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ny0164055
|
[
"technology"
] |
2006/11/02
|
Group of University Researchers to Make Web Science a Field of Study
|
The Web has become such a force in commerce and culture that a group of leading university researchers now deems it worthy of its own field of study. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southampton in Britain plan to announce today that they are starting a joint research program in Web science. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Web’s basic software, is leading the program. An Oxford-educated Englishman, Mr. Berners-Lee is a senior researcher at M.I.T., a professor at the University of Southampton and the director of the World Wide Web Consortium, an Internet standards-setting organization. Web science, the researchers say, has social and engineering dimensions. It extends well beyond traditional computer science, they say, to include the emerging research in social networks and the social sciences that is being used to study how people behave on the Web. And Web science, they add, shifts the center of gravity in engineering research from how a single computer works to how huge decentralized Web systems work. “The Web isn’t about what you can do with computers,” Mr. Berners-Lee said. “It’s people and, yes, they are connected by computers. But computer science, as the study of what happens in a computer, doesn’t tell you about what happens on the Web.” The Web science program is an academic effort, but corporate technology executives and computer scientists said the research could greatly influence Web-based businesses. They pointed in particular to research by Mr. Berners-Lee and others to build more “intelligence” into the Web — moving toward what is known as the Semantic Web — as an area of study that could yield a big payoff. Web science represents “a pretty big next step in the evolution of information,” said Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, who is a computer scientist. This kind of research, Mr. Schmidt added, is “likely to have a lot of influence on the next generation of researchers, scientists and, most importantly, the next generation of entrepreneurs who will build new companies from this.” Web science is related to another emerging interdisciplinary field called services science. This is the study of how to use computing, collaborative networks and knowledge in disciplines ranging from economics to anthropology to lift productivity and develop new products in the services sector, which represents about three-fourths of the United States economy. Services science research is being supported by technology companies like I.B.M., Accenture and Hewlett-Packard, and by the National Science Foundation. Web science research, said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a technology strategist at I.B.M. and visiting professor at M.I.T., is “a prerequisite to designing and building the kinds of complex, human-oriented systems that we are after in services science.” Mr. Berners-Lee and his colleagues at the M.I.T. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and in Britain have had preliminary discussions with government agencies in the United States and Europe that finance scientific research, as well as with leading technology companies. But Mr. Berners-Lee said his group had decided to publicly circulate their ideas about Web science before trying to attract government, foundation and corporate funding. With initial support from M.I.T. and the University of Southampton, the program will hold workshops on Web science and sponsor research fellowships. “But we also want to educate and train people who can understand and analyze how these huge, complex systems on the Web work,” said Wendy Hall, a professor at the University of Southampton. “That means eventually having undergraduate and graduate programs in Web science.” The M.I.T.-Southampton partnership, the researchers emphasized, is intended as a catalyst for Web science research at universities worldwide. Privacy, for example, will be one area of research in Web science. The traditional approach to protecting privacy has been to restrict access to databases containing personal information. But so much personal information is already available on the Web, often given voluntarily on sites like MySpace and Facebook, that the old approach will not work, said Daniel J. Weitzner, technology and society director at the Web consortium. On the Web, Mr. Weitzner said, a better way to try to guard privacy may be to develop rules, backed by accountability and sanctions, for how personal information is used by businesses, government agencies and individuals. Ben Shneiderman, a professor at the University of Maryland, said Web science was a promising idea. “Computer science is at a turning point, and it has to go beyond algorithms and understand the social dynamics of issues like trust, responsibility, empathy and privacy in this vast networked space,” Professor Shneiderman said. “The technologists and companies that understand those issues will be far more likely to succeed in expanding their markets and enlarging their audiences.”
|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology;Computers and the Internet;Science and Technology;University of Southampton;Colleges and Universities
|
ny0141186
|
[
"sports",
"othersports"
] |
2008/11/03
|
Runner, 58, Dies After Finishing the Marathon
|
A 58-year-old man died Sunday after completing the New York City Marathon , according to the New York Road Runners, the organizer of the event. The Road Runners said that the man was pronounced dead at Lenox Hill Hospital. The club added that further details were not immediately available because the man’s family was being notified of his death. The Fire Department reported that two other runners had heart attacks. It said that a 59-year-old man was treated by Emergency Medical Services after collapsing on the Queensboro Bridge shortly before 1 p.m. He was revived to a steady pulse with a defibrillator and transported to Weill Cornell Medical Center. A spokesman for the Fire Department added that a 41-year-old man had a heart attack at 107th Street and Fifth Avenue around 3 p.m. He was breathing when emergency services reached him and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. The condition of the men who had heart attacks was not known Sunday evening. (NYT)
|
New York City Marathon;Marathon Running;Running;Heart
|
ny0158595
|
[
"sports",
"baseball"
] |
2008/12/19
|
Former Coach Can’t Help Cooing About Sabathia
|
Five hundred miles from one more marquee event at Yankee Stadium, the man who knows C. C. Sabathia as well as anyone offered a glowing scouting report. Carl Willis, who was Sabathia’s first minor league pitching coach 10 years ago and who coached him with the Cleveland Indians, gushed about his former pupil, who is now a pitching enemy. Willis’s phrases came quickly from his home in Durham, N.C., touching on the pitcher and the person. He called Sabathia a terrific pitcher, a better teammate, a loyal person, an underrated athlete and a diligent worker. After 10 minutes, Willis apologized for being so effusive. But then Willis kept chatting like a public relations man. “He cares about the team,” Willis said. “Not just him winning, but the team winning. That smile you see when he’s in the dugout is genuine.” That smile filled the Stadium Club as Sabathia and A. J. Burnett officially joined the Yankees on Thursday. The Yankees had focused on Sabathia as their priority and, after he patiently waited to see if there was a chance of playing on the West Coast, he accepted their seven-year, $161 million offer. When Sabathia shopped for a home in New Jersey on Wednesday, he said the realtor asked him which team he was on. When Sabathia said the Yankees, he said he had chills. Sabathia talked about being a Yankee again on Thursday, shook his arms and said he experienced more chills. “I’m hoping he can light up the city,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. As personable as Sabathia is, he will be judged by how he performs and not by how pleasant he is or how often he smiles. Sabathia knows that. Dave Eiland, Sabathia’s new pitching coach, acknowledged that. “He’s here for a reason,” Eiland said. The reason Sabathia is here is to help the Yankees win the World Series, which they have not done since 2000. The Yankees have a new stadium, new expectations and a new giant of an ace in Sabathia. Sabathia has his own giant expectations, too. Three years ago, Sabathia spoke to Willis about trying to make the leap from being Cleveland’s best pitcher to one of the elite pitchers in the major leagues. Willis told Sabathia that the transformation would start with relying less on his 98-mile-per-hour fastball. Willis said that because Sabathia’s motion was so explosive when he unleashed fastballs, it hurt his ability to disguise his changeup and slider. Sabathia used so much effort with his fastball that hitters noticed slight changes in exertion and adjusted. So Willis counseled Sabathia about delivering the ball, not throwing it. Willis told Sabathia it would be easier to disguise his other pitches if he used a smoother motion to deliver a 95 m.p.h. fastball, and not an overpowering approach to uncork it at 98. Sabathia made the changes and lost five games in a row, but he stayed with the adjustments and they soon worked. “He was really at a breaking point,” Willis said. “Since he’s done that, he’s been more of a pitcher. That’s what he is now.” Sabathia nodded as he recalled how the changes refined him. “The second half of ’05 until now, it’s really been a 360 in the way I think and pitch,” Sabathia said. Eiland has already begun studying videotapes of Sabathia’s starts from 2008 with the Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers, whom he led into the postseason by going 11-2. With a pitcher as talented as Sabathia, Eiland said, his role is to simply make sure Sabathia maintains what he routinely does. “You don’t mess with success,” Eiland said. “I’ve got to know where he’s comfortable letting the ball go and remind him if he’s not doing it.” Sabathia weighs 311 pounds and playfully said that he did not have the most attractive physique. While Cashman called Sabathia’s weight “an unknown,” Sabathia said that he worked out every day and was confident he would remain durable and productive for the life of his contract. He has thrown 494 innings during the last two seasons. Willis said Sabathia’s girth was helpful because it gave him power and allowed him to maintain that power. Sabathia looks like a bouncer, but Willis said Sabathia’s sturdy legs and strong core boost his stamina and helped him pitch on short rest for the Brewers last September. On the first day Sabathia could receive free-agent offers, Willis saw him in the Indians’ weight room. They did not discuss the Yankees, but Willis said that was not necessary. Sabathia’s intense workout told Willis what he needed to know about a path that slowly guided Sabathia to the Bronx. “I could tell right then he was all in for something like this,” Willis said. “He knew what he was getting into. You could see it in his face.”
|
Sabathia C C;New York Yankees;Baseball
|
ny0145989
|
[
"business"
] |
2008/07/04
|
Inexperience May Feed the Bubbles
|
It has long been widely believed — at least among some experienced investors — that it is the inexperienced ones who are most likely to get swept into the euphoria of a bubble and to buy when prices are the most absurd. Charles MacKay, in his book, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” said that “even chimney-sweeps and old clotheswomen dabbled in tulips” as what might have been history’s most famous bubble grew in the Netherlands early in the 17th century. Joseph Kennedy, the speculator who became the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, famously claimed that he sold before the 1929 crash after a shoeshine boy tried to give him stock tips. In 1999, The Metropolitan Diary column of The New York Times reported on the surprising sight of a group of construction workers ignoring, rather than whistling at, a beautiful woman as she walked past. They were discussing their Internet stocks. Such stories are anecdotes, which prove little. But now two finance professors have looked at the performance of mutual fund managers during the technology stock bubble, and found that it was indeed the younger and less experienced managers — generally those under 35 or 40 years old — who leaped onto the Internet bandwagon with the most enthusiasm — and then suffered the biggest losses. The authors, Robin Greenwood of Harvard and Stefan Nagel of Stanford, found that in 1997 — before the bubble really got going — younger, and presumably less experienced, mutual fund managers tended to be a little less invested in technology stocks than their older colleagues. “But leading up to the peak in March 2000, younger managers strongly increase their holdings of technology stocks relative to their style benchmarks, while older managers do not.” That strategy worked well for the fund groups that employed the young managers. Money poured into the funds that were investing in tech stocks. When the bubble burst, their performance worsened, even though young managers were also quicker to sell tech stocks after the decline began. But investors did not withdraw nearly as much money from the badly performing funds as they had thrown in when the results looked good. “Thus, from the perspective of the mutual fund company, the relative underperformance of young managers in the postbubble period turns out not to be that costly,” they report. “Retail investors, however, achieved extremely low dollar-weighted returns due the poor timing of their inflows.” One reason the study is interesting is that it focuses on experience, rather than other attributes of investors who fell for the bubble. It is reasonable to suspect that neither Kennedy’s shoeshine boy nor MacKay’s chimney-sweeps were well-educated or particularly intelligent, but few people got jobs as fund managers without college degrees and some indication of intelligence. “It seems like age and experience do have a role,” Mr. Nagel said in an interview. The effect of a lack of experience, he added, “might even be stronger for people with less formal training in investing.” The evident explanation for this, the professors conclude, is that “the trend-chasing behavior of young managers reflects their attempts to learn and extrapolate from the little data they have experienced in their careers.” To be sure, callow and inexperienced youths were far from the only ones who extrapolated from recent data to find theories of a new economy believable. Alan Greenspan was 74 and had been chairman of the Federal Reserve board for 12 years when, on April 5, 2000, he embraced the new economy and pointed to profit forecasts by Wall Street analysts as a reason to expect the tech boom to continue. Mr. Greenwood said he suspected that a lack of experience played a role in the housing bubble as well, although that is much more difficult to confirm with data. He said he and Mr. Nagel might look for evidence that younger people — many of whom would normally be renters — were more likely to buy homes in bubble markets after prices had soared. That thesis would gain support if it could be shown that fewer young people bought in those markets before prices soared, and that the expansion of home-buying by the young did not take place in markets where home prices never rose as they did in the most extreme markets, like the Silicon Valley and Boston, where the two professors live. (Mr. Nagel, who is 35, told me he has always been a renter. Mr. Greenwood, who is 31, said he had owned a home, but sold it a year or so before the peak when prices seemed unreasonably high to him.) The two professors say the experience thesis helps to explain why stock market bubbles are relatively uncommon. “Once investors have experienced a bubble and subsequent crash, they are less willing to participate the next time through,” they write. “The younger fund managers we study in this paper, and perhaps also the retail investors that allocated money to their funds, may have learned from their experiences during the technology bubble.” If that lesson spills over into housing, it could be a long time before we see a housing price expansion of the magnitude that took place in the middle years of this decade.
|
Mutual Funds;Computers and the Internet
|
ny0223201
|
[
"us"
] |
2010/11/19
|
San Francisco Alternative Film Examined in ‘Radical Light’
|
In 1994, Rebecca Barten and David Sherman, an experimental filmmaking couple, began showing avant-garde films in a grungy space underneath their Mission District apartment. They built 10 unfinished pine benches that could seat two people apiece and cut a hole in the wall to fit a projector. The adjoining room, which housed the electric meter, became “the grotto” — a makeshift wine bar. They called it “Total Mobile Home MicroCINEMA,” inventing the term “microcinema” to describe their small-scale showings of experimental work. Their word and concept provided the basis for a global film exhibition movement in the 1990s that ran parallel to the D.I.Y. efforts in music and publishing at the time. (Think Nirvana and ’zines.) The development of microcinema is only one of a long line of screening innovations chronicled in a new book , film series and exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. It took adventurous curators and artist-led programming to build an audience for the offbeat, weird and often hard-to-watch efforts by Bay Area filmmakers — and that audience helped cement the Bay Area’s reputation as one of the best spots in the country for alternative film and video. Before microcinema, there was the groundbreaking Art in Cinema series at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the 1940s, the more obscure Art Movies program from San Francisco State College (now University) through the ’50s, the Canyon Cinema’s informal screenings in the ’60s and the punk-flavored No Nothing cinema in the ’80s. “Through all different times, filmmakers have had that impulse to show things in intimate settings,” said Kathy Geritz, curator at the Pacific Film Archive and a co-editor of “Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000.” Frequently, too, audience members who saw that distinctly noncommercial filmmaking was possible were inspired to pick up cameras themselves. Ms. Geritz says that the pioneering filmmakers Harry Smith and Jordan Belson, for instance, credited Bay Area screenings for their start. “People come and they decide, I can make work, too,” Ms. Geritz said. Ten years in the making, “Radical Light” was also edited by Steve Anker, the dean of the CalArts School of Film/Video in Southern California, and Steve Seid, another Pacific Film Archive curator. At the height of the movement, said Steve Polta, artistic director of San Francisco Cinematheque, an alternative film society founded in 1961 by the principals behind Canyon Cinema distribution, one could find an experimental screening every day of the week. Places like the Werepad, a Dogpatch warehouse run by Scott Moffett, and programs like Other Cinema, a weekly screening series organized by the found-footage wizard Craig Baldwin, frequently blurred genres, mixing film with live performance. Mr. Sherman said his goal was to foster discussion through small screenings, but bigger crowds would occasionally show up. “Over a hundred people lined up on this dingy block,” he said, when he got some rare John Cassavetes material to screen alongside “Faces.” Experimental film will be celebrated in upcoming screenings, including a ’90s program on Sunday featuring the work of Jenni Olson, who makes meditative landscape documentaries with voiceover, and a showing of Mr. Baldwin’s masterpiece, “Tribulations 99,” in December. The project goes on tour in 2011, with the U.C.L.A. Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York among the stops. Before they closed their microcinema in 1997, Mr. Sherman and Ms. Barten staged more than 100 shows. The name lives on in a film and video distribution company, Microcinema International, based in San Francisco, but the energy around screenings has died down. The digital video revolution and the Internet reshaped all facets of film culture, making once-rare movies more available. It’s hard, too, to know how to label “alternative” filmmaking in the YouTube age: experimental technique, like pastiche and the use of found footage, has seeped into pop culture. Liz Keim, founder of the Exploratorium’s Cinema Arts program, sees current work that integrates live elements as an exciting direction for alternative film. “We’re returning to this idea of expanded cinema,” she said, citing Sam Green, the San Francisco documentary filmmaker whose recent “Utopia in Four Movements” includes live narration and music. Even with the variety of online options, Ms. Keim said, “The call for the communal experience is highly desired.”
|
Movies;Microcinema;Documentary Films and Programs;Archives and Records;Sherman David;Berkeley (Calif)
|
ny0150954
|
[
"sports",
"olympics"
] |
2008/08/18
|
Gay Takes Philosophical View of Defeat, but It Still Hurts
|
BEIJING — After his dream of an individual Olympic medal evaporated in the semifinals of the 100 meters Saturday night, Tyson Gay thought it would take his return to the Olympic Village to trigger the wave of emotion that would come next. But after his race, all it took was a few words from his coach, the former Olympic sprinter Jon Drummond. “After I took my spikes off, put my shoes on, and started to walk to the warm-up track, it had already hit me,” Gay said Sunday. “Drummond came over and said, ‘I know you didn’t quit. I know you gave it your all.’ When he said, ‘You gave it your best,’ it hurt, because I did. The tears started coming. When you give it your best and you lose, it hurts a lot more.” A year ago, Gay was on top of the sprinting world, winning the world championship in the 100 and 200, setting him up as the leading man heading into an Olympic year. He had sent a pre-Olympic message in the 100, running a wind-aided 9.68 seconds, the fastest time ever run. But everything changed when he injured his hamstring while trying to qualify for the Olympics in the 200 in July, causing him to miss more than four weeks of training. In the meantime, the 100 had also become the landing ground for 21-year-old Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who had previously concentrated on the 200. Bolt has twice broken the world record this year, including slicing three-hundredth of a secon from it in Saturday night’s Olympic final with his 9.69. Gay watched on a television set in the back hallways of the Olympic Stadium. “It was shocking and amazing,” Gay said. “It wasn’t the 9.69 that was amazing. It was the celebration in the end and the 9.69. That’s what made it amazing. He ran 9.72 in New York and I witnessed it. I’ve seen it. I thought, ‘He could run 9.6 with more wind or a better start.’ But that was ridiculous.” At age 26, Gay now faces the reality that his rivals are astonishingly young. Beyond Bolt, the silver medalist, Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, is 23 and the bronze medalist, Walter Dix of the United States, is 22. But Gay is not yet looking that far ahead. His next focus is his only chance for an Olympic medal in Beijing: the 4x100-meter relay, where again, the main rivals are from Jamaica. Winning has suddenly taken on greater importance to Gay. A victory would help ease the sting of his individual defeat. It might help soften the memory of Saturday night, when he left the track and called his mother, Daisy Lowe. The next person he talked to was his 7-year-old daughter, Trinity. “She was crying,” Gay said. “That kind of upset me. She was crying and she said something about doing better next time. That hurt. But I know they’re all still proud of me.”
|
Gay Tyson;Olympic Games (2008);Track and Field
|
ny0045393
|
[
"us"
] |
2014/02/21
|
Amarillo Struggles to Handle Influx of Refugees
|
For the last five years, Titus Pa Thawng has lived thousands of miles from his native Myanmar in Amarillo, where he is a Christian pastor for a congregation of fellow refugees. “God has sent us here,” said Mr. Thawng, 45, a married father of three daughters. More international refugees were resettled in Texas in 2012 than in any other state, according to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. And one of the leading destinations is Amarillo, where members of Mr. Thawng’s church and other newcomers from places like Myanmar and Iraq often work in meatpacking plants. Now local officials are worried that Amarillo’s refugee population is straining the city’s ability to respond to 911 callers who speak numerous languages and to help children learn English and adapt to a new culture. “We’ve raised some red flags and said this isn’t good for some entities in the city or for the refugees themselves,” said Mayor Paul Harpole. Image A volunteer with two Somali natives. Credit Stephen Spillman for The Texas Tribune Amarillo, the state’s 14th largest city, with 195,000 residents, receives a higher ratio of new refugees to the existing population than any other Texas city, according to 2007-12 State Department data from Representative Mac Thornberry, Republican of Clarendon. And the only Texas cities that receive a larger number of refugees than Amarillo (which received 480 in 2012) are also the state’s largest: Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. But those numbers show only a refugee’s initial placement and do not account for secondary migration, Mr. Thornberry said. Many refugees who initially settle elsewhere relocate to Amarillo for jobs or to join family members. The State Department decides how many refugees are resettled in an area, and states review those recommendations. Last fall, the department, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and refugee placement organizations agreed that for 2014, placements in Amarillo should be limited to family reunifications, Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the commission, said. “We cannot keep going at the rate we’ve been going,” Mr. Thornberry said. For Thuraya Lohony, who came to Texas seeking political asylum from Iraq, learning she was going to Amarillo came as a shock. She had never heard of the city. Image Brent Holman, a volunteer, with Ka Reet from Myanmar. Credit Stephen Spillman for The Texas Tribune “It’s totally different from my country,” she said. “We have mountains, rivers and hills, and it’s green. But when we came, we found everything was just plains.” Seventeen years later, she is still in Amarillo. She is now interim director of refugee resettlement at Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle, which helps people who have fled war and persecution find homes and jobs. Many find work at area meatpacking plants, which often pay $14 an hour, Ms. Lohony said. But Mr. Harpole said demand for workers at the plants was declining. “We just think it’s going to be more difficult for the refugees to do well here,” he said. For schools, challenges include educating students who sometimes cannot read in English or in their native language, Mr. Thornberry said. Image Fawzis Muuse (Somalia). Credit Stephen Spillman for The Texas Tribune “You look at the burden you’re placing on the school system not only to meet the testing requirements but to help integrate these kids into modern American life,” he said. Cultural differences are also an issue outside schools, he said. Recently a refugee was found on a local ranch hunting for food. “Obviously, it was quite a shock to some of the ranchers,” Mr. Thornberry said. Some local churches work to help Amarillo’s refugees. Trinity Fellowship last year created a refugee outreach position. Since Russ Pennington started the job, he has taught English to refugees from Somalia and Myanmar and has worked with Refugee Services of Texas to help new arrivals settle into apartments. “Sometimes there’s fear associated with refugees coming into a community,” Mr. Pennington said. “But the more we get to know each other and interact with each other, the less we’ll see challenges and the more we’ll see opportunity.” Mr. Harpole said Amarillo had a decades-long history of welcoming refugees and would continue to do so. “We don’t want to get the idea out that we are not supportive of refugees,” he said. “We’ve been very accepting.”
|
Amarillo;Immigration;Refugees,Internally Displaced People;Texas
|
ny0173145
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2007/11/22
|
For Hartford Mayor, Election Is Over, but Investigations Are Not
|
HARTFORD, Nov. 21 — When he declared victory on election night, Mayor Eddie A. Perez said voters had “endorsed the direction that Hartford is headed.” Little more than weeks later, that direction may be into uncharted territory. Mr. Perez was already operating under a cloud — the chief state’s attorney is investigating the issuing of a no-bid contract to operate a city-owned parking lot — when opponents began talking about another controversy in the campaign’s final days. They questioned the propriety of the city’s purchase last year of a small restaurant owned by the head of the Democratic Party here for $120,000, even though the property was appraised to be worth much less. Then this week, Mr. Perez acknowledged that a state grand jury had been appointed to investigate his administration as he begins a new four-year term, although it was not known exactly what the focus of the investigation is. While it was not clear whether the city’s purchase of the restaurant property would be a part of the state investigation, it seems rather likely that the grand jury, made up of one judge who is appointed by a three-judge panel, will examine the renovation of a kitchen and bathroom in Mr. Perez’s home by a city contractor. In August, Mr. Perez apologized for having the contractor, Carlos Costa, whom he described as a longtime friend, do the work without obtaining the necessary building permits. He made the remarks in response to a search of his house conducted by state investigators. The renovations, which started in 2005, were completed last year, and Mr. Perez has said the work was paid for in full this past July. As for the prospect of a grand jury inquiry, the mayor said in an e-mail message on Tuesday: “I welcome the investigation by the one-person grand jury, and commend the chief state’s attorney’s office for a careful and deliberate review of these allegations.” Resolving the matter may prove to be a time-consuming process. This month, Robert Ludgin, a lawyer who ran against Mr. Perez in 2003, reported the details of the city’s purchase of a property owned by the city’s Democratic committee chairman, Noel McGregor Jr., to the chief state’s attorney’s office. Documents made public by the city show that it paid three times more than its initial offer of $39,000 to Mr. McGregor for the property, which is currently being rented to the operators of a tiny Jamaican restaurant. The city sought to purchase the property as part of an effort to revitalize the area. The city also closed on the property, the site of a gas station 30 years ago, before receiving an environmental report that indicated that it might need a costly remediation. The property was one of many the city purchased in 2006 as part of an effort to spend $6.4 million in federal grant money rather than forfeit it, according to Carl Nasto, assistant corporation counsel for the city. “That real estate sale to the city by the Democratic town chairman, approved by a micromanaging mayor for his close political ally, amounts to nothing more than a raid on the city’s treasury for a friend,” said Mr. Ludgin, who represents the operators of the restaurant, who stand to lose their place of business. The property was purchased in June 2006, almost a year before Mr. McGregor and the Democratic Town Committee delivered Mr. Perez the party’s endorsement for the September primary and November election. Mr. Ludgin says Mr. Perez was personally involved in setting the purchase price, an assertion disputed by Mr. Perez’s spokeswoman, Sarah Barr. “The mayor may have spoken briefly to Mr. McGregor, but all negotiations were led by Carl Nasto in the corporation counsel’s office,” Ms. Barr said in an e-mail message. Before the city purchased the property, it commissioned two appraisals, one that came in at $55,000 and another at $23,000. In addition, Mr. McGregor hired his own appraiser, who put the value at $95,000. The appraiser, John Lo Monte, said that a 10-year lease that Mr. McGregor had with the restaurant operators, which would be transferred to the city, significantly increased the property’s value. But Mr. Nasto, assistant corporation counsel, said the city offered Mr. McGregor $120,000 so that the city would not have to go through a long and costly eminent domain process to acquire it. “It was still below what our range was, and it was worth it to avoid any kind of court battle,” Mr. Nasto said in an interview. “There was nothing unusual about this deal.” The day after the city closed on the property, an environmental consultant it had hired submitted a report that put the remediation cost — primarily for the removal of the former gas pumps and any contaminated soil — at $56,000, though it could go higher. Mr. Ludgin said he hired his own appraiser, Robert Morra, of Vernon, Conn., who estimated the value of the property at $60,000. Mr. Morra said last week that had he known about the environmental contamination, it would have substantially lowered his appraisal. On Wednesday, the majority leader of the City Council, rJo Winch, one of the mayor’s staunchest supporters, said she was confident that Mr. Perez would emerge from the investigation unscathed. Asking why Mr. Perez, whom she called a successful leader, would be the target of an investigation, she then answered her own question with another. “Because he’s a minority and a Hispanic, is he not expected to be successful without criminal things going on?”
|
Perez Eddie A;Hartford (Conn)
|
ny0097423
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2015/06/18
|
New York Lawmakers Reach Deal to Impose Stricter Rules on Nail Salons
|
Leaders in the New York Legislature reached an agreement on Wednesday on a law that would more strictly regulate the state’s thousands of nail shops, an expanding industry in which paying far less than minimum wage and operating without licenses is commonplace, the governor’s office said. The law, which is expected to be approved on Thursday by both the Assembly and the Senate, includes several new rules but would also elevate the seriousness with which the state views bad actors in the salon industry. Running an unlicensed salon would be considered a criminal offense, punishable by a fine or even imprisonment. Currently, it is a violation punishable only by a fine. The bipartisan bills were introduced at the behest of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, shortly after a report in The New York Times detailed the rampant exploitation of nail workers, a vulnerable group made up largely of immigrants, many of whom are undocumented and thus readily exploited, and work for little or even no pay in glossy salons, subsisting on tips. “This legislation will quickly expand the tools and resources at our disposal to bring this abuse to an end,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “May this also serve as a notice to the employers of all other industries: New York will vigorously uphold the high moral principles of this state to protect all workers." Under the new law, running an unlicensed salon would become a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500. The New York Department of State would be able to shut unlicensed businesses. Manicurists have long been required to obtain a license to paint and file nails, but in reality, a large proportion do not. The new law would create a new class of worker — a trainee — who, after registering with the state, may, for a period of time, ply the trade while working toward obtaining a license via of hands-on experience and classes. Immediately after The Times’s articles about nail salons were published in early May, the governor convened a task force to address issues in the industry, such as unpaid wages, tax fraud and not carrying workers’ compensation, as business owners must. Several emergency regulations to protect the health of workers were also put into place, like making gloves mandatory when chemicals like acetone are handled by workers, many of whom suffer from burning eyes and throats, and even more serious problems like cancer and miscarriages that may be linked to the chemicals they touch and breathe every day. The measures expected to be approved on Thursday codify at least one of those regulations: Nail salons would be required to be bonded, that is, carry a type of insurance against wage fraud, so that in the event the employers are found to have underpaid workers, the owners cannot rapidly sell their assets and claim to be unable to pay — a tactic used frequently in such cases.
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Beauty salon;New York;Nails;Foreign Workers;Immigration;Legislation
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ny0238932
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[
"technology"
] |
2010/12/02
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Verizon to Start Its 4G Network on Sunday
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NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon Wireless says its new 4G wireless broadband network will start accepting customers on Sunday in 38 cities. Initially, only laptop users will be able to take advantage of the higher data speeds offered by the network, compared with Verizon’s 3G network. The speeds are somewhat higher than those offered by T-Mobile USA and AT&T in places where their 3G networks have been upgraded to the highest speeds. Verizon is charging less for 4G than for 3G. One data plan will cost $50 a month for 5 gigabytes of data, compared with $60 for 3G. Another plan will provide 10 gigabytes of data for $80 a month. The Verizon Wireless chief technology officer, Tony Melone, said he expected many customers would find 5 gigabytes was not enough. When downloading at top 4G speeds, it takes about an hour to exhaust a monthly allotment of 5 gigabytes of data. Mr. Melone said Verizon should have 4G smartphones available by next summer. The 4G coverage areas include the cities on the Boston-to-Washington stretch as well as in California, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Seattle. A Sprint Nextel subsidiary, Clearwire, already has an active 4G network that uses a different standard than Verizon’s.
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Verizon Communications;Telephones and Telecommunications;Wireless Communications;Laptop Computers;Smartphones
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ny0168422
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2006/06/20
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Manhattan Hospital Loses Malpractice Suit
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A jury in State Supreme Court has found Mount Sinai Hospital and one of its neurosurgeons, Dr. Isabelle Germano, responsible for problems suffered by a Putnam County woman after surgery to drain fluid from her brain, and has awarded her $8.5 million in damages. The patient, Karine Aquilino, 37, has had difficulty with language, walking and balance since a routine operation for congenital hydrocephaly in August 2000, said her lawyer, Thomas A. Moore. In its verdict on Thursday, the jury agreed that she had been injured by improper follow-up care. Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for Mount Sinai, said the hospital stood by its doctor.
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Malpractice;Hospitals;Suits and Litigation;Decisions and Verdicts
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ny0073597
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2015/04/18
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Under Bombardment in Yemen, Civilians Voice Terror and Despair Online
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While Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington offered an upbeat assessment this week of the air campaign in Yemen led by his nation, calling it “very, very successful,” civilians living under bombardment for more than three weeks expressed terror and despair in messages posted online. My life In #Yemen , no Electricity, no water, no food no security, no work. We're dying every day. — Amal Al Yarisi (@AmalAlYarisi) April 16, 2015 I hear heavy air strikes, heavy explosions today so close to my house in #Sanaa #Decisive_Storm — Amal Al Yarisi (@AmalAlYarisi) April 17, 2015 International aid agencies estimated on Friday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in the past month. Dramatic evidence of the scale of the destruction — shared on Twitter by Mohammed al-Asaadi, a political activist in Yemen’s capital, Sana — showed missiles leveling a presidential palace in the southwestern city of Taiz. Residents of Taiz reported heavy fighting on Friday between army troops supporting the country’s Saudi-backed president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has taken refuge in Saudi Arabia, and an alliance of Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. From the early hours of Friday, and continuing throughout the day, residents of Sana reported that the intense bombardment there was taking a psychological toll. Dispatches from the southern city of Aden, where supporters of a southern separatist movement have taken up arms against Houthi rebels, also painted a grim picture of residential neighborhoods turned into war zones. Among the fighters there were some residents of the central district of Al Mualla who took up arms against the rebels from the north. Watching from afar, Mohammed Albasha, the spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, shared images of the destruction of his home city, Taiz, on Twitter.
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Yemen;Sana Yemen;Aden;Taiz Yemen;Social Media;Saudi Arabia
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ny0180351
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2007/08/01
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South Korea Urges U.S. to Change Stance on Negotiating With the Taliban
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SEOUL, South Korea , July 31 — Shocked by the killing of a second South Korean hostage in Afghanistan and weary from the 13-day-old crisis, South Korea on Tuesday urged the American and Afghan governments to show “flexibility” over Taliban demands for the release of imprisoned militants. The government appeal — coupled with a growing frustration among South Koreans over what they say is a lack of cooperation from the United States — came hours after the Afghan police found the body of a second South Korean hostage. A self-described Taliban spokesman said the man was killed Monday because the Afghan government had not released the Taliban prisoners. “The government is well aware of how the international community deals with these kinds of abduction cases,” Cheon Ho-seon, a spokesman for President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea, said in a statement on Tuesday. “But it also believes that it would be worthwhile to use flexibility in the cause of saving the precious lives of those still in captivity, and is appealing to the international community to do so.” Ever since the Taliban kidnapped 23 volunteer aid workers on July 19, Mr. Roh’s government has been caught between two uncompromising forces. The Taliban have insisted on a hostage-and-prisoner swap, but the Afghan government says that will only lead to more kidnappings. “We shouldn’t encourage kidnapping by actually accepting their demands,” a spokesman for the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, told reporters Tuesday, according to Reuters. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who described himself as a Taliban spokesman, said the militants would kill more hostages if Kabul did not release prisoners by noon Wednesday. “It might be a man or a woman,” Mr. Ahmadi told The Associated Press. “It might be one. It might be two, four. It might be all of them.” The hostage whose body was found Monday was identified by Seoul as Shim Sung-min, a 29-year-old former information technology worker. He had volunteered for a South Korean church group’s aid mission to the war-torn country. The body of the group’s leader, Bae Hyung-kyu, who, like Mr. Shim, had been shot to death, was found last Wednesday. “We cannot contain our anger at this merciless killing and strongly condemn this,” said Cho Hee-yong, a spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry. But the South Korean government also expressed frustration over the deadlock in negotiations. The Taliban demand “is not within the power of the Korean government because it doesn’t have any effective means to influence decisions of the Afghan government,” said Mr. Cheon. “The Korean government strongly condemns and urges an immediate end to these heinous acts of killing innocent people in order to press for demands that it can’t meet.” “We appeal for support from the people of the United States and around the world for resolving this crisis as early as possible,” Kim Kyong-ja, the mother of one of the South Korean captives, said Tuesday, reading a statement from the families. “Especially, the families plead for the United States to transcend political interests and give more active support to save the 21 innocent lives.” Mr. Shim’s father, Shim Chin-pyo, told reporters of his son: “He had a good heart and did a lot of volunteer work. My son also wanted to help the poor and disabled.” The Taliban kidnapped the South Koreans, most of whom are women and in their 20s and 30s, while they were traveling on a bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. They were the largest group of foreign hostages in Afghanistan since the American-led invasion in 2001. South Korea’s appeal comes as Mr. Karzai is scheduled to meet Sunday with President Bush. Mr. Karzai was criticized by the United States and by European governments after he approved a deal in March in which five Taliban fighters were freed in exchange for the release of an Italian journalist. He said the trade was a one-time deal. Paik Jin-hyun, an associate dean at the Graduate School of International Studies of Seoul National University, said that if the hostage crisis did not conclude satisfactorily, anti-American groups in South Korea could use it to promote their sentiments in South Korea. On Tuesday, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a civic group based in Seoul, issued a statement accusing Washington of watching the hostage crisis “as if it were a fire across the river.” “As everyone knows, the Taliban’s demand is something the U.S. government can help resolve, not the Afghan or South Korean government,” the statement said. “The South Korean government, citing its alliance with the United States, dispatched troops for the U.S. war against terrorism. Now why can’t it use the spirit of the alliance to help persuade the U.S. administration and save its own people?” Bombings in Afghanistan KABUL, Afghanistan, July 31 — Two suicide bombers struck in Afghanistan on Tuesday, wounding 3 American soldiers and 15 Afghans. A car bomber also struck in Kabul as a United States military convoy was passing, and a man on foot blew himself up in the northern city of Kunduz as he was being pursued by Afghan security forces. The American military confirmed that three soldiers and three civilian bystanders were wounded when a car exploded as a convoy was passing on the east side of the capital on Tuesday morning. A witness, Naeem Jan, a truck driver, said he saw a boy among the casualties. In the aftermath of the attack, three bodyguards of Kabul’s chief of the criminal branch of the police, Ali Shah Paktiawal, were shot and seriously wounded. Mr. Paktiawal blamed the Afghan National Security Directorate and denied that the firing came from American forces securing the site. The matter was under investigation, he said. In Kunduz, a bomber blew himself up as the police and intelligence agents were trying to apprehend him, Muhammad Ayub Salangi, the provincial police chief said. “Three members of Afghan intelligence and one policeman along with eight civilians were injured,” he said.
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South Korea;Hostages;Afghanistan;Politics and Government;International Relations;Taliban
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ny0129348
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2012/06/07
|
Turn, Which Helps Target Ads, Will Run Its Own
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TURN, a Silicon Valley company, works with advertisers to target digital ads by determining likely demographic attributes — but not actual identities — of consumers as they land on Web pages. Its software instantly calculates whether to display ads likely to be relevant to computer and mobile device users, like a diaper ad to mothers. It is, in other words, a fairly esoteric business-to-business enterprise, one of interest primarily to marketing and advertising executives. And when it comes to promoting itself, Turn has, ironically, eschewed advertising. Instead, the company sponsors events at conferences like Advertising Week , the annual gathering in New York, and others that draw marketing executives. But now Turn is going prime time, with a commercial that will be shown on June 10 during the season finale of “Mad Men,” the popular AMC show created by Matthew Weiner about advertising set in the 1960s. Directed by Michael Lehmann (“True Blood,” “Heathers”) and set in the same era as the show, the commercial opens with a shot of an office, where a man fixes a drink for a stunning blond woman, and they clink glasses and embrace. The office door opens. A woman who resembles a young Jacqueline Kennedy enters, apparently the man’s wife, draws a pistol from her pocketbook, and shoots. The bullet moves through the office in extreme slow motion, and its trajectory is unclear — will it hit the man, the other woman, or neither? — because the camera pulls away at the last moment. “In 10 milliseconds, Turn delivers your ad to all the right online audiences with deadly accuracy,” says a voice-over. “Never second-guess a decision — at least not a business one.” Viewers are directed to a microsite by Turn that will feature alternative endings to the ad. The campaign is by the San Francisco office of Gyro. After the television commercial runs Sunday, online ads that promote the microsite will appear on Web sites including those for Advertising Age, Adweek, Forbes and MediaPost. The budget of the campaign is estimated at just over $500,000. “I’m a b-to-b marketer, so generally TV is not something I would use in my mix,” said Paul Alfieri, vice president for marketing of Turn, using the shorthand for business to business. Turn often works with clients who are adapting television commercials for online and mobile campaigns, and the new campaign finds the company doing so on its own behalf, and in a way that may resonate with those clients. “We want our customers to understand that we build great software, yes, but we appreciate great creative, too, and it’s important for us to respect creative and do great creative,” said Mr. Alfieri. “We’re drinking our own Champagne.” According to data provided by AMC, “Mad Men” viewers age 25 to 54 are 34 percent more likely than the general population to hold executive-level jobs, although the data does not indicate their industries. When advertising on the show, numerous brands, including BMW, Clorox and Canada Dry, have all set commercials in the same era. In 2010, Unilever ran commercials on “Mad Men” for six brands — Dove, Breyers, Hellmann’s, Klondike, Suave and Vaseline — in the style of the show. Afterward, Unilever reported that viewers were less likely to fast-forward past the ads because many, naturally, mistook them for the program. Steffan Postaer, executive creative director of Gyro San Francisco, said the agency was not trying to replicate the show in the Turn commercial. “Let’s not just try to do a parody of ‘Mad Men’ — that’s already been done,” said Mr. Postaer of the guiding principle for the campaign. “What we wanted was something grander, and we elevated everything, including the lighting and the set design.” Striking more of a noir tone than the show, the commercial also took cues from films including “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential,” Mr. Postaer said. Abbey Klaassen, editor of Advertising Age , noted that another online ad company, Undertone, recently advertised on “The Pitch,” an AMC reality show that features ad agencies, but she was unaware of a similar instance on “Mad Men.” “If you were to pick one television show to advertise on to try to reach the greatest density of advertisers and marketers, ‘Mad Men’ is probably a good bet,” said Ms. Klaassen. “That said,” she continued, “it’s surprising to see a company whose bread and butter is highly targeted digital advertising buy a mainstream television show, but I think surprising is probably what they’re going for here.” Barbara Lippert, who was a longtime advertising critic for Adweek and has for four years written the Mad Blog about “Mad Men” for MediaPost.com , said ads that appropriated the era of the show generally missed the point. “You’re not recreating a time in history, you’re working off of this incredibly meticulous vision which is inside Matt Weiner’s head, which is impossible to do,” Ms. Lippert said. But after reviewing the new Turn spot, she said it was “clever,” not only in its execution but also in the buzz it is apt to create. “The really smart thing that they’re doing is that they can milk it for publicity because it’s such a meta thing,” she said, referring to the fact that it is an advertisement about advertising on an advertising show. Turn will be targeting specific types of consumers — in this case marketers — and measuring the response to the campaign, just as it does for clients. In a few weeks the company will issue a marketing study that, beyond how many viewed the ads, will measure how many queries from potential clients it spawned. “Traffic and eyeballs in this day and age,” Mr. Alfieri said, is not as important as how many customers the ad delivers.
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Turn Inc;Advertising and Marketing;Mad Men (TV Program);Television;Lehmann Michael
|
ny0114119
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2012/11/17
|
Sirens Disrupt the Sabbath in Jerusalem
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JERUSALEM — When dusk descends on Jerusalem on a Friday, it usually brings a moment of rare harmony and almost magical tranquillity. A steady siren announces the onset of the Jewish Sabbath just hours after Muslims wind up the special Friday noon prayer at Al Aksa Mosque in the Old City. So this Friday, when a rising-and-falling wartime siren wailed out at twilight, followed by at least two dull thuds, many did not immediately grasp what was happening. In the 48 hours since Israel began its military operation in Gaza , militants’ rocket attacks have extended farther and farther north, starting in southern Israel and advancing to Kiryat Malachi, then to Rishon Lezion and off the shore of Tel Aviv. Throughout it all, residents of this disputed capital said they had felt largely immune from the battle by virtue of the city’s religious sites and its huge Palestinian population. Until they heard the siren blaring. “I thought, ‘Is that for Shabbat?’ ” said Judy Axelrod, a resident of West Jerusalem, a predominantly Jewish area. When she realized it was not, she walked off King David Street into the Y.M.C.A. for safety, even though most of those around her just carried on. Out later in the evening to dine at the popular Colony restaurant, Ms. Axelrod said: “I don’t feel scared. I feel more part of the rest of the country.” By firing at Jerusalem, about 48 miles from the Gaza border, Hamas had set a brazen precedent. The city was even off limits to Saddam Hussein, the fallen Iraqi leader, when he fired Scud missiles at Israel during the first Persian Gulf war in 1991. The military wing of Hamas boasted that it had aimed at the Israeli Knesset, or Parliament. In fact, the rockets fell short of the city. One landed in an open area near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, just south of Jerusalem, and other explosions were heard in the same area. In the past, Jerusalem was a focus of deadly Palestinian suicide bombings. Friday’s siren transported some back to the horror of those days. Others displayed a battle-hardened stoicism. The Jerusalem branch of Magen David Adom, the ambulance service, went into emergency mode, putting the Jerusalem region at the highest level of alert and moving its teams into a new underground bomb shelter at the dispatch center. At the Colony, the background jazz track was playing softer than usual. The manager, Dario Notrica, said that of the 230 reservations, about 70 had been canceled. When the siren sounded, Levi Weiman-Kelman, an American-born rabbi, was preparing to lead Sabbath services at Congregation Kol Haneshama, where worshipers recite a special prayer for peace on Fridays in Hebrew and Arabic. He described the mood in synagogue as “extremely tense and antsy.” Hoping the service would pass quietly, he said, “My prayers had an added intensity.” About half the usual crowd turned up, but with the Israeli military poised for a ground operation and a massive call-up of reservists under way, there were more parents of soldiers than usual. Across the invisible line that divides West Jerusalem from the contested eastern part of the city, there was anxiety, too. Out in his car at night in the near-empty streets, Taisar Ahmad, a municipal worker from the Arab neighborhood of Jebel Mukaber, said that striking Jerusalem should be “forbidden.” “It’s scary,” he added. “Everyone was frightened.” Another rocket streaked toward the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv on Friday, presumably landing somewhere off the coast. The city was not as busy as usual, but was not a ghost town, either. “I always pictured Tel Aviv to be a safe place,” said Tamara Hirsch, who came to Israel four years ago from Vienna and now lives in the city center. “Today, after the second alarm, I realized that Gaza is not so far away.” At the Gordon Beach Swimming Pool, a group of women discussed whether they would follow instructions and run to the covered parking lot for shelter in their bathing suits if the time came.
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Palestinians;Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- );Jerusalem (Israel);Israel;Gaza Strip
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ny0248450
|
[
"sports"
] |
2011/05/31
|
Staying for Finish, Toronto’s Reyes Ends Winless Streak at 28
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Jo-Jo Reyes won for the first time in 29 starts by throwing his first career complete game and Jayson Nix hit a two-run homer to lead the host Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday night. Reyes (1-4) allowed one run and eight hits, earning a victory for the first time in nearly three years. His previous victory came with Atlanta against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 13, 2008. The left-handed Reyes went 0-13 with a 6.59 earned run average in his 28 starts between wins. The crowd of 12,902 stood and cheered “Jo-Jo, Jo-Jo!” as Cleveland’s Jack Hannahan batted with two outs in the ninth. Catcher J. P. Arencibia embraced Reyes after Hannahan struck out. One fan held up a sign reading, “I Believe in Jo-Jo.” Reyes avoided becoming the first pitcher to go winless in 29 starts. Oakland’s Matt Keough went 28 starts between victories in 1978 and 1979, matching a mark first set by Boston’s Cliff Curtis in 1910 and 1911. TIGERS 6, TWINS 5 Alex Avila’s double in the eighth, which appeared to hit a fan in the stands down the left-field line, brought home Jhonny Peralta from first for host Detroit. With Peralta on first and two outs, Avila hit a ball down the line that rattled along the short fence as fans reached over for it. The umpires stopped play after the ball appeared to strike a fan, but they let the run stand instead of sending Peralta back to third. Minnesota Manager Ron Gardenhire came out to argue and was ejected. The crew chief Gary Darling, who was umpiring at third, said after the game that he called fan interference and ruled Peralta would have scored without it. Replays showed a fan in an orange shirt standing in a small area of seats that juts out toward the field. The ball appeared to bounce up and hit the fan. The Minnesota left-hander Francisco Liriano was placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his throwing shoulder, less than a month after pitching a no-hitter. WHITE SOX 7, RED SOX 3 Alexei Ramirez and Carlos Quentin each drove in two runs in a four-run sixth inning as visiting Chicago stopped Jon Lester’s seven-game winning streak and sent Boston to its fourth loss in 17 games. RANGERS 11, RAYS 5 Mike Napoli homered twice — giving him four in three games — and drove in five runs as visiting Texas won in its first meeting with Tampa Bay since the Rangers eliminated the Rays in the opening round of last year’s playoffs. ANGELS 10, ROYALS 8 Torii Hunter’s second home run, a two-run shot off Joakim Soria in the ninth, powered Los Angeles to a come-from-behind victory on the road. The rookie Eric Hosmer homered, doubled and drove in four runs as Kansas City took a 6-1 lead over Ervin Santana after two innings. MARINERS 4, ORIOLES 3 Jack Cust hit the second triple of his career to drive in two runs for host Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki, mired in the worst slump of his career — 1 of 22 over his previous five games — had two singles and scored twice. PHILLIES 5, NATIONALS 4 Roy Halladay beat the Nationals franchise for the 10th straight time, despite giving up multiple home runs for the first time this season. Halladay (7-3) allowed 10 hits and 4 runs in seven innings, but he gave up solo home runs to Washington’s Michael Morse, Danny Espinosa and Laynce Nix. Halladay had allowed a total of two home runs in his first 11 starts. GIANTS 7, CARDINALS 3 Madison Bumgarner won his second straight after losing his first six decisions and Andres Torres gave visiting San Francisco, which has the National League’s worst offense, a boost with his first career grand slam. Kyle McClellan (6-2) was knocked out after four innings, missing a chance to tie for the major league victory lead. DODGERS 7, ROCKIES 1 James Loney had three hits with a homer and three runs batted in and Andre Ethier also drove in three runs for host Los Angeles. DIAMONDBACKS 15, MARLINS 4 Kelly Johnson homered twice and fell a single shy of the cycle as the steamrolling, first-place Diamondbacks won their seventh in a row. Johnson tied a franchise record with four extra-base hits. REDS 7, BREWERS 3 Jay Bruce hit a three-run homer and finished a double short of the cycle as Cincinnati opened a nine-game homestand with a victory after a 2-8 trip. Milwaukee, which went 8-1 on its last homestand, saw its road record fall to 8-18, the worst in the N.L. PADRES 3, BRAVES 2 Pinch-hitter Kyle Phillips led off the 10th inning with his first career home run and visiting San Diego won its third straight. Phillips, a rookie with a .167 average in 30 at-bats, hit the second pitch from Atlanta’s George Sherrill (1-1). ASTROS 12, CUBS 7 Jeff Keppinger and J. R. Towles homered and visiting Houston rallied past Chicago to end a three-game losing streak. Clint Barmes and Hunter Pence also added back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning for the Astros. LASORDA FIGHTS INFECTION The former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, 83, is recovering from a bacterial infection that caused him to be hospitalized. The team said Lasorda was resting at home after spending four days in the hospital last week.
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Baseball;Philadelphia Phillies;Washington Nationals;Halladay Roy;Toronto Blue Jays;Cleveland Indians;Reyes Jo-Jo
|
ny0098603
|
[
"sports",
"tennis"
] |
2015/06/07
|
Third Time Is a Chore as Serena Williams Wins French Open Title
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PARIS — Serena Williams was too ill to get out of bed for most of Friday. She was too tightly wound to close out what would have been a routine straight-set victory against Lucie Safarova on Saturday. But as Williams’s increasingly remarkable tennis career has made clear, she is never more dangerous than when cornered. This obstacle course of a French Open provided reminders in nearly every round as Williams hit, shrieked, swore and coughed her way through all kinds of trouble, including five three-set matches and a nasty case of the flu. Saturday’s 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 victory over Safarova was a fitting finale to what might have been Williams’s most challenging run to a Grand Slam singles title. “I probably topped for my most difficult time to win,” she said. She has 20 major singles titles now, the third most on the women’s list behind Margaret Court, with 24, and Steffi Graf, with 22. “Twenty is a nice, round number,” said Patrick Mouratoglou, Williams’s coach. Graf, the former German star who was in Paris this week for sponsor commitments, may not stand alone in second place for long, with Wimbledon and the United States Open still to play this year. Image Thirteenth-seeded Lucie Safarova, a 28-year-old from the Czech Republic, was playing in her first Grand Slam final. Credit Robert Ghement/European Pressphoto Agency “Serena’s an incredible athlete,” Graf told the French sports newspaper L’Equipe in an interview printed on Saturday. “In my view, she has shots — weapons, in fact — that are unique in the history of the game.” Graf was the last singles player to complete a true Grand Slam by sweeping all four major titles in the same calendar year. But Williams, 33, is halfway there after winning the Australian Open and the French Open this year. She has won three majors in a row, including the 2014 United States Open. “I think it’d be awesome,” Williams said of the Grand Slam. “But at the end of the day, it’s pretty awesome to have 20. Obviously, I would love to win a Grand Slam. I haven’t done great at Wimbledon the past two years, so I’m going to take it a day at a time there.” But if Williams could win this major title despite all the obstacles on the red clay that has traditionally been her weakest surface, what major title can’t she win? “It makes this trophy really special,” she said, between blowing her nose and coughing during the postmatch news conference. “I really wanted it. I wanted to win so bad.” That was abundantly clear early in the third set, when Safarova jumped to a 2-0, 30-0 lead, only to see it evaporate in the face of Williams’s power, foul-mouthed intensity and will-do spirit. Williams swore after aces, swore as she walked to her chair and swore as she got up to leave it, finally earning a code violation for an audible obscenity. Image Williams on Saturday. After gaining an early lead, she had to rally from a 0-2 deficit in the third set to beat Safarova. Credit Christophe Ena/Associated Press “I got so frustrated,” she said. “I pretty much gave the match away. I think she played really well, but at the same time, I gave it to her.” But Williams soon snatched it back, winning the final six games — even hitting a left-handed forehand in one desperate and successful attempt to stay in a rally — to claim her third French Open singles title to go with her victories in 2002 and 2013. “Experience kind of kicked in on the other side of the net,” said Rob Steckley, Safarova’s coach. “You’ve got to be extremely hungry and can’t be a nice girl. You’ve got to dig deep and get yourself dirty and not be afraid to go for the win. That’s what Serena does best. She does what she needs to do to intimidate the other players and push them back off the baseline.” Steckley, like so many sitting in the stands before him for big matches, could see (and hear) it coming. “Once she ripped her first screamer forehand after six unforced errors, and then suddenly there was not a ball Lucie could really hit,” he said. “Serena has that ability. She can go off for a while and then she gets the rhythm back, and she locks in. She’s like an F-16. Lock. Target. Die.” For about an hour, this final looked like a straightforward coronation. Williams led by 6-3, 4-1 and went up, 40-15, on her serve after a forehand winner that she celebrated with two kangaroo jumps. But then matters — as they did so often this year for Williams in Paris — became much more complicated. First came a forehand winner from Safarova, then a backhand unforced error by Williams and then, most surprisingly, two consecutive double faults and Safarova’s first break of serve of the match. Image Williams after her three-set victory. She served for the match in the second set, but Safarova rallied to force a third. Credit David Vincent/Associated Press That was only a blip, n’est-ce pas? Guess again. Safarova — a wide-eyed, 28-year-old Czech left-hander playing in her first major singles final — would go on to force a third set, breaking Williams when she served for the match at 6-5 with a flurry of winners on the stretch and the run. But her comeback eventually ran into the force and historic heft of Williams on a mission. “I just couldn’t find any weapon that could stop her,” said Safarova, now 0-9 against Williams. This French Open was a challenge even before it began for Williams, who withdrew from the Italian Open with an elbow injury and arrived in Paris with no tournament victories on clay this year. Once at Roland Garros, she had to deal with a bout of the flu that left her feverish and unsteady on her feet in a three-set semifinal comeback win over Timea Bacsinszky on Thursday. She said she stayed in bed at her Paris apartment until “4 or 5” p.m. Friday, then went for a walk, only to feel worse. She said she briefly considered withdrawing. She picked that as her low point of a tournament that was full of lows and highs. “Out of 10 — a 10 being like take me to the hospital — I went from like a 6 to a 12 in a matter of two hours,” she said. “I was just miserable. I was literally in my bed shaking, and I was just shaking, and I just started thinking positive.” But thinking gets you only so far in tennis. It is the doing that matters most, and Williams did plenty in Paris this year — shrugging off the shakes, blown leads, big deficits and others’ ambitions to generate the angles and the winners when she needed them most. She is now 20-4 in Grand Slam singles finals, and far from content to stop there. “There’s a reason why she has 20 Slams under her belt,” Steckley said. “It’s something in her, something in the blood. I think Lucie has it. She just doesn’t realize how much she has it, but then maybe it’s an intimidating thing. Lucie might be afraid of that inner beast.” Williams, one of the most prolific tennis champions, has no such identity crisis.
|
Tennis;Serena Williams;Lucie Safarova;French Open
|
ny0074561
|
[
"us",
"politics"
] |
2015/04/30
|
Bernie Sanders, Long-Serving Independent, Enters Presidential Race as a Democrat
|
Senator Bernie Sanders , the Vermont independent, announced Thursday that he was running for president as a Democrat, injecting a progressive voice into the contest and providing Hillary Rodham Clinton with her first official rival for the party’s nomination. Avoiding the fanfare that several Republicans have chosen so far when announcing their candidacies, Mr. Sanders issued a statement to supporters that laid out his goals for reducing income inequality, addressing climate change and scaling back the influence of money in politics. “After a year of travel, discussion and dialogue, I have decided to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president,” Mr. Sanders said in an email early Thursday. Video Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, entered the 2016 race in challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton, calling the current economic situation immoral, wrong and unsustainable. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Mr. Sanders’s bid is considered a long shot, but his unflinching commitment to stances popular with the left — such as opposing foreign military interventions and reining in big banks — could force Mrs. Clinton to address these issues more deeply. On a patch of grass known as the Swamp outside the Capitol, Mr. Sanders later articulated before a horde of journalists and a few curious onlookers why he was running. He acknowledged that he faced big financial challenges but said that, as a politician with the “most unusual political history of anyone in Congress,” he was optimistic about his chances. “We’re in this race to win,” he said. Mr. Sanders plans to hold a formal campaign kickoff on May 26 in Burlington, Vt., where he was once mayor, but he will hit the campaign trail this weekend, holding an event in Manchester, N.H., where the nation’s first primary is being held in February. And he is expected to make accessibility a hallmark of his campaign. “This is not going to be, ‘I’ll give you two questions and see you later,’ ” an adviser said, in an apparent reference to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign style. Who Is Running for President? Donald J. Trump officially accepted the Republican party's nomination on July 22. Hillary Clinton was officially nominated on July 26 at the Democratic Convention. Mr. Sanders, 73, has said that he will not run a negative campaign and that he has never run an attack ad in his life. A self-described “Democratic socialist” and grumpy grandfather-type, Mr. Sanders has promised to steer the Democratic Party toward a mature debate about the issues he is passionate about. While traveling the country considering a run, Mr. Sanders has acknowledged that going up against Mrs. Clinton will be a daunting financial challenge. He has $4.6 million available for his 2018 Senate re-election campaign that he can use for a presidential run, and Mr. Sanders said he hoped to galvanize a movement of small donors to give himself a fighting chance. “We’re not going to raise $2 billion, and we’re not going to raise $1 billion,” said Mr. Sanders, who added that he did not intend to use the help of a “ super PAC .” “I do not have millionaire or billionaire friends.” In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on March 9, Mr. Sanders said he fantasized about getting 3 million supporters to each donate $100 to his campaign. The total, he joked, would be about a third of what the billionaire Koch brothers planned to spend to elect a Republican president. Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Sanders served for 16 years as Vermont’s sole congressman before he was elected to the Senate in 2006. He often brags about being the longest-serving independent in congressional history, but he plans to run for president as a Democrat to avoid the obstacles of getting on state ballots and participating in debates. Democrats who have been hoping for more liberal candidates to enter the race, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts or former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, cheered Mr. Sanders’s decision. “Having Bernie Sanders in the race, calling for populism, will help open the political space for people like Hillary Clinton and others to take bold stands,” said Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee . If anything, Mr. Sanders, who embraces his reputation for being gruff, abrupt and honest, promises to be bold. Recalling that he has defeated Democrats and Republicans with far greater financial resources in his long career, Mr. Sanders suggested that his campaign should not be taken lightly. “I think people should be a little bit careful underestimating me,” he said.
|
2016 Presidential Election;Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders;Hillary Clinton;Democrats;Vermont
|
ny0221378
|
[
"business",
"global"
] |
2010/02/06
|
BAE Systems to Pay $450 Million to Settle Allegations of Bribery
|
BAE Systems, Europe’s largest military contractor, agreed on Friday to plead guilty to two criminal charges and pay nearly $450 million in penalties in the United States and Britain to end long-running investigations into questionable payments made to win huge contracts overseas. Under its settlement with the Justice Department, BAE will pay a $400 million fine and plead guilty to one count of conspiring to make false statements about having an internal program to comply with antibribery laws. The Justice Department’s charge related to just a small part of the billions of dollars in payments that BAE is thought to have made to Saudi Arabian officials over a 20-year period, and to more than $200 million of business that the company won in arms deals involving the Czech Republic, Hungary and other countries. BAE, which is based in Britain, made the payments through a network of middlemen and Caribbean and Swiss bank accounts to win contracts for fighter planes and other equipment that American military companies were also seeking, the Justice Department said. BAE said it would also plead guilty in London to an accounting violation for failing to properly record commissions paid to a marketing consultant involved in its sale of a radar system to Tanzania in 1999. BAE said it would pay about $50 million in Britain in fines and a charitable payment to Tanzania. The investigation began in Britain. But Tony Blair, the prime minister at the time, halted the British efforts to investigate the deals with Saudi Arabia in 2006, after Saudi leaders threatened to stop providing the British government with tips on terrorism, according to documents later discussed by a British court. Still, the inquiries have long represented one of the most prominent efforts by prosecutors in both countries to investigate claims that many large companies have passed bribes through middlemen to win overseas contracts. BAE, which had previously denied any wrongdoing, said in a statement that it “very much regrets and accepts full responsibility for these past shortcomings.” The company said that the last of the illegal activities had taken place in 2002 and that it had since changed the way it did business. British press reports last fall had said that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office had pushed for hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties in return for any settlement. But BAE had rejected that offer. Richard Alderman, the director of the Serious Fraud Office, described the $50 million settlement as a “pragmatic” one that would allow BAE to put the investigations behind it and allow his office to redeploy investigators to other cases. But British advocacy groups that had fought several unsuccessful court battles to force authorities in Britain to investigate the company for corruption in arms deals involving Saudi Arabia and other countries criticized the settlement. “This settlement means that the truth about these serious allegations against BAE will never be known,” said Nicholas Hildyard, a campaigner for the Corner House, a social justice advocacy group. “The U.K. fine may well be unprecedented, but it may easily create the perception that alleged bribers can simply pay their way out of trouble.” Liberal members of Parliament also complained that with the company’s guilty plea, the full details of the British government’s role in supporting its arms sales may never be known. The Serious Fraud Office also announced later on Friday that it was dropping charges against Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, an Austrian count who acted as a marketing consultant to BAE in helping to arrange leases for fighter planes in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Justice Department officials said that while the guilty plea would end their investigation of BAE, they were continuing to investigate some of the individuals involved in the case. The department has stepped up its investigations in recent years of possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and prosecutors believe that some of the convictions have helped deter business executives from paying bribes. BAE also generates a significant amount of its revenue in the United States, where it is one of the Pentagon’s largest contractors. The criminal information filed by the Justice Department said the company’s American subsidiary was not involved in any of the illegal activities. The criminal information document said BAE had set up a network of “marketing advisers” and encouraged them to organize offshore shell companies to disguise the identities of any foreign officials to whom they passed money. It said BAE itself set up an entity in the British Virgin Islands to conceal its relationships with the agents. BAE then paid about $225 million to the agents through that entity without formally tracking what they did with the money. But the company’s activities in Saudi Arabia, where it had an $80 billion contract since the 1980s to supply fighter jets and other military hardware, have long attracted the most interest. It has been reported that BAE made payments to Saudi officials, including $2 billion that it deposited into bank accounts of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom’s former ambassador to the United States. Peter Gardiner, a crucial witness in the case, has also identified Prince Turki bin Nasser, who controlled the Saudi air force, as a recipient of BAE’s money favors. The criminal information did not name either of the princes, and neither of them have ever been charged with any wrongdoing. But the document described substantial benefits for an unnamed Saudi official that Mr. Gardiner said on Friday closely matched the company’s relationship with Prince bin Nasser, who has never commented on the deals.
|
Frauds and Swindling;BAE Systems PLC
|
ny0188494
|
[
"us"
] |
2009/04/15
|
Ted Stevens Rejected Deal to Admit Guilt
|
WASHINGTON — Ted Stevens , the former senator from Alaska, turned down a plea offer from federal prosecutors that would have spared him a trial and jail time but required him to plead guilty to a single felony count, according to newly disclosed records. Mr. Stevens’s lawyers rejected the proposal on his behalf, according to transcripts of discussions between the trial judge and lawyers for both sides. The transcripts were sealed until the judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court, recently ordered them opened. The disclosure of the offer and rejection of a plea bargain, first reported Monday on the Web site of Legal Times, is the latest twist in the case of Mr. Stevens, a Republican whose conviction on ethics charges was recently thrown out by Judge Sullivan because of errors by prosecutors who are now themselves the subject of an ethics inquiry. On July 31, just weeks before the trial was to begin, Judge Sullivan asked the lawyers in a private conference if there had been any negotiations on a plea agreement. Brendan Sullivan, Mr. Stevens’s lawyer, said “they did offer us no-jail disposition” for pleading guilty to one felony count. “We turned it down,” Mr. Sullivan added. In October, a jury found Mr. Stevens guilty on seven felony counts in connection with Senate disclosure forms that did not list gifts and renovation services, largely for a family residence in Girdwood, Alaska. During the five-week trial, Judge Sullivan repeatedly scolded Justice Department prosecutors for improperly withholding information that defense lawyers could have used to bolster their case. Mr. Stevens, who is 85, lost his bid for re-election by a close margin within days of the verdict. But Judge Sullivan had not yet sentenced Mr. Stevens, who faced an almost certain jail term, because he was still considering motions from Mr. Stevens’s lawyers to order a new trial because of the prosecutors’ errors. Before Judge Sullivan ruled, however, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., said earlier this month that a new team of government lawyers he had assigned to the case discovered a new instance of the prosecution team’s withholding information that could have been used by the defense. Mr. Holder asked that the case be dismissed and said the department would not seek to retry Mr. Stevens. The existence of discussions over a possible plea provides some insight into the case. Prosecutors did not charge Mr. Stevens with a more straightforward corruption count like bribery, which could have been harder to prove than what they charged him with, failing to file required disclosure forms. But the prosecution apparently believed that it was important that Mr. Stevens acknowledge a felony to avoid a trial. For Mr. Stevens, such a plea would have raised a serious obstacle to his plans to return to the Senate, where he had been a member for 40 years.
|
Stevens Ted;Ethics;Decisions and Verdicts;Alaska
|
ny0076243
|
[
"sports",
"golf"
] |
2015/05/29
|
Steven Bowditch’s 62 Leads Byron Nelson
|
Steven Bowditch charged to a two-shot lead in the opening round of the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Tex. Bowditch birdied five of his first nine holes on the way to an eight-under-par 62, two ahead of Jimmy Walker, who mixed seven birdies with one bogey. James Hahn and Ryan Palmer were another stroke back after opening with 65s. ■ Rory McIlroy faced missing the cut for a second consecutive week after posting a nine-over-par 80 in the opening round at the Irish Open in Newcastle, Northern Ireland. McIlroy had nine bogeys and failed to record a birdie. He was 150th in the 155-man field, trailing Padraig Harrington and Maximilian Kieffer by 13 strokes. (REUTERS)
|
Golf;Steven Bowditch;Irish Open;James Hahn;Ryan Palmer
|
ny0220074
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2010/02/04
|
Bank Data May Unveil German Tax Evaders, Finance Official Says
|
BERLIN — Germany ’s finance minister warned German tax evaders Wednesday that they risked punishment if their names were found on a CD the government is buying that contains information about Swiss bank customers. The mysterious case of the CD, which the government is purchasing from a secret informant, has gripped Germany since news of its existence first leaked out on Saturday. Despite disagreement within her own party, Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that the government should acquire the CD from the unidentified informant, who has asked for $3.5 million in exchange for the information on 1,500 individuals with secret accounts. And the impact of the case appeared to be spreading beyond Germany as other European countries expressed interest in whether the bank data could be used to track down their own tax evaders. The result has been angry denunciations from the Swiss government at the latest intrusion into their historic banking privacy, an outcry from privacy advocates and a general distaste over the government paying for stolen data. But an opinion survey by the German magazine Stern found that 57 percent favored the government’s decision to buy the CD. Estimates in the German media put the potential gains from cracking down on the tax evaders at up to $280 million. Taxes have dominated the political discussion in Germany since Mrs. Merkel won re-election in September. The global economic recession has left Germany with a record federal budget deficit of $120 billion and every day there are new headlines in the newspapers here about municipalities deep in the red. Germany has a pronounced problem with tax evasion because the country has high tax rates for top earners but is geographically close to tax havens like Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Broader concerns about corporate corruption and the government’s inability to rein in unreported income, known here as “Schwarzarbeit,” have fed the impression that the government has lost control of its finances. The warning to tax evaders by the finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, added a new dimension to the current case, because tax cheats have no way of knowing whether their names are on the list. “I can only advise anyone who thinks they might have evaded taxes in the past to avail themselves of the offer in our tax code to make a voluntary declaration,” Mr. Schäuble told the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine in an interview published Wednesday. With the threat of jail sentences looming over them, many with secret Swiss bank accounts might confess, not knowing whether their accounts are still secret. The case is similar to one in 2008, where the government purchased data on funds stashed away in Liechtenstein for up to $7 million. That information resulted in the high-profile arrest of the chief executive of Deutsche Post, Klaus Zumwinkel, who was then forced to resign from the German postal service. Then as now, a debate broke out over the ethics of buying stolen information as a means of cracking down on tax evasion, not to mention whether it could be used as evidence. Mr. Schäuble pointed to nearly 200 cases prosecuted using data from the Liechtenstein purchase, without a single court refusing to hear the evidence. But Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader for Mr. Schäuble and Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, took the opposite line Monday, telling reporters, “Theft remains theft. The state should not put itself on the same level as thieves.” He backed away from his strongest comments Wednesday, telling the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that “on the other hand I recognize that tax cheats have to be punished.” His softened tone probably stemmed from the fact that Mrs. Merkel on Monday came out in favor of dealing with the informant. “If the data is relevant then it should be our goal to gain possession of the data,” Mrs. Merkel said.
|
Germany;Tax Evasion;Banks and Banking;Christian Democratic Union (Germany);Merkel Angela;Zumwinkel Klaus;Switzerland
|
ny0112192
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2012/02/09
|
Wang Lijun, Crime Fighter, Is Said to Have Tried to Defect
|
BEIJING — In a sign that China ’s political season is heating up, reports circulated widely on Wednesday that one of the country’s most famous crime fighters had tried to defect to the United States. The reports were impossible to confirm, but China’s social media were filled with speculation about the fate of Wang Lijun, a onetime rising star in the western megacity of Chongqing, where he had been the deputy mayor overseeing public security. Mr. Wang, 52, shot to national attention as a one-man gangbuster , taking on Chongqing’s notorious organized crime syndicates in the city of 29 million. Last year he successfully tried and had executed the city’s most powerful mob boss, and he hired local writers to produce an official history of the campaign. He boasted that he would hire a prominent Hong Kong director to make a movie of his exploits, saying it would be modeled on “The Godfather.” Mr. Wang had been hired by the city’s Communist Party secretary, Bo Xilai. His success helped propel Mr. Bo onto the short list for the powerful Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo. The party is scheduled to meet this year for a once-in-a-decade changing of the top guard. Mr. Bo is already on the 25-member Politburo and has made no secret of his ambition to take the next step to the Standing Committee, which has 9 members. “It’s the political season and rumors are flying,” said Zheng Yongnian, a political scientist and director of the East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore. “People are not interested in Mr. Wang Lijun,” he said. “They’re interested in what it means for Bo Xilai.” According to reports on China’s microblogs, Mr. Wang had sought refuge at the United States Consulate in Chengdu, several hours from Chongqing, Tuesday night. The police sealed the area around the building, and bloggers posted pictures that appeared to show an unusually heavy security presence in the streets around the building. In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Wang had met with consular officials on Monday but that he had left “of his own volition.” A Chinese reporter with the newspaper Southern Metropolis said that he had learned from police sources that Mr. Wang had tried to enter the consulate, but had been arrested and had since been flown to Beijing for questioning. The post was deleted from the Sina Weibo microblog. Mr. Wang had already been transferred from the head of public security to be the head of the city’s education department, spurring rumors that he was on the way out. Some writers on the microblogs said he had himself become corrupt, while others said that his pledge to take on the economic interest of the children of party rulers had earned him too many enemies. Adding fuel was a statement by the Chongqing city government that Mr. Wang had taken sick leave due to anxiety and work-related physical ailments. Given the secretive nature of Chinese politics, the fact that the rumors were so widespread suggested that something was amiss. Because Chinese leaders put such a priority on presenting a united front, at least in public, the rumors were seen as hurting Mr. Bo. “For Bo Xilai it’s not good news,” said Jin Zhong, chief editor of the China-watching magazine Kaifang in Hong Kong. “The Communist Party has always had a lot of internal factions,” he said. “We don’t know what most of them are but when things like this come up to the top it shows that something is going on.”
|
Communist Party of China;Chongqing (China);Bo Xilai;China;Social Networking (Internet);Beijing (China);Wang Lijun
|
ny0173529
|
[
"us"
] |
2007/10/05
|
In California, Deputies Held Competition on Arrests
|
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 4 — A suburban sheriff’s station has had deputies vying to book the most people and impound the most vehicles, and the Los Angeles County sheriff said Thursday that he had ended the competitions. “It’s not what I consider a management tactic in line with best practices,” Sheriff Lee Baca said. “It could lead to some individuals abusing the system.” Results from the competitions, called Operation Any Booking and Operation Vehicle Impound, had been posted on a wall in the Lakewood station. Two hundred deputies are based in Lakewood, which is the local police force for 120,000 residents in five cities southeast of Los Angeles, Artesia, Bellflower, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood and Paramount. Sheriff Baca said he had not been aware of the competitions, the subject of a front-page article on Thursday in The Los Angeles Times, until the paper contacted him on Wednesday. He said he ordered them stopped on Wednesday. The sheriff called the attention on the contests “much ado about nothing” and said he had no plans to punish the deputies who competed or the “well-intentioned lieutenant” who had the idea. “They’re not acceptable,” he said. “They’re not appropriate. But no harm, no foul. The only disciplinary action I’ve taken is saying to the lieutenant who organized them, ‘Hey, knock this’” off. Sheriff Baca described the contests as a misguided motivational tool to galvanize underperforming deputies. No prizes were offered to the winners, he said. The sheriff said he was unaware of inappropriate arrests or vehicle seizures as a result of the competitions. He acknowledged that although arrests did not increase significantly during the competitions, deputies had impounded more vehicles in one day of Operation Any Booking than was typical. The deputies seized 18 vehicles on July 11, he said, about half the total for the entire month. The Los Angeles County public defender, Michael P. Judge, said the competitions were “akin to a quota system,” the discredited practice in which officers are required to arrest a certain number of people or issue a minimum number of tickets each shift. “It calls into question whether the people who were booked during the competitions should in fact have been arrested, whether there was probable cause or whether they were treated fairly,” Mr. Judge said. “The deputies were put under pressure by their supervisor to produce numbers of actual bookings. That sets up a dangerous environment.” Samuel Walker, an emeritus professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska in Omaha called the competitions “absolutely outrageous.” “I’ve been teaching in this field for 30 years, and even back then it was commonly understood that quotas were a bad idea,” Professor Walker said. “They just encourage bad arrests. They distort policing priorities. They encourage police to make weak arrests that won’t stand up or arrests on trivial matters instead of more serious crimes like gangs, gun violence, drugs, murder.” Sheriff Baca said no other stations in the department, the largest sheriff’s department in the United States, have held similar contests. The Los Angeles Times reported that the contests involved teams of deputies competing in 24-hour periods. In addition to the booking and impounding contests, the newspaper reported, deputies also competed to see how many gang members and other criminal suspects could be stopped and questioned. One officer involved in the contests, Lt. James Tatreau, told the paper, “It’s just a friendly competition to have a little fun out here.”
|
Police;Los Angeles (Calif);Los Angeles Times
|
ny0082794
|
[
"sports",
"horse-racing"
] |
2015/10/29
|
Keeneland Brings Breeders’ Cup to Heart of Horse Country
|
LEXINGTON, Ky. — For the first time in the 31-year history of the Breeders’ Cup, the event will be staged here, in the fertile region that prides itself on breeding and raising some of the world’s finest thoroughbreds. Keeneland will host 13 races totaling $26 million in purses. The two days of competition begin Friday and culminate on Saturday, when the Triple Crown champion American Pharoah participates in the $5 million Classic. “It’s a unique homecoming for horses born and raised here who have gone to various parts of the world to grow and compete for the right to come,” said Bill Thomason, president of Keeneland. The selection of Keeneland, which increased its capacity by 7,000 to 45,000 for the Breeders’ Cup through temporary seating, shows organizers are willing to use smaller tracks, at least occasionally, to get both a passionate crowd and an idyllic setting. Image The trainer Bob Baffert with American Pharoah, the 2015 Triple Crown winner. American Pharoah will make his final start on Saturday in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., which hosted the event the last three years, will rejoin the rotation in 2016 for a record ninth time before another groundbreaking move to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club near San Diego. Del Mar, “where the turf meets the surf,” is similar to Keeneland in that it offers an intimate, picturesque setting and represents one of the few remaining hotbeds of interest in racing. Vince Gabbert, vice president at Keeneland, said of the much-anticipated arrival of the Breeders’ Cup, “It will be the closest Lexington will ever come to hosting a Super Bowl.” The event will have that feel given the participation of American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown champion in 37 years, in a talent-laden Classic. Beholder, seen as American Pharoah’s stiffest challenger, will try to become the second mare to win the Classic. Zenyatta in 2009 was the first. “The fact that we have people banging down the door to get tickets is not a bad thing,” said Craig Fravel, the Breeders’ Cup president since July 2011. Wagering online and at simulcast centers domestically and abroad could offset the smaller amount of money placed on races at smaller tracks. Fravel projected that Keeneland and the Red Mile, a nearby harness racing facility that will host a Breeders’ Cup Bash, would generate about $20 million in wagering handle. He hoped the off-track handle would be seven times that. Keeneland is using temporary luxury chalets in an attempt to boost attendance and attract wealthy fans. “There has been a bit of a philosophical change,” Fravel added. “There used to be the feeling that we needed to be able to announce a crowd of 60,000 to 70,000 people at the track on Saturday. Now, we’re more tuned into the overall experience, to provide premium seats and premium activities.” Fans with less spending power and perhaps the desire for a less staid atmosphere will still have their place at Keeneland. They may flock to the Hill, the traditional setting for tailgating. If there was concern about holding a Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland for the first time, it involved last autumn’s move to a traditional dirt surface, away from the synthetic surface known as Polytrack that was used for the past eight years. Fravel and Thomason insisted that the switch had never been a prerequisite for a successful Cup bid. “What we needed to know was what the conditions were going to be and that whatever track was in place, it had some time under it so they could be familiar with the maintenance of it, horses could be accustomed to it and gamblers would have perspective on how the track performed,” Fravel said. Image Horses breaking from the gate to start the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in April. Keeneland has increased its capacity by 7,000 to 45,000 for the Breeders’ Cup through temporary seating. Credit Garry Jones/Associated Press Polytrack met expectations as an extremely safe surface, but it often made handicapping more difficult when gamblers, typically accustomed to evaluating horses on dirt tracks, had to project how a starter might perform upon switching to a synthetic surface. Major players were often reluctant to make large wagers when that unknown existed. “I would say 90 percent of the handicappers are happy we are back to dirt,” said Jim Goodman, Keeneland’s director of mutuels and simulcasting. “It’s a much better surface to handicap.” Safety concerns arose when three horses sustained fatal injuries in the first week of a 17-day meet this autumn. After a review of the track and a sophisticated maintenance program that involves daily laser measurements of the cushion and moisture content, Thomason expressed confidence that an optimal surface could be provided. He is optimistic, too, that a region inextricably linked to thoroughbreds will not have to wait three decades for another Cup. “We think that after this Breeders’ Cup, their desire to return will be compelling,” Thomason said.
|
Horse racing;Breeders Cup;Lexington KY;Keeneland Race Course
|
ny0170467
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2007/02/02
|
Democracy Rules, and Pop Culture Depends on It
|
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 — No one will vote to declare the winner of the Super Bowl on Sunday. But you might be excused for thinking it possible. Before the game, three amateur singers selected by voters online will be named as finalists in a contest to perform with Justin Timberlake at the Grammy Awards. During the game, aspiring advertising writers — also anointed in voter contests — will see the broadcasts of the ads they created for Chevrolet, Doritos and the National Football League itself. Once it’s all over, fans on YouTube.com can vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercials. Inspired by the success of Fox’s “American Idol” and the open culture of the Internet, voter-based competitions are proliferating in every corner of the entertainment world. Fans are asked to vote on who should earn a record contract with a major label, win the chance to produce a soap opera, create a music video for a Hollywood movie studio, and star in a restaging of “Grease” on Broadway. The trend goes beyond mere “Idol” mimicry. The impulse for self-expression and the new outlets for it — from YouTube’s user-generated content to video chats on Stickam.com — are reshaping how consumers interact with television programs, music, film, video games and other entertainment media. “They’re less willing to be spoon-fed,” said Simon Fuller, the entertainment impresario behind “American Idol.” There is, he added, “this need for a modern person to do more than just watch. We want to get involved. We want to post blogs. We’re more vibrant in opinion.” Yet even as entertainment democracy proliferates, some question how well it works. While “Idol” continues to draw huge audiences, ABC’s singing competition, “The One,” last year drew record low ratings. A CBS show, “Rock Star,” raised modest interest in two seasons but is seen as a long shot to return. Winners of another recent contest, YouTube’s “Underground” music video competition, landed an appearance on “Good Morning America” but remain a long way from stardom. And some skeptics ask whether the spread of such contests is a reflection less of rising populism than of new marketing tricks. “What it really represents is an ever more cleverly manipulated pop culture,” said Dave Marsh, a longtime rock critic and host of a Sirius satellite radio show. “Empowerment becomes a commodity.” Indeed, if the contests so far are any indication, entertainment executives and network officials are not prepared to turn over decisions just yet. Usually a panel of judges made up of established industry figures winnow down the candidates either before or after voters have their say. In criticizing the contests, Mr. Marsh said the mass market spots talent well enough: “The mob chose Elvis Presley, the mob chose James Brown, the mob chose the Beatles.” With executives filtering the process, he said, the result is “disposable” performers “who are selected because they stay away from anything that’s personal or controversial.” The voting processes themselves vary. In “Idol,” viewers vote as often as they want. Other contests, though, are trying to restrict the number of votes a single fan can cast. In the Grammy contest, organizers have accepted only one vote per e-mail address, and say they have received more than 150,000. A similar process is in place at the Web site Music Nation, where fans this week began voting online for musicians from three genres who submit videos. The winner will receive a record contract and a chance to perform in studio for broadcast by Clear Channel, the radio giant. And so the onslaught continues. The NBC series “Grease: You’re the One That I Want” is scouting new talent for a Broadway revival, and is even asking fans to vote on how they will vote. “When voting, what is the most important thing you are going to look for in all the performers competing?” an online poll asks. Inviting people to offer their views “has become an expectation, and it’s a way of life,” said Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which runs the Grammy Awards. The academy learned that firsthand last year when “Idol” pummeled the Grammy telecast in the ratings. Mr. Portnow said that the academy had been looking for new ways to connect with young people. So it ran a contest in which unsigned performers sent in videos of themselves singing a cappella. It received more than 3,000 submissions. An academy panel picked 12, and voters online are to determine who will sing with Mr. Timberlake. Mr. Fuller, the creator of “Idol,” said that the crush of contests — whether as part of talent searches or simply of promotions — suggests that the trend “will just burn out, because people will be sick of it. I think it’s got to go to another level.” Of the current crop of vote-driven ventures, he predicted, “80 percent of those will fail because the motivation for doing them is flawed.” Most, he said, “just think, ‘It’s people like contests and they like to vote, so let’s give them something to do.’ It’s not that simple.” Key to the success of “Idol,” Mr. Fuller and other entertainment executives agree, is stimulating viewer interest in the narratives of contestants pursuing the spotlight — not just giving fans the power to vote. “Voting is actually incredibly easy and therefore not that meaningful,” said Michael Hirschorn, executive vice president for original programming and production at VH-1, which plans a voting-based show of its own, “Acceptable.tv,” this spring. “I don’t think there’s a desperate hunger in the public to grab the reins of artist development.” He added: “But I do think there’s a desire for a deeper emotional connection to artists.” It is far from clear, though, that the connections voters make with their favorite new talents are the sort that are built to last. “Idol” winners like Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino have generally fared poorly with their later albums. Even the debut album of the most recent winner, Taylor Hicks, has tumbled down the charts after selling 298,000 copies in its first week on sale in December, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. Chris Daughtry, a fourth-place finisher on “Idol” last year, does have a best-selling CD. Unlike Mr. Hicks, though, he has benefited from a hit song, “It’s Not Over,” that radio stations put in heavy rotation. That, analysts say, suggests that aspiring stars — even those backed by a bloc of voters — still need support from old-line media gatekeepers like radio and TV stations. Daniel Klaus, Music Nation’s chief executive, said that the future of fan voting was most likely the creation not of superstars but of “microstars” who draw small but avid audiences. Gaining popularity through contests like his, he said, might help a new act sell only 10,000 to 20,000 copies of a song online, for example, but “there will be a few that will go on to bigger and better things.”
|
Television;Contests and Prizes;Computers and the Internet
|
ny0051408
|
[
"business",
"energy-environment"
] |
2014/10/30
|
The ‘Russification’ of Oil Exploration
|
MOSCOW — The American and European sanctions against the Russian oil industry have dashed, at least for now, the Western oil majors’ ambitions to drill in the Arctic Ocean. But drilling will continue all the same, Russian government and state oil company officials have been taking pains to point out, ever since the sanctions took effect over the summer. “We will do it on our own,” Igor I. Sechin, the president of Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, told journalists in October. “We’ll continue drilling here next year and the years after that.” Rather than throw in the towel in the face of Western sanctions intended to halt Russia’s Arctic oil ambitions by stopping technology transfers, the Russians have responded with plans to “Russify” the technology to be deployed in the world’s largest effort to date to extract oil from the thawing Arctic Ocean. The solution to tapping the Arctic, Yevgeny Primakov, a former prime minister, told a group of high officials in October, “is found first of all in our own industrial base.” A major hurdle is already cleared: An Exxon-led joint venture discovered oil in the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean in September, proving the region holds commercially viable volumes of oil. Rosneft is already laying plans to drill without Western oil major cooperation. Along with Exxon, Eni of Italy and Statoil of Norway had joint ventures to work with Rosneft in the Kara, Laptev, and Chukchi seas above Russia. After the September sanctions suspended those deals , Rosneft negotiated to rent from Gazprom four Russian ice-class drilling rigs for next season’s exploration work, should Exxon still be sanction-barred from doing the work next summer. Rosneft has also booked six rigs from North Atlantic Drilling, a unit of Seadrill of Norway, under contracts signed in July and grandfathered in under the sanctions. The Russians are in early talks with the Chinese over sailing rigs from the South China Sea to the Arctic Ocean, industry executives say. This spring as the threat of sanctions loomed, Rosneft bought the Russian and Venezuelan well-drilling business of Weatherford, adding to its in-house capabilities. A further “Russification” of the industry seems inevitable. In October, President Vladimir V. Putin approved the creation of a state-owned oil services company, RBC, a Russian business newspaper reported. The intention is to duplicate, as well as possible, the services purveyed now by Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger. Certainly, some in the oil industry see the Russian official response as bluff, asserting Rosneft has neither the skills nor the capital to drill for oil in its 42 offshore licenses blocks. Under the joint ventures, the Western companies financed and managed the exploration work. The three companies, Exxon, Eni and Statoil, were to invest $20 billion in exploration, and the company has been mute on how it will replace that. Just this summer, Exxon paid $700 million to drill the Universitetskaya-1 well in the Kara Sea. Russia, meanwhile, does not even manufacture subsea hardware like well heads. Rosneft’s finances are restricted to 30-day loans under sanctions. Yet the company and the Russian industry are already tooling up for just such an effort. The sheer uncertainty of sanctions is pushing the Russian industry to turn inward. Russian companies, even those who prefer to work with U.S. oilfield equipment or services providers because the cost or quality is better, can never know when new sanctions might scuttle a deal. “The client looks at you and says ‘I like you, I like your product, but you are not dependable,’ ” Alexis Rodzianko, the director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia said in an interview. Russia now has a “hierarchy of procurement” placing domestic and Asian companies first, U.S. companies last. “The consensus in Russia is this is not a one-off, short-term problem,” Ildar Davletshin, an oil analyst at Renaissance Capital in Moscow, said in an interview, of the Russian effort to pivot to domestic and Asian suppliers. “Nobody will just sit and wait” for sanctions to be lifted, he said. Whether Russian technology can fill the gap left by Western oil majors as the country prepares for the extraordinary engineering challenge of oil drilling under the Arctic ice remains an unsettled question within the industry. Russia brings Soviet legacy technologies, including the world’s only fleet of nuclear icebreakers, awesome machines of immense power, with names like 50 Years of Victory and Yamal, which sail year-round in the Arctic Ocean. “Let’s not underestimate them,” said one oil company executive who visited Exxon’s West Alpha rig this summer, but could not speak publicly because of company policy. Russians are no strangers to the north, and the cold. “They are determined to do it. They might do it on their own.” The Russian intention to do just that became clear out on the Arctic Ocean at the end of the short drilling window this summer. Ice floes were already creeping down from the polar ice cap in tongues when the U.S. government announced Sept. 12 that Exxon was to halt all assistance to Rosneft by Sept. 26, in response to Russian military assistance to a rebel counteroffensive against the Ukrainian Army in late August. The Exxon crew stopped drilling, though the well was only about 75 percent complete. In an early indication of the Russians’ intentions to go it alone after sanctions, Rosneft executives told Exxon they would not allow the West Alpha rig to leave Russian waters without finishing the well, according to the oil company executive familiar with events on the platform in September. If Exxon withdrew American engineers, Rosneft would fly out a Russian replacement crew, putting the localization plan into immediate action, the executive said. Rosneft’s press service contested this characterization of the company’s position, calling it a “fiction.” In the end, Exxon obtained an extension on its waiver to the sanction from the U.S. Treasury Department, stretching the window for work with Rosneft in the Arctic until Oct. 10. The Arctic Ocean, Mr. Sechin said later that month in the interview with Bloomberg News at the drilling site in the Kara Sea, is Russia’s “Saudi Arabia” of oil, vast and pivotal to Russia’s national interests. Rosneft’s website estimates the Kara Sea’s reservoirs hold about 87 billion barrels of oil and the equivalent in natural gas, calling this more than the deposits of the Gulf of Mexico, the Brazilian shelf or the offshore potential north of Alaska and Canada. After a daylong pause on Sept. 12 to Sept. 13, the Russian brinkmanship worked: The American crew continued drilling and about a week later, in mid-September, discovered a vast oil deposit, holding about 750 million barrels of oil. Mr. Sechin thanked Western partners for the find, and named the field Pobeda, or Victory.
|
Oil and Gasoline;Offshore drilling;Arctic Ocean;Russia;Embargoes Sanctions
|
ny0272667
|
[
"us"
] |
2016/05/21
|
Many Readers Say No to Idea of Life-Extending Drug, but Yes for Their Dogs
|
Who would not be eager to take a drug that could help fend off age-related disease, to confer extra years of a healthy life? In fact, many readers of our article about rapamycin claimed they would just say no to such a drug. Rapamycin was tested during a study of dogs at the University of Washington to see if it could slow aging without too many harsh side effects. Lisa Wesel of Maine spoke for many who argued that trying to extend life was like playing God. “This is disturbing on so many levels,” she said . “You can’t cheat death. Period. Nor should you try. Live a good life. Live a decent life. That should be the goal. The world cannot sustain billions and billions of people who have the arrogance to believe that the world is better off with them than without them.” Librarian, writing from California, felt similarly. “Old age, sickness and death, however frightening and alarming they may be to each of us as we consider our own fates, are the natural order of things,” she wrote. “Why do we spend so much time, money and angst battling the inevitable instead of accepting with grace the course that all lives must take? Of course we do not want to be sick and miserable and suffer pain and indignity, but those fears have led us to look on death as some kind of cruel, almost shameful, obscenity that we must resist and deny, all too often with treatments that are in themselves terrifying and horrifying.” Others expressed concern about the environmental and economic implications of a longer life span. “Ah, the unintended consequences of extending life — overpopulation, increasing stress on an already stressed environment, increasing stress on an already stressed retirement system,” wrote Thomas G. Smith, in Cadillac, Mich. “Humans are the most destructive of all species, and the rate of the earth degrading continues to accelerate by the selfishness of us. I have been a family physician for 32 years and already have seen the change brought on by life extension of just 10 years. We will need strict policies to counteract the negative effects of life extension of 30 years.” One reader acknowledged the appeal of being able to play with one’s great-great-grandchildren. “But how in blazes am I supposed to be able to afford to live that long?” asked FJP in Philadelphia. “If the answer is I would have to work to age 85 so I can afford to make it to 120 or beyond, I’m not sure I’m going to sign up for that.” Still, a number of readers found the study intriguing. “I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of a drug to make people live longer, but I’m puzzled by all the comments against it,” Al Maki from Burnaby, British Columbia, said . “I’m 66, and I exercise regularly and pay attention to my diet in the hope that I will live longer and healthier. Many people do this and many others wish they had the self-discipline. I’m surprised so many people think this is a selfish goal. It’s seems quite normal to me.” Patrick, from Chicago, agreed : “Why, oh why, are so many people commenting that we’re somehow ‘meant’ to live a finite life span, and that we should just deal with it, and not try to find ways to extend our life? I say that’s ridiculous. I enjoy my life, and if I could have an extra couple decades, during which I’d be healthy, I’d be thrilled. So, I suspect, would many of the naysaying commenters, if actually given the option.” Another reader put the current research into historical context. “It’s not about living forever,” David Bird from Victoria, British Columbia, explained . “It’s about a holistic approach to dealing with age-related illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s and many cancers. For those who dismiss or condemn it, life expectancy, at birth, for a white American male rose from 47 to 75 from 1900 to 2000. For black males it rose from 33 to 68. You don’t think this is unnatural because it is our norm, but it wasn’t the norm for our great-grandparents. If the results found for the mice could be replicated in humans, we’d live only 12 percent longer, less than 10 years, but our last years would be healthier, putting much less strain on ourselves, our families, and our medical resources.” Wendy from Wyoming added : “I work very closely with individuals who are trying to navigate the Social Security disability process, most of whom are 45-64 years old. During the most productive time of their financial lives, they are literally impoverished by diseases of early aging — early heart disease, advanced osteoarthritis, early cancer. … I strongly support any treatment which will keep people productive and out of nursing facilities until their 80s and 90s. Everyone talks about ‘the nature of aging,’ but one of the truths about the human condition is that we already cheated nature many times over our evolutionary development. The first hack occurred when the human species was able to grow old enough to transmit valuable survival information from grandparent to grandchild, which corresponded to a dramatic improvement in human survival.” Perhaps the most passionate voices, though, came from readers completely unconcerned about human life span. “Not sure I want to live forever, but my dog? YES!” exclaimed Brian from Montana. “I don’t want to live longer, but if dogs could live longer that would be wonderful,” a reader named Mary mused . “Beloved dogs are too soon gone from our lives.” “The heck with human research — I just want my dogs to live longer,” Durt from Los Angeles said . A reader whose dog was among the 40 studied chimed in. “My dog Rascal is featured in the article, and I’ve been thrilled with the results of the clinical trial,” Rose and Rascal wrote from Seattle. “This drug made Rascal’s heart beat more efficiently again like it did when he was a younger dog. He’s happier and friendlier and has more energy. If it buys me an extra year or two with my big dog — who will not live as long as smaller dogs — then I’ll take it. One thing which did not make it into the article: Rascal is my service dog, as I am disabled. … Rascal is the love of my life, and I have worked hard his entire life to ensure he get high quality food, lots of exercise, and rigorous training to make him the healthiest and happiest dog he can be. … Getting an assist from science nearly 10 years later is a BONUS.” Finally, Concerned Citizen from Anywheresville gave voice to the issues inherent in prolonging either canine or human life. “I lost my dearest and most beloved ‘heart dog’ four years ago,” she explained . “I loved her so much, I would have done literally anything legal or safe to keep her with me a few more years. If I had the resources, I would have had her cloned. I was nearly crazy with grief at the loss. But … if she had not died, the dog I have now would have probably died in a shelter. As it was, she was waiting for eight months and running out of time, and going ‘kennel crazy.’ She was older, and overweight; nobody wanted her. I wouldn’t have gotten a second dog. So this dog would have died, had my other dog lived.” She added: “See? it is all a cycle and it is all connected. Is there meaning and purpose behind this? A grand design? I guess I won’t know myself until the end.”
|
Dog;Longevity;University of Washington
|
ny0272266
|
[
"technology",
"personaltech"
] |
2016/05/17
|
Shape-Shifting in Instagram
|
Q. Is it possible to post photos in other shapes besides square on Instagram? A. While the square format has been an Instagram hallmark since the service started in 2010 , the company announced last year that it will allow users of its app to share photos and videos taken in the rectangular horizontal landscape and vertical portrait orientations. Specifically, Instagram now allows images with aspect ratios between 1.91:1 and 4:5 . (Those who once preferred not to crop their photos for posting in earlier times had to resort to third-party apps.) To use the different shapes for your photos , you need to be using at least version 7.5 of the Instagram app for Android or iOS ; a Windows 10 Mobile beta version of the official app was released this spring . When you have selected a photo to use from your device’s photo library, tap the small round icon in the bottom-left corner of the image to change from the square format to its natural landscape or portrait shape. (Tap the icon again if you change your mind and want to return to the square.) After the photo has expanded into its new aspect ratio, you can use your fingers on the screen to zoom in and reposition it. When you are satisfied, tap the Next button to move on to the filter-application-and-posting process. When you share the photo, it will then appear in its new rectangular shape in public, but you will see it as a cropped square in the collection of posted images on your Instagram profile page within the app.
|
Instagram;Photography;Mobile Apps
|
ny0150597
|
[
"us"
] |
2008/08/04
|
Anthrax Evidence Called Mostly Circumstantial
|
The evidence amassed by F.B.I. investigators against Dr. Bruce E. Ivins , the Army scientist who killed himself last week after learning that he was likely to be charged in the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, was largely circumstantial, and a grand jury in Washington was planning to hear several more weeks of testimony before issuing an indictment, a person who has been briefed on the investigation said on Sunday. While genetic analysis had linked the anthrax letters to a supply of the deadly bacterium in Dr. Ivins’s laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., at least 10 people had access to the flask containing that anthrax, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation also have no evidence proving that Dr. Ivins visited New Jersey on the dates in September and October 2001 when investigators believe the letters were sent from a Princeton mailbox, the source said. The source acknowledged that there might be some elements of the evidence of which he was unaware. And while he characterized what he did know about as “damning,” he said that instead of irrefutable proof, investigators had an array of indirect evidence that they argue strongly implicates Dr. Ivins in the attacks, which killed 5 people and sickened 17 others. That evidence includes tracing the prestamped envelopes used in the attacks to stock sold in three Maryland post offices, including one in Frederick, frequented by Dr. Ivins, who had long rented a post office box there under an assumed name, the source said. The evidence also includes records of the scientist’s extensive after-hours use of his lab at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases around the time the letters were mailed, the source said. In an indication that investigators were still trying to strengthen their case, F.B.I. agents took two public computers from the downtown public library in Frederick last week, The Frederick News-Post reported. One law enforcement official said on Sunday that evidence against Dr. Ivins might be made public as early as Wednesday, if the bureau could persuade a federal judge to unseal the evidence and if agents could brief survivors of the anthrax attacks and family members of those who died. Paul F. Kemp, a lawyer for Dr. Ivins who maintains his client’s innocence, declined to comment for the record on Sunday on the alleged evidence. The stakes for the beleaguered F.B.I. and its troubled investigation, now in its seventh year, could hardly be higher. The bureau, having recently paid off one wrongly singled-out researcher, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, now stands accused by Dr. Ivins’s lawyer and some of his colleagues of hounding an innocent man to suicide. Only by making public a powerful case that Dr. Ivins was behind the letters can the F.B.I. begin to redeem itself, members of Congress say and some bureau officials admit privately. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the former Democratic leader of the Senate and one target of the deadly letters, said on Sunday that he had long had grave doubts about the investigation. “From the very beginning, I’ve had real concerns about the quality of the investigation,” Mr. Daschle said on Fox News Sunday. “Given the fact that they already paid somebody else $5 million for the mistakes they must have made gives you some indication of the overall caliber and quality of the investigation,” Mr. Daschle added. He was referring to the government’s settlement in June with Dr. Hatfill, which pays him $2.825 million plus $150,000 a year for life to compensate him for what the F.B.I. now acknowledges was a devastating focus for years on the wrong man. Mr. Daschle said he did not know whether the new focus on Dr. Ivins was “just another false track.” He added, “We don’t know, and they aren’t telling us.” John Miller, an F.B.I. assistant director, declined on Sunday to address criticism of the investigation, one of the largest and most costly in bureau history. “As soon as the legal constraints barring disclosure are removed, we will make public as much information as possible,” Mr. Miller said in a statement. “We will do that at one time, in one place. We will do that after those who were injured and the families of those who died are briefed, which is only appropriate.” He added, “I don’t believe it will be helpful to respond piecemeal to any judgments made by anyone before they know a fuller set of facts.” The unsealed evidence would likely include affidavits for search warrants laying out the bureau’s reasons for focusing on Dr. Ivins, including summaries of scientific evidence that investigators consider central to their case. Dr. Ivins’s house near the gates to Fort Detrick was the subject of an extensive search by F.B.I. agents last Nov. 1, and bureau surveillance vehicles openly followed the scientist for about a year, according to people who knew him. Dr. Ivins, 62, had acted strangely in the weeks before his death, and he was hospitalized from about July 10 to July 23 after associates concluded that he might be a danger to himself or others. Jean C. Duley, a social worker who had treated him in group therapy, sought a restraining order against him. He had said he expected to be charged with “five capital murders,” she said, and had threatened to kill colleagues and himself. Ms. Duley did not say that Dr. Ivins had confessed to the anthrax attacks, and the scientist left no suicide note, according to an official briefed on the investigation. Critics say the Hatfill settlement was the culmination of a pattern of blunders in the investigation. The F.B.I. and the United States Postal Inspection Service have thrown a huge amount of resources into the hunt for the anthrax mailer, whose letters dislodged members of Congress and Supreme Court justices from contaminated buildings, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up. Yet from the beginning, public glimpses of the investigators’ work prompted serious questions. “What has bothered me is the unscientific, bumbling approach of our investigators,” said Representative Rush D. Holt, a Democrat and physicist whose New Jersey district includes the contaminated Princeton mailbox. Mr. Holt said in a recent interview that his first doubts came after anthrax was found in his Congressional office in October 2001 but investigators never returned to conduct systematic testing to trace the path of the anthrax spores. After that, he said, when contamination at a New Jersey postal processing center indicated that the letters had been mailed on one of a limited number of routes, it took investigators seven months to test several hundred mailboxes and identify the source. “Within two days they could have dispatched 50 people to wipe all those mailboxes,” Mr. Holt said. He wrote to Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, on Friday to ask that he testify to Congress about the investigation as soon as it is closed. When investigators questioned people around the Princeton mailbox about whether they had seen a suspect there, they showed passers-by photos of only Dr. Hatfill, according to local residents who were questioned. Criminologists said that only by showing photos of a number of people could investigators have confidence in an eyewitness identification of Dr. Hatfill or any other suspect. Some experts also questioned the F.B.I.’s use of bloodhounds from local police departments to try to trace a scent from the recovered letters to suspects’ homes, including that of Dr. Hatfill. Law enforcement sources at the time said the bloodhounds’ reactions at Dr. Hatfill’s apartment were one reason for the F.B.I.’s intense focus on him. But independent bloodhound handlers said it was highly unlikely that a useful scent could be obtained from letters that might have been handled by the perpetrator with gloves, had rubbed against thousands of other scents in the mail and then were irradiated to kill the dangerous spores.
|
Ivins Bruce E;Anthrax;Federal Bureau of Investigation;Postal Service;Suicides and Suicide Attempts;Letters
|
ny0234073
|
[
"business"
] |
2010/01/04
|
Steven Cohen’s Ex-Wife Has New Lawyer
|
Patricia Cohen, the ex-wife of the hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, has a new lawyer representing her in the civil racketeering lawsuit she filed against Mr. Cohen. Gaytri Kachroo has taken over the case from Paul Batista, a New York lawyer. In various federal inquiries and hearings, Ms. Kachroo represented Harry Markopolos, the whistle-blower who spent a decade trying to warn authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, that Bernard L. Madoff was running an extensive Ponzi scheme . Ms. Cohen approached Ms. Kachroo soon after her case was filed in mid-December in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. “She felt her case wasn’t getting the attention it required,” said Ms. Kachroo, who is not a litigator but is a corporate lawyer with her own practice. After reviewing the documents and learning of new facts that were not included in the original lawsuit, Ms. Kachroo said she decided to accept the case. “I think we have a very strong case, especially in light of the facts that we’ve uncovered,” she said. She declined to elaborate on those facts, but said they would be included in a new or amended complaint. Mr. Batista, Ms. Cohen’s previous lawyer, said: “I wish her well. I’m surprised as I felt I gave her all the attention her case deserved.” As in other divorces involving prominent business figures, the case threatens to turn a spotlight on private business dealings. Ms. Cohen asserts that Mr. Cohen hid millions of dollars in marital assets when the two divorced more than 20 years ago. She says he lied under oath about his net worth, conducted mail and wire fraud, and concealed from her and the Supreme Court of New York millions of dollars he held in 1990, thus reducing her divorce settlement. She also accused him of conceding to her in 1985, while they were married, that he had received inside information about the takeover of RCA by General Electric. Mr. Cohen runs SAC Capital Advisors, a hedge fund that manages $13 billion. Ms. Cohen’s lawsuit, which seeks $300 million, was filed under a civil version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, that is often used against organized crime and almost never used in divorce cases. It allows plaintiffs to seek triple damages. Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Mr. Cohen, said: “Changing counsel does not change the fact that this is a completely irresponsible filing, entirely without merit.” Lawyers say RICO cases have to meet unusually high statutory standards and such cases face a four-year statute of limitations. Ms. Kachroo said that she believed Ms. Cohen had plenty of time within the statute of limitations based on when she discovered the facts that underlie the case. “We have longer than people think we do,” she said. Ms. Kachroo has 120 days from the time the case was filed to submit a new complaint or amend the current one; she can change venues as well. She will determine her next move soon. Mr. Cohen is estimated to be worth $6 billion.
|
Suits and Litigation;Divorce Separations and Annulments;Ponzi Schemes;Hedge Funds;Cohen Steven A;Securities and Commodities Violations;RCA;Cohen Patrica
|
ny0278906
|
[
"us"
] |
2016/11/12
|
Protests of Trump’s Election Continue Into Third Day
|
For the third day in a row since Donald J. Trump was elected president, thousands of people took part in protests that bloomed across the country, venting their frustration at the election results. In Miami, protesters shook signs and chanted during a demonstration on Friday evening, blocking the causeway that connects the city’s downtown and South Beach. In Madison, Wis., they interrupted commuters near the University of Wisconsin. Near Iowa City, they blocked traffic on a section of Interstate 80. In Portland, Ore., the police reported a shooting around 1 a.m. Saturday at a bridge that had been blocked by demonstrators. Witnesses said a protester had been shot in the leg after an altercation with a car full of people, who they said were angry about traffic being stalled. The police released a description of a suspect, who they said had fled. Demonstrators also marched in Atlanta , rushing over a bridge to block a highway. Later in the evening, a flag was set alight in front of the Georgia Capitol , as protesters referenced Mr. Trump’s campaign slogan, chanting “America was never great,” while accompanied by a steady drumbeat. Image Demonstrators chanted during a protest in Miami on Friday. Credit Al Diaz/Miami Herald, via Associated Press They protested in Tempe, Ariz., and Orlando , Fla., in Raleigh , N.C., and Olympia , Wash. Shouts of “Not my president” and chants declaring “We don’t accept the president-elect” rang out over Sixth Avenue in Manhattan as a crowd began to march uptown toward Trump Tower, the home of the president-elect. Late Friday night, the New York Police Department said that 11 people had been arrested for disorderly conduct. Earlier in Washington Square Park, which is surrounded by the buildings of New York University, a crowd alternated between chants of protest and words of encouragement for one another. Near a bench off the center of the park, an eerie plastic mannequin that was missing its head had been abandoned. Pinned to its chest was a Post-it note, on which was written “NOT MY PRESIDENT,” with a heart in the bottom right corner. Not all of the protests were directed toward the results of the election. A reporter in Wichita, Kan., clarified that a small protest in the city was not being called an anti-Trump protest, but instead a “call to action moving forward.” In many cities, hundreds of protesters gathered on the streets. But shortly before 10 p.m. Friday, for the most part, the demonstrators had been peaceful and orderly, mostly creating traffic snarls for commuters and not much else. The relative quiet in the early evening was a contrast from the night before , when protests were more heavily attended in some places and became chaotic in Portland. There, the police arrested more than two dozen people and characterized the protest as a riot because of “extensive criminal and dangerous behavior.” Portland’s police were out in greater force on Friday night, deploying gas and pepper spray as they faced off with more than 1,000 demonstrators before the shooting on the bridge. Thursday’s demonstrations led Mr. Trump to Twitter, where he protested the protesters. The next morning, the president-elect seemed to reconsider . “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country,” he said. “We will all come together and be proud!”
|
Civil Unrest;2016 Presidential Election;Donald Trump
|
ny0246191
|
[
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] |
2011/04/23
|
B.Y.U. Player May Return
|
Brigham Young forward Brandon Davies expects to play next season despite being dismissed from the team last season for violating the university’s honor code. A university spokeswoman said that Davies voluntarily withdrew from B.Y.U. after completing his finals but was working with the dean of students to return in the fall. Before being dismissed March 1, Davies started 26 of 29 games and was the team’s second-leading scorer (11.1 points) and its leading rebounder (6.2).
|
Basketball;Brigham Young University;Davies Brandon;Basketball (College)
|
ny0269842
|
[
"business",
"economy"
] |
2016/04/07
|
Fed Still Waving Caution Flag on Resuming Interest Rate Increases
|
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials not only decided against raising interest rates at their most recent meeting in March , but they also came close to ruling out an increase at their next meeting this month. The Fed is in a patient mood despite the continued expansion of the American economy because the pace of domestic growth is still modest and the global economy remains weak. Officials still see more reasons to worry about raising rates too quickly than reasons to worry about waiting, according to an official account of the March policy meeting, which the Fed published on Wednesday. Indeed, several officials at the March meeting said they were already leaning against a rate increase in April because that “would signal a sense of urgency they did not think appropriate.” A week ago, Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, emphasized the need for patience, and officials at the coming meeting are likely to cement expectations that the Fed’s policy-making committee, the Federal Open Market Committee, will not seriously consider raising interest rates until June. Yet the account also described significant divisions among the 17 officials on the committee regarding basic issues, like the strength of inflation and the risk weak global growth poses to the domestic economy. Some officials continue to push for a faster pace of rate increases. Esther L. George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, noted in an interview this week that concerns about financial markets and global growth had not been sufficient to shift the Fed’s economic outlook, and so those worries should not have derailed its plans. “As I look historically at when policy has gotten off-track, I think it is that desire, which I absolutely understand, to wait for more certainty,” said Ms. George, the only member of the policy committee who voted to raise the Fed’s benchmark rate at the March meeting. “You want to see that the economy is on as stable a footing as it can be. But historically those waits can be costly.” The Fed raised its benchmark rate in December for the first time since the financial crisis. It held short-term rates near zero for seven years to encourage borrowing and risk-taking. By raising rates as the economy gains strength, the Fed now plans to gradually reduce those incentives. But in March, the Fed decided against raising rates for a second time , and it indicated plans to raise rates this year by half a percentage point, not a full point. Ms. Yellen and other Fed officials have emphasized since the meeting that they do not see evidence of economic weakening. The meeting account described domestic growth as “resilient.” But a tightening of financial conditions has done some of the Fed’s work, raising borrowing costs without an increase in the Fed’s benchmark rate. And the account said officials saw an increased risk that problems elsewhere could disrupt the relative strength of domestic growth. “Several participants expressed the view that the underlying factors abroad that led to a sharp, though temporary, deterioration in global financial conditions earlier this year had not been fully resolved and thus posed ongoing downside risks,” the account said. While the Fed’s economic forecast held steady, the number of officials who saw underperformance as the most likely alternative outcome jumped to eight, from just three in the last survey, in December. There’s also a strategic argument for caution. The Fed still has little room to respond to any signs of weakness by cutting rates, its traditional and most powerful tool. At the same time, Ms. Yellen and her allies argued the Fed could respond to faster growth by raising rates more quickly. “This asymmetry,” the March meeting account said, “made it prudent to wait for additional information regarding the underlying strength of economic activity and prospects for inflation before taking another step to reduce policy accommodation.” Ms. George said this understated the risks of moving quickly. “When I hear people say, ‘We can raise rates quickly,’ mechanically, that’s true,” she said. “Is that desirable? I don’t think so.” Ms. George and one other official, who did not have a vote at this meeting, agreed that rates should be raised in March. A broader group, however, wasn’t ready to write off April. Several officials, the account said, thought a rate increase then still “might well be warranted.” The account made clear that the Fed’s primary focus is on the strength of the economy, with little concern about faster inflation. Instead, officials debated whether inflation remained too weak or whether it was returning to a normal pace. Some inflation measures have increased in recent months. The Fed’s preferred gauge estimated that prices increased by 1.7 percent over the 12 months that ended in February, the highest reading in some time and close to the 2 percent annual pace the Fed regards as optimal. Ms. Yellen and other Fed officials, however, have said they are not yet convinced that a strengthening trend has taken hold. Fed officials’ latest projections, published in March, showed most expected somewhat weaker inflation this year. “Some participants saw the increase as consistent with a firming trend in inflation,” the account said. “Some others, however, expressed the view that the increase was unlikely to be sustained, in part because it appeared to reflect, to an appreciable degree, increases in prices that had been relatively volatile in the past.”
|
Federal Reserve;US Economy;Interest rate;Janet L Yellen
|
ny0111517
|
[
"technology",
"personaltech"
] |
2012/02/16
|
Avid Studio, iMovie, VidTrim and Other Mobile Movie Editors
|
Movie-editing software is probably among the most underused technologies on the consumer market. Powerful programs like Adobe’s Premiere Elements and Apple’s iMovie often come preinstalled on desktop computers, but many people never use them. Mobile software could change that. Apps like VidTrim (free on Android), Avid Studio for iPad ($5) and the mobile version of iMovie ($5 on Apple) are less ambitious than the desktop programs, so they’re easier to learn. And with mobile devices quickly replacing camcorders, you can shoot, edit and share your video with others within a few minutes. I found iMovie the easiest and most versatile video-editing app for Apple products. People who own both iPhones and iPads can buy iMovie once, and it’ll work on both devices. The app is designed for people who want to shoot and immediately edit and export their videos, without fussing with too many postproduction special effects. It’s slightly difficult to understand at first, but there are a few tricks that can help flatten the learning curve. The first trick is finding the tutorial. IMovie includes no help button on pages where you’re editing video, which of course is where you’ll most likely seek help. Instead, the familiar question mark button appears only on the home page. That tutorial, which is also online , is well worth perusing before you start a project, since it highlights features you might otherwise overlook. The basics are simple enough. You can load multiple clips and photos from your Apple mobile device’s camera roll into a single “project” and drag and drop them into your preferred sequence. IMovie does a great job of presenting your camera roll’s contents. Thumbnail images expand so you can sample video clips before choosing what you like. There are other helpful touches. If you load more than one clip into an iMovie project, for instance, it weaves them together with smooth transitions, and if you add photos, iMovie automatically adds movement to them via the “Ken Burns” panning effect. You can then add music from your phone’s iTunes library or choose from music and sound effects in one of the several themes offered. Those themes include Travel, Modern and Bright, among others, and the graphics and sound effects are tailored to the themes. The Travel theme, for instance, includes an upbeat acoustic tune, and the graphics feature a map that pinpoints the place where the video was edited. Other complications occasionally arose, as when I tried to prevent an opening graphic from appearing throughout the video, but I found that iMovie offers no option for fading out graphics after a specified time. I was forced to create a break (or “splice”) in the video at the point where I wanted the graphics to stop. Then, while adding that break, I somehow deleted an entire scene and couldn’t retrieve it. I had no such troubles with the iPad version of iMovie, thanks to its critically important “undo” button. When I mistakenly deleted a scene, that button saved me. Someone later reminded me that by shaking an iPhone you can often prompt an “undo” button to appear on the screen, and this was indeed the case with iMovie. But that advice came too late to save my lost scene. Avid Studio is more ambitious than iMovie in the variety of special effects one can weave into a video, like animated titles and animated transitions for video sequences and various typefaces for titles. And it offers a timer so you can move quickly to specific points, which was helpful when working with longer videos. In other ways, though, it was not as refined as iMovie. When choosing video clips from the device’s camera roll, for instance, I found the thumbnail images slightly blurry, and the video-sampling feature wasn’t as good as it was with iMovie. And, when I typed titles into the app, it accepted more words than it could ultimately fit on the screen, which led to poor results when I played the full clip. The app also lacks a voice-over option, which is available on iMovie, and users of the original iPad have left reviews in the App Store complaining that the app often crashes. Avid updated its app on Wednesday, partly to address performance issues. On Android, Clesh ($5) and VidTrim were far less versatile than either of the Apple apps I tested, but VidTrim was simpler than Clesh. Clesh required me to register before using it (and it chose its own username and password for me). When I finally opened it, I found the editing features limited and buried in a confusing layout. VidTrim is much more straightforward, but considerably more limited. Its core feature is a slider that lets users trim a video from either end of a clip. From there, you can save the original version and share the clipped version via e-mail, text, Facebook or YouTube. This is roughly the same functionality that comes standard in the iPhone’s and iPad’s camera. Put another way, these apps reveal a window of opportunity big enough for Android app developers to drive a truck through. Android users should expect to see someone exploit that opportunity in time to edit this year’s round of holiday videos. Quick Calls Vonage is taking aim at Skype, with a new free app on Android and Apple . Vonage Mobile offers free calling and texting to other Vonage Mobile users and cheap international calls.... ImageAmmo ($4 on Apple) offers a cool way to view photo thumbnails in 3-D. With a VGA connector or AirPlay, the app lets you control the display through a mobile device.
|
Mobile Applications;Photography;Video Recordings and Downloads
|
ny0234211
|
[
"business",
"global"
] |
2010/01/02
|
For Some of Japan’s Jobless, Homes Just 5 Feet Wide
|
TOKYO — For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels. “It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. “You get used to it.” When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel’s tiny plastic cubicles offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home. Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II. Once-booming exporters laid off workers en masse in 2009 as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, have become homeless. The country’s woes have led the government to open emergency shelters over the New Year holiday in a nationwide drive to help the homeless. The Democratic Party, which swept to power in September, wants to avoid the fate of the previous pro-business government, which was caught off-guard when unemployed workers pitched tents near public offices last year to call attention to their plight. “In this bitter-cold New Year’s season, the government intends to do all it can to help those who face hardship,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a video posted Dec. 26 on YouTube. “You are not alone.” On Friday, he visited a Tokyo shelter housing 700 homeless people, telling reporters that “help can’t wait.” Mr. Nakanishi considers himself relatively lucky. After working odd jobs on an Isuzu assembly line, at pachinko parlors and as a security guard, Mr. Nakanishi, 40, moved into the capsule hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district in April to save on rent while he worked night shifts at a delivery company. Mr. Nakanishi, who studied economics at a regional university, dreams of becoming a lawyer and pores over legal manuals during the day. But with no job since Christmas, he does not know how much longer he can afford a capsule bed. The rent is surprisingly high for such a small space: 59,000 yen a month, or about $640, for an upper bunk. But with no upfront deposit or extra utility charges, and basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, Mr. Nakanishi says. Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows. Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks. Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance. “Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train,” said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel. But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for dwellers of a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsules are rented out by the month. After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode; that made it easier to land job interviews. At 2 a.m. on one recent December night, two young women watched the American television show “24” on a TV inside the sauna. One said she had traveled to Tokyo from her native Gunma, north of the city, to look for work. She intended to be a hostess at one of the capital’s cabaret clubs, where women engage in conversation with men for a fee. The woman, 20, said she was hoping to land a job with a club that would put her up in an apartment. She declined to give her name because she did not want her family to know her whereabouts. “It’s tough to live like this, but it won’t be for too long,” she said. “At least there are more jobs here than in Gunma.” The government says about 15,800 people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone. Those numbers do not count the city’s “hidden” homeless, like those who live in capsule hotels. There is also a floating population that sleeps overnight in the country’s many 24-hour Internet cafes and saunas. The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at a record high, and the number of households on welfare has risen sharply. The country’s 15.7 percent poverty rate is one of the highest among industrialized nations. These statistics have helped shatter an image, held since the country’s rise as an industrial power in the 1970s, that Japan is a classless society. “When the country enjoyed rapid economic growth, standards of living improved across the board and class differences were obscured,” said Prof. Hiroshi Ishida of the University of Tokyo. “With a stagnating economy, class is more visible again.” The government has poured money into bolstering Japan’s social welfare system, promising cash payments to households with children and abolishing tuition fees at public high schools. Still, Naoto Iwaya, 46, is on the verge of joining the hopeless. A former tuna fisherman, he has been living at another capsule hotel in Tokyo since August. He most recently worked on a landfill at the city’s Haneda Airport, but that job ended last month. “I have looked and looked, but there are no jobs. Now my savings are almost gone,” Mr. Iwaya said, after checking into an emergency shelter in Tokyo. He will be allowed to stay until Monday. After that, he said, “I don’t know where I can go.”
|
Japan;Unemployment;Hotels and Motels;Tokyo (Japan);Economic Conditions and Trends;Housing and Real Estate
|
ny0174340
|
[
"us"
] |
2007/10/17
|
In Shift, 40% of Immigrants Move Directly to Suburbs
|
About 4 in 10 immigrants are moving directly from abroad to the nation’s suburbs, which are growing increasingly diverse, according to census figures released yesterday. The Census Bureau’s annual survey of residential mobility also found that after steadily declining for more than a half-century, the proportion of Americans who move in any given year appears to have leveled off at about one in seven. “For blacks, especially, it mimics the 50s-style suburban movement, most pronounced for married couples with children, owners and the upwardly mobile,” said William H. Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer. Dr. Frey’s analysis of mobility patterns found that while Hispanic and Asian immigrants were more likely to settle first in the nation’s cities, “after they get settled, they follow the train to the suburbs.” The migration of blacks to the South continued, with net gains of blacks also seen in the West. The South was the dominant region in recording gains among Hispanics living in the United States who moved. “The fast growth of construction and low-skilled jobs, plus the general affordability of parts of the South for upwardly mobile Hispanics, has made the South a key destination,” Dr. Frey said. The 2006 Current Population Survey found that nearly 40 million people had moved in the preceding year, or about 14 percent. Residential mobility has remained at that rate for several years now after declining steadily from a high of 20 percent since the census began measuring it in 1948. While the census count of movers from abroad includes returning citizens, the bulk of movers are foreign born. Audrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said traditional gateway cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles were still magnets for immigrants who move to join friends and relatives. But particularly in the South and West, where central cities were less likely to develop dense cores, immigrants are following jobs to the suburbs and settling there first. “It’s a really important shift,” Ms. Singer said. The highest rates of moving were among residents of the West and the South, Hispanic people, the unemployed and renters. Some 30 percent of renters lived elsewhere a year earlier, compared with 7 percent of owners. Almost half of the movers said they changed residences because they wanted more space or less. Sixty-two percent moved within the same county, 20 percent moved from another county in the same state, 14 percent moved from another state and 3 percent moved from abroad.
|
Immigration and Refugees;Suburbs;Hispanic-Americans;Blacks;Frey William H;United States
|
ny0059530
|
[
"science"
] |
2014/08/19
|
Geckos Rely on Foot Hairs, Not Insurance
|
Geckos manipulate the hairs on the bottom of their feet to be sticky or not, allowing them to run on almost any surface, Oregon State University researchers say in The Journal of Applied Physics . The branched hairs, or seta, can unstick from walls and ceilings in an instant.
|
Lizards;Foot;Journal of Applied Physics
|
ny0004639
|
[
"sports",
"basketball"
] |
2013/04/21
|
N.B.A. Playoffs — Family Line From the Knicks to the Celtics
|
WALTHAM, Mass. — The man lay in a hospital in Raleigh, N.C., no longer able to fight the pancreatic cancer that had ravaged his body. He would, he and his family knew, never see his first grandchild, who would be born on Thanksgiving Day 1983, six months down the road. Ronnie Shavlik had only weeks to live, but his daughter, Kim, showed him something that, at least for a moment, made all the pain disappear. It was an ultrasound picture of the grandchild. The picture revealed that the baby would probably be a big one, maybe even a basketball player, like his grandfather. “Obviously, I wasn’t there,” Boston Celtics center-forward Shavlik Randolph said last week, recounting the story. “But from what I’m told, my grandpa opened his eyes and smiled.” Ronnie Shavlik might have smiled even more had he known that his grandson would measure 24 inches at birth, still a hospital record, according to Shavlik Randolph’s father, Kenny. And he would be smiling still today, with his grandson part of the Celtics’ roster. Ronnie Shavlik was 49 when he died, and his grandson is named Ronald Shavlik Randolph in his honor. A burly 6 feet 8 inches, Ronnie Shavlik passed along not only his height genes to his grandson — Shavlik Randolph is 6-10 — but his basketball-playing ones as well. Ronnie Shavlik was a three-time all-Atlantic Coast Conference player at North Carolina State from 1954 to 56, a consensus all-American as a senior. He still is the university’s career leading rebounder. He once scored 55 points in a game, and he also holds N.C. State’s record for rebounds in a game (35) and a season. He also was the Knicks’ first pick in the 1956 N.B.A. draft, the fourth over all, two picks after an athletic center from the University of San Francisco named Bill Russell. “I remember him well,” Tom Heinsohn, a territorial pick of the Celtics in that draft, said of Shavlik. “He was a big guy. We were rookies together. We also roomed together for a weekend at North Carolina State when we were in high school. He ended up going there. I got offered a scholarship, but I didn’t like the red clay.” Shavlik’s N.B.A. career consisted of eight games, seven in his first season, 1956-57. He had started a business while at N.C. State and moved back to Raleigh to get it off the ground. “His goal was never to be a great N.B.A. player,” Kenny Randolph said of his father-in-law. “He wanted to get the business started.” Image After two seasons in China, Shavlik Randolph (42) signed with the Celtics in March. Credit Jared Wickerham/Getty Images Shavlik Randolph said he had seen some grainy video clips of his grandfather and had heard endless stories about him. Ronnie Shavlik’s No. 84 jersey has been honored by N.C. State and hangs in the rafters of PNC Arena. Randolph was a ball boy for N.C. State games until he turned 12. Randolph, who ended up at Duke, has always gone by his middle name. He said his friends sometimes called him Ronald when they wanted to tease him. His father said, “If he walked by you and you called out, ‘Hey, Ron,’ he’d keep right on walking.” Randolph said, “Until people saw me, they always thought I was black. Or Russian. The last thing they expected to see when they laid eyes on me was a white Southern kid from North Carolina.” The Celtics signed Randolph in March after he had completed the second of two seasons in China, where, he said, he was paid more than he would have received had he been in the N.B.A. But his goal has always been to play — and stay — in the N.B.A. From 2005 to 2010, he had injury-plagued stints with Philadelphia, Portland and Miami, appearing in just 95 games, 57 of them as a Sixers rookie in 2005-6. Until the Celtics signed him a month ago, his last N.B.A. game had been on April 14, 2010, when he played a little more than 23 minutes for the pre-LeBron James Heat. “He can play,” Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said of Randolph. “I really don’t know why he hasn’t been in the league, and hopefully we never find that out. Some players need to be in the right place, and this might be it for him.” Randolph said: “I definitely have had some really good moments here. But I also know you’re only as good as your last game. I try to give the team what it needs, nothing more, nothing less.” So what would the former Knick Ronnie Shavlik think of his grandson playing for the hated Celtics? Against his former team in the playoffs? “I can safely say on his behalf that he would be rooting for the Boston Celtics,” Kenny Randolph said. “And so will we.” And when Shavlik Randolph makes his first playoff appearance since 2008, he will be wearing No. 42. It’s the only number he has worn since middle school because, he said, “I just hope I can be half the man my grandpa was.” That, too, would have made Ronnie Shavlik smile.
|
Knicks;Celtics;Basketball;Ronnie Shavlik
|
ny0295358
|
[
"sports",
"football"
] |
2016/12/11
|
Russell Wilson Throws Five Interceptions as Seahawks Implode at Lambeau
|
Aaron Rodgers passed for 246 yards and three touchdowns, and the Green Bay Packers routed the Seattle Seahawks, 38-10, at a frigid Lambeau Field on Sunday. Seattle’s Russell Wilson threw a career-high five interceptions, and the Packers won their third straight game to remain in the playoff hunt. They are two games behind first-place Detroit in the N.F.C. North, but they play division opponents in the final three weeks of the season. Green Bay gained more than 300 yards in Seattle’s first game without safety Earl Thomas, who is out for the season with a broken leg. Rodgers set the tone on the opening drive after connecting with receiver Davante Adams on a perfectly thrown pass down the right sideline for a 66-yard touchdown. Cornerback Jeremy Lane slipped on the play. “This is such a rare occurrence for our team,” Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll said of the lopsided loss. “It’s just something at this time we have to push behind us and get going.” Wilson finished 22 of 39 for 240 yards and a touchdown. STEELERS 27, BILLS 20 Le’Veon Bell scored three times and set a team record with 236 rushing yards on a snow-covered field to lead Pittsburgh past Buffalo in Orchard Park, N.Y. The Steelers overcame Ben Roethlisberger’s three interceptions to win their fourth straight game and keep pace in the A.F.C. playoff race. The loss all but eliminated the Bills from the postseason and threatened to extend the N.F.L.’s longest active playoff drought to 17 years. After scoring in the first half on 3- and 7-yard runs, Bell put the game away on the opening possession of the third quarter. He had nine rushes for 72 yards during an 82-yard drive and capped it by scoring from 5 yards out. LIONS 20, BEARS 17 Matthew Stafford ran for a go-ahead 7-yard touchdown with 3 minutes 17 seconds left after throwing two interceptions in the fourth quarter, one that was returned for a touchdown, and Detroit survived visiting Chicago. Matt Barkley completed two passes that would have put the Bears in position to try for a tying field goal in the final minute, but both were negated by penalties, and Chicago turned the ball over on downs at the Detroit 44-yard line. The Lions have won five straight games and eight of nine, moving them a step closer to winning a division title for the first time in 23 years. DOLPHINS 26, CARDINALS 23 Ryan Tannehill threw three touchdown passes before being sidelined with a left knee injury that could end his season, and Andrew Franks kicked a 21-yard field goal as time expired to help Miami edge Arizona in Miami Gardens, Fla. Dolphins Coach Adam Gase said the team feared Tannehill had torn his anterior cruciate ligament. He will undergo further tests on Monday. Tannehill limped to the locker room late in the third quarter after being hit by defensive tackle Calais Campbell. TITANS 13, BRONCOS 10 DeMarco Murray ran for 92 yards and a touchdown, and Tennessee held on to beat Denver in Nashville and maintain a share of the lead in the A.F.C. South. The Titans came into the game with the N.F.L.’s third-best rushing offense and the A.F.C.’s top rusher in Murray, and they battered a Denver defense ranked 28th against the run. By halftime, the Titans led, 13-0, having gained 138 yards on 26 rushing attempts — the second-most carries by a team in the first half this season. Tennessee had to hold on as Trevor Siemian tried to rally Denver despite a left foot sprain that kept him out last week. He threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders with 9:58 remaining and then drove the Broncos to a 34-yard field goal by Brandon McManus with 4:28 left. BUCCANEERS 16, SAINTS 11 Tampa Bay bolstered its playoff hopes by building an early lead and holding off Drew Brees and visiting New Orleans for its fifth straight victory. Doug Martin scored on a 1-yard run, Roberto Aguayo kicked three field goals, and an improving defense intercepted Brees, the league’s passing leader, three times while not allowing him to throw for a touchdown. Brees began the day leading the league in completions, attempts, completion percentage, passing yards and touchdown passes. FALCONS 42, RAMS 14 Matt Ryan passed for 237 yards and three touchdowns, and Atlanta forced five turnovers in Los Angeles. Deion Jones returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown, and Vic Beasley forced a fumble by Jared Goff and returned it for another score for the Falcons. Tevin Coleman caught a scoring pass and rushed for another touchdown for Atlanta. REDSKINS 27, EAGLES 22 Chris Thompson’s 25-yard touchdown run with 1:54 remaining propelled Washington to victory in Philadelphia. Kirk Cousins finished with two touchdown passes, including an 80-yarder to DeSean Jackson, but he also threw an interception that was returned for a score. The Eagles took a 22-21 lead when Caleb Sturgis hit a 41-yard field goal with 4:59 left. Carson Wentz drove the Eagles to the Redskins’ 14-yard line in the final minute, but Ryan Kerrigan sacked him to force a fumble and seal the win. TEXANS 22, COLTS 17 Lamar Miller scored Houston’s only touchdown, and the Texans’ defense stopped Andrew Luck on Indianapolis’s final drive to win on the road. Luck drove the Colts to the Texans’ 42-yard line with 1:24 left. But on fourth-and-1, a blitz forced Luck to throw a screen pass to Robert Turbin that was incomplete, and Houston ran out the clock. Miller finished with 21 carries for 107 yards. VIKINGS 25, JAGUARS 16 Matt Asiata scored on a short touchdown run, Kai Forbath kicked four field goals, and visiting Minnesota defeated Jacksonville for only its second win in nine weeks. Asiata had two other chances to score, but he was stopped on a fourth-and-goal in the second quarter, and he fumbled at the goal line in the fourth. Sam Bradford completed 24 of 34 passes for 292 yards and a touchdown for the Vikings. PANTHERS 28, CHARGERS 16 Carolina’s defense forced Philip Rivers into five turnovers, sacked him five times and added a safety as the Panthers defeated San Diego in Charlotte, N.C. Cam Newton went 10 of 27 for 160 yards with a touchdown and an interception as Carolina kept its slim playoff hopes alive. BENGALS 23, BROWNS 10 Robert Griffin III returned from injury but could not lead host Cleveland to its first win, as Cincinnati built a big early lead in the snow. Andy Dalton threw two touchdown passes to Tyler Eifert, and the Bengals remained in the running for a postseason berth.
|
Football;Russell Wilson;Seahawks;Packers;Aaron Rodgers
|
ny0153255
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2008/01/02
|
Let’s Just Say, It Was Crowded
|
How many people rang in the new year at Times Square on Monday night? The simple answer is: One heck of a lot. The complicated answer is: Perhaps only the Police Department knows for sure, and it won’t tell you. “We have stopped providing official counts” of large public gatherings “because no one was ever satisfied with them,” said Paul J. Browne, the department’s deputy commissioner for public information. “Whatever the count was, it was usually never enough for whatever group was involved.” That has not prevented other people, however, from estimating the number of bodies that squeeze into Times Square and its environs every New Year’s Eve. Jeffrey A. Straus, the president of Countdown Entertainment, the company that organizes the ball drop in coordination with the Times Square Alliance, estimated that Monday night’s crowd totaled at least one million people. “I’ve been doing this now for 13 years,” he said. “I’m in the TV truck with our cameras. We can see people from 43rd Street to Central Park on Broadway and Seventh Avenue.” Monday’s crowd was swelled by the mild weather, he said. “People want to be together. That’s what the magic is. People want to be part of that official countdown.” Mr. Straus said that for many years the police shared its estimates with the organizers. The last time the police provided a number was Dec. 31, 2000, he said, when the estimate was also one million people. Other estimates in recent years have been much lower. In most years in the late 1990s, newspaper accounts tended to cite figures of around 500,000. That is fairly consistent with the numbers issued by the Police Department when it still provided crowd estimates. A chart printed in The New York Times in 1993 showed that from 1986 to 1991, police estimates of Times Square attendance on New Year’s Eve ranged from about 300,000 to about 600,000. The one major exception was Dec. 31, 1999, for the countdown to 2000. Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was mayor at the time, said that the crowd was “pushing two million.” That prompted an analysis by The Times, which found reason for skepticism. The crowd is penned behind metal barriers on Broadway and Seventh Avenue on the blocks north of 42nd Street, with a lane about 10 feet wide kept clear on the street. That means there is a fair amount of open space. The Times calculated the total surface area on Seventh Avenue and Broadway, including the street and sidewalk, from Central Park South to 34th Street (where many people in 1999 watched the ball drop on large television screens). Using a measurement of two square feet per person, which has long been standard in estimating crowd sizes, the analysis determined that the total capacity of the viewing area that year was approximately 430,000 people. Adding some additional capacity to account for spillover onto side streets, the analysis determined that there was room for about 700,000 people — during what was certainly the most ballyhooed celebration in the history of the Times Square event. This year’s crowd covered less area, however, than that throng. It extended from Central Park South only to 42nd Street, along Broadway and Seventh Avenue, Mr. Browne said, with some additional crowds in Central Park and along the side streets. Mr. Browne said that he did not know how long ago the department stopped releasing its crowd estimates for all sorts of events, from parades to protests, but that it was probably about a decade ago. Paul Wertheimer, the president of Crowd Management Strategies, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm, said that many police agencies across the country became reluctant to reveal crowd-size estimates after the Million Man March in Washington in 1995, which was organized by the Nation of Islam. The National Park Service estimated that the march drew 400,000 people. A furor ensued when the organizers insisted the number was far larger. A year later, the park service said it would no longer make crowd estimates. “What did in fact kind of ruin it, and frightened police agencies or those people that estimated it away, was when it became a political issue,” Mr. Wertheimer said. “The organizers can charge prejudice if they don’t get the numbers that they believe occurred.” But he said police agencies continued to estimate the size of such crowds to help them plan for future events and to evaluate their effectiveness in handling large crowds. The New York Police Department has at least two ways of estimating the size of a large crowd. One is to use aerial photographs taken by a helicopter flying overhead, Mr. Browne said. The police then place a grid over the photograph and count the number of people inside one section of the grid. They can then count the other sections and multiply to come up with an estimate. The second method, used for parades or other events where people are lined up behind metal barriers on streets and sidewalks, relies on a rule of thumb of about 2,500 people per block, Mr. Browne said. That figure is meant to be a total that includes people on both sides of a street, he said. That rule would not seem to apply to the Times Square celebration, however, partly because the barricaded areas were often larger than those for a typical parade. Broadway and Seventh Avenue each run for 17 blocks from 42nd to 59th Streets, for a total of 34 blocks. But multiplying 34 by 2,500, using the parade formula, yields just 85,000 people, clearly a gross underestimate. Mr. Straus, the event organizer, acknowledged that calculating the number of people packed into Times Square on New Year’s Eve can feel a little like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar. “It’s an art, not a science,” he said. “And at the end of the day, does it really matter? It’s a lot of people.”
|
Times Square and 42nd Street (NYC);New Year;Police;Countdown Entertainment
|
ny0009125
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2013/02/03
|
Iceland, Prosecutor of Bankers, Sees Meager Returns
|
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — As chief of police in a tiny fishing town for 11 years, Olafur Hauksson developed what he thought was a basic understanding of the criminal mind. The typical lawbreaker, he said, recalling his many encounters with small-time criminals, “clearly knows that he crossed the line” and generally sees “the difference between right and wrong.” Today, the burly, 48-year-old former policeman is struggling with a very different sort of suspect. Reassigned to Reykjavik, the Icelandic capital, to lead what has become one of the world’s most sweeping investigation into the bankers whose actions contributed to the global financial crisis in 2008 , Mr. Hauksson now faces suspects who “are not aware of when they crossed the line” and “defend their actions every step of the way.” With the global economy still struggling to recover from the financial maelstrom five years ago, governments around the world have been criticized for largely failing to punish the bankers who were responsible for the calamity. But even here in Iceland, a country of just 320,000 that has gone after financiers with far more vigor than the United States and other countries hit by the crisis, obtaining criminal convictions has proved devilishly difficult. Public hostility toward bankers is so strong in Iceland that “it is easier to say you are dealing drugs than to say you’re a banker,” said Thorvaldur Sigurjonsson, the former head of trading for Kaupthing, a once high-flying bank that crumbled. He has been called in for questioning by Mr. Hauksson’s office but has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Yet, in the four years since the Icelandic Parliament passed a law ordering the appointment of an unnamed special prosecutor to investigate those blamed for the country’s spectacular meltdown in 2008, only a handful of bankers have been convicted. Ministers in a left-leaning coalition government elected after the crash agree that the wheels of justice have ground slowly, but they call for patience, explaining that the process must follow the law, not vengeful passions. “We are not going after people just to satisfy public anger,” said Steingrimur J. Sigfusson , Iceland’s minister of industry, a former finance minister and leader of the Left-Green Movement that is part of the governing coalition. Image ON THE MEND Reykjavik is Iceland’s capital. Credit Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times Hordur Torfa, a popular singer-songwriter who helped organize protests that forced the previous conservative government to resign, acknowledged that “people are getting impatient” but said they needed to accept that “this is not the French Revolution. I don’t believe in taking bankers out and hanging them or shooting them.” Others are less patient. “The whole process is far too slow,” said Thorarinn Einarsson, a left-wing activist. “It only shows that ‘banksters’ can get away with doing whatever they want.” Mr. Hauksson, the special prosecutor, said he was frustrated by the slow pace but thought it vital that his office scrupulously follow legal procedure. “Revenge is not something we want as our main driver in this process. Our work must be proper today and be seen as proper in the future,” he said. Part of the difficulty in prosecuting bankers, he said, is that the law is often unclear on what constitutes a criminal offense in high finance. “Greed is not a crime,” he noted. “But the question is: where does greed lead?” Mr. Hauksson said it was often easy to show that bankers violated their own internal rules for lending and other activities, but “as in all cases involving theft or fraud, the most difficult thing is proving intent.” And there are the bankers themselves. Those who have been brought in for questioning often bristle at being asked to account for their actions. “They are not used to being questioned. These people are not used to finding themselves in this situation,” Mr. Hauksson said. They also hire expensive lawyers. The special prosecutor’s office initially had only five staff members but now has more than 100 investigators, lawyers and financial experts, and it has relocated to a big new office. It has opened about 100 cases, with more than 120 people now under investigation for possible crimes relating to an Icelandic financial sector that grew so big it dwarfed the rest of the economy. To help ease Mr. Hauksson’s task, legislators amended the law to allow investigators easy access to confidential bank information, something that previously required a court order. Image A woman initiates a transaction with Arion bank, formerly Kaupthing, a once high-flying bank that crumbled. Iceland has gone after financiers with far more vigor than the United States and others. Credit Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times Parliament also voted to put the country’s prime minister at the time of the banking debacle on trial for negligence before a special tribunal. (A proposal to try his cabinet failed.) Mr. Hauksson was not involved in the case against the former leader, Geir H. Haarde, who last year was found guilty of failing to keep ministers properly informed about the 2008 crisis but was acquitted on more serious charges that could have resulted in a prison sentence. Meanwhile, an investigative commission appointed by Parliament first reported to it in April 2010 and later published a nine-volume account of the financial crash, including a study of what philosophers charged with investigating ethical issues behind the crisis called a “moral void” at the heart of Icelandic finance. Vilhjalmur Arnason, a philosophy professor at Iceland University who worked on the study, described the exercise as “very important for reasons of justice and for reconciliation” in a society traumatized by a crash so severe that it threatened to capsize the country. But, he added, bankers alone were not responsible, as “the whole society was so intoxicated” by values that put profit ahead of morality, the law and even common sense. After the crash, the new government pushed to restructure the failed banks, purging their former management and owners and prodding them to write off a big chunk of their loans to homeowners burdened with big mortgages. The government declined to bail out foreign bondholders, who lost about $85 billion. Iceland now has a growing economy. But it is not entirely clear that Iceland deserves its reputation as a warrior against Wall Street orthodoxy. In time, Iceland won praise from the International Monetary Fund for sharp cuts in spending and tax increases that slashed the government’s deficit and helped put the country back on an even keel. Certainly Iceland, in contrast to the United States and most other countries, has pursued not only little-known financiers but also many of the country’s biggest names in banking and business. “We have been aiming at the upper levels rather than the lower levels,” Mr. Hauksson said. His biggest scalp so far is that of Larus Welding, the former chief executive of Glitnir, one of the trio of banks that failed in 2008. Mr. Welding and a second former Glitnir executive were found guilty of fraud over a $70 million loan to a company that owned shares in the bank. Mr. Welding, who is now standing trial in a second case along with one of the country’s most prominent business tycoons, Jon Asgeir Johannesson, was sentenced in December to nine months in prison, six of which were suspended. Image Thorvaldur Sigurjonsson, the former head of trading for Kaupthing. He has been questioned but not charged with wrongdoing. Credit Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times The light sentence enraged many Icelanders, but, Mr. Hauksson said, “the important thing is that we got a conviction.” By contrast in Ireland, which put taxpayers on the hook for tens of billions of dollars owed by failed banks, the former chief of the failed Anglo Irish Bank has been charged with financial irregularities but so far no senior bank executive has yet been found guilty of a crime. Prosecuting bankers was never going to be easy, particularly in a country like Iceland, which is so small that nearly everybody in the capital has a friend or family member who worked at one time in finance. When Iceland’s Justice Ministry first advertised for applicants for the new post of special prosecutor, nobody responded. Mr. Hauksson, an outsider with no network of friends and relatives in Reykjavik, was then urged to apply during a second attempt to fill the post and was given the job. “I thought this was something that had to be looked into,” Mr. Hauksson said. “If we prosecute small cases we also have to look into big cases.” But, he added, this risks “opening up a Pandora’s box” that can escalate even relatively simple cases “into something very big.” The high stakes have also left some investigators vulnerable to temptation: two former members of Mr. Hauksson’s staff were placed under criminal investigation last year for selling confidential information for 30 million Icelandic krona (around $233,000) to the administrator of a bankrupt company who was trying to locate missing assets. That episode has not dented Iceland’s heroic image among antibanker campaigners abroad. Mr. Sigfusson, the minister of industry, said he was regularly invited to speak on how Iceland dealt with its banking crisis. Iceland, he said, has “no magic solution” but has managed to push through unpopular cuts in spending in part because it managed to curb public anger by pushing for the prosecution of its bankers. Today, Iceland’s bankers are both mocked for their recklessness during the boom years and reviled for pushing the country to the brink of economic ruin. Mr. Sigurjonsson, the former Kaupthing banker, said a “big umbrella of suspicion” has opened up over anybody who worked in finance and unfairly stigmatized “highly educated and very able people who can lend a hand in resurrecting the country.” He said he was shocked recently when he heard the young daughter of a friend, also a former banker, ask, “Daddy, why are bankers all criminals?”
|
Banking and Finance;Economy;Special prosecutor;Iceland;Kaupthing Bank;Anglo Irish Bank
|
ny0133320
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2008/03/03
|
After Ribbing Clinton, Fawning Over Obama
|
Hillary Rodham Clinton is a fashion victim, but Barack Obama ? Oh, he’s a good dancer, a cool dad, a regular guy who likes ice cream and chili, and who happens to be a pal of Bono and George Clooney even though he isn’t impressed by celebrity. At least, that’s the view from Us Weekly. Three weeks ago, the magazine published a dozen photos of Mrs. Clinton in some of her most stylistically questionable get-ups of the last four decades, and invited her to make fun of the outfits, which she gamely did. The new issue of Us Weekly turns to her Democratic rival, making Mr. Obama the subject of the magazine’s regular “Is he really just like Us?” feature. In a magazine that delights in skewering people, the man who would lead the nation received uniformly flattering treatment. So with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign complaining that she gets grilled by the media and he gets hero worship, is Us Weekly’s treatment a case of media bias? Nonsense, says Janice Min, the editor. “There are actually some pretty strong Hillary supporters here, and some McCain supporters,” she said. She added, “but there are a lot of people who are completely over the top for Barack Obama.” And as she said after the piece on Mrs. Clinton was published, the idea for one on Mr. Obama came from “an editor who is a big Barack Obama supporter.” The most important thing about the Clinton piece, she said, was that it gave the candidate a chance to be funny and self-deprecating, and she was. “The forum Hillary Clinton got was a forum that we thought would appeal to her, in that a lot of people view her as almost machinelike,” Ms. Min said. “She has been criticized for having no sense of humor, so what better way to deflect your critics than to make fun of yourself?” Besides, she said, the treatment of candidates is bound to be different when one is so well-known to the nation and the other is still being introduced. Us Weekly is owned by Wenner Media, publisher of Rolling Stone, which published a profile of Mr. Obama last year but has not had an article about Mrs. Clinton in this campaign. Jann S. Wenner, the company’s chairman, and Rolling Stone opposed the Iraq war, and people close to Mr. Wenner say he soured on Mrs. Clinton when she voted to authorize the war. Many politicians would like to reach Us Weekly’s readers, who are mostly middle-class women. It sells two million copies of each issue, half a million more than Rolling Stone, and it publishes twice as often. Mr. Obama let Us Weekly’s news director, Lara Cohen, spend a day with him on the campaign trail, giving him a chance to play the celebrity-pop culture game, while seeming just a bit above it all. He indicated that he doesn’t read Us Weekly, and he refused to field the “boxers or briefs” question that Bill Clinton famously answered on MTV in 1994. Ms. Min said she told Ms. Cohen to ask that question. “I said, ‘Do you think Barack Obama is doing an Us Weekly interview because he wants to be asked about health care?’ ”
|
Clinton Hillary Rodham;Obama Barack;Us Weekly;Presidential Election of 2008;Magazines
|
ny0104595
|
[
"us"
] |
2012/03/08
|
New Hampshire: Bill Would End Requirement on Contraceptives Coverage Among Some Employers
|
The Republican-dominated State House passed a bill on Wednesday that would exempt employers with religious objections from having to cover contraception for employees. The bill would change a state law, passed in 1999, requiring insurance companies to cover contraception. The House speaker, William O’Brien, sought such an exemption as a national debate erupted over a federal mandate for contraception coverage. The Senate is expected to take up the bill in April.
|
New Hampshire;Birth Control and Family Planning;Law and Legislation;Health Insurance and Managed Care
|
ny0077741
|
[
"world",
"africa"
] |
2015/05/24
|
Kenya: Thousands Attend Italian Nun’s Beatification
|
Tens of thousands of people gathered in the central town of Nyeri on Saturday to attend the beatification ceremony of an Italian nun, Sister Irene Stefani, who worked for many years in Kenya until her death in 1930 at the age of 39. Sister Stefani, who belonged to the Consolata Missionary Sisters, arrived in Kenya in 1915, according to a website dedicated to her beatification. During her time in Kenya she served as a Red Cross nurse and treated East African soldiers wounded during World War I. Decades later, a miracle was attributed to her: In Mozambique, about 270 people held captive in a church during that country’s civil war prayed to her, and a small font produced enough water for all of them, according to a Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation.
|
Nun;Beatification;Kenya;Irene Stefani
|
ny0228692
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2010/07/31
|
Deadly German Stampede Gets Its Villain
|
DUISBURG, GERMANY — On Saturday, this city plans to hold a memorial service for the 21 people who died after being trampled in a tunnel trying to attend the Love Parade music festival here. The Germany chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to interrupt her vacation to attend the service. But the mayor of Duisburg, Adolf Sauerland, won’t be present. Mr. Sauerland, who has been in charge of this aging industrial city of 490,000 people since 2004, told a WAZ Media reporter in an interview on Thursday that he would stay away “out of respect for the families of the victims.” It was one of his few public statements since the tragedy, at which at least 500 people were also seriously injured, occurred on July 24. Mr. Sauerland, who sought out the annual music event for his city, was hugely popular here until the tragedy. A member of the moderate-conservative Christian Democratic Union, which runs the national government in coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats, his election ended decades of rule by the Social Democrats. He mixed easily with locals, and was known for using the informal “Du” (you) instead of the formal “Sie.” Now he is a pariah, holed up in his office and protected day and night by the police. Mr. Sauerland no longer sleeps at home; he has received several death threats and members of his family members, fearing for their safety, have left town. “If Sauerland attended” the memorial service, Bjorn Munich, a 35-year-old Duisburg resident, said, “he would be lynched.” These days it is eerily quiet in the Rathaus, the city’s town hall. Politicians around the country, newspaper and television commentators and many citizens of Duisburg are calling for Mr. Sauerland to resign and accept some responsibility. Mr. Saulerland’s spokeswoman, Anja Hungeburth, said the mayor felt it was best to stay away from the service because he “did not want to cause any kind of provocation.” It is still not clear exactly what caused the deadly stampede at the music festival, which grew from a 1989 peace demonstration into a huge outdoor celebration of club cultures that drew about 1.5 million people at its peak in 1999. The location was transferred from Berlin to the Ruhr region in the mid-2000s. It was supposed to be held last year in Bochum, but the local authorities said no, arguing that they did not have the facilities to cope with such a large crowd. Mr. Sauerland, sensing an opportunity, decided to go after the event for Duisburg as part of his effort to turn around this declining industrial city by attracting culture, services and high-tech industry. “It was Sauerland’s big thing,” said Johannes Pflug, a Social Democrat who represents Duisburg in the federal Parliament, or Bundestag. “He wanted to show that Dusiburg could do it, that he could change the image of Duisburg. But now, after the tragedy, he is in a very difficult situation.” The tragedy took place in the late afternoon as participants crowded into the underpass on the way to the entrance even after the main gate was closed in an attempt to control the flow of revelers. The prosecutor of Duisburg has called for an official investigation. The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger, this week sought to spread the blame to the organizers and the city council for failing to take adequate security and safety measures. The festival grounds, held on a former railroad depot, had a capacity for about 250,000, but an estimated 1.4. million people tried to attend the festival. Mr. Sauerland, in his interview on Thursday, denied any responsibility for the Love Parade tragedy. “There could only be personal responsibility if there had been unjustified interference in the planning process,” he said. “That was not the case.” Mr. Sauerland’s retreat into seclusion puzzles Mr. Pflug, the parliamentary representative. “He is shocked, stubborn, or simply does not know how to deal with the tragedy,” Mr. Pflug said. “He was fixated on the Love Parade. Now he is such an isolated figure, the way he sits in the Rathaus.” The Rathaus is no more than a brisk 20-minute walk from the tunnel where the tragedy took place. The path to the tunnel starts from the back entrance to the main railway station, snaking along a quiet, non-descript residential area before reaching some retail stores. Over the past days, this route has become a pilgrimage. Both ends of the tunnel are open. They have been transformed by beds of flowers, candles, teddy bears and other personal mementoes commemorating the dead. Some of the visitors cry softly. Others take photos. Teenagers hold hands. Many of those visiting the site attended the festival. Deniz Tufan Bozkuet, 19, was one of those. “Everything seemed O.K. to me,” said Mr. Bozkuet, who arrived before noon at the festival, well before the stampede took place. “There was no information put over on the loudspeakers. Nothing. I was so shocked when I eventually left to go home. The place was swarming with ambulances and police. My parents were worried. They could not reach me. The telephone lines were overloaded.” Laure Böhmer, 18, came much closer to being caught up in the tragedy. In the late afternoon, she was on her way from the railway station to the tunnel entrance when a police officer urged her to turn back. “In fact, he pleaded with me,” Ms. Böhmer said. “He said there were just too many people inside.” Laure’s mother, Karin, had been listening to the radio when reports came in of an accident at the Love Parade. “I managed the third time to get through by texting to Laure,” she said. “I asked her to come home and forget about the Love Parade. Thank God she did not get into the grounds. We owe it to the policeman.” For Joana Horch, a 26-year-old language student, it was her fourth Love Parade. She did not feel comfortable from the very beginning. “This time, we could feel something was amiss,” she said. “It’s hard to explain. It was almost scary. There was police and private security personnel present from the main railway station to the tunnel. We were channeled into one direction towards the tunnel.” But in the tunnel, she recalled, there was no security. “We were already a mass of people,” she said. “Once we got out of the tunnel, we had to reach the grounds by climbing a concrete ramp which had high walls on both sides. We could see behind us a big concentration of people building up inside the tunnel.” Inside the festival, she and her friends enjoyed the music for several hours. “We were told nothing about what was happening outside,” she said. Not knowing of the deaths, they headed back to the train station through the main tunnel, where — inexplicably — the police were still allowing people to go. “It was shocking,” she said. “You cannot imagine it. We could see corpses. It was chaotic. People were walking over bodies.” It will be her last Love Parade — and everybody else’s. The organizers said this week they would never hold the event again.
|
Germany;Stampedes;Music;Parades
|
ny0253230
|
[
"business"
] |
2011/10/10
|
New Law Creates Demand for Patent Specialists
|
Patent lawyers are in such demand that their specialty may account for more than 15 percent of law firm job openings while representing just 3 percent of lawyers in the United States. Such lawyers typically have degrees in fields like engineering as well as law. Some law firms are now almost doubling recruitment fees to meet the growing demand for specialists in intellectual property, or I.P., particularly in technology, said T. J. Duane, a principal at a legal recruitment firm, Lateral Link. “There is a boom in I.P., with many openings in what is usually a niche practice,” Mr. Duane said. The demand can be attributed in part to the America Invents Act, the biggest overhaul in the United States patent system in six decades. The legislation, which changes how patents are processed and reviewed, is spurring a race among law firms for star talent in a small pool of patent lawyers. More than 230 positions are open for patent lawyers among the more than 1,400 nationwide for all lawyers, with a majority in the San Francisco Bay area, home to Silicon Valley, Mr. Duane said. About 60 posts have been open since July. An additional 25 were added last month, he said. “The quantity of qualified attorneys who can perform this work is limited,” Mr. Duane said. Lateral hires among law firms are on the rise after two years of decline. They jumped 38 percent last year after plummeting 52 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a report by the National Association of Law Placement. Hiring among law school graduates continues to weaken as large law firms fill fewer positions. The employment rate among American law school graduates fell 4.7 percent last year, the association said. About 40,000 patent lawyers and agents are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office , having passed a separate patent bar examination, according to the office. While patent agents have taken the patent exam, they are not lawyers who have taken state bar tests, the patent office said on its Web site. Agents may prepare patent applications and conduct cases before the patent office, though they are not permitted to litigate in court or draw up contracts. “These are hard people to find,” said Barton E. Showalter, chairman of the intellectual property department at Baker Botts in Dallas. About 1.2 million lawyers are licensed in the country, according to the American Bar Association. The patent act, the culmination of more than a decade of negotiations and lobbying, is putting a high premium on the best patent lawyers, Mr. Showalter said. “It’s an exceedingly complex law now with a number of new procedures,” he said. “That puts a premium on highly technical-skilled patent lawyers.” Law firms are also being pressured by technology clients that have expanded into new growth areas like cloud computing, said Mark J. Itri, the leader of the intellectual property practice group at McDermott Will & Emery. Some companies have also consolidated the number of patent lawyers they work with to cut costs, Mr. Itri said. “Near term, you’ll see a big demand to hire to meet some of those client needs,” he said. Mr. Itri’s firm has hired 28 patent lawyers and patent agents this year, adding roughly a dozen last month alone, as it seeks to expand its patent prosecution practice. The firm plans to hire an additional 20 by next spring, he said. The most highly sought degrees held by patent lawyers are in electrical engineering, computer science and computer engineering, Mr. Duane said. The ideal candidate would hold a doctoral degree in electrical engineering, have graduated from a top 10 law school and have worked for four years at a strong law firm, Mr. Duane said. “That person could get a job anywhere,” he said. If the talent is not available, Mr. Duane said, “some firms may end up closing their positions or repurposing the general practice attorneys to focus on the nontechnical sides of these complex cases.”
|
Inventions and Patents;Legal Profession;Patent and Trademark Office;Intellectual Property;Law and Legislation
|
ny0244036
|
[
"us"
] |
2011/03/22
|
Restoring Copyright to Public Domain Works - Adam Liptak
|
WASHINGTON Supreme Court arguments often concern not just the narrow issue in the case but also the implications of a ruling. You sometimes catch the justices squinting, trying to see over the legal horizon. Nine years ago, for instance, the court heard arguments in a case about whether Congress was free to add 20 years of copyright protection for works that had not yet entered the public domain. Several justices asked about a different and even tougher question: Was Congress also free to restore copyright protection to works that had entered the public domain and become public property? “If Congress tomorrow wants to give a copyright to a publisher solely for the purpose of publishing and disseminating Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, it can do it?” Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked a lawyer for the government. “It may,” said the lawyer, Theodore B. Olson, who was United States solicitor general at the time. But he did not sound too sure. A little later, Justice David H. Souter pressed Mr. Olson on the same point and elicited the concession that restoring a copyright presented a much harder case. “There is a bright line there” for “something that has already gone into the public domain,” Mr. Olson said. Justice Souter seemed satisfied. “If you don’t throw out a line there,” he said, “then Ben Jonson certainly gets recopyrighted.” The court ended up ruling, by a 7-to-2 vote in 2003 in Eldred v. Ashcroft , that extensions for works still under copyright are allowed. This month, the court agreed to hear a case on the question Justices Breyer and Souter anticipated, one that will test whether there is indeed a constitutional line Congress may not cross when it comes to the public domain. The new case asks whether Congress acted constitutionally in 1994 by restoring copyrights in foreign works that had belonged to the public, including films by Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini, books by C. S. Lewis and Virginia Woolf, symphonies by Prokofiev and Stravinsky and paintings by Picasso, including “Guernica.” “The works that qualify for copyright restoration probably number in the millions,” Marybeth Peters, the United States register of copyrights, said in 1996. The plaintiffs in the new case, Golan v. Holder , are orchestra conductors, teachers and film archivists who say they had relied for years on the free availability of works in the public domain that they had performed, adapted and distributed. The 1994 law, they told the justices , “did something unprecedented in the history of American intellectual property law and constitutionally profound.” Lawrence Golan, the lead plaintiff, teaches conducting at the University of Denver and is the music director and conductor of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra in Washington State. He said the 1994 law made it very difficult for smaller orchestras to play some seminal 20th-century works that had once been a standard part of their repertories. “Once you own a Beethoven symphony, you own it till it falls apart,” he said. “That used to be the case with Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Now an orchestra that wants to play, say, Shostakovich’s Fifth has to rent it for $800 for one performance.” He said he had no quarrel with providing financial incentives to people who create art. “Obviously, current composers need to be encouraged to create their works, and they should be getting royalties,” Mr. Golan said. But he said withdrawing works from the public domain did great harm to the cultural life of small communities for no good reason. That analysis, Mr. Golan’s lawyers say, is consistent with the constitutional balance between property and speech. The Constitution authorizes Congress “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” In other words, said Anthony T. Falzone of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society , which represents the plaintiffs, the Constitution meant to create incentives, not monopolies. “The whole point wasn’t to protect stuff,” he said. “It was to encourage people to make stuff, and everybody’s lost sight of that.” The government counters that nothing in the 1994 law did damage to the constitutional structure or to free speech rights. The government adds that the 1994 law applies to foreign works “previously ineligible for protection or whose authors were unfamiliar with the technicalities of United States law.” Every work brought back into copyright protection, the government says, “expires on the same day as if the work had been protected since its creation.” The federal appeals court in Denver, in upholding the law, said there were important First Amendment interests at stake on both sides. It concluded that there was reason to think that American authors and artists would be better off abroad if foreign authors and artists received expanded copyright protection here. That economic calculation rankled Mr. Falzone. “You’re selling public property,” he said. “Congress literally took the public’s property and handed it over to foreign copyright owners.”
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Copyrights and Copyright Violations;Constitution (US);Supreme Court
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ny0281142
|
[
"business",
"dealbook"
] |
2016/10/23
|
AT&T Agrees to Buy Time Warner for $85.4 Billion
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In the world of media, bigger remains better. So in the wake of Comcast’s $30 billion takeover of NBCUniversal and Verizon Communications’ serial acquisitions of the Huffington Post and Yahoo, AT&T has bought one of the remaining crown jewels of the entertainment industry. The telecommunications giant agreed on Saturday to buy Time Warner, the home of HBO and CNN, for about $85.4 billion, creating a new colossus capable of both producing content and distributing it to millions with wireless phones, broadband subscriptions and satellite TV connections. The proposed deal is likely to spur yet more consolidation among media companies, which have already looked to partners to get bigger. This year, Lionsgate struck a deal to buy the pay-TV channel Starz for $4.4 billion . And the Redstone family, which controls both CBS and Viacom, has urged the corporate siblings, which split 10 years ago, to consider reuniting . AT&T and Time Warner said both of their boards unanimously approved the deal. “When Jeff and I started talking, it became clear to us very quickly that we shared a very similar vision,” Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, told reporters on a conference call on Saturday, referring to Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive. “Time Warner, we believe, is the clear leader in premium content.” Most analysts and investors have noted that Time Warner was part of one of the biggest merger follies of all time, when it sold itself to AOL at the height of the dot-com boom. That combination — also pitched on the idea of uniting content and the internet — proved unwieldy and was later stripped apart to a few core businesses. This time, however, the rise of online outlets like Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube and the shift of younger customers from traditional media have pressured media companies to seek out consolidation partners. These media companies are anticipating drops in fees from cable service providers and declining revenue from advertisers. Getting bigger would give them more negotiating leverage with both service providers and with advertisers. Among their top priorities is finding new ways of reaching consumers. HBO, for example, offers its HBO Now service to deliver shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Westworld” to consumers who do not have cable subscriptions. Even Disney, widely seen as the strongest content company, with brands like Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, has been grappling with how to overcome challenges facing its network channels. ESPN, which long served as a growth engine, is now facing declining ratings and subscriber erosion, putting advertising sales into question. “The biggest thing that we’re trying to do now is figure out what technology’s role is in distributing the great content that we have,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said at a presentation at Boston College on Oct. 5. Comcast’s takeover of NBC has proved a model for this new world of media deal-making. While the cable giant has occasionally been scrutinized for possible regulatory violations, NBCUniversal has generally thrived under its current ownership, with NBC enjoying a ratings comeback and Universal delivering a wide range of hit films, from blockbusters like “Jurassic World” to dramas like “Straight Outta Compton.” Still, Time Warner’s deal with AT&T is likely to face tough scrutiny from government regulators increasingly skeptical of power being consolidated among a few titans. Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, indicated on Saturday that he would seek to block the merger if elected “because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.” Over the last decade, Time Warner has spent significant time selling or spinning off AOL, many of the Time Inc. stable of publications, and Time Warner Cable, which was sold to another cable operator. The remaining businesses are HBO, one of the most-admired pay-TV channels; Warner Bros. movie studios; and cable channels that include CNN, TNT, Turner Sports and TBS. AT&T’s History of Invention and Breakups AT&T, once known informally as Ma Bell, is a storied American brand that goes back under a succession of names to the late 19th century, after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Overseeing much of Time Warner’s downsizing was Mr. Bewkes, for whom Saturday’s agreement serves as validation of sorts. He faced tough questions two years ago when he turned down 21st Century Fox’s bid of $85 a share, arguing that the offer sharply undervalued his company. Now, Mr. Bewkes has found a suitor willing to offer significantly more — $107.50 a share in cash and stock — and done so at a time when media companies are under pressure to strike their own deals. AT&T’s offer represents a roughly 35 percent premium to where Time Warner’s stock was trading before news reports of the merger talks emerged. “Time Warner chairman and C.E.O. Jeff Bewkes and his senior management team can see where the entire legacy media world is headed: secular decline,” Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG, wrote in a research note on Saturday. Mr. Greenfield added, “We believe Bewkes will end up being remembered as the smartest C.E.O. in sector — knowing when to sell and not overstaying his welcome to maximize value for shareholders.” The announcement on Saturday also affirms the ambitious deal-making of AT&T. One of the former so-called Baby Bells that arose from the 1982 breakup of the original AT&T, the company has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on acquisitions to reconstitute some of its parent’s empire. That has included buying DirecTV for $48.5 billion, adding satellite TV subscriptions as an additional source of negotiating leverage with content providers, along with the satellite company’s steady stream of cash. AT&T has also made other moves to acquire content. It has set up a joint venture with Peter Chernin , a prominent media executive, and the company was one of the bidders for Yahoo this year. The telecom company has also been working on its own online video service, for which Time Warner’s trove of media could prove enormously helpful. Combining with AT&T is meant to accelerate those efforts, Mr. Bewkes said. “We think this is great for continued innovation in content,” he said during Saturday’s conference call. Still, AT&T’s biggest rivals have not stood still. Comcast struck an agreement this spring to buy DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, adding the “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda” franchises to its media holdings. Verizon has charted a different course, focusing more on internet-based properties and advertising technology players rather than traditional media companies. Its $4.8 billion deal to buy Yahoo, rooted in the aging tech company’s hundreds of millions of users, follows previous takeovers of the Huffington Post and AOL. Not everyone seems persuaded by the latest flurry of deal-making. Disney commented on the deal in a statement late Saturday, saying, “A transaction of this magnitude obviously warrants very close regulatory scrutiny.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, also put out a statement cautioning approval. “I will be looking closely at what this merger means for consumers and their pocketbooks, and whether it stands up to stands up to the rigorous review standards set by the Department of Justice’s antitrust division in the last few years,” he said. And in a Twitter post on Saturday, Steve Case, the former chief executive of AOL responsible for the doomed merger with Time Warner, wrote of AT&T’s move, “#DejaVu.”
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AT&T;Time Warner;Telecommunication;Mergers and Acquisitions;Regulation and Deregulation;Competition law
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ny0000918
|
[
"sports",
"soccer"
] |
2013/03/16
|
At Manchester United, Comebacks Are Only for the Hosts
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LONDON — Twice in January, relegation-threatened Reading managed to reverse halftime deficits and win Premier League games. But if the team is to win at Manchester United this Saturday, history suggests that being behind after 45 minutes will not be part of the script. Real Madrid did win after trailing at halftime at Old Trafford this month, with the help of a controversial red card given to United wing Nani. But that was in the Champions League. In English league play, Manchester United has not lost at home when leading at the half in almost 30 years. The last visitor to overturn a halftime deficit and leave victorious was not crosstown rival Manchester City or Chelsea. It was unheralded Ipswich Town, which did it on May 7, 1984. Alex Ferguson was not a “Sir” at the time, nor was he yet United’s manager. The Reds of Liverpool dominated English soccer, and Ipswich Town was a regular in the top division. Sellouts, or even near sellouts, at Old Trafford were not the norm, as they are today. Both teams needed a win that day, but for different reasons. United, managed by Ron Atkinson, trailed league-leading Liverpool by 2 points with three matches remaining. Ipswich was hovering near the relegation zone. Even though Ipswich had held Liverpool to a 2-2 tie at Anfield a week and a half earlier, United was fully expected to cruise. The absence of two of Ipswich’s key defenders, Terry Butcher and George Burley, was supposed to make the task even harder, especially with world-class players like Bryan Robson, Ray Wilkins and Frank Stapleton in United’s lineup. Frank Yallop, who had just turned 20, filled in for Burley. “The big thing you notice as a young kid who has never played at that level is the amount of people that wait at the stadium to yell at your bus to try to make you nervous,” said Yallop, now the coach of Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes. “They’re yelling and sticking their fingers up.” Robson’s inclusion appeared to be pivotal for United. Captain Marvel, as he was known, had returned to action in United’s previous game after missing the two-legged semifinal against Juventus in the European Cup Winners Cup with a hamstring injury. His individual brilliance in the second leg of the quarterfinals against Diego Maradona’s Barcelona had largely contributed to United’s overturning a 2-0 first-leg deficit. “When we earned a point at Anfield, everyone was saying we really dented Liverpool’s title hopes and, ‘You’ve handed it to Manchester United,’ ” said Steve McCall, a midfielder for Ipswich. “No one gave us a chance.” But according to The Times of London, what unfolded was a mostly composed performance by Ipswich: “The Suffolk club not only displayed the greater determination, but apparently also had the greater self-belief, knocking the ball around confidently from the start.” Coach Bobby Ferguson probably merits much of the praise. His pregame talk was not so much inspirational as amusing, the players said. “I came out of the referees’ room reading United’s team sheet and took a turn into a dressing room,” Ferguson said. “But when I looked around I was in United’s dressing room. I was so embarrassed and couldn’t get out of there quick enough. “I told the story to the players, and they burst out laughing. We laughed and relaxed.” Still, striker Mark Hughes, in his first stint with Manchester United, opened the scoring in the 26th minute, meaning Ferguson needed to lift his squad at halftime. “I think I said, ‘We’re fighting for our lives,’ ” he recounted. “You can’t do much better, but I’m asking you to.” The equalizer came quickly, in the 47th minute: Alan Sunderland setting up Mich D’Avray’s header. Ipswich held firm amid a predictable spell of United pressure and won the game when D’Avray supplied the assist on Sunderland’s 87th-minute winner from close range. As United Manager Atkinson remembered it, Robson did not have one of his better outings. “We lost him before the first leg against Juventus, and he never really came back,” Atkinson said. “Well, he played, but he was hampered.” Liverpool realistically sealed the title for the third consecutive season by thrashing Coventry City, 5-0, that day, benefiting from Ian Rush’s four goals. United ultimately slumped to fourth, never rebounding from a 2-1 loss at Juventus in the second leg of the Cup Winners Cup semifinals. “The Juventus game took a lot out of us, and the Ipswich game was the killer blow,” goalkeeper Gary Bailey said. Ipswich avoided relegation that year, but since 1986 it has spent a mere five seasons in England’s top division. Alex Ferguson, Atkinson’s successor, brought an end to United’s 26-year title drought in 1993, and the trophies keep piling up. The gulf in class between the clubs was evident in 1995, when United hammered Ipswich, 9-0 , at Old Trafford in the Premier League’s most lopsided result ever. The caliber of United’s players, the backing of the Old Trafford crowd and a little luck have all kept the streak alive. But Ferguson’s role should not be diminished, Bailey said. “Sir Alex would say things at halftime like, ‘You can’t lose it from here,’ ” Bailey said. “You get it into your mind that it’s not an option. He’d also say, ‘You’re 1-0 up, let’s get two or three to finish this game off.’ The mind-set is there. He’s so strong mentally, and he insists that all the players around him think the same way.” Reading would no doubt be delighted with a tie heading into halftime on Saturday. Leading would be a bonus. But if Reading trails, as expected, its chances of winning are about as high as spotting a Liverpool jersey anywhere near the stadium.
|
UEFA Champions League;Soccer;Manchester United;Reading Soccer Team;Premier League;Old Trafford Manchester England
|
ny0016992
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2013/10/24
|
Pakistani Premier Meets Obama to Mend Ties
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WASHINGTON — President Obama welcomed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan to the White House on Wednesday, seeking to bolster his new civilian government and mend perennially frayed ties between the countries. But Mr. Sharif said after the meeting that he had asked Mr. Obama to halt American drone strikes in Pakistan, broaching an issue that has aggravated tensions. The president did not respond publicly, saying only that the two sides needed to find ways to fight terrorism “that respect Pakistan’s sovereignty, that respect the concerns of both countries.” “It’s a challenge, it’s not easy,” Mr. Obama said, with Mr. Sharif seated next to him. “We committed to working together and making sure that rather than this being a source of tension between our two countries, that it can be a source of strength for us working together in a constructive and respectful way.” To symbolize a new beginning, the Obama administration will release more than $1.5 billion in aid to Pakistan, which had been held up because of tensions over the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, as well as the killing of two civilians by a C.I.A. contractor in Lahore and a wayward American airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border. Aside from the reference to drones — delivered in a tone so soft that reporters in the room strained to hear him — Mr. Sharif also sounded conciliatory. Terrorism, he said, was a shared threat that required “serious and sincere efforts without indulging into any blame game.” By the reckoning of experts, it was the third time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that the United States and Pakistan have tried to reset their relationship. After the ouster of President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned in 2008, the new Obama administration began an assiduous courtship of his civilian successor, Asif Ali Zardari. But it also ratcheted up its use of drones to target terrorism suspects in Pakistan’s frontier areas near Afghanistan, fanning a wave of anti-American sentiment across the country. A report released this week by Amnesty International contradicted the administration’s assertions that the drone strikes have become increasingly accurate, killing few civilians. The group says at least 19 civilians have been killed in two drone strikes in the Pakistani province of North Waziristan since January 2012. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama pointed to Mr. Sharif’s election — the first successful completion of a full, civilian-led political cycle in Pakistan’s history — as a harbinger of change. And he offered American help with energy and public-works projects to rebuild Pakistan’s economy. But some experts said that Mr. Sharif had yet to show much progress on either the economy or fighting terrorism, and warned that this “reset,” like others before it, was prone to dashed expectations. “I’m all for engagement, but it should be engagement without delusions,” said Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. “None of the fundamentals are going to change as a result of this meeting.” With the United States’ winding down the Afghan war, Mr. Obama reminded Mr. Sharif of the importance of a stable, sovereign Afghanistan. American officials have long been suspicious of links between the Pakistani military and militant groups like the Haqqani network, which has carried out attacks on Westerners in Afghanistan. For its part, the Sharif government has signaled an interest in negotiating with the Pakistani Taliban, a process that analysts said the United States should encourage. “If part of our strategy for keeping ourselves out of the talks is not to disrupt it with the use of drones, then I could imagine we could seriously curtail our target list during which time the Pakistani government could pursue its talks,” said Daniel Markey, an expert on Pakistan at the Council on Foreign Relations, who has published a book on the American-Pakistani relationship, “No Exit From Pakistan.” Mr. Sharif brought with him a delegation that included his finance minister but not the army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who often accompanied Mr. Zardari on these trips. Analysts said that was a hopeful sign for the resilience of the civilian leadership. Mr. Sharif will soon choose a successor to General Kayani, an appointment fraught with meaning, given that his previous stint as prime minister ended in 1999 when Mr. Musharraf engineered a coup. While a statement released by the White House after the meeting praised Mr. Sharif for Pakistan’s work on nuclear security, it omitted any discussion of two of the biggest sticking points in the relationship, both concerning Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. It made no mention of the administration’s concerns that Pakistan, which has never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, is modernizing its nuclear arsenal with small, tactical weapons. Privately, American officials have expressed fear these weapons, intended to deter India, are easier to steal than Pakistan’s first generation of arms. During an interview in New York last month, Mr. Sharif said the country’s nuclear arsenal was safe, and he sidestepped a question on his country’s nuclear modernization effort. There was also no mention in the White House statement of the fact that Pakistan has blocked one of Mr. Obama’s key initiatives: negotiating the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would block nations from making more fuel that could be used in nuclear weapons.
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Pakistan;US Foreign Policy;Nawaz Sharif;Barack Obama;Terrorism;Nuclear weapon;Election;Drones;Foreign Aid
|
ny0281704
|
[
"us",
"politics"
] |
2016/07/03
|
F.B.I. Interviews Hillary Clinton Over Private Email Server
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The F.B.I. interviewed Hillary Clinton on Saturday morning for its investigation into whether she or her aides broke the law by corresponding through a private email server set up for her use as secretary of state, a controversy that has dogged her presidential campaign and provided fodder for her political rivals. The voluntary interview, which took place over three and a half hours at the F.B.I. headquarters in Washington, largely focused on the Justice Department’s central question: Did the actions of Mrs. Clinton or her staff rise to the level of criminal mishandling of classified information? It could take weeks or longer to reach a decision, but news that Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, had been questioned in the J. Edgar Hoover Building three weeks before her party’s convention quickly reverberated. The Republican National Committee called the step “unprecedented,” while Mrs. Clinton’s expected opponent in the race for the White House, Donald J. Trump, wasted little time before weighing in. “It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday . “What she did was wrong!” The interview had been weeks in the making as law enforcement officials and Mrs. Clinton’s team coordinated schedules. Democrats also hoped that holding the interview on a holiday weekend might ease the anticipated storm. What We Know About the Investigation Into Hillary Clinton’s Private Email Server The F.B.I. recently uncovered new emails potentially related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. In a telephone interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC after her meeting, Mrs. Clinton said, “I’ve been eager to do it, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion.” Accompanying Mrs. Clinton into the meeting were her lawyer David E. Kendall; Cheryl D. Mills and Heather Samuelson, longtime aides who are also lawyers; and two lawyers from Mr. Kendall’s firm, Williams & Connolly, Katherine Turner and Amy Saharia. Eight officials from the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice conducted the interview, according to a person who was familiar with the substance of the session but declined to be named because the meeting was private. This person characterized the meeting as “civil” and “businesslike.” Neither the campaign nor the F.B.I. would elaborate. Although the interview on Saturday was an important step toward closure on the email issue, technical analysis of the material remains to be done and could stretch on for an indeterminate period. The F.B.I. regularly interviews key figures before concluding an investigation, and such meetings are not an indication that it thinks the person broke the law. While defense lawyers often advise clients against such interviews, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has been eager for her to cooperate, lest she give her opponents additional ammunition. On Saturday, in a statement after the meeting, the Republican National Committee said that Mrs. Clinton “has just taken the unprecedented step of becoming the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the F.B.I. as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct.” Latest Election Polls 2016 Get the latest national and state polls on the presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Mrs. Clinton has struggled to get beyond the issue, which came to light last year during a Republican-led congressional investigation into the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. More than 30,000 emails have since been made public. After spending much of last summer arguing she did not need to apologize for keeping a private server in her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., because the practice was allowed, Mrs. Clinton now frequently apologizes for the practice, saying it had been a mistake. The campaign has prioritized assisting the F.B.I., but it declined to cooperate with a State Department inspector general’s audit of Mrs. Clinton’s email practices . Those findings, delivered to members of Congress in May, undermined some of Mrs. Clinton’s initial statements defending her use of the server. The report said there was “no evidence” that she had requested or received approval for the server, despite having “an obligation to discuss using her personal email account to conduct official business.” Federal law deems it a crime to “knowingly” mishandle classified information outside secure government channels or to permit the practice through “gross negligence.” None of the emails on Mrs. Clinton’s private server were marked classified at the time they were sent or received, but the Central Intelligence Agency later determined that some contained material that would be considered “top secret.” Asked Saturday on MSNBC if she had broken the law, Mrs. Clinton repeated her defense: “I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified.” There has been no indication that sensitive information was compromised by Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private server. But it has fed a perception that she was trying to hide information, chipping away at data gauging her trustworthiness. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday found that voters deemed Mr. Trump more honest and trustworthy than Mrs. Clinton, 45 percent to 37 percent. “I have said that I’m going to continue to put forth my record, what I have stood for, do everything I can to earn the trust of the voters of our country,” she told MSNBC when asked about being seen as less trustworthy than Mr. Trump. “I know that’s something that I’m going to keep working on, and I think that’s, you know, a clear priority for me.” Mrs. Clinton had no public events scheduled on Saturday, but after her F.B.I. interview she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, went to New York and saw the Broadway show “Hamilton.” Mrs. Clinton’s meeting with the F.B.I. came amid controversy over a brief, unplanned meeting between Mr. Clinton and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch while both were at the Phoenix airport at the same time last week. To avoid any appearance of political meddling, Ms. Lynch said on Friday that she would accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director on whether to bring charges in the matter. She said she had made that decision several months ago, before the criticism surrounding her meeting with Mr. Clinton. She described the meeting with Mr. Clinton as a casual conversation that did not touch on the investigation. But it added to Clinton campaign staff members’ headaches over the email inquiry, which they had hoped to put behind them before the Democratic convention this month. “I certainly wouldn’t do it again,” Ms. Lynch said of the meeting with the ex-president.
|
2016 Presidential Election;Hillary Clinton;FBI;Email;Classified Information;Donald Trump
|
ny0151551
|
[
"sports",
"baseball"
] |
2008/08/10
|
Daniel Murphy Helps Mets Even Without Swinging Bat
|
Daniel Murphy, one of the newest Mets , prefers to be known as Daniel. Not Dan and certainly not Danny. “I don’t know why,” Murphy said, explaining that he has answered to Daniel since he was a boy. In fact, he said, he is not sure whether he would recognize the words or tune to the old song “Danny Boy.” “I’m sure I’ve heard it before,” Murphy said at Shea Stadium before Saturday night’s game with the Florida Marlins. “But off the top of my head, I can’t recall it.” So there is still something that Murphy, a 23-year rookie, needs to learn. In terms of hitting, Murphy has appeared well schooled and sophisticated in his first week in the major leagues. Entering Saturday’s game, he was batting .500, at 9 for 18. And some of his best moments have come when he did not even swing the bat. Murphy, a left-handed hitter, was not in the starting lineup on Saturday night against the Marlins left-hander Scott Olsen. The assignment went instead to the right-handed hitter Nick Evans, Murphy’s fellow rookie, friend and platoon partner in left field. But Murphy came up as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning and blasted a two-run home run to lead the Mets to an 8-6 victory. Murphy went 2 for 3 Friday night in a 3-0 victory against the Marlins that vaulted the Mets into second place, a half-game ahead of Florida and a game behind first-place Philadelphia in the National League East. They are now a game and a half ahead of the Marlins and remain a game behind the Phillies, who won Saturday. The infield hit in the first inning Friday was impressive and so was the single he pulled to right field in the sixth. But the at-bat that left Mets Manager Jerry Manuel and others most impressed was the two-out walk in the seventh that loaded the bases for David Wright. “Tremendous at-bat,” Manuel said, repeating the words for effect. “That was an at-bat that you look for, you expect from an experienced, veteran left-handed hitter. It was really huge.” The Marlins had brought in Renyel Pinto, a left-hander, to face Murphy. “From a manager’s point of view, if I’m sitting in the other dugout, I’m thinking I’ve got an out here,” Manuel said. At first, it appeared that would be the case. Murphy fell behind by one ball and two strikes. Then he fouled off a fastball, took a slider in the dirt, took a fastball to make the count full and then took another slider low and away for the walk, his fourth.“I try to be patient,” Murphy said. “Just because the first one’s a strike doesn’t mean you have to swing at it.” Murphy batted second on Friday and said a batter in that role took pitches not just for himself but so others can scout the pitcher. “Hopefully, everybody else is getting to see the same pitches, too,” he said. Murphy bats out of a semicrouch, his 33 ½-inch, 31 ½-ounce bat almost resting in the crook of his neck, his elbows in, his feet wide. “It lets me stay back on the ball,” Murphy said of his stance. “Hitting is not easy, so I try to keep it as simple as possible.” He has very little movement in his swing, Murphy said, and that gives him more time to avoid making a mistake. Before games, Murphy studies video of pitchers on a computer in the clubhouse. On the field, when he plays left, he looks to center fielder Carlos Beltrán for signals about where to play hitters. Tony Bernazard, the Mets’ vice president for player development, called Murphy “a sponge.” “He’s all baseball, he works at his craft, he wants to get better,” Bernazard said. “He’s living a dream, he says.” It was Bernazard who called Murphy this season while Murphy played for Class AA Binghamton and asked him to move to second base from third. “He said, ‘Do you want to play second?’ ” Murphy recalled, “and I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ ” Since then, Murphy has also learned how to play left field. Bernazard said it was a philosophy of the farm system to make infielders more versatile. Evans, who came up as a first baseman, is another example. Howard Johnson, the Mets’ hitting coach, stood next to the batting cage before Saturday’s game, studying Murphy, approving of what he saw, noting that Murphy tried to stay “inside of everything” and hit to center. “He’s got patience that takes a lot of guys years to get,” Johnson said. “He understands what kind of hitter he is. And that’s good.”
|
Baseball;New York Mets;Manuel Jerry;Murphy Daniel (1985- )
|
ny0075654
|
[
"science"
] |
2015/05/05
|
Last Mammoths Spent Final Years on Solitary Island
|
Researchers have now sequenced the genome of the woolly mammoth and have concluded that the last members of the species probably died on an isolated island, where inbreeding may have led to a population too small to be sustainable. The scientists used DNA from two specimens, the 45,000-year-old soft tissue remains of a woolly mammoth found in northeastern Siberia, and a 4,300-year-old tooth from one found on Wrangel Island, a Russian territory in the Arctic Ocean that was separated from the mainland by rising sea levels about 12,000 years ago. Researchers were able to sequence the complete genomes of these two well-preserved specimens. By measuring the amount of genetic diversity in each, they were able to draw some conclusions about the mammoth’s history and extinction. About 300,000 years ago, the population of woolly mammoths suddenly declined; it took more than 100,000 years to recover. At the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, the population declined again. By the time Wrangel Island separated from the mainland, the worldwide population was already disappearing. “We don’t know why,” said the senior author of the new report, Love Dalen, an associate professor of biology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. “Human hunting, changes in the environment, warming of the temperatures. But it happens everywhere — that’s for sure — and at the same time.” This new genetic information, online in Current Biology, suggests that in the end inbreeding played a role as well. The parents of the specimen from Wrangel Island were very closely related. “By sequencing the 4,300-year-old, we find it has a 20 percent lower amount of genetic diversity than the older mammoth and a 28-fold higher amount of inbreeding,” Dr. Dalen said. Having the complete genome has another implication. “It is now possible to accurately compare the difference between the genomes of elephants and mammoths, and presumably create a mammoth,” said Dr. Dalen. “A group at Harvard has already begun to try to figure out where the genomes differ and then insert mammoth genes into the elephant genome at each variation.” Still, Dr. Dalen said, this does not mean that a Jurassic Park — or a Pleistocene Park, as it would have to be called — is around the corner. “There are of course many critical steps that might not work, so it’s not entirely likely to happen,” he said of the effort to birth a new woolly mammoth. “But it might.”
|
Mammoths,Woollly Mammoths;DNA;Paleontology;Current Biology Journal;Genetics and Heredity
|
ny0181289
|
[
"sports",
"football"
] |
2007/06/29
|
Lineman’s Daughter Killed
|
A 23-year-old woman found fatally shot in a Phoenix alley has been identified as the daughter of the former N.F.L. lineman Luis Sharpe, authorities said.The body of Leah Tamara Sharpe was discovered early Tuesday, and the police said investigators believed it was dumped there. Luis Sharpe played in the N.F.L. from 1982-94 for the Cardinals in St. Louis and Arizona and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection.
|
Football;Sharpe Luis
|
ny0083865
|
[
"us",
"politics"
] |
2015/10/30
|
Ratings Winner for CNBC Is Ammunition for G.O.P.
|
Here was the good news for CNBC: The Republican debate on Wednesday night delivered the biggest ratings in the financial news network’s history, with 14 million people tuning in, more than Game 2 of the World Series on Fox, which aired at the same time. But in the hours after the debate and all day Thursday, CNBC confronted withering criticism over its handling of the event. The Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, and the candidates complained about the focus of the questioning, perceived bias and a lack of speaking time. By the end of the day an event that was supposed to be about candidates’ explaining their economic policies had instead started a Republican assault on the news media. Advisers to several campaigns are planning a private meeting in Washington on Sunday to strategize over how to pressure both the R.N.C. — which several campaigns blame for bungling the debate process — and the networks to address their concerns, ranging from format and rules to moderators and airtime. The Republican committee was not invited. “I think maybe it has the possibility of being a very important moment in American politics,” Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who is a Republican candidate, said Thursday, “because it so clearly demonstrates the need for a change in format.” Video At the third Republican presidential debate in Boulder, Colo., on Wednesday, the night quickly became candidates versus CNBC. Credit Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times During the debate, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida called the news media “the ultimate super PAC” for Democrats. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas blasted the moderators’ questions, saying that “everyone home tonight knows that the moderators have no intention of voting in a Republican primary.” The debate was moderated by the CNBC anchors John Harwood, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla. “This is not a cage match,” Mr. Cruz said. Reciting a list of questions he characterized as lacking relevance — “Ben Carson, can you do math?” — Mr. Cruz scolded the moderators, asking “How about talking about the substantive issues?” On Thursday, Mr. Cruz and Mr. Carson tried to leverage their criticism of the news media into a fund-raising tool, seeking donations to bolster the “war on the liberal media,” as Mr. Cruz described it in a message to supporters. His campaign said it had raised $1.1 million since the debate. Much of the online commentary and reaction among political observers was harsh as well. “CNBC is supposed to be a business, jobs and economy network, right?” said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and now the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. “The disconnect between the expectation and what you got was remarkable.” He called CNBC’s handling of the debate questions “a mess.” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, specifically pointed to Mr. Harwood’s first question for Donald J. Trump when he asked the candidate if he was running a “comic book version of a presidential campaign.” (Mr. Harwood is a contributor to The New York Times). Who’s Winning the Presidential Campaign? History suggests that each party’s eventual nominee will emerge from 2015 in one of the top two or three positions, as measured by endorsements, fund-raising and polling. “It’s a pretty strong characterization that borders on ridicule of the candidacy,” she said. “It puts the reporter in the role of a person who appears to have a stake in the outcome. That’s problematic press behavior.” CNBC did not make the moderators available for comment on Thursday, but a spokesman for the cable channel, Brian Steel, said, “People who want to be president of the United States should be able to answer tough questions.” And even though many of the candidates expressed anger, Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio said he was fine with the moderators’ questions, and Mr. Rubio and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, despite their criticism Wednesday night, both appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday morning. But Mr. Priebus said in an interview Thursday that CNBC’s debate was “totally out of their own normal operating mode if you watch them every morning.” “It was very frustrating,” he said. The tension between the network and the campaigns began earlier Wednesday, at the start of the undercard debate, with Mr. Priebus complaining that a scroll at the bottom of the screen was detracting from the debate. Then, during the prime-time face-off, Danny Diaz, Mr. Bush’s campaign manager, began pounding on the door to the CNBC work space to complain that his candidate was not receiving equal time. (Ultimately, Mr. Bush received under seven minutes of airtime. ) After the debate, Mr. Priebus used Twitter, email and the spin room to express displeasure with the moderators, and Sean Spicer, the national committee’s communications director, was already fielding angry phone calls from campaign aides. On Thursday Mr. Spicer and Katie Walsh, the national committee’s chief of staff, continued discussing with the campaigns potential changes. The ratings do tell a better story for CNBC, even if Wednesday’s program was the lowest-rated debate this year. The previous two Republican debates, on Fox News in August and on CNN last month, each attracted more than 23 million viewers, and CNN’s Democratic debate on Oct. 13 brought in 15.8 million viewers. This is the third election cycle that CNBC had a Republican debate, and Mark Hoffman, CNBC’s chairman, said beforehand that it was a good investment for the network, which asked advertisers for as much as $250,000 for a 30-second spot. “These elections turn on how people feel about their world and their life and their personal economy and their money,” he said. “We felt it made sense for us to be there and I think it’s really been worthwhile.”
|
CNBC;2016 Presidential Election;Political Debates;Republicans;RNC;News media,journalism
|
ny0183661
|
[
"sports",
"baseball"
] |
2007/12/24
|
Clemens Releases Video Denying Use of Drugs
|
Roger Clemens continued his campaign to fight allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, releasing a video Sunday in which he said he had never used steroids or human growth hormone. The video, which shows Clemens in front of a banner that says “Rocket 300 Wins,” was released on his foundation’s Web site and on YouTube. “Let me be clear; the answer is no,” Clemens says in the video, which lasts 1 minute 48 seconds and appears to be a collection of four clips. “I did not use steroids or human growth hormone, and I’ve never done so.” In the report by George J. Mitchell on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, Clemens’s former personal trainer Brian McNamee said he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone 16 times when he played for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998 and for the Yankees in 2000 and 2001. “I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body,” Clemens said. “Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormones into my body either when I played in Toronto for the Blue Jays or the New York Yankees. This report is simply not true.” Clemens also said he had agreed to be interviewed by Mike Wallace of CBS’s “60 Minutes.” Wallace, a frequent guest in the owner’s suite at Yankee Stadium, has interviewed Clemens at least twice before. Kevin Tedesco, a spokesman for CBS, said the interview, which had not been taped yet, was scheduled to be shown Jan. 6. Since Mitchell’s report was issued two weeks ago, Clemens has not answered questions directly from reporters. His agent released a statement on Clemens’s behalf Tuesday, and his lawyer has denied the allegations to reporters. What remains unclear is whether Congressional committees holding hearings on Mitchell’s findings will subpoena Clemens and have him testify under oath. As of Thursday, Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, who is the chairman of a House oversight committee, had not decided whether to call baseball players to testify at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 15. McNamee, who had worked with Clemens until this year, had been compelled to cooperate with Mitchell by an agreement with federal prosecutors that he would not be charged with distributing steroids. In Mitchell’s report, McNamee also implicated another one of his clients, Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, saying he used human growth hormone. Pettitte has since confirmed McNamee’s statements. McNamee’s lawyer, Earl Ward, said that McNamee had watched Clemens’s video on the Internet. “I spoke to Brian, he mentioned it to me, he had seen it,” Ward said. “It doesn’t change what Brian has said all along. He has nothing different to add. He had no desire to implicate one of the greatest pitchers ever in the steroid scandal, but he couldn’t lie to federal investigators. What Brian told everyone is accurate; it will be interesting to see what Roger has to say going forward.” Ward said there had been no contact between McNamee and Clemens since the release of Mitchell’s report. Clemens said the allegations were affecting his family more than him. “I am holding up better than they are,” he said. “I am almost numb to some of these suggestions that I would even use steroids.” Last year, The Los Angeles Times reported that Clemens was among the players named as users of performance-enhancing drugs by Jason Grimsley, a former major league pitcher, in a search warrant affidavit signed by a federal agent. When the affidavit was unsealed Thursday, Clemens was not one of the players implicated by Grimsley. The newspaper issued a correction. “I faced this last year when The L.A. Times reported that I used steroids,” he said in the video. “I said it was not true then, and now the whole world knows it’s not true, now that that’s come out.”
|
Clemens Roger;Steroids;Baseball
|
ny0028481
|
[
"sports",
"hockey"
] |
2013/01/24
|
Oilers to Get New Hockey Rink
|
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers and the city have agreed to resurrect a deal to build a new downtown arena. City councilors have voted to accept a cost-shared deal for a $480 million rink. After surrounding infrastructure is added in, the final bill will be $601 million. The money will come from taxpayers, Oilers owner Daryl Katz and a ticket tax. The deal is still more than $100 million short, which is money Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel hopes will come primarily from the provincial government. The plan is for construction to start this fall and the building to open in 2016.
|
Ice hockey;Edmonton Oilers
|
ny0156834
|
[
"nyregion",
"nyregionspecial2"
] |
2008/06/01
|
In Love With Fishing at 8, She’s Now a Charter Captain at 22
|
Port Jefferson AMANDA CASH stood on tiptoe in the wheelhouse of the Osprey IV, checked the screen of her global positioning system and watched the depth monitors as she steered the 72-foot boat out of the harbor here and into Long Island Sound. Picking up a microphone, Ms. Cash welcomed aboard her passengers for a seven-hour fluke-fishing expedition. At 22, Ms. Cash is the youngest captain among the dozen or so in the marina. She is the only female skipper there, one of a handful on the Island. “When people refer to me as a fisherlady, I say no, I’m a fisherman,” she said, though at 5-foot-3 she needs to stand on a step to see out the wheelhouse window. “It is a job, not a gender.” But she does more than steer the vessel, which was built in 1962, holds up to 70 passengers and, after $25,000 in upgrades, made its inaugural run as the Osprey IV when the fluke-fishing season got under way on May 15. “I do everything the guys do,” she said. And then some. Ambling down on deck while the boat drifts for fishing, with her 5-year-old pit bull mix, Sierra, at her heels, Ms. Cash is also the hostess with the Christie Brinkley smile. Dressed in a lime hoodie, jeans and flip-flops, she chats with passengers, scoops hooked sea robins and fluke out of the water with a net, untangles reels, offers coffee and bagels in the galley and makes sure everyone, herself included, is enjoying the fishing party. Ed Spiess, 42, an ironworker from Lindenhurst, said that “lots of time if the fish aren’t catching the captain doesn’t want to talk to the passengers and you don’t have a good time.” Ms. Cash helped make the expedition “very pleasant,” he said. A third-generation fisherman, Ms. Cash discovered her passion for the sport at age 8, when her parents, who worked two jobs, had no baby sitter and sent her out with an older sister, Meghan, then 15, on the family’s party boat instead. “I ended up fishing the whole day and handing out bait and picking up people’s fish and netting them, and I had a blast,” Ms. Cash recalled. The next morning she was raring to return. Ms. Cash earned her master captain’s license at 18, before she got her driver’s license. To do so, she spent 720 days over five years on the water in boats weighing more than 50 tons, mostly on her grandfather’s vessel, the Port Jefferson Ace, and the family’s previous boats, the Osprey, Osprey II and Osprey III. “Since I was the captain’s daughter, no one taught me anything,” she said. Instead, her father told her to figure out how to drop an anchor or throttle back in six-foot swells. “It’s the best way to learn,” she said. After high school she applied to Suffolk County Community College, but never went; that fall, when her father had no mate for blackfish season, she volunteered. “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Ms. Cash said. “There was no point in getting a degree in something that I am never going to do.” During the off season, Ms. Cash works as a waitress at the El Dorado Southern Grille nearby. James Peterson, 33, a commercial fisherman during the winter who also works as a captain on some Osprey IV expeditions, said there was an old superstition in the maritime industry that “women on boats are bad luck.” To some older anglers, Ms. Cash’s role “is a detriment until they see that she’s an excellent boat handler” with “a nose for the fish,” Mr. Peterson said. Richard Wright, a boat mechanic in Port Jefferson harbor, said that while “some captains just operate the boat,” Ms. Cash changes the oil, and has changed engines and transmissions on other boats. She also sands and paints the Osprey IV. Ms. Cash captains daily 7 a.m. expeditions and goes back out on the 4:30 p.m. runs, working as first mate or a deckhand, setting up rigs, hooking bait and teaching landlubbers how to fish. Just before the Osprey IV headed back to shore, Ms. Cash hooked a fluke. It measured “just a bit short,” she said, falling shy of the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s minimum length of 20 ½ inches, so she tossed it back to sea. The other anglers fared better: There were 16 “keepers” in all. (State regulations limit the catch to four fluke per fisherman.) As Mr. Peterson took the helm, Ms. Cash handed the flukes to the anglers for trophy photographs. Then she picked up a knife, sliced into a fish, plucked out the guts and filleted it. “It looks like I am working, but I am having fun,” Ms. Cash said.
|
Boats and Boating;Long Island (NY)
|
ny0253679
|
[
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] |
2011/10/15
|
Oklahoma State’s Weeden Is Heisman Contender
|
The age jokes have become, well, old. Brandon Weeden, the senior quarterback for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, certainly does not look or feel a day over 28, which is what he will be Saturday when he takes the field at Royal-Memorial Stadium to face the Texas Longhorns. By now, Weeden knows to expect some gag gift from his teammates, and they could easily remind him of his age and his unconventional career path with a birth certificate showing that he was born 49 days before Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. Or maybe a plaque showing that Weeden is older than 16 of the 32 starting N.F.L. quarterbacks. “Somebody bought him some old-man diapers for his birthday last year,” wide receiver Justin Blackmon said. “That was pretty funny.” The No. 6-ranked Cowboys could simply mark the occasion with a second consecutive victory over No. 22 Texas in Austin and pass a crucial signpost en route to the Bedlam Game on Dec. 5 against No. 3 Oklahoma. Oklahoma State (5-0) sits on the fringe of the national title discussion, and can enhance its standing for the first Bowl Championship Series rankings this weekend. Weeden lurks behind Andrew Luck and others as an afterthought in a Heisman Trophy race that is gathering steam among the nation’s top quarterbacks. “I embrace it, because it’s going to be there,” Weeden said of the Heisman talk. “That’s one thing where my age helps in dealing with it, but that stuff will take care of itself. “Such a big deal has been made of my age. I use it to my advantage. I think it’s a positive this year. I think it’s a positive for my future. It’s one of those deals, the way I look at it is, name one person who wouldn’t want to be in the position I am, and have the kind of path I’ve had?” Weeden idolized the Yankees while growing up in Edmond, Okla., and his favorite players were Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly. So when the team picked him as a pitcher in the second round of the 2002 amateur draft, Weeden said it was an easy call. He was traded in 2003 to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the deal for pitcher Kevin Brown, and also spent time with the Kansas City Royals, before shoulder problems wore down his pitching motion and ended his career after five seasons in the minors. “The opportunity was too good, and baseball was always my thing,” Weeden said. “The day I signed the contract, I remember thinking, if this doesn’t work out, then I’ve always got college football. My goal was to make it to the big leagues the entire time, but unfortunately it didn’t work out.” Weeden, who walked on at Oklahoma State in 2007 and redshirted, has completed 166 of 219 passes for 1,880 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Of the Heisman-hopeful quarterbacks whose teams are ranked in the top 7, Weeden has the best completion percentage (75.8), more accurate than Russell Wilson (74.8 percent) of No. 4 Wisconsin; Kellen Moore (74.0) of No. 5 Boise State; Luck of No. 7 Stanford (73.1); and Landry Jones of No. 3 Oklahoma (69.3). Weeden also leads in passing yardage, throwing for 497 yards more than Luck, 489 more than Moore and 66 more than Jones. “Every time we step on the field, we get a little bit better, our timing gets better, our chemistry gets stronger,” said Blackmon, the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation’s best receiver and Weeden’s top target, with 46 catches for 534 yards and 6 touchdowns. “He’s the best. I wouldn’t trade him for anything.” Texas might be 4-1, but it finds itself reeling after a 55-17 throttling by Oklahoma. The Sooners carved the Longhorns’ secondary into brisket, and Oklahoma’s defense forced five turnovers and scored three touchdowns. Texas Coach Mack Brown said he was already worried about the Cowboys after the thrashing. “We don’t have any time to sit back and feel sorry for ourselves,” Brown said. Blackmon said: “We know they’re going to come out swinging. They’re not going to take things lightly. We’re not going to go in looking at what O.U. did and expecting the same thing.” No matter the outcome of the Red River Rivalry in Brown’s 13 seasons, the Longhorns have always won their next game. That could be a difficult streak to continue against an Oklahoma State offense that is averaging 51.4 points, tops in the country. In the Cowboys’ 33-16 victory last year, Weeden passed for 409 yards. “We should be able to get better because we had three hours of defending some of the best receivers and the best quarterback in the country, and now we’re going to have three hours of defending one of the best quarterbacks and some of the best receivers in the country,” Brown said. “So I think it’s on us to get better.”
|
College Athletics;Football;Brandon Weeden;Oklahoma State University;Heisman Trophy;Baseball;New York Yankees;University of Texas at Austin;Football (College);Weeden Brandon
|
ny0255188
|
[
"business",
"retirementspecial"
] |
2011/09/16
|
A Test Keeps Lifeguards Fit for Duty
|
THIS weekend, the last of the lifeguards still on duty at two of Long Island’s largest public beaches — Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park — will climb down from the stands and lock up their shacks for the winter. Although the New York State office of parks does not track statistics on the ages of its lifeguards, unofficial estimates are that about 10 percent of the lifeguards at Jones Beach and Robert Moses State parks are 50 and older. The parks stretch across the barrier beaches of eastern Nassau and western Suffolk counties on Long Island. The lifeguards started at age 17 or 18, worked through the summers, and now — even though many are retired from other careers — continue to return to the beach season after season. In order to return for another season of sun, surf and rescues (on average, a lifeguard at these popular beaches is involved in about 15 to 20 rescues a season, said George Gorman, deputy regional director of the New York State office of parks) the experienced lifeguards have to pass a state-administered rehire test every spring. The exam is meant to test their speed in the water and on land. The test consists of a 100-meter pool swim that must be completed in 1 minute, 20 seconds and a quarter-mile run in 2 minutes, 10 seconds. “If you don’t pass, it doesn’t matter how many years you’ve been there,” said Bruce Meirowitz, 60, a retired high school art teacher from Sound Beach, N.Y., who has been a lifeguard since he was 17. “To stay in this Peter Pan, Never Never Land we live in as lifeguards, you have to pay your dues.” That means training — much of it done over the winter, which is when older adults tend to slack off. “The literature supports the idea that older people are less active in winter,” said Dr. Michael E. Rogers, an exercise scientist at Wichita State University in Kansas. So does Dr. Rogers’s own experience as research director for the university’s Center for Physical Activity and Aging. “If we’re doing a six-month study, say, from September to May, among older adults, we know that activity is going to decrease in the colder months among our subjects, so we build that into the model. Or we try to avoid cold weather entirely for research.” By contrast, in early November, Mr. Meirowitz and about a dozen of his colleagues from Robert Moses will hit the pool at the Brentwood campus of Suffolk County Community College. Tom Donovan, a 62-year-old lifeguard, organizes the 60-minute workouts, which continue through the winter and are geared specifically toward the swim portion of the state rehire test, given in May. The thrice-weekly sessions focus on shorter, harder intervals, to mimic the test. A typical workout is two laps in the pool at an almost all-out pace, done four times, with just 20 seconds rest between each two-lap set. “We’re trying to maintain what we had and maybe get a little bit better,” said Mr. Donovan, who lives in West Islip, N.Y., and has been a guard for 45 years. “At our age,” he added, “we are being very careful to avoid injury.” The program has worked well. In the eight years since they have been doing the workouts, the core members of this group (who range in age from 57 to 70) have continued to pass the test. Some, including Mr. Donovan, even improved. In 2011, he managed to knock two seconds off his 100-meter time from the previous year. Still, he acknowledges, not every older guard can continue to outswim the calendar. “Unfortunately, we do lose one or two each year,” he said. “It’s sad, but inevitability does play a role.” Although it’s voluntary, most of the older guards at the two state parks participate in informal training groups like these. “Nobody is sitting around all winter,” Mr. Donovan says. “We’re really proud of our older lifeguards,” said Mr. Gorman of the New York State office of parks. “To me, these guys are like Jack LaLanne.” And they send a powerful message: “You shouldn’t use age or the weather as an excuse not to exercise,” said Dr. Rogers. “We have people who say, ‘I’m too old for that,’ or ‘it’s too cold to train.’ Well, these guys disprove that. Look at what they’re able to do.” Here is how they do it and how you can apply their later-in-life fitness lessons: SET GOALS The lifeguards have a clear goal for the winter. The state rehiring test in May enables them to return to the lifestyle they love, summer after summer. “You may want to create your own summer goal,” said Margaret Moore, co-director of the Harvard/McLean Hospital Institute of Coaching. “I’m going to go for a hike in Europe or a bike ride in Vermont next summer.’ “ The objective could also be to fit into a certain size dress or pair of pants for your 40th high school reunion. “You set a goal that’s challenging and that requires you to be fit in order to do it,” Ms. Moore said, “and then work towards it over the winter.” HARNESS GROUP POWER The lifeguards do their group swim workouts together. Many of them also take spinning or other health club classes. These and other forms of group exercise are available to almost any older adult. (mall walking clubs, aquatics exercise classes at the YMCA) “It makes such a big difference,” said Ed Peters, 69, a longtime Jones Beach lifeguard who lives in Syosset, N.Y., but spends winters in Jupiter, Fla., where he rides daily with a bicycle club. “When you’re on your own, sometimes it’s like ‘that’s enough.’ But when you have others around you, you tend to give it that little extra effort.” PLAY IN THE SNOW While the instinct of many people is to scurry indoors at the first breath of cold weather, Mr. Meirowitz spends most of his winter weekends, as he puts it, “playing in the snow.” A longtime ski and snowboarding instructor, he is director of snowboarding at Windham Mountain ski resort in Windham, N.Y. While he might not recommend the X-Games sport for every senior, Mr. Rogers applauds the idea of embracing winter. “Walking through the snow is a good workout and quite invigorating mentally. And we have a lot of seniors at our center who have learned to ice skate. It’s fun, and it’s a great activity.” ADAPT AND ADJUST The guards who train indoors over the winter do other kinds of activities, aside from swimming. They use the weight machines; they jog on treadmills (in part, to help prepare for the run portion of the test). Modifying your workouts is a better alternative than stopping them completely. “We’ll often encourage seniors to turn towards strength training in the winter, which is more of an indoor activity,” Mr. Rogers said. So if 75 percent of one’s activity in the summer is outdoor aerobic exercise (walking, swimming, biking) and 25 percent is resistance training, flip it around in the winter. Use the weight room more frequently, and get strong. You may not be ready to pass a lifeguard test next summer, but at least no bullies will kick sand in your face.
|
Lifeguards;Exercise;Tests and Examinations
|
ny0245495
|
[
"technology",
"personaltech"
] |
2011/04/21
|
New Fuji Camera Is Both Retro and Cutting Edge
|
What is a camera, anyway? In the last few years, the definition of a camera has been pulled and twisted like taffy. Some are huge, heavy machines with lenses like telescopes. Others are candy-colored minis, as much fashion statements as recording devices. Some are specialized for use underwater or taking hundreds of shots a second. Some are phones. And the new Fujifilm X100 is — different. Quirky, amazing, baffling, out-there different. For starters, it’s been designed to look exactly like some Leica film camera from 30 years ago. The top portion and bottom plate have been “die-cast from magnesium alloy” (it’s silver metal, in other words); the grippy part is black and textured. The control dials are physical metal wheels, so you can check the settings even before you turn on the camera. The retro look gets plenty of stares in public. The joke is that you know you are carrying the very latest, cutting-edge, $1,200 semiprofessional camera, but passers-by think you’re the last Luddite film buff in America. That’s right, $1,200. Pro photographers have been drooling over the arrival of this thing for months; it’s no point-and-shoot, that’s for sure. You’re expected to know something about photography if you use this camera; for example, there are no scene modes at all, like beach, twilight, portrait. Instead, there are dedicated shutter speed and exposure dials on top and a metal aperture control ring around the lens. If you know how to use aperture and shutter speed controls, no camera on earth gives you quicker and more direct access. (Each of these controls also has an automatic setting.) As a further reminder that this camera isn’t for the Wal-Mart masses, this camera also has — are you sitting down? — no zoom. That’s right; it has a fixed nonzooming lens. A nonzooming lens has a bunch of advantages. It’s flat, so it makes this camera small enough to slip easily into a coat pocket or purse. It never has to extend or retract, so the camera is ready to shoot instantly after you flip its clicky on/off switch. And it ensures that photos are razor-sharp across the entire frame, with little of the distortion that can result at the corners when you use zoom lenses. But no zoom? Really? That seems awfully Cro-Magnon in an age when much cheaper pocket cams can zoom 18 times or 20 times. Real photo devotees don’t see a fixed lens as a huge detriment. They see it as a limit that inspires compositional creativity, like the 140-character limit on Twitter . And on the X100, the lens is the equivalent of a 35-millimeter film lens, perfect for portraits and a nice balance for landscapes. Other fixed-lens digital cameras, like the Sigma DP2, embrace the same design philosophy — eliminating zoom for the sake of compactness, speed and quality. But one X100 feature in particular sets it far apart, and accounts for a big chunk of its price. It not only has an eyepiece viewfinder, but a switchable one. It can be either a pure glass viewfinder that you see right through, as on an S.L.R., or a tiny TV screen; you switch back and forth by flipping a lever by the lens. When it’s in see-through mode, you get a bright, big, beautiful view of the world around you, complete with superimposed electronic information about your settings. When it’s in electronic mode, you see a preview of the actual photo you’re about to take, complete with exposure, depth-of-field and white-balance effects. Each is useful in different situations, and it’s fantastic to be able to flip between them. A truly great feature, beautifully executed — a photographic first. It’s also an f/2.0 lens, meaning that it lets in a lot of light; this camera does exceptionally well in low light, even without its built-in flash. It can also create absolutely gorgeous blurred background effects. The photos have a clarity, a depth, that you’d expect from a still more expensive S.L.R. On a spring-break trip to a theme park, this camera produced some of the most memorable photos of my children I’ve ever taken. It also ruined a lot more shots than any camera I’ve used. Part of the problem is just rough edges. For example, the camera forgets its mode (movie, still, panorama) every time you turn it off and on again. And every time you enter Playback mode, it starts you back at the first photo instead of remembering where you left off. Then there’s the macro-mode quirk. The camera can focus up to four inches away, for amazing close-up shots. But when you’re looking through the optical viewfinder, you’re not looking through the lens. The viewfinder is offset from the lens by a couple of inches, so you wind up with parallax problems; that is, the framing you see in the eyepiece is not what the lens will capture. These problems increase the closer you are to your subject. So when your subject is closer than 2.6 feet away, you have to switch the X100 manually into macro mode. Otherwise, the camera simply refuses to focus. Actually, it’s worse; the camera briefly focuses, sharply and expertly, and then goes all blurry instantly, and that’s what you capture. I lost an awful lot of great portraits to this quirk. You should also know that the camera doesn’t focus quickly, especially in low light. It does have an autofocus assist lamp that comes on in dim rooms, briefly providing enough illumination for it to focus, but time is going by meanwhile. In auto mode, the camera also permits motion blur in too many shots. Setting the shutter speed manually freezes the action just fine, but that shouldn’t be necessary. On the other hand, the X100 has some ingenious tricks up its sleeve. From Sony ’s cameras, it borrows the incredibly useful sweep-panorama feature, in which you can capture a 180-degree slice of the world around you just by swinging the camera through space. It takes successive photos and knits them together perfectly, instantly, right in the camera. It also captures beautiful high-definition video, using all of the same options you have for stills, including softly blurred backgrounds. And the X100 can refocus and adjust exposure as you pan around, which many high-end cameras can’t do. More goodies: bracketing, in which the camera takes three shots at once, each with slightly different settings ( light sensitivity or exposure, for example); simulations of classic Fuji film types, like Velvia and Astia; a five-shots-a-second burst mode; and a manual-focusing system that’s a joy to use. With one push of the thumb dial (upper-right corner of the back), the viewfinder goes into electronic mode and shows you a magnified view of your subject. If you press the AE button, the camera autofocuses, which you can use as a manual-focusing starting point. The biggest goody of all, though, is the moment when you review your photos on the computer. (Reviewing them on the camera’s screen isn’t nearly as revealing; it’s only 2.8 inches diagonal.) They don’t feel like the photos from an ordinary camera, as you can see from the samples that accompany this article online. This odd bird , then, is a portrait-taking masterpiece, a nonzooming throwback, a brilliant combination of old and new. In some ways, the X100 follows the same path as Sony’s NX5 and Panasonic ’s GF2: it’s an effort to pack S.L.R.-style photographic prowess, and an S.L.R.-size sensor, into a much smaller body. For most people, the Sony is more compelling; it’s smaller, much less expensive ($700) and takes interchangeable lenses, including a nonzooming flat one like the X100’s. But the X100’s controls (clear, external, analog, exposed) embrace the opposite approach of the Sony (on-screen, buried, clumsy). In any case, choice is good. And the expensive, radical, retro, eccentric X100 represents a welcome new tug at the definition of “camera.”
|
Camera;Photography
|
ny0142788
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2008/11/24
|
Firefighter Dies in Staten Island Blaze
|
A lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department was killed early Sunday morning fighting a fire in Staten Island when a ceiling in the attic of the burning home collapsed on him, the fire department said Sunday morning. The lieutenant, Robert J. Ryan, 46, was a 17-year veteran of the department. His fire engine, Engine Company 155, was the first to respond to the fire at 39 Van Buren St. in New Brighton shortly after 12:30 a.m., the department said. Lieutenant Ryan led firefighters and a hose into the attic. “As the fire intensified, a portion of the ceiling fell and apparently struck Lieutenant Ryan,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a press conference at Richmond University Medical Center where Mr. Ryan was taken after he was injured. “Unconscious, he was carried out of the building by his fellow firefighters who were standing right around him when the accident occurred.” The impact knocked Lieutenant Ryan’s helmet and air mask off, the department said. “Firefighters and EMS personnel on the scene tried to revive him, but they were, I am sad to say, unsuccessful,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “He was rushed here to Richmond University Medical Center where, despite the best efforts of the medical staff, he was pronounced dead.” The fire, which was being investigated by fire marshals, was apparently started by electrical wiring the attic, but was not considered suspicious, Mr. Bloomberg said. The fire was brought under control at 1:31 a.m., the department said. Lieutenant Ryan was assigned to Engine 155 more than two years ago. He was appointed to the Fire Department on April 14, 1991. He was previously assigned to Engines 228, 280 and 282 in Brooklyn, Engine 6 in Manhattan, the 4th Battalion in Manhattan and the 22nd Battalion in Staten Island. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in March 2001. A lifelong Staten Island resident, he is survived by his wife, Kathleen; a son, Chris, 17; a daughter, Kayla, 12; a stepson, Alex, 10; and a stepdaughter, Emma, 8. “I would just like to ask all New Yorkers to say a prayer for Robert Ryan,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “He was a brave man who lost his life protecting this city. And as we go in to the holiday season, we need to remember those who sacrifice so much for all of the rest of us.” ..
|
Fires and Firefighters;Fire Department (NYC);Staten Island (NYC)
|
ny0201559
|
[
"sports",
"tennis"
] |
2009/09/06
|
Night Falls, and So Do Roddick and Safina
|
By the time Andy Roddick was John Isner’s age, he had won a United States Open and graced three other Grand Slam finals. Isner’s elder by three years, Roddick, 27, has ruled American tennis since Pete Sampras’s retirement in 2002, but this summer the seeds of an insurrection sprouted, pushing up through the cracks in the hardcourts. Last month in Mason, Ohio, Sam Querrey sent Roddick to a second-round defeat at a Masters Series event. On Saturday, Querrey’s doubles partner, Isner, pulled off the first major upset of this Open on the men’s side, beating Roddick, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5), in a third-round day match at Arthur Ashe Stadium that ended after 9 p.m. “It’s obviously, hands down, the biggest win of my career,” Isner said. “Nothing even compares. To do it at the stage I did it on is pretty spectacular.” Roddick saved three match points with aces — one in the fourth set and two in the last tie breaker — only to net a return with the match on Isner’s racket. “It’s tough,” Roddick said. “I don’t know I’ve come to a tournament with as much confidence — into a Slam — as I did with this tournament, and leaving earlier than I want to.” It was the first time that Roddick , the 2003 champion, had lost at the Open to an American since Sampras ended his run in the 2002 quarterfinals. Roddick became the first top-10 seed to fall on the men’s side on a day in which top-ranked Roger Federer and No. 4 Novak Djokovic struggled but ultimately survived. Hours later, the top-seeded woman, Dinara Safina, fell to Petra Kvitova, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (5). Federer dispatched a longtime nemesis, Lleyton Hewitt , 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, and Djokovic put away Jesse Witten, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Until Saturday, it had been the EZ-Pass Open for the men in the top 10. Among them, they had dropped two sets. Roddick lost 16 games in his first two matches, but then he ran into an elongated clone of himself in Isner, a hard-serving, forehand-crushing baseliner who is a shade over 6 feet 9 inches tall. Isner, who played at the University of Georgia, has ascended to a career-high No. 55 since returning in May after missing two months with mononucleosis. He wore down as the match moved into its fourth hour, taking more time between serves and coming to the net less often. Somehow, Isner mustered the strength to beat Roddick at what both players do best, producing 38 aces to Roddick’s 20 and 18 forehand winners to Roddick’s 11. The tie break, too, is usually Roddick’s domain, but Isner has won 16 of his last 17. “Never panicked,” Isner said. “If I lose that match, I have nothing to hang my head about.” The loss was a giant step backward for Roddick, who expected to contend for the championship after pushing Federer to the limit in the Wimbledon final in July. “In the fifth set, I knew I wanted to finish it before it got to a tie breaker and kind of became a shootout,” Roddick said. “It didn’t happen. He came up with the goods at the end.” So did Federer. When he and Hewitt last met, last month in Ohio, Hewitt was not able to earn a break point against Federer, who has quietly developed the most wicked serve in the game, Roddick’s 140 mile-per-hour missiles notwithstanding. It was a different story this time as Hewitt earned 14 break points and converted two, both in the opening set. Federer had 13 winners and 23 unforced errors in the first 10 games, his mistakes costing him the first set. Federer played more like himself after that; he produced 38 winners against 36 unforced errors to send Hewitt to defeat for the 14th consecutive time in 24 meetings. Having to swerve to avoid a loss in the first week of a Grand Slam event has its bright side (provided one survives to learn from it). The scare alerts the senses and steels one’s focus. “There’s no more, like, ‘O.K., let’s not try to waste any time out there and get through the match,’ ” Federer said. “It’s like, ‘All right, I hope I can still turn this around,’ because I knew the danger.” While Federer was orchestrating his comeback against Hewitt, Djokovic was grinding out a win over Witten. Their third-round match at Louis Armstrong Stadium was as pretty as a bruise. They combined for 19 double faults, and Djokovic had 22 more unforced errors than winners. Djokovic has won two titles this year, but Witten, ranked No. 276, made him sweat. Djokovic’s hands were so slick with perspiration that he lost his grip on his racket during a point in one of his service games in the third set. Like a baseball bat that splinters and takes flight on a ground ball, Djokovic’s serve landed fair and his racket landed foul in the other service box. “I get the sweat a lot,” Djokovic said, adding, “and then I just didn’t squeeze the racket. You know, when you want to make it faster, obviously you have to pop it with the wrist really fast, and then I just dropped the racket. It was embarrassing.” There was an upside to playing Witten, who went for broke on every shot and was successful enough times to put the fear of defeat in Djokovic. “Well, I think those matches have to appear sometime during the tournament,” Djokovic said. “Maybe the good thing is that I have played this match in the third round.” Tennis is full of funny bounces. You can play poorly against a weaker opponent, as Djokovic did, and advance. And you can play well against an inspired opponent, as Roddick did, and lose. “The fact that I was able to make a quarterfinal last year,” Roddick said, “and I was playing just terrible, didn’t make it past the third round this year, that’s just the way it is sometimes.”
|
United States Open (Tennis);Tennis;Federer Roger;Djokovic Novak;Hewitt Lleyton;Witten Jesse
|
ny0266638
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2016/03/26
|
Sweep Leads to 5 Arrests, a Foiled Plot and a Paris-Brussels Connection
|
BRUSSELS — Counterterrorism officials widened a sweep targeting suspected Islamic State operatives to several European countries on Friday, reporting newly uncovered links between the Brussels and Paris massacres, at least five arrests and the foiling of what France described as an advanced plan for another attack. The actions reflected both new momentum from information uncovered since the Brussels bombings on Tuesday and deep worries about missed opportunities to thwart the attacks. European officials, particularly in Belgium, have come under strong criticism for lapses that might have enabled the Brussels plotters to succeed. President François Hollande of France, who has declared a state of war with the Islamic State, praised the police work carried out in recent days but said that “we know that there are other networks” affiliated with the extremist organization and lurking in Europe. “Even if the one that carried out the attacks in Paris and in Brussels is in the process of being wiped out — with a certain number of its members arrested — there is always a threat weighing upon us,” Mr. Hollande said in Paris. His warnings were reinforced by a newly released Islamic State propaganda video featuring what were described as two fighters from Belgium, apparently speaking from Iraqi territory seized by the organization and celebrating the Brussels attacks. “This is just the beginning of your nightmare,” one fighter proclaims, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist organizations. Video Footage of a police operation in the Schaerbeek neighborhood in Brussels, where a man linked to a foiled attack in France was shot and detained. Credit Credit via Reuters While European investigators already had established numerous links between suspects in the Paris and Brussels attacks, the Belgian prosecutor’s office confirmed the most direct connection on Friday. It said DNA matches showed that one of the bombers who blew himself up at Brussels Airport had been a bomb maker who helped produce two suicide vests used in the November Paris attacks, which killed 130 people. The man identified as the bomb maker — Najim Laachraoui, 24, a Belgian citizen — has been described by the Belgian prosecutor’s office as an accomplice of Salah Abdeslam, 26, who was captured in Belgium on March 18 and charged with terrorist murder. Mr. Abdeslam is thought to be the sole surviving direct participant in the Paris attacks, and his arrest appeared to have accelerated the plot that culminated in the attack on Brussels, which killed 31 people. Mr. Laachraoui traveled to Syria in February 2013, the prosecutor’s office said. Last September, while using a false identity card, he and Mr. Abdeslam were stopped at the Hungarian-Austrian border, but not detained, according to the prosecutor’s office. He rented a house in Auvelais, Belgium, that the attackers used, and traces of his DNA were found in an apartment in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels that he used as a bomb-making lab, the prosecutor’s office said. On Monday — three days after Mr. Abdeslam was captured in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood where he grew up — the authorities asked for the public’s help in finding Mr. Laachraoui. A day later, he blew himself up at Brussels Airport, along with another suicide bomber, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui , 29. News agencies widely reported Mr. Laachraoui’s death, but officials awaited DNA results before confirming it. On Friday, the federal prosecutor in Brussels not only confirmed the death, but also disclosed that Mr. Laachraoui’s DNA had been found on suicide vests detonated in Paris. The investigation also spread to Germany, where officials reported a suspected link between Mr. Bakraoui and a 28-year-old German in Düsseldorf who had ties to Islamist extremists and was about to serve a prison term for robbery. He was arrested Thursday night to prevent him from fleeing to Syria, according to the prosecutor’s office for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Turkey deported the German man and Mr. Bakraoui to the Netherlands last year on the same flight, German news agencies and security officials said. “It is not clear whether they knew each other and, if so, how well,” said Ralf Herrenbrück, a spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office. German officials also disclosed on Friday that they had arrested a 28-year-old Moroccan, who had a criminal record in Italy, during a routine identity check at a train station in Giessen, near Frankfurt. The man appeared to have circumstantial links to the Paris and Brussels assailants, the officials said. He was hospitalized for an unexplained injury on March 18 — the day Mr. Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels — the public broadcaster ARD reported. The Moroccan man carried a cellphone with a text message with the word “fin” (French for “end”) that was received on Tuesday, shortly before the attacks in Brussels, ARD reported. According to the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel, another text message on the phone contained the name of Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27 — Ibrahim’s younger brother and the man identified as the suicide bomber at the Brussels subway station on Tuesday. Uncovering the Links Between the Brussels and Paris Attackers At least two of the attackers are believed to have had roles in both plots. “Law enforcement authorities have been examining whether a connection to the attacks in Brussels exists and, if so, to what extent,” Thomas Hauburger of the a state prosecutor’s office in Giessen said. News agencies across Europe — in Spain and the Netherlands, as well as France and Belgium — reported that European intelligence authorities were searching for a Syrian, Naim al-Hamed, as part of the investigations into the Brussels attacks. Mr. Hamed, 28, was said to be linked to Mr. Laachraoui, Khalid el-Bakraoui and a third suspect, Mohamed Abrini, who is sought by the authorities. On Thursday, the French police arrested Reda Kriket, who, according to court records, is a jihadist who raised money for a network of militants in 2012 and ’13 and traveled to Syria in late 2014. Mr. Kriket was well known to the security services in both France and Belgium, and he was named in a 2015 court proceeding along with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the on-the-ground chief planner of the Paris attacks. In July, Mr. Kriket was convicted in absentia in Belgium of terrorist activities and possession of stolen goods. After Mr. Kriket’s arrest, the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said Mr. Kriket had been involved in the “advanced stages” of a new terrorist plot. It was unclear whether that plot was directly connected to the attacks in Paris or Brussels. Video Belgium's prime minister, Charles Michel, said at a news conference with Secretary of State John Kerry that his country was willing to join airstrikes against the Islamic State. Credit Credit Pool photo by Andrew Harnik In Brussels on Friday, the police arrested three men for questioning in connection with Mr. Kriket’s arrest. One was shot and arrested in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, which was still unnerved from the bombings. Ali Oucar, 29, was at a nearby Ladbrokes sports betting parlor when the man was shot. “I saw the police in front of the Meiser train station, shouting to a guy, ‘Open your vest!’ ” Mr. Oucar said. “The guy was with a kid. He refused to open the vest, and the police shot him twice.” The Belgian government is under pressure for failures in intelligence, law enforcement and information-sharing that may have allowed Brussels to become a hub for militants to plot attacks in Europe. Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens offered to resign after the Brussels bombings, but Prime Minister Charles Michel asked them to stay. The Belgian officials have acknowledged some serious missteps, mostly notably their inaction on an alert last year from Turkey about Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, who had been detained in the town of Gaziantep, near the Syria border, on suspicion of terrorist activity. After the Belgian authorities did not follow up, Turkey deported Mr. Bakraoui at his request to the Netherlands, where officials have said they were not aware he was considered dangerous. Mr. Bakraoui’s brother was the target of an arrest warrant issued in December, in connection with the Paris attacks. He, too, evaded capture. Both brothers had been granted early release from prison after being incarcerated for crimes unrelated to terrorist activity. At a parliamentary hearing on Friday, Mr. Jambon told lawmakers that he took responsibility but that subordinates had also been negligent. Mr. Geens said the Belgian penal authorities had no problems with the Bakraoui brothers, who had cooperated until they were released and then dropped from sight. “Nevertheless,” Mr. Geens told the hearing, “I would like to say that we cannot exclude that if everyone had done their job to perfection, a certain number of things would have unfolded differently.”
|
Brussels Attacks;Paris Attacks;ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State;Brussels;Salah Abdeslam;Ibrahim el-Bakraoui;Khalid el-Bakraoui
|
ny0074831
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2015/04/24
|
Advocates Sue a New York School District, Claiming Weak Programs for Refugees
|
Despite months of admonitions to public schools by law enforcement agencies, some immigrant students in New York are still meeting resistance when they try to enroll. Civil liberties advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that the Utica City School District in upstate New York diluted the education of refugee students by illegally diverting them from regular classes into weaker alternative programs. The state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, has also opened an investigation into Utica’s academic placement policies and is reviewing new accusations of misconduct in several other school districts. Mr. Schneiderman recently forced the Hempstead Union Free School District on Long Island to appoint an independent monitor and offer compensatory schooling to delayed students, after finding the district used deceitful enrollment practices to bar immigrants. The lawsuit against Utica, which was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of six refugee students, was another sign that efforts by advocates to ease enrollment continue to run up against districts dealing with a recent increase in young immigrant arrivals. Those problems were laid out in a joint review by the State Education Department and Mr. Schneiderman in February. The review found that districts were prohibiting children from enrolling based on their immigration status, in violation of a Supreme Court ruling from 1982. Twenty districts agreed to stop asking for documents such as Social Security cards that effectively exclude undocumented children. The class-action complaint filed in Federal District Court against Utica claims the district violated New York’s guarantee of a free public education to all residents younger than 21 who have not yet received a diploma. Instead of a seat in Utica’s Proctor High School, the lawsuit says, the district since 2007 has offered spots in one of two alternative programs to non-English-speaking refugees. “They’ve come to the U.S. looking to accomplish their dreams; in their home country they were foreclosed on doing so,” said Phil Desgranges, the lawyer who filed the suit. “Instead, they were told they had no opportunity to go to school.” Many families arriving in Utica, where about 18 percent of residents are foreign-born, go first to the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees. There, Mr. Desgranges said, academic coaches employed by the school district often steer refugee students who are older than 16 toward one of two alternative programs, telling them they are too old for high school. One such program, the Newcomer Program, which was once run by the district but was recently taken over by the refugee center, for many years exclusively offered English as a second language instruction to immigrant students, rather than core subjects, the lawsuit says. Last year, the program added high school equivalency classes, but made them available only to students who tested well on an English exam. In response to complaints last year, the lawsuit says, the district helped create a second alternative program, the Alignment of Pathways and Programs for Learners of English (Apple program), which offers equivalency classes. Mr. Desgranges said the district buses refugee students to the neighboring town where the classes are held. “The practice is to do this only to immigrants and refugees,” Mr. Desgranges said, adding that the alternative programs segregate students and prevent them from qualifying for a subsidized lunch. Donald R. Gerace, a lawyer for the school district, vigorously denied the accusations, saying, “We’ve never denied any eligible students admission to the schools.” He said there are a number of refugee students currently enrolled in the high school who are older than 17. As for the six plaintiffs, Mr. Gerace said the “district never received any information” regarding five of them, “which means essentially that the students were not referred to the district for enrollment by the refugee center.” Like many districts trying to integrate immigrant students this year, Utica has struggled to find money for all the programs it wants to provide, but he said strong English language programs had helped send many students onto successful college careers. Patrick Tuyizere, 18, one of the plaintiffs, said through a translator on Thursday that the alternative classes were not taking him anywhere, though he aspires to be a doctor. Mr. Tuyizere was born in a refugee camp in Rwanda after his family fled violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After moving from Baltimore to Utica last year, he said he was funneled into the Apple program instead of being allowed to attend the high school. Mr. Tuyizere said that his classes in math and science were not rigorous enough to prepare him for medical school, and that he feared having a high school equivalency diploma will hurt his prospects.
|
K-12 Education;Refugees,Internally Displaced People;NYCLU;Discrimination;Utica NY
|
ny0225515
|
[
"business"
] |
2010/10/16
|
Johnson & Johnson Loses Risperdal Suit in Louisiana
|
A jury in Louisiana ruled that Johnson & Johnson owed the state nearly $258 million for misleading Louisiana doctors about the possible side effects of Risperdal, an antipsychotic medication. The ruling came in a suit filed by the state attorney general, Buddy Caldwell, against a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceutical, charging misrepresentation and fraud. The suit said Johnson & Johnson and Janssen sent letters to more than 7,500 doctors and made more than 27,000 phone calls that improperly claimed its schizophrenia drug Risperdal was safer than competing medications and minimized its link to diabetes. Michael Heinley, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho-McNeil Janssen Pharmaceuticals division, said the company would appeal. “We believe the jury was not appropriately instructed on applicable legal standards and that critical and highly relevant evidence was excluded,” he said Friday.
|
Johnson & Johnson;Decisions and Verdicts;Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
|
ny0081417
|
[
"business",
"economy"
] |
2015/11/05
|
Upbeat Economic Outlook Suggests Support for Rate Increase
|
Private employers maintained a steady pace of hiring in October and a jump in new orders buoyed activity in the services industry, suggesting that the United States economy could be strong enough to support an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve in December. The economic outlook was further brightened by another report on Wednesday showing that the trade deficit hit a seven-month low in September as exports rebounded, a tentative sign the worst of the drag from the stronger dollar may be over. “You have a set of data thus far that tells the Fed that things are in good shape going into the fourth quarter and is giving them the green light to go,” said Jacob Oubina, senior United States economist at RBC Capital Markets. The ADP National Employment Report showed that private payrolls increased 182,000 last month on top of the 190,000 jobs added in September. Job gains last month were broad-based, though manufacturing lost 2,000 positions. On Friday, the Labor Department’s more comprehensive employment report for October will be released. According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls increased 180,000 in October, well above the average gain of 139,000 jobs for August and September. In a separate report, the Institute for Supply Management said its nonmanufacturing index rose to 59.1 points last month from a reading of 56.9 in September. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the United States economy. A gauge of new orders received by services industries rose a sturdy 5.3 percentage points to 62 and employment increased to 59.2 percent from a reading of 58.3 in September. Fourteen services industries reported growth last month. Only mining reported a contraction. “It suggests that the service sector has hardly skipped a beat despite signs of weakness in other parts of the economy,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York. “The U.S. economic recovery is off to a very strong start in the fourth quarter after the subpar performance in the third quarter.” A third report on Wednesday, from the Commerce Department, showed that the trade gap fell 15 percent in September, to $40.8 billion, the smallest deficit since February. Lower crude oil prices also helped to curb the import bill. The dollar has gained 16.8 percent against the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners since June 2014, undercutting export growth. Lackluster global demand has also put a damper on exports. Exports in September rose 1.6 percent to $187.9 billion, with exports of services reaching a high. Imports fell 1.8 percent, to $228.7 billion, the lowest level since February. Petroleum imports were the lowest since May 2004, reflecting increased domestic energy production and lower oil prices. Imports from China hit a high in September, leaving the politically sensitive United States-China trade deficit at a record high of $36.3 billion. That was up 3.8 percent from August.
|
US Economy;International trade;Jobs;Commerce Department;Wages and salaries
|
ny0060229
|
[
"sports",
"football"
] |
2014/08/08
|
Giants’ Top Pick Practices, but Not at Full Strength
|
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Giants’ top draft pick caught punts and made cuts during practice Wednesday but still could not say when he might return to full strength. Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has sat out with a hamstring strain since the first day of training camp. He started running hard and making cuts while wearing pads with the training staff during Wednesday’s practice. “You rush out there and you risk putting yourself back with another injury,” Beckham said. Beckham said he dealt with a similar injury last summer while at Louisiana State but missed no time during the regular season. Coach Tom Coughlin said the training staff wanted to see him successfully run routes before clearing him. “He is getting better,” Coughlin said. “They’re doing a lot with him, and I think he is responding pretty well the next day. He is not that sore. I think he is close.” Beckham did not play last week against Buffalo and will most likely miss Saturday’s preseason home opener against Pittsburgh. The Giants announced that left tackle Will Beatty and cornerback Trumaine McBride would also sit out Saturday’s game. CLOWNEY SAYS HE WILL START Top overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney said he would start the Texans’ preseason opener at Arizona on Saturday after missing practice with an undisclosed injury. Clowney’s proclamation seemed to catch Texans Coach Bill O’Brien by surprise. Clowney returned to practice on Thursday after sitting out the last three workouts. Clowney had sports hernia surgery June 12, and hurt himself late in last Saturday’s workout. (AP) FALCONS LOSE ROOKIE The Atlanta Falcons rookie linebacker Marquis Spruill will miss the season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, Coach Mike Smith said. The Falcons’ Sean Weatherspoon is out for the season with an Achilles’ tendon injury. (AP) NEWTON MAY MISS OPENER Coach Ron Rivera said he was unsure if quarterback Cam Newton would play in the Carolina Panthers’ preseason opener Friday against the Buffalo Bills. Rivera said he would probably y make a decision after Newton met with the trainer Ryan Vermillion. Newton had surgery on his left ankle in March. He had participated in all drills before being limited Wednesday and Thursday. Rivera said, “We want to make sure he’s ready to roll and he can protect himself.” Derek Anderson will start if Newton does not. (AP) LIONS ROOKIES READY Detroit’s Nevin Lawson and Kyle Van Noy, both rookies, will play their first preseason game in Saturday’s opener against the Cleveland Browns. (AP) MCNAIR HEALTHY The Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said he received a clean bill of health after a 10-month battle with two forms of cancer. McNair, 77, said he had dealt with skin cancer for about 20 years and was diagnosed about six years ago with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Computed tomography scans in April and on Monday showed that the cancer cells were virtually gone. (AP) CARDINALS CUT VETERAN The Arizona Cardinals released linebacker Ernie Sims. The eight-year N.F.L. veteran was signed as a free agent Dec. 24. Sims was a first-round draft pick — ninth overall — by the Detroit Lions in 2006. He played for the Lions for four seasons before stops in Philadelphia, Indianapolis and Dallas. (AP)
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Football;Odell Beckham Jr.;Giants
|
ny0157227
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2008/06/12
|
Until Sudden Death, an Immigrant Worker Toiled Six Days a Week
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The routine never changed. Six days a week, Lauro Ortega shuttled from pit to pit, taking another construction job. At the end of each week, he sent more than half of his weekly salary of about $700 to his wife and two children in Ecuador. On Sunday, he went to church and prayed. Mr. Ortega, who came to the United States four years ago as an illegal immigrant, was 30 when he was killed in March by rubble that fell from the wall of a house and partially buried him. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged the man who hired him with manslaughter. Mr. Ortega’s life showed the lengths to which some immigrants go to send a slice of prosperity to their families thousands of miles away. They sacrifice leisure for long work weeks, watch their children grow up in snapshots sent across seas, and take on risky jobs that pay relatively well — and in cash. Born in Cuenca, Ecuador, Mr. Ortega, who had three brothers and two sisters, was an unassuming, outgoing child, said one of his brothers, Leonardo Ortega, also a construction worker in New York. He was a year short of completing high school but always sought a life of comfort, his brother said. Mr. Ortega left his country four years ago to escape dreary economic conditions. The son of a farmer, Mr. Ortega quickly learned the importance of hard work as a formula for survival. As a child, he was forced to help his family recover from economic devastation after his father died, his brother said. Mr. Ortega wrestled with the decision to leave his family for the United States, accepting it only after he saw it as the only way to bring his family out of near-poverty, his brother said. When he joined two of his brothers in New York in 2004, Mr. Ortega began work as a day laborer, hopping between construction jobs. He quickly found himself engulfed in work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. “He came to this country to work,” his brother said, speaking in Spanish. “He liked to do it. That was his love.” Mr. Ortega left few tracks, living alone in an apartment in Ridgewood across from a curbside mechanic. Several of his neighbors said on Wednesday that they were unaware that he had lived nearby, and the lawyer representing his family said he knew only basic details of Mr. Ortega’s life. In between the demands of work, Mr. Ortega made time for daily calls to his wife, Blanca Guarango, and their 10-year-old daughter, Beatriz, and 8-year-old son, Roberto, Leonardo Ortega said. “He made money for the people he loved,” the brother said. Now, with no more weekly envelopes from New York, Mr. Ortega’s family in Ecuador is struggling to live comfortably, his brother said. Mr. Ortega spent his free hours studying Bible verses and was particularly close to his brothers, Leonardo Ortega said. “If one of us got sick, he was there to help out,” Mr. Ortega said. “We always kept in touch.” Mr. Ortega’s brother said Wednesday that the family honored his life in March with services in both New York and Ecuador. He said news of the indictment was encouraging. “I was happy to hear it,” he said. “I just want justice for my family.”
|
Accidents and Safety;Derricks and Cranes;New York City;Ortega Lauro;Immigration and Refugees
|
ny0106258
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2012/04/16
|
Steely Traffic Managers Easing Holland Tunnel Snarls
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Joe Pittelli was hit by a vehicle while he fixed potholes on the Van Wyck Expressway; his arm was sideswiped while he was paving the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive; and he was once knocked off a ladder while installing a parking sign in Long Island City. One would think, given Mr. Pittelli’s history, that he would not seek out a job that required him to stand in the middle of four lanes of oncoming southbound traffic on Varick Street in Lower Manhattan, as thousands of cars, cabs and delivery vans lurch and cough their way forward. But none of that seemed to bother Mr. Pittelli, one of six pedestrian traffic managers hired by the Hudson Square Connection Business Improvement District to ease the backed-up traffic near the Holland Tunnel between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. “You need to have a good temperament,” he said, over the blare of music from car radios and the high-pitched taxi whistles of the Trump SoHo doormen. “You’ve got to try to think what people are going to do.” On a recent afternoon, Mr. Pittelli, who retired three years ago after a 28-year career with the city’s Department of Transportation , directed traffic with a few understated flicks of his neon gloves. His work conditions were far from ideal: the black metal plate he stood on smelled of hot tar and bent and shook with every car or truck rumbling over it. Still, Mr. Pittelli nonchalantly waved cars forward toward the mouth of the Holland Tunnel, or eastward toward Canal Street, shooing them from intersections and protectively waving through pedestrians. Then he repeated the same steps, over and over, always displaying remarkable calm. The improvement district hired the workers, mainly retired police officers, from Sam Schwartz Engineering, and placed them along Varick Street at Houston, Charlton and Vandam Streets starting in the fall. Ellen Baer, president the Hudson Square Connection Business Improvement District, said that the streets improved immediately. On typical days between July and October, the number of blocked crosswalks dropped by 43 percent and the number of blocked intersections fell by 61 percent. The traffic officers were so effective that the district made the program permanent in February. “It’s saner. It’s quieter,” Ms. Baer said. She added that office workers felt less like they were “working in the middle of a highway.” Mr. Schwartz, who has also placed traffic managers in Times Square for the Department of Transportation and along Second Avenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said other business improvement districts were exploring hiring officers. Mr. Schwartz said Hudson Square, situated next to the Holland Tunnel, was an especially difficult traffic area and “one of the toughest traffic jams in New York City.” He said he hoped conditions would continue to improve. “Can we cut down on the amount of horn honking?” he said. “We haven’t eliminated it all. But the numbers are really good.” Mr. Pittelli said that since he started directing traffic downtown in December, he had seen his worst traffic on the Thursday and Friday before the Passover and Easter holidays. He had to stroll through the neighborhood and calm himself down before getting on the subway to go home to Maspeth, Queens, he said. But he noticed that, overall, traffic was better. “These people would never be able to cross the street on the crosswalk,” he said. “It’s much calmer. If we weren’t here, this would be an absolute mess.”
|
Roads and Traffic;Holland Tunnel;Hudson Square (NYC)
|
ny0267678
|
[
"sports"
] |
2016/03/23
|
Candice Wiggins Retires From the Liberty
|
The free agent Candice Wiggins announced her retirement with an essay published online Tuesday on The Players’ Tribune. Wiggins, 29, provided key minutes as a reserve last year for the Liberty. ■ Indiana Pacers guard Ty Lawson is set to serve a year on probation in a Denver drunken-driving case after a judge rejected arguments that he needed to serve jail time to learn a lesson. (AP) ■ Russell Westbrook had 21 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds to help the Thunder beat the Houston Rockets, 111-107, in Oklahoma City. Westbrook has 15 triple-doubles, the most in a season since 1988-89, when Magic Johnson had 17 and Michael Jordan had 15. ■ Los Angeles will host the N.B.A. All-Star Game in 2018. (AP)
|
Basketball;New York Liberty;Candice Wiggins
|
ny0122595
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2012/09/10
|
In an Experiment, Students and Reporters Collaborate on Local News
|
MACON, Ga. — From the rattling cicadas at twilight to the willow trees bending in the late summer heat, the lush campus of Mercer University seems like the last place to find one of the nation’s boldest journalism experiments. This fall, Mercer, a 179-year-old former Baptist school, is starting an ambitious $5.6 million project to try to save local journalism by inviting both the Macon newspaper and a Georgia Public Radio station onto its campus. Reporters and editors for the 186-year-old paper The Telegraph and the radio station will work out of the campus’s new journalism center, alongside students whom the university expects will do legwork for newspaper and public radio reports, with guidance from their professors and working journalists. It’s a plan born in part of desperation. Like many newspapers, The Telegraph has lost circulation and advertising revenue in the last decade, and the public radio station was forced to trim down to one staff member during the recession. William D. Underwood, Mercer’s president, expects that by applying what he calls a medical residency model to journalism, all of these players may give the struggling industry a chance to stay alive. “I want young people to be able to practice journalism ethically and competently the day they graduate,” Mr. Underwood said. “I have a concern about the future of local print journalism. There’s nothing more vital to a functioning democracy.” Mercer’s is one of several such collaborations across the country. A 2011 study by the New America Foundation called on journalism schools to embrace the model of an “anchor institution ” and do what they can to help local media outlets. Three universities in Ohio joined together to provide content for local news organizations with a company called the News Outlet . The Miami Herald worked with WLRN 91.3 FM to have print reporters prepare and provide news for the local station. But the Mercer project is believed to be the first venture among a university, newspaper and public radio station. Groups like the Knight Foundation, which financed most of the Mercer experiment, are closely monitoring Mercer’s success. “This could be a new model for journalism education,” said Beverly Blake, a program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which provided a $4.6 million grant. “We thought about what it could do for journalism education and to strengthen our community.” There have been some growing pains. University officials housed the radio station in a space that has the distinct smell of a nearby wings joint. The newspaper offices are just three noisy stories below student dorms known for their Friday night dance parties. A recent Friday deadline was accompanied by what reporter Joe Kovac Jr. joked sounded like “a wild game of Twister.” On a recent election night, newspaper editors who were already short-staffed neglected to plan with professors in advance to have students help out. Telegraph editors and reporters who have previously worked with interns and students are concerned about working with inexperienced staff. “Some reporters think they’re going to be unduly stressed,” Mr. Kovac said. There’s no shortage of material. Macon — a city with 91,000 residents in the throes of gentrification — is filled with enough political battles and economic disparity to occupy flocks of enterprising student journalists. It’s rich with old Southern grandeur: it has an opera house, enough stately homes on the National Historic Register to rival Charleston and Savannah and an imposing Beaux-Arts 1916 train station where preservationists kept the “Colored Waiting Room” sign etched into the facade. But Bibb County, where Macon is, has a 22.4 percent poverty rate that is equally visible as residents linger on the front porches of decrepit homes that local community groups have been working to help clean up. At a recent morning editorial meeting, Oby Brown, the senior editor of local news for The Telegraph, ran through a long list of story ideas. With many of the paper’s 20 staff journalists out on mandatory furloughs and maternity leave, he said there’s “not a lot of room for throat-clearing.” Mercer students, who say they depend heavily on the Internet for news, will be used to fill the gaps. On a recent evening, nearly two dozen students, many dressed in candy-colored fraternity and sorority pledge shirts, herded into a classroom at Mercer’s new Center for Collaborative Journalism . They ate pizza slices and listened to Timothy Regan-Porter, a newly minted professor and the program’s director, nervously walk them through a slide show of his plans. “Practical experience won’t be something we want you to have,” said Mr. Regan-Porter to the crowd of students. “It will be required.” The vision for the Macon program was conceived three years ago by George McCanless, publisher of The Telegraph and a magician of sorts at keeping The Telegraph profitable through circulation and advertising declines. Data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that The Telegraph’s Monday to Friday circulation shrank to 43,100 from 58,522 in the last five years. So Mr. McCanless outsourced the printing of the paper and tried to find The Telegraph a smaller work space. Through these largely discouraging cuts, he found that he felt inspired when he talked to university students about how much they wanted to work in journalism. “I got a lot of energy from being around the youngsters,” Mr. McCanless said. In 2009, he called Mr. Underwood while he was stuck in traffic driving from Atlanta and asked him whether he would welcome The Telegraph onto Mercer’s campus. Ms. Blake, whom he knew through the Rotary Club, helped the pair brainstorm how to pay for the venture. After two years of meetings, the Knight Foundation offered a five-year grant to build out space for Mercer’s Journalism and Media Studies department and for Georgia Public Broadcasting to expand its programming. The Peyton Anderson Foundation provided an additional $1 million to pay for The Telegraph’s newsroom at Mercer. Mr. Underwood recognizes that he is trying to save an industry that many wise businessmen have failed at before, especially since so many students do not read newspapers. “I acknowledge the possibility that it might fail,” said Mr. Underwood. “But there are really good people working on it.” Those “good people” were drawn to Macon for its reporting opportunities and homes that cost slightly more than a Manhattan parking space. Mr. Regan-Porter, the program’s director and a founder of Paste magazine, cut short the interview process for a job at Condé Nast to move to Macon and buy a nearly 6,000-square-foot Victorian for $180,250. Adam Ragusea, who previously worked on a local news program called Radio Boston for WBUR, relocated with his wife and bought a 1917 Craftsman bungalow for $145,000. Both Mr. Regan-Porter and Mr. Ragusea say they love being part of a community and the kind of journalism they can do. “I missed doing small-city journalism,’” said Mr. Ragusea as he sat in his new studio where he hosts a three-hour morning program. But editors and professors recognize that the best way to understand the future of journalism lies in learning from and working with students. Mr. Brown said that he learns a lot about online journalism trends from his daughter who works on graphics for the Harvard Crimson. Jay Black, a Mercer journalism assistant professor, said this program gives more of his students a chance to gather professional clips that will land them jobs after graduation. “I can only take my students so far,” he said. “We’re trying to define what journalism is in the future. Nobody knows how to be a journalist anymore because nobody knows the direction journalism is going to go.” In the first few weeks of classes, Mr. Regan-Porter said that a Telegraph photographer had invited a student with experience shooting live video to live-stream the sentencing at a closely watched murder trial. Mr. Black has been finding students to help a business reporter on an investigative project. Erica O’Neal, a sophomore, published an article in The Telegraph about nearby bike trails. “I wanted to be a vet. I completely did a back flip and I went into writing,” said Ms. O’Neal, who typically reads her news online. “Maybe I’ll end up being a journalist.” Mr. McCanless is unfortunately the last to benefit from his vision. Since the newsroom moved to the university, Mr. McCanless is one of the few people left at the Telegraph’s half-abandoned offices in downtown Macon. When he wants to be inspired about journalism’s future, he heads back to Mercer. On a recent evening, he stared out at a room of students and aspiring journalists, hesitated and then smiled. “Y’all what we were hoping for,” he said. “It’s been three excruciating years.”
|
Mercer University;Journalism Schools;Newspapers;News and News Media;Public Broadcasting;Colleges and Universities
|
ny0009248
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2013/02/05
|
Despite Criticism, Brooklyn College Says Speakers on Israel Can Still Appear
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Facing criticism for its decision to co-sponsor an event with speakers from an international group that advocates Israel’s withdrawal from disputed territories where Palestinians live, Brooklyn College indicated Monday that it still planned to do so — but would also host future events featuring opposing views. Karen L. Gould, the president of Brooklyn College, said in a statement, “Over the next two months, with the support of the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities and other campus units and community groups, we will provide multiple opportunities for discussion about the topics and related subject matter at the heart of this controversy.” The controversy erupted last month with the announcement that the college’s political science department was co-sponsoring an event featuring two speakers with B.D.S., which stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Several student and nonstudent groups are co-sponsors of the event, which is to be held at the college on Thursday. In her statement, Ms. Gould said she did not personally agree with the group, but supported its right to speak at the college Critics, however, said Monday that it was not enough that she did not agree; they said that the college should not co-sponsor the event. “The issue here is the imprimatur of credibility given to this extremely hateful speech by a department of a public university,” said Lewis A. Fidler, assistant majority leader for the City Council. Mr. Fidler wrote a letter to Ms. Gould on Jan. 29 demanding that the event be canceled, or that the university revoke its co-sponsorship. He stated in his letter that he would withhold future support for extra money for the college if it were to allow the event to move forward. In an interview he said that he had supported nearly $25 million worth of capital improvement projects for the college as a council member, but that he would be hard-pressed to do so now. “We believe in the principle of academic freedom,” he wrote. “However, we believe in the principle of not supporting schools whose programs we, and our constituents, find to be odious and wrong.” Ms. Gould said in her statement that the political science department would give “equal consideration” to co-sponsoring speakers of all political views. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor and high-profile lawyer who graduated from Brooklyn College and had critiqued the college’s decision to co-sponsor the event, said he had heard from alumni who were considering withdrawing financial support of the school. He will not do that, he said. “I will fight against the lack of neutrality of the poli sci department,” he said, “but not against Brooklyn College.”
|
Palestinians;Brooklyn College; City University of New York;Israel;Boycott; Divestment and Sanctions BDS;College;Brooklyn
|
ny0163443
|
[
"business"
] |
2006/02/06
|
A.I.G. Is Expected to Offer $1.6 Billion to Settle With Regulators
|
American International Group, the insurance giant, is expected to announce a settlement with federal and state regulators later this week that will require the company to pay about $1.6 billion to settle charges covering a wide range of regulatory issues, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. The regulators have been looking into violations at A.I.G. that they say included improper accounting, bid-rigging and skipped payments to state workers' compensation funds. The settlement, which has been widely anticipated, would close a chapter in the recent troubled history of A.I.G., which has been under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission for more than four years and the New York attorney general since early 2004. The company still faces shareholder lawsuits. The settlement is not expected to ban contingent commissions, which are payments for steering insurance contracts to certain companies. This industry practice was highlighted in an investigation of bid-rigging by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general. But it is likely to require A.I.G. to make more complete disclosures about such payments in the future. The deal is still subject to approval by the S.E.C., one of the people briefed on the investigation said. The $1.6 billion is expected to be divided between the two regulators, who may then pass much of it on to aggrieved investors, A.I.G. clients who were harmed and state workers' compensation funds. Many of the problems cited by regulators occurred during the watch of Maurice R. Greenberg, who was ousted as A.I.G.'s chairman and chief executive last March and who has denied all wrongdoing. "Shareholders lose when companies choose to settle investigations motivated by political ambition, fueled by threats and settled out of fear," said Howard Opinsky, a spokesman for Mr. Greenberg, in response to questions about the tentative settlement. "Even if all the allegations were to be believed," Mr. Opinsky said, "a settlement of this magnitude is merely a political trophy for the attorney general and totally disproportionate to the impact of the alleged misconduct." Chris Winans, a spokesman for A.I.G., declined to comment on a possible settlement. Darren Dopp, a spokesman for Mr. Spitzer's office, declined to comment, and a spokesman for the S.E.C. could not be reached for comment. A.I.G. has already accounted for many of the problems addressed in the settlement. Last May, it restated five years of earnings, reducing its net income by $4 billion, or 10 percent. It has cooperated with all of the many investigations surrounding it. The settlement is expected to cover a range of issues that arose in the federal and state inquiries, from bid-rigging, which Mr. Spitzer started investigating in 2004, to finite insurance, a way of smoothing corporate earnings that the S.E.C. began studying in 2001. In October 2004, Mr. Spitzer sued Marsh & McLennan, an insurance brokerage company then run by Jeffrey Greenberg, one of Maurice Greenberg's two sons, for its use of contingent commissions and for soliciting rigged bids for insurance contracts. At the same time, Mr. Spitzer said he would investigate major insurance companies, including A.I.G., the Hartford and ACE Ltd., run by Evan Greenberg, Maurice Greenberg's other son. By the end of January 2005, the board of Marsh & McLennan had ousted Jeffrey Greenberg -- a move that Mr. Spitzer had required before he would negotiate with the company -- and the company paid $850 million to policyholders to settle all civil charges. As part of that settlement, Marsh apologized for its actions, and the company banned the use of contingent commissions. During Mr. Spitzer's bid-rigging investigation, which included A.I.G., his office learned about the use of finite insurance. He began to work with the S.E.C., which had been examining the issue since early 2001. Already, A.I.G. had battled regulators over such policies. The S.E.C. sued A.I.G. in late 2002 for selling a product to BrightPoint Inc., an Indiana cellphone distributor, that investigators said had helped it conceal $11.9 million in losses. Two years later, the S.E.C. warned A.I.G. that it was prepared to sue it for helping PNC Financial Services Group mask financial problems. The United States attorney's office in Indiana announced that it too was investigating the BrightPoint deal. In November 2004, A.I.G. paid $126 million to resolve all liabilities related to BrightPoint and PNC. Rather than closing the books on finite insurance, however, A.I.G. was about to run into more trouble. By early 2005, Mr. Spitzer had teamed up with the S.E.C., officials from the United States attorney's office for the Southern District of Virginia and the fraud division of the Justice Department, all examining a deal between A.I.G. and General Re, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway. A two-part deal between A.I.G. and General Re had allowed A.I.G. to book $500 million in reserves in a way that appeared not to transfer any risk and that involved a coverup of payments for the transaction. Federal and state regulators would later say the deal had allowed A.I.G. to bolster its reserves artificially. E-mail correspondence among General Re senior executives indicated that Mr. Greenberg had initiated the transaction. In March, A.I.G.'s board, led by its independent board members, ousted Mr. Greenberg, who soon severed all ties with A.I.G. (He retained control of two private companies that collectively own almost $22 billion in A.I.G. stock.) Mr. Spitzer's investigation continued beyond General Re. In a civil complaint filed in May against A.I.G., Mr. Greenberg and Howard I. Smith, the company's former chief financial officer, Mr. Spitzer outlined a pattern of accounting maneuvers, including the creation of shell companies to hide insurance losses. Mr. Greenberg's lawyers have released an extensive white paper rebutting many of the attorney general's allegations. The paper noted that finite insurance is a murky area where risk parameters are not well defined. It also noted that at the time of the General Re deal, worth a total of $500 million in reserves, A.I.G. had more than $25 billion in general insurance reserves.
|
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP;SECURITIES AND COMMODITIES VIOLATIONS
|
ny0133744
|
[
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] |
2008/03/21
|
For the Wildcats, All That Remains Is Sweat and Tears
|
ANAHEIM, Calif. — With three seconds left in Marquette’s 74-66 victory over Kentucky on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament, Golden Eagles guard Dominic James walked over to the Wildcats’ bench. The Kentucky senior Joe Crawford had just fouled out after scoring 35 points and was slumped in his black folding chair, his head down, his hands holding a white towel tightly over his teary eyes. But he looked up as James spoke. “He put his heart out there on the floor,” James said of Crawford. “So, out of respect for him and his teammates, I just told him to keep his head up and keep playing the game he loves.” Crawford, a guard from Detroit, said he appreciated James’s gesture. “That felt good, to get some recognition,” he said. But Crawford spoke more of the sting of being part of the first Kentucky team to lose in the first round since 1987. “No one on the outside can understand the pain, sweat and tears,” Crawford said. Speaking of the end of the season, which seemed doomed at its midpoint before a strong finish, Crawford said: “It just hurts. I put everything into it.” Kentucky cut the Marquette lead from 8 points with three minutes left to 2 points with 23 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Ramel Bradley, who had 19 points. But the 11th-seeded Wildcats had to commit fouls and Marquette made its free throws, including eight without a miss in the last minute by Wesley Matthews, who finished with 13 points and 4 rebounds. “That’s maturity,” Matthews said. “A couple years ago, we don’t know if we’re winning that game. We might have started falling apart. They threw their punch, and we threw ours right back.” Sixth-seeded Marquette (25-9) will play third-seeded Stanford, a 77-53 winner over Cornell on Thursday, in the second round of the South Region here in the Honda Center on Saturday. Jerel McNeal had 20 points to lead a balanced Marquette attack that included four scorers in double figures. James had 15. Lazar Hayward added 16 points and 7 rebounds for the Golden Eagles, who had a 34-26 rebounding edge. Kentucky (18-13) made 12 turnovers, Marquette only 7. When asked what other Marquette opponents might have to worry about, Crawford spoke of James and McNeal. “It’s going to be tough to guard those guards,” he said. “They put pressure on the defense and get players in foul trouble.” But no one will have to play against Crawford, who sank 13 of 22 shots, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range. “He kept us in the game,” Bradley said of Crawford. “He made shots sometimes I didn’t think was going to go in, and it still went in. I think he gave it his all.” One of Crawford’s highlights came late in the first half on a fast break after a Marquette turnover. He raced up the court with Bradley and passed him the ball. Bradley returned it with a high, floating pass that Crawford snatched while leaping before spiking it through the hoop for a dunk that tied the score, 23-23. Crawford tied his career best in points and reached 30 or more points for the third time this season. But only three of his teammates scored, and one of them, Michael Porter, had 2 points. The Wildcats missed the inside presence of Patrick Patterson, the freshman forward who sustained a season-ending stress fracture in his left ankle Feb. 29. It was Marquette’s first N.C.A.A. tournament victory since 2003, when it eliminated Kentucky in the regional final but lost in the Final Four to Kansas. Coach Tom Crean praised McNeal. “He’s taken his work ethic to an even-higher level,” Crean said, adding that McNeal works on his shot in the early mornings and between classes and even late at night. “His skills just continue to flourish.” McNeal, a junior from Chicago, said he and other veterans like Matthews and James had a confidence they had to learn through experience. The Eagles lost in the first round of this tournament the past two seasons. They won two games in the Big East tournament last week before bowing to Pittsburgh, the eventual winner. “We just kept pushing through,” McNeal said of Thursday’s victory. “It’s an unbelievable feeling just to come out and just know that you’ve got guys on the court with you that are going to make big plays and not give up.”
|
Marquette University;Basketball;NCAA Basketball Tournament;College Athletics;National Collegiate Athletic Assn
|
ny0222980
|
[
"sports",
"tennis"
] |
2010/11/28
|
Nadal to Face Federer in ATP World Tour Finals
|
LONDON (AP) — Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray ran each other all over the court for more than three hours Saturday in a match that flip-flopped throughout. Nadal finally got the breaks he needed to win, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6). Nadal had to overcome a mid-match slump to reach his first final at the ATP World Tour Finals, where he will face the 16-time major champion Roger Federer . The match was “incredible tennis,” said Nadal, who won this year’s United States Open to complete a career Grand Slam. It was, Nadal continued, a “difficult match against one of the best players of the world.” Nadal is the reigning French Open , Wimbledon and United States Open champion, but has never played in the final of the season-ending event for the top eight players. And to win his first title, he’ll have to play Federer, the four-time champion, on Sunday at the O2 Arena. Federer beat Novak Djokovic, 6-1, 6-4, in the other semifinal, and stretched his career record against him to 13-6. “Obviously I’m really looking forward to playing against Rafa tomorrow,” Federer said. “Who wouldn’t?” “He was on top of his game,” said Djokovic, who beat Federer in the United States Open semifinals. “He was playing unbelievable from the first moment. He deserved to win.”
|
Nadal Rafael;Federer Roger;Tennis;Association of Tennis Professionals;Murray Andy (1987- )
|
ny0098654
|
[
"business",
"dealbook"
] |
2015/06/09
|
Apollo Global in Talks to Acquire Saint-Gobain’s Glass-Packaging Unit
|
LONDON — The French conglomerate Saint-Gobain said on Monday that it had begun exclusive talks to sell its glass-packaging unit Verallia to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management for about $3.3 billion. Apollo’s offer was part of a competitive bidding process, Saint-Gobain said. The deal is expected to be finalized this year and is subject to regulatory approval. Apollo is also in talks with Banque Publique d’Investissement, a French government-owned investment fund, about the fund’s potential acquisition of a minority stake in Verallia, Saint-Gobain said. Pierre-André de Chalendar, the chairman and chief executive of Saint-Gobain, said in a news release that the sale of Verallia would complete the company’s “strategic refocus on the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative, high-performance solutions for the habitat and industrial markets.” Verallia employs about 10,000 people at 47 plants in 13 countries and posted sales of 2.4 billion euros, or about $2.7 billion, in 2014, excluding its North American operations. Saint-Gobain agreed to sell Verallia’s North American business to the Ardagh Group in January 2013 for $1.7 billion, but it did not finalize that deal until April last year. “We are extremely excited to be acquiring Verallia, which is an outstanding franchise and one of the world’s leading packaging companies,” Robert Seminara, a senior partner at Apollo, and Jean-Luc Allavena, an operating executive at the company, said in a news release .
|
Saint-Gobain;Verallia;Apollo Global Management;Mergers and Acquisitions;Private equity;France
|
ny0112052
|
[
"sports",
"rugby"
] |
2012/02/21
|
Hoping for Olympic Gold, Countries Build Up Rugby Sevens Teams
|
WELLINGTON — It would make an excellent quiz question: Who is the reigning Olympic Games rugby champion? It is likely that not many people know the answer is the United States. In 1924 in Paris, the U.S. men won the gold by virtue of defeating France and Romania, who collected the silver and bronze medals. (Only three countries played.) Not long after, rugby was removed from the Olympic program. However, in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, rugby — in its shortened sevens format — will return to the world’s biggest sporting event, and both men’s and women’s teams are set to compete. The rugby landscape now is a vastly different one from those Summer Games almost a century ago. For starters, the sport is no longer played just for “fun.” The majority of players competing in the highest echelons are paid to do so, and that is beginning to extend to the shortened, quicker format, where more and more countries are putting extra resources into their sevens squads. England, New Zealand and South Africa have had their sevens players under contract for several years now, and teams like Australia, France and Wales are also choosing to go that route now that there is the prospect of claiming Olympic gold. U.S.A. Rugby has taken the ground-breaking step of awarding several of its players professional contracts for the first time. Since the start of this year, 11 male and 7 female players have had contracts, funded by the U.S. Olympic Committee, to train full-time at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. Their goal: Win in Rio de Janeiro. Of the 11 men, 4 were members of the U.S. squad that competed at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Winger Colin Hawley is one of those. “It’s a huge improvement from what we had before. I just think this will do so much more for our team and for us as a rugby-playing country,” he said. Being surrounded at Chula Vista by successful Olympians — who are now in the final months of preparation before the London Games in July — has already started to rub off on the rugby players, who were more used to juggling jobs and studies with their training and playing schedules. “They’ve got a goal, and they are setting their minds to it,” Hawley said. “You can tell by their work ethic and their attitude every single day being there, this is a lifestyle. This is the choice to do something great, and you’ve just got to buy into it.” While his contract will mean Hawley concentrates predominantly on sevens rugby and competing in the HSBC Sevens World Series, he still has aspirations to play at another World Cup. The next one is in England in 2015. But he admitted if he had to choose between England or Rio, the choice would be easy. “Every person’s dream is to be an Olympian,” he said. “I think I would have to lean that way, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. “Hopefully we can work things out and the American players can play at both.” As with all professional sports, with payment comes pressure to perform, and the U.S. sevens coach, Al Caravelli, has clear targets for his team over the next four years. “Our goal at the end of this season is to be in the top eight,” said Caravelli, whose team currently sits at 13th in the World Series standing. “By 2015 we want to be in the top four in the series so that come 2016, we achieve a gold medal.” It is a lofty ambition for a country that has yet to fully embrace rugby. And there is another challenge: Like the United States, other countries are now investing more time and money in sevens rugby because it is an Olympic sport. New Zealand has been a powerhouse in both forms of the game for decades. But even it realizes that changes to the way it runs its sevens squad are inevitable. Players currently are contracted for the duration of the world sevens series, which runs from November through to May. They also have separate contracts with provincial unions in New Zealand that cover the domestic 15-a-side competition played from late August to late October. But the New Zealand sevens coach, Gordon Tietjens, who has taken his side to four Commonwealth Games gold medals, says that as sevens rugby becomes more physically demanding and the number of tournaments in the world series expands, players will not be able to do both. “Looking down the track, I think players are taking sevens seriously and they see it as a career path,” he said. “I know we’ll have a couple of extra world series tournaments from next year. There just won’t be time. “We see the physical nature of sevens now, and I don’t think the body will hold up to playing 15s and also sevens.” The series this year comprises nine tournaments, with Tokyo having been added to the program. Next year, that number will increase to 10, with another tournament proposed for South America, most likely in Argentina. There will also be an increase in the number of core teams that compete at every tournament in the world series from 12 to 15 next year. The tournament in Hong Kong next month will decide which three countries will join the established dozen. But perhaps the biggest shift in sevens rugby is occurring in the women’s game. In Dubai late last year, the first I.R.B. Women’s Sevens Challenge Cup took place. The next one is in Hong Kong in March and will again be run alongside the men’s world series event. A third is tentatively scheduled for London in May. Beth Coalter, the International Rugby Board’s sevens manager, said the aim was to have a minimum of four women’s tournaments in the 2012-13 season, leading into the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Russia, which will see 24 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams competing in 2013. That tournament will be the first real barometer for the women’s game before Rio and will see the teams given rankings from 1 to 16. “It’s unfair that they don’t get the opportunity to compete at an international level before they get to Rugby World Cup Sevens,” Coalter said. “They need to be able to have that opportunity.” Coalter is realistic enough to know that running the women’s tournaments in tandem with the men’s is necessary to give the women’s game exposure. “If it was a women’s tournament standing on its own, broadcasters wouldn’t be that interested until the level of the women’s game gets up to be as competitive as the men’s is,” she said. Canada is leading the charge at the moment. It won the Challenge Cup in Dubai and defeated the U.S. team in the final of an invitational tournament that coincided with the men’s world series tournament in Las Vegas earlier this month. Surprisingly, New Zealand, where rugby is the national sport, is only now beginning its search for players with Olympic aspirations, hoping to assemble a squad by the end of the year. Aimee Sutorius, who played for the successful New Zealand 15-a-side women’s team, the Black Ferns, has switched her focus to sevens. “I’ve got one focus, and that’s a gold medal,” she said. Neil Sorensen, the New Zealand Rugby Union general manager for professional sport, is not concerned that other countries, like Canada and the United States, already have a head start. “We think we have an advantage because rugby is in our blood in New Zealand,” he said.
|
Rugby (Game);New Zealand;Olympic Games (2016)
|
ny0201147
|
[
"technology",
"companies"
] |
2009/09/07
|
Intel and Qualcomm Eye Each Other’s Terrain
|
SAN DIEGO — The inside of computers has been Intel ’s territory, as the world’s biggest maker of microprocessors reminds consumers with its “Intel Inside” campaign. The cellphone’s guts have been the domain of Qualcomm . As the cellphone becomes more like a computer and the computer more like a cellphone, it was inevitable that the two chip makers would clash. Intel wants to get inside smartphones, and Qualcomm, one of the largest suppliers of chips for wireless phones, wants to get into small notebook computers. “Intel is trying to come down from the computer and bring their software ecosystem along,” said Qualcomm’s chief executive, Paul E. Jacobs. “We’re trying to go up from the phone and build the software ecosystem.” Qualcomm, which sells about 22 percent of all chips used in wireless devices including the iPhone , BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1, believes it has never been better situated in its 24-year history to break into the market for computing devices. PCs are evolving into tablet PCs and small laptops, essentially big smartphones that are always on, always connected to the Internet, with all-day battery life — in short, very much like a large iPhone or BlackBerry. Qualcomm calls these devices smartbooks because the design resembles a large smartphone. Mr. Jacobs sees his company at the center of an industry that is driving the most cutting-edge innovations, as seen in devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm. “That energy is now coming out of the phone industry,” Mr. Jacobs said. “The PC became so standardized that the degree of innovation was not the same as what you see in the phone space.” Intel, whose revenue is approximately triple Qualcomm’s, disagrees. “As mobile devices become smarter with PC-like performance, computer and Internet capabilities, this is Intel’s strength,” an Intel spokeswoman, Suzy Ramirez, said. Qualcomm is counting on its Snapdragon chip to power these devices. Developed by a team of former I.B.M. engineers who worked on the PowerPC microprocessor, it is the first chip of its kind to reach a speed of 1 gigahertz, a significant milestone for ARM, a processor design renowned for using so little power the device’s battery can last all day. Snapdragon is already being used by Toshiba in its ultra-thin TG01 smartphone that is being sold in Europe. More devices using Snapdragon are expected later this year, Mr. Jacobs says. Hardware alone will not win the battle, however. Qualcomm has been working with Google, which developed the Android operating system for cellphones. The fruit of this partnership was T-Mobile’s G1 phone, the first smartphone using Android and a Qualcomm chip. “There was a lot engineering back and forth,” Mr. Jacobs said. “The thing that we’re doing now is helping them scale. Because they have a relatively small team focused on evolving the operating system.” What may prove more significant than Android is software that Google will bring out next year: the Chrome operating system, which is intended for larger, computerlike devices to challenge laptops running Windows. Qualcomm is betting that Google becomes a major operating software company. “They’re onto what the future of computing is,” said Bill Davidson, Qualcomm’s senior vice president for global marketing and investor relations. “It’s about taking advantage of the computational power that already exists within the Internet.” He went on: “The whole push for Chrome is to have the much thinner, lighter, smaller client so that you don’t need as much memory to run this big honking OS,” he said, referring to Microsoft’s Windows operating software. The Qualcomm chip will be designed to work with Chrome to move some of the computing functions off the device to fast computers based in data centers, a model the industry calls cloud computing. “I think a hybrid model is the model that will work best, where there are certain applications that are downloaded on the device and they live there,” Mr. Jacobs said. “And other ones that are coming up and down through the cloud. We’ll support both.” It is not going to be a cakewalk to displace the most potent partnership — Microsoft and Intel — in the history of the personal computer. “One of the key issues is brand,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research, at the market researcher iSuppli. “Google Chrome OS, Android and ARM are not traditionally seen in PC retail stores. Therefore they will be competing against established and recognized brands: Intel, Microsoft and Windows.”
|
Cellular Telephones;Computer Chips;Computers and the Internet;Wireless Communications;Laptop Computers;Intel Corp;Qualcomm Inc
|
ny0184944
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2009/03/16
|
A New View of a Famine That Killed Millions
|
KIEV, Ukraine — A quarter century ago, a Ukrainian historian named Stanislav Kulchytsky was told by his Soviet overlords to concoct an insidious cover-up. His orders: to depict the famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s as unavoidable, like a natural disaster. Absolve the Communist Party of blame. Uphold the legacy of Stalin. Professor Kulchytsky , though, would not go along. The other day, as he stood before a new memorial to the victims of the famine, he recalled his decision as one turning point in a movement lasting decades to unearth the truth about that period. And the memorial itself, shaped like a towering candle with a golden eternal flame, seemed to him in some sense a culmination of this effort. “It is a sign of our respect for the past,” Professor Kulchytsky said. “Because everyone was silent about the famine for many years. And when it became possible to talk about it, nothing was said. Three generations on.” The concrete memorial was dedicated last November, the 75th anniversary of the famine, in a park in Kiev, on a hillside overlooking the Dnieper River in the shadow of the onion domes of a revered Orthodox Christian monastery. More than 100 feet tall, the memorial will eventually house a small museum that will offer testimony from survivors, as well as information about the Ukrainian villages that suffered. In the Soviet Union, the authorities all but banned discussion of the famine, but by the 1980s the United States and other countries were pressing their own inquiries, often at the urging of Ukrainian immigrants. In response, Communist officials embarked on a propaganda drive to play down the famine and show that the deaths were caused by unforeseen food shortages or drought. Professor Kulchytsky said he had been given the task of gathering research but concluded that the famine had been man-made. “I became convinced that everything was not as I once thought,” he said. He refused to falsify his findings and instead released them publicly, escaping punishment only because glasnost had begun under the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The famine is known in Ukrainian as the Holodomor — literally, death or killing by starvation — and the campaign to give it recognition has played a significant role in the Ukrainian quest to shape a national identity in the post-Soviet era. It has also further strained relations with the Kremlin, another of the festering disputes left by the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The pro-Western government in Kiev, which came to power after the Orange Revolution of 2004, calls the famine a genocide that Stalin ordered because he wanted to decimate the Ukrainian citizenry and snuff out aspirations for independence from Moscow. The archives make plain that no other conclusion is possible, said Professor Kulchytsky, who is deputy director of the Institute of Ukrainian History in Kiev. Professor Kulchytsky is 72, though he looks younger, as if he has somehow withstood the draining effect of so much research into the horrors of that time. “It is difficult to bear,” he acknowledged. “The documents about cannibalism are especially difficult to read.” Professor Kulchytsky said it was undeniable that people all over the Soviet Union died from hunger in 1932 and 1933 as the Communists waged war on the peasantry to create farming collectives. But he contended that in Ukraine the authorities went much further, essentially quarantining and starving many villages. “If in other regions, people were hungry and died from famine, then here people were killed by hunger,” Professor Kulchytsky said. “That is the absolute difference.” In recent years, Ukraine’s president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, has regularly spoken out about the famine, and has even sought to make denying it a crime. Ukraine has asked other countries to recognize the famine as genocide and to establish memorials. One is being built in Washington. In Kiev, the memorial has started to become a pilgrimage site. “Of course, it is needed,” said Hrigory Mikhailenko, 75, a construction executive from central Ukraine who stopped by during a business trip. “So many people died. Four members of my family. It’s very important to note what happened. That is why Russia is pressuring us.” Russia has spurned the memorial. Instead of attending its dedication, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, sent a letter to Mr. Yushchenko accusing him of using the famine to discredit Russia. “We do not condone the repression carried out by the Stalinist regime against the entire Soviet people,” Mr. Medvedev wrote. “But to say that it was aimed at the destruction of Ukrainians means going against the facts and trying to give a nationalist subtext to a common tragedy.” Last month, Russian historians and archivists sought to bolster the Kremlin’s case, issuing a DVD and a book of historical documents that they said demonstrated that the famine was not directed at Ukraine. Many of the documents were translated into English, underscoring how the two countries are waging their fight on an international stage. Professor Kulchytsky said the Kremlin feared that if it conceded the truth, Russia, considered the successor to the Soviet Union, could face claims for reparations. Still, he said he would not ignore misstatements by the Ukrainian side, either. For example, President Yushchenko has said that as many as 10 million Ukrainians died, while Professor Kulchytsky believes that the figure is 3.5 million. Nor is the professor enamored with the design of the memorial, saying that he would have preferred some of the other proposals. But he said there was no doubt that the country had to be reminded of its history. “I know many people, including famous people — smart, intellectual people — whose relatives, grandparents, died in the famine, and they speak out harshly against focusing on Holodomor,” Professor Kulchytsky said. “They consider it not a part of the present. But how can we be quiet about what occurred? Our people were the victims of a great crime.”
|
Ukraine;Famine;Stalin Joseph;USSR (Former Soviet Union);Monuments and Memorials
|
ny0192120
|
[
"technology",
"internet"
] |
2009/02/19
|
Facebook Backtracks on Use Terms
|
Facebook , the popular social networking site where people share photos and personal updates with friends and acquaintances, lost some face on Wednesday. After three days of pressure from angry users and the threat of a formal legal complaint by a coalition of consumer advocacy groups, the company reversed changes to its contract with users that had appeared to give it perpetual ownership of their contributions to the service. Facebook disavowed any such intentions but said early Wednesday that it was temporarily rescinding the changes and restoring an earlier version of its membership contract. In a message to members , the company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., said it would collaborate with users to create a more easily understandable document. Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg , also invited users to contribute to a new Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which would serve as a governing document for the site. Facebook has been redefining notions of privacy while growing so rapidly that it now has 175 million active users, giving it a population larger than most countries. In an interview, Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, characterized the event as a misunderstanding, stemming from a clumsy attempt by the company to simplify its contract with users, called the terms of service. “We were not trying to make a substantive change in our rights or ability to control our members’ content on the service at all,” Mr. Kelly said. “As that misunderstanding became the main theme, we became very concerned and wanted to communicate very clearly to everyone our intentions by rolling back to the old terms of service.” Facebook’s retreat ends a hullabaloo in which tens of thousands of Facebook members joined groups devoted to protesting the changes and bloggers heaped scorn and criticism on the company. Facebook sought to limit the damage from an uproar that in many ways was reminiscent of the flap in 2007 over its Beacon advertising service. That project shared details of members’ activities on certain outside sites to all of their Facebook friends. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, along with 25 other consumer interest groups, had planned to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday. The complaint was going to claim that Facebook’s new rules were unfair and deceptive trade practices, because the company had repeatedly promised users that they owned their content but appeared to be saying something else in its revised terms. The center, based in Washington , was prepared to argue that Facebook’s new rules were meant to accompany changes to the site that would give developers and advertisers the ability to access users’ contributions, like status updates, which many members use to reveal details about their lives, for example, where they are traveling. “This was a digital rights grab,” said Marc Rotenberg, the center’s executive director. “Facebook was transferring control of user-generated content from the user to Facebook, and that was really alarming.” He said Facebook representatives contacted him on Tuesday night to ask whether his group would refrain from filing the complaint if the company backtracked to the old language in the contract. Mr. Rotenberg agreed. Facebook’s retreat can also be credited to the mass of members who made their voices heard in a strikingly vociferous movement that spanned the globe. Facebook made the changes to its terms of service on Feb. 6, but they were highlighted Sunday by a blog called The Consumerist, which reviewed the contract. The blog, which is owned by Consumers Union , publisher of Consumer Reports, warned people to “never upload anything you don’t feel comfortable giving away forever, because it’s Facebook’s now.” Mr. Kelly of Facebook says that the blog made “substantial misinterpretations,” including missing a crucial provision that made Facebook’s license to members’ material subject to the user’s individual privacy settings. He conceded, however, that Facebook did not effectively communicate that nuance. The Consumerist blog entry set off an explosion of activity that overwhelmed Facebook’s own attempts to quickly clarify the matter. In a blog post on Monday , Mr. Zuckerberg tried to reassure users that they still owned and controlled their own data and that the company had no plans to use it without their permission. That did not satisfy Facebook users like Julius Harper, 25. On Monday, he created a Facebook group to protest the changes. Soon after, he joined with Anne Kathrine Petteroe, 32, a technology consultant in Oslo , who had started a similar group. By Wednesday, more than 100,000 people had joined their efforts and were airing their concerns, like whether photos they post to the site could appear in ads without their permission. “I believe Facebook on this matter, but my issue is that Facebook is not just one person,” Mr. Harper said. “They could get bought out by anybody, and those people may not share the good intentions that Mark and his team claim to have.” Analysts say that much of the confusion and rancor this week stemmed from the fact that sites like Facebook have created a new sphere of shared information for which there are no established privacy rules. E-mail between two people is private, for example, and a post on a message board is clearly public. But much communication among Facebook members, which is exposed only to their friends, sometimes on a so-called wall, lies in a middle ground one might call “semipublic.” “If I post something on your wall, and then I decide to close my account, what happens to that wall post?” said Marcia Hofmann, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil liberties group. “Is that my data or your data? That’s a very tricky issue, and it’s one that hasn’t come up a whole lot in the past.”
|
Facebook;Privacy;Mark E Zuckerberg;null
|
ny0288745
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2016/08/12
|
Daily Beast Removes Article on Gay Olympians in Rio
|
The premise of The Daily Beast article was simple: The Olympics are a “hotbed of partying athletes, hookups, and sex, sex, sex.” So the reporter Nico Hines — a straight man who is married and has one child — headed to the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro seeking dates using various apps. He gained three in a single hour, and in an article published on Thursday went on to describe in detail the responses he received on Grindr, the gay dating app. No names were mentioned, but the article was so detailed, it was not hard to guess the identities of the men he had contacted, and not all of them were from gay-friendly countries. The story was quickly condemned on social media. After trying to smooth things over with a revised story and an editor’s note, The Daily Beast changed course on Thursday night and took the unusual step of pulling the story entirely. “Our hope is that removing an article that is in conflict with both our values and what we aspire to as journalists will demonstrate how seriously we take our error,” according to an editors’ note that went up in place of the story. “We were wrong. We will do better.” In an earlier note, after the story was revised in response to the barrage of criticism, The Daily Beast’s editor in chief, John Avlon, said editors had removed details that might identify the athletes. He also responded to complaints that Mr. Hines’s original article mocked or shamed the athletes who responded to Mr. Hines’s overtures on Grindr. “We do not feel he did this in any way,” he said. Mr. Avlon said that Mr. Hines received more invitations on Grindr than on straight dating apps and that “he never claimed to be anyone he was not, did not offer anything to anyone, and immediately admitted that he was a journalist whenever he was asked who he was.” But at 9 p.m., the article and the original editor’s note were gone, and replaced with a note describing how the organization took the “unprecedented but necessary step” of removing the entire article. “The Daily Beast does not do this lightly,” the note said. “Our initial reaction was that the entire removal of the piece was not necessary. We were wrong.” The note said the article was not intended “to do harm or degrade members of the LGBT community, but intent doesn’t matter, impact does.” Mr. Avlon and The Daily Beast’s executive editor, Noah Shachtman , both shared the new editors’ note on Twitter, expressing regret. Mr. Hines, reached by email before the article was removed, declined to comment on Thursday night. In the article, he described what he encountered: profiles of athletes competing in various events, including an individual “from a notoriously homophobic country”; photos of Olympic bedspreads; and a frank exchange with one user. The article drew significant backlash from gay leaders and athletes. Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of Glaad, a group that advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights, said on Twitter : “Thoughtless @thedailybeast piece puts LGBT athletes in danger. It should be removed & replaced w a real story about violence LGBT ppl face.” Amini Fonua, a swimmer from Tonga who is competing in Rio and who is openly gay, said the article was “deplorable.” He wrote on Twitter: “It is still illegal to be gay in Tonga, and while I’m strong enough to be me in front of the world, not everybody else is. Respect that.” Robert Drechsel , who retired last week as the James E. Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics and director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described the article as “thoughtless, insensitive and unethical.” He said it was good that the article had been removed but that it came too late. “It’s hard to find the words to describe,” he said. “Why in the world — why in the world of journalism — would anyone do this?”
|
Gay and Lesbian LGBT;2016 Summer Olympics;Grindr.com;Nico Hines;The Daily Beast
|
ny0042600
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2014/05/26
|
Clinton Lauds N.Y.U. Graduates, and Inquiry, in Speech
|
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Former President Bill Clinton said on Sunday that he believed that New York University and the Abu Dhabi government would conduct a thorough investigation into worker rights abuses at the university’s new campus here in the country’s capital. Delivering the first graduation speech at the campus, Mr. Clinton said the controversy had “dominated the coverage” of the university during the days leading up to the ceremony, in the heart of the capital’s cultural district. “I wish the coverage this week had been about you,” he told the 140 graduating students. But he said the concerns raised about workers building the campus were “an opportunity to address in concrete, real flesh-and-blood form, one of the representative issues of equality and identity in the 21st century.” In his remarks, Mr. Clinton expressed support for his friend John Sexton, N.Y.U.’s president, while voicing concern about treatment of foreign laborers who helped construct the building where the ceremony was held. The abusive practices, including underpayment of wages and overcrowded living conditions, were described in a New York Times article last Monday. Mr. Clinton’s speech avoided any direct criticism of N.Y.U. or the United Arab Emirates. He predicted that the students would give themselves a “fist pump” of congratulations when N.Y.U. released the findings of its investigation, which he said would be a testament to the transparency of the university. N.Y.U. apologized last week for any abuse suffered by workers building its Abu Dhabi campus and said that it would be investigating the matter with Tamkeen, an Abu Dhabi government entity overseeing the university’s project. Mr. Clinton said he was glad he came to Abu Dhabi to deliver the graduation speech, despite pleas in the United States that he boycott the event to protest the strikebreaking, beatings, low pay, deportation and passport confiscation described in the article. “I’m glad I did, even though, as you may have heard, there was some stirring back in the United States, trying to convince me not to,” he said. Defending Mr. Sexton, Mr. Clinton said N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi had sought to change the worldwide pattern of migrant worker abuse by introducing a labor code of conduct. “N.Y.U. sought to change all that here, by coming up with a code of conduct strongly supported by its Abu Dhabi partners and by the government of the U.A.E.,” Mr. Clinton said. The code, he noted, was designed to stop the worst abuses — including the payment of high fees by workers to third-party brokers and the policy of construction companies to hold workers’ passports without their consent. The Times reported that a vast majority of N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi construction workers interviewed by the newspaper were not allowed to keep their own passports and most had paid up to a year’s salary in advance to land jobs that typically earned less than $300 a month. Others said they were imprisoned, beaten and deported for striking. “When this story came out, instead of going into an immediate denial, the university did something which reflects the values you have been taught here,” Mr. Clinton said. “The university, and the government, promised to look into the charges, to do it quickly, to do it honestly and, most importantly, among all the world’s skeptics, to do it transparently and if the charges were well founded, to take appropriate, remedial action promptly.” He also reminded students of a Benjamin Franklin quote, saying: “Our critics are our friends for they show us our faults.” “They also give us a chance to do better,” Mr. Clinton added. The new university site is near the Abu Dhabi city center on the Saadiyat Island cultural district, where the Louvre and Guggenheim museums are also building branches. Its campus will begin its first full year in the fall after running its operations in temporary sites in Abu Dhabi for the last four years. Zachary Stanley, a biology graduate, said the students’ hard work was overshadowed by the article. “We are definitely aware of these issues,” Mr. Stanley said. “I think we approach this issue with a broader view than people coming from the West with a Eurocentric view,” he added. “We understand the U.A.E. is only 42 years old and we would like to see things improved.” Nick McGeehan, a regional researcher at Human Rights Watch, also welcomed Mr. Clinton’s comments and said he hoped that N.Y.U. would honor the speech with an investigation that not only discovered how its human rights monitoring system failed, but also offer compensation for abused and imprisoned workers.
|
Foreign Workers;Study Abroad and International Study;NYU;Bill Clinton;John E Sexton;Abu Dhabi;College;Human Rights;Construction
|
ny0137554
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2008/05/26
|
This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix
|
FOR a certain subset of Internet users, “Sudo make me a sandwich” may as well be “Take my wife ... please.” Perhaps some explanation is in order. Before giving up the goods, however, we should heed the warning of Randall Munroe, the 23-year-old creator of xkcd, a hugely popular online comic strip (at least among computer programmers) where the sandwich line appeared. Mr. Munroe believes that analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog — it can be done, but the frog dies. Still, he plays along, explaining that “sudo” is a command in the Unix operating system that temporarily grants godlike powers: “The humor comes from people who have encountered typing a command and having the computer say ‘No,’ and they say, ‘Oh, yeah, sudo says,’ and the computer does it. Kind of like ‘Simon says.’ ” Hence the set-up: one stick figure says to another, “Make me a sandwich,” only to be told, “No.” Thinking quickly, stick figure No. 1 says, “Sudo make me a sandwich,” and the once-recalcitrant stick figure No. 2 must comply. Mr. Munroe, a physics major and a programmer by trade, is good for jokes like this three times a week, informed by computing and the Internet. By speaking the language of geeks — many a strip hinges on crucial differences between the C and Python programming languages — while dealing with relationships and the meaning of a computer-centric life, xkcd has become required reading for techies across the world. The site, which began publishing regularly in January 2006, has 500,000 unique visitors a day, he said, and 80 million page views a month. (Why “xkcd”? “It’s just a word with no phonetic pronunciation,” his Web site, xkcd.com , answers.) Mr. Munroe has become something of a cult hero. He counts himself as among the fewer than two dozen creators of comic strips on the Web who make a living at it. At Google headquarters, a required stop on the geek-cult-hero speaking tour, he recently addressed hundreds of engineers, some of whom dutifully waited for him to sign their laptops. He said he had only wanted a tour of the place but had instead been invited to speak. The real thrill, he said, was that a hero of his, Donald Knuth, a professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford and a programming pioneer, was in the front row. “It’s comparable to Bill Gates’s being in the front row,” he said. “I got to have lunch with him. He’s in his 70s, but people he is in touch with must have told him about it.” While the comics play on the peculiarities of code, they are as much about escaping the clear, orderly world of commands to engage a chaotic sphere known as real life, or perhaps merely adulthood. So one comic has a graph showing “my overall health” entering a steep decline “the day I realized I could cook bacon whenever I wanted.” Or, in one of Mr. Munroe’s favorites, a stick-figure couple revel in an apartment filled to the brim with playpen balls, “because we are grownups now, and it’s our turn to decide what that means.” And, in a rare lapse from his plain-and-simple drawing style, a pair of stick figures walk in an increasingly beautiful landscape after first declaring: “I feel like I’m wasting my life on the Internet. Let’s walk around the world.” At the foot of a gorgeous mountain, however, one turns to the other and says, “And yet, all I can think is that this will make for a great LiveJournal entry.” Mr. Munroe is clearly still getting used to his celebrity and to running a business. He and his roommate, Derek Radtke, work on the Web site out of their Somerville, Mass., apartment, and they recently hired an employee to handle e-mail. “People are generally surprised that we make a living from it,” Mr. Munroe said. Without being specific, he said that the sales of xkcd merchandise support the two of them “reasonably well.” He said they sell thousands of T-shirts a month, either of panels from his strip or in their style, as well as posters. “We’ve been getting a lot more efficient,” he said. “We were losing money on every T-shirt sold overseas for a while.” (But you can make it up in volume, I helpfully suggested. He moved on.) A fan of newspaper comic strips since childhood, Mr. Munroe can simultaneously call himself an heir to “Peanuts” while recognizing that his quirky and technical humor would never have made it in newspapers. On the Internet, he said, “You can draw something that appeals to 1 percent of the audience — 1 percent of United States, that is three million people, that is more readers than small cartoons can have.” In that way, and many others, the Web has been a salvation. “People doing comics on the Internet are free of all the baggage that goes with being with a syndicate,” he said, “the editorial control, the space limits, the no control over what can be done with your cartoon.” The Internet has also created a bond between Mr. Munroe and his readers that is exceptional. They re-enact in real life the odd ideas he puts forward in his strip. A case in point was the strip called “Dream Girl.” It recounted a dream in which a girl (stick figure with flowing hair) recites a bunch of numbers into the narrator’s ear. “The xkcd person is the kind of person who would take that and run with it,” he said. The numbers were coordinates and a date months in the future. The strip’s narrator says he went there and no one came. “It turns out that wanting something doesn’t make it real,” the strip concludes. But on that day in real life, hundreds of fans met in a park in Cambridge. And then they all ordered sandwiches.
|
Comic Books and Strips;Unix (Computer Operating System);Software;XKCD.com
|
ny0221912
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2010/11/03
|
Term Limits in New York City Are Approved Again
|
New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly to limit politicians to two consecutive terms on Tuesday, undoing a highly contentious change to the law pushed through by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg two years ago. It was the third time since 1993 that city voters endorsed the notion of two four-year terms and no more for the mayor and other elected city officials. With 87 percent of precincts reporting, 74 percent of city voters supported a two-term limit, while 26 percent opposed it. The vote was a repudiation of the tactics used in 2008 by Mr. Bloomberg and his allies in the City Council, who supported a bill to allow three terms despite criticism that they had usurped the democratic process. But much of the frustration of two years ago has cooled, and the vote on Tuesday, overshadowed by a contest for governor and make-or-break Congressional races, seemed more an act of quiet rebellion than a scathing rebuke. Still, voters said they were pleased to have the opportunity to finally weigh in on the matter, though two years later. “The way it was slammed through was rather distasteful and disingenuous,” said Gianni Sellers, 54, a banker who lives on the Upper West Side. “The voters have spoken on this before. I hope we don’t have to do it again.” New Yorkers voted in support of a two-term limit in 1993 and in 1996, riding a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment nationwide epitomized by the slogan “throw the bums out.” The measure approved on Tuesday was devised to prevent a repeat of the backroom politicking in 2008. Council members will be prohibited from making changes to term-limits laws that affect their own political careers. But incumbents will be offered some consolation : if they were elected before Tuesday, they will still be allowed to run for a third term. The two-term limit will only apply to those elected this year and beyond. That will delay putting the law fully into effect until 2021, when the newest class of city politicians, those elected in 2009, has the opportunity to finish a third four-year term. Opponents of the two-term limit said it would make government less effective by disposing with leaders as soon as they had gained the experience to govern efficiently. “With two terms, they have to split their time between minding the store and running for their next office,” said Ruth E. Acker, president of the Women’s City Club of New York, a civic organization. “They’re inclined to favor things that win them Brownie points in the short term.” Supporters of term limits seized on the anti-establishment fervor that swept through much of the country. Ronald S. Lauder, the billionaire cosmetics heir, financed advertisements comparing politicians to dirty diapers in need of a change. Even Mr. Bloomberg, who believed so zealously in a third term that he was willing to sacrifice some popularity, said he would vote in favor of a two-term limit. “I don’t think it’s hypocritical at all,” he said Tuesday. “The public clearly wants to go back to two terms.” Some feared the term-limits question would be ignored because it was placed on the back of the ballot and formatted in small print. Poll workers made special efforts to point out the referendum questions, but some voters still found the format confusing. Gloria Hines, 54, a retired postal worker, smiled as she walked out of a poll site in Harlem with her husband, Denny. Then she realized neither of them had filled out the referendum questions. “I forgot all about it,” Ms. Hines said, her good mood having faded. “Why would they put it on the back?” In addition to the term-limits question, voters supported, by a vote of 83 percent to 17 percent, a second referendum item that called for several changes to city law, with 87 percent of precincts reporting. The changes include reducing the number of signatures required to get on the ballot, requiring disclosure of campaign contributions by independent groups and raising the maximum fine for violating conflicts of interest law.
|
Elections;Term Limits (Political Office);New York City
|
ny0091103
|
[
"business",
"economy"
] |
2015/09/25
|
Caterpillar to Cut Up to 10,000 Jobs, Citing Falling Demand
|
The shock waves from the volatility rocking China and emerging markets worldwide rolled through the American heartland on Thursday as Caterpillar , based in Peoria, Ill., announced plans to cut as many as 10,000 workers, reflecting slumping demand. Caterpillar, a leading symbol of American exporting and manufacturing prowess with its iconic yellow bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks, has been hit with a one-two punch that investors worry will hurt other big American companies active in the global market. The crashing prices of commodities like oil and copper, tied to a slowdown in China , have combined to raise doubts about the ability of the American economy to sustain its momentum. Investors already nervous about prospects for global growth reacted with dismay to the Caterpillar disclosure, sending shares in the company, one of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, down 6.3 percent for the day. Earlier Thursday, the Dow was down more than 1 percent but recovered some ground, closing lower by about 78 points, or 0.5 percent. Exchanges in Europe closed down roughly 2 percent. Although Caterpillar is affected more severely than most companies because mining businesses and other commodity producers are among its main customers, its problems illustrate the economic difficulties facing many multinationals. “We are facing a convergence of challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors — namely in mining and energy,” said Douglas R. Oberhelman, Caterpillar’s chief executive. “While we’ve already made substantial adjustments as these market conditions have emerged, we are taking even more decisive actions now.” Caterpillar had slightly more than 110,000 employees worldwide at the end of the second quarter, and it says it expects to cut 4,000 to 5,000 positions by the end of 2016. An additional 5,000 jobs could be eliminated by the end of 2018, Caterpillar said in a statement . Most of the initial reductions will be among salaried workers and management, the bulk of them in United States, rather than the hourly work force, the company said. Along with layoffs, Caterpillar will look to reduce its manufacturing footprint and is considering closings or consolidations at more than 20 plants worldwide. In an op-ed article in The Peoria Journal Star, Mr. Oberhelman reiterated the company’s commitment to the town but warned that the layoffs would be sizable. Image Caterpillar’s announcement sent its stock down 6.3 percent for the day. Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images “Because Peoria is our global headquarters and we have the largest concentration of employees in Illinois, the impact here will be significant,” he wrote. “Peoria has been Caterpillar’s home for 90 years and we know this is especially difficult and hard for our local employees, families and communities.” The company also reduced its outlook for revenue in 2015 by $1 billion, to $48 billion. That is a decline of more than 25 percent from four years ago, when surging commodity prices and the boom in Asia fueled very strong results. Caterpillar has been aggressive about cutting jobs and reducing costs since then. Still, the scale of its announcement on Thursday surprised investors. “Several of the key industries we serve — including mining, oil and gas, construction and rail — have a long history of substantial cyclicality,” Mr. Oberhelman said. “While they are the right businesses to be in for the long term, we have to manage through what can be considerable and sometimes prolonged downturns.” Exports to China equal only a tiny portion of the United States gross domestic product , just under 1 percent, but the Chinese market and other Asian economies have become a major source of growth not just for heavy equipment manufacturers like Caterpillar and John Deere, but also such big names as Apple, Boeing and United Technologies. In the first seven months of 2015, American companies exported more than $65 billion worth of products to China, making it the third-largest destination for American-made goods after Canada and Mexico. The United States runs a substantial trade deficit with China — imports here totaled nearly $268 billion over the same period — but exports to China rose by 34 percent between 2010 and 2014. The uncertain outlook for growth in Asia and in emerging markets like Brazil, Turkey and South Africa is not a worry just for corporate executives or investors on Wall Street. Last week, the Federal Reserve held off on raising short-term interest rates, citing global economic conditions as a principal concern. Still, over the long run, analysts predict the American economy will benefit substantially from growth abroad. “In the near term, there are clearly risks in terms of China’s growth rate,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, a business information firm. “But this is the second-largest economy in the world now, so even if they grow by 6 percent, that’s a much bigger contribution to global growth than when they were smaller and grew by 10 percent a decade ago.” “They are struggling right now,” he added. “But the future in terms of growth is with China and the emerging world.”
|
Caterpillar Inc;Layoffs;Stocks,Bonds;Economy;China
|
ny0089227
|
[
"world",
"americas"
] |
2015/09/28
|
Obama Tackles Poverty and Sexism in U.N. Speech
|
UNITED NATIONS — President Obama told a conclave of world leaders here on Sunday that millions of people should be saved through collective action to end extreme poverty and deadly infections, but he did not announce new initiatives to achieve those ends. “Billions of our fellow human beings are at risk of dying from diseases that we know how to prevent,” Mr. Obama said. “Many children are just one mosquito bite away from death. And that is a moral outrage.” Mr. Obama did announce a modest expansion of a program that provides drugs to those infected with H.I.V., mostly in Africa. But increasing the number of people receiving treatment may require more funding from Congress, and with a possible government shutdown looming amid congressional disputes over spending, the additional money is uncertain. The program — known as Pepfar , for President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — seeks to treat 11.4 million infected people by the end of 2016 and 12.9 million by the end of 2017. But even if it met its goals, the program would not be large enough to treat all those who need help. The United States has for decades been the world’s largest contributor to international development efforts, and the Obama administration has undertaken a variety of new programs, like Power Africa, which is supposed to bring electricity to some of the most impoverished parts of the planet. The program has yet to show much success since Mr. Obama introduced it in South Africa in 2013. For Mr. Obama, a more perilous part of the 70th annual United Nations General Assembly will begin on Monday, when he is to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to discuss Russia’s recent military buildup in Syria. But eradicating poverty, particularly in Africa, has been a focus throughout Mr. Obama’s presidency, and administration officials said that his speech on Sunday, at the end of a three-day summit meeting on development, would be valuable even without great new American commitments. Mr. Obama promised the gathering of world leaders that, having given six such previous speeches, he would be blunt. He proceeded to list what he saw as the major stumbling blocks to ending poverty, including corruption, inequality, sexism, war and climate change. “One of the best indicators of whether a country will succeed is how it treats its women,” Mr. Obama said, then continued, “And I have to say I do not have patience for the excuse of, ‘Well, we have our own ways of doing things.’ ” Mr. Obama paused and added: “We understand that there is a long tradition in every society of discriminating against women. But that’s not an excuse.” The speech came near the conclusion of a United Nations effort to adopt a spectacularly ambitious set of global development goals, meant to save the planet and its most vulnerable people. Known as the Sustainable Development Goals — or Agenda 2030, after the deadline for meeting them — they were adopted on Friday at the opening of the summit meeting. The goals focus on attacking the misery and death associated with poverty with the same intensity and commitment devoted to the global H.I.V.-AIDS epidemic and to the Ebola outbreak that began last year in West Africa. About 162 million children around the world are considered malnourished and likely to have lifelong intellectual and physical deficits. The stubborn continuation of childhood hunger and death led the assembled leaders to adopt a comprehensive set of 17 goals and to designate 169 specific targets for action in hopes that wide-ranging improvements would yield greater advances than simple growth in income has so far achieved. In the previous round of targets, the number of people living in dire poverty around the world was cut in half largely because of economic growth in China and India, but the goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds was missed. An important reason may be that many of the world’s stunted and emaciated children — particularly those in India — suffer less from a lack of food than from a lack of clean water and a sanitary environment. Many stunted children seem too sick to absorb nutrients even when they get enough food. Having a toilet at home, particularly in a densely populated area, may be particularly crucial. But building toilets and water and sewage systems is far more expensive than providing food. Indeed, the estimated price for achieving the goals adopted by the conclave is $3 trillion. But figuring out how to measure whether countries are meeting their targets remains a sticky subject. For sanitation, one measure has long been the number of toilets built. But in India, most toilets built by the government are soon abandoned by their recipients. And even when sewage makes it into toilets there, most of the resulting effluent is dumped untreated into rivers and streams. The country’s sanitation problems are leading to a huge increase in the development of multidrug-resistant bacteria that are spreading around the world.
|
Barack Obama;AIDS,HIV;Poverty;UN;Women and Girls;UN General Assembly
|
ny0108741
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2012/05/29
|
China Cracks Down on Web Critics
|
BEIJING — One of China ’s largest hosts of Twitter-like microblogs decreed new punishments on Monday for users who post comments that its editors — and by extension, China’s government censors — deem inappropriate. The service, Sina Weibo, imposed “user contracts” that award each of its 300 million microbloggers a starting score of 80 points. Points can be deducted for online comments that are judged to be offensive. When a blogger reaches zero, the service stated, a user’s account will be canceled. Users who suffer lesser penalties can restore their 80 points by avoiding violations for two months. Deductions will cover a wide range of sins, including spreading rumors, calling for protests, promoting cults or superstitions and impugning China’s honor, the service stated. Most notably, the contracts also will punish time-honored tactics that bloggers have used to avoid censorship, like disguising comments on censored topics by using homonyms (where two different Chinese characters have nearly identical sounds), puns and other dodges. To evade censors, bloggers have referred to the dissident artist Ai Weiwei by using the Chinese characters for “love the future,” a rough homonym of his name. Such ploys would be punished with a loss of points under the new rules. Sina officials left unclear how many points a user would lose for a specific violation. But they said that microbloggers could increase their score to 100 points by supporting unspecified promotional activities, and would receive “low credit” warnings should their total fall below 60 points. The restrictions are not new by themselves. Government censors already control what appears on the Internet, and corporate minders at Sina Weibo and other sites have long complied with their orders, deleting offensive comments, sly homonyms and other posts that rile the government’s sensibilities. The point system, however, appears to be a muted effort to extend that control by warning users when they approach the boundaries of official tolerance. Internet companies like Sina that are privately operated tread a thin line between too-lax censorship that might draw government punishment and overly strict rules that would quash the lively debates that make the services popular. The new rules were announced in early May and took effect on Monday. Chinese propaganda authorities have progressively clamped down on the freedoms of Internet users since last year, when a high-speed train wreck in Zhejiang Province unleashed an online flood of angry antigovernment comments. Censors have all but shut down comments this spring about the scandal involving Bo Xilai, the suspended Politburo member, and Chen Guangcheng, the dissident who sought refuge in the United States Embassy in Beijing. The government briefly banned users from commenting on microblog posts on Sina Weibo and a rival service, Tencent QQ, apparently as a warning against spreading rumors about government instability surrounding Mr. Bo’s troubles.
|
China;Censorship;Computers and the Internet;Sina Weibo
|
ny0195765
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2009/10/20
|
New York Times to Trim 100 Newsroom Jobs
|
The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs — about 8 percent of the total — by year’s end, offering buyouts to union and nonunion employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday. The program mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller. That round of cuts included some layoffs of journalists — about 15 to 20, though The Times would not disclose the actual figure — which was the first time in memory such a layoff had happened. Times executives said this year that they did not anticipate — but would not rule out — the news staff shrinking in 2009, except through attrition. In fact, when employees took a 5 percent pay cut for most of this year, it was meant to forestall any staff reductions. But hopes for a year-end turnaround in the newspaper business have faded. Third-quarter results reported in the last few days by the Gannett Company and the McClatchy Company indicate that the industry’s steep drop in advertising barely slowed in the third quarter. The New York Times Company will report its results for the quarter on Thursday. The ad slump has caused newspapers to consider charging readers for online content, a topic of heated debate within The Times this year. “I won’t pretend that these staff cuts will not add to the burdens of journalists whose responsibilities have grown faster than their compensation,” Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, wrote in a note to his staff. He added, “Like you, I yearn for the day when we can do our jobs without looking over our shoulders for economic thunderstorms.” The paper has made much deeper reductions in other departments than it has in the newsroom, but the advertising drop pummeling the industry has forced cuts in the news operation as well. Besides the staff pay cut, the newsroom has eliminated some sections of the paper and lowered its budgets for freelancers. In addition to the newsroom cuts, The Times said Monday that it would offer buyouts to Newspaper Guild-represented employees in other departments, including advertising. But the paper says it is not seeking to eliminate a specific number of jobs among those workers. The Times’s news department peaked at more than 1,330 employees before the last round of cuts. The current number of workers is about 1,250; no other American newspaper has more than about 750. Nearly all metropolitan papers have been cutting their news operations for years, and some have fewer than half as many people in their newsrooms as they did a few years ago. The Los Angeles Times has dropped to about 600 news employees, from more than 1,200; The Washington Post to about 700, from more than 900; and The Boston Globe, which is owned by the Times Company, to close to 300, from well over 500. The Times will mail buyout packages to the entire newsroom staff on Thursday. The employees have 45 days to decide whether to apply for the buyout. Under the Newspaper Guild contract that covers most newsroom employees, buyouts generally offer three weeks’ salary for each year of service; nonunion employees are offered two weeks for each year. In a question-and-answer session with Jill Abramson and John Geddes, the managing editors of The Times, several newsroom employees asked about the possibility of using another pay cut, furloughs, part-time work or other measures to avoid layoffs, but Mr. Geddes said such steps could not address the paper’s financial problems in the long term. He said there was no plan for distributing the cuts among news departments or job descriptions — termination decisions, he said, could be largely dictated by who applies for buyouts. The announcement and staff meeting came before the close of market trading. Shares in the Times Company rose 5 percent during the trading day and fell slightly after hours. Also on Monday, Gannett reported third-quarter net income of $73.8 million, down from $158.1 million a year earlier. The company’s newspaper ad revenue fell 28.4 percent in the quarter, an improvement from the 33.1 percent decline over the first half of the year. That was similar to the 28.1 percent drop that McClatchy reported last week. Industrywide, ad revenue fell 28.6 percent in the first half of this year, and analysts and industry executives recently predicted that the pace of decline would slow to 25 percent or less in the third quarter. The reports from Gannett and McClatchy, two of the largest publishers, suggest that such estimates were a little too optimistic.
|
Layoffs and Job Reductions;New York Times;Newspapers;Labor and Jobs;Advertising and Marketing;Company Reports;New York Times Co;Newspaper Guild The;Keller Bill;Abramson Jill
|
ny0062613
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2014/01/21
|
Temporary Nuclear Deal With Iran Takes Effect
|
The first orchestrated rollback in Western antinuclear economic sanctions against Iran took effect on Monday under Tehran’s temporary agreement with world powers, as all sides reported that the steps initially promised had been fulfilled. Under the temporary agreement, Iran began suspending most advanced uranium-fuel enrichment and halted other sensitive elements of its nuclear program. In exchange, it received what the United States called “limited, targeted and reversible sanctions relief for a six-month period.” The agreement, known in diplomatic language as the Joint Plan of Action, expires on July 20 and was intended to give Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 powers, which are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany, more time to negotiate a permanent accord. The goal is to resolve peacefully the longstanding dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program, which Iran has called peaceful and legal but the Western countries and Israel have described as a guise to achieve the ability to produce nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency , the nuclear monitor of the United Nations, said its inspectors in Iran confirmed that Iranian officials had complied with their commitments: suspending the production of 20 percent-enriched uranium, which is a few technical steps short of weapons grade; disabling thousands of centrifuges used to make that fuel; and beginning to convert its stockpile into a much less potent form that cannot be weaponized. Tero Varjoranta, the deputy director general of the I.A.E.A., told reporters at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna that the Iranians had provided “good cooperation” so far and that “we have a very robust system in place with Iran” to ensure compliance with the agreement. In return, the European Union and the United States, which have imposed tough sanctions on Iran that have severely impaired its economy, suspended some restrictions on the Iranian petrochemicals, automotive and precious metals industries and began the staggered release of $4.2 billion in Iranian cash frozen in overseas banks. Other Western provisions that were eased included restraints on insurance for Iran’s oil shipments and licenses for services and parts needed by Iran’s commercial airlines, which have been increasingly hobbled by the need for maintenance and repairs of their old Boeing aircraft. Timeline on Iran’s Nuclear Program Whether Iran is racing toward nuclear weapon capabilities is one of the most contentious foreign-policy issues challenging the West. In a statement, Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top foreign policy official and the lead P5-plus-1 negotiator with Iran, called the carrying out of the agreement an important step. She also expressed hope that new talks with Iran would begin in the next few weeks. “It is important to keep that momentum, and I would like to see us move swiftly to agreements,” Ms. Ashton said in Brussels. “But I am mindful that there are many difficult issues.” She declined to specify them. The seemingly smooth execution of the temporary nuclear agreement was particularly notable on a day when Iran’s role in another major global dispute — Syria’s civil war — threatened to subvert peace talks set for Wednesday in Switzerland. The United States and the Syrian opposition objected to a United Nations invitation for Iran to attend. The United Nations later rescinded the invitation. The nuclear agreement dominated the news in Iran, where several officials welcomed the start of the deal and Iranian news media reported on every step taken by the I.A.E.A.’s inspectors. “They are now in the enrichment facilities of Natanz and Fordo,” Behrouz Kamalvand, the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told state television, referring to the two principal locations of Iranian centrifuges. “They have now disconnected certain pipes,” he said later. Finally he said, “Iran has voluntarily suspended enrichment up to 20 percent.” Iranian critics of the deal, who fear Iran conceded too much, expressed anger. The front page of the conservative newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz was published in black and white, as if in mourning, with a headline that declared “nuclear holocaust” had been committed. Ahmad Tavakoli, an influential lawmaker who is close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there were many issues with the agreement. “As the officials of the Islamic republic, we cannot publicly explain all of these problems because the other party may misuse them,” he said in a speech in Parliament reported by the Fars news agency. “But we will share some of these worries with the supreme leader and with the people.” Others in Iran said they were prepared to give the agreement time to succeed. “I am cautiously optimistic, but not sure about the future,” said Hamid Reza Tarraghi, a conservative analyst who has close ties to Iran’s political leadership. “We have to wait and see whether the opposite side will take all the necessary steps.” In Israel, where the interim agreement has been severely criticized as a capitulation to Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal would not stop the “Iran nuclear train” and what he called its intent to develop nuclear weapons.
|
Iran;Nuclear energy;Sanctions;International relations;International Atomic Energy Agency;Nuclear weapon
|
ny0261495
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2011/06/30
|
Scotland’s Notion of Independence Edges Ahead
|
EDINBURGH — Scotland’s grievances against England, its more powerful neighbor to the south, are deep and long, stretching back hundreds of years. But despite the country’s fierce pride in the things that make it different — culture, history, haggis — Scottish independence has always seemed like a quixotic dream, the fantasy of a vocal minority with more passion than power. Until May, that is. The Scottish National Party, whose avowed goal is securing Scottish independence, surprised perhaps even itself then by winning a resounding majority in the Scottish Parliament and taking direct control of the Scottish government for the first time (it had been leading a fragile coalition government since 2007). The win puts it, paradoxically, in something of a difficult spot. Having long promised to hold a referendum on independence, the party’s canny leader, Alex Salmond, has no choice but to go ahead. The polls show that a majority of Scots oppose independence, and a “no” vote would likely be a huge blow to the nationalists’ credibility and cause. But Mr. Salmond, who as Scotland’s first minister is in charge of its government, perhaps has some wiggle room. First, by delaying the referendum to the end of the current parliamentary term, perhaps to 2014 or 2015, he can buy time to make his case. Second, if he succeeds in getting more than one question on the referendum — so that voters could choose, say, between the status quo, the status quo plus more powers for Scotland and full independence — he might be able to finesse the issue. “If they go for this multiquestion referendum, then Alex Salmond can lose the referendum on independence, but he can say that while independence is our aspiration, we would be content with the middle option,” said Guy Lodge, associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning study group in London. “That would keep the momentum with them.” The current situation is a logical extension of a process that began in 1997, when the Labour government at the time in Britain tried to address the perennial annoyance of Scottish nationalism by granting the Scots their own Parliament and a greater say over how to spend their money in areas like health and education. Devolution, as it was called, was meant to “kill Scottish nationalism stone dead,” as a member of the government said at the time, but it galvanized the Scots, giving them more confidence in the strength of their differences. Scots have traditionally been to the left of England politically, and the Scottish Parliament has enacted a series of measures that would be unheard of in the Westminster Parliament, even under a Labour government. English universities charge tuition; Scottish universities are free (to Scottish students, at least). Older people pay for prescriptions in England; they get them free in Scotland. In the meantime, something odd has happened: the Scottish National Party has changed from being a slightly out-there, one-issue outfit to a credible force able to stand up both to the national Parliament in Westminster, and to the increasingly defanged Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties in the Scottish Parliament. “A few years ago, they weren’t taken seriously, but that has all changed,” said Michael Galloway, 38, a musician who was having a drink outside a pub in downtown Edinburgh recently, and who voted for the Scottish National Party for the first time in May. “People think of Alex Salmond as the best politician, and they want a firm and strong government by a politician who has Scotland’s best interests at heart,” he said. Speaking at a recent conference on Scottish politics here, John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said that Mr. Salmond’s success as first minister had made the case for independence less pressing. “Ironically, and this is the real S.N.P. conundrum, people seem to like a government that fights within the union,” he said, referring to the union between the nations that make up Britain: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. “They like the S.N.P. government being an awkward customer — and by demonstrating that devolution can do that, people do not feel they need independence.” Since the May election, Mr. Salmond has been busily flexing his muscles. In the Scottish Parliament, he introduced a contentious measure to increase penalties for sectarian-related violence after ugly incidents at matches between the rival Celtic and Ranger soccer teams. “I will not have people living in fear from some idiotic 17th-century rivalry in the 21st century,” he said. He reintroduced a bill, defeated several years ago, to set a minimum price per unit of alcohol, saying that Scotland’s drinking had gotten out of hand and that “we tolerate a race to the bottom of the bottle, which ruins our health, our judgment, our relationships, our safety and our dignity.” In Westminster, the nationalists have proved their scrappiness by insisting on further concessions in the legislation that sets out the relationship between Scotland and Britain and is wending its way through Parliament. Among other things, the bill would reduce the income tax that Scots pay to Britain in return for a reduction in the annual grant that Britain gives to Scotland. To make up the difference, Scotland would be allowed to levy additional income tax. Britain’s Conservative Party, which leads the coalition government in Westminster and is highly unpopular in Scotland, has had to take a cautious approach for fear of alienating the Scots even further and giving unwitting fuel to the independence cause. The Conservatives are opposed to Scottish independence — as indeed are all the non-nationalist parties — but have agreed in theory to allow the Scots to hold a referendum on the issue. The opposition parties miscalculated the mood in the recent election by making gloomy predictions about a Scotland controlled by the Scottish National Party, even as the party and Mr. Salmond were “oozing optimism about the future of Scotland,” as Mr. Lodge put it. “They’ve given Scotland a pride in being Scottish,” said Richard Garrett, 43, a student who was waiting for a bus on Princes Street here in Edinburgh. “I really believe that Scotland is coming into its own.”
|
Scottish National Party;Referendums;Salmond Alex;Edinburgh (Scotland);Legislatures and Parliaments
|
ny0023790
|
[
"technology"
] |
2013/08/02
|
With Moto X, Google Enters a Crowded Marketplace
|
The time has come for Google, the king of online search, to show whether it has any business selling hardware. After lackluster results selling devices made by other companies, Google is giving hardware another try — this time with a smartphone made by a company it owns. On Thursday, Motorola Mobility, the handset maker Google bought last year for $12.5 billion and then retooled, introduced the Moto X, the company’s first major device since the deal. The phone has all the standard features expected of today’s top smartphone, with a twist: the ability to control the phone by talking to it, without lifting a finger. The stakes are big for Google, and not only because of the high price that it paid for Motorola. Google is enormously profitable, but its growth is slowing because of lagging ad sales. Finding success with the new phone could lead to a new source of revenue and a way to get more users to view the company’s ads. Image From left, Iqbal Arshad, Motorola’s senior vice president of global product development; Dennis Woodside, chief executive; and Jim Wicks, senior vice president of design. Credit Sally Ryan for The New York Times The company has been aggressive in absorbing Motorola. It put a former top executive, Dennis Woodside, in charge of Motorola, laid off thousands of Motorola workers and formed a new team with many employees from its fiercest competitors, including Apple, Samsung and Amazon. A major marketing effort is expected for the Moto X. “I think we’ve created an awesome company,” said Iqbal Arshad, Motorola’s senior vice president of global product development. “And Moto X represents who we are.” Still, sales could be an uphill climb. The phone, decked out with multiple processors, sensors and voice controls, is landing squarely in the brutally competitive market for high-end smartphones. And Google has a lot to prove before it is taken seriously as a hardware maker. Motorola’s executives contend they have something special with the Moto X, which will be sold by all the major American phone carriers beginning in late August or early September. It has a 4.7-inch touch screen, which puts it right between the smaller iPhone 5 and the larger Galaxy S4 from Samsung. And it has a sophisticated camera and high-speed connections. Image Motorola executives hope that the Moto X stands out for its voice command capabilities. Saying “OK Google Now, find me my way home,” for example, will quickly pull up a Google map with directions to a user’s house. But what executives hope makes the Moto X stand out is its voice command capabilities — like continually listening for a user’s voice and quickly reacting to commands. Saying “O.K. Google, now find me my way home” will quickly pull up a Google map with directions to a user’s house, for example. The phone learns the voice of its owner and responds only to it. Some people might find this creepy, but it is a feature that a user must turn on voluntarily. Google executives have long talked about building computers that are so integrated into our space that we can ask them to do things without lifting a finger. The Moto X is a big step in that direction. Mr. Arshad said the company had to develop a new computing system, X8, to make Moto X work well. One low-powered processor in the phone is devoted to processing natural language. Another low-powered processor is dedicated to detecting movements of sensors — two twists of the wrist will open the phone’s camera, for example. The design of the computing system allows the phone to constantly listen for the user’s input and quickly respond without constantly draining the battery, he said. (The phone’s battery is supposed to last 24 hours handling various tasks.) “We want to change the way people call, we want to change the way people search and we want to change the way people navigate,” Mr. Arshad said. “That’s what touchless control enabled you to do. So we had to design a mobile computing system to do that.” Image Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of product management for Motorola, with a Moto X on Thursday. The phone accepts voice commands, which Google hopes will make it stand out. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Still, as other device makers have learned, it takes more than snazzy features to gain traction in the handset business. Samsung and Apple dominate the market, and some Asian manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE are selling low-cost smartphones and quickly gaining ground in economically disadvantaged markets. Tero Kuittinen, a telecom analyst at Alekstra, a mobile diagnostics firm, said it was bad timing for Google to be competing in the high end of the smartphone market. The smartphone business is still expanding — in the second quarter this year, it grew 52 percent compared with last year, according to the research firm I.D.C. But most of that growth is coming from manufacturers offering cheap smartphones in emerging markets, he said. And the companies competing with Apple and Samsung for the high-end market just have not had much luck. HTC’s new smartphone, called the One, and BlackBerry’s new phone, the Z10, got good reviews but still sold poorly. Mr. Kuittinen said that after Google bought Motorola, it killed its line of low-cost cellphones and “moved to high end, just when the high-end market ran out of gas.” “They’ve really lost momentum, they’ve lost distribution, and they’ve lost shelf space.” Video Jon Fortt of CNBC spoke to Dennis Woodside, who became Motorola Mobility’s chief executive after Google acquired the company, about the new Moto X phone. Credit Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Google also has a track record of spotty hardware sales. The Nexus Q, a streaming media player it introduced last year, was killed just over a month after its release, dogged by bad reviews. The Chromebook Pixel, a touch-screen laptop that Google designed and manufactured, is a fancy piece of hardware, but the market for a $1,300 laptop with no ability to run desktop software is unclear. Another Google device, Glass, is not yet available to the general public, though it has already been the subject of public ridicule . The Chromecast, though, a stick that plugs into a television and enables people to watch online video, is getting positive reviews from technology writers and appears to have strong sales. Chetan Sharma, an independent telecom analyst who does consulting for carriers, said it was unlikely that customers would flock to the Moto X. Plenty of people are chained to family plans and will not be able to upgrade to a new phone yet. “That leaves only a sliver of consumers who are up for grabbing a new phone,” he said. But Motorola executives say Moto X is just the start. The company plans to offer a broad portfolio of products. Moto X is a high-end phone, but the company will introduce a lower-cost smartphone this year, said Rick Osterloh, its senior vice president of product management. Motorola may also contribute to Google’s efforts in making wearable computers like Google Glass, or eventually a smartwatch. Mr. Arshad said that the company’s X8 computing system was part of the company’s long-term goal to make mobile devices smarter and fit in the next generation of mobile devices. “You could easily see the same technology we have here applicable to all sorts of different form factors in addition to wearables,” he said.
|
Google;Motorola;Smartphone;Wireless
|
ny0216807
|
[
"world",
"americas"
] |
2010/04/01
|
Suspect in Juárez Says Killers Had Pursued Jail Guard
|
MONTERREY, Mexico — A gang member arrested in connection with the killings of three people linked to the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juárez has told investigators that the killers were pursuing a guard at the El Paso County Jail, and not workers at the consulate, the authorities said in a statement released late Tuesday. The account given to investigators by the gang member, Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, suggests that the target of the shootings on March 13 was the jail guard, Arthur H. Redelfs, and that his pregnant wife, Lesley Ann Enriquez, who worked at the consulate, died only because she was with him. Mr. Redelfs and Ms. Enriquez were fatally ambushed by at least three gunmen as they left a child’s birthday party in Ciudad Juárez. Their 7-month-old daughter was found wailing in the back seat. The gunmen also attacked a second car that was leaving the party, killing the husband of another consular employee and wounding two children. The Mexican authorities said Mr. Valles de la Rosa, 45, a member of the Barrio Azteca prison gang, told them that he had been ordered several days earlier by leaders of the gang in El Paso to track down Mr. Redelfs’s white sport utility vehicle in Ciudad Juárez. Newspapers in El Paso and Juárez reported that gang leaders wanted Mr. Redelfs dead, saying he had abused and menaced one of their members , known as El Chano, in the El Paso County Jail. The authorities in the United States and Mexico would not confirm those reports. “The information the suspect has given is still being verified, so the authorities are not releasing, for the moment, other information about probable participants or the material and intellectual masterminds of the double homicide, nor their probable motive,” said the statement from the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office. Indeed, the motive for the attacks remained murky. The speculation that the Aztecas, as the gang is known in Mexico, were after Mr. Redelfs because he had threatened their members in the El Paso County Jail was bolstered by the fact that the second car attacked was also a white S.U.V. But some law enforcement officials in the United States say it is also possible that the gunmen were searching for someone else in a similar white car and botched the job twice, killing the three people by mistake. “We still maintain that we have no information to indicate that any of the three were specifically targeted,” Special Agent Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. field office in El Paso, said Tuesday. The El Paso County sheriff, Richard Wiles, also disputed Mr. Valles de la Rosa’s assertion that Mr. Redelfs was the true target. He said there was no other evidence to corroborate the gang member’s version. “It must be remembered that he is a career criminal whose credibility may be suspect,” the sheriff said in a statement. In his statements to Mexican investigators, Mr. Valles de la Rosa said he had been told over the telephone by a gang member to look for the white Honda Pilot belonging to Mr. Redelfs outside a business that organizes children’s birthday parties, known as El Barquito de Papel. According to the statement, Mr. Valles de la Rosa said that as the car pulled away from the location, he telephoned other members of the gang, who ordered him to follow it. He trailed the car until it reached Avenida La Ribereña near the city hall, when he received an order to drop back, because a second car of gunmen had picked up the target. Moments later, he heard gunfire, then drove past the white car. Mr. Redelfs lay dead in the driver’s seat, and a woman was shot to death in the passenger’s seat, he said, according to the statement. Mr. Valles de la Rosa was arrested in October 1995, accused of being part of a drug trafficking ring. He served 12 and a half years in federal prisons in the United States. He joined the Azteca gang in prison after meeting its leader, David Almaraz. He was deported to Ciudad Juárez in 2007 after being released from prison in Oklahoma. Mexican authorities said he began working as a lookout and enforcer for the Aztecas, who the authorities say work for the Juárez drug cartel run by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes on both sides of the border. On the street, Mr. Valles de la Rosa goes by the names El Chino and El 29. His entire torso is covered with tattoos of Aztec design. “El Paso” is written in ink on the back of his neck, and “Chino” on his abdomen. Mexican prosecutors said he was born in Ciudad Juárez in 1964, but left for El Paso with his parents at age 6 and lived there for 30 years. As a youth, he joined a notorious El Paso street gang called Los Fatherless. In addition to being charged late Tuesday with taking part in the killings in Juárez, he is also charged with killing four members of rival drug gangs, Los Mexicles and Los Doble A. Across Mexico, the fighting between drug traffickers and the military has continued unabated this week, with 44 people killed Tuesday and Wednesday. At least 15 people died in firefights between soldiers and gunmen in the border towns of Reynosa, Rio Bravo and Díaz Ordaz, where the Gulf Cartel and a splinter group, Los Zetas, are vying for power, a newspaper, Milenio, reported . The United States Consulate in Monterrey issued a travel warning to Americans on March 14, urging them to delay unnecessary travel to northern Mexico and to “use extreme caution,” because gunfights were breaking out without warning. Seven people were found executed in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, on Tuesday. Four of the bodies were wrapped in blankets, with a placard that delivered a blunt warning to an important leader in the Sinaloa Cartel, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as El Barbi, who has been feuding with other members of his organization. In Ciudad Juárez, at least 13 people were found murdered. In one episode, gunmen burst into a workshop and adjoining house and killed five men and a baby. The motive was still under investigation, the police said. And on Wednesday morning, in the town of Apatzingan, in the central state of Michoacán, four human heads were found next to a statue of a former president, Lázaro Cárdenas. The heads lay in a row next to several signs bearing menacing messages for narcotics traffickers.
|
Juarez (Mexico);Murders and Attempted Murders;Gangs
|
ny0000974
|
[
"business",
"global"
] |
2013/03/28
|
Cyprus Sets Up Tight Controls as Banks Prepare to Reopen
|
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The Cypriot government on Wednesday announced severe restrictions on access to funds held in the country’s banks, hoping to control a rush to withdraw money when the banks open Thursday for the first time in nearly two weeks. The measures, which are supposed to be in effect for only a week but are widely expected to be extended in some form well into the future, will prohibit electronic transfer of funds from Cyprus to other countries. In addition, individuals will not be allowed to take more than 3,000 euros (about $3,860) in cash outside the country, well below the current ceiling of 10,000 euros. The cap on withdrawals from automated teller machines will rise to 300 euros a day from 100 euros, but credit and debit card charges will be limited to no more than 5,000 euros a person a month. Banks will not cash checks; they will accept checks as deposits, but many people will no doubt be reluctant to put more money into a bank. Bank clients also will not be able to withdraw money from fixed-term deposits before their maturity date. “This is a typical set of exchange control measures, more reminiscent of Latin America or Africa,” said Bob Lyddon, the managing director of IBOS, an international banking association. “There is no way these will only last seven days. These are permanent controls until the economy recovers.” To make sure enough cash is on hand, the European Central Bank sent an airplane filled with about 1.5 billion euros in a container to Larnaca airport near Nicosia on Wednesday. The container was loaded onto a truck and escorted by police to the Cypriot central bank for safekeeping, said a person with knowledge of the operation, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The person said the European Central Bank had indicated it would continue flying cash to the country as needed. The Cypriot finance minister, Michalis Sarris, said Wednesday that a flood of withdrawals was bound to happen quickly anyway, but that the restrictions would at least help stem a mass flight of deposits. “Each day that banks remain closed creates more uncertainty and more difficulties for people, so we would like to do our utmost to make sure that this new goal that we have set will work,” Mr. Sarris said. Despite those strictures, the Cypriot authorities are bracing for as much as 10 percent of the 64 billion euros on deposit in the country’s banks to be pulled out on Thursday. Experts predict a much bigger bank run whenever the controls are eventually lifted or eased further. “If you don’t impose the controls, the money is going to fly,” said Mujtaba Rahman, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group. “But when you remove those controls, clearly the money is going to leave anyway. So they’re in a Catch-22.” As part of the effort to clean up the situation, the chief executive of the Bank of Cyprus, the nation’s largest bank, was fired Wednesday by the central bank, along with the bank’s entire board. He will be replaced by an administrator overseeing the bank’s consolidation. That move came in consultation with the so-called troika of international lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — that are completing the terms of a 10 billion euro bailout for Cyprus to help it absorb the blow from the collapse of its outsize banking system. Image Banks in Nicosia remained closed on Wednesday as officials discussed ways to prevent a flood of withdrawals when the banks do reopen. Credit Katia Christodoulou/European Pressphoto Agency Also, President Nicos Anastasiades announced the opening of a criminal investigation into how the country’s banks had been brought to the brink of collapse. His aim, he said, was “to find and attribute responsibility wherever it belongs.” Stress has intensified in recent days in Nicosia, the capital, as Cypriots have grown impatient waiting for the bailout deal to be completed so the banks can reopen and they can get somewhat greater access to their money. Many are also angry at what they see as the inept handling of the situation by Mr. Anastasiades. Others harbor suspicions that the I.M.F. and Germany are punishing Cyprus in part because of its role as a money haven that opened a window for wealthy foreigners to move their funds into the euro zone with few, if any, strictures. Demonstrations that attracted hundreds here last week have swelled into gatherings of thousands of people who have grown more agitated as they realize that their future under the terms of the bailout will be bleak. Thousands of employees will lose their jobs at Laiki Bank, the country’s second-largest bank, which is being wound down. And the freezing of accounts at all banks since March 16 means businesses have not been able to pay their employees. Importers have also not been able to pay their bills, raising concerns about shortages of basic goods on an island that imports almost everything it consumes. The governing class is trying to deflect blame for the debacle. Mr. Anastasiades has started making incendiary statements about the central bank president, Panicos O. Demetriades, hinting strongly that he wants to see Mr. Demetriades ousted. That, in turn, has raised concerns about the central bank’s independence. “The knives are out,” said a person with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The cost of bailing out the island’s two largest banks, the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki, is to be borne by the banks’ large, uninsured depositors. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Demetriades said he expected big depositors at the Bank of Cyprus to sustain a “haircut,” or loss, of about 40 percent on their 14 billion euros in long-term deposits. In exchange, depositors will receive shares in a recapitalized bank. But with the economy deteriorating rapidly, major depositors may have to take an even bigger loss so that the Bank of Cyprus can free up cash to protect its rapidly deteriorating loan book. Laiki, also known as the Cyprus Popular Bank, is even worse off. About four billion euros in deposits there will be transferred to a so-called bad bank, and those assets will most likely be wiped out as the bank is wound down. Under European Union treaties, restricting the free movement of capital is forbidden. Critics say that what is happening in Cyprus shows that union rules will be flouted when the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and European Union leaders find it convenient to do so. By imposing capital controls, European and Cypriot officials have effectively created two classes of euro: cash that can be freely spent, and cash that is locked up by capital controls, effectively diminishing its value. “It has to be acknowledged that this is something entirely new,” said Nicolas Véron, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a research group in Brussels, and a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “This will shape expectations in other countries, and the issue is whether capital controls can be avoided in future episodes.”
|
Cyprus;Banking and Finance;Euro Crisis;Bank of Cyprus;Cyprus Popular Bank Laiki Bank
|
ny0171311
|
[
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] |
2007/11/18
|
Pittsburgh Allows Its Opportunities, and Rutgers, to Slip
|
PISCATAWAY, N.J., Nov. 17 — At the end of a slow, frustrating afternoon of missed opportunities at Rutgers, Pittsburgh had one final chance to steal the game. With the Panthers on the Rutgers 21 with 19 seconds to play, quarterback Pat Bostick connected with Oderick Turner in the corner of the end zone. But before they had time to celebrate, a flag was on the field. Turner was called for offensive pass interference for pushing off against Rutgers’s Devin McCourty. Seconds later, Bostick threw another pass into the Rutgers end zone, and again Turner and McCourty went up for the ball. This time, McCourty pulled it down. There was no flag, only a 20-16 victory for Rutgers in its final home game of the season. “On that first play, I thought they were going to call defensive pass interference, actually,” McCourty said. “But then on the second one, I had my eyes on the quarterback, and I was able to just get there.” Though neither team was in contention for the Big East championship, Pittsburgh (4-6, 2-3) was playing to salvage a .500 season, and Rutgers (7-4, 3-3) was looking to even its conference record. On a day when Rutgers’s offense lacked bite and, more significant, starting quarterback Mike Teel for most of the game, Coach Greg Schiano was quick to credit his defense. “Offensively, we never really got into a flow,” he said. “On the other hand, this was one of the more gutsy defensive performances I’ve ever been a part of.” And with the Rutgers offense turning over the ball four times inside its 31, a gutsy display was essential. Midway through the first quarter, the Scarlet Knights were ahead, 3-0, when Kennard Cox intercepted a pass from Teel and returned it to the Rutgers 23. Three running plays advanced the ball to only the 16, and like Rutgers, Pittsburgh had to settle for a field goal. A minute later, Jabu Lovelace, Rutgers’s backup quarterback, was sacked by Scott McKillop, who forced a fumble and recovered the ball at the 12. The Panthers got a touchdown this time, but it took four plays, capped by a 1-yard pass from Bostick to Darrell Strong on fourth down, to give Pittsburgh a 10-3 lead. McKillop continued to torment the Rutgers quarterbacks. Early in the second quarter, after Teel had tied the score at 10-10 with a 53-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Britt, McKillop picked off Teel’s sloppy toss at the Rutgers 31. Teel left the game because of a recurring thumb injury on his throwing hand, returning for a series late in the game. In the fourth quarter, Lovelace, who had 13 carries for a total of 1 yard, was sacked again and fumbled, and McKillop pounced on the loose ball. With Teel gone, the Rutgers offense seemed disorganized. But the Panthers’ offense was often hapless. Pittsburgh generated a total of 75 yards in the first half, and p Conor Lee sent a 31-yard field-goal attempt wide left with 11 minutes 34 seconds to play in the second quarter. “We can’t blame our offense,” McKillop said. “You don’t want to start a mutiny on the team, and you can’t have your offense and defense butting heads.” Until that point, Rutgers running back Ray Rice had been quiet, rushing for 36 yards. With 4:51 left in the first half, however, he made his presence felt by breaking off a 28-yard run for a touchdown and Rutgers’s first lead since the opening drive, 17-10. Rice finished with 112 yards on 26 carries. Pittsburgh closed the gap to 4 with a field goal in the third quarter, after running two plays from the Rutgers 4. Lee tacked on another 3 points with 11:05 left in the game to make the score 17-16. Rutgers responded with Jeremy Ito’s 30-yard field goal three minutes later. That set the stage for Pittsburgh to produce a spectacular ending to a forgettable game. Instead, it will go down as one more missed opportunity.
|
Rutgers The State University of New Jersey;Football;College Athletics;Rice Ray;Big East Conference
|
ny0162038
|
[
"us"
] |
2006/05/24
|
Illinois Priest Steps Down After Accusations
|
A Roman Catholic priest in suburban Chicago who was planning to celebrate his 25th anniversary in the ministry last week has voluntarily stepped down amid accusations involving the sexual abuse of minors more than 20 years ago. The Archdiocese of Chicago confirmed that it had started an investigation into the priest, Robert Stepek, at St. Albert the Great Parish in Burbank. The archdiocese said it had reported the accusations to the Cook County state's attorney's office and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
|
Sex Crimes;Priests;Illinois
|
ny0201558
|
[
"sports",
"tennis"
] |
2009/09/06
|
Young French Quartet Is on the March at the U.S. Open
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Away from the constant commotion of the United States Open , Jo-Wilfried Tsonga likes to spend his evenings at a kitschy French bistro in Midtown Manhattan called Tout Va Bien, French for all is well. And with a spot booked in the third round of the Open, Tsonga can hardly complain about the way the tournament is going for him. Neither can some of his favorite dinner companions, Gaël Monfils, Gilles Simon and Josselin Ouanna. Monfils and Simon are in the third round, too. The four make up perhaps the most talented crop of French players in a long time. All younger than 25, they are prompting chatter about the first Grand Slam title for a Frenchman since Yannick Noah won at Roland Garros in 1983. “You have to go back to Noah, Henri Leconte and Thierry Tulasne in the 1980s for a generation like this one,” said Cédric Pioline, the former French No. 1, who is currently in charge of elite men’s development at the French Tennis Federation. This generation has been a decade in the making. Tsonga, Monfils, Simon and Ouanna have known each other since they were youngsters who happened to hit a tennis ball that much harder and that much cleaner than most. And more than just encounter each other at junior tournaments all over France, they have roomed together while navigating the rigorous structure of French sporting academies. “These guys, they’re like my brothers,” said Monfils, seeded 13th at the Open. “We’re all extremely close. It’s tough to describe what it is because we’ve just always known each other. It’s always been the way.” Until the last few years, the French tennis scene had been distinctly devoid of stars. Sébastien Grosjean rose to No. 4 in the world and was a mainstay at Grand Slam events for the last decade, and Arnaud Clément peaked with an Australian Open final appearance in 2001. But Tsonga and Monfils led the charge for French tennis’s strikingly quick youth movement. Monfils was the first of the four to break into the top 50 and qualified for the semifinals of the French Open last year. In January, Tsonga went one better, reaching the Australian Open final. More than delivering results, they are doing it with entertaining tennis. “Gaël and Jo have some serious charisma,” Ouanna said. “It’s a nice change. It’s like when Noah was playing and everyone knew his face.” Monfils, with his teased hair, gregarious personality and captivating athleticism, is the consummate showman. At Roland Garros, he whipped up the crowd with a dance routine inspired by the rapper Soulja Boy. Off the court, he decorates his sneakers with rhinestones and gold marker, always signing them with his nickname, La Monf. And after knocking off Andreas Beck in the Open’s second round on Friday, he paid homage to his hero Muhammad Ali by throwing four quick jabs at the baseline and finishing with an uppercut. Then he paid homage to himself by tracing the bulge of his exposed biceps with his racket. “I’m just being natural, being me,” Monfils said. “I love being in front of a crowd when it’s buzzing.” Tsonga puts on a different kind of show — and he never dances. With sheer power and a rugby player’s build, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Tsonga brutalizes opponents, always wearing his emotions on his sleeve. He swaggers, he yells on the court, and with a wave of the arms, he turns up the volume wherever he plays. “I actually like to kid around and laugh, and on the court I do like to put on a show,” said Tsonga, the seventh seed. “But I don’t have that actor side like Gaël.” Simon, seeded ninth, is more reserved on the court and mutters to himself. Ouanna seems downright shy. But even with their wide range of personalities, the four grew up as one another’s support network. In France, young athletes are selected early to leave home for what is known as a Sport Études programs, meant to develop elite athletes in all sports. So after long days split between the classroom and the practice courts, Monfils, Tsonga, Simon and Ouanna counted on one another to preserve some modicum of balance in their lives. “We could hang out with each other like human beings, normal people who don’t play tennis all day,” Tsonga said. Even so, Simon said, little was normal about the situation. “We did whatever we could to make it as fun as possible, and none of us regrets our choices,” he said. “But in no way was it what teenagers are used to experiencing.” For years, the four pushed each other to be better, without a trace of jealousy. Even as coaches who made careers dealing in broken dreams constantly reminded them that perhaps only one would make it to the big time, they kept driving forward, each at his own pace. “We all stayed tight growing up, and I think that as each of us got better, we pulled the others,” Tsonga said. “Subconsciously, it was always about keeping up when one of us was playing well.” Now on the professional tour, where each player travels with coaches, trainers, agents and hangers-on, they still stumble through the crowds of the Open to keep an eye on each other. “If the top 100 could be entirely made up of my buddies,” Simon said, “it would be a lot more fun.”
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Tennis;Tsonga Jo-Wilfried;United States Open (Tennis);Monfils Gael;Simon Gilles
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ny0066615
|
[
"us"
] |
2014/06/13
|
Democrats Hope for Shift in Their Favor
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Ross Ramsey, the executive editor of The Texas Tribune, writes a regular column for the Tribune. Suppose you were a Texas Democrat and a realist. You want your candidates to win in November and to break the spirit-killing string of losses that started after the statewide elections in 1994. But you have been scratching for reasons that this year will be different, from the two women at the top of the Democratic ticket to the Battleground Texas organizing efforts to the current Republican tilt to the right that — to Democrats, anyway — seems out of step with mainstream voters. But the realist within is thinking about Nov. 5, and how to keep the embers going on the day after an election that — unless there is an upset — will mark another set of Republican victories. Short of winning a statewide election, what would constitute good news for Texas Democrats in November? Jeremy Bird, a founder of the Battleground Texas effort to build a Democratic grass-roots organization in the state, has his eyes on volunteers, energized activists and the sorts of activity that could expand through 2016 and 2018. His group started a little over a year ago with talk of a six-year plan to make Democrats competitive in Texas. The somewhat unexpected rise of Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte as political candidates could accelerate that effort, even if neither takes office. His measure of a win short of a victory: “Better than Bill White.” Mr. White, a former Houston mayor, was the Democratic candidate for governor in 2010. He received 42.3 percent of the vote — better than any Democratic candidate for governor since Ann Richards’s loss in 1994, when she received 45.9 percent. “Closing the margin is important; getting back to the Ann Richards numbers in 1994,” said Richard Murray, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “There’s not much opportunity for pickups in the Legislature, but closing the margin would help set the table for 2016.” (The University of Houston is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.) Glenn Smith, who managed part of Ms. Richards’s first campaign for governor in 1990, is not a fan of this kind of thinking. “It’s my extremely strong opinion that you play every contest to win,” said Mr. Smith, who now runs the Progress Texas PAC, which supports Democratic candidates and causes. “You set everything on winning. There is nothing else. If you start even mentally thinking that we’re O.K. at 46, then you might end up at 42. You can’t get in that mind-set. It’s true in sports, in every competitive walk of life — you have to set a course to win. You can’t begin cutting the goal to something short of winning, or your plans will suck.” Some see that difference in goals — winning now versus winning later — as part of the underlying tension that forced the latest shake-up in the Davis campaign for governor this week. Karin Johanson, who moved to Texas in October to run the campaign, is leaving, replaced by State Representative Chris Turner, Democrat of Grand Prairie. The outgoing manager was a favorite of progressive Democrats around the country who hope to eventually make Texas competitive and, by doing so, tilt national politics their way. The incoming manager is a veteran of campaigns — his own and others — where Democrats have to contend in somewhat hostile Republican territories and want to win right away. Mr. Murray, the political scientist, is watching younger voters, especially millennials who might support Republicans on economic issues but not on social matters. He does not expect Democrats to gain much ground in the rural areas they once claimed, but shifts in turnout elsewhere — should that happen — could augur long-term changes in the electorate. “Ticket-splitting will be one sign,” he said. “Voting is increasingly, top to bottom, straight ticket in Texas.” If voters start splitting tickets — picking a Republican for one statewide office and a Democrat for another, for instance — that would be bad news for the incumbent party and good news for the outsiders. The optimism that feeds sports fans — like the current folk wisdom about the bright future of the recently laughable Houston Astros — does not always work in politics. But it’s all they have. “If we fall short, the effort still helps seed the future,” Smith said. “If you set any goals short of winning, you are going to inhibit that future.”
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Texas;Gubernatorial races;Democrats;Wendy Davis;Leticia Van de Putte;Battleground Texas;Republicans;Jeremy Bird
|
ny0112472
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2012/02/24
|
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Former Philippine President, Denies Fraud Charge
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MANILA — Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a charge that she ordered a local official to tamper with the results of congressional elections in 2007. Surrounded by dozens of police officers yelling “Move! Move! Move!” at a crush of reporters, the ailing former president wore a neck brace and walked gingerly into the Manila court room to face a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. “Not guilty,” the former president said after her lawyers waived a full reading of the charge. In November, the government blocked Mrs. Arroyo from leaving the country on suspicion that she was trying to flee looming charges of corruption and election fraud. Days later, on Nov. 18, she was arrested at a private hospital where she was being treated for a bone ailment. The accusations against Mrs. Arroyo are straightforward, said James Jimenez, a spokesman with the Commission on Elections. Prosecutors allege that she ordered Datu Andal S. Ampatuan, the governor of the province of Maguindanao, to manipulate the election results in his area to assure the victory of the 12 senatorial election candidates in her political party. “It should be 12-0 in Maguindanao, even if you need to fix or change the result,” Mrs. Arroyo told the governor, according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors in October. The affidavit includes the testimony of Norie K. Unas, an assistant to the Maguindanao governor who claims to have heard Mrs. Arroyo give the direct order during a meeting at Malacanang, the presidential palace, a few days before the May 14, 2007, elections. Mr. Unas, who has requested to be placed in the country’s witness-protection program, is the key to the case against Mrs. Arroyo. After the alleged order from the president, Mr. Unas stated that the governor gathered the mayors in his province and told them of Mrs. Arroyo’s order. “Do not embarrass me with the president!” he allegedly told the mayors. Mr. Jimenez of the election commission said Maguindanao is a populous province. If the results were manipulated in order to favor administration candidates, it could have an outcome on the national election. “If they won this province, they could sway the whole election nationwide,” he said. Candidates aligned with Mrs. Arroyo dominated the Maguindanao polls but faired poorly in the national results. The prosecution of Mrs. Arroyo, who served as president from 2001 to 2010, is an important aspect of the anticorruption campaign of President Benigno S. Aquino III. Mr. Aquino has also supported the continuing impeachment proceedings of the chief justice of the Philippines, Renato C. Corona, who was a close ally of Mrs. Arroyo. Supporters of Mr. Aquino note that if Mr. Corona is not impeached, he could potentially derail cases against Mrs. Arroyo that reach the Supreme Court. Mr. Corona, who served in senior positions in Mrs. Arroyo’s administration, is vigorously defending himself through his lawyer in the trial in the Philippine Senate. Mrs. Arroyo is also charged in a separate court with corruption related to a $329 million government telecommunications and Internet deal. She has denied any wrongdoing in the case. Prosecutors say several other charges are also being prepared.
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Arroyo Gloria Macapagal;Philippines;Elections;Frauds and Swindling
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