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ny0009310
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2013/02/05
|
Syrian Rebels Free 3 Hostages in Exchange for Captured Fighters
|
MOSCOW — Two Russian steel plant workers and an Italian citizen kidnapped by rebels in Syria have been freed in exchange for captured rebel fighters, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Rebel militants captured the three on Dec. 12 as they traveled from Homs, a city in the country’s west that has seen heavy fighting, to the tiny Russian military base at the port of Tartus. The Foreign Ministry said Monday in a news release that the three were exchanged for captured fighters, but did not specify how many. The abductions came as a prominent Syrian opposition leader said that Russians “present legitimate military targets for militants in Syria,” citing the Russian government’s support for Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s opposition coalition later rejected the statement and condemned attacks against all civilians “regardless of their nationality.” The two Russians, Viktor Gorelov and Abdessatar Hassun, were taken to the Russian Embassy in Damascus and were healthy, the foreign ministry said. The Italian, Mario Belluomo, was to be delivered to Italian representatives.
|
Syria;Russia;Hostage;Arab Spring;Kidnapping
|
ny0220965
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2010/02/26
|
Russian Authorities Say They Know Who Killed the Human Rights Worker Natalya Estemirova
|
MOSCOW — A lead investigator in the murder of Natalya Estemirova , a human rights worker who was abducted and shot to death in Chechnya last July, said on Thursday that the authorities know who shot her but that they have been unable to arrest the suspect. Igor Sobol, head of investigations at the investigative committee for the Southern Federal District prosecutor’s office, confirmed an account given anonymously to the Interfax news service on Thursday. He said the gun used to kill Ms. Estemirova had been found in a weapons cache, and that there are “objective grounds to identify a group of people” behind her killing. He said the authorities could not arrest the suspect because he was in hiding, and said he could give no more information out of fear of harming the investigation. An employee at the prosecutor general’s office in Moscow said there would be no comment on the matter. The murder of Ms. Estemirova, one of the most respected human rights workers in the North Caucasus, drew international condemnation. Seven months have passed with no arrest, and foreign leaders have repeatedly pressed Moscow to find her killers. Ms. Estemirova, 50, was leaving for work when several men pushed her into a white car. Her body was found about 50 miles away, by the side of a highway in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Though several neighbors saw Ms. Estemirova’s abduction, and the car passed a checkpoint on the Ingush border, witnesses have been afraid to come forward. Tanya Lokshina, who does research in the Caucasus for Human Rights Watch, said on Thursday that some of Ms. Estemirova’s colleagues have long sensed that investigators know who shot her, but are adamant about identifying the person who ordered the killing. “There are good grounds to believe that people in high official positions could be involved,” Ms. Lokshina said. “No matter how high-level the client is, he has to be held accountable, otherwise it’s not going to mean anything.” Other colleagues of Ms. Estemirova expressed skepticism that the investigation had made progress. Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, the human rights group that Ms. Estemirova worked for, told Interfax on Thursday that, according to his own contacts with investigators, the identity of the killer had not been established. All along, piecemeal information has emerged from the investigation. In October, Aleksandr Bastrykhin, head of the general prosecutor’s investigative committee, said the case was “on the edge of being solved.” But earlier this week, an official at the regional investigative committee was quoted as saying that “heaps of evidence were destroyed” during the search of the crime scene. Andrei Mironov, who works in the Moscow office of Memorial, said he has become wary of all the reports. “If they have something to say, why not present themselves, why not say, ‘We have such and such proof and these are the suspects,’” Mr. Mironov said. “I think they simply want to pretend they are doing an investigation. There is so much international pressure.” Ms. Estemirova had spent decades documenting kidnappings and killings that she linked to the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, who was appointed by the Kremlin and has used brutal methods to bring separatists under control. Leaders of Memorial immediately laid blame for her murder at Mr. Kadyrov’s feet. He responded by suing for libel, though this month he withdrew several of those suits.
|
Estemirova Natalya;Chechnya (Russia);Freedom and Human Rights;Murders and Attempted Murders
|
ny0218976
|
[
"sports"
] |
2010/05/31
|
Maryland Ends Northwestern’s Reign Atop Women’s Lacrosse
|
TOWSON, Md. — Over the past 16 seasons, the Maryland and Northwestern women’s lacrosse teams have alternately dominated their sport for long stretches without much resistance from the other. Though the Terrapins and the Wildcats have won a total of 13 national championships since 1995, their meeting in Sunday’s final was only their second in the N.C.A.A. tournament. They have played twice in the regular season since 1992, so any rivalry is based simply on whose trophy case is more crowded. But their lack of head-to-head competition also bred great anticipation for games like Sunday’s. With an N.C.A.A.-record 9,782 fans watching under a cloudless sky at Johnny Unitas Stadium, the teams did not disappoint. Top-seeded Maryland overcame an early six-goal deficit to defeat second-seeded Northwestern, 13-11, ending the Wildcats’ run of five consecutive titles. “The heart and the fight they displayed were outstanding,” Maryland Coach Cathy Reese said. Sarah Mollison, Katie Schwarzmann and Karri Ellen Johnson had three goals apiece for Maryland (22-1). Shannon Smith scored three times to lead Northwestern (20-2), which was undone by a 27-minute scoreless streak that began in the first half and stretched into the second. “I think we started to stand around a little bit on offense,” Northwestern Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said, “and not do what got us to that point.” Maryland won seven consecutive national championships from 1995 to 2001, before Northwestern won the last five. So this matchup gave women’s lacrosse the marquee pairing that the men’s game missed out on, with No. 5-seeded Duke and unseeded Notre Dame seeking their first national title when they play in Monday’s final. On Sunday, fans here began tailgating several hours before the game. Inside, the bleachers were full, and people stood and watched from a concourse. At the start, it looked as if the Wildcats’ sixth straight championship would come easily. Less than nine minutes into the first half, Northwestern had blitzed to a 6-0 lead and the largely pro-Maryland crowd was silenced. “It never scared them,” Reese said of her team. “I think that was it. They just wanted to claw back.” Schwarzmann scored Maryland’s first goal, stopping one rally and sparking another. Maryland scored the last five goals of the opening half, which ended tied at 8-8. Maryland took its first lead less than four minutes into the second half when Caitlyn McFadden ripped a shot just below the crossbar. The Wildcats finally ended a 27:13 scoring drought when Alexandra Frank scored with 17:39 left, cutting Maryland’s lead to 10-9. Northwestern pulled to 12-11 at the 2:57 mark, but the Wildcats could get no closer. After a timeout with just over a minute remaining, Maryland maintained possession and ran out the clock as its fans counted down the final seconds. “We’ll definitely go back to the drawing board and be ready,” Amonte Hiller said. “I know that doesn’t help our seniors, but they’ve all had tremendous careers.” Though Maryland’s program had won plenty of championships, the members of this team had not won any. When the Terrapins entered the postgame interview room, Schwarzmann, a 5-foot-4 freshman, was the last one in. She was carrying the championship trophy. “Where do I put this?” she said several times to no one in particular. Finally, she was instructed to place the large trophy on the table in front of her and her teammates. It sat there for all to see, making it clear that one dominant run had ended, and another had possibly started anew. C.W. POST MEN WIN DIVISION II Eddie Plompen had four goals as C.W. Post beat Le Moyne, 14-9, in Baltimore to repeat as the men’s Division II champion. (AP) FIRST TITLE FOR TUFTS MEN Tufts earned its first national title in a team sport, with a 9-6 victory over Salisbury in the men’s Division III title game in Baltimore. (AP)
|
Lacrosse;University of Maryland;Northwestern University;National Collegiate Athletic Assn;College Athletics;Unitas Johnny;Johnson Ellen
|
ny0019226
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2013/07/21
|
Former Motorcycle Driver, Paralyzed in Beating, Sets Off Bomb at Beijing Airport
|
BEIJING — A disabled man who was reportedly protesting past mistreatment by security officials set off a homemade bomb inside Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday evening, injuring only himself but causing a brief panic, according to witnesses. The man, Ji Zhongxing, who was in a wheelchair, detonated a small bomb at 6:24 p.m. just outside the international arrivals area of Terminal 3, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua said Mr. Ji, 34, from China’s eastern Shandong Province, had been handing out leaflets shortly before the explosion, which was reportedly ignited by gunpowder he had collected from fireworks. The news agency’s brief dispatch ended by saying that Mr. Ji’s injuries were not life threatening and that the terminal had quickly resumed normal operations. It did not take long for Chinese Internet users to uncover the reason that Mr. Ji had chosen to stage a very public act of desperation at China’s busiest airport, one of the country’s architectural landmarks. According to documents posted on the Internet, Mr. Ji, who had earned his living transporting people on a motorcycle, was paralyzed from the waist down in 2005 after security officers in the southern city of Dongguan beat him for operating an unlicensed transport service. In a petition letter detailing his plight, Mr. Ji said he had been left with $16,000 in medical bills. “Almost without hope, petition road endless,” he wrote at one point. It was not possible to immediately confirm the details of his story, but police brutality and justice denied are familiar themes in China. With a court system often weighted in the state’s favor, many Chinese turn to petitioning to appeal to higher authorities. Their hope, rooted in a tradition that dates back centuries, is that enlightened officials might resolve their complaint if only they knew the injustice that the petitioners had endured. That hope often proves illusory. In recent years, scores of petitioners have turned to violence after they found themselves stymied by a system that sometimes seeks to silence them through stints in illegal “black” jails or labor camps. Last month, a 59-year-old man, despondent over the denial of social security benefits, set fire to a bus in the coastal city of Xiamen, killing 47 people and himself. In 2011, a farmer reportedly seeking revenge for the demolition of his home to make way for a highway bombed government buildings in eastern Jiangxi Province, killing himself and two others. Still, when pushed to the brink, most petitioners will choose to harm just themselves, sometimes by drinking pesticide, attempting self-immolation or jumping to their death. According to an interview that Mr. Ji gave to Philanthropy Times in 2005, he had found two lawyers to take his case, but it went nowhere. Because he was unable to work, he said, his entire family fell into debt, and he became increasingly disillusioned. “We beseech the heavens, and the heavens do not answer,” Mr. Ji wrote on his blog. “We beseech the earth, and the earth is silent. So much injustice, and we have nowhere to be heard.” On Saturday, witnesses said that Mr. Ji had been trying to hand out leaflets at the airport but that there had been little interest from passers-by. At one point he waved his hands in the air; at least one person said Mr. Ji had told people to move away from him. Then he detonated the package he was holding in his left hand. Smoke filled the area, and photographs taken by those at the scene and posted online showed his wheelchair flung on its side and several police officers and medical workers around him. In an interview outside the terminal, one witness said that there had been some blood on the ground but that airport employees had quickly cleaned the area after Mr. Ji was taken away. “The place is spotless clean,” the witness said. According to several news media reports, doctors treating Mr. Ji had to amputate one of his arms.
|
Bombs;Beijing
|
ny0017804
|
[
"sports"
] |
2013/07/03
|
Long Goodbye: Contracts That Keep on Giving
|
Rick DiPietro is a 31-year-old goalie who has had surgery on both knees, a hip, his groin and his face, and has sustained more than his share of concussions. He was waived Tuesday by the Islanders. As a parting gift, the team will pay him $1.5 million a year for the next 16 years. A day earlier, the former slugger Bobby Bonilla received his annual $1.2 million payment from the Mets. They have to pay him every year until his contract expires in 2035. He is 50 years old, and his career ended in 2001. DiPietro’s paychecks will keep coming until 2029, when he’s 47. By then, the Islanders will be deep into their second decade in Brooklyn — they are scheduled to move there from Nassau County as soon as 2014. It was purely happenstance, but two contracts that are widely regarded as among the worst in sports history — or the best, from the perspective of the athletes — intersected on the calendar this week. Only in New York. It’s the golden rocking chair, a peculiar sports-world deal that keeps an athlete cashing his team’s checks decades past his playing days, making a golden parachute seem unsatisfying. Depending on the idiosyncrasies of a league’s salary structure, teams may be motivated to clear a big contract off their books to make room for another player — or many other players. Bonilla has what might be the most famous of these contracts. His lasts so long into the future that the Mets official who sends his final check two decades from now may well have been in diapers when Bonilla last wore a Mets uniform. Who were the shrewd agents who pulled off these spectacular arrangements for the athletes? Working on Bonilla’s behalf was an insurance maven who represented some of baseball’s biggest stars. DiPietro represented himself at the negotiating table, with his father looking over his shoulder. “I’m in real estate management,” his father, Rick DiPietro Sr., said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I work with contracts and stuff, but not that big a contract.” Charles Wang, the Islanders’ owner, agreed to the original 15-year, $67.5 million contract, which was widely criticized. After one standout year in college, the Islanders had selected DiPietro first over all in the 2000 draft. But his early years with the team were middling. “What do you tell a kid who says, ‘I want to be an Islander for life?’ ” Wang said Friday in an interview when asked about the 15-year deal. “If things had worked out, if Rick didn’t get hurt, it would have been the smartest thing.” DiPietro’s long payout is the result of the N.H.L.’s new collective-bargaining agreement, which arose out of the four-month-long owners’ lockout last season. Under the agreement’s terms, a team can rid itself of up to two contracts by paying two-thirds of their value, through what are known as amnesty buyouts. DiPietro still has $36 million left on his contract. But by buying out his contract, the Islanders owe him only $24 million, and can extend the annual payments until 2029. Image Bobby Bonilla in 1999. The Mets will be paying him $1.2 million a year until 2035, even though his career ended in 2001. Credit G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times Assuming he clears waivers at noon Wednesday — no team is expected to claim him, given his injury history and his expensive contract — the Islanders can make the buyout. The benefit to DiPietro is that he becomes an unrestricted free agent and can sign with another team. No matter what contract he ends up signing elsewhere, he will continue to receive his annual payments from the Islanders. Bonilla, meanwhile, now works for the players’ union. He has financial security, thanks to the crafty work of one of his agents, Dennis Gilbert. In 1999 the Mets owed Bonilla $5.9 million and were eager to part with him, seeking to end a tumultuous relationship and clear more salary space for the 2000 roster. Gilbert helped forged a deal for his client that was structured in a manner similar to the financial products that Gilbert was familiar with in his work in the life insurance business: an annuity that paid Bonilla 25 yearly payments of $1.2 million, from 2011 through 2035. In total, Bonilla will receive $29.8 million. “We did get the accountants involved and worked out the math,” Gilbert said in a phone interview Tuesday from Beverly Hills, Calif., where he now works at a specialty advisory firm focused on insurance. “And we were obliged to do it.” While the buyout process can often be a tortured experience, Gilbert said the only disagreement he had with the Mets was over the interest rate. (He declined to comment on the rate.) Bonilla needed no convincing that the deal was worthwhile, Gilbert said. Nor, at the time, did the Mets, who have long said the deal benefited both sides. Bonilla was something of an outcast and a distraction. His play did not measure up to great expectations from the earlier years of his career, which included a 1997 World Series title when Bonilla played for the Florida Marlins. “It was their idea,” Gilbert said of the Mets. “They needed relief to sign some other free agents at the time. They came to us and asked if we would consider it. Bobby, being somewhat frugal, he didn’t need as much money as he was making to live on. He actually liked the idea and the interest rate ended up being appropriate.” Gilbert said that he negotiated a similar deal with the Mets and Bret Saberhagen involving deferred payments. In their 2000 season, the Mets traded for Mike Hampton and Derek Bell and assembled a team that led to their only World Series appearance in the past 27 years. The joy did not last for long, and in recent years the organization has been embroiled in other financial difficulties. Bonilla’s deal, Gilbert said, was left unscathed in the turmoil that resulted from losses incurred to the team’s owners when Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008. And as for the actual delivery method of Bonilla’s annual payment? “I think it either comes as a check or they may have a wiring thing,” Gilbert said. Now Wang will similarly have to send annual payments to a player not on his team. “This won’t change how I behave,” Wang said. “At end of day you have to look at yourself in the mirror and feel like you did the right thing.”
|
Rick Dipietro;Islanders;Bobby Bonilla;Mets;Wages and salaries;Baseball;Ice hockey;Charles B Wang;Sports
|
ny0102731
|
[
"business"
] |
2015/12/14
|
Fed Expected to Raise Rate and High Expectations for New ‘Star Wars’
|
Update for Consumer Prices On Tuesday, the Labor Department is expected to release its latest update on changes in consumer prices for November. With the continuing plunge in oil prices — average pump prices dropped 19 cents in just one month — and widespread discounting in sectors from apparel to cars last month, analysts expect the Consumer Price Index to remain flat. Even a drop in the headline number is unlikely to push the Federal Reserve off course and deter it from raising the benchmark interest rate when it meets on Wednesday. —Patricia Cohen Data Protection in Europe European policy makers are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to complete long-awaited data protection rules aimed at giving people across the region a greater say over how companies use their personal data. The overhaul, which will come into force over the next two years, could lead to fines totaling millions of dollars for tech giants like Google and companies like the drug maker Pfizer if they fail to comply with Europe’s privacy rules, which are significantly more stringent than those in the United States. — Mark Scott Deadline for Halliburton and Baker Hughes While Halliburton’s $35 billion acquisition of Baker Hughes was announced a year ago, the companies face a looming deadline on Tuesday for approval by the Justice Department. Since the two oil service providers first agreed to the deal, oil prices have plunged, making it more difficult to sell assets to allay any regulator concerns about competitiveness. Last week, regulators sued to block Staples’s acquisition of Office Depot. —Leslie Picker Fed Expected to Raise Rate The drumroll is over. It’s time for the main event. The Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee is expected to announce on Wednesday that it will raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time since the Great Recession. The first increase won’t amount to much. The Fed, which has held the rate near zero for seven years as the mainstay of its economic stimulus campaign, is likely to set a new range of 0.25 to 0.5 percent. The more important question is how quickly the Fed plans to continue raising rates. The Fed’s chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, will have a chance to frame those expectations when she holds a planned news conference after the announcement. —Binyamin Appelbaum Valeant’s Outlook Valeant Pharmaceuticals International will hold a meeting for investors and analysts on Wednesday, at which the company is expected to discuss its financial outlook for next year as well as certain drug development programs. The stock of the once high-flying company has been inching up recently after losing more than two-thirds of its value on concerns about the sharp price increases on some Valeant drugs and the company’s relationship with a mail-order pharmacy that is now being shut down. Investors will be looking for updates on the pharmacy matter at the meeting, which is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. —Andrew Pollack Image The GE Power and Water factory in Waukesha, Wis. Credit Sara Stathas for The New York Timess General Electric Looks Ahead On Wednesday afternoon, General Electric will present its outlook for next year. In 2015, G.E. accelerated its post-financial crisis shift away from finance and back to its industrial roots, selling and servicing machinery such as jet engines, power generators, medical imaging machines and oil field equipment. With the strategy in place, next year should be one of execution for G.E. Analysts will be closely watching the company’s forecasts for major industrial markets, especially as oil prices continue to drop, and the probable impact on G.E.’s business. Wall Street’s consensus estimate for G.E. in 2016 is $1.51 earnings per share on revenue of $129 billion. —Steve Lohr Puerto Rico Bond Restructuring Thursday is the deadline for Puerto Rico’s electric power authority to reach a deal with its creditors to restructure its debt. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority has persuaded many bondholders to exchange their debt for new bonds with more favorable terms to the struggling utility. But the agency has struggled to win over the insurance companies that are backing about 30 percent of the bonds, putting a restructuring in jeopardy. —Michael Corkery E.U.’s Year-End Summit Meeting European Union leaders plan to meet late this week for their last scheduled summit conference of the year. Discussions are expected to begin on Thursday in Brussels with a focus on migration, security and British demands to reform the bloc. On Friday, the leaders are scheduled to turn to economic and monetary issues, including the so-called European Deposit Insurance Scheme, which was proposed last month by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive agency. The system would aim to ensure that all depositors across the 19 countries using the euro could be equally confident that their savings were safe. But Germany, which has long resisted sharing fiscal risks with other eurozone countries, has signaled reservations about the idea. That means leaders are likely to agree, at most, to a gradual introduction of such a system. —James Kanter ‘Star Wars’ Anticipation After nine months of nearly nonstop publicity — fan conventions, magazine covers, 500 storm troopers on the Great Wall of China, retail hoopla and theme park tie-ins — is there anyone anywhere not yet aware that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” arrives on Friday? For Disney, which bought Lucasfilm, the studio behind the “Star Wars” franchise, for $4 billion in 2012, the stakes are gargantuan. If opening-weekend ticket sales are perceived by investors to fall short, even by a little, the entertainment conglomerate’s stock will undoubtedly get roughed up on Dec. 21. Disney has been trying to dial back expectations, but Wall Street thinks “The Force Awakens” will deliver one of the biggest openings — if not the biggest — in Hollywood history, surpassing the $209 million that “Jurassic World” generated in June. —Brooks Barnes
|
US Economy;General Electric;Halliburton;Star Wars: The Force Awakens;European Commission
|
ny0180855
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2007/08/13
|
Ad Seeking Portfolio Web Host Suggests, ‘Think Tina Fey’
|
What a difference an issue makes. In April, the business magazine Portfolio arrived after months of heavy promotion from Condé Nast Publications and breathless anticipation from the New York media world. Last week, the run-up to the second issue, to reach newsstands Wednesday, took a decidedly less reverent turn. On Thursday, The New York Post’s Page Six devoted one of its entries to a classified ad placed in Backstage. According to the ad, the magazine’s Web site, Portfolio.com , is seeking “intelligent, charismatic and humorous” actors to play hosts on its new business news Webcast. Candidates are encouraged to “Think Tina Fey,” in a reference to the former “Saturday Night Live” head writer and comedian whose wry delivery of fake news headlines became famous on the “Weekend Update” skit. According to Perri Dorset, a spokeswoman for Condé Nast, the daily business Webcast will be part of the refreshed Portfolio Web site, which will graduate from its test stage on Aug. 23 with new bloggers, additional content and a redesigned home page. (The Webcast will be introduced at a date to be determined.) “It’s not going to be a fake news show at all; it’s going to be a serious news program with a twist,” said Ms. Dorset, adding that the Webcast would be written by journalists and that both journalists and actors are being considered as presenters. “It’s not a humor show.” The publication might welcome a little humor right now, whether from serious journalists or just actors who play them online. On Thursday, Folio, which covers magazine publishing, reported that Portfolio’s ad pages were down to 122, from 185, for the second issue. Addressing the decrease, Ms. Dorset said that Portfolio has the second-largest number of ad pages in a new magazine’s second issue, after “O, The Oprah Magazine.” “That was our goal for the fall,” she said. “We’re all very excited for the second issue to come out Wednesday, and for the magazine to get on a monthly schedule,” she said.
|
Portfolio;Magazines;Advertising and Marketing;Conde Nast Publications Inc;New York Post
|
ny0093239
|
[
"business"
] |
2015/08/24
|
Treasury Auctions Set for the Week of Aug. 24
|
The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday. At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.03 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.2 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.01 percent. The following tax-exempt, fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week: MONDAY Florida State Department of Environmental Protection, $50 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. TUESDAY Georgia, $372.6 million of coliseum revenue bonds. Competitive. Iowa Community School District, $65.5 million in revenue bonds. Competitive. Missouri Public Buildings Board, $60 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. Pulaski County, Ark., School District, $69.8 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. THURSDAY North Texas Municipal Water District, $120.9 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority, $99.5 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK Alaska Municipal Bond Bank, $155.1 million of general obligation refinancing bonds. RBC Capital Markets. Beverly Hills, Calif., Unified School District, $76 million of general obligation bonds. Citigroup Global Markets. Birmingham, Ala., $109.4 million of children’s hospital health care facilities revenue bonds. Wells Fargo Securities. California Department of Water Resources, $109.4 million of water system revenue bonds. Stifel Nicolaus. California, $1.9 billion of various purpose general obligation bonds. Morgan Stanley. Chicago Park District, $87.9 million of general obligation bonds. BMO Capital Markets. Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority, $320 million of revenue bonds. Barclays Capital. Guam, $404.9 million of privilege tax refinancing bonds. Barclays Capital. Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, $231 million of next generation information highway project revenue bonds. Bank of America. Lake Havasu City, Ariz., $164.7 million of wastewater system revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Martin County, Fla., Health Facilities Authority, $105 million of medical center debt securities. Barclays Capital. Missouri Development Finance Board, $57.1 million of infrastructure facilities refinancing revenue bonds. Stifel Nicolaus. Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, $90 million of single family housing revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. New Jersey Economic Development Authority, $2.23 billion of school facilities construction bonds. Bank of America. Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority, $230 million of facilities revenue refinancing bonds. Morgan Stanley. Philadelphia, $95.4 million of airport revenue refunding bonds. RBC Capital Markets. Vista, Calif., $99.4 million of refinancing lease revenue bonds. Stifel Nicolaus.
|
Municipal bond;Treasury Department;Tax Credits Tax Deductions Tax Exemptions;Stocks,Bonds
|
ny0186622
|
[
"sports",
"othersports"
] |
2009/03/22
|
Few New Challengers at the Top of Women’s Snowboarding
|
STRATTON, Vt. — Familiar faces were on the podium after the women’s halfpipe finals at the United States Open Snowboarding Championships here Saturday. The winner, Torah Bright, a 22-year-old from Australia; and the second-place finisher, Kelly Clark, became the only two women to win three halfpipe titles at the United States Open, the longest-running competition in snowboarding at 27 years. “As a rider, I’m happy I’m consistent at these contests,” said Bright, who also won gold at the Winter X Games. “It’s hard to stay on top of things each year at contests.” Yet during an era in which competitive opportunities and prize money have grown for professional women’s snowboarders, the field of women consistently winning contests has largely remained small and unchanged. Bright and Clark are part of a group of four, along with Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter, who have dominated women’s halfpipe competition for more than five years. To many, it is a testament to their talent and determination. But some see it as a lack of depth in the competitive field. “It’s that same top crew all the time,” said Jamie Anderson, 18, who was named the women’s 2008 rider of the year by the magazines Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder. Anderson, known for her ability in slopestyle, won her first major professional halfpipe event at the New Zealand Open in August. She did not compete in halfpipe at the United States Open after breaking her pelvis in January. How have the same women been able to maintain their dominance? “Pretty much because I don’t think anyone’s pushing,” Anderson said. “I kind of feel like they’ve been doing the same stuff for so long.” A surge from Anderson and Ellery Hollingsworth, 17, who finished third in halfpipe Saturday, could help fill a competitive generation gap. In 2008, the Winter X Games trimmed the women’s halfpipe final to 6 riders from 10. At the United States Open, the men’s halfpipe final featured 16 competitors; the women’s had eight. The winnowing of the field has not been for a lack of opportunities. The contest calendar has become busier. Clark, 25, competed in nine events in the 10 weeks leading to the Open, finishing second at the X Games and winning at the inaugural Dew Tour, a three-stop series broadcast on NBC. “This is the busiest year I’ve had,” said Hannah Teter, who won gold in women’s halfpipe at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, but missed the United States Open because of injury. “I went to 10 contests this year.” Prize money for women has improved. In January, the Winter X Games joined the United States Open in providing equal winnings for men and women. On Saturday, Bright won $20,000 by putting together her winning routine on her third and final run to bump Clark from first place. She landed five tricks, including a switch backside 720 in which she spun two full rotations, for a score of 96.0. Clark’s best score, 93.33, came on her first run. With temperatures in the upper 30s and the halfpipe slushy, many of the women’s riders struggled to land their tricks. Elena Hight, 19, was carted off the mountain by medical personnel after hitting the deck of the 22-foot halfpipe and tumbling to the bottom. She was later released. Bright said afterward that she was encouraged by Hollingsworth’s third-place finish. “Ellery has been one of my favorites for a long time,” she said. Clark agreed that the next generation of women’s riders were on the verge of breaking into the top ranks. “Every event that I go to, I’m continually seeing women progressing to new levels,” Clark said. “There’s amazing young riders coming up in the States. There’s a bigger international field than we’ve ever seen. I think at the Olympics next year, we’re going to see some of the best female riding we’ve seen to date.” Teter said she had seen twice as many competitors at events. “I saw so many more girls than last year on the contest circuit at the qualifiers,” she said. Still, the youngsters will have to learn several difficult tricks if they hope to unseat competitors like Bright. “I definitely see the talent,” Shaun White, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in men’s halfpipe, said of the top professional women. “Torah Bright did tricks I can’t do. I was learning tricks — switch backside 7 — she could do in the halfpipe.” In the men’s halfpipe final Saturday, Danny Kass, 26, of Portland, Ore., won his record fifth United States Open title and first since 2005. On his final run, Kass pulled consecutive variations of 1,080 spins — four revolutions. Peetu Piiroinen of Finland finished second and clinched the Ticket to Ride World Tour title. Luke Mitrani, 18, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was third.
|
Women;Snowboarding;Clark Kelly;Bright Torah
|
ny0074124
|
[
"business",
"dealbook"
] |
2015/04/10
|
G.E. Seen Close to Selling Its Real Estate Portfolio
|
General Electric is poised to sell its enormous real estate portfolio in a sale that could fetch about $30 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The move would be the biggest move yet for G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, as he tries to refocus the company on its core industrial businesses and reduce its exposure to financial services. Two financial institutions — Blackstone and Wells Fargo — are preparing to buy most of the portfolio, which includes office and apartment buildings as well as substantial loans, these people said. A deal could be announced as early as Friday. Many details of the transaction were not immediately clear, including the price, which assets were being bought by Blackstone and Wells Fargo, and whether any other buyers were acquiring substantial assets from G.E. But the move is part of a broader shift underway at G.E. as the company distances itself from its riskier finance operations, allowing it to focus on its better-known businesses of building turbines, engines and industrial and medical equipment. G.E. has already been pruning its real estate portfolio. In the last full quarter, the company sold 350 properties worth about $2.1 billion. In January, G.E. said its real estate assets were valued at $34 billion, down 11 percent from a year earlier. About $9 billion of that was equity in various companies, nearly a third less than a year earlier. The portfolio generated net income of $299 million, up 134 percent for the year. Blackstone, for its part, is doubling down on real estate. It recently raised a $14.5 billion real estate fund and in late 2013, took the big hotel chain Hilton Worldwide public after buying it in 2007 and turning it around. One of the assets Wells Fargo is most likely to acquire is G.E.’s commercial real estate loans. Wells is already the largest commercial real estate lender in the United States, providing financing for everything from office buildings to home builders. In recent years, Wells Fargo has expanded its commercial real estate reach overseas, part of a broad effort to broaden the bank’s focus, which is overwhelmingly centered on the United States. In 2013, Wells Fargo acquired $6.05 billion in commercial real estate across Britain, with a particular concentration in London. Wells executives have noted that Europe and Canada are two particular growth areas for the bank’s real estate business. G.E. has been taking other steps to reduce its exposure to financing operations. Last month, GE Capital sold its consumer lending business in Australia and New Zealand for about $6.3 billion. In July, it spun off its retail finance business, called Synchrony, through an initial public offering. Also last year, it sold its Scandinavian consumer finance operations to Banco Santander. It also sold its small-appliances unit to Electrolux for $3.3 billion last year, shedding a division that was too small to make a meaningful contribution to the sprawling company’s revenue. At the same time, it is expanding its industrial and technology operations. Last year, it won a contentious auction process for the energy assets of Alstom, the French industrial company. And it has been expanding into big data, hoping to become a big player in the so-called Internet of Things. These efforts have resulted in a moderately better financial performance. In the last full quarter, revenue rose 4 percent, to $42 billion, as Mr. Immelt pursued what he has called a big “pivot” for one of the country’s last true conglomerates. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that a deal with G.E. was near. G.E., Blackstone and Wells Fargo all declined to comment.
|
General Electric;Wells Fargo &;Real Estate; Housing;Commercial Real Estate;Mergers and Acquisitions
|
ny0260203
|
[
"sports",
"golf"
] |
2011/06/20
|
Rory McIlroy's Father Stays on Sideline, Quietly Proud
|
BETHESDA, Md. — Teetering on his tiptoes, behind fans eight deep from the course, Gerry McIlroy stood along the sixth fairway of the United States Open on Sunday and could not see a thing. He had no clue which golfers were hitting the ball. No sign of where the shots were landing. And no matter how much he craned his neck, he could not steal a glimpse of his son, Rory, the young golf genius about to give his dad the greatest gift on Father’s Day: a United States Open title won in historic fashion. “It would be special if he won today of all days, wouldn’t it?” Gerry McIlroy said as he walked the course unrecognized, just a white-haired, balding Irishman blending into thousands of fans. Gerry McIlroy, wearing a lime green polo shirt and dark Madras shorts, followed his son without the help of a radio, portable television or periscope that helped other fans follow each shot just fine. Many were close enough to see the 22-year-old Rory’s tousled hair jutting from his cap. Some even had a good view of Rory’s freckles. Throughout the afternoon, Gerry McIlroy could only squeeze in glances of his son, shimmying up to the ropes of several holes when he could, but hanging back on most. After raucous cheers broke out at one hole, he asked a fan next to him, “Do you know who just putted?” Standing in the shadows is how he has handled his son’s career, those who know him said. “The great thing about Gerry is that he always steps away and lets Rory get on with it,” said Karl MacGinty, a reporter for The Irish Independent who has been following Rory McIlroy for about seven years. “It’s actually an impressive feature in the man, with so many golf parents famously trying to seek publicity.” He added, “Gerry is a very quiet father.” To that effect, Gerry McIlroy walked the course Sunday with about six people from his son’s management company, ISM, and with no fanfare of his own. He remained unfazed when spectators yelled, “I love you, Rory!” and did not flinch when others pushed him aside. But some of his habits betrayed his nerves. On the sixth hole, he took a long drag on a cigarette after one of Rory’s shots came within a foot of plopping into the water. On the seventh, while straining to see the green, he chewed the fingernails of his left hand. On the eighth, he chewed his gum in a rush, as if trying to break a record for chomps per minute. But that was all Gerry McIlroy could do after nearly 20 years of sacrifices for his son’s golf career. His son was out there alone. “I’m just letting him do his thing,” he said. That laissez-faire attitude about Rory’s golf, however, is nothing new. Gerry McIlroy has insisted that golf was always Rory’s dream, not his, and that the only thing he did was nudge his son into it. Gerry McIlroy grew up in public housing outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, just 200 yards from Holywood Golf Club, where he eventually honed his skills as a near-scratch golfer and worked as a bartender. When Rory was still in a stroller, Gerry McIlroy would park him at the driving range to let him soak up both the scenery and the sweet sound of a ball coming into contact with the head of a club. At 21 months, Rory received his first club, a plastic one. It was not long before Rory became so obsessed that he was hitting balls in the house, chipping them through an open kitchen door and into the mouth of his mother’s clothes washer. He was 4, about the time Gerry McIlroy let go of the reins. He knew his only child was so talented that he could guide him no more. So off Rory went to Michael Bannon, the head pro at a nearby golf club, and there, he blossomed. By the time Rory qualified for his first professional event at 15, Gerry McIlroy and his wife, Rosie, were juggling jobs to help their son succeed. Rosie worked the night shift at the 3M factory and tended house during the day. Gerry cleaned the locker rooms at a local rugby and cricket club in the mornings, worked as a bartender at his country club in the afternoon, then worked the bar at the rugby club until midnight. They scrimped to send Rory to junior tournaments and even saved enough to set up a putting green with lighting in the yard of their modest red brick house. “They never pushed me at all,” said Rory McIlroy, who eventually bought his parents an Audi and a Range Rover and built them an annex in his new house. “I wanted to do these things, and they were very supportive.” Supportive enough not to punish him when he would send fake excuse notes to his teachers that said, “Rory will not be able to attend next week as he is playing golf in California with Nick Faldo.” And supportive enough to let go when it was time to. Gerry McIlroy caddied for Rory until he was 17, then took another big step back. He also traveled with him less. So, last April, when Rory was leading the Masters before imploding on the final day, his father was back in Northern Ireland, breathlessly watching his son on television nearly 4,000 miles away. But not this time. Gerry McIlroy ate breakfast with his son every morning at the Open. Rory hinted that it made the difference, saying that he missed that face time and reassurance from his father at the Masters. “He was saying, you played great the last couple of days, there’s no reason why it’s going to be any different today,” Rory said on the eve of the final round about his father’s morning pep talks. On Sunday, though, Gerry McIlroy looked less confident when the round began, not once applauding or cheering. But as his son crept toward the victory, he grew more relaxed. On the 10th hole, when Rory’s tee shot stopped about 6 inches from the hole, his father leapt twice and pumped his fist as the fans surrounding him chanted, “Ro-ry!” Afterward, he chewed his gum even faster, then lighted another cigarette. He smiled more easily as the holes went on. Then, as Rory walked to the 18th green, their eyes finally met. Gerry McIlroy threw a fist into the air in celebration. The two grinned wide. After Rory sank his final putt to set a record for lowest Open score relative to par at 16 under, the two fell into a bear hug before Rory parted for the trophy presentation. Asked how he felt to win on Father’s Day, Rory said, “It means the world.” He raised the silver champion’s trophy and said: “Happy Father’s Day, Dad, wherever you are. This one’s for you.”
|
Golf;United States Open (Golf);McIlroy Rory;Father's Day;McIlroy Gerry
|
ny0097472
|
[
"business",
"dealbook"
] |
2015/06/18
|
Fitbit Prices I.P.O. at $20 a Share, Above Top of Its Range
|
When Fitbit begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, it will do so at a healthy valuation. The company, which sells popular wearable fitness-tracking devices like the Fitbit Surge bracelet, priced its initial public offering at $20 a share on Wednesday, a dollar above its already heightened price range of $17 to $19 a share. At that level, the company will raise $732 million for itself and its selling stockholders after increasing the number of shares to be sold to 36.6 million from 34.5 million. The price values Fitbit at $4.1 billion. The shares will begin trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FIT. Now Fitbit, which has grown since its inception in 2007 into one of the most popular makers of health-tracking devices, must prove that it can perform in an industry that has also drawn in Apple and Google. Its market debut is a bet that consumers will continue to buy fitness bands as other, more complex smartwatches like the Apple Watch and various Android competitors hit stores. In addition to tracking users’ heart rates and steps, the newer devices offer access to email, text messages and other applications. Fitbit faces another challenge in the form of legal fights from a rival, Jawbone, which filed two lawsuits over the last month. One accuses the company of patent infringement, which could lead to a ban on importing Fitbit devices or important parts. The other accuses Fitbit of poaching employees who then illicitly stole confidential information from their former employer. Fitbit has denied those accusations. Investors for now appear undaunted by those challenges. Last year, Fitbit earned $131.8 million, reversing a nearly $52 million loss in the previous year. Its sales more than tripled during that same period, to $745.4 million. That trend appears to show few signs of slowing in the near term. The number of fitness wearable devices used by customers is expected to triple by 2018, to more than 70 million, according to a report by Juniper Research in November. In its prospectus, Fitbit claims an 85 percent share of the activity tracker market in the United States, citing data from the NPD Group. As of March, the company has sold nearly 21 million devices. However, surveys have shown that about a third of fitness-tracking users leave their devices in drawers after about six months. The stock market has generally been receptive to popular consumer electronics companies. Among the strongest debuts last year was that of GoPro, the maker of action video cameras, which as of Wednesday was trading at more than double its initial public offering price. Though investors have expressed serious interest in owning Fitbit shares, those new stockholders will not have much sway over the future of the company. Fitbit will have two categories of stock, with Class B shares holding 10 times the voting power of the Class A shares being sold in the offering. In effect, insiders will keep control of the company. The stock sale was run by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
|
Fitbit;Wearable Computing;IPO;Exercise,Fitness
|
ny0162294
|
[
"politics"
] |
2006/02/04
|
Bush to Propose Curbing Growth in Medicare Cost
|
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - In his budget next week, President Bush will propose substantial savings in Medicare, stepping up his efforts to rein in the growing costs of social insurance programs, administration officials and health care lobbyists said Friday. For the first time since taking office five years ago, they said, Mr. Bush will try to reduce projected Medicare payments to hospitals and other health care providers by billions of dollars over the next five years. In addition, they said, Mr. Bush intends to seek further increases in Medicare premiums for high-income people, beyond those already scheduled to take effect next year. Despite the failure of his plan to overhaul Social Security last year, Mr. Bush has signaled that he intends to curb rapid increases in federal spending linked to the aging of the population. "The retirement of the baby boom generation will put unprecedented strains on the federal government," Mr. Bush said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. Administration officials, Congressional aides and lobbyists said the president was contemplating a package of proposals that would cut the projected growth in Medicare spending by $30 billion to $35 billion in the next five years. That represents less than 1.5 percent of total Medicare spending in those years. But whether Congress has the appetite to trim popular benefit programs in an election year is unclear. The House passed another deficit-reduction bill this week by just two votes, underscoring the qualms among moderate Republicans about how far to go in limiting the growth of domestic programs at a time when the administration continues to push tax cuts. Mr. Bush plans to send his budget for next year to Congress on Monday. Many of his proposals follow recommendations from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent federal panel. At a meeting last month, the panel said hospitals did not have to be fully compensated for the increased costs of the goods and services they used. These costs are expected to rise 3.4 percent in the fiscal year 2007. But the panel said that hospitals could get along with a smaller increase, 2.95 percent, if they became more efficient. Jack Ashby, a research director at the commission, said, "We expect the recommendation to have no effect on hospitals' ability to furnish care to Medicare beneficiaries." But Richard J. Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, said the cutback could damage the quality of hospital care. Already, he said, two-thirds of hospitals lose money serving Medicare patients. "At the same time cuts are being proposed," Mr. Pollack said, "demands on hospitals are increasing. We are taking care of a rising number of uninsured, we are investing in new technology to increase patient safety and to move toward electronic medical records, and we are preparing for emergencies, including the threat of pandemic disease." The president's 2007 budget also calls for a freeze in Medicare payments to nursing homes and home health agencies, as recommended by the commission. In addition, he proposes to reduce payments for oxygen equipment provided to Medicare beneficiaries. This proposal is likely to touch off protests from a coalition of patients and oxygen suppliers. The coalition has been running television commercials against a powerful California congressman who has supported such changes. In one commercial, an Air Force veteran, with an oxygen tube in his nose, asks the congressman, Representative Bill Thomas: "I was proud to fight for my country. Why are you not willing to fight for me?" Mr. Thomas, who is a Republican and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, denounced the commercials. "It's outrageous that some companies are trying to scare seniors," he said Friday. Mr. Bush's budget does not seek any change in Medicare payments for doctors. Their payments were frozen this year. Under current law, they will be cut more than 4 percent next year. Beneficiaries now pay premiums of $88.50 a month -- more than $1,000 a year -- for coverage of doctors' visits and other outpatient care. Under the 2003 Medicare law, any beneficiary with more than $80,000 of annual income will have to pay higher premiums in 2007 and later years. For people with incomes of $100,000 to $150,000, premiums would more than double. Under the law, the income thresholds are increased each year to reflect inflation. Mr. Bush's proposal would eliminate these adjustments, so that more people would have to pay the higher premiums each year. The last three presidents regularly proposed to cut Medicare payments to hospitals below the levels needed to keep up with inflation. But in the last five years, Mr. Bush generally avoided making such proposals. In 2002 and 2003, he was trying to persuade Congress to expand the program by adding a drug benefit. In later years, he did not want to reopen the debate over Medicare, for fear that Congress would alter the drug benefit. Medicare spending totaled $333 billion last year. Under current law, it will climb by one-third in two years, reaching $445 billion in 2007, as the new prescription drug program gets under way, the Congressional Budget Office says. William A. Dombi, vice president of the National Association for Home Care, a trade group, said that a freeze in Medicare payments to home care agencies in 2007, coming on top of a freeze this year, would reduce access to such services for patients in some parts of the country. But the Medicare payment commission said that home care agencies could reduce the number of visits for a patient or reduce the cost of services to offset the effects of a freeze. Sharon Bee Cheng, an analyst at the commission, said she expected "no adverse impacts" on patients or providers of home care. Nursing home operators said it would be absurd to freeze their Medicare payments at a time when patients, their relatives and the Bush administration were demanding improvements in the quality of care. But the staff of the Medicare payment commission said current rates were "more than adequate."
|
UNITED STATES;MEDICARE PAYMENT ADVISORY COMMISSION;BUSH GEORGE W;HEALTH INSURANCE AND MANAGED CARE;FINANCES;MEDICARE;MEDICINE AND HEALTH;LOBBYING AND LOBBYISTS;BUDGETS AND BUDGETING;HOSPITALS
|
ny0226654
|
[
"business"
] |
2010/10/01
|
F.D.A. Official Cites Failures at Multiple J.&J. Plants
|
A top official at the Food and Drug Administration told lawmakers on Thursday that quality control failures at the Johnson & Johnson unit involved in the recalls of popular medications like children’s liquid Tylenol were not isolated to one plant, but were far more widespread. At a Congressional hearing, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the agency’s principal deputy commissioner, contradicted company executives’ assertions that the kinds of lapses causing the recall were limited to a site in Fort Washington, Pa., that has since been shut down for an overhaul. Dr. Sharfstein said the F.D.A. “has found inspectional deficiencies of varying degrees of seriousness at all of these facilities” under the umbrella of McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the unit of Johnson & Johnson that manufactures the popular products. “The company had an inadequate quality system, and you can see that in a number of facilities,” he said. At those sites, Dr. Sharfstein said, there was “the failure to investigate and correct product problems in a prompt and thorough manner.” The company has responded by making several changes to its quality and manufacturing operations, he said, and the agency is evaluating those steps. Johnson & Johnson has said that the company undertook a sweeping reorganization of its operations after the recalls and that it has invested more than $100 million in McNeil facilities. Lawmakers on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform did not spare the F.D.A. in their criticisms of how the company and federal regulators handled the recalls of 136 million bottles of liquid infants’ and children’s medicines in April and a controversial recall of adult Motrin pills last year. “That failure will mar Johnson & Johnson’s image for many, many years,” said Representative Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the committee, who also singled out the F.D.A. for what he called its “carelessness” and “deficiencies.” He criticized the agency for not being clear about what it knew about the recalls, and about its role in causing delays in getting some of these products off the market and in recognizing the extent of the problems. Thursday’s hearing was the second one held on the recalls, and the stakes were particularly high for Johnson & Johnson and William C. Weldon, its chief executive. Mr. Weldon, who did not appear at the first hearing because of back surgery, was quick to acknowledge to lawmakers that the company had made mistakes. “I know that we let the public down,” he said. “We did not maintain our high-quality standards, and as a result, children do not have access to our important medicines.” He said consumers would start seeing the liquid children’s products made by the company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit within a few weeks. (The recalls led to shortages of certain medications, frustrating many parents.) In response to repeated questions by lawmakers about whether the executives responsible for the issues had been replaced, Mr. Weldon said personnel changes had been made. “The players we needed to replace we replaced,” he said. “I can only assure you that we will not let this happen again,” Mr. Weldon said. The hearing also focused on a second recall, the so-called phantom recall, which happened when the company tried to remove certain vials of Motrin from store shelves without alerting the public. “McNeil should have handled this differently,” Mr. Weldon said, and he did not defend its decision to buy back the products without fully informing the agency. “We made a mistake,” he said. Dr. Sharfstein also said that the agency should have done more, but he insisted that it had not known that Johnson & Johnson was buying back or removing medicine from store shelves without alerting retailers about its reasons. The person overseeing the agency’s district office who had been involved in those discussions could not testify at the hearing because of a criminal investigation into the related events, he said.
|
Recalls and Bans of Products;Food and Drug Administration;Johnson & Johnson Inc
|
ny0063072
|
[
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] |
2014/01/01
|
Down by 21 at Half, the Aggies Win
|
ATLANTA — Johnny Manziel threw four touchdown passes, and Toney Hurd Jr. returned an interception 55 yards for the go-ahead touchdown in Texas A&M’s 52-48 victory over Duke on Tuesday night in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Aggies trailed by 38-17 at halftime. Manziel, playing in what may have been his final college game, passed for two touchdowns and ran for another in the second half; over all, he completed 30 of 38 passes for 382 yards and ran for 73 yards. Hurd’s interception return gave the No. 20 Aggies (9-4) their first lead with 3 minutes 33 seconds remaining. Hurd stepped in front of receiver Johnell Barnes for the interception, the first turnover for either team. Texas A&M linebacker Nate Askew ended Duke’s next possession with another interception. No. 22 Duke (10-4) led by 41-31 entering the fourth quarter. The Blue Devils are still looking for their first bowl win since they beat Arkansas, 7-6, in the 1961 Cotton Bowl. Duke quarterback Anthony Boone was 29 of 45 for 427 yards and 3 touchdown passes, and he rushed for another touchdown.
|
College football;Duke;Johnny Manziel
|
ny0242506
|
[
"sports",
"hockey"
] |
2011/03/10
|
N.H.L. Won’t Punish Chara Over Hit That Caused Concussion
|
Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty has a severe concussion and a fractured vertebra from a frightening hit by Boston’s Zdeno Chara that will not draw further discipline from the N.H.L. Pacioretty fractured the fourth cervical vertebra and is in a Montreal hospital under observation, Canadiens Coach Jacques Martin said. Pacioretty was wheeled off the ice with 15.8 seconds left in the second period of the Canadiens’ 4-1 victory Tuesday night. He was chasing the puck along the boards in front of the team benches late in the second period when he was checked hard by Chara. His head slammed into the glass partition between the benches. Chara was given a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct, but the league vice president Mike Murphy said there would not be a suspension. “I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, that Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous,” Murphy said. CAPITALS 5, OILERS 0 Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist to reach 601 career points, and host Washington beat Edmonton for its sixth consecutive victory. LIGHTNING 4, BLACKHAWKS 3 Steven Stamkos scored his league-leading 42nd goal and Martin St. Louis had the shootout winner as slumping Tampa Bay snapped a season-high four-game losing streak with a victory at home. KINGS 2, RED WINGS 1 Dustin Brown scored with 5:17 left in the second period and Jonathan Quick made 28 saves in Los Angeles’s victory in Detroit. BLUES 4, BLUE JACKETS 3 Chris Stewart flicked in a backhander 54 seconds into overtime to cap visiting St. Louis’s comeback from a three-goal deficit. FLAMES 4, STARS 3 Curtis Glencross scored in the third round of the shootout to give Calgary a victory in Dallas. THRASHERS 3, HURRICANES 2 Tim Stapleton scored 1 minute 38 seconds into overtime for visiting Atlanta. Bylsma’s contract extended Coach Dan Bylsma, who has the Pittsburgh Penguins in contention for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, has agreed to a three-year contract extension through 2013-14.
|
Hockey Ice;Washington Capitals;Edmonton Oilers;Ovechkin Alex;Chara Zdeno;Concussions;Pacioretty Max (1988- )
|
ny0020791
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2013/09/05
|
Barred From Debate, McDonald Asks Why Catsimatidis Isn’t
|
George T. McDonald, stinging over his exclusion from the final Republican mayoral debate because of his lackluster fund-raising, wants to know why the city’s Campaign Finance Board is not rejecting another candidate: John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of Gristedes. Mr. Catsimatidis, unlike Mr. McDonald, has plenty of money. But the McDonald campaign says the rules that require candidates to meet fund-raising thresholds for the city’s official debate program essentially leaves the two men in the same place, because Mr. Catsimatidis is paying for his campaign mostly using loans from himself, not contributions. “There can’t be one set of rules for a billionaire and another for everybody else,” said David M. Catalfamo, a spokesman for Mr. McDonald, who is the founder of the Doe Fund and has struggled to generate interest in his candidacy. The second and final official Republican debate will be broadcast on Sunday on WNBC-TV, two days before the primary. The rules for qualifying are complicated, but Mr. McDonald is essentially out of luck because he reported raising only $183,000 by last week, far short of the nearly $1.3 million needed to make the debate. Mr. Catsimatidis reported contributions of only $30,000, but had given his campaign loans totaling $4 million. He will face off against Joseph J. Lhota, who reported raising $2 million. To support its case, the McDonald campaign cited a letter from the Campaign Finance Board’s executive director, Amy M. Loprest, in July that said loans would not be included in evaluating debate eligibility. But the board was unmoved by Mr. McDonald’s complaint. “After our initial communication with the campaigns, the board reviewed the criteria and the facts and determined that Catsimatidis was eligible to be invited,” a spokesman, Eric Friedman, said on Wednesday. A spokesman for Mr. Catsimatidis, Robert H. Ryan, said: “The C.F.B. invited us to participate. I would suggest Mr. McDonald discuss the matter with them.”
|
George T McDonald;John A Catsimatidis;Campaign finance;Political Debates;Mayoral races;NYC;Joseph J Lhota;Republicans
|
ny0282196
|
[
"sports",
"baseball"
] |
2016/07/27
|
Mets Split Doubleheader With Cardinals, Another Wild-Card Contender
|
After the Mets dropped the first game of a rare single-admission doubleheader Tuesday at Citi Field against St. Louis, a team they are expected to fight for a playoff spot, Manager Terry Collins urgently declared that his club needed to start producing more runs and stringing wins together. “We’re not scoring, and we got to start doing something to create some runs,” Collins said after the Mets’ 3-2 loss in Game 1, adding: “This is crunchtime. Say whatever you want: This is the time we got to win games.” Collins’s message was not directed at any of his players in particular. But the Mets were able to force a split and win the second game, 3-1, behind some unlikely contributors. Alejandro De Aza, who entered Tuesday batting .181 with eight runs scored, reached base three times and accounted for two runs. Asdrubal Cabrera broke an 0-for-32 slump with runners in scoring position and picked up two R.B.I. “Really big — gets a big monkey off his back for sure,” Collins said of a Cabrera double that drove in De Aza in the third inning. “Not only that, an important hit. We need a lot more of them out of a lot of guys.” Bartolo Colon, who had given up 15 runs (12 earned) in his last three starts, pitched seven effective innings. He stuck out eight while allowing only one run and three hits, and his record improved to 9-5. When Collins pulled Colon after the seventh inning, he asked him if he could pitch again on three days’ rest. The Mets had been considering using a spot starter on Saturday because Noah Syndergaard, whose scheduled start on Monday was postponed because of rain, pitched the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader. “I told him that was fine with me,” Colon said through an interpreter. Wilmer Flores also rapped out three hits after Collins’s call and will be counted on more heavily in the coming days. Collins announced after the second game that Jose Reyes was sent to a hospital after the first game and had been found to have a muscle strain on his left side. The injury occurred during a swing in Reyes’s last at-bat, in the eighth inning, and Reyes will most likely be out of action for several days. With visions of playing before raucous capacity crowds in the cool of autumn, the Mets and the Cardinals started their three-game series Tuesday afternoon at steamy Citi Field with a smattering of fans and a hushed atmosphere, and the first game was defined by a series of misjudgments on the basepaths. In the third inning, with Reyes on first base, Yoenis Cespedes doubled to center field. Reyes appeared to be well on his way home, but a delayed stop signal by the third-base coach Tim Teufel halted those plans. Reyes remained stuck on third as the Mets ended the inning without another hit. Asked after the game if he thought Teufel had made the right decision, Collins said, “I’m not going to get into the coaching stuff.” He later added: “Tim had a better angle than anybody. It’s his call.” The run would have proved beneficial in a game in which the Mets stranded 11 runners and went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals jumped to a 3-0 lead against Syndergaard, who was charged with his fifth loss of the season. Syndergaard lasted six innings, yielding seven hits and walking three batters while striking out eight. Rene Rivera cut the Mets’ deficit to a run with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, and the Mets’ pitchers were aided by some unwise base-running decisions by the Cardinals. St. Louis center fielder Tommy Pham tried to steal third base, but he was called out after a video review overturned the original call. Later, Matt Adams, the Cardinals’ lumbering first baseman, was thrown out at the plate by Kelly Johnson, who had received a quick relay throw from Curtis Granderson deep in right-center field. Greg Garcia led off the seventh with a double for the Cardinals, but he was tagged out at third on the next play after trying to advance on a ground ball to Cabrera at shortstop. Still, the Mets were unable to take advantage of the Cardinals’ mistakes. While Reyes was held at third by Teufel in a perhaps overly cautious move, Granderson stopped a potential rally with perhaps overly aggressive base running. Granderson led off the ninth with a single, and Cespedes followed with a deep fly ball to center field. After Pham made the catch, Granderson broke for second base, but he was thrown out. With his offense seemingly stuck in neutral, Collins defended Granderson’s choice to try to advance. But he also called for more production from his lineup, which players like De Aza, Cabrera and Flores supplied later on. With the Mets and the Cardinals both trailing their division leaders by healthy margins, the wild-card game might be a more feasible route to the playoffs, and it could feature both teams. The Mets are four and a half games behind the Washington Nationals in the National League East and trail the Miami Marlins by a half-game for the second wild-card spot. The Cardinals, in turn, are a half-game behind the Mets.
|
Baseball;Mets;St. Louis Cardinals
|
ny0280327
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2016/10/19
|
Stalled by Scandal, Pakistani Network Goes on the Air at Last
|
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A high-profile Pakistani news network, Bol TV, made its inaugural broadcast on Tuesday, more than a year after its planned debut was derailed when its parent company was embroiled in a scandal involving fake online degrees. Bol TV Network’s parent company, the software company Axact, was caught up in criminal investigations after The New York Times unearthed employee accounts and documents showing that the company was making tens of millions of dollars a year by selling fake degrees and diplomas online and defrauding customers who were seeking education. Axact’s offices were shuttered, and the company’s chief executive and other officials were jailed during the investigation. This month, the chief executive, Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, was released on bail after he and more than a dozen others were indicted on charges of selling fake degrees and other counts. Separately, in August, Mr. Shaikh was indicted in a different case related to money laundering. Despite his legal woes, Mr. Shaikh vowed to proceed with plans for Bol to make its debut, and he has said he intends to start a related newspaper early next year. Image Shoaib Shaikh, left, the chief executive of Axact, being led to court in Karachi, Pakistan, last year. Credit Fareed Khan/Associated Press Meanwhile, prosecutors in the Axact case have quit as the legal proceedings have dragged on, hinting that they were coming under threat. The house of the former lead prosecutor, Zahid Jamil, was struck by a grenade in September, months after he had left the case but was in talks over whether to take it up again, according to Pakistani media reports. And a top investigator for the Federal Investigation Agency complained of intimidation and harassment related to the case, according to another media report. After a lull of 17 months, the once-deserted headquarters of Bol TV Network, in Korangi, a suburb of the port city of Karachi, is now abuzz with activity. In the months before the Axact scandal left hundreds of Bol’s employees out of work, the network made headlines by wooing away top broadcasters and executives from rivals and offering pay far above the usual industry rates. The network’s management said that Bol would revolutionize the Pakistani local news media industry and offer an aggressively patriotic point of view. On Tuesday, Ali, a media worker associated with Bol TV who asked to be identified by only his first name, said that workers had started coming back over the past month and a half, and were again being paid. Members of the journalists’ trade union in Karachi have maintained that the initial closing of Bol TV was a major setback for media workers in Pakistan. For months, street demonstrations were organized to protest the plight of Bol workers. Shoaib Ahmed, who led a campaign against broadcasting limits on Bol TV in the city, said, “From journalists to cameramen, and technical and managerial staff, the announcement of Bol’s shutdown was a thunder strike.”
|
Pakistan;Bol;Axact;News media,journalism;Fraud
|
ny0220396
|
[
"sports",
"golf"
] |
2010/02/18
|
Tiger Woods to Address His Past and His Future on Friday
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MARANA, Ariz. — And everyone thought Tiger Woods would not be showing up at the W.G.C.-Accenture Match Play Championship this week. But he was here in spirit, dominating the airwaves shortly after noon on Wednesday when ESPN broadcast the announcement that Woods plans to break his lengthy silence and end his self-imposed exile from the game at a televised Friday event in Florida. That would be this Friday, during the third round of the $8.5-million match-play tournament sponsored by the first company to disassociate itself from Woods because of the off-course scandal about his admitted infidelities. Suddenly, the action on the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club course at Dove Mountain became secondary, superseded by the impending return of Woods, 34, who played his last competitive round when he won the Australian Open in November. He was last seen in public on Nov. 27 after crashing his Cadillac Escalade into a neighbor’s tree at 2 a.m. One top-ranked golfer reacted angrily to the announcement, cursing loudly off the record, not because it probably signals Woods’s return but because of its timing during the match-play event. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, after his remarkable climb back from 4-down after six holes to victory over Kevin Na, said he believed the timing was not coincidental. “He’s got to come out at some point,” he said. “I suppose he might want to get something back against the sponsor that dropped him. No, I don’t know. It’s just — it’s not — I mean, it’s just went on for so long, I think. I’m sick of hearing about it. And I’m just looking forward to when he’s getting back on the golf course.” In the meantime, Woods managed to impose himself on the results here, where his absence as a player had a dual effect on the outcome of the biggest upset of the day. The No. 1 seed Steve Stricker — ranked No. 3 in the world but, without Woods, the highest-ranked player in the field — was beaten by the No. 64 seed Ross McGowan, who got into the event when Woods did not commit to the field last Friday. Other than the off-the-record curse and the 21-year-old McIlroy’s suggestion of revenge, other comments about Woods were about what would be expected. Stewart Cink, who advanced with a 2-up victory against Edoardo Molinari of Italy, said he saw no significance in Woods’s announcement being made Friday as opposed to, say, next Monday. “I think it’s coincidental that he would pick the Friday of Accenture to announce,” Cink said. “It’s probably got more to do with his schedule than anything else. It will be good to see Tiger’s face again and see that he’s actually out there somewhere.” The announcement about the Friday statement from Woods came from his agent, Mark Steinberg, and his publicist, Glenn Greenspan. They said Woods would “be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates” and would “apologize for his behavior, and discuss his past and plans for the future at a meeting” at the PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The announcement also said the news media would not be permitted to question Woods after his statement. Shortly after the announcement was disseminated to selected news outlets, the assembled international news media at the Accenture surrounded Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, and peppered him with questions. As Padraig Harrington of Ireland was about to be upset on the course in 19 holes by the short-game magic of Jeev Milkah Singh of India, Finchem did not seem pleased about having to answer questions about the timing of Woods’s announcement or the fact that it will be held at the clubhouse of the T.P.C. Sawgrass at PGA Tour headquarters. “They asked to use Sawgrass,” he replied tersely to a question about why the meeting was being held there. A follow-up question asked whether Finchem believed the announcement Wednesday about the Friday appearance by Woods was “undermining this tournament.” “I don’t think so,” Finchem said. “I think that, you know, we have tournaments every week. But I don’t think so. I think it’s going to be a story in and of itself. And a lot of people are going to be watching golf this week to see what the world of golf says about it, my guess is, so that will be a good thing.” Many of the things that happened on the golf course on Wednesday were overshadowed by the intense buzz about Woods. Lost in all the Woods news was that Henrik Stenson of Sweden conceded his match after one hole to Ben Crane, citing flulike symptoms; Matt Kuchar upset Anthony Kim, 3 and 2; and the defending champion Geoff Ogilvy won the last seven holes to defeat Alexander Noren of Sweden, 7 and 5. After beating David Toms, 2-up, Sergio García of Spain weighed in with a lukewarm reaction to the Woods news. “Yeah, I guess everybody is going to get their answers and, you know, we’ll see,” García said. “I’m focused on this tournament here. That’s a lot to worry about. I think he’ll be O.K.”
|
Woods Tiger;Golf
|
ny0128145
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2012/06/02
|
Afghan Rape Case Is a Challenge for the Government
|
KABUL, Afghanistan — Lal Bibi is an 18-year-old rape victim who has taken a step rarely seen in Afghanistan: she has spoken out publicly against her tormentors, local militiamen, including several who have been identified as members of the American-trained Afghan Local Police. She says she was raped because her cousin offended a family linked to a local militia commander, who then had his men abduct her around May 17. She was chained to a wall, sexually assaulted and beaten for five days, she said. A number of Afghan women who are victimized like Lal Bibi are later killed by their relatives because they believe the women have brought dishonor to the family. Extraordinarily, in this case, Lal Bibi’s relatives brought the battered girl to Kunduz Hospital, near their home in northern Afghanistan, and filed a complaint with the governor. They hoped for official justice even while holding out the possibility that her death might be the only way to restore the family’s honor. “I am already a dead person,” she said in an interview, her voice breaking. “If the people in government fail to bring these people to justice I am going to burn myself,” she said. “I don’t want to live with this stigma on my forehead. People will mock me if these men go unpunished, so I want every single one of them to be punished.” In addition to stretching the bounds of conservative Afghan tradition, her plight is a test of the government’s willingness to challenge the impunity of the many armed groups operating in the country, in particular the Afghan Local Police, which provides security in Afghanistan’s rural expanses. These lightly trained and American-backed security forces are considered by the United States military to be one of the best hopes of improving stability in remote areas, even as human rights groups and residents have linked some to abuses, especially in northern Afghanistan. “She is very brave that she came out and talked to the media,” said Nedara Geya, the head of the Afghan government’s women’s affairs department in Kunduz. “She has set an example for the rest of the rape victims.” Like a number of areas in the north, Kunduz Province has become a patchwork of armed militias with overlapping territories. In addition to the Afghan Local Police, who are attached to the government through the Interior Ministry, there are many freelance groups, as well as others financed by international forces to guard otherwise unsecured areas. In the past year, both official and unofficial armed groups in Kunduz Province have been involved in abuses . American military officials said that as far as they could determine, members of the Afghan Local Police were not involved in abusing Lal Bibi, saying they hoped that justice would be done in any case. However, a number of the local authorities, including the governor, the military prosecutor for Kunduz, as well as the Afghan Local Police director for the province, said the men who had abducted her and beat her were A.L.P. members. Because of that government connection, the provincial military prosecutor has decided to take up her case. There were differing accounts of whether the man accused of raping her was a member of the A.L.P., but all agreed that his brother was a local commander in the force. “All of the men are part of the first 300 A.L.P. who were trained by the American Special Forces,” said the prosecutor, Gen. Mohammed Sharif Safi. “It is not the first time that they have committed such a horrible crime. All of them are a bunch of illiterate and uneducated bandits and thugs who go around harassing people.” So far, two people have been arrested in the case, including Khudai Dad, who is accused of raping Lal Bibi, and his brother, Sakhi Dad, who is an Afghan Local Police member, according to the Kunduz governor’s office and the police officer in charge of the province’s A.L.P. force, Col. Mohammed Shokur. Not yet detained, however, is the chief suspect in Lal Bibi’s abduction, Cmdr. Muhammad Ishaq Nezaami, who disappeared shortly after she was grabbed. He has a troubled past. He was arrested six months ago on charges of attempted rape in a different case but was cleared, General Safi said, adding that he believed that powerful people intervened on Commander Nezaami’s behalf. However, Colonel Shokur, the police official, said the charges were dropped in that case because of lack of evidence. Lal Bibi is the youngest daughter in a Kuchi family, ethnic Pashtuns who are seminomadic herders. She and her family live in a tent in the scrub land outside the city of Kunduz and raise sheep for their livelihood. Her nightmare began when a distant male cousin, Mohammed Issa, an Afghan Local Police member, started a relationship with a local girl. In one account, he tried unsuccessfully to elope with her. In another version, he contracted to marry her and then could not pay the bride price and fled. In either case, he was thought to have dishonored the father, who was furious and sought compensation. Although Lal Bibi was only a cousin of the offender and in no way connected to the episode, in tribal justice one possible settlement would have been for her family to give Lal Bibi to the wronged girl’s family as payment, a practice known as baadal. But no tribal settlement was reached. Instead, Commander Nezaami, the local A.L.P. leader, came with armed men to her home and grabbed her, according to her and her family’s accounts. “I was busy milking the sheep with my mother, and suddenly a car pulled up close to our tent,” Lal Bibi said. “They first grabbed my father and tied his hands, and then the armed men grabbed me and my mother from behind, and I didn’t know what happened and why they were there.” She said that Commander Nezaami’s men threw her into a truck and took her to the home of one of his subcommanders, Sakhi Dad, whose brother was the father of the girl whose honor was seen as compromised by Lal Bibi’s distant cousin. She told the rest of the story in rushed gasps: She was chained to a wall, she said, and Khudai Dad raped her repeatedly. Other men came in and beat her. “I would begin to scream every time one of them came into the room, because I knew they were going to beat me or rape me again,” she said. The experience is written on her body, according to a report by the regional Kunduz Hospital. “The doctors found signs that she was beaten and tortured,” said Dr. Shukur Rahimi, the head of the hospital. And, there was physical evidence consistent with her account of being chained. An examination also confirmed that her hymen had been broken. That can be tantamount to a death sentence in Afghanistan, where women are considered fit to marry only if they are proved to be virgins on their wedding night. Some who fail that test are killed by relatives to restore the family’s honor. In interviews, both Lal Bibi’s mother and grandfather said they were thinking of killing her unless justice was done, although the fact that they had come forward suggested that they were hoping that the government will prosecute the men and redress the wrongs done to her and her family through the legal system. “If nobody wants to solve our problem, then they should behead her; we don’t want her,” her mother said. The girl’s grandfather, Hajji Rustam, who lives with the family, seemed torn between tribal traditions that require that a tarnished girl be killed and deep feeling for his granddaughter’s distress. He said: “Put yourself in our shoes: What if somebody raped your daughter? I am sure when you see that no one is helping you to bring the culprits to justice, you will be ready to kill yourself, kill your daughter.” Then, he looked over at his granddaughter, whom he has been staying with since the rape: “During the day, she sits and doesn’t talk and is silent for hours and suddenly she screams. Her soul has been broken, and she is a very sad person.”
|
Kunduz (Afghanistan);Sex Crimes;Women and Girls;Afghanistan;Bibi Lal
|
ny0138262
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2008/05/23
|
Suicide Bomber Attacks Gaza Crossing
|
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives early Thursday just short of the Erez crossing on the northern Gaza - Israel border, killing himself and causing damage, but no injuries, on the Israeli side. It was the latest in a series of attacks at the border crossings, which have been admitting only the barest of essentials under the blockade Israel imposed last June, after the Islamic militant group Hamas took control of Gaza. Islamic Jihad and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an unruly offshoot of the Fatah movement of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility, but Israeli officials said the suicide attack could not have taken place without the complicity of Hamas. Later on Thursday, hundreds of Palestinians answered a Hamas call to protest the blockade, gathering on the Gaza side of the Karni crossing, an almost entirely closed commercial terminal on the territory’s eastern edge. Soldiers on the Israeli side fired on a group of armed men in the crowd, one of whom was carrying an antitank missile, an Israeli military spokesman said. Palestinian medical officials reported one 22-year-old protester killed and at least 17 wounded. Hamas and other militant groups have stepped up attacks on the crossings, as they also demand an end to the blockade in Egyptian-mediated negotiations for a cease-fire with Israel. The crossings are lifelines for Gaza, with its population of 1.4 million fenced into an area barely 6 miles wide and 25 miles long. A Hamas delegation was set to return to Gaza from Cairo on Thursday after another round of talks. Ismail Haniya, who leads the Hamas administration in Gaza, said in a statement, “The Palestinian groups will not give a truce to Israel if Israel does not accept our demand to end the closure, open borders and stop aggression.” Like the United States and Europe, Israel defines Hamas as a terrorist organization and hoped that its Gaza blockade would squeeze the group out of power. Israel has imposed additional sanctions in response to constant rocket fire from Gaza, but does not rule out easing the embargo in the context of a cease-fire deal. “In the current reality of daily attacks, it is simply not on the cards,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister. “But if we were to enter a period of quiet, then things that are impossible today could become possible.” The Erez crossing used to be the main passageway for thousands of Palestinian day laborers going to work in Israel. It is now used mostly as a crossing point for aid workers and for Palestinians who need medical treatment in Israel. The Israeli military said it would be closed until Sunday as a result of the attack. A spokesman for the United Nations special coordinator Robert Serry strongly condemned the bombing in a statement. “Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable,” the spokesman, Richard Miron, said. “We are extremely concerned about the implications of attacks of this nature on our operations.” Islamic Jihad identified the bomber as Ibrahim Nasser, 23, of Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, and said the truck had contained hundreds of pounds of explosives. The blast left a large crater in the ground. The truck approached the crossing in heavy fog. In April, in similar conditions, Palestinian suicide bombers drove three explosives-laden vehicles into the Kerem Shalom crossing, through which some goods pass, to the south. Three militants were killed, and 13 Israeli soldiers were wounded in that attack, for which Hamas claimed responsibility. There have been several other shooting attacks on or near the crossings, including at Nahal Oz, the sole transfer point for fuel into Gaza. Israeli officials have accused the militant groups of deliberately trying to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza by stopping the supplies, in order to create pressure on Israel. The militants have warned that they will act to lift the embargo by any means.
|
Terrorism;Palestinians;Israel;Gaza Strip
|
ny0225872
|
[
"us"
] |
2010/10/19
|
Mildred Jefferson, 84, Anti-Abortion Activist, Is Dead
|
Dr. Mildred Jefferson, a prominent, outspoken opponent of abortion and the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, died Friday at her home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 84. Her death was confirmed by Anne Fox, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life , one of many anti-abortion groups in which Dr. Jefferson played leadership roles. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, “gave my profession an almost unlimited license to kill,” Dr. Jefferson testified before Congress in 1981. Dr. Jefferson, a surgeon, was speaking in support of a bill, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, and Representative Henry J. Hyde, Republican of Illinois, that sought to declare that human life “shall be deemed to exist from conception.” Had it passed, it would have allowed states to prosecute abortion as murder. “With the obstetrician and mother becoming the worst enemy of the child and the pediatrician becoming the assassin for the family,” Dr. Jefferson continued to testify, “the state must be enabled to protect the life of the child, born and unborn.” By then Dr. Jefferson had served three terms, from 1975 to 1978, as president of the National Right to Life Committee, a federation of 50 state anti-abortion groups with more than 3,000 chapters nationwide. She had been one of the founders of the committee in the early 1970s. Besides also serving as director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Dr. Jefferson was a founding member of the board and a past president of the Value of Life Committee of Massachusetts and was active in Black Americans for Life. It was in 1951 that Dr. Jefferson became the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, said David Cameron, a spokesman for the medical school. She later became a surgeon at Boston University Medical Center and a professor of surgery at the university’s medical school. Born in Pittsburg, Tex., in 1926, Mildred Fay Jefferson was the only child of Millard and Guthrie Jefferson. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas College in Tyler, Tex., and a master’s degree from Tufts before being accepted to Harvard Medical School. Dr. Jefferson, who was divorced, had no children. “She probably was the greatest orator of our movement,” Darla St. Martin, co-executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, said Monday. “In fact, take away the probably.” In a 2003 profile in The American Feminist , an anti-abortion magazine, Dr. Jefferson said, “I am at once a physician, a citizen and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged and the planned have the right to live.”
|
Abortion;Blacks;Jefferson Mildred;Deaths (Obituaries);Harvard Medical School
|
ny0020926
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2013/09/02
|
Arab League Endorses International Action
|
CAIRO — The Arab League on Sunday urged international action against the Syrian government to deter what it called the “ugly crime” of using chemical weapons. It was a major step toward supporting Western military strikes but short of the explicit endorsement that the United States and some Persian Gulf allies had hoped for. The League moved beyond the more cautious stance it took just a few days ago , when it asked the United Nations Security Council to overcome its internal differences on the Syrian conflict — an outcome that was extremely unlikely given Russia’s strong support for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. This time, the League called for the United Nations and “the international community” at large to exercise their responsibilities under international law “to take the necessary measures” against the Syrian government. But aside from calling for trials of the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks, the resolution — adopted at a meeting in Cairo late Sunday night — did not specify what kind of international measures might be needed or justified. Obama administration officials considered the statement a step forward because it opened the door to action outside the Security Council. But many in the region said the ambiguity was the latest manifestation of Washington’s diminishing influence. President Obama’s last-minute pullback to seek a vote in Congress on military intervention put some of his Arab allies in a bind, analysts meeting with Arab diplomats said. Hoping to produce a strong Arab League statement to provide cover for Washington, Arab leaders had new cause to wonder if Mr. Obama would follow through. “He is seen as feckless and weak, and this will only give further rise to conspiracy theories that Obama doesn’t really want Assad out and it is all a big game,” said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center and a former United Nations envoy in the region. “Many Arab leaders already think that Obama’s word cannot be trusted — I am talking about his friends and allies — and I am afraid this will reinforce that belief.” On Sunday afternoon, some Arab diplomats sought to portray themselves as stepping forward to take the lead in the Syrian crisis after Mr. Obama on Saturday abruptly pulled back from any immediate military action, surprising many Arab leaders hours before they had expected airstrikes might begin. But by the end of the night on Sunday, the outcome at the Arab League meeting failed to deliver the strong call to arms that Saudi Arabia and some others had sought as a way of encouraging the United States to press on with a strike. Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies have privately urged the United States to take decisive military action to topple the government of Mr. Assad, whom they view as the main regional ally of their opponent, Iran. Some, including Jordan and other Gulf states, are already collaborating with the United States to try to train and equip the Syrian rebels. But before Sunday, none had come close to publicly calling for Western military intervention, in part because the notion is so deeply unpopular among citizens across the Arab world. Egypt, the recipient of $1.5 billion a year in American aid and for decades a stalwart ally, has actively opposed Western intervention in Syria since the military takeover that ousted President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Arab League’s resolution thus represented a double compromise: between the supporters and the opponents of Western intervention within the chamber, but also between the conflicting desires to urge on the West and to avoid getting caught at it. Saudi Arabia on Sunday gave the strongest public call by any Arab government for international military action. In a news conference in Cairo before the Arab League meeting, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, accused opponents of Western military action of abetting the mass killing of Syrians by Mr. Assad’s government. Such Arab states were telling Syrians, “I will not help you and I will not allow you to be helped by others,” he said. “We demand that the international community does the action required to stop the bloodshed,” the foreign minister said at the news conference. “We support them in this, and we don’t find condemnation and denouncement enough. We instead support the international community to use its resources to stop the aggression on the Syrian people before they’re exterminated.” Morocco, a North African kingdom newly embraced by the Gulf monarchies as an ally after the Arab Spring revolts, also issued a strongly worded statement demanding the Assad government be held accountable for its use of chemical weapons. But in an interview, its foreign minister, Youssef Amrani, declined to say whether the kingdom would support a Western airstrike. “When the American government will make a decision on this, we will respond,” he said. Standing next to the Saudi foreign minister at the same news conference, his Egyptian counterpart came close to directly opposing the same international action that the Saudis called morally imperative. Nabil Fahmy, the Egyptian foreign minister, called for internationally mediated talks between the Assad government and its opponents, “the political base that we think provides the best possible way to deal with the entire Syrian issue.” Inside the chamber, Mr. Fahmy declared more forcefully that Egypt continued to “reject” any military action against Syria. After Egypt signed on to the final resolution, many analysts pointed to the growing regional influence of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, which have extended Egypt billions of dollars in critical financial support since Mr. Morsi’s ouster, giving them the upper hand in the behind-the-scenes talks that crafted the resolution. But the Egyptians may have felt they could support the resolution without fear of contradiction because it made no reference to military force.
|
Saudi Arabia;Syria;Barack Obama;Biological and Chemical Warfare;Military;US Foreign Policy;Bashar al-Assad;Arab Spring;Arab League
|
ny0152318
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2008/08/06
|
Google’s New Tool Is Meant for Marketers
|
GOOGLE is giving everyone a chance to peek deeper into its database of search requests and discover the things that preoccupy individuals and, in aggregate, entire cities, states or nations, at any one time. On Wednesday, the company is introducing a free service called Insights for Search. The tool is intended for marketers, but it allows anyone to track the popularity of various words and phrases that people type into Google’s search box. The service is an extension of Google Trends , a two-year-old service that, for instance, reveals that Cisco’s stock price and Michael Lockwood, the husband of Lisa Marie Presley, were two of the most searched terms Tuesday afternoon. The collection of search queries that people type into Google has been called a “database of intentions” since it is a window into what people are interested in and, sometimes, what they are interested in buying. Insights allows anyone to analyze the results in much greater detail than Trends does. Users can slice the data by categories to distinguish, for example, searches for Apple the company and apple the fruit. “If you are the head of the Washington apple growers association, you may be interested in this,” said Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist. Users can also slice the data into finer geographic areas than with Trends and view it on a map. And they can download the data onto spreadsheets to compare it to their own forecasts or research. The tool is aimed primarily at marketers, who may use it to devise and track advertising campaigns. A car company, for instance, could experiment with different versions of a television ad in Cleveland and Columbus, and check the number of resulting searches in each city to see which one is more effective. Or it could use the data to find out where users are searching most actively for “fuel efficiency” and aim ads for a gas-sipping vehicle there. “It gives you much better insights in terms of what’s happening on a geographic basis, potentially allowing advertisers to target geographically,” said Danny Sullivan, the editor of Search Engine Land. Mr. Sullivan said Google has long given marketers the ability to target ads geographically, but not the tools to learn how to do it most effectively. Grant Prentice, director of connections research and analytics at Starcom MediaVest Group, said his company uses Google Trends to help devise strategies to reach consumers online and offline. “We have been using it as a research tool to give us some insight into the relative importance of different terms that people may be using to search on a particular subject,” he said. Mr. Varian said that while Insights was developed with marketers in mind, the economist hopes it will also be used by others. “We are also very interested in uses like the economic forecasting, finance, sociological studies, even in etymological studies to track how new words spread in the population,” Mr. Varian said. Researchers who track activity in various sectors of the economy could use Insights to get a quick snapshot of the volume of searches for terms related to that sector and get a sense of whether economic activity in that sector is increasing or decreasing. For instance, Insight shows that searches related to home inspections and appraisals in the real estate category rose sharply nationwide in the second half of July. That might suggest to forecasters — as well as marketers — that the residential real estate market is showing signs of life. Of course, searches for foreclosures were also up sharply.
|
Google Inc;Advertising and Marketing;Computers and the Internet;Online Advertising
|
ny0229444
|
[
"sports",
"cycling"
] |
2010/07/14
|
Armstrong Investigation Heating Up
|
Federal authorities investigating possible fraud and doping charges against Lance Armstrong and his associates have issued grand jury subpoenas to witnesses, according to several people briefed on the case. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a federal investigation. The grand jury subpoenas represent a significant step in the investigation into whether Armstrong and others on the United States Postal Service cycling team were involved in systematic doping in the early- to mid-2000s. That federal investigation was kick-started this year when the rider Floyd Landis , who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, told investigators that he and other riders on the Postal Service team had engaged in doping together. In particular, Landis said the team used its money to buy doping products and that Armstrong and the team manager, Johan Bruyneel, had encouraged doping on the team. Landis said that at one race the team bus came to a halt for the riders — including Armstrong and the United States road racing national champion George Hincapie — to conduct blood transfusions. Armstrong, who is in 31st place at this year’s Tour de France, has repeatedly said he has never used performance-enhancing drugs or methods. He also has never been sanctioned for a doping violation. He has said that Landis’s claims are not true and that Landis, who had lied about his own doping practices until recently, is not credible. Landis, who has met several times with the lead agent on the case, Jeff Novitzky , is not thought to be among the witnesses the authorities want to question before the grand jury, at least at this point. But other riders, including several who are competing at the Tour, have already been contacted by investigators. At least two people previously involved with the United States Postal Service Team told investigators of their past doping practices. Officials involved in the case said the investigators were especially interested in the people who helped finance the Postal Service squad, which included Armstrong. That team was owned by Tailwind Sports, a company that Thom Weisel, of the investment banking firm Thomas Weisel Partners Group, founded before Armstrong’s first Tour victory in 1999. Armstrong, his longtime team manager Bruyneel, his agent Bill Stapleton and others eventually became part owners of Tailwind.
|
Doping (Sports);Landis Floyd;Tour de France (Bicycle Race);Subpoenas
|
ny0014928
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2013/10/05
|
Netanyahu Plans to Meet With European Leaders on Iranian Nuclear Talks
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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Friday that he would meet with European leaders next week in hopes of influencing the negotiations scheduled to begin Oct. 15 over Iran’s nuclear program, part of what he described as a “comprehensive international struggle.” “I will emphasize the fact that the sanctions on Iran can achieve the desired result if they are continued,” Mr. Netanyahu said upon returning to Israel from a five-day visit to the United States. “The world must not be tempted by the Iranian stratagem into easing sanctions as long as the Iranians do not dismantle their military nuclear program.” Image Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday at the United Nations, where his speech gained wide attention. Credit Seth Wenig/Associated Press Mr. Netanyahu spent the last three days in an intense media blitz following a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday in which he tried to unmask what he has repeatedly denounced as a “charm offensive” by the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. Mr. Rouhani has agreed to engage in talks with the United States and other Western powers over Iran’s nuclear program, which he insists is solely for civilian purposes. But he wants the economic sanctions against his country relaxed and some uranium enrichment capabilities maintained, conditions that Mr. Netanyahu virulently opposes. In a series of interviews with major American broadcasters, Mr. Netanyahu referred to Iran as a cult and called for the complete dismantling of its nuclear facilities. He said he was in discussions with President Obama about what kind of agreement with Tehran might be acceptable. “What we’re talking about right now is, I think, what are meaningful actions that will do the job,” Mr. Netanyahu told Charlie Rose of CBS News. When Mr. Rose asked whether the two leaders were in agreement, Mr. Netanyahu said, “Well, we’re talking about that.” Mr. Netanyahu was also interviewed by a Persian-language news outlet for the first time on Thursday. In an interview with the BBC’s Persian service , he said, “We are not suckers,” using the Persian word for “suckers.” He added that he would welcome an agreement but not a fake one — using the Persian word for “fake,” according to a statement from his office. Video Highlights from the speech by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the United Nations General Assembly. Upon landing in Israel, the prime minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, also took issue with an article published in the Friday editions of The New York Times that said Mr. Obama, fearing that Mr. Netanyahu was on the verge of carrying out an airstrike against Iran’s nuclear plants a year ago, sent two emissaries here to stop him. “The story is completely untrue,” Mr. Regev said. “No such emissaries were sent with that message. The American position to us is clear and has always been clear, that Israel has the right to defend itself by itself against threats.” Mr. Regev declined to answer questions about how close Mr. Netanyahu came last year to attacking Iran, and acknowledged that the prime minister had no way of knowing for sure what agenda Mr. Obama or members of his administration had for the visits. “I’m not commenting on what the prime minister was doing or not doing, thinking or not thinking,” he said. “I can’t tell you what the Americans were thinking. I can tell you what messages were delivered, and it’s not true.”
|
Israel;Iran;Benjamin Netanyahu;Nuclear weapon
|
ny0106107
|
[
"us"
] |
2012/04/11
|
Osama Bin Laden Replaced on F.B.I.’s Most Wanted List
|
WASHINGTON — Shortly after Osama bin Laden was killed last May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent out a request to field offices across the country: Nominate fugitives who could fill bin Laden’s place on the bureau’s 10 Most Wanted list. The choice is more complicated than simply finding a violent criminal who has committed a high-profile crime. In recent years, bureau officials have also tried to select other dangerous fugitives who may have been hiding in plain sight but could be recognized by the public because they have distinctive physical features. On Tuesday, the F.B.I. finally filled bin Laden’s place on the list, adding Eric J. Toth, a schoolteacher from the Washington area accused of possessing child pornography . It was the first time since 2009 that the F.B.I. had added a fugitive to the list. “We have had a couple of vacancies on the list that we’ve been trying to fill,” said Kevin L. Perkins, the F.B.I.’s acting executive director for criminal and cyber operations, referring to the spots left by bin Laden and the Boston crime boss James (Whitey) Bulger, who was arrested last June. In fact, just last month, officials were preparing to ask the bureau’s director for approval to choose a fugitive accused of killing three police officers in Puerto Rico. But then that person was caught. Using most-wanted posters to enlist the public’s help in catching criminals dates to the early part of J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure as the head of the F.B.I. in the early 1930s, when the face of the notorious bank robber John Dillinger was on a “public enemies list.” In 1950, the bureau began using the list of 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. The first, Thomas Holden, was accused of killing his wife and two brothers-in-law. A little more than a year later, he was caught and ultimately sent to prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. Since then, the F.B.I. has caught 464 of 494 fugitives on the list. Some have been captured quickly: Billie Austin Bryant, wanted for the murder of two F.B.I. agents, was apprehended in 1969 just two hours after being added. A suspect in an armed robbery, Victor Manuel Gerena, has evaded authorities since 1983. As American society has changed, so too has the list. For decades, the F.B.I. list was displayed in post offices. But as the number of postal patrons has dropped, the bureau has put the list on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and on billboards. “It’s a big country, and you can easily hide if you are a fugitive,” said Thomas W. Repetto, the author of several books on crime and policing. “But when you get on the list, you are pretty close to getting caught. Sometimes it takes time, but if you are a fleeing criminal it is not a good place to be.” The types of “most-wanted” criminals have also changed. Instead of highlighting just the most violent and high-profile criminals, “every once in a while we break the mold,” Mr. Perkins said, referring to the choice of physically distinctive fugitives. That said, six of the fugitives on the current list are accused of murder. Mr. Toth, the fugitive added to the list on Tuesday, was arrested in 2008 after child pornography images were found on a camera in his possession. He disappeared shortly thereafter. Mr. Toth, 30, attended Cornell for a year before transferring to Purdue University, where he graduated with an education degree. He “has often been described as a computer ‘expert’ and has demonstrated above-average knowledge regarding computers, the Internet, and security awareness,” according to information released by the F.B.I. on Tuesday. The F.B.I. said that Mr. Toth “possesses an education background conducive to gaining employment in fields having a connection to children” and that he might advertise himself as a tutor. Since 2008, he is believed to have traveled to Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Arizona. The authorities believe they have a good chance of catching Mr. Toth because he has distinctive features. “He has a mole under one of his eyes. He is tall and lanky,” Mr. Perkins said. “He is the type of person that I hope, with a little exposure from being on the Top 10 list, will lead to individuals calling in, saying, ‘That guy works in a day care center,’ or is a teaching assistant or works down the street.”
|
bin Laden Osama;Federal Bureau of Investigation;Fugitives;Crime and Criminals;Child Pornography;Washington (DC);Toth Eric J
|
ny0080437
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2015/02/24
|
Israeli Views on Iran Diverged, Reports Say
|
JERUSALEM — Shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel’s dire warning at the United Nations in 2012 that Iran was a mere months away from being able to develop a nuclear bomb, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency presented a more sober assessment that did not support Mr. Netanyahu’s timetable. The Mossad view was in a report that was among a large trove of leaked South African intelligence service documents that were published Monday by Al Jazeera and The Guardian . Mr. Netanyahu, in a dramatic speech in September 2012 during which he drew a red line across a cartoon bomb, said at the time that Iran was “well into the second stage” of enriching uranium and could move to the final stage “by next spring, at most by next summer.” He added ominously, “From there, it’s only a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb.” But the report from Mossad, dated about three weeks later, said Iran “does not appear to be ready to enrich” uranium beyond 20 percent, the second stage, and gave no estimates for when it might do so. Separately, it said that although Iran was making “great efforts” to activate a heavy-water reactor to produce weapons-grade plutonium, “this will not happen before mid-2014.” 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. “When the reactor begins operation, production of plutonium will begin at a quantity sufficient to produce one bomb a year, but there will be no use for the weapons as long as there is no nuclear fuel reprocessing plant,” said the six-page document. “Bottom line: though Iran at this stage is not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons, it is working to close gaps in areas that appear legitimate, such as enrichment, reactors, which will reduce the time required to produce weapons from the time the instruction is actually given.” The document was published as Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Iranian counterpart in Geneva to discuss a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program that Mr. Netanyahu vehemently opposes. The Israeli prime minister has alienated the Obama administration and some congressional Democrats by accepting an invitation from the Republican House speaker to speak against the deal at a joint meeting of Congress on March 3, two weeks before Israeli elections. A senior Israeli government official took issue Monday with headlines in The Guardian and Al Jazeera claiming that Mossad “contradicted” Mr. Netanyahu’s speech, saying “there is no contradiction whatsoever.” Indeed, the Mossad summary does describe “a significant increase in the rate and efficiency of enrichment.” The Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to do otherwise, said in a statement, “Israel believes the proposed nuclear deal with Iran is a bad deal, for it enables the world’s foremost terror state to create capabilities to produce the elements necessary for a nuclear bomb.” Gaps between Mr. Netanyahu and Israel’s intelligence services on the Iranian nuclear threat have been aired before . Yuval Diskin, who retired in 2011 as head of Israel’s internal security agency, in April 2012 accused the government of “misleading the public” about Iran and said the leadership made decisions “based on messianic feelings.” Meir Dagan, a former Mossad chief, has also said Mr. Netanyahu’s public assessments on Iran were exaggerated.
|
Israel;Iran;Nuclear weapon;Benjamin Netanyahu;Mossad;UN
|
ny0224931
|
[
"sports",
"football"
] |
2010/10/05
|
For Giants, a Victory but Not Consistency
|
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For the Giants ’ offense, each week has been a process of self-discovery. The picture is not very clear at the quarter pole of the regular season. The backup running back has apologized for his grouchiness. The veteran line has been followed by a nagging question: is it old or just well-seasoned? The quarterback has thrown to receivers who cannot seem to hold onto the football. And sprinkle in a slew of mindless penalties and costly turnovers. In a 17-3 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Giants could not find any semblance of an offense in the first half, failing to score a touchdown and looking helpless — even in Bears territory — bearing little resemblance to its ground-and-pound ethos. “You just keep working at it, working at it, working at it, and eventually, you establish something,” Coach Tom Coughlin said Monday. Coughlin apparently had more patience than many of fans at New Meadowlands Stadium. In the first half, the Giants started drives in Chicago territory three times — including two inside the 30 — because of the ravenous defensive effort that produced nine sacks by halftime. Yet the Giants did not score. Although the crowd seemed to grow weary of the conservative approach, the Giants did not back away from their plan to run the ball right at Chicago. In the second half, the Giants figured out how to attack and worked in concert with their zone blocking, wearing down the Bears to rumble for 189 rushing yards, 129 by Ahmad Bradshaw. “We just kept pounding it at them,” left guard Rich Seubert said. “Coach kept going with the same calls, and that’s what we did.” Coming off back-to-back losses to Indianapolis and Tennessee, the Giants were bothered about their lack of productivity, and the offensive line, in particular, about its struggles and numerous penalties. The matchup against the Bears’ top-ranked rush defense proved motivational fodder. “I think all of us took that as a personal challenge,” left tackle David Diehl said. “That’s what you do as an athlete and a competitor; somebody’s saying this is the No. 1 guy, these are the No. 1 people, you raise your level of play, your level of expectations. That’s just the way that we prepared.” While they each scored touchdowns, Bradshaw and the backup Brandon Jacobs, who ran for 62 yards on six carries, each fumbled on Sunday. Bradshaw was stripped from behind as he sprinted toward the end zone with the Giants ahead by 10-3 in the fourth quarter. The Bears recovered at their 1. Coughlin said he was concerned that fumbling was becoming an issue for Bradshaw, who lost the ball at the Titans’ 5 two weeks ago. Tiki Barber, who had his fumbling issues, carried a football with him everywhere he went, including in the weight room and to conditioning sessions. On Monday, Bradshaw, who injured his ankle against Chicago, limped into the locker room with nothing in his hands. Coughlin has simply reminded him to protect the ball. “And every week, I’m assured, ‘Don’t worry, Coach,’ ” Coughlin said. “But the thing that happens is you get in the game, you become more instinctive, and occasionally bad habits come roaring out.” EXTRA POINT Center Shaun O’Hara, who missed the past two games with a left ankle injury, said Monday that he planned to test the ankle Wednesday.
|
Football;New York Giants;Chicago Bears
|
ny0075171
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2015/04/13
|
Coachella Festival Fends Off Rivals With Fresh Acts and Eye on Style
|
INDIO, Calif. — As the gates to Coachella opened Friday and thousands of fans began to stream across the grass of the Empire Polo Club here, Paul Tollett, the impresario behind the music festival, was as calm as could be. His phone beeped constantly with last-minute crises — one performer, George Ezra, got laryngitis and canceled — yet Mr. Tollett, wearing sunglasses and a black Dodgers cap, stayed mellow during his one last loop around the venue before the fields filled up with nearly 100,000 revelers. “We were up late last night, of course,” Mr. Tollett said, “but it seems like everything’s in place.” The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has just finished its first weekend, with AC/DC, Drake, Jack White and more than 160 other acts. It will return with an identical three-day lineup on Friday. Now in its 16th year, Coachella has firmly settled into the formula that has made it the nation’s premier pop festival: high-profile performances, celebrities galore and a constant on-the-ground fashion show — all with a backdrop of pastel-hued desert scenery that plays well on social media. Last year’s edition of Coachella sold $78.3 million in tickets, far more than any other festival , according to the trade publication Pollstar. Since it began, Coachella has presided over a vast shift in the concert industry that has pushed large, destination festivals — once a minority on the American scene — into the forefront. That has given Coachella a rare power in the music business to serve as the anchor for a world tour, a great place for an artist to build buzz or one where an act can reshape a career altogether. “It almost matters too much,” Flying Lotus, a producer and D.J. who has appeared at Coachella multiple times, said before his show Friday night. “This is one of those festivals where the whole world is watching.” With increased competition from Live Nation Entertainment and SFX Entertainment, each of which has dozens of festivals, Coachella’s dominance is now being challenged as never before. But, so far, it is holding strong: This year’s event has sold out once again, Mr. Tollett said. Image AC/DC was a headlining band at this year’s Coachella, whose ticket sales far exceed any other music festival in the United States. Credit Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times Coachella was once a long-shot. In its first incarnation in 1999, the festival lost about $800,000 and nearly bankrupted its promoter, Goldenvoice, of which Mr. Tollett is now chief executive. But since returning in 2001, it has steadily won over fans and the music industry through news-making moments like Daft Punk’s performance in a giant LED-lit pyramid in 2006, and a virtual Tupac Shakur in 2012, the same year the festival expanded to two weekends. “When they started out, people thought they were nuts, and then when they didn’t make money, they said, ‘I told you so,’ ” said Tom Windish, a leading independent booking agent whose firm, the Windish Agency, has 36 acts on the bill this year. “It wasn’t until many years later that they realized it’s a gold mine.” In 2007, Goldenvoice introduced Stagecoach, a country music festival held at the Empire Polo Club in late April, which helps amortize its production costs. Mr. Tollett, 49, is modest about Coachella’s success, describing it as a natural progression from his early days promoting punk shows in Southern California in the 1980s. Goldenvoice is now owned by AEG Live, the second-largest promoter in the world after Live Nation, and Mr. Tollett has a 50 percent ownership stake in Coachella, he said. “You do a small show, the next one gets bigger,” Mr. Tollett said while walking the grounds early Friday. “It’s punk rock at first, then the next thing you know it’s alternative, then it’s a little electronic, and then the next thing you know you’ve got all these skills and a staff and a whole festival.” As he spoke, Mr. Tollett adjusted a garbage can with graffiti on one side and took a call about a refrigerator in the vendors’ area that seemed to be displaying unauthorized logos. He sent an employee to check it out. With Coachella’s growth, it has been dogged by criticism that it caters too much to the wealthy. While a standard weekend ticket costs $375, V.I.P. access — which comes with a shaded lounge and special viewing areas — is $899. Among the super-perks on offer are a $225 gourmet dinner and a $7,000 air-conditioned “ safari tent ” for two. Mr. Tollett noted the importance of V.I.P. packages for raising revenue but said he took pains to make sure the event remained affordable. “We could add $100 to the ticket, and it would not affect the sales at all,” he said. When asked why he doesn’t do so, he said, “I don’t want it to be all richies.” Image To watch 160 acts, nearly 100,000 fans paid from $375 for a basic pass to $7,000 for an air-conditioned “safari tent.” Credit Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times Coachella has come to represent a kind of lifestyle brand as much as a music festival, with a look somewhere between thrift-store hippie and an Art Nouveau nature goddess . This year H&M, a longtime sponsor, introduced a fashion line meant to capture the aesthetic for customers everywhere. The festival grounds are also dotted with whimsical art pieces in iridescent colors like a giant, swaying caterpillar that by Sunday transformed into a butterfly. The combination of must-see performances and must-be-seen fashion and celebrity-spotting helps Coachella sell most of its tickets long in advance. Kendall Krieger, an 18-year-old from Chicago making her second visit, said that when she bought her ticket she did not know who the performers would be. “I would have come either way,” she said. “It’s just cool vibes here.” Coachella’s ability to sell tickets so quickly, and to all but guarantee its performers abundant media attention, gives it tremendous negotiating leverage with acts and their agents. In what has become an annual ritual, Coachella announces its lineup in early January; other festivals around the country then follow. Coachella has an advantage because it takes place early in the year, but Mr. Tollett acknowledged there were restrictions in the festival’s booking contracts preventing many of its biggest names from announcing their involvement with other festivals first. That has caused friction in the industry, but Mr. Tollett said it was done to preserve the surprise after what could be months or even years spent trying to lure a particular act to the stage. “There are so many artists, thousands and thousands of them,” Mr. Tollett said. “I’m looking for around 150 that are somewhat fresh.” He added: “I have no gun to anyone’s head. But if a band calls and says, ‘We have all these other festivals we want to announce first,’ I say: ‘Let’s do you next year. I’m O.K. with that.’ ” Music executives say it may become harder for Coachella to preserve its power as other promoters build competing festival networks. Last year Live Nation bought C3 Presents, the company behind Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, and SFX Entertainment has built up a portfolio of dozens of electronic dance events, a genre long crucial to Coachella’s success. In response, Goldenvoice and AEG have expanded their own portfolio with events like Firefly in Delaware, Hangout in Alabama and Bumbershoot in Seattle. But Mr. Tollett seemed unfazed by questions about competition. “A festival’s currency is its uniqueness,” he said, “so you have to do what you can.” As he finished his walk around the grounds, Mr. Tollett was stopped by a Goldenvoice employee on a bicycle, who had tracked down the refrigerator and confirmed that its brand logos were not allowed on the grounds. They would be covered up, he said.
|
Coachella;Music;Festival;Goldenvoice;Live Nation Entertainment;SFX Entertainment;Paul Tollett
|
ny0142353
|
[
"nyregion",
"thecity"
] |
2008/11/09
|
For Parents, the End of Day Care and the Start of a Scramble
|
IF, in this time of economic hardship, there is a little more empathy circulating among New Yorkers, it might stop short of parents who can afford to spend upward of $24,000 a year to send their 1-year-old to the Berkeley Carroll Child Care Center, a popular nursery school in Park Slope. Still, such an expense is a reality for many parents throughout the city, and few would deny that day care can be a key element in the carefully choreographed lives of the city’s working parents. So it was an unwelcome shakeup for parents of the 54 toddlers enrolled at Berkeley Carroll when they learned last month that the center will not reopen for the next school year. The center, which caters to children ages 1 through 3 and is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., has been a treasure to local parents ever since it opened in 1999. But after a two-year search, the school’s board of directors was unable to find a new location, according to Jodie Corngold, a school spokeswoman. “Parents didn’t even know this was an issue,” said Susan Cordaro, a lawyer whose 2-year-old son, Daniel, attends the center and whose husband, Sean Desmond, is a full-time book editor. “My situation only works in this demanding job because I have perfect day care.” Ms. Corngold said the center was committed to helping parents find a new day care center for their children. Still, she said, “This is a luxury for parents, not a community service that’s leaving this neighborhood.” The building that houses the center is owned by New York Methodist Hospital, on Sixth Street. Facing a shortage of nurses in 1986, the hospital opened a child care center as an incentive, according to Lyn Hill, a hospital spokeswoman. In 1999, the hospital granted a five-year lease to Berkeley Carroll to run the center at 515 Sixth Street, and continued to grant one-year extensions through the current school year. Ms. Hill said some parents assumed that the hospital, which has been eager but not desperate to reclaim the space, had refused to grant the school a new lease. But in fact, the school, which was looking elsewhere for space, didn’t ask for one. Parents have been vocal in their criticism of the school. “This school has violated the most sacred commitment it could make to its students and faculty,” a commenter wrote on the blog Park Slope Parents. In interviews, parents said they appreciated the first-come-first-served admissions at the school, a welcome contrast to the competitive and stressful world of applications and collegelike admissions processes. Yet, with the future uncertain, that is the world some are facing. “We’re looking quite frantically, because now is the time when you need to schedule tours, and sometimes get on lotteries for tours,” said Elissa Icso, whose daughter, Julia, 7, used to go to the center and whose son, Evan, 2, now attends it. Although Ms. Icso remained hopeful for a time, as she and other parents petitioned the school to find a way to stay open, their efforts were unsuccessful and her hope has faded. As she put it sadly, “They’ve told us goodbye.”
|
Children and Youth;Day Care Centers;Park Slope (NYC)
|
ny0078229
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2015/05/14
|
Police Shoot Hammer-Wielding Man Sought in 4 Manhattan Attacks
|
For two days, beat officers across New York City were on the lookout for a man believed to be the person who had swung a hammer, apparently at random , at the heads of park-goers and others around Manhattan. Every officer at every roll call had seen a photo of the wanted man, a 30-year-old drifter with a history of arrests and severe mental illness. They hoped to catch him before another attack. On Wednesday, two officers spotted the man in Midtown. He could be the hammer attacker, but they wanted to speak with him to be sure. The man, identified by the police as David Baril, saw them, too. He stopped at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 37th Street, and as the officers closed in, he pulled a hammer, red with the dried blood of previous attacks, police officials said. He began swinging wildly at one of the officers, Lauren O’Rourke, 27, striking her as she backpedaled, the police said. Video An assailant pulled out a hammer and chased an officer on Eighth Avenue at 37th Street. He was shot by another officer. Credit Credit New York Police Department As they spilled into the intersection and a beam of late-morning sunlight, her partner, Officer Geraldo Casaigne, drew his gun and fired four times, hitting Mr. Baril in the right arm, the torso and the “head area,” officials said. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was in critical condition on Wednesday evening. “Fortunately, thank God, both officers are fine and this individual is not going to be roaming the streets of New York attacking innocents any longer,” Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said. At a time of intense national scrutiny of police shootings, the gunfire in a crowded, gritty stretch of Midtown just after the morning rush on Wednesday provided a stark illustration of the dangers that officers can face and the split-second decisions they must make. In fatal shootings by the police in Ferguson, Mo. , and North Charleston , S.C., the encounters unfolded in relatively isolated locations and many details of the shootings took days to emerge. By contrast, when Officer Casaigne opened fire on Mr. Baril, he did so in one of the nation’s most heavily policed urban corridors, in the plain view of Police Department cameras and amid scores of civilian onlookers. Images from those cameras were released roughly five hours after the shooting, at an afternoon news conference. The video showed that as the officers went to speak with Mr. Baril, he pulled a hammer, lunged after Officer O’Rourke and began wildly swinging at her head. Deputy Chief William Aubry, the commander of Manhattan detectives, said she was struck three times as she backed away into the middle of the street. The entire encounter lasted roughly three seconds. Mr. Bratton praised the officers for being alert, spotting the man and following him. While an internal inquiry into the shooting would go forward, he said, it appeared Officer Casaigne, 36, made “what I believe was the right decision” in opening fire. Even before a series of seemingly random hammer attacks on Monday set off the manhunt that ended in the violence on Wednesday, Mr. Baril was wanted by the authorities. He had skipped a court appearance in the Bronx related to charges that he had assaulted a worker inside a Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant on March 21, striking her in the back after demanding “my $10” in change, according to court papers. A warrant was issued on April 22 for his arrest. Mr. Baril has paranoia and schizophrenia and has taken medication, said Chief Aubry, and his social media accounts contained images of a hammer with blood dripping from the head and claws. In 2013, the police said, Mr. Baril tried to assault a police officer in Riverside Park who was writing him a ticket. His other previous arrests included for possession of a box cutter in 2003 and, on another occasion, of a stun gun , the police said. Image David Baril Credit New York Police Department He had family connections to the Bronx, but Mr. Baril’s most recent address was a 40-bed shelter for mentally ill people on West 113th Street in Manhattan, officials said; he left there around November or December. A resident of the shelter who gave his name as Karim recognized a photograph of Mr. Baril and said he had stayed there beginning around last summer. “He just talked to himself,” Karim, 44, said. He said Mr. Baril mumbled incoherent things to himself and had difficulty interacting with others. Mr. Baril had lived on the sixth floor of the shelter, which is run by Weston United, in a room with another man, said Karim, who declined to provide his full name because he was not sure he was allowed to talk to the news media. Mr. Baril wore a lot of red clothes and carried a backpack. “He comes in and out,” Karim said. “He comes in and out. He never really said nothing.” Karim nodded toward a chair near the door of the shelter’s television room, remembering Mr. Baril cooking popcorn in the microwave and eating it as he watched television. Colby Dillon, a lawyer for the Bronx Defenders who has represented Mr. Baril, said the depiction of Mr. Baril was inaccurate. “Far from the monster he is being made out to be,” Ms. Dillon said, “Mr. Baril is a human being who is loved by his family, took concrete steps to secure steady employment and had dreams of completing his college degree in biology.” Image A hammer with which Officer Lauren O’Rourke had been struck remained at a Midtown intersection on Wednesday after Mr. Baril was shot. Credit Josh Haner/The New York Times As of late Wednesday, charges had yet to be filed against him in the attacks on Monday or from the violence on Wednesday. Mr. Bratton said Officer O’Rourke, after being hit by the hammer, had an abrasion on her upper shoulder area. She was examined at a hospital and released. Officer Casaigne was not injured, the commissioner said. The hammer attacks the police were investigating occurred in a burst of six hours on Monday. The first took place around 1:45 p.m. near 35th Street and Avenue of the Americas, the police said. The assailant struck a man with a hammer as he crossed the street. About an hour and a half later, he struck a woman near Madison Square Park. Around 7:30 p.m., a 28-year-old woman was sitting on a bench in Union Square Park when a man approached her. The man pulled a hammer from his bag and struck her on the head. About 10 minutes later, the man approached a 33-year-old woman walking on West 17th Street. He came up from behind her and struck her on the head. Image Commissioner William J. Bratton at the scene of the shooting. Credit Josh Haner/The New York Times The victims, though struck in the head, were not seriously injured. But the Police Department started a broad manhunt, fearing that the next blow could be fatal. A woman who lived at Mr. Baril’s last known address in the Bronx, where his mother lived, said detectives came looking for him on Tuesday. She said the family moved out before October. Joe Washington, 59, a doorman in Manhattan and a longtime neighbor, said he knew Mr. Baril’s mother when she was pregnant with him. He described the person he believed to be Mr. Baril as someone who grew from a “respectful kid” to a “loner,” displaying unusual behavior. Another former neighbor in the Bronx, who declined to give her name because of the nature of the situation now surrounding Mr. Baril, said he was a “polite young boy” who began to act strangely as he grew up. She learned from Mr. Baril’s mother that her son did not always take his medication. “He never spoke to anybody,” the neighbor said. “I didn’t know him to be violent at all, not at all.” She said that long after he stopped speaking to her, he would still hold the door for her. His mother, she said, was a “very hard-working, lovely woman.” She said she last saw him about two weeks ago, walking down Kappock Street near the former family home. “I didn’t feel threatened by him,” she said.
|
Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings;Attacks on Police;David Baril;Assault;NYC;NYPD;Midtown Area Manhattan
|
ny0116269
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2012/10/20
|
14 Soldiers and 12 Insurgents Killed in Battle in Yemen
|
SANA, Yemen — At least 14 soldiers and 12 operatives of Al Qaeda were killed early on Friday when suicide bombers attacked a military base in south Yemen, military sources and local residents said. The attack started at dawn when five suicide bombers infiltrated the base about five miles east of Shuqrah in the southern province of Abyan, military sources said. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up and the three others were killed in clashes with the government forces in the 115th Brigade command building. A second group of Qaeda operatives aided the attackers by firing at the base, the sources said. The commander of operations of the brigade, Col. Saleh Al Dahma, two other officers, Col. Mohammed Saleh Al Muhaya and another colonel identified only as Al Maleh, were among the 14 members of the military killed, the military sources, who were assigned to the brigade, said. The Defense Ministry in the capital, Sana, confirmed the attack but did not specify the number of casualties. In addition to the five suicide bombers, the bodies of seven more Qaeda attackers were found around the base, local sources said. The military sources said that other Qaeda operatives were forced to flee by strong confrontation from the forces of the brigade.
|
Yemen;Terrorism;Military Bases and Installations;Al Qaeda
|
ny0173096
|
[
"business",
"smallbusiness"
] |
2007/11/14
|
Benefits in a Pension, for Now and Beyond
|
FOR a long time, owners of small businesses have been able to put more income into a pension plan than salaried employees can, deferring tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. Gradual changes in the tax law and the advent of simpler ways to maximize contributions have sweetened that perk, especially for small-business owners who can afford to divert more of what they make into pensions. One tool that well-off business people can use is a defined-benefit pension plan authorized by Section 415 of the tax code. Karen Shapiro, chief executive of Dedicated DB, a San Francisco firm that specializes in setting up and administering such plans, said that the effort and expense of doing so was daunting, but that for a surprising number of small-business owners, the tax benefits make it worthwhile. To set up a plan, a participant calculates — or has an expert calculate — how much would have to be contributed each year, given the person’s age and assumptions about interest rates, to yield a given pension at a predetermined age. “The older you are,” Ms. Shapiro said, “the more you can put in,” to make sure the plan has enough to pay out the desired amount at retirement. The Section 415 defined-benefit plans do not limit contributions to a fixed percentage of income, Ms. Shapiro said. Whatever the formula calls for is what the law allows. Obviously, many self-employed people or partners in small businesses cannot afford to put the majority of their earnings into pension plans. But certain owners can, Ms. Shapiro said. These are people who have a salaried job and a second business, perhaps as a consultant, and may not need that income immediately. That is also true of people who have a lot of income from investments and can use that for living expenses while shielding their earnings from tax. Living on the same amount of income by reinvesting the investment income and spending current earnings could result in a tax bill that is tens of thousands of dollars higher, she said. The maximum annual payout that the tax law allows to be used in the calculation is $180,000 — up from $175,000 last year and due to rise by another $5,000 next year. That might let a business owner in her 50s, for example, contribute more than $100,000 annually, tax-deferred, to a pension. That, said Ms. Shapiro, a former senior vice president at Bank of America, could be three or four times as much as the same person could put into the older defined-contribution, self-employed pension plans like Keoghs and SEPs because of absolute dollar limits and percentage-of-income restrictions. Glenn Sulzer, a lawyer who is a pension law analyst with CCH, the publisher of tax materials, and a leading contributor to the CCH Pension Plan Guide, said such a strategy made sense. “There are still issues that you have to be concerned with,” he said, adding, “Beware of the funding obligation,” which makes contributions mandatory for several years. Diane Giordano, an accountant and certified financial planner at Marcum & Kliegman, in Melville, N.Y., was asked whether she would recommend a Section 415 defined-benefit plan to a self-employed person who, say, earned $200,000 a year and could afford to put half of that away. The answer turns on age. “An older person could really load up” on contributions to a defined-benefit plan, she said. While the plans are theoretically available to any size firm, Ms. Shapiro said they worked best for sole proprietorships and small partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations. Many small businesses with one or two nonowner employees can use them. But Ms. Giordano cautioned that when there were employees other than the owners, they have to be included, too, albeit at smaller amounts, which could reduce the savings. The typical client of Ms. Shapiro’s firm is a one- to five-employee business whose owners put about $110,000 to $130,000 a year into their pensions. Dedicated DB sets up the plan and does the annual administrative work for an initial $1,250 fee and a $1,600-a-year maintenance fee. “We don’t give investment advice” on where to put the pension money, she said, but added that her nationwide client base includes many people referred by financial planners, who typically do offer such advice. Unlike an I.R.A., which can be set up any time before a return is due, a 415 plan must be created by the end of the year, although the funds can be put in later. Despite the tax advantages, many small-business owners have shied away from defined-benefit plans, even though they allowed larger deductions, because of the expense and complexity of setting them up. But now, with the spread in allowed contributions larger, they may appear more tempting to those who qualify. “They’re saving a huge amount in taxes, so the fee doesn’t bother them,” Ms. Shapiro said.
|
Pensions and Retirement Plans;Small Business;Taxation;Personal Finances;Income
|
ny0060450
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2014/08/24
|
Sand and Surf, Speedos and Spirits
|
On a midsummer Saturday, under a sapphire sky, a ferry shuttled festive weekenders from Sayville on the South Shore of Long Island to Fire Island Pines, much as motorcars once brought eager revelers out of the city to the Long Island of Jay Gatsby’s blue gardens. Those arriving in the Pines, most of them gay men, come with the same “purity of heart” as Gatsby’s disparate guests. Those bound for the Pines add in enthusiasm what they lack in clothing. Speedos are ubiquitous; shirts are not. Regardless of attire, a sense of community and joy seem as mandatory on the island as a visit to the bustling Pines Liquor Shop. Beyond the recently rebuilt Pavilion, in a 600-square-foot shop 100 yards from the ferry landing, flanked by beach scrub and bamboo, the front door to the Pines Liquor Shop was wide open, emitting strains of reggae and welcoming a steady stream of customers. Always present are the owners of the place, two brothers with the sand of Fire Island in their veins. Stephen and Chris Nicosia grew up directly across from Fire Island on the mainland. As members of the Sayville Yacht Club, they sailed the bays as children, and they worked summers in the Pines as young men. Various temporary vocations led them to Jack Lichtenstein’s liquor shop in 1991. Then, for the next 20 years, the brothers worked the shop from April to October, for nearly every hour the state permitted operation . In the off-season, they would travel, Stephen spinning records as a reggae D.J., Chris chasing waves as an avid surfer. Eventually, after a long negotiation, the store was officially ceded to the brothers — or the “Pines Liquor boys” as they are also known. There, they have continued to practice the kind of professional intimacy that one would expect from a reggae D.J. and a surfer dude in the beach community of their back pages . To all who enter the store, Stephen, 43, and Chris, 41, offer hugs and kisses, personal rapport, an open can of salted nuts and maybe a sip of rosé. Ed Schulhafer, 62, long a prominent figure in the Pines, has known the “boys” since 1991. “Pines Liquors is the only liquor store in America where you can ask the proprietors what anyone in the community drinks,” Mr. Schulhafer attested from outside the shop’s doorway, “and they will not only make a recommendation but will deliver the gift that day.” What does the community drink? Mostly rosé, vodka and various forms of bubbly. Many purchases, regardless of selection, require delivery by the caseload. Cars are prohibited on Fire Island, so the motorized carts of Pines Liquors are in constant motion, delivering not only liquor but also often the luggage of their customers, expedited from the harbor landing to residences throughout the area. Stephen, harried and effusive in the midst of a steady throb of interaction, said: “We have the freedom to give the customer service that our dynamic community deserves. We have to do it.” As the sun settled into the horizon and darkness sifted down over Fire Island, Pines Liquor Shop continued to hum with conviviality. There were hugs and kisses and last-minute sales until the final customers wandered out into a darkening Pines revelry, reminiscent of a Gatsby affair, that will continue throughout the night and into a new day when the Pines Liquor boys open their shop at noon.
|
Fire Island;Pines Liquor Shop;Alcohol;Chris Nicosia;Stephen Nicosia
|
ny0296301
|
[
"world",
"africa"
] |
2016/12/01
|
Gambians Choose Between Ruler of 22 Years and a United Opposition
|
Voters in the tiny West African nation of Gambia cast marbles on Thursday in an election that is widely expected to keep the country’s ruler of more than two decades in power, despite a unified challenge from the opposition. Polls closed at 5 p.m., and election workers were expected to work late into the night tallying results. Earlier in the day, after voting with his wife in the capital, Banjul, President Yahya Jammeh predicted a decisive win. “This will be the biggest landslide in the history of the country,” said Mr. Jammeh, who was met with cheers as he walked toward a sport utility vehicle that whisked him away from his polling site. He refused to comment when asked whether he would concede in the event of defeat. His challenger, Adama Barrow, said he believed Gambians were ready for change after more than 20 years of rule by Mr. Jammeh. “He is not going to be re-elected — his era is finished,” Mr. Barrow said. In a statement on Thursday, rights groups criticized the circumstances under which the vote took place, especially the blocking of internet service and international calls. All internet service was cut around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said. Voters refused to comment on which candidate they were backing. “I have to be careful of what I say,” said one, Victor Clayton-Johnson. Image President Yahya Jammeh, who took power in a coup in 1994, spoke to workers at a polling station in Banjul on Thursday. Credit Thierry Gouegnon/Reuters.. Mr. Jammeh came to power in a coup in 1994 and then swept elections in 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011 after a 2002 constitutional amendment removed presidential term limits. Critics say those elections were not free and fair, and they accuse his government of corruption and flagrant human rights abuses. The president’s supporters praise his efforts to promote economic development in Gambia, which is dependent on tourism and agriculture. While the United States government praised the election for “high voter turnout and generally peaceful conditions,” it cited areas of concern. “In the run-up to the election, we did have some concerns about undue pressure, intimidation” and the disruption of internet access, phone services and other factors that may have limited the flow of information to voters, Mark Toner, a deputy State Department spokesman, told reporters on Thursday. Mr. Barrow, a former businessman and United Democratic Party leader, emerged this year as the candidate for an alliance of eight opposition parties. The former ruling party deputy Mamma Kandeh ran for the Gambia Democratic Congress, the only opposition party not in the coalition. More than 880,000 voters were registered to participate at more than 1,400 polling stations, where they were asked to place a marble in a green, silver or purple drum, depending on their choice. The African Union sent a handful of observers to this country of 1.9 million, but there were no observers from the European Union or the West African regional bloc Ecowas because the Gambian government did not grant them accreditation. Mr. Jammeh said before the vote that he would not allow even peaceful demonstrations, dismissing them as “loopholes that are used to destabilize African governments.”
|
Gambia;Election;Yahya Jammeh;Adama Barrow;Politics;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry
|
ny0251532
|
[
"us"
] |
2011/02/12
|
Oregon: Man Dies Yards From Emergency Room Door
|
A man died early Friday in a Portland hospital’s parking garage, just 100 feet from the emergency room’s entrance, and the police said no one from the staff of Portland Adventist Medical Center helped as officers tried to revive him. The man, Birgilio Marin-Fuentes, 61, suffered a heart attack in his car. Mr. Marin-Fuentes had driven to the hospital, then crashed into a pillar and wall of the parking garage. Sgt. Pete Simpson, a police spokesman, said that the only medical help the officers received was from an ambulance crew after hospital staff members told an officer to call 911. Hospital officials say they dispatched security officers trained in first aid and a paramedic.
|
Emergency Medical Treatment;Medicine and Health;Hospitals;Portland (Ore);First Aid
|
ny0224185
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2010/11/15
|
R. Blake Chisam, Ethics Counsel, Prepares for Trials
|
WASHINGTON — Sitting at a table in the basement of the Capitol, a little after 10 a.m., R. Blake Chisam was working his way through a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi. A bit later, he pulled out a tin of tobacco. “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy,” said Mr. Chisam, 42, who grew up on “Army posts around the South” and has been trying to quit chewing tobacco ever since he started, when he was 12. But he did not come across as being overstimulated, despite the task that awaits him. Beginning Monday, Mr. Chisam will serve as de facto prosecutor in two House ethics trials, first against Representative Charles B. Rangel , Democrat of New York, and then Representative Maxine Waters , Democrat of California. Leaning back in his chair, Mr. Chisam offered a brief insight into his life as the staff director and chief counsel to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, speaking circumspectly in a soft trickle of words that often trailed off into silence. “The committee counsel’s job is not so much to prosecute as to make the burden of proof,” he said last week. “The investigative subcommittee sent the committee a statement of alleged violation, and that’s what I’m advocating on behalf of.” As the staff director, Mr. Chisam oversees the day-to-day operations of the committee. The committee provides ethics training to every staff member on the Hill at least once a year, offers formal and informal advice to members and staff regarding questions about ethics and conduct, reviews and certifies financial disclosure statements, and approves all privately sponsored, officially connected travel. Beyond that, it is the curse of the committee or its crown jewel to have the duty of investigating the actions of House members and their staffs. Though it looks into dozens of allegations during each session of Congress, public trials are rare. The last one was in 2002, a three-day spectacle that ended with the House ethics committee recommending that Representative James Traficant, Democrat of Ohio, be expelled from Congress. He was. The week before the first Rangel trial was set to begin, Mr. Chisam seemed calm, citing Kipling and quoting from Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” — “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die,” Mr. Chisam said — a poem Mr. Kipling later reprised. “You don’t worry about it,” Mr. Chisam said. “It’s your job. You don’t worry about how much you like somebody, respect somebody, dislike somebody. It’s fact-based work. You just let the facts take you where the facts are going to take you. That’s the truest way.” Mr. Chisam said he had been preparing for months, along with two other lawyers and a support staff. “Getting ready for this is more in the wheelhouse of my career,” Mr. Chisam said. “This is actually easier. It’s exhausting, but this is what litigators do.” Still, Mr. Chisam, whose job normally consists of serving the members of his committee, will find himself in a new adversarial role, having to present a case against two well-known and well-liked members of Congress, who both are African-American. “The first challenge for Blake in his role is finding that balance, showing respect, but also saying this isn’t about respect, it’s about our particular standards,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center , an ethics group. “There are also obviously racial overtones. You have two African-American members, in a body that doesn’t have a surplus of those, and as the black caucus has made clear, they do feel singled out.” Mr. Chisam’s position is tricky for another reason. He is former counsel and senior policy adviser to Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California and the committee’s chairwoman, and he now finds himself about to prosecute two Democrats. The committee is bipartisan, but some people, like Ms. McGehee, wonder if Mr. Chisam is simply “a Lofgren loyalist.” Mr. Chisam was an unusual pick for staff director, a post he assumed in April 2009 after it had been vacant eight months. Though he had worked for Ms. Lofgren, it was actually Representative Jo Bonner of Alabama, the ranking Republican member, who suggested Mr. Chisam for the job. Mr. Chisam himself said he was surprised by the selection. Critics saw him as the default choice of a hampered committee unable to make progress because it had gone eight months without a staff director. But others say that Mr. Bonner suggested Mr. Chisam because of his work ethic and objectivity. “He’s completely honest; he’s completely professional; he knows the rules inside and out,” said Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who has represented Republican members before the committee. “He’s by the numbers. He’s very committed to the rule of law.” Mr. Chisam has had, by his own account, a varied career as a lawyer. Before joining the ethics committee, he was a senior counsel on the Judiciary Committee for two years. Before that, he was a public defender in New York, started a practice with his wife and worked for two big firms. Mr. Chisam, a graduate of Auburn University and Temple Law School, also wrote a textbook on immigration practice. He is something of a workaholic. He gets in every morning at 7:30 a.m. and stays until 11 p.m. or midnight, sometimes sneaking out to see his 12-year-old twins before heading back to his basement office in the Capitol. He said he gets four hours of sleep on a good night, and when asked about his hobbies, he wryly observed, “I come to work a lot,” before adding, more earnestly, “I like being a lawyer.” These days, he is not even getting those four hours of rest at night. Since taking the job, he has lost 65 pounds from his 6-foot-2 frame — “stress and lack of food,” he said. His low-key demeanor, however, does not necessarily extend to the committee room. “The goal is to win,” Mr. Chisam said. “It is, to me, about making the case.”
|
United States Politics and Government;Ethics;House of Representatives;House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct;Rangel Charles B;Waters Maxine
|
ny0270119
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2016/04/08
|
Correction Officer Charged With Beating Inmate in Bronx
|
A New York City correction officer has been arrested on charges that he used a radio to brutally beat an inmate in a holding cell at the Bronx County Courthouse, officials said on Thursday. The officer, Bradford Jones, an eight-year veteran of the Correction Department, was arraigned on Wednesday evening on four assault charges, as well as criminal possession of a weapon and official misconduct. He was released after posting $40,000 bail. Image Officer Bradford Jones Credit Department of Investigation The assault occurred around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday after the inmate, Malik Ellis, who was handcuffed in the holding cell at the time, threw a cup of liquid in the direction of Officer Jones, according to the criminal complaint, which cites surveillance video. Though two other officers tried to restrain Officer Jones from entering the cell, the video shows him going in and repeatedly striking Mr. Ellis in the head with his radio. Mr. Ellis was treated for fractures to his right eye socket and nose, and cuts to his face. Officer Jones, who is 37 and whose salary is $80,788 a year, was arrested by agents from the city’s Investigation Department and arraigned. The Correction Department has suspended him. “The violence unleashed by the defendant and captured on video is stomach-turning, and even more shocking because he is a public servant sworn to uphold the law,” said Darcel D. Clark, the Bronx district attorney. “He viciously dispensed street justice inside the courthouse, where everyone should expect to be treated fairly and with civility.” Norman Seabrook, head of the correction officers’ union, said in a statement, “We don’t know all of the circumstances and we want to see a thorough investigation of what happened here, and try to understand why an otherwise exemplary officer and military veteran would respond in this way.”
|
Assault;Prison Guards,Corrections Officers;Correction Department NYC;Bradford Jones;Malik Ellis;Bronx
|
ny0078533
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2015/02/03
|
Through Decades of Unrest and Decay, Always Calling It Home
|
In the late 1970s, when the Bronx was burning , Bushwick, Brooklyn, was burning, too. Fires raged from block to block, and after the blackout of July 13, 1977, Bushwick was broken — the neighborhood endured more lootings and arson fires than any other neighborhood in New York City. “Of course it was scary, when it was bad like that,” said Elizabeth Casuso Rose, who lived at 168 Harman Street. Because fire was a nightly threat, she said, “you had to sleep with your shoes on.” Today, as Williamsburg becomes overcrowded with bike stores and coffee shops, the inevitable march deeper into Brooklyn is calling hipsters to Bushwick , where they can be pioneers in a neighborhood where some people have been living, inexpensively, long before anyone wanted to go out for brunch. Some of those people are the Casuso family , who became tabloid celebrities for their refusal to pick up stakes in the worst of times. Today they are refusing to do so when the reasons to sell are altogether different. Ms. Rose, 56, still lives at 168 Harman, the house she grew up in. Now, two of her daughters live at home, and a third rents the apartment upstairs with her husband and infant son. (Her two sons are still in college, and if they don’t move back to Bushwick after they graduate, “they’ll break my heart,” Ms. Rose said.) They are the fourth, fifth and sixth generations of the family to call this part of northern Brooklyn home. And like their ancestors, they are watching a neighborhood in transition. Image Elizabeth Casuso Rose's family bought 168 Harman Street (blue) in 1968 and remained in Bushwick, Brooklyn, through years of urban unrest, including the 1977 blackout and looting, while others fled the neighborhood. Credit Andrew Spear for The New York Times When Ms. Rose’s mother, Kathy Casuso, who grew up on the block, and father, Octavio Casuso, who was from Peru, bought the three-story house in 1968, they paid $13,500 (around $90,000 in today’s dollars). Within a decade, the family figured that its home had depreciated by more than 50 percent. Today, homes in the area are routinely listed for around $700,000 or $800,000. “Some guy came here and offered me a million dollars for the house,” Ms. Rose said, with a laugh. “A million dollars? I’m not selling for that. I’d need at least a million for each of my five kids to even consider it.” “I usually don’t even look to see what somebody is offering,” she said. “This is what my parents strived for, and this is me keeping my family together.” With that kind of profit margin, it might seem unthinkable to stay in Bushwick. On Wilson Avenue, the main shopping street in Ms. Rose’s part of the neighborhood, the corners are mostly dotted with bodegas. But there is now a vintage clothing store and Agra Heights , an Indian restaurant. “Indian food, it’s not for me, but good for them for being there,” Ms. Rose said of the neighborhood’s new arrivals. Forty years ago, it would have also seemed unthinkable for Ms. Rose’s parents to stay in Bushwick. From the late 1960s into the early 1970s, Bushwick changed from a tidy insular community, a low-lying forest of wood-frame houses with middle- and working-class Germans and Italian Catholics, into a fabled example of urban blight: abandoned buildings, vacant lots, drugs and arson fires. Image Mario M. Cuomo, in corner at right, and Edward I. Koch, center with arms crossed, participated in a mayoral debate in the Casusos’ living room in 1977. Credit Ed Peters/New York Daily News It was the site of white flight, and in the most difficult of circumstances, a new population of blacks and Hispanics, largely Puerto Ricans, took their place. Stores, schools and churches closed. Projects of urban renewal, meant to revive the neighborhood, sputtered and faltered. Landlords and tenants alike burned their homes for insurance money or relocation assistance, or to strip aluminum and copper from what was left of the buildings. And then the blackout came: Within minutes after the lights went out, looters began raiding stores under the elevated subway tracks on Broadway, taking what they could and often burning the rest. In the aftermath, four reporters from The Daily News went to Bushwick. There, they found the Casuso family, which became, in a series of articles called “Our Dying Neighborhoods,” the symbol of Bushwick, in all of its changes and contradictions. On the heels of the articles, one of the reporters, Martin Gottlieb , and his editor, Sam Roberts , who is now a reporter at The New York Times , brought together all five mayoral candidates, including Mario M. Cuomo and Edward I. Koch , to a living room debate at the Casusos’ house. Ms. Rose, then 12, said she remembered seeing the candidates come in, but she and her siblings had to stay outside. Image Looters and residents of Bushwick running down Broadway on July 14, 1977, during the blackout. Credit Tyrone Dukes/The New York Times All the candidates promised not to forget Bushwick, if elected. Read now, their oaths seem a little forced, but Mr. Koch invited the Casusos and elected officials from the neighborhood to Gracie Mansion, and also got a large affordable housing development, called Hope Gardens, built in an abandoned lot that had been designated for an urban renewal project a decade earlier. Without a family like the Casusos — warm, kindhearted and generous, Mr. Gottlieb said — the articles might not have had the same effect. Ms. Rose attributes that to her mother, who died in 1995 and never left the block. (Her father has also died, and her brother and sister have moved to Florida for health reasons.) “My mother was a strong woman, the kind who stands up to fight for what’s right,” she said. “And somebody had to fight for Bushwick.” Mr. Gottlieb, who later worked at The Times and is now editor of The Record , a northern New Jersey daily newspaper, said the change between then and now is remarkable. “The bizarre thing is that it looks like 60 years of history have been erased,” he said. “It looks to me like Bushwick must have looked in 1938 or 1955,” with lots of families and more of a neighborhood feel. Ms. Rose said she agreed. “It was scary in those days,” she said, “but it was still good. And it’s good now.” “We still stood here and we love our home,” she added. “I don’t know how many people can say that.”
|
Real Estate; Housing;Bushwick Brooklyn;Blackouts;NYC
|
ny0203137
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2009/08/26
|
Waiting for Reincarnation at a Spiritual Birthplace
|
URGELLING, India — He drank wine, cavorted with women and wrote poetry that spoke of life’s earthly pleasures. He was the Sixth Dalai Lama , the spiritual leader of the Tibetans and reincarnation of Chenrezig, a deity embodying compassion. He would sneak out of the Potala Palace in the heart of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, for midnight trysts. He renounced his monastic vows in the middle of his stewardship of Tibet. He was later kidnapped by Mongolian warriors allied to the Manchu Chinese court and died in captivity about three centuries ago at the age of 33 — or so one story goes. Another tells of his winning his freedom and wandering the Tibetan lands as an ascetic. So goes the legend of Tsangyang Gyamtso , one of the most popular historical figures among Tibetans and the most colorful of the long line of Dalai Lamas . His poetry is among the most iconic in Tibetan literature. In this remote area of the eastern Himalayas, the mystique surrounding the Sixth Dalai Lama is magnified a hundredfold. He was born here in Urgelling, called Ugyenling in Tibetan, a village in the lush hills that border Bhutan and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The dominant ethnic group here is the Monpa, a Buddhist people who speak a language closely related to Tibetan but consider themselves distinct from the Tibetans on the high plateau. The two-story childhood home of the Sixth Dalai Lama was turned into a pilgrimage shrine centuries ago. Candles flicker in front of the main altar, and prayer flags adorn a large tree outside. “He’s pure Monpa, the only Monpa to be a Dalai Lama,” said Jamparema, 60, a hunched woman in a striped red dress who was pouring oil out of brass candle holders in the altar room. Since her youth, she said, she had taken care of the shrine. The fact that the Sixth Dalai Lama came from this area, called Tawang, is one of the reasons that China gives in asserting that Tawang is a part of Tibet, and thus part of China. Indian officials say the land was ceded to British-ruled India by Tibetan leaders in the Simla Convention of 1914. Given the precedent of the Sixth Dalai Lama, some people here mention Tawang as a possible birthplace for the next Dalai Lama. The current one, the 14th — who fled to exile in India in 1959, passing by this village on his route — has said his reincarnation could very well be born outside of Chinese-ruled Tibet. The shrine here has traditional thangka paintings of most of the 14 Dalai Lamas. Nine white stupas in a room on the ground floor supposedly house remains of the Sixth Dalai Lama’s relatives. As for signs of the Sixth Dalai Lama himself, there is a small wooden box with a stone inside that has a faint footprint — supposedly his, even though he was taken from this area before he turned 3. He never returned. A small museum in the sprawling Tawang Monastery, which sits above here at 10,000 feet, displays necklaces of turquoise and other precious stones said to have belonged to the Sixth Dalai Lama’s mother. Long ago, the leader of Tawang Monastery came here to collect the family’s possessions. He was afraid they would be spirited away by Tibetan officials in Lhasa, said Gombu Tsering, 70, the museum’s caretaker. “The Tibetan government would have sent a spy from Lhasa to collect all this,” he said. “That’s why we collected it. A shoe of the mother was taken by a spy.” The Sixth Dalai Lama had a complicated relationship with Lhasa, according to the definitive biography of him, “Secret Treasures and Hidden Lives,” by Michael Aris , a Tibet scholar at Oxford University. Mr. Aris, who died in 1999, was the husband of Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the opposition leader in Myanmar. “It is difficult to think of a more enigmatic or elusive figure in Tibetan and Himalayan history,” Mr. Aris wrote. The Sixth Dalai Lama’s path to the throne in Lhasa was far from linear. His predecessor was the first leader to unify all of Tibet into a vast state since the collapse of the early Tibetan empire in the ninth century. The Fifth Dalai Lama died in 1682, and his reincarnation was identified here the next year. But for various reasons, the Fifth Dalai Lama’s death was kept a secret for 15 years by Sangye Gyamtso, the chief regent. A monk who resembled the Dalai Lama even lived in the lama’s apartments and impersonated him when Mongolian leaders came to visit, wearing an eyeshade of horsehair to mask his appearance, Mr. Aris wrote. The Sixth Dalai Lama, once he was identified by a search committee, was taken with his family across the Himalayas to a remote town called Tsona, where they lived under a form of house arrest for the next 12 years. That was to help maintain the veil of secrecy surrounding the death of his predecessor. The boy studied Buddhist texts in strict isolation; even visits from his own relatives within the compound were carefully controlled. When he was finally enthroned in 1697, at age 14, he was thrust into the greatest spotlight in all of Tibet, something for which his reclusive childhood had left him ill prepared. He rejected all the trappings of his title. That meant renouncing his vows, wearing jewelry and growing his hair out. Gray Tuttle, a professor of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University, said in an interview that the Sixth Dalai Lama, if he had focused on ruling the land, could have consolidated the gains made by his predecessor and transformed Tibet into a strong state with the ability to resist Chinese encroachment. “This is where the Sixth Dalai Lama really could have played an important role, but because of his lack of training, lack of being raised as a Dalai Lama, he went off and did these other activities,” Mr. Tuttle said. “But the Tibetans loved him for that, loved his writings.” Even today, and even in the West, his poetry resonates. Last year, The Harvard Advocate , a literary magazine, published a selection of his work, as translated by Nathan Hill and Toby Fee. The first poem is perhaps his best known: From top the eastward peak; arose the clear white moon: her immaculate face turned and turned in my mind
|
Dalai Lama;Buddhism;India
|
ny0204137
|
[
"sports",
"baseball"
] |
2009/08/14
|
Yankees and Sabathia Keep Cruising on the Road
|
SEATTLE — As Manager Joe Girardi stepped into the Yankees ’ dugout at Safeco Field before batting practice Thursday, Ken Griffey Jr. spotted him and asked the first question at the news briefing. Griffey , the beloved Seattle Mariners outfielder, wanted to know if the Yankees were starting C. C. Sabathia on Friday. Girardi replied that, yes indeed, Sabathia was starting Friday — and the other three games here, too. Sabathia is capable of a lot, especially at this time of year, but not starting four games in a row. Girardi can dream, though, and who could blame him? Sabathia has 18 victories in August since 2005, the most of any pitcher in the majors, and the most recent came Friday in an 11-1 rout of the Mariners. “You’ve been throwing since February,” Sabathia said, by way of explanation. “You just get locked in.” Sabathia (13-7) allowed a run and three hits over eight innings, with a season-high 10 strikeouts. Only Josh Beckett has more victories this season than Sabathia, who is 5-1 with a 2.98 earned run average since the All-Star break, giving the Yankees the ace they sought when they signed him last winter for seven years and $161 million . The Yankees supported Sabathia with an offensive eruption led by Hideki Matsui , who went 4 for 5 with two home runs, four runs scored and five runs batted in. The victory was their 10th in 11 games and restored their American League East lead to six and a half games over Boston. “Matsoo, he’s in one of those streaks right now,” said Derek Jeter, who was 2 for 4 with a home run. “Left, right, it doesn’t matter. When he gets hot, good luck trying to get him out.” Matsui is actually not especially hot; he was 6 for 25 on the home stand the Yankees just finished. But he looked unstoppable Thursday, ably filling the cleanup role in place of Alex Rodriguez, who was hit by a pitch in the elbow Wednesday and had the day off. Benched for nine games in June when the Yankees played in National League ballparks, Matsui, the designated hitter, has hit .310 with nine home runs in his last 36 games. “I think it’s helping, the fact that Joe has sort of protected my knees,” Matsui said through an interpreter. “I don’t know if it’s directly paying off in that way, as far as specifics, but I’m sure it’s helping.” The Yankees will miss the Mariners’ ace, Felix Hernandez, in the four games this weekend. But Seattle’s staff came into the game with a 3.94 E.R.A., the best in the league, and Girardi said he expected a tough series. That might happen in the next three games, but on Thursday the Yankees rolled Ian Snell, a right-hander they scouted last month when he pitched in the Pittsburgh farm system. Snell had gone 2-8 with a 5.36 E.R.A. for the Pirates, and he has been worse here. After Thursday, his E.R.A. in three starts for Seattle was 8.77. Snell gave up eight runs and nine hits in six innings. He did make it into the seventh, and retired the side in order in half his innings. But the rest of his outing was a struggle. In the second inning, the Yankees scored twice with two outs. The first run scored on a bloop double by Jerry Hairston Jr. off the glove of the diving center fielder Franklin Gutierrez. The second came in on a wild pitch. Jeter greeted Snell with a first-pitch home run to deep left-center in the third inning, and Johnny Damon doubled. With one out, Hideki Matsui ripped a ball to the right-field seats for his 18th home run. That made the score 5-0, and Teixeira doubled in Jeter to give the Yankees another run in the fourth. In the meantime, Sabathia cruised, improving to 5-1 in eight career starts at Safeco Field. The Mariners battered him for 10 hits and 6 runs on July 2 in the Bronx, but they mustered almost nothing Thursday. “Just getting ahead,” Sabathia said, explaining the difference. “Last time I faced them, I was getting behind and they could look for pitches over the plate and put some good swings on them. Today, I was ahead and it made a lot of difference.” Sabathia walked two in the second. Otherwise, over the first seven innings, he permitted only two base runners: Ichiro Suzuki, who singled in the third inning, and Josh Wilson, who lifted a home run into the first row of seats beside the left-field foul pole in the fifth. That pulled the Mariners to five runs behind, but they got no closer. Snell left two runners on for reliever Garrett Olson in the seventh, and Matsui drove in one with a single. The Yankees scored three in that inning, and two more in the eighth, when Matsui connected for a two-run homer just over the glove of a leaping Suzuki at the right-field wall.
|
Baseball;New York Yankees;Seattle Mariners;Sabathia C C;Matsui Hideki
|
ny0285814
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2016/09/30
|
Antigraft Law Stirs Up Wariness Over South Koreans Bearing Gifts
|
SEOUL, South Korea — During the lunch hour on Thursday in downtown Seoul, amid government agencies and newspaper offices, diners lined up at cash registers to do something long considered a breach of etiquette here: splitting the bill. The previous day, a widely discussed law aimed at curtailing corruption took effect in South Korea. Among other things, it bars public servants, journalists and teachers from accepting a meal worth more than 30,000 won, about $27, if there is a potential conflict of interest. That alone seems likely to change the dining culture here, where tradition holds that the host or the oldest person at a table picks up the tab. “We thought it was safest to simply go Dutch, because it’s often difficult to tell which situation constitutes a conflict of interest,” Cho Myun-mi, a teacher in Seoul, said about her lunch on Thursday with colleagues and friends. “It was awkward,” she added, “but we’d better get used to it.” The new law, called the Kim Young-ran Act after the former Supreme Court justice who drafted it, is being hailed as a milestone in efforts to fight corruption in South Korea , where collusion between government officials and businesses is a major public concern — and where wining and dining, cash envelopes and other kinds of gifts have long been central to doing business. Besides the restrictions on meals, the law bars people in the targeted professions and their spouses — estimated to be four million, out of a total population of 51 million — from accepting any gift worth more than $45 (or $90 at weddings or funerals), if a conflict of interest could exist. And with a few exceptions, people in those fields are simply forbidden to accept any gift worth more than $910. People seem to be taking the law seriously. Schools across South Korea posted signs this week warning parents not to bring gifts for teachers, a common practice that has raised concerns about corruption in this education-focused culture. Funeral directors even reported that fewer wreaths were being delivered to grieving families. But restaurants seemed likely to be most affected. “We saw this law coming and have prepared special set menus that do not exceed the 30,000 won limit, retiring some of our more expensive options,” said Kim Bu-shik, who runs a restaurant in Seoul. “The new law will make our society more transparent, but I must say it is not good for our business at all, for now.” “Many of the government people who frequented my place don’t come out,” he said, adding that they were apparently eating at in-house cafeterias instead. Image The senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joon, center, was arrested in July on charges of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the owner of an online game company, deepening suspicions about corruption among high-ranking law enforcement officials. Credit Lim Tae-hoon/Newsis, via Associated Press In Parliament, an audit of government agencies is underway — a process that, in the past, was often accompanied by officials from the agencies treating lawmakers to sumptuous lunches. But on Thursday, lawmakers and members of their staff filled the Parliament cafeteria, dining among themselves. South Korean journalists, another group targeted by the law, have also been known to accept free meals, and sometimes more expensive gifts, like golf outings. Last month, a top editor at the country’s largest newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, resigned after it emerged that he had gone on a lavish trip to Italy paid for by a shipbuilding company. The newspaper later apologized. Public grievances over corruption among the government and business elite run deep here, and calls for an overhaul have mounted in recent years. Of particular concern are the so-called sponsorship relationships that officials are suspected of maintaining with corporate executives, involving the promotion of business interests in exchange for expensive meals and other gifts. In July, Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong offered a rare public apology after a senior prosecutor, Jin Kyung-joon, was arrested on charges of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the owner of an online game company, deepening public suspicions about corruption among high-ranking law enforcement officials. On Thursday, another senior prosecutor, Kim Hyung-joon, was arrested on bribery charges in a closely watched case. He is accused of receiving a total of more than $45,000 from two friends, a businessman and a lawyer, in return for trying to influence colleagues who were investigating fraud and other charges against them. He was also treated to expensive meals by executives at a financial service company, in return for leaking information about an investigation of the firm, prosecutors said. Mr. Kim was not arrested under the terms of the new law but rather under longstanding South Korean statutes against bribery. He has admitted taking money from his friends but denied doing favors for them — a defense that will not apply in cases brought under the new law, given the ban on officials taking expensive gifts for almost any reason. The new measure does allow for exceptions, like gifts between close relatives or people who are in love, although critics say that such a sentiment is hard to define. They also say that in South Korea, where much of one’s social life is shaped by school and hometown connections, it can be hard to tell where conflict of interest begins. Getting caught is a real concern given the number of camera-wielding bounty hunters in South Korea who record evidence of crimes in hopes of receiving rewards from the government. The anticorruption measure has vastly expanded their hunting ground. One of the first people accused of breaking the law was the mayor of a Seoul district whose office took 160 elderly people on a sightseeing tour on Wednesday and bought them lunch. The mayor’s office said the lunches cost less than $27 each, and that the tour was part of an annual community program. The police are investigating the matter.
|
South Korea;Gifts to Public Officials;Bribery and Kickbacks;Jin Kyung-joon;Kim Hyung-joon;Restaurant
|
ny0024012
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2013/08/27
|
Red Burns, ‘Godmother of Silicon Alley,’ Dies at 88
|
Red Burns, an educator who gained wide recognition for pushing for more creative uses of modern communications, helping to lead the movement for public access to cable television and becoming the driving force behind a celebrated New York University program to foster Internet wizards, died on Friday at her Manhattan home. She was 88. N.Y.U. announced her death. Ms. Burns has been hailed as the “godmother of Silicon Alley” for helping to turn out 3,000 graduates of the university’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, which she ran for 28 years. Many have become part of the brain trust of Silicon Alley, as New York City’s answer to Silicon Valley is called. They work at Google, Apple, Microsoft and Disney as well as at small start-up firms. Her purpose was to produce people, rather than just technicians, who could use technology to perform interesting and helpful tasks. Beginning in the early 1970s, working with George C. Stoney, a film professor, she created an informal N.Y.U. program called the Alternate Media Center. One of its efforts was to develop a two-way television system that allowed elderly residents of Reading, Pa., to interact with one another and “visit” community sites like the city center and the Social Security office. She and Mr. Stoney explored the possibilities of the Sony Portapak camera, the first portable video camera, seeing it as a way to force social change. An early initiative used video to document a faulty stop light to force City Hall to provide a new traffic light. When the computer became dominant, I.T.P. won notice by coming up with novelties like a talking gumball machine and a refrigerator with a video of a mother’s face projected on its interior back wall. When a visitor took a box of chocolates out of the refrigerator, the mother taunted: “Yeah, that’s just what you need! More chocolate.” As the dot-com revolution gathered speed, the center was ready. Typical of its alchemy was a 2007 student project that devised a way for thirsty plants, with the help of sensors placed in the dirt, to signal over a phone line that they needed more water. Ms. Burns wanted the school to be fun, and one student who fulfilled her vision was Dennis Crowley. With a fellow student, Alex Rainert, Mr. Crowley developed the social networking site Dodgeball at N.Y.U. and sold it to Google for millions of dollars after their graduation. When Google dropped Dodgeball in 2009, he started a similar service called Foursquare. It now boasts 25 million users. In an interview with an N.Y.U. alumni magazine, Mr. Crowley said he fell in love with I.T.P. on encountering “a weird art show” on his first visit. “The first project I saw was someone who was making robots who follow robots who follow robots,” he said. “And as soon as I saw that I was, like, oh, my God, I need to be here.” He called I.T.P. “a playground, almost, for people who are really enthusiastic about tech and the user experience and using technology to enrich people’s lives.” Daniel B. O’Sullivan, the current I.T.P. chairman, said in an interview on Monday that Ms. Burns “knew the road to invention was through whimsy.” Ms. Burns herself had said that her way of encouraging creativity was to stay out of the way. “I played under the radar for a long time,” she told The New York Times in 2007. “I know that when you’re trying to do something new and you have no history or justification for doing it, people are quick to jump and pull on you. And I just wanted to be left alone.” Ms. Burns was born Goldie Gennis on April 9, 1925, in Ottawa, to immigrants from Russia. Her nickname, Red, came from her hair color. A top student, she graduated from high school at 16 — too young to go to college, her parents insisted. So she took an internship at the National Film Board of Canada and became enthralled by cinema. She went on to marry a film board editor, Alex Myers, who died suddenly in 1953. After taking a job with a television distribution company, she eventually married Lloyd Burns, a colleague. They moved from Toronto to New York. Mr. Burns died in 1970. Ms. Burns is survived by a son, Michael, and a daughter, Barbara Burns, both from her first marriage; a daughter, Catherine Lloyd-Burns, from her second marriage; and three grandchildren. Ms. Burns became intrigued by the Portapak after seeing one demonstrated and approached David Oppenheim, the dean of N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts, about the possibility of teaching a class using it. “At that time I didn’t need any money,” she said in an interview with Scienceline, an N.Y.U. publication, in 2012. “So I was hard to resist.” Mr. Oppenheim directed her to Mr. Stoney, with whom she started the Alternative Media Center. The Interactive Media Program, an outgrowth of the center established a few years later by Martin Elton, awards master’s degrees to about 115 students a year. It offers 140 courses and has a full-time faculty of 10. Mr. O’Sullivan said it also employs “an army” of part-time professors. Half the student body is female, a rarity for a technical program, he said. Ms. Burns, he added, did not really believe that technical expertise was essential to creativity, partly because technology is continually changing. Another reason, Mr. O’Sullivan said with a laugh, was that “she really had zero technical aptitude.” “To me, the computer is just another tool,” Ms. Burns once said. “It’s like a pen. You have to have a pen, and to know penmanship, but neither will write the book for you.”
|
Red Burns;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Obituary;NYU
|
ny0071685
|
[
"business",
"dealbook"
] |
2015/03/21
|
Cement Giants Holcim and Lafarge Say Merger Is Back on Track
|
PARIS — Holcim and Lafarge, the two European cement giants, have broken a deadlock that threatened their merger plans, they said on Friday, expressing confidence that they would close the $46 billion deal this summer. The agreement, announced last year, had faltered in recent weeks as Holcim shareholders complained that they were getting shortchanged in the supposed merger of equals. The companies had also begun to squabble over who would lead the new group, with Holcim no longer willing to back Bruno Lafont, the Lafarge chief executive, for the job. On Friday, the companies said they had solved those problems by revising the terms in a way that sweetened the deal for Holcim shareholders and agreeing that Mr. Lafont would step aside and that another Lafarge executive would be named to the top job after the merger was finalized. “With this amended agreement, the project to combine Lafarge and Holcim to become the most advanced company in its industry has taken another important step forward,” they said in a joint statement . “Both companies are continuing to work intensively on preparing the closing of the transaction and the successful integration post-merger.” The combination of Holcim, based in Jona, Switzerland, and Lafarge, based in Paris, would form the world’s largest cement and construction materials company. They had joint sales last year of around $33 billion and a total of about 131,000 employees worldwide. When the deal was first announced last April, their businesses were in roughly similar shape. But since then, things have turned in Holcim’s favor, partly because of its deeper footprint in places like India and the United States, where growth is relatively strong. Lafarge’s focus on Africa and the Middle East had looked like a strength until oil prices tumbled , sapping demand in parts of those regions. The companies had stunned the market with the news on Tuesday that Holcim was demanding changes to the governance structure and better financial conditions for Holcim shareholders. The companies declined to comment on what had gone wrong between Mr. Lafont and his negotiating partners in Switzerland, but by early this week, it had become clear that the friction was serious enough that Holcim was ready to walk away unless a new candidate for chief executive was agreed. After insisting on Tuesday there could be no changes in the governance structure, Lafarge capitulated. “I don’t think it’s the case that they threw him under the bus,” Robert Muir, an analyst at Berenberg Bank in London, said of Lafarge backing down on Mr. Lafont’s role. “It was more of a question of them looking at it and saying, ‘We’ve invested a lot in this already. Are we really going to let this deal fail on the basis of one individual?’” Addressing the primary complaint of the relative valuation of the two companies, Holcim shareholders will now put in nine shares for every 10 shares of Lafarge, instead of the one-for-one ratio agreed last summer, the companies said in a joint statement. They also agreed that shareholders would get a post-closing dividend of one share in the new company for every 20 shares they own. Mr. Lafont and the Holcim chairman, Wolfgang Reitzle, will serve as nonexecutive co-chairmen of the combined entity’s board. In the statement, Mr. Reitzle praised Mr. Lafont, saying they would “work closely together to ensure that the value creation potential of this merger will be realized for the benefits of all shareholders.” Mr. Reitzle highlighted the Lafarge chief’s “tremendous contribution to getting us this far.” Although a deal appeared in doubt this week, the two companies had made sufficient progress by Thursday that shareholders of CRH, an Irish construction materials company, approved the acquisition of Lafarge-Holcim assets valued at 6.5 billion euros, or about $7 billion, assets the merging companies needed to jettison if they were to receive regulatory approval. Holcim said it would put the merger before shareholders at a meeting in early May. Lafarge will not hold a shareholders’ meeting. A Lafarge a spokeswoman, Sabine Wacquez, said the merger would go ahead if two-thirds of shareholders exchanged their Lafarge shares for shares in the merged company. “Certain key shareholders of both companies have confirmed their support for the revised merger terms,” the companies said in the statement. “The parties expect the transaction to close in July 2015.” With the thorniest issues out of the way, the combination requires regulatory approval in countries including the United States. Holcim shares rose 1 percent in early Zurich trading. Lafarge rose 3.2 percent in Paris.
|
Mergers and Acquisitions;Cement;Holcim;Lafarge;CRH Group
|
ny0237878
|
[
"sports",
"basketball"
] |
2010/06/08
|
A Different Gasol Shows Up for These Finals
|
LOS ANGELES — Each time Pau Gasol finishes practice at the Lakers ’ training facility, he is presented with his own version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” His path takes him toward two doors. The weight room looms behind the door on the right. To the left is a door to the trainer’s room, the showers and an exit, behind which another gorgeous Los Angeles day awaits. “After some practices I just kind of hustled out there and felt like a border collie kind of nudging him to the right door a few days a week,” Chip Schaefer, the Lakers’ athletic performance director, said of Gasol, a Spaniard who plays forward and center. “And he wasn’t crazy about it at first, but then he bought into it.” Veering left led to blando, the Spanish equivalent of soft. While the 7-foot Gasol finds it curious that the label is sometimes used to describe his game, he is trying to rid himself of it just the same. “When a player’s soft, they’re blando,” Gasol said recently. “That’s when he tries to avoid contact. When you try to get into him and he takes himself out of the game, you can say that’s a player that’s soft, doesn’t really like the competitive aspect of the game.” The Lakers split the first two games of the N.B.A. finals here with the Celtics , and the series now shifts to Boston. The Lakers won Game 1 in part because of Gasol’s effectiveness, and it is safe to say they did not lose Game 2 because of him. He totaled 48 points, 22 rebounds and 9 blocks in the first two games, and erased memories of the 2008 finals, which the Celtics won in six games and in which he was physically overmatched. With the home-court advantage now gone, Gasol and guard Kobe Bryant will have to be at their best the rest of the way. Gasol’s game is regularly described as beautiful, elegant and feathery — words that might better describe a comforter — and occasionally deemed soft. It is sad, Gasol said, that the word routinely comes up, as it plays to the stereotype of the international basketball player. “It seems like a given,” Gasol said. “ ‘O.K., you’re from here and you’re soft.’ It’s a little confusing sometimes.” Some international stars — like Gasol and the German power forward Dirk Nowitzki — are known for having complete games instead of hard-nosed ones. Others, like Darko Milicic of Serbia, Nikoloz Tskitishvili of Georgia and Yaroslav Korolev of Russia, were first-round draft picks whose N.B.A. careers fell far below expectations. And a few, like Gasol’s brother, Marc, who went to the Memphis Grizzlies in Pau’s trade to the Lakers, do not shy away from contact. “I would call it more of an adjustment a player needs to make,” said Maurizio Gherardini, a Toronto Raptors executive and a former general manager of the Italian basketball team Benetton Treviso. “It’s the same difference you sometimes see when Americans struggle with the different play at the Olympics. International basketball is less physical because, generally speaking, it does not have the same type of athletes that the N.B.A. offers. It’s a different kind of game. You can do more things from a technical aspect than you can do in the N.B.A.” He added: “It’s different, but it’s the same. That’s the beauty of the game.” Gherardini spoke on the phone from Italy, where he was attending Treviso’s predraft camp for players soon hoping to transfer to the N.B.A. He first saw Pau Gasol play as a willowy 16-year-old for Barcelona’s junior team. “People wondered if his skinny frame would be strong enough for the future at a different level,” Gherardini said. “But he always gave you the impression of being very determined. He definitely was not considered a soft player.” In the N.B.A., Gasol quickly became Memphis’s go-to player. In 2001-2, he was the league’s rookie of the year. Hubie Brown inherited Gasol in 2002 when he coached the Grizzlies. Only Karl Malone and Kevin Garnett were capable of guarding him one-on-one, Brown said. “I get annoyed when people say he was soft,” said Brown, now an analyst for ESPN. “What he was, was not ready for the pounding you take in the N.B.A. and the lack of respect with the noncalls that hurts these types of guys.” With Gasol’s trade to the Lakers in February 2008, everything came together swiftly. He fit nicely into the triangle offense, a scheme that emphasizes mental and physical talents. Perhaps, it came too easily. When the Lakers flew home from their deflating, 131-92 Game 6 loss in 2008, Gasol became encased in a basketball Catch-22. The Lakers went to the finals because of his presence, but lost because he could not measure up to Boston’s big men and their ferocity. In the final game, Gasol had more turnovers (five) than field goals (four). “I’m also my biggest critic, and I knew when I fell short and I noticed it, and it hurts me more than anything,” Gasol said. “So that’s what really made me come back and want to be better, strong and more a complete player. I consciously really understood I had to put work in throughout the whole year, not just the last part.” After exit interviews with Coach Phil Jackson and General Manager Mitch Kupchak in 2008, he spoke with Schaefer. They started training after Gasol returned from competing for his national team. For the first couple of weeks, the workouts were light. When they ended, Gasol would turn to Schaefer and ask, “Is that it?” He did not know it was a psychological ploy to lure him in. “The worst thing that could have happened would be if I overworked him the first day and made him sore,” Schaefer said. “He would’ve never come back in again.” They took baby steps, mindful of Gasol’s cranky lower back. In the Western Conference finals against Denver last season, Gasol was exhausted and needed prodding from Schaefer during a weight-lifting session. In a revealing moment, Gasol said, “You know I’ve done more this year than I have my entire life combined.” Since the N.B.A. finals two years ago, Gasol estimated, he has added 12 to 15 pounds of muscle. He is listed at 250 pounds. Schaefer said Gasol maintained the same percentage of body fat. “He just needed to get his feet wet because he’s got all the tools and all the skills,” Bryant said. “That’s just with anybody. Anybody playing in the finals for the first time, it’s new. I think once he got the experience, his game just took off.” When the Lakers won last season’s championship by beating the Orlando Magic, the soft label evaporated. It resurfaced during these finals, along with the Celtics. The Lakers assistant Brian Shaw compared the Celtics’ defensive schemes against Gasol to the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boys era, when they attempted to bully Michael Jordan out of his game. “Pau on most nights isn’t the biggest, strongest guy out there, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to basketball if the game’s being played the right way because it’s not like they’re going to take a knife and stab you or bring a gun out and shoot you,” Shaw said. It helps to have the 7-foot center Andrew Bynum available. He allows Gasol to shift back to power forward, Shaw said. “Now, they can’t bully us,” Shaw said. But the Celtics showed in Game 2 on Sunday night that they can cause plenty of other problems for the Lakers, with Ray Allen’s outside shooting and Rajon Rondo’s quickness and energy. And it remains to be seen whether the Lakers will win consecutive titles, or again lose to Boston. Perhaps, along the way, Gasol will completely shed a stereotype. Whatever the outcome, the blame will most likely not fall on Gasol’s shoulders. They are stronger now.
|
Basketball;Gasol Pau;Los Angeles Lakers;Boston Celtics;National Basketball Assn
|
ny0063316
|
[
"business",
"international"
] |
2014/01/23
|
Europe, Facing Economic Pain, May Ease Climate Rules
|
LONDON — For years, Europe has tried to set the global standard for climate-change regulation, creating tough rules on emissions, mandating more use of renewable energy sources and arguably sacrificing some economic growth in the name of saving the planet. But now even Europe seems to be hitting its environmentalist limits. High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation. On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. Instead, it substituted an overall European goal that is likely to be much harder to enforce. It also decided against proposing laws on environmental damage and safety during the extraction of shale gas by a controversial drilling process known as fracking. It opted instead for a series of minimum principles it said it would monitor. Europe pressed ahead on other fronts, aiming for a cut of 40 percent in Europe’s carbon emissions by 2030, double the current target of 20 percent by 2020. Officials said the new proposals were not evidence of diminished commitment to environmental discipline but reflected the complicated reality of bringing the 28 countries of the European Union together behind a policy. “It will require a lot from Europe,” said Connie Hedegaard, European commissioner for climate action. “If all other big economies followed our example, the world would be a better place.” But the proposals were seen as a substantial backtrack by environmental groups, and evidence that economic factors were starting to influence the climate debate in ways they previously had not in Europe. Friends of the Earth , an environmental group, described the proposals as “totally inadequate” and “off the radar of what climate science tells us to do in Europe to avoid climate catastrophe.” Wednesday’s proposals came from the European Commission, the Brussels-based executive arm of the bloc, and would next require approval by the group’s member states and the European Parliament. The energy and climate debate, which is playing out across Europe, reflects similar trade-offs being made around the world on mending economic problems today or addressing the environmental problems of tomorrow. The political and policy response to climate change has failed to keep pace with increasingly dire warnings from scientists about the cascading effects of increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants in the atmosphere. What progress has been made has come largely from cost efficiencies adopted by businesses and consumers primarily for financial reasons — the switch from coal to cheaper natural gas for electricity generation in the United States, for example, and the cumulative effect of years of increasing efficiency in buildings, vehicles, appliances and manufacturing around the globe. In Britain, despite public protests, the government is pressing ahead on proposals for fracking , which has helped the United States drive down its energy costs. Germany’s plans to shift away from nuclear power by 2022 and to encourage the development of alternative sources are running into complications including higher energy costs for industry and consumers. Image José Manuel Barroso, the president of the executive arm of the European Union, and Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action, on Wednesday in Brussels. Credit Olivier Hoslet/European Presse-Photo Agency José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, defended the new proposals as a hard-fought compromise and proof that it “is possible to make a marriage between industry and climate action.” He said the measures showed that Europe was still playing a global leadership role in reducing carbon emissions. That drew a tart response from Friends of the Earth, which accused the commission of putting the immediate interests of industry ahead of Europe’s broader welfare. “Barroso and his commissioners seem to have fallen for the old-think industry spin that there must be a trade-off between climate action and economic recovery,” Brook Riley, the group’s climate and energy campaigner, said in a statement. “This position completely ignores the huge financial cost of dealing with the impacts of climate change and the 500 billion euros the E.U. is spending every year on oil and gas imports.” The British government, a frequent critic of what it sees as moves by the European Union that inhibit economic performance, welcomed the proposals. It singled out for praise the scrapping of national targets for renewable energy in favor of an overall goal of producing 27 percent of Europe’s energy from renewables by 2030, an approach that will leave countries battling among themselves over who should do more. “If you set rigid, inflexible targets, that is likely to result in greater costs,” said Edward Davey, Britain’s secretary of state for energy and climate change. “We believe our existing approach will enable us to meet these objectives without having to take more action, but we believe other countries will have to take more action.” Before Wednesday’s announcement, business groups lobbied hard against more stringent targets that they worried could endanger Europe’s still very feeble economic recovery and slow the job creation needed to bring down an overall unemployment rate of nearly 11 percent. In a letter sent to the European Commission this month, 14 executives at large companies called for “one single, realistic target” and warned that “the high-cost of noncompetitive technologies to decarbonise the power sector” will strain businesses already hit by Europe’s high energy prices, particularly for electricity, which costs twice what it does in the United States. Ms. Hedegaard on Wednesday acknowledged that Europe needed to bring down its energy prices but said that the shift to renewable sources played a “negligible” part in the problem. But she also took a swipe at what she suggested were unrealistic demands by environmental activists, noting that “we are trying to do something that is achievable, that is doable and practical for 28 governments to back.” Greenpeace has called for a 55 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and activists argue that Europe could and should have gone further than the 40 percent carbon emissions proposal because the bloc is already well on track to meet existing objectives. In 2007 the European Union said it wanted to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent in 2020 and was even prepared to reduce them by 30 percent by the same date if other big economies also took significant action. It also set national targets for adopting renewable energy. According to the commission, total greenhouse gas emissions from the 28 members had by 2011 fallen to 16.9 percent below the 1990 level, and to 18 percent lower by 2012. That suggests that the 40 percent reduction target by 2030 should be attainable. But the 2011 and 2012 reductions partly reflect the drop in industrial output in Europe after the financial crisis, which plunged almost all of the bloc’s nations into recession — something policy makers are desperate to reverse. Europeans have also been disappointed that other big polluters have failed to follow the lead they set in 2007. “The European Union said it wanted to lead globally, but it quickly discovered that other countries were not willing to engage in a race to the top,” said Andrew Jordan, a professor at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research , part of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
|
EU;European Commission;Renewable energy;Greenhouse gas;Climate Change;Global Warming;Great Britain;Jose Manuel Durao Barroso;Europe
|
ny0055540
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2014/09/04
|
Robin Roberts Forms TV Production Company
|
LOS ANGELES — The “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts on Wednesday announced the formation of Rock’n Robin Productions, an independent company that will focus on creating documentaries, lifestyle reality series and live special events for ABC and other broadcast and digital networks. Although Ms. Roberts did not provide many specifics, she said her new projects include a news-driven documentary, a Thanksgiving-themed ABC special and two reality show pilots. A new Rock’n Robin website will feature behind-the-scenes footage from the various projects and a new blog called N’Courage, where Ms. Roberts — a high-profile cancer survivor — will recognize people battling extraordinary odds. Image Robin Roberts's new company, Rock'n Robin Productions, was announced on Wednesday. Credit Lou Rocco/ABC Ms. Roberts, 53, who last year signed a lucrative deal to remain at “Good Morning America,” said in a statement that she is “excited to get involved in the business and development side of production.” John R. Green, currently executive vice president of programming and development at ABC News, will run Rock’n Robin. Mr. Green will remain at ABC News, however, as executive producer of special programming. Rock’n Robin will take over Ms. Roberts’s interview series “In the Game with Robin Roberts,” which appears on ESPN’s SportsCenter and espnW.com, an online video channel focused on women’s sports. The series will return on Thursday, when Ms. Roberts will speak to Michael Sam, who became the first openly gay player drafted by an N.F.L. team before being cut last weekend by the St. Louis Rams. ABC and ESPN are both owned by the Walt Disney Company. A spokesman for Ms. Roberts said she also plans to produce shows for non-Disney networks.
|
TV;Robin Roberts;Rock'n Robin Productions
|
ny0196077
|
[
"business",
"global"
] |
2009/10/29
|
Germany Looks at Ways to Protect Online Journalism
|
PARIS — As Angela Merkel begins her second term as chancellor of Germany, her government is promoting a novel way to help embattled newspaper and magazine publishers manage the transition to a digital future. The new governing coalition, led by Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats and including the Free Democratic Party, has pledged to create a new kind of copyright to protect online journalism. The goal is to level the playing field with Internet companies like Google , which German publishers accuse of exploiting their content to build lucrative businesses without sharing the rewards. “The Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone,” the coalition says in a document setting out its policies. Supporters of the proposal include Hubert Burda Media, a magazine publisher, and Axel Springer, owner of the newspapers Bild and Die Welt, who say it could be employed to help build new online business models. Analysts say it might allow them to try to claim royalties for the use of their content by Google or other online “aggregators” of news, for example. But the plan is raising hackles on the Internet, where opponents say an extension of copyright law runs counter to the spirit of openness that characterizes the Web. The government, they say, has succumbed to lobbying by big publishing interests that are fighting a rear-guard action against technological changes. The proposal “has no value for our society,” said Markus Beckedahl, a blogger based in Berlin and advocate of an unfettered Internet. “It only has value for publishers who see a threat from the democratization of the media. “This debate is happening only because German publishers have failed to build successful business models on the Internet,” he said. State intervention in the media is a sensitive topic in Germany because of memories of the Nazis’ control of the press during the Third Reich. Direct financial subsidies, which keep some newspapers alive in France and other European countries, would be out of the question, German publishers say. Amid concerns about privacy and access to information, the new government has rejected one copyright-enforcement approach embraced in France and Britain: cutting off the Internet access of persistent pirates of online music and movies. Ms. Merkel’s coalition instead calls for greater cooperation between rights holders and Internet service providers to try to solve the piracy problem. But her government has endorsed a more aggressive approach to the challenges facing the news media. As in other countries, meager revenue from newspaper Web sites shows no sign of compensating for losses from falling ad sales and declining readership of print editions. “Freedom of information is important,” said Burkhard Schaffeld, corporate counsel for the German Newspaper Publishers Association. “But quality journalism costs money. There is no fundamental right to information for free on the Internet.” The government’s proposal, championed by Culture Minister Bernd Neumann, would give publishers a so-called neighboring right, something that music labels and movie houses already enjoy. Details of how the proposal would work have not been spelled out, but publishing executives say one possibility would be to require a license for any commercial use of published material online. That might include Web sites that post articles from other sources, assuming they sell advertising. A new agency, modeled on the music and book industries’ royalty collection societies, could be created to gather and distribute the fees, publishing executives add. Private, noncommercial use of news articles would remain unrestricted under the proposals publishers are discussing. Opponents of the plans say the distinction between commercial and private use would be difficult to define, making enforcement of the plan a challenge. Many bloggers, for example, sell advertising and have commercial ambitions, while others blog chiefly for their own gratification, even if their comments are available for all the world to read. Would they have to pay for borrowing from online newspapers content? Even Google, a highly commercial company that generates the vast majority of its revenue from advertising, does not sell ads on its European Google News sites, which collect blurbs from news articles and provide links to the sites from which they originated. Google did not reply to a request for comment. The company has also faced objections to its news service from publishers elsewhere in Europe. Newspapers in Belgium, for instance, have been involved in a long legal battle to win damages from the company, after suing to get it to remove links to their content on Google News. Publishers say it is not clear when legislation to implement the German government’s proposal might be introduced. Publishers are still negotiating with journalists’ unions on a plan to present to the government, and not all journalists are in favor of the idea. “Copyright must not be misused as a lever to protect outdated distribution methods and to secure new business and licensing models,” a group of prominent journalists wrote in an “Internet manifesto” that appeared this summer, after publishers proposed the new copyright. Publishers say they understand that the Internet is different, but that they are tired of watching others make money from their content online. “This is simply one part of the media’s effort to survive in a new kind of economy,” said Stefan Söder, a lawyer for Hubert Burda Media, a magazine publisher based in Munich. “Obviously everyone wants access to free and unlimited information, but if everyone has that, then there is no way to pay for the production of it.”
|
Germany;News and News Media;Computers and the Internet;Copyrights and Copyright Violations;Newspapers;Google Inc;Merkel Angela
|
ny0273551
|
[
"us"
] |
2016/05/12
|
Treating Pain Without Feeding Addiction at Epicenter for Opioids
|
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — The doctors wanted to talk about illness, but the patients — often miners, waitresses, tree cutters and others whose jobs were punishingly physical — wanted to talk only about how much they hurt. They kept pleading for opioids like Vicodin and Percocet, the potent drugs that can help chronic pain, but that have fueled an epidemic of addiction and deadly overdoses. “We needed to talk about congestive heart failure or diabetes or out-of-control hypertension,” said Dr. Sarah Chouinard, the chief medical officer at Community Care of West Virginia, which runs primary care clinics across a big rural chunk of this state. “But we struggled over the course of a visit to get patients to focus on any of those.” Worse, she said, some of the organization’s doctors were prescribing too many opioids, often to people they had grown up with in the small towns where they practiced and whom they were reluctant to deny. So four years ago, Community Care tried a new approach. It hired an anesthesiologist to treat chronic pain, relieving its primary care doctors and nurse practitioners of their thorniest burden and letting them concentrate on conditions they feel more comfortable treating. Since then, more than 3,000 of Community Care’s 35,000 patients have seen the anesthesiologist, Dr. Denzil Hawkinberry, for pain management, while continuing to see their primary care providers for other health problems. Dr. Chouinard said Community Care was doing a better job of keeping them well over all, while letting Dr. Hawkinberry make all the decisions about who should be on opioid painkillers. “I’m part F.B.I. investigator, part C.I.A. interrogator, part drill sergeant, part cheerleader,” Dr. Hawkinberry said. He is also a recovering opioid addict who has experienced the difficulties of the drugs himself. Even for people with access to the best doctors, it is hard to safely control chronic pain. Community Care is trying to do so for a disproportionately poor population, in a state that has been the epicenter for opioid abuse from the beginning of what has become a national epidemic. Now, the difficult work of addressing the nation’s overreliance on opioids, while also treating debilitating pain, is playing out on a patient-by-patient basis, including in a patchwork of experiments like this one. About 70 percent of the 1,200 patients currently in Community Care’s pain management program receive opioids as part of their treatment, which may also include nonnarcotic drugs, physical therapy, injections and appointments with a psychologist. Many had already been on opioids “for many years before they met me,” Dr. Hawkinberry said, adding that his goal was to get them on lower doses, and to try other ways of managing their pain, with his own experience as a cautionary lesson. He became addicted to the opioid fentanyl when he was an anesthesiology resident, he said, and had to wage a legal fight to stay in the program. He relapsed four years later while working at a West Virginia hospital and underwent treatment and monitoring by a state program for doctors with addiction problems. He says he has been in recovery and has not used drugs for almost nine years. Dr. Chouinard said that Dr. Hawkinberry’s experience made him “all the better positioned to know what this is like” and to screen for drug abuse. Patients who are prescribed opioids have to submit urine samples at each monthly appointment and at other random times, and to bring their pills to every visit to be counted. About 500 have been kicked out of the program for violations since it started in 2012. Image Roger Taylor, 68, from Clay, W.Va., with a physician assistant before an appointment with Dr. Hawkinberry. More than 3,000 of Community Care’s 35,000 patients have seen the doctor for pain management. Credit Raymond Thompson Jr for The New York Times In addition, Community Care’s pain management clinic is closely monitored by the state as one of six licensed to operate under a 2012 law meant to cut down on pill mills. The organization’s primary care providers talk frequently with Dr. Hawkinberry about the patients they share with him. Because they use the same electronic medical record system, they can keep close tabs on how their patients’ pain is being treated — and he on how their other health problems, like high blood pressure, are being addressed. “We can even instant-message each other, and we do that a lot,” said Dr. Kimberly Becher, a primary care doctor at Community Care’s clinic in Clay, a town of 500. In the past, Community Care’s doctors would sometimes send patients to outside pain specialists, which Dr. Becher said yielded poor results because of a lack of communication. The close contact has especially helped complicated patients like Frances Key, who was struggling to control her diabetes and high blood pressure when she started seeing Dr. Hawkinberry three years ago. Addressing her back pain with physical therapy and hydrocodone, typically taking one low-dose pill a day, has helped her lose 50 pounds and manage her other chronic conditions. “I was a mess when I first came — I hurt all the time,” said Ms. Key, who injured her back lifting a deep fryer at her job in a deli. “I can go for a walk now; I can play with my grandkids.” One day last month, Dr. Hawkinberry saw four new patients and prescribed opioids to one: a carpenter with a congenital hand deformity that had become more painful, keeping him out of work. He thought hard on the carpenter’s case, which was complicated by stomach ulcers that made him a bad candidate for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, which new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control recommend trying before opioids. “What happened here?” he asked the man, studying marks on the inside of his forearm. The patient told him they were from donating plasma, which brought him extra income. “No history of I.V. drugs?” Dr. Hawkinberry continued, standing close and looking the man in the eye. “No, never.” “Never?” “Never.” The patient, who allowed a reporter to sit in on the exchange, would give only his first name, Frank, because he said he wanted to protect his privacy. Dr. Hawkinberry prescribed the patient a low dose of hydrocodone, five milligrams, three times a day until he returned in a month — “a therapeutic trial,” he said, to help control the patient’s pain while he started physical therapy. Image Mr. Taylor scheduling his next appointment to see the pain specialist, for which he drives two hours. Credit Raymond Thompson Jr. for The New York Times “These are not decisions that I make lightly,” Dr. Hawkinberry said afterward. “I fret over them; I pore over the risks and the benefits and try to really analyze, both objectively and subjectively, whether or not it’s a good idea.” He said he did not want to put anyone on a path to addiction. Referring to his own experience, he said, “I appreciate the cunning nature of this disease.” Dr. Chouinard said that in addition to improving patient safety, the program had helped her recruit new doctors and nurse practitioners. “I have family practice docs coming out of residency programs call me and say, ‘I’ve heard your health centers don’t require us to manage chronic pain — can I talk to you?’” she said. If the program has a downside, she said, it is the challenge of replicating it at other community health centers around the country. Community Care, which initially paid for the program with a grant and then lost money on it for a few years, has tried unsuccessfully to hire a second pain specialist as it has grown. Nor is it clear how much programs like this can help stamp out opioid addiction. West Virginia still has one of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the nation, and while deaths caused by prescription opioids are decreasing, those caused by heroin and fentanyl are climbing. Dr. Carl Sullivan III, director of addiction medicine at West Virginia University, said that Dr. Hawkinberry was “one of very few people I could trust to do chronic pain right.” But he said the field of pain management in West Virginia remained “seriously undermanned.” The university’s health system, WVU Medicine, is planning to provide more alternative pain treatments throughout the state, but Dr. Richard Vaglienti, its director of outpatient pain services, said it would take several years to put in place. Given the high demand for Community Care’s program, patients often have to wait up to six months for their first pain appointment. The hourlong evaluation starts with a urine drug test, a physical examination, a battery of questions to assess the patient’s psychological history and risk of addiction, and a check of the state’s prescription-monitoring database to see whether the patient has been prescribed opioids in the past — a check Dr. Hawkinberry repeats at every follow-up appointment. In another new case last month, the patient was a computer network technician with worsening knee and foot pain that his primary care doctor had not been able to help. In the initial screening of the 42-year-old man, a red flag emerged: He said that he had been taking some of his father’s hydrocodone pills in an attempt to quell his pain. “Was he contrite?” Dr. Hawkinberry asked Tracey Sherman, the physician assistant who had done the screening. “Was he obstinate?” “Not obstinate,” Mr. Sherman said. “Not argumentative at all. I think he just wants some relief.” Still, the patient had received a “moderate risk” score on the opioid risk assessment test that Mr. Sherman had given him, because he had taken his father’s medicine and because of his relatively young age. Opioids were out of the question, at least for now. After diagnosing plantar fasciitis in the patient’s foot and ordering a knee X-ray, Dr. Hawkinberry gave him a nonnarcotic, prescribed physical therapy and told him to come back in a month. If hydrocodone still showed up in his urine at that point, Dr. Hawkinberry warned, he would not see him again. The patient gave his word. “My other doctor couldn’t find answers,” he said. “So I’m just glad I could get in here.”
|
West Virginia;Community Care of West Virginia;Opioids;Drug Abuse;Pain;Health Insurance;Addiction;Rural area
|
ny0143866
|
[
"us"
] |
2008/10/27
|
Two Dead in Shooting on Campus
|
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Two people were reported shot to death and one other injured on Sunday night on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas , in Conway, according to The Associated Press. Police at the university, a liberal arts institution about 30 miles west of Little Rock, ordered the campus locked down after the incident was reported. The police said one of four suspects in the shootings was in custody. Warwick Sabin, a press officer for the university, said in an interview that the shootings occurred outside a dormitory at 9:30 Sunday night. Neither the victims nor the suspects had been identified, Mr. Sabin said. “We don’t know if any of them are students,” he said. Tom Courtway, interim president of the university, said in a statement late Sunday night that no classes would be held on Monday.
|
Arkansas;School Shootings;University of Central Arkansas
|
ny0049881
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2014/10/20
|
Washington Post Adds a National Tabloid Edition
|
The Washington Post, which has been growing steadily since its purchase last year by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, continued its expansion over the weekend by adding a national edition. Local newspapers across the nation can now deliver with their Sunday papers a 24-page color tabloid edition of The Post. A news release said The Post’s insert would include news, including “coverage of politics, policy, national and world events, lifestyle, and the arts along with a wide range of commentary.” The Dallas Morning News was the first paper to deliver the new edition starting on Sunday. Stephen P. Hills, president and general manager of The Post, said by email that local newspapers would sell The Washington Post weekly edition “as an add-on to their subscriptions” and that it would include local advertising. The move is another step in The Washington Post’s expansion plans, which began when Mr. Bezos announced in August 2013 that he would buy the newspaper from its longtime owners, the Graham family, for $250 million. Before the purchase, The Washington Post had cut costs for years as advertising revenues and print subscriptions declined. But this year under the new ownership, The Post has added 100 newsroom employees. Early signs suggest these investments are paying off: ComScore figures show that in September the number of unique visitors to The Post’s website grew by 47 percent to 42 million compared with the year before. The Washington Post has long syndicated its articles through its news service. But as part of its recent expansion, it also established partnerships with 167 newspapers that allow them to give their print subscribers digital subscriptions to The Post as a bonus. The Washington Post was not the only paper to offer new content to readers in Dallas. Last week, The New York Times announced it was offering its international weekly supplement to national newspaper publishers starting on Sunday. The Dallas Morning News was the first newspaper to participate, which involved publishing the International Weekly supplement and a 12-page Book Review with its Sunday edition.
|
Newspaper;Price;Washington Post;The New York Times;Dallas Morning News;Amazon;Jeff Bezos;Dallas
|
ny0133028
|
[
"sports",
"football"
] |
2012/12/13
|
Paul Tagliabue’s Saints Ruling Offers Criticism, and Closure
|
By Wednesday morning, Roger Goodell was in Dallas for an owners meeting, examining the latest technology on hip and thigh pads, a timely reminder that the issue of player safety hangs over almost every major decision the N.F.L. makes about its on-field product. That has been a very big shield for Goodell to stand behind in the nine months since the league announced its sanctions against the New Orleans Saints for a bounty program it said coaches organized and players participated in. And in the wake of Paul Tagliabue ’s decision Tuesday to entirely vacate the discipline Goodell, his successor as commissioner, had given four players for their roles in the bounty program, the league was left to sort through how badly that shield had been damaged by the fallout of one of the oddest ordeals it has brought upon itself. It is an episode so strange that Tagliabue even used as context for one portion of his decision the case of Brett Favre texting inappropriate pictures of himself to a Jets employee. The league, like virtually everyone else, was surprised by Tagliabue’s decision. It never imagined that he could at once agree that Jonathan Vilma had put a bounty on Favre, and then rule that he should not be disciplined, not even fined. But even including that seeming contradiction, Tagliabue succeeded where Goodell’s blast-furnace discipline had failed: he held a full hearing, in which the accused players — Vilma, Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove and Will Smith — as well as coaches and officials, were allowed to see evidence and question their accusers. And Tagliabue created a nuanced decision that offered a chance for everyone to claim at least a portion of victory, while also tweaking the behavior of some (Goodell) and hammering others, most glaringly Saints coaches and other officials, onto whom Tagliabue shifted almost all the blame for the bounty program. Only one person — Fujita, the former Saints linebacker whom Tagliabue determined had not committed conduct detrimental to the league — emerged unscathed in the report. But so, too, did a construct the N.F.L. holds dear: because there is no discipline to contest, the players will not seek intervention by a federal judge. If that had happened, the judge might have tried to limit the power of the commissioner’s office, a result the league wanted to avoid. For as much as Tagliabue’s decision was a very public reproach of Goodell’s handling of the case, that is a long-term win for the league. “This case wasn’t solely about the suspensions of the four players,” said Gabe Feldman, the director of the Tulane Sports Law Program in New Orleans. “It was also about limiting the scope of the commissioner’s authority. The players won the battle and got the suspensions overturned, but Tagliabue’s decision not only affirmed the scope of the commissioner’s authority but also helped the N.F.L. avoid having to fight that war in federal court by essentially rendering that issue moot. By actually providing some finality, I think this ends up helping the players and the league.” Tagliabue made clear in his decision that ending the bounty case was a primary goal and it was, on Wednesday, how people around the league chose to explain his willingness to give the players what seemed to amount to a free pass. When he was commissioner, Tagliabue presided over a much different relationship between the league and the players union than the contentious one that now exists. Extended public fights between Tagliabue and the late union leader Gene Upshaw were rare. Perhaps Tagliabue’s distaste for this kind of messy spectacle contributed to his desire to neatly wrap up the bounty case. From the start, the lengthy suspensions of the players were stunning, in part because the league and Goodell have often made the point that management should be held to a higher standard. It was in the portions of his decision where Tagliabue addressed the players’ discipline itself that he may have given Goodell and his closest lieutenants the most to think about. (Vilma was originally suspended for the season; Hargrove, now a free-agent defensive end, for eight games; Smith, a Saints defensive end, for four; and Fujita for three.) Tagliabue reached into the N.F.L.’s history to provide guidance for how he thought Goodell should have handled this case, pointing to how the former commissioner Pete Rozelle phased in a policy on performance-enhancing drugs, which included a discipline-free transition year. “He understood that sometimes it’s necessary to clarify the rules — make sure everyone understands; postpone discipline for a while, not forever, but maybe for a season; and then enforce the rules with strict discipline,” Tagliabue wrote. Perhaps a lengthy run-up on any player safety issue is not feasible with concussion lawsuits piling up on Goodell’s desk. But Tagliabue’s admonition about how best to change a culture was also pointed: next time try a velvet glove, he was advising Goodell, instead of a hammer. “I think his report made it quite clear that he holds the management and the coaches responsible,” Goodell said Wednesday. “My personal view is I hold everyone responsible. We have to have a personal responsibility here. Player health and safety is an important issue in this league, and it’s going to take everyone. “I fundamentally disagree that this is something that lies just with coaches and management." Tagliabue served as a mentor to several top league officials, among them Goodell and Jeff Pash, the N.F.L.’s general counsel. The bounty case is so distinct that it may provide no precedent for future discipline; it seems unlikely that any coach would again risk having such a system in place, given the sanctions given to the organization, including Sean Payton’s season-long suspension. The bigger question is how much Goodell and those around him will be chastened by Tagliabue’s rebuke, and will consider his counsel when the next thorny predicament arises. Goodell has enjoyed strong support from owners. Negotiating a favorable collective bargaining agreement and multibillion-dollar television deals buys a long honeymoon. But his public image, and his reputation among players, has taken a beating this year, in large part because of the league’s handling of the Saints and its lockout of game officials. He has sometimes appeared to be tone-deaf at best, and arbitrary at worst. Saints quarterback Drew Brees told reporters in New Orleans on Wednesday that Goodell and the league office now had “little to no credibility” with players. All commissioners confront such crossroads, and Goodell, six years on the job and with the responsibility of shepherding the league through its concussion crisis, will have plenty of opportunities to adjust his leadership style if he chooses and burnish his reputation again. He still faces Vilma’s defamation lawsuit. But while Tagliabue may have inflicted a significant setback on Goodell, he did do him, and the N.F.L., one favor: in sweeping the discipline aside, he brought a measure of closure to one of the N.F.L.’s most bitter fights with its own. That is a win for everybody.
|
Tagliabue Paul;Goodell Roger;New Orleans Saints;National Football League;Vilma Jonathan;Fujita Scott;Smith Will;Hargrove Anthony;National Football League Players Assn;Football
|
ny0125404
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2012/08/19
|
Wall Street Trader Staggers Into Ironman Status
|
IT was just after 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 when Guy Adami heard the words that had floated through his daydreams for nearly a year — to say nothing of nearly every minute of the previous 16 hours: “YOU are an Ironman!” he heard the booming voice of the announcer Mike Reilly say. “Good job. Way to get it done.” Mr. Adami, the subject of the June 24 Metropolitan cover story about his arduous training for his first Ironman triathlon, the first one held in and around New York City, had just crossed the finish line in that race. The competition had started that morning at 7 with a 2.4-mile open water swim in the Hudson River, and ended with a 26.2-mile run that originated in New Jersey and crossed the George Washington Bridge before concluding in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side, near 85th Street. In between was a 112-mile bicycle ride on the Palisades Parkway. Mr. Adami, 49, a Wall Street trader who is best known as a panelist on the CNBC program “ Fast Money ,” said he was convinced at various points during the race that he would not complete his odyssey by midnight, when the triathlon would officially be over. “I didn’t think I was going to finish until I saw the finish line,” Mr. Adami said. “I thought at any moment my legs would give out.” The race had been threatened by a sewage discharge into the river near Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., just days before it began. And a competitor, a 43-year-old man, died after experiencing distress during the swim portion. For Mr. Adami, the challenges began almost immediately after he jumped into the Hudson. “Fifty yards out, I got kicked in the face, like a mule,” he said. “The guy didn’t mean to do it. He asked if I was O.K., but it freaks you out.” And yet, aided in part by a fast-moving current, Mr. Adami finished the swim in 1 hour 9 minutes, more than an hour under the 2-hour-20-minute cutoff. Mr. Adami found the bicycle ride — along a two-loop course that extended from Fort Lee, N.J., to Nyack, N.Y. — far more arduous. Though he often averaged 16 miles an hour on training rides leading up to the race, he now found himself crawling up the hills of the Palisades at less than half that speed. Mr. Adami said he was also dogged by loneliness, during long stretches with neither a spectator nor another competitor in sight. He started the run around 5 p.m. — 10 hours after his journey began, and seven hours before the race would be declared over. For much of that time he neither ran nor walked, but staggered. Often, he said, he contemplated quitting, but willed himself forward, not least because of the encouragement of fellow competitors. And then, after 16 hours 19 minutes and 52 seconds, his journey was over. His performance ranked him 1,966, of a field of 2,157 who started the race. (According to the Ironman United States Championship organizers, 135 participants did not finish.) “You don’t realize what you’re capable of doing until you try,” said Mr. Adami, who, along with six other participants, raised more than $400,000 in donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of New Jersey, through its Team in Training program.
|
Triathlon;Ironman US Championship;Adami Guy;New York City
|
ny0170936
|
[
"business"
] |
2007/11/04
|
Beyond Those Health Care Numbers
|
WITH the health care system at the center of the political debate, a lot of scary claims are being thrown around. The dangerous ones are not those that are false; watchdogs in the news media are quick to debunk them. Rather, the dangerous ones are those that are true but don’t mean what people think they mean. Here are three of the true but misleading statements about health care that politicians and pundits love to use to frighten the public: STATEMENT 1 The United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, which has national health insurance. The differences between the neighbors are indeed significant. Life expectancy at birth is 2.6 years greater for Canadian men than for American men, and 2.3 years greater for Canadian women than American women. Infant mortality in the United States is 6.8 per 1,000 live births, versus 5.3 in Canada. These facts are often taken as evidence for the inadequacy of the American health system. But a recent study by June and Dave O’Neill, economists at Baruch College, from which these numbers come, shows that the difference in health outcomes has more to do with broader social forces. For example, Americans are more likely than Canadians to die by accident or by homicide. For men in their 20s, mortality rates are more than 50 percent higher in the United States than in Canada, but the O’Neills show that accidents and homicides account for most of that gap. Maybe these differences have lessons for traffic laws and gun control, but they teach us nothing about our system of health care. Americans are also more likely to be obese, leading to heart disease and other medical problems. Among Americans, 31 percent of men and 33 percent of women have a body mass index of at least 30, a definition of obesity, versus 17 percent of men and 19 percent of women in Canada. Japan, which has the longest life expectancy among major nations, has obesity rates of about 3 percent. The causes of American obesity are not fully understood, but they involve lifestyle choices we make every day, as well as our system of food delivery. Research by the Harvard economists David Cutler, Ed Glaeser and Jesse Shapiro concludes that America’s growing obesity problem is largely attributable to our economy’s ability to supply high-calorie foods cheaply. Lower prices increase food consumption, sometimes beyond the point of optimal health. Infant mortality rates also reflect broader social trends, including the prevalence of infants with low birth weight. The health system in the United States gives low birth-weight babies slightly better survival chances than does Canada’s, but the more pronounced difference is the frequency of these cases. In the United States, 7.5 percent of babies are born weighing less than 2,500 grams (about 5.5 pounds), compared with 5.7 percent in Canada. In both nations, these infants have more than 10 times the mortality rate of larger babies. Low birth weights are in turn correlated with teenage motherhood. (One theory is that a teenage mother is still growing and thus competing with the fetus for nutrients.) The rate of teenage motherhood, according to the O’Neill study, is almost three times higher in the United States than it is in Canada. Whatever its merits, a Canadian-style system of national health insurance is unlikely to change the sexual mores of American youth The bottom line is that many statistics on health outcomes say little about our system of health care. STATEMENT 2 Some 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. This number from the Census Bureau is often cited as evidence that the health system is failing for many American families. Yet by masking tremendous heterogeneity in personal circumstances, the figure exaggerates the magnitude of the problem. To start with, the 47 million includes about 10 million residents who are not American citizens. Many are illegal immigrants. Even if we had national health insurance, they would probably not be covered. The number also fails to take full account of Medicaid , the government’s health program for the poor. For instance, it counts millions of the poor who are eligible for Medicaid but have not yet applied. These individuals, who are healthier, on average, than those who are enrolled, could always apply if they ever needed significant medical care. They are uninsured in name only. The 47 million also includes many who could buy insurance but haven’t. The Census Bureau reports that 18 million of the uninsured have annual household income of more than $50,000, which puts them in the top half of the income distribution. About a quarter of the uninsured have been offered employer-provided insurance but declined coverage. Of course, millions of Americans have trouble getting health insurance. But they number far less than 47 million, and they make up only a few percent of the population of 300 million. Any reform should carefully focus on this group to avoid disrupting the vast majority for whom the system is working. We do not nationalize an industry simply because a small percentage of the work force is unemployed. Similarly, we should be wary of sweeping reforms of our health system if they are motivated by the fact that a small percentage of the population is uninsured. STATEMENT 3 Health costs are eating up an ever increasing share of American incomes. In 1950, about 5 percent of United States national income was spent on health care, including both private and public health spending. Today the share is about 16 percent. Many pundits regard the increasing cost as evidence that the system is too expensive. But increasing expenditures could just as well be a symptom of success. The reason that we spend more than our grandparents did is not waste, fraud and abuse, but advances in medical technology and growth in incomes. Science has consistently found new ways to extend and improve our lives. Wonderful as they are, they do not come cheap. Fortunately, our incomes are growing, and it makes sense to spend this growing prosperity on better health. The rationality of this phenomenon is stressed in a recent article by the economists Charles I. Jones of the University of California, Berkeley, and Robert E. Hall of Stanford . They ask, “As we grow older and richer, which is more valuable: a third car, yet another television, more clothing — or an extra year of life?” Mr. Hall and Mr. Jones forecast that the share of income devoted to health care will top 30 percent by 2050. But in their model, this is not a problem: It is the modern form of progress. Even if the rise in health care spending turns out to be less than they forecast, it is important to get reform right. Our health care system is not perfect, but it has been a major source of advances in our standard of living, and it will be a large share of the economy we bequeath to our children. As we look at reform plans, we should be careful not to be fooled by statistics into thinking that the problems we face are worse than they really are.
|
Health Insurance and Managed Care;Politics and Government;Medicine and Health
|
ny0086008
|
[
"science",
"space"
] |
2015/07/16
|
A Window Into Pluto, and Hopes of Opening Other Doors
|
LAUREL, Md. — During the early hours of July 14, Eastern time, a series of radio waves went out from giant antennas in Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, Calif., in the direction of a collection of stars known as the “teaspoon” in the constellation Sagittarius. In a feat of Einsteinian navigation, they caught up, four and a half hours later, with a spacecraft named New Horizons that was speeding past Pluto at 30,000 miles per hour and was ready to phone home. The craft had just slipped into the shadow of the dwarf planet and turned around to look back at the Earth through Pluto’s atmosphere. It was an extraordinary time for a cosmic selfie, a historic day in space and here on Earth. It will be left to historians of future decades to decide whether President Obama made the right choice in deciding to talk to his enemies rather than to bomb them. About Pluto, history will have an easier task. Everybody alive on Earth was ready for some good news. It was easy to fall in love with Alice Bowman, the mission operations manager — a.k.a. “Mom” — for New Horizons, who spoke about the spacecraft as one would a child gone off to college as she calmly took an inventory of its systems when it finally made contact. The spacecraft had been taught well and was thriving. NASA’s New Horizons Probe Glimpses Pluto’s Icy Heart NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is sending back images of Pluto from its summer flyby. And so, it was possible to say in that moment, was science. A decade of missed sleep, holidays and family time, a great adventure in persistence, ingenuity and vision had paid off in data that would keep coming down for the next year and a half. Not only will the information provide a better view of Pluto’s “heart,” but perhaps clues to the origin of the planets and solar system, frozen and stored all these eons out there in the ice cube tray of the gods. In the audience at a news conference here at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where the spacecraft was built and operated, were a handful of children, Plutokids, born on the day New Horizons was launched: Jan. 19, 2006. Invited to ask a question, one 9-year-old asked about the mission of New Horizons. That was a good question. If all goes well, New Horizons will continue traveling outward to encounter other denizens of the Kuiper belt, the vast zone of icy wreckage beyond the known planets. But the larger question is what this generation of Plutokids and their peers can look forward to. With this trip to Pluto, S. Alan Stern, the leader of New Horizons mission, said, humans have now visited all the known worlds, the starry crib into which we were born. William Sanford Nye, better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, the chief executive of the Planetary Society , offered his own view. Lacking the will or the resources or the patience to launch an interstellar probe to, say, Alpha Centauri, a star 4.5 light-years and a human lifetime away (assuming we could achieve a tenth the speed of light, which is about 20,000 times the speed of New Horizons), Mr. Nye said it might behoove us to look again at our origins and see them for the first time. Asked whether he agreed with Dr. Stern that New Horizons was the “capstone” of our reconnaissance of the solar system, Mr. Nye said he preferred to think of the Pluto flyby as having kick-started a new phase of exploration, a search for the end of cosmic loneliness. “I really want to find life,” he said. “Because if we find life, it would change the course of human history.” And there are many possible venues in which we might find cosmic companionship, in the form of microbes or better: the ocean under the ice of Europa; the warm, salty geysers spitting from the Saturnian moon Enceladus; and underneath the ever-beckoning sands of Mars. It could be, especially in the case of Mars, that we find out we are too late, and our putative cousins have already gone extinct. Or we might find out that we are they, blown from one formerly Edenic rock to another by a primordial asteroid blast. We might find out we know nothing about the various forms life might take and won’t even recognize our new friends. We know from the Kepler spacecraft, another instance of technology, grit and vision that took years to reach fruition, that the Milky Way probably contains billions of potentially habitable planets. What are the odds that life evolves? John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut and the head of NASA’s space science directorate, mused here recently: If the odds are a million to one, that still leaves thousands of chances. If they are higher? Nobody knows, but perhaps we will learn — an effort that could easily take a generation. From England, Stephen Hawking, the rock star cosmologist, who knows something about persistence and vision, offered up a greeting to the Pluto crowd. “We explore because we are human,” he said, “and we want to know.”
|
Pluto;New Horizons;Space;NASA;Planetary Society;Bill Nye;Barack Obama;S Alan Stern;Alice Bowman
|
ny0178250
|
[
"technology"
] |
2007/09/12
|
New Social Sites Cater to People of a Certain Age
|
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11 — Older people are sticky. That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users. The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook — with wrinkles. And they are seeking to capitalize on what investors say may be a profitable characteristic of older Internet users: they are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next. “Teens are tire kickers — they hang around, cost you money and then leave,” said Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and author of the blog “Infectious Greed.” Where Friendster was once the hot spot, Facebook and MySpace now draw the crowds of young people online. “The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics,” Mr. Kedrosky added, “not the least of which is that they hang around.” This prospective and relative stickiness is helping drive a wave of new investment into boomer and older-oriented social networking sites that offer like-minded (and like-aged) individuals discussion and dating forums, photo-sharing, news and commentary, and chatter about diet, fitness and health care. Last week, VantagePoint Ventures, an early investor in MySpace, announced that it had led a $16.5 million round of financing for Multiply, a social networking site aimed at people who are settled. In August, Shasta Ventures led a $4.8 million financing round for TeeBeeDee, a site coming out of its test stage this month. The name is short for “To Be Determined” (as in: just because you’re not trolling for a mate on MySpace doesn’t mean your life is over.) Also in August, Johnson & Johnson spent $10 million to $20 million to acquire Maya’s Mom, a social networking site for parents, according to a person briefed on the deal. The site has been in existence about a year. Social networking has so far focused mainly on businesspeople and young people because they are tech-savvy and are treasured by Madison Avenue. But there are 78 million boomers — roughly three times the number of teenagers — and most of them are Internet users who learned computer skills in the workplace. Indeed, the number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are aged 18 to 34, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a market research firm. TeeBeeDee’s founder is Robin Wolaner, who in 1987 created Parenting magazine. That year, at least seven magazines focused on being a parent were started, and Ms. Wolaner said she was seeing the same sudden recognition of a need for Internet publishers to respond to the demands of older Americans. She came up with the idea for the site, she said, “when I was sitting around with friends and we said, ‘We’re not going to hang out at the AARP site. What is there for us?’ ” (Plus, she said, she wanted to find a community where she could discuss her interest in getting an eye lift). “There’s a recognition that this generation now uses the Internet just like younger people,” she said. “The one thing this generation hasn’t done yet is network online.” The question is whether they’ll want to network in large enough numbers to justify the tens of millions of dollars going into the space. Indeed, the interest from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists has led to a mini-boom in sites that cater to baby boomers, creating what they say is both critical mass and a likely falling out. Some of the older users of the sites say the experience feels more comfortable to them than when they tried MySpace, Facebook or Friendster. “I’ve discussed my divorce, my medical issues, and when do I dare go dating again,” said Martha Starks, 52, a retired optician in Tucson, who spends an hour or two each evening on a site called Eons. “I sure wouldn’t discuss that stuff with a 20-year-old.” She says she talks about lighter things, too, like movies and music, with an audience that gets what she is saying. “They don’t even know who Aretha is — she’s the queen of soul!” she said. Meg Dunn, 38, who is raising three children in Fort Collins, Colo., said she had tried MySpace and Facebook but had found that the short attention span of users didn’t suit her either. She now uses Multiply, where she shares family photos with her relatives, and gets into discussions on substantive topics, like health issues and illnesses affecting elderly people. “I feel like I’m putting down roots, building relationships,” she said. “My feeling on MySpace is that people give you a poke, and then they’re gone and you never see them again.” Peter Pezaris, president and chief executive of Multiply.com Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla., said he believed that older customers were stickier than younger ones, but said the evidence so far was anecdotal. He said 96 percent of the company’s active users returned each month, a statistic that he said impressed the venture capitalists who considered investing in the site. David Carlick, a managing director with VantagePoint, which led the latest investment round in Multiply, said he believed that social networking sites in general had a bright business future as advertisers start to gravitate to them. He also said he believed that targeted sites, like those focused on an age demographic, could be particularly effective. He said he had some concern that sites focusing on younger users could be vulnerable to the whims and caprice of fashion. “That was on our minds when Murdoch came in with an offer,” he said of the decision to sell MySpace to the publishing tycoon Rupert Murdoch for around $550 million. But venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have been slow to embrace the interests of older Internet users, said Susan Ayers Walker, a freelance technology journalist for AARP and founder of SmartSilvers Alliance, which offers consultant services to businesses looking to connect with older consumers. She said that Silicon Valley investors have seen themselves as eternally youthful, and identified with ever-new gadgets. But they are starting to accept their age — and to invest in it. “They’ve all got high blood pressure,” she said. “They’re starting to understand their age group — they’re living it.” Peter Ziebelman, a partner at Palo Alto Venture Partners, joked that the interest in sites aimed at aging Americans represented the end of a state of denial for venture capitalists. “Perhaps there aren’t many V.C.’s who want to be in the newspaper saying they’re backing the 5o-and-over population,” he said. “They’d rather say they’re attending the next keg party.” (Mr. Ziebelman is an investor in www.agis.com , which is not a social networking site, but focuses on delivering information and services to people who need help with elder care.) Ms. Ayers said that the investors are learning that social networks aimed at older users are a big draw for investors, consumer products and services companies. “Not only do we have a lot more money, we pay a lot more attention to advertisers,” she said. The advertisers on Eons include Humana health care insurance, Fidelity Investments and the pharmacy chain CVS. Lee Goss, president and chief operating officer of Eons Inc., which received backing from the venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst, said that the sites aimed at an older audience may not grow as quickly as MySpace, but could have longevity. “Our audience, while it is harder to attract, is more durable and sticky over time,” he said.
|
Computers and the Internet;Silicon Valley (Calif);Aged;Stocks and Bonds;Families and Family Life
|
ny0018543
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2013/07/29
|
Ruling Party Wins Narrowly in Cambodian Vote
|
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — After years of near total dominance in Cambodian politics, the party of Prime Minister Hun Sen won a relatively narrow victory in national elections on Sunday as a resurgent opposition rode a wave of disenchantment with the prime minister’s 28 years in power. Khieu Kanharith, the Cambodian information minister, told news services that according to a preliminary count, the governing party won 68 seats, or about 55 percent of the National Assembly’s 123 seats. In the assembly being replaced, the governing party controlled a commanding 90 seats. “This is a historical day, a great day for Cambodia ,” Sam Rainsy, an opposition leader who returned from exile in France nine days before the election, told a news conference. “People came in great numbers to express their will and democracy seemed to move forward.” The opposition won 55, or about 45 percent, of seats in the assembly, making it harder for Mr. Hun Sen to impose his will. After years of a splintered opposition, the election signaled the arrival, permanent or not, of a de facto two-party system in Cambodia. The two largest opposition parties merged last year to form the Cambodia National Rescue Party. The opposition challenged the governing party, the Cambodian People’s Party, with a strikingly populist platform calling for a sharp rise in civil servants’ salaries, monthly payments to those over 65 years old, and an increase in the minimum wage. It also included a guaranteed, government-set price for agricultural products, lower gasoline costs and free health care for the poor. Mr. Hun Sen’s party, as well as many analysts, questioned whether the opposition would be able to pay for all the proposed measures. But in a country with wide income disparities, where 40 percent of children under 5 are malnourished and more than two-thirds of households lack a flush toilet, the opposition’s program resonated. The opposition also highlighted corruption, land seizures and the granting of wide swaths of forest to foreign companies, especially ones from China and Vietnam. There are competing pictures of Cambodia two decades after the United Nations helped organize the country’s first multiparty elections in 1993. That followed the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979. Opposition leaders, foreign governments and many foreign analysts have criticized what they say is Mr. Hun Sen’s monopoly on power and the intimidation of his critics. Patrick Merloe, an analyst with the National Democratic Institute , an American nonprofit organization that promotes free elections, told the United States House Foreign Affairs Committee in July that Cambodia “remains mired in a corrupt, quasi-authoritarian political system that has persisted even though the country receives massive amounts of aid to improve its governance.” But Mr. Hun Sen’s supporters say they are grateful for the stability that his party has provided. This is especially true for those old enough to remember the rule of the Khmer Rouge, which led to the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, overwork and execution. The International Republican Institute , another American nonprofit organization, conducted a poll of 2,000 Cambodians in January and February and reported that 79 percent of the respondents said the country was “generally headed in the right direction.” Only 20 percent of them said they were worse off than they were five years ago, when Mr. Hun Sen’s party won an overwhelming victory in the last general election. David Chandler, a leading historian of Cambodia, said that Mr. Hun Sen, 60, had remained in power for 28 years through a mix of political threats and intimidation — and by delivering tangible improvements in people’s lives. “There are more roads, more factories, more motorcycles — the patronage flows down and the loyalty flows up,” Mr. Chandler said Sunday. But Mr. Hun Sen has shown himself to be ruthless when threatened politically, Mr. Chandler added: “Whenever this government shows its teeth, it bites into people.” As in years past, officials from the governing party said during the campaign that voters should show their gratitude for three decades of peace, an argument that still has some resonance among some Cambodians. Karona Pok, a 32-year-old receptionist at a charity, said she had voted for the governing party because “we wouldn’t be here today” had Mr. Hun Sen, along with Vietnamese-backed troops, not invaded the country and driven out the Khmer Rouge. Election monitoring groups reported numerous problems at the polls on Sunday. Supposedly indelible ink to prevent people from casting votes more than once, for example, was easily removed with lime juice or bleach, observers said. And scores of people were turned away because their names were not found on voter lists, causing minor scuffles at one Phnom Penh polling station. It was unclear late Sunday whether the opposition would pursue earlier claims that the election was unfair. The slimmer majority for the governing party is politically significant because Mr. Hun Sen would now need support from opposition members to amend the Constitution, which requires the approval of two-thirds of the National Assembly. The opposition also now has the power to deny a quorum in the assembly, the minimum votes required to make proceedings valid. Seven-tenths of the assembly must be present to achieve a quorum. Mr. Rainsy, a former finance minister who spent much of his early adult life in France, led the opposition’s campaign but was barred from voting or standing as a candidate by the country’s election committee. After spending the past four years abroad, he returned to Cambodia on July 19, after Mr. Hun Sen, under pressure from foreign governments, issued a last-minute pardon for a conviction of racial incitement and other charges filed by the government four years ago. Mr. Rainsy, 64, was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters when he arrived at the Phnom Penh airport, and his campaign rallies have attracted thousands more. During his week of campaigning, Mr. Rainsy exploited anti-Vietnamese sentiments in the country by railing against “invading” Vietnamese, using a coarse term to describe them. Similar outbursts led to his conviction for racial incitement in 2010.
|
Cambodia;Election;Hun Sen;Cambodian People's Party;Voting
|
ny0128347
|
[
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
] |
2012/06/18
|
Sandusky’s Wife Is an Intriguing Figure in His Case
|
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — To those who already believed the allegations that Jerry Sandusky had sexually assaulted young boys, the first week of his trial only painted a more vividly horrific picture of the man. Eight young men last week gave graphic and, at times, excruciating testimony about being sexually abused by Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State , and spoke of the lingering emotional trauma they had experienced. Through the prosecution’s presentation, though, another figure has emerged, if only vaguely: Dorothy Sandusky, Sandusky’s wife. Those who believe Sandusky to be guilty have been unsure what to make of her. Had she truly been in the dark? Was she in denial? Was she, too, culpable, having, perhaps through negligence, served as an enabler? Did she ever confront her husband about all the young boys in their lives, and in their basement playroom, and, as has been claimed in the trial, in their hotel rooms? One accuser testified that, knowing Dorothy was upstairs in the family home, he cried out for help as Sandusky raped him. This week, some of those questions may be answered if Dorothy, who is on the witness list, is called upon to testify in defense of her husband of nearly a half-century. She has been absent during the trial, apparently relying on friends and family — who sit each day in the front of the gallery just behind Sandusky — to keep her informed of developments. Through interviews with friends and neighbors, and in details Sandusky provided in his autobiography, Dorothy Sandusky emerges as a caring, thoughtful and vigilant wife, mother and friend. A neighbor, Dana Kletchka, said that last August, after her son was born, Dorothy visited her and her husband, Paul, bringing a vegetarian casserole, knowing that the Kletchkas did not eat meat. “We had the key to their house and they had the key to ours, and 10 years ago when we first moved in, she came over and closed our windows when we were gone and it started raining,” Kletchka said. “We literally borrowed cups of sugar from her.” There are also hints that she failed to grasp the seriousness of her husband’s legal predicament when Sandusky was formally charged last fall. On Nov. 9, 2011, not long after a Pennsylvania grand jury report was released that detailed Sandusky’s suspected sexual abuse, and just hours before a riot broke out after the firing of the football coach Joe Paterno , Sandusky was seen shopping at a local sporting goods store wearing Penn State attire. Many in the community were incensed, but that evening — according to a neighbor who asked not to be named and two other neighbors who corroborated the account — she seemed at a loss. “I don’t know why they’re being so mean to Jerry,” the neighbor recalled her saying. Dorothy Gross was born in Tennessee. Early in life, she developed a love for country music and, friends say, sometimes attended concerts at Penn State. Sandusky wrote in his autobiography, “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story,” that he first noticed her while she was singing “a lot of Tennessee songs” in the summer of 1965. She was in Washington, Pa., his hometown, visiting friends. She began dating Sandusky after his mother invited her to watch one of his softball games, he wrote. The next summer, when Sandusky was at a football training camp, he penned his first love letter to her. “You are my fate!” he wrote. “Amidst all this brutality and hate, I can only feel love for you.” The couple married months later, in the fall of 1966. In 1968, the Sanduskys learned that they could not have children of their own. “Dottie and I had many goals in our lives and one of them was clearly to start our own family,” Sandusky wrote. The next year the Sanduskys adopted the first of their six children. They would become foster parents to several more. Having settled in State College, where Sandusky was hired as a defensive coach for the Nittany Lions, Dorothy became an impeccable homemaker, friends say. She watched over the children when her husband was on the road, prepared their meals and kept an immaculate house. “She’s sweet as can be, she’s a wonderful person, but with her children she was strict, moral and tough, because when the kids were little, it was a wild house,” said Joyce Porter, a longtime friend who has been attending the trial each day. Through the late 1960s and into the ’70s, Sandusky began spending more time working with underprivileged children, and he wrote that his wife would accompany him to playgrounds to keep him company. She “enjoyed playing with the kids as much as I did,” he wrote. Though Dorothy was deeply involved with operations at the Second Mile, the children’s charity that Sandusky founded and through which prosecutors say he met his victims, she maintained a range of outside activities. Friends say she was an active member of St. Paul’s Methodist Church, hosted bible study groups and bridge parties, participated in charity teas and exercised at a local women’s gym. When the child sexual abuse charges were leveled against her husband, Porter said, Dorothy was “astounded.” She said Dorothy’s perspective was that, “for all Jerry’s done for these kids all these years, how could a few of them turn their stories around and make him seem so bad?” One accuser testified last week that Sandusky once halted an assault in the basement after he heard Dorothy calling to him from upstairs. “It was actually the one night I got a decent amount of sleep,” the man said. “She never came downstairs.” Chuck Williams, an expert on dealing with child abuse and a professor at Drexel University, speaking about the spouses of child abusers (and not the Sanduskys), said that they often sense that something is wrong but rationalize that the cost of taking action might be greater than turning a blind eye. “Who wants to admit that you’re sleeping next to a pedophile and you married one?” Williams said. “It’s just too much for a lot of people.” Dorothy’s neighbors said that when the scandal broke, they believed that she was blindsided by the allegations. Now they are not so sure. Early in the morning of Nov. 11, 2011, someone threw cinder blocks through a storm window at the Sandusky house. Paul Kletchka said he spoke to the Sanduskys as they surveyed the damage with their St. Bernard, Bo. Kletchka said he asked them if they had anyone they could stay with. “I said, ‘I’m concerned for your safety and, honestly, I’m concerned for my family’s safety too,’ ” Kletchka said. “Jerry said, ‘I’m not going anywhere without Bo; Bo is all I have left.’ ” Dorothy, he said, stood beside Sandusky. Silently.
|
Sandusky Jerry;Sex Crimes;Child Abuse and Neglect;Pennsylvania State University;Second Mile;Paterno Joe;Football (College);Sandusky Dorothy
|
ny0245745
|
[
"sports",
"baseball"
] |
2011/04/30
|
Yankees Fail, and Fail Again, in Loss to Blue Jays
|
It being a Friday night and all, a fair amount of children were milling about Yankee Stadium to watch the Yankees play Toronto, and the timing was fortuitous. There were plenty of moments that held great instructional value, important lessons for aspiring Mark Teixeiras and Mariano Riveras. The most incisive example occurred in the sixth inning, a pivotal sequence of events that by night’s end played as much of a role in the Yankees’ 5-3 loss as their persistent failures to convert scoring opportunities into runs. The inning after squandering their first of two bases-loaded chances, after stranding 3 of their 11 runners, the Yankees were left to deconstruct a breakdown in fundamentals by the normally reliable Dave Robertson, who took over in the sixth after five mediocre innings by Freddy Garcia. The play itself evoked sun-kissed mornings in early spring training, of pitchers performing basic drills on back fields before position players have reported. With the Yankees trailing by a run, and with Robertson on the verge of escaping a two-on, two-out jam, he faked a pick-off throw to third. It tricked the runner on first, Jose Bautista, who broke toward second and was stuck between the bases. And then, Robertson said, “I panicked.” With his attention directed toward the speedy runner at third, Rajai Davis, Robertson hurried, never setting his feet as he fired the ball over Robinson Cano ’s head at second. “I don’t want to let him score, but I want to get the out,” Robertson said. “I forced the throw instead of taking the extra half-second to turn and throw.” As Davis scored, Robertson slapped his glove and talked to himself, then allowed a single to Juan Rivera that drove in Bautista, whose left hand touched the plate a tick before Russell Martin tagged him. The score was 5-2, Blue Jays , and the Yankees’ best efforts produced just one more run, on the second homer of the night from Cano, while leaving five runners on base in the seventh and eighth innings. “Can’t say we didn’t have our chances,” said Nick Swisher, who grounded out with the bases loaded to end the eighth, “because we had a lot of them tonight.” More and more, the Yankees are finding that pitchers are plying them with off-speed pitches as a way to contain their slugging lineup. Of their nine strikeouts (three each by Andruw Jones and Curtis Granderson), seven came on softer stuff (six curves, one changeup) that is the domain of Garcia, who changes speeds and eye levels out of necessity, his 86-mile per hour fastball leaving few alternatives. The inherent risk, which he knows, is that he must control all his pitches, commanding them as a conductor would direct an orchestra, a skill came easily in his first two starts, a pair of six-inning scoreless outings against Texas and Baltimore. On Friday he seemed to battle himself, alternately fooling Toronto hitters — he generated an astounding 15 swings-and-misses — and inviting them to pounce. “Not today, man,” Garcia said. “I don’t know. I just couldn’t throw strikes.” His charmed ability to avoid damage lasted a full two innings before a leadoff walk to Yunel Escobar preceded a home run from Bautista that seemed to approach supersonic speed as it zoomed out of Yankee Stadium, the crowd gasping as it landed in the second deck in left field. The Blue Jays led, 2-1, and they added another homer in the fourth, on a leadoff blast by J. P. Arencibia, as they approached Garcia with patience, working five walks. Garcia’s inefficiency (101 pitches through five innings) cost him a chance to go further. But he left with the Yankees trailing by only a run, at 3-2, helping them stay close against the cunning left-hander Ricky Romero. Teixeira nearly solved him, ripping a third-inning liner that Romero snagged just before it struck his face, a clutch show of self-preservation. “There was an angel next to me right there,” Romero said. He faced a modified lineup that did not include Jorge Posada, who received his second night off in four days — and can expect more rest during this stretch of 32 games in 33 days as Manager Joe Girardi rotates his designated hitters. The decision would probably be more difficult for Girardi if Posada were hitting well, which he is not. For a time Posada’s power — six of his nine hits were home runs — somewhat obscured a season-long funk, but not anymore: with two hits in his last 32 at-bats, Posada entered Friday batting .130, lowest among the 193 qualifying players, according to Stats LLC. He watched from the bench as the Yankees’ fortunes nearly turned in the fifth on a maddening play that produced only frustration. With runners on first and second and no outs, Swisher ripped a liner that popped out of third baseman Edwin Encarnacion’s glove. Figuring the ball had been caught, Brett Gardner turned to dive back into second, but Encarnacion threw the ball there anyway, and it zipped into right field, loading the bases. Teixeira followed with a pop out, the slumping Alex Rodriguez grounded into an inning-ending double play, and Robertson faltered the next inning. “We needed that one hit,” Girardi said.
|
Baseball;Toronto Blue Jays;New York Yankees;Robertson Dave;Garcia Freddy;Bautista Jose;Cano Robinson
|
ny0005245
|
[
"technology"
] |
2013/04/24
|
As Profit Slips, Apple Looks to Reward Shareholders
|
Apple has found a big investor that still has faith in its future: itself. On Tuesday, the technology giant announced that it planned to more than double its program to return cash to shareholders through stock buybacks and a higher dividend, spending $100 billion on the effort through the end of 2015. Its share repurchases alone will increase to $60 billion from the $10 billion it committed previously, the largest such plan in history, the company said. The move to renew investors’ love affair with Apple’s stock came as the company announced its first profit decline in a decade. Apple said its net income fell 18 percent in its fiscal second quarter , as one of the most successful technology franchises in recent years, the iPhone, showed signs of slowing and other, less profitable products began to make up more of its sales. The rarity of Apple’s profit decline, which was expected, underscores how one of the most remarkable winning streaks in business has come to an end, at least for now. Investors have battered the company’s stock for months, sending its shares down from their peak of more than $700 last year as warning signs began to emerge about its growth prospects. In regular trading on Tuesday, Apple shares rose nearly 2 percent to close at $406.13, but they fell slightly in after-hours trading as investors digested the quarterly earnings news and Apple’s plan to return cash to shareholders. One thing that spooked investors is that Apple told them to expect little to no sales growth in this quarter. “People are concerned they can’t return to growth,” said Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG Research, an institutional brokerage firm. One of the biggest questions facing Apple is whether it can innovate its way out of its funk by delivering a breakthrough new product, perhaps in a category like television, that rekindles growth and investors’ passion. Timothy D. Cook, the company’s chief executive, said in a conference call with analysts that the decline in the stock price has been “very frustrating to all of us,” but that Apple remains strong. “Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services that we can’t wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014,” Mr. Cook said. Mr. Cook even dropped a hint about “exciting new product categories” that Apple could enter, suggesting the company is preparing a move into a new market. For its fiscal second quarter, which ended March 30, the company said that its net income dropped 18 percent to $9.55 billion, or $10.09 a share, from $11.62 billion, or $12.30 a share, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 11 percent to $43.6 billion from $39.19 billion a year before. Wall Street analysts expected the company to report earnings of $10.07 a share and revenue of $42.59 billion, according to the average of estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters. Months ago, Apple sought to brace investors by warning that profit could decline about 20 percent in the quarter. At that time, Apple forecast revenue of $41 billion to $43 billion. Sales of iPhones, the company’s biggest business, grew only 3 percent to $22.96 billion in the second quarter. The company has warned that new products like the iPad Mini have lower profit margins than older items like its full-size iPad sibling. It is also selling more of its older model smartphones, like the iPhone 4, which have lower margins. That has stirred up worries that Apple’s efforts to cater to more budget-conscious consumers with low-price products could steadily erode its considerable profits. Apple is widely thought to be preparing a new low-cost version of the iPhone to compete more aggressively with smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system. A cheaper device could hold special appeal in huge markets like India and China where average incomes are far lower than in the West. Pushing into inexpensive phones could hurt Apple’s admired profit margins, though. Last year, the company garnered almost 70 percent of the profit in the mobile handset business, according to estimates by Canaccord Genuity. Apple’s gross profit margins, one of the most closely watched measures of how profitable it is, are already declining, falling to 37.5 percent in the second quarter from 47.4 percent a year ago. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of declining gross margins at Apple, the longest stretch of such declines since 1993, according to Bill Moore, director of corporate development for Bloodhound Investment Research, a provider of online investment management tools. Apple warned that its gross margins would probably continue to fall in the fiscal third quarter, dropping to between 36 and 37 percent. “Investors would love some sense of when gross margins will stabilize, and unfortunately Apple didn’t give us that,” said Rob Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners. As Apple’s holdings of cash and cash equivalents have swelled — the figure is now over $140 billion — investors have clamored loudly for the company to step up its efforts to buy back shares or issue a bigger dividend. The company said on Tuesday that its board had approved a 15 percent increase in its quarterly dividend. It declared a dividend of $3.05 a common share, which will be paid to shareholders on May 16. Apple said it planned to borrow cash as part of its plan to return cash to shareholders. Even though Apple has far more capital than it needs in its coffers, much of it is held overseas and would be subject to taxes if the company were to bring it back to the United States. Apple can also help increase its earnings per share by lowering its outstanding share count through stock purchases. “We believe so strongly that repurchasing our shares represents an attractive use of our capital that we have dedicated the vast majority of the increase in our capital return program to share repurchases,” Mr. Cook said in a statement.
|
Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Apple;Earnings Reports;Stocks,Bonds
|
ny0013557
|
[
"us"
] |
2013/11/08
|
Washington: Wife of Seattle Mayor Among Arrested Protesters
|
Trying to keep attention on the stalled efforts in Congress to overhaul the immigration system, more than 30 women were arrested during a rally inside the state’s Republican Party headquarters in Bellevue on Thursday. Among them was Peggy Lynch, the wife of the departing Democratic mayor of Seattle, Mike McGinn. Except for the women who wanted to be arrested, the demonstrators moved outside after the landlord asked them to leave. Dozens of demonstrators, including some older women on scooters, cheered on the arrested women with guitars and drums as they were walked from the building to Bellevue police vehicles. The women were charged with trespassing, said Carla Iafrate, a spokeswoman for the Bellevue Police Department. The new chairwoman of the state party, Susan Hutchison, was in Washington, D.C., but said in a statement that she agreed the immigration system needed to be changed.
|
Mike McGinn;Seattle;Peggy Lynch
|
ny0131055
|
[
"world",
"middleeast"
] |
2012/12/20
|
Jordan Talks of Reform, but Old System Holds Sway
|
AMMAN — On Nov. 13, Amer Tubeishat joined several thousand demonstrators in central Amman to protest rising prices. As Mr. Tubeishat, a senior program officer at a nonprofit organization, walked away from the crowds, he was thrown into a police wagon and introduced to a frightening new world, where he had no access to a lawyer for three days, was prevented from using the telephone and was handed over to the State Security Court. Twenty-two days later, Mr. Tubeishat was released on bail and, in a gesture he finds surreal, invited for lunch with King Abdullah. Jordan ’s State Security Court is a special body that has jurisdiction over crimes considered harmful to Jordan’s internal and external security — involving drugs, terrorism, weapons, espionage and treason, but also speech-related crimes, including insulting the king. The court did not drop the various charges against Mr. Tubeishat, including being part of an unlawful assembly and attempting to subvert the regime. He has no idea whether or when the state will resurrect those charges — the case is ongoing — and seek to try him in the future. Revolutions that began last year in Tunisia and spread across the Middle East also inspired small but persistent protests and labor strikes in Jordan. Opposition groups have called for comprehensive political and economic overhauls, but most of them have stopped short of calling for the ouster of the king. “For three years Jordanians have been protesting, but they were not being sent to the State Security Court for doing so until recently,” said Nisreen Zerikat, a human rights advocate and lawyer. “The cases that are referred to the State Security Court, in my opinion, deal mostly with people who have expressed their opinion.” She added, “We had hundreds of protests since the Arab Spring and people were not detained, so you have to conclude that some people are being targeted.” During the protest in November, against a 54 percent increase in prices for cooking gas, two officers and a civilian were killed, according to the police. Last week the king ordered the release of most of the demonstrators detained last month who were not involved in the violence. “The way that the king has handled his opposition has been with a more soft or mild oppressive measures,” said David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute. “He has not provided the riot police with bullets. This has helped him avoid the cycle of killings that has engulfed other authoritarian states during the Arab Spring.” In response to the Arab Spring, the Jordanian government scrapped an article in the Public Assembly Law requiring consent to hold rallies. “When the government announces in the media that they accept peaceful protests and then use the claim of ‘illegal assembly’ against them at the State Security Court, this means there is a big gap between what is being said and what is taking place on the ground,” Ms. Zerikat said. Mr. Tubeishat, along with scores of other demonstrators, has been placed in legal limbo, facing a bewildering array of laws and procedures that allow the state to keep people in indefinite detention and saddle them with a criminal record that may be difficult to erase. Both Human Rights Watch and the local National Center for Human Rights released statements last month denouncing the detention of more than 150 protesters, most of whom were charged with “illegal assembly,” “slandering the monarch” and “subverting the political regime.” Brig. Gen. Muhannad Hijazi, attorney general for the State Security Court, said during an interview last week: “State security courts exist in many countries in the world, including in the United States, and these courts face criticism from human rights organizations and advocates because of their military affiliation.” “We are working according to the Constitution,” he added, “and free speech is legal within the limits of the law.” The report by the National Center for Human Rights, which received little attention here, includes interviews with detainees who said they were beaten and abused at police stations before being sent to the State Security Court. Some of those who arrived there said they were denied lawyers and a medical examination, guaranteed by law, according to the report. But General Hijazi said protesters signed documents that stated the charges against them and their right to an attorney. “If there is any proof of violations and we receive them, we would investigate and take action,” he said. In an effort to respond to public pressures, last year both houses of Parliament and the king approved dozens of constitutional amendments strengthening the rule of law, fostering the role of the judiciary and establishing a constitutional court. They also approved an election law that would increase the number of seats allocated for political parties in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament. Despite promising widespread constitutional change, Jordan continues to detain demonstrators under laws that are almost 60 years old. The 1954 penal code allows provincial governors to hold suspects indefinitely if they are considered a “danger to society.” Nine protesters from the November demonstrations have been held under these provisions. The National Center for Human Rights says that 11,000 people were held last year in administrative detention. Dissent has been on the rise in Jordan this year, with anger directed at surging prices of basic commodities, along with that of fuel and electricity. Labor unions are becoming an increasingly strong force for calling attention to dismal working conditions and low pay. A poor country with 14 percent of the population living below the poverty line, which is $2.60 a day, and high unemployment, particularly among the young at nearly 25 percent, Jordan is also facing external shocks, including hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who fled their homes and crossed into the country. “The violence in Syria is paradoxically stabilizing the kingdom,” Mr. Schenker said. “The people in the kingdom are not coming out to protest more because they worry about chaos.” During his detention, Mr. Tubeishat said he lost 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. As soon as he was released, he returned to work, but said his time in detention has left him with mixed feelings. “The most profound realization for me is the extremely tight security grip that still exists in this country,” he said. “I am focusing now on building awareness.” Six days after his release, Mr. Tubeishat and a few other activists were invited to lunch with the king. “I was standing in front of the State Security Court, but a few days later I was meeting with the king. It was a bit surreal,” he said. “We told him what happened to us and he said this needs to end, so I really hope there is action and follow-up.”
|
Jordan;Courts and the Judiciary;Politics and Government;Demonstrations Protests and Riots;Civil Rights and Liberties
|
ny0008281
|
[
"us"
] |
2013/05/24
|
Trayvon Martin Texts Are Released
|
MIAMI — Intending to draw a fuller, perhaps more negative portrait of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in early 2012, a lawyer for Mr. Zimmerman released new material on Thursday that depicted Mr. Martin as troubled at school and enamored of a “gangsta” culture. In a series of text messages from November 2011 to February 2012, Mr. Martin wrote that he had been suspended from school for cutting classes. In the messages, he said his mother had “kicked” him out of the house and told him to move in with his father. In one message, Mr. Martin described himself as “gangsta.” Other text messages refer to his involvement in fights and reveal an interest in guns, including an exchange about possibly buying one, referring to it as a .380. Earlier, in a separate text, he asked whether a friend had a gun. “U gotta gun?” he asked the friend on Feb. 18, 2012. His friend replied, “It my mommy but she buy for me.” “She let u hold it?” Mr. Martin asked. “Yea,” the friend replied. “But she keep it,” Mr. Martin said. “Yea,” the friend texted back. Mr. Martin, 17, also texted that he smoked marijuana, which was revealed in toxicology reports. At one point, he mentioned that he had it wrapped up for the bus ride from Miami, where he lived, to Orlando, where he was going to stay with his father for a while during his suspension from school in February 2012. Image Trayvon Martin In one text, he riffed on his suspension shortly before he was killed on Feb. 26. Mr. Martin was suspended for 10 days after school officials found in his backpack a baggie that contained traces of marijuana. Mark O’Mara, Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, appeared to be offering prospective jurors in the Zimmerman case, which is to start in June, another version of Mr. Martin’s life. The evidence would presumably counter any attempt by prosecutors to portray Mr. Martin, who had no criminal record, as a victim with an unblemished personal life. Although gangsta rap and gangsta culture can portray a violent lifestyle, their following is wide and their proponents say they are meant to describe the reality of the streets, not promote it. Mr. Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder, has said he shot Mr. Martin in self-defense after Mr. Martin attacked him. Mr. Martin was inside a gated community, walking to his father’s girlfriend’s home in Sanford, Fla., when Mr. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, spotted him. He reported Mr. Martin to the police as a suspicious person and got out of the car to follow him, prosecutors said. Mr. Zimmerman told the police Mr. Martin then knocked him to the ground, punched him and slammed his head into the concrete. Mr. Zimmerman fired one shot into Mr. Martin’s chest. On Tuesday, the judge in the case, Debra S. Nelson of Seminole County Circuit Court in Sanford, Fla., will decide whether to allow the jury to see Mr. Martin’s text messages and unflattering photographs of him, and learn of his marijuana use and his suspension. The prosecutor, Bernie de la Rionda, has urged her to keep them out of the trial. The judge also will decide whether to sequester the jury in the case. Benjamin Crump, the Martin family lawyer, said the evidence released on Thursday was “irrelevant” to the case. Whether Mr. Martin once wore gold teeth, or used an obscene gesture in a photograph, has nothing to do with his death, he said. “The pretrial release of these irrelevant red herrings is a desperate and pathetic attempt by the defense to pollute and sway the jury pool,” Mr. Crump said in a statement.
|
George Zimmerman;Trayvon Martin;Florida;Text messaging;Murders;Sanford FL
|
ny0175944
|
[
"us"
] |
2007/07/04
|
Strict Dress Code Blocked by Judge
|
SAN FRANCISCO, July 3 — A California judge has blocked a middle school from enforcing a dress code so strict that a student was punished for wearing socks with pictures of Winnie the Pooh on them. The judge, Raymond A. Guadagni of Napa County Superior Court, issued a preliminary injunction against Redwood Middle School in Napa on Monday, ruling in favor of students and parents who sued the school in March, claiming that its Appropriate Attire Policy violated the right to free speech. School officials have said the dress code was established to eliminate gang-related symbols and other provocative images. But students have been punished for wearing denim, T-shirts with messages that warn against drug use and pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness. Repeated reprimands prompted a student, Toni Kay Scott, 14, and her mother, Donnell Scott of Napa, along with 13 other people, to seek help from the American Civil Liberties Union. School officials did not immediately return telephone calls, but the lawyer for the school district, Sally Jensen Dutcher, said the ruling was under review and would be discussed Thursday at a school board meeting.
|
California;Apparel;Education and Schools;Freedom of Speech and Expression
|
ny0194580
|
[
"business"
] |
2009/11/09
|
Kraft Expected to Make a Hostile Bid for Cadbury
|
Kraft is expected to make a hostile bid for the British confectioner Cadbury on Monday, making official its attempt to create an international food giant after more than two months of posturing, according to people briefed on the matter. Kraft’s hostile bid will come just before a deadline imposed by Britain’s Takeover Panel, which gave the American food company until Monday to make a formal offer. If Kraft did not do so, it would have been barred from making another bid for Cadbury for six months. Now Kraft is expected to take its proposal directly to Cadbury’s shareholders. It is likely to remain composed of cash and stock, although it is unclear whether the company will sweeten its price, originally valued at 745 pence a share. In Cadbury, Kraft hopes to combine its Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies with Trident gum and Dairy Milk chocolates, reaping $625 million in annual pretax cost savings. Kraft is also hoping to tap the higher growth that Cadbury’s core confectionery business would provide, along with its broader exposure to international markets. Earlier this month, Kraft cut its forecast for net organic revenue growth, disappointing analysts even as its third-quarter results beat expectations. Since Kraft first made its expression of interest in September, analysts and deal-makers have watched the repartee between it and Cadbury in what could be one of the biggest mergers this year — if it succeeds. Both sides have already hired teams of investment banks and law firms to gird for a fight that could last months. Cadbury’s management and board have said that Kraft’s offer substantially undervalues its future prospects. Last month, the company reported stronger-than-expected results, which analysts say has put more pressure on Kraft to raise its offer if it is to succeed.
|
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures;Stocks and Bonds;Kraft Foods;Cadbury Plc
|
ny0183855
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2007/12/12
|
Hoboken’s Rebirth Fuels School Aid Formula Fight
|
HOBOKEN, N.J. — In the early 1970s, Hoboken was so broken down that some residents feared for their lives. Crime and arson were rampant, and those who could afford to fled to neighboring towns like Secaucus. But gleaming restaurants and luxury condominiums now beckon affluent newcomers to Hoboken, like Gov. Jon S. Corzine , who keeps an apartment there. And the city’s public school system, which once educated Frank Sinatra, is going through a renaissance, with enrollment growing this fall, after years of decline. Hoboken’s rags-to-riches transformation is often cited by critics of New Jersey’s so-called Abbott system, in which 31 historically poor urban school districts receive the bulk of state school financing, to illustrate its shortcomings. Cities like Hoboken, these critics say, are no longer impoverished enough to merit special treatment. “Hoboken is exactly why we need a new school funding formula,” said Assemblyman Bill Baroni, a Republican from Mercer County. “Hoboken has been blessed by an economic renaissance that a lot of other towns have not seen. That’s why we need to make a new formula that talks about kids and not ZIP codes.” Governor Corzine is expected to officially unveil a new school-financing proposal on Wednesday that would shift the emphasis away from the Abbott system — which takes its name from a landmark New Jersey Supreme Court case — by directing at least $400 million in new state education money to poor students who live outside the Abbott districts. But Abbott districts say that academic achievement has risen significantly under the system and that they should not be penalized in an effort to expand benefits to the state’s 584 other districts in rural and suburban areas. They also say that rising property values do not always mean more money for schools. In Hoboken, for example, school officials said that a majority of their students come from housing projects, not the upscale condos whose owners often send their children to private or parochial schools. Seventy-five percent of the district’s students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch, the seventh-highest level among all Abbott districts, according to state statistics. Union City is first, with 92.7 percent, followed by Passaic (84.7 percent) and Asbury Park (81.9 percent). Jack Raslowsky, the Hoboken schools superintendent, said that another point lost in the political rhetoric is that Hoboken receives far less state aid than the other Abbott districts. In the district’s $54 million budget, state aid accounted for just $12.4 million, of which only $4.2 million for preschool programs was tied to its Abbott status. The local share of contributions was $35 million. But because it is an Abbott district, Hoboken’s school construction projects are paid for by the state. This year, an $8.5 million renovation was completed on the Calabro elementary school. In the last five years, the state has spent $18 million to bring the district’s six schools up to health and safety standards, which included repairing leaking roofs and replacing windows and boilers. The state has also agreed to renovate the Connors elementary school and the Brandt middle school and build a new $25 million school complex that will include high school and elementary school buildings and athletic fields to accommodate the growing enrollment, particularly in the preschool and lower grades. But those projects were suspended last year after the state ran out of money, and with the current debate over financing for Abbott districts, their future remains uncertain. Hoboken school officials say they cannot afford to pay for the new complex without state assistance. Mr. Raslowsky said that because they are in an Abbott district, his schools have been subject to more rigorous academic and financial oversight. In return, he said, he expects the state to follow through on its commitment to improve the district. “We’ve been promised this great banquet,” he said. “We’ve finished the appetizers, but there’s still the meal to go and we’re hungry.” David Sciarra, an advocate for the children of the Abbott districts, called the criticisms of Hoboken a “red herring” because the district receives so little Abbott aid. More important, he said, were the educational reforms introduced under Abbott to address decades of neglect and concentrated poverty in urban schools. One such reform is the focus on preschool programs in Abbott districts. “The Legislature could remove Hoboken from Abbott, but it must have a plan in place to continue those educational reforms,” he said. At the Connors elementary school, which overlooks a housing project, the 300 students were supposed to move into temporary classrooms this September while their century-old building was being renovated. When the renovation was suspended, students stayed where they were and the building remained in disrepair. The Abbott money has paid for three preschool classes at the school, two of which are squeezed into the basement because of a shortage of classroom space. The free preschool program has helped many families. Danny LaViena, 49, a repairman, said that his 4-year-old grandson, Selman Brashaw, was able to attend preschool only because of the Abbott money. “We’re low-income people, and we can’t get no money to pay for that,” he said. But on Monday afternoon, as a dozen 4-year-olds napped on mats on the floor of one classroom, their teachers rattled off the things that they still did not have: their own bathroom, child-friendly sinks or even a school playground.
|
Abbott district;Education and Schools;Finances;Corzine Jon S;Hoboken (NJ)
|
ny0218995
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2010/05/30
|
They Put the Clang Into New York City’s Hoops
|
The old steel rim that presides over this public basketball court absorbs missed shots with an angry clank, sending the ball careening upward and the wood and metal backboard into a rickety seizure. Like generations before them, the young men who play at the ramshackle court in St. Nicholas Park in Harlem know the rim is so troublesome that they tend to avoid perimeter jump shots in favor of aggressive drives to the basket, where perhaps its vagaries will be less pronounced. “These are ghetto rims,” said Quaeshawn Berry, a lanky 14-year-old who is a regular at the park. “But I prefer these. I’ve been playing on these my whole life.” These unforgiving, practically unbreakable orange rims — built so simply that there are no hooks to accommodate a net — are longstanding fixtures of the public basketball courts throughout New York City, where they play a minor, if usually overlooked, role in countless pick-up games. But largely unknown to even the most devoted practitioners of the city game is that most of the basketball rims on these courts have been individually crafted by a team of blacksmiths who cut, weld and paint each by hand. Using a century-old method that has long since vanished elsewhere, the half-dozen parks department employees — all basketball players themselves — have forged thousands of rims, each one worked into a microcosm of the local game. “There are minor differences,” said John Fitzgerald, the longtime city blacksmith in charge of making the rims. “It’s like no snowflakes are exactly the same.” Working from a hand-drawn blueprint, the blacksmiths use hammers and the horn of an anvil to shape the steel ring that serves as the hoop, welding it to several slabs of metal that form a support bolted to the backboard. The finished product is a remnant of an earlier era of the sport, somewhere on the evolutionary chain between the original wooden peach baskets and the modern spring-loaded breakaway rims used by the National Basketball Association. Other cities, including those with their own share of contributions to basketball lore like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Newark, buy modern, factory-made rims. New York is among the few places, and possibly the only one, where municipal rims used at more than 700 public parks are still made by hand. “I’m totally amazed that they still do it that way,” said Dan Shaw, an engineer and sales manager for Spalding and an expert on the history of basketball rims. “I would love to see one made. “Walking in there would be like watching equipment made 100 years ago when there were no basketball manufacturers, when all the equipment was being made locally.” There remains something of a cult of personality around the showy offshoot of basketball known as streetball, a pastime marked by elbows-out play, a casual commitment to the rulebook and makeshift facilities. That is particularly true in New York, where the public courts are credited with grooming generations of stars. And while it is unclear what, if any, supporting role these immutable rims might have played, Jason Curry, president of Big Apple Basketball , which runs clinics and tournaments around the city, suggested that they might be one reason many of the best players who honed their games outside have historically been skilled at driving close to the hoop rather than shooting from distance. “There are so many different variables that it makes it difficult to become a really good outside shooter on New York City playgrounds,” he said. A streetball legend, Joe Hammond , who is better known by his nickname the Destroyer, said the New York rims were so tricky that he became focused on having his shots avoid them altogether, refusing to count points if the ball touched steel. “One thing about playing on the rims in the parks: you learn to adjust,” Mr. Hammond said. But even in New York, the forging of rims may be an endangered art. Some of the city’s most celebrated courts, like Rucker Park in Harlem and the West Fourth Street Cage in the West Village, have made the switch to prefabricated rims, in part because the players there expect modern equipment. And when a new park is built or an existing one receives a full rehabilitation, a prefabricated rim is installed. The prefabricated rims are not only more up to date, but they are also less expensive — typically costing other cities less than $60, compared with about $90 for the handmade rims, which includes about $65 for labor. But officials from the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation say the handmade rims stand up better to the demands of New York players, so they will continue to be produced — at least to replace those that have been stolen or, in rare cases, damaged. (The rest of the time blacksmiths occupy themselves with an assortment of other tasks, like repairing park fences and building lifeguard chairs.) “We have found its more economical to make them because they’re stronger, they last longer,” said Jim Cafaro, the deputy chief of technical services for the parks department. “So it’s cost-effective to do this.” The design, which parks officials said was of unknown provenance, has been kept in a dusty composition notebook in the center of the cavernous workshop on Randalls Island underneath the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, where 92 rims were made last year. The blacksmiths are in the process of vacating the 80-year-old building, so production of the rims has been temporarily suspended. The machinery and tools, including the old anvil, will be moved to a new location. Left behind will be the old hoop that hangs over an oil-stained section of the shop, used for years of lunchtime games. “You have to have a nice touch for them because they’re solid,” said Eugene Desplantes, a metal worker who starred in those daily battles. “They’re not forgiving.” Even if fewer of these rims are being made, those already in the parks are not going anywhere soon. Those made with a slightly different design, which features a double rim and straight steel supports, were discontinued years ago but remain a common sight in schoolyards, public parks and small lots around the city. They have survived endless rounds of slam dunks, and occasionally served as chin-up bars and, for the especially nimble, even as spectator seating. Once, the blacksmiths strung a cable around a rim inside the workshop, which they used to tow a van halfway off the ground. That led them to conclude that their handiwork was, with all due humility, indestructible. “These are the strongest hoops you’ll ever find,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “They last forever. You could hand them down to your grandkids.”
|
Basketball;Parks and Other Recreation Areas;Harlem (NYC);New York City;blacksmiths;New York Parks and Recreation Department
|
ny0243723
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2011/03/15
|
Italy Makes an Exchange
|
ROME — For many students at Italian business schools, the American dream has drifted south, as aspiring businessmen and women are looking to complete their studies in Latin America. In response, three of Italy ’s best-known business schools have set up new partnerships this year with business schools across the Atlantic. A full 80 percent of the students in the MIP-Politecnico di Milano M.B.A. program say they want to spend some time abroad before they graduate. Half of them go to other European countries, and the rest head to the Americas and Asia, said Stefano Ronchi, the M.B.A. program director at MIP-Politecnico di Milano. “Some students choose South America because they’ve never been and some of them see those countries as an opportunity to develop not just their knowledge, but also their business,” Mr. Ronchi said. “It’s sort of a gamble for us, but students were really asking for it.” For the past seven years, MIP-Politecnico di Milano has had an exchange program for Ph.D. students with the IAE business school of the Universidad Austral in Argentina, but until this month it did not have M.B.A. students spending time abroad. “A school whose rankings keep rising in country with great growth and growth potential, what more could a business student want?” asked Luca Silva Calamassi, 31, the first student from the MIP-Politecnico di Milano business school to study at the business school Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa, known as Ipade, in Mexico. Luiss University, which is based in Rome, has also given its students the chance to study in Argentina for five years. But this year, Luiss students will also be able to study at two branches of Ipade, in Monterrey and in Mexico City. “There were 50 of us in my M.B.A. class and we all wanted to go abroad, most of us wanted to go to South America,” said Gavina Lisa Bianco, 28, who was a Luiss exchange student at Belgrano University in Buenos Aires in 2008. Ms. Bianco is fond of Latin countries. She had spent her Erasmus year — an exchange program for university students within the European Union — in Spain as a law undergraduate. She said she felt that studying on another continent would contribute to her education as a legal and a financial consultant, which is what she now does for Italian and foreign companies in Rome. “I chose it also because Argentina is a country with staggering growth rates, I was there just for three months and I even got a job offer,” Ms. Bianco said. Students say the job market is florid for business students in some Southern and Central American countries. Many said that they had received a job offer and that their European education was very appealing to local employers. Moreover, both the salaries and the long-term contracts were very enticing to young Italians, who can take neither as a given back home. Rosario Cannata, who is from Sicily and works as a senior analyst at Schahin Group in São Paolo, had a similar experience. “I am 26, and my salary is comparable to that of a 31-year-old analyst in Italy,” he said. “But, even more importantly to me, my responsibilities are those of a 35-year-old back home.” Mr. Cannata studied finance at Milan’s Bocconi University and spent six months as an exchange student at IESA Institute in Venezuela in 2007 and 2008. While Bocconi— together with its school of management, SDA Bocconi — has longstanding ties to universities all over the world, other Italian business schools are just starting to create master’s courses that focus on the relations between Europe and the “BRIC” countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China. The University of Bologna’s business school will start a course for M.B.A. students in “Brazil-Europe business relations” in September. Since 1999, the University of Bologna has had a branch in Argentina, offering master’s level classes in management, international relations and other economics-based disciplines, but until now none of the courses focused specifically on business relations between Brazil and Europe. “Brazil is not only a growing economy, but also a growing market for Italian and European companies,” said Massimo Bergami, the director of the business school. For a business graduate working in New York in 2009, Brazil was the option that financial institutions themselves offered Mr. Cannata. In his second interview with Barclays in Manhattan, Mr. Cannata said he was told that there were jobs available only in Brazil. As he left the bank’s headquarters, he passed a newsstand. The cover of The Economist had an image of the iconic Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro with hands pushing up into the clouds. “Brazil takes off,” the headline said. The next month, he was on a flight to São Paolo.
|
Education;Italy;Colleges and Universities;Latin America
|
ny0055571
|
[
"world",
"africa"
] |
2014/09/04
|
Cuts at W.H.O. Hurt Response to Ebola Crisis
|
With treatment centers overflowing, and alarmingly little being done to stop Ebola from sweeping through West African villages and towns, Dr. Joanne Liu, the president of Doctors Without Borders, knew that the epidemic had spun out of control. The only person she could think of with the authority to intensify the global effort was Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, which has a long history of fighting outbreaks. If the W.H.O., the main United Nations health agency, could not quickly muster an army of experts and health workers to combat an outbreak overtaking some of the world’s poorest countries, then what entity in the world would do it? “I wish I could do that,” Dr. Chan said when the two met at the W.H.O.'s headquarters in Geneva this summer, months after the outbreak burgeoned in a Guinean rain forest and spilled into packed capital cities. The W.H.O. simply did not have the staffing or ability to flood the Ebola zone with help, said Dr. Chan, who recounted the conversation. It was a fantasy, she argued, to think of the W.H.O. as a first responder ready to lead the fight against deadly outbreaks around the world. The Ebola epidemic has exposed gaping holes in the ability to tackle outbreaks in an increasingly interconnected world, where diseases can quickly spread from remote villages to cities housing millions of people. The W.H.O., the United Nations agency assigned in its constitution to direct international health efforts, tackle epidemics and help in emergencies, has been badly weakened by budget cuts in recent years, hobbling its ability to respond in parts of the world that need it most. Its outbreak and emergency response units have been slashed, veterans who led previous fights against Ebola and other diseases have left, and scores of positions have been eliminated — precisely the kind of people and efforts that might have helped blunt the outbreak in West Africa before it ballooned into the worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded. Unlike the SARS crisis of 2003 , which struck countries in Asia and elsewhere that had strong governments and ample money to spring to action, the Ebola outbreak has waylaid nations that often lack basic health care, much less the ability to mount big campaigns to stamp out epidemics. The disease spread for months before being detected because much of the work of spotting outbreaks was left to desperately poor countries ill prepared for the task. Once the W.H.O. learned of the outbreak, its efforts to help track and contain it were poorly led and limited, according to some doctors who participated, contributing to a sense that the problem was not as bad as it actually was. Then, as the extent of the epidemic became obvious, critics say the agency was slow to declare its severity and come up with plans, and has still not marshaled the people and supplies needed to help defeat the disease and treat its victims. “There’s no doubt we’ve not been as quick and as powerful as we might have been,” said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, a W.H.O. assistant director general. Another W.H.O. leader agreed. “Of course in retrospect I really wish that we had jumped much higher much earlier,” said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the assistant director general in charge of outbreak response. “Of course I wish we’d poured in more and more earlier.” But, he added, “if this outbreak had been a typical outbreak, nobody would be saying we did too little, too late.” Image Relatives of a man who died of what appeared to be Ebola waited outside their home in Monrovia while a team of workers sprayed and disinfected the area. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The outbreak began close to the borders of three neighboring countries — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — and spread surprisingly fast. Since then, the W.H.O. has engaged more than 400 people to work on the outbreak, including employees of other agencies in its network, and in August the agency declared the epidemic an international emergency , hoping to stop it from crossing more borders. Dr. Chan has met with presidents in the region, and last week the W.H.O. announced what it called a road map for a “massively scaled” international response. The current outbreak has killed more than 1,900 people and spread to the point that the W.H.O. warns that more than 20,000 people could become infected. Sick people are dying on the street. Some feel the entire model the world uses to fight outbreaks needs to be rethought, so that an agency like the W.H.O. has the structure and mandate to take command. But Dr. Chan said that governments have the primary responsibility “to take care of their people,” calling the W.H.O. a technical agency that provides advice and support. Still, she noted that her organization, like many governments and agencies, was not prepared. “Hindsight is always better,” Dr. Chan said. “All the agencies I talked to — including the governments — all of us underestimated this unprecedented, unusual outbreak.” A Shift in Emphasis The W.H.O., founded in 1948, is responsible for taking on a wide range of global health issues, from obesity to primary health care. But since the world’s health needs far outstrip the financial contributions of the W.H.O.'s 194 member nations, those priorities compete. The threat of emergent infectious diseases jumped high onto that list 20 years ago, when an outbreak of plague in India created a panic, sending about 200,000 people fleeing. The next year in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo , Ebola killed about 245 people. With fears of cross-border infections high, a new urgency arose: improving the world’s ability to stop outbreaks. The W.H.O. took the lead, at the request of its member nations. A crew of passionate outbreak veterans assembled a unique department, using an early form of electronic crowdsourcing to detect outbreaks and dispatching experts to the field. Three years after the effort solidified, the W.H.O. played a big role in responding to a cluster of deadly pneumonia cases in Asia. The new virus became known as SARS, and it was contained within the year, with most cases occurring in China. To aid the fight, wealthy individuals offered the W.H.O. “literally hundreds of millions because their businesses were affected,” said Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank and a former director at the W.H.O. “But as SARS burned out, those guys disappeared, and we forgot very quickly.” Soon, the global financial crisis struck. The W.H.O. had to cut nearly $1 billion from its proposed two-year budget, which today stands at $3.98 billion. (By contrast, the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2013 alone was about $6 billion.) The cuts forced difficult choices. More emphasis was placed on efforts like fighting chronic global ailments, including heart disease and diabetes. The whims of donor countries, foundations and individuals also greatly influenced the W.H.O.'s agenda, with gifts, often to advance specific causes, far surpassing dues from member nations, which account for only 20 percent of its budget. At the agency’s Geneva headquarters, outbreak and emergency response, which was never especially well funded, suffered particularly deep losses, leaving offices that look, one consultant said, like a ghost town. The W.H.O.'s epidemic and pandemic response department — including a network of anthropologists to help overcome cultural differences during outbreaks — was dissolved, its duties split among other departments. Some of the main outbreak pioneers moved on. How Many Ebola Patients Have Been Treated Outside of Africa? Questions and answers on the scale of the outbreak and the science of the Ebola virus. “That shaping of the budget did affect the area of responding to big outbreaks and pandemics,” said Dr. Fukuda, who estimated that he now had 35 percent fewer employees than during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic — more than double the cuts for the organization as a whole. “You have to wonder are we making the right strategic choices?” he said. “Are we ready for what’s coming down the pike?” The entire W.H.O. unit devoted to the science of pandemic and epidemic diseases — responsible for more than a dozen killers, including flu, cholera, yellow fever and bubonic plague — has only 52 regular employees, including secretaries, according to its director, Dr. Sylvie Briand, who said that could be increased during outbreaks. Before the Ebola epidemic, her department had just one technical expert on Ebola and other hemorrhagic diseases. Across Africa, the ranks of the agency’s regional emergency outbreak experts, veterans in fighting Ebola, were cut from more than a dozen to three. “How can you immediately respond to an outbreak?” said Dr. Francis C. Kasolo, a W.H.O. director. “It did affect us.” And a separate section of the W.H.O. responsible for emergency response was whittled “to the bone” during the budget cuts — to 34 staff members from about 94 — according to Dr. Bruce Aylward, its assistant director general. “You can’t make a cut that big, that deep, and it’s not going to have an effect on your operational capacity,” he said. His group, charged with responding to wars, disasters and resurgent polio, was asked in August to assist with Ebola, too. “At no time that I can think of in the recent past have we been dealing with such a scale of human misery over such a broad geography due to such a range of hazards,” he said, including enormous population displacements in Syria, Iraq, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. But, officials warn, multiple, overlapping challenges may well be a feature of the future. The W.H.O. hoped to balance its budget cuts by strengthening the ability of countries to respond to public health threats on their own. It put out new regulations for nations to follow to help contain outbreaks. But by 2012, the deadline it set, only 20 percent of nations had enacted them all. In Africa, fewer than a third of countries had programs to detect and stop infectious diseases at their borders. The W.H.O.'s strategy was often more theory than reality. “There never were the resources to put those things in place in many parts of the world,” said Dr. Scott F. Dowell, a specialist formerly with the C.D.C. A Disease Finds Its Opening The Ebola virus took full advantage of these poorly prepared nations and the holes at the W.H.O. Given the weakness in surveillance, the outbreak was not identified until March, in Guinea, roughly three months after a villager was believed to have contracted the virus from an animal, possibly a fruit bat. The delay allowed dozens of cases to spread through villages and even to Conakry, a capital of more than one and a half million people. Right away, Doctors Without Borders declared the outbreak unprecedented in its reach, the only group to do so. Hastening the spread, hospitals lacked basic infection-control essentials like running water, protective gowns and gloves. Many doctors and nurses caught the virus from their patients, passed it to others, and died. The vulnerability and collapse of medical facilities revealed how far there is to go in achieving the W.H.O.'s top priority — ensuring basic global health care. “This kind of outbreak would not have developed in an area with stronger health systems,” Dr. Fukuda said. In the crucial weeks after the discovery, daily meetings brought together national authorities and foreign responders at the W.H.O. office in Conakry. But an absence of strong leadership and professionalism was notable from the beginning, participants said. “It’s purely improvisation,” said Marc Poncin, the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Conakry. “There is no one to take responsibility, absolutely no one, since the beginning of the crisis.” Stopping previous Ebola outbreaks had required meticulous tracking: monitoring people who had close contact with infected individuals and isolating them if they developed symptoms. Previously, “if we missed a case,” said Dr. Simon Mardel, a British emergency doctor deployed by the W.H.O. to help with the effort, “it was like a failure.” This time, the number of contacts being followed was disastrously low from the beginning, only 8 percent in the epicenter of Guéckédou, Guinea, in early April, according to another doctor sent by the W.H.O. That meant the disease was silently spreading. Dr. Mardel said he thought the more experienced W.H.O. leaders who had left the agency “would have been very vocal, and they would have sought to put it right quickly, as a matter of urgency.” A single person who traveled and became sick could touch off a conflagration. It was not that responders were not trying. Victims’ contacts were spread across a wide area, hours away on bad roads. The payment of local workers had somehow been overlooked, so they stopped doing vital, risky jobs. Essential protective equipment was not delivered to many who needed it. Bottles of bleach were given out without buckets. The W.H.O. lacked relationships with some longstanding organizations with large networks of health workers in the region. Traditions that contributed to Ebola’s spread, including funerals where mourners came into contact with corpses, were not fully recognized or confronted, said Dr. Pierre Rollin, an outbreak specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who worked within the W.H.O. umbrella. Some villagers blocked roads with tree trunks and drove Ebola workers away with stones, accusing them of bringing in the disease. Adding to the tension, only bare-bones clinical care was provided to try to treat patients, reducing the chances of yielding survivors who could act as ambassadors for the cause. Some doctors deployed by the W.H.O. said it should have given them more tools to care for patients. Image Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., with Dr. David Nabarro, left, the United Nations senior system coordinator for Ebola, and Dr. Keiji Fukuda, an assistant director general at W.H.O. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times Institutional and personal tensions flared. “Everyone’s working at a fevered pace,” Dr. Dowell said. “There’s confusion and chaos. It argues for a system that’s organized as much as possible ahead of time so people know their roles.” One consultant thought it strange that the W.H.O. would not send Twitter messages with links to the C.D.C.'s Ebola prevention information, part of a policy not to promote material from other agencies. Various offices within the W.H.O.'s balkanized hierarchy also jockeyed for position. The difficulties in tracking cases and gaining access to villages led many to think the outbreak was burning out. “I came home sort of thinking, with a little luck, that’s wrapped up,” said Dr. Daniel Bausch, an Ebola outbreak veteran from Tulane University, who returned in May from a W.H.O. mission in Guinea. The outbreak was not gone, just hidden. An herbalist in Sierra Leone contracted the virus treating Guinean patients. More than a dozen mourners at her funeral fell ill and seeded Sierra Leone. Some of them traveled back to Guinea and rekindled the outbreak there. After a lull of several weeks, cases re-emerged in Liberia, too, and reached the capital, Monrovia. Dr. Bausch flew to Sierra Leone in July. “I was like, ‘where is everybody?’ ” referring to the shortage of health workers fighting the disease. “We all recognized we were really understaffed. We needed more people in the field.” In some treatment centers, two or three doctors, wearing stifling gowns and masks in the heat, were caring for up to 90 patients. With the only W.H.O. logistician in the country working elsewhere, Dr. Bausch did not have anyone to accompany him and manage supplies of protective equipment, he said. Dr. Bausch worked in Kenema, Sierra Leone, where he had helped set up a research program for another hemorrhagic fever, Lassa, which was common in the region. He knew some of the nearly two dozen health workers there who died after Ebola hit . “It would be a logical question to ask, since Lassa was there, why was it so hard to switch gears” to Ebola?, Dr. Bausch said. But research institutes provided money for science, he said, not for disease surveillance and treatment. Those tasks had been left to the government of Sierra Leone, “one of the poorest countries on earth,” he said. “I always felt bad about this.” In late July in Liberia, two Americans working at a missionary hospital fell sick and were soon evacuated home . A Liberian-American brought the virus by plane to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Suddenly, the world seemed to understand the threat. The question now, experts wonder, is whether the leaner, retooled W.H.O. — heavy on technical know-how, light on logistical muscle — can surge in a way that will help lead the world in bringing one of the most challenging health crises in recent history to a close. W.H.O.'s road map calls for $490 million from donors, and thousands of foreign and local health workers to contain the outbreak. Yet few foreign medical teams have answered the call so far. “It is incumbent on the international community to really respond now,” said Dr. Kasolo, a W.H.O. director in Africa. “Otherwise history will judge us badly.”
|
Ebola;WHO;Africa;Margaret Chan;UN;Doctors Without Borders;Sierra Leone;Nigeria;Guinea;Liberia
|
ny0010410
|
[
"business"
] |
2013/02/21
|
Boeing to Propose Battery Fixes to F.A.A.
|
Boeing has developed possible fixes for the battery problems in its grounded 787 jets and could have them back in the air within two months, industry and federal officials said Wednesday. The officials said Boeing has narrowed down the ways the lithium-ion batteries on the jetliners could fail, and believes that adding insulation between the cells of the batteries and making other changes would provide enough assurance that they would be safe to use. Raymond L. Conner, the president of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, plans to propose the fixes in a Friday meeting with Michael P. Huerta, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr. Huerta is not expected to approve the changes immediately, but the meeting is likely to start a high-level discussion on the standards Boeing needs to meet as it tests the fixes and seeks to get the planes flying again. Boeing’s plan could be a pivotal moment in the history of the innovative fuel-efficient planes. Mr. Huerta and regulators around the world grounded the planes in mid-January after a battery caught fire on one jet parked at the Boston airport and smoke forced another 787 to make an emergency landing in Japan. Investigators have not determined what caused those problems. But Boeing’s engineers have worked closely with the F.A.A. and outside experts to identify ways in which the batteries could have failed, and Boeing is now asking the government to sign off on a calculation that they have now come up with a safer design. Given the risks in moving ahead, federal officials said, the F.A.A. has insisted behind the scenes that Boeing needed to come up with changes to prevent failures at the same time as it proposed further steps to wall off problems with the batteries and vent any smoke or fire outside the planes. Boeing officials said they had also hoped to make all the fixes at once rather than dividing them into temporary and longer-term changes. By delaying some changes, Boeing could have been exposed to more problems. As a result, one big change under Boeing’s plan would be to redesign the batteries to place insulation inside and around each of the eight cells to minimize the risk that a short circuit or fire in one of the cells could spread to the others, as investigators have said occurred on the battery that caught fire in Boston on Jan. 7. Boeing might also adjust how tightly the batteries are packed. Image Raymond Conner, left, of Boeing plans to discuss Dreamliner changes on Friday with Michael Huerta, of the F.A.A. Credit Susan Walsh/Associated Press Boeing would make other changes within the batteries to reduce the chance that vibrations, swelling or moisture could cause problems, industry officials said. Boeing has already been testing some of the changes. The plane maker believes it could rebuild the batteries by next month on the 50 jets that have been delivered to airlines. But federal officials are likely to move more slowly and demand more tests and assurances, and the final decision could rest with Mr. Huerta’s supervisors at the Transportation Department. Federal officials said that if the fixes check out, the jets could start flying again by April. Boeing will also have to win back the confidence of the flying public. Besides taking more steps to prevent short circuits from occurring, Boeing’s plan would enclose the battery within a sturdier metal container and create tubes to vent any hazardous materials outside the plane. It would add systems to monitor the activity inside each cell instead of just the battery as a whole. Industry officials said there is enough space in the electronics bay to expand the container and add the vent tubes. Until now, regulators have focused on the need to pin down the cause of the battery problems. But investigators, now weeks into their work, have been able to find only limited clues in the charred remains of the batteries in the Boston and Japan incidents. The lithium-ion batteries weigh less but provide more energy than conventional batteries, and the 787s make greater use of them than other planes. The stakes are substantial for Boeing, which will have to pay penalties to some of the airlines that have been unable to use them. Boeing also cannot deliver more of the planes while they are grounded. The company has orders for 800 additional planes. The jets rely as well on lightweight carbon composites and more efficient engines. Boeing awarded the contract for the batteries to GS Yuasa, a Japanese firm, in 2005, and it won approval from the F.A.A. to use the batteries in 2007. Concerned about fires with smaller lithium-ion batteries in cellphones and laptops, the agency placed special conditions on Boeing’s use of the batteries that required containment and venting measures that have proved inadequate. Advances in research have contributed to a better understanding of the risks since then. But Boeing, which was consumed with problems with other parts that delayed the introduction of the 787s by several years, did not significantly update the battery designs before it began delivering the planes in 2011. So Boeing’s plan to fix the problems also amounts to a belated incorporation of what has been learned about how to handle the risks.
|
Boeing;Airlines,airplanes;Batteries;Lithium Mental;FAA;Plane Crashes and Missing Planes
|
ny0062475
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2014/01/26
|
A Review of Yama Dora in East Haven
|
Yama Dora, a neighborhood Korean restaurant and sushi bar in East Haven, specializes in Korean barbecue, which is an event as much as a dish. Your choice of beef, pork, chicken or shrimp, soaked in a robust marinade, is grilled in the center of the table. A collection of flavorful side dishes (banshan) such as kimchi, pickled daikon and sesame-and-garlic-sautéed spinach is brought to the table along with the barbecue. Diners wrap the grilled meat in lettuce leaves with a dab of pungent and salty fermented bean paste, and share the side dishes. The name of the restaurant, owned by Jun Kim and Peter Dong, both expatriates from Seoul, South Korea, is a kind of multilingual pun. Japan occupied Korea during the early part of the 20th century, introducing Japanese language into the occupied country. So yama dora has meaning in both cultures, explained Mr. Dong, with whom I spoke after my visits. In Japanese, it means mountain lion, while in colloquial Korean, the meaning has evolved to indicate contradictory feelings. Image Ground pork is served with rice, vegetables and egg in dolsot-bibimbap. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times “It can mean really mad, or madly happy, as in, I’m yama dora happy,” said Mr. Dong, the implication being that whether you’re madly happy, or just really mad, Yama Dora is the place to be. During my visits, a number of dishes at Yama Dora did make me madly happy, starting with the sides. These little dishes are the hallmark of a Korean meal, and indeed, embody the national attitude toward food. “Korean people believe in good yin yang of food,” Mr. Dong said. “We like to mix and match.” This mixing of foods and flavors is seen to enhance health and digestion. Koreans eat family style — six or seven banshan with each entree we tasted — to encourage variety and combining. Some banshan at Yama Dora remain constant — there is always kimchi, for example — but the rest change daily and seasonally. Do ask for exotic-tasting, spicy, fermented “sesame” leaves (the true name is perilla leaves, a member of the mint family). Almost everything at Yama Dora is made in-house, including a fermented chili pepper paste called gochujang, which is the foundation for the fiery red broths that bathed spicy stir-fried squid, and spicy seafood noodles. Image Short ribs are served with cellophane noodles in a rich, beefy broth in kalbi tang. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times Other entrees included spicy kalbi tang, featuring luscious short ribs with cellophane noodles in a rich, beefy broth. Savory kimchi dolsot-bibimbap was composed of sticky rice topped with ground pork, sautéed mushrooms, spinach, cucumber, greens and egg cooked in a stone pot, which turns the rice golden brown and crunchy on the bottom. From the list of appetizers, don’t miss the pajeon, scallion pancakes made with a combination of wheat and rice flours, that are crispy and deliciously greasy on the outside but soft, chewy and gelatinous on the inside. The seafood variation was stuffed with enough seafood to make a light meal, while the kimchi pajeon was mildly spicy. The accompanying soy-sesame dipping sauce contained ingredients, which Mr. Dong wouldn’t divulge, that added a mellow, smoky taste. The dumpling soup — plump, house-made pork dumplings floating in flavorful beef broth with nori strips — was excellent as was jap chae, a tangle of silky cellophane noodles seasoned with a sweet-savory mix of ground beef, sesame, soy and sugar. The barbecue was less successful. According to Mr. Dong, the restaurant couldn’t obtain a permit for indoor charcoal grilling, so tables are outfitted with halogen grills instead. Rib-eye and shrimp barbecue were flavorful, but the grill didn’t get hot enough to properly char the meat. Fortunately, during the summer, diners seated on the restaurant’s outdoor patio can order barbecue cooked over wood charcoal. (Note that table barbecue is available only for two or more people; for one, it’s cooked in the kitchen.) From the first sip of smoky, roasted barley tea, Yama Dora offers a delightful introduction to Korean cuisine. Spicy, warming dishes make for excellent cold weather fare, and if sushi is your preference, the quality of Yama Dora’s fish won’t disappoint.
|
Restaurant;East Haven Connecticut;Peter Dong;Jun Kim
|
ny0275087
|
[
"business"
] |
2016/02/28
|
Wesley A. Clark, Who Designed First Personal Computer, Dies at 88
|
Wesley A. Clark, a physicist who designed the first modern personal computer, died on Monday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 88. The cause was severe atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to his wife, Maxine Rockoff. Mr. Clark’s computer designs built a bridge from the era of mainframe systems, which were inaccessible to the general public and were programmed with stacks of punch cards, to personal computers that respond interactively to a user. He achieved his breakthroughs working with a small group of scientists and engineers at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1950s and early ’60s. Early on they had the insight that the cost of computing would fall inexorably and lead to computers that were then unimaginable. Severo Ornstein, who as a young engineer also worked at Lincoln in the 1960s, recalled Mr. Clark as one of the first to have a clear understanding of the consequences of the falling cost and shrinking size of computers. “Wes saw the future 15 years before anyone else,” he said. Mr. Clark also had the insight as a young researcher that the giant metal cabinets that held the computers of the late 1950s and early ’60s would one day vanish as microelectronics technologies evolved and circuit sizes shrank. His work on the personal computer began in May 1961, when he led a team of M.I.T. engineers in developing the Laboratory Instrument Computer, or LINC. The LINC represented a break from what at the time was a growing consensus in the computing world that the resources of computers should be shared. That design approach, known as “time-sharing,” connected multiple users to a single computer by rapidly switching the resources of the processor from user to user. Mr. Clark, who had already designed a series of experimental computers, resisted the conventional wisdom. He was adamant that the best way to satisfy the research needs of biologists and medical researchers was to place all the power of a computer under the control of a single user. “I think of Wes as being one of the few seminal contributors to what today we call ‘personal computing,’ ” wrote Alan Kay, a computer scientist, in an unpublished essay about Mr. Clark’s contributions. Mr. Kay, in the early 1970s, was part of a research team at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center in California that designed an experimental computer known as the Alto. The Alto laid the groundwork for the personal computing industry after the invention of the microprocessor, which greatly lowered the cost of computing. The LINC, which was one of the few unclassified projects at the Lincoln Laboratory in the early 1960s, was intended for doctors and medical researchers. Although its power was only a small fraction of what today’s personal computers hold, it represented a leap forward as a self-contained machine that had a simple operating system and a small display and stored its programs on a magnetic tape. The LINC was used for the first time in 1962, its task to analyze a cat’s neural responses as part of a study at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. Each LINC had a tiny screen and keyboard and comprised four metal modules. Together they were about as big as two television sets, set side by side and tilted back slightly. The machine, a 12-bit computer, included a one-half megahertz processor. (By contrast, an iPhone 6s is thousands of times faster and has 16 million times as much memory.) A LINC sold for about $43,000 — a bargain at the time — and Digital Equipment, the first minicomputer company, ultimately built them commercially, producing 50 of the original design. The influence of the LINC was far-reaching. For example, as a Stanford undergraduate, Larry Tesler, who would go on to become an early advocate of personal computing and who helped design the Lisa and Macintosh at Apple Computer, programmed a LINC in the laboratory of the molecular biologist Joshua Lederberg. Mr. Tesler later credited his experience with the LINC with helping to shape his perspective on personal computing, particularly after he waited long hours for even small programming jobs to be run on a mainframe computer. Mr. Clark also had a small but significant role in the design of the Arpanet, the forerunner of the Internet. He proposed the idea of using small computers to make it easy to standardize connecting to the network while simultaneously reducing the load on local computers. These small computers were later named Interface Message Processors. Wesley Allison Clark was born in New Haven on April 10, 1927. His parents, Wesley Sr. (the son did not use the Jr.) and the former Eleanor Kittell, moved to California, and he attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a degree in physics in 1947. As a Berkeley graduate student he studied reactor physics at Hanford, Wash. The Lincoln Laboratory lured him away in 1951 and put him on a team that was designing Whirlwind, a computer that was at the heart of a radar system then being devised for the Air Force. (It was called SAGE, for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment.) Based on his experience on the Whirlwind system, Mr. Clark, during the 1950s, led the design of two other significant experimental computers, the TX-0 and the TX-2. The TX-0 was the world’s first transistorized computer. The TX-2 was used by Ivan Sutherland, then an M.I.T. graduate student, in creating Sketchpad, a software design program that was a fundamental advance in the graphical display and control of digital information. Besides his wife, Mr. Clark is survived by three sons, Douglas, Brian and Peter; a daughter, Alison Eleanor Clark; a sister, Joan Murphy; and five grandchildren.
|
Obituary;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Labs;MIT;Wesley A. Clark
|
ny0137987
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2008/05/08
|
In His Visit to Japan, China Leader Seeks Amity
|
TOKYO — The leaders of China and Japan pledged Wednesday to make their nations partners instead of rivals as the Chinese president, Hu Jintao , began a good-will mission to Tokyo aimed at improving often tense relations between the Asian powers. The visit, the first by a Chinese leader here in a decade, is expected to yield few if any concrete diplomatic breakthroughs. But both sides called the trip progress amid hopes that its friendly symbolism, which includes pandas and table tennis, would help ease Japanese insecurities about China’s rising economic and military might. There are hopes here that the visit will signify a thaw in the nations’ often frosty political relations, which have failed to keep pace with increasingly close trade and investment ties linking China and Japan, Asia’s two largest economies. The visit comes as Beijing seeks to present a more accommodating face to the world ahead of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. During a 90-minute meeting between Mr. Hu and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan on Wednesday morning, Mr. Fukuda said he asked Mr. Hu about human rights in Tibet and later praised Beijing’s decision to meet representatives of the exiled Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama . At a joint news conference after the meeting, Mr. Hu said the representatives of the Dalai Lama had been “conscientious and serious” during talks so far. But he also called on the Tibetan side to “show its sincerity, and truly stop activities to split the motherland, stop planning and provoking violence and stop wrecking the Beijing Olympic Games.” The true focus of the visit was clearly on building friendlier ties between China and Japan. The two leaders vowed to “jointly create a bright future for the Asia Pacific region and the world,” according to a statement issued after their meeting. The two leaders said they discussed a wide range of thorny bilateral problems on the first full day of Mr. Hu’s five-day visit. They vowed to work toward resolving festering disputes over control of an underwater natural gas field in the East China Sea and an unsolved case of poison found in frozen Chinese-made dumplings sold in Japan. An investigation into that case this year ended with the Japanese and Chinese police blaming each other’s countries as being the source of the poisoning. In one of the few concrete agreements, China said it would lend Japan a pair of giant pandas, after a panda died of old age at a Tokyo zoo last week. Later in the visit, the two leaders will face each other in table tennis, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said. Mr. Hu will visit a Chinese school in Yokohama and the ancient city of Nara. On Wednesday, security was tight in Tokyo, where thousands of police officers in antiriot armor stood guard along major roads. City officials hoped to avoid the sort of disruptions that had marred the Olympic torch relay, when protesters turned out against Chinese rule in Tibet. Hundreds of marchers carrying “Free Tibet” banners did take to the streets before Mr. Hu’s visit, and Japanese right-wing groups circled the capital in convoys of black trucks with loudspeakers blaring martial music, but no arrests were reported. China also appears eager for a smooth and friendly visit, unlike the last time a Chinese leader came to Japan, in 1998. That visit, by President Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, ended on an acrimonious note when Mr. Jiang lectured his hosts on the need to come to terms with World War II-era aggression. That scolding began a decade of chilly ties, during which China also objected to visits by the former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi to a Tokyo shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals. Mr. Hu avoided mention of the war on Wednesday. “As neighbors, and as countries with an enormous influence on Asia and the world, China and Japan have no alternative but to walk the road of peace, friendship and cooperation,” he said.
|
Hu Jintao;Japan;China;Fukuda Yasuo;Dalai Lama;Leaders and Leadership;Olympic Games (2008)
|
ny0187298
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2009/04/29
|
Pope Benedict XVI Visits Quake Zone in Italy’s Abruzzo Region
|
ONNA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday toured the wreckage left by the earthquake this month, offering comfort to survivors still living in tents here in the hardest-hit town, where 40 out of 300 residents died. “I would like to hug you with affection, one by one,” Benedict said, standing inside the tent camp as a light rain fell. Across the muddy parking lot stood the crumbling ruins of the town’s houses, while the snow-capped Apennines rose in the distance. The pope said he hoped that his visit would be “a tangible sign” that the Lord “is not deaf to the worried cry of so many families who lost everything: houses, savings, work and often even human lives.” Though small, Onna has become the symbol of the devastation caused by the earthquake, which killed nearly 300 people and left 65,000 homeless in this mountainous region of central Italy on April 6. It has also been a focus of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s efforts to focus more attention — and financing — on the damaged Abruzzo region. Last week, he chose the town as the backdrop for his remarks on Liberation Day, the April 25 Italian national holiday observing the Allied liberation of Italy during World War II. Mr. Berlusconi also announced last week that Italy would seek to move the Group of 8 summit meeting to L’Aquila — the chief city in this region, also badly damaged in the quake — from La Maddalena, an island north of Sardinia. The decision has been criticized as impractical for a gathering of world leaders: an estimated 40,000 people are still living in tents in and around L’Aquila, and thousands of others are staying in hotels along the Adriatic coast. Onna residents said they were pleased with the pope’s visit. “The pope has never come here,” said Concetta De Angelis, who was moved to tears by the pope’s visit. “This town isn’t even on the maps.” Fabrizio Pica Alfieri, whose family owns the land on which the Onna tent city now stands, said, “I’m so pleased that he walked on this ground and blessed it.” “He brought a lot of hope and joy,” said Mr. Alfieri, who sings in the Sistine Chapel choir. Marzia Maciello, a spokesman for the residents of Onna, said the presence of the German pope might pave the way for Germany to help Onna rebuild. The German government has expressed interest in financing restoration projects in Onna, where Nazi soldiers killed 17 residents in June 1944. In his half-day visit to L’Aquila on Tuesday, the pope greeted students outside the remains of a dormitory where eight students lost their lives, and he later received the mayors of several damaged surrounding towns. Addressing public officials in the same police academy where a mass funeral of 205 residents was held, Benedict said “the entire civil community should examine its conscience so that at every moment the level of responsibilities does not lessen.” In the weeks since the quake hit, prosecutors in L’Aquila have opened an investigation into faulty building practices in the area. Benedict also stopped at the Santa Maria di Collemaggio basilica, whose transept was destroyed by the earthquake. The church houses the remains of a 13th-century pope, St. Celestine V. It is on a list of 44 seriously damaged monuments in and around L’Aquila issued last week by the Italian Culture Ministry, which said they were in need of urgent restoration.
|
L'Aquila (Italy);Benedict XVI;Earthquakes;Italy
|
ny0223161
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2010/11/10
|
France: Pension Bill Signed Into Law
|
President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that he had signed into law his contentious pension-reform bill after the Constitutional Council gave its blessing to the measure. The bill, which prompted strikes and demonstrations for weeks, raises the age by two years both for minimum retirement benefits and for a full pension. The law will go into effect next July. Mr. Sarkozy, left, had made a major issue of the bill as a symbol of his ability to stand firm and to prove to the financial markets that France can reduce its budget deficit.
|
France;Pensions and Retirement Plans;Sarkozy Nicolas
|
ny0042159
|
[
"business",
"international"
] |
2014/05/16
|
Tempering Excitement for the E.C.B.'s Measures
|
LONDON — At last, the European Central Bank seems ready to shoot some adrenalin into the moribund euro zone economy. After a news conference last week, when Mario Draghi strongly hinted at action to come after the E.C.B. council meeting on June 5, this week brought a host of interviews and media leaks describing quite specifically the new ideas the bank has in mind. The measure, which is now almost a foregone conclusion, will be a cut in the interest rate the E.C.B. pays on bank deposits from zero to a negative 0.1 percent or 0.2 percent. Beyond that, E.C.B. officials have suggested several additional stimulus measures: extension of loans to commercial banks at very low fixed rates for three or even five years, purchases by the E.C.B. of bank loans to small and midsize enterprises packaged into asset-backed securities, and concessional lending to European banks on condition that they pass on these funds to those businesses. These announcements generated quite a lot of enthusiasm: The euro weakened from almost $1.40 to $1.37, bond yields in Italy and Spain fell to record lows and European stock markets jumped between 1 percent and 2 percent. On Wednesday the market reaction even crossed the Atlantic, with interest rates on United States Treasury bonds falling to their lowest levels in six months. Sadly, however, investors may be overexcited about the E.C.B.’s plans. Even assuming all the reports about the plans turn out to be true — and several times recently the E.C.B. has not followed through on similar rumors — it is far from clear that these policies would have much impact on the big economic problems facing the euro zone: feeble economic growth and mass unemployment, a continuing credit crunch for small and midsize enterprises in southern Europe, huge imbalances in competitiveness between Germany and the rest of the euro zone, and deflationary pressures that create debt traps and balance-sheet recessions in the peripheral economies. A negative interest rate on deposits, the measure that has been watched closely, is unlikely to have much effect for two reasons. First, the banks that have excess cash to park at the E.C.B. are by definition the stronger ones, most of them in Germany, France and northern European countries. These banks do not need further incentives to lend to their customers, because credit is readily available to both businesses and households in those countries. The credit crunch that needs to be relieved is in Italy, Spain and other “peripheral” countries — and the banks in these economies are generally much weaker. Their reluctance to lend to customers is mainly due to their lack of capital, not their eagerness to hoard cash at the E.C.B. If negative E.C.B. deposit rates now eliminate the meager profits these institutions can earn by placing excess liquidity in the interbank market, their capital positions may, on balance, deteriorate, and it is hard to see how this would increase their ability to lend. Second, although negative interest rates may grab media headlines, there is nothing magical about their economic effect. This has been demonstrated by the experiences in Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, where negative interest rates have been used to discourage excessive capital inflows and to try to weaken currencies that were deemed too strong. In all these cases, the effects of imposing what amounts to a small tax on bank deposits turned out to be quite modest. To achieve the desired results, negative rates had to be supplemented with other measures, like foreign exchange intervention or aggressive expansion of central balance sheets, which amounted in one way or another to “printing money” and using it to buy government bonds. And printing money to buy government bonds, in the manner of American, British and Japanese quantitative easing, is the one kind of measure still ruled out for Europe by German opposition, as Jens Weidmann, the Bundesbank president, confirmed this week. To be more precise, Mr. Weidmann has ruled out easing in Europe unless and until the other measures now planned by the E.C.B. have been tried and found wanting. The problem with the step-by-step approach favored by the E.C.B. under pressure from the Bundesbank is that every step taken becomes an excuse for delaying the next step. Experience suggests that E.C.B. economists may well spend months “analyzing” and “studying” the consequences of negative deposit rates before they decide to move onto other measures such as purchasing small and midsize enterprise loans. And even if the E.C.B. does move faster than in the past and announces a package next month combining both negative interest rates and business loans, this may not do much for southern Europe without action to encourage investment and spending by businesses and consumers, as well as increasing the availability of credit by easing the regulatory pressure on undercapitalized banks. What would really help these countries would be a relaxation of fiscal policies or a direct injection of government-backed credit into small and midsize businesses, along the lines of the government-backed mortgages that have transformed the British economy. Unfortunately, neither fiscal easing nor any kind of government-backed credit expansion seems to be an option for southern Europe, because it would directly conflict with the deficit-reduction programs and bank restructuring regimes imposed by the European Commission and the E.C.B. The upshot is that E.C.B. action will probably prove just sufficient to prevent the euro zone economy from deteriorating any further, and the attainment of this stability will be offered as a reason not to do anything more ambitious, either by way of monetary stimulus or the easing of fiscal and regulatory constraints. A continuation of Japanese-style stagnation thus seems the most likely prospect for most of Europe despite, or perhaps because of, the half-hearted action that can now be expected from the E.C.B. Anatole Kaletsky is a Reuters columnist and chief economist of Gavekal Dragonomics, an asset management company based in Hong Kong.
|
Europe;Euro Crisis;European Central Bank;Mario Draghi
|
ny0112773
|
[
"business",
"media"
] |
2012/02/13
|
Hasbro Takes More of Its Toys to Hollywood
|
Hasbro has long been known for making toys and games based on movies and TV shows. Lately, the multinational toy company has been making movies and TV shows based on its toys and games. After becoming an entertainment powerhouse with its Transformers movie franchise, which grossed $2.6 billion worldwide, and a G.I. Joe movie ($302 million worldwide gross), Hasbro has big plans this summer for a G.I. Joe sequel and a new movie based on its Battleship board game. The company also recently announced plans for a live-action movie based on Stretch Armstrong, a toy that gained popularity in the 1970s, and it is in talks to develop a movie based on the board game Candy Land starring Adam Sandler. To expand into television, Hasbro formed a production company, Hasbro Studios, and joined with Discovery Communications in 2010 to create the Hub, a TV channel with programming based on Hasbro toys and games. Ratings have been steadily increasing; the number of viewers grew 16 percent in January over the same period the year before. The idea was to expand on Hasbro’s most popular properties. “It’s a core-brand strategy,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chief executive. “We asked which brands have the potential to be reinvented and reignited.” The strategy extends to new properties, too. Hasbro is using Toy Fair, the international gathering of toy makers that started Sunday in New York, to reveal its latest franchise, Kaijudo, a trading card game, online game and animated TV show. Wizards of the Coast, a Hasbro subsidiary, worked with Hasbro Studios to come up with a concept that integrated physical gaming with a digital experience and a rich story line. “It’s a fantastic example of Hasbro’s branded-play strategy,” said Greg Leeds, the president of Wizards of the Coast. “It offers immersive entertainment across a variety of platforms.” Hasbro is ahead of its competitors with its brand strategy, said Reyne Rice, a toy trend expert. “By investing in their own properties, they are making the company more profitable,” she said. “It becomes a revenue stream for them in the form of royalties from licensed products.” The evolution of Hasbro’s business model began in the late 1990s. The company had a strong franchise in the 1980s with the Transformers, which included an animated TV show, comic book and toy line, but the brand had been dormant for a few years and was ripe for a revival. “The art of assembling those elements had dissipated,” Mr. Goldner said. “We brought that back.” Hasbro pitched the idea of a live-action movie, but it took a while to win Hollywood over, Mr. Goldner said. Eventually, Steven Spielberg signed on as an executive producer, and Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the movie. The first Transformers movie, released in 2007, made more than $700 million worldwide. Lately, Hasbro has moved its franchises beyond movies and television. The latest Transformers video game, Fall of Cybertron, will be released in the fall, and a 3-D thrill ride is set to open in May at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. Hasbro still maintains licensing partnerships with outside entertainment properties. Among the biggest are Lucasfilm’s Star Wars franchise and Marvel Entertainment, which is releasing two major summer movies this year, “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” both to be represented in the toy aisles by Hasbro. Paying those licensing fees creates an added expense, but Hasbro does not have that problem with the intellectual properties it owns. “Our four movies made $3 billion at the box office,” Mr. Goldner said. “But we made $1.6 billion in sales of merchandise because we own the I.P. and all the merchandising rights.”
|
Hasbro Inc;Movies;Toys;Television
|
ny0286876
|
[
"business",
"dealbookemail"
] |
2016/08/04
|
Investors Turn to Risky Regions for Rewards
|
Yield-starved investors are so desperate for returns that they have been willing to take on the risk of investing in a country that recently underwent a failed coup and an attack on its main airport. Turkish stocks and bonds have been rising, in spite of the country’s debt being downgraded. It seems a 10-year bond offering a 9 percent reward is too tempting to turn down, even if the inflation rate is 8.7 percent and the currency is heading south. Stocks and bonds in developing markets have been on a tear as investors scoop up discounted stocks and hunt for returns in a world of super-low interest rates. They are rooting around in places like Brazil and South Africa, while markets more broadly appeared to be in a lull. The turbulence that followed Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has dissipated and left behind only an uneasy calm. But there are still events that could rouse investors, as Bloomberg reports . As one fund manager put it: “At some point, the jaws must snap.” Tesla’s Costly Ambitions No one expects Tesla to turn a profit anytime soon, but for investors, the deeper worry is that Tesla has been inconsistent in its growth plans. The company, which reported on Wednesday a loss of $293.2 million in the second quarter, also missed its target of delivering 17,000 vehicles by 3,000. And its expansion plans cannot mask the challenges it faces in turning its innovations into mass productions and serious revenue. The company has to satisfy more than 300,000 preorders for its cheaper Model 3 sedan and meet its production targets while contending with heightened scrutiny from federal auto safety regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission. On the agenda The Bank of England will publish its latest monetary policies and inflation report at 7 a.m. A news conference follows at 7:30 a.m. Viacom, Kraft Heinz and LinkedIn are among the companies reporting earnings. Federal Reserve Fines Goldman Sachs $36 Million A case that raised questions about revolving doors between the government and Wall Street has escalated, and the Federal Reserve has forced Goldman Sachs to pay a penalty over the leak of confidential information from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The decision by the Federal Reserve is awkward since one of its own employees disclosed the information, but the Fed seems determined to take a tougher stance against misconduct on Wall Street. The fight is not over yet: The Fed is also trying to bar Joseph Jiampietro, a manager of the Goldman Sachs executive who received the leaked documents, from the banking industry. Although the leaked documents were found on Mr. Jiampietro’s desk, the company never established that he knew about the leak. Mr. Jiampietro’s lawyer accused the Fed of using his client as “an industry scapegoat. ” Sign up here for more DealBook emails and alerts.
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Federal Reserve;Banking and Finance;Stocks,Bonds;Goldman Sachs Group;Regulation and Deregulation;Securities fraud;Joseph Jiampietro
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ny0091545
|
[
"technology"
] |
2015/08/20
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Uber Missed Criminal Records of Drivers, Prosecutors Assert
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SAN FRANCISCO — For more than a year, regulators in various cities have questioned whether Uber, the ride-hailing service, vets its drivers for criminal backgrounds as carefully as traditional taxi companies. Now the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles have offered perhaps the most concrete evidence to date that people convicted of murder, sex offenses and various property crimes have driven for Uber, despite assurances from the company that it employs “industry-leading” screening. The district attorneys said Wednesday that background checks used by Uber failed to uncover the criminal records of 25 drivers in the two cities. The charges were made in a 62-page amended complaint to a civil suit, originally filed in December , that claims Uber has continually misled consumers about the methods it uses to screen drivers. “We are learning increasingly that a lot of the information that Uber has been presenting the consumer has been false and misleading,” said George Gascón, the district attorney in Uber’s hometown, San Francisco. As Uber has aggressively pushed its service into cities around the world, often not waiting for permission from local regulators, it has faced hostility from local taxi drivers who fear it is undercutting their business, as well as increasing skepticism regarding the trustworthiness of some of its drivers. Some of the most pointed questioning has come from Mr. Gascón, who argues that Uber’s background checks are not as thorough as another service, called Live Scan, that is typically used by taxi companies. He said in a news conference Wednesday that about 30,000 registered sex offenders in California did not appear in a public registry Uber uses in its background checks. The checks also go back only seven years. “So, for example, if someone was convicted of kidnapping eight years ago, and they were just paroled last week — they just got out of prison — the Uber background check process will not identify the person as a convicted kidnapper,” Mr. Gascón said. He said this was “troubling and misleading to Uber customers and to the public at large” because Uber says its process goes back as far as the law allows. Mr. Gascón was careful to couch this as a case of consumer deception. Uber is not by law required to use the Live Scan system favored by district attorneys. The question is whether the consumer is getting all the right information, he said. The suit, which Mr. Gascón said “is only really scratching the surface,” does not name the criminals but includes some details about their crimes. One driver was convicted of second-degree murder in Los Angeles in 1982, and spent 26 years in prison before being paroled in 2008. He applied to be an Uber driver under a different name from those in his court records. The complaint said Uber’s background check process could not identify the driver because it does not use biometric identifiers, like a fingerprint; because it cannot access criminal records that help to track aliases; and because the checks do not go back as far as the law allows. The complaint added that the Live Scan process would have identified the driver’s criminal past. One driver was convicted of felony sexual exploitation of children in Wyoming in 2005, and another of “felony kidnapping for ransom with a firearm” in 1994. Other drivers were convicted of charges like robbery, assault with a firearm, identity theft and driving under the influence. Several were convicted of more minor charges, like welfare fraud. “The main concern that we have here, and that we continue to have, is the fact that the consumer is not given the information, you know, the truthful information, in order to make an informed decision,” Mr. Gascón said. The amended filing also asserts that Uber representatives continually changed their description of Uber’s screening. An Uber representative said in a statement that the company’s background check method was no worse than Live Scan. “The reality is that neither is 100 percent foolproof — as we discovered last year when putting hundreds of people through our checks who identified themselves as taxi drivers,” the Uber statement said. “That process uncovered convictions for D.U.I., rape, attempted murder, child abuse and violence.” In a recent blog post , the company also said that going back seven years in background checks was guided by two California laws that aimed to make it easier for criminals who have done their time to ease back into the work force by loosening the restrictions on what they have to disclose to prospective employers. “We understand that there are strongly held views about the rehabilitation of offenders,” the post said. “But the California State Legislature decided — after a healthy debate — that seven years strikes the right balance between protecting the public while also giving ex-offenders the chance to work and rehabilitate themselves.” Uber, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, is already valued around $50 billion by investors. The company has raised a multibillion-dollar war chest to finance a global expansion and move into areas like food delivery. But government officials say that in its pursuit of breakneck growth, the company is cutting corners on background checks. The company and its competitors use background check companies that can turn around requests in a day or two. And in states across the country, Uber — along with its rivals Lyft and Sidecar — have repeatedly fought proposals that would require them to match the checks required of traditional taxi drivers. In California, for instance, Uber and other companies successfully lobbied to kill a law that would have required drivers to undergo a background check by the state’s Justice Department, as is required of taxi drivers. The suit by the Los Angeles and San Francisco district attorneys includes other charges like operating at airports without permission. Lyft, Uber’s largest American competitor, has already settled with the district attorneys for $500,000.
|
Uber;Crime;Los Angeles;San Francisco;Lawsuits;Car Service
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ny0276501
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2016/02/12
|
School Bus Crash in Western France Kills 6 Students
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PARIS — Six students were killed in western France on Thursday morning when their school bus and a heavy truck collided, officials said. The accident occurred at 7:15 a.m. in Rochefort, the police in the Charente-Maritime administrative department said in a statement. The town is close to the Atlantic Coast, near the Île de Ré and the Île d’Oléron, two popular resorts. Seventeen people were involved in the accident, including 15 children and the drivers of the truck and the school bus, which was returning from the Île d’Oléron, the statement said. At least three people were hospitalized because of their injuries. The junior minister for transportation, Alain Vidalies, told the news channel LCI that it appeared that the school bus had been hit by one of the truck’s sideboards — which are designed to keep loads in place but which could have become unfastened — as the two vehicles passed each other on the road. The accident occurred in an industrial area of the city’s port. President François Hollande’s office issued a statement expressing “strong emotion” over the accident, and it said that Environment Minister Ségolène Royal and Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem were on their way to the scene. (Ms. Royal was formerly the president of the Poitou-Charentes administrative region, which includes Charente-Maritime. During that time, in 2007, she ran unsuccessfully as the Socialist Party’s candidate for the French presidency.) The accident was the second in two days involving schoolchildren in France. Early Wednesday, two students, ages 12 and 15, were killed in an accident in the Doubs administrative department in eastern France, near the Swiss border, after a school bus driving in snowy weather veered off the road. In October, a truck and a bus carrying elderly people on a sightseeing excursion collided in southwestern France, killing 43. It was the country’s worst traffic disaster in 33 years.
|
France;Car Crash;Fatalities,casualties;Bus;Rochefort;K-12 Education
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ny0276476
|
[
"business",
"dealbook"
] |
2016/02/12
|
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Quarterly Profit Jumps 53%
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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts said on Thursday that its fourth-quarter after-tax profit rose 53 percent despite a quarter of tumult in the stock market. The private equity giant, led by Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts, said its after-tax economic net income was $70.5 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $46 million in the period a year earlier. The earnings amounted to 8 cents a share after taxes, significantly short of the 27 cents a share expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. For the full year, Kohlberg Kravis said its after-tax economic net income for 2015 was $1 billion, down 30 percent from the previous year. Wall Street’s 4th Quarter Earnings Investors are eagerly awaiting guidance from management about when higher short-term interest rates will impact the banks’ bottom lines. “K.K.R. delivered strong investment results in 2015,” Mr. Kravis and Mr. Roberts said in a statement . “Our private equity portfolio appreciated 14.2 percent, outperforming the S.&P. 500 by over 1,200 basis points despite challenging markets,” they added. The firm also said that it had bought $270 million worth of its own shares, as part of a $500 million share buyback it announced in the third quarter. In recent months, a wave of private equity giants have announced record share buybacks in an effort to bolster confidence in their businesses and lift the price of their stock. Last week, Apollo Global Management pledged to buy back shares worth $250 million, while Fortress told its investors it would buy back $100 million. The share price of Kohlberg Kravis has halved over the past year. During the second part of the year, global markets tumbled and the price of oil plummeted, dealing a blow to the value of the firm’s investment holdings. The firm reported a sharp loss in the third quarter, as did some of its peers, including the Blackstone Group. For most of the industry, the core part of the business remains investment fees driven by a private equity firm’s exit of its private investments through a public listing. Fewer of those took place last year compared with previous years, when the stock market rallied. Kohlberg Kravis changed the method of its reporting for a second time in 2015. In the fourth quarter, it reported out four separate segments, adding a new segment devoted to its balance sheet performance. In the first quarter, it told investors that it had changed the way it breaks down the economic net income for each of the three segments it reports to more accurately reflect the income generated in each segment. For these reasons, some of the earnings reported in the fourth quarter were not comparable to 2014 figures. The firm also changed the way it calculates assets under management in the fourth quarter, choosing to include money it has raised for new funds but not yet deployed. For this reason, the figure has swelled to $120 billion.
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Private equity;Earnings Reports;KKR;Henry R Kravis
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ny0147246
|
[
"us",
"politics"
] |
2008/07/08
|
Skepticism on McCain Plan to Balance Budget by 2013
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WASHINGTON — The package of spending and tax cuts proposed by Senator John McCain is unlikely to achieve his goal of balancing the federal budget by 2013, economists and fiscal experts said Monday. “It would be very difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances, and even more difficult under the policies that Senator McCain has proposed,” said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group. Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is proposing billions of dollars in tax cuts. But advisers to Mr. McCain said those costs would be more than offset by savings from slower growth in spending. In his proposal, Mr. McCain said he would hold overall spending growth to 2.4 percent a year. That is a tall order because federal spending has been growing an average of more than 6 percent a year in the last five years. Mr. McCain said he would also slow the growth of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid , and fiscal experts agree that he would need to do that to achieve his goal. But Mr. McCain did not give details of how he would alter those benefit programs, which have powerful constituencies, including older Americans, a huge health care industry and state and local government officials. A longtime foe of pet projects known as earmarks, Mr. McCain said he would stop such spending. The Bush White House says earmarks this year total $17 billion, a comparatively small share of a $2.9 trillion budget. Mr. McCain proposed a one-year freeze in most domestic spending subject to annual appropriations, “to allow for a comprehensive review.” This proposal would affect education, scientific research, law enforcement and scores of other programs. Mr. Bush’s battles with Congress suggest it would be extremely difficult for Mr. McCain to win approval for such a freeze. Mr. McCain said he was counting on “rapid economic growth” to help reduce the deficit. While a growing economy generates additional revenue, several of Mr. McCain’s tax proposals would be costly, experts said. He would “phase out and eliminate” a provision of the tax code known as the alternative minimum tax , which has ensnared a growing number of middle-class Americans in recent years. By his own account, repealing this tax “will save middle-class families nearly $60 billion in a single year.” That is $60 billion that would presumably not be available to the Treasury. Mr. McCain also wants to extend many of the Bush tax cuts, scheduled to expire by Jan. 1, 2011. That could reduce tax collections below the levels assumed under current law, and it could widen the deficit, many economists said. In January, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending the Bush tax cuts would cost more than $700 billion in the next five years. Since January, the economy has been weaker than expected, making the goal of a balanced budget more difficult to achieve. The budget deficit in the current fiscal year is running much higher than in the previous year. Other McCain proposals, like doubling the personal tax exemption for dependents and cutting the corporate income tax rate, would also reduce revenues, economists said. C. Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute, who worked in the Reagan administration, said Mr. McCain “may well be committed to balancing the budget in five years, but does not tell you how he would reach that goal.” J. Bradford DeLong, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, who worked at the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, said, “Senator McCain and his advisers want to claim they will balance the budget by 2013, but they have given us no clue and no plan to meet all the commitments he has made and still get there.” On the other hand, history shows the deficit sometimes shrinks faster than experts expect. That happened in 1998 in the Clinton administration, when the government ran a surplus for the first time in nearly three decades. And Mr. Bush cut the deficit in half faster than he or many fiscal experts had predicted.
|
McCain John;Budgets and Budgeting;Federal Taxes (US);Presidential Election of 2008;United States Economy;Taxation;United States Politics and Government;Income Tax
|
ny0206784
|
[
"us"
] |
2009/06/18
|
A Short-Term Fix for Transportation
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With plans for a six-year, $450 billion transportation bill hung up over the question of how to pay for it, the Obama administration said Wednesday that it wanted to put off the thorniest questions for now. Instead, officials proposed essentially extending the existing law for 18 months and finding a short-term way to pay for highway and transit projects. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in an interview that he thought it was unlikely that the House and the Senate could agree on a new bill before the current law expires at the end of September. Rather than face a series of three-month extensions of the law, which has happened in the past, Mr. LaHood said it would be less disruptive for everyone to plan for an year-and-a-half extension now. “We think this is the most realistic approach,” he said. House Democrats had hoped to pass an overhauled transportation bill this year to build highway and transit projects over the next six years, and some have suggested raising the 18.4-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax to pay for it. But the administration has said it opposes raising the gas tax in a recession , and some senators have questioned whether they can pass a new transportation bill while they are preoccupied with health care and energy legislation. Representative James L. Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, still plans to introduce a new bill next week, but Democrats said they had not determined how to pay for it. “The chairman is not too pleased with the administration’s proposal,” said Jim Berard, a spokesman. Mr. LaHood said his proposal would keep the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for transportation projects with gasoline and truck taxes, from running out of money this August.
|
Infrastructure (Public Works);Law and Legislation;Transportation Department;LaHood Ray
|
ny0008665
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2013/05/13
|
Seeking College Edge, Chinese Pupils Arrive in New York Earlier
|
Weiling Zhang, a sophomore at the Léman Manhattan Preparatory School , yearned to communicate with more conviction and verve than her peers back home — the “American way,” she said. Yijia Shi, a freshman, wanted to increase her chances of an acceptance letter from Brown University. And Meng Yuan, a junior, was seeking Western-style independence, not to mention better shopping. When she is not heading to track practice or doing her homework, she is combing Bergdorf Goodman for Louis Vuitton limited edition handbags and relishing in the $295 tasting menu at the celebrated Columbus Circle restaurant Per Se . New York City private schools have always been the province of the city’s young and wealthy, students whose home lives and educations can inspire both disdain and envy. But these students are the children of Shanghai real estate magnates, shipping giants, luxury hotel owners and doctors from coastal regions bordering the East China Sea. They are also part of a small, but growing, cadre of teenagers from wealthy families in China who are attending school in New York City. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 638 Chinese students with visas attended high schools in the city in 2012, up from 114 five years earlier. The influx has not been seamless. But the schools — particularly ones with lagging enrollment — have actively sought an international component and parents who can pay full tuition, even if that means accepting students who speak limited English. Chinese students and their parents have seen the schools as a way to gain an advantage on the thousands of students at home who apply to United States colleges every year . They are also availing themselves of a more well-rounded educational model than they find in China, including that decidedly American college application line-item: extracurricular activities. “At home, I couldn’t do any activities because we had too much work,” said Yijia, 15, who plays basketball at Léman. A large contingent of Chinese students attends the school, a young for-profit academy trying to generate more interest from applicants. In September, Léman welcomed 27 Chinese students, about one-fifth of the high school population, and 10 students from other countries. The students settled into studio apartments in a residential tower on Wall Street above a Tiffany & Company store and across from a Trump office building. The apartments feature marbled bathrooms, bean bags and bunk beds. The students are supervised by a team of houseparents who live in the same building and serve as round-the-clock caretakers to help ease their transition to a new city. The total tuition: $68,000 a year, compared with $36,400 for nonboarders. When the students are not in classes, which they attend with their American peers, poring over quadratic equations and analyzing passages from American classics like “The Great Gatsby,” they are exploring the city. They attend Broadway shows and Cirque du Soleil with their houseparents, shop for designer sneakers in SoHo, get manicures at Wall Street spas and eat waffles and cheese-omelet brunches cooked for them every Sunday by one of the school’s chefs. Léman, known as the Claremont Preparatory Academy before it was purchased two years ago by Meritas, a chain of international boarding schools, is not the only New York City private high school with students from China. However, it is the only one that currently houses them. At the Beekman School in Midtown Manhattan, the school’s four Chinese students board with local families. Last year, when Avenues: The World School , a for-profit institution in Chelsea, opened its doors, 20 students from Beijing applied. But the school was unable to accept them because of delays in student visa approval, which the school says will be resolved by the time it opens a 200-student international dorm in 2016. Image Léman Manhattan Preparatory School students, including Meng Yuan, second from right. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times Administrators at Léman say the cross-cultural exchange has enriched the whole school. The Chinese students are discovering Halloween, school dances and plays. The American students are learning how to be welcoming hosts. “We have a symbiotic relationship going on here,” Drew Alexander, the head of the school, said. Max Rosenthal, a junior, said he was often paired with students from China during class discussions on American Civil War battles or Prohibition-era mores. “It really helps you to understand the big picture when you have to explain it to someone,” he said. But other students said that same need to explain could get in the way. “I love that they are here,” said Osiris Vanible, a 10th grader. “But they don’t understand a lot of what I say. There’s a language barrier that you need to break through.” That barrier was evident one day last week, during an 11th-grade English class discussion on Toni Morrison’s novel, “Song of Solomon.” Meng, who has adopted the nickname Monroe, after President James Monroe and her idol Marilyn Monroe, followed the conversation, which centered on the depiction of African-American women and their struggles, and sometimes she interjected points. But at least two of her Chinese classmates were logged into a translation site, plugging in phrases they did not know. Some students were following along in online Mandarin versions of the book. A second teacher sat in the back, taking notes for students who would need them later. The teacher, Jessica Manners, said some of her international students struggled to grasp nuances that were simple for American students. “I try to talk more slowly than I normally would,” she said. “And I almost never do cold-calling,” selecting students who do not have their hands raised to answer questions. Mr. Alexander said foreign students were required to have a “minimum level of proficiency” before being accepted. And once enrolled, many are given different tests and homework assignments as well as more rudimentary reading material than American students. Those who need extra help take a special English-language class. According to Nicole Xu, a representative from Usaedu International Consulting Group, one of several international agencies that places Chinese students in American schools, this type of full immersion is a main reason Chinese parents are eager to send their children to the United States. Weiling, the 16-year-old daughter of an entrepreneur from the Mongolian uplands, said her parents had sought out a place where she would learn to negotiate more effectively and become skilled at solving real-world problems. Both are traits she said her parents deemed more American than Chinese and good for business. “In China, we only learn academics,” she said. Reached by e-mail, some parents have reported immediate results. Yulan Hu, Monroe’s mother, said that she noticed a newfound streak of self-sufficiency in her daughter when she arrived in Shanghai for winter break. Monroe, 18, is now on the track team and has learned to swim. But perhaps, most notable, Monroe had declined a longstanding household ritual — breakfast brought to her every morning in bed. “Literally, she has changed,” she wrote.
|
NYC;Private Schools;China;Foreign students in the US;K-12 Education;College
|
ny0189207
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2009/05/02
|
Quick Action by Hong Kong Reflects Experience of SARS
|
HONG KONG — Six years after SARS paralyzed this city and killed 299 of its citizens, Hong Kong is not taking chances with swine flu . Within minutes of the confirmation on Friday evening of Asia’s first swine flu case — a 25-year-old traveler from Mexico — the police had cordoned off the hotel where the young man stayed for fewer than seven hours on Thursday afternoon and evening. More than 200 guests will be quarantined in the building for a week, just in case they were exposed to the virus. Roughly 100 hotel staff members will also be quarantined for at least one night at the hotel, and then at government vacation camps that are being converted into quarantine centers. “No one can enter or leave the hotel without the permission of a health officer,” said Dr. Lam Ping-yan, Hong Kong’s director of health. Everyone who sat in the five rows closest to the Mexican traveler on a flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong at midday on Thursday is being contacted and will also be quarantined for a week, along with the aircraft’s flight crew. That tough response to the influenza A(H1N1) virus comes after years of preparation, and perhaps over-preparation, for the next infectious respiratory disease after SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. While the United States has stockpiled treatment courses of Tamiflu , a powerful flu medicine, equal to about a quarter of its population, and France has a stockpile equal to half its population, Hong Kong has a stockpile equal to three times its population. Hong Kong also has 15 times as many beds for severe respiratory illnesses as it uses for those illnesses on an everyday basis. The Mexican who brought the disease to Hong Kong had flown first from his home country to Shanghai and waited there five hours in a transit area, although he did not leave the airport. Flu experts warned that it would be harder to manage the disease if it became established in densely populated countries in Asia. The Mexican traveler, two companions who flew with him from Shanghai, plus a Hong Kong friend of the three, are all being hospitalized, although only the original traveler has a fever, sore throat and cough. In Beijing, authorities suspended all regularly scheduled flights between mainland China and Mexico until further notice; Hong Kong does not have direct flights to Mexico. The stringent response of Hong Kong and Beijing authorities reflects not only memories of SARS , but also the flu specialists’ fears that the disease could spread especially quickly if a sick person traveled through hotels and airports while infectious. Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive, declared a health emergency there, but said that schools and businesses would remain open, unlike in Mexico, where most have temporarily closed. “I ask that the Hong Kong people not be afraid — the government has the fortitude to effectively contain the virus before it spreads,” he said. Even before lab tests confirmed Friday evening that the traveler had swine flu, Hong Kong authorities sent vans of police officers and health workers to the hotel. As soon as confirmation arrived, police officers in surgical masks and white latex gloves cordoned off the hotel lobby, and health care workers delivered boxes of Tamiflu. According to a chronology provided by Dr. York Chow, Hong Kong’s secretary of food and health, the traveler and his companions arrived in Hong Kong Thursday afternoon, then took a taxi from the airport to the Metropark Hotel and checked in, meeting their Hong Kong friend. The traveler developed a sore throat and cough several hours later and took a taxi to a nearby hospital, where he was immediately isolated as a possible swine flu case. An initial test overnight for swine flu was negative, but more precise tests on Friday were positive, Dr. Chow said. The government has asked both taxi drivers who drove the Mexican traveler to turn themselves in to be quarantined.
|
Hong Kong;Swine Influenza;Influenza;SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
|
ny0066492
|
[
"us"
] |
2014/06/12
|
Weapons Stockpile Seen in Oregon School Attack
|
TROUTDALE, Ore. — The police on Wednesday identified the assailant who killed a student and wounded a teacher here as a 15-year-old student who had planned to hurt more people when he arrived at his high school in this Portland suburb with two family guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The 15-year-old, Jared Michael Padgett, a freshman at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, killed himself after the attack Tuesday morning, the authorities said. Mr. Padgett rode a school bus to the campus, carrying an assault rifle, a handgun, a large knife and nine loaded ammunition magazines hidden inside a guitar case and a duffel bag, the police said. He entered the high school through a locker room, where he encountered and fatally shot 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman, another freshman, and wounded the physical education teacher, Todd Rispler. The teacher made his way to an office and initiated a school lockdown after being grazed in the hip. By the time Mr. Padgett entered the main hallway of the school, officers were arriving from two entrances, the police said. Mr. Padgett fled to a restroom after an exchange of gunfire, and he died there from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the state medical examiner. He had been wearing a camouflage helmet and a non-ballistic ammunition vest. Image Emilio Hoffman, 14, was killed Tuesday morning after a classmate opened fire at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Ore. Credit Troutdale Police Department, via Associated Press The shooting in this small town in the Columbia Gorge, known for its mall outlets and sweeping views, was the latest in a recent series of shootings across the country. Later on Tuesday, President Obama used some of the strongest language of his presidency to discuss his frustration over the country’s failure to push through stricter gun laws. In Troutdale, the police did not disclose a motive for the shooting and said they had not established a link between the attacker and Mr. Hoffman. Mr. Padgett had taken the guns from his home, said the city’s police chief, Scott Anderson. “The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures,” Chief Anderson said. Local officials on Wednesday lauded the swift police action that they said had prevented the incident from becoming far more tragic. “I have no doubt in my mind that their action saved lives,” said Linda Florence, the school superintendent. Three candlelight vigils were held here Tuesday night, two of which were attended by Gov. John Kitzhaber. It was the third public shooting during his administration. In December 2012, a lone gunman entered the Clackamas Town Center mall and fired, killing two bystanders and wounding a third. In May 1998, a student, Kip Kinkel, killed his parents along with two students at Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., while wounding dozens of others.
|
Troutdale;School shooting;Reynolds High School;Murders;K-12 Education;Suicide;Todd Rispler;Emilio Hoffman;Jared Michael Padgett
|
ny0118784
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2012/07/03
|
East Hampton Chafes Under Influx of Immigrants
|
The Long Island Rail Road station in the town of East Hampton is a manicured place; the little white station house flanked by tidy trees almost looks like a child’s toy that just came out of the box. It is a short drive from the beach and steps from lavish boutiques, stores like John Varvatos and Coach. On any summer day, caravans of luxury cars can be spotted out front. But on any workday, residents say, it is dotted with another sight as well: men in sturdy boots and dusty jeans, laborers looking to be picked up for work. When one thinks of the Hamptons , what jumps to mind are masters of the universe and their mansions by the sea. But a strong, steady stream of immigrants has been flowing to the area for years, drawn by a service economy that demands hedges be trimmed and houses be cleaned. In the Springs, a hamlet in the town of East Hampton, where most of the houses are small and the year-round population is relatively large, the Hispanic population has tripled in the past 10 years — and tension has emerged. Some longtime residents of the Springs and similar areas complain that homes are being illegally crowded, that houses with half a dozen cars parked outside are a blight on the street, and that the many children living inside are overwhelming the local schools and causing property taxes to rise. “When you tell people you live in East Hampton, the first words out of their mouth are usually, ‘Do you live next to P. Diddy or Alec Baldwin ?’ ” said Dennis Michael Lynch, an East Hampton resident and a filmmaker who made a documentary about illegal immigration called “They Come to America.” “People have a perception of the Hamptons,” Mr. Lynch continued. “They don’t have an image of illegal immigrants packed like sardines into houses.” The pockets of tension are concentrated in year-round communities, where the immigrants, legal and illegal, tend to live alongside the landscapers and the contractors with whom they are competing for business. These areas are far less affluent than the southern end of town, where Manhattanites spend the summer by the ocean, in homes hidden behind 12-foot hedges. “South of the highway, the rich people, they don’t care,” said Ricardo Rodriguez, a carpenter from Colombia who has lived in East Hampton for 12 years. It is among “the working people, regular people like us,” he continued, where less welcoming sentiments can be found. “You can feel it.” Most of the houses on the leafy, winding roads of the Springs are small, well kept but simple. Pickup trucks and modest cars are parked in driveways under fluttering American flags. Home prices and rents are relatively low. Most Springs residents are white, but according to the 2010 census, 37 percent are Hispanic. Francisco Rafael Varela, an immigrant from Nicaragua who was waiting for a bus in East Hampton last week under a clear blue sky, said that when he came to this country, he came not to New York City or to Florida , but directly to the Hamptons to find work. Mr. Lynch and others who have raised the issue of crowded houses — at Town Board meetings or in property owner association newsletters — say it has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, but rather enforcement of existing codes that designate homes for single-family use. If a house is crammed with several families, they say, or occupied like a rooming house, that can hurt a whole street. Or when neighbors pack houses full of children, their critics complain of ending up shouldering an unfair portion of the school tax burden. “This is really about property values and the neighborhood,” said Carol Saxe Buda, who helped begin a group called Unoccupy Springs about a year and a half ago to address crowding. “A substantial number of illegally occupied homes reflect a certain community,” she added, referring to immigrants, but she emphasized that where the residents came from was never the reason her group singled out a home. The group’s members highlight only places that are, by their crowding, straining the local schools or threatening neighboring property values, she said. “We report houses that are problems," she said. “We don’t care who’s in them.” The East Hampton housing code allows no more than four unrelated people, or one family, to occupy a single-family home, and town officials acknowledge that crowding does exist. They receive a few complaints each week, most frequently in the Springs, and some of those do result in violations. And the deputy town supervisor, Theresa K. Quigley, said the Springs had some of the highest per-acre taxes around. Nonetheless, some residents, including Ms. Quigley, say the objections are more sinister. “The people who came to the Town Board insist there is nothing racial intended,” said Ms. Quigley, who was born and raised in the Hamptons. “They say they’re talking about overcrowding, but they’re talking about Latinos.” This spring, some residents went to a Town Board meeting waving giant photographs of homes they said were over-occupied, Ms. Quigley recounted, and threatening to compile and publicize a list of every one of those homes they could find. Ms. Quigley made a comment to a person nearby comparing the sentiments in the room to the rise of Nazism. That comment was picked up by a microphone and it soon typhooned into a controversy. Last week, she refused to back down from the comparison. “How, how, how could a country do what they did?” Ms. Quigley, who has lived in Germany , asked of that country’s past. “I don’t have an answer, but I can tell you one thing: It’s a series of little steps. It doesn’t happen in a huge bang. And it happens by targeting a group for your problems.” East Hampton, she continued, “is a great place to live, but we have troubles.” “People tend to blame the Latino community for their troubles,” she added. “Doesn’t that sound a little familiar? Like blaming the Jews for troubles in Germany.” Fred Weinberg, a member of the Unoccupy Springs group who was at that Town Board meeting, said that as a Jewish man, he found the remarks extremely offensive, and he demanded Ms. Quigley’s resignation. She did not oblige or apologize. Today he continues to work on the issues of crowding, he said, though he prefers to work away from Ms. Quigley when possible. “I know there are people who probably are racist,” Mr. Weinberg said. “But it’s not me, it’s not Carol Buda, it’s not any of the people that I know who have been trying to work on this problem. We just want them, very simply, to enforce the law and protect our community.”
|
East Hampton NY;Immigration;Hispanic Americans;Real Estate and Housing;Jobs
|
ny0240631
|
[
"us"
] |
2010/12/23
|
California: Setback for Marijuana Farms
|
The city of Oakland’s plan to license large medical marijuana growing operations was put on hold after a warning from the district attorney that city officials could face prosecution. The City Council voted 7 to 1 in a closed session on Tuesday night to suspend the application process for permits that would have let recipients set up four industrial-scale indoor marijuana farms. Applications were to have been due Wednesday. The decision came after the Alameda County district attorney, Nancy O’Malley, warned that the growing operations could be illegal, and that people associated with such operations, including city officials who approved them, could face prosecution.
|
California;Oakland (Calif);Marijuana;Farmers;Medicine and Health
|
ny0296862
|
[
"nyregion"
] |
2016/12/22
|
Coming to Newark Archdiocese: A Different Kind of Cardinal
|
INDIANAPOLIS — For about a year, the guys at the gym just called him Joe. He lifted weights in the early mornings wearing a skull-printed do-rag. He worked out on the elliptical, wiping it down when he was done. Then one day Shaun Yeary, a salesman at a landscape supply company, asked him in the locker room what he did for a living. “I used to be a priest,” Joe recalled telling him. “And now,” he said, his voice growing quieter so as not to scare anyone in earshot, “I’m the archbishop of Indianapolis.” “I was like, for real?” Mr. Yeary recalled. “This guy is benching two and a quarter!” — gymspeak for 225 pounds. Joe, also known as Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, recently became one of the 120 men in the world who will choose the next pope. But he wants to be judged by his actions, not his lofty position in the Roman Catholic Church. Though he has led the Archdiocese of Indianapolis since 2012, a status that usually comes with perks like a driver, he drives himself around in a Chevy Tahoe and helps with the dishes after lunch meetings. He introduces himself simply as Padre José to the children at a local Catholic school. He showers and shaves at the Community Healthplex gym like any other member, and calls his workout buddies his Band of Brothers. In short, he is just the kind of leader Pope Francis is elevating to realign the church in the United States with his priorities. As the pope has made clear over the past three years, fancy lifestyles, formality and regal titles like Prince of the Church are out of style for cardinals. So is an emphasis on the divisive issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, even though the church’s underlying position on those issues has not changed. Instead, in the pope’s view, the church should emphasize humility and service to the poor. It should be multicultural, welcoming different styles of worship. It should reach out to other faiths and stand up for immigrants, refugees and nuns. Image Cardinal Tobin’s post as archbishop of Indianapolis came with a driver, but he drives himself. Credit A J Mast for The New York Times And that, church experts and members of his flock say, is a close description of the priorities of Cardinal Tobin, who will be heading east just after Christmas to lead the approximately 1.5 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Newark. He is replacing Archbishop John J. Myers, 75, who preferred to be addressed by the formal title Your Grace, and who achieved notoriety when the church spent some $500,000 to outfit the house he will retire to with an indoor exercise pool and an elevator. Cardinal Tobin’s appointment in October as one of the nation’s 18 cardinals came as a surprise to many, including the man himself. But perhaps it should not have. For what his unassuming bearing does not reveal is that he is no stranger to the corridors of power in the church. He is a friend of Pope Francis. And under Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, he had helped lead the Vatican office that oversees the roughly one million men and women in religious orders around the world. That position did not end so well. It was an open secret that Cardinal Tobin was sent to Indiana as a kind of exile most likely because he questioned an inquiry by his office into supposed doctrinal lapses among the roughly 50,000 nuns in the United States. As he got to know the faithful in the chancery of Indianapolis, he would joke with them about it. “I was kicked out and I’m grateful for it,” the chancellor of the archdiocese, Annette Lentz, recalled his saying about how he turned up on her doorstep. And she would tell him, “Their loss is our gain.” How Cardinal Tobin, 64, an amiable 6-foot-3 Irish-American who likes Bob Seger, plays piano and speaks five languages, went from being the oldest of 13 children living in Detroit to the pinnacle of the global church is a story that bears telling. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood where the big houses were perfect for the large families of Irish, Polish and other Eastern European backgrounds that filled them. The local parish, Holy Redeemer , was run by an order of priests called the Redemptorists, and was unusually large, with 14 Masses each Sunday for up to 20,000 worshipers, he recalled in a Dec. 5 interview. His mother was a public-school teacher who quit her job to raise her brood; nine of her cousins and three of her aunts were nuns. Growing up in a deeply Catholic environment, Cardinal Tobin had two role models: the parish priests and his father, a cost analyst at General Motors who attended 6 a.m. Mass daily. Joe Tobin was a rough-and-tumble child, who once crashed through the back-porch window when he was being chased. But he also learned the deeper lessons taught by the nuns at the parish school. “Joe came home in second grade and said to me, ‘Mom, I need a pair of socks,’” his mother, Marie Tobin, 93, recalled before Cardinal Tobin’s emotional farewell Mass in Indianapolis on Dec. 3. “And I looked at his feet and saw his socks were fine. ‘Mother,’ he said, ‘there’s a boy in my class who has rags around his feet and a safety pin.’” Image A photograph of Cardinal Tobin’s family from the 1970s. Credit a J Mast for The New York Times In 1977, when the cardinal was in seminary in Esopus, N.Y., his father died of a heart attack. By that time, the family had moved across the border to Canada, and his father had been commuting to Michigan. “I idolized my dad,” Cardinal Tobin said. “He was everything I think a man should be. He was strong, he played in the Orange Bowl as a freshman in Boston College. He lost his leg in World War II, so he never played football again. He had a quiet, unpretentious faith. He was chivalrous with women. “And I remember when he died,” he added, “and I was waiting at the seminary for someone to drive me to La Guardia, and one of my teachers came and said, ‘If you can be a man like your father, when they call you Father you will be all right.’ And I suppose I am still trying to do that.” He remains close with his siblings. And in the Redemptorists, an order that requires a vow of poverty and emphasizes missionary outreach, he found a second family. He dreamed of being sent to far-flung locales once he was ordained in 1978. Instead, because he spoke Spanish, he was sent right back to Holy Redeemer, which had a growing Hispanic population. There, he learned about serving the poor. An older priest modeled what was to become a signature of Cardinal Tobin’s ministry: an intense focus on each person. “When he is there and you are talking to him, it’s as if you have known him all your life,” said Bernice Guynn, 89, a parishioner at St. Rita in Indianapolis. From Detroit, he was moved during the AIDS epidemic to Chicago, where he ministered at the bedsides of the dying. The church’s stance against homosexuality was not a barrier to him. “It’s important to be there for people,” he said. By 1991, the higher-ups of his order had taken notice and he was moved to Rome. For 12 years, he led the Redemptorist order, finally traveling the world to missions in more than 70 nations. Image Cardinal Tobin with the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary after his farewell Mass in Indianapolis on Dec. 3 Credit A J Mast for The New York Times In that capacity, he made an impression on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the Vatican official responsible for enforcing Catholic doctrine. In 2010, five years after Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict, he offered Father Tobin the title of archbishop and the position of secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in the Vatican. Cardinal Tobin recalled that he was painting his mother’s porch in Ontario when he got the call from the Vatican secretary of state. “I turned white and started stuttering,” he said. He did not want the job, he said, but how does one refuse the pope? The office he had been tapped to administer was investigating American nuns for supposedly adopting a “secular mentality” and straying from Catholic orthodoxy. In other words, the nuns were accused of being too liberal, and Cardinal Tobin was to oversee the inquiry. But he had an “extremely positive” view of the nuns, he told The National Catholic Reporter at the time, and he wanted to explain their good works. “My first job, I thought, was to ask, ‘What were people trying to accomplish with this?’” he said this month. But the problem, he came to believe, was structural: the investigation of 55,000 religious women by a tiny staff for the alleged errors of a few. “It made as much sense as an ophthalmologist trying to do cataract surgery standing in center field in Yankee Stadium and pointing his laser gun up at the bleachers,” he said. Two years into his five-year term, his priest secretary surprised him with the news. “We are so sorry you are going,” Cardinal Tobin recalled him saying. “And I said, ‘Really, where am I going?’ And he said, ‘Indianapolis.’” The official news did not come for four months. “It was like death by 1,000 cuts,” he said. When he arrived in Indiana in December 2012, most American Catholics had never heard of him. But to the nuns he was something of a hero. “We thought that he was a tremendous individual,” said Mother Anne Brackmann, the prioress of the Carmelite Monastery in Terre Haute, Ind. “And he was welcomed very, very warmly.” Someone else took note of his dismissal: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, who would become Pope Francis. Image Cardinal Tobin greeting students at St. Philip Neri School in Indianapolis this month. Credit A J Mast for The New York Times The two men met in 2005 during a synod of bishops in Rome, and they bonded over a shared view of the church. There were conservative bishops in their group who wanted, for example, to ban girls from being altar servers. “I have eight sisters, and at the time, I had nieces who were serving at the altar, and I didn’t see the justification for it,” Cardinal Tobin said. “Bergoglio was on the same page. There are more important things to talk about.” They had also laughed together: Cardinal Tobin recalled telling Cardinal Bergoglio that he had been his mother’s choice for pope that year, because she had read how he picked up after himself and cooked his own food. Still, Cardinal Tobin was surprised to get a note from Cardinal Bergoglio in 2010 wishing him luck in his Vatican position. “He said: ‘I remember our time together, I remember our conversations, and I remember your mother’s good taste. I’m praying for you.’” By the time Cardinal Tobin came to the Vatican in 2013 to receive his pallium — the cowl that would mark his status as the archbishop of Indianapolis — Pope Francis had been elected. He was not sure the new pope would remember him. But Francis again surprised him. “I’ve been praying intensely for you since I heard what happened,” Cardinal Tobin said the pope had told him. What happened next was a kind of rehabilitation. Francis appointed him to the oversight committee of the same Vatican office he had been removed from. Then, in October, came the announcement: The pope was naming him a cardinal. He would be the youngest one in the United States. Cardinal Tobin was shocked. “It’s kind of like you are sleeping in class and all of a sudden the spotlight is on you,” he said. At a news conference last month in Newark, he put it this way: “Sometimes I think Pope Francis sees a lot more in me than I see in myself.” Image Cardinal Tobin with Pope Francis at the Vatican last month. Credit Stefano Rellandini/Reuters Cardinal Tobin said he loved his time in Indianapolis, where he visited parishes in 39 counties, ministered to prisoners on death row and baptized about 1,000 new Catholics each Easter. He was up by 4 many mornings to pray before arriving at the gym by 5:30. With the help of a trainer, Shane Moat, he learned how to deadlift 425 pounds. “Big breath, explode, keep it close,” Mr. Moat coached him earlier this month. Cardinal Tobin strained and hoisted the weight to his waist. “You the man!” someone shouted. “No, I’m not,” Cardinal Tobin said after dropping the weight with a bang. That morning, Mr. Yeary, the salesman, presented him with a goodbye gift: a framed photo of the cardinal with his seven workout buddies, whose ages range from 27 to over 70. “Oh, man, that’s wonderful, thank you,” the cardinal said. Then he reverted to his lighthearted tone: “None of those Sopranos are going to mess with me. This is my crew.” Cardinal Tobin has had a hard time saying goodbye. He choked up at his farewell Mass and had only one request of the congregation that had packed the cathedral: Pray for him. But his admirers here and elsewhere are hoping that Cardinal Tobin will become a more public voice for Pope Francis and his priorities. He has already done that once, in a showdown with Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, a Republican who is now the vice president-elect, over welcoming Syrian refugees. In November 2015, Mr. Pence announced that he would suspend Syrian refugee resettlement programs, citing security fears. Cardinal Tobin felt that was not only illegal, but also immoral. He met with Mr. Pence, discussed his objections and told him he would continue the Catholic Charities resettlement program. A federal court has since overturned the governor’s directive. In an email, Mr. Pence said, “Cardinal Tobin is a personal friend, and I deeply respect his commitment to his faith and his ministry.” While Cardinal Tobin did not tell anyone whom to vote for in the presidential election, he said he was disturbed by appeals to fear during the campaign of Donald J. Trump, particularly his views of refugees and immigrants. Mr. Trump, he said, “was appealing to the dark side of the divisive forces, to the unredeemed part of us.” And while the cardinal believes American democracy will ultimately resist such appeals, “you can’t be too Pollyannish about things.” Image Cardinal Tobin at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark last month, when he was introduced as the new Roman Catholic archbishop of the city. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times In Newark, he said, his first job after his installation on Jan. 6 will be to listen. Encompassing Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union Counties in northern New Jersey, the archdiocese has pockets of great wealth and poverty, and an array of immigrants so diverse that Mass each Sunday is celebrated in 20 languages. About 30 percent of the parishioners are Hispanic. It is also a community in need of healing . In July, citing the failure of the archdiocese to effectively remove priests accused of sexual abuse from contact with children , the editorial board of The Star-Ledger of Newark called the departure of Archbishop Myers a “true blessing.” “During his 15-year tenure as New Jersey’s highest-ranking Catholic, he protected pedophile priests,” the board said. “He urged his flock to vote based on two issues — abortion and gay marriage — at the threat of being denied Holy Communion.” Jim Goodness, the spokesman for the archdiocese, denied those allegations, saying that Archbishop Myers had permanently removed from ministry some 20 abusive priests and that he had “never threatened to deny Communion to anyone.” Cardinal Tobin will bring a different message. One of his priorities, he said, would be to ensure that the archdiocese is fully compliant with church and criminal protocols on handling sexual abuse allegations. At the Vatican in the late 1990s, the cardinal recalled, it was difficult to convince people that the abuse issue was serious. “I think they just believed it was an American problem,” he said, adding, “I don’t want to make it like I was a great crusader over there, but I did take it seriously.” He later led an effort to establish protocols for abuse claims in his order. Yet the most outspoken American victims group, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests , said that Cardinal Tobin, like the church as a whole, must do more, such as posting the names of all credibly accused priests online. “Certainly there are worse bishops, but that fact should comfort no one,” David Clohessy, the organization’s national director, said. Cardinal Tobin assumes his role in an uneasy time. He said that he hoped to lead with joy and transparency, and that he intended to encourage dialogue to bridge divisions. But he would go further if he believed that policies ran counter to the moral values that Jesus taught. On the threats by President-elect Trump to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants, for example, Cardinal Tobin was clear. He recalled how Pope John XXIII, before he became pope, issued false baptismal certificates to help Jews escape the Nazis in World War II. “We have to resist,” he said. “With public statements, and then, you do what you got to do.”
|
Catholic Church;Pope Francis;Joseph Tobin;Newark NJ
|
ny0208455
|
[
"sports"
] |
2009/06/22
|
After Hitting Bottom, Boxer Paul Spadafora, 33, Is Trying to Regain the Top
|
McKEES ROCKS, Pa. — Paul Spadafora went on a roll in 1999 after he won the International Boxing Federation lightweight title, defending that belt against 10 fighters over four years, raking in millions and building a following that made him an HBO favorite. He vacated the belt to move up to the junior-welterweight division in 2003. But that October, Spadafora went on a weekend drinking binge and argued with his girlfriend, Nadine Russo. She pulled out a gun, she said at the time, they struggled, and she was shot in the chest. She later recovered. Spadafora pleaded guilty to second-degree felony assault and served seven months in prison and six months in a boot camp after Russo pleaded for leniency at his sentencing hearing. “Paul don’t know nothing but drinking and boxing,” she told the judge. He might have agreed. “I made a lot of money boxing,” said Spadafora, whose nickname, the Pittsburgh Kid, is tattooed on his neck, one of his many upper-body tattoos. “But I still had a monkey on my back and I screwed my own life up. When I do what I plan on doing, it’ll be a great story for kids.” Spadafora, now 33, and his management say he can make it back to the top with a new trainer, the Hall of Famer Pernell Whitaker . Spadafora’s next fight is Wednesday in Pittsburgh against the little-known Argentine Ivan Bustos, who has 27 wins, 12 defeats and 3 draws as a professional. After a year’s worth of nagging injuries kept Spadafora out of the ring, his manager, Al McCauley, and promoter, Mike Acri, say the Bustos fight is an important step on a three-bout road back to the big time. “I’m hoping by December, we’ll be in a major fight,” McCauley said. Those McCauley ticked off as possible opponents are a who’s who of welterweights, boxing’s glamour division: Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Spadafora is 41-0-1, the draw coming against Leonard Dorin in May 2003 . But Spadafora has had only five fights since, the last 14 months ago. “My life was hard, so I went to the boxing gym, and that turned into my life,” Spadafora said Saturday at an autograph session at a used-car lot here in his hometown, on Pittsburgh’s western border. He admitted that alcoholism was the root of his troubles, and said he no longer drank. Now that his life is going in the right direction, Spadafora said, he is finally ready mentally and physically to turn his career around. “I believe in all my heart there’s no one who can stop me,” he said. “I feel I’m better than I was in 2002 or 2003. And Pernell has me moving to the right more, using my jab more, making people miss more.” Whitaker has not made his mark as a trainer since his retirement in 2001. Like Spadafora, Whitaker relied on technique and boxing knowledge, not power, to beat his opponents. Whitaker also battled demons, going to prison for cocaine possession in 2003. But he played down the similarity. “I didn’t come down here to be his mentor or his daddy,” Whitaker said. “I came down to help this man get a piece of history next Wednesday.” Spadafora also has personal goals. He and Russo are no longer a couple, but they have a 4-year-old son, Geno. Spadafora said he hoped to gain custody of Geno in September, after completing probation for the shooting. Since Spadafora got out of boot camp in March 2006, he has been thwarted by injuries and, briefly, a parole violation for another incident involving Russo. That makes some skeptical that he can return to form. Dan Rafael of ESPN.com wrote, “I do not think he will ever be a factor at a championship level again.” But Teddy Atlas, an analyst for ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights,” said Spadafora had several factors working in his favor. “Things that work well fundamentally at 23 still work fundamentally at 33,” said Atlas, who was the television analyst for Spadafora’s first title fight, against Israel Cardona in 1999. “And I think that bodes well for Spadafora. He didn’t depend on one physical thing. He didn’t take a lot of punches. And he was a southpaw, which gives guys trouble. “But it will be some of these future fights that will be the portal to determine if we can say Paul Spadafora really has come back.”
|
Boxing;Spadafora Paul;Whitaker Pernell
|
ny0023893
|
[
"science"
] |
2013/08/20
|
At the Printer, Living Tissue
|
SAN DIEGO — Someday, perhaps, printers will revolutionize the world of medicine, churning out hearts, livers and other organs to ease transplantation shortages. For now, though, Darryl D’Lima would settle for a little bit of knee cartilage. Dr. D’Lima, who heads an orthopedic research lab at the Scripps Clinic here, has already made bioartificial cartilage in cow tissue, modifying an old inkjet printer to put down layer after layer of a gel containing living cells. He has also printed cartilage in tissue removed from patients who have undergone knee replacement surgery. There is much work to do to perfect the process, get regulatory approvals and conduct clinical trials, but his eventual goal sounds like something from science fiction: to have a printer in the operating room that could custom-print new cartilage directly in the body to repair or replace tissue that is missing because of injury or arthritis. Just as 3-D printers have gained in popularity among hobbyists and companies who use them to create everyday objects, prototypes and spare parts (and even a crude gun), there has been a rise in interest in using similar technology in medicine. Instead of the plastics or powders used in conventional 3-D printers to build an object layer by layer, so-called bioprinters print cells, usually in a liquid or gel. The goal isn’t to create a widget or a toy, but to assemble living tissue. At labs around the world, researchers have been experimenting with bioprinting, first just to see whether it was possible to push cells through a printhead without killing them (in most cases it is), and then trying to make cartilage, bone, skin, blood vessels, small bits of liver and other tissues. There are other ways to try to “engineer” tissue — one involves creating a scaffold out of plastics or other materials and adding cells to it. In theory, at least, a bioprinter has advantages in that it can control the placement of cells and other components to mimic natural structures. But just as the claims made for 3-D printing technology sometimes exceed the reality, the field of bioprinting has seen its share of hype. News releases, TED talks and news reports often imply that the age of print-on-demand organs is just around the corner. (Accompanying illustrations can be fanciful as well — one shows a complete heart, seemingly filled with blood, as the end product in a printer). The reality is that, although bioprinting researchers have made great strides, there are many formidable obstacles to overcome. “Nobody who has any credibility claims they can print organs, or believes in their heart of hearts that that will happen in the next 20 years,” said Brian Derby, a researcher at the University of Manchester in Britain who reviewed the field last year in an article in the journal Science. For now, researchers have set their sights lower. Organovo , for instance, a San Diego company that has developed a bioprinter, is making strips of liver tissue, about 20 cells thick, that it says could be used to test drugs under development. A lab at the Hannover Medical School in Germany is one of several experimenting with 3-D printing of skin cells; another German lab has printed sheets of heart cells that might some day be used as patches to help repair damage from heart attacks. A researcher at the University of Texas at El Paso, Thomas Boland, has developed a method to print fat tissue that may someday be used to create small implants for women who have had breast lumpectomies. Dr. Boland has also done much of the basic research on bioprinting technologies. “I think it is the future for regenerative medicine,” he said. Dr. D’Lima acknowledges that his dream of a cartilage printer — perhaps a printhead attached to a robotic arm for precise positioning — is years away. But he thinks the project has more chance of becoming reality than some others. “Printing a whole heart or a whole bladder is glamorous and exciting,” he said. “But cartilage might be the low-hanging fruit to get 3-D printing into the clinic.” One reason, he said, is that cartilage is in some ways simpler than other tissues. Cells called chondrocytes sit in a matrix of fibrous collagens and other compounds secreted by the cells. As cells go, chondrocytes are relatively low maintenance — they do not need much nourishment, which simplifies the printing process. Keeping printed tissue nourished, and thus alive, is one of the most difficult challenges facing researchers. Most cells need to be within a short distance — usually a couple of cell widths — of a source of nutrients. Nature accomplishes this through a network of microscopic blood vessels, or capillaries. But trying to emulate capillaries in bioprinted tissue is difficult. With his fat tissue, Dr. Boland’s approach is to build channels into the degradable gel containing the fat cells, and line the channels with the kind of cells found in blood vessels. When the printed fat is implanted, the tubes “start to behave as micro blood vessels,” he said. Image Darryl D'Lima, an orthopedic specialist, worked with a bioprinter in his research on cartilage at Scripps Clinic in San Diego. Credit Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times The body naturally produces chemical signals that would cause it to start growing small blood vessels into the implant, Dr. Boland said, but the process is slow. With his approach, he said, “we expect this will be sped up, and hopefully keep the cells alive.” With cartilage, Dr. D’Lima does not need to worry about blood vessels — the chondrocytes get the little nourishment they need through diffusion of nutrients from the joint lining and bone, which is aided by compression of the cartilage as the joints move. Nor does he need to be concerned with nerves, as cartilage lacks them. But there is still plenty to worry about. Although it is less than a quarter of an inch thick, cartilage of the type found in the knee or hip has a complex structure, with several layers in which collagen and other fibrous materials are oriented differently. “The printing demands change with every layer,” Dr. D’Lima said. “Most 3-D printers just change the shape. We are changing the shape, the composition, the type of cells, even the orientation of the cells.” Dr. D’Lima has been involved in orthopedic research for years; one of his earlier projects, a sensor-laden knee-replacement prosthesis called the electronic knee, has provided invaluable data about the forces that act on the joint. So he was aware of other efforts to make and repair cartilage. “But we didn’t want to grow tissue in the lab and then figure how to transplant it into the body,” he said. “We wanted to print it directly in the body itself.” He and his colleagues began thinking about using a thermal inkjet printer, in which tiny channels containing the ink are heated, producing a vapor bubble that forces out a drop. The technology is very reliable and is used in most consumer printers, but the researchers were wary because of the heat produced. “We thought it would kill the cells,” Dr. D’Lima said. But Dr. Boland, then at Clemson University, and others had already done the basic research that showed that the heat pulse was so rapid that most cells survived the process. Dr. D’Lima’s group soon discovered another problem: the newest thermal inkjets were too sophisticated for their work. “They print at such high resolution that the print nozzles are too fine for cells to squeeze through,” he said. They found a 1990s-era Hewlett-Packard printer, a Deskjet 500, with bigger nozzles. But that printer was so old that it was difficult finding ink cartridges; the researchers finally located a supplier in China who had some. Their idea was to replace the ink in the cartridges with their cartilage-making mixture, which consisted of a liquid called PEG-DMA and the chondrocytes. But even that created a problem — the cells would settle out of the liquid and clog the printhead. So the researchers had to devise a way to keep the mixture stirred up. The mixture also has to be liquid to be printed, but once printed it must become a gel — otherwise the end product would just be a watery mess. PEG-DMA becomes a gel under ultraviolet light, so the solution was to keep the print area constantly exposed to UV light to harden each drop as it was printed. “So now you’re printing tissue,” Dr. D’Lima said. But Dr. D’Lima and his group are investigating other materials for their gel. While PEG-DMA is biocompatible (and approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration), it would remain in the body and might eventually cause inflammation. So they are looking for substances that could degrade over time, to be replaced by the matrix produced by the chondrocytes. The printed material could be formulated to degrade at the same rate as the natural matrix is produced. There are plenty of other challenges as well, Dr. D’Lima said, including a basic one — how to get the right kinds of cells, and enough of them, for the printer. It would not make much sense to use a patient’s own limited number of cartilage cells from elsewhere in the body. So his lab is investigating the use of stem cells, precursor cells that can become chondrocytes. “The advantage of stem cells is that it would mean a virtually unlimited supply,” Dr. D’Lima said. Dr. D’Lima’s team is investigating other technologies that might be used in combination with bioprinting, including electrospinning, a method of creating the fibers in the matrix, and nanomagnetism, a way to orient the fibers. His lab takes a multidisciplinary approach — he even attends Siggraph , the large annual computer graphics convention, to get ideas. “They’re like 10 years ahead of medical technology,” he said. Meanwhile, the lab has upgraded its printing technology. The Deskjet is still around, but it has not been used in more than a year. It has been supplanted by a much more sophisticated device from Hewlett-Packard — essentially a programmable printhead that allows the researchers to adjust drop size and other characteristics to optimize the printing process. Dr. D’Lima said the biggest remaining hurdles were probably regulatory ones — including proving to the F.D.A. that printed cartilage can be safe — and that most of the scientific challenges had been met. “I think in terms of getting it to work, we are cautiously optimistic,” he said.
|
3-D Printers;Biotechnology;Human Tissue;Darryl D'Lima;Research;Medicine and Health;Thomas Boland
|
ny0159270
|
[
"world",
"europe"
] |
2008/12/06
|
$100 Million in Jewels Stolen From Paris Store
|
PARIS — A savvy band of jewel thieves, some posing as women, stole diamonds, rings and watches valued at more than $100 million from a Harry Winston boutique in the heart of the city’s “golden triangle” of luxury shops, the authorities said Friday. The brazen theft, which was described as France’s costliest jewelry theft and which some French newspapers quickly branded the heist of the century, occurred Thursday afternoon but was not reported until Friday. The robbers struck in the holiday season, when jewelry stocks are plentiful. It was the second time in 14 months that the Winston boutique on Avenue Montaigne had been robbed, and the theft followed by little more than a week one at Cartier in Paris, where a veiled woman posing as a tourist from Qatar switched a fake for the real gem in a diamond ring valued at $800,000. “Harry Winston is not the only target,” said Doron Lévy, a spokesman for the Union of French Jewelers, who huddled with executives of Harry Winston on Friday to debate a public response. “It is interesting how imaginative these thieves are. They are very observant, and they know how people work in the shops.” The police said that at least four men brandishing guns had robbed Harry Winston, which is on a street of shops near the Champs-Élysées that is crowded with high-end boutiques, like Chanel, Dior and Gucci. Around closing time at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, the thieves entered and confronted 15 employees. At least two of the robbers wore wigs and women’s clothes, while an accomplice apparently waited outside as the getaway driver, Mr. Lévy said. He said the robbers dressed as women because they were aware that typically jewelers are more trusting of women and so more likely to allow them to enter. “It’s a very sensitive moment when someone tries to enter a shop,” Mr. Lévy said, adding that the employees study the potential customer before unlocking the doors. “If they know you are not a client,” he said, “they will not open.” The robbers further deflected employees’ suspicions by addressing some of them by name, Mr. Lévy said. In a 2007 jewelry robbery in London , he said, thieves overcame suspicion by arriving in a Bentley. On Friday, Harry Winston issued a terse, two-sentence statement from its headquarters in New York. “We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation,” a spokeswoman, Rhonda Barnat, said in the statement. “Our first concern is the well-being of our employees.” The golden doors of the jeweler’s boutique on Avenue Montaigne were locked Friday, and some display windows were empty. But knots of television camera operators gathered around the entrance, along with tourists taking photos. Ms. Barnat said by telephone that no date for reopening had been set. One investigator said that the thieves would have trouble reselling the jewels in Western Europe, the newspaper Le Monde reported, but not in Eastern Europe, which the investigator called “a new El Dorado” for traffickers in stolen jewelry.
|
Jewels and Jewelry;Robberies and Thefts;Paris (France);Crime and Criminals
|
ny0243178
|
[
"us"
] |
2011/03/08
|
John Ensign Leaving the Senate
|
WASHINGTON — Senator John Ensign , the two-term Nevada Republican caught up in a sex and ethics inquiry, announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in 2012 to avoid what he predicted would be an “exceptionally ugly” campaign. “As I have learned through the mistake that I made, there are consequences to sin,” Mr. Ensign, 52, said at a news conference in Las Vegas as his wife, Darlene, stood at his side. Once considered a future presidential contender, Mr. Ensign has seen his political fortunes plummet since he admitted in 2009 to an affair with a former campaign staffer who was also the wife of a top aide. A Senate Ethics Committee investigation, still under way, began after disclosures that Mr. Ensign’s parents paid $96,000 to the aide, Douglas Hampton, who also said the senator had helped him line up lobbying clients after Mr. Hampton left his Senate job. Mr. Ensign, who had previously insisted that he intended to run again, is the eighth senator and third Republican to announce that he will not be on the ballot in 2012, a reflection of the turbulent political atmosphere and frustration some lawmakers feel about the inability to find consensus in a highly partisan Congress. More retirements are likely, freeing some senators from typical political considerations as they face tough decisions about federal spending and the deficit. Mr. Ensign’s decision opens the door to another high-profile Senate race in Nevada, where Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat who is the majority leader, was able to hold off a strong challenge last November. Republicans were relieved by Mr. Ensign’s decision, viewing him as badly damaged politically by the disclosures about the affair. Among Republican contenders, Representative Dean Heller had been readying a campaign even if Mr. Ensign ran again and is considered the current front-runner. Sharron Angle , who lost to Mr. Reid last year, has also been mentioned as a potential candidate for the Ensign seat, though she could also seek Mr. Heller’s House seat. Among Democrats, Representative Shelley Berkley is a likely contender, and other names were being floated Monday. Federal prosecutors announced last December that they would not pursue criminal charges against Mr. Ensign, a move that surprised some Congressional watchdogs who said the senator’s work to line up lobbying contracts for Mr. Hampton might have violated federal law covering contacts between lawmakers and former staff members. But the Senate ethics investigation of Mr. Ensign is expected to continue as long as he remains in the Senate. One Senate official said Monday that the committee was moving as quickly as it could to resolve the matter. Last month, the committee announced that it had appointed a special counsel to help with its investigation, an indication that it was serious in pursuing the matter and might be preparing to file formal charges. Daniel J. Albregts, a lawyer for Mr. Hampton, said Monday that his client had no comment on the senator’s decision to retire. Appointing a special counsel to investigate a sitting member of the Senate is relatively rare for the Ethics Committee. Two senators who faced similar investigations in the early 1990s — Alan Cranston, Democrat of California, and David Durenberger, Republican of Minnesota — both chose not to run for re-election after the special counsel completed his report. Mr. Cranston was reprimanded, and Mr. Durenberger denounced for their dealings with a savings and loan executive. Carol Elder Bruce, the special counsel in the Ensign inquiry, is an experienced former federal prosecutor who previously served as an independent counsel investigating Bruce Babbitt, the interior secretary during the Clinton administration, and before that, a top aide in the inquiry of Edwin Meese III, attorney general under President Ronald Reagan. The committee recently interviewed Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma and a former housemate of Mr. Ensign, who counseled his colleague after learning of the affair. Mr. Ensign moved last year to set up a legal defense fund, sending out a letter to supporters urging them to help defend him against what he said was an investigation inspired by liberal activists. Mr. Ensign said Monday that he was driven to leave Congress not by the pending Ethics Committee inquiry but by the potential personal cost to his family of a campaign that would no doubt focus heavily on his past actions. “I don’t want to put my family through that,” he said.
|
Ensign John;Nevada;Senate;United States Politics and Government;Presidential Election of 2012;Ethics;Hampton Douglas;Angle Sharron E;Heller Dean;Berkley Shelley
|
ny0102870
|
[
"world",
"africa"
] |
2015/12/22
|
Nigeria: Strife Puts Education at Risk for a Million Children, Unicef Says
|
Violence and attacks against civilians in northeastern Nigeria and neighboring countries have forced more than one million children to abandon school, the United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, said in a report issued Monday. The report said the conflict in the region, where the militant Islamist group Boko Haram has targeted educational institutions, has kept many children out of classes for more than a year, “putting them at risk of dropping out of school altogether.” The report said that more than 2,000 schools in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger remain closed because of the violence and that “hundreds have been attacked, looted or set on fire.”
|
K-12 Education;Boko Haram;UNICEF;Children;Education;Nigeria
|
ny0115629
|
[
"world",
"asia"
] |
2012/11/14
|
3 Kabul Targets Hit by Insurgent Rockets
|
KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents fired four rockets into the capital early on Tuesday, hitting a taxi, the grounds of a television studio and the international airport, the Afghan police and other officials said. One passenger in the taxi was killed and three passengers were wounded, but there were no other casualties, according to the Kabul police spokesman, Hashmat Stanakzai. Mr. Stanakzai said the rockets were fired around 6:40 a.m. by remote control, using cellphones, within the municipal boundaries of Kabul, from the Tara Khel area about two miles northeast of the airport. The area is semi-agricultural, and the rockets were believed to have been fired from a vegetable garden, he said. “Our security team found the area from where the rockets were fired, and they found another rocket round in the same place, which was set up and connected with a cellphone,” he said. An official at the Kabul airport, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information, said two rockets landed in what he called “very sensitive parts” of the airport but caused no damage or casualties. Fazal Karim, the head of Shamshad Television, said that one of the rockets landed in his station’s compound and caused minor damage. “Thank God, no one was killed or injured,” he said.
|
Afghanistan War (2001- );Airports;Kabul (Afghanistan);Bombs and Explosives
|
ny0220009
|
[
"sports",
"olympics"
] |
2010/02/03
|
Bode Miller to Compete in All Five Alpine Events
|
Sasha Rearick, the coach of the United States ski team, said Bode Miller planned to race all five Alpine events at the Vancouver Olympics. Miller’s first event will be the downhill on Feb. 13, and he will also compete in the super combined, the super-G, the giant slalom and the slalom. There were questions over whether Miller would race the giant slalom because he had not scored a point in the discipline on the World Cup circuit this season, whereas four other Americans have. But Rearick said Miller would get the start based on his record, which includes a silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, gold at the 2003 world championships, the 2004 World Cup title and nine World Cup race victories. 216 U.S. REPRESENTATIVES The United States Olympic Committee announced Tuesday that it would have 216 athletes in the Vancouver Games, including two who have been selected to five consecutive teams. Todd Lodwick, a Nordic combined skier, and Mark Grimmette, a luge athlete, were chosen for their fifth straight team. Teams can make changes only if there are injuries. Another five-time Olympian is Casey Puckett, who made the 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002 teams as an Alpine skier. He is recovering from a shoulder injury but is expected to compete on the freestyle team in ski cross. There are 123 men and 93 women on the United States team, many of whom are in pre-Olympic training camps this week. The Vancouver Games begin Feb. 12. $140,000 DETERRENT Any Italian athlete caught doping at the Vancouver Games will be fined $140,000, the Italian Olympic Committee said. The committee said that all of its 109 athletes heading to Canada would have to sign a statement agreeing to pay the sum if they test positive. Giovanni Petrucci, the committee president, said the deterrent was added “to show how serious Italian sport is in the fight against doping — whoever doesn’t sign won’t go to Vancouver.” The committee had its athletes sign an antidoping pledge before the 2008 Games in Beijing, but without a financial penalty. The committee is considering legal action against the cyclist Davide Rebellin, whose silver medal in the road race in Beijing was rescinded for doping. PODIUMS UNVEILED Organizers have unveiled the podiums on which athletes will receive their gold, silver or bronze Olympic medals at the Vancouver Games. The 23 structures, designed to reflect a mountain range, feature more than 200 pieces of wood from British Columbia forests. The podiums were made through a local program run by a Games sponsor, RONA, which provided carpentry training to inner-city residents. U.S. SKATING IS A HIT The recent United States Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash., had its highest television ratings since the 2003 championships and set a record for ticket sales. NBC’s final prime-time rating for the women’s free skate drew a rating of 3.4, 26 percent higher than in 2009. Promoters said 158,170 tickets were sold for the event, topping the record of 154,389 set in 2007.
|
Miller Bode;Alpine Skiing;Olympic Games (2010)
|
ny0037985
|
[
"sports",
"football"
] |
2014/03/14
|
Eagles Add Darren Sproles in Trade With Saints
|
The Philadelphia Eagles acquired running back Darren Sproles from the New Orleans Saints for a fifth-round draft pick on Thursday, giving Coach Chip Kelly another versatile threat for his offense. “He can do it all — run, catch — plus he’s a proven winner,” Kelly said. “And on top of that, he can bring all of those dynamic skills to the return game as well.” Sproles, 30, leads the N.F.L. with 13,806 all-purpose yards since 2007, but he ranked in the bottom four among qualifiers in punt return average (6.7 yards per return) last season. In addition, his numbers in three major offensive categories — catches (71), receiving yards (604) and rushing yards (220) — went down for a third straight year. He is joining an up-tempo offense, however, that set Eagles records for points (442), total net yards (6,676), touchdowns (53) and gross passing yards (4,406) last season, Kelly’s first with Philadelphia. “Darren is a player that we have admired for many years,” said General Manager Howie Roseman of the Eagles, who also agreed to a two-year contract with the former Miami Dolphins cornerback Nolan Carroll. The Saints will get the second of Philadelphia’s two fifth-round picks in May. The Eagles acquired that pick from the Patriots in an October trade involving defensive tackle Isaac Sopoaga. Carroll, 27, allowed just 43 receptions in 451 coverage snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus. Opposing quarterbacks had a passer rating of 65.0 when targeting him. PANTHERS DROP SMITH Carolina released Steve Smith, the leading receiver in Panthers history, after 13 seasons. In a news release, General Manager Dave Gettleman said it “was not an easy decision.” On SiriusXM’s Bleacher Report Radio, Smith said: “It’s devastating to hear that you are getting fired, but it’s also exciting because that frees me up to be pursued by other teams. I have never become a free agent before, so I will get a few free dinners out of it at some nice, expensive restaurants.” Smith, who turns 35 in May, reiterated that he wanted to keep playing and that being released “awoke a sleeping giant” inside him. REVIS’S SIGNING IS OFFICIAL New England has agreed to contract terms with cornerback Darrelle Revis, his business manager confirmed on Twitter . Tampa Bay released Revis, 28, on Wednesday. SAFFOLD BACK WITH RAMS St. Louis said it had re-signed offensive lineman Rodger Saffold, who agreed to a five-year, $42.5 million deal with Oakland on Tuesday but failed a physical on Wednesday because of a shoulder injury, voiding the deal. JAGUARS BOLSTER DEFENSE Jacksonville re-signed Jason Babin, who led the Jaguars with seven and a half sacks in 2013, and signed the former Seahawk Chris Clemons and the former Steeler Ziggy Hood, continuing the overhaul of their defensive line. Seattle released Clemons, 32, who was scheduled to make $7.5 million in 2014, in a cost-cutting move Wednesday. His move to Jacksonville reunites him with Gus Bradley, the Jaguars’ coach, who previously was the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator. Hood, 27, played as an end in Pittsburgh’s 3-4 scheme but will move back inside for the Jaguars as a penetrating 3-technique tackle. Babin, 33, voided the final two years of his contract Monday, becoming a free agent before the Jaguars could cut him. BENGALS CUT HARRISON Cincinnati released linebacker James Harrison, a former defensive player of the year who had a limited role in the first half of last season, his first with the Bengals. But Harrison, 35, played in 15 games, starting 10, and finished 12th on the team in tackles. GINN TO CARDINALS Arizona signed receiver Ted Ginn Jr. to a three-year contract and agreed to terms on a two-year deal to keep linebacker Matt Shaughnessy. Ginn, who turns 29 in April, had 36 receptions for 556 yards and a career-high 5 touchdowns while playing with the Panthers in 2013. He also set a team record with a 12.2-yard punt return average. BAIL REFUSED FOR SHARPER Judge Renee Korn of Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that the former safety Darren Sharper, who faces criminal charges in two states and sexual assault investigations in three others, should remain in jail without bail. AROUND THE LEAGUE Tampa Bay signed the former Bengals left tackle Anthony Collins to a five-year, $30 million contract and released Donald Penn, who started in that spot for the Buccaneers for the past 108 games. ... Receiver Jacoby Jones signed a four-year contract with Baltimore after agreeing to the terms of the deal Wednesday. ... Minnesota signed the former Carolina cornerback Captain Munnerlyn to a three-year deal.
|
Football;Sports Trades;Darren Sproles;Philadelphia Eagles;New Orleans Saints
|
ny0070719
|
[
"sports",
"ncaabasketball"
] |
2015/03/27
|
Louisville’s Rick Pitino Defends Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim
|
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Louisville Coach Rick Pitino, a former assistant to Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, defended the embattled Boeheim on Thursday before Pitino’s fourth-seeded Cardinals practiced for their East Regional game Friday against No. 8-seeded North Carolina State in Syracuse. “There’s not an ounce in him that would ever break the rules knowingly,” Pitino said of Boeheim, with whom he said he was having dinner Thursday. “He is a man of great integrity and sometimes, in today’s culture, anything can happen.” The N.C.A.A. recently levied a variety of sanctions against Syracuse and Boeheim, suspending the coach for nine conference games next season, vacating more than 100 of his victories and taking away 12 scholarships from the Syracuse men’s basketball program over the next four years. Pitino said the Syracuse program would never seem the same without Boeheim. “It will be difficult, sort of like St. John’s without Louie,” Pitino said of the former St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca. “You can’t imagine those programs without that person at the helm and on the sideline.” An N.C.A.A. Bracket for Risk-Takers For this bracket, the more unusual that your picks are, the more points you’ll receive — so long as those picks are correct. Pitino also chided the N.C.A.A. for its multiyear investigation into Syracuse. “Look, we want to keep our game regulated the right way, but not in an eight-year time span,” he said. “Hire more people. We’ve got a lot of money from March Madness. Hire more people and get the job done in a shorter period of time.” Pitino was also asked if returning to Syracuse brought back any memories of his time as a Boeheim assistant in the 1970s. Seated inside the Carrier Dome, which protected coaches and players from a heavy rain outside, Pitino answered: “When I left 37 years ago, it was still raining, so yes, there is that memory.” A BAHAMA CONNECTION Buddy Hield of third-seeded Oklahoma and Lourawls Nairn of No. 7-seeded Michigan State are friends from the Bahamas who attended the same Kansas academy as teenagers. Friday, they face each other in an East Regional semifinal game. Hield said he treated Nairn, whose nickname is Tum Tum, like a brother. “I will be playing against someone very close to me and one of us will lose,” Hield said. “Hopefully not me.” Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo said Nairn looked up to Hield. “I’m all cool with that,” Izzo said. “But I’ve got to tell Tum that he can’t think that way for the two hours of our game.”
|
College basketball;Jim Boeheim;Rick Pitino;NCAA;Syracuse University;University of Louisville
|
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