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ny0073010 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2015/03/14 | Vaccines Face Same Mistrust That Fed Ebola | MONROVIA, Liberia — West Africa’s Ebola epidemic may be waning , but another outbreak in the future is a near certainty, health officials say. Now, the United States is helping to lead a large study of two vaccines against Ebola. But as researchers try to compress a clinical process that can take a decade into a fraction of the time, they are confronting the same volatile mix of skepticism , fear, false rumor and understandable mistrust that helped spread Ebola in the first place. “When we look at Ebola, it came from America,” said Sylvester George, a pastor’s assistant, expressing doubts about the clinical trials at an information session. “It’s a man-made virus. So why didn’t they do this trial in America, but they decide to come to Liberia ?” Trials of Ebola drugs and vaccines are underway or planned in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone , the three countries most affected by an epidemic that has claimed about 10,000 lives. But the study in Liberia of the two vaccines is the most ambitious, with American researchers from the National Institutes of Health and their Liberian counterparts hoping to enlist more than 27,000 participants under an agreement between their governments. The trial’s scale alone has posed tough ethical and practical questions. American and Liberian officials have debated how to attract so many volunteers, how much to pay them and how to mobilize the public to extinguish crippling rumors before they take root, like the one asserting that Ebola vaccines were being slipped into children’s immunizations. And there is an added layer of mistrust directed at one of the most important partners in the trial: the Liberian government. Getting to Zero Ebola Cases On Saturday, the World Health Organization declared Liberia free of Ebola. After a government minister called on Liberians to “step up” and volunteer to test a new Ebola vaccine, angry callers on talk radio asked why no high-ranking government official had gotten a shot in the arm. A local radio reporter asked whether signing a consent form was tantamount to a “death warrant” for volunteers. A daily newspaper said simply, “Liberians are not animals.” Scientists have been left scrambling to win over the trust of the Liberian people on the ground. “This concept of social mobilization, I had not heard that term before,” said Dr. Clifford Lane, who is leading the trial for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the American government research agency. “But I came to realize it is one of the most critical things for success in this country.” Last August, even as Monrovia was rapidly becoming the center of the outbreak, many Liberians denied Ebola’s existence. Distrustful of a government widely perceived as corrupt , they believed that the authorities were exaggerating the gravity of the disease to get money from international donors. This made it harder to convince people to take lifesaving precautions like isolating sick relatives. The distrust only deepened after the government deployed troops to enforce a blanket quarantine on a neighborhood in the capital, Monrovia, leading to deadly riots over a tactic that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf later called a mistake . But as deaths spread throughout the capital , volunteer groups emerged, led by community leaders who educated fellow residents about Ebola and imposed measures on their own to curtail its spread. Their efforts contributed to the sudden drop in Ebola cases in mid-October, weeks before the enormous increase in international assistance expanded treatment options. “There were some false starts, but we built on the lessons from the false starts,” Dr. Stephen Kennedy, the lead Liberian investigator in the vaccine trial, said of last year’s efforts to combat the epidemic. “The lesson was that using formal and informal community structures had an impact on the epidemic in Liberia. So for this trial, we are building on that.” Image Workers struggled to position a freezer designed to store an Ebola vaccine at a warehouse in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times To try to allay suspicions, Dr. Kennedy and another Liberian doctor invited the local news media to watch them get vaccinated. But the event did not appear to change the opinion of many Liberians, who continued to assert that their government was infecting citizens with Ebola to squeeze money out of donors. The vaccine trials began taking shape after the Liberian government, at the height of the epidemic last year, asked the United States to conduct clinical research in Liberia on potential vaccines and drugs. Two vaccines, one manufactured by Merck and another by GlaxoSmithKline, were chosen after initial studies showed they were generally safe and produced an immune response against Ebola in human volunteers in the United States and other countries. The West African trials are the first time vaccines are being tested in the context of an outbreak, though the waning caseload may make it more difficult to answer the ultimate question — whether they really protect people from contracting Ebola. In the Liberian trial, expected to last about a year, participants will be given one of the two vaccines, or a placebo, at 10 locations in and around Monrovia. On Tuesday, researchers finished vaccinating an initial batch of 600 volunteers at Redemption Hospital, which was used as an Ebola holding center a few months ago. Officials said they had made sure that participants fully understood the consent forms — a critical issue in places with high illiteracy and low education levels, as in Liberia. Explanations of risks and potentially unfamiliar concepts, like placebos and randomized trials, are given in Liberian English, or, if need be, in one of the 16 local languages. For 10 visits over the course of almost a year, the first 600 participants will each be handed $300: $40 on the first visit, less on subsequent visits, and $150 at the end. The money is supposed to compensate participants for transportation costs and lost wages. “The ethics of it is compensation for inconvenience,” said Dr. Lane, the lead American researcher. “You don’t pay people to be part of medical research.” Image A nurse administered an injection of an Ebola vaccine last month as part of a study at Redemption Hospital, formerly an Ebola holding center, in Monrovia, Liberia. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Some of the American researchers have argued that the $300 compensation — the equivalent of $30 for each visit to the hospital — is too high, especially in a city where many people earn less than $5 a day. One Liberian newspaper announced the first hospital visit’s compensation in huge print on its front page: “US$40.” But Dr. Kennedy, the lead Liberian researcher, argued that compensation must be calculated by looking at the cost of living and the multiple jobs many Liberians hold to make ends meet. “Businesses abuse labor because people don’t have a choice,” he said. In Guinea, where Ebola cases continue, a trial began last weekend with the vaccination of 22 volunteers, including the country’s health minister, the head of the Guinean Red Cross and the president of the country’s Ebola research commission. “They wanted to show by example to the population that they were willing to step forward and take the vaccine,” said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director general at the World Health Organization who also volunteered for the study. In Sierra Leone, which is also wrestling with Ebola cases, study co-sponsors, including the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the country’s Health Ministry, are hoping to avoid the opposition and misconceptions experienced in Liberia. Vaccine experts have made presentations to Parliament and at gatherings of local chiefs. The phrase “Ebola prevention vaccine” is used rather than “Ebola vaccine,” to help avoid the impression that the vaccine might cause Ebola. And the study’s original acronym, Sleves, was discarded over concerns that it might remind residents of an ominous chapter in the country’s history: the civil war, when long or short “sleeves” often referred to hacking off a victim’s hands or arms. Intended to enroll 6,000 to 8,000 volunteers, Sierra Leone’s study will focus on health professionals, disease surveillance officers, ambulance teams and other front-line staff members at risk of contracting Ebola. It will not include placebos and is awaiting final approval from the country’s pharmacy board. Braving Ebola The men and women of one Ebola clinic in rural Liberia reflect on life inside the gates. Abbas Koroma, an environmental health officer in Sierra Leone, said that some controversy over the vaccines was to be expected in a democracy, but that the trial would be historic. “I will tell my grandchildren we pioneered this,” he said. For Liberia’s trials, Joseph Boye Cooper, a Liberian working for the effort, has gone out to neighborhoods, answering questions, allaying fears and recruiting volunteers. Mr. Cooper, who was a leader in a large volunteer Ebola watchdog group last year, uses the word “study” instead of “trial,” which he said invariably caused listeners to ask defensively, “Why do you want to try this vaccine on me?” Before visiting neighborhoods, Mr. Cooper is careful to park the team’s sport utility vehicle several blocks away and take a motorcycle taxi to his destination. Arriving in a big car would merely fuel popular suspicions about government waste and corruption, he said. “They’ll say I’m eating Ebola money and I must share some with them,” he said. After one meeting inside a church, about half of the 24 listeners gave Mr. Cooper their names and cellphone numbers. The next morning, at 7 a.m., Mr. Cooper stood along a main road, waiting for the volunteers. With nobody after 20 minutes, he took out his cellphone. “You just getting up, oh?” he said to one person, adding, with feeling: “I know. So how long will it take for you to get ready?” Eventually, about a dozen showed up, including people from the day before. Samuel Weah, who had been convinced after listening to Mr. Cooper, said he had unsuccessfully tried to get family and friends to join him. “They said they want more Ebola patients because government is using them to make money,” he said. “The more dead and infections, the more money.” “But,” he added, “some said I should go and take the lead first. They said if nothing happens to me, they might come next.” | Ebola;Vaccines Immunization;Liberia;NIH;Research;CDC;Guinea;Sierra Leone |
ny0238892 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2010/12/05 | Knicks Post Best 20-Game Record in 9 Years - Analysis | The hour was late, and the visitors’ locker room at New Orleans Arena was nearly empty Friday night when two deep voices called across the room to each other. “Great job tonight, Ray,” Amar’e Stoudemire said on his way out. “You too, bro,” Raymond Felton responded. The mutual respect was tangible, the appreciation earnest. Stoudemire and Felton joined the Knicks last summer to become the twin pillars of a new era. Their growing bond is evident — and a primary reason for the Knicks’ recent resurgence. The Knicks’ victory over the Hornets, fueled by Stoudemire’s dominance and Felton’s efficiency, was their third in a row and eighth in nine games. With nearly a quarter of the schedule behind them, the Knicks are 11-9 , their best 20-game record since 2001. In the muddled Eastern Conference, that is good enough for sixth place. “I think the guys are getting a little bit of a swagger among them,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said. “They think they can win anywhere, so that’s good.” It is too early to declare a Knicks revival, but deep enough into the season to draw some meaningful conclusions. Their offense is among the N.B.A.’s best, producing 109.4 points per 100 possessions — which was ninth best in the league entering Saturday, according to the Web site Basketball-Reference.com . Their effective field-goal percentage (weighted for 3-pointers) was fifth. The Knicks’ defense, perhaps predictably, is in the bottom half of the league in both effective field-goal percentage allowed (18th) and points allowed per 100 possessions (22nd). Yet the Knicks have shown a timely defensive edge, winning close games and holding off late rallies. They were leading the league in blocks per game (7.15) and were ninth in steals (7.85). The greatest sign of their resilience, however, lies in this 8-1 surge. On Nov. 16, the Knicks lost their sixth straight game, a down-to-the-wire 120-118 defeat in Denver that dropped them to 3-8. It was a critical moment, one that threatened to define the season. Had their confidence sagged, the Knicks could easily have dropped the next three road games and returned to New York with a 3-11 record and calls for D’Antoni’s dismissal. Instead, they won six straight games. In that moment of doubt, Stoudemire and Felton — the $100 million power forward and the steady point guard — took command of the locker room. “We definitely had to be the two positive leaders,” Felton said, “just to keep everybody focused and say: ‘Look, we can’t be satisfied with losing. We got to get rid of this mentality. And we got to find a way.’ ” Looking back, Felton said, the losing streak “made us mature as a team.” It is easy to lose sight of the fact that the Knicks are one of the league’s youngest teams, and practically built from scratch. Stoudemire and Felton — the foundation of the lineup —became pick-and-roll partners just two months ago. The Knicks had to work their way through Danilo Gallinari’s slump, Toney Douglas’s streaky play, Ronny Turiaf’s varied injuries and the incorporation of two rookies, Landry Fields and Timofey Mozgov. Many of the doubts raised in training camp have been dispelled, while others remain: ¶Do they have enough outside shooting to keep defenses honest? So far, yes, but it could use improvement. The Knicks ranked 20th in 3-point shooting (35.4 percent), but they have been markedly better over the last 10 games (38.4 percent). ¶Without David Lee, can they compete for rebounds? Surprisingly, yes. In fact, they may be better. The Knicks ranked 22nd in rebounding differential (minus-1.45 per game), but that is a huge improvement over last season, when they were outrebounded by 4.5 per game, despite Lee’s efforts. Stoudemire is averaging 8.7 rebounds, while Fields (7.2), Wilson Chandler (6.1) and Gallinari (4.7) are all making an extra effort. ¶Is Felton a suitable pick-and-roll partner for Stoudemire? Three weeks ago, the answer would have been no, but Felton is gaining confidence and making the right passes. He averaged 9.3 assists over the last 10 games, the fifth-best mark in the league in that span. “I tried to give you guys a heads-up back then,” Stoudemire said, “that it takes time to build chemistry. I’ve been in this situation before, where I built chemistry with Stephon Marbury in Phoenix, I built chemistry with Steve Nash. And now it’s the same with Raymond.” ¶Can they win with two rookie starters? No, but one has turned out pretty well. Fields won Eastern Conference rookie of the month for November, after averaging 10.8 points and 7.1 rebounds. Fields’s solid play has been critical, allowing D’Antoni to use Chandler as a starting forward or as a spark off the bench. Mozgov has been a disappointment, however. The 20-game caveat is that the Knicks have played the N.B.A.’s easiest schedule, based on opponents’ winning percentage (.392), according to ESPN’s John Hollinger. But the caveat to the caveat is that they have played 12 games on the road (going 8-4) and seven back-to-back sets. Fields could hit a wall. Gallinari may slump again. Turiaf could be banged up a lot. Or they may all continue improving. Kelenna Azubuike could return, bolstering their defense and shooting. “I think we can get even better, no question about that,” Felton said. “We don’t want to be complacent and be settled with where we’re at right now just because we’re winning. We want to continue to still get better, no matter what.” | New York Knicks;Basketball;Stoudemire Amare;Felton Raymond |
ny0272578 | [
"technology"
] | 2016/05/26 | Corporate America Chases the Mythical Millennial | If you’re reading this article voluntarily, you’re probably not a millennial, because everyone knows millennials don’t read news. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance you look down on millennials. Perhaps you consider them entitled, indulgent, needy and a little too much to bear — or maybe you’re simply skeeved by their weird headgear , strange hieroglyphs and intricate courtship rituals . I can predict all this because I work in the news media, and one of the primary functions of the media these days is to traffic in gleefully broad generalizations and criticisms of millennials, the more than 75 million Americans born about 1980 to 2000. Although millennials are now the largest demographic group in the country (sorry, boomers), and though they are more racially diverse than any other generation in American history, they are often depicted on TV, in movies and music, and in the news (including The New York Times) as a collectively homogeneous cliché. Nowhere is this more apparent than in corporate America, especially in the technology industry, which has long been obsessed with the dubious idea that young people are in the cultural vanguard . Corporations like LinkedIn and Oracle are now hiring an army of “millennial consultants” who charge as much as $20,000 an hour for their expertise on how to manage and market to young people, The Wall Street Journal reported last week . The consultant bonanza follows a trend that has been shaping the business world for the last few years — millennials, executives believe, are coming for every industry, and businesses that do not appease them risk being trampled by them. Yet there’s a glaring problem with these and other efforts to go after the younger among us: Millennials aren’t real. Sure, the demographic group exists as an amorphous bloc. But you are as likely to come upon an archetypal millennial as you are to run into Joe Sixpack or be invited to a barbecue at the median American household. It’s hard to believe this even needs to be said, yet here we are: Macroscale demographic trends rarely govern most individuals’ life and work decisions. For most practical purposes — hiring and managing, selling to, creating products for — your company may be better off recognizing more discrete and meaningful characteristics in workers and customers than simply the year of their birth. If your management or marketing theories involve collapsing all millennials into a catchall anthropological category — as if you’re dealing with space aliens or some newly discovered aboriginal tribe that’s suddenly invaded modernity — you’re doing it wrong. Or, as I believe my millennial friends say, “yass literal epic fail hashtag, bro.” Consider the question of the best way to manage millennials. Say you have a worker who plays hooky from your online news site to go build a treehouse , or one who takes an extended leave to go on a snowboarding trip, then never returns to work. What should you do? One approach is to blame these workers’ millennialness: They’re young, they’ve never had to shoulder any responsibility in life, and they really can’t even with all your rules, man. Another might be to consider that maybe the problem stems from something about your company, your management style or just the worker’s personality, and that it has nothing to do with the fact that the employee was born in 1983 and really enjoyed “Animaniacs” as a kid. In other words, break out of the stereotype. According to Laszlo Bock, who runs human resources at Google, pigeonholing workers into categories is nothing new, and it’s rarely helpful in running a workplace. Image Laszlo Bock, who runs human resources at Google, says pigeonholing workers by supposed generational characteristics is rarely helpful. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times “What we’ve seen is that every single generation enters the work force and feels like they’re a unique generation, and the generation that’s one or two ahead of them looks back and says, ‘Who are these weird, strange kids coming into the work force with their attitudes of entitlement and not wanting to fit in?’” Mr. Bock said. “It’s a cycle that’s been repeated every 10 to 15 years for the last 50 years.” Google’s human resources department, which the company calls “people operations,” is famous for collecting and analyzing data about its work force to empirically back up its management techniques. Google’s workers range from recent college grads to people in their 80s. And as far as Mr. Bock has been able to tell, millennials, as a broad category, simply aren’t very different from everyone else. “We measure this sort of thing closely, and if you look at what their underlying needs and aspirations are, there’s no difference at all between this new generation of workers and my generation and my father’s generation,” he said. “Every single human being wants the same thing in the workplace — we want to be treated with respect, we want to have a sense of meaning and agency and impact, and we want our boss to just leave us alone so we can get our work done.” This is not to say that today’s young people are identical to old people. Kim Parker, director of social trends research at the Pew Research Center, said demographers have noted large differences in millennials: Compared to older cohorts, they tend to be more socially liberal when it comes to issues like gay marriage and marijuana use, they marry later in life, and they are less enamored of traditional religious and political institutions. Looking at these shifts over time “is a useful construct when you’re trying to analyze a whole population,” Ms. Parker said. But these broad trends leave lots of room for individual differences that matter in the real world, and that are often papered over when we talk about millennials as a monolithic collective. For instance, while it’s true that millennials are more likely than older people to describe themselves as “religiously unaffiliated,” the increased rate at which they do so isn’t huge. In a 2014 Pew study , 29 percent of millennials said they weren’t religious, versus 21 percent of people in Generation X, which Pew defined as those born from 1965 to 1980. What this means is that most millennials and most Gen Xers — and, indeed, most Americans — consider themselves religious in some way. Millennials: They’re just like us! Speaking in such broad terms also misses differences within the generation. For example, another Pew survey from 2014 found that while most millennials favored the legalization of gay marriage, millennials who described themselves as Democrats were more likely to favor it than Republican millennials. In fact, Republican millennials were for gay marriage at a lower rate than Democrats of every generation — meaning that a Democrat born in 1928 was more likely to favor marriage equality than a Republican born in 1990. Considering that millennials are the most diverse generation — spanning many racial, ethnic and income categories — intragenerational differences are bound to play an important role when you’re talking about individual people. Though both are “millennials,” a young immigrant working three sharing-economy gigs is likely to look at the world very differently from a trust-fund baby who’s tending his Tumblr in Brooklyn. Yet only one of these stereotypes tends to make it into media accounts of millennials. That doesn’t have to be the case. What’s most bizarre about efforts to describe young people as a broad collective is that technology has rendered such generalizations mostly unnecessary. Thanks to social media, smartphones and reams of searchable data, companies can now track their customers and workers in far more precise ways than simply noting their age cohort. They have your purchase and employment histories, your social media musings, your educational history, your credit report. Companies can break you down analytically, psychographically, financially and in just about every other way short of physically. Joan Kuhl, one of the aforementioned army of millennial consultants, told me that one of her primary jobs these days was to undo companies’ preconceived notions about millennials. (Oh, I should do that, too: It’s not true that millennials don’t read the news, as I implied above. Hi, millennials — thanks for reading!) “It’s unbelievable the stories we hear,” said Ms. Kuhl, 36, who runs Why Millennials Matter . “They all have stories about managers underestimating them, or recruiters having an impression that they can’t live up to the demands of the job, or that they were a flight risk. People are perceiving them as the stereotype of their generation.” As my millennial friends say: Ugh. | advertising,marketing;Companies;Youth;Google;Jobs;Millennials;Pew Research Center |
ny0269883 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2016/04/07 | To Discourage Prostitution, France Passes Bill That Penalizes Clients | PARIS — After a debate lasting nearly two and a half years, France’s Parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to discourage prostitution by penalizing those who pay for sex, following the example of Sweden and Norway. The National Assembly, France’s lower house of Parliament, voted 64 to 12 for the bill, with the vast majority of the 577 Assembly members not voting. Parliament can approve legislation without a quorum. The French Socialist government, which had backed the bill, hailed the new law as a victory. Prime Minister Manuel Valls posted a message on Twitter saying the vote was “a major advance” for the rights of women. The minister for women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, told the National Assembly before the vote that prostitution was “violence done to women” and that the new measure would send a message to those who work as prostitutes that “the state, the Parliament and society finally recognizes fully the violence of the system of prostitution.” The measure first won approval from the Assembly in 2013 but was then turned down by the Senate, which has a majority of right-leaning lawmakers in contrast to the Assembly, which is dominated by left-leaning lawmakers. When the two chambers do not agree, the Assembly has the final say. Under the new law, first time offenders will pay a fine of 1,500 euros, or about $1,700, if they “solicit, accept or obtain relations of a sexual nature” from a prostitute in exchange for money. The fine can rise to 3,750 euros (about $4,300) for repeat offenders. Convicted offenders may also have to attend classes to learn about the vulnerability of women in the sex trade. There is also the option for a settlement in which the offender could be ordered to take classes in lieu of the fine. The law also repeals an existing measure that penalizes solicitation by prostitutes, which many viewed as having forced prostitutes to work in more desolate neighborhoods or outside of city centers where they were less likely to be arrested by the police, but also where they were less safe. Prostitutes who wish to leave the sex business will be eligible for funding to pay for training in other fields. But unions representing prostitutes and nongovernmental organizations that support them have complained that not enough money is allocated to help France’s 20,000 to 40,000 prostitutes, an estimate provided by various organizations and government agencies. The law would also help foreign prostitutes acquire temporary residence permits and find other work, since 80 percent to 90 percent of France’s prostitutes come from outside the country and are victims of human trafficking, Ms. Rossignol said. Some prostitutes, however, demonstrated against the law outside the National Assembly on Wednesday, saying that it would further stigmatize them, hurt their business and push it more underground. France is in step with a European-wide trend away from laws that penalize women who offer sex for money, although there is little consensus over what approach to adopt to discourage the sex business. A few countries, now including France, penalize customers. Sweden was a pioneer, enacting such a law in 1999. But many countries have somewhat ambivalent measures. In France, prostitution is not illegal but buying sex is. Some countries, like the Czech Republic, allow prostitution but prohibit brothels. Others, like Switzerland, allow licensed brothels but prohibit solicitation. The Netherlands and Germany take a different approach, regulating prostitution as a business and requiring health checks and other measures to protect both the prostitutes and their customers. | Prostitution;France;Legislature;Manuel Valls;Legislation;Women and Girls;Fines |
ny0244921 | [
"us"
] | 2011/04/29 | After Fire, Wind and Drought, Something Good Will Follow | These are strange days in Texas. A severe drought gripping the entire state, unseasonably high temperatures, unusually low humidity and exceptionally gusty winds have created a perfect storm for wildfires, which have erupted statewide like never before. Horrible images of homes burned to the ground, property destroyed, and livestock, wildlife and human fatalities are impossible to escape. Unfortunately, the greatest chronicler of such dire conditions — the person everyone in Texas turned to for perspective — is no longer with us to make sense of it all. It’s fair to ask, rhetorically: What would Elmer Kelton say? Mr. Kelton was the farm and ranch editor for The San Angelo Standard-Times from 1948 to 1963. He was also the longtime associate editor of Livestock Weekly and the author of several dozen western novels. His finest work, “The Time It Never Rained,” published in 1973, focused on the historic seven-year drought of the 1950s as told through Charlie Flagg, the hard-headed, independent-minded protagonist. If anyone knew about drought, wildfires and making a living from running livestock on the range west of the 98th meridian, it was Mr. Kelton. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2009. But his son, Steve Kelton, is alive and well and living in San Angelo. Steve Kelton, who now edits Livestock Weekly , remembers clearly that his father considered the period of time spent covering the 1950s drought for the San Angelo newspaper the most traumatic in his life. “I’d long since run out of new ways to say ‘dry,’ ” the father had told the son. What would the elder Mr. Kelton write about today’s news? That there is an upside — a silver lining. “Dad was always a firm believer that nothing was black and white, nothing was all good or all bad,” Steve Kelton said. “Fire can be good for brush control, if it’s a good, hot fire; these should be pretty effective in that regard,” he said in droll understatement, referring to the so-called Wildcat fires that have raged over 159,000 acres north of San Angelo in the west-central part of the state, threatening to engulf the towns of Robert Lee, Tennyson and Bronte. Indeed, for all its obvious negatives, fire was part of the life cycle of the arid western range long before humans settled the region and tried to tame the land, instinctively suppressing wildfires whenever possible. Today, when conditions are right, many landowners intentionally burn their property because, as Steve Kelton noted, “it will improve things.” He cited the destruction of nuisance species like prickly pear, mesquite and ashe juniper — a k a cedar — and brushy undercover that compete with native grasses. “There are a lot of caveats to that,” Mr. Kelton added. “You have to have rain, but if it comes all at once, you lose all the topsoil.” But if the rain falls gradually, the first land that will green up and spring back to life is that which burned. “A really hot fire brings out woody vegetation that deer, birds, and even goats and sheep like to eat,” Mr. Kelton said. “Their seed needs fire to germinate.” He made the same observation about the Texas rangeland that critics have made about forest management in the American West: the human tendency to suppress fire at first sight has created a buildup of dry tinder that makes any wildfire that manages to break out “bigger than they ought to be,” Mr. Kelton said. “But we also have the technology and the people on the ground to fight them, so we’ve got a trade-off. “During the 1990s and the early 2000s, we went 13 years with a really severe drought out here,” he said. “Then it rained.” The country was left so depleted, he said, that there were no cattle or sheep left to eat the grasses that sprang up; so in 2006, the worst year for wildfires in Texas on record until this year, “when it burned, it burned extra hot.” Despite the horrific loss of property, livestock and wildlife this year, the longer view finds something to look forward to in the wake of the destruction. “This is survivor country,” Mr. Kelton said. “It puts on its best clothes when it rains after a long drought.” | Kelton Elmer;Forest and Brush Fires;Texas;Drought |
ny0296731 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2016/12/13 | Netflix, in Rare Cancellation, Is Ending ‘Marco Polo’ | Here’s a rule in today’s ever-changing TV landscape: Big hits are very hard to come by. Here’s another: Netflix only rarely cancels shows. On Monday, however, the streaming service said that it was pulling the plug on “Marco Polo,” its pricey 13th-century drama about the Mongol empire, after only two seasons. Despite devoting billions to original programming, introducing dozens of new TV shows, Netflix has been reluctant to cancel its offerings. It previously pulled “Lilyhammer” and “Hemlock Grove,” and announced in September that “Bloodline’’ would not be returning. Those shows, however, lasted three seasons; “Marco Polo” will not. Netflix — along with the other streaming services like Amazon and Hulu — does not disclose ratings, so it’s difficult to know just how poorly “Marco Polo” fared. But reviews for the series were unkind, and there has been next to no cultural excitement surrounding it. And the series was costly. Originally developed for the cable channel Starz, it was produced by the Weinstein Company, whose co-chairman, Harvey Weinstein, once boasted that it would be “one of the most expensive shows ever done for pay TV.” As costs escalated, the series moved over to Netflix, and the production was indeed lavish . With an estimated budget of at least $180 million over two years, the series was filmed in far-flung locations like Italy, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, and received an extensive marketing campaign. In a statement, Mr. Weinstein said: “Netflix has been incredible to give us the room to make a series with a cast true to every principle of diversity. It’s a bold network that allows you to do that and support us in the way that Netflix did.” In the four years that Netflix has been streaming original shows, the service has been in a historic buildup mode that has it outspending every competitor, including HBO and Amazon. Netflix said in October it would spend $6 billion on content in 2017, much of it on original programming. When Netflix landed shows like the Aziz Ansari comedy “Master of None” and the period drama “The Crown,” FX’s chief executive John Landgraf said that the streaming service overwhelmed them with “shock and awe levels of money and commitment” for both projects. But the “Marco Polo” cancellation may be a sign that Netflix will become more selective about endlessly devoting resources to original series. The streaming service has not committed to a second season for its pricey show “The Get Down” (the second half of its first season will debut next year). And it’s unclear how projects like the Chelsea Handler talk show are doing. The streaming service said that it does not disclose ratings because it works on a subscription model, and does not sell advertising to adults under the age of 50, as most TV networks do. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, said earlier this year that “if we were spending a lot of money on shows that people weren’t watching” then subscribers would drop the service. The service has more than 86 million subscribers worldwide. Netflix did get some good news on Monday: Both “The Crown” and “Stranger Things” were nominated for the best drama Golden Globe, filling two of the five nominee slots. Though Netflix series like “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black” have garnered numerous nominations, the streaming service is still looking for its first Globe or Emmy for best drama or best comedy. | Harvey Weinstein;Netflix;Marco Polo;Web television;TV |
ny0088773 | [
"us"
] | 2015/09/27 | Streets Closed to Cars for Pope Francis’ Visit Transform Philadelphia | PHILADELPHIA — The group from Iglesia Católico de San Jose in Asheboro, N.C., began its trip to Philadelphia at about 8 p.m. on Friday. Riding in a convoy of vans and a bus, the worshipers — about 180 people in all, most of them Mexican immigrants — drove through the night. By dawn on Saturday, wearing matching custom-made blue T-shirts, they had secured some crucial spots along the police barricades lining Benjamin Franklin Parkway where they hoped to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis . Beyond that, their plans were unclear, including where they were going to sleep. Hotels throughout Philadelphia were at capacity, but they did not seemed worried. If it came to it, they said, they had tents for camping. “We’re just waiting to see what God has planned for us,” Carolina Valdes, 16, said enthusiastically. Optimism and good cheer appeared to be in abundance in Philadelphia on Saturday as hundreds of thousands of visitors poured into the city to be in the presence of Francis, if not see him. Some had come earlier in the week to participate in the World Meeting of Families . Many had arrived on the weekend to coincide with the pope’s visit, traveling from across the country and from abroad, turning downtown Philadelphia into something of a global religious street festival. One group drove from Texas — 26 hours straight. Another — about 50 Filipinos — drove overnight from Toronto. About 1,600 members of a Christian group from the Dominican Republic flew from Santo Domingo, and even in a sea of hundreds of thousands, they stood out: They wore Day-Glo green caps and T-shirts. Pope Francis’ Visit to America, in Pictures Photographs of the pope’s first trip to the United States, as Catholics and non-Catholics alike will navigate crowds in three cities to catch a glimpse of the “people’s pope.” The visitors arrived in a city transformed. A security cordon was put in place around a 4.5-square-mile section of Center City, prohibiting all but official vehicular traffic. Within that zone, officials established a special perimeter around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and nearby blocks — a secure zone within a secure zone. The measures effectively turned the urban core of one of America’s biggest cities into a peaceful, pedestrian-only village. Along streets that would typically rumble with loud midday traffic, walkers’ footfalls, hushed conversations and the whir of bicycle freewheels could be heard. “It’s great!” said Matthew Hammond, 36, a bar manager from Philadelphia who had been enjoying the experience of car-free streets, both on foot and on bicycle. The reconfiguration of the city has not been without its hassles. An elaborate network of security fences has turned downtown into a maze, forcing residents to relearn its geography. Moments of Strength and Vulnerability The pope made public appearances and shared private moments among the people and the powerful in Washington. At one of the checkpoints leading into the secure zone around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a lone protester carried a billboard that read, “The Pope is an Antichrist,” and delivered an antipope tirade into a megaphone. But a group of girls waiting at the checkpoint had a response to this protest, chanting just as loudly: “We love Francis! We love Francis!” At one of the few places where pedestrians were allowed to cross Market Street, a major east-west street, on an intermittent basis, the wait for an opening stretched to 20 minutes. But uncomplaining patience prevailed. Some even found an enjoyable way to pass the time. A group of young missionaries, members of the Legionaries of Christ from Cheshire, Conn., spotted some of their brethren waiting to cross from the opposite side of Market Street. The two groups began a call-and-response. “I love Jesus!” sang one side. “I love Jesus!” echoed the other. “I love the pope!” the first group called out. “I love the pope!” came the reply. | Pope Francis;Philadelphia;Security;Pilgrimage;Catholic Church |
ny0027403 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2013/01/10 | Atop New York Senate, an Odd Couple With Some Issues | ALBANY — As Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo talked state of the state on Tuesday, the alternating presidents pro tem of the New York State Senate sat on the dais listening — two men who could not hide their I-swallowed-the-canary smiles. State Senators Jeffrey D. Klein and Dean G. Skelos, the putative liberal Democrat and the putative conservative Republican, kept confiding and giggling at each other’s jokes. They have made one of Albany’s stranger marriages, the five-member Independent Democratic Conference joining the Republican majority in a political alliance, with the remainder of the Democrats cast into the wilderness. The governor vowed to defend women and abortion choice, and Mr. Klein clapped. The Republican senator tried to sit on his hands. The governor talked of guns; the Republican looked stern. The Democrat applauded. Ambition is its own aphrodisiac, but the strains on these political newlyweds are obvious to the eye. Earlier Wednesday, to sit in the gallery in the 23-karat gold-leaf-covered Senate chambers was to listen to the winning coalition more or less make up the arrangements. Mr. Klein and Mr. Skelos will serve as pro tem on alternating days during January, March and June, and every two weeks the rest of the year. The deputy Republican leader, Thomas W. Libous, offered reassurance: “At no time should either one of the coalition leaders, Senator Skelos or Senator Klein, serve contemporaneously as temporary president.” That forestalls the rip in the space/time continuum problem. The Republicans retain the upper hand, appointing the key institutional officers. Mr. Klein’s rump faction will get some committee chairs and, one imagines, a lode of lulus, Albany speak for the legislative bonuses and handsome office suites. Mr. Klein, already a formidable fund-raiser, stands to become a soft-money potentate. The Democratic Party and its remaining adherents fare more poorly. Fifty-eight percent of the electorate voted for Democratic State Senate candidates in the past election, but the party faces another two years in minority status, and it will receive just 29 percent of the tens of millions of dollars set aside for members’ items. “Does much about this make sense?” asks Susan Lerner of Common Cause, and then provides the answer: “No.” In his speech on the Senate floor, Mr. Klein sounded not so much like a man newly married to a conservative Republican. He spoke of decriminalizing marijuana, increasing the minimum wage and making it easier for immigrant children who lack legal documentation to go to college. His putative Republican partners gave Mr. Klein a stony police lineup stare during his peroration. But you might assume that a deal — less politely the fix — is done. The Republicans face an implacable demographic problem — they are conservative and more rural than not in a state that is growing more liberal and urban and suburban every day. Gerrymandering barely protected the state senators this year. Artful compromise could safeguard a Republican Party moving slowly into the minority. As Mr. Libous, the Republican Senate’s resident transactional realist, put it: “Hey, you can compromise anything, y’know.” Behind much of this stands the governor. He signaled that Republican, Democrat, Republicrat, he could play with any Senate iteration that plays with him. A cynic might venture the governor gets a minimum wage, but not too much, and a Dream Act without perhaps the money to fully fund it. And he gets to say that Republicans voted for gun control, and perhaps for decriminalization of marijuana. Senator Liz Krueger, a liberal Democrat, has waged a battle for transparent rules in the Senate for years, which is not unlike passing your life trying to conjure blood from a stone. Just before the new coalition shoved through its rules without discussion, she asked about a secret agreement between Senators Skelos and Klein, laying out the benefits of their marriage. Is this so? Senator Kemp Hannon, a Republican, sighed wearily. “I understand those discussions have taken place,” he said. “Sometimes they may or may not have reduced it to paper, but I don’t think it’s ever been final.” He shrugged. And that was that. | State legislature;Jeffrey D Klein;Dean G Skelos;New York;Liz Krueger |
ny0207662 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/06/09 | Fleeing Police, Bank Robber in Queens Falls to His Death | Minutes after robbing a bank in Ozone Park, Queens, on Monday afternoon, a man being chased by the police fell to his death from the elevated subway tracks nearby, the police said. A police spokeswoman said officers were running after the man, whose identity was not released, as he ran onto the elevated tracks of the A line at the end of the station at Liberty Avenue and 111th Street. The man tried to jump from the tracks to the roof of a nearby building but misjudged the distance and plunged to the pavement below, the spokeswoman said. The police said the chase began after the man walked into the branch of Capital One Bank at 103-42 Lefferts Boulevard at about 1:30 p.m. and handed a teller a note demanding cash. The teller gave him money rigged with a dye pack that exploded moments after the man ran out of the bank. The police said he soon threw away the money, tossing it in a trash can as he ran down the street. It was not clear, the police said, whether he discarded the money because the dye pack had detonated or because he realized the officers were chasing him. | Police;Falls;Police Department (NYC);Queens (NYC) |
ny0284055 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2016/07/13 | Turkey Makes Overtures to Minorities, but Old Enmities Linger | KARS, Turkey — The history of this city, about 30 miles from the border with Armenia, may best be told through its former Armenian cathedral, the Church of the Holy Apostles, poised at the base of an imposing fortress. Built in the 10th century by an Armenian king, it was turned into a mosque three times and once into a Russian Orthodox church. It was briefly resurrected as an Armenian church in 1919 before the modern secular Turkish state expropriated it in 1921, eventually turning it into a petroleum depot, then into a museum, then again into a mosque. Now, it is mostly closed: Many Muslims go instead to a holier shrine next door. According to Armenian news reports, it might be converted into either a cultural center or even a church, but it is unclear who would come, given that virtually no Armenian Christians are left in Kars. The city has experienced even more violent turnover than its cathedral. The Ottomans and the Russians were here — but also the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, the Georgians, the Persians and the Mongols. Populations were imported, expelled and massacred. The Armenian genocide of 1915 was the region’s most chilling atrocity, but there were others as Muslims fled Russian-occupied territories in the late 19th century, and Christians later escaped the returning Turks. These old enmities are never far below the surface. In the nearby city of Igdir, Turkey built a monument in 1999 to commemorate Turkish victims of 20th-century massacres. A gargantuan monument to Armenian-Turkish reconciliation was torn down in Kars in 2011. Still, there are suggestions that history is finally getting its due. Signs at the ancient ruins of Ani, right on the border, acknowledge that the vast site was the capital of an Armenian kingdom in the 10th and 11th centuries with a population of 100,000. Although Turkey continues to deny the Armenian genocide and threatens to punish countries — most recently Germany — that recognize it, attitudes toward its multiethnic population and its multilayered history loosened up in the early years of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 13-year rule, which he began as prime minister. The Armenian question, once taboo, became a topic of academic seminars and open discussion. “After a period of huge ignorance, people now know more, and once they know, you can’t turn back,” said Hugh Pope, an expert on Turkey at the International Crisis Group in Brussels. Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist party, Justice and Development, operating in a majority-Muslim country, took a more lenient approach to minority rights in the early 2000s, when Turkey was actively pursuing membership in the European Union. “They are comfortable making concessions because they are the overwhelmingly dominant culture,” said Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. An Armenian church was reopened in 2010 on the shores of Lake Van, but services are held only once a year. The restoration of a synagogue in Erdine was completed last year, though the local Jewish community left long ago. Several minority languages — including Kurdish — have been taught in schools since 2013. And yet, even these meager initiatives have been met with protests from parts of Turkish society. In 2010, a Turkish nationalist leader ostentatiously went to Ani to hold prayers at a ruined mosque to protest the reopening of the Armenian church on Lake Van. And since 2013, as Mr. Erdogan tightened his authoritarian rule, initiating a campaign against Kurdish militants and a frontal attack against Turkey’s independent news media, his overtures to other minorities have diminished, according to Hamit Bozarslan, a Turkey specialist at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He cited the cancellation last year of a colloquium on the Armenian genocide at a Turkish university. In an apparent attempt to break out of Turkey’s recent diplomatic isolation, Mr. Erdogan took a sudden initiative last month to improve relations with Israel and Russia. But an opening of the Turkish-Armenian border, closed since 1993 over the conflict in nearby Nagorno-Karabakh, is not considered likely anytime soon. “Erdogan has to be careful with what he does,” Mr. Barkey said. “There is still a lot of hostility between these groups.” | Armenians;Turkey;Monuments and Memorials;Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
ny0077576 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
] | 2015/05/01 | Islanders Know What They’re Leaving; Unknowns Await in Brooklyn | UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The Islanders have just begun processing another heart-wrenching playoff loss, but this forced foray into summer feels different. This time, the Islanders are leaving the only home rink they have known. Outside Nassau Coliseum, which has hosted its final Islanders season , autograph seekers lingered for final glimpses of their favorite skaters. Inside, a pristine sheet of ice was still in place as the players endured one-on-one exit meetings over the last three days before they shared closing thoughts on the season. As quickly as the handshake line dissipated after Monday’s 2-1 Game 7 loss at Washington, musings shifted to Brooklyn, where the Islanders will begin playing in just over five months. But first, proper farewells had to be issued. “I think you carry this forever, really, obviously what this season has meant with the building,” the Islanders’ captain, John Tavares, said Thursday. “The people here deserve more. As fun as the year was and as special as it was, we didn’t get to where we wanted to be.” The Islanders finished with 47 wins and 101 points, their best numbers in more than 30 years. Striving to win their first playoff series in 22 years, they battled the Capitals to the limit despite missing the top defenseman Travis Hamonic all series and losing Lubomir Visnovsky and Calvin de Haan to injuries along the way. The Islanders had chances to win. They took Game 1 and had a two-goal lead in Game 2 on the road but squandered it, just as they frittered away numerous chances in the final week of the regular season to clinch home ice for the first round. The Islanders won Game 3 and lost Game 4, both in overtime, and were tied in Game 7 midway through the third period before the Capitals scored the winning goal. “We’re going to have a good team for a long time,” said defenseman Johnny Boychuk, a particularly bright spot for the Islanders since his acquisition with Nick Leddy before the season opener last October. Boychuk and Leddy, who play together on defense, signed long-term contract extensions during the season. Just about every interview, though, turned into a conversation about the strangeness of next season. The Islanders have played two preseason games at Barclays Center , but concepts of what the move 27 miles west will feel like remain abstract. “It’s definitely going to be tough, but it will be fun at the same time,” center Casey Cizikas said. “It’s an odd feeling.” Video As the regular season winds down in the N.H.L., Islanders fans are preparing for the team’s move to Barclays Center next season after 43 years at Nassau Coliseum. His linemate Matt Martin said Long Island was “home for a lot of us.” “We don’t really know how it’s going to work,” he added. Still to be determined is where the Islanders will practice next season, not to mention where players will live with the team playing closer to Manhattan than Oyster Bay or Garden City. “It’s odd that we won’t be coming back to play here next year,” said Cal Clutterbuck, who played most of the season on the gritty fourth line with Cizikas and Martin. “That won’t really set in until next year. But it will be a different environment, and a lot of the logistics and stuff haven’t been completely hammered out.” Clutterbuck will be in the record books as scoring the last goal at the Coliseum in Saturday’s 3-1 Game 6 victory over the Capitals. His empty-net goal set off one final round of the loud “Yes! Yes! Yes!” chants that became standard after goals this season. “The fans here are extremely loud and blue collar,” Clutterbuck, who is a fan favorite, said. “It’s a really good atmosphere to play. I hate to use a cliché, but they really don’t make them like this anymore.” At their new home in Brooklyn, the Islanders will have plush locker rooms, and the fans will have all the amenities modern arenas possess. But the convivial community atmosphere of games at the Coliseum, where generations held tickets for decades, will change. Tavares, the first overall pick by the Islanders in 2009 and the face of the franchise, sympathized with the fans . “They were tremendous,” he said. “We certainly felt that and thrived on that.” Whether fans will flock to Brooklyn by train from Long Island in the same numbers in which they routinely drove to Nassau Coliseum is an open question. “Like everyone else next year, we will be making adjustments,” said Tavares, who is a finalist for the Hart Trophy, which goes to the N.H.L.’s most valuable player. “Some will be trial and error.” Also unknown is whether the raucous atmosphere of Nassau Coliseum can be recreated at Barclays Center, which was not built for hockey . “You want to bring that same kind of feel to Brooklyn and make it a tough place to play,” Tavares said. “Our fans will be rambunctious. You want to build on that.” Boychuk said he would reserve judgment on what the future holds in Brooklyn. “I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t know what to expect.” | Ice hockey;Nassau Coliseum;Barclays Center Brooklyn NY;Islanders |
ny0101200 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2015/12/10 | ESPN and College Football Playoff Agree Not to Air Daily Fantasy Ads | ESPN and College Football Playoff officials have agreed that there will be no advertising for daily fantasy games during the telecasts of the national semifinals or the national championship game this season, the latest move by college athletics to distance itself from an increasingly controversial business that critics say constitutes gambling. In an email Wednesday, Bill Hancock, the Playoff’s executive director, confirmed the decision, which was made last month. An ESPN spokeswoman also confirmed it. The N.C.A.A. had already informed its broadcast partners that it would not permit daily fantasy ads during its championship broadcasts, including the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and baseball’s College World Series. However, the N.C.A.A. does not administer the football playoff, which consists of two semifinal games — this year, the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl, on Dec. 31 — and a national championship game, to be held on Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz. Instead, the Playoff is managed by the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences and Notre Dame, which is independent in football. While many conferences have expressed skepticism about daily fantasy sports, they have taken different positions on whether advertisements should be broadcast during conference games or on conference-owned cable networks. Several states, including New York, as well as the F.B.I., are examining whether the fantasy games, in which players assemble a lineup of real players and then win or lose money based on how those players perform, violate the law. Several conference commissioners have publicly expressed concern over the influence of the games on college-age consumers. The N.C.A.A. bars its athletes from sports wagering, including via daily fantasy sports, which it considers gambling. In August, the N.C.A.A. and the F.B.S. conferences asked DraftKings and FanDuel, the two most prominent daily fantasy websites, to refrain from offering games that involve college football. In October, in a letter obtained by The New York Times , the N.C.A.A. broke off planned meetings with the sites, with an executive vice president writing, “We believe that your product should not be offered in the college space for a variety of reasons, and we do not believe a further meeting with your organizations will change that view.” Last season’s national football semifinals and championship game were the three most-viewed broadcasts in the history of cable television, with the title game on ESPN, between Oregon and Ohio State, reaching an audience of 33.4 million. ESPN is in the second year of a 12-year, $7.3 billion contract to broadcast the Playoff, which in addition to the semifinals and final is affiliated with four other high-profile bowl games. At least two of those games, the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl, will also not feature daily fantasy ads during their telecasts. | College football;TV;advertising,marketing;Fantasy sport;FanDuel.com;DraftKings;Bowl Games;ESPN |
ny0272447 | [
"us"
] | 2016/05/19 | U.S. Military Deaths in Operations Against ISIS | The Department of Defense has identified 15 American service members who have died supporting the operation to eliminate the Islamic State militant group. It confirmed the death of the following American recently: BAUDERS, David A., 25, First Lt., Army; Seattle; 176th Engineer Company. | ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;US Military |
ny0250130 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2011/02/27 | As the Knicks Rearrange Lineup, They Focus on the Kinks | MIAMI — The Knicks ’ hope is that pairing Carmelo Anthony with Amar’e Stoudemire will create a high-scoring union that will result in parades and confetti on Broadway. The reality, at least for now, arrived on a snowy night in Cleveland. A superstar again watched the final ticks from the bench as confusion rather than cohesion marked a deflating loss. “Realistically, we know that this is not going to happen in the next week or the next two weeks,” Anthony said Saturday. “Let’s just face it; that’s reality. It took everybody who made moves like this a period of time to come together and get right on the same page.” Anthony spoke while wearing a sleeve on his right arm. He bumped his right elbow and aggravated an injury that throbs during his shooting motion. Anthony said he would play against Miami on Sunday, but there was a chance he would not return to full health in the next two weeks. He ran during Saturday’s defensive-oriented practice but attempted only a few shots, all with his off hand. There are some parallels that, as suggested by Anthony, the Knicks can draw from teams like Miami. Debate whirled last summer around whether the Heat’s new core of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh could coexist. After a rough start in which Miami compiled an 8-7 record, the Heat (43-16) now has one of the N.B.A.’s best records. Miami benefited from having had a summer to plug its roster gaps and from having its stars start the season together. “Me and Carmelo are obviously different players from Dwyane and LeBron, so it takes a totally different mentality for us,” Stoudemire said. “I do think it takes time. It’s not going to happen overnight.” The Knicks are in line for some bruises that stretch beyond Anthony’s elbow. If they could not muster enough to beat the Cavaliers , they will have more difficulty with their next opponents: Miami, Orlando (37-22) and New Orleans (35-25). The Knicks are 29-27, with the surging 76ers gaining ground. They will have to learn quickly with an unbalanced roster, especially on defense. “Every situation is different, but they have to learn how to play off each other and they have to learn how to summon up the energy on defense that maybe the other four guys were covering for you when you were going,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It can’t be that way now because you’ve got two of them out there and you can’t play defense with two holes.” D’Antoni suggested that the Knicks should play like the Heat earlier in the season and compensate for their unfamiliarity with hustle and energy. Against the Cavaliers on Friday, D’Antoni said they failed to do so. The Knicks were outrebounded by Cleveland, 62-42, and the Cavaliers, a team that fails to score 100 points most games, surpassed that mark with more than four minutes left. Anthony and Stoudemire took turns dominating offensively, but neither took over in the final moments. Anthony fouled out and watched the last few moments from the bench, just as Stoudemire did in Anthony’s Knicks debut. “I think the best thing for me and Amar’e to do is just go out there and play and not try to think too much about, ‘Where you like the ball at? What should you do? What should I do?’ ” Anthony said. The Knicks returned to the equivalent of Basketball 101 at Saturday’s practice and discussed routine but essential topics like defending pick-and-rolls and weak-side defense. A major difference between the Heat and the Knicks is that James is a two-time all-defensive first-team member and Wade has been voted to the all-defensive second team three times. Although they are All-Stars, Stoudemire and Anthony have never been awarded similar accolades. Other players will probably be forced to take on roles that are still undefined. D’Antoni told the veteran point guard Anthony Carter, also obtained in last week’s trade, that he was not sure when he would play, but to maintain his focus. Meanwhile, the Knicks are less optimistic that guard Kelenna Azubuike will recover from off-season knee surgery in time to contribute this season. The Knicks may use him to open up a roster spot to add another player — possibly the former Knick Jared Jeffries, who reached a buyout agreement with Houston. | New York Knicks;Anthony Carmelo;Stoudemire Amare;Basketball;Cleveland Cavaliers |
ny0066809 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/06/22 | Lullabies by Caruso Ignited a Love of Opera in Brooklyn | When Nina DiGregorio was a baby in the 1920s, her mother would wind up the phonograph and play opera records. “To keep me quiet, she would put on Caruso, Giuseppe De Luca, John McCormack, all the great singers, so I became fascinated with the human voice,” said Ms. DiGregorio, who at 89 pours her undiminished enthusiasm for opera into keeping alive the small Italian Opera Company in Brooklyn. She helped found the group in 1957 and is still its mainstay and top soprano. “Nina is the trunk of the tree — if not for her, we would not be still going,” said a member, Camille Simeone, who held the group’s rehearsal on Tuesday evening at her house on Prospect Park South. Members took turns standing at the piano and singing opera and other styles, while Ms. DiGregorio coached from the couch, scolding or cheering, and then calling up the next singer. When she sang — an aria, a duet and a version of “La Vie en Rose” — her high notes were the loudest in the group, her melodic runs fluid and agile. In its heyday, the company held forth at Brooklyn halls — the 46th Street Theater, the Bay Ridge, the Borough Park, among them — but now the aging group performs in libraries, parks, community centers and church auditoriums. Ms. DiGregorio scrapes together funds, finds rehearsal space and sets up appearances. She also teaches privately and is the organist at the Church of Most Precious Blood on Mulberry Street. Her day often begins at 6 a.m. and ends after midnight, she said. The group is a holdover from the thriving opera scene in Italian neighborhoods in Brooklyn. “In those days, Brooklyn had its own opera season,” said Tommaso Verdillo, the chef and owner of the Bay Ridge restaurant Tommaso’s , which has long featured opera singers Thursday through Sunday. Ms. DiGregorio, who lives alone above the restaurant, has been a regular there for nearly 30 years. She could be a diva at times, and was known to smack customers who ignored her singing. She sings less frequently there now, sometimes popping down for a duet with Mr. Verdillo, himself a fine tenor . Ms. DiGregorio has the energy and the constitution of a 25-year-old. On Wednesday at Tommaso’s, she ordered a big steak and a bottle of red wine for lunch, and recalled how her father tailored suits for Gov. Al Smith and other powerful Tammany Hall politicians. Her family lived in the East Village near several Yiddish theater companies, she said, and by age 5 she was on the Yiddish stage singing memorized lyrics and spending summers playing upstate hotels like the Commodore and the Ambassador. “I loved the costumes, the makeup, all the glamour,” she said. “When the applause came, I saw people crying and stamping their feet for more, and I knew I had to be onstage.” After the family settled in Bensonhurst, the center of Brooklyn opera, a teenage Ms. DiGregorio proved a gifted coloratura soprano. Her priest introduced her to a Metropolitan Opera maestro for training. The young Ms. DiGregorio worked nights at Asti restaurant in Manhattan, which employed opera-singing waiters, and was promoted by the Brooklyn opera impresario Alfredo Salmaggi , who promised to pair her with Mario Lanza. “There was also a Jewish mobster who took me in,” she said. “He said, ‘I can help you become famous — I’ll put you on a ship and pretend you just arrived from Italy.’ ” Instead, in 1952, Ms. DiGregorio went to Europe for three successful years, but she returned to New York to care for her sick father, she said. One day, after leaving a church near the old Metropolitan Opera House in Midtown — not coincidentally, she said, she had just finished making her novena prayers for 33 days straight — she met Genesio Riboldi, a highly acclaimed opera director and baritone, who became her frequent singing partner and the love of her life, though never her husband. “I knew I was not going to be the marrying kind because I would have had to give up my career,” she said. “I didn’t want to have to answer to anyone.” The highlight of her performing life came at the Amato Opera, when she sang the lead in her favorite opera, “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Her performance of the “mad scene” ignited the audience. “I was shaking from emotion,” she recalled. “People were screaming. That was the most exciting moment of my life.” After that, her career highs and lows paralleled the Italian Opera Company’s. In 1969, she was set to sing opposite the great tenor Giuseppe di Stefano in “La Bohème” in Brooklyn, but he canceled abruptly. The group remains her passion, she said, although membership has declined over the years. “Little by little, they expire,” she said. “I want to keep this music going, but when I die, I’m afraid the group will die with me.” | Opera;Brooklyn;Italian Opera Company;Nina DiGregorio |
ny0294190 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/06/24 | Despite Campaign Woes, Donald Trump Flies to Scotland to Tend to Business Interests | AYRSHIRE, Scotland — His campaign is desperately short of cash. He has struggled to hire staff. Influential Republicans are demanding that he demonstrate that he can run a serious general election campaign. But for reasons that emphasize just how unusual a candidate he is, Donald J. Trump was to leave the campaign trail on Thursday to travel to Scotland to promote a golf course his company purchased on the country’s southwestern coast. Normally when presidential contenders travel abroad, they do so to burnish their foreign policy credentials, cramming their schedules with high-level meetings with foreign dignitaries and opining on the pressing international issues of the day. But, to a large extent, Mr. Trump’s business interests still drive his behavior and his schedule. He has planned two days in Scotland, with no meetings with government or political leaders scheduled. And despite the fact that Mr. Trump was to touch down in Britain the day after its “Brexit” vote on whether to leave the European Union, his itinerary — a helicopter landing at his luxury resort, a ceremonial ribbon cutting and family photograph, and a news conference — reads like a public-relations junket crossed with a golf vacation. “Traditionally, nominees travel overseas during this period to brush up their foreign policy depth and visit 10 Downing Street and Israel — for politics back here,” said Scott W. Reed, senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Everyone knows this is the wrong thing for the nominee to be doing now, and it is amazing this can’t be stopped.” Mr. Trump will arrive Friday at Trump Turnberry, a luxury golf course and resort dating to the 1900s that he bought in 2014. The property features picturesque views of the Irish Sea and suites costing as much as 800 pounds — roughly $1,200 — a night. He has told aides that he hopes the trip, which includes a stop in Aberdeen on Saturday, will provide a much-needed reset for his campaign. But some of the aides have said privately that they wished he would cancel it. Mr. Trump’s self-image as a successful businessman is important to him, and, though he has said publicly that he is relying more on his children to run the Trump Organization, he remains closely tied to it. He also believes that many of his supporters are drawn to his persona of a brash billionaire, born out of his decades in the business world. He does not like to be away from his business operations for long. Save for a little more than a dozen nights during the primaries, he has returned to one of his homes at the end of each day. He usually returns to his New York City apartment, which allows him access to his 26th-floor office in Trump Tower, where he works and takes part in interviews. And he tends to rely on Trump-connected businesses while he is campaigning, further bringing together the two worlds in which he operates. Perhaps the starkest example of his business empire’s intruding on his political career came late last month. Mr. Trump delivered scathing criticism of Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel — first at a San Diego rally and then in interviews — that was less a result of a politically strategic calculation than of Mr. Trump’s concerns about rulings the judge made in a federal lawsuit against his now defunct Trump University. Mr. Trump accused the Indiana-born judge of being unable to render fair rulings because of his “Mexican heritage.’’ The political backlash was swift, with many of Mr. Trump’s supporters distancing themselves from him and calling his comments racist. The Scotland trip, too, is potentially fraught. Since clinching the Republican nomination, Mr. Trump has squandered numerous opportunities to unify the Republican Party behind him, or to exhibit the discipline party leaders and donors are eager to see. Trump Is Running a Lean Operation, but Is It Too Lean? What’s next for a campaign with a big fund-raising gap. When Barack Obama headed to Europe as a presidential candidate in 2008, and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, traveled to England, Israel and Poland during his campaign, they sought to demonstrate their global savvy and stature, in meticulously planned visits. (Mr. Romney’s trip, nonetheless, was a gaffe-ridden disaster, and many of his aides later said they wished he had stayed home.) “Foreign trips are an inherently risky endeavor,” said Lanhee Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution who advised Mr. Romney in 2012. “Ideally, they will boost a candidate’s credibility on and familiarity with the geopolitical issues of the region they visit. But they require a lot of planning and logistical coordination. Seems to me that a foreign trip driven solely by personal financial interests — as Trump seems to be planning later this week — would be unprecedented.” Showing up right after the Brexit vote, in the middle of a tumultuous time, is leaving Mr. Trump especially vulnerable to criticism, as well as creating the potential for an international blunder. When asked about the vote in an interview this month with The Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Trump seemed not to be familiar with Britain’s referendum, first answering, “Huh?” and then, “Hmm.” Finally, after the Brexit vote was explained to him, Mr. Trump answered with his trademark decisiveness: “Oh yeah, I think they should leave,” he said, a sentiment he has since repeated. On Wednesday morning, however, Mr. Trump told Fox Business that his opinion on the issue was not significant because he had not followed it closely. But business has always been inextricably bound with politics for Mr. Trump, dating to his previous flirtations with presidential bids, which served largely to elevate his public profile and business interests. The latest documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission, for instance, show that Mr. Trump paid at least $1.1 million in May to his business and family members for campaign-related expenses. The largest payment, for $423,000, went to his Mar-a-Lago Club, for the use of that private Florida resort, but he also reimbursed costs associated with his private airplanes, Trump restaurants, and even Trump Tower, which houses his campaign headquarters. “Why would I use someone else’s properties?” Mr. Trump said through Hope Hicks, a campaign spokeswoman, in response to a question about why he had hosted campaign events at his properties. “Mr. Trump owns some of the finest properties anywhere in the world and he has to host events, news conferences, etc., which might as well be hosted at those properties,” Ms. Hicks added in an email. “They are paid, in accordance with F.E.C. regulations, their approximate fair market value for goods and services.” Mr. Trump also sometimes reserves the front rows at his news conferences for members of his private clubs, almost as a membership perk. And at a primary election event in March at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., Mr. Trump was flanked by bottles (and cases) of Trump-branded wine, Trump-branded water, and a mound of raw steaks, which he tried to pass off as his brand. Even Mr. Trump’s private 757, emblazoned with his name across the side and a tool for his businesses, now occupies a central role in his campaign imagery, rolling up to airport hangars during primary rallies as a symbol of power and success. People in the crowd gawk, pointing to the plane, unprompted, as a reason they believe in Mr. Trump. Yet some Republicans still think Mr. Trump should simply disentangle the personal (and business) from the political. Mr. Chen, for instance, had a suggestion for Mr. Trump’s trip. “If he’s going to Europe anyway,” he asked, “why not take some time to visit with the NATO allies that would be affected by his plan to pull back on the U.S. commitment to the organization?” | 2016 Presidential Election;Donald Trump;Republicans;Scotland;US Politics |
ny0010324 | [
"science"
] | 2013/02/26 | A Vicious Cycle | To the Editor: Re “ Prison and the Poverty Trap ” (Feb. 19): The article shows that the war on drugs has harmed people like Carl Harris on two levels. First, it has distorted incentives and created an underground market that is both more lucrative and more violent than the aboveground economy. Second, the long prison terms associated with the underground market cause a breakdown of families and communities. If those in power are serious about the poverty trap, they should be serious about not setting it up in the first place. David J. Edmondson Alexandria, Va. | Poverty;Prison |
ny0267306 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/03/01 | Classified 2002 Letter on N.S.A. Eavesdropping Is Made Public | WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday made public a previously classified letter from 2002 about the Bush administration’s secret program that allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans’ international communications without court orders. The release of the 22-page letter , written by John Yoo, then a top lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, adds to the historical record of one of the most controversial pieces of the Bush administration’s response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: The surveillance and bulk data collection program known by the code name Stellarwind. The letter explained to Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who at that time was the new chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, why the Justice Department considered the program lawful even though, as Mr. Yoo acknowledged, it clashed with wiretapping laws laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The letter appeared to track a memorandum Mr. Yoo had written in Nov. 2, 2001, soon after President George W. Bush directed the N.S.A. to begin the program. A previously released inspector general report about the program included a partially redacted summary of that memo. Among other things, Mr. Yoo claimed in the letter that the president’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief overruled statutory prohibitions and that under the circumstances the program complied with the Fourth Amendment , which bars unreasonable searches and usually requires warrants. In the letter, Mr. Yoo wrote that, “We face a situation here where the government’s interest on one side — that of protecting the Nation from direct attack – is the highest known to the Constitution. On the other side of the scale, the intrusion into individual privacy interests is greatly reduced due to the international nature of the communications.” In 2004, after Mr. Yoo had returned to teaching, a new leader of the Office of Legal Counsel, Jack Goldsmith, rejected parts of Mr. Yoo’s legal analysis, leading to a now-famous confrontation in March of that year in the hospital room of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and a threat by top Justice Department officials to resign. To avert that threat, Mr. Bush then accepted some new limits on the program, which The New York Times partially disclosed 21 months later. The legal basis for the program also evolved. The spy court secretly blessed its bulk data collection components in 2004 and 2006, and Congress authorized warrantless wiretapping in a 2008 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act. | NSA;George W Bush;Government Surveillance;Barack Obama;Wiretapping Eavesdropping;John C Yoo;FISA;4th Amendment;US |
ny0179553 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2007/08/10 | Milestone for 12-Year-Old | Alexis Thompson became the youngest quarterfinalist in the 107-year history of the United States Women’s Amateur. Thompson, a 12-year-old, home-schooled seventh-grader from Coral Springs, Fla., beat 12-year-old Pearl Jin, 5 and 4, in a second-round showdown at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. Thompson, who was also the youngest qualifier in United States Women’s Open history and the recent Junior P.G.A. champion, came back later in the afternoon with another 5 and 4 victory over 18-year-old Lizette Salas of Azusa, Calif., to reach today’s quarterfinals against Ha Na Jang of South Korea. | Golf;Children and Youth;Thompson Alexis |
ny0244111 | [
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] | 2011/03/22 | Bruce Pearl Says Tennessee Fired Him | Bruce Pearl would wade into the stands at Thompson-Boling Arena to shake the hands of Tennessee basketball fans, thanking them for their support. They would stay to listen to his postgame radio show, and he would sign autograph after autograph. As part of his act to draw attention to the Volunteers, Pearl once painted his body orange before a Tennessee women’s basketball game, and he wore such a bright orange jacket for some games it looked as if it were plugged into an electrical socket. Pearl energized men’s basketball in Knoxville, a town devoted to football, and the spotlight was wheeled in, with six N.C.A.A. tournament appearances in his six seasons. The arena was renovated and a practice facility was built, in part because Pearl made Tennessee men’s basketball a showcase. And now he is out, done in by his own ambition. In statements released Monday night, the University of Tennessee chancellor, Jimmy Cheek, and Athletic Director Mike Hamilton said that Pearl and his staff had been fired. Hamilton cited an N.C.A.A. investigation of the program. “The cumulative effect of the evolution of the investigation combined with a number of more recent non-N.C.A.A.-related incidents have led to a belief that this staff cannot be viable at Tennessee in the future,” Hamilton said. “Therefore, it is in the best interests of our institution to move in a different direction.” Pearl, 51, was caught lying to the N.C.A.A. , one of nine violations the program was cited for in a notice of allegations sent last month by the N.C.A.A. Last summer, Tennessee sanctioned Pearl and cut his salary by $1.5 million over five years, and the Southeastern Conference suspended him for eight conference games. Still, the university had supported Pearl during the investigation until the last two weeks, when Hamilton drew away from his positive spin about Pearl. Hamilton has been under fire for the behavior of Pearl and the former football coach Lane Kiffin, who was also cited in the N.C.A.A. investigation. At the Georgia Dome on March 10, shortly after Tennessee’s opening-round victory over Arkansas in the SEC tournament, Hamilton, who had usually backed his coach publicly, said only that he had no comment. Then last week, in an interview on a Knoxville radio station, Hamilton said he was not certain Pearl would return next season. There was more alarm for Pearl’s backers when Michigan drubbed the Vols in the N.C.A.A. tournament, 75-45, last Friday. Tennessee lost 8 of its final 12 games for a 19-15 record. Pearl could face more trouble after the N.C.A.A. Committee on Infractions meets in June with Hamilton, Pearl and university officials. The coach could be put under a “show cause” penalty for several years, so any university that is a member of the N.C.A.A. and wants to hire Pearl would have to seek N.C.A.A. permission. Pearl leaves with a 145-61 record at Tennessee. His legacy, along with the scandal, is that he has perhaps made the Tennessee job higher profile in college basketball than it once was. | University of Tennessee;Pearl Bruce;Basketball;College Athletics;Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations;Coaches and Managers;Basketball (College) |
ny0023063 | [
"technology",
"personaltech"
] | 2013/09/12 | Chair Pitched as Answer to New Ways We Sit on Job | The first time I had to buy a mattress, I remember being shocked at how much it cost. “Ah, but just remember,” the sales representative told me, “you’re going to spend a third of your life on it. Isn’t it worth investing in something you’ll use for a third of your life?” When you think of it that way, maybe it’s not quite so crazy to spend $1,000 on a desk chair. You sit in that thing eight hours a day, too. Actually, the term “desk chair” may be obsolete. That, anyway, is the conclusion that Steelcase has reached after conducting what it says was a study of 2,000 people in 11 countries — and how they sit. (The people, not the countries.) Steelcase says people don’t just sit upright in their chairs anymore. In this age of phones, tablets and laptops, people slouch and lean back and curl up in all kinds of new ways. Nine new ways, in fact, to which the company has given names like the Cocoon (reclining, feet on the seat, legs drawn in), the Take It In (slumped way back, arms relaxed while you watch a video) and the Strunch (a stretched hunch from chair edge to table, laptop pushed far away from you, chin propped up with nondominant hand). According to Steelcase, if you don’t have the right chair, each of these new postures can lead to fatigue, pain and injury. For example, hunching forward to see your laptop “leads to disc compression, excess pressure on the neck and strain on the back and shoulders.” If your chair’s arms don’t support yours when you’re using the mouse for a long time, you can get “unnatural twisting of the wrists, hands, elbows and shoulders.” And it’s important to move around, to shift, to avoid hours in the same position. Otherwise, you might “decrease blood flow in the legs.” The fruit of all of this research, study and philosophizing is the new Steelcase Gesture chair, available later this fall for $980 and up (depending on whether you opt for leather, vinyl, cloth and so on). It’s supposed to be the ultimate work chair — “a new sitting experience,” the company asserts. It certainly is comfortable. Both the seat and the back are deeply padded and expansive; you could even, if you wanted, sit with your legs tucked under you, or partly so. The arms are connected to the chair behind you, so they don’t block your thigh should you decide to swing it over the side. Image Credit Stuart Goldenberg And it certainly is adjustable. Like most office chairs, you can make this one taller or shorter when you press a lever on the chair’s stem. The chair spins easily and rolls extremely easily on its five ball-bearing feet, which, as my 8-year-old can attest, is loads of fun. The back can recline very far — farther than any other Steelcase chair — without risk of toppling backward, which is never a good way to score points in the office. You can adjust the tension on the spring, too, so that it goes back and forward more or less easily. You can lock the back into one of five angles with the flip of a lever. All the controls are on the right side, below seat level. By turning a knob, you can move the seat forward or backward relative to the back, to accommodate the longer or shorter of limb. The armrests are miracles of mobility. By squeezing a lever under each one, you can move them fluidly and independently up or down, inward or outward. And in any of these positions, you can rotate the armrests. The designers also put a lot of thought into where to end the chair’s various pieces. For example, the arms are short enough that they don’t get in the way when you want to pull up close to the table or desk. And the back doesn’t extend past your torso. It doesn’t block or restrict you when you turn to around to yell, “Hey, Frank! Do we have any C-120s in stock?” Finally, a shout-out to whoever had the idea of wrapping the padding all the way around all four sides of the seat’s edges. Suppose, for example, that you wanted to assume a position that’s not among the Steelcase Nine. That’s entirely possible, thanks to this all-the-way-around padding; you can hang a limb over any of the seat’s edges without worrying about getting gangrene. (Don’t try that with the famous Herman Miller Aeron chair. Its sharp, rigid seat edges could lop your leg right off.) And, so, yes: This is a wonderful chair. It’s supremely comfortable, impressively adjustable, exceptionally supportive. And yes, it’s also true that we work in weird new positions these days. What’s not so clear is Steelcase’s claim that these two statements are connected. In other words, just how much of a breakthrough is the Gesture chair? After you clear away the smoke from those arguments about our modern mobile gadgets, is the Gesture actually any more flexible than its rivals? I made a pilgrimage to a couple of high-end office-furniture stores to find out. And here’s the baffling thing that I discovered: The Gesture is, at best, only a small advance. Image Steelcase's Gesture chair. It seems to be intended as a body blow at the Herman Miller Embody chair, which may not come with marketing materials about 2,000 people in 11 countries, but which you can adjust in nearly identical ways. The chair goes up and down, the seat goes forward and back, the back reclines a lot, the armrests go up and down and inward and outward. The Gesture wins this round, though. The Embody chair costs much more ($1,300), and is slightly less adjustable; its armrests don’t rotate. More mysteriously, the Gesture isn’t even that much of a leap beyond the Leap, Steelcase’s own earlier adjusto-chair and its most popular model. You can adjust the Leap in most of the same ways as the Gesture, but it costs less. The Leap is a more responsible choice, too: 94 percent of it is recyclable, and 30 percent of it is made of recycled material (well, “up to” 30 percent). It, too, is available in various colors of cloth or leather. Now, the Gesture looks much more modern, much more sculptural and much classier. It says “high-tech executive” more than “worker bee with sciatica.” But all that stuff about a “new sitting experience” — that’s clearly baloney. And it’s possible to find nits to pick even with the Gesture. You can’t change the angle of the seat, if you care. There’s no headrest. And the armrests are hard plastic; a little cushioning wouldn’t hurt. So yeah, the company’s attempt to connect its conclusions — “we sit differently these days, and it’s healthy to shift positions often” — with its latest chair may reek of marketing department desperation. But the conclusions themselves are sound. We do sit differently these days, and we should shift positions often. Fortunately, there are plenty of chairs that will serve you well in these departments. The Gesture is an excellent candidate, but so are the Leap, the Embody and others. You don’t have to pay these steep, designery prices, either; many other ergonomic chairs, made with more plastic and fewer adjustments, are available in much lower price ranges. The point is not that you should buy a Gesture chair. The point is that you should buy some good, comfortable, ergonomic chair. After that, think of the life you’ll lead. You’ll have a terrific chair for eight hours of each day and a nice mattress for another eight hours. How you stay comfortable and healthy during the remaining eight is up to you. | Chair;Ergonomics;Steelcase;Herman Miller |
ny0172723 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2007/11/24 | Franchione Quits After a Final Flourish at Texas A&M | Dennis Franchione resigned yesterday as Texas A&M ’s coach, ending a rocky five-year tenure less than an hour after the Aggies defeated Texas, 38-30, at Kyle Field in College Station. Franchione had a 32-28 record at Texas A&M, short of the expectations when he replaced R. C. Slocum in December 2002. Texas A&M was 19-21 in conference games and lost 12 of 15 against regional rivals Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Texas. The Aggies (7-5, 4-4 Big 12) lost four of their final six games. “We appreciate the opportunity we have had at this great institution, to work with this administration,” Franchione said after the game. “We have made many lasting friendships.” Texas (9-3, 5-3) had won five in a row after its first 0-2 conference start since 1956. It still has an outside shot of making it to the Big 12 championship game if 10th-ranked Oklahoma loses to Oklahoma State today. MISS. STATE 17, MISSISSIPPI 14 Adam Carlson made a 48-yard field goal with 18 seconds left to help host Mississippi State move closer to its first bowl appearance since 2000. The Bulldogs (7-5, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) trailed by 14-0 after three quarters, but Derek Pegues returned a punt 75 yards for a touchdown and Wes Carroll passed for 102 yards and a touchdown in the fourth. COLORADO 65, NEBRASKA 51 Host Colorado scored 34 consecutive points in the second half, blasting Nebraska in the highest-scoring game in the history of the 66-game series. Hugh Charles ran for 169 yards and 3 touchdowns for the Buffaloes (6-6, 4-4 Big 12). Nebraska (5-7, 2-6) will not play in a bowl for the second time in four seasons. DELAWARE 44, DELAWARE STATE 7 Omar Cuff ran for a team-record 288 yards and 4 touchdowns to lead host Delaware to a playoff victory against Delaware State in the first meeting between the in-state rivals. The game drew a crowd of 19,765, the largest at Delaware Stadium and the third-largest for a first-round Football Championship Subdivision playoff game. IN OTHER GAMES Michael Myers came off the bench to score the go-ahead touchdown on an 18-yard run to lead host Colorado State past Wyoming, 36-28. ... Quarterback Dan LeFevour’s 1-yard touchdown run with 1:31 remaining and a 2-point conversion capped a 15-point fourth-quarter as visiting Central Michigan defeated Akron, 35-32. | Texas A&M University;College Athletics;Football;Athletics and Sports |
ny0269136 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2016/04/16 | Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill | WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts. Several outside economists are skeptical that the Saudis will follow through, saying that such a sell-off would be difficult to execute and would end up crippling the kingdom’s economy. But the threat is another sign of the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States. The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot. “It’s stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens,” said Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and who is part of a group of victims’ family members pushing for the legislation. President Obama will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is unclear whether the dispute over the Sept. 11 legislation will be on the agenda for the talks. A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy did not respond to a message seeking comment. Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” But critics have noted that the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot. Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly. The dispute comes as bipartisan criticism is growing in Congress about Washington’s alliance with Saudi Arabia, for decades a crucial American ally in the Middle East and half of a partnership that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Last week, two senators introduced a resolution that would put restrictions on American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which have expanded during the Obama administration. Families of the Sept. 11 victims have used the courts to try to hold members of the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks and charities liable because of what the plaintiffs charged was Saudi financial support for terrorism. These efforts have largely been stymied, in part because of a 1976 law that gives foreign nations some immunity from lawsuits in American courts. The Senate bill is intended to make clear that the immunity given to foreign nations under the law should not apply in cases where nations are found culpable for terrorist attacks that kill Americans on United States soil. If the bill were to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by the president, it could clear a path for the role of the Saudi government to be examined in the Sept. 11 lawsuits. The Big Four in Saudi Arabia’s Government Brief background information on the most powerful figures in the kingdom, and how they stand in the sometimes complicated order of succession. Obama administration officials counter that weakening the sovereign immunity provisions would put the American government, along with its citizens and corporations, in legal risk abroad because other nations might retaliate with their own legislation. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate panel in February that the bill, in its current form, would “expose the United States of America to lawsuits and take away our sovereign immunity and create a terrible precedent.” The bill’s sponsors have said that the legislation is purposely drawn very narrowly — involving only attacks on American soil — to reduce the prospect that other nations might try to fight back. In a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on March 4, Anne W. Patterson, an assistant secretary of state, and Andrew Exum, a top Pentagon official on Middle East policy, told staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that American troops and civilians could be in legal jeopardy if other nations decide to retaliate and strip Americans of immunity abroad. They also discussed the Saudi threats specifically, laying out the impacts if Saudi Arabia made good on its economic threats. John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the administration stands by the victims of terrorism, “especially those who suffered and sacrificed so much on 9/11.” Edwin M. Truman, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said he thought the Saudis were most likely making an “empty threat.” Selling hundreds of billions of dollars in American assets would not only be technically difficult to pull off, he said, but would also very likely cause global market turmoil for which the Saudis would be blamed. Moreover, he said, it could destabilize the American dollar — the currency to which the Saudi riyal is pegged. “The only way they could punish us is by punishing themselves,” Mr. Truman said. The bill is an anomaly in a Congress fractured by bitter partisanship, especially during an election year. It is sponsored by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York. It has the support of an unlikely coalition of liberal and conservative senators, including Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, and Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas. It passed through the Judiciary Committee in January without dissent. “As our nation confronts new and expanding terror networks that are targeting our citizens, stopping the funding source for terrorists becomes even more important,” Mr. Cornyn said last month. The alliance with Saudi Arabia has frayed in recent years as the White House has tried to thaw ties with Iran — Saudi Arabia’s bitter enemy— in the midst of recriminations between American and Saudi officials about the role that both countries should play in the stability of the Middle East. But the administration has supported Saudi Arabia on other fronts, including providing the country with targeting intelligence and logistical support for its war in Yemen. The Saudi military is flying jets and dropping bombs it bought from the United States — part of the billions of dollars in arms deals that have been negotiated with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations during the Obama administration. The war has been a humanitarian disaster and fueled a resurgence of Al Qaeda in Yemen, leading to the resolution in Congress to put new restrictions on arms deals to the kingdom. Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, one of the resolution’s sponsors and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Congress has been “feckless” in conducting oversight of arms sales, especially those destined for Saudi Arabia. “My first desire is for our relationship with Saudi Arabia to come with a greater degree of conditionality than it currently does,” he said. | Saudi Arabia;9/11,Sept 11;Foreign Investment;US Foreign Policy;Legislation;US Politics;Barack Obama |
ny0032555 | [
"us"
] | 2013/12/20 | Sinking Land Brings Calls for Pumping Alternative | Amid a persistent drought, a growing population and a dwindling supply of surface water, much of Texas is searching for underground water resources. But a large swath of Texas — home to close to one-quarter of its population — is looking for water supplies anywhere but beneath its surface. A century of intense groundwater pumping in the fast-growing Houston metropolitan area has collapsed the layers of the Gulf Coast Aquifer, causing the land above to sink. The only solution is to stop pumping, a strategy that some areas are resisting. The geological phenomenon, unique to this part of Texas because of the makeup of the aquifer’s clay layers, is known as subsidence. Areas in and around Houston have sunk as much as 10 feet in 100 years, causing neighborhoods to flood, cracking pavements and even moving geologic faults that could lead to infrastructure damage. “It’s an upfront and personal issue when you’re on the coast and you see land loss,” said Mike Turco, who heads the subsidence districts responsible for addressing the problem in Harris, Galveston and Fort Bend Counties. “You have oil barracks that are out in Galveston Bay now.” Subsidence has long been a concern in Harris and Galveston Counties, which are nearer to the gulf and more prone to flooding. Spurred by state lawmakers in the 1970s, the counties have worked to reduce their groundwater dependency to 25 percent from more than 50 percent. That number will continue to fall as they increase their reliance on rivers like the Trinity and San Jacinto, as well as planned reservoirs. Neighboring Fort Bend County, on the other hand, which still relies on the Gulf Coast Aquifer for 60 percent of its water, is farther inland, and the effects of subsidence can be less tangible. “There are perception issues,” Mr. Turco said. Whether subsidence means anything to someone depends on where you’re standing, he said. “If you’re standing next to the river, it could be a big deal.” In Fort Bend County, unlike Houston, “there isn’t a ship channel to walk to,” he said. Now that the county is starting to grow, in part because of the expansion of nearby Houston, studies by the subsidence districts estimate that if nothing is done, parts of Fort Bend County will sink about five feet in the next four decades. The impact could be lessened to just two feet under recent regulations asking certain areas to convert 60 percent of their groundwater supplies by 2025. Not everyone agrees with the approach. Some towns dislike the rules that force them to find alternative water supplies, worried about the high cost of conversion and unsure whether their own land is actually sinking. “Typically, subsidence is equated to growth,” said Terri Vela, the city manager for Richmond, which is about 30 miles west of Houston. “And Richmond proper has not seen that growth. I don’t even know that we have subsidence today in Richmond.” Ms. Vela pointed out that subsidence in the county affected some areas more than others. For instance, the land has sunk nearly a foot in 15 years just a few miles to the east of Richmond, in booming Sugar Land. But in Richmond itself, the ground has lowered less than three inches — although the Fort Bend subsidence district warns that could change if its outlying areas continue to grow as they have in recent years. Image Stan Ulcak, a representative with the Harris Galveston Subsidence District, working with a receiver last week. The area is prone to flooding. Credit Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune Alternative supplies have been difficult to find, Ms. Vela said. About five years ago, Richmond and a neighboring town, Rosenberg, secured a long-term contract to take water from the Brazos River, with plans to build a water treatment plant. But then the area was hit by drought, and the river’s flows were at their lowest by 2009. the towns were then besieged with requests from industrial and other water users to buy the newly acquired water. The overwhelming demand for Brazos River water led the towns to question whether it would really be available. “Is this a long-term, sustainable water source?” Ms. Vela said. “Everyone else has put their straws in before we’ve gotten to it.” Recently a company called Electro Purification approached the towns with a different solution: The company would drill wells on the other side of the Fort Bend County line. In other words, they would continue pumping groundwater from the same clay-based aquifer but outside the jurisdiction of the subsidence districts. The proposal drew public outrage, with residents submitting hundreds of public comments questioning its effect on water levels in the aquifer and on subsidence. According to studies by the Fort Bend district, the wells could cause the ground to sink an additional two feet in some parts of the county and potentially cause sinking in nearby counties. But those numbers have been disputed. “There is more data out there that hasn’t been evaluated,” said Mike Gershon, an Austin-based lawyer for Electro Purification. “At this point, no one has told us what they think subsidence is realistically going to be on their property and what that adverse impact is going to be.” Mr. Gershon said the company was willing to change its proposal based on subsidence concerns. “We want to make sure that our scientists, and we think we have good scientists — that they’re getting it right,” he said. The case has been referred to an administrative law judge, who will hear arguments next year on whether the wells should be allowed. In the meantime, the Fort Bend Subsidence District is weighing its options. While it cannot prevent the drilling of wells outside its borders, the district could refuse to accept Richmond and Rosenberg’s plan for finding alternative water supplies. “Here we have a proposal to convert to something that’s not really an alternative water supply,” a lawyer who represents the district, Greg Ellis, said. “It’s the same aquifer. It’s just 15 miles west.” While some areas of Fort Bend County are sure to see more subsidence than others, based on population density, everyone must pitch in to reduce the problem, Mr. Ellis said. “I think it’s the standard — my car doesn’t cause all the traffic; it’s all the other cars that are causing the problem,” he said, characterizing the attitude of Richmond and Rosenberg. “And my car was here first. So all you other people should take care of the problem.” | Texas;Houston;Water;Aquifer |
ny0082439 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/10/27 | Boy, 17, Is Fatally Shot on Busy Brooklyn Street | One teenager was fatally shot and another wounded on Monday evening when someone opened fire along a busy street near a Brooklyn subway station, the police said. The police were called shortly after 6 p.m. to the scene, near Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue, the authorities said. Officers found a 17-year-old boy who had been shot in the head, and an 18-year-old man who had been struck in the foot. The 17-year-old was taken to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead, the authorities said. As of Monday night, officials had not released his name. The 18-year-old was taken to New York Methodist Hospital, where he was in stable condition on Monday night. The police said it was unclear what prompted the gunfire, but that they were looking for a group of people who were seen running down Flatbush Avenue after the shooting. As of Monday night, no arrests had been made, the police said. The shooting happened on a sidewalk near the entrance to the DeKalb Avenue subway station, which is surrounded by restaurants and businesses. The Brooklyn campus of Long Island University is less than a block away. One student, Maddie Shockley, 18, said she had received a text message from the school urging students to stay inside. Nijam Uddin, a fruit seller, was working at his stand nearby when the shots were fired. He said he saw people running and then he also fled. “I run fast, very fast, to save me,” Mr. Uddin, 34, said. Armaan Ali, who works at a convenience store near the scene, said he heard five shots and then saw a swarm of people running by and yelling. He pointed to a spot near the subway station entrance and said that was where the shooting happened. At Brooklyn Hospital Center, a few blocks away, a group had assembled outside. Some were crying and comforting one another. At one point, one young woman raced up to the hospital, screaming, as others stopped her from going into the emergency room. “I want answers right now!” she cried. Later, as word started to spread through the crowd that the person had died, she screamed as she was being embraced by an older woman. | Murders and Homicides;Brooklyn;Brooklyn Hospital Center |
ny0197360 | [
"technology",
"internet"
] | 2009/10/12 | Closing the Deal at the Virtual Checkout | Shoppers rarely drive to the mall, load up their carts and then abandon them in the middle of the store. On the Web, though, it happens all the time. In online stores, it is much easier for shoppers to fill their virtual shopping carts — and much easier for them to get distracted by an e-mail message or comparison shopping on other sites. Then there are the design flaws and technical glitches that can get in the way of closing a sale. These problems have been around since online shopping was invented, but they have taken on more urgency in the last year as consumer spending has shriveled. So e-commerce companies are trying a variety of techniques to push shoppers through the virtual checkout line. There are still plenty of people browsing online, but not so many buyers. In the second quarter, the number of visitors to e-commerce sites who eventually bought something shrank for most sites from the year before, by as much as 30 percent for Zappos.com and 26 percent for Gap , according to comScore. “It’s pretty clear that people are looking at more alternatives, evaluating more options, getting better prices — but not buying,” said Gian M. Fulgoni, executive chairman of comScore. Shoppers spent $130 billion online in the last year, according to comScore. But e-commerce sites missed out on billions more because customers abandoned their carts once they ran into problems while checking out, according to Tealeaf , a company that makes software to help e-commerce sites monitor customers’ behavior. “The small transactions add up,” said Rebecca Ward, chief executive of Tealeaf, whose customers include Wal-Mart and Best Buy. “This is revenue that people really wanted to commit to the company and were unable to do it, and it often ends up being in the millions of dollars.” Many shoppers fill their carts just to keep track of things they like or to check shipping rates and taxes, with little intention to buy. While there is no industrywide data, some e-commerce companies estimate that only about 3 percent of shoppers who visit an e-commerce site buy something, and when they do load their shopping carts, as many as two-thirds abandon them. One of the biggest reasons people procrastinate more when shopping online is the fear of regret, said Dan Ariely , a professor of behavioral economics at Duke, a visiting professor at M.I.T. and author of the book “Predictably Irrational.” It is much simpler online than offline to discover that an item you bought yesterday is on sale somewhere else today. In fact, he said, people often spend more time researching a product after buying it online than before, to prove that they should not regret the purchase. Online retailers do a few things to fight this inclination. Zappos.com and Overstock.com inject urgency by alerting customers when an item they have put it in their shopping cart is almost sold out. “The Internet gives us this ability to kind of have wish lists — you can look at 15 products, throw them in your cart and then sleep on it,” said Stormy D. Simon, senior vice president for branding and customer care at Overstock.com. “We incentivize them.” Other sites have developed a new, extreme version of limited-time sales. Gilt offers items for 36 hours or until they run out, and Neiman Marcus runs two-hour, online-only sales. “All these strategies get people to fear that they will regret not acting” instead of acting, Mr. Ariely said. Customer reviews can also nudge would-be shoppers who are on the fence about making a purchase. A company called Bazaarvoice helps e-commerce customers, like Macy’s and Dell, publish user reviews and ratings on their sites. For a customer unsure about new shoes or a new sofa, social validation can make the difference. Some sites try to make the check-out process easier by offering alternative ways to pay. Bill Me Later , which eBay bought last year for $820 million, lets people click one button to check out. Later, they get a bill in the mail. TrialPay , a start-up company , lets people get a product free if they buy another product. A shopper can buy WinZip software online for $29.95, for example, or get it free by signing up for Netflix. Then Netflix pays TrialPay for bringing in the new customer. Though the Web makes it easier for shoppers to abandon their carts, it also makes it easier for shops to track would-be customers and encourage them to buy. “In the real world, the jeweler or optician has no way of knowing who I was or how to get me back in the store, but online you can do all that, which is why it’s such an amazing retail opportunity,” said Saul Klein, a partner at Index Ventures, which has invested in e-commerce companies, including TrialPay. Index has also backed a start-up called Criteo , which lets e-commerce sites “follow” visitors who leave without making a purchase and show them banner ads when they visit another site. Say a shopper has been perusing digital cameras on a consumer electronics site, then goes to lunch. Later, he checks the headlines on a news site, where he is shown an ad for the digital camera site, luring him back. Some e-commerce sites encourage shoppers to log in before they fill their carts. Then, if they leave, the site can send them an e-mail message reminding them that their cart is still there and perhaps offering a carrot, like free shipping. Tealeaf’s software can identify each registered shopper who got to a certain point in the buying process before giving up. It also alerts shopping sites about technical problems that might otherwise have been invisible. A month ago, the clothing retailer Bluefly realized that some international shoppers were unable to check out. Using Tealeaf’s software, Bluefly discovered that the glitch had been there for a year. Instead of reporting the problem, customers had simply been leaving the site without making the purchase. After Bluefly fixed the problem, revenue from international shoppers increased 10 percent in a month, and Matt Raines, Bluefly’s vice president for technology, estimated that the fix would result in $1.1 million in additional revenue this year. Bluefly also runs daily promotions and timed sales and shows Bluefly ads to previous visitors when they are on other sites. It is starting to offer customers the option to save the items in their cart to buy later, and is considering running customer reviews. “When customers are trying to purchase something, we need to do everything in our power to make sure they can do it,” Mr. Raines said. | Shopping and Retail;E-Commerce;Computers and the Internet;Customer Relations |
ny0228482 | [
"sports"
] | 2010/07/19 | Surgeon Who Repaired Heart Joins Patient as He Tests It in Triathlon | A year and a half removed from open-heart surgery, Greg O’Keeffe decided to test himself. He would try to run a triathlon, and he would dare his surgeon to do it, too. “I figured, if I’m going to do it, why should I let him off the hook?” O’Keeffe said on the eve of Sunday’s New York City Triathlon. “He’s got a good heart to start with.” His doctor, Allan Stewart, first thought he agreed to a bike race, which seemed manageable. But then he received the registration materials and realized he had been signed up for a triathlon, which consists of a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer bicycle ride and a 10-kilometer run. His colleagues at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center told him he was out of his mind. Stewart, 41, and O’Keeffe, 28, were among the 3,000 triathletes to cross the finish line in Central Park, though they were hardly the fastest. Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic was the top finisher with a time of 1 hour 46 minutes 28 seconds, and Rebeccah Wassner successfully defended her women’s title in 2:00:25, edging her twin, Laurel, who finished a little less than two minutes later in second. But the way Stewart and O’Keeffe got into the race is a story worthy of a movie. O’Keeffe’s path to the triathlon began during his freshman year at Columbia, when he wanted to walk on to the baseball team as a left-handed pitcher. But because he had a heart murmur as a child, university doctors insisted he see a cardiologist. It turned out O’Keeffe had a birth defect in his aorta, the main artery that pumps blood from the heart, and by 2008 he needed open-heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm . He chose Stewart, the director of Columbia’s aortic surgery program , to perform it. “Without the operation, he would have been dead within a month,” Stewart said. Although O’Keeffe’s surgery in May 2008 was serious — Stewart said it carried about a 10 percent mortality rate — it did not mean the end of his days as an athlete. (The former Yankee Aaron Boone had a similar operation last year and returned to the major leagues less than six months later.) Indeed, O’Keeffe said he felt pretty much back to normal after five weeks of rest. But his recovery gave him time to reflect. “I got to thinking, Hey, I’m going to take full advantage of my health now — I’m going to do a triathlon,” he said. To raise the stakes, he decided to challenge Stewart, who was not a likely triathlete, either. As a doctor who performs 400 heart surgeries a year, each about six hours long, Stewart did not have much spare time to spend at the gym. His usual dinner, he said, was pizza or Taco Bell. But he accepted O’Keeffe’s challenge, even if he had doubts. “I’d say, ‘Forget it, there’s no way I can do this,’ ” Stewart said. “I’d swim 25 yards and have to stop and be out of breath.” But both men ultimately fit the requisite training into their lives. O’Keeffe, a co-founder of a Washington-based environmental start-up , swam or biked before work. He did running, his least favorite, less often. Stewart, who skis and has a black belt in karate but had never run so much as a 5K, started biking to work instead of driving. He ran four times a week; swimming was the discipline he dreaded. Stewart’s routine became an object of fascination to his colleagues. “He would come into the hospital, put his bike in the corner of his office and take off his biking pants,” Mehmet Oz, a surgeon, author and television personality , said in a telephone interview. “It was visually arresting, and intellectually so as well, as you watched a man go from Superman to Clark Kent to be able to do his daily writing — or, in our case, operating.” Stewart ended up shedding 25 pounds in six months of training, going from large scrubs to medium ones. (“With scrubs, you have no self-awareness,” Stewart said.) And in O’Keeffe, Stewart also found a ready-made case study for his younger patients who wondered if they would be able to live normal lives after heart surgery. The only hiccup heading into Sunday’s race came a week ago, when Stewart fractured two ribs after a collision on his bike. But he vowed to press on, and on Sunday, he did. Stewart lingered by the finish line and embraced O’Keeffe, who had a later start time, when he crossed. Seeing his onetime patient complete the race brought tears to Stewart’s eyes. Both men said that the 1,500-meter swim in the Hudson River, the triathlon’s first leg, was the worst part. “I looked up at 600 meters and said, I’ve got nothing left,” Stewart said. “But I figured I had no excuse not to finish, because he was going to finish.” O’Keeffe finished in 3:03:59, Stewart in 3:45:51. Their postrace reunion was an unusual sight in Central Park. As runners crossed the finish line one by one and went their separate ways, Stewart and O’Keeffe posed for photographs together and reflected on their friendship. His sleeveless top unzipped a few inches, O’Keeffe pointed to the long scar on his chest. “That I owe to him,” he said of Stewart. Then he patted his surgeon’s now-flat midsection. “That,” O’Keeffe said, “he owes me.” O’Keeffe and Stewart raised money for charity through the race, and they have registered for two more triathlons this summer. They hope to compete later this year in a half-Ironman competition, which consists of a 1.9-kilometer swim, a 90-kilometer bike ride and a 21.1-kilometer run. Stewart, pointing out that he had saved O’Keefe’s life two years ago, said O’Keefe had now returned the favor. “I don’t know who saved whose heart more,” Stewart said. | New York City Triathlon;Triathlon;O’Keeffe Greg;Heart;Stewart Allan |
ny0014953 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2013/10/05 | United States Has Lead in Tournament Slowed by Rain | DUBLIN, Ohio — After two days, it would appear the greatest obstacle in the United States team’s march to another Presidents Cup title might be the weather. The Americans, who have beaten an International team of non-Europeans in seven of the nine previous installments of the competition, held every two years, took a 4 ½-3 ½ lead before play was suspended because of darkness with four of the six foursome matches to be completed. For the second consecutive day, bad weather stopped play. Friday’s suspension lasted 2 hours 34 minutes as the Muirfield Village course absorbed nearly an inch of rain. It was business as usual for the players, who endured weather delays in 22 of 40 PGA Tour events this season, including the Memorial, held at this same course in the spring. The finishes of four tour events were pushed back a day because of the weather, and with more bad weather in the weekend forecast, a Monday finish is a distinct possibility. Image Steve Stricker, drying his golf club, and his foursome stopped play after they had completed 14 holes at Muirfield Village. Credit Tannen Maury/European Pressphoto Agency Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley gave the United States its point Friday with a 4 and 3 victory against Jason Day and Graham DeLaet. Taking turns hitting, Mickelson and Bradley were six-under after nine holes. Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar were also six-under after nine in their match against Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen, on their way to a 3-up lead through 12. Between them, the teams produced 13 birdies. “It’s just one of those days where both teams are playing well, and still got our work cut out for us tomorrow,” Woods said. Ernie Els and Brendon de Jonge of the International team defeated Bill Haas and Hunter Mahan 4 and 3 in the other completed match. The pairing of Jordan Spieth, 20, and Steve Stricker, 46, of the United States was 3-up against Branden Grace and Richard Sterne through 14. Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama of the International team were 4-up on Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson after 11. Ángel Cabrera and Marc Leishman had a 1-up lead over Brandt Snedeker and Webb Simpson of the United States through 13. The players were facing a long day on Saturday, anyway, with four-ball and foursome matches on the schedule, and now they also have the Friday matches to complete. The weather forecast Saturday calls for a 30 percent chance of rain, with isolated thunderstorms. “I think we are pretty good at coming back,” Kuchar said. “It’s part of what we do on the PGA Tour, and you get used to a lot of these delays.” | Presidents Cup;Golf;Tiger Woods;Phil Mickelson;Keegan Bradley;Ernie Els;Matt Kuchar |
ny0207861 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2009/06/01 | Made in India, but Published in New Haven | NEW HAVEN Alert readers of The New Haven Advocate and its sister publications in Hartford and Fairfield County may have noticed a consistency among the bylines in its newest issue: Annie Rani, Dev Das, Nidhi Sharma, Asmi Rana, Neha Bhayana, Shreya Sanghani, Vijeta Bhatia and others. Or, alert or inert, they could just have figured things out from the cover: “Sorry, We’ve Been Outsourced — This Issue Was Made in India.” Almost all the stories in the alternative weekly, it turned out, were written by journalists in India. Outsourcing journalism, one could ask, menace or peril? It might not be the only question, but New Haven is a particularly good place to pose it. The Advocate, the usual alternative weekly mix of listings, personal ads, entertainment news and local reporting, wasn’t the first publication to wonder whether you could do local journalism without local journalists. The question arose last year when an online publication in Pasadena, Calif., fired its seven staff members and replaced them with workers from India using Webcams and e-mail at $7.50 per thousand words. The idea in Connecticut wasn’t nearly so predatory. The Indian journalists, recruited through Craigslist ads in Bangalore and Mumbai, were paid The Advocate’s normal freelance rates (which definitely weren’t making anyone rich either) to report on food, art, music, sex and other topics of interest in New Haven. The intent wasn’t to cut costs. It was to see if it could be done and, if so, what kind of journalism would result. “The idea was for the newsprint version of performance art, and I mean that positively,” said Joshua Mamis, publisher of the three papers. And you know what? Most of it was pretty good. Sure there were some clunky sentences and things lost in translation — and it works a lot better for, say, features on music than looking for municipal corruption. But proving that lust is lust, Asmi Rana wrote an engaging sex column exploring topics like a woman’s fetish for ambulance drivers and paramedics and a man’s question whether in an aroused state, his body weight might rise by three pounds (“You wish,” her reply began). Archana Aithal reviewed movies like “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” and “Drag Me to Hell” (she noted its vomit spewing and “skillful camera work”). Vijayalaxmi Hegde could have been any young hipster from New Haven interviewing the band Cake, or previewing a performance by the Dark Star Orchestra. Nilanjana Bhowmick wrote about shad season in Connecticut and the State Legislature’s debate over the death penalty. What does this prove? Not that it makes sense to report and write a New Haven publication from Mumbai. Even the writers said that. “If the New Haven Advocate staff was trying to prove that local journalism cannot be outsourced, I’d say they’re laboring the obvious,” Ms. Hegde wrote in an e-mail message. “A city is best reported by people who live in it. Period.” But maybe it showed something else: that breaking the mold did work, that you could reinvent the wheel and come up with something pretty fresh. THIS, in fact, is exactly what’s happened in New Haven, where the most interesting journalism isn’t the “alternative” press, owned by the not-so-alternative Tribune Company of Chicago, or the daily, The New Haven Register . Instead, it’s the independent nonprofit New Haven Independent , a five-day-a-week online newspaper begun in 2005 by Paul Bass, supported by grants, sponsors and donations. Mr. Bass, 48, a journalist in New Haven since 1978 who has written for The Register and, mostly, The Advocate, has a skeleton staff that meets at a coffeehouse, but posts 12 to 20 items a day in an interactive format that’s drawing interest and imitators from around the country. On June 23, he’s starting another one in the blue-collar Naugatuck Valley. Mr. Bass said he liked the outsourced issue, but it reminded him, alas, that so much of American journalism these days actually can be done from a desk in Mumbai, and that the threat facing most American newspapers isn’t necessarily outsourcing or even the new frontier of the Internet. It’s dull, stodgy products that have been downsized and bled dry by corporate owners. If what you do can be done, however imperfectly, from Mumbai, he said, then maybe you need to go back to Square One. “I wasn’t worried about India, I was worried about Chicago,” he said. “Chicago was the killer. India was fine.” | Newspapers;Outsourcing;New Haven (Conn);India;The New Haven Advocate |
ny0210839 | [
"technology"
] | 2017/01/05 | Daily Report: Apple Takes Down The Times’s News App in China | If you are reading this in China, congratulations. Not many people are. That is because Chinese authorities instructed Apple late last month to remove The New York Times news app from the Apple app store. As Katie Benner and Sui-Lee Wee report , the move follows China’s 2012 blocking of The Times’s website. In 2012, the shutdown appeared to be the result of a series of reports in The Times on the extensive wealth amassed by the family of Wen Jiabao, who was then China’s prime minister. It is not clear why the app was removed. Apple would not even say what regulatory violation, if any, caused the removal; who in the Chinese government told Apple to do it; or whether any legal case had been made, or legal documents presented, before Apple acceded to China’s wishes. The removal happened on Dec. 23. Earlier that day, David Barboza, a Times reporter, spoke with Apple executives in conjunction with an article that would be published on Dec. 29 on the billions of dollars in perks and subsidies that China provides to the world’s largest iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, a manufacturing partner of Apple’s. Image The move underlines the difficulty news organizations face in reporting on China, particularly when the country’s own people are also the readers. Apple, which values China as both a manufacturing center and a consumer market, has in the past removed other news apps. Those of other major publishers remain available on the app store in China. It is unclear whether Apple has ever resisted a Chinese order to remove an app, or otherwise broken with a request from the government. Last year, Apple had an extended dispute with the United States government about helping to unlock an iPhone of a terrorist who had committed murders. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said the company would comply with any court order, but this became unnecessary when the United States employed hackers to open the iPhone. | Mobile Apps;News media,journalism;Apple;The New York Times;China;US |
ny0187671 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2009/04/19 | Yankees Give Up 14 Runs in Second Inning | The Yankees have played more than 16,500 games, or roughly 148,500 innings, since Bill Devery and Frank Farrell bought the American League’s Baltimore franchise and moved it to Manhattan in 1903. Through it all, the Yankees — and their Highlanders forebears — had never allowed 14 runs in an inning . It never happened at Hilltop Park or the Polo Grounds. It never happened at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium or anyplace on the road. But in the third game at the new Yankee Stadium — where the ball seems rocket-fueled when hit to right-center field — the Cleveland Indians erupted for 14 runs in the second inning of a 22-4 smackdown on Saturday. The game matched the most runs the Yankees had ever allowed at home, meaning the crowd of 45,167 saw history. Some fans paid $2,625 apiece to get a front-row seat for all 236 pitches by the Yankees, though only a fraction were thrown by Chien-Ming Wang . Wang’s next scheduled turn is Friday at the caldron of Fenway Park, but it seems unfathomable that the Yankees will let him pitch there. In three starts, Wang is 0-3 with an earned run average of 34.50. He would need to throw 48 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings to reach a 3.79 E.R.A., his career mark before this season. “We have an off-day, and it’s something we’re going to have to discuss, how we’re going to decide to do this,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “There’s some room to play with some things.” Girardi insisted Wang was not hurt. He also said that because Wang was out of minor league options, there was no way to send him to the minors without giving other teams a chance to claim him. But after allowing eight runs in one and a third innings Saturday, Wang has permitted 23 earned runs in just six innings this season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no Yankees starter has allowed as many earned runs in his first three starts of a season. “We have six losses on the year right now, and he’s got three of them,” Johnny Damon said. “In all three of those games, we’ve been blown out and we’ve had to go to our bullpen, so maybe our bullpen’s not sharp the following days. I don’t know what more to say, but hopefully he can figure it out, because it’d be tough to keep on going like this.” Wang started the game by striking out Grady Sizemore with a heavy sinker, low and away, exactly where his pitches should go. Wang said he actually threw plenty of good sinkers, but the Indians fouled them off. “I feel like I can put my sinker where I want to put it,” Wang said, before switching to an interpreter and adding: “Mostly I could keep my sinkers down. But when I left a few up, they hit them hard.” The Yankees were so concerned about Wang that they called up an extra reliever, Anthony Claggett, from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday night. “This is as good as it gets,” Claggett said before the game. His words were hardly prescient. As soon as Claggett came in, the Indians devoured him. He allowed eight runs and nine hits, collecting just five outs. Still, that was one more out than Wang, who has not been the same pitcher since tearing a ligament in his foot last June . The fateful second inning started with an infield single by Travis Hafner, another single and then a three-run homer by Shin-Soo Choo . At that point, Wang lost confidence and let his mechanics slip, the pitching coach Dave Eiland said. After an out, Wang gave up five hits in a row. “He needs to pitch,” Eiland said. “He didn’t pitch the last three and a half months last year, and he needs to pitch his way through it. That’s it.” The biggest blow in the second was a grand slam off Claggett by Asdrubal Cabrera , one of 12 home runs hit to right in the first three games at Yankee Stadium, where the dimensions are the same as they were at the old stadium. There have been 17 home runs in all. The weather has been warm and the sample size is small, but the trend is unmistakable. “The park faces the exact same way, so you would think it would play the same way, but so far it has not,” Girardi said. “Now, is the shape of the outfield different behind the fence? Yeah, there’s more scoreboard. It’s somewhat different, I guess. It’s played different, that’s for sure.” Ultimately, a jet stream to right could help the Yankees, who have several players with good power to that field. But on a day when their pitching was so dreadful, it contributed to a historic mess. INSIDE PITCH Right fielder Xavier Nady had another magnetic resonance imaging test on his damaged right elbow on Saturday. Before announcing a course of action, the Yankees will consult with the Angels’ team doctor, Lewis Yocum, who performed Nady’s reconstructive elbow surgery in 2001. ... The Indians last scored 14 runs in an inning on June 18, 1950, against the Philadelphia A’s. Their outburst Saturday was the first 14-run inning in the majors since the Red Sox routed and the Marlins, 25-8 , on June 27, 2003. It was also the first time a major league team had scored as many as 14 runs in the second inning. | New York Yankees;Baseball;Yankee Stadium (NYC);Cleveland Indians;Wang Chien-Ming |
ny0131372 | [
"us"
] | 2012/12/29 | Cape Cod Times Apologizes for Reporter’s Fabrications | HYANNIS, Mass. — When an editor at The Cape Cod Times was reading the newspaper last month, she thought an article about the Veterans Day parade from the day before seemed slightly off. The article, written by Karen Jeffrey, a longtime reporter, told of a Ronald Chipman, 46, and his family from Boston. The Chipmans apparently were oblivious to Veterans Day until they saw the parade. Ms. Jeffrey described the family in detail, including a scene in which the parents used their smartphones to find information about the holiday, creating a “teachable moment” for themselves and their children. Maybe it was the tidiness of the tale. Or the notion that adults were unfamiliar with Veterans Day. But the article did not ring true to the editor and she set out to find the Chipmans. She searched several databases but turned up nothing. She reported her finding to the editor in chief, Paul Pronovost. Mr. Pronovost asked the editor — whom he would not name to protect her privacy — to check other recent articles by Ms. Jeffrey. After more people in the articles could not be found, he then asked Ms. Jeffrey for help in locating the Chipmans. Ms. Jeffrey said she had thrown out her notes. “That’s when the alarm bells went off,” Mr. Pronovost said. He ordered a full review of her work. For three days, three editors pored over a public-records database called Accurint . They examined voter rolls and town assessor records. They checked Facebook profiles and made phone calls. And they concluded that, over the years, Ms. Jeffrey had written dozens of articles that included people who did not exist. The next day, Dec. 5, Mr. Pronovost and the publisher, Peter Meyer, wrote a front-page apology to their readers. “In an audit of her work, Times editors have been unable to find 69 people in 34 stories since 1998, when we began archiving stories electronically,” they wrote. “Jeffrey admitted to fabricating people in some of these articles and giving some others false names,” they added. “She no longer works at the paper.” The episode shocked those at The Cape Cod Times, which has a daily circulation of 36,000 and Sunday circulation of almost 40,000. Before the apology appeared, Mr. Pronovost told newsroom staff members what had happened. “Some people had no idea at all, and some probably were shocked by the scope of what we were talking about,” he said in a recent interview in his office here. And some “just simply couldn’t believe” that Ms. Jeffrey would do such a thing. Ms. Jeffrey, 59, who had been at the paper since 1981, was perceived as reliable. She had covered the police and courts for many years, and there were no questions raised about the people in those stories. It was only her features — about parades, a Red Sox home opener, a road race — that contained fabrications. Ms. Jeffrey has not made any public statements and did not respond to several requests for comment. Mr. Pronovost said, “I did ask ‘why’ but she didn’t have an answer.” Her falsifications puzzled some precisely because they involved the easy articles. “You go to the parade, you get a quote, you put it in the story,” said Matt Pitta, the news director at Qantum Communications, which owns four radio stations in Hyannis and competes with The Cape Cod Times, which is owned by News Corporation. “It’s not like trying to get a quote from an indicted politician who won’t speak to you.” Many people also wondered how her fabrications could have gone on for 14 years without being discovered. Of course, nonexistent people do not call up to complain. But Mr. Pronovost said that her editors saw no red flags. Among those most surprised were the law enforcement officers who worked with Ms. Jeffrey. “She was always fair and accurate,” said Sheriff James M. Cummings of Barnstable County, which includes Cape Cod. Learning that she had fabricated stories, he said, was “like a punch in the gut.” Detective Lt. Bob Melia of the Massachusetts State Police said that Ms. Jeffrey was a good reporter. “She reported it like it is,” he said. “If we asked her, ‘Can you keep that information out?’ she would say, ‘No, I can’t, it has to be part of the story.’ We respected her.” He said she had been taken off the police beat a few years ago and he believed she was “down in the dumps” about it. “By making her do community-type reporting, she thought it was a demotion and an insult to her, and maybe that’s why she did what she did,” he speculated. Mr. Pronovost said that in a newsroom overhaul, Ms. Jeffrey had been switched to politics and then to early mornings to cover breaking news for the Web site, but added that she still covered the police and courts part time. He said that “down in the dumps” was probably “a fair characterization” of her mood after she was switched to mornings, but that her fabrications had started long before the switch. In their apology, the publisher and editor wrote, “Clearly, we placed too much trust in a reporter and did not verify sourcing with necessary frequency.” To prevent it from happening again, they said they would make spot checks of sources more often and hold ethics training sessions. Mr. Pronovost said he had expected “to get hammered” by critics “as the latest example of lax standards,” citing past cases of plagiarism and fabrications at other publications, including The New York Times. Instead his newspaper was praised in journalism circles and received positive messages for the front-page apology and response. “The paper did a good job of getting out in front of it,” Sheriff Cummings said. “The community was appreciative.” Mr. Pitta, the Qantum news director, who also teaches journalism at Emerson College, commended the newspaper. “I think they very much understand the gravity of what happened and are addressing it properly,” he said. “But I worry the general public will continue to get more jaded than they already are,” Mr. Pitta added. “We’re trying to find ways to survive because of the fragmented way our business has become, especially with all the social media. We don’t need to drive people away from traditional media sources because they don’t feel that what they’re getting is correct.” | Cape Cod Times The;Jeffrey Karen;Newspapers;Cape Cod (Mass);Pronovost Paul;Meyer Peter;Frauds and Swindling;Lying |
ny0219907 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2010/05/25 | Australia Expels Israeli Official Over Dubai Killing | The diplomatic fallout from the killing of a Hamas operative in his Dubai hotel room expanded Monday as Australia became the latest country to expel an Israeli official, saying that Israel had played a role in falsifying passports used by suspected members of the assassination team. Meanwhile, police officers investigating the killing of the Hamas official, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh , issued an arrest warrant for a 62-year-old British man. He appears to be the first suspect to be publicly identified by his real name, rather than an alias. Interpol identified the latest suspect as Christopher Lockwood of Scotland, and said he was wanted in Dubai for “crimes against life and health,” but did not provide any details on how he had been involved. The police in Dubai could not immediately be reached for comment. Police officials in Dubai have released photographs of more than two dozen people said to be connected to Mr. Mabhouh’s killing, but they have so far named only the suspects using the aliases that were on the forged passports that allowed the assassins and their accomplices to slip out of Dubai after the Jan. 19 killing. The use of forged passports from Britain, Ireland, Australia and other countries has strained relations between Israel and several of its allies. Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, is widely believed to be behind the assassination of Mr. Mabhouh, a founder of Hamas’s military wing. Investigators trying to unravel his killing have released surveillance video showing suspected members of the assassination team in wigs and fake beards trailing Mr. Mabhouh through the hotel. He was drugged and suffocated, Dubai police officials said. Israel has not admitted any involvement in the killing. The case has thrown an unwelcome spotlight on Israel’s covert operations, and several countries have condemned the use of the counterfeit passports, which in some cases used the names of dual citizens living in Israel. European officials have denounced the use of falsified passports in the killing, and Britain in March expelled an Israeli diplomat in a rare rebuke to Israel. On Monday, Australia’s foreign minister, Stephen Smith, told Parliament that there was “no doubt” Israel was behind the passport forgeries, and said he had asked that a member of the Israeli Embassy in Canberra leave Australia within the week. The Haaretz newspaper said it had learned that the official to be withdrawn was the Mossad representative at the embassy. “These are not the actions of a friend,” Mr. Smith said in remarks to Parliament. “The government takes this step much more in sorrow than in anger or retaliation.” In Israel, reaction to Australia’s decision was muted, apparently reflecting a desire to move past the killing. Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said, “We regret the Australian measure, which does not reflect the quality and importance of the relationship between the two countries.” | Israel;Mabhouh Mahmoud al-;Mossad;Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations;Diplomatic Service Embassies and Consulates;Australia;Hamas |
ny0250905 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2011/02/07 | Super Bowl — Unsafe Sections Leave Hundreds With Tickets but No Seats | ARLINGTON, Tex. — Jim Rouleau of Hudson, Wis., a season-ticket holder for Packers games at Lambeau Field, spent $3,900 for each of his two Super Bowl tickets. When he found his seat, with a face value of $900, he was told that his section was closed, and that he could not sit there. “We got all the way to our seats,” Rouleau said. “They just turned us away.” More than 1,000 ticket holders had similar experiences Sunday, as the latest public-relations nightmare for Super Bowl organizers and the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones unfolded just as kickoff approached. Sections of temporary bleachers erected inside Cowboys Stadium were not completed in time for the game, leaving about 1,250 people holding tickets for seats declared unusable. The N.F.L. said that about 850 of those ticket holders were relocated to other seats in the stadium. But long after the game started, hundreds were still outside, in line at the ticket window, awaiting a resolution that few imagined could satisfy them. Those sent away to watch the game elsewhere, or invited to watch the game on televisions inside a club at the stadium, were promised refunds by the N.F.L. worth three times the face value of their tickets, which were mostly $800 or $900 apiece. But most of those affected had paid far more for their tickets, and had spent small fortunes on travel and lodging. And any number of them, having had to exit the stadium before re-entering, missed a quarter of the game. “Jerry Jones is offering $2,700, but that’s not good enough,” Rouleau said. He had company in his anger. “I’ve just lost eight grand,” said Bradley Geier, a Dallas lawyer, who said he spent $9,700 for two tickets that had a face value of $900 each. “Just because they decided to put seats where they shouldn’t.” After waiting through long security checks, some fans arrived at their sections 30 minutes before kickoff, only to learn that they would not be allowed to sit in their assigned seats. “The frustrating thing here is that they wait till the day of the game to say these auxiliary seats aren’t good?” said Dan McGinnity of Spokane, Wash., a Packers fan who paid $900 for his ticket. “Don’t they have any sort of plan ahead of time?” It was something of a tragicomic coda to a week of logistical nightmares and missteps that vexed organizers and Jones, who paid for most of the $1.2 billion stadium and persuaded other owners to reward North Texas with a Super Bowl for the first time. Snow, ice and subfreezing temperatures forced hundreds of flight cancellations, made travel in the sprawling metropolitan area nearly impossible at times, and muted much of the week’s festivities. Snow and ice slid off the roof of the stadium Friday, injuring at least six people on the plaza below. And on Sunday, it appeared that Jones’s quest to set a Super Bowl attendance record — adding the temporary seats inside the stadium and charging $200 a person to sit immediately outside it with the game shown on giant screens — had led instead to a bit of Super Bowl ignominy. The Super Bowl attendance record of 103,985 was set in 1980 at the Rose Bowl in California. Sunday’s game fell short; the attendance was announced as 103,219. A spokesperson for the Arlington Public Safety Joint Information Center referred all questions to the N.F.L. The N.F.L. spokesman Greg Aiello, asked how such a decision could be made so late without notice, said via e-mail, “It was an issue throughout the week that unfortunately did not get resolved.” In a statement the N.F.L. added: “The safety of fans attending the Super Bowl was paramount in making the decision and the N.F.L., Dallas Cowboys and City of Arlington officials are in agreement with the resolution. We regret the situation and inconvenience that it may have caused. We will conduct a full review of this matter.” Pending that further review, the N.F.L. and Jones improvised on Sunday. The league said that it could plug some of the ticket holders into seats around the stadium because it kept a reserve of open seats in case of problems or complaints. Some were taken to unused seats granted to N.F.L. officials, teams or journalists. But several sections of temporary stands, one in each corner of the field at about midlevel of the stadium and two high above one end zone, were left empty. Three of the four corner sections were covered in large black sheets. The other looked ready to occupy, but far underneath the seats, metal beams were scattered, an assortment of parts apparently waiting to be put together. Some of the 400 disenfranchised fans who chose to watch the game in one of the stadium’s private clubs were given free food and merchandise, and were allowed to walk around the stadium and watch from standing-room only places. And they got, for what it was worth, three times the face value of their original tickets. It was not hard for them to contain their excitement. Tickets for weeks had been in high demand because the game featured two teams with passionate fan bases. Outside the stadium hours before the game, people looking for tickets were left holding their money. Gaylen Paulson, a Packers fan from Austin, Tex., was willing to pay $2,500 apiece for four tickets. A couple of hours before kickoff, he could not find takers. Several people scalping tickets said that the going rate was closer to $4,000 a ticket. “And most brokers are flush out,” Paulson said. “The Packers are a popular team.” Most Super Bowls feel more like corporate affairs, with the stadium filled with people without strong feelings toward either team. But fans of the Steelers and the Packers filled the stadium with an unusual energy. The most emotional, however, could be found holding tickets they could not use. “I think we’re just in disbelief,” said Dean Kepraios of Chicago, who paid $3,500 for tickets valued at $900. Ashante Green of Pittsburgh held tickets to Section 240A. Midway through the first quarter, she was given seats in Section 448. “It’s ridiculous,” she said. “What am I supposed to do? Not go in?” | Football;Stadiums and Arenas;Super Bowl;Dallas Cowboys;Green Bay Packers;National Football League |
ny0071054 | [
"us"
] | 2015/03/28 | Campaign Money Tests Wisconsin Justices’ Impartiality | MADISON, Wis. — In an off year for major elections in Wisconsin, one race in 2011 unexpectedly turned into a full-blown battle: David Prosser, a Supreme Court justice seen as part of the court’s conservative majority, was fighting for his seat against a more liberal opponent, JoAnne Kloppenburg, a little-known assistant attorney general. The campaign became a referendum on efforts by the newly elected Republican governor, Scott Walker , to cut collective bargaining rights for most public workers, and money was pouring in. By the end, the Supreme Court race cost $5.7 million, including about $4.3 million in so-called issue ads paid for by outside groups. Justice Prosser defeated Ms. Kloppenburg by 7,004 votes , a result so close that a recount was conducted at taxpayer expense. In the coming weeks, that outside campaign spending may be at issue again as the State Supreme Court considers whether an investigation can proceed into claims that Mr. Walker’s campaign improperly coordinated the spending by conservative groups during campaigns in 2011 and 2012 to recall him and state lawmakers after the collective bargaining cuts. Several of the same outside groups that were accused of coordinating with Mr. Walker in the recall elections previously spent millions of dollars backing Justice Prosser, a former Republican state lawmaker, and his conservative colleagues in recent elections, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan group, though some of the outside groups dispute those findings. Now, a court docket entry shows , a special prosecutor who has led the investigation into the recall campaigns is asking that at least one justice, not named in publicly available documents, recuse himself or herself from the case because of potential conflicts. Legal experts say they suspect that the court’s four conservatives have been asked to step aside in the case. The case highlights how a rising tide of money in state judicial races is creating potential conflicts for judges who sit on cases involving donors. Judges in the highest courts in 38 states face some type of election, and in the 2011-12 election cycle, the latest for which data is available, more than $56 million was spent on those races, nearly twice as much as in the 1990s, according to Justice at Stake , a nonpartisan research group. “It boggles the mind that these justices are saying that they can somehow be impartial when these parties to the case have been essentially stuffing their pockets with huge wads of cash,” said Matt Rothschild, the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Whether any justices recuse themselves could also have major implications for Mr. Walker, who is taking steps toward running for president in 2016. Though a lawyer for the special prosecutor has said the governor is not a target, the investigation could cloud his national campaign if the court allows it to continue. A spokeswoman for Mr. Walker declined to comment on the issue, noting that it is part of a continuing legal matter. Image The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether an investigation can proceed into claims that the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker, above, improperly coordinated the spending of conservative groups in 2011 and 2012. Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times In an interview, Justice Prosser declined to discuss the Walker campaign case, but spoke generally of the factors involved in making a recusal decision, including the timetable of contributions in support of a judge’s campaign. “The effect of even large contributions can wear off after a reasonable amount of time has passed so long as it doesn’t involve a case that was pending at the time the contribution was made,” Justice Prosser said. “Timing is a very significant factor recognized by all legal experts.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court is officially nonpartisan, but has become polarized between four conservatives and three liberals. The group has reached moments of such intense personal antipathy that, as the justices were considering the future of Mr. Walker’s measure to cut collective bargaining rights, one accused another of grabbing her around the neck . Adding to the debate over judicial partisanship is a state measure, to be voted on next month, that would allow a majority of justices to select the chief justice, who for over a century has been chosen by seniority. The proposal, placed on the ballot by the Republican-held Legislature, is seen by Democrats as a partisan attack on the current chief justice, Shirley S. Abrahamson , viewed as part of the court’s liberal bloc. The investigation into whether Mr. Walker’s campaign worked inappropriately with conservative groups on a series of recall elections, including the governor’s own, began in August 2012 and has produced no charges. Many details are unknown publicly because of strict secrecy rules around the investigation, but prosecutors have suggested in documents that they were weighing whether disclosure rules and donation limits were violated as Mr. Walker’s allies directed activities of at least a dozen outside groups, including the Wisconsin Club for Growth , Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and Citizens for a Strong America. Lawyers for some of the groups have said no laws were broken, in part, because the groups did not tell people directly how to vote. The investigation stalled more than a year ago when a state judge quashed subpoenas, saying he had found no probable cause of campaign finance violations. The Supreme Court had scheduled arguments for next month on the question of whether the investigation can proceed, but in an order issued late Friday took the unusual step of saying it would make a decision based on written briefs because the inquiry’s privacy rules made oral arguments “neither legally nor practically possible.” According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, some of those same groups have provided more than $8 million over the years to support Justices Prosser, Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman, mainly for issue ads that do not explicitly tell people to vote for a candidate, but which, the democracy campaign’s analysis says, clearly supported the conservative justices by advocating their stances or denouncing their opponents’ records. But some of the outside groups disputed the analysis and the amounts cited. Scott Manley, vice president of government relations for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business group, said that the organization had spent money “educating state residents on judicial policy issues that affect Wisconsin,” but added that “none of these ads advocated a candidate’s election or defeat.” And Andrew M. Grossman, a lawyer with the firm BakerHostetler, representing the Wisconsin Club for Growth, said the group had “never advocated for or against the election of any candidate.” Under a policy approved by the State Supreme Court in 2010, judges need not recuse themselves from a case “based solely” on an endorsement, campaign contribution, independent expenditure or issue advocacy. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision involving a West Virginia case that elected judges must disqualify themselves from cases involving people who spent exceptionally large sums to put them on the bench. Yet in 2010, the Supreme Court also provided broad latitude on outside spending in the Citizens United case . Image Members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is preparing to hear arguments in a campaign finance case that involves groups that have also spent money supporting some of the justices. Credit Pool photo by M.P. King Wisconsin Supreme Court races once were relatively low-budget affairs in which the incumbents usually won re-election every 10 years. Intensity and spending increased in the last decade as outside groups pressed for and against candidates, leading some justices to call for a merit selection system. A new program for public financing of Supreme Court campaigns, approved in 2009, was dropped two years later. “It is night and day now to what it was then in terms of all this money coming in and the potential or actual conflicts that are arising on so many high-profile cases,” said Janine Geske , a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice appointed by a Republican governor to fill a vacancy in the 1990s. Supporters of the court’s conservative bloc note that liberals on the court have received assistance from labor union members, even though the court has ruled on labor issues, including Mr. Walker’s plan to restrict collective bargaining. In a 2009 election, for instance, Justice Abrahamson received more than $100,000 from labor unions, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said, and the Greater Wisconsin Committee , a progressive group that gets support from labor, spent $465,000 on issue ads that backed her. While declining to discuss the case related to Mr. Walker, Justice Gableman said in an interview that he drew a line between contributions made directly to his campaign and independent spending by outside groups. “The rule that I operated under in my election was we coordinated with no one,” he said. “I view that as a world of difference from someone actually giving to my campaign money which is then up to the campaign and ultimately my discretion as to how to spend it. I have no say as a candidate over the third-party groups.” In Wisconsin, a justice who steps aside is not replaced by a substitute. Yet, the court must have at least four justices present to act on a case, so if four justices stepped aside, experts said, its fate would be uncertain. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, seen as a member of the liberal wing, has already recused herself; her son works with a lawyer who represents a party in the case. Facing an election in April, she voiced concern about the role of big money in the race. She has said that she will not accept contributions from political parties, or from lawyers or groups with cases before the court. “I truly believe that partisan politics and out-of-state special interests have no place in our courtrooms,” Justice Bradley said in response to written questions. Yet her opponent, James Daley, a circuit court judge who has received an in-kind donation from the state’s Republican Party, said he viewed the notion that Justice Bradley shunned help from Democrats as “a giggle.” The issue, he added, was not what Wisconsin voters he had met along the campaign trail were most worried about. “People are, No. 1, concerned with the public displays of dysfunction in the court,” he said. | Wisconsin;Campaign finance;Conflict of interest;Scott Walker;State supreme court;Campaign advertising |
ny0288699 | [
"sports",
"olympics"
] | 2016/08/15 | Andy Murray’s Big Year Now Has Olympic Gold | RIO DE JANEIRO — Andy Murray of Britain put a brighter shine on his finest tennis season by winning his second straight Olympic gold medal in singles on Sunday night, but surely Juan Martín del Potro of Argentina deserves something more precious than silver. It won’t be ranking points or prize money. This Olympic tennis tournament offered neither, but del Potro gave it his all just the same, providing start-to-finish entertainment and sentimental resonance as he continued his comeback from three surgeries on his left wrist. “I fought to my last fingernail,” he said. All the 141st-ranked del Potro lacked was his perfect ending, but Murray, the remarkable Scot, refused to cooperate, hustling and scrapping through his own considerable fatigue to win the grueling final, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Murray is the first player to win two Olympic gold medals in singles. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have yet to win one. But this was quite a different task from Murray’s first Olympic victory, when he beat Federer on home grass in straight sets for gold at the 2012 London Games. Sunday’s victory required 4 hours 2 minutes of hard labor on a slow court against a leg-weary but still extremely dangerous opponent. “At the time, that was the first time I’d won any sort of major event, and it was a home Olympics,” Murray said of his first gold medal. “But this has been much harder than London. That match in the final there was fairly straightforward in terms of the score line, whereas tonight anything could have happened.” So it seemed. Del Potro reached the final after an intense three-set victory over Rafael Nadal of Spain in a semifinal on Saturday afternoon. Nadal looked quite weary in the bronze-medal match, which he lost on Sunday to Kei Nishikori of Japan. And del Potro was clearly suffering in the aftermath, too. He looked repeatedly out of fuel, leaning on his racket or even the net after long rallies in an attempt to catch his breath. But he then repeatedly summoned surprising reserves of energy to come up with thunderous forehands, clutch serves or effective shots on the run. But Murray was fresher, quicker and, ultimately, just a bit steadier. The final rally of the match — an extended and exhausting exchange that ended with a backhand slice in the net from del Potro — was a fitting punctuation mark. “The crowds made me run all the time,” del Potro said of the support he received from his fellow Argentines and, more surprisingly, quite a few Brazilians. “But I never felt I will win the match for sure because Andy was playing really well in important moments, and he has the experience to put the ball in in that moment. And he deserved to win, because he was smarter than me in the end of all the sets.” The victory secured, Murray did not have the energy for cartwheels or even a leaping fist pump. He simply wandered to the net, looking a little vacant-eyed, and waited for del Potro — one of the slowest walkers in tennis even when fresh — to join him. When del Potro finally arrived, they exchanged a long embrace, and then both returned to their courtside chairs to shed a few tears. It was that kind of tournament, a crying game from beginning to end, with the tears already flowing on Day 1 when del Potro knocked out Djokovic in the opening round. There were more on Friday, when Nadal won the gold medal in men’s doubles for Spain with his boyhood friend Marc Lopez; more on Saturday when the unseeded Monica Puig completed one of the most unlikely runs in tennis history by winning the women’s singles and Puerto Rico’s first Olympic gold medal. All those who question whether tennis belongs in the Olympics would be wise to review all of the above. The looks on players’ faces in defeat and victory rival any feelings that ever get stirred up by Grand Slam results. Murray has had a particularly emotional stretch of his own: becoming a father for the first time earlier this season and then sobbing in his chair with release after winning his second Wimbledon title last month. But his counterpunching tennis has remained exceptional, and Sunday’s victory extended his career-high winning streak to 18 matches. He is still the No. 2 player in the world behind Djokovic, but Murray is the man of the moment as he heads to this week’s Masters 1000 in Cincinnati (or at least that is the plan for now) and then the year’s final Grand Slam event, the United States Open, which begins Aug. 29. When Djokovic won the French Open for the first time in June, defeating Murray in the final, he held all four major singles titles and was sparking serious and understandable discussion about the possibility of completing the Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympics in the same calendar year. But the landscape has shifted quickly with considerable help here from del Potro, whose ranking will not improve as a result but who certainly deserves a wild card into the United States Open. At the end of last year, with his left wrist continuing to trouble him, he seriously considered retirement. But in the last six weeks, del Potro has beaten Stan Wawrinka, Djokovic and Nadal and given Murray quite a fright. His reward was a silver medal to go with the bronze he won in London in 2012. “More than the color of the medal, I’ll remember the whole experience,” he said with his latest prize around his neck. “This is only the reward, but it’s not what I’ll keep with me. That’s inside.” NOTES In an all-American mixed doubles final, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock defeated Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, 6-7 (3), 6-1 and 10-7 in the match tiebreak. It was the second medal for Sock in Rio. He won a bronze medal in men’s doubles with Steve Johnson. It was the fifth medal over all for Williams, 36, who had won four gold medals in previous Olympics. In the women’s doubles final, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia defeated Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-4. | Tennis;Andy Murray;2016 Summer Olympics |
ny0102573 | [
"sports"
] | 2015/12/12 | Defender Is Swiftly Waived by Giants | EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Giants defensive end Damontre Moore, who was drafted two years ago to rejuvenate the team’s flagging pass rush but whose inconsistent play and erratic practice habits frustrated Giants coaches, was unexpectedly waived by the team. There was no single incident that led to Moore’s release. Instead, it was a culmination of factors, which included Moore being fined repeatedly for violating team rules, according to people with information about the Giants’ deliberations who were not authorized to talk about Moore’s release. In the last three seasons, Giants coaches have talked about Moore’s potential and praised his enthusiasm, but they would always caution that he was unreliable when it came to staying within the team-wide defensive schemes. This season Moore was whistled for three costly roughing-the-passer penalties and also got into the occasional practice scuffle with teammates, including one this week. “We made the move today in the interest of both parties,” General Manager Jerry Reese said Friday in a statement from the team. The timing of the release was surprising. Moore had played extensively last weekend in the Giants’ loss to the Jets and had one of his better games, with five tackles. Moore, who is 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, played in 11 games this season and had 17 tackles. He was not available to reporters when the Giants made the announcement. REVIS NEARING RETURN Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis fully participated in practice for the first time since sustaining a concussion three weeks ago. He is listed as probable for the Jets’ game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. “He still has to be cleared by one more doctor,” Coach Todd Bowles said. “Pending that clearance, he’ll be good to go.” Revis has been in the N.F.L.’s concussion protocol since sustaining the injury on Nov. 22 at Houston. “If he passes the test, I’ll be encouraged,” Bowles said. Marcus Williams, Revis’s backup, is questionable with a sprained knee that kept him out against the Giants last Sunday. (AP) Image Rob Gronkowski, who has missed one game since hurting his right knee in a loss to the Denver Broncos on Nov. 29. Credit Elsa/Getty Images KEY ADDITIONS FOR PATRIOTS Two key offensive weapons for the New England Patriots, Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, were both back on the practice field on Friday, and Gronkowski has a chance to play Sunday night at Houston. Gronkowski, who has missed one game since hurting his right knee in a loss to the Denver Broncos on Nov. 29, had his second day of limited practice and was listed as questionable when the team released its injury report. “I’m doing everything I can to get better every single day and it feels good to be back just with my teammates,” Gronkowski said during a 20-second encounter with reporters after practice. “Just mentally, it feels good to be back with them out on the practice field.” Earlier in the day, when asked about how Gronkowski looked, Coach Bill Belichick said, “We’ll list on the injury report whatever his situation is.” The Patriots have lost two games in a row for the first time since 2012. They have not dropped three straight since 2002. Edelman, who has missed the last three games after breaking his left foot, appeared for the first time at practice, but is officially out for Sunday. (AP) SEAHAWKS’ LYNCH RECOVERING Running back Marshawn Lynch has rejoined Seattle as he continues to recover from abdominal surgery last month. Lynch was at the team’s facility earlier this week and Coach Pete Carroll said that it would be “week to week” regarding when Lynch might rejoin practice. “We’ll see what happens next week,” Carroll said. Lynch underwent surgery on Nov. 25 for an injury related to a sports hernia. Between the operation and a hamstring injury earlier in the season, Lynch has missed five and a half games. The rookie Thomas Rawls has filled in for Lynch and is on pace for a 1,000-yard season, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. (AP) | Football;Patriots;Giants |
ny0145841 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2008/10/25 | Obama Makes Visit to a Most Beloved Supporter | HONOLULU — For the last 21 months, she has followed the odyssey of his presidential campaign like a spectator on a faraway balcony. She underwent a corneal transplant to see him on television. She reluctantly agreed to film a political advertisement when he urgently needed to reassure voters about his distinctive American roots. She told him during one of their frequent telephone conversations that it might not hurt if he smiled a bit more. And on Friday, Senator Barack Obama spent the day here saying goodbye. At the Punahou Circle Apartments, a place of his own childhood, Madelyn Dunham , his grandmother, lay gravely ill. For weeks, Mr. Obama has talked to doctors and tracked her condition. When she was released from the hospital last week after surgery to repair a broken hip, he received word that he should not wait until after the election to make what he believes is most likely a final visit. It was an unusual departure from the tug-of-war of the presidential campaign, particularly with only 11 days remaining in the race. But his advisers say he told them that the trip was not negotiable. He was absent when his mother died here in 1995, a mistake he said he did not intend to repeat with her mother, a stalwart in his life. Mr. Obama has reached the closing days of his run for the White House without embarking on a formal biographical tour. In a candidacy built on biography, and criticized for its celebrity, his advisers believed that substance, as well as an overseas trip in July, was a wiser course. But a biographical tour of sorts has unfolded around him here on the one-day visit to see the woman who was a guiding force in his life and who played a supporting role in his candidacy, from the Iowa caucuses to his marquee speech on race in Philadelphia to his general-election effort to win over voters in red states. The moment Mr. Obama stepped off the plane here late Thursday evening, after a nine-hour flight from Indianapolis, his motorcade drove directly to his grandmother’s 12-story apartment building, on a residential section of South Beretania Street. His return to Hawaii was carried live on the local news, but his arrival was subdued. He did not wave to the cameras. There were no leis to welcome him on the breezy airport tarmac. “Somber Obama returns home” was the banner headline in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin on Friday. Thursday night’s visit to Mrs. Dunham, who will turn 86 on Sunday, lasted a little more than an hour. Mr. Obama then returned on Friday to her 10th-floor apartment, where he lived from the age of 10. Also present was his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives in Hawaii. The apartment was flooded with flowers and good wishes from strangers who wrote that they had come to know her from his first book, “Dreams From My Father.” As a light morning mist fell, the sandal-clad senator took a brief walk around his old neighborhood, a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes. Family friends in Hawaii say Mrs. Dunham is suffering from cancer, among other ailments, but Obama advisers, told by the senator not to release any details of her condition, declined to confirm or deny those reports. She is known, however, to suffer from osteoporosis and poor eyesight. “One of the things I wanted to make sure of is that I had a chance to sit down with her and talk to her,” Mr. Obama said Friday on the ABC News television program “Good Morning America.” “She’s still alert and she’s still got all her faculties, and I want to make sure that — that I don’t miss that opportunity right now.” “She is getting a sense of long-deserved recognition at — towards the end of her life,” he added. As Mr. Obama flew west across six time zones on his way here, he stayed in the secluded front cabin of his campaign plane. He read, slept and briefly talked with a handful of aides who came along. The knot in his red tie was loosened as he walked down the aisle of the plane to stretch his legs, but he kept his distance from a small group of reporters who accompanied him. It was a starkly different mood from that during a flight nine months ago, when Mr. Obama made a pilgrimage to Kansas for his first visit to the town of El Dorado, where his maternal grandparents had originally lived. A smile washed over his face on that late January day as he spoke about the woman he calls Toot, his own shorthand for “tutu,” a Hawaiian term for “grandparent.” “She can’t travel,” he told reporters then. “She has a bad back. She has pretty severe osteoporosis. But she’s glued to CNN.” Back then, when Mr. Obama was in the opening stages of his Democratic primary fight, he spoke wistfully about his grandparents, whose all-American biography had become critical to establishing his own American story. He told of how his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, had fought in World War II while his grandmother worked on B-29s at a Boeing plant in Wichita. “My grandparents held on to a simple dream: that they would raise my mother in a land of boundless dreams,” Mr. Obama said. “I am standing here today because that dream was realized.” In only one campaign commercial, made during the primary race, can Mrs. Dunham be heard speaking. Her osteoporosis was advanced, and she hunched so severely that it was hard for filmmakers to capture her spirit and words of support for her grandson. In August, as he prepared to accept the Democratic nomination, Mr. Obama delivered a long-distance message to her in a televised speech. “Thank you to my grandmother, who helped raise me and is sitting in Hawaii somewhere right now because she can’t travel, but who poured everything she had into me and who helped me become the man I am today,” Mr. Obama said. “Tonight is for her.” | Obama Barack;Dunham Madelyn;Presidential Election of 2008 |
ny0282068 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/07/18 | Ignoring Donald Trump, Republican Senators Orbit Their Own Worlds | CLEVELAND — Senator Rob Portman of Ohio plans a very busy convention week as Republicans pour into his home state beginning Monday. On two mornings, he will remodel houses in inner-city Cleveland with Habitat for Humanity . On Tuesday, he will kayak on the Cuyahoga River with wounded veterans. As the convention is gaveled to order on Monday afternoon, Mr. Portman, a Republican facing a tough re-election fight, will address hundreds of his campaign volunteers at a community college. One place he will not speak, having addressed the past six Republican conventions, is inside Quicken Loans Arena, where Donald J. Trump will accept the nomination of the most divided national party of modern times. Mr. Portman once looked forward to a convention in Cleveland that would turbocharge his re-election campaign. Now he joins other swing-state Republican senators who are shying away from the party gathering. They will be busily campaigning at home, running local races as if for sheriff, offering a split-screen view of a party that fears its Senate majority will be the collateral damage of a polarizing nominee. The convention avoiders include four of seven senators on the ballot in states President Obama won twice. (Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa has said he plans a “fast in, fast out” visit. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, after saying for weeks he would stay home, reversed course on Sunday and said he would make a one-day convention visit to speak about Islamic terrorism.) Their strategy is to focus on home-state issues that in voters’ minds place them as far as possible from Mr. Trump. “Localize, localize, localize,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, offering the mantra of endangered Senate incumbents on the ballot with Mr. Trump. Mr. Portman and Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire are highlighting their co-sponsorship of a bill to fight opioid addiction that Congress passed last week, an issue of intense concern in their states — and which few associate with the name Trump. Senator Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, also skipping the convention, is visiting 13 counties in his state, where he has attacked Philadelphia’s liberal mayor for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has seized on an issue unmentioned when he ran in the presidential primary: toxic algae blooms in state waters. Since making a late decision last month to run for re-election, Mr. Rubio struck Cleveland — he had offered to speak at the convention — from his itinerary and has visited polluted Florida waters, issuing a flurry of algae-related statements. Image Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, also planned to skip his party’s convention to campaign across his state. Credit Charles Mostoller for The New York Times During the convention, Mr. Rubio will campaign in Florida, in Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and elsewhere. Democrats have no intention of letting Republicans escape from the penumbra of Mr. Trump. Mr. Toomey’s opponent, Katie McGinty, bashed the “Trump-Toomey ticket” on Saturday. Mr. Portman’s Ohio opponent, Ted Strickland, is sending eight supporters dressed as Supreme Court justices to heckle Mr. Portman’s event on Monday. “They will highlight how Portman will help Trump reshape the court for generations,” said David Bergstein, a spokesman for Mr. Strickland. “Trump is a total nightmare for Rob Portman,” said Rebecca Pearcey, Mr. Strickland’s campaign manager. In fact, most down-ballot Republicans cannot afford to completely distance themselves from Mr. Trump. They will need his supporters in the fall, while also attracting independents and Republicans who say they will abstain from voting for either major party’s presidential nominee. Some senators have tried to split hairs, like Ms. Ayotte, who says she “supports” Mr. Trump as the party’s nominee but does not “endorse” him. Only Senator Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, one of the most vulnerable Republican senators this year, running in a heavily Democratic state, has disavowed Mr. Trump, calling him “too bigoted and racist” to be president. Mr. Portman, long a favorite of the Republican establishment, said in an interview that he would vote for Mr. Trump, but was not sure that he would find time to campaign with him in Ohio. He and the other convention avoiders are hoping for a resurgence of split-ticket voting , capturing the votes of Republicans and independents who do not support Mr. Trump. The problem is that ticket splitting has declined for decades as voters have become more polarized. It was last a factor in the 1980s, when Southern Democrats voted for Ronald Reagan and for Democrats in Congress. Mr. Trump’s divisiveness could bring back ticket splitting, Republican strategists said. “We’re starting to see hints of the largest amounts of split-ticket voting since the 1980s,” Mr. Ayres said. Recent polls in swing states show Republican senators with more favorable margins against their Democratic challengers than those separating Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton. The early polling suggests some voters who do not support the Republican presidential nominee back the party’s senators. Video A brief look back at the 2016 presidential campaigns leading up to this year’s party conventions. Credit Credit Andrew Harnik/Associated Press A Quinnipiac survey of Ohio that showed Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton tied last week found that Mr. Portman led Mr. Strickland by seven percentage points. In Florida, the same poll had Mr. Trump leading by three percentage points, but Mr. Rubio with 12- and 13-point advantages over potential Democratic challengers for his Senate seat. Thanks to the brutal Republican primary campaign in Florida , during which Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio traded insults , Florida voters already have strong impressions of how they differ. “There was a two-week stint in March where the differences between the two were very well litigated,” said Alex Conant, an adviser to Mr. Rubio. “Voters know he’s not Donald Trump.” As he campaigns in Ohio, Mr. Portman, 60, spares no occasion to raise the threat of opioid abuse, a signature issue that establishes him as his own man, while fending off his opponent’s most dangerous attack: his long history as a free-trade supporter , putting him at odds with Mr. Trump’s base. Mr. Portman has visited a dozen drug treatment centers in the past month. “People are seeing, O.K., this is a little different kind of Republican,” he said in his campaign R.V. recently as it rumbled between Dayton and Toledo. He was one of four Senate authors of a bipartisan opioid treatment bill, one of Congress’s few accomplishments this year, which last week moved to President Obama’s desk. Mr. Portman, a mild-mannered Washington insider who defied his party by embracing same-sex marriage in 2013 after learning that one of his sons was gay, sighed when asked if Mr. Trump had the right temperament to be president. “We’re different,” he said. “That doesn’t mean my temperament is right for the presidency, or his is wrong.” Mr. Strickland, his opponent, wants voters to hear more about Mr. Portman’s stint as the country’s top trade negotiator under President George W. Bush . “The Best Senator China Ever Had,” the Strickland campaign labeled Mr. Portman, accusing him of failing to stop the illegal “dumping of steel.” PolitiFact determined that the attack was false. But the nuances may go over voters’ heads in a year when Mr. Trump has made China and American trade deals the culprits for lost factory jobs. “What the Trump campaign is going to do is shine a spotlight on Portman’s trade record that’s not going to work with Ohio voters,” said Ms. Pearcey, the campaign manager for Mr. Strickland. Mr. Portman said he agreed with Mr. Trump about cracking down on China for dumping steel. But he strongly defended the economic benefit of free-trade deals to Ohio’s economy. “We have 25 percent of our factory workers” making goods for export, he said. If tariffs are erected in a trade war, as many experts believe Mr. Trump’s policies would spur, “farmers would see their prices totally crater,” Mr. Portman said. “I think he’s just wrong,” he said of Mr. Trump. | 2016 Presidential Election;Republican National Convention,RNC;Senate races;Donald Trump;Rob Portman;Patrick J Toomey;Election;Ohio;US |
ny0202373 | [
"business",
"economy"
] | 2009/08/02 | How a Little Inflation Could Help a Lot | BECAUSE fiscal stimulus has not yet been a striking success, perhaps it’s time to consider new monetary remedies for the economy. That is the argument of Prof. Scott Sumner, an economist at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., who is little known outside academic circles but whose views have been spreading, thanks to his blog, TheMoneyIllusion ( blogsandwikis.bentley.edu/themoneyillusion /). Professor Sumner proposes that the Federal Reserve make a firm commitment to raising expectations of price inflation to 2 to 3 percent annually. In his view, policy makers in Washington are doing too much with fiscal policy — overspending and running excess deficits — and not doing enough on the monetary side. While his views are controversial, they are based on some assumptions that are not. It is commonly agreed among economists that deflation brings layoffs and sluggish investment. Yet, energy price shocks aside, we have been seeing downward pressure on prices. Futures markets and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities — more precisely, the spread between the yield on TIPS and traditional securities — suggest current expectations that inflation will remain well under 1 percent. Economists generally agree that this is not ideal, and Professor Sumner urges the Fed to try especially hard to overcome the deflationary pressures. But how would the Fed accomplish this feat? This is where his recommendations get interesting. The Fed has already taken some unconventional monetary measures to stimulate the economy, but they haven’t been entirely effective. Professor Sumner says the central bank needs to take a different approach: it should make a credible commitment to spurring and maintaining a higher level of inflation, promising to use newly created money to buy many kinds of financial assets if necessary. And it should even pay negative interest on bank reserves, as the Swedish central bank has started to do. In essence, negative interest rates are a penalty placed on banks that sit on their money instead of lending it. Much to the chagrin of Professor Sumner, the Fed has been practicing the opposite policy recently, by paying positive interest on bank reserves — essentially, inducing banks to hoard money. The Fed’s balance sheet need not swell to accomplish these aims. Once people believe that inflation is coming, they will be willing to spend more money. In other words, if the Fed announces a sufficient willingness to undergo extreme measures to create price inflation, it may not actually have to do so. Professor Sumner’s views differ from the monetarism of Milton Friedman by emphasizing expectations rather than any particular measure of the money supply. The Keynesian critique of this remedy is that printing more money won’t stimulate the economy because uncertainty has put us in a “liquidity trap,” which means that the new money will be hoarded rather than spent. Professor Sumner responds that inflating the currency is one step that just about every government or central bank can take. Even if success is not guaranteed, it seems that we ought to be trying harder. Arguably, we can live with 2 or 3 percent inflation, especially if it stems the drop in employment. Consistently, Professor Sumner argues that the Fed should have been more aggressive with monetary policy in the summer of 2008, before the economy started its downward spiral. Somewhat tongue in cheek, he once wrote on his blog: “Like a broken clock the monetary cranks are right twice a century; 1933, and today.” It may all sound too simple to be true, but has the status quo been so good as to silence all doubts? Many advocates expected that the $775 billion allocation to fiscal stimulus would be followed rapidly by generous funding for health care and other reforms. But at the moment, the American public, rightly or wrongly, is blanching at higher government spending and higher taxes. In contrast, a Fed stance in favor of mild price inflation need not require higher taxes or larger budget deficits. While these arguments have not won over the economics profession, neither have they been refuted. Economists like Paul Krugman have suggested that a public Fed policy favoring 2 or 3 percent price inflation isn’t politically realistic in today’s environment. Still, mild inflation might still be a better shot than hoping for a fiscal stimulus that is big enough, rapid enough and ambitious enough to work. IF there is a flaw in Professor Sumner’s argument, it is that aggregate demand doesn’t always drive business recovery. Circa 2007, for reasons of their own making, various sectors of the economy were in a vulnerable position. These included real estate, the automobile industry and retail sales. Higher price inflation would not have solved their problems, which stemmed from basically flawed business models that depended on rampant credit. Still, a different Fed stance might have limited the secondary fallout from the financial crisis . Of course, there’s a risk that inflation could get out of hand and rise above 2 or 3 percent. That said, the Fed has battled inflation successfully in the past, and could do so again if necessary. Professor Sumner has been working for 20 years on what he hopes will be a definitive economic history of the Great Depression . In this manuscript, tentatively titled “The Midas Curse: Gold, Wages, and the Great Depression,” he argues that Sweden in the 1930s made a credible commitment to expansionary monetary policy and had a milder depression as a result. Professor Sumner’s proposals may not be public policy now. But if there is one thing economists should know, it is that we should not underestimate the power of an idea. | United States Economy;Inflation (Economics);Economic Conditions and Trends;Credit;Recession and Depression;Subprime Mortgage Crisis;Banks and Banking;Federal Reserve System |
ny0008521 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2013/05/15 | Indonesian Police Kill Suspect in Attempted Bomb Attack | JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian police said on Tuesday that they had shot and killed a man they suspected of being an Islamist militant who tried to bomb a roadside police traffic post in West Java Province in retaliation for a series of recent counterterrorism raids across the country. Eight suspects have been killed and 17 arrested since May 5, when Indonesia’s counterterrorism unit, known as Detachment 88 and financed by the United States, arrested two men carrying pipe bombs in central Jakarta. According to the police, the men later admitted to planning to attack Myanmar’s embassy in retaliation for recent violence against minority Muslim communities there. Raids were conducted through last Friday in West Java, Banten, Central Java and Lampung Provinces, three of which ended with members of a suspected terrorist network being killed in shootouts. Late Monday night, a man threw a pipe bomb at the police post in the West Java city of Tasikmalaya, but it failed to detonate, said Gen. Boy Rafli Amar, a National Police spokesman. He said the suspect then tried to shoot the police with a homemade gun, but it also failed to work. The man stabbed an officer with a knife while the officer was trying to subdue him, and the officer’s partner then shot him, General Amar said. “This is a revenge attack by the terrorist network,” General Amar said. He said the dead man was identified by detained suspects as a member of a terrorist group in West Java that is led by William Maksum, who was among three men killed in a shootout with the police on May 7 at a house near the provincial capital, Bandung. The recent police operations, planned bombings and attacks highlight Indonesia’s continuing terrorism problem, even after the authorities have arrested and imprisoned hundreds of suspects since 2002 and killed 100 others in counterterrorism operations. While Jemaah Islamiyah, the Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist network blamed for major bombings in Bali and Jakarta from 2002 to 2009, has collapsed, analysts said another dangerous network was now operating. The police said some of the suspects killed or captured since May 5 were connected to a group led by Abu Umar, a veteran jihadist who was arrested in 2011 on charges of smuggling weapons into Indonesia from the Philippines. Other suspects are believed to be linked to an alliance of militant groups that calls itself the Mujahedeen in Eastern Indonesia, or M.I.T., according to the police and analysts. That alliance is based in Poso, on Sulawesi Island, and is led by Santoso, also known as Abu Wardah, who is Indonesia’s most wanted terrorism suspect. Sidney Jones, a terrorism expert with the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, said other groups were involved in the overall network, some more than others. One of the more active groups is led by the fugitive Sabar, also known as Abu Autat, who Ms. Jones said was believed to have formed an alliance with Mr. Santoso’s group in Poso last year and whose followers were among those arrested during police raids last week. Ms. Jones said the broader network stretched from North Sumatra to Sumbawa Island in eastern Indonesia and had members who were trained in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. “It’s the only group left active in Indonesia that has experienced cadres with overseas training,” she said. “It’s also a national network in a way that these other little groups are not.” According to the police, the network amassed 1.8 billion rupiah, or $185,000, through a series of robberies of banks and gold shops from January to April to finance training and operations. “They may be really desperate for money — the old sources have dried up,” said Todd Elliot, a security analyst with Concord Consulting in Jakarta. “They are no longer getting any money from ‘Al Qaeda Central.’ And it’s a lot of money they have gotten. The 2002 Bali bombings cost only $30,000.” Analysts said that at this point, the network was going only after small targets in provincial areas, in particular police buildings and personnel, which are seen as symbols of the country’s secular government. Before its collapse, Jemaah Islamiyah bombed nightclubs and restaurants on Bali in 2002 and 2005, and international hotels in Jakarta in 2003 and 2009, killing a total of 241 people and wounding hundreds more. Analysts also said the Indonesian counterterrorism police had successfully infiltrated the network to the point where the police were conducting pre-emptive raids to arrest suspects and disrupt planning for terrorist attacks. “The police are on top of these guys, so they get them before they can cause any mischief,” said Ken Conboy, the author of “The Second Front,” a book about Jemaah Islamiyah. | Indonesia;Attacks on Police;Islam;Bombs;Terrorism |
ny0259086 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2011/01/23 | At the Boom Boom Brow Bar, Purple Wax Reigns | MALYNDA VIGLIOTTI opened her waxing salon, the Boom Boom Brow Bar , in the spring of 2008, the same week the financial markets began their drastic downturn. And her potential customers, a species of well-maintained New Yorkers who operate under a “No Follicle Left Behind” edict, stayed home. In such a tense economic mood, Ms. Vigliotti quickly realized the solution was a knowing discount. She devised her first sale, “The Bare Stearns,” a Brazilian bikini wax marked down to $30 from $49. Two and a half years later, Ms. Vigliotti’s sharp wit and sense of fun — as well as her bargain prices — are still the central components of the Boom Boom Brow Bar’s appeal. Her clients, who arrive steadily and often, attribute their loyalty to the casual atmosphere that Ms. Vigliotti, 39, has created around the otherwise awkward setting of ripping and plucking. Scrunched into a drab block of Seventh Avenue in the West Village, the 250-square-foot space would go unnoticed if not for the standing-room-only gaggle and the disco ball shimmering through its front window. Inside, the décor of thrift-store treasures channels a kitsch from the golden age of Hollywood and adds to the general air of a friend’s boudoir: black fringed lampshades, a tiger-patterned rug, fuchsia patent pleather stools and a claw-foot bathtub settee modeled after Holly Golightly’s in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (and often occupied by The Baby, Ms. Vigliotti’s divalike silky terrier, whom she calls her “maître d’ ”). Gilded chandeliers festooned with thong underwear cast a dappled light. Walk-ins are welcomed, and the prices ($20 for brows, $10 for upper lip) are the same whether Ms. Vigliotti or one of her five “glamour technicians” wield the stick coated in her proprietary purple wax. Most clients — except for those brave souls getting waxed “downtown,” as the bikini line is known in Boom Boom’s lingo — receive their treatments sitting on stools in sight of everyone else. “Sometimes even I am still amazed,” Ms. Vigliotti said, “that someone will submit to having her chin hair removed in a window on Seventh Avenue.” In the hair-removal business, clients need to feel relaxed, and the talk therapy that comes free with every visit does the trick. Ms. Vigliotti, a West Village resident, knows most returning customers by sight and many by name. As soon as someone enters, she beckons them in her Long Island twang: “Come to Mama. We’re going to get you gorgeous.” Eyelashes are tinted and male unibrows abolished while she asks eagerly about jobs and vacation plans, family members and fashion tips. The rest of the room chimes in. “It’s like a constant taping of ‘The View,’ ” Ms. Vigliotti said. Or, as a husband waiting for his wife on a Saturday afternoon put it, “It’s like the antithesis of Andy Rooney in here” — no curmudgeons and no untended arches. But Boom Boom is strict with overpluckers. The $38 “Brow Rehab” service includes tinting to remedy sparse brows and a lecture on leaving the plucking to the professionals. Eavesdropping on snatches of these conversations — “Let’s be hopeful,” “You are in crisis,” “You’re just not ready yet” — one would think one had stepped into Brow Abusers Anonymous. “I’m into real brows, real beauty,” Ms. Vigliotti said. “I want the best for people.” Finishing up a wax on a Friday night, Ms. Vigliotti tapped a client on the knee. “You’re all good, baby,” she said. Rousing from a snooze on the bathtub’s purple upholstery, The Baby lifted his furry head and ears. “Not you,” Ms. Vigliotti said, cackling. “Geesh, that dog is the biggest narcissist in this place.” | Eyebrows;Beauty Salons;West Village (NYC) |
ny0198364 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2009/07/16 | Discovery Channel to Renew ‘Pitchmen’ Series | The Discovery Channel television series that starred the infomercial star Billy Mays will be renewed for a second season, the cable channel has announced, two weeks after he died of a possible heart attack. Thom Beers, an executive producer, said Wednesday that a group of infomercial hosts might appear in place of Mr. Mays in future episodes of the show. The first season of “Pitchmen” concluded three days after Mr. Mays died on June 28. It showed Mr. Mays and a fellow infomercial host, Anthony Sullivan, as they tested potential as-seen-on-TV products (like an impact-absorbing shoe insert) submitted by individual inventors. Episodes of “Pitchmen” drew an average of 1.5 million viewers this spring, and the finale on July 1 had 1.7 million viewers. The channel said that Mr. Mays’s son, Billy Mays III, is expected to help develop the format for season two. Mr. Beers said he did not anticipate that the younger Mr. Mays would be a host of “Pitchmen.” | Television;Mays Billy;Discovery Channel |
ny0039019 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2014/04/11 | Three Honorary Starters at the Masters, With 13 Green Jackets | AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods is not playing in the Masters for the first time since 1994 because of a back injury, but he has not forgotten about the tournament, which he has won four times. Woods took to Twitter on Thursday after the honorary starters, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, hit the first tee shots to open the 78th Masters. “It never gets old watching the honorary starters tee off,” Woods wrote. “One of the oldest and best traditions in the game.” Palmer, Player and Nicklaus have combined for 13 Masters titles. For those keeping score — and the Big 3, as they are referred to here, are — Nicklaus produced the longest drive in cool conditions. “I think Jack outdrove me by a yard or two,” Player said, “but it’s not bad when you think he used to outdrive me by 50.” The honorary starters have lost a few yards over the years but none of their competitive edge. “I mean, it’s amazing, even a tee shot like this, the question was asked who hit it further, who did this, still competing,” Nicklaus said. “It’s kind of fun.” Nicklaus, a six-time winner, drew appreciative laughter from the patrons lined seven deep around the No. 1 tee box when he said, as he teed up his ball, “I wish I could do this again.” After hitting, he said, “What I meant by that is obviously it was such a great thrill every time we teed it up to actually play for real, and I think we’d all love to wind the clock back a few years and play, because it’s such a great tournament, a great thrill to stand on the first tee, have the butterflies and get the first tee shot over with and get going.” Stewart Cink was the first player in the 97-man field to hit off the first tee after the four-time champion Palmer, the three-time winner Player and Nicklaus vacated the stage. “To be around them in any way is neat,” Cink said, “but to get to hit a shot and knock it past them was cool.” TWO STADLER GENERATIONS Craig Stadler teed off 44 minutes after his son, Kevin, and carded a 10-over 82 to Kevin’s 70. The Stadlers are the first father and son to play in the same Masters. “Would have been nice if we were right behind or an hour apart to watch him tee off, but it didn’t happen,” Craig said. Kevin’s start affirmed Craig’s belief, stated before the tournament, that his son, one of 24 first-timers, could contend. “He’s driving it really well, and he’s evolved into a wonderful iron player,” Craig said. “So he does what you need to do around here, and it’s kind of just a matter of how friendly his putter is day in and day out.” Assessing his own round, the senior Stadler said, “I played like a moron.” He added, “My whole game stinks.” PENALTY STROKES Luke Donald was assessed a two-stroke penalty at the ninth hole. After his third shot from a bunker remained there, he made contact with the sand before hitting his next shot. On the 13th hole, Brandt Snedeker called a one-stroke penalty on himself when his ball moved after he made a couple of practice swings. “The ball was on a spot on a hill between the bunkers,” Snedeker said. “I took two practice swings, and the ball just kind of rolled an inch or something like that, and I had to replace it and take a shot penalty.” Asked if he was tempted to take advantage of a new rule that a penalty is not invoked if the ball moves because it was blown by wind, Snedeker smiled and said: “It wasn’t that windy at 13. I saw it move. The only thing that could have moved it was me, so I knew it was on me.” BILL PENNINGTON CRENSHAW COMES UP SHORT Ben Crenshaw, a two-time Masters winner, came off the 18th hole smiling despite shooting an 11-over 83. Asked if he was having a good time on the golf course, Crenshaw laughed and said: “Ah, no. I enjoy being here, but I’m not playing capably. Other guys are hitting middle irons to the greens, and I’m hitting fairway woods.” Crenshaw, 62, chortled and added, “And those fairway woods had better be sharp.” BILL PENNINGTON | Golf;Masters Golf,Masters;Arnold Palmer;Gary Player;Jack Nicklaus |
ny0084040 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2015/10/08 | No New Ebola Cases Were Reported in the Past Week, Health Agency Says | West Africa has had its first Ebola-free week, with no known cases, since the epidemic began in March 2014, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. But the W.H.O. has warned that Ebola could still come back because more than 500 people in Guinea who may have been exposed are still being monitored and will not be in the clear until a 21-day incubation period is over. In addition, health officials have lost track of some people who were considered high-risk contacts in Guinea and Sierra Leone. In those countries and Liberia, there have been a total of 28,421 cases, with 11,297 reported deaths since the outbreak last year. | WHO;Ebola;Guinea;Africa;Epidemic;Liberia;Sierra Leone |
ny0159257 | [
"business",
"media"
] | 2008/12/06 | The Miami Herald Is Said to Be for Sale | The McClatchy Company , burdened by debt and a steep slide in newspaper advertising, wants to sell one of its most-prized properties, The Miami Herald, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. McClatchy, the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain, has approached potential buyers for The Herald, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. But they said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors’ interest in buying newspapers. The company refused to discuss the matter. Elaine Lintecum, the treasurer, said, “We do not comment on market rumors.” The Herald is one of the largest of McClatchy’s 30 daily papers, with daily circulation of 210,000, and arguably the most prestigious, having won 19 Pulitzer Prizes . But it is not clear what kind of bids it might fetch, if any; with newspaper profits shrinking fast, the economy contracting and credit tight, many newspapers have been on the block for months without selling. The people briefed on the company’s plans say The Herald generates a very slim operating margin and that the most attractive part of any deal could be its prime waterfront real estate. But the Florida real estate market is in deep recession — one of the reasons for the struggles of the paper, which used to benefit from heavy real estate advertising. The bid to sell The Herald continues the fallout from McClatchy’s $4.5 billion purchase in 2006 of Knight Ridder, the newspaper chain that had owned the Miami paper. Largely as a result of that deal the company has about $2 billion in debt, payments on which eat up much of its cash flow. Some Wall Street analysts warned at the time that McClatchy, based in Sacramento, had overpaid, but even they did not expect the steep decline in newspaper advertising that began months later and has accelerated this year. The drop has been most pronounced in Florida and California, states where McClatchy has a major presence. Through the first 10 months of this year, the company’s ad revenue fell 14.7 percent in other parts of the country, and 22.5 percent in California and Florida. McClatchy reported third-quarter income of $4.2 million on $451.6 million in revenue. The company’s stock price, which topped $75 a share in 2005, closed on Friday at $2.20. | Miami Herald;McClatchy Co;Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures;Newspapers |
ny0268752 | [
"us"
] | 2016/04/18 | Prep Schools Wrestle With Sex Abuse Accusations Against Teachers | BOSTON — Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite New Hampshire boarding school whose prominent graduates include Daniel Webster and Mark Zuckerberg, disclosed last month that it had forced out a popular teacher in 2011 because of sexual misconduct in the 1970s and ’80s. The school’s delayed announcement — officials said they had been protecting the victims’ privacy — brought forth allegations against other employees. And on Wednesday, Exeter announced that it had fired a second teacher who had admitted to sexual encounters with a student more than two decades ago. The revelations at Exeter are the latest to rock the insular, privileged world of American prep schools. In the past decade, sex abuse allegations have tarnished a litany of top private schools, including Horace Mann in the Bronx, Deerfield Academy in western Massachusetts and the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. Since December, more than 40 alumni of St. George’s School, an elite boarding school in Rhode Island, have reported several cases of molestation and rape, mostly in the 1970s and ’80s. Sexual misconduct is, of course, not limited to select private schools. Educators say that it occurs with alarming frequency across all types of educational institutions. But because boarding schools are usually high-profile institutions with powerful alumni, they receive intense public scrutiny when misconduct occurs on their manicured campuses. The rash of recent allegations and bad publicity has started to yield changes, some experts said, with some schools doing more now to try to prevent sexual abuse and be more receptive to students who report it. A 2004 analysis of the scant research on sex abuse estimated that 9.6 percent of students in public schools experience some form of educator sexual misconduct, ranging from offensive comments to rape, between kindergarten and 12th grade. There appears to be no comparable data available about boarding schools, said Peter W. Upham, executive director of the Association of Boarding Schools, who calls sexual abuse by educators “a national scourge.” Some researchers and lawyers involved with abuse cases say that while very few teachers take sexual advantage of students, some aspects of boarding school life can be conducive to abuse. “Boarding schools are fertile ground for predatory behavior, mostly because you’re with the kids all the time,” said Eric MacLeish, a lawyer representing several alumni who say they were sexually abused at St. George’s. “It is accepted that teachers will get very, very close to students as they become mentors,” he said. “They work out together, eat together, take trips together, go to Europe together with the school choir. Many live on campus and are dorm parents.” Hawk Cramer, 48, an elementary school principal in Seattle who said he was molested by a faculty member at St. George’s when he was a student there in the early 1980s, agreed that the unfettered access to students at boarding schools can allow a pedophile to groom victims. “You can call kids into your home, you can be alone with them, and kids think you have control over their future,” he said. And students are loath to report the abuse, at least in real time. “Students are embarrassed and under huge pressure to perform,” Mr. Cramer said. “They don’t want anyone to think they aren’t measuring up or that they’re a victim.” Dr. Eli Newberger, a Boston pediatrician and specialist in child protection, said these were places “where, for the most part, children are treated extremely well, with very high expectations for career accomplishment.” As such, he said, abuse in such rarefied settings “may take decades to overcome.” Until recently, he and others said, the schools were reluctant to acknowledge bad behavior, and victims had little confidence that their complaints would be taken seriously. Now, with so many cases coming to light, educators and analysts said that the schools are making greater efforts both to try to prevent misconduct from occurring, and to be more transparent in their reporting when it did. “I do think a lot of schools are grappling now in a way they haven’t before with what are the best practices in terms of providing safety and enough prevention, training and education,” said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. He noted that by many measures, reports of current child sexual abuse, at least in public schools, were going down. For example, the Minnesota Student Survey , conducted every three years, said that in 2013, fewer than six percent of ninth graders reported being touched or forced to touch an adult sexually. This was a new low, down from 13 percent in 1992, the first year of the study. As for the boarding schools, many are conducting more rigorous background checks when hiring staff and are proactively training employees to recognize grooming behaviors among adults. They are also teaching students to identify when other students seem stressed and when adults might be crossing a boundary. A number of schools have developed anonymous tip lines and set aside confidential areas where students can air their concerns. “Now, we have schools sending out pre-emptive letters, even without any allegations, saying, ‘If you are ever harmed or abused, we’re here for you,’” Mr. Upham said. He and others attributed the changes in part to liability concerns stemming from the explosive Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State in 2011. Mr. Sandusky, a coach who was convicted of abusing 10 boys over 15 years, has cost the university more than $92 million in settlement costs . More recently, the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” an account of The Boston Globe’s exposé of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests and the subsequent cover-up, may be spurring a new round of reporting. “ ‘Spotlight’ has given survivors the permission to come forward now because they see people siding with them and they see institutions being held accountable,” said Robert M. Hoatson, a former Catholic priest based in Livingston, N.J., and co-founder of Road to Recovery, an organization for survivors of sexual abuse. The Sandusky revelations appear to have been a motivating factor behind the report of sexual abuse at Exeter. According to police documents obtained by The Associated Press through a records request, an Exeter teacher cited the Sandusky case when she reported in 2011 that Rick Schubart, a popular history teacher, had been sexually involved with a student in the 1970s. The teacher, who had also been a student at Exeter at that time, said that a classmate had told her she had had sex with Mr. Schubart, according to The A.P. The classmate confirmed to the school that she had had a relationship with Mr. Schubart during her senior year in 1977, when she was 18, but said it was consensual. Mr. Schubart was forced to resign, and the school said at the time that he left for personal reasons. In 2015, a 1982 graduate reported that Mr. Schubart had sexually abused her when she was 17. Mr. Schubart told police it was consensual, The A.P. said, but the woman’s lawyer told the school she had to have extensive therapy and was seeking financial compensation. That second report prompted the school to strip Mr. Schubart of his emeritus status last year and bar him from campus. Mr. Schubart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On March 30, school officials disclosed the situation to students, parents and alumni, saying Mr. Schubart had been forced out after admitting to sexual misconduct. The revelations shook the Exeter community and unleashed additional charges of sexual misconduct, which led to the firing last week of a second teacher, Steve Lewis, who admitted recently to abuse that happened decades ago, the school said. The police said this was the only report they received against a current teacher. Attempts to reach Mr. Lewis on Sunday were unsuccessful. Still, the charges set off an anguished debate, in conversations and online, among the close-knit alumni, many of whom had admired Mr. Schubart and were trying to reconcile the revelations with their own positive experiences. A few said they knew of the relationship at the time, and were now wrestling with whether they should have reported it and whether their view that it had appeared to be consensual made any difference. “We have entered a period of sincere reflection about our school’s history and culture,” Lisa MacFarlane, Exeter’s new principal, who has been on the job less than a year, and Eunice Panetta, the president of the board of trustees, wrote in a letter on Saturday to the school community. The letter announced that Exeter had retained a law firm to investigate additional allegations and review school policies. It also said outside experts would review how Exeter had handled the Schubart matter, which occurred during the tenure of the previous principal, Tom Hassan, who stepped down last year. Mr. Hassan, who has been censured by the Association of Boarding Schools, has apologized for what he called his “inadequate” response. He said he was trying to protect student privacy. It remains to be seen whether the episode will affect his wife, Gov. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, a Democrat, who is challenging Senator Kelly Ayotte. Ms. Hassan, who had received campaign contributions from Mr. Schubart, was living on the Exeter campus with her husband when Mr. Schubart resigned but has said she did not know why he left. | Private Schools;K-12 Education;Child Abuse;Rape;Phillips Exeter Academy |
ny0116285 | [
"world",
"europe"
] | 2012/10/20 | England’s Cameron has Mixed Feelings for E.U. Prize | BRUSSELS — Seven days after his German, French and Italian counterparts welcomed the surprise award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union , David Cameron, the British prime minister, finally followed suit at a summit meeting here Friday. But betraying his lingering ambivalence, Mr. Cameron rejected an invitation to the award ceremony in Oslo, noting sharply that there was no shortage of top Europeans likely to attend anyway. For the prime minister of the most skeptical member of the European Union, even some rare good news for the bloc creates complications. The Nobel Prize may be a source of pride in some nations, but in Britain it has merely sharpened the debate on the merits of the union whose single currency has been in crisis since 2010. “I think it is an achievement not just of the E.U. but I would argue NATO as well,” said Mr. Cameron, ending his silence on the prize Friday on a distinctly half-hearted note. “These institutions have helped bring about peace on the Continent of Europe for the last 60 years,” he said, adding that he would like to see a school child from each of the 27 nations — rather than leaders like himself — join senior European officials at the ceremony. Under pressure from a public with serious doubts about the union, and from many of his own lawmakers who are openly hostile, Mr. Cameron wants to craft looser ties with the bloc — something that is making events like this summit meeting into a delicate diplomatic dance. Mr. Cameron has big fights coming up — particularly next month, when he will try to restrain spending on the European Union’s next seven-year budget which some would like to top €1 trillion, or $1.3 trillion. On the one hand he needs to try to keep his political powder dry for November when he may choose to wield a veto against the spending plan. Yet Mr. Cameron also wants to talk tough for the benefit of the folks back home — for example on Friday highlighting the need for restraint over the pay of E.U. officials, 16 percent of whom earn more than €100,000 a year, he said. The British prime minister believes that a muscular approach, and the creation of a new relationship with the European Union is vital to winning back popular consent for British membership. He thinks that the closer integration of the euro zone provides an opportunity for such a rethink as the union’s tectonic plates shift. But some allies are now openly critical. “It’s almost as if it’s 26 plus one, to be very honest,” said Alex Stubb, Finland’s Europe minister and an Anglophile when asked about Britain’s stance toward the rest of the union. “I think Britain is right now, voluntarily, by its own will, putting itself in the margins,” Mr. Stubb said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. “It’s almost as if the boat is pulling away and one of our best friends is somehow saying ‘bye-bye’ and there’s not really that much we can do about it.” Certainly Mr. Cameron’s two-day summit meeting began at the fringes, rather than at the heart, of the 27-nation bloc. Leaders normally start their talks with caucus meetings where they join allies from other countries in what is known in the union as their “political families.” To the annoyance of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel , Mr. Cameron took his Conservatives out of the body’s main center-right grouping (to which Mrs. Merkel’s party belongs) some years ago on the grounds that it was too sympathetic to European integration. On Thursday, at a Brussels hotel, Mr. Cameron met with his new, and small, political clan which boasts just one other prime minister: Petr Necas of the Czech Republic (whose political troubles at home have placed his survival in jeopardy). Later, arriving at the summit meeting, Mr. Cameron stressed the importance of the European single market, a free economic space which accounts for about half of British trade. It is around this that Mr. Cameron wants to focus British membership of the bloc while loosening other ties. But the problems of securing such status were illustrated by detailed talks about a new banking union for the 17-nation euro zone of which Britain is not a part. The government in London is seeking concessions over voting arrangements to assuage worries that the euro zone nations, acting as a bloc, might impose regulations on the City of London. One sharp exchange took place over dinner with Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, according to one diplomat not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Cameron insisted that he had defended his position at the meeting where few concrete decisions were made even though leaders haggled well into the early hours. Mr. Cameron was also at odds with other nations over a plan to create a new budget for the euro zone to help ease its internal economic shocks. Britain believes this could take over some of the tasks for the current E.U. budget, thereby reducing the cost for those (like the British) who remain outside. “There would be an impact,” Mr. Cameron said. At his press conference, France’s president, François Hollande, insisted that such a new budget would be “not a substitute for but an addition to” the current one. At a press conference Mr. Cameron rejected Mr. Stubb’s claim that Britain was content to put itself in a minority of one. “I don’t accept this idea that somehow Britain doesn’t pull its weight in the E.U.” he said at the end of the summit meeting. “We are a very active and strong participant in the European Union.” But in the next breath he seemed to prove that Mr. Stubb had a point. Asked about the upcoming budget talks next month Mr. Cameron could have sidestepped the question but chose to confront it head on. “The British public expects a tough approach, a rigorous approach and that’s exactly what they’ll get,” he told reporters. “If there isn’t a deal that’s good for Britain,” he added, “then there won’t be a deal.” | Great Britain;European Union;Merkel Angela;Nobel Prizes |
ny0258934 | [
"technology",
"personaltech"
] | 2011/01/06 | Slicing Up the Camera Roll | Q. In the Photos app in my iPhone , is there a way to create multiple albums from my Camera Roll? A. All photos taken with an iPhone are stored in the Camera Roll within the Photos app. Although all the pictures there are lumped together by default, there are ways to create separate albums. One way is to sync the iPhone to a computer and use a program like Picasa, Adobe Photoshop Elements or iPhoto to import the Camera Roll images. Then sort the imported photos into albums, or even just into a Pictures folder with subfolders. Then use iTunes to sync the photos back to the iPhone in their new groupings. Apple has instructions on syncing photos through iTunes at support.apple.com/kb/HT4236 . Another option is to browse the iTunes App Store for a program that can copy Camera Roll photos and group them into albums directly on the iPhone. The store has hundreds of photo-focused apps, and new ones show up regularly. Photo-Sort ($1.99) is one app that can sort Camera Roll photos into album folders, but they must be viewed within the app, and not the Camera Roll. Before buying an app, make sure it copies the photos out of the Camera Roll so that if you delete them there, they remain in the separated albums. To help prevent buyer’s remorse (or bitterness), pay close attention to an app’s features list — as well as user comments and ratings — before putting it on your bill. Going Digital With Old Tapes Q. I have about 600 or 700 hours of VCR-taped programs of varying length. Is there a way to transfer them myself to a more compact and convenient system? A. There is reasonably priced hardware for the job, and it doesn’t have to be complex. Once converted, the video files can be stored on a hard drive and watched on the computer or a connected television — or they can be burned to DVDs and stored in much less space. The process depends on equipment. For computers without a video capture card and software, there are kits that promise everything needed to connect a VCR to a computer to convert the tapes. Many cost around $50, and ease of use may vary; the Top Ten Reviews site has a roundup at bit.ly/gokx3M . Other options include special hardware like a VHS-DVD combination player to dub tapes (that aren’t copy-protected) to disc, or a U.S.B.-based VCR that connects directly to the computer to convert the video to digital files; Ion Audio’s VCR 2 PC device fits into the latter category, but has received decidedly mixed reviews. TIP OF THE WEEK The Bing search engine from Microsoft has its own Maps section, which has its own collection of little apps that display specific pieces of information. The apps can reveal prices at local gas stations, provide images from traffic cameras or even show off the front pages of newspapers around the country. To see all the available apps, go to bing.com , click on the Maps link, and then click on “explore map apps” on the Map Apps button. The Map apps work with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple’s Safari browser and use JavaScript; some may work best with Microsoft’s Silverlight multimedia plug-in. J. D. BIERSDORFER | Computers and the Internet;Mobile Applications;Photography;Cameras;iPhone;Digital Audio Players;Microsoft Corp;Mozilla Foundation;Apple Inc |
ny0278030 | [
"business"
] | 2016/11/26 | A Donald Trump-Led Trip Back to the Gold-Plated ’80s | The American wealthy are about to enjoy a giant back-to-the-1980s party, hosted by the new billionaire in chief, Donald J. Trump. From his gold-plated penthouse to his trickle-down tax cuts and his Reaganesque slogans, President-elect Trump is bringing back the ’80s prosperity gospel. His approach to wealth harks back to the days of “Dynasty,” DeLoreans and deficits, when the rich were admired and a former actor-turned-president restored America’s optimism and global muscle. The wealthy are already partying like it’s 1989. If Mr. Trump makes good on his tax cut promises, billions are expected to go back into their pockets. The stock market is reaching record highs, and sales of Picassos and Warhols are resurgent. All that is missing now is Robin Leach’s “Champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” And Mr. Leach is optimistic. “In the next four years, it will be O.K. to be rich again,” said Mr. Leach, whose hit TV show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” helped define ’80s aspirations. “The cars will get bigger, the houses will be more luxurious, and it will be O.K. to wear jewelry and gowns again.” Of course, times have changed since Gordon Gekko said that “greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” In a post-Thomas Piketty world where even traditional Republicans warn about the wealth gap and the effects of globalization and technology, Mr. Trump’s ’80s blueprint may prove as outdated as shoulder pads and the Cold War. His rewards for those at the top are likely to make inequality even wider and could draw criticism from the populist voters who helped elect him. Still, Mr. Trump remains a creature of the decade that made him famous. Take his tax plan. He has proposed cutting the top rate to 33 percent from 39.6 percent, cutting the corporate rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, trimming the capital gains tax and eliminating the estate tax. These would be the largest tax cuts for the wealthy since the Reagan reductions of 1986. According to the Tax Policy Center, the after-tax incomes of middle-class and lower-income taxpayers would grow less than 2 percent under the Trump plan. The incomes of the top 1 percent of earners, by contrast, would soar about 14 percent. Put another way, nearly half of Mr. Trump’s tax cuts would go to the top 1 percent — recalling Reagan’s trickle-down theory: Money at the top will flow down to those at the bottom. “The question is: In this economy, will that actually happen?” said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center. Mr. Trump, of course, has invited the Reagan comparisons, borrowing Reagan’s 1980 slogan “Let’s make America great again.” And like Reagan, his combination of tax cuts for the wealthy and increased spending by government could lead to higher deficits. Yet for now, Mr. Trump’s emphasis on tax cuts and deregulation is ushering in an ’80s-like euphoria among the rich. Since the election, stocks have reached record highs. Strong art sales this month at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips brought in a total of more than $1 billion. Christie’s sold a de Kooning for $66.3 million (well over its estimate of $40 million) and a favorite of ’80s collectors, a Monet, for $81.4 million. High-end real estate, which was in a slump, is also poised for growth now that a real estate developer will be in the White House. Sales of luxury goods are rising, after a slowdown in China and less conspicuous consumption put a damper on them last year. An executive with Net-a-Porter, the high-end fashion company, cited Mr. Trump’s wife in the 1980s — Ivana — as a “key inspiration” for some of the fall fashion lines, which emphasize “hard-edged, power-shoulder jackets,” bouffant hair and bright lipstick. Even Mr. Trump’s celebratory election dinner was an ’80s throwback moment. Rather than heading to Maialino, Le Bernardin or any of the current power restaurants, Mr. Trump and his family opted for the “21” Club, a favorite haunt of the celebrities and power brokers in the 1970s and ’80s. As he told the wealthy crowd at the restaurant, “We’ll get your taxes down. Don’t worry about it.” And Mr. Trump is reluctant to give up his ultimate homage to the ’80s: his apartment. The three-story penthouse in Trump Tower is filled with gold, marble, Greek gods painted on the ceiling and pillows embroidered with the Trump family “coat of arms.” For a man who once said, “Part of the beauty of me is that I am very rich,” it is no wonder he is having second thoughts about leaving his Versailles in the sky for public housing on Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr. Trump’s flash and dazzle stand in stark contrast to the new culture of wealth. In the ’80s, success meant excess, bigger was better, and wealth was meant for display. Today’s wealth culture, by contrast, is all about staying under the radar — jeans and sneakers instead of suits, whitewall minimalism rather than gold, and a Tesla in the garage, not a Rolls. They prefer the attention of signing the Giving Pledge to buying a megayacht. The question is whether Mr. Trump, leading by example, will make wealth glamorous again — and bring back the days of Champagne wishes and caviar dreams. “The funny thing is, Donald Trump doesn’t even drink Champagne or any alcohol,” Mr. Leach said. “And he doesn’t eat caviar.” | HNWI,Wealth,Billionaires,1 Percent;US Politics;1980s;Donald Trump;Ronald Reagan;Tax Credits Tax Deductions Tax Exemptions |
ny0236369 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
] | 2010/06/03 | Red Bulls End Skid | Juan Pablo Angel scored with seconds remaining in extra time to give the Red Bulls a 2-1 victory over the visiting Houston Dynamo, snapping a four-game losing streak. Angel’s goal was his team-leading sixth of the season and came off a direct kick in the 94th minute. It sailed into the left side of the goal past the lunging goalkeeper Pat Onstad. | Soccer;New York Red Bulls |
ny0032322 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2013/12/04 | Cribbs Is Put on Injured Reserve | The Jets signed the returner Darius Reynaud on Tuesday and placed Josh Cribbs on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. Reynaud, who played seven games this season for Tennessee before being released Oct. 22, has returned three kicks — two punts and one kickoff — for touchdowns in his five-year career. But he will not replace Cribbs in the package of Wildcat plays, which the Jets have run more frequently in the last month. RODGERS MAY COME BACK The Green Bay Packers are not ruling out quarterback Aaron Rodgers for Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, although he has not been cleared to play yet. Coach Mike McCarthy said Rodgers, who broke his left collarbone a month ago, would practice in a limited manner Wednesday. (AP) COLTS TAP RUGBY PLAYER Daniel Adongo, the Kenyan rugby star turned Colts linebacker, could get his first chance to play in the N.F.L. on Sunday at Cincinnati. Indianapolis promoted Adongo from its practice squad to its 53-man active roster. The 6-foot-5, 257-pound Adongo was such an intriguing prospect that the Colts signed him before training camp even though he had never played American football. (AP) TOMLIN APOLOGIZES Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin said he was “mesmerized” when he stepped in the playing field in front of Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones during a kickoff return last Thursday. He said it was “embarrassing, inexcusable, illegal and a blunder” but not intentional. The league is considering disciplinary action against Tomlin. (AP) RAMS’ DOME DISPUTE The owners of Edward Jones Dome said they were hopeful the St. Louis Rams would stay after city leaders rejected $700 million in publicly funded improvements sought by the team. The Rams can terminate their lease after the 2014 season but have said little about their plans. (AP) | Football;Jets;Joshua Cribbs;Darius Reynaud |
ny0098423 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2015/06/26 | Cameron Payne, a Midmajor Player, Rises Above Snubs and Bigger Names | In the age of analytics and scouting services that leave no rock unturned, flying under the radar is difficult. Somehow Cameron Payne found a way. Until Thursday. Payne, a spindly point guard from Murray State, was the final lottery pick, selected at No. 14 by the Thunder. Each of the players invited to New York to meet with members of the news media Wednesday was excited at the prospect of realizing a dream. Most, however, were already veterans of the professional interview. They had been well coached on what to say, on how much emotion to show. All were schooled in the art of restrained enthusiasm. Payne might have been the only player in the room who was truly stunned to be there. “I’m just so happy,” he said Thursday after being drafted. “C’mon, man. I’m from a midmajor; this doesn’t happen every day.” Asked why he thought the Thunder’s new coach, Billy Donovan, liked him, Payne said, “He said I was genuine.” An understatement. A few short years ago, Payne was coming off the bench for his Amateur Athletic Union team back home in Tennessee; his higher-profile teammates, he pointed out, were better friends than he was with many of the players who shared the big ballroom with him on Wednesday. I asked Payne to name his oldest friend on the A.A.U. circuit. “I don’t have one,” he said. “That’s what’s so crazy. I don’t have one. My teammates who I played A.A.U. with, these are their friends. “And I’m the one here.” There was a decent chance that Payne would be selected higher in the draft than some players who had once been rated far above him on scouting lists and mock drafts. He conceded that the source of his motivation has been those snubs, first from the college recruiters. Even when he began to prove himself as a freshman and sophomore, he was still at Murray State while other point guards were getting exposure in higher-profile conferences. When those teams went on to the N.C.A.A. tournament in March, Payne’s Racers were snubbed by the selection committee. Still, he said, “I’m glad that it happened the way it did.” Once he started out on the predraft circuit, Payne worked out for several teams and met with representatives from others. After a workout with the Los Angeles Lakers, his stock began to soar — from late-first-round status to a possible place in the top 10. What was so impressive about his game? With disarming innocence, Payne replied: “I put people in the perfect position to score. I mean, perfect. People like playing with me because I can do that.” One of the players who remained on the board behind him was Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison, who, like Payne, left college after his sophomore season. Two years ago, Harrison and his twin brother, Aaron, were the hot commodities as John Calipari’s new glamour freshmen at Kentucky. The Harrisons were crucial components of Kentucky’s back-to-back Final Four teams. Seeing his star fall could be the jolt Andrew Harrison seizes on as he moves into the professional ranks. Harrison was selected in the second round, with the 44th overall pick, by the Phoenix Suns. “Me and my brother are going through the same thing right now in terms of what people are saying,” he said Wednesday. “At the same time, to me in my heart, in my position I felt that I’m the best player in the draft at my position.” Three other Kentucky freshmen were projected to be lottery picks. None of them — Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns and Devin Booker — averaged more than 25 minutes a game last season. Payne averaged 32.2 minutes and 20.2 points. Towns was the No. 1 pick, by the Minnesota Timberwolves; Lyles was selected at No. 12 by the Utah Jazz; and Booker was taken by the Suns at No. 13. Now, none of that will matter. Not the college, not the conference, not the statistics. Nets Coach Lionel Hollins said it was not easy for N.B.A. teams to measure potential against production. “You’ve really got to talk to them and see if they have it inside mentally, to be able to make the transition,” he said. “It’s a harder process because the kids are so young; you don’t know who has the heart and the mental toughness to go through all this work. “You’ve got to impose your will on the game and the opponents, and some people just say, ‘This isn’t for me anymore.’ ” Payne’s one-loss team was relegated to the N.I.T., and that meant he spent time watching players with bigger names and bigger reputations on television. He acknowledged Wednesday that he gained a measure of satisfaction knowing that in all likelihood, he had worked himself into becoming the lottery pick few people would know. “It feels good to go in front of some people who were in the Final Four,” he said. Still, for every player, Thursday was just the beginning. “The guys who get drafted highly, some of them tend to think they’ve arrived,” Hollins said. Nothing Payne said Thursday suggested that he thought he had it made. He was, however, enjoying the journey. Immensely. | Basketball;Cameron Payne;Sports Drafts and Recruits;College basketball;University of Kentucky;Murray State University;NBA;Oklahoma City Thunder |
ny0259902 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2011/06/04 | Ex-Mossad Chief Meir Dagan Sounds Alarms on Israel’s Leaders | JERUSALEM — The man who ran Israel ’s Mossad spy agency until January contends that Israel’s top leaders lack judgment and that the anticipated pressures of international isolation as the Palestinians campaign for statehood could lead to rash decisions — like an airstrike on Iran . The former intelligence chief, Meir Dagan, who stepped down after eight years in the post, has made several unusual public appearances and statements in recent weeks. He made headlines a few weeks ago when he asserted at a Hebrew University conference that a military attack on Iran would be “a stupid idea.” This week Mr. Dagan, speaking at Tel Aviv University, said that attacking Iran “would mean regional war, and in that case you would have given Iran the best possible reason to continue the nuclear program.” He added, “The regional challenge that Israel would face would be impossible.” Mr. Dagan went on to complain that Israel had failed to put forward a peace initiative with the Palestinians and that it had foolishly ignored the Saudi peace initiative promising full diplomatic relations in exchange for a return to the 1967 border lines. He worried that Israel would soon be pushed into a corner. On Thursday he got more specific, naming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak , but this time through a leaked statement to journalists. The statement had to do with his belief that his retirement and the retirement of other top security chiefs had taken away a necessary alternative voice in decision making. In recent months, the military chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, and the director of the Shin Bet internal security agency, Yuval Diskin, have also stepped down. Mr. Dagan was quoted in several newspapers as saying that the three of them had served as a counterweight to Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Barak. “I decided to speak out because when I was in office, Diskin, Ashkenazi and I could block any dangerous adventure,” he was quoted as saying. “Now I am afraid that there is no one to stop Bibi and Barak,” he added, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname. Journalists recalled that Mr. Dagan, who had refused contact with the media during his time in office, called a news briefing the last week of his tenure and laid out his concerns about an attack on Iran. But military censorship prevented his words from being reported. “Dagan wanted to send a message to the Israeli public, but the censors stopped him,” Ronen Bergman of the newspaper Yediot Aharonot said by telephone. “So now that he is out of office he is going over the heads of the censors by speaking publicly.” Mr. Dagan’s public and critical comments, at the age of 66 and after a long and widely admired career, have shaken the political establishment. The prime minister’s office declined requests for a response, although ministers have attacked Mr. Dagan. He has also found an echo among the nation’s commentators who have been ringing similar alarms. “It’s not the Iranians or the Palestinians who are keeping Dagan awake at night but Israel’s leadership,” Ari Shavit asserted on the front page of the newspaper Haaretz on Friday . “He does not trust the judgment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.” It was Mr. Shavit who interviewed Mr. Dagan on stage at Tel Aviv University this week. And while Haaretz is the home of the country’s left wing, Mr. Shavit is more of a centrist. “Dagan is really worried about September,” Mr. Shavit said in a telephone interview, referring to the month when the Palestinians are expected to ask the United Nations General Assembly to recognize their state within the 1967 border lines. The resolution is expected to pass and to bring new forms of international pressure on Israel. “He is afraid that Israel’s isolation will cause its leaders to take reckless action against Iran,” he said. Nahum Barnea, a commentator for Yediot Aharonot, wrote on Friday that Mr. Dagan was not alone. Naming the other retired security chiefs and adding Amos Yadlin, who recently retired as chief of military intelligence, Mr. Barnea said that they shared Mr. Dagan’s criticism. “This is not a military junta that has conspired against the elected leadership,” Mr. Barnea wrote. “These are people who, through their positions, were exposed to the state’s most closely guarded secrets and participated in the most intimate discussions with the prime minister and the defense minister. It is not so much that their opinion is important as civilians; their testimony is important as people who were there. And their testimony is troubling.” This concern was backed by a former Mossad official, Gad Shimron, who spoke Friday on Israel Radio. Mr. Shimron said: “I want everyone to pay attention to the fact that the three tribal elders, Ashkenazi, Diskin and Dagan, within a very short time, are all telling the people of Israel: take note, something is going on that we couldn’t talk about until now, and now we are talking about it. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark , and that is the decision-making process. The leadership makes fiery statements, we stepped on the brakes, we are no longer there and we don’t know what will happen. And that’s why we are saying this aloud.” Neither Mr. Ashkenazi nor Mr. Diskin has made any public statements, and one high-level military official said he did not believe that they shared Mr. Dagan’s views. While in office, Mr. Dagan served three prime ministers, was reappointed twice and oversaw a number of reported operations that Israelis consider great successes — forcing delays in Iran’s nuclear program through sabotaging its computers and assassinating scientists; setting the groundwork for an attack on a nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007; and assassinating Imad Mughniyeh , a top Lebanese Hezbollah operative, in 2008. When Ariel Sharon , the prime minister in 2002, appointed Mr. Dagan, he was reported to have told him he wanted “a Mossad with a knife between its teeth.” Mr. Dagan is widely thought to have complied and is not seen as a soft-hearted liberal. Although Mr. Dagan is barred by law from elected office for three years, some suspect that he is laying the foundation for a political career. Others, like Yossi Peled, a government minister from the Likud party and a former military commander, think he is doing more harm than good. “It damages state security,” Mr. Peled said on Israel Radio. “There is no need to give the other side directions of thought, activity or readiness. I am sure he is very worried and is acting out of good intentions, but I still think there are things that shouldn’t be declared in public.” | Israel;Meir Dagan;null;Mossad;Benjamin Netanyahu;Ehud Barak;Military;Palestinians |
ny0097110 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/06/05 | Correction Commissioner Calls Overhauling Rikers a ‘Long, Heavy Lift’ | This is what counts for success nowadays at Rikers Island . A little over a year after hiring one of the country’s leading correction professionals to be commissioner, allotting tens of millions of dollars in additional funding and making jail reform a top political priority, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio can say with confidence that its plan to reduce violence at one of the island’s many jails, housing 179 adolescents, has worked. For five months now. That leaves 13 jails, with 10,000 inmates, to go. “It’s a long, heavy lift here,” Joseph Ponte, the New York City correction commissioner, said in an interview last month. “So it’s going to be some time.” Despite a marked effort by the de Blasio administration to remake Rikers, progress has come haltingly. Officials now acknowledge that dysfunction is so deeply embedded in the jail culture that, if the mayor is serious about turning things around, he would need to work at it until the very day he leaves office. At the center of all of this is Mr. Ponte. Over a 45-year career, he has run some of the most troubled jails and prisons in the country, yet even he was caught off guard by Rikers. Early on, he told aides that the place was far worse than anything he had imagined. Fourteen months into his tenure, the level of violence is higher than ever, and corruption persists. In his first year as commissioner, starting in April 2014, guards used physical force on inmates 4,477 times, compared with 3,860 for the same period a year earlier; there have been 198 serious injuries to inmates versus 159 the year before; and assaults on staff rose to 1,074, from 832. In the past month alone, three jail employees were arrested and charged with smuggling in drugs and weapons, and two female inmates sued the city asserting that they had been repeatedly raped by a guard who was never punished. On top of all that, the work force is miserable. A recent survey of Rikers employees conducted by McKinsey & Company found that eight out of 10 officers believed that their captains, wardens and chiefs “do not have the experience they need to be effective,” and nearly two-thirds said conditions had so deteriorated that they did not feel safe. The McKinsey consultants, who advise Fortune 500 companies and government agencies worldwide, concluded that morale among the 9,000 correction officers may be the worst they had ever seen in any organization. At least publicly, Mr. Ponte, 68, a reserved New Englander with a penchant for revealing as little as possible, says his plans for change are still on track. He has forced out most of the top uniformed and civilian leaders and replaced them by recruiting nationally and reaching into the Correction Department’s midlevel ranks. He has also added hundreds of security cameras, and is revamping both the recruiting office and the Gang Intelligence Unit. To weed out unqualified recruits, he has raised standards at the correction academy. In the past, candidates were heavily coached on test questions and all but one or two went on to become officers; in the current class, 35 of 406 have left the academy. Image A view from a jail cell in the Enhanced Supervision Housing Unit at Rikers Island. Credit Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters Unlike some of his predecessors, he tours the cellblocks almost daily. The jail staff gets calls from him late into the night and emails at 5 a.m. On weekends he says he spends several hours watching security videos at home. He is now one of the few city commissioners who meet regularly with the mayor. Much of his time this first year has been spent on the jail housing adolescent inmates, which has become a rare bright spot. Last summer, Preet Bharara , the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, issued a report describing extraordinary brutality by guards against teenage inmates at the jail. In December, Mr. Bharara’s office joined a class-action lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society and private lawyers alleging widespread abuse throughout the city jail system. For several months, the de Blasio administration has been in negotiations to settle the suit. At a hearing in federal court on Wednesday, a prosecutor from Mr. Bharara’s office, Emily Daughtry, expressed disappointment that the talks had taken longer than expected. “We had hoped to be done by now,” Ms. Daughtry said. Mr. Bharara’s office has said that if an agreement is not worked out by June 22, prosecutors will consider going forward with the litigation. In response, a lawyer for the city told the court that the de Blasio administration has “every intention” of meeting that deadline. As part of any agreement, Mr. Bharara has insisted that a federal monitor be put in place to oversee the jails. Mr. Ponte has said he hoped to avoid a monitor, but recently has sounded more conciliatory. “I don’t think a monitor hinders anything we want to do,” he said. He is betting that the changes he has made at the jail for adolescents will serve as a blueprint for the entire system. While he has achieved some measure of success, he admitted to frustrations with the pace of change. “To see the dial move a little bit, it’s a huge amount of work,” he said. “You get frustrated. It’s not quick enough, it’s not fast enough.” Underlying the reform effort at the jail for adolescents has been a push to treat the inmates more like teenagers than adults and to emphasize counseling and education before punishment. In December, despite strong opposition from the correction officers’ union, he put an end to solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-olds. To prepare the staff to better work with this age group, he has sent high-ranking officers to observe jails and prisons in states considered to be models in the field, including Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine, where Mr. Ponte was the state correction commissioner before coming to New York City. Seventy-five guards who were resistant to the changes were transferred to other jobs at the department. Image Mayor Bill de Blasio with Mr. Ponte and the warden Becky Scott at Rikers in December. Credit Pool photo by Susan Watts There has been no shortage of setbacks. In December, after the solitary confinement policy was changed and some of the most violent teenagers were allowed to move freely on the cellblocks, the number of inmate fights and encounters with officers spiked. Several inmates have been stabbed since December, and in January a melee broke out at the school between members of the Trinitarios and the Bloods. But altercations between guards and inmates have dropped — to 47 in May, from 70 in December — as new educational, therapeutic and recreation programs have been added. “Commissioner Ponte has achieved remarkable success in a very short period of time,” said Bryanne Hamill, a member of the Board of Correction, who has long been one of the harshest critics of the way the juvenile jail was run. Ms. Hamill said that after spending five hours at the jail recently, “most of the kids were all really engaged, and many were laughing and enjoying themselves in ways that I have never seen before.” During a visit by reporters in early May, several teenagers in a recreation room that had once been a cellblock sat before televisions playing the video game Fight Night Round 4. An inmate and a guard were shooting baskets outside. In the past, guards who were overly friendly with the adolescent inmates could be disciplined for fraternizing; they are now trained to serve as mentors. More officers have been assigned to the jail; there is now one guard for every 15 inmates, compared with one for 33 in the past. By law, the city must provide education to all school-age inmates. Until recently, those in solitary were passed work sheets through food slots in the cell doors. Now, all 16- and 17-year-olds attend the jail school daily. It is not an easy group. A quarter read below the fifth-grade level. Half have been in special education classes, and more than a third have dropped out of high school. Mr. Ponte said he believed the adolescent jail had turned a corner. And he has secured $13 million in funding from the mayor to do away with solitary confinement for 18- to 21-year-olds, a first for any jail in the country. This summer he plans to remake the George R. Vierno Center, one of Rikers’ most brutal jails. An investigation last year by The New York Times found that more inmates were seriously injured by guards there than at other jails on the island. He is considering closing the jail, removing the guards and restaffing it with a new group of officers, something that has never been tried at Rikers. “We need to take some really aggressive steps,” he said. | Rikers;Correction Department NYC;Prison Guards,Corrections Officers;Joseph Ponte;Prison;Legal Aid Society;Preet Bharara |
ny0144137 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2008/10/16 | Petition Seeks Impeachment of Iranian Interior Minister | TEHRAN — More than 20 members of Parliament petitioned their colleagues on Wednesday to impeach the interior minister after investigations indicated that he did not hold several academic degrees that he had claimed. If the minister, Ali Kordan, is impeached, Parliament will have to hold a vote of confidence on all other cabinet members. According to the Constitution, if 10 cabinet members are dismissed, all members must face a confidence vote. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed nine cabinet members in the past three years because they disagreed with his policies. No president has faced a confidence vote on the entire cabinet. Parliament has not yet scheduled a vote on Mr. Kordan’s fate. The news of the impeachment request comes at a difficult time for Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has faced increasing pressure from the parliamentary opposition in recent months — in part because of complaints over his management of the economy — as well as a revolt by the merchant class over a new sales tax. Merchants who run bazaars and wield significant power in Iran went on strike recently in several cities, including Tehran. On Tuesday, the bazaar in Tehran reopened. It was unclear on Wednesday why the merchants ended their strike and whether they might have been granted a secret exemption to the tax. It was also unclear if bazaars in Isfahan and Tabriz remained closed. To date, Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on state matters, has backed the embattled president publicly. Mr. Kordan, who became interior minister in August, had claimed that he had an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. But after he won parliamentary approval, one of the members of Parliament posted on his Web site a letter from the university saying that it had never given an honorary doctorate to Mr. Kordan. Mr. Kordan said in a letter to the president this month that he had received the degree from a representative of Oxford in Tehran. He said he had not questioned the authenticity of his degree until the Parliament member posted the letter from the university. After that, an investigation by Parliament said that Mr. Kordan also did not receive a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree from Iran’s Open University, as he claimed. He has not responded publicly to the newest information. Parliament members have requested impeachment hearings for other cabinet members in the past but dropped their requests before votes were held. On Tuesday, Mr. Ahmadinejad dismissed a key deputy oil minister, Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh, but gave no reason. | Iran;Kordan Ali;Impeachment;Politics and Government;Ahmadinejad Mahmoud |
ny0224889 | [
"business",
"global"
] | 2010/10/05 | Potash Deal Report Predicts Loss for Saskatchewan | OTTAWA — The province of Saskatchewan could be hit by substantial revenue losses from a takeover of the Potash Corporation , according to an independent study released by the government on Monday. Politicians in the province have repeatedly expressed concerns about lost tax and royalties payments if the company, a fertilizer producer, is acquired by BHP Billiton , which is based in Australia and has made a hostile takeover offer for it. Indeed, the study by the Conference Board of Canada, a research group based here, estimates that if BHP’s $38.6 billion offer is successful, revenue to the province will fall by about 2 billion Canadian dollars, or $1.96 billion, over the next decade. That finding, related mostly to taxes, was the opening sentence of a news release on Monday by the Saskatchewan government, which commissioned the study. While the provincial government did not allow the Conference Board to make any recommendations, the authors of the report said in a conference call that there might be ways for the province to avoid that revenue shortfall by altering its royalty and tax system. The authors were also careful to add that a takeover by BHP was not all bad news for the province. “There’s no doubt that you can identify some benefits,” said Michael Bloom, a Conference Board vice president. “The question is that some of those things happen later, while there’s costs early on.” BHP has said that it if it acquires Potash’s mines, it will run them close to capacity at all times, a strategy that could lower prices and, as a result, reduce royalty and tax payments. Currently, a marketing group that includes Potash and all other Canadian miners of potash, a valuable component of fertilizer, limits production at times to push up prices. The report is much more pessimistic about the only other potential bidder for Potash identified to date: Sinochem , a company owned by the Chinese government. The report suggests that China is interested in an inexpensive supply of potash rather than maintaining a profitable potash industry. “Sinochem has a strong incentive to lead the world marketplace toward price competition, which would hurt all Saskatchewan producers and, indeed, global producers of potash,” the report said. The Saskatchewan government plans to use the report to evaluate possibly conducting a takeover of Potash, which it once owned. While only the federal government has the power to disallow any takeover, it has said it will consult the province. | Potash Corp of Saskatchewan;Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures;BHP Billiton PLC |
ny0173595 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/10/02 | From Capitol to Halls of the Nation’s Future | As secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice does not spend much time inside school hallways. But there she was yesterday morning, in the auditorium of Community School 154 in Harlem alongside Congressman Charles B. Rangel . The secretary and the veteran Democratic congressman made a bit of an odd couple in the school, also known as the Harriet Tubman School, which is in his district, just steps from his local office. “You may ask, well, why am I here?” Ms. Rice said, as though she sensed skepticism. But to hear her explain it, the success of schools is as much a part of national security as, say, negotiations with the Iraqi government. This, she added, was about “the importance of education to making us a country that is confident and not fearful about our future, but that has a real sense of hope and promise for each and every child.” Mr. Rangel’s aides said he asked Ms. Rice to visit the school after the two talked about education earlier this summer. With Mr. Rangel and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein looking on in admiration, Ms. Rice spoke to the pupils about her own life and her continued amazement that she could go from growing up in segregated Alabama to the halls of power in Washington. “One thing that I want you to promise me is that you won’t let anybody else tell you what it is you ought to be interested in,” Ms. Rice said. “You’ll find what you are interested in, and you’ll pursue it and you won’t let anyone say, ‘Why would you want to be interested in that? You’re from Harlem.’” As the morning event ended, the pupils lined up on stage to ask her questions. “Will you run for president?” one pupil asked. Ms. Rice responded with a bit of an embarrassed laugh and a direct answer: “I don’t think I’m the kind of person who would run for president.” Mr. Rangel grabbed the microphone and exclaimed, “You missed your chance to make big news today!” | Rice Condoleezza;Harlem (NYC);Education and Schools;Rangel Charles B |
ny0287239 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2016/08/18 | Giants Kicker Josh Brown Suspended for Season Opener | The Giants’ Pro Bowl place-kicker Josh Brown was suspended Wednesday under the N.F.L.’s personal conduct policy and will miss the opening game of the season against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 11. The cause of the one-game suspension, which is without pay, was not specified. Brown, in a statement issued by the team, said he disagreed with the decision by the league. “I have exhausted the appeals process and have no other options along those lines,” Brown said. Ben McAdoo, the Giants’ first-year head coach, said the team was supportive of Brown, “and would continue to be.” Suspensions under the far-reaching personal conduct policy can be for a laundry list of behaviors, transgressions or offenses, including steroid or alcohol use, gun possession, domestic violence or any unspecified conduct that “undermines or puts at risk the integrity” of the N.F.L. On Aug. 3, Brown missed practice at Giants training camp for what McAdoo called “personal reasons.” Brown, 37, is coming off the best season of his 13-year career. He scored a career-high 134 points, which ranked him fifth in the N.F.L. Brown made 30 of 32 field goal attempts, which was the highest single-season conversion rate in Giants history. Brown, who signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the team in the off-season, will be eligible for all preseason games and practices. He can be reinstated to the Giants’ active roster on Sept. 12. In his statement Wednesday, Brown said: “I will continue to work hard for this team, and I have tremendous confidence in my teammates and in my ability to move on and contribute to the team.” The Giants have only one other kicker in training camp this month, Tom Obarski, who has never kicked in a regular-season N.F.L. game. Obarski, who until 2014 played at Concordia University, St. Paul, was cut by the Cincinnati Bengals during the 2015 preseason. | Football;NFL; Super Bowl; Super Bowl 2015;Giants;Josh Brown;Fines |
ny0141078 | [
"business",
"worldbusiness"
] | 2008/02/25 | Faulting UBS for Losses in Bad Debt, Bank Is to Sue | LONDON — HSH Nordbank, a state-controlled German bank, said Sunday that it planned to sue the Swiss bank UBS over a portfolio of complex debt products, which it contends that UBS improperly sold and mismanaged. HSH Nordbank, based in Hamburg, said it wanted to recover “significant losses” from a $500 million portfolio of collateralized debt obligations linked to the American mortgage market, which the German bank bought from UBS in 2002. HSH said it would file the claim against UBS by the end of February in New York, under whose state laws the original deal was fashioned. A UBS spokesman, Dominik von Arx, declined to comment. Some investors have started to file legal claims against financial institutions in an effort to recover losses from the subprime mortgage crisis. Massachusetts’s top securities regulator, for example, accused Merrill Lynch this month of defrauding the city of Springfield with investments linked to subprime mortgages. Large financial services firms sold billions of dollars’ worth of complex debt products, which are now losing value. “Our claims against UBS will show that the manner in which the investments were sold to HSH Nordbank and UBS’s subsequent management of the assets were clearly contrary to our interests,” said Bernhard Blohm, head of communications at HSH Nordbank. HSH Nordbank claims that the investment was supposed to be “conservatively managed by UBS according to prudent investment objectives” but that UBS “appears to have condoned actions which benefited only itself, at the expense of its clients.” The bank said it had repeatedly tried to speak to UBS’s senior management about its concerns but was left with no option but to start legal proceedings. Banks have rarely compensated clients for losses on their investments, because of concern about setting off a wave of similar claims or lawsuits. Over the last decade, German banks like HSH Nordbank piled on complex debt products to diversify their holdings and bolster income at a time when revenue growth in their home market was slowing. The products were initially deemed to be low in risk by ratings agencies, but their ratings changed when it appeared last year that many of them were linked to subprime loans in the United States that have gone bad. UBS senior managers will face shareholders this week at an extraordinary meeting in Switzerland to discuss record write-downs at the bank because of its exposure to the global credit crisis through C.D.O.’s and other securities. Also on the agenda is the sale of a stake in the bank to sovereign funds in Singapore and the Middle East. UBS was among the financial institutions hardest hit by the credit crisis; it has so far written down more than $18 billion. But HSH Nordbank has been affected by the recent market turmoil beyond the portfolio it bought from UBS. This month, it provided financing to cover its 3.3 billion euro ($4.8 billion) structured investment vehicle, an investment instrument that uses short-term debt to invest in higher-yielding securities, to prevent a fire sale of the assets. HSH Nordbank is the result of the merger in 2003 of Hamburgische Landesbank and Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein. It has 4,600 employees and total assets of 205 billion euros ($304 billion), according to its Web site. The city of Hamburg is its largest shareholder, owning 35.8 percent of the bank. | Banks and Banking;UBS AG;Hamburg (Germany);Switzerland |
ny0241853 | [
"us"
] | 2011/03/27 | States Struggle With Minors’ Sexting | In the last two years, legislators have been weighing graduated responses to sexting between minors. Some legal scholars refer to the images as “self-produced child pornography .” Some states have amended their statutes on child pornography, obscenity or Internet crimes. Many allow juvenile offenders to be charged with a misdemeanor or a lesser offense, so they can qualify for diversion programs and have their records expunged. A few states have tried to define a sexting offense. The laws have had a mixed response. While many experts, educators and parents applaud the lessening of sanctions for what is often seen as thoughtless adolescent risk-taking, others deplore the establishment of a new crime that could not only intrude on First Amendment rights but could also sweep more children into the court system. As Susan Hanley Duncan notes in a recent article in the Oregon Law Review about such legislation, the states disagree philosophically about the nature of the offense, which participants should be punished and which factors may aggravate or mitigate the criminal charge. Provisions in a new Nebraska law punish those who forward an image but not its creator. A proposed law in Ohio would charge minors who produced the image as well. A proposal in North Dakota would increase sanctions for someone who circulated a photo with the intention to humiliate the minor. Conversely, a few states, like Texas, propose to grant immunity to minors who destroy the image or report it to the authorities within 48 hours. Not only do states disagree about who should be prosecuted, they also differ over how to define the content to be criminalized. Some states propose new misdemeanor crimes for minors who exchange photos that are “lewd and lascivious.” Others would create a misdemeanor for minors who send a minor’s “nude” images — a category that might not survive First Amendment challenges. Pennsylvania is proposing relatively mild sanctions for minors who transmit images of “sexually explicit conduct,” but the depiction of activities like penetration, sadism and masturbation could bring more severe penalties. New Jersey is considering a bill that would send first-time juvenile offenders to educational diversion programs. Other proposed bills would require schools to provide students and parents with information on sexting and require stores that sell cellphones to give customers pamphlets on it. Some district attorneys have made such cases a priority but, using prosecutorial discretion, have designed specialized diversion programs. Mathias H. Heck Jr., prosecuting attorney for Montgomery County, Ohio, requires teenagers charged with sexting to turn in their cellphones, perform community service and receive education about age-appropriate sexual behavior and the legal and social consequences of sexting. Since the six-month program was started about two years ago, about 60 teenagers have attended. | Text Messaging;Children and Youth;Juvenile Delinquency;Sex Crimes |
ny0293265 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2016/06/17 | Dragan Bender, a Top N.B.A. Draft Prospect, Talks About Kristaps Porzingis, Croatia and Sitcoms | TEL AVIV — Dragan Bender knows the comparisons are coming. One year after the Knicks took Kristaps Porzingis, a young, tall, lanky Eastern European, with the fourth pick in the N.B.A. draft, Bender — who is young, tall, lanky and from Eastern Europe — is being projected to go near the top of the draft on June 23. There are plenty of differences, of course, starting with the fact that Porzingis, 20, is from Latvia, and Bender, 18, was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and plays for Croatia. But Bender, who spent this season playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv, does not shy away from the connection. “This thing that Porzingis has done this year is amazing for any European player who is going to come to N.B.A. draft,” Bender said, “because all the organizations and the players and managers and clubs are going to look differently at European players now.” Dragan Bender: 16 points. Spurs at the pavillion Credit Credit Video by Chema de Lucas The 7-foot-1 Bender does not know the 7-3 Porzingis personally, though the two did play against each other once a few years ago. Bender said he did not know how many points Porzingis had scored in that game (“I think he did O.K.”), but he did remember, with a laugh, that his brother, Ivan, was responsible for guarding Porzingis. Bender also recalled — quite clearly, he said — that his team had won. Soon, Bender will bring his game to the United States. In a wide-ranging interview earlier this spring, Bender talked about what excited him most on the basketball court, what it was like living in Israel and which 1990s American sitcom was critical in helping him learn to speak English. Q. How did you start playing basketball? A. I grew up in my hometown Capljina, and I started to play basketball basically because of my brother. In first grade I started to play, and my brother was in third grade, and we started playing in the kids’ leagues. Q. Were you good? A. I was actually pretty terrible. I was always with the players two years older than me because of my brother. But it helped me a lot, because I was the youngest guy, and it helped me understand all these things very fast. Bender turned professional at 15. He played in Split, Croatia, before signing with Maccabi and moving to Israel. After a season on loan with a second-division Israeli team, he joined Maccabi’s first team last season. Q. When did you realize that basketball could become your thing? A. When I was 12. I was playing at Niko’s academy [the former European player Nikola Vujcic, who is now an executive for Maccabi Tel Aviv]. I was 187 centimeters already [about 6-2] and I realized I could make something of it. I was actually playing the 1 and the 2 guard then; I was outside a lot. That’s the kind of basketball I used to play, and I love it. It is pure basketball, and I think it’s amazing when a top player can do these things — shoot, lead a break or be able to assist a player. Q. So you like shooting from long range? A. I like to give an amazing assist. I grew up watching tapes of Toni Kukoc and all these interviews with him. In one interview, he said a basket makes one person happy but an assist makes two people happy. I liked that. Bender is not expected to be part of the Croatian national team at the Rio Olympics, and despite his generally low-key demeanor, he became more animated when discussing his relationship with the national federation. Last summer, Bender — who has an endorsement deal with Adidas — was supposed to have played for Croatia in the FIBA Under-19 World Championship, only to leave the team early after a dispute over the brand of shoe he was wearing . Q. What is the story behind you not playing in the under-19 tournament? A. It was with the national team. I couldn’t play for the national team because I have contract with Adidas, and they have a contract with Jordan brand. Before the tourney, we spoke and they said everything is cool and you can play with Adidas shoes, and then in first morning of the tournament in Crete, the national team suddenly said, “No, you cannot play with Adidas shoes; you need to play with Jordan shoes.” Q. So you went home? A: The year before I had a contract with Adidas and I played with Jordan shoes, and I said, “O.K., this is the first year Croatia’s contract with Jordans, and I am not going to be the guy who is going to ruin that,” and after that I had problems with Adidas. But I dealt with it. Then I came to precamp before last summer’s championships, and I said to the national team, “We are going to have problems?” And they said, “No, it was O.K., you will play with Adidas shoes.” Then I got to championship and they said I cannot play with Adidas shoes, and they put it out in the newspapers about how my family and I are always going to run after money and all this stuff, so I felt like I had to leave. I had no choice. Q. Do you feel like you need an apology from the federation? A. Well, it hurt me, not just because they didn’t let me play, but they also started talking a lot of things in the newspapers without any reason to mention my family or myself. Those are not nice things to hear from your own federation. Since then I have not talked to anyone on the national team, so I don’t really need an apology from them, but since then no one has even called me or tried to get in contact with me. I guess it doesn’t matter. We will see what happens this summer. Bender added that he still hoped to someday play for Croatia’s senior national team — where there are no restrictions on what shoes players can wear — but that he considered it a goal for a bit further down the road. For the moment, he is concentrating on continuing to develop, both on the court and off. Q. You said you liked to play away from the basket. Do you think the game is changing to the point where that is almost going to become a requirement for all players? A. Right now you have teams playing with big guys all over the court. I think that’s the new kind of basketball, where every tall player needs to know how to play with the ball and cover more positions on the court. It’s what I want to keep trying to get better at. Q. Do you follow the mock drafts to see where you’re being placed? A. A couple of my friends follow these things, but I am not really into it, because you never know what will happen the next day or the day after that. My goal is to be the best Croatian player chosen in the N.B.A. draft. Mario Hezonja was chosen fifth last year , so we will see what happens. Q. Did you learn English in school? A. No, not at all. So I have no idea about grammar. I learned a lot by watching TV. Q. What shows? A. “Friends,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and now I like “Game of Thrones.” Q. You were about 7 years old when “Friends” went off the air. A. I know, but I found it on the internet. I love it. I’ve watched every one. My favorite character is Chandler. | Basketball;Dragan Bender;Sports Drafts and Recruits;Kristaps Porzingis;Croatia |
ny0075594 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2015/05/05 | M.T.A. Chairman Asks New York City for More Money | The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority called on Monday for New York City to substantially increase its funding for the agency’s $32 billion capital plan. The chairman, Thomas F. Prendergast, sent a letter to the first deputy mayor, Anthony Shorris, asking the city to contribute $1 billion for the construction of the Second Avenue subway line and $300 million annually to the capital plan. In recent years, the city has paid the authority about $100 million each year to support the plan. Subway ridership has grown to six million riders on some days and is expected to increase in the coming years, which will add pressure on the system, Mr. Prendergast said. “Now, at this critical juncture, is the right time for the city to acknowledge the need for significantly increased investment in the M.T.A., and the city’s future,” he wrote. The state-run authority proposed a capital plan that includes funding to maintain the aging system and to expand it through projects like the Second Avenue line. The plan has a $14 billion funding gap, and Mr. Prendergast has also called on federal and state officials to provide more money. His letter noted that state officials had committed $1 billion for the capital plan in their recent budget. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said on Monday that before receiving the letter, the city had already planned to increase its funding for the authority’s capital plan to $125 million each year. When the mayor releases his executive budget on Thursday, it is expected to include a total of $657 million in capital funding for the authority over five years. Mr. de Blasio said in a statement that “a broader consensus is needed on how we’re going to sustain and grow the M.T.A.” He vowed to work with federal officials to secure additional funding and with state officials on a “long-term plan for this critical state authority.” When the authority released the capital plan in September, the agency requested that the city provide $657 million over five years, but is now asking for more. A spokeswoman for the mayor, Amy Spitalnick, said the city had decided to comply with the agency’s request and was surprised by the letter. In an exchange on Twitter, Ms. Spitalnick said: “Our budget went to print. Then M.T.A. moves the goal posts.” Gene Russianoff, the staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign , an advocacy group, said he was disappointed that the city was not offering to pay more. His group will hold a rally at City Hall on Tuesday to call on the city to increase its contribution. In the letter, Mr. Prendergast suggested the city’s $1 billion investment in the Second Avenue line would be similar to the role the city played under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in the extension of the No. 7 line to the Far West Side of Manhattan. The Bloomberg administration paid $2.4 billion for the project, which has been delayed and could open this summer. Mr. Prendergast cited a report released in January by the city’s Independent Budget Office, which found that if city payments for the plan had kept pace with inflation since the authority’s first capital plan, from 1982 to 1986, the city would now pay $363 million each year. The city contributed about $136 million annually to that initial capital plan. Last week, Mr. Prendergast said the authority would not raise fares to pay for the capital plan. His comments came after another official at the authority said fares might need to be raised if the agency had to close the gap by issuing debt. | MTA;Subway;Second Avenue Subway;Thomas F Prendergast;NYC;Budget |
ny0080121 | [
"us"
] | 2015/02/08 | Bruce Jenner Involved in Deadly Car Crash in Malibu | LOS ANGELES — Bruce Jenner, the former Olympic champion and reality television star, was involved in a multicar collision in Malibu, Calif., on Saturday that left one person dead and five people injured, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported. Mr. Jenner’s publicist, Alan Nierob, said that Mr. Jenner was not injured. Mr. Nierob said he did not have more details about the crash, which occurred around noon on the Pacific Coast Highway, north of Los Angeles. One of the drivers was pronounced dead at the scene, a statement from the Sheriff’s Department said, while five other people involved in the accident were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Officials said they were investigating the cause of the crash. Mr. Jenner, a cast member on the television show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” has recently been the subject of intense public attention because he is widely reported to be in the process of gender transition. Mr. Jenner is routinely followed by paparazzi, and there were photos of the crash posted on the Internet within hours after it occurred. But Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Sheriff's Department said there was no indication that the photographers had anything to do with the accident. Photographs from the scene of the accident, posted online, showed Mr. Jenner wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap, surveying the wreckage and speaking with emergency responders. Mr. Jenner, Sergeant Brooks said, was driving a black Cadillac Escalade and pulling a trailer with a dune buggy. In halting traffic, a white Lexus sedan apparently struck a Prius that had slowed or stopped. Mr. Jenner hit the white sedan from the rear, and it veered into oncoming traffic, where it was struck head-on by a Hummer. Photographs from the scene also showed the crushed front of the white sedan. Its driver, reportedly an elderly woman whose identity was not immediately revealed, died in the car. Mr. Jenner volunteered to be tested for drugs and alcohol, Sergeants Brooks said. | Car Crash;Malibu CA |
ny0237895 | [
"technology"
] | 2010/06/01 | Sales of iPads Top 2 Million | CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple said Monday that iPad sales have topped 2 million since its release nearly two months ago. The company began selling the iPad in Asia and Europe on Friday after its release in the United States April 3. A company representative was not immediately available Monday to say what portion of the sales were abroad. The company , based in Cupertino, Calif., had previously said it sold 1 million iPads in the United States just 28 days after its release. As a result of the strong demand at home, Apple had pushed back the start date of its international sales. The iPad can be used to send e-mail messages, surf the Web, draw pictures and play games. It can also be used as an electronic reader. The basic model costs $499 in the United States, not including extras. | iPad;Sales |
ny0115053 | [
"science"
] | 2012/11/06 | Can Cancer Develop as a Result of an Injury? | Q. Is it possible for cancer to develop as a result of an injury? A. “ It’s a common myth that injuries can cause cancer ,” the American Cancer Society says on its Web site. Until the 1920s, some doctors believed trauma did cause cancer, “ despite the failure of injury to cause cancer in experimental animals .” But most medical authorities, including the cancer society and the National Cancer Institute , see no such link. The more likely explanation, the society suggests, is that a visit to the doctor for an injury could lead to finding an existing cancer. Other possibilities are that scar tissue from an old trauma could look like a cancerous lesion and that an injured breast or limb would be more closely watched for cancer to develop. A single interview-based study of breast cancer in England found that 67 women with breast carcinoma were more likely to report physical trauma to the breast in the preceding five years than 134 women in a matched control group without cancer. The study was criticized because of its size and methodology. The study, published in 2002 in The European Journal of Cancer Prevention, has not been duplicated. Its authors suggested that it was plausible that models of epithelial cell generation could be a mechanism. But the case is far from proved, even for a single type of cancer. C. CLAIBORNE RAY | Cancer;Injuries;Research;American Cancer Society;National Cancer Institute |
ny0157428 | [
"sports",
"basketball"
] | 2008/06/14 | William C. Rhoden: Officiating Remains a Topic of Conversation | Los Angeles Magic Johnson, the legendary former Los Angeles Laker, was talking about officiating, the theme of the finals, much to the chagrin of the N.B.A. In the midst of the series, the accusations of collusion between referees and the league will not go away. N.B.A. referees and league officials are being scrutinized. The integrity of the game is being questioned. Is officiating overrated? Do we really need referees? “You need referees,” Johnson said. “Somebody has to have control of the situation and of the game.” But suppose, just suppose, that an N.B.A. officiating crew could not make the game and the players effectively had to police themselves. Could the game be played? Johnson made the point that every player in these playoffs and in the N.B.A. grew up playing on playgrounds and in parks, playing pickup games. They played without referees and could certainly manage without them in a pinch, and the results would be surprising. “The game may be a little longer, some of the calls may be disputed by the other guys, though the superstar calls wouldn’t be disputed,” Johnson said. “And then there’s going to be more trash-talking: When I bust you, I got to let you know, ‘I got you.’ In that sense, it’d take us a little longer, but I’ll tell you what: The game is still as pure as it is when you have referees.” Johnson represented the purity of the game, the unbridled passion for the game. In the N.B.A.’s battle against the negative, Tim Donaghy-driven reports, Johnson would be a great ally. Referees are, in theory, the great equalizers. But even without officials, players early on develop a sense of justice; they know what’s right and what’s wrong. “On the playground, you knew who the players are,” Johnson said, noting that when a call was made, it was respected because “you had that respect for skills: ‘This guy can shoot,’ or ‘This guy can dribble’ — I respect his talent.” You also knew when you didn’t make the right call. “Every person on the playground knew when he got fouled, when he didn’t get fouled,” Johnson said. “If you want the reputation that you really want, you know you can’t be calling bogus fouls. Then they’d be talking about you in the worst way. And when you start making bad calls, they don’t pick you. Dudes don’t like the game to get slowed down by bad fouls.” He added, “Everybody knows when a foul is a foul.” The referee issue rages on, but we’re not hearing from referees because they are muzzled by the league and are not allowed to speak with the news media. The muzzles should come off. Before Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals on Tuesday between the Lakers and the Boston Celtics, Commissioner David Stern was hit — blindsided, perhaps — with the bombshell news of a letter from Donaghy’s lawyer. On Thursday, the commissioner, with two days to prepare and determined to have the last word, summoned the news media for a more formal lecture. This time he spoke for the league’s referees. Rather than have Ronnie Nunn, the league’s director of officials, speak for himself and his crew, the commissioner spoke for them. A veteran of 19 seasons as an official, Nunn could shed light on the multilayered art and business of N.B.A. refereeing. As early as June 2004, during a telephone interview, Nunn responded to my questions about the perception that the N.B.A. was scripted, with calls for stars, calls against scrubs, noncalls and makeup calls, calls that accommodate physical play and tight calls that give finesse teams a fighting chance. Nunn rejected the suggestion that officials participate in a fabricated drama, saying: “There are so many myths out there that people buy into. You’ve got rookie calls, the power-of-winning-teams calls and then you have the special player and superstar myths. I don’t know how that began, but it’s just not true.” Nunn conceded, however, that there was an unevenness to officiating, an unevenness in consistent application of the rules and lack of coordination among a sprawling officiating staff. N.B.A. officials were like so many individual mom-and-pop shops, each with guidelines and philosophies of how to call a game. The subsequent unevenness has obliged players to become adept at reading the officiating crew. “Players adjust to who is officiating the game,” Magic Johnson said. “Some guys like to call traveling, some guys aren’t going to let you be as physical. So when you look you say, ‘Oh, there’s Joey — he doesn’t like you to talk, you can’t talk back to him.’ So you adjust to that. “Players know who’s officiating and they know how they call the game. Players are smart enough to adjust to anything. The only thing they want is a fair shake at home and a fair shake on the road.” That’s a question for N.B.A. officials: What, exactly, is fair? | Officiating (Sports);Basketball;Playgrounds |
ny0096219 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2015/01/23 | Court Orders Release of Mubarak’s Sons Pending Retrial | CAIRO — An Egyptian court has ordered the release of the imprisoned sons of Hosni Mubarak , Egypt ’s deposed president, pending their retrial on corruption charges, according to Al-Ahram, a state newspaper. The paper quoted Farid al-Deeb, a lawyer representing the sons, as saying on Thursday that they “will leave prison because they are not held under other cases.” But it was unclear whether prosecutors would agree to release the sons, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak. A spokesman for the prison authority said Thursday that it had yet to receive a notification on the matter from the prosecutors. The two sons, along with a group of Mubarak cronies in business and in the ruling party, came to symbolize the self-dealing and corruption that were hallmarks of their father’s three decades in power. Image Islamist groups protested in Cairo following a court's decision to release Hosni Mubarak's two sons. Credit -/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Some in that group were arrested after the January 2011 uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from office . But most have since been released after prosecutors failed to make the charges against them stick, in what has been widely seen as a repudiation of the 2011 uprising by the country’s current leaders, who took power in a military takeover in July 2013 . In November, a court dismissed murder charges against Hosni Mubarak related to the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. Mr. Mubarak, his two sons and a business associate were also acquitted of corruption charges in that case. Egypt’s current military-led government has jailed thousands of people on charges that are widely seen as political, and the courts have sentenced protesters and others to lengthy prison terms after trials that human rights advocates have dismissed as farcical. On Thursday, the authorities announced that nearly 700 prisoners were being pardoned. It was unclear whether the decree would free any members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that dominated the government before the 2013 military takeover but was later banned. | Egypt;Alaa Mubarak;Gamal Mubarak;Hosni Mubarak;Corruption |
ny0012261 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
] | 2013/11/18 | Dozens Are Killed in Iraq Bombings | BAGHDAD — Explosions targeting public markets and security checkpoints killed 44 people across Iraq on Sunday, including 20 in a northern Turkmen-dominated city, and wounded over 100, police and medical officials said. In Tuz Khurmato, whose population is 70 percent ethnic Turkmen, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint, killing three police officers and wounding seven others, and a second suicide bomber was killed by the police. A few minutes later, eight homemade bombs were detonated elsewhere in the city, killing 15 civilians. Arshad al-Salihi, the head of the Turkmen Front, a political party, blamed Arabs and Kurds for the violence. “It is clear that the explosions have political benefits behind them,” he said at a news conference. Northern Iraq was the site of two other attacks on Sunday. In Kirkuk, two soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded at an army checkpoint. In Mosul, a bomb planted near a soldier’s house killed two civilians. Later in the afternoon, eight explosions hit Baghdad and the surrounding district, killing 22 people and wounding dozens of others, security officials said. Around 9 p.m. in the Karada neighborhood of central Baghdad, a suicide bomber driving a minibus was captured when one of the passengers, who noticed that he was wearing a suicide belt, alerted officers at a police checkpoint, shouting, “Suicide bomber!” a police official said. | Iraq;Fatalities,casualties;Civilian casualties;Bombs |
ny0103248 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2012/03/02 | South Africa: Former Youth Leader Replies to Party | Julius Malema, the former leader of the Youth League of the African National Congress , fired back at the party that expelled him Wednesday, telling government radio that he was “not a soldier who is prepared to fall in the battle, I will die with my boots on.” Despite a rowdy show of support from close allies in his home province of Limpopo, response to his expulsion was relatively muted. Mr. Malema’s controversial proposals, like nationalizing the country’s mines, won some support among the impoverished youth, but his criticism of President Jacob Zuma landed him in front of a party disciplinary tribunal. Mr. Malema was initially suspended from the party for five years, but an appeals committee increased the penalty to expulsion, arguing that he showed no remorse. | Malema Julius;African National Congress;South Africa;Politics and Government |
ny0011708 | [
"business"
] | 2013/02/25 | Haruhiko Kuroda Expected to Be Named Head of Bank of Japan | TOKYO — In an appointment that could finally turn the tide in Japan’s long battle against deflation, a global finance veteran and longtime critic of the Bank of Japan is set to be the government’s choice for the next central bank chief. Haruhiko Kuroda, the current head of the Asian Development Bank, will be nominated to take over next month as the Japanese central bank’s governor, according to a governing-party lawmaker with knowledge of the plans. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed officials of the governing Liberal Democratic Party to start negotiating with opposition parties to clear the way for Mr. Kuroda’s appointment, which must be approved by a divided Parliament, the lawmaker said. Mr. Abe is expected to submit his nomination to Parliament by the end of the week. “This is a critical time for Japan’s economy, and we must avoid, at all costs, a failure to gain parliamentary approval for this appointment,” Mr. Abe told executives of the governing party Monday morning, according to NHK, the public broadcaster. With Mr. Kuroda at its helm, the bank could take much bolder steps to kick-start economic growth. Mr. Kuroda, 68, has for years publicly criticized the Bank of Japan, saying it has not gone far enough to fight deflation and has urged the bank to adopt inflation targets and expand an asset-buying program to pump more funds into the economy. Mr. Abe argues that aggressive monetary easing could make all the difference for Japan, which has struggled to grow amid persistent deflation, the damaging across-the-board decline in prices that has eroded profits, incomes, investment and consumption for almost two decades. Expectations of moderate inflation — the government and the Bank of Japan have already made a joint commitment to aim for 2 percent — could encourage businesses to invest and consumers to spend, instead of hoarding cash. Mr. Abe’s government has also promised to promote growth through heavy government spending on infrastructure and other public works projects. Mr. Kuroda would agree. In an interview with NHK this month, Mr. Kuroda blamed lack of an effective monetary policy for much of the country’s recent economic trouble. “Japan alone has experienced deflation for 15 years, and whatever the causes, the main responsibility lies with the central bank,” Mr. Kuroda said. “It is not good for the global economy for Japan to remain mired in deflation and stagnation. It is imperative that we beat deflation and bolster economic growth.” Image Haruhiko Kuroda is a harsh critic of the Bank of Japan’s track record on deflation. Credit Toru Hanai/Reuters Still, the biggest fallout by far from adding money to the Japanese economy could be its effect on the yen. The currency has weakened more than 10 percent in the past three months as Mr. Abe has laid out his monetary agenda, prompting cries from some nations of currency manipulation. Mr. Kuroda’s global experience could help Tokyo navigate that foreign criticism. From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Kuroda was Japan’s top currency diplomat as vice minister for international affairs at the powerful Japanese Finance Ministry. Since 2005, he has been president of the Asian Development Bank, an organization based in Manila with functions similar to those of the International Monetary Fund. After news of Mr. Kuroda’s likely nomination, the yen again weakened and Tokyo stocks surged to their highest levels in more than four years, led by shares in export-focused companies. Mr. Abe received a strong mandate to push a new economic agenda for Japan with a big electoral victory in December, which returned his party to power and gave him a second shot at the office of prime minister after a stint in 2006-7. Since then, his government has twisted the central bank’s arm to get it to set an inflation target and expand its purchases of assets from banks and other financial institutions. The departing central bank governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, had argued that such policies would drive up government spending and exacerbate Japan’s public debt burden; the debt already amounts to more than twice the size of the economy. But Mr. Shirakawa and his supporters have been largely silenced by Mr. Abe’s electoral mandate. This month, Mr. Shirakawa said he would leave his post three weeks early, on March 19. For economists and historians, Mr. Shirakawa leaves behind a less-than-noble legacy. “Tolerating damaging deflation for so long was a crime,” Nicholas Smith, Japan strategist for CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said in a note. Mr. Kuroda, a graduate of Tokyo University’s department of law, a training ground for top Japanese politicians and bureaucrats, has a master’s degree in economics from Oxford University and speaks fluent English. Despite his being a lifetime bureaucrat, he has been unusual in publicly voicing criticism of Japanese monetary policies, much which he lays out in his 2005 book, “Success and Failure in Fiscal and Monetary Policy.” He beat out a fellow former senior Finance Ministry official, Toshiro Muto, who had strong backing among both bureaucrats and local politicians but lacks Mr. Kuroda’s top-level global contacts. Mr. Muto was also viewed as being more cautious than Mr. Kuroda on monetary policy. Kikuo Iwata, a professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo and another vocal critic of the central bank, is set to be tapped for one of the two deputy governor spots, according to local news reports. Mr. Iwata is also the author of several books criticizing the central bank, including “Stop Deflation, Now” and “Is the Bank of Japan Really Trustworthy?” Hiroshi Nakaso, currently the Bank of Japan’s executive director for international affairs, is set to be promoted to the second deputy governor spot, according to NHK. Mr. Nakaso, who worked with his counterparts in other countries on contingency plans like currency swap agreements during the global financial crisis, has since maintained that the yen is overvalued. | Haruhiko Kuroda;Bank of Japan;Asian Development Bank;Banking and Finance;Japan;Shinzo Abe |
ny0030601 | [
"business",
"energy-environment"
] | 2013/06/26 | BP Challenges Settlements in Gulf Oil Spill | NEW ORLEANS — BP is placing full-page advertisements in three of the nation’s largest newspapers on Wednesday as the company mounts an aggressive campaign to challenge what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses after its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The ad, scheduled to be published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, accuses “trial lawyers and some politicians” of encouraging Gulf Coast businesses to submit thousands of claims for inflated or nonexistent losses. “Whatever you think about BP, we can all agree that it’s wrong for anyone to take money they don’t deserve,” the ad says. “And it’s unfair to everyone in the Gulf — commercial fishermen, restaurant and hotel owners, and all the other hard-working people who’ve filed legitimate claims for real losses.” In April, Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana upheld a court-appointed claims administrator’s interpretation of the multibillion-dollar settlement it reached with a group of lawyers for plaintiffs. The oil company, based in London, appealed the decision. A three-judge panel from the Fifth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is scheduled to hear the case on July 8. BP’s ad claims Judge Barbier’s ruling “interprets the settlement in a way no one intended” and results in settlement payouts to businesses that did not suffer any spill-related losses. “Even though we’re appealing the misinterpretation of the agreement, we want you to know that the litigation over this issue has not in any way changed our commitment to the Gulf,” it says. Geoff Morrell, BP spokesman, said the ad was consistent with the company’s effort to keep the public informed of its economic and environmental restoration efforts. Plaintiffs’ lawyers claim BP simply undervalued the cost of settlement. | BP;Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill;advertising,marketing;Lawsuits;Newspaper |
ny0071398 | [
"us"
] | 2015/03/19 | Virginia: Governor Asks for Inquiry in Student’s Arrest | Gov. Terry McAuliffe is calling for the State Police to investigate the arrest of a University of Virginia student who was shown in a photo with a bloody face as he was held down by an officer. The student, Martese Johnson, was charged with obstruction of justice without force, and public swearing or intoxication. The Alcoholic Beverage Control agent who made the arrest Wednesday morning, listed in court records as J. Miller, said in the arrest report that Mr. Johnson “was very agitated and belligerent.” A group called Concerned Black Students said Mr. Johnson’s treatment was unprovoked, and the university president, Teresa A. Sullivan, asked Mr. McAuliffe for an independent investigation. | College;Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings;University of Virginia;Terry McAuliffe;Teresa A Sullivan |
ny0171956 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2007/11/19 | Off City Turf, Haggling for Food | Until Jennifer McLean and two drivers from City Harvest showed up at Joe Sidoti’s farm last Friday, the radishes still growing in his field were goners. The radishes would probably have been plowed under, and they certainly would not have wound up in salads in the South Bronx. But as soon as Ms. McLean saw them, big as apples and red as Christmas ornaments, she started working Mr. Sidoti over. What would it take, she wanted to know, to get those radishes into City Harvest trucks and on their way to food pantries and soup kitchens in some of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods? She offered to provide transportation, she offered to round up volunteers to do the picking, and, most persuasively, she offered cash. City Harvest has been soliciting donations of fresh produce from farmers upstate for several years, asking them for apples and onions that are too small or too flawed to sell to grocery chains. But when farmers started balking a few years ago, the agency’s officials decided to sweeten the offer. Now, City Harvest’s farm-outreach program, called HarvestWorks, is raising money to reimburse farmers for some of the costs they incur growing the fruit and vegetables they provide. This year, City Harvest, a nonprofit organization, will pay about $28,000 to farmers like Mr. Sidoti, said Ms. McLean, City Harvest’s vice president for operations. “To motivate a farmer to donate is not always so easy,” said Ms. McLean, who has been cajoling growers on their turf for several years. Even Mr. Sidoti was reluctant to make a bargain for the radishes. But Ms. McLean was persistent. “I’m looking at this beautiful product,” she said. “It’s a product that people can use and it’s going to waste in the field.” She eventually sealed a deal for five tons of the radishes by agreeing to pay Mr. Sidoti 16 cents a pound — $1,600 in all — to have them picked, bunched, rinsed and crated. Mr. Sidoti offered to haul the load from his 150-acre farm in Pine Island, N.Y., 60 miles northwest of the city, to City Harvest’s distribution hub at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “It’s not a very profitable market,” Ms. McLean said. “But they are able to get rid of product that they otherwise wouldn’t pull.” Maire Ullrich, the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s agent for vegetable crops in Orange County, said the willingness of farmers to participate fluctuates with the market. Last year, onion prices shot up in midwinter, but this year “hasn’t been so hot,” she said. The payments from City Harvest are relatively small, Ms. Ullrich said, “so in a good market year, it can’t compete.” Mr. Sidoti, a burly man with a gentle voice, said he had never followed any of his vegetables all the way to the end of City Harvest’s network. But he clearly was proud to be helping feed the needy. “It’s give-and-take in this world,” he said, his black boots sinking into the soft, dark soil in one of his fields. “It’s not just all take. That’s how you’ve got to look at it. Certain people can’t afford to buy nothing.” Ms. McLean and her drivers had gone to the farm to collect eight tons of onions and acorn squash that Mr. Sidoti had sold to City Harvest for about $1,100. Most days, City Harvest’s fleet of 16 trucks and their drivers do not venture so far afield. They weave around the five boroughs, picking up leftovers from restaurants, groceries and green markets and distributing them to more than 400 social-services agencies. The city’s food-distribution network is struggling with one of the most acute shortages it has faced, caused primarily by cutbacks in federal food aid , officials of social-services agencies said. They said they hoped that passage of the farm bill currently stalled in the Senate would help replenish the supply. Last year, City Harvest delivered about 20 million pounds of food, more than half of it fresh produce. The vegetables are a crucial part of City Harvest’s campaign to reduce diabetes and other health problems of the urban poor by encouraging them to adopt healthier diets, Ms. McLean said. The farm trip was an eye-opener for one of the drivers, Anthony Covington, who lives in Queens. “Wow. Look at the cows,” he said when he saw a small herd lying in a field. After whipping out his cellphone and trying to snap a picture of them, Mr. Covington confessed a desire to pull over and pet one. A few hours later, he was helping his fellow driver Oscar Pompey unload pallets stacked with 50-pound bags of onions and crates of acorn squash at the St. Benedict the Moor Neighborhood Center in the South Bronx. Clients of the center’s food pantry were waiting for the City Harvest truck when it arrived. Damaris Rivera, who lives two blocks away and cooks for a family of nine that includes five grandchildren, was already planning her Thanksgiving meal as she waited on the sidewalk for the City Harvest truck to be unloaded. “Everything they give us is good,” Ms. Rivera said. “Wow, look! That’s a lot of onions. That’s nice. Thank God.” Anthony R. Jordan, the chief executive of the neighborhood center, looked on with some relief as volunteers handed out the vegetables. The adjacent food pantry was nearly barren, housing a few sacks of potatoes, some cornflakes, juice and peanut butter. “We used to have this food pantry filled up on both sides to the ceiling,” Mr. Jordan said, spreading his arms across the dark void. He said the center would try to spread the bounty, hanging on to some of the squash and onions to hand out the next day and incorporating some into a mixed-vegetable soup prepared in the center’s kitchen next door. After dropping half of the load there, the City Harvest crew delivered the rest to the Yorkville Common Pantry in East Harlem. Along one wall, plastic bags adorned with bright yellow smiley faces and filled with cans and boxes of food hung at the ready for the next day’s handout. With Thanksgiving approaching, the pantry’s executive director, Carolann Johns, said the squash were especially welcome and would be handed out as quickly as possible. “There was absolutely next to nothing that had a holiday flavor available from the Food Bank,” she said, referring to the Food Bank for New York City, which also distributes food to pantries. Amid the current shortage, distributors of free food are scratching around for all the help they can find. Ms. McLean said City Harvest had lined up $95,000 in contributions that it would use to buy about 6,700 turkeys to be handed out before Thanksgiving. “Turkeys are really expensive this year,” Ms. Johns said, as several dozen people ate free meals of barbecued chicken wings, macaroni and green beans in the soup kitchen in the pantry’s basement. “They’re more than $1 a pound.” Ms. Johns said she had ordered 1,400 turkeys this year and planned to distribute them at the Yorkville Common Pantry over two days “so we don’t have what looks like a traditional bread line.” Last year, she said, the line to receive turkeys stretched for a few blocks. But turkeys, like vegetables, are hostages to the forces of supply and demand. Mr. Pompey, the City Harvest driver, recalled the long day he spent just before Thanksgiving last year rushing to collect extra turkeys from businesses and workplaces that did not need them to take them to places where they were prized. Among the places he picked up those turkeys, he said, were two strip clubs, Scores East and Scores West. | City Harvest;Farmers;Food;Thanksgiving Day;New York State |
ny0205863 | [
"business"
] | 2009/01/24 | Profit Falls, but G.E. Meets Expectations | The General Electric Company delivered a mixed performance in the fourth quarter — and one that is unlikely to resolve the uncertainty about the outlook for the giant industrial and finance conglomerate. The company’s profit from continuing operations fell 43 percent in the fourth quarter, to $3.9 billion, down from $6.8 billion in the year-earlier quarter. But the lower earnings, at 36 cents a share, were in line with Wall Street’s expectations, which have fallen steadily since the credit crisis last fall and the sharp economic downturn. Industry analysts have questioned whether G.E. can maintain its generous dividend payments and its triple-A credit rating, given that its large finance business has been hit by credit woes and many of its industrial operations face a weakening outlook. G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, expressed confidence on both fronts, in a statement and during a conference call with analysts. He said that G.E. was committed to its plan of paying the full dividend of $1.24 a share in 2009, and that its management team ran the company to maintain a stellar triple-A rating. “We’re planning for a really tough environment, but I would say we’ve really prepared the company to perform in this environment,” Mr. Immelt said. “We’ve taken the actions to weather this storm.” Yet the cloud hanging over G.E. is that no one is certain how severe the financial storm will become or when it will end. G.E. is the largest nonbank financial company in the United States. Though sliding now, nearly half the company’s profit in recent years has come from its finance arm, GE Capital, whose global portfolio spans aircraft leasing, commercial real estate lending, credit cards and home mortgages. The company has cut costs and quickly built up its cash, including selling $3 billion in preferred stock to the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffet in October. G.E., like other companies recently, has abandoned the practice of providing guidance to Wall Street analysts on its quarterly profits and sales. Instead, Mr. Immelt and his team have discussed the company’s broad “financial framework” for the year ahead in sessions with analysts on Friday and last month. G.E. said its finance arm over all should be able to earn $5 billion in 2009, despite assuming losses from bad loans totaling $10 billion, mainly on credit cards in the United States, home mortgages in Britain and commercial lending to businesses. Only last month, analysts note, G.E. projected this year’s loan-loss provision at $9 billion. “It looks as if it’s going to be very difficult to meet that $5 billion profit target,” an analyst at Deutsche Bank, Nigel Coe, said. “The problem for G.E. is that it is a key player in financial services, so they are in the eye of the worst financial crisis we’ve ever seen.” With the economy slipping, G.E. also faces challenges across the spectrum of its nonfinance businesses. Over all, the company’s revenue for the quarter fell 5 percent, to $46.2 billion, well below the analysts’ consensus projection of nearly $50.1 billion, as compiled by Thomson Reuters. “The trends show further deterioration,” Stephen Tusa, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, wrote in a report, after G.E. announced its results. Revenue of G.E.’s big technology group, which sells and services equipment ranging from jet engines to hospital M.R.I. machines to locomotives, rose 1 percent, to $12.6 billion. Sales for its NBC Universal unit slipped 3 percent, to $4.4 billion, as strong growth in earnings from cable television networks like MSNBC and CNBC were offset by declines in advertising at local television stations. The energy unit, which sells power generators, windmills for alternative energy and equipment for oil and gas production, reported a 21 percent increase in revenue. But with the global economy falling, some analysts say that trend cannot be sustained. “For the company over all, revenue was clearly on the light side,” an analyst at Sterne Agee, Nicholas Heymann, said. “And the energy business, in particular, is facing a downtrend this year.” G.E.’s large stake in the deteriorating financial services sector and the prospect of weakness in other businesses has raised doubts about the company’s ability to pay its sizable dividend and hold onto its triple-A rating. The Standard & Poor’s credit rating service recently reduced its outlook for G.E. to negative from stable. Mr. Heymann says he expects G.E. to slip from a triple-A rating later this year, and the company may well be forced to trim its dividend. In the finance business, G.E. executives say their statistical models have taken into account a falling economy, including employment rising to 9 percent in the United States. Its industrial businesses, they note, will experience weaker equipment sales, but those units have large, growing and profitable services operations, which provide steadier earnings than equipment sales, which can fall sharply when economies sour. When an analyst asked about the seemingly high dividend in uncertain times, Mr. Immelt replied that G.E. had decided it was both shareholder-friendly and affordable. “We’re investing in the future, we’re not starving the company,” he said. “We’re not straining to pay it.” G.E. shares closed down $1.45, or almost 11 percent, at $12.03 on Friday. | General Electric Co;Company Reports |
ny0234160 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2010/01/05 | Attacker in Afghanistan Was a Double Agent | This article is by Richard A. Oppel Jr. , Mark Mazzetti and Souad Mekhennet . ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The suicide bomber who killed seven C.I.A. officers and a Jordanian spy last week was a double agent who was taken onto the base in Afghanistan because the Americans hoped he might be able to deliver top members of Al Qaeda ’s network, according to Western government officials. The bomber had been recruited by the Jordanian intelligence service and taken to Afghanistan to infiltrate Al Qaeda by posing as a foreign jihadi, the officials said. But in a deadly turnabout, the supposed informant strapped explosives to his body and blew himself up at a meeting Wednesday at the C.I.A.’s Forward Operating Base Chapman in the southeastern province of Khost. The attack at the C.I.A. base dealt a devastating blow to the spy agency’s operations against militants in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, eliminating an elite team using an informant with strong jihadi credentials. The attack further delayed hope of penetrating Al Qaeda’s upper ranks, and also seemed potent evidence of militants’ ability to strike back against their American pursuers. It could also jeopardize relations between the C.I.A. and the Jordanian spy service, which officials said had vouched for the would-be informant. The Jordanian service, called the General Intelligence Directorate, for years has been one of the C.I.A.’s closest and most useful allies in the Middle East. In a telephone interview, a person associated with the Pakistani Taliban identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Mohammed, a Jordanian physician. Western officials said that Mr. Mohammed had been in a Jordanian prison and that he was recruited by the Jordanian spy service. The bomber was not closely searched because of his perceived value as someone who could lead American forces to senior Qaeda leaders, and because the Jordanian intelligence officer had identified him as a potentially valuable informant, the Western officials said. The Western officials and others who were interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter. Current and former American officials said Monday that because of Mr. Mohammed’s medical background, he might have been recruited to find the whereabouts of Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian doctor who is Al Qaeda’s second in command. Agency officers had traveled from Kabul, the Afghan capital, to Khost for a meeting with the informant, a sign that the C.I.A. had come to trust the informant and that it was eager to learn what he might have gleaned from operations in the field, according to a former C.I.A. official with experience in Afghanistan. The former official said that the fact that militants could carry out a successful attack using a double agent showed their strength even after a steady barrage of missile strikes fired by C.I.A. drone aircraft . “Double agent operations are really complex,” he said. “The fact that they can pull this off shows that they are not really on the run. They have the ability to kick back and think about these things.” The death of the Jordanian intelligence officer, Capt. Sharif Ali bin Zeid, was reported in recent days by Jordanian officials, but they did not confirm exactly where he was killed or what he was doing in Afghanistan. Jordanian intelligence officials were deeply embarrassed by the attacks because they had taken the informant to the Americans, said one American government official briefed on the events. The official said that the Jordanians had such a good reputation with American intelligence officials that the informant was not screened before entering the compound. Jarret Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice” and a consultant to the United States government about terrorism, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Mohammed had used the online persona Abu Dujana al-Khorasani and was an influential jihadi voice on the Web. “He’s one of the most revered authors on the jihadists’ forums,” Mr. Brachman said. “He’s in the top five jihadists. He’s one of the biggest guns out there.” In many of the posts under his online persona, Mr. Mohammed used elusive language filled with references to literature and the Koran to describe his support for violent opposition to the United States-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “When a fighter for God kills a U.S. soldier on the corner of a tank, the supporters of Jihad have killed tens of thousands of Americans through their connection” to the opposition, he wrote in one posting. Mr. Brachman said that Al Fajr Media, which is Al Qaeda’s official media distribution network, conducted an interview with Abu Dujana al-Khorasani published in Al Qaeda’s online magazine, called Vanguards of Khorasan. The name of the bomber was first reported by Al Jazeera, which identified him as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. The television network reported that Mr. Balawi was taken to Afghanistan to help track down Mr. Zawahri. The attack was also embarrassing for Jordan ’s government, which did not want the depths of its cooperation with the C.I.A. revealed to its own citizens or other Arabs in the region. A statement by the official Jordanian news agency said Captain Zeid was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday “as he performed his humanitarian duty with the Jordanian contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping forces.” The United States, and the C.I.A. in particular, are deeply unpopular in Jordan, where at least half the population is of Palestinian origin and where Washington’s support for Israel is roundly condemned. King Abdullah II and his government, while working closely with Washington in counterterrorism operations and providing strategic support for operations in Iraq, try to keep that work secret. The Pakistani Taliban had previously said the bomber was someone the C.I.A. had recruited to work with them, who then offered the militants his services as a double agent. The General Intelligence Directorate has received millions of dollars from the C.I.A. since the American invasion of Iraq, where the Jordanian spy agency played a central role in the campaign against Iraqi insurgents. In the past, Jordanian officials have privately criticized American intelligence services, saying they relied too heavily on technology and not enough on agents capable of infiltrating operations. In 2006, the Jordanians were credited with helping to locate and kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The C.I.A. declined to comment about the circumstances of the bombing in Afghanistan. Current and former American intelligence officials said the C.I.A. base in Khost was used to collect intelligence about militant networks in the border region. The C.I.A. officers on the base used the information to plan strikes against Qaeda and Taliban leaders, along with top operatives of the Haqqani network. United States officials have been applying pressure to the government of Pakistan to drive out the Haqqani network, whose fighters hold sway over parts of Afghanistan, including Paktika, Paktia and Khost Provinces, and are a serious threat to American forces. A second former C.I.A. official said that Mr. Zeid’s presence on the Khost base was a sign that the Jordanian intelligence agency was using a spy to infiltrate militant networks in the region, and most likely to penetrate cells of Arab Qaeda militants. “If the Jordanian intelligence officer had been vouching for this guy, the C.I.A. would definitely have wanted him on the base,” said the former officer. The remains of the seven C.I.A. officers killed in the attack arrived in a military plane on Monday at Dover Air Force Base, where a private ceremony was held. The event was attended by Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, as well as by family members of the slain officers. | Central Intelligence Agency;Afghanistan;Afghanistan War (2001- );Al Qaeda;Jordan |
ny0278874 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2016/11/15 | U.S. Forces May Have Committed War Crimes in Afghanistan, Prosecutor Says | The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday that she had a “reasonable basis to believe” that American soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan, including torture. The international prosecutor has been considering whether to begin a full-fledged investigation into potential war crimes in Afghanistan for years. In Monday’s announcement, the prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, signaled that a full investigation was likely. Still, the prosecutor did not announce a final decision on an investigation, which would have to be approved by judges, and it is unlikely that the United States will cooperate. The United States is not a party to the court, which was established to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. But Afghanistan is a member of the court, so allegations of crimes committed in its territory, no matter the nationality of the perpetrators, are widely considered to be fair game. The international court is under great pressure to show that it is unbiased in its targets for investigation. Almost all of its full-fledged investigations have focused on Africa, and in recent weeks three African nations — South Africa, Gambia and Burundi — have announced their intention to withdraw from the court . Ms. Bensouda, in an annual report published Monday, said there was a “reasonable basis” for her to open investigations into “war crimes of torture and related ill-treatment, by U.S. military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.” The focus, she said, would be mostly on any crimes that occurred in 2003 and 2004. David Bosco, an Indiana University professor who follows the court, said the language of the report suggested that Ms. Bensouda was ready to seek its permission to proceed to an investigation in “a matter of days or weeks.” Mr. Bosco said he was also struck by references in the report that signaled an interest to broaden her inquiry into prisoner abuse in secret detention facilities in other countries that belong to the court, including Poland and Romania. The report also said she had found evidence of “torture and related ill treatment by Afghan government forces,” particularly by its intelligence agency and the police. War crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban and its affiliated networks would also be a target of investigation, the report said. Image Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in 2015. In a report published Monday, Ms. Bensouda said there was a “reasonable basis” to investigate potential “war crimes of torture and related ill treatment, by U.S. military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.” Credit Pool photo by Peter Dejong The investigation could also set up a potential showdown with President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has said he supports torture as a tool of counterterrorism . The rules of the court set a very high bar for the prosecutor to begin a full investigation. That can often take years to meet, frustrating the court’s critics and champions alike. The prosecutor has to conclude, for instance, that the courts in individual nations are not taking adequate steps to hold perpetrators accountable. The prosecutor’s report said that American soldiers and C.I.A. officials had, while interrogating detainees in American-run facilities in Afghanistan, “resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape.” Soldiers subjected at least 61 detainees to these practices, and C.I.A. officers did so to at least 27 detainees, mostly between 2003 and 2004, the report found. “These alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals,” the report said. “Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract ‘actionable intelligence’ from detainees.” The report went on to note that American officials ordered that the practices be discontinued. The prosecutor has come under criticism for not acting faster on the Afghanistan cases; she has blamed a lack of resources and cooperation. The United States has assiduously sought to avoid scrutiny by the international court, arguing that its national authorities have investigated allegations of abuse. The prosecutor pointed out that American soldiers had not been prosecuted through the court-martial process. As for the C.I.A. officers, the Justice Department had carried out an inquiry into ill treatment of detainees. It decided not to prosecute anyone in connection to the death of a prisoner. The report said it was still seeking clarity from the American authorities on the inquiries into the conduct of C.I.A. officials before making a final decision on whether to open a full investigation. That decision would be made “imminently,” the prosecutor said. The prosecutor’s annual report comes at a delicate moment for the court. Of its 10 current investigations, nine involve African politicians or warlords; the one exception is in Georgia. The prosecutor’s 10 preliminary examinations — the prosecutor’s first look at a case before diving into a full-fledged investigation — are geographically broader, including inquiries in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. | War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity;International Criminal Court;Fatou Bensouda;Afghanistan War |
ny0287224 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2016/08/18 | American Swimmers Pulled Off Plane in Rio | RIO DE JANEIRO — Two American swimmers were pulled off their flight to the United States by the Brazilian authorities and detained for several hours on Wednesday night, Olympic officials said. It was the latest indication that the police were skeptical of the swimmers’ claims that they had been held up at gunpoint during the Rio Games. “We can confirm that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities,” a spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee said. “We are gathering further information.” The men were released after agreeing to remain in the country and to speak with investigators about the episode on Thursday, according to officials with the United States Olympic team. In a case that has made headlines around the world, the gold medalist Ryan Lochte said that after leaving a party early Sunday, he, Mr. Conger, Mr. Bentz and one other American swimmer were robbed by men claiming to be police officers. The idea that such prominent athletes could be robbed by officers during the Olympics was a huge embarrassment for Brazil, underscoring longstanding concerns about holding the Games in a crime-plagued city like Rio de Janeiro. But questions about the Americans’ testimony to the police turned that embarrassment into anger, with many Brazilians wondering whether the athletes had lied about the episode and smeared their country’s reputation. In a conversation on Wednesday with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Mr. Lochte — who has already returned to the United States — changed certain details of his account. After previously saying that an assailant had put a gun against his forehead, he said that the gun had been aimed in his “general direction.” Mr. Lochte had also previously said that the swimmers had been robbed after the men identifying themselves as police officers pulled over their taxi. On Wednesday, however, he told NBC that the taxi had stopped at a gas station so they could use the bathroom. Mr. Lochte went on to say that the swimmers had been robbed upon returning to the taxi. He ascribed the inconsistencies to “traumatic mischaracterization” caused by stress. Mr. Lochte emphasized to Mr. Lauer that he considered himself as a victim. The Evidence That Ryan Lochte Lied About an Armed Robbery in Rio Brazilian investigators said video evidence and witnesses showed that American swimmers had fabricated their account of being held up at gunpoint in Rio. The episode has created a significant test for the newly collaborative relationship between American and Brazilian law enforcement officials. In the months leading up to the Olympics, the countries worked closely as they tried to improve Brazil’s ability to thwart a terrorist attack. But on Wednesday night, American officials seemed to be in the dark over the detention of Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz. “We have seen media reports that two U.S. citizen athletes were detained,” said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.” Hours after the swimmers were removed from the plane, it was unclear where they were being held. When asked if United States Olympic officials knew where the American swimmers were, the U.S.O.C. spokesman, Patrick Sandusky, said, “At this point we are gathering details and have no further comment.” Brazilian law enforcement officials have kept American diplomatic and law enforcement officials at arm’s length as they have moved forward with their investigation, according to senior American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing Brazilian investigation. Earlier Wednesday, a Brazilian judge issued an order to prevent Mr. Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist, and Jimmy Feigen, the fourth swimmer involved, from leaving the country as doubts emerged about their statements. Mr. Sandusky declined to comment when asked why United States Olympics officials had allowed Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz to board a plane leaving Brazil despite the continuing investigation. Agents from Brazil’s Federal Police, an investigative force that oversees the country’s borders, detained Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz at Rio de Janeiro’s main international airport, according to local news reports. Investigators from Rio’s Tourism Police had asked for their passports to be seized so they could be questioned. Shortly after they were removed from the plane, the two men were shown on the Globo television network being escorted to a police station in the airport. They declined to talk to a television reporter at the entrance to the station. Investigators have not found evidence corroborating the swimmers’ account, according to local news reports, prompting the judge’s order to seize their passports. Video A spokesman for the Games in Rio defended four American Olympic swimmers whose accounts of an armed robbery over the weekend are under question by the Brazilian police, saying they are just kids. Credit Credit Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images “You can see the supposed victims arriving without signs of being physically or psychologically shaken, even joking amongst themselves,” Judge Keyla Blanc de Cnop said in a statement, referring to video of the swimmers returning to the Olympic Village after the party. The Brazilian authorities have come under scrutiny after a number of armed assaults during the Games, despite the deployment of an 85,000-member security force to ease fears about violent crime. Mr. Sandusky said that the police had looked for the two swimmers on Wednesday, but that the athletes were no longer at the Olympic Village. “The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available,” Mr. Sandusky said. He added that the Olympic Committee’s security protocol prevented him from confirming the athletes’ current locations. Mr. Lochte’s lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, denied assertions that his client and the other swimmers might have fabricated details of their accounts, describing such claims as efforts by Brazilian officials to deflect criticism of problems in Rio. “The country has a dark cloud over it for a million and one reasons, from their economy to their crime to their management of the Olympics,” said Mr. Ostrow, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “My client has cooperated thoroughly with the Brazilian authorities and stands behind his statement.” Still, there was growing speculation in Brazil that the episode might not have unfolded as the swimmers described it. Mr. Lochte told NBC’s “Today” show that men had drawn guns and that one of them had taken his money and wallet, but left his cellphone and credentials. He also told USA Today that the swimmers did not initially tell the United States Olympic Committee about what had happened “because we were afraid we’d get into trouble.” Image From left, the U.S. swimmers Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Townley Haas last week. Mr. Lochte said that he and three other swimmers, including Mr. Conger and Mr. Bentz, were robbed at gunpoint Sunday by men who identified themselves as police officers. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Mr. Lochte and Mr. Feigen told Brazilian investigators that they left the party at Club France, which was set up to promote the country during the Games, around 4 a.m. Sunday, according to local news reports. But video cameras showed the swimmers leaving the club at 5:50 a.m., about an hour before they arrived at the Olympic Village at 6:56 a.m., according to Extra , a Rio newspaper. There are other points of confusion in the accounts by Mr. Lochte and Mr. Feigen, the only swimmers who provided testimony to Brazilian investigators. The men, who said they had been intoxicated upon leaving the party, said they could not remember the color of the taxi they took, or where exactly the assault had taken place. Investigators have been unable to find the taxi driver who delivered the swimmers back to the village. A prosecutor in Rio, André Buonora, said in a statement that the swimmers could face charges of providing false testimony if they had lied to investigators. Despite the controversy, it is not uncommon for the police in Rio to be implicated in armed assaults. Shortly before the Olympics, Jason Lee, a jujitsu champion from New Zealand, said that he had been briefly kidnapped by police officers and forced to withdraw about $800 from his bank account. Despite a history of such episodes in Rio, many Brazilians have grown defensive over criticism of the city. Some lashed out at the American swimmers, contending that they were hiding something. “So the American swimmer lied about the robbery?” Mariana Godoy, a television news announcer, asked in a Twitter post. She implied that Lochte was trying to cover up something untoward. “He left one party and went to ‘another party’ and didn’t want to tell Mommy about it?” Ms. Godoy wrote. | 2016 Summer Olympics;Ryan Lochte;Jack Conger;Jimmy Feigen;Gunnar Bentz;Police;Robbery;Brazil;Swimming;Rio de Janeiro |
ny0198139 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2009/07/27 | Terror Ties Run Deep in Pakistan, Mumbai Case Shows | RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — In a high-security jail here, five men — all members of the Islamic militant group described by the United States and India as the organizers of the terrorist rampage in Mumbai last year — were brought before a makeshift court in Pakistan’s first steps to bring them to justice. The brief appearances, described by a defense lawyer, were held in secret for security reasons on Saturday in a case that Pakistan says shows its willingness to prosecute the group, Lashkar-e-Taiba . Pakistan also says that the case will demonstrate that its military, which once backed the group as a surrogate force against India, has severed all ties. But behind the first glimmerings of the case, sympathies for Lashkar-e-Taiba and its jihadist and anti-Indian culture run deep in this country, raising a serious challenge to any long-lasting moves to dismantle the network. The membership of Lashkar-e-Taiba extends to about 150,000 people, according to a midlevel officer in Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence. Together with another jihadi group, Jaish-e-Muhammad, the Lashkar loyalists could put Pakistan “up in flames,” the officer admitted. Despite that risk, the jihadis “were good people” and could be controlled, the officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping with the agency’s custom. Obama administration officials say they continue to press the Pakistanis to guarantee prevention of a sequel to November’s Mumbai attacks, in which more than 160 people were killed in a rampage across two five-star hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station. A surprise confession last week of the sole surviving attacker made clear that Lashkar-e-Taiba has the capacity to quickly and inexpensively train young men from villages into intensely driven, proficient killers, a senior Obama administration official said. The attacker, Ajmal Kasab, 21, has described receiving training in camps in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-held Kashmir, and in Manshera, a northwest town. His account has been largely discounted in Pakistan as being forced by Indian investigators, but many details conform to descriptions of Lashkar operations offered by two former members. The members, who said they had friendly relations with Lashkar-e-Taiba, said that at least one Lashkar training camp was still operating in the hills around Muzaffarabad. Pakistan said it had severed ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, under pressure from the Bush administration to join its campaign against terrorism. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said in an interview that the group’s infrastructure was “no more intact.” But Obama administration officials say they are still trying to understand the state of relations between Pakistan and the group. Among the most likely versions, they say, none would tamp down hostilities between Pakistan and India. The possibilities include that Lashkar-e-Taiba remains a lever of the Pakistani state; that the group and others have realigned themselves quietly behind the interests of Pakistan and could be used covertly; and that the groups have broken away from the official security apparatus and are running independently. A senior Pakistani official reinforced the last option, saying the connections between Pakistan’s spy agency and Lashkar-e-Taiba were so sundered that it was a matter of regret that the military could no longer control them. A lack of control could have as devastating consequences as if the Pakistani Army was still supporting the groups, two senior American officials said. “My guess is, the army did not have command knowledge” of the Mumbai attacks, one of the American officials said. “Was there a lack of discipline? It’s a very, very serious issue whichever way it is.” The commander of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has said in conversations with the Obama administration that he was trying to control Lashkar-e-Taiba. “They say, ‘We are being more vigilant,’ but add, ‘By the way, India has to stop messing around in Baluchistan,’ ” an American official familiar with the conversations said of the Pakistanis, referring to a province that has been torn by a brutal sectarian struggle , in which Pakistan has accused India of financing insurgents. The overarching goal of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which operates under the front of a charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, is the defeat of India. It also embraces a strong anti-Israeli platform and adheres to Ahl-i-Hadith, a strain of the Wahabi sect of Islam. On those doctrinal grounds, Lashkar-e-Taiba has much in common with the goals of Al Qaeda, terrorism experts say. “Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaeda are allies in the global Islamic jihad,” said Bruce Riedel , who led President Obama’s review of Afghanistan and Pakistan policy this year. “They share the same target list, and their operatives often work and hide together.” Among the evidence of Lashkar’s sophistication in the Mumbai attacks is the voice of one of the attackers’ handlers, speaking fluently in English, on what seem to be tapes of telephone intercepts provided to Channel 4 in Britain for a documentary shown this month. Mr. Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, said he had asked India for the telephone numbers of the calls. It seemed unlikely that the handler was the man accused of masterminding the attacks, Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who was one of the five men who appeared in court on Saturday. Mr. Lakhvi, about 55 years old, does not speak English, according to the two former Lashkar members. On the tape, the handler speaks in chilling tones as he advises the gunmen on targets at which to aim, weapons to use and what to say to hostages and the Indian authorities while staying calm under pressure. “Lashkar-e-Taiba was definitely involved, but they had outside help and assistance,” said Sajjan M. Gohel, a terrorism expert in Britain. “The tape suggests that the handler had military training which went beyond basic terrorist preparation.” | Lashkar-e-Taiba;Pakistan;Defense and Military Forces;Terrorism |
ny0273698 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2016/05/13 | Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 6 in Northeastern Nigeria | DAKAR, Senegal — A suicide bomber who was stopped from entering a government compound killed at least six people, including two police officers, on Thursday in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram was suspected. Maiduguri was the birthplace of Boko Haram and has been the scene of numerous attacks by the group’s fighters in the past seven years. In recent weeks, the Nigerian military’s operations against the group had kept fighters out of the city center for the most part and residents had been starting to look ahead to a possible end of the long war with the militants. But the attack Thursday, which also wounded more than a dozen people, shattered the city’s fragile sense of calm. The bomber, who was riding a tricycle taxi, was stopped around noon outside a heavily guarded complex of government offices in the city center, officials said. He then set off his explosives, killing two police officers and at least four other people. Tricycle taxis — yellow, motorized and covered — have replaced motorbikes, which the government banned in the city several years ago because Boko Haram was using them for drive-by shootings and suicide attacks. The attack came a day after two separate bombings in the area, witnesses said. The first was at a mosque and killed only the bomber, but the second killed four people. The Nigerian Army said in a statement that the situation in Maiduguri had “reinforced the need for more security consciousness and awareness on the part of all of us.” “The remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists and their sympathizers still mingle with the society,” the statement said. | Maiduguri Nigeria;Boko Haram;Terrorism;Bombs;Fatalities,casualties;Nigeria |
ny0221209 | [
"sports",
"football"
] | 2010/02/09 | Super Bowl Dethrones ‘M*A*S*H’ as Most-Watched Show in U.S. History | New Orleans’s 31-17 victory in the Super Bowl on Sunday on CBS generated more viewers — an average of 106.5 million — than any other television program in United States history, defeating the 1983 broadcast of the final episode of “M*A*S*H.” “It was going to happen at some point,” said Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports. “I loved ‘M*A*S*H’ and watched it all the time. But all of us in the industry are relieved that we don’t have to hear that the Super Bowl was the second- or third-highest-rated broadcast in history, three million behind ‘M*A*S*H.’ ” Alan Alda , the star of “M*A*S*H” and the director of its two-and-a-half-hour finale, wrote in an e-mail message: “I’m happy for New Orleans. I want to see that city come out first in every way that it can, even if it means giving up a record that ‘M*A*S*H’ held for a long time.” But, he said, “don’t give me the Magnanimity Medal yet.” He wonders about Nielsen Media’s ability to account for the effect of large groups gathered around TV sets to watch major events. For a program to attract more than 100 million viewers today is nearly miraculous. There are 114.9 million TV households now, nearly 32 million more than when the final “M*A*S*H” attracted 106 million viewers. But the media universe is fractionalized now, with many more TV channels and other ways to amuse ourselves. CBS, ABC and NBC held 80 percent of the share of prime-time viewing in 1983 when there was no Fox; the three command 28 percent now, with Fox adding 9 percent. The average home in 1983 had 10.3 channels; it now has more than 10 times as many. And sometimes, the best thing to watch is still a “M*A*S*H” rerun. Ratings for big events were higher then than they are now. The final “M*A*S*H” generated a 60.2 rating (the estimated percentage of TV households tuned to a program); Sunday’s Super Bowl produced a 45.0. But a larger population means a lower rating can yield more viewers. The Super Bowl is virtually immune to the altered TV landscape. And it appears insulated from the vagaries of market size that afflict other sports whose championship series show up-and-down viewership patterns. Sunday’s matchup of modest-size TV markets — 25th-ranked Indianapolis and 51st-ranked New Orleans — might have hurt other sports. “It’s amazing that in this era of competition and multiple screens to have an event like this,” said Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media. “The Super Bowl is the last media event.” For the last five years, the Super Bowl’s viewership was on a path to inevitably surpass that of the “M*A*S*H” finale. First, let’s go back a little further. In 1998, the Super Bowl between Green Bay and Denver hit 90 million. But the next seven games’ viewership ranged from 83.7 million to 89.8 million. Wonderful numbers but indicative of interest that was starting to plateau. But in 2006, the figure rose anew, to 90.7 million, and has increased each year. For two medium-size markets to produce nine million more viewers than the Giants’ upset victory over New England two years ago is an interesting development. New York and Boston are the No. 1 and No. 7 markets. But New Orleans and Indianapolis had the stirring story of one city’s fight to recover from Hurricane Katrina and the other city’s status as home to one of the N.F.L’s perennially elite teams. Sunday’s game featured two of the best quarterbacks in the league, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning, with the added features of Brees’s personal connection to New Orleans’s revival and Manning’s familial link to the city. Both teams were No. 1 seeds and were undefeated until late in the season. “The national appeal of teams in any particular year is more important than the size of their markets,” McManus said. The snow in the Middle Atlantic states kept inside some people who otherwise might have gone out. Competitive games like Sunday’s help. Recent Super Bowls have been as compelling as they used to be banal. Still, something else is at work. The N.F.L. had a great year. CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN had terrific seasons. Playoff ratings bordered on the astonishing. Football is engaging us more than ever. “We paid a lot of attention to getting games into windows where they had an opportunity to do well,” said Howard Katz, the league’s senior vice president for media and its scheduler-in-chief. “We try to do that every year. Maybe we did a better job this year.” Adgate points to the N.F.L.’s marketing, the effect of HDTV on the league’s popularity and fantasy football. The Super Bowl is the only sports event that many people watch entirely for the ads, giving it two natural constituencies: sports fans and casual viewers who will endure the game to watch the commercials. The viewership of future Super Bowls will now be measured against Sunday’s, as past games used to be compared with the final episode of “M*A*S*H.” In his e-mail message, Alda said that he felt his and the N.F.L.’s records could not be compared. “We hit it out of the park, and so did New Orleans,” he wrote. “Do I have the sports analogy right?” | Television;Football;M*A*S*H (TV Program);Super Bowl;Ratings and Rating Systems;Alda Alan;National Football League;Nielsen Media Research;McManus Sean |
ny0270068 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2016/04/30 | Chinese Appear Underwhelmed by Under Armour Knockoff | HONG KONG — A famous sportswear brand worn by the likes of the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his wife, the model Gisele Bündchen, has a savvy new competitor in one of its hottest markets, China. Under Armour, say hello to … Uncle Martian. The logos are almost identical. A stylized letter U with an inverted U directly beneath it. But unlike in Under Armour’s famous brand, the letters do not intersect. An A never gets formed. That leaves a U and what might pass for a humble lowercase n. Still, the obvious resemblance has caused a sensation online in China, where the brand’s flashy rollout this week has been met with skepticism by increasingly savvy consumers, who appear to be tired of their country’s being associated with cheap copycat products. China is where, only a few years ago, some enterprising people in one provincial city set up a fake Apple store , complete with the iconic logo. It is the home of the fast-food chain Yonghe King, whose logo once bore a striking resemblance to a certain colonel who hailed from the state of Kentucky. The state news media identified the company behind Uncle Martian as an apparel manufacturer in Fujian Province, in southeastern China, called Tingfei Long Sporting Goods. No one at the 25-year-old company answered a phone number used in an annual report it had filed with the government. Uncle Martian’s first foray into the athletic wear market is shoes. One of its executives, Huang Canlong, said at a recent ceremony that the brand was going to be associated with “comfort, excellence and innovation,” according to a report published Thursday on the website shoes.net.cn . Mr. Huang said his aim was to create a “high-profile” brand with “high standards.” Chinese consumers do not appear to be buying it. As incomes have risen, consumer tastes have changed. People want — and many can afford — the real thing. Under Armour, based in Baltimore, has been on a roll in China, with sales nearly tripling in the first three months of this year compared with a year earlier, according to Bloomberg News . The online criticism has been biting. One person who uses the handle “Diving Watcher” on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, was particularly scathing: “How come you can’t even design a logo, all you do is plagiarize, don’t you feel it’s disgusting?” Another Weibo user, Zhang Gemeng, pointed out that such blatant copying went against the national policy of trying to encourage homegrown creativity. “The Chinese have lost face, and don’t blame people when they say they look down upon domestic brands,” a user with the handle Luren MJC wrote. Under Armour is also not amused. “Uncle Martian’s uses of Under Armour’s famous logo, name, and other intellectual property are a serious concern and blatant infringement,” Diane Pelkey, a spokeswoman for Under Armour, said in an emailed statement. “Under Armour will vigorously pursue all business and legal courses of action What did appear a bit creative, at least, was the name Uncle Martian. Some speculated it might be trying to appeal to the popularity in China of the movie “The Martian,” starring Matt Damon. But that’s only the name in English. In Chinese, it is a mere transliteration of “Uncle Martian” — An Ke Ma Ting. The characters mean, roughly, “Encore Ma Sandbar.” That does not appear to be a name conceived on Madison Avenue. | Trademarks;Logo;Under Armour;China |
ny0245441 | [
"world",
"africa"
] | 2011/04/26 | Congo: Dozens Killed When Ferry Sinks on Lake Kivu | At least 38 people died in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the boat they were traveling in capsized on Monday, the Red Cross said. The boat was ferrying goods and people across Lake Kivu from Minova, near Goma, to Bukavu when it tipped over and sank around 4 a.m., according to the provincial police chief, Gen. Augustin Luzembo. A rescue team from the Red Cross recovered 38 bodies and 12 survivors, and the death toll was expected to rise. Survivors told the Red Cross more than 100 people were on board. | Congo Democratic Republic of (Congo-Kinshasa);Lake Kivu;Accidents and Safety;Deaths (Fatalities);Boats and Boating |
ny0204705 | [
"nyregion",
"connecticut"
] | 2009/01/11 | Connecticut Taking Steps to Build a State Veterans’ Memorial | WHEN the state held a Memorial Day ceremony in 2007 to honor Connecticut soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, honorees and guests crowded into the state Legislative Office Building. That’s when Linda Schwartz, the commissioner of veterans’ affairs, said she realized it was time to build a statewide memorial for veterans. “It was too small,” Ms. Schwartz said. “You said to yourself, where else could we have had this?” From Greenwich to Stonington and up to Enfield, many of Connecticut’s 169 communities have memorials that pay tribute to their veterans. The state, though, has never had one. But now, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has formed a committee to make recommendations to create a state veterans memorial on a raised open field opposite the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs in Rocky Hill. “This idea is a long time coming,” Ms. Schwartz said. “The time is right.” Bob Janicki of East Haven, a committee member and a Marine who served in Vietnam, said that not all states have veterans’ memorials. “We’re not alone with this but that’s not to say it’s right,” he said. “This is long overdue.” In many states, memorials are often dedicated to veterans of certain wars and not to those who died throughout the nation’s history. New Jersey, for instance, has a World War II memorial in Trenton, a Vietnam War memorial in Holmdel and a Korean War memorial in Atlantic City. New York has individual memorials for Vietnam, World War II and Korea along with a memorial to female veterans and those who have received a Purple Heart, all at Empire State Plaza in Albany. Ms. Schwartz said that 1,500 veterans die across the country each day. “We want to create a memorial to honor their service so they know the state really wants to pay them the respect they are due,” she said. Governor Rell announced the project on Veterans Day and said the state would provide $100,000 in seed money for the design. She said the state is missing “a dignified, central place for citizens to come honor those who have served.” The state has 300,000 living veterans. “Beginning today, we are going to change, for our veterans — living and deceased — and for their families. They deserve nothing less and I think the citizens of Connecticut agree,” she said. “There are many lovely memorials on town greens and in town halls, in our state Capitol and elsewhere around Connecticut — yet there is no statewide veterans’ memorial,” Governor Rell said. “Frankly, this is something that should have been established a very long time ago. Local veterans’ groups have established such well-known sites as the Iwo Jima memorial in New Britain.” Governor Rell has named Ms. Schwartz, a nurse in the Vietnam War who played a prominent role in the creation of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, to lead the committee that will make recommendations on the design and financing of the memorial. The committee includes representatives from all branches of the military. The site is not only opposite the state Veterans’ Affairs Department but is next to the Col. Raymond F. Gates Memorial Cemetery, where indigent veterans were buried before the state veterans’ cemetery was created in Middletown. The committee will hold a competition in which designers will submit proposals. Ms. Schwartz said the designers will be able to draw on the state’s rich military history, which dates to before the Revolutionary War. MR. JANICKI, who is a member of the Connecticut Veterans’ Hall of Fame, said he would like to see a memorial that is tastefully done from a historical perspective while being flexible enough to incorporate sacrifices made by veterans in future conflicts. Ms. Schwartz said she would like to have the design selected by the summer and then begin the fund-raising. “It’s our hope this will be a project that will be completed in the next two years,” she said. Mr. Janicki said the committee planned to start spreading the word about the memorial in January so the fund-raising could begin. “It’s hard to get money for it until we have the design competition and have something people can look at and be able to say how much it will cost,” he said. “The committee is very excited about this. We all know how proud the state is of its veterans.” | Veterans;Monuments and Memorials;Connecticut |
ny0098884 | [
"sports",
"golf"
] | 2015/06/08 | A Map for Tiger Woods: Jack Nicklaus’s Late Career | DUBLIN, Ohio — The 39-year-old legend could not win a golf tournament for trying, giving rise to amateur diagnoses that the infirmities in his game were incurable. On Sunday, Jack Nicklaus remembered that 1979 season, the first winless year of his Hall of Fame career. “My short game was so bad, I was putting around bunkers,” Nicklaus said, adding, “Sometimes you have to step back and make an assessment of what’s going on and start over.” As Nicklaus spoke, Tiger Woods was on the course that Nicklaus built here at Muirfield Village, applying the finishing strokes to the worst 72-hole score of his professional career. A day after carding a 13-over-par 85 in the third round of the Memorial Tournament, Woods posted a 74 for a 14-over 302. His previous high score was a 298 at a 2010 World Golf Championships event a couple of hours up the interstate in Akron. Through 54 holes, Woods was in last place, affording him the experience of playing Sunday as a single — a first for him in his career, he said. Like parents of a child whose confidence is flagging, the roughly 1,000 fans who rose early to accompany Woods on his front nine cheered lustily every time his drive found the fairway or his approach found the green. “The crowds were awesome,” said Woods, who completed 18 holes in 2 hours 51 minutes. “To come out this early and to have that many people support you like that, it was very special.” Woods, 39, showed his appreciation by doffing his cap often and mouthing “Thank you” as he made his way from one hole to the next. A woman who said she was celebrating her 26th birthday slapped hands with Woods and broke into a happy dance. A few fans expressed wonderment that Woods showed up at all. They said they halfway expected him to withdraw and slip out of town under the cover of night. They do not really know Woods at all. Asked what he was playing for on Sunday, Woods said: “Just trying to shoot under par. Just go out there and shoot the best score I possibly can. Just because I’m in last place doesn’t change how I play golf.” That mind-set has carried Woods to 79 PGA Tour victories, including 14 majors. His last victory came in Akron in August 2013. Since then, Jordan Spieth, 21, has won the Hero World Challenge — an unofficial tour event hosted by Woods — the Australian Open, the Valspar Championship and the Masters. In that span, Rory McIlroy, 26, has won two majors, two World Golf Championships events, two European Tour titles and the Wells Fargo Championship. Patrick Reed, 24, has four victories, including a World Golf Championships event. And Rickie Fowler, also 26, has won the Players Championship. “People say, ‘What’s wrong with Tiger?’ but what people I don’t think realize is the new generation of golfers is unbelievable,” said Kerry Sweeney, a player from Eastern Florida State College who was one of five male collegians honored Sunday with the Nicklaus Award. Sweeney, the National Junior College Athletic Association recipient, added: “I’m not taking anything away from Tiger; he’s an awesome player, has an awesome résumé. But the people nowadays don’t realize how great the golfers actually are in the real world.” Maverick McNealy, the Division I award winner from Stanford, recalled a weekend visit to his campus last fall by Woods, who attended the school for two years before turning pro in the summer of 1996. “He was incredibly generous,” McNealy said of Woods, who spent 10 to 12 hours on the practice range during that weekend and mingled freely with the Stanford players. By the end of each day’s session, McNealy said, “We would all be standing around Tiger, who would lead a clinic. He’d show us how he played different shots.” McNealy added: “The biggest realization for me was that Tiger didn’t do anything magical. It wasn’t anything different than anyone else was doing. He just did everything really, really well, really meticulously, and just did the little things better than everyone else.” After handing the collegians their trophies, the 75-year-old Nicklaus spent a few minutes talking about golf as a great teacher that confers lifelong lessons on sportsmanship and humility while continually testing character. The game does not get easier with age. Priorities change, and often people’s focus shifts, from fame and fortune to family. Woods is a divorced father with joint custody of his two young children. There is a reason he was at the Muirfield Village range until darkness fell one day last week, working on his swing until a blood blister formed on the inside of his left index finger. At home, much of his free time is spent entertaining his daughter and son. In 1985, Nicklaus told The Columbus Citizen-Journal, “Let’s face it, it’s tough for someone in his 40s to give up the things that are necessary in order to win.” At 46, Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters for his 18th major title. It was also his last PGA Tour victory. Nicklaus said that after 1979, “I just sort of revamped my swing, revamped my short game and moved forward with a positive attitude. I hope that he does the same.” Nicklaus suggested Woods would be better off taking ownership of his swing and tinkering with it on his own instead of relying on a coach. If only it were as easy as handing Woods a candy bar and watching him morph after his first bite from a sphinx back into golf’s American Pharoah. “This is a lonely sport,” Woods said. “The manager is not going to come in and bring the righty or the lefty. You’ve just got to play through it. And that’s one of the hardest things about the game of golf, and it’s also one of the best things.” | Golf;Tiger Woods;Jack Nicklaus |
ny0098393 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2015/06/26 | China Aims to Move Beijing Government Out of City’s Crowded Core | BEIJING — For more than 65 years, government officials here have tried to emulate China’s imperial rulers, working and living in the city center near the emperor’s old palace, the Forbidden City. Now, in a telling reversal, officials are finalizing plans to move Beijing’s municipal government, including tens of thousands of civil servants, to a satellite town, Tongzhou. The move is a recognition, urban planners and historians say, that the existing strategy has created ever-worsening traffic problems and widespread destruction of Beijing’s old city. It is also a sign of the determination of China’s leader, President Xi Jinping , to forge a new urban blueprint for China. Over the past year and a half, officials have been slowly unveiling an ambitious plan to create a new urban cluster of 130 million people that would be the size of Kansas or Belarus. Called Jing-Jin-Ji, it is named after the three areas it encompasses: Jing for Beijing, Jin for the nearby port city of Tianjin, and Ji for the traditional name for the province of Hebei, which surrounds both cities. The idea is to promote less haphazard growth by developing coordinated urban belts and corridors, something the central government would like to see in other parts of China, too. A new municipal government center of Tongzhou would help this project because it lies in Beijing’s eastern suburbs near Hebei Province. In theory, this could allow the municipal government to focus on regional integration and economic development, while leaving the city center to China’s national ministries. “Moving noncore functions from the central area to other places is a trend since the downtown of Beijing is overpopulated,” said Li Junfu, vice dean of the Beijing University of Technology and a researcher of Beijing urban issues. “A subcenter in Tongzhou can accelerate the development in its nearby regions.” For decades, moving government offices outside Beijing has been a taboo subject. In the 1950s, a prominent architect and urban planner, Liang Sicheng, proposed building an administrative center outside the old city. The idea, however, was rejected by Communist China’s first leader, Mao Zedong, and his associates as running against the revolution. Instead, they put national ministries and the urban administration of their capital in the old city, purposefully using palaces and parks to symbolize the Communists’ overturning of the old order. Over the years, however, this has meant the destruction of the old city , as alleys, temples, city walls and old buildings were torn down for an ever-expanding bureaucracy. “The move is ironic given that earlier planners advocated something similar in the 1950s,” said Thomas Hahn, a geographer and historian of urban China affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley. “They were outmaneuvered, which eventually led to the wholesale gutting of the traditional urban core.” The exact details have not been released, but some published reports say the city’s Communist Party headquarters, as well as several other political committees, could move to Lucheng, a part of Tongzhou where a subway connection to the inner city recently opened. Local government websites have publicized new orders not to construct buildings on the land. Those also state that local residents would be reclassified from rural residents to urban ones, which would end farming on the land and allow for more intensive construction. Officials at several Beijing offices refused to confirm or deny the plans. Speaking anonymously, however, numerous officials said the move was definite and could be announced on the National Day holiday on Oct. 1. A senior official with the city’s Bureau of Industry and Commerce said that his office received a notice from his superiors last month to prepare for the move, but that it would take years to complete. According to Zhang Wuming, a researcher at the Fangtang Think Tank in Beijing, which specializes in urban and cultural issues, the plan would leave the core part of the city home only to central government ministries. “The idea is to strengthen the function of Beijing as the capital, which means that Beijing should serve the central organs more efficiently,” Mr. Zhang said. “If the Beijing government can move to Tongzhou, it actually can better manage the city from there.” In Tongzhou, locals have mixed feelings about the move. Some said it would make it easier to find work nearby, rather than having to commute far into the city. Others said they were worried they would not be able to afford housing in the new administrative area. Many still live in villages that until a few years ago were centers of grain production and the raising of sheep. “We got notice about our village being demolished last month,” said Hao Wenliang, a 73-year-old resident of Dongxiaoying, one of 17 villages set for demolition. “Real estate agents have been coming by to offer us new places to live, but we can’t afford it.” Villagers said that universities were also likely to move to the area, and plans include a new campus for Renmin University, which faculty members confirmed. New hospitals, elementary and secondary schools are also planned, according to officials and locals. The area already has a half-finished look. The new subway stops that end in Tongzhou often exit into lands that are empty except for meticulous new highways — not uncommon in China, where basic infrastructure often heralds new projects. Outside the six-month-old Haojiafu subway stop, for example, there are fields, sheepherders and a six-lane highway. This could also reflect the fact that the plan has been floated for years but has been delayed by officials unwilling to move outside the city center. “Officials stopped this before because they thought it would be too troublesome,” said a retired party official in the Beijing secretariat of the Communist Party. “But Xi is pushing integration so they have to do it.” | China;Beijing;Xi Jinping;Urban area;Suburb;Hebei Province;Relocation;Urban Planning |
ny0082538 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
] | 2015/10/27 | Baseball Season’s Late Ending Is Better Than an Early Start, Commissioner Rob Manfred Says | KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last time the Mets played in the World Series, everything was finished by now. When Mike Piazza flied out to end the fifth and final game of the 2000 World Series, it was Oct. 26. This year’s World Series , which is set to start Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium, will extend to Nov. 4 if it reaches a seventh game. It would be the fourth time the World Series had spilled over into November, after 2001 (when the Sept. 11 attacks pushed back the schedule), 2009 and 2010. An easy solution would seem to be to start the regular season earlier and play the first week of games in warm-weather cities and domed stadiums. Commissioner Rob Manfred said he did not like the idea of playing in November but suggested that he had no choice. This year’s regular season began on Sunday night, April 5, rather than a week earlier, on March 29. Major League Baseball deemed that date too early to start, despite having domed stadiums in Toronto, Milwaukee, Seattle, Arizona, Miami, the Tampa Bay area and Houston, and several outdoor stadiums where late-March weather would probably not have been a problem. “This calendar is the worst calendar for us in having to make a decision between starting quite early, in March, or rolling into November, like we decided to do,” Manfred said. He added: “Starting early in March is no picnic, either. And I know people always talk about warm-weather schedules. Making those warm-weather schedules work is more difficult as a political matter than you might imagine. The warm-weather cities don’t want all those early dates when kids aren’t out of school, and it has ramifications among those franchises.” Manfred said that rain could affect Game 1 of the Series. “My understanding of the forecast is that we have a challenge early in the day,” he said. “We’re hopeful that by game time that we’ll be able to play.” PREPARING FOR VOLQUEZ The Mets chose Kelly Johnson to be their designated hitter against the Royals’ Edinson Volquez in Game 1. Johnson is 4 for 14 with three walks in his career against Volquez, who allowed only 16 home runs in 34 games in the regular season. “He’s got a pretty good sinker, he pitches down, uses a pretty good changeup and slider,” Johnson said. “I think the fact that he really just doesn’t give up home runs is a big thing, and that’s going to tell me we need to get on base, put the ball in play and put some pressure on him. If we get a chance at a big inning, we’ve got to take it.” Royals Manager Ned Yost said Johnny Cueto would follow Volquez in the rotation. When the Series shifts to New York, Yost said, Yordano Ventura will start Game 3, and Chris Young will start Game 4. Yost said he wanted Cueto to pitch Game 2 so that he could pitch a potential sixth game in Kansas City. “We think that gives us a bit of an advantage, having Johnny pitching at home in front of our home crowd,” Yost said. “They really, really give him a lot of energy. He’s pitched his best games here.” Cueto threw an eight-inning gem at Kauffman Stadium to win the decisive game of the Royals-Astros division series, but he allowed eight runs in two innings when he started Game 3 of the American League Championship Series in Toronto. LITTLE WORLD SERIES EXPERIENCE The Mets could add infielder Juan Uribe to their World Series roster, giving them a more experienced backup infielder than Matt Reynolds, who has never played a game in the major leagues. Uribe has missed a month with a chest injury. If the Mets activate Uribe, who played in the Series for the 2005 Chicago White Sox and the 2010 San Francisco Giants, he will be the only player on the active roster who has played for a World Series winner. Curtis Granderson was the only Met on the roster in the last playoff round who had played in the World Series. He was a member of the 2006 Detroit Tigers, who lost to the Cardinals in five games. The Royals’ A.L.C.S. roster included one player who had been a World Series champion: reliever Ryan Madson, who played for the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies. CESPEDES SAYS HE’S READY When Yoenis Cespedes took batting practice over the weekend, he still felt discomfort in his left shoulder . He said he thought he had hurt it while doing push-ups at Wrigley Field during the National League Championship Series. But when Cespedes woke up Monday, his shoulder felt fine — or at least fine enough for him to play in his first World Series. He had joked to reporters at one point that he would get a new shoulder if it meant he could play. “The only thing missing to get to 100 percent is the hours left until the game starts,” Cespedes said through an interpreter during World Series media day. “I’m ready.” Cespedes, who is making his third postseason appearance in his fourth major league season, has gained a reputation for performing well in tense moments. In 19 career playoff games, he has a .311 batting average, seven extra-base hits and 13 R.B.I. “I have no concern,” Manager Terry Collins said of Cespedes’s status for Game 1. “He feels great. I just saw him. He feels fine.” TIM ROHAN | Baseball;World Series;Mets;Rob Manfred;Kansas City Royals |
ny0204160 | [
"us"
] | 2009/08/22 | Immigration Judge Clears Egyptian Student Youssef Megahed on Terrorism Charge | MIAMI — A federal immigration judge on Friday reached the same conclusion as the jury that acquitted Youssef Megahed on terrorism-related charges in April: The government did not prove its case. The judge, Kenneth S. Hurewitz, said the evidence put forward by lawyers from the Department of Homeland Security did not show that Mr. Megahed, 23, a former engineering student at the University of South Florida and originally from Egypt , was engaged in or would probably engage in terrorist activities. The government plans to appeal, but the decision — in a court system with a low burden of proof, where deportations are the norm — set Mr. Megahed free after a two-year ordeal that began when a road trip with a friend led to arrests on explosives charges after the police found model rocket propellants in the car’s trunk. The ruling seemed to surprise nearly everyone involved. When Mr. Megahed’s lawyer, Charles Kuck, told the Megahed family what had happened, disbelief preceded joy. “We won? Really?” said Mr. Megahed’s father, Samir Megahed, standing outside the courtroom at the Krome Detention Center here. “Is he kidding?” said Mr. Megahed’s sister, Mariam. Mr. Megahed, a legal resident of the United States, and his family — who have lived in this country about 20 years — had thought his acquittal in the terrorism trial would bring the matter to a close. But three days after Mr. Megahed’s trial ended, immigration authorities arrested him outside a Wal-Mart in Tampa, Fla. His case became a cause célèbre among critics of the immigration system in the United States, and in Egypt, partly because some of the jurors were so incensed by the second arrest that they lobbied for his release. On Monday, the first day of his immigration proceedings, Mr. Kuck asked the judge to dismiss all the charges. He objected to every piece of evidence the government introduced, declaring it irrelevant, “garbage” and “a fantasy” — a combative approach that led to several shouting matches with Gina Garrett-Jackson, the lead government lawyer. Judge Hurewitz ended up allowing only two government witnesses. The first, Special Agent Frederick W. Humphries II of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, mainly tried to link Mr. Megahed to Ahmed Mohamed, his traveling companion during the 2007 road trip, who pleaded guilty to providing support for terrorists by posting a YouTube video showing how to convert a remote-controlled toy into a bomb. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Mr. Humphries said Mr. Megahed and Mr. Mohamed both searched the Internet for information about Qassam rockets used to attack United States military vehicles. Someone, logged on as “Usef” on the Megahed family computer, also searched for military equipment, weapons and some Islamic extremist Web sites. Tim Pivnichny, an F.B.I. computer forensics coordinator, testified that he believed that Mr. Megahed had downloaded nine video clips, each less than a minute long, that show combat rockets destroying American military vehicles and killing American soldiers in the Middle East. Ms. Garrett-Jackson described Mr. Megahed as an “enabler” of Mr. Mohamed. Mr. Humphries called them a terrorist cell. But after hours of testimony focused on Mr. Mohamed’s activities, Judge Hurewitz pressed the government for more on Mr. Megahed. “Besides knowing the guy, what did he do to enable?” the judge asked at one point. In the end, Mr. Kuck’s argument that the case was an effort to assign “guilt by association” — he also emphasized that the videos may not have been seen by Mr. Megahed, since others used the computers involved — seemed to have been persuasive. Under the terms of his release on Friday, Mr. Megahed must report to immigration authorities once a month until the government’s appeal is heard. | Decisions and Verdicts;Homeland Security Department;Megahed Youssef;Immigration and Emigration;Egypt |
ny0144846 | [
"technology",
"companies"
] | 2008/10/31 | Electronic Arts Lowers Forecast and Cuts Its Work Force | SAN FRANCISCO — Electronic Arts, the video game maker, said on Thursday that it was lowering its profit forecast, cutting 6 percent of its work force and moving more jobs overseas, signs that it is struggling to complete a financial turnaround. Electronic Arts, best known for its top-selling Madden football franchise and other sports games, said that it was seeing some indications of a slowdown in retail sales. But it said it was too soon to tell if the ailing and volatile economy would hinder what is otherwise expected to be a strong holiday season for the video game industry. In an earnings report, Electronic Arts said it lost 6 cents a share in the second quarter, which was in line with analysts’ consensus. It had a loss of $310 million, bigger than the $195 million it reported a year earlier. The company projected that its year-end sales would be between $5 billion and $5.3 billion, which is in line with its earlier estimates. But it said that its earnings would be between $1 and $1.40 a share, down from $1.30 to $1.70. In after-hours trading, investors punished Electronic Arts, sending its share price down more than 14 percent, to $23.75. Analysts said investors were reacting to the reduced forecast and were frustrated that Electronic Arts had not been able to regain the profit margins of earlier years. “Investors have been told for the last three to four years to be patient and that E.A.’s investments will pay off, and today is another data point that they’re not,” said Evan Wilson, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. “Now that we’re entering a choppy economic time, they’re going to have to wait a lot longer.” For its part, Electronic Arts said the cost-cutting moves were part of a continuing effort to improve profitability and were not related to the economic downturn. “Irrespective of economic conditions, we believe it is important to maintain an efficient cost structure,” said Eric Brown, the company’s chief financial officer. The company is also seeking to build a portfolio of new original games instead of relying on long-running franchises. In its second quarter, Electronic Arts said it made strides in this direction with Spore, a game inspired by the principles of evolution, which sold 2 million copies in three weeks. Mr. Brown and other company executives said economic signs were mixed for the video game industry. On one hand, executives said, retailers were reporting a drop in demand and foot traffic, but they also are setting aside additional shelf space for video games, perhaps because they sense consumers will favor them over other products, Electronic Arts said. Mr. Brown said that he still expected the industry to grow 20 percent this year over last but that the economy was in a highly unusual state of uncertainty. “In the past, the video game business has proven to be very recession-resilient,” he said. But “we are in an economic state that is different than any of us have experienced in our memories, so we don’t have a direct point of comparison.” As of June 30, Electronic Arts had 9,400 employees worldwide. It would not disclose the current number. The company now has 13 percent of its work force in relatively low-cost regions, like Eastern Europe and India. It plans to increase that share to 19 percent, and to reduce the share that is based in higher-cost areas like North America. The company said it was reducing its projections for two main reasons: It is delaying the release of a new game based on the Harry Potter movies into its next fiscal year, and the precipitous rise in the dollar has cut into profits coming from overseas. But several analysts said those explanations didn’t address a more fundamental problem. They said that when sales forecasts stay the same but profit projections fall, it means that the company is being less efficient. Electronic Arts has been struggling with that problem; its operating margins were 27 percent in 2004, but dropped consistently to 8 percent in 2007 and 2008, said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets. “They’re not achieving the operating efficiency in their business that they hoped to,” Mr. Sebastian said. | Electronic Arts;Company Reports;Layoffs and Job Reductions;Computer and Video Games |
ny0095546 | [
"world",
"americas"
] | 2015/01/09 | From Sergeant-at-Arms to Canadian Ambassador, After Ottawa Attack | Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms of Canada’s House of Commons who became a national hero in October after an armed attack on Parliament, was appointed the ambassador to Ireland on Thursday. Mr. Vickers’s experience in diplomacy is mainly limited to protecting visiting dignitaries, including members of the British royal family. But Mr. Vickers, formerly a senior member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, rose from relative obscurity just after the attack when it emerged that he had spun backward, dived to the ground and set off a volley of bullets that killed a gunman who had invaded Parliament after killing a soldier at the nearby National War Memorial. After firing the shots, Mr. Vickers entered a nearby room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative caucus were meeting and announced, “I engaged the suspect, and the suspect is deceased.” Citing his “tremendous acts of heroism,” Mr. Harper said Thursday during a speech in British Columbia that Mr. Vickers would do “a tremendous job as ambassador.” The post in Ireland is now vacant. Since the shootings in Ottawa in October, Mr. Vickers has done little to encourage the praise for his role. He has spoken about that day only briefly, while in Israel for a conference, where members of Parliament recognized his actions. “As a Canadian with family on both sides hailing from Ireland, there could be no greater honor,” Mr. Vickers said Thursday of his appointment. “I am humbled by the invitation to serve my country in this way.” Until the attack on Parliament, Mr. Vickers’s public profile was largely limited to carrying the large ceremonial mace into the House of Commons to open sittings. But his weapons also included a 9-millimeter pistol, as his main task was overseeing security for the chamber. Those security arrangements came under greater scrutiny after the attack by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, an Islamic radical who left behind a video that, according to the Mounted Police, showed that he was driven by “ideological and political motives.” That video may never be made public. The attack revealed several shortcomings, some obvious, in Parliament’s security setup. Different portions of the Parliament Buildings were protected by separate House of Commons and Senate security forces. A month after the attack, it was announced that the forces would be merged, although the Royal Canadian Mounted Police still retains separate control over Parliament’s grounds. While an investigation continues by the Ontario Provincial Police, which was not involved in responding to the attack, The Globe and Mail reported that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot at least one time as he ran up Parliament’s Hall of Honor with security and police officers in pursuit. When the gunman slipped into an alcove, Mr. Vickers initially sheltered behind a pillar before dropping to the floor and firing. The other officers immediately joined in, and Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was killed. Mr. Harper said Thursday that when Parliament reconvened later this month, his government planned to introduce antiterrorism legislation beyond measures it introduced in October after the Parliamentary shooting. “The fact of the matter is this, ladies and gentleman: The international jihadist movement has declared war,” he said. “They have declared war and are already executing it on a massive scale on a whole range of countries with which they are in contact.” | Canada;Kevin Vickers;Diplomats Embassies and Consulates;Ireland;Terrorism;Royal Canadian Mounted Police |
ny0276369 | [
"us",
"politics"
] | 2016/02/15 | After Antonin Scalia’s Death, Fierce Battle Lines Emerge | WASHINGTON — An epic Washington political battle took shape on Sunday after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia as Senate Republicans dug in and said they would refuse to act on any Supreme Court nomination by President Obama. But the White House vowed to select a nominee within weeks. Multiple Republican senators said they strongly supported the position of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, that the vacancy should not be filled until after the presidential election, denying Mr. Obama a chance to reconfigure the ideological makeup of the court in the last year of his second term. “I don’t see anyone getting confirmed,” said Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee, which would consider any nomination. “I suspect that probably means no hearings.” Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, both Republican presidential contenders, echoed that view in television appearances. Despite the deep resistance, the White House was moving ahead but noted that Mr. Obama would not immediately announce his court choice. “Given that the Senate is currently in recess, we don’t expect the president to rush this through this week, but instead will do so in due time once the Senate returns from their recess,” said Eric Schultz, the deputy press secretary. Administration officials would not discuss a specific timetable for choosing a nominee, though a senior official pointed out that Mr. Obama had made both of his previous Supreme Court nominations — of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — about 30 days after their predecessors announced they were stepping down from the court. Mr. Obama faces a complicated calculus in his selection. “As the president said last night, he takes his constitutional responsibility seriously and will approach this nomination with the time and rigor required,” Mr. Schultz said. The stance against even considering a nominee puts Senate Republicans in the politically charged position of defying the president on a crucial court opening in the heat of the presidential campaign —while also trying to hold on to their majority in the Senate. Democrats quickly took aim at Republicans, saying a refusal to even hold a hearing would amount to an outrageous act of obstructionism. Democrats predicted that a backlash from the public, particularly in the swing states where Republicans need to win to hold on to control of the Senate, could eventually prompt reconsideration by Mr. McConnell. “I think there is at least a 50-50 chance that pressure from the Republican Senate caucus will force McConnell to reverse himself and at least hold hearings and a vote,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. Image Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, in Washington last week. He said that President Obama should not try to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Justice Scalia’s death. Credit Drew Angerer for The New York Times Other Democrats heaped criticism on the Republicans. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said on Twitter: “Abandoning their Senate duties would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that — empty talk.” Activists and interest groups quickly engaged in the Senate fight. “I have never heard from so many organizations in D.C. and outside who are worried and concerned and want to participate in a campaign,” said Nan Aron, the president of the left-leaning Alliance for Justice. “This is totally different from anything that has happened the past few years. The energy and fear is palpable.” In choosing a nominee, Mr. Obama could pick a liberal version of Justice Scalia, which would fire up Democrats but would virtually ensure that Republicans would block the nomination in the Senate. Or he could choose a moderate — someone who built a career as a prosecutor or a corporate litigator, with little record on culture-war issues — which could increase pressure on Republicans to allow a vote. But that could pose other problems. If Mr. Obama passes up the opportunity to put forward a liberal in favor of someone who represented corporations, it could provoke sharp criticism from the left. The danger is not just reducing potential voter enthusiasm from Democrats but roiling the Democratic presidential primary. It was not yet clear which way the president was leaning. But some former White House officials said they would advocate a nominee with a proven record of support in Congress as a way of making it more difficult for Republicans to oppose the nomination. How Long Does It Take to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee? Republicans and Democrats are arguing over whether President Obama, whose term expires in 342 days, should try to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat. “There will be many opinions on this, and a lot of good candidates,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “But I would favor sitting appellate judges like Srinivasan or Jane Kelly from the Eighth Circuit, who have cleared the Senate unanimously.” Mr. Axelrod was referring to Judge Sri Srinivasan, an Indian-American whom Mr. Obama named to the United States Court of Appeals and who was confirmed by a vote of 97 to 0 by the Senate in May 2013. Judge Jane L Kelly, a former federal public defender in Iowa who was in Mr. Obama’s class at Harvard Law School, was named to the Court of Appeals by him in 2013. Like Judge Srinivasan, she was confirmed unanimously — in her case, 96 to 0. Any nominee by Mr. Obama would, if blocked by the Senate, become a leading Supreme Court candidate for a future Democratic president. Still, Mr. Axelrod said he did not expect Mr. Obama to consult Hillary Clinton or Senator Bernie Sanders, who are running for the Democratic presidential nomination, on his choice. The shock of Justice Scalia’s death and the battle over whether to proceed with a confirmation, which will likely last months, threatened to upend Mr. McConnell’s careful plans to show the Senate was working again after years of dysfunction. Republicans were eager for a relatively calm year leading into the election, but Justice Scalia’s death ended those hopes. Democrats said that if Mr. McConnell persisted in trying to block a nomination, he should anticipate little cooperation from them moving forward, and that they would strive to frame the refusal to act as a radical and unprecedented move. How a Vacancy on the Supreme Court Affected Cases in the 2015-16 Term The empty seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death leaves the court with two basic options for cases left on the docket this term if the justices are deadlocked at 4 to 4. Democrats also said they would welcome the opportunity to confirm a justice selected by the president because so many crucial decisions were looming. But they said a Republicans dismissal of a nominee without a hearing or a vote would influence voters both in the presidential contest and the crucial Senate races in Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a freshman senator in a tough re-election fight, was one of the first Republicans to speak out on the vacancy Sunday night on Twitter, backing Mr. McConnell. "We are in the midst of a consequential presidential election year, and Americans deserve an opportunity to weigh in given the significant implications this nomination could have for the Supreme Court and our country for decades to come," she said. "I believe the Senate should not move forward with the confirmation process until the American people have spoken by electing a new president." Republicans said that the fight would energize their voters as well and that they would face a conservative revolt if they proceeded with a nominee. “I think there are a lot of people who would be disappointed if we didn’t do this,” said Mr. Lee, the Utah senator. Republicans also noted that Democrats had their own history of blocking Republican judicial nominations. Don Stewart, a spokesman for Mr. McConnell, circulated a video from 2007 when Mr. Schumer, in a speech, said Democrats should refuse to confirm any nominee to the court by President George W. Bush — who was then nearing the end of his presidency — as well as future Republican presidents, unless the nominees were sufficiently candid in their confirmation hearings. Mr. Schumer was referring to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito, who Democrats said were not forthcoming in their answers in the hearings about how they would interpret the law. For Mr. Obama, the prospect of a battle for the ideological soul of the nation’s highest court drastically transforms a final year that had been shaping up as an extended exercise in legacy-building. | Supreme Court,SCOTUS;Antonin Scalia;Barack Obama;US Politics;2016 Presidential Election;Appointments and Executive Changes;Senate;Congress;Mitch McConnell;Republicans |
ny0264145 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] | 2011/12/30 | Yankees Call Up Some Tougher Sod for Pinstripe Bowl | Less than seven minutes into a football game between Rutgers and Army at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 12, the grounds crew hustled onto the field and stepped on several large divots of turf that had become dislodged near one end zone. It was at about that moment that Lonn Trost cringed. “I was somewhat chagrined,” Trost, the chief operating officer for the Yankees, said this week. The crew spent the rest of the game tamping down chunks of turf that had been placed over the pitcher’s mound, the basepaths and the circle around home plate. The Yankees had hosted two college games and one high school game without incident last year. Yankee Stadium is the site of the second Pinstripe Bowl on Friday, in which Rutgers (8-4) will face Iowa State (6-6), and those problem areas have been resodded, Trost said, with “thicker, heavier” turf from Long Island. (The rest of the grass at the stadium is from an undisclosed turf farm in South Jersey.) The resodded field survived a dress rehearsal Dec. 6, when Lincoln High School defeated Erasmus Hall for the Public Schools Athletic League football title. A day later, Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano and Iowa State’s Paul Rhoads arrived for a news conference and were assured the field would be fine. “We’re confident it will hold up well,” Rhoads said Tuesday. “And if it doesn’t, both teams will be playing on the same field.” Nevertheless, the state of the turf could become a subplot to the game. Yankee Stadium is one of three bowl sites in which a grass-and-dirt baseball field has been converted so that football can be played. (The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on Saturday, between Illinois and U.C.L.A., is at AT&T Park in San Francisco, the home of the San Francisco Giants. The Orange Bowl, between Clemson and West Virginia, is being played in Miami Gardens, Fla., where the Florida Marlins played last season.) Seven weeks after beating Army on the tattered turf, Schiano and his team return to Yankee Stadium. He, like Rhoads, is confident the field conditions will not affect the outcome of the game. He said the Nov. 12 game “wasn’t that bad.” He added: “One area, the chunks were coming up, but that happens when you’re playing on natural turf. I’m sure it will be fine.” Two Rutgers linebackers, Steve Beauharnais and Khaseem Greene, said they were happy to hear the areas of the infield had been resodded. Beauharnais said there were “big potholes in the middle” during the game against Army. Greene said: “It was coming up pretty easy. Every time you put your foot in the ground, it was coming up. We just adjusted to it from the first drive, and it didn’t bother anybody.” Beauharnais added: “We’ll play in the parking lot if we have to. So it wasn’t a problem for us after we noticed it.” But the torn turf did affect strategy. On its first drive, Army drove from its 41-yard line to the Rutgers 3 — right into one of the problem areas. After two running plays kicked up clods of sod, Army Coach Rich Ellerson decided to go for a field goal from the 1 rather than for a touchdown on fourth down. “I wasn’t confident the conditions would help us,” Ellerson said after the game. Both kickers missed extra points, apparently because of poor footing, and Ellerson was happy to see the third quarter end with his offense at the Rutgers 23. That meant the Black Knights would switch ends and play on the part of the field that ran across the baseball outfield, and its regular grass. “We need to stick our cleats in the ground while we’re playing,” he said. “We have to be stronger and explosive while we’re playing. If we get down to that soft stuff and start leaning on those big guys, we don’t have a chance. They’re not just big stiffs, they’re explosive guys, too, but the conditions can be a little bit of a competitive disadvantage for an undersized guy because it’s a hard time to stick your cleats in the ground.” Trost learned later that the turf was tearing up because the dirt portions of the infield tend not to drain as well. Last year’s Pinstripe Bowl was played less than a week after New York had been slammed with 20 inches of snow, but no problems arose. Trost said the Yankees consulted with turf experts at other football-baseball stadiums before opting for the tougher sod, which will be pulled up before baseball season. It will help that Friday’s forecast calls for dry conditions and temperatures that will be warmer than normal. “Hopefully, we finished learning about this,” Trost said. | Football;Yankee Stadium (NYC);Rutgers The State University of New Jersey;Iowa State University;College Athletics;Stadiums and Arenas;Bowl Games;Football (College) |
ny0096176 | [
"us"
] | 2015/01/23 | Surveys Show Bias of Potential Jurors in Boston Bombing Trial | BOSTON — One potential juror said she was biased against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev because he is Muslim. “I already feel that he’s guilty,” she said. Another choked back tears as she said she was a neighbor of Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy who was killed in the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon , for which Mr. Tsarnaev is standing trial. A third seemed too eager to serve, as if seeking celebrity for participating, while a fourth, a biologist, told the judge he doubted he had “the personal constitution” to consider the death penalty — even for Boston’s most loathed suspect. Jury selection in the Boston Marathon bombing case is proving to be far more complicated than anticipated: A spokesman for Federal District Court here said Thursday that the target date of Jan. 26 for opening statements was “not realistic” because many potential jurors must still be questioned about their views. Confronted with the difficulty of finding impartial jurors, Mr. Tsarnaev’s defense team asked the court on Thursday, for the third time, to move the trial from Boston. Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. has rejected their previous requests, but this time, Mr. Tsarnaev’s lawyers presented some startling statistics about the jury pool. Of the 1,373 prospective jurors who filled out screening questionnaires this month, the defense said, 68 percent said they already believed that Mr. Tsarnaev was guilty. “This kid is from another country and kills innocent people!” one person wrote. The defense also said that 69 percent of the potential jurors had said they had a personal connection to the case. One of them, the defense said, was an emergency room doctor who treated Mr. Tsarnaev after he was apprehended. The doctor also treated Mr. Tsarnaev’s brother, Tamerlan, who is believed to have participated in the bombing and died after a night of mayhem. “My friend was there and got blown up,” another prospective juror wrote in an answer on the questionnaire. “Additionally, her child was severely wounded and is still dealing with residual surgeries.” Yet another wrote that a friend had lost both legs and that the friend’s daughter had been hurt, adding, “Wore Boston Strong sweatshirt to jury duty today.” At this rate, the defense wrote, “prejudice and personal connections are so pervasive, the remnants from which a jury can be cobbled together are not representative of the community in any sense.” Judge O’Toole has said that if finding an impartial jury proves too difficult, he will reassess his position on moving the trial. He also criticized the defense team, saying that its disclosure of information found in the confidential questionnaires was improper, and he ordered sealed the motion that included responses from the jurors. Boston Bombing Trial, Week by Week A synopsis of the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of killing three people and injuring more than 260 in the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013. Mr. Tsarnaev is facing 30 federal charges, 17 of which carry the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty. Judge O’Toole had planned to question 40 prospective jurors a day, or 200 in five days. But Thursday, after the first five days, just 72 people had been interviewed. It is not known who among them may have been excused permanently or might be recalled for further questioning. The process is particularly slow because the trial is a high-profile federal death penalty case. It requires close questioning of potential jurors for prejudice. A death penalty case comes with an additional catch: Jurors must be willing to sentence the defendant to death. They are not required to, but they must be open to it. Anyone who firmly opposes the death penalty therefore cannot serve on the jury. Massachusetts has little experience with modern death penalty cases. It is one of 18 states that have abolished capital punishment, and the last execution here was carried out in 1947. Mr. Tsarnaev is charged with 30 federal crimes, 17 of which carry the death penalty if he is convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. “Eastern Massachusetts has a long and well-chronicled history of opposition to the death penalty,” said Daniel S. Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University. “So this means that many of the remaining acceptable people who are not dismissed on the basis of having an opinion or having a connection will be disqualified because of their moral opposition to the death penalty.” He called this problematic. “It means that people who are informed and interested in what’s going on are considered to be ill-equipped to evaluate it,” he said. In its motion to move the trial, the defense said that 26 percent of the initial jury pool had written in their questionnaires that they thought Mr. Tsarnaev should receive the death penalty; 22 percent said he should not and 46 percent said they were not sure. Of the 72 potential jurors questioned orally so far, perhaps a third or more have indicated that they oppose the death penalty. But rather than dismiss them outright, Judge O’Toole has often questioned them further to see if their opposition is absolute or if they might reconsider under certain circumstances. “The only thing I could think of is if someone killed one of my children,” a retired dental hygienist said Thursday. “Then I’m not so sure.” Another potential juror, a theologian who teaches at a Catholic college, said he could not impose the death penalty “under any circumstances.” He said he worried that if he were selected, he might be denied tenure if his colleagues thought he had voted to sentence Mr. Tsarnaev to death. “They would wonder what I know about Catholic social ethics,” he said. Judge O’Toole has also questioned jurors extensively on other topics. Many people were interviewed at length, including those who said they believed Mr. Tsarnaev was guilty and wanted him put to death. Yet another concern cited by Mr. Tsarnaev’s lawyers were stealth jurors who might have an agenda — becoming a celebrity or writing a book — and who seem eager to be picked. One woman questioned appeared overly enthusiastic. “I’m ready to do this,” she said brightly. Another woman said that she and her boyfriend had planned an R.V. trip but that they could stay in town. She even offered to park the R.V. near the courthouse so she could be readily available. | Boston Marathon Bombings;Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev;Jury;Capital punishment;Boston;George A O'Toole Jr |
ny0130164 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
] | 2012/06/15 | Tottenham Fires Manager | A few months ago, Harry Redknapp was the leading candidate to coach England. His Tottenham team was playing perhaps the most stylish football in the country. Now he is unemployed. Tottenham fired Redknapp, ending his reign after nearly four seasons in charge. Redknapp looks to have paid the price for his team’s failure to qualify for the lucrative Champions League after winning only 3 of its last 13 Premier League matches. | Soccer;Redknapp Harry;Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations;Coaches and Managers |
ny0139504 | [
"sports",
"othersports"
] | 2008/02/16 | Running From Despair | SANTA FE, N.M. — On a cold Saturday morning last month, 16-year-old Chantel Hunt ran across a highway onto a gravel road where the snow under her shoes packed into washboard ripples. She ran around a towering red rock butte, past two old mattresses dumped on the roadside, and into the shadow of a mesa she sometimes runs on top of. Hunt, a high school junior and a resident of the Navajo Nation, was on a short training run for the national cross-country championships being held Saturday in San Diego. Her team, Wings of America, has risen to prominence with an unlikely collection of athletes. It is a group of American Indians from reservations around the country, and a Wings team has won a boys or a girls national title 20 times since first attending a championship meet in 1988. “You say Wings of America to anyone in the running community — it’s synonymous with the best Native American runners,” said Eric Heins, the cross-country and distance coach at Northern Arizona University, a program that has benefited from having Wings runners in recent years. American Indians have especially high rates of youth suicide, Type 2 diabetes and deaths attributed to alcoholism, and extreme poverty is pervasive on many reservations. Wings of America, a 20-year-old nonprofit organization based here, has embraced the challenge. “The hardest part is getting people to understand, to make the case how important it is,” said Anne Wheelock Gonzales, the organization’s former executive director who now serves as a consultant. “One time someone said, ‘Well, it’s not like you’re saving lives.’ And I said: ‘Excuse me, we are saving lives. That’s exactly what this does.’ ” Dillon Shije, another member of the Wings team who will be competing Saturday, runs 60 to 70 miles a week around Zia Pueblo, near Albuquerque. He zigzags between junipers and cactuses on trails, and he sometimes runs five miles up an arroyo. “Those are typical running trails all over the reservations,” said Alvina Begay, 27, a former Wings runner who will compete in the United States women’s Olympic marathon trials in April. Shije, a 16-year-old high school junior, commutes an hour each way to attend Sandia Preparatory School in Albuquerque. In the winter, when the light is short and his training regimen requires running before dawn and after dusk, Shije will run while his mother drives behind him on dirt roads with the headlights on. “Sometimes I need the extra push from the car,” he said. “The honk.” In the Navajo Nation, where Hunt lives, many of the statistics concerning health problems are even higher than for the overall numbers for American Indians. A study in the American Journal of Public Health showed that nearly 15 percent of youths in the Navajo Nation in grades 6-12 had attempted suicide. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 40 percent of adults ages 45 and older had Type 2 diabetes, and that the rates were increasing among children. “There’s this element of historical post-traumatic stress that’s occurred in Indian communities,” said Dr. Chuck North, the chief medical officer for Indian Health Services. “The history of Native Americans in the United States is one of loss: losing land, losing language, losing culture and losing family members.” More than 180,000 people live on the Navajo Nation, which spreads over 27,000 square miles in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Unemployment hovers at about 40 percent. More than three-quarters of the 6,184 miles of roads are not paved. Roughly half the homes lack plumbing. Hunt lives on reservation land about 15 miles from Navajo, N.M., in a small two-bedroom house at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. Navajo has about 2,100 residents, and 64 percent of the families are below the poverty level. Her family drives into a town called Crystal each week to fill a 1,000-gallon cistern with water. They chop and haul wood in the winter to heat their home. “We camp year-round,” said Delores Hunt, Chantel’s mother. The Navajo culture centers on strong women. The Navajo believe that Father Sky and Mother Earth gave birth to Changing Woman, a deity who has the power to change her age with the seasons by walking to the horizon. When a Navajo girl comes of age and has her first period, the community celebrates with a rite of passage called the Kinaalda. For four days, the girl re-enacts the role of Changing Woman, waking up before dawn and running east, toward the sunrise. The longer a girl runs, the longer she will live. “You build up your strength by running,” said Mary Willie, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona and the coordinator of its Native American Languages and Linguistics program. “You are also reflecting back what the Navajo people value: being responsible, being able to take care of yourself and your family, hard work and perseverance.” Wings holds a high school coaching clinic and about 30 youth summer camps each year. Hunt was a facilitator at one of the camps after eighth grade. Hunt played traditional games with large groups of young children and talked to them about avoiding drugs and alcohol, and about eating healthy. But even with education, the ability for families to change their diets is difficult because extreme poverty and remote living conditions can make obtaining fresh food difficult. “Sometimes we go to areas and kids have never seen a fresh avocado,” said Kelly Concho-Hayes, a consultant for Wings. “One summer ago, a kid said, ‘Tomatoes are bright red?’ ” Many runners who go through the program end up as teachers, coaches and health professionals. This year’s girls coach, Jill Jim, attends the University of Utah, where she is working toward a master’s degree in public health and health care administration. Hunt said she started running year-round in ninth grade, “because I decided I’d have a better chance of getting scholarships and being noticed.” She ran old logging roads through pines, on the packed dirt trails her grandparents herded sheep over, on game trails carved by deer, and through aspens to the top of a roughly 9,000-foot peak. She said her older brother, Arvid, pushed her. They ran on clay roads past other remote homes, saving energy for sprints. “That dog on the side is the one we watch out for,” Arvid said as he pointed at what looked like a pit bull mix. “We save our energy so when we come through here we can do a speed workout for a half-mile.” Hunt’s experience at the Wings camp was a boon to her high school cross-country team at Navajo Pine. As a freshman, she was the team’s top runner, and at a meeting halfway through the season she challenged her teammates to work harder. “That transformation in the team came from the transformation in Tails,” said Tim Host, one of Navajo Pine’s coaches, referring to Hunt by her nickname. The team did not win the state title that year, but it did the next two. Hunt led the team each time with top-five finishes. In six years, Navajo Pine’s two coaches, Host and Gavin Sosa, have seen the cross-country team grow to about 45 from 12, with the boys winning three consecutive state titles and the girls winning two in a row. During the state finals in the two-mile her freshman year, Hunt recalled, she fell to sixth place and became frustrated. “I just got tired, and asked myself: Why am I doing this? I don’t have to,” she said. “And I said, No, keep going, keep going.” Hunt, wearing a blue uniform, passed one girl after another on the last lap. In the final 100 meters she had one girl to beat, Cassandra Sanchez from Acoma. They started sprinting around the corner. “The crowd was cheering,” Hunt said. “It was a head-to-head race.” Having watched “Chariots of Fire” multiple times, Hunt said, she knew what to do. “I was pumping my arms, and I could hear Cassandra breathing,” she said. “And right at the end I leaned.” After throwing her weight forward without fear, she heard the race official say: “Blue’s got it. Blue’s got it.” | Wings of America;Running;Indians American;Santa Fe (NM);Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;Diabetes |
ny0192198 | [
"us"
] | 2009/02/26 | N.C. Syringe Factory Tied to Deaths Went Uninspected Despite Complaints | RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina syringe factory linked to hundreds of illnesses and five deaths operated for almost two years without an inspection despite a series of complaints that its needles were dirty or filled with colored particles. Court documents in the North Carolina case show the Food and Drug Administration inspected the AM2PAT Inc. plant in December 2007 only after an outbreak of illness was reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Federal investigators contend that the company, based in Chicago, was so consumed with maximizing profits that it shipped syringes filled with saline and the blood-thinner heparin from a dingy facility without ensuring they were sterile. The authorities are searching for the company’s chief executive, Dushyant Patel, who was indicted last week. They believe he fled to his native India. In 2007, before the outbreak of illness was traced to the company’s syringes, the food and drug agency received more than a dozen reports of problems with AM2PAT’s products. Some reported “orange specks” floating inside the unopened syringes, while others reported “yellow sediment” or “muddy brown” syringes filled with floating white specks. Agency records show it first received complaints of particles in AM2PAT syringes in November 2005. An agency spokeswoman, Siobhan DeLancey, said the company was inspected in January 2006 but then was not checked again until December 2007. | Hypodermic Needles and Syringes;Food and Drug Administration;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;North Carolina |
ny0293129 | [
"world",
"asia"
] | 2016/06/28 | U.S. Investigates Whether Airstrikes Killed Taliban Hostages | KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — American airstrikes in northern Afghanistan killed at least seven hostages being held in a Taliban prison on Saturday, according to accounts from the families of victims and local officials from the immediate area. Some accounts put the death toll as high as 16. But senior Afghan officials in Kunduz Province, including the governor, denied that the airstrikes had killed the prisoners, accusing the Taliban of staging the deaths to make it appear that an airstrike was responsible. The victims were among more than 200 people who have been abducted by Taliban insurgents on highways in Kunduz Province, mostly taken from buses traveling to neighboring provinces, in four episodes since May 28. The American military’s spokesman in Kabul, Afghanistan, Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland, said the airstrike report was under investigation. “We’ve recently learned of the allegation and are working with our Afghan counterparts to look into it,” he said on Monday. While Afghan officials all agreed that the American military conducted drone strikes in the Aaq-Masjid area of Chardara District, a remote area dominated by Taliban insurgents, they gave widely divergent accounts of what happened. Mohammadullah, the police commander in the village of Nahr-i Sofi in the area of the airstrike, said that local residents reported that the drone strikes had killed 14 people, many of them people who had been abducted. He was uncertain how many of the 14 were hostages and how many were Taliban insurgents. Like many Afghans, the police commander has only one name. Amruddin Wali, a senior member of the Kunduz Provincial Council, said he learned from locals that 14 to 16 hostages out of 20 in Taliban custody were killed in the strikes. The Kunduz provincial police chief, Gen. Qaseem Jangalbagh, said that the dead in the airstrikes included five Taliban jailers and their local warden, Mullah Janat Gul. Both Gen. Sher Aziz Kamawal, commander of the 808th Police Zone, which includes northeastern Afghanistan, and the Kunduz governor, Asadullah Omarkhel, said the Taliban responded to the airstrikes on their positions by putting abducted passengers into a truck container and then detonating explosives there. “The Taliban first decided to behead the passengers but then they killed them with an I.E.D. and tried to show it was an airstrike to create problems between the government and its international allies,” Governor Omarkhel said. Last year, American airstrikes destroyed the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, killing 42 patients and staff members. While the American military apologized , blaming a series of errors and punishing 16 American soldiers and officers, many senior Afghan officials insisted that the insurgents had provoked the attack, repeating unsubstantiated accounts that they had been firing from the hospital. At the provincial hospital in Kunduz on Monday, six bodies, some of them burned and mangled beyond recognition, were brought in from Chardara District. One of them was identified as Ansarullah, an Afghan National Army soldier who had been on leave when his bus was stopped by the Taliban in Kunduz and he was taken away by the insurgents. His body was identified by a cousin, Abdul Khair. Mr. Khair said people from the district had told them his cousin was killed by a rocket fired into the prison building by a drone on Saturday night. Family members had been trying to win his release from the insurgents, who told them they wanted to swap government prisoners for Taliban prisoners. An elder from Badakhshan Province, Wakil Alim, also visited the hospital on Monday and identified three other bodies as those of passengers who had been held by the Taliban. The chief of the Kunduz provincial hospital, Nayim Mangal, said the damage done to the bodies brought there appeared to have been caused by rockets fired from an aircraft. In Kabul, officials in the capital were unclear about what had happened. The spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Dawlat Waziri, said: “All we can say now is that the airstrikes targeted the enemy bases there, which inflicted heavy casualties to the enemy. We are not sure if the prison or place where our soldiers were kept was hit in the airstrikes.” A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, reached by telephone, denied that the insurgents had staged the bus passengers’ deaths. He said three insurgents were killed in the airstrikes along with six of the abducted passengers. He said all of the passengers being held by the insurgents were government employees or soldiers; passengers with no such affiliation were all released earlier, he said, and only a small number of passengers remained in custody. President Obama recently expanded the authority for American forces to use airstrikes against Taliban targets. Under the new rules, airstrikes no longer need to be justified as necessary to defend American troops. The first such strikes were carried out earlier this month , the Pentagon said. | Drones;Taliban;Kidnapping and Hostages;Kunduz;US Military;Afghanistan |
ny0103655 | [
"science"
] | 2012/03/29 | African Fossil Foot Indicates Another Hominin Species Lived With Lucy | Now it seems that Lucy shared eastern Africa with another prehuman species, one that may have spent more time in trees than on the ground. A 3.4-million-year-old fossil foot found in Ethiopia appears to settle the long-disputed question of whether there was only a single line of hominins — species more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees — between four million and three million years ago. The fossil record for that period had been virtually limited to the species Australopithecus afarensis, made famous by the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy skeleton. Of perhaps more importance, scientists report in the journal Nature , published online Wednesday, the newfound foot not only belonged to a different species but also had evolved a distinctive mode of locomotion, which scientists described as “equivocal.” It clung to the trees and never adapted to terrestrial mobility outright. The Lucy species had long before evolved almost humanlike upright walking, bipedality, as attested by the Laetoli footprints in Tanzania from as early as 3.7 million years ago. This other species was still built for climbing trees and grasping limbs. It was capable of walking, though less efficiently and probably at an awkward gait. At a pivotal period in prehuman evolution, the discoverers concluded, two lines of hominins practiced contrasting locomotion behavior. Their feet, mostly, told the tale: the divergent, opposable big toe, long digits and other bones of the newfound species did not match the feet of afarensis. Lucy’s foot had a strong arch and the big toe was lined up with the other four digits, much like the feet of modern humans and all critical for effective bipedality, while retaining some agility for climbing trees. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a paleoanthropologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio , and his colleagues said the species the foot belonged to remains undetermined, for lack of any cranial or dental remains associated with the specimen. But they said the foot was strikingly similar to the earlier hominin Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed Ardi, which lived 4.4 million years ago, also in what is now Ethiopia. Ardi’s foot also had a divergent big toe, similar to those of apes and gorillas, for tree climbing, though Ardi was an occasional upright walker. Daniel E. Lieberman, a human evolutionary biologist at Harvard who was not involved in the research, wrote in a commentary for the journal that the hominin foot “is a valuable addition to the fossil record as it extends the existence of Ardipithecus-like feet by a million years.” This and other recent discoveries, Dr. Lieberman said, indicate “that there was more diversity in hominin locomotion than we had previously thought, and not all of it took place on the ground.” Donald C. Johanson, the discoverer of the original afarensis specimen Lucy, admired this new member of the rarefied fossil kingdom. “It’s a lovely little foot to have,” he said, agreeing that its similarity to the Ardipithecus mode of locomotion suggested the existence of “two parallel lineages in this long time period.” Dr. Johanson, who is the founding director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University , discovered the Lucy skeleton in 1974, only 30 miles from the site of this latest find. In February 2009, at a place in the central Afar region known as Burtele, a member of Dr. Haile-Selassie’s team, Stephanie Melillo, spotted the first bone fragment eroding out of sandstone. Eventually, eight bones of a hominin foot’s usual 27 were recovered and analyzed. It was a right foot, and, there being no duplication of parts, it was thought to be from a single individual. Finding any hominin foot bones that old is rare, Dr. Haile-Selassie said. They are small and delicate, especially vulnerable to scavenging and decay. Beverly Z. Saylor of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland , a team member and an author of the report, said that at the time this hominin lived, the region had many lakes and streams with wooded shores, thus ample opportunities for arboreal habits. The dating of sediments where the bones were embedded was conducted by the Berkeley Geochronology Center in California . Another author, Bruce M. Latimer of Case Western Reserve, said the findings clearly showed that the adaptation to bipedality, though considered one of the decisive transitions in early human evolution, was not a single, isolated event. One group, the Lucy species, relinquished the arboreal habitat and became functionally committed, long-distance walkers. For reasons unknown, another group, represented by the Burtele foot, maintained a climbing foot and stayed at least part time in the trees. In hindsight, Dr. Latimer said, “it is apparent which group succeeded.” Homo erectus appears to have been the first to walk on a fully modern foot. The discoverers themselves, as well as other paleoanthropologists, cited the need for more fossils to determine to bodies that went with such a foot and their possible relationship with the much earlier Ardipithecus. “The implications of this limb diversity for human evolution,” Dr. Lieberman wrote, “will require researchers to continue getting their feet dirty in the field and the lab.” Dr. Johanson said the Burtele site was a relatively new area of exploration and so the prospects were good for “finding the critical teeth and jaws needed as the next step.” Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan , who said he thought the Burtele foot “really interesting” and confirmation of hints of diversity in hominin mobility at this period, still cautioned against “jumping to too many conclusions as yet.” New fossil discoveries are not always blessed with immediate consensus. When the 3.5-million-year-old Kenyanthropus platyops was found in Kenya a decade ago, the discoverers reported that it indicated the presence of another species alongside Australopithecus, but that interpretation remains in some doubt. Likewise, a few scientists remain skeptical of the status of Ardipithecus as a hominin; they argue that it was actually an ape that evolved limited bipedalism. Dr. Lieberman seemed to be touched also by an unscientific atavistic influence. “Human evolution is often portrayed as a triumph of bipedalism, but who among us has not occasionally regretted our species’ comparative clumsiness in trees?” he wrote. “I, for one, am pleased to know that some hominins retained feet well adapted for arboreality millions of years after we started to walk on two feet.” | Paleontology;Fossil;Australopithecine;Evolution;Science and Technology;Ethiopia;Archaeology;Nature Journal |
ny0065600 | [
"nyregion"
] | 2014/06/07 | In Debate, Rangel Irritates His Main Challenger, Along With the Moderator | Representative Charles B. Rangel and his main challenger, State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat, lashed out at each other on Friday during their first televised debate: Mr. Rangel accused Mr. Espaillat of running a racially based campaign and Mr. Espaillat charged that their district had suffered under Mr. Rangel’s leadership. “What the heck has he done, besides saying he’s a Dominican?” Mr. Rangel asked only minutes into the debate, which will be broadcast on Sunday at 11 a.m. on WABC-TV. Mr. Rangel said repeatedly that Mr. Espaillat had been “one of my biggest supporters” and had never been critical of him, until he “woke up one morning” and found that newly drawn lines had made the 13th Congressional District, in northern Manhattan and the Bronx, predominantly Hispanic, with a large Dominican population. Mr. Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic. “He wants to be the Jackie Robinson of the Dominicans in the Congress,” Mr. Rangel said, adding, “The fact is that Jackie Robinson was a star before he reached the major leagues, and he’s not a Jackie Robinson.” Mr. Espaillat shook his head and said he was “saddened” that Mr. Rangel would stoop to such attacks. Mr. Rangel accused Mr. Espaillat of being behind a piece of voter mail sent out two years ago that accused a Dominican supporter of Mr. Rangel’s of being a traitor. “I would ask you: Do you believe that someone that has a Dominican background, if they don’t support you, would be a traitor?” Mr. Rangel asked. Mr. Espaillat narrowed his eyes. “You’re the one framing this debate along racial and ethnic lines,” Mr. Espaillat said quietly. “To come here and spew division in front of the city and the state is not becoming of you or your title as a congressman,” he continued. “I am deeply disappointed in you today, Congressman.” Mr. Rangel, who will turn 84 next week, will face not only Mr. Espaillat but also another challenger, the Rev. Michael A. Walrond, in the Democratic primary on June 24. Mr. Espaillat, 59, and Mr. Walrond, 43, have both sought to argue that Mr. Rangel, after 22 terms in office, has lost touch with his constituents; Mr. Rangel has said that only someone with his experience in Washington could serve the district well. On Friday, Mr. Walrond mostly sat on the sidelines, except to interject that his rivals’ behavior epitomized the rancor and personal attacks that were all too common in Washington. The three men sat in a row of chairs, in front of a coffee table. Mr. Rangel sat in the middle, wearing a dark suit with a bright red tie and a matching pocket square. When Mr. Espaillat was speaking, Mr. Rangel frequently slumped down in his chair, widening his eyes or raising his eyebrows as though he could not believe what he was hearing. Mr. Espaillat rehashed arguments he made in recent days that the congressman, through the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone program, had steered government incentives to big-box stores that pay low wages, and that Mr. Rangel had voted for legislation supported by the financial industry. Mr. Rangel appeared frustrated by the criticism of the empowerment zone, urging viewers to “Google the information” to learn more about the program. “Why don’t we do this — go to the website, find out how many jobs the empowerment zone has created in our congressional district, in his senatorial district?” he said. A few minutes later, when Mr. Espaillat criticized Mr. Rangel’s support of a bill that would have weakened an element of the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in 2010 to overhaul the financial industry, Mr. Rangel, searching for a response, turned to the Internet himself, pulling out his tablet. “Congressman, are we paying attention here?” the moderator, Diana Williams, asked impatiently. “What are we doing with the iPad?” When Mr. Rangel continued fumbling with the device, Ms. Williams said sternly, “Congressman, are you Googling during this debate?” Even when criticized, Mr. Rangel was irrepressible, and sometimes he got the last word. Mr. Espaillat accused him of not being sufficiently loyal to President Obama, and said that he himself wanted to be “in lock step” with the president. “I’ll introduce you to the president so you can begin this cooperation,” Mr. Rangel said with a smile. Later, after Ms. Williams asked the three candidates whether they would support Hillary Rodham Clinton if she ran for president, and they all immediately said they would, Mr. Rangel managed to slip in, “I might add that President Clinton supports my candidacy.” In the candidates’ closing statements, Mr. Rangel came out of the gate with a sharp one-liner. “I’m Congressman Rangel,” he said. “I’m running for re-election on my record and, of course, the senator’s lack of a record.” After that, however, he rambled on, until Ms. Williams cut him off. | Political Debates;State Legislature elections;Adriano Espaillat;Charles Rangel;New York;House races;Congressional elections;Michael A Walrond |
ny0282944 | [
"us"
] | 2016/07/21 | Federal Court Rules Texas’ ID Law Violates Voting Rights Act | HOUSTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas’ voter identification law, one of the strictest in the country, violated the Voting Rights Act and that the state must find ways to accommodate voters who face hardships in obtaining the necessary documents. Democrats and voting rights advocates hailed the ruling as a significant victory in one of the nation’s most closely watched voting rights cases. It was the fourth time in nearly four years that a federal court found that the Texas law discriminated against or disproportionately affected black and Hispanic voters. “The court got it right, recognizing the stink of discrimination,” said Trey Martinez Fischer, a state representative who is the chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, one of several minority groups, voters and Democratic lawmakers who sued Texas over the law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, found that the law had a discriminatory effect on blacks and Latinos, who often lack the forms of identification required under the Texas law. But the ruling did not strike down the law entirely, ruling instead that new procedures must be found to assist potential voters lacking the required identification. The ruling also sent back for reconsideration the question of whether Texas legislators had acted with a discriminatory purpose in passing the law in 2011, a finding that would have forced new judicial oversight of any changes in Texas election rules. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who defended the voter ID law against legal challenges when he was the state’s attorney general, said the court had come to the wrong conclusion. Republican lawmakers have long defended the law, saying it is needed to prevent voter fraud. “Voter fraud is real, and it undermines the integrity of the election process,” Mr. Abbott said in a statement . “Texas will continue to make sure there is no illegal voting at the ballot box.” Passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2011, the law took effect in 2013. It requires voters to present one of several forms of government-issued identification, including a driver’s license, passport, military ID card or concealed-handgun license. A lower court judge found that about 608,000 registered voters in Texas lacked the types of identification required by the law, and that a disproportionate number were black or Hispanic. The judge based that finding on testimony and data presented by experts during a 2014 trial in Corpus Christi. Texas’ lawyers disputed that figure. In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit asked a lower court judge to come up with a remedy that “disrupts voter identification rules for the 2016 election season as little as possible, yet eliminates” the law’s discriminatory effect on minority voters. One possible solution, the court noted, would be to allow voter-registration cards to be used as identification. The court also instructed the judge to re-evaluate the evidence about whether the Texas Legislature intentionally discriminated against blacks and Hispanics, but encouraged the judge to wait until after the November election. The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said in a statement that the state had a duty to safeguard elections. “Preventing voter fraud is essential to accurately reflecting the will of Texas voters during elections, and it is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety,” Mr. Paxton said. Asked if the state would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, a spokeswoman for Mr. Paxton, Kayleigh Lovvorn, replied, “We are evaluating all of our options right now.” Richard L. Hasen , a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, called the decision on Wednesday “huge in a symbolic way” for voting rights across the country. Since the Supreme Court weakened the federal Voting Rights Act in 2013, he noted, several states have been “ratcheting up” their voter ID requirements. What the Fifth Circuit — known as perhaps the country’s most conservative appeals court — has ruled is that “you can go too far with a voter ID law,” he said. “If Texas had been allowed to do what it’s been trying to do, that would be a green light for other states to try something similar,” Professor Hasen said. But he added that the plaintiffs’ victory was not as great as it would have been if the court had struck down the law. Myrna Pérez , the deputy director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which helped argue the plaintiffs’ case, called the ruling a “big victory.” “The court said the law is discriminatory and needs to be fixed,’’ she said. | Texas;Voting Rights Act;Voter registration;ID;Decisions and Verdicts;Discrimination;Minorities |
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