004 United States Paralympics team. After winning her first two Paralympic medals in Athens, she started her freshman year at Atholton High School in Columbia, Md. She had never imagined that earning a varsity letter would be the greater challenge. Competing against able-bodied runners, McFadden did not expect her results to count; she just wanted to experience competitive sports. Citing safety concerns, school officials prohibited McFadden, a freshman, from racing alongside her high school track team. In 2005, the McFaddens filed suit, claiming no damages, against the Howard County Public School System. Until the case could be heard in federal court, the school allowed Tatyana to race separately, to circle an otherwise empty track after everyone else had run. The highly publicized legal battle took a toll on the teenager. At times, she was booed on the track, ostracized by teammates and ripped on message boards. A teammate, the coach’s daughter, sent a scathing letter to local newspapers. “I will no longer sit back and watch runners be treated unfairly because they are NOT disabled,” the 2007 letter said, according to The Washington Post. “Politically correct or not, I have been waiting several months to get all this off my chest.” During the years of the lawsuit, McFadden turned to her grandmother Jo for support. “I’d be coming home being emotional and Grandma Jo would help me through it,” Tatyana said. “She reminds me that it’s about the long run.” “It was a tough time for her,” Grandma Jo said. “A lot of tears.” Grandma Jo, O’Shaughnessey’s mother, moved in with the family when the children were young. She was the one home when Mom (Debbie McFadden) traveled abroad, running an international adoption agency after her term as commissioner of disabilities. And Grandma Jo was the one home when Mama (Bridget O’Shaughnessey) was still at work in Washington. McFadden eventually won the right to race with her classmates — and the suit paved the way for the passage of a state law that guaranteed all students with disabilities the right to participate in sports. Then it became a national mandate. Three years ago, the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a letter of guidance clarifying school districts’ legal obligation to provide equal access to extracurricular activities to all students. Image Tatyana, left, and Hannah McFadden after competing in an event at the London Paralympic Games in 2012. Credit Michael Steele/Getty Images The long run — the marathon view, if you will — made the struggle worth it. It made life easier for those who followed, including Hannah, who did not have to deal with the obstacles or animosity her sister had faced. In Tatyana McFadden’s book for young readers, “Ya Sama! Moments From My Life,” published this year, there is a chapter about the case, with the ugly moments softened or omitted. “I didn’t want to make it so dark or so tragic,” she said. The Russian phrase “Ya sama!” can be translated as “I can do it” or “I can do it myself.” It is a phrase she learned as a young child in her St. Petersburg orphanage and one she uses now when faced with a challenge. “Any race that Tatyana is on the starting line is a race she can win,” said Adam Bleakney, her coach for the Paralympics and at the University of Illinois, where she is a graduate student. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if she wins seven golds. One of her strengths is her ability to have a very singular focus, whatever the task at hand. There is never a reservation or doubt when she has a goal in her mind. Most of us will get a sliver of doubt, but I don’t think that ever happens to Tatyana.” After returning with three golds from the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London, Tatyana tried skiing for the first time. She made the 2014 Winter Paralympics team and left Sochi with a silver medal, her 11th over all. In Rio, McFadden is likely to win gold several times over, as she is the world-record holder in the 100, 400, 800, 1,500 and 5,000 meters. The United States relay team — nicknamed the McRelay, with a lineup of the McFadden sisters, Amanda McGrory and Chelsea McClammer — is a gold medal contender. And Tatyana McFadden is favored to win the marathon, after having swept the Boston, London, Chicago and New York marathons for the last three years. In April, at the London Marathon, McFadden raced wheel to wheel and shoulder to shoulder with her Swiss rival Manuela Schär. McFadden’s arms throbbed as she pushed past Buckingham Palace, unable to shake Schär, who had saved energy for the final push by riding in McFadden’s draft. The duo headed for the finish at the Mall. As Schär tried to outkick her rival, McFadden floored it to the finish, winning by a second. As her parents watched, even they were astounded. Where did that sprint come from? they asked her. “Well, she was going to beat me,” she said, matter-of-factly. | Paralympics;Track and field;Tatyana McFadden;Hannah McFadden |
ny0249590 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2011/02/03 | Syracuse Stops Slide With Win at UConn | Rick Jackson had 13 points and 13 rebounds to lead No. 17 Syracuse to a 66-58 victory at No. 6 Connecticut on Wednesday that allowed the Orange to avoid the first five-game losing streak in Coach Jim Boeheim’s 35 seasons. Brandon Triche had 16 points for the Orange (19-4, 6-4 Big East), which had lost four straight under Boeheim three times before this streak. “This was a game we had to find a way to win,” Boeheim said. The freshman Jeremy Lamb had 22 points to lead the Huskies (17-4, 5-4), who have lost two in a row — both at home — since a six-game winning streak. The game featured the most wins ever in Division I between two coaches: Boeheim came in with 847, Jim Calhoun with 840. Both coaches are members of the basketball Hall of Fame. The 1,687 wins bettered the mark of 1,665 set by Texas Tech’s Bob Knight and Oklahoma State’s Eddie Sutton on Feb. 25, 2006. Syracuse took its first lead, 26-25, on a hook shot by Jackson at the halftime buzzer. The Huskies never regained it, although they did get close three times in the final five minutes. Each time, Syracuse had an answer. A follow shot by Charles Okwandu brought Connecticut within 53-52 with 4 minutes 56 seconds left, but Triche made a 3-pointer 28 seconds later to push the lead back to 4. Alex Oriakhi made two free throws with 3:10 to go to bring the Huskies within 56-54, but Kris Joseph had his own 5-point run to give the Orange a 7-point lead with 1:21 left. The last time Connecticut got close was on Lamb’s floater after a steal, which made it 61-58 with 51 seconds left. But Scoop Jardine made three of four free throws and Jackson scored on a tip-in with 14 seconds left. UConn guard Kemba Walker, the nation’s third-leading scorer at 24.2 points, finished with a season-low 8 and shot 3 of 14. “I just can’t make a shot,” said Walker, who is 27 of 88 (30.6 percent) over his last five games. “It happens. It happens to the best players in the world. I just have to get through it.” ST. JOHN’S 58, RUTGERS 56 Justin Brownlee’s layup with four seconds left lifted St. John’s over visiting Rutgers. The Red Storm (13-8, 5-5 Big East) led, 50-40, with 6:52 left, but the Scarlet Knights tied the score behind three consecutive 3-pointers by Robert Lumpkins in the final 90 seconds. Rutgers got one final 3 attempt after Brownlee’s layup, but Dane Miller missed it at the buzzer. VILLANOVA 75, MARQUETTE 70 Mouphtaou Yarou scored 18 points and Corey Fisher had 17 as No. 12 Villanova (18-4, 6-3) beat Marquette in its first game since falling out of the top 10. W. VIRGINIA 56, SETON HALL 44 No. 25 West Virginia (15-6, 6-3 Big East) rode a strong first half and excellent defense to a victory against Seton Hall (10-13, 4-7), which was held to its lowest scoring output of the season. The Mountaineers have held four straight opponents under 60 points. DUKE 80, MARYLAND 62 Kyle Singler scored 22 points and Nolan Smith had 21 as No. 5 Duke (20-2, 7-1 Atlantic Coast) rebounded from a blowout loss to St. John’s with a win at Maryland to avoid its first losing streak in nearly two years. SAN DIEGO ST. 56, COLORADO ST. 54 D. J. Gay made a jumper with 1.8 seconds left, then stole a long inbounds pass as time expired to lift No. 7 San Diego State (22-1, 7-1 Mountain West) at Colorado State. B.Y.U. 69, WYOMING 62 Jimmer Fredette scored 26 points and Brandon Davies had 20 for No. 8 Brigham Young (21-2, 7-1 Mountain West), which was held well below its team scoring average of 84.9 points a game. Fredette, who entered averaging 27.6 points, shot 7 for 21 from the field, including 2 of 11 on 3-pointers. OKLAHOMA ST. 76, MISSOURI 70 Darrell Williams scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Oklahoma State over No. 14 Missouri (17-5, 3-4 Big 12), which lost its fourth consecutive conference road game after arriving in Stillwater only six hours before tip-off because of travel issues. IN OTHER GAMES Indiana (12-11, 3-7 Big Ten) edged No. 18 Minnesota, 60-57, to post its second win over a ranked team in six days — the first time the Hoosiers have beaten two top-25 teams in a season since February 2008. ... Nikola Malesevic scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half to lead Rhode Island over visiting Fordham, 72-52. Fordham (6-14, 0-8) has lost 10 in a row over all and 33 straight in the Atlantic 10. Women BAYLOR 92, OKLAHOMA 70 Brittney Griner scored 29 points and Destiny Williams added 19 points and 11 rebounds to help top-ranked Baylor rout No. 13 Oklahoma in Waco, Tex. Baylor (20-1, 7-0 Big 12) had a 17-4 lead before Griner scored her first point. N. CAROLINA 84, FLORIDA ST. 75 Jessica Breland scored 16 of her 22 points in the second half and Waltiea Rolle was perfect on 12 free throws as No. 15 North Carolina won at No. 19 Florida State. | College Athletics;Basketball;Syracuse University;University of Connecticut |
ny0179786 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2007/08/26 | For African Migrants, Europe Gets Further Away | AGRIGENTO, Sicily, Aug. 22 — The deadly flow of flimsy boats crammed with migrants heading north across the Mediterranean has slowed substantially this summer. After years of surging arrivals, Italy and Spain, the initial destinations for thousands fleeing Africa for safety or jobs in Europe, are reporting drops of a third or more compared with last year. Government officials in both countries trumpet success from more sea-borne patrols and better cooperation with African nations across the Mediterranean to reduce journeys that have flooded European countries with often-unwanted migrants and claimed thousands of lives in the last decade, experts estimate. But even as Spain is reporting a sizable decrease in drownings, success is far from complete. With more obstacles in place, migrants appear to be taking greater risks. Fortress Europe, a migrant advocacy group, reports that the number of deaths among those seeking to reach Italy has remained stable, despite this year’s drop in overall arrivals, suggesting that those who try face a more perilous journey. “All of us were the captain,” said one recent arrival to Italy, a 28-year-old Nigerian named Moses, who would give only his first name because he said he faced danger back home. “We did the job together.” They were forced into the role because smugglers are taking fewer chances, choosing to send their human cargo in smaller, barely seaworthy boats rather than the large vessels piloted by professional captains that they used in past years. Moses’ particular task on the trip from Libya was to shine a flashlight on a compass the smugglers had given to another of the 24 men packed into a small rubber raft for a journey that is just 180 miles on a map, but took several wandering days on often rough water. “The Lord was with us,” he said at an immigration holding center here. Many others have not made it. The day Moses spoke, six bodies were fished out of the same stretch of sea he had traveled. That same day, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, a rescued Mauritanian man said he was the only survivor of a rubber raft from Libya that capsized with 45 people aboard. “It is clear people are still dying in very dramatic circumstances,” said Erika Feller, assistant high commissioner for protection for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. “It proves that the disincentives are not enough to discourage quite large numbers of people from putting their lives at risk at sea.” For years, the clandestine flotilla of boats — sailing over the Mediterranean for Southern Europe, or in the case of Spain also over the east Atlantic for an initial stop in the Canary Islands — has stood as the most disturbing symbol for Europe’s larger problem of immigration. The migrants wash up, alive and dead, most often in summer, at times along the beaches where Europeans vacation. They are perhaps the most stark component of a quandary Europe has had much trouble solving: how to continue to meet its international obligation to protect those fleeing war and persecution while keeping out those it fears will form a permanent underclass or, in the worst cases, expose their countries to terrorism. Now, after years of angst, it appears European efforts to stem the flow — and the resulting deaths — might be working, at least temporarily. The numbers are incomplete, but as of the end of July, Fortress Europe reported the number of arrivals to Italy at 5,200 people, compared with 9,389 in the same period in 2006, a drop of 45 percent. Despite repeated requests, the Italian Interior Ministry, which most closely tracks the numbers, said it was not able to provide statistics because everyone authorized to speak with the press was on summer vacation. A ministry press release, without giving specific numbers, said arrivals were down 30 percent this year. The Italian coast guard, however, reported a drop of roughly 50 percent. Spain has reported an even greater reduction: official numbers for this year show 7,934 arrivals through July , compared with 17,433 in the first seven months last year. Greece, another major destination for immigrants, is also reporting a drop of 20 percent from last year. The drop was achieved, advocacy groups and government officials say, through a variety of means. Last year, Frontex, a new European Union agency charged with border security, began patrolling the Mediterranean with boats and aircraft. Spain has engaged in joint patrols with Morocco and Senegal, confiscating boats before they sail and intercepting others that make it out to sea. Spain has also initiated programs praised by many advocacy groups that have opened up more legal ways to enter the country for immigrants who might otherwise make dangerous sea crossings. Italy’s job has been, in many ways, more difficult: Facing resistance in a Parliament it controls only narrowly, the center-left government has not made any major changes in immigration procedures. And Libya, the launching point for many of those heading to Italy, is far less reliable than more democratic nations like Morocco or Senegal. Libya has in recent months, however, been more helpful, possibly because it is working toward a closer relationship with Europe. Its leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has forged informal agreements with Italy to crack down on smugglers and patrol its own borders to keep those fleeing other African countries from entering and then heading north from its shores. But problems remain. Human rights advocates say Libya has resorted to harassment, arrest and arbitrary deportation even for those fleeing war. They also say the country’s work to stop the flow is incomplete at best. “If you pay the police, you can go on with your trip to Sicily,” said Fulvio Vassallo Paleologo, an immigration expert and professor of law at the University of Palermo in Sicily. Half a dozen recent migrants at a so-called welcoming center in Caltanissetta in central Sicily said in interviews that it was difficult to find boats in Libya willing to take them, providing evidence that the nation is having some success clamping down on emigration. But they also said that Libyan security forces were cracking down harshly on immigrants. Several said, in fact, that they felt pushed into making the trip across to Italy because they otherwise might have been arrested in Libya and deported. “There were a lot of people in Libya who were ready to make the trip,” said Ibrahim, 28, who said he had fled the war in Darfur, Sudan, to Libya before making the trip on July 21 in a small fiberglass boat with 45 other men, including Palestinians , Moroccans, Tunisians and three Iraqis. “But there were too many checks” on smugglers. The difference between the diplomatic challenges faced by Spain and Italy may account for differences in the death rates of migrants this year. According to Fortress Europe, the number of deaths in Spain or the Canary Islands is down substantially to 43 through Aug. 20 of this year, compared with 728 in all of 2006, a particularly deadly year, and 121 in 2005. Italy, meantime, has 102 reported deaths through Aug. 23, according to Fortress Europe, compared with 96 in all of 2006. Advocates for migrants say they believe that beyond traveling in smaller boats, some migrants are taking longer, and thus riskier, journeys to avoid patrols. In the end, the larger question is whether the decrease in arrivals this year signals the start of a more permanent decline in the number of migrants willing to cross the sea. Some experts cautiously predict a continued drop, particularly if Libya keeps on its path toward a more formal partnership with the European Union. Others are more pessimistic: They say that the broader problems in Africa — poverty, war, religious and ethnic strife — remain and are likely to continue to push people across the water. Ibrahim, the migrant from Darfur, said: “We were already dead when we were in Sudan and Libya. If we died on the boat, it’s all the same.” | Immigration and Refugees;Africa;Europe;Mediterranean Sea;European Union |
ny0176901 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2007/09/02 | At Virginia Tech, a Step Toward Normalcy | BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 1 — The Virginia Tech campus was a sea of maroon Saturday morning. Football fans flooded streets and sidewalks, and rhythmic chants of “Let’s go Hokies!” echoed off stone buildings. But there was a slice of silence amid the din. In front of Burress Hall, there is a memorial for the 27 students and 5 faculty members who were shot and killed April 16 by the Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho . Before Virginia Tech’s 17-7 victory against East Carolina, a constant and slow-moving line formed at the memorial, made up of large stones engraved with the names of the victims. Each stone was topped with about 10 flowers and a small unlighted candle. The memorial for the student Leslie Geraldine Sherman was draped with an apron from the West End Market, a university dining hall where she worked. Men removed their hats. Wives held their husbands’ hands. The moments were solemn and very silent. Norris Hall, the building where 30 of the victims were killed, is about 50 yards from the memorial. It is now dotted with large yellow-and-black signs that read, “Valid Virginia Tech ID required for entry.” On Saturday, many football fans walked past this building tentatively, whispering and pointing, asking their friends if it was indeed the place. But few stopped for more than a moment. Across campus, Lane Stadium began to bustle. “I sensed it coming in today,” said Cheryl Beamer, the wife of Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer. “Places where traffic wasn’t usually backed up, it was backed up. People are always here for kickoff, but they were here earlier today. No one wanted to miss a thing.” During the pregame ceremony, the Virginia Tech cheerleaders released 32 orange balloons into the cloudy sky. A remembrance video was shown on the stadium’s scoreboard. The Hokies ran out of the locker room to the Metallica song “Enter Sandman,” just as they did last season. A Virginia Tech player carried the team’s battered lunch pail, symbolic of its blue-collar work ethic, just as a player did last season. But this time, the lunch pail had a piece of paper inside that listed the shooting victims. Then, whether it provided a bit of healing or simply a return to something comfortable, the 66,233 people focused on a football game. “A lot of fans came up to us yesterday saying how much they needed this one, how badly they wanted us to win,” left tackle Duane Brown said. “I’m not sure how that affected us.” For a time, the heavy expectations seemed to weigh on the Hokies. Quarterback Sean Glennon threw an interception on Virginia Tech’s first offensive play, and two more turnovers followed. The Hokies finished the game with 33 rushing yards. There was even a smattering of boos late in the first half. Virginia Tech led by only 3 points early in the fourth quarter, but with 13 minutes 7 seconds left, Glennon completed a 21-yard touchdown pass down the left side to tight end Sam Wheeler, giving the Hokies a 17-7 lead. East Carolina did not get past the Virginia Tech 34-yard line after that. The victory was not dominant, but it did not need to be. “I think we just felt there was togetherness today,” Coach Beamer said. “I think there was unity today. Everything sort of stepped up a notch.” When the game ended, the Virginia Tech players gathered near an end zone as their marching band played the university’s alma mater. The band members wore patches in memory of Ryan Clark, one of the shooting victims, who had been a baritone player. Virginia Tech will play next at No. 2 Louisiana State, which has dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. These two teams have become inextricably linked to tragedies, but they also share visions of a national championship. When the Hokies finished their university’s song and walked to the locker room, one fan provided a subtle reminder that things were slowly returning to normal. “Hey,” the man yelled from a front-row seat. “Make sure you guys crush ‘em next week.” | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University;Football;Murders and Attempted Murders;Firearms;Colleges and Universities;Cho Seung-Hui |
ny0117936 | [
"us"
] | 2012/10/06 | Worries Over Defense Dept. Money for ‘Hackerspaces’ | This fall, 16 high schools in California started experimental workshops , billed as a kind of “shop class for the 21st century,” that were financed by the federal government. And over the next three years, the $10 million program plans to expand to 1,000 high schools, modeled on the growing phenomenon of “hackerspaces” — community clubhouses where hackers gather to build, invent or take things apart in their spare time. But the money has stirred some controversy. The financing for the schools program is one of several recent grants that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency , or Darpa, has made to build closer ties to hackers. Unlike the hackers who cripple Web sites and steal data, the people the government is working with are more often computer professionals who indulge their curiosity at their local hackerspace. But the financing has prompted criticism that the military’s money could co-opt these workshops just as they are starting to spread quickly. There are about 200 hackerspaces in the United States, a sharp jump from the handful that existed five years ago. The workshops, with names like the Hacktory , Jigsaw Renaissance and Hacker Dojo , have incubated successful businesses like Pinterest, the social networking site, and are seen as hotbeds for recruiting engineers and computer scientists. “Magic comes from these places,” said Peiter Zatko, a program manager at Darpa, who is reaching out to these workshops, looking for cutting-edge ideas in cybersecurity. His program has entered into 74 contracts, and about 40 projects have been completed, work that he said would have been stymied by traditional government bureaucracy. (Mr. Zatko made a name for himself as a respected hacker before joining the government — he testified before a Senate committee in 1998 , using the pseudonym Mudge, and told the panel that he could take down the Internet in 30 minutes.) When his government colleagues see the results of his program, “their jaws just drop,” Mr. Zatko said. Many people say that hackerspaces are promising incubators for innovation and should be cultivated. However, not everyone agrees that the Defense Department should be playing a role, especially in high school programs. “Having these programs in schools is fantastic, but the military calling the shots in American education?” Mitch Altman, a co-founder of Noisebridge , a San Francisco hackerspace, said in an interview. “I don’t see that as a positive move,” added Mr. Altman, who, in an online post, was among the first to take a stand against the program. The controversy over the government programs led to a t ense session in a packed ballroom at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference this summer in New York, where recipients and critics of the Darpa financing gathered to discuss its implications. “If you grow a piece of celery in red water, it’s going to be red,” said Sean Auriti, who is known as Psytek at the hackerspace Alpha One Labs in Brooklyn, which he runs. “I’m just wondering how this Darpa defense contract money is going to influence these projects.” And yet Mr. Auriti himself is benefiting from the Darpa money as a member of SpaceGambit , a consortium of hackerspaces that won a $500,000 grant for research in space exploration and colonization technologies. He said he hoped that the grant would help him build a mini-thruster to launch backpack-size satellites into orbit. But the debate over the financing has prompted him to establish a separate working group for the space research with Darpa. That way, none of his workshop’s members will feel as though they are unwillingly participating in government work, he said. Some on the conference panel voiced concerns that Darpa financing would steer more hackers toward military projects. Mr. Altman, the Noisebridge co-founder, said he viewed the influence of military money as a threat because it would lead hackers to choose projects that might appeal to grant makers, as opposed to following their passions, however idiosyncratic. Everyone on the panel agreed that hackerspaces could provide an exciting model for hands-on technical education in schools, and Dale Dougherty, the founder of Maker Media , which caters to the do-it-yourself movement, said he believed that the high school program that his company was managing would do just that. “I think we’re looking at science and technology as content, not experiences,” Mr. Dougherty said. “We’re asking kids, ‘Do you want to be an engineer?’ and they don’t know what that means. But if you ask them, ‘What do you want to make?’ they start thinking about doing something.” Darpa’s Web site describes the program’s goal as encouraging students to “jointly design and build systems of moderate complexity, such as mobile robots, go-carts, etc., in response to prize challenges.” But Mr. Dougherty said that the fears about his program were unfounded, and that he wanted the students to work on projects of their choosing. “We’re not asking kids to build weapons,” he said. Darpa has a storied history of making long-shot bets and hoping that a handful of them will pay off. It financed the development of technologies that led to the creation of the Internet, GPS and stealth technology. This cluster of bets on low-cost, innovative manufacturing is part of a strategy by Darpa officials to reduce development times in a range of projects like armored vehicle construction and cybersecurity fixes. When Lt. Col. Nathan Wiedenman, a Darpa program manager, appeared in Army fatigues this May at a San Francisco-area do-it-yourself festival , Maker Faire, he said the agency’s mission was to ensure that the United States would never again be surprised by the technical superiority of an enemy state, as it was when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. “To push the bounds of new technology, we have to physically make things,” he said. Colonel Wiedenman is managing both the grant for the high school program and a $3.5 million grant to the retail start-up TechShop (it is a bit like a Kinko’s, but instead of copiers, members pay to use laser cutters). As part of that contract, Darpa employees will have access to TechShop’s tools after midnight, when the doors are closed to the public, since Darpa has no lab space of its own. Matt Joyce, an early hackerspace member who has worked with NASA and has publicly voiced support for Darpa financing, said he believed that the agency’s interest in hackerspaces was a sign of their growing importance. But he acknowledged that the government financing would continue to provoke debate, because questions about ethics often loom large for engineers, even in cases in which the government allows them to retain commercial rights to their inventions. “You never know when you build something where it might end up,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of folks getting the Darpa funding, and a lot of people watching on the sidelines to see what happens.” | Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency;Defense Department;Defense Contracts;Cyberattacks and Hackers;Computer Security;United States Politics and Government;Education (K-12) |
ny0257613 | [
"technology"
] | 2011/01/11 | With iPhone Taunts, AT&T-Verizon Rivalry Escalates | In the Verizon - AT&T fight, the gloves are officially off. AT&T, which has been the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States, took a public swipe at the competition on Monday, a day before Verizon was expected to announce plans to offer the iPhone as well. “I’m not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane,” Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, said in a company statement. He suggested that Verizon’s version of the iPhone would not be as fast because of the network technology the company uses. Verizon offered its own jabs in response, pointing out the stress and strain placed on AT&T’s network since 2007, the year the first iPhone was introduced. “AT&T is known for a lot of things, but network quality is not one of them,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless. “Typically companies try to call attention to their strongest suit.” Mr. Nelson added something that had the ring of a playground taunt: “It must be backwards day at AT&T.” Verizon’s impending announcement is cranking up the tension between AT&T and Verizon, which has watched from the sidelines as AT&T reaped the benefits of its partnership with Apple. The fight now heating up underscores the growing importance of the gravitational pull of popular devices like the iPhone, which for wireless companies can mean millions of dollars in revenue in sales of the devices and data plans. “Historically, these companies have not been direct competitors. They share the same gene pool, going back to Ma Bell,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at the research firm Sanford C. Bernstein. “But it speaks to the fact that the wireless business is now the majority of their growth, and it’s not far from the majority of their business.” The competition between AT&T and Verizon, he said, recalls some of the great brand battles of the past, in which rivals duked it out in advertising campaigns on television and billboards. “It’s reminiscent of the days when you couldn’t say the word ‘Pepsi’ in Atlanta,” Mr. Moffett said. The stakes for AT&T are high. The company has suffered from the strain placed on its network by millions of data-guzzling iPhone owners, and has struggled to address customer complaints. Its reputation may suffer further damage if Verizon does not have the same problems with its network. “There’s no comparison between the two carriers when it comes to consumer satisfaction,” said Paul Reynolds, an electronics editor at Consumer Reports, who keeps a close eye on wireless companies. Mr. Reynolds said the magazine had found that in the last few years, Verizon was consistently ranked highest in satisfaction among its users. AT&T, he said, is a different story. Its customers “are consistently the least satisfied,” Mr. Reynolds said. “AT&T used to have company in the lower rung, but Sprint pulled itself up and moved into the top-tier carriers.” Millions of wireless subscribers may hang in the balance. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, estimates that Verizon could activate as many as nine million iPhones in the coming year, or as much as 40 percent of its total smartphone sales for the year. Up to 6.5 million of those subscribers could be defectors from AT&T, he said. The back-and-forth between the two companies has been going on for a while. Last year, Verizon ran a series of commercials showing purported dead zones in AT&T’s national coverage. They were accompanied by the tagline, “Before you pick a phone, pick a network.” Analysts and experts expect the clash between the carriers to continue to play out in the public arena, most likely through similar barbed statements and ad campaigns, as each criticizes the other’s capabilities and services. Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, said that given Apple’s resistance to allowing carriers to put their brands on the iPhone, it was likely that phones from AT&T and Verizon would be indistinguishable on the outside. “It’s crucial that they have a message that emphasizes the quality of the network,” he said. Verizon’s network could suffer from the same hiccups and traffic burdens that AT&T has struggled with — unless it has learned from AT&T’s mistakes. “Verizon is awfully confident they won’t have any problems,” Mr. Moffett said. “But they’ve had a long time to prepare for this.” | Verizon Communications Inc;iPhone;AT&T Inc;Wireless Communications |
ny0271029 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2016/04/14 | Facing Impeachment Vote in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff Accuses Vice President of Conspiracy | BRASÍLIA — President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil said on Tuesday that her vice president was orchestrating a conspiracy to topple her, as efforts to impeach her gained momentum in the National Congress. Aided by her mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Ms. Rousseff scrambled to secure enough support from a dwindling array of allies to block impeachment in a lower-house vote set for Sunday that analysts predicted she would lose. A congressional committee voted on Monday by a larger-than-expected margin to recommend that she be impeached for breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014, a charge Ms. Rousseff says was trumped up to remove her from office. Political risk consultancies estimated there was a 60 percent to 65 percent chance that impeachment would clear the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the National Congress. The committee vote was expected to sway undecided lawmakers to vote against her. While Ms. Rousseff fights for her political survival, her government is largely paralyzed as Brazil, which has the world’s seventh-largest economy, struggles with a deep recession and its biggest corruption scandal. “They now are conspiring openly, in the light of day, to destabilize a legitimately elected president,” Ms. Rousseff said in a speech on Tuesday, referring to an audio message sent by Vice President Michel Temer to his supporters on Monday. In the message, Mr. Temer called for a government of national unity to overcome Brazil’s political crisis. The congressional committee’s 38-to-27 decision was backed by Mr. Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, which was once the main coalition ally of Ms. Rousseff’s Workers’ Party. The party’s defection last month greatly increased the likelihood that the Chamber of Deputies would send her impeachment to the Federal Senate, the upper house. Mr. Temer would take over if the Senate agreed to suspend Ms. Rousseff and proceed with a trial against her. The rift between the president and the vice president reached a breaking point on Monday after the audio message was released, which Mr. Temer said was unintentional. Brazil Impeachment: The Process for Removing the President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, is facing removal from office. Here is a step-by-step explanation of the proceedings. “The conspirators have been unmasked,” Ms. Rousseff said in her speech. She did not mention Mr. Temer by name but cited the message as evidence of what she called an attempted “coup.” In an interview broadcast on Globo News late on Tuesday, Mr. Temer responded to her remarks by saying he was ready to take the presidency “if destiny takes me to that position.” Looking relaxed and smiling, Mr. Temer denied plotting against Ms. Rousseff and said he did not plan to resign if the lower house voted against impeachment. Aides say he has been preparing in case he has to replace her, so that he can restore confidence with a business-friendly agenda aimed at pulling the economy out of a tailspin. Brazil’s finance minister, Nelson Barbosa, canceled a trip to the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings in Washington to remain in Brasília for Sunday’s impeachment vote. Ms. Rousseff suffered a further blow later on Tuesday as the centrist Progressive Party left her government, saying it would abandon its ministerial roles. The party had been an important ally, and with 49 deputies in the lower house, it could decide which way Sunday’s vote goes. The party’s leader in the lower house, Aguinaldo Ribeiro, told reporters in Brasília that the majority of his party supported impeachment. “The undecided congressmen must be calculating whether to stay with a very weak government that can barely govern the country or bet on a future Temer government that will have more support,” said Claudio Couto, a political scientist at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas policy group. Ms. Rousseff said her opponents were undermining Brazil’s young democracy by seeking to cut short her second term without legal justification. “They intend to overthrow a president elected by more than 54 million voters,” she said, adding that impeachment was aimed at rolling back social and economic advances for many Brazilians during the 13 years of government by her Workers’ Party. | Corruption;Workers' Party Brazil;Brazilian Democratic Movement Party;Brasilia Brazil;Dilma Rousseff;Michel Temer;Impeachment;Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva;Economy |
ny0121441 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2012/07/25 | Korean Police Tire of Being Abused by Drinkers | SEOUL, South Korea — The drunken man banged the door of his cell in the police station with his knee. He ripped the padding off the walls, throwing shreds and spouting curses at the police officers outside the bars, who ignored him as if such rampages were part of their nightly routine. Such scenes, captured on police security videos shown on television , are common in South Korea. They say much about that society’s acceptance of heavy drinking and about the peculiar relationship between the country’s citizens and their police. Almost every night in almost every police station lockup in Seoul, drunken men — and sometimes women — can be found abusing officers verbally and even physically, as a widely tolerated way of banishing anger. They usually are allowed to sleep it off and go home, their punishment no more than a small fine. “They consider the police station a place to let off steam,” a police superintendent, Park Dan-won, said. “They consider us pushovers.” Now the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has decided that enough is enough. In May, large banners went up around the city announcing a crackdown on drunken violence. It is intended to prompt the drinking public to behave more responsibly, to reassert police authority in a country that remembers, resentfully, when the police served as henchmen for Japanese colonial masters and military dictators, and to challenge South Korea’s general tolerance of misbehavior by the intoxicated. In Seoul last year, nearly 77 percent of those charged with obstruction of justice — like abusing public servants — were drunk at the time. But in only 15 percent of such cases did the police seek to hold the offender for any length of time, and they succeeded in only half of those cases because of judges’ and prosecutors’ traditional leniency toward people brought before them on drunken offenses. “We hesitate to use force against unruly drunken citizens because then we’re likely to face charges of police brutality,” said Cho Tai-il, senior police inspector in the Guro district of Seoul. Since the police campaign began, the police have arrested nearly 230 serial offenders — individuals who had been investigated an average of 26 times, but arrested only occasionally, over various offenses they committed while drunk, including hampering the police in the course of their duties. Many South Koreans, who work some of the longest hours in the world, believe that one of the quickest ways of building friendship and office camaraderie is to get drunk together. “He who drinks more works better” is a common saying here, and the working person’s drink of choice is often “the bomb,” a shot glass of soju, the local grain liquor, added to a glass of beer. The concoction is then downed in unison by all around the table to shouts of “One shot!” or “Bottoms up!” According to the World Health Organization, South Koreans rank No. 13 in alcohol consumption over all but No. 1 in hard liquor consumption. A Korean Alcohol Research Foundation survey in 2010 found that about 44 percent of college students said they had experienced blackouts from excessive drinking. “A problem with the way South Koreans drink is that they drink fast to get drunk fast,” a foundation official, Chang Ki-hwun, said. “In a society with a strong collective mentality, people are not trained to say no to coercive drinking.” It is also cheap to get drunk in South Korea. A 360-milliliter bottle of soju, about 12 ounces, costs about 1,200 won, about $1, at ubiquitous all-night stores. Young celebrities like the Olympic figure-skating champion Yuna Kim appear in liquor advertisements. On television, some celebrities brag about how much they can drink. On weekend nights, it is easy to find besotted men, some in suits and ties, vomiting or sprawled in the subways or on the street. (Some take off their shoes and glasses and sleep using their briefcase or a concrete curb for a pillow.) They are such a fixture of Seoul’s night life that there is even a blog about it: Black Out Korea . Choi Jeong-wook, an assistant police inspector in the Yeongdeungpo district of Seoul, said 80 percent of the work at his station involved dealing with drunks, like the elderly man who was brought in on a recent Friday night for punching another man in a fight over a woman. At one point, the man grabbed an officer by the collar and pushed him against a wall. He was released, and police officers expect he will get a small fine. People at the station said he boasted of having already been fined a total of four million won, an estimated $3,500, for drunk and disorderly conduct offenses. During Japan’s colonial rule, from 1910 to 1945, Koreans resented the police for working with the Japanese authorities. After Korea’s liberation, many officers ran the national police force, which formed the front line in suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations. After the country’s democratization in the late 1980s, the relationship between citizens and the police was upended. Fear of officers was replaced with an attitude of “citizens are your boss.” In the busy Sinchon district on a recent night, a jaywalking man blocked a police car, kicked the bumper and pulled the antenna, challenging the “jjapsae” — derogatory Korean slang for cops — to a fistfight while amused pedestrians watched. The officer urged him to go home. “We’re not asking people to fear us,” Inspector Choi said. “We’re just asking them not to abuse us.” Some South Koreans, though, accuse the police of continuing to act as a tool of the politically powerful. Kwon Kyung-woo, an online columnist and a critic of the police crackdown on drunks, many of them jobless or homeless, said it reminded him of the old military dictatorships, when disorderly citizens and petty criminals were taken to brutal re-education camps in the name of “social purification.” He argued that the police had found an “easy target” in drunken miscreants to divert people’s attention from economic troubles and corruption scandals implicating associates of President Lee Myung-bak. Not everyone agrees. When officers took a drunken man from the 7-Eleven outlet, the store’s manager, Yang Seung-guk, praised the police for finally doing their job. “He demanded free liquor,” Mr. Yang said. “When I said no, he lay down on the floor, talked to the A.T.M., kicked the trash can and drove the customers away. Good riddance.” | South Korea;Alcohol Abuse;Alcoholic Beverages;Police;Drunken and Reckless Driving;Seoul (South Korea) |
ny0041365 | [
"sports"
] | 2014/05/04 | Bannister, 85, Reflects 60 Years After Breaking the Four-Minute Mile | OXFORD, England — Roger Bannister is busy reliving the four minutes that endure as a transcendent moment in sports history. On a wet, blustery spring day, May 6, 1954, Bannister, then 25 and a lanky English medical student, became the first runner to break the four-minute barrier in the mile, a feat that many had thought was impossible. Paced by two other runners, Bannister completed four laps around a cinder track here in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, a milestone that captured the world’s fascination and still resonates. “It was a target,” Bannister, now 85, said at his Oxford home, a short distance from the Iffley Road track where he made history. “University athletes had been trying for years, and it just didn’t seem to be capable of being broken. There was this magic about four symmetrical laps of one minute each. “It was just something which caught the public’s imagination. I think it still remains something that is of interest and intrigue.” Bannister’s record lasted only 46 days, and he considers his victory over his Australian rival John Landy a few months later as his greatest running exploit. Yet, as the 60th anniversary attests, Bannister’s 3:59.4 remains part of track and field lore, a symbol of boundary-breaking endurance that stands the test of time. It is only a slice of Bannister’s life story. He retired from running at the end of 1954 and pursued a long career in neurology that he considers more significant than anything he accomplished on the track. “Medicine, without a doubt,” Bannister said when asked about his proudest achievement. “I wouldn’t claim to have made any great discoveries, but at any rate I satisfactorily inched forward in our knowledge of a particular aspect of medicine. I’m far more content with that than I am about any of the running I did earlier.” Knighted in 1975, Bannister is slowing down as the years pass. He is coping with the effects of Parkinson’s disease, a neurological ailment that falls under his medical specialty. “I know quite a bit about it, which is both helpful and unhelpful,” Bannister said, sitting in his living room lined with photos and mementos of his running and medical career. “But I’m 85 and something has to happen.” Bannister’s right ankle was shattered in a car accident in 1975, and he has been unable to run since then. Now, he walks with crutches inside his home and uses a wheelchair outdoors. Hundreds of athletes have run the mile in less than four minutes since Bannister did it, and the world record has been broken 18 times since then. The current mark of 3:43.13 was set by Morocco’s Hicham el-Guerrouj in 1999. The next barrier in the sport? Bannister believes the two-hour mark in the marathon will be broken in the next few years. The fastest time is 2:03.23, by Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang in Berlin in 2013. “It involves a 2 percent improvement,” Bannister said. “It has to be run on a day with the right temperature and on a course which isn’t too hilly, preferably a course which is a single line with the wind at your back all the way. It’ll be done.” Bannister and his wife of 58 years, Moyra, will mark Tuesday’s anniversary at Oxford University with family and friends: a lunch at Exeter College, where Bannister enrolled in 1946, and a ceremony at Vincent’s Club, an elite 150-year-old sports club. Missing will be Bannister’s pace runners, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. Brasher, who founded the London Marathon, died in 2003 at 74. Chataway died last January at 82. “I miss them very much,” Bannister said. “We used to meet on the anniversary on May 6 with our wives, and sometimes with children, and have a kind of party and reflect.” Bannister has published an autobiography, “Twin Tracks.” The book, which grew out of letters to his 14 grandchildren, traces his family’s origins in Lancashire in northwest England, his growing up in the London borough of Harrow, and his athletic, medical and academic life. Bannister went to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics in Finland as a favorite in the 1,500 meters — the shorter metric mile run in the Olympics — but struggled with the addition of an extra day of heats and finished fourth. Retirement plans were put aside, and Bannister decided to run for two more years and chase the four-minute mile. The Swedish runner Gunder Hagg’s record of 4:01.4 had stood since 1945. Landy and Wes Santee of the United States had each run 4:02 and were competing with Bannister to be the first under 4:00. Bannister recalled: “At one point, Landy said: ‘It’s like a brick wall. I’m not going to attempt it again.’ I, as a medical student, knew there wasn’t a brick wall. If you could run it in 4 minutes and 2.2 seconds, then you would find somebody else somewhere who trained a little better, had better conditions on the day, was able to use the pace judgment better, and they could do it. That was the frame of mind in which I approached it.” | Running;Track and field;Roger Bannister |
ny0136222 | [
"nyregion",
"thecity"
] | 2008/04/13 | 5th Question: What to Pour? | At Passover seders, which begin Saturday, traditionalists who favor sweet kosher wine and modernists who prefer dryness can share Herzog’s 2006 late-harvest chenin blanc. Refreshing acidity causes this balanced California white to seem dry. Moments later, a honeylike and melonlike aroma and flavor leave an impression of sweetness. Beekman, 500 Lexington Avenue (47th Street), asks $16.99. | Alcoholic Beverages;Goldberg Howard G |
ny0167465 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2006/01/21 | Unrepentant, Knicks' Davis Will Appeal Suspension | GREENBURGH, N.Y., Jan. 20 - A five-game suspension, a threatened $1 million lawsuit and 48 hours of talk-show dissection have left Antonio Davis weary but unbowed. Two days after entering the stands in Chicago to go to the aid of his wife, Kendra, Davis was unrepentant, and he defended her actions during an altercation with other fans. In a brief conference call Friday afternoon, Davis, the veteran Knicks forward, said he would appeal the N.B.A.'s suspension. And he said he would not apologize to Michael Axelrod, the 22-year-old Bulls fan who was threatening the lawsuit. "I'm not apologizing to anybody for anything," Davis said. "I don't think that my wife did anything wrong. I don't think that I did anything wrong." There are conflicting accounts of the altercation between Kendra Davis and other fans, but the fact that an altercation occurred was enough to spur Antonio Davis to knowingly break a cardinal N.B.A. rule. With 1 minute 4 seconds left in overtime of the Knicks' 106-104 loss to the Bulls at the United Center, Davis looked up and saw his wife scuffling with a man. He stepped over the scorer's table and jogged up about seven rows. Security officers and the referee Ron Garretson intervened, and the episode was over in about 13 seconds. Davis's arms never left his side. Under league rules, Davis was ejected. The suspension stems in large part from a new zero-tolerance policy for players entering the stands, which the N.B.A. declared after the ugly brawl between the Pacers and Pistons fans in November 2004. "I understand that I broke a rule," Davis said. "I didn't feel that they were going to give me five games, but now that they have, my first reaction was kind of, wow." He defended his decision to enter the stands, saying there was no time to alert security officers. Relaying Kendra Davis's description of events, Davis said a man seated behind her was making "very inappropriate" remarks about the Knicks and about him in particular. "She then asked him very politely to take into consideration that a kid was there and he was my son," Davis said. "He then went on to say some other things; it kind of got out of hand at that point. Another guy got involved and ended up grabbing my wife. That's what I saw and that's when I reacted." The National Basketball Players Association has announced plans to appeal the suspension to Commissioner David Stern. Given the backdrop of the Detroit-Indiana brawl, it is unlikely that Stern will shorten the suspension. An appeal hearing could take place next week. Unable to play, Davis received permission to return to his family's home in Chicago. Davis said he planned to return to New York in the next day or so and resume practicing with the team. If the suspension is upheld, Davis will be eligible to rejoin the roster Jan. 30. But the dispute with Axelrod could last much longer. Axelrod is the son of David Axelrod, regarded as one of the most powerful Democratic Party operatives in Illinois. David Axelrod is a top adviser to United States Senator Barack Obama and to Richard M. Daley, the mayor of Chicago, and has also worked with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York. Michael Axelrod alleged that Kendra Davis had verbally abused him and made physical contact. According to Kendra Davis, Axelrod was the one who made derogatory remarks about her husband. Axelrod's lawyer, Jay Paul Deratany, said he would sue Kendra Davis for battery and Antonio Davis for defamation because, in a written statement Wednesday night, Davis referred to a fan who was "intoxicated." Axelrod said he was not drunk. However, there were at least two men involved in the dispute with Kendra Davis, and it was not clear to whom Antonio Davis was referring in that statement. "I never said his name," Davis said Friday. "I never said it was this guy that was intoxicated." Earlier Friday, Deratany told The Associated Press that he would drop his plans for a lawsuit if Davis apologized. He also said he would ask the Davises to make a donation to a charity working to prevent violence against women and children. "Why would I donate some money in his behalf or anybody's behalf for something I feel that I didn't do?" Antonio Davis said. Of his decision to enter the stands, Davis said, "If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing. I don't think you have time to think about it; you're just reacting. I thought that my wife was in danger. I didn't like it at all. I didn't see anybody there helping the situation." Davis, 37, is widely respected around the league. He was given the Sears Community Service Award for the 1999-2000 season for his philanthropic efforts, and he and Kendra teamed up for a series of radio public-service announcements about domestic violence. Coaches and players have almost uniformly defended Davis for acting to protect his family. Knicks Coach Larry Brown has called the five-game suspension excessive. On Friday, he called it ridiculous. "If I saw him go up there, if I'd have known what was happening, I probably would have went up there with him," Brown said. "I don't think that they used real good judgment when they handled the penalty. But Tony's going to take it like a man, and the rest of the players in the league, I think, understand what kind of person he is and he did what he thought was right." REBOUNDS Stephon Marbury took jump shots Friday and said his sprained left shoulder was "feeling a lot better," but he was not sure if he would return Saturday night against New Orleans. | NEW YORK KNICKS;NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS;DAVIS ANTONIO;DAVIS KENDRA;SUSPENSIONS DISMISSALS AND RESIGNATIONS;BASKETBALL |
ny0171445 | [
"nyregion",
"nyregionspecial2"
] | 2007/11/11 | In a Father’s Honor, One Perfect Macoun | WHEN my father became critically ill in 1991, he asked for a favor. He was a practical man, so I thought he might say, “Take care of your mother — she gets so emotional,” or “Don’t forget — the important papers are in that black box in the bedroom closet. Take them to the lawyer.” Instead, he said, “Plant a fruit tree for me.” And so, in the spring of 1992, several months after he died, I bought two young apple trees and dug holes for them in the backyard of my house in Chester, Conn. And I waited for my crop of Macouns and Cortlands. I was told by those who know such things that it might take three or four years for a harvest. But three or four years passed, and there was none. Every spring, blossoms offered promise, but autumn yielded no fruit. “Are you spraying?” a friend asked. “You’ve got to prune,” advised another. I sprayed and pruned. And more seasons passed, with abundant blossoms but nothing else. Of course, I thought of my father during these years. In my memory, he was always the arbiter of the apple, standing atop a ladder in a pick-your-own orchard, inspecting each specimen and deciding which were good enough for the bushel basket I held below. Abe W. Bloom was a perfectionist in this way, a deliberate but almost cynical man who found in horticulture what he could find nowhere else. Politicians, for example, were not to be trusted, no matter what party. He dismissed my enthusiasm for John F. Kennedy and other public-office heroes. They’re all alike, he always told me — power-hungry and corrupt. Popular culture figures — movie actors and television personalities — were interested only in self-aggrandizement. But an apple tree — that’s something a person could count on. Maybe not. After 10 years, there were no Macouns and no Cortlands in my yard. I had to buy the latter variety, which I used to make applesauce, at a farmers’ market. The failure to produce apples weighed on me, as if I had been failing my father. He was a man of few words, but I always knew what he expected. I remembered my phone call from college in the autumn of 1962 when, in despair over terrible midterm grades, I said, “I’m quitting and coming home.” In response, my father did not offer a pep talk or a recitation of how he had worked hard and long in the depths of the water department’s pumping plant — and selling furniture on the side — to pay my tuition. He said simply, “No, you’re not.” And so I didn’t, and things eventually turned around. But years later, I found my father’s stoicism unfathomable. When I was 29, my wife, Marsha, the mother of Amy, our 3-year-old daughter, died of a brain aneurysm. In the years that followed, I struggled, and so did Amy. My father, who had lost his own mother to cancer when he was a small boy, could have offered advice for me and my daughter, but didn’t. He never spoke of dark emotions, though I recalled sketchy references to his unhappy childhood, much of it a result of an array of stepmothers. It was almost a parallel existence to Amy’s. She had to endure my two quick marriages and divorces after Marsha’s death — the misguided quest to find a new mother for her. I was ashamed of this record of domestic chaos, but my father did not pass judgment. I told him I would be reluctant to marry again. But after dating Liz for several years, I did. I asked my father to be the best man. As we stood under the chuppah, he pulled the ring from his pocket — and smiled. To me, a grand display of approval. By the autumn of 2003, a dozen years after my father’s death, there had still been no change in the apple harvest, but there were certainly other changes. Liz and I had been together 20 years when she died of breast cancer, leaving me to tend the garden she had planted, and the still-barren fruit trees. In the autumn of 2005, what looked like apples appeared on the branches. But they never grew to proper size, and when I tried to eat one, I found it bitter and infested with worms. I had to be content that the idea of a tree was enough. In spirit, I had fulfilled my father’s wishes. I had two trees, not one, and even if I couldn’t enjoy what they produced, blue jays and deer apparently considered them ideal hors d’oeuvres. And then came the storm and its rainbow. On April 15, 2007, a powerful northeaster hit New England. The wind knocked down a maple. Two days later, my landscape man propped it up, and while he was in the yard, pruned the apple trees to a point where they looked grotesque. The usual growth of blossoms appeared later in the spring. But after that, I could see from the kitchen window that apples were growing on one of the trees. They were misshapen — nothing you could ever sell at a farm stand. But there was one Macoun that, from a distance, looked perfect. In September, Amy called and said, “What are you doing for Rosh Hashana?” This was her way of saying, “I’m coming, and bringing the family.” This would be her husband, David, and the two children, Molly, 6, and Max, 4, who call me Goppy. When they arrived from Allentown, Pa., we made a holiday dinner. And I remembered that my parents — like many Jewish parents — put apples and honey on the table, as a way to welcome a sweet new year. We went out into the backyard “orchard.” I carried a photograph of my father taken a year or so before he died. I explained to Molly and Max, just old enough to understand legacy, that I used to pick apples with him every autumn. I lifted Molly and asked her to pluck the one perfect-looking Macoun from the tree. She did so. Close inspection revealed a few flaws of the skin, and I worried that I might discover critters inside. But when we brought the apple to the kitchen and I cut it, there was nothing but crisp white meat. I gave everyone a piece. We dipped our slices into the honey, recited a blessing, and ate them. A splendid apple. The kind of apple that would have earned my father’s nod for the bushel basket. | Families and Family Life;Death and Dying |
ny0164018 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2006/11/03 | Stephen R. Kaye, 75, Litigation Lawyer, Dies | ALBANY, Nov. 2 (AP) — Stephen Rackow Kaye, a lawyer who wrote the definitive work on commercial litigation in New York State, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 75. His death, of cancer, was announced by his law firm, Proskauer Rose of Manhattan, where he worked for more than 40 years, specializing in litigation. In addition to writing the 645-page text “Commercial Litigation in the New York State Courts,” Mr. Kaye successfully represented scientists in a copyright infringement case involving Texaco and successfully represented the state Metropolitan Transit Authority in 2003 when its plan to increase subway and bus fares 33 percent was challenged. He also won a $59 million judgment in the International Court at The Hague against the Islamic Republic of Iran over the country’s seizure of privately held property. Mr. Kaye, a graduate of Cornell University and its law school, served in the Army infantry in Korea. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Judith S. Kaye, the chief judge of the State of New York; a daughter, Luisa Marian; two sons, Jonathan Mackey and Gordon Bernard; and six grandchildren. | Deaths (Obituaries);Legal Profession;Copyrights;Manhattan (NYC) |
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